New Buddies

Gibson was so excited to meet Madison this week! Since Lindsey had a c-section she isn't able to lift heavy things, such as her 30+ pound son, so the kids and me went to help them out on Tuesday. I am so glad I could help Lindsey out in this way since her and Jonathan came here many times to help me with Layla during bedrest!

Gibson and Maddy had lots of fun playing together:-). You can definitely tell that Gibson weighs a couple of pounds more! I think they are around the same length--Gibs is just a little bit longer.

Not sure what is up with Gibson's scowl:-)...

All four kids...it took a few tries and this was the best I got. Layla didn't want to smile. I can see all four sets of eyes (plus one of Elv's:D), so I didn't think it was too bad:-).

And since I like to compare, here was Layla and Jonathan when Layla was almost 2 months and J was almost 3 months...

Layla was whiny off and on all day. I think a big part of that was that she for some reason was scared of their dogs. She's been around dogs her whole life so I don't know why she suddenly doesn't like others' dogs. She liked having "Uncle" Darrell hold her when he came home and so then Jonathan wanted to be held too:-)...


Gibson just hanging out in his crab outfit yesterday...he wasn't even having a crabby day:-).

It's rare that I see Layla sleeping during the day (meaning I can go in there at night and tuck her in and she won't wake up or if she does, she'll go right back to sleep, but I don't dare try that during the day!). She took a late nap yesterday afternoon so I went to wake her up so that she didn't sleep too late. She didn't wake very easily--she was pretty tired! I just think sleeping children are so precious so I thought I'd take a pic:-)...

Grampy and Gigi hadn't seen the kids in a little bit, so they stopped by earlier this week to visit. I'm pretty surprised that all three kids are looking at the camera! Don't mind the laundry basket in the background--I was packing to go to Lindsey's the next day and in addition to taking all the kids' stuff, I also took a loud of laundry since our wash machine decided to break on Sunday! Of course it was right after Joe had left for a trip!!

Happy 2 Months!

Gibson is already 2 months old! Well, sort of...technically he'd be 2 months on the 30th, but there obviously wasn't a 30th day in February. We already love our little guy so much and it has been so great to see how well Layla has responded to being a big sister. Don't get me wrong, she has her moments of not being very nice--such as this morning she stuck a sticker (that didn't have much stick left thankfully) on his head--but overall she has adjusted a lot better than I would have thought! She is excited to see him each time she wakes up and wonders where he is if he's not awake (which is quite often:D). He is not sleeping through the night yet:-(. Typically he now does like one 4-5 hour stretch, then a 3-4 hour stretch and then a 3 hour stretch and then it's morning:). Then I try to give him about an hour of awake time after each day time feeding and normally about twice a day he actually stays awake well for the whole hour. He still seems so sleepy, but I think part of that is that it's still sort of like he's less than a month old rather than two months. He still gets a little fussy after eating, but I think his medicine is helping a bit for his reflux. He still spits up too, but it kind of just depends on the day. He is eating about 4 1/2-5 oz 7 times a day and I'm still pumping. I pump about double what he eats so our deep freez is already SUPER full (and we've already moved some to someone else's freezer)! It'll be nice though once I'm done pumping to have all that milk like we did with Layla.

Gibson at 1 month...

Nudey pic at 2 months...

For comparison, here's Layla at 2 months...

Layla with her doll at 2 months...

Gibson with Layla's doll...

Kisses from sissy...he doesn't look to enthuised:-)...

Tummy time together:-)...

He doesn't know yet that this shirt isn't entirely true:-)...

Their first matching shirts...and I'm sure not their last:-). Although I'm sure they'd be matching a LOT more if they were the same gender:-). I've sort of been looking for big sister/little brother shirts, but it's hard to find big sister ones in sizes less than 2T!

Hanging out with their Minnie and Mickey dolls (Layla thinks that Mickey is hers too and sleeps with him every night now)...this was taken about 2 minutes after the other pics of them in their matching shirts and of course her pants are off!

I love my brother!!

My three kiddos:-)...

