Snow!

 Last week we were hit with a storm that brought significant snow to our area in Oklahoma. In fact I think it affected a lot of the country. (I'm really terrible due to the fact that I don't watch the news to really know the facts).

For us, we received the most significant amount of snow since February 2011, when Bryce was just over a year old, so this was the first opportunity that Bryce has had to really enjoy the snow. 

 Usually when it snows here, the temperatures are hovering just below the freezing mark so it's usually pretty wet snow. However, with this "storm" came extremely cold temperatures with lows in the single digits and highs in the teens, which made for a very dry snow that did not pack easily. Needless to say, "Build a snowman" remains on Bryce's bucket list. I'm sure we could have made a snowman by piling the snow up and packing it down, rather than rolling around a ball of snow. 

Bundled up and ready to go! Since it was so cold, it seemed to take longer to dress him than the time he would actually spend playing in the snow.

 

Catching snowflakes on his tongue.

One of many snow angels.

Who said he couldn't play on his playset...

...or the trampoline.

Snow angels are extra special while getting kisses from the dog...

...who also LOVED the snow! No kidding!

It didn't matter that we sold the 4-wheeler to get a golf cart...the golf cart did the job just fine!

I was definitely disappointed I didn't get to partake in the sledding activities since it was definitely not good conditions for having an infant outside, but I was able to sneak out and make yet another snow angel with Bryce.

Since it was so cold the snow stuck around for several days (which is not normal for Oklahoma), so Bryce got in many days of sledding.

In the end he was getting tired and decided it was easier just to lay down!

Maybe next time we'll have a Balaclava and goggles that are actually his size. 

And a video...

 

One month old...

...just a week and a half late. I just cannot seem to get it together. Thankfully, I still have over 2 weeks before I go back to work and hopefully can get some kind of routine down where we're not going to be constantly late to everything we go to! 

At least I caught a picture of Blaire (and Bryce) on her actual 1 month "birthday"!

What I didn't catch was her weight at exactly 1 month. Since we don't go back to her doctor until 2 months, I used the baby stats on the Wii Fit Plus game to get her weight like I did for Bryce. I'll share a picture of her Mii character later. 

According to it, at 5 weeks old (1 month 5 days) she weighed 10 lbs 1.6 oz. Which is a 3 lb weight gain from her birth weight for my 100% breast milk fed baby. I have to admit I'm pretty proud! Of course after I weighed her she filled her diaper and probably lost a half of a pound though. ; )

Blaire's first month consisted of her first sponge bath, like nearly all babies!  Brother is seen below trying to tell her to stop crying...if only it was that easy.

Then when her umbilical cord stump FINALLY fully fell off, (after 3 weeks!), she had her first real bath. Seems she like it a little better than the sponge baths.

Then we started getting awake smiles! This one in particular was a really BIG smile!

 

Just a little over 3 weeks old she grew out of newborn clothes and diapers. Depending on what time you consider the night ends, she will wake one to two times a night. If I was getting up to go to work, I would consider it waking just once per night. Her second waking is usually between 4:30 to 5:30, which would be about the time I'll be getting up to get ready for work. Otherwise she doesn't nap well during the day yet so she keeps me busy for now! 

Her second month of like started with a snowstorm coming in that evening. Though she was definitely too young to enjoy it, you can bet her brother did. Which leads me to the next post...

Blaire's Two Week Check-Up

On Tuesday, which was also Bryce's birthday, we took both kids in for check-ups. We saw no need in scheduling their appointments for different days. Since the details of Bryce's appointment was discussed in the prior post I won't repeat it here. 

The goal for all newborns is for them to regain up to their birth weight by the time they reach two weeks old; Blaire had no problem with this as she was 7 lbs 7 oz. She also appears to have grown a little in length since she measured 21 inches. That morning when we took Bryce to daycare I noticed one of her eyes was runny, so of course I asked the doctor about it and she said that it was due to a clogged tear duct and showed us how to massage it and was confident that it would clear up. Otherwise, she was declared to be healthy!

Since she doesn't do any too exciting, I'll just post a few photos below. 

Enjoy!

