Fun Updates

Since I blogged last we've had family visits, a baby blessing, and a birthday. Paul's parents flew here all the way from Idaho to be here for Braden's blessing. It was so nice for them to come all this way. Paul's sister Nicole and her family also drove up from Tucson so we had a great weekend together! Lani and Joseph got here Thursday night and the Largeys came Saturday. Everyone went home on Sunday. Susanna sure had fun playing with her three cousins. She loves when we get to hang out with them. We set up an air mattress in Susie's room for the kids to "sleep" on together.  My Aunt Cora, Micah, Jamie, and Aaron (cousins) also came to sacrament meeting for the blessing and to our house afterwards for lunch. I'm so so sad I didn't get more pictures of everyone who was there. It was a little busy with that many people, kids to take care of etc. Oh well. We got a few. 

It was so nice to have to love and support of our family on Braden's blessing day. It was a happy day.

Paul's birthday was last week also. He turned 27! Wow, old man. For his birthday we put together a box of envelopes full of birthday surprises, one to open for each day in the birthday week. We did a big candy bar card one day, poppyseed muffins another, out to dinner one night, a special date for the 2 of us (Lani and Joseph agreed to babysit for this one and I was SO excited to get out but it fell threw because Braden was feeling sick. We'll have to go another time). We had a little family party with cake and presents on his birthday, too.

Here are a few videos of our fun week:

 

This last video is for Grandma. We wanted to show her how cool this castle is!

Happy Times

Just a little update. We are doing good! Although it is still hard to have Paul gone a lot we are doing better. Even though I would love to have him around more I am grateful he is in pharmacy school and I'm grateful that on top of that he has an intern job that might turn into a pharmacist job when we graduate, and I'm grateful he has opportunities to serve in our church. I'm also so grateful that I get to be a mom and stay home with our two kids and babysit a little! We have some happy times together! A few weeks ago we had a lot of rain. I let Susie run outside and play in it. She had a blast. It was so fun to watch her!

Braden has the cutest little smile. He loves being talked to. His first smile was about 6 weeks old. I gave him a kiss on his cheek and he smiled up at me. It was a great moment for me! Call me an emotional sentimentalist but it felt like with that little smile he might just be saying, "Thanks for all you do for me Mom, I love you, too."  :) 

I wanted to record a few things about nursing and sleeping so I have it for future reference. (aka this might be boring- don't bother reading further!)

Nursing is still not going great. I've tried lots of things to increase my supply: nursing more often, nursing a lot longer each time, restricting binky use, I'm taking 2400 mg of fenugreek (which I heard was a miracle worker), etc. I am still not making enough and always worry that he is going hungry. Right now I am nursing him on both sides and then giving him a 2 oz bottle. I'm not sure if I'll be able to start making more milk eventually and cut back on the supplement. That's what I'd like to happen. He isn't nursing very well. He gets frustrated so I'm worried that will make the milk supply worse. I might have to start pumping and just give him what I pump plus whatever else he needs in formula. We'll see. I'm doing my best.

Right now I am trying to have Braden nap every three hours. We start the day at 7, eat, wake time, and then nap around 8:30 or 9. Then at 10 we start again with the cycle. Some days he does great, some days he doesn't sleep longer than 30 minutes for his nap. When this happens I try to see if he'll go back down or feed him again. At night he usually goes down around 10 or 10:30, wakes up to eat around 3, back down at 4 and then we start the day at 7. All in all pretty good! We are working towards full naps and sleeping through the night. 

How Things Are Going

Well it hasn't been easy. There are good days and bad days of course. It's funny (or not so funny) how you really forget what it's like to take care of a newborn. I thought I was ready but having 2 throws me through the loop most days. We are still adjusting. I think you just have to hang in there for the first couple months. I've needed to remind myself that things will settle down, but it might take awhile. I'll find time for cleaning and exercising and spending time with Paul and maybe even a few minutes to myself here and there-- eventually. I'm holding out for November :)

