Decorations

Can you tell I have a two-year-old in the house who likes to mess with the Christmas decorations? Surprisingly, she's left the gifts alone. Mostly.

Chloe Turns 2

Friday was Chloe's 2nd birthday! She had her 2 year well check that morning. She is 24lbs which puts her in the 19th percentile for weight and 31 inches long which is the 3rd percentile for length. So she's still small, which we knew. She was also referred to early intervention for speech since she's not really talking.

We had Heather and her men over for cake and ice cream and to watch Chloe open her gifts. Opening a gift from Grandma and Grandpa Porter.

It's a tea set! Both girls love to play tea party now.

A stuffed horse from Rose. There are lots of fights over this guy between the girls.

A book from the Jeppson's. She's been carrying it around with her and Jillian makes me read it to them multiple times a day. If I can't read it right when she wants she'll "read" it herself to Chloe.

Chloe got a drum with some other instruments and a jacket from us.

Time for cake! She was embarrassed when everyone started singing to her.

Yummy! I think Chloe's birthday was a success!

Elliot's Blessing

We had Thankgiving at my sister, Heather's house this year and since she lives a whole 5 miles away we didn't have to go to far. My parents and younger sister, Rosemary, came to spend the weekend with us. I cooked the turkey and made Sean some gluten-free foods so he wasn't left out and we had a fun time visiting and hanging out with everyone.

That Sunday we blessed Elliot since my parents were in town. I made his blessing outfit awhile ago and since I've only ever have small babies I was a bit worried that it wouldn't fit. Luckily, I made it big enough and Elliot had plenty of moving room. His blessing was very nice but we did have the smallest circle I've ever seen. Only Sean, my Dad, and Stephen (my brother-in-law) were in it (oh, plus my bishop). It was a very nice blessing. My Aunt Sheila and my cousin Melanie and her girls came and it was nice to have them there with us too!

Sad face:(

I think this is our first family picture since Elliot was born.

Stitches

Chloe decided to help Sean do the dishes one night and while he was loading the dishwasher she got into it and grabbed the cheese grater and got her finger stuck. She pulled it off but sliced both sides of her finger in the process. Since she was bleeding pretty bad and the cut looked pretty deep, Sean rushed her to the ER while I stayed home with the other two kids. Good thing we took her in because she ended up with 10 stitches.

Warning: Stitched up finger pictures below.

Chloe had to have her whole hand wrapped because she wouldn't leave the one finger alone. She seemed fine after the first night and got her stitches out a week later without any problem. Her finger looks good now and is healing up nicely. No more helping with the dishes for Chloe!

Elliot at 2 months

Elliot had his 2 month well check today. He is:


23.9 inches long, which is in the 82nd percentile
14lbs 14oz in weight, which is in the 98th (!) percentile
40.3 cm head circumference, which is in the 57th percentile


So basically he's a hefty kid with a small head but really, his head looks fine to me. The doctor looked him over and said he was perfect (what every mother wants to hear). We saw a different doctor today because our regular pediatrician is on maternity leave and won't be back until the end of January so Elliot will have his 4 month check with this other doctor as well.


Elliot is starting to smile and coo at us (mostly me but sometimes Sean). He still gets up 2-3 times in the night to eat but goes back to sleep pretty good so I guess I can't do too much complaining. At 2 months old, both of the girls were sleeping through the night most of the time so this is getting up multiple times in the night is new to me. He is usually pretty happy but really loves to be held which creates a bit of a problem when one of the girls needs me. I'm so happy Elliot is part of our family. I love this little man!

Halloween

I was a bad picture taker this year. I think that sums up my whole year with pictures. I think it's because my hands are always full so I don't think to take a picture. Anyway, this year we went to Syracuse City's Pumpkin Walk. I got a picture of Jilly with some pumpkins.

Then on Halloween we went to the ward's Trunk-or-Treat. We brought Heather and the boys along as well.

Neither are great pictures but that's what I got. I wished I would've got a better picture of Jillian in her costume. I'm going to make her put it back on one of these days and take a better picture. I loved how her hair turned out.

Elliot as Yoda.

Grandma Came to Visit

Grandma Galland came to visit this week. We had a good time hanging out. This is the only picture we got of her. But at least it's a cute one!


Elliot sporting his monkey pjs.

My three monkeys.

Sitting on the quilt made by Grandma Porter. It has aliens on it. So cute!

One Month Old

Elliot is one month old today. I know, I can't believe it either! This kiddo makes the funniest little faces. The last one is my favorite.

Just Pictures

Just some pictures we've taken over the last couple weeks.

