3 Months Old

I can't believe my little baby Luke is already 3 months old.  That seems so crazy to me, and it makes me wish I could slow time down a bit.

On the other hand, I love interacting with him, and all the grins and coos he gives, and other vocalizations that are so cute.  He started laughing a few days ago, not quite a giggle yet, but a more explosive laugh- a ha-ha, like he doesn't quite know what is happening to him.  It cracks me up.  He smiles a lot at Gabe when he comes close.  Gabe imitates me and in his sweet, high little voice says "Hi baby Luke" over and over and pets Luke's head.  He will sometimes try to stick Luke's binky in his mouth, or share his toys with Luke.  He knows how to work all the buttons and switches on Luke's swing and bouncer chair.

Luke holds his head up on his own and likes to be held upright, not so much cradled, unless is going to sleep.  He still sleeps fairly well, although lately it has been not quite as great because of the teething.  Bleh.  The poor kid and his swollen gums.  I can still feel a corner of a tooth popping out, but it hasn't changed much from last week, so I wonder how long it is going to last. 

Bottles aren't his favorite things, but Luke takes them pretty well.  He also seems to like his binky more than Gabe did.  He doesn't want it all the time, but he likes it when he is starting to get bored, hungry, tired, or having aching gums.

I love my little Luke!  I'm so in love with him, just like I was with Gabe- it's really true, more kids doesn't mean dividing up your love, it means more of it to go around!

Teeth!

It makes me want to cry that my almost- 3 month old is cutting teeth.  This didn't happen with Gabe until he was almost 6 months old.

It is also weird to me that my 2 year old has 20 teeth.  And has for a while.  I guess I have toothy kids. 

Wah.

2 1/2 Months Old

I have been meaning to post about Luke; funny how my days just seem more packed with "stuff" and I don't get as many chances to blog as I used to.

Luke is such a great addition to our family.  He is so mellow.  Gabe adores him, and Luke is so tolerant of all the hugs and kisses he gives him.  I love Luke's smiles.  They are so radiant, and sometimes he just scrunches up his little nose while he grins and coos and it is about the cutest thing.  I love when babies start smiling socially.  That has probably been going on for 3-4 weeks. 

Like Gabe, Luke loves to be held and doesn't seem to like (actually hates) tummy time, so I'm trying to figure out what to do about that.  He has spent a fair amount of time in the front pack when we go on walks, and it cracks me up that he falls asleep in less than a minute after being put in the baby pack.  However, if I put him in and we stay around the house (i.e. no constant walking, just doing chores or something), he starts whining and squirming.

He sleeps pretty well; he takes a couple of naps during the day, anywhere from 45 min to 2 hours at a time.  At night it depends.  Some nights he will sleep about a 4- 5 hour stretch, and some nights he will sleep 6 or 7 hours in a row.  It just depends.  I try to be pretty consistent in the bedtime routine, so I really have no idea what makes him sleep longer sometimes.

Luke has plugged tear ducts like Gabe did.  It's not really a problem, but his eyes sometimes get goopy, and it predisposes him toward eye infections.  Fortunately, we keep antibiotic eye drops on hand, so we can take care of it quickly. 

We finally got out the baby swing and Luke seems to like it.  So does Gabe, unfortunately, so we are doing our best to teach him how to act around the swing when the baby is in it- i.e. leaving it alone.  Luke likes being in the swing best when I am very near him, and he can watch what I am doing.  It is my favorite place to put him while I clean, cook, or fold laundry because he is high enough that he can pretty much see everything, and he is happier and I can get more done.

Happy Birthday #2 Gabriel!

We had a fun little celebration for Gabe's 2nd birthday this week (we had one a week or so ago with my family in CA as well, but I wasn't really prepared to do a party while we were on vacation).  We didn't do anything particularly exciting in the afternoon, other than Gabe got to eat goldfish crackers in the living room while he watched some clips from 40 Years of Sunny Days (best of Sesame Street).  In the evening, we met BJ's parents for dinner at Cracker Barrel and had a nice visit, then we all came back to our place and watched Gabe open his presents.  I guess we all chose well, because once he figured out that opening presents got him new toys, he was jumping up and down and squealing with each one.  He is crazy about vehicles of any kind, so he loved his tricycle, cars, and train set that he got.  Since he is always standing up and making his cars go across the entertainment center, we thought it would be good to get him a little table and chairs that were just his size.  He loved it.  Kind of a lot of big-ish gifts this year, but he was ready for some big-boy toys, and all our kids will benefit from this stuff, I guess.  Anyway, I think BJ and I had at least as much fun as Gabriel watching him unwrap all his stuff.  We had planned it for quite a while and we were pretty excited!



