MINE! Yours and Ours

Two weeks ago, Jackson started the 2 year old phase of "DAT'S MINE!" Of course, everything in the house became his--all of Allie's cute new pink blankets, my nursing pillow, the remote control, kitchen chairs, and of course all of his toys whenever a friend comes to play.  To combat this, I started requiring those words to be replaced with a pleasantly toned, "That's ours! Can I use it right now?"
Shockingly, great repetition taught him quickly, and he's pretty quick at fixing his "mines" to "ours" these days.

Unfortunately this was just in time for him to get a nice runny nose. I have gone from insisting everything is "ours" and that we share, to this is "your" water bottle, and handkerchief (a burp cloth), cup, chair, etc. Oh boy, I've become a paranoid mama trying to keep his stuff separate--dreading the thought of nasal spraying my 1 month old in the middle of the night.

 Sure enough, what was his, has become ours. With Jackson's "hot lipped" nature, we've all gotten a slight case of the sniffles. Thankfully it's been limited to cute little boogers for Allie. So, no late-night nose sucking yet. It does make we want to purchase this little Japanese beauty. Every mom's dream.

Energy Channels

Jackson's energy seemed to be sedated after Allie came home from the hospital. There were still plenty of dramatic moments--good and bad--during the day, but he didn't seem to be doing laps around the house every few minutes. I figure this might be why he experimented with no naps during Allie's second week of life. His energy output was not requiring a 2 hour rest.

I'm happy to report he has shifted back to his extreme energy filled 2 year-old self, complete with 2 hour naps.

What comes out of his mouth is by far the most entertaining part of this energy. The following are some of his choice parroting phrases that channel that energy:

"Oh my gosh Mom!"

"Oh MY!"

"COOL!"

"Shoot!" (pronounced shyute)

"Wow"

And of course we hear the normal 2 year old fare:

"Watch this mom!"

"Look at this mom!"

"I go FAST"

"I stop FAST!"

"Tickle tickle tickle! He he he he he he! SO silly!"

On Monday, his feet seemed to have a rough transition back to their full energy abilities. By 7:30 pm, Jackson looked a bit scuffed up from all of his injuries from the day. Let's review:

• Run in with sidewalk = double knee scrape, + elbow scrape (one re-scraped)

 [much blood, and band aid refusals]

• Merry-go-round and barkdust =nice purple forehead goose egg

• Cement steps and gravity = scraped forehead

• Head first off couch during jump-a-thon=no visuals, but very scared Mommy

• Bonus pre-existing rash from summer = no one wants to play at our house ;)

 
Luckily this little lady is still injury free (knock-on-wood!), and as gorgeous as ever. (And yes, she is timidly looking out for her brother's kisses/raspberries/tickles).

And, her head is either starting to grow, or she's beginning the signs of the receding hair line like her brother... luckily we can put bows on her!

Individualism

I thought my kids looked so much alike. Apparently they are complete individuals who just share the same parents.  Can you tell the difference as easily as I can?

I suppose they have many similar mannerisms. But I have a feeling that has more to do with being a newborn than being from the same womb.


Looking back on Jackson's baby pics, I can't believe how thin his hair was! We thought he had so much.

Everyone comments quickly on Allie's hair, and I realize there's a great reason. Oh my luciousness. 

So many times I just want to nibble on her for a snack. Oh she's SO yummy looking. (This may or may not have anything to do with her nibbling on me all day long).

We've started to figure out some of her individuality beyond her physical traits:

-She's very startled by loud noises

-Hiccups are guaranteed if she's not burped or held up right for 30 min after her feed
-She strongly dislikes going to sleep (this is especially annoying at 2 am)

-She has the cutest cry with a full on protruding bottom lip (though it gets less and less cute the more it happens during the day)

-She's great at pulling away from Jackson's incessant kisses (a good sign she can defend herself)

Jackson is also showing new areas of individualism. He has started to add to our meal and bedtime prayers. I’ve decided this peek into his mind is wholly worth any extra effort it takes to say a prayer.

The boy could pray for a solid 15 min if we let him. Some day we might, but generally we get tired of translating (which he insists on) and we're hungry for dinner! Since Allie came home from the hospital, he’s been very good about praying for Allie and for baby sister. In addition, his friends rotate through the prayer list (as well as all family members he can think of). But the best is when he runs through that list, and moves to sorting through what’s important to him. He starts with a drawn out “ummm.. aaannd…” and then proceeds to list off what’s on his mind or in his sight. Trains, Daddy riding the big trains, the zoo, zebra, balls, the park, swings, music, roller bowler (a wrestling game played with Dad), water, drinks, Allie sleeping, Allie awake, farms, pictures, daddy’s pictures (the iPhone), clocks, dinosaurs, etc… It’s quite humbling, hilarious and such a unique opportunity to see into his mind. 

We're thoroughly enjoying these little peeks into the minds of our offspring. What individuals!

The Day You Were Born

Birth Story Time.

