Monday, February 28, 2011

One Year

One Year.
12 Months.
52 Weeks.
365 Days.
8,760 Hours.
525,600 Minutes.
315,360,000 Seconds.

And yet, for us, one year has meant a lifetime.

One year ago today, we were surprised to discover we were pregnant with Wren! We were still heartbroken after losing Mya and honestly we weren't sure if it would ever happen again. We certainly weren't expecting to get pregnant our first month trying after the miscarriage. We give so much credit (and thanks!) to Dr. Jarrett. He gave us the most perfect gift.

Two pink lines. Seems pretty simple, really. And thankfully for most people it is pretty simple.
But for us it wasn't.

Remembering back to that day, I have to admit it is pretty fuzzy. Last year, the 28th was on a Sunday. It was the day after I helped to throw a baby shower for Wendi. I remember not wanting to test Saturday morning because I didn't want the sadness of another failed test to put a damper on my excitement for Simon's arrival. So I waited until Sunday, just in case.

But it wasn't a negative test. We were what we call "cautiously optimistic." We were thrilled, but also nervous that we could lose this pregnancy, too. Betas doubled as they should have. Everything was looking good. And then our worst fears were realized when we had our first ultrasound and there was no heartbeat. (Remember--when you're a patient with a Reproductive Endocrinologist you get ultrasounds MUCH earlier than you do with OB/Gyns.) That was on a Thursday, so I remember we spent the weekend sad, yet hopeful, yet nervous...we were all over the place. I took Friday off and spent the weekend on the couch. I told everyone I was busy building a heartbeat!

Monday morning--the moment of truth! We tried to prepare ourselves for the worst, but the hope never left. And wouldn't you know it? Almost instantly, Dr. Jarrett got a big huge smile and let out a gigantic sigh of relief. Our baby had a heartbeat. We had a baby. A little slow poke.

And that's how Pokey came to be.

The rest, as you know, turned out pretty darn well.

And today, one year later, it's hard to believe we have had such good fortune. Wren is the most special gift. She is our very own little miracle. She's growing so fast, making us laugh. Telling us how it is. She's demanding and opinionated with just the right amount of sass. She's sweet and cuddly and we are loving every second of her.

One year, one very big gift. We can't wait to see what the next year has in store for our little family!
Sorry for the crappy phone pic, but she's so sweet in the mornings and I never have the real camera.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

15 Weeks!

Oh, she makes me smile!

Wren is 15 weeks old now. There have been a few times in the past week where we *thought* she might roll from her back to her belly but she never quite made it. Soon hopefully! But she's figuring out how to scoot and twist her way about. Last week, I put her on her tummy and had a book in front of her while I ran to the bathroom and to get a drink. By the time I returned just a minute or two later, she had somehow managed to scoot herself to where she was looking at a 45 (or is it 90?) degree angle and the book was now at her side.

She gets her little legs moving and Josh likes to put his arm and have her push off with her feet so she scoots forward.

She has started to notice her doggies a lot more in the past week. Josh took the dogs to get groomed so we have been practicing petting the dogs. Kowe is really good about listening when we tell her to be gentle around the baby. Luke? Well...he's another story. He has no clue what's going on so he doesn't let the baby come between him and a little playful romp with Kowe.

This week I went back to work. It has been really nice to be back in the real world. Josh is at home for 2 weeks of paternity leave. They have been having so much fun and even though she sees him all day long, she still loves to stare at him. But thankfully she gives me some giggles and we have a nice long talk about her day each evening.

We're working on sitting up (obviously with assistance) and having her stand from the sitting position. She's getting better and likes standing more and more. I think the jumper is helping with that!

We've also started with some simple baby signs. We know she's too young yet, so it's really more for us to start learning them. So far we do "more," "milk" and "doggie."

Things I don't want to ever forget:
*She wiggles her fingers and toes the entire time she nurses.
*She makes big huge refreshing stretches when we take her out of her swaddle. It never fails-when she does it, it makes me need to take a big stretch! Kind of like a yawn is contagious.
*During my last week of maternity leave I tried to cuddle her as much as I could. A few days, I took naps with her and she was so sweet and cuddly. Josh and I joked that it was good I didn't do that starting when she was really little because not only would she never have taken a nap outside of my arms, but I would have seriously slept my way through maternity leave!
*She loves shadows! We will catch her staring at them and then all of a sudden she'll get a huge slow grin across her face. Who knew shadows were so funny?!
*As difficult as it can be, I never want to forget how much she fights her sleep. She is such an opinionated little thing and lets us know how much she does NOT want to fall asleep! She arches her back and wiggles all around and usually it just takes popping her pacifier into her mouth and she is literally out cold within 60 seconds.
*She loves Jack Johnson and OAR. If she's fussy, either will calm her immediately. In general, she really likes music. We received some Baby Einstein CDs and a Purdue lullaby CD as gifts and she is a big fan. Josh discovered that there were something like 17 "famous" composers born on her birthday so I think music might be a common thread for her birthday!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Wren's First Valentine's Day!

