Mother's Day!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day this year!  This was my first with both kids (but also my first without my Emma).  It was still very special though and actually more of a weekend celebration.  :)  Lucas did so much to make it great for me!  And unlike last year, where Carson would barely talk to me  (Mother's Day 2011) , he was a very sweet little boy this year.  My mom told him that Mother's Day is like my birthday and he was very excited by that.  He responded, "Oh yeah?  Cake?  We have party for mommy!  Like Christmas!"  He's so cute!!  He made me a wonderful card at school.  (Even though he told me he made it for Miss Carrie - haha). 

We celebrated by going to the zoo.  Carson is at such a fun age for the zoo!  He had so much fun.  I got some great video.  :)  He has talked about our trip to the zoo ever since.  We sit on the couch together almost every night and look at the zoo map and go over everything we saw.  Love him!  I think we'll need to get the family membership to the zoo this year so we can go more often. 

Ready for the zoo!

Carson loved his Lightning McQueen stroller.  He didn't mind at all "sharing" his old stroller w/ Avery.  This one was MUCH cooler.  And easy to get in and out of to look at the animals!

The kids got me a beautiful engraved frame.  I can't wait to get their picture in it.  :)  I'm thinking this one....even though Avery's not very happy.  :)  Couple other options too....

My frame  :)

And Lucas got me a gift card to the Oyster Bar.  :)  Can't wait for a night of espresso martinis and "solving the world's problems" w/ Mandy. 

Mother's Day ended w/ a special "date" w/ Carson.  We went to get ice cream together - just the two of us.  With Avery here, I feel like I've been missing out on a lot of time with Carson.  Lucas ends up spending a lot of time playing with him while I tend to Avery.  So it was really nice to get some alone time with him!  He was so cute eating his ice cream.  He kept calling it a "cupcake".  :)  We had a really good time. 

I'm a very lucky mommy!  :)

2 month checkup

Avery had her 2-month checkup yesterday (5/9).  Grandma was our nurse!  She opted out of doing the shots though.  She was a bit traumatized after doing Carson's as a baby.  Grandmas shouldn't have to do that.  :)  Avery got four shots this visit - 3 needle and 1 oral!  :(  I got so nervous as the nurse was preparing and almost felt like I was going to cry.  :)  She was so brave though!  They did the oral rotovirus first.  She wasn't a fan and was crying by the end.  So she was crying before any of the needles.  She just continued crying throughout those but never got that horrible cry that she gets.  That's what I was worried about hearing.  She has this very distinct cry when she gets most upset.  She gets this look on her face like she's just so hurt and she can't believe whatever's happening.  It's truly heartbreaking.  But this was just her "normal" cry, so that was relieving to me at least.  As soon as I picked her up, she stopped and just sniffled for a bit.  So brave!!  She was asleep by the time we started wheeling around the office to see Grandma's coworkers!

Before appointment

Getting measured by Grandma

Those thighs!  :)

Bandaids  :(

Asleep after shots.  Tough girl!

Dr. Boley said that she's doing well.  She of course is a big baby.  :)  Her height and weight popped up as being outside the norm as Grandma entered them on the computer.  Dr. and I agreed that I just grow 'em big.   :)  He commented that I must have buttermilk - haha.  He said no worries though - she's perfectly healthy and, just like Carson, will thin out once she gets moving around.  :)  He checked her over and said she looks great.  Things they look for developmentally at 2 months are smiling, head control and looking around/making eye contact.  She seems to be right on track.  I was concerned with her belly button.  She definitely has an "outtie" but it looks a little weird to me.  :(  He confirmed that she has a herniated belly button and most just go away/go in by a year.  That's just the way hers healed.  I was also worried about her head getting a little flat in back and he confirmed that she's got a bit of a flat spot on her left side.  We have noticed that she favors looking left when she lies down or sleeps.  He recommended putting her to sleep on her right side.  He said she's too chubby to roll over on her stomach.  :)  I don't know that I can put her to bed like that - I think I would worry all night.  But I can put her on her side for naps at least when I can watch her and maybe prop her just a bit at night so she looks to the right.  I remember the same thing w/ Carson.  (He also recommended side sleeping, but we just made sure his head was facing the other way).  Hers seems a bit flatter though than I remember with him.  It makes me feel like a bit of a bad mommy though - like if I held her more or something, she wouldn't have it.  But I know it's fairly common and he wasn't worried at all.  He said she's far from being a "helmet kid" so hopefully it will go away. 

Avery's 2 month stats:
Height:  24.5 in.  (98.05%)
Weight:  14 lbs. 12 oz. (99.62%)   (OMG!)
Head:  40 cm. (78.24%)

At birth:
Height:  20.75 in. 
Weight:  8 lbs. 8 oz.
Head:  36 cm.

I went back and looked and Carson was 15 lbs. even at 2 months and 25 in. long.  Big kids!  :)  Just thankful that they're healthy!!

