Welcome Henry James!

So, here I am at 36 weeks and 5 days pregnant. This is right before we left to go to the hospital! It was a marathon day on Wednesday - we went in at 8 am, started pitocin at 8:45 am, my water was broken at 1:30 pm, and then Henry was born at 8:52 pm! A long day! I managed to have him without an epidural - though in the last hour I did ask for one and they were in the process of starting one when he was born! I scared the nurse, because when I told her I needed to push, his head was already showing! She screamed, ran to the hallway and yelled for the doctor. Three minutes later Henry arrived! :)

Henry James Manuel Barnes Brummer - 6 lb 13 oz., 21 inches long. Love at first sight!

I think he looks so much like Aaron!

Wyatt came today with my mom to meet Henry. He wasn't thrilled at first - he wanted to see Mommy and Daddy. After awhile he did warm up and touch and kiss Henry. Aaron took lots of pictures - I'll have to post more of those later when I get them from him.

A Hawkeye fan already! :) He is doing great - eating frequently and generally happy. We can't wait to go home tomorrow!

Henry's room... finally done!

Henry's room is done, and not a moment too soon! Today the changing pad covers came, so it's officially ready. Here's the view looking in the door.

This is my comfy chair - it is a rocker/recliner, so I can hopefully catch some z's even when he's having a fussy night.

Here is his dresser - it actually goes with our bedroom set, but it won't fit in our bedroom. We bought a smaller dresser that was initially for Henry's room, but it fits in our room better. Aaron used to use this, but he was willing to trade.

The mural wall - Aaron ended up painting the fish and octopus because the Target stickers fell off after the first day! I think it's cute. :)

Here's a close-up of the sea-horses. I think they are so cute!

The changing table wall with the long awaited changing pad cover! :)

Once Henry gets here, I can put some pictures in the frames. I hot-glued the fish and octopus on this frame from Target. I have some disposable diapers to use until his cord stump falls off. Then we are going to use the BumGenius diapers that Wyatt used - right now they are all put together and lined up by color in the drawer.

So... the room is ready. I'm as ready as I can be - it's definitely different having an exact date. I'm not sure how much I will sleep tonight!

Wyatt's room

Welcome to Wyatt's big boy room! Grandma Cheri's students made this sign for him - isn't it cute!
Here's the view looking in his door. For now the mattress is on the floor - when he gets bigger we will get a bed-frame to put it on. My mom sewed the blue curtains - they really help to make the room dark! I hope he sleeps later because of them! :)

The rocker and ottoman are still in the room - eventually we'll phase these out. It's still nice to have somewhere to sit when he wants me in there when he's playing!

His table and storage for toys.

I love the cars. :) I think he likes it!

Living room update

We've been working on updating the upstairs - first the floors, then we found a rug and couch we liked. Here is where we are at now (I took a picture - it will probably not be this tidy for awhile :) ).
Aaron got a chair and ottoman that matches - it's very comfy and big enough so that he and Wyatt can sit together. That's important! :)

I'm happy with how the room has turned out - it is very calming.

Busy weekend, sick child

No pictures tonight. I probably should have taken some, but I didn't. In a few days, the blog will be inundated with pictures of Mr. Henry!

I took Friday off to get things ready, and I'm glad I did. I've been physically tired lately and I feel like Henry has dropped, so I'm just not comfortable. We've checked pretty much everything off the to-do list - Aaron has finished putting up the trim in the upstairs and then also in the downstairs bathroom... put up curtain rods and shelves... painted the mural in Henry's room... etc. etc. He's had quite the "honey-do" list. I've been cleaning and organizing and doing laundry like crazy (can you tell me how three people can make so much laundry??? Well, I guess Wyatt throwing up and having diarrhea has contributed a lot to the laundry. Yuck. :) ). This morning while Wyatt was eating breakfast and watching Sesame Street, I re-organized the linen closet and cleaned the kitchen. I also re-organized the shelves in our bathroom that are over the washer and dryer. I wanted to put up a tension curtain rod and some curtains to hide the shelves as a short term solution, but it just looked dorky. So we took it back down. Darn.

Henry's room is pretty much done - we haven't moved the chair into his room yet because our living room couch is being delivered tomorrow and I wanted something comfy to sit on in the interim. And... I'm waiting for the changing pad covers to come - they should be here by Tuesday! So hopefully when we leave to go to the hospital his room will be officially done. :) I'll post pictures when it's all in there. I'm very happy with how it's turned out. Wyatt's room is pretty much done too - it's definitely a little boy's room now. He added his own personal touch today when he took a pen and colored on the fabric on the ottoman that goes with the glider. Sigh. I walked in on him with the pen in hand, and he looked at me and said, "Oh no!" As if he had no idea who would do such a thing! I had a hard time not laughing at first, however, after scrubbing and scrubbing I was not so amused. Good thing he's so cute. :)

Well, two work days, and then it's the big day! Can't believe it's so soon!

