When It Rains It Pours

January 26, 2011: We've had a rough stretch health wise at our house. We moved Molly onto a soy based formula to help constipate her and it worked, stopped the diarrhea and then her bottom healed, but after I moved her back onto the regular formula her diarrhea started up again. Apparently infectious diarrhea can cause a milk intolerance so she has to be on soy formula for awhile. We'll test out regular in 6 weeks. Anyways, shortly after that problem was solved Casey came down with the stomach bug. She threw up all night on a Wednesday and was sluggish for two days after. Julia threw up all night Saturday night and Molly on Sunday. James and I caught it Monday night and it was awful. Molly has diarrhea again which I think is part of this bug.



Molly is sitting up now, she still needs some pillows around her as she will topple over if she leans too far in one direction. She got her first two teeth on the same day last week. She licks them with her tongue all the time. Also, I tried some solid food again and she took a little sweet potatoes the other night. She certainly did not devour them like Julia did when she was a baby, but at least she did not cry and spit them back at me. I have backed off since b/c of the stomach upset but I hope she will start taking it again.



Julia continues to crawl out of her crib endlessly. She does it at night and in the morning. Every morning for about two weeks she would crawl into our bed at 5 am and wake us up. It was not fun. We've gotten her to stay in a little later now thankfully. Julia wears nothing short of four different outfits a day. She switches clothes all the time. It is funny but also I end up doing way too much laundry. Julia is potty trained now though which is great. She still wears a diaper at nap time and night time. She also does a funny thing where she asks, "can I?" all the time. For example..."Can I get this puzzle out Mamma, can I?" It is very cute in her little voice.






We've had tons of snow this month. Casey has missed a few days of school. The girls do not love going out in the snow. They just get too cold. Casey is just getting to the point where she will tolerate it and have fun for awhile. Also Casey really only wants to wear dresses now. First it was pink, then skirts and now she only wants dresses and her "party shoes". It is really amazing to me. Today there is a snow storm and she is wearing a little Lily Pulitzer pink dress (same one she wore yesterday).

Always Something...

January 8, 2011: Molly had developed diarrhea almost two weeks ago while taking the ammoxicillin for her ear infection. It has not stopped and the other day I noticed some bloody mucus in her diaper. I spoke with our pediatrician around 6pm and he was worried about the symptoms and sent us to the ER at the children's hospital in Hartford to rule out the worst case scenario, intussusception. This is an intestinal disorder that I actually had as a child. It was one of those nights when I was so exhausted and could not wait to put the kids to bed and veg out on the couch but the night had other plans. At 7pm Molly and I headed off to Hartford and did not return home until just before 1am, fortunately with the ultrasound revealing that it was not intussusception. We also ruled out another dangerous infection and her diaper was sent to a lab for further testing. Now that the two worst things are out of the picture we are going to wait a few more days and see what happens. In the meantime Molly's poor bottom is in the worst shape of any diaper rash I have seen in my time as a mom. It pains me to see it.



JJ started climbing out of her crib two days ago. She sauntered into the living room after nap time the other day and James and I both asked if the other had gotten her. Now in the mornings she takes her sleep sack off, takes her pjs off to get rid of her wet diaper, puts them back on, and climbs out and comes to wake me up. I decided to lower the crib rail and we put a gym mat under her bed to lessen the chance of injury. Casey never climbed out of her crib so this is new for us. We're going to stick with the crib for now and wait to move her into a bed as long as we can. One thing about Julia I have to mention...she can be a real handful, but she is so nice and so sweet too. She will come up to James and I seemingly randomly and say, "I love you so much". It is so cute. Casey was crying the other day and she went and got a towel and came up to Casey and said, "let me dry your tears Case". She always shares her things with Casey and is just generally a very nice girl.

Christmas 2010

December 27, 2010:





This year was the first time we stayed home and had Christmas at our house. We visited LaLa and Eddie in Greenwich for a few days before and will head to Boston tomorrow for a few days, but I wanted to start our own traditions at our house now that the kids are getting older. Christmas as a parent is tough...you do so much work and put in a lot of time and effort to try and create a "perfect" christmas morning, and it never plays out that way. The kids hate some gift you thought they would love, they love everything for what seems like a minute and then its back to whining and arguing. On top of everything everyone was sick this Christmas. Julia and Molly have double ear infections, all three have conjunctivitis in both eyes, colds, fevers, etc.






