Eight weeks tomorrow

Things seem to be falling into place for Sammy. He has slept for seven straight hours for the past two nights and (after much screaming earlier this week) is taking naps in his own bed, for hours at a time. AAAAhhhhh!! Progress feels wonderful.



Elijah is playing with his friends for a bit today, Dan is working and Sammy and I are packing for our trip tomorrow. I'm excited for our weekend away. I'm sure it won't be without some craziness, but it will be nice to be with all of my boys AND be away from home.



Have a great weekend!

Fitting it all in

Once again, our "weekend" with Dan is done. BUT! He only works for two days this week and then we leave for a little road trip. I don't know how this is going to go with our little screamer, but we are going to try it and pray that we have a great time. We will be heading up to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan for a family reunion on Dan's dad's side of the family.



I have been trying to focus on the little bits of progress that Samson is making and that really helps me see things more positively lately. His gas issues are slowly improving, his naps are slowly improving and he is having much more quiet-alert time where he is a happy little boy. Thanks to the most wonderful sleep book on the planet, we are finally starting to see some good patterns with his sleeping. We didn't discover this book until Elijah was four months old and totally sleep-deprived. Once we found it, though, we were able to implement some things that I believe have made Elijah the awesome little sleeper that he is. We have already started implementing these same things with Sam and we are seeing that he has some really healthy sleep patterns developing. We LOVE this book and highly recommend it!

This week has already seemed a little bit crazy. Our car needed some maintenance before our big trip this weekend, so the best mechanic in the world is doing those repairs as I type (Hi Trev!). In an attempt to be as balanced (and tired) as possible, we have crammed in a ton of things in the past few days. In addition to our trip this weekend, we have some exciting travels coming up in the next few weeks that I'm really looking forward to.

Sammy's morning nap has lasted an hour and a half with only EIGHT MINUTES of crying. Wonderful!!!! I'm going to try to get a few more things done before he wakes up. Thanks for checking in!

Wittle spwash pool

I start feeling a little cooped up after a few days at home with both boys. It is nearly impossible to get out of the house and have an enjoyable time with both of them. Like I have said before, Sam loves to scream in the car and/or the stroller so that always makes things a little bit stressful. Maybe I should start walking through public places with earplugs in.



When Dan is home I make sure to take advantage of the freedom. This morning I took Elijah to the same splash pad I took him to last week. He had a great time.



He insisted on going down the slide by himself. I sat back, knowing that some sort of fall was inevitable. His little torso just isn't quite strong enough for him to do slides on his own yet. Sure enough, he fell backwards and hit head and then kind of got stuck at the bottom. All was well after a few good tears and mommy kisses.



He is such an observer. When around other children, he mostly prefers to sit back and watch them play. So, he enjoyed having a snack and watching the other kids splash around.



We are in the middle of doing Sleep Bootcamp with Samson right now. It had gotten to the point where I was basically soothing him non-stop, all day long. I didn't have time to use the restroom, eat, take care of Elijah or take a shower and brush my teeth. I finally decided that he just has to learn to go to sleep on his own a little bit. I go back to work in a few weeks and I can't leave him with someone else when he is so dependent on constant soothing. We have had to listen to some (more) screaming, but I think this will be best for all of us.



That fever Elijah had last week never turned into anything, thank goodness. I still keep thinking about it. It's kind of weird that he would have a fever for just a few hours.



Dan and Sam are sleeping, so Elijah and I are going to go join them. Aaaahhhh, sleep.

July weekend

Our 7-week-old baby rolled over on his own today. Twice! I didn't believe it the first time, so I put him on his stomach again to see what would happen. He pushed his little self up and rolled right over again. Is that normal?

I have had the little boys to myself for the past two days and I have them to myself again tomorrow. I attempted a trip out of the house this morning and it didn't go very well. I realized that I have not had a single good experience with taking Samson in public. When in the car or the stroller, he SCREEEAAAAAMMMMS like someone is trying to torture him! Ugh. I am learning much patience right now.



