Pumpkin Patch!

We decided to take our very first trip to a local pumpkin patch this fall. Brenden had such a great time! It was a fun family activity.

Here he is petting some baby pigs.



He was SO amazed at the rabbit in the cage!

My little pumpkin!

We took a hay ride to the actual pumpkin patch. Brenden had so much fun as you can see by the expression of pure joy on his face!

He wanted to pick the BIG pumpkin.


Logan hung out with Mommy in her sling and slept the whole time!


After our perfect pumpkins were picked we were back on the hay ride.


We ended the event with a sampling of some WONDERFUL local apple cider. The nice folks at the farm gave Brenden a refill after he had a HUGE melt-down when his cup was empty! It was lots of fun and something I hope to do with the boys every fall!

Toddler Hoe Down

Ever since having Logan, its been difficult for me to get a lot of good quality one-on-one time with Brenend. Logan needs me to nurse him every 2.5 -3 hours during the day and with each feeding and burping lasting 30 min or more, it just leaves little fun time for my big boy and his mama. On Friday, the daycare had a "Toddler Hoe Down" for Brenden and his classmates so I left Logan at home with daddy and spent the afternoon with my adorable toddler.

They had some pumpkins in the sensory table for the kids to explore the shapes, textures, and smells.


Brenden is showing Mommy his new pumpkin discovery!

He also got to play with some ears of corn - which weren't as fun as the pumpkin! (oh and notice his hoe down outfit!!)

Such a cutie!

Showing off his playground to Mommy

Picking flowers off of the bush.

Neigh!


What a big pony!


And taking another pony for a ride!


We had lots of fun and really got some much needed quality time together!

1 month old

I can't believe Logan will be a month old tomorrow. He is doing much better. He's still not always the best sleeper but I am starting to see some improvement and thats better than nothing at all. I thought I was never going to sleep again! He will now go back to sleep between feedings which has been nice. Occasionally he's interested in staying awake, but mostly he'll resume sleep. He also will sometimes sleep up to 4 hours at a time which is amazing! He's still sleeping in the bed with me. He seems to sleep better when he's snuggling with Mommy. It also allows me to snooze while I feed him.

He is definitely more awake and alert during the days now. He hates his car seat with a passion and, as with Brenden, my white noise CD has been a gift from God for car rides. Its the only way we can go anywhere without him screaming the whole time.

Brenden just continues to grow and become more of a little boy each day. He will repeat just about any words he hears or at least try to say what you are saying. He loves to try to sing along with his favorite TV shows. The top 3 are the Wiggles (which I am so happy to find they are on PBS Sprout now, I thought when Disney dropped them we lost them for good!), Blues Clues, and Jacks Big Music Show (he loves to sing the theme song to this and whenever it comes on he runs around with his arms in the air singing "SHOWWW!!!") He is learning a few of his colors. He's definitely got purple and white down, he gets the others confused. He knows all of the Wiggles names and can tell you who is who.


We had portraits made last week. Normaly Portrait Innovations does a great job but I wasn't as pleased with this session. Many of the good shots were out of focus so we didn't get those. There were also many good opportunities to get smiles from Brenden that she missed. And in general she went too slow for a family who stressed that we needed to move quickly because Brenden and Logan wouldn't last long. Its still nice to have pictures of both boys and of the whole family.

2 weeks and counting

Its hard to believe Logan has been here for 2 weeks now! He changes so much each day - in both good and bad ways! He's gaining weight and getting cuter with every ounce he gains. He's not the best feeder. He's more of a snacker and that makes for frequent feedings and a tired Mama! He's still not sleeping well at night, and if anything its getting worse with time. He's just very sensitive to things like detergents, soaps, sounds, lights, etc. Both of his tear ducts are blocked and are seeping all of the time. He gets very fussy in the evenings. He's only happy when he's eating, sleeping (rarely these days), or being walked around. I'm hoping this is just a phase. I don't remember Brenden being this difficult but then again, it all goes by so fast, maybe I just forgot this part.

Brenden continues to be a great big brother. If you ask him where the baby is he will point to him. If he finds a pacifier he will carry it around the house looking for his baby brother to return it to. He doesn't understand why Logan doesn't reach out and take it from him though.

