On the Verge...

So I cannot begin to fathom how long it would take me to weed through and post as many of the awesome pictures we have gotten while in the States as I would like to. We've done so much fun stuff in Colorado and Idaho so far and been surrounded by such wonderful (and photogenic) people that I just cannot post them all here. But there are some that are just too cute. So I thought I'd share some photos of the kids and their "new found friends". Our Joovy Caboose Ultralight Stroller: Oh, my goodness how we love this thing. I did so much research on double strollers before Simon was born. My parents were willing to bring one over for us when they visited, so the world of strollers was (literally) at my disposal. I settled on this one and I am sure glad I did. I was deciding between it and the Peg Perego 60/40 Aria (which we had a version of before). I always liked the idea of a tandem better than a side by side, but hated how long they were. Like little limou...

Just wanted to document the  awesome  night we had tonight. And by "awesome", I mean "disgusting". Our family (minus Simon, who was being rocked to sleep at home by his wonderful Nana) was on its way to dinner with some new friends in downtown Loveland. We are driving my grandpa's 1992 (or something) Buick Le Sabre. It's pretty cool. That's not really pertinent to the story, but it helps paint the picture. About a block away from our destination, a woman flagged us down on the side of the road. We stopped and found out that she needed a ride to a near by grocery store as she had been walking for awhile. So I hopped in the back and she rode in the front. Her name was Maggie. When we dropped her off, we talked for a bit and prayed for her. While we were talking, Abram started begging for water. I looked down and saw a water bottle that he had left in the car from the day before, so the water was warm. I normally wouldn't have given it to him, but ...

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...