Reality

Parenthood is really humbling.  The last 48 hours have been pretty trying for my patience and sanity.  We ventured out to Target on Friday to grab a few presents for a baby shower and cousin's birthday party the next day.  I usually don't take my children Beckett along on trips where I have to buy toys for someone else, or just have to pass or enter the toy aisles in general.  Cue panic attack and the most epic tantrum of all time.  My generally sweet and level-headed child, who can usually be reasoned with and talked out of selfish toy-wanting moments was not having it.  He put the toys back that he was demanding moments before, but as soon as we started to leave he got worked up again.  Then he started with the body thrashing and ear-splitting screams of "no" and "put me down".   After he starts double-fist-punching Jeremy in the head, he has to be carried under the arm football style to the car so I can buy the gifts as quick as possible.  On the way to the car he starts viciously scratching and biting Jeremy.

We get home and put both children down for a nap because we desperately need to recoup from the episode that just happened in public.  Lincoln's usual routine for naps now that he's in a toddler bed consists of playing for five minutes and then falling asleep on the floor.  Well that day he decided to mix it up by removing his diaper, pooping on the floor, and then painting a mural on the wall with his new art medium.  Then he gets into bed while leaving traces of poo on the wood of the bed as he climbs in.  He then sleeps and awakens with now crusted-on crud on his hands.  Not the scene I was hoping to find after I came out of my shower.  I was emotionally spent after cleaning him and his room.

But Saturday was a new day right?  Nah, my kids decided to keep things interesting.  After playing an amazing soccer game in the morning, Beckett sits at the table for the post-game snack.  A few minutes later he decides he's ready to leave, and stands near the exit gate.  I tell him not to leave the gated area, turn for two seconds to help Lincoln, and Beckett's out of sight.  He ran all the way around the building towards the parking lot...cue mommy panic attack.  We leave after having ANOTHER conversation about obedience.

The rest of the day was actually quite pleasant being spent at parties and with friends.  Just as Jeremy and I are getting into bed that night, we hear Lincoln start screaming.  He then proceeds to have his worst yet bout of 'night terrors' lasting over 30 minutes.  If you aren't familiar, it is when a child is stuck in a dream-like terrified state where they can't stop crying/screaming, and they won't open their eyes and can't hear you trying to calm them.  You basically have to stay with them until they cry themselves awake, because nothing you do will stir them out of this state.  I've noticed with him that he tends to have them on days where he ate a lot of sugar (thanks a lot birthday cake).

Sometimes you just have to laugh.
"Is this real life?"

1 year

2012 started off with the absolute high of our sweet Lincoln joining the family.  A few weeks into being a family of four it seemed that we were hit with continual sickness and ailments for 2 months.  It was really really hard to adjust to two kids, nursing a non-stop eating machine, and being indefinitely sick.  If Lincoln was not the angel/happy-go-lucky/easy baby that he was I think I might have given up on life for a while there.  But we made it through, and now I can't believe it is a year later.  Watching my second baby grow has flown by.  Newborns are so precious and fun to cuddle, but I absolutely love the 1-2 year age.  A little about our one year old! (come Sunday):

He does not have quite as many words down as brother did at this time, but some of his other motor skills seem to be ahead of big brother...he can drink from a straw, climbs/dives off things like a champ, and loves to see how things work/fit together.

Anytime his big brother is playing with him or hugging him, he is in absolute heaven.

He makes himself laugh in his rear-facing carseat at random.

He can walk, a little, when he wants to...but he still chooses speed crawling over walking.

He says da-da, ma-ma, ba-ba, ball (bah!), num-num, Beckett (kett-kett), and light (iiight).

He LOVES food.  Eating is his absolute favorite activity.  If he could eat 24-7 he would!

He is a bruiser...not much fases this kid.  It takes a lot for him to cry about being hurt.


