2 Month

- 14 lbs...whoa!
- you started to try to laugh around 6ish weeks
- you get lots of hugs and kisses from Cap
- you always smile when your brother is around, you even smile at his big pic in the living room
- putting you in the living room at night has been great for all of us, the first time we did it you had your first 7 hour stretch
- you have had a great start to EC'ing
- you sometimes rub my arm, almost intentionally, as I hold you with your head on my shoulder rubbing your back. I LOVE this.
- you still have the biggest cheeks ever!
- you still very much like your sleep (thank goodness!!!) but you are very alert now. I am trying more intentionally about putting you down before you get over tired, but still trying to be a little noisy around you so you will be able to sleep easily in different environments (unlike Cap).
- had your first tears...not many though, at 6 weeks and 1 day old. We were driving out to a waterfall and you just decided you were done being in the car seat.
- you really don't cry or get worked up about things very often.
- you keep trying to talk to us, which also started around 6 weeks old.
- still clinch your hands together
- you can still wear some 3 month clothes if they don't snap at the crotch.
- when riding in the Ergo, you squirm and squirm and get yourself in all sorts of contorted positions until finding just the right position to fall asleep. It is usually very awkward!

Tuoly is taking everything in. She is easy going, loves to sleep most of the time, and a very content baby. She fits right into our family perfectly! Cap is amazing with her. He talks to her, gives LOTS of kisses and hugs, and gets her to smile TONS.  After the shock (for me anyways) of having your first baby, you can throw in a second one and hardly miss a beat. We waited a little while for you Tuolumne and we are so glad you are growing along with us. You are beautiful and free!

Enjoy!

A Few Less Diapers

If you have been around our family since we have had Cap you already know we do infant potty training. This is also called Elimination Communication or what we call EC. I will not go into great detail about this since I already have in the past. I am pretty sure you can search it on our blog and all sorts of old post will come up. We are HUGE fans of this method and had Cap in full time undies at 12 months old (not that we didn't have some misses after that, especially in Kenya!)

We started EC'ing with Cap at 4 weeks old. We started with Tuolumne at 6 weeks and 2 days old. Later with her since I was busy with the Great Nap and Bryce obviously had other stuff going on besides potty training a newborn! We started pretty leisurely with it, but had 1 catch every day for 4 or 5 days straight. Then we had a couple of days where we had a couple of catches each day.

Then she started staying dry from about 8 or 8:30pm until 2:00am. I always said I would NOT EC at night! The thought of breastfeeding and taking a kid potty in the middle of the night did not sound at all appealing to me. But waiting for your kid to pee and poop in a diaper so you can change it and go back to sleep seemed more silly to me than putting your less than 2 month old on the potty at 2 am. Make sense?

Here are a few things to note about you Tuolumne:
- you give lots of cues you need to go unlike Cap who went more on timing
- if you are in a good deep sleep, you will always wake up dry
- if you are squirming and uncomfortable while sleeping you will be wet
- you like getting kisses after you go in the potty
- sometimes you take awhile to go, Cap would go quick

We still clean lots of diapers, and she doesn't go every time she is on the potty! We are just in the beginning stages of communicating with each other. As a bonus, even though our cloth diapering system is easy, I still love having 1 less diaper to clean!

Wet Feet

Since getting home from the hospital I have been told that I have no limits on exercise... running, hiking, walking, etc. Since I could hardly stay awake throughout the day, it made it hard for me to imagine doing any of that again soon. Actually, just watching people run or walk their dogs made me very tired! It just seemed so far away.

Every couple of days I realize that I am getting better physically. My Bell Palsy is slowly healing. The scar over my heart is looking better. All the knots, bruises and dots on my arms have disappeared from all the blood taken, or IV's, or whatever else they were doing to me during the Great Nap. In the last 2 days in particular, I feel like I am finding my new normal. 

I kept holding back on running, well for many reasons, but I had given birth all of 10 days before my seizure(s) and cardiac arrest thing. So I kept thinking "6 weeks". Every parent out their knows exactly what I am talking about. You go to your 6 week post baby appt. and they give you the green light for 2 things...sex and exercise. Tuolumne is now 6 1/2 weeks old and I had no more good excuses. I really couldn't even use the whole "I had a sudden cardiac arrest a month ago" excuse because my cardiologist gave me no restrictions with working out.

Then I realized I was actually a little scared to go running. I had lots of questions going through my head. Would I feel my ICD moving around my heart? Would it hurt? Would I be tripping and falling the whole time since my left eye is off a bit? Would I have another Great Nap? So my mind was turning and turning. 

On one of my first runs with Bryce in 2006, it was a wet cold kind of day. I was jumping and dodging over all the little puddles. Trying my hardest not to get my feet wet so they wouldn't be cold. Well, the very first thing Bryce does is run straight through a big nasty puddle on the trail. I asked why he did that and now his feet were going to be cold and wet. He said now he could run. He didn't have to watch out for every little puddle in the way. His feet were already wet so he was free from the puddle dance. 

I finally did it. I went for a run and I thought about that moment with him the whole time. I got my feet wet literally since we were on the tail end of a good rain. I thought about LOTS of things during the whole 26 minutes I was out. The best thing I thought about was all the great adventures I have had with my husband and all the adventures yet to come. 

I am not allowed to drive right now so it was the furthest from the house I have been by myself in quite a while. It was so nice to be out. It didn't feel awesome. I didn't break any records out there that day. But I am getting stronger. 

My brother Jeromy and his wife Brittany own and operate a Crossfit Box in San Angelo, Texas. They did a special Workout Of the Day right after I got home to help benefit our family during this time and my recovery. I was able to be on Facetime with my mom for part of it and say hi to everyone there. It was extremely overwhelming! So many people praying and fighting with us! The next week or so (I have no concept of time and days right now) I received this awesome shirt in the mail! I found it fitting to wear this shirt on my first run back. So a special thank you to all of San Angelo Crossfit! You all amaze me!

After it taking me 3 days to write this, I am off to wash diapers! 

Enjoy, 

  

Tuolumne 1 Month

I am a little past due for Tuolumne's 1 month post, but mostly because this one will be a hard one for me. We were all home for 9 days together before I went to the hospital. Unfortunately, I hardly remember a thing from those 9 days. I do remember her being born and getting to come home, but after that...well, it is just some random pieces here and there. Even coming home has been a blur. The last 4-5 days I have been feeling a little more clear. BUT, more on on that later! Here are some things I have gathered about our sweet girl!

1 month

- 11 lbs

- 22 inches long

- 15 1/4 head

- 95% percentile in everything

- you still have your infant grey/ blue eyes

- you can still fit into most of your 3 month carter brand clothes

- you love to sleep on my chest, anyones probably, but I like to think I'm different :)

- you sleep a lot!

- you like to be awake early evenings during dinner

- I think you have a dimple on you right side near your lips

- you look so much like your brother!!!

- you like your milk however it comes just as long as it comes

- you are not on a eating schedule at all, sometimes 2 hours sometimes 4 hours (I never let your brother do that!)

- you used to be a very quiet sleeper, but tonight we are putting you in the living room! hopefully we will all sleep better for this!

- eye contact smile around 2 weeks though I felt like you smiled at me the first weekend!

- I was told about a week into my hospital stay, after my breathing tube was out, they put you on my belly. When they put you on me, you gave a big sigh and melted on top of me. There was not a dry eye in the room with family or nurses. I was told you looked like you were "home".  

- my mom said I giggled telling people I had a girl

- your brother held your hand before you were even a week old in the back of our car driving home one day