New Year.

Well hello there, 2014! Where did you come from?

I suck at blogging. End of story. But I'm going to update anyways because now is better than tomorrow or next month or next year. We all know how quickly next year will be here.

Let me start with my amazing Nolan. He will be two in just under six weeks! I am absolutely loving the age he is at right now. He is the most incredible, sweet, and loving little boy. He is still a little bit unsure of Griffin as a person, but I think he's starting to like being a big brother. Well, maybe "like" isn't the right word. He's starting to fall into his roll? I don't know. He is a very dutiful brother. He takes on a lot of responsibility that he obviously doesn't have to as a toddler, but he doesn't seem to understand that. Like a couple of weeks ago when I had Griffin in his jumper, he started to cry. Instead of Nolan ignoring him or looking to me to see what I was going to do to fix his brother's problem, he stood up, huffed over to the drawer in the kitchen, pulled out a binkie, shoved it in G's mouth, and went back to playing. A few mornings ago, I was upstairs getting dressed to take the boys out for the day. I'd left Griffin on the floor and Nolan was playing next to him. All of a sudden, G started crying. I ran downstairs thinking Nolan had smacked him, but they were both on their tummies facing each other and Nolan was shaking G's favorite rattle in front of his face to try to cheer him up. It is amazing to see how observant he is and how easily he can recall what his mom and dad do in certain situations to make things better.

Having Nolan around for the Christmas season was magical this year. He loved all of it. We didn't do anything to protect our tree aside from putting all of our special ornaments out of his reach so he could really enjoy it. By the time I took it down yesterday, all of the ornaments were on the top half of the tree thanks to little toddler hands and their redecorating. His favorite thing to do this year was kiss the ornaments. He'd go up to touch one of them and we'd tell him to be soft, so he'd kiss them and say "awwwww" instead. Most. Adorable. Thing. Ever.

He kind of kisses everything right now. Toys, dogs, the floor...he is a little kisser. Every night, I bring Griffin to our bedroom to get him ready to go to sleep and Chris brings Nolan up a few minutes later. They come in to say goodnight to us and Nolan kisses me, then kisses his brother on the forehead followed by his "awwww." I look forward to it every single day and will be so sad when he decides he's too cool to kiss me and his baby brother goodnight.

I'm not sure how much he weighs right now, but he's pretty solidly in 2T clothing and size 5 diapers. His growth seems to have slowed quite a bit which is nice. He looks like a little boy now. We grew his hair out for winter and he could not be any more handsome. He's mastering the art of drinking out of an open cup and doesn't need our help to eat anymore. His favorites are pizza, spaghetti, and macaroni and cheese. Yum!

Now for the littles. What a sass. He just turned five months old a few days ago and I seriously can't believe where the time is going! He's a tiny little guy. I took him into the doctor last week and he's only 13 pounds. His 3-6 month clothes are still a little bit big on him. He's in size 2 diapers and will be for a while still. He takes about 4 ounces of formula every couple of hours and started on solids last month. So far, he's had rice cereal, oatmeal, prunes, pears, and sweet potatoes. He is such a good little eater like his brother!

One thing I can't believe is how strong he is! He can almost pull himself up into a sitting position from laying flat just by using his stomach. He rolls all the way across the floor and it is impossible to keep him in one place. He can push all the way up on his arms while laying on his tummy and loves to look around. I helped him sit up the other day and aside from a little bit of balance issues, he is strong enough to sit with very little support. He can also hold himself up on his legs like it is nothing at all and I have a feeling he will be walking way before I'm ready for it.

He is a mommy's boy. Big time. He screams and yells and waves his arms until I'm holding him, then he snuggles into my chest and just stares at the person who was holding him before me like he's mad at them. He's started to reach out to me when I go to pick him up, but I haven't noticed him do it with anyone else. I can't say I hate having him be so attached to me. It feels good to be wanted and needed after my independent Nolan.

His eyes are turning green and he seems to have darker hair. He looks so much like his daddy. His eyebrows are the same exact shape and they're turning brown. He looks a lot like Nolan still, but he's definitely turning into his own little person.

Life is busy and crazy and amazing. Those boys have changed me in ways I didn't know I could change and I'm loving every second of it. Being a mommy of two under two is so hard but it is so worth it! I love my crazies!

Griff.

Obviously, I haven't been doing monthly posts for this guy. I'm a busy lady. I wanted to jump on and note a few things now that he is coming up on four months old, though!

