1 yr & 10 months.

Another month has passed. Brooke has been gracing us with that gorgeous little smile for 22 months. Here are some of her latest happenings:

~ The other day I was upstairs showering while my Mom was kindly watching the kiddos downstairs for me. My Mom tells me that Brooke sat down on the fireplace, put the Boppy pillow around her waist, pulled up her shirt & said "I feed Joe now?" Phenomenal. It happened again last night. Quite honestly, I'm shocked it took 7+ weeks for this to happen.
~ She has recently rebelled against eating. Um, I know. Craaazy. She has put herself on a diet, I guess. Eats a few bites and then it's "I'm all done." The pediatrician told me that as long as she gets 1 good meal a day she'll survive, so I'm not terribly worried. The only time I give her any grief about it is if she's not eating because she's distracted by something else. If she's just not hungry, that's fine with me...there will not be a "clean plate club" in this house!
~ Brooke has inherited her mother's love of, scratch that, obsession with holidays! Everything we do/read/watch lately is Halloween-related by request. Something tells me she's going to love Christmas just as much as I do, too :)

This is her scary witch face...or maybe it's just her "cheese" face. The 1st explanation is more fitting.

~ This just in: girlfriend can now reach the light switches to turn the lights on/off, walk up and down the stairs, and open doors (my worst nightmare.) Growing up seems to be happening a lot around here lately.
~ We've recently started Time Out with Brooke and it's going...okay. I've started counting to 5 as a means to give her a chance to correct her behavior. If I get to 5, she knows that means she's heading to Time Out. She has to sit at the bottom of the stairs for 1 minute (since she's 1 year old.) I think it's working pretty well. The counting works most of the time; we've only made it into Time Out a handful of times. And each time she has had to sit on the step, she cried the whole time - which, to me, says she knows she's in trouble. Consistency is going to be key, so hopefully we'll successfully keep up with it.
~ She just recently discovered how strong she is and now she is climbing up on everything! This includes, but is not limited to, our tall kitchen chairs, the TV stand, and the oven. Yep, the flippin' oven. We have the kind with a drawer under the oven; I watched her stand on the handle to that and pull up on the handle on the oven door. I immediately made her get down and very forcefully told her never to do it again. (Try not to worry - I am always very mindful of where she is when I'm in the kitchen cooking, so she should never be able to do it while the stove or oven is actually hot.) I have a feeling this climbing habit is going to get her in trouble...
~ I still find myself amazed at some of the things she knows. Examples: this morning she pointed out "polka dots" on a butterfly. Yesterday, she told the husband she saw a "red hydrant" while pointing to a fire hydrant. And a few days ago, after asking for more Cheerios in her milk, she said to me, "Mommy, these are crunchy." This girl is just a sponge - she soaks up EVERYTHING she hears.

That's all for now! 2 months away from being 2 years old...yowza!

Are we a hot mess first thing in the morning or what?

Wearing Mommy's shoes :)

Punkin Carving.

We let Brooke help us clean out her pumpkin this afternoon. She was quite helpful...in her own little prissy way. It was "yucky", after all. I'm actually surprised she helped at all. She probably wouldn't have had she not seen the pumpkin-carving episode of Special Agent Oso about a million times in the past 2 weeks. (Oso is a pretty cute Disney Jr. show about a bear that helps little kids learn how to do something. She has actually learned a lot from this show. Ok, I'll stop defending the fact that I let my toddler watch probably too much TV now.) She was very excited to help and even more excited that she got to stand on the kitchen step stool while she did it. Big thanks go out to Daddy for doing most of the pumpkin-carving grunt work this year!


(Not sure why she told me that she was going to be a cat at first. And she has been telling us for weeks that Daddy should be a chicken and Mommy should be a duck. No idea where that came from. Oh, and she does like candy, don't let her fool you. She had some for the first time yesterday and, let me tell ya, the girl took those Smarties to the face.)

