Who's Who?

When Gracie was born we all thought she looked identical to her big sister.  Over the past two months, though they still favor one another, Gracie has definitely developed her own look.  I know I'm their momma, but I think they are the most beautiful little girls ever :)

Here are my little newborns:

 

Ella - November 7, 2009

 

Gracie - February 17, 2012

Ella - 2 months

Gracie - 2 months

Ella - 2 months

 

 Gracie - 2 months

 

Ella - 2 months

 

Gracie - 2 months

One thing is certain, Gracie has a better double chin than her big sister did :)  I can't wait to go to Gracie's 2 month appointment this week so I can compare their weights and percentiles.  These girls are so much fun!

 

The things big sisters do...

and the things little sisters must tolerate.

Gracie couldn't stop looking at her new bling

 Even Gracie's giraffe got accessorized

 It's a good thing we love this big sister so much :)

Happy 2 months my littlest love

Miss Gracie,

Oh my love, how sweet you are.  I can't believe two months have passed since we brought you home.  It really does go faster the second time, as if the first baby didn't grow fast enough!

Some things about you at two months:

You have gained a whopping 4 pounds - you are a chubby girl and I ADORE your rolls.  A double chin has never looked so good!

You tend to alternate with your big sister when it comes to sleeping well at night - one night you sleep well but Ella doesn't, the next night you are up every two hours and your sister is out cold.  I guess you two are doing us a favor??  But last night you did sleep 8 hours so this Mommy couldn't be happier.

Speaking of sleeping, you've decided that 10 pm is your official bedtime and not a minute earlier.  If we put you to bed before that, you will be up in less than 30 minutes.  You were sleeping a total of about 12 hours at night - to bed at 10, up around 2, again around 5, and then you'd often go back down until 9, sometimes even 10:00.  Then you would take a good 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon.  Notice I'm using past tense. I guess you decided you were being too easy on your Mommy.  Now you are down by 10 and up by 8'ish.  And naps, well they tend to be little cat naps now days.  And here I was thinking I finally had a good sleeper on my hands.  But seriously, you already sleep better than your big sister so I'm not complaining.



I hate to jinx things, but you seem to have surpassed the fussy, gassy stage for the most part.  That is a great relief.


You are so full of smiles when you wake up in the morning - it's hands down my favorite time with you.  Ella's too.  Your big sister and I love to hold you in the mornings and see who can make you smile - you don't make us work too hard at it.  You are pretty generous with your smiles sweet girl.

You love bath time.  As soon as I lay you in the tub you start kicking your legs.  Your big sister loves to "help" but we have to watch her because sometimes "helping" means trying to pour water on you.  But as always, you're a good sport.

You still guzzle your bottles like you haven't eaten in days - maybe that's where your cheeks come from :)


Mommy has pretty much switched completely to bottles - I couldn't seem to keep up with this growing girl once you hit your 6 week growth spurt.


You are by far the best little snuggler (besides your big sister, of course).  When you are sleepy you lay on my shoulder and just nuzzle.  When you can't fall asleep there you just keep moving your head from side to side trying to get comfortable.  That's when Mommy turns to the yoga ball.  It gets you every time.


You hate the swing, much like your sister did when she was a baby.  You will, however, sit in your bouncy seat while Mommy puts on makeup or blow dries her hair.  I am so grateful for this.


You are only 2 months but are barely fitting into your 3 month clothes - gotta love those cute rolls!


Here are some of my favorite pictures of you at 2 months:

My little love, we have enjoyed you so much over the past two months.  You've added so much joy to our home.  I can't wait to watch your little personality develop and see all the fun things you will soon learn.  I pray you will continue to be a healthy and happy little girl.  May God continue to bless us with your sweet smiles.  We love you to the moon and back.

Sisters

There's nothing better than having a sister.  To this day, mine are my best friends and I'm not sure what I'd ever do without them. 

The moment we found out that our first baby was a girl, all I could think was how I hoped she would have a sister one day.  God answered my prayers with sweet miss Gracie.

