Posts filed under 'Family'
So Debbie left for home and hearth in Kansas on Thursday, leaving us all alone! Sniff!
It’s definitely been a bit of a challenge, trying to coordinate all the demands of a new baby with the needs and wants of a very demanding almost-three-year-old. Tara’s spent the last two days at home with both of them, and it’s been a little hard. But she’s learning. She says the trick is that you just have get over the fact that there will be moments when one of them (and sometimes both of them) are just going to be upset and screaming about the lack of immediate attention. Obviously, I’m completely terrified of the day when I’ll have to manage both of the little buggers all alone myself!
Work for me has been a challenge too, mainly because of the sleep deprivation. Anna’s been up in the middle of the night for at least an hour or two every night since we brought Noah home. She’s caught a new cold, and I’m taking her in to the doctor this morning to get her ears checked since an ear infection is often the culprit when she’s up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. That being said, we’re also willing to admit that it might just be a combination of a cold + the psychological impact of the new baby that’s making sleep even more of a scarce commodity that usual.
Thanks to Debbie and the folks at work, though, for helping to keep our freezer stocked with food. Not having to worry so much about what’s for dinner is a godsend, since it’s probably going to take us awhile to figure out a new rhythm!
January 31st, 2009
Well, it’s back to work for me today. Boo. I’m really not sure I’m ready. I know Tara’s not ready for me to head back. But duty calls. We’ll have to see how things work with me running on only about four hours of sleep each night…
Meanwhile: Noah’s doing well. Working on getting his days and nights straight, but otherwise just doing the usual new baby things (i.e. sleeping, eating, eating, awake for 15 minutes, sleeping, eating, pooping, sleeping, eating, etc.). There are some new photos up on the Flickr site.
It was too snowy yesterday for us to get to Anna’s physical therapy appointment in the morning, and the riding center cancelled her hippotherapy because it was too cold (apparently even horses don’t like 7 degree weather!). So we spent the day hanging out with family.
Debbie’s been cooking up a storm before she leaves on Thursday, trying to stock our freezer. And the good folks at Foraker are chipping in too — at this rate we won’t have to cook anything until mid-March or so. Which is awesome, and for which we are exceedingly grateful!
Okay. Time for a quick nap before I have to hop in the shower and get ready to get Ms. Anna up and moving and off to daycare before I head in to work.
January 27th, 2009
I just posted a bunch of photos from way back in November and December. Good shots of folks at Christmases in both Kansas and Colorado.
There are also some new photos of Mr. Noah. You can always view Noah-specific photos on Flickr in his own, personal photo set.
Everyone here is doing well enough. Tara and I are splitting shifts and so far have managed to be able to do a good job of alternating really bad nights.
Oh, and Granny Debbie and Tara painted Anna’s room pink today (I got carpet cleaning duty). We thought she’d lose her mind with joy at the “pinkalicious-ness” of it all. Instead: “Hmmm. Hmmm. I’m… I’m really hungry. Can I have a treat?”
So much for trying to make the toddler happy!?
January 23rd, 2009
We took Noah to the doctor yesterday. He was doing so well that the doctor decided she didn’t need to see him until he was two months old! He’s regained all the weight he lost after birth, and have even gained an ounce!
Neal and I have worked out a “divide and conquer” strategy to deal with the newborn’s sleep schedule. I have first shift and Neal takes over after 2am. That seems to be working great where Noah is concerned. Now it seems we are having a bit of a problem with Ms. Anna’s sleep schedule. Last night she was up for about 3 hours in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. She needed some water, she needed to go potty, she was playing with her stuffed animals. You name it, if it didn’t involve sleeping, she was doing it. Hopefully tonight will be a better night…
Anna has started her hippotherapy, and has been doing great! We are working with her current physical therapist at the Colorado Therapeutic Riding Center. She’s ridden three times so far, and has had such a great time. We have some pictures of Anna riding her horse – we need to post them (Update: Here they are! Movies to follow soon!). She looks so tiny on the horse! Her therapist has her riding backwards, sideways, with no hands, etc. It is really great to watch her succeed.
We want to point out how thankful we are for Granny Debbie’s help!! She’s been an invaluable help during these chaotic times. She’s been cleaning, doing laundry, watching the babe while I take a shower, consoling the crying baby, etc. etc. Thank you, Mom!!
