Second Party of the Series

This was the church party/carnival for life to benefit the pro-life activities around here. They had a parade of saints (and other costumed kids). Here they are getting ready for it.

Face painting again. Genna got paint all over the white part of her costume. So guess who did laundry over night to get the stains out? We ended up washing it off in the bathroom because they had caked the paint on, and it never would dry.

The best part was when my sweet Genna won the cake walk. She chose a fall themed cake with cupcakes all around it. Why did she choose this one? Because it had plastic leaf rings in all the cupcakes, and she loves jewelry almost as much as cake. She was thrilled to pieces!

First Party of the Series

The first party of our 3 day series, on Saturday, was Brian's work party. Here they are before we left for the party.

My little candy corn! I could just eat him up!

Face painting was a big hit. Brian and Genna carved a pumpkin, but Hannah and Isaac had no interest this year.

This little guy spent most of the party like this in the back room, but made his rounds before we had to leave.

Sneak Peek

I just can't help it! I am giving away the surprise of the girls' costumes for this year's Saint parties. I had to have the girls try them on before I give back the sewing machine I borrowed. Yes, my sweet sewing machine that is older than I am has stopped working. Sniff. Sniff. Now I have two broken machines and no excuse not to take them to a repair shop except for having zero free time right now. Sigh. But I digress.

Introducing Hannah as St. Dorothy of Caesarea and Genevieve as St. Rose of Lima...
They have a party today and the next three days if we survive them all. Isaac's costume is partially purchased and you will see him dressed up soon soon.

Blackmail Material

The girls really wanted me to see this sight. They were giggling away because when you ask Isaac what he is doing here with his dog wrapped up in a blanket, he replies, "I am nursing." And with a pink blanket, no less! That's a first for me. I have had my daughters mimic my nursing, but never a son.

Brotherly Love

Genna has been sick this week with a fever and sore throat. It is KILLING her not to touch and kiss on Drew, especially when Isaac got to have this little photo session with him.

6 Weeks Old

My little boy is now 6 weeks old, and I just can't believe it. The only big changes I have made in his schedule are that in the evening I am putting him back to bed around 6:30 or 7pm and he sleeps until 7:30 or 8pm. (I was just letting him sleep wherever for that time which meant sometimes he didn't sleep at all.) Then I am letting him have a bit of waketime and putting him to bed for his night time sleep to begin at 8:45pm or so. (This is not ideal and will have to be moved up, but he is wide awake then and doesn't have to be up long before getting tired again.) For many nights he was crying on and off until his 10pm dream feed. I was even moving the dream feed up a bit when I felt like he wasn't going to get to sleep before then. I wasn't too worried about this since he sleeps so much and so well all the other times during the day and night. However, I can't keep him awake or he cries the whole time anyway with me holding him because he is so tired. Last night we tried having Brian do the bedtime routine and put him down at that time and it worked really well. He only cried on and off for less than 20 minutes. I will keep trying this as long as it keeps working.

His ideal waketime is around 45-55 minutes for most of the times. By 40 minutes he starts fussing or blinking and we start the bedtime routine.

This week I did some experimenting and found that Drew has an insane preference for my room and his room when he is awake. He is happily put down anywhere in one of those two places, but no where else in the house. My thoughts are that he is a baby that gets overly stimulated and overwhelmed easily. Bad kind of baby to be when you are born fourth into a family, if you ask me. I am not completely catering to this preference because he is going to have to learn how to deal with the chaos eventually, but it is good to know when I need him to be happy and on his own to put him in one of his safe zones. Knowing this about him means that he can have some practice being on his own a bit (i.e. not being held) and some practice with the chaos of the house too.

His big leap this week came in part due to my aforementioned experimenting. He finally enjoyed his play gym, as you can see in the picture at the top of this post. He even smiled at it. It is currently in my room since I was having no luck with it anywhere else. He also is super happy in the vibrating seat in the bathroom while I take my shower. I have caught him studying his hands this week. He also is calmed, initially at least, by my mere presence which is a first for him. When he sees me coming toward him, he calms and quits crying immediately. All these things mean he is growing up.

