Bedtimes key to enjoying crazy days

I am sitting here on the couch listening to my little bug (a.k.a Maisie) snoring away and glancing at our video monitor watching my little bubba (a.k.a. Calan) sleep sprawled out in his crib. This is how I end the day basically every day. With quiet silence and soft sounds of sleeping babies. 

Each night it amazes me how nuts dinner time is and how quiet it instantly becomes once they are in bed. From cooking dinner to feeding Calan to bath time to Calan's bed time to feeding Maisie to Maisie's bedtime, from 5:30 till 7:30 there is no down time to say the least. But the second 7:30 hits, my house is silent. 

I love this time. 

And this is why bedtimes are so important. Not sure when we started putting Calan to bed at 7 regularly, but it was early on. Even when we were still feeding him one last time between 10 and 11 p.m., he was still going to be between 7 and 7:30. And that is what we have started with Maisie. She goes to be closer to 7:30 or 8 because I feed her at 7 after I put Calan to bed. 

Obviously a standard bedtime is important for kids and their need for predictable routine, but I'll be honest, it is GREAT for me too. I need to know the end. My husband has been working insane hours lately, so it is basically the kids and I from 8:30 a.m. till they go to bed. I am the one multitasking everything. It can be overwhelming, but I know come 7:30 there will be peace in my house. 

I had to laugh yesterday when at both lunch and dinner I was feeding all three of us at the same time. When Maisie's schedule is off, it usually means that at I have to feed her and Calan at the same time. I try to avoid this at all costs as it is not easy to nurse one child and hand finger foods to another at the same time. Yesterday, Calan and I sat down for lunch and dinner and were starting to eat when Maisie decided to be hungry too. Not much you can do at that point but feed a newborn too. It is times like these that my 7:30 peace time is so important. 

I can actually enjoy the craziness because it isn't all the time. There are brief moments through my day that I feel overwhelmed, but they are usually followed by moments of peace. For example, this afternoon we went for a walk after lunch and when we got back all three of us took a nap. We were all completely at peace. 

Here are some fun photos from today after our wonderful nap:

The second I lay out a blanket on the ground, Calan
needs to be sitting on it. So, no small blankets for tummy
time or Calan would sit on his sister.

Maisie's medicine has really started to make a difference.
The poor girl has basically lived in her bouncy chair the
first month because of the pain her reflux would cause. 

She is becoming more alert everyday. 

Calan was very excited to have 2 sippy cups after nap. One
has water the other milk. He kept switching between them.
It was pretty funny.

Pretty happy. These smiles are what makes all
the craziness totally worth it. 

Photo overload: Calan 1-year / Maisie newborn

All photos by Purple Tree Photography

14 Month/1 Month update

I have officially made it through my first month of being a mom of 2 gosh darn cute kids. It has been a crazy month for us obviously, but we survived and really have gotten into a groove as I mentioned in previous posts.

Over the last month, I won the nap battle with my son. Calan really struggled with taking two naps. I think that it was a combination of a growing phase, getting a little sister, and all the wonderful visitors that came by. However, we have turned the corner and after a month of fighting naps, Mom has won. He is back to taking 2 wonderful naps without any struggle at all. I extended his wake time between naps from 2.5 hours to 3 and that really helped. He now goes down from 10 to 11/11:30 in the morning and from 2/2:30 to 4 in the afternoon. It is wonderful and a much needed break for me. He is exhausting.

Calan playing at our neighborhood park.
We usually stop there for a bit when we go
for a walk. He loves walking around the
jungle gym equipment and playing the
piano. 

Calan is definitely a typical 1-year-old. He is getting into everything and really testing his limits. It can be pretty frustrating as his mom and the the one who is here 90 percent of the time. I hate hearing my say the same things over and over and over again. Usually when I know my patience is running thin, we go for a walk and all becomes well and I am ready for more. He is walking everywhere. He still falls a lot, but that is basically because he totally does not look where he is going. He just walks full steam ahead without knowing what he might stumble on in the process. To say he is a toddler who is toddling along is an understatement.

I can tell that he has hit a new developmental stage. While he seems to be showing signs of selective hearing, if he wants to and is paying attention, he follows some commands like turning on and off lights, putting pieces in a puzzle, showing me his head, etc. Now if I could just get him to listen to "No touch," I would be one happy mom.

Calan is eating really well for the most part. He becoming more selective and knows what he likes and what he doesn't. Vegetables are still a struggle to get him to eat. Sometimes he will, and sometimes he won't. Most of the time I can fake him out by feeding him it on a spoon instead of him feeding himself. But overall, I love that he is eating all table foods. He also had his first eating out experience where I just ordered him food from the restaurant. It wasn't the healthiest meal, but it is so nice to know that food for Calan is basically one thing that I don't have to think about when packing our diaper bag. I do have the option of just ordering him something when we are out and about.

