Scott is 4 months old!

I've skipped a lot, but I'll try to give you recent news, then catch you up on what you've missed.
Scott weighs in at 15 pounds, 8 ounces (50%) and is 25 1/4" long (75%).

Jared was 14 pounds, 1 ounce and 25 1/2" long at this point.  We were also dealing with Jared's reflux by this point, so he wasn't eating as well or as often as Scott eats.  Scott still eats every 2-2.5 hours during the day, but gives me longer stretches at night.

Scott found his thumb finally, which makes him really happy.

Last week, Scott rolled over from his belly onto his back.

He is in the super drooling phase where he soaks through 2 or 3 bibs a day!

He coos a lot, and seems to have conversations or sing along with songs.

His skin is so smooth and soft - I forgot how wonderful baby skin was!

He loves being around people, so he can see the action.

He's very good at wiggling his legs and pelvis.  You have to be careful when he's on your lap, that he doesn't slide right off!

He takes good naps and is a good sleeper at night.

He loves to check out what his big brother is doing, but sometimes gets a terrified look when Jared gives him a kiss or a hug.

He has great head control, and is really improving his balance while sitting. I think he will be sitting up all by himself soon.

He is picky with his bottles.  Most nights he will take a bottle, but not every night.  And the bottle giver has to be walking around with Scott for him to take the bottle.  Steve is not thrilled with this.

Steve got off of crutches in the middle of December after 8 weeks.  He has been going to physical therapy twice a week, and his walking is greatly improved.  He is happy that he is able to get up and play with Jared again.

Wow - this is late!

A bunch of new pictures are posted, so check the link.  This two kid thing is keeping me on my toes.  I will really, really try to blog soon!

Scott's Story

Scott's story begins, ironically, with Jared.  On Tuesday, September 6th, Jared woke up with a runny nose.  This did not bode well for two reasons: being very pregnant, I did not want to get sick; and I did not want to drop a sick kid off at a friend's house in case I went into labor.  Steve's parents had just left our house the day before; but my parents, being retired and at the ready for a new grandchild, were able to get down to our house on Tuesday afternoon.  This was good, since my water broke Tuesday night.  I am not a very religious person, but I really think that this was all going according to someone's master plan - everything fell into place just right.

Steve's parents drove down Tuesday night, so Jared got to have a fun "vacation" with all four Grandparents while his parents were in the hospital.

Steve and I had to go to the hospital right away, since I was GBS positive, and they had to give me antibiotics before the baby was born.  We showed up at the hospital at 11:30 PM, where I was somewhat ignored by hospital staff.  My water had broken, but labor hadn't started yet, so I guess I didn't seem like a very urgent case.  I eventually was admitted, but my contractions were 10-15 minutes apart.  By the next morning, it hadn't really improved, so they decided to get my labor moving along.  Luckily, I was able to get the epidural before the pitocin, so I didn't feel all the contractions piling up.  Scott was born at 10:42 am on Wednesday morning, after about 20 minutes of pushing. (I gave the OB about 15 minutes to pump, since she was a new Mom. :)
Scott weighed 7 pounds, 5 ounces and was 19 inches long.  This was just what Jared was too, except that Scott was 10 days early, and Jared was 2 days past my due date. 

We could tell right away how different Scott and Jared were.  Scott is fair in color, had smaller eyes, and likes to sleep.  Jared came out with dark hair, huge eyes, and did not go to sleep for 9 hours after he was born, since he just looked around at everything.  Scott had very long fingernails, and we said that he was trying to claw his way out of me.  Scott is very big into cuddling and being held, which Jared never was.  Scott is happy is chew on his fingers, while Jared took any and all pacifiers.

Unfortunately, that's when my problems started.  Sometime when I had the epidural, the needle punctured the sac that contained my spinal fluid, and it started leaking.  This lead to incredibly bad headaches, since the pressure with my spinal fluid was off.  They tried fixing it, but nothing worked for more than a day.  My body has now healed the leak itself, and I'm just drinking copious amounts of Gatorade now to keep myself super hydrated.

Scott is a good eater, sleeper, and pooper, which is all that a Mom can hope for, right? :)  Jared is a very concerned big brother who gets upset every time Scott cries.  He is very nice to the baby, if a little rough.  He likes to give Scott kisses and hugs.  It's very sweet.

We have had so much support throughout all of this with parents and friends helping, especially when I was in bed with a headache most of the day.  We are very blessed with the new addition to our family, as well as our incredible support system.  Thanks to everyone for your concern and words of encouragement.  I'm nervous about the day when it will just be me alone with both boys for the first time, but I'm sure I'll figure out new routines to help us through the days.

Pictures!

Pictures are up in the Sept. - Dec. 2011 link.  The hospital had extremely limited internet, and I forgot my camera to computer transfer cable, so these are late in posting.
Lots to tell, but I thought the pictures would hold you over until I write up what happened.

Scott James Briczinski

Scott was born on September 7, 2011 at 10:42 in the morning.  He is 19 inches long, and weighed in at 7 pounds, 5 ounces, which is just what Jared weighed at birth.  Everyone is doing well.  Lots more to follow.

