Sick Days.

Sorry for not keeping up with daily posts with pictures... we've been sick here - and so far, not on the mend yet.
Laura was fine Wednesday and then woke up a lot overnight that night- saying her ear hurt. Same thing in the morning - left ear hurt and now, with the added joy of snot rockets streaked with dark yellow. Mmm. Made her an appintment with the peds office to get her ear checked early - since it seems when we go a few days into her cold, it's already past the point of "annoying ear infection" and has entered into the nasty territory of "Rupture". What was their verdict? She's perfectly fine. Bring her back if she still complains in a few days. The rest of Thursday was fussy and whiney - saying her ear and her cheeks (teeth?) hurt... kept her hopped up on Ibuprofen and she was tollerable to be around. Boxes of tissues and prefolds/diapers/burp clothes scattered about the house were our friends!
Friday - kind of similar to Thursday - still saying cheeks hurt - still shootin' rockets, but no mention of her ear.
Saturday - Rich and I woke up not feeling 100%... both with sore throats. Laura - feeling a bit better and after a few morning clean out sneezes, was back to her normal self (with a clear runny nose).
Sunday (today) - ugh. Laura is ready and runnin' ready to go! Rich - congested/headache/sluggish. Me? Felt okay other than a mild sore throat and stuffy nose overnight... actually got up and went to kohl's, walmart, and aldi's this morning... took a nap at 2:30-4... and woke up shivering. Ugh. Fever... and now I kinda feel like poo. Carson? Well, he slept sitting up in his carseat last night and is really stuffy in the nose today. Hopefully his doesn't get any worse :( If I remember correctly, Laura had her first little cold before she was 2 months old too. He's still eating peeing and waking up okay and looks perky when he is awake.

So - I'll be back when we're all mended up here!

Numbers.

134: The weight I started at.
195: The weight I topped out at.
Total gain = 61 pounds
Today ... 1 month after delivery
168 pounds.

Lost 27.

Still have 34 to go to get back to 134.

Laura loves her John Deere!

She'll stand in the snow...but she has snown no interest in actually playing in it or making a snowman or anything like that... so helping daddy on the tractor is about as much snow play as she's had this winter. Maybe next year she'll build a snowman...

Tractor rides. This girl is all about tractor rides... and big trucks and diggers and telephone poles and... anything else big and exciting outside.
(More about the diggers and big trucks and poles in another post another day...)

"OOooh! Scoopin' Snow!"
The week after Carson was born, we got hit with the biggest 2 snowstorms of the year (the only snowstorms of the year?)

Both kids were due for visits back to the pediatrician's - Carson for a weight recheck and Laura for an ear recheck... but the office closed on that Friday due to the big snow storm. We were up early enough to attempt to brave the weather but Rich had to go out and plow the driveway so we could get the van out of the garage. Would have just taken the truck and tramped through the show with it, but being a family of 4 now, we don't all fit in the truck... So, he headed out early and plowed - by the time he had the driveway almost all cleaned up was when the office called and cancelled. Oh well, had to be done anyways. These pictures were actually from a different storm the same week.

Diapers diapers and more diapers!

I had a lot of people question my sanity a few years ago when I mentioned I wanted to cloth diaper. We did it with Laura and it was successful... and now we get to reap the benefits (financially) by using them on our second kidlet too!

We used newborn sposies while in the hospital. Used that size for a day when we got home and we realized they were way too snug on our (big) boy. Went to size 1's. Used up a whole jumbo pack in 4 days and he was still having meconium poos... but man, I didn't want to go buy another pack of sposies! (I didn't want to start cloth yet though because the meconium can be hard to get out)... So, I went to Rite Aid and used a freebie coupon and picked up one more package of size 1's... those lasted us about another week because as soon as the blackish poos were gone, he went into cloth by day (but still sposies by night and for outings). After that pack was gone, I didn't have anymore size 1's in my stash - so I decided to try a size 2... fit like a dream. What's that? My 2.5 week old wears size 2 diapers already? Yep. He does.
The green diaper he's wearing (at not quite 2 weeks old) is an XS bumgenius all in one... and I snapped that picture quick before he never wore them again. Waste of money for me to get these since I grow toddlers, not tiny newborns... I'll be reselling these and getting my money back on them ASAP.

