Mommy Brain

I forgot the best story from Luke's first month.  After a week or two, I got brave enough to leave Luke on his playmat on the floor, with his brothers while I would brush my teeth or other small tasks.  Once he started screaming, and I ran, certain that a brother (one in particular) was torturing this baby.  I arrived at the scene to find everyone on the couch engrossed in TV, and Luke all by himself screaming.  I picked him up, only to realize that he had a vice-like grip on his hair and he couldn't let go.  I laughed as I pried his fingers apart and released him from his self-inflicted torture.  This happened several times this first month until his arms relaxed more to his sides and he got more control of his hands.

June 8-Luke turns one month old

One month with a newborn goes by really fast. And they don't do a whole lot except eat, sleep and poop. So I'll give you a quick run down of those (well, minus the poop, you don't need to hear about that)

Eating:  This kid is a bottomless pit.  It started almost as soon as we got home.  He would nurse on both sides and then 20 minutes later be starving again.  I knew I was producing enough so we just started giving him a bottle after he had nursed.  Here is a picture of Jeremiah doing the honors.  He was so happy and content after we started this routine.  It made feedings very long, especially at night, but it also allowed other people to participate in feeding him, which is nice.

 

He left the hospital with his bilirubin a little high, so we had to take him back to the hospital a few days later for a recheck.  I hate those heel pricks.  They just squeeze the blood out, until they have enough.  Anyway, it wasn't bad enough for a light bag, but he spent the first several days taking naps, naked in the sunlight, trying to catch some rays and bring those numbers within normal.

Sleeping: He has been a great sleeper from the beginning.  Four hours at a time.  Sometimes he would be up for a couple hours at night, but that just gave me time to catch up on my NCIS.  And by the time I was all caught up, he stopped staying up at night.                 

He started smiling at 3 weeks old.  It's hard to get a picture of those quick smiles, but man they just melt your heart.  And below is him at one month.  He still needs a little meat on those legs. And the net result of all that eating and sleeping was that at his 2 week appointment he had grown 2 inches!

Overwhelmed

As it turns out, 4 kids in 6 years is a little overwhelming. I wouldn't trade it for the world, but it does mean that my time is at a premium and I must prioritize what I spend my time doing. I struggle with where blogging falls on this list. It's my family journal, a record of who we are and what our lives are like. On the other hand, my children won't be hungry or naked if I don't blog. And so it sits, always in the back of my mind. We're trying to get Jack in a big boy bed, so that means several nights sitting in his room helping him learn, so maybe, if we're all lucky I might get a few stories written. No promises.

Jack turns 2

Jack turned 2 a month after Luke was born, so we kept things pretty low key this year.  I didn't make a cake, just got the All-American chocolate cake from Costco.  (Yum-O)! I took him to Carl's Jr. For lunch since they have the best play place and we had pizza for dinner.  Then Grandma and Grandpa came over, Laura was here visiting and we facetimed all our long distance family.  With all the iPads going, parties at our house are quite the nerd-fest. 

Jack got a bead coaster that he hardly ever puts down, lots of balls, and a tricycle that can be pushed.  He wasn't interested in blowing out candles or ripping wrapping paper, but he loved the cake and ice cream and playing with new toys. 

Some things about Jack at 2:

He still loves to wrestle on the ground.  He is really good at hide and seek, mostly because he keeps his eyes open while the boys hide.  He also loves to play Red Light, Green Light and What time is it Mr. Fox with his brothers.

He still loves Mickey Mouse, but has recently discovered Thomas the Train and is obsessed.  He watches it a lot and plays with the trains all the time.  Good thing we've done the train thing before and have all the toys.  There are trains all over the house, all the time.

The only thing that can distract him from Thomas is the sound of the back door opening and someone going outside.  He loves outside.  He has mastered the skill of jumping, so he isn't so timid on the trampoline, he is also very good at the slide.  His feet don't get caught underneath him, like some kids.  And of course the sandbox.  Both my mom and sister commented this summer about how much sand gets brought into my house, but at this point, it's just a part of out lives, it really doesn't bother me. As long as they play nicely, the sandbox is cool and shaded and the perfect place to play on a hot day.

He's still a picky eater with peanut butter sandwiches and pizza, topping the list of favorite foods, along with chicken nuggets, quesadillas and macaroni and cheese.  When it is something he likes, he will eat a ton of it, but he would rather be hungry than try something he doesn't like.

He doesn't talk a whole lot.  We're working with a speech therapist to help home out.  But he does say Go! a whole lot, and he can count to ten, although the actual numbers are hard to understand.  He says ilk for milk and we've gotten him to say iPad a couple of times.  Still no mama or dada, but at least he has the important things. 

He continues to be easy going and happy, just a good with the flow kind of kid.  He lots of fun to have around.

Meeting the new guy

I forgot to mention one anecdote from Luke's birth.  As he was making his way out, he grabbed on to the umbilical cord.  And he would not let go.  The doctor asked a nurse for help in prying his fingers open, while the other nurses looked on and laughed.  I told them that in the last couple of days I had intense pains, like he was trying to claw his way out and one nurse commented that after what she had just seen, she can totally believe in.  Needless to say, he got a perfect score on the grip part of the Apgar test. 

The brothers came to visit the new guy in the hospital.

Jeremiah was so excited to hold Luke.  He's a pro at this big brother stuff, and just like last time, he was prepared with a story to tell.

Ryan was pretty excited and loved Luke's soft hair, however he was more excited by the bed that went up and down.

This was about as close as Jack was interested in getting.  He was kind of intrigued, but again, that moving bed was far more interesting.