One thing I've noticed about this two kid thing is: plenty of one-handed "me" time in the middle of the night during feeding, no two-handed "me" time at all. Probably only a healthy thing. But as such it takes 2+ weeks and having Jackson at a friend's house before a long blog post happens.

Wed July 18th: Dr. informs me I have started dilating (36 weeks). Dr. says, baby will likely not be induced (since Jackson was early, and we were dilating already). Mark is in Samoa, I tell baby girl to stay in there at least until Dad gets home, we tell Grandma to keep her early flight.

Wed August 8th: Dilated to 2 cm, plenty of contractions, a few false alarms, Mom is coming on Sunday.

Mon August 13th: 3 cm, Dr. strips my membranes, and says most babies will come within 24-48 hours after the procedure.

Tuesday Aug 14th: Start following everyone's advice on how to induce labor including the best Egg Plant Parmesan I've ever tasted.

Wednesday Aug 15th: Due Date.

Friday Aug 17th: Gave up, figured out she just wasn't coming. So really started enjoying my time with Mom.

Tuesday August 21st:
9:30-- Dr. is shocked we haven't had the baby yet, I'm dilated to 4 cm. She says "I guess we should have scheduled that induction for tomorrow" (the 22nd). She checks my amniotic fluid and gets really worried. Normal level is a 9, mine is at a 5, and my water hasn't broken. Forget the induction tomorrow, I get to go to the hospital pronto.Why would my fluid be low? Apparently it's a result of an old placenta. I think it was tired of working so hard when it expected baby girl to be gone!

(Saying Goodbye to Jackson)

12:00--Mark and I drive to the hospital, I feel great--way better than I did during week 39 of pregnancy. We leave Grandma and Jackson to go to the park.

Hospital is packed with women. The Nurses apologize profusely and have us start in triage, because of a lack of rooms, not because I needed to be checked.

We eventually made it to a room. Apparently it was the isolation room--used for people with communicable diseases--it had it's own ventilation system just for us! They called it the first overflow room, and they ended up opening the "outback" (2nd overflows) by the end of the night. Popular day to be born!

2:15 pm--Dr. starts me on 2/30 ml/hr of pitocin. "Just to get your body going." Mark and I commence reading his text book for his national budgeting class that would start the following week. I start having lovely contractions I can talk through with no difficulty. We enjoy watching these on screen, but they remind me of nothing I experienced during labor.  We also enjoyed watching everyone else's labor on our floor. Funny how we had access to all of them. :)

Couple hours later, still having a lovely time discussing our nation's budgeting woes and the accompanying politics, the nurse ups the pitocin to 4 ml/hr. Hour later 6 ml/hr. 5 pm, still having a lovely time and they up it to 12 ml/hr.

6:15 pm--First contraction that really hurts. And then they didn't stop.

I knew I wanted an epidural this time. Jackson was natural because I felt strongly when I prayed that I was supposed to do it without medicine (his birth story here). Imagine my relief when I felt inspired to get an epidural this time! [Crazy enough that was back in month 4--love how God knows what's going on].

The nurses kept asking me when I wanted the epidural, and I told them--when it started hurting. As soon as that painful contraction came I requested the epidural. Too bad 4 babies were born right then, so it took an hour before everything was ready for the anesthesiologist. The contractions at this point were a straight bout of pain that felt similar to where I was at 9 1/2 cm with Jackson. When the Dr checked me, we were all surprised to find I was not even a 6 yet. I was so excited to get pain medication.

7:15--Anesthesiologist goes through quite a process of convincing me to get an epidural (despite my complete enthusiasm while dealing with a non-stop contraction). I wasn't quite sure how me sitting still was going to work with my current pain, but magically the contractions slowed down during the epidural.

[I later learned that the nurse turned the pitocin down to 6 ml/hr, and then finally turned it off. I kept having contractions, so FINALLY my body was getting rid of the baby.]

7:45--Epidural sets in, and it is AMAZING! I can totally feel everything, but it doesn't hurt. Mark thought this was incredible and so much more fun than Jackson's where his stress level and massaging fingers were maxed. This status of amazement was most poignant when we learned I was 8 cm!

8:45--9 cm

10:00--Convinced I have to poop, the Dr. checks me and Allie's head is already way down the canal.

10:25--6 contractions, and Allie slides out.

I had a mirror to watch the progress, and I must say I loved it! Yes, it was absolutely disgusting, but I could see my progress. Which gave me so much motivation to push harder and get that little lady out!

Like her brother, Allie pooped in the womb and was whisked away after coming out. But not to worry, after getting the slime off, she came back and latched right on and hasn't stopped eating since.

We loved our Dr and labor nurse. We found out at after the birth that Dr. Abiyomi (left) is having a baby in December! Wow. Not sure I could have handled all that grossness preggo.

 New little family--minus the 2 year old who won't ever sit for pictures anyway!

Here's the proof:

The rest are all photo dumps from the hospital. Loved having a real camera!!!

 Love our little Allie girl, and thrilled she even slept 5 hours straight last night. Woo Hoo!