End of Summer Party...

Last night we were invited to the Knutson household for an end of summer party. We played some lawn games and ate very well of course, we didn't enjoy the pool as the water was a bit chilly and shaded by the time we got there. Not to mention, the idea of me in a swimsuit is still a bit frightening! Rowan got to see some family and was loved by all.

Rowan did get a short nap too, but it didn't last long, she didn't want to miss what was going on around her.

Remember Me???

Our poor little Gizmo has been put on the back burner ever since Rowan arrived, and we truly feel bad and try our best to include him. He finally got groomed today, first time since before Rowan was born. So he is a clean boy now. Notice the girly bandana they sent him home in, it is hideous, so I had to get a picture. Gizmo continues to be a very concerned older brother, always interested in what Rowan is doing. I am hoping to get a picture of them together soon, but Gizmo always gets up and moves when I put her near him. He just wants to sniff her.

7 Weeks Old...

Can't believe it has been 7 weeks already, I think that is how every weekly post of mine starts. Oh well. But truly time has flown by, and if we have this little girl figured out now, the time is going to fly by even faster. I didn't get any pictures of her smiling today, maybe later, but enjoy these for now!

A New Baby...

Well, as of yesterday at 1am, Rowan has been getting Similac Isomil (Soy Formula), and she truly has been quite a different baby! In a good way of course. I hate to say it this soon, but I think that has been the ultimate fix, so far anyway.

She can occassionally have fussy times during the day, but they are at least cut in half. She will take longer naps during the day than she was taking, she has fallen asleep in her bouncy seat the last two days, she has fallen asleep in the swing, she doesn't need to be constantly bounced or rocked to get her quiet after a feeding, and doesn't scream when you take the bottle out of her mouth. Now don't get me wrong, she isn't the perfect baby, but we have made many strides.

Here are a few pics of her new happenings and a video too...

She has also been more interactive with us and enjoys her tummy time and play mats more than usual.

The many faces of Rowan...

Here are some photos of Rowan, some smiling and some funny faces. She is quite the character!

Our 1st Family Vacation...

Pentwater, MI sunset...

We have spent the last 4 days in Michigan at the Smith Family Cabin with our immediate family. It was a very fun and busy time. We had wonderful weather for the most part and created some new fun memories with everyone. Rowan had several 'firsts' while we were gone also, so here it goes.

Where do I start...

We left on Wednesday and stopped in St. Joe MI at Blayne and Molly's house, Ed and Eddie went golfing in the afternoon while Blayne and Dusty worked and us ladies hung out. We went for a walk in the blistering heat and just relaxed and played with the babies. We went out for dinner at Chili's and then we headed to the cabin (another 2 hours). We didn't arrive at the cabin until about 10pm so we pretty much just went to bed. Dusty was there waiting for us, and Blayne and Molly came Thursday morning due to conflicts with dropping off Peaches at the kennel.

Thursday we went grocery shopping to stock up for the next several days of eating. Then us women went to downtown Pentwater to do some shopping in the little shops while the guys went out on the speedboat. I personally didn't feel very comfortable with a 6 week old out on a speed boat, thus the shopping trip. We would rather shop anyways. We managed to find time for some ice cream while we were shopping too, Kieran even got some chocolate ice cream, that might have been a first for him too. He loved it.

When we were all back in the later afternoon we all went down to the pool. Rowan had her first swimming experience with her dad. She hated it! She was only in the water for a few minutes and she screamed the entire time. Afterwards she was a little bathing beauty though. She laid on a beach towel happy as a clam for a long while actually, with her pacifier of course. This is how I got her 6 week pictures! To be posted later.

Rowan's first time swimming...in her Hula Honey swim suit!

Friday it was sprinkling when we woke up so the pontoon boat that we had rented we called and cancelled because the radar was showing rain all day. Turns out it didn't rain all day, so we ended up on the pontoon boat for 4 hours instead of the planned 8 hours. So that was Rowan's first boat ride. The lake we were on (Lake Hamlin) was very rough for the first hour and we had a near death experience with the front end of the boat going under water, therefore us ladies decided to head to shore. We stayed on shore for about an hour while the men went out alone, Kieran played in the sand and I fed Rowan. Then we decided to go out another hour since the guys had found a calmer area of the lake and the weather was very pleasant. Rowan enjoyed the noise of the engine and the constant motion of the boat. So she did pretty well on the boat.

