Disaster Lunch, First Church, Blocked Tear Duct, 5-6 Hour Stretches, Children's Museum & Hair Pulling

Wes:  4 Weeks Old

Ty:  2 Years & 2 Months Old

Here I am two weeks behind because of Christmas and juggling the two boys!  I can barely get anything done at all!  I feel like I have accomplished the world when I get a blog post done!

2 weeks ago on Friday, I had had enough of being cooped up with the boys.  My mother, Shan, Fin & I headed to the thrift stores!  We did well and more importantly, my boys did well!  I really needed my mother to help watch Ty, though – since he loves to run off.  My mother had been cleared from her shingles to be around the grandkids, so she wanted to treat us all to lunch.  We headed to Chili’s.  I can’t even begin to explain how terrible it was, but it was.  This was mostly because of Tyson.  He was absolutely horrible.  I had to nurse Westin, so there I was… completely helpless to help with Ty – while he kept carrying on.  My mother was doing great with him, but Finley is completely and utterly obsessed with my mother… so Finley basically had to be sitting in my mother’s lap the whole time (or else she screams very loudly) while Mom was trying to deal with Ty.  It was a disaster.  We all were laughing at how absurd it was and we all agreed that we would never go out to lunch again (at least for awhile).  While we were at Chili’s, we saw on the TV’s about the Newtown shooting.  We really didn’t know anything yet, just that it was at an elementary school but that changed the dynamic of our celebratory lunch.  I still can not begin to fathom this tragedy.  I kept picturing my world without Tyson, if that were to happen to Tyson, and how all these families have to endure Christmas and live the rest of their lives without their children.  It is just the most heartbreaking thing I can think of.  I think I kept thinking of Tyson because he is older and Wes is just too young to imagine in school right now.  Well, after the disaster of a lunch, we all headed to Market Basket and my mother was wonderful to me again…when she took Ty in her cart and I just had Wes (who was an angel the entire day).  I raced home to nurse Westin again and started watching the news coverage of the shooting and watched it pretty regularly for the next 5 days or so.  I don’t remember being so affected by something…since 9/11 probably.  I think becoming a parent definitely hit it home for me. 

I love my boys!

On Sabbath we made it to church for the first time!  We went to Laconia church and Wes was an angel again!  We were initially going to take Westin to the pediatrician and not go to church, but thank goodness we didn’t need to.  I forgot to say that on Friday, out of the blue, in the afternoon, he developed this thick yellow-green discharge from his left eye.  I would wipe it away and it would just keep coming back.  There was a ton of it.  His eye wasn’t red at all – it just had this terrible drainage.  I called the pediatrician on Friday afternoon, and they said it could be a blocked tear duct.  Ty never had anything like that, so I had no idea what it was.  I did warm compresses and massaged it and by Sabbath morning, it was almost completely gone!  Thank goodness!  After church, we went to Shannon & Sean’s for lunch.  A great time was had by all again.  We left late afternoon since they were headed to a holiday party at Sean’s work and we decided to go Christmas shopping in Concord.  Unfortunately, Ty would not nap again in the car, so that was too bad.  He ended up not taking a nap at all that day.  He did fine, we went to quite a few stores and Taco Bell and all was well.  But then in our last store (Best Buy) both boys decided that enough was enough and both had very loud meltdowns.  It was after 10 PM, so you really couldn’t blame them.  We left as fast as we could.

Disgusting  

At church in his car seat - his left eye was completely better

On Sunday Heath was back working outside and the boys and I stayed inside and watched football most of the day.  Ty got a treat and went to Home Depot with Heath.  That was a treat for me too!  Just to be able to focus on Westin alone was great!  I think it is great to have special one-on-one time, if you can!  Sunday night the Pats played and had been losing 31-3 and came back to tie it 31-31… just to lose in the end.  I was pretty depressed.   I wish they hadn’t come back at all!  What a disappointment.  What was very exciting (to make up for it)… Westin slept from 1 AM to 6:30 AM that night… and that has continued every night since then!  I put him down after his 9 PM feeding and he goes right to sleep.  Then I take a shower, finish cleaning up, and get to have about an hour to myself… then I “wake him up” and nurse him one last time at about 12:30 AM.  Then he goes right back to sleep and sleeps until 6:30 or even 7 AM!  I am very lucky.  I hope this continues.  He still is in the swing.  For now.

