Molon Adventures: March 2009

Family visits....

This past weekend, we took Emme on her first big outing...to meet her great grandfather (who just turned 101 this month). Emme did great and slept through the majority of the outing.

And then on Sunday, Emme's Great Nana, Aunt Polly, and Uncle Bill came to visit.

Great Nana with our girls!

And trying to get the 4 generations...Great Nana, Nana, Joe, Hannah, and Emme. Hannah was more interested in making silly faces.

And eventually since we couldn't seem to get her to smile normally, Joe decided to join her in the silly faces.

Cookie time

For a big sister present from her friend Cai, Hannah received a Cookie Monster cookie cookbook....her favorite! So this weekend, she picked out the recipe she wanted to try first...gooey thumbprint cookies.

The great thing about this cookbook is that it's made for kids to help and help she did. First we mixed all of the ingredients (that she added) in the mixer. Hannah's very into making silly faces right now.

and goofy smiles.

Next we rolled the dough into balls and then used our thumbs to make imprints.

And last we filled the cookies with blueberry and orange marmalade before baking.

So yummy! And so much fun!

Our first week

It's been a week since Emme was born, 5 days since we've come home from the hospital. Still trying to figure everything out and get in as much sleep as possible. To make matters more difficult, I was put on bed rest on Friday for an elevated bp, but am now able to get up and about while still being monitored by my doctor. Joe has been a superhero Daddy and husband cooking, playing with Hannah, calming Emme, doing laundry, taking care of me. Hannah is doing great with Emme, but is still adjusting to sharing Mommy and Daddy's attention. Each day things get a little better...

Our girls in matching pjs. Thanks Auntie Cathy and Uncle Kurtis!

Joe's group at work planned a surprise baby shower last Tuesday, but the surprise was on them when Emme decided to be born that same day. As Joe went back to work yesterday, he came home with an armful of gifts. Hannah was so excited to open the gifts for Emme. Thanks QC Chemistry for all of the wonderful gifts!

Emme's first sponge bath. The pictures are out of sequence, but blogger isn't as easy to manipulate with my new computer and I'm really too tired to care...

A not so happy baby getting her bath.

And last some pictures of Hannah and Daddy time. They're getting ready for our garden this Spring/Summer and planting the starter seeds. Again the pictures are out of sequence. Hannah loves being involved in all of Daddy's projects!

Watering the seeds.

Watering the pellets to expand and become the soil.

Making sure all of the pellets were flat.

Hannah at Gymnastics

I finally got to see Hannah at gymnastics yesterday and I brought my camera for some good action shots. She is doing great, but it also is a great opportunity for her to get away from the house for some much needed physical activity during the winter. Not to mention that it gives Suzie some much needed time to rest. Here are some pictures of the little gymnast in action.

Emme comes home

On Thursday, the doctor's cleared Emme to come home, so we began the ordeal of her first trip. First, there was the change of diaper, of course followed by her peeing on me when she was exposed. (How cliche!)

Then there was the picture opportunity.

And the car seat, which she didn't seem to mind.

Then we came home to a warm reception with Hannah, Nana and the boys (Charlie and Sammy). Both boys were very curious, especially when Emme cried. Charlie is particularly excitable, but he is settling in just fine. Sammy is a little leary, but I think he is happy that she isn't mobile.

We had our first doctor appt. and Emme checks out well and now we are just trying to get into a feed/sleep/poop schedule at home.

Emme meets Hannah

After Emme was checked out by the doctor, she was ready for show and tell. Since she was a week early, my mom (Nana) hadn't arrived yet to watch Hannah. Of course we had a backup plan (is anyone surprised) and Kerry was able to watch Hannah for the night of the delivery. Much appreciated and great for Hannah since this is the mom of her best friend Kai.

Then Nana had to be rushed down to Cambridge by cousin Cheryl for her three week stint at the house to help out. All this was taken care of by noon and I took everyone to the hospital then.

Hannah was just thrilled to meet her little sister. She was really cute and loving. She is really nurturing and cautious with Emme and even lectured me when I played trot, trot to Boston with Emme and Hannah felt I dipped her a bit much.

It was great that Nana was able to make this and meet Emme. It will be great to have her here for a few weeks to help out.

And thanks again to cousin Cheryl and Owen for driving down Nana at such a last minute.

Here are a few other pictures of Emme as I escorted her through the medical check.

Another item of note, Emme's birthday is particularly special for us. It is the same date as my Papa's birthday, who passed away two weeks ago. This will again become a day of joy for our family.

It's a girl

We welcome Emme Elizabeth Molon to the world. She was born on March 17 and weighed in at 7 lbs 7 oz and is 20.5 in. Suzie and Emme are both doing great and should be coming home from the hospital by Thursday.

We went to Mt. Auburn hospital in Cambridge at around 8:30 when Suzie's contractions were quite frequent. After about 10 hours of contractions at the hospital, the baby was ready to be delivered and this only took about 15 min. The fastest of the day.

I ended up being in charge of the first bath and checkup while Suzie got settled into the post birthing room. Everything checked out and we were on our way.

After the bath, ready to go back to the room and sleep with mommy. In the meantime, I went back home to pick up Hannah and Nana.

38 weeks and counting

Counting the days at this point!

All very excited for baby Molon to arrive, especially me as by now I can finally say, I am very uncomfortable! Belly is huge and she is sitting so high that it actually is quite funny sometimes to see how big my belly is at the top and small (relatively speaking) at the bottom.

Hannah loves going to all of my dr. appts. We've seen the nurse practitioner the last 3 weeks who lets Hannah measure and listen to the baby's heartbeat all by herself (well, with minimal help from Carol) and then for helping....a lollipop. We keep telling Hannah that the baby is coming soon and all about how Mommy and Daddy will have to go to the hospital, but not sure she will completely understand until it happens. Until then, she loves to give the baby hugs and kisses and sing songs to her.

I should have mentioned, photography is by Hannah. She wanted to take a picture of me (above) and then Charlie.

Nursery

With 3 weeks left to go, we finally put together the nursery which was really a simple task as Hannah and the baby will be sharing a room. Well, especially simple for me since Joe did all of the work. Joe took down Hannah's wardrobe, installed new shelving and a hanging bar in the actual closet, and put together the crib. I made the bed, put the changing pad on the changing table/dresser and hung the mobile. And of course, Hannah helped in all aspects!