Before Christmas Santa came to Taft and the kids were excited. They did not want to sit on his lap but ended up doing it. Casey is so fun this Christmas as she is fully believing and buying in to the whole thing. She asks me a million questions about anything I tell her, such as, "can the elves just see us or hear us too?". We made Christmas cookies and Casey is really the best age for this sort of stuff. Casey got a princess outfit and she has not taken it off since opening it. Is she really my child?!

What's Going On

December 17, 2010: Just a quick update on the girls...Molly had a check up today, it was her 5 month although she is closer to 6. She weighed 15 pounds 5 ozs. keeping her on the 50th percentile. She is rolling over now and can sit up a little bit with support, if she starts leaning in any direction she will keel over though. I've been trying to give her solid food for many weeks now and she refuses to eat it. I started out trying rice cereal a bunch of times, then I tried something sweeter with sweet potatoes and she would not take those either. So then I moved to the real sweet stuff, pears, and she still clamped her mouth shut or spit out anything I snuck in. Our doctor is not concerned at all and said to just try again every 4 weeks. He said if she is over a year and still doing it than we will figure something out. It's always something with these kids.



JJ bounced back very well from her sickness and stay in the hospital. She is totally addicted to her blanky right now. It has a hole in one corner, that she loves to put her hand through and rub that little part. The hole has gotten bigger and bigger and she calls it "hole", as if it is a separate entity from the blanket. She'll ask, "where's my blanky, where's my hole", as if they might be in different places. Also, Julia is using negatives in her sentences so often right now. She'll hold up a shell and say, "This shell is not black", or "I'm not jumping right now". It's a funny little phase. Also she loves dressing herself again, just this time with more success. She'll disappear and come back having raided Casey's dresser and come out wearing the funniest combos, sometimes inside out, sometimes backwards, always funny. Here is one from today that she was very proud of.



We went to Florida for Thanksgiving. It was fine getting all three on the plane. The tvs on Jet Blue help a lot. We still do not let our kids watch tv so they think it is very novel. Casey did a great job swimming while we were there, she can dive down and get things off the bottom of the pool and bring them back up. Julia continues to get more comfortable each time we swim and she did a lot of good work towards learning to swim too.

Casey continues to love school. She knows her school song, the pledge of allegiance, and God bless america. It is so cute. It's also fun to hear the things she picks up on at school. The other day while getting dressed for school she told me, "Mom, some kids in my school wear a long sleeve shirt with a t shirt over it", she was very intrigued by this look and waned to try it that day. I thought it was so cute.

Excitment

November 15, 2010:


This weekend was one for the baby book. Friday morning began with Julia throwing up in her bed at 6am and proceeding to throw up all day long. This included once while she was riding on Molly's stroller as we took Casey into school. Throw up right onto Molly, luckily it went onto the sleeping bag thing and not onto her. We got her down and I stood there with her doubled over throwing up over and over in the middle of the school parking lot. By Saturday morning she was completely weak and I was worried. Our pediatrician told us to go to the ER so off we went. She was admitted to the hospital for severe dehydration and they also found she had walking pneumonia after doing a chest x-ray. Getting her IV in was not fun and keeping it in was the worst. She had to keep her arm straight and that was a challenge. All night I slept in her bed and had to hold her arm down so she wouldn't try to suck that thumb, this bending her arm and cutting off the flow of the IV fluid which sets off an alarm and brings the nurse in.(this happened about 6 times in the middle of the night despite my best efforts). Julia was a wreck on Saturday, crying so much. She was weak and exhausted from the sickness and not napping. Sunday morning I woke up nose to nose with her in bed singing 'wheels on the bus' at 5:00am. She was much better and by the end of the ordeal she was helping the nurses do her vitals. We were there on fluids for about 30 hours. She is on the mend now, just struggling with stamina, she gets cranky and tired very easily. Our pediatrician said to expect it to take 6 weeks to recover from it completely.



