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