Fun with Friends!

Gavin hasn't been over on Tuesdays like he always used to be in a LONG time! I think since early October--the beginning of bedrest. This week he came over on Wednesday and Layla and him played together great! Now that our basement is finished they can play down there which works great. At times they were being a little too quiet so I went to check on them to see what they were doing and they were just busy cookin' in her kitchen:). I'll do a post eventually with before and afters of our basement, but finishing touches aren't done, the key one being a section of our couch still isn't in. It wouldn't fit going down our stairs (too long to turn the corner) so we thought it'd be no big deal to put it through the window, until we discovered that our window doesn't come out all the way so easily. We had a window guy that we know come look at it and he was able to order a new pane which will then allow the whole window to come out. So hopefully in the next week or so we will have a complete couch:).

Smoochin' in her room...

Having fun (as well as some fights) on Gibs' bouncy seat...I realize they're a little old to be sitting on it, but I figure that there are some babies that weigh the same as Layla so she hopefully won't break it:).


Our office/toy room in our basement is FULL of everything that was in the rest of our basement before we started to finish it off. It has a HUGE shelving unit that takes up pretty much the whole room! We were able to clear out some of the stuff that could move into the finished rooms, but we still have a LONG way to go finding places for the rest of the stuff. We could, however, at least clear a path now so that Layla can get to her kitchen. It looks ridiculous that the kids have to play behind a big shelf, but they love it!

A little glimpse into the madness (you can see the roof of the kitchen behind the shelving unit)...I really should be embarrased to even post this picture, but oh, well:).


Watching Sesame Street during snack time...about 5 seconds after I took this picture Layla grabbed a blanket to put over her legs which of course then Gavin wanted to share and Layla was not happy about it. They definitely fight like siblings!!

Watching Mike arive to pick up Gavin. I just put some new pictures in Layla's photo book and she loves pointing out Mike and Em. She likes to point out Gavin (as well as others) too, but how she says his name sounds nothing like Gavin.

I don't know what Layla and Elv were looking at, but the other day they were both just sitting at the top of the steps staring...



Today I was feeding Gibson in the living room when heard Layla saying "mess, mess" down the hallway. She doesn't like messes. She then came in the living room holding a towel she had grabbed off the bathroom counter still talking about the mess. I figured there were some water drops or something on the bathroom counter that she thought she needed to clean up. Then a few minutes later she came into the room saying "Uck" and was holding that same towel which was now full of brown nastiness!! I went and looked in our room and Elv had thrown up and Layla had picked it up with the towel. Yuck!! I took the towel from her and went to grab the carpet cleaner and paper towels and when I came back she had grabbed one of Gibson's burp cloths and used that to clean it up some more! She actually did a pretty good job of cleaning it up and didn't get any on her, but we still made sure to clean her hands good after that:). I'm glad that Layla doesn't like messes, but she always thinks that needs to clean them up! Any time Gibs has spit up dripping out of his mouth she has to clean up his milk with a burp cloth too. Just being a good big sis I guess:).
The only times that Elvis has thrown up like that have been when he's had a seizure:(. I had heard a little bit before that that he was making some ramaging around noises so I'm thinking that's probably what happened. Poor little guy. At least he doesn't have too many of them--I can't remember when the last one was, but I think that time we also weren't positive that he had one so we didn't mark it down. It seems like he maybe just has a few a year. Hopefully they don't increase!
Yesterday Joe's cousins, Christi and Cindi came over with their kids to meet Gibs. I forgot to get a pic of them with Gibs, so here he is just chillin' yesterday...

Layla, Cassie, Camryn and Spencer...like I said, poor Gibs was sleeping and missed the pic. He may have been the most cooperative:).

This is just a random pic of Layla with Joe the other day. She looks thrilled to have her picture taken:).

Welcome Madison Joy!