One new challenge presented itself this week when we took Braden to the doctor. At his one month check he was still at birth weight. He hasn't gained anything in 2 weeks. The doctor basically told me he is starving and I felt terrible. She said to buy a pump and buy formula and start a new routine. I nurse on one side, feed him a 2 oz bottle of either pumped milk or formula, then pump the other side. When pumping I only get one ounce, which I don't think is too much. I am able to feed him pumped milk as a supplement every other feeding and formula every other time. Poor little guy. I felt a lot of guilt and wondered if I had done things differently if he would be doing better. Our new routine with pumping etc, isn't too fun, especially in the middle of the night. I hope at next week's appointment he will have gained some weight and we can decide where to go from there. I have read up and talked to LLL about increasing my milk supply. We are taking away the binky (for the most part) and trying to feed more frequently, hoping that will help increase my supply. I struggled with milk supply with Susanna as well but I thought it was just because I had to go back to work and was only able to pump once during the school day. I think the adversary has really tried to make me feel overwhelmed and guilty and hopeless. Thankfully, when I pray I feel a lot of peace. I might have to feed my babies formula. I might be one of those women who just don't make enough milk. All I can do is give it my best. It will be ok.

I am trying to be good with pictures. They grow so fast. Braden is a month old and Susie turned 2 and half on Wednesday. (We celebrate half birthdays in this house with half birthday cake!).

Susie has become quite the little mama. She is good to nurse her stuffed animals and dolls and change their diapers. 

Braden's first bath at about 2 weeks old (we waited for the circumcision to heal first). He doesn't like baths too much. 

We went to the dollar store and put together these "nursing bins." We have coloring, play dough, water colors, and stickers books in them. She can do these things by herself so it's been good. When I nurse it's this or cartons. 

She's getting away with more, that's for sure. Here she has taken all the pillows off the couch and is doing "canon balls". 

This is her -"hey mom! did you see that?!"- face.

Happy half birthday my girl! 

They are both out. So glad to have a helper.

 I would really like to blog about "how to help a new mom" so I can remember things I learning now to help someone else. I'm grateful for all the help and support I get from my family and friends. Reassurance and an encouraging word go a long way when you're taking care of a new baby. 

Welcome Little Braden

I love looking at this picture of my little family. I'm very grateful for my good husband and my TWO cute kids. For the baby story see below!

I really wanted to go in to labor in my own this time. I had to be induced with Susie because she was so late. That went really well but I wanted to see if my body could go in to labor on it's own. However.. my mom and sister had a window of time they could come down to help and Paul had finals starting a few days after my due date. So to make a long story short, we ended up deciding to be induced. My doctor said I looked ready and that inducing would go well so we scheduled it for my due date. They ended up being full that day so we went in the day before I was due. The hospital called at 6am Tuesday morning. Luckily my mom and sister had flown in the day before so we left Susie with them and headed to the hospital. When we got there I was dilated to a 2 so they decided to start me on pitocin right away. Let the fun begin!

My doctor came in an hour or so later to break my water. I hadn't had an epidural yet and so that was pretty painful. She decided to come back after my epidural and try again. By noon I had an epidural and my water broken so then it was just a matter of waiting. We waited and waited. I felt particularly tired this time around. I couldn't keep my eyes open for more than 20 minutes at a time. I made it to a 4 pretty quickly but then stayed there for hours! I think I was at a 4 from around noon to 6pm. After that I made progress quickly. My doctor had gone home for the day by the time I was ready to push so my nurse called to let her know I was ready. It seemed like she'd never get there! I was sure my nurse was going to end up delivering the baby. I pushed for about 20 minutes (3 of which the doctor was present for) and he arrived at 9:15pm. 

Holding my new baby for the first time was pretty amazing. It was a special experience with Susie, too. You don't expect it but when you see them for the first time, the feelings and emotions are overwhelming. What a happy moment! I will always cherish the memory of meeting my children for the first time.

At Arrowhead they have couplet care, which means babies stay with their parents the duration of their stay. Luckily I was still able to get a little sleep (not much though!). I was anxious to get home. Babies have to stay 24 hours after delivery for a few tests that need to be done. They said we could go as soon as the test results got back so we ended up leaving about midnight the following night. One less night in the hospital room sounded good to me! We drove home and showered and got a pretty good nights rest thanks to Braden. 

The next few nights were rough but since then he is doing a bit better. He will sleep well at night if he is held. We've started taking turns holding him, sleeping on the couch. Paul will take him at 11pm after he is fed and sleep with him until he wakes up, which is always around 2am. Then he comes and gets me and I feed Braden and then sleep with him on the couch until he wakes up again at 6am. Not too bad! I miss sleeping in my bed but we get more sleep this way. If we put him in his crib he wakes up more frequently. We want to help him get used to his crib so our goal is to use to crib for all nap times and at 4 weeks old, start putting him in the crib at night as well. We really like the Babywise routine so we are working on that and it is going pretty good.

