andie ~ six weeks.

Here is our little miss at 6 weeks old.
She has changed so much it is amazing.  She is definitely plumping up! :)  Our little chunk, even though she is still a tiny thing.
At 6 weeks old... Andie is in size one diapers and now switching to size 0-3 month clothes.  She is smiling at us more each week.  She has definitely found her voice!  Yes, this extremely calm and quiet baby isn't oh so quiet anymore.  She is still a very good and happy baby, but now she is far more vocal and needy than her sister was at this age.
      Andie is picky about where she is, and by this I mean she really would be totally happy if she could be held all day long. :)  We get tiny little moments in a swing or bouncer, but they do not last long.  Otherwise, she loves to stretch out on her play mat.  She knows how to get our attention and tell us what she really wants. :)  If she is awake you can pretty much guarantee she is in our arms.  So, in other words our house is not quite up to par and completely taken over by two little girls.  The moments I have without a little one in my arms are left to the necessities for myself - bathroom, shower, eating - haha that's about all that can be squeezed in.  Thank goodness it's summer, otherwise our house would be a total pit!  Todd and I take turns getting in a little cleaning (or at least straightening up).
      Sleep is something that has stayed very consistent with little miss Andie since she came home from the hospital.  She is pretty much down for the night about 8-8:30 and she is in a deep sleep.  She wakes about 2am and then again at 6am and then 8am.  Nighttime has been extremely calm.  If we are sleep deprived it's because of our 3 year old (more on her in a special big sister post coming up).
      This six week mark is making this mama a little sad - moving out of newborn clothes, diapers, most likely moving into her bedroom soon.  It goes so quickly.  Thank goodness we are truly soaking up every second, and for that I am grateful for a messy house - we know we are doing things right. :)

our beautiful girls.

Who knew it would be so fun to say "our girls" or "the girls"?

All the little things we love about having our two beautiful girls and being a family of four.

And we know they are ours and of course we have a little bias, but we have two deliciously adorable little munchkins. :)

andie ~ one month.

Happy one month to our baby girl!
On July 18th, our sweet Andie turned one month already.
And she is growing so fast (slow down sweet girl!).

We celebrated with a special little cake.

Andie at one month of age:

(I'm grateful for these posts because I do look back at Quinn's, and they help me fill in the baby book if I don't get to it right away.)

Stats:  9 pounds, 21 inches long - basically 50th% for everything

Eating:  Breastfeeding like a little rockstar still.  Growing and getting a little chubby, so it makes this mama feel good. :)  Eats about every 2-2 1/2 hours during the day.  Drinks between 3-3 1/2 ounces (can tell when drinking a pumped bottle.  Or nurses for about 20 minutes on average.

Sleeping:  Usually falls asleep for nighttime at about 8:30pm.  Does a 5-6 hours stretch first then does a 3-4 hour stretch.  After that her regular every 2 hours schedule begins.  Such a good sleeper.  Still sleeping in mommy and daddy's room in the Rock N' Play.

Clothing:  Wearing all newborn clothes still comfortably. A few newborn onesies are getting a little snug length wise.  In diapers, starting to transition from newborns into size 1.

Loves:  This girl is a little particular about where she is. :)  She loves to be in our arms, on her playmat, in my (diy) moby wrap, and in the Rock N' Play.  Andie does really well with a bath and loves when you just talk to her.  

Milestones:  We see little smiles in her sleep and tiny smirks when we talk to her, but we are waiting for that first big smile that is right at us. :)  Rolling over and such a strong girl. 

Andie Qualities:  Another little grunter baby!  Only I think Andie is way more vocal than Quinn was.  Her noises crack us up.  She saves all the best expressions for when I feed her.  She is sweet and calm, yet will definitely let you know she is hungry!  And that is often. :)

Most Valuable baby items:  Rock N' Play, wrap, good swaddle blankets

We didn't have to buy much new with you little chickee, except for a new vehicle.  This past week we sold Daddy's yellow truck and we went out and bought a new mini-van (Toyota Sienna).  We love it!  It is making life so much easier getting you and your sister in and out of it and to and from places.  Thankfully you are starting to like your carseat a little more too. 

Family Pictures for 1 month birthday celebrations:

andie ~ newborn photos.

I love newborn photos and I am so grateful to have them of both of our girls. It's so hard to remember them so little and they are only teeny for so long.  

Here is our preciously perfect little Andie.

These beautiful photographs were captured by Mary Long of Emme Elle Photography found here.

andie ~ three weeks.

