Elizabeth's Lullabye

To the tune of Brahm's Lullabye, Elizabeth sang, "Goodbye, and goodnight, in the soft evening moonlight. With rosebutts overhead..." Nice.

Back to Exercising

I stopped doing any kind of exercising, running, or volleyball way back in February because I was experiencing some bleeding in my pregnancy. The bleeding continued off and on until the second trimester, and so I never started it up again. However, I plotted and dreamed and planned of the day when I was no longer pregnant and could start working to regain my normal body back again. (Okay. Actually, I would prefer a little bit nicer body than I started with, but we'll work with that!)

FINALLY, I can almost start. While I don't have an official okay for another two weeks, I did start exercising this week, doing a light workout video with Elizabeth, going for a pathetic little run/walk, and even hitting the gym for the elliptical machine and the weight machines once. It felt so good!

I had worried that exercising again would be drudgery, and running would be too difficult to start up again, but it felt like a break - like I was doing something just for me. It was wonderful. I'm out of shape and nowhere near the way I want to look, but at least I can start to make some progress getting back to where I want to be, and I can look forward to it. Yeah! I'm still trying to take it somewhat easy, but I think I can try another short run tomorrow!

And as soon as I get the offical okay from the doctor, Isaac and I are going to start a Biggest Loser competition between the two of us. I pretty much have to do it exercise-only, since I'm nursing, but there are a lot of treats and candy I can eliminate if I get truly desperate and exercising alone isn't working! We have about the same amount of weight we want to lose to get back to our ideal weights, and our competitive little souls are already getting excited!

Attention from Boys

There is a certain boy in Elizabeth's preschool who blows on her each day during group time. That's right - he blows air on her while they're all sitting on the floor. She says that she tells him, "Don't do that please," but he does it anyway, and that the teachers never say anything about it.

This little boy was absent from class yesterday. I asked Elizabeth if she knew where he was, and she said, "Well, maybe his mama needed to keep him home for a day to teach him not to blow on me." Maybe.

Another day, Elizabeth came home and told me that she and her little girl friends played "running" on the playground and a little boy chased them and threw balls at them. Isaac asked if she liked that, and she smiled and said, "Yes!"

Look at this kid: who wouldn't want to chase her?

Growing So Fast

So fast, but she still fits on a baby blanket folded in quarters!

Overtired

On Saturday night (or probably more accurately on early Sunday morning) Amelie cried and Isaac went to go get her. Actually, he sat up in bed and started feeling around the bed for her. "Isaac," I said. "She's in her crib."

"I know," he answered. "That's what I'm looking for." Think we're in that newborn daze?

The really funny thing is that last night I was looking back over the notes I kept when Elizabeth was a newborn. I wrote, "One night you cried after I fed you and put you to bed. I asked Daddy to go calm you. He sat right up and said, 'Okay, where is she?' 'In her crib.' 'Okay, where is that?'"

It's all sounding very familiar.

Laundry - Does It Ever End?

Laundry.
There is always at least one load ready to throw in.
Even when we think we've done it all, by the time the last load comes out of the dryer, there's another load ready.
It's amazing.

When Elizabeth was born and our family went from two to three, our laundry tripled.
When Amelie was born and our family went from three to four, it's doubled again.
I'm not sure how this is possible.

I'm pretty sure it's not possible to actually have all the laundry folded and put away before another load is begging to be done.

What's a normal amount of loads of laundry to do in a week?

Funny Kid Stories of the Week

Today, Elizabeth announced, "I'm really a schoolteacher, but I'm pretending to be a little kid right now where I don't know everything." (Implication: Usually, she knows everything!)

She's been walking around with big rectangular label stickers stuck on the outside of her pants between her legs. She says they're her "underwear pads." When I asked why she needed an underwear pad, she explained, "Well, cuz, I'm a mommy!" Close enough.

Smile!

