New Year and New Resolutions

Happy New Year!

I know I said I'd update about Eric and how things have gone over the last 5 months.  But basically it was a combination of crying, rocking, nursing, tickles, giggles, kisses, and coos.  That sums up most of our 5 months. 

Eric, if you're reading this when you're older, you have been one of the biggest joys in my life.  Yes, you cry a lot as an infant, but your eyes tell me you love me and it makes it all worth it.  You are mostly crying because you don't ever want to be put down or have the attention on anything but yourself.  Hopefully over the years you'll learn to turn that into something positive.  Even at 3am when I'm tired and know you're not really hungry, I still rush in to hold you because I know it's not always going to be like this.  You have me wrapped around your little finger and that's OK.  Even when you're fussy, I know I can pick you up and toss you in the air and you'll instantly be happy again.  You love to be tossed, swung around, and smothered in kisses!  Everyone else is scared to death to throw you around, but I got you babe.  One day it's going to be you and me riding the roller coasters and jumping out of airplanes, snowboarding and wake boarding, white water rafting and rock climbing.  Your dad can teach you hunting and fishing and how to change a tire.  I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with this blog during your newborn stage, but I was too busy holding you and trying to catch up on sleep.

Here are some pictures to make up for lost time:

Now, back to the new year and resolutions...

I'm jumping on the 366 project bandwagon.  Basically you take a photo every day of the year. Here's a little blurb about why it's awesome and why you should do it too - http://content.photojojo.com/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/.  Since this year is a leap year, it's 366 (duh) days instead of 365.  To make this a realistic goal, I'll probably use my phone a lot for the photos and will likely update the blog every few days if I'm not able to do it every day.

Another resolution I have is to run a half marathon.  Let me preface this by saying I. am. not. a. runner.  I don't even like jogging.  But we'll be having another Running for Lillian Fundraiser in October and I really want to run the half marathon.  All the money raised will go towards the Foundation for Prader-Willi Research.  More info to come. (if anyone is interested in running, shoot me an email and I'll give you details on where the race is.)

If anyone else is doing the 366 project this year, please leave a comment and let me know! I'd love to follow along and keep each other motivated to keep it up!

Forget the baby food, bring on the Twix!

First night of the year

Big sister

Birthdays, Beaches, and Blogging

Things have been a bit crazy here with learning to navigate life with a toddler and a newborn!  Eric is now 4 months old (gasp) and finally not so colicky.  We're still having some struggles with waking up anywhere from three to four times a night (two on a good night).  So, I'm still pretty darn sleep deprived and 4 months of sleep deprivation can lead to neglecting a blog, clearly.  I probably would have just complained the last four months anyway.  But I'm going to try to get back to this because I really want to keep documenting these times so one day I can look back and and REMEMBER things that my sleep deprived memory might rob me of :).

This fall was beautiful and the weather has been really mild.  Lillian's birthday was a big hit.  She had an apple themed birthday party with LOTS of friends, family, and babies.

Just a few decorations

Pie in a jar for our guests to take home (we didn't serve dessert at the party)

She was running around so much, this is the best photo I got that day!

My little colic monster would only rest with mommy

Lillian is growing up so fast.  She picks up on so much going on in the house too.  Ever since we brought Eric home, she has been ALL about her baby dolls!  She puts them in his swing, on his play mat, in his jumperoo, in his bumbo seat, she lays them on the bed and puts diapers on top of them, puts the swaddle on them, etc.  She burps them and rocks them too.  I just love watching her and if she's playing with her dolls, then she's staying out of trouble...

Speaking of trouble, turning two has been interesting.  She has learned how to get my attention by getting into anything and everything she's not supposed.  Drives me absolutely batty!  It's especially hard with a newborn who cries and nurses all day and I'm trying to soothe him while keeping my eye on her. Oy. And all while sleep deprived. 

