Prematurity Awareness Month

On this last day of November, I want to write a little bit about an issue that is close to my heart: premature birth. November is Prematurity Awareness Month.

1 in 8 babies in the United States is born too soon, which amounts to 543,000 babies each year. That leaves a lot of room for improvement for our country.

Wyatt & Colton were born at 35 weeks 5 days. We were extremely lucky in that the boys were born so healthy and needed no NICU or special care nursery time. That does not mean we did not have our struggles. Having two preemie babies for us meant – early struggles with feedings because of their under-developed muscles used to suck, car beds instead of regular car seats for the first month, staying home-bound for the first month of their life to protect them from being exposed to too many germs and developmental delays. They have hit all their developmental milestones so far, they have just been a little bit behind. (Check out this comparison on why at least 39 weeks is best for your baby.)

Please visit the March of Dimes to learn more or donate to this amazing cause.

(Bonus: They are matching all donations now through the end of the year!)

Tooth #3!!

Wyatt finally broke through another tooth last Friday (11/25/11) – whoo-hoo!!

The current tooth count is: Wyatt – 3 and Colton – 12

Wyatt popped through his bottom two teeth a couple months ago & we hadn’t seen any other tooth action since. His top two teeth have been looking like they were going to pop through at any time for a week or so and I finally felt his top-left one poke through the day after Thanksgiving. (I’m guessing the other one will pop through in the next week or so now.)

Colton popped through all four of his 1-year molars during the past month, without much notice to us. I don’t mind that kind of teething!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for again this year – our family & friends most of all – and of course, our two healthy, beautiful boys. We are also very thankful for our jobs & home, as my company has went through some changes in the past few months but I have been blessed to remain employed. We thank God for all the blessings he has given our family to enjoy this past year.

This was the boys second Thanksgiving. Last year they were a bit smaller and were not old enough to enjoy the delicious holiday spread. This year, we enjoyed the holiday with my dad’s side of the family once again – 21 of us were able to get together. We all enjoyed a delicious lunch of turkey/ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, corn, buns & more! The boys ate really well and especially loved the sweet potatoes. It was a fun day visiting & catching up with family. The most fun was seeing the 7 “little boys” playing together. Between me, my sister and two cousins (who grew up just a mile down the road from us) we have a total of 7 little boys – ranging from 8 months to just under 4 years. It’s quite a change from it being girl-dominated as we were growing up.

Thanksgiving weekend is extra special to me – it was two years ago this past weekend that we found out, after such a long journey, that we were expecting. I still remember the shock/joy when I first saw the test finally come out positive!

The boys & I spent the weekend at my parents’ while Cory enjoyed a hunting weekend with “the guys”. We did a little Black Friday shopping, had a lunch out, enjoyed a play date, I had dinner out with “the girls” and just played. We had a wonderful weekend that went by way too fast!

Pink Eye!

The boys had their first “sick day” from daycare last Friday. We’ve all had colds, with the runny nose & cough, for the last week or so but Thursday night I could tell Wyatt’s eyes were getting a little irritated-looking. Friday morning when the boys woke up, they both had super red eyes that they could barely open. Poor guys!

They stayed home from daycare and we made a visit to our doctor for a confirmation of double-pink eye for both of them (and also got an updated weight check – Colton now weighs more than Wyatt – Colton was 24 lbs 14 oz & Wyatt was 24 lbs 8 oz; they were also both right around 31 inches long!).

We’re on day 4 of their eye ointment treatment (yeah, we got ointment instead of drops – our doctor says it stings less and stays in better) and it’s getting a little easier giving it to them. Although, I have to admit, I’ve reverted to bribing them with yogurt melts after they let me put the medicine in their eyes. I’ve had to do it solo for the last few days, as Cory was away hunting for the weekend (& successfully shot an 8 point-buck!), and this is the approach that has worked best for me. 1.day.left.

Sleep

Sleep…this is something we have not been getting much of in our house lately. I want it back!

The boys have been a bit thrown off since the daylight savings time switch two weeks ago. Their days go well but then they are always hungry for dinner by 5-5:15pm and ready for bed by 6:30 pm. (Pre-time switch we usually ate dinner around 5:45-6 pm and were ready for bed around 7 pm.) This has cut our evening time together short but they were still sleeping in until their normal 6-6:30 am time…

…until this weekend. Wyatt all of a sudden started waking up and acting like he was ready to get up for the day at 5 am on Saturday morning and has been doing the same thing every morning since. Colton has been waking around the same time (or shortly after) but part of that is due to being woke up by his brother, I’m sure. The only other strange thing is that Wyatt’s waking up crying and he isn’t in a good mood like he normally is, so maybe these lingering colds we’re fighting are part of the problem as well. Or teething, as his top two front teeth look really close to breaking through (yes, the poor kid still only has 2 teeth!) – you can always blame it on teething! Colton was definitely struggling with his cold last night – crying every half hour-hour. Poor kids! Ah, the joys of winter-cold season.

16 Months Old

From summer-like temps in early October to the threat of accumulating snow tomorrow – fall is always full of surprises. The weather has been fairly decent lately so we’ve continued to enjoy nightly walks but we also invested in a weather-shield for our stroller, so we’ll be able to continue taking walks into late-fall/winter on those cold, windy days. We’ve used it a couple times now and the boys stay nice & warm inside of it – so far I’d say it works great!

