Updates + Real life

Here's an update on my two boys!

Camden LOVES his baby brother!  He always wants to hold him, pat him, touch him, poke his eyes, and pick him up.  I was washing my hands after changing Ethan's diaper and Camden carried Ethan into the hallway to bring him to me.  Eek!  Fortunately, Camden did a pretty good job (with his limited skills) of carrying Ethan.  No head lolling or anything too frightening.  Except for the fact that my two-year-old picked up his brother.

Camden and Ethan both went to the doctor yesterday.  Camden had his two-year check-up and was amazing! He let the doctor touch him and he didn't even fuss about it.  In fact, he did not cry at all, until he got the jab in the leg, whereupon he commenced the cry of the completely betrayed.  Fortunately, it wasn't anything a sticker and a couple M&M's couldn't fix.

Anyway, stats for Camden:
Weight:  25.6 lbs, 22nd percentile
Height: 35 inches, 68 percentile
Head: 50 cm, 82 percentile

He went way up on his head circumference, and little bit above on his height and weight.  Yay for Camden!

Ethan just had a weight check, since he's really struggled to gain any weight at all.  In fact, at his two-week check up, he still weighed the same as when we left the hospital.  So, we've been using multiple methods to shovel food down his gullet.  Apparently, it's finally paying off and he is growing fast!  He grew two inches and gained a pound.  

Stats for Ethan:

Weight:  8lbs 8oz (and he was only 7lbs 13oz a week ago Friday)

Height:  22.5 inches

His head grew too, but I don't remember how much.  Sorry!

So the good news is that I can hopefully get back to just nursing Ethan and wean him from the bottles and cut down on having to pump.  It's amazing how much faster it is to feed him when he actually nurses well and I don't have to give him a bottle after!  Instead of a two-hour bout at night, I can sometimes be back in bed in less than an hour!  Ah!!!

Here are some pics of Ethan:

Such a scrawny boy!  But he has filled out a good amount since this picture.  

Loves his binky!

Here are the men of my life:  

And yes, this is totally my life now.  Dan talking on the phone for work and juggling the needs of our boys at the same time.  Messy kitchen and stuff everywhere.  Two cute boys and one very wonderful and handsome man!

 Can't remember why Dan fell asleep here, but it made me laugh!  Just shows how sleep deprived we are.  Sit down for a second and zonk!

 

Yep, keepin' in real.  My naked boy, reaching for a yummie Dan hooked over the door frame (because there are so few places he Camden can't reach now).  Yes, my church shoes are out because Camden pilfered them from my closet and paraded around the house in them. Yes, clutter everywhere because when I have free time, I use it to go to the bathroom, eat, and/or sleep. 

So, I now officially have a two-year-old son!  He's grown up a bit in that time.

Notice the disc for comparison.

Here is the birthday boy enjoying his cupcake.  

He was super excited about the candles and getting to blow out the fire.  He wanted the candles relit multiple times.  

Camden is soooooo busy!  He wants to explore everything.  His climbing skills recently improved significantly, so he can scale the barstool, the bathroom sink, the bookshelf, the dresser, and just about everything else.  If he can't climb it, he moves the stool to where he can reach things.  It's getting complicated!  Especially since he gets into stuff while I am feeding Ethan.  Sometimes I wonder if life would be easier with a dumb kid.  But probably a lot less fun!  

When Camden finds the Camera

You discover pictures like this.  Or of the ceiling.  Or my double chins and nose hairs.  

Fun with Baby!

Hi!  Today you get a guest post from me, Auntie Rebecca.  I got to come and hang out with Miranda and new baby Ethan, and the rest of the family and it has been wonderful!  Well, mostly.  Camden refuses to let me do anything useful for him, so that's not helpful.  But mostly it has been good.  We had a lot of fun with Ethan!  He is so little, I had to see just how many little places we could stage pictures with him.  He was most uncooperative!  Please enjoy the following fruits of our labor:

Despite his refusal to allow me to assist him in any way, we did have fun with Camden.  He enjoyed going to the park!

 

Oooh!  I got to be there for Ethan's first bath.  He was not a fan!

Such a sad boy!

 And look!  It is me!  I have much enjoyed holding baby Ethan.  He is such a little pudding!  I brought Delaney (5) and Rylee (2) along with me and they have enjoyed fighting.... er, playing with Camden and "helping" with the baby.

Yes, they LOVED holding the baby! 

And who would not love this bundle of yumminess?!

If you were seeking actual info, Ethan is a sweet baby.  He sleeps a lot.  He does not want to wake up to eat.  He is a lazy nurser and poor Miranda has had to work really hard to put some meat on his bones.  He is a good baby, and only cries when his tummy hurts.  Eventually he works it out, sometimes with much gusto, and then he is happy.  He is on a really nice schedule and doesn't seem to mind going out places. Plus, he scores a perfect 10 on the Adorablility Scale!

Ethan arrives!