Ella had been looking forward to having Gracie come "home from the hospital" for awhile before she actually made her debut.  I was a little concerned because Ella was insistent that she was going to have TWO baby sisters - Layla AND Gracie.  No matter how much I tried convincing her, she never waivered.  I'd say to her "Ella, are you going to help Mommy take care of your baby sister when she gets here?"  Her response was always something like "Mommy, you can hold Layla and I will hold Gracie." I was worried she would be one disappointed girl come c-section day when she only got to meet one baby.  Thankfully, after she met her little sister, she seemed content with just one baby.

I can't wait to see them interact more.  For now, their interactions consist mostly of Ella getting as close as she possibly can to Gracie and saying "hiiiiiii gracie!!" which sounds more like "greasy."  It's the best.  Poor Gracie just cringed in the beginning.  She's grown rather used to her big sister now.  One thing is certain, Gracie does love to hear her sister's voice.  If she's crying, Ella's voice can sometimes calm her down - except when its about 10 decibels too loud.

I've tried so hard to get a good picture of the two of them, but most of them usually end up like this: (but that's ok, I've decided these are the priceless ones after all)

Not sure what kind of face Gracie is making

Looks like Gracie is taking a punch to the face

Ella was saying "Mommy she's leaning on me"

Kisses are endless around here

Ella "helping get Gracie warm" - at least she left her face uncovered!

Ella LOVES to hold Gracie's hand - we're working hard on doing this gently.

Needless to say, there is not a lack of love between these girls.  

The adventures of having two little girls...

These days in the Nahidi house are some rather crazy days. I have to laugh at our adventures, because if I don't, I find myself getting easily frustrated with the chaos, the noise, and the lack of any kind of routine. So I am trying hard to laugh, to soak up my girls in this stage of life, because I know that like each stage we've gone through until now, they pass far too quickly.

For instance,

Ella has decided that the pantry is her new personal kitchen and often when I'm nursing Gracie, I can find my eldest hiding out in the pantry "pretending" as she says. In her little mind "pretending" has involved emptying an entire oatmeal cannister, pouring out a bag of rice into small tupperware bowls, peeling the labels off of far too many cans (we are about to be having "surprise" dinners as we begin using these canned goods!), and peeling onions. Maybe it's sleep deprivation preventing my mind from working well, but I haven't figured out how to block off the pantry just yet. There's no lock on the door and our many many baby gates are too big for that door. To prove my point, a friend suggested the child-proof door knob covers - now why didn't I think of that 3 or 4 weeks ago??! No sleep I tell you, it can make your brain do crazy things, or in my case, just cause your brain to be extra slow at problem solving (not super helpful to this new momma of two!)

Ella has been able to open the fridge and freezer herself for quite some time now.  This can be a problem when I'm nursing - she manages to open the gate I've set up to contain her and rummage in the fridge or freezer.  One day, I walk into the kitchen after changing Gracie's diaper and imagine my surprise as I find this:

Realizing she'd been caught, she looks at me and says "she wants ice cream Mommy."  Oh yes, I see that my dear.

Other things my busy two year old has been doing: she's pretty much potty trained herself with zero pushing from me.  Before Gracie was born, Ella had been using the potty on her own occasionally, but not consistently. I didn't want to push her too far because I was afraif she'd lose interest. Also, many had told me that even if she was potty trained before her baby sister came, she'd likely revert back once the baby came, so I stood back and just let her do her thing. These days, however, I find her running around fully clothed but missing one thing - her diaper. I usually don't notice this until I've stepped in a puddle she's left me (okay that's only happened twice). Or more often than not, I walk into the bathroom and find this:

a diaper on the floor and no toddler in sight. She just sheds that diaper as soon as I'm not looking. If I'm lucky, its just a wet diaper, but sometimes this Momma isn't that lucky. Sometimes they're dirty diapers laying on the floor. Then I have to track down my toddler and do some cleaning and some discussing as to why we must ask mommy to help with the dirties. On one particularly special occasion (Grammie was lucky enough to witness this one), I walk into my bedroom to find Ella completely naked watching a cartoon and a huge, I mean HUGE, pile of poop on the floor. The diaper was MIA. I couldn't really blame her for wanting to take that one off! So now I find myself cleaning up poop and "peep" off of the floor from a toddler and two puppies. Someone remind me that I will miss these days please ;-)

Ella has also decided that she wants to dress herself.  If she can managed to get Daddy upstairs with her, she usually comes down looking something like this:

The shirt/pants might change, but the common denominator is layers.  No idea why this girl likes to wear 12 layers when we live in this weather.

