Where's the Fire?

Well, it appears our too-smart-for-his-own-good three-year old will use any means necessary to get out of rest time. Earlier today during rest time, he got up no less than 4 times declaring he needed to go to the bathroom. Grudgingly, I let him because as a new learner, you just never know, even though I know on several instances he's stayed dry overnight and is capable of staying dry for his hour and a half rest period.

Anyway, I was downstairs nursing Tate and Landon came down asking if rest time was over yet. I told him "no" and let him know he had a few more minutes. He came down 2 minutes later and said, "There's a fire in my room." I said, "What?!?," more out of disbelief than not hearing what he had said. Once again he repeated himself. Now, we don't keep matches in the house and our fire starter is kept out of his reach, but you still never know. So I run upstairs, still nursing Tate, in panic mode, because "What if there was actually a fire?" to find Landon sitting on his bed with no fire in sight. Relieved. Upset. And just a teensy bit amazed at his ingenuity.

Big Brother, Little Brother

Well, it has been almost three weeks since Tate has made his appearance and we are absolutely loving having him here! And, there must be something about having a newborn in the house that makes one recognize how grown-up an older sibling seems. So here are some updates on Big Brother and Little Brother.

Landon - The biggest news is that potty training is going beautifully! Yes, it probably was not ideal to go gung-ho with potty training with a newborn in the house, but Alan and I had procrastinated long enough. With the incentive of receiving toy cars for every time he pooped on the toilet (his biggest challenge), Landon rose to the occasion! He has been staying dry/clean for just about 2 weeks now and has even been staying dry at night!

Yesterday, when Landon was getting dressed, he wanted me to do the buttons on his polo shirt. Because I was doing the dishes, I couldn't tend to him right away. Next thing I know, he had done the buttons all by himself - for the first time ever.

Landon continues to blossom verbally. As a one year old, he talked a lot. Now, it's almost non-stop and when he gets excited about something the decibel level increases. And although he's been singing the ABC's for quite some time and has been counting for just as long, now he's starting to recognize letters, numbers, and letter sounds (the other day he told me, "Mommy, mmm, Mommy starts with the letter M"). I'm very excited because this summer I'm going to be doing some home-schooling work with him and I think he's really going to enjoy some of the things I've already found.

Tate - So much like his big brother was as an infant, yet uniquely Tate. As I type this, he is sleeping in a wrap, all snug and cozy. He very much loves to cuddle and be held. He's been sleeping very well; generally he'll go down about 9 or 10 pm and be up for the day at 5 am. Mommy is extremely grateful for this! When he is awake, he's very alert and loves to check things out with his big, blue(!) eyes. He's very strong and often pops his head up when being held over our shoulders. He still has a head full of black hair and, as of now, doesn't appear to be losing any of it.

We've been adjusting fairly well with our big and little boys and are excited to see how they continue to develop into their own beings and in their relationship with one another!

Birth Story Bullet Points

As you can see by our blog title and picture, we have a new addition to our family! Tate arrived on March 26th weighing in at 9 lbs. and 22 inches. We are thrilled to have him as a part of our family and, thanks to both boys napping at the same time, I am now able to share his birth story with you! Since I know I can tend to go into too much detail, I'm going to give you the bullet point version. Any questions you have can be left in the comments section and I'll go into further detail there. So here it goes:

• Due Monday, March 21. Had doctor's appointment. At 2 cm. Scheduled appointment for Friday, March 25 in which we'd talk about induction.


• Wednesday, March 23 and Thursday, March 24 - contractions overnight, but nothing that warranted going to the hospital (although contractions on Thursday were stronger, they weren't coming the 4-5 minutes apart).


• Friday, March 25 - appointment scheduled for 12:30, including ultrasound to check fluid levels. Was having contractions throughout morning and then anywhere between 4 and 8 minutes apart about an hour and a half before appointment. Opted to go to appointment - 1) knowing office was located next to hospital in case they had me stay; 2) didn't want to go to hospital first because I didn't want them to send me home if things weren't progressing as I thought they were and; 3) wanted one last glimpse of baby via ultrasound.


• Had contractions through ultrasound and while waiting for doctor. Doctor arrives and I lay down on table for her to check me, but I have a contraction. She waits to check until contraction is over. I feel a pop, water breaks. She checks and I'm at 3 cm. Doula called.


• Alan and I take a walk to the hospital. Contractions are stronger and are coming more frequently.


• Arrive at birth center, where I'm hooked up to penicillin for failing Group Strep B test and a heart monitor since I was attempting a VBAC. Contractions are coming very fast (1-2 minutes apart). Doula arrives.


• 2:30 pm - I'm checked and am at 4 cm. Wanted to wait until 5 cm to pursue epidural but couldn't wait; contractions were coming too hard and fast.


