Traveling to Oregon

First of all , let me start by explaining the situation in our home for the past 6 weeks since Parker has made his presence into our lives (this is mostly for me, to help me remember what Parker was doing and how i fixed it when i have another one if the same problem arises, so i apologize if it seems like a bunch of complaining). I was completely shocked, and still am sometimes, that I'm able to sooth him when he's tired and have him fall asleep so easily because Colby never did this. With Colby there was no soothing. I was quick to realize that being able to sooth him came with a price, that is he ONLY way he will sleep. He wants to be held. Thankfully I can put him in a swing after he's asleep though.

Parker is also a fairly unhappy baby. He came a month early and he's making it known that he wasn't happy about it. When he is awake, he's usually crying unless being held up against your chest (you can see how difficult it may be to hold a baby all the time while chasing after a toddler, especially in the position he wants to be held). Every now and then he will be content for a few minutes in the bouncer, he is hardly ever content on his back, and his swing works sometimes. Parker just wants to be close to someone, maybe he'll continue to be my little cuddle bug when he gets older, I would love that.

With that being said, the days are the easy times. I guess that's how it seems when the nights come. I believe he has figured out that people sleep at night and we don't play, but he is still awake a lot...or at least I am. I start getting him ready for bed at 8 and he falls asleep fine usually around 8:30, in our arms of course. The tricky part comes when we go to lay him down. He will stay asleep for 5-10 minutes and then wake up and freak out that he's not still being held, so we start he whole process over. Usually around 930-10 we can finally get him down. I then wake him at 11 to feed him and as long as I put him down within 30 sec or so of feeding him he seems to do alright, he still grunts constantly and is always trying to clear his throat so he can breathe. I basically camp out by his crib/bassinet for the next 30-45 min making sure he stays asleep (because of this reason, I have kicked myself out of our room and have been sleeping on the couch because it's much easier for me to get off the couch, than to get out of that comfy bed of mine). Those times he doesn't fall asleep I know I'm in for it. He begins to freak out with choking and spitting up constantly followed by me holding and rocking him for another hour or so until he is passed out enough for me to put him down.... Just for him to get up in an hour or so for another feeding. He's been making it about every 2.5-3 hours between being fed. I catch about 3 hours of sleep at night and take about an hour nap during the day. I'm completely drained and have no idea how I've been getting by.

That brings me to how I came to be up in Oregon. Andrew helps when he can at night, but I hate waking him because he has to go to work and is studying for the CPA. He took a test last Wednesday that he said he'd be surprised if he passed, and has another test next Wednesday. To give him time to study and the sleep he needs I took my mom up on her idea to get us up to Oregon (this way I can get the help and break I need- I say this as I'm sitting here blogging while my dad is comforting a grumpy Parker, it's great). Our trip was overall a success, although very stressful. My flight was at 1:00, so I left Bakersfield a 830 and got to the airport around 11 (thanks to traffic). I then had to feed Parker in the car while Colby began to have a break down. We finally made it so the shuttle, I have Parker strapped to me in a mobi wrap, a backpack, a shoulder bag, a suitcase, and Colby on a leash (yes, a leash). The shuttle comes and I lift Colby up in it, and proceed to struggle juggling the other bags while trying to get the suitcase on the shuttle. All while the driver is staring at me instead of helping. After the bag hit Parker because I didn't lift it high enough, the driver decided to help. Thanks. We get to the airport at 1130 and had an hour and a half to wait in all the lines. We finally made it to the gate a couple minutes before they boarded. Now came the time to entertain. Colby loves to fly, if he could only play with anything and annoy anyone by putting the window shade up and down, the tray up and down, and jumping up and down.  He really does very well on planes, the issue that came up with this one is that we made a stop in Oakland, CA. He did NOT do well on that landing. Let me just put this out there, if you hear a toddler or baby screaming on the plane, just know that the parent is doing EVERYTHING they can to get their child to calm down. They do NOT need stares to remind them that they have a screaming child next to them. Trust me, they know. I refused to look at anyone, I was so embarrassed that i had "that child" that cries.  Luckily the people around me were sympathetic and told me they understood. The second half of the flight went much better, all because i did not turn off my electronic device. I kept entertaining him with my IPad. Good news though, I didn't cause the plane to crash by doing that.  Finally the dreaded trip was over, I had survived, and more importantly so did my kids.

