Super Climber

As I mentioned in my last post, on Thursday we spent some time at Little Monkey Business, which is becoming one of Joseph's favorite play places. I have a feeling we'll be spending a lot of time here as the weather gets colder!

One of the climbing sections has always eluded Joseph, at least until this week. It involves three tiers of mesh "floors" with an opening between each, for climbing up each level. He's never been tall, strong and coordinated enough to climb up. Thursday, though, marked a turning point - he watched how a couple of older kids were able to climb up, and proceeded to do the same, scaling all the way to the top without too much trouble!

He was so excited about being able to climb up by himself, and the opportunity to go down the "big big slide" at the end of the climber.

My little guy is getting so big! It doesn't help that now that we have a newborn in the house, Joseph just seems a lot older, bigger, tougher and extremely self sufficient... at his old age of two and a half! :)

kiss sandwich

Joseph loves getting "kiss sandwiches," from Joe and me, or really anyone willing to give him kisses simultaneously. Lately when he's been sitting next to me and when I'm holding Madeline (which is about the only time he wants to be sitting super close to me anymore!) he's been requesting to give Maddie kiss sandwiches - with no prompting from us! Such a sweet big brother!

Figuring it all out

As our third full week of being a family of four is drawing to a close, I'm starting to feel like I'm getting a handle on life with two kids. At least, that's how I feel today. Ask me again tomorrow, and things may have changed!

 

Although she's still not sleeping in her crib very often, I had to take a few pictures of her first nap in her bed (taken last Sunday, the 23rd). She definitely sleeps best while swaddled tightly, but still doesn't typically stay asleep for very long if I put her down in her crib or the pack n play. She's definitely a cuddler, at least for now.

 

Monday I braved the DMV with both kids as we had to get the van titled and registered. Nothing like realizing this on the last week of the month! Luckily, it wasn't a terrible experience, and we were done by 10am. My mom's group had a playdate at a park, so I opted to head out there so Joseph could play with the other kids. He had a blast running around - it definitely seems that his mood is better and we have fewer "2 year old" incidents when we spend time every day letting him burn energy running around.

Joseph is still doing great as a big brother. He loves giving Maddie kisses, and every morning when he comes upstairs, he'll say "good morning mommy" and then immediately come over to Madeline, climb up to where he can give her a kiss and tell her good morning and then "glad to see ya, baby Maddie." It's really sweet. Wednesday when he woke up from his nap, I took her in with me to get him, and since he was still kinda sleepy, offered to "let her sleep with him." He was thrilled at the idea!

I wish I could say that I was posing him for these pictures, but they were all him.  Except for the last one, which was the first picture I actually took. He's big on saying cheese for pictures these days, and then insisting on seeing the picture. I had to remind him a few times that I'd show him the pictures later to get him to act candidly with Madeline.

We're still figuring out what makes Madeline tick, as she has good evenings and really not good ones, like last night where she was awake off and on from 5:30pm until 11:30pm and generally fussy the whole time. Some nights her episodes only last an hour or two, and others, like last night, are much longer. At least once I get her to sleep, she seems to reset and sleep for 4+ hours, and doesn't get too fussy again until the following evening.

And this morning I managed to get her into her carseat without waking her (she generally dislikes being put in the car seat and screams about it until she falls asleep), and got in a quick trip to Jo-Anns for supplies for our mom's group party tomorrow night, spent an hour letting Joseph play at Little Monkey Business, another quick stop to buy pumpkins for the party and head home before she woke up. Hooray! I'd love to think it wasn't a fluke, but we'll see. Right now both kids are napping, and it's so nice to have a few hours of peace and quiet each afternoon before the more stressful evening begins.

And for my own records, she still is very disinterested in taking a pacifier, to the point of getting very upset when we offer one. Unless she's super sleepy and just goes with it. Which only happens about 10% of the time. Maybe she'll figure it out; although her hands are making their way into her mouth more often so I have a feeling she'll be a finger-sucker instead.

Last night Joe tried to give her a bottle for the first time. Probably because she was unhappy anyway and not really hungry, it wasn't a great experience. She only ended up taking about half an ounce after finally giving in. I'm hoping to continue offering a bottle every day or two so we can hopefully not end up with a baby who is only consolled and fed by me!

2 weeks old!

Madeline is 2 weeks old already! How did we celebrate? By doing what she loves most - sleeping with/on mommy!

