Built in toys

Bea is obsessed with her feet. She constantly grabs onto them if they're uncovered and will very seriously study them until she gets hungry again. She used to mind being on her back, but now she just brings her built in toy up to her hands and plays forever. Being naked in the Bumbo also allows her to have a pretty good view of her feet and enjoys that position as well. I distinctly remember reading about how babies "discover" their feet when Henry was little, but Henry never had any interest in his feet at all, probably because he doesn't even have the dexterity to bring his feet up to eye view. I have experienced the "second child syndrome" where nothing seems quite so exciting the second time around, but this is pretty fun to watch and she is getting chubbier and cuter every day. She now weighs over 15 lbs and is getting heavy to carry around all day!

The travelin'ist baby

In Bea's short life she's already been on 12 flights, been to Lake Tahoe, Sacramento, Monterey Bay, San Francisco, Amish Country, Dallas and Salt Lake and she does it all in her mom's baby wrap. She basically lives in that thing. Here are some of the most recent photos with her in the one I made for special occasions. We had to fly up to Salt Lake City during our vacation at my mom's in Dallas to attend my Grandmother's funeral. Bea is the only great-granddaughter in the family and I'm glad she met her before she passed away. We were only there for 24 hours so sorry to everyone in Utah whom I wish I could have seen:( Next time. Just in case anyone was wondering, Bea was so exhausted after our long trip to Dallas that she only stayed awake for a maximum of 5 hours each day and on Sunday she slept for 22 hours and was screaming for me to put her to sleep for the last two. We didn't go to church that day because we got in so late Saturday night and I'm glad because she would have screamed through the whole thing! I actually began to miss her after not seeing her smiling face for days!
Bea and her closest little cousin Kirkham who was born just a few weeks after her

Sleepy B

Bea is still the sleepiest baby on the block sometimes sleeping 18 hours a day, but she hadn't really slept for really long stretches until last night. I have been kind of letting her fall asleep on her own wherever she is just for short amounts of time, especially in the afternoon for the past couple days and she hasn't really been that fussy. She fell asleep in her play chair twice, her bumbo and the carseat multiple times, but was constantly being startled by Henry and other noises, so last night I think she was so exhausted that she slept for 9 hours straight and then four more after she woke up at 7 to finish off her night of sleep. When I woke up in the morning I was so confused because I couldn't remember waking up at all. My glass of water was still full, I don't remember Justin's alarm going off and the sunlight was coming through the windows. I felt refreshed for the first time since I started to get uncomfortable during my pregnancy and/or started getting up to go the bathroom multiple times. This feeling is priceless and I'm such a better mother when I get good sleep. We'll see if she keeps it up! We love you Bea!


This is a photo of What Henry did to her this morning. Haha.

Beatrice's Baby Blessing

This past Sunday Bea was given her baby's blessing by her father and in her mother's dress. It was so special for me to lay out all her white clothes, especially knowing that almost exactly 30 years ago I wore the same slip, dress, and headband when I was blessed. She is getting big and I could barely button the dress around her chubby little neck. She looked just darling and angelic in her outfit. She was also laying in the linen, handsewn and quilted blanket my mom made for her which I LOVE and hope she makes for all my kids(wink wink).

I was actually pondering on Sunday and thought about that blanket because in the corner there is a beautiful little "B" embroidered in pearls and flowers which immediately captures your eye and you might not notice all the hand quilting if you didn't squint and follow each line to make out the shapes in the body of the blanket. I even had a hard time making out some of the shapes since it is all white on white until my mom showed them to me, but I feel like that's why mothers are so lucky to be mothers. When the world only sees the embelishments like the obvious accomplishments and outward looks of our children, WE are blessed to eventually see what the creator has bestowed on our darling children and sometimes we are the only ones who ever know their true nature. Our little Beatrice has so much beauty inside her sparkling, clear eyes and I can't wait until I get to know who she is and help her become a women of God. She is so special to us.



The blessing Justin prepared for her was so beautiful and meaningful and I hope she keeps it in her mind as she grows up. Justin spoke about how her name means "woman who bestows blessings" and since the moment she was born she has been a blessing in our lives. She didn't cry at all and I was so happy to be able to take in the special moment. We love you so much sweet Bea.

Bea's first Halloween

Bea went as a mermaid for her first Halloween. She was so darling all dressed up in pearls and in her blue blanket ocean. I pushed her around, totally asleep, in her stroller all night and uncovered her for all the old ladies which got lots of Awwwws. She didn't get much candy though.