Parkers first flight



The beginning of the flight 

Yeah i wish this worked, no way did he keep those on, nor did he watch the movie i downloaded

So now here we are in Oregon, it's cold and rainy and I absolutely love it. I'm so blessed to be able to come and just visit with my parents and have them help me with the kids for a week and a half so that I can rest and regroup enough to be a better mother to them.

Parker

Since Parker has been born I have taken him to the doctors 3 times.  They want to make sure he is growing because he was 4 weeks early so I go every week.  I could have sworn he was gaining weight, which he did, just not enough.  he is now somewhere in the upper 6 lbs (i can't remember the exact weight).  Apparently that's not good enough.  the first 3 months of life newborns are supposed to gain about an ounce a day, well Parker has not gained 25 ounces, he's gained just over a pound.  So i got the news today that nursing is not enough and I need to supplement.  At first i didn't think this would be an issue, if he fell asleep on me I would just give him the bottle and he would eat just fine.  That's exactly how the first feeding went.  Then came the second feeding.  After feeding him for about 45 minutes he started to spit up BIG time. More than usual.  I'd say this was throwing up, and not only is his spitting up every 2 minutes, he's super grumpy (definitely in pain, which i believe all of this is because of the formula). So what now? This kid is obviously full and in pain, he's spitting up everywhere, and i'm supposed to shove a bottle in his mouth and expect him to take formula now?  I just can't do that. Sorry doctors, but this kid isn't getting formula for every meal. 

Not only are they concerned about his weight, but he's still a little jaundice.  We went to the park today and I let him suntan.  Hopefully doing that a few times will help this kid out.

He's also getting a rash on his stomach. Not sure what's causing that.

He still has his breathing/ choking issues at night.  I asked the doctors about acid reflux and they said I should do a whole bunch of things i'm already doing and watch him. Well, thanks, i'll do that.

Hopefully by next weeks appointment he would have gained weight, I don't know about this supplementing thing.  After nursing for 45 minutes to an hour the last thing i want to do is give him a bottle and use up more time...I have a toddler that needs attention too.

As for me, sleep is a thing of the past.  Andrew and I seem to have a little system down at the moment, I feed Parker around 9-930 and then i try to go to bed soon after, leaving Parker with Andrew while he studies.  Parker will then wake up around 1-2 for more grub, So i get 2-3 hours of sleep at that point, and then the rest of the night I might get 30 minutes on and off until I'm up at 7 to feed him for the morning. It's rough, I hope it gets better, but for the time being its working.
Wish us luck!

mother of two

After having family in my home for over a week after Parker was born, I started to get a bit worried about what life would be like with a crazy, wild, adventurous almost 2 year old and a newborn baby.  While having company here I felt that at least one person always had to man Colby to make sure he wasn't sneaking outside and running into the street, or just to meet his "help pweese" needs.  Andrew's parents left Monday morning and my parents aren't getting here again (they were here last week but headed to Arizona to pack everything up for the winter) so I have had 2 days with these two crazy kids by myself.  Honestly...not that bad!  Colby is becoming more independent and doesn't need me by his side constantly, although still needs me there most of the time, but at least i'm able to take care of Parker just fine.

Colby is such a good big brother.  He loves to give Parker kisses and squeezes and make sure he has his blanket on.  He's really good about being soft with him and not to hit him.  With everyone coming and going Colby has pretty much been the center of attention and has gotten VERY spoiled, but i'm so greatful for my family and Andrews family being able to spend some time with us helping us out.

Parker is definitely the opposite of Colby, which has thrown me for a loop since I know how to deal with Colby, I'm completely at a loss with Parker.  He has his night and days switched around which makes for two tired parents who get about 3-4 hours of sleep at night.  Luckily Andrew is very good about helping me out.  With Colby he never had to because he would sleep just fine at night, but Parker is a different story.  He eats about every 2-3 hours, and 1 1/2 to 2 hours of that we are trying to get him to go back to sleep.  Nights aren't fun.  Hope he figures it out soon though so his parents can get their sanity back.  I also think he might have some sort of acid reflux problem, he'd be asleep on me and as soon as i lay him down he struggles breathing either from a burp or spit up.  Poor guy looks like he's in so much pain.  Luckily with the lack of sleep I get to take a nap every day, poor Andrew has to go to work.  We do know that Parker is eating very well though, which relieves some pressure off me to make sure this little guy is getting enough.  Nursing is NOT FUN, at least not in the beginning.  There have been many tears, but I think we're both getting the hang of this nursing thing and my pain is going away, and Parker now weighs 5 lbs 11 oz, so he's gained 6 oz since his last appt a week ago.