The itty bitty white diaper he's wearing above is an XS fuzzibunz. Boy do we love our fuzzibunz!!! We didn't have these when we had Laura, but I wished we did! I'll hold onto these once he grows out of them... just in case we need them in the future one more time :) These still fit him at (almost) 1 month old and (almost) 11 pounds...but I've got the smalls pulled out and will wash them in the next couple days. I'm sure they're very close to fitting him.

We also use newborn bummis super whisper wrap covers with a trifolded preemie prefold inside them... they're not really cute, but they do the job and they're really affordable. He'll be out of this size in the next couple weeks I'm sure. Once he grows out of these, he'll be in fuzzibunz by day until he's potty trained... *unless the few tkcuddlers I have in size medium end up fitting him well*

So in love with these two kids!!! Laura is a great helper... she retrieves pacifiers - she helps get washcloths wet at diaper changes (and she's learned that standing right at the end of the "changer" is NOT a good idea!). And she is always giving him lots of hugs and "sisses"! She's been caught a time or two trying to feed him cheerios and craisins, but we've told her he can't eat them until he's bigger.

Her: "He eat boobie?"

Me:"Yes honey, he eats boobie"

Her: "oh"

Pause.

Her: "bigger?"

Me: "Yes honey, he'll eat cheerios and craisins when he's bigger"

Her: "bigger now?"

Me: "No, he's not bigger yet"

Isn't this quilt the most beautiful thing!?! The colors are so bright and the ABC of animals are just adorable. I have to say that my boss Cathe is one really talented lady! We have the quilt lying in the bassinet (covering up the flowery print!) and Carson sleeps in this every night just like this...

And yes, he sleeps in his own room every night. The only exception was that first night.

I just think this is too funny! The paci looks as big as his head almost!

Daddy's in love with these two kids too!

First days home...

We came home on February 18th - a Thursday. On dishcharge, Carson weighed 8#9oz. Our first night home was a little rough... my milk hadn't come in yet and all Carson wanted to do was eat... I tried getting him to eat, but it wasn't satisfying for him. He would take a pacifier, but he kept spitting it out since it wans't what he really wanted. He started the night in his room in the bassinet, but I was in there probably 4-5 times before midnight and finally I was so exhausted, I told Richie that I was going to bring Carson into bed with me so I could sleep next to him (don't worry - he was in his snuggle nest so no worries that I'd roll onto him!) and just pop the pacifier in or feed him easily without having to get up out of bed so often. Richie went and crashed in bed with Laura so that at least one of us was getting a good night of sleep. I think I was up every 20 minutes or so doing a pacifier pop or attempting to feed... and finally at 3:30am, I was SO tired... I took Carson out to the living room where my mom was sleeping and asked her to be "on call" for the next few hours so I could try to get some sleep... those next 3 hours were the most heavenly sleep I'd felt in a long time!

We had his first visit with the peds office the next morning. He weighed in at 8#2oz (56%) that morning and was measured at 21.75 inches (95%)

Friday evening, Richie's parents came to visit. Laura was kind of fussy on and off that evening and mentioned that her ear hurt her. She broke down into hysterics just as grandma and grandpa were leaving and we though for sure she was just over tired and that we'd get her in bed and she'd crash for the night. We couldn't have been more wrong... Got her into bed around 9pm and she kept crying - in between sobs we heard "ear hurts" and "mouth hurts"... She had been fighting a cough and green/yellow runny nose for the previous week, so it was at that time we started thinking we were headed for another ruptured ear drum... Gave her some tylenol - that did nothing. She bawled for 2 hours straight. That is the worst feeling as a parent - to know your child is in pain and there is absolutely nothing you can do for them. After about an hour of her crying, I gave her ibuprofen on top of the tylenol. She never had a fever. She kept wanting mommy and then daddy and then mommy and then daddy... and she wouldn't let us sit with her for very long - she wanted us up walking with her. Luckily, she let me rock with her a few times as I was not able to yet carry her around. At 11pm, she was lying with her daddy on the couch just bawling... and then she jumped... and then it was quiet. She passed out and slept for the rest of the night. The pressure had relieved itself and she felt much better. We never heard another word about her ear hurting. I did take her into the peds office the next morning (hey, weren't we just there 24 hours earlier with Carson?) They put her on a 10 day course of amoxicillin.

