Concert

Carly's little mini concert. Enjoy. especially the nose picking

Decisions, decisions

The best show in the world
Or the cutest baby in the world

So torn! Don't know where to look!

Wes is going to make watching SYTYCD difficult this season. Thank goodness for DVR!

Soup

The other night we ate tomato soup for dinner.

Carly mostly just wore it.

I think it had something to do with her not finding need for the spoon.

Strep throat, UVU, and BM explosion

The BM explosion got you to read this didn't it?

You sicko, you.

Well sorry to disappoint, but in my world BM stands for Birth Mother. These last 2 weeks or so, I have had almost as many birth mothers assigned to my caseload as I have had the whole rest of the year. All the other caseworkers are swamped too. It's crazy! And a bunch of my couples are getting some action too (meaning their files are being pulled and looked at, or they are being emailed by birth parents who are looking to find adoptive families). Over half of my approved couples have something going on right now with their files. For sure most of these little "leads" don't pan out. But it keeps me incredibly busy in the meantime with that many anxious couples all needing support all at once/ that many face to faces to arrange/ that many out of state caseworkers to contact to confirm the actual existence of a promising birth parent. It's good to be busy...it has felt like a slow year. And I can feel the excitement emanating off of my couples, and even while I try to prepare them for probable disappointment, it's hard not to really get excited about the "what ifs" right along with them. Like "what if 8 of my couples went on firm hold all at the same time?"

I'll tell you what if: That would be awesome.

Anyway, I was inspired by one of my fellow coworkers to put my clients' profiles linked to my blog. Why not advocate for them in one more way if I can? So please, check out my newest feature. And if you see a couple you feel would be a good fit for a birth mother in your life, please show her the profile. Not all of my couples are up currently. A good number are on hold, so I couldn't link them currently. But as they return into the pool, or as new couples are approved, I'll add the link to their IAL profiles right there on the right of the page.

Also this week, I got my husband his college degree. How? you ask? Well, by looking at his credit earned vs. credits needed and recognizing that he had finished his degree. And then calling around to the various counselors/professors needed to approve the needed substitutions and petitions. We had thought that after taking a year off to focus on work, that this would be a good time to go back to finish that whole fire science degree. Little did we know until this last week that he had actually been done since January of 2008. (insert grimace....) So Marshall is a happy man that his degree will come in the mail in January (though 2 years late) without having to step foot in a classroom again.

This is one of those times that I think he should kiss the ground I walk on.

And now for the strep throat:

I had strep throat. It almost killed me. I felt so horrible I thought I was going to die. Horrible. 103+ temperature for over 24 hours straight with no relief. Tylenol couldn't touch it.

Come to find out, 3 days into my antibiotic treatment, that I was given a half dose size of the pills. I had been taking "one pill in the morning and one at night," as per the doctor's orders, while I should have been taking 2. And in the midst of my fevered delirium on Friday, I had even called to double check why I wasn't getting better. They said a nurse would call me to determine if I should come back in, and then no one ever called. When I called today, they told me there was no record of my phone call on Friday. I may have been fevered delirious, but I don't think I was that delirious to imagine a phone call.

Don't worry, I feel much better now!

So that was us this week in a nutshell.

2 month stats

We went to Wes' 2 month check up on Friday. This is the first I have been able to post because while we were at the appointment, I got my hand smashed in a door and have had it in a splint. More on that in a sec.

Wes is now:

23 inches long = 49th percentile

10lbs 9ozs = 21st percentile

15.3in head circumference = 20th percentile

Diapers = size 1

Clothes = 0-3 months (the newborns finally stopped fitting this last week)

He got a bunch of shots and did great. Screamed like the dickens at first, but got over it pretty quickly.

Wes now smiles and coos a ton. He really loves talking to mommy and daddy. He really responds to people talking to him, and is pretty friendly. He can go from 0-60 when he gets hungry though- like this last week during Relief Society. Calm, happy baby capturing the hearts of the masses one second, the next he was screaming like someone was killing him. I think he decided like mid-smile that he hadn't eaten recently, and that was the end of showing off until he belly was refilled! Although he hasn't outright giggled yet, he is close. He gives a pronounced "huh!" when excited/amused, like when mommy plays peek-a-boo with him.

