Brendon's Home!

 We went and picked up Brendon from my parent's house on Saturday afternoon. Everett and I tagged along so my Dad and youngest Brother could meet the baby. We stayed for an hour and headed home. Brendon tried to stay awake on the way home but crashed half way through town. He told us he had to watch baby brother in the car.

He woke up long enough to walk into the apartment and sit on our steps. Daddy carried him up and he climbed on the couch. He wanted to hold Everett but fell asleep before he had the chance so we got a few of them together.

 Brendon was out like that most the evening, he woke up to eat some dinner then fell back to sleep again like he never moved.

Baby Everett Day 2

Day two was just as long as day 1. At the hospital they have the practice of if you don't call to ask for it they wont bother you unless its a test or check up time. That being said they do night checks during the night to "make sure everyone is breathing". That was every 1.5 hours and no matter how quiet they were Everett and I would still wake up and be awake for 30-45 minutes. 

During the night (3am) they took Everett to do his hearing test, the machine was broke so the test had to be rescheduled. At 6am it was like the world came alive and everyone was in the halls. Between 6am and 8am we had :

*Everett get a bath

*Dr Pank (pediatrician & family doctor) come for a new baby check, circumcision, chat with Mommy

*Dr McGewen (one of my OB's) Check up for Mommy

*OB Resident

*change of Nurses - BP checks, temperature checks on Mommy and Everett

*Baby photographer

*Lactation consultant

*Everett hearing test

*Breakfast dropped off

By the end of all that we were all ready for a nap. It slowed down for a while and we had several other stop in but or the most part we were able to sleep and snuggle with Everett. 

My Mom and Sophia brought lunch up for Nathan and to let Brendon visit for a while with us. He also got his Big Brother gift from Everett. 

 He also got to hold the baby again. This time he was a lot more excited and told everyone it was his baby. He even told the nurse she couldn't take the baby when it was time for his Jondice testing, and his checkout exam to see if he could go home.

 After Brendon left with my Mom and sister I took a shower and we packed up to get ready for our discharge. Everett got back and we waited a few hours for paperwork and test results to come back. We got the all clear and headed home about 6.

 

We ended up having to change homecoming outfits because even though Everett was in the larger range the 2 sleepers we brought were still way to big. So he had the backup outfit from the Diaper bag on to go home.

***

Nate went to hang out with Brendon at my parents after Everett and I were settled. Little did anyone know that Brendon would fall asleep by 7 and be out till 3 am. He woke grandpa up and they watched TV till 6am then they went back to bed till after 10am. He had had such a fun time at my parents not to mention kept everyone on their toes for the 3 days he was there. My parents forgot what it was like to have a 2, almost 3 year old with them all day. He wore them out faster then they did him.

Brendon managed to empty several piggy banks without breaking them, go for a lumber run with uncle Keith and jam out to music, wear out 15 dogs, help plant a garden, help on the tractor, find every hidden junk food/candy, help Grandpa fill and clean his van, and who knows what else. It was a blast to hear him tell us all about it.

Baby Everett! Day 1

 Everett John was born May 28th at 1:56pm. He was 9lbs 1oz and 20 in long.
 
After going in for a checkup on Tuesday the doctors decided to induce me to ensure we had the baby before Nate left for California but more importantly was for my blood pressure still being in the higher range of normal, and his size (they were guessing he was about 8lbs 3 oz).

Below is our experience at the hospital:
I was checked in at 7:30 am, Once they were ready and several of the on call resident doctors came in to say hi we started the patocin. They kept it at a low drip hoping it would be enough to kick my body into gear and it did. They only upped the dose 3 times over the day, one being for recovery after having Everett. 

At 11 Nate decided to step out of the room for a few minutes and it seemed like everyone wanted to check in. I had my 2 nurses, 2 resident OB's in the room when he got back about 5 minutes later (They were just doing rounds). The on call OB wanted them to try to break my water at that point.... no luck. They decided that my OB could try again when he came by around lunch... little did we know my body had other plans.

11:45am Nate and I were playing phase 10, which apparently is an uncommon thing to see in the maternity ward. Almost as uncommon as a mom saying no epidural. Anyway 11:45 my water broke on its own and the nurse called my OB to let him know. He came in around 12 to say hi and see how I was feeling. Yet again another shocked face to see me calm, watching TV, talking and playing cards. 

Around 1pm I was having a lot of back pain so I had gotten out of the bed to move around and nothing was helping relive it. After a while (1:30ish) I asked for a mild pain medication. they decided to give me Fetinal.... they had me get back in bed and gave me a partial dose, less than 1/2. After a few minutes my eyes were having trouble focusing on anything and I felt slightly muddled when I tried to focus and Nate had to help me more because all I could think about was how it felt like my nero-sycope attacks. 

