Arwen is already 2 weeks old! And she’s doing well…we will be up tonight feeding, burping, and changing diapers! Feel free to swing by and help if you’d like…just kidding, hopefully the girls will be sleeping and Travis and I will be watching Lost Season 4 and sharing a New Year kiss…2008 was pretty good to us and our goals for 2009 include becoming debt free and working out more…Travis may go under the knife to help his ankle more though and we will be scheduling an appointment to see about his options with that this Spring, he will also be traveling for a conference to Miami in April for work and is looking forward to building a computer for Anya and getting a new monitor. I’m planning to continue my work with the animal shelter and doing more photography, hopefully my business will do well and I’ll be taking lots of photos for families and animals and the occasional wedding. Anya will probably be starting a two or three day a week preschool program in the Fall and continue with her gymnastics, and may possibly get introduced to karate, t-ball, soccer, or piano lessons as well. Arwen will be working on the teething and walking and baby stuff. And Chance will be working on eating more and trying to overcome his fear of bacon cooking on the stove (although he loves the end result with this one), fireworks, and thunderstorms.
Happy New Year everyone!

Here are some new photos. My favorite is the one of Anya by the string, that’s her bat signal for Batman she said!

Arwen’s home and things are going well. We went to the doc today to check her out again and she is doing well. The jaundice is going away well it seems and they checked her levels again today. She went down from her birth weight of 7lbs 5oz. to 6lbs 11oz. in the hospital but today she was back up to 7lbs 3oz. which was great news. The doc expected her weight to have dropped so for it to have gone up was a big success. She’s nursing well and we are just having to supplement a tiny bit now. I have to get busy pumping more milk though.
Anya had her check up too and she weighs in at 38lbs and is 3ft. 5 inches tall. She’s in the 50th percentile for her age so she’s not under or over weight. She’s just right. And we have been so incredibly proud of her. She did very well for her Granny and Pop Pop while they kept her and she has been just so sweet to Arwen. She’s held her once and gives her kisses and this morning she was comparing her foot to Arwen’s. I’m very glad that she’s doing so well. Travis and I are so proud and impressed at our first little girl. And Arwen is a very impressive eater and pooper too!
We will post some more photos throughout this week and I’ll probably be calling lots of people tomorrow as Travis has to go back to work and I’m a bit nervous of being all by myself.
And yes Arwen is from “The Lord of the Rings” book and yes, its a name that Travis really likes, I like to let him pick the names, as I can come up with even more unusual names than Arwen believe it or not. People will get used to it and I’m sure its going to fit her. We met a couple in Vegas that named their daughter Arwen when we had Anya and we have always considered that name ever since. Serena is in honor of my best friend/sister in Vegas who I still miss daily and usually talk to at least twice a day. Serena was very surprised and we hope to head back to Vegas for her meet her sometime this summer.
Hope all is well with everyone and feel free to call us to say hi!

So, we are still in the hospital but its looking like we will go home this afternoon. We really wanted to take her home yesterday but she had a touch of jaundice and we decided it would be best to let her stay under the lights and get better here. Her levels went down this morning so things are looking better. Anya had the same thing but Anya’s levels were worse than Arwen’s actually. They did have a baby born this morning with complications so it makes me grateful that all Arwen’s problem is a little jaundice. I miss Anya terribly though. I’ve never been away from her this long and its starting to really effect me. She’s having a good time with Granny and Pop Pop but I think she just realized yesterday that its been a while since Mommy’s been home and she’s starting to react to it as well. She came up last night and saw me and Daddy and Arwen for a while with Pop Pop but she cried most of the way home wanting to see Mommy more. This broke my heart but hopefully we will all be home later today.
Arwen is a sweet baby though, I think she may even be more mellow than Anya is. She doesn’t look like either one of us really yet, she just looks like Arwen. She has to wear the little sunglasses like Anya did and we will have to get a photo of Arwen too.
Looks like we will be heading home though this afternoon as long as the doc says its okay.
Its hard even having Arwen be down the hall from us and hard to be an hour away from Anya as well, but Travis and I are able to be together a lot and that’s always nice for us too. Have to look at the positives when I get this stressed out.
We are planning on heading home today though and enjoying our life with our two girls!

Hello everyone. Little Arwen is doing well. Its been a little hard on me lately as I’m trying to breastfeed still and I’m being impatient about my milk coming in. We’ve had to supplement her with some formula but that’s fine because we had to do the same with Anya. And of course, I’m being silly and weepy over lots of things, I’m guessing from just pregnancy hormones.
I feel pretty good though, I guess one day I’ll have a pretty flat tummy again! Its slowly going down but you always forget about these pregnancy related things after you give birth that you have to go through as well. Travis has been wonderful of course, he keeps telling me everything will be okay, but I miss my Anya so much. I didn’t think I’d miss her this much but when I’m with her all the time its been really hard not to see my first baby’s smiling face every day.
She’s having a great time with Pop Pop and Granny though and they are doing a great job with her, but its still hard not to have her around me.
Arwen is a sweet baby. She seems to be a good sleeper so far. Travis is holding her right now but I’m sure they are going to come take her away in a minute to check her out by the pediatrician again and hopefully we will be able to go home today. I’m so ready to go home, mainly because I miss Anya but also because you get tired of being in the hospital too. Its just not home so you just aren’t yourself.
Arwen looks different from Anya but similar. The biggest differences is Arwen has a deep dimple in her chin and it looks like I’m getting my wish and her eyes will be more like her Daddy’s, a hazel color. Of course they are blue now but they are so dark, dark blue that it seems they will change. Anya’s were pretty bright blue right from the beginning. Anya has been prepping Chance for baby sister I understand as well. I think she’s going to be a great big sister and Mommy and her are going to go see Marley and Me together the weekend after Christmas so she gets to do something special with just me still and I’m looking forward to that as long as Arwen is nursing well by that time.
Arwen has lost just a little weight, but nothing too bad. She’s down to 6lbs 11oz. from her 7lbs 5oz birth weight. Here’s a couple of photos…