Joe slept through most of the event, but woke up just in time to check out the finished product. (That face either says "I'm not really awake yet" or "Why did you just sit me down on a bunch of seeds?")

Have a safe and happy Halloween tomorrow!

An explanation.

Let me paint you a little picture:

So there are these two overwhelmingly adorable kids (their adorableness is not pertinent to the story, but go with it), and they like to get up wicked early. The adorable baby boy gets up at 6 one morning, because he just knew his Mommy didn't get in bed until midnight (how do they always know?) And then his adorable big sister is up at 6:45. So the whole family is wide-the-hell-awake before the sun even comes up. And then said children are all sorts of whiny and crazy and the baby boy refuses to be put down for a nap all day. So then big sister goes up for her afternoon nap, only to be heard wandering the halls about 15 minutes later...just as baby boy starts to drift off to sleep in Mommy's arms. Naturally, he wakes up as Mommy scolds big sister and sends her back to bed with threats of no more Bubble Guppies for the rest of the day. So it takes nearly 30 minutes to get baby boy back to sleep in Mommy's arms. Then, just as Mommy settles in to the couch for a severely needed nap with her newborn, big sister can again be heard running around upstairs.

What's a Mommy to do? Let big sister run rampant upstairs, surely getting into things she shouldn't be and wreaking havoc on God knows what, in order to keep baby boy asleep? Or risk putting down the baby boy in an attempt to get big sister to go back to sleep in her bed since 30 mins doesn't even begin to cover the amount of rest the girl needs to be a pleasant toddler the rest of the day? Keep in mind that baby boy hasn't napped ALL DAY. Since 6. That's A.M. 

Well, Mommy chooses to steathily put baby boy down, hugged by the arms of the Boppy - success! He's still asleep! She darts upstairs, scoots big sister back to bed and actually convinces her to close her eyes. Thanks to the greatest invention of all time, the Fisher Price glowing seahorse, big sister is slowly lulled back to sleep by its magical lullabyes. Just as Mommy starts to tiptoe out of the room, praising Jesus that big sister is back to sleep and might not be a hot mess the rest of the day, baby boy lets out a scream from downstairs. Because he realized he wasn't being held, clearly. And, as luck would have it, big sister hears him, too, and those eyes pop right open and the tears begin because Mommy's leaving her room. So now both kids are crying, neither are sleeping, and all Mommy wants to do is cry & sleep at the same time.

And THAT explains why I haven't blogged in over a week (did you even realize that my baby is over 7 weeks old since I wasn't here to tell you on Tuesday?!) And why my Baptism thank you notes aren't done. And why I left the house within minutes of the husband being home from work yesterday to go to Walgreens just to get Halloween candy. And why I proceeded to just stand there in the candy aisle pretending to be indecisive on my selection when really I was just enjoying the fact that no one around me was crying.

Lots of blogging to come soon, promise. I have so much to say that's just bursting to be put into writing. Since I don't have a ton of time, it may come spewing out in a big ol' mess, kinda like this post. For accountability purposes, here are the posts coming up: Halloween, a 22-month Brooke update, how different it is to have 2 vs 1, and Joe's 2nd month letter (seriously? 2 months?!)

Cold schmold.

36 degrees, you don't intimidate us.

We've got cozy fleece sleepers to keep us warm.

 And comfy sweatshirts that support our favorite school. (She calls this her "Go D!" shirt.)

And smiles so warm they could melt ice.

C'mon, Old Man Winter, we're ready for you.

(p.s. Who else thinks I'm going to sweat profusely holding that 13 lb ball of fleece all day? Mama might need one of Brooke's popsicles later.)

Six Weeks.

We've made it to 6 weeks already! And what a busy week it has been!

