If at first you don't succeed, give up!

The time had finally come to move Will out of his crib. He was so excited, and I was dreading it.At first it went ok, but then it got bad…real bad. It started taking longer and longer to get him to fall asleep, and then he started waking at midnight, 3, and 5. We were exhausted. And when things kept getting worse after a week of trying, we gave up. We moved the pack ‘n play into his room as a temporary fix. When he climbed out of that in less than 5 minutes, we knew we needed a more permanent fix. Jack was sleeping in the crib so we waited till the next morning to move that back into Will’s room. When we put him in the crib he got very mad and within 10 minutes had figured out a way to climb out. Feeling defeated, I did what any sleep deprived mother would do, I bought one of these babies. Yes, we are failures, but more well-rested failures.

Aww, the beauty of sleep!

Jack's Baby Blessing

Jack's blessing (somewhat similar to a Christening) was on Sunday, November 1st. He wore the same outfit that Will wore and he looked so sweet.

How sweet are those feet?

I wanted Will to give me a kiss, but instead he is pinching my cheeks.

Will loves to kiss "Baby Jack."

I love my little family!

Halloween

Sending mixed messages

Maybe when he got into the peanut butter I confused him by grabbing the camera and taking his picture all the while telling him that that was a big no no. Maybe he thought that baking soda was an ok thing to get into, maybe he just wanted his picture taken? Or maybe he is just acting like a stinker?

Private

I have been debating on whether or not to go private for awhile, and I have finally come to the decision to do so. If you would like to keep up with our family just leave a comment with your email, or you can email me @ loriallison@gmail.com. I am hoping to have it taken care of by Friday Nov. 6th.

Brotherly Love

Will loves Baby Jack. He is always very concerned about where he is and what he is doing. If Jack crys William will say, "Oh no, Baby Jack tynin.'" He loves to give him kisses on the back of his head and cheek. He tries really hard to sneak some on the lips too. So far he hasn't been too jealous of him. He has peed in the floor a couple times and on my bed where Jack sleeps once.

Mostly he is very good with him. He has stuck his finger in his mouth and gagged him once or twice and pulled on his arm a time or two, but other than that he is pretty gentle.

In the first picture Will pulled his chair over to Will's bouncy seat so he could be by him. In the second Will is fixing Jack's bouncy seat.

And since we are talking about brothers here are some pictures of 2 my brothers who stopped by to see us and visit.

Pictures

Here are a few pictures of Jack during his first couple of weeks.

Reunited and it feels so good

When the day came to be discharged we made the decision for me and Jack to go stay at my mom's until William finished his round of the Tamiflu. I already hadn't seen him in 3 days since I had had the flu and been staying at my mom's in hopes that he wouldn't catch it. So when Friday came, I was more than ready to see my sweet little boy. I had spoken with him on the phone many times a day and could hardly wait to kiss his sweet chubby cheeks and have his chubby little arms wrapped around my neck. Unfortunately, the way I envisioned it didn't really happen. As I heard his footsteps coming through the door, I couldn't help but start to tear up. When Will turned the corner, I had my arms outstretched just waiting for him to give me a big smile and run into them. Instead, he gave me a half smile and then ran to where my mom keeps the toys. Yeah, I was just a tad disappointed. We were able to break him away from the toys though to introduce him to Jack. I think he likes him...mostly.

And here he is

Jack Ryan

6lbs 14 oz, 19 1/2 in.

September 13th, 7:51 p.m.

I'm not a huge advocate of epidurals.

I mean if you want one by all means get one. I'm not the type of person to try and pressure anyone to not have one. I'm not a sadist or a masochist for that matter. I guess I just imagined the experience different when I thought about it with my first baby. It's not that I hated it. I just wasn't crazy about the way it made me feel. I felt anxious instead of at ease, and I hated not being able to move my body. I also didn't care for the fact that it seemed harder to breathe. I had dealt with some pretty intense contractions before receiving the shot so I felt like I had a pretty good gauge on what could be expected without an epidural. I should probably mention that with William's birth it was like the stork flew in the window, laid my baby gently in my lap and we cuddled! Absolutely perfect. Anyway, I knew if millions of women could give birth without an epidural than I could, but did I want to?? With that being said, I will definitely try my hardest to get to the hospital more than 50 minutes before my next baby is born.

I started having some extremely painful contractions around 3:30 a.m. on Sunday the 13th. Contractions never became regular and some hours I would have very few if any at all. They finally got regular at 6 and at 6:30 I knew it was time to go. We got to the hospital a little after 7. Mom called Patrick at 7:20 (he had to go to Smithville to get Tamiflu for William because we found out that day he had the flu and everyone in town had run out of it!) The nurses moved me into a room around 7:30. Patrick arrived after that. And at 7:51 Jack arrived. And a minute or two after that the anesthesiologist arrived. And a minute or two after that the doctor arrived.

Just so you can all know how not tough I am -- a few favorite quotes...
"I'm gonna die."
"Do I really have to wait for all those fluids before I can get an epidural?"
"Somebody please help me."
"I'm never doing this again."

I went through labor with a surgical mask on because of the flu threat. I felt like I was giving birth in the Sahara! They did test me again at some point during the labor and found out after delivery that I was flu free so I could hold my baby and I didn't even have to wear a mask! It was over and I was oh. so. happy.

First Things First

Here are a few pictures from this summer first.

Possibly Will's most favorite thing in the world. Hope it lasts through the teenage years.

When I was on bed rest William got pretty tired of it. He would often venture off to find something more interesting to do than play with me while I laid on the couch. This is where I found him one day. He had scooted the chair over from the table climbed on the counter and was eating peanut butter that he got everywhere. He turned when he saw me and said with his hands stuck in his mouth "yummy."Will in his cute underwear and Daddy's shoes.
Taking a nap at Nonna's

Helping Daddy

Will will try and get to the lap top any chance he gets and announce that he is "checkin' mail"

By the way

We had a baby over a month ago, and he is super dooper cute! He has a temper like nobody else in this house, let me tell you. But I think we'll keep him anyway.

Life has been busier than I realized it would be, and we have been thrown a few curve balls over the past few months ranging from bed rest, to flu in both extremely pregnant momma and Will, to a completely unplanned. all NATURAL. LABOR!! AHHH!!!! (sorry. flashback), to a baby who refused to breastfeed after getting thrush, to a momma who pumped and sterilized a million times a day (and cried nearly that much-stupid hormones), to trying to find a new normal with 23 month old and 1 month old - I think we're gonna make it.

Now that you are all semi caught up to speed, assuming any of you still check here (come back!!), I'll attempt to get pictures up of one of the cutest, sweetest babies ever.

Success and Answers

William has now been off the bottle for a whole week! I was really nervous about this transition because he loved his bottle so much. He only got one twice a day, and those were given before he took a nap or went to bed. It's not been a major transition, but I was still pretty scared.

The first day was rough but after that it has been a breeze. He really has to be one of the greatest and sweetest kids. I'm a little nervous for what might be being sent next. I've been really spoiled.

Speaking of the coming attraction, thanks for all your comments and well wishes. I'm not the most consistent with replies to comments, but I still love reading them. To answer a few questions I am feeling great. I am about 22 wks and due Sept 18th. I am very excited now that the initial shock has passed. Will and Boy #2 will be 22 months apart and that scares me just a tad. Hopefully we will all get through it without too many emotional scars. We'll just have to see...

In case you didn't know,

or failed to notice my ever expanding waistline, I'm pregnant. And if you can't tell, it's a boy!