Deck update

Our deck is almost done. We now have RAILS! Mira is super excited. The only part is some finishing touches up top and the rails for the stairs- so we still can't let the kids use the stairs- but hopefully soon. Here is Mira helping out.

Super cute Sully face.
Grandma Sarah comes over once in awhile to hold Sully, but she never gets to hold him by herself. For whatever reason, they had him all wrapped up in Mira's pink blankie. Nice.

Kids

This is my ungrateful daughter. She begged me to curl her hair this morning. So I did and all she could do was cry and complain because it wasn't as good as when Aunt Casey did it. Well, I ain't Casey, so get over it, kid.

I think it looks great. How did I manage to have such ungrateful kids?
Sometimes we are rule breakers here. Yup- tummy sleeper. He sleeps SO SOUND on his tummy. I won't let him do it at night yet, but he's napping as I take a shower like this. This is how he sleeps at night. A muslin blankie wrapped around him and his big blankie tucking him in snug. He sleeps like this for at least ONE stretch of the night between feedings, but after that, it's anything goes. Most of the time I can't get him to go back in the bassinet. Oh well, baby snuggles.
This is what he does when I shower. He's such a good boy.

Sully is up to 7 lbs 7 oz as of Wed. He's gaining like crazy! Much faster than the other kids. I am hoping since he seems to be a better eater than Griffy that he's going to sleep better sooner. Griff is a great sleeper now, but for 10 months I was up with him twice a night. AH! I'd rather not repeat that....He's a VERY good boy. He loves to be held and snuggled. He really only cries when he's hungry or needs a snuggle. Let me tell you though, it's no whimper. He's a screamer, this one. Mira and I got out their baby books the other day- Sully looks JUST like she did when she was a baby. He has some of the same features as Griff, but he's pretty much the spitting image of baby Mira. Good thing she's cute! Breastfeeding is going ok so far. I got mastitis in true form at not even 2 weeks of age. I did end up taking the antibiotics. So far no thrush, but I'm afraid it's only a matter of time. I'm really not excited about it. I think today will probably be my last day of taking the meds because I'm starting to get crazy worried about it....

Griffy got a new Lightning bike. He's becoming quite the good bike rider! Now if we could just get him to wear SHOES when he rides...
He loves it.

Just some pics.

Painting one day last week. I HATE getting craft stuff out but they have such fun doing it. It makes a huge mess....and no one helps me clean it up- imagine?!

Here is S in his sling. He really likes it and so do I! This was one of the things I splurged a little bit on just for him. I think it was worth it.
Snug as a bug.

Grandpa Charlie is all better!!! He still has to get stronger, but we like that he can turn his head now! First time holding Sully :)

Dance!

Mira's dance recital was tonight. It wasn't really a dance recital- it was the Pre-K/Kindergarten graduation, but her dance classed opened the show for them. We were there for about a total of 10-15 minutes. Awesome. Here she is all ready to go.

She was pretty nervous at first and didn't sing any of her song really (which she knows every single word of) but she did her dance GREAT! I was so proud of her.
Her friend Addy is the girl to the right. She has really enjoyed dancing with her.
Today was the kids' last day at Spectrum Station. I am really sad about this. When we first enrolled them there I had a lot of trouble with it. Before that they had always just been at Pepper's. They were happy, not around a ton of kids, and very sheltered. It just felt weird to have them in "day care." It was one of the best decisions we ever made. The kids have THRIVED there. They have learned so very much. The staff has been fantastic with both kids and provided them with so many opportunities. With the addition of the third child not in school, we just can't afford to keep them there. I kept trying to workout a way in my head that they could stay there, but it just isn't going to work. They'll go to Pepper's this summer and in the fall start at Hilltop Preschool at the Liberty Methodist Church. It will save us a TON of money and I am quite sure it will also be fantastic, but for me, pulling them out of Spectrum was a really hard decision. I expect Sully will end up there eventually after the other kids are in school.

T-Ball Star!

