A memorable and productive week!

Our week started out with a spur of the moment decision on Monday morning to attend a local Memorial Day parade. So we packed everyone and everything up and headed out for Kate's first big adventure (besides church) and Anna's second parade. Kate did great, though she crashed after she ate ... too much stimulation for a baby, I guess :) Anna also did great. She LOVED all the balloons, flags, music, fire trucks, cars, clowns, etc. However, about an hour was all she could handle; by that point she was slumped against me sucking her thumb. So we cut out early, had lunch at McDonald's (Daddy's choice) and went home for naps.

Tuesday morning was my trial run for being at home alone with the girls; it went surprisingly well, but we'll definitely have some adjustments to make.

My mom came on Tuesday afternoon just before both Kate and Anna woke up from naps and then she stuck around until Friday to help out. I can't believe how much work we got done this past week! I won't go through the whole list, mainly because I can't remember it all, but a few of the highlights included cleaning, making rhubarb jam, mowing the lawn, making a bunch of freezer meals that I can just heat up in the future, and just playing around with the kids.

Here's a few photos of Anna helping with the rhubarb jam. She not only got to help pick the rhubarb with Grandma, but she also helped clean it, measure it out, and then pour it in the pot. What a good helper!


Kate seems to be adjusting fairly well to "life on the outside". Each day feels a little bit better and each evening has also gotten progressively calmer for her. It's hard to believe that she's only two weeks old; she seems so alert and attentive to the world around her already!



We're definitely aware that Kate is going to grow up in a much different world than Anna did in her early days and weeks. She certainly doesn't get as much one on one attention from us, but also hears a toddler's running commentary about the world around her.



Here's a picture of Kate in our wonderful "baby tent". She often has a good time just hanging out and absorbing the world around her in this handy contraption. I'm sure we'll continue to use it for a good portion of the summer :)




Next week will certainly be an interesting one for me, the first one just us girls. I'm sure we'll continue to have lots of transitions in the days and weeks to come, but this coming week will probably include most of the biggest ones.

Family

We realized yesterday that we hadn't yet gotten a good picture of the four of us and thought that church today would give us the perfect opportunity; we'd all be dressed up AND there'd be plenty of people around to take the picture! (FYI, I uploaded the picture at full size for anyone who wanted a copy.)


Surprisingly we managed to get to church early enough to deal with the 5-10 minutes of well-wishers on our way into the sanctuary (people at our church LOVE kids and they're all pretty much our second family so we figured it would take us a long time this morning). We all survived the service surprisingly well with Daddy taking "Anna duty" and Mommy taking "Kate duty". By the way, the matching dresses were a hit (thanks, Grandma!)

Our transitions are going fairly well as a family, with me having moments of "this can work" and other moments of "what did we get ourselves into?!". Hopefully the workable moments come more frequently.

Much to our dismay, Matt is going back to work on Tuesday; he has some training that would be really helpful for him to attend. My mom is coming down at about 3 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon so I'll get a trial run of what life may be like in the future. She's then going to stick around until Friday to help out and remind me to rest :) Hopefully, Matt will be able to take more FMLA time later this summer ... we'll just have to wait and see!

Terrifically Typical (almost) Twos

It's become very obvious to us that Anna is almost two years old. There are definitely huge advantages to this, as well as some interesting challenges.

First the good ... Anna is full of energy these days. She loves to run from place to place and is trying her hardest to jump, although she can't quite make it off the ground yet. She loves to investigate anything and everything, sometimes spending long periods of time watching bugs or taking apart and putting back together toys (sound like her Daddy?). She's picking up language like a sponge. It's really hard for us to remember that just a few short months ago Anna was only starting to repeat words. Now she doesn't really say anything that isn't a complete sentence.

Not only is Anna a parrot with what she says, but how she says it. She's gotten very adept at saying "Shadow, get down!" in a nice, commanding voice, when she sees Shadow up on a counter.

Also, Anna's developing a really silly sense of humor. For example, this morning she was getting dressed for church and kept saying "Daddy wear strawberry dress" and then giggling up a storm. Fun times.



Here's a very silly picture of her after she got to have some chocolate ice cream. Goofy kid!


