Penelope's Pediatrician Visit and Photography Slideshow

Penelope had her two week pediatrician appointment this past Thursday (when she was actually 16 days old). She had gained 11 ounces in 10 days, which the pediatrician said was great. Here are her stats:

8 pounds 5.5 ounces (50th percentile)
21.25 inches long (75th-90th percentile)
14.25 inches head circumference (50th percentile)

When Penelope was born, she was 19 inches long. I don't think it's possible that she has grown 2.25 inches in 16 days, so I'm thinking that one of the measurements must have been wrong. But then she does seem to be a lot longer now than she was when she was born, so who knows. Her next pediatrician appointment will be when she is 6-8 weeks old.

When Penelope was one week old, she had a photography session with Heather Swanner, who did the kids' newborn photos. You can click here to see a link to Penelope's slideshow, or you can click here to see a link to the photographer's blog post with a few photos of Penelope. Now the hard part of narrowing down the photos begins!

"Old" Photos

Finally, here are the photos that I took of the kids two weekends before Penelope was born. . . .

Pictures of Penelope

We didn't have internet access at home for a few days after we got home from the hospital, so I'm even more behind on blog posts than anticipated!

Penelope is doing great. When we were discharged from the hospital this past Friday, she was down to 7 pounds 4 ounces. At her pediatrician appointment on Monday morning, she weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces! I've been nursing her around 9-10 times a day, and waking her up if she went more than 3 hours since eating. The pediatrician said that she is gaining weight so well that I should continue to do that during the day, but no longer wake her at night. Of course, she is waking herself at night on a pretty regular basis and the longest stretch we've gotten is 5 hours. But, even if she is ready to eat every 2 hours at night, I've found I sleep much better not knowing what time I'll be getting up.

And, these night feedings really aren't that bad at all. Nursing one baby and then going back to bed is incredibly easier than pumping all day long then feeding bottles to three babies before going back to bed. . . .

Anyway, here are a few pictures of Penelope I took at the hospital on Friday:






And here are some pictures of Gary and Penelope that I took this past Saturday evening:






I still have pictures of the kids from the two weekends before Penelope was born to post, but something tells me that everyone wanted to see some more photos of Penelope first.

Penelope Ann

Penelope is here! She was born via scheduled c-section on Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 12:35 p.m. She weighed in at 7 pounds 14.8 ounces and measured 19 inches long. Here are a couple of pictures that Gary took on his Blackberry right after she was born:




I had some IV issues (I usually do) after she was born, which led to a delay in getting all my pain medication. Since I got a little behind on the pain that first day, I wasn't able to do very much updating or responding to e-mails, etc. I expect to take a few days to get caught up on those things, so for now I'm going with the "I just had a baby" excuse. Now I'm doing great with pain management and getting around, and I think I'm doing better 3 days out this time than I was doing 3 days out with the kids. Penelope is doing a great job nursing, and has been declared healthy so far.

Everyone asks who Penelope looks like. If I had to pick someone -- I would say that she looks like Henry. But, as Gary and I agreed within a few minutes of birth, she really mostly just looks like Penelope!

The kids met Penelope yesterday, and we found out this morning that we can both be discharged early, so we will be leaving the hospital this afternoon. We are absolutely giddy with excitement that we can take our baby with us when we leave the hospital. Gary and I are both really loving the experience of having just one term baby.

Gary has some photos to post on his blog, and I have finally broken out my camera so I'll have more photos later. We will get caught up eventually.

A Few "Group" Photos

Here are some group photos from this past weekend at Aldridge Gardens. . . .












The day at Aldridge Gardens just wouldn't have been complete without a meltdown or yelling of some sort from Piper! Too bad Auntie Ann had to deal with it.

I have some individual photos to post, too, but I'm not sure when I'll get those edited and up. I also have some photos from yesterday that I haven't even put on my computer yet. Gary and I have spent the weekend having some good family time -- our last weekend as a family of five. It's hard to believe that next weekend will be our first weekend as a family of six. I suppose I'll get a little behind on posts at some point, but I'll try to update on Penelope as soon as I can!

