Andrew having fun

Andrew's had a fun month even if he has been busy adjusting to a baby brother.

He went to a carnival and pancake breakfast at our church for the 4th of July. He had so much fun and got face painted like a tiger - he wanted it to be orange and blue instead of black.



He also went on countless trips to the park with Daddy and then with Grandpa when they were visiting.




Andrew, Katsu, and my dad went to the carnival in town when my parents got into town. Andrew had SO much fun. He loved riding all the rides and eating his hot dog.







My dad and Andrew took a trip to the Toledo Zoo.







More trips to the park ...






Another trip to the zoo (this time with Grandma too)







A trip to the Domino's Petting Farm







We also took trips to the art fair and blueberry picking (with all of us, Seth and me included), but we don't have any pictures of those. What a lucky boy Andrew is!

Seth is One Month Old!

Pictures from this morning:







Pictures from earlier this month:





Today Seth is one-month old. I can't believe it has been that long already, but probably because I still have family here until Sunday (my family didn't plan on coming out until my due date by which time Seth was already 2.5 weeks old).

Seth has started to wake up and definitely has more awake periods, but he still sleeps a lot. Generally, he is awake for 3-4 awake periods a day. IN the morning he is awake quite a bit, some in the evening, and then again around 2-5 at night, sometime in there. Maybe one other time. The rest of the time he is impossible to wake up. We tried for a while to keep him awake in the hours before bed, but it didn't work (seriously, if this boy wants to sleep NOTHING will keep him awake). And so now we finally get to see his eyes! And interact.

Seth still eats ALL the time. Every 2-3 hours, day and night. Sometimes more often. There is no long stretch, which is kind of hard on me, but I've had help, so I can sleep in in the morning which really helps. He is a pretty fast nurser or just doesn't like to nurse for long. It still is sometimes a struggle to get him to even nurse for 15 minutes. And he never ever nurses on both sides, just not interested.

But, boy is he gaining weight. We took him for a weight check at 3 weeks. I was hoping he weighed 7 lbs. He weighed 8 lbs 6 oz!!! So, he gained almost 2 and a half pounds (just over a kilo) in 2 and a half weeks. He definitely is starting to look chubbier.

Seth is getting stronger. He doesn't mind tummy time and can lift his head up for a second or two. He also will smile at you when you smile at him, sometimes, which is cute.

Seth is generally a really happy kid. He hardly ever cries except when he wants to eat, or sometimes when he needs to burp. He still burps a lot and seems to get an upset tummy quite often. He also spits up huge amounts of undigested milk which makes for lots of laundry. He grunts a lot at night. He is probably somewhat awake, but I can mostly sleep through it so I just leave him in his crib. Eventually, I'm hoping that will help him associate night with sleep ... and hopefully increasingly long sleep times. A stretch of even 3 hours of sleep would be well appreciated by me.

Seth has mostly stayed inside, but we've gone on some walks and he had two trips to the art fair. We've gotten good over the last 2 years finding quiet places to nurse downtown. And otherwise, he just slept. I guess art appreciation will come later.

Short Little Seth Update

(These pictures are all over a week old, I will upload some new ones soon - he really is getting bigger and cuter now. He still looks kind of funny in these pictures).

If Seth will cooperate and keep sleeping, I might get a little update on Seth.

Seth is a sweet little baby - the second child is kind of fun because you get to focus on getting to know them more instead of learning how to take care of a baby. Plus the fact that labor was so much easier, I have bonded much faster this time, I am healing faster this time, this has just seemed a lot more fun.

Seth is a sleepy baby, but he is finally starting to wake up sometimes. For the first week or two I was spending a good 6+ hours a day trying to wake him up to eat. Poking him, playing with his feet, undressing him, cold washcloths, you name it. Breastfeeding was a super major challenge, but I think he has finally got it down. He had horrible suction, and for the first week or so, often wouldn't latch on even after 15-30 minutes of trying. Actually supplementing with some pumped milk helped a lot and we rarely have to do that anymore. He still will latch on and off maybe 4-5 times during a 10 minute feed, but that is a huge improvement. He eats every 2-3 hours during the day and every 3-3.5 hours at night. A little tiring, but I hope as he gets bigger that will be longer at least occasionally. I was really worried that he wasn't gaining weight but I think he looks a little rounder now. We'll see at his weight check next week.

