my oh my

What a busy last couple weeks.

Tracy and Bentley holding their first grand daughter

Nana is enamored with baby Norah

Uncle Nick and his "cool" california kid look

Norah's Nana (Jen's mom) was here with her fiance and my younger brother from Dec 31st till Jan 6th. We laughed when my mom asked if we should pick up some champagne to celebrate the new year. Really. Think we're going to stay up by choice until midnight.
Our guests slept in Norah's room (since she was and still is sleeping in ours). They cooked us dinner each night and breakfast every morning. We were even able to get a date night in! The trip ended with Norah's baptism at Visitation Catholic Church in Verboort.

Norah wore the same christening gown as Roman and Eric

Godfather AND Uncle Eric holding her as she gets blessed

During all this time, Norah had her 2 week check up. We were back to birth weight and got the go ahead to try a bottle if we wanted and start her Vit D drops. She had been exclusively breastfed, but there were some feedings (especially at night) that I had become too engorged for her to latch on. We decided that I would continue to pump, but instead of freezing it all, Roman will give her one bottle a day. This way she associates only him (for now) with a bottle, and me with breastfeeding (recommended per her doc). This also allows me to have a little break and pump instead of feed her, and we can just drop the vit D in the bottle. Yahoo! She took it well...I mean why wouldn't she - getting the same amount of food in a fraction of the time and pretty much no effort.

Also, time to start some tummy time. Thanks to aunty Elyce, we have an awesome activity mat to use!

Also during the visit, her umbilical cord fell off. Time for some first bath pictures!

Would like to note that immediately following this photo, she peed all over dad.

She actually rather enjoyed her first bath!

What the..

Parent's update:
Most of you know that Roman and I have 12 weeks off each! We decided to take it at the same time. Mostly because both of our employers require you take it consecutively and with it being the holidays and such, just made sense for us both to be home. But don't worry, we have some key entertainment to keep us sane.

1) Dexter - season 7,
2) Homeland - just started this, and if you like 24 you'll love this
3) Parenthood - watched as much as we could on Netflix, but the actual show airs at 10pm. Who stays up to watch 10pm shows...
4) Breaking Bad

We are just finishing up the Harry Potter series as I ...type. We also have a few Cinetopia passes for date nights, some Dutch Bros gift cards from Christmas, and 2 vehicles :]

Norah has become quite the daddy's girl. You can find her in this position most mornings when Roman takes her so I can get a few solid hours of sleep. Or in the middle of the day. She is fascinated with his beard, and loves his kisses. Not spoiled at all. Roman has gotten a few bouts of Xbox time and we have been good about giving eachother some time away from the house to ourselves.

I have recovered remarkably well. I say this because of hearing near-horror stories of other's labor and delivery and thinking, I got lucky. Within the first week, I was pretty mobile. Lifting was restricted of course to Norah's weight, but we just adapted certain "duties" for me around the house so I wasn't sitting all the time. So at my 3 week mark, I am down 25lbs. Ok ok, for some this is ALL you gain. Wel,l that must be nice. I gained about 45, so still at least 20 to go until I feel back to normal. Roman's folks got me a 6 month gym membership (per request...don't worry they weren't implying anything) for me to start once I'm cleared to exercise. Also, Roman got me Zumba for the kinect...so if anyone wants to join looking ridiculous, let me know!! Breastfeeding is going mostly well. Last week I discovered a "milk blister" or bleb or clogged duct, whatever you want to call it.  Made feeding extremely painful. After a few warm compresses and some ibuprofen, the blister went away, but the residual pain usually lasts a few more days. Ugh. But if this is the biggest hurdle, I'll take it!

I get my cuddle time in too :]