A Dental Public Service Announcement

I have been working as a dentist for just about 8 months now - not a long time, but enough to get a sample of the different patients that come to a general dentist. I generally see a couple kids a day on average, and the dental I.Q. of parents really varies. Today I saw five kids that made up two families - these are families at one end of the education spectrum. In the first family, there were two children, ages 4.5 and almost 3. When I checked their teeth, I found thirteen cavities in the older boy's teeth. In younger girl's teeth, I found none. In the second family, there were three children, ages 6, 10, and 12. I found 7 cavities and one abscessed tooth in the youngest boy, one cavity in the middle boy's teeth, and no cavities in the oldest girl's teeth. The moral of the story is that girls take better care of their teeth. Ha! Just kidding. No, seriously, what the two boys have in common is that both sets of parents think that their kids are capable of brushing their teeth on their own. It is frustrating to find so many cavities in such young children, and it is really easy to blame parents. However, I think it is partly the dental community's fault for not providing better education for parents. So, this is my PSA for parents on how to care for your child's teeth!

1. Brush your child's teeth. If your child is not able to write in cursive, they don't have the manual dexterity to properly brush their teeth on their own. Encourage them to brush on their own, then check their brushing and give them feedback. There is a fun product you can buy called "Inspector Hector Plaque Detector" - have your child do their best to brush their teeth, then have them rinse with this mouthwash. The areas that they are missing will turn blue, so they can see where they need to improve. This isn't something you need to do every day, but it can be fun for everyone, even Mom and Dad, to see how good they are at brushing!

2. Brush your child's gums. Many cavities in baby teeth are found at the gumline, as this is where plaque or build-up accumulates.

3. Use toothpaste with fluoride once your child has teeth. Starting with the first baby teeth, use a small smear of fluoridated toothpaste (smaller than a pea). Older children that can spit can use more toothpaste.

4. Give your child milk at meals and water in between meals. There is no need to give your child juice as there is no nutritional benefit of juice - it is full of empty calories that can stunt your child's growth, and it can cause cavities! Even watered down juice still has sugar in it.

5. Please do not put anything but water in a bedtime cup or bottle. Milk, juice, Kool-Aid, etc. will coat their teeth all night long and feed the bacteria that cause cavities.

6. When giving your child a treat, pick something that they will eat and be done with it. Suckers, hard candy, grazing on M&M's for a long period of time - all of these will continue to coat your child's teeth with sugar, effectively feeding the bacteria for a longer period of time.

7. Take your child to the dentist for regular check-ups, starting at 6 months from when their first tooth comes in, or when they turn one. There are many dentists who don't want to see kids this young, and I get that. It's not easy, as many children are in the "stranger danger" phase and will cry when the dentist tries to look in their mouth. If you are consistently following the previous guidelines, you may not need to take your child to the dentist until age 3 or 4; however, for those parents who are unaware of how to care for their child's teeth, it can be too late if they wait until the child is 3 or 4. The bottom line is this: be proactive and look in your child's mouth when you brush their teeth. If you see dark spots, chips, discolored teeth, gum bumps or pimples, call up your dentist and have them take a look. It is so much easier to fix a little cavity than to deal with a hurting child with an infected tooth!

Wyatt's second haircut

Here is a picture of Wyatt before his haircut - he looks a little under the weather. No surprise, he has a mild temperature and runny nose. Poor guy.

I love this scowl - "Why are you taking my picture???"

After a bath - the finished haircut. I'm calling this his summer haircut - short! He definitely looks like a little boy!

Post haircut and bath, counting Mommy's fingers. Oh, what fun. :) He will NOT say "one" no matter how hard I try. He will say "two, three, four, five." But not "one." Silly boy. :)

I think he is feeling mellow because he's been sitting on my lap reading lots and lots of books. I'm guessing he will go to bed early tonight!

Good weekend

We got a lot of stuff done this weekend, and yet still had some time to relax. Aaron finished putting up the trim in the living room, dining room, and hallway - yay! I need to putty and paint it, and also sand, prime, and paint the doors and door-jams. Hopefully I will find some time to do that this summer.

