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Kemry: This squirt loves all things "holiday." She has been sitting by the window all day saying, "Bunny Easter! Where are you? Please come to my house!" She has also been requesting to go to bed all evening so far, just because when she wakes up, she knows that there will be candy evvvvvverywhere. Smart girl, that one.

Tate: So serious, yet so happy at the same time. Also, we are finally having successes with him sleeping through the night! Holla!

Side note: Mamas- I need some help. Tyrel and I will be leaving the kids for 10 days next month, and as much as I don't want to stop nursing just yet, I don't really want to have to pump every few hours on our Caribbean vacation. How in the world do we start this weaning business? I didn't nurse the Kemster longer than a month due to lots and lots of mastitis, so I am beyond lost. Little man still doesn't like bottles, either, but has been taking a few ounces here or there. Any help is appreciated!!!

two months old...and five things I have learned while having two kids instead of one

Two months!

Bonkers!

On top of that, it is almost Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then my birthday, then Christmas, then Kemry's birthday, then {most important of all holidays} tax returns!

We are headed full-steam toward our most busy time of the year.

And I am so excited to include this new little member of our family in all of it.

He is a chunky, ornery, adorable, happy, energized little boy.

He fits in perfectly with his sister ;)

I thought I would jot down some things that having two kids has taught me.

"Taught" is maybe the wrong word.

None of these came as a surprise, but there is a huge difference between "expecting" and "experiencing."

1. It is all way more exhausting, but not really in a horrible way.

Maybe it is because Kemry is a million times more energized than the average toddler {seriously. Ask anyone that knows her. Up early, go go go, no naps {usually and unfortunately}, to sleep late {even though she is in bed by 8:30...}}. She refuses to walk anywhere...she must hop like a bunny. She refuses to sit and color. She must DANCE and color.

Maybe it is because this little man never sleeps. You know all that stuff on BabyCenter that says that your baby needs 17 {or however many} hours of sleep a day? Yeah. Nope. Last night, for example, he was up at 11:30, 3:.00, 4:30, 5:00, 6:00, and is still going at 9:45. 

So, when people ask if I am getting any sleep, I just laugh. Like, literally, hysterically, sleep-deprivedly laugh. 

But these kids keep me so busy and are so wonderful that I usually don't notice until they are both asleep at one time somewhere around 10 or 11. I hate the all-nighters and exhausting days, but I will do them over and over because I love my kids.

2. You still don't have parenting down 100%, despite having another kid.

Tate had a few nights of puking two weeks ago with a little fever on the side.

And, yes. I was curled up on the couch sobbing, "not knowing" what to do.

Of course there wasn't anything TO do, because he was really just fine. 

Parenting, I think, is less of a skill than it is a way of being. A way of loving. A way of selflessness.

They say it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. I have clocked over 15,000 hours as a parent and am still far from being an expert. Being a good parent is a choice.

3.Yes, it is possible to love both {or all} your kids equally.

I wrote in this post that I had a hard time leaving Kemry at home as we went to go have Tate at the hospital. There were long talks before even getting pregnant after her about whether we wanted another one because we wouldn't be the Three Amigos anymore {we knew we wanted more kids, so those conversations were short-lived}. My heart was fully occupied with love for Kemry. Was it fair for either to have to split that with another kid? When Tate was born, though, I feel like my heart doubled. I didn't have to take anything away from Kemry. Not my love, my attention, not my time. The same goes the other way for Tate. We had {and still have} to do some adjusting to make sure one kid wasn't being "left out," but my capacity to love and care has grown.

4. You {should} learn the true meaning of selflessness.

Whether you want to or not.

Guys. It took me THREE DAYS to write this post.

That is the amount of free time I have now.

I'm not complaining because we CHOSE to have kids, knowing what was coming.

But it was still an adjustment. 

When you have only one kid who is a little older, they are somewhat autonomous. 

With just Kemry, I could get the dishes done, read a book, get a shower in, etc., while helping her when she needed it.

Even when she was a newborn, I could get things done during her naps {or take one myself!}.