Her other obesession is shoes.  I can honestly say she did not get this from me.  I think we can blame her aunties for this love.  Ella probably changes her shoes at least 20 times a day.  I'm not kidding.  You can usually find her in the laundry room floor switching out her shoes.  Sometimes she has on matching ones, often not.  But one thing is certain, they are almost always on the wrong feet.  (Only lately has she allowed me to switch them for her!)

Needless to say, Ella has not allowed herself to fall prey to boredom while Mommy nurses Gracie. I'm sure this next week will be full of even more adventures in our house.  It's a little crazy, but I wouldn't trade these days for anything, tired or not.

Meet our newest Blessing

Oh goodness how life has changed in the past two weeks! We are so excited to introduce you to our precious Layla Grace, or "Gracie" as we've been calling her:

Layla Grace Nahidi
February 17th, 2012
9:00 a.m.
7 pounds 10 ounces
19.5 inches

Photo courtesy of Lacey Butler - she spent an entire day taking pics of our sweet Gracie. I will post more of these precious pictures soon. She did such an awesome job, they are worthy of their own separate post :)

Happy Birthday Gracie!

God blessed us abundantly with a second beautiful baby girl...

Layla Grace

February 17, 2012

9:00 a.m.

7 pound 10 ounces

19.5 inches long

Here is your story sweet girl: (warning, this is a somewhat long and detailed story of Gracie's first day, more for myself to have a record of it before I forget!  Feel free to skip to the pictures!)

This pregnancy was so much easier than the first. Maybe it had something to do with everything being familiar, you know, less of a shock when you see your body go through such crazy changes. The unending nausea, hunger, and growing isn't as big of a surprise the second time around. Or maybe sweet Gracie was just taking it easy on her Momma - I like to think she was already portraying her laid back "second child" personality. I had less nausea with Gracie than I did with Ella, my back didn't ache 24/7, my hunger was a little more controlled (as in I didn't have to eat PB sandwiches at 4am this go round!), and best of all, I gained MUCH less weight with my Gracie. Oh beloved second child, I owe you already :)

All along I assumed I would be having a c-section since I had one with Ella. My new doctor just so happened to specialize in VBACs (vaginal birth after cesarean section) but never acted as if it were an option for me throughout pregnancy. I honestly didn't mind, considering the thought of a regular delivery scared me to death - call me crazy, but I was perfectly comfortable with a c-section. Well as my due date drew near, my doctor could not believe how low Gracie was positioned and that I was already starting to dilate. She told me I could opt for a VBAC if I wanted to. She also told me that Gracie could come "any day now" - this was at my 36 week appointment. Well, 3 or 4 weeks later I had only progressed to 1.5cm so the decision to stick with the planned c-section was pretty obvious (whew!).

The pregnancy flew by and before we knew it, we were sitting at home the night before we were to meet our Gracie. My family came in that evening since the surgery was scheduled for 8am the next day. I was getting so nervous and anxious about the surgery that I couldn't sit still. I just ran around the house doing random cleaning, laundry, packing, whatever I could to avoid sitting still and thinking about the surgery. All the memories from my first c-section were suddenly at the forefront of my mind - the pain, oh goodness, I wasn't ready for that again.

We attempted to go to bed, but I'm pretty sure neither Nolan or I slept at all! We had our alarms set for 5:30am since we had to be at the hospital by 7:00. If you know me, you know I don't make it a habit of getting up before 7 - I guess this was as good a time as any to make an exception! Well 5:30 came quick and unfortunately Ella decided to wake up sometime after 6 - not according to my plan. Luckily we got her settled with Grammie and some cartoons and off we went, running a little late, but out the door none the less.