**This is where I get fuzzy on things so Nate filled in the details**

After a few minutes (around 1:35-40) of the fetinal being in my system by body decided it wasn't going to relax rather it was going to go into full on labor. (who knew that would happen again) I was having stronger contractions and my body was ready before the nurses. So much so that the nurse who was in the room hit the nurse call button and started prepping the room, no one came and she hit the emergency switch. Everyone came! First nurse in the door she said call Dr Lappa she's having this baby. She then prepped to deliver the baby herself in case the Doctors didn't make it in time (he only had to walk down 3 halls from his office). Lucky for me he did. It was a quick birth and Everett was healthy and happy.

Visitors:

Keith and Sophia came up around 4 while we were waiting to change rooms

 Grandma and Aunt Kathleen brought Brendon up to say goodnight and see the baby for the first time after we got into our recovery room. He was excited to see the baby until Everett started to fuss and cry. Then he just wanted daddy .

 Aunt Kathleen was so excited for the baby and wanted to come up earlier but had a lacrosse game. She worked her butt off and won too! (Her team never wins) Way to go Kat!

 

 My Uncle Enoch, Aunt Jenny, Sarenia and Elijah came by as well. This was a lot of fun because Elijah is only a month old a threw the nurses off on what baby they were there to check on.

  Round two of Brendon "holding" the baby

 

Mud!

With all the rain the last week it has been hard to avoid this happening. Finally after several long days this Momma gave in and let Brendon have at it. He thought it was the best thing in the world to throw balls in the puddle then take a stick and try to use it like a gulf club to hit it out. He also loved just plain old jumping in the mud to watch the water splash everywhere. 

 

The best part was when it was all said and done mommy didn't have to worry about giving him a bath. Aunt Sophia stripped him down with Grandma on the cement and gave him a bath.... Well more like he gave her one. I'm sure there was more water on her and the bathroom floor then on Brendon. When we headed home he was clean as can be and ready for bed!

Bird House!

 With all the scrap wood sitting around Brendon and Matthew wanted to build a bird house. So we rounded up some old nails from the deck that were still good, and some wood. Brendon said it was hard work to nail in the nails.
Uncle Matthew would start the nails and then Brendon Would "finish" them. Grandpa drilled out a hole in teh front for teh birds to go in and out of and it was all done. 

 Due to the rain we weren't able to hang it up yet but we'll post some pictures when we do.

Turtle Turtle Turtle

 Yesterday Aunt Sophia found a Turtle on the driveway and brought it up to Brendon to see. He wasn't to sure about the turtle nor was the turtle of him. This is the first time he's had a turtle where he could touch it and all he could think about is "why is he hiding?" he kept telling the turtle it was ok and that he could come out.

Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend has been crazy busy for us! We were out at my parents all weekend only going home to sleep and run a few errands in the mornings. Besides that we were go go go.

 

 Brendon playing on the back deck with Uncle Keith's dog's Chester and Diesel. Brendon is used to Chester from our visit in the fall but it was funny watching him learn how to cope with a bigger dog. They would have collisions while running and Brendon would come up yelling "he licked my face, he licked my face"

 

 Brendon got to ride on the trailer with Grandma as Uncle Keith put it away from hauling wood up to the house to fix the deck. He then got to ride on the tractor back to the house.

 

  He got so excited for the tractor that my Brother dug out our old peddle tractors and started fixing them up for him to ride on. Brendon thought is was "Awesome" and kept asking everyone to push him on the tractor cars so he could go fast!

 Brendon loves to play on the trampoline with Aunt Kathleen and they came up with a new game. They act like different animals. Here are some of their falcon  and Monkey impressions.

 

 The biggest part of the weekend was replacing my parents decking. My Dad, Brother Keith and Nathan slaved over the deck rain or shine all weekend and still have a small amount left to do, they ran out of boards yesterday and have to wait for more to come in.

 Brendon didn't like being locked off the bigger section on the deck.  He also kept trying to get everyone to lift him over so he could help Daddy and Grandpa.  At one point he was throwing his plastic construction tools over the fence so they could use his tools to work.  Another game he started to play was tossing his toys to make a "basket" though the whole in the deck and then asking Uncle Matthew or Aunt Kathleen to get them.

 Monday morning we took a break to go to a parade in Holly honoring those who fought and died. Brendon loved being able to see trucks, bands and veterans. He waved to all the emergency personnel that went by and the veterans. 

 

At the beginning of the parade they had the local VA doing the color guard, Brendon saw the flag and said shhhh to everyone near by and then stood with his hand over his heart till they walked away. This was a big thing for us to see and made us proud of our  almost 3 year old.  Most the people around us didn't even take off hats or stand for the flag.