Ruger at 4 Months

Our newborn isn't such a newborn anymore! He is quite the heart breaker though. Man we love this kid. Here are some things about him at four months:

1. At 3.5 months, he weighed 15 lbs 1 oz. (60th percentile) and was 25.75 inches long (92 percentile). His head circumference was 16.4 inches (71 percentile).
2. He likes to eat allllll the time. Last month and maybe a little bit into the start of his fourth month, he would randomly sleep through the night once, maybe twice a week. That is a thing of the past. He now just wants to nurse all night long. He is most content eating every hour and using me as a paci in between. 
3. He wants to suck on everything. My arm, the fatty part of my hand, my face, his wrist, his fist, and he's starting in on his thumb. He actually gives himself and me hickies. 
4. He's starting to be ticklish. Especially his neck.
5. He is a lot easier to get to laugh lately. Sometimes just the sight of someone will make him laugh.
6. He is so good!
7. He loves the water. He went swimming for the first time this last Saturday and loved it. He loves the shower and recently had a "shower" in the kitchen sink. He loves it all.
8. We started baby food three days before he hit four months. It was after a particularly long night of him wanting to nurse all night. He is ravenous! He loved it though and I have to cut him off each time I feed him. 
9. He now shows interest in standing assisted. He hasn't been the least bit interested until now.
10. He's awake a lot more and has more defined nap times.
11. He loves to talk and talks a TON! Way more than my girls and little babies.
12. He has watched Baby Einstein videos two or three times now and loves them.
13. He loves his sisters.
14. He does really well with sitting in the high chair and Bumbo.
15. He still is very cuddly!

Post Surgery Museum Trip

After Isabelle's day of surgery, Grandmas stayed in town for two more days. The first day post surgery, we went to the library. The second day we showed Grandma our way awesome Children's Museum. The museum is huge. It has thirteen different areas, I believe. We only did three or four with Grandma. We had a membership to the museum, but since it was an hour away and I was pregnant most of our time in Houston, we only went a handful of times, so the girls definitely never got tired of going. They did however, have their favorite places to go and we made sure to spend some time in both the Marketplace and the Art area. Both are located in just one of the 13 areas.

 Isabelle loves to write her name and her drawing is of a volcano. She was randomly obsessed this week with volcanos. :)

We also tried out a new area. The girls really liked creating with these straws and joints. Isabelle did too, but for some reason I didn't take a single picture of her. Maybe because she was on me, or next to me, or something?

It was a fun trip to the museum and I was amazed that Isabelle did so well 48 hours after having surgery. Little all star!

Adenoid Surgery

Since I had a baby this year and easily met our insurance's deductible, I arranged to have Isabelle see an ENT and have her adenoids removed. Last year after selling our house and before moving to Houston, we stayed with my parents for a few weeks while Curt was trying to find us a rental. Since their was a lack of beds and Curt was in Houston anyways, Isabelle slept in my bed. She wouldn't go to sleep without me going to bed with her at the same time and since I would lay in bed next to her and not be asleep, I noticed that she consistently and often would stop breathing in her sleep. She also snored really loud. So, I wanted her checked out. After we had x-rays and did a nasal spray that did not help at all for two months, the doctor told us it would be better to have surgery. The x-rays definitely showed her huge adenoids, but even the doctor was surprised at how much larger they were once she took them out. By the time I went through all the appointments and scheduled the surgery and blah blah blah, the whole process took five months to get to surgery. LUCKILY, she was able to get her surgery done before Curt quit his job and we moved! I was so grateful! Curt had less than two weeks of work left by the time she had surgery. Phew.

Since I had a 6.5 week old, my mother-in-law volunteered to come down and help with the girls. I am so glad she did. Honestly, it was totally crazy that I did this! 