Something in my mama gut tells me that there is something brewing in Elijah right now. On Friday he had a 101-degree temp for a few hours. He has been pretty lethargic and tired for the past few days and a little bit extra crabby. When I took his temp on Friday, I literally started shaking and crying. I immediately thought there was something going on with his heart and I called his cardiologist right away. They told me to keep an eye on things, but most likely he just has a bug of some sort. I hate getting the reminders that Elijah's heart is fragile. It is easy to get caught up in normalcy and to forget about those things I wish would go away.

I got Sammy to bed early tonight and was able to take a nice relaxing bath. It is the little things like that that keep me sane! Have a good weekend, everyone! Thank you for checking in on us.

Thursday

A sneak peek of the many photos I took tonight of our two beautiful boys..





It's a good thing it was cloudy today. That meant no work for Dan, which meant Dan was home, which meant I didn't go crazy. Samson refused to sleep again this morning, which messed up his entire day. His morning nap is SO IMPORTANT, we are discovering. Without a good morning nap, Sam becomes a crazed beast.

Tomorrow I am officially middle-aged. UGH! It's a weird feeling, but on the other hand I have always loved birthdays so it will be a good day.

Have a great weekend, everyone! Thanks for checking in on our family!!

The past few days

Our "weekend" with Dan is over, so here we are starting a new week. The days he is home with us go way too fast.

We brought Sam to the doctor on Monday, just to get him looked at after all of his gas/fussiness issues last week. Everything is fine. The doctor said our Sammy just has some anatomical problems that prevent air (and other things) from leaving his body very well. All is well, though, and it will resolve on its own. Get this! Sammy weighs ELEVEN POUNDS! That is a one pound per week weight gain for the past four weeks.

Sam started smiling this week! I have only seen it a few times, but it is a beautiful little smile. I can't wait to see more of it!

I took Elijah to a splash pad for a while after his physical therapy appointment yesterday. He loved it! He keeps saying, "Go wittle splash pool?" I promised him we can go back next week.

Last night Dan and I had our first evening away since Sam was born. Our friends Jess and Brent offered to watch the boys for a few hours while we got out of the house. It was wonderful! I love my alone time with my husband.

We are having a good day so far. I hope you all are doing well, too!

Mommy-Elijah time

We had a much better day today! Dan's mom took care of Sam for a few hours this morning (soooo thankful for my wonderful mother-in-law!) while Elijah and I went to an airshow together. It is something we have done together for the past two summers, so it was special to be able to do this with him again. He still isn't super interested in the airplanes. The bouncy toys appealed to him much more than anything else.



Elijah still isn't super confident when it comes to his gross motor skills. He doesn't always push himself in this area, so I was surprised to see him climb up this little hill on his own. Look at the determination!



I can do it, I can do it!



I made it, Mom!



We still can't control that hair, even when it is cut short.



After the airshow, we went to a "ress-rant" for lunch. After our challenging day yesterday, it was really nice to have this time with my biggest boy. I love him so much.



Samson slept well last night and had a great day today. I think he was utterly exhausted after yesterday. Sleep is a huge priority for Sam. I already knew this about him, but after what we went through yesterday I will be extra careful about making sure he gets his daytime sleep. Overtired Sam = not fun for anyone.

I can't fathom the idea that Dan is going to be home with us for the next two days. It has been a long and challenging last couple of days and I am looking forward to having some help AND seeing my wonderful, hard-working and tired husband.

Exhaustion

Samson was inconsolable for most of the day. I'm talking, NOTHING made him happy. I think overtiredness started it (he fought his morning sleep again) and that turned into a lot of air swallowing and that turned into a lot of uncomfortable gas (that he already has issues with) and that turned into being too exhausted to eat and that turned into being hungry and MAD MAD MAD. I can't even explain the level of exhaustion I feel and I can't imagine how Sam must feel right now.

I had my moments where I was completely frazzled and frustrated, but I mostly just felt so bad for my sweet little guy. He obviously wasn't feeling well and there was nothing I could do for him. I hope neither of us ever have a day like today again. It was really tough, to say the least.

