I Think I'll go to Boston

I've decide I'm going to run the Boston marathon. On Monday I was sitting on the couch nursing Evan, trying to eat lunch, and was watching the stream of the marathon on my phone. KJ's cousin was running it and I was watching him finish. He's an awesome runner. He started with the first group (read: fastest runners in the world) of runners and finished in the top 400 out of 3500. Seriously awesome. But then I thought... Why couldn't I do that? Not at that world class level I mean, just in general... What's stopping me from running a marathon? Nothing. So, I'm going to do it. Not this year, not next year... I have a ways to go to get in that kind of shape. I know a marathon would require a lot of serious training. But maybe in 5 years? Why not? 

I'm turning 30 this year... In just a couple weeks actually. (How the hell did that happen??) I keep thinking about what I was doing five years ago... I was about to turn 25 and was trying to get pregnant for the first time. Then I spent the majority of the next five years trying to get and stay pregnant. That's all I really did. It was all consuming. I wanted two kids by 30, and I'm blessed to have reached that goal and am happy to close that chapter. Now I'm thinking... What about the next five years? What about the next ten years? What do I want to do by the I'm 40? I certainly don't want to be sitting on the couch thinking 'why can't I do that?'...

So, I'm going to do it. I realize it's very competitive to get into Boston, but what's to stop me from at least trying to make qualifying time? Both the Erie and Pittsburgh marathons are qualifying races, so getting to those would be no problem. I already had the goal of doing a half next year. I had planned on doing 5ks and 10ks this year and then start training for a half next spring. I actually had just decided to train for a half last spring, then the next day I got pregnant with Evan, so that had to be put on hold. So in two years, 2017, why not start training for a full marathon? This is doable!

I've had a lot of dreams, most of which I've realized are unattainable, but this, this marathon goal, is totally attainable. I can do this. I will do this. In five years I will be running marathons with the goal of getting to Boston.

"I think I'll got to Boston, I think I'll start a new life, I think I'll start over where no one knows my name... I think I need a sunrise, I'm tired of the sunset, I hear it's nice in the summer, some snow would be nice... Oh yeah..."

Here's to the next five years!

Lots of Love, 

KJsbabe

Adventures in Potty Training: Round 2

Day 1: What a difference 5 months makes! Today went surprisingly really well! Lexi is really starting to get it!! Woo hoo!! We had four successful pees in the potty, only one complete miss, and even a huge poop in the potty! 

I was really going back and forth about weather to start today or not. I had planned to start today for a few weeks now, but then yesterday Lexi came down with a cold. I didn't know if I should go ahead with it and risk her being in a horrible mood and not receptive because of being sick, or if I should push it off for another week. I really didn't want to delay it again, and Lexi woke up in a good mood this morning, so I said lets go for it. 

We started out sitting on the potty every half hour. She didn't want to sit at first, so I started rewarding trying with 1 m&m. She sat every time I told her to after that. The first pee of the day, Lexi told me she was leaking and I got her right on the potty right away. 90% went in the potty! Success! Reward of 2 m&ms. The second pee was after I told her to sit a few hours later. The third and fourth times she yelled "mommy I have to go potty!" I rushed her over and all the per went in. There was one attempt at poop then. She said she had to go and was really concentrating while sitting, but there was just a wipe of poop on her bum, none in the potty. Reward of 2 m&ms for trying. The fifth pee was a complete miss, and I'm still not sure why. She was sitting on the couch with the potty right next to her on the floor and I was about 10ft away in the kitchen door way. She said she had to go pee pee, so I rushed over to her, but she didn't move at all. She just sat on the couch and peed. All the other times she had tried to get herself to the potty when she felt she had to go. It was really disappointing. I explained that we don't pee on the couch. Pee belongs in the potty and that I was not happy that she had peed on the couch. We sat down for dinner after that and in the middle of eating she said she was going to go sit on her potty. I said ok. She went over, sat down, and pooped! It was an awesomely huge poop, too!! She had been holding that in all day! Lol She was very proud of herself for pooping on the potty, and I was, too!! Rewarded 5 m&ms (she asked for 10 haha, so that was the compromise).

We're running out of ink in the printer... if you couldn't tell...

Day 2: 5 complete pees in the potty, one mostly miss, one big poop in the potty. Rewards: 1 m&m for trying, 2 for pee in the potty, 5 for poop in the potty. It was a good day considering the major interruption... 