He is his daddy's son. He has such an incredibly passionate personality. If he's happy, he is so happy. If he's mad, he is ticked off, steam coming out of his ears, scream at the top of his lungs mad. But he is funny because as quick as he gets upset, he calms himself down. Kid just knows what he wants!

He is smiling, but not laughing yet. He's this close though. Seriously, any day. He loves when I "nomnomnom" his little feet. He thinks it is hilarious. He's almost rolling, too. He hasn't gone from belly to back yet, but he's great at getting on his side from his back. He'll be flipping all the way over soon. He's at this awesome age where he is right on the verge of so many things. I am savoring every second of him being tiny though. I'm in no hurry for him to get big.

He's still a bitty little thing. I don't know how much he weighs, but he still fits in some newborn sleepers. His 0-3 month clothes fit, but he won't be growing out of them any time soon. He's in size 1 diapers. He eats every few hours, but he mostly just snacks all day. If he takes a full bottle, it is usually 3 or 4 ounces. He's getting mostly pumped milk with some formula here and there, so he doesn't need as much. He spits up so, so, so much. He's on reflux medicine like his brother, so that is helping.

He loves his mommy. He's way more obsessed with me than Nolan was. He is such a snuggler and wants me to hold him all the time. I don't mind. Nolan was always so independent, so it is nice to have one that just wants to lay his head on my shoulder and hug me all day.

He is such a talker. I joke that he will be talking in full sentences before Nolan will. He will hold full conversations with us, complete with awesome facial expressions. He doesn't know how tiny he is and will yell at us if we aren't doing what he wants us to. He's going to be a tough little cookie. It doesn't even phase him when Nolan comes up and gives him a loving, brotherly smack in the head.

He fits so perfectly in our family. I wouldn't say we're complete yet, but we're getting there. His personality fits just right with the rest of ours and I'm so thankful for him. I love my boys so much!

Griffin Leslie.

My experience bringing my second little love into this world couldn't have been more different than when I had his big brother. Everything with Nolan was so planned...so smooth. I'd been told so many times that it is actually easier with your next child. I expected a scheduled induction, a fast, easy, and painless labor, and an easy recovery. Silly me.

Griffin was due on August 11. He looked great at all of my appointments. Every time I was checked, I wasn't dilated or anything so I figured I'd be induced either on or right after my due date. Nolan was so late that I thought for sure I'd go over with Griff as well. My entire pregnancy was so smooth. My blood pressure was great, I gained just the right amount of weight, and I managed to stay out of the ER for the most part. I think I was just a lot more laid back. I knew he was going to be okay and I didn't have the freshness of losing Eden in my heart like I did with Nolan.

On July 27, my parents and Chris' parents threw me a brunch to celebrate the new little guy. I said I didn't want a huge shower because I'd just had one a year and a half prior, but I loved that they wanted to show Griff some love. We had some delicious food and got some cute gifts for him. I spent the morning telling friends and family that I couldn't wait to meet him, but I knew it was going to be a while. I'd been on leave from work for a few weeks already, just getting stuff done. I was going to spend my last couple of weeks spending some quality time with Nolan and enjoying my "only child." That's what I get for making plans!

The next day, July 28, my family came over to help get some stuff done around the house. We put Nolan's water table together, changed light bulbs, plugged electric outlets, locked toilets, drawers, and cupboards, attached large furniture to walls so it couldn't be pulled over, and cleaned. I took it easy for the most part. I pretty much just bossed people around and ate pizza.

We went to bed pretty early that night. I was exhausted. It had been such a miserably hot summer and I was always anxious to get into my cool bed at the end of each day. I fell asleep almost instantly. At a little after 3:00 in the morning, I woke up suddenly to a huge gush of water. I got up and ran to the bathroom to clean myself up, but it just kept coming. I woke Chris up and told him I was pretty sure my water had broken. I was exactly 38 weeks along.

He shot out of bed and asked what we were supposed to do now. I told him I'd call my mom to come sit with Nolan and we needed to get a bag packed. I hadn't prepared at all because I thought I still had a couple of weeks. I started throwing clothes for me and Griffin on my bed as I called my mom. I gave up on trying to pack a bag in my frazzled state and snuck in Nolan's room. I pulled him out of bed and snuggled him for a little while...oh, and I cried. I was so sad thinking about how he didn't know how much his life was going to change. He got ticked off at me for waking him up though so I put him back down. My mom got there about 40 minutes later, and we headed to the hospital with just my purse. I figured I could text her what I needed after I was set up in my room and she could get a bag packed for me.

