New place and my 20 month old

Well, our Memphis trip was a huge success. Our babies were little angels on the plane ride there- the only thing that would have been better is if I didn't have to change two poopy diapers on my lap. Also, what's with planes being INSANELY hot?! Holy moly...do we not have air conditioning in 2012!? I was sweating profusely, and I can't imagine Stephen with a squirmy toddler on his lap.

Memphis was so fun with BB and grandad. We got to play with Lucy and aunt Anna a ton. Grandad was the resident sandbox partner as well as photographer. Because we had Lucy while Anna worked we all took turns and shared the load with three babies. Thank goodness grandad was off work all week! Henry got to meet his great grandma- and that was super sweet. Blakely missed her daddy terribly, and the look on her face when he got home couldn't have been sweeter.

We got back in town, spent the evening with Stephens aunt and uncle and two kids who were passing through Lawrence, and then began the move the next day. We had done little to nothing to prepare to move across town, and being productive with two under two is next to impossible. Luckily my dad came up and several students helped move us- otherwise I'm sure we'd still be working on it.

We moved a few miles away to a duplex. We really love it. Maybe it's just cause we were sick of the responsibility of being homeowners... But we love that this place is smaller and simpler. Our garage could currently star in an episode of Hoarders so we are having a garage sale this weekend.

Blakely turned 20 months old yesterday. Stephen likes to tell me how many months we have with our kids till they go to college- I get mad when he does. I don't want to know how fast it's going to go by!

She welcomed our new house by getting strep. It was pretty sad. She had a high fever for several days. We took her to a walk in clinic and they didn't do anything. Then a day later she broke out all over her body so we took her in again and they said it was a symptom of strep- I had no idea. So she is on antibiotics right now.

She weighs about 22lbs. She is still a skinny little thing. She loves to be outside still. She loves to dance. She loves to play with her babies and imitate whatever I do. She has a new obsession with her binkies- I think cause Henry has one. She ALWAYS asks for it. We try to only let her have it in her bed, so se frequently asks to get in her bed...
She is talking SO much. She says words that I know I never taught her. She says 2 and 3 word sentences. She can count to 10- but only cause she has it memorized. I don't think she gets numbers yet.
She still loves Henry. She loves it when she hears him wake up and she runs in to make sure he doesn't go back to sleep. We are constantly working on our inside voices.
She and daddy have a pretty special relationship right now. He has been spending lots of one on one time with her and he has quickly become her best friend. She has a very hard time when he leaves to work-she throws a fit, as well as when he closes the door to go to the bathroom. :)

2 months!

Hank is 2 months old! He's such a cutie. And SUCH a good baby. He cries when he's hungry, overtired, and hot. For some reason he gets overheated really easily and he FLIPS out. If none of those things are happening, he's just chilling. He loves to talk and coo and smile a ton. I don't think I've ever seen a baby smile as much as him. He loves attention. Loves to look at his daddy and especially his big sister. He just STARES at her If she is in his sight. it's pretty funny.

He weighs 12lbs 7oz- 71st%
He is 23.5inches- 50something%

He wears size 2 diapers, 3-6month clothes.

He's an ok nurser- he fusses a lot but he's also quick. Never eats for 10 minutes. Still spits up almost every time.

He hasnt been going very long at night. A few times he has done 5-6 hrs but usually still just 3. I think he has reflux and it feels good on his throat to eat.

He only sleeps good during the day in his swing.

He loves baths- but if he is tired at all he has a pretty big freak out when we get him out.

He is pretty sensitive to noise- if the tv is too loud or Blakely is being super loud he gets overwhelmed and cries. We were sitting at the table for dinner yesterday and Blakely was just SCREAMING for no reason and the suddenly Henry burst into tears and was done once she stopped.

He likes to be swaddled at night.

He's not a fan of the car and rarely sleeps.

We are on our way to the airport right now to fly to Memphis. Stephen and I will both have a baby in our lap, an we don't get to sit together cause apparently there aren't enough oxygen masks... SO this will be interesting. But no matter what it will be better than a 10+ hour drive!!!

19 months

My baby is 19 months!  It is going to get harder and harder to do these monthly updates- mainly because I never know what day of the week it is, much less the actual date!  Luckily, I still get email updates from babycenter.com that remind me how old my babies are.  :)

too big!

She sure is a stinker these days.  We are full on in the throws of discipline.  It is much harder than I imagined.  Stephen and I laugh because when we hear the other one disciplining her for something- sending her to timeout, the other one always wants to rush in and save her.  She gets her feelings hurt SO easily, so she just cries her eyes out when she gets in trouble.  Right now we are doing timeouts, and a pinch on the back of the leg for serious offenses. :)  She doesn't get the serious punishment very often.  Sometimes she is being such a stinker that she will disobey, and then go put herself in timeout.  She has also been seen putting her babies in timeout- hilarious.  I am memorizing some verses on discipline, because man is it hard work!  Sometimes I just want to give her the benefit of the doubt, when deep down I know that she knows what she is doing.  Mainly we have to discipline delayed obedience.  We really want her to learn to obey when we tell her something the first time.  And that is hard for a 1 year old.  She also gets disciplined frequently for dumping water in our house.  It's a problem. You have to watch her like a hawk, cause if you turn around she will just dump it right out on the floor.  She went through a small hitting phase, but I am pretty sure she is over that. 

