The Time's They are a Changin'

Annie is almost five months old and has a new baby cousin!  Otto was born on April 8th and Jeff and Allie are both enjoying parenthood so far.  Annie seemed like quite the giant baby compared to the little guy.  They have already hung out a few times and I'm sure will become quite the pair of trouble makers. 

Annie is thinking about rolling over.  But so far just thinking about it, not doing it yet.  She is chewing on EVERYTHING and drooling everywhere.  She gets more interactive and entertaining everyday.  She's laughing which is the greatest thing in the world pretty much.  She's also really starting to enjoy her baths and learning how to splash and kick her legs around in the water.  We've been going to a singing story time at the library and she's starting to squeal and enjoy all the bouncing and singing and interacting with other babies.  She likes to sit in her little bumpbo chair (don't let the picture below fool you...).  She's losing all her baby hair and has quite the bald spot going in the back.  The new hair that is growing in is much lighter, maybe even a little red!

 Hannah and Ian arrived a few weeks ago and are both enjoying Portland spring time.  The daffodils have come and gone and it's now tulip time.  The cherry trees and magnolias are also just about done and the dogwoods are taking over.  Spring in Portland is gorgeous for sure!  My peas, beets, and onions are up and strawberries are starting to flower.  Won't be long now!  Ian is deciding between Minneapolis and Portland for grad schools...I think he's sadly leaning toward the midwest.  I might have to hold them hostage.  Annie wants them to stay.

The room is almost done!  Carpet is going in next week and boy is Doug glad to be finished with that!  Now what will he do with his free weekends?

12 weeks!

Our 12 week old munchkin is becoming more and more like a person all the time. Her biggest accomplishments of late are purposefully trying to grab things, cooing and smiling at little toys with faces, holding her head up and a little bit of squealing.  She's sleeping like a champ, only getting up once in the middle of the night.  She is not the biggest fan of naps but will sleep if we go on a walk or I carry her around in a wrap in the afternoons.  She's gaining weight and has chunky thighs and a belly that hangs over her pants.  She's getting more fun everyday and we think she's pretty darn cute.

We took our first plane ride to Denver to visit with the Bowermans, Hannah and mom.  Henry was very interested in her and wanted to check out her toes and point at her nose.  It was really fun to have them together and to have all the girls in the family together for a weekend.  Hannah and Ian will be making their way out to Portland the end of March for Hannah to continue her nanny escapades.  I'm really excited for her to be here and to kidnap her so she stays in Portland forever.

We've been taking Annie out as much as we can. She's been to the mountain and the coast, cross country skied with us, been to the bar, taken lots of walks and has been going to a story time for babies at the library.  She is pretty interested in the other kids there.  By interested I mean she stares at them.  I still have a month left of my leave from work and I'm very glad about that.

Doug has been working on the nursery after taking some time off to split wood from our fallen tree.  Too bad we don't have a fireplace...  Her room looks really awesome and the end is near!  We ordered a fun bright rug that we will put over the carpeting whenever we get that installed.  The trim really gives it a nice finishing touch and the bench is looking great.  What a cool place to hang out!

It's time to start thinking about the garden again.  I have seeds for peas, spinach, lettuce, onions, beets and carrots which can all be planted soon in the cooler weather.  Time sure does fly!

Merry Christmas, Baby!

Our little Annie hit the six week mark this week.  She has been filling out and chunking up due to her love for eating.  Her feeds are starting to space out a bit more and she is sleeping well at night, passing out for about a five plus hour session and letting me get some uninterrupted rest.  Just this week she has started to coo a tiny bit and is being much more vocal.  She still is doing the majority of her vocalizing through grunts but every once in a while her cute little voice comes out.  I love it.  She has outgrown her newborn clothes, wearing some of them only once and some things never...too many clothes!  I put her in some pants today just because she never wears them and will outgrow them before she gets the chance.  It's just so nice to be in PJs all day, why wear real clothes if you don't have to? Here are some week by week shots of the little munchkin. 

The family (minus the Bowermans) were out for Christmas.  Little Hannah was making her grand entrance home from the Peace Corps and it was so great to see her and for her to meet Annie.  It was so nice having everyone out to celebrate the holiday with and meet the newest addition to the family.

We also had our very old and gigantic Big Leaf Maple taken down over the holiday.  Doug and our friend Tommy are out splitting some of the remaining rounds today.  Last night was super windy but I could sleep without feeling so anxious about it falling and smashing our house.  Or the neighbor's house.  Or passing cars/pedestrians.  The tree was so huge that the house shook when they brought down some of the larger segments.  I can only imagine the vibrations it would make and the damage it would do if an entire limb - or the entire tree - fell on its own.

Happy new year!

