Home for the Holidays

Christmas has come and gone. We had lovely visits from both sides of our family and from Santa Claus as well. We didn't really want to perpetuate the Santa Claus myth for Felix, but decided we didn't want him ruining it for other kids at day care. (Yeah, we're those parents.) Felix got lots of lovely toys that he's been playing with during our time home together.

I had planned on taking the days after Christmas off and keeping the kids home for a week. And then it snowed... a lot. We got about 20 inches here on the 21st, which canceled school and day care on Thursday and Friday. We'll end up being at home for nearly two weeks together which has been fun. We've played in the snow and with Felix's play kitchen, and gone to the Y a couple times. It's actually been nice to settle into a bit of a routine with everyone home for so many days straight.

Iris had her 4 month check-up on Thursday. She's now 11 lb 7 oz, and 24.5". Long and skinny. Everything looks good for her. She's starting to figure her hands out, fwumping them against her sides and flailing at hanging toys. She really likes to be upright. Unfortunately, she's had a cold and gone through a growth spurt lately, which hasn't made her many feedings easy, but things are getting better. She also has been pretty quiet recently - not much cooing from her. I hope she starts again once she's done with this cold.

Felix has been enjoying the holiday season. We did have a bit of a struggle leaving cookies for Santa - Felix wanted to eat the cookies himself. He sure loves Iris, but we've had to be vigilant that he doesn't try to pick her up or squash her. Loves her a bit too much. :o) One of the toys he got was a tornado machine that makes a little whirlpool in a plastic container. It came with a DVD of an episode of Stormchasers which he has watched at least once a day since he got it. Now being a tornado chaser is on his radar as a potential career option.

Felix: 3 yrs & Iris: 4 mos

Season's Greetings!

It's that time of year again when we look back on everything that occurred during the past year and look forward to the next.

The anticipation and arrival of our little Iris Morgan was our biggest news of the year. She arrived on August 30th, and has made the last few months a joy. It feels like our family might just be complete now. :o)

We've witnessed love this year, attending two weddings. We've had sadness, losing a two people close to us. And the Badgers are going back to the Rose Bowl - hopefully for a win this time around!

We look forward to the next year and all the adventures it has in store for us. We are excited for all of the firsts that Iris has in store, watching Felix grow and learn, and our jobs providing new challenges and opportunities. We also look forward to all the time spent with family and friends! Cheers!

This free ecard created with Smilebox

Back to Work Again

I knew it couldn't and wouldn't last, but on Monday, I returned to work. It hasn't been as bad as the last time - I'm returning to a better situation, and I've been through it once before. On top of that, I am still nursing Iris through the day because the day care is only a few blocks from my office. It's such a pleasure to be able to see her twice during the day and get a smile from her. :o) So far, things are working out. We're out of the house by 6:30 am and get home around 4 pm for quality time.

Iris is now 14 weeks old and completely lovely. Her personality is more laid back than Felix (evidenced by the fact that she's not screaming her head off waiting for me to get over to feed her). She's already quite the talker - it must be a girl thing. :o) She goes on huge cooing streaks, especially when I'm singing. I wish I could freeze her in time right now, because she's just so adorable.

I've been reading Harry Potter to Iris for her bedtime feeding, just like I did with Felix. I got through the first three books with Felix, so let's see how far we get with her. She's also sleeping great. Most nights, she wakes up only once, and will go as long as 9 hours before waking. Wow.

Felix is very excited about Christmas and winter in general. I'm trying to teach him Christmas carols, and he is excited about Santa coming. He asked me today if I would build a snowman with him. Gladly, sweetie, when we have some snow!

Stay tuned for our Christmas card!

Felix: 3 yrs & Iris: 3 mos

"I'm Elmo"

Felix has quite the imagination. On several occasions, he's told us his name is either Lightning, Elmo, or Bucky. He'll only answer to those names, stating quite seriously, "I'm not Felix, Mama; I'm Elmo." Just warning you... :o)

We've had some challenges talking with Felix, so I found the book How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk. It's been around about as long as I have, so it must have some good advice to still be published now. At the very least, it's nice to have a game plan when talking to him so it keeps us calmer.

Iris is doing very well - getting bigger; smiling, cooing and laughing (well, it sounds more like a gasp) often; and starting to settle into a routine. That's great, because it will make it easier when she joins Felix at daycare in a few weeks (sob!). I'm not excited to go back, but I plan on nursing her since her daycare is so close to work and I will get to see her more than I saw Felix. She's also sleeping well - last night, she slept for over 9 hours straight! Very happy about that - let's see see how the next few nights go. She also likes "flying" as you can see in the picture.

This year, we are so thankful for our healthy little Iris and great big brother Felix, our family and friends, and all the good things we have to look forward to in the coming year.

