Family Pictures: Party of Five

I have been looking forward to our family pictures this year, namely because a candid picture of all of us is rare, particularly since Bennett was born. I take lots of pictures of the kids, some with one parent with one or 2 of the kids, and fewer with all 3 kids. So, it was time to get some good shots of the family!

While the pictures I will post here are decent (and some quite good, which speaks to the skill of photographers), let me first say that I underestimated two things: 1) the sweltering heat and the impact prolonged exposure to said torturous conditions would have on Bennett, especially dressed in the summer-to-fall transition clothes I chose for us to wear, and 2) Bennett's apathy about pictures. To his credit, he doesn't know what we're doing. All he knows is that some strange lady with a giant black contraption is waving HIS monkey rattle in the air for some odd reason. Needless to say, we didn't get many smiles out of Bennett except when he was the only subject and we could resort to our tried and true methods of eliciting giggles (i.e., dancing around crazily while singing a vintage rap song).

All that to say, this was not the least stressful or most fun hour of my life. Bennett cried. Nolan cried (he kept running off and trying to play in the dirt and, by golly, it was hot and we needed to get this thing done so he kept getting into trouble). We all sweat bullets (I'm pretty sure there was some wet-shirt and forehead photoshopping involved in the photographer's editing session). And, to top it all off, at one point we put Bennett down on a blanket to talk through the way the photographer wanted to position the rest of us for the last few shots and, when we looked down, the stinker was fast asleep. This happened in the span of about 30 seconds. Poor baby was tuckered out!

So, that's the behind-the-scenes story of our picture day. Enjoy a few below!

Baby Love: 4 Months

Today Bennett is 4 months old. Time seems to be flying by despite my efforts to hang on to each day. Here are some recent pics of our little cutie patootie.

 Brotherly love

 Not too sure about playing Superman!

Little cherub baby

Ed sits on our row at church and is Bennett's buddy.

With the kids starting school last week and Jason starting this week, life for the Cox clan has resumed its chaotic pace. Being back at work while the rest of my family was still enjoying summer was a bit sad at times, but even more sad is saying goodbye to sleeping in, getting ready for work with no distractions, and leaving a quiet house. Now, I'm up at 5:45 a.m. and that's only because I've washed and dried Bailey's and my own hair the night before, have clothes picked out and lunch boxes ready to go. Then Bailey and Jason are up at 6:15, Bennett at 6:30 for his bottle, and Nolan at 6:45. Bailey and I are out the door at 7:10 so I can drop her off at the bus stop before I head in to work. Meanwhile, Jason is feeding and clothing Nolan and trying to give Bennett some attention before they all head out the door for Nolan's school drop-off, Bennett's drop-off at grandma's, and Jason's departure for school. Whew! We're getting ready for the next little trial as Jason will start clinicals on Thursdays and Fridays and will have to leave the house at 6:15 a.m.!! Fun times. :-)

 First day of 4th grade

I could just eat this little Kindergartener up!

 
In closing, I thought I'd include the side-by-side picture I created of both Bennett and Nolan at the same age. Think they look alike?

The Giggles

Just. Can't. Take. The. Cuteness.

Can You Hear Me Now?

Bennett has found his voice and become quite loud with his vocalization. He coos and makes noise constantly, especially when we talk to him. Last night, he "sang" through a great many verses of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm."

This is the best video we've taken of his voice (and I cropped it because it was quite long). Sorry it's so dark, as it was near bedtime. We have to be sneaky because, as soon as the camera comes out, he becomes fixated on it and won't smile or perform!

I tried to get a picture of all the kids one day....it's impossible to get a good one where everyone is smiling. I don't know how photographers do it. But, here is the "ehhh" one I took where Nolan is doing something strange with his mouth and Bennett is less than thrilled about the whole situation. On the contrary, Bailey was ready for her closeup!

Life is good!

Suit and Tie

All I know is this: Justin Timberlake better watch his back.

The First 90 Days

Isn't it funny how 3 months sounds like a long time, but 90 days sounds like no time at all? Either way you look at it, little Bennett is growing up. He's getting adjusted to this new world and we are getting adjusted to having him in it! He is a delightful baby (Where is some wood so I can knock on it?) and we are enjoying every second! I have now gone back to work but can honestly say that this maternity leave was the best time of my life. Jason was home, too, because he didn't take any summer courses and we did our best to make the most of each day. Of course, the first few weeks were spent learning all about Bennett and establishing a bond, we then hit the road and spent the latter part of the time traveling and making memories. It was AHHHMAZING!

