Bend Trip

I finally got pictures from the past couple of weeks downloaded so I am doing several posts. See below for two other posts about what we have been doing lately.

Last weekend we all went with Jason to Bend, OR. It is tradition that the UCC takes a group to Bend to lead a worship for the church in Bend. They have been supporters for years so we like to show our appreciation for their committment to the ministry by visiting. Josiah had the privilege to go sledding with Jason while Jaron and I went shopping with some friends. Josiah had a blast as you can tell from the following pictures. He has a huge grin in every picture. He still asks to go sledding again. A big thanks to the Jensens for giving us this snowsuit for Josiah. He stayed warm and dry.

At the hill excited to start sledding.

On the way up the hill.

Catching a ride from daddy up the hill. Going up the hill is hard when you have short legs.

Sledding with Shauna.

Hanging out with Jeremiah.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of him actually sledding. I think I have a video but it takes so long to upload videos and just don't have time right now. Come visit if you want to see the video. :)

Visiting the Lambs

OSU Farms allows the public to come for a few weeks during lambing season and check out the new lambs. Josiah loves animals so we thought it would fun to talk him to see the sheep.

Josiah petting a lamb.

Jackson Fraiser Wetlands

A couple of weeks ago we had a beautiful sunny day so we decided to get out and enjoy it. We went to a wetlands that is located in Corvallis. There is a boardwalk that wanders through it. We saw some snakes, a lot of birds, and heard a lot of frogs. It was good to be out after being couped up for the past couple of months.

Jason and Josiah checking out a snake in the grass.

Headed out on a mission to find more snakes.

Jaron is Two Months Old

Today is Jaron's two month birthday. Unfortunately we celebrated by taken him to the doctor for his two month check up and he got three shots. He did really well though. He only let out one really loud cry, turned red, stopped breathing, let out another little wimper and was done. Then I fed him and he was perfectly fine. When he woke up from his nap he was all smiles.

Jaron weighs 11 lbs 3 oz is 24 inches long and his head is 15 3/4 inches. You are probably wondering how Jaron compares to Josiah at this age. Josiah weighed 12 lbs 8 oz, was 23 inches long and his head was 16 1/4 inches.

Jaron is a very laid back baby. He smiles and coos a lot and he hardly ever fusses unless he is tired or hungry. Sometimes he has a rough evening, but don't we all. He is okay with just hanging out in his bouncy chair or on the floor as long and he can hear people's voices nearby. This is quite different from Josiah who had to be doing everything I was. Josiah didn't learn how to play by himself until he was two and he still isn't very good at it. He still wants to be doing whatever I am doing.

Here are some of the latest pictures.

I could leave him in his bouncy chair and he would stare at the animals all day and be perfectly content.

Here he is doing tummy time. Sometimes during tummy time he will just lay there and suck on his fist. At other times he is very active. When he is active he does "supermans" where he will hold his head and his feet up at the same time. That is what he is doing in this picture.

Here he is just hanging out.

I Finally have Pictures

Jason was taking the camera to work everyday so I could never take any pictures of the boys. I finally stole it from him so now I finally have pictures to share with you.

Josiah helping make waffle dough.

Jaron hanging out with Daddy.

"You're funny daddy!"

"What is that noise? Oh yeah, its my big brother."

Josiah walking in Daddy's shoes

What I have Learned About Jaron and Josiah

Had some extra time so I thought I would post an update. Sorry no pictures because Jason has the camera. :(

Our family has been really busy. Jason has been working 50-60 hours a week on top of school. Despite his business he still is making time to play with Josiah at night before bed and trying to cuddle with Jaron for a few minutes each day. He has very short nights and I am surprised that he still functioning.

I have been busy supporting my sleep deprived husband and holding to my promise of getting to know my boys better. Josiah and I have been having fun putting puzzles together lately. He has a 3x4 foot Noah's Ark puzzle he loves. He is getting really good at reasoning through where the pieces go. I almost don't have to help him anymore. We have been going on walks almost everyday. This has been good for both Josiah and I. We have fun looking at the birds flying around and picking up rocks to through into the creek. Josiah also getting to age where he can help more. He enjoys helping load the dishwasher and washing dishes. He is also a big help getting me things when I have my hands full with Jaron. I went grocery shopping by myself with the two boys for the first time this past week. Josiah did a great job of following a long side the cart and putting the groceries in the cart. I couldn't have asked for a better toddler.

Jaron is a much happier baby (and I am a much happier mom). I finally have Jaron on some resemblence of a schedule. I have done a lot of reading on infant sleep needs and done a lot of experimenting and I think I finally figured out what he needs to have a good day. He hardly ever cries now. In my two weeks of experimenting I learned that he can't fall asleep if his room is too bright, he needs to be swaddled, and he starts getting tired after 45-50 minutes of being awake so I have to watch and make sure he goes to bed around that time or it takes forever to get him settled enough to sleep. Today my hard work was rewarded when I went into his room to get him after a nap. I popped my head over the side of his crib to unswaddle him and I was greeted with a big smile. I know now all my hard work of trying to get him good sleep is paying off. He is a happy baby. My next challenge is getting him to drink from a bottle. I have been trying the past couple of days to give him milk from a bottle. I want him to know how to do it in case I can't be around or I lose my milk supply. So far he won't do it even if he is hungry. He chews on the nipple for a while then once he tries to suck on it he gags and spits the nipple bak out. I am going to go buy some different nipples to see if that helps.

I think that is it for an update. Since Jaron is starting to smile I am hoping to be able to capture it on camera. As soon as I do I will post the pictures.

Thank God for Swaddlers

One of the biggest challenges of taking care of newborn is making sure that they get plenty to eat and plenty of sleep. It seems in the first few weeks getting them to sleep is easy. Sometimes they will forgo eating so they can sleep. But around week 3 or 4 sleeping becomes more of a problem. This was the case with Jaron. He slept great for me the first couple of weeks. He took good naps and slept well at night. Then he began to not nap well and the amount he slept at night went down. After a couple of days of this both Jaron and I were exhausted. It was so sad to see him looking up at me with his droopy eyes. I knew he was exhausted. He would fall asleep for a few minutes in my arms only to startle and wake back up. Only after being awake for hours would he be so exhausted that he would finally go to sleep. After a couple of weeks of this and trying everything I knew to do, rock him, nurse him to sleep, bounce him around in my arms, etc. I decided I needed some more ideas because things couldn't go on this way.

I found a blogspot where this lady is kind enough to share with the rest of the world her secrets to helping her kids sleep. She has read several books on getting your baby to sleep and has combined them to get her 3 kids to sleep well. One of the things she mentioned was swaddling your kids. I know swaddling isn't anything new, but I didn't swaddle Jaron because he didn't seem to like it. I put a swaddle around his torso and legs to keep him warm but I never put his arms in the swaddle because he liked to have them up near his face. She said you should swaddle your baby whether they like it or not because it prevents his arms from moving around and waking him up. After watching Jaron try to fall asleep I realized this was his problem. He moves so much in his sleep he would wake himself up.

So Thursday evening (evening is the toughest time of day to get him to fall asleep) we stuck him in a swaddle. He fussed and wiggled around for a minute and then he was out. He took a good nap. That night he went 5 hours before eating and slept 12 hours. Yesterday he went down easily for all his naps and last night slept 10 1/2 hours waking every 4 hours to eat. We both woke up rested and happy. I am so grateful swaddling Jaron was all it took to help him sleep.

Auntie Pam, thank you for the swaddlers. They are amazing.