Four Months, Checkups, Mother's Day, and Speech.

Everett is 4 and a half months old now! I took his pictures on the day he hit 4 months, but I have been a terrible blogger this past year. He is just as adorable as ever!

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At four months:
Rolling Back to Belly
SO close to rolling belly to back, but his cloth diapers make it hard.
He is a giggly little guy! So cute, and always smiling.
He likes to fake laugh for as long as we will laugh at him.
He loves the "tickle monster."
He absolutely adores Jake. He will smile and laugh at him. He's more happy to see Jake in the morning than he is me!
(Side note: In the mornings, when we go to get E when he wakes up, J runs in and says "HIIIIIIIIII!" in the same tone I use when he first wakes up. Cutest thing ever!)
His hair is still curly as ever. Try as I may, I can't ever get it to lay flat!
His eyes have become the gorgeous super-blue that J's are.
If the TV is on, he will twist himself into unimaginable positions to see it.
He loves his jumperoo!
He still insists on being swaddled at night. (I don't know how we are ever going to break that habit!)
He still usually sleeps in his swing during the day.
He sleeps 6-8 hours straight at night, wakes up for a feeding, and sleeps another 3-5 hours. (He usually doesn't wake up until 10:30 or 11am.)
He naps when Jake does (between 12 and 1) for 2-3 hours, and takes one more nap in the evening around 5 or 6 for about an hour. Sometimes he goes back down between 8 and 9pm, and wakes briefly to nurse back to sleep when we go to bed between 10 and 11, and sometimes he doesn't go down until we do.
He has no interest in sitting unless someone is holding him. (I know I shouldn't compare, but J was sitting on his own at this point, so I was a little surprised E didn't.)
He is super smiley and talkative, he giggles a lot, and he does happy "shrieks" all the time."
He and I both still go through multiple outfit changes every day due to his spitting up. He hasn't lost weight or even quit gaining, so the pediatrician isn't worried.

A quick update on J:
We started speech therapy this month, and he is picking up words like crazy now!
He can now say Hi, Buh-bye, hot, mom(!!!!!! He said it for the first time last night and meant me!!!!!) dad, that, yes, no, light (sounds the same as hot, you have to tell by the context), wow, whoa, uh-oh, tick tock for clock, zoom zoom for car, and ow. He also says Dee? But it means about ten different things.
He still signs more, please, milk, water (means just about all drinks), and eat when he is hungry.

He has known all his body parts since about 15 months. He points to them. He knows head, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, ears, cheeks, chin, arms, hands, belly button, knees, legs, feet, and toes. He smacks his own bottom when we ask him where his butt is, and he knows where his boy parts are. (I taught him that one because he kept confusing it with belly button, so I kept telling him no, those are your boy parts. He eventually got it.)

He also does really well with animal sounds. He knows cat, dog, cow, bird (he does the same sound for all birds), elephant, giraffe (makes a slurping noise for their long tongues), monkey, lizard (although that is just sticking his tongue in and out, it's not a sound. It's the same thing for snake.), horse, sheep, lion, and tiger.

He likes to pull me over to the computer and say zoom zoom? Because his daddy showed him some drag races on youtube, and now he is obsessed!

Ok, enough with the journal writing! They had their 4 month and 2 year appointments on the 10th.

         Everett                            Jake 

                13lbs 12oz                                         23 lbs 5oz
                  25 inches                                         32.5 inches

                               16.5 inch head circumference                                                                  

They are growing so fast! Jake is still a tiny little thing, though.

And now on to Mother's Day.
We didn't do much. (We skipped church. I know, we are awful.) Tyler let me sleep in, and bought me an elliptical machine! I am so excited. Now I can run every day even if I can't leave the house!

We went to dinner at Julie's house, and had a photoshoot with her, Grandma Marje, and the boys as their mother's day gift. I ordered prints for them, and I am giving my mom and grandma 8x10s of each of the boys as well.

Here's what we got!
(I should also mention that I normally shoot in AV mode on my camera. I decided to try manual for this shoot and I am NEVER going back!)

I hope everyone had a fabulous Mother's Day!

3 Months

My little Winston is three months old! I can't believe where the time has gone!

Remember that crinkly sound? He doesn't hate it so much anymore.
He's 12.5-13 lbs already! 

He is such a talker! He loves to stop in the middle of nursing and just chat. I have a video of it, but it shows a little more than I'd like to reveal on the internet. 

He is finally in 0-3 month size. Carter's 3 month is still just the tiniest bit too big, but he is bigger than Jake was at this age!
He can roll from his tummy to his back now. He did it for the first time on his blessing day. 