Once we brought Luke home Jack decided he wanted to hold Luke, so he tried to pick him up himself.

It didn't last long so the picture is blurry, but Jack finally was interested in his brother.  In fact, whenever we get ready to go and I put Luke in his seat, Jack stands by the car seat, and won't move until I come to get it. He really does love his brother.

Luke Joshua Seaver

It's been a long time coming, but finally, here is the story of Luke.

I had been pretty miserable the last few weeks of my pregnancy. I had horrible sciatic pain and often had days when I couldn't stand or walk. We were all pretty sick of it. At my 32 week ultrasound the sonographer (sp??) commented on how big he was. Really we're only talking 8 pounds, but apparently that's big. Anyway, I had been begging my doctors to please induce me early, but the rules are no earlier than 39 weeks except for medical emergencies. I was hoping a big baby and sciatica was a good medical emergency, but no such luck. I'd also been having really bad contractions. In fact, 3 times I told Jeremiah I was sure this was the day, but all 3 times, the contractions eventually stopped.

On Friday the 3rd I had my doctors appointment. I was 39 weeks and 2 1/2 cm dialated and he said I could go ahead a be induced on Monday. So we start making preparations including looking for flights for my mom. We had almost booked one when we got a call from the nurse that the hospital was booked solid and I couldn't go it until Wednesday and even then, if they were super busy, I'd be bumped. Talk about a bummer.

We decided to go ahead and fly my mom in Tuesday night and hope I didn't get bumped. Tuesday about 3pm I started with contractions again, but since I'd already had 3 false starts, I wasn't too worried. They were pretty intense contrations, but 15-20 minutes apart. I cooked dinner and while we ate, the contractions subsided and I figured we were done. We got in the car to drive the 40 minutes to the airport. We had been on the freeway about 5 minutes when the contractions started up again. Jeremiah was slightly worried. He was not interested in delivering his baby on the side of the road and asked if we should turn around. I was sure it was nothing so I told him to keep going, but I would start keeping track of the contrations (as it turns out, there's an app for that). The contractions grew more intense and closer together, requiring some deep breathing and by the time we got to the airport, I was sure we were having this baby that night. We picked up my mom and I didn't want to worry her, but she noticed I was checking my phone often so I confessed that we would probably be heading to the hospital sometime that night.  The contractions were 2-4 minutes apart and some even less than 2 minutes.  When we got home, we put the boys in their pajamas, gave my mom some quick intructions and we were off to the hospital.

We got to the hospital about 8:30, and I was dilated to a 4.  They hooked me up to my antibiotics and called the anesthesiologist so I got my epidural pretty quickly.  At midnight I was a 5 1/2 and they decided to break my water.  I warned them that once they broke my water that baby would arrive in an hour.  It's happened with all the other three.  They wanted me to have one more bag of antibiotics, but I couldn't start another bag until 1.  Do the math, that wasn't going to work, but they broke my water anyway.  And sure enough, at 12:45 the nurse came in and said they could see head compressions on whatever machine they were using and that baby was ready to come.  The doctor showed up, I pushed three times and Luke showed up at 12:50 a.m.

He weighed 8lbs, 6 oz, and 20 inches long.

He swallowed some meconium before birth, so we had NICU nurses at delivery and he was assigned a NICU nurse during our stay at the hospital, although he was not actually kept in the NICU.  His lungs were fine and he passed all his breathing tests.  But while he slept he kept making this sighing sound.  Everytime a nurse heard him do it, they would whisk him out of the room for another test.  I kept telling them that like his brothers, he is just a noisy baby, but they insisted he needed to be tested, but he always passed the test.  They almost kept us another day to keep an eye on him but he passed all the tests and managed to be quiet long enough for us to be discharged, and as soon as we got home, he started up again. 

JJ turns 6!

This guy keeps life interesting. There is never a dull (or quiet) moment when he's around.

For his birthday, he wanted a planet party with an Earth cake. I have to say, it's the easiest cake I've ever made.

He got a Star Wars 3-D book, and some electronics and a stomp rocket, all of which were a big hit.

 

Things JJ loves at 6: 

Still loves his chicken nuggets and french fries and soda. He's branched out from Root Beer, he also loves Sprite, 7-up and orange soda. Also, ham steaks with mashed potatoes and cheddar cheese. 

Still loves the color green, although occasionally it's purple. 

 He is really into Star Wars. I mean really into it.  He puts a blanket on his head to be Obi Wan, or a glove on his hand to be Luke Skywalker.  He walks around all day long, replaying scenes from the movie, or telling me all that he knows about it or asking me questions about it (like I know anything about Star Wars).

 He loves learning about how the world works. We spend lots of time reading non-fiction and child encyclopedias, filling his brain with information.  We read about spiders and snakes and insects and penguins and bears, trees, planets, the human body, etc.  And he remembers everything he learns and then recites it back to me over, and over, and over, and over again. And then, when he's got it down, he melds the information together. 

 For example, he discovered elements and so one day he had me look up a periodic table of the elements and then he wanted to know how they combine, so we sat down and I drew out elements with their rings and we talked about covalent bonds (this is the part where I'm really glad I paid attention in school). So he studied the periodic table for several days and then he decided to play Star Wars elements.  The noble gases were good guys, the metals were bad guys, etc.  Holy Moly, it gets a little crazy at our house.

JJ's imagination is unlimited and it is so fun to see where his imagination takes him.

School has been a wonderful experience.  More knowledge for his brain and new places for him to try out his ideas.  He is becoming a great reader and writer.  Jer and I can't spell things out anymore because JJ knows what we're saying.

He is a really good helper and he tries really hard to do what is right. I really appreciate having him in our home.