Our boys

4 weeks old!

I cannot believe Will is 4 weeks old already! Some days it feels like he has been with us a lot longer than 4 weeks. It is getting harder and harder to remember life with out him. Will is doing so well with nusing, however, he gave me a sore while we were still in the hospital and I think it has finally decided to start healing. The last time we had him weighed was when he was 2 weeks so I won't know what he weighs until Friday at his 1 month well check. Today Will was awake and alert for about 2 hours, he usually still sleeps all the time though. Just not when we would like him to!



Such a cutie


Will 4 weeks old!

2 weeks old!!

Wow the time has gone by so fast. It is hard to believe he is two weeks old already. Will is doing great with eating and sleeping, he only gets me up twice in a night. I am very pleased about that, however it takes us an hour sometimes more to get him fed, changed, and successfully back to sleep so I am still not getting a lot of sleep. At least I am getting sleep.

We went to Will's well visit at two weeks and he weighed in at 8 pounds 3 ounces. He is so much more alert now and loves looking around. Joshua still adores his baby brother and wants to hold him, play with him, tickle him all the time. It is cute watching him ooh and ahh over his baby brother.


Last week I took the boys on a walk to the Dinosaur Museum at the UW campus. Joshua loves going there and I really should go there more often since it is FREE!! Both boys fell asleep on the way over there so I had to get a picture of them.




Will at two weeks old.


Will asleep on Daddy's lap.

Picture update

We have been very busy trying to keep up with our boys. It feels like we are starting to get a schedule going with our boys. It feels like it took forever to figure out and we are still learning. Everyone is doing well and is healthy. We had a couple concerns with Will but after doctors visits everything is going great. Will gives us 3 sometimes 4 hour stretches of sleep at night, which is WONDERFUL. I am hoping he will start sleeping more and more at night for us.

Michael is liking his new job and today was his first full day of it. Since Will has been home he has been working half days so he could help me out during the day. So far our day has been wonderful. It is so nice and warm (almost HOT) outside so we went to the park in the morning, I took Will to the doctors, then brought lunch back to Michael at the park. This afternoon Me and my boys are going to the geology museum so Joshua can see the dinosaurs. He thought that sounded like a great idea and is looking forward to that.

I haven't posted many pictures since Will has been with us so I thought I would for all of you faithful readers. Enjoy!


Joshua and Will before Church on the 17th.


Michael and his boys










William in my sling





Michael and Joshua

Weight check

This last week we have had a public health nurse come over to help with nursing, if we have any questions for her regarding bringing up baby, or if we just want to see how much he weighs. Will's birth weight was 7 pounds 14 ounces. His discharge weight from the hospital was 7 pounds 7 ounces. Tuesday he was 7 pounds 6 ounces, Wednesday he was 7 pounds 8 ounces, and today he was 7 pounds 13 ounces. We are so proud that he is gaining weight so well...

Since being home from the hospital we have had quite the interesting sleeping arrangements. We have had nights of sleeping in our bed with him because he wouldn't sleep in the bassinet. A night of sleeping in the living room, Michael on the couch, Will in the bili bed and me on the floor. A night of me sleeping on the couch with Will on my chest. Then there was last night, oh what a wonderful night. Will ate at 10pm, I put him down in the pack -n- play upstairs and he stayed asleep until 2am. He woke up at 5am, I fed him, put him back to bed and he slept until 8am. Ahhhh it feels so great to have a 'normal' night. Now if only my 3 year old would sleep past 7am that would be delightful.

I'll try to post new pictures when I get them on the computer. I have taken a bunch of pictures since being home so I know I have some good ones to share.

Pictures

Yesterday we had the joy of showing off our newest baby to Stacey She took some wonderful pictures of us in October and I have been looking forward to her taking pictures of William and the four of us as a family. She does such a great job and we love working with her.

Some of the pictures she took are on her blog. Click here to check them out.

Joshua had a lot of fun playing with her son and checking out her house and pets. William had a great time eating and sleeping, ah the life of a newborn.

Oh what a day!

All through the Sunday night I got to deal with the on comings of mastitis. Finally at 4:30 I couldn't take it any more. Michael researched on the Internet what mastitis is and it's symptoms. I figured that was what was going on but wanted to be sure. I was sobbing as Will was feeding just feeling horrible. I had a fever and a stabbing pain in my right breast. I asked Michael for an ice pack, turns out you are supposed to put a warm pack on it instead. Michael was very concerned and called the Family Care Center at the hospital to get a suggestion for what they thought I should do. So we called Michael's cousin (thank you Anna) and Michael's mom (thank you Maxine) and they came over right away to help. I got to the Er and was checked out. Sure enough I have mastitis. They gave me some prescriptions, and sent me on my way.

