A few stories

Aaaahhhh, my boys...these kids crack me up. Charley is such a busy body. He loves drawing with his chalk and his never ending collection of cars. Izyk is talking so much more and it is the cutest thing. He is coming up on his 2 year birthday in July and he is increasingly interested in the toilet and not just flushing it for no reason. We are baby stepping through potty training as we had done with Charley. No pressure. Myles...thumb sucker. Hard core. Ha! As hubs would tell you, I worry about getting my kids stuck on something and here we are. He loves his thumb. I'm okay with that. I busted out our awesome BabyLegs. We love these things. Izyk will be soon wearing them too while he learns to use the potty. They're like pants except you don't have to remove them when a diaper change is needed OR a potty break. Woot!! (In case you are wondering where we bought these gems...Mom4Life. Awesome products made by awesome Mamas!!).

We bought a new dishwasher...finally. I didn't want to but we needed to. I absolutely love it. It's a Bosch.My parents have a Bosch and it is SO quiet. I didn't think an appliance could be this quiet. Have you ever had a little boy ask to go home from the park? I never thought it'd be possible! Poor Charley-man beefed it while running laps. Scratched up his knee. I just think he really wanted a batman bandaid.

And Izyk had to have his turn...

Gravity works. We bought the boys sunglasses. So classy.

Charley starts swim lessons in June. I think we are more excited than he is! Thanks to Jessica Jordan for accepting rice crispy treats as payment for babysitting while Hubs and I went on an afternoon date. We went and saw Avengers in Imax 3D. Never again. I'm not a fan of 3D...STILL not a fan of 3D and making it even bigger did not help. AWESOME movie though. Let my inner nerd out. Other than that...it's the usual chaos around here. Oh, Natalie Westbrook makes the best chocolate Kahlua cake ever.

Easter

It has been a long month. And by long I suppose I mean busy. Busy is a good thing...sometimes. Easter was fabulous. We spent the day up in Tennessee with a friend's family. We had lots of fun. The kids got spoiled with crafts, candy, and attention. They live on this HUGE lot...almost 100 acres and they have COWS! Charley could've stayed on the four-wheelers ALL DAY LONG and had been content. That kid jumped at every chance to ride that thing. Izyk rode them once and then he was good. He pretty much played inside most of the time. Happily played...by himself. Antii-social, what? Everyone crashed as soon as we were on our way home.

Appointments and other going-ons

Myles had his 8 week appointment today. He is getting big fast! He is in the 70th percentile for height at 23.5 inches, 80th percentile for weight at 12 pounds 5 ounces, and 90th percentile for head circumference. All of our boys have huge heads. He has GERD which causes him to gag/choke/stop breathing when he sleeps. It's real fun. Our doctor gave us a Zantac prescription which we will keep if he gets bad. If you remember, Izyk had reflux and we tried Zantac and we didn't like how that made him. So we are keeping a close eye on him and changing sleep positions to see if anything helps. He just started sleeping through the night and we have him in the crib which makes me a little nervous because I can't hear him as well through the monitor in case he might need to be adjusted when he has an episode. We are making it work. Myles smiles sssssooo much. He loves being talked to and getting kisses. He is such a happy little boy. Charley loves his littlest brother, Izyk still kind of ignores him for the most part. Every once in a while, he will stop and pat him on his head but then continue on his way. Izyk is becoming more talkative and his vocabulary is expanding. Charley has been testing us a lot lately but we are also working through that. :)

I returned to work last week....bbbboooooooo. It's so hard to leave my babies and to get used to a whole new routine. I'm not a big fan of pumping and having to do it again causes me anxiety. I'm slowly building our freezer supply but I'm hoping to get a decent supply so if there's any early self-weaning (ah-hem...IZYK!!!!!), we can still give him plenty of breastmilk.

You gotta do what you gotta do.

Myles is ready for Easter!

Charley and I waiting for Dad to get home from work.

Using my storchenweige with Charley. Now he wants to be on my back ALL THE TIME.

Izyk and his new amber necklace.

Happy boy!

We have another belly sleeper!

I love it when he smiles.

Dad and Myles catching a quick snooze.

We have started to potty train Izyk VERY slowly. He's interested in the potty. He always wants to sit on the toilet but we are trying to make that connection between GOING and GOING ON THE POTTY. We are in no hurry.

That tongue of his...

Izyk up from his nap...


We got a new microwave in the mail and it came with the huge bubble bubble wrap. We put it across the kitchen floor and the boys ran across over and over again. It was fun to watch them. :)

8 weeks old

Well...almost. It has been an interesting few weeks to say the least. My in-laws made the trek from California to Alabama driving the suburban that was to be ours. Woot woot! It was kind of sad having to drive separately for a few weeks. Ryan's sister flew out for a few days as well. It was great having them out. A lot of things got done and it was greatly appreciated. We are back to trying to get into a routine. I go back to work this week. Not really looking forward to it but what can you do? The first few days are always hard. I'm not a big fan of pumping so I'm definitely not looking forward to doing that three times a day for the next year. I was in the process of building our freezer supplier and our entire house came down with the stomach flu. It was AWFUL. This happened with Ryan's family out here too. I've never seen so many sick people in one little house in my life. The kids barely noticed anything...they'd vomit and start running circles around the house like nothing happened, meanwhile the adults took at least the full 24 hours to re-coup. I pretty much lost my milk supply with that bout of illness so I'm trying to build it back up again. Everyone is doing fabulously. The boys are loving on Myles and Myles is growing SO FAST. :( My baby is already in 3 month clothing.

