I always get my best shots of Gracyn when my sister comes to visit, she always inspires me!
This first one was taken by my friend Lidia Guerra and is one of my favorites of her!
and some of my favorite niece...
with my gorgeous Momma...
and my best sister...
I have been reminded several times lately that I NEVER update my blog. Yes I am guilty! But its because I am spending a lot of quality time with my babies (and facebook). So if you are really curious about what we are up to, you should be on facebook!
Things are great here. We are in a routine and days are good! Gracyn will be *GASP* two next month! She is talking more and more every day and constantly surprising me with new words. Its so much fun to see it all clicking with her. She is still way too addicted to the bink, so some of the words are not pronounced right but she will get there. I have been meaning to take it away from her, but I just cant seem to do it. She loves it, its her one security thing and I honestly dont think its hurting her at all to have it. She's not going to go to college with it so why push her.
Luke is almost 8 mos though I am not going to say that out loud. He is trying his hardest to crawl. He is lurching forward from his sitting position to try and get things farther away but he mostly just gets stuck on his belly and mad. He is all healed up from his surgery and seems to be doing well. Im so thankful there were none of the common complications and that this is hopefully all behind us. I am really grateful to everyone who was thinking of us and praying for us while we went through that procedure. He is eating more and more new foods and so far the only thing he does not like are the baby jar bananas, he loves real bananas though. He is the sweetest little man and so easy to be with. I love watching him and Gracyn together, she just makes him laugh all the time .
I have a million and one new pictures of them, so I will try to post more often, even if its just pictures and no words.
For now, here is a video of them in the car. Some of my favorite times are with them in the car, they are both so giggly and playful, I think because their seats face eachother (his rear facing and hers front facing). Sorry the camera work is bad, I was holding it over my shoulder without looking. Dont worry Mom! She was pretending to sneeze to make Luke laugh.
Gracyn is so in love with her baby. She loves to help me feed him and change him (she hands me wipes and throws away the dirty diapers, gotta love that!). When she wakes up in the morning or from her nap the first thing she asks for is Luke. Usually in the morning he is in our bed, so we bring her in there to play for a bit so I can wake up a bit more. After her nap, I usually bring Luke in to her room and she loves for him to be in her crib. She adamantly points to her mattress and says something like down, meaning she wants me to put him down there. She loves to show him her lovies or cover him with the blanket. She is so nurturing!
Here is a quick video and some snaps of their crib time.
Life here is good, these kids are keeping me on my toes but its an incredible challenge and I love it! Luke is eating cereal now, and you do not want to mess with that boy and his food. I have a feeling that as a teenager he will eat me out of house and home. As of his last check up at 4 months he was 18lbs so Im guessing he is a solid 19 now. We went today for his surgical consultation and the plan is to do surgery in about a month. Im pretty nervous, but I know he will do well! Not much else is new with him, he eats, sleeps (a lot!) and plays. Ah the life of a baby!
Luke is undoubtedly the sweetest baby I know. He is so happy and content 90% of the day. I know this video isn't super exciting but it shows Luke being Luke, so I love it!
And here is a video of him rolling over. He is still not super strong at it, and sometimes needs my finger there to pull himself over, but he has done it a few times by himself. He has no clue how to get back over though. I have an almost identical video to this of Gracyn at his age. Ignore the mommy babble!
and just because I never posted hers, here it is...
Im so very lucky to have a husband who is 100% into daddy duty. He does anything and everything with the kids. One thing I am really spoiled by is that every week he takes Gracyn with him and the two of them go grocery shopping. I hate grocery shopping so this is already huge, but then to have a few toddler free hours makes it even better! So who am I to complain if this is how he dresses her to go to Woodmans? Thank goodness most of the customers at Woodman's are already a tad off, so she fits in well :)
We had a great 4th this year. We started with an indoor (thanks to the rain) cook-out at the Ellermeiers, filled with lots of kids and chaos! Gracyn is just starting to play more with other kids, and especially loves to play with her friend Jake. Until now she has always done more parallel play, where she plays next to kids but by herself. Its really fun to see her growing and branching out socially with her friends that she is comfortable around. We kept her up way past her bedtime of 7pm to view the show, so needless to say it got a bit crazy at their house! She gets more than a little slap happy when tired, so there was a lot of running around, chasing each other and screaming!