I really felt sad for Laura - she was dealing with a nasty ear infection on top of trying to figure out how to adjust to having her whole world turned upside down with this new being we refer to as "baby brother"... she had quite a few evenings of being fussy - not sure if it has to do with those two things - or just the normal fact that she's a 2 year old, but I'm glad to say that the past 2 nights have been really good here - less fussyness, eating better, happy girl - and even going to bed without crying :)

Carson and daddy watching the olympics!

Super quick update on the kids...

Carson had his "not quite 1 month well visit" today. He's up to 10#13oz and 22.25inches long!

Laura's newest and biggest news is that she wears panties all the time now! She daytime trained between Thanksgiving and Christmas and then only a few short weeks after that started waking up from naps dry. She still didn't like the idea of doing #2 in the potty, but about a month ago she decided that's the way to go so there have been no #1 or #2 accidents here recently. Then, 6 nights ago she started waking up dry in the mornings... last night was her second night wearing panties to bed instead of huggies overnight size 5 diapers. Two of those 6 nights, she woke up in the night yelling "Go Pee!"... and she made it to the potty each time... so, shall I hold onto those 6 unopened packages of huggies overnights that I JUST stocked up on in the last 2 months when Rite Aid was running their super great sales on them? :P I don't care... she's POTTY TRAINED! WOoo!

Meeting big sister Laura and going home...

Awww! Kisses for baby brother!

In the next one ... you'll have to excuse Laura's silly "cheese" face - she's doing this for all pictures now, really hamming it up!

All ready to come home!

1 day old pictures

Happy Birthday Carson Russell!

February 16th. Carson Russell was welcomed into our family. I know I know... It's already been 3 weeks and I'm finally getting around to posting this, but it takes time to adjust to having a newborn in the house and well, blogging just wasn't top on my list. I had lots of snuggling to do with our itty bitty and lots of hugging and snuggling with our lil' new big sister too!

So, to start with - I'll give you the quick rundown of how his birth went... if anyone wants the full extended birth story (complete with all the gory details!) let me know and I can forward it to you, but I don't want to post it all here in case there are some people who may not want to read it...

Went into the hospital around 7am. Cervidil was placed at a little after 8am and we all expected it to work quickly just as it had for when I had Laura. I was 3cm dilated at the time. The nurse and midwife were convinced the baby would be out by late afternoon at the latest.
Contractions started at around 11am, but they felt like braxton hicks - not painful. At noon, they immediately went to 2-3-5 minutes apart, but again, not painful. My water broke at 12:45. Cervidil came out shortly after that... and then contractions stopped. At around 2pm, I got up and started walking the halls to try to get the contractions going again ... I walked and walked and walked. Contractions came back to around every 2-3 minutes, but still not painful. At 4:20, not much had changed... so my midwife checked me again and I was 6ish cm dilated, but there was more "water" to be broken - so she did that. I walked the halls after that again and contractions picked up pretty good. I ended up using the birthing ball for about an hour and then got into the jacuzzi tub later in the evening. After being in the tub, I went back to the room and kept waiting for that "have to push" feeling, but it was an elusive feeling... and not feeling it was very discouraging! There was a "lip" of cervix left in the way and once that was out of the way, things started going better. I ended up getting up to use the bathroom at around 9:05pm and immediately after that, I felt the urge to push that baby out! About 5-6 pushes later at 9:22pm, Carson Russell was born.

He weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces and was 21inches long.
(On remeasure, he was really 21 3/4 inches!)