It's been really hard to not loose my mind the last 4 months.  I was so desperate for a break, and felt horrible that Lillian wasn't getting the attention she was used to.  Finally out of desperation I called the local PDO program (parents day out) and asked if they had any openings, and thank God they had one opening in her age group. We went in and toured the facility and I talked with the teachers in her classroom for a while.  It took a few visits before I was comfortable leaving her there for the whole day (9-3), but I'm thankful they are willing to make a few adjustments for her and were more than willing to learn about her syndrome.  The kids eat snacks and lunch at "school" and I'm able to provide Lillian with all her own food, so that makes everything much less stressfull.  I found a great PDF file written for preschool educators of children with PWS.  The link to that file is here.  I also printed this out for all of her therapists because it's really great information on how they learn best.  She absolutely loves going to "school" and usually doesn't want to leave when I go to pick her up.

So now Lillian's schedule for the week consists of 2 days at PDO, 4 therapies (PT, ST, OT, DT), and church 2 mornings a week (once during a mom's group and once on Sunday).  She's a busy girl!

We also recently went to the national PWSA conference in Florida and met some really great people.  Lillian enjoyed swimming and we spent some time at the beach. 

Eric deserves (more like demands) a whole post to himself, so I'll update on him later. He's an absolute joy and I'm really enjoying this age with him!  Lillian loves her brother too and luckily has shown no jealousy of him whatsoever.  Hopefully it stays that way.

Any sleep advice for a 4 month old is welcome :).  I'm sure many of you have experience in this department!  Since he was a colicky newborn, up until this point I've basically done anything to get him to sleep.  Rocking, nursing, singing, etc.   Now that he's not crying all the time, I'd like to get him out of the habit of needing to nurse to sleep because i'm really not getting enough sleep to be a good mom.  I'm just so tired. 


Sarah

Eric's Birth Story, The Cliff Notes

We're all still sleep deprived and I'm officially a new believer in Colic.  It's no joke.  But I figure this post needs to get written before details are forgotten.

If you're anything like me, you want the facts fast.  Sometimes I just want to know what happened, cut to the chase, don't give me the long winded version.

So here are the Cliff Notes:

• Labored at home all day, visited doctor around 2pm to have membranes stripped (4cm dilated), went back home
• Called my mom around 5pm and told her we were heading to the hospital around 9pm
• Mom shows up to watch Lillian around 7:30pm
• Continued Laboring at home timing contractions 4-8 minutes apart, 1.5 minutes long
• Water broke at 9:04pm in the living room
• Left house about 10-15 minutes later
• Car ride from hell
• Got to hospital around 9:30pm
• Barely got my clothes off in time
• Baby arrived at 9:52 - no epidural, no doctor, no problems!

Thank God for a great nurse who didn't lose her cool when she realized she was alone and about to deliver a baby by herself, and a quick on call mid-wife.  The mid-wife literally introduced herself, I nodded my head, grimaced and said "OK" while bracing for the contraction-straight-from-hell, and then his head popped out.  Woah nelly.

If my husband had parked the car in the parking garage instead of leaving it in front of the hospital doors and grabbing the wheelchair conveniently left next to the door, I would have had the baby in the hallway :-/.  Thank goodness he listened. 

And here's a picture of my 1 month old little colic monster.  Don't let the smile fool you....

Sarah

This One Time, I Had a Baby...

And it was CRAZY fast. 

Unplanned med-free birth story to come... as soon as I get some sleep.

Sarah

Reason #135212344 why Pinterest Rocks

Because it provides inspiration for adorable things like this:

And ridiculously easy smell good stuff like this:

And yummy food like this:

and this:

And for inspiring photos like this (oh hey, it's my 40weeks 4 days belly!)

I took this photo on my kitchen floor with the auto timer while Lillian ate lunch :-).

If you don't pinterest, you are totally missing out.  If anyone needs an invitation, I just need an email address and I'll send you one!  You won't regret it! 

Here are a few pins I have pinned to my boards just waiting to be used!

Finger Print Pendant:

Tiny DIY Kitchen:

A "don't touch my baby" cover :)

Sarah