Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Oh and we just had Halloween!


Linnea was Tinkerbell this first Halloween. Pictures to come but here is a picture of her with our pumpkins. We went to the Punkin patch with Grandma and Grandpa!

Linnea is 7.5 months old now and growing like a weed!
We are loving every minute of it.

Learning to Crawl!



It's been a while since the last post! I guess I should take this time to update you all on whats been going on with us.
Imants is doing well with his firm, staying busy and making money which is good. He is constantly getting new clients, as he is so good at networking with his golf club and the UW football and alumni events he attends.

I am still doing the same job, but only part time now, so it's a nice balance.
There are days that I enjoy going to work, and others that I don't.
I admit, I am surprised how much I enjoy being home with Linnea. I could do it fulltime for sure!
I love hanging out with her!
She is such an awesome baby! So happy, smiley all the time, and her beautiful smile just lights me up!
We went for a late afternoon run today the 3 of us, and she just smiled the whole time. She loves being outside in the stroller, loves the outdoors, loves people in general.
She is eating a lot of foods now! Starting to give her 3 meals a day. She loves peaches and apples and avocado and rice crackers, among other things. She is a good eater. Takes a sippy cup of water now too. We started chicken a few days ago. Next to try yogurt and cheese at 8 months which is a few weeks away.

I am still nursing her a lot. She doesn't take a bottle. Luckily I feed her twice a day while I am at work, since we live 8 blocks away.
Its working out great having both Grandmas watch Linnea! Its a win win situation all the way around.
The main problem we are having now is sleep related. She is waking up 2-3 times at night and it is so much easier to just go in and nurse her than it is to let her cry.
I hope she learns to sleep through the night by the time I am finished nursing her.
Whenever that may be... I guess it could be a while, as I am enjoying it as she does too.
Linnea is very very close to learning how to crawl! She is also standing up, and able to hold onto furniture and stand for a while without falling. She is a healthy weight and height for her age. A little bit above average for both. I think she is fairly proportionate but she feels very strong and sturdy- not a dainty little thing! I think she will be strong and muscular- not whispy!
She is getting rather frustrated at times when she can;t crawl to what she wants, but I think it will be very soon! SO soon, I bought baby gates today for the stairs!
I could go on and on and on about her, but we are going to watch a movie now!! Big Saturday night!!
I made a lovely thai salmon red curry dish tonight with red peppers, carrots, brocoli, green beans. It was so good I have to say!
Well, off to "adventureland"- the movie for the evening!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

golf sucks

Linnea is down for her 4th nap of the day (8a, 11a, 1:30p, 4p). I am finding she needs a nap every 2-3 hours when I stay home. When we are out and about she is too distracted and tends to go longer between naps.
Not sure which I prefer.
It's nice to stay home but it gets BORING!
Linnea is happy most of the time and will sit and watch me clean or work on something.
She loves her jungle gym a lot and her swing now too.
We read books, dance to music, practice sitting and tummy time, standing and walking (i am doing most of the work).
She loves looking at herself in the mirror.
Every time I smile at her, she returns the smile and also will giggle at times.
Her smiles and giggles always brighten my day.
Today I scrubbed the back deck which has several layers of mildew and dirt. I felt like a shipmate scrubbing the deck getting all dirty with a bucket and scrub brush.
We are going to be fixing old boards and staining the deck as soon as it's all clean. It already looks amazing clean.

A couple weekends ago, Imants, Linnea and I went to Vancouver for Greg Pendleton's wedding. It was Linnea's 2nd road trip and she did amazingly well all weekend long.
We even got to see Grandpa Eric & Terri on the way home and checked out his new boat.

This weekend, my mom and I are heading up to Vancouver again to do some sightseeing and get out of Seattle while Imants has his 3 day golf tournament. That guy is so OCD about Golf. Pretty ridiculous I think. Golf is soooo boring and tiring. Not sure what he sees in it. It makes him happy- thats for sure.... so thats good.
Not sure how happy I feel about it now that Linnea is here. Not such a family-oriented sport. It takes too bloody long to play the friggin game. I suggested he take up beach volleyball- a shorter game where he can get nice and tanned and super ripped like those pros. They all have great bodies - dont' you think?
All in all, golf sucks.
There are soooo many other great things to do... that cost a lot less.
Hiking, biking, surfing, beach volleyball, tennis, swimming....
Luckily the golf club has a pool and we can hang out there all summer. The only good thing about Imants' golf membership.
I was hoping I would feel better after writing about how much I hate golf and how much Imants' plays it... but I dont. Maybe it's the fact that he won't be home till 9 pm tonight because he is practicing for his tournament. I'll have been with Linnea for over 12 hours straight -all alone.

