Big Sister Fun

Morgan is enjoying being a big sister to Piper. Every chance she gets she'll "help" rock Piper in her swing, car seat or give her lots of hugs and kisses. About once a day she goes into "bad girl" mode and hits Piper (mostly if I'm trying to feed her under a nursing cover) or she'll slap at Mama a little. She knows when she is in trouble because she puts herself in "time out." I think we might have to change our "time out" strategy, it doesn't work as well as we would like at this point.

We came home from a few of Piper's appointments today (all went well!) and kept her in her car seat because she was sleeping so nicely. Morgan rocked Piper...a little too vigorously, so I kept saying "be gentle." Then she was just so cute that I got out the camera. Here's what happened next...

Oh, Mama's got the camera on me!

Now I'll run down the hallway and "roll over"...maybe Mama will come and tickle me

OK, she's still got the camera. I'll run towards her and smile real big!!

Such a little goof!!! We love our big girl!

Snuggle Puppy

We have a favorite book in our house. It is a Sandra Boynton book called "Snuggle Puppy." Morgan especially loves it before bedtime because the way the book is written you have to sing it instead of just read it. It has always made her smile and laugh. This week she started singing it with us!! A few months ago she started saying the word "this" when we got to that line in the book ("...it goes something like THIS...") So cute. Now we've graduated to singing too! There are a lot of drawn-out "OOOOs" and she sings the "OOOO" right along with us, or on her own if we prompt her to do it. She also either says the word "kiss" or offers us her cheek at the part where we give her a kiss. She also seems to have good pitch when she sings too. She'll imitate just the tone and note you sing to her. She does this when she says "choo choo" for a train sound too. For some reason I would always say "choo choo" in a sing-song voice when we were learning what sounds things make. Now she says it in the same voice I do, kind of higher pitched and drawn-out a bit. I love hearing it every time.

It is a miracle!

The Miracle Blanket, that is. We decided to put it into action last night. We had used it with Morgan starting fairly early and it helped her sleep better and longer. It swaddles them up good and tight with their arms by their sides. Then they don't wake themselves with their spontaneous arm movements and they feel all warm, cozy and somewhat like they felt in the womb.

Piper had a rough time last eveing. She's really come into a fussy phase and has a hard time transitioning from awake to sleeping. As you saw in the previous post, we've put the swaddle, Jr. and the swing unto use...but night-time is another story. I want her to get the idea that once she's in the miracle blanket, it's time for a long sleep, so it will only be used at night and she will sleep in her bassinet. Prior to this (for various reasons) she had been sleeping on me in bed...but this was never a long-term plan. She also started waking up more often, so it wasn't working anyway. She's also a sweaty little bugger too.

As I was saying, she was having a fussy time last night. We went to our church small group and she basically cried the whole time, when she wasn't eating. We wondered when we got home whether we'd be able to get her to go to sleep. Finally at about 11 pm she seemed close nodding off. We wrapped her up in the miracle blanket and put her in the bassinet. Within ten minutes she was asleep!

Here's the kicker, she didn't fully wake up until 5 am!! That's 6 hours!! She started making some small "hungry sounds" around 3 am...so I didn't sleep from then on since I was convinced she was waking up any minute. She didn't truly make her hungry cries until just before 5 am. Lucky David had earplugs in so he slept fine! Overall this was a great night though. We'll see if it continues...as it might have been a fluke, but we know the potential is there. Good job Piper!!

Back to Basics

It was time to pull out the "swaddle jr." again. We call it the "jr." because the "big gun" swaddle is the Miracle Blanket which is due to go into use again soon. The "jr." is great for naps during the day while the MB is for night-time use. Piper just couldn't get herself to sleep yesterday in the morning, so we used the swaddle, swing and binky to triple-team her into submission. A nice nap ensued and we all got some rest. It was a bonus that it was Morgan's regular naptime too!

Bouncy Balls and Football

How do these things work together?! Yesterday David multi-tasked by calming a fussy baby AND watching a lot of football! He also had to give Morgan a turn or two on the ball too. At times it was the only thing that would calm Piper down. She just couldn't decide what she wanted, to eat, to hang out, to sleep. It was a mystery to all of us.

Go Daddy Go!

Finally giving up the fight

Coming out of the fog

I think I'm seeing some light through the newborn fog. We've been sleep deprived and adjusting to two babies in the house, but that is to be expected. We've had wonderful help from family, Grandma and Grandpa B left last Thursday and Gramma and Grampa A arrived on Saturday. We don't know what we'd do without them. Here are a few shots from the last 5 days or so.

I'm soooo big!!

Piper's first "sponge" bath

Snoozing with Daddy (wasn't this Morgan just yesterday?)

Morgan LOVES her baby sister!

Piper's Birth Story...

...is coming. I'm having trouble copying and pasting from a word document. Any advice? I really don't want to have to retype the whole thing. In the meantime here are a few pics from right after Piper's birth and in the hospital. I will have more once I can download them from my Dad's camera.

I got to hold her right away all blue and wiggling. This is after they were able to clean her off a bit and put on a hat. Don't I look lovely, running mascara and all?!

She was so red and splotchy! They did say she won the "chubby cheek" award for the day.

She rolls on her side like this on the changing table too. Must be comfy.

With Daddy

As soon as I put this outfit on her she just conked out asleep. It was like, "finally Mom, I was cold!"