Our (surprise) baby story

warning: this is a birth story...so it may be TMI for some

Thursday April 5th started out just like every other day.  I got Colby up, fed him breakfast, said goodbye to daddy as we waved to him while he was leaving to go to work, put Colby in the stroller and went for a walk.  Colby and I played until naptime.  Once he was down I went out back to get some of the never ending weeding done.  I had only been out back for 45 minutes when I decided my back had had enough.  I had gotten used to the back pain, but this time it was really getting to me, so I went inside and just laid down to relax.  Colby got up from his nap so we played some more and did whatever he wanted to do in the backyard.  By the time Andrew got home I was complaining about cramping, but thought I just had to go to the bathroom and was joking around about it.  The pain kept coming and I was trying to entertain Colby while Andrew was getting more work done in the backyard, this is when I was really just wanting Andrew to take Colby so I didn't have to hold him anymore.  Luckily it was about 8:00, so we put Colby down for the night, and I had my apple pie (since i eat junk food as soon as the monster goes to bed so i dont have to share :) ) and then i began to immediately regret the decision to eat the apple pie since i thought that made my "bathroom" problem worse.  I laid on the couch and as the cramping came I just stuck it out, secretly annoyed that this small constipation issue was causing me this pain.  Around 9:00 I decided to actually figure out when the pains were coming...they were every 5 minutes.  Around 9:45 I gave andrew a warning...just letting him know that PERHAPS they're labor pains, but I'm definitely not going to the hospital until I know because I didn't want them to send me home telling me I was just constipated (with Colby they sent me home after my water broke and told me I had just pee'd my pants) so I didn't want to go through that again.  We were just watching TV and around 11:00 the cramps were about 3 minutes apart, very consistant and lasting about a minute, but i still wasn't sure (I also hadn't experienced contractions with Colby since my water broke, I got induced, and then got the epidural shortly after).  I decided to call the hospital and let them know I was going to come in.  I still took my time though, not completely sure what was going on.  I didn't want to wake Colby up for a false alarm or make someone come over and watch him in the middle of the night for nothing.  I went into my room and started packing things up for the hospital, and then realized that I desperately needed to shave my legs (yes that actually happened).  I came out of the room from getting ready and found Andrew asleep on the couch, so I put on a movie and started watching, thinking i would give him some time to sleep.  Then i realized my cramping was less than 2 minutes apart and getting more painful where i was having to concentrate on breathing through them, so i finally had the sense to wake Andrew up and tell him we are for sure going to the hospital.  We still had more packing to do for Colby and had to get the carseat ready and all that jazz.  We finally woke Colby up and got to the hospital at 1:33.  The nurse was really nice and I was telling her I hope she wont have to send me home and coming up with small talk while she got everything ready.  She asked me what my pain level was so I told her probably a 4 and that I would like the epidural at about a 5.  She then checked to see if i was dilated and then used the worst sentence ever, "oh honey you're not getting an epidural, you're at a 9" I was in complete shock and immediately started crying (now i know to the mother that was planning on doing a natural child birth I sound like a complete baby - just keep in mind i have never had ANY intention whatsoever to do this without an epidural, I did not have time to mentally prepare myself for what was about to happen).  The nurse ran out of the room (i'm assuming to make sure the delivery room is getting prepped).  I walked on over to the delivery room where i had nurses running all around me, possibly talking to me, i'm not really sure at this point.  Andrew was holding Colby, trying to get ahold of our friends Andrew and Emily to come and get him for us, meanwhile...i'm beginning to hyperventilate, i'm more worried about why my hands are cramping up and why i'm about to pass out than the pain. I really wish I hadn't been as loud as I was for Colby's sake, but he seemed completely fine eating fruit snacks on the couch.  The nurse is breaking my water, trying to calm me down (i think).  Somewhere in this mess the doctor shows up and they want me to push.  I'm thinking "they have got to be kidding, i'm doing everything i can to get through this contraction and now you want me to push?" I'm pretty sure Parker began to come out before i really pushed much, but finally found some strength to push.  About 3 pushes later (and a crazy amount of hysteria from me) Parker Ryan came into the world at 2:12 (yes about 45 minutes after we got to the hospital).  Of course that was not the end to my happy ending.  There is still a placenta to be delivered.  Someone had told me this hurts (if i didn't remembe this small fact, i'm sure the rest of the night would have been very different).  I was tense, shaking, still trying to breathe, and bottom line, i could not get myself to relax and calm down.  They told me my water and Parkers head held open my cervix, so when they were gone, my cervix closed to 2 cm and they couldn't get my placenta out because i was so tense.  Bottom line, they took me to the operating room to perform a D&C to get the placenta out.  I got spinal anesthetic and basically relaxed enough that they didn't need to perform the surgery (thank goodness).

