Second Child=Self Sufficient

*Here is proof that she is already holding her bottle. It is crazy, but she grabbed it from Charlie again. I do not think Jackson would hold his bottle till around 1 year old (and yes they used the same bottle). I think it is just proof that second children know they have to do more just to make it...haha!

Christmas Pictures 2008

Every year we take turns with Thanksgiving and Christmas at each others parent's house. We think it is important to be surrounded by family on the holidays. This year was my family's Thanksgiving and Charlie's parents Christmas which worked out well for us since Charlie's family is in Columbia and Abigail was just born like two weeks prior to Christmas. On Christmas Eve we went to Rock Hill to see all of Charlie's extended family and Abigail got to meet her great grandmother! Yay! It was so special. Kelly joined us Christmas Eve since she basically has to work all of Christmas. Christmas day we went over to Charlie's parents house for brunch and got to spend time with Charlie's family. It was such a special Christmas being able to share it with this precious miracle (Abigail) that God so gracious gave us. It just makes me even more thankful this year for the birth of our Savior. Praise the Lord our Savior was born!

Here is Charlie holding Abigail on Christmas day. She has thrush and we have had to put medicine on her mouth 4 times a day which has been hard. She is such a trooper!

She already seems like she is smiling to me. I think girls mature faster than boys!

Great family photo
Pray for Jackson. His tantrums have been frequent recently since his schedule has been messed up among many other factors. Papa is being very patient with him here

Mimi and Papa with their grandchildren. There will be one more grandchild next Christmas since Charlie's sister is having a little boy at the end of February.

I am so glad KK was with us on Christmas! It made it so special.

Praise the Lord Jackson loves to love on Abigail. He is so gentle with her!

Grandkids

Here is Charlie's mom's brother, Uncle Norman, holding Abigail in Rock Hill on Christmas Eve. Doesn't Charlie like similar to him?

Geemaw getting to meet Abigail. She is so blessed to have two living great grandmothers. I was so glad we were able to come!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We are so blessed to have two healthy, loving babies. God gave us such a wonderful gift this year in Abigail. Jackson just loves to love on Abigail. I told Jackson this year that it is Jesus' birthday and we are going to celebrate it in many ways. I will give him more gifts on his birthday than at Christmas because Christmas is not a celebration of his birth, but of Jesus' birth. I have a ton of pictures to post and video, hopefully I will get to that in the next couple of days. We had such a wonderful Christmas!

I pray that today and this week that we can adore Jesus and love Him with all of our hearts.

O Come All Ye Faithful
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

Video of Abigail and her Mimi (1 Week Old)

This video is from two Saturday's ago. I have been meaning to post it all week, but our Christmas cards came in and I have been trying to get 100 of them out, which has been crazy. Enjoy!

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Merry Christmas from the Wallace Family

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Abigail's 2 Week Stats

Tuesday we went back to the doctor to make sure she was gaining weight and she looked so great they went ahead and did her 2 week well visit check 3 days early.

• Abigail weighed 7 pounds and 4 ozs...she gained 9 ozs in 5 days which is great and above the norm because they are suppose to gain 1 ozs a day. Her weight is in the 26 percentile
• Height 20 inches and 1/4 which is in the 67 percentile
• Head is in the 57 percentile (Jackson' s head was in the 20 percentile forever so I am excited about that!)
  

We do not have to go back until she is 8 weeks old which is the beginning of Feb! Yay!

*Today was my first full day by myself with both of my babies. The funny thing is that my dog gave me the most trouble, eating Jackson chicken fingers out of a bag while I was not looking, and barking the loudest I have ever heard her during nap time. My babies did great! Jackson has started to throw some fits (but not till tonight). He still loves the baby and tries to help me with her anyway he can, but tonight when he was not getting all the attention he wanted from his dad he lost it and threw himself on the floor a couple times. Pray for Jackson and that he can communicate what he needs. He can tell me 90 percent of the time what he needs, but that 10 percent of the time is rough right now.