Casey's newest thing this week is burping. She sits at the table and chugs her milk and burps as much as she can. Her drawing and coloring have gotten so much better lately. She works hard to fill things in drawing and works to stay in the lines. She also drew a picture totally on her own of Little Miss Giggles the other day and it was a huge circle for a head with two eyes, a nose and mouth, two ears and two stick legs and arms. I was so impressed! She continues to just leak small bits of information about school out to us. I will hear her reciting part of the pledge of allegiance when she thinks no one is listening and that is the only way I know they say it and that she knows the whole thing. She also has a school song which they sing over the PA after the pledge each morning. I need to be a fly on the wall there one day!

Molly is sick right now with some cold. I hope it passes before we head to FLA on Monday. She is so cranky and not napping well because of it.

Triple Check Up

November 8, 2010: This morning I was at the doctor's office alone with all three kids. A few months ago James and I both took them all together and swore we would never do it again, but somehow there I was. Casey was in just for the flu shot and Julia had her 2 year check and Molly her 4 month check.







Casey is doing well. A week ago she turned 3 1/2 and we had a big build up to that day because we told her she could no longer have a pacifier. If any parents out there are worried about how their child will give up the paci, take heart. Casey was as attached to that thing as any kid could be and we waited a long time to make her get rid of it. I was dreading weeks of bad nights and break downs but she has shocked me and been much better than we could have hoped for. She has whimpered for it a little and really would like it when she is exhausted but she is managing well. She has quit napping entirely in the last two weeks. It is disappointing for me because I really look forward to a little break in the day and the chance to get some things done. Usually she will still go in her room and have some quiet time. But the lack of naps mean that she is breaking down around dinner time and with no paci to calm her nerves she sometimes gets very upset. She used to stay up until about 7:45pm. Now that she is not napping she is in bed around 7pm and asleep quickly.






Julia has given up her morning nap finally but still loves her afternoon one. She now goes to bed the latest around 7:30pm. The other night I was awakened around 12:30am by the sound of her crying in the next room. I went in there and found her completely naked, she had taken off her sleep sack, pjs and diaper. She was crying because she was so cold. Hopefully she will have learned her lesson on that trick. She has only one more tooth to come in which I am expecting any day. She is talking more and more every day. She knows the words to songs and books and surprises me with her memory. She was healthy at her check up, still skinny at around the 12th percentile. Casey and Julia seem to play together better and better as the days go by. Whenever I am trying to get something done in the house, if it is too quiet I know I am in for trouble. This morning that happened and Julia was using scissors by herself and Casey had found the stash of Halloween candy I had hidden. But besides getting up to no good occasionally, it is really nice to see them interacting and getting along better. They are both very good with Molly. Julia always says, "Molly's nice" and Casey always says , "Molly is so cute". Casey knows the limitations for the most part of playing with Molly but Julia does not at all. She tries to stick her fingers in her mouth or put a toy in her mouth. I have to watch out very closely.




Molly is doing great as well. Last week we were at the cardiologist and the hole in her heart closed up. That is a relief to me and great that we no longer have to go back there to get it checked. She is still gaining weight nicely and comes in around the 50th percentile still. She is sleeping much better. We moved her into her own room and it has helped a ton. Every night she goes down without a peep at 7pm. She sleeps until around 4am at which point I just give her a few ounces and she goes right back down until 7:30 or 8am. She has slept through the night a bunch of times and we are excited for it to become consistent. Things got much better with her nights when she found her thumb. She rarely needs a paci at all anymore, only sometimes during the day when she is fussy. I'm in a terrible stage where I feel like I hear crying in my head all the time at night. I'm constantly staring at the monitor wondering if it is turned too quietly, it's not fun. Molly drinks 4x 5oz bottles a day and the Dr said we can boost the number of ounces and start some rice cereal/baby food soon. I am not really looking forward to that stage of eating, it is so messy. It is really only fun the first time around. She is rolling around a lot on the floor. She can roll from her belly to her back fairly easily and she rolls 99% of the way from her back to her belly but gets stuck on her one arm. She loves having her feet up in the air and holding her toes. She always has her hands or fingers in her mouth. She has begun bucking when she is seated in her car seat stroller. We've tried her in the forward facing one a few times now.





