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| Baby #1 |
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| Baby #2 |
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| Baby #3 |
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| Baby #4 |
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| Baby #5 |
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| Baby #6 |
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| Baby #7 |
Need some help? Here are two clues.....
Clue #2: There are 2 Williams, 3 Amelias and 2 Gemma pictures
Answers:
Baby #1,#2, and #5 are Amelia
Baby #6 and #7 are Gemma
Baby #3 and #4 are William
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Can you tell?
Need some help? Here are two clues.....
Clue #2: There are 2 Williams, 3 Amelias and 2 Gemma pictures
Answers:
Baby #1,#2, and #5 are Amelia
Baby #6 and #7 are Gemma
Baby #3 and #4 are William
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
June 10, 2012 OR what's in a name: Gemma Josephine
Naming a baby is hard for us. We are indecisive and a name is something that sticks with someone for (potentially) their whole life.
Before I forget, here is how Gemma's name came to be:
(back story)
I came across the name Gemma in the middle of 2008. It was in the online journal, much like this one, of a friend of a friend of a friend. Someone I will likely never meet who lives in another state. I liked the name immediately and when we got pregnant with Amelia, I put it on the table as a possible girl's name. John didn't love it. He didn't even like it. He didn't outright tell me he didn't like it, just changed the subject when the name came up - which I didn't especially notice as I am easily distracted.
During Amelia's pregnancy, I paired Gemma with the middle name Josephine. My great grandma's middle name was Josephine. I love the G/J sounds together AND I loved and respected my great grandma very much. She had so many admirable qualities and had such a strong character, I am proud to name my daughter after her.
As we all know now, Amelia was a girl and we put 3 names into the hat to choose from, including Gemma's. Out came Amelia from the hat. There is more to that story, but this one is about Gemma's name.
(Gemma's story)
The first day with our new baby, we introduced her to her Grandpa Kevin, Grandma Kim and her siblings. We talked on the phone to a number of people and posted on this website and Facebook. We kept saying "we need to talk about what to name her" and nurses, drs, and family would interrupt us. John napped and I admired the baby (I was supposed to be napping too, but just wasn't able to). That first full night (6/9), we started talking about names and confirmed the two candidates were the only names on the table. John leaned toward one name and I leaned towards the other name (for the record this is so very much typical of us. We agree on big and important things and rarely agree on the smaller stuff). As we talked, it became clear that we both needed to sleep in order to have such an important discussion and be coherent. So, we went to bed.
Or, that should say: John went into a coma like sleep and Kelly fed the baby every 2 hours* for the next nine hours. John had helpfully set an alarm on his cell phone to go off every three hours and set up a chart in his notebook to track feedings. John would not. wake. up. The poor guy had worked all day on Friday (up at 5am) and then was up for close to 24 hours to welcome our baby. I was not sympathetic. At one point, the alarm on his cell phone alarm went off for close to 20 minutes (it was set to remind us about when the next feeding time was supposed to be). Right next to his head. He did not hear it at all. I did, as I had just finished feeding a baby and was trying to sleep. No calling, throwing of objects, turning on lights or other tactics worked to awake my exhausted husband.
I think in total, I got roughly 2 hours of sleep that night in no more than fifteen minute chunks. In between, I grumbled in my head at my (loudly) snoring husband.
Because it was John's birthday and I knew how tired he was, I let him sleep in until 8:30am. But, I also had a secret agenda: I wanted to go home early. We were scheduled to go home on Tuesday morning. I was ready to go home. It was John's birthday and William had a Tball event that evening. I wanted to eat at home with my family and have William get to Tball. Most importantly, I was ready to sleep in my own bed. We had to get moving to turn in the birth certificate paperwork, have pictures taken, Gemma needed her hearing tested and we both needed to get doctor clearance for us to leave. To fill out a birth certificate required agreement upon a name.