Now with two, {for now} my "free-time" is limited.

Regardless, it will happen.

So you either embrace it or trudge through it grumpily.

I can either spend an hour on the computer and listen to my baby fuss and my toddler whine, just so I can have "me" time, or I can play on the floor with both and actually maybe have some fun, too.

 I won't tell you how long it has been since my last shower, or how many days it will take to do my laundry and dishes {or when I will post in my blog next! September yielded ONE post...yikes!}, but I will tell you that I have decided to stop my kids from whining and crying.

And I do that by paying attention to and loving them.

Not that I am perfect at it. Far from it. But I am sure trying. 

For all our sakes.

5. You learn to go with the flow a little better.

No kid is the same. No baby is the same. No pregnancy is the same.

We should all know that by now.

But I had a hard time accepting that.
I really, really, really like lists.

And planning.

And having everyting sorted and figured out.

I am very Type-A.

And when things get a little off, I get anxious.

Like super anxious.

So parenthood is always an adventure for me.

Breastfeeding was a no-go with Kemry.

With Tate, however, it has been the easiest thing in the world.

Kemry slept great at night from the beginning.

Even if he is in our bed, Tate is horrible {as we have already covered}.

I was set on having Kemry potty-trained in one week, just like ever other parent out there.

Nooooo way, Jose. We have been working on this for about 6 months now.

And we are alllllllmost done!

Throw your expectations out the window.

I thought I would lose the baby weight LOTS faster than I am.

I thought Kemry would still take naps every day like clockwork.

I thought we would bypass the terrible twos since they hadn't appeared yet.

I thought there would be jealousy surrounding a new baby in the house.

I thought we would have more {or any!} medical problems with Tate.

And I have been so so wrong.

For some things, I am sad I was wrong, but for others, I couldn't be happier or more thankful.

I am {slowly} learning to take some chill-pills, let me dishes pile up, and embrace the quirks of every day.

And that is all I have to say about that.

feeling so blessed

Yesterday we went to the Pediatric Specialist office for a chat about Tate's kidneys.

We learned quickly after his birth that, believe it or not, his heart wasn't really much of a concern.

They were choosing to be a little more cautious about his kidneys, though.

Not that anything too serious could come from having his funky kidneys, but they wanted to assess the risk of frequent infections and see if his bad kidney needed to be "replumbed" to his bladder.

We had run a procedure at the Children's Hospital the day before and now got to hear the results.

We were thrilled to hear that there is no need for surgery.

True to form, his kidney is odd but working fine.

And the oddities should go away as he grows.

It was a good day for us.

It was essentially the last appointment to really check on his anatomy and make sure there was nothing to worry about.

We were never too concerned about his health during pregnancy, but like any parent, you would want to know that everything checks out just fine with your little bundle of joy.

I left the office feeling so blessed.

There are many people who don't get good news when trying to have babies, while pregnant with babies, or when holding their babies for the first time.

Even though each defect he has could have been serious if it had been bigger, they managed to stay just the right size to not affect him.

He was perfectly pink when he was born.

He had hardly any jaundice.

He nurses like a champ.

PLUS he is now tipping the scale at 8 lbs 12 oz {keep in mind that one week ago he was 7 lbs 9 oz...}.

 Each doctor tells us that his is just an odd but very healthy little guy, but we will take odd over sick anyday!

 

I am so grateful to be a mother.

There is nothing else in this world that brings me greater joy.

 {well, maybe when Tyrel telling me he likes my cooking ;)}

Each time Kemry yells, "Mama! I tooted!" or "Great job, Mama! You did good!", my heart just explodes.

And now I have this sweet little guy who fusses and fusses until I hold him, instantly calming him down.

Even though both kids were up last night, only getting about 4 hours of sleep myself, eating breakfast at 11:00 this morning, and typing this in my smelly pajamas, I still really like this gig.

Now, if you will excuse me.

Kemry just informed me that daddy is sleeping and wants me to come tickle him with her :)

oh my goodness, i just had a baby {round 2}

{There are pictures at the end of this post if that is all you want, you boring person, you!}

 

Ladies and gents, we have survived the first two weeks of being a four person family.