About the newborn stage, I love their tininess, their sleepiness, their smells, their lightness (I can carry them around with one hand,) their inability to move around and get into trouble, and their ability to sleep on the go. The hard things about newborns are the lack of sleep, lack of entertain-ability, their floppiness, and having to get them on a schedule. Each stage has it's good and bad points. Here's to looking on the bright side and loving every minute of the good stuff while it lasts!

Cocoon Sleeping

For naps, Drew Bug sleeps in this cocoon called a Woombie. I like it because it zips up and is less laborious than other swaddle blankets. Brian and I got so sick of wrapping Hannah up 8 times a day and have tried ti avoid doing full swaddles for naps with the subsequent children. However, Drew seems to really need some kind of swaddle, and the Woombie is perfect for him and us. I do his naptime routine (read to, pray with, and sing to him) and lay him down to zip him up in his cocoon while he is still awake. Sometimes he is drowsy, but others he is not. I do not make this a requirement. The only thing I try to be consistent in is not letting him be actually asleep. If he does fall asleep, zipping him up jars him awake a bit. When I go to get him up from a nap, it is truly like a butterfly coming out of his chrysalis. I love it. the down side to this Woombie is that he is already almost too big for this one and there is only one more size to go to. The max weight for the next size up is 19 lbs and my boys usually hit that before 4 months. I have always swaddled my kids well past that age. I am going to get the next size up and hope for the best.

For night sleep, he sleeps in his Miracle blanket. I have used this blanket with all of my children. It is amazing! It takes them quite a while to learn how to get out of this which is it's best selling point. It is laborious if you have to do it 8 times a day, but not if you are only doing it 3 times a day. I have become quite fast over the last 7 years in wrapping babies up in this blanket. I unwrap him to nurse and change his diaper even though it isn't a necessity. I do it so he takes a full feeding. Also, I like that even if he is asleep when I am ready to put him back in bed, swaddling him jars him awake a tiny bit so he has to practice going to sleep on his own in his crib. Speaking of, you may notice that he sleeps in his Moses basket with a sleep positioner. I elevate the head of the Moses basket too to help with gas and spitting up. I think it helps him sleep better because he can't move around and it is more like the tight quarters he was used to in the womb. (Notice I don't do this during the day for naps. That is because he is a really good napper and doesn't need it. Plus, I want the transition to his flat spacious bed to be easier later when he is too big for the Moses basket.) I have his crib split so that half is set up for the night and half for the day.

Compare and Contrast

The first two pictures are Drew, obviously (the dimple in the chin gives it away,) but who are the next three? And do you think they look a little like Drew?

The next two pictures are Isaac. I picked these two, because I thought the first one looked a lot like Drew, minus the chin. The second one looks less like him because it shows more of Isaac's head. The two main differences between these boys are the chin and head size and shape. Drew has a more pronounced chin and the adorable dimple. Isaac has a smaller chin, and I remember noticing that when nursing him. Drew has a small head compared to all of my children. I think that is why I thought he looked small when I first saw him. Isaac's secret nickname just between Brian and I is Megamind because he has quite the noggin.

The last picture is my hospital picture when I was born. I don't have a picture of Brian when he was a newborn, but I know Drew got his chin dimple from Brian. The more pronounced chin seems to be from me. The nose and the eyes so far resemble me as well.

Any opinions? I can dig up some of the girls baby pictures too and see how they compare.

There's a first time for everything

This week we had our first full week of homeschooling since Drew graced us with his presence outside of my womb. We got in all our subjects except for art lessons which is pretty good since we had been doing just the basics here and there before this week. Homeschooling a preschooler, kindergartener, and first grader with a 5 week old has been a challenge at times, but since Drew is still sleeping a lot it seemed doable most of the time. More on this later when I give you an idea of what our real schedule looks like as compared with my ideal schedule that I came up with before Drew was born.

