Parenthood at its Very Best! (This is Gross)

It's 5AM. Baby is fed and just needs a quick diaper change and it is back to bed for a few more blissful hours of sleep.

Open the diaper and survey the damage. I have 2 wipes left in the box. Our new boxes of wipes are downstairs and it doesn't seem worth it to go get them. I am super-mom! I can clean this mess up with just two wipes!

Lift up baby's legs, clean the mess up with two wipes - no problem. Reach for clean diaper............ and then it happens............. On the receiving blanket. On the crib sheet. On my sweats. On my feet and ankles. On our king size bed sheet. I tell my husband that I need more wipes RIGHT NOW. He runs downstairs to get more as I sit there in shock at what just happened.

After what feels like an eternity, the wipes arrive. Just in time for mess take 2 to explode all over the place. My lovely husband stands there and laughs as I am in awe. I had no idea that my little angel had this much in him. I also had no idea that it could shoot out like this!

Clean up adorable baby. Clean up moms legs. Put on new pair of sweatpants. Strip down crib. All the crib sheets are in Malachi's room and we are NOT going in there and risk waking him. Layer crib with receiving blankets for remainder of night. Change bedding on king size bed.

5:30 AM - finally back to bed!

I have 2 babies but am still such an amateur.............

Baby Step #3!

Well, we did it! As of yesterday we are driving a paid for Jeep! It really feels good to pay off another debt and now we can press on with Baby Step #3 - 6 months expenses in savings! We still haven't filed our taxes but my accountant (Peter) blames that on the IRS for not releasing the adoption tax credit form until after we had a baby, but hopefully we will get those sent off this week.

Originally our tax return was going to put a huge dent in the 6 month of expenses in savings, but things change and life happens. Now, a good part of our tax return will be going to the medical bills that just keep coming (Mr. Eli is worth every one of them!) And that is the exact reason that Dave Ramsey says to get that much money in savings, so when the unexpected happens, you don't have to go in to debt to work your way out of it. I am just thankful that we are going to have the money to pay these bills when they come in! On a related note: I have never been more thankful to have health insurance!!!

So we are doing well and staying focused even through the craziness of our life right now and I am thrilled to be driving a paid for car!

1 Month Old

Eli's first month of life was not without hardships. It is hard to imagine that today, March 4th is the day that we were originally counting down to, but our little guy decided he wanted to make an early appearance. So today is his 1 month birthday! You would never realize the rough start that Eli had looking at him today. He is very strong and beautiful and perfect!

We are starting to get into a routine around here. Peter goes back to work on Monday and then I have to figure out how to juggle both boys. It has been a fabulous month with Peter home to help out with Malachi so that I could focus on getting to know Eli and his cues. Now, I feel ready to face the double team during the day and figure out a different routine to life with two little boys!

Eli is pretty consistent with a 4 hour sleep schedule at night. We have had a few lucky nights where he went 5 or 6 hours but that is definitely not the norm (yet). During the day he is pretty consistent with wanting to eat about every 3 hours. He is a champion in the weight gaining department and on Tuesday was up to 7lbs 5 ounces (up 2 lbs from his birth weight!) but that still puts him below the 5% for his age but that is to be expected for awhile. It is pretty funny to have one child riding the very top of the growth chart and one sitting at the very bottom.

Eli is definitely starting to be alert and awake more. Throughout the day he stays awake for an hour or more after he eats. At night, he does better (thankfully) at falling asleep sooner. He is definitely engaged in conversation now. When I talk to him his eyes study my face. We are just now going to start tummy time with him. The pediatrician told us to wait until he was at his due date and here we are, finally at term!!!

Elias is a true blessing in our life! I couldn't be happier to have 2 little boys to love and enjoy!!! I feel like the luckiest mother in the world!!!!

Name Game

How do you pick the name that someone is going to have to use for years and years and years? I have always felt a lot of pressure when it comes to picking a name. I have shared before how we came up with the name Malachi and its significance. After the challenge of agreeing on one boy name I NEVER thought we would need to pick another boy name so soon :)

So where did Elias come from?

When it comes to naming our children, we have 3 basic rules:

#1) We both had to love the name

#2) The name had to have meaning

#3) We did not want it to be so mainstream that you hear it everyday (so no names in the top 100 baby names)

So when it came to picking out a boy name (since we still have the girls name in reserve) we searched the baby name book again, went back through the Bible, read movie credits to try to find names....... and were not coming up with anything that we both liked. With Malachi, it was just so apparent. As soon as we came across the name, we both just knew it was "the name" and we were not getting that feeling with any one name this time.

But finally we found it!

So what does this man have to do with the name we picked?

As everyone knows, we are huge Disney fans in this house. So in passing one day, Peter throws out the name Walt (I thought he was joking). There was no way in the world that I was going to name my child Walter. But then we saw it - Walter Elias Disney.

