Announcing Sydney Kay Mollenhauer

(notice gracie's birthday make-up...he he he)

So this is a random smattering of pictures of the first day or so of our little Sydney's life. Choosing her name was by the far the hardest part of her delivery. She just did not look like an Olivia or an Annie, and she seemed to respond to Sydney better than Janey. The name is pretty special to both of us, as Sydney is Em's Dad's middle name and Kay is my Mom's Middle name ( and Alexa's too), and it does seem to fit her. She is an extremely mellow baby and only lets out a yelp when she is hungry and not getting fed. When she came out, all she wanted to do was snuggle with her mom, so that is how she spent the first ten minutes of her life. Em will have to relate the whole birth story later, but it was great experience overall, and so relaxed. we just love Mt. Hood Legacy, and the staff there.

The big girls have been nothing but sweet to their new sister, and Gracie has been really good about holding her " by herself" (which is a supervised holding, but she is able to do it for like thirty minutes at a time, before she asks for someone else to hold "baby Sydney", which is nice that she doesn't just shove her away). Kami is really funny, and has been nothing but sweet, but I think she feels like she wants to make sure she is not left out of anything. We are constantly showing them what Sydney is up to, how she is eating, getting "help" with diaper changes, and reminding them to be soft with their baby sister. Sydney is being showered with kisses and hugs, and Is a really good baby. We were able to get sleep in a four and five hour stretch the first two nights at home, and she is awake at dinner time and sleeping a lot. She is a good eater, at least every two hours, and has only projectile vomited one time per day (which is funny until it happens to you, and you have to clean it off of your shirt, pants, and couch cushions (plural)) I think she is somewhat soothed by the sounds of her sisters yelling and playing, as it does not bother her at all, and loves to give kisses back as long as she thinks that your lips/face/arm/shirt/finger is where she gets milk from.

So the whole family is doing great. We are loving having our new baby girl around. Em is going a little stir crazy right now, so we are going to go see if we can see a movie (Julie and Julia?) Umm, this was supposed to just be a quick update, so if there is anything I left out, please ask or call.

Lance