Oliver at 4 Months

A litte bit about Oliver's first 4 months...

One of the first things I noticed about Oliver when he was born was his tongue. As I figured, we had another tongue tied baby. He actually did much better than Noah with nursing in the beginning. I think a lot of this had to do with me though - I was much more experienced after nursing Noah for 21 months. Oliver latched on, it wasn't a very deep latch but he did at least. He did okay in the hospital but he wasn't getting the best latch and I knew he would most likely start having the same problems that Noah did. It was a hard decision but before we left we had the pediatrician clip his frenulum. I didn't really want him to do it because I knew pediatricians aren't the best person to take care of that - it's better to go to a specialist. But the oral surgeon who did Noah's was booked for a few weeks and I just wanted to have a good start with nursing. 

I could tell the pediatrician didn't clip it very good though, and I knew he was still tied. His latch still felt uncomfortable and tight. At one week old he started showing some of the same symptoms as Noah - spitting up a ton, crying during feedings and seemed in pain. I instantly called around and found a doctor that I had forgotten about down in Lehi. To make a long story short, I took him down, they revised his tongue and lip via laser. It was hard but I knew it would help him because it helped Noah so much. 

He got better. His nursing quickly improved and he did really well for about a month and a half. The only thing he was still doing was latching on and off a lot. But he was otherwise nursing great and gaining a lot of weight. He was also sleeping 6-8 hour stretches at night!

At two months, he had his vaccinations. I keep telling myself it must have been a weird coincidence.. but after that he started crying really bad whenever he'd try to nurse and was starting to refuse to nurse actually. He also started spitting up way more and started waking up earlier to feed in the night than he normally did.

Within days it got worse. He was now barely nursing at all and waking up a few times at night. It was super frustrating and so sad to watch him struggle.

I took him back to the doctor. He said it was reflux and prescribed some baby zantac which of course I was so hesitant not to give to him. We gave it some time first, but after a couple of weeks I couldn't watch him suffer anymore. We started him on the meds. Two weeks into it and it still wasn't helping. So back to the doctor. They prescribed Prevacid. Stronger stuff.. hm, even more hesitant! But we tried it. We're over two weeks into this and it has improved his feedings. He is now nursing again without screaming! He still pulls on and off and seems like he's struggling a bit. Sometimes if I have a strong let down he seems to struggle more and cries but it's not nearly as bad as before.

He's sleeping a tiny bit better I'd say, and when I say that I mean he's still waking up several times in the night, but it's usually easier to get him back to sleep whereas before he would sometimes be up for a while crying.

It's hard though. Extremely tough on me and Derek physically and emotionally. He's basically sleeping with us all night now because I've gotten to the point of extreme exhaustion and most nights I can't even pull myself out of bed. So we put him to bed in his pack n play at bedtime (we put him and Noah down at the same time, around 8:00-9:00). He usually wakes up at least once before we even get to bed. Then he wakes up shortly after we fall asleep and I'm already exhausted so I just bring in the bed with me and nurse him. The he usually wakes up at least 3-4 more times. It's even more hard because he sleeps worse now than he did as a newborn (besides the first couple of days) and we did not go through this at all with Noah! By this point Noah was sleeping 9-10 hours every single night.

He also doesn't nap! It's extremely hard to get him to fall asleep and once he does he wakes up after sleeping 30 minutes. If I'm lucky, I can usually get him to fall back asleep for at least some of his naps. Then he'll sleep another 30 minutes and sometimes if I'm really lucky I can get him back to sleep for another 30 minutes. But most of his daytime sleeping is done in my arms or sometimes the carrier, and NEVER his crib. Oh Oliver, I think you're trying to kill me!

Oliver has been a light sleeper from the beginning though. I remember the first week he was born, every time he'd fall asleep I'd try to do some newborn pictures of him and he's instantly wake up and cry! He has never taken long naps, it was so weird! Noah would fall asleep and I'd have to practically dump a cup of water on him to wake him up so he would eat! Haha. It was SO different. Even now, Noah is a pretty deep sleeper and NEEDS his sleep.

We were so "by the book" with Noah and all about schedules, sleep training etc. But we found that in the end, Noah is two and we still struggle to get him to sleep and stay in his bed. And as a baby Noah had such a hard time sleeping anywhere BUT his crib. And people kept saying, you've trained him to sleep in his crib! So with Oliver, I thought, okay I want him to be able to sleep anywhere! So I planned on being much more relaxed and didn't worry about a schedule at first. But it's kind of backfired and now he will absolutely not sleep in his crib and cannot for the life of him fall asleep on his own. But honestly, even if I tried to do a schedule, it wouldn't work because his sleep is so inconsistent I couldn't figure out a schedule that would work for him. So it's just kind of a mess right now. We'll figure it out eventually! One day. Hopefully before he's one! This momma needs sleep! We're going to give the medicine a little longer and see if anything else improves. If nothing else improves, we might take him off of it and see what happens.

