8/5/10 - PICTURE DAY!!

Today we are very excited...it's picture day!! We're off to Kristi's studio to take TONS and TONS of pictures today...family pictures, Olivia's 18 month pictures (a little late), Amelia's newborn pictures and some pictures of the girls together. We just LOVE working with Kristi, and, knowing what an amazing job she does, we couldn't wait to get there!

Our session ended up lasting FOUR HOURS!! Amelia would get crabby/hungry/too awake, so we'd switch to Olivia...then she'd get crabby/tired/uncooperative, so we'd switch to Amelia...back and forth all day. In the end, I know she got some amazing shots and I can't wait to see all of them. She posted a few of them this evening in her blog (http://blog.imagesbykris.com/2010/08/05/afternoon-with-the-duran-family/), AHHH, so cute. I just LOVE pictures!

After our session, we were off to Christian's parents' house for a BBQ. His step-dad's kids were supposed to come over and join us, but some stuff came up and they couldn't make it, so it ended up being just us. Amelia was just exhausted after the picture chaos and napped most of the afternoon/evening. Olivia NEEDED a nap like nobody's business, but refused and just ran around playing all night (with many intervals of whining). We were finally on our way home around bedtime, Olivia passed out and we were not far behind. It was a long day, but a great one! Here are pictures of the girls, passed out in the truck as soon as we left the in-laws!

8/4/10 - Just Another Day

My day's are starting to run together. I wake up in the morning and I never know what day it is anymore. It's absolutely wonderful...the best feeling!! I do have to take a moment today and wish my BFF a very happy wonderful birthday!! Love you!

Today was a pretty low key day. We really just hung out around the house all day. Did a little light cleaning here and there, caught up on a couple of shows, spent a little time outsuide in the pool. Nothing crazy, nothing exhausting, no running around. It was perfect!

The girls spent some quality time together in our bed this morning :)

8/3/10 - A Day At Home

Today we finally spent the whole day, a pretty relaxing day, at home, and it felt REALLY nice. Olivia is still being great about sleeping in a little later than she used to, so that has been a huge help. Especially today...Amelia decided to stay up pretty much the entire night last night, it was horrible. I swear, at one point, she ate for like 3 hours straight. Oh, gotta LOVE this part of the newborn stage!

Once we were all up, we hung out, did the typical picking up around the house and just spent some time together. Christian's parents came over to spend some time with us and make dinner...so they all grilled and cooked while I cuddled with the baby. I eventually ventured outside in the horrible heat for a while to sit by the pool with Olivia. It didn't last long though...the heat takes it out of me much quicker these days!

After dinner and some chatting, his parents were on their way. We had a little TV time together, and I was off to bed early. I think I need to get used to going to bed early...

8/2/10 - 19 Months

Well, baby girl #1 turns 19 months today. It's so hard to believe...it seems like just yesterday she made us a family, yet, it was definitely NOT just yesterday! We're pretty sure she's already well into the terrible two's...that's fun. She knows how to push our buttons, and does it often! But, at the end of the night, when she's sleepy and tired, she cuddles up and gives you that little angel face, and all is forgiven.

She seems to really be expanding her vocabulary these days. Grandpa (bupa) and Puppy are still definitely her favorites. But she's been repeating us very well lately, and showing that she really understands. She has become a great helper lately too, which has actually been coming in handy. She loves to throw trash away and put the diapers in the diaper genie. She will pick things up and bring them to you (this comes in very handy when I have a hand full of baby). It just amazes me that she really truly understands what we say and do.

She has become slightly scary around the baby though. At first she really didn't care about her. Then, she was interested in her, but a good amount of "standoffish". Now, she gets a little to close for comfort and it makes me really nervous. You cannot leave them in a room together, that's for sure! Now, let's see what this month brings us in the world of Olivia!

