Babies.....everywhere........

I'm pretty sure I could name at least 20 friends/family that have had babies this year and another 20 that are expecting. Maybe it's just my age, but it seems like its the cool thing or something, lol.

First I wanted to post a big congratulations to my life twin, Carrie who gave birth to Anna Aileen on August 25th. In true life twin fashion, we went through another pregnancy together. As soon as I got pregnant and told her, we both predicted that she would obviously be pregnant soon, too! She had a boy first (a few weeks older than Josie) and had a beautiful little girl this time (opposites in sexes, I guess!) Oh, and her daughter weighed almost the same as Josie and our sons were exactly the same measurements! I also kept telling her that we would be labor twins, too. Sure enough, she went into early morning labor, got stuck in the car for most of it, and arrived at the hospital just in time to deliver 10 mins later!! Nothing like a quick, natural labor! She hadn't planned on going natural, but I kept telling her that she would be like me and go quick, so she better get to the hospital fast if she wants drugs, lol!! Oh, well. Sorry, Carrie! So happy for you guys!

Speaking of birth......

I may regret this, but since I was curious myself, I decided to document my postpartum belly. I am sharing it with you. This, my friends, is the truly ugly part of pregnancy. Now see if you think my belly is "cute," lol!

This is what it looked like the next morning. I look about 6 or 7 months pregnant still.

My mom is big on flaunting the fact that she never got stretch marks. Thanks mom.

Fortunately, mine faded almost to invisible last time and are already faded quite a bit so far this time too. As big as my belly was, I don't know how I could have avoided them!

Here it is exactly 4 weeks later. Still a long way to go, but better!

I still have about 20 pounds to lose if I want to get to my pre-pregnancy weight. Since I'm nursing, my goal is just to lose at least another 10-15 and lose the last bit later. I was underweight before so I'm fine with keeping some of it anyway. I still have to squeeze into most of my clothes and have been wearing a lot of maternity clothes still cause they are more comfortable.

Oh, and one last question. Has anyone seen the movie "The Business of Being Born?" It's on Netflix and I was wondering what your opinions were. (I haven't seen it yet)

Coming up in the next post: Josie and Donny update!! Yay!

Week 3

This past week I tried to take it a little easier so that I wouldn't ruin my recovery. We stayed at home quite a bit, but I still felt guilty about keeping Josie in all the time. The summer and warm, sunny days are precious when you have several months of cold winter ahead. Before my relax days, I got bold and decided to take the kids on a half-day outing. After nap-time we ran errands, went shopping, and ended up at the mall play area. I brought only the single stroller since the double is pretty bulky and I didn't want to be lifting it. It ended up being me holding Donny with one arm (since he would cry if I put him down), pushing the stroller with the other, and herding Josie by calling out commands. It was kinda tough. Of course, as we walked through the mall toward the play area, Josie started running wild and Donny was crying cause he was hungry. It was quite a sight. As soon as I sat down and started nursing him, Josie collided with another kid and got a bloody nose. I tried to console her while keeping him nursing with one arm. Luckily, another mom stepped in to help. Maybe I'll try another outing next week. I'm sure it'll get easier, right?

Here's what Donny thought of the day: Good grief!!


So far, little Donovan is taking some getting used to. He is much different from Josie. Josie almost never cried, and when she did, it was very mild. Donny is quite the screamer so far! When he is wide awake, he is very content. When he is asleep, he is very content. It's that in between time where he is not quite sure if he wants to sleep or be awake that makes him very upset. Like every baby, he wants to be held 24/7 so I do my best to comply. He also hates having a dirty diaper. I'm pretty sure Josie could have gone all day without a change and she wouldn't have cared. Donny is happiest when he has been freshly changed. Can you blame him?
I finally bought a wrap that I love. The first carrier I bought when Josie was a newborn was an Amy Coe sling. I tried it once and it made me really nervous since it didn't seem very safe or comfortable so I returned it. Then, what do you know, they were recalled!!! Anyway, then I tried a Moby. I liked it ok, but it was a lot of fabric for me. I just couldn't seem to wear it right. I finally bought a Baby K'tan. I love it!!! It wraps up top like a Moby, but without all the extra fabric. It feels way more natural and secure too. It was almost twice as much as a Moby, but well worth it. I get so much more done when I am not trying to do things with one hand while I hold Donny with the other. I have just been wearing him around instead.
Though he cries more than Josie did, I think he is a better sleeper so far. He has only been nursing 2-3 times at night (11:00-8:00). He wakes briefly sometimes, but when I go to feed him, he falls back asleep before he can eat. I haven't been taking naps during the day and I feel like I am doing ok on the sleep I'm getting. I probably need more, but I'm not exhausted. Plus, naptime is precious since I need to catch up on a lot of things right now. Josie sleeps 12 straight hours at night, but only takes about a 1 or 1 1/2 hour nap during the day and that time goes by quickly.
I'm not sure how much Donny weighs at this point, but he has already grown out of a lot of his newborn clothes. I hope he gets nice and chubby like Josie was. He has a check-up next week, so I'll update stats then.

