Too cute

Megan has been a champion sleeper today.  She was awake a lot this morning and kind of fussy (she had some gas bubbles).  She feel asleep in the car seat on our way home from Tyler's preschool (11:15 pm) and stayed asleep until about 3:30 pm.  Then after I fed her she went back asleep until 6:15 pm.  Then Tony fed her and she went back to sleep.  So now I am a little worried that she wont sleep well or at all tonight.  She is super cute when she's sleeping.  Well she is always cute.

Megan's First Time to Church

Megan so cute!

Megan and I went to all of church on Sunday for the first time since I had her.  She did really good.  She slept most of time.  I just had to feed her during sacrament and then she slept.  Tony took her to Sunday school and priesthood and he said that she did great.
Everyone LOVED her.  They all came a runnin' after sacrament to see our cute new addition.  A couple people asked about when we were going to bless Megan and they were really disappointed when I told them that we were going to bless her in another ward.  Such is life.   

Tyler and Megan

Josh, Tyler, and Megan

Tony tried to take some pictures of the kids before church.  Tyler was the only one that cooperated.  Megan was kind of fussy and Josh only wants to do things on his time and schedule.  We still haven't been able to get a good picture of all three kids together.  They are all pretty cute kids!

Daddy and Megan

Josh

Tyler took these last two pictures of Daddy with Megan and then of Josh.  He didn't do too bad.  He likes to be a big helper.  Josh and Tyler are still being super good big brother's to Megan.  They don't always listen, but they are pretty good with their little sister.  She sure is lucky to have such good big brothers.

Puppy Love

Koda is such a good protector of Megan.  No one better mess with her, or they'll have to answer to him.

Megan - cute as can be

Tony decided he wanted to take some pictures of Megan this morning and Tyler wanted to join in the fun.  Here are some of the pictures I liked the most.  It is hard to believe that Megan will be three weeks old tomorrow.  It goes by way too fast.

Oh My Goodness

People keep asking me if my boys are jealous of Megan...I tell them no.  I really don't think that they are jealous of her or that they act up because of her...or even any negative effects of them because of her.  Now that being said, I have been having a VERY hard time with my patience with my boys.  They just don't listen to me.  Or they listen to me, but they choose not to do what I tell them.  Josh is the worst with this.  I try to tell myself that Josh is only two and that I need to be more patient with him, but I am not very good at remembering that.  

It seems to be the worst when I am feeding or holding Megan.  They seem to know that I can't do anything to make them do what I am telling them, so they just choose not to listen.  So poor Megan hears me yell a lot at Tyler and Josh...I mean WAY TOO MUCH.  When I am calm I say I need to chill out and not freak out so much, but then after I ask the boys two, three, four times nicely to do something (or not do something) and they still don't listen...chilling out is just not in the cards.  

Why is it that children listen when you yell at them and not when you just ask them nicely.  I try very hard to say please and thank you (I expect my kids to say these things so I want to be a good example) but those words don't seem to work.  Maybe my boys think that if I say it nicely it is more of a suggestion and they can choose whether they can listen or not.  

So what do I do?  I am so so so tired of yelling.  I am tired of putting my kids in time out and fighting with them so much.  I realize that I am super hormonal and that once all these hormones work their way out of my system I should be more patient and such, but oh my goodness who knows when that will be.  

I want to be a good mom.  I want my kids to be good kids and not screwed up because their mom is a crazy lady.  Josh is the hardest.  He is very physical and doesn't seem to know when he's gone too far.  Tyler has been hard because he has started to back talk me.  He tries to tell me what I can and cannot do and then he acts like he knows more then I do.  Between the two of them, it can be very frustrating.  

Megan is generally very good...but she likes to be held...a lot.  Holding her isn't a problem if nothing else needs to be done and the boys are behaving well.  I am just adjusting to everything...and I guess so are the boys.  I guess we are ALL just trying to figure out our new family dynamic and where we all fit in.  Heaven help us all, especially me to be more patient, loving, and understanding.

