Summer Fun

Summer is here and I am enjoying it much more this year than I did last year. Of course I was pregnant last year which makes it less fun anyways but I feel like I have been taking advantage of the water activities more this year. We have gone swimming a couple of times and played in the sprinklers too. Both boys just love the water in any form!



Elliott has been trying lots of new foods and so far I have been really good about making my own food and have not bought any commercial baby food (other than cereals). He loves to eat as I am sure most of you can tell from his massive rolls.

Elijah is, well, a baby abuser. It's not easy for me to admit that but it's true. He loves to pinch, pull hair, smack, push, pull, poke and even sit on babies. This was one of the more pleasant sitting on moments for Elliott.
Pulling the ears....ug.

Today our Elliott is 7 months old. I can't believe how much faster the time goes with a 2nd child. I don't want to loose my precious baby.


Evidence of the massive rolls, oh how sweet they are.
At 6 months he was in 75th percentile for both weight and height. He is not crawling yet but rolling everywhere and pushes himself backwards while on his tummy on the tile. He does rock when he is on his hands and knees. Some of his favorite things to play with are the remote controls, cell phones and Ipods, much like his brother. He also likes the toy drum and Elijah's fire truck. He is unimpressed with most baby toys.

My nephew Dade is living with us right now. He is a happy kid full of stories........so many stories.......oh the talking! I am not used to having a child talk in my ear ALL DAY LONG. It can be exhausting but I would rather him talk to me than not at all so I am thankful for that. I don't have any pictures yet but I am sure I will soon enough. For now his favorite things to do are watch tv, play video games and play computer games. He is all boy...

...but I sure do love my boys.

We are still going!

I just realized it has been 5 months since I updated our blog. That is really pathetic but I am finding it hard to do it as often with 2 kids, speaking of, both boys were awake when I started writing this and now Elliott is crying. I didn't even get two sentences typed before duty called. I don't know how moms with multiple kids make it through the days. I struggle with having two. I am not very adventurous and I am somewhat of a homebody so getting out of the house is not an easy task for me.

Anyways, the boys are doing great! Elijah is F-I-N-A-L-L-Y walking. I have been praying for this for a long time and was beginning to think it might not ever happen. He has been physically able to walk for awhile now but just chose not to until one day it just clicked and from that point he would just walk everywhere. He is delayed in a lot more areas than walking/gross motor but since he started walking I feel like everything else has started to blossom with him. He is communicating better, listening to instruction better and is playing more intentionally rather than just throwing toys around. Although walking comes with a new set of challenges, I am elated that we have finally arrived at it. I had to come to the realization that I have a child who is developmentally delayed, which was hard. I always just told myself that he is just not walking. But the reality was that he was not doing a lot of things that were age appropriate for him. In general right now, Elijah is still in the 12-15 month range of what he is doing. I contribute my struggle with motherhood sometimes partially to his delays. It just makes the normal craziness that much more crazy. He is currently still receiving physical therapy once a week and speech assistance once a week for a month. Just in the last week and a half he has learned how to communicate when he wants more, needs help or is all done with something to me. Makes for much less whining! He is sleeping in a toddler bed now which he likes although it means more work for us.

Elliott on the other hand is doing things right on schedule if not sooner! I am in awe at what a normal child can do. He is 5 months old and can roll over and pretty much sit up on his own (things that Elijah did not do until he was at least 9 months). He is a big guy, 80th percentile for weight and 50th for height. He is a really happy baby, giggling all of the time. He is not sleeping through the night yet which is something that Elijah did do early on. I am still trying to figure out why he is waking up every night, sometimes multiple times. I just started giving him rice cereal a couple of days ago hoping that might help him make it through the night, it has not worked so far.

Since my last post we have celebrated Elijah's 2nd birthday and Tony and I's 5 year anniversary. Of course I have pictures to share and I am sure that I say this every time but these pictures are not really in any order.

Elliott sitting up all on his own.

First bites...

Elijah on his 2nd birthday.

At his cousins birthday party, thought this was a cute picture.