He is in bed right now (we will see how long that lasts), Elijah is asleep and I am peeking out the window at a massive storm that is moving in. I have to say that Elijah was awesome today. Despite a few whiny moments (totally normal for him), he was so good about handling the chaos in our house. He has never once complained about Sam's crying and he never acts out when I have to spend large chunks of time consoling Sam. Dan's mom offered to watch Sam tomorrow for a bit so Elijah and I can get out and have a little time together.

I'll end with some exciting stuff. Elijah has started asking me spontaneous questions on his own in the past few days. For example: "Mom, what's that sound?" or "Mom, what's this song?" or "How's it going, Mom?" I think this is a pretty exciting step for him! I'm so proud of him. Last year at this time he was just starting to say "Mama" appropriately. Sooooo much progress in one year!

Ok, please pray for sanity and sleep and peace for us!

Sleep, Sam, sleep

I don't ever remember having this much trouble getting Elijah to fall asleep. My mom reminded me on the phone last night that Elijah probably didn't feel very good during his first few months, and that is why he was such a mellow newborn. I spend a good portion of my day walking, rocking, soothing and bouncing (etc.) Samson to get him to fall asleep. He fights it like crazy! It is hard not to be frustrated by the end of the day, but honestly, I love this little boy so much. I do understand that he is just a tiny little guy who is working things out in his little body and soon this phase will be done.

I know there are a million mothers in the world who have been able to care for two or more small children on their own. I feel like such a wimp for complaining about our situation. There are parts of our day that are really tough. But I have to say, being a mom to two little awesome boys is incredibly rewarding. It is stressful at times, but I love it so much.

Elijah was asking me tonight if he could go shopping at the "Mommy Store." Hmmmm, should I take this personally? He did great in his new big boy bed last night! He doesn't realize that he is able to get out of bed by himself because he stays in it (like he did in his crib) and just calls my name: "Moooommmm!! Get out bed!" I'm so happy that the transition to a new bed is going smoothly so far.

Thanks for checking in on us!

Wednesday

We were so happy that the weather was crappy today! Dan was able to come home from work early and spend most of the day with us. He and Elijah spent the evening putting Elijah's new big boy bed together and we were even able to have dinner together! We made Elijah try some of his burger and green beans and potatoes and he was not happy about any of that. We have decided that our picky eater needs to stop being so picky.

I just peeked in on Elijah and he looks like such a big boy sleeping in his new bed. What happened to our baby?! Hopefully the night goes well in his new surroundings.

Weather permitting, Dan will be away for the next four days. It is tough having him away so much, but we will manage. One of the hidden perks of our situation is that I am forming really close bonds with both of our boys.

Speaking of our boys, Samson will not go to sleep tonight! I'm off to soothe him some more...

The faces of Samson

So, here is what we have learned, in five and a half weeks, about our little Samson..



He does not like having his diaper changed and he does not like waiting for his food. He has a lot of gas issues and he lets out monster burps and big big toots. He loves sleeping in my magic sling and he dislikes his swing.



He loves to eat and he loves to sleep (when he is not fighting it). He has very little quiet-alert time. Most of the time when he is awake, he is fussy.



He does not like riding in the car. He usually screams his head off any time we drive anywhere, whether it is a mile away or twenty miles away.



He loves being outside. Unlike most babies, the wind and heat do not seem to bother him at all. He much prefers that over the cool inside air.



He sleeps well at night, but has a really tough time sleeping in the morning hours. Between the hours of 6:00 am to noon every day, you can find me and/or Dan soothing Sam to sleep. It is a pretty tough time, especially when Elijah is home. Samson is very high maintenance during this time and it is hard to pay attention to much more than him.



He is our wonderful second child, and despite the foggy tiredness we are experiencing, we love him very much! We are sooo excited so watch him grow into the person he is meant to become. Sammy, WE LOVE YOU!!

Good Monday

Elijah's fat lip was much better today. He didn't seem to be too affected by it. He is still the cutest little boy, despite his swollen lip.