Halloween was fun again this year. Casey really enjoyed it and liked running around with some of her friends trick or treating. Julia liked the idea of things and wearing her costume, but she was unsure about trick or treating and wanted James to carry her. We didn't end up dressing Molly up as it was a cold night so she stayed home with LaLa. Julia also had a fun birthday. On her actual birthday Mark and Jen came up with their kids to have cake with us and so did Eddie. Then we went to Boston the next day and Julia had cake again with cousin Emily. They liked to sing over and over and blow out the candles over and over again.

Mr. Moon by Julia

Fall 2010

October 4, 2010: The school year has been under way for just about a month and things are going smoothly for us. We've been playing outside as much as we can, gone apple picking, to the play grounds and of course the annual county fairs around here.








Casey absolutely loves her school. She can't wait to go each morning and is always asking me if today is a school day or not. Casey has been riding her bike with training wheels a lot lately. She really seems so old to me sometimes now, I guess it is just comparing her capabilities with the other two. She loves the color pink and would wear head to toe pink everyday if I let her! She likes to pick out her own school outfits and I try to let her do that as often as I can, usually only stepping in if she is wearing shorts and its only 60 degrees out or something like that. She is still a handful right now in terms of temper tantrums and being disobedient. We'll ask her to help pick up the toys in the living room before bed and she'll scream, NO! and throw something. It is very exhausting and hard to deal with. I'm reading a few books on positive discipline now to try and come up with a solution.



Julia is growing like a weed, and so is her hair. I've really enjoyed the time at home with her on the mornings when Casey is at school. She still loves her blanky, but no longer calls it "packy" like she used to. It has a hole in one corner that she loves to play with and put her hand or foot through. She loves brushing her teeth. She is such a messy girl. Meals are so incredibly messy with her. Her food ends up all over the table, chair and floor around her, and not to mention her clothes, face, hands and hair. Even food that is not normally messy she will find a way to make it so. When we go out biking in the afternoons she has this funny quirk right now that she does not want to ride her bike, she likes to push them around. So she'll walk next to or behind her bike and just push it. Julia and Casey are hot and cold, they can get along very well at times and laugh with each other, and other times they annoy each other and take things and hit. Overall, Julia is becoming better behaved though, not quite as defiant as she was. She is slowly giving up her morning nap, only taking it on days when she is very tired.



Molly is wonderful right now. Her colic is totally passed and she is only fussy at normal baby times, hungry or tired. She is very alert, she has been cooing and making nosies for awhile, she will smile and laugh when we tickle or play with her. She is a big baby, our first to grow out of a pice of clothing before the age range on the tag. She goes in for a check up on Thursday so I will know more then. She likes playing on her mat and banging away at the toys hanging down. Sleep is so so, depending on the night. Last night was great, She slept from 7pm to 5 am, a record for her, I fed her and she went back to sleep until almost 8. When I went in to get her at 8am she was laying in bed awake and happy. Other nights she'll wake around midnight and I put the paci in a million times until she falls asleep again and then usually wakes for a bottle again around 3:30. In the past week or so she has found her thumb and sucks on it in her bed. It doesn't seem to soothe her enough yet to replace the paci. I can't wait until it does, because hopefully that will help her soothe herself back to sleep in the middle of the night. James and I feel so happy to have a happy baby because we missed all of these moments with Julia who basically just cried or slept for the first 6 months of her life. Molly also took her first swim at LaLa and Eddie's house on one of the Indian summer days in late September.

Casey's Big Day

September 1, 2010: Today was Casey's first day of school. I was able to leave Julia and Molly with a friend so that I could take her alone. She was happy and excited and chatting so much all morning. She got a little bit quiet as we neared the entrance and asked me, "Mom, you're going to take me in and not just drop me off right?" We got to her classroom and Casey found her name on the wall and went and matched it with her name on her cubby. She hung up her back pack and the teachers whisked her into activity. I gave her a hug and kiss and had to get out of there because I was crying and did not want her to. I thought about her all morning, just wondering what she was up to and how she was faring. James was able to come with us to pick her up and we all waited anxiously in the lobby. The teachers bring the students to a door and we have to go meet the teacher, show I.D, sign by her name and they bring her out to us. Casey was in the bathroom so she was one of the later ones out of the classroom. She had a big smile. Her teacher, Mrs. Pietro, told me that she did great, she was happy and had fun. They played doll house, painted, played with the sand table, in the ball pit and did a practice fire drill. She said Casey told her to re-count the students in line because she wasn't quite in line when the teacher first counted. She said Casey was a nice girl and she had fun having her in her classroom. So far so good.

