almost

I almost got a smile on camera.  Well, I did....but it's a very bad, blurry picture.  Shoot.  Oh well, you can sort of get the idea.

And here's the rest of the (non-smiling) photo shoot.  Once I get the camera out, she stares at the camera and is too distracted to smile.  Here she is, now 9 weeks old.

Here's the update about her doctor's appointment last week.  We had to see a different doctor, not our regular doctor.  She was very concerned about how much Rebecca's eating, and told me I need to cut back to 25 ounces a day (she was eating 30-35 ounces!).  She weighed 12 pounds, 14 ounces, which is the 90th percentile.  She said ideally she should be in the 70-75% range, since her height and head circumference are there.  I felt terrible about putting my two month old on a "diet," and cutting back so drastically.  It just didn't feel right, though I did feel like she was eating too much.  But they always tell you you can't overfeed a baby, as long as they're not spitting up (which she rarely does).  I talked to our regular doctor the next day because I was so concerned about it.  She was much less concerned than this other doctor, which made me feel better, but did say it would be a good idea to cut back a bit.  We have cut back a little, and as a result, she's not sleeping as well at night (she was going all night, and now she's getting up again), so I don't know if it has to do with eating less or not.  I can't decide what to do--feed her what she wants or do what the doctor says.  Parenting is tough! (and this is the easy part!)

She also wants to have her evaluated by a physical therapist because of her severe 'pigeon toes.'  We can't get in until the beginning of September, so it'll be awhile before I know anything about that.  It sounds like it's something that shouldn't be too difficult to fix, though, so I'm glad we're starting early.  (You can see how her toes point in up in some of the pictures above.)

By the way, that is a 3-6 month onesie she's wearing!  She's only two months old!  Rachel was always behind in the sizing....Rebecca is now ahead.  Uh oh, I hope that doesn't mean the seasons of Rachel's clothes will be wrong for Rebecca!! (She's still wearing some 0-3 month stuff...but she's outgrown some of it, and some of the 3-6 month things fit.)

two months old

She still won't smile for the camera, though I'm getting more and more out of her every day!

(this is ALMOST a smile on camera!)

(another almost smile)

I remember I couldn't get Rachel to smile for the camera until about 4 months, so if Rebecca follows suit, I guess we have a couple months to go until we get a good picture!

Rebecca is sleeping well at night--we even had two nights last week when she slept from 11 pm until 7 am.  We were thrilled!  She's gotten up the last few nights at 4:00 am, so she's still not consistently sleeping all night, but she's doing much better than her sister was at this age. 

In fact, her sister is STILL causing me sleepless nights!

Rachel has bad dreams quite a bit, plus she's finally started waking up at night to go potty (I think we may finally be almost done with pull ups! Yay!), but she gets up and is only half awake and out of it, and sits in the bathroom and cries for no reason.  The bathroom is right outside our door, and I'm a light sleeper anyway, so I hear it all.  It's frustrating that the infant in the house is sleeping well and the four year old is the one having problems!  Hopefully they'll both be sleeping well soon, and so will I!!!

Anyway, Rebecca is becoming more social, as she's smiling and cooing at me more and more each day.  It's much more rewarding when she responds!  She's found her fists in the last week and works really hard over and over to get one in her mouth--usually her right fist or at least a couple of fingers.  When we sit her upright on our laps she looks down at her feet, too, as she starts to notice them.  She's still a cuddler and would like nothing better than to sleep in our arms all the time.  Sometimes it's hard not to indulge her.  She sleeps really well in the baby bjorn if we're out and about, and I finally had a successful shopping trip over the weekend with her sleeping the entire time in it.  Sure beats her crying in her carseat the whole time! 

And here's a horrible picture of me with my sweet baby....I had my mom take one because I'm always the one taking the pictures and there are never any of me with her...but this one is terrible because I was blinking.  Oh well.  At least it's evidence that I was here!

Tomorrow we go to the doctor for her two month check up and her first set of shots.  :(  I'm not looking forward to that, but I am anxious to find out what the doctor has to say about her chunkiness and how much she eats.  The girl is constantly hungry, as her rolls and multi-layered chin prove! 

fountains

On Saturday I told my husband I wanted to spend a little time with Rachel, so he stayed home with Rebecca while Rachel and I went out on the town.  Okay, just to the water fountains, but it sounded better to say it that way.  It was super hot and humid, so it was the perfect weather for it, as evidenced by the tons of other kids there!

