Five Weeks

Aspen is now five weeks old, and we have started to see the first hints of a smile!



Big sister is good at getting the smiles out, just by being her beautiful self.





It's been a busy and fun week, although we are totally out of our routine. Sabine's preschool had spring break, so she was home all week. Here's a picture from their last day of school last week, when they had a pajama day. You can see Sabine is one of the tallest in her class.



Aspen went has gone with me for pick up and drop-off at preschool. And while Sabine went to a gymnastics camp one day this week, Aspen and I actually made it to the mall for a cup of coffee with a friend. Here she is modeling a hat another good friend sent her:



Aspen had her first real bath this week, up until now we've just been doing sponge baths because I wasn't sure if her belly button was completely healed. But after a particularly spit-up-filled day, we went for it. Fortunately, Sabine was there to play photographer while I held Aspen in place.



The weather has cooperated, so happily we've gotten to spend a lot of time outside. I've figured out the Moby Wrap again, and we've just been playing out in front of our house. Our daffodils are also in full bloom, and Sabine has helped keep them watered.



We've also spent some time with the cousins.



We also had a babysitter come out this week, and she brought Sabine and Aspen each a little present. This picture is blurry, but Sabine is THRILLED with her new Rapunzel doll.



Uncle Eric and Aunt Diana also came out to visit this week, for their annual ski trip. They came down the hill to visit a couple times, and to meet Aspen. We were all happy to see them!





They also brought Sabine a doctor outfit, complete with name tag and photo ID, which Sabine has been wearing all week.



We are certainly staying busy, but having a lot of fun!

One Month! (And Change)

On Monday (St. Patrick's Day) Aspen turned one month old.



On Tuesday, we went to the pediatrician for Aspen's 1-month check up, and everyone was happily surprised to learn that she has gained over a pound in the last two weeks!

The official stats were:

Height: 20.25" (23 percentile)
Weight: 8 lbs 5 oz (25 percentile)
Head circ: 14.5" (42 percentile)

She's sleeping decently at night, for her age. (Hopefully I didn't jinx it.) Recently she's been eating around 9:00 PM, 1:00 AM, and again at 4:00 or 5:00. Each feeding (plus burping, cleaning up spit-up) takes about an hour, but those are longer stretches than we got with Sabine at this age, if memory serves (which it doesn't always, these days, so take this with a grain of salt) so we'll take what we can get!



It's also been wonderful to have big sister help.



Sabine has been careful not to neglect her own babies during this time, too.



Next week is spring break for Boulder County, which means no preschool. It'll be a good exercise to see if we can OD on together-time. Fortunately, the weather has been cooperating, so we've been trying to get outside a little bit, which makes all of us a little happier!

Three Weeks and Three Days

Aspen's officially three weeks and three days old. We are slowly settling into our routine. I'm back to driving and juggling the girls, daddy's back to work, Sabine continues to be a great help, and Aspen is still a cute button who's developing some pretty good reflux, much like her sister before her. She's been spitting up, but seems to be more and more uncomfortable, so we are going to start Zantac in the next day or two and see if that gives her a little relief.



Here are a couple pictures I shot on March 1, when she was a little over two weeks old.







(CLICK HERE to see a couple of similar shots I got of Sabine when she was about five weeks old.)

Aspen had just lost her umbilical stump in these pictures, she lost it when she was 12 days old, on Friday the 28. She had a little residual bleeding for a while while her belly button healed, but she seems to be more or less healed now.

We celebrated Mardi Gras with some of our good friends, complete with King's Cake and crowns, marking our first foray back into entertaining.



As I mentioned, Sabine has been a big help, and also just a loving big sister. She is wonderful and an expert at holding Aspen now:











And even has fed her a couple of times!



With more success sometimes than others.



Sabine's also been helping daddy around the house, and she had a ton of fun getting up on the really tall ladder to help change the lightbulbs in the office.



Mommy's still pretty preoccupied with Aspen, but who can say no to this face? (Even at 3:00 AM, when this picture was taken.)



Also, I forgot to give the stats from Aspen's 1-week check up. She was 20" long, which puts her in the 62nd percentile for height, she was 6lbs 11oz, which was 18th percentile (she was up to 7lbs 1 oz four days later, so not sure, but I think she went up in that percentile) and her head was 13 3/4" around, which puts her in the 64th percentile there. We'll go back for her 1 month appointment next week!

All in all, we're doing really well, and happy to be settling into some routines.

Two Weeks and Two Days

Aspen is now two weeks and two days old! Sabine continues to be a doting big sister and a huge help to me. Dustin is back at work but rushing home to get time with his girls in the evenings.

Here are just a few pictures from the past week, since we've been home from the hospital.








She loves her hands! (For observing and chewing on)



Sabine's holding a toy that plays music up for Aspen to see. Sabine had a cold the first week we were home, so she didn't get to touch and hold Aspen as much as she would have liked, but she found other ways to be close and helpful, and washed her hands a ton so that she could still hold her hand, occasionally.


Gas smiles.


Waiting to see the pediatrician. Aspen lost a bunch of weight right after she was born and then didn't gain any for a couple days after we left the hospital, so we've been supplementing to try and get her weight up. As of last Friday, she had gained enough to only be an ounce shy of her birth weight, so that was great news! We think she's well past her birth weight now, she just feels a little more solid.

Aspen does appear to have reflux like her big sister did, but isn't quite as bothered by it, thankfully. Something we will just have to keep an eye on! In the meantime, we are all settling into our life as a family of four pretty happily.

Aspen's Birth

Here's how the week before last rolled out.

Two days before the scheduled c-section:



The morning of the 17, we arrived at the hospital at 6:00 AM. I had felt Aspen move a lot during the night, and was suspicious she wasn't breech anymore. After two quick ultrasounds, she had moved back into a breech-enough position that my doctor thought we should still proceed with the c-section. We were actually relieved, at that point, to know things were going to move forward.





Moments before the surgery started:



10 minutes later:







7 pounds, 2 ounces, just like her sister!

A little snuggle time while mommy was being sewn up:



Then she was whisked off to the nursery for her first bath, and daddy went with her:



Sabine showed up straight from farm:



And the day after:





And the day after:



She was a regular at the hospital:





And the day after, when she brought a good friend from preschool. The big girls took their baby-holding duties very seriously.





Meanwhile, daddy had developed a golden touch for burping.







We also had some other good friends drop in to visit:



Aspen came home on Friday, the 21.



The whole family was very curious.



We were all very happy to finally be together.