We had so much fun celebrating Wren's first Valentine's Day! It involved several days worth of celebrations!

On Saturday, we went to a bowling party for Daddy's work, so she decided to wear her cute Valentine's Day outfit to show off her love for Daddy. I can't handle how adorable this outfit is!

On Sunday, we had lunch with Grammy and Papa, so she wore her "Grandma's Secret Admirer" shirt. I only have pictures of her napping in that though.
On Monday while Josh worked, Wren and I had lunch with Auntie and then we went and picked out everything to decorate Wren's bathroom. Shell said she wanted to do that for Wren's Valentine's Day gift and we had fun deciding on a theme. We will be working on it over the next month or so...hopefully!

Later, Grammy stopped by and (of course) spoiled Wren (and us) with some Valentine's treats and some oh-so adorable clothes!
We had planned to do our annual fondue dinner on the evening of Valentine's Day, but by the time Josh got home we were all pooped! So we decided to order pizza instead. Sooo romantic! But it was exactly what we wanted, so we were happy campers.
Then we opened gifts with Wren. One of the things I've been so excited for with having the baby is the craft time! I love doing fun little projects and was excited when I saw these cute little mailboxes in the $1 section at Target. That's my favorite spot for great little finds and I always get Halloween, Easter, V-Day, etc. things for the boys, so when I saw the Valentine's Day stuff, my heart did a pitter-patter knowing that I could finally decorate something for my own baby!

Here's what I came up with:

We kept it pretty simple...2 pair of $1 sunglasses and a pair of shoes for later this summer/fall.
And she really wanted to make something special for her cousins, so we got the boys each something, too.

So we opened Wren's gift...
We did a little Stevie Wonder... 
I know that the lighting is bad, but I love her laugh in the picture below! 
Then she played with Daddy for a while: 
Before we all took a nice long nap! So cooozy!
Then tonight we decided to do our fondue. It has been 6 years since we got engaged after a night of fondue, and we have celebrated pretty much every year somewhere betweeen the end of January and Valentine's Day. It's a fun tradition and we were excited to share it with Wren. Next year will be so much fun...though we realized that the cheese fondue will have to change, as it has wine and brandy in it!
Anyway, Wren got to join in the fun, but no tasting this year! 
Then we all took another nap (hey...I'm trying to get them in before I return to work next week!) and had our chocolate fondue later this evening. We took some video but I don't have it uploaded. I will do that soon, hopefully. Somebody was very excited about the chocolate...atta girl! 

Monday, February 14, 2011

Dinner Guest

For the first several weeks, dinnertime was a little tricky. We'd try to get dinner in when Wren was napping and sometimes it meant juggling holding her while eating, running to and from her swing, etc. Over the past month or so, she's been enjoying her own little place at the dinner table. She usually lasts long enough for us to both eat before she gets too antsy.

Jump!

Wren isn't really the biggest fan of putting weight on her feet, so we thought it was about time that we pulled out the bouncer so that she could get some practice. We didn't think she would like it but she actually really does. It hangs from the door and allows her to swing around and jump and bounce.

When we first put her in, she just kind of sat with her arm out like she was just hangin' out. But after a few times, she's started to get the hang of it.
She always has her toes curled! 
And as with everything these days, it doesn't take long before she's gnawing on the fabric. 

Of course Kowe was feeling a little left out so she had to take a turn. Not kidding, she was so content in there. We took her out after a few minutes, but she hadn't moved, she was relaxed and enjoying a little swing action! Her paw was over the top like this and if you look closely, you can see her back paw poking through the leg hole. (Or maybe it was the much-needed attention that she was finally getting!) 

Storytime with Dad

Wren seems to really like reading her books. (Yayyy!!) We try to read a few books a day to her and we even made her a special little reading nook in her playroom. I bought a bookcase this past week at the flea market and am going to do some work to it before it goes into her playroom, so for now her books are kind of scattered throughout the house. But SOON we will have a very special spot for them!

In the meantime, here are a few pictures of her reading with Daddy (and Kowe):



(Love her hand on his arm here, so sweet!)

Papa works for a smile!