Taking Photos of Three 2-Year-Olds

My recent project has been to organize our digital photos and prepare them for printing. A couple of weeks ago, Cathy forwarded Amanda and me this link to a photographer's blog who hadn't organized or printed photos of her own kids in 4 years. This photographer decided to take on the challenge of starting the project -- and to challenge others to do the same. (She's made several updates since that first post if you are interested in following her progress.) Gary and I had talked loosely about needing to organize and print out our photos, but it just hasn't been a priority. I was inspired after reading that blog post, and got started soon thereafter.

It's not easy. Gary and I didn't own a decently functioning camera until I was pregnant with the kids. We bought a point-and-shoot, and a lot of the pictures we took during the first few months were downright pitiful. We used just that camera for almost the first year of the babies' lives. So, going through the 2008 photos and choosing which ones to print (about 350) wasn't too bad. I did those in about a full day and then had them printed at Costco.

2009 was a different story. For Mother's Day last year, Gary bought me a Nikon D60 and that's when I started taking classes last June. A few months thereafter, Gary got his own point-and-shoot, which was a lot better than the one we had. We also took some photos with our blackberries and iPhone. . . . So, I had tons of places to get our 2009 photos from -- two point-and-shoot cameras, my camera, Gary's old and new blackberries, my old blackberry, and my new iPhone. Plus random photos that people sent to us in e-mail. It took me about THREE days to go through all of those and upload them for printing. I printed about 900 photos -- but considering I went through about 7,000 for 2009, I think that's okay. I pick up the actual prints today.

Then, since I took some decent "portrait" type photos in 2009, I chose which ones I wanted printed up larger -- about 12 photos. I then edited those, and had those printed in larger sizes. Nana and Grandma, you will be getting copies of those as well. Sorry they're about a year old.

So, all I have left to do for our 2008 and 2009 photos is to buy really big photo albums (I think I've picked out some large personalized albums I want), put the photos in the photo albums, and then frame and hang the larger photos we've ordered. I've decided that the first half of 2010 is next. Maybe I'll get started on that in the next day or so, and maybe that will be uploaded and ready to order before Penelope arrives. Maybe. . . . If nothing else, at least I've done 2009!

Anyway, all this photo planning is pretty overwhelming, but I really do feel as though I've accomplished something that I really may not have otherwise done had it not been for bedrest. I'm feeling rather proud of myself for that. Hopefully now I can keep up with the project on a once or twice a year basis now that I've started.

I've noticed that I usually don't focus on getting photos of all three kids together, just because it's an incredible pain. I've decided to make that more of a goal when I take photos. This past weekend we left the house with Auntie Ann and went to Aldridge Gardens. We have a system to take photos of all three kids. I get my camera set up and I get into position, then we put the kids on a bench or something where they can't easily get away, then whoever put them there runs off very quickly while I take photos. I usually have about 30 seconds to get a decent shot. This past weekend I took photos of that process. I thought you may enjoy them:







It's no wonder my kids often look confused in their group photos:



I can only hope that I get a decent photo in before my window of opportunity is over. . . .



I did get a lot of good shots from that day, albeit not a "perfect" group shot (if that exists). I'll get those up soon.

Well This Got Their Attention. . . .

Gary and I spent a lot of time deciding exactly how much television we should allow the kids to watch, if any. We finally just decided that we turned out fine and we watched television, so we should let our kids watch television as well. Gary, in particular, claims that most all of what he knows he learned from television -- so how do you argue with that?

You can imagine our surprise when, once we made our big decision, that the kids didn't care much for television at all. We then embarked on the mission of finding something that our kids would watch! As we got closer to 2, the kids started paying a little attention to Dora the Explorer and other Nick Jr. shows. Piper is still the most impressed with the television, and Henry and Rosemary will watch it some. Our kids do have almost daily outings or play outside, so it's not like they even could sit inside watching the television all day, but we had thought they'd be a little more impressed with the television.

Occasionally Gary and I will record any movie or show that we think the kids will like, and then we see if they will watch it. Up until this past weekend, the favorite was Mamma Mia. Then they saw the Cat in the Hat. . . .











The wanting to be covered up with a blanket while watching the television is a pretty new thing. They watch for a while, then bring us their blanket so that we can wrap them up, then they grab on to the blanket and scurry to their chairs. And yeah, we're not really sure what's up with Henry's television sunglasses, but it's not the first time we've seen him wear these particular sunglasses for television viewing. He only seems to wear them when he is wrapped with a blanket. It is kind of cute, in its own very unique way.