Alone time with Wes

On Monday, I don’t remember what exactly happened… except we had bad weather and it was snowing and freezing rain all day, so we didn’t go to the pharmacies on that day.  We stayed home and played instead.

Ty thinks that "playing" means putting a car & a remote control in the microwave and turning it on!!!!

On Tuesday, we (the boys, Noni & I) drove to Boston to meet the Grodacks, Aunt Melanie, and Shawn & Camille at the Children’s Museum.  We had a great time.  Tyson was in heaven.  He ran non-stop all over that place.  He just had a blast.  It was so much fun to see him having fun!  I’ve got to take him to more children’s museums!  Westin was very good and they had a nice nursing room that I had to use twice.  My mom was a lifesaver, of course, with Tyson.  He was a real pill during lunch, though.  He wouldn’t eat anything (too excited probably) and wouldn’t sit still.  I should have just strapped him into his stroller and made him stay put.  I tried our new double stroller for the first time and I really liked it!  I think we made a good choice with it.

Doing a puzzle with Noni & Calleigh

Playing in the water area

Westin slept the whole time in the stroller

Ty & Camden

Ty & Calleigh - Calleigh was helping Ty climb this contraption 

On Wednesday I did a full cleaning of the house for the first time with 2 kids!  Oh my!  Well, technically I didn’t finish it… there is no way that I can do it all in one day.  So I started it on Wednesday and finished it on Thursday.  It went fine.  That night, just the 4 of us (Heath, me & the boys) went to the Mexican restaurant and then went driving to see some Christmas lights.  Ty loved the lights and it was a nice festive thing to do!

This house in Laconia is officially on the national "Tacky Lights Tour"

On Thursday, I finished cleaning and then we went to the pharmacies in the afternoon.   I got some free shampoo and made $1 on Tums.  I got some other deals, but those were the highlights.  Ty was very good again in the pharmacies, since I promised him a treat he could have in the car if he was good in the store.  It is working!  In the evening, Ty was very cute with Westin.  Ty pointed at the Ipod player and wanted me to put music on.  Then he started dancing up a storm and then he would say, “Baby, baby” and showed him how to dance – like he wanted Wes to dance with him!  It was very cute.  After baths that night, I was changing Westin when he started to scream in pain – really losing his mind.  He was screaming so bad that Heath flew into our bedroom to find out what was going on.  It took me a couple of seconds, but then I figured it out.  He had his hands in a tight fist and had pulled his own hair and was yanking it very hard!  The poor bugger had no idea why he was in such pain - and that he was doing it to himself!  I’m sure you don’t hear of this happening all that often… since newborns do not usually have as much hair as my little guy!  OK!  Another week down… but I’m still behind another week.  I’ll try to get it done sometime!  Have a great week and a Happy New Year!

All smiles

Ty reading to "Wep" (what Ty calls Wes)

Trying to put my contacts in

"Look Mom, behind you!!"

Our First 3 Weeks @ Home With Westin

I’m going to try to sum up the first 3 weeks at home with Westin & Tyson as best as I can.  Again, I hoped to just hit the highlights, but it is still lengthy.

The first weekend we were home from the hospital (the weekend after Thanksgiving) we were not going anywhere.  We stayed at home and the Edwards, Amanda, Levi & Joel came over Sabbath afternoon.  Amanda did a photo shoot with Westin and she got some great shots.  Her camera was having issues, so she took most of the pictures on our camera.  She is touching them up with Photo Shop and cropping, but I’ll show you just a couple of pictures to give you a taste!  I thought that he would be screaming (because he does this quite a bit), but he was an angel for the whole photo shoot!  Saturday night, the group (minus Westin & I) worked on making Christmas ornaments and then we got Thai take-out. 

1 of Manda's shots

Another one

Ty making ornaments

On Sunday 11/25, Heath spent the day working in the basement and outside doing some projects.  Ty was really cute – I remember that he asked for Heath and I said, “he’s downstairs working.”  To that, he responded by holding up a pretend hammer and making hammer motions and saying, “boom boom boom!”  I thought that was precious.  Sunday night, was a big night because Kelly had her baby boy, Caleb Steven!  I can’t believe that Caleb & Wes are only 6 days apart!  It’s going to be great to have them grow up together!

