Brothers

I love this picture too much not to post it to the blog. Especially to look back at when there are going to be those times where they don't love each other this much at times :)

Kayden has been SUCH a good big brother. He is the best of the best. He loves to give Mykah his paci when he is crying, Mykah is the first thing he goes to when he gets home from school, and the cute little way he says his name when he sees him for the first time after being gone is just adorable. He loves holding Mykah and giving him kisses. He tries to give him his stuffed animals and wants him to be able to play with his toys so bad. He loves when I let Mykah lay on the floor and will come and lay down right next to him. Mykah loves hearing Kayden's voice. Many times if Mykah is fussy, he quickly stops if Kayden comes over and talks to him. Kayden absolutely adores Mykah and I hope that love never fades. I know that there will be those times where they fight and don't get along, but I hope they always have this love for each other and a bond that is unbreakable. I love my boys!

Halloween 2012

Since I was home this month on maternity leave, I decided I would make Kayden a Thomas the Train costume. The ones that I could find in the stores were huge and they just weren't very cute so we decided to be crafty. I found a tutorial from Pinterest on how to make one and went from there. I figured he would not keep it on, but surprisingly he was SO excited to wear it and kept it on all night! He loved his choo choo! And I'm glad considering the time I put into it! Mykah was a giraffe like Kayden was for his first Halloween. (Sorry Mykah... I promise this will be the only year you have a hand me down Halloween costume!!) :)

We went over to Nick's parents house first since they live close to us and went trick or treating down their street with cousin Avery!

We then went over to my parents house to see Cinderella (aka Audrey) and a cute little pumpkin (Olivia). Once Paige puts those pictures on facebook I will add some to the blog! Over all Kayden seemed to LOVE halloween. Of course, he wanted to eat each piece of candy when someone gave him some so we had to distract him each time! It was so fun to see him people to really participate and have fun with it this year! Can't wait until there are 2 to do this with!!

2 month stats!

Mykah's 2 months old!
10 pounds 6 ounces
23 inches long

for a comparison- Kayden at 2 months:
10 pounds 12 ounces
22.5 inches long

Mykah had 4 shots and an oral vaccine. Nick had to go with me and I had to leave the room when it was time for shots. I do not do well with the 2 month shots for some reason. I had to leave with Kayden too. There is just something about a little 2 month old getting shots and screaming bloody murder that I just can't handle! He was so pitiful :( We do not give Tylenol before vaccines because studies have shown that giving Tylenol before vaccines and too soon afterwards can cause the vaccine to not work like it is suppose to. Mykah did really well without any Tylenol until about 7:00 that night. We did not have any infants pain reliever so Nick had to go out and get some because Mykah just was screaming and screaming and nothing would console him. About 10 minutes after giving him pain reliever, he fell asleep and slept soundly for 3 hours before it was time for him to eat again. Thankfully, that was the only dose we had to give him and he hasn't had any problems since. I HATE 2 MONTH SHOTS!! :) I can't believe this sweet boy is already 2 months old, and that there are not that many weeks left before I go back to work!

Evan's Orchard

Yay for Fall! Fall is one of my favorite times of year just because of the pumpkin patch! I love going to the pumpkin patch and we will probably go several times because I love it so much! We took the boys the other day and Kayden loved it! He got to play in a big play place, go down the slide, go on a hay ride, feed some animals, and pick out a pumpkin! Such a fun time as family! I can't wait until both boys are old enough to enjoy it!!

Kayden is 2!!!

With all of the craziness of Mykah being born, we thrown in Kayden turning 2! Since Mykah was only about 2 weeks old on Kayden's birthday we decided to wait a couple weeks before we had a big birthday party for him. I couldn't stand waiting that long to celebrate his birthday though so we did some special things on his actual birthday and had a small family party. Nick had to work on Kayden's birthday so we still took him to daycare because I was still not able to do much with taking care of him. Once Nick got off work, we went to the grocery store and bought some cupcakes to take to daycare. We surprised him at daycare with cupcakes and let him stay to eat them with his friends. We then took him from daycare early and came home. Before we left for daycare we blew up a bunch of balloons and left them in the living room. When Kayden got home he freaked out when he saw all the balloons. He kept running through them all and yelling BALLOONS!!! It was so much fun! Then both of our families came over for spaghetti and presents to celebrate his birthday!

