3 weeks have passed since Micah was born so it's about time that I get to updating the blog! Life with a newborn and a toddler has been busy!

 

I'll start with a short recap of Micah's birthday...At 3am the morning of October 6th I woke up with some contractions that were mildly painful.  After an hour or so of timing them I decided that I was indeed in labor.  We timed contractions for the next 9 hours (until about noon) which were not getting consistently close together but were getting much more painful. The rule of thumb is to show up at the hospital when your contractions are about 5 minutes apart and mine were ranging from 8 to 15 minutes.  After calling a nurse and explaining our situation we decided to go in anyways just to check things out.  I'm so thankful we did...on our way in the contractions started suddenly coming one on top of the next and Micah was born only an hour and a half after arriving at the hospital.  When we arrived at the hospital we were told there was an emergency so the anesthesiology team would not be able to place an epidural right away.  Micah came so fast that there was no time for an epidural after all.  In contrast to the 4 hours of pushing I had to endure with Caleb it only took 2 contractions worth of pushing with Micah.  It was quite an intense experience followed by the shock that Micah weighed in at 9.5lbs and was 23.5 inches long! (we question the accuracy of this length measurement).

 

Proof of his weight!

 

Getting some relaxation time with mommy & daddy

 

Caleb did great meeting baby brother but really wasn't too interested.  He was much more entertained by all the things he could get into in a hospital room!

 

All bundled up for our trip home.  I had all our newborn clothing unpacked at home for Micah's arrival...little did I know he would be too big for it all! We had to squish him into the outfit we brought for him to go home in.

 

The day we got discharged from the hospital was Caleb's 2nd birthday so we had a small celebration that evening.

 

Kid loves cake

 

Now that Micah has been home for a while Caleb has proved to be a great helper! He helps get a pacifier when we need it or helps pat baby's back when he needs to burp.  He'll even drag out his car seat if we need to go somewhere (I should get a picture of that it's pretty funny). 

 

I had to get a picture of the boys in their brother shirts...this is the face Caleb made when I told him to smile :)

it's the final countdown...

Tomorrow marks 37 weeks gestation for baby boy #2 which means I'll be "full term" (baby can come now without being classified as premature).  I am more than ready for this one to come and would prefer an earlier than later delivery date.  But since my official due date isn't until October 4th, I'm trying not to get too excited about delivering soon. Regardless we are packing our "go-bags" in anticipation of the event...we'll keep you all posted!

 

 

As we finished up summer we took a trip to Milwaukee to spend a long weekend with Andy's family.  Caleb had lots of fun playing with his cousins...

 ...and grandpa and grandma  (and of course his aunties and uncles too).

The boys had fun playing in a blow up bouncy house...Caleb of course was obsessed with the balls

 

Andy and his brothers and dad all competed in the "Warrior Dash"...a 5K run with obstacles.

 

We went on a family outing to a small beach...Caleb wasn't so sure at first of the sand...

 ...but once he realized there was water to play in he was ready to go!

Other than that trip, Andy was also able to take a trip with a friend to the Boundary Waters for about 4 days and he had a blast and was glad he could sneak the trip in before we needed to hunker in and wait for baby to arrive.

Our only other news is that last week we got to make a trip to the ER because, as I like to to say, Andy sawed his hand.  We had a bad storm that snapped a tree of ours in half.  Andy brought the tree around back to saw it up into smaller pieces with a hand saw and after only a few minutes of sawing informed me we needed to go in and get stitches.  We both thought stitches would be all he would need (maybe not even that).  However, after a physicians assistant passed us on to an ER doc who then passed us on to a hand surgeon we realized it was a little worse than we thought.  The wound was rather macerated, a tendon was exposed and no one could say for sure if it was damaged and after Andy got some x-rays they saw that he had cut into his joint.  Thankfully in the end they decided not to do an operation immediately and that cleaning the wound extensively and stitches would be fine.  Andy just had a follow up with a hand surgeon this week and they concured that surgery was not needed and they put a splint on his hand just in case the tendon had been injured (no way of knowing without doing an MRI).  But it looks as though Andy will make a full recovery and he will be getting out his stitches soon...

looks like such a small cut to create so much headache!!!

It has been hot hot hot here the last month so we have spent a lot of time either indoors enjoying the air conditioning or outside enjoying the water.  Caleb particularly loves the water and gets into it whenever he can. 

Here grandma is just trying to water her plants and Caleb decides to jump right in.

 Caleb has also been LOVING the pool. We have to keep a watchful eye on him at all times since he is not afraid to jump right in!

jumping to mom...

jumping to grandpa...

and jumping to daddy! 

Once he's in the pool...he loves to swim and splash!

 Caleb's favorite game by the pool is to throw (or kick) all the balls in, jump in, throw them all out, and repeat...

 Besides all the swimming Caleb has been working on we transitioned him to a "big boy bed" so that he will be ready to move to his new room in a few weeks.  Luckily for us the transition went really well and other than a little crying the first night he is doing great. 

Here is his new downstairs room that he will move to soon!

We started off June quite busy! We've been working on installing a patio in our backyard and adding some landscaping in.  Andy and I took a week off work to get as much work done as possible. 

We did find some time to go camping at a local campground for a night. Caleb loved being outside for such a long time and did great sleeping in a tent! It was such a success for Fathers Day Andy is getting a new tent...upgrading from a 3 man to a 6 man...he is hoping to do more camping later this summer.

We also travelled to Andy's home town to celebrate his sisters wedding! It was so fun to help celebrate and have an extended time to hang out with family! Caleb loved hanging out with Grandpa Hoffman riding the 4-wheeler and dancing at the wedding reception!



Once again I have become delinquent in my blog postings...but I have reason this time! I wanted to wait to share some news and here it is...

most all of our family and friends know by now....but for those of you who missed it Caleb will get to be a big brother this coming fall (as indicated by his shirt). Baby #2 is due October 4th just 4 days before Caleb's 2nd birthday!  This puts me at about 19 weeks along and I have been feeling good other than a couple weeks with influenza-A, norovirus, and a couple of sinus infections.

Actually just yesterday we had our ultrasound and found out Caleb will be getting a little brother! The ultrasound went well, everything looked great and the sonographer mentioned it was "very obvious" we are expecting a boy :)

Here are just a few pictures...

Otherwise we have been keeping busy outside with outings to the park, getting ready for our next round of landscaping projects and prepping the veggie garden all of which Caleb loves. He loves being outside and seems to have some innate radar for the nearest patch of dirt.

Just this week we have had some nice warm weather so we had to get out the baby pool.

 We hope you are all enjoying the beginnings of summer!

Just a few cute photos...

we have a friend who is a wonderful photographer(http://www.kaditiedephotography.com/blog/) and she took some really great photos of Caleb the other evening that I had to show you! There are quite a few more but here a just a few!

Well it has been 2 months since the last post...but we don't have too much to update on! Here a few pictures fromt the last few months!

Caleb still LOVES bath time...especially running around with no diaper on afterwards!

Caleb didn't get to spend too much time in the snow since we really didn't get much this year. The little bit he did go outside he seemed to like.

Now that he is walking Caleb is into everything! It is so fun to watch him explore!