And I absolutely love it.

While it seems that all has been quiet on our end, I assure you it has not.

There has been lots of warm cuddling, kissing chubby cheeks, feeding, burping, pooping, giggling, smiling, and general happiness floating through our house.

{And to keep things real, yes, there has been some yelling, crying, sleepless nights and snippiness, but that comes with the territory, right?}

Tyrel is on paternity leave from work, so every single day I get to spend time with my best friend/hubster, cuddle with a sweet, sweet newborn, and giggle with an energy-filled toddler.
I am on Cloud 9.

Tate's birth story is seriously uneventful.

But we were SO SO SO glad it was.

{You can read Kemry's here}

Around 37 weeks, we kicked it into high gear trying to get him to come out, just like every mom does.

We tried every natural induction method in the book.

But nooooo baby.

We had been talking with our doctor and decided that we would be okay with an induction at 39 weeks if baby didn't come by then.
Since we were wary of all the kidney/heart problems we might encounter coupled with the fact that I was Group B Strep positive and needed antibiotics when I went into labor, we all decided that a more controlled setting might be better for all of us {but mainly me and my nerves}.

We would only go on with the induction if my body had progressed far enough along to lower the risk of c-section.

At 38 weeks, I wasn't ready {so we couldn't schedule one ahead of time for the next week}.

At 39 weeks, however, I had progressed just far enough that we were good to go.

We went into the hospital at 6:45 am on the 7th.

Just before we left, I kissed Kemry on the forehead and suddenly burst into tears.

She was sleeping so quietly and looked so perfect, and I felt so guilty ending my one-on-one time with her. 

The next time I would see her, it would constantly be two-on-one time.

But I pulled up my big girl panties and got in the car.

They monitored me for an hour and then started the Pitocin at 8:30.

I had heard all of these horror stories about how awful Pit made labor for some women.

Not for me, thankfully.

Around noon, they told me that the doctor wanted to come in soon and break my water.

That was when labor got really painful for me last time, so I asked for my epidural.

This time around, I felt the doctor put the epidural in, and it hurt a little more than I would have liked.

And it only numbed one leg, but it got rid of the contraction pain.

It took 2 doctors to break my water since little boy's head was pressing right up against it.

Unfortunately, there was more blood then they felt comfortable with once it did rupture, so they put me on internal monitors, just to make sure that the placenta didn't tear away from the wall {which is serious business, and thankfully it hadn't}.

The contraction pain slowly came back, this time right smack in between my legs.

I knew I was getting really close to having the baby, and the fact that I could feel ANYTHING in between my legs scared me to death.

But after a little pain, some tears, and lots of pleading, they got the anesthesiologist to come in and give me a booster dose.

That stuff is nectar of the gods.

Seriously.

Around 4:00 I paged the nurse and told her that I felt more than just contraction pressure.

To her surprise, I was at a 10.

She told me to try a practice push but then made me stop about 2 seconds into it because the baby was coming.

  She frantically ran out to find the doctor, worried because he had just been delivering another baby.

They all hurry in {along with a NICU team, just in case}, and tell me to start going at it.

20 minutes of pushing later comes the sweetest little cry!

We were thrilled! 

A baby!

But then we realized that now he was here. 

And we had a few tests to pass to make sure he was okay.

I tuned everyone out and listened for the Apgar score.

A 9!

Thank heavens!

His five minute score was a 10, and the nurse was just so tickled because she had never been able to give a 10 before.

It all happened so fast, and it was all okay!

He was perfectly pink and perfectly perfect.

 

The team started to sing Happy Birthday, and I just erupted in tears.

It was the sweetest, most perfect moment.

{Poor Kemry got robbed of a sweet moment because of a 22 hour labor where I fell asleep in between contractions. They didn't even put her skin to skin with me! Looking back, I am pretty disappointed at the whole process at the hospital with her...but her NICU stay was amazing, so I guess that makes up for it}.