The fireworks show was great as well. We sat in the parking lot of Stacia's office and the fireworks exploded literally right over our heads! I have never been that close and it was LOUD. Gracyn was pretty excited for the first few and then I think got a little overwhelmed. She ended up on daddy's lap covering her eyes and him covering her ears. Im not sure what I was thinking taking Luke honestly, I was so worried his little ears were going to explode! I kept him snuggled in close with blankets over his ears and he slept through the whole thing. I cant wait until next year to see what they think!
Here are a few snaps, my camera battery died right as the show started...
Playing in the pool 7/08 at 7 months
Playing in the pool 7/09 at 19 months (she refused to sit down the first day)
she always wants to sit in a big chair for dinner, highchairs are for babies! we need to get a new dining room table so we can get her into a chair and luke in the highchair. the barstools arent great for her or a booster seat.... this video is a tad boring, but it shows her saying "no" which is seriously way too cute for the meaning. its her new favorite thing to say and its hard to get frustrated when she says it in this cute way!!!
and some kisses from daddy...
Unfortunately, Luke doesnt get undivided mommy attention like Gracyn did. So he spends a lot of the swinging away in his swing and talking to himself in the mirror on his swing. He very rarely cries and just yells when he wants someone to come talk to him. Did I mention he is the sweetest baby in the world?
PSA: If you get motion sickness, dont watch this video!
Gracyn finally learned to say Marley... now she chases him all around the house screaming it. Excuse the messy house, it was a rainy day and she reeked havoc!
So this week I was lucky enough to get a night out to go scrapbooking, leaving a very capable daddy in charge of dinner... lucky girl got peas, green jello and strawberries which apparently work great as hair barrettes! Who knew?
Everyone always asks me how I am adapting to two and if its much harder than one. The answer is that Im adapting well and yes it is definitely much harder and everyday is a new challenge for me. There are definitely some days that I would like to go back to work, but I know in my heart that I would never give back this time I've been given with my kids. Watching them grow and be able to be with them for every milestone is such a blessing and something I will forever be grateful for. Its been a bit financially tough, but Greg has been awesome about making it work and giving me this incredible gift.
I recently read a really good blog post about trying to create a schedule with 2 young kids. Her schedule blows me away, but gives me hope that things get easier as the kids get older. I have had one for awhile now that I try to stick to, even though it only works maybe 50% of the time and is constantly being revised. Anyway, it helps keep me somewhat sane and I thought I would post it here so that you can see what my day is like and so that I have this to look back on in a year and laugh at myself! When I wrote it, it was also for the babysitter to follow, so it kinda reads funny... but you get the idea!
Schedule
6am- Luke’s First Bottle, cuddle time till Gracyn wakes up or put him back in
crib if he falls asleep while eating.
6-7am - Gracyn wakes up
Give them both Amoxicillan- Gracyn: 4ml Luke: 2ml
Breakfast- ideas: (choose 2) fresh fruit, yogurt, toast or bagel with
butter, cereal bar cut up, frozen pancakes or waffles
Sippy cup with whole milk (Use the playtex orange or pink insulated cups)
8am - Gracyn plays in the playroom, books and puzzles
Megan- empty the dishwasher and clean up from breakfast before joining Gracyn
9am – Luke Bottle, nap in crib
Gracyn Snack – ideas: goldfish, fresh fruit, fruit snacks, a couple of ritz
crackers or graham crackers
Sippy cup with ice water or 50/50 water and juice (refill this cup
throughout the day)
Allowed to watch 30 min of cartoons while eating her snack
10am - Play in front yard; bubbles, sidewalk chalk, water the flowers
11am - Lunch – ideas: cut up pieces of lunch meat, hot dog (cut slices in
quarters), grilled cheese, mac n’ cheese, veggie corn dogs, chicken
nuggets, string/sliced cheese, peas, corn, fruit cup, fresh fruit, any
veggies in fridge. Refill sippy cup with milk or with water/juice
After Lunch put Gracyn down for a nap- Change diaper, read 2 stories, 5
minutes of cuddling and then set in crib with all her lovies.
