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Ellie is 2 years old!! I can hardly believe it. They always say time flies and it is so true. All those cliche's about children growing up seem to be. I can remember when . . .

Ellie was so excited about being two. She's really been into birthday's lately and we've had many to celebrate. She especially loves watching her first birthday video from this blog and we watch it over and over again with her smiling so big and clapping at the end each time. We've also been working on getting her to show her age with her fingers. At first we had to do it for her but she had it down pat by the time her actual birthday came about and will proudly show anyone who asks her how old she is.

We had a casual, low-key birthday. She took cupcakes, treat bags and Finding Nemo hats/blowers to school to share with her friends and then after school we met some family members at our favorite neighborhood park for pizza and cake. It was nice to just visit and let the kiddos play to their hearts content. The weather was just perfect and we stayed until dark, Ellie playing in the sandbox with some new friends she had made that evening. A perfect day to celebrate our precious girl!

Enjoy the photos and video!

Growing Peanuts

Well it's been a loooooong three weeks since we figured out that Maggie was losing weight! As I said before, once we went to see the lactation consultant and figured out she wasn't sucking correctly things have been moving along pretty good. She has steadily gained each week since then. With breastfed babies, the general guideline is that they should gain 5-7 oz per week, she has been averaging 4 oz or more. I went back to our pediatrician for her weight check last Tuesday. I was so worried about this weight check in fact that I'm sad to admit that I took Maggie to the post office the night before and weighed her on their self-service scales! According to the post office scales she had gained well so I went into the weight check the next day feeling confident and happy. I had been working so hard to keep her eating good and was feeling so good about her weight gain or our improved breastfeeding. Well, despite her gains and excellent physical examination, they still were not happy wanted to send us to get blood work and urine checked. I held it together in their office but once I got to the car I was a mess. I felt like a failure and was so frustrated, stressed and even angry at the nurse practitioner and doctor. I also was a bit scared for Maggie and wondered if my intuition was failing me and maybe something WAS wrong. After having a good cry and talking to Brian and my mom, I decided to take her to get the blood work done. I hoped it would prove that she was fine and we could move on. We went that day and had it drawn. Maggie did GREAT, only cried when they put the needle in her little vein. The tech was amazing and as the other nurse held her still she got down close to her and reassured her and even KISSED her to calm her down. Kind of weird but I saw it as she just couldn't resist those adorable little cheeks and if I had been in her place I would have done the same thing! Her blood work came back the next day and was okay. Her liver enzymes were the only thing that showed up abnormal, they were a bit high and on the phone they told me they didn't know what that meant (why tell me then???) but that they had referred Maggie to a GI specialist at Children's Hospital to check her out. I was a bit panicked at this point, wondering what high liver enzymes could mean and as many of you know when you google something medical it can get ugly and even scarier so I called my dear friend Meva . Meva is a P.A. and she helped calm me down with her medical knowledge and opinions and also as a friend and mom. So, we went last Friday to see Dr. Mezoff at Children's Hospital. I'll admit, it was rather scary and surreal to be taking MY child to the hospital for the unknown. The appointment went very well though. Dr. Mezoff was VERY GOOD and very calming, reassuring and caring towards Maggie and me. He made sure I understood everything he was telling me and asked me over and over again if I had any questions. His opinion was that Maggie, while not gaining great, was still gaining well and that overall she looked very healthy and alert. He said the elevated liver enzymes were high, but not high enough to cause him to think there was a real problem. His thoughts were that they were up due to her early jaundice and previous weight loss. He was very encouraged that she had gained steadily since fixing her latch and that likely her liver enzymes would continue to decrease as the weeks went by. He ordered an ultrasound of her liver, just to be careful and wanted us to come back for weight checks and more blood work to make sure the numbers continued to decrease. I left his office feeling so good again and with a renewed calm and confidence! We had the ultrasound this past Monday and again, Maggie did great. The hardest part was the four hour fasting prior to the scan. She was so hungry and mad that I wasn't feeding her-poor baby! We got the results in the mail yesterday that all was fine with her ultrasound-more good news! Today we went for her weight check at Dr. Mezoff's office and Miss Maggie was a hefty 8 lbs exactly!! She was 7lbs, 10 oz last week so that is a great gain!!! I'm happy that all seems to be going well and that my intuition has proved good. It is still a struggle though as Maggie just isn't a super eater but I WANT to keep breastfeeding her and know it's best for her so the stubborn part of me will not quit. Please keep us in your thoughts or prayers that Maggie will continue to grow bigger and that breastfeeding will get easier for the two of us. It's important to me and Maggie I think.