So after this crazy and stressful night, we welcomed our baby boy who weighed 5 lb 9 oz and was 18.5 inches long.  He's been amazing.  He sleeps so well and has the quietest cry i've ever heard (for anyone who knows colby, you know these two things are they exact opposite).  He has his days and nights confused, so he sleeps all day long and i can hardly get him to even eat, and he's awake a lot of the night, so we have some work to do, but he's so much fun to have in our home and we're blessed that he is home with us.

Weekend Getaway to beautiul San Francisco

I know I have mentioned this before, but for a couple weeks Andrew was working tons (like 20+ hour days), so Andrew decided to take a couple days off.  We used one of those days this last weekend.  Andrew, Colby and I took off Thursday night to head up to San Francisco, I was so excited because i had never been, and Andrew hasn't been since high school (Colby couldn't care less where we went). Colby did very well on the drive, although he broke my heart when he was asking for "nigh nigh" through his tears, which is sawed off....which i didn't have since we took it away a while ago.  He got over it though and we had a fairly pleasant driving experience.  Andrew and I were both in shock at the beauty of San Francisco as we drove over the Bay Bridge and saw all the amazing buildings all lit up in the dark.  At that moment I just new i loved that city.

The only plans we really had on Friday was our Alcatraz trip at noon, so in the morning we walked and walked and walked and explored all sorts of things.  We stayed around the piers so we wouldn't miss the ferry, but we ended up walking miles upon miles.  And then we got to Alcatraz and walked some more, but it was so interesting we didn't even realize how tired we were getting (Colby started to remind us how tired he was getting though).  Alcatraz is completely amazing, there is so much history there and it was incredible to see it.

After our Alcatraz trip we began our walk to Ghirardelli Square because that was one of the 'must see' spots.  On our way we looked through a few markets and got some salt water taffy (incredible) and smelled some very good food.  We got our free candy samples, but Andrew and i weren't too intersted in it.  It was just a bunch of shops with overpriced candy, but at least i got my samples :)  We ate at Boudins, so we got our sour dough bread fix, and we also wanted ice cream too, and thought we'd try out some San Francisco ice cream, we stopped at this little ice cream place to get some Mitchel's Ice Cream and it was AMAZING! we both got our two scoops of ice cream and then the lady surprised me and gave me another scoop of chocolate ice cream for my little baby, and boy am i glad she did, that was the best chocolate ice cream i've ever tasted in my entire life!  By this point we were both walking very slowly so we headed back to the hotel room around 7:00 in the evening.

Saturday was our last day there, our only plan was to check out Union Square and to get a better view of the Golden Gate Bridge.  We really wanted to go on the cable cars, but with a huge stroller we couldn't quite fit, so we settled for the nice and inexpensive street cars. Colby enjoyed being on that little "train" so it worked out for us.  At Union Square we were also a bit overwhelmed by the crazy expensive stores we'd never go in, but we did find out way down to China Town and found the most amazing bakery ever (we went back twice).  We wanted to leave to head home around 4:00 so we didn't have too much time to walk around, but we still did our fair share of walking.  After Union Square we didn't have much else we needed to see, so we just ate lunch so Andrew could get his sea food fix (since i will never ever make him fish) and we headed back to the hotel to check out.  We got in the car and found our way to a nice park next to the Golden Gate Bridge (we didn't want to actually cross it because we didn't want to pay the toll, and we were also in a little bit of a hurry to get back home, so we just found a nice easy park to get to). We let Colby run around, which he enjoyed, but he was also getting extremely tired at this point and wouldn't put up with much, but we had some amazing views.

