Poor Baby

Just a few days ago William started to break out with what seems to be a case of infant acne. It's really so sad that there are all of these little bumps on his sweet, smooth skin. I looked it up in the What to Expect the First Year book and called his doctor and it seems that there's nothing you can do except wash it with a wet rag a couple of times a day and just wait for it to clear up. Sadly it can take up to 6 months in some cases. It's on his right cheek and on the right side of his forehead. I'm glad it's not harmful to him or bothering him. It just looks sad to see. :-( Anyone have any experience with this? How long has it taken your baby's to clear up?

One Month Later

William is one month old today. In some ways these 4 weeks have just flown by and in others it feels like there's no way it could have just been 4 weeks. I'm definitely getting to the point where it's hard to imagine our life before William was here. I feel like we've been doing this now for longer than just one month!

Little William is doing well. I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture above, but he's really starting to fill out. He's getting a little bit of a double chin and his little thighs are starting to get a little more plump. Just in the past couple of days I can look at him and tell that he's getting bigger. He's not looking so much like a newborn to me anymore.

And just when I thought our nights were going really well, he's decided to mix things up a little bit. This week his stretches haven't been so consistently long through the night. He's had a few just two hour stretches and mostly he's been eating every 3 hours through the night. There have also been a few days that during the day he's been wanting to eat more like every 2 hours than every 3, so I'm wondering if he's having a little bit of a growth spurt.

I'm adjusting to life with two boys. The Snugli (front-pack carrier) has become a well-worn staple. I've been wearing it around the house when I need my hands free. When Henry is napping and William's not, I use it a lot so that I can make dinner or just have my hands free to check email or blog. It's been really handy this time around.

I'm getting braver with the boys! I took them to the zoo on a nice day earlier this week and we went to the park on another nice day. Friday we went to the children's museum. Henry has loved getting out and William has slept right through the outings. So it's been pretty easy, besides the getting in and out of the car and having to juggle all of the extra baggage...the stroller, carrier, diaper bag, etc. I've been taking Sara's advice and putting Henry in the car first and taking him out last, and that's been working really well. He's also been really obedient and good about holding my hand when we're walking somewhere together.

It's funny because I have felt pretty rested and energetic during the days and then a few days ago it was like, wham, it just hit me all of a sudden that I am exhausted! I've been a lot more tired and taking more time to just rest when Henry's napping and have been falling asleep by 8:30 0r 9:00 every night. The nights have been a little tougher too, it's been really tough to drag myself out of bed. I'm just trying to keep this in perspective though. I know these early days (though long) go fast and things will get back to a more normal schedule soon.

Great Grandparents

William took his first long road trip last week to go visit his great grandparents. He is named after my Grandpa (Edwin). He and Henry both did great in the car and slept the whole way there and back! Henry loved visiting Great Grandpa and Grandma, too...he raked leaves outside with Grandpa and Grandma even found an old book of hers called "Nubbins and the Tractor" which she pulled out for Henry and he loved it!

Fall Fun

Henry has loved helping Patrick rake leaves this fall. Sadly for him, we don't really get many in our yard. Last Friday, he and Patrick raked our neighbors lawn so that he could jump in a really huge pile of leaves. The funny thing was that Patrick just went over there and started raking. The neighbor came outside and thanked him, but I think it must have been funny to have him just show up unannounced. Henry loved it though!

A New Normal

This picture says it all-we have one in newborns and one in size 6's. Both ends of the spectrum. Their diapers crack me up.

So, as you might have guessed from all of these blog updates, both of my boys are napping right now! I can always count on William for some good naps, but it's definitely nice to have some free time with both of them sleeping at once.

Just in the past couple of days I feel like I'm starting to adjust to life again and like this is becoming our new "normal". I am feeling 100% recovered and well from the c-section. The first couple of weeks we were so fortunate to have help from our families. I just felt terrible that I couldn't do more and felt really overwhelmed about how I would be able to manage on my own. This week I've been feeling so good. We've been going on walks, breaking in the double stroller. Oh my goodness, it is so heavy though! It's a workout just to push it up the driveway! And Patrick has been leaving the house again to study, so I've had the boys on my own for a few hours in the morning and afternoon. I was so nervous about how I would be able to take care of them on my own, and it's been good to just do it. I've realized that it's going to be busy and it's going to be a lot of work, but it's also going to be manageable. I'm just figuring out what our new routine will look like, because it's definitely different now with a newborn. We're not quite as free to just leave and run errands or go to the park. But at the same time, Henry has been more of a homebody in the past few weeks, which has helped. He's been really content to play in our yard or just to play inside with his tractors. We did go on a walk yesterday to the park and I just had William tucked into his carseat (we have a BundleMe cover on it) and pushed him in the stroller while sticking close to Henry. It felt so good to get out of the house again and to feel confident taking care of the boys. So we're definitely getting started slowly, but every day I'm feeling more and more like this is normal now and I'm starting to feel settled in to our new normal.

I just have such respect for mothers, and mothers of two or more just completely astound me. Sally, Sara...you make it seem so easy and natural. I will definitely be looking to you for advice in the coming days, weeks, months. I'll take advice from anyone on these....

First of all, do you shower??! How do you handle getting ready in the mornings...yourself?

Also, I'm hungry alot, but also am trying to lose this baby weight. Any suggestions for healthy eating? I feel like I'm grabbing snacks here and there on the go. What do you do for snacks/meals during the day?

