Thursday, December 22, 2011

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!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

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...

Friday, December 9, 2011

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...