Our Family Right Now

Since it's been awhile, I wanted to post a quick update on the status of our family.  This is our most recent family picture, on Christmas Eve, 2015.

Justin is 34, teaching across the street from our house, as he has been for almost 3 years.

Noah just turned 6 on March 18.  He loves Minecraft more than anything and is still super crazy smart.  We're unschooling, but he is so good at everything mathematical, and about two months ago, without ever being taught, he suddenly started reading really well.  If I had to give him a grade level, I'd say he's a grade 2 level.  His skills are about equal to all of the average grade 2 students I taught.  He's so sensitive and loving, and he's super excited to be having another baby.  Yesterday I overheard him talking to Justin and he said "Dad?  At first I was excited that Mom was having a baby.  But then I remembered seeing a video of someone giving birth, and it seems like it would be really painful.  So now I feel really bad for Mom." 

This was Noah on a really beautiful day in November.  So kind of an old picture, but I don't have any really nice more recent ones.

Isaiah is 3.5 years old (turned 3 last September).  He is super enthusiastic about everything. He LOVES super heros with a passion, and always wants Justin to "BE BATMAN!" (said in a yell) and he pretends to be Robin.  He also loves to play with our baby dolls, who he named Okanawa, George, Pink Baby, and Purple Baby.  He is always asking me questions that make zero sense, but wanting me to reply as if they do.  He is so adorable, and is definitely the "baby" of the family.  When we told him we were having a baby he wasn't too happy at first, but he got over that quickly and now he asks to see my baby about ten times a day.  Each time he gently pats and rubs my tummy with this giant smile on his face and says, "Whoaaa, your tummy is so huuuuge!"

He is nothing like Noah was at this age.  He has almost no interest in anything that would be considered "academic."  He still can't reliably count to ten (he starts to mess up around 7), only knows 2 or 3 letters, and still mispronounces a lot of words (particularly using the "w" sound for S and F).  I'm not at all worried, because he is clearly an intelligent human, and I know that Noah knowing all the letters, upper case and lower case, and all their sounds before he was even 2 was not normal.  Isaiah will get there, and when you're 3, none of it matters.

He potty trained almost a year ago when he was about 2 years and 8 months.  It happened later than it did with Noah, but when it happened it only took a day.  No struggles at all.  He is still nursing, but he stopped nursing overnight all on his own last May when he was 2.75 years old.  Yeah, it kind of took awhile, but I didn't have to do anything to make it happen, and I'm all about taking the path of least resistance.  We still cosleep, and he sleeps really well at night now and rarely needs me anymore if he does wake up. Sometimes he will ask to hold my hand, but that's been happening less and less (although it did happen two nights ago).  And it's not bothersome, since he's right beside me.

Both kids love their weekly gymnastics lessons.  The local gymnastics club puts on lessons specifically for the homeschoolers that are the same as they offer to the public, but like half the price.  And they're during the day, so its nice to get things done when Justin is working.  We also do other activities with local homeschoolers, such as field trips, Lego Club, swimming lessons, soccer, etc. 

So that's what we've been up to.  Life has gotten pretty "easy" with slightly older kiddos, and we know we're in for it starting right back at the beginning with another baby.  But it'll likely be our last one, so we're going to enjoy it!

It's Been Too Long, and Things Are Changing

I haven't posted (or logged in) in 2 years.  I always wish I did, because so much happens and I no longer record any of it (unless you count Facebook statuses).  It's just hard to find the time.  Seriously, as I'm sitting here trying to type this post, Noah is standing beside me and won't stop talking to me ("Imagine if we had to walk to the cottage?  Can you imagine how long that would take?  Do you think we're ever going to make videos on YouTube? I think we will.  If we did I think I would...").  It makes typing coherent sentences a little difficult.

I'm hoping that will change for the next little while, because.... drum roll...

I'M PREGNANT.

What?  I know.  We did it all on our own this time, no fertility treatments.  It's something I always knew could happen, but I thought it would happen when I was, like, 40, and definitely didn't want any more kids.  We WANTED this baby.  And I'm only 31.

We'd been trying.  For over two years, actually.  It felt pointless, but I just couldn't make myself call my clinic.  They've got completely new staff and my doctor is no longer practicing, so it would be like figuring out a completely different clinic.  Plus it's an hour away and would be so time consuming and emotionally consuming.  The idea of going there was giving me anxiety.  I had almost resigned myself to the fact that we would only have two kids.

We only did it ONCE the cycle I got pregnant, because we've been dealing with a LOT of illnesses in our house.  The one time we did it we probably shouldn't have, because Justin was just starting to get sick.  But we wanted to, so we did.  And it happened to be the day before I ovulated.  And after 8 years of never using birth control and trying our hardest but never getting pregnant, that one fluke time that we basically did it just because we wanted to and not because we didn't want to miss ovulation, I get pregnant.

