2 1/2 weeks with our 2 boys!

Has it really been 2 1/2weeks since Jonah's arrived and made us a family of 4?  We were driving the other day and were both excited and freaked out by the fact that the first 2 rows of our mini-van are now full :-)

Life has been busy and full but I wanted to remember a few details of our first 2 weeks with our 2 boys.

Tuesday Jan 24th-Friday Jan 27th:  we were in the hospital delivering Jonah while Benjamin was with friends and grandparents

Saturday Jan 28th-Tuesday Jan 31st:  enjoyed time with Peter's parents, went to church

Wednesday Feb 1st:  met with the lactation nurse at the hospital.  Jonah weighed about 6lbs 3ounces, but she gave the go ahead to just nurse him without having to pump and feed.  We also went to small group as a family of 4 that night!

Thursday Feb 2nd:  struggle miserably to get Jonah to stay awake to eat and latch on.  Have a slight meltdown but grateful for a husband that helped me push through those rough couple of hours.  Went for our first walk to the post office as a family.

Friday Feb 3rd:  celebrated the 2nd birthday of our precious Benjamin!  (see his bday post for details)

Saturday Feb 4th:  Ran a few errands, then cleaned house some and tried to rest when we could.

Sunday Feb 5th:  We all attended church (I skipped sunday school) and afterward I came home and made some goodies for the boys to watch the Superbowl at our house while I went to a Superbowl party for our EPIC girls.  Jonah was super the whole time and the boys had fun crashing at our place but I was pooped at the end of the day.  Oh, and I ate way. too. much.  But I'm trying to block that part out!

Monday Feb 6th:  Went to Benjamin's 2 year old well baby checkup and he's doing amazing.  We also did a weight check on Jonah and the nurse told me he was 6 pounds.  WHAT?!?!?!?!  I about had a heart attack because I was taking all the right herbs to help my milk supply and I thought Jonah was nursing pretty well.  I at least thought he would have maintained his weight and certainly not have lost any.  So I was pretty emotionally spent by the end of the day after I was told my baby was losing weight and I needed to start pumping again.  Honestly, it was really depressing.

Tuesday Feb 7th:  It was another long day feeding and pumping and I was tired and emotional.  Peter had an elder's meeting that night so I was wiped by the time bedtime rolled around.  But Peter was just so encouraging and supportive and wrapped me in his arms and prayed that we would know that God knows what's best for us and that we would trust in that.

Wednesday Feb 8th:  Peter went back to work after having 2 weeks of paternity leave.  I took Benjamin to Kristen's so I could go to another appointment with the lactation nurse.  She weighed Jonah right when we arrived and the scale said he was 6 lbs 9.5 ounces.  I just stared at the scale in disbelief!  How could this be when they told me he was only 6 lbs just 2 days before?  Well, apparently the scale was either off (it's not a nice electronic one like the hospital has) or the nurse read it wrong.  Either way, I felt a combination of relief and a bit of anger at having to spend the past 48 hours feeling a bit like a failure and not knowing how else to get my child to gain weight without supplementing.  So, it was super encouraging to know he's gaining and that I seem to be producing enough for him right now!

I ran errands in the morning after I picked Benjamin up, and later that night we went to small group.

Thursday Feb 9th:  We just hung out at home while Daddy worked.  I did laundry and fed Jonah a lot since he's hit a bit of a growth spurt and tonight we gave both boys a bath.

Friday Feb 10th:  Mama was tired today but we all survived and just played around the house.  That night we went to Red Robin and Costco, then came home and all went to bed early.

Saturday Feb 11th:  Peter let me sleep in a bit and he and Benjamin made French Puffs for breakfast and did the dishes.  Yep, I'm a lucky lady.  We gave Benjamin a haircut which is a chore in and of itself and now we're relaxing while the boys nap.  After they wake up we're going to go get some Lime Berry frozen yogurt since Benjamin "let us" cut his hair, ha!  I love weekends with my family :-)

Benjamin has done amazingly with Jonah.  He wasn't super interested at first, and very intentionally and jokingly called him Nehemiah (the name of our friends baby) but he has been super sweet with him and hasn't really been jealous of the fact that Mommy holds Jonah so often.  We're really proud of the big brother that he is!

