September 2015

September 2015
Blog for Ben, Trisha, Chelsea, Tyler & Mina!

Monday, February 28, 2011

Smiles :-)

We all had another big week last week.  Chelsea turned 1 month old on the 23rd and she is starting at act like a "little human" instead of a sack of potatoes!  Our favorite discovery is that she is starting to smile in reaction to us (not just gas pains)!  She smiled a couple times yesterday and has really started showing me her beautiful grin more and more today.  I am really hoping she decides to show ben her gums when he gets home from work.... and not in only a crying fashion :)

Chelsea is also showing so much interest in items around her.  She is really liking her playmat.  It has five toys hanging down over her, a mirror and some crinkly sounding items on the floor of the mat.  Reaching out and purposely touching an item hasn't come to her yet, but her arms and legs flail around and her eyes are locked on certain items.  I've also attached a hanging toy on her car seat that she really loves looking at. 

We are also upping her formula ounces to 4 per feeding.  She seems to drink the 3 ounce bottles very easily and is eating more frequently than normal.  Tonight will be her first 4 ounce bottle and we are hoping she keeps it down.  She is still waking up 1 - 2 times per night.  Hopefully upping her ounces to 4 will keep her to waking up only once. 

Friday we took her to a gathering with a bunch of friends.  she did so well.  It was so nice because our friends really wanted to hold her, feed her and Kjirsten even asked to change a diaper!  That helped out Ben and I a lot and we could hang out and enjoy ourselves without worrying about tending to her as much.  That night was my first night having multiple beers since her birth.  I had a great time, but the next morning was a little rough.  Saturday we attended Aiden's 5th birthday at a waterpark hotel.  Again, Chelsea was a perfect angel and lots of people helped us out by holding her.  Saturday was Ben's night to drink the multiple beers :)

I am on week 5 of my recovery from surgery and am starting to feel great!  My incision is still sore which keeps me from wearing anything but workout pants on a daily basis, but all in all I'm feeling great.  I have my post delivery doctor appointment on March 8th.  Hopefully my doctor gives me the go ahead to start working out again.  I am looking forward to shedding these last 10 pounds and fitting into my pre baby clothes once again!

Picture time!

Ben decided to put chelsea in the dog bed with the dog toys


Kjirsten and Chelsea

Kjirsten, Doug and Chelsea

One month old!

Beautiful girl

Ben and Chelsea trying out her new playmat

Chelsea lovin' her new playmat

Cris and Chelsea

Tammy and Chelsea

Roy and Chelsea



Monday, February 21, 2011

Babies Babies Babies Everywhere!

Our little girl is almost a month old already!  It's amazing how strong she is getting!  Chelsea is pretty much holding her head up on her own.  She is also starting to "find her voice."  I know some mom's out there are cringing when I say this.... I do NOT mean her crying voice.  She is finding her "babble" voices.  She makes some pretty random cute sounds as of late as if she is trying to talk to us.  I hope laughter and smiles are closely following.  All in all she seems (knock on wood) to be a pretty darn good baby.  She only cries when she wants food, is wet or wants to be cuddled a bit.  She also only wakes up two times between the hours of 10 and 7.  This has been very helpful for Ben and I.  we each take a "shift" overnight and get to sleep the entire rest of the night. 

I notice that I have not written a blog in about a week and there is so much that I could write about.  But - I will keep it "focused" on the most fun part of our week.  Chelsea (and Ben and I) got to meet three future friends of hers that are all under 7 months old :) 

We had the privilege to hang out with Madeline Hays (3 days old), Steven Buettner (6-7 months old) and Anne Peterson (6-7 months old).  Chuck and Andi welcomed Beautiful Madeline Hays into the world on Wed of last week.  Ben, Chelsea and I went to the hospital to visit them on Saturday.  It was so fun to FINALLY get to meet Baby Hays and spend a little time with Chuck and Andi.  Cari, Scott, Brett and Steven came over to our place as well on Saturday.  We had some fun "adult" time, but also lot of fun kid / baby time as well! 

We are officially members of the Lord of Life Church now, so decided it was time to take Chelsea to her first church service on Sunday.  She was such a good girl and slept the entire time.  Including when Ben took her out of her car seat and carried her up front during communion.  We ran into Mark and Brooke and family at this church service.  It was Anne's baptism day!  They invited us over to their house after her baptism to eat their food and drink their beer ...  Ok... well maybe to celebrate Anne's baptism, introduce Chelsea to the Peterson clan AND to eat their food and drink their beer :)  Anne looked absolutely beautiful and we feel lucky to have been able to spend some time with the family on her special day. 

Since I have LOTS of pictures to post I will wrap up the boring writing part of the blog and post the pictures... 