Cooking Mishaps

I was whipping up brownies this evening (from a mix) and started thinking about some of my cooking mishaps. Here they are, for your enjoyment, in no particular order:

1. Before Isaac and I were even dating, when I had known him for only 3 weeks, I burnt toast for him.
2. When I first married, I was afraid of rapidly boiling water. (It actually took me several years to get over this, and only this last year have I learned to saute on the stovetop.) Anyway, I made a dinner with rice for Isaac, and planned to serve it at 9:00pm. Because I refused to rapidly boil the water, the rice wasn't ready until after 11:00!
3. I made brownies from a mix for Isaac and some of his high school friends. I forgot to add the water, and one of his friends had to tell me what was wrong! (Way to impress him, huh?)
4. A few years later, this same friend and his wife were coming over for dinner after we all went to a football game together. I proudly had a soup all ready in the Crockpot for when we came home. However, I was out of evaporated milk and had substituted sweetened condensed milk. (Those products cannot be substituted for each other!) We had to throw away the whole pot and order pizza instead.
5. I messed up hard-boiled eggs just a few months ago and didn't boil them hard enough. They were runny and I had to throw the whole dozen away.
6. A few other meals that I've tried have simply tasted horrible. We suffered through most of them, but we did have to dump a few of the more notable disasters (mushroom-barley soup and the lemon chicken I blogged about previously).

Any of you have cooking disasters to share? It's more humorous in hindsight!

What Happened to My Sleeper?

After four (wonderful) years of Elizabeth, we finally got a sleeper. We were so happy! We took full advantage and enjoyed every minute of naps.

Yesterday, however, our sleeper woke up. She seems to have forgotten how to go to sleep. This morning she was awake from 6:40 until 1:45, then woke up again after a 45 minute nap! As much as I love her big sister, I hope she isn't turning into her non-sleeping big sister! Please, Lord, let this be an anomaly; let her go back to sleeping and napping well!

Politically Correct

Elizabeth overheard me call Amelie a "hungry hippo" today. She hastened to correct me: "No, Mama! You can't call her that! She's not a hippo. You have to call her a 'hungry baby person.'"

My Really Big Girl

Elizabeth went to a swimming party without me this weekend. That's a big girl. The party was her cousin Sydney's, and for her birthday, Sydney wanted Elizabeth to come over for a sleepover. So Elizabeth went home with Sydney's family after the party to spend the night. (How big is she?) She even got to go to Chuck E. Cheese with them that evening, which she has informed me is "really fun because you got a whole jar of money and you got to do all the rides and all the fun stuff and you got to go to a store where you could buy whatever you want." Then she went to church with them on Sunday morning before coming back home to us.

I think it was about as much fun as she's ever had on a weekend.

She's pretty sure that her next birthday party will be at Chuck E. Cheese. (I doubt it.) She's also sure that she wants Sydney to sleep over for her next birthday. (This we can do!)

How big is my big girl?

Not Enough Arms

It has been a week of owies and bruises for Elizabeth. She ran into the corner of our piano and got a black left eyebrow. She slipped on a tile floor in a pool locker room and bruised her right cheek. Then today at the playground she fell off a climber and crashed into a platform, banging up her hip pretty well. The problem was that we had walked four blocks from home, and I had Amelie in the frontpack. It is very difficult to comfort a wailing preschooler who really needs to be picked up and held while wearing a frontpack. After the tears finally stopped, I still had to convince her to walk the four blocks home (her poor little hip was already purple and red - walking hurt). It took the promise of chocolate chips and cinnamon-sugar pie crusts at home, and a phone call to tell Daddy about it. Sometimes I could use more arms.

First Family Outing

Isaac was home for a couple of hours this afternoon, so we all went to Como Zoo together. Amelie slept through it all in the frontpack and didn't even realize we went anywhere, but Elizabeth thought it was great.