Gabe just cracks me up.  When I give him a stern look after he does something slightly naughty, he tells me to be "bappy"- which is funny since we tell him to be happy when he is throwing a tantrum (or have timeout).  I can't help laughing.  Lately his favorite word to say is "no" (welcome to the twos)- even when he doesn't actually want to decline something.  So he will say no first, then what he really means.  Example: "Gabe, it's lunch-time.  Do you want to eat a sandwich?" "NO! Sess..." (Sess= Yes)  "Do you want a drink of milk?" "NO! Guk..."  "Can I have a kiss?" "NO!..."- he gives me a kiss.

Gabe wants to know what everything is.  He brings me an object and says "uhtsiss?" until I tell him what the object is named, then he repeats it several times.  He has names for most things he comes in contact with.  They don't always sound much like their real name, but he sure tries!  He has been really fascinated with letters of the alphabet, and of his own motivation has learned the letters X, O, F, B, T, V, and Y, and identifies them correctly almost all the time.  We often hear him singing or humming the tune of the ABC song/ Twinkle Twinkle Little Star- occasionally singing a phrase, then going back to humming.  Recently, we wondered if he knew the words to any other songs that we often sing him, so we made up a little game where we sing a song, omitting the last word of a phrase, to see if he would sing the word- and most of the time he does!  It was so fun because after doing that for a while, he started singing even more words of the songs along with us.

Gabe continues to love on Luke.  He rocks the baby in the baby seat, he pats his head and tummy, puts a pacifier in his mouth (sometimes after tasting it himself), sings the baby songs (usually Baby Beluga- we're not sure, but he may think Baby Beluga is Luke), and occasionally tries to share his toys with Luke.  For a while he was calling Luke "Eeeee", then "Lllll", then it was "Doot", and now it is "Guke".  Gabriel still refers to himself as "iyel"- sounds like the last part of his name. 

The changes I notice in Gabriel's development seem to be coming more and more quickly.  Sometimes I feel like time is passing way too fast.  Then again, it's fun to see what comes next.  I look forward to what the next year brings.

We're back!

This month (um, I mean June- last month!) has kind of just whizzed on by!  Here are some pictures from the last month.  We had a few significant events I should probably mention:

On June 6th, we blessed Luke.  My parents were able to fly down and most of BJ's family were able to be present, which was great.

We embarked on a 12.5 hour (each way) road trip to meet my family at Yosemite National Park.  My parents and siblings still at home were there, as well as Marissa and Richard, who live about 2 hours away from Yosemite.  This was our first real road trip with the boys, and they did great.  I really couldn't have asked them to do any better.  Gabe was obviously sick of his carseat on the way back, so there were a few minor meltdowns, but he did way better than I expected, and I guess that means we may have more road trips in our future.  We did some fun things while in California, including: descending 165 feet down a spiral staircase down one of California's deepest limestone caves (we didn't go all the way to the bottom though- it was over 400 feet deep), doing a 1/4 mile zip line at 40+ miles per hour, hiking and sightseeing in Yosemite, hiking through Big Trees State Park with the biggest trees I have ever seen, having a little early birthday party for Gabriel, and lots of swimming, tennis, ping pong and visiting.  I love my family!  It was nice to have everyone together (of course we missed my brother Tayler, who is serving a mission in Australia)- it seems like it is getting harder and harder for us all to be together.

Anyway, here are the pictures:

Most Common Words

I made this word collage on www.wordle.net.  It shows the most common words I use in this blog... I guess Gabe is on my mind a lot!

Funny Gabriel

 Gabe has been a busy little boy lately!  He keeps me laughing constantly.  I couldn't possibly write every single thing he does (although I wish I could so I could remember every thing about him at this age) but here are some of the things he has been doing/ saying this week:

This little sunsuit is from BJ's Great Aunt Peggy- had to take a picture of him in it for her.

Words
"ahsiss"= what's this?
"guk- guk"= dump truck, any kind of truck
"leeleelolo"= mini loader (tractor)
"att-ol"= apple
"do-ckie"= broccoli
 "ah lo lo"= I love you (accompanied by signing)
"Dute"= Luke
"nu-nu-noh"= no no
"oh-ee-oh-ee-oh"= cheerios, cereal
"annow"= hanger
"ya-ya"= tortilla
"wwwhy"= away
"lallow"= yellow
"c-c-how"= after we say "c-c-cow" -usually says "how" for cow
"hi daddy; hi baby, hi mommy"

 "hen! baht-baht-baht"

Singing
-abc song- "a-d-c-d-e-e-e-o-e-o-e-d-e-d-e-c-e-c....", sings the right tune and everything, but gets stuck in a loop and can't remember the tune for the last phrase.
-"lalala" to whatever tune
-Old Mac Donald Had a Farm- "Yi-yi-yo" and animal sounds
-How Much is that Doggy in the Window?- "wuff, wuff"- between each phrase

This picture is priceless!  Gabe is wearing some 3-D glasses.