California Girl

Bea took her first trip last week to Lake Tahoe for a family reunion and then she drove all around California with us for a few days. She really hates the carseat and driving in the car, so it was a little difficult, but we had a ton of fun on the stops inbetween the driving. The family reunion was so fun because everyone was holding her and since it was a little chilly outside, I put her in all her snuggly outfits which made her fall asleep in everyone's arms, something she's not known to do often. She was glad her grandparents didn't get eaten by the gigantic mamma bear and three cubs they ran into while on a 18 mile run, and she didn't like her toes touching the cold sea water at all. Henry loved the ocean though and keeps asking to return. She was very good on the airplane and hardly cried on either of the flights. She was crying, however, in the airport and while we were waiting in line to get to our seats because I didn't want to feed her until we were seated and a few old men turned around and shook their heads at me, probably thinking I was going to ruin their plane ride. I almost told them they were a poopy screaming infant once themselves. On my Birthday we ate at the old Fisherman's Wharf and Bea wasn't in a good mood, or particularlly sleepy at that time, since it is usually her awake time and I had to eat my dinner standing up and/or bouncing her the entire time. All the people around us were dressed up and eating crab legs and lobster while I was all sweaty from driving 10 hours in a tee shirt, with a crazy toddler and a screaming baby strapped to my cheast. The seafood pasta was excellent though. All in all it was a fun trip and a lot less painful than I thought. The kids all slept well and we had some really special moments we will always remember.

Life with two can be rough sometimes

So basically I'm amazed at all those mothers that have more than one child. Having a newborn and a two year old at the same time can be rough at times, especially when your newborn is constantly sucking on you because she's apparantly not getting enough milk. Ugh. My production is low for some reason and she just doesn't get satisfied for very long AND she's a light sleeper. I feel like I spend most of my day nursing and yelling at Henry to be quiet. The only good thing is that when we're at home, I can get Bea to sleep endless hours in her swing(with lights out and a noisemaker next to her head) It's like nurse, sleep, nurse, sleep every hour for as long as I want, unless Henry comes in and starts climbing all over me and kissing the baby over and over and I can't get him to leave. Then, she wakes up.

These photos show the many faces of Bea. She's definitely related to Henry. He made some pretty funny faces at this age too.

Fireworks with the family and the very poopy night

Saturday night was the celebration of Pittsburgh's 250th Anniversary so we took the family to the three rivers area of the city where we witnessed a incredible display of fireworks that were lit at 17 different locations around the area including the tops of a few of the tallest buildings in the city. So Cool. Bea actually liked the fireworks and she stared up at the sky watching the gigantic display of lights. She likes lights a lot, sometimes more than people. They say that babies like people's faces more than anything, but sometimes I try to put my face really close to hers and talk to her, or smile, but she intentionally avoids looking at my face and looks out the window or at the nearest light source. So, after the celebration we spent at least an hour driving home during which I was trying to get Bea to stop crying. The only thing that worked somewhat was holding both of her hands and her binky in with one hand while I rocked the carseat with the other...that is until she had the most massive explosion of poo I have ever seen. I NEVER saw this much at once with Henry. She cried the rest of the way home because she was sitting in a bucket of poo and when I got home, I had to hold her by her chest and arms to avoid the yellow sludge. I undressed her and her entire body was covered in a coating of mustard like substance that Justin thought smelled like buttered movie popcorn. Sick. We washed her from head to toe in the sink at 12:30 am while we laughed hysterically at the disgusting scene we had just witnessed. I'm just grateful it didn't happen while we were in a gigantic crowd of people and while she was strapped to me. Oh, and the spot where we decided to sit had a huge dog poop right next to it and of course I got my shoes in it. I can't wait for the day when I'm not touching poo every day of my life.

Henry's lullaby to Bea

Lately Bea has been really having a hard time sleeping and has been extra hungry. I was up every hour last night and she hardly slept today. Needless to say my house was a disaster, and after getting up, exercising, getting everyone ready to go visiting teaching the house had not been cleaned and it was already 5pm! Where does the time go? I tried to put her down and she kept crying after a few minutes each attempt. The last time I thought it was going to work, I was downstairs for ten minutes when she started screaming again and I had only emptied one half of the dishwasher. I drooped my head thinking my house would never be clean again when Henry said, "Uh oh, baby sister is crying. I go see her." I would have normally told him not to bug her, but I didn't stop him from going up for who knows what reason, but I'm so glad I did." With the monitor on I heard Henry say, "It's ok Bea." and then start singing the Winnie the Pooh song, "Deep in the hundred acre wood, where Christopher Robin plays..." and she stopped crying after about a minute. I heard Henry gently close the door behind him as he left my room and came downstairs. I turned to ask him if she was alseep and he said, as if it was no big deal, "yeah, she's asleep." I asked him what he did and he looked at me, shrugging his shoulders, " I sang deep in the hundred acre wood" with a slightly embarassed smile on his face. She stayed asleep for over two hours after that and I was able to clean the entire house. Even though Henry is usually driving me insane and making huge messes, he totally redeemed himself today. I know the Lord inspired him and me to let it happen and I'm so grateful that Henry is so sensitive to Beatrice's needs. They're going to be great friends.