I hate to jinx anything, but Samson has gone to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 three nights in a row. We still have to work on the hours between 6:00 am and noon (ugh, those hours are tough), but his afternoon, evening and night is becoming somewhat predictable. Yay!



Dan had today off work and we spent our time recuperating. I was able to get some Mommy-Elijah time, since I don't get much of that these days. When I am with Elijah and Samson together, I spend most of my time telling Elijah, "No!" or "Go sit in a time-out!" or "SHHhhhhh!" It feels good to be able to spend time with him when I'm not the mean mommy. So today we went to the park and to Dairy Queen together and I loved every minute of it!



Tomorrow we have a few fun things planned, since Dan has the day off work again. I love our little family! Thanks for checking in on us.

Crazytown

The little boys and I have been having a fun, crazy weekend at home. We were able to go watch my nephew play baseball yesterday morning. It was nice to get out of the house for a bit and see family. This morning Sammy has been refusing sleep (again), so there has been a lot of screaming filling our ears. Then Elijah fell off his bike, face first onto the pavement. It took me an hour to get his lip to stop bleeding! Now he has a nice fat lip. Every time he touches it, he remembers what happened and starts crying. It made me terribly sad that after it happened, the only person he wanted was Dan. He asked for him about a thousand times. :(

I haven't had a chance to take any pictures, but hopefully I'll get some taken soon. My hands have been full! Being a mama to two little boys is crazy, but tons of fun. Before Sam was born, I kept thinking I would dream longingly of my bed rest when I didn't have anything to do except stuff my face with ice cream, but that isn't the case at all. I wouldn't change anything, except maybe having Dan home a little bit more. I love how crazy our house is and I love my boys!!

I am trying really hard to get Sam on a schedule of some sort. He had THREE 4-hour stretches of sleep last night, so that is huge progress. His daytime napping doesn't really have any rhyme or reason yet, but we are getting there. Gotta run...Elijah is yelling at his book and Sam is hungry again.

Sleep, I miss you!

A few quick Elijah things and then I will get to how things are going here. I have no idea where he got this from, but he has been saying, "Oh mah GOSH, how you DO that?"

He has also been saying "NO!" to Dan and me a lot lately. He knows this is not a nice thing. When we hear him say it, Dan and I respond with, "Elijah, if you say no to me one more time, we are going to have to sit in a time-out." So then he will start saying "NO!" slightly differently, like with another vowel on the end, or just saying "Huh uh!" Tricky!

Elijah has been extremely interested in sign language lately. I have taught him every sign I know and he has them all memorized and uses them often. He signs complete sentences to me as he speaks them, like, "More milk please, mom!" I'm going to look up more signs so I can keep teaching him new ones.

Potty training is incredibly frustrating for me right now. I have felt like a complete failure in this area. Elijah has shown ZERO interest in going potty on the potty chair. Any time we have his training pants on, he asks for his diaper back. He has had two unrelated surgeries around the area of his bladder that could possibly have affected bladder control and I'm starting to wonder if this could be the case. We have made absolutely no progress and I don't know where to go from here. Especially in such a sleep-deprived state.



Speaking of being sleep-deprived.. UGH. Yesterday was a very rough day. Sam refused to sleep basically all day long (minus a few short 20-minute naps), which made him extremely fussy. When Dan got home from work at 9:00 last night, I handed him the crying baby as I broke down in tears. I know that Sam is still in the unpredictable baby stage and that I shouldn't whine about anything right now, but I just felt so frazzled and crazed. He is sleeping in his swing right now, so I'm praying today will be a much better day.

Sam has had a few nights now with TWO four-hour stretches of sleep. This is most definitely something to be thankful for!

Elijah is spending a little bit of time with his friends at daycare today so hopefully Samson and I can recuperate from our rough day. I very badly need to go to the grocery store, but I'm afraid Screaming Sam might surface once we get there. I might have to take that risk. Looking through the refrigerator and pantry every ten minutes in hopes that food has magically appeared is getting tiring.

