Friday, January 31, 2014

Daycare Discovery Day

Today was Maeve's discovery day at her daycare. We went for 3 hours this morning and Mom hung out for 2 hours and then ran errands for an hour so that Maeve's teachers could try and feed her and put her down for a nap. Mom was shocked to find out that she took all 2 ounces from the bottle without a problem and took a 30 minute nap in the crib. Mom was relieved! Now if Grandma Jan and Grandma Brigid can have that easy of a time when they watch Maeve for the month of February! Mom and Dad are very happy with the daycare so far. There will be plenty of posts to come about that, but I thought I would share a picture of her infant room, Maeve in her crib, and Maeve in her infant chair. She seemed to love it and has been taking long naps since leaving daycare.




Visiting the Greats

Yesterday and today, Maeve got to visit with Great Aunt Terry and Great Grandma Joanne. She had a great time cooing and showing off her cute smile. Terry even shoveled the sidewalk since Eric is still out of town. What a treat! Flossy (Great Grandma Joanne's dog) was also very interested in the creature in the carseat. She was very interested in Maeve's every move. We had a nice time visiting and even saw Grandma Jan and cousin Elizabeth Wittenborg. Maeve enjoyed spending time with the Greats!



Wednesday, January 29, 2014

The Last Week

This is my last week of maternity leave and probably Eric's last week of a week-long vacation without us :) Eric is in Utah skiing for his annual boy's trip leaving Kate and Maeve alone. We all have a little bit of cabin fever so we've had to stay busy. We've been productive during the week with our last yoga class, mall walking with Eric's cousin Carrie, get-togethers with the new mom's group, visits from Kate's college roommate, Theresa, and a trip to the Vet with Sadie. Kate tries to make it through each night without breaking down since Maeve is still getting over her first cold and has been sleeping in the rock-and-play in our room. This doesn't allow for any peaceful sleep. Even the dog is tired of it and slept downstairs last night. Don't worry, Kate lets Eric know what he's missing (see the flowers and the bear in the picture from Eric).




Saturday, January 25, 2014

Marco Island, Florida

Here are some pictures from our trip to Florida this past week. Maeve did great on the airplane as dad mentioned in the last post. Vacation sure does change when you have a 2 month old. There wasn't too much relaxing in the sun in between feedings, naps, and diaper changes but Grandma Jan and her friend Kate were very helpful and allowed mom to relax a bit. We went for lots of walks on the beach together and went shopping at the outlets on a cloudy day. Maeve also enjoyed dinner out to 3 restaurants. She fussed a lot the last night (as we now know why - she was getting a cold) so Grandma and Mom took turns walking around the restaurant to let the other person eat. It was great to see the Gulf of Mexico. We'll be heading to the Atlantic in May and should plan a trip to the Pacific this year too so Maeve can see it all (and not remember it!) before she turns 1.





Friday, January 24, 2014

Travels

Hi everyone!
Long time no post!  Maeve had her 1st successful trip on the airplane earlier this week!  On Saturday Maeve and Mom flew to Florida to spend some time with Eric's Mom in Marco Island!  While it wasn't 80 and sunny every day, it certainly was warmer than what it has been lately in MN!  (For all of you who live in the South and are reading this, yes, we are still alive and functioning up here despite the mercury struggling to reach positive digits.  Just bundle up and git 'r done!  My wife would tell you differently that the cold is manageable!)

Maeve survived her 1st plane trip both ways perfectly!  Not bad for being 9 weeks old!  Both Mom and Dad did encounter a bit of a cold last week, and without surprise, I think we passed just a small cold onto Maeve!  Maeve and Mom had their 1st trip to the Dr yesterday for a sick checkup and the Dr gave us some suggestions to she would stop crying through feedings and wake us up numerous times in the evening.  We've already noticed an improvement in just the 24 hours since the visit!  She slept for over 5 hours last night without waking us up, and thats by far the longest stretch she's gone thus far.  Dad even managed to have another good bottle feeding tonight with no fussing and over 4 ounces - Maeve was clearly hungry after not eating much the past few days with her minor cold.  They make this really cool device now called the NoseFrida - take a look at it here: http://www.fridababy.com/shop/nosefrida/  I know it seems odd and somewhat gross, but let me tell you, this device works!  Just a quick fix for Maeve before eating and then the girl is able to get her food down and keep it down versus fighting this cold she has!