Here's the gist.  I had a baby!  We named him Ethan Walker, and he weighed 7lbs 9oz and measured 20.5 inches long and he arrived at 7:34 on March 22nd.  I think he's pretty cute.

Here is the long version.  

A bunch of changes happened on March 22nd this year.  First, I started out the day looking like this.

Yeah, I know.  Not flattering, but hey, it was 5:30 in the morning, after a night of not much sleep.  Anticipation and trepidation don't make for restful nights.  Anyway, by the end of the day, I looked much worse, but a little skinnier around the waist.  But I won't show a picture of that!

After a a small bit of torture (aka insertion of IV) and a brief chat and prayer with the doctor, I was wheeled away from my support group - my fantastic husband and my patient mother - and taken to a chilly room for more torture (aka insertion of spinal and prep for a C-section).  Which, surprisingly, turned out to be not nearly as horrific/petrifying as I remembered from Camden's birth.  I didn't even cry until all the scary stuff was over - the poke in the back was done and the resulting nausea dissipated.  Then they brought Dan back - which I much appreciated - and together we waited for our baby to appear (with me trying not to notice the white board behind Dan which listed the surgical tool count of everything -eek).  Our little baby started crying before he was even all the way out.  

Here is my first real view of our new little boy.  (The doctor did hold him up over the surgical sheet for a second before they did the quick clean and measurements, but it's not the prettiest picture.)   Dan went to the nursery with the baby to take pictures while the nurse did the more thorough clean-up.  

On a funny note, I heard two unhelpful statements as the doctor was finishing sewing me back together.  A nurse was counting kind of loudly, got to the end of the count, and said firmly, "That's not right!"  Hmm, didn't find that reassuring!  Then, out of the muffled conversation between the doctor and the 4th-year med student helping, I hear the med student say, "Well, accidents DO happen."  Good thing I'm not more paranoid!

I was able to hold our baby pretty soon after getting out of surgery.  Still really dopey from lack of sleep and adrenaline let-down.  But it was great to finally meet the one who has been punching my belly for the last few months.  And I loved having my parents there!  It took a little bit, but Dan and I finally decided on a name Friday morning.  

Camden wasn't sure at first what to think of this new creature.  

But he has come to be very excited about Ethan.  He says "Hey, baby" whenever he notices Ethan is there.  Camden likes to give him hugs and honk his nose and point out Ethan's body parts and stick a binky in the baby's face.  I try to remember that younger siblings have been surviving for generations and that Ethan probably isn't as fragile as he looks, but it's hard to let Camden close without feeling a bit of concern - Camden's all elbows and knees when he climbs on me, and soft touches don't seem to be an inherent part of his programming.  

Although Camden likes Ethan, it's rather apparent that he's not entirely happy with the changes life has brought.  Something about an exhausted mom with a seriously lacerated tummy (that prevents her from doing anything very fun or from lifting or holding or lots of other helpful/comforting things), who spends all her time with a leech, er, baby, in her lap, sucking down mommy-milk - well, all that seems to have unbalanced his world and, understandably, Camden is quite upset about it.  That or he suddenly stumbled upon a terrible new phase with more screaming, recalcitrance, and general grumpiness/whiny-ness.  I'm trying to figure out how to change the dynamic, cause I know I'm not responding to him in the best way all the time.  It seems a real shame that I should be deprived of most of my coping and thinking skills just when I need them the most.

The stinky thing about staying in the hospital so long for a C-section is that the hospital then has that extra day to weigh your baby and find that, naturally, he has lost a good amount of weight.  Which is exactly what happens to most breastfed babies, but most of their moms escape before the proof is given and everybody expresses serious concerns about the child's lack of nourishment - which naturally the babies are only barely starting to get.  Ethan lost more than 10% of his birth weight during the hospital stay, but has been holding steady since then.  We had two appointments last week to check on him and another later this week to see how he's doing.  I really dislike this additional stress - it makes me second-guess how I feed and take care Ethan, and wonder if I am doing enough to help him grow strong.  Again, I could really use a little more mental capacity!

I forgot that newborns have a crying time every day.  I forgot that I would want to cry every day too.  I didn't realize how fortunate I was that baby Camden cried in the afternoon and evening (and I anxiously awaited Dan coming home from work so I could hand him off).  Ethan cries at night.  Usually just the first part of the night, but sometimes it is for a lot of the night.  Few things are more certain than the moment I crawl into bed and begin to relax, Ethan will begin the most heart-rending cries.  I just hold on to hope that it will only last a month or two and then he will grow up a bit and it will stop.  In the meantime, I love-love-love my amazing husband who handles most of the night fussiness and I just try to accept my zombie status and to nap at least once a day.  

I am super grateful to have another baby, another sweet boy in our family.  I am sure I have the best husband ever!  And I am especially thankful for my mom and Melinda and Rebecca who have come/will come to help during this tricky transition that will be so good for our family but is so stinkin' hard right now.