Jase's Box & Helmet

Can't post pics of Ian without posting some of Jasey, too! This boy is growing up way too fast for my liking! He's 2.5 yrs old now! GAH! Here's a couple pics I snapped of him playing in a diaper box. He loves playing with boxes!
Nice grin, my man.
Ok so we found this helmet for him in Walmart--isn't it cute?? Ha ha ha, I love it! He finally mastered riding the trike, so we thought it would be good to get him used to wearing a helmet now...
Here's a view from the side. This helmet is sized for a 5 yr old child. Hee hee.
My favorite pic of him wearing it. He wouldn't take it off. He played with his "toy story" water color paints for at least a half an hour while wearing his helmet. Too funny!

Ian's 2 week Stats

Look how different he looks just after a week or two! Geez! I swear he gets CUTER and CUTER every day...I love him!

Ok let's get down to business. I took him in for his 2 week checkup with the pediatrician last Thursday. Apparently when they measured him after he was born, they overestimated (either that or he's shrinking) bc the nurse measured him 4 times and each time she only got 20.87"! When he was born they said he was 21.5"! Ha ha ha. The nurse was all worried about my reaction but it wasn't a big deal to me--I thought it was kind of funny. Only, now, his birth stats are off on his length, but oh well.

He weighed in at 8 lbs 10 oz, so he was able to regain his birth weight and then some (which is what they want babies to do) . I think he only weighed about 7 lbs 13 oz when we left the hospital. He's now in the 47th percentile for his weight. This "average" weight is so foreign to me since Jase always seemed to be in the 80's or 90's for his stats. Crazy!

Here's my favorite part--his head size. I just assumed I'd have another baby with a big head like the first time around (hence part of my reasoning electing a 2nd c-section). But nope, his head measures only 14.2", which lands him in the 28th percentile! Shocker to us all!

So far everything is going pretty well with Ian. He eats well, poops & pees well, sleeps fairly well...a pretty good baby overall. I could not be more grateful for this healthy, sweet little baby boy nugget face. Sometimes I just need to hold him and breathe him in...it's enough to overwhelm anyone's heart. I'll just sit there and cry and cry, just happy to have him and wonder about what the future holds for him. Sigh. He's such a beautiful tiny gift.

Big Bro, Little Bro...

Took these when Ian was about 1 week old. He doesn't look all that small sitting on Jase's lap!
Heh heh, cute. Jase kept looking over at Reuben while I was taking pics.
He started to get more "brave" and started playing with Ian's arms. However, you should have seen his face when Ian actually started crying. He scooted away from the baby really fast!
Trying to get an idea of the height difference between these two. Hee hee. I love Ian's crazy eye (looking at his dad like, "what are you doing to me?") in this pic.

A few more pics...

These are when Ian was about 1 week old. I have lots more to post, they are just still stuck on my SD card. More to come. Here he is chillin' out in his bouncer seat (which I am in love with).
Sunbathing time! He needed some sun bc of the jaundice, so I used the shadow as his "sunglasses." Hee hee.
Ian's first trip to Chick-Fil-A in the carseat. Don't cha love his homemade "headrests?"
Ooh! His eyes were finally open long enough for me to snap a pic. Roob was holding him here.

3 + 1 = 4

Checking out of the hospital on Sunday, April 11, 2010. Our first family of 4 picture :)

More Pics of Ian from the Hospital

I have so many pictures to post--sigh. But here's a start! Just a day or two old in the hospital. He finally opened his eyes and we snapped a couple pics!
Ha ha, cute face here.
Hee hee, not so happy here! I took this one right before I fed him, I think. Hence the mad face.
So sweet sleeping on his side in the hospital bassinet. If you look at the top-left of the picture, you can see his little black & white sunglasses they put on him underneath the billiruben lights.
I love how cute his little face looks in this picture, the light catching in his eyes. That's grandma Jenith holding him. She spent Saturday night in the hospital with me to give Reuben a break.
Awww, sound asleep on my chest...look at those squishy cheeks!
Another sleepy middle of the night picture. Don't I just look dashing??? Ok let's focus our attention on Ian here. :)
We started dressing him in his "going home" outfit. Here's the first part of it and it is HUGE on him. Oh well. He still looks cute anyways!
Ok here's the entire thing. It's such a cute outfit but the hat & pants are gigantic! Size 0-3 months was just too big for my little 8 pounder! My sister sent the cute loafers for him, but since they wouldn't let us remove his ankle bracelets until we left the hospital (for security reasons), they wouldn't fit!
Here's a view of the back of his pants--a little bear bottom! Hee hee.
More pics to come soon...when I get a chance to post!

do u have CAADD???

