Kellan is One!

I thought I should get this blog post up before Logan's birthday (in three days). The boys' birthdays are exactly four weeks apart. Add in Thanksgiving and Christmas, and this is one busy time of year for our family! But what a fun way to be busy.

Kellan turned one on November 9. I know this sounds cliche, but I can't believe how fast the year flew by!

I decided to have a circus/carnival theme for the party, based around the carousel cake topper from my first birthday. Yes, my mother kept it these many years! Don't worry, I put a piece of waxed paper under it to catch any flakes of (surely lead-based) paint that might have chipped off, and we didn't allow Kellan to touch the topper, just the cake. I made a large carousel cake (a tad bit lopsided, as my cakes tend to be) for the guests.

I was very disorganized this year; Kellan was still napping as guests arrived, and I had not wrapped his gifts yet. But it all seemed to work out. We served popcorn in red-and-white popcorn boxes, mini corndogs, Cracker Jack, animal cookies, and circus peanuts (the sugary orange kind). Big brother Logan helped Mommy pop the popcorn using Grandma Georgia's old air popper. I need to remember to tell her yet that it threw a spark when I unplugged it -- must be about as old as the cake topper.

Kellan is not quite walking on his own yet, but he's so close! If only he would let go of our fingers he would be off and running.

Preschool comedian

Logan was quite the comedian tonight. He was cracking me up! After dinner he was eating some gummy sharks (not a regular occurance, but they came with his frozen dinner; he didn't want the leftovers that Justin and I were eating). He held the last one up to his mouth and said, from the perspective of the shark, "My friends are in your mouth so I have to come get you!" Then he ate it.

Later he was putting on his dinosaur pajama pants and hadn't pulled them up over his feet so they were flopping as he walked. He said, "I'm a duck-dinosaur."

I haven't blogged in forever (May!) but I just had to write these down for the record before I forgot.

Our big boys!

Kellan turned six months old on May 9. On May 19, Justin and I both took the day off and we took Kellan to the pediatrician for his well-baby visit. He is 27 1/2 inches "tall" and weighs 20 lbs. 8 oz. He has exactly doubled his birth weight. Good thing we bought him a carseat that goes up to 32 lb/32 in. a couple of months ago! He also had a bit of a cold, so we got some medicine for that.

Also on May 19, Logan had two appointments. The first was at 10:30 with his dentist. Logan was such a big, brave boy -- Justin said "see ya" and Logan went back for his cleaning all by himself with no resistance! We were so proud of him. And no cavities this time -- yay!

Logan's 2nd appointment was at 4:00 with his ear doctor. We went two months ago and one of his ear tubes was working its way out. This time it was completely out and sitting in the ear canal in some earwax. So the doc and Justin took Logan to a separate room where the doc used a hook-like tool to get the tube out. I'm so glad I didn't have to witness that! Justin said that Logan started to scream/cry, but it was over before he could really get worked up. Again, so brave! The doc told him he deserved all the stickers (they give out stickers instead of candy or suckers)! The doc also noticed that Logan's tonsils were inflamed, so he gave him antibiotics for that. He had been coughing for a few days prior to the appointment, so we were thankful that he would be seeing the ENT to figure out why. Kinda made me feel bad that we sent him to the dentist like that. I almost called to let them know, but what could they really do? (Other than blame us for someone else's illness!)

And, later that same evening, I developed a soar throat and low-grade fever. So off to the doc for me on Wednesday, antiobiotics, and I finally made it back to work on Friday. Just in time for the three-day weekend. :-) Then Justin got sick with some kind of stomach bug on Friday, and Kellan broke out in hives, probably as a reaction either to his immunizations or to the antibiotics I'm taking. Luckily that mostly cleared up by Saturday. Needless to say, we haven't been the most fun family to be around lately!

Foo Fighting

Videos of Logan "playing" guitar along with the Foo Fighters. (I haven't tried this before so I hope it works.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PjsCpk9Rzc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_FLYeW0HbI

Four months and new discoveries

Kellan went to the pediatrician ten days after turning four months. He was still off the chart for weight -- 18 lbs. 9 oz. His height was 75-95th percentile at 26 inches. I found my old calendar from 2006, and Logan was also 26 inches at four months; however, he was "only" 16 lbs. 4 oz.

