It's been two months since the Lord blessed us with Chessidy Light, and let me tell you what a delight she is! She currently weighs 13 pounds 3 ounces and is approximately 23 inches long. She still eats every 2-3 hours during the day, but after her 9pm-ish meal she sleeps till about 4:30am. Some days, like today, she sleeps until 6am! She is an easy baby too! We always thought Ila was an easy baby, but comparatively, Chessidy wins! She pretty much only cries if she is hungry and if she is awake and wants to be snuggled up in blanket with her pacifier to drift off to sleep. She sleeps anywhere and everywhere and the more noise the better! She is not a gassy baby, and we have not had a "cry for no reason" session with her yet! She is not nearly as playful as Ila was though, which can throw Daddy for a loop sometimes. She is not the biggest fan of "flying" or sudden loud noises. She scares easily and likes to be held close. Chessidy hates her car seat (I guess that's another reason she cries) and will scream until the car is moving. Once we pull out of the driveway though she is usually a happy camper! She loves being rocked and bounced. She loves the bath and the shower. She still dislikes getting her diaper changed but is learning to deal with it. As for milestones she had started smiling big, goofy smiles. She coo's and just today she started leaning forward in her little seat, like she wanted to sit up. No giggles yet, but they will come soon I am sure!
Chessidy's big sister is stepping into the role quite nicely. Ila is trying to teach Chessidy about being more quiet ("Chessidy, that's too loud!" I hear quite often when Chessidy is wailing.). Ila also likes to help Chessidy retrieve her fallen pacifier and fetch mommy more spit up rags. Other than her big sister duties, you can often find Ila playing with her animals (pronounced aMinals), reading books, counting and running around outside (and inside!). We're working on letter recognition and also on writing letters. She still is napping every day (praise the Lord) but she likes to fight nap time (boooo!). She loves brushing her hair, my hair, your hair, anyone's hair. She is fully potty trained (with occasional accidents of course) and is sleeping through the night more and more. She picks out her own pajamas and can put the bottom half on without help, and the top half on with at least some verbal help. She is talking up a storm and catches me off guard daily with a new saying or with the hilarious way she puts sentences together. Her newest thing she has finally learned is to say "no thank you" instead of just "no." This has been good and bad since our non-requests are often answered with a "no thank you." She'll learn soon enough to differentiate between questions and commands though! My absolute favorite thing she says these days is in her greetings. When Aunt Telcia comes over she says "Oh, hi Aunt Telcia!" Everyone is greeted with "Oh, hi _________!" It's pretty cute and everyone seems to love it as much as I do! Ila calls every meal dinner and she loves having snacks. Treats are of course awesome, as is lemon-aid, bubbles (sparkling cider) and apple juice. If you put a drink in a fancy cup, you'll be her favorite person for at least five minutes. Ila also has enough hair now to do some cute hair-dos! She loves pony tails.
My girls are sure growing like crazy. Chessidy's physical growth is more noticeable than Ila's and Ila's mental growth is more noticeable than Chessidy's.
Trent has been working like crazy these past few weeks. That is good because he gets time and a half for over time and not good because we get to missing him. His employers really appreciate him though, and he likes his job so it is all good!
I also just got a part time job! I'm going to be working for Living Earth (Trent's employers) too. They needed someone to do routing and public relations and some paper work, and Trent told them I would be great at it. Since I can do it from home, I was super excited to take the job when they offered it to me. After I learn the system I'll probably just have a few hours one day a week that I commit to being at the office, but the rest of the time I'll work from home. I really like the sort of work they need done, and it will be nice to have extra income for sure. I start tomorrow. I get to bring Chessidy with me and Ila will go play with Aunt Telcia. Next week I will have to spend a few hours at the office every day to get it all figured out, but then I'll be free to work from home. I'm thinking it will be about 10 hours a week, which I will do in the morning before the girls are up and during nap time. That way once Trent gets home from work, we'll have family time.
So there is the latest and greatest from us!
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Hey, What's That Up Your Nose?
When you nurse a baby every 2 hours for about 20 minutes your toddler has that much time to be mischievous. I try entertaining Ila while I nurse Chessidy, but sometimes it just doesn't work. I'm thankful that Ila often times entertains herself and stays out of trouble, but what toddler wouldn't pass up 20 minutes of less watchful parenting every once in awhile?
I've decided to keep a journal (in blog form of course) on mischievous-ish things Ila does. Once Chessidy is old enough I'm sure she'll make the list as well. So here we are with our first ever "Hey, What's That Up Your Nose?"
