Dylan's Sick Day

We’ve been having many “firsts” around our house lately with Brody. Today, Dylan had a first - his first throw-up. Yes, that’s right, until now we’ve managed to avoid that little problem. Dylan finally woke up around 9:30 this morning, not feeling well at all. He was crabby and a bit lethargic. I cuddled with him for awhile, then he sat up on the couch and guzzled the juice box I offered him. A few minutes later he walked into the kitchen (thankfully!!!) and puked all over the kitchen floor and Oma. What a champ Oma has been the last few days. Cooking, cleaning. laundry, poopy diaper changing, and now getting thrown up on.

Luckily for all of us it was just vomit from his overly icky nose, but we took it easy on juice and food this morning. By 11 he was asking for more and more snacks, and he ate a bit of lunch. For the moment, all is quiet, as both boys are napping.

On a funny note, Dylan’s trains have been disappearing. He has 21 trains, and I used to try to do an count of them each night, so we knew if we had them all. Eventually I gave up on that, and sure enough, trains started disappearing. My mom mentioned that Dylan had been saying something about his train Gordon while standing near the subwoofer. I shook the speaker, and sure enough, heard lots of little things floating around in there. We knew he had shoved some blocks in there a few months ago, but I didn’t realize he had a habit of doing that.

I got a screwdriver and opened up the back of speaker. While I was working, I mentioned to Dylan that I hadn’t seen Thomas or Diesel for awhile, and asked where they were. As if a lightbulb went off, he said “In there.”

Dylan had quite a collection of things stashed in there:

10 blocks

Doc (from Cars)

Sheriff (from Cars)

Toby the Train

Thomas the Train

Gordon the Train

Gordon’s Coal Car

Diesel the Train

2 pieces of tupperware

1 plastic knife from his kitchen set

Perhaps cleaning out the speaker will become a weekly ritual...

Dylan's Sick Day

We’ve been having many “firsts” around our house lately with Brody. Today, Dylan had a first - his first throw-up. Yes, that’s right,  until now we’ve managed to avoid that little problem. Dylan finally woke up around 9:30 this morning, not feeling well at all. He was crabby and a bit lethargic. I cuddled with him for awhile, then he sat up on the couch and guzzled the juice box I offered him. A few minutes later he walked into the kitchen (thankfully!!!) and puked all over the kitchen floor and Oma. What a champ Oma has been the last few days. Cooking, cleaning. laundry, poopy diaper changing, and now getting thrown up on.

Luckily for all of us it was just vomit from his overly icky nose, but we took it easy on juice and food this morning. By 11 he was asking for more and more snacks, and he ate a bit of lunch. For the moment, all is quiet, as both boys are napping. 

On a funny note, Dylan’s trains have been disappearing. He has 21 trains, and I used to try to do an count of them each night, so we knew if we had them all. Eventually I gave up on that, and sure enough, trains started disappearing. My mom mentioned that Dylan had been saying something about his train Gordon while standing near the subwoofer. I shook the speaker, and sure enough, heard lots of little things floating around in there. We knew he had shoved some blocks in there a few months ago, but I didn’t realize he had a habit of doing that.

I got a screwdriver and opened up the back of speaker. While I was working, I mentioned to Dylan that I hadn’t seen Thomas or Diesel for awhile, and asked where they were. As if a lightbulb went off, he said “In there.”

Dylan had quite a collection of things stashed in there:

10 blocks

Doc (from Cars)

Sheriff (from Cars)

Toby the Train

Thomas the Train

Gordon the Train

Gordon’s Coal Car

Diesel the Train

2 pieces of tupperware

1 plastic knife from his kitchen set

Perhaps cleaning out the speaker will become a weekly ritual...

Brody's First Bath

Brody had his first bath! His cord stump fell off early, when he was just a week old, so that meant we could give him a dip. I think it was just about meal time, so he started off a bit crabby, expecting a meal, but as the bath went on, he calmed down a bit and seemed to enjoy the warm water. Maybe it felt like being back inside my belly?

