We had a party :)

We have been crazy busy the past few days. Halloween is in full swing here.

Last night we hosted a Halloween party for the Mom's group I'm in and it was a lot of fun. We had a big turn out and I think it was a success. They kept telling me I was crazy for hosting a party since we just had a baby, but it was potluck style so everyone brought food and Brian and I had fun decorating. My friend Dehlia came over early to help too and then after the party everyone helped clean up, so honestly it worked perfectly. Oh, and awesome aunt Heather and Amy took Bria to Toy Story on ice during the day! More on that fun endeavor later. So we had the whole afternoon to get the house ready, Reese slept in the ergo :)

Dehlia and I testing out the camera and how the backdrop looks :)

This is Dehlia's little girl Sophie, and then of course Bria. How cute are they?!

Princess Sophie and Tinkerbell Bria.

Love!

We put this backdrop up and took pictures of each family and then some group photos, I'm so glad we did!

Our little family all Halloweened out.

Here are all the moms :)

And the Dads

My sexy husband and my little flower :)

The Dads, somehow Dehlia and I knew the Dads would be in the chairs and the moms would be on the floor with the little ones :)

"HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!"

Today we are planning on going to the Street of Treats at an outdoor mall, we went last year and it was a lot of fun. This year I think Bria will enjoy it more since she understands she gets candy. We are sure getting a lot of use out of her $10 Tinkerbell costume, score!

It's going by too fast

Jessie and Reese, a few days old

Jessie and Reese, 4 weeks old

Why do they grow so stinkin' fast?

Nursing is going well, except that it's hard to tell when Reese is done eating. She is not always content after a feeding. You'd think she was still hungry or something but she's not, she unlatches repeatedly until I finally figure she must be full. She burps really well which is such a relief (Bria HATED burping), but for some reason she doesn't get that milk drunk relaxed look after every feeding. Sometimes she does, but other times she just doesn't seem content. Which is kind of her norm, I'm not sure I would necessarily call her colicky, but she just doesn't seem content and fusses often. I'm hoping she outgrows this!

She of course has her times throughout the day where she will look around and she loves being talked too. Bria has this adorable high pitched voice she uses to talk to Reese and Reese just eats it up.

Catching a little smile :)

Pretty in pink :)

I love big bows, can you tell?

Today I ventured out to a coffee shop with some moms. The drive there was absolutely horrendous. Reese screams and cries, Bria screams and cries and yells and it is seriously hell. It stresses me out more than anything and it's just miserable. It's so bad that it gets funny at one point, but then gets so bad that it's past funny and it's just HELL. Anyway, once we got out of the car things got much better, I got a coffee, Bria got a hot chocolate and Reese got Mommy's arms to hold her. We were all happy.

Now Bria is in her room for nap time and Reese is in the baby ergo on me sleeping. I think I'll use this time to clean or sit down and watch some tv :)

1 month

It's going by way too fast. I cannot believe my little Reese's pieces is 1 month old today. There are a few newborn sleepers in her closet that are too short for her and I just can't bring myself to pack them up. This is my last little newborn and she's already outgrowing her newborn clothes. ::tear::

But let's try and focus on the happiness of this all. She is amazing and adorable and I love her so much. We are all over the moon in love with this bundle of joy and now that she is smiling it's getting so fun. She'll lay on a blanket and look around, try and talk a little, and throw a few smiles out. It is so much fun and Bria loves it almost as much as I do. I love watching them together and I know that is only going to get better with time (and then worse when they reach the fighting age ;).

At one month old, Reese:

• Is probably around 9 pounds (she was 8.10 a week ago for her weight check)
• Is pretty tall I think, again, don't know her measurement
• Wants to be held all day, she prefers to bury her face in your chest
• Does not like her car seat, this sucks
• Nurses every 2 to 3 hours
• Does not like sleeping on her back, not even a little bit (just like her sister)
• Is so strong, she can hold her head up and when we do tummy time she lifts her head up so high, we are all very impressed :)
• Has less hair than her sister and I think it may be lighter

So while my back hurts from holding this precious bundle of joy all day long and juggling Bria as well, she is very much worth it. I love when she looks around bright eyed and I love making her smile. As much as it's killing me that she's growing so fast, I also look forward to seeing her little personality shine through. I can't wait to see if her hair is blond and curly like Bria's :)

Hold me

If Reese could talk she would say, "Hold me. All.The.Time."

