Visitors!

 First came Grandma Harris. She was wonderful!

Then when Grace was 3 weeks old we headed up to Omaha for Uncle Zoran's graduation ceremony from Creighton University.

Then Grandpa and Grandma Anna came to visit. Grandpa was sweet.

Grandma Anna was amazing!

Baka (Grandma in Serbian) came next. She was so excited to hold her grandbaby.

And then Aunt Emily.

And then my bestie, Anna, with her sister and son. There were cuddles, long chats, and great BBQ.

3 Months Old!

Grace is growing like a little weed. She loves to sit up and gets quite angry when she has to spend time on her tummy instead of being able to sit up.

She's also starting smile more but she's still very serious most of the day.

Here's the coveted smile that I look forward to every day. This particular smile is for Daddy (probably her favorite person).

Happy 4th of July

Happy Fourth of July!

(Grace at 9 weeks old)
She's a spitting image of her Daddy here!

2 Months Old!

I'm having a hard time believing that my tiny baby is 2 months old already! You might be asking what happened to her 1 month picture? Um yeah...last week was the first time since she was born that I finally knew what day of the week it was. Sleeping in 3 hour increments for almost 2 months does amazing things to how one perceives time. Forget water boarding- the Government should interrogate  suspected criminals with a series of crying baby, sleep, and food deprivation. It's just so sad that I've been too tired to enjoy the "tiny baby" stage. I guess that's what grand babies are for.

I'm starting to get the hang of this thing called "motherhood"(I can hear you laughing). Grace is starting to smile more often and cry a little less. This is good because I swear a few weeks ago I was sitting in the bathroom and asked her if she wanted a new mommy, one that would make her cry less and smile more. The smiles make it much easier even if they happen less than I expected.

I discovered that the formula that I was feeding her was causing some of the horrible gas pains she was experiencing, so I changed from Similac to Enfamil Gentlease. I truly had a completely different baby within 24 hours. Then I stopped slightly warming her formula a week later and all the remaining issues disappeared. She doesn't have much patients for my learning curve, but in my defense, I never intended or expected to bottle feed her formula. I was honestly looking forward to breastfeeding and all the benefits that come with it. Instead I was dealt a different hand. Roll with the punches and make sure you buy more than 2 bottles just in case.

The house guests arrived non-stop starting when Grace was 12 days old and will continue through July. I'm not sure if our dwindling income can sustain such an entourage but it will be nice to see everyone.

48 Hours Later

48 hours after bringing Grace home from the hospital we were told by the doctor that Grace had to be readmitted for jaundice. A wicked case of jaundice, I might add. It took Grace 5 days to recover. At the time it was the scariest thing I've ever gone through mostly because we were absolutely helpless in what we could do. Here Grace is getting ready for her 5 days of light therapy.

Her first extended tanning bed experience.

Daddy holding Grace while she was still in the NICU.

My tan little baby fresh out of the box! We're waiting to get our final discharge papers to go home.

She got to come out only for feedings and diaper changes. She went in with a jaundice count of 8, which then spiked to 12, 14, 17, and 19 before it started to come down. She was blood tested twice a day, which was sad. I spent all the days with her because Alex had to work and it just happened at the same time as finals week. Then all of a sudden her numbers started to drop dramatically and we were home by May 5th.

That's when the fun started. Kind of. Not really. Hospital Baby Grace is way different than At Home Baby Grace. Hospital Grace is a perfect, quiet little angel. At Home Grace cries. A lot. And for long periods of time but randomly. I had NO IDEA how much new babies cry and for seemingly no reason. At Home Grace doesn't like anything from 5 pm until 9 pm and wants the entire neighborhood to know it. At Home Grace only sleeps if she is on your chest. In other words, someone has to hold her all the time and Alex is working 12 hour days. I am all alone and am just about at my wits end.

Hospital Grace and At Home Grace do have something in common: throwing up liquids through her nose. Before we left the hospital the first time we had to watch several videos about SIDS. Alex was convinced that we had to take turns staying up watching her sleep just to make sure sudden death didn't take place. I laugh now but those videos were fairly crazy to watch. The bubbling liquid that Grace silently chokes on in the middle of the night is even worse. I have to sleep sometime, so the kid sleeps with us and will until this disturbing behavior stops.

I've started to sing Mommy Lullaby's whenever I get the chance. Those are the ones you make up and will never be on the Baby Top 40 charts because the melody changes constantly along with the tone, volume, and pitch. My favorite so far is "Eskimo Kisses For My Nordic Baby". If she had her father's lovely skin tone it would be Olive Baby but she's pasty white like me so Nordic Baby it is. The song is not complete without the appropriately timed Eskimo kiss. I also have a "It's Time To Go To Sleep" Song. Simple enough, I repeat those 6 words over and over again until she's fallen asleep.

Grandma Harris will be here tomorrow. The visitors will be non-stop until June from here on out. I'm looking forward to having an extra set of well-experienced hands around to help.