We got to the hospital, checked in, and were sent to the the pre-op room where they prepped me for surgery. Talk about nerves - I don't do well early in the morning with no food in my stomach. Usually the first thing I do when I wake up is grab some DP or iced tea, sadly I could have neither.  As we sat in pre-op, the sleepless night hit me and I could hardly keep my eyes open.  Thankfully, our families arrived shortly after.  Just knowing they were there helped to calm our nerves.

As the nurse was going over the procedure with me she told me that normally I would be getting a drug called Duramorph, but there was a shortage so I would be getting something else.  Fine by me, I assumed the alternative must be just as good or they wouldn't give it to me.  Then the anesthesiologist came in to go over his part.  He proceeded to tell me that he found two vials of Duramorph that morning and I and the lady ahead of me would be receiving it.  The look on the nurse's face was priceless.  She said "oh you're so lucky!"  I didn't think much of it until later.

Finally it was time to go meet Gracie.  I was so nervous about going into the OR and  getting the epidural without Nolan being there.  It was so surreal being in there.  I remember watching them count all of the surgical tools, sponges, and gauze and thinking how glad I was that they do that!  The epidural was not bad at all, and before I knew it, Nolan was there.  My doctor came in and looked at the iv and said "oh you got Duramorph, I thought we were out."  (Again, no idea why this was a big deal).

The surgery began and before we knew it, we got to hear our precious girl's cry for the first time.  It's the best sound ever.  The moment I saw that beautiful little girl and her head full of black hair I had flashbacks to two years ago when we met her big sister.  She looked just like Ella! I remember when they held her up for the first time, I thought "wow she's so much smaller than Ella was."  Boy was I wrong!  Miss Gracie was actually seven ounces BIGGER than her sister.  I guess I just forgot how tiny they look as newborns.

Thankfully, we remembered to bring the camera to the OR this time ;-) so Nolan was able to capture plenty of Gracie's first moments.  The nurses cleaned her up and brought her over to me again, she was perfect, so beautiful.  While my doctor finished me up, they took Nolan and Gracie back to a recovery area to wait on me.  None of our family got to see her for awhile, which was different than with Ella.  Once I was back in the recovery area with Nolan and Gracie I was amazed at how different I felt than with my first c-section.  Last time I was in so much more pain.  I'm not sure if it really was because of the Duramorph but I was actually not uncomfortable.  After Gracie got a bath and I was able to nurse her for the first time, they began wheeling us to our room.  I was doing good until we started moving.  Then the nausea hit.  Right as we rounded the corner and my family was in sight, I felt like I was going to be sick.  Throwing up after a c-section is not fun.  But I'll take that any day over the pain I felt the first time around.  I also was more awake this time, not narcoleptic like last time.  So I feel like I actually got to enjoy everything afterwards.  I'm guessing I didn't have the better medicine the first time?? I don't know, I just know it was soooo much less painful, and every nurse or doctor that came into my room said how lucky I was to have gotten the Duramorph.  I agree VERY much. 

I didn't get to see Ella's reaction when she saw her baby sister for the first time, so I'm thankful we have some pictures of their first meeting.  I know Ella was so excited to finally meet you, sweet Gracie.  We all were!

The next few days in the hospital were filled with visitors, flowers, and not so good food.  My mom brought Ella to visit each day, we had missed her so much!

Gracie loved meeting her cousins, who LOVED coming to the hospital - I wish I had pictures of the play room on our floor.  Ella and her cousins practically lived in there!  It was so nice having a place for them to go burn off some energy while the adults got to visit and hold Gracie.  Such a great idea!

After four nights in the hospital it was time to go home.  While I appreciate being there and having help from the nurses and especially from the lactation consultants, I was beyond ready to go home.  That room was feeling pretty small and I was super restless and missing my Ella.

So, home we went.  And the adventure of having two sweet daughters at home began.  I am forever grateful for my mom's help over that next week.