1 month stats

Here are the girls before we went to the doctor.

Here is one of just Zoey in her cute coat.

Zoey checked out well.  She is 10 pounds, 2 ounces and 23 inches long.  The doctor said she looked like a 2 month old.  She is definitely gaining weight well.  She is pretty much the same as Sam at this age in terms of growth.  Let's hope she keeps it up instead of dropping percentiles.  Zoey is a champion eater, I think even more than Sam, but that could also be because she has a tendency to want to snack a lot.

1 month AND 4 weeks!

Some recent pictures.  In daddy's hands.

 In the cute new outfit I got on clearance with a coupon at Old Navy :) It has elephants on it.

The girls in pink.  Sam really likes Zoey to coordinate with her.

Our friend Sara made ladybug hats for the girls.  I wanted a picture, but cooperation was not high.  So here is what we got.

This set up was Sam's idea.

And here is Zoey's 1 month shot, which also falls on the day she is 4 weeks old.

Déjà vu

When Zoey was first born I thought she looked so much like Sam, it was crazy.  Obviously I now see her as Zoey, but I thought this comparison was a good one.  Zoey has a longer face for sure, Sam's was very round.  But they are definitely related :)  It will be interesting to see how Zoey changes.  She has super light blonde eyebrows like Sam did, so Zoey may end up with lighter hair.  Zoey's eyes are more slate blue and less piercing blue like Sam's are.

Both girls are doing well.  Zoey eats like a champ.  Zoey is also sleeping a bit better, although she is a night owl and Sam is an early riser.  But I am getting stretches of 3 or so hours on a more regular basis.  Sam is enjoying Spring Break.  Nick took her on a daddy/daughter breakfast date this morning so I could sleep in.  Zoey did not really cooperate, but I did get a bit more sleep in 15 minute increments.  

Sam's imagination has been impressive for awhile and is such fun to watch.  She pretends to nurse and burp her dolls, copying exactly what I do down to the side.  She picked up a little info about having babies, she knows you have to push them out.  The other day she had 5 at the same time and Nick or I had to catch them.  This morning she was pretending to be her teacher, Miss Kristy, and was playing games with her classmates and sending them to time out when they did not listen.  She always behaves at school and has not been sent to time out, but it must have made an impression on her.  Later when she was playing with Nick she picked up a paint brush and was pretending to paint him.  He asked what color and she said blue, then purple, and then see through.  Gotta love it.  

Happy St. Patty's Day!!!

Nick and I love St. Pattys day.  We hope everyone has a great day.

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
And rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Grandparents = Love!

Here are some recent close-ups of Zoey.  She still has the broken blood vessels, but they are fading.  She is alert more and doing better about sleeping at night.  Of course she stays up late and Sam gets up early, but it is still much better.

We had a pretty busy weekend.  My dad came in Thursday to pick up my mom.  Sue and Roger also came in late Thursday, they got delayed and did not end up landing until 2 am.  They had asked my parents to stay so we could all be together since the last time had been when Nick got his PhD in May 2009.  But since we had only 1 extra bed, it may for some creative sleeping arrangements.  Nick and I slept on the air mattress in our work out room.  My parents wanted to take it, but I really wanted mom to take Sam in the morning, so it made more sense to put them in our room.  Of course, this was a better idea before the air mattress sprung a leak and Nick I ended up on the floor a few times through out the night.  But other than that, it was a great time.  Sam and Zoey got spoiled by tons of attention.  And we had some great conversations.  Feeding everyone was a challenge with not going out and everyone here for a friday in lent.  But we had some great meals and Nick did a lot of the cooking, what a treat.  He even made triple layer chocolate mousse cake, yummy!  My parents left Saturday and Sue and Roger left Sunday, so we are now on our own as a family of four.  Sam has mostly adjusted.  She has her moments from being a bit more tired and off schedule and we are a bit less patient being so tired, but she is such a great big sister and she even slept in until 7:50 today, which was such a treat.  So now we just have to get through the next few weeks as we work on a sleep schedule and getting to the point we can take Zoey out.

Grammy with the girls.

 Double the love!

 Papa and Zoey.

 Poppi and Zoey.

 Grammy and Zoey.

 Playing with Poppi.

 Grammy brought this awesome game that Sam loves.

Busy days

Things are going pretty well.  Zoey is still figuring out sleeping and often likes to cluster feed at night, which is rough.  Night before last she fed 10 times between 10 pm and 8 am, often only on one side, but she did not want to stay awake for the second.  And she slept through a double diaper change.  Last night she cluster fed and then was up most of 1 to 5.  Yikes!  I can still get a couple of hours in the morning, since Mom can take Zoey.  Not sure how next week will be.  

Here are a bunch of pictures.

A little smile :)

Proud Dad

Proud Nana doing double duty

Close up in the blanket Zoey's second cousin made.  Amazing!

Sam loves holding Zoey.

Our first walk in the sit and stand stroller.

Some time in the swing to get some indirect light.

Sister floor time.  Sam loves when I put Zoey down with her.

My sweet girls.

A close-up.  Zoey still has red spots on her eyes from blood vessels, guess I squeezed too hard.

What a cute outfit.

Playing Xbox with daddy.

Since flu and RSV are so bad, we have to keep Zoey out of crowds, so we are staying home a lot.  We try to do some fun things for Sam.  Here we are doing pudding paint.

Still loves dress up.  

Feeding the doll she got as a big sister gift.

Sam's school had Dr. Suess week which included backwards/inside out day.  Sam refused to wear the shirt backwards since she wanted to see Hello Kitty.  But her skirt is backwards.

So sweet!

Sisters!

Sam is ecstatic about being a big sister.  We did not get Zoey back until kind of late Thursday night, so we knew a visit would end up with a rough night for my parents.  So my mom put Sam to bed and Nick went to stay at home so they could visit.  He said she was singing Zoey over and over again, literally singing her praises.  She did get to visit the next morning and was so cute, saying things like, "Papa, my Zoey moved her hand" or "Nana did you hear my Zoey sneeze".  She is definitely head over heels in love with her baby.  She really wanted a sister, so that may be part of it, but I think she is just a great big sister.  She is intense at times and is having to learn a lot of new rules, but she is super helpful and so sweet.

Here is Zoey grabbing Sam's finger.

A kiss for her baby sister.

There's my sister.

I do not think I have ever seen Sam jump so much as when we finally got home from the hospital.  Sam was so cute, she read Zoey a book to calm her down.

Here is the video, a bit long but cute :)

Zoey finally is off the billibed as of Wednesday morning, which is a relief.  I am pretty disappointed that she still ended up with jaundice.  I tried everything I could to prevent it; no drugs, we let the cord pulse, I fed her right away; but our babies seem destined to turn yellow.  And part of the reason for the lights is because Sam had such a bad case so it was better to be conservative and get rid of it.  But Zoey benefited in other ways from all the different things I did this time and we are through the jaundice now!  And she was down to 8 lbs 1 ounce, but as of yesterday had started going back up and was at 8 lbs 3 ounces.  She continues to be a champion eater and last night she even slept pretty well between feedings, which was wonderful!