Baby Got Back!

Big news on the baby front - Josephine is in Stage 2 diapers now!
This seems strange since the baby on the front of the Stage 1 package is this tiny little baby laying down & the baby on the Stage 2 diaper looks about 6 months old and is sitting up!

At this rate, we'll need to buy Depends Adult Diapers by her first birthday. :)

Pediatrician Cont'd

I forgot to mention these two additional things from Josie's 2 month pedi visit yesterday:

1) She is now weighing in at 13 lbs. 8 oz. and stretches to 24 inches long. That's almost 5 pounds heavier and 4 inches longer than birth. No wonder her clothes don't fit. She's in the 99th percentile for height & weight. We're hoping this is just an indication of the percentile she will be in on the SATs in 17 years. :)

2) Our doctor is not only hot but also funny. When he came in & saw Josie sucking the heck out of her new best friend (the Nuk), he told us we should tie a string to the end of it just in case she sucked the whole thing down her throat. She really does go to town on that thing. In fact, she has now taken to sucking on her own bottom lip if she doesn't have the Nuk. We're trying to use it sparingly so she doesn't become a total addict. She's also starting to figure out how to get her hands into her mouth. Note: starting to figure it out means she still punches herself in the eye more often that she finds her mouth, although her aim is improving.

Have a good day everyone!

OUCH....ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz!

Poking tiny baby girls with needles is no fun! Josephine had some immunizations today. (Thankfully, she only had to have one shot because we're following Dr. Sears' new alternative vaccination schedule which spreads them out.) So, she had the DTap shot and the Rotavirus oral vaccine and she definitely isn't feeling quite right. She passed out for about 3 hours without a peep (see photo) and then woke up screaming at exactly 3:30. Oddly enough, this was exactly four hours after her first dose of Tylenol which supposedly only last four hours. Strange. With that, she's fussing again so I gotta run.

Exciting Weekend

Just as we anticipated, it was an exciting (and exhausting) first weekend away from home. If you would've seen us packing the car, you would've thought we were going to be gone for a week. Turns out, it was only about 24 hours & I still forgot some pretty crucial things (like the important half of the breast pump). All in all, it was a great trip to X-town. Josie finally got to meet some of her biggest supporters from GCCHD; she took a bottle for her Grandma; I got a couple of really delicious glasses of rum apple cider; Mad Dog & the Basement Dwellers brought the house down; and we all successfully survived our first night in a different place. So, the Bengals lost (Boo Dey!) but Josie still looked adorable in her Orange & Black cheerleading outfit courtesy of Grandma. Additional photos from the weekend are up in the Shutterfly collection - http://www.josiemarie.shutterfly.com/

Two months already?!

Josephine hit the two month mark yesterday and we can hardly believe it.

Every day I get more confident as a parent and more settled into my new life as a mom. Just this week I feel like I'm finally able to accomplish things in addition to taking care of the baby. I'm getting laundry done, starting back up with yoga, doing work again on the book project, and slowly but surely re-establishing contact with the outside world. More and more I'm beginning to wonder what I ever did before Josie came along. It's just a good feeling that things are starting to seem "back to normal." (A new "normal" for sure.)

Josie continues to change every day. Her eyes have gotten so big and bright. I hope they stay blue like this forever. These two photos are some of my favorite of her "baby blues." Of course you have to see them in person to truly appreciate them. :)

In other news, Josie and "the Nuk" are now best friends. (My breasts are jealous.) I swear that thing is like baby crack. When she sucks on it, her eyes roll back in her head. It's hysterical. We've been working with her for several weeks now & she finally caught on to it (thanks mom). And, at the risk of jinxing myself...she is also starting to get the hang of the Nuk bottle. (I tricked her by putting the bottle in her mouth when she dropped the pacifier and it worked.) She's not a huge fan of the bottle yet, but at least we know now that she can do it. I continue to work with her on it every day. So far, she's up to almost a full ounce from the bottle which is a long way from the few drops she would tolerate a couple of weeks ago. We'll keep trying.

And, she continues to smile like crazy. It's the sweetest thing in the world. There are lots of photos in the new album in her Shutterfly collection of me trying to capture the smile on film. Check them out - www.josiemarie.shutterfly.com

I hope you're all doing well. It's a big weekend for us - another trip to Xenia for a Roundtree blowout & the Bengals game on Grandmama & Granddaddy's big screen on Sunday. Who Dey!Of course, I'll be sure to take plenty of photos.