Now the challenges ... We experienced our first all out public temper tantrum last week. Anna and I had our first special outting since Kate was born on Thursday afternoon. We got to go to the flower store and then to the grocery store to pick up some ice cream for Daddy. Anna really wanted to walk in the parking lot by herself, but our rule is that she must hold a hand. Well ... I got a lot of "Anna do it!" screams until she sat down, then lay down, on the asphalt in the handicapped space kicking and screaming. It took 5 minutes to get to the van, another 5 minutes to get her buckled in the van, and then she proceeded to scream and throw a tantrum the rest of the way home. Whew! So much for our special outting.

"Anna do it!" is definitely a favorite phrase right now; it just takes a lot of patience on our part to be there to help if she asks, but let her try when she wants. We're working on teaching her the phrase "I CAN do it." for when she gets frustrated with what she's trying. Sometimes it works :)

Kate's personality

We've already learned a few things about Kate's personality in her first week of life.


First of all, like her big sister Anna, she is definitely a "non-nutritive sucker" (for those of you who know parent lingo). In her first few days of life she was literally trying to suck air, to the point of swallowing enough air to make her wake up screaming with gas pains. So, we were not hesitant to introduce a pacifier ... she loves it ... very soothing. Maybe she'll find her hands/fingers/thumb like Anna did, too.

Secondly, Kate loves being outside. She has taken at least one nap outside almost every day of her life and thoroughly enjoys being in her "baby tent" while the rest of the family hangs out around her. Anna likes to come over, pull the musical toy in the tent, and then "set it down for Baby Kate" (in Anna's own words) so that it doesn't swing down and bonk baby Kate in the head.

Thirdly, big babies are STRONG! Holy cow! In terms of Kate's feeding and sleeping characteristics, she's probably at the point Anna was when Anna was about 6-8 weeks old (probably when Anna weighed close to 9 pounds).

What a little sweatheart we've added to our family!

Sisters

Anna seems to be taking to Kate (and all of the transitions so far) pretty well and I can already tell that Kate is enamoured with Anna. Anna likes to ask about baby Kate whenever she gets home with Daddy or when she wakes up. She's also pretty concerned when Kate cries (which can get pretty loud during diaper changes). Anna had to keep running into Kate's room to check on her while Matt was changing her diaper yesterday evening. She'd tell me "see baby Kate", run in there, and then come back to play with me.

We have tried not to push Anna with touching and holding Kate, just kind of letting Anna take the lead. One morning Anna mimicked Matt by stroking Kate's arm on her own initiative. She likes to bring Kate toys to look at or to lie down next to her on the floor. We have to watch them pretty closely, though, because Anna has NO sense of where her body is; Kate's already had a foot to the head :)

This morning I asked Anna if she'd like to hold Kate and she said "yeah" in her sweet voice. So here are the first, much anticipated pictures of Anna holding baby Kate.



I must say that after spending time with a newborn instead of a toddler over the weekend, I was shocked at how active and talkative Anna seems. She never stops moving or talking!

Okay ... baby calls ... enjoy the updates and pictures!

The adventure begins!

Things have been going surprisingly smoothly so far in our little family. Matt has been absolutely wonderful in doing everything so that I can tend to little Kate and get some rest. He even took Anna to the grocery store and music class on Monday morning and then to play group yesterday morning ... what a great Daddy! Now he's taking Anna for a bike ride to a park ... boy, was she excited about that!

Kate and I went to see Dr. Shearer on Monday for her 48 hour check. She was down to 8 lbs. 5 oz., which is completely within the range of normal, and was otherwise doing just fine. The outting pretty much wore me out, though, and I needed to crash for most of the afternoon.

A couple of things have made our transition home go extra smoothly. First, our church sets up meals three times a week for about a month after a baby is born so we've already had two tasty dinners dropped off. It's SO nice not having to think about food for the family!

Secondly, we've had a few days of gorgeous weather. That means that in the afternoon we can just go outside and hang out together. Yesterday Anna played in the sandbox with Matt while Kate ate and then watched the leaves.