 

After Joseph and Joe headed off for work/school, I tried to start cleaning the bathroom and working on chores around the house, but little miss decided to wake up and that it was time to eat again. Now. She's a girl who knows what she wants and service in our house is generally too slow in her opinion.

 

After she ate, she was really alert, so I opted to try and take a few pictures with our old camera. For some reason, the SD card for the good camera is acting up, so I'm stuck with the old one until we figure out what's wrong.

She generally moves too fast to photo well in the low light of the bedroom, so many pictures have blurry hands/arms. Oh well. We'll just have to keep taking pictures!

This is not a great picture, but shows how Madeline prefers to be held most of the time when she's awake but sleepy. We had been doing some skin to skin time, so I apologize for the side boob in the ugly nursing bra.

 While she's still generally quite sleepy, I'm starting to notice that she's becoming more alert during her brief awake periods. She'll spent a good amount of time just looking around, taking everything in.

It's still too early to tell, but I think her eyes look pretty similar to Joseph's. They're still the newborn steely blue color, and I can't wait to see what color they'll end up!

Time Is Flying

I can't believe that we're coming up on Madeline's 2 week birthday already! We took this picture of all three kiddos last week before Ashley and Mason headed back to St. Louis. I can't wait to start doing group shots and looking back at how little they all were. :)

 

Daddy's first picture at home with both kids. Joseph still loves to be around Madeline, giving her lots of kisses and asking to hold her. He also likes to tell us about what she's doing, but is generally most interested in her "making moises" (noises) and going "pee pee and/or poop in her undies" since that's still an important part of his day. It's a little difficult trying to explain to him that it's ok for her to do it, and no, she won't get a cold water bath as a consequence. Hopefully it doesn't mess up his potty training success, but so far he hasn't had any regression issues at all.

Madeline got her first bath at home on Tuesday the 11th, and Joe realized that he'd forgotten a few key tips for keeping her happy that worked well with Joseph. So the experience was super quick and not very pleasant for her.

We spent most of the first weekend at home just hanging out, save for Madeline's newborn photo session on Saturday morning and Joe's long run Sunday morning. I was amazed, as was he, that his first true long run (20 miles) since being home with Madeline went really well. He was able to achieve a great pace, feel good and wasn't too sore afterward. He's had some great runs again this week, which is great considering the interrupted sleep he's been getting. The Chicago Marathon is now just 2 1/2 weeks away!

Sunday afternoon we grabbed lunch with Scott and Tricia, and then parted ways so Joe could take Joseph to see Finding Nemo in 3D, while I headed home with Madeline to get some sleep. Although she's still sleeping plenty, last week each day became more and more difficult as she started to fuss and cry a lot more, to the point of us being able to anticipate that between 10pm and 1 am she'd cry off and on, and nothing we did would calm her down.  It was beginning to seem like we had a colicky baby on our hands, so I opted to start cutting out possible food irritants from my diet and researching other things we could do to make her happier.

Unfortunately, I also started to get really run down, and by Sunday afternoon was running a fever of 101-102 degrees. Madeline didn't want to sleep after our family lunch out, and I was getting to wit's end. Ashley offered to change her vacation plans and come back up to KC to help out so I could rest, hopefully kick my fever and recharge my batteries, and while I felt bad agreeing, I took her up on her offer. She and Mason arrived by train on Monday evening, and will be leaving early tomorrow morning for a long trip to Destin. It's been a blessing having her here to help with Joseph and keeping the house clean and running, and I'm feeling great again. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with things better this time around!

I'm also praying that Madeline isn't just responding as well to having Mason and Ashley here as Joseph is; she has become 100% better since Sunday. She's sleeping better and back to crying at what I'd consider a normal baby amount, and for problems we'd expect and can fix. The colicky behavior has basically disappeared. I've also started spending more time massaging her tummy, trying to keep high levels of stimulus down (that has seemed to bother her a bit), and she's been getting better at taking a pacifier. We'll see if the diet changes (namely drastically reducing dairy and caffeine) was important as I completely forgot tonight and ordered my favorite meal from our favorite mexican restaurant for takeout that has a lot of cheese in it. Oops. At least if she gets really fussy again tonight/tomorrow, I'll know that it might really be an issue to keep an eye on.