We love you so much Lincoln Odell, and are so blessed to have received such a sweet spirit into our family.  It is such a joy being your mommy.  Happy 1st birthday sweet boy!

6 you say?

Lincoln, the babe, Link, brother, Lincoln Log

This little rollie pollie is a cling monster who loves food (already stares and whines at you until you give him a sample).  He just cut his first tooth, with number two close behind.  He responds to his name (and has for some time now).  He takes two solid naps a day, and for the most part sleeps through the night.  He wants to be wherever his brother is playing, and will roll through the obstacle course of toys to get there...usually taking a few bonks to the face along the way.  He will put anything and everything in his mouth.  He typically wants to be sitting or standing and able to see all that is going on, though he is lazy and cannot sit up on his own.  He smiles at everyone.  We love our Lincoln.  I can't believe six months have gone by come Friday.

For Future Reference

To anyone who was wondering...it seems like the second child grows older way faster than the first.

Must Haves

Just thought I'd post about a few things that have been new to me with this baby that I don't know how I did without the first time.


1. Baby K'tan Baby Carrier - this little beauty combines all the ease and lack of bulk of a baby bjorn with all the comfort, multiple positions, and sleep-ability of a moby wrap. I LOVE IT.

2. Summer Infant Swaddler - "the babe", as we often refer to him, sleeps in one of these and it is perfect. No escaping limbs to wake him up.

3. iPod touch - I don't know how I stayed awake and kept track of time while feeding Beckett at night.
My iPod is the best way to pass the time and stay entertained while nursing. The following apps are
my usual visits at night.
a. iBaby Feed - I used to constantly forget what time I last fed the baby, and what side I finished on.
This app keeps track of it for you. Love it! It has been worth the $1.99 I spent on it.
b. Pinterest
c. Facebook
d. Family Feud
e. Card Shark

little munchkin

He's three months old now.  It's so fun. 

Changes

We are preparing for A LOT of family to come in a month from now for Jeremy's Graduation/Lincoln's blessing.  It is exciting and stressful, but I think it will be a really fun weekend for Jeremy.

Lincoln has become quite the talker (little coos and mumbles of course, but very verbal and interactive nonetheless).  He only wants to be sitting up when he's awake, but definitely can't sit up on his own yet.  He has started to shove his fists in his mouth constantly and prefers chewing on them to a pacifier (a concept that I can't quite wrap my head around since Beckett loved his paci from day one).  He has also started blowing a lot of spit bubbles, resulting in drool soaked onesies (a trend I am used to from Beckett who was super drooly for a long time as a baby).  As long as we are home, he will go to bed around 8 or 9pm, and will sleep till between 3 and 4am (making for one much more rested mama).  He HATES his carseat, and will typically wail for most of the car rides wherever we go...on rare occasions he will fall asleep, but wakes up as soon as we take him out of the car.

Beckett is a very proud and doting big brother.  He helps me a lot by getting things for me while I am feeding the baby.  He has learned to do a lot of things on his own now since I can't always do them for him (like putting in/taking out movies, getting water bottles from the cabinet, feeding himself etc.).  He loves to give his brother hugs and kisses.  He's always asking where the baby is if he can't see him.  When we're in the car and the baby is crying he does one of two things: either sings the baby a song he made up that goes "Don't cry brooootherrr, I looooove yoouuu", or says to him "It's okay brother, we'll be there in a few minutes".  It is seriously the cutest thing ever, and I am so happy at how much he loves the baby even though he can't really play with him yet.

I love my boys!

Uneventful

I'm glad to report that things have been uneventful as far as health issues go since I last posted.

Lately we have noticed that lots of pictures we have taken of Lincoln look like ones we have of Beckett at his age.  Here are a few that show how my boys could be twins!  B is on the left and Link is on the right.  In the first pictures they are both 1 day old, and in the second both are 2 months.  Crazy!

