So Busy!

Hayden is 7 months, Haleigh is 3 years old!
More at Flickr.

I ran into Beth at Kroger this morning and that reminded me that I haven't posted to this blog in a really long time! Happy Belated 3rd Birthday Averie! Gosh a lot has been going on.

At the end of January, Haleigh celebrated her 3rd Birthday also and had a pink spiderman cake, designed by the brilliant Angi. A dozen pink and white balloons were her favorite part of the whole thing. My post on her birthday:

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Happy Birthday Haleigh Rose!
Current mood: emotional

My Haleigh-bugg, you are 3 years old today. I look back to that cold day in January when you were born and realize that it was one of the happiest days of my life. I can't believe how much you've grown; you're not a baby anymore, but a little girl, almost ready for preschool. How is that possible!

Tall and skinny, with your big feet and big lovey eyes... I love the time we spend together after your brother goes to bed every night. You ask me to cuddle you and we grab blankets and books and snuggle down for a little bit.

You are a mini-me when it comes to your baby brother. You imitate the sweet baby-talk you hear from me, you pat him to calm him, and you fetch absolutely anything he needs. He adores you so much, you can just walk towards him and he'll wiggle and smile so big with anticipation that you're going to play with him.

I hope you remember this point in your life, when you got to play all day long, your brother was sweet and nice and immobile, and it was just the 3 of us.

Love you bunches, see ya later al-gader
Mama

She had her tonsils and adenoids removed, and new tubes put in her ears on Feb 22nd. She spent the week with my parents and has completely recovered now. Her voice is different, her eating habits are 100x improved, and she sleeps soundlessly now. I'm so glad we had it done. More details from my MySpace blog:

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Again, why did we do this?... updated
Current mood: drained

So Haleigh had her tonsils and adenoids out yesterday, and also new tubes put in her ears. She was in an amazingly good mood in the morning when we left to check in at the surgery center. She's always been very tolerant of doctors, never scared or worried, always polite and watchful. We had told her she'd be seeing the doctor and taking a short nap, and then afterward she could have a popsicle and take some medicine to make her feel better. She was cool with that lol.

Back in pre-op, we had to change her into the tiniest little yellow scrubs ever and of course she threw a fit about taking her clothes off. But then she got checked over by the nurse, her temp and pulse taken, and she was back to being a perfect angel. Then the waiting started. Her surgery was scheduled for 9am and we were called back to pre-op about 8:30, but they didn't take her for surgery until 9:45! That's a long time to entertain a 3 year-old in pjs in a tiny 8x8 space with only a curtain separating us from the patient next door. Fun times.

The little girl next to us was having tubes put in her ears, and sounded to be about Haleigh's age. When the nurse came to take her back to surgery, she was really upset and didn't want to leave her parents. I was pretty sure Haleigh wouldn't do that because she didn't have a problem leaving me last time, but I mentioned it to her that the nurse was going to come get her too, like that little girl, and take her back to see the doctor. Was she cool with that? Cue the enthusiastic nodding and staring at the surgery doors for that particular nurse to return.

And she was right, when the nurse came to collect her and go back to surgery, Haleigh immediately put her arms up so the nurse could pick her up and take her! She had a few things to say to us first, so Haleigh waited patiently, and then the nurse asked if she could walk instead? Sure! She hopped up off my lap and padded away with the nurse in her tiny yellow scrubs, barely looking back at us to say goodbye. They had to backtrack to the nurses' station to pick up her chart, so all the other patients got a chuckle, watching as she followed her mentor, looking like she did this very thing every single day. On their way past us again, headed to surgery now, she waved a quick see-ya-later-al-gader and flashed us a proud grin.

More in a bit, I'm needed...

Okay, so the surgery only took 30 minutes, and then we were back talking with the doctor about all the stuff we're supposed to do and not to do... and finally get to meet up with her in recovery about 20 minutes after that. She was awake, but not awake, and we just sat in a dim room in a recliner and rocked for probably 30 minutes while she snored away, until all of a sudden she just sat up and said, "I need to wipe my nose." Fantastic! So you DO want to go home today, sleepyhead!