On the day of the surgery, I totally ended up at the wrong hospital. No one told me that they don't do surgery at the hospital that her appointments were in. Between no one being upfront about which specific Children's Hospital to go to, people with very heavy accents, my baby brain and me not being from the area, I ended up an hour away from the correct hospital when I was supposed to already by there. It was a nightmare! At the incorrect hospital, it took me a good 15 minutes after parking to walk in, talk to two sets of people before figuring out I was in the wrong place and then getting back in the car. I was panicking that I wouldn't be able to get her into surgery today at all, after my mother-in-law drove four hours to help and after Curt had already given his two weeks notice rendering our insurance void. It was the most stressful hour drive! Especially since no one would answer their phone at the correct hospital to tell them of my mistake!

We did arrive though, one hour late. Isabelle's surgery was then bumped back an hour after it was supposed to happen, but I didn't care, just because I was so relieved it was still happening. Once we were there though, it didn't get any less stressful. I had a newborn with me who was constantly wanting to eat at all the inconvenient times. He slept a decent amount, but it was still hard. Every single other child there had at least two adults with them and no siblings. Then there was me with my newborn and alone. BIG MISTAKE! It never occurred to me to ask Curt to take the day off though. Or to even bring my whole herd of kids and my mother-in-law. That would have been easier too. Especially since their waiting room was packed full of fun toys and they had Doc McStuffins going and iPads to play on, etc. Once again...never occurred to me. 

Isabelle was a champ though. She was not scared at all and was really excited. Her Child Life Specialist told her all about what was going to happen and let her play with the mask that she was going to wear to be put to sleep. She chose grape (since it's purple, not because she prefers the smell) flavored smelly stuff to be put in her mask. This made her very excited to go back to the OR. Well, that plus the Popsicle she was promised. Poor thing really had no clue what she was in for.

The time Isabelle was away from me actually went really fast. I was surprised when the doctor came out to talk to me only about 30 minutes after Isa left me. The doctor told me her adenoids were five times the size as normal adenoids!

Post surgery is when it really got bad. Isabelle didn't come out of surgery happy. You know...like every other kid. She HATED having an IV in. Big time. She was soooooo mad at me for letting them put an IV in her. She wouldn't let anyone touch it. She mostly just wanted to be held by me and slept. She drank some Sprite but wouldn't even taste her Popsicle. Her wanting to be held by me also posed a huge problem as Ruger also wanted to be held and fed. It really turned into a disaster and got to the point that her nurse was gently kicking us out. 

In preparation to leave, Isabelle had to have her IV out and that was very dramatic and traumatic for her. Also the girl that came to push Isabelle out in a wheel chair was not very sympathetic. Isabelle did not want to get in the chair at all and just wanted me. I know my daughter and I knew that if I gave her a choice whether to walk or ride, that she would realize she wanted to ride. Obviously I couldn't carry both her and Ruger in his car seat. The lady freaked out and told me it's hospital policy that she has to ride...blah blah blah. At this point, it was all I could do to not break down in tears in front of everyone. Well I think I did cry. It was horrible. My plan did work, by the way. Isabelle did get in the wheel chair and we were off. The lady was also really put out that I didn't valet park and that I parked down in the parking garage. Since I was so late and their was a long line for the valet parking, I panicked and just went into the parking garage. It probably took longer anyways and I was a disappointment to the wheelchair lady. Ugh...she bothered my life. Moral of the story...don't take one of your kids in for outpatient surgery alone and with a newborn. I wish I'd known!

Isabelle slept the whole way home and once we got back, she was very attached to grandma. It was really good she came to help because I just wouldn't have been able to give Isabelle the love and cuddling she needed with taking care of Emery and Ella...and especially with newborn nursing Ruger! Isa was a champ though. She only took one single dose of pain killers and was ready to go to the library the next day and the museum the day after that. She never complained of pain and refused meds, no matter how much I tried to get her to take them out of worry that she would all the sudden be in horrible pain. 

In the end, yes it was worth it because she is soooo much better now, but man, that day was one of the worst in my five years of being a mom!

Rain Rain Come Our Way

One of the things I will really miss about Houston is how many thunderstorms we had. The girls were constantly getting to use their rain boots. They were a GREAT investment, since our huge back yard didn't drain well and often had standing water. These girls love playing in the rain when there is no thunder!

