There's a hole in my baby!

(dear Liza, dear Liza)

So, yeah, that's sort of weird. Her belly button kept getting crusty, so I took her to the ped this past week and she had a look and said, "Ah, yes, there's a hole." Apparently things didn't completely heal up when her cord fell of. *ew* She was optimistic that it would heal up since it was so small and barely leaking anything as compared to most kids; apparently when that happens their shirts often end up with a huge wet spot. That's definitely not happening here, thank heavens. But she said that if it doesn't heal on its own it'll need surgery. :( She said to treat with alcohol but Michelle said to treat with the Cord Care "dust" that we used on the umbilical cord. She also said that research keeps showing that alcohol impedes the healing process. Grr. I never know who to believe! I have to admit, though, I am less likely to believe the standard medical doctor these days. So we're going with the Cord Care dust. Though we've been "dusting" it since Tuesday and it doesn't seem any better, so I'm calling her tomorrow to see how long it might take. Please God, don't let it need surgery!!!


Already showing off her personality...

Contest winners!

Ahhh, you thought I'd forgotten, didn'tcha? Well, I did. BUT! I remembered, as I eventually (usually) do. I tried a new scoring system this time--y'all started out with 100 points, and deductions were made as follows:

wrong sex = 10
wrong day = 1 point per day
wrong weight = 1 point per every 2 oz.
wrong length = 1 point per every 1/2 inch
wrong part of the day (AM or PM) = 1 point

The winner is Sam, with a score of 93! Very impressive! And to think she started her prediction with "I'm never any good at these things..." Sam wins a copy of Shauna Niequist's new and awesome book, "Cold Tangerines," as well as her choice of "Violette Between," "Worlds Collide," or my upcoming release, "Reinventing Rachel." Happy reading, Sam!

And a bonus prize goes out to Katie for guessing Penelope Jane's weight spot-on. She wins a copy of her choice of "Violette Between," "Worlds Collide," or my upcoming release, "Reinventing Rachel" as well. Hope you enjoy, Katie!

Thanks to everyone for your guesses. I'm sure PJ will have fun one day looking at all your guesses!

Our little overachiever

We were in Ventura over the weekend. Abby took off with Greena the minute we walked in the door--it's such a joy to see her so comfortable with them! She spent the whole weekend either playing blocks with Par, watching cartoons with Greena, or showing off her singing and "dancing" as she watched our Jana concert. I can't believe how many of the lyrics she knows! And how well she does the hand motions! It's SO cute, and it kills me that she stops the second she sees the video camera; I so desperately want to record her for posterity. (And for the relatives that don't get to see her.)

Penny J was her usual mellow self. Dan's afraid we're going to leave her somewhere because she's so quiet. I laughed when he told me that--except I feel the same way sometimes! She did, however, draw quite a bit of attention to herself on a couple occasions when she ROLLED OVER. Yes, at two weeks and a few days she rolled from back to front. Three times, in fact. In front of a shocked audience. And this wasn't just a serious wiggle with enough inertia to flip her. She rolled to her side (which she's been doing nearly since the beginning) and hung out there for awhile, and then suddenly started squirming and kicking--and then presto! Tummy time!

She's also been holding her head up for 30 seconds or more at a time. And not just while being held up; last night she was lying on Dan's chest and she picked up her head and just held it there, looking around. Crazy!


The girls at Gigi and Boppa's (my parents) on Easter Sunday.

Packing on the...ounces

Penny and I had our 2 week appointment with Michelle today. Penny was 9 pounds and 2 ounces! she was just 8 pounds 9 ounces less than a week ago--she really piled it on in the last 5 days! She looks so much more filled out. But even so, she doesn't look as big as Abby did at birth, and Abby was only one ounce less than Penny is now. Strange.

I checked out okay, although unfortunately some of my stitches tore right through the skin and were no longer holding anything together. Thankfully they were just "cosmetic" stitches and not fixing anything really important, so it's not a big deal. I'm so surprised I didn't know it had happened; certainly sounds like it would be awfully painful!

I've been feeling some serious mommy guilt the last couple of days. I think I had taken about 200 pictures of Abby by the time she was 2 weeks old. I've taken...maybe 20 of PJ. We have a bunch of her and Abby that I need to go through from Easter, but I swear I had the camera next to me at all times when Abby was a baby, and now I don't even know where the camera is! I haven't started Penny's baby book (though I did finally buy one), I haven't gotten a scrapbook for her yet, I haven't started writing in the journal I'll keep to give to her when she grows up...it's terrible. I always told myself I wouldn't be like this, and yet here I am. Not good.