Here are some pics from Mira's first T-ball game. There she is squatted in the outfield playing in the dirt! Sometimes it gets boring you know....she loves to chase the ball and gets super frustrated when someone else gets it.

Running the bases after a hit.
Getting ready to hit. She still hits the tee most of the time...
Ready! Apparently she has a super small head because the coach eventually took it off of her because it was floating all around.
Waiting. The hardest part.
Playing catch.
Sully taking a nap in his bassinet yesterday. He did great! He's about 50/50 on if he'll sleep in his own bed or if he needs to be with me. Not too shabby really. Those are his blankies!
He always looks so surprised when I catch him!
Mira loves to hold him when we read her books at night. She gets irritated when we don't read enough.
It's amazing how much they change in one short week. He's already having longer awake times and being more interactive. It just goes so fast.....6 lbs 13 oz yesterday at Dr M's. WOW! She said, "I usually have them back at 2 weeks, but I see no reason since he's gained nearly a pound since leaving the hospital....so I guess....when do you want to bring him back?" One of the hardest parts of actually having the baby for me is missing Dr. M.
We're doing great so far!! Had a friend come take some newborn pictures of him this morning. I can't wait to see them!!!

Good Boy!

A note about today- today we would have induced if things had gone as they had historically. I can't even imagine. It seems like the past week has been such a whirlwind! It seems so impossible to have to have waited until NOW to have him!!! Crazy!

Getting packed up to go home from the hospital!

Glow worm with his bili blanket at home. I HATE the bili blanket. I'm not really even sure we needed it, but better safe than sorry. We used it for 2 nights and then we were able to get rid of it. Whew.

Mira loves to hold him, sing to him, give him his paci, etc. He calms down when she sings to him. It's pretty cute.
Here are the big kids playing trains this morning. They can't do much playing without screaming, but they did pretty well today.
The home health nurses came by today for their after visit. We've gotten one with each baby. Sullivan weighed......6lbs 7oz! That's 3 oz more than birth weight....babies are supposed to be at or above birth weight at 7-10 days after birth....he'll be a week tomorrow. AH! Maybe we'll have a fat one on our hands! He does love to eat- pretty much if he's awake he thinks he's supposed to be nursing.
Note the trains in the swing. Every boy needs a train, right?
I have to brag- last night he was super fussy and wanted to nurse nonstop or at least once an hour in the evening. Well, turns out he was packing it on. He slept for 2 full four hour stretches IN HIS BASSINET last night! I actually feel quite rested today! I'm sure this will be a one time occurrence, but it was awesome!

Visitors and HOME!

So we are home now. We got home from the hospital at about 3 or so on Thursday. Sullivan got himself a bilirubin blanket (Wallabee) while we were in the hospital. We got to take it home.....yay. I HATE it. It rubs on his umbilical cord and it started bleeding last night. So irritating. We went today for a follow up bili test. He's much better. She still wants us to keep the blanket on over night and most of the day tomorrow and then he can be free. I got him some different shirts today to accommodate it and I put a bandaid over his cord.

So after they took him to the nursery to assess him the day he was born the nurse brought him back and said, "So he has a heart murmur. It should be fine." Uh. Ok. So yes, I do know that 80-90% of heart murmurs kids are born with are completely fine. I let it go for then. The next day I was doing ok about it. I went ahead and listened to it- I could hear it. The problem is all murmurs sound like murmurs. They don't sound any different if they are associated with something totally fine or something totally awful. But I was ok. Thursday we had to take him home. I wasn't ok anymore. He was acting completely normal but I just couldn't stop worrying about it and I knew my anxiety over it wasn't going to get better....So Dr M and I talked and she ordered an Echocardiogram for him. They did it today. So results are ok. He has a very small ventricular septal defect (VSD) of 1.9 mm and a very small PFO or ASD (atrial septal defect) of 1.8 mm. The PFO is something that is present when the baby is in utero- it is a normal part of fetal circulation, but generally closes right after birth. These are 2 things that could possibly close on their own with time- and hopefully will. They shouldn't cause any issues at this point in time. I hadn't said anything to anyone really about getting the ECHO done because part of me felt stupid for needing it to feel ok. Well, now that it's done I just feel relieved and not stupid at all. It IS something- it's NOT nothing. It's an OK something, but I feel that it's worth knowing about. So we will get a follow up Echocardiogram in the future- 3 or 4 months probably to check and see what things are looking like.

