Under construction

The blog will be undergoing some changes for the next few weeks. I keep sitting down to change the look, but never get done before I have to go do something else. So don't be surprised if it's a different color or format every time I post for a while.

Two weeks in and I'm still in the process of adjusting to two kids. I'm beginning to wonder if I ever will get there. I'm just perpetually busy! I feel so accomplished and think I'm finding a rhythm on days when I'm able to get the kids dressed, feed them breakfast, and get the cleaning done for the day...and then I realized I still havne't gotten myself dressed. However, I think the biggest adjustment has been getting used to the fact that it takes ten times as long to get out the door to go anywhere. No matter how early I start getting things ready, I still feel like I'm rushing to get out the door on time. It's still a little chaotic, but I'm loving every second of it.

Makael continues to be a really easy baby. We've had a few long nights, but I honestly don't care. My days are so busy taking care of him and Gemma, that I sort of enjoy being up at night and spending time with just him. I just hope I don't suddenly crash from the lack of sleep.

I still can't figure out who he looks like, all I know is that he's getting cuter by the day. He's still pretty small but he is starting to feel heavier, and his head has definitely grown :) I'm excited to find out how much he weighs at his two week check up next week!

Things with Gemma haven't been so easy unfortunately. This week has been especially hard. We've had some pretty major "battle of wills", and I feel like I can honestly say she's showing me the "terrible twos" everyone always talks about. Thankfully I have learned a few things from these battles:
1. She's very smart...but I'm still smarter.
2. As long as I win the battle (no matter how hard that might be), the rest of our day usually goes smoothly.
3. I appreciate her good behavior so much more now.
4. I know without a doubt that I love her unconditionally.
5. She's going to make me a better parent.

There's really not much more to report. I've had two glorious crazy weeks with two precious kids!

It takes serious skill to fall asleep standing up.

Loved his first bath! I don't know why I didn't think to give Gemma her first bath in the bathroom sink. It's much more size appropriate.

Hated drying off!

Clean, content, and oh so cute after his bath.

We survived!

It will be a week from tomorrow that we officially became a family a four, and I have to say, it's definitely an adjustment. It hasn't been overwhelming or stressful, just incredibly busy. We're still taking it one day at a time.

Gemma has been a little more emotional than usual, but she doesn't seem to mind that Makael is around. In fact, she constantly needs to know where he is, and go figure she is obsessed with his pacifier...never mind she has never liked them before.

Makael is an amazing baby! He REALLY likes to eat (and poop), and he loves to be held and cuddled, although he's perfectly content just sitting in his bouncy seat too. He had his days and nights a little mixed up for the first few days, so we weren't sleeping much (or at all) from the hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. but I think he's figuring it out. Last night he even gave us a 4.5 hour stretch! What a good little boy...and not even a week old yet!

Although Makael slept well last night, it was still pretty eventful for David and I. Gemma started running a fever yesterday evening so we mentally prepared ourselves for a long night. Sure enough, her fever got high enough to wake her up right at midnight, and true to Gemma form, she threw up just minutes after getting a dose of Tylenol. This all coincided with Makael's feeding, so things got a little busy. I have to say though, I think we handled the whole situation quite well. Within the time frame of 1 hour and 25 minutes, we cleaned up throw up, gave Gemma a bath, washed and dried her blankie, fed Makael, changed his diaper (twice), and had them both back in bed sleeping soundly. And the best part...neither one of us ever got upset. We survived! By the time we crawled back in bed, I had the urge to yell, "go team!" ...don't worry, I refrained.

Aside from last night, we are all doing really well, and slowly adjusting to being a family of 4 :)

A few little details we know about Makael:

1. Likes his hands right by his mouth when he sleeps.

2. Doesn't really like to be swaddled.

3. He hates getting his diaper changed, yet insists on pooping after every meal (sometimes twice).

4. Loves being held.

5. Has the "Yarbrough" dimple on his left cheek (we didn't see this until he got a little fat in his cheeks)

6. He's tiny.

Umm yes, cutest thing ever!

Getting to know her little brother.

Already a mama's boy

Fascinated

Yep, that's his nose.

He's here!!!!

Makael Dawson Boyd

Born 9/9/11 at 11:55 a.m.

5 lbs 7 oz

19 inches

Well, the waiting game is over and we have a precious baby boy! It's still very surreal, and neither David or I are used to saying "he".

I will spare you on the whole labor and delivery story. I'll just say that it was the worst 5 hours of my life, and if you ask David, my mom, or my sister about it, they'll more than likely tell you I turned into a crazy person. But the second little Makael made his entrance, I was instantly smitten! Goodness, he's sweet!

