Goofy

Lucy is hilarious - Ben and I comment almost daily how funny she is. We love playing with her and laughing with her, she really is so much fun to be around.

Last week we were getting ready for nap time so I headed upstairs with Hank, thinking Lucy would follow. Hank was a little fussy so I was rocking him and and calling for Lucy to come up. After about 10 minutes, Lucy had still not come up so I headed downstairs to see what she was doing (praying it didn't involve a permanent marker!). Here is what I found when I came downstairs...

What a goofball! She was curled up in Hank's bouncy seat, just relaxing!


Another day last week she decided to try on my boots. She was pretty cute, strutting her stuff around the kitchen...










I'm so thankful to have the most hilarious 21 month old at home to give me some comic relief after being up all night. What a blessing she is in our lives!

Cousins

As I mentioned previously, Ben's sister and our niece and nephew were in town for two weeks around Thanksgiving. We don't get to see them much because they live in Texas, so we tried to soak up all the Addy Jo/Hastle time we could! We spent a lot of time playing over at the Wehners, and Kate and I even ventured out with all the kids one day to lunch and Snapperz. Here are the girls playing...






They got along really well, for them both being in the midst of toddler-hood, and seemed to be ok with sharing toys and grandparents (most of the time!) Here's a video I took of the girls dancing - this is actually from the night I went into labor. Shortly after shooting this, Lucy ended up throwing up all over the place! Surprising since she seems so happy!

Thanksgiving 2011

I have a bit of catching up to do on my blog... one post at a time! The weeks leading up to Hank's arrival were busy! Ben's sister was in town with our niece and nephew for two weeks and all of Ben's family was in town for Thanksgiving. We got to spend a lot of time catching up with family and letting the cousins play. Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving with the Wehners. We also celebrated with my mom's family during the second half of the day and my dad on Friday but I forgot to take any pictures!


Watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade...


Being goofy...


Trying to get a shot of the girls, but we were unsuccessful!


Again, trying to get a shot with Grandpa, but no such luck...


Family picture!


And just our immediate family...

Two Weeks At Home With Hank

So far Lucy and Hank seem to be pretty opposite! From how they came into the world to their demeanor at home, I wouldn't know they were siblings if it weren't for how similar they look!

I now realize what a super chill newborn Lucy was, I had to wake her to eat at night and she rarely cried as a newborn. Hank is a little different! Overall he is a really happy baby, he's just had some issues with gas and pooping - every time he has something to get out he gets pretty upset about it. This isn't too bad during the day, because I can hold him and comfort him, but it poses a bit of a problem at night because I can't really get much sleep between nursing and comforting. Most of our nights involve me nursing him (which takes about an hour by the time he eats, burps and I change his diaper), getting him back to sleep, getting myself to sleep, and then waking up 30-45 minutes later because he's trying to poop and is fussing. Then he finally falls back asleep and needs to nurse in about 30-45 minutes... not leaving much time for me to get any continuous sleep! This has led to Hank spending several nights sleeping on my or Ben's chest - something I would have thought I would never do when we had Lucy, but we are in survival mode at our house and I'm willing to do just about anything to get more sleep!

I wrote the first part of this post about 5 days ago, and since then we've had a few good nights with Hank. I have him swaddled, in the swing, with the noise machine running and that seems to work (most of the time). Our nights seem to be hit and miss, some nights he sleeps well, waking only every three hours to eat. Some nights he fusses and has gas between feedings so I spend a majority of the night rocking him and consoling him. Needless to say I am pretty tired! And Ben has realized how different the nights are when you have two kids - I can no longer catch up on sleep during the day, so I usually recruit him to help in the middle of the night if Hank is up a lot.

Hank also got a bad diaper rash last week, so diaper changes have been kind of a hassle lately as I am only using water and paper towels and let him air out for a while while his skin heals (this has lead to me getting sprayed with pee several times!). Lucy on the other hand has never had a diaper rash.

I've wondered if maybe Hank has an allergy to something I've been eating, but he really does seem to be pretty happy for the most part. The only time he really fusses is when he's passes gas or when he's getting sleepy... thankfully he's pretty predictable in this way!

Other than that, Hank is a really good eater, and a much faster at nursing than Lucy was. He usually wakes like clock work throughout the day every 2.5-3 hours to eat and has been nursing for 15-30 minutes at a time.

Lucy has adjusted really well and has loved having Hank around. The only thing she has to work on is not being too rough with him. She's been told "NO" and "that's too rough" a lot this week.

I've gotten a little used to life at home with two kids - some mornings I felt like I wasn't going to survive: when I've been up all night with Hank, 8am rolls around and Lucy's up and needing food and Hanks screaming needing food too, I'm exhausted, hungry, and desperately want to take a hot shower... but somehow by about 10 or 11am, things are all sorted out, everyone's fed and happy, the house is a little messy, but liveable, and I've had a cup of coffee that helps keep my eyelids open for the day.

One day last week Lucy woke up screaming crying and had a fever of 104 degrees. Again, that was another day I thought I wasn't going to make it, I called Ben crying and begging him to come home, but after giving Lucy a dose of Tylenol and a little Sesame Street, things seemed to calm down and life seemed doable again!

So far we've made it out to a play date, Real Moms, and a trip to Target. I'm pretty proud of ourselves! But most days we typically stay inside - which hasn't actually been that bad because we've had visitors most days to keep me company. What a blessing it is to have so many friends and family members near by!

Some pictures from our first weeks at home...


Kisses for Hank...














I love this next series of photos... Starts at happy to hold Hank...


Starting to get a little too rough...


Made that mom is intervening...




One eye stink...

Hanks First Bath

We skipped over the whole sponge bath thing because by the time we had our lives together enough to give Hank a bath, his umblical cord had already fallen off! So far he's had two baths and was pretty chill in the bath the whole time.


