Swimming

We took a trip to Minnesota to see friends and family this past weekend.  While there we had a nice stay in Minneapolis at The Depot where there is a water park.  Hannah loves her baths, so we thought she might like the pool....and we were right!  She loved it!  She was fearless and tried floating, kicking and splashing.  Cousins Liza and Larken were less than thrilled with the noise, splashing and activity - but Hannah enjoyed it all.

We had a lovely visit with family and lots of fun.

We have now signed Hannah up for swim lessons starting April 15th - can't wait!

3 Months

Hannah turned 3 months old - holy cow!

We have been enjoying her smiles lately - although we have to work for them quite a bit!  She is definitely becoming more social now.  She still loves being held and cuddling - perfect for most people who meet her.  In addition she is quite active now and loves to kick, play with toys and try to stand.  Her head swivels around at every sight and sound and she really tries to be involved with conversations.

She remains quite laid back and easy-going.  Except when she's really hungry and then we all hear about it.  Strange how weird it is to hear her cry when she barely cried for the first 8 weeks of her life!  She is enjoying going to daycare and I'm told she does pretty well when she's away from home.

 With Auntie Beth

Cousins! At Liza's 2nd Birthday party

Back To Work

Maternity leave is officially over.

I think we're all sad about this.  It means that Hannah is getting older - we've lost our little 3 lb wonder and struggle to carry around a 9 lb behemoth.  She has also been much more alert and awake - looking at toys, occasionally smiling, grabbing things put near her and paying attention when we read her stories.  This part is fun.  The crabby-after-8-pm part is not as fun, but this is followed by the sleeping-for-up-to-5-hours part which Abi thinks is fun.

It also means that Abi is back to work.  Funny how you forget so much when all you know is bottles, diapers, pumping and nursing! The first few days were a little rough.  This month I'm at a new hospital so not only do I have to re-learn everything but I have a new computer system, new people, new nurses.....it's been an adjustment.  As usual I'm settling in now, about 1/2 way through the month.  This week is my longest work week yet but I've got a light at the end of the tunnel with a fun 3 day weekend coming up.

2 Months

With all the grunting coming from the nursery, this post may be a bit short.  She's a lot more vocal now that she's 2 months old.  It's so cliche, but so true - where did the time go??!!

We are so enjoying our Little Bear.  She is much more alert now, wide awake for a few hours at a time.  We have also (fingers crossed!) established a bedtime which has worked beautifully for the past 3 nights in a row - allowing us a wonderful stretch of 5 hours of sleep!

She had her 2 month appointment last week.  Her current "stats" are:
Wt: 8 lbs 11 oz
Ht: 20.5 inches
Head: 35 cm

She got her shots and did pretty well with them.  She got her first dose of Tylenol in case of discomfort but we didn't notice anything else.

To recap her life experiences - she has:

- Been to 5 states (WI, IL, IN, MI, MN)
- 2 weddings
- 1 funeral
- Grown 4 inches and gained 4 pounds
- Eaten about a billion bottles of milk (my stats may not be quite accurate here)
- Started to hold her head up
- Started to actually cry
- Met the vast majority of both sides of her large family (and more to come in the next few weeks)
- Been to 10 softball games
- Been to 5 restaurants (although she hasn't ordered anything)
- Been to a bar (!)
- Had a babysitter who wasn't family
- MAYBE smiled this morning - it happened twice and I was so excited that it could be a "real" smile, we will have to see if it continues!

And the moment you've been waiting for - the pictures!

 Homemade dress

 At her first bar!

 Cousins

The Nursery

We (I) had a bit of a phobia when it came to decorating the nursery.  Following our losses, I was nervous about anything representing the pregnancy to be so permanent in our house.  We also have only 2 bedrooms, and we host a lot of guests, so the room had to also serve as a guest room.  Therefore we (I) didn't want anything too "babyish" or "girly".  The room we ended up with is (I think) none of those things, and I'm pretty pleased with it overall.

BEFORE

This is the before picture.  Bry finding out the baby's gender.  The bed was arranged in the middle with the cedar chest at foot of the bed.  The bedding is from Ikea - can't find the name of the pattern for the duvet anymore.

Because we live in an apartment we weren't able to paint at all, which I think made us be a little more creative in including colors.

AFTER

This is the after photo when I finally got around to taking a few photos.  Now I'll go into some details about the items in the room.  Note that the only NEW furniture is the CRIB and the CHAIR. (The bookshelf and table just weren't visible in the before photo.)

1. CRIB

Made by our Brother-in-Law, Brandon Filzen of  

Filzen Custom Hardwoods, LLC.

The beautiful craftsmanship is evident in every part of this lovely crib.  At some point I hope to do a post on the crib building process - Brandon has given me all the photos.  He did such a lovely job - basically I found a crib that I liked, gave him a photo and he did the rest.  I will point out that the crib is solid Black Walnut and my favorite feature is the drawer storage underneath the crib.  It is a convertible crib as well to grow with Hannah.

The giraffe is a Susan B. Anderson pattern that I knitted (and finished!) before Hannah was born.

Amazing crib.  Special Uncle.

2. GUEST BED

-Again, the bedding is from Ikea.  

-The throw pillows are covers that I bought in Philippines.  

-The right side lamp is from Target, I spray painted it the teal color.  The shade is also from Target. 

 -The Globe I bought at Goodwill - it too, got the spray painting treatment.  The fun part is that it still shows the USSR and the colors on the map part match the teal perfectly.  

-The left side lamp is also purchased from Goodwill but was originally teal so no painting required.

-Guest book is from Germany and not enough people write in it when they stay here!

-Elephant picture - bought from Etsy.com Zeppi Prints. Found the frames at JoAnn Fabrics. Thought about mounting it to canvases but opted not to potentially wreck the prints.

3. Bookshelf

 This bookshelf has a TON of stuff on it which I had been accumulating before Hannah was born.  The books were largely gifts.  I will talk about a few items:

OWL - purchased from Burlington Coat Factory for $12

TRUCK BANK - Bry's from when he was a little boy - I LOVE that this is in Hannah's room.  The "belly" is see through so you can see the money, but have to undo screws in order to get it out.  Just love this piece.

ELEPHANT BANK - purchased from Urban Outfitters for $12.  Loved the color, loved the shape.  There is an elephant theme in Hannah's room (loosely).

4. CHANGING TABLE

-Table was bought off of Craigslist for <$10.  Originally it is from Ikea.  The changing pad was bought at a store that went out of business.  

-Rug: another Urban Outfitters purchase.  I saw another nursery with the same rug on Pinterest and went straight to Urban Outfitters to buy it.  It is a canvas like rug, not soft and squishy but that's ok because the carpet in her room is in pretty good condition.

 

-Elephant Wall Hooks: purchased from Etsy.com The Shabby Shak.  I see now that she has some huge mounted elephant heads - now I need the will power to not buy them........

-I also have a lot of needle point in the room.  Some of it is very special- made by my mother.  The wall hanging over the crib was made by Bry's Grandma Swenson and was in his room as a baby.  LOVE that too.  This piece was a sampler I found at a thrift store for < $1.  I like the vintage stitching in the modern frame.

5. Chair

This was my dream chair from when I started nannying.  A sort of "push present" to myself.  We ended up buying it in Dallas, TX so we could actually sit in the chairs before buying them.  It is actually a light grey color and we really like it.

There's the nursery!  We are liking it a lot, and it has worked well hosting many guests after Hannah was born (she sleeps in a bassinet in our room - a post will follow on that too!).