Memorial Day 2012

We had a great weekend, very busy, but very fun!  We didn't take too many pictures, sorry all of these are from my phone so they aren't the greatest.

We started the weekend with one of Noah's playgroup buddy's birthday party.  It was a blast!  It was at a music school near us and the kids got to play with drums and bang on stuff the whole time.  At first Noah was a little scared of all the noise, but then warmed up.  That is until the adults were asked to play and the noise level went up even higher.  He decided a great place to hide out was on daddy's shoulders!  Little Luke slept the entire time and I had to wake him up to eat one more time before we headed off to Michigan.

Taking everything in from a nice view point

The party wore him out!

We made the trip up to Michigan without needing to stop for Luke to eat (Yay!!).  We did have to make a stop for a nose bleed of Noah's.  Very random and slightly scary, but all was well and he feel right back to sleep.  However this long nap (as well as a possible cold) made for a long night for all.  Luke and Daddy finally passed out and I had to get a picture before putting the little guy back to bed.

Out cold!

On Sunday we watched the race and spent the day trying to figure out a way to get the littlest member of the family to sleep.  Everyone took a turn rocking, swaying, bouncing, etc to get the kid to sleep.  It didn't dawn on me until we got home that all the grunting he was doing was from a stuffed up nose. (Once we got home and I cleaned out his nose, things have been much better!)

Ready for the race!

Noah had a ball up at the lake.  He became so daring in the water and even swam out to the raft with Daddy's help on Monday!  (Sorry no pictures, we were just too busy enjoying the weekend to get too many pictures.) All Noah wanted to do was play outside or ride the wave runner.  He really didn't want to leave and talks about going back each day!

Aunt Meg enjoying her nephews

What I've learned so far...

Little Luke is only 3 1/2 weeks old, but I have learned quite a few things to help ease our transition into a family of four that I thought I would write out so that I didn't forget the little things.

- White noise is the best thing ever for babies.  Whether it is the dust buster tucked under the swing, the vacuum sweeping the carpet for the third time that day, the hairdryer, or the fan in the bathroom, our little guy loves noise.

-Swings are a life saver.  I actually found this out with Noah, but thankfully Luke is a swing lover as well.  It makes his naps easy and Noah and I can go about our normal things around him and he just swings right along sleeping away.

- Big brothers need just about as much attention (if not more at times) than a newborn (Luke is a very easygoing newborn, going with the flow and not a major crier).  There have been some major tantrums that I know are just a part of him still wanting all of my attention, but it does make for long days when his favorite phrase is, "I can't".  We have come up with a solution (hopefully) that so far has worked.  Eric went out and bought a ten pack of new cars and every few days, if there has been no major meltdowns, he gets a new one.  If he has a meltdown, the last car gets taken away.  So far only one car has been given out (and taken away once), but he gets excited talking about what the next car will be like.

- Friends and family who offer help are the greatest gift of all.  We have been very blessed with the help we have received from our friends and family. I haven't had to cook a meal since Luke was born thanks to people bringing us food (as well as the leftovers that comes along with the meals!) or from going out to eat with family. Also, friends have come over to play with Noah or take him to their house for a little break for mommy.  I am oh so thankful for that!

- I thought having one kid was hard, having a toddler and a newborn is a lot harder.  Now it's not necessarily bad, just harder to juggle two kids. The first time around I had no idea what to do with a screaming newborn (and Noah loved to scream).  This time around I have no idea what to do with two screaming kids, so that is the new learning curve.  Luckily these moments don't come too often, they just seem like time is standing still when they do come around.

Now I know this list is no where near finished, but again I just wanted to write down a few of the highlights.  On a side note, baby brother is growing leaps and bounds.  He is up over 8 pounds!!  We went to the breastfeeding support group that I had gone to with Noah.  I probably won't be able to go as religiously as I did with Noah, but it was still nice to go and make sure the little guy is gaining all the weight he needs to!

A Day in the Life

We are getting into the groove of things with our new little addition.  This transition has been tough, but enjoyable.  My favorite moments are when big brother just wants to play with little brother.  Now we are working on how to play gently with each other, but it is still cute. I thought I would show a couple of pictures I took today while we were around here at home.

Watching big brother play

Working on tummy time

Lounging on the couch

I love watching the boys play together, even at this stage I see that they will be good buddies!

Like I said, this transition has definitely not been easy and there have been lots of moments that all three of us have been crying for some reason or another all at the same time.  However, each day seems to get easier and things are starting to fall into a structure that seems to work for everyone.  I have managed to get both boys to be asleep most days at the same time so that I am able to get some rest during the day.  Speaking of rest, baby brother is sleeping about 4 hours stretches at night and eats about every 2 1/2 to 3 hours during the day, so I can't really complain.  We are venturing out into the real world more and more each day.  Today was our first major grocery trip all together.  It went very well!

Brotherly Love

Now I knew that Noah loved babies and always was very sweet to them, but I still wasn't sure what was going to happen once we brought his baby brother home.  Well I have been amazed at how well he has done.  He truly loves his baby brother and wants to know where he is at, at all times.  Now there have been moments of, "Mom put the baby down so we can play", but generally he is okay with waiting on me.  Now I know that it's only been a couple of days, but I am hopeful this will continue.  Here are a couple of videos to show their brotherly love.

