6 Week Shenanigans

I have hit the 6 week postpartum mark and it was a busy week for our family. Mid last week we travelled to Kansas to celebrate Reid's grandmother's 80th birthday. It was particularly a special time since it basically was a big family reunion with people traveling from 7 different states to celebrate (Reid's immediate family alone made up 5 states). His mom was so happy to have all her children and grandchildren together for the first time in 2 years.

This also happened to be Cooper's first trip (of many I'm sure) to Kansas. He did great traveling and slept through both flights. Carson did great as well and had fun using his new headphones to watch a movie. While we were back we made a trip to Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead. I wish there was something for kids like this place in Denver. We took Carson last year for his first birthday and he was able to do and enjoy so much more this time. It was a whirlwind weekend, but it always is when you have two sets of families and high school and college friends to try and see.

Another component to our 6 week shenanigans is an update on Cooper. He is smiling and making cute baby noises. It's so fun to have him interacting with us. He loves a picture we have hanging behind the couch. Whenever I go to burp him while sitting on the couch he looks up at it and gets the cheesiest grin. He also loves to smile when you talk to him. He is beginning to "tolerate" the pacifier if you hold it in his mouth. Sometimes he'll even keep it in himself for a little bit. But he has found his hands and if the pacifier falls out he will start chomping on his fists. I have also noticed him starting to drool. He is still not the best sleeper but I'm hoping it's because I haven't had the time to adapt him to a schedule. Things were a bit hectic with big brother around. But now that he is back in daycare I'm going to make that my focus before I go back to work. He is a little less fussy now and his spit-ups have seemed to taper off a bit (which I think was the culprit of his fussiness). He doesn't seem to be a fan of the rocker or bouncer seat so that might make work fun! Hopefully that changes. He makes the goofiest faces and is very noisy in his sleep. I still can't believe how much he looks like Carson and I do catch myself having to make sure I say the right name ;) If only he would sleep like his big brother!

To wrap up our week I had my 6 week check-up and got the all clear. My body didn't bounce back like it did with Carson which I expected because the last couple months I scaled back (and by scale back I mean did not do any) my workouts. I'm looking forward to figuring out a good routine where I can regularly work out and start getting back in shape again. Also Carson went back to daycare this week to give me a little break before I start work on September 3rd. I'm hoping to try and catch up on some sleep and spend some time with Cooper and really figuring him out. So far we are doing great and I started him on a bedtime routine. We will see if this helps him sleep better at night!

Cooper Thomas: One Month

I can hardly believe our little Cooper is one month old today (and was 4 weeks on the 5th). His favorite past time is still nursing and sleeping (rough life huh?) but he is having some longer wake times on occasion. He still, 90% of the time, wants nothing to do with the pacifier. But big brother sure likes to find them and sneak away to use them! Our struggle right now is whenever he is awake he only seems to want to nurse, so we are fighting the battle of how do we keep him awake more without always wanting food. Hopefully this will go away in the next couple weeks. He's still waking up every 2-3 hours at night but is good about going back to sleep pretty quickly. Some fun things he has started to make some little baby sounds. He "smiles" more too but I'm not 100% sure they are legit smiles yet. We have also had some fluke roll-overs from his tummy to back. His legs are strong, just like big brother's were, and you can tell he's gaining strength in his neck. He is also starting to grasp objects. He is a noisy little baby and always grunts and moans in his sleep. Reid and I both agree he seems to be a bit more fussy than Carson was. I think he is a little gassier and spit's up more so it's just from being uncomfortable. But he still nurses well (despite a rough patch this past week) and we are about to graduate from newborn size diapers and our newborn clothes are getting a little tight and short. Since we didn't have a doctor's appointment, I did my best to measure and weigh him on our home scale. I'm happy to report he is approximately 9lbs and just shy of 21in long (we'll see how accurate this is when we go for our 2 month appt). My little boy is chunking up nicely!! Cooper has been on lots of adventures with big brother and he does great when we get out. He still isn't keen about getting in to the carseat, but he settles down and generally falls right to sleep.

