Ada Video

Here is a short video of Ada. She's only a month old so she doesn't do much but chew on her hand. She's cute when she does it, though. : )

One month old!

Today, Ada is one month old! I don't have any pictures from today to post yet. She's either asleep or I've got my hands full!

Ada was crying, so Josephine brought her a toy (the rubber duck) to make her happy.

The Rubber Duck Race

Jo and Nathan at the Rubber Duck Race. Josephine wasn't too happy about the crowd and noise.

Ada happy to be with her daddy. I think we have another daddy's girl.

Papaw giving an interview for Channel 10 News.

Josephine got to ride the boat with Grannie Ratch at the Rubber Duck Race. She enjoyed watching the ducks get dumped off the bridge into the river. All went well until they blew the horn unexpectedly. Luckily, it was at the end of the trip.

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Other happenings.

Josephine "building Cinderella's castle" with the sidewalk chalk. I was impressed.

Ada at 4 weeks old during some naked tummy/back time on the floor.

Josephine feeling Ada hiccup.

Josephine talking to Ada. I love this picture, I just wish I could see Ada's face too.

Seven Islands and First Bath

Last Sunday the Anderson/Sandlin clan went to Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge for an evening picnic. We ate next to where you can put your boat in the water -- not a place designated for picnicing, but we thought it was nice. The girls enjoyed throwing rocks in the river and watching people put their boats in and out of the water.


Josephine and Naomi with Aunt Eah.


Granna with Ada.


The three girls -- Naomi, Josephine, and Ada.

Ada had her first real bath this week. She never cried, but she wasn't quite sure how she felt about it, as you can tell from the look on her face. : )


Ada's first bath. She has the long arms like Josephine did.

This has been a busy week! I actually left Ada (and Josephine) with the grandmothers each afternoon this week to help out with Rubber Duck Race stuff. The first two days I cried, but did okay Wednesday and Thursday. Ada did great. She has no problem taking a bottle and still sleeps most of the day, and isn't old enough for separation anxiety (Mom certainly is, though!). I think it was good for me to get out of the house for awhile. I'm much less grumpy at home when I get a good break. : ) Josephine, on the other hand, had a couple rough evenings. She often has a hard time if her nap schedule is off and she's not at home with me most of the time. Today has been a good day, though. Sleepless, but good.

Josephine is enjoying the Olympics. We have been letting her watch a few minutes of it before she goes to bed. She always asks if she's watching the "Wim-pics". She's learned what volleyball is and gets excited when they swim. She runs up to the TV when she sees our flag. She usually asks what the other flags are. Unfortunately, we haven't seen Luxembourg in any events. ; ) I stayed up the first night or two to watch the Olympics, but I haven't been able to stay up that late most of the week.

Ada is getting stronger and bigger everyday. She has no problem holding her head up now. She's always been alert, but she's really reacting to our voices and looking around more. She knows mine, Nathan's, and Josephine's voices and looks around when she hears us. Ada loves her sister and vice versa. She has also discovered the mirror above her swing. She finds it very interesting. I saw her today looking at her hand. Of course, she had no idea it was her hand, but she was looking very intently at it. It was coming very slowly towards her face, which made her slowly go crosseyed. Very funny.

Nathan's gallbladder test went well. His gallbladder is working properly. He's been taking his medicine, but the pain is still there. He has an appointment with the GI at the end of the month, at which he will schedule a test where you swallow a camera the size of a pill and the dr can look at your whole digestive system and look for problems/abnormalities. I assume that will be sometime in September.

Nighttime is going pretty well. She usually wakes up at 3 then again at 6 to eat. She's had a stuffy nose, which makes it hard for her to sleep (and with all the noise she makes, it's hard for Nathan and me to sleep). Last night was kind of rough, but she hasn't gotten her days and nights mixed up, luckily.

Ada is insisting that it's her dinnertime . . . .

First Bottle

Ada had her first bottle last night. With Josephine, I made the mistake of waiting too long before I gave her a bottle and she refused to take one when she got older (which meant I was the only way she could eat!). So, with Ada, I'm starting early and making sure she gets a bottle every once in awhile (it's breastmilk, not formula).


Nathan and Josephine feeding Ada her first bottle.


Ada kept her eyes on me the whole time. I think she was confused about why she was getting milk, but I wasn't the one giving it to her.

I've been able to resist giving her a passy so far. She would probably use it, but then I think about how I'd have to constantly have to put it back in her mouth for her, especially in the middle of the night.