Otherwise we are doing ok. The kids are sortof a mess with all the things going on right now. G is pretty attached to being at home. Mira was pissed today because she had to go to school and he didn't. Things will settle down I know, but for now, it's pretty crazy. I think getting out to the hospital today and then I went to Target was maybe a bit much for my body at this point. I need to lay on the couch tomorrow I think. Sullivan is such a good boy. He is totally content as long as he is swaddled tight or held. It's funny because the other kids hated the swaddle. He hates being cold. He likes to sit in the swing all swaddled up. He is a good sleeper- He was up every 2-3 hours to eat last night but slept pretty soundly in between. He would prefer to sleep right next to me, so we'll have to work on that.

Here are some pics of our visitors in the hospital :)

Grandma Lana.

Grandma Sarah.
Mira and Reese.

Grandpa and the kiddos.

Addison
Uncle Grant
Mira seriously loves him.
Glow worm.
Reese and Carly. The Smith Boys.
These are just some sweet shots of his face. I can't get over it.

Sullivan Martin.

This website will be littlesmithsgrowingup.blogspot.com by Friday.

Sooo.....OMG we had a baby before it's due date! My water broke at about 230 am on Monday night. I was sleeping pretty well, but Brooks woke me up when he came to bed as usual around 12 I tossed a little bit. I was having some random contractions and a couple of times actually thought, "That almost hurts....I wonder if I would know if I was in labor?" So at 1 am I got up and went to the bathroom and had a few more contractions. By 2am I thought- if I can't go to sleep pretty soon I'm going to have to call in to work! Tomorrow should be interesting! So I got up one more time at about 2 to go to the bathroom and when I laid back down and got comfy I felt a little gush. Uh oh. I flew out of bed and to the bathroom squishing all the way- yup, it's nasty. So of course, I always have to worry about prolapsed cord because I'm a psycho....but he was moving around so I knew he was fine. I got some new underwear and a pad (but really I needed a diaper) and started to pack a bag. Yes, it probably should have already been done.....I really have no idea what all I packed, but so far we're surviving. Brooks called his mom and she came over to stay with the kids and get them to school. We got to the hospital at about 3 or 330. I got all checked in and then asked if I could take a shower. HA! I didn't take a shower on Monday and I looked pretty awful! She listened to the baby for awhile and decided it was ok. So I took a shower and then she had me walk for about an hour. I carried around my Kindle and read and walked from about 5-550 or so. I was having some random contractions, but nothing that really made me need to stop or slow down, so I was figuring she would have to start some pitocin at some point. The nurse checked me at 6 am and I had made some progress with those wimpy contractions! So she gave me a clear liquid tray complete with coffee and some jello (woohoo!) and had me get up again and walk some more. Dr. M came in at about 7 or so and said she was going into a c-section and would check me after that. I walked for about 30-40 more minutes until she was done. When she came in to check me, I was largely the same. She found a pocket of water where the bag was still intact so she decided to break that to see if it helped. She broke it and he immediately grabbed her finger! She had to kindof fight with him to get him to keep his hand in there and let go. She decided we should go ahead and get some pitocin to speed things up since the contractions were spreading out and not much was going on. So we got anesthesia to come and I got an epidural. Then they started the pitocin at about 10. For the next 3 ish hours nothing really happened. I was having contractions, reading, resting....everything was good. Brooks was starting to get annoyed because every time she checked me I was the same. At 1 she had me turn over because my contractions were really starting to hurt all of a sudden and she kinda freaked out because there was blood in the bed. She checked and I had gone from a 4 to about a 7 in 30-40 minutes. Baby started to kindof freak out and drop his heart rate to about 40 or so with contractions which were really painful at this time and pretty much right on top of each other. Since nothing had been happening she kept turning up the pitocin to make the contractions stronger. I was totally freaking out by this point and the nurse was trying to make me settle down. About 10 minutes later he was still dramatically dropping and she checked and I was complete and ready to push. They paged Dr. M to get there and she went ahead and had me start pushing at about 10 til 2 before Dr M got there. She knew I was a mess because his heart rate was so low. Dr M got there at about 2 and he was born at 208! It was pretty fast. I pushed 4 times I think and the last time he just came out all in one push. His head was pretty much 1/2 bruise from coming out so fast as well as his spine with some bruising. He was pretty floppy when he came out and she hadn't been able to find his HR for the last pushes so she cut his cord pretty quick and handed him off, but about that time he started moving around and coughing. He was super full of fluid from coming out so fast. They did actually give him to me when he started crying instead of putting him in the warmer. B didn't even realize what was going on- oh, but to have the bliss of that. So I wouldn't call his birth traumatic in any way, but I was pretty happy with the slow and smooth rate of the way things were going initially! I was afraid perhaps his cord was around his neck or something, but not- he was just coming so fast and getting smashed!

