C.R.A.Z.Y day

It all started yesterday.

Crew was acting weird all day and whined/cried a lot (I forgot to mention that the doctor says he's colicy - oh joy!). Crew usually whines constantly but this was much worse. Last night he was whining all night long. I nursed him FOREVER and held him, rocked him, bounced him...tried everything I could think of. Nothing relaxed the little man. Oh what a night that was. I think I got about 3 hours of sleep...maybe. And it was more of 30 minutes here and there. It continued throughout the day. ALL day. He cried the loudest I've heard him yet and nothing has completely relaxed him. I decided the boys needed to get out of the house so we ran to Walmart for a few things. He passed out and slept for a while (a huge blessing in my day). Then he whined for a few more hours and now he's passed out. FINALLY!!! I hope and pray tonight our little boy will be comfortable enough to sleep so I can rest.

Cooper has had a fever on and off the last couple days. I thought it was just him teething but I'm starting to think otherwise. He has a rash that looks like heat rash but it started out small last week and is now covering his entire body from chest to knee and it's only on one side. It's feverish and raised. Also, I can feel a gland on the black of his head that is HUGE and swollen. It doesn't seem to bother him but I called today and got him in to see a doctor tomorrow. He went to bed perfectly last night. No problem there. He even slept for 13 hours straight. Not a peep from him all night. This morning he woke up crying, which is unusual for him. I offered him breakfast and he ate maybe half a waffle. He was pretty content all morning. Then he was super excited and was playing on the couch. All of a sudden I see him trip and fly towards the window and he fell head first to the ground. I was nursing Crew so I quickly laid him down and ran to Cooper. I did a very quick assessment of his head, neck, back, arms, legs, face. Nothing was broken!! He whined for less than a minute, grabbed his blanket and binky then sat in my lap for a few minutes. Oh it was scary. He has no bumps, bruises, or red marks. Not sure how that happened! Then it was bath time. He has this issue with not sitting down in the tub. He's very confident standing and walking. As he was standing for me to take him out he slipped and smacked his face on the edge of the tub. He screamed, I pulled him out and did another glance around his face. Once again, no bleeding, all teeth were intact, and no redness/swelling! Seriously, so blessed! He searched for his binky, grabbed his blanket, and sat in my lap for a few minutes.

Now, it may not seem very bad. However, I am exhausted and my hubby is at his company annual meeting in Boise. Tomorrow evening can not come fast enough!!

This section of the post is after I had posted this. The night got more interesting...

I had put Cooper down in bed at 8 as usual. He played and then started crying - not usual. He started to say "owe" over and over. I let him go thinking he'd fall asleep. During that time I saw a status on my nurse managers facebook saying something about a poisonous caterpillar that causes a bad rash and fever. Well, Cooper has a bad rash and fever. So I started freaking out and researching as much as I could. I called the ER and had to leave a message...that's right. I LEFT A MESSAGE. How dumb is that? After about an hour of finding nothing out and talking with Brady we decided I should just take him in to be safe. I got the boys loaded up and headed to the ER. We were checked in - Cooper did not have a fever at that point and the nurse said it looks like a strep throat rash. She asked me a couple questions like "is he sticking things down his throat?" Well, it's hard to tell when he's chewing on his fingers and binky constantly. Anyway, we were sent out into the waiting room. We waited for about 30 minutes when I heard the receptionist tell someone that they had no rooms available, two ambulances just came in, and a helicopter just landed - it could be at least 2 hours and she had 3 people in front of her. At this time Cooper was acting fine and starting to be really crazy. I ended up leaving and praying that we would be fine throughout the night until his appointment today. Well, the night was RIDICULOUS. Here's how it went:

11:30 - cooper went down. I ate (for the first time that day) and cleaned up and went to sleep at 1:30.

3:00 - Cooper woke up screaming. I gave him some milk and he went back down around 3:30.

4:30 - Crew woke up. Fed/changed him. Went down around 5:00

6:00 - Cooper woke up screaming. A TERRIBLE scream. I got him some milk and he refused that. We ended up getting up and watching Monsters, Inc. He calmed down and went back to bed at 6:30. He finally took the full dose of Tylenol for me.

8:15 - Crew up and awake until 9:30.

10:30 - Cooper is up and eating toast! He ate just about all of it!!

All in all, I am tired. I am so blessed to have a wonderful husband who is amazingly helpful!! And I am so grateful these nights don't occur more often!!

