June?

What the.... When did it become June? Probably while I was feeding Elise and getting barfed on.

Well, 4 weeks into the 4-part family and we are all surviving.

The babe
Elise is doing well, but she has become increasingly fussy and strange about eating. We had several nights filled with screaming, arching of the back, constant barfing, and latching on and off repeatedly and I had had enough. The doctor diagnosed her with....what do you know...GERD (acid reflux)! I suspected Elise had it but I also thought I was maybe just paranoid because of Sadie. Elise does not spit up the huge quantities that Sadie did- just a high frequency of occurrences. We got a prescription and it seems to be helping with the pain.
PS- At the doctor's office we found out Elise is close to the size Sadie was at 2 months.


The crazy
Sadie is learning and talking more every day. We are constantly surprised at the things she remembers and entertained by her quirks. While Sadie was a laid back baby, she seems to be taking on more and more of a personality like mine- meaning, incredibly stubborn. As long as we are giving her what she wants life is great, but watch out if you tell her "no". She has strong opinions on what she wants to do, wear, and eat. She can identify all numbers and most letters. She recognized the word "Mom" this week. I couldn't believe it. I strive to have realistic opinions of my children, but I will admit Sadie appears to be book smart.

The both of them

Sadie likes to help out when Elise is upset by piling up all her own favorite things on top of Elise. Sadie also loves to get in her face and talk with a really high voice.

Elise actually usually likes it too.

Settling In

Sadie seems to be calming down a little bit with the tantrums. Now she throws your average, almost-two-year-old amount- instead of the all-day-long tantrums we were getting before. She is returning to her former cuteness. Thank goodness.

Trying on headbands that were given to Elise


Ending her hunger strike- cheese and pb & honey for lunch- her choice- yum!


Setting up camp below the recliner

These pictures were all taken on different days. Yes, Sadie does stay in her pajamas until the afternoon most days. So do I, but that has more to do with the fact that I don't fit in most of my clothes.

Finally...

Glad I caught this picture before the infant acne showed up- yikes.
Our other little angel. She is really an angel most of the day. Then she goes through fussy times around 8:30 PM and 5 AM. It's awesome. She has not started sleeping longer than 3 hours at a time at night. She is also the world's loudest sleeper, so I often think she is waking up to find she is fast asleep just grunting. Every few days I spend the entire day recovering from the lack of sleep. I was not cut out to be a mother of a newborn. Seriously. I will not look back and miss these first couple months.

Human Error or Human Freak?

Elise's face most of the time she is awake

When Elise was born my doctor commented how long she was. We were all surprised when the nurse measured her at 18.5". Daniel later insisted she didn't pull Elise's leg straight. When she was weighed and measured again in the nursery they had her at 19". Daniel was still skeptical about the measurement. Well, at 12 days old Elise somehow jumped to 21.5". The doctor double checked it to make sure.
Either there was some mistake in her birth measurement or our freak of a daughter grew 3 inches in 12 days.

Other than that, there was nothing interesting about her 2 week appointment. None of that failure to thrive stuff we went through with Sadie. Elise is back at her birth weight and climbing. Here's to a newborn that actually eats!

PS Sadie is really going to miss her papa

Gracias- That means thanks in Spanish

Life has both flown and crawled by lately. Each minute of those middle-of-the-night-feedings (man, I hate those feedings) takes an eternity, while the 2 or 3 hour stretches of sleep feel like nothing. In any event, I owe some people public thanks.

First, Alicia and Bryce. They stayed at our house with Sadie the whole time I was in the hospital. We didn't have to worry about shuttling her between friends. She was able to stay at home with her aunt and uncle she loves.


Second, my friend Ashley. She organized a little shower get-together the night before I had Elise. We all met at Brick Oven and everyone brought a children's book for me. Ashley also bought Elise the softest blanket ever (Elise is snuggled with it above- the striped blanket is a different receiving blanket).

More thanks goes to my talented friend Julia. In the midst of traveling to North Carolina to find a place to live and Boston to see her newest nephew; oh, and moving across the country, she made the most adorable blanket. When they brought it over it was folded up and I thought the whole thing was the same material. When I opened it up I saw this:

How cute is this? Makes me wish I knew how to sew. Too bad I am not willing to put in the time and effort it takes to learn.


Fourth, my parents. My mom came out last week to help. Sadie makes it a little difficult for people to help with her because she often insists on only her mom or dad. My mom made meals, went on walks with Sadie, took shifts with Elise, and got up early with Sadie so we could sleep in.

I am missing the extra sleep I got with her around.