Beautiful blues









Jani- Latvian Summer Solstice June 21st



We have taken a few mini trips now with Linnea. One of which was difficult. Her first road trip was a 2 hour drive to Shelton, WA where Jani (John's Day)- the Latvian camp summer solstice celebration.
After sleeping almost the entire way down to Shelton....we arrived to a fairly pleasant day and spent time with Omi, Carina, Taage and the Freimanis family, as well as the other latvians. I think Linnea was a little overwhelmed by all of the people and commotion at the Latvian camp. It is a fun party for grown-ups and bigger kids, but not for little babies.
She basically stayed up all day since we didn't have a quiet place to put her down.
Oh well, next year should be better. These 2 pictures basically show how Linnea felt at Jani.
Linnea did seem to like watching the dancing later- but by then she was just loopy from lack of sleep! We both ended up hitting the sack just after 9pm and I missed out on the dancing and partying :(
Although by then, I was just glad to have Linnea happily sleeping.

Friday, June 26, 2009

PEPS

Yay, I am joining a PEPS group for Moms and babies. Starts this Monday from 1-3pm!
Exciting for us social ladies (Linnea and I) eh?!
Linnea is so smart. As we speak she is playing in her jungle gym ( a mat on the floor with overhead hanging toys). She has learned that if she pulls on the danglies, she gets the music to start. She gets mad when it stops and then laughs out loud when she gets it to start!
FUNNY!

Beauty Sleep

Linnea slept 8 straight hours 2 nights in a row!!! HOORAY!
Before that she was sleeping 7, and before than 6....
It's just going up and up and up.
I love that she is a good sleeper like her mommy.
We need our beauty rests!

Off to Vancouver today for the weekend.
Going to Greg and Amanda's wedding tonight.
Should be interesting with Linnea! The party animal that she is :)
Will let you know how it goes!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Summer fun

Linnea with her Grandma Booth- past her bedtime...trying to stay awake for the "party"!


Linnea at Medina Beach park posing pretty for the camera!

Hi Mom!!! Thats a bright flash! I like it!

Um yeah, I am pretty cute!


Linnea with her buddies Finley and Mahlana

More summer shots

Linnea loves Daddy and Madison Park beach

Linnea's own little jungle- ROAR!


Magnuson dog park- a young dog lover!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Linnea 3 months


Linnea is getting cuter every day! I just love her to pieces. I hope all of you get a chance to enjoy her too.
Regular naps are KEY to her happiness. Since she hates to miss anything, she sometimes fights going to sleep. Once she does, she wakes up a happy baby!

Today we went to the beach at Madison Park and she napped while I read my book. It was great!








Some early pics of Linnea

Linnea 3 weeks with Great Grandma Hazel

Linnea 2 weeks with Grandpa Don


Linnea 2 weeks old

Linnea 3 days old


Linnea <1>

Life with the Linnea

Hello family and friends!

I have been thiking of starting a blog for a while now. Some friends suggested I do it. So here it is.

Life is busy! The center of my world is our new daughter Linnea Hazel Holmquist. I love her name! I hope she grows up to love it too. Linnea is a Swedish name (for Imants' heritage) and Hazel is after my wonderful grandma whom I just love to pieces.

Linnea is 3 months now and growing like a weed. It is fascinating to watch her develop- you can see her change daily if you look closely! Which I do!
I love every minute of my days with her, okay well not every minute. There are whole hours where I just need a breather but I think about the fact that she will be walking and talking in no time.
She is really a great baby.
She is quite a good night sleeper, going 5-6 hours in a stretch, but sleeping for a total of at least 10 hours at night.
She is a lot more active during the day and hates to miss anything (like me).
It is especially difficult during parties or this past weekend at the Latvian camp for Jani. She was awake practically the whole day and this took a toll on me to say the least.

Our days start out with an early morning feed/cuddle and sleep, followed by Daddy taking her downstairs for an hour or so to play. She will then come back to bed for more food and hopefully sleep. We wake up and she is very vocal and we will have nice conversations over a diaper change or playing in her jungle gym.
She will usually play on her own in her jungle gym pulling on the toys dangling over head. Meanwhile, I am trying to scarf down breakfast and maybe checking email.
She gets bored pretty fast so we then do some walking around or moving to her swing or her chair. Soon she gets fussy and then wants to eat again and go to sleep.
By the time she wakes up from her nap, I am usually ready to leave the house for a run or walk outside. We use the jogging stroller for runs and the sling for walks.

It's been so nice to have Linnea in the summer as I have been able to go outside so much with her. I can tell she is an outdoors woman like her Mommy!