Chloe grabbed a pair of Jillian's undies and put them on her head, then ran around the house screaming. Pretty entertaining.

Jillian on her first day of preschool. She has a blast!

Momma and son.

Chloe loves shoulder rides from her Dad.

Weeks One and Two

Elliot's first week of life was an uneventful one. He ate a lot, slept a lot, and pooped a lot. Pretty average for a newborn. Jillian loves to hold him in her lap. She will be a good babysitter one day.

The three kiddos in their chairs, although, Chloe is actually in Elliot's car seat.

He's ready for his close up.


Elliot began his second week of life at the hospital. He started breathing really fast and it looked a lot like how Chloe was breathing when she went in for RSV so I took a video of his chest and tried to send it to Sean to see if he thought I was overreacting or if it was something we should get him in to the doctor for. My video wouldn't e-mail for some reason so Sean came home from work and we took Elliot to the after-hours kids care. The doctor couldn't figure out what was going on but since Elliot turned gray during his weird breathing episode he didn't want to chance anything so he sent us to Primary Children's Medical Center.

To make a long story short we waited in the ER for 6 hours before they decided to put us into 24-hour observation where his oxygen saturation levels fell overnight so they put him on oxygen. Since the 24-hour observation area is just for observation they moved us up to a room the next morning. Basically from there they did lots of examinations and ran some tests and still couldn't figure it out. It was mostly 3 days of waiting and watching. Finally, after nothing really conclusive, they sent us home with, "Must've been a one time fluke." He's been fine since he's been home and I'd rather it be a fluke than something really wrong with the little man. I did get asked a lot while we were there whether or not I had worked there before because I knew so much terminology and routines at the hospital. Everytime I said, "No, it just comes from being here so much." I will have to say, the more I go the the hospital, the less stressful it becomes. A double edged sword I guess.

Now we are battling with Jillian having a bit of the flu. Can't catch a break, can I? The hardest part of that is keeping her away from her favorite baby brother. But really, who can blame her for wanting to snuggle the little guy?

Elliot is here

Elliot was born on September 1st at 6:46pm. He weighed 8 lbls 6 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long.

This is his first bath. He wasn't much of a fan.

One of the few times he had his eyes open at the hospital. I forget how much newborns sleep.

Ready to go home from the hospital.

If you just wanted pictures and don't want to know the labor/delivery story then you can stop reading now. Onto the story:

I'd been having contractions off and on starting on Tuesday (Aug 30th). I knew things were getting pretty close. On Wednesday night my contractions started to become regular so we hauled the girls over to my sister's house at 11:30pm and headed over to the hospital. I was still only dilated to 1 cm (which is what I was at my doctor's appointment the week before). They made me walk around for an hour and checked me again and I was dilated to 2 cm. I thought we were in business but the longer we were there the less regular my contractions came on although I was in a lot of pain. I got some drugs in me and the hospital finally told me to go home at 4:30am. I had my regular doctor's appointment at 9am so they told me to go to that. Sean and I went home and went to sleep. At 6:30 I woke up to use the bathroom and I started bleeding a lot so we went back into Labor and Delivery. They checked me again and things were the same and said the bleeding was nothing to worry about (I was freaked out because it was a lot of blood that I lost). They told me to go home and follow up at my doctor's appointment. We came home and I showered for my appointment and Sean drove me there. The doctor came in (luckily she was on-call the night before so was aware of my situation) and we went over my options. I was still in a lot of pain so I was ready to be done. After talking for a few minutes, she checked me and I was dilated to 4cm! I sat up and said, "Shut up!" Probably not the nicest thing to say but I was so surprised because the hospital kept sending me home saying that nothing was happening. The doctor asked if I felt like I was going crazy, which I did. She sent us straight back to the hospital and I got checked in to a room right away. This was at 10:30 am.

The rest of labor was fairly uneventful. I got an epidural and felt much better. My contractions never really got regular so they put me on pitocin and finally around 6:30pm I was fully dilated. I pushed a few times and out he came. If only delivery was that easy the first two times!

I am recovering really well since delivery was fairly easy. The girls love love love their new brother and we are trying to adjust to sleepless nights once again. Elliot is an easy going guy and mostly just sleeps and eats and poops (and boy ever does he poop!). We just love him!

Elliot Smiles

Sorry about the background noise.

Picture round up

Just a few pictures I've taken in the last few weeks.Chloe gearing up for Halloween. She's practicing being a ghost.

It is so hard to get them all to look at the camera at the same time. It's even harder to get them to all look pleasant at the same time. This was the best we could do.

She fell alseep after getting a time-out and being asked to sit in the chair. Most of the time she needs a nap instead of a time-out.