Adult Interaction

Frannie and I had our first girl's weekend last weekend, and it went great! I took Frannie to visit Cooper and she was a rock star. All the kids and adults loved her, and she didn't make a peep-just slept the first part and looked around the second part. Then we had dinner with some friends and hung out with other friends the rest of the weekend. I was grateful for the adult interaction.
She was great while we ran errands and just overall really was awesome. We got to see Brian a little bit but he was working in the house most of the time. He really is missing Frannie (and me too of course...) :) And then to top it off, it was 70 degrees! Yahoo....life is good. Now if we only had a house to live in....

And side note, Frannie was drinking powder formula just fine til about a week ago. Then she totally flipped and refused the formula, gagging and essentially acting like I was choking her with the bottle and screaming on top of it all. For the weekend and traveling, I happened to get her the ready to feed formula and she chugged it! So I did a little experiment and tried the powder form again-she refused. Apparently my little girl has expensive taste, like her mother :) Ready to feed formula it is....

Unpredictable

The weather, the house, Frannie.....all unpredictable. It is nearing the end of April and we have had more snow this month than like all of winter combined. Nearly 2 feet in two weeks. I like snow and everything, but this is ridiculous.

The house - well you'd think I'd be accustomed to how slow its going but when you have two feet of snow in your already mudpit driveway, workers have yet another reason not to show up.

And then my darling girl has apparently entered peak crying time (from what I've read) which is sometime around 6-8 weeks. The last two days someone took my rather calm child and replaced her with a sassy little girl. However I can't complain too much cause in addition to the crying, she also has started smiling lots and "talking" which is unbelievably adorable. Like the picture of her smiling... I took that and then 10 minutes later she was screaming her head off. I'm taking solace in the fact that this crying business will pass (or at least get better....)

Not A Failure

Meemaw did it! After several attempts to hold Frannie, only to have her start screaming, she finally did it. Frannie fell asleep with her and she even rocked her back to calm after she started to fuss. Here is the proud Gramma and Frannie.

One Month

Frannie had her one month appointment yesterday. We are officially moved into Dad's so we went up on Sunday night to stay in a hotel with Brian and then went to the appointment Monday.
Here are her new stats.... She now weighs 8 lbs 14 oz and is 22 inches long. Her head is now 14 3/4 in circumference. Those numbers keep her in the 80-90th percentiles for height and head and slowly moving up in weight. The doctor was happy. She's a long, lean little girl.
I was commenting on how excited I was that she had a few chub rolls on her thighs now (which the doc was happy about too) and then the doctor says, "with those rolls I can see that they aren't totally symmetrical so I think we will do an ultrasound to make sure there is no hip dysplasia." What??? Asymmetrical fat rolls mean possible hip dysplasia?? I definitely have something wrong with me then. She said she wasn't worried about it cause she was messing with Frannie's hips and it all seemed fine- it was just an easy quick check to be sure. So next week we head back to Duluth for that.
I was given the all clear to go back to eating dairy and soy (that's right, no more meat...unless its an occasional piece of bacon at breakfast!) and keep Frannie on the fancy formula til her two month check up. I'm happy with the visit overall. She's healthy and happy and is a GREAT car rider.

Quick side note- Foxy didn't care one way or another at first about Frannie but just this morning Frannie was in bed and started to cry and Foxy came to tell me. I think she will be a good protector.

One final thought...this first picture of her on this post....Angelic or Demonic? I could go either way....

Moving Out

Tonight will be our last night in the rental. We were supposed to be gone already and the house cleaners here right now, but plans change (as usual) and a Spring blizzard brought around a foot of snow to Duluth in the last 24 hours. We just were plowed out around lunchtime today. So tomorrow we will load the car and head to Hayward. The million dollar question is "When will you be in the house?" And the answer is....I quit guessing dates and time frames long ago when I realized I was never right.
Brian will live in the house while he's working on it and once the basement is finished, Frannie, Foxy, and I will be in.
So from house to tent to camper to rental to Dads, we continue the path to getting into the new house.
Also in the news-Frannie is one month old today and I am 99% sure she smiled at me today. Not gas, she wasn't asleep...a true smile. SO CUTE.

Family Time

Frannie was a popular girl this weekend. On Thursday, Kelly came to visit. Then on Friday, Uncle Ben and Uncle Alan came to visit! They picked up Gramma (I am also really liking "Meemaw" or "Mumu" but not sure how she feels about those) in Hayward and the three of them came to stay overnight. We ate yummy Thai food and had lovely conversation. The boys even volunteered to watch Frannie while I went to go get the food. Brave lads...and they did a great job. Frannie was just dozing off when I got back.
On Sunday, Grandma Joy (or Grandma Fergie, we are deciding which fits best) came to visit. Frannie is very lucky to have such wonderful friends and family.
Today, Gramps and Gramma came up so Gramps could take a load of stuff to Hayward and so Gramma can stay for the week to help out as we get ready to leave our rental.
The house is not ready (shocking) for us to live in yet, so Brian will be staying in the house (there is water, electric, and heat) and I'll be going to Hayward til things are ready. I cannot express how grateful I am for having been able to stay here for the winter. I am forever in debt to Cheryle and Dave.
**Side note: you will not see pics of Meemaw with Frannie because she was sick and given specific orders to not touch or breathe on Frannie :)

Looking up

I think this formula supplementing is working....much less crying and the tummy doesn't seem to hurt as much. Tomorrow we go into the dr and lactation consultant to see if she's gained weight and talk more about this possible lactose intolerance which I'm kinda thinking is not the problem.
So for today here are a series of poses I asked Frannie to give me....
1-give me your bored, "really mom?" look
2-give me your "that's what's in my diaper" look
3-give me your "ooh, I'm telling grandma" look
She's a natural in front of the camera.