"Child Activated Attention Deficit Disorder

This is how it manifests:

I decide to do the laundry. As I start toward the basement, I notice that there are cheerios all over the floor and my car keys are in the cereal bowl. I decide to pick up the cheerios before I do the laundry. I lay my car keys down on the counter, put the cheerios in the trash can under the counter, and notice that the trash can is full. So, I decide to take out the trash. But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the trash I may as well pay the bills first. I take my checkbook off the table, and see that there is only one check left, my extra checks are in my desk in the office/playroom, so I go to my desk where I find a sippy cup full of juice. I'm going to look for my checks, but first I decide I should put the sippy cup in the refrigerator to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen with the sippy cup a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye - they need to be watered. I set the sippy cup on the counter, and I discover baby wipes that I've been searching for all morning. I decide I better put them back in the bathroom, but first I'm going to water the flowers. I set the wipes back down, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote, one of the kids left it on the kitchen table. I realize that after school when they go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote as they fight over who lost it, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers. I splash some water on the flowers, but most of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back down, get some paper towels and wipe up the spill. Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day: the laundry isn't washed, the bills aren't paid, there is a warm cup of juice sitting on the counter, the flowers aren't watered, there is still only one check in my checkbook, I can't find the remote, I can't find the wipes, and I don't remember what I did with the car keys. When I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail." (got this off of a friend's blog who got it off of another blog, but it made me laugh bc this is so totally my problem)

Ian Christian

So we have officially named our child! Thought I'd let you know in case you don't do the Facebook thing. I've always liked the name Ian (thank goodness Reuben did, too, bc I swear we could not agree on hardly any other names), and we saw "Christian" on a list of family names my mom had sent me a while back. It comes from her mother's side of the family. Anyways, we liked that name, too, and it just so happens that the baby's initials spell "ICE." Funny, cuz Jase's initials spell "JOE," so we thought we'd continue with that "tradition" just for fun.

We left the hospital early Sunday afternoon. Ian's jaundice levels had been fairly high a day or tw earlier, so they increased his feedings and kept him under the billiruben (sp?) lights for at least 24 hrs. By Sunday morning his levels had dropped back into the low risk category, so they let me take him home (yes!). We have to take him in for a 2nd checkup tomorrow morning, though, just to make sure he's ok. I think he is. He had plenty of dirty diapers last night (always a good sign for the jaundiced thing). But I think increasing his feedings temporarily at the hospital has already increased my milk supply. He has way more than he needs--so I'm hoping that gets naturally resolved over the next couple of days.

Anyways, I should be using this time to rest, but I wanted to do a quick update for ya.

Want a kiss??

I gotta send this to America's Funniest Videos so we can win the big money! :) This was the first time Jase was meeting little Ian (yes, we have officially decided on "Ian Christian" for the name--finally) and Roob and Grandma Jenith were trying to convince him to give Ian a kiss. SO FUNNY! Hope you think it is as funny as I do!!!

Arrival of Baby #2

Wow, what a day. We had to check into the hospital at 5:30am (what?). Lame. I had to change into the lovely hospital gown and get all set up with paperwork and an IV. The nurse who set me up was very sweet, however she had a bit of trouble with the IV. Tried in right arm first, didn't work. Then tried left arm right above wrist. I wasn't looking but somehow quite a bit of blood washed over my arm (eew) during the entire process...she got it in and had to draw some blood for bloodwork, but the excess blood loss made me get all sorts of woozy. Only lasted for a few minutes and then I was ok. We just had to sit around and wait a while after that. I was hooked up to a baby monitor, so we could hear the baby's heartbeat--oh, and just so happens I was naturally having a few contractions! Ha! (But I couldn't feel a thing).

Anyways, probably about 7:30am they took me back into the operating room. It's so stark and cold in there. I started to get pretty nervous. The anesthesiologist was great, though. Very nice and calming. He had me lay on my side and gave me the local to numb up that spot on my back. That wasn't too bad. He said that was the worst part--but nope. Even though my back was technically numb, you can feel them putting in the real catheder/tube thingy. Eeks! It sort of sends an electric jolt into your back, but it's fairly quick. It made me jump, but soon afterwards my legs started getting tingly and soon went numb. Ahhh, sweet numbness. Of course my biggest fear is feeling ANY sort of pain!

The actual surgery went by pretty quickly and I was alert the entire time. The doctor said I had very little scar tissue, so it made for an easier repeat caesarian. Cool. Anyways, at first it felt like someone had a tube into my uterus and blowing bubbles. Bizarre. Lots of pulling and tugging, pulling and tugging. Next thing ya know, I hear a baby crying! OH CUTE! They held him up for me to see, all white and goopey. He was so much smaller looking than I had expected! I could hear him crying and crying while they were cleaning him up (in the same room) so that was fun. A bit more tugging and pulling sensation while they were getting me put all back together. Our little guy weighed 8 lbs, 3 oz, was born at 8:12am, and was 21.5" long. Nice!

