Kaleb-29 months

Kaleb is just shy of 29 months and continues to be such a blast for us. Some of his favorite things include tractors, trains and trucks. Plus he loves hi puzzles, though we have had to cut back on them since he would leave several 25-piece groups all over the house.

Recently we cleaned out our coin jar and gave all the pennies to Kaleb. He got a HUGE kick out of it... until he realized we weren't giving him the nickels, dimes and quarters... it was an opportunity to teach about sharing.
Pretend is also a fun new activity for Kaleb over the last few months. Kaleb took a liking to having a bucket or bag with him to carry his things, including a twisted up slinky, a broken cell phone and a torn-up foam hammer... ya know, the important stuff. To Ammon's shame, his favorite carryall is one of my old purses.

Anytime Kaleb has had any item of clothing removed he is "NAKED!!" and will shout it around the whole house. After showers/baths is particularly fun since he gets to run around in a towel.

With potty training in his near future, we have been trying to encourage Kaleb to put on/take off his clothing. Sometimes it is more effort than it's worth to correct whatever mayhem he has created, but sometimes it just reminds me how cute Kaleb is!!

Along with his pretending is his desire to project certain things on his toys. Now that Mommy has baby to 'play with' he likes to make sure he has someone to take care of. Usually it is his blue bear or his toy baby. Here he has sat bear down for lunch.

As for baby, the other day I was feeding Sasha, so he had to feed his baby... bologna. I caught some of it on video. At first he was lifting up his shirt to feed baby (for better or worse I didn't get that on video), but eventually he resorted to the bologna.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeY55ksp4RI

Mr. Potato Head's Eyes... for those who have seen Toy Story 3, this is that much funnier.

The cold snap a few weeks ago brought us back to the park. I LOVE living s close to a park!!!

Unfortunately for Kaleb, Mommy forgot that just because it's cool doesn't mean we shouldn't wear sunscreen. After three days at the park, Kaleb got quite a pink hue!

It has become VERY evident that Kaleb prefers to be a follower at this stage in his life. In some ways that can be a good thing because he is always fairly well behaved toward other kids. However, this also means Kaleb does anything the other kids do, whether it's against the rules or not... which drives me crazy sometimes.

Sometimes Kaleb's following can be awfully entertaining as well. On day at the park, he just wanted to follow his cousin Ellie around. She runs a lot faster than him (being one year older and the daughter of a marathon-runner), so just imagine the wolf from Disney's Sword and the Stone and you'll get the basic idea. Ellie running yards ahead, Kaleb puffing behind, barely reaching her before she would run off again. My poor little chubby boy!!

Kaleb loves his baby sister and always wants to hold her and touch her and play with her. He is the best helper and I couldn't ask for a better big brother for our little Sasha. She loves him too, always smiling and watching him whenever he is around.

He has also learned that the easiest way to hold baby is with the boppy!

Sasha-7 Weeks old

I have been a slacker about posting anything about little Sasha's first few weeks of life, so here we go. Kinda in a hurry, so I will do my best to keep this brief.

SLEEPING:
The hardest part about raising Sasha so far has been her pickiness during sleep. She didn't like to be swaddled from the beginning. She woud just scream and squirm. If she did fall asleep while swaddled, she would still squirm out (Sasha is anythig but the 'Sleep like a baby" type. Her arms flail and she makes a lot of little noises. Cute, but a little unnerving for the first few weeks. )
Since Kaleb had serious spitting-up problems and our two most recent nieces were diagnosed with acid reflux, we were a little wary for our little Sasha. Her doc suggested keeping her propped up a little while sleeping, so I came up with this little nest in her crib. So far it seems to be working great.

Another issue with Sasha's sleeping was her distate for anything slightly chilly. She didn't like breezes while she was sleeping which made it difficult for her to sleep in our room the first few weeks since I am a fan-a-holic. We had to make a fort-type cover on her playpen. Plus, we resorted to using a hotpad to preheat her bed at night since she seemed to hate sleeping at night (we assumed due to the cold). Thankfully it has worked. She consistently sleeps 5-6 hours every night and occasionally goes for 7.

One God-send is the swing Ammon's brother and his wife let us borrow. She will fall asleep almost instantly (as long as she isn't starving), so it has been really nice as a last resort when she just doesn't seem to want to settle down.