Two Months!

Avery turned 2 months old on Saturday.  The time's flying by.  I think she looks so big!!  :)

8 and 9 weeks

The beginning of the 8th week began with my "6 week" postpartum checkup.  It had been a whole week since I'd seen the OB - lol.  She looked at my still-open incision again and again was stumped as to why it wasn't closed yet.  It was better, but still bleeding and needing to be covered.  She asked if it was dark or red blood.  Hard to tell, but I thought darker.  She said if it was darker ("old blood") then she still thought that it was a hematoma under the incision.  She said the other possibility was that I'm having an allergic reaction to my internal stitches.  If that was the case, the bleeding would likely be a brighter red and that could possibly mean that I would need surgery again to remove the stitches so my body could heal on its own without them.  Needless to say, the thought of another surgery is just awful!  She said to just give it some more time and see what happens.  Of course, that night when I was cleaning it again w/ peroxide, bright red blood started running down my abdomen.  WTH?!!  I was silently freaking out a bit but, knock on wood, it has now been a whole week without any bleeding!!  YAY!  I think the idea of another surgery scared my body into healing.  :)  I'm still keeping it covered and keeping my fingers crossed that I will soon not have to think about this stupid incision for much longer!  She signed my return-to-work paperwork for 5/21, so I went ahead and decided to go ahead and take that extra week off (originally planned on 5/14).  Hopefully, I can get a week or two of "normal" and enjoy my time off with her.  Still, all the complications were worth it because I got this out of it...... :)

This week, we also had lunch with some friends from work, went shopping w/ Aunt Mandy and cousin Fletcher, and went on our first solo shopping trip together (just to Kohl's).  We also went to Wal-Mart and Target for the first time w/ Carson and Daddy!


All about Avery:
The past couple of weeks, Avery has continued to grow like a weed!  She's more alert and having longer wakeful periods during the day.  She's starting to bat at the hanging toys above her on her activity mat - although I don't think they're purposeful swings yet.  But still cute when she makes contact.  She looks so surprised.  :)  She has great head control while carried upright and she's getting better at lifting her head during tummy time.  We're still working on sleeping at night, but it's getting better!  She's getting the most adorable rolls and starting to outgrow some of her 0-3 month clothes!  We switched to Size 2 diapers this past weekend.  In part because we just were out of Size 1 and have several Size 2 boxes thanks to my wonderful friends.  But I think it was a good move anyway - they're big on her, but we haven't had any blowouts since the switch!  :)   Spoke too soon.  Major blowout after writing this.  :) 

Tummy time:  Avery's still not a huge fan of tummy time and only tolerates a couple minutes at a time.  But she's getting much better at lifting her head up.  I admittedly need to probably do it more often during the day.  

Tummy time!

 

Night sleeping:  We've continued our nighttime routine.  We usually start around 8:30 or so with a bath.  Then lotion, swaddle and bottle.  Lucas and I have been trying to take turns with her bottle, but the last few nights, she's decided that she doesn't like taking a bottle from him - only me!  Hope she gets over that quickly before we start daycare!  She's been taking about 6 oz. at night.  Some nights she fights sleep and ends up with another couple of ounces before finally passing out.  She had been fighting sleep and fairly consistently not falling asleep until midnight or after.  That made for a very long and exhausting night of rocking, etc.  But the last several nights, it's been closer to 10, so I'm praying that it can become a regular pattern.  Saturday night she slept from 11-6!  I was so excited.  It's funny, but those first few longer stretches, you kind of wake up in a panic and rush to make sure they're okay!  We have a movement sensor under her mattress which helps me sleep better, but I still worry all the time!  I honestly don't think I could go to bed without knowing that was on.  Anyway, she typically is still having one wake to eat per night, usually between 3 and 4.  I'll take it.  But I do hope that it gets better before I go back to work.  Really worried about how our morning routine will go at that time.  Getting her fed, getting myself ready, getting the two of them to daycare.  I guess if she gets up at 4 and I can get her back down by 5 or so, I can just stay up and get ready.  Guess we'll see how it goes!  :)

"Photo shoot":  I was still disappointed that we didn't have any pictures w/ Avery and Lucas and Avery and myself at our newborn shoot, so we decided to play around and take a couple ourselves.  I think we got a couple of cute ones.  :)

Love this one!  :)

Smiling:  Avery's starting to smile more and more.  I was worried a bit that she wasn't a happy baby, but I think she's just pretty mellow.  She still smiles more at the wall than at me, but.......still cute.  :)  She smiles a lot at Daddy and Carson.  She loves watching her big brother.

Smile!

9 weeks

Paci:  My kids don't seem to like pacifiers.  We tried several different kinds with Carson and he never liked any.  Part of me looked around at all these happy babies w/ pacis in their mouths and was jealous.  But part of me was happy that he never took to it and knew that we at least didn't have to worry about breaking him from it.  We tried with Avery and it seemed that she was going to be just like her brother.  We tried MAMS though last week and she likes it!

