Here's some stuff...

I started writing a post called "Catching Up" a while ago... The longer it takes me to post it, the harder it is to accomplish that goal. I've lowered my expectations; I should rename this post "Closing the Gap"...

July 1 was my sweet Mommy's 60th birthday. My dad threw her a huge surprise party / tribute. The guests included former students (even some from her first teaching job - before I was born), former co-workers, family, and friends. Several people actually flew out for the event. Things my mom had written, drawn, designed, and sewed were on display, and many people spoke or performed. It was really beautiful hearing all the people talk about how my mom had touched their lives. I always knew my mom was special, but it was a pretty overwhelming and wonderful reminder.

A little while later, our dear friends came to visit us and meet Hannah (while between homes). It was amazing seeing Maria (who wasn't yet walking when we saw her a year previously) jumping around and doing acrobats. (BTW, Happy very very very belated birthday, Maria!) And Kurt's fascination with Hannah told melted my heart.

With 4 kids in the house, it's hard to do much other than occasionally getting them to a playground, and otherwise try to just keep them fed and whole. Sylvia was SOO pumped to have them here -- so much so that she scared poor Maria.

They mostly all got along well, though. And damn they're cute!

Auntie Annie came for a visit a little while later - to meet Hannah and hang out with the girls!

July 27 was Sylvia's third birthday. She got to have an extended birthday week. On Wednesday, we brought mini-muffins for her to share with her classmates. Her teacher made her a birthday crown, which all of her classmates helped decorate, and they sang Happy Birthday to her, so she was already feeling pretty special!

Then, on Wednesday, her MyGym friends sang Happy Birthday to her, and she got a birthday balloon.

Friday was her actual birthday. She got presents in the morning -- including an Ergo doll carrier from Max's cousin Rachel's family, and a dollhouse from Jeff & Jayne.

Our good friends Albert & Heidi came in the afternoon, so Sylvia got to have extra playmates.

And they took us all out for a birthday dinner!

Then Sunday was her birthday party

She had a crazy good time and was asking to go to her birthday for weeks.

...And, of course, a lot has happened in the time that it took me to get that much written. We have had other wonderful visits, and lots of special people have had birthdays. We had our first overnight trip as a 4-person family to celebrate my cousin's wedding reception, and then our second overnight trip for Annie's bridal shower. Sylvia graduated from the toddler room to the preschool room in school. 

And so on!

Hannah is 3 months! (and Buca Day)

Hannah's already 1/4 of the way to her first birthday, and still SUCH a sweetheart! She's spent a lot of the month feeling ill, so she's been more cranky than usual, and not sleeping quite as well.  Even with all that, though, she's amazingly even-tempered and well-behaved. And she has an excellent smile. And holy cow is she strong! She's gonna be jumping out of her baby swing any minute. She's charming and lovely. And hopefully soon will also be completely healthy!

Today is also Buca Day! We've been exhausted and overwhelmed, and poor Hannah has been sick, so we thought this would be the year that we broke our annual tradition of having dinner at a Buca di Beppo on the eve of our wedding anniversary, but we made it happen!

It was a hellish drive there. (Hannah was asleep most of the time, and Sylvia was really good, but I had a horrible migraine.) And it was a difficult drive back. (Hannah was asleep most of the time, and I was feeling okay, but Sylvia was really really tired.) But it was a really nice dinner.

Hannah is 2 months old!

Miss Hannah Jane is two months old today!

Coincidentally, today was her two-month checkup. Her pediatrician says she's doing great! She was happy with the way she smiled at us, followed me around with her eyes, and rolled over from her tummy to her back. About a month ago, we scheduled a special appointment because we were pretty sure she had an umbilical hernia. At that time, the pediatrician verified that she did have an umbilical hernia, but that it wasn't dangerous. (They usually heal on their own without causing any trouble, but we'll have to keep an eye on it for a while...) Today, she said that it looked like it hadn't gotten any worse, which is about as good as it gets for now! She was also impressed to hear that Hannah has been sleeping through the night!

To be clear... I think that the conventional definition of 'sleeping through the night' for an infant is something like sleeping for 6 uninterrupted hours. A lot of babies have to be trained to do this -- Sylvia didn't do it until we did a forced weaning of overnight feedings when she was a little over a year old. Hannah usually sleeps for 7-10 hours, eats, and then goes back to sleep for another 3-6 hours -- usually adding up to about 12 hours with only one undramatic break. It's freaking amazing. And I don't know how we'd manage a normal infant sleep schedule simultaneously with our early-rising toddler.

So... yeah... she's a dream at night. But how is she during the day?

She's amazing! She has her fussy times, of course. Sometimes it's tummy problems, and sometimes she just wants to be snuggled. But she's mostly really sweet and easy-going. She's super cuddly and smiley when being held, but she's happy to spend time sitting on her own, looking around at the world... especially if she has her pacifier! By the way, she is terrible at holding onto her pacifier!

