first bath

 
*2 1/2 weeks old

baby girl's had a few sponge baths of course, but this was her first REAL bath since her lil' umbilical cord finally came off a couple days ago. she was pulling some bewildered faces during her bath, but i think she liked it all warm and cozy.

she's been such a good baby. don't get me wrong, i'm exhausted from the nighttime routine, but her good health and cute newborn-ness make me a happy mom. and i'm definitely happy to be able to reuse penny's pink bathtub, ha!

Happy Easter!

Since Violet was only a few days old, we had a nice little Easter at home. The only plans I had made were an Easter basket for Penny and a little Easter egg hunt in our backyard. It was perfect!

"Mama! The Easter bunny came!" (Isn't that bedhead amazing? Ha.)


Penny loved her Easter basket, especially her new little Rapunzel and Ariel dolls.


LOVE this!

The Easter bunny brought baskets for Mom and Dad too...

Lovin' on baby sister.






Hope you all had a lovely Easter!

Violet's Birth Story

*Minutes old

*Hearing her heartbeat

*First diaper courtesy of Dad

*First time seeing my little girl

*My mom with Violet

*Penny meeting her little sister with Paul's parents

*Comparing feetsies

*Holding both of my girls for the first time

*Our first family picture! Not the best obviously, haha.

*Snuggling baby girl + All dressed to come home

*Getting a sun bath at home for a touch of jaundice + Wearing her chickadee onesie on Easter

A quick note on her name...Violet was on my girl's name list going back to when Penny was born and we still loved it when we found out the gender last October. It's also the name of Paul's grandmother so we thought it was a perfect fit. Her middle name Gayle is my middle name and Violet Gayle seemed to flow together well so...there's her name.

First of all, I'm so relieved and happy that everything went so well and that she's in good health. Such a different experience than the NICU issues with Penny's birth! Violet is nursing like a champ and at her first check up today, her pediatrician said she's already back up to her birth weight (since they always lose a few ounces in the hospital). We feel so blessed to have this little girl in our lives!

Here's what happened...

I had an induction scheduled on Thursday April 5th as a last resort, but baby girl decided she didn't want to wait that long. I had one last appointment with my OB on Wednesday April 4th at 11 am, and when she checked my progress I was at 4 cm. Which was great, but I still assumed I had more time.

Paul and my mom were both there on Wednesday and that was so fortunate. Paul had started his paternity leave on Wednesday to help me out the day before the induction, and my mom had scheduled a flight for that morning and got to our house around noon and I was sure glad she did. We had lunch, I took a nap, and woke up around 4 pm with really painful contractions. Turns out my water had broken while I was asleep and contractions were coming every 2-3 minutes. I realized that this was it and hollered for Paul to get our hospital bags. We were out the door by 4:30 pm and were so grateful that my mom was there in time to take care of Penny. I had a little sad moment as I kissed Penny good-bye that this was the last time she was going to be my only little girl, but also so excited that we were going to be giving her a little sister.

We made it to the hospital by 5 pm and after being admitted were shocked to learn I was already 8 cm! The contractions were intense but I was able to breathe through them as they contacted the anesthesiologist for an epidural. Now that was a little tricky. She kept hitting all kinds of nerves and these little shockwaves would go through my legs and it was kind of hard to keep still. But finally it was in, and I felt that blissful numbing relief.

After a few hours a nurse checked my progress and found I was at 10 cm and ready to push. I was so nervous and excited when I heard that - our little girl was almost here! My OB rushed in the room and I was prepared to push for a while, like I had with Penny. But - no joke - I only had to push 5 or 6 times and FOUR minutes later she was here! It was laughable compared to the 2 hours of pushing it took for Penny's birth. I literally couldn't believe how easy my labor and delivery had been.

They wrapped her in a blanket, and placed her on my chest and I just feel this huge overwhelming bubble of happiness in my chest as I looked at her beautiful little face. She was perfect - pink and chubby and healthy and she was all ours. A second daughter! It was so amazing and Paul and I just couldn't stop grinning. They took her to get weighed and cleaned up and I couldn't take my eyes off of her. I was so happy.

And now we're home and Paul has the rest of the week off work and it'll be so nice to have his help and to just enjoy our time together as a new family of four. We had a fun little Easter - I had bought stuff for Penny's basket a couple weeks ago - and even though I'm pretty tired, I'm just so happy that little Violet is finally here. She's such a sweet little baby and we love her so much!