Today, we also went on our first field trip since Drew's birth. We went to a farm for a lesson on bees and harvesting honey, a corn maze, a hayride, picking a pumpkin, and feeding some cattle and goats. It went pretty well, but it was very windy and chilly. I had Drew in the sling completely covered with several blankets, and he slept the entire time. I just had to nurse him before we left, and he was a happy guy. Several children asked where the new baby was. He was hiding out and staying warm. The hardest part was shepherding them all with a baby strapped to me, especially in the corn maze and especially Isaac who seems to have gone deaf since he turned three. Again, where's a good shepherd dog when you need 'em?

Isaac learning about bees and honey

On the hayride

Speaking of firsts, here is my first child to loose both of her top teeth. She lost the other top one yesterday at her AHG meeting. She pulled this one herself, after it getting knocked loose during a game of Red Rover.

They got to pick a "pie pumpkin" to take home.


When we got home, Isaac asked if he could eat his pumpkin for lunch. He was tearfully disappointed to find out they have to be cooked first.

My boys

Isaac shows his brother off to people like crazy. He adores him! I just wish he could keep his hands off his face and neck. :)

Some Smiles from Drew

5 week mini update

Drew is 5 weeks old now. I believe he is in the midst of a growth spurt, but I am not sure yet. I have never been good at recognizing those. Saturday and Sunday he woke on his own from his daytime naps a bit earlier than usual. He also woke twice at night on Saturday while he has been only waking to eat once. He is going down for naps easily still, some days with no crying at all, others with less than 10 minutes. However, since Saturday night, he has been crying when I put him down after the 10:00pm and some of middle of the night feedings. He usually cries for about 20 minutes during these times. I have had to go comfort him twice because his cries were hysterical which is not normal for him. They are usually more fussy cries. I don't know what started this, but he seems to be too awake when I put him down then.

During the day, when he nurses, it is hard to tell if he is awake or sleeping through the nursings still. He always takes a full feeding, but has his eyes closed the whole time. He has always been this way and nothing I have tried will get him to keep his eyes open even if he is good and awake before the nursing. After a feeding, he stays awake for between 15 and 45 minutes usually.

Mini schedule: other than the weekend when he was waking a bit early from naps
7am wake him up for the day and nurse
8:15am nap
9:30/45 wake him up and nurse
10:15am nap
12/12:15pm wake him up and nurse
1pm nap
3pm wake him up and nurse
3:45/4pm nap
5:30pm wake him up and nurse
(Insert chaos here with dinner and getting the other kids in bed. Here's where the schedule gets ditched and he naps again somewhere in here before a 8:30/9pm bedtime.)
10pm dreamfeed
1 more nightime nursing whenever he wakes up typically between 2:30 and 4:30am

As you can see, the days are going very smooth mostly and we are taking advantage of that and getting lots of school work done this week and the end of last week too. I am still being flexible during the late evening, 6-9pm. He has a hard time during these hours some days. Usually, I can get him in bed peacefully by 8:30 or 9pm, but not always. I am tired from the new night trouble he is having, but I seem to be getting used to this level of lack of sleep somewhat. This precious boy sure deserves every bit of it! How can I complain with eyes like these staring at me?

I weighed Drew this week on our scale and measured him for his baby book. According to my scale and attempt at measuring, he is 12 lbs even now and 23 inches long. This is the outfit that he came home from the hospital in. Just 5 weeks ago I had to roll up the pant's waist, and it was loose on him. Now he fills it all out just the way it is supposed to be.

Piano Lessons

Hannah has only had about 4 lessons so far in intro to piano. She's already playing better than me which isn't saying much since I can't even read music. They are still learning the basics. She practices everyday (that I remember to tell her) for about 15 minutes. Her favorite song is I Hear the Echo. Here is a new song she is working on.

Friends

We went to our friend's house last night and had dinner. We all watched Bugs Bunny before heading home. Apparently, you never get too old for a little "What's up, Doc?" I've never heard kids laugh so hard at the TV before. Look at this priceless picture.

It happened again!

Genna came around the corner laughing and saying, "Mom, it happened again!" She had slipped in the mud. Don't know why this girl always slips in the mud, but it cracks me up. Last time it was all over her pretty dress, so this was a much easier clean up for me. I sprayed her down with a hose.