Elias - My God is the Lord! It followed all 3 of our rules and we both loved it!

As I was sitting in my hospital room all alone after Peter and Eli were transported, I was reminded of the meaning of his name. This little boy was God's. Instantly at birth, I had to release him into God's hands and that was not an easy thing for my longing arms to do. He was not mine to protect or save as much as I wished I could. That was something that only God could do and we are so thankful He did and that Elias is here with us today. God has already reigned the Lord over Eli's life!

Video Overload

We just cleaned off the video camera and I found some video's that I thought would be fun to share.

The first video of sweet little Eli. He was enjoying his bili-light up in the NICU. So tiny, so fragile.

This is how we entertain ourselves after the kids go to sleep at night:

Malachi LOVES to dance and he has some moves :) He loves to dance to the different commercials on TV - crazy boy!

And his first encounter with the snow. He wasn't sure what to think of it but eventually decided it was no fun and started to cry (see pictures in previous post). I had no idea that my husband was throwing snow balls at the poor boy and got him in the head right off the bat - poor kid. At least we are confident that someday this guy will be bigger than daddy and can get his revenge! Daddy needs to remember that Malachi gets to decide what nursing home he goes to someday.

On an unrelated note, I had one of those very sweet moments with Mr Malachi tonight. I was rocking him and giving him his nightly bottle. He has to be covered with a blanket when you try to put him to sleep (this is what they did at Hannah's Hope). Anyway, he fell asleep and reached his hand out from under the blanket and grabbed my hand. Moments like that are so sweet and melt my mommy heart!

SNOW DAY!!!

Finally! I feel like we live in the very last place in the country to get some snow! We were excited to introduce Malachi to the snow, but I kind of figured he would not like it very much since he does not have an appreciation for the cold.

Regardless, we bundled everyone up and headed outside for a few minutes!

We got some cute video of him just looking around but eventually (after daddy put some snow on his head) he decided that this snow stuff really wasn't for him.

He was also quite upset because he couldn't walk around in the snow. His pants and jacket were too big and puffy so he really couldn't move. I don't know why, but for some reason it made me think of the movie "A Christmas Story". Are we bad parents for laughing at our poor little boy who was hating his first snow?!?

Once he got in Daddy's arms everything was better and he was okay with looking at the snow, he just didn't want to get up close and personal with it.

I had to briefly bring Eli out and get a picture of him in his very first snow. He thought it was a little bright out, and wouldn't even open his eyes to check it out. Oh well, at least we got a quick picture before I rushed him back inside :)

Eli is doing great with his weight gain. He must know he has a lot of weight to gain to catch up with big brother. Today he weighed in at 6 lbs 12 ounces. His starting weight was 5 lbs 5 ounces so in 3 weeks that is awesome!!!

But clothes are still a challenge for little mister. He is still very much in preemie size as all the newborn stuff falls off him. Last night I put him in a newborn gown and found him like this:

We are having lots of fun with our boys! It is a big challenge, but our life priorities have definitely changed. To wake up this morning and be so excited to see the snow so that we could take Malachi out and let him experience it (even if he hated it). Kids just give life a totally different perspective and purpose and I would never want to go back to the way things were before.

Lots of........

We've been doing a lot of:

Relaxing

and as much of this as we can get:

Yup, exciting times, but I am loving every moment of cuddling my little guy as I know he is going to grow way to fast.

Sleep is going about as well as can be expected. He usually goes about 3 hours at night, but last night we did get one 6 hour stretch which was AMAZING! So Swaddler blankets are a huge thing right now, but I did my research to try and find the very best swaddle blanket on the market and I saw nothing but great reviews for a blanket called "The Miracle Blanket". Well, this blanket is living up to its name. It wraps Eli up nice and tight and he can't wiggle out of it and we all sleep better at night with him in his miracle blanket!

He is already changing so fast. He is still wearing preemie clothes, but starting to outgrow a few outfits. We have started putting some newborn stuff on him, but they practically fall off of him :)

He is pretty good at ensuring his pacifier stays in his mouth. He uses his arm to hold it in - smart boy :)

So how is Malachi adjusting to being the big brother? Well, he doesn't even really acknowledge or notice the baby unless Eli fusses which doesn't happen very often. It is hard right now, and will get harder when Peter gets back to work in a few weeks (so thankful that he works for a company willing to give him 2 paternity leaves in a 6 month timeframe!). The sleep deprivation is going to be the hardest part, but in some ways I think this might be the easier way to have kids. Malachi hasn't been the king of the castle for too long so the adjustment for him is going very smooth. He is too young to really show any jealousy and I can't wait to watch these two brothers grow up together and be buddies!