Welcome to Reese's Web Page. Reese was born on June 20th, 2007. More details about her maternity story can be found in the links above. This page is for Reese's updates, which we will do as often as possible!
Growth
Chart Hospital
Announcement Birth Announcement
June
27th July 4th
July 11th July 19th August 1st October 12 November 1st December 14th January 5th January 21st January 29th February 21st March 4th March 18th April 1st April 7th April 10th May 1st May 15th May 28th June 9th June 20th Birthday Party Invitation Sample
June
20th, 2008
June
9th, 2008 Reese
has been a real treat lately, in the sleeping department. She has
been sleeping through the night for about a month now. Her older
brother Dylan wakes up more often with foot cramps or growing pains or
something! This means that Reese has been our best sleeper. She
started at about 6-7 weeks, stopped at about 5 months only sleeping
through the night a few times a week, stopped completely from 6 months
to 9 months, then started up again slowly, and is completely now.
I feel spoiled! Reese
has a bit of a cold right now, but it doesn't seem to bother her too
much. She's not eating much. She has had a few tastes of
Dylan's milk, and seems to like it, so introducing dairy won't be a
problem. The kids are excited to have whole milk in the house
again (I stick to skim when I don't have a 1-year old!) We
are slowly getting ready for Reese's birthday party. It's not
going to be a HUGE to-do. The biggest part being food, of
course. But with the basement being finished, we have a half a
house to move into it's proper spot, making things a bit hectic
here. If we have a nice day and a clean bathroom, I swear I'll be
happy! Reese has been taught to hold her finger up when we ask
her "How old are you?" blows raspberries when we tell her to "blow" (we
won't encourage that on her cake then!) and can sign 'Milk' (though we
call it 'mookies'.) I just can't believe it's been a year, and my baby
girl is a little girl now! (Top) May 28th, 2008
 I wrote too soon on the teeth thing.
Later on the day of my last entry (May 15th) Reese also got her right
lateral incisor in. She got her left lateral on the 23rd of
May. She is now up to 6 teeth, and we are all thankful that she
had such an easy time teething! Other then the teeth, there isn't much to update for her. She seemed to hit so many milestones early, that I have a nice lull in the "action". She does love to be outside. Sometimes she brings me her shoes and says "ba-ba" and waves bye-bye. When Mark leaves in the morning she cries (or screams) as soon as he shuts the door, and begs to be picked up as soon as he comes home. She certainly knows that he's the one to approach to get outside! The blue-tongue picture was taken after she had a sucker. She loves sweets, and gets spoiled by them too often lately. She's good with her vegetables too! And she's been sleeping through the night for a couple of weeks every night. That is one milestone I am very happy to encourage! (Top)
May
15th, 2008
 Wow,
5 weeks to go until I close this portion of the blog. At 1 year
Reese will join the regular family blog for her updates. I may
add to her weight chart for her 15, 18 and 24 month appointments, but
for the rest of her info I will just update with everyone else. A
bittersweet moment for me, because she'll be a year and a toddler, but
I won't have to update 2 pages either! Reese got her third tooth,
her upper left central incisor, on May 5th, and got her 4th tooth, her
upper right central incisor, on May 15th (today!) Her upper
lateral incisors are very swollen and white, and her lower left lateral
incisor is making it's best effort at an appearance as well.
Reese is becoming a little bit of a brute, as she loves to walk up to
one of the kids, push them down, and then sit on their chests, tickle
their tummy, or roll all over them. She is inquisitive, has to be
in everything and know everything, touch or taste everything, which is,
I think, typical behavior for her age. She can say "Gabby"
(ga-ba) and consistently says "Da-da" as well. She screams and growls
and is altogether cute! She blows raspberries and claps at herself when
she is proud, and likes to dance and 'sing' to Enchanted still.
She loves to get into the somersault position, but I can't capture that
on camera! And she loves to be outside! Her birthday party
will be June 21st at around noon. I will be sending out email or
paper announcements in a couple of weeks. Reese is a pro at
walking in shoes now. I've put some updated Spring pictures of
all the kids HERE. (Top)May
1st, 2008
April 10th, 2008 Here is a montage of milestones that I made of Reese. See if you can spot the 5 year old trying to hog-tie herself in the background! In the last few days, Reese has really taken to walking, preferring to do so over crawling. She has a cold, and so hasn't slept well. She likes to point a finger and 'beep' our noses, and has painfully begun to grab at my ear or hair while she nurses. If the video doesn't embed properly, the link is: (Top) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay-59RuSdEs
April
1st, 2008
 Reese
had a terrific 1st Easter. Friday night we dyed eggs, while she
played with a wooden spoon and some bowls on the kitchen floor. I
made her a purple egg with her name on it, and let her hold it for a
photo, but she quickly took the egg and tried to eat it, leaving a big
purple stain on her mouth. (Which washed off, luckily enough!)