Other good news, Maggie is now smiling!!! It's so cute and makes it all so much better!! She is also holding her head up very straight and looking all around. People are stopping me all the time now to ask how old she is since they can't believe such a tiny baby is so alert and strong. I should be used to this I guess since this is exactly what happened with Ellie too. Everyone predicted Brian and I would have huge, fat, hairy babies and instead we seem to create tiny, petite bald peanuts! I love my peanuts!!!

Happy St. Patty's Day!!!

Fun in the Snow!

Too small

Maggie has struggled with breastfeeding from the get-go. It didn't help that she was put under the bili-lights for two days after she was born (for her jaundice) so we've been struggling. I had been feeling more and more worried about her eating/feeding and small size lately and finally went with my gut and called the paediatrician from their parking lot to see if I could come in for a weight check. (I had been out running errands and just decided to stop) I'm so glad I did-she was only 6lb, 15 oz which was down from her previous gain back to her birth weight a week ago! I immediately felt horrible and started to cry. I was hoping to go in, be reassured that all was well and leave sheepishly with a pat on my back as a "worried new mommy." So, not the best news but at least my mama's instinct was working and now we are working on plumping Miss Maggie up! I met with our practice's nurse practitioner Deb who is wonderful. She was very reassuring and very pro-breastfeeding and not only gave sound medical advice from her end but strongly encouraged me to call the lactation consultants at the hospital to get some extra help. We did give Maggie some formula in the office and they gave me samples to take home to supplement my feedings on the breast. I used them a few times but then read more online about pumping and supplementing with my own milk instead, so we have been doing that and leaving the formula as only a last resort. So now I feed her until she seems done, then I pump and give her 1-2 oz of expressed milk to "top her off" and make sure I am giving her countable amounts. This has not been easy as she feeds 30-45 minutes on the breast, then I have to pump and then it seems like it's time to start the whole process all over again.

I went to the lactation consultant's office on Wednesday and they were wonderful! Right away they could tell that Maggie wasn't latching on fully. She was only nursing on the tip which made her work very hard and use a lot of energy to get the milk and because of this she was also only getting the "skim" milk and not the good fatty milk. She showed me how to make her latch on correctly and right away we heard her gulping and swallowing like crazy. She was fighting me on this "new way" but after a few days of making her do it the new way, she is latching on correctly on her own most of the time. I was relieved to find a reason for her inefficient eating correctly since Wednesday afternoon. She also looks and acts much better.
We went again on Friday for another weight check and she had only gained 2 oz since Monday, they weren't very happy with that but I feel okay about it as we really only had been eating but want to wait until our next weight check on Tuesday, March 11 before making any orders for additional tests. Brian and I have talked about it and as long as she has gained so more we will wait another week before consenting to invasive testing. My gut is saying that she is okay although I do have moments of wavering on this. I am putting a lot of pressure on myself since I am the one providing the food for her. I am stubborn and want her to get the best which is why I am not giving up on the breastfeeding. I am nervous about tomorrow and hope and pray she has gained some sufficient weight to make them happy and me too!!

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers!! I'll let you know what we find out tomorrow and will add some more photos and updates too.

*******UPDATE******

She was 7.1 Friday and today (Monday) was 7.4 so that is good! They are still being cautious but the doctor said she looks healthy and made decent gains so she is giving us another week before making a recommendation for tests. Keep up the good work Maggie!

Baby Baby

We are slowly settling into routine with two kiddos. The hardest part we are finding is that Brian and I were so used to "tag-team" type parenting with Ellie which allowed one of us to have a break or rest or get extra sleep, etc. Now, there are no breaks since each of us usually has a kid in our arms to attend to. Maggie is at the stage now where all she wants to do is be held most of the day. I remember this time with Ellie and I'm so glad I held her as much as I did since these days it's hard to hold her in your arms more than a minute or so before she's ready to be down and doing her thing. While this time will be over before I can blink, I must say that in the midst of it all it is a bit tiresome. I've become reacquainted with doing things again with one hand and am again using my collection of baby carriers to allow myself some free hands.


Ellie is doing great and has eagerly accepted the role of big sister. She LOVES baby Maggie and wants to kiss her and hold her all the time. When I pick her up at school now and have Maggie with me, she runs over to us, totally ignoring me, and sticks her face straight into Maggie's car seat to give her a kiss and tell her hello. She is quick to find a paci when Maggie cries and tries to force it into her mouth while telling her "don't cry Maggie!"