Things are going really well this time...well, I won't speak for Makael since at this very moment he's off getting circumcised (poor little guy). I feel great, Makael is a pro at nursing, and overall I think David and I are much more relaxed. Although we are dying to go home to Gemma, our own bed, and our "normal" life, having time with just our little man has been pretty special. And little he is! He weighed in today at 5 lbs 2 oz, only 5 oz less than his birth weight. He's such a little champ, and such a big eater :)

I'm a little surprised at how completely in love I am with him. Obviously I knew I would love him, but I never imagined it would be so much, so fast.

I'm sure the last couple of days have been a little confusing for Gemma. I'm so thankful for everyone that has taken such good care of her (Papa, Nana, Grandpa, Lita, aunt Elly, and uncle Brett). We owe you guys big time! I've missed her so much the last couple of days, and I can't wait to get home and play, or read books, or just watch "Fox and the Hound" with her for the thousandth time. I still can't believe she's a big sister.

There will definitely be pictures posted this week, and a more gender neutral "new" blog.

Full Term!

Well, we're finally there. Baby #2 can get here at any time...really, any time now. I'm so ready!

I have to admit, I've really enjoyed the last month. Yes, I know, I've been saying the complete opposite for most of this pregnancy. Don't get me wrong, being pregnant is still not my favorite thing in the world, but there's nothing better than having the actual baby, so as D day approaches, excitement mounts, and pregnancy becomes more fun. Plus I'll definitely miss feeling him/her wiggle around.

So now that we're at 37 weeks, I'm fully expecting all those symptoms I wrote about in a previous post to start (discomfort, anxiety, loss of sleep, etc.) However, I haven't started the whole "waiting" game just yet. I purposefully held off doing certain things so I would have plenty to do to keep me pre-occupied. My plan for this week is to deep clean the whole house. I've written out a day-to-day schedule so it's all done by the end of this week. We'll see if it actually gets done... if not, I guess I'll have plenty to do next week too. I still have a few things to do in the nursery as well, but mainly just organizing things.

I started packing hospital bags yesterday. Such a surreal feeling. I think it is a little more fun packing this time because I fully understand what it means. It's close! And life is about to change in a dramatic way. Obviously I knew that when I was pregnant with Gemma, but having experienced it once already makes it so much more clear.

As excited as I am, I do have moments when I feel like my time with Gemma is coming to an end, and it's just depressing. Obviously, our time isn't really coming to an end, but it is about to change so I'm trying to get as much "us" time as I possibly can. I was looking through old videos yesterday, and I was trying my hardest to not get teary eyed. You should go back to the very first video and see if you can keep the tears back...okay, you probably can...still cute though. She's a completely different little girl now than she was just 5 months ago. Her unsteady walk has turned into a steady run, her hair has grown about 3 inches, and her voice has changed. I'm not usually the sentimental or emotional type, but I can't help it. I wish I could blame it all on pregnancy hormones, but I can't. Watching your kid grow up is both happy and sad...it's emotional.
Anyway, after watching old videos, I realized I needed to post some more current ones. She's a lot of fun! I also have a few pictures that I'll upload later this week :)

Tea time

Some new facts about Gemma:
- She weighs 26.4 lbs
- She's 2 ft 8 cm tall.
-Her current favorite movie is "Fox and the Hound", or as she calls it "Fok in the Town".
-She wants to wear pig tails every day now.
-Necklaces are her latest obsession. She wears them non stop, won't leave the house without them, and if I didn't take them away for naps and bed time (choking hazard), she would wear them to sleep too.
-She can now say her name perfectly.
-She's basically potty trained!
-"hold you" has turned into "hold you me" (I'm a little sad about this one)

We've been playing outside much more with how great the weather has been and David decided to teach Gemma how to play hopscotch. I think David had more fun than Gemma though. After a few tries, she decided to go back to just drawing with the chalk, David kept playing hahahaha.

Here's daddy giving the illustration-

Gemma's turn...

She doesn't really know how to "hop" yet, but it was cute watching her skip.

She has really starting using her imagination when she plays. The other day I found her playing with her little rubber duck. I guess he (I'm assuming it's a "he") was sick because she took his temperature and then said, "no fever, you feel better". That wasn't even the cutest part...she also laid out her blue necklace and was pretending it was the duck's pond. I thought that was pretty clever.

This is one of my favorite pictures. There's nothing cuter than seeing a little girl play "tea time" with her daddy. I took several of course, I just don't have the patience to upload all of them.

She caught a virus this past week. It all started last Sunday (a week and a half ago) when she spiked a 103 fever. Thankfully that only lasted a day and a half. Then she got all hoarse and had a nasty cough for the rest of the week. Finally she broke out in hives. I think the hives scared me the most, but the doctor didn't seem too concerned and said it was probably due to the fact that her immune system had been low from the virus. They look pretty nasty, but they don't seem to bother her much. Benadryl seems to be doing the trick :)

Drum roll please!