No baby named Irene - thank goodness!

Hurricane Irene came to visit us last week, along with most of the other East Coast residents.  Luckily, we sustained no damage to our house, just a bunch of leaves and branches fell.  We did have one plant casualty, but you'll have to check that out in the pictures. :)  Unfortunately, we did lose power for 3 1/2 days, which was not fun, but not nearly as bad as it sounds.  We had many friends to help us out during the power outage.  We put a lot of our freezer food into a friend's deep freeze; we did showers, laundry, and charging of electrical items at another friend's; and our neighbor (who we barely know) took some of our fridge food to their fridge, which they were running off a generator.  Everyone was very supportive.
The weather was fantastic (and had been all of August) - the nights were in the upper 50s to cool the house down, and the days were sunny with highs were in the low 80s.  I've never known the weather to be so good during a power outage.  The dark nights were boring, though.  Reading by flashlight isn't very fun.
The first night, when we lighted a candle, Jared came running over, yelled "Happy Birthday!", tried to blow out the candle, then asked for cake.  It had been over 1 1/2 months since his birthday - his memory is really improving!
I also had a serious talk with the new baby, and said that this was not the weekend (during the storm) to come out to see the world.  Luckily, the baby listened.

Speaking of storm babies, my friend Karin had her son on the Friday before Irene hit. (Saturday night - early Sunday morning was the worst of it here.)  Welcome Bobby!  They sent them back home to a house with no power, but luckily, they got it back a couple of hours later. (and they also had a generator, so that was good)

I don't know why, but I'm dragging my feet on this whole packing for the hospital thing.  I don't know if it's denial or what, but I am determined to get most of it done by this weekend.  The hospital gives you most of what you need anyway.  I do have my packing list printed out though - does that count? ;)
We're down to two boy's names and we agreed on our girl's name.  So at least we're almost done with that.

It's time to vote people!  Look up and to the right, and you'll see my baby's gender poll.  Just curious what your thoughts are.  I also have one going on my Facebook page.

Jared has been cute and frustrating as always.  Going down for naps continually gets harder.  But he does love to get a "big hug" from people, then gives a contented "ah" when he's done.
He also surprised some of Steve's coworkers at a BBQ, when he correctly identified a backhoe piece in a puzzle.  The kid knows his construction equipment.

Enjoy the new pictures.  The side-by-side preggo pictures are interesting.  I guess I look about the same this time as last time.
I'll try to keep you updated here and on Facebook with any labor news.

Getting ready for the baby

We have been getting the nursery ready for the new baby.  My parents came down, and we put them to work!  Thanks to Steve and my parents, the nursery has two coats of paint, and our yard is free of bug infested logs. (yeah!)  We've now moved the crib and dresser into the nursery.  Jared got a new (to him) dresser and changing table, since his dresser went into the nursery.  He seemed to handle the furniture moves well.

I have also been getting ready for the baby by getting my pre-baby hair cut.  I remember it was a long time before I could schedule an appointment to get it cut after Jared was born.

I am 36 weeks pregnant now, and so the baby is full term.  The doctor measured me today, and the baby is very low.  This is not surprising to me, since I've been having a lot of hip and pelvic pain.  The doctor doesn't think that I'm going to go the full 40 weeks, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see about that.  The doctor also guessed it was a girl, based on the size.  I was guessing a boy, due to my belly shape.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see about that too. :)

I was dreading the month of August this whole pregnancy, and I have been pleasantly surprised.  Where July here was very hot and dry, August has been rainy and not quite so hot.  I still wished I lived somewhere with less humidity, but I'll take what I can get.

Jared has been as cute as ever, and is getting to be really funny.
-He always asks for bacon for breakfast.  I have no idea where this came from.  He's only had bacon a couple of times ever.
-He loves all of his trains!
-He chooses his diaper and opens it up for me before we change him.
-He has decided that he can put on his shorts all by himself.  The first day, he somehow managed to do it perfectly.  Since then, he always puts his legs in the same leg hole.  I chalk it up to beginner's luck.
-He is getting a very good memory.  When we visited Steve's parents, he went into the garage, got out the folding chair, and told Grandma that he wanted to blow bubbles.  This was exactly the way they did it last time.  He also knows that when Mommy goes away, that I am going to yoga.  This surprised me, since my class is only once a week.
-His baby doll now gives high 5's and does the hand motions for Itsy Bitsy Spider - so cute!
-He laughs at things now.  One of his books has a knock-knock joke that he cracks up at every time, even though I'm pretty sure he doesn't understand it.  He also thought that it was hilarious when I told him that he drinks cow's milk, but that the baby would drink milk out of my breast.  Not only did he think that was funny, but he said "booby" for the next 20 minutes.  What a boy thing to do!
-Last night, Steve asked Jared, "Can you ask me nicely for that?"  meaning he should say please.  Jared's response was "yes."  When Steve repeated the question, Jared's answer was "ask nicely."  I just lost it. :)

There are a few new pictures under the 24-26 month link - enjoy!