On the Verge...

Thanks to our wonderfully talented friend, Nicky LeJeune, we got some incredible photos of our family a few weeks after Simon was born. I went a little matchy matchy with our clothes and we ended up taking the pictures in our bedroom, which has yellow walls. So we are quite happy and sunny looking!  I love them. Just for fun, here is the post with Selah's newborn photo shoot by April Morales and Abram's newborn photo shoot by Kelli Hindman. All wonderful, talented friends!

You know how they say every baby is different?  Well, "they" are right. Even with the same mother, every baby will sleep, eat, play, act, speak, move differently.  The eating one has been very apparent to us. Abram was a lazy eater. He never really ate a lot, but pretty much got the hang of it and was fairly efficient after a grueling and determined first four weeks on my part. Supplemental nursing systems, frequent weighings, compressions, and supplementation got us there eventually and he nursed fairly well until my supply went down when he was 9 months and I got pregnant with Selah. So we switched him to formula at 10 months and he was happy as a clam.  Selah was a great eater from day one. Active, efficient, voracious. So much so that I had oversupply and over active let down issues with her and did all kinds of crazy holds and positions to make her comfortable. But she rarely spit up and slept through the night very early.  Then there's Simon. Simon. Sleepy eate...

I had grand plans of documenting each month of Simon's life the way I had done for Selah. Each month, taking a picture of him in the same environment with the same prop to see how he was growing and doing a lengthy, survey blog post about how he was changing and developing. I even started his one month post. Then it got long, and involved, and he woke up and/or Abram and/or Selah needed something and it never got finished. So nothing was reported on his first month at all. I am realizing the only way there will be anything at all like a monthly documentation of Simon's first year - or a documentation of any of the kids - is if there's a compromise. Something between too much to handle and nothing at all. So that means just a picture and a few sentences, if that's all I have time for. If I have time for more, I will use it. If not, at least there is something. With that being said, here are Simon's 1st and 2nd month pictures. It's hard to remember ...

I've been scouring this blog for Abram's stats when he was a newborn. Just trying to give myself hope that, despite the difficulties with nursing and weight gain, Simon will survive and thrive. And because they are so similar: same nursing issues, gas pains, spit up, constipation, face (I mean, they are quite literally the same baby...), I thought comparing what happened with Abram was more appropriate than it would be otherwise.  They were within an ounce of each other at birth and Abram was 10lbs at 10 weeks. Simon is 8.8 lbs at 6 weeks. That seems comparable! Simon has gained about 4.5 oz in the last 5 days, which is pretty normal gain, so I'm feeling hopeful. Despite the fact that nursing still takes an hour or more of work on my part.  After the first visit to the osteopath, his gas pain has seemed to improve considerably. We are headed back tomorrow for another session and to beg for a discount, since they charge the same for a short session with an infant as...

The last belly photo. I wanted to begin to try and record Simon's birth story, knowing that it may take me awhile to actually complete one post (I think I started this a week ago). Three kids is just about as hard as I imagined it would be, even with a very helpful husband staying at home. While Quinn was in the shower the other day, we had an incident where I was holding Simon and Selah found a partially opened container of almonds on Daddy's night stand, which she proceeded to spill everywhere. I set a wailing Simon down on the bed for a few minutes while I helped the kids pick up the almonds and watched Abram bite the end off of one and then spit it (along with a lot of saliva) back into the box. So Selah started putting them in her mouth and then putting them in the box. And it was all so absurd to me. Thankfully, in the moment, I was able to smile about it instead of crying (which I have already done my fair share of). But I know there will be m...

At least we know that Simon is taking after his brother and sister in making us believe he is coming soon and then settling comfortably back in my abdomen and making us wait a bit longer. He will be full term based on LMP tomorrow (based on our dates, he hit that milestone four days ago). I was dilated to a 1 last week and soft. And yesterday was almost a 2. He has dropped, but is in front of the opening, which makes labor maybe less eminent and exams a lot more traumatic for me. We've had lots of instances of regular, uncomfortable contractions that eventually taper off after a few hours. Last night was pretty bad. They were the most cramp like and painful, but I chalked it up to the exam. They eventually went away and I had a pretty decent night of sleep, praise God.  I've been wondering all yesterday and this morning if any of the spotting I was experiencing from the exam was the actually the plug. And then this morning, it definitively made it's appearance. So,...

Up until recently, Abram has really been a dictator in his and Selah's relationship. When we get out two cups, plates, bowls, spoons, whatever, he decides what color he wants and gives her the other. When they are playing with toys and she has one he wants, he takes it and she would usually just go and find something else. I probably should not have let this go on, even though she really didn't care at the time, for many reasons. But the main reason being that now she has found her voice. Her literal voice and her opinions. And she's not a push over any more. Now, when a toy is taken from her, she hits. Not the best response, but I can understand the frustration of having things wrenched from you hands all the time. So we are working on that. She is also learning colors and new words and phrases every day and now when the cups, plates, bowls, spoons, whatever come out, she wants to have a say in which one she gets. Purple is her favorite right now, so if either are pu...