Thirteen months

Poor Joseph, who hadn't cut any teeth for a couple of months, is back to teething in earnest.  For the past several days we've noticed he is whimpering in his sleep, being very clingy, turning down most food, and refusing to open his mouth (except for brief intervals after the pain medicine kicks in).  He also went through four bibs today.  So sorry, little guy!  :(  I'm guessing it's his molars.  Hope it doesn't last too long.

Keeping those lips pursed

Sad eyes

Usually Joseph is pretty high-energy, and he's developing quite the personality.  This month has marked the definitive arrival of "Mama" and "Dada" directed at us as names.  I had just recently noted that he doesn't babble so much as just grunt the same "ah-ah-ah" while pointing at specific things, but in the past couple of weeks the babbling has taken off.

Going for Dada's phone

 One really neat thing is that he's taken a sudden interest in board books.  He wouldn't really sit down or let me read to him before but now he is going through everything on the bookshelf, selecting his preferred choices, and yelling at whichever parent is around until we read to him.  (Not that we don't want to read to him -- we may just happen to be in the middle of reading to the other kids, but he doesn't want to wait!)  He LOVES "Brown Bear" and flips through it very intently.

What do you see?

He also like a board book about Holy Week and Easter, "The Busy Little Train," and a seriously beat-up copy of Old MacDonald.  I sing that one to him with different animals, but he keeps turning back to the cow pages and pointing at the cows (and the cats in the corner) until I moo and meow for him.  I think he can make the "moo" sound too.  He claps for himself when I get excited about that.  When I offer other books, he brushes them aside and either goes to get what he wants again or just points and yells until I pick the correct one.  It's pretty funny.  I love it, and I don't mind reading Brown Bear over and over again, but I really don't love singing Old MacDonald so much :)  With respect to animal noises, Mike continues to do a lot of short Starfall segments with Joseph, who watches very carefully and likes to growl when he sees a bear or a tiger on there.  (But he's scared of squirrels.  Little explorer is all over the playground but if a squirrel gets anywhere nearby, he freaks out and hightails it back to me.)

Joseph is learning to sign "please" and "apple."  He uses "all done" very well when he's done with food in his high chair ... but typically he still wanders back to our chairs to beg for whatever food we are eating even though he didn't want to eat any more of his own.  I guess he's got places to go.  :)

Communicating

Apparently blowing raspberries is a developmental milestone (maybe our speech language pathologist sibling can confirm :).  It is highly amusing to see Joseph talking to people this way.  I still wish he wouldn't spend half of Mass doing this, complete with loud screeches in the middle, so maybe we could stay sitting in the pews instead of hanging out in the vestibule, but oh well.

Attack of the clones

Which one is Joseph?  I can tell, but I usually have to check twice. 

Processing

Continuing his penchant for learning everyone's addresses, ages, birthdays, and other key facts, Michael now has the birth timeline down: "I was in your tummy when you were 28, and then Malcolm was in your tummy when you were 30, and Joseph was in your tummy when you were 32, and he was born on Sunday, March 17, 2013."  He has repeated this several times, and last night he added, "Then you can have another baby in your tummy when you are 34!"  We'll see about that, bud.

Michael has also started putting all his experiences on to Snoopy.  I don't know what age that normally happens, but I think it's a good thing for him because I know he is continuing to get actions and consequences.  So he'll tell me Snoopy did not clean up his toys so he can't watch any movies tomorrow.  On the other hand, he also tried to nurse Snoopy the other day because Snoopy was hungry, so Aunt Stef told him daddies feed babies with bottles.  He's had a bottle in hand (alternating with a supper dish, since I guess Snoopy goes back and forth between being a baby and a kid) ever since.

Hurry up and wait

Friday the week before Joseph Benedict was born, my doctor told me at my appointment that I was already at four centimeters so I should expect to go into labor soon, maybe as soon as that weekend.  That put us all on high alert, since everything I read says you should pretty much be in active labor by that point.  But ... just as with my other boys, apparently this baby was content to stay where he was.  So the whole next week was full of waiting and watching for signs other than the Braxton-Hicks contractions I'd been having for at least a month -- although we did make the most of the extra time we were given.  As late as Saturday night, we enjoyed an evening out with some family friends.  I figured I would make it to my Monday morning appointment and we'd just see what happened from there.