She is in a super whiney phase right now.  Drive.  Me.  Nuts.  If she hears Henry cry, she will immediately ask to be picked up- beating him to the punch.  She still cries a lot when I am feeding him and can't pick her up.  She loves to be sent on errands though, so my new tactic is I just ask for random things the whole time I am feeding him.  She loves to go fetch things for me.  If we even mention that we are giving Henry a bath, she runs with delight to the bathroom to get the soap.  She loves to bring me burp rags when Henry is spitting up, and she loves to hand me wipes when I am changing him.  She also is still constantly trying to shove his binky in his mouth.  Today I got to dry my hair in a little bit of peace because Henry was blowing spit bubbles.  So Blakely spent the entire time wiping his mouth over and over saying "spits! spits!" 

For some reason she is adding an "s" to everything lately.  "Ups, offs, eats, burps, poops..."  She is saying a lot of two word sentences.  She says "Bless you" whenever anyone sneezes.  She freaks out when she hears the front door open and runs to the gate to see who it is.  She tries to answer my phone before I do.  She still thinks she can pick Henry up when he's crying.  She has a newfound love with being naked.  She frequently asks us to take her clothes and diaper off.  She has a bit of a split personality when she is naked.  She goes into performance mode.  It's hilaroius.  She sortof struts and holds her head a little higher and just acts hilarious. 

Independence Day skinny dipping

She pooped in the toilet- but it was a bit of a fluke.  She was having some of her naked time and I caught her in the act and got her on their almost just in time.  Half on the floor, half in the toilet.  But we'll take it!  We are exploring potty training right now.  Which means we are talking a lot about it especially when naked, and sitting on the toilet a lot- just for experience. 

She has been getting up at 4:45am- poor Stephen (he gets up with her and lets me and Henry keep sleeping..) But she has been taking great naps.  Yesterday she took an hour and a half morning nap, and a 2 and a half hour afternoon nap.  She gets so tired that she asks to go to bed. 

She has recently started being shy around new(ish) people.  It takes her a while to warm up and act like herself. 

She has such a hilarious personality, and when she is in a good mood, she is so much fun.  We are really hoping she gets over her only child syndrome soon!

Baby updates

Henry smiles! Yay! It's probably more of a smirk than a smile, but he is making eye contact and definitely waking up to the world. He has now smiled at all three of us. Naturally, I was last. :)

He is still sleeping great at night- still grunting. He is sleeping in the living room which is working out great. It forces me and Stephen to go to bed early- which we are loving. We are in bed no later than 9, sometimes as early as 8. We read and talk and are asleep well before 10!

He loves baths- calms right down as soon as he touches the water. B hated hers at this age.

He is nursing pretty well but still seems to be having tummy issues. Lots of squirming and pulling off and grunting. We are taking him to a GI specialist in a couple weeks to see if everything is ok.

He is still not on a great schedule during the day. He will not stay asleep for more than 30 minutes at a time. I started putting him down on his tummy in the living room- where I can check on him every minute or so- and he sleeps AMAZINGLY. It freaks me out, but I love that he is rested and he's in such a good mood.

He's a talker. He coos and squeals and makes all kinds of noises that I don't remember Blakely making. Probably cause she was too busy screaming.

We are really enjoying our little Hank!

1 month

Henry turned 1 month a couple days ago.  I actually already wrote out this whole post, but somehow lost it.  Silly iphone.  I am holding sleeping Henry right now as I type this. 

He had his one month checkup Friday, and he weighed 10lbs 5oz- 59th% (I think...) and he is 21.5 inches- 40(something)%.  Growing boy!  It is so funny because with Blakely, I always wanted her to be growing and healthy, but I also love that she is petite cause she is just so cute and dainty.  With Henry I want him to get FAT FAT FAT!  And he is.  He has outgrown all of his newborn clothes except some really stretchy onesies and is wearing 0-3mo and some 3mo clothes.  His big ole belly stretches the small ones. 

We went on our first road trip with Hank last week.  It was a little crazy, but both kids did so great.  We spent about a week in Fayetteville doing some support raising.  We stayed with my aunt and uncle and had a BLAST.  They have two teenage girls, so it was like I had 3 helpers at all times.  They have a dog and a pool and toys which kept Blakely entertained pretty much the whole time.  I got to work out, we went on a date, and I got to take a nap!  :)  We only had a few car freak outs, and a few grocery store freakouts.  It took Blakely a couple days to adjust to her new sleep environment.  We wished we could have stayed longer on the day that she asked to get into her pack and play.  Thats when we knew she felt at home.  After Fayetteville we headed to the lake with our friends the Brewers and my parents.  It was a lot of fun, and Blakely LOVED the lake. 