Other than that, today was another busy day, of course! My mom came over this afternoon to watch Olivia so we could head off on a shopping trip. Thursday we are having family pictures taken, so we were off to buy some outfits for them. Obviously with the feeding situation, we took the baby with us. Shortly after we got to the mall I was thinking it wasn't such a good idea...After about an hour I was already feeling pretty run down and exhausted. BUT, I toughed it out. We got the cutest little matching dresses for the girls, and each found a shirt for ourselves. YAY, now I just can't wait to get the pictures done!!

8/1/10 - Hello August...Wait, August?!

Wow, I cannot believe it's August! Seriously, where has this year gone?!? I can't believe summer is already starting to come to an end...wow!

Today was a pretty good day! Another day of sleeping in thanks to our two sleepy girls. My mom did a shopping run for us and stopped over, which was greatly, GREATLY appreciated (especially by Olivia, who was out of diapers!). Then, it was time to shower and get on with our day. Christian took to the yard, just watching him wares me out, I don't know how he does it! He was feeling a little overly exhausted after his chores were done, and understandably with all of the extra responsibilities he's taken on this week, so he took it easy the rest of the night. The girls and I were off to my BFF's son's birthday dinner with her family. I was nervous to head out on my own with the girls, but I knew I'd have plenty of helpers over there, so I risked it. I was pretty run down by the time we got home, so we got Olivia to bed, and just relaxed the rest of the night. Here's hoping we get a tiny bit more sleep tonight...yes, I'm talking to you little Amelia!

7/31/10 - Another Busy Day

Today was a pretty exhausting day, but a good one. I woke up feeling a little better (unfortunately, that didn't last the whole day through). We took it easy most of the morning, did some light cleaning and picking up around the house. Once Olivia was down for a nap, it was time to get ready for the day. First up, was Meeka's 2nd birthday party! I didn't know for sure if I'd be able to make it, but I really wanted to make an appearance, so we toughed it out and headed over. For many reasons, most of which I don't care to actually discuss, it's not really possible to be away from home for TOO long right now, so we only ended up staying for about 2 hours. It was long enough for Olivia to get some BFF play time in and give us a little time to catch up.

After we got home, some of our other friends stopped over, bought us dinner, met little Amelia and hung out for a little while. It was so great to see everybody, and we're definitely lucky to have such great friends! It must have been pretty obvious how lack-of-sleep exhausted we were, because they all headed out around 8:30 or so. We bathed the girls, put Olivia to bed and just relaxed the rest of the night. I sure hope I didn't overdo it too much and that I'm feeling better tomorrow!

7/30/10 - More Car Work

Today, Christian and Olivia were off to his parents house, bright and early, to finish working on the car. The installed the spark plug kit he bought last week, and now we have our fingers crossed that these fixes will keep her running a little longer! We still have about 2 years left before we pay off Christian's truck, so my little car MUST last until then. Overall, she does pretty well. The car is 11 years old and has 135,000 miles on it, and I really haven't had to do a ton of work on it. So, hopefully she'll keep treating us well for a few more years.

I spent a majority of the day just hanging around the house with little Amelia. She's been doing great. She's a little fussier than Olivia was, I hate those "I don't know why you are crying" moments that happen so often with a newborn! But, she's nursing SO WELL, which I'm so happy about. Olivia never got the hang of nursing, and with recovering from surgery, I just did not have the patience to work with her and the lactation consultants on fixing the issues. I'm really hoping Amelia keeps this up and it isn't just a fluke! Formula is EXPENSIVE!!

Amelia's little belly button stub fell off already (which kind of worries me...), so tonight we gave her her very first bath. Luckily, just like Olivia, she LOVES the water, she was in heaven! YAY for water babies!

7/29/10 - Maybe We Can Do This!

Well, things are going OK! Olivia slept right through the night, not even a peep when Amelia would wake up! YAY. Hopefully that continues! Im' sure the fact that we don't have to delay feeding time by running off to make a bottle helps! Amelia on the other hand has decided she needs to eat ALL NIGHT long. Oh man, I've never been so exhausted...she eats for 20/30 minutes, then 30 minutes later she's hungry again. Hopefully this does NOT continue!