The mountain lion was very vocal so we got to hear him growl and make lots of cool noises. Other than that, none of the animals did much that was interesting. We had a streak a couple years ago that every time we went to Como, the animals were mating. Seriously. We've witnessed lions, zebras, and spider monkeys "cuddling" each other. Isaac and I were particularly fascinated by the zebras because the female kept kicking and fighting the male away. Unfortunately, there was nothing like that today. Oh, well. No hard questions that way, then.

A Few Laughs

Want to hear my new favorite joke? Okay.
Question: What did the snail say when he sat on the turtle's back?

Answer: "Whee!"

Here's another one. This isn't technically a joke, since Elizabeth said it in all earnestness, but it made me laugh anyway. Yesterday, while trying to remember Amelie's birthday, she asked, "When did Ami go ker-plunk and kind of hop right out of your tummy?" Right. That's how it happened!

Finally, this wasn't really a laugh, but if you could have seen it in person, I think you would agree it was definitely a pleasant expression at the very least! "How big is Baby?" is always a hit.

A Man Who's Rich in Daughters...

And daughters who are rich in a daddy! I can't think of anyone else I would rather parent with than Isaac. He is so generous and giving, and he's very sensitive to female moods! He knows just how to make his girls feel better.

Isaac comes from a long heritage of fantastic daddies. His dad, of course, is who he models his own parenting after. And his dad learned from Grandpa VanLoon. Grandma and Grandpa VanLoon had 4 children in 4 years, and Grandma says she never once woke up alone with a child at night - Grandpa always got up too!

Elizabeth-isms

Elizabeth to Isaac, while watching football together: "Were you a Viking or a mascot?"

After I put Amelie to sleep in her crib: "Mama, when you hear the baby crying, will you scamper into her room?"

As Elizabeth left the bathroom, I gently reminded her to flush. She stopped abruptly and said, "Oh! I bet my poop would like to go see its poop friends!"

In the car on the way to church: "I sure like having a baby sister, but I'm glad I still have a Grandma."

A week or two before Amelie was born, Elizabeth gave birth to an imaginary baby named Christina. Christina has been very present in our family since then. Elizabeth frequently has to nurse Christina, get up during meals to give Christina a bottle, or put her back in her (imaginary) high chair after she's fallen out. The other day, she told me that Christina was teething. When I asked how the teething was going, she answered, "She cried a little when the tooth was coming up through her lungs." Poor imaginary baby! (By the way, Christina joins Elizabeth's other child, Bear, and "Christina's big sister," who remains unnamed.)

And since Amelie has gotten all the pictures and attention lately, here's a picture of Elizabeth. She just went pretend fishing (the Boppy pillow was her "belly boat") and she's holding up an imaginary sunfish for me to photograph.

Look at Those Eyes!

New Friend; Appreciate the Old

Elizabeth had a new friend over to play today. It made me appreciate all the nice, sweet little friends that she usually plays with. I felt a little like I was wrangling a preschool class instead of merely observing and getting a ton of my stuff done while the two friends entertained each other. We appreciate you, Sydney/Isabelle/Josie/Jax!

Grandma's Girls

Blue-Eyed Buddies

Our first picture in which both girls have their eyes open! (Okay, so it's not the best, but I'm still excited.)

Another Bouncing Baby

Background: When Elizabeth was a baby, she was not a rocking chair baby - she was an exercise ball baby. We spent hours each day bouncing up and down on the ball with her. It was such an important part of her life that we were relieved when everyone we spent time with got one at their house - my parents, my in-laws, and my cousin! We frequently considered bringing one to church!

Today, we tried it with Amelie. It was a huge hit. Check out those alert eyes. Are everyone's babies like this or is it just mine?

Family Tummy Time

Look at all that hair! And no bili blanket! We got to discontinue the bili blanket yesterday, and it's been really nice to be able to eat at the table while holding Amelie, and pace when she's fussy, and change her diaper at the changing table without disconnecting all kinds of stuff. We have reached a new level of freedom! I even left the house twice today - once to eat lunch with my mother and once to pick up Elizabeth from preschool and show off her new baby sister to all her friends. She was pretty happy.