On Monday 11/26, I officially started my career as a stay-at-home mom (most of the time) to my 2 boys!  Heath had to go back to work and I was on my own!  I had definitely been worried about this day, but I have to say that it went much better than expected!  I was able to keep their eating schedules (and subsequent diaper changes) and napping times staggered, so it was fine.  It really has been great, I have been so surprised.  Not to say that they don’t both have melt-downs at the same time… or that I have to really plan ahead to just go to the bathroom (to make sure that Ty is not alone with Wes), but I was really worried about juggling two kids – but it has been great!  It doesn’t hurt that I have two great kids.  It was crazy, within a week Tyson already knew Westin’s name!  I have heard him call him “Westin” on about 2 different occasions, but otherwise it is “Westy” for Tyson!  It is really cute.  If I call him “Wes”, then Ty responds with either “Wet” or “Wep” – can’t exactly get that “s” at the end of it! (=  So sweet.  That Monday was also a major milestone in Westin’s life.  We gave him a binky and what a difference that made!  The frequent crying definitely became less & less, but he does not have the binky skills down yet at all.  He can’t keep that thing in to save his life and gets mad when it falls out!  Can’t wait for him to figure out how to do that!

His first moments with the binky - he was in love

Tuesday 11/27 was a big day.  Ty went poop on the potty for the first time!  It has been a bit of a fluke – he has done it one other time in 3 weeks, but it will become more regular, I’m sure of it!  It was right after breakfast.  He said, “poop, poop” and patted his bum, so we rushed into the bathroom.  He had started to go already in his diaper, but he got on the toilet and finished it up!  It was cutest thing ever – he was so proud of himself!  Of course I made it a major deal and I gave him a miniature peanut butter cup as a reward and he was so excited!  Like I said, he has done it one other time…but otherwise we have many, many false alarms.  I’m sure this is normal, but it can be trying.  What I find funny is that he will sit on the toilet, look through a magazine, but his ADD definitely kicks in and if nothing is happening… he will only stand to be on the toilet for about 2 minutes (not exaggerating).  But what is hilarious is that he gets up, flushes the toilet (even though he has done nothing) and runs out to the candy cabinet and proceeds to say, “treat, treat!”  I keep telling him that he only gets a treat for actually making a deposit, but it doesn’t stop him from trying! 

Ty so excited that he went on the potty that he took off his shirt!  No- this is just his new thing that he is doing - he keeps taking off his shirt & running around half-naked! 

On Wednesday, 11/28, Papa & Nanny arrived to meet their newest great-grandchild!  It was great to see them and they seemed very pleased to see Westin.  Ty had been saying, “Nanny and Papa” all day before they arrived, but, of course, clammed right up as soon as they arrived.  On Wednesday night, we took Westin out for the first time and went to the Mexican restaurant with Adam.  It was a big success and Wes slept the whole time!

Nanny with Westin

Thursday 11/29, our big event of the day was that my parents & grandparents came over for supper and my mother cooked supper for us.  She had noticed a rash on her face that day and had me look at it.  I knew immediately that it was Shingles and told her to go the ER, since you don’t want it to get into her eye.  She went to the ER that night and had it confirmed that it was Shingles and it had gotten into her eye.  I said, “Just call me Dr. Alison!” (=  Fast forward 15 days and she has finally been cleared to be around her grandchildren again.  She has been completely sequestered and has been missing everyone, but thank goodness her eye sight was spared!

By the end of that first week at home, I finally had Westin sleeping 4 hour stretches in his swing.  He absolutely will not sleep in his crib, so I broke down and tried the swing.  I was getting pretty sleep-deprived, so I was desperate to try anything!  I was hesitant to try the swing, because I was envisioning in my mind that it will be a terrible transition to get him out of the swing and into his crib.  But Shannon & Corey assured me that it wasn’t a problem for Finley or Calleigh… so I gave it a go.  He has been sleeping great now in the swing!  He has even done a 6 hour stretch in the swing (by accident – I fell asleep – since you are not supposed to let them go more than 5 hours while breastfeeding in the first 4 weeks)!  I’ll try to transition him into the smaller pack ‘n’ play probably in a couple of weeks…we’ll see.

