Well, at this moment I am so upset because have already felt so guilty that I can't keep up with the monthly posts like I did with Lachlan. I've been working on her 6 month post for the last week, determined to get it done timely. I just spend over an hour tonight finishing it up...and none of the autosaves actually worked! I went to publish and gives me an error and then reverts back to the copy from days ago! Just want to toss this thing out the window and is stress I don't need! At some point I hope to get caught up with the previous months, even if it is just a small posting. I have this horrible guilt feeling because I haven't captured all the moments that I did with Lachlan, but I am really struggling with making free time for it, especially with a laptop that makes it SO DIFFICULT. Right now I feel like I have this huge "to do" list and just am treading water to keep my head above it! I do have a calendar where I try to keep track of her updates...but not the same as my blog posts. I already can't believe she is 6 months and is out of the newborn stage and into what I call the classic chunky baby stage, although I can't get her as chunky as I'd like. I am really trying to just soak up every moment of her babiness and hold onto the memories. She is just sooooooooooo happy and soooooooooooo good. I feel guilty too cause Lachlan seems to get most of our attention because he just requires it more than she does.
6-Month Stats (5/5/14):
Dustin took her to the doctor appt because I had a work meeting.
Weight: 16 lbs 1oz (49%)
Height: 26.5 in (73%)
Head: 16.75 in (50%)
Eating Habits:
We offer 5 6oz bottles each day...but is rare that she finishes all bottles! I'd guess she maybe has about 27 oz/day total.
We started food on 4/5 with some squash. For the next few weeks we sometimes did food around dinnertime, but was not an every night occurrence. She next had some carrots and sweet potatoes. I believe peaches were her first fruit. The week before turning 6 months, I started sending food to daycare and dropped the food at dinnertime. Normally she just has about 3 oz of a fruit/veggie for lunch at daycare.
We give her Miralax each morning- about 1tsp. Poor girl has same issues as her brother where it seems really painful when she tries to poo. I sometimes give a probiotic in her evening bottle.
Makenzie Random Notes:
I wish I could say rolling, but still does not seem interested AT ALL.
Not the best eater, but somewhat getting the hang of it. Still uses her tongue to thrust out the food a lot.
REALLY focuses and likes to grasp objects. I love watching her concentration.
Has discovered her toes and LOVES to get them in her mouth.
We got out the jumperoo, but she is not a huge fan. She may spend 5-10 minutes in there. I remember Lachlan loved it right away and would fall asleep cause he'd wear himself out!
I bought a new bouncy seat since our old one was so flattened out from Lachlan using it way past the weight limit.
She will do tummy time, but only for short times. She can push herself up and look around. I don't see her pivoting, but Lachlan really never did that either.
I had thought a while ago she was getting close to holding her own bottle, but no progress there...which is really fine with me cause I love holding her and giving it to her. She likes to grasp my shirt or a blanket while eating.
Dishes out smiles left and right! I really don't feel like I've heard her laugh, but Dustin says she does.
No teeth poking through, but wants to put everything in her mouth. I give her a toy or stuffed animal and it is just soaking wet by the time she is done. Immediately when she gets in the carseat she tries to eat the straps.
Seems to like the bath- never cries or fusses in there.
She is so easy to bring places, so it's great that she really doesn't prevent us from any outings on the weekends. At some point soon I think that will stop cause we will want to be home for her to nap in her crib...but for now she is so great at just sleeping on the go!
We put her in her crib for a nap a couple times, but she doesn't seem to nap well in there. The swing is primarily where she sleeps on the weekends during the day.
So....sleep. We were exhausted, at our wit's end, going crazy, etc. So on 4/7 I finally got to a breaking point where had to try letting her cry it out. We used the same methods as we did with Lachlan where we would go in at intervals to let her know we were still here and give her some pats/touches, but not pick her up. Dustin had been wanting for weeks to do this with her, but I wouldn't give in. I knew it worked extremely well with Lachlan, but there was something telling me it was not the right time with her. She had been so sick for a long time, so I wanted to make sure she was 100% over that. Also, she didn't eat as much as Lachlan, so felt it could be legitimate that she was hungry during the night. Anyways, spur of the moment I decided I just had enough and had to try this. Well she woke shortly after midnight and cried for 45 minutes...which was brutal as I laid in bed thinking I was the worst mom and never should have done this. Then it was like someone flipped a switch and she stopped! She didn't cry the rest of the night or when she awoke in the morning! For the remainder of the week she would only cry 10-15 minutes when waking during the night. The next week she basically never cried anymore! So, again, this method has worked great for us!