Given that I now have 3 kids, I don't have much time to write. However, I thought I'd document some of the more noteworthy things about our boy and post some pictures.

-He looks just like Nolan did at his age. Jason reminded me of the importance of labeling printed pictures or 10 years from now we run the risk of not being able to tell which baby is the subject of the picture.

-At 2 months, he weighed 11 pounds, 3 ounces and was 23.5 inches long. That's 21% and 67%, respectively. Nolan had dropped to 10% by 4 months, but we're pretty sure our chunk-a-munk-a is going to track a bit bigger. August 20th is his next appointment, and I can't wait to see how big he's gotten.

-Not coincidentally, he is a good eater. Right now, he's taking 6 ounces 5 times a day. He's definitely established a schedule for eating and sleeping and is pretty consistent.

-He is also a very good sleeper. He typically goes to bed around 9:15 or 9:30 p.m. and wakes between 6:45 and 7:30 a.m. A few times he has slept until 8:30! Of course, a few times he's also gotten up at 4:45 a.m. but it's been awhile since he's done that. Regardless, I can't complain too much. Even when he was consistently getting up between 4 and 5 a.m., he would always go back to sleep for a few hours after eating. During the day, he'll usually take a couple of cat naps in the a.m. (20-30 minutes), go down for a long nap in the afternoon (2.5-4.5 hours) and then take another cat nap in the evening. If he doesn't sleep well, he gets overtired and has a hard time falling asleep. When he's fighting sleep and I'm trying to comfort him, those strong legs that kicked me so hard in my belly get their workout and sometimes I get hurt in the process!

-He's wearing 3 months and 3-6 months clothes. I unpacked lots of Nolan's old 6 months clothes and I suspect I'll be putting Bennett in them shortly. It's been kind of nice that Bennett is a bit bigger than Nolan was because, even though they were born in different seasons, I've been able to use much of Nolan's wardrobe.

-Likes: Being held (duh), rocking (I'd say duh here too, but neither of my others were soothed by rocking), having his head rubbed, being held upright, the hairdryer (I'll tell that story shortly), being swaddled (not looking forward to him rolling over as the swaddling days will be over), being out and about shopping or in the car, the name song, playing "Who's that baby in the mirror?", and "talking" to us.

-Dislikes: Getting his diaper or clothes changed, the wind, the sun (he pretty much just keeps his eyes shut outside), and TUMMY TIME. I can't think of too many other things that get him riled up. He's pretty easy going.

-We're not too sure whether he likes or dislikes his pacifier. He takes it when he's desperate to fall asleep, but usually doesn't want or need it other times. However, we found out that he certainly doesn't take just any pacifier and is partial to the one we received in the hospital. He won't even wrap his mouth around other ones.

-About a week after he came home, I began to notice a bad smell. I kept thinking he had pooped, but that was not the case. I realized it was his umbilical cord, so we were concerned about infection. While these days doctors don't encourage the use of alcohol to clean it (some study said that it falls off more quickly if you just leave it alone), I began cleaning it to stifle the smell. It wasn't red or swollen, but it was a little oozy. The doctor said infection is very rare and that it should fall off soon. It took FOREVER (or forever when all you can smell is the rotting flesh of your infant's disgusting umbilical cord) and we took to a regimen of cleaning and then drying with the hair dryer (now you know how we discovered he likes it!) to speed up the process. It finally fell off, oozed for a few more days, and then was normal and absent of the smell.

-Shortly after he arrived, the doctor noticed Bennett had the same asymmetrical dimple at the top of his booty crack that Nolan did. Also like Nolan, this required an ultrasound to rule out a tethered spinal cord. And, yet again like Nolan, the ultrasound showed no tethering. All was fine.

-He's gone on several car trips already and did just fine. Actually, he did more than fine as we were amazed at how well he tolerated the extended amount of time in the car, sleeping in different places, and being around lots of new people. Bennett's been to Dallas twice, San Antonio, and Houston. He's already a seasoned traveler!

-He smiled at 5 weeks, started cooing/"talking" at 10 weeks, discovered his own hands at 11 weeks and giggled at 12 weeks. Right now, the giggles are few and far between, but I suspect we'll hear them more over the next couple of weeks. As for the discovery of his hands, and a few times his feet, we crack up because he'll home in on one hand and, as it gets closer to his face, his eyes will cross. It's funny and creepy all at the same time! Right now, he's working on holding his head up when on his tummy. He's doing better, but he's not yet close to pushing up high enough to roll over. Nolan rolled at 11 weeks, so Bennett better get to it!!