Anyway, a little more about Oliver. Besides not sleeping good anymore and struggling a bit with nursing, he is such a happy little guy! Honestly, before he hit two months (when all these problems got really bad), we were like wow, he is a lot easier and happier than Noah was! He smiles all the time! At everyone. It's so cute. Looking back I'm like, yeah Noah was pretty serious as a baby (he still is). He smiled but you had to work for it. Sometimes I just LOOK at Oliver and he starts smiling, haha. He's really such a little sweetie pie.

He seems super social and when someone is talking to me he usually ends up smiling at them. He laughs at the most random things sometimes. It seems like him, Noah and Derek all have the same sense of humor... when someone falls down or trips, or something falls, or something did something stupid. He loves to watch Noah.

He is turning more blonde which was not expected either. His older hair, the longer stuff in the back that he hasn't lost is more of a dark auburn color but all of his new hair coming in looks more like an ashy blonde. Sometimes he reminds me of my dad actually. The face that my dad makes in pictures, haha. But he also really looks like Derek lately. Some people say Elijah too, but I don't see that as much, maybe just because Elijah always had very dark eyes as a baby.

He is grabbing onto things now - toys, hanging objects, his feet, and anything in his reach basically. It's nice that he's more entertained by toys, it gives me a little break and it's just cute.

He also started rolling last week. It seemed like he was going to roll over from his back to tummy for a while now but he never did. Now he is just rolling from tummy to back. It's so fascinating how they go from this tiny, fragile, immobile thing that can barely keep their head up to rolling and wiggling around the place in just a few months!

I feel like I forgot a ton of things I wanted to write but I can't think of anything else right now. We love you Oliver, thanks for joining our family! I'll try to keep an updated monthly post. 

Washington 2015

We took a short trip to Washington in August to visit Derek's brother Chris and his family. We left Thursday the 13th and were supposed to arrive at 7 pm I believe. But We our flight got delayed on our layover and we ended up arriving around midnight. Plus it takes almost an hour to drive from the airport to Chris and Nancy's house. So it was quite a late night for the boys. 

Derek's dad came with us which was really nice. We got to spend 5 days straight with him! Noah just loves his Papa!

Friday we went on a hike to a beautiful waterfall - Franklin Falls. It was raining that day but we decided to go anyway. I didn't care about getting wet, my only concern was my babies. Noah had a rain jacket but it was still a bit cold. He did great though. He was shivering towards the end since he was soaked. I was surprised how well Oliver did. I can't imagine what we was thinking, "what is this wet stuff falling from the sky and why is it so darn cold!?" We had him in the carrier, and he fell asleep on the way. The falls were very beautiful. We didn't stay too long at the falls since we were only getting colder, but it was worth the hike. 

We went out to dinner at Red Robin and had a nice evening in together. 

Saturday morning we had a little work out session (when I say we, I mean Chris, Nancy and the kids) at the park by their house. Then we spent a few hours downtown Gig Harbor. We rented some kayak's and paddle boards. To be honest, I was not too excited, and a little nervous. I've had some minor traumatizing experiences with water and with canoes that have left me a bit fearful of water activities.   I just wasn't thrilled about it because I didn't think I'd enjoy it too much. Especially since I would be alone in my kayak.... boring. But after a bit I actually started to really love it! And I don't know why I thought we'd all separate, I caught up with everyone else and it was really fun. We even saw some seals just a few feet away from us. That was really, really cool! I love seeing wild animals. 

Noah liked it too and Nancy stayed back to watch Oliver, so that was nice of her. I think I want to go kayaking more often now. It was actually relaxing. Michael said he'd even like to buy some for East Canyon. 

I love Gig Harbor. It's such a cute little harbor town. So beautiful. And reminds me of Nova Scotia just a little!

That night we went on another little hike. This one wasn't as steep, and it wasn't raining, so an easier one for us. Chris took us to see a big piece of land in the forest that he dreams of buying and building a home on. As if their current house isn't beautiful enough - this would be so dreamy!

Sunday we went to church, came home and had lunch. Relaxed a bit. And spent the evening at the beach. We didn't go swimming, just hung out. The kids played in the sand. Noah was "Wreck-It Ralph" like always and smashing everything his cousins would make. They finally decided to build him a chair of sand to sit on and then wreck it! And he did, of course. 

Monday Chris had to work and the kids had obligations so Derek, Michael, our boys and I spent the day in Seattle! Although, with travel time (we took the ferry) and kids, particularly a two month old and a two year old - it was more like a few hours actually sight seeing Seattle! Haha. 

Our first stop was at Pike's Fish Market. I wish we could have spent more time there but it was a quick look and we walked on by. We headed to the Space Needle. That was cool. I liked the views. 

We then had lunch and took a break to feed Oliver. After lunch we didn't have a ton of time left before we needed to head back to the ferry so we decided to take Noah to Seattle's Children's Museum. We only had less than an hour there but it was fun. It's cool to see children's museums in other cities. 

We took the monorail back to Pike's Market. Noah fell asleep instantly on the ride. Which was unfortunate for him because we were on our way to see the famous Gum Wall. Noah LOVES gum. But he slept through it all, haha. We realized we didn't even have time to buy some gum so we found some hi-chews and stuck them on the wall! 