The kids had their first real baby-sitter the night of my birthday. Her name is Jessica and she is awesome with the kids! I had NO qualms leaving them and really hope they had fun!
Nicknames we have for her: Kenzie (thanks to Lachlan), Chubbins or McChubbins, Kickapoo Rogers
Typical schedule:
If she awakes between 5-6am, then I just move her to the swing and she goes back to sleep until around 7 usually. I normally don't fall back asleep, but at least I can lay back in bed and relax. If she awakes any time after 6am, then I will just get her up at that point.
I give her a morning bottle (6oz) on the couch while watching the news or Today show.
Get to daycare around 8am. I send 3 6oz bottles and a jar of baby food (about 3 oz) that she has for lunch. Her naps are ALL over the place with no schedule!
I usually pick her up around 5:15 from daycare. She likes to be in the kitchen while we eat dinner and frequently fusses if we try to put her in the swing or leave her in the family room. Most of the time she is in her bouncy seat and Dustin bounces her as we eat.
She frequently ends up falling asleep between 6-7pm, which I'd like to avoid. We just recently moved up her bedtime since it seemed like she was getting tired early. We try to give her bottle now around 7-7:15pm so she can be in her bed by 7:30. I usually give her night bottle, but Dustin does sometime. I like to give it to her in the rocking chair in her room. I really enjoy this quiet time together and she frequently falls asleep at the end of the bottle so just snuggles up to me when I burp her. Love it!
Now, the best part...pictures!
Rare crying moment :(
Celebrating Aunt Missy's Birthday!
First taste of food - squash!!
Big brother trying to help with the dreaded tummy time
My sweet little bunny!
Got to meet a few Easter Bunnies!
Cowgirl!
Nothing cuter than a sleeping baby!
Bluebonnet hunting #1
Bluebonnet Hunting #2- couldn't get a smile out of her...just completely relaxed chilling in her chair!
Lachlan loves close snuggles with her...but once he's had enough he will abruptly push her away, so gotta pay close attention!
Well I'm bummed it has been so long since I've done one of these and the time just keeps flying by and I keep failing to capture it all! On a whim I decided to log my day, so here is how it shook out:
4:50am: I don't even know if this is the correct time, all I remember is that I saw 4:something on the clock! Makenzie is up crying and this is very early for her. However, I feel like it is late enough that I shouldn't just let her cry it out in her crib, so I go get her to move to the swing. We frequently do this to buy ourselves a little more sleep/relaxation in the mornings. Well, she was NOT happy and wailed in the swing until a little after 5:30.
5:35am: Finally golden silence and back to sleep for everyone!
6:00am: Dustin's dang alarm is going off! He gets up to go shower, I roll over to get some more sleep.
6:30am: Makenzie is awake, so I get up and feed her a 6 oz bottle on the couch. I change her diaper and get her dressed.
7:00am: I get ready in the bathroom while Makenzie rests comfortably in her lounger and was giving me a bunch of coos and smiles.
7:20am: I hear Lachlan rustling about, so we go up to change his diaper and get him dressed. We come downstairs and he gets a sticker for getting dressed without a hassle. He gets some juice while I make up the bottles for the day.
7:45am: Out the door to daycare. Lachlan insists on getting into his carseat by himself. The funny thing was as soon as I quit taping him, he fell over and conked his head into makenzie's carseat and was quite the meltdown...all because he wanted a piece of paper from daycare!
7:55am: Get to daycare and Lachlan wants to help carry in the bag, but decides to get out a bottle to shake it...but he drops it and the lid goes flying off and the bottle rolls under the car with milk pouring out of it. I was able to quickly reach the bottle and save more milk coming out...however, can't find the lid anywhere. Very frustrated with Lachlan, but trying to keep a smile on my face because know he was just doing his best to "help." Finally find the lid behind a tire. Take Makenzie to her room, take Lachlan to cafeteria and make him a plate for breakfast.