Waaahhhhhhhh

My little Samson has decided to resist sleep all morning long. It is making for a bit of a stressful day so far. The screaming has begun again, so I will write more later! I wanted to get this cute picture up. Isn't that double chin just the cutest?

Biking

Elijah has been driving his little blue bike around the neighborhood a ton lately. He can't quite reach the pedals yet, but scoots along with his feet just fine. He likes to ride to the mailbox and pretend he is mailing letters. Then he pretends to get letters out of "his" mailbox and he carries them back home, while riding his bike. He literally will not let go of his imaginary letters while he tries to hold onto the handlebars at the same time. :)



Samson slept two four-hour stretches last night! Since there seems to be no rhyme or reason to this little man, it was probably a fluke, but we will take it! Sam still has stretches throughout the day where he just wants to cry. And whoa, does he have a cry! It is hard to really go anywhere in public because we just don't know when he will decide to start screaming. When he sleeps, though, he is a good little sleeper. And he is still eating like a little piggy.



I am getting out to see a movie with a friend today (can you guess what I'm going to see??) and I am so excited about that. I haven't gotten out much in the past few months, so it feels really good to be able to.



We ended up getting Elijah a new bed last week, so hopefully we can find some time today to put it together. I'm anxious to see what he will think about sleeping in it.



I dropped my phone into my bath the other night and it no longer works. So if you have called me and I haven't gotten back to you, that is why! I'm hoping to get a new one today.

Happy 4th!

As if we didn't have enough going on, we decided to start getting serious about potty training Elijah today. UGH! Either: 1. he really has no clue what is going on, or 2. he is totally playing us. After twenty tries, he did go potty in the potty chair a little bit, but it may have just been a coincidence. This is going to be quite the task for us this summer.

The boys and I have had a good weekend while Dan has been working. It is tough not having Dan home with us, but we make it work out. Most of the time I worry about boring Elijah to tears, but he manages ok. Samson is still a really high-maintenance little man, so I often feel badly for the lack of time I get to spend with Elijah.

Sam is a little bit crabby/gassy/colicky...whatever you want to call it. He has a handful of hours every day where he screams for no apparent reason. We try to hang in there with being patient. It's hard to get upset with him because who knows what is going on in that little body of his.

I have some great photos of Elijah riding his little blue bike around the neighborhood tonight. I will try to get them edited and uploaded in the next few days. Thank you for checking in on us!!

Four weeks

Samson is four weeks old today!



Just for fun, here is Elijah when he was four weeks old. Minus all of Elijah's hair, they look a lot alike.



And another one from last week, because I love the serious Sam face..

Samson's birth story

(I'm finally getting around to writing this. If you are interested in reading Elijah's birth story, click here!)

Well, Samson, you surprised us all. Nobody thought you would stay in my belly for as long as you did. I prayed so hard for a 39-week delivery and that is exactly what God gave us! I was on bed rest for over four months with pre-term contractions. Because I went into labor so early with your brother, my doctor was extra cautious and wanted me to stick as close to the couch as possible. Bed rest seemed to last forever, but I kept thinking about meeting you and that made it all worth it.

The day before my scheduled c-section, my contractions started getting regular. They came about seven minutes apart for a good chunk of time and I wondered if we might have to do an emergency c-section after all. We got through the night without any drama, though, and woke up super early to get to the hospital for surgery. I don’t know about Daddy, but I didn’t get much sleep that night. I was so excited to meet you! I was also a little bit nervous about the surgery and I was anticipating missing Elijah, too. We had brought him to Grandma and Grandpa’s house the night before and I knew I wouldn’t be seeing much of him in the following days.

We got to the hospital and checked in. I was brought back to a room where I was prepped for surgery. The nurses had a hard time getting an IV started in my arms (this always happens), so they ended up having to put one in my hand. It hurt at first, but I soon had other things to distract me. Pretty soon there were a handful of people in the room and I was being ushered into the operating room. This is the moment when I got really scared. Daddy wasn’t able to come back with me right away and I didn’t like that very much.