It's a good thing that she's such an amazingly good baby. Even with her being about as good a baby as I would have dared hope for, it's still been an exhausting 2 months! Last month, I commented on the many visitors we'd had and events we'd attended. Since then, we've had Sylvia's birthday, a trip to the bay area, and more visitors. And even when we have down-time, it's a struggle keeping everyone happy & fed -- let alone keeping the house in order and getting our work done!

So far, I can say:
1. Hannah is freaking awesome.
2. Having a second kid is hard! Even when she's freaking awesome!

Sylvia is THREE!

It's surreal to go back and look at what I wrote about Sylvia last year. She has grown up so much, and so much has happened! We temporarily moved, Max got a job, we're planning a big move, and we had a new baby... Sylvia became potty trained, started school, moved from her crib to a toddler bed and then to a real bed, and - obviously - became a big sister!

She's sweet and smart and silly and stubborn.

Hope to say more soon!

Hannah

Hannah Jane

Born June 15, 1:19am

8 pounds, 1 ounce

20 inches long

Today, Hannah Jane is 33days old. Like her sister before her, she was born without a peep and diagnosed from birth as 'perfect'. She's an excellent addition to our little family. Her likes include being held, being fed, and being rocked. Her dislikes include digestive distress, having her diaper changed, and not being held.

She's had a pretty active first 33 days. She's had lots of visitors, she's attended 3 birthday parties (including her Grandma Mimi's 60th birthday extravaganza), she's tagged along on play dates and swim lessons, and she's visited her pediatrician 3 times. And she's already gained about 2 pounds since birth.

In the last week or so, she's started spending a lot more time being alert, looking around, and smiling. We get to see a lot more of her pretty eyes, which are fairly blue for the time being.

Here are some milestones in her short life:

Meeting her sister (on her birthday):

First day home:

One week old:

Two weeks old:

Three weeks old:

Four weeks old:

One month old:

...And some cute pictures...

...Hopefully I'll manage to say something about the visitors and outings soon!

Pre-Kraxaw - The Sequel

My first pregnancy was pretty well documented on this blog. (See here, here, here, here, here, & here.) Between the time commitment of caring for a 2-1/2 year old and the diminished novelty of a second pregnancy, I've somehow managed to make it to week 25 of my second pregnancy before even mentioning it!

So, yes, I'm pregnant again! Another girl, due June 14.

Like with my first pregnancy, the "morning" sickness hit me really hard in the first trimester. Unlike my first pregnancy, it has actually subsided for my second trimester. But the general discomfort of huge-ness started earlier and has been rapidly accelerating!

At almost 8 weeks, we brought Sylvia with us to our first appointment, and we all heard the heartbeat together for the first time.

At 11 weeks, we would normally have only listened to the heartbeat with a doppler, but the doctor couldn't find it that way, so we got to get a peak...

At 16 weeks, we went to the perinatologist for an amniocentesis. It's always fun visiting him! Besides the picture of him and Oprah (and some baby) on the wall of his exam room, he has the fancy 4-D ultrasound machine. She wasn't positioned well for a face-shot, but we did get some nice views of her developing heart and brain, and we got this picture of her spine, which I think is pretty cool looking...

He told us that everything looked good and that we were having another girl! Sylvia thought the whole thing was pretty cool, and she wanted her turn with the ultrasound machine.

We saw him again at 20 weeks so he could get a better look and check all of the organs, and this time we did get a peak at her little face...

At that point, they can measure all sorts of stuff and rule out a bunch of problems. The basic amnio results had come back clean. The more complicated amnio results to determine if the baby inherited my weird growth disorder hadn't come back yet, but the doctor was able to mostly rule it out based on the ultrasound. We got to hear it all in a lot more detail than we did with Sylvia because the doctor was training someone. Everything looked just about perfect. The only thing was there was still a gap in the palate that usually would have closed more by that point, suggesting a possible cleft palate. The lip and uvula were both totally intact - a cleft palate is sometimes accompanied by a cleft lip and almost always by a cleft uvula. Because of the uvula, the doctor said that there was a good chance that the gap would still close up. I think we were both too concerned with being calm and reasonable to ask questions, so we walked away with no real sense of what the chances were of an ongoing problem or the implications. When I talked about it with my regular OB, he didn't have any better idea than I did about those things. He said I should go back for a follow-up. The results of the follow-up wouldn't really make any difference because there's nothing that can be done until the baby is born, but he thought it was better for us not to be in the dark that long. So, we scheduled a follow-up and decided to mostly keep it to ourselves in the meantime. It seemed pointless to upset and worry people over something until we had more information.

We had the follow up this week (24 weeks), and it looks like the palate has closed up! Everything else looks good, too. She's a big girl, though! She's about 2 pounds, 1 oz, which is 73rd percentile, and her leg length is 92nd percentile! The doctor didn't think he'd be able to get a good view of her face because it's harder when they get bigger, but we got lucky:

I'm 25 weeks now and nearly in the 3rd trimester. I've been feeling her move since around New Year's, and now she is super active! I feel her flopping around all the time, and sometimes I can even see it. Considering how big and uncomfortable I already am, I'm nervous about the 3rd trimester. But everything is going well, and Sylvia will have a baby sister in about 3 months!