*wipes a tear away*

He sleeps from 9:30-7:30 waking once to nurse. I'm working on trying to get a solid 6 hours from 1030-6 for when I return to work. I'm not as hardcore about it as I was the last pregnancies, mainly because of my teetering supply but I'm sure I'll survive working and waking numerous times throughout the night. Other working parents do it. :)






Our new/old family car. :)

2 week appointment

Myles had his 2 week appointment today. He has gained his birth weight back and then some. He is 8lbs 14oz and 21.5 inches long. He is in the 70th percentile and 75th percentile, respectively. His head circumference is in the 50th percentile. He is bigger than Izyk when Izyk was 2 weeks old, bigger by 4oz and half an inch. For not being big people, our children sure do grow. :) He has a clogged eye duct so we got some medication for that. Myles is sleeping fabulously. His last scheduled nighttime feeding is 10:30pm. He will wake up between 2:30 and 4:00am for a feeding and sleep until 7 or 8am.

Having three littles 3 years and younger is not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Many people said that 3 is the hardest and I think we kind of psyched ourselves out on that. The hardest part for me is nursing and trying to keep Charley and Izyk from destroying the house and each other and themselves. Myles likes to take his time nursing...meaning it's a 45 minute activity. I haven't had the opportunities to nap as much as I had with just the other two but it's manageable. I can sneak an hour or hour and a half during the other two's nap time. Laundry is being done only on an as-needed basis. Haha! We won't even talk about the state of the house. Hubs has been keeping up with dishes. All in all, things are going awesomely. Some of Ryan's family will be out in a couple of weeks so we are definitely looking forward to that.

I was waiting to post this blog with pictures (I am writing this post from my phone) but if I do that, you will never see this post. So you are stuck with all words. Maybe if you are lucky, I'll just post a bunch of pictures tomorrow...or the next day...oooorrrr the day after that...

Life with 3 boys...

This is just a post of randomness. I love my three boys...as destructive as they might be. Charley has broken a window and torn a bookshelf from the wall. Izyk fell off a chair, busted his lip and head, and proceeded to face plant on the stairs where he again, busted his lip open, my mom left us yesterday evening and Ryan worked today. Overwhelming? Just a bit. I'm not suppose to be lifting anything except Myles but we all know that cannot happen. Unrealistic expectations...especially when I'm alone. Regardless, we are surviving.

Sleep deprivation hasn't been too bad. I mean, it's only been two weeks...who has expectations at this point? Between 1030pm and 6am, he will wake up once.

Cloth diapering has fallen by the wayside momentarily while we all try to get into some sort of groove.

Charley loves petting Myles. He always wants to hold him. Izyk watches from a distance. I think he keeps waiting for the newbie to disappear.

Izyk got a haircut. Full on faux-hawk. I'm sad his hair is all gone but he looks so different. Kinda looks like he COULD be meaner. I don't know. I miss his curliness.

I really do hate c-sections. I think I mentioned that with my last two births...and believe it or not, that has not changed.

I am also reminded why I'm not a fan of pumping. Another one that I will take for the team. Go me. I have to say...it's a TINY bit awkward pumping in front of the littles. Right now, they stand there and mess with the pump and tubing. Charley talks about "Myles' milk" and how it "hurts" but it makes mama "feel better." Lol!

Myles squeaks. He doesn't really cry so much as he squeals and squeaks. He weighs almost nothing. It kills me. He's alert for a couple hours during the day. Kid has some LONG toes and fingers.

I refuse to plan ahead for dinners right now. My brain can't think that far ahead. I'm lucky if I get my contacts in and my hair done once during the week.

I predict my house is going to be the messiest EVER. I think I may be okay with it.

We will be watching a tad too many movies than I am comfortable with but oh well...something has to give.

Izyk has been trying to talk lately. It's fun to watch him develop his vocabulary.







I finally got to use my new storchenwiege wrap and I'm totally in love with it. So comfy and so far, easy to use. Myles falls asleep really fast in it. I found it 40% off at this online store that was shutting down. Woot! Not the BEST picture but you get the idea.


Izyk loves doing pull-ups. Silly boy...

Myles Fletcher Nichols

He was born February 1, 2012 at 7:26am weighing 7 lbs even and 20 inches long. We were at the hospital at 5am. Way too incredibly early. I was rolled back for my spinal block at 7am where I was stuck a hundred and ten times whilst the anesthesiologist tried to find the right placement. We proceeded into the OR where I again felt "stuff" and was promptly put out. Seriously, I have the most uneventful pregnancies and then comes birth. Next time, let's skip all the traumatic parts and just knock me out...if there is a next time. Apparently, I am hypersensitive and I have a slightly rotated spine. Regardless, our doctor allowed Ryan to stay in the OR while they grabbed Myles (who had yet to be named). Myles was named the following day. He is a great nurser. Latched perfectly on the first attempt. He is definitely awake at night...way more so than the previously two children were. Charley wants to hold him all the time and pats him on the head all the time. Izyk has no clue. As I have children, they are getting heavier, darker, and more hairier...lol! He had an appointment on Monday and has gained 5 oz back. He left the hospital at 6lbs 9oz and was 6lbs 14oz on Monday. He's slightly jaundiced as Izyk was when we brought him home but he will pass it soon.











Newish arrangement for the boys. They still share a room except we put Izyk down first. He falls asleep within 30 minutes and Charley follows him. Our only challenge is keeping Charley from messing with him. It has been a successful 3 nights and I think it has been working fabulously. Two weeks ago both boys had their check ups. Izyk had his 18 month and Charley had his 3 year. They are both in the 50th percentile and within pounds and inches of each other. They both caught something and I was hoping they would kick it before the birth but they are both still snotty and coughing a bit. I should have known better because they ALWAYS catch something when they have a pediatrician appointments.




We are trying to get used to each other and into a new rhythm with the added family member. I am so in love with this little dude. I'm always so surprised at how little newborns are. I look at Izyk and he looks huge to me!