I wanted to go out for a run. It takes me about 40 mins to go 3.5 miles right now. Lexi had just peed in the potty and I had just fed Evan. KJ said he could hold down the fort, so I went out. About a mile down the road I passed a house. The people had just got home and let their dog out... And it came right for me. The dog attacked me. It ripped my clothes, broke skin on my back and left arm, and left bruises on my right hand and arm. It's a good thing it was cold that day because I was wearing a pretty thick hoodie, which definitely padded the bites. If it had been warmer and I was only wearing a long sleeve t, or just a t shirt... It could have been a lot worse. I called the police and the owners of the dog will be cited. The dog will be in quarantine for 10 days, in case of rabies. I'm on antibiotics to prevent and infection, and I had to get another T-dap shot.

I'm still really mad about the whole situation. A dog like that should have been tied up, period. This should have never happened. My back and arms are sore. I feel like I can't go running any more in my own neighborhood. I'm scared, and I'm mad about that. 

Anyways, back to potty training. KJ had to put a diaper on Lexi in order to put her in the car to come get me. Then I had to go to the urgent care to get checked out, and she had an accident at home with KJ. So what was supposed to be 40 mins turned out to be a three hour ordeal. But Lexi went pee and poop on the potty after dinner, so at least we ended the day on a good note.

Day 3: All five pees in the potty, one poop accident, and one poop on the potty. Same rewards as yesterday. Lexi did really well with getting herself to the potty on time. With the accident, a little bit came out and she realized she had to get to the potty, but it all came out before she got there. Same thing happened the second time, but got to the potty before she lost it all. 

I had to go out to see what the house number was where the dog was at, because they Health Department wanted to know. So I waited until Lexi had just peed, put her in pants, and ventured out. She was only in pants for about 15 mins, but she stayed dry! Definitely a step in the right direction! All in all it was a good day!

Day 4: Four pees in pants, six pees in the potty, one 50/50, one poop in pants, and one poop on the potty. Rewards, 2 m&ms for pee, 5 for poop. 

Well, we started off the day trying pants and it was a big old fail. It's like she treating them like diapers. She's not saying she has to go. She's not making any effort to get to the potty. Very frustrating! But, I had her go naked again for the second half of the day and she did great again. So, it's the pants that are giving us the hang up. 

It was a nice day to day (45 degrees! Heat wave!), so I waited until Lexi had just peed and put her in pants to take her outside to play. We were out for about a half hour playing and having a good time, then I notice that her pants are wet again :/ I asked her if she had gone pee pee or had an accident and she said no... I asked if her legs felt wet or cold and she said no... Ugh

I don't really know where to go from here. How do I get her to wear pants and still pee in the potty? 

Day 5: Four pees in the potty, one complete miss, two 50/50, one poop in pants, one poop in the potty. Same rewards as yesterday. 

I asked a group of my mommy friends how they added pants in while PTing and they had some good suggestions. First, we have to just forge ahead with pants. There will be accidents, but Lexi will eventually get it. Expect an adjustment time. Second, the legging pants I was putting her in might have been the problem. They might be too snug and feel too much like a diaper. So, they suggested using jeans or khakis instead. I never buy her jeans because they don't fit well over our cloth diapers. Since they don't stretch we'd have to size up, and then length becomes an issue. But sizing up on shorts works because length doesn't matter, and I don't like her to wear shorty shorts anyways. Anyways, I got her shorts out of storage and I saw a definite improvement. She still had some accidents, but she was actually recognizing that she had to go and made an effort to get to the potty. We're still working on pulling pants up and down. She can do it, but isn't very quick yet. We are making progress. 

Day 6: Four pees in the potty, one pee in pants, and one poop in the potty.

Progress! Lexi made it the whole day in the same pair of shorts until the end of the day when she had an accident. We switched on and off today between shorts and a skirt. The skirt is really easy for her to pull up and down and she still has that naked feeling, so she remembers to go to the potty. 

Every time she has an accident I just keep repeating myself, "pee pee goes in the potty, not in your pants". I show her the wet pants and ask her what happened? She says she had an accident. I ask where pee pee belongs? And she says in the potty. I say right, pee pee belongs in the potty, not in your pants. 

