Smiles!

My baby does like me!

I was starting to think he was going to have such a serious personality.

And then he smiled.

So big! Lots of times!

But of course not for the camera yet -- just for Mom.

Babywise

My friend Amy asked how I got Ryan to sleep so well, and this is my secret. I didn't get him drunk. :) I've been thinking about writing about this anyway. I hadn't heard of this book when I had Hannah, and I think I will feel guilty until the day I die about the awful job I did nursing her. By the time she was two months old she had only gained a pound and a little bit over her birth weight. I might cry just thinking about it. I had no idea how to take care of her, and I didn't ask anyone for help. I had read some breastfeeding books and the material you get from the hospital and pediatrician, but all of that was based on demand-feeding principles and I knew I didn't want to do that. But then I didn't know what to do.

The thing I like so much about this book is that it's not extreme. It's doesn't advise demand feeding or going strictly by the clock. It's a middle of the road approach focused on having a predictable schedule but allowing for flexibility when needed. To me, the fact that this encourages good nighttime sleep is just a bonus. I really needed it just to understand when and how much an infant needs to eat.

I think one of the hardest parts of parenting is being consistent. During the first year of life, babies are learning whether they can trust you to meet their needs. I always worried that if sometimes I picked them up right when they cried but sometimes I just let them cry it out to sleep, then I wasn't being consistent and would be causing emotional trauma to my poor baby. Now I think I was just causing myself the trauma. With a predictable schedule I can generally know that he's not hungry right now, so in order to meet his needs in the best way he needs to cry himself to sleep. Or, I can tell that he's probably hungry and I don't mind feeding him even if it's not exactly when I predicted he would eat again. That's a huge difference in my mindset from Hannah. I wouldn't believe she could be hungry yet and would get so frustrated that nothing else would settle her down but nursing. Oh, I can't even talk about her without getting upset with myself.

So, Nate and I can't decide if Ryan is just a really good baby, or if we just have relaxed and learned a lot since our girls were babies. It's probably both. I read this book before I had Nikki, and it helped tons, but I think I have been even better at applying the principles this time around. I highly recommend this one.

7 Hours!!

That's how long Ryan slept last night! Can you hear me singing? What a fabulous baby! Now, if I could have everything I wished for, he would have slept from 11pm - 6 am, but he went from 8 pm - 3 am and I'm not going to complain about it. I'm ready for bed by 8:30 anyway. Last week I kept trying to wake him up for that last feeding of the night, and he just wouldn't do it so I've given up. I woke up around 2 am and thought, "Is he okay? Should I go check on him? ... no, he'll let me know when he's ready." And he did. And I feel so good this morning! Maybe I'll be able to do something productive today ... maybe.

Nikki

Nikki is back to her normal self again. The whining and stubbornness have returned, but so has her cute little giggle. I think I have focused too much lately on the low end of her mood swings, and I need to remember more often the fun and sweetness she brings to our family. She is the one who usually gets us together to play games. She loves board games, and she loves uno. She thinks it is so much fun to lay a draw four on someone, and surprisingly enough she handles it pretty well when someone gives her a draw four. She is such a snuggler. If Nate or I take a break on the couch, within just a few minutes she'll be cuddled right up with us. She loves make-believe games, and the whole family is always included. Usually she's the kitty and I'm the mommy kitty. It has been so fun to watch how much she is learning in kindergarten. She is so proud of the work she does. She is learning to write sentences by writing down the sounds she hears, and I think she does a great job. She is very proud of her good behavior at school. Her teacher has a frog theme throughout the classroom, and they get a green, yellow, or red lily pad to take home every day to show how their behavior was at school. Green means she didn't get in trouble, and I think if she ever got a yellow it would devastate her. This morning she was really cute when she saw that she is in charge of the treat for family night tonight. She got this really cute thinking face on, and said, " Umm, I want milkshakes" and then gave a huge grin. She has a sweet tooth to rival Aunt Kellee's! She has said a couple of cute things in the past couple of days that I have wanted to write down.

• "I wish I was a baby. Then I would always be cozy, and someone would feed me, and I wouldn't have to get dressed by myself."


• "I'm boring." This was said during General Conference when she was getting bored.

Oh, I know there was more. I'll have to come back and add them if I remember. I am so grateful to have Nikki in our family. Now, if we could only get these mood swings under control before the teenage years hit.:)

A Sad State of Affairs

Three doctors visits in one week. Okay, the third was my 6-week checkup that I just threw in to make it sound worse. I'm fine but two of our little ones aren't feeling quite up to par.

First, Ryan is showing some signs of reflux, so the doctor prescribed some medicine for him. Is it working? I don't know. Sometimes I think so, but then the next thing I know he'll be really uncomfortable again. And why was he awake for two hours last night? That's just not what he's been doing. I took his temperature last night to make sure he's not getting what Nikki's got. I think he's okay so far. Oh yeah, he weighed in at a hefty 11 lbs 5 oz. I knew he was eating well, but good grief. Poor Nikki has had a fever since Monday night. For a while it was hanging around 103.2 and Motrin wasn't doing much to bring it down. She had some spots on her tonsils, so I took her in to the doctor, but it's not strep. Could have saved that copay, but with the baby around I just wanted to know for sure. Interestingly enough, she has been nice to have around this week. No screaming, whining, begging, or demanding. I'm a terrible mother to say that, but it has been calmer around here. I do feel sorry for her because I can tell she feels just awful. Today she has acted like she is feeling a little better. She even broke out a princess dress. Hopefully she really is on the mend. Don't her eyes just look sick in this picture?

