FHE

For FHE tonight we went to the church museum to show Mary the rug her great grandparents made. This is the same great grandma that she is named after btw. I'd say it was a success for the most part but having a toddler and baby always brings little bumps along the way like Mary having a melt down because she no longer wanted her picture taken, she wanted to push Oliver in the stroller, she no longer wanted Oliver in the stroller but her baby doll in it and push her instead. And poor Oliver was tired and not having the heat and wanted to nurse so he cried and cried and cried the entire way home, completely blotchy faced when we finally arrived. 

      It can be tiring and hectic having kids but I wouldn't change a thing. I love being a mom and am so grateful to have a daughter and son that our Father in Heaven has trusted me to raise and teach them.

 I am so ready for fall weather! Even at 8:30 at night it was so flippin hot! I love summer but I am beyond ready to pull out my boots, scarfs and jackets.

Oliver's 2 months!

I can't believe this cute little guy is two months already. I know I'll be repeating myself each month but it's true!! I am savoring every moment I can with him because before I know it I'll be back to work and missing him and MJ like crazy.

update:
He's just shy of 11 pounds which brings him from the 19th to the 23rd or 25th percentile
for height he's still in the 9th percentile and head he's 50th... for those big brains!

He is suuuuch a good baby just like his sister was. The only time he cries is when he's hungry or super tired. He's a bit on the higher maintenance side because he wont go to sleep unless I nurse him so therefor we do a lot of co sleeping because I just end up falling asleep myself and he's a super light sleeper! If I move him to his bassinet, more times than not he'll start waking up getting upset so we have to start all over again.

Such a chunker! check out that double chin! He is just solid now, total boy.

          yeah needing a re do on this photo shoot, he was getting hungry and kicking his feet like crazy so this was the best out of the handful before he began yelling at me to feed him.

MJ wanted to be in his pictures too haha. Love my brown eyed girl and blue eyed boy!

He is NOT a binky baby...sad face! So like I said in above comment I have to nurse him to get him to sleep for the most part. He acts as though I'm giving him a lemon when I try the binky these days.

He loves being around people and being talked to. I recently went to the dentist for a cleaning. He was fed and changed and should have been totally content. Nope. So of course the girls loved taking turns holding him, cooing with him. He just gets the biggest grins when someone says hi to him.

He eats typically every 3 hours during the day. At night he can go 5-6 hours. (Hallelujah!) I feel so complete right now with him in our family, we just adore him.

Oliver's one month old!

Uhh seriously?! I swear we just got home from the hospital with this cute little guy. I am just in love with him and so grateful to be his mom. He had a rough start nursing I found out at his two week appointment.. I thought things were going great! I thought to myself, yay I have a baby who will nurse and this is going to be awesome! No more planning my day to where I have to be home so I can pump and feed the little one. I was pretty much devastated when the doctor told me he was not gaining any weight at all and yet it didn't make sense because he was having the right amount of wet and dirty diapers. I almost started crying thinking about the frustrations I had with Mary when she was an infant and not eating and going to the ER 2 days after she was born because she was severely dehydrated. I didn't want to go down that road again.
But I am happy to report that after a month of not giving up and having the confidence to nurse him and stay calm he is almost a pro at nursing! I say almost because occasionally I have to top him off with an ounce after nursing him. I also found out I have no shortage of milk whatsoever when I told him how much I get every few hours. (yay!) I love this new experience of being able to nurse (and with out a shield too!)

He is weighing at 8.8 pounds now. Went from being in the 9th percentile to the 19th in two weeks!
He's smiling a bit now and it just melts my heart.
His eyes are still pretty bright! I think I may have a blue eyed child here
He sleeps really well and only wakes up a couple of times during the night. If I bottle feed him he's drinking 3 ounces right now
He's such a chill relax baby. Only crying when he's hungry or if he's wet through his diaper on to his clothes. He loves to cuddle on my chest and will put his hands under his chin and cheek. adorbs.

These two are so cute, MJ LOVES her baby brother, always looking out for him and wanting to take care of him.

perfect timing of his cute smiles!

First week

I couldn't ask for a better transition to being a family of four. The timing was pretty much perfect. My family had planned to go to Huntville for a week to stay at my brother in laws parents 2nd home. While we stayed at the hospital for a couple of days Mary was there with my family having a ball with her cousins not missing us one bit. After we left the hospital we spent the night at home and left the following day to spend the remainder of the week with my family. It was so nice to have Mary being taken care of so I could rest and my body could heal. We slept on the main floor in the master bedroom which was extremely nice so I didn't have to go up and down the stairs as well as worry about being around everyone and having Oliver wake them in the wee hours of the morning. We had such a great time!!

                          Exhausted after playing hard outside

           These two nieces were just her little mini mama's, it was so cute to watch them and wonderful to sit back and know MJ was being taken care of.

     Is this not the cutest photo of an excited big sister. She is just smitten with him.

               Love being with my family, no greater thing.

        Caught a glimpse of Ryan soaking in having a newborn again and had to quickly snap this photo.

        First time driving with two kids in the car! so surreal

Hospital stay

Oliver's first bath at the hospital

         This sleep sack didn't last long, my first diaper change after this and he peed all over it!