Everyone was so calm when I got to the hospital. They sent me to Labor and Delivery and I fully expected to get sent right to a room. Instead, I had to wait in triage for about an hour. Apparently, I was #13 to come in that night claiming my water had broke, and 1-12 had actually just peed themselves. I wasn't having contractions, but my water had clearly broken. They finally came in to do the test strip, and it couldn't have been more obvious that I wasn't mistaken. They didn't even let me get off the bed. Instead, they pushed me on the bed to the delivery room. The lady who was pushing me should have her bed driving licence taken away. She ran me into multiple walls, hard. I had to just laugh.

By the time I got set up where I was going to meet the little guy, it had been about 2 1/2 hours since my water first broke. I still wasn't feeling any contractions, so they got me hooked up to the monitors to see if they were even happening. They weren't. Not regularly, anyways. They were concerned because with every small contraction I had, Griffin's heart rate dropped. They were worried that of they started me on meds to regulate them and kick start my labor, it would stress him out too bad and they'd end up having to do an emergency c-section. He was hardly moving and just seemed a little too cozy in there. However, he didn't really have a choice. His fluid was running out. He was coming out one way or another.

We decided to wait a little while and see if he became more active and his heart rate picked back up. It wasn't down far enough that we had to get him out right that second and I really wanted to avoid a c-section if possible, so I was more than fine with that plan. I knew how well my body responded to Pitocin and felt comfortable that if we could get him stable enough to get that flowing, it would be a relatively quick process from there. Chris went to sleep on the couch and I settled in to watch some TV as they pumped me with fluids to hydrate me and try to get little boy moving.

After about another hour, my contractions were still inconsistent and not strong at all, but Griffin was a lot more active. I think we just caught him during his sleepy time and he wasn't quite sure what was going on. They decided it was safe for me to start the Pitocin, so they got me hooked up. Just like with Nolan, the contractions started almost instantly. I was in quite a bit of pain, so I decided to get the epidural and relax. It hurt more than it did with Nolan, but it still wasn't awful. I think he may have hit a nerve because I felt a shock through my entire body as he put it in. He had to yell at me to keep still. Once it was in, only one of my legs went numb. He told me to just give it a minute and push the button to release more if it didn't seem to be working.

Things felt better for a little bit, but then it felt like I hadn't even gotten an epidural at all. I could feel everything. They checked me, and it was just about time to push. This part gets a little bit hazy for me. I remember the room getting hazy and just being overwhelmed with the most intense cramping pain. They called the guy who did my epidural back in to give me another direct dose, but it did nothing. Chris kept pushing the button to pump more medicine, but it wasn't working at all. I could feel every bit of pressure and every contraction. It turns out, the epidural wasn't put in correctly and the medicine wasn't even getting where it was supposed to go. I was having him naturally, even though I had the tube in my back.

All of a sudden, I felt this really intense pressure and needed to push. The nurse checked me, and he was right there. They called the doctor in and he basically just caught the baby. He was born in about 2 pushes at 12:22 in the afternoon on July 29. He weighed 5 pounds 3 ounces and was 18 inches long. My sweet, tiny little boy! They put him right on my chest and I was holding him when Chris cut the umbilical cord. My love for him was so instant and so intense.

He had low blood sugar like Nolan did, so they took him to the nursery for a while to give him some formula and get him feeling better. He was gone for a couple of hours, so I just relaxed in the recovery room. Once he was done, they brought him back to me and I snuggled him while Chris went and picked up Nolan. We wanted him to be the first person to meet his brother and we wanted to spend some time together as a new family of four before everyone else came to meet him. This is something that was so, so important to me and I'm very thankful to our family for respecting that and understanding.

Chris returned with Nolan, and he was more excited about everything in the room to play with than he was about seeing me. He gave me a smile and a kiss, but then he was off to play. We let him explore for a little while, but then I pulled him up in bed with me to meet his brother. He just wanted to get down and play. He stopped what he was doing every once in a while to look at Griffin, so he was curious. Just not curious enough to do anything about.

