Family Visiting

Baby Emily meets her DeeRee

Hello Pop Pop!

It's my Nanny!

Ollie babysits a sleepy Baby Liana

Aunt Theresa takes a turn with Baby Emily

Dee Ree's girls


During the past week of adjustments for all of us we have been keeping visits to a minimum (thanks for understanding everyone!!!) but of course Baby Emily did have some family visitors already. We really needed that week to get acclimated to being a family of four and trying to meet everyone's schedules and needs as best we can. Dee Ree has been a humongous help (thank you Dee Ree!) and we are grateful for all who have been so wonderful to us during this adjustment period.

Sophie's sleeping and waking schedule has taken a bit of a hit through all this change. She is waking up a little more in the night (most likely due to the heat but also I'm sure because of some of the big changes to her world of late) and instead of waking up at 7am, she's been waking up an hour earlier. She also had trouble napping this week (again, could very likely be due to the hot weather in Philly we've been having) so getting her down and keeping her down for naps has also been a bit of a challenge. In fact, this morning Sophie got up at 5am. We tried to keep her in her bed and get her back to sleep till at least 6am but it just wasn't happening.

Emily seems to be falling into a schedule of her own. As far as we can tell at this early stage, she seems to have one sleepy day where you can hardly wake her up and then it's followed by a slightly more fussy day where she can't seem to settle easily and seems overtired. At night she is doing really well so far lasting 2-3 hours between feeds which is pretty great. But then again it's early yet so who knows what will happen with any sort of feeding and sleeping schedule yet. She seems to overall be a pretty darn happy baby though. If she's fed and not too overtired she is happy as a clam. We had our first family outing as a family of four on Saturday when we walked up to our local farmers market. It was very exciting!

Sister Bonding

We are all adjusting to life as a family of four. Sophie requested to hold Baby Emily recently so we enjoyed the photo opp moment and Sophie seemed to be cautious but curious and very careful and interested in Baby Emily. She has even started helping and yesterday held Baby Emily's pacifier in for her and tried to get her a bottle. When Baby Emily cries Sophie very genuinely asks "She ok????" and is obviously very worried. We reassure her that babies cry and Baby Emily is indeed ok. It's sweet that she is so worried about her already. Of course, there are things we're still adjusting to like not screaming when Baby Emily is sleeping and getting used to taking turns getting held by mommy or daddy. But we're getting there... All of us are learning how to be a happy family of four (well, six if you count the cats, seven if you count "Fishy" and actually more like 12 if you count the feral family that has taken over our back deck). We know it will be an ongoing process but we're learning every day!

Welcome to the World Baby Emily!!

Well, our family of three is now a family of four... We welcomed baby Emily Anne Oxenford to this world on Friday May 21st at 4:37am. She weighed in at 7 lbs., 1 oz., and was 20 inches long (just like her big sister). Labor was lightening fast - we arrived at the Birth Center at 4:17am, the midwife checked me and told me it was ok to push and by 4:37am she was born. Incredible!! Our doula, Aunt Pat, and her trusty doula assistant, Caely, didn't even make it in time. Jim was an amazing, strong and supportive coach and rock through the whole 20 minutes and it means so much to me that we did it together and he was the one to "catch" Emily and pass her to me to hold for the very first time. Big sister Sophie was adorable when we brought her new little sister home to her - very excited having prepared special surprises for us including a stork sign which she colored and special balloons and treats which she and Dee Ree went shopping for that day. It was overall a good meeting between the two of them and everyone is adjusting to our new life as an expanded family. We are so grateful for all the love and support of you all - thank you friends and family for helping our family grow and showering us all with such love. We are truly blessed!!!

If you are looking for more photos (that means you, Grammy) you can check out Daddy's photo gallery at
http://gallery.me.com/joxenford#100042

Cowgirl Sophie

Sophie has a "safari" hat that her Aunt Pat made her that she started calling her cowboy hat. So of course we got her a "real" cowboy hat and she loves it. She is such an accessories girl - it's too funny. Can't leave the house without a hat, purse, keys and her "lip bong" (Sophie speak for lipbalm, of course). I love to see what mood she is in each day and which hat or purse or other accessory she will desire/require each day.

Sophie's first St. Denis Fair

We took Sophie to the St. Denis Fair this past weekend and while she's no stranger to fairs (we took her to one last year and then another a few weekends ago) it is her first St. Denis Fair. Why this is significant is because this is my fair. The one I have been going to since I was in 5th grade. Lots of memories. Lots of nostalgia. Full circle - now I get to take my daughter too!!!