Saturday morning the Easter Bunny visited our house, but with so many
older siblings, Reese didn't have the opportunity to hunt for any eggs
or baskets, she was promptly brought right to them! In her basket
were some Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs (that went to Mark) a summer hat,
tights, jelly beans (which she loves) M&M's (which she vomits) and
some baby Puffs (cereal). Her dress, as well as Gabby's and
Alisabeth's all came from eBay. They looked gorgeous, in my
opinion! We then went to Grandma Bonnie's house for Easter
dinner, where Reese loved the ham and the potatoes, but most of all she
loved the peas. She could not get enough of them, and we all
enjoyed watching. Reese also had fun crawling up the stairs at
Grandma's house. All 4 flights! Last Thursday Mark
was playing peek-a-boo with her and he jumped out from behind the couch
and she said "Da-da". We looked at each other in surprise because
generally my kids don't say anything near the word Da-da until they are
weaned. Now, true to form, it has not been repeated since.
We are officially back to Ma-ma. But she does love when he comes
home from work. She immediately says "Hi" and starts waving and
crawling to the door to be picked up. The next day, Friday the
28th, I was in the kitchen working and she crawled over to me and stood
up in the middle of the floor. My children don't usually do this until
they are expert walkers, so it was a surprise to me. She is doing
it consistently, and is now an expert stander, and is still taking
small steps in her walking. Just not interested in improving that
skill right now, I guess. She also climbed on the couch (with a
cushion off) and discovered strawberries. Yum! On the not so fun
side, she has learned to scream. We always say "Tea is ready'
when she starts. We tell Dylan he taught her, which is likely
very true! (Top)March
18th, 2008
 In the
last two weeks, Reese has changed a lot, in my biased opinion, of
course. I wrote a bit on the regular blog about her adventures in
walking. She is not the pro she likes to think she is,
however. She will often let go of a piece of furniture and lunge
towards something else, and her feet take a few steps and then get
tangled up and she falls. She is far braver then the other kids
at this stage. They would only let go if they felt secure.
She lets go if she things she can make it to Mama. Speaking of
Mama, I think she is intentionally saying "Mama", "Num", "Hi" (as she
waves, it is TOO cute!) and "Bye-Bye (again, as she waves.) Thus
far there is no "Dada" though she has gotten as far as "Da". As
you can see in the picture to the left, she is also obsessed with the
piano. We place the ottoman in front of the bass half of the
piano, so that her constant playing doesn't border on annoyance.
Yes, I suppose we could just put the cover down, but it is so cute and
makes her so happy, and who can resist that? I am also going to
put on a picture of Reese eating a waffle, down below. This was
her first attempt at table food, and she likes it so much, she has
decided to eliminate baby food from her diet. So we've 'lost' the
jarred food and gone straight to eating stir fry and other cut up
veggies. On nights that we have tacos or something similar just
not baby friendly (especially baby with only 2 teeth friendly) we
convince her that something from a jar is delicious, or make some
spaghetti for her.  Reese is becoming a
little more independent, playing on her own for longer stretches of
time. She has actually slept through the night again 3 times in a
row, but the pay off is that we are losing her nap time. That
makes for a grumpy mommy sometimes, but thankfully Mark always gives me
time for a long bubble bath. Reese also likes dancing to music lately. She'll bounce whenever she hears the radio, or one of her toys that plays music. She got a cute Baby Einstein toy in her stocking and she loves to dance to it, and it's actually how Mark gets her to sleep at night too. I tried it and it didn't work for me! Of course, I can nurse in a pinch when she gets fussy, so perhaps I don't try hard enough! My last picture will be of bath time. She loves the bath. Maybe I've already written this, but Zach wants to earn money for scout camp, and I've decided that he is old enough to baby sit. So one of the things I let him do if I am running an errand to the store and Reese is inconsolable is allow her to stand by the bath tub and let the water run out at a trickle. For some reason that calms her. The mind of babes, I guess. And I was going to update something else, but Dylan started talking and I got distracted. I may have to update here again when I remember. (Top)  March 4th, 2008  We've
had some difficulty with Reese and her nap times lately. That is
to say, they've become nonexistent. She falls asleep just fine,
but whenever we go to lay her in her bed, she wakes up
immediately. I hope this is a phase she is going through, and not
a forecast of things to come. She doesn't sleep at night well
anymore either. For a while there we'd get at least a couple
nights a week where she'd sleep through the night, but not