After I snuggled both of my boys for a little while, we invited the rest of our family up. Everyone came and hung out for a little while. Nobody could believe how tiny Griffin was. Chris ended up leaving with Nolan to spend some time with him at home and keep things as normal as possible for him. After a couple of hours, everyone else left and it was just me and my boy for the rest of the evening. I spent the night feeding, holding, and snuggling him. I had so much more time to do that with him than I did with Nolan. I studied him and stared at him and kissed him and hugged him. It was just us and I loved that. I think I'll insist on it again when we have our next child. I wish I would have had that with Nolan.

We ended up having to stay two nights in the hospital. The second day, we didn't have any family visit. Chris and Nolan came just before dinner time and we ordered room service for the three of us. Chris took Griffin, and I snuggled with Nolan in bed as we ate our food. It felt good to spend time with him and just love on him. I remember looking in the mirror that was across from my bed and my heart almost exploded as I saw my new family's reflection. I never knew I could love three people as much as I love those three.

We were discharged on the third day in the early afternoon. Griffin was very jaundiced and we had to be sent home with lights for him to lay on 23 hours a day to get his levels down. There were a lot of blood draws and heel pricks in the following days, but he ended up being okay by his two week appointment.

He's three months old today, and he fits so perfectly into our family. I keep falling more and more in love with him. He is Nolan's complete opposite in pretty much every way. He has a lot of Chris' personality already and I think we will have our hands full with him, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

We love you so much, Griff Griff!

Howdy.

Oh, hey. I had a baby. Plus I suck at blogging. There is just something about having two children under the age of two that takes up a freaking lot of time. I'm not complaining, though. My life is incredible right now.

Nolan is almost 21 months. I can. not. believe. that in a few months, we will be celebrating his second birthday. He is so much fun right now! He isn't talking much, but he's starting to say a couple of new words a day so I think he will have a verbal explosion pretty soon. Right now, he knows and uses yes, yeah, yay, bubble, apple, mom, daddy, I love you, book, eat, up, and milk. He hasn't started saying no yet, which I appreciate. His answer to every question we ask him is "yeaaaah." He couldn't get any more adorable. 

He's wearing size 24 months and some 2T. He's in size 5 diapers and size 5 shoes. He's walking and running and climbing all over the place. I take him to My Gym on Friday mornings to practice his skills. He is in a class with about six other kids his age. They do tumbling, games, songs, puppet shows, and different exercises. He absolutely loves it. His favorite activity is the ball pit. He'll climb up this huge ramp and just dive right in like it is no big deal. He's so big.

He is awesome with his little brother. He gets annoyed with him if he cries too much or we try to let Nolan hold him, but he'll usually just gently push him away and go back to what he wants to be doing. He kisses him on the forehead all the time and will rub his head so softly. Now that Griffin is getting a little bit older, they are interacting more and I can't wait to see what their relationship develops into.

I'll try to do better updating here. It is really for my record and I don't want to forget these amazing times in my life. It is going by too fast. Now, to get cracking on Griff Griff's birth story...

Sixteen Months.

Well, that went by fast. At first, I thought I'd continue my monthly updates. Then I thought I'd switch to every three months. Obviously that didn't happen. I'm here now, though!

Technically, he's not sixteen months old for four more days, so I'll keep pretending I have a little baby. I don't. At all. He's a little boy. He runs and laughs at jokes and teases us. He is growing into the most charming kid though. He's so mellow and just loves to be around people. He's started talking more (finally!) and it is basically the most adorable thing ever. His favorite word right now is "Daddy." He freaking loves his dad. It took him so long to start saying it and everyone was "Mom!!!!" but now he won't stop. If Chris isn't home and Nolan hears anything outside the door, he'll run up screaming "Daddy!" It is so cute.

He doesn't say "no" yet, which I'm thankful for. He can hold off on that one as long as he wants. He does shake his head if we offer him something he doesn't want, so he can communicate it, but he doesn't verbalize it. He is a "yeah" baby. Anytime we ask him a question, he will either say "yeah!" or "yesssssssh!" and smile. The other day, we were walking into a sushi resturant, and I asked him if he was going to eat some chinese food. He looked at me and said "yeah!" like it was totally obvious. He didn't touch the stuff. Haha!

He still only uses "Mom" when he's mad at me or trying to get my attention. I'm waiting for that loving "Mommy" or "Mama" when he's not frustrated, but so far I've had no such luck. He says also knows how to say book, cat, hug, okay, and bye-bye. He understands so much  more, he just isn't really a talker.