We took the ferry back home and spent the evening raspberry picking with the Finch's. We had a beautiful sunset. I really enjoyed taking walks in their neighborhood - it has such a different feeling and completely different scenery than our neighborhood (Don't worry, we love Rose Park). But it truly is breathtaking. I would love to live there! Only if it didn't rain so much. However we were lucky on our trip, it only rained the first day. 

Both plane rides (there and back) were smooth as far as kids and crying. We swaddled Oliver and he slept most of the plane rides - even though Seattle is close, we had layovers both ways. I was super worried about Oliver because just days before we left he started having reflux. More on that in his post. Noah did pretty well too. Every time we travel by plane, someone at the end of the flight always says, "He did so good!" or something along those lines. I think he does do pretty good, but I also think they're being kind. Which is appreciated. 

We really, really, really enjoyed our trip to Washington! We LOVE spending time with that family, they are all such amazing people. I love how musically talented they all are. And I love how active the whole family is. I joked around saying, this is the first vacation that I think I actually lost weight rather than gained! We did so much walking and hiking, kayaking, and ate pretty healthy food. It was refreshing. The kids are also so smart, mature and polite. I just love everything about them. You can tell their parents are doing an excellent job. 

I loved the feeling of their house. Not only do you feel the spirit there, but it's just so gorgeous! Inside and out. You look outside and just see HUGE trees! I couldn't get enough. I loved how peaceful and serene it was. As you're peeing in the bathroom... you look outside the big window and you feel like you're in a magical forest. It felt like I was in the movie, Twilight! Ah, it was great. 

It was also a relatively inexpensive trip, which is really nice since we don't really have a vacation fund. We used our air miles for our flight, we didn't need a hotel or rental car. Basically Derek and his dad were fighting over who pays what the whole time. "I'll get this. No, I'LL get this." I think the most money we spent was on airport food! 

We are definitely planning on going back soon. And this time we would love to try to go up to Vancouver while we're there since it's so close! 

Adjusting to Two Kids: The First Few Weeks

BROTHERS//
Noah was so excited to meet his baby brother! He really, really loves babies! My family brought him to the hospital to meet Oliver the morning after he was born. He said he was "so cute" and liked meeting him. It was such a special moment for us.

Of course that excitement didn't last too long. After a little while he seemed to maybe be having some  jealousy. There were a few weeks where he just seemed to be having a rough time, MAJOR tantrums and acting out, mental breakdowns (where he just cries for a long period of time for no reason). He usually does these things already but they were much more frequent and more intense. It was hard.

He also seemed a bit indifferent towards Oliver most of the time and then sometimes would be rough with him. He didn't want to hold him as much as I thought he would have. There were a handful of times where he caused baby some harm - including the time where he kicked him in the head after Oliver got out of the bath...... so sad!

However, I've noticed that the last little while (now in October) Noah has been really warming up to Oliver. He seems to want to cuddle with him and hold him more often. He likes to talk to him and comfort him. I think this will increase even more as Oliver gets older and more able to do things. Every time Oliver cries, Noah starts singing, "Hush little baby don't say a word, daddy's gonna buy you a mockingbird..."



EMOTIONS//
The dreaded baby blues hit me the second day home from the hospital. I felt sad. The first two nights with Oliver were exhausting and I think it hit me like, this is going to be so hard. It sucks to feel those feelings because you feel kind of guilty, like I should be so joyous right now, so why do I feel sad?! It's so annoying. I remember that day, Derek had to go somewhere - I can't remember where, but me and Noah were eating lunch together and I just started crying. It reminded me of all the special times we had together, just me and him. Every day, it was always just me and him, for the last two years. Something as simple as having lunch together just the two of us was suddenly so special to me. And now things would never be the same. Even though we loved Oliver, it was just different and it made me very emotional. It's funny though, looking back now, I remember those feelings but I don't feel that way anymore. It feels completely normal to have both Noah and Oliver home with me now. Those baby blues really only lasted a few days - and then I started to feel good. I think Noah is used to life with Oliver now too.

While at the hospital I didn't get to see Noah as much as I normally do, and once I came home I was with Oliver A LOT. So Derek and Noah were suddenly together all the time. Noah was already a bit of a daddy's boy but I think this really nailed that in. Derek was the one putting Noah down for bed each night. I remember one of the first few nights home, I just felt like I missed him. And all I wanted was to read him some books and put him to sleep. More tears.

I encapsulated my placenta, and started taking them about 4 or 5 days after I gave birth. I do feel like they helped me have more energy and helped my emotions get back to normal much faster.



ADJUSTING//
I think the hardest thing in the beginning was feeling bad for Noah. I spent so much time nursing Oliver and it was hard to not feel sorry for Noah. He was so bored and probably wondering why I was spending so much time with Oliver and not much time with him. Derek also started his LSAT prep class shortly after Ollie was born so Mon & Wed nights I was now by myself and it was very hard to do bedtime for Noah if Oliver needed me.

We slowly adjusted and I remember at one month post pardon already feeling like we were doing okay. Things were starting to get easier.