Check up

After our ER/NICU experience when Crew was 6 days old (there will be a separate post on that), we were going in for check ups every couple days. After he started to gain weight they wanted us back in again after two weeks for another check up...just to be sure he was gaining weight. Today was that two week check up. Here are the results:

Weight 2 weeks ago: 5 pounds 13 ounces

Length 2 weeks ago: 19 inches

Weight today: 6 pounds 11 1/2 ounces

Length today: 20 inches

YAY!!! The doctor is VERY VERY pleased and so are we! I've been strictly nursing him and I was worried he wasn't getting the full amount every 3 hours. He always seems hungry after so I never can tell how much he's getting. Every once in a while we will offer him a bottle to see if he'll drink it and he usually just sucks on it without swallowing. It's so difficult for me to be sure. But today confirmed it to me that breast feeding is going well for us!! This makes me feel more confident with everything! YAY!!

1 month

Crew is 1 month old!! I can not believe how fast this month has gone. I sit here and ask myself..."what have you done this past month?" All I can say is..."I loved my babies!"

This past month has been a HUGE life changing experience. Adjusting to two children is much more difficult than adjusting to one (at least for us). For a little info on our every day life take a look at this schedule (it's approx. and isn't exact of course...but we try):

7:00 - feed/change Crew

8:00 - feed/change Cooper

9:00 - Cooper plays, Crew naps

10:00 - feed/change Crew while Cooper snacks. Change Cooper.

11:00 - Cooper plays, Crew naps

12:00 - lunch for Cooper

12:45 - 1:00 - Cooper goes down for nap

1:00 - feed/change Crew

2:00 - 3:00 - Crew naps, plays, cuddles with Mom (this is the time I take to clean the house or nap)

3:00 - 4:00 - Cooper wakes up between then. feed/change Cooper

4:00 - feed/change Crew

5:00 - play time for Cooper, Crew naps

6:00 - dinner for everybody

7:00 - feed/change Crew. Cooper gets ready for bed.

8:00 - Cooper goes down to bed. Crew naps.

9:00 - clean house

10:00 - feed/change Crew and put to bed.

It's seriously all "feed/change" the boys! They both eat ALL the time! And they both pee a lot! I know the schedule looks pretty crazy...but believe me - it doesn't always work out this way. It's a good day when it happens like this :) I try hard to have us all on a schedule. Our days go by much smoother.

Crew has changed a lot in the past month. He's awake more, smiles more, and hardly ever goes cross-eyed! He eats good, sleeps great, and hardly ever cries. If he's crying it's because Cooper hurt him or he's very hungry. He was pretty whiney for a little while but that's improved. He's now sleeping in his own room and I don't really like it...but we are getting more sleep at night.

Overall, Crew is an amazing boy and we love him so much!!

Cooper update...

He's finally behaving better! Woohoo!! All week he has been going through good and bad times on and off. I think a part of this improvement may be the fact that he's understanding more, able to communicate better, and slightly more patient. Here are a few words that he's started saying recently:

no "nah", more, please "peas", all done "ah don", hot dog, juice "uice" - he says plenty more but these are just recent words.

He's also been showing us things:

-grabbing our hands and taking us to what he wants and pointing to what he wants

-continues to sign: more, please, food, thank you

-shakes his head yes or no at the appropriate times. If we ask him "are you all done?" he will shake his head yes or no. And he holds out his arms to the sad with palms up when he's all done.

-grabs himself or says "diaper" when he wants to be changed (I've put him on the potty a few times when he does this and he screams!)

He can be very picky with certain things:

- his sippy has to be in a certain spot on his high chair, stroller, and car seat

- he has to be buckled into the high chair (I have a video of him doing it himself)

- he has to say good night, wave bye, and kiss everyone in the house before going to bed

- if there's something on the floor that he knows shouldn't be there (crumb, string...) he will pick it up and hand it to me.

* there's more that I can't think of but my mom calls it "OCD" haha :) Things just have to be done a certain way or he gets very upset.

He's really starting to communicate better with us and it really has helped with the outrageous tantrums he's been throwing. He gets so frustrated and upset - he will go to any hard surface and bang his head against it. It's pretty ridiculous. During these tantrums I found if I get down at his level, be patient and ask him to show me what he wants he will get up and show me. It just takes him a minute (or two+) to figure it out. It's super difficult to be patient when he's screaming at the top of his lungs and throwing himself around the floor...but it's a work in progress!