8:15am: Arrive back home and head into the office to work. On calls from about 9:30-11:30.
11:30am: Run to Target to make a couple returns and do some grocery shopping.
12:30pm: Back to work. Also, have to call our pest control guy cause found this "friend."
5:05pm: Sign off of work and quickly chop up some veggies for dinner. Head to daycare to pick up the kiddos...only to find Lachlan super hyper chasing around his friend Hadley and discover he took no nap today which is very rare. Load kids into car.
5:40pm: Back home from daycare. Open Lachlan's car door and he doesn't move...uh oh, must be asleep behind those shades! Go inside with Makenzie to prep some things for dinner and leave him sawin' logs.
5:50pm: Dustin is home from work, so he plays with Makenzie while I grill and get everything complete for dinner. A little after 6 he wakes up Lachlan.
6:15pm: Eat our delicious, healthy dinner of fajitas! This is day #2 of eating healthier meals and watching our portions. We each are at some of our heaviest weight ever, so want to try to get back into shape. Lachlan wants more refried beans...probably 3-4 servings of them!
6:45pm: Head upstairs with the kids to play for a bit.
7:00pm: Put Makenzie in bathtub. She's happy and splish-splashing around!
7:15pm: I go give Makenzie her bottle in her rocking chair. Dustin puts Lachlan Crabbypants in the tub after MUCH talk and convincing.
7:40pm: I lay Makenzie down to sleep in her crib. She is out like a light!
I go in the bathroom to find Dustin hasn't even started to wash Lachlan yet! I crab to him about what has he been doing this whole time and the point was to be doing Lachlan's bath and books while I put Makenzie down so we could go exercise now! He claimed he didn't realize how much time had passed and thought it was 7:20. Ummm...okay.
7:50pm: Force Lachlan out of the tub to dry off and he was not a happy camper about that!
7:55pm: I read Lachlan 2 books since it is very late considering he had virtually no nap. We read a book about Grover's animals and Giraffe's Can't Dance. He insists on being quizzed in each book on where the animals are.
8:05pm: He turns off the light and we both sing him You are My Sunshine and tuck him in. He happily tells us "Bye bye mommy daddy" about 5 times as we leave the room. Just melts my heart and I feel like I have to tear myself away from his room :(
8:10pm: Dustin claims it is late and he is too tired to exercise. I lay guilt trip on him saying he was the one saying that we have to do this every night and can't skimp! He gives in and we go to the media room for T25 Speed video. We barely make it through the video, but do most of it! Day 2 of T25 program is a success!
8:45pm: We each take a shower after cooling off a bit.
9:05pm: We go to the media room to watch a Walking Dead episode. I get all my calories and exercise logged in Myfitnesspal (great app by the way!).
10:00pm: We go to bed, but he lays in bed playing Clash of Clans for quite a while and I play Candy Crush, check emails, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest. I'm ready to call it a night, but he insists that I need to see something online called Photoshop Troll which I had never heard of. Well, we end up looking at this and laughing so unbelievably hard that we are crying. It is a site where people send in pictures and request something in it to be photoshopped and the site says they will do it for free. Well, it is just a joke and the guy running the site does really silly things to the photo...and the people requesting the change get all bent out of shape, etc.
11:00pm: All asleep...zzzzzzzzzzzz.
<<And just because the next night was a doozie, I'll keep going...>>
1:50am: Lachlan is up crying. I go up to his room (praying I don't step on any crunchy roach bug on the way up in the dark) and rub his back and sing to calm him down. I lay on the floor for a while and sneak off once he seems asleep.
????am: No clue what time this is but he is up crying AGAIN! Dustin gets him and brings him to our bed, which is rare this ever happens. He talks a little and tosses and turns/flips all over but finally goes to sleep.
5:10am: Makenzie is up and I move her to the swing and she cries her head off again. Lachlan wakes up and is concerned the baby is crying...great, now both kids are up at the crack of dawn! But they both end up going back to sleep and our day basically starts the same all over again!
These kids are exhausting, but wouldn't trade it for anything!