The operating room was small and I remember being surprised by that. A nurse had me sit down on the operating table and lean into her while an anesthesiologist put the spinal block into my back. I felt my heart rate increase and I was on the verge of panicking. I wanted Daddy in there with me! Everything went fine with the spinal block and they had me quickly lie down on the table. Lots of people buzzed around me, getting everything prepared for surgery. I kept asking, “When can my husband come in??”

The main anesthesiologist made the comment that it was a good day to have a baby. He was a “numbers” guy and 6 + 4 = 10, which is what the date was: 6-4-10. I told him I was a “numbers” gal myself, and that 11 was my lucky number. 6 + 4 + 1 + 0 = 11! Elijah’s birthday actually worked out the same way: 2 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 7 (2-20-07) = 11. Anyway, that distracted me until Daddy was able to come into the room. Things started feeling really strange with my body at about this time. It felt like I couldn’t breathe because part of my lungs were numb. That made me start to panic again, but I quickly calmed down.

Everything started to go really quickly. I felt a lot of tugging and pulling and pushing and then suddenly Daddy was told to get the camera ready to take your first photo! Then, WAILING! You screamed your little lungs out! I heard someone comment on how big you looked and another person comment on your head size. The doctor let you peek over the curtain at me and then you were taken to be cleaned off and weighed. That is when my tears started to flow! Happy happy tears! I couldn’t stop them. The nurses kept making sure they were happy tears and I kept nodding yes. We waited so long to meet you and it was so special to be able to partake in your birth. Hearing your healthy cries gave me the most amazing, happy feeling!

I got to hold you for a minute once you were cleaned and wrapped in a blanket. I remember noticing your extremely long thumb nail and then immediately taking in your beautiful face. At first I thought you looked nothing like Elijah, but later I realized that you do in fact look a lot like your big brother.

I felt a weird pain in my chest as I was being closed up (apparently that was normal), but other than that things went fine and really quickly. As soon as they were done, the phone in the OR rang and we found out that you weighed seven pounds even! Way more than I thought you would weigh!

I was wheeled into a recovery room, where you and Daddy came to see me. It was surreal and very very weird to see him holding you without any machines or wires attached. We got pretty used to that sort of thing after Elijah was born, so in my mind wires accompany every newborn. I felt so grateful that you were so healthy. It really was quite a strange feeling.

We stayed in the hospital with you for three days. Or I should say, you stayed in the hospital with ME for three days. I had to recover from my c-section, and you and Daddy hung out in my room with me while I did that. There are a few things about the hospital stay that are really special to me and that I never want to forget about..

I loved the moments when I was able to nurse you. I wasn’t able to nurse you for very long because of a lot of pain (emotional and physical), so I cherish the moments we had doing that together. There were times when you would start to cry (you were constantly hungry, even right from the start!) and I would nurse you for a bit and you would calm down and fall asleep next to me. Daddy thought I was crazy, but I wanted you with me all the time, even during the night, because I was so in love with you. I was always sad when you were across the room in your bassinet.

We always had you wrapped up in your cozy little Halo sleepsack and you looked so tiny and cute when you slept in it. You really were a great sleeper from the start. Elijah has always been a good sleeper, so we were very happy to see that you were, as well.

I will never forget your funny little high-pitched squeal that you made when you were hungry. You didn’t do it for very long, so it’s something I want to tuck in my mind so I always remember it. It was cute and it made me laugh every time.

I loved, and still love, the cute little noises you made when you ate and slept. You are absolutely precious, Samson, and a miraculous gift from God! We love you so much and we are so thankful you are a part of our family. It feels like things are complete with you here.

I sat and stared at your perfection for hours as I sat in that hospital room. I touched your super soft skin (you can ask Elijah about this...soft necks are my favorite) and kissed your forehead and rubbed your back. I couldn't get over how perfect you were!

You are now four weeks old and we are getting to know you more every day. You love your food more than anything in the world and you seldom let a feeding go by without screaming your head off so the whole world can hear. When you are rested and when your tummy is full, you love to look around the room with your curious eyes.

I am so excited to continue to get to know you and I am so grateful to be your mommy! Thank you for choosing us, Samson. We love you!!