He is so smiley and happy all day long!
He still can't handle it if I drink soda or eat dairy. Or really anything that isn't basic. A lot of extra spice, or a lot of bbq sauce even really messes with his poor little tummy.
He can sit up on his own for about 5 seconds at a time. (Though this just started this week, he wasn't quite there yet when he hit the three month mark.)
He still wakes up sometime between 4:30 and 6:30 am to nurse, and then again at 8:30, and then sleeps until 10:30 or 11. He goes back down when Jake does (about 12:30) and usually sleeps at least 2 hours, if not 3. He takes another nap in the evening around 5:30 and then goes to sleep in his swing between 8 and 9, wakes up to nurse when I move him into bed. He's such a great sleeper! Jake NEVER slept longer than 45 minutes at a time at this age. Including at night. (Well, that's not entirely true. I had a good 6 weeks where Jake slept almost through the night between 2 and 4 months. But it stopped at 4 months and he still doesn't sleep through.)
He nurses about every 3 hours during the day. 

He still loves being swaddled at night to sleep.
He loves to watch Jake play, and it's pretty obvious he wants to move around and play with him. (I'm amazed at how much he loves his brother. Jake is still struggling with things like NOT throwing things and poking Everett in the eye.)
I sure love this little guy. It feels like he has always been apart of our family. Having two kids is definitely more difficult than having just one, and it definitely has it's frustrating moments, but I love these kids dearly.

Two Months - Late!

Ok, So Everett is actually 3 months old now. I still need to blog his blessing and whatnot. But that will have to wait. For now, I just need to jot down what he was doing at 2 months. Also, I did do pictures, but I haven't put them on the computer yet. And I need to blog about the rest of the family! I know - I'm slacking!

He is a super smiley baby! And all day long, too. With Jake, he would get super smiley in the morning, and get more and more cranky as the day went on. Not this guy! He will smile and coo at you all day long, and late into the night.

He is in size 1 diapers

He is in Newborn size clothes.

He sleeps about seven hours in the first stretch. He almost always wakes up at 430 nearly on the dot for his night feeding.

Hates tummy time.

Still hates that crinkly noise.

Loves the bumbo, but only for about 5 minutes at a time. Then he gets tired.

He has great head control, and makes great eye contact.

He tracks things with his eyes and turns toward sounds.

Developmentally, according to the pediatrician's ages and stages questionnaire, he was at a 4 month level in most areas.

I love this little guy so much!!

One Month

Excuse the lateness of this post. For those that don't know, I had surgery on my nose about a week and a half ago, and little man turned one month old the very next day. So I'm a little behind.

Let's see. At one month, tiny boy is still not doing a WHOLE lot. But he did give me one heck of a birthday gift - his first real smiles!! I have yet to catch them on camera. But he's doing it.

He is still mostly a great sleeper. He's had a few bad nights, mostly because he seems to have some gas issues. Poor little guy. But for the most part, he is still sleeping 4-5 hour stretches at night. And most of the day during the day, too. His awake periods are usually up to 2 hours.

He cluster feeds in the evenings, which I think is the reason behind his awesome nightime sleeping.

He HATES crinkling sounds. Like the sound of the wipes bag, or paper crinkling, etc.

He has great head control. We even sat him in his bumbo for the very first time tonight! (Only for about 5 minutes. We didn't want to overdo it on his other muscles.) He really seemed to be enjoying being able to look around.

I am still having a bit of a rough time adjusting and getting into a daily routine, but it's slowly getting better. I don't think surgery helped in that aspect. And it definitely doesn't help that Jake has started throwing stuff at me again. (He got me good right in the nose today. Amazing how a person that isn't even 2 can bring you to tears. I just hope it didn't do any damage, as my doctor told me to be VERY careful he doesn't bump it at all.) I think I had a touch of the baby blues just after Everett was born, and I don't think it's completely left. But it is getting much, much better! (Finally!) I think I am going to start going to a yoga class 1-2 times per week. Exercise always makes you feel better!

A Baby (#2) Story

It's been 3 weeks, and both babies are asleep, so I'd better hammer this out while I can. =)

**Disclaimer - if labor/birth stories make you squeamish, just skip to the pictures. I am going into detail for those that want to know.**

On the day of the 27th, my doctor's office called to move up my induction. It was supposed to be for 4 the next morning, but apparently they hadn't ever actually scheduled it with the hospital, so the only thing open was for 10pm that night. I really didn't want to be induced, but I was already 7 days past my due date, so Tyler and I decided to say ok. We didn't tell anyone, and in the end it didn't matter. Around 8 when we were getting ready to leave, I had a BIG gush of fluid, and I knew my water had broken. I wasn't having any contractions, and none started after that, so we just went about finishing getting ready and putting Jake to bed. (My mother in law came and stayed with him that night.)
When my Julie (my mother in law) and Bob (father in law) got there, Tyler and Bob gave me a blessing, and we got going. On the way, we stopped at Del Taco. I really wanted a chicken soft taco and a sprite. Then we headed up to Reno.