I have to admit, I am being a bit naughty here because she did not want me to take this picture. She agreed to let me reluctantly and said, "But Mom, don't put this on your blog!" So don't tell her! I'll honor that request one day when it is about stuff that actually matters, but this is just too cute for me not to share it. I love this free spirit who slips in the mud repeatedly and dances on the soccer field, kicking nothing but air half the time. She is perfect just the way she is!

Speaking of perfect, last weekend we were in the company of many nuns, priests and seminarians, and Genna just had to ask a nun a very important question. She did not believe her mom and dad, and she needed a nun's opinion on the subject. What was her question? "Are nuns perfect?" She wants to be a nun when she grows up and is very worried that she makes too many mistakes to be a nun one day, you see. Sister Yen told her that she doesn't have to be perfect, she just has to be on the way to being perfect. That is all we can be here on earth is on our way.

One Month Old

He was actually one month yesterday, on the 13th, but I just realized it today. I took some pictures this afternoon. I don't know how much he weighs right now, but he is definitely chunking up.

Group shot, Drew would not look at the camera! Don't know what's wrong with him! Just kidding!

As a one month old, things are still pretty dynamic, and whatever I was to say about him today could definitely change by next week or even tomorrow. All the more reason to document something I suppose.

Nursing: He is nursing on just one side per feeding, but still having the occasional big spit up. The big spit ups happen now only after he has slept well at night, and I think this is due to an abundance of milk at that time.

Sleeping: He is doing great with sleeping for his age. I have been doing Babywise and putting him down for naps and such awake, but drowsy. He usually only fusses or cries for 5-10 minutes. The exception to this is between 6pm and 8 or 9pm when he will cry longer so I have decided to just rock him to sleep during that time if he seems really tired or just hang out with him otherwise. This is just his tough time of the day. I moved him to his room this week and he has been sleeping so much better. He even slept through the whole night (11pm dream feed-6:30am wake up time) last night for the first time. I am sure that won't be permanent yet, but it was a nice respite for me. I have no complaints on this front.

Bedtime routine and swaddling: I put his bed time routine in place two weeks ago. I read him poems, pray with him, and sing him a song or two. When he is drowsy, I put him in the Woombie for naps and the Miracle Blanket for nighttime. The only exception is if he falls asleep before I can get him to his room then I either leave him where he is or put him on his tummy in his crib.

Waketime: He is still hard to keep awake for very long. He makes it an hour and 15 minutes first thing in the morning, but usually it is 30-45 minutes and he is starting to get drowsy. His biggest flaw, if this bundle of cuteness can even have a flaw, is that when he is awake he is pretty fussy except for two waketimes a day when he seems to be happy to lay somewhere and not need attention. Usually holding him or sitting next to him will keep him happy, but occasionally that is not quite enough and he needs more than that to stay calm.

Diapers: He poops and pees all the time! He has fewer blowouts than my other kids so far, but I think it is because he poops little bits all day instead of saving it up.

Naptime Woes

Isaac has been only napping about twice a week since Drew was born. Sigh. He's always been such a good napper that I was hoping he would be like Hannah and let me decide when he didn't need naps anymore. He is still laying in his bed with minimal stuffed animals to entertain him. I have been fighting for the naps to continue especially since he is a little cranky in the evenings without a nap, however, I think I am beginning to accept the loss. I am still going to have him lay down with nothing to distract him for a while, but then we will move on to rest time that involves staying in bed with books only if this isn't just a passing phase.

It is possible that what started this was when I made a new rule. Right after Drew was born, I awoke one night when I was already halfway down the hall to Isaac's room. He had burst out of his room hysterically screaming that he needed to go to the bathroom. I got him to the potty as fast as I could and saw the tears that had been running down his face. He had been crying for me for a while before he finally decided that he was going to explode and ran out of his room. I was so exhausted that I hadn't heard him, and he was trying to so hard to follow the rules and not get out of bed without an adult. My heart just broke for him and the next day I made a new rule where he could get out of bed for potty purposes only. This did, unfortunately, cause him to get out of bed for other things occasionally. He slips out for a book or something every once in a while. This leads me to the funny conversation we had the other day when I came to get him from his nap that he had not actually slept for. I sat on his bed, and he apologized immediately for not sleeping. I asked him if he had laid still and tried to sleep, and he said that he had tried to sleep, but his changing table (which is not actually a changing table anymore since he is long potty trained) had told him to play. So he had been up briefly to get a train and bring it to his bed and to put it back. I laughed at this because, well, it is pretty funny and if you saw him tell this story you would understand, and he said, "Mom, are you not mad? You're happy? You are laughing." So confused, but so cute!

