Two Months Later...

Well, it's safe to say we have survived the first two months with a newborn and a 3.5 year old!  I think I forgot what it feels like to be sleep deprived and be working for one of the crankiest bosses I've ever had...  Is that why that lady had 19 kids?  Because good ol' Mother Nature gives us a sprinkling of amnesia about newborns?  Oh yeah, and labor pains too.  Thanks a lot lady!  I guess that ensures that the human race doesn't die out...  Or maybe because it's such a small period of time, that in the big scheme of things it doesn't really stand out.  Yep, that's it!  The rewards of surviving newborns are astronomical!  The proof is in our 3.5 year old, Sophie.  I can't count the number of times we have had the following conversation:

 

"Mommy?"

"Yes, Sophie?"

"Can you turn cartoons on?"

"Sure, no problem"

"Mommy?"

"Yes?"

"Can I have a juice box"

"Yep, coming right up."

"Mommy?"

*sigh*"What??"

"I just love you"

 

Heart melted...

 

Sometime she just cuts straight to the point:

 

"Mommy?"

"Yes?"

"I just love you"

 

She's smart, sweet, silly, and very loving.  These are the times I look forward to with Grant.

 

She's so savvy that she knows her limits when dealing with a baby.  There is no way that I can convince her to hold her brother at this point.  She actually puts forth her best effort in being as far away from him as possible when he's not being held in someone elses arms.  If I lay him down on the couch, she will scoot so far to the other end that she's practically falling off!  She also cannot be found anywhere in sight when the situation of a poopy diaper arises.  She's a smart girl, right?  She does love her little brother very much, however. She kisses his head and gives him hugs all the time.  When he's crying uncontrollably, she offers him stuffed animals to comfort him.  She's also quick to notify me that "Baby Brother is crying."  Really? I hadn't noticed. 

A warm bath from a sweet big sister

Milk drunk

Sleeping babes

She's a proud big sister!

Daddy's football buddy

Ariel costume, courtesy of Grandma Cindy

A visit from Miss Linda

I had to practically forcer her to do this...

We had a nice visit from Grandma Elaine after Grandma Cindy left.  She was so excited to meet her first Grandson!  She agreed that he was a big guy and needed to sit when holding him.  There's just too much baby there to carry around for too long!  She even braved it one night alone so Dan and I could go out for dinner just the two of us.  Thanks Elaine!

Sweet Grandma cuddles

A smile from my guy!

 

Our home project continued with some new grass!  A crew came over to lay some sod in our backyard.  It is a total transformation and looks beautiful!  Sophie loves it the most.  When she saw it for the first time she ran out and stated, "I love grass!"  Then she proceeded to run in circles through the grass for the next 15 minutes.  It's close to the same reaction she had when she saw our carpeting for the fist time.  She rolled around on it for quite awhile too.  Silly girl!  The greatest thing to see happen was when Sophie asked Dan to chase her.  He chased her all over the new grass as I sat on the porch holding Grant.  That was my dream right there, life doesn't get any better than that!

 



If the shirt fits...

School picture day!

Just a few short weeks after my mom left, she was back again, this time accompanied by her sisters.  Our annual Halloween party was coming up and the ladies were here to help!  They bravely took both kiddos to Cabana Bay to stay overnight while we entertained at our new home.  I couldn't begin to thank them enough with all they did to help us.  Cooking, cleaning, decorating, child wrangling, diaper changing, book reading, dishwashing, clothes washing and folding.  They did it all!  They also managed to keep a smile on their faces while dealing with a very fussy Grant.  He must have been going through something this week because he cried all the time!  When he's hungry, after he's been fed, when he's tired, when he wakes up, when he has to poop, after he has pooped.  All. The. Time.  My mom and the aunties stuck with it and never waivered, even after 30 minutes of crying despite every effort to calm him down.

 

After they left we had a two month appointment at the doctors office.  He had a great check up and weighed in at 14 lbs 2 oz!  That's 95th percentile!  He also got three shots and an oral vaccine.  He screamed really loud and turned a shade of red I've never seen.  Just before the nurse came in to give him the shots, he was loosing his cool despite my holding him and bouncing him around the room.  She said she felt bad and I thought, now he actually has something to cry about!  She went over dosing for Tylenol in case he got a fever from the vaccines or if he seemed a little fussy.  Dan and I unknowingly both glared at her with the same "are you kidding me?" look on our faces.  Describe more fussy, I thought to myself.  He cries all the time already!

 

After that visit, his fussiness seemed to wane just slightly.  I think having shots put living the life of an infant into prospective for Grant.  He realized that there were truly more awful things in his life than not being held the right way, or waiting 2.5 second for food to arrive.  Hopefully he starts to get the hang of things here soon.