The next day we took Kayden to the Explorium. I wasn't as impressed with it as I thought I would be but Kayden loved the bubble room. There was also a big bug area and he spent a lot of time looking at the bugs as well. We then took him to Orange Leaf to enjoy some yummy frozen yogurt!

A couple weeks later we had a big Thomas the Train party for Kayden! We had some kids from church come over as long with some of his cousins. We decorated everything with choo choos and the kids played outside or in the play room. It was a fun time for Kayden and he enjoyed having his friends at his house. I really wanted to make his birthday extra special since he just had to go through this big change of adding a baby brother to his life.

1 month old

Sweet Mykah-
You are one month old and the time is just flying by so fast all ready. You are such a sweet baby and I just want to hold you all day long. You fit right into this family and we all love you so much. You are sleeping a lot right now and you do pretty well during the night. You usually wake up every 3 hours wanting to eat and you only stay awake for about 30 minutes after a feeding. I love your awake time because you just look all around trying to figure out this world and your family.

Your brother, Kayden, loves you so much. He is constantly in your face trying to kiss and hug you. He loves trying to put your paci back in your mouth and he is trying very hard to be gentle with you but sometimes he just gets really excited! He has not had any problems welcoming you into our family and for that I am grateful!

Through this first month, mommy has held you a lot and because of that you don't like lay down under your play mat and just play or to be in your swing. We are working on it though. Mommy just can't get enough of you and wants to hold you all the time before she goes back to work and can't. So I don't really care if you are spoiled or not! :)

I am so glad that God gave us you to add to our family. You are such a sweet boy and I can't wait to see how you grow and change the next couple of months. But just don't do it all too fast. Mommy is really enjoying having a baby again!

I love you sweet boy!
Mommy :)