Joe has entered the "Entertain Me" phase, also known as the "I'm old enough to know that I want to be entertained but not old enough to do it myself, so pick me up!" phase. So on top of the colic scream sessions at night, we now have fussy periods of boredom sprinkled throughout the day, too. All I can say is praise the Lord this boy is sleeping through the night already or I'd be a walking zombie (okay, more of a walking zombie.)

On that fantastically awesome note, this child is such a rockstar sleeper. So much so that I am still in disbelief and am waiting for the other shoe to drop. He sleeps a 7-9 hour stretch each night, no joke. I feed him sometime between 9 & 11 at night, he's in his bed shortly after, and we typically don't hear a peep out of him until between 4 & 6 a.m. Once he's fed and back in bed, he'll sleep another several hours. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. I think it's so hard for me to believe it because his sister was a craptastic sleeper. And that makes me appreciate him so much more. I always hated women that talked about how their kid slept through the night from, like, week 2. Pure jealousy, of course. And now I'm one of them...for now, at least.

He has gotten very vocal this week. He seems to love the sound of his voice, which works out well for me because so do I :) And the smiles...oh, the smiles! I'm convinced he recognizes me as his mama because I can get the biggest smiles out of the kiddo (either that or he thinks I have a goofy lookin' face, which is equally plausible.) His little smiles are the most precious things on the planet.

When I mentioned the busy week, I was mostly referring to the preparations that led up to Joe's baptism on Saturday night. Our baby boy is now an official Catholic :) His baptism went very smoothly, with not a single tear out of him. All of our family and closest friends surrounded us as our little man was blessed. They then showered him with gifts and pretended that the pulled pork we served them made up for all of the love and support they've shown us. It was a lovely evening and I'm so glad it went off without a hitch. Many, many thanks to everyone that helped - as always, we couldn't have done it without you!

A very happy, freshly baptized little boy :)

Joe's Birth Story.

It's been a whole month and I realized I still haven't written out Joe's birth story. While it wasn't nearly as eventful (read: long) as his sister's, it was an incredible day that I don't want to forget, so here goes.

(WARNING: This is super long, so scroll to the bottom if you're really just here for the pics. And gentlemen, this is a post about childbirth. I'm going to use words like "dilated" and "cervix". So if you want to continue pretending these words don't exist and that storks bring babies, I suggest you leave the blog now.)

Our September 6th started bright and early with a 7:45 a.m. appt at the OB's office. (That's bright and early in my world.) The plan was for the doctor to check me out in the morning so we had a vague idea of how much progress I'd made before my induction at lunch time. Fully expecting to hear that this kiddo was still high up and I wasn't dilated, we were surprised to learn that I was actually 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced. And when the OB said we could skip the Cervadil  (medicine to soften my cervix) and go straight to Pitocin (medicine to jumpstart contractions) when we got to the hospital, my jaw dropped all the way to the floor. The biggest smile was on this pregnant woman's face within seconds. I spent 30 hours in the hospital with Brooke before I got to start Pitocin, so I didn't even know what to think about this. Armed with this most excellent news, we headed out to go home and shower, grab our bags, and get a giant breakfast. 3 pancakes, 2 scrambled eggs, and some bacon later, this mama was ready to head to Mercy to have a baby!

We were admitted that Tuesday morning at 11:00 a.m. to the coldest room on the floor (62 degrees, yikes!) The Pitocin was started about 1:00, and we spent the afternoon just hanging out in Room 11. Even with 2 phones, a laptop, a TV, and a stack of magazines, the husband was bored by 2:00. (He didn't remember having so much downtime with Brooke, even though we had gobs more of it. Turns out he blocked out most of the 46 hours we were there before she came out.) I guess I should mention that I was contracting through all of this. They weren't bad at that point, but they were certainly getting stronger. I even told the husband I thought we might have a "Tuesday baby" after all, something I never would have guessed before that day (I had actually been expecting a late Wednesday/early Thursday baby...no reason to believe history wouldn't repeat itself.)