Update on Us: Abigail is 1 Week Old

Millie Boo is already protecting our baby girl

Sleeping while sunbathing for her jaundice

Things of course have been very busy. Friday, I went to Picture Me Studio and got the Christmas card picture and a birth announcement picture. They turned out so great and I was so happy! Then, Saturday Charlie drove Jackson half way to Spartanburg for him to stay three nights there while the Christmas pageant is going on and so I can try to get to know what works for Abigail. My parents are the best!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is so good to have some one on one time with her. It is so much easier with Abigail since this time we know how to change a diaper...haha! It was a little hard last week when I was with Jackson and Abigail and I was constantly thinking what either Jackson or Abigail needed and I could not really think clearly. Pray for me on Wednesday because it will be my first full day by myself with both of my babies. Of course, I already think she is advanced. I think girls just are more mature than boys. She is already holding her bottle some when I am feeding her, trying to hold her head up and having success when she is having some tummy time, and she looks like she is smiling already but it is probably just gas. Tuesday we go back to the doctor to make sure she is gaining weight, which I think she is.

Abigail's Room: Part 3

The is a picture taken in November after our baby shower. All of this is somehow perfectly organized in her closet. It got completely put up before Abigail was born, but I just had to take a picture of the chaos.

Mimi (Charlie's mom) came over yesterday to stay with me while Charlie was at the pageant. She is so gifted and helped me put up the letters. I love how creative she is and how the letter turned out (I got the letters at Micheal's for a really good price)! Of course, she made the bow and the beautiful white color is not showing up very well on my camera. I am getting a lampshade and nightlight monogrammed with her initials that I will be posting sometime hopefully (if you want to know who did them for me just let me know and I can give you her info).

Abigail's Jaundice Levels are Down-Thank you for your Prayers!

We are so thankful that Abigail's juandice levels are down! God get all the glory! I braved the doctor's office by myself, since I am feeling so great (I wanted to get the exact instructions on the bili blanket if she had to be on one), and I could not believe that her levels were down. The doctor said that once they go down they continue to go down. She is eating 3 ozs every 3 to 4 hours but she somehow lost 1 oz and she now weighs 6 11 pounds. She was starving and ate right after they weighed her so she would have probably weighed three more ozs than she did. Dr. Greeenhouse wants to see her Tuesday morning just to make sure that she continues to gain weight. I was hoping that with Abigail we would not have to go to the doctor every day like with Jackson, but we will end up going to the doctor four times in her first week of life! My parents are taking Jackson from Saturday to Tuesday so we will have it easy for four days with just one baby. Jackson has done really well with her and loves her. He does get frustrated though when she gets all the attention when people come over and he does not get the attention.

As far as a schedule. We are trying our best to get her on eating at
7 am (Diaper change before every feeding)
10 am
1 pm
4 pm
7 pm
then push her to 11 pm
2 or 3 am
then 6 am or 7 am

Of course you cannot get a baby on a schedule very well for the first 2 or 3 weeks because they sleep like 20 hours a day and if she is crying and it has been 2 and half hours fromt the beginning of the last feeding we just feed her and do not worry about a schedule. Our goal is to have her use to eating at these times by 6 weeks of age.

She loves her boppy seat that Ashley and Bridgette gave us. She is in it all the time and even sleeps in it sometimes after the middle of the night feeding. Charlie and I take turns and every other night one of us has the 3 am feeding...that is a huge blessing that probably will end once he goes back to work Monday.

Christmas Card Picture is Stressing Mommy Out! Help!

I got matching outfits for Jackson and Abigail at Children's Place and I was so excited to dress them alike for our Christmas card picture. I really wanted Abigail's eyes to be open so this morning while she was doing great we got them dressed. She did great but Jackson was hungry and having no part of the picture. He ended up crying and I ended up crying....it was very stressful. I love Christmas card pictures and I really want to pull this off some how (as well as a birth announcement). It is not helping that Abigail is juandice and not looking like herself this week. What do you think I should do? Try again Friday in these outfits and put them on a chair? Try again next week and just have them out late? Go to Walmart and try to get professonials to help? Use one of these pictures? Or just give up all together? The one of Jackson and Abigail in the hospital is good but it is blurry and I cannot use the one of Jackson crying because it is just not nice on my part.

