Pants!

Dear Blog,

I haven't forgotten about you. I am sorry I haven't had more time for you. I could try to blog one handed while nursing, but it's just too much work. Again, I'm sorry. I'll try to keep you updated better.

I have managed to find time to craft. Well, I do it in 3 minute intervals, but I have made 2 pair of fleece pants for Ellie. They can be used as diaper covers. I still have 1.5 pair to make. I could finish them in probably 20-30 minutes, but finding that kind of uninterrupted time seems impossible. Like right now, I am have time sort of, but I'm watching Sesame Street with Mary. I could run into the dining room and try to sew, but Mary would be calling my name every 2 mins to ask what I am doing or asking me to come back in here to help her watch. Hopefully I'll get them done in the next day or so and maybe even get pictures. I also knit a hat for Ellie and dyed it after it was done. I am waiting for it to dry then I need to put the finishing touches on it. I've been thinking a lot about Christmas gifts. I know I need to start soon if I have any hope of finishing.

Mary's a wonderful big sister. I think the shock has worn off a bit. She's only told me a few times that she doesn't like Ellie, etc. She still asks a lot if am coming back if I leave her with John. Or if John's coming back if he leaves the house without us. She tells me probably every other day about how she cried when she was eating yogurt (bedtime snack), and I wasn't here because I was in the hospital. And she missed me. She seems pretty insecure. I feel bad for her. Even when I go to another room she asks if I am going away, and if I'll be back pretty soon and will I miss her.

Ellie is, well, a baby. She's nothing like Mary was as a newborn. She's awake A LOT. She only takes one nap per day, and it's a long one. Yesterday she slept for 3 hours and 45 minutes. I think it was 1pm to 4:45pm. Then was up until 10pm. I was so tired and wanted to go to bed but she was wide awake. The good news is that she sleeps super well at night. She slept in the co-sleeper from 10:30 or so until around 2am. I put her in bed with me and fed her. She slept until about 5:30 and then went back to sleep around 6:15am. That wake up is usually the bad one. It's hard for either of us to get back to sleep. But today we slept in until 7:30. So that's sort of her typical day. She's super strong. John and I are both amazed. She loves to sit up while we hold her torso so she can look around. She has amazing head control. If I lay her down on my chest, she can pick her head up and look around. The first 3.5 weeks of her life have flown by.

Oh, how I wish this dang Sesame Street would end! Or that I had some knitting to do. We DVR shows for Mary and then she watches the same ones over and over and over and over..... I have knitting projects to do, but I'd need to actually start a new one which means finding the pattern, the yarn, and the right needles. As soon as I do that, I know Ellie will wake up. That's always how it goes. Today I did chores from 12:15 (when Mary fell asleep) until about 12:50 and then decided to sit with John and watch the F1 race he was watching. At 12:55 Mary woke up. So, I guess I took a 5 minute break from doing anything. I actually was going to sew for those 5 mins, but decided to sit with John instead.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to.

Things are different

Saturday's thoughts:

Today Eleanor is 17 days old. When Mary was 17 days old, we took her out of the house (except for 2 weigh ins at the doctor) for the first time. If I remember correctly, we took her to Petsmart to get cat food. Eleanor actually went to the grocery store on the way home from the hospital (we were out of milk and bananas). The next day we took her back to the hospital for blood work, and that Saturday she went to the bank and out to dinner. The first time we went out to dinner with Mary was when she was 6 weeks old.

We (John and I) used to eat in shifts while the other held Mary (who was always fussy). We've sat down to dinner as a family every night so far. Either Eleanor is asleep or I hold her or have her nursing in the ring sling. When Mary was little, I ate whatever, whenever I could during the day. Now we sit down to lunch with John every day for lunch.

So far today, I (we) have gone to get groceries, vacuumed the kitchen and dining room, started a huge pot of vegetable soup, eaten lunch, and there's an apple pie in the oven. John's out cleaning up storm damage. Mary and I are chilling and watching cartoons (she just got up from her nap and it takes her a while to really wake up). We are about to go clean the kitchen and maybe do a few other chores. Then we'll play outside. Eleanor is napping. I'll just stick her in the stroller and let her finish her nap outside today. Then this evening John's Mom and Jim are coming over for dinner.

When Mary was small, I used to take a 2-3 hour nap with her every day. Now, I guess I'll just sleep when I am dead. Oh, yeah, Eleanor thought that 5:30am was a great time to start the day today.

Ike hits Indiana

Ah, back online again. On Sunday Mom wrapped up her visit and left after lunch. Mary went down for her nap. John's Mom was planning on coming over after dinner to help with evening chores and getting the girls to bed. I was counting down the hours until John got home and things were 'normal' again. Mary got up from her nap, and we turned on Sesame Street. It was starting to get windy. I knew it was going to be some heavy winds and possibly rain, but I figured it just meant an afternoon inside instead of outside. Then the power went out. Then the phone went dead. My cell was dead too. Ugh. The winds were amazing. The entire house was shaking. We played in the hallway, but it was so dark. So we played in the kitchen where we could get to the hall in a couple seconds. The wind just kept blowing. I could hear things (trees, limbs, debris) crashing down all around us. I looked out and the lawn chairs had been blown over. I saw a corn husk go flying by, but all the fields next to the house are soybeans this year. Finally the phone came back. I was in touch with John's Step-Mom and his Mom too. Both were willing to help, but it wasn't like they could do anything. I thought we were safe. John's Mom had power and said she'd bring dinner over. So Mary and I played. Eleanor slept. The wind kept blowing. I think I've read reports of it being 70mph in the area, though I never checked the local paper. The strange thing was that it didn't let up. It blew like that for 3 hours.