Seth sleeps a lot. The first week or two, he was maybe up 4 hours a day. And that was all feeding attempts. Now, he is awake for an hour (maybe) a few times a day. The rest of the time, he is napping in his swing, on us, or in the crib. He is REALLY loud when he sleeps and makes all kinds of grunting noises and stuff. Andrew never made any noise unless he was crying, so it's different for us. I think it bothers Katsu more than it does me. This kid is also a pooping / farting machine! And he makes TONS of noise to go along with it. Also a different change. We are going through so many diapers ... I forgot about that. He is starting to spit up ... but I'm hoping it will be less than Andrew. He also rarely cries, except when he decides that he is hungry and then he needs to eat RIGHT THEN. He makes all kind of funny faces (like he has to try them all out), but mostly he smiles A LOT. It's cute.

We lazy first time parents finally gave him his first bath yesterday. Not as much crying as I expected as Seth hates hates hates being undressed.

Overall, he is a sweet boy who likes to be held, swaddled, and loves to gaze into our eyes. I am still always shocked when I see his gray eyes. He just looks so much lighter than Andrew. We love our little Seth boy. And to think, his due date is not until tomorrow!

Andrew Update - 2 years 2 months

(Some of the pictures are kind of old ... i.e., his birthday party, but oh, well).

Andrew has had a bit of a crazy month with a new baby brother here. Plus, it seems like the terrible twos are starting to hit in full measure. He definitely isn't a baby anymore.

So, Andrew really likes baby Seth - most of the time. He is really gentle with him and loves to hug and kiss him, especially his toes. He tells the baby "Okay" when he is crying (more like fussing since Seth almost never cries) and pats him gently and pushes his swing a little bit. He does get upset/jealous when I am nursing and sometimes pretends to hit the baby, but mostly because I just told him he couldn't run cars over the baby or the nursing pillow.

On the other hand, he is not so happy with us (pretty typical, I think). He says "No", "Go away", "Stop it" almost constantly. He tells us that we are mean or that he hates us (his vocabulary has really expanded). He orders us around all the time - where he wants us to be, what he wants us to do. He has always been a little defiant, but that has definitely ramped up. Changing his diaper, going or leaving anywhere, taking a bath, taking naps, and sometimes eating are usually met with tantrums and lots of screaming and crying. Instead of wanting to be comforted when he is upset, he usually will go to his room and shut the door and tell us to go away. So, lots of noise and lots of screaming. I just try to tell myself this won't last forever, because it is very tiring. More tiring than a newborn for sure.

Andrew has decided (for the most part) that he is done with diapers and is always trying to have us let him wear underwear. Most of the time Katsu obliges and sometimes I do. The thing is, he still doesn't seem really interested in using the potty. Us telling him to sit on the potty is met with major tantrums. But I get really really tired of cleaning up dirty underwear. I am still not sure how this will all resolve.

When he's not in the terrible two's part of his day, he is a pretty terrific kid. Andrew's vocabulary is still through the roof compared to a few months ago and he talks incessently. He loves to ask the same question over and over and over and over .... he still doesn't say why, but lots of "What"s and "Where"s. He also seems to be pretty deep in the world of his imagination. He is constantly telling stories about his cars (which might as well be dolls for how he plays with them sometimes), his stuffed animals, and his other toys. His cars' new favorite activity is going to church, which they all do multiple times a day. Andrew must really like going to church because he talks about it ALL the time. Yesterday, in a pretty typical speech:

Andrew: Bye, Mom. (he says this multiple times a day too)
Me: Where are you going?
Andrew: To church.
Me: Oh, what are you going to do there?
Andrew: Hit the girls.

I told him that we shouldn't hit anyone and then he proceeded to act out how the girls were going to cry and then he hid (I guess cause he was going to get in trouble?). Our poor nursery leaders.

Thankfully, Andrew is still playing pretty well by himself (mostly with his cars), still loves reading which we do hours each day (a huge fan of Curious George and Richard Scarry books), and loves to go outside on walks and to the pool. Hopefully, his anger at us will dissipate in the coming month and he will suddenly use the potty perfectly (ha ha ha).