Funny/ Cute Things
-Kisses- All the time.  In church on Sunday, he kept kissing me on each cheek and the lips, over and over, and leaning his head on me and making an "awwwwww" kind of a sound.  He still kisses Luke many, many times each day.  He sometimes still says "muah" but usually he makes a real kissing sound.  Also, he is enjoying blowing kisses- it's adorable!
-The other night I was up around 4 am after feeding the baby and I went to check on Gabe and cover him back up, and he sat straight up, said "cheese", and laid back down and was totally asleep the whole time!  Haha.
-Poor guy has been teething again. He has 10 teeth, and is working on 12- the last 4 are big molars. (What the heck? He is still only 1!)
-loves wearing glasses
-Gabriel is the kid who throws bark chips at the park.  Yep, the swing is a fairly good attraction, slides not so much, but the real excitement is grabbing handfuls of barkdust and throwing them at the play structure, on the slides, or just up in the air.  And screaming (with delight).

Gabe with Grandpa C. on Luke's blessing day.  Cool dudes! (Gabe always says "coo" after he puts sunglasses on.)

5 Weeks old

 I know I said this when Gabe was a baby, but it's still true- the days seem to go by so slowly, but the weeks and months just zoom by!  I can't believe that Luke is already 5 weeks old.  He has already changed so much.  

He is holding his head up for longer periods of time, and looking around, watching Mommy and Daddy, and of course Gabe as he runs around the room.  He takes a bottle and his binky pretty well, which is a relief.  He seems to prefer nursing but at least he doesn't reject the bottle.  He is starting to smile more, which we love!  Those smiles are so precious!

We usually put Luke down to sleep for the night at around 11:30pm after one last feeding, and then he will sleep for several hours, waking up anywhere from 3:30am to 5:30am to eat again.  Luke is a pretty mild- tempered little baby.  He does fuss a bit in the evenings, not so much crying as whining, grunting, and grimacing as he tries to find a comfy position.  He also rubs his face which is not good since he has sharp little fingernails.  He seems to have trouble getting burps up, and he also gets hiccups that BJ terms "ferocious" quite often.  BJ is really good at helping him in the evenings- Luke cuddles right up to him and calms down better than he will for me at that time.  

I made these little mitts to keep Luke's face from getting all scratched up.  I made a pattern and tutorial which I posted here for those interested in making some.

 Thankfully Luke is very tolerant of Gabriel's love for him.  He gets squished a few times a day before I can run over and save him from the hug Gabe is giving him.  He also gets lots of kisses on the head and pats all over as Gabe says "sass" (soft) over and over again.

I love watching Luke grow, but it kind of makes me sad at the same time.  I love that newborn smell, and the way he just melts into my shoulder when I hold him.  I love his rolly-polly chubbiness, and how soft his skin is.  He has the same fuzzy hair that is long in the back and nearly bald in front that Gabe had as a baby.  His umbilical cord stump finally fell off a few days ago- it took quite a bit longer than Gabe's to fall off, and it was a bit of a shock, since I had just checked it minutes before, then had to change his diaper while we were in the car in the zoo parking lot- and it was gone!  I found it in my lap... ew.

Luke in the front pack at the zoo.

 Luke loves riding in the front pack.  He just relaxes immediately and goes right to sleep.  He was happy for several hours that way at the zoo on Monday, and we often go on walks outside with Luke in the front pack and Gabe in the stroller, which works really well for me. 

I'm not exactly sure how much Luke weighs now, but I'm guessing it is between 10 and 10 1/2 pounds. 

I love this sweet little boy!

Gabe and Mother of Two

It's time for me to write another Gabriel update... so here's what's new.

Gabe is 22 1/2 months old and definitely starting to act like a 2 year old.

He is such a good eater.  He eats mostly anything we give him, including most vegetables and fruits.  His favorites are broccoli (cooked or raw), green beans, grapes (really, all fruits), and any vegetable with dressing on it, preferably Ranch.  He even eats spinach salad.  :D  The only thing he is really picky about is that he will NOT eat food if it is hot, warm, or even lukewarm sometimes (maybe with a little coaxing).  It has to be room temperature or refrigerated- cold.  He also cries if he eats anything remotely spicy.  He regularly asks for drinks throughout the day- by signing "water" or milk" or saying "dzus"- juice.