At 5:00, my doctor came in to check me and break my water. I was 3 cm and 75% effaced at that point, and the contractions were slowly picking up the pace. It wasn't much longer before the contractions brought tears to my eyes, something I never experienced with Brooke. While I was very uncomfortable with her labor, I had my epidural in way before the pain really started (they took pity on me since I'd been there 36 hours already.) So these painful contractions were a whole new experience! I asked for and received my epidural by about 7:00 that night. Once the medicine kicked in, it was smooth sailing for me. Between then and 10:30, the family all started trickling in, there was a power outage in the hospital, and I went from 3 to 10 cm. By 10:50, we had kicked everyone out of the room and I was starting my practices pushes!

And ten minutes later, the OB popped in to make me stop pushing. An emergency c-section down the hall forced me to wait about 45 minutes. Once the doctor came back in, I pushed for about 5-7 minutes (through about 3 contractions) and that was it. At 11:55 p.m., Joseph Carson made his very grand debut! The OB laid him on my chest, but I couldn't really see more than just his head. She let the husband tell me that we had achieved what I was afraid was impossible: we had a boy! I was in complete disbelief. The whole pregnancy I thought it was a boy, but when faced with the reality of it I just couldn't believe it. The entire time they cleaned both of us up, I just kept saying "I can't believe we had a boy!" Needless to say, I was beyond elated!

Joe weighed in at an incredible 10 lbs 2 oz, a new family record (beating out my brother by 2 oz.) He was 23 inches long and had a head circumference of 15 inches. The nurses were amazed at his size, mostly because I pushed him out so quickly and with such ease. (Even my OB was impressed by what an awesome pusher I was. I'm allowed to brag about this. 10 lbs, my friends, 10 ridiculous pounds.)

This beautiful little boy captured his parents' hearts from the minute we laid eyes on him. According to a few family members that were waiting in the waiting room, Daddy gave the gender away just with his huge goofy smile when he walked out to give them the other details (not that he wouldn't have been excited for a little girl, but a boy was super exciting!) I was thrilled to officially announce that Brooke had a brother when everyone came into the room. And we were even more excited to introduce Brooke to him the next morning. This was by far one of the best moments of my entire life, introducing the siblings. She loved him from the very start, asking lots of questions and wanting to just touch him. She pointed out each of his body parts for us, as if she was surprised that "he has nose!" So cute!

We feel so blessed to be a family of 4 now. Joe is perfect and so sweet. I can't believe how lucky I am to be the mother of these 2 fantastic little kids. Life is good :)

5 Weeks.

Oh hi, Mr. Joseph.

I wish I could say our 5th week together was a little easier. As I start to type this, we're in the middle of our nightly screaming session. Sadly, I think Joe might be borderline colicky. The colic definition is a rule of 3's: 3 hours of screaming, 3 days a week, for 3 weeks in a row. We certainly come close to 3ish hours of mostly inconsolable crying every night, starting after dinner. He has a very sensitive tummy that seems to be the culprit behind a lot of the tears (real tears...that's how hard he cries.) After reading a bit about colic, I think that what I've always passed off as just fussy evenings thanks to belly aches might actually qualify as colic :(

I am the only person that seems to have any luck calming him down, and even I struggle sometimes. This is becoming increasingly wearing on me, as I feel like I just can't get anything done. I typically push projects and chores back until the end of the day when Brooke's in bed b/c that's when I've had the free time - well, not anymore. So those of you coming to Joe's baptism on Saturday may be stepping on puzzle pieces & mardi gras beads in the family room and old macaroni in the kitchen b/c I just haven't found the time to start cleaning/preparing for this party.

