Mary
Friday, January 25, 2013
wait for it ...
Mary
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
8 months
I feel like I have a million things to talk about ... I will try to be brief. I will forget a lot I am sure of it.
Jakob
Mr. Jakob is doing great!! Jakob has totally become Mr. Chill. I know. Right? Jakob loves to just roll around on the floor and play with any toy that he encounters. You can give the little man a blanket and he will just turn it over in his hands again and again and again. Jakob just tries to figure everything out. He is very, very, very close to perfecting the art of crawling. Jakob can definitely get to any toy by rolling around but he has started to do a half crawl / half drag that makes us think that he is going to take off like a cannon any day now. Don't worry ... we have put up the baby gates and the electronics have been put away. We even cleaned out everything from under the couch because it became Jakob's mission to pull everything out from under the couch anyway. Jakob now makes the sounds Da-Da and Ma-Ma. Of course he has no idea what those mean but we like to pretend he does. Jakob still likes to hangout in the exersaucer and the jumperoo. But not as much these days. I think they are becoming too confining. Though I can on occasion still get Jakob to sit and play with toys in his bumbo. I think he likes playing with the seat belt on the bumbo more than playing with any toys. Jakob still loves to eat. Jakob is still sans teeth. And he is starting to get some crazy hair! There is not a lot of it but it just goes all over the place. I have no idea what we are going to do with it as it gets longer.
Alex
Mr. Alex is a bit more needy than his "older" brother these days. Alex just loves to sit in your lap and play with a toy. Though Alex is much "rougher" with the toys. He's become quite our violent child. Just kidding. The toys might disagree though. He just loves to make a lot of noise. That includes screaming and banging any toy he can get his hands on. Alex has just started to roll around on the ground to get to something on the ground. It was just last week that Alex would roll over to his belly and still scream his head off because he wanted to be on his back. I really don't think Alex is far from crawling either. I give him a couple of weeks. Alex loves to sit. He would much rather sit and play with a toy then roll around on the ground. Alex isn't really making any distinct sounds but he does love to mimic us when we make screaming noises. Alex likes to eat but can become very stubborn when it comes to ANY green vegetable. I definitely don't think the boy is color blind. If we put a green vegetable in the room ... he notices!! Alex now has his two bottom teeth! He went for so long without any teeth and then I swear overnight these two teeth just appeared out of nowhere. He got his first tooth on January 1st.
Both boys are sleeping great in their cribs! We go upstairs about 6:15pm each night and I give the boys a bath. I think this really helps them to sleep. Sometimes I have a hard time keeping one boy awake while I am giving the other boy a bath. I do a lot of singing in the evenings. Most nights the boys are sound asleep by 6:45pm. We still give them a bottle in the middle of the night. I don't think we are going to stop that until I am done pumping in the middle of the night. I just don't want to fall asleep after pumping and have them wake me up 30 minutes later. I would be very unhappy!! Otherwise the boys are up to 3 solid meals a day. They eat anything that is pureed and we have also given them graham crackers, yogurt melts, pancakes, puffs, baby mum-mums, steamed carrots, and banana. They still get about 23oz of breast milk a day and 5oz of formula. I am still pumping 4x per day but I have noticed a slight decrease in my supply over the last couple of weeks. I did have a slight stomach virus last week (plus a lot of stress) and it did a number on my supply. It has slowly been building back up this week. The boys are still in some 6 month clothes and more and more 9 month clothes. It just depends on the brand. Jakob is still shorter than Alex but a bit more stocky so I really think both boys still weigh about the same. We also just transitioned the boys to a 2 nap a day schedule. Some days are better than others in the napping department. We can get them to take 2 1-hour naps on some days and on other days they only want to nap for 20 minutes at a time. Those are the rough days.
We are deep in the midst of getting ready to move!!! Yikes. We are very excited but we feel like we have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it. I am thrilled to think that we will be in our new house when the boys celebrate their 1st birthday in May.