Chelsea dressed for her first stroller "walk" outside


Chuck holding Chelsea and me holding Madeline

Ben and Madelne

Chelsea at almost 1 month and Madeline at 3 days

Brett, Steven and Chelsea

Steven trying to get to Chelsea

Before Chelsea's first church service

Pretty girl all dressed up in her church clothes

Brooke, Anne, Chelsea and I

Mark, Anne, Ben and Chelsea

Laying in Anne's playmat

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Professional Pics and Valentine's Day!

Sunday was a big day for our family.  We took Chelsea to Glenwood (2 hour drive) to get her newborn pictures taken.  We drove up and back in the same day and it was the furthest that we have ever driven with her.  Poor Ben was a taxi driver since I decided to sit in the backseat with Chelsea.  I was nervous on how she would do in the car and wanted to be next to her.  There was no need for me to ride next to her since she slept the entire way there AND back.  She loves car rides!  Knock on wood this continues! 

She did OK during her photoshoot.  She was pretty fussy for two hours.  Somehow Janae (http://janaehertelphotography.com/) took some fabulous shots in between her fuss sessions.  She finally fell asleep and then Janae could get the rest of the shots that she had been waiting for.  We received the online proofs today and the pictures are BEAUTIFUL!  We are submitting our order tomorrow and will receive the pictures and picture CD within a week or two.  Once we receive the picture CD I will post her pictures.  You will be blown away.  Here are some "teaser" photo's for you to look at :-)




Chelsea celebrated her first Valentine's Day with Ben and I yesterday.  Ben had volleyball playoff's for his men's volleyball team so we went to watch him and celebrated VDAY at the Crystal Commuity Center.  Not the most romantic of celebrations, but we had fun.  It was an added bonus that Ben showed up at home with roses and two boxes of Mike and Ikes for me :-)  Mike and Ikes are my ultimate favorite candy and I can (unfortunately) eat a family size box in one sitting!

More pictures :-)





Saturday, February 12, 2011

Pictures!

Since we did not post any pictures on the last blog, this blog will be ONLY pictures and descriptions!  You won't have to listen to me ramble on and on :-)

Mina is slowly warming up to Chelsea.  It's amazing that she chose to jump up and lay by her...



Putting Mitts on Chelsea's hands to prevent her from scratching her face.  We have filed her nails down, but have been advised to not to clip them for 3 more weeks. 



Mina and Molly got some extra TLC today since they have haven't been as spoiled as they once were.  Fresh grooms and Ben walked them today as well!




Napping in her crib!!!!  Small milestone!



Sleeveless Onesies!  The best invention ever!






Freshly bathed for her newborn pictures tomorrow!

Friday, February 11, 2011

Ben Back to Work

It is 4:15AM on Friday morning.  I am sitting out in my living room with my precious little daughter laying next to me on the couch.  Those beautiful blue eyes are fluttering as if she is fighting sleep.  I am quietly rooting for those eyes to stay shut :-)  Ben woke up with her at 3 to feed and change her.  When she wouldn't fall back asleep for him he woke me up since he has to get up at 6:30 for work.  She is what I have coined as "happy awake" at the moment.  She has been fed, changed, has been cuddled, has her binkie, is not crying and is just laying there - with her eyes wide open.  "Happy Awake" is great during the day and especially nice when she is like this for Ben when he gets home from work.  But the middle of the night it gets frustrating since it can last until her next feeding...which could be another 2 hours.  No amount of rocking and cuddling will get those eyes to shut if she is content. 

Ben has been back to work full time since Monday.  It has been a big adjustment for all three of us.  Monday was tough for me.  Chelsea only napped for two hours total and those were the hours that my parents were here visiting.  So no nap for me.  The rest of the days have been better.  I've upped her feedings to 3 ounces at a time (which she chooses to drink all of at almost every feeding) which seems to be helping her sleep for longer spans of time. 

We visited with a new pediatrician on Tuesday.  Chelsea is back to her birth weight and has the clean bill of health.  This pediatrician seemed to be "nicer" and "better" than the previous dummy.  We aren't 100% sold on her yet, but will give it a few visits.  Chelsea's next scheduled well visit check isn't until she turns 2 months of age.  So that means....  in 5 weeks time she will be getting some vaccinations :(  I am not looking forward to watching her go through needle pokes for the first time. 

As of right now Chelsea is sleeping in a pack and play in the living room.  Ben and I have been taking turns sleeping in the living room on the couch so we can hear when she wakes up for a feeding.  We do have a baby monitor, but it has been set up in her nursery on her crib.  I've been trying to transition her to her crib for naps the past few days with not a whole lot of success.  She will be sleeping out in the living room then will be quietly transferred to the crib.  Generally within 5 minutes she will wake up and start crying for us.  We will go get her and bring her back to the living room if she won't calm down in the crib.  She will then immediately fall asleep again...in the living room of course.  I'm thinking her nursery may be a different temp and less noisy than the living room and she feels the difference.  I'm going to keep trying tomorrow (or should I say later today?!) to get her used to her crib.  The sooner we can get her to sleep in there the sooner we can get our living room back!