As is our tradition, we put both our names into a hat and drew one out. Gemma Josephine came out**. Paperwork was filled out, pictures taken, doctors cleared and by early afternoon we were on our way home.
*Somehow, the way newborn feedings are tracked, they count the START time of a feeding, not the ending. So, I fed her every two hours from the BEGINNING of one feed to the BEGINNING of the next feed. Newborn babies are not good at feeding yet, so feedings can take 30-60 minutes. Even though it may appear there was some time for sleep between feedings, there was not. In between feedings, I was changing poopy diapers and talking to nurses who came to check on us.
** For the record, this is the name John preferred***. He went from disliking it three years ago to preferring it to our other name choice. I find this hilarious.
***So far, John is three for three****. He has gotten his name preference from the supposedly neutral hat three times. I have always agreed upon the final name candidates, but never gotten my preference. I strongly doubt we will test this a fourth time.
****Do I love that he always gets his way? No. I do not. Do I dislike any of the names? No. I love them.
Before I forget, here is how Gemma's name came to be:
(back story)
I came across the name Gemma in the middle of 2008. It was in the online journal, much like this one, of a friend of a friend of a friend. Someone I will likely never meet who lives in another state. I liked the name immediately and when we got pregnant with Amelia, I put it on the table as a possible girl's name. John didn't love it. He didn't even like it. He didn't outright tell me he didn't like it, just changed the subject when the name came up - which I didn't especially notice as I am easily distracted.
During Amelia's pregnancy, I paired Gemma with the middle name Josephine. My great grandma's middle name was Josephine. I love the G/J sounds together AND I loved and respected my great grandma very much. She had so many admirable qualities and had such a strong character, I am proud to name my daughter after her.
As we all know now, Amelia was a girl and we put 3 names into the hat to choose from, including Gemma's. Out came Amelia from the hat. There is more to that story, but this one is about Gemma's name.
(Gemma's story)
The first day with our new baby, we introduced her to her Grandpa Kevin, Grandma Kim and her siblings. We talked on the phone to a number of people and posted on this website and Facebook. We kept saying "we need to talk about what to name her" and nurses, drs, and family would interrupt us. John napped and I admired the baby (I was supposed to be napping too, but just wasn't able to). That first full night (6/9), we started talking about names and confirmed the two candidates were the only names on the table. John leaned toward one name and I leaned towards the other name (for the record this is so very much typical of us. We agree on big and important things and rarely agree on the smaller stuff). As we talked, it became clear that we both needed to sleep in order to have such an important discussion and be coherent. So, we went to bed.
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| Grandma helped the kids bake a birthday cake for Gemma's birthday and brought it to the hospital! They loved it and so did I! |
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| Grandma meets the unnamed baby |
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| Grandpa meets unnamed baby |
I think in total, I got roughly 2 hours of sleep that night in no more than fifteen minute chunks. In between, I grumbled in my head at my (loudly) snoring husband.
Because it was John's birthday and I knew how tired he was, I let him sleep in until 8:30am. But, I also had a secret agenda: I wanted to go home early. We were scheduled to go home on Tuesday morning. I was ready to go home. It was John's birthday and William had a Tball event that evening. I wanted to eat at home with my family and have William get to Tball. Most importantly, I was ready to sleep in my own bed. We had to get moving to turn in the birth certificate paperwork, have pictures taken, Gemma needed her hearing tested and we both needed to get doctor clearance for us to leave. To fill out a birth certificate required agreement upon a name.
As is our tradition, we put both our names into a hat and drew one out. Gemma Josephine came out**. Paperwork was filled out, pictures taken, doctors cleared and by early afternoon we were on our way home.