This morning we were off to the doctor for a blood draw. We dropped Olivia off with Christian's mom and headed down to the clinic. We checked in with the pediatrician, who said everything was looking great. Amelia left the hospital at 6lbs13ozs, so she really didn't lose much from birth, and today she was actually up an oz, so she is doing great there! After the check up, we were off to the lab to get her billi level checked. Taking blood from a newborn should be outlawed...the poor thing, I could hardly stand it!

After the appointment we picked up Olivia and Christian's mom and headed home. She came over to cook some food and help out around the house for a while. Amelia went back under the billi-blanket as we anxiously awaited a call with her results. They finally called and her levels were still up there, but were the same as the day before, so she was able to come off the blanket! YAY, no more glowworm! Later, Christian, his mom and Olivia were off to meet my mom at the Rice Street Parade. I was very sad that I had to miss it...I think this is the first time, in my WHOLE life, that I missed the parade. But, Olivia came home, with treats and goodies in hand, happy as can be...and tired as can be, she passed out very soon after!

So, day one of being home was a success! Maybe we really can do this!

7/28/10 - Time To Go Home!!!

Well, today was my actual due date, but instead, today is the day we take our little Amelia home! Her jaundice levels were up even higher, to 11.2 this morning. But, they are sending us on our way and having a billi-blanket delivered to the house until she levels off. It was a long morning of packing up, paperwork and getting ready to head out into the real world. I think we were both actually quite scared!! What in the world is life like with two kids?!?

We were finally all "checked out" around 1:00. We picked up Olivia from my mom's, made a quick stop at Christian's parents' house to pick up some food they had for us, then were on our way home. We got some resting time in, hung out for a bit, then were visited by Nate and Gini!! They brought us dinner and came to meet the baby. As exhausted as we were, it's great to see our friends and catch up with them.

Obviously Amelia spends most of the waking hours asleep, so life at home was pretty much as usual. Due to a slight lack of sleep, I think Christian and I are both a little short on patience right now...Olivia is crazy as ever and Chuy does not help matters...he's basically like having another toddler running around! But, we got Olivia off to bed, and we settled in for the night. I'm sure it will be a long night...and we're just anxious to see how Olivia sleeps with a crying baby next door...hopefully she's a much sounder sleeper than we think!

7/27/10 - Still In Heaven

Well, we're still on cloud nine, still can't believe we are the proud owners of two beautiful girls.

We were sure we'd be sent packing from the hospital today, but Amelia's jaundice levels were up, so they urged us to stay. We knew Olivia was in great hands with Grandma, and that it would be best for Amelia to just stay put, so we did. She spent the rest of the day and night under the billi-blanket. It was hard to see her like that at first, but we weren't too worried about it. She was at an 8.6...and back when we had Olivia, she got up to a 16 and they never did anything about it...no blanket or anything. Apparently the guidelines have changed, but knowing that Olivia was WAY higher, and we didn't have any issues, we're not too concerned about it.

So, we spent a very quiet day at the hospital. My mom and Olivia stopped up for a quick visit...Olivia doesn't seem to miss us at all, as shown by the wave and loud and proud "bah bye" she gave us when SHE decided it was time to go. Christian's mom stopped up again, and took Christian out to eat down the street. My sister Tonia and nephew Tommie stopped up. Other than that, it was just the three of us, spending some nice, quiet time together. It's amazing...when I had my c-section, the nurses and doctors were in and out ALL DAY long, the whole time we were there. It was exhausting. This time, we hardly ever see anybody, it's great!

So, that was our day...just hanging out in our current "home". It's so quiet here...I think we'll be in for a rude awakening when we get home! The hospital photographer came to take pictures today, so we even dressed her up in her going home outfit a little early!