Has it been a week?

I can't believe I haven't posted in a week...I think about posting, but then I just don't ever get around to sitting down at the computer. I know we'll fall into a routine one of these days, we just aren't quite there yet.

So how are the kids? Mia is doing great, she weighed in at 23 pounds 12 ounces...we are almost to 24 pounds, I would love for her to be there by her birthday. My goal was to get her to 26 pounds by her birthday, so we are still short, but we've made progress because that was when she was only 22 pounds. Slow and steady right? She is doing really well with her braces and I've noticed an improvement in her feet. I made it to therapy today and got to see her in action, her therapist also has noticed a big improvement in her over the past 6 weeks. Part of that is the braces and part of it is that she's getting stronger. Praise God for this success!

At Mia's school, they've been testing her because kids transition out at 3. Right now they are figuring out if she qualifies for more school and where and what that would look like. The speech therapist looked at her yesterday and tested her at high average. She's high average because she has a lot of receptive language, it's just her expressive language that we continue to struggle with. That is an area where we could use continued prayer, for her to be able to produce all the different sounds of our language and then be able to make words out of them. I have complete hope that God will get us there eventually, I just know it's going to take some time.

Her occupational therapist tested her today and said that her struggles are mostly with things that are bilateral. That makes sense because she has the left sided weakness and struggles with that.

How's Calvin? He's doing great, gaining weight like a trooper, thank you Lord! Today he weighed in at 9 pounds 9 ounces, so he's up 8 ounces from last week. It's almost too unreal for me to see the scale go up significantly each week, I keep wondering when it's going to stop, but we are grateful that we have been blessed with a boy who likes to eat. :) How's his sleep? Or should I say my sleep? Usually we can go about 3 1/2 hours at night, sometimes 4...last night I got 5 1/2 hours of sleep, I woke up concerned that he was still sleeping! I had to make sure he was breathing. Life is almost normal with 5 1/2 hours of sleep...I'd like 12 myself, but if he keeps sleeping well, that would be awesome. :)

One Month Today!

It's hard to believe that it has been 1 month already! We are sort of settling into the reality of having a little baby again. Calvin is doing great. He weighed in at 9 pounds 1 ounce today, which puts him at gaining about 7 ounces a week. I'm so relieved to have a child that gains weight, it's a refreshing change. We took a few pictures of the little man and then big sister wanted her picture taken. The blocks say One because he is 1 month, Mia's block is the number 2 because she's 2. :)

Picking a Name

When I was pregnant with Mia, we decided early on that if she were a girl she would be named Mia. We struggled the rest of the pregnancy with coming up with a boy's name. I don't know why picking a boy's name is so hard, but for us it is. If she had been a boy, she would have been named Jeremiah. We think she's definitely a Mia. So, when we found out that I was pregnant with Calvin again we struggled with boy names. We had a whole slew of girl names picked out and if Calvin had been a girl, he was going to be named Savannah. Since we decided to find out this time if we were having a boy or a girl, I thought that would help us pick a name easier...not so much, especially since he was a boy. We scoured baby name books endlessly. For awhile, Maximus was Brad's pick and I really liked Max, but I did not want my child named Maximus. And I know quite a few people were thinking Max would be great with Mia and I think we were leaning towards that up until the last week or so of the pregnancy. I remember having a conversation with Brad, a few weeks before, and I said, I need a name, I can't wait until he's born...what do you think of Max, can we just go with that? And he was slightly noncommittal...so, then I decided that Mia should pick, we'd narrow the list down to 3 names and she could pick...so the list got narrowed down to Max, Jeremiah (yes, it resurfaced), and Jet. She picked Jet. In my heart I wasn't ready for a Jet, so I had her pick again, this time Max. I thought we should settle on Max. Mia even picked it on her 2nd try...