This is completely embarrassing as I continue to get Lachlan's posts/updates done, but not poor Makenzie's...although this is still a month late! I feel like so little happens with her as compared to Lachlan, but need to just crank our her monthly posts and get caught up asap!
Here are the highlights of the last 3 months for Lachlan:
2-Year Checkup/Stats:
30 lbs 3 oz (75%)
36 inches tall (86%)
20.25" head (97%)
24 month or 2T clothes
No new teeth...still waiting on just the 2 year molars to come in
Still wearing his 7.5 shoes, but can see his toe at the end and needs new ones
School:
At the start of February he moved to a new room at daycare (Suite 300). I really like how his daycare is doing the movements because they moved about 10 kids all at the same time. He was a little confused at first, but quickly caught on. The teachers in the new room are GREAT and they have such a fun schedule of activities that I think it suits Lachlan really well. His head teacher goes above and beyond what is required and we are getting so spoiled...she posts a lot of pictures and updates on FB and it's just little things like that I think working parents appreciate since they miss out on many hours with their kids.
They have Mr. Steve come once a week to play guitar and sing- he is supposedly super animated and funny and Lachlan loves it. They also do this Flippers program where someone comes in weekly to do fun physical activities/challenges. I can see on the video feed that Lachlan seems to enjoy it and actually follows along doing the stretches and activities. I think it was the very first week where he had to army crawl on his stomach under a limbo bar...instead he just crawls on his knees and plows right into the bar. It was pretty funny and so something my uncoordinated self would have done as a kid!
He also goes to the media room for technology class and I believe they have a Spanish teacher come in. I know many times he already knows the stuff they are doing in class, but he also is learning so much! I feel so relieved right now knowing that we 100% picked the right place for him.
Smarts:
I forgot to put this in 2 year post, but he knew circle, square, rectangle (although sometimes mixes those 2 up), oval he calls egg, and triangle. He also knows diamond and will get octagon and pentagon mixed up, but attempts to guess at them. He has started calling ovals by the correct name too.
Around the end of January he FINALLY could identify many colors! I had read in the meantime that we had been approaching it wrong. Instead of asking them WHAT color something is and making them name it, you should ask him to show you the color you name. So we would have out a bunch of different colored cards-- and if I said, show me the red card, he could identify it. If I pulled the red card and asked what color it was, he'd say blue or something else. I don't know- seemed weird to me, but once we changed our approach he rapidly could identify all the colors and then very quickly after that could then correctly name them. And he knows every single normal color by the time I'm posting this- black, white, gray, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, pink, purple, brown.
If I name a letter, he can give me a word that starts with that letter. For example, I say "Q is for..." and he tells me "Queen!" I'm impressed because he doesn't say the same word for the letter every time...he may tell me "apple" one day and "alligator" another day. It's all because we probably read SO many ABC books!
Skills/Milestones:
One thing he had to do for the new classroom was drink from a regular cup- no sippy cups anymore. He mastered this pretty well in about 2 weeks.
In his new room, they start doing some potty training basics or introductions, so we gradually started with some things at home. Usually 1-2 times during the day at school he just sits on the potty- has yet to go in it. Last week we went to Target and picked out a frog potty and a ring for the big potty...so far he has only used the frog potty and we give him an M&M if he just sits on there. Right now I don't think he really cares too much at all....just all about getting that one measly M&M!
Behavior:
He continued to be awful when going to bed for quite a while. He slowly got better about putting on pjs and reading books...but then just screamed and cried out for us when put in the crib. He always stopped it within about 2 minutes though. Finally the last 6-8 weeks has gone smoother- we sing him You are My Sunshine and he likes that....can't forget to hum a verse before leaving the room though! He sometimes still has fits, but overall it has improved.
Unfortunately he is really acting out and tantrums more often. He LOVES to say NO to everything. You think his ears aren't working most of the time cause he just completely ignores you. Not really sure what to do, but is so frustrating that he doesn't listen and just doesn't seem to care....there is no fear that he is not obeying his parents! We do time outs and he hates them and cries and goes nuts, but threatening with the time out doesn't make him listen or shape up.
Our good eater is back- he will eat basically anything you put on his plate, if his mood is right. He even has hogged down salad a few times and most recently tried sauerkraut!