anymore. So, you can see by the picture that Reese is getting better at standing on her own. Doing it by choice, or simply by letting us drop a finger. She takes steps too, though I wouldn't be comfortable calling her a 'walker' by any stretch of the imagination. Maybe by 9 or 10 months, which in my opinion is far too soon. I wish babies would keep just a little longer. She has found some rhythm and loves to dance in time to music. She will give you '5' when you ask. She knows 'So Big', and 'Peekaboo' (with a blanket, not her hands) too. Her little expression on her face in the picture will stick with me forever, because she makes it all the time breathing through her mouth. She also wakes up by making an "Oh" sound over and over before her eyes are open. She started saying 'Mama' again after so long with Baba and still says 'Num' when eating a food she likes. She is moving on to some stage 2 foods and table foods, though we are trying to keep her as organic as possible at this point. She has won 2 photo contests on our online playgroup for June/July babies. She is starting to really enjoy toys, and I can see her mind working as she figures them out. She has a visible thought process for sure! We are in the process of looking for Easter dresses for her and the girls and not having an easy time of it! I think that's about all the updates for now. February
21st, 2007
She is able to get down from
her pulling up position now, thank goodness. (She would cry until she
was helped down.) When we go to get her from her crib, she is
usually standing up or playing quietly. She is also getting a little
better with her Daddy, and willing to part from Mom for awhile. (Yay to
that too!) (Top)
Reese has gotten through her
first stomach virus and her first cold like a trooper. She hates
to have her nose blown though, and the struggle of doing so always
results in more tears, and of course, more *stuff* running down her
lip. She crawls really
fast, and easily sits up on her own. She occasionally kneels on
her own, though not
On the 29th of December she
had a pretty crabby day, and after having seen the lump on her gums, we
knew that a tooth would be emerging soon. Sure enough on the 31st
it popped through all the way, and she has a nice pearly white (that
she likes to bite down with...ouch!) Christmas was fun for Reese. She wasn't really in to any of her presents, nor ripping off paper. She mostly just liked to observe the other kids in their fun, or play with bits of paper that were left on the floor. Reese got a cup, a toothbrush, hair barrettes, some toys, bedding, an ornament, an outfit, and some money for Christmas.
Now she is constantly crawling
to things, putting them in her mouth or hitting them on the
floor. She's also picked up getting into a sitting position
on her own. She likes to play peek-a-boo and patty-cake, still loves
her Mommy most of all, and is a sweet, smiling, afraid of strangers,
sleeps through the night ever 10 or so days, kind of baby. (Top)
If you read the family blog,
you'll see that Reese started, tentatively, crawling today. She
is also going to be getting her two lower front teeth soon. She
loves to stand against furniture, and has a really good sense of
balance. When I was little a family friend used to balance my
younger brother on his hand, and so I tried it with Reese too.
She loves it, giggles and smiles the whole time! Reese stopped
sleeping through the night at about Thanksgiving time too. I am
not surprised, as Dylan did it too. I actually read an article
about it called 'Sleep Regression' so apparently it's pretty common for
babies around 4-6 months of age. Reese usually squeals when she
is happy, Reese will be getting a
toothbrush, a sippy cup, and a couple of toys for Christmas.
We're excited to see how she reacts to wrapping paper. The other
kids were pretty shy about tackling it, so we'll se! She is my
sweetie, and we love her so much! (TOP) 
Reese is doing very
well. Our Dr. is so full for patients, that she won't have her 4
month appointment until she is 5 months old. We did a very
un-scientific weigh-in for her and she appears to be approaching 17
pounds, and in the vicinity of 27 inches. She is rolling around
like crazy, sleeping through the night, and sitting fairly well, though
she tends to become fascinated with her toes, and because so bends down
and tries to capture them in her mouth. She is definitely going
to be one that we need to watch for putting things in her mouth as she
gets older. Right now anything she grabs goes to her mouth as it
is; I can't image how it will be when she got her fine motor skills
down. She has a little cold right now, which manifests itself in
the form of a runny nose, alternating with a plugged nose. No
fever, cough, etc., and no issues with nursing as it is so minor.
She seems to have lost her tolerance of a bottle. She took one
recently when she was starving, and it was freshly pumped, but refused
one that had been frozen, so maybe that has something to do with it as
well. She loves to hear herself talk, squeal, whine, and I still
often hear her on the monitor just cooing away, generally with a finger
(or an attempt at an entire fist) in her mouth. She still loves
to stand, loves to kick when she is excited, is starting to realize
that water splashes when she moves her arms in the bathtub, and while
on her belly can lift not only her chest, but her upper stomach off the
floor as well. We can't tell if her hair is going to be light or
dark. The new stuff growing in seems to be a light brown, but it
looks like it has highlights, just like the stuff when was born
with. She has been looking just like Alisabeth so much that it's
hard to tell the two apart in photos. But every once in a while I
see a baby picture of Gabby that looks just like her too.
