Pictures

Second Week!!

Today Ethan has his 2nd week drs visit.  I was looking forward to seeing how much he weighs because he's been eating so much and getting thicker.  Sure enough, he's from from 7 lbs 2 oz to 8 lbs 1 oz in just one week... that's pretty good!  He's been feeding for about 10 minutes every 2-4 hours which is awesome... Trey would take and hour to eat and sometimes wanted to every hour or two.  Ethan also grew 1 cm taller.  Still smaller than Trey was when Trey was born though;-)  However Dr. Rahman commented that she thinks he will end up being bigger than Trey once he catches up!  Ethan is also able to follow things with his eyes and will try to grab them still with his hands, which is great.  He without fail will turn his head when he hears our voices, which is sweet!  He is still the easiest and most laidback baby ever... is almost always content.  The only problem is that he likes to be held alot and doesn't always want to be put down.  Eventually he will have to learn to live with that, but right now I'm carrying him around in the Moby Wrap, which has been a big help to me, especially when dealing with Trey or doing housework.

Yesterday was my drs appointment and my doc gave me the go ahead for regular activity, so I'm allowed to drive, pick up Trey, steps, chores, etc.  I just have to take it easy and work my way back to normal.  This morning was definitely crazy and part of me wondered how I was going to do this each day.  I woke up at 6am and got a shower and then at 7 both boys woke up, Ethan screaming for nursing, Trey calling me for milk and cereal and Barney and the dog clearly needed to go out.  And I was still in a bathrobe with a towel on my hair.  LOL!  Somehow I got it all done, but I wasn't able to get my much needed coffee until three hours later.  Oh well!  Atleast I got it eventually:-)  I love being at home with my boys, but wow, it is hard work.  I've decided from now on when I fill out forms where it asks if I work full-time, I'm going to check yes;-)

Pj has been SUPER busy at WCA ever since school started up.  He's been pretty much a ghost around here, which I know is hard on him because he misses his boys.  But hopefully after this week things will start calming down.  He took a half day (sort off... turned out to be more of a quarter day) off today to relax and this weekend he doesn't have much of anything to do too.  I can't remember the last time he was this free!  So we're planning on lots of sleep, movies, relaxation and family time.... we've been needing this for so long!  In fact, as I write, Ethan and Daddy are both asleep on the couch while "Fight Club" is playing on blu-ray (Daddy took no time introducing Ethan to his favorite guy movies;-)).

Trey has been developing so much lately!  He surprised me this morning while I was bathing Ethan by singing almost the entire song of "Twinkle Little Star", all the words, by himself to soothe crying Ethan.  He also can sort of sing the ABC song.   He can name most of the letters now.  If he has a bunch of different colored blocks, crayons or pencils, he will sort them by color and put them in a row.  He sorts everything!!  He uses sentences all the time now, sometimes very long ones... its crazy that we are able to have real conversations with him.  That being said, sometimes we have no clue what he is saying!  He's been an awesome big brother as well.  He always comes up to Ethan every day a couple of times to pat his head and put a blanket on him or brings him a toy.  He gets very concerned when Ethan cries and will tell me "Mama, Baby Etin cry!" to make sure that I know and will go over and pat his head.  It's sweet!  I hope they will be close.  Of course, I know they will fight too like all siblings too.  But hopefully not too much .

So that's it for us for now.  We're slowly getting used to the new life with Ethan!  Here are pics with my grandfather and Pj's grandparents!

Ethan Is One Week Old

This week went by pretty fast!  My little one week old boy is fast asleep on his tummy on the couch behind me as I sit on the floor and work on his baby book.  He is so precious and wearing my favorite striped sleeper outfit that Trey wore.  Enjoy the pics!

We brought Ethan home from the hospital today.  And later this evening Susie brought Trey home.  It was weird but fun sitting on the couch watching "Toy Story" as a family of four tonight.  I'm sure I'll get used to it.  Trey so far has been really sweet to his baby brother.  He brings him his baby toys and covers him with his little blankets and likes to pet his feet and give his head kisses.  When Ethan cries, Trey gets very concerned and says, "Its okay baby".  He also is able to pronounce Ethan's name pretty well now!  We missed our Trey very much the past four days.  He is singing new songs, saying new sentences and words and has some other things new to us as well... I couldn't help but cry a little bit thinking my first little boy had grown up and while I was giving birth, lol (its the hormones, I know)!

Ethan has had a great day today too.  He didn't make a peep hardly the whole way home in the carseat and spent more than an hour or two completely awake and looking around ar the house form his bouncy chair and trying to touch the toys with his hands.  He just seemed to be taking it all in.  I have to say, we were pretty impressed with his hand/eye coordination too, just like his big brother;-)  We've really had no issues with his feeding and sleeping schedule either.  He's been easy so far (I'm waiting for that to change at any moment;-)).  He feeds for 20 minutes roughly every 2-3 hours and sleeps in between.  He cries only when he's really hungry.  He has tons of poopy and pee diapers... which is a good sign to us that he's getting the nutrition he needs.  We are just so thankful that its been this easy so far.  Again... I say that "now"... we'll see if it stays that way.  I know there is often a calm before the storm with little newborns;-)

Here are some pics from today!

Note From Katie

Hi All!  This is Katie... I just wanted to type up a quick note to you all to let you know how things are going and to say thank you so much for all the prayers and sweet words people have sent our way.  It's been quite a week!  I never gave my birth plan to my doctor which is good because it definitely didn't go the way I thought it would.  But in the end, the most important thing is that we are all okay... especially our little Ethan.  He is beautiful and we are enjoying having him in our arms!  He's a great sleeper and eater... and every now and then he will have some "awake time" where he just looks around at us and the rest of the room trying to figure this world out:-)  He looks ALOT like Trey, except his hair is darker and he's smaller and, so far, seems calmer and not as alert.  Then again, Trey was a week later when he was born.

As for me, I'm feeling pretty good.  Each day I am able to walk more and have less pain.  It's definitely going to be a long road to full recovery, so I'm so glad that our family has been and will continue to be able to help out alot so I can get better!  We are supposed to be released sometime before 11 tomorrow and I can't wait to go home and just get back to normal... well... the new normal;-)  We are up for some visitors once we get home but please do call or email us first just to make sure we are free and up to it.  Thanks so much for being understanding about us just having family visiting while at the hospital.  We've been trying to take this time to get as much rest as possible, especially me since I lost alot of blood during delivery.  But we can't wait to see  you all and introduce our Ethan to you:-)

Here is the birth announcement I designed for Ethan:

Ethan's Birth Announcement and More Pics

More Pics