Four

Happy 4th birthday to my favorite little guy in the entire universe! I can't believe I have a four year old!

 This year has been a big year for Bryce. In addition to going through the terrible three's (and hopefully we're out of them), I've see him grow up and mature into a person with his own identity and personality. Overall he's really sweet and loving. Even as happy and easy going he is most of the time, he has quite a temper on him. He's opinionated and likes to make your ideas sound like they were his ideas.  He's extremely funny, and loves to make people laugh at/with him. He loves to use big words such as aggravate and ridiculous (pronounced ree-di-clee-us). So far I think he's going to be more of a math and science guy, like me, since he's super sharp on his numbers but not so much on his letters. His favorite toys are Lego's and Puzzles.   

This year he overcame his fear of "deep" water and I expect he'll be swimming by next summer. 

 
He got to mark at least one item off of his bucket list when he rode his tricycle across the "Banana Bridge". 

He watched his first movie in a movie theater, Disney's Planes. 

He's become a big brother and life as he has knows it is changing dramatically going forward and I'm sure we'll encounter some growing pains along the way.

 Speaking of growing...we took him to his 4 year old check-up today since we were also taking Blaire in for her 2 week check-up. He weighs 35 lbs 6 oz (47%) and is 38 inches tall (9%). Yes, he's a little guy!  Unfortunately the poor guy had to get shots, though they are his last vaccines until he's 11 years old...which I don't even want to think about him at that age yet! BUT he was was rewarded by getting to go to his choice of Chuck E. Cheese or Incredible Pizza; he chose Chuck E. Cheese. 

 I've definitely enjoyed this age, maybe the most so far, and I look forward to continuing to see this little man grow up...though not too fast!
 

And she's here!!

Allow me to introduce Blaire Nicole!

As had been scheduled, she was born on November 5th at 9:16am. She weighed 7lbs 2oz, was 20 inches long, and her head was 14 3/8 inches around! At our second to last doctor's appointment, he had felt her position and exclaimed "This baby has a REALLY big head!" So I guess he's done it enough that his assessment was correct. 

I know I have other posts to do about our Fall activities, but I wanted to post the birth story before the details started to slip my mind. 

For a while now, we had our repeat c-section scheduled for November 5th at 8:30am. We were told to be there at 6:30am, which we arrived right on time. Of course we waited in the waiting room for 20-30 minutes before they put me in a Labor & Delivery room. I dressed in the hospital gown and climbed in the bed. Our nurse placed my IV, which I warned her could be difficult...she made sure to nail it the first time...and when I mean nail it, I mean she NAILED it! It almost brought a tears to my eyes (and I can still see the massive hole the needle made 9 days postpartum!) 

Around 7:45am my doctor stopped by and told us that the baby from the c-section  scheduled before ours was born and we would begin shortly. So of course we waited and 8:30am came and went. Fortunately my Mom and Bryce arrived right before they wheeled me to the OR, which was probably around 8:45. There was something soothing about seeing Bryce before I went. 

So they took me back to the cold operating room to get the spinal block before they brought Nic back. For Bryce I somehow remembered I was in OR #1, but for Blaire we were in OR #2. It's funny the things we do and do not remember. 

Back in the operating room, I made sure to tell ANY medical staff I spoke to that I vomit with anesthesia. So here comes the Anesthesiologist and that's the first thing out of my mouth. He assures me he'll take care of it. In went the spinal, which I felt move down my spine and almost immediately started losing feeling in my toes. They lay me back and I quickly lose feeling in most of my body. My arms felt like they were vibrating...but sure enough I began to get sick! Thankfully my arms weren't strapped down so I was able to grab the "puke cup" and hold it as close to my head as possible. Of course since I hadn't had anything to eat or drink since the prior evening so it was just bile. 

In no time, they checked where I could and could not feel and began. They brought Nic in after they began cutting...at least I'm pretty sure they did. 