Boston and "Bumpily things"

This trip to Boston was Drew's first long car ride, obviously. As I mentioned before, it was 8 hours of driving. We had this bright idea to leave at 3am and get some driving under our belt while kids drifted off back to sleep. Drew, being only 3 + weeks old is nursing about every 2 1/2 to 3 hours during the day, but at night has been able to go 5 hours some nights. Stopping every 2 1/2 to 3 hours would make our trip much, much longer. So I was hoping we could head out and not have to stop for at least 4 hours if the gas made it. That part worked, but part of our plan failed. The part where all the kids drift back off to sleep. Drew, who always sleeps in his car seat and anywhere really, woke up every 45 minutes or so and cried for 10 minutes. That doesn't seem so bad, you might say. True that he didn't scream for long periods, but it was just enough and often enought to keep the rest of the car from getting much sleep.

Fortunately, there were no break downs from the big kids from being overly tired and we got some naps in that afternoon. Drew was pretty fussy most of the weekend. The baby who usually sleeps anywhere and can be laid down at home to hang out would barely let me put him down at all. Luckily, there were more than a couple people wanting to hold him.

The trip back was during the day. We were prepared to stop every few hours and prepared for some screaming. Turns out this guy slept like a log the entire 8 hour trip, and I had to talk Brian into stopping for his regular nursings even though the kid was zonked and not making a peep. If they don't get the milk during the day, they'll make up for it at night, you know. So the trip home was smooth as silk, with two out of the other three kids napping, except for the dash board warning lights lighting up like a Christmas tree about three hours from home. With some prayers we made it home and got the van fixed yesterday. The amazing part was that it was caused by a recall and was free to fix. What an answer to prayer!

You may be wondering at this point, What in the world is a "Bumpily thing?" Well, Isaac coined this phrase when he moved to a big bed. He called whatever we used to stop him from rolling out of bed, be it pillows or a rail, a "Bumpily thing" and I thought it was funny and so called it that too. Here is my big boy taking care of his brother at the house we rented.
He climbed up with Drew and lined the bed with pillows, AKA "Bumpily things," so his brother wouldn't roll off. I didn't tell him that this little one isn't rolling yet. No need to dampen to boy's spirits. He thought he was saving his brother. I LOVE those guys! Brian says the boys have me a bit wrapped around their fingers. I say, Let them! It won't last forever. They will grow up and turn my hair gray soon enough.

Welcome into the Church, Drew!

Reverend Reedy presiding as deacon for the first time ever, one day after his ordination at St. Paul's in Boston, MA. This was at the Mass right before he baptized Drew on Sunday, October 9, 2011.

He even got to give the homily which put my boys to sleep. Just kidding! It was an excellent homily, one of the best I've heard lately. But the boys fell asleep despite the excellent homily. Here are my sleeping little guys...

I woke up Drew to dress him for his baptism, and he was not the happiest baby.

The kids were all very distressed that I was putting him in a "dress." Tried to explain it is like a priest's vestments, but I don't know if it got through.

Drew is our youngest to be baptized by just a few days. This was also quite a trip for a newborn, 8 hours in the car each way, and so he was possibly our fussiest baby being baptized. That said, I think I am the only one who thought he was fussy. Maybe everyone was just being polite, but I had to work the whole time to keep him happy. I wish he was more of a pacifier baby because that always calmed the girls at times like these.

Drew's godparents, the Bakers, are out of the country and could not attend, so we had proxy godparents for the ceremony.

This is a special shell the Brian Reedy found on the beach and saved for when he could baptize. Drew was the first to have that privilege.

Welcome, my little love! Welcome to the Church!