We are so excited that Madison Joy Heuker decided to join our group of friends this week! She came a bit earlier than expected--Lindsey went a week and a half late with Jonathan--Madison came a little over 3 weeks early (depends how you look at it--according to the doctors, she was one day shy of 37 weeks, but according to what Lindsey thought her due date was she would be 37 weeks this Saturday--Lindsey likes to make everything complicated--haha:), just kidding).
Lindsey had been fighting a nasty cold and thought that was the worst of her problems when she went in for her regular appointment Monday afternoon. Turns out Madison's heart rate was VERY high. Her doctor sent her to the hospital to get monitored where Madison's heart rate continued to be high--consistantly over 200. The decision was then made that since she was so close to being full term that the best thing for Madison's health would be to do a semi-emergency c-section Monday night. God sure was looking out for Madison having Lindsey have that appointment that day--the doctors don't think that her heart rate was high for all that long (although it's hard to really know) so it was good they caught it. Thank goodness for weekly appointments late in pregnancy! Shortly after she was born they did something to her (something medical, don't ask me:D) and her heart rate soon became normal. She is still in the NICU but is doing great! They are just monitoring her to make sure she is alright from the trama of having a high heart rate. She weighed in at 7 lbs 15 oz and 19"--pretty big girl for being born more than a few weeks early!! They don't really know what caused the high heart rate--could be from Lindsey being sick that it caused stress on Madison, but it could totally be not related to that too. There's really no way to know.
Lindsey and I were due 6 weeks apart. When I had Gibson 5 1/2 weeks early, Lindsey said, "Way to go, you just doubled the distance between our kids". Well, now they're just shy of 8 weeks apart--so pretty close:). Jonathan and Layla were due about 3 1/2 months apart but ended up being only a month apart since J was born late and L was born early. Funny how things work out! We got to meet Madison tonight and she is just beautiful! She already looks like her big bro, but in a girly way of course:). Joe and I realized that our trip to the hospital tonight was our first time being alone since Gibs came home--what a great date night:). Oh, and Jonathan had RSV last week (for the second time this winter, poor little guy), so he can't see Lindsey or Madison right now. Please pray that he gets better soon so they can be a family and pray that Madison can come home from the hospital with Darrell and Lindsey on Thursday. We are so thankful that everything worked out well (considering) for Darrell, Lindsey and Madison and are happy to welcome Madison into our group of friends:). Congrats guys!

We had to take turns seeing her tonight as their NICU allows only 2 people to visit at a time including the parents.

The nurses already found a way to stick a bow on Madison's hair, er, more like on her head:). Too cute!

Throwing a Shower for Baby Thrower!

Last Friday night we were able to throw a shower for Julie to celebrate their soon to be born baby boy! Julie's choice for the shower was to have it at The Olive Garden. It was a fun night out for all us moms! Girls' nights out are always a welcomed break:). Julie wanted just a nice night out to eat with friends, but in order to make it still "showerish" we did play one short game, had party favors and a cake--all with an elephant theme. Julie is due March 23 and we can't wait to meet the newest addition to our group of friends!! Gibs is super excited for his new little buddy to make an appearance:).

Julie and Lindsey concentrating on the game...

We got her his booster high chair (not pictured) and his pack n' play...

Cute cake made by Jill's friend, Jennifer...

The group...Lindsey (due March 20), Jamie, Kishon, me, Jill and Julie...

I know that Julie looks at my blog, so, Julie, we pray that all goes well with the delivery and you have a beautiful healthy baby boy! We are so excited for you and Jim and know that you will make GREAT parents! Can't wait to hear the news!!

(Almost) 2 Month Appointment

Yesterday Gibs had a weight check appointment. He was such a big boy at his appointment (literally--but I'll get to that later)! I allowed plenty of time for getting myself and the kids ready and for dropping Layla off at my cousin's and actually got to my appointment early! I was pretty impressed with myself as I tend to run late:). It worked out well as the doctor was ready for us early. The doctor thankfully asked if we just wanted to make it his well baby visit instead of just a weight check--otherwise we would have had to go back next week! So even though he is 7 weeks, it was his 2 month appointment. That meant getting 3 shots, but he handled them just fine! He cried when he got poked, but then quickly stopped crying and hardly cried at all through the rest of the appointment. That is quite unlike his big sis:). I'm pretty sure she cried even at her 2 month appointment. He has very watery eyes quite consistantly, but the doctor said it's okay was long we the "tears" aren't yellow--some babies just have that. They have been in the past, so I just need to watch that. It should help if I rub his tear ducts a couple of times a day and hopefully eventually that will go away on its own. We also got a prescription to hopefully help his spitting up and stomach discomfort after eating. He eats really good and is having no problem gaining weight, but it still is hard to have him be so upset after he eats. The doctor says we won't be able to tell until about a week if the medicine is helping or not.

