Jillian @ 3 Months

I love my baby girl!

My sister is getting married today, so I'll be weighing and measuring Jill later this week (hopefully...we're also going to potty train her brothers...oye!)

Jill is determined to sit up. She loves watching her brothers and am pretty sure she's going to master sitting on her own in the near future. If she's propped up, she will pull herself up. This is also happening in the infant carrier/car seat. I'm not ready for her to want to sit up more than it allows...I thought it was bad when the boys outgrow theirs at 6 months!

Within the last week, we officially stopped swaddling Jill at night and she began doing 180s in her crib. Not only does this mean she's mobile, but that she's going to be a crazy sleeper like Alex. Kinda bummed she's not a snuggler like Tony, but that's no surprise since she will also put herself to sleep by sucking her two middle fingers on her right hand. A tad independent this one is.

Her teething was getting kind of bad...she was chewing her fist all afternoon, everyday for a week when I finally decided to try a Baltic amber teething necklace. Within 24 hours of putting it on, she stopped chewing her fist and started doing her finger sucking to sleep on her own. I'm a believer! She started drooling a bit this week, so I won't be surprised if she gets her first tooth within the next month. She was born with bulging gums, so I'm pretty sure she'll be beating Tony's early first tooth at 5 months.

She's been handling wedding week festivities and the disruption to her routine like a champ. The only time she'll really cry is if I miss getting her in her jammies at 7 (a time she has designated, not me). She has set her own schedule and I can pretty much tell time by her...it's kind of awesome.

She started playing with toys and enjoying her fish jumper this week. She had a growth spurt last weekend and it was definitely noticed in her development, both physically and cognitively!  She's in her last week or two in 6 month clothes...I can't believe it! She's already outgrowing some stuff lengthwise and it's making me a little sad. And of course, she's in size 3 diapers. Baby girl has some junk in the trunk! 

Where the first 3 months with the boys were the hardest time for me, both because I was a new mom and because there were two of them, I am completely enjoying this fleeting time of Jill's infancy. She's definitely left the newborn stage and moved into babyhood already. She is an easy baby on top of my twin training, so it is rather often that we sort of forget she's there. When she does want to be held, I am never annoyed (thank you to my friends Ergo and Moby) because I know it won't be long at all until she's running around with her brothers.

Jillian @ 2 Months

Her 2 month appointment was yesterday. Her stats:

13lbs 5 oz (a nice even 4 pounds since birth)
24 inches (2 inches since birth)

She took her shots like a champ and only cried for a minute or two.

She keeps sleeping longer and longer stretches at night. She usually falls asleep between 7:30-8. Sleeps until 5ish, eats and goes back to sleep. Occasionally wakes up around 2-3 to eat but will then go back to sleep until 7. Don't hate me too much...she's Tony-i-didn't-sleep-through-the night-until-i-was-two's sister. 

She is content just looking around and people watching when she's awake during the day. She'll squawk when she gets bored.

I still am having a bit of a hard time getting some place at a specific time, but I've pretty much got my routine down and have had many solo outings. I'm confident until Jill becomes mobile...then I'll probably have another period of panic.

Jill's nicknames include: Jilly Bean, Bean, and Baby G (as in girl)

Her brothers are very protective of her when other kids want to check her out. They rock her car seat and play with her toys in the car when we stop at red lights to entertain her. Love them all!

Jillian @ 1 Month

So after month, it's safe to declare Jill "the best baby ever"!

Since she was a week old, Jill has been going to sleep for the night between 8-9, sleeping until 2-3, waking for a feeding and diaper change, sleeping until 6 for another meal and diaper change and then starting her daytime pattern of nap, eat, awake, repeat. I am getting more sleep than Strikers who is on Alex & Tony duty at night.

She really doesn't cry...just squawks when she's hungry, in need of a diaper change, or bored. She's recently started spending more time awake and just likes to watch her brothers and look around.