And that was that!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As for his heart and kidneys, let me sum it up:

-Echocardiogram showed all the heart defects we thought plus a few others, but overall, they were all very small and shouldn't be a problem. He might have to have surgery when he is 60ish to replace a valve?

-Kidney scan looked fine...we are meeting with a doctor tomorrow to make sure he doesn't need surgery to reconnect things to the right places.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And a few things we have learned about our little Tate over the past two weeks:

 

-He doesn't really cry much. He is a whiner. Just like his dad. When he does cry, it comes out as a loud, girly sounding shriek. We still can't help but laugh every time. And there is no cooing. Just grunting.

-He has huge hands. Ty was exceptionally proud of this, already planning his success as an NBA All-Star. 

-He also loves it when you play with his hair. Also just like his dad.

-Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. He wanted to eat every 30 minutes at the hospital as opposed to the 2-3 hours that is "normal." Thankfully, he has stretched that to every 2 hours now, allowing me to get a GLORIOUS 45 minutes of sleep at night in between feedings...gah...

-Speaking of hungry, he surpassed his birth weight by day 5. They hope for babies to do that around week 2 or 3. He shall be our fatty baby :)

- We think he will keep his dark hair and that his eyes will be brown. Right now they are a very very very dark blue, so dark you can't quite even see much of the blue.

-Like any good boy, he is super gassy and poops constantly. CONSTANTLY.

-Tyrel gets credit for passing on his good looking genes for this one. He hardly looks like me at all.

 -He has stolen his big sister's heart. She loves him to pieces already. She is the first one to get to him when he is upset, reassuring him that "It's okay. Kemry right here. It's okay. Don't cry! It not scary in here!" She also thinks he is "so cute" and "so sweet" and "so tiny." He is the first thing she wants to see in the morning and the last thing she wants to kiss before bed.

And now, what you really wanted, pictures:

Aww gee.

You guys are all so sweet.

Do you know that?

You truly are :)

Thanks  for all the kind and excited comments in regards to our exciting announcement!

It should come as no surprise to you that we are beyond thrilled and feel so blessed.

So, here is all the stuff you want to know:

-We are just over 17 weeks along. It was super hard to contain our excitement at first, but we knew we also wanted to protect our hearts a little just in case things worked out like they did last time.

--We found out we were pregnant almost 1 year to-the-day since we started trying. It has certainly been the most difficult year of my life, but we have learned so much and are so thankful for the lessons we have been taught. There may or may not have been lots of crying when  I saw that positive pregnancy test.

--The morning sickness was BRUTAL. It wasn't horrible with Kemry, so I thought I might luck out. Unfortunately, I threw up least two times a day from weeks 6-11. I dropped 6 pounds and was so exhausted all the time. Poor Kemry watched a lot  of movies for a few weeks. It also made Christmas dinner and our flights to Idaho very interesting and stressful. This also explains why I only blogged a handful of times during the last 4 months.

-- I have only had an appetite for the last 2 or 3 weeks. But now, I can't stop eating. Seriously. ALL THE TIME.

-- Around 13 weeks we had a miscarriage scare, making us extra cautious about who we told and what we did. My doctor doesn't really know what caused my bleeding, but the baby looked amazing and the heartbeats have been wonderful.

-- We are due August 12th. 

-- I have been feeling the baby move for the past week.  It is really bizarre, even though I have been through it before.

-- We find out what we are having a week from Monday. Ty and I feel like it might be a girl {and all of the quirky Old Wives Tales point to a girl as well}, but my father-in-law predicts a boy. He was right about all four of his kids and all five grandkids, so we will see if he goes 10 for 10.

I think that sums it up.
We love love love you all.
Thanks for all the love, support, and prayers over the last year.
They worked :)

naughty and nice

Kemry has been naughty.

Lately, she has been more than naughty.

We put her in time out more and more each day

{and I don't think it is working, but I guess consistency is the thing?}.

My husband, though, has been nice.

Terribly nice.

Nice enough that, as I was DYING with the cold/sinus war of 2012, he would comfort Kemry when she woke up 2 times a night {for 2 weeks now?}, screaming bloody murder.

