Life with Two Children

It still amazes me that I am a mother of two. I remember the times when I thought I would never have my own child. Then in a matter of a little over 2 years, I have two sons! God has truly blessed us with our beautiful sons. I am thankful every day for both of them.

Luke will be 6 weeks old tomorrow. I can't believe it! It seriously feels like we just brought him home from the hospital yesterday. We are all still trying to adjust. We have no schedule yet. Basically, Luke rules the roost!

Luke looks just like his big brother, Logan, and in some ways if very much like Logan. Logan wanted to be held all the time the first few months and Luke is carrying on the tradition, especially at night. Logan was a gassy baby and Luke is turning out to be even more gassy then Logan. I think Luke may even have a bit of "reflux." The pediatrician gave me some "Zantac"-like medication for Luke but it didn't help and was making matters worse so we decided to stop the medicine. I don't think that his reflux is as bad as other babies. However, he does like to spit up, usually once a day or once every other day, like a faucet! It just come out like running water. I feel so bad for him, but it doesn't seem to bother him. In fact, he doesn't cry or anything. It is actually a bit of a surprise when it happens. So, I think that I have figured out the trick to help this spitting up not to happen. We will see in the next couple of days though!

So, we are still hanging in there. Trying to get better adjusted and trying to get a bit more sleep! But having my two boys is worth it. I have even discussed the possibility of a 3rd (and final!) child in a few more years! We will see. I have to wait until Dustin doesn't remember how tired we are right now before we even start to discuss this possibility!

Speaking of third child, I have posted before about my brother and sister-in-law who are expecting their third child. They have two boys too and now we have two boys. My parents have 4 grandsons and no granddaughters. We all love having the boys and wouldn't change it for the world, we would just like to see a little pink in the family in the future. Well, Amy had her ultrasound last week and was able to find out what the baby is. I am happy to say that we will have a 5th BOY in the family! Yep, that is right. Amy is having her 3rd boy! Can you believe that? We laughed and laughed. What are the odds of us having all boys and no girls in this family?! We are very excited and are anxiously awaiting the arrival of baby Blake at the beginning of next year. We are well on our way to having our own little boy sports team! Congratulations Scott and Amy! We are very happy and excited for you!

That seems to be about it for now. I do have some pictures to post. We were crazy enough to spend Labor Day weekend with Scott and Amy at their house. So, I have pictures of all 4 boys. I will try to post them this week, but don't hold me to that!

Have a great rest of the weekend.

Baby Luke

Baby Luke made his enterance into the world on August 6th at 10:31 p.m. I went into the hospital that morning around 10 am and they started the induction process around 11:30 am. I had hoped to have Luke around early evening but he obviously didn't agree with his mother!

My labor went fairly well. I had persistent contractions throughout the day every 2 to 4 minutes. I must admit, I was very nervous about being induced. There were times in the hospital I questioned our decision to go through with the induction. I just wanted the baby to be O. K. Again, with this labor as my labor with Logan, I didn't experience too much pain until the last hour and a half.

I started to feel many of my contractions in my back. This is a sign that the baby is posterior. This means that normally babies are born face down, but when they are posterior they are born face up. Sometimes it is too difficult for women to deliver babies that are posterior and then a c-section is performed. Well, wouldn't you know it, my Luke decided to come out in a posterior way. I pushed and pushed for 31 minutes before he made his enterance. I have never felt such pain in my life. When I was pushing Logan out, I was able to relax for a minute or so between contractions. Not so with Luke, I was so very uncomfortable through the whole pushing part of labor. My doctor told me afterward that if Luke had been in the correct position, I would have delivered him with just 3 pushes. Thanks Doc!

As soon as Luke was put on my stomach, I couldn't believe how much he looked like his big brother Logan. Dustin, my cousin Sarah along with my sister-in-law Amy were in the delivery room with me and we all commented how much Luke looked like Logan.