Here are a few pictures. In the first one Brody looks like a little orangutan baby doesn’t he? He still curls his legs up, and when he stretches his arms out wide they look so long!

Brody's First Bath

Brody had his first bath! His cord stump fell off early, when he was just a week old, so that meant we could give him a dip. I think it was just about meal time, so he started off a bit crabby, expecting a meal, but as the bath went on, he calmed down a bit and seemed to enjoy the warm water. Maybe it felt like being back inside my belly? 

Here are a few pictures. In the first one Brody looks like a little orangutan baby doesn’t he? He still curls his legs up, and when he stretches his arms out wide they look so long!

Dylan's Harley

For Christmas, my uncle Gregg commissioned a friend of his to make Dylan a Harley Davidson rocking motorcycle. My mom arrived today for a week-long visit, and along with many other gifts, she delivered the rocker.

It is so cool, and truly a work of art. It is solid wood, made to last, and will be a piece we keep for our grandchildren to use, and pass down to them someday.

Dylan loved it and climbed right up on it.

Dylan's Harley

For Christmas, my uncle Gregg commissioned a friend of his to make Dylan a Harley Davidson rocking motorcycle. My mom arrived today for a week-long visit, and along  with many other gifts, she delivered the rocker.

It is so cool, and truly a work of art. It is solid wood, made to last, and will be a piece we keep for our grandchildren to use, and pass down to them someday. 

Dylan loved it and climbed right up on it. 

Dylan's Harley

For Christmas, my uncle Gregg commissioned a friend of his to make Dylan a Harley Davidson rocking motorcycle. My mom arrived today for a week-long visit, and along  with many other gifts, she delivered the rocker.

It is so cool, and truly a work of art. It is solid wood, made to last, and will be a piece we keep for our grandchildren to use, and pass down to them someday. 

Dylan loved it and climbed right up on it. 

The Gift of Friends

We’ve been very lucky to have generous and thoughtful friends. On Monday we received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Jeff and Beth.

We’ve had a few dinners delivered by friends. Both dinners were yummy, and along with dinner last night, our friend Erin brought gifts for both boys. For Dylan, a book, and for Brody, this adorable hat that she knitted:

We’ve also received other great gifts of blankets, clothes, and toys. Our boys are so lucky we have such great friends!

The gift of friends

We’ve been very lucky to have generous and thoughtful friends. On Monday we received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Jeff and Beth.

We’ve had a few dinners delivered by friends. Both dinners were yummy, and along with dinner last night, our friend Erin brought gifts for both boys. For Dylan, a book, and for Brody, this adorable hat that she knitted:

We’ve also received other great gifts of blankets, clothes, and toys. Our boys are so lucky we have such great friends!

Settling In

Things have been going pretty well the last few days. Brody seems to be a very good natured baby. He fusses when he has gas, needs to burp or wants to eat. Otherwise he is awake for a little while before sleeping again.

Our first night home was not the greatest. I spent a total of an hour in bed. Most of the night was spent in the rocking chair. Brody continued to cluster feed. He never settled down for too long before he wanted to eat again. Yesterday he fell into a nice pattern of eating, changing diaper, eating again, then sleeping for a few hours, and repeat. He kept it up last night! I fed him at 10, then we went to bed, and he didn’t wake up to eat until around 2. I fed him, changed him, fed him again, then he went back to sleep until 6:30 this morning. I know this can’t continue, but I was happy to enjoy a few consecutive hours of sleep.

And here is a shot of big brother Dylan. This, from a baby that wouldn’t tolerate a pacifier in his mouth...now that baby Brody has one, Dylan wanted one too. He ran around the house for a few minutes with it in his mouth. We tried not to make a big deal out of it, and he soon lost interest and I found it lying on our bedroom floor later.

