Grace Elizabeth - Two Months Already!!!

It's hard to believe that Grace is already two months old! Grace was born on January 29th at 8:16 in the morning after a fast and furious 61 minutes of high-intensity labor. Yikes is right! She weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces and was 19 1/4 inches long. I won't pretend that adjusting to life as a family of four has all been a piece of cake, but I can't imagine life without our sweet little girl.


Today we had Grace's two month appointment. She now weighs 10 pounds 10 ounces and is 22 1/2 inches long. She's 50 percentile in both these areas - a little ahead of where Olivia was at this age.

It's amazing how different two little girls with the same parents can be in some ways. I've certainly learned that Grace has her own personality, and I have a hunch that she may be the spitfire in the family. In her short time with us, here's what I've learned so far...


Playtime: She's starting to like being on her belly more. She can lift her head up consistently at a 45 degree angle. She likes to look at her few toys - especially those with bright colors. She'll follow a rattle pretty well. If Olivia is around - she likes to watch her. She's full of smiles when you talk to her and is just starting to coo back to you. She frequently sticks out her tongue - it almost reaches her chin!

Eating: She's a pretty good eater and does a decent job staying focused even when Olivia is bouncing up and down on the couch right next to her while she nurses. She's a power eater - usually is finished in 10 minutes or less. Spit-up is the consequence of over-eating, but thank goodness she's nothing like Olivia in that department!

Sleeping: We're working on it...did you read my earlier entry? :) I have faith. One thing Grace does do that periodically sends either Brian or I flying out of bed is make very odd snorting and choking noises. Brian commented that if Grace had been our first baby we never would have gotten any sleep because of these noises, but as she is our second, we're a tad bit more relaxed.

Schedule: What's that??? Just kidding. I'm trying my best to follow the EASY schedule I read about in a fantastic book. E=eat, A=activity, S=sleep, and Y=you (mommy) time.

Favorite things: Hanging out in the baby bjorn. If we're having a not good sleep day, this is a guaranteed nap. Sitting in the swing, being carried face out, being talked to, and taking baths.

What she can't do (yet): Sleep that well during the day, hold her head completely steady, roll over consistently (but she has done this twice!), or put herself to sleep when it's actually naptime.

What she can do: Smile very sweetly, hold her head pretty well, recognize her family, entertain herself for about 10 minutes, burp very well after eating, and wiggle herself out of her swaddle no matter how tightly she's wrapped up.

What I hope: That someday we'll get Grace on a good schedule and that she'll learn to suck her thumb. This last hope surprises me a little because I used to think thumb sucking was so horrible. But, as I've learned from Olivia, it's great to have a comfort mechanism that can't go anywhere. And, lastly, I hope that someday Olivia will actually call Grace Grace instead of Baby.

We love you Baby Grace and can't imagine life without you!!!

The Art of Sleeping

Grace is two months old today, and I feel like, although she isn't a great daytime sleeper, I have at least learned a few tricks in the sleep department. So, even though the following step-by-step process may sound a little ridiculous and even slightly sarcastic to some of you, it may actually come in handy should you happen to need to put little Gracie to sleep yourself!

How to get Miss Grace to sleep...

Step 1: Swaddle - and I mean seriously swaddle - arms straight down, blanket as tight as possible.

Step 2: Turn fan on - level three - the more white noise the better.

Step 3: Sit in rocker with Gracie in upright position - for some reason she prefers to have her head on your left shoulder with her face tucked under your chin.

Step 4: Insert pacifier if necessary. This step may be necessary many times over.

Step 5: Pat Gracie on the back gently while rocking. Ideally, after a couple of peaceful minutes, her eyes will close.

