Ian's baby blessing

On the Sunday Mom was here, Ian received his baby blessing from his daddy.  It was a beautiful blessing. We all felt the Spirit so strongly.  I heard later from one of the priesthood bearers in the circle that Ian was wide awake and solemnly stared at Eric and looked around the circle during the blessing.  It reminded me of when Nyah was blessed - she did the same thing.  I wonder how much they understand with the veil being thin for them as newborns.  What a treasure Ian is to our family and what a blessing it is to have a precious new spirit from heaven here in our home.

Bellevue Botanical Gardens

Sunshine

Mom brought the sunshine with her!  And when we've got sun, we enjoy it!  Here we are playing at the park.

Grammy!

 My mom is simply amazing.  I know all moms are not created equal and I just thank heaven (literally) that I was blessed with mine!  She came for a full week to help me after Ian was born and it was blissful.  I pretty much got to be a kid again.  You know, the days when Mom did all the laundry and cleaning and when dinner rolled around all you had to do was show up?  Ya, that was me.  A grown woman with a husband and 3 children. :)  Now you know why I say it was blissful!! But the best part was getting to hang out with her all day, every day.   I loved every minute!  Since I had just had a baby there was no pressure to be out and about and so we just got to relax and watch chick-flicks and play games in the evenings.  (Eric was loving life...heehee!)  We also did do a lot of fun activities... I have pictures coming soon!

snuggle bug

[I'm back online and so relieved! I had some issues with my browser and blogger... it took me a few weeks to figure out the simple fix (obviously I'm no computer whiz).  I'm excited to catch up now!] 

I could snuggle with that cute little bug all day!  But alas, I do have two other equally adorable children to take care of, so Ian does have sleep time in bed occasionally.  Here he is at 3 weeks:

2 weeks old and the sweetest smile you've ever seen

I can't believe our little guy is already 2 weeks old!! How incredible is that?! He turned 2 weeks on his due date April 19th. He measured in at 8 pounds 2 ounces and 21 inches! I'm so glad he came early... I got out of 2 miserable weeks of pregnancy and instead got to enjoy him on the outside for 2 extra weeks!! :) And I've loved every single second. I even captured a smile on this big day!! Granted he is sleeping, but still. He has been smiling like that since day 3 and every time it melts my heart. He has the sweetest little spirit and when he is dreaming his happy little dreams and I get to see his smile, I just can't help falling in love with him a little more each time.

first bath

Ten days old and Ian gets his first bath in the bathroom sink! :) Gabe was super excited and helped me the whole time. He is utterly adorable with his baby brother. (I have so many sweet stories to share... and pictures too!) But anyway, Ian didn't love his bath but we tried to make it quick and cuddled him extra long afterward! Nyah was there too, sitting on the counter watching the whole show intently!

days 4 and 5

I know I can't blog about every single day with Ian but I took so many darling pictures the first week, I have to! :) Here are some favorite pictures of him on days 4 and 5 respectively. (At 4 days old Ian weighed 7 lbs 1 oz) I added some cute pictures of the kids outside playing on the 5th day... they were finally feeling up to a little physical activity and thankfully the weather permitted us to all go outside and enjoy some sun. I captured some great action shots of Gabe kicking his new soccer ball! I LOVE his form, haha!! He is so cute!! And there is out little princess - one of the first smiles on her face for days!

2 days old

For the first few days after bringing Ian home, my whole world revolved around this little man. When I wasn't sleeping, I was feeding him or burping him or changing him or snuggling him or kissing him or thinking about him! That is life with a newborn. A tiny, precious, brand-new baby. He is so helpless and sweet. So soft and warm. So perfectly fresh. Oh I've loved every minute. I may feel like a zombie pulling myself out of bed to nurse in the night but it is so worth it. Even at times like that, I have a hard time putting him down. When he's all sleepy with a tummy full of milk and curled up on my chest... oh my goodness, it's heaven! It doesn't matter that it's 3 am and I've had 2 hours of sleep! :) Nothing matters because it's like time is standing still and I just want to stay in the moment for a little bit longer. I LOVE having a baby in our family again. I LOVE this little boy...

Homecoming

Friday afteroon we headed home with our sweet Ian! On the way we had an appointment with an ENT doctor to fix his little tongue... his frenulum (membrane that tethers tongue to bottom of mouth) was unusually short and attached too far toward the tip of his tongue. This was causing problems with breastfeeding - instead of the tongue coming forward to cover the bottom gums, he was unable to do this and so was biting down and thrusting his tongue against me trying to get the milk out. Not very effective for him and super ouchy for me!! So just 24 hours after coming into the world he had to have his little tongue cut to free it. Poor sweetheart! But honestly he did great and the ENT told me it causes minimal pain/discomfort. Here is a picture that shows how tight his tongue was tethered:After that small side track to the ENT, we headed to our friend's house to pick up the big kids. Little Ian definitely didn't have the homecoming I had envisioned... Nyah had a fever the day I went into labor so I knew she had been struggling with a virus but what a shock it was to see how miserably sick they both were!! Nyah was like all the life had been sucked out of her and just layed on our shoulder limply with no interest in anything around her. And Gabe too... poor little man was wandering around in a fog. It had just hit him that day and he was burning up with fever too. Just the night before he had been in to see the baby and had been bouncing around so happy and full of energy. Today he was just like Nyah - both were so ill it broke my heart. :( I was also so grateful to all the wonderful friends that had taken care of my little kids during this time. I felt sad that I hadn't been there to cuddle them and take care of them but it felt really good to know that I had loving, kind friends that had watched over them when their parents couldn't be there. Needless to say, Eric spent the next two days holding and cuddling the kids through this awful sickness while I cared for our newest little guy. Thank goodness Ian never caught that bug!