The big question was how much Luke weighed. One of the reasons I was induced was because we thought Luke was going to be a bigger baby. Logan was 8 lbs. 13 oz. and my doctor thought Luke was going to be in the 8 lb range. I asked them how much Luke weighed and they said 7 lbs. 4 oz. WHAT!?! I couldn't believe it. I seriously thought they made a mistake. He was so tiny. We all laughed at how small he was.

So, we spent the next few days in the hospital. I cried when Logan came the next day to see his new brother. Logan looked so big. He did very well with his new brother. He paid little attention to Luke, but a lot of attention to all the new toys his brother got him along with everyone else in the family!!

We were released from the hospital on Wednesday and had our first pediatrician appointment on that Friday. Once we got Luke to the doctor's office, Dustin and I noticed that his eyes looked a little yellow. The doctor did his exam and didn't think the jaundice was that bad but had a blood test run on Luke. An hour and a half after returning home, the doctor called us and told us he was admitting Luke back into the hospital for "photo therapy" because his jaundice level was too high. So, back to the hospital we went. Luke had to be put in an incubator with no clothes on, a surgical mask as a diaper and goggles over his eyes. There were lights all around him. The doctor in charge of Luke while he was there wouldn't let us hold Luke at all. We could touch him but couldn't take him out of the incubator. He wanted solid and consistent light on Luke. This was hard for me. I cried for seriously the first few hours we were there. I just wanted Luke to be O. K. and wanted him to know we loved him.

Luke did better than his Mommy. He basically slept the whole time except when we had to feed him in the incubator by syringe. We weren't even in a room at the hospital, we were in a nursery. It wasn't very comfortable for Dustin and I but all that mattered was Luke! Around 3 am the next morning, we got to hold our precious new son for roughly 2 minutes while they weighed him. Again, Mommy sobbed and sobbed while holding her baby. Then around 8 or so, they did another blood test and his level was normal... after 16 hours, we were going home, praise the Lord! So about noon we went home again!

As you can see it has been an eventful few weeks. Dustin and I are adjusting to no sleep at night. Logan is also adjusting to no sleep due to his baby brother waking him by crying. Hopefully, within the next few weeks we will get on a schedule with our 2 sons. I am so thankful for both of my boys. I can't believe I am now a mother of 2!

In closing, I want to thank all of our family and friends who have come over to help or come over with meals. You don't know how much all of you mean to us. We are so appreciative for all you have done. We couldn't have made it without you all! Thanks!

Busy Weekend

I seriously don't know where to begin in posting about this weekend. It has been one of the craziest weekends we have had in a long time. Let me start by saying that my darling husband has been on vacation for 10 days which has been a blessing. It has been so good to have him home every morning for the past week or so. Logan has loved it. He is definetly "daddy's boy." Poor Dustin couldn't even go outside without Logan wanting to be right there with him. However, tomorrow Dustin goes back to work and Logan is stuck with me all day. I think he is in for a rude awakening.

My next hightlight of the weekend goes back eighteen months ago when I purchased a new comforter set. This comforter set did not at all match the paint in our bedroom. I have begged Dustin to repaint our bedroom. Dustin is usually easy going and doesn't fuss much, however, he refuses to paint. The last time we painted in our house, we seriously almost divorced! You all may think that is funny, but I am serious!! So, when we found out I was pregnant this time, I told Dustin that I wanted our room redone before this baby was born.

Well, we finally arranged to have someone come and paint our bedroom and bathroom for a small fee. I can't tell you how happy that made me. Then it happened. Our painter backed out on us. So, my precious husband decided he would make his very pregnant wife happy and paint the bedroom himself. Now, I realize how difficult this was for my husband to even suggest. I am forever grateful for his sacrifice, however, we didn't know the sacrifices we were going to make in order for him to complete this job. Let's just say that what we had hoped would take 2 days turned into a very long 4 days!! Which means that I haven't been able to get into our bedroom in 4 days. My clothes are in a basket in the dining room. I have been sleeping on a matress on the floor in Logan's room. We haven't been able to set much up for the pending arrival of our newest son. To say it has been crazy is an understatement. I must say now that it is all done, our room looks wonderful. Dustin did an excellent job. I have casually mentioned to him about repainting the kitchen and he quickly told me not to get any ideas.

