Bella, Gabe and Josiah

We had quite the day on Friday. The plan was to go downtown and have lunch. That was literally the only plan. But we all know what they say about the best laid plans... Seth and Bryson showed up over here mid-morning. My parents’ washing machine quit, so he needed to do laundry and we let the boys play. I was on the phone dealing with insurance stuff when I heard a thud and Seth came down the stairs holding Gabe with a washcloth stuck to his forehead. Gabe had been playing in the bathtub and slipped and hit his head on the faucet. We got the bleeding to stop and after looking at it further, decided that this one might need stitches. I sent a picture to the doctors office and they agreed, so we picked up Gram and headed to the doctor. They got Gabe’s head all cleaned up and decided that it wasn’t very deep and he probably just needed some steristrips. However, we’re in the middle of a heatwave and they couldn’t get the steristrips to stick to his sweaty head. Instead, they sup

Gabe is 3.5 years old. Josiah is 3 weeks old. Um, there isn’t that much of a size difference. In fact, my Facebook memories showed me a picture yesterday of Gabe at 6 months old wearing one of the shirts that Josiah wears now. It’s just a matter of time until Josy passes up Gabe...

We went camping this weekend. Well, maybe I should specify that some of us went camping. Pat, Josy and I didn’t spend the night out there because Pat had to work and I figured that no one would sleep if Josiah was crying all night. Great Gram wasn’t keen on sleeping in a cabin, so she, Gram and Gramps all went home. So really, it was Katilyn, Seth, Bryson and Gabe that went camping. The rest of us spent the days at a cabin. On Sunday we actually had two of Bella’s friends with us. It was odd to have them and not her, but she’s out of town and we gave then a ride to church, so why not? Once again, the boys thought it was wonderful. They played on the bike, kicked the ball back and forth, dug in the dirt and poked things with sticks. Occasionally they poked each other, but for the most part they did really well. At one point, Bryson poked Gabe near the eye, so Gabe was crying. Bryson told Gabe he was sorry and Gabe sobbed “It’s okay Bryson! I just need you to be more careful!” It was

Yesterday I laid Josiah down on the couch for a moment and it happened to be right next to String Blanket. Josy managed to grab String Blanket and put it in his mouth. I knew that this could go one of two ways, but I decided to give Gabe the benefit of the doubt and told him that Josiah really liked his string blanket. He came over to look and was so excited that he gave him Timmy and Spot Dog to snuggle with too. If that’s not true love, then I don’t know what is.

Josiah has been having a rough time with his digestive system. He’s been super grunty and gassy and uncomfortable. We finally decided to try gripe water to see if that would relieve some of his discomfort. Within less than five minutes his digestive issues had resolved itself in such a way that it was time for Josiah’s first bath. He was not particularly impressed by the whole thing. But at least he’s clean now! But I did manage to get this super adorable picture!

Happy Father’s Day to my husband and best friend. He’s a pretty wonderful dad and we’re lucky to have him. To make things even more fun today, it’s also my birthday. When Mom has a birthday and Dad is celebrating Father’s Day who is supposed to do the cooking??? These are the things they did not cover in premarital counseling... Actually, we made it work pretty well and had a low key day at home. It worked out rather well, except for when Pat jokingly accused me of stealing his thunder and Gabe threw himself on the floor sobbing “Mommy! I don’t want you to do that!” Today was also Josiah’s first day at church. Needless to say, he was rather popular. And tomorrow Pat goes back to work after two weeks off. So yeah. There’s a lot going on around here... Oh, and clearly we’re feeding Josiah enough. We got discharged last Thursday and we took him to get weighed at the pediatrician on Friday. He weighed in at 6lbs 12oz. Then by Monday he was up to his birth weight of 7lbs 1oz. As of Th

When I was pregnant, people would regularly ask me what Gabe thought about being a big brother. I would tell them that he was super excited and then there would inevitably be a comment about how we’ll have to wait and see until after the baby shows up and then he’ll change his mind. This always drove me nuts because I knew in my heart that Gabe was going to be a great big brother. And now that Josiah is here, I can say that I was right. Gabe absolutely loves his baby brother! When we flew in from the NICU, he and Auntie Katilyn met us at the airport and he had a Welcome Home Josiah banner and he instantly gave him a hug and a kiss. Actually I was the last one to get a hug and kiss from Gabe and I was the one crying because I was so happy to see him... It’s been almost a week and nothing has changed. Gabe loves to hold Josiah on his lap and he’s pretty sure that he always needs his pacifier, even yelling “Here’s your bosh dude!” when Josiah is sound asleep. He’s pretty concerned bec

Pat and I spent the night at the NICU Tuesday night so we could work on breastfeeding. The breastfeeding part went well. The sleeping part didn’t, partly become I had to feed him every three hours, but also because Pat and I were sharing a single pull out couch... Since we were already at the NICU Wednesday morning, it made it easy to meet up with Bjorn’s family for breakfast. They just happened to be presenting at a conference that morning in the hospital, the exact day that we happened to be up there with Josiah. It’s so great to catch up with friends who understand exactly what you’re walking through. Eating was going so well for Josiah that we decided that we needed to run all of the errands that we still needed to do, so we spent the afternoon shopping, until the previous night had caught up with us and we all needed naps. Then we met up with Teresa for dinner before heading back to the NICU for the night. That night Josiah got his last dose of antibiotics, which meant that

Tuesday morning we walked into the NICU and Josiah was off the cpap machine. In fact, they hadn’t put him in a cannula either. He had absolutely no respitory support at all and his number were good. He was actually a calm peaceful little boy who was happily enjoying life. He was a different baby! Then the nurse called and asked if I wanted to help feed him. Definitely, yes. So I got to nurse him for a couple of feeds before they pulled out his feeding tube entirely. Pat and I spent the night at the hospital so that I could feed him all night. He turned the corner. Our days here are now numbered...

Since I was one day out from major abdominal surgery, I couldn’t fly in the medivac plane. But the doctor said that I was doing so well that he let me be discharged Sunday morning as long as I promised to take it easy. So Sunday morning I found myself once again being discharged from the hospital without my baby. It was not a good morning... But this time Dad drove Mom and I straight to the airport (where there was a wheelchair waiting at the curb) and we flew north. Everyone was super nice and helpful and Pat picked us up and we drove straight to the NICU to see our little Josiah. Once there, we got a bit more info about what’s going on. Basically, rather than using his lungs to breath, he was trying to use the umbilical cord (which obviously isn’t there anymore...). This caused him to breath way too fast. They also told us that he has preemie lungs, which is ironic since my preemie has reasonably mature lungs. So we needed to just wait. So, we waited. We sat at the NICU all day