Newspaper Announcement

Today's edition of The Daily News contained the announcement of Bridget's birth. We clipped it out so that we can save it in Bridget's baby book. You can click on the photo to zoom in and read it.

Big Hugs

Here's a photo of the girls relaxing at home and enjoying some snuggle time. Jillian wanted to sit up on the big chair with Mommy and Bridget (who was sleeping). She gave her little sister a big hug, and did a pretty good job of being gentle. We are always having to remind Jillian to be careful when showing the love to Bridget, since she doesn't know her own strength. But, she is always wanting to be affectionate with hugs and kisses and little conversation.

Random Sleep

Bridget doesn't have any kind of a schedule when it comes to sleeping. We just don't know what is going to happen from night to night. A lot of times, Bridget is waking up at midnight, and wanting to eat and eat for many hours. And after that, she'll wake up early in the morning wanting to eat again. We've been lucky a couple times, when Bridget has slept for 4 or 5 hours straight, but those times are rare. Mostly, it seems that she is still on a random sleep schedule.

It also didn't help last night that Jillian now has a cold, and was up throughout the night sniffling.

Pool Time in Late September

Would you believe the end of September and it was 80 degrees today so I promised Jillian that after her nap she could get her swimming suit on and we would fill her pool.  That made nap time come easy.  She had a grand time with the hose, filling the pool and everything else.  The pool was kind of cold though for any serious wading.  When it was time for Rick and Heather to pick her up she really didn't want to change out of her swimsuit. I enjoyed her new phrase as she was carrying the small stone cat to put in the pool and I cautioned her about dropping it, as it would break, she said, "Don't worry about it."

Shake Your Body

A couple days ago, Mommy sang the "Shake Your Body" song, while Jillian showed off her moves. Her final move was to gracefully throw her head into the sofa. Oooops.

I'm a Cowgirl

We went to Jason and Dany's house this evening and enjoyed a relaxing time. Bridget got to be held by everyone there, and Jillian got to ride the horsies. She had been talking about it all day, and could hardly stand to wait. Before she went out to ride, though, Lindsey helped put on this show riding outfit. Jillian was so thrilled!

When it was finally time to ride, Jillian got on Jazz with Lindsey. Then, she got to ride on Cowboy all by herself. That was fun!

1 Week & 1 Day

Daddy just missed the 1-week old photo of Bridget, so here's one a day late. It's taken in the usual spot where most of Jillian's photos were taken -- the changing table.

Bridget is spending more and more time awake and looking around, though that only amounts to an hour or two per day, still. But, it looks like she going to have blue eyes, or some kind of shade of blue.

Birth-day Card

Here's a photo of the birth-day card that Jillian gave to Bridget. Grannie helped Jillian make it, putting hearts ("I love you's") and drawing little pictures of Bridget on it. When Jillian gave it to Bridget at SWMC, she was so excited and proud of it, jumping up and down and flapping her arms!

Storytime

Once in a while, Mommy and Daddy will ask themselves "where did Sweetie-Pie go?", because it will be quiet in the house and Jillian hasn't been seen for a while. Then, we'll find her in her room like this: on her bed under the covers, reading a book to her babies (in this case, it was Apple Dumplin' and the puppy). It's usually silent reading, so we guess that the babies are just looking at the pictures.

Floor Buddies

Yesterday, we put a blanket down on the floor, and placed Bridget on it, so she could be free to stretch out and roll around. Jillian saw this and immediately wanted to lay down on the floor, too. The two of them laid on the floor for a while: Bridget just relaxed and sucked on her fist, and Jillian squirmed all over the place. Bridget was fascinated by the show that Jillian put on.

The Sleeper

After less than a week, it is becoming apparent that Bridget will be Mommy's little sleeping and snuggle-buddy. The girl likes to sleep. She has no problems falling asleep, and will usually sleep for quite a long time (3+ hours); then, we have to wake her up for her feedings, and that's not always an easy task. We've found that the best way to wake Bridget up is to change her diaper, which she doesn't always care for. Even then, she'll often fall back asleep between the changing table and Mommy.

The funny thing about it is, Bridget and Jillian are very different when it comes to sleep. Jillian was a light sleeper as a baby, and our struggles were usually with getting her to go to sleep and then stay asleep; waking her up was never a problem.

Can I Hold Her?

Jillian asks this all the time. She loves to hold her little sister Bridget. When she's holding her, she pats her and says "hi", and then she asks us "do you want to say hi?" One thing Jillian really likes is to ask Daddy "can you kiss both your daughters?", so Daddy will give both of them a kiss. Jillian still doesn't like it when Bridget cries, though, and immediately wants someone else to hold her when the crying starts.

4 Days Old

Here's a little photo of Bridget as she rests on Lindsey's lap. She was in-between feedings, so she was in a happy mood. It wasn't but a couple minutes later, though, that she was demanding more milk.

Day at the Doctors

It was time for the follow-up checks at the doctors today for both Bridget and Mommy. Since Jillian wasn't interested in sitting the waiting rooms, she got dropped off at Grandpa Ken's house to spend the afternoon playing there and then with Cousin Adam later. Once again, Bridget traveled all the way to Vancouver without a peep, sleeping the whole way.

The first stop was the lactation nurse at SWMC. She got Bridget stripped down and weighed her at 8 lbs 1 oz, which was up from the last weighing on Sunday. Then, Mommy breastfed her for about 20 minutes, afterwhich the nurse weighed her again. It showed that Bridget had gotten about 1 oz of milk during the feeding. Mommy was very happy to hear that! The nurse informed us that typically during the first week, a baby will need to be fed up to 20 times a day. Hmm. That doesn't leave much time for sleeping. Though, we aren't exactly getting much sleep anyways.

The second stop was OBGYN, where a nurse removed Mommy's staples from her tummy. Mommy felt so much better afterwards. So, once the appointments were done, we headed back home so Mommy and Bridget could get back to their round-the-clock feeding.