12noon- Luke Bottle in his nursery, then down for a nap
Megan- Clean up lunch mess, check client emails, try to do one chore
1-2pm - Gracyn up from nap, typically needs some quiet time when she wakes up
Snack – see ideas above
Allowed to watch 30 min of cartoons while eating her snack.
3pm - Luke Bottle, nap in swing
Gracyn plays in playroom, around the house or outside
4pm - Gracyn craft activities- Usually in highchair: color, playdough etc...
Megan- clean up the kitchen and start dinner
5pm - Dinner – Anything you are eating for dinner cut up small with a Sippy cup of
milk. There are steam bags of veggies in the freezer which are quick and
easy. She loves spaghetti, meatballs, chicken nuggets, etc..
6pm- Luke Bottle
Gracyn/Daddy playtime
7pm- Gracyn Bedtime Routine-
Bath (every other night), pjs, 10 min of reading and cuddling then set in
her crib with her lovies
9pm- Luke Bottle in his nursery, then down for bed
3-4am- Luke typically wakes up for a bottle
Just a quick clip from dinner last month after she had dumped all of her spaghetti out of her bowl! Sorry its sideways, I wasnt sure if my new camera would flip it but now I know better.
I blinked and a month has passed. I cant believe how fast time has gone. Luke has just slid easily into our family and I am slowly learning to adapt to life with 2 kids. My house is so much messier and I cant quite keep up with everything I want to do, but it is oh so incredibly worth it! Its currently 10:45 and Luke needs to eat, so I cant write a real post, but I wanted to post a few snapshots from our life this past month... I promise more are on the way. Sorry they are small, it takes to long to make them larger.
Meeting eachother for the first time, she loves him already!
Excited to take him home... little does she know
The tantrum...a daily occurance, well multiple times a day occurance...
What happens when she goes unsupervised for too long...
My big girl napping after a shopping trip, how did she get so big that she takes up this much room on the couch?
Visiting the stream at Great Grandma's with daddy
Rub a dub dub, a doll in a tub
My sweet sweet boy
Cold nose with daddy
Chillin in the swing after one of his doctor's appointments
Im sorry I havent called anyone or answered any phone calls. This week has been exhausting and tougher than I thought it would be. Thank goodness Greg is here and doing everything, I know he is exhausted too but he has really been a rock.
Luke is amazing. He is such a good, good baby. He is mellow and happy all of the time. He sleeps and eats and sleeps and eats. Unfortunately, the eating part is not going all that well. For the first 4 days I did only breastfeeding every 2 hours, and I thought my milk was starting to come in and I thought he was doing "ok". But I knew he wasnt having wet diapers and he wasnt pooping, I guess I was just hoping it would fix itself. We went to the doctor Monday and his weight was down to 8lbs 8oz, more than 13% of his original weight and much more than is acceptable. Sooooo, the doctor sent me over to meet with a lactation consultant and told us we had to start supplementing him with formula or pumped breast milk. I fed Luke with the lactation consultant and she really thought he was doing ok latching and sucking, but when we weighed him to see how much milk he had taken, it was 0. Soooo either I had no milk or he wasnt transferring it. She set me up with a pump and syringe/dropper feedings. So basically since monday our schedule has been nursing for 20-30 min, then syringe feeding for 20 min, then pumping for 20 min, then starting over 2 hours from when we started. Its exhausting to say the least. Now Luke is kinda disengaging from feeding since there is no milk there, he latches for about 5 min and thn falls asleep. I rented a scale today to start seeing what he was getting when I nursed and after 20 min he only got about 1tsp. Im frustrated and exhausted. I want to stick it out but I just dont see how that is realistic. Greg is going back to work the middle of next week and there is no way I can keep this up and watch Gracyn. So anyway, here is my plan... I have started a medicine today to see if it helps my supply. Im going to nurse him every 3 hours, and attempt to give him the supplement through a feeding tube while we nurse. If there has not been an inrease in my milk by Sunday than I am going to bow out and just give him a bottle. So thank you if you have read that novel... I didnt set out to write such a book!!!