In Need Of A Break

In Houston, apparently all new subdivisions are required to put in a play ground of some sort. Since it is required, builders often don't invest a lot of money in them. More times than not, our community play ground was flooded. They didn't put in any drainage and since it rains a lot there, it often meant we didn't get to play at the park. 

On a day in May, before it was even ten o'clock, we were all in a bad mood and struggling. So, I decided to walk to the park. At the time, we were already down to one car since we were in the process of moving and my sister-in-law was amazing and came down to drive Curt's car up to Ft. Worth since he would be driving the U-Haul. Anyways, we were pretty limited by not having a car, so we spent an hour at the park to reset everyone's moods. 

Emery cleaned the wood chips off the stairs each time we went there. She can't stand a mess on those stairs. 

It worked and everyone was happy. The girls got along...at least while we were there. 

Man I love when they are happy!

Easter Morning

We had a pretty low key Easter day. Like I said previously, Ruger was still under a month old, so I didn't go to church. Immediately after waking up, all of the girls come into our room and climb into our bed with us, so they didn't even know there was anything in the living room to go see. We finally all made it out there. The girls were so excited to see lots of Piggie and Gerald books. Isabelle had received four for her birthday and they received the rest of the collection for Easter. They love those books so much! Other than that, they got a few things from my mom (a coloring book, a My Little Pony cardboard cut out to color and some stickers) and then a Pez dispenser and chocolate from Aldi. We didn't say the items were from the Easter bunny at all. I think it's a pretty weird gift giver...so they were just Easter presents.

I did manage to get pictures of the kids done later in the day too. I felt pretty accomplished!

 

 These girls sure do love their brother!

Easter

Easter weekend this past April, came before Ruger was even a month old. However, since we really hadn't been out of the house except for doctor appointments, we decided to go to a local church's Easter Egg hunt that they openly advertised to the community. They had several carnival like booths and games, but we didn't participate in any of that because it was humid and I didn't want to stand around in the heat. They had all the hunts divided into age groups, so Isabelle was on a different side of the field than Emery and Ella. They were still side by side initially since we put all of them right by the field dividers. They were very excited to start.

We ended up getting a really good starting spot as most people didn't bother walking down to the middle of the field, close to the divider. Ella is a brave one and she immediately took off. So much so, that she actually disappeared in the crowd, and that made me a little nervous. Since I was on the sidelines with Ruger and Curt was trying to keep up with the girls by himself, Isabelle didn't really get any pictures. 

The girls were all very happy with their loot. We had to give the eggs back, which is obviously totally fine, but the candy was all really good and great considering it was a free hunt. 

After the hunt, the girls did all get free hot dogs too. They ate them in the car on the way home and they were quite convinced they loved hot dogs in buns after that. 

One of my close, really my only close friend in Houston invited us over to her house to have our two families do an egg hunt in their back yard. They only have two kids, an 8 year old and an 18 month old, so they wanted to have some friends to hunt with. They had a TON of eggs to share and each of the girls had over flowing baskets in no time and we had to empty them into the diaper bag. Especially Ella's basket. She's quick!

Overall, it was a wonderful day before Easter day Saturday! The girls were thrilled and we were too, cause let's face it...we ate a bit of their yummy candy!

Ruger at 3 Months

Here we are, another month gone. This summer is just flying by! Our sweet Ruger hit the three month mark a few days ago. Here are some things about him this month:

1. At exactly three months, I noticed you can see his first tooth right under the skin. 
2. He's a drooly mess!
3. He loves to suck on his fist.
4. He has started to favor his momma. :)
5. His bed time isn't quite so late now. Meaning it's usually at 10 ish instead of 11:30 ish. Yay for that.
6. About once a week, he sleeps through the night. Most of the other times, he's only up once a night for a feeding.
7. He prefers to sleep on his tummy.
8. He no longer likes to be swaddled.
9. It's relativity easy to get him to smile. 
10. He has giggled a total of three separate times. It is really hard to get him to laugh and the thing that made him do it again, quickly becomes boring to him. 
11. He loves to be snuggled.
12. He prefers to be held with his back to my chest. He likes to see the world.