Finally found a paci that she likes!!

Part of me is a little disappointed, but part of me is really happy to have something to soothe her!  She normally only takes it at night, but it's too early to worry about it anyway.  I'm just happy she likes it.  :)  We already discovered the "magic" when she was fussing one night.  I went in and gave her the paci.  A couple of sucks later, she was out.  Just like that.  So yay for pacis.  ;)

All about Carson:
Carson continues to be all-around awesome.  :)  He's definitely going through a VERY whiney stage right now.  He contradicts himself constantly and it gets frustrating dealing with him at times ("I don't want to color.  No, I DO want to color!!").  We've definitely had some earlier bedtimes lately because he gets so overly tired and cranky.  But overall, he's just the sweetest boy.  He loves to give hugs and kisses and loves his little sister.  I think he'll be a wonderful big brother.  He's very polite (most of the time) and is very good w/ please and thank you.  It's very hard to resist when he looks up at me w/ those great big blue eyes and says "Pwease, Mommy, Pwease pwease?!"  :)  He's super independent and likes to do everything himself - turn the lights on and off, open the "bucket" (diaper genie), brush his teeth, etc. - and has full-on conversations w/ us and his friends at school.  The other night, he helped me make dinner (his favorite - mac and cheese!).  He helped put the cheese and milk in - he was so happy and proud of himself.  I loved it.  He's getting better at playing by himself too and we've been finding him playing in his room w/ his babies at nap time and bedtime (he never leaves his bed though).  Aside from the quiet play, he still sleeps like a champ at night and for naps.  (He just told me tonight that he was tired and ready for night-night.  :) ). We just pretty much adore him and love watching him grow up!

Loves:  Carson's current "loves" are X-Men and Spiderman (thanks a lot, Daddy  :(  ).  He always wants to watch those after school (against my better judgment).  (I prefer Mickey or something educational.  Or at least for a younger audience.  But whatever.  Guess I have to pick my battles).  He loves playing outside w/ his many bubble swords.  He loves his little monster trucks.  He loves his "babies" - Mickey, Elmo, Woody doll, Cookie Monster, Nemo and Elephant.  Lately, he wants to take them all over the house with him.  And they line up on the side of his bed when he sleeps.  He makes sure they're all sitting up properly.  Although the other night, he wanted them ALL on his pillow with him.  :)

Carson and his "babies"

Potty training:  We're trying to work a bit more on potty training.  He needs to be fully trained by age 3 in order to move up to the 3-year old room at daycare.  I know that we still have plenty of time, but I don't want him to be behind or anything.  A lot of his friends at school are trained and in underwear.  He got underwear in his Easter basket and wants to wear them but doesn't quite get that it means he has to potty in the toilet then.  We just haven't pushed it because he really hasn't shown any interest.  He'll tell us after he poops and ask us to change his diaper.  But he never tells us when he's wet or anything.  With Avery and everything, we haven't been encouraging him to try the potty or anything either.  :(  So this week, we started talking about it more and tried to get him to go.  He resisted so we didn't push.  He has an Elmo potty book though and we've been reading that.  So now he wants to go potty fairly often.  He hasn't actually GONE, but he's sat there for quite a while.  :)  It definitely takes a lot of patience.  I think he could sit there forever.  Then he'll say he's done and get down and immediately say he has to go potty again.  We'll just keep trying and see how it goes.  I'm nervous to just put him in underwear for a few days and see how it goes, but that's probably what it will take.  They work with him too at daycare once he moves to the 2 1/2 year old room.  I talked to one of the teachers there and she was confident he'd pick it up quickly once he moved up.  That will likely be sometime in June.
Update as I post this - He had a "trickle on the potty" today at daycare!  Woo hoo!  :)


Quotes: He said a bunch of cute stuff this week, a couple of which Lucas told me to remember.  But of course I didn't.  :(  The one I do remember clearly though is:  "I need to go to Walmart.  I need cheese and cereal bars".  So matter-of-fact.  Love it.  He's becoming such a grown up little boy!


More pics from the last two weeks:

My loves

Just love that smile!

My little man!  He loved his "jungle shirt"

Always with his "yellow" and "white"  :)

He was so thrilled that we all wore flip flops that day!  It was the first time he agreed to wear them.  Refused all last year.  Love those piggies!!

First trip to Target!

New Lightning McQueen sunglasses!

Mr. Cool

Eating breakfast in his pillow fort

Just love that face - 8 weeks

Someone's outgrowing some of her clothes already.  This onesie barely fit.  :)  (Got Milk?)  I'm trying to get her in everything at least once before it's too late!

Piggies!!  She always curls her toes around like that.  Our little monkey.