And then get up and work a loooooooong day the next morning.

While it seems that Santa brought night terrors, separation anxiety, and major tantrums as Kemry's early Christmas gifts, he also dropped off some extra kindess and love for my husband to scoop up.

{But let's be honest...Tyrel is really always that nice and kind to me}.

Every day, when I am about to cry and quit my job as a mom {mentally}, I look at that sweet little toddler and realize that I am so lucky.

So so lucky.

Who cares if I am getting less sleep than when she was a baby?

Who cares if my walls are covered in crayon?

Who cares if she still thinks the toilet is the most fun toy in the world?

I am so so lucky to have the best partner to switch off sleep with.

To get out the Magic Erasers for the umpteenth time with.

To mop up the water with.

And with recent, heartbreaking events scattering the news daily, I am so grateful to be so lucky.

 I hope you all are, too :)

things my husband teaches my child

 I think this might have to be a new series on my blog.
He teaches Kemry lots of things.
For example, how to properly announce a touchdown.
Or how to chant "B-Y-U".
Or how to give "elbows" after high fives and knuckles.

Or this ridiculousness:

Now all she wants to watch is "Op op styyy"
I think we are in for a lot of entertainment with this one, am I right?
{And, for the record, I did not teach her sexy dancing on the floor, but I don't think Tyrel did, either...It must have been Grandpa Murri ;) }

stay-at-home-mom-itis

I saw this on a friend's Facebook page today, and I adore it.

Seriously.

I laughed super hard.

Maybe you can really only understand if you are a mom or mom-figure?

I don't know.

Read it anyway.

today

8:00

9:00

10:00

11:00

 

12:00

1:00

2:00

 3:00

4:00

5:00

 6:00

 7:00

 8:00

9:00

10:00

8:00--- Playing in the crib has become much more important than sleeping apparently.
9:00--- Breakfast
10:00--- Toddler Tummy Time
11:00--- Coloring and snacks
12:00--- Dusting the floors at IKEA
1:00--- "Chichen" for lunch
2:00--- Hemming some curtains during precious naptime
3:00--- Usually only one pigtail survives her beauty sleep
4:00---  Half-hour of mommy time, even though I never really want to go jogging.
5:00--- Cow comes out to play.
6:00--- More coloring, except different? Her mind is blown.
7:00--- Kemry's favorite book of all time, which is coincidentally 90% filled with pictures of her.
8:00--- Cleanup. And then destroy again. Psych!
9:00--- Hubby gets home from class and gets down to business.
10:00--- A toddler that is up waaaaay past  bedtime and doesn't seem to be going down anytime soon.

Today was not that great.

But it was at the same time.

I usually hit the ground running when I wake up in the morning.

Today, I seemed to have been hog-tied behind a truck and dragged through the streets.

I didn't get dressed until 11:30.

 {And, no. 

I did not shower today.

That is what dry shampoo is for.

Thank you very much.}

A little girl wouldn't eat any meals {except chicken at lunch}.

"Mama! Mama!" seemed to be on repeat all day long, combined with "Crackers?", "Milk?", "Poop!".

I couldn't even take a stupid ovulation test without getting interrupted 

{which I have been taking for 2 weeks now with no uplifting news, only the realization that if we had gotten pregnant when we started trying for #2, we would have already been cuddling a new, squishy baby this month}.

It was a day filled with messes all over the house, finding both of our cars dug through while we were sleeping {of course the one day we forget to lock our car doors...but luckily nothing was missing. Not even my 47 cents of change in the cup holder}, and a ridiculously demanding little girl.

Now I sit here, exhausted, frustrated, and in a funk again.

But then my sweet husband sweeps up the ridiculously demanding little girl and takes her to her crib, stopping by the computer for a quick toddler-sloppy-yogurt-covered-kiss and "nigh nigh Mama!".

 He comes back out with a "Did I tell you I love you enough today? Because I really, REALLY do!", as he flashes that Murri smile.

The one that hooked me.

And that seals the deal.

It wasn't that bad of a day.

Somehow, with my two goofballs, rotten days always end on a high-note.