Kids have been back in school for almost a month now. Thank goodness. So far, so good. Ivy's doing pretty well in her class, no surprise there but we're both feeling 'eh' about her teacher. The other day, they were supposed to get out early. Five minutes before that, the teacher always sends the kids out, 2-3 at a time to go get their stuff(backpack, lunchbox, jacket, etc.) from outside the class. Well, 10 minutes after they are supposed to be out comes & goes. Apparently 2 kids forgot 1 item each of theirs and the teacher held all 30 kids back. Thank goodness for the kids who ride the bus that the buses were still there--the rest of the school was already out, even the upper grades who get out later. Thank goodness that wasn't a therapy day for us. Why she didn't just have those 2 kids go last and everyone else go at the normal time, is beyond me.

Therapy--well, it's still going for Collin. He's having a language explosion, and starting to comment on everything, but he's getting stuck on certain phrases again & starting a rebellious streak. Hopefully it's just a phase. With him, you just never know.

Drew misses Ivy & Collin like crazy while they're at school, which is odd because he & Ivy had started up the "he's touching me," etc. sibling issues about a month ago. Calling tomorrow to get his speech evaluated by the school district. Regional center cut off speech therapy 18 months ago, but the school district never contacted us about him when he turned 3(when school district takes over).

Brent has put me on a dairy-free diet. It is sooo hard, and I've only been on it about a week. I'm trying to narrow down exactly what it is, so I feel like I can eat more than oatmeal, plain meat, and veggies. Looking like the offenders likely are whey--no protein bars or protein powder for me. Those were a big staple in my diet, especially on busy days :( --and cheese. Need to do more investigation to check on yogurt, cream cheese, sour cream, and plain milk.

Took him to the doctor's a week ago. I was on the verge of another major breakdown. He was eating at least 40 minutes or so for one feeding, and an hour or two(if I was lucky) would be hungry again. Two weeks before this, I had taken him in for his 2 month visit to see about pushing back feedings to every 3 hours since his weight was 90 percentile for 2 month old boys. When I took him last week, the lactation consultant in the office said only 20 minutes at 1 feeding and the 2.5-3 hrs between the end of a feeding & start of the next one. What else? He just outgrew his portable swing--too narrow for his 14-14.5 lb body. Today, I traded it in and got him a used cradle swing. Hopefully, that takes care of the last of the colic. Only kid of ours whose had it.

Have a 4 week goal to get this last little bit of weight off me. I'm just 1-2 pant sizes away from where I was pre-preggo with him.

A Dare & A Goal

Thanks to my friend Michelle for the new header image for the blog. She had dared people to leave comments on her blog, just to make sure people were reading it, and this was the prize(of course, nobody knew what the prize was at the time).

When the older kids(Ivy & Collin) go back to school, starting next week, I need to put Photoshop Elements on Tom's laptop--the main computer kicked the bucket back in March/April--and also the instruction manual for our digital camera (to learn more features on it).

Family Pics

We got family pictures taken July 31st over at El Dorado Nature Center. These are the first we've had with everyone since Brent's been born. We got a cd with almot 200 pictures on it. Not going to post all the pics, but here are my favorites. The rest can be seen here(click on the word 'here').

Normal?

I went to the doctor's office yesterday for my 6 week post-partum checkup. She had said I'm "back to normal." Granted, she was talking about about my body & all the internal changes during & after the pregnancy, but it's been making me think. Which, I suppose isn't such a bad thing.

What is normal? Is there such a thing after kids? Is it "normal" that I can think of at least 3 friends, probably more, who over the moon about their kids and yet, I don't feel like that about Brent yet. Just over the moon that he's been born and not inside me anymore. Maybe I just need more time. He really isn't a super colicky baby and the reflux issues aren't as bad, it's just me. I just wondered how we ended up with him the way I am right now?

I was stuck on the name "Brent" for so long during the pregnancy and was determined that was going to be his name. I finally understand why. The name literally means "steep hill", and yes, it's been quite a journey. The construction, the pregnancy, the nursing fiasco the whole first week & a half, the flare up in behaviors from Collin, a little from Drew too(mostly his is displacement from being the baby). Some days are getting better. Other days, I just want to go hide under the covers on my bed hoping nobody finds me or that it all goes away. It did take over a year till I finally had a handle on 3 kids, and I'm sure this will take just as long.