Jaundice Update

We think Amelie is almost done with her bout of jaundice. The home health care nurse was here on Saturday and Sunday, and on Sunday we brought her back into St. Joseph's just to draw some more blood. Her bilirubin levels are down and the acceptable level is up, so that's good news. We're staying on the bili blanket at home until another doctor appointment tomorrow morning, but we expect to be done with it then.

She woke up on her own to eat both of the last two nights (we were supposed to wake her to make sure she eats often), although last night we were hoping she wouldn't wake quite as often as she did! And after over 24 hours with no pooping, she pooped while the nurse was examining her - 10 times in a row! Now she's back to pooping more than enough.

We get to relax how much time we keep her on the blanket now, and it was wonderful to walk around the house with her a little this morning and cuddle her properly.

Answers to Who Is Who?

Admittedly, this wasn't really a fair test since none of you have actually seen Amelie, but so far no one has gotten it right. One and three are Amelie; two and four are Elizabeth. I really wish I had a similar of picture of me to really throw a wrench into things!

Who Is Who?

Yellow Baby

Amelie is jaundiced. Her bilirubin level is 15.7, and if it were a 16, she'd have to go back to the hospital. We now have special lights and a light blanket that wraps around her waist and hooks up to a machine at home. The blanket belt doesn't seem to bother her nearly as much as I thought it would, although it severely limits movement and confines us to a few feet from the machine. (You can't tell in the pictures, but the belt glows bright blue.) It's pretty wild looking.

You can pray for the following:

• Amelie's liver matures quickly and starts getting rid of the extra bilirubin


• She wakes up easily and nurses well. Lots of pooping will help her, and while she did great at the hospital, she hasn't pooped in over 24 hours, which is pretty concerning


• Isaac and I figure out how to maneuver and care for her while attached to the blanket, especially as it relates to sleeping tonight


• We get a positive report from the home health nurse tomorrow afternoon

Telephone Conversation

Ring-a-ling-a-ling, Ring-a-ling-a-ling.

Elizabeth: "Is my little sister there?"

Amelie: "Sorry, I can't talk right now."

Labor and Delivery, Part II

Warning: This post contains lots of details. If you are not interested in too much information, please skip it. If you're like me and eat up those details, go for it.

On the way to the hospital, the contractions stepped it up to yet another level. Now it felt like there was less than a minute between them by the time I finally stopped feeling the previous one and the next one started. Isaac and I walked into the emergency room at 7:20pm. They wheeled me upstairs, stuck me in a room, and asked me to undress and give a urine sample and wait to be checked.

During a contraction, I dropped the urine sample into the toilet. Nice.

I was only dilated to a little past 4 at this point. I said I wanted an epidural, and the midwife said she needed to see cervical progress before she would admit me to the hospital, and then she would call for the epidural. She told me to walk around. I tried. Really I did. But the contractions were getting harder and harder really fast, and I never made it past the door of the room before I would feel the next one coming and have to sit down to make it through.

When she finally checked me again at about 7:50, I was almost a 5 and in awful pain. She said it was not a lot of progress, but she started the admission process. By this time, the contractions never felt like they stopped and I had to concentrate my breathing to get through all of them. The nurse kept asking me questions to get me admitted, and I never signed the papers until afterward.

They hooked me up to the monitor in bed and went off to work on admitting me and ordering the epidural that I kept asking for. At 8:20, they started working on hooking me up to an IV for the epidural. (This worried us, because the IV took a solid 1.5 hours with Elizabeth as I have very difficult veins and they poked me 15 times before the third person who tried finally succeeded.)