Brody has his first well-check this morning at the Dr’s office. He is down to 6 lbs, 2 oz, which isn’t bad. We go back again on Thursday morning for another weigh-in, to be sure he is gaining weight back fast enough. He’s had quite a few episodes of extreme spit-up, but I’m hoping gaining weight won’t be a problem with as much eating as he’s been doing.

Settling In

Things have been going pretty well the last few days. Brody seems to be a very good natured baby. He fusses when he has gas, needs to burp or wants to eat. Otherwise he is awake for a little while before sleeping again.

Our first night home was not the greatest. I spent a total of an hour in bed. Most of the night was spent in the rocking chair. Brody continued to cluster feed. He never settled down for too long before he wanted to eat again. Yesterday he fell into a nice pattern of eating, changing diaper, eating again, then sleeping for a few hours, and repeat. He kept it up last night! I fed him at 10, then we went to bed, and he didn’t wake up to eat until around 2. I fed him, changed him, fed him again, then he went back to sleep until 6:30 this morning. I know this can’t continue, but I was happy to enjoy a few consecutive hours of sleep.

And here is a shot of big brother Dylan. This, from a baby that wouldn’t tolerate a pacifier in his mouth...now that baby Brody has one, Dylan wanted one too. He ran around the house for a few minutes with it in his mouth. We tried not to make a big deal out of it, and he soon lost interest and I found it lying on our bedroom floor later.

Brody has his first well-check this morning at the Dr’s office. He is down to 6 lbs, 2 oz, which isn’t bad. We go back again on Thursday morning for another weigh-in, to be sure he is gaining weight back fast enough. He’s had quite a few episodes of extreme spit-up, but I’m hoping gaining weight won’t be a problem with as much eating as he’s been doing.

Bringing Home Brody

Brrrr. I think I heard the temp is -22 windchill today. We bundled Brody up to bring him home. He looked so cute in his little teddy bear suit. I have pictures of both the boys in the car seat that i just love. I think it really shows how tiny they are.

Here is Brody today, ready to come home.

Dylan got a little restless while we were waiting for our mandatory wheelchair escort out of the hospital. He took to hiding in the closet and drinking my water!

Brody William Luther

For some reason, all along with my pregnancy, I thought Brody might come early, and he did! Thursday morning about 6:10 as I was about to get in the shower to get ready for work, my water broke! I had barely slept the night before, tossing and turning. I had spent part of the night on the couch, and remember thinking he would be born soon, as I couldn’t see keeping up that routine for a few more weeks and something just didn’t feel right.

My doctor happened to be on-call (but only until 7 a.m.), so I spoke with him and he said to come in right away. We woke up Dylan, put our bags in the car and drove to our friends the Idstein’s house to drop off Dylan. He was very excited to go play with Abby and Joey for the day.

We got to the hospital about 7:30 a.m., and by 8:30 I was having contractions on my own. Because the risk of infection to the baby increases without that protective bag of water, I was started on an IV of Pitocin to help the contractions along. I was dilated to 3 when we got to the hospital, and was at about a 5 at 11:30 when I asked for an epidural. They stopped the Pitocin then, and I continued to have good contractions on my own. By the time I had my epidural I was dilated to 6. I felt pretty good (it’s all relative...) for about 40 minutes, when I started to feel like the epidural must not be working anymore at all. We called in the nurse, and at 1pm she said I was completely dilated and ready to push! She called the doctor over from the clinic. While he was on his way over she let me push once, but then told me to stop otherwise Brody was going to get there before the doctor! The doctor arrived, I pushed with one contraction. He told me on the next push we’d have a baby, and we did! I pushed for just about 10 minutes total and Brody was born at 1:29 p.m. The whole labor and delivery process went so much more smoothly than with Dylan. I felt very aware of everything, and it was nice to have such a peaceful environment.