Spent 2 hours in recovery watching The Land Before Time, got her dressed and headed home. She's done really well so far, but she's really sore. She's also got a cold still, and when she coughs it really causes her trouble. She's drinking pretty well, but only will eat pudding so far. Her voice is very different, caused by all the open space in her throat now.

So, it appears to have gone great! So far anyway. Supposedly days 3 and 4 are the worst, so we will see. Thank you for all your good thoughts!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

an update
Current mood: accomplished

Haleigh is taking her time recovering... my mom has really saved me by being able to take care of her because we work so much. But the bugg is eating more now, and drinking like she should. Everything has to be her idea though, by her own accord. Kind of have to make her a plate (spaghetti last night) and set it on the table and walk away. She eventually can't stand it any longer and shows up at the table to eat a few bites. But gosh, don't look at her because she'll growl and disappear to the couch again to snuggle down and watch the same bug movie over and over and over... So she's slowly recovering :)

Hayden is my sweet smiley baby now, always happy and always trying to gum something to death. Haleigh merely has to look at him and he busts out in giggles. He turned 7 months old last week and had his 6 month checkup (oops) where he weighed in at 18lbs 4oz and was 27 inches tall. 50th percentile for both, yet he's wearing 12-month clothes?! He's still not sleeping through the night consistently, which is driving me insane, and frequently they both end up in my bed by morning. Hey, I can only do so much. :)

Sorry for the cutting-and-pasting of posts... I usually post to my MySpace blog.

Ack! So Busy

Tax season is upon us already, so I'm working 6 days plus one or two late nights... yuck. But it will be over soon and the weather will be warmer and I can take some time off again and hopefully post some more

Pictures here.

Update here on my Myspace... I don't think you have to sign in to see it. I'm scheduling surgery for Haleigh soon :/

4 Months!

It has been way too long since I've updated this. I was waiting for Hayden's 4 month checkup, which was scheduled 2 weeks ago, but got rescheduled to this morning. He's doing great, weighs in at a hefty 16 lbs 2 oz, and 26 inches tall. Both in the 75th percentile. The doctor said his feet turn in a bit, but nothing we can't work out with some exercise, and then he'll stand more willingly.

The kids had a great Christmas, and got some really neat stuff from Santa.

Something funny Haleigh said while we were in the waiting room this morning... the receptionist turned on the tv with a remote from far away, and Haleigh looked surprised and said to me, "The TV just came on! That is really odd..." That earned her a few chuckles from the other patients waiting, something like that coming from a 3 year-old. Well, almost three years old.

A few new pictures at Flickr.

Formula and Tantrums

More at Flickr of course.

Not much of a post because we don't go anywhere too exciting or do much of anything, but thought I'd document some stuff.

Hayden's almost exclusively on formula now... my milk supply just tanked last week and I was hardly able to pump anything at work. So he started getting formula during the day, and then at night he'd nurse and nurse and nurse and still suck his hands so I offered him a bottle and he sucked the whole thing down! Poor baby was starving. But you wouldn't think it, looking at the little tank.

But then tonight, all he's wanted to do is nurse. He won't take a bottle from me at all. I guess that's common, but I don't exactly have anyone else handy here to give him the bottle. So he nursed for a while and seemed satisfied and just went to bed. I guess we'll see how soon he wakes up.

Haleigh is just one big tantrum lately. Trying to figure out how to get her to stop telling us no, to stop yelling all the time, and to actually eat some food for me and Chad. She eats great for the sitter during the day, ALL day in fact, but lately she's refused to eat anything but oatmeal for me. I guess maybe she's not really hungry because she eats so good for 2.5 meals at the babysitter, but I just worry because she's *still* 25 pounds and just as skinny as a rail. She's in 3T clothes because she's tall, though the pants just fall right off.

Other times she's just so pleasant and sweet. She's especially sweet to Hayden all of the time, and most nights at bedtime she'll snuggle with me in her bed for a little bit, but then she looks over at me and says, "Okay, get up now Mommy."