He is SO TINY. 6 lbs 4 oz which is funny because Monday I made my guess that he would be exactly that! He is longer than the other kids by a smidge 19.75 inches. His feet are so long they barely fit on the ink pads! He's absolutely adorable. Head is tiny and perfect. He really does look quite perfect.
Gorgeous. His face shape looks exactly like Brooks to me. He looks just like B's nb pics except B's hair was blonde. Sully's hair is lighter than M's was but definitely not red!
So sad.
He is a screaming crier which is kinda funny, I think. I probably won't think so in awhile. The other kids would just grunt around and whine when they needed something or were hungry. He immediately screams. It's cute....and so satisfying that when I pick him up and talk to him he immediately calms.
B taking a look.

First family pic! It turned out fantastic! I can't believe I don't look awful this time!! Mira LOVES him. She's pretty possessive.
Griffy even said he lubbed his new brudder and gave him a kiss, but then he was pissed that I couldn't go home last night.
The kids were WILD at the hospital. Exhausting. We had a bunch of visitors last night- both grandmas and grandpas, Casey, Grant, and the kids, Mike, Delaney, and Theresa, and Darin and Angie. B and I were both exhausted from being up since 2 am (well I was up before that) so he had the kids stay with his mom so he could just go straight home and sleep. I didn't sleep all that much last night...I nursed him around 10 or so and then he was WIDE awake and just hanging out, so I just couldn't send him away. About 12 the nurse had to come in and do some stuff so I sent him to the nursery after that. I got to rest until about 2 and then from about 3-5 or so. I'm pretty tired.....He is refluxing a bit. I'm hoping that it's just due to some fluid still in him. He will cry out when he's sleeping and start swallowing like stuff is coming up. :( He also has a murmur. They told me that yesterday.....he looks good, but of course I have to freak out a little bit. I did go ahead and listen to it this morning...I'm not thrilled. We'll see I guess.....

Sullivan is absolutely the sweetest and tiniest baby ever. I am still having trouble believing that he belongs to us. He is "small for gestational age" which made me laugh because he is only not on the growth chart by 50 grams. Whatever. I guess I should have walked less miles or something....but I love that he's little. They had to check his blood sugar 3 times yesterday - which were all fine, of course, and they kept freaking out that he wouldn't keep his temperature up. He was fine. He is a champion nurser- he likes to eat every 2-3 hours and he eats great! I am pretty sore, but I'm hoping that will pass and nursing won't be such a huge issue this time. We'll see I guess.....They are also freaking out because his jaundice risk score is super high because he's small. I'm sure it will be fine- he's pooped his diaper full 4 times so far.

So that's our story! We love our new little guy!