Brothers

This was on Halloween- Henry's friend Charlie was a pirate.

Henry absolutely loves his brother. So far he has been such an adoring big brother to William. The funniest thing that I just noticed the other day is that whenever Henry talks to William, he talks in a different, sweet voice. It's like he's baby talking to him. And it's every time he says something to him. If William is upset, Henry will say, "it's ok William" in that little, sweet voice. I'll try to get it on tape. It's really the sweetest thing. He still constantly showers William with kisses. He's also totally fascinated with William when he's awake or makes any noises or movements. I'm not sure if he totally comprehends that William is a real person. I feel really blessed that Henry seems to really love this new addition to our family. I was really nervous that he might resent him. But so far, he's been nothing but sweet to him. He's even been really patient when I'm feeding William and has been playing really well on his own during those times. I'm just feeling really thankful for that and really relieved at how things are going so far. It's a blessing having two boys. I definitely don't want to rush things, but I do think it will be so much fun for them both to have each other as they grow older.

Happy 3-Week Birthday Wiliam

William is 3 weeks old today. He is just as sweet as ever. He still sleeps most of the day and wakes up about every 3 hours to eat. He's been having an awake period in the morning and then he's awake for a few hours in the evening. So far, he sleeps really well at night. Most nights he goes 4 hours in between feedings. Last night I fed him around 10:00 and then put him in his bassinet and he slept until 4:30 this morning. I was in a panic when I realized what time it was but after I realized he was fine, I felt really refreshed to have gotten that much sleep at one stretch. It may have been a total fluke, but I'll take the occasional fluke at this point. The extra sleep was definitely a blessing. When he's awake in the evenings...usually around 6 thru 9 or 10-ish he's eating more frequently. So I think he must be storing up enough to sleep for longer stretches during the night.

On Tuesday he had his 2-week check up, and he's definitely growing. He weighed 8 lbs, 8 oz and was 20 3/4 inches. Just 2-weeks before that at his 5 day check up he weighed 7 lbs, 5 oz and was 19 1/2 inches. I'm pretty convinced that we're not getting an accurate length measurement. He was 18 inches when he was born and then just 5 days later was 19 1/2 and then 2 weeks later he was 20 3/4. So unless he's going to be the tallest Vance/human in the world, I think someones measurements are off! But he's definitely gaining. I can't believe he's already 8 1/2 lbs! It's always a relief to find that your baby is gaining though. It's so hard to know if they're for sure getting enough to eat when you're nursing, so it's a nice assurance. He still seems like such a peanut to me, but I can tell he's getting bigger because he's starting to fill out his clothes more.

He definitely has a super expressive face. He really makes some faces. As you can tell from the pic above, he's not really been thrilled with the bouncy seat so far. He would rather lay on a blanket than sit in that thing. Maybe he's still too little? I love that picture though because he gets this red dot in between his eyebrows when he gets upset and you can see it poking out in that pic. He really is a good natured baby and has been really easy to soothe and figure out so far. We love him so much. It is amazing how God does expand your heart to welcome another child. He's just the sweetest thing.

Giant Bubbles

Dan and Sara gave Henry a giant bubble wand as a gift when William was born. Dan has one like it and Henry really liked playing with it at their house. Henry loves it! It makes these absolutely ginormous bubbles. He and Patrick have had lots of fun outside playing with it. Thanks Dan and Sara!

Halloween

Henry was a duck this year for Halloween, although it was a totally last minute thing and ended up being almost a complete disaster! I bought a lobster costume (thanks Holly!) for him early in September; however, he always refused to try it on. So finally the week before Halloween, I had Patrick take it back to the store because I didn't want to spend the money on it and have him refuse to wear it on Halloween. So then on Halloween morning Patrick ran to Jewel to buy some Halloween candy for trick-or-treaters and found this duck costume there for Henry for $6. He bought a 4T, however, it's a one-piece and if you look at the first pictures, you can tell that he was absolutely busting out of it. He could barely walk and when he did he walked like Frankenstein because it was so tight! But we couldn't laugh at him because it was almost impossible to get the costume on him...we bribed him with our candy. So then Patrick had Henry lay on the floor and cut holes in the feet of the costume (with Henry in it) so his feet could stick out. Then it ended up being like a capri-pants duck costume. Too funny. Next year we will have to do something really great to make up for it.

Anyway, then we went trick-or-treating to a few neighbors houses on our street. My dad was here helping us that week so he came along with us, which was fun. Henry was totally confused at why we were going to go to people's houses and ring their doorbells and get candy. At the first house he wouldn't even reach into the bowl to take out the candy, but once we got to the second house, he dove right in and grabbed one. It's amazing how quickly he caught on...with candy involved. Then we came home and handed out candy to other trick-or-treaters. Every time someone rang the doorbell, Henry ran to the door and brought candy back to me. :-) William came with us on our walk, but he snoozed right through his first Halloween!

A List

I need to set aside a chunk of time and get my blog updated! I have so much to say and so many pictures to show, it's just finding that chunk of time that I'm finding tricky. :-)

Things are going well with the two boys. William is such a precious baby and Henry is loving his new brother. It's just busy!

Updates that are coming:
William @ 2-weeks
Halloween
Fall Fun
Big Bubbles
Brothers