It's been over 2 months since
I last updated Reese's page, but for obvious reasons. But two
months out of a life that is only almost 4 months is pretty
significant, in the grand scheme of things. While living at the
in-laws, I kept a journal of Reese's achievements so that when I had
access to my computer, and for her baby book, I'd be able to add the
information. So although I didn't update in segments when she did
new things, I have all the information and will add that now. At
7 weeks of age Reese began to sleep through the night. Yes, we
put her on her tummy despite the 'back to sleep' campaign because she
(like Dylan) had tummy issues and a slight umbilical hernia and it
seemed to relieve them. Reese was given her name and blessing on August
25th, and you can find pictures HERE.
On 09-09-07 Zachary got Reese to squeal for the first time. I was
upstairs and heard her, and came rushing down to see what was wrong
(she sounded like a squawking bird, so I thought something was wrong)
only to find her smiling at him and Zach saying "Did you hear her
laugh?" at 8 weeks, when lying on her tummy, Reese would tuck her
knees under her and scoot around, sometimes in circles on the
floor. Once she went half-way across the room! That same
week she started drooling and biting on her/our hands. At her 2
month doctor's appointment, she weighed in at almost 15 pounds
and 25 inches. Dr. Olson was once again amazed at the
precociousness of one of my children, with how well she held her head
(while being held and on her tummy) how she scooted, smiled, and
'talked' (not to mention how pretty she is!) (And if I sound like I am
bragging, just be joyful with me, that we have a happy, healthy baby.)
:-) She did well with her shots, cried with the first 2, screamed
for a couple of seconds with the 3rd, and needed motrin for 2
nights. The first night I was carrying her and my arm bumped some
hangers and she got really stiff with her arms spread out wide, and
then 5 seconds later started hollering. Not sure if that had
anything to do with the shots, or if she was just scared by the
clanging noise of the hangers. At 10 weeks she began to notice
her toes, and would try to reach them when lying on her back. At
12 weeks she decided she loved to stand best, and still prefers that to
anything else. She also began to arch her back, or curl up in a
sit-up, and sometimes nowadays her sit-up is so strong she gets her
entire back off the floor and almost into a sitting position. At
13 weeks we let her go into the exersaucer, in which she loves to spin
and try to grab toys. She also started to just stare at her hands
that week, bring them together, grasp toys, and suck on fingers more
vigorously and started to really coo and squeal a lot. This
morning was so cute, instead of waking to her cries, she just talked
for about 15 minutes until I went and got her for her morning
feeding. At 14 weeks she took her talent of arching her back to
scoot out of her carseat and her bouncy chair, and at 15 weeks she
began to roll to her side. On Oct. 4th she rolled all the way
over (back to belly) when lying on the floor of our closet while Mark
put away clothes. I think it's the first time he saw something
first. So I made her do it again, and overnight she became a pro,
getting her arms out of the way. The next day she also rolled
belly to back, and now struggles to do so, but not consistently. And that, in a nut shell, is
it. I'll update again after 4 month appointment.
My little lady is 6
weeks old today. She seems to be growing by leaps and
bounds. We unscientifically weighed her by having Gabby step on
the scale, and then added Reese, and found the difference, which is
somewhere between 12-13 pounds. We'll find out how big she really
is in 2 weeks at her 2 month appointment. Reese is really sweet,
and such a beauty to look at, but she is, in my opinion, a bit of a
fussy baby. She doesn't nurse as well as the others did.
