one week with Lincoln

Lincoln turned one week old yesterday.  I know it goes by so fast but really?  I do feel exceptionally accomplished today though.  It's amazing how a newborn can change your perception of accomplishment!  Today I have got up, ate breakfast and lunch, had a shower, taken Lincoln's pictures, put him and Tracen down for a nap (Tracen hasn't napped in days so this alone is good), the other boys are all at church and it's only 3:00.  Amazing I know.  Next week I hope to add picking up my house to the list. 

This week has been interesting to say the least, but we are so happy to have Lincoln with us and that we are all now home and happy etc. etc. etc.  Sorry but you are going to get picture overload here....you've been forewarned.

Lincoln was born on Saturday morning and I had him too fast (if TOO fast is possible) but I didn't have my antibiotic done in time to really count.  So Sunday afternoon we weren't sure if we were going to get to go home or if we would have to stay one more day.  We went home.  I had to take his temperature every 6 hours, everything was fine that way.  But part of going home on Sunday was getting him checked in the dr.'s office the next morning and we had to have a bilirubin level checked before hand.  Needless to say, his temperature was fine, his bili was not.  Dr Newman told me that even if we'd sent him home on lights we would have ended up back in the hospital anyway, he'd just jumped too fast.  We went back into the hospital at 12:00 Monday afternoon.  After they got his IV started and turned on the lights I was amazed.  Under the lights he was practically orange...not kidding.  And when they'd turn him they would move this little gold heart sticker that held the temp probe you could see an outline of an orange heart on him.  At least we knew they were working.  We stayed until Wednesday morning because his numbers just didn't come down like we thought.  When I found out his numbers were down to 12 on Wednesday morning I about jumped up and down and yelled.  I was so excited to go home.  We had to go back to the hospital on Thursday and Friday for more bili tests and then to the Dr. on Friday.  He went back up to 15 on Thursday which we expected and on Friday he was still 15, so we were good.  He was also having more wet diapers and his poop had turned yellow.  Can I tell you I never knew you could be so excited for yellow poop?  But in his case it meant his bili would go down.  By the way, I love Dr. Newman.  He explained everything to us/me and was awesome.  He probably asked how I was doing, just as much as he asked about Lincoln.  He checked on us at least twice a day and suggested that I leave the hospital for awhile on Tuesday and then when he came back that night he made sure I had so I wouldn't go crazy. 

When we got home on Wednesday, Tracen was so excited to see Lincoln, he did this...

He pulled up a stool and sat and watched him and kissed him.  It was so cute.
After baking in the sun on the beach for 2.5 days he was in need of a bath, he didn't really enjoy it!

Thankfully Grandma was here to help.  Her and Tracen have become great friends...good thing because they were stuck together for a few days.  He didn't want Grandma going anywhere without him.  Grandma cooked for us and held the baby and lots of other little helpful things.  She even took Ty to Cedar to buy me and Lincoln some presents. 

The boys all love Lincoln,  they take turns holding him.  Ty watched him yesterday while we were outside finishing the chicken coop.  Jesse likes to hold him a lot and Tracen is concerned with all things Lincoln related.  In fact he's lost lots of sleep over it.  He rarely naps anymore and he wakes up several times a night when Lincoln cries.  He is sure he needs his pacifier and is very willing to give it to him.  he pats his head and says "soft" and gives him "kissies" several times a day.

Tracen was out of control at the hospital.  There were way too many buttons to push and ways to get into trouble...

I took some one week pics of Lincoln today.  Josh isn't a fan of the nakey photos so I only have one.  Lincoln isn't a fan of being naked anyway.  It took me a while to get him to sleep enough.

Love his eyelashes...they are so long!

He's mad in this photo but I love his wrinkles.

It's kind of a funny picture but I love his wide awake eyes...