Finally, it stopped. But the power was still out. That was fine, as it was almost bedtime for Mary anyway. The next morning, still no power. The yard was amazing. Here's the aftermath.

Looking into what's left of my hosta garden:

A view from the side:

Check out how the top of the tree fell and landed on the other tree (which is the tree the dove had her nest in earlier this summer).

We found out Wednesday that this limb knocked down the power line.

So after calling the power company many times trying to even get through to report our outage, they finally came on Wednesday afternoon. Their tree guys cut down several more trees that were in danger of falling the next time there's heavy winds. We were so excited that we'd have power again. But Wednesday evening came and went and we were still in the dark. Finally, Thursday about 9am it came back on. I think this has been the longest week of my life.

There are actually more limbs/tree tops down than that. And a million sticks. Right now we aren't going to mess with them until the power company's tree service comes back to pick up what they chopped down. I guess the good thing about all this is that we will have plenty fire wood.

Life with my two girls

Well, the days are officially running together. Eleanor is a week old. John went back to work on Monday. Monday went so great. Eleanor napped and Mary and I got to play so much. We did crafts, played outside, jumped on the bed (well, Mary did), and read books. They both napped at the same time in their beds, and I got some peace. Then, yesterday, things went more like I expected. But now I can't even remember what happened. Eleanor was a pooping, eating machine, and Mary was crabby for some reason. I think I said "hang on" to each of them at least a million times. I thought I was tired, but today is even worse. I only got 4 hours of sleep last night.

Today started off early, but I did manage to shower and wash my hair without anyone crying or getting hurt. I had to take Eleanor to the doctor for her one week weight check. She weighs 8 pounds! Woohoo! The doctor said she expects breastfed babies to take 2-3 weeks to get back to their birth weights, and Eleanor is already slightly above hers. When I got home it was an hour after Mary's nap time, but she went down easy. I scarfed down some cold leftovers, and Eleanor was up. She then proceeded to nurse for 4 hours straight. She'd nurse, poop, nurse, fall asleep and I'd put her down. Three minutes later she'd be up again ready to nurse. Poor Mary. Thank goodness I'm nursing her too I guess. She has been asking to nurse when Eleanor nurses and I let her if I have enough room where I am sitting (on the couch or on the bed, can't do it in a chair). So we pretty much just hung out and watched TV and played tea party. At 4pm I thought I was going to fall asleep standing up but I managed to pull it together and make a nice dinner for us. Whew. Thank goodness Mom is coming this weekend (John's out of town). I'm hoping she'll be nice enough to dust my house for me:).

Eleanor rocks a tie dye prefold and a kickin' Barbie band aid.

Cloth is working well for us again. We are mainly using prefolds so far. They look huge on her, but they haven't leaked yet. Well, there's the 2-3 times a day I get peed on, but it's always right as I open her dang diaper to change her. Oh, and today, between the scale and the exam room (naked) when she pooped on me. Thanks, baby.

Pictures!

Wednesday morning at the hospital. We had so many people in the room that morning. My Dad came by with my Grandma Mary, Mom was there, John and Mary of course, and John's Mom Beth with her husband Jim. John's Dad had already stopped by while making his morning rounds, and Cheri stopped by for a few minutes before lunch.

Wednesday night, John and Mary came back for some family time.
We've been super (overly) busy since we came home. We had to go back to the hospital Friday for blood work on Eleanor (since she got discharged from the hospital before she was 48 hours old). On Saturday Eleanor and I went to the local yarn shop for some hat yarn and then we went to the bank. Saturday afternoon John's sister Anna and family came over. Mary and her cousins wanted to go swimming, so Eleanor and I just chilled next to the pool and watched them swim.


Once we got there, Mary discovered that Cheri was putting water in the pool from the hose. Well, the water was FREEZING, but she played in it the entire time. She must have drank a gallon of it too. She did share a bit with Peyton the dog.


I'll be so glad when tomorrow comes, and John goes back to work (even though he's helped me so much the last 5 days), all the visiting is over, and I can get back into our routine.

Yes, she's here!

For those of you that don't know, Miss Eleanor Ruth arrived Wednesday morning at 1:44am. I woke up to a contraction at 11pm, we called Grandma Cheri to stay with Mary at midnight, got to the hospital at 12:35am and she was born at 1:44am! Pics to come, I need to upload them. She was 7lbs 14 oz (almost a full pound less than Mary) and has beautiful strawberry blond hair. She's perfect and LOVES TO EAT. I don't remember Mary nursing this much in the beginning, but I'm cool with it. AND Mary came up and asked to nurse with Eleanor yesterday afternoon. I got them both up on my lap and we nursed together for a few minutes. It was wonderful.

I feel fine! It's amazing. I am so happy to not be pregnant anymore (although I had a 7lb 14 oz baby and have only lost 8 pounds....how the heck does that work).

Pics coming when I can upload them.