Let's start with how I got the name for the blog. Last week, Ila, after going poo in the potty and requesting a lemon drop sat down to watch a movie while I nursed Chessidy. Ten minutes into nursing Chessidy, Ila walked up to me saying something about her lemon drop and requesting to blow her nose. I wasn't sure what she was getting at exactly but her face appeared to be quite sticky and she was asking again and again to blow her nose. I didn't have anything for her to blow into, so I asked her to wait. As she stood there, continuing to talk I realized that she had possibly stuck her half gone lemon drop up her nose. So I did what any mom would do in that situation, I plugged the nostril she was not pointing to and told her to blow (I'll take this opportunity to thank my husband for teaching Ila to blow her nose!). Sure enough, a lemon drop came shooting out of her nose. She excitedly ran after it and picked it up, but I stopped her from putting it in her mouth because 1. eww gross and 2. (and more importantly) she needed to know that girls who stick lemon drops up their noses do NOT get rewarded! I worried that this "put things up my nose" incident wouldn't be the last, but we went the rest of the week and weekend with clear noses.
Today I sat down to nurse Chessidy while Ila watched Monsters Inc. She was enjoying a nice healthy snack of apple slices. What happened next may seem like de' ja' vu, because it pretty much was. Ila walked up to me and talked about her apple and wanted to blow her nose. So I plugged the nostril and asked her to blow and out shot an apple chunk! That one shot so fast we didn't see where it landed. I'm sure I'll find it when I clean the floors tomorrow, unless she found it and ate it without my knowledge.
I had a talk with Ila about how we should not put things in our nose, and so did Trent, so here's to hoping she gets the memo!
I've decided to keep a journal (in blog form of course) on mischievous-ish things Ila does. Once Chessidy is old enough I'm sure she'll make the list as well. So here we are with our first ever "Hey, What's That Up Your Nose?"
Let's start with how I got the name for the blog. Last week, Ila, after going poo in the potty and requesting a lemon drop sat down to watch a movie while I nursed Chessidy. Ten minutes into nursing Chessidy, Ila walked up to me saying something about her lemon drop and requesting to blow her nose. I wasn't sure what she was getting at exactly but her face appeared to be quite sticky and she was asking again and again to blow her nose. I didn't have anything for her to blow into, so I asked her to wait. As she stood there, continuing to talk I realized that she had possibly stuck her half gone lemon drop up her nose. So I did what any mom would do in that situation, I plugged the nostril she was not pointing to and told her to blow (I'll take this opportunity to thank my husband for teaching Ila to blow her nose!). Sure enough, a lemon drop came shooting out of her nose. She excitedly ran after it and picked it up, but I stopped her from putting it in her mouth because 1. eww gross and 2. (and more importantly) she needed to know that girls who stick lemon drops up their noses do NOT get rewarded! I worried that this "put things up my nose" incident wouldn't be the last, but we went the rest of the week and weekend with clear noses.
Today I sat down to nurse Chessidy while Ila watched Monsters Inc. She was enjoying a nice healthy snack of apple slices. What happened next may seem like de' ja' vu, because it pretty much was. Ila walked up to me and talked about her apple and wanted to blow her nose. So I plugged the nostril and asked her to blow and out shot an apple chunk! That one shot so fast we didn't see where it landed. I'm sure I'll find it when I clean the floors tomorrow, unless she found it and ate it without my knowledge.
I had a talk with Ila about how we should not put things in our nose, and so did Trent, so here's to hoping she gets the memo!
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Mother's Day of greatness!
We've had Chessidy home for 3 weeks now and life seems pretty darn great. God has sure blessed our family with 2 sweet and cute little girls. 3 weeks later my body is still feeling like it birthed a 9 pound baby. I've had a pretty difficult postpartum time, especially compared to postpartum after Ila. I've had a bladder infection, continued bleeding and few "episodes" of excruciating rib pain that I think turned out to be gas. There is also internal pain where Chessidy's head sat for months (which is pretty much my cervix/uterus area). Other then the physical aspect of things though postpartum has been good. Not too emotional or hormonal, and I seemed to be able to catch my hormonal moments before they get too crazy! Ila and I have had some rough nap time sessions but we're hoping to get them sorted out with some sort of reward system, yet to be determined.
We are getting ready to close on our house. Tomorrow we do that last of the paper work before we close, and we should actually close on Friday or the following Monday. We are going to paint the girls room and we are hoping to re-carpet if we can find any for a good price. But other then those 2 cosmetic things, the house is move in ready and super awesome. I'm excited to show you pictures once we are in and settled. Better yet, you should all come to our house warming party that the Realtor throws us!