Brothers

They are best buds already

Faith

I was looking at a friend's blog today and she had this quote posted. I think it fits perfectly with my day!

Faith is risking what is

for what is yet to be.

It is taking small steps

knowing they lead to bigger ones.

Faith is holding on when you want to let go.

It is letting go when you want to hold on.

Faith is hearing God’s yes

when everything else says no.

It is believing all things are possible

in the midst of impossibilities.

Faith is looking beyond what is

for what is yet to be.

It is seeing the light in darkness,

the presence of God in all.

~ Ellen M. Cuomo

Play Group

Our ward has a play group every Tuesday at a nearby park. I was personally asked/invited to go so I thought "why not". I thought Cooper would love to play with other kids and I could socialize a bit.

I arrived at the park and Cooper was behaving GREAT! He held my hand and asked permission to go play. Then...it went downhill. My little boy was behaving like a MONSTER! He'd pick up dirt and let it drizzle between his fingers. Not a few minutes later it turned into throwing it. Then he saw a boy running so he ran after him, went up to say hi, and threw dirt at him. After a serious session of "NOs" he was back to playing again. No more than a minute later he picked up dirt and threw it at another kid - laughing thinking it was funny. This continued for the entire 10 minutes we were there!! Eventually he saw me coming and would run away from me...laughing. I was so so embarrassed. I know he doesn't know better but SERIOUSLY?? I was so upset I loaded him up in the car (screaming of course because who wouldn't have fun in the dirt) and headed home. We all were bathed, had lunch, and then NAP time.

My thoughts:

- we will not be going to play group until he's more behaved.

- research and pray for guidance in disciplining our toddler.

- go to parks without dirt for a while. It is really difficult to clean up when it's in every crease and fold you never knew existed.

Crew at 3 weeks...

- sleeps a lot. He is starting to wake up a little more between feedings.

- nurses for the most part. Takes a bottle without difficulty when used.

- loves to be warm. VERY WARM. he sleeps in pajamas and is swaddled with a fleece wrap. he wiggles and seems restless until we put another blanket on him. It's crazy!

- he hates baths still. and really hates having his diaper changed.

- takes getting beat up by Coop pretty well!

- the hair on his head is thinning out. :( We hope he doesn't go completely bald like Cooper did.

- he smiles a lot!

- he's a mommy's boy :) All I have to do is hold him close for him to stop crying. It's not so easy for daddy.

- he is so hard to burp

- he cries when we put him in the car seat

- has rolled over 2 times from belly to back

- likes to have his feet rubbed. it calms him down most of the time

Crew is such a different baby than Cooper. He is more "needy" than Cooper ever was and we are getting used to it. He is a big snuggler and we love having him in our home! I can't believe it's been close to a month already. It seems as though he's been here forever!

We love you littlest man!

Cooper at 18 months

- loves to play! Lately, he's really enjoyed his soccer balls. He will kick that ball nonstop for what seems like an hour.

- he's learning so much! Just when I think what I'm teaching him is not sinking in he surprises me. Yesterday I was showing him the letters A, B and C. I asked him what letter is B. Sure enough he picked it up and handed it to me.

- he knows sign language. Please, thank you, more, and food. He even puts "more please" together.

- he says many words. I am not going to list them all but his most recent one has been "please" and it sounds like "peas". When he says it he's very dramatic and repeats it over and over really fast! I think he has a little lisp type thing going on. He has a hard time saying any words with a B. He sticks his tongue to his teeth and all words that have a B sound like a D. Example: his "ball" sounds like "dall". "binky" is "didi".

- he can stand on one foot...without holding on to anything!

- he's a big climber and is NOT scared of anything.

- he can throw a ball across the room.

- he claps with joy

- phones are the best to play with. he often has a conversation (with himself) and we'll hear him jibber jabber then giggle and jibber jabber some more, and giggle more! Super cute!

- when he gets laughing pretty hard...he throws his head back

- he is super heavy and super solid. Everyone that picks him up comments on how heavy he is.

- he runs. a LOT. Like he never ever stops.

- all but 2 teeth are in!

- he can blow his nose.

- he's a pretty good eater. his favorite foods are hot dogs, pizza, and yogurt. he eats a meal 3 times a day and has snack time 2 times a day.

- he drinks a ton. 4-5 sippy cups of water or juice a day!