Josh Got Tubes

Josh got tubes in his ears on Friday.  He had to be at the surgical center in the Avenues at 6:15 am.  His surgery was set for 7:30 am.  We decided Tony would take him and I would get Tyler to school and take care of Megan.  I didn't think that I would handle Josh having surgery (no matter how minimal) very well with how emotional I have been lately.
They gave Josh a Valium to calm him and then they just had to do some gas while they put in the tubes.  I was very glad that they didn't have to do an IV and put him out completely.  The surgery only took about 10-15 minutes.  The doctor said that Josh had a lot more fluid in his ears then he had previously thought.
Now we have to do drops in his ears three times a day and he is on yet another antibiotic for his ear infections.  After the doctor was done they let Josh just wake up on his own.  Tony said that he woke up crying, but once he saw Tony he was able to calm him down.  They gave Josh a slushy and he really liked that.  Tony was able to take him home about 9:00 am.  They said that Josh might be tired and just want to lay around all day, but nothing could have been further from how Josh behaved yesterday.  He was happy as could be and running around just as wild as usual.
He doesn't like the ear drops at all and cried every time we have to do them.  Luckily it was just Easter and we have lots of treats to bribe him with to make it easier.  It seems like he is already saying some things even better then he said them before...but it could just be all in my head.  Josh really liked his wrist band.  He kept showing us it all day saying he wanted to keep it on.  I was super happy that all went well with Josh and his procedure.  I am so thankful that Tony has the priesthood and was able to give him a father's blessing the night before.  We are hoping that he wont get another ear infection for a long while and he can stop being on medicine.

Megan's Two Week Check-Up

Tyler loves his baby sister

Megan had her two week check-up today.  Her doctor told me that she looks great.  She is weighing in at a plump 7 lbs and 1.5 ounces (15%).  So that is very good that she is back to her birth weight.  She is 20 inches long (38%) and her head is 34.4 cm (15%).  She did really good for the most part until it was time to stick her heal and squeeze out her blood all over the circle paper.  It seemed like that part took FOREVER.  I started getting really hot and felt faint from holding her so long while she screamed and screamed.  I had to sit down and have some water after the whole thing.  I also fed her right after.  She fell right to sleep after a good feeding and has been asleep ever since.  So a good three hours so far.  Which is good because I was able to get some lunch, do the dishes, put in a load of laundry, vacuum the floor, and sweep the floor.  Also down load pictures and start to do a little blogging.

Tyler "helping" with Megan's bath

Josh "helping" with Megan's bath

I must admit today has been a REALLY emotional day for me.  Don't know why, just a crazy, busy, and emotional day.  I don't feel depressed or anything, but I sure can cry for just about any reason.  It all started with Josh waking up way too early...meaning he woke me and Megan up way too early too.  So then it was a fight to get the boys ready to leave for preschool and then Josh threw up in the car on the way to my parents from Tyler's preschool.  I just lost it when he started throwing up.  I know that he's not sick, he just gets car sick or something - it's so annoying.  So then I get to my parents and get the paper towels and Clorox wipes (still crying mind you) and start to clean up Josh and his car seat.  My mom came out and helped me and thought I was nuts for crying over Josh throwing up...but that is just me these days.  So we put Josh's clothes in the wash machine and unfortunately the clothes did not dry in time so I had to rush home for new cloths before Josh's appointment with a new ENT doctor.  We still were a little late, but we were fine.  I only cried a couple more times - so far.
Josh's new doctor confirmed that he needed tubes and we scheduled the surgery for this Friday.  Tony has the day off already and so he won't need to take any time off of work.  I would just like to get it over with and have Josh start to feel better, hear better, and hopefully talk better.

Megan likes her bath

After his appointment Josh, Megan and I went home for about 20 minutes before I had to go back for Megan's appointment.  I called my neighbor, Gwen, and asked her to take Josh for me so that I didn't have to deal with him at yet another doctor's appointment.  She said yes, because she's awesome and I took him over there to play.  My mom picked Tyler up from preschool for me and then he played over there.  He ended up hurting him self and getting a pretty big "abrasion" on his forehead from sliding down my parent's slide and hitting into a piece of wood.  It is pretty sad to look at and he was pretty sad about the whole thing.  It took him a couple of hours after being home to perk back up, but he is pretty much him self again as if it didn't happen.  My poor boys are always hurting them selves, but I guess so am I so it makes sense.  It is in the genes.    