Lucy loved having Hank in the tub with her. She really does love being a big sister!




All cleaned up and snuggling with my two babies before bed...

Hank's Birth Day

Our little boy has finally arrived! We were so excited to meet our bundle of joy on November 26th, he came into the world at 4:47am, weighing 9lbs, 0ozs and was 21.5 inches long. Here is a breakdown of our last week with Hank...

My last week of pregnancy was filled with a lot of anxiety and a bit of frustration, and of course I was starting to feel pretty miserable and uncomfortable (understandable since I was carrying a 9lb baby in my belly!). My entire pregnancy we had planned to induce early (as long as my body was ready) so that we would have a smaller baby in order to avoid the tearing and surgery I had after Lucy's birth. At my 39 week appointment I was 3cm and 50% effaced, but the doctor said my cervix was not low enough so he wanted to wait on the induction. That meant, because of Thanksgiving week, the only day to induce would be Tuesday (two days before my due date). Unfortunately because of Thanksgiving, the timing was not ideal for our families (to help with Lucy) so I opted (out of stress and anxiety) to not do the induction on Tuesday - I just didn't feel comfortable with our plans for Lucy. And so, again unfortunately because of Thanksgiving, my only other option to induce was the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (5 days after my due date) - not early at all (as I had planned)!

This left me feeling worried about having a baby that would be too big, let down that we wouldn't have the baby when I had thought we would, stressed about the baby's movements and his health (suddenly I felt like he was still all day long) and anxious about what our plan would be for Lucy and Ruthie once the baby came (every day was a different plan depending on grandparents work schedule and what family was in town taking up bedrooms because of the holidays). So on top of feeling absolutely miserable physically, emotionally I was starting to lose it too.

Needless to say, every day felt like an eternity as we waited. As if all of the above wasn't bad enough, my body started contracting almost a week before Hank came. Every day my braxton hicks contractions would get stronger and stronger (to the point of waking me out of sleep), and closer together - but just when we thought it was time to pack our bags, they would go away. Even Thanksgiving morning, we were timing contractions 5 minutes apart for a 30 minute period, and then they just suddenly stopped. Talk about frustrating! With Lucy I felt nothing before the actual labor, so I was really confused about what my body was doing this time around.

Finally on Friday night (November 25th), Ben and I were getting settled in, watching a movie, after having spent the night cleaning up Lucy and our home because Lucy had thrown up 3 times that evening, my contractions picked up! Of course, the night Lucy is puking all night is the night Hank would decide to enter this world! The contractions came on pretty fast and strong and because I'd been contracting all week we had a feeling we would need to get to the hospital fast. Ben's dad came to stay with Lucy and fortunately she had stopped puking for the night.

When we got to the hospital I was 6 cm and my water had broken. I wasn't really sure if my water had broken, but I had a feeling it was, and sure enough when they checked it was broken. I think they said I must have had a small tear that led to a slow trickle which is why I wasn't totally sure if it had broken. We did paperwork for what seemed like hours and I made sure the nurse knew that I wanted an epidural as soon as they could get it to me - I was starting to get extremely uncomfortable!

Once the epidural came, things were much better - I was still at 6cm and thought I'd have some time to rest before pushing. I think I slept for about 15 or 30 minutes, but the nurse kept coming in to check on Hank because his heartbeat was dropping when I was contracting. After making me change positions a lot she decided to check me again and announced "you're complete, I'll go call the doctor" (which is why Hank's heart rate was dropping)... I was shocked! I think I'd had the epidural for 30 minutes and it was already time to push!

The next part happened so fast, it was surreal... we did a practice push and the nurses said I was pushing great (even though I couldn't feel anything because I'd just gotten the epidural). The doctor came in, I pushed during one contraction, then during my next contraction she had me start to push, then stop, pulled the baby out and put him on my chest! What?!?! I was not expecting Hank to come after 4 pushes when Lucy had taken 2 hours of pushing.

What an awesome experience- they laid Hank on my chest and Ben cut the umbilical cord (neither of which we got to do with Lucy because NICU had to check her right away since she had taken her first poop in my uterus). Of course I fell in love with Hank right away and any fears I had about loving him as much as I love Lucy were gone as soon as I held him in my arms. Nothing can compare to the feeling of holding your own baby for the first time after thinking about him and praying for him for over 9 months.

The doctor stitched me up, and left - I think she was at the hospital a total of 30 minutes! All in all I think I was in labor about 5 hours (including an hour of labor at home)- we were admitted to the hospital at 12:30am and Hank arrived at 4:47am. Talk about a fast entrance into the world!

Because Hank came down the birth canal so fast he did have some bruising on his face - I felt so bad for him, his little body was pink but his face was black and blue from slamming into my pelvic bone as he shot down the birth canal. Fortunately the bruising began to clear right away and was almost not even noticeable within the next couple days. And the nurses said it didn't bother him at all. Other than the bruising, Hank was a perfectly healthy baby boy. I was so relieved, thankful, and in awe all at once!

Waiting for the doctor (you can tell my nurse was kind of spunky!)


Holding Hank for the first time...




Getting cleaned up...


Much happier with mom! (you can see some of the bruising here)


Proud dad!


Warming up before his bath... you can see the bruising here as well...


The next day, meeting his big sister for the first time! She couldn't come on Saturday because she had thrown up again at her grandma and grandpa's house... I was really sad, but knew that it would be better for her to stay home and get better.


Handsome boy! Bruising almost all cleared up!


A shot of Lucy for comparison... twins I think! Looks like we'll have another Ben clone :)


Snuggle time with mom...


All dressed ready to go home!




And another shot of Lucy to compare...


Looks like they both loved their pacis!