Sweet Thing

This little bundle of joy arrived on Thanksgiving day.  Our Annie, Sharon Ann Lewis, came at 5:27 am weighing 7 lbs 4 oz and 20.5 inches long.  We stayed a couple days in the hospital and brought her home last weekend.  We are very much in love with her.  She's not on any schedule yet but has been feeding really well and letting me get a decent amount of sleep at night. 

This weekend Aunt Norah and cousin Henry came to visit.  Henry is so big and mobile; he's quite entertaining. 

Doug is still busy working on the nursery.  Things are really coming together!  The bead board is almost all done and it's looking great.

The Waiting

Here we are, a couple of days away from the due date. 

That belly doesn't even look real anymore.  There is a large basketball up my shirt.  However, it is quite real, believe me.  I cannot bend over, roll over like a normal person in bed, sit in any position for very long nor can I do what would be referred to as walking because that action has been replaced by a waddle.  It's cool though, if she wants to hang out a little while longer, she will be allowed.

This gives Doug some time to work on the nursery.  Neither of us were scheduled to work this week because apparently kids don't really need to go to school much anymore and money should be spent on other state needs...so we have some time on our hands.  In our best laid plans, Annie arrived this past weekend and Doug didn't have to take any time off work and we were home from the hospital for Thanksgiving but we should have known we had a procrastinator on our hands.  She's really not in much of a hurry to make her entrance.  Instead of having a baby this weekend, Doug was able to put in most of the insulation and start priming sheet rock!  It's looking more and more like a room everyday. 

The more and more it looks like a room, the less and less Doug can fit up there.  Just think, we still need to add carpet : )  Good thing those skylights add some extra head room; we'll have to strategically place the crib and changing area so we both get our fair share.  We've been brainstorming some fun decorating ideas and I think it will be quite the cool room for a kid when it's finished. 

We are having our first big fall storm with lots of rain and some wind.  It was really dark all day so it made it easy to get stuff done around the house.  We're both keeping ourselves occupied while we wait on the girl.  I suppose there's no need to rush anything and we can be content to have a little more time as just the two of us before life is really never the same again!

The Final Countdown

Last week we reached the milestone of 35 weeks, meaning that we can have a normal delivery without any NICU.  It was quite exciting and Doug came home with some gorgeous dahlias from a roadside stand in honor of reaching the marker.  I also had a great doctor's appointment and it seems like little Annie is very happy to stay put for now.  Phew!  It is a very strange feeling to know that I could go into labor anytime now.  I'm not nervous about it but I am getting very anxious to meet her.  I've had two dreams where we had her and she was super healthy and had really strong teeth even though she was so little.  What does that mean???  Tomorrow I will be 36 weeks - one more week of development closer!

I'm definitely starting to feel the weight of this little girl.  I'm now sleeping with four strategically located pillows and that has been a great help.  Teaching is still going well although my patience for the 7th graders is not very high right now.  I'm not crabby with them but I'm having a hard time coming up with any empathy for some of my immature or disorganized students. I do have most of my ducks in a row as far as my responsibilities while I'm gone so that is a really reassuring feeling.  I don't want to have to think about work once I'm off. 

We've been busy washing super cute tiny little socks, onesies and pjs.  It's pretty fun to imagine that tiny little feet and a tiny little body will fit into those little things.  Friends and family have been very generous with hand me downs and also gifts that we'll be needing.  The nursery is still coming along and Doug is getting a little frustrated with the pace but he's doing an amazing job.  He started to install insulation this weekend and we have a light switch that works at the bottom of the stairs now.  Some big steps for sure : )

Slow Down, You're Moving Too Fast

We have reached the 33rd week, seven more until the actual due date.  I'm definitely getting larger all the time.

We had a little scare this weekend with some preterm contractions.  Luckily, they turned out not to be labor inducing but we still had to spend the night in the hospital to be monitored and make sure everything is going okay.  For now, all appears to be fine and my uterus just wants to contract away.  I have to be on bed rest for a few days but we will do whatever we need to do to keep her in there a little longer.  I have an appointment on Friday and hopefully nothing will have changed and then I can return to work next week and plan some easy days for myself.   We will prevent her escape as long as we can.  Bed rest hasn't been so bad, I actually had quite a bit of grading to do and it's good to get some planning done in case I can't go back to work anytime soon.  I also watched the first season of Downton Abbey and am now totally hooked.  I'm just debating whether or not I want to start buying episodes from Season 2 on Amazon...I also got my baby registry squared away so that's good.

The room is coming along upstairs.  Poor Doug was planning on working hard on it all weekend until our hospital trip.  He stayed very calm the whole time and has been very helpful this week.  A couple of weeks ago, he put in two skylights all by himself.  They really add a lot of light to the room and open it up a bit.  On Sunday, his brother-in-law came over to help with some electricals.  The next step will be insulation and then I think it will be ready for hanging sheet rock and finishing stuff after that.  It may not be done by the time this girl gets here but that's okay.  Keep cooking, Annie!