The Elsass Family: Week #1

Home Sweet Home

Home at last. As I mentioned in my previous post, I didn't think I was ever going to be able to go home from the hospital, but we did make it and the first night wasn't THAT terrible. Unlike Jackson, Audrey did not want ANYTHING to do with her crib or room. Apparently, it is a big bad scary place. She basically just wanted to be held when she was sleeping... at night. During the day, she didn't seem to have any trouble just laying around on the couch or propped up on her boppy. Nighttime was another story. She ended up propped up in her boppy in the middle of our bed. (I know, not the BEST idea, but it was all we had.) We did try the swing, which did work for a little while, but not long enough for either of us to get any sleep. All in all, we did survive night one at home. These shots are just random from laying around the house. She did manage to discover her hand clearly on accident, but she did find something to suck on. Can't wait until she realizes that she actually has control over it and becomes a thumb sucker. (Again, another thing that we never had to deal with when it came to Jackson.)

Side Story: The first full day home was actually this mama's 32nd birthday. When I did finally get out of bed and came downstairs, it was decorated with a balloon and birthday banner. Jackson told me it was for my party! Guess I was having a birthday party after all (thanks to my mama who helped Jackson get it all together!)

What Audrey is Doing: Feeding about every 2-3 hours. She latches really well and we are definitely getting the hang of this together. Sleeping all the time. She has only a little bit of awake time at all during the day and typically spends a little more time awake after 7pm. She does show off those beautiful blue eyes occasionally. And, she is the poopiest baby ever!! We are going through diapers and wipes like crazy!

Playing with Cheaters is No Fun

Jackson LOVES to play games. He has always enjoyed playing games on the tablet / ipad, but since he got Trouble for his birthday, he has really been into playing board games (which is super awesome!) Besides Trouble, Josh got out this old wooden game set that we think he got from his grandma. It has chess and checkers and a few other games and then Jackson's favorite, Snakes and Ladders, which is basically Chutes and Ladders only the chutes are snakes. The best part of this game is the math. You roll two dice and have to add up the numbers to figure out how many spaces to go. Jackson ROCKS at this!

Here, he is playing with Grams. He did a really good job and gets a total kick out of his opponents being send down the snakes! In this particular instance, he needed to roll a two in order to get to the ladder that would take him to the end of the board and he would win. So he rolled the die and got a seven - two and five. He just said he was going to take away the one dice and he got a two - he wins. Well..... no one wants to play with cheaters and when we told him that, he got really upset... as you can see. Cheaters remorse!

A Little Vitamin D, Sibling Love and Video Games

The beginning of the week was actually pretty nice and we got to spend some time outside. Jackson rode his bike up and down the sidewalk and Audrey went for a ride in her stroller. She wasn't having anything to do with it. Of course, Jackson was LOVING getting to be outside to play.

After we came inside from a little outdoor fun, I did manage to get a few shots of the kiddos together. Even Audrey was awake for it. I love, love, love these babies. (Even though Jackson says he is not a baby anymore. I keep reminding him that he will always be my baby, no matter how big he gets. (And now that we have Audrey, Jackson seems bigger than ever!!)

Since mom and Jason have been staying with us, Josh moved his computer to the kitchen table so Jason would have a room to "call his own." God bless Josh for moving it, or we would probably all be going crazy from Jason. He even has his own TV and computer set up in the front room with his bed.

Daddy and Jackson got to spend some time together while Josh was talking his 5 days of paternity leave!

Pumpkin Carving

The day before Audrey was born, I did pick up pumpkins to carve. We haven't ever carved pumpkins with Jackson before. I don't really know why we haven't, but he is definitely old enough, so I figured we would get a chance between getting home from the hospital and Halloween. Well, the weather was really nice and we did get to carve the pumpkins on Wednesday. Audrey just slept in her stroller while the rest of us worked on them. We had these pumpkin carving kits from years ago and we let Jackson pick what he wanted carved on the pumpkins. He chose a football (which Josh carved) and a cat (that Jackson and I carved together.) I think we didn't do too bad!!

I should also say that once we got the tops off the pumpkins, Jackson really wanted NOTHING to do with putting his hand in the pumpkin and pulling out the seeds and goop! He waited until it was all cleaned out and then used his scraper to "clean" the pumpkin. Sure... leave the dirty work to mama!!

Sorry for the sideways pictures - I tried EVERYTHING to turn them. No idea.

Firsts

Audrey had her first doctor appointment on Wednesday, October 30. It wasn't terrible. Really, they just wanted to check on her hips (since she was breech) and her weight gain (since she lost 14 ounces from her birth weight to the time we came home). Everything checked out just fine and she is starting to gain her weight back and was just over 8 pounds. Daddy was trying to keep her warm. Just like her big brother, she doesn't like to have her clothes off.

We also gave Audrey her first "bath" since we got home on the 31st. Again, she doesn't care to be naked, so "bath" time was really fun. At least she isn't THAT dirty and she's pretty small, so it didn't take too long. Nonetheless, she wasn't having it. I do love how she buried her head in the hood of the towel. Jackson did a similar thing when he would get a bath as a baby.