This Mother's Day was my best yet. Let me give you the run down of festivities:
-Thursday night Trent came home from work with a yellow mini rose plant for me, 3 bottles of wine and some other yummy treats!
-Friday Night was Murecker (A fun filled night with Aunt Telcia and Uncle Jon, usually including dinner, playing time and a movie, and of course hilarious and/or deep meaningful conversation) night with delicious fish tacos and the movie Starsky & Hutch (to begin our "cop trilogy" set).
-Saturday was the drive-in movie with our awesomely behaved daughters (woot!) and Uncle Jon and Aunt Telcia. We saw The Avengers and it was AWESOME!
-Sunday we woke up with sick girls (they've been sick for a few days, but seemed pretty terrible this morning). After feeding CHessidy, I fell back asleep and woke up to the sound of the dishes being done. When I finally made it out of the bedroom I walked into a clean kitchen. Thank you awesome husband of mine :)
-Then it was on to lunch with my dad, who was driving through Twin Falls with the U-Haul full of my grandparents stuff (my mom's parents are moving to Boise!)
-After lunch we went to Hands On, which is a ceramic painting place. We picked 4 soup bowls and had a grand time painting them. I'm excited to pick them up on Thursday and see how they turned out!
-Onto Starbucks for frappicino happy hour, where I was treated to a very large, decaf frap. of deliciousness.
-When we got home the girls went down for naps and I drove 3 minutes away to free internet and watched a show and then went home.
-Now we are at Marma and Poppy's celebrating Mother's Day with Marma.
It sure is great being a mother. Thank you Lord for bringing me two beautiful children and for a husband who made me feel super duper great on this Mother's Day!
Friday, May 4, 2012
Chessidy, Ila, house.
Today Chessidy is 2 weeks old! What a wonderful 2 weeks it has been. She mostly sleeps and eats, but we sure enjoy our time together. Chessidy also has developed her cry from dinosaurish to an all out scream, it is pretty vicious, but we love her none the less for it! She likes to stay curled up like she was in the womb still and loves being held against a chest, but she sleeps nicely in her bassinet, for 4-6 hours at night. I sure appriciate that! So far we have not had night and day mix-up problems, and I hope it stays that way.
Ila loves being a big sister most of the time. She is adjusting well, but has a hard time when mommy is feeding Chessidy for the umpteenth time in a day. I do my best to spend good quality time with her in-between feeds and cleaning at what not. Ila helps me with laundry and in the kitchen some, so that is fun.
Trent is still loving his job. I'm loving mine. We are in the process or buying a house, and it is supposed to close on the 24th of this month if all goes well. It's a pretty great house, so we hope all does go well. I'm not looking forward to moving for the 9th time in 4 years but I'm looking forward to living in our own home, and hoping that it means we'll be in one place for awhile!
Ila loves being a big sister most of the time. She is adjusting well, but has a hard time when mommy is feeding Chessidy for the umpteenth time in a day. I do my best to spend good quality time with her in-between feeds and cleaning at what not. Ila helps me with laundry and in the kitchen some, so that is fun.
Trent is still loving his job. I'm loving mine. We are in the process or buying a house, and it is supposed to close on the 24th of this month if all goes well. It's a pretty great house, so we hope all does go well. I'm not looking forward to moving for the 9th time in 4 years but I'm looking forward to living in our own home, and hoping that it means we'll be in one place for awhile!
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Chessidy's Birth Story by Trent
In case you were thinking this might be a repeat of Ila's birth story, please kindly take your pessimism to some other blog!! This story helps highlight, among other things, a new appreciation for healthcare workers and the beautiful teamwork that took place among our birth team members which included the hospital staff and doctor.
Chessidy's birth started the same, it seemed, as Ila's. Good progression in the weeks leading up to the birthday, and leaving the doctor's office with encouraging words that it is likely "going to be today, and happen fast!"
Nicole started having fairly regular contractions right away on Thursday the 19th ranging from 10 to 15 minutes apart. By the time I got home from work she was having them about 8 to 10 minutes apart, but we had some house hunting plans, and decided to continue with them, in an effort to spur on the labor. It sure seemed like it was working, and by the time we were done looking at places we called our Doula and started in with our plan of making it to the hospital a little sooner for the birth.
We ended up checking in to our lovely birth room around 10:30pm on April 19th and were all expecting to hear that the baby was all but out. To our surprise Nicole was still about 4cm dilated, which is what she had been at 6 hours earlier during her appointment. We just figured that we hadn't really hit the "hard" contractions yet, and rolled up our sleeves (because the room was warm) and started in with our mantra!