Birth: 6lbs 11.1oz and 19.5in

Leaving Hospital: 6lbs 3.9oz

Five Days: 6lbs 10oz

Two Weeks: 7lbs 10.5oz and 20in
One Month: ~9lbs and 21in

Happy one month Cooper Thomas! We hope you enjoyed celebrating with your first hike in the mountains!!

Cooper Thomas: Two Weeks

Two weeks already!?! I can hardly believe it. I'm still over-the-moon in love with you Cooper Thomas. You make the silliest noises when you stir and your facial expressions make daddy and I laugh. You still prefer to sleep during the day and feed more at night, but the past few days you've been wide awake most of the mornings. You have also decided to have some awake time the past couple nights. Right now mommy is trying to "enjoy" every moment with you as you are the last "planned" baby. Unfortunately you have a little cold that you got from mommy and big brother :( We are sorry!! It has been messing with your feedings as you spit up quite often. We will see if the doctor thinks it might be reflux too. Speaking of big brother he will give you kisses now and likes to tickle your belly while saying "tickle tickle." He also loves to bring you your binkie which you have zero interest in. You had your first bath which you weren't 100% sure about. Your cord stump is still on (update after I posted your stump fell off that evening, day 16) but your plastibell fell off after 9 days. You really don't like being buckled in to your carseat but calm down after a bit. Mommy tries to carry you in a wrap but the one we have is too hot for these summer days. She's got another one on the way that will hopefully be much better. Mommy is trying very hard not to "neglect" you too much (#secondchildproblems), but don't worry we will get plenty of bonding time when big brother goes back to daycare as you will stay home with mommy while she works.

The doctor says you are doing FANTASTIC with your weight gain. You are in the 50th percentile for height and weight and 90th for head circumference. He again said I can adjust his night feedings by trying to distract with a binkie for a little extra shut eye, but you are having none of it! Actually last night you surprisingly took a binkie for a bit, but it only got me about an extra half hour to 45 minutes of rest. You stir quite a bit in your sleep but are very good at putting yourself back to sleep. So maybe mommy just needs to figure out when you are ACTUALLY hungry, and not just being noisy. Good news the doctor doesn't think you have reflux because you are gaining weight like a champ and I can already see a decrease in your spit-ups. I also got the go-ahead to give pumping a try so daddy can feed you a bottle. Hopefully you don't reject those like you do the binkie, but I'm guessing you'll do just fine. Happy two weeks Mr. Cooper!! We get to look forward to more awake time, smiles and maybe even some giggles in the next few weeks.

Birth: 6lbs 11.1oz and 19.5in

Leaving Hospital: 6lbs 3.9oz

Five Days: 6lbs 10oz

Two Weeks: 7lbs 10.5oz and 20in

Introducing Cooper Thomas + The First Few Days

Ahhh I can't believe he is FINALLY here and our little family is complete!! Let's learn a little bit about Mr. Cooper...

I'm one of those people who needs a name for their baby as soon as I find out the gender. Even though I say this, I don't fully connect to the name until the baby is finally here. For baby number 2, it was difficult coming up with a name after finding out we were having another boy. A girl we would have been set...McKinley Rae..but a boy, where oh where do we begin. We knew we wanted it to have a meaning like Carson did, but beyond that we didn't know where to else to start. Nothing seemed to click, and everything we were coming up with seemed like we were settling on a name. Then the name Cooper came up. Back in December 2007 Reid was living in Edwards, CO while doing an internship during college. I came out to visit for the holidays and we went to Ski Cooper where I had my very first skiing adventure. A couple days later, Reid proposed so it was a weekend to remember! And that is how Cooper came about, and Thomas is my dad's name (Carson's middle name is after Reid's dad).