Mary
Jakob
Mr. Jakob is doing great!! Jakob has totally become Mr. Chill. I know. Right? Jakob loves to just roll around on the floor and play with any toy that he encounters. You can give the little man a blanket and he will just turn it over in his hands again and again and again. Jakob just tries to figure everything out. He is very, very, very close to perfecting the art of crawling. Jakob can definitely get to any toy by rolling around but he has started to do a half crawl / half drag that makes us think that he is going to take off like a cannon any day now. Don't worry ... we have put up the baby gates and the electronics have been put away. We even cleaned out everything from under the couch because it became Jakob's mission to pull everything out from under the couch anyway. Jakob now makes the sounds Da-Da and Ma-Ma. Of course he has no idea what those mean but we like to pretend he does. Jakob still likes to hangout in the exersaucer and the jumperoo. But not as much these days. I think they are becoming too confining. Though I can on occasion still get Jakob to sit and play with toys in his bumbo. I think he likes playing with the seat belt on the bumbo more than playing with any toys. Jakob still loves to eat. Jakob is still sans teeth. And he is starting to get some crazy hair! There is not a lot of it but it just goes all over the place. I have no idea what we are going to do with it as it gets longer.
Alex
Mr. Alex is a bit more needy than his "older" brother these days. Alex just loves to sit in your lap and play with a toy. Though Alex is much "rougher" with the toys. He's become quite our violent child. Just kidding. The toys might disagree though. He just loves to make a lot of noise. That includes screaming and banging any toy he can get his hands on. Alex has just started to roll around on the ground to get to something on the ground. It was just last week that Alex would roll over to his belly and still scream his head off because he wanted to be on his back. I really don't think Alex is far from crawling either. I give him a couple of weeks. Alex loves to sit. He would much rather sit and play with a toy then roll around on the ground. Alex isn't really making any distinct sounds but he does love to mimic us when we make screaming noises. Alex likes to eat but can become very stubborn when it comes to ANY green vegetable. I definitely don't think the boy is color blind. If we put a green vegetable in the room ... he notices!! Alex now has his two bottom teeth! He went for so long without any teeth and then I swear overnight these two teeth just appeared out of nowhere. He got his first tooth on January 1st.
Both boys are sleeping great in their cribs! We go upstairs about 6:15pm each night and I give the boys a bath. I think this really helps them to sleep. Sometimes I have a hard time keeping one boy awake while I am giving the other boy a bath. I do a lot of singing in the evenings. Most nights the boys are sound asleep by 6:45pm. We still give them a bottle in the middle of the night. I don't think we are going to stop that until I am done pumping in the middle of the night. I just don't want to fall asleep after pumping and have them wake me up 30 minutes later. I would be very unhappy!! Otherwise the boys are up to 3 solid meals a day. They eat anything that is pureed and we have also given them graham crackers, yogurt melts, pancakes, puffs, baby mum-mums, steamed carrots, and banana. They still get about 23oz of breast milk a day and 5oz of formula. I am still pumping 4x per day but I have noticed a slight decrease in my supply over the last couple of weeks. I did have a slight stomach virus last week (plus a lot of stress) and it did a number on my supply. It has slowly been building back up this week. The boys are still in some 6 month clothes and more and more 9 month clothes. It just depends on the brand. Jakob is still shorter than Alex but a bit more stocky so I really think both boys still weigh about the same. We also just transitioned the boys to a 2 nap a day schedule. Some days are better than others in the napping department. We can get them to take 2 1-hour naps on some days and on other days they only want to nap for 20 minutes at a time. Those are the rough days.
We are deep in the midst of getting ready to move!!! Yikes. We are very excited but we feel like we have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it. I am thrilled to think that we will be in our new house when the boys celebrate their 1st birthday in May.
Mary
Saturday, January 19, 2013
is this normal?
A night in our life ...
7:00 pm - Silence. I love sleepy little men.
8:30 pm - Time to pump.
9:45 pm - I will stay awake until Kara gets home. I will stay awake until Kara gets home.
10:00 pm - Nope. I'm asleep.
10:15 pm - "Hi Kara. Nope. I was not sleeping. I'm wide awake."