Pretty good with "kenzie"- hit her the other night on purpose, but 99% of the time any harm is accidental. If he sees a bottle, blanket, toy, etc. of anything that is hers, he immediately thinks he needs to give it to her. If her legs/feet touch him at all, he starts getting into a panic telling her "No kicks, no kicks baby" and usually resorts to him moving away from her. I try explaining that she is just stretching and this is not kicking, but he doesn't understand.
Speech/Sayings:
People think Makenzie's name is Cassie because that is how he says it when saying Kenzie.
As soon as we get in the car he says "Lachlan music" so we play his CD.
Says "Hold you" when he wants me to pick him up. I keep trying to explain he needs to say Hold Me, but he doesn't get it.
"Sammich" for sandwich
He will not say Grandpa...if I ask him to say it, he says "Papa"
Loves to play "kick a ball" aka soccer.
Loves his "park" which is the swingset in the backyard.
I LOVE how he says "Beano" for "Bingo" (when we sing the song)
He will say his full name "Lachlan Thomas O'Brien" when asked
Fun Times:
Went to the Dallas zoo, swimming at our city indoor pool, 2 birthday parties, and explored some new parks on nice days.
Randomness:
Loves for me to take pictures of him hugging kenzie or putting his arm around her.
Loves to sing songs and for me to put on Pandora so we can sing/dance in the kitchen.
Fave game is "numbers" every night after dinner....and I mean EVERY night, never to be missed (unfortunately).
We had a stupid mouse in the house....was just awful. I did make some fun out of it with the kids and took them to a hotel for 1 night and it went really well. Me and Lachs slept in a king bed where I barely had any room cause he kept invading my space....Hog!
He gets "boo boos" A LOT and needs his boo boo bunny and elmo ice pack from freezer.
Took his first shower and LOVED it! On weekends Dustin will let him take a shower with him for a special treat.
A few pics
Check out that sad face...the slide is so fast that he is quite scared of it!
I've been a COMPLETE slacker blogging about our poor second child, but hopefully I'll get caught up here soon and then stay more on schedule! I had many notes saved in draft posts, so it's really just a matter of combining them now into a summary post.
First Trimester: This was fairly similar to last pregnancy, but I had a lot more nausea. I never threw up though, so consider myself lucky there! I was so glad to have a job where I could frequently work from home, so that helped out a lot...and then I sipped loads of ginger ale. I still had frequent headaches, but my prescription was awesome and would immediately knock them out. I was much more tired and lethargic this time-- probably because a certain Mr. L. sucks everything out of me! My weight started out the exact same as last time- at 131 pounds.
Second Trimester: Unfortunately with my first pregnancy I had to deal with moving, but then what were the chances that it happened again! This kind of caught us as a surprise, but it was a really good opportunity for Dustin's career, so we decided to move from Missouri to Texas. We wanted to act fast and get established in our new house before the baby arrived. That added a lot of stress to these few months of selling our house (which was a complete nightmare and makes me never want to move again). We came down to Texas for one house hunting trip and just pulled the trigger on a newly built house that was almost exactly what we were looking for. Overall I felt pretty good, but think I may have just been too busy and stressed over the house to really think about the baby or how I felt! I really thought my stomach would grow much larger/faster this time around, but I basically was always right on par with the first pregnancy or slightly smaller. At the 18 week u/s, the technician had said everything looked good; however, the nurse called a few days later saying not to worry but they found a possible shadow on the baby's heart. So in 4 weeks I would need to go for another u/s with better equipment. Of course, we start freaking out and researching this online (which I've determined is NEVER good to do with any sort of medical issue). Luckily it turned out to be nothing or fine, but just caused us 4 weeks of worry on top of everything else! In order to find out the sex of the baby, we had a picnic at the park and opened a box of balloons...and I really was so surprised to see pink! I was excited, but a crazy part of me was a little sad because I felt like Lachlan may be happier having a brother than sister. Hopefully they get along and are best buds though :)
Third Trimester: So, I was still uncomfortable, but not near as bad as last time. Thank goodness I didn't have the horrid rib pain I dealt with before. I think it has helped that we have some much more quality furniture in the family room now and a new firmer mattress. And I will have almost 2 weeks less time of being pregnant...woohoo! We moved at the start of the trimester, so I started with my new doctor's office. They structured it differently where they want you to meet with all the doctors in the practice since you don't know who will be on call when you deliver. I liked all the doctors, but it got a little frustrating feeling like I was constantly a new patient-- I finally just stopped doing it and scheduled all my appts with the same doctor. We also had to deal with deciding on a hospital- there were 3 options. We toured the first one together and I HATED it. It was small and very outdated- I'm talking VCRs in the room and just horrible decor. They also just had really strong philosophies on things that weren't me-- for example, basically force you to keep the baby in your room at all times. Um hello- my plan is that I would like a LITTLE bit of rest while there, even if that means the baby has to go to the nursery. We decided on Baylor McKinney to deliver at- the hospital was just opened last year and was really nice. At 38 weeks, think I had some sort of flu and had to cancel my dr appt that day.
