About Us
We are Kris, Kristina, Annika and James. This is our family blog.

Pictures

E-mail
Archives
My Friends
Other Great Sites
Credits
Design: Blogfrocks
Photo: inertia stock x.chng
Powered by Blogger
 
Monday, November 29, 2004
 
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I tried to last Friday but Blogger was being slow and I don't have a lot of time to wait for webpages to load, ya know?! :)

Annika is doing great! I went back to work last Wednesday for 1 day then had 2 off for Thanksgiving. That was a tough day. I cried (bawled actually) while feeding her that morning. Then I cried again as I left the house. I was okay at work until I saw my friend Michelle. Then I broke down crying again. I didn't have a lot to do since so many people were gone on vacation. So I went through all my e-mail instead. I also pumped three times and that seemed to go well too. Hopefully it will go well again today and for a long time. Annika did great at home though. She took the bottle really well from Kris and slept almost the whole day. She was happy to see me when I got home that night too. She smiled really big at me. Later that night when she got tired I put her in her swing, where she normally takes naps, and she cried. I picked her up and she fell asleep in my arms right away. She we cuddled and napped together for a little bit before we went to see Aunt Carrie and Uncle Adam. They had a brief layover in Minneapolis in their Thanksgiving travel plans.

I just called home now and she has been awake this morning since 7:30 am - just going down for a nap now! That's a long stretch for her! She also drank 4 ounces this morning. Kris is going to keep track of how much she drinks so I know how much I need to pump each day to keep up with her.

I weighed her last night (the unofficial way) and she was 13.4 pounds! She just keeps growing! Good baby!

I have more pictures to upload. Hopefully I can do that soon.

Posted by Kristina at 11/29/2004 11:22:00 AM

(0) Comments

Link To This Post

Friday, November 19, 2004
 
A while ago I posted Annika's typical routine. She's grown a lot since then and her routine has changed a bit. Here is a typical Annika day now:

8:30-9:00 am Wake up and eat and play
10:00-10:30 am Go down for nap
1-2 pm Wake up from 3-4 hour nap, eat and play
3:30pm-4:00pm Go down for nap
5:00 pm Wake up and play
6:00 pm Eat
7:30-8:00 pm Go down for nap
8:30-9:00 pm Wake up, eat and play
10:00-10:30 pm Go to sleep
2:30-3:00 am Wake up to eat, go back to sleep
5:30-6:30 am Wake up to eat, go back to sleep
8:30-9:00 am Wake up and repeat

She still sleeps a lot. I've read babies her age should be awake for about 10 hours a day at this point. She's awake for maybe 8 or so. She's still only awake for a couple hours at a time though and then she needs to sleep again. She does really well at night though. Even though she's not sleeping through the night (5-6 hour stretches of sleep consistently - she does around 4 consistently), she's a very easy baby to put to sleep. At night when she gets tired and it's bedtime, she and I lay down on my bed and nurse. Then I lay her in her basket, put her pacifier in her mouth and she drifts off to sleep. Sometimes if the pacifier falls out, I need to put it back in and it can fall out numerous times before she's in a deep enough sleep to not care. Other times, like last night, I put the pacifier in and she was done for the night. I know Kris and I are lucky to have such a good baby. Then during the night when she wakes, she eats and goes right back to sleep. There's no awake time to play or anything - just eat and sleep. That's good for Mommy, especially when I have to go back to work on Wednesday.

I have to tell you the sweetest thing that she does at night. Sometimes, she gets riled up when the pacifier falls out of her mouth. So, to soothe her, I put the pacifier back in, hold it gently in her mouth with my thumb and put the palm of my hand on her cheek with my fingers in her hair. This calms her down instantly and she usually drifts off to sleep right away. The sweetest part though is that when I put my hand on her, she puts her little tiny hands around my wrist and on my hand and holds me. Of course, I stay like this until she's in a good, deep sleep and then I let go and go to sleep myself. She is just the sweetest little baby! We are so, so lucky!

Posted by Kristina at 11/19/2004 11:52:00 AM

(0) Comments

Link To This Post

Thursday, November 18, 2004
 
We've had a busy week here at our house. Last Saturday was my first Pampered Chef show since Annika was born. It was in Cologne so Kris and Annika and I went over to Grandma Pat and Merv's house for an early dinner. Then, during the show, Kris and Annika went to Grandpa Dan's house to play with him and Marcia. Annika did really well. She smiled and played and drank from her bottle. I had fun at my show. It was great! Then, as I was packing up I got a phone call from Kris asking where I was because I'd been gone for about 3 1/2 hours at that point. I could hear Annika crying in the background. So, I raced back to Grandpa Dan's house only to find Annika sleeping in Kris's arms. Turns out she just got overtired and had a meltdown. As soon as Kris calmed her and got her sleeping, she was fine. Silly baby.