Here are a few (okay, a bunch of) pictures of our first 2 weeks as a family of 4

 the life of a mama to a newborn right?

 having a little bday celebration with Poppy & GongGong a few days early

 wow, I got GongGong raisins!!

 I think this is our first pic as a family of 4

 Benjamin's new reading spot in the morning!

he's always asking to look at, talk to, or kiss brother Jonah

 oh how we pray that these brothers will be close!

 a rare moment of crying from our little guy

just chilling around the house

saying cheese while watching a show

 Mama, I wanna lay down by Jonah!!

 Hi Jonah, Hi Jonah.....imagine this said in the cutest little voice!

 Melt. My. Heart

 so sweet :-)

 oh this face says it all.  He is definitely 2 years old!

 he loooves jumping off the stairs!

 he's just plain crazy

 just relaxing, watching my brother run around like a maniac!

 this relaxing stuff makes me yawn

 aren't I sweet?!?

will my eyes stay blue like my mama and brothers?!?!

 Daddy loves storytime with his two freshly bathed little boys!

 "I a cool dude"....he insisted on wearing these at lunch

cleaning up after making Mommy breakfast, oh I love these two

 notice the crazy hair that really needed to be cut

and so we cut it, and he looks darling!

We've survived our first 2 1/2 weeks.  In fact, we've more than survived, we've loved it.  How truly blessed we know we are!

Benjamin is 2!!!

I think I'm still in shock over the fact that Benjamin is 2 years old.  2.  TWO!  That's insane, when did this happen and how can I make it stop??

Though in all actuality he's been acting like a 2 year old for quite sometime now, ha :-)

For lunch we took Benjamin to McDonalds and got him a happy meal, a tradition we started last year.  Normally he gets a McChicken sandwich ripped up into pieces to look like nuggets!  He was excited to be on a date with Mommy/Daddy and brother and loved his new toy car.

We also took him to get a birthday balloon and of course, he chose an Elmo one!

Benjamin shares a birthday with his best buddy Micah so we planned to celebrate together again this year.  Though it was going to be a bit more low key since we had a 10 day old baby baby that had joined our family!

We headed over to their house for homemade pizzas and playtime, then it was time to open presents.  Benjamin got some new Thomas trains from Mommy, Daddy and Jonah and he was pretty excited!

He also got some really cool helicopters and airplanes from his friends, a cd of verses put to music, some Thomas bath squirters, lots of new DVD's, a Thomas bath robe, $5, a new book, M&M's and a Pez dispenser.  Life was pretty good for this little boy!

Afterward, it was time for cake.  Or in our case sugar cookies.  Because our child is slightly mutant and doesn't like cake.  Luckily, Peter's mom was gracious enough to make the dough and roll out the cookies for me while she was here.  Trying to find time to do that in the less than 2 hours at a time that I'm not feeding a baby was almost impossible so thanks!!!  I did try to make them special though by ordering some new tractor, airplane, helicopter and train cookie cutters since that's his latest obsession.  They were by no means at all exciting visually but he loved them and they tasted great so that's all that mattered.

We sang happy birthday to both boys individually and ate our grub!

Then it was time for the Dads to take the oldest 4 of our 6 kids swimming. 

wow!  Our 2 families sure are filling up a couch quickly :-)

Benjamin was soooo excited.  I didn't get a picture because Kristen and I stayed at her house with our babies, but he had a blast.  We've got great husbands to take 4 kids swimming on their own :-)

I'll do a post soon on what Benjamin's up to physically/developmentally/etc, but for now I'm just loving my boy to pieces.  He can be quite the stinker, but I just adore him.  He really is the sunshine of my life and I thank God for letting me be his mama.

I snuck in on the night before his birthday and took one last picture of my boy as a one year old. 

I may or may not have completely teared up as I was leaving the room.  When did this all happen?  But, I also left the room with a heart full of love and joy.  Happy Birthday Benjamin, we love you to the moon and back, with all our hearts and sooooooooo much.



Our Love Story

I saw this fun idea on another blog and thought I would link up to join in, seeing as how Valentine's Day is just around the corner :-)

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

We started dating the Sunday before Memorial Day in 2002, so we have been together for about 10 years now.  My dad actually gave Peter a gift certificate to a restaurant in town and told him to "please take me out"  He was probably sick of me sulking at home wondering when he would finally ask me out, despite the fact that we had been emailing/talking a lot.  To Peter's defense, he was just waiting until June when I would actually turn 18, ha :-)  Here's a few pictures of our dating years (the quickest ones I could find)  Wow, we look young....and thin.

 oh dear....the perfectly curled bang stage.  Lovely.