 I laughed as I went through these pictures. We had dinner at HuHot with Grammy & Papa and Papa did his best to get a grin out of Wren. You can see by the rapid movement captured that she was making him work for it!
"I don't know, Papa, you'll have to do better than that to keep my attention!"

"Oh, that's a whole lot of movement! Maybe I'll watch for a minute!"

"Kisses on the hand, please."

"Baby attention span here...keep trying!"

"Aaaahhh! That's funny!"

"Okay, Papa! You got my attention now!!"

"Grammy, I'm hungry after all that playing and giggling!"

Wren is so lucky to have grandparents who love her so much! They are just so sweet with her and she loves them right back! I think the three of them are going to cause quite a ruckus over the coming years!

Tiny Features

I am obsessed with taking pictures of Wren's tiny little features...

Her wet hair and big blue eyes...
Her chubby, wiggly little feet...
Her insanely long eyelashes and perfect little mouth (this was in the car,
so that is a shadow going across her face)...
Her sweet sleepy time... 
And her little toes peeking out from her blankets... 
She is so perfect! I can't stop!

14 Weeks!

Seriously? Is this not the most adorable baby you've ever seen?!

She posed like this the entire time we were taking her picture and we thought she looked like she was singing, "I'm a Little Teapot."

We officially have a giggle monster! She is sooo happy in the mornings. She gets up, eats, and then we come downstairs and play for a while. She is always really talkative so I'm able to get a lot of funny little grunty giggles out of her. Makes my life complete!

She has also done a fantastic job of sleeping this week! Knowing that I was going to be headed back to work, we decided to try to get her on a sleep schedule at night. She took to it so well and after 1 week, she now sleeps from about 9:00 or 10:00 at night until 8:00 in the morning. Can we say ammmmaazing for Mommy to get more than 4 hours of sleep in a row?! I have been trying to be to bed soon after she is (clearly not accomplishing that tonight) so I can get 6-8 hours.

For the most part, she is pretty good. She has her fussy moments, but they usually revolve around her being tired or hungry. She definitely goes from happy smiley baby to GIVE ME MILK, NOW in a matter of seconds. When she's hungry, she's hungry now! So that's an adjustment when out in public, but we do okay.

I have a lot of posts I need to do...I just find myself with so little time on the actual computer these days. I read my blogs and catch up on things via my phone, so updating the blog has been harder to do. But I do have several to post, so hopefully I'll get to them this week.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Weeks 12 and 13!

Whoooaa! We have a three month old, folks!!

Here is Wren at 12 weeks, technically 3 months old:

 And here she is one day before her 3 month birthday (on the 6th)...it's confusing as to whether she's 3 months at 12 weeks or 3 months when the 7th rolls around...but either way, we officially have a 3 month old on our hands!
She is still so cute. I loved the picture above because it really shows some of her "current" favorites...her hands, her feet, her tongue and her DADDY! She's definitely discovered her hands, so she loves reaching for things and she is always chomping on them or looking at them and she has recently started trying to giggle and she gets so tickled that she covers her face with her hands. So precious!

As for her feet, it was so amazing the other day. She was in her swing napping, and as she woke up, Josh and I were able to witness her little wheels turning as she discovered her feet. She would look at one, then the other, then back at the other, and she would lift one and move it around, then put it down and do it with the other one. You could just see her little mind at work realizing that she was the one making that happen. It sounds silly, but I get all teary eyed every time I see her learning something new. It's just such a privilege to watch.

Her tongue is still a favorite! She always has the thing sticking out!

And her Daddy continues to be her favorite person. She watches his every move. You can see above that she's starting to grin at him.

We're currently working on giggles. She still gives a funny little silent laugh every once in a while, but we're ready for high pitched squealy laughs. We also pulled out the little jumper thing tonight but she was hungry so she didn't much like bouncing around. She is not a fan of standing (except, of course, for Daddy), so we thought it was time to get the bouncer out so she could have a little fun while building some strength in her feet and legs.

We have been doing some fun projects around the house. We started in Wren's playroom and it's almost complete. I just have one fun little craft project that I'm working on and then we'll eventually add some things to the wall and we need to find curtains. But other than that, it's pretty much done. And we got our dining room all painted and new dining room furniture ordered. We have our eyes out for a rug and hopefully will be getting some decorative pieces and maybe something for the wall(s).  Next up is the foyer. I'll post pictures of all of them when I get time!

I have 2 weeks left of maternity leave. While I'm really going to miss all of my time with Wren, I'm also very ready to go back to work. I'm ready for the challenges that come with balancing being a mom and having a career. I'm looking forward to the schedule. I feel very lucky to have had as much time off as I have and I wouldn't trade it for anything.