One of Maisie's few smiles I have seen.
Hoping soon we will see a ton of smiles
and hear wonder coos 

As for Maisie, that first month just flew by. It really is so different the second time around. .

We had her one-month appointment on Friday and she is growing like a weed. She was 7 lbs. 15 oz. at birth and is 9 lbs. 4 oz. now. She was 20 inches long at birth and has already grown an inch and a quarter. According to the doctor, she is in the 50th percentile for weight and 75 percentile for height and head circumference. I really thought she had a peanut head, but I guess it is above average after all.

The biggest problem we face with Maisie is that she has horrible reflux. It really dictates most everything we do with her. Basically she eats every 3 hours during the day and 4 to 5 hours at night and then it takes me about an hour to make her feel better afterward so that she is ready to sleep again. We have started giving her some medication (Zantac) which will hopefully help her. The doctor said it can take up to a week to notice a difference. So until then, we will continue to do the best we can to make her comfortable.

Despite her stomach issues, Maisie has been a really good baby. Her crying is absolutely related to the reflux and when she is comfortable, she is very content and just watches everything around her. She started to smile this week and has started to focus on me when I am talking to her.

Also, despite her stomach issues, she nurses really well. She even took a bottle from Bob pretty easily after a little bit of adjusting her suction.

She hates baths, but I think that is also related to the reflux. I don't think she is comfortable in the seat we have for bath time, so on top of being cold and wet, she is having heartburn. Not fun at all.

I am really hoping that after this week, we will experience a really happy baby. She is content, but because she is in pain, she hasn't really shown signs of happiness. This has been pretty hard for me as her mother. Calan was a really happy baby and is still so happy. I just want her to feel pain free.

2 babies means double the fluffy butt cuteness

Maisie came home from the hospital in a cloth diaper and we haven't looked back. Yes, I do laundry a little more often and I also seem to be running out of my cloth wipes, but overall, diapering 2 babies has been as easy as diapering 1.

I think having cloth diapered a newborn the first time (Calan wore his first cloth diaper at 7 days old) made the transition to two babies in diapers that much easier. I planned ahead and had everything ready to go. 

Something that I would suggest to someone cloth diapering 2 babies is to have his and her diapers (or his and his or hers and hers, you get the idea.) Maisie has her diapers and Calan has his. I do not have to change snap sizes or wonder will this diaper fit or not. I know that Maisie fits in hers and Calan fits in his. 

Maisie's bed and diaper changing area set up in our room.
I cleared out the top shelf of our built in to house the items
I need for her each night. Extra diapers, clothes, burp
clothes, etc. 

Maisie uses two diaper changing areas in our house. One is set in our bedroom where she sleeps at night and the other in the nursery. I obviously I do not want to disturb Calan if he is sleeping with a diaper change. Plus, our room is upstairs, so I also do not want to travel in the middle of the night to change her diaper. Having two areas set up for changes, makes life flow a lot smoother. I just make sure to bring the dirty diapers down each morning to be put in our diaper pail. 

Katydid diapers were renamed Oh Katy this year with a
few minor tweaks to the original design. The elastic is pretty
tight, so if you have chunky babies, they probably won't be
good for her. My kids both have/had chicken legs, so they
work for her great. 

When it comes to laundry, I have plenty of diapers to probably last 3 to 4 days with each child, but I do diapers every other day because of the size of load. You don't want to over stuff the washer because it won't be able to clean the diapers. After 2 days, I have a good size load. But honestly what I run out of all the time is my cloth wipes. I really need to get some more. Having them spread out between the two changing areas and our diaper bag, I am always looking for some. Note to self, must buy more wipes. 

When planning for Maisie's diaper stash, I figured that I would need to wait a while to use her one-size diapers, but I was really excited when the her Oh Katy (and Katydid) diapers fit her so soon. I barely had to use prefolds with her. Prefolds are easy to use, but her pocket diapers are just way easier and take less time to dry. Plus, they are bright cute colors that are just adorable on her butt.

The one negative, but I think this would be true even for disposable diapering 2 babies, is that my diaper bag is stuffed to the top each and every trip. I have a larger bag, but it is almost two big and my day to day just barely holds everything that I need. I am always clean out and reorganizing the bag to maximize its space. I even got a larger purse so that I can through things like pacifiers and sip cups in it, so I don't have to dig through the bag to get them. 