I did get a portable swing, that's low to the floor. It's hit & miss. He still sleeps a lot during the morning, which by the way, was a HUGE help during Ivy's swim lessons especially when I had to take Collin along.

Anyone have any ideas on how to keep Brent up longer during the daytime(specifically morning, he's already up a good portion of the afternoon & night)? Even though, I'm not sure I can follow thru with anything right now. I try baths, but he goes back to sleep after eating. I hold out on feedings(ie. splitting them up so he's not eating for over 40 minutes in one sitting, only to decide he's hungry again less than an hour later) so he's got more "quiet awake" time.

Update..5 weeks old on Tuesday

I think I have officially gone crazy. The not more than 2 hours of sleep at a time is finally taking its toll. I won't lie, the kids have 1 very cranky mommy these past few days. Part of it is frustration at having to deal with both a special needs kid and a newborn. Another part is feeling of isolation--besides the few times of conversation at church, that's pretty much all I get for the week--and even a feeling of slight abandonment. RS brought in maybe 3 meals for the 1st week--granted, half the ward was out of state for a stake youth confence trek but still. Before the baby was born, Tom had talked about how he could take up to 2 weeks off, so I kept asking when so I could brace myself for the impact. I found out like a day or two before he went back to work that it was going to be a week, including that 1st weekend! A lot of friends have moved out of the ward the past few years. I don't really have anyone to hang out with(not that our afternoon schedules would allow it much thanks to Collin's therapy). My parents were going to come out, about this time but circumstances changed so now I will be waiting till Ivy's birthday(a week before Christmas) for that to happen.

Other than that, just sheer overwhelmness has swallowed me whole. Ivy's swim lessons & having to take Collin on the Fridays and all this upcoming week, Tom's a little frustrated at Drew not being potty trained--he can pee in the potty fine, no #2 yet and he pretty much can't tell you he has to go till it's already coming out. I'm just thinking, when in the world am I going to fit that in?? Construction workers are out of our hair/house, but still have to prime/paint, tile the floor, get carpet installed, get curtains, and then move all the stuff back in the room addition that's been moved to the garage this whole time, not to mention all the trash cleanup in the backyard--that was our trade-off for getting the heater added into the room(the draftsman forgot to put into the final plans, even though I had asked about it).

I guess the good news is feedings have finally moved to every 2-ish hours instead of every hour. Brent hit the 10 lb mark on Thursday, and I think that's made a difference. He spits up A LOT though. Kind of picky about how he's held when he's awake--he only prefers upright, looking over mine or Tom's shoulder.

We got some family pics taken yesterday in El Dorado Park's Nature Center as part of some fundraiser. Hopefully, we got some good ones. We get them back mid-next week.

10 years

The 8th of July marked Tom's & my 10 year anniversary. It sure doesn't seem like it's been that long. Lots of blurs. It's funny how we remember some same experiences but remember different parts, or that there's some things I just plain don't remember anymore!

Anyway, to celebrate, it was VERY low-key, since Brent was a week and a half old when we went out and came with us, while the older kids were watched. We had thought we'd be about 7 pm-10 pm for the babysitter. First, we stopped at a Chinese restaurant around the corner for some dinner, even though neither of us was particularly hungry. It was nice to have quiet time to be able to talk. Brent, amazingly, slept the whole time. Then we stopped over at Home Depot to check out outdoor lighting for the room addition(something the city asked for). We ended up coming home around 9, after the kids were supposed to be in bed and *hopefully* asleep, since we were both so hammered from lack of sleep.

We may go celebrate on another day, once Brent's a little bigger and we can come up with more of a date idea.

I got Tom a present, which I wasn't sure how well it'd go over. I bought him a Starry Night tie back in April from some place in Florida, and kept it in the package it came in the mail in until a few days before. Good thing I had opened it before Tom because something happened with that batch of ties, where it was supposed to be yellow on a blue background was LIME GREEN! Anyway, got that all resolved and the replacement just came today(same design, just had the owner make sure we wouldn't have the same problem again). Tom's ties are all 10+ years old (and showing it), and I know he hasn't bought one actually probably since we started dating. First time ever buying him a tie, that's why I wasn't sure how he'd respond, but since we both like Starry Night it was a hit.