HANDS: I've already commented on Sasha's super-long fingers and finger nails. But one great thing is how quickly she has learned to use them... or not use them. Within her first week, Sasha almost never scratched herself. Thank goodness cuz her nails grow like weeds!!

DADDY: Ammon has SOOO looked forward to having a little girl! I get pictures of him with her ALLL the time... but none with me. Go figure.

Anyway, This is when she wore her first dress.

Daddy coming home from work:

And sleeping together at church:

FIRSTS: Of course the first month is filled with many firsts, like her first bath (delayed a bit by a belly button that just wouldn't heal):

Her first time to the park (obviously very exciting):

Her first real smile was the day before she was a month old. This picture was taken more recently. She has been really smiley over the last week or so.

EATING: I have been nursing Sasha as well as giving her formula since her second day, but unfortunately it took quite awhile to get her used to formula. Then, about her third week she started having horrible, noisy gas bubbles churning around in her stomach. Gas drops didn' seem to make a huge difference so the doctor suggested I lay off dairy and maybe try a new formula. So now I keep my milk intake to a minimum and we have her on a special gentle formula. That seems to do the trick, but it gives her really stinky poop. However, I'm really happy to say she hardly ever spits up, so our acid reflux fears seem to be in vain.

ONE MONTH: At her one-month appointment, Sasha weighed 9 lbs, 13 oz and had grown to 21.5 inches, both in the 75th percentile. I like to take comparison pictures in the same outfit so here Sasha is at 3 days old:

And here she is at one month in the same outfit:

I love it when babies cross their eyes!!

Just for laughs we put Sasha in Kaleb's Size 6 diapers:

Blowing bubbles. A new hobby as of week 6.

Sasha can already stand up without help, and she loves to use those cute little legs of hers!!

KALEB: He is the best bigger brother I could ever ask for. He loves the baby (and I will go into more detail in his post. Here is a picture of his first attempt at holding her.

Just for fun, I did a random little photo shoot of my own while Sasha was asleep the other day! We did the wedding ring thing with Kaleb, so I decided "WHY NOT?"

Photo Shoot

When Sasha was about three weeks old, a friend of mine came over to do a little photo shoot with my adorable little munchkins. It was a learning experience for me: Firstly, do photo shoots either after five weeks or before two weeks because you want the baby really sleepy or happy awake, not cranky awake like she was at three weeks. Then again, Sasha isn't the best sleeper, so that didn't help. See a later post about Sasha's first month.

Also, one of the few ways to get Kaleb to sit for a 'stranger' for pictures is to let him have his bear with him and to jump off the furniture:
I also learned that day that Kaleb has a great little fake smile. I would say "Teeth" and this is what he gave us. Not too shabby for a two year old!

HOLY SMOKES THIS KID IS SO FLIPPIN CUTE!!!!!!

OF course, cuddling with the bear!

And with his baby Sasha:

Finally, Kaleb let us take some pictures of Sasha.

This is what I call 'The Lindsey Face'

SOOOOO Beautiful!!

That's right! It's a tutu! The photographer actually made that for her for the photo shoot. Sasha wasn't a huge fan, but it was so CUTE!!

This is the way I see her most often.

And of course, snuggling with the bear!

Thanks, Julie!!!

The Story of Sasha

So I went into the doctor's office Thursday, the 8th. I was at 3cm and my doc stripped my membranes (more painful than I remember), so we were all sure that this baby was coming within 48 hours. Well, silly us!! I still hadn't had any real contractions as of Saturday morning, so we went walking... Costco Saturday morning (oooh, samples) and the mall Saturday night, during that really awesome storm (which tore down a tree in our backyard-thankfully Bowser was away at Ammon's brother's house). The timing wouldn't have been so stressful except Ammon's brother Rylan was due back from his mission Wednesday, the 14th, and I really wanted the four of us to meet him at the airport... well that was not in the cards I guess.

So that stormy Saturday night comes and goes.. and still nothing. I wake up feeling great Sunday morning, so we go to church and I give a fantastic lesson for my new Sunday School class (involving several rounds of hangman), all the while I'm worried my water is gonna break right then and there. Well it didn't, of course.