Felix: 3 yrs & Iris: 11 wks

Happy Halloween!

It's been a lovely, albeit chillier-than-expected fall. We've gone apple picking, picked out pumpkins, played in the leaves... and watched Iris start smiling at us! She's so beautiful when she gives us a big grin. She's gotten a cold recently, so she hasn't been sleeping quite as well (only giving me 3 hour stretches or so), but that's getting better.












October 31st was quite a day for us, happy and sad. While Iris and I went to her 2-month check-up at the doctor, Nick was on his way to his aunt's funeral. Iris got her first set of shots and was pretty cranky when she wasn't sleeping. I think I jostled her poor little thighs a bit. Poor sweetie. I dressed up Iris in a few Halloween outfits during the day (changes necessitated by her spitting up...). That did not make her any happier, alas.













This evening, we took both kids trick-or-treating. Felix was very proud of his skeleton costume. We dressed Iris up in Felix's old giraffe costume to show her off to the neighbors who've only met her once or twice. Felix kept wanting to go to "one more house," just like last year.

Felix: 3 yrs & Iris: 8 wks

7 Weeks In

It's been a month since the last blog post, and I figured it was time for a check-in.

Things have been going well on the whole. Iris has been getting big, bordering on chubby (so cute!). And we are finally getting some smiles out of her. Like Felix, she's most smiley when she's playing in the baby gym first thing in the morning. See? Occasionally, we have a rough day (which just means she's a little fussier/hungrier than usual - oh, poor me :o), but otherwise, we take a daily walk, we watch lots of Doctor Who, Iris has her tummy time and plays in her gym. She sleeps pretty well at night - giving me 4+ hour stretches regularly. I like this, I like this very much.

Felix loves playing pretend. Every time he tells us a story, it gets more and more involved. Police, cars, tornadoes, space travel, and dinosaurs all make regular appearances in his stories (sometimes all at once). He watches the movie Follow That Bird and wants a Snuffleupagus to be his best friend. Felix is also impatient and egocentric, like most 3-year-olds. This can make things difficult, but we're trying to find creative ways of handling the challenges.

October has been a month of visits. We've had Iris' dedication (with lots of family - see photos) and my grandma's wedding (with lots of family), plus pop-bys. It's been very nice!

Felix: 3 yrs & Iris: 7 wks

Iris' Birth Announcement

This photo album made with Smilebox

The Second Time Around

Iris is now four weeks old. I'd like to think that can't possibly be true, but I look at her and can see how much bigger she's gotten, and know it must be. They don't stay little for long, do they. Iris has outgrown her newborn clothing and is now in her fancy 0-3 month wardrobe. She's moved into the bigger size at the exact same time Felix moved up. Interesting - I wonder how much longer their development will be similar.

We're still figuring things out. I had the thought a few days ago when I had to get both kids up and ready myself and drop Felix off at day care that I really didn't know how good I had it when it was just Felix at home. I was so bewildered and out of my element with him that everything seemed complicated. Now that we've been through it once before, having two isn't so hard - unless you have to do something with both at once with no help. Then, it's chaos, but you still manage to figure out how to do it.

Iris has started to get some gas/spitting up problems, so she's starting to fuss more often. At least she's not unhappy for long. She at least gives me some longer stretches of sleep at night, but occasionally, Felix will wake up right smack dab in the middle of one of those periods. Argh. Also having been through things before, we're hesitant to do things like use a pacifier (knowing how hard it was to break Felix of his habit), or rock her to sleep, or any number of things that ended up backfiring on us after a while even if it worked at first. In a way, it makes it a big harder. The first time around, you're desperate. The next time around, you think, am I really *that* desperate?

Felix: 3 yrs & Iris: 4 wks

Iris: Week Two

We're two weeks into our Adventure with Iris, and things are still going well. She's a voracious eater, which has resulted in her gaining nearly a pound over the last week (was at 6 lb, 9 oz at her check-up on Friday). At least she lets me sleep in two hour stretches at night. :o) Hopefully we'll work our way up to longer soon, but this isn't too bad.

I've been getting out with her at least once a day, either for a walk or to run a quick errand. She doesn't fuss much, and with the exception of her bit of recent growth-spurt cluster feeding, I can get her out and back before I need to feed her again. Today, the whole family went to the zoo with Grandma - such a pleasant morning!

- One of the few things that makes her mad is putting and taking off shirts - almost a guarantee to make her cry a bit.
- She likes to play what I call "gotcha!". While I'm dealing with disposing of her dirty diaper, she likes to dirty the next before I have a chance to completely secure it on her. Gotcha, Mama!
- Like most little babies, she makes the funniest faces when she sleeps, quickly transitioning from a grimace to a big grin in seconds. I love watching her face change like that.