I was SUPER sick when I found out.  Sicker than I had ever been in my life.  I couldn't swallow, I couldn't even talk.  It was the day I was supposed to get my period (I always get it at 12DPO).  The two days beforehand I had gotten a tiny bit of brown spotting on a few occasions when I wiped, so I was kind of thinking that my period was REALLY wanting to come.  So I figured I'd have it right away in the morning.

It was 5am and I still didn't have my period.  No big deal, I still had all day to get it.  But the spotting the last couple of days, and the fact that I had that but my period hadn't arrived yet made me think I should test.  I hadn't slept all night anyway because I was in too much pain. 

I started by taking ovulation tests, because that's what I do.  Two different brands, because one of them is more sensitive than the others.  Neither of them was actually positive.  The more sensitive brand was maybe getting close, but the other brand definitely wasn't.

Still, I felt compelled to use an HPT.  I dipped it in and sat there watching it with my iPhone flashlight.  I don't know why, but I was expecting it to turn positive.

And then it did.

And I just sat there staring at it like "Are you kidding me?"  I was surprised, but I wasn't surprised.  I always thought we'd get pregnant on our own one day, but at the same time I never thought it would happen.  My mind has always been filled with a dichotomy of thoughts on the topic.

Anyway, it was 5am and Justin was still sleeping (he cosleeps with Noah, I cosleep with Isaiah).  He gets super red eyes if he wakes up too early, and I didn't want to wake up Noah, so I just texted him to let me know when he was awake.

In the meantime I texted two girlfriends, Corey and Kayla.  Corey was up nursing her baby at 6am so she was the first person I told.  Kayla was shortly after.

Justin woke up around 7am and texted me that he was awake and going to the bathroom.  So, super sick me hobbled to the kitchen and waited for him, sitting in a chair.  When he came out of the bathroom he said "What's up?) 

I had no voice, and no energy for any fanfare, so I just whispered, "I'm pregnant." 
He said, "Whatever." 
I whispered, "No seriously, I'm pregnant." 
He said, "No you're not." 
I whispered, "Yes, I am."
He said, seriously, "Why are you messing with me?"
I whispered, (and it was extremely hard to whisper this many words) "I'm not messing with you, I am actually pregnant.  Here's the test."

And then he had his hands on his chest saying, "What?!  How?!  We only did it once!!  Oh my goodness!! You're pregnant?!"  He was insanely excited and I was just sitting there, feeling like I'm dying, wishing I could muster together enough energy and enthusiasm to act really excited.

It took a little while to sink in, but I definitely has.  I'm 5.5 weeks pregnant now.  At 4 weeks pregnant I had a flat stomach and a 6 pack.  This was me in the MORNING on the day I turned 5 weeks (I'm much bigger in the evenings).  I hadn't even showered yet, but I wanted to see how my maternity jeans fit.

Just like with the other two, I am growing insanely quickly.  I don't really understand why this happens to me.  My uterus does get big very very quickly, but I don't get why I immediately get so much bloat higher in my abdomen as well.  It never disappeared with my other two pregnancies, so I don't expect it to this time.

Because I haven't been seeing a fertility clinic, this pregnancy doesn't have the same level of monitoring that my previous pregnancies have had.  Because of that I've taken like 15 pregnancy tests, and as of this morning the lines are still getting much darker every time I take a test! 

As for symptoms - at 5.5 weeks my big symptoms are major fatigue, bloating, and very sore boobs.  I had a lot of aversions last week, but they're not so bad anymore so I think it might have been a strange symptom of my illness.  I'm still getting over it and it's been 2.5 weeks since I got sick.

So, this is why I'm back.  I documented by first two pregnancies very closely, and I've enjoyed being able to look back at what happened when with both pregnancies.  Hopefully I can pop in once in awhile to record what happens with this little Bambino.

Isaiah at 18 Months

Isaiah was 18 months on March 22, so I wanted to record a few things about him at this moment in time.

-He's 25lbs and just shy of 32 inches tall.

-He still only has 8 teeth.  His molars have been huge bruised "marbles" under his gums for MONTHS, but just now one is actually cutting through so that part of it is through the gums.  The other ones are still just bruises.

-He gets up between 2 and 4 times a night to nurse.  It's just recently he started sometimes getting up only 2 times.  I love those nights.  But I usually end up laying awake for 2 or 3 hours anyway.

-We cosleep, and we love it and have no plans to stop.