Here's a pic online:

http://www.tieguys.com/Detailed/4055z.html

Welcome Baby Brent

This post is almost 3 weeks overdue.

Brent Owen was born on Tuesday, June 29th @ 12:45 pm. 8 lbs 9 oz, 21" long. Ended up going in that morning to be induced with Pitocin, but ended up not needing hardly any. I guess Brent took to heart the chat I had with him the night before, that he WAS going to be born on Tuesday. The doctor was going to come in to break the bag of waters, like she has needed to for all of our kids, but decided to come in on her lunch break. By 9 or 10, I was already at ~6cm and thinking it was odd that the doctor hadn't come yet since I was progressing so quickly. Around 11:30ish started getting really uncomfy(Brent kept moving lower & I was close to 8cm dilated) & started staring at the clock waiting for the doctor to come.

At noon, asked for my last dose of Stadol for pain. A few minutes later, I guess my nurse went on her lunch break. She didn't want to check how dilated I was since Brent was so close to the bag of water and we both feared/instinctively thought he'd come fast once it was broken. Around 12:20ish I cried over the intercom thing in my room that I felt like Brent was coming out--not so much out of pain, but mostly worried that it was after 12 noon, my doctor wasn't there yet and Brent apparently didn't want to wait.

At that point, 2 new nurses came in & tried to get everything ready. They, apparently, hadn't talked to my nurse about not checking me,and did--in the process breaking the bag of waters. My nurse & doctor came in like a minute afterwards and Brent was out in 1.5 pushes--the 1st time that's happened! Guess my doctor was right about that since he was #4, he'd likely come faster. Tom says Brent's head was all out in the first push, so he's got a fairly round head.

Eating schedule is soo screwed up right now. 1st week, he bit me a lot & I lost a layer of skin(thankfully grown back now). After we came home from the hospital, where he was eating every 2-3 hours, he decided he's mostly eating every hour(sometimes less than an hour).

He is finally almost back to his birth weight. I brought him to the pediatrician's office at 3 days old--the doctor wanted to see him then to see how jaundiced he would be since I opted to leave a day early from the hospital. Brent was down to 7 lbs 9 oz. I brought him in last week, at 2 weeks old, since a lot of people kept telling me that he still looked yellow(which is TOTALLY normal for babies not on formula, I had just forgotten since Drew is 3 1/2 now). His weight was only up 3 oz since day 3--which confuses me since my non-scientific measurement on our regular scale was saying he had gained 2 lbs--and they sent us for a billirubin level check at the lab right after, and to come back in 2 days to have him weighed again.

The level was a little elevated(16.something) and since that was our baseline, we had to come back the next day, Wednesday, to get it checked again. Poor little guy--both feet ended up having to be pricked since the foot that wasn't pricked on Tuesday wasn't working out so well for the lab assistant. Luckily, or unluckily, Drew had been sick in the morning & our neighbor watched him & Ivy so I could take Brent without having to worry about when or where Drew would be throwing up next. The office called later that day and said the level was down to 15.3 and that we didn't have to re-test. Then, Thursday, when we went back to the office, Brent was up to 8 lbs 4 oz(3 oz in 2 days). They said that was really good.

Brent's been and still is quite an adjustment to our family. On average, I'm getting about 4 hours of sleep--mostly during 2 night feedings, and far from those 4 hours being in a row--if I'm lucky I get a whopping 2 hours in a row. Can't sleep during the day--construction going on(almost done, yay!) and Ivy's swimming class. Collin's back from summer school an hour after we're home and therapy(4x's per week) a couple hours after that, then time to make dinner, get kids ready for bed & do it all again. The kids love him, all want to hold him, hug him & touch him, not caring if it's time for him to sleep. Oh, and for now Tom's calling him by his middle name, Owen. That one's a long story, that lasted about 5 months.

This pic was taken 1-2 days before Brent was born. It's a reflection from outside one of the windows of the room addition. A total of 26 lbs, almost all belly.

Not sure what happened here. Maybe Tom took the pic before he thought? We were just in utter amazement at how fast Brent came out and that the doctor had barely made it in time.

This one's at least somewhat better.