what are you lookin' at?

Here are the pictures I promised. Recent ones and a couple oldies but goodies.


our beautiful little girl...


Jordan burping a confused looking naked Magnolia

obviously impressed and awed by whatever she's looking at

sleeping at "the ranch" (more to come of these pictures)

Hanging out with Trousers

sweet jammies

BUMBO!!!

I can't stop loving this picture.

Beautiful 3 month old girl.


Noli trying to teach Kai the dance from "Thriller" this was months ago!




We've come a long way baby. No fat and grandpa thighs (wrinkly and fat-free).

trying to look not exhausted while she is clearly unhappy with me.

BYE!

no good at blogging

ALRIGHT! I'LL BLOG AGAIN!

Obviously, I haven't quite figured out how to manage my time as a mom and when I do have down time my thoughts do not go to "blogging".

Anyhoodle...here it go...

MAGNOLIA IS ALMOST 5 MONTHS OLD!

We took her to her 4 month visit a couple weeks ago and she is as healthy as she could be. A wee bit behind the curve due to her preemie status but the doctor was genuinely impressed at her progress the last 2 months! We are so proud! She weighed in at 12.9 a full 2 pounds under what I estimated! She's holding up her head like a champ and even tried to roll over for him.

She is getting better and better at sleeping during the night. She's even had a few nights where she's slept up to 9.5 hours straight! Impressive - I know. I believe 2 things have helped her, both stemming from her 4 month appointment, 1.) rice cereal. we literally left the doc's office and went straight to get her food. 2.) swaddling again. I KNOW! I stopped because I thought it would stunt her growth or something. Being a mom makes you think crazy.

Here are things that 4.5 month old Magnolia loves in no particular order - otherwise #1 would obviously be #19:
1.) tooting. it's out of control and brings her great joy.
2.) smiling so big that I can see the back of her throat - then promptly having the sad "somebody told me Santa isn't real" face.
3.) daddy. she'll break her neck trying to follow his voice.
4.) ME! Yeah. I said it. So WHAT.
5.) drooling. at least 3 outfits a day are destroyed. usually her hands in her mouth play a major part of this.
6.) her bumbo chair. go get one right now even if you don't have children. it's worth it. just put your dog in it or something.
7.) Mirrors. She's hot and she knows it.
8.) her pacifier. we love it too.
9.) her dogs. she smiles at them and loves watching them "play" (sadly, that usually means hump)
10.) her changing table. even if she's incredibly sad - a couple minutes on the changing table (she has pictures of birds above it - not scary birds, cool birds - that she looks at) and she loves the closeness of your face as you coo at her and smile.
11.) sing to her. she'll love you forever. I actually sang an entire Destiny's Child song - no idea what some of the words were, but that's not the point - and she smiled so much that her mouth dried out and she had to have a drink afterwards.
12.) her shoes. a girl after my own heart.
13.) the gauze orange monkey blanket draped over her head. or really anything draped over her head. it makes her very very relaxed.
14.) her family. it always surprises me. it's like she KNOWS they love her and they share the same blood.
15.) being outside. and stroller rides and car rides.
16.) jumping in her jumperoo! she's a wee bit short for it so we put a pile of books under her feet and a blanket in the seat to keep her anchored. it's so sweet.
17.) cool ranch doritos. just kidding. she likes cornuts best. tough to chew with no teeth, but worth the effort.
19.) being ADORABLE.
20.) her mobile.
21.) being naked. fresh air feels niiiiiice.
22.) standing up and looking around. I fear for our future. She's already bored with everything. I thought I'd have a chilled out low maintenance baby. I was wrong.


Stuff 4.5 month old Magnolia does NOT love:
1.) having her clothes changed. She holds her breath when it goes over her head...then yells at me during the arms part.
2.) prevacid. she has reflux (poor baby) and the taste of the medicine completely grosses her out.
3.) sitting still for too long.
4.) being put in her carseat. she's cool with it after she gets in the car but it's defcon 4 until then.
5.) not tooting. but that's why we learn early on how to help her work it out.

Happy to say that I can't really think of anything else.

If I can figure it out, I'm going to post some pictures of her doing her favorite things now. ENJOY!




Not really, but thanks for asking.

get your arm off of me. I'm not kidding. Kai and Noli! BFF!

Precious angel.


Diamonds on the inside.

Alright. I can't find the ones of her doing cute stuff, just funny stuff... so I'll blog again later. Hopefully not that much later.

Catch you on the flip side.
Peace out.

a little catch up - it's a long one

Inspired by my mommy peers, I realized that it's only fair to Magnolia to start blogging about her/our life. Wanna hear it? Here it go...