It is now 12:30PM.... Chelsea did go back to sleep for me early this morning for a few hours!  I now have her in the crib for a nap and am crossing my fingers that she takes to it today.  Our washer and drier are near her room.  She seems to prefer noise so I am making an effort to do laundry while I have her in her room today.  Hopefully the machines help lull her to sleep.   

No updated pictures to post for this blog unfortunately :(   Hopefully we will have some for the next one!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Chelsea's (and Ben and Trisha's) Big Weekend!

We had a big weekend with lots of visitors and taking Chelsea to her first Superbowl Party!  I think we bit off a bit more than we could chew.  We are still learning how much Chelsea can handle at this time and I am still thinking I can handle more than I can at this stage in recovery.  Now I understand why so many people advised me against a C-Section if possible.  It's pretty frustrating when it hurts too much to pick up my own baby in her car seat.  It's nice that I have the go ahead to drive now, but it doesn't help me too much when I can't bring Chelsea with me anywhere.  Any way, enough of my complaining... time for the update :-)

Friday was an exciting day for us.  Uncle Steve came over for dinner, drinks and ping pong.  Well, drinks to me nowadays is one or two beers.  I have no desire at this time for more nor want to risk getting tipsy with middle of the night feedings!  He also got to meet Chelsea for the first time!  Ben, Steve and I spend a lot of time together at Lake Mina in the summer.  He is a very important part of our lives.  He was so good and patient with Chelsea.  We are so excited to bring her to the cabin a bunch this summer!  Is 6 months too early for her to learn how to troll for Northern???

Saturday Chelsea had lots of visitors.  In the morning our friend Jaimala came over to meet her.  Jaimala's husband Shane unfortunately had to stay home since he was sick and didn't want to expose Chelsea nor us to catching his cold.  Jaimala showed up bearing lots of frozen foods for us.  It is so nice to receive gifts of food.  I never realized how difficult it would be to make a decent meal at this time.  We've played volleyball with Jaimala and Shane for years and they used to be a client of mine when I ran Happy Paws.  Steve and Lauren Kavan came over to visit Chelsea Saturday afternoon.  Chelsea slept the entire visit - even when we flipped her over for tummy time!  Maybe meeting Chelsea gave them the baby itch???  we shall see!  They also showed up bearing food.  Lauren made me one of my favorite dinners... Moroccan Vegetables and Couscous!  My eyes just lit up seeing what was put in the fridge :)

Jon (Ben's brother) and Shanna (Jon's girlfriend) came over around 4 on Saturday.  They took Jane out for dinner in Maple Grove.  Once they came home from dinner Jon and Shanna stayed for a bit to hang out with Chelsea a little more.  Needless to say, Saturday was one exhausting (but good) day!  Saturday evening was also Jane's last night in town.  She unfortunately had to fly back home to CA Sunday AM.  We appreciated all her help and are so happy she had a chance to meet and hang out with her granddaughter so soon after her birth. 

Sunday AM Ryan and Stephanie Fabick came over to meet Chelsea.  They ALSO came bearing the gift of food!  Once again my eyes lit up when I saw what was put in my fridge...  Fresh cut fruit, cut veggies with hummus and a frozen homecooked meal to reheat at a later time!  I'm beginning to think that I may not ever have to cook again :)  Mina and Molly were also very excited to see Ryan and Steph...  they have stayed at their house several times when Ben and I have been out of town.  Mina and Molly were very appreciative of the attention since Ben and I haven't been able to give them as much as we used to. 

Sunday afternoon / evening we went to a SuperBowl party at Jim and LeAnn Dake's house in Chanhassen.  Some of our other friends (our Jamaica crew!) were also there.  It was so nice to get out of the house and have some sort of "normalcy" in our lives.  Chelsea was pretty mellow for the first hour or so but then became really fussy.   We realized that she was way over stimulated. After trying to calm Chelsea for awhile and with the rest of the weekend catching up to us we were both mentally and physically exhausted. We had a wonderful time but ended up leaving right after the halftime show. I was in bed by 9 before the SuperBowl was even over...  that is definitely a first! 

Today (Monday) Ben went back to work :(  I am going to wait for my next blog to write about Chelsea and my first week together without Ben around during the day.  I will say this...  I really missed Ben today.  Not only because it's easier to take care of a newborn with an extra set of hands around, but because it was so nice to be able to spend time with him while he wasn't working.  I really became "attached" to him being around the house.  I'm busy with Chelsea, but miss seeing my best friend as much as I had the past two weeks....