Tummy Time

Jan 13th - first tummy time

 I know from experience that having the second child is challenging.  I can see why they say you don't take as many pictures of the second child...because you are busy running around after the first one and the camera around your neck slows you down.  Or in my case the camera lens was destroyed when your newest one was 2 weeks old.  I vowed to take as many if not more pictures as this is something I love to do and so far I feel I have been trying to keep up with my goal.  Of course I would always like to have taken more pictures when he was first born as this was one thing I regretted with Keagan but time goes so fast and all of the sudden my littlest man is weighing in at 11 lbs at 6 weeks of age.  He sure does not look like a newborn in his photos anymore.

So I have the picture thing down, but they don't tell you how many other things you forget to do.  Let's take tummy time for example.  I know that I should be doing this on the floor every day.  But it just doesn't happen.  Of course it happens at night on mom's tummy and it must be working as little Logan is so strong already.  He is holding his head up very well on his own when we hold him.  He loves to try and stand when we put his legs down.  But tummy time on the cute mat just doesn't happen all that often.  Of course it also dangerous to leave Logan on the ground where Keagan has full access to playing with his brother...maybe that is what they forget to tell you.  You just don't have enough hours in a day to get everything done :)

Big Brother helping with tummy time Jan 30th

The boys like being on their backs much better!

Let's not forget the activity mat - Logan loves this too

Inventive ways to shop

PLAYING IN THE MONKEY CAGE!

Yes, he climbed up the huge blow up slide and went down in record time!

In this cold weather we haven't been able to play outside as much as Keagan would like but we do have an indoor slide downstairs in the basement and we found this fun kids gym called Little Monkey Buziness.  Jeff and I have discovered that it is a great way to run errands when we are in town.  One of us goes in with Keagan and he can run around and play to his hearts content.  The other person can then shop in peace.  We can always trade off as it only costs the kids money to get in the door.  What a peaceful way to shop and wear Keagan out at the same time.

This is how mom and Logan play with Keagan

Little Logan No Longer ?!?

Newborn Logan

Our little Logan seems to be growing by leaps and bounds.  He is now 5 weeks old and just feels like a chunk.  He started out life at 6 lbs 6 oz then dropped in the hospital to 6 lbs 1 oz then down to 5 lbs 15 oz.  He made an amazing recovery to 6lbs 2 oz before we left the hospital and he has not looked back.  On our 1 day recheck he was 6 lbs 5 oz and by our 2 week recheck he was 7 lbs 1 oz ( we did have many rechecks while getting his bilirubin levels checked 6 lbs 8 oz...12oz) and last week on his 1 month birthday he was tipping the scales just over 9 lbs.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 5: Dec 21st

Day 10:  December 26th

Day 13: December 29th

Day 19:  Jan 4th

Day 18: Jan 3rd

Jan 12th: 4 weeks old

Jan 12th

Smiling at 4 weeks!

Overall nursing is going very well as we can see from his 3 lb progress over the last month but this kid has a gi system that is always rumbling.  This kid can FART with the best of them!  We actually call them man farts they are so loud.  We are starting to get control of the gi system by eliminating dairy from mom's diet and this seems to help make him more comfortable.  We did this for Keagan and it seemed to help a lot so why not for this one. Besides it is good self control practice for mom passing up all that cheesy goodness.  I only gained 15 lbs with Logan and fit back into my mom jeans already ( I actually miss the expandable waists on those pregnancy pants) but still feel like I have a spare tire around my midsection.  So I guess it is good for both of us.  Here is to 2013 - another year without cheese and ice cream!

Oh what a month!

It has been an amazing ride to have our second child.  It is so much easier than I ever thought it would be...and it is so much harder than I ever thought it would be.  I think the fastest I have gotten out the door with both kids is 1 hour.  The longest (so far) is 3 hours but I guess I have given up all together when it just seems like we really don't need to get that syrup - we will just try again tomorrow.

The boys talking together

The most surprising thing is how easily Logan has fit into the family.  Keagan just loves him and is just waiting for the day he can actually play with his brother.  Now of course there is a little bit of jealousy that Logan gets held a lot...but over all Keagan has made bringing Logan into the family a breeze.  I try to make sure Keagan gets his one on one time - which is not too hard as Logan sleeps a lot.  And of course we try to visit John - Keagan's best friend most days.  This is Keagan's special time and one of the only places I feel just a little bit of annoyance from Keagan when John holds Logan.  

Diaper changing is one of the more challenging activities that I thought would be simple.  Keagan has been applying for a spot on the Olympic team for Gymnastics While Getting Your Diaper Changed for quite some time.  But having another body in the room just makes it that much more challenging.  If we lay Logan down then Keagan tries to leap over his brother with great flair..while mom is thinking please don't jump on your brother.  If Logan is in the bassinet, Keagan uses it as the parallel bars to try some new moves on...giving his mom a heart attack thinking Keagan is going to crash and tip the bassinet over at the same time.  If Logan is in the other room and starts to make noise Keagan must sprint (and I do mean sprint) to the other room with a naked butt make sure his brother is ok which is then followed by a floor routine while evading mommy's grasping arms.  So the diaper changing makes things interesting to say the least.

I guess Mom will have to become more of a sports fan with 3 boys in the house...
for right now I will just dress everyone up.  To bad the Broncos lost

I know that I got a lot of looks and comments when I told people I chose to have 2 kids less than 2 years apart but although it is challenging, we are hanging in there. It is hard - don't get me wrong - but it feels like the right time in this family to me.  Every day is filled with so much laughter and not every day brings tears.  We are trying to enjoy every minute - that is when we are coherent enough to think about those things - otherwise we just let things slide and hang on for the ride.