Comments

Hello everyone,
I (think I) just changed the settings on our blog so that people can leave comments without having to sign up for a google account. So, give it a shot. Try to leave a comment on this post or any of the others. I enjoy reading them & like knowing that folks are stopping in.
Thanks!
Carri

Looking Ahead...

Now that we've had Josephine, many people have starting asking if and when we want to have more kids. For the past several weeks, I've been telling most people that it's too soon to know. But, I took a big step today that I think answered the question. I just reserved "fourschneiders.blogspot.com" :)

8 weeks old!

Our little Josephine is officially 8 weeks old. It's amazing that she will hit the two month mark this week. Even more amazing is how much she has grown, changed & learned in these 8 weeks. Come to think of it, it's also pretty amazing how much Louie and I have grown, changed & learned as well.

Josie has hit many little milestones lately. She is bearing weight on her legs, smiling often, beginning to giggle & almost fully controlling her head. She's gotten much more interested in her toys and is very attentive. She even has a favorite book already! All in all, we're excited for the progress but also sad that it's all going by so quickly.

Louie & I also hit a major milestone this week -- we left Josie with my parents for our first date night. We went to dinner at Jean Ro & pulled out all the stops - even champagne & pot de creme. It was delicious and really nice to eat a meal out without the baby in the sling in front of me. The picture on the left shows us just before we went out. (I had an even bigger smile after the glass of champagne!)

On Saturday we headed up to Ault Park for a picnic and some fresh air. The picnic park went well, but the fresh air part did not. Turns out it was almost 90 degrees by noon & there wasn't much shade. We did manage to snap a few family photos before we returned to the comfort of the air conditioned car & headed to DSW. Thanks to my mom's skills on Friday night, Josie finally took a pacifier so the Nuk bought us almost an hour of shoe shopping. The photo above is from the park.

So, all is well. No true success on the bottle just yet, but we're getting there. With that, I gotta run. My little lady has just woken up from her nap & has requested lunch. :)

Favorite Photo Ever!

Here is a picture from our recent trip to Indiana to celebrate my Nana's Birthday. My cousin Evelyn took a lot of photos & used a special computer program to do cool effects like the one above. This is definitely my favorite photo of Josie so far. She's holding onto her great gradmother's hand. She just looks so calm & so peaceful.
(See the rest of Evelyn's photos to the Shutterfly collection - www.josiemarie.shutterfly.com)

My How She's Grown!

Here's a picture of Josie the day after she was born. This was taken just a few minutes before we were leaving to go home.
Here's a picture of Josie in the SAME outfit a few days ago (7 weeks old). Notice how much shorter the outfit is in her arms & legs. Her face also looks completely different. People always say, "they change so quickly" & they truly do. I swear there are days when she changes from the time she wakes up to the time she goes to bed. Oh & she's not wearing the cute little hat in the second photo b/c it was too small. She never could fit the booties that matched the outfit. Not with those monster feet. :)

SMILE!

Yesterday was a big moment - Josie had her first big, intentional smile!

She had just woken up from her nap & started making her "I'm awake, so come and get me" noises. I walked over and bent down to pick her up and started talking to her. She smiled the biggest smile & let out a big "coo"! So, I of course smiled right back at her and she did it again! Another huge, toothless grin! We just sat there smiling back and forth at each other & then I started crying (tears of joy of course). That probably confused the heck out of her, but she just kept cooing. It was a really special moment - confirmation that she knows who I am & is happy to see me. I imagine she'll have a big smile for her daddy very soon.

Happy Birthday!

Josie is 7 weeks old!
And Louie is 1612 weeks old!

(HAPPY 31st BIRTHDAY LOUIE.)

I've also added some new photos to the Shutterfly collection -

http://josiemarie.shutterfly.com/ Enjoy!

The Times They Are A-Changin'

So, life is definitely different these days. And it's definitely the best kind of different there is.

