A few pics

5 weeks

Serious little mama...

Holding "Baaaaybee Gak" with the help of the Boppy pillow

And that's all I have time for! I'm trying to learn the art of going to bed earlier and it isn't quite working. Mike is in Baltimore until tomorrow and it is a little hectic being outnumbered. I'm so thankful that he isn't deploying again while E and J are young. The last few days have been successful though... he found a great house for us to rent and I got both kids fed, bathed and in bed before 8!

Jack is 1 month old!

We had a great first month with "Baby Gak". Elise is hilarious and talks to him in a baby voice. I'll have to upload some video of the two of them sometime soon.

Stats: He had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday and weighed almost 10 lbs, so I'm sure he's a little over 10 lbs right now (2.5 lbs over his birth weight). He is about 22 inches long (1.5 inches over his birth length). I packed up his newborn clothes about a week ago, and he's been wearing 0-3 month or 3 month clothes, depending on the brand.

Diapers: I switched to cloth diapers exclusively about 2 weeks ago because we were having poop and pee leakage issues, and they've been great! I highly recommend the Bummis Tot Bots Easy Fit diapers. They will fit a toddler (Elise is about 36 inches and 30 lbs) and a baby. I think Jack was close to 9 lbs when we started using them. They are easy enough for any random person to correctly changethe diaper, and all you have to do is throw them in the laundry every other day. It is way easier than washing poop stains out of clothes and car seats! Mike and I are both very pleased with them. I've even had success with them at night, though I imagine once Jack is sleeping 12 hours, he will need a disposable at night. I change him at every feeding. He wears size 1 in a disposable.

Eating: He has started to establish a fairly predictable schedule...most of the time, he eats within 15 minutes of these times (and always RIGHT when we are about to eat dinner)

8 am, 10:45 am, 1:30 pm, 4:00 pm, 6 pm, 8 pm (and 1-2 times at night). He is still a great nurser, so much so that we rarely give him a bottle because it is a hassle (and he sleeps the same whether he has a bottle before bed or not). I have been pumping one side after his morning feeding, but I don't see much of a point in storing up milk when we're going to be moving at the end of July. I do want to make sure that he has a bottle often enough that I know he will take one if necessary, so he gets a few ounces every few days.

Sleeping: He's usually asleep for the night between 8:30-9 pm. Last night, he woke up at 4:30 am to eat and went right back to sleep. That is the longest stretch that he has slept in his crib, though he has done 7-8 hours in his bouncer several times since he was 1 week old. I no longer let him sleep in his bouncer at night, though he does sleep in it sometimes during the day. He has always slept well at night.

Naps are another story. I try to follow Babywise but it is a lot harder to do with two kids! Sometimes, I'll have to give him a feeding in two different sittings because I also need to do something with Elise, like put her down for a nap, take her to the potty, fix a meal, get her up from a nap, etc. We almost always go somewhere in the morning, so he takes his first nap in the car seat. The rest of the day is a challenge for me to get him down without nursing him to sleep or bouncing him to sleep. I usually have to try several times before he will actually stay asleep. I think I might be keeping him up too long for his waketime. I am trying to decide if it is worth the space and money to invest in a swing. Elise hated them so we never got one for her, but she was easy to put down from an early age. Thoughts? It is just hard for me to devote a lot of time to getting him down for a nap while she is awake.

Playtime: We alternate between the play mat, bouncer, someone's arms, and floor while he is awake. He doesn't mind tummy time but he doesn't do much either. He's started smiling responsively, cooing, and tracking us across the room this week.

We love this little guy and are so thankful to be a family of four!

3 weeks

4 weeks

28 months for Elise

Month 28 has been a huge month of changes for us! Elise is now a potty trained big sister and we are very proud of her. She loves her baby brother and always shows concern for him when he's crying. She'll ask "Is Baby Jack crying for milk?" and if we're in the car, she'll say something like "It's okay, Baby Jack, we'll be home soon." She always wants to give him a hug and kiss to say goodnight before she takes a nap or goes to bed. She had a rough couple of weeks this month but appears to have returned to her normal self (provided that we eat and sleep on time).

Sleeping: She started waking up crying in the middle of the night on the day that Jack was born. It took about 2 weeks to get back to sleeping through the night, but last night she went to bed at 7:30 and woke up at 7. She typically sleeps about 11 hours at night. She takes a 2-2.5 hour nap, starting between 12:30 and 1:00.