Aaron also brought in the kitchen table and hung up the picture. He painted that back when we lived in Iowa City, but we had nowhere to put it. I really like it here. So does Reuben. :)

Aaron saw this patio furniture in the Blain's farm and fleet ad, so we went to look at it. It's a really great deal - way better than anything at Target or Wal-mart! (Aaron did have to put it all together, so I'm sure that's part of why it was so inexpensive.) We did get two of the pillows and rug at Target - they just do decorative stuff so well. We sat out on the deck this afternoon while Wyatt was napping and enjoyed the sunshine. I can't wait for the weather to be just a tiny bit warmer so we can be outside even more!

We put the infant car-seat and bases in the cars... I washed and put away baby clothes... Put away the cloth diapers... And I also realized I don't have any changing pad covers that don't have elephants on them. I had two for Wyatt that matched his bedding, but Henry's bedding set didn't come with any. I thought I'd just pick up some plain ones at Target, but they only had one kind - pink polka dots! No good. Wal-mart had NO changing pad covers. They didn't even sell the changing pads for the changing tables! So where in the world am I supposed to find some??? Thank goodness for Amazon.com.

Henry's room will be done soon. Just some finishing touches and arranging things. If he decided to come even earlier than April 6th, we'd probably be fine. I think I'd be scrambling a little to get everyone packed, but we'd manage.

Well, I need to go rescue Wyatt out of his high chair. He had some chocolate pudding for dessert, and it's going to be tons of fun to clean up. :)

Saying hello!

Tonight we practiced saying "hi" to all of the different family members - this started when Wyatt had his play phone and he was calling his Grandma's and Grandpa's. So I had him say everyone's names, and there are some cute ones! Here's a little shout-out to Rachael and Justin all the way in California! :)

Girls Day Out!!!

Today my mom, sister, sister-in-laws, adopted sister-in-law :), and I had a girls day out. My mom has had this day planned out for awhile, and we had no idea what was in store until Valentines day. Personally, I thought she was having us save a Saturday so we could help her clean out her garage... Just kidding. :) We had breakfast at her house, then went to La James for a spa morning. We started out with massages, then had facials, and ended with pedicures. I think we all enjoyed the massages the best! Then we had lunch at SoHo and finished the afternoon shopping downtown Cedar Falls. Thanks to the guys for watching the kids! And thanks to Mom for such a fun girl's day!!

A sneak peak of Baby Henry's room

We got some good work done on Henry's room! Well, most of it was done by Aaron as it was lifting boxes, moving furniture, and putting together the dresser. I just put his crib bedding together. :) We have a few more things to do, then I'll post more pictures!

Can't believe he'll be on his way in 4 weeks!

Update on Cholestasis

So, today I had yet another OB appointment. I've had a few blood tests - the bile acid test came back borderline, but just within the normal range. My liver test came back high the first time, but after I was on the medication, it was back in the normal range. The medication seemed to make the itching stop, so my doctor had me quit the medication on Friday to see if the itching would come back. If it did, then we would know I have cholestasis; if not, then it was a fluky thing. Well, Sunday night it came back and was driving me nuts, so I went back on the medication. Today the doctor told us that since my symptoms came back, we are going with the cholestasis diagnosis. I got to have my blood drawn yet again... yay. :) And, we set a date for me to be induced. She wants to induce labor somewhere between 36 and 37 weeks when she is on call, so the date will be April 6th! Less than a month away! So, needless to say I am feeling motivated to get everything ready before the baby gets here!

First trip to Four Queens!

We were brave - we ordered a baby cone with barely any ice cream over the top. I happened to have a bib in my purse... He did really well! He's still working on it now in his high chair at home.
I try to take a picture of Aaron, and this is what I get... Sigh. :)

The best thing ever - Chocolate and Strawberry stacked ice cream cone. Yum! Now that I've eaten it, the baby is kicking like crazy. I think he likes it too!

32 week update

I'm 32 weeks as of Friday! I'm getting to the lovely uncomfortable stage of pregnancy. Large. Very large. :)

I went to the doctor on Friday for another check-up. The blood tests came back, and my bile salt level was borderline, but just in the normal range. However, with my symptoms improving by taking the medication, it's unclear if I have a mild case of cholestasis. So, the plan right now is for me to quit taking the medication and see if the symptoms come back. If they do, then I have cholestasis and we have to induce around 36-37 weeks. If they don't come back, we assume it was a fluke, and go on with normal appointments. We'll see what happens!

Big boy bed update

So... Aaron has been out of town since Thursday afternoon. Wyatt and I have been fending for ourselves the past few days. My mom helped me out of a pinch on Friday by picking Wyatt up from daycare - I had to have my second non-stress test to check up on the baby. No test results back yet - I was really hoping to hear if I have cholestasis or not. I go back on Tuesday, so hopefully I will know by then! They did have one part of the test back - one of my liver enzymes is high, but it's not diagnostic for the condition. Anyway...