Well, I think we've succeeded. I wouldn't say Gemma is 100% potty trained, but here are some things worth noting that would lead me to believe we are at a point of no return.
1. She successfully told me and used the bathroom while we were at Target.
2. She has been able to go a full two days with no accidents.
3. She has gone at other people's houses without any problem.
4. I can leave her in the basement with nothing on, and trust her to sit down on her little seat even when I'm not there to remind her. Wooohoo!!

Obviously, we'll get to the point when it's no longer such a big deal, and it will probably even annoy me that she's potty trained because she'll be asking me to take her at the most inconvenient times...until then, I'm SOOOOO proud of her!



Showing Elmo how it's done.







We've recently reached another significant milestone...ladies and gentlemen...Gemma can now wear pigtails!!!! They still resemble little horns more than pigtails, but man o man is it ever adorable!







How cute is that face?!





Baby #2 is almost here, believe it or not. I had my 34 week appointment this past Tuesday, and everything is looking great. I go back at 36 weeks and then begin going in weekly. I can't even believe that.

The nesting phase is here in full force. I have all sorts of things I want to get done, but haven't been able to because I've been busy doing a ton of other things I didn't know I wanted done. Ha! I know I'll get to it all eventually.

This is my favorite time during pregnancy. When time starts to speed up, you suddenly become super productive, it hits just how soon this baby will be here, and you start having a hard time sleeping because you're both scared out of your mind and stupid excited . Unfortunately, this is followed by one of the worst times... when you hit the "full term" mark. Exhaustion sets in once again, time slows down to a crawl because all of those things you wanted to get done, are done. And so, the waiting game begins. You have nothing to do but think about all the things you are feeling and wonder if they are signs of labor. Those sleepless nights due to nervous excitement turn into sleepless nights from having to get up and pee every time you even think about rolling over. And your evening ritual includes praying this baby doesn't decide to stay past it's due date.

I'm pretty sure God designed it this way on purpose. If it was all fun and dandy until the very end, our world would come crashing down on us the second that baby was home. If you've had kids, you know that's when the real work begins. So for now, I'm going to enjoy my "nesting phase" and deep clean as much as I want!

Potty Training...again

Yes, here we are again. I must admit, I have been dreading this ever since our last attempt. However, I've been reminding myself that it really isn't a big deal if she doesn't get it. Most kids aren't potty trained until after 2, I've even heard that it's best to not even try before then. The only reason I'm going against that advice is because the possibility of having Gemma out of diapers before the baby arrives, is much too appealing.

Monday morning I decided to try it again. I really had no set plans to try that day, but when I found her diaper almost dry when she woke up, I asked her if she wanted to go potty on the toilet...she said yes... and it was a success. I can't even explain how proud I was of her. She did have two accidents throughout the day, but she managed to tell me 90% of the time, and even took herself without any prompting while watching Diego (I brought her little seat downstairs).

Tuesday, we tried with undies on instead of letting her run around with nothing. She didn't do as well with those, mainly because I think it gave her a sense that she was wearing a diaper, but she still did amazing.

Today hasn't been as great, but I expected to have a few hard days. Overall I think she's getting it. I don't want to get too excited yet though.

On a completely different note...David and I celebrated our 5th year anniversary this past Friday. We took a two day trip to Kansas City and had a blast. David had a whole folder of things we wanted to do and i think we managed to complete "maybe" 25% of it. Ha! We got to sleep in every morning, go shopping, eat really good food, and just relax. We also went to a soccer game...I thought I was going to die of heat stroke for the first 20 minutes we were there, but it eventually cooled down a bit and I survived. For future reference, soccer games+ 100 degree weather+ 8 months pregnant= not a great idea.

It was a little strange to think about it being our last trip before baby #2 gets here. I think it's funny how it seems strange to us that we are going to have another baby soon, yet in just a couple of months it will seem weird to not have #2 with us. I remember life before Gemma, but life without her now seems strange. On our last day in KC, David and I both mentioned how much we missed her. I'll also confess, that after all the shopping we did, the purchase I was most excited about was the little tea set we got her.

I get sad when i think of sharing my love with another baby. Sad for both of us really. I'm sad the relationship we have now will change. I feel guilty she'll have to see me love another baby as much as I love her, and I also sometimes get jealous that she'll share special moments with her brother or sister that I won't be able to partake in. These are normal feelings right? It's not just me? I'm sad to see things change, but I'm also very excited to experience everything as a family of four. WOW!

I've been working on the nursery and buying the essentials for a newborn again. Having a second makes you realize, at a new level, what a blessing baby showers are. It's expensive even when you have all the big things (crib, car seat, changing table, etc.) But I'm loving getting things ready. There is so much anticipation as the due date approaches! A couple of times throughout this pregnancy I have wished I knew the gender, but the closer it gets, the happier I am we didn't find out. I can't wait to meet the little guy or little gal!