Midnight - Kara comes to bed. [It always makes a Mommy much happier after a beer and some video games.]
2:30 am - Damn alarm clock. Why did I decide pumping was a good idea? Right. Low cost. Healthy boys.
3:15 am - The men are awake. Time to eat a bottle and change some diapers.
3:45 am - Aww. I love my bed.
3:45 am - "Kara - Did you pee the bed?"
3:45 am - We simultaneously realize that our dog Leo peed on the bed when I was downstairs pumping.
3:45 am - We are now up yelling at the dog and changing the sheets.
4:15 am - We have clean sheets now. Why can't I fall asleep?
6:30 am - Damn alarm clock. Who thought it was a good idea for Kara to work on Saturdays??
6:45 am - The men are awake.
Isn't this how everyone spends their nights??
Mary
7:00 pm - Silence. I love sleepy little men.
8:30 pm - Time to pump.
9:45 pm - I will stay awake until Kara gets home. I will stay awake until Kara gets home.
10:00 pm - Nope. I'm asleep.
10:15 pm - "Hi Kara. Nope. I was not sleeping. I'm wide awake."
Midnight - Kara comes to bed. [It always makes a Mommy much happier after a beer and some video games.]
2:30 am - Damn alarm clock. Why did I decide pumping was a good idea? Right. Low cost. Healthy boys.
3:15 am - The men are awake. Time to eat a bottle and change some diapers.
3:45 am - Aww. I love my bed.
3:45 am - "Kara - Did you pee the bed?"
3:45 am - We simultaneously realize that our dog Leo peed on the bed when I was downstairs pumping.
3:45 am - We are now up yelling at the dog and changing the sheets.
4:15 am - We have clean sheets now. Why can't I fall asleep?
6:30 am - Damn alarm clock. Who thought it was a good idea for Kara to work on Saturdays??
6:45 am - The men are awake.
Isn't this how everyone spends their nights??
Mary
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
cute pictures
All I can offer you at the moment is a couple of cute pictures.
Jakob
Alex
I promise to be back soon. Our life is crazy busy at the moment.
In a nutshell ...
* We lost our one babysitter (and professional baby whisperer) to a fight grandma decided to have with some ice in a grocery store parking lot. The ice won. So Kara and I are with the boys 24/7. I do not remember what the definition of "date night" means. Though there are rumors that a friend is volunteering some time on Sunday to watch the boys. I suggested a movie to Kara but I'm afraid I would fall asleep.
* It is crazy at work. Can we say six week audit?? Not one week. Not two weeks. But six weeks!!!! It is week # 1 and I am already exhausted ... How many questions can they ask?
* Did I mention we are in contract on a house? Yep. There is that. I'll be over in the corner rocking myself ...
* And there is that whole raising two 8 month old little boys and keeping track of 2 dogs and 2 cats.
And we would not trade it for the world. Though a nap would be nice.
I will be back soon with 8 month updates.
Mary
Jakob
Alex
I promise to be back soon. Our life is crazy busy at the moment.
In a nutshell ...
* We lost our one babysitter (and professional baby whisperer) to a fight grandma decided to have with some ice in a grocery store parking lot. The ice won. So Kara and I are with the boys 24/7. I do not remember what the definition of "date night" means. Though there are rumors that a friend is volunteering some time on Sunday to watch the boys. I suggested a movie to Kara but I'm afraid I would fall asleep.
* It is crazy at work. Can we say six week audit?? Not one week. Not two weeks. But six weeks!!!! It is week # 1 and I am already exhausted ... How many questions can they ask?
* Did I mention we are in contract on a house? Yep. There is that. I'll be over in the corner rocking myself ...
* And there is that whole raising two 8 month old little boys and keeping track of 2 dogs and 2 cats.
And we would not trade it for the world. Though a nap would be nice.
I will be back soon with 8 month updates.
Mary
Monday, January 7, 2013
34w2d
I carried the boys until I was 34w2d pregnant. Today the boys have been in this world for 34w2d. That means tomorrow they will have officially been out of my belly longer than they were in my belly. Sigh. Time goes so fast.
