We survived another week! It was a really uneventful week, but we are feeling a lot more settled in and have some what of a grip on this 2 kids thing. Benson is doing awesome! He's finally on a 3 hour eating schedule, which has made everyones life a lot better. I had to do on-demand feeding with him until he got strong enough to eat enough that he could last 3 hours. It was rough...I felt like I lived in the rocking chair for 2 weeks. I've decided that he does have some colic, but it's not terrible. It's not bad enough that it keeps him awake anyway. He still sleeps probably 19 hours a day, but when he's awake he's usually crying if he's not eating. I've cut pretty much everything out of my diet that could possibly be hurting him, and after a while I'll start to see what I can add back in without causing problems. Finding something that I can eat is super hard. Pretty much everything but sugar, apples and bread can hurt a colicky babies tummy. So I've been eating cookies, pb&j's, and oatmeal to survive. Wish me luck on losing that last 10 lbs of baby weight on this diet!
Josh has been struggling a bit more this week than he did last week. Thankfully he still isn't taking it out on Benson, but is being very defiant and pushing Beau and I to our limits multiple times a day with the biggest tantrums you have ever seen. I think his major problem is the fact that he's been cooped up in the house for 2 weeks straight and I've been stuck in the rocking chair nursing rather than doing anything with him. Before Benson, I was really good about planing some sort of outing once or twice a day that got Josh and I out of the house and doing something fun. Now, with him here I don't want to risk getting him sick, and up until 2 days ago, I never knew when I was going to have to feed him, so leaving was hard. If the weather ever gets better here and I can send Josh outside to play, things will be a lot better. But for now I'm trying my hardest to be patient with him and I'm counting down that days until we go down to S. Utah to visit family for 2 weeks. I can't wait! It's been almost 4 months since we've been home and I miss it so much. Being in the warm weather and playing with cousins sounds so amazing right now.
Beau finished his last week of regular class this week. Now this coming week he has a couple finals to take and he'll be one more semester closer to graduation! I love how fast the semesters are at BYUI. Beau just decided he was going to add another minor to his degree. Now he will double minor in Russian and CIT. It will add a couple classes over the next 2 semesters but he is really excited about the them. It will be good for him to get some formal training his the field he already works in.
Conference was so good this weekend! I always really enjoy conference, but I especially enjoyed both of today's sessions, particularly Elder Scott's talk this afternoon. He had me crying through most of it. What an amazing man. I feel inspired to be a better wife after listening to him talk about his sweet wife and the relationship they had together. I hope Beau can think of me that way some day. When he was talking about his son with the heart condition, I was a mess. It hit a little too close to home I guess :)
This coming week we don't have anything planned, but I'm going to be better about taking pictures and blogging. I think I probably had 2000 pictures of Josh by the time he was one-month-old, and I don't have near that many (like not even 100) of Benson. Speaking of that, Bens will be 4 weeks old tomorrow! Holy cow, that was fast!
Here are the few pictures I did take this week.
The story behind these 2 pictures: Ever since Josh was born, almost every time Beau would change his diaper, he'd forget to do up his onsie. I'd just figure it out later when there was a big wad of fabric under his shirt. So, Josh hardly wears onsies anymore but I had him in one the other day and when Beau changed his diaper he forgot to do it up! When I saw it and pointed it out, we laughed about it for a while because it brought back funny memories of him doing it so often when Josh was a baby. Josh didn't like how it felt undone, so when he asked Beau to do up his buttons, he did them up over his pants and Josh thought it was so funny.... and it was.
Josh always wants to share his toys with Benson. I love Benson's face in this picture. You can tell he's not amused.
It got a little out of hand.
This is the first time Josh asked to hold Benson. He was (and always is) so sweet with him. He had the biggest smile the whole time and was talking in his high-pitched sweet voice.
I love these boys!
It was Josh's friend Lucy's birthday on Friday and she had a costume party. I had plans to run to the store in the morning before the party and get something for a costume but the party was at noon and at 11:15 when I wasn't ready for the day and Benson still had to eat before we left, I realized getting to the store probably wasn't going to happen. So I called Beau and asked him if he had any ideas for a costume. He suggested I "just make him an Indian or something," so that's what we did! In about 2 minutes we had a costume and were out the door. I painted the stripes on his face and then he put his hand print on his chest. He had a bandanna with feathers in it, but that didn't last long. It was pretty cute and he was totally digging it, making Indian noises with his mouth and everything!
Such a turkey.
And A LOT of eating....and a bit of screaming too. But we are loving him more and more every day. He's such a sweet cuddly baby. He's starting to be awake more, and just yesterday he started to coo. It's so cute! I can tell he really wants to smile, I think it'll happen soon. He's really starting to put on the weight. Today I put him in the same outfit we took him home from the hospital in, and it's so tight around the middle. It drowned him the day we brought him home just 3 weeks ago.
He's so crazy! He slipped in the tub while I was sitting there nursing Benson, so I had to put Benson down and go comfort him, and of course the second I put Benson down he started screaming...so both boys were crying. I got Josh calmed down and took him out of the tub to sit by the heater and then went to pick Bens up, when I turned back around Josh wasn't there. I found him in the pack'n'play with the blinds wide open standing there naked for neighbors to see.
Talking to Anni
Big muscles!
Things with Josh have been WAY better the last few days. I think he's finally come to grips with the fact that things have changed, and that it's ok. He's back to his sweet self 95% of the time. It's so nice. I love this little guy!