The little squirt was 6 pounds, 11 ounces, and just 18.25 inches long - he’s a shorty! Brody is very healthy, just a tad jaundiced at this point, and is a champion nurser. He cluster fed (for those who don’t know, that’s code for CONSTANTLY) from 1:30 p.m. until about 9 p.m. yesterday. Ouch.

Our stay in the hospital was okay - we had two great nurses the entire time, Ashley on days and Karen on nights. It was very nice to see the same faces instead of new ones all the time. But as with any hospital stay, it’s noisy, the food it seems was always late, and I’m just glad to be home. Brian has done a great job holding down the fort, but now I’m home, giving orders again! :)

I’ve added a whole album of pictures from the last few days to our Pictures page, so click over there to see them.

Brody William Luther

For some reason, all along with my pregnancy, I thought Brody might come early, and he did! Thursday morning about 6:10 as I was about to get in the shower to get ready for work, my water broke! I had barely slept the night before, tossing and turning. I had spent part of the night on the couch, and remember thinking he would be born soon, as I couldn’t see keeping up that routine for a few more weeks and something just didn’t feel right.

My doctor happened to be on-call (but only until 7 a.m.), so I spoke with him and he said to come in right away. We woke up Dylan, put our bags in the car and drove to our friends the Idstein’s house to drop off Dylan. He was very excited to go play with Abby and Joey for the day.

We got to the hospital about 7:30 a.m., and by 8:30 I was having contractions on my own. Because the risk of infection to the baby increases without that protective bag of water, I was started on an IV of Pitocin to help the contractions along. I was dilated to 3 when we got to the hospital, and was at about a 5 at 11:30 when I asked for an epidural. They stopped the Pitocin then, and I continued to have good contractions on my own. By the time I had my epidural I was dilated to 6. I felt pretty good (it’s all relative...) for about 40 minutes, when I started to feel like the epidural must not be working anymore at all. We called in the nurse, and at 1pm she said I was completely dilated and ready to push! She called the doctor over from the clinic. While he was on his way over she let me push once, but then told me to stop otherwise Brody was going to get there before the doctor! The doctor arrived, I pushed with one contraction. He told me on the next push we’d have a baby, and we did! I pushed for just about 10 minutes total and Brody was born at 1:29 p.m. The whole labor and delivery process went so much more smoothly than with Dylan. I felt very aware of everything, and it was nice to have such a peaceful environment.

The little squirt was 6 pounds, 11 ounces, and just 18.25 inches long - he’s a shorty! Brody is very healthy, just a tad jaundiced at this point, and is a champion nurser. He cluster fed (for those who don’t know, that’s code for CONSTANTLY) from 1:30 p.m. until about 9 p.m. yesterday. Ouch. 

Our stay in the hospital was okay - we had two great nurses the entire time, Ashley on days and Karen on nights. It was very nice to see the same faces instead of new ones all the time. But as with any hospital stay, it’s noisy, the food it seems was always late, and I’m just glad to be home. Brian has done a great job holding down the fort, but now I’m home, giving orders again! :)

I’ve added a whole album of pictures from the last few days to our Pictures page, so click over there to see them.

Bringing Brody Home

Brrrr. I think I heard the temp is -22 windchill today. We bundled Brody up to bring him home. He looked so cute in his little teddy bear suit. I have pictures of both the boys in the car seat that i just love. I think it really shows how tiny they are.

Here is Brody today, ready to come home.

Dylan got a little restless while we were waiting for our mandatory wheelchair escort out of the hospital. He took to hiding in the closet and drinking my water! 

Sapora Playworld

Oh, to have as much energy as a 23 month old child!! Instead of overturning every toy box and container around the house, we decided to go to an indoor playworld so Dylan could use up some energy. The place is called Sapora Playworld, and it’s a Rockford Park District facility. Inside the building they also have ice skating/hockey programs, Tai Kwon Do, Dance classes, broom ball and a few other things. I think it will be a place we visit often as the boys get older and involved in sports.