She had a fabulous time. It was windy and already crowded in the late afternoon on the first Saturday of the fair but she warmed up to it real quick. She had her first cotton candy (didn't like it), her first snow cone (loved it!), rode her first ride by herself (had such a good time she had to ride it again), made her first spin art (with help from Daddy), and even won a goldfish (she named him "Fishy")!!! It was quite a wonderful and successful time at the St. Denis Fair and I look forward to many many more years to come of taking the girls there in the future.

A Celebration of Moms

Happy Belated Mothers Day to all the wonderful Moms out there. I am blessed to have many moms and cherish each one for her amazing unique wonderfulness and consider myself a lucky lucky girl to get to have so many moms in my world.

Yesterday we had my mom, my grandmom, my mother in law, my sister in law and my future sister in law all over for dinner (along with other non-mom family too). It was a lovely day spent with family. Sophie had a blast playing and generally enjoying all the attention of her family and was really great with her adorable cousin Liana, too. They played so nice together with Liana clearly enjoying watching her big cousin Sophie and Sophie enjoying sharing her toys (and getting lots of praise for doing so!)

Sophie waking up

Sophie got new summer jammies (Dora nightgown with matching slippers) that she simply adores. The first day she woke up in them she didn't want to take them off to get dressed! This is what she looks like after coming downstairs in the morning - bed head, juice in hand, starting to play - isn't she the sweetestl??

In other news, we had our first skype video with Grammy tonight finally!! It was soooo great to see her - she turned 80 years young this past Sunday and we missed her big surprise birthday party in Arizona (because of my advanced pregnant state) so it was fantastic to at least get to see her virtually. Happy Birthday Grammy!! We love you so much! We also got to see Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Dave while testing out the skype video earlier in the week - what fun!

And, DeeRee and PopPop came over and brought delicious dinner one night, too. And, Sophie had corn on the cob for the first time (but treated it like she'd been eating it all her life). What a great week so far, huh???

Happy Birth Month, Emily!!!

What a typical weekend morning with Daddy looks like

Well, here it is 4:30am and I'm wide awake again. I don't remember having third trimester insomnia quite this bad with Sophie although I definitely did have it. It happens to me about 2-3 times a week I guess. Usually at least once on the weekend and once or twice during the week. I just wake up out of the blue (today at 3:30am) and try to go back to sleep but can't. I think last week was the worst - I was awake at 1:30am after only going to bed around 11:30pm and just could not get back to sleep. It makes for long days where I feel like the walking wounded by about 10-11am. Somedays I can get a nap which definitely helps. Other days, I can't. I don't know why mother nature does this to pregnant folk during the weeks leading up to having a new baby in the house. Seems so wrong but could be just a way to prepare for the sleeplessness that lies ahead or just a fluke side-effect - who knows!

Anyway enough of my complaining... Here it is May 1st! It is officially Emily's birth month. And on Monday I will be 37 weeks - officially full term!! So time to celebrate and rejoyce!! We are getting so excited to meet her soon. We've been working on her room and I'm really tickled to say that it's almost done (pix soon - I promise). I have been in nesting mode - organizing things I don't normally organize and wanting things cleaned up I don't usually see the dirt on. I've got my new washer (old one died a week or two ago) and have been washing bibs, clothes, blankets, and all the piles of old laundry that had been accumulating. My bag is (mostly) packed. All we really have to do is get the infant car seat installed and I think we are actually good to go!

Sophie has been really talking about Emily a lot, too which is so cool. I think preparing Emily's room has been helpful for Sophie as she gets to go into the room and see Emily's things and talk about where she will sleep when she gets here. Every morning after waking up pretty much without fail, Sophie will go into Emily's room and talk about her stuff and where she'll sleep. We also got a used double stroller from my neighbor's friend and Sophie loves to climb in it and says that she will sit on one side and Emily will sit on the other. It's really stinking cute. And Jim took Sophie to the toystore recently and together they picked out a cute little stuffed giraffe which will be a present to Emily from Sophie. (Of course, Emily will also have a present to give to Sophie as well.) Yesterday, Sophie told me that Emily was coming in one year. She's in for a bit of a shocker on that one I guess...

Jim has also started his own Daddy blog at http://ohsillydaddy.blogspot.com/. So please be sure to swing by and say hello!!