Step 6 (Necessary if fussing or crying): Try holding her on opposite shoulder or on rare occasion in a more upright than normal cradle - again try both sides. Also, pat back slightly harder, while also at the same time rocking and shushing.... You can see that this is getting rather complicated and that a third arm may be necessary. Also if shushing for a long time - keep some chapstick handy as your lips with definitely get dry. Deep breathing (although hard to do while shushing) may also come in handy here as step 4 will become frustratingly necessary to repeat as Gracie likes to thrash her head from side to side. Also, side note, don't stress if she buries her face in your armpit or against your chest - this seems to calm her - just make sure she can breathe!

Step 7: Slow down and eventually stop shushing (if step 6 was needed), slow down patting, slow down rocking, stop patting, stop rocking.

Step 8: Sit quietly for at least 3-5 minutes.

Step 9: Stand up as slowly and as carefully as possible (wincing when the chair cushions squeak) then walk to the crib.

Step 10: Lay Gracie down and cover her up with additional blanket. Then, breathe.

End result: Well, if it's the daytime - you're only looking at 45 minutes, but, if it's nighttime, hopefully about 6 hours - pretty good for a two month old in that department if you ask me!

Added bonus: Gracie looks quite peaceful and very beautiful when she sleeps, don't you think?

21 Things...

In honor of Olivia turning 21 months shortly, here's a list of 21 things you may or may not already know about her. (By the way, thank you Beth for this idea - I'm sorry to copy your title and I hope you don't mind if I continue to borrow your ideas every now and again.)


1. Is obsessed with anything fleece and soft - especially her silky. She especially enjoys rubbing her silky along her cheeks while sucking her thumb.
2. Likes to comfort others with said silky by rubbing it on your face or asking you to put your head on it.
3. Probably would not touch a piece of bread to save her life. If bread or anything even resembling bread-like texture touches her tongue, Olivia will stick her tongue out and attempt to wipe it off while saying "ackkkk."
4. Is extremely cautious - to the point that she often wants to hold my hand while stepping down the one inch drop from our garage floor to the driveway. Pathetic or cute, I'm not sure.
5. Frequently takes your hand, says "couch" and wants to turn on the "tete" (TV). Yes, she is exactly like her father!!!


6. Expects a snack while riding in her stoller. This is my fault for bribing her - I admit, I don't like to deal with whining. I'm going to have to toughen up in the future or there's going to be trouble in the temper-tantrum department.
7. After getting a dirty diaper changed, will continuously say "yucky poopy" until your acknowledge her comment and throw the diaper away.
8. Is afraid of a drill. When our friend Jason's drill was sitting on the table outside her room, she said "icky" every single time we passed it.
9. Roars at you when she wants to be chased.
10. Has quite the vocabulary including many two word phrases - favorites being: daddy truck, daddy/ba-pa work, ba-pa house, yucky poopy, mommy couch, and where's ____.


11. Wants to go up and down the stairs that lead towards the Whippy Dip from our house all the time and will throw a fit when you don't want to do this over and over again with her.
12. Has pooped in the tub a grand total of 4 times. Yuck.
13. Doesn't like ice-cream. Weird.
14. Kisses the animals in her favorite books goodnight - favorite books include Moo, Baa, La, La, La, Pajama Time, The Going to Bed Book, and Barnyard Dance.
15. Is extremely fair - if one person gets "knucks," a high-five, a hug, or a kiss, everyone will get them.


16. Will apparently bite at daycare if continuously provoked - provoking usually involves someone taking her silky away.
17. Like to get her toe nails painted and calls them her "pretties."
18. Has to get a kiss on any "ouchy," and if you ever say "ouch," she'll come running to give you a kiss.
19. May have a touch of OCD. She is obsessed with any bug on the floor and will say "yucky bug" until you pick it up - don't worry these bugs are just Asian beetles. This, by the way, drives Brian crazy and he's slightly worried that she might have a problem.
20. Loves her sister Grace and likes to give her kisses, but she also rocks Grace's swing so hard I'm afraid Grace my fall out one day if I'm not watching.
21. Has some pretty darn cute chunky thighs!

Missing Daddy...

We've been missing daddy lately.... Brian's been quite busy with his tennis teams, and late this past Saturday night, he got back from a week in Orlando, Florida where his teams went 11-1 over spring break.