2. How did you meet?

Peter and I actually met at the church where my Dad was a pastor in Idaho.  Actually, when we found out we were moving from Iowa to Idaho my sister and I were really mad because we had been there 10 years and didn't want to leave.  But the church in Idaho sent us a directory of the church families there and we went looking for cute boys of course :-)  When I saw the picture of Peter with his family in the book, I just knew I wanted to meet him.  When we moved that summer though, he wasn't there at church!!  I tried asking (not so subtly) to one of the girls at the church to see if he still attended there, and found out that he did still go there, but was away as a camp counselor that summer.  We finally met, though we didn't have a whole lot of interest in each other because I was young (16) and immature.  And plus, I thought he would always end up with one of my friends.  One night after a VBS family picnic, we ended up talking forever on the sand volleyball court and apparently when I went home that night, the smile on my face clued my mom in, and she knew that Peter was going to be her son-in-law.  That's where our relationship changed and we looked at each other differently.  We started dating and have come a long way since the first 3 emails he ever sent me (#1-he made fun of my favorite baseball team the Mariners, #2 he sent me a mathematical equation proving that girls were evil :-), and #3 he sent me a link to Word of Life Bible(Bridal) Institute saying there may be hope for me if I went)  HA!  Gotta love his sense of humor.  Here's the picture from the directory where I first saw Peter's all-American, handsome good looks!!

 

3. If married, how long have you been married?

We were married on October 8th, 2004 so we have been married 7 years

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding?
We were married at a small little white church in Idaho.  My dad actually performed the ceremony in front of 75-100 people.  It was so special to have my dad marry us.  I have great memories of the day I married my best friend!

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another?
Hmmmm, I call him honey and he calls me babe.  I also call him Sweet Pete and hobos (not sure where that one came from)  He used to call me piggy princess when we were dating, probably due to my healthy appetite and slightly dramatic tendencies :-)

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey
1.  I love how he loves the Lord, loves His Word and desires that we are a family that pleases Christ.
2.  I love how easy going and helpful he is.  He seriously is really laid back, not easily angered and a fabulous help with the dishes after dinner!
3.  He is the most amazing daddy.  He loves his boys with every ounce of who he is and he is the greatest provider for their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.  I adore watching him as a daddy.

4.  I just had to throw this in....I love his strong arms and how they put me right at ease when I am in them!

7. Tell us how he proposed?
The day he proposed we spent the day together in Spokane.  I can't remember exactly where we ate lunch but afterwards we went and played mini-golf.  It probably wasn't the greatest idea because it was miserably hot that day.  We were dying....not to mention the fact that Peter's little hatchback Honda (affectionately known as the Blue Lemon) did not have air conditioning.  UGH.  We drove home that evening and Peter told me we were going to have dinner with his parents at his house.  But when we arrived, his dad told us that we should go for a walk.  I tried to tell them that wasn't a great idea because I didn't want his parents to have to wait for us to eat dinner, but somehow they got me out the door.  We drove to the bottom of the local mountain and proceeded to hike up the mountain, in the heat, and I was hungry.  I wasn't exactly super happy at this point and was probably a little whiny.  Finally, Peter stopped us and we sat to rest.  He took a blade of grass and wrapped it around my finger like he's done before (telling me that someday he'd give me the real thing) and though I can't remember exactly what he said, he asked me to marry him and indeed, did give me the real diamond ring!  Of course, I said yes and we were so excited and enjoyed the moment.  We hiked a bit farther (Peter stopped us before we reached his ideal location because he was afraid I would get too hot and want to leave) and there was a picnic dinner set up for us.  We cooked filet mignons on a little barbeque, enjoyed sparkling cider and dessert and just cherished the moment.  As soon as we were finished it seemed like it was going to rain so we quickly packed up and headed (ran!) back to the car, grateful that no mountain lion smelled the steaks we were cooking and invited himself to dinner :-)  We came back to share the news with both of our families, and enjoyed the joy of the day!

pictures of our rings on our wedding day

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?