Casey was surprisingly quiet when she came out. We were hoping for a non stop monologue on the morning's events but we had to really ask her a lot of questions to get her talking. I think she was tired. Later that day we were walking up to our house and she said to James "Dad, I really like my school", so that was cute and great to know she enjoyed it.

Here's one of her coming out...



And a little video clip of her on the way out.

Summer Wrap

August 30th, 2010:
We left Scituate yesterday. The house finally looks great and ready to enjoy, just in time to leave it. We decided to come down to Greenwich for one night so the girls could swim in the pool for a little bit before we head back to Taft. It has been an unusual summer, not very relaxing. We have had the chaos of the three kids, including Molly's colic. And the constant work on the house has been tough. I think next summer will be great with everything ready to go. Here is a wrap up of our summer:
June was spent mostly in Greenwich hanging in the pool while we stayed close to home for doctor's appointments and waiting for Molly to arrive. Molly joined us on June 29th. When Molly turned two weeks old we headed up to Scituate and spent July and August there working like dogs to get the house ready to rent. We went to Martha's Vineyard twice with Donna and Lou and had a fun time with all of the cousins at the beach. LaLa and Eddie came to visit in Scituate and did a tremendous amount of work to help us get the house ready. Today is our last real day of vacation, James has faculty meetings tomorrow which means I am home alone with the three kids which I am nervous about.

Bumps In The Road

August 17, 2010

James and I laughed and said we should title this entry “The Dark Blog”. It’s been a while since I have had the time to write, but once you read this entry you will understand why. This summer has been the definition of “CHAOS”. James and I were confident we could handle the stress of three kids close in age. We may have been wrong…

We thought that summer time would be the perfect time to have our third baby so that James would be around to help. We did not anticipate that the lack of routine would throw Casey and Julia into a tailspin. They have both been whining, fighting, and overall fairly disagreeable. It has been very hard for James and I to handle. It makes us cranky and when the kids don’t listen, scream at us, scream at each other, don’t eat, hit each other, then we start yelling at them and it all gets very unpleasant. We are frustrated about how to handle the situation, as the kids don’t seem to respond to our attempts at discipline and we don’t know why the change has happened. I truly believe the lack of routine has gotten to them, and on top of the fact that we have bought this new house that we are trying to work on. James and I are torn every single day between trying to make progress on our “to do list” and entertaining the kids. We try to strike a balance but it is not enough for the kids. Especially with how much we entertain them at home on a usual basis.





So with all that said, you add Molly into the mix. And, as fate would have it, we were the lucky people who get to experience the dreaded colic not once, but twice. Fortunately Molly is much easier to soothe than Julia was, but she still cries a lot and requires a lot of personal attention and holding and what not. You can’t just put her down on a play mat and work around the house. She has been eating every three hours but I am trying to move her to every four as of yesterday. She’s been alright at night, we rarely have an awful night and she’ll sleep in 3-4 hour clips. The news in that department is that I have had mastitis twice in the last two weeks. The second time I don’t think I have ever been so sick as I was this weekend. I had a fever of 103.5 and lost about 10 pounds sweating (seriously) over four days. Because of that I decided to slowly start weaning and last night gave Julia her first bottle of formula. She had her bottle at 8pm and did not wake up until 3am. I nursed her and she went back to sleep until 8am. Whoa!! So we are trying out a new routine and I am going to drop a feeding every 5-7 days or so. We’ll see how it goes. Molly is a very lovable baby despite the colic. She started cooing a few days ago and is becoming very alert. She looks around with her big eyes and it is nice to see changes like that. She had had baby acne when she turned 2.5 weeks but it went away. Sometimes she gets red bumps on her body when it is very hot and sticky, but they go away when things are cooler.