Three or so hours later the nurses were excited with all of the positive labor, and attitudes and said we might be nearing the "pushing part" and offered to give Nicole a little checky-wecky. Well, she was progressed to 7cm, which was positive, because that meant that we were definitely moving forward to the birth, but we were all a little miffed that it was now 2:00am and we were just starting the hard part!!!
That wasn't enough to phase this team though, and the nurses were encouraging and helpful in lots of ways. However, by the time 4:00am rolled around, and Nicole was still not fully dilated, suggestions started being murmured of breaking Nicole's bag of waters to help urge things along. We said we were open to that if it was going to be beneficial, but we didn't want to just do it and then find ourselves not progressing AND being in lots of pain from the missing cushion of waters. The time for the water to be broken came when our doctor gave Nicole the go-ahead to start pushing because she had finally dilated (around 5:30am on 4/20). Nicole asked if she could push a little bit to see if the waters would burst on their own. After a couple really good pushes, she politely requested for the intervention.
Since Chessidy was positioned so low breaking the bag of waters didn't appear to accomplish too much since only about a tablespoon of water drizzled out. However, this took some of that hydraulic pressure off of the cervical area and allowed for the pushing to drive little Chessidy on through. The drive involved a change in positions from sitting up in the bed to kneeling while facing the bed. This position allowed gravity to help with the descending little one. As Grandma pointed out later, "Gravity: it's not just a good idea, it's the law!"
So with just a few more pushes Chessidy graced us with her entry to the world at a healthy 9 lbs, 2.1 oz; 22 inches long, with a head circumference of 35 centimeters! I was able to clamp and cut the cord, after we re-positioned Nicole to have some skin to skin contact with Chessidy and the cord stopped pulsing. The placenta also came out without having to be tugged on or anything like that.
Within a couple hours we were in a new room recuperating and getting used to life with Chessidy Light. The nurses and doctors were all we could have ever hoped for, and left us feeling well cared for, and valued. They appreciated our concerns, and didn't pressure us to make conventional decisions, and they were very helpful and attentive when we needed explanations about certain nuances in practices or procedures. This was important to us because of the disenchantment we experienced with healthcare professionals with Ila's birth. We wanted to feel more trustworthy of our local healthcare facility and Chessidy helped us do that with her birth.
Chessidy's birth started the same, it seemed, as Ila's. Good progression in the weeks leading up to the birthday, and leaving the doctor's office with encouraging words that it is likely "going to be today, and happen fast!"
Nicole started having fairly regular contractions right away on Thursday the 19th ranging from 10 to 15 minutes apart. By the time I got home from work she was having them about 8 to 10 minutes apart, but we had some house hunting plans, and decided to continue with them, in an effort to spur on the labor. It sure seemed like it was working, and by the time we were done looking at places we called our Doula and started in with our plan of making it to the hospital a little sooner for the birth.
We ended up checking in to our lovely birth room around 10:30pm on April 19th and were all expecting to hear that the baby was all but out. To our surprise Nicole was still about 4cm dilated, which is what she had been at 6 hours earlier during her appointment. We just figured that we hadn't really hit the "hard" contractions yet, and rolled up our sleeves (because the room was warm) and started in with our mantra!
Three or so hours later the nurses were excited with all of the positive labor, and attitudes and said we might be nearing the "pushing part" and offered to give Nicole a little checky-wecky. Well, she was progressed to 7cm, which was positive, because that meant that we were definitely moving forward to the birth, but we were all a little miffed that it was now 2:00am and we were just starting the hard part!!!
That wasn't enough to phase this team though, and the nurses were encouraging and helpful in lots of ways. However, by the time 4:00am rolled around, and Nicole was still not fully dilated, suggestions started being murmured of breaking Nicole's bag of waters to help urge things along. We said we were open to that if it was going to be beneficial, but we didn't want to just do it and then find ourselves not progressing AND being in lots of pain from the missing cushion of waters. The time for the water to be broken came when our doctor gave Nicole the go-ahead to start pushing because she had finally dilated (around 5:30am on 4/20). Nicole asked if she could push a little bit to see if the waters would burst on their own. After a couple really good pushes, she politely requested for the intervention.
Since Chessidy was positioned so low breaking the bag of waters didn't appear to accomplish too much since only about a tablespoon of water drizzled out. However, this took some of that hydraulic pressure off of the cervical area and allowed for the pushing to drive little Chessidy on through. The drive involved a change in positions from sitting up in the bed to kneeling while facing the bed. This position allowed gravity to help with the descending little one. As Grandma pointed out later, "Gravity: it's not just a good idea, it's the law!"