That morning at 9:30 I saw my midwife for a one week after deliver appointment. She noticed that Will looked Jaundice to her and suggested we get him tested. We got the number back and it was 15.9 under 11 or 12 (I cannot remember) is normal. We received a Billy bed later last night and he was sleeping on that in our living room all night long. It was horrible. Every time I would nurse him and lay him down in the bed he would scream and cry. I decided to feed him while he was laying down on the bed so I wouldn't have to move him when he was finished eating. The only time he got off the bed was to get his diaper changed. This morning he was getting fed up by me feeding him that way and would no longer nurse so I had to take him off the bed. The nurse will come by this morning at 11am to test his levels again. Please be praying that everything is okay and his levels are dropping. I don't think I can handle another night like last night. Michael was sleeping on the couch. I would feed Will and most of the time fall asleep by him or I would sleep on the sleeping bag on the floor. I am thankful Joshua didn't wake up at all last night, it would have been VERY crazy if he was in on it all as well. He did think it was pretty funny this morning seeing us all sleeping in the living room.

This is a link to a friend's blog. She says every baby should come with this disclaimer attached to their big toe. This is very true, thank you Debbie for sharing this with us!

Click here to view the link.

Our family!!!

I had been having contractions since 31 weeks and was dilated to 2 cm when she checked me at 37 weeks. When I went in to my 38 week appointment at 38 weeks 3 days pregnant she stripped my membranes. She said it takes 12 to 72 hours to put someone into labor if it works. The rest of the day I had a lot of cramping but not a lot of contractions. Towards the end of the day they had turned more into contractions. That night we ate dinner at Corona Village, went home and tried to sleep. I was up a lot through out the night because of contractions. Nothing horrible but they were waking me up so that wasn't fun. I finally got up before Joshua to shower and get ready for the day. I told Michael that morning that that day could be it. He had an exam at 10 until noon and was hoping nothing would happen until after that. He called me just before his exam to see how I was doing. The rest of the day went slow. I was having contractions on and off but nothing regular enough for me to go the hospital. Finally I started counting them and had them every 4 mins for an hour, but only every other contraction felt strong so I still didn't think I should go in. I played Super Paper Mario (Thank you Shannon, we beat the game :) Joshua loves watching us play games and all I wanted to do was bounce on the ball so it worked out perfectly. I thought at one point that I wanted to go on a walk but once we got ready I though maybe I shouldn't. I thought we should stay close to home. My mother in law called at one point to ask us if we thought this was it and we were going in. I told her I wasn't sure. At 5pm I called the hospital to talk to a Doctor. He said it sounded like I was in the early stage of labor and if I came in they would take good care of me. He called my midwife and she called me back shortly after. I told her my only fear was that she would send me home. She assured me she wouldn't do that. So we called my mother in law. Once she arrived, about 6:15 or so we left for the hospital. I was checked at 7:20 or so and was 6 cm dilated. At 8:45 I was checked again and was 9 cm dilated. He was born at 10:25 very healthy and 10 days early. I was so happy he came when he did. I was READY for him to be out.

We are all doing well. He is a great eater. He was a very good nurser in the hospital then didn't do so well his first day home but now he is doing great! God blessed me so much with a wonderful delivery. The contractions weren't bad at ALL until I needed to push then they were horrible but that only lasted 20 mins at the most. I didn't get any pain meds, no IV, no oxygen, no nothing. :) I am so blessed with a great nurser and so far a pretty good sleeper. He let me sleep 3 hours in a row last night. :)

Here are the pictures I am sure most people are waiting so patiently for. I have more to post but they aren't on the computer yet. I'll try to do that later.

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My last belly picture. I think my sister may have taken a picture of me in the hospital as well, but I don't have that picture yet.


35 minutes after he was born


Tired happy parents


Tired Will


Me in the nursery about an hour after he was born. I needed the boppy pillow to help hold my belly up. :) It felt strange not to.


My nurse, with Will


His first bath.


Proud Daddy


Me and my boys


Grammy and her boys


My sister Wendee and her nephew Will





Joshua opening his gift from his Daddy, Mommy, and Will. He thought this was great! He is also wearing his The Big Brother shirt I made for him. Lost of people commented on it. You could tell he was very proud of his little brother.


Papa and Will


Proud Family






Joshua and Will


William all ready to go home.

Joshua is doing great with his brother. He loves him so much. We have to really keep an eye on him though. He gets all excited and almost can't control himself. he loves to help hold Will's pacifier in when we are changing his diaper. Today Joshua woke up and I went to get Will. Once Joshua saw I had Will he said 'Awww' he is too cute and makes us laugh all the time. The other day he saw me nursing Will and asked what Will was drinking I told him 'Mommy's milk' he said 'Will's drinking cocoa milk too!'. Joshua saw Will's umbilical cord stump the other day and said something along the lines of 'him poop out his belly'. When I was pregnant I would ask him where Will would come out of mommy. He would point just to the left of my belly button. I don't know what made him think that but I thought it was funny. It is great seeing him be so in love with his baby brother. I am truly blessed, thank you Lord!