Much happier

All of us are.
Norah seems to have turned a corner. She seems so much happier. She is awake and alert more. She is starting to smile more and more. I can put her down for periods of time, and she doesn't just cry! She is sleeping so much better at night! (5-6 hours for the first stretch!) It makes for a much happier household.

We are seeing more of these pleasant faces.

She's definitely happy in the bath tub.

And I caught a smile on camera! Here she is warming up for one.

Blurry picture, but I caught it! I love that she does this crooked little smile.

We are thankful for this baby swaddler. It really helps her sleep so much better!

On Saturday night we went bowling while my mom was here. Joey and Kylah just love bowling. I wore my hair wavy that night with the front pulled back. I did Kylah's hair the same. She loved it!

Joe helping Kylah bowl. I'm probably the only one that will appreciate this shot, but those are two cute booties!

These two are thick as thieves. They love each other so much...and they can fight like it too!

LOVE this picture!

They love their Gramma too!

I just watched everyone bowl while I fed this little cutie...and apparently put her to sleep. Joey was convinced I didn't have any fun because I didn't bowl. I told him I had fun watching and cheering. 'But not really, really fun mommy,' he says. :)

Norah was cheering on the Jayhawks with daddy yesterday. I guess she didn't quite cheer hard enough. :(

Gramma got a little more loving on Norah before she left. Norah is a fan of Gramma. Norah calms down for her and gives her great smiles!

This is my new favorite picture of Norah.

One of my favorite things about Norah are her pretty little hands. They are tiny and cute!

She will probably have my hands. Small hands are fine and cute, but if she's going to be a setter it is so much better to have bigger hands! (I'm always thinking about those sports opportunities!) :)

I have two more weeks of maternity leave left. I'll be fine going back, but I will enjoy these last two weeks of naps and Regis and Kelly! :)

Gramma time

We found a toy that Norah likes! Hooray! She loves to lay and look at all the toys attached to her little play gym thing. Mommy loves it that I can put Norah down for a few minutes and she is happy. Thanks to Auntie Mere for letting us borrow this!

We've had a fun weekend so far with Gramma here. (And mommy's a happy camper because Norah has been sleeping so much better all week long! She went from 10:15-3:30, and then went back to sleep until 7 last night! Yahoo!)

We celebrated Gramma's birthday on Thursday night with an ice cream cake from DQ...the best!! The kids loved singing Happy Birthday to Gramma.

And we all loved eating the cake!

There's been tickling time with daddy.

Gramma's gotten lots of cuddle time in with Norah.

How sweet is this picture?!

And Joey and Kylah always love playing games with Gramma. Seriously, they are on their 4th different game now!

So fun!

Getting chubby

Sweet girl. I'm loving that she's getting chubby cheeks! She's at that awkward acne, balding stage, but I still think she's pretty cute.

She still likes to cry off and on during the day, but she has been letting me get a little more sleep at night so it makes the crying a little more tolerable. She will usually eat around 9:30 or 10 at night, so down by 10:30 or 11. Then she's been getting up to eat around 3:30. She's had this pattern for about a week, so hopefully it continues and gets better! And, she doesn't sleep on me anymore! Hooray!

My mom is flying in today for the weekend, so we're all excited. And I'm excited to go get my hair done on Saturday. All by myself. :)

no more crying...please?

This past week was a fairly quiet one around here. Joey and Kylah were in Kansas with Joe's parents. It sounds like they had a great time! I say only fairly quiet because we still had the littlest one around here. And let me tell you, she has some lungs. I think the poor little thing has reflux, because she likes to cry...and cry...and cry. It's a bummer for all of us. :) I do feel bad for her because I know she's in pain, but I'm not quite sure how to make it all go away! Hopefully she will grow out of it sooner rather than later for the sanity of everyone in our house! I told Joe that it must be God's way of cementing the fact to us that this is our last child. You know, if we had an extremely easy baby we may be tempted to do it again, but this way we keep saying THIS IS OUR LAST ONE! :)

She is still pretty sweet, though.

I tried putting her in her bumbo the other night to see how she would do. She seemed to do pretty well...at first.

And then not so well. I think we may need to wait a few more weeks.

This is how I had to have Norah the other day to be able to vacuum and dust. It worked well, and she seemed happy in it. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work.

Bath time is one time that everyone seems happy. Norah really does love her bath and relaxes, and Joey and Kylah love having her in there with them and "helping."

Norah smiled at Joey for the first time tonight while taking a bath.

Joey thought it was great! Here he is giving her a high five for giving him a smile.

And here's the goofball getting in his pajamas.

He loves to dress up funny before bed. Tonight he asked if he could sleep like this, so he is in his bed right now with his clothes still like this.