We are considered residents of the Park District area, so it cost us only $1.00 for Dylan to play. Next month when my baby turns two, it will cost us an incredible $2.00. Let me tell you...Brian and I would both agree it was worth every penny of our dollar to let Dylan run around and play today. It is a fun system of climbing pads, tunnels, bridges, slides, etc. Here are a few shots and a videos of Dylan enjoying himself today.

Dylan fell down at one point, and smacked his face right into the ground. Bri

an and I didn’

t really react, except to snicker a bit amongst ourselves. The other parents looked at us incredulously, one mom even said “he hit his face”, but Dylan got right up, brushed his hands off and kept right on running. I guess the other parents were all expecting a big melt down. I really believe there is something to the method of not over-reacting when your child takes a tumble. Dylan lets us know when something is really wrong, otherwise he just goes about his business. He’s tough!

Sapora Playworld

Oh, to have as much energy as a 23 month old child!! Instead of overturning every toy box and container around the house, we decided to go to an indoor playworld so Dylan could use up some energy. The place is called Sapora Playworld, and it’s a Rockford Park District facility. Inside the building they also have ice skating/hockey programs, Tai Kwon Do, Dance classes, broom ball and a few other things. I think it will be a place we visit often as the boys get older and involved in sports.

We are considered residents of the Park District area, so it cost us only $1.00 for Dylan to play. Next month when my baby turns two, it will cost us an incredible $2.00. Let me tell you...Brian and I would both agree it was worth every penny of our dollar to let Dylan run around and play today. It is a fun system of climbing pads, tunnels, bridges, slides, etc. Here are a few shots and a videos of Dylan enjoying himself today.

Dylan fell down at one point, and smacked his face right into the ground. Brian and I didn’t really react, except to snicker a bit amongst ourselves. The other parents looked at us incredulously, one mom even said “he hit his face”, but Dylan got right up, brushed his hands off and kept right on running. I guess the other parents were all expecting a big melt down. I really believe there is something to the method of not over-reacting when your child takes a tumble. Dylan lets us know when something is really wrong, otherwise he just goes about his business. He’s tough!

Bye, bye crib!

Thursday night we decided to go ahead and move the crib into the baby’s room. Dylan had spent two nights in his big boy bed without incident, so we thought it was a good time to make the move! I asked him if we should move the crib into the baby’s room and he gave me a definitive “yes!”

Dylan even helped Brian re-assemble the crib. (Don’t worry, Brian did the final quality control inspection).

Yesterday was his first afternoon nap in the big bed. I wasn’t sure what would happen, after all, sometimes convincing a toddler he needs a nap isn’t easy. It took three attempts, and on the third, when I used my firm, no-more-fooling-around mommy voice, Dylan stayed in bed and took a two hour nap. I am happy to say he is now taking his second nap in his bed and all is quiet from upstairs. Today Daddy got to do the honors of putting Dylan back in bed three times. Hey, if all it takes is three times, I’m pleased. I’ve seen episodes of SuperNanny where parents sometimes put their kids back in bed forty or fifty times in one night!!!

So with the crib in baby’s room, that means I got to put the cute bedding set on!

I know this pictures seems to be at a funny angle - I was holding the camera rather high above my head to get the sailboat detail. Although it’s difficult to see in this picture, the light blue is gingham, and so is the red. I also held the camera this way to hide a detail in the room. We’ve finally decided on a name for ‘baby’, but decided to keep it a surprise until he’s born. With knowing he’s a boy, we wanted there to be some element of surprise. Last weekend I decoupaged the letters of his name with patterned paper, and hung them with ribbon above the crib. I had to use this camera angle to avoid giving away the surprise! Now the only thing left to do is for Brian to hang the blinds. Otherwise, we are completely ready for baby. My bags are packed, I’m officially 38 weeks and miserable, Dylan’s plans are set. Any day now...

Bye, Bye Crib!

