1 Month

Our little girl is a month old already. She eats, she sleeps, she cries. She cries a lot. I don't think it's too much of an exaggeration to say that she cries more than she sleeps during the day. But, she's cute and sweet and she sleeps pretty well at night so I can't complain. We're still waiting for that first smile.... stay tuned...





"Look how big I am!"

An Exciting Day

It's been a great day! My brother Ed and his wife Lisa welcomed their son, Thomas Jeffrey into the world at 5:12 this morning. He weighed 8lbs, 4oz (oddly, that is exactly what Lauren weighed) and was 20 1/2 inches long. Mom and baby are doing great. Thomas Jeffrey is named after both of his grandfathers. I wish we could just beam ourselves up in St. Louis, MO and see the little guy. As it is, we'll probably have to wait a while. sigh. Ed and Lisa sent pictures today via email. I would like to share them, but oy. That goes way beyond my computer knowledge.

Secondly, Corban lost his first tooth today. It's been loose for a while. After I took a peek at it this morning, I told him he could probably just pull it out. And he did.

Poor Thomas Jeffrey. He gets born today and instead of a picture of him, you all get to see a picture of the gap in Corban's mouth.

Lovely Lauren

After the last post, I remembered that I had more pictures on my camera. Lauren looks so grown up - not very much like the scrunched up newborn raisin she was looking like just a few days ago.

Lauren Pictures

I really did think I was taking as many pictures of Lauren, my fourth child, as I did of my other three children. But, it was surprisingly difficult to find pictures for this post. I guess I'll have to remedy that.

Both sets of Lauren's grandparents have been to Massachusetts to love and adore her.

What Not To Say

Ok, so here's the story....

I fed Lauren last night at 10 and got to bed around 10:30pm. She was up at 1, 2:30 and 4, each time for a half an hour. Then she slept until 7, which, admittedly, is sleeping in for Lauren. I was exhausted. Lauren is typically up twice, but that extra time of being awake did me in. While feeding Lauren at 7, I asked Jack for some help. Either to sleep in or to get a nap sometime today. Jack responded, (pay attention, here it is.....) "You slept from 9-7. Why are you tired?"

Silence.

Cold, hard stare at Jack.

"Are you kidding?!"

I do NOT consider waking up at 1, 2:30 and 4 for a half an hour each time "sleeping from 9-7." (Jack thought I fell asleep on the couch with him at 9, but I started watching a movie until 10. In his defense, I could have gone to sleep at 9.) Actions do speak louder than words though. Jack got up with Annie and Lauren and I slept until 9am this morning. And he made French toast for breakfast. All is forgiven.

An addition to the "24 Hour" post

It turns out that Corban's "snotting" of Annie was not unprovoked. We later discovered that Annie did the same thing to Corban. She just didn't get caught.... little stinker...

The Highlight of My Week

Can you guess what the highlight of my week has been? Grocery shopping by myself today. When Jack got home from work, I took off, happily leaving all four of our children in the capable hands of their father. I made six stops and the only seat belt I had to deal with was my own. I treated myself to a chai tea. I listened to my own music in the car. And I didn't have to say, "Settle down, please" one time in the grocery store. It was wonderful.

I promise to post pictures of lovely Lauren again soon. Posting pictures on blogspot takes too long and I need to get to bed. I will say how much I am enjoying our little girl. I don't know if it's just the time of the year with winter keeping us in, but I'm spending a lot of time sitting with Lauren in my new chair. I love it. I love how she snuggles in and just sits with me. These are good days.

24 Hours

Here's a brief little snapshot of life in the Miller house over the last 24 hours...

10 pm Started getting myself and Lauren ready for bed
11 pm Lights out
1 am Lauren awake to eat. She has a cold (at only 3 weeks!) and was having trouble breathing in her bed.
2:30 am Lauren awake and eats again.
3:30 am I enlist Jack's help when Lauren wakes up again. He holds her in our bed for about 30 minutes before he takes matters into his own hands in order to help both us and noisy, snotty girl sleep. He brought the humidifier into our room and propped up Lauren's bed so her head would be higher than her feet.
4:30 am Lauren is awake again to eat.
6 am Lauren is awake again for the morning.
7 am Annie sleeps in and wakes up for the day.
8 am I wake up the sleepy head boys for the day.
9 am Corban is disciplined for wiping snot on his sister. Finger goes to his nose. Finger goes directly to Annie's shirt. Yes, it was intentional. And yes, it was difficult not to laugh even as put on my best stern face.
10 am School was unusually pleasant with Corban.
12:30 pm Lunch. I even managed to make grilled cheese.
2 pm Annie down for a nap.
2:45 pm The boys leave for cross country skiing.
3:15 pm Lauren down for a nap. I head for the couch for my own nap.
3:16 pm Lauren squawks. I panic.
3:18 pm Lauren is quiet....
4:45 pm Annie wakes up. Yay! Operation Get a Nap is succesful.

Ok, the rest of the day wasn't too eventful. Mostly I wanted to share that we had a hard night and that Corban shared his.... well, snot. Hopefully, Lauren is better able to sleep tonight.... for everyone's sake.

Daddy's Girls

I've had very good intentions regarding my blog posts since Lauren's birth. But, I'm tired and I have four kids and I don't get to the computer as often as I'd like. I guess that shouldn't be surprising. Here's a picture of Jack with his two little ladies to help bridge the gap to my next post.

Lauren's First Week

As promised, here are some more pictures of our new little one. We came home from the hospital last Wednesday - it was about the worst weather day you could imagine for bringing a new baby home. Freezing rain. We had a few rough nights at first. Jack and I took shifts holding Lauren and dozing on the couch all night. The last two nights have been much better with Lauren even pulling an 11:30pm - 4:30 am shift one night! My mom and dad arrived Thursday night bringing the adult to child ratio to 1:1. Dad left this morning, but mom is here all week. Yay! Life with 4 kids is, and will continue to be, nuts. But it's wonderful to have a little sweet baby around again. Lauren is doing all the eating, sleeping and pooping that she should be doing. This week has been a bit of a blur, but it's been a good week.

These pictures are from our first morning at home






One week old


First bath