I absolutely love San Francisco.  I couldn't live there, it's much too busy for me, but it sure it beautiful.  I would love to go again and bike the Golden Gate Bridge.  We almost did it this time, but Andrew and Google talked me out of making that journey at 9 months pregnant.  We'll do it some day though :)

Sawed Off

Meet Sawed Off

Sawed Off has been in our family for about a year now.  He came upon us because of my irrational fear of having a baby addicted to a pacifier. For 6 months I struggled to get Colby to go to sleep, until I realized that he would find things to suck on to sooth himself, like a burp rag, a sock, or sawed off (by this time he didn't understand a pacifier).  It was heavenly, so i gave him Sawed Off as a replacement to the pacifier. This thing is completely disgusting and I also had to keep replacing them because sucking on it gets incredibly gross and he is not cheap.  I just couldn't take him away though, because Colby was sleeping SO well and I didn't want to give up my alone time.  As time went on and I realized I don't want him dependent on Sawed Off past 2 years old, and I REALLY don't want to deal with a grumpy toddler after I took him away PLUS a newborn baby, I decided that I was going to take him away after our last vacation.  I was terrified. Really. I knew Colby would sleep through the night, because he had done it before without Sawed Off, but I didn't know how he would do with little or no nap for days or weeks (I really didn't know how long it would take to get used to being without him).  First day: took 45 minutes to fall sleep for a nap (most of the time digging through his crib trying to find his buddy) and he took an hour long nap, nighttime - fell asleep just fine (probably exhausted from not napping as long as he usually does). Second day: Cried for 5-10 minutes but fell asleep fairly easily and took a 2 1/2 - 3 hour nap, night time was just fine again. Third day: Cried for 5 minutes for his nap and fell asleep right away for bed time. By the fourth day there was no more crying for naps and he was sleeping between 2 1/2 - 3 hours again. It's not perfect, sometimes he wakes up really early in the morning, but luckily he'll just hang out in his crib until i get him. I'm not completely cruel, he still has all his stuffed animals in the crib with him (as many as his little arms can carry) so i believe that helped out A LOT. but i CANNOT believe how easy it was to take Sawed Off away! I'll tell you what though, I'm terrified to travel without Sawed Off, he's a great companion in the car, but we'll make it work somehow.

Now that I know that when a baby needs to suck on something to sooth himself, he'll find a way to do it, it's better to just give him what he needs than to deal with the crying for months and months trying to fight him.  This next baby will definitely be getting a pacifier if he has the same issues.

February vacation

Colby and I have been doing a little vacationing the last 2 weeks and we've had so much fun! It started with Colby and me going to LA a couple Fridays ago to see my siblings and my parents (Andrew was originally going to come with me, but had to work that Saturday so I made the journey with Colby alone).  We spent Saturday at the beach,

He couldn't get enough of the water

He was pretty sad that the birds kept flying away 

and Sunday we went to church and headed home as soon as we could to see Andrew.  My parents came with me to Bakersfield and spent a couple days here helping me with things around the house.... but mostly setting up Colby's swingset (which he has yet to use, but I'm sure he'll love it).  Wednesday last week we headed down to Arizona to my parents house where Colby and I spent the last week and a half.  Andrew had prepared me and told me he was going to be super busy, so I took this time to get out of the house and spend some time with my family in AZ.  While I was out having fun, Andrew was working 22+ hour days (poor guy is so tired. As a matter of fact he picked us up from the airport, which was a saturday, and dropped us off just to head back to work).  We went hiking almost every day, some days Colby hated it, and other days he didn't seem to mind - maybe he figured out that after the hike, he was able to play at the park for a while.

Jason, Francisca, Lea, Kami, Dan, and Brittany were all there for a couple days and we had some great time together

We had some fun family get togethers and Colby was able to meet his great-grandparents on papa's side,

 we took Colby to the mall so he could see dogs at the pet store and go on this merry-go-round,

 he also got his first professional haircut (which went SOOO much better than i could have ever imagined)

We had a great time in Arizona, but it sure does feel nice to be home again.