She loves to be in the Ergo, but hates sitting in her infant carrier car seat when she's awake. She does fine in the car, as long as the car is moving. She is a snuggle bug and loves to be cuddled up with warm blankets. She's reached the end of 3 month clothes already. Her one piece outfits with feet won't fit her much longer. Same with onesies. Length is going to be an issue.

She came dangerously close to rolling from her tummy to back yesterday...so not ready for that yet!

Happy 2 Weeks Baby Girl!

Yeah, I am in love...and she is the world's easiest baby. I really hope that doesn't change and that we don't have to pay for it too terribly later (still very scared to have a teenage daughter).

At her 2 week doctor's appointment she weighed a whopping 10lbs 1 ounce. This is particularly impressive given that she weighed 9lbs 3oz at 4 days and has been sleeping like a champ! Sunday night she slept 8 hours straight, woke up once to eat at 5 am, then slept on and off until noon. I got WAY more sleep than Striker (sorry babe!). She's also managed to speed up her eating time to 10-15 minutes already. This is particularly helpful for me and her impatient 2 year old brothers. She's in the 90th percentile for height & weight...yeah, I grow kids big :)

Jill's two week birthday marked Striker's return to work. In anticipation of the boys' daddy withdrawals, I lined up a full schedule of visitors: auntie B, followed by their twin girlfriends, followed by Oma, then grandma. They survived without any daddy meltdowns. We'll see how they do on Tuesday...

Jillian Anneliese is Here!

Finally! ;)

February 20, 2012
5:30pm
9 pounds 5 ounces
22 inches

I will post her birth story later. In the meantime, we're in love and the boys are doing very well adjusting to all of the upset in their regular routine and getting used to having a little sister. I'll get pictures of them giving her kisses eventually. It's adorable, and makes me one proud mommy!

Rachel Made Me Do This

She didn't really, but the title is a throw back to the original blog title...which I will be renaming again soon...third time's the charm, right?

Without going into much detail, Rachel and I have gone through so much together in our desire to become mothers that getting to share being pregnant with our daugthers at the same time means more to us than anyone can know.

Here we are on December 4, 2011...when we thought we were big and waddling...hahaha! This was the day after Jill did her first drop and yet, look how high she is...

Here we are a few weeks ago on January 30, 2012 in what we thought would be our last prego picture together...

And here we are today at 38 weeks and 40.5 weeks...

At this point, we're hoping our girls share their birthday. 

It should be noted that we did not purposely stand on the same side in all three pictures...apparently this is just how we stand together...I'm now going to search for any previous pictures of us together to see if this holds true...

#3 - Week 40

Got a little festive with the belly this week since I can't believe I have 4 weeks of pictures in this shirt. And seriously, this better be the last one...though there's a chance for ONE more. Disneyland did nothing except exhaust me. I insisted on a little bonus monitoring on Friday since Jill had been VERY chill (for her) for several days in a row. When my doctor couldn't prove me wrong with his in office monitoring (thanks Jill!), we got to go to the hospital for a NST and AFI. Jill of course decided to be her usual soccer playing self for the nice lady in fetal diagnostics, who said all of the right things to make me believe that I wasn't crazy, and my doctor was a jerkface who thought he knew everything. I think Striker was reassured that the nice lady said everything about a VBAC that I had been saying and of course rested our fears that Jill would somehow be a boy since we hadn't had an ultrasound since week 18. While she was only a tech and not allowed to tell us such things, she did leave the glorious crotch shot up for a very long time for us to see (knowing that we were pros at ultrasounds having had so many with the boys). I love the ladies in Fetal Diagnostics at St Jude!

While we went to the hospital unsure if we'd end up staying, I left confident that Jill was cooking nicely and prepared to just wait her out. Next dr appointment is on Friday. It's most likely going to also be D-Day...as in scheduling Jill's formal eviction...I think I'm going to beg Striker to come (like he hasn't already missed enough work this week and he's not busy as heck right now) just to see how Dr jerkface's attitude changes...as I suspect it might. Plus I want Striker included in scheduling his daughter's birthday and how her eviction will go...which is a really weird concept for me.