Logan already looks so different from the day he was born. Its amazing how fast they change these first few months. His face is really filling out and changing shape. I can't wait until he will smile at me. I get sleepy grins every now and then but no real smiles yet.

I am going to try and take a picture of Logan and the teddy bear each month like I did with Brenden. I can already see that his newborn picture shows he's the same size as the bear, where Brenden was smaller than the bear - which is to be expected since Brenden was born a month early

Brenden loves to give his baby brother kisses on the head. Such a sweet brother!

Here I am with my boys. Please excuse my appearance, I'm sure I'm running on about 4 hours of sleep!


Logan got his first bath this week. He is still very sensitive to baby shampoo and got the same rash that he developed in the hospital so we are back to bathing him in warm water only. Unlike Brenden, Logan seemed to enjoy his first bath and didn't throw a holy fit! I remember Brenden screaming his head off in his first bath.


Logan just has the cutest little feet. They are long and skinny with tiny little toes.


I'm feeling much better as far as my recovery goes. I haven't had to take any pain meds in days now and can lift Brenden and move around fairly easily for the most part. I had my first post partum visit today and the Dr said everything was looking good and I am healing well. He says that past the point of being at high risk for any infections. So if all is well now, I can expect a full recovery without any complications. I am eager to get back to exercising but I still have 4 more weeks to go before I can do anything like that. I can resume mild activity but still have to play it safe. I was so immobile in my 3rd trimester because of my ligament pain that I just want to feel like I have energy again. I'm hoping to enjoy some of this fall-like weather and get to take my boys on a few walks in the evenings.

Logan Alexander is here!

Sorry it took so long to get this out there!

Sean took this picture Monday night, just before going into the hospital! Look at that round belly!

The C-section was scheduled for 7:30 a.m. and I was to check into the hospital at 5:30 a.m. The first item on the agenda was to start my IV. I hate IV's! It took forever for them to get a vein when I had Brenden and this was no different. One nurse stabs my left arm and gets thru the skin but misses the vein. She fishes around a while and I suppress the urge to curse. Then she gives up and brings in another nurse. She tries once, gets it in, but isn't sure she's got the vein. So they flush it with saline and this huge bump appears in my arm and confirms that she didn't have the vein. She pulled that one out and tried higher up on my arm. Again I am put through massive amounts of pain for an unsuccessful IV. I am feeling a little beat down at this point. I was already stressed about the surgery and this was not helping. They paged the anesthesiologist to see if he could get the IV started. Another nurse comes in the room at this time and gets it in my hand finally. Both of my arms are full of bruises. I look like a heavy drug user! After the IV ordeal is over they start a bag of fluid on me- but it was much later than anticipated because the IV took so long so I didn't have a full bag in me before the surgery started like they wanted. I walk to the OR and sit on the table for my spinal block. That went much easier than the IV did! I started numbing up really quickly and they started prepping me for surgery and the real anxiety set in. The spinal block started making me nauseated so they gave me something and heard them say my BP was coming back up. I guess it got too low and thats what made me sick. They start the procedure and I don't feel any pain, but I do feel all of the expected disomfort one should feel when having a doctor pound away at their insides. I kept having waves of sickness and just focused on breathing slowly and thinking of Brenden to get my mind off of the surgery. Sean was allowed in but I didn't even look at him much. I had to keep my eyes closed to keep from feeling sick. I feel a lot of pushing and tugging and then I hear the sweet cry of my little boy! They pull the drape down and I can see Logan just as mad as could be that he was out of my cozy womb. I laughed and cried and sent Sean off to take pictures. I listened to Logan cry and waited for what seemed like an ETERNITY for them to bring him over to me and for the doctor to finish the surgery. Logan was born at 7:49 a.m. and weighed 6lb 14oz and was 19in long. So he's a good sized baby considering he was born a week early.

They wheel me into recovery and the room proceeded to spin long after my bed came to a stand-still. They pushed on my tummy and gave me time for my spinal to wear off. I continued to be very sick and could not sit up to feed Logan at all. They clean me up and pound my tummy a few more times and then wheel me into my room in the maternity ward. I was only allowed ice chips to eat, but I couldn't even get the motivation to eat those. I managed to nurse Logan a few times in between nausea spells and he latched on like a champ! He must have known Mommy needed him to take the lead on this one!