• 4:00 pm - Checked again and still at 4.


• 5:30 pm - Checked again at doctor said I was "5ish." Pressure catheter inserted to determine how strong contractions were actually inside my uterus. Although I was having frequent contractions, the fact that I wasn't dilating as fast as everyone thought I should be, led to this.


• 6:15 - Pitocin started since pressure monitor showed weak contractions, although frequent. Pitocin would hopefully encourage pressure of contractions.


• 7:15 - I'm getting more and more uncomfortable. Felt pain on left side, especially inner thigh with every contraction and was feeling pressure in lower back. Vomited. Received boost in epidural. 6 cm.


• 8:30 - Baby at 0 station, still at 6 cm. I developed a fever of 102.9, worried about infection of uterus. Antibiotics and Tylenol started.


• 9:00 - Received news that baby would have to go to special care nursery after birth and stay for 48 hours to receive antibiotics to ward off infection.


• 9:30 - More sharp pain in left inner thigh. Received another boost in epidural. Vomited again.


• 10:30 - Around 7 cm. For sure at this point and probably earlier, was thinking I should have been more than a 7.


• Midnight, Saturday, March 26 - 8 cm. Obnoxious tingling pain returns in left leg with every contraction. Received another boost of epidural (12:30).


• 1:00 - Fully dilated. Was told to push. Concerned because I didn't feel the need to push. Received excellent coaching and encouragement from nurse, doula, and Alan.


• During course of pushing, I was put on oxygen because baby's heart rate was low; vacuum used to help get him out; I did get an episiotomy (not my first choice, but doctor said we needed to get baby out right away)


• 1:22 am - Tate was born!

Quite the experience and so vastly different than Landon (water broke, failed to progress after 2 days, C-section). So grateful that Tate is here now and healthy. Also grateful to Dena, my doula, for writing all this down because 2 weeks later, I forgot many of the details - certainly God at work there because I'm sure if women remembered their birth experience and all the pain and challenges that go along with it, there'd be so many more families with only one child!

Fess Up Friday

I am a very lazy cook on weekends. More often than not, we have leftovers from the week on weekends and meal preparation requires just pushing a button on the microwave. This past weekend, I was even more lazy than normal. Saturday we went out to breakfast AND lunch (part of it was celebratory, as Alan got a bonus at work). Since we were pretty full from going out to eat twice, dinner was whatever we could scrounge together from the fridge. Sunday morning I did make a breakfast of scrambled eggs and muffins. For lunch on Sunday, Landon ate the rest of his muffin and an orange. And for dinner, he had a taco (tortilla with melted butter and cinnamon-sugar) and another orange. See what I mean by "lazy?"

At 39 weeks pregnant, I've found that I've been quite crabby lately. So parenting a 3 year old can be especially difficult when he talks back or is disobedient. I've thought more than once this week, "I can't wait to go to the hospital because it will be a nice break from Landon." Not "I can't wait to go to the hospital to give birth to our second son," but to use the hospital as respite from my current son. Crazy pregnancy hormones.

Fess Up Friday

This is what happens when you're 38 weeks pregnant and opt to take a nap rather than unload the dishwasher, reload it, and rinse out the cans for recycling.

Reincarnation

If I believed in reincarnation (which I don't),

I'm pretty sure Landon would have been a fish in a previous life.

We went to Wisconsin Dells earlier this week and Landon was totally in his element.

With 4 different waterparks to play at, all we needed to do was say "waterpark"

and Landon would strip down to his diaper and have his swimsuit on.

He was fearless, too. He braved the wave pool with Daddy, as well as whatever big waterslides they would let him on.

This was certainly the smallest slide he went on, but the most convenient because he would slide down and quickly go back up the stairs to do it again. I kid you not, he must have went down this one at least 100 times. The boy does not know his limits...

...unlike his cousins, who knew their limits and would take breaks from the water. But, I suppose if one truly was a fish, taking "breaks" from the water would be perilous to one's health.

Fess Up Friday

This week, we (and by "we," I mean Alan) unintentionally created an indoor park for Landon. "Now what's so bad about that?," you're probably wondering. Well, let me explain. Alan came home from work the other day to find Landon driving his toy cars with Iowa Grandma. They had created a ramp out of our fold-up TV trays, but Alan, being an engineer and lover of fast cars, figured that wasn't good enough. So he went to the garage and came back in with a slew of cardboard. He then proceeded to construct a ramp going down our basement (carpeted and somewhat steep) stairs for Landon to race the cars down. It didn't take long for the ramp to become a slide for our very adventurous three year old to slide down (oh yeah, Grandma even took a turn!). It even got to the point where Landon took another piece of cardboard and sat on that before going down the cardboard slide (like a toboggan) to get more speed. Slightly dangerous? Yes, but, oh so fun.