4am and 2 places

It doesn't seem like it matters if Jenna goes to bed at 10:30, 11, or midnight she still seems to wake up at 4am. It was storming with lightening and thunder at 2 this morning and woke me straight up out of bed. Jenna slept right through it. 4am came around (the storm had passed) and Jenna woke up ready to go.

We are doing pretty well overnight. She has been sleeping 4 to 5 hour spells between feedings. I can't complain its better than the every hour routine she was pulling her first week home.

I should update on our living status as well. Fortunately, we are back down to having 2 places to live. We gave apartment keys back today. It was a moment of joy for me. I will admit, we lived in a very nice apartment, but there is something so much nicer about living in a house.

3 weeks old

Jenna has survived the craziness of the Hofmann family scheduling for 3 weeks and has been a pretty good sport about all of it. After we got up and going yesterday, we were going to go over and start cleaning the apartment. Lance threw a kink in plans when he asked me to meet him at noon to bring him some things. So Jenna and I traveled over to the interstate to meet Lance, exchange goodies, and then go over and clean. Due to the change in plans I only got half the apartment cleaned yesterday. I stopped because I needed some cleaning supplies (oven cleaner, more shower cleaner, etc). So we went to the trusty old Wal-mart. Mommy decided Jenna needed a treat so Jenna got a few Dr. Suess books.

Today we went over and finished cleaning the apartment and we stopped by the hospital for a random weight check. Lance had been telling me I was going to have an 8 pound baby. He is finally right, we have an 8 lbs 4 oz baby. She gained just shy of a pound in 2 weeks.

Several people had told me to that I wouldn't notice how much she is changing since I see her every day, but I would disagree with them. I can see her changing right before my eyes. She is getting close to out growing 3 newborn sleepers and her newborn diapers are getting snug. I hope to make it through the whole box before she does truely outgrow them.

Getting Settled

First, I must say a big THANK YOU to my Mom and Dad. They have been a HUGE help in getting us moved. We closed on the house on Wednesday. Lance and I each packed our vehicles twice on Wednesday evening and dropped stuff (mostly cleaning supplies and tolietries) off on Wednesday evening. Mom met me over at the house Thursday afternoon and helped me clean. We got the largest majority of the house cleaned Thursday. Friday, I made a couple trips over with boxes and Mom came over after work and helped me finish cleaning and do some unpacking. Saturday, Lance and Mom drug box after box after box down stairs while I packed more stuff. We stopped and went out to lunch at the 4-H fair grounds and met up with my Dad, who came back to the apartment and helped us move the big stuff (dresser, bed, cabinet, love seat, etc.). We worked very hard on Saturday and all our hard work payed off because Saturday night we slept in our new house.
I must admit, Jenna did very well with the move. She spent a lot of Saturday in her car seat and made a few trips between the apartment and the house. She hasn't really been bothered by the move.
Now I just have a lot of unpacking to do. Jenna's room is pretty well put together. I want to paint the master bedroom, so Lance and I are living out of boxes and the spare bedroom closet for now. Hopefully by the end of the week we will be settled and mostly unpacked.
Until next time, good night and God Bless!

On the Move

Okay, so Lance and I have always had two places. Yesterday we acquired a third place. We purchased a house 3 miles away from the apartment where we are living now. I looked at Lance last night and told him that occasionally couples will have 2 places to choose from when deciding where to sleep, but few couples have three places to chose from! The three places are very temporary (we have to be out of the apartment complex by the 28th). If I am somewhat slow on keeping the blog updated, please know we are trying to get settled, not only as new parents but also in a new (to us) home.

Daddy's Little Valentine

Saturday was Valentine's Day and someone got a nice valentine's day present from her daddy. Lance spent most of the week in Louisville at the Farm Machinery Show and he brought his sweetheart a present. Jenna got a combine, 2 tractors, and a gator, 3 little wagons, some farm animals, and a couple farmers. Guess what.... its all green! All I can say is at least her first tractor was red (thanks Grandpa!).
Lance's got his reward for this today. When he was leaving for work this morning, he leaned over and kissed me then leaned down and kissed Jenna. He told Jenna he loved her and she grinned at him. You should have seen his face light up! He told me he felt so lucky he thought he should go buy a lotto ticket!

Yet, more photos

Carla, Ciara, Christa, and Jenna had a girls day on Friday. Initially, it was supposed to be so I could work on getting Jenna's baby announcements assembled and Carla wanted to make cards. We thought it would be fun to do together. Carla then got the idea that we should take a few pictures of the girls together for our parents. Finding a time that Jenna and Ciara were both awake and alert gave us a limited window. However, I think the photos turned out well.