Then there is the dresser for the boys room. It is so hard to find a good solid dresser for less than a ton of money. My in-laws had a 5-drawer wood dresser that they were going to throw out. They offered it to us and we took it. It was a bit beaten up so we decided to refinish it, which turned into repainting it. My poor father-in-law has spent the weekend putting on 4 coats of paint on the dresser. He offered to help out because Dustin was busy with our room. Thank you father-in-law!! Hopefully, we will move that into the boys room tomorrow and I can start putting clothes in it that are currently in bins and in a bassinet!

Lastly, I was able to have some "Stacey time" last night with some of my friends which was a lot of fun. We went to dinner and then to the mall. As I am closer and closer to delivering my second child, I am obviously getting bigger and bigger and more uncomfortable every day. So, we are at the mall last night and a feel a bit of a "gush." I thought I should get to the bathroom quickly. I did and all seemed fine then I started thinking, "what if that was my water starting to break?" It is still a bit early to go into labor but not so early that it couldn't happen. To make a long story short, we called my doctor and he sent us to the hospital to be checked. Of course by the time we called the doctor and went in, it was about midnight. We were there for about an hour or so before we were sent home. So, basically my water did not break, I just went pee in my pants!!

Well, that is enough about our crazy weekend. Hope everyone's weekend was as fun as ours!

3-D Ultrasound, Take #2

Dustin, Logan and I just got back from the doctor's office this afternoon and we are happy to report that our newest son cooperated and we were able to see a 3-D picture of his face. It was truly amazing to see him. Believe it or not, he looks like Logan. He looks like he is going to have chubby cheeks just like Logan. It was very exciting to see an actual face instead of the usual skeletal ultrasound pictures. It is starting to feel "real" now that a new baby is coming and coming quickly!!!

I went through some of Logan's old baby clothes yesterday and must admit that I got a bit teary-eyed. I seriously can't remember Logan being small enough to fit in those clothes. When I think about it, it seems like Logan was born yesterday but then it also feels like Logan has always been here. I can't remember life without him.

So, that is all on the baby front right now. Time is ticking down very fast. I am excited but nervous all at the same time. I am ready to not be pregnant any more, however, I am not ready for all of the midnight feedings! I guess I better get ready, because they are fast approaching.

Hope everyone had a nice 4th of July!

My Stubborn Baby

Today I had a normal prenatal doctors appointment. I was excited because the doctor had told me at my last visit that he would do a 3-D ultrasound so we could see our new baby's face. So, I had my aunt come and babysit Logan and Dustin was going to meet me for my appointment. Well, wouldn't you know that this baby of mine had his arm and hand completely over his face. We couldn't see very much at all. I tried laying in different positions and still nothing. The doctor told me we could try again at my next appointment. I have to admit part of me laughed at the fact that the baby wouldn't cooperate...it wasn't the first time. I had to have a second ultrasound after we found out he was a boy because he wouldn't move so the doctor could see what he needed to see. Now, today he was being stubborn again. Let me just say that after the attempt at the ultrasound the baby started moving like crazy. He obviously pulled one over on his mama today! Maybe next time!

Another piece of baby information is that we have decided for me to be induced to have this baby. Logan was a big baby and usually your second baby is bigger plus he is a boy and boys are usually bigger too! I am being induced only a week before my due date, so it isn't that bad! Part of me is excited to be able to plan everything out for when we go into the hospital and who gets to be with Logan and etc. The other part of me is nervous about being induced. For our family, I feel that this is the best option. Now watch, I will go into labor before I can be induced and all of my planning will go out the window! Seriously, that would be fine with me. I am ready to have this baby. As long as he is healthy and strong, I am all for whatever!

Have a blessed day!