Lucie's first month

I realize that I haven't posted in a while... I guess we've had a few things changing around here.
Here are the highlights of the last month:

Easter: Frank's parents and his sister Emma came out to Omaha for Easter (and to meet Lucie, of course). It was very fun! 2 weeks after Lucie was born, and I was feeling much better. We did the neighborhood Easter egg hunt and did a brunch on Sunday. We even squeezed in a trip to the zoo and yet, it seemed like we had plenty of time to just "hang out," too. It was great to have visitors again - what a fun weekend!

Back to the Routine: Not much of an event, but April 15th, I got back to our routine here officially. Ventured outside of the house with ALL three kids (OK, it was just to preschool, the dry-cleaners and target, but still!). It was fine - Lucie screamed (that infant "i'm starving" blood curdling cry) the entire trip through Target. Why do strangers feel the need to stop you and say dumb stuff like, "somebody doesn't sound happy." Really, captain obvious?? Oh well, it was good to get out and not as bad as I would have thought to keep track of all three at once. :)

"The week of the young child": Yes, a whole week devoted to the "young child" -- it was tons of fun for Ellie, that's for sure! A preschool field trip to go see Disney's "Nature Earth" on earth day, a preschool picnic for the whole family on Friday. And the biggest thrill for her that week (nothing to do with the "young child") -- Kindergarten Round-up. She couldn't be more excited to be in Kindergarten (and I really couldn't be more excited either!) :) Full-day Kindergarten in Nebraska -- Omaha does a FEW things right! She had a blast - met all the K teachers, saw the classrooms - she loved it. (phew!)

Lucie: has it been a month already?? She's a keeper, of course. She is starting to really try to look at us and she is starting to have longer "awake" periods during the days (which has eased up the night time wakings a little bit). She's pretty consistently doing a good 4-6 hour stretch every night - who can complain about that? We think she is trying hard to smile at us, too... but not quite yet! Ellie continues to be very "into" her and Nathan is definitely coming around - asks to hold her and give her bottles and even offers to "check on Wucie" -- it's cute -- they'll all be buddies someday (I have to remind myself of that as Ellie and Nathan are in a serious sibling - bickering stage right now - ugh!)

More soon - I'll try not to go weeks between posts anymore! :)

Lucie's Arrival

After 9 months of worrying about the fact that we really had no plan for the arrival of this baby (and yes, just worrying about it... not actually MAKING a plan...), everything worked out just perfectly! My parents arrived in OMaha on Saturday (3/28) and Frank and I went out for a last "date night" - very fun. Dinner and a movie is never as exciting as when you know that it probably won't happen again for a while! :) On Sunday, Frank and my dad played golf - beautiful weather for the end of March. And Sunday night, we all turned in early to try to be ready for the "big day."

Frank and I spent some time on Sunday night ironing out the names for the baby (oh yeah, still didn't have "sure" names as of 10 pm on Sunday night...thrid kid!). The alarm went off at 4:30 am and I did my best to get showered and ready as if I never would get a chance to shower again! Off to the hospital - checked in at 5:30 am - did all the paperwork (how binding ARE all of those waivers??), did the IV thing (they shouldn't let nursing students "practice" on nervous pregnant ladies!), the monitor thing, and before we knew it, it was time to head to the O.R. ...

Everything went well (well, after the spinal finally took - I was really worried for a minute there that they were going to start cutting before I was numb... I was practicing my story for when I would be interviewed on 60 minutes or something... I had lots of time to think - took almost 40 minutes for me to be numb enough to slice me open... Oh well -- all's well that ends well. :)

There was the big moment "It's a girl!" (totally knew it the whole time!) -- when I saw Lucie for the first time, it was total deja vu from when ellie was born -- clones! Then all the chatter starts (between Frank and the staff, mostly) -- "oh, she's so cute" "what's her name?" "she's really big" Everybody's yucking it up as I get put back together - good times.

The kids (ellie and nathan) were waiting with my parents in the waiting room by this point and Ellie for sure was excited that she got a baby SISTER (Nathan took a while to warm up, but he's coming around slowly but surely!) Today, he even asked, "where's Lucie?" That's a big step for him! :)

It was HUGE to have my parents here - Frank even worked a couple of half days while they were here, everyone could make daily visits to the hospital and the kids could still have their down time at home and naps, etc. It was such a load off our minds - and ellie and nathan were thrilled to have grandma and poppa here with them - what a treat for all of us. (Except maybe grandma and poppa!) :)

Meredith and her family arrived on Thursday (4/2), the day I came home from the hospital. It was great to have more company - the kids were thrilled to have the cousins around to play with and the adults were all very understanding about our lack of "hosting" skills that week :) (Not that the karaoke-on-demand isn't fun enough, but...)

It was sad to say goodbye to everyone when they left - can't wait to make a trip back home soon!

Lucie Anne

The last two weeks fall into the "lost" category - always seems to happen when a new baby is born...where do the days (and nights) go? Here she is.

Lucie Anne Williams

March 30, 2009 8:09 am

8 pounds, 13 ounces 20.5 inches