He's probably more of a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy, though now I tell him not to buy flowers because the price is so inflated.  In reality we're more of a nice restaurant kind of couple....we do love our food!

 

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?

We're both.  But in reality, for the stage of life we're in, it's probably more of a pop a movie in life we're living.  A newborn and a 2 year old will do that.  Okay, so maybe with a newborn and 2 year old, it's a "I had great ambitions to stay up and watch the movie but fell asleep on the couch" kind of date!

 

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?

I would love to do some sort of short term mission work as a family.  Probably working in an orphanage somewhere since we both have such a heart for kids.

 

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.

I guess we hadn't thought much about it since Jonah was due February 12th.  But we'll probably have some tasty dessert and sparkling cider maybe after the kids go to sleep.  We don't tend to be super fancy on Valentine's Day....we sometimes will make a homemade card for each other and buy each other our favorite candy bar.

 

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?

Nope.  But now that I'm thinking about it I'll ask for a Saturday morning to sleep in a bit....though in reality I probably won't have to ask, he's so great about doing that for me when he can.

 

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.

Keep your relationship with God priority.  Learn to apologize and forgive.  Laugh with each other....alot.  Lots of hugs.  Make time for date nights and make time to just share and communicate life together. 

 

14. Show us a picture of what love means to you.

 

there's no one else I would rather spend my life with!

 

(family/friends, keep scrolling down for pics of Jonah's arrival!)

Our sweet Jonah Caleb

Our second precious son, Jonah Caleb, was born on Wednesday, January 25th at 3:50pm.  He weighed in at 6lbs, 7.5 ounces and was 19 inches long.

It's funny to think that my last blog post I was just writing that I had 20 days until my due date....ha ha, guess God had other plans :-)

For my own memory, here's the recap of his birth story:

I went in for my weekly well baby checkup on Tuesday, Jan 24th, and because of my low fluid levels the week prior, my doctor wanted to do a non-stress test and another ultrasound to see if my fluid had increased.  So Peter, Benjamin and I headed over to the hospital for the "quick tests."...

It was lunch time and Benjamin was tired and hungry so I told Peter to take him, get him some BK nuggets and put him down for a nap then I'd meet him at home when I was done.  So Peter and Benjamin went home.

Apparently though, I was having contractions and though I couldn't feel anything, our baby boy's heartbeat was dipping sort of irregularly and not just with contractions so it was causing concern for the nurses and doctors.  So that, coupled with the fact that he wasn't super active when they gave me an ultrasound, caused my doctor to call me and tell me that I wasn't going home that day.

Um......what did she just say?  At this point, it was a bit overwhelming because I was hearing that my baby's heartbeat wasn't quite normal and I was alone in the hospital room being told that I'm not leaving without a baby.  Y.I.K.E.S.  I called Peter, crying, and told him that instead of putting Benjamin down for a nap he needed to call our friends to have them watch him because I needed him back at the hospital.  We were going to have a baby sometime in the near future.

That afternoon/evening, they just monitored his heartbeat and had me change positions to try to make him happier.  I was put on an iv and our doctor told us that we should rest that night but we would start pitocin in the morning slowly to see if our little guy was going to be able to handle stronger contractions.  If not, we were going to have to have a c-section.  I really, really didn't want a c-section so Peter and I prayed and tried to sleep that night, which if you know me, didn't happen at all.

At 5am we started pitocin and it wasn't too long after that that they stopped it because Jonah was not happy with the contractions and his heartrate was being strange.  So we waited while doctors consulted each other about the situation and we were given the option of just going ahead and having the c-section or trying the pitocin one more time to see if we could have him naturally

So I got hooked up to the pitocin, and he was actually handling the contractions well.....until they realized they forgot to actually hook the pitocin into my iv and I was just contracting on my own.  Ha!  So I got hooked up on pitocin and it was a few hours of thinking he was doing great, with thinking he was going to have to come out via c-section.  They also decided to monitor him internally which was oh so fun.  They broke my water then decided to put more fluid back in which caused the internal monitor to loosen and need put back on.  Again, more fun.  Needless to say, I had tubes and wires e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e and I could hardly move.  It was pretty uncomfortable that's for sure! 