His fascination with animals and motor vehicles continues.  He makes the sounds all day.  He loves seeing the real things or playing with his toys.  Cows, horses, and ducks are his favorite animals.  And dogs. And birds.  Haha. He loves trucks and tractors, anything that is big and makes noise.  Whenever we hear a train passing, he stops and imitates the whistle, over and over until I say "Yes, that is a TRAIN."

Other things that are fun to Gabriel are going outside, practicing jumping, dancing to music, scribbling on paper with a pencil, and reading books.  Lots and lots of books.  All day, every day.

 
Here is a picture of Gabe with all his favorite toys.  He is almost never without the yellow car he is holding.  I don't know if he just loves the color yellow, or if we are forcing that on him by buying all the cool stuff only in yellow. 

We are seeing a very sensitive side to Gabriel develop.  He seems to understand people's emotions and take them to heart.  If you smile or laugh at something he does, he gets very happy and does it over and over again.  If he does something naughty and we act really sad, he will cry.  For example, a couple of nights ago, Gabe was stepping on BJ's feet over and over again (he does this to us a lot when we are sitting on the couch, and we have been trying to discourage it for quite a while), looking at us and deliberately stepping down to see our reactions.  BJ decided to try the sad approach, so he said "Ouch! That hurts me!" and looked really sad.  Gabe looked so forlorn that I had to laugh quietly and cover my mouth- Gabe looked at me and must have thought I was crying.  Poor boy.  He started sobbing, so dejected, and eventually started hyperventilating.  It took a few minutes of comforting him, telling him he wasn't in trouble, Daddy was ok, but to not step on his feet etc. until he was calm again.  Then he signed "I love you" to BJ.  It melted our hearts.  If someone is sad (unrelated to anything he might have done) he goes and hugs and cuddles with them much longer than he would normally allow.  Also, we finally imported the videos on our camcorder onto our computer, and I watched a few of them yesterday afternoon, including some from Luke's birth.  I thought Gabe might be interested in seeing the baby right after he was born, but the baby started crying hard from being suctioned etc. and it showed him with the CPAP machine on him in the NICU, and it was just too much for Gabe.  He was crying, and saying "beebee" and started trying to drag me away from the computer.  Needless to say, I stopped the video, and we went and looked at the baby in the bassinet to show Gabriel that the baby was ok.

Some of Gabe's recently evolved words:

"hemmee"- help me
"hao!"- help
"doggy"
"ducky"
"how"- cow
"hat"- cat
"coo"- cool
"dats"- pants, dance
"soss"- socks
"suz"- shoes
"suss"- bus
"haow"- car
"tee"- tree
"wowie"- wow!, owie, flower
"sasses"- glasses
"nuh-nuh"- no-no
"deet"- eat
"vaff"- bath, giraff
"oo-oo-oo-ah-ah-ah"- monkey
"duh-duh-doh-doh"- bulldozer
"di-di-doh-doh"- mini loader (from his tractor book)
"dut-dut"- dump truck/ tractor

One of Gabe's favorite places- behind the couch, looking out the window, waiting for cars to pass.

Gabriel seems to love everything about Luke, constantly wanting to kiss, hug, and poke him, and he doesn't show any resentment toward him.  That said, I am seeing him go through an adjustment period which I assume has to do with having the baby around (who incidentally comes with a new set of rules) and me spending time taking care of the baby, feeding him, etc.  He is acting more emotional, and misbehaving more, testing the limits, and doing things he knows he isn't supposed to do, while watching to make sure I am looking.  He obviously wants more attention, and I am trying my best to be patient with him and make sure that I stop what I am doing more throughout the day and give him my undivided attention for a while.  Honestly though, some days it is all I can do to hold it together until BJ gets home and gives me a little break where I can disappear for a while.  Sometimes I feel so frustrated with myself- I want to be the perfect, fun, patient, educational, multitasking, calm mother.  Instead I often feel like the boring, frazzled, frumpy, tired and deadbeat mother.  I don't feel like I have postpartum depression, although at times I have definitely experienced the baby blues.  I don't want to turn this post into a downer!  I am generally happy, and grateful for the way my life is going right now.  Luke is easy to take care of so far.  I really think Heavenly Father sent me this baby with this personality at this time for a reason.  He sleeps quite a bit right now, which allows me to get some things done and take care of Gabe, and when he cries, it is really more of grunting, grimacing, and whining- not screaming, which caused me so much anxiety when Gabe was a little baby.  I guess I am just trying to get into a routine and figure out how to take care of two kids and keep myself sane and relatively pleasant to be around.