Mykah Charles Cooper

Mykah Charles Cooper August 29, 2012 6 lbs 12 oz 19 inches Mykah is here! On Tuesday, Nick, Kayden and I went over to Nick's parents house for dinner and to just hang out. We stayed for a while, but I started feeling sick and really wanted to go home. It was around 8:00 at night once we got home and Nick went ahead and gave Kayden a bath while I laid down for a little bit. I was still feeling sick and felt like I may be having contractions. Once Nick was finished giving Kayden a bath he brought him into our bedroom and I told Nick that maybe he should call his mom and see if he could just go a head and stay there tonight because I was feeling so sick. We went back and forth on whether he needed to go or not but after talking to my sister-in-law we decided that we probably should. I was still feeling very sick and Paige thought that it may be the early signs of labor so we felt like being better safe than sorry! Once Nick got back from dropping Kayden off, we decided to go on and just get checked out at the hospital. We arrived at the hospital around 10:00 and they started monitoring me to see if I was going to be staying or not. When I was at the dr on Monday, I was 3-4 cm dilated already. They checked me and I was 4 cm and was having consistent contractions so they decided to keep me after talking to my doctor. Around 1:00 they went a head and gave me an epidural. I definitely felt more pain with Mykah than I ever did with Kayden, and I was further along with Kayden before I got an epidural. I should have known at this point, that this delivery was going to be NOTHING like Kayden's. Around 2:00 my water broke on it's own. They had waited a little while to do my catheter and I thought I just peed on myself but when the nurse came in to do the catheter she was like nope, that was your water breaking! So, my water broke on it's own, unlike with Kayden where they had to break it at 9.5 cm. Around 4:00 they came and checked me again. Still 4-5 cm. I was bummed. With Kayden, every time they checked me I had made progress. But they said that it was ok. Around 6:00 I was still 4-5 and my doctor decided she wanted to start some pitocin just to go ahead and try to get my contractions more consistent and get him pushed down there. They kept me on pitocin for about an hour to two hours, but Mykah's heart rate was just not having it. It kept dipping any time I had a contraction and finally, after checking me again and being 5 cm, the dr called and told them to stop the pitocin because of his heart rate dips. She started thinking that he was face up and said that that is usually what happens whenever it takes a long time to progress but she still fully believed I would have a vaginal delivery, it would just take a little longer than it did with Kayden. She put in an IUPC (something like that) which measures how hard your contraction are and they were showing up pretty hard. Come 11:00 they checked me again. Still 5 cm. The nurse updated this on the computer (which my dr was monitoring at her office) and instantly called my room to talk to me. I knew this probably wasn't going to be good. She told me that with measuring the contractions and how hard, consistent, and the frequency of them, I should have really made some progress by now. I should not have stayed at basically 5 cm for 10 hours without the progress. She said I had two options 1) try pitocin again and see what happens, but if his heart rate starts dipping again then I'd have to go off of it or 2) c-section. Yes, devastation and hormones set in. I calmly talked to her because my mom and sister in law were in the room and were watching my face. I told her that I trusted her judgment and she kept saying it was my choice, but I could tell that she would rather me go ahead and do the c-section based on what happened with the pitocin the first time. She told me to talk to Nick about it, but that it sounded like I was leaning toward the c-section and she would prep the nurses. Nick had just gone down to the cafeteria with my dad so my mom text him and told him that he needed to come to the room. He walked in and I started BAWLING. I could barely even get out what I needed to say. He kept telling me it would be ok and that we just needed to do the c-section. He would be here safe and sound and I wouldn't have to endure pushing after being in labor for 12 hours. He could already tell how tired I was with how emotional I was and I do not think I could have endured much more. I was only in the hospital for 12 hours with Kayden and was really only in labor with him for 6 hours before he was here. The nurse came in and told us that there was a twin c-section and a scheduled c-section a head of us so that it may be a couple hours before we had our c-section, which I was ok with. However, my dr was not. She basically told them we were pushing the scheduled one because I had already been in labor for 12 hours and she was ready to get the baby out and make sure everything was ok. We knew he was fine, and that it wasn't an emergency situation, but she just could not figure out why I was not progressing and why he was having such a hard time coming vaginally. So she told us we were having a c-section at 11:00, 12:!0 I was back in the operating room. I was freaking out about the c-section because I have NEVER had surgery before in my life. I have never had a broken bone, wisdom teeth surgery, nothing. The biggest thing that has ever happened is that I had stitches on my finger when I got it smashed in a door when I was around 7. I was terrified of the recovery time, terrified of the pain, and terrified that I would feel what was going on. Everyone kept reassuring me that it would be fine. I slowly calmed down even though I was disappointed that I was having a c-section, after having a successful vaginal delivery the first time. My epidural had already worn off and I was able to feel my legs so they do a spinal on me. I went completely numb, even to the point of feeling like I couldn't breath. I got VERY sleepy and felt like I took a nap while they were doing everything to get Mykah out, but Nick said I never closed my eyes. I could have sworn that I had though. I remember seeing Mykah right after they got him out, and then seeing and kissing him when Nick took him to the nursery. But other than that, I don't really remember much. They rolled me into recovery and not too long after that they brought Mykah in for me to see him and try to nurse him. I just felt really tired and weak but I was glad I finally got to see him. Thankfully, I wasn't in much pain throughout that day, but that changed about 24 hours after the c-section. I will have to say, recovering from a c-section is a lot harder than recovering from a vaginal delivery. I would definitely take the pushing and labor, over the recovery process of a c-section! But my baby is here safe and sound and we are now able to enjoy him! Kayden meeting his baby brother

Kayden loves his baby brother and has over all been very good with him when he comes to the hospital to visit. He loves holding him and is constantly saying "hold it". He kisses him and points to his ears, eyes, mouth, and nose. He is not a fan of him crying though, especially if he is holding him and he starts crying. That kinda freaks him out.