This little girl wants to be held and cuddled all day and most of me loves it and thinks it's sweet. The other part of me would like to shower and maybe get dressed. Also, I'd like Dora to stop having to babysitting my toddler ;)

The good news is that for the most part Reese can be calmed down by being held which is nice. At night Brian and I take turns rocking her and although I'd love to get more sleep, it's relaxing to rock her.
For about a week she was doing one long sleep stretch between 9 pm to 1 am ish and it was fabulous. Now she's back eating every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. I guess she's trying to get chubby :)

She is really a sweet baby and I'm so over the moon about her. I currently have a stupid cold and it's soooo hard not to kiss her adorable cheeks.

And this little cutie is such a big help.

She is starting to be a little crankier and by that I mean she is copping an attitude, but there's a big change in our house so that is understandable.

She does enjoy bringing me things like the boppy or burp rags and likes reading to Reese, it's so nice to have a helper around.

I did venture out with both girls last week all by myself. I went to a playgroup with the moms club I'm in, it was at this coffee shop/indoor kids place and it went well. Reese slept in the ergo almost the whole time and Bria played nicely. Things got a little dicey when I was nursing Reese and Bria said she needed to go potty. I somehow managed to sit in a chair they had in the restroom and lift Bria up on the toilet while still feeding Reese. It didn't really go over that well since Bria has developed a fear of public restrooms, but the end result was potty in the toilet so I guess it was a success. But I do hope to never do that again.

This week was suppose to be a busy week but since I'm sick I've cancelled a few of our plans which makes me so sad. Especially since it's suppose to be sunny for the next 3 days, grrr. Leave it to me to be sick during our beautiful fall weather.

'Tis the season for Pumpkin Patches

First things first, Reese took a bottle! She did great once she realized milk came out of it. I took a picture of Brian feeding it to her and man did it remind me of the picture I took of him feeding Bria for the first time:

Bria and Daddy

Reese and Daddy

And here is just a cute one of Reese in her crib. I set her in there while I got Bria ready for the day.

So, now to Halloween stuff. I love Halloween. I think it's because it's the beginning of the Holiday season and that is just a happy time of course. Our house is all decorated for Halloween and we are having a Halloween party for the Mom's club and I can't wait. I think Bria will really enjoy trick or treating this year, especially when she realizes people are giving out candy.

So what is she going to be? Tinkerbell of course :) Reese is undecided at the moment, possibly a lady bug, or maybe I'll just throw a cute big bow on her head and call her a flower :)
We headed to a pumpkin patch on Friday afternoon and we were lucky it didn't rain until the very end.

Bria had fun picking out pumpkins for Brian to hold and then climbing up the Hay pyramids.

Have I mentioned how much I love my Ergo? I love it. Reese falls asleep in it right away.

I can't wait for more pumpkin patches and pumpkin spice lattes :)

Tired, but good

Doing well here, just tired.

Yesterday we traveled down to Albany to see family. The drive went well, Reese slept the whole time and then slept most the time we were there which meant last night she did not sleep. I think I got a total of like 3 1/2 hours of sleep, the life of a Mom with a newborn right? :)

This precious little girl is worth it though.

This was not staged, Brian seriously fell asleep like this.

It was a long day.

My baby girl and me

In the swing.

So yeah, things are going well we are just a little tired. I definitely don't have much patience and I feel awful about that, I'm working on it. This week I am going to attempt and do my first outing with both girls alone. We are going to a fun little coffee shop/play place on Wednesday with the Moms group and I'm hoping to make it there, it would be nice to get out of the house, I'm just not sure if I will feel up to it. Let's hope I do because it would be nice to get out of the house!

