Happy New Year

Dave raked up all the leaves in the yard on Monday.... yes leaves are still falling in St. Louis. And since its been so warm out we decided to take pictures of Abby in the leaves. He had this huge pile of leaves and when I set her on it she sank right to the bottom, she wasn't really bothered by it and slept through most of the pictures.

Tonight we have friends coming over to ring in the New Year, hopefully Abby will have a somewhat normal bedtime routine, but I'm not banking on it.

Happy New Year!

New Videos

Here are some of the videos I promised....

Abby is a noisy sleeper and this is one of the reasons she moved so quickly from the pack'n'play in our room into her crib.

On Christmas day the weather was so nice we took Abby for her first walk in the stroller

Abby likes belly time but after about 10 minutes she starts getting really mad and starts to rollover... she hasn't actually rolled all the way over yet, but she is trying really hard. I think the big diaper butt helps.

Urine face....

So, um, yeah....Peggy thinks this story is hilarious....I, well I just think it's gross (she's laughing now, ugh).

As you all know, we use cloth diapers. They are fantastic, and we're very happy with them. However, there are some drawbacks that they don't tell you on the package when you buy them. For example, you getting a face full of urine....they definitely don't tell you that. So, let's back up for a minute.

We have a laundry chute that we use. It's located in our tiny upstairs bathroom. We're very lucky to have it. I don't know where we'd put the dirty diapers at if we didn't. It comes out downstairs right next to the washer and dryer. Until now, we just put a tupperware container on the floor to catch them. But, since it's on the floor and they come out near the ceiling of the basement, they sometimes miss. So, we decided to hang a basket from the ceiling to catch the diapers. Perfect solution, right? Perfect if you don't live with Peggy that is.

So, on friday, I was upstairs as Peggy was changing Abby's diaper. I asked if she wanted me to clean the dirty diaper (it was a really wet one). She said no. I then asked her if it was ok if I go and work on getting the diaper basket hung up in the basement. She said sure.

So, I go downstairs to hang it. I was on a stepladder, with my face about a foot from the bottom of the laundry chute (You can all see where this is going....) I was looking up trying to figure out where to drill holes to hang the basket, when all of the sudden BAMMM....urine filled insert right in the face! (We always take out the insert and drop it down first....this is the part where all of the urine is stored.)

The worst part is that there was absolutely no warning. I got hit with the insert, only to hear the trap door at the top slamming shut a split second later!

I had precious baby Abby's pee all over my face! I ran upstairs, (undoubtedly yelling) to wash off my face. After I got that done, I put my glasses back on. I then realized that there was dried pee on my glasses! UGH!

GROSS! Thanks mommy!

There is a silver lining.....at least now whenever I do something wrong, I can say "well, at least I didn't throw pee in your face."

Back to work countdown

I packed away all of our Christmas decorations Saturday, and took down the tree. Which means I'll be heading back to work soon (Jan. 12th). We have a few loose ends to take care of first, like daycare. We are still interviewing potential employees. Hopefully in the next few days we'll make a decision about who will watch Abby. Since I have such unusual hours, Abby will go to daycare - all day three days a week, so I can sleep when I get off work and be up in the evenings with Abby and Dave. My days off fall in the middle of the week so I'll be able to keep Abby home with me on Wed and Thurs.
In other news I registered for the St. Louis Half Marathon, 16 weeks from today. I have run both the full marathon and half marathon in the past and I am looking forward to getting back into shape and running again. One of Dave's coworkers gave us her jogging stroller so Abby is going to be running with me during training. Strollers are not allowed on the course so she'll cheer on Grandpa Bo and myself from the sidelines with Daddy. Auntie Sally may also run too its a family affair!
I'm still learning how to post videos from the camcorder so be patient I'll attempt later tonight after our daycare interview.

The Only Christmas Present I Needed

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone, in both warm and cold climates this holiday morning. Abby woke us up at 5:30a, which is a little early for her. She woke up with a scratch on her face and she was crying when Dave went in her room which is unusual for her. Dave changed her and gave her a bottle and we had cuddle time and now she's back asleep.