We did make it to the Zoo in March and I thought this picture was funny. It was the prairie dog exhibit and this little guy was standing tall on the sign representing the prairie dogs!

Tony and Elijah feeding the giraffes.

Our "family picture" (maybe we will get a real one soon).

Typical scene for Elijah, a basketful of toys and candy but instead he is playing with something that he shouldn't be.

Sometimes he does not sleep in his new big boy bed...

This is a picture of my sister-in-law Rachel and I and alllllllll of the kids attempting to eat lunch together, it's pure madness.

"Whazzzup?"

Elliott's Birth Story

The fact that I am updating my blog after having a baby only 6 days ago is a testimony to how blessed we have been by God! Our little Elliott is a miracle (as all babies are) and the best Christmas gift I have ever recieved! Here is the story how he entered this world....

On Monday November 29th I had my weekly doctor's visit. I got the usual check and was told that I was only 1 cm dialated and that was a stretch. I had been checked two weeks earlier and had not made any progress. I was feeling pretty discouraged about that. My doctor informed that she would be out of town that Friday through Tuesday but had another doctor that she trusts filling in for her. She offered to induce me that week before she left if I wanted to. I thought for just a moment and said no because going into labor naturally is better right??? I went home and talked to Tony and told him that I could've been induced but chose to just wait it out. He was surprised and said "Why not induce, you are miserable?". And he was right....I was having really bad pains in my hip joints that made it hard to walk not to mention the back pain that I had the whole time and just general discomfort of being pregnant. So I called my doctor back and told her I had changed my mind and before I knew it I was scheduled to go in the next day to be induced. On Tuesday, Tony and I arrived at the hospital around 10 pm. The nurse checked me before starting any meds and I was already 2-3 cm. Around 11 pm she administered the first set of 3 gels used to "ripen" my cervix. Right away I started having contractions, they were uncomfortable but bearable. She said that my doctor offered a sleep aid because induction can be a long a process and the gels are supposed to take around 12 hours. I went ahead and took it knowing exactly how tired I would be if I didn't sleep. After getting the sleep aid (which I found out later was Ambien) kicked it, I was pretty much out of it for the night. I had no clue when the next few things happened as I was in and out of sleep but at some point they gave me some kind of pain reliever and the second set of gel. Then my contractions got really intense and were coming every 2-3 minutes. I was still really groggy so I would actually dose off in between contractions but once they started I was awake again and having Tony rub my back. I knew my nurse was scheduled to come back at a certain time to check me again but I couldn't wait, I needed my epidural. Around 5 am the anesthesiologist came in and gave me my epidural. Tony and I both fell asleep after that. A short time later my nurse comes in and said she was putting me on oxygen and checked me again. She said the bag of water was bulging but I don't remember what she said I was dialated to. I remember feeling an incredible amount of pressure like if I pushed hard enough that the baby would just pop out. After a few minutes on oxygen my nurse had me turn on my side then she turned me again. I was still not sure why all of this was happening and was too sleepy to ask. A couple of minutes later they broke my water and my nurse tells me that my doctor is on her way but that the hospital doctor was coming in because it was time to push! The doctor came in, got suited up, told me to push twice for 10 seconds long and that was it, Elliott was out at 6:36 am. The doc did her thing with the baby, turned around to hand him off and before she could turn back the placenta just fell out. It barely made it into the bucket. That is a detail that I am sure you could live without but it is important to the story so bear with me. I remember the doctor saying that was not supposed to happen and that she would be sending it to pathology (who knows what that means). During this time Elliott came out not breathing on his own so they had to help him out a little. Within minutes he came started breathing and did not need to put on oxygen. I got to hold him for a couple of mintues before he was moved to the NICU. I found out that his heart rate had suddenly dropped and that is why they put me on oxygen and started turning me. They could not get it to go back up and that is why we could not wait for my doctor (she showed up about 10 minutes after he was born). The placenta at some point had become detached, they think it happened as he was coming out. They said that had I not been fully dialated and ready to push that I would have been rushed to the OR for a C-section.....scary! Also, had I not chosen to be induced and that happened at the same time then who knows if we would even have our little Elliott! God totally protected him through all of this. He spent a couple of days in the NICU for precaution but did exceedingly well with everything that was required of him. I am so very thankful for him and for my God who continues to amaze me with his goodness.