Some things that I learned from having Gabe which I have been trying to do since Luke was born (some more successfully than others) and which have helped me are:
-Take a shower and get dressed in real clothes every day.  No exceptions.
-If possible, do hair and some minimal makeup.  Not a must, but if I can manage it, it makes me feel more put together like somehow I can face the world better.
-Go to bed earlier.  This one is a "duh" but every night I am so tempted to stay up late after the kids are asleep so I can do... whatever I want.
-Eat better, drink more water.  Since I don't have a pregnant body demanding I eat every 2 hours anymore, sometimes I actually forget to eat and drink- not a good thing.  I try to remember to do both, and especially drink to prevent myself from getting dehydrated and my milk to dry up.  >shudder<

This time around I have also learned not to try to take a nap when the boys nap (at least at this time).  Yes, I know it sounds strange.  Usually people say "Sleep when the baby sleeps."  I found I was getting so frustrated when I would try to nap, and one of two things would happen.  Either one would go to sleep and the other would wake up, or I would lay down and just start to drift off into delicious sleepytime, and wake up with a start to the sound of a crying baby.  Just plain frustrating.  So, where possible, we have been trying to go to sleep earlier, and BJ gets up with Gabe in the morning and lets me sleep an extra 30 or 40 minutes in the morning.  That does help.  I think things will continue to change and we will figure out other solutions too.

Anyway, lest it seem that I am unhappy or discontent, I assure you I am not; I believe I am adapting to being the mother of two like most moms- with a few growing pains.  That said, I welcome any advice on helping toddlers adjust to having a new baby in the family- this is a new experience for me!

I am certainly grateful to have these sweet boys in my life (the two little ones, and one big one- he's sweet too! Although I should say man, not boy...).  I love each of them so much.  It's amazing (but not surprising) to me how Luke has fit right in and nestled his way into our hearts so quickly.

Luke's Birth Story

Well, I wrote out the events of Luke's birth as I remember them, and I was about to copy and paste it into this post, but realized it was waaaaay too long.  Instead, I will post an abbreviated version here, and for those who are interested/ fascinated with childbirth like me, I will post the link to the whole thing at the bottom of the post.

So Tuesday night I was feeling very anxious to go into labor since Wednesday was my actual due date and I wanted to have the baby before Marissa and Richard left on Thursday, and my mom came to help on Friday.  We tried all sorts of things to get my labor started, but nothing seemed to be working, so we laid down to go to sleep, and finally the contractions started coming.  We timed them for an hour and when they were 4-5 minutes apart, we called Marissa and Richard over to stay with Gabriel while we went to the hospital.  They monitored me for an hour or so then admitted me around 3:00am-ish.  We waited for things to start picking up, but instead my labor seemed to stall.  We were kind of disappointed but looking back, I think it was a blessing because it allowed us both to get a few hours of sleep that night.  I was able to be put on intermittent monitoring so I could walk the halls and try to get things going, and it probably helped a little bit, but in the mid morning I hadn't progressed past 4+ or 5 centimeters (I was 4 cm when I was admitted) so we decided to allow the doctor to break my water.  I felt no change for the next hour, and then BJ and I decided to use some of the childbirth hypnosis techniques we had been practicing, and BJ helped me visualize my labor starting up again, and allowing the contractions to become strong and do their work.  It worked; almost immediately after we started doing that, my contractions picked up, and things got intense fairly quickly.  Things continued to intensify and progress for the next 4 hours or so, during which time BJ was my main support, talking me through each contraction and helping me visualize being relaxed and calm.  I also listened to a few hypnosis tracks on my iPod, but mostly I preferred having BJ help me- he had a very calming influence on me, and he was so helpful in keeping me comfortable and relaxed.  It seemed like every time the nurse or doctor checked me, I had hardly made any progress, and I was feeling a little discouraged, thinking that I couldn't go on much longer, and I would have to have an epidural.  I was also fighting the "urge" to push (eventually not just an "urge"- but a sensation that my body was taking over and overriding what my mind was wanting to do) for about an hour since I wasn't fully dilated.  Then, it seemed like all of the sudden the doctor was telling me I could go ahead and push, which was so much more comfortable than trying not to.  I pushed for nearly 15 minutes, and Luke was born at 3:42pm, being 9 lb. and 19 inches- quite a chubby baby!  It was such an amazing feeling to look at him and know that he was finally here and that I was able to avoid having an epidural and forceps and many other interventions that we had when Gabriel was born and which I had wanted to avoid so badly.  The doctor actually said that she didn't think I would have been able to push such as big baby our on my own if I had gotten an epidural, so I was glad that it worked out the way it did.  Unfortunately, Luke was not breathing well at first so he was taken to the NICU to be put on a CPAP machine and have surfactant put in his lungs to help them stay inflated better.  After a while, I joined BJ and Luke in the NICU for a while, then we headed downstairs and got settled in our new room.  Luke finally came down to the well- baby nursery about 8 hours after he was born, and we went and saw him get checked by the nurses and took pictures of his first bath.  It was after midnight by the time we were able to bring him in our room with us, but it was sweet to have him to ourselves finally.  I was able to get up and walk around on my own, albeit a bit slowly, and I really felt like I was already healing much faster this time.  Luke nursed like a champ, and had no further issues with breathing.  We feel very blessed to finally have him with us and doing so well.