On saturday, when we were suppose to go home, we were told that Mykah's jaundice levels were too high for us to take him home. We were ordered to stay another day and Mykah had to be under lights for 12 hours. We were only allowed to hold him for 20 minutes in which we feed him and then he had to go back under the lights. It was a LONNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG 12 hours. We are waiting for them to come take the lights off now (it's been a little over 12 hours) and then we have to wait 6 hours for them to come and draw his blood again. They will see if his jaundice levels go down and then will decide whether we will be discharged or not. We are praying the levels have gone down!!

Baby Mykah

Looks like baby Mykah will be here soon! I went to the dr today after having contractions at school. I was 3-4 cm dilated and very thin. This hadn't changed much since my appointment on Thursday however. I was having some contractions after they hooked me up to contraction machine but nothing consistent. The NP checked and said his head was right there. She wrote me a note to be off of work until delivery because she, like my dr said on thursday, would be surprised if i hadn't had this baby by thursday. So now we wait. I held Kayden and rocked Kayden a little longer tonight, just thinking this could be the last time i held him as my "baby". He will no longer be a baby, he will be a big boy. Brings tears to my eyes even typing it. I can't believe that he will be so grown up once Mykah comes. I pray he adjusts well and doesn't feel left out. I pray that he knows mommy loves him so much and that Mykah is not replacing him. I get so worried about it. Kayden has been my LIFE and I don't want him to feel like he is being replaced. I love that little boy so much and I can't even begin to imagine that I'm going to love another being as much as I love Kayden. I pray kayden loves his baby brother. And now... the waiting game :)

Potty Training: Day 1

Kayden has been showing interest in the potty a lot lately. We let him come into the bathroom when we are using it and he has his own potty seat that he has been sitting on. We have been putting him on the potty, generally right before his bath time, so that he could get use to the idea. He has peed several times on the potty and we have been very enthusiastic about it... but then he has also missed a lot when we have let him run around naked. I decided that we would try potty training over the summer before Mykah came. I initially thought I wouldn't start trying until after Mykah came, maybe around Winter Break because I had always heard boys were harder than boys and to not start until around their 2nd bithday. Talking to a friend though, she encouraged me to try rather than later. If it didn't work, it didn't work and try again later. So Sunday night we decided to go out and buy some big boy underwear. I've never been a fan of pull ups, so I knew from the start that I did not want him to wear pull ups. We would just go straight from diapers to big boy underwear. I do plan on letting him use pull ups for naps and night time because he still wakes soaking wet in the mornings. Monday morning, we were going to start potty training. He woke up Monday around 8 and we went and sat on the potty, with no luck. We put on his big boy underwear and made an effort to make a big deal about the big boy underwear and that we do not pee pee or poop in the big boy underwear, you tell mommy if you need to go potty. I gave him a large cup of milk for breakfast so that he would have to go. I set the timer for 15 minutes, and every 15 minutes we went to the potty. Of course, before the first timer was up he had already peed on the floor and in his underwear. We rushed to the potty and in simple language talked about how we pee pee on the potty. Set the timer again for 15 minutes and gave him more milk and some juice (which he NEVER gets... but I've read on several blogs to let them have a lot of sugary and salty stuff to help encourage them to go). We were still going every 15 minutes and he still hadn't peed in the potty... but he didn't have another accident either. The problem came about 9:30. We had only been trying for an hour and thirty minutes, but we had a COMPLETE meltdown. He DID NOT want to sit on the potty, he was fussy, cranky, hitting, and screaming at me about everything. He had been showing some signs throughout the week of teething (which usually means an ear infection is not far behind). I decided to give up for the day because I was getting frustrated with him screaming and he was frustrated because he was obviously not feeling good. He would just sit on the couch with me and wanted me to hold him everywhere which is very unlike him. We put the diapers back on and called the pediatrician for an appointment.... And lo and behold, we had an ear infection in the right ear. Of course, the day I wanted to start potty training. I had told the pediatrician that we had started this morning but he was so fussy that I gave up and she said to give him a couple of days to start feeling better and then try again. She said that if he has been showing interest, knows what the potty is, and has even gone a couple times on the potty, then he is ready and she thought that he would definitely be trained this summer. Once we got home, I gave Kayden a nap and started to read more about potty training. I was really worried that 20 months was just way to young for a boy.... but then I came across this statistic: (I have already left the post that I read it on, so unfortunately I can't give it credit.. and i'm too lazy to find it again but I totally believe it to be true....) "In the 1950's 92% of toddlers were toilet trained by 18 months...." wow. There is nothing that has changed about toddlers throughout these days. So surely.... he will get this! I will probably attempt it again in the morning if he seems like he is feeling better. If not... I will definitely be starting again next Monday with no turning back! We are going to master this potty training thing... and with some things I have read, I'm gaining more confidence and realizing that this may take a while. It's ok if they pee and poop on the floor. Just clean it up, and keep on going. He.Will.Get.It. and why is everything one big long paragraph now?!?!?! Frustrating.