Day 7: Three pees in the potty, one poop in the potty 

Today we went to story time. It was the first time we've ventured out all week! I put her in a pull up, just in case, but I told Lexi we were still going to use the potty and pee doesn't belong in her pants. (We've been doing pull ups at night and calling them her "fancy nighttime underwear". We will tackle night training down the road.) She stayed dry the whole time! She really doesn't pee a lot in the mornings, so that definitely helped. I still don't have long jeans for her to wear and it's way too cold to wear shorts out, so that's why I did the pull up under her legging pants. One of our neighbors has some 3T jeans she said I could have, so I'm hoping to get those tomorrow. Then this weekend and next week we can work on doing outings while commando in jeans. I hope it works! 

Well, in one week of PTing we've gone from diapers full time, to 80% of pee and poop in the potty! Very exciting!! It's really true what they say, you have to wait until your kid is ready. Looking back now, I can see how Lexi just wasn't ready yet, even though I really wanted her to be. This time was soooo much easier than last time. We made so much progress just in that first day because things were actually clicking this time. She was ready this time. Lexi is on her way to being potty trained!! Yay!!! 

Lots of Love 

KJsbabe

Evan is 2 Months Old!

Evan is two months old now and getting huge! At his two month app he was 12lbs even and 24in long. He's getting so long! He's definitely not the little peanut that Lexi was. He's growing to quickly he's already getting into 6 month clothes. I bought a bunch of 6 and 9m cloth on clearance for him last fall, but they're all summer clothes. Short sleeves and shorts. Definitely not appropriate for March in Pennsylvania! I hope his growth slows down a little bit, just until it gets to be yard sale season at least, so I don't have to drop a bunch of money on clothes that he'll grow right out of. Come on spring!!

Little brother in the laundry basket

First baby smiles!

Evan caught his first cold at 6 weeks. KJ caught a cold from work, the next week Lexi and I caught it, and then a few days later Evan got it. I was really trying to avoid him getting sick. We haven't gone anywhere in eight weeks because I didn't want to take him out and get him sick. I'm so annoyed that he still got sick staying home all the time. It was pretty unavoidable once Lexi got, though. She was coughing and spreading her germs everywhere. Toddlers are seriously gross sometimes! It was a rough week and a half, but we are all healthy again, Evan included. I really hope that's the only cold he gets this year. 

Sister and brother in their matching rockers

Evan is such a happy boy! He loves to smile. It doesn't matter what time of day or night, he just smiles away. It's hard to be mad at him for getting up for the third time in a night when he's giving me that big gummy Evan smile :)

Birth announcement
 

Sleeping...
 

Lots of Love, 

KJsbabe

Newborn Pictures!

We had newborn pictures taken when Evan was three weeks old. We just got them back!

All pictures taken by the talented Carrie Harris Photography

















Lots of Love,
KJsbabe

Evan is 1 Month!

This month flew by! My squishy boy is already a month old! He's grown a lot! His birth wight was 8lbs 13oz, he lost over a pound by the time we left the hospital on day three because my milk didn't come in until day four. But since then he's gained like crazy. At his two week app he was back up to 9lbs even. Today, at four weeks, he's 11lbs 3oz. My little chunker! He spent about 2 1/2 weeks in new born clothes and is now in 3 months. The hospital gave us a nice fleece Halo sleep sack with the swaddle attached in size NB. He's already growing out of it, so I'm having to buy a 3-6m one with the swaddle now. The ones we already have don't have the swaddle and it really helps him sleep.

The end of our first and going into our second week was kind of rough. Evan had his new born doctor app at 5 days old. He looked fine, except for his circ. Our doctor wasn't available to do it at the hospital, so the NP in the nursery did it... And didn't do it well. It kept spotting at every diaper change while we were at the hospital, and while the NP said a little spotting was normal, it seemed like a lot to me. I kept telling the nurses about it and asking if it was normal and none of them really gave me a straight answer. So, at his app our doctor didn't like the way it was looking. The NP used the Plastibell method and didn't tie the string tight enough so the blood supply was not fully cut off on one part, so it wasn't falling off like it should. She told us to come back in a couple days to see how it was doing. We went back on day 8 and it was still the same, so our doctor had to fix it and remove it herself... That was fun. Obviously he was bleeding from the procedure, but he was clotting up pretty well by the time we left the office. She told us to leave his diaper alone for a few hours so he could clot well. I gave him about three hours and in that time I heard him poop twice (he's a really loud pooper!) so I figured I had better take care of it. I opened up his diaper and it was soaked with blood... I freaked out. That's definitely not a sight you ever want to see! He was actively bleeding so I had KJ call the doctor and see what to do, while I tried to clean him up. She had us run to the hospital to get this special clotting gauze called surgicel. She had looked for some at the office originally but was out of it. Once we got the gauze wrapped around the bleeding stopped   instantly. Thank goodness!! It took about three days for it to heal up completely after that. I was so glad when it was over!

