October 2013

 

October has been a predictably unpredictable month!  

We're slowly but surely settling into life with Abby.  Nothing is routine yet, and we're not anticipating that for awhile, but we're getting used to having her around at least!

"Hug her!"

Sharing toys, "She likes it!"

Bruce wanted to give Abby a flower

"Hold her hand!"

Sleep, eat and poop - that's all babies do, right?  Except I would have to add "cry" to the list, because our baby can definitely cry, too.  And loudly.

sleep  ::  Abby's sleeping has been all over the place, so we're just taking it one day at a time and trying to patiently wait for her system to mature and work itself out.  Some days she naps so well I have to wake her up to feed her, other days she won't stay asleep for more than 20 minutes at a time.  Sometimes she falls asleep really easily for naps, other times I have to bounce her for over an hour, with her fussing and fighting it every minute.  There are nights that she'll sleep for 3-5 hours at a time, needing no special attention other than feeding, others that she's wide awake at 4 am, ready to start the day.  It's always a surprise and keeps on our toes.

eat  ::  She's eating really well, I think.  With nursing it's so hard to tell, but at her two week appointment she had surpassed returning to her birth weight, which is what the doctors expect.  At that time, she weighed 8 pounds, 6 ounces, ranking in the 59th percentile for weight, and the 97th percentile for length.  I'm still feeding her a couple of times throughout the night, but she's a fast eater which has been really nice.

poop  ::  I don't think I need to say much about poop, except I'm fairly certain we've gone through close to 500 diapers by now.  I don't care about the cost, or the environmental impact - thank God for disposable diapers.  There's nothing quite like changing a diaper and getting the last ridiculously tiny article of clothing back on legs so stiff you'd think rigor-mortis had set in, only to hear the unmistakeable sound that another diaper change is now necessary.  And repeat.  I've gone through four diapers in less minutes on multiple occasions.  Again, thank God for disposable diapers.

and cry  ::  We have definitely entered the "peak fussiness" period this past week.  For the most part, it's manageable with the aid of a swaddle sack and a pacifier, but I have logged many-a hour this month bouncing this precious girl who doesn't quite know what to do with herself, or her fidgety little arms and legs.

Bruce has tolerated all the crying and incessant baby holding remarkably well.  I've heard plenty of whiney (sometimes hysterical) requests for me to "put Abby down" and "mama play with you" that break my heart, but I keep reminding myself this is just for a season, and try to make the most out of the time I do get to spend with Bruce one-on-one.

The cicada drives the bulldozer

The cicada drives the excavator

Unfortunately, Bruce's key to survival the past few weeks has been the television.  Again, I keep reminding myself this is just for a season.  It's quite impressive how well he's learned to operate the iPad though.  He can turn it on, swipe the slide lock, and choose his videos at will, as long as YouTube is queued up.  He even knows what to push to skip the advertisements.  And he can keep the videos going for hours (if allowed) by selecting videos from the "suggestions" strip.  The only quirk with that is that he often gets looped into a lot of foreign cartoons.  He doesn't seem to mind though and he gets a great dose of different languages.  Here are links to some of his favorites, if you're interested in seeing what amuses this kid.

 "The Russian Girl"  - a mischievous and high energy little girl lives alone in a house in the woods, stirring up all kinds of trouble that drives her neighbor-bear crazy.

"Pocoyo" - a curious little boy and his shenanigans.

"Kikaninchen" - a German blue rabbit and his friend Christian use their imagination to explore fantasy places.

"Shawn the Train" -  a Thomas knock-off teaches about letters, numbers, shapes, colors, etc.

 "Yellow Excavator" - a Russian compilation of construction truck video clips.

"Mickey's New Car" - you guessed it, Mickey Mouse gets a new car.

"Funny Tombow - One Man Band" - a Japanese street musician playing fun cover songs.

"Jug Band" - fun music Bruce likes.

"Surprise Eggs" - oh.my.goodness...  There is so much that confuses me about this one.  1) Why would anyone make a YouTube video of them opening up surprise eggs?  2) Why would multiple people make multiple videos of these silly surprise eggs?  3) How in the world have these videos received millions of hits?  and finally 4) Why does Bruce enjoy watching these videos over and over and over again?  And to top it off, we now play "surprise eggs"daily - it's a game Bruce invented where we have to fill old plastic Easter eggs up with tiny treasures for him to open again and again and again...

He likes a little bit of everything I guess...

no matter how big the tv is,
kids always have to get
as close as possible, don't they?