But Joseph decided St. Patrick's Day, two days before his due date, would be perfect timing.  I woke up at 4:15 with some indications we should head to the hospital.  Contractions started around 4:45, Mike and I got to the hospital at around 5:15, they took a half an hour asking inane questions that you'd think would be unnecessary since we already did the preregistration, and finally the nurse checked and said I was at five centimeters.  I told her at least three times I would not like to have the baby naturally (although Mike thought I might not have a choice if Joseph came as quickly as we thought he might!), so she assured me the anesthesiologist would be in "soon," which apparently meant sometime in the next 40 minutes.  However, things ratcheted up in intensity and by the time the anesthesiologist was ready to give the epidural, it was too late.  Everything happened so quickly that my doctor didn't even make it in time, and they had to yell for the on-call resident to rush in from down the hall to catch the baby at 6:43.  That means from start of contractions to Joseph's arrival, it took just under two hours.  Boom!

The whole experience was a little crazy for me (and I'm sure for Mike, since we haven't been through the process quite like this before! - but he was great :).  I had felt a little ridiculous working from home the past Wednesday through Friday, but given how fast the baby came, in hindsight it was smart not to have been at the office lest I have caused some drama there.  I certainly did not intend to have the baby without the epidural since I was pretty content with how that worked with the first two deliveries, and it was overwhelming because I hadn't experienced labor like this before.  In the end I'm just glad I made it through!  And our baby is just a perfect little guy :)  We are so, so blessed and thankful God has entrusted us with another little boy to raise.

Happy parents with our Irish baby

Happy, sleepy, silly, skeptical, snoozing - our new family of five

Everyone coming up to say hello!

Cousins making a special connection already :)

Uncle Chris and Aunt Stef

First night home

Boom!

Malcolm had his two month check-up this morning. His official weigh-in is below:

15 lbs. 1 oz.
24 1/2 in.

Malcolm is in the 95th percentile in both height and weight. To help visualize his explosive growth, I have created a chart that projects his measurements at 12 months, given the current trend.

It looks like Malcolm will be 47 in. tall and weigh 42 lbs., 3 oz.

Those buying gifts for his 1st birthday can now plan accordingly.

Times two

We debated whether a double stroller would be a worthwhile purchase for us with the two kids, since they (the strollers) aren't that cheap. But after researching what was out there and considering that we use our current jogging stroller, which was a hand-me-down gift from some very sweet family friends, every single day and often multiple times a day, we decided to go for it.  Our individual strollers are great and we'll keep using them, but for taking Michael and Malcolm to the neighborhood parks every day, it makes sense.  It will still be good as/when we have more kids too, because presumably Michael would be able ride his own little bike by then.

I pretty much love this stroller.  It only *just* squeaks through our narrow front door, but other than that, it is fantastic.  The seats can recline all the way for infants, so you don't need a car seat carrier.  Malcolm fits just fine:

And it stays remarkably easy to handle even with two Michael-sized kids in it, like Michael and his 2 1/2-year old cousin Kadence, who weighs the same as him:

This was one of the lightest strollers I could find at about 25 pounds.  Adding these two meant I was pushing a combined 85 pounds today, which I hope counts as some decent exercise because it felt like a good effort for our two miles of walking!  If we do this every day for the week Miss Kadence is visiting, it'll be a good start towards my effort to shed the baby weight this time :)

Mmmmm...milk

Post-milk coma

Malcolm's 1st Video

There is no sound (too much background noise), but here is Malcolm's first video:

Hermano

Mama and Malcolm

 Malcolm James Lawler was born at 1:38 PM, August 4, 2010. He and his mom (and the doctors and nurses) teamed up for what I would call a flawless delivery. We arrived at the hospital at 8:00 AM and Kim was induced shortly thereafter. After a few hours of walking around and sporadic contractions, Kim and the baby kicked it up a notch a little after noon. When Kim layed back down again to get monitored by the nurse, her contractions sped up to about 1 every 1-2 minutes. After 45 minutes, the resident doctor came in to check on Kim's dilation, and she had moved from 3 to 7 cm in that time. She quickly requested an epidural, which kicked in just before Malcolm started moving down. In the next 1/2 hours the doctors and nurses started prepping the room for delivery. Kim was mostly oblivious to all this and didn't quite realize how soon she would get to meet her new son. 


At 1:30 the nurses got her into position and three contractions later Kim pushed out our new son, Malcolm. After a quick snip of the cord, Malcolm went over to the baby station to get checked out by the nurses. He came out at an incredible 9 lbs., 7.4 oz. and was 20.5 inches long! That was 1 more pound than Michael weighed when he was born. 


I have to say that, although this is only my 2nd time going this experience, it couldn't have gone any better unless Malcolm was actually delivered by a stork. Kim did a fantastic job managing the contractions before her epidural and even shocked herself by how far she made it on her own. I think she is a lot stronger than she believes. 


We feel very blessed to have such a healthy, stout son. We knew he was very strong in the womb, and he has lived up to that so far. He has taken to nursing extremely and seems content to sleep the rest of the time. 