Of course the news on JJ and Casey is not all negative. We have had good times this summer and the girls are doing well. They both seem to be getting bigger and have tans. Casey is getting more and more into using her imagination. She makes up words to songs and creates stories in her head. She gives everything names now and likes playing games that involve pretend. This week she has been packing bags to go to Martha’s Vineyard. She and James pack, and have tickets, they push strollers to the couch and then ride the ferry.



Julia is changing too. Her hair is getting longer which changes her look. Did I ever write that she has chipped one of her front two teeth? It is a riot and fits her personality perfectly. She is using 4 words strung together more and more and has begun to use “I” in the correct way lately, which is impressive since it took Casey a long time to figure out and she spoke much more by this time. She eats very well, tries lots of stuff and when she is hungry will pound food. She has started to really have a capability to memorize songs and books. Sometimes she walks around with her fingers crossed on both hands which is bizarre. We had to call poison control for the second time in her 21 months of life when she started eating the comet under the sink. Nothing came of it. She must not have eaten a lot. Julia is working on her toilet training. We keep her nakey as much as we can and most times she successfully tells us when she needs to use the toilet for pee pee or poo poo. She has accidents, especially if she is wearing clothes but no diaper. But she is doing well with it.



So the combination of all this is a lot for us to handle. I feel incredibly fortunate that I have such a strong relationship with James and that he is such a wonderful partner. We get tired, frustrated and totally worn down by the kids pretty much every day. It is hard to take and I can’t imagine getting through it alone.

10 Days Old

July 9, 2010: Molly is 10 days old today. She has been an easy baby so far, but not worry free. At her one week check up our pediatrician heard a heart murmur. A heart murmur is not the defect in the heart, it is the sound of turbulence in the heart. He told us we needed to take her to see a specialist. So yesterday we were up at the CT Children's Medical Center in Hartford. She had an EKG and an ultrasound. We met with a fantastic pediatric cardiologist named Dr. Wu. She told us that Molly has a hole in her heart. The good news is that the hole is very small and in a good location in the very muscly lower portion of the heart. Dr. Wu told us that the hole should close up on its own with no medical intervention needed. We will see her again in 4 months, and then 6 months and then every year until she turns 5 to get the heart checked on. But the doctor also assured us that Molly would not have any restrictions on her lifestyle due to the heart abnormality, she can play sports or be a military fighter pilot if she wants to. So it was a scary day for me, but it ended up well and we are thankful it was not a bigger deal.



Besides that Molly seems to be doing well. She eats for about 10 minutes every 3 hours. She sleeps all day and is usually awake the most from 7-10 pm. She is fussy at that time and has taken to the paci. We've been feeding her somewhere between 10-11pm and going to bed. She has been sleeping in our bed right in the middle of us. She has been doing great at night, mostly just needing to be fed one time in the middle of the night and going back to sleep quickly. She wasn't doing that when we tried to have her in her own bassinet so we've kept her with us. I think it is still early enough that bad sleeping habits won't form yet and for the moment we are all getting good sleeps considering we have a newborn. I think this is crucial since we have two very energetic toddlers who need us at our best during the day. She's been spitting up some and had a few big throw ups. She breathes very noisily, almost seems to struggle to breathe. That makes me nervous but I guess it is normal enough not to worry our pediatrician. We've given her a few baths and her umbilical stump fell off two days ago. At her one week check up she was back to her birth weight of 8 pounds 3 ounces. Two days later at the hospital she weighed 8'14, but she did have a diaper on so I am not sure how much that weighed. Either way, she is gaining weight nicely. I'll get more pix up soon.