Thru the ringer

This post is pretty personal for me, but I want to remember this time of our lives, so here it goes.  I thought that Lincoln was such an easy baby the first few weeks, and he is, but the circumstances we've been dealt over the last six weeks have been crazy to say the least. Every time I feel like I can't handle one more thing, a new one is thrown our way.

Two weeks after the baby was born, I started to feel feverish. It turned out that I had an infection from clogged milk ducts. I started antibiotics and felt much better. About the same time, both Jeremy and Beckett got the cold that was going around. One of the nights Beckett was up with a croup cough, but we were able to get him breathing easier and back to sleep on our own. About five days later Lincoln started to be congested and have trouble breathing. The next day was my birthday, and the eventful trips to urgent care and the ER occurred that I wrote about in my last post. A few days after coming home from our two days in the hospital, all three boys were finally cold-free.

A day later, I woke up from a nap to Beckett throwing up next to me on the love sac. He threw up one more time that day, and we finally got him to keep some liquid and crackers down before he went to bed that night. The next day I noticed my infection coming back. I then started a second round of antibiotics, but even while on them I had painful clogged ducts that I had to deal with.

Abby and Jesse came into town the next day, and while spending time with them Jeremy, Beckett, and I all threw up within an hour of each other. I was up all later that night going back and forth between feeding the baby and paying my respects to the porcelain throne. We all rested up that Sunday and got over what seemed to be a 48 hour flu.

I had one nice week without issues or sickness, and then Lincoln started to be very colic-y for about three nights. I went to my 6 week postpartum check up, and everything was looking good. That was Friday, and that night I started having some pretty bad cramps. I dismissed them as possibly due to having my first period since the baby. The cramps flared up Saturday night, and again Sunday night. They began to feel more like an endometriosis attack/labor, and were unbearable. I sat up on my parents' couch, and felt what I thought to be a large blood clot come out. As I stood up I knew something was wrong. I went to the bathroom and found an egg sized mass that was definitely not blood. We headed straight to the ER...yes again.

Now I have to wait two days to hear back on what it was. The ER doctor said it could be one of three things: detached placenta, a fibroid tumor, or the craziest of all...a miscarriage (a rare anomaly where I would have somehow got pregnant while already pregnant). Each doctor and nurse seemed to think it was a different one of the three possibilities. They drew blood, did external and internal ultrasounds, did a pelvic exam, and sent me home. Now it's just a waiting game until I hear back and follow up with my doctor.

There have been many times throughout these six weeks that I have felt defeated, exhausted, and on the brink of losing it. Our families have been so loving and helpful. We have been so fortunate that Jeremy's work has been understanding and flexible, and that his school load is much lighter this semester and allows him to be home a lot more. I can't imagine going through this with his schedule last semester; it would have been impossible. Also, we are so lucky that I am still covered by my insurance right now, and that the two boys are fully covered as well.  I know I won't be given more than I can handle, but many times have been borderline for me with my crazy postpartum hormones.  I watched "Return to Me" a few weeks ago and broke down when the grandpa said this quote: "It's the character that's the strongest that God gives the most challenges to."  I don't dare to compare my trials with those of others.  I know I have/have had a very easy life compared to most.  I just felt buoyed up by that thought in a time when my faith was being stretched thin.