(I think the smile may have been just a bit forced in the picture!)  :-)
I decided to get an epidural despite the fact that it didn't work for me with Benjamin.  And like it was with Benjamin, I felt a bit of relief for about 45 minutes to an hour then I could start feeling some pain again.  It was getting a little stronger and Peter was on his laptop on the couch in the room when all of a sudden the contraction pain was crazy hurtful and I told him I needed him to come sit with me.  (stupid-epidurals-that-just-don't-work-for-me)  I told the nurse the pain was completely back and she went to go see if the anesthesiologist could come help "fix" my epidural.  He came shortly thereafter while I was having terrible pain from the contractions.  He was there trying to check the epidural iv thingy, and I was asking him (okay, maybe I was half yelling at him in exasperation) why it was not working.  I was starting to panic a bit because with Benjamin I pushed for 1 1/2 hours and I really didn't think I could go through that long of time with this amount of pain.  There was no relief between contractions, it was mis-er-a-ble.  Then all of a sudden, I told the anesthesiologist "nevermind!  he's ready to come out."  He left quickly, the doctor checked me and said yep, he's ready.  I had progressed from a 6 to a 10 in about 45 minutes which is why it kinda hurt......alot.  I was in such horrific pain but Peter got me through it and in 2 quick pushes he was here.  A pediatrician friend from church was there to help deliver the baby and she stood by my head and counted to 10 while I pushed and that helped me focus enough to push him out quickly since his heartrate was dropping.  When he was delivered, we instantly heard crying and I cannot even begin to tell you what RELIEF Peter and I both felt.  It was like the biggest weight had been taken off our shoulders and we were soooo overjoyed and sooooo grateful to God for the safe delivery of our Jonah Caleb.  He scored 9 out of 10 on the newborn screening test and his lungs looked great, despite being a bit over 2 1/2 weeks early. 

I hadn't eaten in over 24 hours and hadn't slept much but I couldn't contain how joyful I was that our boy was here, he was okay, and we didn't have to have a c-section.  The elation and joy and contentment and peace I felt was amazing.  God is so good!!

 Peter got to cut the cord (that is our pediatrician friend from church!)

 we were seriously sooooo happy to see our adorable son!

 we couldn't believe we had made it through the "high risk labor" and our baby was here.  We did it!!

 in love with our perfect addition to our family!

 our doctor giving Jonah a great review!

 our doctor took such wonderful care of both me and Jonah.  What a blessing!

 could I be any prouder of a mama?!?!?!

 it was fun to watch my husband bond with another son!

 we could just stare at him all the time!

 father and son :-)

 Jonah ate very well in the hospital.  Okay, so maybe mommy ate very well :-)
24 hours later they did put him in the isolette machine to try to prevent his jaundice from getting worse, which broke my heart because I remember how miserable that was with Benjamin. 

But luckily 24 hours later his levels were low enough and we left the hospital Friday, January 27th around 6:15pm.  We were soooo ready to get home!

this is the same "coming home" outfit that Benjamin wore but it definitely swallowed up Jonah.....ha ha, pun completely intentional :-)

Our amazing friends watched Benjamin the first 2 nights while we were in the hospital.  I'm pretty sure Benjamin would move in with Jeremy, Kristen and his friends if I would let him.  What a huge blessing to know he was being taken care of.

Peter's parents drove from Idaho on Wednesday and they were actually able to hold Jonah late that night around 9:30pm.  It was special to have his grandparents hold him that first day.  They went and picked up Benjamin in the morning and watched him for us until we got home on Friday night.  Again, not having to worry about Benjamin's well being was such a blessing!  The rest of the weekend was spent enjoying the cooking of GongGong and enjoying having Poppy play with Benjamin while Peter and I tried to get some sleep when we could.  They left Tuesday morning, but we were so grateful for the help those first days!

I have so much to post about our life with 2 boys the past couple of weeks, and I'll do that on a separate post.  I wanted to remember all the details of Jonah's arrival so I can look back and remember that while the control freak in me couldn't believe he was coming early, God protected him from potential harm and provided a great doctor that was able to see what they think was an umbillical cord that was cutting off bloodflow at times.  All the anxiety and stress of the "early" delivery was so worth it to see our sweet, precious baby boy and know that he was here and safe. 
How GREAT is our God!