Molly's Labor

July 2, 2010: Here is my labor story with Molly. I had a scheduled induction for June 29th. I slept pretty well the night before and James and I headed off to the hospital around 6:15am. I registered and we were in the room by 6:45. It was a hurry up and wait situation. I thought we had to be in there by 7am so my Dr could break my water before heading into her morning c-sections but she was unable to see us until after the first one. So we just hung out in the room, I got into my lovely 'johnny', got my IV put in and we watched a James Bond movie on the laptop. At 8:30 Dr Grogean came in and broke my water. At the same time she put a internal monitor onto the baby's head which registers her heart rate. I had a few more contractions but things did not ramp up until they started my pitocin around 10:30am. By 11:30 they were getting pretty strong and I asked for an epidural, which I got around noon. Similar to my labor with Julia the epidural had what they call a window, where it only set in on the left side of my body, so unfortunately I could still feel all the contractions on the right side. I lay on my side hoping the medicine would transfer to that side, but it never did. The pain was less, but still present. James and I chatted and my parents came in to visit for awhile. We were still working on the baby's name, trying to decide between two. Around 2pm the contractions were getting stronger and around 2:30 I started to feel a lot of downwards pressure. These were hurting me a lot. I knew it would be time to push soon. They called my Dr to come in. My contractions were about 2 1/2 minutes apart. I pushed 3 times and Molly was out at 3:06pm. She was our heaviest baby, half a pound heavier than Casey and a pound more than Julia.
Our stay in the hospital was pretty good. Molly slept so much. We also sent her to the nursery both nights which bought us some sleep. We were able to get 4-5 uninterrupted hours by doing that. The toughest part for me is the feeding. It is hard to know if the baby is getting enough to eat and they don't want to wake up to eat.
We came home yesterday and things have been pretty smooth. James's mother is here helping with the girls which has been great. Our first night at home went well. I fed Molly at 11pm and we were all asleep by 11:45. She woke up at 3:45 and did not want to go right back to sleep, but we all fell asleep again by 4:45am. We slept in until about 8am. So all in all it was not too bad. Molly has been very easy and sleepy again today. Right now she is sleeping on James's chest which is one of the best feelings in the world. My milk is starting to come in which hurts but I am glad to be able to feed Molly more than just colostrum. Hopefully she will be pretty easy tonight too.

Molly Louise Duval

June 29, 2010: Molly Louise Duval was born today at 3:06pm. She weighs 8 pounds 3 ounces and is 20 3/4 inches long.

Last Update Before The Baby

June 23, 2010: Well, I'm 38 1/2 weeks pregnant and we are having a scheduled induction on Tuesday the 29th. Just 6 more days until we are a family of 5. As real as the pregnancy feels physically (I feel big and tired and have an aching back), it feels very unreal too. I cannot even grasp the fact that another baby will be in our house in a few more days. The first time around you are so organized and everything is prepared for the arrival of the baby. This time I have to remind myself to get baby diapers and find the bed, clothes, etc, that the newborn will need. None of this is to say that I am not very excited, because I am. I cannot wait to meet this little girl. Casey seems very excited about the arrival of the new baby and Julia has no idea about it. Here is a picture of Casey getting her Dad a "brewski". She loves doing this for him and gets the beer out, gets the opener and pops the top off on her own.



Anyways, besides me, the girls are doing very well. They both seem to get bigger and more mature all the time, especially Casey. It sometimes shocks me how tall she is getting and how old she seems. She is very excited about going to school in the fall and asks about when it will be starting all of the time. We've done a lot of swimming at my parents house this summer so far and they both love the water so much. Casey continues to improve without any real help or guidance from us. We just encourage her as best as we can to have fun in the water and she does. She tries out new things in the water, tests her buoyancy, tests how far she can swim, etc. She is so comfortable in there, she'll jump off in the deep end, and can swim as far as she has to to reach the edge, one of us, or a pool float. It is really great. Casey has made the move to her big girl bed. We just have a twin mattress on a box spring on the floor for right now. We're looking for the right frame but it is better for her to get adjusted on the floor anyways for now as she falls out onto the floor every few nights. For the most part she stays put in her bed. The first night was perfect then after that the girls started laughing together and Casey would get out of her bed to go visit Julia or mess around in the room. Eventually they fall asleep and since then the novelty has worn off and for the most part they just go right to bed.





Julia also loves the pool. She loves spending time in there and loves jumping around on the steps and gets more and more comfortable going under the water. She can go under and get diving sticks and rings off the bottom when they are on the steps. She will also jump off the side or the float and loves going down the water slide head first. She is on her way to being a little fish like Casey is which makes me happy.