Gracyn is having good moments and bad moments, probably more of the bad moments unfortunately. She has had some pretty jealous melt downs, but there have been lots of kisses and hugs as well! Its definitely been an adjustment for all of us, but no matter how exhausted I am, or frustrated I get, all I have to do is look down at this sweet little man sleeping on my chest while I type this and I fall completely in love over and over. I really never imagined I could love anyone as much as I love Gracyn, no matter how many people told me I could... its simply amazing.
Anyway thanks for reading all of this. I promise to come out of my hole next week and start answering the phone. I also promise to post some pictures! If you havent already, check out the post below with links to my friends' flickr pages. They got some amazing shots!!!
Check out these links to my friend's flickr pages, there you can see some pictures of Luke! He was such a good little model today. Each of these images just makes me fall more in love with him!
Lidia- http://www.flickr.com/photos/46894789@N00/3329433358/ (there are 6 pictures grouped of Luke, click forwards or back to see him)
Shannon- http://www.flickr.com/photos/77768016@N00/3329236142/in/photostream/ (there are 6 pictures grouped of Luke, click forwards or back to see him)
We are so excited to announce the arrival of Luke Joseph Sanders! Born Thursday February 26th at 4:56pm. He weighed in at 9lbs 13oz and was 21 inches! He is entirely perfect and such a sweet baby. We are home and attempting to adjust to life with 2 kids. Its been a bit harder than I expected as Gracyn is not quite thrilled to have to share the spotlight, but I know it will get easier as time goes on. She really does love to hug and kiss on him, however sharing mommy and daddy and pacifiers has not gone over so well. I have not had time for any pictures at all since we got home, but hopefully this week I will make some time to capture my new little love before he changes too much! Here is a quick snap from the hospital, day #1.
Well tomorrow is the big day! Only one more night of restless sleep before I get to meet my little man. I went in yesterday to see the high-risk doctor and to have another ultrasound done. They confirmed the large estimated weight (9lbs 8oz was their guess, just slightly smaller than my doctor's estimate) and also the increased fluid levels around the baby. Because of both of those diagnoses (macrosomia and polyhydramnios), the high risk doctor agreed with my doctor that the best decision would be to induce. So I am supposed to be at the hospital tomorrow morning at 6am to start the induction process. Im hoping my body responds to the induction and we will have a good labor and delivery! Please pray that everything goes smoothly and that I am able to have him naturally and am able to breastfeed him as well!
Im a little sad this morning, thinking about the fact that this is my last day alone with Gracyn. Im trying to think of something special we can do together, but there really are no good indoor activities around here. I think we might just go to the library and pick out some special books for her to read with Grandma and Grandpa while they are staying with her. She has been really cuddly the last few days and is starting to FINALLY say mama. Yesterday she was playing with Greg in the other room and started pointing and heading towards me saying Mama. I really hope she knows what it means, I cant wait to have her really look at me and call me mama! It is such an overwhelming feeling when she gives us hugs and kisses, or when she laughs, I just cant imagine that tomorrow I will get to love a new person as much as I love her!
Anyway Im not sure how soon I will be able to update the blog, I dont think we are bringing the laptop to the hospital, but keep your eyes open for a new post introducing our little boy!
I still cant believe 15 months has passed, but at the same time, I cant remember a day in our lives without Gracyn... she is a pure joy. Here are a few snaps of her, she absolutely refuses to pose for me, but thats ok, as the daughter of a photographer I cant really blame her!
We were so lucky to have my family, including baby Reese, come to visit last weekend. She is such a sweet, sweet baby; very happy and content. My sister is already an amazing mother. Its unbelievable to see her in that role and to think of all we have come through as sisters, now to share the joys of motherhood together is such an amazing thing. Gracyn adored her little cousin, she had lots of love to share with her! Here are a few pictures I captured of Reese...
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