Nothing like tubing behind a pontoon boat...looks like he is going fast

Rowan's first boat trip...

Saturday it actually did rain the first half of the day, so we didn't get to do the Flea Market like we had wanted to. So we went into town and had some lunch and ice cream at the House of Flavors. Then a quick trip to Walmart for some necessities for the cabin, we were going to go bowling but in the end decided against it. The guys golfed between the sprinkles and actually ended up with a nice afternoon for golf. We took one more trip to the pool on Saturday, but Rowan didn't go in this time, just the boys.

Sunday we cleaned up the cabin and headed home. We were on the road by 11am and decided to see how far we could get home without Rowan waking up. We ended up stopping for gas just passed Blayne and Molly's house and I changed Rowan's diaper and turns out we needed a whole outfit change. That was the 3rd overflowing diaper we had on our trip. She is getting good at that. Then I fed her in the carseat while we were driving and she was content. It was perfect because then she was rather content when we stopping in Kenosha for a quick shopping trip. Boy was that a bad idea, this girl has more clothes than I do for the next year of her life. Oh well, outlets are okay, especially the clearance sections!

One other first I might be able to say for the week is her first smile. I guess I was being picky and waiting for a giggle or something because Molly and Sue said what I was saying wasn't a smile really was. So I can't pin down a date for her first smile since she was giving me the gummy smirk for a few days before we even went to MI, but in MI Molly was able to get a little smirk on camera! She is so darn cute!! More photos to come...

So Rowan's 'firsts' this trip included: 1st smile, 1st boat ride, 1st time in the swimming pool, 1st trip to the Smith family cabin, and 1st family vacation!

6 Weeks Old...

A little update on Rowan's newest happenings...

Well she has started smiling a bit more...more of a smirk if you ask me, I am waiting for the all out smile, or I guess a more frequent smile. She has had many blow out diapers we like to call them. She has explosive liquid poop that manages to get out of the diaper and onto the clothing. Not fun to rinse poop out of clothing, it is hard enough to get the onesie off without bathing her in poop.

We are still fighthing the fussiness. She had been started on Zantac last week. And as of Wednesday we are now trying Prevacid because I didn't feel Zantac was doing anything. The only next option is to try her on Soy formula. I am going to give the Prevacid a week and then try Soy. I was on soy as a baby therefore I think that might be the underlying issue. So we will see. Stay tuned for an update at 7 weeks.

We have now graduated to size 1 diapers from newborn. Maybe we were running out of room in the diaper and that is why our poop was escaping! She is still wearing newborn clothing though. I hate to say it but I don't think we are going to get to wear all the summer 0-3 month outfits. Unless we have an abnormally warm September, we will see.

Rowan does have more quiet alert moments where she interacts with us or with her play mat, but the fact that she cries after she eats is a trigger that we aren't completely headed in the right direction. I hope to figure it out before I go back to work! I can't believe my maternity leave is half over already.

2 Blissful Years...

Ed and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary today...hard to believe it has been that long already. But look at all the things we have accomplished...okay so maybe there really aren't that many accomplishments...but our most exciting obviously came on July 10th, 2008. Hope you all aren't sick of hearing about her yet, because she truly is the center of our universe, and we devote our lives to her now. She deserves our undivided attention and that she will receive.

We didn't do anything exciting for our anniversary. Ed worked the early part of the day, and we spent the afternoon running errands to get ready to leave on our little vacation to MI tomorrow. It was nice just to have some time together, we now refer to it as 'family' time, there isn't much 'us' time anymore, we are okay with that, for now, not ready to leave the little squirt out of our sight quite yet. Soon enough.

Happy Anniversary Honey! I love you! 2 years down and many to come!

Rowan's Baptism...

Rowan was baptized today, and it went very well. She was very well behaved! Ed held her throughout the entire church service, so imagine the beads of sweat pouring down. I think he liked being able to leave the sanctuary when she got fussy, which really wasn't that often. She slept through most of the service and pictures.

Here is Pastor Sandy with Rowan...showing her off to the congregation after she was baptized. Rowan had her pacifier in her mouth when Pastor Sandy was pouring the water on her head, and Rowan decided to spit her pacifier into the baptismal font...it got baptized too!!
Here we are with Rowan's sponsors, Amanda and Dusty!
Our happy little family...more family pictures will be in the photo album...
We had a small lunch gathering for immediate family after church. We had shishkabobs, fruit kabobs, cheese n sausage, pasta salad, chips, and cake of course!!