Other than having Linnea, life is great. Daddy is working hard at his new law firm while I am on maternity leave. I go back to work part time mid-August. I hope I am more ready to go back than I am now.
We are looking forward to our trip to Winnipeg July 23-Aug 9th!
It's a sunny day so I better go get organized for our outing for the day.



Thursday, April 2, 2009

Linnea's Birth Story


Proud Papa, Linnea <1>


Mommy and Linnea a few hours after birth








I thought I would write this story to not only document our recent experiences (for keepsake purposes) but to share the experience we’ve had since our precious little girl was born 12 days ago.

So, let me begin with the day before our baby was born! I wrote an email after my doctor's appointment late Friday afternoon.

Friday, March 20th, 2009

"Hey guys!
I had a doctor's appt today at 37 weeks and she said that the baby has dropped and I am 1 cm dilated and could have the baby any day!!! My doctor said she would be surprised if I last till my due date- which is still 19 days away.
I agree with her, she or he feels ready to come out. I was having some mild contractions last night.
Carmen is in charge of keeping you in the loop when I go into labor.
Whenever that may be?!!!?!!
Could be another few weeks.... or not!

Love Alana"

We spent Friday evening with our friends Shannon and Vaughan and Camila & Josh. We ate pizza (because I was too tired to cook) and ended up chatting and hanging out way too late. For some reason I didn't feel tired and we didn't end up going to bed until 1:30 am.

Saturday, March 21st:

Imants woke up early to golf (the usual), while I slept in (again- pretty typical). I had plans to spend the day with my best friend Vicky, her daughter, Ava, my mom, and Carmen. The 4 of us had pedicures out near my M & D's house in Issaquah followed by a walk around the neighborhood with Molly, my parents lab. Later we lounged around, watched the Husky basketball game and noticed Molly was acting rather strange - unsettled, groaning and pacing. She was especially strange with me. It's hard to explain! It was like she knew something big was about to happen.

When the game was over, around 5 o’clock, I felt hungry so I went downstairs to get a snack, grabbed an apple and called Imants who was at home relaxing.

I was standing in the kitchen and seconds into our conversation, I felt a gush of fluid in my underwear which felt a lot like I peed my pants! I dropped the phone with Imants still on the line and ran to the bathroom, where more water came out.

Water just kept flowing! I really didn't believe that this was my water breaking because I was 3 weeks early. My mom helped me confirm that it was indeed amniotic fluid and not urine!

This news sent Carmen and my Mom into a tizzy! If Molly could talk, I am sure she would say "I told you so!” Vicky was the only calm one in the house, so she called my doctor who told us to come in to the hospital.

I finally got back on the phone where Imants was waiting patiently, to let him know to start packing our bags!

Carmen drove Mom and I to our house where Imants was totally calm and composed (no joke), having everything packed for the hospital. I expected him to be nervous or anxious but it was though he were packing for a vacation- last minute of course!

We arrived at the hospital a little after 6:30 pm, went straight to Triage where I was hooked up to monitors to observe the baby’s heart rate and my contractions. I was just starting to feel what felt like minor menstrual cramping, when we were told that my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart. Being that the contractions were so light and really not noticeable at all, they expected that it could be a while until I went into active labor. Imants took this time to let me know that this could be a while and that it is a marathon, not a sprint! Note- I have always been a much better sprinter than long distance runner.

They admitted me a short while later, I believe a little after 7 o’clock. Once we got into the room, I changed into a gown and the nurse suggested we take a walk to stimulate the contractions. Meanwhile, thinking that this labor would be a while, Mom and Carmen decide to take the first “break” and go find dinner.

The nurse was right in telling me to walk, because as we were rounding the first curve in the hallway, the contractions intensified and I had to lean on Imants for support through each contraction, and do the breathing we had learned in birth class. Taage (my brother in law) showed up at this point with tapes for our video camera. Of course the guys were doing a good job of distracting me through the pain!

I was definitely feeling the pain escalate with each contraction and decided I wanted to be back in the privacy of my hospital room. Shortly after, the doctor came in to check on me for the first time. He didn’t feel like he needed to check my cervix at this point because I didn’t seem to be in a terrible amount of pain yet. I corrected him and said that I think he should check me and to all of our surprise, I was already 4cm dilated! This was about 8 o’clock, I would guess. We explained to the doctor that our plan was to have an un-medicated natural birth. Everyone on staff was super supportive, which helped a lot.

Up until this point, we thought the labor could be 12 or more hours, but after hearing that I was already 4 cm, we were told that once you reach 4cm, the average length of time is about 1 hour per cm until pushing (easy math= 6 hours).