Rachel was most taken with the person dressed up like a frog that they had there playing with the kids.  She went up to him over and over again looking for a hug or a high five. 

Unfortunately, he could only see when he would bend over, so he usually didn't know that she was even in front of him!  Seems like a silly design for a costume to me, but she loved him.

She was a bit timid by the water most of the time, and would only get to the edge, then run back to me, but she got a little more brave as the time went on.

Afterward we got ice cream.  It was a wonderful afternoon with my oldest girl.  Hopefully we'll have more times alone together like these.  I feel I'm always putting her off these days, since Rebecca requires so much attention when she's awake.  When Rebecca's sleeping I need to wash bottles or do laundry or make dinner or....it's always something.  I'm trying to be intentional about playing with her some of the times that she asks me to, since she's more important than those chores, but I often feel like I'm telling her, "Not right now, Rachel.  Mommy's busy."  I don't want that to be my mantra.  So I'm glad we had this time together and look forward to more like them.

family

Last week we had some more visitors--my brother and his family.  They came to visit the day we came home from the hospital, but I was in such a daze  that we didn't take any pictures of the visitors who came in and out those first couple of days.  So here are some pictures of Rebecca last week with her Uncle Ted, Aunt Leslie, and cousin Emma (her other cousins, Ethan and Alex, couldn't be troubled with stopping playing with the legos to come look at the baby!  I guess that's a boy for you....).

Yesterday Rachel decided to play with Rebecca...including a tea party!

And here are some pictures of Rebecca, just because.  She's 7 weeks old now.  Holding her head up really well,

smiling (though I can't get it to turn up on camera),

cooing a little, sleeping well at night (she's been going from 10 or 11 pm until 4:15 or 5:15 every night!), and super fussy in the evenings (I guess I'll put up with the fussy evenings if it means I get to sleep at night!). 

precious friends

So many people have helped to make this transition from one to two children even more of a joy.  Friends and family have visited, brought meals, and sent gifts.  They've entertained Rachel and held and fed Rebecca so I can eat...or shower...or run errands...or take a nap...or sleep all night (thank you, Mom...you are the BEST!!!!).

I appreciate all of these things SO much.

This week has been one of my favorite visits of all--my dearest friend, Allecia, and her kids are visiting.  It's been so fun to see Kaden and Rachel playing together again.  

And a bunch of our old, dear friends got together last night and our kids all played SO well together. 

Most of us don't see each other very much anymore (we used to all go to church together and now we're all at different churches), so we were all thrilled to see each other and catch up.

And though I've loved them all, this is one of my favorite gifts we've gotten--my college roommate, Nancy, sent a gorgeous quilt  she made for Rebecca,

and she also sent a gift for Rachel: a matching doll quilt and an adorable crocheted doll with a diaper you can take on and off. 

Isn't it just the cutest??  Rachel loves it. 

And I love it when people remember Rachel, too, when they give a gift.  Thank you so much, Nancy!!!!  You are so talented!!

I love my friends and family!!

6 week struggles

We've just been through a few days of torture....the 6 week growth spurt.  I think we're through the worst of it now, but it was bad for a couple of days this week.  15-20 minute naps, inconsolable crying, constant eating....rough days. 

But she's a cutie, so we'll keep her.

I took Rachel swimming with friends yesterday after my husband got home from work and could stay with Rebecca. 

The pictures aren't so great because I was in the water with her the whole time, but it's all I got this time.  She had a ball.

red, white, and blue

Happy 4th of July!

All of us waiting for the parade to start
(minus Daddy, who took the picture)
(and I swear that Rebecca was in the shade at all times,
except for when my husband made me move her for this picture!)

Rachel waiting

Rebecca waiting

The Parade (Rachel LOVED it!)

We went to the fireworks last night--Rachel's first time ever!  We don't have any pictures, but we have some video.  You'll just have to imagine Rachel's squeals of glee when they started! (and Rebecca sleeping through the whole thing....)

And here's the rest of the photo shoot of Rebecca's dress. (I tried and tried to find matching dresses for the two girls, without luck...maybe the next holiday.)  I couldn't get a very good picture of Rebecca, but these are the best of the lot.

Right before I took this picture she had her head up, looking at the camera.  Ugh!