Norah’s first week

Again, more somewhat out of order pictures, but they are at least all from a one week period.

Fresh new baby! Only a few hours old.

Norah’s nice view of downtown Seattle. (This must have been taken early on, because I can see I still had a puke bag with me in the background. Proud to say I never needed it!)

More brand new baby pictures. She is probably 3 hours or so old at this time. I love that you can see her future-curly, currently-fuzzy hair so well.

Hmm, I wonder where Norah’s curly hair comes from???

Flowers from my family.

Norah’s first bath, with our favorite nurse, Sun Hee.

Sleepy baby.

Awake baby!

Headed home in her “Special Delivery” dachshund onesie. Obvs.

More meeting Big Sister pictures.

Kelly: “She has tiny, tiny feet.”

“And tiny, tiny hands.”

Norah meeting Grandma.

Special date out with the Big Sister. After a long, gestational diabetes-induced hiatus from pie, it was good to be back!

It felt so unbelievably good to be out with Kelly and feel normal. I mean, sure, I’m swollen, in pain, and hopped up on medication still in this picture, but I was able to be fully present with Kelly for the first time since February. I wasn’t nauseous, anxious, distracted, uncomfortable, hungry, thirsty, etc. etc. etc. and I could simply be her mother. I may have cried a lot that first week. Like every time I saw Kelly.

Just hanging out.

Andy’s favorite newborn look, the Pursed Lips of Surprise.

Sisters hanging out.

Ready for Halloween!

And a great shot of Grandma, Grandpa, Kelly, and Norah in downtown Seattle, right before they left to head home.

Incoherent blogging

I’m trying to find spare moments to upload pictures to the blog, so I wanted to forewarn you all that the next several posts are going to be a bit out of order. I’m loading pictures willy nilly, so we’re going to jump around from hospital to home and from brand new baby to three week old in a matter of seconds. Sorry things aren’t more organized and coherent, but it’s the best I can do with so many little ones underfoot (and, you know, Andy).

It’s dark because it’s 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning, but here is Andy being the World’s Best Dad and comforting a 36 hour old Norah at the hospital. So many nurses complimented me on how awesome of a dad Andy is (he was a master swaddler this time around) and I couldn’t agree more.

Breast feeding Kelly was a nightmare and it didn’t pan out, but Norah popped out with an expertise in eating (and the ability to pack three ounces in a newborn stomach, which is unheard of). I decided this achievement was worthy of a tiara.

The sisters meet for the first time!

I’m. Dying. Kelly announced “I read to Baby Sister.” Love. Love. Love.

Goobers might be feeling a tad left out. What do you think?

Norah enjoying the soft rug in her nursery. Our very own Very Hungry Caterpillar!

Catching up on our reading.

Slightly fuzzy shot of Andy and Norah catching a snooze.

First book!

First bourbon!

A very tiny baby burrito.

Wide awake newborn eyes.

Andy and I out on a date with Baby Norah in tow. I was excited to eat at our favorite hole in the wall Gyro restaurant, which I haven’t been able to stand for the past 9 months. Love going to a place where the employees recognize us and know our order already!

Final pictures before we became 4 (ok Goobers, 4.5)

This is the last picture I took on my phone before Norah arrived, of me sitting on the fetal stress monitor, staring at my swollen feet. Note that my left foot, my “non-driving foot”, is much worse. 😦

Kelly, being all serious-model-face at the park.

Kelly with Nana! They had a great time hanging out for 2 weeks while I waited to see if Norah would show up early like her sister did (she didn’t).

Welcome Baby Norah!

Sorry for the total silence, I didn’t mean to leave you all hanging! We’ve just been busy falling in love with our new baby girl and helping Kelly adjust to her role as big sister.
And trying to convince Goobers to let another baby into the house.
And trying to sleep.

But here’s the basics:

Eleanor Jo Samuel, whom we are calling Norah, arrived October 3rd, 2014, at 8:32 am. She was 20.25 inches and 8 pounds, 9.4 ounces. She is perfectly healthy, very calm, and sweet as can be.

 

 

Laramore’s last photo shoot

The next time you see her, she won’t be Laramore anymore! She’ll have a real name!

4 more days!

It is almost baby time, everyone! I really, truly can’t believe I am still pregnant. Kelly was already a week and a half old at this point, and I’ve had enough trips to the hospital with Laramore that my doctor is amazed I’m still pregnant, too.

While we are definitely on pins and needles, as it could be any time, the baby will for sure be here on Friday morning. We’re so close that I’d rather make it to Friday rather than have a surprise arrival– especially because my doctor scored my favorite anesthesiologist (and yes, it is sad that I’ve had enough surgeries to have a favorite).