9 months!

*38 1/2 weeks

*my view while sitting down.

10 more days folks! we are on the countdown and i couldn't be happier. baby girl is officially due next friday march 30th, but paul would like me to hold out until april 1st...ya know, so she can be born on april fool's day. for pete's sake, i already have a daughter born on a conspicuous date (9/11) but who am i kidding, it'll probably happen.

everything's ready to go: newborn diapers have been purchased (i forgot how teeny tiny they are!), baby items are sitting in the crib waiting to be packed for the hospital at a moment's notice, and a name has been picked. although we've had it picked for a while now, ever since we found out the gender in october, i don't think we'll officially share it until she's actually here. isn't there a 1% chance she could be a boy?...that would be the ultimate april fool's joke, wouldn't it? ha.

my body is also ready to go: sleep is pretty much nonexistent, i have to pee every two minutes, everything aches when i walk (MUCH more so than with penny), i have three tops left that fit, and i'm pretty sure paul thinks i've lost my mind due to to some slight moodiness on my part...oh yes, i am very ready to hold baby girl in my arms rather than in my tummy.

(and i know, the sleeping part is only going to get worse, not better, but at least i'll have a baby to kiss and snuggle - that's some very nice compensation in my book!)

i'm so excited, i can't wait to meet our new baby girl!

happy 30th birthday lana!

my sister lana turned 30 on march 2nd and her hubby and i threw a little surprise party for her.
it was oh-so fancy with chips and dip and a little game with prizes. and some really good cake, too.

lana looks sooo happy to see her ginormous "lana poster" ha!
(you may recall a similar poster at a certain one-year old's party...)


in honor of of her 30th birthday, here's 30 fun facts about lana...just kidding, i won't do that to you.

but i will say that she is an amazing sister and friend. she always has time to talk with me, and gives good advice. she's a therapist for troubled teens and i shake my head sometimes and wonder how she accomplishes such a hard job. she is a loving mother of two adorable kids and an all-around beautiful lady! i'm so glad we live near each other, love you lana!

even more instagrams

sorry folks, instagrams are all this 8-month pregnant lady can manage at this point. i seriously have no brain lately, i can't remember the smallest things. so there's no way i can remember to bring my nice camera anywhere but...better than nothing, right?

penny playing on an old baby toy we found when going though storage for her baby clothes.

at the library. we're starting to go more often and penny LOVES it, she runs to the kids section and gets a pile of books and sits there for an hour or more going through them. i forgot how much i enjoy renting books, i just finished "austenland" by shannon hale and it was so good! and free!

just outside the salt lake temple by paul's work. all of my OB appts lately have been around lunch time and her office is in salt lake so it's fun to meet up with paul for lunch. it's funny, i thought i would have to get penny a sitter whenever i go to the OB, but it's actually easier to just take her with me and she plays with my phone or whatever. she's such a good girl.

kissy face! another funny pregnant thing...my eyesight is worse! i usually just wear glasses for driving, or at the movies, but i find myself wearing them all the time around the house lately.

two of her favorite things: playing with flashcards (thanks dollar section at target) + playing in her bed. she likes to take books, toys, you name it, in her bed and play.

LOVE this pic! we had just gotten ready to do some errands and i thought she looked so cute.

that's all folks!

p.s. if you do the instagram thing, my username is melanylarsen....yay.

some of penny's weekly activities...

at speech therapy with the lovely laura + saying hi to the monsters from monsters, inc. (no, we're not at disneyland, shriner's has them in the lobby. penny used to be a little wary of them, but now she cheerfully says "hi monsters!" every time we walk by on the way to therapy)
wearing fairy wings ALL DAY LONG + playing with my little ponies from grandma debbie

absolutely LOVING her valentine's prezzies that my mom mailed to her

this little lady sure does keep me busy. these are the last few weeks that it'll just be the two of us at home and it makes me a little sad. i'm trying to appreciate as much one-on-one time as possible with her. i even let her sleep in our bed the other night, which i NEVER do, because she was being extra clingy. needless to say i did not get much sleep, but it was fun for one night.

we've also been working on organizing our storage and we got out penny's old newborn clothes to get ready and washed for baby sister, and it just brought back sooo many memories. not that it was that long ago, only 3 years, but each item of clothing i pulled out reminded me of some memory of baby penny and it made me all weepy - in a good way. i just know penny will be a great big sister!