Brad's parents went to their family reunion the early part of August and we couldn't come because it was in Florida and I was too far along in the pregnancy. Well, Nana thought it would be fun for everyone to come up with their picks for a baby name. And I must say, there was quite a list! I was impressed that everyone participated so well! Well, Nana compiled the list and sent it to us and we got a chance to ponder some "other" names. I for sure thought that none of them would make it to our list, but one of them did...Calvin. Brad said, I really like the name Calvin, and I thought, hmm...that's a nice name. Ok, we can add it to the list. So at that point we agreed to wait until he arrived to decide...and we didn't discuss, we both had time to think and we looked at each other and said, what do you think? And I said, I think he looks like a Calvin...of which, Brad totally thought the same. And there it was...a name.

Calvin David...Calvin because that's what he looks like and David after his Grampapa. So, thanks cousin Bob for the suggestion! He's definitely a Calvin.

I can't believe Calvin has been here for almost 3 1/2 weeks! We'll weigh him on Saturday because he'll be 1 month then and see how big he's gotten. Mia got weighed today and she is now 23 1/2 pounds. Her tummy is noticeably bigger and even at therapy they've commented that she looks like she's putting on weight. She's doing great with her braces and I've noticed a difference in how she walks when they are on, so I think they will be very good for her. I tried to get Mia to hold Calvin for a picture the other day, but after 1 second, she was done...she decided he needed some ABC's instead. :) Calvin got his first bath in the baby tub today, his belly button is officially healed! Thank you God! Now, if he'd just start sleeping through the night...it only took Mia 15 months, I'm hoping he gets there quite a bit sooner.

Gaining

Both Mia and Calvin got weighed today and both are gaining! Mia weighed in just under 23 1/2 pounds. She's becoming a very good eater and I'm noticing some muscles in her legs that weren't there before. And Calvin weighed in at 8 pounds 1 ounce. He's up 7 ounces from last week, good job kids!

Mia has been working on learning how to write her letters. She's very good at writing her name, although she will not write it in the correct order, which I find interesting since she will put her magnetic letters in the correct order. She can also write the word Hi and Mama. She's pretty good at writing an A, H, I, J, M, O, P, and T. Her P is really cute, she makes a circle and a line coming down from it. She still struggles with saying quite a few letter sounds, so you can continue to pray that those sounds would develop and she'd be able to say more words. But she still loves learning sign language and uses that quite a bit.

Last night we took Calvin to a pediatric urgent care. His umbilical cord had come off, but his belly button was red and oozy. We didn't know if it was infected or not and wanted to have him checked out to be on the safe side. He didn't have an infection, but they did give us some ointment to put on it so it doesn't turn into an infection. Hopefully in the next few days it will heal completely.

Last night he also slept for about 5 hours...his longest stretch yet. That was so nice. Of course he made up for it in the wee morning hours, but I did enjoy the one stretch.

I don't know why I don't have more energy to take photos of the little guy. I keep thinking, he's not going to be little for very long, but still, no motivation! Sorry Calvin! Mama will work on it this next week because you are pretty adorable.

Adjusting

We have been adjusting to having another one at home. I'm so grateful for the help of grandmas! I couldn't do it without them. Today was a super busy day for us with 3 different appointments. I was first with a follow-up from my c-section. Everything looks great and I'm healing nicely. Calvin was super and slept through the entire appointment. Good job. :) Then after lunch we took Calvin to his follow-up appointment. He's now 7 pounds 10 ounces, so he gained 6 ounces this week. That made me feel good because I haven't a clue how well he is eating. I know I can weigh him at home, but I feel like I am too obsessed with Mia's weight and I didn't want that to happen again with Calvin, so I haven't allowed myself to weigh him too much at home. And then after Calvin's appointment, was Mia's appointment...she finally got her orthotics and we'll start using those at therapy and at home. Mia also got weighed yesterday and she's hanging tight at 23 pounds. I've noticed her eating better, so hopefully she'll slowly keep going up.

Needless to say, we're tired, so it will be an early bedtime for all of us.