Eating: She is still a great eater. Nothing has changed in this department from my previous posts. She now eats from a place mat on the table.

Potty Training: Elise initiated the potty training a few days after she turned 27 months, and now she is completely daytime trained with #1 and #2. We are so proud of her, and she is quite proud of herself as well. She still wears a diaper at night. It has been weeks since she's had an accident (other than the occasional one during nap time).

Playing: We are really excited to start dance lessons this month (and continue gymnastics). She loves going to the pool, splash park, and the aviation museum. It is so nice to have all of these activities within 5 minutes of our house. At home, she loves to read books and do puzzles. She can now do a 9 piece puzzle all by herself. She was very spoiled with grandparents in town for 3 weeks this month.

Funny Sayings:

I was terrible about writing down her funny sayings this month. She is very well spoken and always makes us laugh. Here are a few things that she's said the past few days.

"This was a haaaaard day. All that chasing and running and jumping and playing."

(while sitting on the potty swinging one leg back and forth)

"Look, I have an elephant!"

(walking into my bathroom and gesturing with both arms to the toilet)

"So this is yerrrrr potty. Poop on it, okaaaaay?"

(holding her doll and attempting to nurse her)
(sadly) "They're too little..."

Mike's graduation on 5/17

Trip to the beach on 5/24

Playing in the mat with Baby Jack

Jack is 2 weeks old!

We had Jack's 2 week appointment this morning and the little guy is doing great. He is now 8 lbs 4 oz and it's hard to believe that he is still smaller than Elise was at birth. His newborn clothes fit perfectly and his 0-3 month clothes are big but wearable. He is such an easy baby and we are so blessed. Last week, he slept for 8 hours between feedings and a few days ago, he slept for 7, but he usually wakes up twice to eat between 8 pm-ish and 8 am-ish (and will go right back to sleep). He is an excellent nurser and thankfully never had his days and nights mixed up like E did. I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that he was born at night? He smiles all the time... sometimes even with his eyes open, and most of those occur right when he is about to eat. Typical male :) We have really enjoyed having our families in town to help around the house and play with their grandchildren. I have a million pictures to sort through and I will post some more one of these days, I promise :)

We're alive!

So sorry for the lack of posting/pictures. We got home from the hospital on Friday night and have enjoyed the last few days with our family of four and Mimi and Pop. Jack has been a super baby so far. He is a great eater and sleeper, and I can't ask for any more than that! Last night we put him to bed between 10-10:30 and he woke up once to eat at 3:30, and then went back to sleep until right before 7. I can handle that! His 2 day appointment was this morning, and he is almost back to his birth weight and everything looks great.

His big sister loves to hold, hug, and kiss him. She's definitely not herself though. She's been acting out more and has required more effort to get to bed, but we've tried to do as much for her as we possibly can. Thankfully, I've been feeling GREAT, and we've made many trips outside the house. So far, Jack has been to Babies R Us, church, small group, gymnastics, the doctor, and the commissary (grocery store on post). Mike and I even went to his graduation ball on Saturday night for a little while. It is SO wonderful being able to choose from a ton of "new" clothes to wear. I was very fortunate to lose the baby weight quickly with both pregnancies, and I feel so normal now (thank you, mom, for the good pregnancy genes!). With Jack, I actually lost it all by the time we got home from the hospital. I still do a double take when I walk by a mirror because I'm not used to my belly being a normal size! The other day, I was giving Elise a bath, and she looked at me and said, "Mommy, your tummy is little now!" I asked her why it was little, and she said, "Because Baby Jack came out!"

Elise has been doing great with the potty training. She will now pee in public toilets as long as we bring her potty seat. We have this Baby Bjorn potty seat at home and we carry another one in the car in this large Planet Wise wet bag. A wet bag is also useful for swim suits (and cloth diapers, of course), and you can easily wash it in the washing machine. She's gone #2 on the potty several times this week, but we still have to go back and forth to the bathroom many times before she actually does it. She's made huge improvements though. I think she's had only one accident in the last two weeks. We are still using a diaper at night. We've also transitioned her reward to yogurt bites instead of candy, and she's had no issues at all with that. Part of the issue that we've had with nap time/bed time is that she does not want to pee in her diaper or panties, and so she usually insists on going back to the potty once or twice before bed, and then it takes a few more minutes to get her back in bed time mode again. Sometimes, she will wake up an hour or so after falling asleep to go to the potty again, but then she'll go back to sleep.

