This boy is going to give me my first gray hair!

Is that what boys tend to do? :) I guess I'll find out! In all seriousness, though, it has been a stressful week (and it's only Tuesday!). On Saturday night my sweet baby boy quit breathing. He's had a problem since he was born where he chokes a lot while he's eating, then he'll stop breathing for just a few seconds. Sometimes he doesn't even choke, he'll just stop breathing, but it's only ever been for a few seconds. On Saturday night I was giving him his vitamin drops, when he just suddenly stopped breathing, he didn't choke or anything, he just stopped breathing! We quickly realized it was lasting a lot longer than just his typical few seconds, Monte turned him over and started hitting his back, meanwhile my mom (she came to babysit so Monte and I could have an awesome date day, more on that some other time!) and I were in hysterics. Thank goodness Monte remained completely calm. It seemed like an eternity, but after about a full minute, and still no response from Jaymes (who was quickly changing color), I dialed 911 and Monte was just about to start mouth to mouth, but he finally took a breath. Besides Isabella's birth (where she didn't breathe for 7 minutes) it was the scariest moment of my life! I couldn't get myself calmed down for the rest of the night and much of the next day. I took him in to the pediatrician yesterday morning (I swear I'm there ALL the time since Jaymes was born!) and he has ordered a whole upper GI series to be done this coming Monday. That was the soonest we could get in, so I'm a bit on edge this week, and pretty scared every time he eats. Also, he can't eat before the tests, and once we get there he has to drink barium. He's going to be so hungry, and I'm worried about how the barium will affect him, and how this is all going to work with an 8 week old baby. Monte has had it before, and the barium made him very sick and nauseous. My poor baby! In the meantime Jaymes has a monitor in his bed that will go off if he goes more than 20 seconds without breathing. Jaymes was diagnosed with acid reflux a couple of weeks ago, and is on meds for that. The ped. said that his breathing / choking issues are common with reflux babies, and it only lasts a few seconds, so he's not too concerned about that, but he said the episode the other night shouldn't have been a reflux issue, since he was only getting a few vitamin drops, and hadn't eaten yet, and it lasted so long. He was very puzzled by it, as are we! We would appreciate prayers for Jaymes.

This and That

Wow, things have been crazy around here! Jaymes has been a bit, um, needy, lately. I'm lucky to have showered and done my hair by the time Monte gets home from work. And sadly, every once in a while, he comes home to find me still in my pajamas, and probably not smelling too sweet. Lately I've been trying really hard to at least accomplish showering, doing my hair, and putting on a little makeup every day. Gosh darn it, it just makes me feel better about myself. :)

To be honest, I'm struggling a bit with the fact that Jaymes is not Isabella. Crazy, I know. :) What I mean is that Isabella was the PERFECT baby. When I say that she NEVER cried, I really mean, we never heard that child cry, EVER! Even when she was hungry, she would just smack her lips together. Jaymes cries - bummer. She started sleeping through the night, 12 hours straight, at 8 weeks, although this one Jaymes might be close to following in her footsteps. He does love his bed, like her, and has been sleeping in 6 hour stretches at night.

I'm also struggling a bit with the fact, that my house is not quite as clean or orderly as I like it.

I am making a point to exercise every day by going for a long walk every evening, I love it, and the baby weight is starting to come off. I lost a lot in the first two weeks, then hit a plateau. I'm really excited that I'm going to join our Wellness center in town. I joined after Isabella was born, for a few months, and now I think it will be great to start going again. It will be nice to get out of the house every evening while Monte stays with the kiddos, especially this winter, when we tend to not get out of the house as much.

As I said before, Jaymes has been quite fussy for the last week and a half. We thought that he had acid reflux, and the pediatrician gave him some reflux meds, but they didn't work. And oddly, his reflux has almost stopped just on its own . . . but he's still fussy. So I'm going dairy free for a couple of weeks to see if that helps. But, I may be on track to figuring it out, the kid is HUNGRY. He's hungry all. the. time (which is I why I don't get a whole lot done!). My way of thinking was that if he had eaten recently, he couldn't be hungry again so soon. So then he would cry and fuss. Yesterday I remembered something I had seen on TV a long time ago about babies different cries and what they mean, and I found this on youtube. I then realized almost every time he cried it was the hungry cry - poor baby is hungry (and also getting big)! You would think I would know what I'm doing since this is my second baby, but it's a whole different ballgame this time with a full term baby versus having a preemie before. Now that I know what the hungry cry sounds like, and he's been getting what he wants to eat, he's been much more content (and has been napping for almost 4 hours straight right now)!

I don't think he'll be petite like his sister, last week (at 6 weeks) he was 11 pounds already!

I love swaddle blankets! I think both swaddle blankets and one of these (it makes womb sounds) are a must for new parents!

I have more, but I better go make my family some supper!

My baby is baptized!

What an awesome day! And I feel a sense of relief in knowing that he is baptized now. My mom came out on Thursday (marking her 3rd extended stay with us since Jaymes was born - don't know what I would have done without her!) to help me get things ready for the reception we had at our house after the baptism. Jaymes was baptized on Sunday afternoon in a private ceremony, and Father S. did a great job of making it really special.

My handsome guy.

The cake. Even though I told them how to spell his name, and they had it written down correctly on the order, it was still spelled wrong. They did a pretty good job of sneaking the y in later, though. One of these days I'll get around to explaining why we spell his name that way. I'm sure it will be spelled wrong a lot throughout his life.

He was so good, he slept through the entire baptism, in fact, he slept through the entire day. :)

His blanket is the blanket my grandma (who has passed away) made for my baptism. Isabella used it, too.

Godparents are my brother and sister-in-law, who are expecting their fourth in two months.

I don't know what in the world Isabella is doing, but it's not exactly a good pose for church. She looks a bit like a Vegas showgirl . . .

A small portion from Monte's family came.

My whole family. Most of them came from 4 hours away, and stayed over at a hotel. It was a fun weekend, and Isabella even got to go swimming at the hotel with her cousins.

I'm finally getting used to the fact that we are a family of four now!

I love this one, it's like he's had enough with the pictures.

We had 21 people, and a small house, so since we have an attached double garage, we decided to have the meal out there. We kept the door open between the house and garage, and it gave us plenty of room for everyone. It worked perfectly!

It was an amazing day. For Isabella's baptism, Monte was terribly sick with his Crohn's Disease, and I had post partum depression so bad I couldn't hardly do anything. Everything is going SO much better this time!

All worn out

One Month Old Today . . .

and it's been a great month!! He is really filling out, I weighed him, and he's 9 pounds already! He's also graduated out of quite a few of his newborn clothes, and into 0-3. I wish I could keep him my tiny baby forever!

Jaymes and Jody

I think I have featured Isabella's baby, Jody, on here before. Since bringing Jaymes home, I don't think Jody has left his side for too long. Jody does EVERYTHING Jaymes does, including "eating" from Isabella's belly button while I'm nursing Jaymes. :)

And I thought I'd throw in a few more pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Jaymes loves his baths every night, and Isabella loves helping with them.

Cling-On