Half a decade

Tyler and I have officially been married for five years now, and a great five years they've been. We've gone through five years of school, two apartments, two college degrees, two kids, and purchasing a house. I can't wait to see what the next five years bring!

Tyler has been so great the last month or so. After we closed on our house, he spent every day that week waking up super early to go to work, then driving straight to the house to paint until late, then coming home and loading the cars with boxes. For like four straight days. He did so much, and was so patient with his big wife who couldn't do much. I'm so glad he found a job he loves and that he works so hard to provide for our family. Love you, hon!

Double Whammy

Yesterday I had to take both girls to the doctor; Ada for her two year check-up and Kate for her two week. I was really nervous to go somewhere with both of them, so I had my mom meet me. Good thing, because Ada can be a handful sometimes! She was really good at the appointment but had a fit afterwards because she wanted to stay and see the fish. But everything looked good for her. She weighs 23.6 pounds (12th percentile) and is 33.5 inches tall (49th percentile). Kate looked good as well. She weighs 7 pounds 15 ounces! The doctor said they want the babies back to their birth weights by two weeks, but she has surpassed that by more than a pound! And here I was, worried that she wasn't eating well enough. I've been pushing her to eating every 2.5-3 hours, and she seems fine. After the check-up I had to take her downstairs for her PKU test. Not fun. They had to prick her heel and squeeze blood out to fill all these circles on a paper. She was so good though. She just gave out one cry when she was pricked, but that was it. She's a good baby. I've had a few rough nights with her, but nothing too bad. She still has good nights. There were a few days last week when she was really fussy, so I've officially gone off chocolate. That is really tough for me because chocolate is my favorite, but it's better than trying to calm a screaming baby all day. Ada has been a lot better too. She still has her moments, but she's pretty much back to normal now. I'm so glad! She's still a sweetie to her sister. I have the cutest little girls!

The Babe

Kate will be two weeks old tomorrow. Crazy! She's been a really good baby so far. She's not very fussy and she sleeps well. She likes to be held a lot, but what baby doesn't? My only frustrations are these:

1. She wants to eat every two hours or less. I try to push her as longer, but it's usually around two hours. It's not too bad, though, because she doesn't eat for a long time. Right now I can't get her to do it any other way. But at night she sleeps for a long time and I only have to feed her 1-2 times. Last night she slept until 5:38. Plus I can nap during the day, so I haven't been overly exhausted.
2. At night she takes a while to fall asleep. I just have to stay up and hold her and then hope she doesn't wake up when I set her down (which happens a lot). But once she sleeps, she's a good girl!

So really, there's not much to complain about. She even smiled at me the other day. Not like the smiles she does when she's sleeping, this was for reals. When she was awake I smiled at her and she smiled back. What a cutie.

Ada has been doing better. Yesterday was my first full day home alone with the girls. It also happened to be Ada's birthday, so she was really good all day. Today was a little worse, but not too bad. She's really adjusting fast.

Recovery the second time around is so much better. I've felt great and been able to get things done around the house. I don't know what my problem was when Ada was little, but I really struggled.

Did anyone else get a really bad storm last night? I've never seen so much lightning in my life! Then the rain came and it was crazy! It was really loud and Tyler and I couldn't sleep. It was a crazy storm!

All About Ada

It's been a rough week for poor little Ada (she doesn't seem so little to me anymore), but she has sure said some super cute things. Some examples:

• There were some ants on the kitchen floor, and she saw one carrying some food. She said, "What's the bug carrying? I wanna ask him! Mr. Bug, what are you carrying?" Tyler then started vacuuming them up and she got a little upset. She said, "Where's the ant going in there? I love him!"
• The day we got home from the hospital with Kate, Ada said the lunch prayer. After the usual blessing of the food, she said, "Thankful for Mommy, Daddy, Baby Kate...I love them."
• Today she was putting alphabet magnets on the fridge. She put all the red ones on, then started adding the blue and green ones and said, "Hi guys, wassup?" Later she was lying in the floor looking at the ceiling and said, "Hi guys, what are you doing here?" Silly girl!
• When she sees me feeding Kate, she looks at my nipples and calls them my other bellybuttons.
  

She still loves her baby sister and asks to hold her. She loves to hug and kiss her, and when she's around her she says, "My sister!" She's having a hard time adjusting to things and is throwing lots of fits, but things are slowly getting a little better. Oh, and for a while now she's started napping in her bed instead of on the floor. Lastly, here are some of my favorite pictures of her that were taken by a neighbor in the Village before we moved. It was hard to pick a few out of 81, but you can see them all on our family space.