I'm a bit behind - 16 weeks behind to be exact. At nearly 4 months, Magnolia is holding her head up pretty well and turning it from side to side - very curious about her surroundings, responding to Jordan's and my voice and smiling at just about anyone who will sweet talk her and smile back. It's been an amazing and, at times, extremely difficult journey. I've never worked so hard for anything but it's easy with daily reminders of the awesomeness of being a mother. Every day brings a stronger, smarter, happier, BIGGER Magnolia.

This is how it all started... well.. not from conception.... I'm pretty that's understood... so I'll start with our birth story.

February 13th, 2008, I went to Babies R' Us with Suzanne, a girl that I'd met in our childbirth class. (One of my favorite people on earth to this day.)
Suzanne is a full month ahead in her pregnancy and looks like she swallowed a Volkswagen (read - ENORMOUS). Throughout the day together I made several (bad) jokes about getting away from her before her water broke because I was too tired to take her to the hospital. The (bad) jokes continued all the way to her house where I told her I was exhausted and crampy and wanted to go home before she went into labor (the jokes continue). I waved goodbye, got in my car and drove home.

At around 3:45pm, I pulled into my garage. I was calling my sister and I hear and feel a loud POP! in my lower abdomen. It was like no feeling I'd had in my pregnancy thus far but with my due date still 5 weeks away I was alarmed but not freaking out. I described the feeling I'd just had to my sister and casually said, "I wonder if that's what it feels like when your water breaks". My sister, a mother of two, assured me that there would be no doubt when my water broke because there would be water...lots of water.
Since there was none I was still concerned but figured she knew what she was talking about. So I start undressing to get in the comfiest clothes possible and as I drop my pants I realize they're not the only thing running down my legs. The panicking begins. I start breathing heavily and can barely muster up the words to my sister that there is definitely WATER now. She very calmly says, "Call Jordan and tell him to come home then call your doctor". I am hysterical at this point - Magnolia can't be ready to come out!
I call Jordan and attempt to tell him, through the hysteria, the entire story that I've told so far in this blog.. he is seriously confused and thinks I've been in a car accident until I finally say, "my water broke. come home."

At this point I have no idea what to do with myself and sit down and cry for about a minute and pray that God will protect my tiny baby girl. I call my doctor and they confirm that I am in labor and to come to the hospital immediately since I am a high risk labor being 5 weeks early. I begin to pack my hospital bag (*note* pack your bag early next time - you just never know). Jordan later laughed at the contents of the bag which consisted of about 4 bras, 5 or 6 tank tops, and an extensive selection of make-up brushes for the make-up that I never wore while in the hospital.

The hospital admits me and immediately scares the crap out of me by telling me that I'll be on bedrest and need to have both mine and Magnolia's heartrates strictly monitored. Bedrest means that all of the coping mechanisms that I learned in childbirth class are void. I just have to lay there and take it. They said "breathe!" and I said, "I'M TRYING!" This is why I ended up with my epidural at only 4 centimeters. I had pretty bad back labor and was relieved when the pain began to disappear and I was able to catch my breath. The epidural has a downside too though. You feel paralyzed. I couldn't move or feel my legs. I couldn't shift positions or even realize that my hand was resting on that lump of flesh formerly known as my left leg.

After multiple uncomfortable checks throughout the next 10.5 hours they finally confirm that I am at 10 centimeters and call my OB to come deliver baby Mags. The hospital employees POURED into the delivery room (4 for me and 4 from NICU for my tiny peanut baby).
I can honestly say that I felt no pain while pushing her out. They said, "PUSH!" and I did as I was told - completely spaced out. After just a couple wicked pushes she popped out and they wisked her away to make sure she was ok. It was about this time that my doctor found out that the shape of my uterus is heart shaped which basically meant that she ran out of room which explained the early arrival.

Magnolia Elizabeth Anderson was born at 3:43am at 5 lbs 1 oz and 18 inches. AMAZINGLY and by the GRACE OF GOD, she was in the NICU for less than 2 hours.

The first few days and weeks of her life were hard. Very hard. They sent her home with us at 4lbs 8oz. Scary. Talk about sleepless nights. So I fed her...and fed her... and fed her... by 2 months she'd almost doubled her weight. Now, at 16 weeks I estimate her to be around 13lbs.

So that's my story.

By the way, Suzanne delivered Kairi Candy Spears 8 days later at 9lbs 14oz. I told you she was big. Magnolia has almost caught up to Kairi already. Ha. Big girl.