Night Before Delivery: It is the night before the c-section and it's hard to believe that the time is truly here and tomorrow we'll be holding a little girl! The last few weeks have had some rough days and some easy days, but overall I am so done with being pregnant. I've had the rib pain/pressure again, but at least it isn't constant...but seems when I don't have that then I have pain down lower and frequently extends into my right leg. We are sleeping on a mattress on the floor cause the movers and my husband broke the bed. I am so nervous cause really need it fixed by the time I'm home from the hospital or I don't know what is going to happen. I am really interested to see how Lachlan reacts to the baby- we've been trying to prep him as much as possible during the last few weeks, but I don't think he comprehends much. I think it helps that he now sees a crib and room getting ready. He has really enjoyed trying to climb into the baby toys- loves to rock in the carseat and getting in the whale bathtub. He has my old cabbage patch doll that he roughly tosses around and plays with- no concept of gentle at all. I'm just very nervous he will have no concept and try to pick up the baby or something...and he doesn't really listen when we say "no." So I just don't know what to think of how he'll be! I also hope he does well with visiting us at the hospital and understands it is just temporary and we'll be back home soon. So it seems by default we have settled on Makenzie as the name-- we both just haven't put a lot of effort into looking and seems easy that we agreed on this one. Been debating the spelling the last couple days, but I kind of like it without the 'c.' We decided to bank the cord blood, but then last minute (aka night before delivery) I decided we should just do the cord lining/tissue too. This whole topic actually stressed me out, but at the end of the day felt like it was worth it to pay to do this cause I'd be kicking myself later if God forbid we could have used it. I still need to pack the suitcase in the morning, but pretty much have most things together to bring to the hospital. I'm excited to meet her, but also just so nervous that she'll be healthy, so just need her to arrive and get that reassurance!! I am looking forward to the hospital stay which I refer to as my "vacation"-- i really feel like I just need some time to rest and have people wait on me. My final weight is 149, so only gained 18 lbs, which is less than last time....pretty pleased with that!
Here are our baby guesses (Spoiler alert: Dustin won again getting closer on 2 of the 3 categories)...
Weight: Amy- 8 lbs; Dustin- 7 lb 3 oz
Length: Amy- 21.5 inches; Dustin- 20.5
Time: Amy- 12:13 pm; Dustin- 1:17
Birth Day and Hospital Stay!
Picture with Lachs just before we headed out the door-
We got to the hospital around 10am and was scheduled for the C-section around noon. One of the things I was most worried about was how nauseated I was during the procedure with Lachlan, but I felt much better after talking to the anestegiolist who said she would have medicine ready and just to talk to her the whole time during the surgery so she could adjust the medication. She did a WONDERFUL job and I loved feeling much more in control than last time. Luckily the nurses had warned me, but there are these giant lights above the operating table and when they are turned on they reflect what is down below, so you can end up seeing the surgery. I was like ummm....I definitely don't want to be seeing that. Seriously does anyone want to look up and see their insides?! It was a little weird cause Dustin was not in the room for quite a while during the time they put the spinal in me and got things all ready. I felt better once he was in there with me then. The surgery felt similar to last time where you can feel a lot of pulling and tugging. Except this time they pull out the baby and I hear, "Wow, look how tiny she is!" As soon as I saw her all I could think of was that she was SO SMALL! I think someone commented on her "red" hair, the same as they all did with Lachlan. She was born at 12:19pm weighing 7 lbs even and 19.75 inches long. We went back to the recovery area and then around 2:00 moved to my room. Lachlan came at 3:00 and I was just so excited to see that boy...he loved running through this curtain in the room or crawling and standing up on the window sill. We had got him Big Hugs Elmo as a gift, but he was a little scared of it, but then smiled at it after a while. He showed more interest in the baby than I thought he would, but he didn't want to touch her. I think he was just trying to take everything in! I was so proud of him as he didn't get upset that we were staying at the hospital, and he happily left to go home with grandma Tina. They gave Makenzie her first bath in our room and did her footprints in there too.