The big boy bed update: Wednesday night Wyatt did great - he only woke up once at 3 am and then he went right back to sleep. Thursday night he got up three different times and the first time he wouldn't go back to sleep for about an hour. Last night I lost count of how many times he got up. I think I ended up sleeping on his bed with him from about 5 till 7 this morning. So... not exactly how I'd like it to be going. I guess it's training for when the baby is born. Still, it makes me wonder if we are rushing the big boy bed thing. But I don't think it's safe for him to be in a crib he can fall out of. Today I have to figure out how to get him to nap on his bed - he naps on a mat at daycare, but they have peer pressure going for them.

Aaron is coming home tonight - yay!

Big Boy Bed!!!

Today is my day off (and Aaron's too), so we took on this little project of taking the crib out of Wyatt's room and setting up his big boy bed. Last night when I put him to bed, he tried to climb out of his crib, and he even got his leg up and over the side. So... it seems like it is time to retire the crib!
We got the bedding at Target - I've had my eye on it for awhile. I had to get the little lamp that goes with it - too cute! We showed it to Wyatt, and he was very excited. We'll see how bedtime goes! I hope to get some sleep tonight - it just might be on a twin bed. :)

Itchy, itchy hands and feet...

I haven't blogged much about this pregnancy. I hope Baby #2 doesn't feel slighted by this. Life is just crazier the second time around, as many of you know. Anyway, I am almost 31 weeks pregnant now - getting to the large stage. The last two nights I've woken up with seriously itchy hands and feet, and just generally itchy all over. It's been better during the day, but it gets worse at night. So, I googled "itch and pregnancy" last night, and I was surprised to see that there is an actual condition during pregnancy called cholestasis of pregnancy. Basically, the bile duct gets blocked and bile salts accumulate in the blood, making a pregnant woman very, very itchy. It's typically the hands and feet, and happens more at night. It made me kind of nervous how much this sounded like me, so I made an appointment to see my OB doctor today. When I told her my symptoms, she said it sounded like a textbook case of cholestasis. Awesome. So... I had a blood test today and they monitored the baby for about a half hour today. He's still doing great, so that's good. I'll find out hopefully in less than a week if I have cholestasis, but in the meantime my doctor put me on medication in case I do have it. Basically, the biggest complication of cholestasis is that it can cause premature labor or stillbirth after 37 weeks if it's untreated. If I have cholestasis, I'll have to continue to take the medicine and be induced early. And as of right now I have to go back to the doctor twice a week so they can monitor the baby. So... it's been a lot to process today. I can feel my hands and feet starting to get itchy all over again, which makes me think it's pretty likely the test will come back positive. I hope the medication will start to work soon!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wyatt had a litte Valentine's party today at daycare - he took car valentines and Hershey kisses. He came home with a little bag of valentines from his friends - very cute. Tonight we gave him a little card, a Sesame Street coloring book, and some crayons.

Coloring with Daddy - I just love how big he looks, lying on his tummy coloring. SO CUTE!! :)

Hope you all had a very happy Valentine's Day!

How to keep a clean house

Wyatt is really starting to want to do everything that we do. Case in point - vacuuming! Today I had him help me pick up his toys, then we vacuumed the living room. He likes to help me push the vacuum, but today I let him do it all by himself.

As you can see, he thought this was the best thing ever! I hope his wife will enjoy his domestic abilities someday. :)

Wyatt's toddler room - stage 1

This morning we (I mean Aaron) put together the storage unit for Wyatt's room that we got at IKEA last weekend. As you can see, Wyatt already likes to takes his toys out of the bins and put them into different bins.

We are going to do a cars theme for his room, so we also got this rug at IKEA.

We got the table and two chairs there as well. Wyatt really likes to play with his magnets when he's sitting at his table.

The storage unit... You can see half of the bedside table that goes with the table and chairs. We will hopefully in the next month or two move the crib out of Wyatt's room and transition him to a twin bed. I think we'll probably just start out with the mattress on the floor. There's a twin bed that has a trundle that we liked at IKEA, but it was out of stock. They thought they should get it in by March, so we'll see. I think it'd be a good idea to start out with the mattress on the floor though.

Close-up of the table.

Wyatt and his "eyes." That's what he calls sunglasses. The weather has actually been fairly warm yesterday and today - it makes me believe the groundhog that there will only be six more weeks of winter!

Hope you all have a good weekend!