I really wanted to have some pictures of me and my babies. The pictures are usually of Kevin and the kids since I'm usually the photographer. I have very few good ones of just Jos and I, and I really wanted some of Donny and I too. I made Kevin play photographer. I think he did pretty well! It was extremely challenging getting Josie to cooperate with picture time. I had to bribe her with raisins to sit on my lap long enough to snap a picture. Very few ended up being usable. She was a live wire that evening! As soon as we let her outside, she was running wild. We had to settle on just a few shots of the three of us and had to finally just start taking action shots since she was not going to settle down for a nice pose.

Here she is wanting me to say a prayer with her:

She's so reverent, lol.




Had to throw a cute daddy one in there.......











Oh, and of course we had to recreate the drum photo with Donny. What you don't see is the squirts of poo that got all over the backdrop right before we snapped the picture. Thank you Photoshop!!

Baby Cash

Because I'm a selfish jerk, I forgot to introduce Donny and Josie's new cousin, Cash! Little Cash was born the day before Donny and is the first-born of my older sister Sarah and her husband John. He was born 7/27 at 9:28 A.M. and weighed in at 6 lb. 6 oz. and 19 in. (so little!). It was quite the debocle for my mom, trying to be there for both births. I was originally due a few days before Sarah, but she decided to schedule a C Section for the 27th and ended up beating me to the punch. Of course, my mom was bummed she missed Donovan's birth, but I'm glad she was able to be there for Sarah. I'm so excited for her to experience the amazing happiness that is being a mother! Plus, Cash is SOOOO super cute!!! Congrats Sarah and John! Anyway, here are a few pics of the family:

Also, you might remember that my younger sister, Sheri, got married the beginning of July. I haven't posted about the wedding cause I haven't even seen the pictures yet!!! HELLOOOO family!! I know I live in Indiana, but come on!! Can't I get some pics?!?!? Anyway, as soon as I can get some professionals from their special day, I'll post 'em for ya and give an update of the newlyweds!

Just me and the kids........

This was my first week alone with my 2 children. The last 2 weeks have seemed really long. It seems like so long ago that I was huge and pregnant. I keep having to remind myself that it's only been a few days since then. I was pretty nervous about being left alone, even though I was feeling pretty good. Fortunately, it's been much easier than I thought it would be. Newborns sleep a lot. Thank goodness for that. Josie is still doing great with him, and has been helping quite a bit. We are still getting into the whole taking-care-of-a-newborn-groove. We finally figured out how to change a boy without getting sprayed. Nighttime has been interesting. His 4-5 hour stretch at night was a onetime thing. Since then, he is pretty much up every 2-3 hours to nurse. That's kinda what I expected anyway. I think it's different every night, but I'm not sure since I rarely look at the clock to check how long it's been. He is kinda back and forth between our bed and the bassinet next to our bed at night. If he's sleeping soundly I put him in the bassinet and he seems fine with that. Inevitably in the night, I pull him into bed to nurse and we both fall asleep. He sleeps better that way, of course, so I do too. I did the same thing with Josie and slowly transitioned her into sleeping next to us in a bassinet and then into her own room in a crib. For now, while we are all getting accustomed to things and recovering, it's just easier to do things that way. Anyway, I'm not into trying to "schedule" him, but I have attempted to wake him if he sleeps a really long time during the day. Several days in a row, he was taking a long 4 hour nap during the day. I started to really wish he would do that at night, so I am trying to encourage him to be a little more alert during the day and waking him to nurse if he is sleeping a long time. Being a newborn must be tiring!! Hoping that he will soon figure it out on his own and want to play with us during the day instead of late at night! It'll happen.

Anyway, here are just a few pics from the week:

It's always exciting when the umbilical chord comes off cause then he can join the family shower! He liked this much better than the bath.

Indiana University in South Bend, where I will (someday) be finishing my masters degree, was hosting a "Messiah" sing-along in the park. Kinda weird to do it in August, I know. Anyway, we decided it would be fun. I have sung the Messiah countless times, but never at a sing-along!

Here Josie is enjoying it while munching on carrots:

And munching on one of her favorites: a bag of green beans. Love her!