Jakob
.JPG)
Alex
.JPG)
Mary
Jakob
.JPG)
Alex
.JPG)
Mary
Friday, January 4, 2013
something new each day
I wake-up each morning and I almost expect to have teenagers in the house. That is how fast the boys continue to grow right before our eyes. It is hard to believe that it was two years ago that we started this journey. And now I have 7.5 month old boys sleeping in the bedroom down the hall. I keep searching for the pause button on the remote control but I've been told by many other parents that the pause button is broken on every remote control in the world! So I should probably just stop looking for it.
We officially have little boys that can sit without any assistance. Huh? Of course they still fall on occasion so we typically put a boppy pillow behind them for protection. But stick a toy in front of either boy and they will sit for minutes on end. It makes life a bit tricky at the moment because both Jakob and Alex prefer to be sitting instead of laying down. But because we still can have accidents Kara and I often find ourselves juggling two sitting little boys. They are also rolling all over the place. Jakob rolls much more often than Alex. It just goes with their distinct personalities. Alex will sometimes forget that he can roll over and so he whimpers when he ends up on his belly. Jakob on the other hand will spot an object all the way across the room and roll over and over again until he can get to it. Did I mention Jakob's recent obsession with the remote control?
Alex "Look Momma! No hands!"
And drum roll ... Alex is getting his first tooth! A week ago Alex woke-up in the middle of the night extremely fussy and with a low-grade fever. He was exhausted but you could tell that he was uncomfortable. We gave him some Tylenol and he was just fine come morning time. Then on January 1st we saw the tooth coming in. I think Alex is just proud of himself for getting a tooth before Jakob!
The boys are becoming quite the pigs. We are transitioning to three solid meals a day. We have also moved them to level 2 foods. They have now eaten sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, peas, green beans, peaches, bananas, prunes, apples, pears, mango, and brown rice. And now we are combining foods together. Alex absolutely loves bananas and peaches together. He literally keeps his mouth open the entire time and grunts to make certain you know that he wants more food. Alex still gets upset when he has to eat vegetables. And Mr. Jakob will eat absolutely anything at anytime. This makes me nervous that he will soon be trying to eat the power cords or the remote control that I mentioned a bit earlier. They boys are also still eating Puffs and Baby Mum-Mum's. Jakob is really getting good at picking up the puffs and putting them in his mouth.
Jakob has recently become obsessed with hats. Much like his Uncle Bryan! There was a evening last week when Jakob was super fussy and Kara was messing around with him and stuck Jakob's winter hat on his head. Jakob was instantly happy. He got even happier when we gave him the remote control! Then the other afternoon we were going through some clothes that some friends had given to us and there was a bucket hat in the mix of clothes. Jakob wore the hat all afternoon! We called it his "thinking cap" ...
Jakob
Now onto the not so good ... We have been battling a stubborn diaper rash with both of the boys! Jakob seems to have gotten the brunt of it. Jakob actually started to get the rash around Thanksgiving. But it was minimal and did not bother him in the least bit. Well the diaper rash started to get worse and worse and eventually Alex had the same rash (though not as bad). Per the recommendation of my sister-in-law (a pediatrician) we started to use hydrocortisone on the rash but after a week it didn't appear to be having any impact. Plus Jakob was starting to scratch at the rash whenever we changed his diaper. Based upon our reading Kara and I thought it was a yeast rash. So we took the boys out of cloth diapers and began to use both the hydrocortisone and lotrimin on the rash. It only took a few days for the rash to disappear on Alex. So we put him back in cloth diapers. We also followed the instructions for getting yeast out of cloth diapers. Alex has been rash free for about a week. But it suddenly started to reappear last night. Insert curse words ... Jakob on the other hand if finally rash free. So we have since put Alex back in disposable diapers and began to use the hydrocortisone and lotrimin again. We also decided to put Jakob back in cloth diapers to see if the rash appears again on him. And to make this mystery even more interesting I showed the rash to my sister-in-law on Christmas Eve (always nice to have a pediatrician in the family) and she actually thought it could be eczema and not a yeast diaper rash. So who knows? Did the hydrocortisone help? Or did the lotrimin help? Or was it both? It is so frustrating. So for the moment I guess you can say Kara and I am experimenting to see if we can figure out what is causing the rash. It could just be because the boys are eating more and more solid foods. And we have little boys that poop ALL THE TIME!!! I'm talking an abnormal day is 2 poops. A normal day is 3 - 4 poops. So it could just be skin irritation.