It all just makes me even more grateful to be a stay-at-home mom. In the parking lot at the pediatrician's office (at one of our trips there) I saw a mother saying good-bye to her toddler. The dad was taking him to a sitter, and I just thought that was the saddest thing. It would break my heart to have to go to work when my little one was sick. I know it's necessary for some families, and I am so very grateful that we are not in that situation. And I'm even more grateful that I'm not working when I don't have to.

Eyelids of Lead

These got posted in the wrong order -- the second one comes first. Then about 20 minutes later I took the other video. This certainly isn't the most thrilling footage, but this scene repeats itself so often that it was worthy of catching on film. It was kind of dark, hope you can see it.

If I leave him alone, it will take him at least 30 minutes of grunting and squirming for him to be able to finally wake himself up. Usually I just go ahead and change his diaper to snap him out of it. Last Sunday Nate took him to Elders quorum and he had to leave because Ryan was grunting so loud that no one could hear the lesson. I think Tim "the Toolman" Taylor just might approve of his grunting abilities. WHY ARE MY BABIES SO SLEEPY???

Kiddos

Don't you think Ryan will be glad that he's a boy and won't have to worry about me trying to do his hair? Poor Hannah and Nikki. Oh well, they're cute even with wild hair.

The New Do

This is a rare thing for me to post a picture just of me, but this is noteworthy. Yesterday, with no prior thought or planning or appointment, I got my hair done. And this time it wasn't just the regular "give me a trim with a few layers in the bottom." And I actually liked it. Well, I haven't tried the true test, which is to see what it looks like curly or to see if I can actually style it straight myself. So, the final verdict is still to be determined, but as it so often happens with my hair -- it can only be an improvement from what it was. Yea for spontaneity!

We're Here

Wow, I have spent a lot of time on the computer this morning. I haven't had it hooked up for the last week and a half and I'm trying to catch up on the emails and things. Maybe it would be better to just unplug it again.

Isn't that baby just adorable? I can't get enough of him. He is the sweetest thing, and you really need to make a trip to come visit us and get some of his sweet love. The girls adore him, too. They can't wait for him to be able to smile at us. He's 4 weeks old today -- unbelievable how time is flying by already.

So, our move went really well. I have the greatest brothers ever. Thank you so much J & Mike for all of your help. And thank you Alli for donating your husband, and thanks Sherrie for helping with the kids and dinner. We ended up packing the truck Friday night before the storm really hit, but that meant that they were loading the truck before we had finished packing! I've never done that before. But we had wonderful people from church who came and helped along with Mike & Jay. And then there were several guys from our new ward here in Raleigh that came and helped unload, so it went fairly quickly and smoothly. And a big shout out to JW for tying down the tarp on top of our leaky truck well enough that it stayed on through tropical storm force winds and none of our stuff got wet. Like I said, I have the best brothers in the world.

Hannah and Nikki have been enjoying their new school. They are now in year-round, which I was worried about for Hannah because this school has been in session longer than our traditional school had been. But I think she will be fine. I really liked their teachers when I met them, and I'm looking forward to parent-teacher conferences next week. Nikki's teacher's name is Mrs. Naugle, and when Nate was asking about her first day she told him her teacher's name was Mrs. Goggles. :)

Our boxes are gone! That's right, we are unpacked! With my extremely organized husband and all the many times that we have had boxes around us, we just like to go ahead and get the unpacking over with. Not having internet or phone last week helped a lot with that, too. We are enjoying our new house. It's quite a bit smaller than our last one, so we sold some things on craigslist and stuffed lots more in the attic, and now we're feeling kind of cozy. We live in a great location. Just three minutes from school and 15 minutes from Nate's office. Fabulous shopping all around. Mike and Sherrie aren't too far. We have a cute neighborhood with sidewalks (that's an improvement). The houses are too close together, but we didn't buy this house so I don't really care. I'll have to get a picture of the airplanes. We live pretty close to the airport. The sound really isn't bad, but if you stand in our driveway and look up at the right time, you almost feel like an airplane is going to land in our backyard. I bet Ryan will like that when he gets a little bigger. Alli, you'll have to bring Jay by for a visit.

Anyway, things have been good for us. Maybe my postpartum hormones just haven't kicked in yet, but with all of our changes lately we just feel so blessed. The kids have handled things very well, our new churchmembers have been so nice, Nate has filled his gas tank once in the last two weeks, I've been shopping twice already this week (don't worry, Nate, I won't spend all of our gas savings), our baby is eating and sleeping well, my hair hasn't started falling out yet, and now our phone/internet is working. We are indeed blessed.

Hurricane Hanna

We already have a Hurricane Hannah at our house, but interestingly enough this one looks like it will be in our driveway at the same time we will be trying to load our truck on Saturday. Huh. That could make for a really memorable day.