Last night we finally took one month pictures, yes a couple days late we know. When we were at Matt & Linda's we weighed our Chunky Monkey and she's a petite 11.5 lbs. She's really starting to hold her head up well. Abby is a sneezer just like her dad but one thing she does which we are trying to catch on video is a fake sneeze. She tilts her head back makes a noise like she's about to sneeze and then fakes a sneeze. We laugh hysterically everytime she does this, and she always cracks a little smile afterwards like she knows that she's a funny girl. I'm hoping she continues to do this for a while or at least until we can catch it on tape!

Here are some pictures of our growing girl.

Today we are heading over to Dave's parents house for a big holiday party where both sides of his parents family's come over. Both Dave and I fighting a holiday cold, hopefully Abby doesn't catch it. Happy Holidays to Everyone!

Abby and Charlotte

We went over to Matt and Linda's last night for a wonderful dinner (Linda is a fantastic cook!). Abby and Charlotte were very interested in each other. Abby is just starting to be able to focus on things. Charlotte was fascinated by Abby. They both couldn't resist poking each other in the face! We were hoping they would hold hands, and they finally did! Here are some pictures and a video.

It's COOOOLD Outside!

Videos!

With gift money from Christmas we bought a new video camera. This camera writes the video on an SD card instead of a tape. So, it allows us to have individual files for each video clip we take. Basically what that means is that it's much easier for us to upload videos. So, we have taken a few test videos that we thought you might enjoy.

Some of you may have been privileged enough to hear the famous "monkey cry" before. This is a clip of a semi-monkey cry. Not the full thing, but should give you an idea.


In the last couple of days, Abby has been attempting to hold her bottle on her own! Yesterday she was actually using both hands to hold it.

Bedtime Routine/ 4 weeks old

We started a bedtime routine last night. Since all of our company has cleared out Abby has had a hard time adjusting to the quiet. Tuesday night she fought sleep for a long time but when she crashed she stayed asleep for five hours! I thought I'd won the lottery. I got up to check on her twice since I had to pump. But I paid the price Wednesday for a quiet night, she never slept for more than 45 minutes. It was a very long-fussy day.

So after talking to our pals Matt & Linda who have a four month old we started Abby's bedtime routine. Which worked magic, Abby cooperated and was asleep by 8:30p and didn't wake until 1:30a for a feeding, YEAH! After falling back asleep at 2a she sleeped until 5:45a. It's wonderful.

Today she's been napping better, much shorter than the 2 hours I was just getting used to but she's not as fussy as she was yesterday.

We are going up to Dave's school this afternoon so she can see where daddy works.

Today Abby is 4 weeks old, seems like forever since she was born. She's getting so big already. Abby is becoming quite the talker ( I don't know where she gets it) she loves laying on her playmat and talking to the animals hanging above her. Here are some latest pictures.

This is how Abby fell asleep in my arms the other night. Such a deep thinker.


I've been trying new styles with Abby's hair. It's getting thinner but I don't think she's going to lose it all, at least I hope not.

More Family Time

We had more family visiting this weekend. My dad, sister, brother and sister-in-law spent the weekend at Casa Pleimann bonding with Abby.
The weekend was very low key, we played lots of Wii and Jon cooked for everyone. Abby had a great time being passed around and Proton was glad for some attention as well. Abby did have her first restaurant experience, she slept through the whole thing...
Here are some pics from the big weekend.

Meeting Uncle Jon


Meeting Aunt Anna


Napping with Aunt Sally something we are both good at!


Bonding with Grandpa Bo


Looking for a good Wii game? We played Blood Trauma - Jon, Anna and Dave walked around all weekend calling each other doctor and talking about surgery.


And check out Abby's cool new blanket from Auntie Sally


No more visitors scheduled to stay with us in the near future hopefully, we will have a quiet weekend.
In th

Please don't report us!

So we have very tall windows in the bedrooms, and in Abby's room we have cut the cord to make one of the windows safer but the one facing the front of the house hasn't been cut yet.
Well yesterday the mailman came to the door to drop off a package and since the Christmas tree is in front of the window Proton can only see out the front from the window in Abby's room. I was feeding the baby when the mailman came. So I just yelled for him to leave the package on the steps. About 20 minutes passed before I went into Abby's room to lay her down.... and this is what I found.



Now both Dave and I know this could have been much worse and have since fixed the cord. Proton is a quiet dog and never made a sound and just continued to stand there while I got the camera and caught this humiliating moment.