So with just a few more pushes Chessidy graced us with her entry to the world at a healthy 9 lbs, 2.1 oz; 22 inches long, with a head circumference of 35 centimeters! I was able to clamp and cut the cord, after we re-positioned Nicole to have some skin to skin contact with Chessidy and the cord stopped pulsing. The placenta also came out without having to be tugged on or anything like that.
Within a couple hours we were in a new room recuperating and getting used to life with Chessidy Light. The nurses and doctors were all we could have ever hoped for, and left us feeling well cared for, and valued. They appreciated our concerns, and didn't pressure us to make conventional decisions, and they were very helpful and attentive when we needed explanations about certain nuances in practices or procedures. This was important to us because of the disenchantment we experienced with healthcare professionals with Ila's birth. We wanted to feel more trustworthy of our local healthcare facility and Chessidy helped us do that with her birth.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Introducing Ila's Best Friend
She has finally arrived! Our new bundle of joy finally joined our family!
April 20, 2012 at 5:53am.
9 pounds, 2 ounces
22 inches long
Here she is, our beautiful daughter:
Chessidy Light Becker
Her name is quite unique like Ila's, and has very deep meaning as well. We got Chessidy from the Hebrew word "Chesed" which translates to Lovingkindness. Her middle name, Light, is to remind us and her of God's light that shines upon us, and her name is also chessiDELIGHT, as in we Delight in her, the Lord delights in her and we delight in the Lord. We find her name to be quite Delightful! :)
Chessidy is nice and healthy, mom is doing well recovering after a long, hard, natural (yea!) birth and we are all trying to catch up on sleep, as we were up all through the night.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Settled
We are sure happy to report that we are nice and settled into our new/temporary home. Our 2 closets 9a regular sized on and a very large walk-in are stuffed to the gills with boxes as is the 4X4 storage unit that came with the place. Most of our stuff fits nicely enough though, and we are thankful to our Marma and poppy for storing the other stuff that doesn't fit, like our deep freeze.
Ila is pretty well adjusted to the new home and we are so happy to be back to our normal routine! I find that not having the internet sure makes for more productive days! I do miss being able to look up recipes and switch up dinner plans at the last moment, but I will survive! I do have several cookbooks that are being used, so that is nice.
My last doctors appointment put me at 2cm dilate, 75% effaced and the baby is at a -3. That means she is super low, which was no surprise to me as I'm pretty sure she's been at a -2 this entire pregnancy! My body is HURTING like crazy, but it's worth it. I'm super excited to meet our little one though, and to figure out her name! We're hoping for April 16th for the birth 9because we have so much control...right?!?!) because it's Trent's grandma's birthday, and it would be a real blessing to have a little one on that day. We'll see if we can make it happen!
Trent is enjoying his job. He already had a bit of a shift in what he is doing, and it fits him much better. He was the lawn care foreman, but now he is the landscaping foreman. He like landscaping wuite a bit, so he is excited about it. Also, if you've heard about the Chobani factory being built in Twin Falls, you'll be pleased to know that Living Earth (Trent's company he works for) got the bid to landscape it, so he'll be running the crew that does that landscaping there, and of course getting his hands dirty in it! He is currently studying for the CDL test, as his company would like him to have one and it comes with a raise, so why not, right?! Trent's two weeks working outside have renewed his appetite, darkened his skin and brought home some bacon, so I'd say things are going really great!
Ila's potty routine took a hit with the move, but we seem to be back to all good now. Her current favorite things are playing with her toys (which she has a new found passion for, since she didn't see them for two months). She plays and plays and plays, putting babies to bed, telling them to "be quiet" and taking them to the potty. She also has two new favorite movies (goodbye Tangled and Toy Story 3) Bolt and Finding Nemo. She especially likes the sharks and the whale in finding Nemo, and always likes to mention Dori. It's pretty cute, and it is nice to shake things up a bit! Her vocabulary is pretty incredible. She can sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star all by herself, say the alphabet (with a little help) and count to ten, if you say five for her. She LOVES counting things! She knows her colors, and I think we'll start working on letter recognization next. Oh, and her other favorite song (TTLS and ABC'S are her favorite 2) is Little Bunny Foo Foo, who was hare today and goon tomorrow!
So that is our story! Please forgive the typos, I'm writing tis int he driveway of my in-laws and would rather go hang out with them, then re-read it! :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)