 

Aunt Linda came to story time at Sophie's school

Helping Aunt Linda make crepes

Helping the Aunties prepare dinner! (On our new kitchen island!!)

"Watching big sister swim is sooooo boring!"

Swimming with Grandma!

A smile and dare I say a laugh!

We wear hats in Florida when it drops below 70  degrees...

Trick-or-treating is tomorrow night for the kiddos!  Check back for some photos of the kids together in their costumes.

Love,

The Yorks

Our Family of Four: Welcoming Grant Robert

We are officially a family of four!  It seems so surreal saying that.  Our little guy finally made his entrance into the world and into our hearts on August 26th, 2015 at 10:22 AM.  He wasn't interested in coming into the world willingly, so we had an induction of labor when he was 3 days past his due date. 

Winnie Palmer Hospital has been very busy lately, for about the past 3 months in fact, our numbers of deliveries have been increased compared to previous years.  We are the second busiest Women and Babies hospital in the country delivering 14,000 babies every year.  That averages out to about 40 babies every 24 hours.  The numbers are mind boggling and the work is very busy.  That being said, sometimes people who are electively having their baby don't always get to come in at their scheduled time.  Take me for example.  They called me the night before to let me know it might be too busy for me to come in at my scheduled time at 5AM.  However, being that I work on the unit, they made me an offer.  Come in super early, at midnight, to secure my bed and get my induction started.  I didn't refuse, thinking I probably wouldn't get much sleep anyways, and we headed to the hospital in the dead of night.

Things were fast a furious once they started the medication to make me have contractions.  After I got my epidural, my midwife broke my water, and in no time I was completely dilated.  My medication was started at 1:30 AM and I was completely dilated at 5:30 AM!  Things progressed so fast that my epidural didn't quite cover my pain as well as it should have.  For the next four hours we worked on pain control, a little bit of pushing, and some position changes to get this little guy out.  We would also come to find out that Grant was positioned in a way some refer to as "sunny side up", his face was looking up towards the ceiling.  This makes everything a lot harder to get the baby out.  After about an hour of pushing, more pain control issues, and another 30 minutes more of pushing, we had our son!  Grant Robert finally came out at 10:22 AM.  The next few pictures show some of our first looks at him.

The look of pure joy and relief!

My son!

A very proud Daddy!

Snuggles with Grandma

Our big guy weighed in at 9 pounds 2.2 ounces!  I was shocked to say the least.  I had a suspicion he was going to be big just by the way my belly felt.  I was very big in the belly, and it felt very heavy, however I was always measuring normal when I went in for check ups.  Sophie was only 7 pounds 11 ounces, so this guy was a pound and a half bigger!  He has a voracious appetite to go along with all that poundage.  Thank goodness, because I have a lot of work to do to feed this guy, so he had better request it from me!

Big boy!!

First photo with Mommy and Daddy

Sophie was able to join us at the hospital later that evening when she was done with school.  The baby nurse wheeled him into the room and Sophie patiently awaited to see him.  This is one of her first looks at her baby brother.

 





Shortly after I placed him in her arms she said, "Mommy, you hold him?"  Still a little timid

When Sophie sat by my side looking at him, she just wanted to touch his face.  She spent a few minutes stroking his cheek and his very soft hair.  She wanted to touch every part of his face but we had to restrain her when it came to the eyes and such.  She's still a little unsure about holding him, and doesn't like it when he cries.  If he has a poopy diaper, she immediately asks for me to change him because she can't stand the smell or the idea of someone sitting in their poop.

First look!  Such a cute face on my girl

Brother and Sister, best buddies already

My dad got into town on Saturday, the day after we made it home from the hospital.  He was so excited to meet his new Grandson who's middle name is Robert after his Papa.  There is one thing that Grant does that is just like Grandpa.  When he sneezes, it's usually four in a row, and his Grandpa has a knack for sneezing multiple times in a row.  There is something about baby bodily functions that makes us all laugh every time.

Papa's first look at Grant

Milk Drunk!

"It's so bright out here!"

Morning snuggles

Daddy's new buddy

 

There is still plenty of debate going around about who Grant looks like.  The Swartz's say a Swartz and the York's have said a York.  We don't think he looks a whole lot like Sophie, except for maybe in the nose area.  Either way, he's a whole lot of cuteness!

Be still my heart...

First bath at home

Both of my babies liked getting their hair washed

Peek-a-boo!

On our way to our first doctors appointment

We have had an outpouring of well wishers and congratulations from family, friends and co-workers.  It's all been overwhelming and we feel so lucky to know such great people!  Grandma Cindy is staying to help us over the next month, so we are very fortunate to have her here, since she basically waits on all of us hand and foot, all while working from home for Pfizer!

Life is about to get crazy!  Check back to see if we're surviving :)

With a little extra love,

The Yorks
Dan, Jess, Sophie, and baby Grant