Beebop-a-Lula

Rosie is a month old today!

She is getting very plump and has the cutest, chubby pink cheeks! She has been an eating machine for the past 2 weeks (she’s a growing girl, after all) but has finally slowed down this week. She’s drinking 4 ounces every 3-4 hours and is very demanding when it’s time to eat, giving very little warning before she starts screaming for her bottle.

lil cutie

She’s starting to focus on things and smiles at us when she’s awake. When she lays on her belly she pushes her head up pretty high, before it plops down again. It’s great to see her get stronger by the day.

We all think she’s the most adorable thing and the sweetest little package to hold. We can’t get enough of her!

Lulu still gets giddy around Rose. All she wants to do is kiss and hug her when she’s awake. We try to encourage her to spend time with the baby so that she doesn’t harbor any kind of resentment (although I’m sure that will change someday).

As good as she is around the baby, we do have to keep an eye on Lulu. She tends to peek in (and when I say “peek in” I really mean “shake vigorously”) the crib when Rose is sleeping and likes to leave things in tribute. The other day I found the cardboard tube from a roll of paper towels hanging out at Rose’s feet. Needless to say, I knew how it got there!

The girls definitely have been keeping us busy. It’s been kind of a whirlwind, especially trying to prepare for Christmas (on top of a lack of sleep). While my ambitions were much higher than I can deliver this year, I’ll just be happy spending the time with friends and family and to introduce them to Rosebud.

blankie made by Chrissy!

Rose is such a sweet lil thing. Lucky for me she’s a pretty good sleeper during the day, since Lulu requires more of my attention. She does stay awake for a few hours here and there and when she is awake, most of my time is shielding her from her big sister, who just wants to smother her with kisses!

She has a VERY healthy appetite! She is eating 5 ounce bottles every four hours, without fail, day and night. Her cheeks are getting so chubby!

Forrest went back to work the day before yesterday, so I’ve been doing the night shifts this week. Every four hours isn’t so bad and I have a system down now. Sad to say that I’m getting used to the sleep deprivation!

There’s definitely a huge difference in having a summer baby vs. a winter baby. When Lulu was this little we took her out everywhere we went. But now that the temp has dropped like a stone, I don’t want to take Rosie out for fear that she’ll get too cold. Plus, with cold & flu season I don’t want to expose her to the germs. As a result, we’ve only taken her out to our usual Saturday morning breakfast hangout.

Since strawberry birthmarks seem to run in the Frazier side of the family, we’ve been lookingt for them and I do believe that Miss Rose has something on the base of her head. It’s not a round mark like her sister had, but more like a few little stripes. It’s hard to see because her hair is so dark.

We’re getting used to the structured chaos around here, as well as trying to get ready for the holidays. But I’m happy to report that we’re all adapting and my littlest one is thriving nicely!

weight: 21.13 lbs
height: 33″

Lulu’s stats haven’t changed much since her weight check back in early October. She gained a pound. That’s it. But the good thing about checking her progression is now the doctor realizes that her skinniness is genetic, not because she’s not eating enough. Luckily Forrest was with us this time around and explained to the doctor that he had a similar physique when he was a kid. So, basically that means no more weight checks.

peek

-a-

boo

The past 2 weeks have flown by. Between all of the baby wrangling and sleep deprived haze we managed to take a few pictures of the girls.

When I finally hit 40 weeks and there was still no baby, I found myself in tears in my doctor’s office on Friday, 11/20. My body ached, I was exhausted and completely done with being pregnant. She decided to schedule an induction for that following Sunday morning, unless the hospital called to postpone.

To my disappointment, Sunday morning I got a call saying that they had no room for me at that time. But then to my delight, they called later that morning and told us to be there by 12:30 that afternoon. My sisters, Sara and Amelia were brave and generous to take care of Lulu for the time that we would be away. (They did a great job taking care of her and we are grateful beyond words that they both live in the same town as us!)

When we got there we were led to the same delivery room that we had Lulu in! We took that as a good sign. An hour later the appropriate medication was administered (much like it was when I had Lulu). And while we watched the four o’clock Patriots game, the contractions began. The upside to being scheduled for the induction this time around is that my own doctor was going to deliver the baby. It was reassuring.

one last look at the belly

By 11 pm that night I was demanding my epidural and it kicked in by 11:30, although the pain was not completely gone. I was informed that they don’t use as much anesthesia as they used to so all sensation was not gone. Great.

Forrest and I got some rest while we could. The fact that the time line things were happening in was almost identical as it was the first time around was not lost on me. Around 1:15 am the doctor came in to check on me. She thought that maybe the baby would come in an hour or two. She ended up being wrong. The baby came much sooner!

By 1:3o I was calling everyone to the room to get things prepped. To my dismay I realized that I was going to feel quite a bit more of my delivery than I wanted to. The upside was that the actual delivery was over in ten minutes and at the end we had a beautiful, wailing little girl!

Unlike her sister, who was quiet as a mouse, 2.0 was a definite screamer! She was whisked away to be weighed and measured. She came in at 8 lbs. 2 ounces and 21 inches long. Slightly larger than Lulu, but I attribute that to longer time “baking”!

She screamed for 45 minutes straight until I realized she was trying to jam her fingers into her mouth. She was hungry. We got a bottle for her and when she finished eating she was a very content little baby. They let us stay in the delivery room with her until around 3 am and then we all got moved up to the maternity ward. We dropped the baby off at the nursery and then got settled in the room.

Girl Frazier

The next morning the calls, texts, tweets and Facebook status updates were all fast and furious. Our parents came to the hospital during the day and friends came that night.

Grampy Frazier

Grammy Frazier

Grammy K

Grampy K

Forrest and I spent the night thinking of names for the baby. It was not so easy this time around and we didn’t come to a decision that night.

I was bound and determined to go home the next day. I couldn’t bare another night in the noisy hospital and I was missing Lulu a lot. My doctor checked in on me the next morning and gave me the thumbs up to head home. Of course that put the pressure on for us to give this little girl a name!

no-name Frazier

Round and around we went. We had a few names that we kept coming back to (Olivia, Temperance and Mabel) but the name Rose really seemed to stick. It’s a name that is common in both of our families and kept with the flower theme we initiated with Lulu. It was going to be her middle name but we couldn’t find a first name that we thought flowed well with it. Plus in my mind I had already imprinted her with that as her first name. Her middle name, Madeleine, was a spur of the moment decision. It sounded nice and just worked for us.

Father of 2 girls...DOOMED

We were home by noon and I was anxious to see Lulu and her reaction to her lil sister. She was super-happy to see me and when I put the baby carrier on the floor and she saw a tiny baby inside she let out a squeal of excitement. She wanted to climb inside the carrier and kiss the baby, but she was also a little nervous and didn’t want to touch her. But as the day went on she started getting used to the idea that the baby wasn’t going anywhere.

Lulu luvs her lil sister

The rest of the day and night was spent getting back into the rhythm of taking care of a newborn once again and enjoying our little family.