Swimming in this onesie
Bringing little sister home!
My Recovery
All I can say here is it was a BIG FAT AWFUL! Why on Earth would it have been so much worse this time around?! I was in so much pain in the hospital most days and could barely walk-- the nurses had to really force me out of bed to walk around. With Lachlan's birth I as voluntarily up and moving around the room with no issues or pain really at all! Then I got home and the first days at home were awful and lots of tears. The pain continued on for a couple weeks before it was fully gone. I really don't know what makes the difference, but with Lachlan I had used Percocet and this time they gave me 1 Percocet and then the rest Norco. I basically felt like I had no pain meds in me though cause it didn't make a difference when taking them. The other difference was with Lachlan they would wake me to give me the pain meds and this time they would just tell me to call whenever I woke up or wanted them...so I think maybe the pain just got out of control at the beginning and then I could just never get ahead of it and keep it reasonable?? This time around they also installed some "pain ball" that was supposed to be awesome and was in for the few days after the surgery...obviously wasn't so awesome for me. I really don't even know how to describe the pain, but it just burned very very very badly and was sore/tender and very hard to go from laying down to sitting up. I really don't know what I would do if I had another baby- the recovery was so bad that I don't know that I would want to try a c-section again...it wouldn't be a no-brainer decision like it was this time around!
This will be my last monthly post for this sweet boy...insert tears here...and I'll probably just do quarterly posts going forward for him...and devote my time to doing monthly posts for Makenzie, the already neglected second child that has not been blogged about yet!
Stats:
Weight: 30 lbs 3 oz (75th %tile)
Height: 36 inches (86th %tile)
Head Cir: 20.25 inches (97 %tile)
Clothes: 24 months for pants and 24 months/2T for shirts. For PJs we have had to buy 3T and even those barely fit him.
Teeth: I've been trying to get a look in his mouth to see if 2-year molars have started to come in, but I can never get a good look...so basically I have no clue where he stands on this!
Here are my random notes about Lachs...
He knows all letters in uppercase and lowercase. I highly recommend Endless Alphabet and Endless Reader apps-- he spends a lot of time on iPad/iPhones and I really think these apps have helped him be so interested in letters. We've also started to do Lettercise, which is a song they do at school which involves the ABC's, Phonics, and exercise. His teachers said he asks for it about 10 times/day.
He knows all numbers from 1-10. He still calls zero an "oh" but shortly after turning 2 learned to say zero.
Can count pretty well to 20, but I'm still being a little generous giving him all of the teens. Once he gets to 16, he can get the rest clearly.
I can't tell if we've made any progress on colors. Sometimes he gets them right and other times is waaaay off. I can understand sometimes mixing up similar items like a red and pink...but when he refers to black as yellow or something that different, it makes me think he has zero clue. He is interested though and doesn't get frustrated at all.
He is very into playing with his Busy Bags that I made with my mom's group in St Louis. We each made 20 of an activity and put it in the bag...then swapped so we each came home with 20 different activities. He calls these his "games" and is just in love with them. His favorite are doing ones with clothespins in them and involving Letters and Colors.
We have a foam mat on our hardwood floors that has ABCs and Numbers on it. He loves destroying it and then putting it back together like a puzzle. I also make games where I call out a letter and he has to go stand on it. It always makes me chuckle when after a while if he can't find something he'll say, "Q, where are you?"