Pictures!

I borrowed a big ornament that my parents hang up every year to take some pictures. My goal was to take some cute pictures with Abby's reflection. I think it went well.





And my favorite, our beautiful Christmas present:

An Update

Life has been busy lately, hence the lack of many posts lately. School and Abby have been consuming a large amount of my time. But, just 2 weeks until Christmas break!

Here's what's new in the life of Abigail. Her umbilical cord fell off just a couple of days ago. Everything looks good, and we're trying to decide if she's going to have an "inny" or an "outy."

Abby slept in her crib overnight for the first time last night! Up to this point, she has been staying in our room in the bassinet. The problem is that she makes little noises all night. Not crying, not really fussing, but just making noises here an there as she falls back to sleep. This keeps both Peggy and I awake more than necessary. Plus, we knew her sleeping in the room with us was only a part time thing anyways.

Abby also got her first real bath today. We used her bathtub for the first time instead of just "wipe downs" that we had done previously. She smells soooo much better!



We put up Abby's first Christmas tree today! She slept in her swing while we worked, but she was definitely the best supervisor we've ever had for this project.

And now the part that everyone is waiting for, more pictures!

Abby looking so cute in her carseat with adorable hat knitted by Great Aunt Cupcake.


Abby in her crib, waiting to be picked up.


Then we decided to take some early Christmas pictures of Abigail.


This is when mommy was holding her with the tree in the background.

Grams Visit

For the past week Grams has been visiting from Minnesota. Abby and Grams did a lot of fun stuff like make a gingerbread house and eat a lot of buckeye balls!
Grams drove down on Thanksgiving Day (also her birthday) and stayed a whole week!
Abby spent a lot of afternoons napping on Grams lap so Mommy could catch up on sleep. Here's a look at the weeks activites.

Abby meeting Grams for the first time.


Check out Abby's cool new sock/shoes


Mommy and Daddy decorating the gingerbread house, check out Abby's smile.


This outfit was Mommy's, her Great Aunt Peggy gave her this outfit and now it fits me. The doll is a gift from Abby's Great Aunt Shannon in MN.


Three generations


Thanks for visiting Grams.

Growing up green isn't easy!!

Today, we have a guest post from the one and only....Abby!

I'm one week old today! Hooray!

Mommy and daddy (mostly daddy) have decided to bring me up green. Apparently it's not just about saving the environment, but also about saving mommy and daddy some money (which means they can buy me some toys, oh yeah, and also maybe send me to college!)

Today, daddy spent some time raking and mowing the leaves so that he could put them in the compost pile. He composts most of our leftover food too. He also prepared the strawberry bed by putting straw on top of them. Hopefully next june we'll have some delicious strawberries.

Also, daddy makes me drink room temperature milk. Apparently, daddy says you can't microwave breast milk. I don't even know what a microwave is.....Daddy could run it under warm water, but he doesn't like to waste hot water, so I just drink it at room temperature.

Here I am looking adorable in my first cloth diaper! Mommy and daddy started using those today, and I must say, its gone fairly well. Mommy and daddy have yet to wash any, but I think they're ready.


And here is the clothesline that daddy put up to hang dry his and my clothes and diapers. Here you can see my laundry drying. Daddy's even going to put my diapers up there for the whole neighborhood to see! Can you believe that? I don't see him hanging his underwear up there. Oh, wait, yes he does....


And here I am at Thanksgiving with my favorite great grandpa Pleimann.


And here I am with my favorite great grandma Buerck.


And here I am with my favorite cousin Lily! I am so proud of her...she didn't want to hold me in the hospital, but tonight she was so happy to hold me! And she did such a good job too! I can't wait to get older so we can play together.

The Joys of Parenthood

We (and by we, I mean Abby) had TWO, yes TWO, major blowouts today. In the first, Peggy was changing her (and by her, I mean Abby) diaper. Just after Peggy took the old diaper off....EXPLOSION! We won't get into the details, but lots of laundry needs to be done. Apparently she pooped and peed at the same time. Then, just a couple hours later, I noticed she (and by she, I mean Abby) was a little stinky. So, we went to change her and noticed poop on her onesie. The diaper just didn't do the trick.