Luckily, this person got the IV in on the second try at 8:50. They checked me again, and I was 8 centimeters dilated. At 9:00, the midwife said the baby would be here in half an hour. This bothered me as I did not yet have an epidural. The nurse and midwife kept trying to convince me that I could do this without drugs, but I kept insisting. They rushed the anesthesiologist when he walked in at 9:10. There wasn't time for an epidural, but he gave me something called an "intrathecal." (I'm still not sure what that is, but it did help.) At this point, the pain was so bad that the IV jabs and the intrathecal needle actually felt good, a welcome distraction from the contractions. The anesthesiologist laughed when I said to go ahead during a contraction rather than wait until it was finished because it would feel good. I was probably two or three contractions away from being too late to get any drugs at all.

At 9:20, I was fully dilated. At 9:28, I started pushing. After five series of pushes, Amelie was born at 9:45. The umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck once, and her left hand was trapped up by her right eye. (This caused 20 stitches, by the way.) They plopped her on my chest right away and it was wonderful.

Labor and Delivery, Part I

It was Wednesday, October 1, and Amelie was 5 days late. I woke up convinced that nothing was happening and I would go another two weeks overdue until they induced me. We had an appointment with the midwife that morning, and she stripped my membranes for the second time. Luckily, the second time was not nearly as painful as the first, and I was better prepared for it and knew how to use Isaac as a support better too. The midwife said I was almost 4 centimeters dilated.

After the appointment, I didn't feel much different. I brought Elizabeth to preschool after lunch, then noticed that I felt a little off and was maybe having more Braxton Hicks contractions than usual, but they were not strong or painful at all. At 3:00, I walked to preschool to pick up Elizabeth and joked with one of the other moms that I thought maybe today might be the day, but of course I didn't know. On the walk home, Elizabeth wanted to run down and up the stadium steps by our house, so we did.

By the time I walked Elizabeth back home, the strange feeling was stronger and we settled onto the couch to read together so that I wouldn't have to move. I started timing the contractions, even though they didn't hurt yet, and noticed that they were 5-8 minutes apart. I called Isaac around 4:00 and told him that, but that I didn't think it was labor because it really didn't hurt. He came right home anyway.

By 5:00, the contractions were continuing at 5-8 minutes apart and were slightly stronger, even though they still weren't painful. But I had been warned that it might go quickly once it started, so I called my mother and asked her to come over so that if this did turn into labor, we wouldn't have to wait for our childcare to get here.

By 6:00, the contractions were 5 minutes apart and still not really painful. I gave Isaac a haircut, ate a spicy Mexican soup for dinner, finished straightening the house, and called the midwife just in case. She told me it was probably cramps caused by stripping the membranes, and I should go on a walk.

So Isaac and I left Elizabeth eating dinner with my mother at our house, and went for a walk around the neighborhood. During the walk, the contractions suddenly started becoming painful and were still 5 minutes apart. Isaac wanted me to call the midwife as soon as I got back, but I didn't want to be sent home with false labor. I knew I could still talk through these contractions, and that's one of the big signs that you don't need to go to the hospital yet. (As I would soon see though, I'm pretty tough and can talk through almost anything!)

We sent Elizabeth home with my mother and called the midwife again. Sure enough, since I was still talking pretty smoothly, the midwife said not to come in until I could only concentrate on the contractions and nothing else, even in between. That's when she said I would know it was labor.

Around 6:50, the contractions became way more intense. I could no longer walk through them, although I could still talk if I tried! Isaac worried that we would get to the hospital too late for an epidural, and finally I had bad enough contractions that I conceded we should go, although I still wasn't convinced it was real labor. At 7:00, I told the midwife we were coming in and we left for the hospital at 7:10.

Amelie Joy

Amelie Joy VanLoon was born (very quickly) at 9:45pm on Wednesday, October 1. She weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces and was 20.25 inches long. She has blonde hair (the same as Elizabeth's when she was born) and very dark blue eyes. So far, she is a very good pooper, sleeper, and nurser, in that order. Her big sister Elizabeth is very excited and loves holding her and touching her.

Elizabeth says, "She's very friendly and snuggles a lot with her big sister. And I love her so much to hug her. And I like to hold her."