As of Tuesday, Ada was up to 7 lbs 8 oz! That's 8 oz above her birth weight. She gained 15 oz in 7 days (she dropped down to 6 lb 9 oz after she was born). I knew she was growing quickly, but I didn't realize how much. I wouldn't be surprised if she had gained close to another half pound since then. She's really chunking up quickly!

Her neck muscles are getting stronger. She was able to hold her head up for a little bit after she was born, but she's able to keep it up for longer periods of time now. It's funny when she gets tired because she just lets her head flop.

She hasn't slept through the night again, but she still sleeps well. Two nights ago she woke up every 3-4 hours to eat, which isn't too bad for a breastfed baby. Last night she woke up at 12:30am then slept until 6am. Her stomach must have been upset because she didn't sleep well after 6am. But she's asleep now. : )

Josephine's cold is getting better. Her fever is gone and all that's left is that deep, juicy cough. She slept well last night and slept until almost 10 this morning. She still seems a little tired, though.

We have to take Ada to get ANOTHER heel stick this afternoon. Her PKU stick wasn't sufficient, so we have to do it again. They have to take so much blood for that test and it's very specific how the blood is placed on the card. Luckily, we'll go to the birthing center to have it done instead of Children's Hospital. Ada's pediatrician's nurse isn't comfortable with giving heel sticks like that, so we're going to the birthing center. The birthing center called last night around 7:30 or so. They had us scared for a little bit, because we thought the results showed something was wrong with Ada, but it was just the test itself that wasn't right.

Nathan has a tech-HIDA scan done tomorrow on his gallbladder to make sure it is functioning properly. He should have results right after the test, I think. He will be "radioactive" for up to 24 hours after they give him the nuclear stuff, so the girls and I are going to stay with my parents for the day and night. I would like to go with him, but he can't be around Ada and Ada has to be around me 24/7 right now.

Speaking of being needed 24/7, time to feed the baby.

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I forgot to talk about what Josephine is learning these days. Last night we played a game for about a half hour where Josephine had to tell us whether a certain animal was a mammal, bird, or reptile (we didn't get into the other types of animals). We had worked on it before, but she was really into it last night. We just used basic differences (hair/fur, feathers, scales) to distinguish between the types of animals. She was pretty impressive. Right before I took her up to bed, Nathan asked her if she had hair, scales or feathers. She correctly answered "hair". Then Nathan asked her what she was and her reply was "A Snorton Head!". It was so funny. Nathan and Josephine have a game they play where Jo decides what kind of "head" she is. Sometimes she's a Pooh-head or Horton-head. Lately, she's been a Snorton-head.

Josephine and I were just going through her Atlas looking at the flags. She has her favorites, such as USA, Canada, Mexico, Germany, and Luxembourg (only Josephine would care about Luxembourg's flag). She pointed to Luxembourg's flag and said "That's where birds live." :) Apparently she hears Luxem-bird when we say it. That cracked me up. Then we had another conversation that I never thought I'd have with a 2 year old. Belgium's flag has the same color stripes as Germany's, but Belgium's are vertical stripes and Germany's are horizontal. So Josephine had a lesson on the difference between vertical and horizontal stripes. She understood the concept, but she never said vertical or horizontal (she just pointed), so I'm anxious to see if she will bring up vertical and horizontal later on.

Just had to share.

Week 2

We're in the middle of our second week with Ada in our lives. She still sleeps most of the time. She actually slept through the night last night. She fell asleep at 11pm, or maybe before then, and slept until 7:30am (thank goodness for the breastpump!!!). She didn't really wake up then, but she was making noises so I got her up to feed her. She was awake for 15 minutes, tops, then slept for another 3 hours until I woke her up again to eat. She went back to sleep after eating. Josephine is doing her best to wake Ada up at the moment, but it's not working. :)

Josephine has another cold. :( She's snotty and coughing with a slight fever. I'm hoping Ada doesn't catch it, but getting a 2 year old to contain her germs isn't the easiest thing in the world.

I forgot to mention last time about Ada's weight. She was 7 lbs when she was born, she weighed 6 lb 9oz two days later, then weighed 6 lb 14 oz the next day. Can you tell my milk came in two days after she was born? I expect her to be above her birth weight now, she's gotten much bigger (in my eyes). I have an appointment with the birthing center later today. I don't know if they will weigh her there or not.


A very content Grannie Ratch and Ada.


Josephine playing with her hoolahoop.


Nathan and Ada having a conversation.


Josephine giving Ada kisses.


She does have eyes! Her hair is the same color as Nathan's right now.