Yesterday at daycare was big milestone for the boys – they only took ONE nap. The boys have been struggling off & on with their afternoon nap for about a month, so I knew that they were ready to try dropping down to one nap a day but I wanted to wait and let them get into the daycare routine first. Their teacher, Mrs. “B”, said they actually did really well staying up all morning but she is really good at keeping them busy & really involved. They stayed awake through lunch and then fell asleep as soon as they laid down on their sleeping bags. They both slept for almost 3 hours, so that is actually better than the 2-hour morning nap with a little afternoon rest-time they were previously getting. They were a little crabby last evening and went to bed about ½ hour early at 6:30 PM, but they slept all the way through the night, so that wasn’t affected at all. I’m sure it’ll just take a little while to get used to the one-nap and they’ll be back to their cheerful moods in the evenings.

We’ve also been working learning to identify the parts of your body with the boys. Both love playing the “where’s your…?” game but Wyatt gets into it the most. Wyatt can point to his: head, toes, belly, nose, ears and someone else’s eyes. Colton can point this his: head & belly. This is something we do during wind-down time right before bed.

At night, the boys have been sleeping awesome. They are still sleeping around 11-12 hours each night. They fall asleep somewhere between 6:45-7:15 PM. (Our bedtime routine is: bath (on bath night), lotion & jammies, blanket & book.) They go to bed semi-awake and do a good job of putting themselves to sleep. They both have been sleeping until between 6-7 AM, although I now have to wake them up at 6:10 AM on weekdays to get us to daycare & work on-time.

Wyatt
- shakes his head “No”
- loves reading books
- tries to climb on anything & everything (especially stairs!)
- helps throw dirty diapers away & put dirty clothes in the dirty clothes basket
- waves “Hi!” & “Bye!” to everyone (also uses this at bedtime to wave night-night)
- has 2 teeth
Signs
- “More” – he is starting to use this sign again
- “Please”
Words
- “Ma” = mom
- “Da” = dad
- “Ma” = milk
- “That”
- “Da” = dog
- “Go”

Colton
- shakes his head & says “Yes”
- loves reading books
- tries to climb on anything & everything (especially stairs!)
- helps throw dirty diapers away & put dirty clothes in the dirty clothes basket
- waves “Hi!” & “Bye!” to everyone (also uses this at bedtime to wave night-night)
- has 11 teeth (broke through his top two 1-year molars the last week in October)
Signs
- “More” – he is starting to use this sign again
- “Please”
Words
- “Ma” = mom
- “Da” = dad
- “Up”
- “That”
- “Hi!”
- “Yes”

First Day of Daycare

Yesterday was the boys’ first day of daycare. I’m so happy to report that it went really well! There was definitely more worrying & tears in the days/weeks leading up to yesterday, then yesterday itself.

We arrived at what will be our normal time in the morning and I stayed for about 25-30 minutes to help them ease into their day. (I’m not sure if that extra time actually helped them or mommy settle down more!) They were the first ones in their room to arrive, so that made it a bit less intimidating. They even waved bye-bye to me when I left (although their teacher – Miss “B” – said they had just a little “sad” time shortly after that). Cory & I decided to help ease the transition into fulltime daycare; the boys will go for two half-days, yesterday & today, and then start in fulltime next week. I will be in charge of drop off in the morning and Cory will be doing pick up, most days.

When I came to pick them up on my lunch hour yesterday, Miss “B” said she couldn’t believe how well they were adjusting – eating well & playing well, like they had always been there. That felt so good to hear.

Drop off this morning went pretty well again. I kept it a little bit shorter today. They sat down and had snack right away with another little boy that was there, Ayden. I gave hugs & kisses and waved bye-bye. They were still eating their snack but Wyatt was a little sad. I’m going to give a quick call shortly to check up on them, but I’m sure they’re doing fine again today.

Colton helping mommy mix-up some Halloween cupcakes!

Wyatt playing after trick-or-treating.

Happy Halloween!

My two little “bats” had a fun Halloween!

Cory brought the boys to my work in the afternoon for our special trick-or-treating hours for the employees’ “little ghosts & goblins”. They got the hang of that real quick – carrying around their little pumpkin buckets, desk-to-desk, looking cute & smiling for everyone while grabbing whatever fun “treat” they were offering. (They visited my work last year too – but had so much more fun this year since they were walking on their own.)

After work, we loaded them up in their little red wagon and made a short trick-or-treating trip to about 8 houses in our neighborhood before it was dinner time. Even though it is officially the boys’ second Halloween, this was their first Halloween trick-or-treating trip. Just like they had done so well earlier in the day, they loved carrying their little pumpkin buckets around, happily walking up to everyone’s door. Sometimes they weren’t so sure about picking out a treat and acted a little shy with some of the neighbors – but all-in-all they did really well. It was a bit chilly out, but they stayed really warm in their costumes and kept their mittens on too. Of course, all the yummy candy they collected will be consumed by mommy & daddy, but there was one house that gave them cute, dinosaur board books and another one that gave them some fruit snack-like bites that they can enjoy.

Ready to roll in the little red "bat-mobile"!

...and we're off!

Loading back up into the "bat-mobile".

Colton

Wyatt

Ditching the "bat-mobile" & heading cross-country to the
next house!