Birthday and V-day

Well all three of my boys were sick on my birthday, so my day consisted of sitting on the love sac, catching up on shows, letting Jeremy and Beckett nap, and feeding the baby (what else do I do, right?).  Jeremy left and went to play his soccer game.  He came back, we dropped the kids off at my parents, and then went to dinner.  All the while I was mostly concerned because Lincoln was only three weeks old, and seemed to be coming down with a cold, which freaked me out a little.  When we got back to my parents I was surprised by a sweet party with tons of good food, friends, and family!  I wished I could have spent more time with them, but we wanted to get Lincoln to the children's urgent care before it closed because he felt warm and was acting very listless and not himself.  We said goodbye, and got to urgent care just in time.  They did the usual routine, which included taking his temperature.  He was 101, which is really high for a newborn. They immediately sent us down to the ER at the Rady Children's Hospital.  We were taken back into a room right away, and blood and urine samples were taken as well as a spinal tap.  They gave Lincoln an IV, and we waited to be admitted to the Hospital.  They kept Lincoln for 48 hours for observation.  For newborns, it is standard to give them medication whether they are found to have infection or not.  He was given antibiotics thru his IV the whole time we were there.  Jeremy and I squeezed onto the pull-out chair to sleep on for both nights (I've never missed my bed more).  I fed Lincoln like normal, but it was not so fun trying to position him with the IV in his arm.  They checked his cultures every 12 hours, and they continued to come back negative, so they finally let us leave on Monday night.  He has been doing great the last two days...a little congested sometimes, but hasn't had a fever since then.  I am so grateful for the insurance we are able to have that allowed us such great care without the worry of what it will cost us.  Also, I'm grateful for the priesthood and the blessing that Lincoln received in the hospital from his dad and papa.  Having babies is scary at times, especially when everyone around us, including ourselves, is getting sick with all these weather changes.

So Valentine's Day was pretty much, let's nap and do a million loads of laundry, and just recover from our hospital stay.  Not much fun for these holidays, but I can't tell you how thankful I will be when our little family is all healthy again...they are all on the mend as of now.  Here are a few pictures that are much more fun than my story... (I definitely copied the second one from pinterest.)

The Arrival

After a 27 hour labor with Beckett, the majority of which being spent walking the hospital halls in a painful effort to increase dilation, I was bound and determined to have a much less tiring labor this time around. I also wanted to be able to bring our new baby home before Jeremy had to start his last semester of school. My doctor was sympathetic to my wishes, and allowed me to schedule my induction for the week before my due date. We checked in at the hospital at 9 pm on Thursday the 19th. At the time, I was dilated to a 1.5 and 50% effaced.

After filling out some paperwork and getting my IV, my doctor came and inserted a suppository of cervix-thinning medicine at about 10 pm. We slept that night in the hospital, and the nurse came in at 5:30 am to remove the suppository and start the pitocin. My body responded right away, and regular contractions began. My doctor was supposed to be in some time before 8 am to break my water. With Beckett, things moved really fast once my water was broken, so I requested to get my epidural as soon as the doctor broke my water. Well, he came in at about 8:30 am, but was heading in to do a c-section, and would be taking the anesthesiologist with him. He could break my water right then, but I would have to wait another hour for my epidural. I opted to wait the hour or so for them both to come out of surgery before he broke my water. He checked me before he went into surgery, and I was at 2.5 cm and 70% effaced.  My doctor came back at 9:30 am and broke my water as planned. I was now at 3 cm. The anesthesiologist came in right after, got things prepped, and gave me my epidural at 10 am.

Now we just had to wait it out. The nurse came in an hour later to see where I was at, and I had progressed to a 5. Half an hour later at 11:30 she came back in to check me because she noticed the baby's heart rate drop during contractions. She suspected that I was moving along quickly and that the baby was making its way into the birth canal. He was doing just that, and I was dilated to a 7, so she started to prep the room because she thought the baby would come soon. Once she had things ready it was noon, so she checked me again to give a report to my doctor. At that point I was 9 cm. My doctor wanted me to let the baby labor down on his own rather than have me start pushing right when I was a 10. He had another c-section scheduled at 1:30, so I knew I had quite the wait ahead of me if I wanted him to be there for the delivery.

(As a side note: I am O+ and Jeremy is A-.  My blood carries antibodies for types A, B, and AB blood, so when I have a baby born with type A blood like Beckett was, there is always a chance that the antibodies in my blood will attack the baby's blood if our bloods mix. This makes the baby Coombs positive...the typical result being an early onset of Jaundice. Beckett was A-, Coombs positive, and spent a day and a half in the NICU with dangerous Jaundice levels. I knew the odds were that this baby would be type A as well, and my best chance at avoiding blood mixing would be to have an episiotomy rather than tear, which means...wait for the doctor.)