Felix: 3 yrs & Iris: 2 wks

Iris: Week One

We're on Day 8 with Iris. So far, things are going pretty well. She seems to be a bit mellower than Felix, especially when it comes to nursing. Felix would get so frustrated and fuss if he wasn't fed immediately. She seems to have a bit more patience, which is nice. Iris doesn't get upset much, which is also very nice.

Iris had a doctor appointment on Day 5. Because she was only 6 pounds at birth, they wanted to make sure that she didn't lose too much weight. She weighed in at 5 lb 10 oz, which is the same weight that Felix got down to before he started gaining. She was also looking a little yellow, so we had to endure another bilirubin test (now, *that* made her mad). Fortunately, it came back low risk, so we didn't have to do the biliblanket again. A few days later, and she's looking much less yellow anyway. I expressed concern at the appointment that she wasn't needing as many diaper changes as usual. Well, later that afternoon, she started making up for it in a BIG way. I had to say something, didn't I. :P

She's had days where she's very alert during the day and other days (such as today and Wednesday) where she's a very sleepy girl most of the day. That doesn't bode well for tonight. I will probably be doing a fair amount of rocking unless I can get her to wake up a little more. But in the meantime, I'm just going to keep gazing at her beautiful sleeping face.

I have to admit that one reason I was a little less enthusiastic about having a girl was the overpowering amount of pink (especially Barbie pink) clothing on the market. But I think women like me must be making their voices heard, because I've been seeing some really cute non-pink clothes, like the teal owl sleeper I bought for her today.

We've got family pictures scheduled for next Tuesday. Hopefully, I'll get electronic copies so I can post them when they're ready. I tried taking a few fancy ones of my own, and I'm trying to take more to show how much she's going to grow:

 Felix is doing pretty well having Iris around. He asks to hold her often. The only major change with his behavior is that he's a lot closer to tears when he doesn't get his way. We're trying to work on him being less argumentative when we ask him to do things, and just do what we ask. Nick and I have been taking turns dropping off/picking up from day care, and we are also sharing bedtime duties for him. We're also letting him do more things that he likes, like watching the moving Cars nearly every evening (even though we're kinda getting sick of that movie seeing it so many times). Tonight, we did get him to watch Toy Story instead, which is a pleasant change.

Felix: 3 yrs & Iris: 7 days

Introducing... Iris Morgan!

On Thursday, August 30th, Nick (my chauffeur for the week) took me to my check-up at the doctor at noon. My doctor checked me out and told me things were progressing, but that she was going to be out of town Friday through Monday. Uh-oh! We were really hoping she'd be there to deliver the baby. She "helped things along" again and told me to walk. So, Nick took me back to work, and I went for a two mile walk in the 90 degree heat. Sure enough, I started having contractions, and when they continued every 3 minutes after I stopped walking, I knew they were the real thing. Nick came at 2:30 to get me to the hospital. Thankfully, Cassie was available to pick up and watch Felix for us.

This labor and delivery was definitely different than with Felix. It took longer for things to progress, for one thing. But I was assigned the exact same room that Felix was born in. :o) I got an epidural around 5:30 and my doctor broke my water at around 6. Things picked up quickly after that. I started pushing at 7:15 and the baby was born at 7:25 pm. They pulled her out, and since I had myself convinced that I was having a boy, it was with some surprise that I said, "It's a girl!" 

Things have gone pretty well since. We got a big family suite (which wasn't quite big enough when cooping up Felix on Friday), and had visits from family. Nursing's going okay (lots of cluster feeding, but then will take a long nap - which I appreciate). Felix has been a great big brother, except that he wants to pet her head. We're going to have to make sure we give him plenty of good attention, though, so he doesn't resent her.

Iris has been pretty content so far. Lots of sleeping, but when she's awake, she's very alert and looking around. She's such a little peanut, but thankfully she hasn't gotten jaundice like Felix had. She looks so much like Felix did when he was born. Same chin, same ears, same long spidery fingers. She's our little wonder.

Felix: 3 yrs & Iris: 3 days

Waiting (37)

We've hit the point in my pregnancy where everything looks good and it's just a matter of time. Initially, we were hoping this kid would stay in until September (I'm due 9/7 according to my doctor), but now that I've hit the full-term mark, I'm ready to evict this little one at any time. There's such a sense of anticipation mixed with anxiety. How will the birth go? More importantly (right now), WHEN will I go into labor? There's so many different scenarios - if I'm at home, if I'm at work, what do we do about Felix, how quickly will things happen, will our backup care people be available? I'm sure it will all work out one way or another, but it definitely amps up the uncertainty factor.