We'd been keeping Madeline in our room, next to me in the pack n' play, although during the peak of her fussy times, the only way I could get her to fall asleep was if she was laying on my chest or in my arms. So she slept on my chest or right next to me in bed most of the time. I wasn't thrilled about having her in bed with us, but I don't move much, if at all when I sleep, and I was desperate to get some rest for the both of us.  As soon as I'd put her in the pack n play, even if she seemed soundly asleep, she soon start fussing and wake up crying. Sunday night was the first time she slept for good stretches in the pack n play, so I was a little leery to turn it over to Mason. But he definitely needed it more than her, so Monday night she ended up sleeping most of the night on her changing table pad next to my side of the bed, which worked out great! Tuesday night I decided to try having her sleep in her crib, so that Joe could get better sleep. She ended up sleeping in her crib after her 1:45am feeding, only waking to eat at 4:30, 7 and 9:15am. Success! She also took a really long nap in her crib this afternoon, so if tonight goes well, we may just go ahead and leave her in there, as I think we both sleep a little better without her right next to us.

Joseph has absolutely loved having Ashley and Mason here and even though we told him tonight that they'd be leaving in the morning, I know he'll be sad and asking about them for a while. She video chatted with Mimi, Papa and Mikael a few times with him, so we'll have to be good about keeping that up. They went to storytime at the library today, now that it's started back up for the school year, so that I could run to Target with just Madeline for a few essentials, including new nursing bras. They spent lots of time playing together, whether with his new cars or playdough, reading stories, or just watching videos on the ipad. Joseph can't wait for Mason to be old enough to play with; they are definitely going to be good buddies!

Tonight all three kiddos got to take baths. Maddie seems to be enjoying her tub baths a lot more than the sponge baths, and since her cord stump fell off just 4 days after being born, it's a plus for everyone!

She still is in the super slippery, no control stage, which makes it hard to keep her upright and straight in the water. She definitely prefers being on her back in the water to being turned over and having her back washed!

Mason had a great time in the bath, and has been staying awake most of the afternoon...so we're assuming he's just really excited about flying to Florida tomorrow to see Mimi, Papa and later on, his daddy!

And just to toot my own horn/so I can remember later on, today I was able to fit into and wear my "fat" jeans! I gained 37 lbs this pregnancy, and so far have lost 22, so just 15 to go. Just being able to wear my own "real" clothes less than 2 weeks after giving birth is so nice and feels like such a great reward for keeping my weight gain more manageable this time. I'm optimistic that the rest will come off fairly quickly, especially when I'm able to start running.

Whew! I wasn't intending this to be such a long post, but I figure I need to write all of this stuff down before I forget and wish I had thought to document it.

One Week Old!

Our first week with 2 kids is in the books! Although I'm not getting a lot of sleep anymore, the days are still flying by. Thursday was our first day of just the 4 of us, and we opted to try and get back to our normal morning routine = Joseph in our bed in the morning watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Except now he has a new mouska-fan to watch with! Even if she's completely ignored every minute of the show. She'll be sitting up next to him before I know it!

 

I'm still trying to do my best to take it easy, but with the super nice weather we've had the last few days, I decided to take Joseph, Madeline and Molly for a walk after picking him up from school on Friday. Not wanting to overdo it, we just did a quick lap down our street and up one the next block up, and ended up at the school so Joseph and Molly could run.

 

While walking a wider stroller with a dog is going to take some getting used to, it wasn't that bad. The stroller tracks really well and isn't all that different from pushing the BOB.

 

Madeline seemed to enjoy the fresh air and napped through the entire thing.

Joseph had lots of fun running around, throwing Molly's ball for her, and even made friends with some kids from down the street who came to play. One little boy, who appeared to be a bit older that Joseph walked up to him, introduced himself, then turned to run across the bridge. I watched to see how Joseph would respond, and you can imagine my surprise and delight to watch Joseph turn around, catch up to the little boy and say "Hi, I'm JoJo Jepp-SUM!" (His current pronunciation and emphasis when asked his name) He proceeded to run after and around the little boy for the rest of the time we were at the playground.

The school kids had left a kickball outside, which Joseph found and thought was a basketball. It was too cute watching him run over to the hoops and try to shoot. The ball usually ended up going over his head backwards, but he kept up for a few tries before opting to play on the playground again.

This morning we had Madeline's newborn photo session. She did great, and lasted a few hours before her gas pains got the best of her and we had to call it a day. I can't wait to see the sneak peek, hopefully tomorrow, although it'll make the wait for the full session seem agonizingly long!