Rowan received many wonderful gifts too, thank you to all!

Super Busy Saturday...

Let's see, the day started out with visitors. Rowan's Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Blodgett stopped over to see her for the first time. They were in town for her baptism on Sunday.
Saturday night we went to Ed and Sue's house for dinner and to spend some time with Blayne, Molly, Kieran, and Dusty who were all in town. Kieran got a new bubble gun, Ed seemed to be more interested in it than Kieran! There were too many other things for Kieran to see and play with, including dogs.

5 Weeks Old...

Can't believe Rowan is 5 weeks old already!

Time flies when you are having fun, and not sleeping, and never have time to clean, etc, etc, oh well, I'd rather let my house fall apart and not sleep than miss these precious days with our little girl!

Rowan has had enough of the picture taking already, can you tell!

She has many years of this camera in her face, she better get used to it now.

Perhaps she just wanted to finish eating instead of posing for pictures!

We have noticed Rowan showing us a naughty finger lately, and I managed to get it on camera somewhat!

It's A Miracle...

Rowan slept from 10:30pm last night until 7am this morning! I woke up at 5am, looked at the clock and couldn't believe my eyes. I had to listen to make sure she was still breathing. I decided to get up and pump since it had been several hours, and expected Rowan to wake up any minute. I finished pumping and she was still sleeping so I laid back down in bed, but every little movement or noise she made I woke up expecting her to be waking up, but nope, not until 7am. I can't believe it. I got 6 straight hours of sleep, but yet I am still exhausted! I have much catching up to do from the last month. It will never happen, I have come to grips with that. I have a feeling we are going to have a rough day if she slept all night, but so far she ate and is sleeping currently.

Now I need to back up a couple days and update you all.

Monday morning I decided to call the Pediatrician and consult him about the possibility of Rowan having reflux. Surprisingly the Ped called me back within 2 hours and agreed to try treating it and see if her lack of sleep and fussiness during the day gets better. I didn't really have to talk him into the idea, I think I had plenty of symptoms to back up my reasoning. And I am willing to try anything at this point. We had started to mix formula in with my breastmilk to wean her to formula to see if she was better off of breastmilk, but that only last 48 hours and I felt too guilty using formula so I stopped. Therefore I didn't do it long enough to see a change. Then I was thinking about eliminating dairy from my diet to see if perhaps it was a milk allergy. But since the Pediatrician agreed to start her on Zantac for reflux, I am putting the dairy idea on hold also. If I don't have to give up ice cream I don't want to. That truly is the only source of dairy in my diet, a little cheese and yogurt here and there, but that is it. So we will see. The plan is to treat her for 2 weeks and see if she is better. Cross your fingers with me!

Last night we had a few visitors. My mom was in town for work so she spent the night with us. Also, my dear friend Nicole from work and her husband Scott came over to see us too. Rowan got some good holding time in with Nicole, experienced nurses know how to keep her quiet! She didn't sleep at all but she was content, Nicole probably has some sore arms and legs from rocking and bouncing her for an hour straight. They both seemed to enjoy it though! And a typical male response to small babies, Scott wasn't interested in holding her, he is waiting for his own before he has to do the work. As I was thinking about updating the blog, I realized I never took any pictures of our visitors with Rowan last night, very unlike me! Next time!

Sorry about the post with no pictures. Tomorrow there will be 5 week pictures, stay tuned!

Visitors, Grilling, and Baptisms...

Well, we have had a busy last couple of days filled with visitors, family, friends, and fun!