All you cloth diaper haters out there can stop the hatin' right now, because we haven't put cloth diapers on her yet! Our good friends Matt and Linda recommended not to start the for about a week or so. Again, I won't get into the details but the poops at the beginning are nothing short of road tar....anywho....

I think we're going to start the cloth diapers tomorrow instead of today like we were planning (just in time for grandma Colleen to come to town).

And now, what you've all been waiting for, more pictures!

Baby Abby has found her thumb! Auntie Sally (a chronic thumbsucker), is very proud. Interestingly, there is a orthodontist in the same building as Abby's pediatrician. You have to choose which door to enter when you go in the front door. I told Abby that we'd probably be there in a few short years. I'm sure the thumb sucking will only help that.



Abby is already preparing to follow in her daddy's footsteps by being a teacher when she grows up. Here, you see her practicing the "raise your hand if you have a question technique." I called on her, and she just farted, and then laughed....she is her daddy's child.



Abby, being just plain adorable:



As many of you know, Peggy and I are quite the photographers (it's how we met after all). So, of course we had to do a naked baby shot. Abby was not very cooperative, so we may have to do it again soon, but here is the best shot we got.

More updates and pictures!

It's been a busy couple of days. Abby is doing great, as is her mommy. She had her first checkup today, and is well on her way to getting back up to her birth weight. She's currently at 8 pounds 10 ounces. Clearly mommy is feeding her well.

I got puked on for the first time last night. I usually do the burpings, because that's what I'm good at. I'm not quite so good at the breastfeeding, haha. Usually Abby gives me a couple good burps then falls asleep on my chest. Not last night! I gave her a bottle so Peggy could get some sleep. She ate a bunch. Then I was burping her and, blllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh....everywhere. I was laying in bed at the time. It got all over me, all over the pillow and all over the bedsheets. Luckily, Abby didn't get any on her! Imagine that!

Alot of people have been asking if Abby looks more like me or her mother. So, we'll let you decide! I think it's pretty conclusive. In fact, I think Abby might be an exact replica of her mother, but maybe you'll have a different opinion. I put up a new poll on the right side. Feel free to vote.

David as a baby:


Peggy as a baby:


And baby Abigail, well, as a baby:

More Pictures!

Before the pictures, just a quick update. The first night home was TOUGH! We weren't sure if we were ever going to get some sleep. But, around midnight, baby Abby finally got to sleep. But then she woke up again around 12:30 to feed. She got some food, and then went down for the night. She didn't wake up again until around 5:00!! And today she's done so much sleeping! We had a couple successful feedings, which makes mommy and daddy very happy, since she didn't have such a good day in this department yesterday. It helps that mommy is producing a TON of milk today. Abby was milking on one and Peggy was dripping like a leaky faucet on the other!

Needless to say, today has been much much better than yesterday....and daddy is excited to introduce baby Abby to his favorite (soon to be her favorite) show tonight, The Big Bang Theory. Abby is looking forward to daddy's weekly singing of the theme song.

So, here's some pictures:

First of all, click here to see (and order if you would like) her hospital pictures.

We also downloaded almost all of the pictures from the hospital stay to snapfish. We are going to be putting in everyones emails that we can think of. You should be getting an email if we have yours. If not, please send one of us an email and we will add you to the list. If you don't want to do that, and you have facebook, then all of the photos are also there, under both of our profiles.

We're home!

We made it home this afternoon around 2:00PM. All is well. As soon as we walked in the door Abby decided it was feeding time and wouldn't stop crying! We didn't even get the car unloaded! But, after that, she took a nice long nap. We're about to do another feeding, but thought we would post some pictures before we do. More to follow, but enjoy!

We didn't post this one earlier. This was in the OR...you can see baby Abigail's head just starting to poke out of Peggy's belly.


Matt and Linda brought their beautiful daughter Charlotte up to visit her future BFF:


Kevin was quite excited to hold baby Abby.


As was Ryan.


Abby's first Mizzou outfit! Daddy was so excited to buy her a little cheerleader outfit.


Abby LOOOOOOOOOVES tummy time with daddy. Daddy has become very good at burping during this time! She feel asleep on me last night for more than an hour. Peggy was a trooper and fought the pain to get in a few good photos.


She was zonked!