First Road Trip

This past weekend, we took our first road trip to the valley. Natalie was an excellent car sleeper and woke up when we were one block from Patty & Jake's house! We had a short visit and then went to Visalia for a surprise birthday dinner for my mom. (the surprise went well!)

On Saturday we had lots of family and friends come by for a visit. Ryan entertained us with his dancing and played Ring Around The Rosies with Grammy. It's amazing how much he is changing - he has such an outgoing personality and never stops talking. At some point, unprovoked, he came over to Natalie and said "Hi Princess". No one is quite sure where he learned that one!

We took some family photos... 4 generations and Grammy & Papa with the grand kids.

At the end of the day, we were all exhausted. Papa & Natalie fell asleep in the chair and didn't even notice the flashing of the camera.

New Nephews!

Our two newest nephews arrived today! Oliver & Mason were born this morning. They were 6lbs 13oz and 7lbs 6oz and over 20 inches each; both are super cute! Mom and babies are both doing well. Natalie didn't get to meet them yet because of increased visitor restrictions (swine flu fears). Here's some pictures (Mason then Olivier)



I caught Natalie sucking her thumb tonight. She had quite the interesting approach..

One Month

A Two-Celebration Day!

UPDATE: I updated this post to add more pictures at the bottom - 11/6 @ 4:15pm.

First of all, Happy Anniversary to us! Today marks 5 years that we've been married. How on earth has it been that long already?! We have a date tonight - Grandma & Grandpa Remillard are going to babysit for a few hours while we go to dinner. With the exception of a few hours overnight at the hospital, it'll be my first time away from Natalie.

But, she's a big girl now - 4 weeks old today! I can't believe so much time has already passed. Our days are pretty quiet; Natalie wakes up around 9am to eat and then again every 2.5 hours or so. Sometimes she'll fall asleep afterwards, and sometimes she stays nice and alert for a while. Occasionally she makes it all the way to the next feeding! I put her down around 11pm and she wakes around 3 and again around 7 to eat before starting another day...

No real "schedule" so far, but she's getting more and more consistent with the nighttime.

She doesn't have another check-up until she's 2 months old, so I'm taking a guess at her weight. She's somewhere between 8.5 and 9 lbs. I got on the scale and then picked her up..our scale rounds to the nearest pound and says she's at 9 lbs.

After her bath on Tuesday night, David & I noticed that her hair seems more wavy than it has been. I haven't noticed any of it falling out, but the texture seems different. Kind of fuzzy and has a bit of a wave through it. We're still hoping the curls will come! Ironic, because I've always wanted straight hair, but it's nice to be able to style it both ways.

And, the verdict on the eyes is still out. According to the books it can take 6 - 12 months before their final color appears. But, for now, her eyes are a bluish color. When she's looking towards the light or the sun, you can really see it. We'll try to get a picture, but it's not easy!! A lot of the Remillards have blue eyes, so there is hope!

Natalie has been a good walking partner so far. We've gone around the neighborhood a bunch and on Monday we walked around downtown SLO. I learned a lesson though - before you take the jumbo stroller out for a walk, you should know how to make it collapse! I realized that David had always been the one to close it and I had never tried. It took me the better part of 10 minutes to get it to fold! :) I thought maybe I was forgetting to release a safety or something, but turns out I was just not pulling the handle hard enough (It's definitely NOT a one-handed operation as advertised!).

Natalie wearing her cross - a gift from Great Grandma Remillard:

(Karin - do you recognize her outfit?! It was one of Autumn's)

Curls?



Sitting in her swing:


Blue Eyes?


Fell asleep in the Boppy while I was getting ready:

Trick or Treating

We took Natalie down to the Village in AG and walked around looking at all of the Trick or Treaters. (well, David and I looked, Natalie just slept in her stroller). Then we stopped by Grandma & Grandpa's for a few minutes...we got a quick photo with Anna (she's Max from Where the Wild Things Are) before Natalie started fussing about the costume. Third try and she still doesn't like it...maybe next year!