We started the week without daddy by going to my parent's house in Northfield. The extra help with Olivia and Grace was much appreciated. Olivia did especially well, enjoying the time with her "ba-pa" and "gamma." Grace, well, she flashed some extra-cute smiles, but as for sleeping, not much was had by either her or me! We came home Monday morning, and I gave both girls A's for the car ride home. Tuesday was a rough day with Grace only taking a few cat-naps and mom running on little sleep.

Wednesday my mother-in-law, Pat, and I headed up to Rochester for an appointment with my dermatologist. Olivia got to hang out with her "ba-pa" in the morning too which I know she loved. Grace did a good job while we were at Mayo (of course she slept just fine for Grandma!), and I was happy not to come home with any stitches this time (although I go back April 9th for some of those)! Wednesday afternoon Beth, Max, and Mya came for a visit. They were a great addition to a long week! All day Thursday after they left Olivia kept saying "Where Matz (Max), where My (Mya), and where Bet (Beth)?" Saturday went well too with a visit from Auntie Tara. Of course, Olivia also asked "Where Tara?" after her afternoon nap! For those of you who know Olivia, you know that these words were accompanied by her signature "where" hand gesture and wide-eyed look!

I can happily report that we had some good nights in the later half of the week both in terms of getting the girls to bed and Grace sleeping for some longer chunks of time! It's pretty crazy around here at bedtime! I'm still trying to figure out who to put to bed first and when. Grace's bedtime has been moving closer to 7 o'clock which is great, but Olivia, poor girl, what's she supposed to do while I'm rocking Grace? After having me tell her we had to be quiet about a billion times, sweet thing that she is, she got her silky, and rested her head on the footstool of the rocker while I finished settling Grace in the night! Practice can only make things easier I'm hoping!

It was pretty clear to me that Olivia missed her daddy! She started off the week asking "Where daddy?" and later that changed to "Daddy work." Every time we went outside or even just looked out the window, she would point out "Daddy truck." The sweetest moment was when she woke up from her nap on Saturday. I think she must have been dreaming because she was still lying down when I went in to get her, and she said in a rather sad little voice, "Daddy work." Olivia missed Brian's play style too. She frequently wanted me to get down and "roar," chase, and tackle her like Brian does.

Brian got home just in time Saturday night.... His welcome home was getting to sleep in Olivia's room for a few hours since she had a bit of the croup and then getting to hold Grace for a couple more as she just decided she wanted to hang out for a while in the middle of the night! Needless to say, I was glad he was home! And, by the way, I did let him catch up on a few extra z's with a nap on Sunday!

An Honest Effort

Inspired by my tech-savy and creative sister-in-law, I've decided to start a blog... I've hemmed and hawed about doing this for quite some time. Computer shy, I even went out and bought a cute little journal that I thought I'd write everything down in - I even wrote one entry in it (that I admit to be partially copying from right now!). But then, wracked by uncertainty over what to do about adding pictures, videos, and just generally falling behind because of those very things, I never wrote another entry. So, here I am, determined to figure out all the tricks and trades of updating a blog.

I can't quite count the number of attempts I've given to starting a journal. I'm truly hoping this attempt won't fail like the rest! Memories are at stake!!! If I'm going to be honest with myself, I'm going to have to admit that I'm a fairly forgetful person. I can't count the number of times I've said to myself, "Oh, I'll never forget this moment," only to find that, sadly, many of those said moments recede to some far away place in the back of my mind only accessible on rare occassion. I have some legitimate faith that I'm truly going to become a "loyal blogger" because, this time, I'm doing it for the sake of my family. I need to save them from my forgetful mind! How else am I going to remember what Olivia was like at 21 months or what a wonderful (oops, scratch that) terrible sleeper Grace was!

So here's to an honest effort towards recording the Huinker family life, its ups and downs, its simplicities and crazinesses, its trivial and significant events, and everything else in between!