Madeline's Birth Story

Sorry for the lack of posts since Madeline's birth; things have been a little crazy and just getting through the couple hundred pictures we took last weekend took a while.

 

While we had planned for Madeline to be born sometime on Friday, September 7th, we assumed that she was going to be stubborn like Joseph and wait until we had to be induced Friday morning. Luckily, she decided to get the ball rolling early Thursday morning, so we didn't have to wait for the induction after all!

 

Thursday morning, around 7:30, I started feeling strong contractions. I'd been having contractions for weeks, so I didn't make too much of it, until I realized these were much stronger, and after spending a few hours timing them, noticed they were consistently 5-7 minutes apart. Joe started cancelling his morning appointments and got someone to cover a 341 hearing, and by 10:30am, we decided that they weren't getting any closer or stronger, so he went in to work to meet his 11am appointment, pick up his ipad and get a few issues resolved. I called the doctor, who confirmed that I should head to the hospital and get checked.

 

Of course, almost as soon as I hung up, the contractions slowed to almost every 20 minutes. sigh. I went around the house, cleaning the bathroom, kitchen, dining room and getting the guest room set up, as I realized even if I was sent home from the hospital, time to finish the last bits of cleaning was running out. Joe got home around 1pm, and we debated how we should proceed. I was still having contractions, but they still hadn't started getting closer, and it was time for Joseph's nap. We didn't want to be stuck walking the halls at the hospital with a cranky 2 year old, so we opted to go someplace where he could burn his energy, I could walk, and we would be close to the hospital and hopefully manage to keep Joseph in good, albeit tired, spirits.

 

Where did we end up? Chuck E Cheese, of all places! There's one less than 5 minutes from the hospital, and although we hadn't ever taken Joseph to one, we figured he'd have fun.

 

 

 

I didn't expect how much fun Joe would have playing the games with Joseph! All of the games were 25 cents, which amazed Joe, so they ran from one game to another, for a solid hour. We had made contact with Jill at this point, who left work early so she could meet us and take Joseph home.

 

While he didn't want to leave, we could tell he was getting really tired. My contractions had picked back up in intensity and were getting closer together, and I was really thankful that Jill was able to watch Joseph for us.

 

We parted ways and headed to the hospital around 3, and I was still convinced that they'd probably end up sending us home. The nurse didn't seem very optimistic that we'd get admitted either when she did an initial check, and we learned that I wasn't any more dilated than I had been at my appointment on Tuesday! Sigh. They still hooked me up to the monitors, and we waited for about an hour and a half. When the nurse came back in, I was ready to hear the news, head home, and get some lunch, as we had skipped it on our way to Chuck E Cheese. But low and behold, somehow I had dilated to 3 cm in the course of the hour! She called my doctor, who told them to admit me, and that she'd be by around 6pm to break my water.

 

I was nervously excited at that point, and really disappointed in myself for not stopping for lunch, as by this point I was really hungry and knew it could be a long night of crunching on ice chips. However, after the doctor stopped by and broke my water, my contractions picked right up and things started to progress quickly. I was at 4cm when she was there, and managed to tolerate the much more intense and closer contractions for an hour or so before requesting the epidural. Once it was placed, it took awhile to take effect, but I was thankful for the relief. And we didn't have to wait very long; by 11pm I was dilated to 9cm. The nurse called the doctor back around 11:30, we did one practice push, and when the doctor walked in at 11:50, we only had to do one push with the nurse before the doctor stepped in. Two more sets of pushes, and Madeline was born, at 12:12am!

 

 

 

 

The cord was loosely wrapped around her neck as she came out, and it took a while to convince her to cry. She laid on my tummy just blinking in amazement and confusion, and did an incredible job of tracking my voice, Joe's and the nurse as we all cooed at her. She was really alert for a long time, and finally started to pink up and cry after the doctor checked her out.

 

 

We made sure to accessorize her basic newborn hat as soon as possible!

 

 

Somehow, even though I gained a lot less weight and didn't measure big, this little girl was born weighing 9 lbs, 0.5 ozs and 19.5 inches long! Since she didn't stay wedged in the birth canal very long, she was born without the traditional cone head - I think she looks a little bit older and more substantial than many newborns you see. Her hands, wrists and feet are so little, and it looks like her eyes are going to look like Joe and Joseph's, with the starburst around the iris, which I'm excited about. We've already deduced that she has my feet and long toes, and detached earlobes. She definitely resembles Joseph as a baby, but has her own subtle traits.