Strength

** Warning, this could be a blog post that makes some people not happy with the whole working mom/stay- at- home mom thing. It's my blog, and my thoughts so consider yourself warned (and negative comments WILL be deleted) :) ** I HAVE SURVIVED! I have survived my first "year" of being a working mom! Thankfully, it's not actually a year. It's only been 9 months but it has been LONG.ENOUGH. I am so thankful to God to have given me strength to be a working mom. I believe it takes A LOT of strength to be a working mom. You don't get to be with your child all day, you are not their sole care giver. You are not getting to be there to discipline and teach them when they are having issues with friends, you are not there to make sure they get a good nap and are eating well. You aren't able to do fun things during the day like library times, go to the children's museum or the park, or to even just sit and play with them. You get off work, tired and exhausted, go pick up your now cranky child at day care because they are over stimulated and have had about an hour-two hour nap when they really could have used a three hour nap after everything they have done during the day, get home, cook dinner, play for a little bit, get a bath, and put to bed, just to get up and do it all over again the next day. You get 3 hours tops with your kid each day. You have to drop them off to people you really don't know that well, let them hug, cuddle, feed, play with your child. You have to listen to them cry or hold on to your shoulder when ever it's time to hand them over. IT. TAKES. STRENGTH. Strength that stay-at-home mom's don't need. Yes, they have and need their own strength. But, they aren't the ones leaving their babies every day. They aren't the ones thinking about what their child is doing all day long. I've been and have done both.... and being a working mom has definitely required a strength that only God could have given me. I would not have made it throughout this year without His strength to be a working mom. I believe it takes a special person to be a working mom. While I hate that I have to do it, I am thankful that he has had that in store for me and to prove to me that I am strong enough to do this. I am strong enough to keep doing this. It's only going to get harder.... It's going to get harder when I have had 2 1/2 months to do nothing but cuddle and play and take care of my boy. It's going to get harder when I go back to work for a couple weeks and then get to be at home again for 6 weeks. It's going to get harder when I have to leave my 2 year old AND my 6 WEEK OLD. It's going to get harder when I realize that I was not there as much for Mykah during his first year as I was for Kayden. It's going to get harder when I go back to school to get my masters, work full time, and have 2 little boys. It's going to get harder, but I still have this strength. This strength that God has given me. This strength that my boys will then have because they had a strong mother.

It's a.........

BOY :)
I have been so bad at keeping up with this blog lately! It's been so tough with school and just getting everything finished before summer. (P.S. only 7 more weeks until a much needed summer break... counting.down.) I promise I will get better once school is out.

There are so many updates for Kayden- he has finally broken 20 pounds, he wears 6-12 month sized shorts, he LOVES daycare and is learning so much, he knows many words and is starting to put together words to form sentences- one that we heard for the first time today was "i got your keys" and "i want my paci", he got hand foot mouth disease (thankfully not very bad!), oh i'm sure there are so many more, he is just growing and changing every single day!

