The Many Faces of Maelin Olivia

Its been a crazy few weeks, hence the lack of updates.  We have finally moved back home, Maelin Olivia has settled into her room and Begley is very happy to have his yard back.  Brett and I have been non-stop unpacking boxes and getting everything back into order.  As of today, we have successfully unpacked all boxes, except many things remain randomly scattered throughout....sigh.

Maelin Olivia is already almost 7 weeks. At her month check up she measured in the 95th percentile in height and 75th percentile in weight....crazy to think somehow we have a "long" baby.  I am guessing this will be one of the few times she is considered tall.....seeing as I have NEVER been referred to as tall (except by my Grandma) and Brett is average at 5'10"

I have avoided getting "sprayed" but the girl can create powerful explosions that never seize to amaze us.  There have been numerous very humorous incidences and all seem to happen on me or on my watch.  Brett has lucked out so far but I am hoping she saves a super gross and messy one for him.

Over the weeks Maelin Olivia has started to show a bit of her personality.  We have tried to capture this through her many strange, hilarious and sometimes creepy faces.

Tired Smile!!!!!

SUPER Pissed Off!!!

What in the world is that?

AHHH, that felt great, time for a diaper change

Comatose and showing my multiple chins (yikes)

Wide awake and ready to go

Seriously, stop taking my picture

Smiling sweet for everyone starring at me

Calming a fussy Maelin

 Little Maelin is almost a month old and for the most part has been a good baby.  She however has her VERY FUSSY moments which can prove to be quite exhausting.  We have tried just about everything to calm her screams....some we learned from Grandma and others we learned by mistake.  Below is a summary of what we discovered over the last few weeks!

Grandma Sue showed us this hold which Maelin took a liking to

Brett improvised Grandma Sue's hold and Maelin also liked this one

 After a shower one day I was holding a fussy Maelin and the minute I walked in the sun, she passed out! I guess the the apple doesn't fall far from the tree

The mamaroo swing and her elephant pacifier

LONG walks in the baby bjourn.  This is what she looks like when removed.  Her mouth even holds the form of her nuk

 After a good feeding!

Week One - We made it through

We made it through Week One with no major incidents, phew!  We had a mixture of good and bad nights but obviously that is to be expected.  We tried to get to know Maelin more but all she wants to do is eat, sleep and poop.  I will admit, there was A LOT of googling done on a daily basis to make sure that everything she was doing or we were doing was normal :)

In addition to changing numerous diapers, feedings and rocking we managed to get out and about. We made about four trips to the Home Depot in order to pick out carpet, paint, a kitchen sink and faucet for the house which is nearing completion in a few weeks.  We also enjoyed some time on Michigan Avenue, picking out a new wardrobe for Brett (I am sure this is not surprising).  Maelin also met a lot of our friends and family throughout the week.

The week was filled with "firsts".  There were a lot of good firsts that we enjoyed like our stroller walk, Baby Bjorn walk and lullabye time.  There were also a few bad firsts including the sponge bath (which she absolutely hated) and the first poop spray.  You hear about "the spray" but until you experience it you don't really understand the reality of it.  I was the one that got sprayed and was very happy Brett was home to take over the rest of the diaper change so I could wash off (SO GROSS).

Overall, the first week was fun, especially having Brett around.  Week Two will be a bit different since he has to go back to work, something I am very sad about.  We are looking forward to all the new "firsts" we have yet to experience in the weeks to come.

Tired after the long day of updating Dad's wardrobe

Finally calm after first sponge bath

Some bonding time

Begley has taken a liking to Maelin

Poop face!

Lovin' the Baby Bjourn

Coming Home

We finally arrived home on Saturday.  There were a few complications and Maelin Olivia had to stay in the NICU, but she is all better now!

Maelin did surprise us all with her size.  Throughout my pregnancy the doctors kept telling me I was measuring small and most likely would have a small baby.  I was even told at one appointment to buy preemie clothes for her first few days.  Well as it turns out, her ten day late arrival really paid off and she gained lots of extra weight.  Never did I imagine we would have an 8 lb 5 oz baby, she even shocked the docs with her size.  Needless to say we were not prepared with a going home outfit but jammed her into something for the quick drive home.  Time to now go shopping :)

It was great to bring her home and start to get to know her better.  So far Begley doesn't understand who or what she is and just looks at her and then walks away, which is fine for now.

Below are some pictures from the hospital and also from her first days home.  We love her so much and cannot wait to see how she grows and changes!