Gabe came to see his new baby brother the next morning, and he was fascinated for about 1 minute, then was more interested in the balloons and toy tractor in the room.  BJ stayed with me in the hospital until Friday, and we were so grateful to Marissa and Richard, and BJ's parents who watched Gabriel so that BJ could be with me and the baby.  BJ picked my mom up at the airport on Friday, then came back and took me home from the hospital.  It was good to come home and be able to wear normal clothes, and sit in our much more comfortable chairs and bed, and start figuring out a new routine.  It was nice to have my mom here to help for nearly a week.  We have mostly stayed close to home since Luke was born, and I am getting into a new rhythm of taking  care of two kids.  So far, although I am definitely busier and more tired, it hasn't been hard.  Luke is a really good baby, sleeping quite a bit during the day, eating well, and usually sleeping for a 5 hour stretch at night.  Most nights I only have to get up to nurse him twice after going to bed (refreshing! Gabe woke up every 2 hours all night for quite a while).   Hopefully that continues!  He is also growing well.  After loosing 10 ounces in the hospital, he has gained it all back and then some- at his 2 week appointment yesterday he weighed 9 lb. 7.5 oz., and was 20 1/4 inches- wow, over an inch growth in 2 weeks!  He is so mellow and easy going.  I guess Heavenly Father knows what each of us need individually- I figure he must want me to have more children in the future!

Anyway, that is the story of Luke joining our family.  Click here if you would like to read the much LONGER version of the story. 

Photos for one and all

So, these are a long time in coming, but here they are. Lots of photos for our faithful fans to view. ;-)

Welcome Baby Luke:


Brothers:


More of Gabe and Luke (my favorites are in here):

Welcome baby Luke!

We are a little late in this announcement, but better late than... later, right?

Luke Stanley Taylor was born at 3:42pm on April 28th, 2010.
He was 9 pounds and 19 inches.

Luke is doing great, and I am recovering quickly. 

We will post pictures and more about the birth (for those interested) shortly. 

Still Waiting

Well, here's the baby scoop: we are still waiting for this baby to come.  We get a little nervous at times as my blood pressure wants to creep up a bit, which makes my doctor want to start talking about inducing me.  However, she knows how much I want to avoid that, so as of now, I am on a sort of bedrest.  Although every time I take my blood pressure at home, it is normal, so that is good.  I think being sick last weekend (bad stomach bug- the first time I have thrown up this whole pregnancy) got me really dehydrated, and kind of spiraled me into this.  But I have to say, I feel good in general, other than being 9 1/2 months pregnant.  Ha.  Anyway, I had the doctor sweep my membranes, hoping that might help bring on labor, but nothing much has happened as of yet.  We also made smoothies from all sorts of tropical fruits (supposedly fruits like pineapple, mango, and kiwi can bring on mild contractions etc.) and did some acupressure, but to no avail.  I'm not supposed to go on long walks at this point (I've done plenty of that over the past 3 weeks anyway) and I'm really not interested in using castor oil.  So now I'm just waiting and thinking positive birthing thoughts.  :)

I stopped working this week, which was nice, and allowed me to rest quite a bit more.  I also worked on a few crafty projects this week to help the time pass and keep me distracted from wondering when this baby will come.  I sewed a diaper bag and some diaper cases, made a basic picture family tree for Gabriel, as well as some picture flashcards of family members.  He seems to like looking at those, and he can name quite a few family members.  He gets especially excited to point out both sets of his grandparents. 