Andie at 1 week old (newborn photos- sneek peak)

Andie, at 3 weeks old you continue to be a little dream baby.  Throughout my pregnancy, I have always felt you were reliable, calm, strong and determined.  All of those words are still how I would describe you now that you are here in our arms.
Reliable:  From the moment we brought you home from the hospital you already set a great little routine with no doing from mommy and daddy.  You knew night from day and started right off the bat sleeping long stretches at night and shorter ones during the day.  We know exactly when to expect you to wake, and we know exactly what you need when you start your little grunting. :)

Calm:  You are the calmest baby I have ever known (and your mommy has known lots of babies), even your sister was very calm.  We only hear from you when you are ready to eat.  And we have yet to ever need to soothe or sway or bounce a crying baby at all.  Unheard of my sweet girl.  Our transition here at home as been so smooth and calm, so easy with you.

Strong:  Something about you during pregnancy and now, call it a mother's intuition, tells me that you are a strong and brave girl.  In our family we are all a bit sensitive, but you may be our strong girl when it comes to your emotions.  We will have to see. :)

Determined:  When you are wanting to eat, you squirm your way to where you need to go like you are on a mission.  You also are freaking mommy out a bit because at 2 weeks 1 day old you rolled over from your front to your back already.  Thought maybe it was a fluke - until you did it 3 more times!!  Seriously, slow down little miss!  If that wasn't crazy enough, at 3 weeks 0 days you decided to roll over from your back to your tummy (now I'm definitely not counting this in the baby books - One, because mommy does not like things moving too fast and Two, because while you were fully on your belly you did not get your arm out from under you.)  We have videos and cameras ready to send the footage to NBC for your Olympian montage one day. :)

Other little things to know about you at 3 weeks of age:
- You seriously have the cutest most perfect little round newborn baby face ever!!!  Every little feature is perfect!
- You are starting to let us know that you just want to be held, and with mommy's wrap you are snuggled close a lot.  On top of that you eat constantly!
- You are 100% breastfed and you eat a lot.  This means lots of mommy and Andie bonding time.
- Your expressions during those eating times are by far my favorites.
- You LOVE the Rock N' Play.  You sleep in it at night in mommy and daddy's room still.
- You aren't the biggest fan of the swing right now. (only tried it a few times)
- You like your tummy time pretty well.
- You have a good little happy belly.  No gas, colic or upset tummies.
- You weren't a fan of your car seat the first two weeks but you are getting better.
- You are SO loved.

SLEEP:  You are a bit of a newborn rock star when it comes to this category. :)
You came home and immediately knew what to do.
At 3 weeks of age you are currently ready for your nighttime sleep between 8:00-9:00pm.  And mommy can totally tell the difference when you are ready for night sleep compared to a nap.  You sleep the first stretch for about 5-6 hours (started stretching to 6 hours this week), eat and go right back to sleep for another 3 1/2 hours, again eat and go back to sleep (because if your sister is sleeping in then you better believe that we are taking advantage of that! - although your sister is an amazing little sleeper too).

We love you so much - our sweet little Andie Ainsley.

five years later...

July 4th, 2009

just five years later...
we have these two gorgeous little girls.

Quinn ~ 3 years old & Andie ~ 2 weeks old
Our big 5th wedding anniversary was spent snuggled with these two (and some ice cream :)).

This little one loves being in front of the camera lately, so we just rolled with it. :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July!
And Happy 5th Anniversary to my amazing husband and loving daddy of these sweet girls!

andie ~ two weeks.

It's been two weeks since this little angel entered into our world.
Two blissfully perfect weeks.
We are all madly in love with our new little girl, Andie.
She is perfect in every way, and her big sister is quickly becoming obsessed with her.
Quinn is incredibly gentle with her and loves to look at her little nose and ears and toesies.

I have yet to post Andie's birth story, so I am working a little backwards here.
The story of her journey into the world will be written and shared soon.

At two weeks, Andie is truly an angel of a baby.
She is giving a big "take that!" to every single person who said "Oh, just wait for the second one to come!".
It's no secret Quinn was an incredibly easy baby.  If it is possible, Andie has topped the charts of what I could ever imagine a dream little baby to be.
We have yet to bounce or sway a crying baby.  She is such a happy and content girl all the time (well all of the two little weeks of her life :).
We hear from Andie little coos and fusses only during the day when she is ready to eat, and always like clockwork.  And if you caught that "only during the day" part, then I should add that not a single night have we had this little one wake up or crying.  I have to wake her up to eat (since the day we brought her home).
Currently, Andie eats every 2 hours during the day and at night I wake her up about 3 1/2-4 hours. Which means she eats about 10, then I wake her close to 2am, then about 5:30/6:00am.  I guess some people would consider that waking just once a night, but we sleep in till at least 7am around here.
How did we bring home a baby that already knew the difference between night and day?