He enjoyed the xmas tree at first, but has lost interest now. Of course I only put non-breakables near the bottom and thank goodness cause he could NOT keep his hands off and was constantly removing all the ornaments from the tree...luckily he has stopped that! I have not done a very good job of trying to get him to understand Santa- I really should have looked for a good movie or book. He found some Elmo Christmas video on his PBS app that he has been watching, so at least that was some exposure. The only santa decoration I really have out is this Scottish Santa, that actually doesn't look much like santa...but he keeps saying MONSTER when he walks by it! We took him on xmas eve to see Santa and he screamed and thrashed about.
He has continued to be a good big brother for the most part. Any time he has somewhat harmed her has been purely accidental cause he isn't paying attention to where his arms or legs are going. Any time he spots a blanket, bottle, pacifier, etc just sitting around he gets it and brings it to her. He frequently helps me burp her. He still mostly just calls her "bebe."
He has been really into giving hugs and kisses lately. And he likes to do eskimo kisses where we rub noses. He has just started to ask us to "snuggle" and he insists that we put on a blanket when we snuggle.
He loves playing "happy feet" where he puts on this musical snowman that waddles around the floor and then we waddle around like the snowman. And then we'll bump into walls and I'll bump into him and he just dies laughing.
He loves a little game he invented where he says "Night Night" and I close my eyes to pretend asleep. Then he says "Boo!" usually in a pretty quiet voice and I'll jump awake. He'll then say "Good Mornin" and find it funny.
The weather turned really cold here and we got inches of ice. Luckily I was stocked up on food and baby items here because the roads were so bad that I couldn't go out for days. Even 1 week later the stores don't have milk, cheese, etc. I took Lachlan out in the backyard so he could experience some winter weather...unfortunately it really was pure ice, so no snow to play with. That only lasted a few minutes and we came back inside.
He had some weird foot rash that we still don't know what it was. It comes and goes throughout the day and has been here for weeks now. The nurse over the phone thought maybe Hand Foot Mouth Disease, but he hasn't shown any other symptoms of that. I brought pictures into the doctor and they think it could be hives.
I feel so bad for this boy, but he still has extreme pain and trouble with bowel movements, so we just started doing Miralax again daily. He's struggled with this ever since a baby, but it is just heartbreaking to watch the pain that he is in. We had been giving him prune juice which does seem to help. He does usually tell us when he goes "poo poo." Although sometimes he says it when he just tries, but there is nothing there. He never tells us when he pees.
He splashes like CRAZY in the bathtub that everything is just soaking wet. We are trying to get him to stop, but at the same time I want him to have fun and like the water. He just has so much fun when he splashes!
He still uses his pacifier at diaper changes at home, but this is the only time he uses it. At some point we need to break this, but I figure the time is so minimal that he uses it that it isn't a huge deal.
He LOVES and has become attached to his small stuffed elmo that he sleeps with. He is starting to want to bring it out of bed with him so elmo can play with him.
He finds it funny every single night when Dustin reads his bedtime books that he races and gets in the chair first and Dustin pretends to sit on his lap. When the books are done, he always says "Just one more time." So we stress that it will be just ONE more book. Then after that book he says, "Just one more." He's so cute that it's hard to say no, but we do...then he usually is super sad to go to bed and cries sometimes.
He would watch tv forever if we let him. He really likes Elmo, but sometimes he will want to watch Daniel Tiger, Mickey, Thomas, or Chuggington.
Meals are pretty frustrating, but I keep telling myself this is normal. He used to eat nearly ANYTHING and ate good portions...now, he refuses foods that I know he likes, so it's just impossible to put together a meal that he will eat. Sometimes he doesn't even eat a bite off his plate. But I don't get him anything else- he either eats that or gets nothing. Some meals he eats really well, so I guess I should just be thankful he isn't like that 100% of the time. His favorite foods that he always eats are yogurt, applesauce, and crackers (triscuits)...so at least those are healthy.
Bedtime is generally around 8pm and he wakes around 7pm. He naps usually for 1.5-2.5 hours.
Some Pictures...
I was taking Makenzie pics and Lachlan really wanted in there too!
Birthday boy on his new trike!
I was taking Makenzie's weekly picture and suddenly Lachlan needed his picture taken too...you can faintly see on his sweatshirt that he found one of his monthly stickers and put it on his belly just like her!
