A visit from Grace and Trina & Mariam! (Week 142/4)

Hello hello!  Katelyn is 4 weeks today!  ... these 4 weeks have NOT flown by though.  Katelyn has become addicted to being held.  Yes, we have no one to blame but ourselves.  Nights are still tough - she's onto us the moment we put her down in her crib.  We are getting some longer stretches of sleep here and there though - I think a couple nights we even had a 4 hour stretch - but those are quite rare.  To make things more interesting, Tyler has suddenly stopped sleeping through the night.  He'll wake up crying out for me or just gather his blankets and head over to our room and want to get into our bed.  Needless to say, we're all pretty tired these days, but hey! - that's to be expected with a newborn in the house!  Did I mention before that I now think 2 kids is enough?... :)

A super bonus this week - my older sister Grace came to visit!  She actually spent most of the week at Kareen's up in the Bay Area, but we got to have her for Thursday and most of Friday!  It was WONDERFUL!  I am going a little stir crazy being home by myself and I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have someone around that is so totally experienced that I can even close my eyes and take a nap and not worry about anything!  Sigh.  Here's a picture with Grace and Katelyn.

It's too bad that Kareen and Grace don't live here in Irvine with us.  Wouldn't that be wonderful?!  Grace has three of her own, so she's definitely been around the block.  Yay though - we'll be visiting her and her family in Texas in July!  Too bad she couldn't stay longer though...

Friday my parents came by with LOTS of food.  Ahh, that's always wonderful - not to worry about what we're going to eat for a couple days.  I'm really hoping, once Katelyn gets a little older, that we'll get into the swing of things again (such as cooking dinner!).   We're just getting through each day for now.. Anyway, it was great seeing my parents - this was the first time we all just hung out for the day.  We even ALL napped together - EVERYONE - that was nice. :)  Here's my mom with Katelyn.

We even got around to taking a family picture of Will, myself and the kids!  Wow, can't believe we have multiple kids.  Plural! 

Tyler was in school that day but we picked him up a little earlier so that he could hang out with us.  I thought about keeping him home from school, but then I'm sure we wouldn't have gotten that nice and peaceful quiet nap in. :)  Here's my dad looking at some picture books with Tyler.

 And the kids with my parents.

Grace is really great with Tyler too!  He was totally smitten from the beginning.  That morning, when I told him (as he was leaving for school) that I was going to pick up Da-i (first aunt) from the airport, he insisted on coming with me.  I was a little worried about 2 kids alone in the car, but Tyler was great.  When Katelyn would start to make some noises, he'd say to her "It's Ok, Katelyn", and pat her.  Aww.  Plus he served as my rearview mirror - I'd ask him if her eyes were open or closed!  He was really excited to see Grace and really liked playing with her too when he got home from school!  Here they are copying each other.

And another one with just Grace and Tyler.  They'll be back at the end of the year, yay!

Here's a last picture from Friday - seriously, Thursday/Friday were probably the MOST non-stressful day I've experienced since coming home from the hospital (even with our lack of sleep).  I was very bummed to see everyone go!

Some pictures from the week:

Katelyn had her first bottle this week.  Yes!  I have to make sure that Katelyn won't have an issue with bottle feeding, since I'm still traumatized about Tyler NEVER taking one.  Seriously.  I nursed him until he was 1+ year - it was pretty exhausting that he hated the bottle.  Definitely not letting it happen this time!  We used (unsuccessfully) Advent bottles with Tyler, so this time we're trying BreastFlow bottles.  I was pretty nervous, but she took it!  She was definitely a little confused at first, but she took it (Will fed her).  The plan was for him to feed her while I was out getting a facial (my FIRST time away from her) but she slept the entire time I was gone.  hah!  I'm happy that Will gets to get in on the feedings too!  Here's a picture:

We're trying to get better at putting her down - I think the key is to find things to occupy her when she's not being held.  Which means... buying and trying new stuff.  Ahh! Bad!  Here's Katelyn watching this little singing/flashing star toy.  I need more of these - one to velcro onto everything!

I got this new Fisher Price newborn-to-toddler Rock and Play sleeper. I LOVE it!  It's kind of like a hammock - very portable so I can bring it upstairs/downstairs easily.  She'll usually nap in it great during the day (except today, which was just a HARD napping day. sigh.)!  Here she is sleeping in it.  Oops, just realized you can't tell what it looks like.

In my desperation, I even got a new rocker for her - this one rocks and vibrates.  She doesn't like my kate spade bouncer, or this other bouncer that I bought (and returned), or the Papasan swing (that Tyler loves).  I'm running out of ideas!  This one, so far, she doesn't seem to hate, but the jury's still out and I'm keeping the receipt.

This week my girls Trina and Mariam also stopped by!  Will was home so he held Katelyn while we caught up.  Definitely nice to sit around and chat about anything - we even enjoyed ourselves some Malibu Diet (a very little bit, and wow, I am quite a lightweight now) and some corned beef tacos (thanks Mariam!).  Felt almost like things were back to normal pre-Katelyn.  :)  Thanks for coming by girls!

And here are some random pictures.  

Here's Katelyn's 4 week bear picture.

Happy 4 weeks Katelyn!