Any time my milk lets down she gulps and gets upset and starts
screaming, and then for the next 30 minutes we are trying to get all
the air out that she swallows when crying. She is still doing the
small time period of screaming, but it is getting better. The funny
thing is, if we turn on the vacuum, she
quits and is quiet and alert as can be watching it, and as soon as we
turn it off, BOOM! And Gabby is REALLY good at getting her to stop
crying. For some reason Reese likes the way Gabby holds
her. Mark and Zach are good at getting burps from her. I
can pat her back for an hour and then hand her over to one of them and
15 seconds later out it comes. She gave us her first real social
smiles on
July 23rd. She smiles for me the most, of course! Ethan has
gotten her good at taking a bottle. I actually fed her a couple
of ounces (which is a shock for me, it was the first time I'd fed one
of my babies a bottle!) Now I just have to express enough milk so that
I can go see Harry Potter #5. I think she has finally completely
lost her jaundice, and is now a nice, chubby, pink baby. She so
far has kept all her hair, though as her head gets bigger it seems to
recede at the top. Her eyes are still a jewel-blue color, though
they do seem darker than the other kids, so maybe Zach will finally
have a brown-eyed sibling? Like Dylan, she confuses people as to
who she looks like. When I look at Gabby and Alisa's baby books,
she looks like both of them in different pictures. She'll be
happy that she is her own little person! We quickly moved on from the
newborn clothes, and have now outgrown the 0-3 month clothes as
well. The 3-6 month clothes are supposed to fit until 18 pounds,
and all the 6-9 month clothes I have are summer clothes. So I'll
be garage sale shopping for 6-9 and 12 month winter clothes for her,
which will be fun. Reese hates the baby swing,
the bouncer, is too little for the exersaucer still, and really likes
to be held, but only in certain positions. She is a very
particular little thing, isn't she. I was telling the kids about
a song from Gilbert and Sullivan called "I'm Called Little Buttercup"
and sang the words. They thought it was funny that there was a
song all about Reese (Buttercup being one of her nicknames.) And speaking of Reese, she is
now awake and my free time is over! (Top)  I couldn't decide if I should write on the day Reese turned 4 weeks, or on her one month anniversary, so I picked the day between. We seem to be establishing a pattern of sorts. Reese starts the day with a wide awake period, lasting 2-4 hours. She then naps pretty much the late morning to early evening, waking only long enough to eat, fill a diaper (or a few) and then drift off to sleep again. When evening comes, she has another wide awake period for 3-4 hours until she is off to bed for the night, where she only wakes to eat and burp. One of the hours in the evening is a tough one, where Reese cries unless she is bounced up and down or if we are lucky, outside for a walk. Which is a very similar pattern to Alisabeth. Reese starts bedtime out on her tummy in the cradle, and then finishes the night in bed with Mark and myself. She is still really grunty, and is on the verge of smiling. As of now, we talk, sing, coo, or stroke her soft skin and she gives us a little "hey, if you think THAT's going to make me smile, you're going to have to work a lot harder lady!" smirk. We love her to pieces! Dylan keeps saying "Baby out!" which if I were cynical enough I could interpret to mean "Baby out?" meaning my stomach isn't shrinking fast enough for him, but I choose to think he's happy she is out. I showed Dylan how milk sprays out when and he said "Wow! It's dripping!" :-) Alisa is just a little mommy, always ready to help change diapers, get clothes, give baths. She told me she wants 14 children, and today wondered what her babies would look like. I told her they'd look like her, and she said "No, all babies look different!" Two nights ago my allergies were horribly bad, so last night I took some allergy medicine. I've tried to avoid it for about 10 years now, and haven't really needed it, but I just was miserable. So I took some around 7:00 PM and by the time Mark and Zach came home from scouts I was feeling loopy and tired, and went to bed at 10:00. Mark was a champ and stayed downstairs with Reese until she woke up, at around 12:00 midnight, so that I could sleep. She must have gotten some of the medicine in her, because she slept all evening (through her cranky time too!) and only ate a couple of times at night, and then slept until 8:30. (The medicine must have worn off, she was up for almost 5 hours after that!) I now understand why some parents choose to medicate their children with Benedryl at bedtime. Though I don't agree, and wouldn't intentionally do it, I understand! (Top) July 11th, 2007
Reese had her 3 week
appointment today. She is 10 pounds, 10 ounces and 22
inches. Growing like a weed, I'd say. She is losing the
newborn 'sleeping all the time' and having what I think is a growth
spurt because she now eats all the time. It feels like I nurse
her for 30 minutes, and 45 minutes later she is ready to eat
again. I am having so much fun playing around with the pictures
we've taken of her (I think we printed out over 200 digital prints and
developed 3 rolls of film...of course many are similar because I wanted
to get more then one shot to get the best one.) If you scroll
down, or use the link above, you can see the birth announcement that I
designed for her. It isn't perfect, and I'd only had Photoshop
for about 2 hours before I ran to get them printed, but I like it just
fine! Anyway, the doctor is amazed at how much she has
grown. She let me know that Hutchinson also ran her newspaper
announcement without her first name, so I wrote to have that corrected
too. Her jaundice is going away pretty quickly now, and the
doctor said she must have been pretty yellow. I told her that it
seemed that each of my kids have gotten more yellow and she said "Maybe
you won't have 10!" I laughed and said, "No, I better stop at 8"
and she said "You weren't saying that 3 weeks ago!" and I told her I
was so set on having a July baby that I was devastated to be in labor,
didn't want to see the baby, didn't want to hold her (until they placed
her on me and I fell in love instantly!) and she found that fascinating
(and a good reason to always be ready for labor...BABY decides, not
Mom!) :-) Oh, and some days, like when I hear horrible stories
about what birth mothers have done to their infants, I'm ready to adopt
20 more just to protect them, and other days I very happy to be
'done'. And then sometimes I wonder if the reason I keep failing
at going into labor in the 'right' month is because God knows it's the
only way to get me to consider having another one of His children so
that I can have it when I
want it. :-) So Reese is very gassy this
week, grunts a lot, sounds like some exotic animal when trying to poop,
spits up a lot, and has to burp. It's probably something that I
am eating, like chocolate or maybe even dairy, though I don't get much
of that) but if she isn't burped very often when eating she'll
spit up all over the place and I feel so bad for her. But I have
burping at night! I don't mind nursing, but it takes more energy
to sit up and burp. I've always felt really good after having a
baby, but at around 4-6 weeks I lose my adrenaline and I crash, and I
can feel myself heading for that. No sleep at night will do that
to you, and certainly I survive! (Top)
Happy 4th of July! As
you can see from the above photo, we were prepared to have a July
baby. Reese is wearing her 'coming home from the hospital'
outfit! It's a good thing that we had a back-up outfit picked out
too. Reese had a wonderful 4th. We started the day taking photographs (which is pretty much how
we start out every day!) We then headed to Grandma Bonnie's house
so that Reese could meet her great-grandmas and the rest of us could
have great food and light some 'big booms' (as Dylan calls them.)