However, with that said and how easy it has been, I have decided to take disposables on our vacation next weekend. With Calan, I did travel with cloth to my mom's, which is where we are going. But this time, I just do not want to have to do laundry when I am on vacation. I can't take a vacation from being a mom, but I can from being the maid, so no laundry for me!

Busy, busy, busy and my new addiction

Well, like I said the other day, we have really gotten ourselves into quite a routine. Life seems pretty organized and under control and I am not stressed out or tired. Thank God.

Notice the books all over and his wonderful
bruises on his forehead. He is so busy and
into everything. 

My very active 1-year-old is keeping me on my toes. He is definitely testing my limits, and unfortunately, I have let some limits slide with everything going on. You know the saying, "You give an inch; they'll take a mile." That seems really par for the course right now with Calan. We spend most of our time in our family room when we are home, so I have gotten pretty comfortable allowing certain things to happen, but I realize his freedom in there is getting him into trouble when he is in other rooms or when we are with other people.

At this stage with Calan, it is more about maintaining and not losing ground with him. I have tried to keep him busy this week doing different activities or going for walks or walking around at our neighborhood park. It seems to keep me sane and him out of trouble. Today we are headed to Bob's aunt and uncle's who have a few chickens that Calan can run after and we need more eggs. It is a win-win for him and I.

Miss Maisie being adorable. She is starting to become
more alert and focusing on objects. Plus, I've gotten
a couple of smiles. 

Maisie is also falling into a pretty steady routine of eating every 3 hours during the day and every 4 hours at night. But, we are having some reflux issues that make it hard for her to settle down after eating, which means that I am up much longer than I would like at night. With Calan, I fed, changed, and he was back down in under 20 minutes. Maisie tends to take an hour or more to get back to sleep. She is waking me up one to two times a night, but because I am up for so long, it takes me a while to go back to sleep. I am not exhausted, but each night, I am ready for bed before my head hits the pillow (and coffee doesn't hurt either).

She is starting to have more time awake, but because of her reflux, she basically sits in our bouncy chair most of the time. We have her one-month appointment on Friday. I am hoping to get some help from the doctor. We have tried some over-the-counter options, but it doesn't seem to help. During a bad spit-up, it is coming out of her nose too. I am a little concerned about this because she can't breath after this happens and then gasps for air taking the spit-up back in. It can't be good for her and I really hope our doctor does something about it.

Bob is still working a ton. Not sure how much more he can take. He is a trooper to say the least. He is exhausted too and we both need a vacation. We are headed to the Upper Peninsula for Labor Day next week and we can't wait to eat my mother's good cooking, enjoy boat rides, and just relax. Plus, my parents have been housing our dog for the last month and it is about time for her to come home though I am sure she would rather stay up there.

My clean sink. Go to flylady.com  to understand. 

As for me, I am feeling great. Tired sometimes, but overall pretty gosh darn good. A friend last week, turned me on to Fly Lady, a life and house organizing website. I have been addicted. It has been great. I highly recommend it. I have my daily to-do lists and it keeps me busy and my house organized. I just started the 31-day challenge. It isn't difficult and is meant to set up daily routines that become second nature. The first one is a clean sink and let's just say the clean sink has helped keep my whole kitchen clean. Love it. It was a great place to start. Try it and let me know what you think.

Do they look a like?

Here is Calan at 20 days old and Maisie at 21 days. 

 I have a hard time figuring out if my babies will look like each other. My husband looks a lot like his siblings and I look a lot like mine, but will our kids look a like too?

I think from these pictures, they definitely look like siblings, but they definitely are not spitting images of each other.

Somethings that I think are similar are their noses and lips, but their eyes seem different and Maisie doesn't seem to have round of a face as Calan had early on. Their hands are very different. Besides having 10 fingers to begin with (and yes I counted Maisie's the second they put her on my chest), she also has the longes and  skinniest fingers. Calan's are short and stubby. Her tongue is so long and pointed and Calan has no point to the end of his tongue. Both of their feet are rather large for newborns and they both have chicken legs as newborns. Calan is pretty pale white like Bob and I, but some how Maisie is darker than all of us. Maisie's eyes are still blue, but that could change at anytime. They could be hazel like her dad's.

I can't wait till more of Maisie's features become more defined and she takes on her own personality. Calan is sure a bruiser right now and pretty adorable.

What do you guys think?

And for fun, here is video of Calan this morning talking to himself on my phone. The phone has a video camera that you can see what is being recorded as it is recording, so Calan is watching himself on the screen.

Settling in nicely

I have been going solo the last 3 days and both kids have survived and my house is not a disaster.
Monday, we had a great day just hanging out at home, and Tuesday was a great a day that included my first trip to the grocery store with the kids and I hosted a lunch with a few old friends. Today is another easy day at home.