Henry is still grunting like CRAZY.  He is on two kinds of reflux medicine- which seems to help the spitting up.  It seems like he is super uncomfortable from about 3:30am until 7- grunting and squirming.  Neither of us get much sleep.  He nurses every 2.5-3 hours, occasionally sooner.  He goes 3-4 hours at night occasionally.  He is sleeping in a pack and play in our room, and occasionally with me if he seems to be having tummy trouble.  We are experimenting with him sleeping in the living room at night cause he wakes Blakely up with his grunting.  It's not just like the occasional grunt, it is like he is clearing his throat for about 4 hours straight. 

He is not liking me trying to get him on a schedule, and just in the last couple of days he has started waking up frequently and early from naps.  I'm not sure what to do.  If I swaddle him, he wakes up and is TICKED and gets worked up because he can't get his arms free, but if I leave his arms out, he wakes him self up moving.  We are trying super hard to get him on something predictable, but I just can't let him cry.  I know no mother wants to hear their baby cry, but every time I have tried to let him cry for a bit, I am in tears.  I might suffer a year of bad sleep like with Blakely... He is iffy about his pacifier.  Sometimes he goes to town on it, and other times I can't get him to take it to save his life.  Even if he does take it, it only lasts about 10 seconds before it falls out.  Blakely was like this too.  Is that normal?  I would love ANY advice on helping him sleep.  I am trying to use sample schedules from Babywise, and I use all the tips from the Baby Whisperer, and I can eventually get him to sleep, but he just wont stay asleep. 

Blakely is still having a hard time adjusting.  She literally bawls her eyes out when I nurse him unless Stephen is playing with her.  She also gets VERY upset if I try to put him to sleep and make her stay out of the room while I'm doing it.  It's a lost cause when she is screaming/crying right outside the door.  She loves to scream these days(happily)- probably also contributing to Hank's broken sleep. 

Like Blakely, Henry prefers to be held by me.  He rarely lets Stephen hold him.  He did good with my mom, but so far shes about the only person he will let hold him. 
He is very vocal.  He squeals all the time- Blakely never did that.  But he also gets mad quick.  I'm thinking he might be a tad spirited like Blakely- Lord help me.  :)

upset cause I'm feeding Henry

only in my arms

chubby cheeks!

mom kisses Blakely kisses Henry

milk coma

Questions

To my friends who have newborns or just remember when they did:

Henry is 3 weeks old now and I want to start getting him on a schedule. I am wondering if I'm late in the game already. Blakely wasn't on a predictable schedule until she was 7-8 months old so I know I don't know what I'm doing!

Did you do anything this early to get them on a schedule?
Did they have a set bedtime/wake time?
Where did they nap/sleep?
Did you put them to sleep or let them fall asleep on their own?
Did they use a pacifier?
Did you wake them for feelings?
Did they spit up? (my kids spit up a TON)

And anything else you might be able to tell me about an almost one month old!

3 weeks

Well, blogging with two babies is harder than I thought!

Hank is 3 weeks old today. A few days ago he weighed 8lbs 9oz. He's growing! And he better be cause the boy RARELY goes 2 1/2 hours between meals. He wants to eat all. The. Time. But as long as he's growing! He's a great sleeper, minus the grunting. He grunts even more than Blakely did. And he wakes her up at night and especially early morning. We've contemplated moving downstairs but we figure they both have to figure it out sometime. Stephen has had some early mornings (3am!) with Blakely. :/

I knew life with two little ones wouldnt be easy- but I thought we would have adjusted more by now. And by we I mean Blakely. :) She still LOVES Henry. She wants to kiss him, hug him, hold him, give him his binky, all the time. BUT she just can't get over the times when I am feeding him or holding him. She decides when I'm nursing that she wants me to play or read or hold her. She just cries and cries- like real tears- the whole time. It's pretty sad actually. She frequently asks me to put him down.

Blakely isn't the only needy one though. Henry conveniently cries when I'm rocking Blakely before bed or changing her diaper. I have definitely had to get use to letting a baby cry for a few minutes- cause I have no choice!

I haven't gotten brave enough to get out of the house by myself with both of them- and it might be a while. Finding time to go grocery shopping or run an errand is a lot harder trying to work around two babies schedules. I have had to leave a cart of groceries in the store cause Stephen has called me home cause Henry was freaking out.

I am definitely more tired than I ever was when we had B. So we are in bed by 9 or earlier pretty much every night. I love it. I count it a successful day if my babies are fed and I'm in bed while there's still light outside. :)