Chubbing Up

Beatrice went for her 5 week appointment the other day and she weighed a whopping 10 lbs 5 oz. I really wasn't expecting her to weigh that much since everyone I met was telling me how tiny she was. I think that was due to the fact that her head size is barely on the charts at the 5th percentile. So I guess when people see her tiny head they think she's way smaller than she actually is. Her head is roughly the size of a large grapefruit and it perfectly round.
I love holding it in my hands. She is turning out to be a really good baby and is pretty good natured. She sleeps most of the day and when she's awake, she is content to just lie on the ottoman and look out the windows. She also loves the outdoors. We have gone apple picking and I went green bean picking all day one day last week and she just slept in my front carrier. She is nursing pretty well now. I already learned how to nurse Henry in my super strappy front carrier from when we took him to Italy at this stage so that is the only way I can feed her in public. She's finally big enough to fill out some of her cute dresses for church and she was just adorable today in her turquoise and brown dress.
She is still ravenously hungry which really pumps up my milk supply which makes me feel so happy. I can't even tell you how good it feels to know that I have enough milk to feed her every time she's hungry. It's pure joy.

Breastfeeding Nightmares

I don't know if anyone has as big of a problem breastfeeding as I do. I'm engorged for about a week during which time I have to freeze my breast with ice and then manually express/squeeze the milk out while it's throbbing and tender (think of mammogram X100) eight times per day until the pump can finally get the milk out when the engorgement ends, then, I have to pump every two hours for an entire month while my babies won't latch on. Then when my babies start latching on, I get so sore that tears come out while I nurse and I've even cried a few times because of the pain. I have to use the football hold on my right side which makes it impossible to nurse in public and since I have to smash my baby's face on to nurse, I have to use my other hand to make sure my babies can breathe and that leaves no hands for making sure I'm not exposing myself. Bea also doesn't open her mouth unless she's screaming, so I have to make her cry and then shove her face on and that, as you can imagine, draws a lot of attention. These are just the problems I feel comfortable admitting online. There are many more issues I won't embarrass myself by exposing. Is there good news? Yes, I actually have enough milk this time after all my efforts(yea, no expensive formula!) and I'm actually symmetrical on both sides not like I was with Henry when I was a size D on the left and an A/B on the right. Good thing I was carrying Henry on my front for months so I could hide it. Anyway, it's on the up and up and hopefully I'll be able to nurse in public so I can go places soon!

Welcome to the world darling daughter

After what seemed to be the longest pregnancy ever Beatrice Isabella Hohl was born on August 23rd at 1am. On the evening of the 22nd while I was finishing up cooking dinner and after a week of hiking, the zoo and rocking out at the Maroon 5 concert, my water broke slightly and after eating I called the hospital and they told me to come on in and have my baby! I packed the rest of my bag, told Justin's parents and Stef and Franklin who were over for dinner and left for the hospital! My contractions didn't start until 9:30 so they sped them up a little with pitocin. Justin and I watched the Olympics on tv while we were waiting for me to dilate more. I was already dilated to a 4 so there wasn't too much more to go. I planned on not having an epidural so I brought my IPOD to listen to my hard-core exercise mix during the contractions. Every time I felt one coming on I imagined myself running on the treadmill at 12 and convinced myself that I could handle the pain for just a few more seconds just like I love the burn of the full out sprint for one minute. It totally worked! The last few contractions, though, were more than I had expected to bear, but our baby girl came just a few minutes after the really painful ones started. When the resident and OB finally came in, I got myself situated and in one contraction I pushed twice and she came out! She was 7lbs 11oz and had brown hair. I expect it'll fall out and grow back in blonde, but basically bald, until she's 5 years old just like her mom!

Bea(pronounced "Bay-uh") is a little more difficult than Henry and has a really intense and frantic gutteral cry. There's really no in-between for her. She's either sleeping or awake screaming for food. Bea is a very hungry baby and when she doesn't get food right away she really lets it go and when her nights and days are mixed up, it makes getting good sleep nearly impossible.
She is just as rigid and stiff as Henry was and can already hold her head up on her own and if I'm not careful she will lift her head up from my shoulder and whack her face on my collarbone. She also has spastic arms that constantly scratch her face and when she gets fed, her hands have to be right there as though she can keep the food there. Henry, her older brother, did the same thing and even right from birth was able to hold his own bottle because of his super rigid hands and arms that I could position to hold it up. I call her my little piglet because she makes little snorts and grunts when she finally gets food and then devours it.

Well, our little girl is finally here and we can't wait to discover who she is! We love you Bea Bella