Then they wheeled me off to the recovery room. I think I was in there for almost 2 hours (or so it felt). Roob was in the nursery with the baby. They kind of wash you off in there and wait for some feeling to come back into your legs, etc. But they leave the epidural in your back for another 24 hrs or so to deliver pain meds. It's nice, actually. Keeps you pretty comfortable without all the droggy side effects of the oral narcotics such as Percocet (which I think they'll start giving me on day #2). At one point they brought the baby to me in there so I could try nursing but he was still pretty fussy (has a nice set o' lungs) so it didn't go too well.

Eventually I was ready to go to my official post-delivery room about 10:30am. Hooray! Roob and baby joined me in there. We got lots of comments from nurses and staff about how much stuff we brought with us. It was pretty funny. We stuffed a bunch of pillows and other things into this huge "tent" carrying bag that someone here referred to as a "body bag." LOL. Yeah, we look like crazies. But hey, I have everything I could possibly want here with me. 'Specially if I'm going to be here for 3 to 4 days! Heh heh. Jase came to see his little bro for the first time and daddy snapped a cute pic of the two of them...love it! I was so nervous about how Jase would react. He seemed pretty disconnected with it all and wanted to push all the cool hospital gadget buttons. Daddy took him for a walk outside to see the ducks while my mom and I visited.
Oh, gotta love little yawns!
I finally got to stand up and walk around...pretty sore! LOL.Carrying the baby around...
This picture makes him look SO BEEFY, but it's an illusion. He's really lean and small! I need to get a naked pic of him so you can tell...
Love baby feet!
Hi there, it's me, your cute baby boy!
Oh his little cheeks...
Grandma Jenith getting in some baby lovin'...she's been housesitting and taking care of Jase for us (huuuuuge thank you for that)!
Grandpa and Grandma Erickson came to meet the new little guy after work! We had a fun visit!

Easter Egg Hunting

There was too much snow at our house, so I took Jasey to our vacant rental house to do his Easter egg hunt in the backyard there. This was his first few egg finds...
And here's him finding some more eggs after that...

Jase eating some of his loot...

Jase on the Trike

Jase learned how to pedal the bike all on his own! So cute!

Baby #2 Update 3.31.10

Had my very last doctor's appt yesterday evening. For the first time since I've seen this doctor, I had to wait longer than 10 min to get in (probably 30 or 40). She had a delivery and got a little behind. She's so fast, though, so it wasn't a bad wait. I can't complain. With my first pregnancy I saw a midwife and no joke, I'd wait an average of 1 to 3 hours (yes hours) to see her at EVERY APPOINTMENT. For that reason alone, I will be thankful for my new doc. However, sometimes I wish she were a teeny weeny bit more chatty than she is. I swear she says like 10 sentences to me and that's it. It's kind of funny. She's nice, though. What do ya do? Anyways, blah blah.

So it looks like the baby is about 8 pounds. He has one week left until his birthday. I wonder if he knows?? Heh heh. I'm getting pretty anxious about the whole thing. I asked the doctor yesterday if they do an epidural or a spinal or what--and she said they do like a "combo" of both. Huh? Then she raced on to say something like they leave the epidural in for 24 hours so I don't have to be on narcotics. Huh? I always have more questions but since she's not chatty person, I get a bit intimidated and just nod my head like I get it. Well, I don't really get it, but I'll ask more questions at the hospital. Even though I had a section with Jase, I don't remember all the details and it was a bit different, bc it wasn't scheduled and I had been induced and did the whole "laboring" thing for a few hours. Anyways--

Someone asked me to ask the doctor if they could do like a mini tummy tuck after the c-section. I didn't want to ask bc I felt soooo dumb about it. Well I should have followed my instincts bc of course I asked and my face flushed into a bright, hot red color. She rattled off something about how that's major plastic surgery and they don't do that. The only way they even trim a teeny bit of skin is if you have major scar tissue. Oh. Yeah. Ok. Mmm hmm. Sorry I asked. I felt like a real chump. Ugh. So no tummy tucks for me!

I have to be at the hospital at 6am, and they'll do the surgery (scary, right?) at 7:30am. Not sure when pictures will get posted bc I do remember being pretty out of it for a while after I had Jase. But they'll get posted eventually. :) I'll be bringing the laptop!!! Until then, I'll be taking deep breaths to calm my nerves...