Andie is also back up to her birth weight and already growing and changing right in front of our eyes.
She is a little rockstar when it comes to breastfeeding.  Considering she dropped a little more weight than normal at the hospital, she has caught back up quickly.  (7lbs 8oz at birth - 6lbs 10 oz going home)

On the day Andie turned 2 weeks, the summer July weather is a little confused and gave us a Fall feeling day. :)  So she is sporting her first long sleeve top today.  She also is making some fun brand new sounds and a little talking that Quinn loves.

If anyone is staring at the picture above of our little Andie thinking "Deja Vu - that looks just like Quinn as a baby" - you are not alone.  While of course they are their own little unique selves and have little differences we notice at this stage, the similarity between them as newborns is amazing.  Even down to the same little two red line beauty mark on their foreheads.  We will post some baby picture comparisons of these sisters.

At just one week of age, Andie already had a brand new cousin.  She lost her status of the newest little grandbaby rather quickly. :)
Here is Andie at 2 weeks and her little cousin Noah (Drew & Kristen's) at 1 week.
We can't wait to meet him!

Happy 2 weeks to our sweet little Andie Ainsley!
You are such a joy for us, we love you so much.

finding the perfect name.

Todd and I are a pretty good little duo when it comes to naming our munchkins.
Finding the perfect little names for our girls has been a pretty easy process for us.
The route to selecting Andie was very similar to choosing Quinn, and it all just seemed meant to be.

It's pretty clear now that we really like simple, unique and sporty names for girls.
The teachers in us definitely also lean towards names that are easy to pronounce and less likely to have many multiples in classes over the future years, as well as can't be connected to past students of ours. :)

Girl names come easy to us.  Boy names not so much.
We have never come up with even one boy name, really.
We must have always known girls were coming our way. :)

Quinn Avery ~
When we chose Quinn, it was definitely more popular for a boy name and unique for a girl.
It is slowly gaining popularity, but we still get comments constantly on Quinn's name.
Choosing Quinn's name was simple, we just loved it and we were done searching.  We had her name selected when I was about 14 weeks pregnant and we were convinced she was a girl for sure.  Her middle name came easy too.  I always loved Avery, we liked how it sounded together and we just said "done". :)  No need to complicate the process by adding a whole list of choices when you know there is one you love.

Andie Ainsley ~
Arriving upon Andie's name was a very similar journey.  I mentioned it months before we were pregnant as a name I liked, Todd was okay with it (this happened with the name Quinn too :)).  After discovering we were pregnant, Todd came home from officiating a volleyball tournament and said he saw a name on a team roster that he liked.  It was Andi.  I smiled to myself but played along that it was a great name idea.  I eventually filled him in that I had suggested it months before. :)  Once we realized we both loved it, just like Quinn we were pretty sure that was a sign that it was meant to be.
This time around though there were a few more things that led me to the name Andie.
One, I loved Kate Hudson's character in the movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days - Andie Anderson.
So cute and loved the named Andie from this role.  This sparked the name for me.

Two, I am an 80's girl, so when we had selected Andie and I realized that the name Andie was also from an iconic 80's teenage movie - Pretty in Pink - it was just another little sign for me.  And who doesn't love Duckie, the loyal friend who had always been in love with her?

And three, when my parents selected the name Lisa for me - it helped that there was a Lisa who was a student that they knew that was incredibly sweet and kind and thoughtful that was attached to the name.  One day I realized that I did know of a student that had gone through school that we knew who went by Andi and she was just the same in my eyes (the sweetest, most down-to-earth, kind to all, mature girl) - it was only fitting a similar connection be made in naming our 2nd daughter.

How did we decide on Ainsley for a middle name?
Well, I like to joke that we look through the baby books and stop on the A's once we find something we like. :)  Hence, why both of our girls have "A" middle names.  There is a bit of truth to this too.
Because Andie is more commonly a boy's name, I wanted something more feminine for a middle name.
I did like the double A and we decided to start there.  We stumbled upon Ainsley, loved it and kept in stride with our usual "if we love it so much why try to keep looking?" motto. :)

And Andie Ainsley it was.