I had another check-up yesterday. Blood pressure's good, weight's okay but could be better. My doctor said that my body's getting more ready to have this baby, and she offered to "help it along". Considering Nick and I are both on pins and needles waiting and Nick has some big meetings out of town coming up in September, I submitted to her ministrations. We'll see how much "help" it does. My doctor was also a bit concerned about how I'm measuring (smaller than I should be), so I got in right away for an ultrasound to check fluid and baby's size. The ultrasound size estimate was 5 lb, 15 oz. I guess I just make 'em little, but they catch up quickly. :o)

We've had a pleasant last few weeks. We've had visits from both families, even more so than expected. We were notified last Saturday that my sister-in-law would be our guest the next two days as she came back to Madison for a funeral. Very unexpected, but it worked out, and we got to visit with the in-laws again on Monday.

On Sunday before she came, we went to the Badgers Family Fun Day at Camp Randall. We took Felix there when he was a year old and got his picture with Coach Bret Bielema. This year, it was our mission to get our picture with Bucky Badger. While we waited in line, I asked Felix what he was going to do when he saw Bucky. "I'm going to give him a hug!" he answered. Sure enough, when it was our turn, Felix launched himself at Bucky and gave him a big squeeze. Aw! I was happy to have a Badger shirt that would stretch over my big ol' belly.

Felix: 3 yrs

Mini Update (35)

We seem to have finally broken free of the 90°+ heat wave, and just in time. I had been handling it pretty well, but I was reaching my breaking point. I'm definitely more comfortable now in the low 80°s as I get bigger.

Unfortunately, Felix has regressed in his potty training prowess. Oh, he still gets a gold medal in going #1 (so we've been telling him while watching the Olympics), but any progress he's made going #2 has completely reversed. I hope it clicks again before the baby comes.

Speaking of the baby, we took a "sibling tour" last night at the hospital. There were five other families with young children. The kids got to stamp their hands like the baby's feet get stamped and practice dressing and holding babies (lots of baby doll heads getting bonked on the table... and Felix kept poking his baby doll in the eyes). We took a look at the nursery (no babies), went into one of the suite-like family rooms (so much nicer than the last time!) and got to see a day-old baby. I don't think Felix knew babies were so noisy. The little boy we say made a lot of little noises, and Felix kept asking me if the baby was crying (no, not really). It was good for him to see how little, fragile, and noisy a real baby is. Hopefully there will be less shock and more acceptance when our baby comes.

The baby name debate continues. I thought we had our names nailed down at 20 weeks or so, but Nick has recently told me that he doesn't feel the same way about the names anymore. So we've been going back and forth on names. Actually, Nick's a world-class name killer, shooting down just about every name I've thrown out there. Argh. Just when we say "hey, that's not bad!", we sleep on it and decide... maybe not. We have some healthy contenders right now that I hope will stick around until this kid is born.

As for the baby, I hear its ankle or knee crack at least once a day. It's decidedly odd to hear a sharp *click* where there should be no clicking. The baby has dropped anad I officially waddle. Hiccups still occur daily. I haven't had much swelling like I did with Felix (yay? I kinda liked my Silly Putty ankles). And yes, I guess I make 'em small and carry 'em tight (so everybody comments).

Felix: 3 yrs

DEFCON 3? (34)

I had another OB check-up Tuesday. My doctor kind of frightened me into thinking that this kid may come sooner than we hope (which is early September). She talked about where to go if I go into labor (given the maternity ward is under a bit of construction), and noticed that the baby has dropped a bit (though it might have a really long torso like Felix - this kid is still butting up against my rib cage). She also asked me to come in again next week for a check-up/test instead of in two weeks. It just makes me feel like things are going to happen much quicker than we want - especially because I'd like this baby to get a little bit bigger than the 6 lb 4 oz that Felix was at birth. But it is definitely lighting a fire under us to get everything ready to go (bags packed, care for Felix on notice).

And with all that uncertainty, Nick informed me on Friday that the boy's name we have picked out just doesn't do much for him anymore. And this from the guy that doesn't like talking about names. Groan.  We're trying to come up with a back-up name, but nothing feels quite right. Why are girls' names so easy and boys' names so difficult?

There's a lot up in the air right now, but with any luck, it will stay that way for a while, at least until the end of the month.

After that, the time goes so fast...












Felix has had fun lately, going to a classmate's bouncy birthday bash and earning his potty training present. We're so proud of what he's done lately. Now if only he'd do a better job listening when we ask him to do things... then he'd earn the new race car he wants for the play mat. :o)











Felix also had his first dentist visit yesterday. He did great! He was also one of the few kids who chose mint as their flavor of choice, apparently.

Felix: 3 yrs