Thursday night we decided to go ahead and move the crib into the baby’s room. Dylan had spent two nights in his big boy bed without incident, so we thought it was a good time to make the move! I asked him if we should move the crib into the baby’s room and he gave me a definitive “yes!” 

Dylan even helped Brian re-assemble the crib. (Don’t worry, Brian did the final quality control inspection).

Yesterday was his first afternoon nap in the big bed. I wasn’t sure what would happen, after all, sometimes convincing a toddler he needs a nap isn’t easy. It took three attempts, and on the third, when I used my firm, no-more-fooling-around mommy voice, Dylan stayed in bed and took a two hour nap. I am happy to say he is now taking his second nap in his bed and all is quiet from upstairs. Today Daddy got to do the honors of putting Dylan back in bed three times. Hey, if all it takes is three times, I’m pleased. I’ve seen episodes of SuperNanny where parents sometimes put their kids back in bed forty or fifty times in one night!!!

So with the crib in baby’s room, that means I got to put the cute bedding set on!

I know this pictures seems to be at a funny angle - I was holding the camera rather high above my head to get the sailboat detail. Although it’s difficult to see in this picture, the light blue is gingham, and so is the red. I also held the camera this way to hide a detail in the room. We’ve finally decided on a name for ‘baby’, but decided to keep it a surprise until he’s born. With knowing he’s a boy, we wanted there to be some element of surprise. Last weekend I decoupaged the letters of his name with patterned paper, and hung them with ribbon above the crib. I had to use this camera angle to avoid giving away the surprise! Now the only thing left to do is for Brian to hang the blinds. Otherwise, we are completely ready for baby. My bags are packed, I’m officially 38 weeks and miserable, Dylan’s plans are set. Any day now...

Big Boy Bed

Can it really be this easy??

Last night after reading books, I told Dylan it was night-night time. I held out my arms to get hugs and put him in his crib. He said “bed.” Highly doubting he’d stay in his big boy bed for more than a few minutes I said okay, gave kisses and cuddles, tucked his blankie (“buggin”) in next to him, and left the room.

Twenty minutes later I checked on him and he was sound asleep! He stayed there all night, and this morning when I peeked in to check on him, he was sitting up, sucking his thumb, just waiting. When he saw me he said “I want out.” Apparently he doesn’t realize the big boy bed means newfound freedom to get “out” whenever you want to. How cute is that?

So again tonight, we read our books, then I said it was night-night time, he crawled right over and snuggled up in his flannel sheets. I had the monitor turned up high and could hear him moving around quite a bit, but he didn’t make a peep, and it didn’t sound like he was playing with books or anything else in his room, just getting adjusted in bed.

I tiptoed upstairs, and used the night setting on my camera to get these two shots of him. The flash is super bright for just a second, so while it appears he’s sleeping with the lights on, they really aren’t.

Big Boy Bed

Can it really be this easy??

Last night after reading books, I told Dylan it was night-night time. I held out my arms to get hugs and put him in his crib. He said “bed.” Highly doubting he’d stay in his big boy bed for more than a few minutes I said okay, gave kisses and cuddles, tucked his blankie (“buggin”) in next to him, and left the room.

Twenty minutes later I checked on him and he was sound asleep! He stayed there all night, and this morning when I peeked in to check on him, he was sitting up, sucking his thumb, just waiting. When he saw me he said “I want out.” Apparently he doesn’t realize the big boy bed means newfound freedom to get “out” whenever you want to. How cute is that?

So again tonight, we read our books, then I said it was night-night time, he crawled right over and snuggled up in his flannel sheets. I had the monitor turned up high and could hear him moving around quite a bit, but he didn’t make a peep, and it didn’t sound like he was playing with books or anything else in his room, just getting adjusted in bed.

I tiptoed upstairs, and used the night setting on my camera to get these two shots of him. The flash is super bright for just a second, so while it appears he’s sleeping with the lights on, they really aren’t.