Taking a cat nap in his bouncer - love this pic

On Sabbath, December 1, we headed down to the Cape for the day.  We were anxious to see baby Caleb, so we went down.  It was a quick trip, since it was snowing when we left and it was going to turn to freezing rain/ice on Saturday night – so we stayed for only about 5 hours.  It was too short of a trip, but it was great to see everyone.  Kelly & Steve are doing great and Caleb is adorable.  It was really cute to see both boys together.  I wish we lived closer so we could see each other more! 

Proud Mamas

Proud Papas

Proud Tyson of the mess he had made!

On Sunday, Heath worked again outside and the kids & I stayed inside and watched football.  Ty put together his first kind-of sentence that day.  Heath told Ty that after Ty’s nap, Heath would take him for a ride on his “Vroom vroom” (which is what Ty calls the ATV).  Fast forward past a 2 hour nap and then Ty had his lunch.  After he finished his lunch, Ty looked at me and said, “Daddy…nap…vroom.”  I was so so so proud! (= 

Dressed in our Pats gear

Ty putting on his shoes to get ready for his ATV ride

On Monday, December 3, Wes turned 2 weeks old and we had to go to the pediatrician.  I had to take the two boys by myself because my Mom was still contagious with the Shingles, so I was on my own!  I had been cleared to drive when I was 2 weeks post-partum, so it was perfect.  I carried Wes in the car seat carrier and had Ty walk with his backpack leash on.  It went well.  Westin’s appointment was great and he made it back to his birth weight, so she was pleased with that.  Westin was officially 7 pounds and 0.8 oz at birth and he was 7 pounds 1 oz at his appointment!  The appointment was great, except for Ty dumping out a bunch of goldfish all over the chair in the doctor’s office.  That incident prompted her to tell me, “You are brave to take them both out by yourself!”  She has twin boys and said that she hardly ever goes out! 

   He's getting so big!

On Tuesday, December 4, the major highlight of the day came from Tyson.  He has been so cute with praying.  Whenever we say it is time to pray, he tries to say, “Dear Jesus” but is obsessed with folding his hands.  Now it has spread to making sure that everyone around him has his or her hands folded!  If we don’t… then he will say, “Mama, Mama” and show his folded hands and the same thing with Heath.  But he now says, “Baby, baby” and insists that we fold Westin’s hands when we say prayer!!!!  It is so cute and he will not let us continue (without throwing a fit) until all hands are folded! 

This is what happens after prayer is over...he is crying at the smallest drop of yogurt that is on his tray.  He can't continue eating until it is cleaned up.  I'm really not kidding about the OCD

Don’t remember anything on Wednesday, but on Thursday, December 6 – I could take it no more.  I had been having pain in my right elbow for about 5 weeks at that point.  It started about 3 weeks before I had Westin and I never had any specific injury, it just started bothering me.  I figured that I was retaining some fluid on the joint in my elbow because of the pregnancy and that it should get better when I had the baby.  Well, the pain kept getting worse instead of better, until I just couldn’t take it anymore.  Any time I would lift my arm, lift anything, grab anything – I would get some intense pain in my right elbow.  My C-section pain hadn’t given me so much discomfort!  So when Heath got home, we headed down to Concord (with Adam) and they dropped me off at an urgent care clinic.  Right away they knew that it was epicondylitis (or tennis elbow).  It probably did happen because of pregnancy, but it is usually from repetitive motion and I can’t think of anything that I do repetitively… and it is with my non-dominant hand too.  The only thing I can come up with is from the computer.  That is a frequent cause of tennis elbow and I do use it quite a bit.  The right arm would be the arm affected because of the mouse on the laptop.  So they told me to take Ibuprofen, ice, and use this brace on my right arm.  I will see an orthopedist if it is not improving in a couple of weeks.  They could do a steroid injection which would “clear it up immediately” but the PA that I saw was not sure if they would do the injection while I am breastfeeding, so we’ll see.  The Ibuprofen definitely helps but I was taking it for a full week post-op, so I hate to continue taking it so frequently.  Anyways, after the clinic we went to the OG and met Sonia there.  We had a nice dinner and Westin behaved beautifully again, but I had to nurse him there, so that stunk, but nothing you can do about it!