It's been interesting and a little challenging at times to come up with fun ideas for Josie to do that don't involve me over exerting, neglecting Donny, or involve the television. She has watched more movies than usual lately, but we are still trying to keep it at a minimum. Instead, we do things like this:

I introduced her to sink baths a couple weeks ago after a finger painting session. She had way more fun bathing than she did finger painting. This afternoon, I offered the idea to her and she danced around in excitement saying "Bath! Sink! Bath! Sink!! Yeah!!" We didn't have bubble bath, so dish soap had to do.

I warned her several times about putting her face in the water. Sometimes they just gotta learn on their own!
I have like 2 million pictures of Josie taken before she was even 2 weeks old. I figure I need to at least attempt to catch up with Donovan. I need to carry the camera around with me. I promise to take more pics, Mom. In the meantime, here he is enjoying some tummy time:

2 kids, Week 1

I LOVE newborns!!! I am enjoying every moment of this short time. I am holding little Donovan every moment I can and kissing his sweet little face all day. So far he is a very easy baby and I find myself wondering what I would do with all my time if I didn't have a toddler to take care of. Kevin has been home all week and will go back to work tomorrow. It has been so wonderful to spend the week together resting and playing. Josie has loved having daddy home all day. I think maybe that is part of why she has not been phased at all by the sudden arrival of a new family member. Donny is still in that newborn sleepy phase, so he spends most of his time dozing on mommy or daddy's lap or in the swing. I have a hard time putting him down, cause he is so snuggly, but he doesn't seem to mind when I do.

I have been nursing him on demand, which for the first few days meant every 30 mins to an hour. Now he has settled into more like every 2 hours or so, though it's still rather sporadic. All that eating helped him recover his birth weight and then some in just a few days. His weight 24 hours after birth was 6 lb. 13 oz. but by day 5 he was already at 7 lb. 6 oz! He has been having longer waking periods during the day where he just contently looks around and sucks on his fist. The last couple days he has taken long 2-3 hour naps, too. Nighttime has been surprisingly easy so far. Last night he did a 4-5 hour stretch and then 2, 2 hour stretches before I got up. To me, that's amazing! I always plan that for the first few months, I will only sleep 2-3 hours at a time. Then, when I am treated to a longer stretch, it really feels good! I am able to function pretty well on little sleep, so I'm fine with whatever. Fortunately, Josie sleeps amazingly at night so I don't have to worry about her.

Josie has done miraculously well. So well, it almost makes me think she is hiding her feelings and will decide she hates the baby at any moment. From the moment she first met him, she has wanted to help and loves having him around. If I am not holding him, she will look around and ask "Baby?" She helps get things for the baby and when he cries, she pats him on the head and says "Ok, ok." She loves giving him kisses and was very excited when we let her hold him for the first time. I am not really counting on all of this to last, but given the fact that she is naturally very sweet and well-behaved, I think it's a good chance. Plus, at her age, I think she will forget very quickly what it was like before baby brother arrived.

As far as my recovery is going, it is waaaaaay easier this time. I remember not even wanting to leave the house until week 2 after Josie was born. Even then, I was pretty uncomfortable until week 3 at least. This time has been so much faster. The first couple days I was still on the after labor high and was reminding myself constantly to take it easy and rest. Day 3 and 4 were probably the hardest but not bad at all. It was all non-labor related problems. My back has taken I while to readjust to not being pregnant so it has been sore and achy. The only other annoyance has been crazy engorgement. It seems like it is worse this time. Other than that, afterpains were very mild and went away quickly, and by day 3 I didn't really even feel like I had had a baby! I also don't have the horribly annoying pain from stiches this time. Yay! Overall I feel really good and expect to feel normal in another week or so. I have been doing normal day to day things since day 3 and don't really feel the need to take it easy much anymore. I am actually sleeping better than I did the last couple weeks of pregnancy so that's nice. We have gone on several outings this week and I kept having to remind myself that it's only been a week. It seemed like such a long week!!

After the birth, I stayed in bed till the next afternoon to try and catch up on sleep. I don't think Josie knew I was home and she had Kevin and my dad playing with her. When I came down stairs with baby Donovan, she was immediately fascinated. She kept pointing to different parts of his body and saying them like eyes, nose, tummy, etc. It was very cute. She loved his little feet and kept wanting to touch them. She gave him several kisses and made her snuggly kiss him too. She's such a sweetheart!




Snuggling with grandpa during "Winnie the Pooh"

Donny had his first check-up by the midwife the next day. She came to the house and everything checked out just great!! He had another check-up at the house on Sunday and passed that one too!


For his first outing on day 4, we walked to the park. It felt good to get out. I love Josie in the background squatting on the table. She's funny!



We waited to bathe him until day 5. Didn't want to get rid of that new baby smell!! You can see how much he enjoyed that.



Our little snuggle bear!!









I know this one is kinda goofy, but I love any picture that captures his cute dimple!