Kellan found his feet a couple of weeks ago. It's so cute to watch him try to get his toes past his thighs and gut and into his mouth! :)

He rolled over back-to-front some time in the last few weeks. We definitely witnessed him roll over a week ago today (April 11).

In this corner...

Logan had a run-in with the corner of a wall the Saturday before Easter, at his great-aunt's house. Within a minute, his eye had swollen at least an inch. We called the pediatrician and were told the warning signs to look for if we might need to go to the ER, but thankfully none of those things happened. Believe it or not, the swelling had gone way down by the time we left (1st photo) and by a few hours later that day (2nd photo).

Easter Sunday:

And later in the week -- it turned all sorts of pretty colors.

It didn't seem to bother him much after the initial incident (boy, did he scream!), but he did comment on it whenever he looked in the mirror.

Last year on Easter weekend, Logan had his adenoids removed and tubes put in his ear, so he looked beaten up last Easter, too. (I think I have a post from that weekend as well.) I hope this doesn't become a trend.

Ahhhh, Spring in Oklahoma

11:00 am today:







6:30 pm today:

First cereal

Last weekend Kellan tried rice cereal for the first time. As you can see, he spit most of it out and seems to prefer his fist. I think I should have heated up the milk. Our spoiled babies usually have their bottles warmed in the bottle warmer. He has a wipe warmer, too. Man, it's rough being a baby.

Still off the charts

Kellan's 4 month appointment: 18 lbs., 9 oz., and 26 inches long. He's off the chart for weight and 75-90 percentile for height. I just ordered a new infant carseat for him that goes up to 32 lbs. and 32 inches, since he would soon outgrow his current carseat. The pediatrician said we have done a great job working with him on his neck (thanks to Grandma, too!). Thank goodness he will not need the helmet!

Here he is in his new "Bumbo" seat. As you can see, he is holding his head up and much more straight!

Achtung, baby!

Okay, so I don't know any German. But I thought this title was appropriate to post photos of our boys in the outfits that their aunt/uncle and cousins sent them for Christmas (they live in Germany). Thank you, Marty, Kara, Anna and Greg! If I remember correctly, the T-shirt says "Wild boys." They look pretty darned cute, if I do say so myself!

Our little booger

Tonight at dinner, Logan was picking his nose. I know, typical three-year-old. I try to get him to stop that, although I know deep down that I should just ignore it. Anyway, he said, "Boogers are yucky and nasty." (Long pause.) "But I still like to eat them." I couldn't help but laugh.

Off the chart

We had to visit a new pediatrician a couple of weeks ago. Twice in one week, once for each kid. My insurance changed and our previous pediatrician is still getting credentialed. We might keep the new one though; we usually have to wait at least an hour before even getting a glimpse of the pedi with the old pediatrician. We were out in less than 45 minutes with the new one. Logan had an ear infection and Kellan had some upper respiratory nastiness and cough, which sounded scary, especially at night.

Anyway, that's not really what I'm writing about. Of course Kellan got weighed and measured. He was about 10 weeks at the time, and he weighed 16 lbs. 3 oz. and was 24 1/2 inches long. He's no longer on the percentile charts. The nurse said when they get above 97th percentile, they're no longer on the charts. Wow, we really do have a big boy! Yesterday, Justin stayed home with the boys, and Kellan ate five eight-ounce bottles of milk while I was at work. I'm barely able to keep up with him with my pumping, but so far I have managed. Thankfully so because he tends to spit up formula, just like Logan did.

Both pediatricians also noticed a distinct head preference (to his left) and a misshapen head. The new pediatrician said if we can't fix it, he might have to wear a helmet 23 hours a day. So needless to say, we're trying our best to fix it. It seems to have gotten much better in the past week, and I've even been able to get him to go to sleep in his crib with his head turned to the right.

Logan's 3rd Birthday

Wow, three years went by so quickly. With a new baby this year, a messy house with no time to clean, and a birthday boy who loves the Golden Arches, where do you think we decided to have Logan's birthday party this year? You guessed it -- McD's.