Friday, December 7, I took my first grocery shopping trip with the 2 boys!  It went better than I expected.  Shannon left me borrow her Moby wrap, so after watching a Youtube video of how to wrap it… we were off!  I figured that I wouldn’t be able to fit a week’s worth of groceries in the cart with Westin taking up most of the cart in his car seat, while having Ty sitting up front too.  So I did the wrap and then had Ty sit in the seat of the cart.  I was just worried about how to get a case of water (with 35 water bottles) underneath the cart with Wes in the wrap.  Thank goodness a Good Samaritan had pity on me and put the case of water under my cart for me!  On Friday night we had haystacks and I loaded my haystack with raw onions, without even thinking about it!  Tyson had had serious trouble with colic from raw onions, when I breastfed him, so I was going to stay away from them with Westin.  But I’m glad I didn’t, because he didn’t have any trouble at all!

Sabbath, December 8, we drove to Conway and Westin had his debut at church!  It was good to be back in church again!  One thing that was really cute was that Tyson made a very loud “Amoo” (his version of “Amen”) after one of the prayers that made everyone laugh.  It was very funny.  We saw my parents at church, but stayed a safe distance away from Noni, since she still was not officially cleared from her shingles yet.  After church, we went to the Edwards and had a nice lunch with them and Norma.  Paula, her boyfriend, and Ryan came to meet Wes later that afternoon, so it was good to see them.  We headed home on Saturday night so that Heath could do some more projects on Sunday.

On Sunday, December 9, Heath worked on projects and I took care of the kids!  We got Thai take-out for supper that was delicious.  Ty was having a blast “working” down in the basement with Heath, until… they came upstairs with Ty wailing away.  He had tripped and landed face-first into our wood stove in the basement – while it was ON!  Thank goodness he hit on the ash-collecting piece that juts out from the end of the stove and it wasn’t hot!  But he came right down directly on his chin, so it hurt.  I can’t believe that he didn’t split his chin open – he just scraped it really well.  Another boo-boo for Ty. 

On Monday, December 10, I braved my new circumstances and took both of my boys to the pharmacies.  I have no idea what I got, so forget that.  I had a mini-meltdown at CVS (our first stop).  They have these carts that have a child’s car attached, so Ty loves to drive it.  I always have a hard time getting his belt buckled tightly enough, so he has escaped from the car many a time.  I was picking out some M&M’s that were on sale, with Westin in the Moby wrap, when Ty got out of the car and proceeded to run down the aisle.  There I was, running after him, while holding onto Westin to be sure that he didn’t fall out of the wrap.  I was freaking out and pleading with Tyson to stay in the cart.  Then he pointed at the M&M’s and said, “treat, treat.”  And a light bulb went off in my head.  Tyson is getting better at negotiating, so I said, “If you stay in the car until we leave the store, Mama will give you a treat in the car.”  He was good as gold in all 3 stores (and it just cost me 3 miniature peanut butter cups) – it was great!  What wasn’t great was that Ty & I got absolutely soaked to the bone while we were putting Westin into the shopping cart at Rite Aid.  That was a shame.  And also was a shame was that Wes cried for about 2 hours straight while I was trying to enjoy the Pats game.  At least they won. 

Tuesday and Thursday brought Shannon & Fin by for visiting in the afternoons and that was great – just like old times!  We have missed them!

On Wednesday December 12 brought a visit from Poppy (Noni still was not cleared from her Shingles) in the afternoon that was nice. That night we made falafels again and I completely forgot that they have (not exaggerating) 5 cloves of garlic in them.  Well, I figured that this was as good of a time to do a garlic test on Westin.  He did fantastic, so I breathed a sigh of relief.

Tyson covering Poppy up with a blanket - how thoughtful!

On Thursday, Tyson started saying, “kiss, kiss” all the time and kissing Westin non-stop!  Of course in the same interaction, he can go from kissing Wes to saying, “Boom, boom” and punching him in the head.  There just isn’t any rhyme or reason to his behavior.  Just some aggression that seems to need to come out.   We’ll see if it gets any better!  Stay tuned!  Have a great week!

 Tyson going in for a kiss

SOME RANDOM PICTURES TO FINISH

Using his play screwdriver to try to open the bag of potatoes

Heath & Ty skyping with Amanda

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He is really starting to smile - FOR REAL