He napped a lot once we got home and slept better last night than he's ever slept. I forgot how sleepy those shots make them! The longest stretch between feedings that he goes at night now is one 4 1/2 hour stretch (the doctor said yesterday that he probably will take an additional 6 weeks to sleep through the night from being born early--we knew that, that is how it worked with Layla too, she took about 8 weeks after her due date to sleep a full 12 hours, but we had hoped with Gibs being bigger that it wouldn't take him so long--it's not looking that way) and then the other stretches are 3-3 1/2 hours. Last night he ate at 7:30 and then went right down and slept until 1! I would have been smart to go to bed at 8 instead of 10, but at least I didn't stay up until he woke up at 1. I fed him and then he slept until 5:30 and then until 8:30 like normal. I'm sure it was just from the immunizations, but it'd be nice if he'd keep doing that! Oh, and we no longer have to add preemie formula to his breast milk bottles, so that's nice! And he said that if he needs formula we can just give him normal formula, so that's nice too!


Here are his stats:
Height: 20.7" 3rd-5th%
Weight: 9 lbs 12.5 oz 25th% Layla was 9 1/2 lbs at 4 months!
Head: 37.2 cm 10th%

Gibson ready to leave for his appointment...


So Layla thought she needed a picture too...


His chubby legs after his shots...


This was from the other day. He often has a hard time staying awake during his "awake time" after feedings.


Layla trying to start a new trend on how to wear hats (she's wearing a sun hat if you can't tell). And of course she had taken her pants off saying she had to go potty (but we are not working on potty training).

Valentine's Day

Most years we don't really do anything out of the ordinary for Valentine's Day and this year was no different. Saturday night we were planning on just staying in, but then Joe's parents and grandma stopped by so we went for dinner with them. Then Sunday we went to my dad and Joyce's for lunch. Joyce made a very delicious Valentine themed meal:). Unfortunately Layla was NOT in a good mood. We switched her to her new room Saturday night (which I'll post pics on later) and she woke up at 5am when Gibs was crying and then didn't sleep good after that. I think she was confused where she was. She had also gone to bed a little later than normal Saturday night after getting home from dinner so she was super tired on Sunday. While we were at my dad and Joyce's she fell down the steps. She was taking her final step coming up and tipped backwards--Joe saw her go but was too far away to help--and rolled down the entire flight:(. Needless to say that did not help her mood. Gibs was the life of the party and just stayed in his carrier the whole time we were there. I love the newborn stage for the fact that everytime he's gone out so far he just sleeps! He's still not doing any better night. Sunday night I was exhausted so I went to bed before his last feeding before bed and Joe then did that feeding and then Gibs went 4 1/2 hours (a record)! I actually felt quite refreshed in the morning!

Layla wasn't real happy with me for making her pose with her little doggy in a purse and book from Grampy and Gigi...(she was still in a sour mood at home after napping)

Elvis enjoyed his Valentine's Day with a nap...

Gibs couldn't stay awake for his picture...

Getting ready to go to Grampy and Gigi's...

This is how Layla spent the end of dinner. She was not happy sitting at the table and wasn't very interested in eating, so we let her down and she just wanted to lay down. That is not like her, so that's when you know she's really tired!

And this was from yesterday. This is what Layla often does--dresses up weird and makes many laps around our island in our kitchenn pushing her babies or other random items in her cart or a stroller. She loves wearing her headbands this way--a future trend setter perhaps? :) At least her shoes match her headband:).