I'm still here!

I can't believe it has been so long since I have blogged! I hate that I have been slacking on my little virtual baby book. I missed posting on my boy turning TWO and now my little girl is three months old!! 

I can't pinpoint the exact day, but at some point overnight Corb.en suddenly went from a squishy little baby to a little boy. He is so freaking cute too! He says and does the funniest things and I have to stop myself from hugging and kissing him every 2 seconds. Yesterday he kept jumping around saying "wee! wee!" He was so happy and such a little kid. I just wanted to be able to freeze that memory fresh and clear into my brain. He loves to play cars and even makes the little vroom sound when he plays with them and has started insisting on sleeping with his favorite car and truck. When he calls me mommy it sounds like he's saying "Mimmy" and I'm going to be so sad when he says it right. I love when he says "Oh Mimmy". He can sing parts of the songs to Sesame Street and Fresh Beat Band (that show is SO annoying and he loves it so much). He has developed a love for cake and even though he hasn't had any since his birthday he still asks for it frequently. Today as soon as he woke up from his nap he asked for a snack. I asked him what he wanted and he said "cake". I told him we didn't have any and he asked "(where did the) cake go?". Haha! He loves to read the book Hungry Caterpillar and on the page with all of the yummy food he pretends to eat the cupcake, icecream, and cake. I think he's going to have his daddy's sweet tooth. He is still fiercely in love with his sister and is always loving on her. 

To sum up 2 year old C.orben so far I would say that he is generally such a sweet, loving, active, and fun little boy. He is also sensitive and gets his feelings hurt easily, but is also quick to anger as well. He has started throwing things and slamming his bedroom door when he's mad (umm hello teenage attitude already). I have no idea where he might have gotten that from ;). 

For the stats: He's 32 lbs and I need to get his height. Daddy was with him during that point of his 2 year visit and forgot what the nurse said. He's potty training and while he's been ready for a big boy bed we're waiting on that until we move at the end of this month. 


Oh my sweet baby girl! She is exactly that... sweet! She's my cuddler and loves to be snuggled and loved on. I just can't kiss her enough and her smile melts our heart. So far (knock, knock, knock) she's still a really easy baby and a great sleeper like her brother was. She's been sleeping through the night since a little past 2 months old. She's a cooer (did I make that word up?) and will coo for hours at a time. I love it! She's started with a little giggle and I am so looking forward to those belly laughs. She's not the biggest fan of the car seat, but it could be so much worse. 

She's 13lbs and 23 inches. She has rolled over from front to back about 7 times now.
She LOVES to eat and her 3 month growth spurt about made me lose my mind. Luckily I have a freezer stash built up and was able to give her a bottle of pumped milk for the times when constant breast feeding didn't satisfy her. 

Seriously though those few days were really tough. I was so stressed out trying to balance my time between my two kids. I felt so guilty not being able to take care of both of them at the same time and Quinn was being so fussy and needy and it seemed like nothing made her happy. She was so not herself. I can't describe how stressful that time was. At one point I had to leave the kids with my husband while I just drove around and cried. Being a Mom during the bad times, shoot even during the good times, is so hard and I always feel guilty. Although those smiles from Quinn and breathing in her sweet baby scent and those heart melting hugs and kisses from Corb.en make me feel so much better and remind me of what's important. The things that I think need to get done right away really don't. The problem is that I'm a perfectionist and I hate feeling like a failure. I need to learn that a good mom does not mean a perfect mom. There is no such thing as perfect. I think that Mom's are in such competition with each other and feel the need to maintain a certain image that they don't want to admit when things are hard or when they don't handle things perfectly. I don't want to be like that or feel that way. 

Adorableness {BIG photo dump}

I love my babies!

His "cheese" face

He loves to read his sister stories.

He insisted on wearing his hat to breakfast.

I love her smiles.

Happy girl!

I love these two so much.

 

She Rolled Over!

My 6 week old just rolled over from back to front. My mind is absolutely blown right now. Slow down baby girl, slow down!


 

Becoming a Big Boy

C.orben is growing and changing everyday. I love watching him learn new things and sometimes he just shocks me with the things he has figured out. 

Yesterday he wanted some graham crackers, so I got him the box out of the pantry and he took an entire package of graham crackers out. I put the box back on the counter. After awhile when he was done eating he came in the kitchen and put the package of crackers back in the box. I was distracted at the time and later when I went to put the box of graham crackers back in the pantry they were missing. I looked all over and couldn't find them. I didn't worry about it, figuring I would see them around soon and went about my business. An hour later I still hadn't found them and so I finally thought to just ask Corbe.n where the crackers were. He toddled in the kitchen, opened the fridge and handed me the box of crackers!

I'm amazed for several reasons: that he knew to put the package back in the box when he was done eating, that he thought to put the box of crackers away (okay maybe the fridge isn't the right spot, but that doesn't matter), and that an hour later he still remembered where he put them! This is amazing to me!

Earlier that day we were getting ready to leave the house and C.orben asked if we were going "bye bye". I told him we were, but I had to get ready first. He brought me my clothes and tried dressing me himself. Haha! I can't believe he understood what I told him! He's so cool!

Oh and for record purposes... Quinn started making the sweetest cooing noises. It completely melts my heart. She's also wearing 3 month clothes now. Slow down sweet girl.


 

{Quinn} 1 Month Old

My precious baby girl is 1 month old today! I'm so proud of myself for actually posting on time. Life with two kids is busy and tiring. I could be getting a lot more done than I am, but I'm tired and it's hard to get motivated. Plus I've been struggling with lupus symptoms, so that adds another hurdle to jump. But hey, this post is not about me. On to my precious Quinnster.

