A bit of a rough start but things are looking up

My first week on my own with two kids was off to a rocky start. Brendan picked up a nasty virus somewhere and proceeded to spend 5 days vomiting and battling horrible diarrhea. Being puked on multiple times a day was really not what I imagined our first week alone to be like, but we got through it... somehow.

My sick boy was back in pull-ups since he couldn't control his bowel movements. I felt so bad for him! Unfortunately, Brendan passed on his virus to me but luckily mine only lasted about 24 hours. Chris was able to work from home a couple of days to help me out, which was a huge help both physically and emotionally. It's probably no surprise that I was a bit of wreck worrying over Brendan not being able to keep even water down, worrying over the possibility of Alex getting sick, and being stressed out to the max. I'm extremely grateful that I have such an amazing husband and I'm also extremely grateful for prayer. There was a lot of praying going on and I know that we heard and were blessed and strengthened. I couldn't have gotten through those few days without that extra comfort and strength.

Luckily, we are all now back to normal and are all healthy.

Alex was a little jaundice as well, which I found out runs higher in the second child if the first was jaundice- and Brendan was very jaundice and spent a few days on a bilibed for light therapy. Luckily, Alex's levels were never high enough to warrant light therapy and his "tan" has almost completely faded at this point. And don't you love how he's sucking on his fingers? I sure do. Alex loves to suck on his hands and fingers when he can get them by his mouth long enough to get a hold of them. He melts my heart.

 

Now it's time for some cute photos that don't need much commentary from me.

 Brendan took advantage of Alex's changing pad being free and decided to lounge on it... naked, of course.

Brendan also loves my nursing pillow and constantly wants to use it. He gets mad sometimes when I need to use it and he can't.

One tired dad and one sweet baby. I love my boys!

I'm looking forward to this next week going much more smoothly than this past week- wish me luck!

We had a baby!

Alelx Matthew Near finally decided it was time to stop torturing me and came 5 days early on September 14 at 6:40am. It was a fast (but very intense) labor and luckily a very quick delivery. Alex weighed in at a tiny 5lbs 14oz and is 19 inches long.

 We couldn't be happier and we're all smitten with him- even Brendan, who is behaving like a first-class big brother.

 

We're all home now but posting will probably be sparse for a little while as we all make some adjustments around here. Let's hope this little guy decides to be a good sleeper!

Labor Day

I was hoping that today would indeed prove to be "labor" day but unfortunately, it's looking like this baby is happy to keep chillin' in the womb for a little bit longer. I'm having contractions every now and then but nothing major to get me really excited, and on last Friday my doctor informed me that I'm dilated to a 1 but that really didn't mean much since I was stuck at a 1 with Brendan for a couple of weeks. But at least my body is getting ready and I know the next couple of weeks will just fly by... right?

The weather has been surprisingly awesome the last few days, so we've been taking advantage of it. We took Brendan to the park for the first time in quite a while (sad but true) and he loved it.

We got to do all the things he loves: swing, run around chasing each other, get super dirty, eat a yummy treat, and throw rocks in water.

 He was even in such a good mood that he would pose in a picture with me.

And because we wanted to reward him for doing so awesome with his night-time potty training (still no accidents! Keep your fingers crossed for us), we went out and got him a surprise-

His very own marble race. He loves it and spent 3 hours straight playing with it that afternoon. Best toy we've ever purchased for him.

He Still Surprises Me

This picture is a bit old but I couldn't resist putting it up here. I happened to be looking through old photos of my little beloved and just about died at the cuteness of my child. How has he grown up so much?????

And this morning, we had yet another reminder of how grown up he is. Brendan made it through the whole night in his underwear without having a single accident. No more pull-ups for this little boy! And it was all Brendan, too. He decided last night as we were getting ready for bed that he did NOT want to wear pull-ups anymore- just his undies. So I figured "why not?" and we let him wear his favorite Yo Gabba Gabba underwear to bed, fully prepared to have a very soggy child in the morning. Boy, were we wrong. He was still dry at 11pm when we checked on him and this morning he was dry as a bone. My boy is awesome.

Now I'm cursing myself for buying the econo-size box of pull-ups from Costco last week of which he's used probably less than 10. Anyone need 70 pull-ups?