We would like to thank everyone who supported us throughout this pregnancy, including our parents, siblings, and Elizabeth, Michael's nanny. Everyone has been extremely generous with their time and very understanding the last few months as we prepared for our second child.

New baby!

Chris and Stefani's baby Canon Dominic was born two and a half weeks ago. We are all so happy and excited for them -- Canon is a beautiful little boy! The weekend after he was born a lot of the Blackwell and Perez families converged on our house for a picnic/buffet lunch. It was Canon's first "outing" and we were happy to host.

Boy Lawler

Last Wednesday, Kim & I visited her doctor for the the 20-week check-up-- the one where everyone finds out the sex of the baby. Since we announced Kim's pregnancy a few months ago, almost everyone we know thought it would be an awesome! idea to have a girl.

But I had other plans-- so we are proud to present our 2nd boy!



That is the yet unnamed Boy Lawler, 13 oz., fully formed, but very translucent. He was a little shy during the ultrasound, so that was the best profile shot we could get. I really wish the could record video of the ultrasound. It was really fun to watch him move away from the sensor each time it got near him.

The official due date is now August 1st. We will settle on a name as soon as a certain couple (Chris&Stef) settle on a name for their boy, who arrives the 1st week of May. Please pray for them, that they may find the perfect name for their bundle of joy.

Although we would have been ecstatic whether our 2nd child was a boy or girl, it will make the transition so much easier, what with the hand-me-downs, and having a cool older brother for him to meet, and having a cool older cousin nearby.

We thank God for the many blessings he has given us so far, and pray that he continue to watch over Kim and our newfound son. †

All done?

It has been one week since the last time Michael wanted to nurse. I think that means he is completely, officially weaned, as of 14.5 months, so I thought I should mark the time! I stopped pumping at 12 months, but continued nursing him consistently for the next six weeks, and then for a little while after that just at night, every couple of nights. I am sure there wasn't any milk left by the end, but he wasn't nursing for milk at that point anyway, just like a little "checking in" kind of reassurance. But gradually he let me put him to sleep without nursing, and now it seems that's all through. I feel pretty happy about how the process happened overall -- partly me-led, partly baby-led, and on what seemed like a natural progression. That is what weaning is supposed to be, right? The only thing that makes me sad is not the weaning itself, it's just the feeling every day that I love Michael as a little baby, with chubby little hands and feet, two bottom front teeth, a tummy that sticks way out when he's running, and those great cheeks. He just keeps getting bigger and I think I'm going to miss this baby stage when it's through.

One year and growing

This morning at Michael's one-year-old appointment, we found out he was 31.75 inches tall and 22 lbs 4 oz -- so he grew 3 inches and 3.5 pounds in 3 months. A pretty good pace! That keeps him under the median percentile in weight and "off the chart" on height for his age. Then again, the range of weights and heights is pretty compressed at these ages, so it's not like he's a giant.

We got the go ahead to try cow's milk, so we're going to start introducing that and see how he does. Otherwise, this has been a crazy week or two for Michael's development. It is so incredible for us to see as new parents. Michael now understands a lot of basic directions and words (whether he chooses to listen is, of course, entirely random). He will select the Finding Nemo DVD from various spots on the media shelves and sit down to study it. He can retrieve certain toys if you ask him, and he knows "sientate" means sit up and don't slouch in your high chair if you want to keep eating your food. In the last week he's added "mama" to his vocabulary which was so exciting for me since dada's been the clear favorite for a month :) He also can say "agua" and he knows what it means! Finally, the thing that cracked us up the other day was that he came over and wanted to play piano with me on Sunday. He banged around on the keys very deliberately, then turned around expectantly to his audience -- and clapped. Where did he learn to do that?? Haha.

Here is Michael going to find his panda bear when I asked him to:

BREAKING NEWS !!1!!@!!

Michael & his cousins at the Lawler/Springer Reunion

Michael seemed to really enjoy himself playing with his cousins Kadence and Emma this weekend in Michigan. More to come later on the reunion.

Baby brains

Interesting article about what science is learning about how babies' brains work.

Gopnik argues that, in many respects, babies are more conscious than adults. She compares the experience of being a baby with that of watching a riveting movie, or being a tourist in a foreign city, where even the most mundane activities seem new and exciting. "For a baby, every day is like going to Paris for the first time," Gopnik says. "Just go for a walk with a 2-year-old. You'll quickly realize that they're seeing things you don't even notice."

One thought I had on it is that this confirms my thought that my children shouldn't watch TV at all before age 2 at the earliest, if possible. The whole world should be interesting to them before that time -- I don't want them getting "bored" without TV stimulation too early. I know there are neat little baby videos out there, but I am just going to avoid all of that early on. Too much other stuff for babies to be looking at and absorbing!