Elliott Samuel Nave
Born 12-01-10 at 6:36 am
6 lbs 5 oz 18 inches

September and October

September and October have been busy months but I really don't know why. I quite working and Tony had surgery on his foot in September but that was pretty much it for us, nothing exciting. And October just flew by, I have no idea where it went! I am currently 34 weeks pregnant and feeling very anxious. I really don't enjoy pregnancy, some woman do but I am not one of them. I know that the longer this baby cooks the better but I find myself daydreaming about him coming earlier than expected, which means he will probably be late! I know I am not that large but I am large for me and I am getting uncomfortable. In addition I am still carrying around a 25lb almost 21 month old. Elijah is still not walking. He is so so close though. We are currently in the process of having an akle brace made for his right foot because he does not seem to use that one properly. I am hoping that will just him the boost of support he needs to take off! Although he is not walking, he makes up for it in personality! He cracks me up and melts my heart with his big smiles.

Elijah loves to climb and to get into things. He not only found a way to get around the baby proofing on the cabinets of our entertainment center but once he got them open, he broke them. He then emptied out the cabinet and climbed right inside. This cabinet now remains permanently empty and is one of Elijah's favorite past times.


With much convincing on Tony's part, we decided that it was time to give Elijah his first haircut. Of course I did it myself which was not exactly easy but the clippers helped with that.

This is before his haircut

And after...what a big boy!

Brushing his new do!

Elijah loves to empty out things, buckets, baskets, drawers, bags...whatever! Sometimes things inside are hard to reach but he always finds a way!

Tony and I don't get out and date much.....it's just the way it is right now. But we finally decided to splurge and go out and it just happens that we didn't have a babysitter that night so Elijah went with!

We found this italian restaurant in Queen Creek that we liked and had huge pizzas!

Back in June, Tony bought me tickets to go see Jack Johnson in concert! I have never really been to a big concert like that but was thrilled to go. I went with my friend Michelle as she is a big fan too. The concert was on 10-10-10 and it was a blast! This is before the concert. I love how Elijah is in the back around climbing on the laundry basket.

Hi Jack!

Elijah loves to climb on the couch and when we allow him to do it (with supervision of course) he likes to go right to the best seat in the house, grab the remote control and pretend to be Daddy!

I took this picture this morning of Elijah just typing away! He cried for 10 mintues after I pulled him off the keyboard. He was not happy and made me pay for it!

August

The month of August was busy. My sister in law and I had a combined baby shower and we had so much fun. People went above and beyond blessing us more than we could ever have imagined.

While opeing presents we were both extremely hot so this is us fanning ourselves.





Cutting the cake with all of the kiddos waiting patiently to eat it.


It was so cute and sooooooo delicious!

Our nephew Dade also came to visit us in August and we thoroughly enjoyed having him with us. We did a lot of different things but for some reason only took pictures at home.

This is him and Elijah playing with a very noisy ball popper that remains stored in Elijah's closet for that exact reason.

Elijah giving him a massage.....

This kid has a smile to die for!!

Dade flew to Arizona all by himself from Virginia and on the way there, the captain let him go in the cockpit and he took a picture and emailed it to me!!

Dade is quite the artist and it did not take him long to start decorating our walls (with drawings on paper of course).

Elijah is turning into one silly kid. He is still not walking although we are getting closer every day but he is a climber! And he gets into everything! Anytime I go somewhere, I feel like all I do is chase him around and don't really get to enjoy being out. I know this period will soon pass but I think it is extra hard on me because I am pregnant.

I am pretty sure that he makes this face because he sees his father do it.

Elijah spends a lot of time at his Aunt and Uncles house and he has found a liking to this lovely pink car! He still has not mastered how to climb in and out but with a little help he makes his way to the drivers seat and has a blast.

Another silly smile.