Outside of the evening (and sometimes afternoon) sadness, Joe is still a pretty happy boy! He has been smiling a lot more lately, though I'm pretty sure I'm the only lucky girl that has had the pleasure of experiencing one! So darn cute! He is staying awake more often throughout the day now. He has started to enjoy being in his swing; he just stares at the little bug that dangles down from it. He also likes getting his diaper changed. Even at night, when nothing else can make him happy, he often calms down and happily stretches out on the floor for a diaper change. I think this has less to do with getting a clean diaper and more to do with the chance to just stretch and kick. He has also become a hair puller lately. He grabs on to my hair and won't let go; this boy has one heck of a grip! Now I remember why I got my hair chopped the first time I had it done after Brooke was born...

I just love going into his room to get him when he wakes up in the morning. He seems genuinely grateful to be in my arms. It's so sweet to be able to start and end my day cuddling with a teeny baby again :)

And now for the real reason you come to the blog...

Practicing the holding-up-his-head thing...

 ...is exhausting.

 Look at those long and lean legs. No fat rolls for this kiddo yet!

 I just love this boy :)

Joe's 1st Month!

Dear Joe,
You are 1 month old today, buddy! Hooray! And what an exciting and eventful month it has been! You are the definition of an easy baby. You eat every 3-4 hours during the day and every 5-6 at night on average, which has been giving Mommy lots of rest (thanks, kiddo!) You've been spending more time awake during the day lately, very quietly looking around and taking in your surroundings. You can already follow objects with your eyes; you've even watched Mommy walk across the room a few times which is pretty impressive for your age. You've started cooing lately, and it's just the sweetest little sound in the world. And just yesterday, you gave Mommy your very first real smile, a sight that almost brought a tear to my eye. We've already discovered what makes you content vs. upset - here are some of your favorite & not-so-favorite things:

Favorites
Holding Hands - You really seem to take comfort in holding our hands. Your tiny little fingers curl around one of ours and it seems to relax you. And when your belly hurts, you grasp even tighter, a sign that you are in pain and need our help.
Eye Contact - You love to make eye contact with whoever is holding you. It just melts Mommy's heart when those very dark blue (soon-to-be brown, we think) eyes stare into hers.
Music - Music has a calming effect on you most of the time. We swear the lullabye CD we have in the car has magical powers; you quiet down almost immediately once we turn it on (just as it used to do for your sister.) And you also like listening to your sister sing to you; when you're sad, she tries to make you feel better by singing the ABC's. It's a good thing you enjoy it because I don't think she's gonna stop anytime soon!
Being Held - You love to be held and cuddled. You can be content laying on the floor kicking your legs or rocking in your swing (briefly), but you prefer to be up in someone's arms. And I do mean up, as you like for whoever is holding you to be standing (preferably swaying or bouncing.) Having a cuddly baby breathing softly on your chest is pretty much the greatest thing in the world, so we're not complaining :)
Mommy - Mommy is definitely your most favorite person, as is to be expected. My smell or voice can soothe you almost instantly when you're upset. I have one particular hold where you cuddle up against me really close that you realy enjoy - it puts you to sleep almost every time! You and Daddy are becoming good buddies, but nothing calms you down quite like Mommy (which makes sense, considering you spent 9 months in my belly & I am your food source.)

Not-so-Favorites:
Being Cold - Since day one, you've always hated being cold. Fortunately for us, you have a little temperature gauge, your nose, that we can check when you're upset. It gets very cold when you're cold, and it often leads to lots of crying. Most of the time, once you're swaddled up in a blanket, you're a much happier fellow. Unfortunately for you, the weather is only going to get colder. I foresee lots of fleece sleepers and heavy blankets this winter.
Bath Time - You are so not a fan of bath time. In fact, you've screamed through every bath you've had since the day you were born. We're pretty sure it has a lot to do with being too cold for you, even though you're sitting in warm water. Luckily, you don't do much to make yourself terribly dirty, so baths can be very quick and infrequent.
Getting Dressed/Undressed - Thankfully for all of us, you've already learned how to control yourself when we change your diaper and you haven't peed on us in a while. That always leads to an outfit change, which doesn't please you. And since it's just a little too cool to go without, we have you in onesies underneath your sleepers, so there's an extra layer to take off and put on. Once again, we're sure it'e because you get cold when we have to strip you down. We're really not looking forward to the poop explosion days that are ahead of us - lots more outfit changes are in our future!