I mentioned before that I felt an instant connection the moment Cooper was laid on my chest. From his tiny little body, down to the shape of his fingernails (strange I know) I loved this little boy more than anything! I was happy to be "stuck" in a hospital room with him for a few days. Cooper did great in the hospital, passing all his tests and breastfeeding wonderfully. He even went through a 4 1/2 hour stretch of sleeping through the night, which the nurse reassured me was ok. As for me, I bounced back a lot quicker than I did with Carson and felt more comfortable with recovery which allowed Reid to be at home with Carson more. The one difference I noticed was the cramping following delivery was a bit more intense this time around. And then about 36 hours after delivery we were on our way home and I was so excited to finally get out of that hospital room.

Settling In At Home

Day One: We made it home with Cooper and I decided I would go pick up Carson from daycare with my mother-in-law since I hadn't been around him in a couple days. Carson got home and was still the same with Cooper as he was in the hospital. Just liked to point and say "a baby" and not much else. He went about his normal, crazy toddler self. Cooper fit right in and adjusted just fine (not sure there's much to adjust to when you just sleep, eat and poop all day long). Our first night wasn't horrible, but it wasn't smooth sailing either. In the hospital Cooper had one spit up that I never experienced with Carson, and it continued at home. I remember the first time I woke up in the middle of the night for a feeding I looked over to the bassinet and saw the poor little guy with spit-up on him. This scared me a bit, fearing he would choke on it in his sleep. So I did the "not-so safest thing" and cat-napped with him on my chest the rest of the night. I am a very light sleeper so any movement and I was awake in an instant! Cooper woke up about every 2 hours but luckily I wasn't up for too long at each feeding (he seems to be a one-side feeder). I was probably more tired from not getting into a deep sleep since Cooper was sleeping on me.

Day Two: Cooper had great awake time in the morning. I just love his eyes so it was fun seeing him more alert for a bit. After that he went back to his eat, sleep routine which made for a long night of feeding. It seemed like he was up every 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours, which was still ok as I was working on getting my milk in. While we are still working on figuring each other out, his schedule right now seems to be longer rests during the day which means more feedings at night. By some stroke of luck, I got 45min of quiet time for a nap while Carson AND Cooper were both sleeping and Nonni and Reid could get some uninterrupted chores/projects completed.

Day Three: Milk arrived but Cooper didn't seem to eat enough throughout the day to help relieve any engorgement, so it was a long uncomfortable day. My recovery also started to "slow down" a bit. Or maybe I'm just anxious to get back to myself. It is challenging for me to have people doing stuff for me all the time. It's also challenging wanting/needing to still be a mom to a two year old so I probably don't rest as much as I should. Cooper seems to have fallen into a routine now which is one good awake time (either in the morning or evening) and then he just sleeps A LOT! He feeds more at night than during the day right now and only at a couple of feedings will he eat from both sides. Aside from my engorgement day when I already got a clogged duct, breastfeeding seems to be going good...which was re-affirmed on day four.

Day Four: We headed to the doctor for a newborn check-up and found out Cooper weighs 6lbs 10oz which is one ounce under his birthweight. He had left the hospital losing 6% of his bodyweight so the doctor said he is doing great and even gave me the ok to "adjust his schedule." We've started using the pacifier occasionally so I thought I'd try it during the night to push his feedings to every 3 1/2 hours. Well he seems accept the pacifier from everyone but me :( He doesn't seem to be a fan of it anyways, but especially when his momma is giving it to him.His spit-ups are pretty much gone and unlike his brother he will sleep in the bassinet pretty well so I'm thinking about moving him over to his crib in the next week.

Day Five: And that brings us to today! Carson is getting better with him daily. He's laid next to Cooper on his playmate, touched his belly, put the pacifier in his mouth and still loves to point him out exclaiming "a baby." Changes we've seen in him are sleep patterns which makes for a cranky toddler and more tantrums. But all things considering, he's doing fantastic. I can't say yet the challenges of having both kids at home are because we are lucky to have had Nonni around helping out with EVERYTHING! So those will come next week after all our  family has come and gone. And lastly Cooper will wrap up his first week of life with his newborn pictures tomorrow! And I'll finish with a funny side-thought. Being around Cooper so much makes me feel like I'm changing the baby from this commercial with Carson, ha!