So that afternoon, after I haven't been able to nap and I'm getting more and more anxious (and cranky... and emotional), Ammon and I decide to have a yummy, unhealthy dinner of bacon, fried potatoes and cream of wheat... Mmmmmmmmm.

***This is where it starts getting a little more graphic, so TMI Warning***

At bout 7pm, I'm just finishing my cream of wheat when I feel a... what can only be described as a small gush down there. Just enough to make me wonder if it was really anything, but when I stand up, more comes out, and as I start heading to the bathroom, more is coming. So I stop, turn to Ammon who was engrossed in the TV, and say, "Uh, I think my water broke." His head almost flies off as he turns with a bewildered expression and chokes out, "What?!" I wasn't sure so I kept heading to the bathroom to assess the 'damage.'

Sure enough, there was plenty of something all over me, but not enough for me to be sure my water had broke, so Ammon, like the classic TV dad starts rushing around, grabbing bags, making phone calls. I decide we should wait for my mom to pick up Kaleb, not only to keep Kaleb calm, but also so we have a few minutes to gather everything. Within a half hour, Kaleb is with my mom and we are at the hospital. Another hour later, they determine my water has broken, there's a small amount of meconium in the fluid, I was at 3cm, and I get admitted.

Since I'm still no having any contractions (seriously wonder if my body was broken), they set me up with fluids (the nurses thought I was a little dehydrated since I was running a slight fever) and get the Petocin started. After a few hours on the Petocin, I got to my epidural point (6 on the pain scale) and order up. Since my first epidural didn't go well, I was desperate for this one to be like everyone says, so the anesthesiologist was very thorough. Unfortunately, in medical terms, thorough means "takes longer than usual" so by the time he has me set up, I'm at an 8 on the pain scale.

BUT it finally worked like a charm, the pain subsided, I started getting nauseous, dizzy and shaky all at once, all of which is "totally normal." They give me meds for the nausea, oxygen for the dizziness and have me lay on my left side for the shakes.

The nurse checks my progress and says I'm at a 5/6 and that my water is still intact. I must have sprung a leak somewhere higher in my uterus. Funny that the triage nurse didn't tell us that. Anyway, because of the loss of amniotic fluids, the nurse wanted to have me keep switching sides to keep pressure of the baby during contractions, so that was a fun workout with an epidural!!

A little while later, I'm starting to feel a little pressure down there, and I was about to call the nurse when she walked in and said, "I just paged your doctor. She will be here in about 15 minutes to break your water and it shouldn't be too long before you need to push." Sure enough, my doc comes in shortly thereafter, pops me and says, "Okay you're ready to push."

{Now here is the funny thing, even after I had been wanting to have this baby for the past week and doing all I could to get her here... at that moment, I was thinking "wait, what, I'm not ready." Go figure}

Anyway, so about five minutes later, my doc is gowned up and I'm in position, raring to push! My body is shaking as badly as ever, but I bear down once and the head all but comes out. Two pushes later, out she comes. IT WAS AWESOME!!! Virtually pain-free and only three pushes, um yes thank you!!


Sasha Lynn was born 9/12 and 4:12 at 7 lbs, 13 oz and 20 inches.

They cleaned her up before I could take a look at her, but the whole time, Ammon is describing her to me, and the first thing out of his mouth is "You should see her fingers and toes!! They're freakishly long!!" This isn't the best pic, but believe me, her toes are as long as her fingers, and her fingers are really long!! Plus she had a full set of long fingernails (which explains the tear in the sac I think)

Here we are with my doc, she is so awesome!! Not even on call, but specifically gave us a note to give to the hospital staff to make sure no matter when I was admitted that she would be the one to take care of me! Love her!!!

Daddy and daughter!

The rest of our stay was pretty uneventful. We only stayed the one night since she was born so early Monday morning (and who wants to pay more hospital bills?)

We had a bunch of visitors that day, but of course the most important was big brother Kaleb, who absolutely LOVES her!!!!

Already smiling!

Going Home!

Um, Daddy, a little tighter please!!

Kaleb gives Sasha kisses all the time, but they're so quick we have a hard time photographing it, so this is the best one of both of them together. We will keep trying!

Snuggle-time!!

Love those little smiles!

My favorite feature of Sasha's is her eyes!! She just has the prettiest eyes. They're blue right now, but I'm crossing my fingers that they will turn brown so they will look just like Ammon's!