The days have just flown by this month, and your personality has emerged more and more with each passing day. You are such a calm little fellow. You have your Daddy's serious eyes, with his very intense concentration. And you have Mommy's nose...and very strong lungs! So far, you're a lot more low maintenance than your sister was, but we'll see if that holds true as the months go on.

We just adore you, Joseph. You are like the piece to our little family puzzle that we didn't even know we were missing, a most perfect fit. Our days are so much brighter now that you're in them. We love you buddy!

Love,
Mommy & Daddy

Four Weeks.

Here we are at 4 weeks already! In just 2 short days, Mr. Joseph will be a whole month old, a fact I can't even begin to process.

Joe's had yet another awesome week! In fact, just today I said to him "Joe, you're a rockstar baby" as he very quietly sat in his infant seat, wide awake might I add, as we went in and out of a few stores running errands. He's still super calm and content about 95% of the time. His belly is still the biggest source of discontent for him, something I'm sure we'll be dealing with for a while.

I took him to the pediatrician today for his 1-month appointment. He's perfectly healthy! He was really good throughout the 45 minute appt. He was not a huge fan of stripping down to be weighed in, but I did my best to keep him warm. Ready for the biggest shock of your life? The boy is on the growth charts! Yes, I said ON. Well, he's on 2 of the 3. He's in the 97th percentile for height (23.5 inches) and head circumference (16 inches). He's just above the chart for weight, at a robust 11 lbs 15 oz. However, and this is a big however, he's growing at an average rate, which is the most shocking part of all of it for me. And the doctor. She couldn't believe he was such a little peanut (well, relative to Brooke.) His big sister gained over 3 lbs in her first month alone, ending up an entire pound heavier than her little brother is now - and she started half a pound smaller! She then continued to grow at the same 2-3 lb/month rate, so I'm very curious to see if he'll follow that same pattern. The pediatrician thinks there is a chance he's just had a slow-growing month and might pick up the pace next month. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

She was very happy with our little man's progress this month as far as eating and sleeping habits go. He's gaining plenty, so we're sure my milk is sufficient for him. He's still sleeping really well, with nice long stretches at night and good naps during the day. The pediatrician was very pleased to see how alert he was and how well he could focus on something. She was ridiculously impressed by his neck strength. As he lay on the exam table on his belly, he lifted himself more than I've ever seen (good timing!) and she was shocked. I believe her exact words were "That's incredible." When I said "Do you hear that? You're doing a good job, buddy!", she followed it up with "You're doing a good job, Mom." While I don't take credit for his awesomeness, it's so nice to hear that from a non-family member.

(Have I mentioned I love my pediatrician? And not just because she hands out compliments either. I just think she's awesome. She shares my love of sarcasm and doesn't buy into silly parenting trends & rules that pop up. For example, she thinks pacifiers are great and vitamins are excessive. Love how laid back she is!)

Anyway, back to my little buddy... Joe got one shot today (HepB) and handled it pretty darn well. Only cried about a minute before calming down with his pacifier. He'll go back again at 2 months!

Here are some of my favorite pics from week #4. Enjoy!

Joe Cool in his shades again, taking his first walk around the neighborhood.

 Big Sister Brooke had to push her baby in a stroller, too. Needless to say, we didn't walk very far...

Staring contest anyone? I call this his pensive stare.   

 Somebody had his first bottle earlier this week. Took it down like a champ for his grandma. I'm going to do my best to avoid being the bottle-giver, that way he doesn't associate all eating with me (even though it's still my milk.) He had another one tonight. This was Daddy's first go at it - special father/son bonding time :)

This picture slays me. I don't count this as a real smile (we've yet to receive one of those) but it's still crazy-cute.