When we got to the hospital, I got all set up in my room and the nurse confirmed I was leaking fluid, but it wasn't very much at all. She told me I was 3-3.5cm dilated, and about 75% effaced. At about 1am, they finally started the pitocin. It did absolutely nothing. It gave me very light braxton hicks contractions, and I was able to sleep through them. I had requested that they only give me a low dose of pitocin, so it was never turned up past an 8. (Funny side note - during all the admitting questions, the nurse asked the standard, "Is there any kind of abuse I should know about?" Tyler happened to be snoring at the time, which isn't a normal thing. I told her no. Then I looked at Tyler, then back at her, and said "Just neglect." And we both started laughing. I really loved that nurse. She was awesome.) At some point during the night, my water stopped leaking. 
When my doctor got there in the morning, I was not in labor. He got there at 8:30 and checked me, and I was still just 3-3.5cm and about 75% effaced. He completely broke my water, and things immediately started happening. The contractions I was having started to get less and less comfortable. I requested a labor ball and alternated bouncing/rolling on that and standing up for about an hour and a half. (I did have to pee 2 or 3 times in that hour and a half, but I dreaded it SO much - sitting on the toilet made contractions about ten times more painful.) The nurse kept coming in and asking me if I wanted the epidural. Tyler was also asking me a lot. I had really wanted to do it without, but I gave in and requested it. Big mistake. My nurse turned off the pitocin and started the fluid bolus in preparation for the epi. The anesthesiologist came in about a half hour later and started it. When my nurse turned the pitocin off, my contractions got much more manageable, and by the time the anesthesiologist was done, so were my contractions. So I learned that I wasn't going to be able to turn the pitocin off at any point.
Because I wasn't having contractions anymore, I didn't realize at first that the epidural wasn't working. My legs were tingly, and I couldn't move them well, so I just assumed it was. My first clue should have been when I could feel the nurse checking me. (At that point I was 4.5-5cm dilated and 100% effaced.) And then again when I could feel everything when she put in the catheter. (Incredibly uncomfortable, by the way.)
As the pitocin started to kick back in (they turned it back on to a 4), the contractions started getting really intense. (The pain was always really low, like where I would feel a menstrual cramp, even before the epidural.) I called the nurse in and told her that it wasn't working. She pushed the button and had me switch sides. Still nothing. So I could feel everything, but I could not move to deal with them. So I just laid there and moaned in pain. (lol) At this point, my sister in law Christina was there. (I had asked her to come for support. I wish I had waited for her to decide about the epi! I probably wouldn't have gotten it.) She was so helpful and so supportive. She brought a massager and was massaging my back and helping me breathe through contractions. SO wonderful! (Christina - you should be a doula.) Tyler decided at about 11:15 to go get lunch, since he hadn't eaten since we stopped in Carson City on the way to the hospital. I started to feel a TON of pressure with every contraction. It really is like they say - it feels like you REALLY have to poop. Not a fun sensation when you are trying to relax and you can't move. The pressure got a lot stronger, and after about ten minutes it was constant - even when I wasn't having a contraction. Christina called the nurse and told her I was feeling a lot of pain and a lot of pressure. It felt like she took forever, but it was probably only 3-5 minutes. It was 11:25 at this point, and she checked me and said yep, you're complete. She started setting the bed up, and getting the room ready. I could feel my body pushing the baby down. There was so much pressure, and absolutely no way I could have stopped it. She told me to roll on my back and I asked her if I had to. (I thought it was going to get a lot more uncomfortable if I did.) She said no, but that it would be easier to push on my back. So I let her help me roll over.
While all of this was going on, Christina was calling Tyler and telling him to get his butt back up there. (I could hear him over the phone saying "already?")
Once everything was set up, the nurse told me to do a practice push, and then told me to stop, I didn't need to do anything, he was right there. (I asked for a mirror at that point, but I guess they don't do that at that hospital. There weren't even any available, so she she had me reach down and feel his head. That was weird.)  At this point I couldn't feel individual contractions anymore. It was all a ton of pressure and felt like one big contraction, but they told me I was still having individual ones. My doctor got there at about 11:45 and got suited up and ready, and I started pushing at about 11:50. I did hard pushes through 4 contractions. (Which was really just 4 pushes. I pushed as hard as I could, and tried to keep pushing when I took a breath. Pushing seriously felt great. It was a huge relief from all the pressure. I could still feel it, and it hurt, but it felt better than sitting there doing nothing with all that pressure. The worst part of it was my doctor put his hands in around the baby's head to keep him from regressing in between pushes. I felt that ring of fire when he was crowning, and then it was that much worse with my doctor's fingers around his head. OUCH! He was born at 12:02 pm. Three and a half hours of labor! I was shocked. I had expected to push for an hour like I had with Jake. He was also able to be delivered directly onto my chest. I was so happy about that! (Jake had to be taken away immediately because he had passed meconium.) Tyler was supposed to cut the cord, but I guess my doctor (he was a jerk) "forgot," and cut it himself. Baby was 7lbs even, and they measured him at 17.5 inches. (We think that he just wouldn't stretch out all the way for them, because at his 2 week appointment he was already 20.25 inches. Jake grew an inch in that first 2 weeks, but I seriously doubt that Everett grew almost three.)