Overall, we are so thankful for our two kiddos and this time that we have together. Mike graduates from his course tomorrow and then will have 10 days of paternity leave before going back to work after Memorial Day. His schedule should be very flexible for most of the month of June until he goes to a 3 week survival training school. Thankfully, I've got several visitors lined up to help me while he is away.

Here are a few newborn/nursing items that I didn't have with Elise that I have come to love over the last few days!

Aden and Anais burpy bibs

Undercover Mama nursing tank tops (with the amazing Bravado silk seamless nursing bras)

Vera Bradley Baby Bag (nothing special about the inside but I LOVE the outer magnetic flap to carry my keys, phone, and lip gloss)

SwaddleMe (had one but never used it with Elise... Jack is Mr. Houdini though and this works wonders for him at night!)

Here are a few pictures to satisfy your curiosity. I have a lot more on my other computer and I'll look through those and upload some more sometime soon.

First nap in the bouncer

12 hours old

Cuddling with big sis

VERY ready to leave the hospital

First time in the car seat

About to go home

12 hours old

He's here!

Jack Michael Powell

5/11/11 at 10:33 pm

7 lbs, 11 oz - 20.5 inches

Our little man surprised us and came a few days early! On May 11th, 2008, we found out that I was pregnant with Elise, and 3 years later we have two children! I figure that I’ll have more time to write his birth story in the hospital than after we get home, so here it is…

I started having contractions just after midnight on 5/11 and got out of bed to take a shower/pack my bag around 1 am (since, of course, I still hadn't packed). The contractions continued and got to 2.5/3 minutes apart, but eventually slowed down and I slept in between them from 4 – 7 am. They started back up around 8:30 am but were pretty sporadic until noon-ish when they started being consistently 6-7 minutes apart. In the meantime, my mom, Elise, and I went to Toddler Time and ran some errands. By 2 pm they were pretty intense and I had to get down on all fours to labor through them. They were about 3 minutes apart by 4 pm and were lasting about a minute. The drive to the hospital was BRUTAL! It is simply not comfortable to sit in a car while having contractions, and the hospital we chose is about 45 minutes from the house. A bright spot during the drive came when Elise called (twice!) to proudly tell us that she had pooped on the potty.

When we arrived at the hospital, all of the birthing suites were full, so we had to wait in the ER triage room for a little bit and then in the maternity triage. This was not fun at all because they wanted to monitor me and the baby (i.e. strap me to the bed with a bunch of wires) but I was still having intense and very frequent contractions. I was 4 cm when we got admitted around 6:30 pm and they immediately gave me a bag of fluid in preparation for the epidural. When I got to the birthing suite, they checked me again and I was 6 cm. The contractions were very strong and 2 minutes apart. Thankfully, the anesthesiologist arrived around 8:30 pm and I had some brief relief from the contractions by 9 pm. By 9:30 pm, the doctor had broken my water and the contractions immediately got stronger, even with the epidural. The pressure and pain at this stage was way more intense than with Elise’s birth. I even tried increasing the epidural dose, but it didn’t help at all and I was desperate, so Mike went to get the nurse. When she checked me again around 10 pm, I was ready to deliver! Unfortunately, my doctor had just gone in to do a c-section, and I definitely couldn’t wait any longer, so they called another doctor who arrived in less than 15 minutes. They got everything set up for delivery and I only had to push for 4 minutes. It was amazing how much easier it was to push out a 7 lb 11 oz baby than a 9 lb one! I didn’t tear at all this time and I have been feeling great. I haven’t even taken any pain meds since the delivery. Jack was very alert right away and has been a great nurser so far. I think it made a big difference for both of us that I was only on the epidural medicine for 1.5 hours this time.

Elise has come up to the hospital twice to visit us and “Baby Gak”. Mike met her and my mom in the parking garage and Elise bounded out of the car saying, “Where is Baby Jack? I want to go see Baby Jack!” Mimi had taken her to pick out a toy for him, and she proudly gave it to him (i.e. tossed it on top of him) and noticed immediately that we had put it back in his bed for her second visit. She didn’t want to hold him the first visit, but did enjoy talking to him and giving him hugs and kisses. Today, she asked to hold him several times and proudly gave us a running commentary of his features and actions. She did say, “Put him back in his bed. I want to hold you, Mommy!” and I’m sure that won’t be the last time. We are very thankful that we’ll have family in town for almost 2 weeks to help us give her as much individual attention as we can.