Easter 2012

Tyler was very excited for Easter.  He kept asking if it was Easter yet, for days.  So he was very happy that Easter had arrived.
The Easter Bunny doesn't come to our house until after church.  They boys all went to church (us girls stayed home - lucky Megan and me) and then when they got back they changed their cloths and then while they were cleaning Tyler's room the Easter Bunny came and left eggs in our front yard - the Easter Bunny is smart not to leave any in the back yard where Koda dog could eat them.
Tyler and Josh went as fast as they could to get as many eggs as they could get.  Megan was sleeping happily in the house.  She didn't need any Easter eggs.  Once again, smart Easter Bunny.  Once the boys are done, they eggs all get put together, so no one really gets more then anyone else.
We went to Tony's parent's for dinner that day.  Tony's mom had some fun play cloths for the kids and then she did a little egg hunt for the grand kids.  They had a good time finding a couple eggs and Tyler put on his new shirt right away.  All and all Easter was lots of fun and we enjoyed the nice weather AND especially letting the kids play outside a lot.  We are all very ready for a nice warm spring.

Josh and His Ears

Today we took Josh to see my Ear, Nose, Throat doctor.  After waiting an hour to see him (we were super annoyed) he spent like five minutes with us and let us know that the antibiotics will take care of the infection but if the fluid remains then the ear infection will come back.  So Josh could use tubes in his ears to help drain the fluid.  He also said that if Josh sleeps with his mouth open and/or even drools, then there is a good chance that his adenoids are enlarged and that is what causes him to drool so much.  The doctor also said that with all the fluid in his ears, it does affect his hearing.  He said that he hears the vowels, but not the other parts of the alphabet.
So what I think is Josh not enunciating words correctly, is really Josh not hearing how to say the words.  It was all good information.  This doctor operates out of Primary Children's Hospital.  We scheduled a date and time, but when we got home we both felt like we should take Josh to the ENT doctor that is just a couple blocks away from us.  These doctors operate at a surgical center that is also really close.  We didn't originally go there because we thought we would rather go to a doctor that we know, but we were really turned off by how long we had to wait and his lack of time spent with us.  I really feel like we totally wasted $25 and two hours of our day today.  So we go to see the new doctor on Wednesday and it will be interesting to hear what he has to say about it.
Tony called Primary Children's to get an estimation on the cost for same-day surgery and it was like $350 that we would have to pay and then at the surgical center it was $800 that would be charged to our insurance - so we'd only have to pay 10% of what our insurance pays, so less then $80.  Yeah, totally worth it...and it's super close.  Wish we would have just gone there first.
Megan is still doing pretty good.  She has had a couple good nights, some hard ones, but for the most part she's a pretty good sleeper...as long as we hold her or have her in bed with us.  We are going to have to be better at putting her down to sleep during the day to help her sleep better by her self at night.  Once Tony goes back to work (on Monday - I'm super sad it went by so fast) then I will have to put her down to get anything done...guess we'll see.
Nursing is still a struggle.  I still don't produce well, but I am taking an herb (fenugreek) and that seems to help a little bit.  I am glad that I do produce some to give my sweet baby and then their is always formula.  It could be worse.  I just hope that I can continue to produce for at least a couple months even if that means that I have to continue to pump and nurse multiple times a day.  It's worth it to help keep Megan from getting sick and to keep her healthy and strong.  We all sure do love our little lady - we are so blessed.

Family

We got to see Tony's brother Nate and his wife and their two kids on Friday before they went back to Oregon.  They just had a baby girl, Lydia, four months ago.  We put Lydia and Megan by each other and it was a big difference.  Mind you that Lydia is a little on the big side for a four month old and Megan is just brand new, but it was still pretty funny to see them side-by-side.  It was fun to take pictures with them both and watching Grandma holding them both.  Her two new grand babies.  It was also good to spend time with them before they went back home.  They will be coming back in a couple of weeks, so it will be nice to see them again and let the kids play.  For some reason Tyler thinks that he needs to show his cousin, Matt (whose nine months older then Josh), how to play Mario Kart on the Wii - so good thing they are coming back.