One of the funniest things that Ellie is doing during this adjustment is that she asks to do many things that baby Maggie is doing. It's classic, but still fun to see! I've been giving Maggie sponge baths on a towel in the bathroom and one Saturday Ellie was there to watch and after I was finished, she wanted me to take off her clothes and give her a bath too. She had to lay on the towel and I had to use the bowl and washcloth just like I did for Maggie. Tonight we gave Maggie her first ever bathtub bath and I asked Ellie to help. I knew Ellie would want to get in the big tub too so I filled it up along with Maggie's tub. Ellie helped Mommy and kept telling Maggie "good job" for not crying. Once I handed Maggie over to Daddy, Ellie laid down in Maggie's tub and insisted that I give her a bath just like Maggie! Adorable! Other then that, she often takes one of Maggie's paci's and pops it in her mouth-note this is the child who almost never used a paci in the first place-she looks so funny with it in her mouth! Another thing Ellie has asked to do a few times is to breastfeed. I was prepared for this as really she only weaned 3-4 months ago herself. So the last two times she has asked, she has laid across my lap on the boppy pillow and I've let her try to nurse. The funny thing is that she really doesn't remember how to nurse anymore but she tries anyway. Apparently, she no longer cares for the taste of mommy milk and has emphatically shared that "booby milk is yucky!"

All in all we are sleepy but very happy and blessed by our two girls. Enjoy this last picture-it's cute even if we look a little rough around the edges!

Big Sister Ellie!

On Saturday, February 2, 2008 at 3:44 pm, Ellie became a big sister to Margaret Amelia. Maggie weighed 7lbs, 4 oz and was 21 inches long (although her pediatrician disagrees with these stats!) Maggie looks somewhat like her big sister but mostly just looks like Maggie right now. She has dark hair and her eyes have blue in them so we might have a blue-eyed girl! Ellie's eyes were very dark from the beginning and have stayed that way. So far, Maggie is a very easy baby. She's so easy in fact that she worries me a bit because she has slept most the night a few nights without waking me to eat and that is not normal for a breast-fed baby! Ellie seems to be taking it all in stride much like Brian and suspected. She is very curious about Maggie and likes to poke her in the eye and kiss her and always wants to know where baby Maggie is. Ellie is fighting a yucky virus this week which has been hard as we are trying to keep her from being "too close" to Maggie but are trying to encourage her to do as much with her as she wants. We hope Maggie stays strong and can avoid this bug exposure!!

It's been forever since I've updated this and I feel bad about it. I hope to do better but as I have never had two babies before I am not sure I'll still be able to keep up with it. I figure I can at least post some photos if nothing else-that doesn't take too long!

Ellie is now 21 months old and is just as delightful as ever. Brian and I just can't imagine her getting any cuter. She has been talking forever it seems and now speaks in at least 4 word sentences. She just recently started using the word "I" instead of Ellie when referring to herself which sounds so grown-up! It used to be "Ellie wants a piece of candy" and now it's "I want a piece of candy." Speaking of candy, she has become quite the candy fiend lately and it's often the first thing she asks for in the morning upon waking. I think we will blame this one on her Nana who always seems to have candy floating around in her purse! She now comes and asks us for candy, "Just one candy" she will say with her one finger up by her cheek and really emphasizing the word "ONE"-how can anyone resist that???!! Despite this interest in candy she still remains our little peanut and weighs 21 1/2 lbs right now. I'm not sure how tall she is but I do know she has grown as many clothes that would still fit her everywhere else are too short for her. Where she got the skinny genes we don't know!!

Ellie's other big news right now is that she is has taken quite an interest in using the potty! She is now in the class at school that introduces and eventually helps the kids become potty trained. They don't move up to the next class until they are potty-trained so the kids stay in this class the longest. It is divided up into two groups, one for the younger and the other for the older ones. Ellie and her friends are the newest members of this class and one thing they start having them do early on is they sit on the potty and try when they go for a diaper change. Brian and I are so grateful for this and figured we would be ready to work with her this summer on becoming fully trained. Ellie has had other ideas, she has started asking us to use the potty or telling us that she has to poopy before she goes. She also has become quite obsessed with a book we have about using the potty so we decided to humor her and bought her a tiny pink beginner Bjorn potty (the regular size one was too big for her little behind!) She LOVES this pink potty and carries it around the house to wherever we are hanging out and will ask us to take off her clothes (which means EVERYTHING, you can't even sit with socks on apparently!) So far she has pooped and peed in the potty for us once. Brian and I were so excited and cheered her on but both times she was scared and close to tears-she doesn't seem to like the "yucky stuff in her potty" and want me clean it right away. So, she's by no means close to being potty-trained right now and while we are not encouraging her too much right now we do listen to her and let her sit whenever she tells us she needs to. She may just potty-train herself despite her parents' efforts!

Well, Miss Maggie has let me know that she would like to have a little lunch so I will post this and be happy for the time being. Let me know if you have anything you want to see picture wise on here or news you would like to hear about.