Maelin Olivia

Going home, all wedged in an outfit that is WAY TO SMALL

Ready for the car!

At home

Just relaxing

Relaxing some more

And more :) 

The Hood Experiment - PART II (Baby) - Announcing the arrival of Maelin Olivia

We proudly announce the arrival of Maelin Olivia, born March 10th, weighing 8 lbs 5 oz.

Family is doing good, stay tuned for pictures!

The Hood Experiment - Part I (pre-baby) - All Set..........Not So Much Anymore

I may have cursed us with the last blog posting......... the Saturday following Brett and I were doing exactly what we had planned to do the last few weeks without baby, watching TV and reading.  All the sudden we heard someone yelling 'FIRE' in our back alley.  I ignored the nonsense and continued reading.  After a few minutes though Brett decided to get up and check it out.  Well sure enough, the guy yelling was not lying; there was a fire at the neighbor’s house (about 6 feet away from ours). We quickly threw on some jackets and boots and grabbed Begley.  Below is the news clip of the events that transpired that night.  Our house (1824 N Wood) is the brown/khaki one behind the reporter and is mentioned in the newscast and article.


http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7928286


So the excellent news is the firefighters did an amazing job and prevented the flames from engulfing our house entirely, the not so excellent news is the amount of water damage we incurred from them dousing our house for more than an hour.


I was convinced all would be fine (my zen bubble hadn’t popped yet); we could live in a BBQ scented house and just air it out.  The contractors can tear walls down around us, but we would stay.  So we did for a week and I continued to pretend the house was totally livable.... even though this is what it looked like (yes it was chilly also).  

After letting the house “dry” out for a week, the contractors came back to reassess the situation and delivered some not so good news, the damage was MUCH more extensive than originally thought.  It’s never good when the insurance adjuster needs to come pay a visit again.  As it turns out, we lost our entire basement and north side wall which includes the kitchen, our master bedroom, bathroom and guest suite.  Displaced once again, not even 15 months since the first fire..........(zen bubble popped)


We moved this past weekend into corporate housing in a downtown hotel off Michigan Avenue.  It is NOT home but the place is really nice and the location is great!  Begley however thinks the location totally sucks and doesn't understand elevators, revolving doors and lack of grass to do his business.  He hopefully will learn soon.


Baby girl is due two weeks from today.  We are very grateful she hasn't made an early appearance yet and gave us some time to get settled.  She will not have her nursery right away, but eventually will be back home and we'll have a great story for her when she is older.


Our next blog update will be welcoming baby girl and you can all meet her for the first time..............

The Hood Experiment - Part I (pre-baby) - ALL SET!

We have been pretty busy the last couple weekends, mainly driving back to Milwaukee for baby showers (we are very fortunate to have such great family and friends and have been very spoiled).

The first trip home we ended up driving a rental car back to Chicago because Brett got in an accident on the infamous Bluemound Road.....oppps.  He was driving to get an oil change, got in a fender bender, and still proceeded to get the oil changed.  It doesn't make much sense to me why he didn't just get the oil changed when he brought the car in to get fixed???  But then again, lots of things he does don't make sense.  Needless to say, we finally got the car back a few days ago and the oil light is on again, looks like Brett has a job for the weekend :)

One of our final preparation steps was to attend a baby basics class which was geared towards the "not so experienced parent", and proved to be very helpful.  The most useful lesson was learning all the weird/freaky things and sounds this little baby will do and make over the first few weeks, but are normal.........so that saved about ten phone calls to the pediatrician.

Aside from attending class and baby showers, we have managed to complete her nursery and wash all her clothes, sheets, towels, etc.  We are even prepared with her "coming home outfit" and a pair of booties to keep her toes warm.

Her little sheepskin booties, cannot wait to put these on her tiny feet!

 When you walk into the nursery (the white, black and grey elephants above the crib are her mobile, not part of the wall.........bad camera angle)

 Her crib with her sleep sheet

The view with the changing table.  The pictures on the wall are from a children's book written by Bob Dylan based on his song 'Forever Young'.....mine and Brett's favorite song.

The other side of her room with a bookcase and wardrobe closet.

I always thought during the last month of pregnancy that we (especially me) would be totally freaked out and nervous.  For some strange reason though, we are both extremely calm.  I like to refer to it as my "zen bubble"and the bubble is the best place to be!  We are going to take the next few weeks and watch all the bad TV we can, sleep lots and go out to nice dinners.... all things we imagine we'll miss when the little one arrives.