I have been surprised at how easily life has settled into a nice routine. We wake up at 7 a.m. and I feed Maisie as Bob gets Calan and gives him some milk. We all kind of relax a slowly wake up till 7:30 when Calan eats his breakfast and Bob hops in the shower. After breakfast, Calan plays in his pack and play for about 45 minutes and during that time I clean up from breakfast and enjoy some coffee as Maisie sleeps and Bob finishes getting ready for work.

Bob then leaves and it is me and the kids. Calan and I play till about 9:45 and then I get him changed into clothes and put him down for his first nap. I feed and change Maisie into clothes at 10. Then once She is resettled down and sleeping I shower and get ready for the day.

Depending how quickly Calan goes to sleep, I wake him up between 11 and 11:30. He then wakes up slowly for a little bit and plays in the family room while I get lunch ready. We eat around noon. We play for a little bit and then I feed Maisie at 1. Then Calan goes down for his second nap at 2. While both kids are sleeping I pick up and clean or do whatever else I want to during that time.

Calan wakes up between 3:30 and 4 and has a snack. I feed Maisie at 4. And then we are pretty open the rest of the evening. Tonight we went for walk and that was nice. Calan loved it and Maisie slept. At 6, Calan and I have dinner and then I get him ready for bed. He has q bottle at 6:30 and we cuddle before I put him down at 7. After I say goodnight to him, I feed Maisie and get her ready for bed. Around 7:30 both kids are a sleep and my house is quiet. I relax and enjoy my evening. Bob has been working a ton, so unfortunately he isn't home before the kids are in bed. I finish up the night feeding Maisie at 10 and then head to bed myself. Maisie wakes up between 2:30 and 3:00 for a feeding and then she wakes up between 6:30 and 7 when our day starts all over again.

Yep, this is my life and it is a lot of the same stuff every day, but I am happy, rested, and enjoying my two babies.

Being adorable

Fitting into her Oh Katy one-size diapers. 

Hanging out after their naps. 

Going for a walk each day has helped me stay sane. 

The much needed and appreciated help

Is life crazy? Well a little. Am I going nuts? Not quite. Is my house a disaster? Not really. Has my life gotten exponentially busier? Some what. How am I doing it all? Easy ... Great family and friends and a wonderful mother-in-law.

Unfortunately, the birth of Maisie coincided with a very busy time for my husband at work. While he was able to be home with us last week, he had to still work from home and had to head back to work this week. He was pretty stressed last week trying to help me, take care of Calan, and work all at the same time.

Luckily we made it through with the help of friends who made great dinners for us and Bob's mother who has come over basically everyday except this weekend to help me. It has been unbelievably great and so appreciated.

If you have been reading this blog long, you kind of know that I can't handle having everything in a disaster state. It kind of gives me anxiety (or a lot of anxiety). Life has been for the most part moving along pretty smoothly, but obviously I am not doing it by myself and won't be for at least a few more days. My mother is coming in to help tomorrow and will be staying with us.

It has been a crazy week, but it has been fun. Calan has been such a ham. He is loving the all the attention from visitors. He has no idea that they are here to actually see Maisie. He is a one man show to say the least.

All of the help and support we have received is truly amazing and makes me appreciate everyone in our lives and makes me love the fact that we live in Michigan.

On a side note ... We had our family pictures on Friday and here is a sneak peek of the photos by Purple Tree Photography. The kids look great! 

Where did the week go?

I can't believe that it has already been a week since we welcomed our little girl. Time has flown by. We are adjusting and life seems to be settling down a little.
It has been a busy week. Poor Bob is swamped with work stuff while trying to care of me and Calan. He has been pretty stressed and seriously deserves a vacation ASAP. His mother has been a huge help coming over for an hour or two each day so he can work. I am healing well, but I can't pick up Calan, so I can't watch him by myself.
Calan has been pretty good. He is just one busy 1-year-old. He is moving so quickly and is into everything. He hasn't been napping well, but he wasn't napping well before Maisie got here. He has been pretty indifferent to his little sister. She basically has been nonstop sleeping, so she hasn't been very interested either. Calan is loves having Bob home. Bob, I think, wasn't prepared for how busy Calan has become. Between work and Calan, Bob is pretty exhausted. Bob bought a plastic golf club set and he and Calan just loves it. He is actually pretty good at hitting the balls with the club.
Maisie has been a very, very good newborn. She is keeping and eating so well. She has only woken once the last three nights to eat. So far, my biigest issue is keeping her awake far a good feeding, which isn't something to exactly complain about.
I am doing really well. I was in a little more pain thus time around, but overall, I am healing very well. My energy level is up and I am moving around just fine. We actually went out yesterday to get Calan's first haircut and to my favorite coffee shop for a little chai tea.
So, life is settling in quite nicely. We are enjoying out family of four. Tomorrow's adventure is our family photos. I can't wait to share them!