Sunday, we went to church and then met Auntie Krystle and Pierce for breakfast. It was a nice, albeit quick breakfast.

Yesterday, Grandma Pat came over to our house after work. She was here for about 3 hours and got lots of Annika time in. While she played with Annika and got her to sleep in her arms, I headed for a bubble bath of my own. Ah, that was nice. Then Grandma Pat looked at the approximately 300 pictures we have of Annika. Yeah, I think we're a little overboard on the picture taking sometimes. But I just love looking at them all! After Grandma Pat left, Kris and I headed out shopping. We're looking to buy an elliptical trainer and either a free weight bench or a Bowflex/Crossbow type of weight machine. We don't have time to go to the gym anymore, especially with our new work schedules (me 7am-3:30pm, Kris 5-9pm) so we're turning our breakfast nook into a home gym. We're growing out of this townhome faster than we thought we would. Oh well. When we can afford to, we'll move. Until then, we'll make do.

Tonight, I have dinner with my girls - Mary and Amanda. So much to talk about! Then tomorrow night we may head out (Annika and I) to meet Kris when he has his football coaching meeting. We don't have much planned for this weekend that I can remember. And next week I go back to work and it's Thanksgiving already!!

Annika Developments:
Annika is growing so quickly! She's starting to grasp objects purposely. Instead of just flailing her arms and accidentally grabbing a rattle, my hair or a finger, she's now actually reaching for and grabbing what she sees. That's so exciting to see! She's grabbed her rattle, my hands, Kris's fingers and my hair - ouch! :)

OK, I have to go - someone's getting crabby and needs a nap!

Posted by Kristina at 11/18/2004 11:48:00 AM

(0) Comments

Link To This Post

Friday, November 12, 2004
 
Annika handled those shots like they were no big deal. She wasn't much fussier than usual at night. She didn't have any tenderness on her legs. She didn't have a fever at all. Yay! I was so glad. I was ready for a miserable evening with her not feeling well. Hopefully this is how the rest of her immunizations go. Yeah, I'm probably dreaming.

I'm uploading another 10 pictures today. That album is getting pretty big. I may have to start a new one when I hit 100 pictures or so.

Posted by Kristina at 11/12/2004 03:46:00 PM

(0) Comments

Link To This Post

Tuesday, November 09, 2004
 
We just got back from Annika's 2 month well baby check up. She has been declared a healthy, growing (obviously) baby. She is now 12 pounds, 15 ounces and 23 and 3/4 inches long which are both in the 95th percentile. Her head circumference was 39.2 cm. The doctor checked her heart, lungs, eyes, ears and hips. Then the doctor spent a while talking to me about Annika and her development (eating and sleeping habits, smiling, cooing, etc.) We also talked about my returning to work, the daycare situation (there will be none for a while), etc. She explained the vaccinations to me, both what they are and how they're given and also told me what to look for and who to call if there's any questions. Then she left and the nurse came back in to administer the 3 shots of 5 vaccines. I had to help hold her down (keep her legs from moving). Oh, the crying and the tears! Annika was most unhappy with the shots. The nurse left as quickly as she could (ha!) and I calmed Annika down. It took me quite a few minutes before she stopped crying. Then I dressed her and we came home. We'll spend lots of time cuddling tonight and hopefully she won't have any reactions.

Posted by Kristina at 11/09/2004 03:43:00 PM

(0) Comments

Link To This Post

Monday, November 08, 2004
 
I think we have success! Bottle success that is. This afternoon I pumped because Annika took a 4 hour nap and my body was a bit confused. Instead of freezing the milk like I usually do (the door of our freezer is almost full of milk) I just refrigerated it. Tonight, Kris made Annika a bottle while I went away (upstairs). Annika drank 2 ounces and didn't cry or fuss! Yay! She's downstairs with Kris playing right now. I'm so proud! And happy. This is a huge relief to me that it seems she and Kris will be okay when I go back to work. We'll keep giving her a bottle every other day or so. The first test will be this Saturday when I have a Pampered Chef show. It will be there first time solo. Yay! So, so happy!