We then tried a few more positions to get me through each contraction. This part is a little blurry, but I remember Mom and Carmen coming back in the room with my honeydew bubble tea - which I didn’t feel like drinking anymore.
Sometime later, I would say around
9:45 or 10:00, the doctor came in again and checked me, to find that I had already progressed to 8-9 cm! I was happy but the happiness was ever so fleeting, because each contraction was less than 2 minutes apart- and definitely painful.

The nurse then suggested I try the Jacuzzi tub in our bathroom to help me through the last bit of labor before I was to start pushing. She was right again; it felt wonderful and helped me to relax between contractions. I think I stayed in the tub for about 20 minutes when I felt like I had the urge to push.

Between contractions, I was helped out of the tub and back into bed. The doctor checked me one more time and I was ready to push. Pushing was tough!!! It was definitely the most painful part. I managed to push the baby out in 5 contractions. It was surreal seeing the head come out and then the body. Imants announced “IT’S A GIRL!” and dutifully cut the umbilical cord. She was placed onto my chest and quickly changed from blue to pink as her lungs started to take in oxygen. She cried and squirmed a bit and was then cleaned and checked out by the baby nurse. She had great Apgar scores of 8 and 9 and looked absolutely perfect!

She weighed 6 lbs 10 oz, measured 18 inches and looked just like her daddy, with maybe Mommy’s lips! Her head was round and her lips were strawberry red.

She was born at 10:47pm on Saturday, March 21st. The first day of Spring and the first day into the Aries sign.

I think he was in a state of shock while I was lying there relieved that she was healthy and that the pain was over. My doctor did some work on me, and when he was finished, I was able to feed our baby girl for the first time.

We named her “Linnea Hazel Holmquist” (we pronounce it “Lin-nay-a”).

Linnea is of Scandinavian (Swedish) origin, and it’s meaning is "lime or linden tree". Also the name of a small pink mountain flower that was named after the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, inventor of the universally recognized system of classifying plants and animals.

We named her “Hazel” after my maternal grandma, who is very near and dear to my heart. She will soon be arriving in Seattle to meet her “namesake!”

Meanwhile, Carmen has been almost hiding in the corner of the room throughout the labor and birth, while my mom was helping me. Imants never left my side- although I seem to remember him leaving for a few minutes to wolf down a burger and fries with Taage. My mother in law (who will now be referred as “Omi”) Carina arrived after the birth as well.

Looking back, the labor was amazingly fast and the experience could not have been better. I was transferred to the postpartum unit after the birth, where we said our goodbyes to the family and were able to have time just the 3 of us.

Imants, Linnea and I were able to bond for the first time. It was after midnight, and when I know we should have been sleeping, Linnea and I were restless and spent most of the remainder of the night feeding and acquainting with one another for the first time. I had a hard time sleeping due to the excitement.

Sunday March 22nd:

I had just managed to fall asleep, when the Pediatrician awakened us around 9 am. He checked Linnea out and said we could likely leave as soon as she pooped. We had a nice hearty breakfast before the visitors started to arrive. My mom returned in the morning and my dad was able to meet his granddaughter after driving down from spending the night up in Vancouver with my great aunt Shirley. Grandpa Eric was able to drive down to meet Linnea as well.

Our friends, Shannon and Vaughan, as well as Vicky and Mardi and their daughter, Ava, came to see us in the morning along with a few hospital co-workers of mine later in the day (Dawn, Peggy, Cathy & Angelita).

We were really anxious to get home so as soon as Linnea pooped and passed all her tests. After packing up our things, we got to test out the new car seat and drove the 8 blocks home!

March 23rd to April 2nd, 2009:

Life has been a little bit of a blur since bringing Linnea home. We have had many visitors, and have had several short outings including a trip to her Pediatrician’s office and a visit to Great Omi’s house in Bellevue including the Freimanis family. Linnea and I went to coffee with my friends Maria and Jia last Saturday, and then spent last Sunday with Daddy giving Linnea her first bath, going for a walk in Luther Burbank park and a trip to Babies R Us for supplies.

We drove down to meet Daddy for lunch on Monday since it was his first day back to work. Tuesday we walked up to Swedish hospital (with Linnea in the handy Ergo carrier) to see work friends. Wednesday was a very cold rainy/sleety day so we spent the day inside, but did manage to get to the grocery store with help from Maria and the Ergo carrier!

That brings us to today. We are expecting Grandma to come over any minute now!

In closing, we just feel so blessed to have our beautiful healthy daughter. She is feeding and sleeping well and already seems to be growing so fast. I really can’t get enough of her and could hold her all day long- I almost do!

Thank you all for your love and support. If you haven’t met Linnea yet, we really look forward to sharing her with you soon.

We love you Linnea, more than words can express!