Julia is also trying to talk so much more all the time. She is an absolute parrot and says and repeats everything we say. She is picking up on lots of books and songs in addition to her words. She'll sing (in her own way) lots of the children's songs we listen to in the car and at home. She is a very feisty child still and has tantrums that we never experienced with Casey at such a young age. She is a tough cookie and has taken some very hard falls in her short life. Just yesterday she backwards somersaulted down an entire flight of stairs. She has a streak of the devil in her for sure. She gives you these looks sometimes and just does devilish little things. Another thing Julia loves right now is trying to get herself dressed. She'll spend quite a bit of time every day putting pairs of Casey's shorts or underpants on. Often she'll already be wearing a diaper with her own pants or shorts on and then she will come down the hallway with one of her legs in one leg of Casey's underpants and the other leg in one leg of a pair or shorts. It is hilarious.

Casey is 3!!

May 11, 2010: Yesterday I took both girls to the doctors office for their 18 month and 3 year check up. It was chaotic being in there with both of them. I thought it would be easier to just knock off both check ups on the same day but I don't think I will do that again. I need to bring a dictaphone in with me next time b/c I can't concentrate on the answers the doctor gives to any of my questions as I am busy keeping Julia from falling off the table and keep Casey from breaking the blood pressure machine or whatever it might be. I finally gave Casey her MMR shot yesterday after putting it off for as long as I could. It is never something I will be sure of either way but I did what I thought was right. Anyways, the girls were very healthy, despite continuing to be little peanuts. Casey weighed in at a whopping 28 pounds landing her in the 15th percentile and Julia was 20 pounds, in only the 6th percentile.



For Casey's birthday last week we went down to Greenwich for a little birthday party. James had a long weekend and he and I left the kids with my parents and went into NYC for two nights for a little R&R. Casey had pizza and cake with her cousins and had a fun time. When asked what she would like for her birthday she said "a cake". If only it would stay that way!!



I am now 32 weeks pregnant. I feel like I am 8 months pregnant instead of 7, I think I am definitely bigger sooner with this pregnancy. It is really hard to believe that in 8 weeks or less we will have a newborn in this house.




Here is what the girls have been up to...Casey loves to pick out her own outfits everyday now and insists upon doing EVERYTHING herself. Somedays I go into her room and the outfit does not match at all so I have to ask her to make little changes, but for the most part I try to comply with her decisions. She is still napping. The other day she did not want to take her nap and came walking into the living room midway through nap time. She had crawled out of her crib for the first time at age 3. We are very lucky. Now she knows how to get in and out but she is a rule follower and just stays in there. We are in the process of trying to find a "big girl bed" for her. The doctor also mentioned it would be a good time to start thinking about weaning her from her pacifier. I'm open to any and all suggestions in that department.

Julia has just started taking the same swim class that I did with Casey last year. She is younger than Casey was at the time but after she loved the pool in Florida over Spring break so much we wanted to try and have some consistency with that leading into the summer time and all the time in LaLa and Eddie's pool. So far she really seems to enjoy the swim class and has no fears about going under and playing in the pool. Casey stays at home with a combination of a sitter and James who has a free period. It is a nice perk to have a little quality time just to spend with Julia. Julia is very good at entertaining herself. She will do the strangest little tasks for a while and be completely absorbed in it. For instance she will sit down where we all take our shoes off and stuff someone's socks into their shoes, then take them out and do it over and over. She will find the backpack we take her in the dining hall in and open the zipper pocket and take bibs in and out and zip it up again. Just little stuff like that. She loves dancing to music and does a hilarious move when she is excited where she jumps around with fast feet and then flops down on her "bum bum". Also at meals we have recently discovered that she loves soup. She also likes to put the entire contents of her meal into her soup. Things she might not normally touch on her plate she will readily eat if they get put into her soup and served to her on a spoon. She is exploding verbally and saying so many words. She is trying to put 2 words together more often now and has even done 3 at a time. It is a fun time to see her trying all these words out.



Also a belated congrats to James, Dave and Lou for another successful Boston Marathon in April.