We will start with Friday! Just before lunch on Friday my dear friend Lisa came over to visit with her two children Maya and Mason. Lisa hasn't seen us since the night we had Miss Rowan. Lisa was working and had come down to visit while I was laboring and was on her way out of work when Rowan was born and stopped for a quick visit to discover whether we had had a boy or girl! So Rowan has grown quite a bit since she last saw her in person. We realized how much child proofing of our home we will have to do as Rowan grows. We didn't prepare for Maya (2 1/2 years old) and Mason (1 year old) like we should have, not to mention we are a bit more uptight about things like dogs around kids, and dog hair and other things that didn't seem to phase Lisa or her kids. But it was very nice to see them and get a little update on all my long lost friends from work and all the drama that comes along with it. We didn't get to chat as much as we would have liked as Lisa was busy with her own kids and trying to enjoy our fussy little one as well. We will be getting together again soon for a bit more laid back visit hopefully. But it was nice to have them visit.
Saturday, Ed worked and I had a couple more visitors. Aunt CJ and Jenny came to see Rowan for the first time. Everyone comes bearing gifts when they visit, which is very thoughtful but very unnecessary also. So we visited with them awhile and Rowan got some good holding time in. Of course she woke up the minute they left and she wasn't held anymore. (Believe me we are not trying to get her used to being held, but she does tend to sleep better when held and moving constantly, she is too young to work the system yet anyway!)Saturday afternoon when Ed was done working we went over to the Swan residence to visit with Casey who is home for a few days and enjoy the nice weather. We were at their house maybe 20 minutes and it started to rain, so the pool party moved inside rather quickly. Brad and Cheryl had a wonderful spread of food for us all, pork tenderloin, chicken (grilled on "The Egg") tuna salad, cheesy potatoes, apple salad, beverages, you name it, they had it. It was wonderful! Casey, Jake and Bentley are all home, and of course they had a little something for Rowan, I was expecting some Gator attire, but apparently that is to come. But Jake got Rowan her first pair of Nike's! Super cute! We had to try them on of course. Can't wait until they actually fit her.
Along with poor Casey coming home, comes several hair cuts and colors. So the party was partly in the garage as well as Casey was busy highlighting and cutting hair for the majority of the time we were there. She is so generous. I hate to say, but I was one of the people keeping her busy, but my hair was probably in need the most!

Then today (Sunday) we attended Breyson's Baptism party in Mukwonago. We didn't make it to the church for the actual baptism, but we joined them all in the afternoon. The weather was very nice but it was a bit chilly in the shade with the wind gusts at the Schuett residence. We visited with family and then came home to relax. At least that is what I am supposed to be doing, but instead I am updating the blog. I tend to get my priorities mixed up every once in awhile, Rowan and Ed are napping and I am typing away, oh well.
Last, but not least, I have some random pictures of Rowan that we've taken over the last couple of days. Enjoy, she is growing so fast.

4 Weeks Old...

This is the same dress that we brought Rowan home from the hospital in! It fits much better now, and actually the bonnett is a little small. We wore this dress today because it was the only hat that fit her head okay with going to the zoo, but since she slept through the entire zoo trip, we didn't even need the hat! More zoo stories in next post!

4 Week update...
There really isn't much to say about what Rowan does these days. Yesterday and today were her best sleeping days. She seems to sleep fine at night, but has had some long, fussy days. The doctor said at her 2 1/2 week check up that in the next week or two she should start sleeping more during the day, sounds like she was going through a growth spurt the last week or two. We are hoping this is the start of her figuring out how to eat and nap longer during the day, we will see.

Otherwise, she is sort of starting to have some quiet alert times during the day, thus the playmat coming out. Hoping to get some more tummy time in in the near future, she really does have some strong neck muscles already.

She is still wearing newborn clothes and newborn diapers, but we are starting to get close to outgrowing them both. She has lots of summer 0-3 month clothes to wear before Fall gets here. Hoping we get to wear them all at least once before it gets too cold. Obviously she is growing by leaps and bounds, thus the chubby cheeks, she even has a roll forming on her upper arms. She was such a peanut at birth, and is growing so fast! Hard to believe I am going to have to start retiring some of her clothes soon, will save them for the next child since we have plenty of neutral outfits!

I am sure I am leaving out some important milestones that have come and gone, but my time to post is limited. Will add more photos to the photo album asap!

Rowan's 1st Zoo trip...

We had a lovely day at the Milwaukee County Zoo today. We went with my Dad and Julie, Amanda, Mitchell, Andrea, Breyson and Jordyn! The weather was very nice. We got there at 9:30am and left around 12:30pm. We saw everything, and all that Rowan saw was the inside of her eyelids! She slept the entire time, until we were walking to the car to leave, then she decided to wake up.

Grandpa Kris even made sure that Rowan took a train ride on her first trip to the zoo.

The one thing that Ed remembers about zoo trips were the plastic animal molds (that used to cost 25 cents and are now 2$) so we got her her first animal mold. I decided to go with the flamingo, because it looked pink in the machine, turns out it was orange, but it is the idea that counts, right?

Got lots of great pictures of animals with the nice camera. Not so sure what we will do with them all, I'll put them in the album with Rowan's pictures, but it shows the potential our camera has.