Thankfully I am getting a little more sleep at night. A little. I can usually count on at least a 3 hour stretch when I first put Norah down. It is up in the air after that, but she seems to be doing better if I make sure she eats a full feeding when she wakes up the first time and doesn't just snack. She is still sleeping in her swing (not on), but I think maybe that helps her tummy too.

Kansas

This picture is from last week. On Wednesday nights, I have bedtime duty all to myself because Joe is at choir practice. I have to do a little bit of juggling, but so far it's worked out OK.
Joey always wants me to put Norah in the bed with them while I sing to them. It's so cute!

As you know from my last post, we went to Kansas this weekend. Norah did awesome on the way home too! Maybe she just doesn't like those short trips around town. Actually, I think she likes the fact that I could go back beside her to calm her down.

We had a nice relaxing weekend with Joe's family. On Saturday, Joe and his brothers (and Joey) all went to play basketball. It was pretty quiet around the house. Kylah went up to Grandpa, and in her sweetest voice said, "Grandpa, will you play dolls with me?" He couldn't resist that sweet little request.

We also got to meet James' girlfriend, Ashley. Joey and Kylah loved her!

Of course we had to get pictures of Norah and Naomi, the twin cousins. Joey and Kylah always had to check twice to figure out who was who. Joey said he knew because Naomi had a lot of hair. :)

Uncle Jeff got some cuddle time with the girls.

Holding hands. It looks like Naomi is way longer, but I don't think she's actually that much longer!

Sweet cousins.

Grammy and Norah.

Look at how adorable Norah looks dressed up for church. This was actually a hand-me-down from Olivia that Kylah never got to wear because of the season.

Sister time.

And all three siblings together.

We missed getting to see Grandpa and Grandma Manthe, as well as Uncle Pat and Aunt Susan since they were all in Branson. Hopefully we will get to see them soon!

Joey and Kylah are staying a few extra days at Joe's parents, so it will be pretty quiet around here this week...well, except for Norah. I tried to get Jennifer to take Norah too, but she was saying something about not being able to feed her...blah, blah, blah. :)

first trip

UPDATE:

Someone really must have been praying for us! I fed Norah a bottle for the first half hour of our trip, and then she slept the rest of the way. No screaming. Amazing! Thanks for your prayers. It was actually a nice refreshing time that Joe and I got to talk and feel like we are hanging out. Now just make sure you pray Sunday evening on our way home! :)

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We are heading to Kansas this weekend for Norah to meet the rest of the Manthe family. I would be excited about this little trip...but...Norah HATES her car seat! And she doesn't just protest a little bit; she screams bloody murder. Really, if you are stuck in the car with her, you want to pull your hair out. If you're driving, you want to run the car into something (but you settle for gripping the steering wheel and grinding your teeth, and if you're Joe, listening to your MP3 player.) After a few minutes of this, Joey and Kylah start covering their ears and whimpering.

So, if you think about it, say a little prayer for us! :)

family time

The other night while Joe was grilling supper, Joey and Kylah played on the deck. This is what I found when I looked out there. Yep, they had found a pot of dirt (don't worry, the plant was dead...I don't think I've ever been able to not kill a plant...) Joey was using the dirt as a road for his cars. I love watching him truly be a boy!

There is really somethimg special between these two. I love it!

She loves her daddy...even though mommy is her main love right now.

Norah's having more and more awake time lately. She doesn't smile automatically yet, but she seems to really want to!

Peaceful nap.

All dressed up for church on Sunday. I'm loving the cute headbands and bows!

gaining weight

I forgot to put some important news on my earlier post today...

Norah went to the doctor today for a weight check/3 week appointment.

We had taken her to the doctor when she was 5 days old for a weight check. At that time she had lost quite a bit of weight. She was down to 6 pounds 15 ounces. She was 7 pounds, 10 ounces at birth, so I was a little concerned. Her doctor was not concerned at all, and didn't even want us to come back for another weight check until today. (It's actually pretty normal for breast fed babies to lose up to a pound after they're born.)

Drum roll...

Today she weighed 8 pounds, 1 ounce!!

Little thing has been eating good and gaining weight! I actually knew she had been gaining weight, because her clothes fit different and her face and thighs were filling out a little.

feel the love

I love this picture! It captures the love Kylah has for her little sister. And you can see that Norah is getting a little squished by her loving big sister. :)

Just so you don't think this little angel always has a peaceful look on her face...

This is the sweet little face I see while burping Norah.

The milk coma...notice the dribble of milk coming out the right side if her mouth. I love it!

Some good news...Norah has not slept on me at night for three nights! She's not sleeping in her crib yet, but the swing seems to be doing the trick right now. And the swing isn't even on! She's going about 3-4 hours between feedings at night, so at least I'm getting a few hours of sleep at a time. I'll take it!