Our Pumpkin

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday, I dressed Natalie up in her Halloween outfit from her Great Gramma Linda, and I couldn't pick my favorite picture, so here's a few:

Cute socks & hat from Uncle Kevin & Aunt Shannah:


And a picture of her Halloween costume. We've tried twice now to take pictures of her as a Ladybug and she cries everytime. The only way to get one was if I held her, so we'll try again after her nap...

Visitors!

Natalie had a nice visit with her Aunt Shannah & Uncle Kevin last night. She was nice and alert for them.

Aunt Shannah got to feed her a bottle:

Natalie modeling her new Halloween hair bow:

Thanks for the visit and the Halloween treats!

David has been working part-time this week, so I've had night-duty. It's been sort of hit and miss. Natalie will have a good sleeping night, and then the following night she wants to be up, be held, and look around for a few hours (mom's idea of activity time is not from 1 - 3 am!) Yesterday I fed Natalie more often; she stayed awake most of the day and slept great last night! We both needed that. Hopefully we can have two in a row!

My 2 week appointment

I went for my 2 week check-up today. The incision is healing well and the Dr. gave me the "all clear". He says I can do anything I feel up to - exercise, driving, lifting baby & carrier, etc. Even though I'm allowed, I don't think I'll be running to the gym right away. I think I'll start with some walking and see how things go! The standard 6 week check-up appointment is scheduled for Dec. 2nd.


We had a nice visit with both sets of grandparents, my grandma, and some of the neighbors yesterday. Here's a few pictures (I need to remember to take more next time we have visitors!)

With Grandma Remillard (this was last weekend, Oct 18)

With Grammy Fagundes

With GiGi (Great Grandma Linda)

Like her mom...

Sitting with Dad:

About to sleep:

How she spends 2/3 of her day:

So far, Natalie really takes after her mom. Her favorite activity is still sleeping - she would sleep the day away if we let her. Her doctor has us keeping her up as much as possible during the day. We try to let her wake up on her own, but if she doesn't wake up within 3 hrs of the last feeding, we wake her up. Then at night, she gets to set the schedule. Last night, she let us sleep for 4.5 hours - twice! (who would have thought I would be excited about such little sleep?).

She also is not terribly excited about eating. If she's hungry, food is good and she can't get enough. But, if she's not hungry and we wake her to eat, she could take it or leave it.

She also hates when we expose her feet. She loves to have socks on or to wear the p.j.s with feet in them. We have to uncover her feet for diaper changes and she usually cries until the instant we cover them back up - then she is happy as can be.

She had her 2 week appointment this afternoon. She is right on target - she weighed in at 7lbs 10oz. The Dr. checked her out and said she couldn't be doing better! She goes back in 6 weeks for her 2 month appointment (and her first shots).

One Week Old

Things are pretty quiet around here. Natalie is sticking to her 3 hour routine for the most part and is a little more alert after she eats. Mainly we are just eating and sleeping!

She got to meet her Great Aunt Diane & Great Uncle Louie this weekend. She also had a good visit with her Aunt Tania, Uncle Matt and cousin Anna. Anna liked hugging and kissing her cousin - I'm sure she's going to be a great big sister (soon!).

(Tania, I stole this picture from your blog..we missed this one!)

First Days at Home

Here's a picture of Natalie before we left the hospital. We thought this outfit might be too small for her, but she was still swimming a bit!


We've had a good couple of days at home with Natalie. She's wakes up every 2 - 3 hours to eat and stays awake for 5 or 10 minutes and then goes back to napping. Tonight she surprised us by staying awake for about an hour! It was nice to see her eyes for a while. Here's some pictures from today:






We gave Natalie her first bath on Tuesday. She didn't really like the water - she screamed the whole time. She definitely has some curl to her hair when it is wet!



Picture with Daddy after her bath:


She had her first visit to the pediatrician yesterday. The Dr. says everything looks good. She weighed in at 7lbs 1oz, which is an ounce higher than when we left the hospital, so her weight is on the rise now. She should be back at birth weight by the time we go for her next appointment a week from Friday.