Ciara wanted to touch and play with Jenna. Ciara didn't quite understand that you have to play nice with newborn babies. Jenna got beat up a little bit, but that's what cousins are supposed to do, right?

Mom gave me a few clothes that were Carla's when she was little. At first, I wondered why she was giving me clothes my sister wore, then it dawned on me that they were both February birthdays! Below is a picture of Jenna wearing a sleeper that is 29 years old. It is made out of long john material and extrememly warm. It is blue because the everything for little girls didn't have to be pink back in the day and because the doctor swore Carla was a boy until she came out.

Anyway, today is Carla's birthday, so Happy Birthday Aunt Carla!

A Week Already???

It is hard to believe it has been a week already. It seems like it has been forever, but yet has gone really quick. We went in for a weight check today. Jenna is now weighing 7lbs and 7 oz. They are very happy with her progress. She weighte 7 lb 4 oz when she was born, 6lbs 13 oz when we left the hospital and is gaining at a healthy rate. The lactation nurse told me to keep up the good work and keep doing what I am doing.
We have also fallen into a pretty standard 3 hour routine, in both day and night time. It's amazing what all has happened this week!

More Pictures (really cute ones!)

Lance and I took several pictures of Jenna yesterday. I thought I would share them with all of you. If you are interested in seeing the hospital photo, click here. The user name is chofmann and password is Jenna2309. I think the photos posted below are better.

The tulips were sent from work. The wagon that she is laying in was made by my Godfather and myself as a 4-H project. The afghan was a gift from a lady I work with. I had posted photos of it a while back.

Photos

I didn't end up with a lot of photos from the hospital that were really clear due to the low lighting, but here are a few.
Daddy and Daughter

An upclose just before we went home

My clothes are newborn size and swallow me!

Jenna's Story/We are Home

There are so many things to say, I don't even know where to start! Lance and I are very excited to have little Jenna. Sometime back between Christmas and New Years when we got our 2009 calandar we made guesses of when Jenna would be born and I wrote them down. Lance picked January 30, 31 and February 1. (We were only supposed to pick one day, but he just kept saying 2 weeks early). I guessed February 2....little did I know I wouldn't be too far from having it right!
Monday night I got home from work, Lance and I had supper, watched the CBS comedy line up, then I went and took a shower. During my shower, I realized my belly felt a little funny, but didn't think much of it. I no more than got out of the shower and it felt funny again. It was right at 9pm, so I went over and laid down on the bed for a little bit. Lance came in the bedroom and ask what I was up to. I told him not to get too excited, but we were going to be meeting our daughter. He asked me how soon and I told him that I thought the process had started and I said likely we will meet her tomorrow. About 3 am we decided it was time to go to the hospital. She was born at 9:06 am, 10 days before her due date.
Our hospital stay was overall a good experience. We had some really amazing nurses and several visitors. Today, Thursday, we started the release process about 7 am and were home and unpacking at noon. Before we left, we were told she was weighing in at 6 lbs 13 oz.
Jenna has been eating well and sleeping well since we moved home.

I haven't downloaded any pictures from my camera yet, I will try to do that tomorrow depending on the chaos of the day. Meanwhile, someone is hungry and Mommy is being summoned!

Baby Jenna has arrived!

This is Carla, Christa's sister, reporting...

Baby Jenna decided to see it daddy's way and come early, just not quite the 2 wks. he's been saying all along.

Christa went into labor around 9:00 Mon. evening, they decided around 3am to head on to the hospital. Jenna May Hofmann greeted the world at 9:06am weighing in at 7lbs. 4oz. She is 20" long.

Everyone is doing well. I'm sorry I don't have pictures to post, as they are on my home computer, so, if you'll click here and go to my blog page www.schenk-n-family.blogspot.com or click on the link to my page on the right-hand side of Christa's page, you can see the pictures I took last night.

Christa will update as soon as she gets a chance with pictures and a story of her own.

In the meantime, now you know...

Baby Shower Photos

I know my baby shower was about a month ago, and I am just now getting around to sharing a few photos with you all. This is a photo of Aunt Christa with her nieces and nephew. It was supposed to be a picture of Jenna and her cousins...but the cousins seem to cover up baby Jenna. This is a picture of Jenna's Mom and Lexi's Mom. Little did we all know, Lexi would be born just a couple days later. Bonnie was originally due 9 days before me.

As you might guess from the cake, we are decorating the nursery with Winnie the Pooh and friends. This was a photo of my presents from the shower. We got all kinds of wonderful gifts!