I think it has been somewhat of a hard week for Gabe- or at least the last few days have been hard, as I have had less energy and he has a little cold.  That makes for a whiny baby, but he tries to be happy.  We have enjoyed the warmer weather on some days, and have tried to take advantage of that.  Gabe has asked for lots of walks ("Gok! Mama! Gok!)" outside and we have done that, although more in the evenings when BJ comes home since I haven't had tons of energy for pushing the stroller.  Other days we go out on the patio or on the lawn and blow bubbles, or do a short walk around the block and to get the mail.  I have enjoyed hearing Gabe's babbling this week.  He has been whispering to himself as he plays, something that sounds like "ti-koo-ti-koo-ti-koo".  He has also been pointing out various articles of clothing- "souz", "sass" (shoes, socks), "paaatssss" (pants) and he tries hard to say shirt and other things, but they don't sound much like the real word yet.  Perhaps my favorite word that he says (this week!) is cheese- "tziiiiz", which he says kind of in the back of his throat, over and over while he eats cheese, or if he sees a camera!  I'm not sure how he made the "say cheese!" connection at first, but we are going with it.  So funny.

He loves to pretend he is talking on the phone, and he will hold up my cell phone if he can get his hands on it, or his play cell phone, his favorite car, or anything that remotely resembles a phone- even the foot pedal to my sewing machine!

Gabe's antics keep us laughing pretty constantly; as you can tell by the amount of "Gabe stuff" I post on here, he is the main thing that is going on in our lives.  There isn't always much other stuff that is interesting to post about.  I have liked using this forum as kind of a family journal though, and especially chronicling Gabe's growth and development since I am waaaaaay behind on his baby book.

Speaking of chronicling, BJ and I had some fun reading from our journals about the time we were dating, engaged, etc. and realized that we didn't write nearly as much as we should have.  Fortunately, on a road trip we went on early in our marriage, we brought along a tape recorder and some blank tapes, and told "our story" up to that point in as much detail as we could between the two of us, filling both sides of several tapes.  A year or two ago, BJ converted the audio on those tapes to mp3s with the intent of transcribing it all some day.  This week, spurred on by reading our hilarious but sadly lacking journal entries, BJ began the process of transcribing the first tape.  Judging by the eye rolling and laughing coming from his corner, I can only assume the recording must be pretty cheesy.  I am going to go in and edit and format the document so it can be easily read.  Then we can add it to some of the other stuff I have compiled from that time period (some of our email correspondence- also pretty cheesy and entertaining to read).  Anyway, I think that recording a little bit at a time (as opposed to trying to sit down and write all at once)  is a good way to preserve some of our memories, and is possibly more motivating when you have a ton of stuff to catch up on!  Then you can have a record of what your voices sounded like, and you always have the option of transcribing it. Anyway, just a thought.  Here is one more picture that I just barely caught on camera the other day- just one more thing that represents the funny things Gabe does all day that amuses me!

The update and Gabe is 21 months old!

Ok, well, there isn't really much of an update.  This week has just been kind of a waiting game for us.  BJ had a 36+ hour day after he had to work a day, then all night, then the next day too (Ironically just after we read in 3 Nephi where the sign that Jesus would be born would be a day and a night and a day as if it were one day).
My doctor's appointment went well... nothing really noteworthy to mention.  My contractions have definitely been picking up in frequency, duration, and intensity, but not consistently.  I do have my hospital bags all packed though, with  my list of everything to grab last minute!  On Sunday I had a recurrence of my sinus infection- the one I had a couple weeks ago that the antibiotic never really took care of.  It hit me with a vengeance but I went to Instacare and got quite a strong antibiotic which helped immensely and so I'm not in any pain now.  Gabe does seem to be fighting another mild ear infection but he is doing much better and I think he will be able to fight this one off by himself. 
I am trying not to become too impatient to have this baby, and just use this time to keep preparing, spend time with Gabe, and work on some crafty projects.  We have been going on a lot of walks this past week which Gabe loves.  He points excitedly to the stroller and says "gok, gok!" (Not to be confused with "gook"- book, or "guk"- milk/ drink.)