We've been so thankful for all of the belated birthday and "Big Brother" gifts friends and family have sent for Bruce the past two months.  All the new cars and trucks and what-nots have been a huge hit with the Little Man, and have distracted him from time to time from his love affair with YouTube.

construction work with colored rice and pasta

We usually have both kids in bed between 7:00 and 9:00 these days.  Although it would probably be best, I have a hard time making myself go to bed then.  It's nice to spend a little time with Charlie, just the two of us, to keep us feeling sane.  So, we heat up dinner, settle in on the couch, and watch some Netflix together.  It's a simple pleasure, but we've always had a "show" that becomes a stay-at-home date night for us.  We've had several different series that have become part of "us" in this way over the years, and recently we've needed to start a new one.  So, after hearing a lot of talk about it, but knowing nothing about it, we started watching the series "Breaking Bad."  We're one season in and finding it amusing so far - we'll see how it turns out.

I'm adjusting back to life with a newborn, doing almost everything one-handed, squeezing in chores during naps, and appreciating more than two hours of sleep at a time.  I feel fairly rested most days, serve three meals a day, and everyone's dressed before lunch at least.  I load and unload the dishwasher every day, and no one has had to re-wear underwear yet.  Great success.  A friend of ours made arrangements for people to bring us some meals these first few weeks though, which has been such a blessing!

 

Although Charlie went back to work full time at the beginning of the month, other than a few day trips around Oklahoma, he hasn't had to travel at all this month!  We've really enjoyed having him around more, and I think he's enjoyed not living out of a suitcase.  We also found out recently that he received a promotion to be a Senior Associate with the firm - woo hoo!

 

This was the first year in nearly a decade that we didn't have a pumpkin carving party with friends.  Time just got away from us and we didn't make arrangements early enough.  It was a little sad not to host the big event, but it was kind of nice to spend the time just as a family, too. 

 

 

 

We got to squeeze in one more year of family-themed costumes for Halloween.  Bruce has been obsessed with scarecrows lately, so when I suggested he dress as one for Halloween, he was really excited.  It only stood to reason then that Abby would be an ear of corn, and Charlie and I completed the scene as a farmer and a chicken/crow (Bruce was a little scared of the crow costume, so Charlie went as a chicken and a crow).  All the costumes were easy to make too, which was perfect.

 





We went to trick or treat down Main Street and Bruce was mesmerized!  After we loaded up on candy there, we went door to door around our block of houses, too.  What a fun night, and I'm looking forward to many Halloweens to come!

taking a rest from all that candy hauling

he couldn't decide between a pink or
green bucket, so he carried both



September 2013

We kicked off September by spending Labor Day weekend at the farm.  Charlie went up to the Kansas farm for a few days to help with the operation there, but because of my travel restrictions Bruce and I stayed in Perkins at the Oklahoma farm and played around with Granny K.

 

When we got home, we discovered that our auto-timer on the garden sprinkler hose had never turned off, so our garden got a 72-hour shower.  I'm not looking forward to our water bill this month AND the flood of water killed off most of our garden.  It gave us a good reason though to till up a good portion of the garden and plant some Fall veggies that we haven't attempted before because we didn't have the space early enough in the season.  We'll see - the turnips are looking great so far though!

 

The next weekend was the Cleveland County Fair.  We brought Bruce to see the "old time-y tractors" that he loves so much, along with all the other fun things the fair has to offer.  He loved the free lawn mower barrel train ride, and still talks about the rabbit he got to hold in the petting zoo!

 

We had originally thought that we wouldn't adopt any new exchange students this year, but Bruce has really missed his "Nunas" this summer, so we went ahead and signed up for a couple of students after all.  We will continue to meet with Inchan and Joonil, our two PhD students, but added Iris and Anna to our family as well!  Even if we don't meet as often as we normally have with our international students, I think we'll have a great time with them and I'm looking forward to getting to know them!

Halfway through the month it was time for the Oklahoma State Fair!  Being nine months pregnant, I was a little hesitant that it would be too much for me to handle, but we went early in the morning when it was still cool, and Charlie arranged for us to park in the high-profile parking lot right inside the gates.  He's currently working on a project with the fairgrounds and the nice parking spot, along with free admission, were wonderful little perks!  Two of our exchange students came with us too, and we had a lot of fun.  Bruce had TWO donuts that morning for breakfast and went a little berserk, but other than that, it was a wonderful morning at the Fair.  We walked through all of the carnival rides and games, and I got more than my share of "Carnie banter" centering around my basketball-belly.  Very original, let me tell you.  Then, before we headed home we had to fill up on a Fair food lunch, of course.


how Bruce "rides" me these days...

At my last doctor's appointment, my OB only gave me a 50/50 chance of making it to my induction date, so for the final week before Abby's due date we really kicked things into high gear!  I washed all her clothes, got all the newborn stuff out of the closet, made last minute purchases for the things missing from our arsenal of baby supplies, stocked up on food, cleaned house, but most importantly - we finished getting the nursery ready for her.  Bruce even helped Charlie and I with the final piece of artwork to hang above her crib. 