Dad and his Dad along with some other guys are off to Utah for their annual ski trip today.  Dad will be gone a whole week this year, so lets hope Maeve is nice to Mommy and keeps her good company.  He's done the same trip with the same guys for quite a few years now.  There will be 7 of them this year all out in the Park City area - snow conditions are light though and temps have been very mild out there - mid 40's.  Should bring for some nice "Springlike" skiing.

Mom is nearing the end of her maternity leave too - she heads back to Medtronic in the beginning of February - my how time flies!  Thats about all for now, Dad has to finish getting ready for work!

I'm sure Maeve and Mom will post some more in the coming days - especially some pictures of that 1st big plane ride for Maeve!  Thanks for everyone's support with getting this off and running!

Dad

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Maeve's 2 month check-up

I thought it would be great to update you all on Maeve's stats as she grows to be a big, healthy girl!
At her 3 week appt on 12/4:
Height: 21" (75%)
Weight: 8 lbs. 8 oz. (50%)
Head size: 37.5cm (90%)

Today's appt (now 2 months old!):
Height: 24" (98%)
Weight: 11 lbs. 11 oz. (50-75%)
Head size: 39.5cm (75-90%)

She had 3 shots today and she screamed but is napping now! She received a clean bill of health so we are all happy about that.

A project done

Mom got a project done during her maternity leave! Hooray! Here's a link to a book of cards, e-mails, and texts that Kate and Maeve received for showers and after she was born. Take a look at it! Thank you all for your well wishes.

http://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/baby/maeve-s-book-of-cards-e-mails-and-texts-10184211?vk=GisgVIf42X

 

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Mom and Maeve's First Snowman

45 degrees today! It is a heat wave :) We took Sadie and Maeve on a walk by the golf course near our house. There is a big hill where kids were sledding. Maeve is looking forward to doing that in a few years. Mom and Maeve also built their first snowman (with Dads help since Mom needed to take a break for feeding - and because she wasn't very good at building the snowman). It's hard to believe that Mom hasn't built a snowman before even after living in Minnesota for 11 years. We enjoyed getting outside since it's been a long and cold winter.






Thursday, January 9, 2014

Finally Warm!

It's been a while since we've posted - we've been busy!  Here's what we've been up to....

On Monday Dad worked from home because wind chills were approaching -50 below - yes, below!  Tuesday Dad went into the office, despite temperatures not being much warmer.  They even closed public schools for 2 days because of how cold it was.  Unfortunately Mom and Maeve were stuck inside these 2 days and were anxiously awaiting their next big outing!  It finally warmed up enough that Mom and Maeve went to yoga together with her new Mom's group.

Last night, Grandpa babysat while Mom and Dad went to a baptism class at church. Maeve was excellent and she continues to improve on bottle feeding. We've found a spot and a bottle that seems to work for now, so we plan to stick to it!

Today both Grandma and Grandpa babysat while Mom met Dad downtown for some meetings.  She did great again with Grandpa and Grandma again...they seem to have a magical touch!  They even were able to get her to be happy without having to hold her 100% of the time :)

She is sleeping in her crib every night now, but she still wakes Mom and Dad up usually 2-3x a night for a feeding or a diaper change.

Maeve continues to be well and she is looking forward to her big trip with Mom to Florida in 10 days!!  They hope for some warm weather!

All for now,
Dad

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Fun day Sunday

Since it's -5 outside today in Minneapolis, we are finding things to do inside. Maeve and Mom go to a new mom's group every Tuesday and really enjoy it. The moms and dads get together sometimes too so yesterday we went to Katie's house and hung out with the other babies. This picture shows 4 out of the 8 babies in the class. From left to right is Sloan, Connor, Brooklyn, and Maeve. Another project that Kate worked on today was to scan all of the cards that she received from baby showers and welcoming Maeve into the world. Now she just has to make a digital book of them!


Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from Eric, Kate, Maeve, and Sadie K. 2013 was a great year, and we are excited for the milestones that Maeve will reach in 2014. Speaking of milestones, Maeve slept in her crib for the first time last night. She did great! We are still waking up for the middle of the night feeding, but Kate hopes that will go away soon! Grandma and Grandpa Edmonds left before the new year but helped put away decorations. Kate had to get a few more pictures of the tree before we put it away. As you can see from the photos, Sadie was sad that we had to put the Christmas tree away. The house looks empty but hopefully we'll find time to put up the next set of decorations - Mardi Gras :) Grandma and Grandpa Kirchner babysat Maeve on New Year's Eve and this picture is the first picture of our family of 3 in the new year. We hope you have a healthy and happy new year, and we look forward to sharing the milestones of the Kirchner family in 2014.