Here are a few pics, in chronological order:

Approx. 4 weeks

5 weeks

6 weeks (The stress of tummy time led him to suck on his thumb!)

7 weeks

8 weeks

8 weeks

8 weeks: First time in the pool (in Houston)

9 weeks

10 weeks

10 weeks (Playing "Who's that baby in the mirror?")

11 weeks

12 weeks

3 months

The Rest of The Story

Because I want to remember every detail of Bennett's birth long after other memories take the place of what is currently front and center in my brain, this post is dedicated to the details of April 20, 2013. Read at your own risk!

But first, let's go back a little bit....

My due date was April 14th. This is what's on the paperwork, but I do remember my very first ultrasound predicting my due date as the 18th. Thus, I always knew there was a small margin of flexibility in the actual date. Further, both Bailey and Nolan were late, so that variable added more uncertainty about when to expect our baby. On top of all that, my doctor indicated the growth of my uterus early on as ahead of where it "should be" but then closer to my due date I was measuring smaller than average. Again, all this made me relatively unsure of whether the baby would come early, on time, or late. He chose late. :-)

As if we could control this situation, we had all these wishes about when would be the ideal time for the baby to be born. Some of these were based on Jason's school schedule and planned exams, another was based on Bailey's state testing at school. She had a lot of anxiety about missing school during testing, but certainly didn't want to miss her brother's birth. I felt really great throughout my pregnancy, so I was happy to let the baby stay put as long as was necessary in order to get through some of these difficult and anxious moments for others in my family. Again, I say this like I could have controlled it! But, in a way I felt like I could will him to stay put far more than I could will him to come out!!

Like I said, I felt great. That is, I felt great until the last few days. Physically, nothing dramatic changed, but I found myself going downhill emotionally. After my due date came and went on Sunday, the following days showing up at work to everyone's well-intentioned, "You're STILL here?!" comments started to weigh on me. I realized it was not a big deal and the baby wouldn't stay inside me forever, but by Thursday I felt a significant shift. I was depressed and overly emotional. I had planned to work up until the delivery, but in the middle of the night Thursday night I decided that I deserved to stay home Friday. In fact, I then decided that Friday would be a day of fun/house projects that would have nothing to do with the baby. And, frankly, it was just what the doctor ordered. I did laundry, shampooed my carpets, gave the dog a bath and a haircut, took Nolan to lunch and out shopping for a bit, and then played outside with both kids when Bailey got out of school.

As someone wise once said, "a watched pot never boils." As soon as I stopped obsessing over when the baby would arrive, guess what? The baby arrived. On Friday night, Jason and I stayed up kind of late watching t.v., and went to bed right before midnight. I had been sleeping on the couch for the better part of the last month as my once-glorious bed had become quite uncomfortable. At 1:00 a.m. I awoke from a dream in which I was having a very painful contraction. In my dream, I told myself that I better wake up because this wasn't really a dream. Ha! Yep, I was having a contraction.

Per my plan that anticipated labor being similar to labor with Nolan, where I timed contractions at home until they were 8 minutes apart and then went to the hospital about 5 hours into the process, I immediately got my phone and prepared to chart my contractions on a cool app I downloaded. I sat on the couch, poised and ready to wait 15? 20? minutes for the next one. And then I had another one less than 3 minutes later. This surprised me, but I thought it was probably just an irregularity and until the contractions became regular, it was likely just false labor. Then I had another one 2 1/2 minutes later.....and they continued coming less than 3 minutes apart. I also had an incredible feeling of pressure, which panicked me a bit. I also passed some blood, which had never happened to me before. I didn't THINK I would be having a home birth, but how did I know? Needless to say, I woke Jason and told him I was scared and didn't know how to handle this new situation. We debated for a minute about what to do, particularly in regard to the kids. Eventually, we decided we would just go and if necessary Jeanne and Phil could take them back home. We each called our parents and alerted them that it was "go time."

Upon arriving at the hospital, the nurse took us to what I affectionately refer to as the "holding tank" for monitoring. They checked me and said I was dilated to a 4. I expected that to be sufficient proof that I was, indeed, going to have a baby, but they said they were going to monitor me for an hour to see if I progressed. Progressed to what?? Were they going to send me home having contractions every 2 minutes and dilated to a 4? I'm pretty sure I got an epidural with Nolan when I was at a 5, so this perplexed me. In any case, our parents arrived and I suffered through pounding contractions for an hour. At that point, I was at a 5 and they called the on-call doctor to determine whether they should admit me. Again, really?