Keagan's first tractor ride

Neighbor John has been waiting for the day that Keagan would not longer be intimidated by the tractor and take Keagan for a ride.  This summer they gave it a try but as soon as Keagan sat on the tractor with John he was nervous and just wanted down...and the tractor was not even on!  When John came over last week with his tractor to help us with some horse chores Keagan looked intrigued.  So up he went and at first he was a little hesitant.  Then John stopped the tractor and Keagan got to play with some knobs and he fell in love.  Now when we go over to John's house the tractor is in the garage and Keagan likes to give it a good pat if we walk past it.  The only thing of concern is that the tractor usually has mud on the wheels and Keagan wants to get all that dirt off.  He has to take care of his tractor now that he has realized its potential :)

What does this button do?

Oh...it turns the light on in the back!

I love my brother!

       

 I was concerned that Keagan would be jealous of his little brother once he entered our family.  I could not be more wrong.  Keagan just has been excited about seeing babies all through my pregnancy and was so excited to meet little Logan.  When he first met him he signed baby right away and pointed at little Logan.   From their very first encounter Keagan has wanted to touch his little brother and give him lots of kisses.  I was shocked to discover how much Keagan has welcomed Logan into the family.  Now - do we have some instances where they both start crying and usually I have to go to Logan first and Keagan doesn't always understand...but for the most part our biggest challenge was keeping Keagan's snotty nose out of Logan's face trying to keep Logan from getting sick.  That is the best problem I could ask for.  I am so glad that I have 2 little boys :)

Mom's Early Christmas Present

Due to Keagan's horrible cold, there were not many visitors to the hospital.  I highly enjoyed spending some one-on-one time with her newest little man without feeling guilty.  Really...I did not give Keagan his cold that kept him away.  So one afternoon while there was nothing else to do I got out the camera and the little christmas hat and stocking I received at the hospital and started taking some pictures.  To see more of little Logan's pictures I have started another Shutterfly Share site so you can always check in there to see more pictures of Logan.

Logan:  http://bringingupbabylogan.shutterfly.com

...but of course I have to remind you that Keagan has his own Shutterfly site as well

Keagan:  http://bringingupbabykeagan.shutterfly.com

Enjoy the cutest Christmas present ever!

December 16th, 2012

Well here is our new arrival...

Logan Roger Yu

Born on December 16th at 5:14 am he was 15 days early.  His original due date was New Year's Eve and we had a c-section planned for December 28th.  But, Logan had other ideas.  This is similar to becoming pregnant with this little guy.  He just decided to be here and that was it!  I had seen Dr. Gavigan on Monday December 10th and I was progressing along but he said that did not mean anything.  He did want to move up my c-section date but with it being Christmas week we could not schedule the surgery until the office was open again on Thursday the 27th.  I was surprised when I got home that evening and started having contractions.  There was no rhythm to the contractions but man they hurt!  This happened intermittently through out the week until Saturday night.  Jeff would come home from work and ask me how far apart the contractions were.  I was not worried but thought I should ask about it at my next appointment.  Luckily I took the last 2 days before Logan was born to just relax.  I spent some quality time with Keagan and we had a great weekend together.  

On Saturday night we ended up going out for Mexican food as it was our neighbor John's birthday and he loves our local Mexican restaurant.  Brynn thought that sounded good as well to her pregnant belly.  There was no spicy food involved except for 1 bite of the salsa but maybe that triggered the contractions...who knows! The contractions got stronger that night and I actually had problems going to sleep but by 11pm I was resting comfortably.  But at 1 am the contractions woke me up and so I started counting the intervals for an hour.  They were about 5 minutes apart so I woke up Jeff and told him I thought we needed to start thinking about going to the hospital.  He was ready to go in a matter of minutes but it was the middle of the night and we had to get the house ready to go and the animals fed as we did not know when we would be back.  An hour later off we went with a sleepy Keagan.  We really had no idea of how it would proceed when we got to the hospital so we did not wake anyone else up to help us out.  We did not want a false alarm at 3 am...but we were wrong.  As soon as we got the hospital they were ready to go.

When we got the hospital we had to decide if I would have a c-section or try naturally.  I really wasn't ready to make that decision at 3 am while having contractions...guess I should have thought of that earlier. So, we decided to go ahead with the c-section and every thing moved so fast.  Within an hour we were ready to move into the operating room.  Of course again we were not prepared for things to move this fast at 3 am but they did.  Unfortunately we could not get ahold of our neighbor John to watch Keagan as he takes his hearing aids out at night.  We could not leave Keagan alone so we had to come up with a different plan.  Our other fantastic neighbors were called and they went over and got John up and he went dashing through the night to come and take care of Keagan.  Jeff only got there about 5 minutes after Logan was born so it was no big problem.  Logan was very quiet when he came out and so they had to help stimulate him to cry and open up his lungs a little bit so that the fluid would come out.  By the time Jeff got there everything was all ok and Logan was ready to meet all of us!

So the little guy came a little early and a little light at 6 lbs 6 oz but he was 20 inches long and fully developed.  He had no health problems and was ready to start nursing.  He has a family that loves him and a big brother that can't stop hugging and kissing him.  We just wish Keagan had not come down with such a runny nose and cough for the first 2 weeks of Logan's life.  Luckily Logan has not gotten sick and is just a little trooper!