Mary
We officially have little boys that can sit without any assistance. Huh? Of course they still fall on occasion so we typically put a boppy pillow behind them for protection. But stick a toy in front of either boy and they will sit for minutes on end. It makes life a bit tricky at the moment because both Jakob and Alex prefer to be sitting instead of laying down. But because we still can have accidents Kara and I often find ourselves juggling two sitting little boys. They are also rolling all over the place. Jakob rolls much more often than Alex. It just goes with their distinct personalities. Alex will sometimes forget that he can roll over and so he whimpers when he ends up on his belly. Jakob on the other hand will spot an object all the way across the room and roll over and over again until he can get to it. Did I mention Jakob's recent obsession with the remote control?
Alex "Look Momma! No hands!"
And drum roll ... Alex is getting his first tooth! A week ago Alex woke-up in the middle of the night extremely fussy and with a low-grade fever. He was exhausted but you could tell that he was uncomfortable. We gave him some Tylenol and he was just fine come morning time. Then on January 1st we saw the tooth coming in. I think Alex is just proud of himself for getting a tooth before Jakob!
The boys are becoming quite the pigs. We are transitioning to three solid meals a day. We have also moved them to level 2 foods. They have now eaten sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, peas, green beans, peaches, bananas, prunes, apples, pears, mango, and brown rice. And now we are combining foods together. Alex absolutely loves bananas and peaches together. He literally keeps his mouth open the entire time and grunts to make certain you know that he wants more food. Alex still gets upset when he has to eat vegetables. And Mr. Jakob will eat absolutely anything at anytime. This makes me nervous that he will soon be trying to eat the power cords or the remote control that I mentioned a bit earlier. They boys are also still eating Puffs and Baby Mum-Mum's. Jakob is really getting good at picking up the puffs and putting them in his mouth.
Jakob has recently become obsessed with hats. Much like his Uncle Bryan! There was a evening last week when Jakob was super fussy and Kara was messing around with him and stuck Jakob's winter hat on his head. Jakob was instantly happy. He got even happier when we gave him the remote control! Then the other afternoon we were going through some clothes that some friends had given to us and there was a bucket hat in the mix of clothes. Jakob wore the hat all afternoon! We called it his "thinking cap" ...
Jakob
Now onto the not so good ... We have been battling a stubborn diaper rash with both of the boys! Jakob seems to have gotten the brunt of it. Jakob actually started to get the rash around Thanksgiving. But it was minimal and did not bother him in the least bit. Well the diaper rash started to get worse and worse and eventually Alex had the same rash (though not as bad). Per the recommendation of my sister-in-law (a pediatrician) we started to use hydrocortisone on the rash but after a week it didn't appear to be having any impact. Plus Jakob was starting to scratch at the rash whenever we changed his diaper. Based upon our reading Kara and I thought it was a yeast rash. So we took the boys out of cloth diapers and began to use both the hydrocortisone and lotrimin on the rash. It only took a few days for the rash to disappear on Alex. So we put him back in cloth diapers. We also followed the instructions for getting yeast out of cloth diapers. Alex has been rash free for about a week. But it suddenly started to reappear last night. Insert curse words ... Jakob on the other hand if finally rash free. So we have since put Alex back in disposable diapers and began to use the hydrocortisone and lotrimin again. We also decided to put Jakob back in cloth diapers to see if the rash appears again on him. And to make this mystery even more interesting I showed the rash to my sister-in-law on Christmas Eve (always nice to have a pediatrician in the family) and she actually thought it could be eczema and not a yeast diaper rash. So who knows? Did the hydrocortisone help? Or did the lotrimin help? Or was it both? It is so frustrating. So for the moment I guess you can say Kara and I am experimenting to see if we can figure out what is causing the rash. It could just be because the boys are eating more and more solid foods. And we have little boys that poop ALL THE TIME!!! I'm talking an abnormal day is 2 poops. A normal day is 3 - 4 poops. So it could just be skin irritation.