 Yesterday we went for a drive and were listening to the Remember the Titans soundtrack when Gabe found his new favorite song!  When Gabe wants something, and sometimes when he's whining he says "nananananana...?" -so when he heard that in a song (Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye by Steam), he started laughing, rocking back and forth in his seat, clapping, and singing along which really made us laugh.
Gabe has gotten a lot better at going to sleep at night and at nap time.  We've been able to put him down for bed after our nightly routine (diaper/ jammies, brush teeth, sing songs in the rocking chair, drink of water, say prayer) while he was still awake for quite a while, but up until a few weeks ago, I was still rocking him all the way to sleep for his nap.  Now he is quite the "big boy" as he goes to sleep on his own after a few minutes of rocking and songs at nap time.  Occasionally when he is tired he will even sign "sleep".  A lot of the things he signs are now accompanied by the word itself, which is fun to hear!  Of course he has learned a lot of words without signs too.  My favorite words to hear him say are "cute", "cool", "shoes", and "love" (and "mom-my" of course!).  Anything that makes an identifiable sound is referred to by its sound instead of its name.  He loves splashing in the water and arranging his toys on the side of the tub at "baaaff" time.  He does not love the post- bath routine so much.  He tends to have dry skin and gets some eczema patches, so we put on lots of lotion and some hydrocortisone cream first thing after drying off. 
 

We usually have some reading time every day- initiated by Gabriel- he brings me book after book after book, and sits quietly on my lap (mostly!) turning pages, pointing to things, babbling, and sometimes requesting to read the same book several times in a row.  Gabe still loves cars and dogs (toys, the real things, and the sounds they make) above almost anything else.  He seems to be amused by poking my belly and saying "babeeeeeee" or "saaaaaaaahhhhhfffff" - soft.  We're trying to do our best to prepare him for having a baby brother, but I don't really think he has any idea of how life is going to change!  I'm sure he will adapt quickly though.  We are going to try to have him spend some time with his favorite people- aunts and uncles and grandparents!  All grandmas and pas are "baba" right now, and he greets them with hugs and kisses- "mmmmah!"
I am excited for the weather to warm up more so we can do some fun things outside.  Gabe is up for pretty much anything outdoors, and he especially enjoys going for walks to see the creek or the cows (and any other animal we encounter), swinging, going down slides, running around on the grass, and last summer we discovered he loves swimming and is fascinated by bubbles, so we will have to try to do lots of that this spring and summer.  We are all ready with his swimsuit/ rashguard, hat, sandals, sunscreen, and lots of energy (Um, him, not me, currently)!  Let's get to it already!

The last two weeks

I haven't been very good about updating the blog lately, and since this is our family journal in a way, I guess I had better repent of my lazy ways and give an update on the last couple weeks.


My family came to visit us during their spring break 2 weeks ago, and we loved having them stay with us!  We did a lot of shopping (only a little buying), visiting with extended family, the boys played tennis and racquetball, some of the family went skiing, others took advantage of my mom's awesome hair cutting skills, we watched some funny and some lame movies, ate lots of yummy food, went on a few walks, put together a package to send to Tayler, visited my Grandma C a few times, got to hear an old time band perform, did some baking, had my parents come visit me while I was working at the Celebration of Light Health Fair, and just generally enjoyed each other's company.  Gabe loved all the attention, and started saying "baba" for grandma and grandpa (sometimes bapa).  We were sad when they had to leave.  Looking at pictures later, Gabe called Anna "La-la", Cara was "Ya-ya", and he just smiled and laughed when he saw Collin. Gabe still sees Marissa all the time, and sometimes he calls her "Eetsa" but usually when we ask him to say Marissa he just claps and says "aaaaaayyy" (yay).

We had a little scare this week when I went to the doctor and found out I had 2+ proteinuria, which meant that I had to do bloodwork and a few other tests to make sure I wouldn't need to be induced early or put on bedrest (for preeclampsia, the same problem I had when I was pregnant with Gabe).  However, we found out that the tests results turned out just fine, and I am still up and around and the baby is fine too.  So no worries there.
I started having contractions a lot earlier with this pregnancy, and especially the last week or so they have really picked up, but I don't mind, since I am already dilated a few centimeters and 75% effaced (sorry if that is TMI).  Also, baby is head down, so things are looking good all around.  We have just about 3 1/2 weeks left until the baby is due, and we have been trying to scramble and get the last few things ready.

We enjoyed Easter Sunday watching General Conference and spending time with family.  We had a yummy breakfast that Marissa and Richard made, then in the evening we headed over to BJ's parent's house for a family Easter dinner which was delicious.  We took a few pictures of Gabe in his new Easter suit- see the web album below.  The kids had an Easter egg hunt, and Gabe found about 6 eggs then lost interest and just wanted to eat his banana pudding with vanilla wafers.




This week we are back in the routine of work, work, work.  I usually like getting back to things on Monday, but man, I am feeling more tired every day.  It's hard sometimes to feel motivated to get myself going.  Here we go anyway!