Little stories

It's late, I don't feel like writing, but I don't want to forget a few cute things Roux has been doing.

1. Yesterday he dumped his entire bowl of broccoli on his head, held the bowl there and proudly proclaimed "hat".

2. I recently told him he could go outside without shoes on. Later I noticed him growling at his feet. He growls instead of saying the names of certain animals that growl. So I said "why are you growling at your feet? Are there bears on your...wait a minute, you're "bare-foot"!" and then I laughed so hard I cried.

3. He was making his toy trucks kiss.

4. When Finn cries he shares his trucks with him to make him feel better.

And to throw one Finn-thought in the mix:

Finn sometimes just wants people around. He's perfectly happy as long as he can see people. And he can't seem to smile without "talking". So cute!

Roux, 2 years 4 months old

Roux is such a fun kid. He has his own language, it's incredible. His Uncle John, who has worked in pediatrics for 10+ years, has never seen anything like it. He uses a combination of a few words, sign language, and sound effects to communicate. His sound effects are amusing and amazing, but hard to write down. I'll attempt an example.

Recently it was April Fools Day. Now, understand, Roux's favorite thing in the world are things that crash. He wants everything to crash. He doesn't have a concept that crashing can hurt or be bad, it's just fun for him. So, back to April Fools Day, Adam says to Roux (within my hearing) "Roux, let's tell mommy that the kitty got hit by a car!" Roux, excitedly, runs up to me and says "mom! Meow, vroom vroom, pow!" Adam and I about died laughing. He had made a full sentence in just sound effects!

He just recently began speech therapy. The therapist says that his comprehension is above his age level and he has the ability to make all the right noises,but has a hard time putting the sounds together into words. We work with him by motivating him to control his environment by trying new words. He is doing much better, but a large part of me will miss his unique little language. Once it's gone, it will be gone forever. We try to capture it on video, but we always miss the best moments.

His favorite toys are trucks. Of course, he wants them to crash all the time, but he never tires of it. Such a great little boy.

He's also a great big brother. Never had a negative reaction to Finn's arrival. He calls him "Hmmm" and talks about him all the time. Sometimes he'll lie down next to him and hold his hands. Lately he's been giving Finn toys and leaning over him to make him smile and keep him happy. He's good at getting me little things I need for Finn, like his paci or a burp rag. It can be frustrating because Finn will be woken up by Roux shoving Finn's paci in his mouth, but it's hard to be mad when he's trying to be so helpful.

I feel guilty a lot. Roux is so good and obedient and often just wants more mommy time, but I can't give him what he needs all the time because Finn needs me so often. Roux is an amazing kid and I miss being able to give him 100 % of my attention.

He can drive me nuts, though. He's very bossy. Not just with how we do things with him, but things on our own. A classic is that he doesn't let us sing along to music or whistle. He just says loudly "No! Mom mom, No!" (or same to Adam). He just bosses us around! It will be fun to see how Finn handles this as he grows up. Roux just has such a little mind of his own, it's amazing.

Finn's first 2 months

Finn first smiled at 5 weeks and laughed at 9 weeks. His first laugh was to me singing the hymn "To God Be the Glory" in a silly voice.

He is getting better, but until now he has totally be a mommy's boy. He would freak out with other people and calm down the instant I would hold him. I both love and hated that. It's so amazing to be that connected to my little baby, but also exhausting to never get a break. If I wanted to nap, he'd have to nap with me. Sleep in? Only if he was sleeping with me. I was the only one who could put him to sleep, so going out at night was impossible. However, the past few days he's done much better with Adam. I even got a 1 1/2 hour nap on my own this weekend! He still prefers mommy, but it's getting better.

He's also a swing baby. He's pretty happy in his swing and often falls asleep there. Roux never did that, so it's awesome to have one be so easy.

He's generally an easy baby (for me, at least). He falls asleep easily in my arms and is happy when he's awake. When people make eye contact with him he breaks out in a huge grin, it's adorable. He just wants to be happy. Even in the hospital he would fuss when his diaper was changed, but it barely qualified as crying and he'd stop as soon as it was over. When Roux would get upset as a baby, it would take him a while to calm down. Finn can calm down instantly with very little effort.

Sometimes all he wants is to be around people, especially me. He was happy in his swing as long as I was sitting in front of him so he could see me. I wanted him to fall asleep, so I was petting his cheek (his favorite thing) and keeping his paci in his mouth. If I made eye contact, though, he would just break out in his beautiful grin and start to "talk" to me. So cute! It's so fun to be loved this much for no reason!

Finn

I haven't journaled at all about life with Finn in the family, and he's over 2 months old! So tonight I am starting.

The Birth Story:

Around 3:30 on Friday morning (Jan. 22) I woke up with some mild cramping. I've had a lot of "false labor" pains over the past few weeks, so I figured that's what it was and fell back asleep for a few minutes. At 4 a.m. I felt a stronger pain and thought "That's new" and started timing them. I got out of bed so I wouldn't wake Adam up (he had worked until midnight and I didn't see the point in both of us being wide awake yet) and started timing my contractions. They were stronger than the Braxton Hicks I'd been having and coming every 10-12 minutes regularly, so I knew I was starting early labor but figured I was in for a long day (for those who aren't familiar, you usually don't go to the hospital until contractions are about 4-5 minutes apart). At 7:30 Adam woke up and almost exactly at that time I had a really strong contraction and knew it hadn't been nearly 10 minutes. I figured it was a fluke, but a few more came close together so I had him start timing them (at this point they were to strong for me to time myself) and realized they were coming 2-3 minutes apart. I called my Dr. (who didn't answer right away), then my mom, who said to go get checked out at the hospital. My dr.'s wife (who works in his office and both are good friends of the family) called back and said the same thing. She also said that my dr. was already there in surgery. The contractions were extremely strong at this point, so we were furiously trying to get out the door. A friend arrived to get Roux and we got in the car and got going as quickly as possible (this seriously could have been the typical movie scene, Adam driving like crazy, me in serious pain, etc). We got to the hospital and ran to the Labor and Delivery room. After a few minutes (felt like forever) of annoying paper work they put us in a room. I instantly asked for an epidural. The nurse said she would check my progress then see what she could do. She checked, said I was at 9 centimeters (babies are born at 9-10 centimeters) and the epidural wasn't going to happen. They called my dr. and he said he'd be there in 10 minutes. I had been feeling the need to push since before getting in the car, so I wasn't sure I had 10 minutes! The nice nursing staff (who were quickly filling the room) nicely asked me to try to wait for him. They got me set up to push and as soon as he walked in I started pushing. I have no idea how long that lasted, I just knew I was in major pain and wanted that kid out. Apparently I was yelling the typical cliche's "get him out, just pull him out of me" or something. I don't really remember, just the pain! After 3 pushing "sessions" he was out - less than 30 minutes after arriving at the hospital and only 1 1/2 hours of active labor. I never expected to give birth without pain meds (more power to the women who choose this, but I'm a fan - especially since they were the reason for a good progression of labor with Roux), and I certainly never expected to be one of those stories of women who barely made it to the hospital. Crazy and glad it's done and I never intend to do it again!