Since the whole circ ordeal, though, things have been pretty smooth sailing. It's been really dry in our house so Evan's gotten pretty dried out and stuffed up from time to time. I've been using saline drops and that's really been helping to get the boogies out. He hates it, but he needs it.

And now for pictures!

Three days old


Showing some Steelers love
 

Lexi and I taking care of our babies


Trying out the pouch sling


First cloth diaper at 3 weeks. We had to wait to start them because of the whole circ ordeal.


Lexi cuddling Evan


Sister and brother <3


Floor time


Big yawn!


And asleep...


Napping on the quilt Grammie made.


Lots of Love,

KJsbabe

Evan Wesley's Birth Story

Short version: Evan Wesley was born Thursday, January 8, 2015 at 9:26am via repeat c-section, weighting 8lbs 13oz and 21in long. 

Long version: KJ and I arrived at the hospital at 5am Thursday morning. They got me admitted and in a bed to prep me for the c/s. When the nurse hooked me up to the monitor she asked of I was feeling the any of the contractions I was having. Honestly I wasn't! I had been getting a crampy AF feeling on and off for the two days prior, and figured it might be the very beginning stage of labor. Sometimes I would get a BH along with it, but since it didn't hurt I didn't think it was the real thing. Apparently it was! 

As I sat and waited for my c/s the contractions did start to get more uncomfortable and painful. By the time we were ready to go in they were 4 minuets apart. I'm pretty sure we would have been having a baby that day even with out the c/s! 

I had to wait much longer than anticipated for my c/s. We were supposed to start at 7am, but my doctor was late getting there. By the time he arrived we lost the anesthesiologist and had to wait for his next opening, which was 9am. So all the while I sat in an uncomfortable hospital bed, having real contractions, with a catheter in that hurt, in an insanely hot room. I got so warm at one point that DH opened the window for me. It was 15 degrees out and snowing, and felt great!

But once we actually got started, things went very smoothly. Evan Wesley was born at 9:26am weighing 8lbs 13oz and 21in long. He has strawberry blond hair, which was a bit of a surprise! Recovery has been up and down. The first day I felt like I had a major hang over. I was tired from getting up at 4am, dizzy all day from the meds (I couldn't see or think straight), and nauseous from the meds (I couldn't keep anything down). I did feel good enough to get out of bed and stand for a few minuets at the end of the day, though. Day two I felt much better. I had great pain killers, so no pain from the c/s. I did develop major swelling in my legs, though. I had compression stockings on my calves, but as soon as they came off my legs just ballooned. If you had looked at me from the thighs down you would have thought I weighted 500lbs! It was ridiculous! It was harder to move around because of my elephant legs than it was because of my c/s. Thankfully they have since started to deflate. I'm a week out now and they are pretty much back to normal. Other than that, I've been feeling good. My incision was sore for a few days, but I'm really feeling good now. 

Breastfeeding went really well the first day, Evan's a total natural. On day two he developed his super suck, though, and OMG it hurt!! My nipples quickly got very sore, and were cracked and bleeding. That's been something we've really had to work through. On day three my milk still hadn't come in and all he wanted to do was eat. He got very frustrated each time because he wasn't getting a lot, which made him suck even harder. Ouch!! But on day four my milk came in and things have improved a lot. Even though I'm completely engorged, he's much more satisfied. When he's happy, I'm happy. 

Lexi adores her baby brother! She's always wanting to help hold him or hug and kiss him. It warms my heart to see how much she has accepted him into our family and how excited she's been to meet him. I forgot how tiny new borns are! It's amazing that she started out that small and is now such a big girl! 

I'm just so happy our little boy is finally here and in my arms! 

Evan and proud big sister Lexi!

Mr Bright Eyes

Going home outfit

Momma and Evan

Big sister, Daddy, and Evan

Home at last

Finally home and comfy

Lots of Love, 

KJsbabe

My Boy is Here!

Introducing Evan Wesley Jackson! He was born at 9:26 this morning. He's 8lbs 13oz and 21in long. He has strawberry blond hair and is pretty perfect. He has KJ's nose and looks a lot like his big sister. 

It's so nice to finally have him here! Our little family of four is complete <3

Lots of Love, 

KJsbabe