- he tells us when he has to go potty or when he wants a diaper change. He HATES to sit on the potty.

- TV has become something that is on often...maybe a little too often. his favorite movie is The Sandlot. He also likes Monsters Inc. Those two are pretty much the only movies he will watch.

- he has a favorite blanket, dog, and of course his binky. All 3 go to bed with him and the blanket goes everywhere (in the house and sometimes to the car).

- he likes to help take care of Crew all the time. He gives wonderful kisses and hugs to his little brother.

Wow, I seriously could go on forever about my wonderful 18 month old. I can't believe it's been that long already! But the more I think about it I can't believe it's only been that long since he's been in our family. He is so kind hearted and loves people. He forgives easy as we try to be decent parents. He is stubborn like his mommy and unconditionally loves like his daddy.

Happy 18 month birthday Coop!!

18 months!

Newborn Pictures

Here's my attempt at our own newborn pictures. I'm not a huge fan but they will do!

Birth Story + hospital stay

Surgery was scheduled for Friday morning at 7:30. I had pre-registered so all we had to do was show up at 5:30 and start the preop process. I changed into my gown and they started an IV. I finished up some paperwork and was hooked up to machines. I was having contractions of course so it was interesting to watch on the monitor. At about 7:15 we were told that our surgery was to be pushed back because of an emergency c-section. Around 8 we were told that the surgery was over and we were next. Not long after I was rolled into the surgical room and the spinal was done. That was when I started to get really nervous. I had several doctor's in the room (1 doctor, 1 physician assistant, and 1 resident). I also had NICU in the room and several nurses. It was overwhelming! Brady came in a long while after everything was situated. And the silly nurse told him he couldn't bring the camera in...DUMB.

Surgery started and it felt weird as usual. I had sharp pains in my chest again. It hurt so so bad!! The anesthesiologist didn't want to give me pain medication for it so the surgery is pretty much a blurr for me. I was trying really hard not to hyperventilate because of the pain. I was also really nauseous from it and I didn't want to throw up...he did give me antinausea medication. However, I do remember when Crew was born! He came out much easier than Cooper did and I heard the PA say "oh he has a pretty necklace on". The cord was wrapped around his neck twice. Brady didn't say anything and everything was quiet. Then I heard his screeching cry!! It was an amazing sound...and it was the weirdest little cry I had ever heard! It sounded like a screeching car. They rushed him over to NICU and wrapped him up. Brady was able to hold him for a few minutes and let me see him. He was super adorable and so little! He was then taken to NICU to be monitored. I was then informed that I would not see him for the next 6 hours!!!! I was so upset. I couldn't believe that my healthy baby (apgar scores 8 and 9) was going to be taken away from me for that long. Apparently, all babies born before 37 weeks have to be monitored for at least 6 hours. GRR.

The next 6 hours went by really slow. I was in recovery for a while and then transferred to my room. I was very nauseous so I ate saltines and ice chips. My family visited Crew for a while (Cooper was at day care) and took Brady out for lunch. Thankfully, the antinausea meds made me drowsy...I was able to rest a little. 3:00 came and they hadn't brought Crew in. I woke Brady up from a nap and wanted him to go get him. He politely told me he couldn't do that and to wait patiently. Instead, I paged the nurse and asked to hold my baby. Finally at 3:30 he rolled in! I was so happy I was in tears! I held him close and snuggled for a while before more family and friends came in.

Crew was able to get a bath that evening and I was actually able to watch it! They brought a warmer into our room and gave him a bath right there! Cooper had a bath done immediately after he was born while I was in recovery. He wasn't a fan of being bathed but he smelled so good after!

The rest of the time was mainly feeding and sleeping. Since he was considered a "late preemie" he had to eat every 3 hours. Either breastfed or bottle fed. If he didn't nurse well we HAD to give him a bottle to ensure he was getting the nutrients he needed. At night I was being checked every hour and he was coming in every 3 hours to nurse (we sent him to the nursery so we could sleep between feedings at night). We were very anxious to get home and not be bothered so often! Cooper came in one day for a few minutes! haha He went absolutely crazy and wanted to play with everything. At one point he tried climbing behind the hospital bed and playing with the cords. It was a very stressful moment for everybody!

We were able to go home on Sunday. Cooper did very well welcoming him home and was occupied with both Grandma's being here.

Overall, everything went okay and we made it home safely. Look for another post of hospital pictures...it was becoming difficult to move all the pictures around and organize it well.