Quinn is (so far) such a sweet and content little girl. She's mellow and as long as she's fed and dry she's as happy as can be. Occasionally she'll squawk to let us know it's time for some cuddles, which I'm oh so happy to oblige. 

She still sleeps a lot with her largest awake times being for an hour or so at 11am and 11pm. That works out well since I usually don't go to bed until midnight anyways. She does tend to get fussy and just wants to be held around the time that I'm getting C.orben ready and down for bed. This has been a bit of a challenge and is by far the most stressful time of the day (the husband is still at work during this time), but I'm learning to work with it and hopefully we'll get a routine down soon that works for all of us. At night she sleeps really well, just waking up to eat every 3-4 hours (every now and again we get a 5 hour stretch... I love those!).... unless she's hitting a growth spurt and then she wants to eat every hour or two. That's pretty dang tough. 

I'm not sure how much she weighs right now, but she's outgrown her newborn clothes, but the 3 month clothes are pretty baggy on her. Is there a scientific formula that will tell you her weight from that information, haha!

Corbe.n is still absolutely head over heels in love with Quinn. It's the greatest feeling in the world to see my two babies together and to watch C.orben's face light up when he's loving on his sister. 

Here are a few pictures. I'll post some more once I'm done uploading and editing. I have some pretty cute pictures of both kids. We also had an awesome trip to a wildlife safari in our area that was awesome and I can't wait to post about it. 

 

Adventures in Nipple Cream

"Babe, you're leaking breast milk."

"No I'm not. Those are just nipple cream stains."

That's a conversation I never thought I would have. I don't know why they don't put a big fat warning on the tube, but I learned the hard way that Lanolin leaves greasy stains on your clothes if you don't protect them. Oh and by the way these stains are a pain to get out. I, of course, didn't know any of this and several of my pajamas were sporting big circular grease stains. So sexy. Instead of doing the smart thing and researching how to best get the stains out, I naively assumed they would come out in the wash. Wrong! And apparently drying Lanolin stains is the worst thing you can do. 

Never fear though if you happen to be as moronic as me. I have the solution on how to get the stains out. Get some original blue Dawn dishwashing soap and apply it to the stain, rub it in really well, and then allow it to sit for a few days (the first time I did this I only let it sit for 12 hours and it improved the stain, but didn't completely remove it). Then wash and dry as usual, repeat if necessary. You're welcome. If you happen to be reading this pre-nipple cream application... nursing pads are your friend; use them.

 

2 Weeks Old

Quinn is 2 weeks old already! However, it seems like she's always been here. Even though I'm exhausted, and taking care of two kids at once can be stressful at times, I'm so unbelievably happy.

At least things are improving in the sleep department. I was so scared when she was first born because, I kid you not, her first two nights she did not sleep at all. I'm not exaggerating either. Once we got home things got a little better, but not much. She constantly wanted to suck on something and since I wanted to wait until at least 2 weeks before introducing a pacifier for fear of messing up anything while we were establishing breastfeeding, that made me her human pacifier. Minutes after I would take her off she would wake up and cry again. I was exhausted. The husband was exhausted. I discussed it with her doctor during her 1st pedi appointment and her doctor said that because my milk had already come in it was fine to give Quinn a paci now. I'm not sure how that logic makes any sort of sense, but I enthusiastically went with it. I needed some sleep and my nipples needed a break from the constant assault. We now have ourselves a much happier baby on a much better sleep schedule. Of course we still have the occasional night where she wants to eat every hour, but that's to be expected and at least she's going back to sleep after she eats.

She had her 2nd pedi appointment today and Quinn got nothing but good marks. She was born at 7 lbs 2 oz, left the hospital at 6 lbs 11 oz, was 6 lbs 13 oz at 4 days old, and today was 7 lbs 6 oz. She's also grown 1/2 inch in length. It feels so good to know that she's thriving and growing with my breast milk. After my breastfeeding struggle with Corbe.n and all of the guilt and feelings of failure I had with him, I went into this pregnancy with a lot of anxiety over if I would be able to succeed at breastfeeding Quinn. I'm so happy that things are going well. Quinn is just such a great nurser. She latched right on when she was born and hasn't looked back since. I don't know all of the answers as to why things are different this time, but I definitely think that me being able to nurse her within the first 30 minutes of birth made a huge difference. With C.orben I didn't get to until he was a few hours old. They told me that he was so hungry as soon as he was born. I wish in recognizing this they would have brought him to me. Okay, okay... enough wallowing in regret.

Quinn is such a sweet and mellow baby. So far she only cries when she's hungry or wants to be picked up, just like how Cor.ben was. However, I think I may finally have my snuggler because she loves to be held. Not in a bad way... she'll let you put her down, but is so happy and content when you're loving on her. I know you may be thinking "umm duh, isn't that all babies?", but my husband and I joke that C.orben would cry to be set down. He did not like being held. I hate comparing the two all the time, but I guess you can't really avoid that. It's fun seeing their similarities and differences. I look forward to seeing what things Quinn is into and how her sense of humor is compared to C's. He is a funny little boy!

Speaking of C.orben, he is absolutely obsessed with his sister. He loves to kiss her and hold her. He loves to get her diapers for me or to try to put her paci in her mouth. She isn't safe unsupervised around him. He will reach in her crib to try to pull her out! When he doesn't know where she is he says "baby? baby?". It's so sweet! I'm happy that he's reacted so positively to having a new sister.

So that's life right now. It's busy. It's crazy. I'm in love!