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| Mama, Daddy and Gemma on our way home from the hospital |
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| At home! Several items to notice: 1. I am so SO glad we got rid of the other storm door on Friday night. This is such a better picture with the newly painted door. 2. I am wearing John's pajama pants because I neglected to pack any pants for myself. I had lovely shirts to choose from, but not ONE pair of pants. I totally rocked the pajama pants. |
*Somehow, the way newborn feedings are tracked, they count the START time of a feeding, not the ending. So, I fed her every two hours from the BEGINNING of one feed to the BEGINNING of the next feed. Newborn babies are not good at feeding yet, so feedings can take 30-60 minutes. Even though it may appear there was some time for sleep between feedings, there was not. In between feedings, I was changing poopy diapers and talking to nurses who came to check on us.
** For the record, this is the name John preferred***. He went from disliking it three years ago to preferring it to our other name choice. I find this hilarious.
***So far, John is three for three****. He has gotten his name preference from the supposedly neutral hat three times. I have always agreed upon the final name candidates, but never gotten my preference. I strongly doubt we will test this a fourth time.
****Do I love that he always gets his way? No. I do not. Do I dislike any of the names? No. I love them.
Monday, July 9, 2012
1 month old!
Gemma is one month old today!
Quickly:
-she is getting big!
-probably weighs around the 11-12 lb mark- AMAZING!
-smiles, a very rare giggle
More awake than before... Stating to see some awake/ sleepy routines starting to emerge.
- some spit up this week
-size 1diapers
-size 0-3 still fitting
-sleep at night is going well (knock on wood)
-adored by her siblings
Growing growing!.
Sent from my iPhone
Quickly:
-she is getting big!
-probably weighs around the 11-12 lb mark- AMAZING!
-smiles, a very rare giggle
More awake than before... Stating to see some awake/ sleepy routines starting to emerge.
- some spit up this week
-size 1diapers
-size 0-3 still fitting
-sleep at night is going well (knock on wood)
-adored by her siblings
Growing growing!.
Sent from my iPhone
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Amelia
As expected, once she decided SHE wanted to do it, it was a done deal. The timing wasn't great for me- I have been working hard with her since January without success. Much to my disappointment, I decided to let it go until later this summer at the end of May.
Do you know what my girl did? The Thursday before John went back to work, she decided she was ready. We worked hard with her over the weekend and she did SO well! However, this presented a problem for me! John went back to work on Monday and left me with a newborn, a newly potty trained (also:stubborn) 3 year old, and a 5 year old with scheduled events to get to on time. I can now report that is was stressful and I do not reccomend potty training with a 2 week old in the house! This Mama needs her sleep to maximize her patience!
Giggles and a funny
1. Over the last two days, Gemma has started giggling just a little bit in response to our ridiculous attempts to get her to smile. It is a tiny, fleeting sound- but it's there!
2. Yesterday John took the kids to get an algae eating fish for our fish tank. When the kids and daddy came home, they were so excited to tell me about their trip to the pet store. William's reported
"We went to the store Mama and got an allergy eater!"
Sent from my iPhone
2. Yesterday John took the kids to get an algae eating fish for our fish tank. When the kids and daddy came home, they were so excited to tell me about their trip to the pet store. William's reported
"We went to the store Mama and got an allergy eater!"
Sent from my iPhone
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Houdini?
Several days ago, I put Gemma down going north south in her pack n play by our bed. In the morning, she was facing east/west. In her sleep,
She wriggled and wiggled her way around in her crib while sleeping until she was facing 90 degrees the other direction.
This morning found a new level of wiggliness. She was all swaddled up in the our most strait jacket like swaddler. Yet, she was able to wiggle both hands free AND an entire leg from a pretty deep pocket and a flawless swaddle! You can see from the picture how proud she is from the little smile she has on her face.
4 weeks old...what?
She is also having more awake and alert times during the day. The night sleeping is coming along. Not quite where I want it to be, but hopefully soon. She is up once or twice a night most nights and generally goes back to sleep.
Not to worry, pictures were taken to document. Who know when I will get to downloading from the camera and uploading here. For the time being, you'll have to make do with a picture of our strong girl doing a push up, one of me taking pictures of my girl, and a picture of her beautiful AWAKE smile!
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