Yesterday, the 3rd, I called Dr. Olson to see if she'd be in town (she
only works at the Glencoe clinic on Wednesdays, and had the 4th off)
for some reason on the 4th to see Reese for her 2 week
appointment. She said we could delay it for one week, but did
suggest that I go to the hospital and get a bilirubin level check after
I told her Reese was still jaundiced. So I did, and her level was
12.9. Apparently they want them under the bili-lights at a level
of 15. I suspect that Reese had a higher level a couple of days prior,
and probably should have had her checked out sooner. Dr. Olson
told me to make sure she gets indirect sun 2 times a day for 10
minutes, and to come recheck on Friday. (Which we did, and her
level was an 11.9 (the same level she was when we were
discharged.) Since the numbers were going down, I don't have to
do anything further, besides making sure she isn't lethargic, getting
more yellow, not eating, not having poopy diapers, etc. She is
definitely losing her yellow color quickly though. While at the
hospital on the 3rd, I asked if I could get a weight on her since I
wouldn't be back for a week. Reese is now 9 pounds, 13 oz.!
Growing like a week, and cute as a button! My milk is in full
force now, and so we are beginning the spit-up, gassy, grunt in your
sleep all night phase (her, not me!) I am still working on a birth
announcement for her. I got Adobe Photoshop Elements for my
birthday, and I am waiting for that to come before I make up the
announcement. I have it designed, and the pictures picked out,
but
want to Photoshop them. I have SO MANY photos of Reese that I
want to 'fix' and then I can share them. Should be next week some
time. Her announcement should appear in the Buffalo/Wright County
newspapers soon, and is in the Glencoe paper this week. (Reese wasn't
named for a day and a half, and the nurse came and took all the papers
I signed while I was in the bath, and she said she'd add the
information when we came up with a name, so her first name is missing,
and I have contacted them to update the information.) We are still working through
our frozen meals, which has been a lifesaver. We had 13 ready to
go on our own, Bonnie brought 1, and the church provided 6.
That's 3 weeks of not having to shop or make lists (which is good
because the money is going towards film development and other
incidentals.) :-) (Top)
Anyway, the kids still argue
over who gets to hold Reese. We all love the little dimple in her
cheek. It reminds me of my sister Laurie's. So cute!
I first noticed it the morning that I delivered her, after Mark went to
get
the kids, and instantly fell in love. Up to that point, I was simply
angry that she was here too early. :-) Now that her hair has been
washed several times, it is very dark, but has light highlights to it,
it is long in back, and has some waviness to it. All the kids
have made their own unique sound when the grunt in their sleep.
Ethan's nickname is Bear because of it. We called Dylan 'Chewie'
after Chewbacca from Star Wars. Well Reese sounds like a
goose! I can't decide if I should call her Goose or Smiley.