One Week

Our little Kate has been here for a week now, and an interesting week it's been. Kate is a very good baby so far. She's only had one bad day, which was Monday. She wanted to be held all day and didn't seem to sleep too much. That night she and Ada were both out of control and Tyler and I didn't know what to do. All four of us were crying. She's been better since then, but poor little Ada is having a hard time. Tyler has had to work every day, but luckily his family members have been so great and taken Ada most days this week, plus brought us dinner. I don't know what I'd do without them. My mom had surgery this week, so she'll be out of commission for a while. Ada is super sweet to Kate, but she has several meltdowns every day. It makes us so sad. Hopefully she'll get back to normal soon. She loves to hold Baby Kate, and every time she does she giggles and gives her kisses. It's so cute! Ada has been my biggest struggle so far. I feel so bad for her. But so far Kate sleeps well (especially at night) and doesn't cry too much. I hope things don't get bad soon because we remember that our first week with Ada was the easiest.

Preggo no more

I'm sure everyone knows that I had my baby by now. Everything went really well. I had an appointment on Wednesday and the doctor stripped my membranes. I was a little sore all day, and then around bedtime I started contracting. The contractions came at full force and I couldn't sleep at all. They were pretty inconsistent, so I had to wait around all night. They were worse than I remember them being when I had Ada. Around 4:00 or so I couldn't take it anymore, so we packed up the car and took Ada to my parents' house. By this time they were pretty close together (oddly enough, when I would lie down they were further apart, but when I was on my feet they were closer together). We arrived at Intermountain Medical Center just before 5:00 a.m. and they got my IV and epidural hooked up right away. I was dilated to 5 1/2 cm (I was 2 1/2 at my appointment). I thought I'd have plenty of time to rest and get some sleep before it was time to deliver, but they baby's heart rate was a little low and the doctor came in to put on a scalp monitor to get a better reading. I was having a contraction when she went to put it in, and she paused for a minute and said to us surprisingly, "You're fully dilated!" I can't believe how fast that happened! So we got all ready to start pushing. The doctor put up a mirror so I could see everything. It was a little weird, but cool to see her come out! I only pushed three times. The umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck, so we got her out really fast. She didn't cry at all, but she was totally fine. Kate Amelia Squire was born Thursday morning (the 10th) at 7:37. She weighed 6 lb 14 oz and was 20.5 inches long. She wanted to eat right away and caught on to that really quickly (although it's very painful for me right now). She loves to be held but is a good little sleeper. We're so blessed to have her in our lives!

Daddy's girls


Mommy's girls


Sisters


Ready to go home
I can't even say how proud of Ada I am. I really underestimated my little girl. She's been more sensitive and clingy since Kate's arrival, but she's so sweet to her little sister. She loves to talk about her, give her binkie to her, rock her, hold her, and touch her head. I hope she keeps it up.

The house

Well, we finally got internet here at the house yesterday, so I can finally post about the move and everything. The move went really well (thanks to everyone who helped!). We're still unpacking boxes and trying to organize things, but we're making progress. I had a lot going on last week where I had to leave the house, so I haven't done as much as I would have liked, but we're getting there. The baby is due this week, so hopefully we'll get a lot done before her arrival! We went to our new ward today and it seems like we'll like it. Ada was very good in Sacrament Meeting and was so excited to go to nursery. She talks about it every time we drive past the church.

If you haven't read Tyler's blog recently, we got Ada a twin bed and she's been sleeping in a for over a week. She's done so well going to bed at night and there have been no problems, but nap time is a different story. She won't stay in her bed during the day and tries to escape every time I leave her in there (she can open doors now). I've had to hold the doorknob so she can't get out, so we finally bought a cover to put on the knob so she can't open it. But every day after she gives up on the door, she plays for a while and then falls asleep on the floor. So she doesn't nap in her bed, but at least she's sleeping. Here are a few pictures of her napping:




Ada is so cute and funny. She seemed to have a difficult time with the move at first, but she seems happy in her new house and new room. Her favorite place is our walk-in closet. She loves to go in there and wear all my shoes. I always find them scattered around the house. So far I love being a homeowner! I love my washer and dryer, my dishwasher, and especially my new king bed! I've been sleeping great in it. We're so lucky and blessed to have all that we do right now. More good times will soon follow.