At 1 pm I started to shake uncontrollably and feel a lot of pressure through contractions, so I called the nurse in. She checked me again, and said I was fully dilated and effaced and the head was right there. She wanted to see if the baby moved down during the contractions. We waited for the next one, and the baby started to move down...almost to the point of crowning without me pushing. The nurse promptly closed my legs, and went to have my doctor told what was going on. He was just heading into surgery again, so we would have to wait until 2:30 for him to be out. At this point, I knew that I could just let things happen on their own and have the nurse deliver the baby, but I had no problem waiting for my doctor as long as the baby wasn't in any kind of distress. We waited until the doctor came in, and started pushing at 2:40. After one contraction of pushing, the baby was crowning and I was stretched to my max. My doctor worked to stretch me as far as I would go, and then cut me just before my next contraction (not even half the amount he had to with Beckett, probably because Lincoln has a smaller head). I gave one more small push, and at 2:43 pm our sweet Lincoln was here!

I really could not have asked for a smoother labor and delivery. The nurses throughout our whole hospital stay were amazing, as well as the attending pediatrician. Lincoln was A +, and Coombs positive. My blood attacking him did not affect him though, so we were lucky not to have him end up in the NICU. He is a very mellow and happy baby who rarely cries (mostly just grunts), and we could not be happier. Two kids is definitely an adjustment, but I know that in another month or so when I get a bit more sleep at night, things will be a little easier. Beckett has been a good boy for the most part (only slight potty regression, and one meltdown). He is very loving towards his brother, and has shown more interest in him than I expected. I'm so excited for them to grow up together and be great friends like I was with my sisters.

Lincoln Odell

Born

January 20th, 2012

2:43 pm

7 lbs. 3 oz.

19 in.

(birth story to come)

Baby Gear

I've refused all offers by people for throwing a baby shower for this baby.  I really don't need anything having a second boy, so it would just be silly to have a shower.  However, my mom and sisters have already helped in getting me a handful of my wish list items over Christmas because they are the best!  Here are a few last things I wouldn't mind adding to our already vast collection of baby items.  

1. Baby Jogger City Select (picking this up on Wednesday! thank you Smith grandparents!)

2. Boon drying rack

3. Baby Boy Ties from the Children's Place (can never have enough)

4. Lula Changing Pad

5. Aiden + Anais "Rocket Man" swaddle blankets

Thanks to some Amazon credit from Jeremy's textbooks, and 10% off all registry items, I might just indulge in getting a few of these.  Maybe.  Haha.

what's in a name?

Most people ask us if we have a name yet.  The truth is that, for the most part, yes we do.  We refer to the baby by that name, and I'm about 90% set on it.  The middle name, however, is a no contest.  The middle name for number 2 will be Odell after my great grandpa.  I've posted this picture before, as well as a few posts about him (refresh your memories here and here), but I'm putting it up again because I love it.

Also, we started a sisters blog...check it out... http://squisties.blogspot.com/

i dream of...

our double stroller!

When I found out I was having another boy, I knew that this was the only big ticket item we would be needing.  So I also figured I might as well pick a really nice one even if it was a bit pricey because, hey, why not?  My in-laws have generously offered to buy us the double stroller I picked out...the City Select by Baby Jogger.  You can oogle at its awesomeness with me here or here.  I only wish I could have it now to take Beckett and Alexis to the park on the days I babysit her!

carseat shmarseat

When I chose my infant carseat for Beckett, as well as with his stroller, the determining factor was, "is this the lightest one on the market?"  Needless to say, looks were not as important to me as how heavy the carseat was to carry.  With this baby on the way I decided to give the seat a little makeover with some help from my mom.  Ta-daaa!

Numero Dos

Beckett is getting a baby brother!