We just find ourselves in these moments where we look around and realize our lives have completely changed. For example, we now have a "breastmilk shelf" in the refrigerator instead of a beer shelf. Instead of going out for drinking and debauchery with all our friends to celebrate Lou's birthday on Friday, we went out with our beloved "old school" crowd for pizza & Graeter's ice cream. [See photo above.] We spent our Saturday afternoon at the law firm picnic & went to bed exhausted at 8:30. We had hoped Josie was as tired as we were, but we had to wait until 10 for her to go to sleep so that we could. Today, Lou is getting one of his birthday presents from me (his birthday is actually Monday 10/1). When asked what he wanted this year, it was to spend at least 8 hours on the Nintendo Wii so he could finally save Zelda & move on with his life. [The photo above was taken during Hour 3.] If you were out for Lou's 30th last year, then you definitely know the difference between this birthday & the last one. :)

It's just funny how we spent our 20s "dreading" the days when we'd be the ones shaking our fists at the kids making too much noise & promising ourselves that we'd never be the kind to be in bed when it was still light outside. But, we're slowly figuring out that our priorities have completely changed -- and for the better. Sure, we'll never stop enjoying hanging out & partying with our friends. Just count on three people showing up instead of two. :)

Venus & Josie

TWO NEW VIDEOS!

The first video shows our jealous cat Venus. I was filming Josie on her playmat b/c she discovered the joys of sucking on her hand (hopefully a pacifier is next). Venus literally got between me and the camera. Too funny. Click HERE to watch it.

The second video is very quick, but significant. This is the closest Venus has ever gotten to the baby. It was shot a few minutes after the first video. I guess she figured this was her best chance of getting a good sniff since Josie was down on her level. Click HERE to see our courageous kitty.

The Grandpas

Josie is a lucky lady to have 2 grandmas & 2 grandpas. Here are some photos of her 2 grandpas.

There's her silly Grand-daddy-O yawning right along with her & her Grandpa Schneider celebrating his 70th birthday this week. (Speaking of the 70th birthday celebration, many thanks to Grandma Schneider for boxing up her whole dinner to eat at home so she could hold Josie while we ate.)

More Josie Songs

Thanks to Kelly's obsession with babynames.com, we now have quite a few more songs to add to our "Songs about Josephine" list. I think we've got enough to make a CD now. :)

Here are the ones Kelly found -

Good Night, Sweet Josephine - The Yardbirds
Hello Josephine - Fats Domino, Dave Edmunds, The Flamin' Groovies
Them Josephine - Chris Rea
Josephine - Teitur
Josephine - Terrorvision
Josephine - Tori Amos
Josephine Baker - Sailor
Josephine of the Swamps - Grant-Lee Phillips
Ride On Josephine - Bo Diddley, George Thorogood

Josie - Blink 182
Josie - Donovan

This just in...

Josie slept for 7.5 hours last night, 8 hours the night before, and 7 hours the night before that! WOW! Now, as great as that is...she has given up on sleeping during the day. So working on day time naps is the next big goal. One other down side (confirmed by the pediatrician) is that she still eats the same amount every 24 hours, so she has to make up the two night feedings that she is skipping sometime during the day. Maybe that would explain why it seems like she's eating every hour on the hour during daylight. Hmmm...maybe I'm ready to go back to her only sleeping 4 hours at a time. If not, I may have to start getting up in the middle of the night to do everything I would normally do during the day. :)

A Day in the Life...

Introducing... in her online video debuts...

Josephine Marie Schneider...

So, here are the videos to show what we do all day. These basically summarize "A Day in the Life" of Baby Josie (except we spared you all any footage of diaper changes)... Life is Good!

Josie on Playmat (just check out those new baby noises) - click here

Josie's Bath (we love our water baby) - click here

Josie Just Hanging Out (so many new facial expressions) - click here

Josie Holds Up Her Head (getting stronger everyday) - click here

And last but not least...

Josie Sleeps (and wakes up & sleeps again) - click here

ENJOY! :)

Four Generations

This weekend we took Josie to Marion, Indiana. It was a very special trip to celebrate my Nana's 85th birthday & to take the baby to meet her Great Grandmother! Even though my Nana has Alzheimer's and can no longer take care of herself, we were all amazed at the fact that her maternal instincts are still completely intact. She held Josie and sang to her and rocked her. It was so sweet how Josie completely relaxed in her arms and stared up at her. She held on to Nana's finger all day, and Nana seriously must have said something about how the baby had ahold of her at least 100 times throughout the course of the day. Overall, I just can't explain how much it meant to me that Josie got to spend some time with her great grand-nana. :) And, as difficult as it is for Nana to live with the frustrations of a failing mind, it was clear that Josie brought her a lot of joy yesterday.

6 Weeks Old & Lots of Excitement

Josie's 6th week was filled with lots of excitement & we have the pictures to prove it. Check out her Shutterfly collection here. These three photos win the prize for my favorite new facial expressions!