He didn't seem to mind that we were priming over the
peacock painting that used to hang in "his" nursery

Next on the agenda was to take some "pregnancy" family photos.  We've always just done self-timed photographs - but it has proved to be an almost impossible feat with our bundle of energy that we call Bruce.  Four different attempts and hundreds of photos later, we managed to capture a few that aren't so bad.  Hiring a professional might be in our future for the next couple of years though!

That last picture of Bruce and I kind of sums up what this past month has felt like for me.  The transition from hip to hand.  I'm incredibly excited for Abigail to be part of our family, but I'm really going to miss this.  I know our relationship will always continue to grow and develop and get "better" - but it'll never be quite the same as it has been for the past two years, and that makes me a little sad.

The beginning was definitely hard with Bruce - trying to figure out how to "do life" together - and then we found a rhythm that worked for us, and then this summer - with his arm slung across my ever-growing abdomen as we read books together - things got comfortable.

And not to say that throwing Abby into the mix will "ruin" everything - but it changes everything without a doubt.  This next season will most definitely be wonderfully challenging as we figure out how to shift from comfortable, to complicated, and then back to comfortable again - and it will be good.

So on Wednesday, September 25th, we got the party started!



Charlie's mom drove down to help with Bruce, and Charlie and I went out for our "Last Supper" of sorts.  We don't have the chance to go out on dates often, so we grabbed the opportunity with Yvonne in town to stay home with Bruce and had a great Italian dinner at Victoria's - a local favorite.  I had every intention of finishing off the night with a decadent dessert, most assuredly something chocolate, before heading home - but we stuffed ourselves too full of pasta and ended up calling it a night earlier than expected.

The alarm went off at 5 am early Thursday morning - I can count the number of times I've had to set an alarm to wake up on one hand I think since Bruce has been born.  I got ready and drove myself to the hospital - no radio, hardly any traffic - it was a peaceful beginning to a life-altering day.  Charlie, Yvonne and Bruce would meet up with me a little later after I got all the paperwork completed and got started with the induction process.    

Around 10 am, one of the nurses told us that she was concerned the baby wasn't head-down.  That kind of surprised me because my doctor had never seemed suspicious of that at any of my appointments, but they decided to do an ultrasound just to be sure.  While double-checking, the nurse accidentally broke my water only to discover that Abby's hand was up next to her head, and she proceeded to grab a hold of the nurse's finger!  After a few other nurses took turns shaking Abby's hand, the doctor came to agitate her enough to pull it back away from her head before delivery.

Another two hours came and went, and then after only 10 minutes of pushing, Abigail arrived shortly after noon!  She weighed in at just over 8 pounds, and measured 20 inches long with a full head of dark hair!  After a little bit of snuggle time, they whisked her away for her first bath and for the pediatrician to check her over.

our kids have the best pouty faces

When the pediatrician came to talk to us after examining Abby, our hearts dropped a little.  She said that everything about Abby seemed to be perfect and healthy, but she had some concerns.  When listening to her heart, she heard a murmur that sounding unlike anything she had ever heard before.  She was up front and told us that it could be absolutely nothing, but it puzzled her enough that she wanted to take the extra precautions and play it safe.  So, she had Abby moved to the NICU until an echocardiogram could be done on her heart and the children's specialist could take a look at her.

So we waited.  We had the opportunity to flex our muscles and stretch our faith, asking our community to rally around us, and we prayed.

The neonatologist came and talked with us a little while later and told us that although there was a small heart murmur, her ultrasound results were normal, there was nothing to be concerned about and no treatment was necessary.  They had no explanation for the unusual "party favor" sound that her heart was making, but said she could leave the NICU and were convinced the murmur would go away before we left the hospital.  I love the way a friend of ours described it - God had put a new song in her heart.

Finally, around 10 pm, we got Abby back!  We are so incredibly thankful for her and for her good health!

Friday morning Bruce finally got to meet his baby sister!  So far so good.  He seems curious, is super gentle, and overall has a really great attitude.  Hopefully things will stay this good!

We got to leave the hospital just after lunch on Saturday, and we've been home now for a couple of days.  It was great having Charlie's mom around to take care of Bruce while I was in the hospital, and now my mom and Rick are here to help out while we find our footing again.  We are incredibly thankful for all the help!

The first few days home have been good.  We're enjoying the "honeymoon" days where Abby is mostly just sleeping all the time, and trying to make sure that Bruce still feels important to us as we're finding our new normal.  Charlie's been a huge help as he's keeping up with things at work, taking over things at home for me, and loving his two Littles well.  I'm still recovering, but am slowly starting to feel like myself again - trying hard to fight the urge to do too much, too soon.  Bruce has been occupying his time catching up with Grandma and Papa and "working" hard as always.  And Abigail?  She had her first well baby visit to the doctor today and everything looks great - she's eating well and gaining weight and is well on her way to winning everyone's heart.

The weather has been beautiful this weekend and we're looking forward to the seasons changing, and this new season for our family!