My doctor was on my left and one of the other doctors in his practice was on my right. Evidently Blaire was still high in my ribs and they had a difficult time getting her out. As Nic explained it, he thought they were going to pull lose skin up to my neck. As for me I felt a TON of tugging and pulling. I heard the doctor request the vacuum (which Nic confirmed was to pull Blaire out),  and in no time I heard the nurses say "Out!". Of course I listened for a cry for what seems like forever, but was probably only seconds. I heard a couple coughs and then cries and she was off for them to get fluid out of her lungs. I was able to catch a brief glimpse of her and saw that she had a lot of hair! No one exclaimed "It's a girl!" before they took her off, so I still wasn't 100% sure she was a "she".  I laid there while they put me back together relishing in the cries I could hear. Then Nic appeared beside me with her and I was able to know for sure I had a healthy baby girl. Then they were off to the nursery for her first bath.

A short time later, I was back in the original L&D room...alone. Everyone else was oohing and awwing over our baby girl in the nursery. From the time I originally left for the OR it had been less than an hour.  Honestly, I enjoyed those last few minutes alone until they were ready to follow her back to me. 

I heard Bryce's feet coming down the hallway and in they all came. Of course I requested to hold Blaire as soon as I could, which proved to be difficult with the IV and all the wires and my nearly completely numb body. 

I briefly passed her off to meet the others, before we had our first attempt at breastfeeding...which went well! She latched right on!

Bryce immediately wanted to hold her, and I think he fell in love as quick as we all did! 

We were promptly moved to a postpartum room, where we stayed for the next 48 hours. Unfortunately, I had vomiting episodes nearly every time I sat up after Blaire was born until 8pm that evening, including while she was nursing. That definitely took some skill! LOL! As a result I didn't eat anything all day until dinner. At dinner time, it had been several hours since I had last vomited so I thought it would be safe to eat something. I ordered items that would contain the most amounts of carbs, chicken pot pie, mashed potatoes & gravy, etc...needless to say they didn't stay in my stomach. 

Fortunately, after losing my dinner, I didn't vomit again. They removed my catheter and unplugged the IV around 10pm that night. Then I had nurses checking on me or Blaire nearly every hour so it was impossible to get a restful night of sleep even though my newborn was sleeping REALLY good! 


This is probably one of my favorite pictures taken so far.

The first picture taken of me with our TWO kids...it's still hard to believe.

Since we live so far out, I wanted to go by Babies R Us on our way home to pickup a few of the Halo Sleepsack Swaddles. The hospital used these and Blaire seemed to like them really well, not to mention the peace of mind it provided by not requiring loose blankets. I did an online order with pickup in store and since I forgot to put Nic as the pickup person, so there I was 48 hours post c-section and I went in to Babies R Us. Of course the line for customer service was slow and long and pretty much defeated the purpose of me ordering online to expedite the process...grrr!

We made it home and started settling in!

I love these next two pictures! I wonder if it's indicative of the relationship between Bryce and Blaire. He'll be sweet to her, then...

...she'll smack him!

Since we've been home, Blaire has continued sleeping really well. At night she's been getting at least one really long period of sleep lasting 4 to 6 hours...which is completely different than Bryce and completely amazing for this Mom!

When she's sleeping she looks just like Bryce did as a newborn, but I'm still deciding how much she really does look like Bryce. I do know that so far she is a far different baby than Bryce was. As I mentioned before she sleeps REALLY well! Bryce has never been a good sleeper and at this age was up every one to two hours. Also she will sleep on her back! Bryce NEVER slept on his back. She'll even allow a little swaddling, though she prefers her arms out, which Bryce never liked in any form. She really doesn't like the pacifier and doesn't act like she needs it. Bryce loved the pacifier from the day he was born. Overall she's a very good baby and I'm just waiting for that to change. 

As I planned, we've been breastfeeding...and it's going extremely well! So well that she can't keep up and I'm having to pump to find comfort and relief. We're freezing about 20-25 ounces a day and keeping plenty on hand in the fridge. I alternate between nursing and pumping, because she tends to prefer nursing over the bottle but she can't keep up with the amount I'm producing and I become uncomfortable. At least we'll have a nice stock pile when I return to work. 

So of course with me pumping, it gives others an opportunity to feed her. Here is the first time Nic got to feed her.