But overall, it was very fast, and relatively easy. I had a small first degree tear. (The worse part of that was he left the top stitch a little too long, so it was poking my from the inside.) As soon as I could fully put weight on my legs, I was up and walking around. I was going to walk up to my post partum room, but I got really light headed when I stood up, so the nurse wouldn't let me.

My mother in law and her mom came up about 2 hours after he was born, and Jake got to meet his brother! I also got to be there for his bath, but I didn't take pictures. =(

Baby boy didn't have a name until the day after we left the hospital. (I was supposed to stay for 48 hours because I was strep B positive, but they cleared us both and we got to leave the next evening.) Our top choices going in were Max, Owen, and Declan. But he just didn't fit any of them! We thought that he had a more sophisticated look, and could pull off a "bigger" name. We finally decided on Everett Alan Hines. (An "old man" name that I had suggested before, but Tyler wasn't really a fan of. When I suggested it again, it fit him perfectly. Alan is Tyler's middle name.)

And now what you've all been waiting for...pictures!!

Final belly picture! 41 weeks.

During a contraction

Finally meeting Mr. Tiny

His hair was so dark! It still is, but it's lightening up. And it's curly when it's wet, but dries wavy. (Like mine!)

PUT ME BACK!

Daddy and his second son.

Brothers meeting for the first time!

Hugs. <3

I love them.

Going home

Jake and Everett.
(They don't really look alike in this picture, but looking at others they do!)

Catch-up ::Oregon Trip::

I feel a little bad about not blogging in a month and a half. I like to use it a bit like a journal, since it's been a bit longer since I wrote in one of those. So let's start with our Oregon Trip!

We ate our food like rednecks.

And rode on the luggage carts.

We visited a fun wild animal farm

 

Jake preferred the chickens

He also preferred the baby wallaby's toys to the actual baby wallaby.

He also didn't show much interest in the bobcat kitten we played with.

He did, however, LOVE playing with the pumpkins strewn around on the ground.

Jake got a free ride on the rickety, probably not up to code, kiddie coaster. He kinda loved it.

But it also kinda made him nervous. It made him a bit nervous as well.

We also visited the Little People Big World farm. It was gorgeous! But it was raining, so none of them were outside.

We got to stay with these amazing folks in Lincoln City.

We played in a fire house. (Phyllis works there, and she let us bring Jake to see it!)

And even got to sit inside this awesome truck!

 

This gorgeous spot was back behind the fire station. We didn't go down to the beach - this particular one, we were told, was especially dangerous.

And that was our trip! It was a lot of fun, but it was exhausting!

A Tummy Story

Sorry, this reads a bit like a journal. And I don't have pictures. But if you make it through it, you are a trooper!

Last weekend, we left Jake with his grandparents for the very first time ever.
It was a traumatic experience for both of us. It probably won't happen again anytime soon.
We left Friday. Wednesday night, Jake woke up at about 9 pm and just could not be consoled. I thought he had had a bad dream at first - that happens semi-frequently. (I think the poor little guy inherited my tendency to have more bad dreams than good.)

Anyway, after about an hour of this, I had just about decided to take him to an urgent care or the ER to have him seen for an ear infection. He only ever acted like this once before, and he ended up having a seizure from the fever caused by an ear infection. About 28 seconds after I said exactly that to Tyler (and he had agreed), Jake turned around and handed his toy and bear to Tyler, took his pacifier out of his mouth, and threw up all over me. The poor little guy was pretty freaked out. He had no idea what was going on, or why he was feeling like that. I felt awful for him. When he was finished, he refused to go to anyone but me. So I took off my sweater and jeans and just sat with him while Tyler cleaned up. (Poor Tyler!) Luckily, he had thrown up on the plastic carpet cover that the computer chair goes on, instead of on the carpet.