On my own

Brian went back to work today. I was hoping he would take off today and Friday, or at least work from home but he went in. So far our day is going pretty well. Reese has been a little fussy but not horrible and Bria is doing really well. She didn't nap but she did spend an hour and a half in her room, her quiet time. Although I didn't shower myself yet, I did get both girls dressed, a load of laundry done, and the dishes washed so that's pretty darn good.

I'm gonna miss having Brian at home, we had a wonderful two weeks.

Lots of walks to the park

Lots of play time

Some snoozing

And lots of cuddle time with Daddy.

And someone found their thumb the other day. She hasn't found it again but it was really cute while it lasted :)

I just re-read this post and man is it rough. I'm going to chalk it up to being tired, at least there are cute pictures to help :)

Bath time fun

Things are going pretty well here. It's getting really close to Brian going back to work and I'd be lying if I said I was handling it ok. He's such a huge help I just can't imagine going through the day without him, it's going to be a challenge. I'm hoping my laid back attitude sticks with me when he goes back to work. I've been feeling pretty chill and mellow this time around and I love that, maybe I'm just really tired :) Either way, Brian says he loves how calm I am.

Queen Bria in the house.

I'll admit that Bria has been watching a lot of tv these days, I don't really like that but I know soon we'll be back to more of a routine that does not involve sitting in front of the tv. It's just hard trying to juggle everything...and that's with Brian here, eek! Bria is doing well though and I'm just so proud of her. Her and Brian have been able to spend so much quality time together and I know she loves that. Aunt Heather has also been a huge help and takes her swimming or to a fun pizza place during the week so that she can get out of the house. I know that has meant so much to Bria, and us too.

Our little Reese is doing well too. She has her fussy time in the evening just like Bria did, but the nice part is Brian is home to help. With Bria he was working a graveyard shift so I was by myself for the fussy time and that was hard. It's nice to have him home so I can pass her off when I need a break.

She is definitely noisy when she sleeps, just like her big sister was. Oddly enough I've been able to sleep pretty well in between feedings, I really think I'm that exhausted. It feels good to be able to sleep and I pray that continues, it's keeping me sane for sure.

I LOVE having 2 girls. LOVE.

I can't tell you how excited I am to pick out cute outfits each day, even if we have nowhere to go :)

ADORABLE.

Reese's belly button fell off last week (did I already mention that?) so we got to bath her. I was so excited! She hated every second of it but I sure do love the smell of a freshly bathed baby :)

Fast asleep, she had no idea what was about to happen, poor thing.

This was the only position she wouldn't cry in. We'll work on it.

We've been trying to figure out who Reese looks like. Does she look like Brian, me, Bria?

Bria at 4 days old.

Reese at a week old

What do you think? I'm still out to lunch, I think we need a little more time to figure it out. She does have the Armstrong hairline, a very strong widows peak in the front. I love it :) Her hair seems to be a little lighter than Bria's was and I also think she has less hair. I love my bald babies :)

We had another doctor's appointment for Reese today, to get her second and final PKU test done. She is looking great still, but she only gained .03 ounces since last week. She is still passed her birth weight so that's good and the doctor wasn't concerned, she said it's normal for babies to kind of stay the same for a week. She did have us schedule an appointment in 2 weeks just to make sure she gains weight. I'm not too concerned because she eats great and is peeing and pooping so she probably just has a high metabolism ;)

Bria also got a flu shot today since we were there and it was pretty funny since both our girls got their pricks at the same time. I was nursing Reese while Brian was holding Bria and at the same time they started bawling. Brian and I looked at each other and laughed, not great thinking on our part to do it at the same time but after about 5 minutes all was well. Reese actually calmed down within 30 seconds, it was Bria who had a hard time recovering. But the promise of a hot chocolate calmed her down...and also playing with a large Q-tip. Don't ask, she loves Q-tips.