(P.S. Our computer isn't working, so I typed this out on my iPhone. Sorry for all the mistakes. I'll edit it once our computer is working agian.)

Maisie Michelle Wilson is HERE!

Maisie Michelle Wilson

Proud Dad

Calan meeting his new sister. He wasn't so sure about it. 

Mommy and Maisie

She is sweet.

 Well, it is official. I am a mother of two wonderful babies. Maisie Michelle arrived July 29 at 2:42 p.m. weighing 7 pounds 15 ounces and measuring 20 inches. We are obviously in love with her and are so happy to be home and enjoying our new bundle of joy.

Her birth was an amazingly crazy, surreal experience. It began Friday early morning when I started to have mild, regular contractions. I tracked them for about 2 hours and they were coming every 4 to 7 minutes, but I could talk through them and I knew that they were to mild to be active labor, but were stronger than Braxton Hicks contractions. I woke Bob up around 6:30 in the morning to let him know what was going on. We knew that we didn't have to rush to the hospital, but it was time to get everything together.

So that's what we did. Bob took care of Calan and got everything together while I worried basically just about myself and the contractions. I called Bob's mom, who would be watching Calan, to let her know what was going on. After everything was set and Bob's mom arrived, we headed to the hospital around 8:30. My contractions were still mild and still regular, but they still were not active labor.

I probably could have and should have stayed home longer, but my biggest fear this pregnancy was delivering Maisie in our car on the way to hospital. Calan's labor was a rapid delivery with some complications. It only took 5 hours from my first contraction to holding Calan in my arms. Doctors say that the second child comes more quickly, so I was concerned that if I waited for active labor, I would not make it to the hospital, which is why we left instead of staying at home, which I am glad that we did.

When we got to the hospital, I was sent to triage to be watched and of course, I was not any more dilated than I was at the doctor's office on Tuesday. After being monitored for about a half hour, they noticed that when she was sleeping, she was not reacting to my contractions they way that they would have liked, but when she was awake she was fine. The doctor who was on call from my doctor's office wanted to break my water then to send me into active labor and get her out more quickly. I, however, am not so game about having my water broken without being in active labor. I asked her if we could wait a little while to see how my body progresses. She said that she felt comfortable waiting an hour or so, but not much more.

Lucky me, the hospital and doctor got a little busy, so my one hour of waiting turned into three. Bob and I just hung out and talked and relaxed while we waited for my body to react. And at about 12:30, I went into active labor and my body went crazy with contractions. To say that I went into labor is an understatement. I went from talking to the nurse to back-to-back contractions without rest in matter of seconds. Bob rushed out of our room to grab the nurse and resident, so I could be checked and given an epidural. They checked me and i was a five; they broke my water, and in 2 seconds was a 6.

To me all hell was breaking loose. My quiet enjoyable morning and quickly taken one a new life. Residents and nurses were rushing into my room trying to get my contractions under control. Maisie started to show signs of distress because my contractions were so hard and coming so quickly that she didn't have time to recover and neither did I.

The epidural that I dreamed about was put on hold till they could get everything under control. I had to bare the full force of my contractions for 45 minutes. They gave me a drug that actually slows down labor. I went from no break between contractions to about a 30-second break. That might not seem like a lot, but it was enough to get Maisie's heart rate under control.

My room was packed with people. All working to control my crazy labor. In 45 minutes, I went from non-active labor to almost complete at 9 cm. It was so nuts. I do not want to even know what it would have been like if we had stayed at home. Our hospital is 20 minutes away from our house. My worst nightmare of not making to the hospital would have come true if we had stayed at home.

Once my epidural was in and working, my room went from craziness to surreal peacefulness. It was so weird. We went from having about 10 people in our room to just my doctor, husband, and myself. We talked for about 30 minutes about the hospital and their practice and a few other chit-chat items. You would not have known that the previous 45 minutes even happened. It was insanely weird. Then my doctor looked at me and said, "Well you ready to push her out or do you want to labor down some more. I think she can be out in 5 pushes."

So, I pushed twice, she crowned. We called in a nurse. I pushed twice more and she was out. It was that simple and that pleasant. It was so amazing.

We stayed in the hospital a day and left Saturday evening for home. We are all safe a sound and our journey of two little ones has begun.