Hayden sleeps in his crib all night now, with one feeding anywhere from 1am to 4am. He smiles and coos and 'talks' like crazy. I love that he gets so much attention and interaction with the babysitter and the other kids all day. And we've been lucky so far that he hasn't gotten sick because it's gone around through all the other kids, Haleigh's had it and I've had it twice. Hopefully we can keep healthy!

1 Month Old

More at Flickr

Niagara Falls

Hayden and I lie down belly-to-belly to start a nursing session. He looks like a little turtle when he stretches out his neck to find me. He gets going and within seconds I feel the milk "let down" on both sides. He starts the slow suck-swallow pattern, relaxes his body, closes his eyes and settles in, seemingly content.

But I think I have what is called "overactive letdown" because then he starts to kick, his eyes open real wide and he looks at me like, turn off the fire hose woman! and I find myself silently cheering him on, chug! chug! chug! because if he pulls off now, somebody's getting squirted.

Most of the time now he can handle it. But if too much is going on around us, like Helicopter Haleigh is hovering and shrieking in her outside voice, "OH look he's looking AT ME!"... he loses his focus and chokes, pulls off in frustration, and milk sprays everywhere unless I catch it quick.

Sleeping is here and there still. He'll only sleep for 15 minutes at a time in his bed, but he sleeps much longer in his little swing, turned off because Haleigh has killed the batteries by swinging her dolls. So shhh guess where he's been sleeping mostly. He'll go 4-5 hours in his first stretch at night so that's been nice. But when he wakes between 4am and 6am, he's up for the day.

He started smiling the other day at right around 4 weeks, especially if you make clicking noises with your tongue. Too funny watching Haleigh trying to duplicate the sound: she hasn't figured that out yet but she tries so hard.


4 weeks old - of course I couldn't catch a smile. He's such a chunker; size 2 diapers and 3-6 month clothes already.


Haleigh "playing" with Hayden with one of her old baby toys. Really, she would dangle that toy in his face for 2 seconds, then run off with it. She kept coming back to show it to him, but she wasn't ready to admit that he could have it as one of "his" toys now. Hayden didn't care, he loved watching her run back and forth and couldn't have cared less about that toy.

Two Weeks Old

We are doing just great. Hayden is sleeping as well as a 2-week old baby can be expected to sleep. He goes down the same time as Haleigh around 7:30p, and sleeps until about 10:30p, has 3oz (I'm pumping) and I nurse him back to sleep. He wakes around 2:30a for another 3oz, and again at 5:30a, and he goes back to sleep each time. Haleigh wakes around 7:30a, and we have breakfast and get ourselves ready while Hayden sleeps until 8:30-9a.

Nursing is going extremely well this time. By the time Haleigh was 2 weeks old, I was crying every time I had to feed her, and actually dreaded it. Hayden is not a good nurser; he falls asleep easily and a session takes 45 minutes to an hour just on one side. So we don't do that much. Usually I can pump 3oz in 10 minutes right before he's due to eat and he gets that in a bottle, then I let him nurse as much as he wants afterwards to top it off, usually only about 5 minutes. He also can't handle my fast flow; he either chokes or pulls off and gets squirted, so I'd have to pump a little anyways first. He just does a lot better with a bottle, and happy mom makes for a happy baby, right? At least he's getting all breastmilk! I only supplemented 2 ounces of formula that first night home because the poor guy was so hungry and I didn't have my milk yet. So I'm happy with how things are going.

Haleigh absolutely adores Hayden, but I feel like I'm always asking her to get out of his face, back off, watch where your foot is flying please... it's never-ending. He responds to her differently than with Chad or I; he really watches her intently and has even smiled when she talks to him. We've been working on getting her to just "shush" him when he cries instead of flipping out and yelling over him, "BABY! IT'S OKAY! HAYDEN DON'T CRY!" because that, of course, makes him cry louder. Then the bird starts screeching, the cats flee the room, and Chad and I just look at each other and shake our heads.

Haleigh and Hayden

I thought the kiddos should have a blog together, instead of just including Hayden on The Daily Haleigh.

Hopefully I will be able to post twice as much!

Welcome Hayden Robert

Just bringing these over from the other site:




12 days old


3 days old


very much in labor at the hospital, 38w 6d.


about 27 hours old, at home


proud daddy with his brand new son