In the meantime, we are getting ready with last minute tasks and spending time with Kelly (and Goobers). Andy’s mom was here for two weeks, in case Laramore arrived early, but went home with no new grand daughter! We sure appreciated her help with Kelly, Goobers, and the household chores. Here’s some of their fun:

Enjoying her Illinois souvenirs.

Dressing up fancy to play pretend.

Puddle jumping.

Goobers!

An honest photo.

Nana thinks I’m the best.

At the zoo.

Back to School

Even though she’s not yet three, it is back to school time for Kelly, too! This is our third year at our preschool co-op and the first year that Kelly really understood that she was going to see her friends and have a new teacher.
This year is also the first year we switch to two days a week and I drop off Kelly for one of those days. I wasn’t sure how she would handle it, but she was a total rock star!
She’s also super excited to have her first back pack, or as she likes to call it, her “pack pack”. I like that she is now schlepping her own diapers, art projects, and snacks for school!

Here’s the new “pack pack” and a very excited toddler:

This our blurry, awkward looking first day of school picture. Sigh. Oh well! We have tons of great pictures of Kelly, so not a big deal that this one is sucky.

One of our friends nicely sent me this picture mid-class, so I would know Kelly was doing great. She’s playing with airplanes, so OF COURSE she’s doing great!

And back to school also means the return of football! Kelly spotted this balloon at the store and begged for it, and like all terrible, indulgent, first time parents, we bought it for her. She carried it through the whole store, periodically shouting “Go Seahawks!”, even though it was actually a UW Husky football game day. Everyone in the store thought it was pretty great!

Baby yogi

Lately Kelly has been asking to do yoga in the evenings. We were doing toddler yoga with her last fall and winter, but haven’t since I became sick in February. How on earth she remembers these things is beyond me. I’ve ordered some items from the library since the program we previously used is no longer on our Roku (sadsies), and in the meantime she is imitating the yoga dog in one of her books. I’ve promised her I’ll do it with her once my belly isn’t in the way anymore.

Sun salutation

Tree

Namaste

Mountain

Crab

Warrior

And, of course, the post-yoga cat mask and Olympic medal wearing.

Wrapping up August

I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited for Fall. Well, I guess 2006, the September we got married, was pretty darn exciting. And 2007, when we went to Europe for 5 weeks (which was the beginning of this blog, 7 years ago!). But this Fall, THIS FALL, means a brand new baby and no more pregnancy! So yeah, Fall 2014 wins.
August ended nicely with fewer adventures (except for the whole preterm labor thing), but plenty of nice, small moments. We’re cherishing this time as a little family, about to become one human bigger soon.

Kelly loving her trip on the zoo carousel.

Kelly and the nanny’s daughter playing with the water table on one of the few remaining hot days.

Goobers being extra long. I’ve warned him that he won’t be able to be in my lap pretty soon, as it will be occupied with someone else.

Kelly saw Andy working on something in the nursery and decided she needed to help, so she got out her hammer and Hello Kitty purse, obvs.

And here’s a video of Kelly counting while playing her new favorite game, hopscotch.

Well, that was a close one

On Fridays, I change our chalkboard countdown for the baby’s arrival:

But shortly after the traditional changing of the chalkboard, I was driving myself to the doctor’s with consistent contractions. Andy was busy with Kelly and Goobers at a dog training class, and I was feeling fine otherwise, so I drove myself. I don’t recommend driving through downtown Seattle traffic with contractions! Even though I knew I wasn’t progressing (at least, it didn’t feel like it), it was still stressful.
At the office, they put me on the fetal monitor and a few minutes later decided to wheelchair me around to the hospital because I was contracting every three minutes! I tolerate contractions and pain well, so I’m not the best person to judge whether or not something is a concern for preterm labor! I called Andy and our nanny, who were both able to drop what they were doing to get Kelly cared for and Andy to the hospital to be with me.
I really, really disliked waiting alone in a busy triage unit. I felt a lot better when they opted to move me to antepartum, where a less-busy nurse would actually check on me and get me on the drugs needed to stop my contractions. Andy arrived soon after and we spent the afternoon waiting to see if the medication would work and what the ultrasound would say about the baby’s health and whether my labor was progressing. We watched Cartoon Network and tried to talk about anything but a baby arriving at 33 weeks. Thankfully, the medication worked, my cervix wasn’t doing anything, and Laramore was handling the contractions like a champ.
We were sent home, where I spent the weekend in bed catching up on some seriously needed rest and whining about how much my 24 hour ab workout had hurt! Whew!
We had to go back to get my car from the doctor’s parking garage, and decided to take Kelly to Cal Anderson park since we were right there. I sat on a bench in the shade while Kelly had fun on the swings.

Afterwards, I took a nap and then went to my Baby Sprinkle! It was planned as low key, and thank goodness, as I was so tired and sore from my adventure on Friday! We had pedicures and cupcakes with a small group of friends and it was delightful.