On the other hand a friend emailed me a congratulations and said her
name sounds regal, so I am inclined to call her Lady Reese (as Gabby
has always been Princess, and Alisa is Miss Lily.) Reese's umbilical stump fell
off on June 25th, at 5 days old. She is our official winner for
shortest time. Gabby will always hold the record for longest at 7
weeks! She is a little jaundiced, though not as much as I
expected, because the kids seemed to be getting worse each time, but
she is better than Dylan. Could be the warm summer sun helping
things along. She sleeps a lot during the day, with maybe 1-2
time periods that she is awake and alert. She eats a lot, and has
a lot of diapers! We've been having fun taking pictures of her,
and worry about getting her into all her cute clothes before she out
grows them. Her baby photo album will resemble a fashion
magazine. I still need to get some portrait pictures and make up
a birth announcement for friends/family whose email I do not
have. I have so much much I want/need to do that some days I feel
overwhelmed, and others I stop and realize that more important than all
the updates, the announcements, the outfits, I can find tranquility in
living in the moment and enjoying it, instead of in the lens, the
journal, etc. As for myself, I am feeling
really good. I've lost 25 of my 35 pounds that I gained, which
amazes me. I think I must have had tons of water weight, because
I was only down about 12 pounds when I got home from the hospital, but
I was so swollen, and now my legs and fingers look slimmer and the
other 13 pounds are gone. Yay. Too bad about the extra 40
from Dylan I never lost though, eh? Actually, now that I think about
it, how was Reese so big, at 6 days early, and a 35 pound weight gain,
and Dylan was almost the same weight, at 5 days early, with a 55 pound
weight gain? As far as labor and delivery,
I wish that I was able to video it, wish I had gotten some labor
pictures, and wish it was as tranquil and joyous as it was with Alisa,
but all in all, I can't complain in hindsight, I 'm just so glad she is
here, safe, healthy, and happy. I have told Mark that in order to keep
my sanity while experiencing the baby blues, I tell myself that I can
think about another baby in 4-5 years. He seems amazed that I can
even think about it, so I told him "Hey, you have your fantasies, and I
have mine!" (Top)
|
Happy Birthday Reese! I counted down all day
yesterday. Wow, 24 hours until her birthday. 12
hours. 6 hours! (Yes, I was up at midnight!) And now here she is,
1 year old. Her photo album is filled. Her baby book is
complete. Her party is ready to go. I took several spare moments
to nurse her to sleep and just hold her and stare, stroke her cheek and
remember. I don't mean to be maudlin, but I really wanted her
pregnancy to go slow, for her first year to take its sweet time in
passing by. And yet time moved forward without my
permission. She choose to hurry things along by crawling and
walking early. By trying to keep up with her siblings. And
I shed tears of sadness that my sweet baby girl is no longer that
sleepy little infant, but that precocious toddler beginning to test the
world and its wonders. But I can't take that away from her.
I can't wish myself back to her beginning, because what a wonderful
stage this is for her as well! Watching the light in her eyes as she
curiously explores and understands new things. Her smile increase
as she tries and accomplishes something new. This day
ends a special blog for a special baby. But with the ending of things,
comes the beginnings of others. This
isn't really
good-bye. She will be welcomed onto our regular webpage. We
love you Reese. You've been a
magnificent and delightful addition to our family. With all our
hearts, Mommy, Daddy, Zach, Gabby, Ethan, Alisa, and Dylan. June
20, 2008 (
My second to last
post on Reese's separate blog. She is definitely ready to join
the rest of the family on our regular blog. She is no longer the
'new little baby', but is moving on to the precocious toddler
stage. As you can see by the photo, Reese loves to climb.
She doesn't love to fall so much, but that sometimes goes with the
climbing. A Mother wishes they would learn this a lot sooner, but
the best we can do is be there as often as we can to catch them, and
pray for the times we can't. I suppose this holds true until the
day we 'stop' being mothers. 
We
finally got Reese in to her well child
checkup. We decided to just switch doctors instead of traveling
to Glencoe. Originally I hoped to do that for the first
year because I really liked our doctor and have used her for 6 years
and three babies. I felt a little sad and disloyal
switching. Though I know Dr. Olson really likes to work with the
elderly, and I'll stick with her for my own care (wow, putting those
two sentences together, which aren't supposed to be related, really
makes me feel old!)
Just a small update on our little Reese. I'm still
using this blog as a way to communicate with friends and family how she
is growing during her first year, at which point she'll join the
regular family blog. But an added benefit is that I am ALSO using
the blog as a bookmark, or sorts, until I can actually get to her baby
book! So, for my own information, she has recently started
'sharing' her food when you ask (by putting it in YOUR mouth.)
She has started throwing things that she isn't interested in (food,
toys, books) or that she is rummaging through in her toy box to get
what she does want. The other day (Friday the 4th) we were
watching Enchanted (again) and it got to the part of the movie that
Giselle sings "How Does She Know?" and she crawled to the middle of the
room, stood up and clapped and said "Yay!", and clapped so hard that
she fell down again. She is also choosing to walk instead of
crawl more often, and getting much better at it. On the 5th she
mastered drinking from a straw. Her top 4
teeth are starting to descend, so it won't be long until she has some
neighbors for her bottom two. She also 'played ball' with Zachary
by rolling him the ball yesterday, and also I caught her pointing at
something she wanted. In short she is growing by leaps and bounds! The
above picture is Reese's reaction to her first pickle. "Yuck!" (
It's
hard for me to believe that I am 2/3 the way done with Reese's special
1st year blog! Wasn't it yesterday that I was quickly taking my
maternity photographs and then discovering I was in labor? And here it
is, 8 months later. Reese is such a sweetheart. It's been
almost a month since I last updated, and there has been some changes,
but most have taken place in the last week. On Thursday the 14th,
Reese began to clap. She mostly does it when we say 'Yay!'.