And finally, Kate seems to be a pretty good sleeper (within reason). Each night so far she's had a couple hour feisty period, but otherwise sleeps really soundly for several hours at a stretch. Monday night was the hardest because her fussy time was between midnight and 3 a.m., but Sunday night and last night she was down for good by around 11 p.m. and only woke up once until 7 a.m. That didn't happen for months with Anna! Unfortunately, Mommy still doesn't sleep quite so soundly, but I'm sure that will come soon :)

Going home on Sunday?!

Some of the nurses commented on Saturday night that we may be able to go home on Sunday after Kate's 24 hour check instead of waiting until Monday morning. This really appealed to us since everything seemed to be going well and we were anxious to get home and start life here.

I got the okay from my doctor on Sunday morning and the nurses kept telling me that things were going well. Only the pediatrician was a little hesitant. His requirement was that if things continued to go well on Sunday, then he'd sign us out as long as we promised to have a check-up with our pediatrician sometime on Monday.


That got the ball rolling! Matt, Anna, Grandma and Grandpa came back for a bit on Sunday morning. Anna seemed to be right at home milling around in the hospital room, but still without too much interest in baby Kate. After the family left, I got to have a couple of nice naps plus a tasty lunch before I needed to fill out all of the paperwork necessary to go home.

We got the final 24 hour checks right at 4 p.m., Matt and Anna came to get me around 4:30 and we were home eating dinner by 5:30 ... yikes!

We were all ready to crash early, except for Kate. Once she finally got settled, though, she slept pretty well the remainder of the night.

Welcome, Kate!

Kathryn Grace Mischnick (a.k.a. baby Kate) officially joined our family on Saturday, May 16 at 3:50 p.m. She weighed 8 lbs. 14 oz. and was 20 inches long.


At my doctor's appointment on Friday, Dr. Jenny said she would try to get me in to the hospital for a pitocin induction on Saturday morning, but that she would make no promises (she'd had a patient who was bumped from induction earlier in the week already). So my parents drove down on Friday night and we tried to prep Anna for having a special day with Grandma and Grandpa.

After a restless night for all of us on Friday night, we called the hospital at 6:30 a.m. and they said we could come anytime after 7. So ... we got checked in and settled and had the pitocin drip start around 8:30 a.m. Matt and I had a rousing game of Scrabble in the morning until things really started happening around 11. Only five short (or long, depending on your perspective) hours later, Kate arrived. Just about everyone who met Kate at the hospital couldn't believe that big sister Anna was a full 2 1/2 pounds lighter at birth! So much for Dr. Jenny's prediction that "I just don't think your body makes big babies"!


After we all got a bit cleaned up and had something to eat (I was famished after not having much to eat since breakfast!), Anna came to visit on Saturday night after dinner and stayed for a little while, mainly to deal with some of the emotions of the day. She was more interested in cuddling with Mommy than in having much to do with Kate at that point.







Matt ended up going home on Saturday night so he could get some uninterrupted sleep and since we weren't quite sure what Anna would do (she'd woken up with a bad dream on Friday night and we didn't want my parents to have to deal with something like that).



That left Mommy and Kate all alone (besides nurses and doctors, of course) for more than 12 hours on the first night!

Still waiting ...

Still waiting for baby here. God's certainly got a plan in mind for when she's coming; we just wish we knew that plan, too :) I was thinking Mother's Day would have been a nice day to have a baby, but I guess God has other plans.

We've been having some fairly low-key weekends and evenings lately, especially since Matt and I are still fighting our stuffy noses. The whole family enjoys taking naps, or at least rests, in the afternoon and then playing outside in the late afternoon and after dinner. One benefit of not having the baby yet is that we've been able to put in most of the garden already during these outside times. Peas, onions, lettuce, broccoli, spinach, beets, radishes, etc. are all up and growing well. We planted potatoes a few weeks back and put in the beans, tomatoes, and some herbs this past weekend. Plus, we've been able to have asparagus a few times a week for awhile now and can see flowers/fruit growing on our strawberries, raspberries, and fruit trees. Hooray for spring!

