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. :)

Birth story

I'm so bummed cause I started this post a few days ago and now it's gone! Oh well.

Since I waited over a year to write out Blakely's birth story I figured I'd do Henry's now while it's fresh on my mind. I know I left out tiny details of B's that only I care about, but I want to remember it all!

I went in Friday for my last checkup and the doc said I was still a 2, and he stripped my membranes. I told him how bad I wanted to go into labor and he offered to strip them again- I didn't even know you could do that. I told him to go for it, duh. And boy am I glad I did.

So. I was scheduled to be induced Sunday night at 9pm, so we planned out our weekend. Stephens parents got in town Friday afternoon to take care of B while we were in the hospital. Saturday Stephen had a (last) fishing trip with his dad and my brother. Stephens mom and I planned to take B to the farmers market so I could get some biscuits and gravy and so B could see the dogs and play with friends. And Sunday we were going to clean the house really well and just relax! Well, B messed up those plans when she started getting sick on Thursday. Apparently I can't have a baby without Stephen getting sick, so naturally he caught it a day or two later. At least it wasn't ER worthy though!!! But he did feel pretty bad the whole time we were in the hospital.

Anyway, since B was sick she went down for a morning nap on Saturday- but I figured she wouldn't sleep long (cause she never does) and we could go to the market as soon as she woke up. I starved myself all morning cause I REALLY wanted to enjoy my biscuits and gravy, so OF COURSE Blakely slept for 2hrs and woke up 15 minutes before the market closed. I'm still sad I didn't get my biscuits and gravy! So we got panera for lunch instead and played all day.

We were outside a bunch and took a few walks around the block and Stephen and I got to go on some walks by ourselves- our favorite thing and probably the thing we miss the most from our no-kid days.

I had been having contractions all day but I was trying not to focus on them cause I knew I'd just psych myself out and loose sleep over nothing. Looking back, I had a LOT all day, and they got more painful as the day went on. That night Stephen and I walked several laps around our neighborhood and at that point I was really feeling like I was gonna go into labor but I didn't tell anyone. We went to bed and I tried to go to sleep but my contractions had become painful enough that there was no way I could sleep through them. Finally around 11:45pm I started timing them and Stephen woke up. As soon as I told him I thought I might be in labor he got up immediately and got dressed and packed his bag. I was still not ready to go anywhere. My hospital is all the way in Kansas city- 45 minutes away and I knew if I went in and wasn't in labor we'd be gone until morning. Not what I wanted my last night pregnant to look like. Well, when I started timing the contractions, they were 4-5 minutes apart. I was suppose to head to the hospital when they were 7-8 minutes apart, so we knew we had to make a decision quick. I convinced Stephen to wait about an hour and then he called the doc. Doc said to come when the contractions took my breath away and I couldn't talk through them. I was already there so we woke Stephens parents up and headed to the hospital.

It was really fun and exciting! Stephen was keeping track of my contractions and we were just laughing about how terrible it would be if it was a false alarm. We got to the hospital and I was dilated to a 4 and they confirmed that I was in fact in labor. We got there around 2am.

I was doing ok on pain- it hurt bad, but I was getting enough relief between contractions that I didn't want the epidural yet. I considered trying to go without the whole time, but knowing that Henry was a lot bigger than B, I was terrified of pushing without the epi. Around 5-6am I caved and decided to get it so I could get some rest. Stephen was very happy.

It didn't go like I planned. Just like with Blakely, it only took to my right side. They redid it and my right side became completely dead, but still no relief on my left. I was so upset. I was tired and emotional and I felt like I made a big mistake cause now I was stuck laying down unable to move with no pain relief. I wasn't sure if I wanted them to try again, cause I was afraid it wouldn't work again- and the whole process of getting it was painful. They called in another anesthesiologist that supposedly was really good so I decided to let her try. She told me she "rarely can't give a patient what they want." Her self assuredness was fine by me so I let her stick me. It didn't hurt at all, and it worked. Apparently I have scoliosis and didn't know it and it is just exacerbated by pregnancy. That's why the epi didn't work with B either. Now I know for next time!

I got relief immediately and although I couldn't sleep, I could at least rest. Funny thing was, as soon as I got this one, my contractions slowed way down. I'm glad I got it though cause my doc came and broke my water to get things moving again. My contractions picked back up. They were thinking of giving me pitocen to speed things up more and I chimed in and told them to do whatever they needed to get this show on the road!

So they did, I progressed, I told them to crank it up, and around 10 I was dilated 6-7. Then about an hour later I felt the urge to push and they wanted me to "labor down" for a little bit. I guess it just means let your body get the baby as far as it can without pushing. Then they were ready for me to push around 11:35. I literally pushed for one contraction- my doctor laughed- and there was Henry! I couldn't believe it. Two and a half pounds bigger, and even easier delivery than B.

He cried a lot more at first than Blakely did. She cried once, then was content on my chest. Henry was pretty ticked to be out of his warm wet home. Henry immidately latched and nursed well- Blakely didn't latch until the 3rd day with a nipple shield. Henry wants to eat about every hour and a half/ two hours. It's exhausting! But I must say, it is much nicer to have a kid who loves to eat than one who I have to fight with about it! Henry likes to fall asleep though, probably why he doesn't always go 3 hours between feedings. He is getting better though. Like B, he is a spitter. Sometimes it seems like he spits up his whole meal.

We stayed in the hospital Sunday night, then again Monday night because Henry was jaundiced. He had to be on the "billi bed" with the blue lights to get his billiruben to go down. He had a hard time peeing- I think because of his circumcision. Now he is a peeing machine. He has peed or pooped on me at least 5 times now- once in the face. Lovely. :) He is a grunter like Blakely, and it drives me crazy! I don't know why, but I worry about every little noise he makes. I'll just have to get use to it. When we left the hospital he weighed 6lbs 6oz, and the next day he was 6lbs 8oz. Today he was 7lbs 8oz. (21%)

He got an eye infection and we are putting ointment on it and he is on some reflux medicine. His plastibell fell off Tuesday and his umbilical cord fell off today.

Blakely really seems to like Henry, but she gets frustrated by all the "rules." *no touching while he is sleeping, *no touching his face, *no touching with inanimate objects, *only touch gently, *no rocking his bassinet, *no feeding Henry, *no screaming when Henry is sleeping, etc. All of these are VERY hard for her. She LOVES to give him kisses and hugs. It is hard to get on to her for not being gentle when she is hugging and kissing him. We are trying to teach her that one hug and one kiss is enough She is sweet. She has stopped trying to pick him up, thankfully, but we still can't leave her for more than a second unsupervised. He's gonna be a tough little brother!

Stephen's parents went home the day after we got home from the hospital. Blakely had a GREAT time with them, but sortof became a basketcase when we got home. I think the emotional buildup of us being gone a couple days and everything changing caught up to her. After Stephen's parents left, my parents came and stayed with us. I love having the help, but it will be really good for B to adjust to our new life with no visitors for a little while. Blakely has been giving me the cold shoulder. She knows things are different now that Henry occupies my lap much of the time, and I think it will take a little while for her to warm back up to me. She is LOVING her daddy right now though. She has gotten a couple of "ouchies" lately and she ONLY wants him to hold her when she is upset. It is pretty funny.

Here are some pictures!