As for other updates, we are all doing well. My mom was a lifesaver and stayed with us for a couple of extra days earlier this week.  I just didn't think I was ready to handle both boys after an exhausting weekend.  Thankfully she stayed and I was able to get some extra rest and was able to take on the task of both boys by the middle of the week, just in time for Eric's sister to come for a day!!  So today was actually the first full day on our own.  It went well and I am hoping for things to just fall into place as we try to figure out what our new "normal" is going to be like with two boys.  Hopefully soon I can sort out all of the pictures that were taken the first couple of days in the hospital and at home and get some more pictures up, but it may not happen (sorry) I just don't have as much free time (I wonder why??) as I use to to get blogs together.

A Pirate Party

Our little boy turned 3 on Tuesday...I still can't believe it.  He truly is turning into a little boy with each new day and I love seeing who he is turning into.

This past weekend we had a pirate birthday party for him. I kept things relatively low key this year with just family and a couple of close friends.  I also made everything a whole month in advance (you know just in case baby brother decided to show up early).  Everything turned out great and I was able to be involved in everything thanks to baby brother sleeping through most of the party!  (Looking back it may not have been the best idea to have a birthday party 4 days after giving birth, but I was able to keep it together enough to get through the party. Afterwards exhaustion set in and I was a mess, but that's okay, I just had a baby!!)

Anyway, enough words here are pictures from the big day.  Thanks to Eric's dad, I had a ton of pictures to choose from and I wish I could put them all up, but it would just be too much.

Ahoy, matey's!

More decorations

Table runner I made, I just loved the pirate fabric!

Another excuse to make a cute shirt!

He loved opening all of his gifts

The boy got a lot of great stuff

We got him his first big boy bike, he is still trying to figure it out, but soon enough he will get the whole pedaling thing!

Yummy cake!

We knew the birthday song was out of the question, so we decide just to count to 3 then blow out the candles...not good either, he broke down in tears.  He just doesn't like this part of the party.

Two pirates at the party

Cake made him forget all about his little meltdown.

Baby brother had to have a matching outfit as well, he wasn't into the whole picture thing!

All good pirates need a pirate boat to play with.

It was a special day for Noah and he really did have a great time.  Thank you to our family and friends who came out and helped put the party together, I definitely would not have been able to do everything without you!!

Our latest addition (the birth story)

We are now a family of four and I couldn't be happier. Luke Joseph Farny arrived May 1st at 4:14 pm, weighing 7 lbs, 12 oz, and was 20.5 inches. He has moments when I think he looks like Noah, but overall he is different and I love trying to figure out what he will look like!

Now onto all of the details about the birth. I wanted to write it down soon so I wouldn't forget, like I did with Noah. (don't read if you don't want to know the details, may be TMI at times)

Right before we left for the hospital

We got to the hospital right at 7 and hot checked in right away. I was more nervous coming in this time, I think because I knew how bad the pain was going to be, but I was ready! After a dose of some kind of gel to get things all nice and soft we were off for some walking around the floor. I had asked the nurse if she thought the gel would start any contractions and she said probably not it was more to get the cervix ready. Well contractions started anyway! They were coming every three minutes or so, but I was still able to walk so we kept going around and around. At 2:00 my doctor came back in and did a dilation check. At this point I was hoping for a big number because of all the contractions, I was wrong. I was only 2.5cm and 80% effaced, big time bummer for me. She did say I could get my water broken if I wanted and of course I did it because I wanted to get this show on the road. Well they break my water and the contractions were so much stronger (even more then what I remember with Noah). So I went into the shower to help with the pain. It helped some, but not as much as I wanted, so back to swaying and laying I went. About an hour later I was checked again and I was 5 cm. I was hoping for 8 cm, but it was progression. Also at this point I was getting tired and all I wanted to do was lay down and sleep so I kept talking about getting the epidural. The contractions just kept coming getting stronger and stronger. I was in pain and all of a sudden felt like I had to push. This was about 3:45 and they said I was at 9 cm and not to push until I was complete and when the doctor came in. Well my body didn't want to hear this and it was the hardest thing I have ever done not to push. I kept asking about the epidural and saying I couldn't do it, I didn't want to keep going with this much pain. The pain was just do much more intense than I remember with Noah and I just couldn't get my head in the right place to control the pain. Thankfully Eric, the nurse, and my doctor all knew I could and talked me out of the epidural. Anyway, in the ten minutes it took my doctor to get into the room and in place I was able to hold off pushing. Then in three quick pushes (some loud exclamations of me saying I don't want to do the pushing) Luke was laying on my chest screaming. I couldn't believe it was over, he was here and I was done.  

He was perfect, ten fingers, ten toes, full head of hair, and screaming.  I was in shocked and my body just started to shake.  I made Eric take him at that point because I really couldn't control my arms to hold onto him they were shaking so bad.  After some stitches, I was able to nurse the little guy and all was right again.  He latched on so well that I cried.  I had such a struggle with Noah nursing at the beginning that I was just overjoyed to not have any problems.  

Now, sitting here almost two days later watching him sleep (I know I should be sleeping too) I am just beyond happy with our latest addition and I can't wait to get home and see how life with two boys is going to be.  Now speaking of two boys, everyone is probably wondering how Noah is doing.  Well he seems a little overwhelmed, I think more by seeing me in the hospital bed and not being able to really hold him just yet.  He loves Luke and gives him kisses, hugs, and always tells him it's okay if he is crying.  I know there is going to be a huge transition, but I am hopefully!  

Okay enough words, I will get Eric to upload some pictures soon.