For the first 2 weeks Braden was a fairly easy newborn. Not a lot of fussing, especially after I stopped eating dairy. Since he has turned 2 weeks old he has gotten fussier. Right now he is still doing better than Susie was at his age, so that's good news! I can tell his tummy bothers him a lot. When he starts falling asleep he will often start crying randomly and I can tell he is in pain. I can hear lots of rumbling in his tummy and lots of spit up being swallowed again. We are keeping an eye on him and discussing it all with our pediatrician to make sure we are doing everything we can to help him. Poor little boy!

I have had a lot of help with the 2 kids so far. My mom and sister Olivia came the day before Susie was born and Mom stayed 9 days. It was heavenly. Olivia watched Susie while we were all at the hospital and that was so nice. She had to leave a few days after Braden was born but Mom was able to stay longer. She spoiled me rotten the whole time she was here. Back rubs, hot meals, cleaning house, not to mention getting to hang out! It was so nice. (She always brings surprises when she comes.)

When she left Paul only had a few more days of finals, which we survived. Then he had a week off! Yay! It's been wonderful. I hope he can always take some time off of work when we have a baby because it has been so nice to tag team everything for awhile. Paul is a great friend and support too so it makes things so much easier when he is around. He is starting rotations in 2 days so hopefully I do ok on my own! I know it will take some adjusting. Paul will be at his rotations (his first one is at a Banner hospital pharmacy) Monday through Friday 8-5, which leaves only Saturdays for him to work. That means Sunday will be our only day together. At least he will be home in the evenings with not much studying to do. 

It's true that newborns aren't easy but it is helpful to keep in mind that things get easier as they get older. We will find a new groove, get into a new schedule, and things will get back to normal. With that in mind I am enjoying my new little boy. We love him so much and are so grateful he is here. 

Summer Fun

Ok, sorry I've got lots of pictures. We have been enjoying our summer (despite the heat!). Preschool got out the end of May and I was worried that Sam, Susie, and I were going to be bored out of our minds so we tried to get some summer plans together. It's worked out great! We have something for each day of the week, whether it's a playgroup, Harkins summer movie fun, going swimming, to Play Factory, etc. We have a list of fun activities for at home too like ballon rockets, baking cookies, and dressing up. 

We decided to do swim lessons the beginning of June. They lasted for 2 weeks and Susie did really well. She cried a little but learned a lot. Now when I try to get her to do things she learned at swim she refuses so it's a little bit of a battle but I'm glad we did them anyway. I know if she fell in a pool on accident she wouldn't drown, so that's good! 

We've used the library's culture pass to go fun places, including the Science Museum pictured below. We also bought a $19 Groupon for a month membership to the Play Factory at Desert Ridge which has been pretty much the best 20 I've ever spent. My little sister Olivia came to visit and we took her there too. We had lots of fun while she was here. She is such an amazing little Aunt! She loves Susie to death. I just loved having her here. 

 Sam went to visit his dad in Idaho for a week so Susie and I spent the last week just the 2 of us. It was actually a lot of fun. Susie is such a riot to hang out with. She is my little buddy. We sing primary songs together and play make believe and have races in the hall and run errands together. She is growing up so much, she is really fun to talk to and play with. Recently she started this new thing- she will do something silly and then look at me and say "see that?!" (like, did you see that mom!?)  It's really cute. She loves to sing primary songs with me. We are working with her to learn colors and letters. We have a treasure box she gets to pick out of when she sits down to learn. I just love my little girl. I know things are going to change soon but I also know that one of the best things I can do for Susie is to give her a sibling. I'm just going to have to try and remember that when it gets rough!

We had a fun 4th of July. We went out to lunch as a family and then spent the evening with some pharmacy school friends swimming and picnicking. Paul had a big test the next day so he was busy studying all that night but Susie and I stayed up late and drove out to see fireworks. We found a perfect spot and had a great view of the show. That will be a great memory for me. 

The pregnancy is going well besides the fact that I want to eat... all the time. Ice cream mostly. I'm trying to be good. I've made eclairs twice in the last month. I guess I need to try harder. Three more weeks until our due date!