January 22nd, 2009
Well, it’s been a very rough couple of days for mom and dad. Noah’s doing just fine, but seems to get most fussy right around the time we manage to get Anna (quite fussy herself) down to sleep at night. Long story short: I don’t think either of us has gotten more than three or four hours of sleep the last two nights.
Which would be okay, probably, if we didn’t have to keep up with the toddler and could sleep the day away with the boy…
January 19th, 2009
It’s really good to be home. Per expectations, the doctor gave Tara and Noah their final checkup and cleared us all to go home by mid-morning. By lunchtime we were back at home, where Granny and Anna had just finished making “Welcome home!” signs for Noah and “pinkalicious” cupcakes for the “big sister party” we’d planned for Ms. Rose.
Everyone’s doing well. Noah’s still spending the vast majority of his time sleeping (as is only right and good!). Anna is as enthusiastic about her baby brother as you could expect an almost-three-year-old to be (“he’s a real baby!”). Max greeted the newcomer with reasonable interest and has spent most of the afternoon upstairs hanging out with all of us (compare to Anna’s arrival, when he hid in the basement for about a week). And Granny’s been a superstar, handling most of the cooking and cleaning.
We’re off to bed soon. We’ll see how our first night all together goes — here’s hoping we manage to get a little more sleep than we did at the hospital.
But it’s good to be home.
Note: I just posted the day’s photos on our Flickr site, including a pretty cool video of Anna singing a rousing rendition of “baa baa black sheep, havin’ you da wolf” for her baby brother.
January 17th, 2009
Anna met her little brother today. She seemed very proud about her new status as big sister, happily presenting wee Noah with his first stuffed animal (a black bear she’s named “Fred”).
We’ve posted a bunch of photos on the Flickr site, so take a look.
It’s been a long day. Noah’s doing great — sleeping mostly, but also doing a generally good job of breast feeding. We’ve had lots of family in the room today visiting, which made for a busy day. (Frankly, I’m exhausted).
Very probably heading home tomorrow, which Ms. Anna is extremely excited about. She’s missing her momma, and wants to have her baby brother home “right now”.
Off to try and catch a few winks now. Thanks to everyone for the well wishes!
January 16th, 2009
Noah Jackson Enssle was born today at 4:45PM, weighing in at 9 lbs. and 3 oz., and 21.3 inches long.
Mother and baby are doing great!
Welcome to our family, little man!
We all love you very much.
January 15th, 2009
We’re at the hospital now! Tara called me around 11:00AM this morning saying she’d gone into labor and was having her sister Josie drive her to the hospital. I dashed out of the office, into the car, and made it to the hospital in about 5 minutes (it’s a 12 minute drive).
Everything’s going well, but now it’s just a waiting game. Tara’s having regular contractions, but no real action so far.
We’ll try to keep everyone updated!
January 15th, 2009
It’s been quite a while since we posted. The big news is just how big Tara’s gotten: We’re now awaiting the imminent arrival of our baby boy! The official due date is January 19th, but at this point all signs point to the real possibility of an early arrival.
Tara’s mom and step-dad arrived today. Debbie will be on hand to help out both before and after to help out. Mainly we’re thrilled to have her available to babysit Anna while Tara and I are off at the hospital. For her part Anna is mostly excited but still a little bit confused about the whole affair. She likes giving Tara’s belly hugs and talking to her little brother, but I’m pretty sure she’s not entirely clear on what this all is going to mean and probably just a little worried, too.
We’re feeling behind schedule on just about every front because we’ve all been trying to recover from a really brutal cold that’s kept the whole household down and out for about the last two weeks. So the baby’s room is still unpainted, Tara’s barely managed to find and wash enough clothes for the new baby’s immediate needs, and the hospital bag is only half packed. Fortunately, I think we’re all just about over the worst of this bug. Just in time too!
The holidays were great, but super busy. For Thanksgiving we spent a whirlwind week in Kansas with Tara’s folks, shuttling between her mom’s place in Luray and her dad’s place in Wichita. Good times, but the whole trip was a little hard on the little girl, being so completely out of her normal routines.
My brother and his wife came out for Christmas. They were here for couple of weeks which meant we saw plenty of them (Anna loves playing with her aunt and uncle). Anna stole the show at her daycare holiday programme (check out the two videos on Flickr: “Snowman” and “Rudolph“), and generally enjoyed all the extra sugar and chocolate treats!
So there you go. We’ll try to be better about posting here. Watch this space, ’cause we’ll try to post with news as soon as we have any!
January 11th, 2009
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