We went to the doctor last thursday and found out that we are having another boy. Our doctor has an option where you can pay for an ultrasound at 16 weeks to determine the gender so we decided to do that. We found out it was a boy and had a small gender reveal party just to have some fun with it. (For those who don't know, there has not been a girl born on my husband's side of the family in 150 years.... NO JOKE... so we didn't even hold out hope for a girl). We had the people at the cupcake place put pink icing on top just to have fun but then the middle of the cupcake was blue. We will go back in 4 weeks to get the anatomy scan to make sure that everything is looking good and make sure it's a boy... but we are pretty sure it is. Baby was being a little stubborn, but the ultrasound tech was pretty positive once she did get him to move that it was a boy.

We have ZERO names for this baby. NOTHING. NADA. ZIP. We have no clue what we are going to name this baby. We can't find anything that we like so we have gone to the baby name books. We have gotten through A and B and so far nothing. Hopefully we come up with something before going to the hospital in September!

My Baby is Growing Up!

My "baby" is going to be a BIG BROTHER!!!
This child has been a bit dramatic already however, so I'm scared we are going to have our hands full :)


On Monday, there was some spotting while I was at work, so I left and headed to the doctor. My doctor was not there so I saw the nurse practitioner and she ordered an ultra sound. The ultrasound lady found the heartbeat right away and tears filled my eyes. You don't realize how attached to something you get until you might not have it anymore. It was SUCH a sigh of relief. The baby measured 6 weeks 3 days, which was almost exactly a week off from what I thought, but the doctor said that it was fine... especially since Kayden always measured smaller also. The heartrate was 125 beats per minute which is exactly what it should be for a 6 week baby.
I still had to go back today for my actual first OB appointment, see my doctor, do the lab work, etc. My doctor was awesome and decided to go ahead and do another ultrasound just because she wanted to :) The baby measured 6 weeks 4 days and the heartrate was already beating a little faster. She said there was no sign of active bleeding and everything looked just fine. Praise the Lord! So our sweet second baby's offical due date will be September 14th. 4 days after Kayden's 2nd birthday.... :)

Here's some fun news!!

Well, I have many things to catch up on with this blog! Christmas has come and gone with out even a mention of it on here!! We did have a great Christmas, and I promise a post dedicated all to Christmas (at some point....)

However, there is some important news to announce....


And, it's not really official... and DEFINITELY not facebook official......


But, Very few people read the blog and I felt it only fair to let my few followers know first, before Facebook....


BABY #2 IS DUE SEPTEMBER 6TH!!!!!

It was quite a shock for us. We were hoping another year before having another baby. We really wanted them to be about 2 1/2 to 3 years apart... but God has other plans.
And while I was super surprised and shocked... I am overjoyed!

Nick practically had to force me to take the pregnancy test. I think I was in denial. I've never really had regular cycles and so missing one wasn't really that big of a deal to me. Nick on the other hand kept begging me to test. He even went to the store, all by his self, and bought pregnancy tests.

I haven't really been "feeling" pregnant, like I was with Kayden. By this point I was throwing up every morning, exhausted and my chest hurt something awful! The only thing so far is exhaustion, and I think that's just from teaching and a cold. For these reasons, we aren't really making a big formal announcement for a while, but like I said I felt the need to share with my followers on the blog :)

I'll call the doctor on tuesday and hope to get an appointment this week, however according to a due date calculator I'm only 6 weeks and my doctor won't have us come in until 8 weeks unless there is something that we think is wrong. So there you have it. BABY #2 due around September 6th. AND YES, THAT IS ONLY 4 DAYS BEFORE KAYDEN'S 2ND BIRTHDAY.....
we are hoping this little one will be like Kayden and decide to come 2 weeks early so that their birthday's are at least a little ways apart. :)