 

 

 

 

 

Her first bath in the hospital did not go over very well. She tolerated her hair being washed, but really didn't like her sponge bath, even while laying under the heat lamp.

 

She even managed to wiggle her little hands out of one of her two id bracelets. Somehow later in the morning she did it again, and we never found it.

 

 

The nurse applied a couple of bows, which didn't last long as we tried to keep her head covered up. They did look so cute while they lasted!

We went to the hospital thinking we'd name baby sister Caroline, as that was the front runner name for months. We weren't quite ready to commit to the name, though, so we opted to wait until we met her to pick a name. After spending the first hour or so with her, both Joe and I had independently doubted the name choice, and felt that Madeline just seemed to fit her better. One name hurdle cleared, one to go! We had some middle name ideas if we had chosen Caroline, but never discussed anything else. After considering a few options, we settled on Rose, mainly because we thought it made for a pretty name. It definitely felt strange to hear ourselves answering "Madeline" when asked her name by the nurses, after calling her "baby sister," Babaloo" and "Henry" for so long!

 

We finally were transferred to our recovery room around 4am, where we attempted to get some rest.

 

Later in the morning, visitors started arriving to see the newest family member. Linda, Ethan and Benton brought Joseph up to the hospital to meet Madeline for a bit. Papa had brought a set of matchbox cars for Joseph, so he and Ethan both thought those were way more fun than the baby. They weren't able to stay too long, though, as it was getting to be lunch and naptime for the boys. We were so lucky to have things work out and have Linda in town for this first week of Madeline's life, as Joseph as really enjoyed getting to play with her boys! It definitely made our time in the hospital a lot less stressful knowing he was in good hands all weekend long and had lots to do with all of the family in town.

 

 

Friday night, Ashley, Mikael, Mason and Jennifer arrived to meet Madeline, and later in the evening the Bowlings and the Chrismans stopped by. I got to have my first glass of wine post baby with our friends, and it tasted great!

 

On Saturday, Mizzou was playing its first game in the SEC against Georgia, and we spent the day just relaxing and watching college football. Ashley, Mikael and Jennifer brought Joseph and Mason up to the hospital, and Joseph was a little more curious about Madeline. He found the buttons to raise and lower the various parts of the hospital bed way more fun, as well as pressing the nurses's call button! Typical for a 2 year old, I'm sure.

 

At lunch, Papa mentioned to Joseph that now that baby sister was here, he needed to learn the three most important words in his new role as big brother: "Maddie did it." Of course, when Joseph said it perfectly, everyone started laughing, so Joseph thought he was too funny and kept repeating the phrase, making us laugh even more.

 

 

 

Too bad he doesn't realize what it means yet!

 

 

The new cousins. Maddie and Mason are officially 10 weeks apart, and share an inadvertent family name - my mom's grandma's name was Maddie Mason. We actually hadn't planned (or even realized it!) it until my mom's dad brought it up when we were in town and told him it was an option for baby sister.

 

 

 

Joseph finally got to hold Maddie for a bit on Saturday, although he wasn't too sure about the experience. He was even more concerned when we put both Madeline and Mason on his lap.

 

 

 

He's held Mason more often, and seemed more comfortable hanging out with him. I'm sure it's also because Mason is able to hold his head up, and is getting much more stable too!

Since we had the choice, we opted to stay Saturday night to take advantage of one more night of help from the nurses. My recovery has been amazingly easy, and a night and day difference from how I felt with Joseph. Not sure if it's because I didn't have to be induced, because I didn't push for as long, she's the second, or some combination of factors, but I'm really thankful to be feeling so good already.

Joe opted to sleep at home so that he could get a good night's rest, so Madeline and I just hung out Sunday morning waiting for Joe and Joseph to come pick us up. They finally got to the hospital late morning, and we loaded Madeline up into her carseat.

Joseph was really excited about getting to take her home, at least, until she started fussing and making a variety of noises.

Then he just seemed a little concerned about the whole thing.

Luckily, he's been really good around her, and generally just wants to watch her, comment on what she's doing, and mainly, give her kisses.

And so begins the next chapter in our lives!