Although McD's provided a cake with our party, I still wanted to make a birthday cake. He had a construction theme. We had plastic construction hats and stickers so the kids could decorate their own hats. Logan had been saying for months that he wanted a dump truck cake, so I made chocolate cake mixed with pudding and cookie crumbs and served it in several plastic dump trucks. Which cake did the birthday boy end up eating? Yes, of course, the McD's cake. He said something like, "I ate his head and his feet." (Ronald was on the cake.) Oh, well, it was fun and easy so no complaints from me.

Thanks to all who sent or brought gifts! We've debated each year whether we should just ask for donations to a worthy charity or no gifts at all, especially since his birthday is so close to Christmas. But is that really fair to a child who probably doesn't understand all that just yet? Maybe when he gets older he'll decide to do that on his own.

Birth plan, schmirth plan...

It's funny how closely my second pregnancy and labor/delivery was so similar to my first. Everyone said all pregnancies and deliveries are different, but mine were vastly similar. I gained to within one pound of my first delivery weight; my feet swelled, I got carpal-tunnel and acid reflux, and basically the same symptoms as the first time.

I also went past my due date, only this time we did plan an induction. We scheduled it for Saturday, November 8, 2008 (due date was November 4). About two weeks before this, we went to the hospital thinking (hoping) I was in labor, but they sent us home. I stayed at 3-4 cm for a few weeks prior to delivery.

We arrived at the hospital at 8:00 am on November 8. My mother was at our house to stay with Logan while we were gone. We got to our labor and delivery room around 8:45 and I saw my doctor some time after 9:00. We agreed to try everything "natural" that we could before Pitocin, so she broke my water at 10:00. Things didn't progress very quickly, so at 1:25, they started the Pitocin drip. (This is the point where I stopped writing things down, so the rest of the timing is not exact.) I slowly progressed, but nothing dramatic and not enough to push yet. My doc came back and broke my water again; this time there were several huge gushes. She just didn't get it all the first time. After breaking my water, I progressed much more quickly and got to 8 or 9 cm. Luckily I also got an epidural soon after she broke my water again, because things got much more intense after that. Unfortunately, the resident was having problems with the epidural and the attending finally had to finish it for him. So it took more than half an hour which wasn't very pleasant. Around 6:00, a new nurse showed up -- the same nurse who had helped my during my labor with Logan! She quickly helped me get to 10 cm, so it was soon time to push. I think I pushed a few times while that nurse was there; then they told me to take a break for awhile. There was a shift change and I said so long to the nurse (Sandy) once again (her shift ended during my pushing with Logan, too). Around 8:30 I started pushing again; the nurse and my doc and even a scrub tech helped. She said my pushes were good and Justin could even see the top of his head. However, after more than four hours of pushing off and on, they became concerned that even if I was successful in getting the head out, that he could get stuck and we could be dealing with shoulder displacia (sp?) or more serious complications. Of course I didn't want to risk that, so we decided on a C-section again.

Kellan Xavier was delivered at 2:23 am on Sunday, November 9. Justin said my doctor pulled him out and said, "That's a big baby!" He said everyone's eyes in the room got huge; then they weighed him and he was 10 lbs. 4 oz., and 23 inches long! I knew he was big but I had no idea how big! I can't imagine how big he would have been if we had waited until he came on his own. I just wanted to hold him and be done with my part, but the anesthesia makes me shake tremendously and I guess they don't really let C-section moms hold the baby immediately at that hospital. And of course, they still had to sew me up. So it was another hour or two before I got to hold him.

So, I guess I didn't learn my lesson the first time. We don't plan to have more children, but if we do, it looks like we'll plan for a C-section next time. (I might not have a choice, anyway, since I've had two now.)

Long time, no blog

Both kids are asleep (or at least quiet) and I'm going to attempt to catch up a little bit on my blogging. Today is our 11th wedding anniversary and we're going out just the two of us tonight. We don't do that nearly as much as we should.

I've also been introduced to Facebook and keep adding "friends" to it. I could see how it could easily become another timewaster. I so don't need that.