When they finally took me to a permanent room, I was really struggling. Everyone there said they had no idea that I was in as much pain as I was and I guess that's a good thing. I had a nurse who kept telling me how great I was doing, and I somehow kept myself from telling her to shut up. :-) I asked for a barf bag as I thought for a bit that I was going to throw up. The nurses assured me that they would immediately call for the anesthesiologist and it wouldn't be long before I could have an epidural. I'm sure it wasn't that long, but it seemed to take forever. I remembered contractions being painful, and increasingly so, but I'm pretty sure I hadn't previously experienced the downward pressure that I was experiencing. With each contraction, I felt that my bottom half would simply explode. I was starting to feel out of control when the anesthesiologist arrived to give me hope. :-) Then the epidural took almost 45 minutes, as the doctor had trouble threading the catheter into my back due to some scar tissue from my previous epidurals. Ugh. I've always feared the epidural (but feared the alternative even MORE) but I told my mother that I didn't care if he cut a hole in my back in order to squirt the medicine in if he would just get it done!

And then it WAS done and I started to feel some relief. Unlike my other two, I still had a lot of sensation (including the pressure feeling with each contraction) but not much actual pain. I wasn't complaining. This is when I began to enjoy the experience with the kids, my parents, Jason's parents, etc. They checked me and I was at a 7. Jason and others went to get breakfast (think it was around 6:30?) and I just relaxed. When they returned, I got a popsicle, which I gladly ate because I had still been feeling like I might get sick, I'm sure from the medicine.

Then we started wondering if they were ever going to come check me again. The nurses were preoccupied with trying to get hold of my doctor and determine whether she would be here for the delivery or if they needed to contact the on-call doctor. I didn't really care. My doctor has yet to deliver one of my children, so this was not a shock to me when they came back and said it would likely be the on-call doctor. At some point, I told the nurse that I thought my water had broken. She looked and said she didn't think so but would check me in a bit. A long bit. Finally, another nurse came in and asked if my water had broken. I told her I thought so earlier, but the nurse didn't think so, but that I continued to feel fluid. She then checked me and said, "Oh, yeah it's gone and you're completely dilated." I wonder how long that had been the case.

Then, things started moving in fast-motion. The nurses came in and started bringing supplies and getting my bed ready. A moment of comic relief came when the nurses started bickering over how to operate this new bed that they had just received. Each had a different opinion about how to adjust the leg stirrups. I sat there patiently, but feeling more anxious by the second. Where was the doctor?

Somewhere in there, we decided to let Bailey watch the delivery from up behind my head. Jeanne and my mom also stayed, and I think they both really enjoyed that experience. As we were waiting, one nurse suggested I push one time to get the baby ready for when the doctor got there. I remember thinking I didn't think that was a good idea, but I complied because I'm a rules follower. When I did, she immediately told me to stop. The doctor came in and quickly assessed the situation. She then told the nurses she didn't like how I was positioned, so there was more discussion about the newfangled bed. Jason quietly said, "The baby is coming." He saw the head, and yet the doc was still repositioning me. Then Jason got a little louder, "The baby is really coming!" I wasn't pushing or anything, but was instead watching the doctor struggle to get her gloves on in time to catch the baby. It was pretty funny, if it hadn't been a little scary to think that things were happening so quickly!

And then he was born. Jason didn't get to cut the cord this time, as the cord was wrapped around Bennett's neck, which required a little more doctor's care/intervention than usual. That was a momentary concern, which was resolved without problem and then Bennett was whisked over to the evaluation area and his nurses worked him over and then weighed and measured him. I got a big kick out of watching the kids say their first hellos to their baby brother. I also got a kick out of the fact that Bennett weighed 7.11. Bailey was 7.13, Nolan was 7.12, and now I had one that was another stair step down from there. So funny!

So there you have it....the rest of the story. The simple version is this: hard labor, super easy delivery. I honestly don't know how people do it without an epidural. Of course, just like with other things, I think expectations are key. Had I planned on not getting one, perhaps I would have been more mentally prepared to endure the labor. And, now that it's all behind me, it wasn't that bad and completely worth it. I'm glad I had three very different experiences to remember and reflect upon. I loved them all just like I love each of those crazy kiddos!

K