Anna's become quite the talker on the phone lately. She tends to give a bit of a running commentary (some intelligible, some unintelligible) about what she's done lately or what she sees. It usually helps if Matt or I is on another line to help translate for her, or to prompt her conversation. She did very well telling both of her Grandmas "Happy Modder's Day, Gramma" on Sunday ;)

Actually, Anna's gotten a couple of special calls from her friends lately, asking for play dates. Last Thursday night, Sadie called to ask if Anna wanted to play at a park on Friday morning and then Carly called last night to see if Anna wanted to come out and play. Of course, anything involving outside gets an immediate positive response from Anna.

In fact, since we pulled our picnic table out of the garden shed a few weeks back, she asks "Anna eat outside?" for almost every meal. I don't mind, as long as it's not raining or too cold, because then there's less to clean up afterwards :) One afternoon last week we even had a picnic snack out in the yard so we could watch the tractor go back and forth in the field planting seeds!

A much needed surprise!

This morning our women's Bible Study at church threw us a surprise baby shower. I was not expecting anything of the sort with this pregnancy and was completely taken by surprise not only by the actual event, but also by the generosity of these women. We truly have a wonderful church family in Madison. Now I understand why Matt (who knew in advance) was strongly encouraging me to go to Bible Study this morning, even though I was completely exhausted. The experience was definitely a "pick-me-up" after two very early mornings (and thus pretty crabby days) in our house!

Speaking of which, Anna has been up the past few mornings at 5:15 a.m. (yikes!) We think she might be having bad dreams and then just doesn't want to be left alone after we've comforted her. This morning she ended up falling asleep from about 6 until 7, but neither Matt nor I have slept past the early wake up either morning. Oh, well. Life as parents of toddlers, right?

Thankfully, Anna has taken really good naps the past few days so I've been able to catch up on a little sleep. Actually, I've probably fallen asleep in the afternoons more often than not in the past month or so, especially since we've been battling colds off and on.

Anyway, at my check-up yesterday everything was still statis quo. My blood pressure was no different from last week so Dr. Jenny was just going to send me on my way until I sweetly asked "So is it high enough that we can schedule anything?" She checked her on-call schedule for next week and we tentatively have "something" set up for next Saturday (May 16). Of course, we're all be okay if baby comes before that time, but Dr. Jenny said I'd be about 39 1/2 weeks by that point and she likes to deliver her own patients' babies anyway (if she's not on-call, one of the other doctors in the practice will do the delivery). So ... still waiting ... I have an appointment next Friday at which time we'll see how things are going and then maybe give this baby girl a reason to meet the world :)

Still waiting ...

We're still in our holding pattern, although with a few more sniffles and coughs than last week. Matt and I are both hoping that baby waits for a few more days as we came down with some colds over the weekend. Matt is trying his hardest to get over his cold quickly because he knows how much he'll be needed very soon. I don't have much chance of getting over a cold quickly these days as I'm not really sleeping very consistently so we'll all get to experience how life with a newborn is when Mommy has a lingering cold. Oh, well.

At my check-up last week, Dr. Jenny gave me the official go-ahead to have this baby (and besides having a cold right now, Matt's also given me the "okay" in terms of his work stuff) so I was out planting potatoes this weekend trying to "encourage" baby :) My blood pressure was still okay, although a little higher than the previous check-up; no worries however. It just means that if my bp is still a little elevated this week then we have a reason to talk about scheduling some kind of induction ... hooray!

Besides waiting, we've really been enjoying being outside. Matt took last Thursday afternoon off (it was his 31st birthday!) and it turned out to be a beautiful afternoon. Anna got some quality time with her Daddy building (and destroying) castles, mountains, and tunnels in the sandbox.




Then we all played for awhile with bubbles. After working pretty hard on the concept of "taking turns" with blowing bubbles, Anna has gotten the hang of it and will say "yast time" (last time), then voluntarily hand over the bubble wand to Matt or me and say "Mommy turn" or "Daddy turn".


We've also had the first big bloom of dandilions and violets in our yard. Anna thinks they're great since they're the only flowers she gets to pick.

She not only likes to give me dandelions, but also appreciated the dandelion necklace I made for her :)


We'll keep this blog posted as we learn more about when to expect Anna's little sister!