Two By Two

Well it's already been another week since I updated so let me update again while I have a minute of down time :)

Journey is now 2 weeks old. WOW. He had his 2 week check up today. He was 7 lbs 6 oz and 19 inches long (one week ago he was 6 lbs 6 oz and 18.5 inches according to their measurements) so he's growing :) He is still a peanut though. Only in the 3-5 percentile for height and 10-25 for weight. He's still only able to fit in preemie clothes and depending on the brand some of those are still big on him. I went through his clothes this morning and discovered that we go from the few preemie clothes we have straight to 0-3 months which swallow him whole at this point.. we don't have any newborn clothing. Oops. He's a good baby for the most part. We are still adjusting to the sleepless nights but even nights aren't too bad. He wakes every 2-3 hours to nurse and then conks back out for another 2-3 hours. We are already noticing some difference in his personality from his brother. For one, Journey HATES to be put down. We've just recently been able to get him laying in the swing for an hour or so at a time but for the most part he's held or nursing. At night we've tried a few times to put him in the co-sleeper/snuggle nest but he won't have it. The instant we turn the light off he starts to cry to be picked up and then as soon as he's picked up and laid on someone he passes out. LOL. Doug has been sleeping on the couch with him on his chest while I heal from the c-section and now neither of us can remember how we broke River from this behavior (he did the same thing of sleeping on our chests on the couch). We have discovered that Journey has a temper. The instant you take his diaper off he screams as if he's being tortured and then pees from the strain of screaming LOL. But he is quick to be calmed and is such a cuddle bug. I love it.

River has been doing okay with Journey. He is a great big brother. This morning when he woke up Journey was in his swing and started crying, River ran over to him and goes "ut oh baby" and looked around, he founda bottle of expressed breast milk on the table and put it next to Journey in the swing with out so much as distrubing the rocking motion. The first thing he does whenever he wakes up is look for Journey. He is very gentle with him, rubs/pats his head softly and says "baby"or "brudder" (brother). He is so beautiful and has such a gentle heart.. I love him so much. The only bit of jealousy I've seen isn't really even jealousy so much as trying to adjust to the changes. His night time routine has been really screwed up ever since I went into the hospital. When we got home he was turning his rain maker up to ear shattering decibals and screaming while standing in the middle of his room as if he was afraid of getting into bed at night. We've been working with him every night now to help him get over his fear (even though we have no idea what it is that scared him). The rain doesn't go up so loud anymore and he climbs right into bed now but still fights going to sleep every night. I don't know if this is just him being 2, or if this is him adjusting to the changes in the house, or if something really did scare him while I was gone for 3 days. He amazes me every day now with the new things he says and does. He has perfected jumping from small ledges (the hearth) or just hopping around the living room. He's doing much better about asking for things using words and his vocabulary continues to grow by leaps and bounds every day. He is so smart. He is learning his colors and for the most part can find you anything you ask for if you name it with a color "can you get the red ball?" "can you find mommy's white shoes". He can name some colors if you show him as well. His favorite color right now is "boo" (blue) and everything will be blue if asked. He's learning how to dress and undess himself but still perfers to have daddy or mommy do it. He's just an amazing little man.

I filed bankrupsty a few weeks ago. I'm due to appear in court in April to finalize it. Getting that taken care makes me feel so much better. I made a ton of bad decisions when I was 18 years old and ended up with alot of credit card debt and medical bills from being uninsured and I've known for a while now that there would be no way for me to climb out from under it. So finally when income tax came in, we agreed that it was time to file. We were also able to get all of our bills current and even pay in advance for a few of the bills that we know will be staying the same for the next few months. Now we have bills taken care of up through April (when Doug graduates and when I can go back to work) so we can stay current and caught up and continue to climb out of the hole that nursing school and bad decisions/planning put us in. We still fully plan on moving back to Tennessee this summer but we don't have an exact date picked yet. We've decided to wait until both of us can work for a few months down here again so we can build a nest egg and stay on our feet when move back up there. Plus remaining down here long enough for Doug to work as a massage therapist for a few months will give him some history in the feild before moving to a new state and will hopefully make it easier to transition to a new job for him up there.

Physically I feel better every day. I go Wednesday to the OB for an incision check and to the midwife for a 2 week post partum check up. I've been monitoring my weight here at home and have lost 20 lbs since I delivered Journey. It is a good start for the 60 I need to lose. I'm hoping when I go to the OB that she will give me clearance drive again and give me an idea of when I'll be allowed to return to work. Now that the craziness of the first few weeks of appointments and adjustments is behind us, I'm looking forward to settling into a routine as a family of 4 now.

Here are few pictures of Journey from today :)