I love that the weather is so gorgeous right now. It is so much fun to be able to take Nolan to the park and let him run around. He has so much fun and can't stop smiling every time we go outside. The other night, I took him out on our back patio and turned the faucet on. I gave him some old cups and a pitcher and let him go to town. He was soaked by the time we went inside, but he had a blast! This age is the best. Period.

He is in 18 month clothes and size 5 diapers. He's losing his baby face and starting to look more like a child. He's still adorable though.

I'll try really hard to update more, but I can't promise anything with Griffin due in 8.5 weeks (whaaat?!)  Life is about to get crazy, friends. I'll leave you with some pictures of my little buddy to hold you over until next time. Who doesn't love pictures?





This is from our Mommy & Me photo shoot for Mother's Day. Photo by Stephanie Powell



Photo by Stephanie Powell











 
























Lately.

It has been a while since I've written. I decided to stop my monthly updates on Nolan after he turned one because I thought it would probably be too much, especially with a new little one coming that I'll want to do the same thing for. I've still been keeping track of his major accomplishments and will make sure to update those here!

The biggie: we have a walker! Well...now we have a runner and a kinda-skipper. He is all over the place. He took his first steps on March 2. He took five perfect steps the first time, and kept going all day long! I was so proud of him. I felt a little bad because Chris wasn't home, but I took lots of video for him. We call Nolan our little zombie because he walks with his arms straight out in front of him for balance. He just gets so proud of himself. It got to the point that he would fall just because he was laughing so hard. I have a toddler!

March was a big month for him. On March 6, he went to bed with no milk. Our typical night-night routine is the three of us go upstairs and play in his room, change him into his jammies, and he tells Chris goodnight then gets in the rocking chair with me. I give him a sippy of milk and we cuddle until he lets me know he is ready to get in his crib. That night, he decided he didn't want his drink and just went to sleep. I thought about continuing to skip it, but I love that time I have with him so I decided against it. At least now I know that the sippy is more for me than it is for him! He's such a big boy.

Speaking of big boy, we took him to get his first haircut on March 7. He did freaking awesome. They put a little cape on him and a big cape on me, then cut his hair while he was sitting on my lap. They gave him a sucker, which he loved (he never gets treats!) and that was the only thing he paid attention to. The worst part of the whole experience was the little pieces of hair getting stuck in his candy and the sticky drool running down my hand. Everyone there loved him. They kept saying they'd never seen a baby do so well. It turned out adorable and I can't believe how much older he looked! It has grown out quite a bit since then and I'm thinking we may need to go back in soon.

His first molar (bottom-right) finally popped through on March 14, at exactly 13 months old. That was a miserable one! He was so sick. Most of the week, he was running a fever and couldn't stop crying. We did a lot of cuddling. I'm not looking forward to the rest of them coming in. We had it so easy with his front teeth that I was not prepared for seeing him in so much pain with the bigger ones. It was awful.

He is changing and growing so much. He is still wearing 12 and 18 month clothes, but he seems so much bigger to me. He is losing his baby face and starting to look like a little boy! He is starting to develop a little attitude and challenge us when we tell him he can't do something. Right now, if we scold him, he will grunt at us and close his eyes really dramatically before slowly dropping his head. After his quick moment of silence, he'll go back to playing as usual.

He dances at the slightest hint of music. He'll wave his hands and rock his whole body. If he is standing, he usually ends up falling over to dance on the ground. If he is sleeping and a song comes on, he'll wake up and dance until it ends, then he will go back to sleep.

He has started shaking his head no to everything. It is adorable when he does it though because he has no idea what it means. He opens his eyes and mouth really wide, raises his hand to us, and shakes his head back and forth. It kills me.

I still can't believe how much I love him. For real.

Oh, Yeah.

By the way, although most of you already know...my blog doesn't.

Nolan is going to be a BIG BROTHER!

We found out a couple of months ago. I'm 16 weeks now and finally starting to feel like a normal human being. I was so sick with his little one. I felt like because this pregnancy has been so different than my last, that this baby had to be a girl. We found out last week that we are actually having another little boy! My buddy is going to have a little brother to rough house and get into trouble with.

I'm due August 11th. Things are definitely different this time around, but I couldn't feel more blessed. I can't wait to hold my new little man and introduce him to the loves of my life at home. I am surrounded by the best guys a girl could ask for. Blessed.