After a little while, he got down and started to play like he felt normal. We waited a little bit, and then decided to try and get some food into him and get him back to bed. He ate some yogurt and drank a bit of milk and a bit of a protein shake. We thought his upset stomach was from the hot dog he'd had for dinner. (Tyler's dad bought Hebrew National hot dogs for him, thinking it was a better brand. The hot dogs are kosher, so it is basically all beef which made for some very greasy hot dogs. He'd had diarrhea the night before after eating one of those, so we thought it must be connected and had them just throw them out.) After he finished eating, he immediately threw up again. So there went that idea.

This went on for the rest of night. Thankfully, he didn't ever throw up on the carpet. I don't know how he managed it, but he did. We ended up moving his bed into our room so that we could all get some sleep. The next day, he acted fine. He had diarrhea, and he threw up one time in the morning just after breakfast, but other than that he acted completely normal. So we thought we were good to go the next day.

After we left, we found out his diarrhea was continuing, and he wasn't really wanting to eat and didn't have much energy. I felt really bad and wanted to either stay or take him with us, but we had reserved a moving truck that we couldn't cancel, and it would have been a very big hassle to take him with us. Some tears were shed on my part and his, but his mom sent us pictures later showing that he was happy. We skyped with him that night. It made me so sad to not be there at bedtime. (And as it turns out, after we hung up, he kept running to the computer and crying and reaching for it looking for us. Poor baby! So my MIL wouldn't let us skype the rest of the trip. Which didn't help - he still went to the computer and cried the next night, too. =( )

The first night, we stayed at the Sheraton in Salt Lake City. Tyler got a great deal on priceline, so we decided to make it a tiny bit of a "vacation." We ate out at a pretty good restaurant (Bucca something. Italian restaurant in downtown SLC) and just relaxed. We got there late and were both exhausted. Tyler started having some stomach issues that night just before bed, but felt fine after using the bathroom. We were asleep when our heads hit the pillow. (Also, the thermostat in our room was broken. It kept blowing hot hair, and the room was sweltering. We ended up sleeping with the door to the balcony wide open all night.) We woke up early, and headed down to get our truck and get everything out of our storage unit.

I think our trip could break records. It took us less than two hours to completely clean out our storage unit and load the truck. Our friend Sam came to help us move the big stuff (HUGE thank you to him!) and our BIL came at the end and swept out the unit for us. All in all, we were in Utah for less than 24 hours total.

At about Wendover, Tyler started having more stomach issues. He was feeling pretty awful. He wouldn't let me drive the truck, (we were towing our car) so he was driving and miserable.

We went on hotwire and got a room in Elko. We went through the entire process to get a 3 star hotel. Every single page said that we were paying for a 3 start hotel. When he hit confirm, it confirmed us for a 2 star in a shady area! I was so mad. We called hotwire, and they were incredibly rude. They told us that there was nothing we could do, they wouldn't upgrade us, (even if we paid the extra) and they wouldn't refund us. They also told us that we must have been mistaken, and that it was difficult to tell sometimes if you actually hit the 2 star instead of the 3. We found out later (after reading reviews) that they have done this exact same thing to multiple people.
To top it off, we went on priceline, and the hotel they had put us in was rated as a 1 star and had horrible reviews. So we just booked a hotel at the Hilton and figured we could deal with it later. Tyler was getting worse, and we really needed to just get to a room. He ended up with the same thing Jake had, and was throwing up all night. I felt so bad for him!

The next day, he felt much better, but obviously not 100%. He wouldn't be feeling better for several more days. He still wouldn't let me drive. (Silly men.) We were able to get home just after dark. I was so excited to get back to Jake. I had missed him SO much. I didn't let him out of my sight for days. He was really happy to see us, too. Tyler's mom and grandma were pretty happy we were there, too - they had both gotten whatever Jake had as well. Julie said that was the first day that Jake was feeling better. But he still had diarrhea, and he wasn't eating as well as usual. (This lasted until today, really. He is down to about 19 and a half lbs. Poor tiny guy.)
Luckily, I never got it. I'm so grateful for that. It's the second time during a pregnancy that I haven't gotten an extremely contagious illness that my family had. (Tyler got Swine Flu when I was about 8 weeks pregnant with Jake, and I didn't get that either.)

We are thinking it was Rotavirus. Jake has been vaccinated, but his pediatrician said it still could have been that. It has been going around recently in the area. I feel awful that we left him when he was so sick! But I am grateful that he and everyone else are feeling better.