Week One: 2 under 2

Well I'm back. Gary did a guest appearance on the blog when Izzy was born and will probably be his last till we have another one..... a long long time from now. So we've got the first week under our belt.

Gary recapped the whole process of me going in the labor and another amazing experience having Isabella. We couldn't have asked for a better hospital to go to, the nursing staff was awesome, my doctor is such a blessing to our family and Gary was the amazing partner that he's always been for me in the hospital. We checked out Wednesday night as the nurses thought we could handle going home a little early as we're old pros now. It was great "sleeping" in our own bed again, but Izzy was getting her nights and days mixed up. We stayed up all night with her, feeding her about every hour thinking that would help. We finally got an hour and half of sleep in the morning and we were off and running with Anna ready to roll at her usual time. The next few nights got a lot better as Izzy woke up once or twice and we were able to get a few hours of sleep in between. Last night (Thursday night) she slept from 12:30 to 6:30, so we're getting there already! Yay!

Isabella is a wonderful baby. From her looks to her mannerisms, she's a lot different than Anna. She can be awake for 1-2 hours at time, just checking things out, looking around. So cool. Then she can sleep for 3-4 hours at a time if we let her. We gave her a pipe (pacifier for all of you who look at me weird when I call it that) in the hospital already as she could eat for hours if you let her. So if she loses her pipe before she's soundly sleeping, she wails. This girl has some lungs. Her features are a bit more petite than Anna's were, her skin color seems to be more on the olive side of things and her hair right now is a beautiful golden brown - thick and wavy! She fills out the newborn clothes a lot more than Anna did - Izzy was almost 2 pounds more than Anna. Crazy. We can't believe we have 2 beautiful girls - they such a blessing to our family.

Anna was doing great when Grandma and Grandpa Tiemens were out. She was able to get the attention she was used to and thought we might miss the jealousy stage of having another person in the house to give her attention. The switch flipped as soon as they left Wednesday afternoon. When I'm trying to feed Isabella, she's gotten angry about not getting something she can see, or when she can't sit on my lap or read her a book. She's starting to pull hair and scratch and bite. In other words, getting closer to the terrible 2's, jealous of the attention we give Isabella, teething, being sick and just being a little girl who doesn't quite know what's going on. We're working through this as parents too, not trying to lose patience and giving her all the love and attention we're able to give her in the meantime teaching her what things are acceptable and what isn't. She's still a sweetheart despite this change. A few days ago, she started to give kisses. I ask her for kisses all the time, but with no result. Then all of a sudden she put together how to kiss. It was the sweetest thing! Especially for daddy coming home to that. She gives hugs when you ask for one. She is a good big sister, bringing Izzy her blanket or hat or sharing her books and animals with her. She even puts her pipe back in her mouth if she loses it. She's also in a phase where she won't eat a lot of things we make for dinner, even if she liked it before. It's a bit trying as we want her to eat, but she'll let us know when she's hungry. Can't win them all. :)

I'm doing great! Feeling good and pretty close to fully recovered. Gary and I were talking and it's just amazing that God made a woman's body to go through all that and then a week or 2 later, feel like yourself again. It's surely amazing. I was ready to be done being pregnant, wanting to be able to bend again, help Gary out with things around the house and just be me again. Now we're in to finding a good routine getting the day started with 2 kids and all of us not in our PJ's till noon. I'm looking forward to getting some things done around the house that have been put off and working on some projects that have been waiting for me for a long time. Hopefully we can cross some things off the list, but we'll take it day by day with these two.

Gary is back at work full time after a week off with me and some half days off after that. Lots of work to catch up on, but he enjoys it for the most part. My parents came out just after Izzy was born to help us get some things done around the house. Dad and Gary got about half the basement insulated and drywalled. You can totally tell the difference in temperature already! Before we didn't even want to be down here, now it's quite tolerable. We have more steps to go, but we have a room at least for people to stay! Gary also did a lot of the wiring down here, along with his very proud accomplishment of his wiring closet. It looks awesome and is exactly what he wanted. And we're able to work down here again and feel somewhat motivated. :) Martha and I cleaned the house, sorted Anna's old clothes for Izzy, made a bunch of dinners for us to throw in the oven or on the stove and they both did the wonderful grandparent thing of spoiling the girls. :)

I'm going to try and do a week by week of what's going on here. Maybe some extras thrown in there if something comes up, but these girls and life in general makes the day go by so fast! Make sure you check out the links below of pictures of what's going on with the Tidd house. If anyone has any advice on parenting 2 under 2 or at least a toddler who isn't used to not getting all the attention, we'd like to hear it!

Isabella Clara's first month

Anna and all her charm

We also want to thank you all for the prayers, kind words, cards, gifts and dinners! We appreciate and value all of you as our family and friends. We hope to return the favor.

Love to you all and enjoy the weekend!

Gary, Christie, Anna and Isabella