Posted by Kristina at 11/08/2004 08:45:00 PM

(0) Comments

Link To This Post

Sunday, November 07, 2004
 
Today is Annika's 2 month birthday! Grandma Lona took a few pictures that I'll upload in a couple days. She's a huge baby! She seems so long now but I think that's because she's uncurled herself. Her doctor appointment is Tuesday so we'll see how long she is then. New things in Annika's world:
- She's had 3 bottles now. The second one was last Tuesday. That one didn't go so well. I think she was tired, plus the bottle wasn't the right temperature so she was just crabby and unhappy and didn't drink very much at all. She had her third either Thursday or Friday. That one went much better. We weren't sure what temperature it should be at so I pumped and Kris fed her that milk. That way we knew the milk was the correct temperature for her. I also completely left the room as well as didn't talk. We also used the 1 month + nipple instead of the newborn nipple. This third feeding went much better. She drank about 2 ounces before deciding she was done. I was happy with this since she'd eaten only about an hour before. I didn't want to wait to try the bottle when she was hungry because then she'd just be angry anyway. We'll try the bottle again tomorrow night and every couple days from here on out. I go back to work two weeks from Wednesday.
- Annika has a new friend! A big congratulations to Are and Jessie who had a baby girl today. She was 8 pounds and 52 cm (whatever that converts too in inches). We're still waiting on learning the name and getting some pictures. Annika won't be able to meet her friend until probably next summer though since Are and Jessie live in Denmark.

Posted by Kristina at 11/07/2004 09:39:00 PM

(0) Comments

Link To This Post

Tuesday, November 02, 2004
 
Annika had her first bottle last night. It went well, I guess. She drank about 1 ounce before declaring loud and clear that she had had enough. The look on her face though when Kris brought that bottle of milk to her was absolutely priceless. It was a "what the hell" kind of look. She knew better. Dad does not have milk. Mom does. What is Dad doing with milk? And what is this silicone nipple thing? At first she tried to drink from the bottle as if it was a breast. I think she got the hang of the bottle though because she drank for a bit from it like a champ. Before she screamed and cried that is. Me, I cried too. It was so hard watching her drink from a bottle. I don't know why. I mean, my brain knows she has to do this so that I can go back to work or so Kris and I could go out to dinner without her. But my heart. Oh, my heart just absolutely broke. Kris said I was blubbering. Of course, he said it in a concerned, loving way. It was more like, "Honey, are you OK? What's wrong? You're blubbering." I don't know if it was fear that she would never want to come back to me and the breast or if it was her losing some of her dependence on me or what. My mom warned me that this is just a taste of what going back to work will be like. Oy. Of course, I took pictures. I'll post those in a couple days. Now, if you have't done so already - go vote! I did. :)

Posted by Kristina at 11/02/2004 02:17:00 PM

(0) Comments

Link To This Post

Monday, November 01, 2004
 
Annika and I had another fun but lonely weekend without Daddy. Fortunately (actually unfortunately since the Vixen lost their first playoff game) Daddy's weekends away are over. We miss him! Friday after we dropped Kris off at the airport, we walked around the Mall of America for 3 hours. I was good and only bought 2 CDs. There were so many cute outfits I wanted to buy my precious baby! If only I were rich. Then we went to a girls only party for my friend Theresa's 30th birthday. We had a great evening just hanging out with the girls. Saturday Mary and Amanda came over to keep me company with adult conversation. I love you Annika, but you don't talk yet girl! And Sunday Kris was home at 2pm!

Here are some Annika highlights:
- She's good at finding her hands now and routinely sucks the middle two fingers (middle and ring) of her right hand. She may not suck her thumb, but might instead suck her fingers.
- Last Thursday night, Annika spent the first 3 hours of her night in her basket beside our bed instead of sleeping with us. And last night, she spent the first 6 hours in there. She woke up after 3, I fed her and then put her back in her basket. After her second feeding though, she wanted none of that basket anymore. Usually she sleeps with us because it's easier for me to feed her during the night that way. We'd like to transition her to her crib when she goes for longer periods (longer than 3 hours anyway). I have to admit, I like her sleeping with us too.
- Last night, she took a pacifier for the first time ever. Now, I know there are two camps on pacifiers. Those that want us to use them and therefore don't have a problem with pacifiers and those that do not want us to use them and are sharply opposed to pacifiers. Kris and I will do what is right for our family and our little princess. She wasn't having much luck last night keeping her fingers in her mouth when she was falling asleep. And I was getting sore when she would use me as her pacifier. So, I tried a real one. She fell asleep faster and actually took it! We won't give her the pacifier unless it's bed time. During the day, she can have her fingers if she needs something to suck on.
- And last highlight for today - Annika's getting her first bottle tonight. Four weeks from today I start back at work full time. I'm actually going back for my first day the day before Thanksgiving. So, it's time to get Annika used to bottles so when she's home with Dad, everything goes smoothly. I hope she takes it easily. But I also hope that she is able and willing to do both bottles and breast. I'm not ready to give up breastfeeding yet! I love feeding her! It's our special cuddle time. Either way, she'll still get breastmilk since I'm pumping. I want her to have the best start possible.

I uploaded another 10 pictures today. The last five are Halloween shots. The last Halloween shot I thought was cute. She was gearing up for a good screech. She was DONE having her picture taken. :)


Posted by Kristina at 11/01/2004 10:16:00 AM

(0) Comments

Link To This Post

 
      Photo Copyright © inertia stock x.chng
Webset Copyright © Blogfrocks