I forgot to bring the usb cord to the hospital so I will have to upload some pictures after we go home. The hospitals in Alabama keep you for at least 48 hours after delivery but we are hoping to talk them into letting us leave in a few hours instead of tomorrow morning. We are thankful that he is here and healthy I am no longer pregnant! Here's hoping that he likes to sleep as much as his parents and big sister :)

38 weeks and a potty update!

Well, Jack's birth month has finally arrived and I am READY to hold that sweet baby and not be pregnant anymore! I still have a few things to do but not too much:

*make a list of stuff to bring to the hospital (I know me and I probably won't pack a bag in advance... with Elise, I just threw everything in a bag while I was having contractions)

*replace breast pump parts and buy new bottles

*put infant car seat in Mike's car

*wrap Elise's big sister presents from us and from Jack

*get out bassinet part of pack and play and set it up

*tour the hospital and go on a date (or several) with Mike (yay for Mimi flying in on Wednesday!)

*get the baby books out of the garage to skim through (Babywise, Baby 411, etc)

That doesn't sound too bad, does it?

I figure I probably have the typical complaints of a 38-week-pregnant woman, but the symptoms are all in the "occasional" category... like heartburn, cramping, low back pain, pelvic pressure, fatigue, shakiness, insomnia, feeling huge, etc. Actually, feeling huge is pretty much a constant thing :) Overall, it isn't too bad. I'm taking Elise to do as many things as my energy level permits. I have a feeling that Jack is going to be late like his sister, but I think it is safe to say that I have less than 3 weeks left of pregnancy. One thing that has been GREAT about this pregnancy is that I can comfortably ride in a car because he's so low that he doesn't push into my ribs. This is a major difference from last time and is especially nice considering that the hospital/doctor's office is about 45 minutes away. I'm actually planning to make the nearly 2 hour drive to the airport by myself on Wednesday when I go pick up my mom (and it doesn't hurt that there is a Panera Bread and some good shopping nearby!). I am also sleeping better now than I was a few weeks ago.

I had an appointment on Friday and my fundal height is still measuring about 4 cm small but everything else looks great. I've gained about 14 lbs overall (but 22 in the last 22 weeks, which sounds just right). Unfortunately, there has been no "progress" to speak of, but I didn't make any progress with Elise until I went into labor, so I am not expecting much. It would really help my mental state during labor if I knew I was already dilated. With Elise, it took 24 hours of contractions 3-4 minutes apart for me to progress from "fingertip" to "almost 4 cm", and I would love to get some of that out of the way before the labor actually begins. We shall see.

I hope I am not jinxing myself by posting this, but it looks like Elise started potty training herself last Tuesday. I certainly wasn't intending to do this at 38 weeks pregnant, but it was HER idea and she wants to do it, so we have taken advantage of that! We've already gone 3 days with no accidents, though she still wears a diaper at night and I think she will for a LONG time. That diaper is still very wet when she wakes up, but she is sleeping well and not waking up anxious in the middle of the night about going to the potty, so we're not going to worry about nights for a long time. She also asks to pee pretty soon after she wakes up, so I think she's only peeing in the middle of the night. I've been putting a cloth diaper on her for naps, but she's woken up dry (and not anxious) the last 3 days, so I imagine that we'll transition to panties for naps pretty soon. I am being very cautious with making sure that she doesn't get stressed about the whole situation because I think that would cause it to backfire again. We still have some progress to make regarding pooping and using public toilets, but I would definitely say that she is daytime trained with going #1 at home or in the car potty without us having to prompt her. Yesterday, she even asked to come inside from swimming to go. It has actually been quite stress free for all of us, especially compared to our first attempt at the beginning of March. After she uses the potty, she gets to watch an Elmo clip on YouTube and have an M&M or jelly bean (if she remembers to ask for it). We don't do movies very often so the clips are a huge treat for her AND it has stopped her from playing with the DVD player and asking to watch movies. I think if she makes it through this week and is still wearing panties and is still proud of herself, then we'll be good to go.

I'll take a picture next weekend to compare with my 39 week picture from last time. Happy May, everybody!