Two days later she began to wave 'Bye-bye'. Yesterday, on her 8
month day, she began to get more brave about standing without help for
a
few seconds of her own choice, and standing longer when we encourage it
by dropping our hands away from her. She is getting better at
walking while we hold on with one hand. She is not joining the
Zach-Gabby walking on the 8 month day club, however. She
enjoys solid foods more and more. She is on all stage 1 foods. In
the morning she gets some rice cereal and fruit, in the evening
it's rice cereal and vegetables, and during the day it's treats like
plain cheerios or bread. She likes to say "Ba-ba" when she is happy and
"Ma-ma" when she is sad. When she eats she occasionally says "Num".
She likes to play with her toys, play the keys of the piano. Her hair
is extremely long in the back, so it looks like a mullet, and long on
top, but she hates to have it played with so mostly it just hangs in
her eyes unless I fix it while she is sleeping in my arms. She
does not sleep through the night, and in fact seems to be getting
worse. But I recently decided that if I'm the one to stay away
for an hour feeding her, Mark can be the one to go get her. After 12
years and 6 kids, you'd think I'd hit on that earlier, and parts of me
feel guilty. (Obviously not enough to go back to status quo!) She is
still very much a Mommy's girl, and still very much loved! 
Reese has another tooth! Once again there were no
symptoms other then a grumpy night on the 26th. When she woke up
on the 27th, there it was. Really there isn't that much else to
update, she seems to have gotten all her milestones in for a while. She
sleeps through the night occasionally, and does seem to be on the
verge of dropping one of her naps. It is happening later and
later in the afternoon, to the point where it is throwing her whole
night off schedule. She has disliked baths for a while, but last
week discovered 'splashing' and loves that. She still doesn't
like anything besides oatmeal or rice cereal. But really
breast milk is supposed to be the mail nutritional source for the first
year, so we're laid-back about that. 
Our little sweetheart is changing so much
everyday. It's a busy time of updates for her baby book (and if I
could in fact, find time to update it, I would be frantically filling
in information! As it is, I am really good about putting
everything on her web page, so that some free day I'll be able to fill
it all in accurately. Reese turned 7 months old yesterday.
We don't have a well baby checkup for a while, so her height and weight
are inaccurate at best. But she is around 20-21 pounds and 29
inches. We
can see her next tooth coming up, so it won't be long before she has 2
pearly whites. Last night I was a bad mom and let her have a few
tastes of ice cream. I am thinking that as much as she enjoyed
it, she woke up at about 1:00 AM screaming in pain, hunched over.
I could hear a lot of gas moving around in her stomach, and every time
she burped she'd start hollering all over again. I gave her some
Mylecon, and she went back to sleep and slept soundly until after
8:00. 
for long. She
has been pulling up for a
while, but has become really proficient at it recently. She
still struggles to get down on her own though, and sometimes chooses to
just fall to get there. Ouch! She also started cruising
along furniture, and sometimes is brave enough to let go of one
furniture to reach for another. This doesn't always have good
results. As you can see, Reese also likes to crawl into her
exersaucer, just like all the kids have.
Reese has had a busy 3 weeks since the last update.
She spent the Holidays in pretty Christmas dresses, and as such didn't
really progress on her crawling. This was definitely fine with
us, as we had so much to do and so many things lying around.
After New Years, however, she is back into her cute outfits and has
become proficient at crawling. She even crawls to the couch and
pulls up. (We take the cushion off to keep her more safe. She
tend to tumble fairly soon after pulling up and taking the cushion off
keeps her down a little lower.)
Due to Dr. Olson's daughter having a baby, she took some
time off so that Reese's 4 month well baby checkup took place at 5
months (Nov. 21st). Reese did very well. You can see her
stats at the bottom of the page. She also did well with her
vaccinations. 
but I can get her to
giggle by pretending I am a mad dog snarling and barking. I did
go too far though, and it scared her. Her stranger anxiety is
getting pretty bad. Once I was asked to give a prayer at
church and a lady offered to hold her. When I was done Reese was
stiff as a board with her arms held out, red faced, but so afraid that
she couldn't even cry, until she was in my arms and then she let it all
out. She loves to sit in her exersaucer and just bounce and spin
and play. She likes to sit on the floor, but doesn't last long as
she gets down on her stomach on purpose to play and *crawl*. On
Monday Dec. 10th I took her outside to play in the snow. She was
fine until I took off her mitten to let her touch it, and after that it
was enough! She is still solely on breast milk, but should be
starting solids next week. When she nurses she insists on having one of
her fingers in my mouth, or her whole fist! She is very ready, visually
interested by the rest of us eating. 