Mary
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
christmas day
We woke-up on Christmas Day and ate a delicious breakfast!!! Well Kara and I ate the breakfast and the boys got some yummy pureed peaches. Next year I am sure the boys will be digging in right along side us.
I really wanted to take the boys to Christmas mass with Grandma and Grandpa. This is important to me. But I was worried that we wouldn't be able to get out the door in time before the 10am service. I knew the boys would need a nap. But surprisingly, with Kara's help, we were out the door by 9am. This gave the boys some time to take a brief nap in the car. The boys did great during mass. Not a peep. I think they were mesmerized by all the people. I'm sure we caused a few heads to turn during the service (this was the church I attended when I was a child) but I was able to put all my nerves to the side and simply enjoy Christmas mass with my boys. I hope we can continue this tradition in the coming years. Kara and I still don't know what we are going to do in terms of teaching our religious beliefs to the boys but I want Christmas mass to be a tradition. I need the boys to know the true reason behind Christmas Day.
Kara did not feel comfortable attending Christmas mass but it actually all worked out in the end because she got a few hours in a quiet house to get ready for Christmas dinner. But I really did miss having her by my side. My parents, brother, and Aunt and Uncle came over in the early afternoon for a delicious meal. Kara went above and beyond to put some wonderful food on the table. The boys were sleeping when everyone arrived but of course awoke shortly after all the noise started coming from downstairs. They couldn't miss the party. We just spent the afternoon enjoying each others company. The boys were spoiled by their relatives. I keep imagining next year when they have a better understanding of gifts. It will be crazy.
We spent the remainder of the day just spending time as a family. Because it is a rarity for all of us to be together because of our work schedules it was just really nice to relax together without having anywhere to go. Overall it was a perfect Christmas Day.
All the celebrating wore out Grandpa and Alex ...
nu=3394)556)5+2)WSNRCG=347;528489344nu0mrj.jpg)
Mary
I really wanted to take the boys to Christmas mass with Grandma and Grandpa. This is important to me. But I was worried that we wouldn't be able to get out the door in time before the 10am service. I knew the boys would need a nap. But surprisingly, with Kara's help, we were out the door by 9am. This gave the boys some time to take a brief nap in the car. The boys did great during mass. Not a peep. I think they were mesmerized by all the people. I'm sure we caused a few heads to turn during the service (this was the church I attended when I was a child) but I was able to put all my nerves to the side and simply enjoy Christmas mass with my boys. I hope we can continue this tradition in the coming years. Kara and I still don't know what we are going to do in terms of teaching our religious beliefs to the boys but I want Christmas mass to be a tradition. I need the boys to know the true reason behind Christmas Day.
Kara did not feel comfortable attending Christmas mass but it actually all worked out in the end because she got a few hours in a quiet house to get ready for Christmas dinner. But I really did miss having her by my side. My parents, brother, and Aunt and Uncle came over in the early afternoon for a delicious meal. Kara went above and beyond to put some wonderful food on the table. The boys were sleeping when everyone arrived but of course awoke shortly after all the noise started coming from downstairs. They couldn't miss the party. We just spent the afternoon enjoying each others company. The boys were spoiled by their relatives. I keep imagining next year when they have a better understanding of gifts. It will be crazy.
We spent the remainder of the day just spending time as a family. Because it is a rarity for all of us to be together because of our work schedules it was just really nice to relax together without having anywhere to go. Overall it was a perfect Christmas Day.
All the celebrating wore out Grandpa and Alex ...
nu=3394)556)5+2)WSNRCG=347;528489344nu0mrj.jpg)
Mary
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