I proceeded to be sick for the remainder of the day. I got half a cup of ice chips on my tummy and then threw it all back up. I was given every anti-nausea med known to man. Finally they gave me this shot in my butt that did the trick. Around 10pm I was able to get a few packs of saltines down and felt a lot better. I stayed up most of that night trying to make up for lost time breastfeeding Logan. He did really well even with my limited milk supply. The next day I felt much better and was able to get out of bed and take a shower. The nursing staff was impressed with my willingness to try to move around after the rough day I had before, but I was sick of laying in bed.

Logan got his first bath that day and seems to have a mild allergy to J&J baby wash. He got a rash at the hospital and also got one today when I washed him again. I guess I'll just stick to warm water for now.

Big brother Brenden came to visit Mama and Logan. He kept saying baby! (bee bee!) over and over and didn't seem jealous in the least. He didn't last long in the confined space of my tiny room, but it was wonderful to have my little boy come visit me!



My mom came to stay with Brenden so Sean was able to visit Logan and I at the hospital often. This was very nice too. It was good to give Sean time to bond with Logan without Brenden there to get into everything.



I am home now and am SLOWLY recovering from the c-section. I don't remember it taking this long last time. I've been in a lot of pain but I have a cute little boy to remind me it was all worth it.

Tomorrow we are a family of 4!!!

Today is Brenden's last day as a only child. Its a bittersweet day as I adore getting to give Brenden all of the attention in the world but I am eager to meet our newest addition. I can't even imagine what it will be like having another little boy to love. My heart is so full already, it will definitely overflow with another!

Tomorrow morning I go in for a scheduled C-section. I go to the hospital at 5:30 a.m. and my surgery is at 7:30. Hopefully all goes well. I am a bit nervous, but I know its all worth it. Hopefully it all goes smoothly and I have a speedy recovery.

I had Sean take a final belly shot tonight. I'll try to post it later when I get it off of my memory card. I have some pictures of Brenden to share instead:

Doing my "homework"



Playing at the park

Not going to be an only child much longer!

Little does Brenden know how much his world is about to change in just about a week. He's such a great little boy, I hope he keeps up the good behavior when baby brother arrives! Lately Sean and I have just been savoring the time we get to spend alone with him and making sure he knows just how much he is loved.

Here are some pics of him helping Daddy do some cleaning. He LOVES the water hose!

Then I took him to Chuck E Cheese's last week for a birthday part. Brenden seemed to have a pretty good time, however I vowed to NEVER go back! That place was a mad house. There were too many kids crammed in a tiny space, too many kids left unattended, too many big kids in the toddler area, too little parental supervision, etc. Brenden had a blast in the little toddler climber area. There was a mishap with an older girl (too big for the toddler area but too small to be running around without a parent in sight) who pushed him down on purpose. She would walk up the slide and step on all of the toddlers and wouldn't listen to any of the adults telling her to stop. Then she blocked the slide so nobody could go down and when Brenden got too close she shoved him down. He starts crying and won't come out of the climber. So I get to squeeze my 9 month pregnant self into an area made for kids 2 feet tall and pull Brenden out. He recovered quickly and went back to playing, but I have never been more exausted in my life! If he ever goes back it will be in the morning and on a week day!

Here are some pictures of him in the climber.

Getting ready to slide ("Mommy grab my arms and give me a pull!")

Climbing up the stairs - he LOVES stairs!

The scene of the "crime" - here he is having fun, 30 minutes later picture a giant ME inside this tiny space and a crying Brenden!

Brenden is really getting good about communication. He's started telling us when he has poopy diapers. He will grab the front of his diaper and say "bi-per" when he needs changed. He's done this consistenly for several days now. I won't get my hopes too high, but it would be nice if we could try out the potty soon! He has gotten so much better about asking for help when he needs it instead of throwing a fit. He's figuring out that using his words get a better response out of us than just grunting or yelling. He continues to love music (Wiggles!) and drawing. He plays with either his crayons or his chalk every day. I got some Wiggles DVDs off of Ebay and the seller thew in a few Wiggles action figures and he LOVES them. He takes them everywhere and he talks to them. I hear him trying to "Wake up Jeff!" (if you have seen the wiggles you know what this means). Its so great seeing him use his imagination. Unless he's sick or teething he really has such a wonderful personality. He loves to laugh and smile and be around people. He's really a great little boy. I hope his brother is just as sweet as he is!