Jackson and Abigail Do Look Similar

When Abigail was first born, I thought she did not look like Jackson really. Jackson had such huge lips when he was born. However, yesterday when we had to take Abigail's clothes off for her to get some natural sunlight because of her jaundice, I remember a picture I took of Jackson that looked just like her! They were both jaundiced the first week so the similarities are crazy! Abigail's head is rounder than Jackson, she has blond roots in her hair, and she does not have as big as lips as Jackson, but that is the only real differences I see right now. What do you think?

Abigail: Father's Joy-Video of Her After Eating

Here is video of Abigail last night after eating. She is definitely living up to what her name means: "father's joy." She has Charlie wrapped around her little finger. It probably was a coincidence but she cried when I took her away from Charlie while he was feeding her and was looking all around for him (she stares him down).

She really is a joy to both of us. She slept for 4 hours in the top of the pack in play last night and then went back to sleep after the 5:00 feeding. She is not really that fussy at all anymore now that she is on Enfamil Lactose Free formula (Jackson had to be on lactose free formula as well and I struggled with being allergic to milk when I was a baby). Charlie and I got probably 6 or 7 hours of sleep total and my sister was very brave and did the entire 1:00 feeding by herself which was the biggest blessing ever!

Do not expect this many updates next week when I am by myself with both of them! Charlie has been so much help this week it is crazy. He took this entire week as vacation and took her to the doctor all by himself this morning since I am still having a hard time carrying the car seat and we did not want to bring Jackson into the doctor's office. I am so proud of him, and do not know many fathers who could take a 4 day old baby to the doctor's office! Abigail's levels of juandice was up 2 more points (to 12.8) and we have to go back to the doctor Thursday to see if we need to do the bili blanket. Her levels are not as high as Jackson, but it is still hard to get settled having to go to the doctor every day....but she is looking pretty yellow today...sad. Pray that the levels get better!

Jackson is adjusting well so far. He touches the baby with his finger a lot and signs baby. He was really hyper during speech therapy today but did everything she asked him to do and even said some new words!

As far as I go, I do not feel like I just had a baby 4 days ago...it is unbelievable, especially compared to how I felt after I had Jackson! God gets all the glory!

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Update on Abigail: 3 Days Old

These pictures were taken on Sunday. Kelly is staying with us until tomorrow, and we are so thankful for her help. Abigail was not a happy camper last night (and we needed some extra hands). She finally got comfortable with her stomach at about 2 am and some how got 5 hours of straight sleep (Charlie and I). Today, she is a lot happier but sleeping a ton. Pray we are not up all night tonight! We had to go to the doctor this morning to check the jaundice levels and they had just gone up to 10.8. Tomorrow morning Charlie is going back to the doctor by himself so please pray for him while I stay home with Jackson. If the jaundice levels are still high tomorrow she might have to be in a bili-blanket. They were really pleased with her weight she was 6 pounds 12 and half ozs. The doctors are glad we are bottle feeding so the jaundice levels can get out of her system. Our doctor said jaundice has to do with genetics and it is likely my babies will struggle with it...but I am not as worried about it this time since I know she is getting enough to eat.

I have not taken any pictures of her today...sad....ha! Being pregnant is hard...but I am so blessed and love having a baby again!

Video of Abigail with her Eyes Open in the Hosiptal

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Tons of Pictures of our Sweet Baby Girl!

As promised, here are many pictures of our sweet girl. I have always been crazy about pictures so of course event though she is the second child, being a girl, I have already taken like 50 pictures! She is eating from the bottle great and I am not stressed out at all (that is probably why I have already had time to post pictures...she stayed in the nursery last night and we got like 8 hours of wonderful sleep). She does look a little jaundice so pray that her levels are not high tomorrow. Praise the Lord that she is a very hungry girl! Jackson got to hold Abigail and just stared at her (he keeps signing baby)....lucky Jackson is going through a phase where he loves babies (but he does not like it when she cries her very feminine cry). We will see how next week goes, pray for us! Late tonight or tomorrow I will post video here of Abigail with her eyes open while my mom is talking to her.