He's not the hugest fan of tummy-time, but it's also not the end of the world to put him there. He tends to spit up and then face-plant in it, so I have to watch and clean it up before it gets into his eyes. And he isn't rolling or crawling or anything miraculous yet. He's just right on target with learning to hold his head and chest up.

As you can see, he's still fairly bald, but I'm sure right around a year those curls will start to come in like they did on Carly.

He likes his bumbo, swing, and playmat alright. But he is not nearly as independent as Carly was at this age. He would much rather be held and making eye contact all the time than looking at his various toys. I feel like last time I had all the free time in the world, and now I have two attention-hungry energy-leeches attached to me. It can be exhausting.

But he is getting much better at sleeping through the night. His schedule is getting more and more regulated. But lately I can count on 2 basic schedules: him going down between 11-midnight and waking up once about 5am and going back down from 5:30am until 10am; or going down between 11-midnight and sleeping straight through to 7am. It varies, but either way I am getting much better sleep.

And the colic! It's gone! Praise the Lord! We can't decide if it was the abrupt end to my love affair with dairy, or if it was the reflux medication. But we'll take it however we can get it. And I've learned that, really, RiceDream is pretty good!

We are still breastfeeding, and he is a little champ at that. He goes easily back and forth between the breast and bottle. I am really blessed to not have to deal with any major latch issues with either of my kids. It has always come super easily and naturally. And my milk is holding up so far. Hopefully I'll be able to exclusively breast feed much longer this time than I did with Carly (with her, I lost my milk dramatically at 5 months or so).

All in all, he's a great kid and is getting to be so much fun!

Okay, so back to my hand. We went to Wes' appointment as a family, and while we were there decided to get flu shots for the rest of us ( -Marshall, who has weird personal vendetta against flu vaccines). I had to step into the hallway to sign some forms to add Carly and I as patients for that visit so we could get shots, and while in the hallway, I was an idiot and leaned up against the hinge side of the doorframe of the opened door. Carly made a break for it, and Marshall quickly kicked the door shut....on my hand. Ouch! I couldn't move it, and the immediate swelling and bruising had us all thinking it was broken. I had to cancel all of my appointments for the day and head over to instacare for x-rays. Luckily, no breaks. But I got all splinted up and instructed not to use it for a week. After 2 days, the improvement was remarkable, so I think I am safe to type at this point! Funny enough, tonight while making dinner I was trying to one-hand a pot of boiling water to ease the stress on the hurt hand, and managed to poor the boiling water all over my good hand! Eeek! Good thing both wounds will heal, and in the mean time, I can still use both hands at 75% capacity.

Big Sister

My beautiful big girl is such and joy and a light! She had a little bit of a shock when we introduced her to her new brother. In fact, she didn't really like the idea of holding him, or of mommy holding him, or the suggestion of bringing him home that first day. But now she loves to hold Wes, and bring him his binkies. She is such a sweet big sister, and loves to tell mommy all about how 'Wes is sleeping' or 'Wes is waking' or 'Wes is cwying' or 'Wes poopy!' She's pretty observant and seems to have the pattern of his day down pretty well. And once the dust settled, she seems pretty unfazed by the new little screamer in our home. She is still as lively and joyful as ever. (if only potty training were done!)

First 9 photos by KristenSpencerPhotography

2 months old

Okay, so Wes turned 2 months old yesterday, and I have taken waayyy too many pictures! And on top of that, I have been a slacker about posting them. Which makes for a post that is brief in information, and very picture heavy. But they say that a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

1 Week:
(first 2 photos taken by myself, remainder of '1 week' photos taken by KristenSpencerPhotography)

1 Month:

2 Months:

We love him, and he sure is fun to have around. Especially since we have figured out the colic/reflux part. He is much more agreeable and much more smiley now that his tummy doesn't hurt all of the time. And mom is starting to come out of that sleepless haze. **finger's crossed**