My dad is here now because his mother is being inducted into the Malad, Idaho, Hall of Fame. She's big time like that. But he made a trip of it and stayed with us for a few days before Grandma's big night. Sadie just loves her papa and I think Elise will feel the same.



Final thanks goes to Daniel. I knew Daniel liked children, but I didn't expect him to be such a great dad. Not just a great dad, literally one of the best dads I have ever seen. And you know this has to be true because I don't pay compliments to Daniel on the blog. Actually, I am terrible at giving him compliments period. Daniel has been incredibly patient as Sadie has thrown tantrum after out-of-control tantrum. I have tended to want to throw her against a wall or at least lock her in the basement for a little while. He changes most of the diapers- of both girls. I have no idea what meconium looks like because I have never changed a diaper with it. He has done all the baths. He does all the nail clipping. He takes Sadie on 5+ walks around the block a day. He has gone grocery shopping, cleaned the kitchen, etc etc etc. It's not like Daniel is just being like this with the arrival of Elise. He has been so good with Sadie through every stage of her 2 years. When you get married you never know exactly what kind of parent your spouse will be. I am happy to brag that Daniel is a better dad than I could have imagined.

Watching a movie with his girls

Pictures of the Day

#1- Why we can't leave Sadie in just a diaper

#2- The most calm member of the family

Life with 2 of Them

You all probably know that Elise Lynn Nielson was born on Saturday (May 7th). You all may not know that I was actually induced. I will probably do a much more detailed birth story another time (I know all my male readers can't wait), but here's a brief synopsis.

Arriving at the hospital
My body was very progressed for a couple weeks but I wasn't having contractions. I was resistant to using pitocin, but my body was not giving that baby up without a fight. After administering what my doctor called a "whiff" of pitocin, Elise was born in just under an hour (that's including pushing). We expected a big baby, but she was 7 pounds 13 ounces and 19 inches.

We are feeling good. I realize it took me a while to acknowledge my new child, but I have been attempting to keep everything as low stress as possible. With Sadie I jumped back into life a little too quickly. I want to enjoy this time I am allowed to be totally lazy except for keeping my newborn alive.

Aunt Alicia
We stayed at the hospital until Sunday night.

Uncle Tyler
Sadie came and visited every day. She liked seeing Elise, but she was more excited about getting into everything in the room.

Looking at her sister
She has been very anxious to teach Elise what/where the various parts of her face are.

Two major differences from bringing Sadie home. First, the obvious. We have another child to take care of.

Still doing dad's hair
Elise is easy compared to Sadie. Sadie is throwing tantrum after tantrum. She is struggling and so are we.

Sadie loves giving "hugs"

Elise doesn't appreciate them
Sadie actually bit Elise today. She was pretending to kiss her nose and Elise screamed. I look down and there were distinct teeth marks on both sides of Elise's nose. Sadie smiled at me and then sulked when I told her no.

Second, I am not recovering as quickly. I broke my tailbone in January and it absolutely kills. Last time I hardly took any pain meds. Also, I am most definitely much fatter this time around. Yes, I know I just had a baby, but last time my body bounced back much quicker. One week after the birth this time and I still look 6 months pregnant. I saw a few neighbors outside this week who asked if I had had the baby yet. Ouch.

Anyway, on to a few more pictures of the chilluns.

If I take a picture of Elise, Sadie immediately says "cheese!" and insists on a shot of her


And one of my favorite pictures...


Yes, most of these pictures are from the same day- Tuesday. I'll try to do better at taking pictures next week.

Depressed

Well, last week things just got progressively suckier. I stayed pregnant ( still am, in fact) and then it snowed multiple times. Saturday morning there was a good inch or two on the ground when we got up. Talk about a terrible week.
(Nevermind the facts that Daniel and I are employed at good jobs, we have a nice place to live, and the baby I am still carrying is healthy- let me complain.)

Luckily, Sadie has been hilarious and fairly well-behaved lately.

Posing during breakfast

This is her other smile. The head tilted and lip-closed smile.
Sadie thinks all the baby gear is great.

She loves to climb in the car seat and sit. She also puts her baby to "nigh-night" in it.

Sadie has been attempting to take pictures of herself lately.

You can see she is actually saying cheese in the one below.

While her tantrums are getting more intense than ever, I guess we are just getting used to them because they don't phase us much. The other day she attempted to knock everything over in sight during a tantrum. She approached the infant car seat and tried to push it over but it was a bit too heavy so she grabbed my cell phone off the counter and dropped it angrily. We probably shouldn't, but we just laughed at her.

PS- Sadie's future profession may be at SportsClips. She does her dad's hair while he watches NBA postseason games every night.