                                                GG and Aunt Rachie visiting!

                                     The day we got ready to leave the hospital!

       I delivered at LDS hospital and had a wonderful experience there, the nurses are incredible!!

and this little piggy ate ..and ate and ate

I have forgotten how ravenous you become while in the nursing stage. I learned with Mary that the weight unfortunately just doesn't ''fall off'' like some moms do. (dang you ladies!) So it's really hard to not eat everything in sight in moments. I have yet gone grocery shopping with the two kiddos. Between nursing, pumping, spit up, poopy diapers, nap time for the toddler, nap time for mama because my eyes are literally closing while standing up, and having one car it has been pretty much impossible for me to get out of the house. Thanks to pinterest I've found some healthy treats and food to eat! Just have yet to make any due to lack of ingredients. So I'm thinking I'll be doing a night time run to the store while the kids stay with Ryan. Since I'm pretty sure, mac 'n' cheese, chicken nuggets and popsicles aren't the healthiest thing to be eating ;)

I am fortunate to not have gained much with Oliver and I'm barely below my pregnancy weight right now but I still have a ways to go to get rid of MJ's baby weight I had gained and feel good again. Goal is to be able to buy some smaller pants come fall/winter! We all know that when being a mom and you all of a sudden get really hungry the last thing you want to do is take the time to cook some thing from scratch that will take you 30 minutes. So it's time to once again plan my meals, and make them in advanced. Wish me luck!

Oliver's birth story

I was so surprised that Oliver (who didn't have a name till about 24 hours after being here) didn't arrive early like I thought he would. The last few weeks of pregnancy I was completely miserable. He was sitting super low, putting a ton of pressure on me that it hurt just to walk around, trying to switch sides in bed and bending over to put my pants on. After a visit to the hospital due to extreme cramping with contractions, and a stress test a week later because I wasn't feeling him move very much my doctor decided to have me induced Friday the 11th. Excited was an understatement of how I felt. To no longer be in pain and meet my little sweetheart.

Being induced has it's perks, we were able to get everything ready and drop MJ off the night before at my parents house since we were planning on being at the hospital at 7:30 in the morning unless told other wise. Also how fun to have a birthday on 7-11! Free slurpee day!
We woke up early to call labor and delivery at 6 am to see if we were still good to come in at 7:30 but apparently quite a few women came in and were having babies. I was hoping I'd be one of those ladies! So we didn't go in until after 9 am.

Last picture being pregnant!

When we first arrived I had to be put on penicillin first for a few hours due to having group B strep. Everything was moving sooo slowly I totally thought I'd be having a baby by afternoon time. I was getting sore laying in the bed since Oliver apparently preferred me on my left side other wise his heart rate would go down. They put me on pitocin at noon and by 2:00 I had an epidural as well as had my water broken. I didn't feel a thing when he broke it! (I had heard some women say it's painful) With the epidural I certainly felt it this time around! With MJ I was in so much pain from contractions I didn't feel it at all. So I was definitely grateful to have Ryan in front of me holding my hands. It was the numbing part that hurt, the epidural going in just felt really weird. If I could have prolonged getting it I would have but he was going in to a c-section and would rather get it now and be safesthen later and possibly not get one. I waited with Mary and basically had the epidural just to push. So it was really nice this time around to not be in any pain at all!

 They upped my pitocin a couple of times since there wasn't a whole lot going on and then my contractions started slowing down as well as Olivers heart rate so they put me on oxygen which helped him out. I remember being put on oxygen with Mary as well so I wasn't worried. At 5:30 my nurse (who was amazing btw! We absolutely loved her) checked me and my epidural was done perfectly because she asked if I felt any contractions and I wasn't feeling a thing. I was dilated to a 9 1/2! Oliver was face up though so she had me turn completely on my left side and put my right leg in a stirrup to see if he would turn himself over. That's when I felt the pressure and knew this little guy was on his way. I really liked how this delivery went compared to with Mary. The only people in the room were Ryan, my nurse and doctor and another nurse waiting by the infant bed. With Mary there were no complications but the room had quite a few nurses in there so it just seemed really crowded. The nurse asked while grabbing their mirror if I wanted to watch. I hadn't even thought of that and decided sure why not! I thought it was such a neat thing to see my son being born! I pushed for 5 minutes and he was here! 4 days past his due date weighting at 7 pounds 11 ounces ON 7-11 mind you and 19 1/2 inches. Big boy!

We had some time alone to have skin to skin and nurse him. He had the cutest little cry and settled down as soon as they place him on my chest. So blessed to be a mom to this cute boy. That day also happened to be the same day my whole family was going to Huntsville for a week so they all waited patiently for this little guy to arrive so they could see him first. MJ was just smitten with him right away, she kept saying what a cute baby he is and wanted to hug him. Totally made me tear up, these two are going to be such good little friends.

First family of four photo!

The two little ones ''exchanged'' gifts. Mary gave her baby brother a blanket, toy, and stuffed animal fox. He gave her some cute little sunglasses, bracelets, candy, stickers and book.