-He doesn't talk much, but he does say Mama, Dada, Noah, more, no, yah, ball, block, Papa, Nana, baby, bird, moo, cheep, and maybe a few other things.

-He likes to build now, not just destroy.

-His "lovey" is a panda that Noah built him at Build-A-Bear, named "Pandy".  He ADORES Pandy, which is especially cute because Noah made him for him. I don't think I have a picture of it, unfortunately.

-He hasn't been sick that many times.  4 or 5 times total, one of them being right now (we all have a cold except Justin).

-He's a super smiley, friendly baby, but he is not easy.  He is pretty high maintenance and requires a lot of attention.  But he's a toddler, so yeah.  I expect that.

-I've always said that 12-18 months is my least favourite age (for so many reasons), and literally just in the 1.5 weeks before Isaiah turned 18 months he suddenly got a little easier.  Up until that point he still wanted to be held or worn every second, even while I was cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, etc.  Right before turning 18 months he suddenly preferred to play than to be worn.  Nothing else got easier, really, but that made a HUGE difference.

-He is a MAJOR STINKER.

-He loves to strut around like a peacock on the dining room table.

-He's not a "good eater" even though he always wants to eat.  He just doesn't actually ingest a whole lot, and he's rather picky.  He still gets about 95% of his nutrition from breastmilk, which is fine.  It's healthier than most things he could eat anyway.

-In the tub he is constantly doing this (don't mind the old lady tiles):

-He continues to be a hitter, scratcher, pincher, and biter. He's always done these things, ever since he was an infant. It's usually not even malicious, but it HURTS! We are just finally starting to make some headway with the whole "Be gentle, be gentle" and petting things instead of hitting. And finally when we say "No biting! Just kissing." He will kiss whatever he was about to bite. Up until now those things didn't work. And interestingly, if he's hitting or biting and we just say "No hitting!" or "No biting!" it will make him do it even more. Every single time.

Trying to bite for no reason:

Still trying to bite...

A split second before I yelled "ISAIAH NOOO!!" and he smashed Noah on the head with the old diaper sprayer:

-He's a HUGE gym rat, and pretty much his favourite place to be is in our garage gym.

In short, he's "challenging", but he's a pretty awesome kid!  We like him :)

Isaiah is 14 Months Old!

Who am I kidding, I am not even a "blogger" anymore.  I just don't have or make the time.  However, I don't want Isaiah's baby/toddler/childhood to pass by without me recording ANYTHING.  Even if it's just every couple of months.

So, at 14 months old, Isaiah...

-Weighs 23lbs, which is about 65th percentile.

-Is 30 inches tall, which is apparently 25th percentile.... I knew he was a shorty!  Justin is in denial.

-Has 8 teeth - he just got 2 teeth (the two on the bottom to complete the set of four in the middle) this past month after 2 or 3 months of no new teeth.

-Started talking at 13.5 months old, just like Noah.  He's been saying Dada for a long long time, but he said it even when not referring to Justin, so I don't count that so much.  His first official word was "more" (more food, of course), followed by Mama, no (nah), and Noah (Nah-Nah).

-He also started signing to nurse on the same day he said his first word.

-He actually eats now.  When he turned one he liked the tastes of things but never actually swallowed anything.  He swallows things now.  He doesn't eat A LOT - maybe 3-5% of his nutrition is from solids, the rest from breastmilk - but it's an increase.  He started drinking water from straws and sippy cups, too.

-He still sleeps not so great.  Up 4-8 times a night.

-He naps well.  He went to one nap right at 12 months and that one nap is anywhere from 1 to 2.5 hours long.  Generally it's about an hour and a half.

-He was walking the week before his first birthday, and within about a week was walking totally full time.  He never crawls anymore... *tear*... crawling babies are so adorable.

-He wears 18 month pajamas and 24 month pants and shirts.  He's not as tall as Noah was, and he could fit into 18 month shirts, but I like them to be a little bigger so they don't ride up when he gets picked up.  All our 18 month pants are too short for him though, and the 24 month pants aren't TOO long... If we're going outside I cuff them, but he's not tripping over them or anything.

-This is random, but something I want to remember - He loves to sit on Noah's potties.  LOVES it.  He just sits there and grins, then stands up, sits back down, stands up, sits back down.  It's hilarious.

-He gets into everything.  Just like Noah did.  But he does something Noah never did: When I tell him "No", he says "NAAAHH!"  back at me in this kind of throaty voice.  It's quite funny.  I'm not sure what age that will stop being funny at. haha

-He is such a little cuddle bug.  We still babywear for several hours a day.  We all love the cuddles :)

-He LOVES Noah, and Noah loves him.  The two of them are as best of friends as brothers can be when they're 2.5 years apart.