Back to the hospital

The pictures aren't the best because they're from my phone.  I took some with my camera but my card reader is at home and I'm at the hospital.  SO...part of us getting to go home on Sunday included taking Lincolns temperature every 6 hours and getting a bilirubin checked on Monday morning and meeting the Dr at the office afterward.  He said he thought that he would probably be fine but wanted it checked anyway.  Good thing we did.  When we left the hospital his bilirubin was 9.5 which is high intermediate risk.  He thought it for sure wouldn't raise more than 5 points.  When we got to the office on Monday he checked it and said something like "he's a rule breaker"  He'd raised 9 points and was at 18.7 which put him well into high risk with a good possibility of going even higher.  So he said he'd meet us at the hospital in 5 minutes to readmit him.  So Monday at 12 Lincoln was readmitted to the hospital. 

He was supposed to be on 2 bili lights but they had like 5 babies on bili lights already and only had enough lights for one each.  So we started there.  Even though they are so busy and full with patients they found a room for me and another mom to stay in.  We had to share but I was just grateful I had a place to stay!  I'd already decided if all else failed there was a couch in the ER I'd go sleep on :)  Sometime last night they were able to get a light pad for him which means he's getting light on almost all sides at the same time.  It also means I get to hold him a little longer when I feed him because we just bring the pad along with us.  I spent most of the day in the nursery with him and then slept until they'd call me to feed him.  He also had to have an IV and get fluids since he was a little dehydrated.  It just helps push all the bilirubin out.  His IV is saline locked now.  This morning, my roommates daughter got to go home so we inherited another light and I have the room all to myself now as well.  They discharged another baby and needed the back nursery for a sick baby so we also were able to move into the isolation room which means more privacy for us and a recliner.  His numbers were really slow to come down last night they were 17.9 and this morning 17.3 so I was kinda bummed but I talked to the dr and said I'd rather stay here with the good lights for another day than go home with not as good of lights for 4-5 days, he agreed so we stayed.

This afternoon he was finally down to 15.7 which puts him back into high intermediate.  He's still on lights and we do another test at 8:00 tonight and we'll see what we do from there.  He's eating a lot better now though and isn't as orange as he was yesterday when we started.  He's been awesome and so mellow.  He likes to sleep on his tummy and is way more content there.  He can do that as long as he's on a sat monitor so I'm glad he hasn't fussed the whole time.  He gets to wear a little purple mask to cover his eyes and only fussed the one time that he was wide awake.  So we just took it off and held him a little longer until he fell asleep.

My mom brought Tracen in today and he got to see him through the window of the nursery.  He wanted to hold him it was so cute and sad.  He was so sad to leave me and the baby.  We bribed him with a treat so he left with Grandma and then went home to see dad.  The boys miss the baby (and hopefully me too!) and can't wait for him to come home again.  Josh said they ran in from school looking to see if he was home yet.

HUGE thanks to Josh, my mom and Vaughn and Ann.  Josh has pretty much just done whatever I told him (probably out of fear!)  My mom has helped so much with the boys and watching Tracen when Josh has been here with me or doing his other required activities, she's brought in Tracen and came into visit us last night.  Vaughn and Ann have brought me their car (since Josh and I came together to Cedar I didn't have one) even though I didn't plan on leaving it was really nice when I went and took a shower at their house today.  And Ann brought me snacks and treats and books and came and visited.  Everyone calls and makes sure I'm doing ok and don't need anything, so thanks!

Here are more pictures that aren't very good :)

Lincoln Jax

Our baby Lincoln made his appearance Saturday morning at 4:51 a.m.  He's 7 lbs 5 oz, 19.5 inches long he has strawberry blonde hair and long eyelashes.  We all love him!  The boys came to see him yesterday morning and then called everyone to let them know.  We had thought we'd probably name him Lincoln Jax but hadn't said for sure yet, but then the boys started telling everyone that was his name so we decided to stick with it.  We love it and it's probably a good thing we have the boys to make these two indecisive parents decide!  Right now he's back getting some tests done and then they're going to let us go. 

baptism pictures

I just got done editing Jesse's pictures for his baptism announcements, now I just have to make the announcements!  Jesse likes the "normal" colored ones better and I lean toward the faded ones :)

I love the picture above because he did that all on his own...I just happened to catch it!

Out takes
Now just so you don't think that Jesse is super cooperative or that I'm that great....here are the REAL pictures.  The ones that show what was really going on during the other 300 photos I took yesterday :)

I think I said "look at the camera" and "smile....no not like that" about a billion times!

 I have no idea what this leg crossing is all about.  We told him to cross his ankles.

Cute no?

We had to take time out to check out Tracen's legs.

Oh and his belly too.

And we end it all with a little tickle.

See we're just normal people with crazy kids too...

We have a two year old!

I just can't believe that Tracen is 2 years old already.  He's the size of a three year old, but it seems like I just brought him home the other day!  He was so cute this morning.  We kept telling him "Happy Birthday!" and "you're two" so he walked around saying "two" and holding up two fingers and saying "appee bitdae"  I think he had a pretty good day, he played outside in the dirt, ate candy and suckers, and helped dad a whole bunch.  He loves corn on the cob and we got some in our basket this week so we had it for dinner.  He kept taking bites and saying "it's good"

Things I love about Tracen
He talks all the time!  Sometimes I have no idea what he's saying but I love how much he talks.  Sometimes I think he has no idea what we're saying because "huh" is probably his most used word.

I love it when he laughs, he has a happy laugh, a belly laugh a squeal, an evil I'm about to do something naughty laugh.  I love them all.

He's learned how to say thank you it sounds something like "tee too" and if you don't say you're welcome back, he'll say it for you.

He likes to come crawl into bed with us.  He brings his pillow, his monkey, whatever else suits his fancy cars, tractors, animals, airplanes, pretty much anything.

He LOVES popsicles and ice cream.  He was in absolute heaven when Jesse got his tonsils out and there were popsicles everywhere.  He learned how to open the freezer and help himself.

He dances to music.  It is the cutest most hilarious thing ever.

He is the baby of the family and knows it.  He can irritate the crap out of his brothers or love on them.  And they irritate him and love on him too.

He is well versed in words like "stop it!" and no.

Cows are his absolute favorite hands down.  However he likes most every farm animal as well, and tractors.

He will not go to nursery alone.  He was going so well and loved it and would let me leave him before he was 18 months old.  Then the instant he turned 18 months...no more.  I snuck out to go to the bathroom on Sunday and he was bawling when I came back.

He loves to wrestle with anyone who will wrestle with him

He loves to read books.

He gives the best "kissies" and hugs ever and snuggles.

My mom and dad got him this tractor for his birthday.  He kept pushing the button to make it go and then he'd put his hands on his hips and follow after it.

He tried to share his food with Mack.

This was him this morning on his birthday.  He was posing for me :)  He loves to have his picture taken!

Happy 2nd Birthday Buddy!  We love you!

Track

I forgot to post about Ty's track meet a week or two ago.  Parowan elementary has a track meet every year.  Ty ran in 2 races I believe and was able to do the long jump, thankfully, because he wasn't so excited about running.  I, of course, had to work the night before and after and being a pregnant as I am just couldn't stay awake to go.  So thankfully, Josh had the day off.  He and Tracen went to cheer him on and take pictures for me.  I think he had a pretty good time!

Parties and attempts at overachievement

...which failed by the way.

We had several parties this past weekend.  Due to several work situations and other things we didn't get around to Jesse's party until Friday.  Then we had a family party for Jesse, Vaughn and Tracen on Saturday so it was a weekend full of partying.

I always tell the boys that they have two options for birthday parties.  They can have a party and invite friends and we'll have cake and ice cream and play some games but they'll have to help me clean and get ready etc etc... or they can take one or two friends and we can go do something like lunch and a movie or bowling.  Ty always picks that one, Jesse always picks the party.  So we had 12 kids at our house Friday (including Tracen) 11 of which were boys.....this is what that looks like...

There were lots of boys in my backyard.

We had planned some games and stuff.  Jesse wanted to play bingo so I made a bingo game.  And about 5 minutes before the party started he said he was so excited to play pin the tail on the donkey.  I thought "oh crap"  So, we got a piece of cardboard and I drew the most amazing (or not) donkey on it which Jesse praised and said it was the best donkey every.  And then I drew the ugliest tails ever, which he loved.  Then all these boys showed up and they played outside and on the hill and down in the wash before we finally had them come up to eat and have cake and ice cream.  We were just getting to the ice cream when mom's started showing up.  So the boys played the games later with each other.  It worked out anyway!

Jesse wanted a cowboy party.  On his cake he wanted a picture of a horse with him on it and a cactus and a few other things.  This is what he ended up with but he loved it anyway...

As a side note I tried to make the icing red.  Heck I used almost an entire container of red wilton icing.  But it was pinkish orange.  He liked it anyway.  I'm glad he's easy to please!

Saturday was the family party.  When planning these parties I got online to find "EASY" cake ideas that I could make.  Well there were lots of dang cute cake ideas out there, and by the way I found out they're not that easy.  We did a farm theme and since Tracen is in love with cows I found some really cute cakes out there I tried to replicate...it didn't really work.  Here is the cake....

So were going with a few things here to make this cake ok.  Our cow is an old girl....she's turning grey.  I couldn't get it black!  And cows are lumpy (just go with it)  the cake started falling apart when I iced it.  And besides the folds in the green, the grass turned out ok.  Tracen got all the farm animals as one of his presents from us.  K cakes aren't as easy as they look, even when you used to decorate cakes....lesson for the day.

We had fun though, we had hamburgers, lots of yummy food and homemade ice cream.  We even coerced Grandpa into helping blow out the candles.  I mean it was his party too.

Happy Birthday to Jesse, Tracen and Vaughn!!

Jesse's 8!

I can't believe Jesse turned 8!  His birthday was last Wednesday.  We haven't done a lot of real celebrating yet but for his and my birthday we went and saw How to train your dragon in 3D, that was lots of fun.  We bought popcorn and BIG drinks and made it a real outing :)  Being the awesome mom that I am we planned to make cupcakes for his class.  I made them, Tracen helped by eating a few, then I put Tracen down for a nap, set my alarm so I wouldn't be late and took a nap myself.  about 15 minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off, someone walks through my front door and I'm thinking "who the heck is here and why are they walking in?"  Don't worry it was early out....I totally missed the whole thing.  Jesse's a very understanding and forgiving child, thankfully and we sent them to school the next day.

The highlight of his day was being able to go to scouts for the very first time on his birthday.  He was so excited about this and spent all afternoon before going looking at his book.  He had his Grandma Neilson take him to the scout store on the Monday before his birthday to buy his scout uniform so that he'd be all ready to go.  He said he had lots of fun at scouts and has worked hard all week so that he already has all of his bobcat stuff passed off.

I had to work last weekend so we postponed all the partying for this weekend.  As uncomfortable as I am we're hoping this baby stays put until after the weekend so we can get it all in.  He's having a friend "cowboy" party on Friday and has invited a bunch of boys over for hot dogs, cake and ice cream and some games and fun.  I hope I can keep up!  Then Saturday we're having a party for Jesse, Tracen and Vaughn all rolled into one big family party.  Should be fun!

Jesse's such a fun kid to have around he's so cute with Tracen and is always willing to play with him and help him out.  He likes to read and is reading The Magic Treehouse books.  He gets excited and tells me all about them.  He does really well at school and his teacher has great things to say about him, so we're glad that he's so good!  He loves playing with his friends and hates to clean.  He's super excited about being a scout and can't wait to get baptized.

Speaking of being baptized, he's supposed to get baptized June 12th, but since I could still theoretically be pregnant at that point (If I am I will cry) we are waiting until this baby shows up to decide when he will be baptized.  He's hoping that is soon because he doesn't want to wait!  We will probably be blessing the baby the same time, so we'll let you all know when that's going to be!  Speaking of which, I've got to get his pictures done!

He's doing really well after his tonsils too!  After he stopped talking funny it's been interesting to see how his voice has changed a little bit.  We think he sounds a little more like his cousin David now.  He's nice and lets us all check out his throat with a flashlight.  His scabs are almost gone and he's about back to normal!