Can I just take a moment to revel in the fact that It's the 22nd of the month, Isaiah's actual 14 month birthday, and I'm ACTUALLY posting this on the correct day??

I should really post more often.  Life is so full and it's just passing us by with no record of it.  Sigh.

Isaiah is 8 Months Old

Last time I logged in it had been so long that I forgot my password and had to change it.  And that just happened AGAIN!  Screw google for not letting you use the same password you've used in the past!  I'm never going to remember the one I just chose!

Anyway, Isaiah is 8 months old today... yay for being on time with a post!

So, at 8 months old...

-Isaiah weighs 19.5 lbs.

-He is about 28.5-29 inches long... it was hard to measure him; he didnt want to stay still.

-His head circumference is 18.25 inches.

-Still no teeth... I never would have guessed he would still have no teeth at 8 months since he started teething at 4 weeks old.

-Still exclusively breastfed with no bottles and no solids.  He did have a tiny taste of a pear I was eating the other day, but he just licked it, didn't actually ingest anything.

-Like last month, he's still in the awkward place between 2 and 3 naps, but moving closer to 2.

-He is now cross-crawling on his hands and knees!  I just love crawling babies, they are so darn cute.

-He is pulling up to stand.

-He moves from laying down to sitting up (and vice versa) with ease.

-He is starting to become more adventurous in travelling around the house, so we now close the gate at the top of the stairs.  We also recently put our mattresses on the ground because he is too mobile.

-We cosleep, and honestly sleep is not wonderful for him lately, but still within the range of what is biologically normal. The past few weeks have been really yucky for sleep.  One night he woke up 6 times.  He is waking up a minimum of 3 times a night, and almost always wakes up within the first hour of going to bed.  I expect this now so it doesn't bother me like it did when Noah did it. I just go in, nurse him, and he goes easily back to sleep.

-He's doing pretty well in the car.

-We still babywearing all the time. I'm still a carrier-churning maniac, and right now I have 32.

I have been awful about taking pictures in the past few weeks, but here are a few of the recent ones!

Right after a haircut... I didn't realize 1/8 inch was so freaking short!:

Isaiah is 7 (and a half) Months Old

I'm so so behind on writing this since Isaiah turned 7 months on April 22 and it's not May 6.  But I still have to write a few things. This is not his 7.5 month update, though, it will only be up until he turned 7 months.

So, at 7 months old...

-Isaiah weighed 19lbs

-He was about 28.75 inches long

-Still no teeth... I never would have guessed he would still have no teeth at 7 months since he started teething at 4 weeks old.

-Still exclusively breastfed with no bottles and no solids.

-I stopped bathing him in the sink right at 7 months old when he started literally trying to climb out.

-We switched to using all fitteds and wool covers (all sustainablebabyish) around 6 or 6.5 months.  He'd had red, raw chafe marks on his chunky thighs from his PUL covers that would NOT go away.  It was an expensive switch, but a fun one!  And the new diapering system is sooooo cozy for him.

-Still in the awkward place between 2 and 3 naps, but hopefully moving closer to 2.

-He is army crawling.  Still not cross crawling, even though he's been pushing up on his hands and knees and rocking since he turned 5 months old.

-He's a great sitter, moves from sitting up to laying down fairly easily, and looks like he's starting to try and figure out how to get from laying down to sitting up on his own.

-He is a lot more content to stay in one spot than Noah was.  Maybe it's because I babywear all the time so he gets carried around the house constantly, seeing different things, so when I do put him down he is fine staying within the same area.  Noah was already into everything all the time at this age, crawling through the whole house.  Isaiah stays in the play area when I put him there.

-We cosleep, and honestly sleep is not wonderful for him lately, but still within the range of what is biologically normal.  He wakes up to nurse 2 or 3 times a night, lately it's usually 3 times. I would be at my wits end without cosleeping.  I'm going to figure out how to nurse him while laying down more easily.  At this point it's too hard to get positioned properly, so I might as well sit up to do it (and that's what I do).  But sometimes I'm sooo tired that I would really like to be lying down with my eyes closed.  It's hard to do this properly when we're sleeping on different mattresses though.

-He's okay in the car and has fallen asleep in it a couple of times when it was nap time for him.  Unfortunately, though, he won't fall asleep in the car without crying for awhile first.

-We still babywearing all the time.  I'm still a carrier-churning maniac, and right now I think I have 30.

Here are some pictures from right around when he turned 7 months old... I am not neglecting my child or my attention to his milestones, development, and picture taking.... I'm just neglecting my blog!

First bath in the big tub:

Noah had to join!:

He plays in his exersaucer beside the kitchen table while we eat dinner:

Noah always did this too: