Hayden 5 months; Tenley 20 months

 

Hayden is 5 months old!  I couldn't get this picture to rotate, but at 5 months, he is 16.5 lbs and 26".  That is funny to me, because Tenley didn't hit 26" until older than 9 months.  At 9 months old, Tenley was 25 3/4", but 19.5 lbs!  That's my little chunker.  :)  Here are pictures of Tenley at 5 months, and Hayden at 5 months.  Neither had started any solid foods at this point - only the same ole breastmilk for both of them.

BIG difference!  haha!!  They probably weigh about the same in these pics, but Hayden is just a lot longer.  It is a little weird for me to have a baby that is so long, but not very mobile.  But I am enjoying every day with my baby boy.  I keep telling him not to grow up so fast, but he's not listening.

His "skinny" legs are the biggest reason I haven't done cloth diapers with Hayden full time yet.  The other reason is I am just lazy and love the convenience of disposables.  But I do honestly try for a couple full days every month or so, and he just leaks probably 4 out of every 5 diapers.  And I like the convenience of disposables too much to spend a ton of time trying to fix this problem yet.  Maybe next month.  :)  Tenley still does great in them, though!

Recently, we got to take our first swim in Grandma and Grandpa Helm's new pool.  It's so pretty and SO much fun!  Tenley wears water wings or a swim vest in the pool, but is too cautious to let go of Mom completely yet.  I am totally okay with that.  She does love to "kick, kick, kick!" though, and when she is feeling brave, she will let me hold her to back float a little bit.

We are also enjoying the outdoors at home.  We go on at least one walk almost every day in our neighborhood.  We also had a picnic last week under the tree.  Tenley and Hayden both enjoy helping me water our plants, although it takes every ounce of self-control within that little girl not to pull flowers and leaves off the plants.  I don't have any recent pictures, but Tenley also enjoys sitting around the fire pit with us in her little pink chair when we fire it up with friends.

I'm not very good at getting pictures of the kids together yet, but here is one that is not completely terrible.  Sometimes I just forget, but mostly this is because Tenley still loves to "explore" Hayden, and if I look away for 1 second while they are close together, she is either trying to poke out his eye or rip out his tongue.  All in love, of course.  :)

Hayden 3-4mo; Tenley 18-19mo

Apparently I forgot to do a post last month!  So I will just combine them into one today.  It seems like time is flying by.  I can't believe Hayden is already 4 months old and Tenley is closer to 2 than she is to 1!

Life with two kids is very different than life with one.  I won't lie, at first it was hard.  I have always needed a good amount of sleep, and when my sleep is broken up by a newborn, and I don't get naps because I also have a toddler, life seems hard.  I felt like that stage would never end.  I found myself almost wishing away Hayden's newborn stage just so I could feel normal and get some sleep again.  Thankfully, we have settled into a comfortable routine, and I am loving being a Mommy of 2!  Although having them 15 months apart probably made the first few weeks with Hayden even harder, I am so glad they are this close in age now.  Don't hear me wrong - Lord-willing, we won't have babies this close together again!  Haha!  But I am so glad the Lord planned Tenley and Hayden with his perfect timing, because these kids are just great.

Hayden took longer to sleep through the night than Tenley did.  I think it had to do with his belly issues.  He was pretty gassy for awhile, and it seemed to upset him quite a bit.  Thankfully, he is past that now, and sleeps through the night like an angel.  Around 3 months old, he was sleeping 9-10 hours at night.  He had a couple weeks where he stretched out his nighttime sleep to 14 hours each night, but now, just past 4 months old, he has settled into a nice 12 hour sleep.  He and Tenley are on the same night sleep schedule: 8-9pm to 8-9am.  Love it.  Hayden is still napping so much right now that I don't even count the naps.  He is on a good eat-wake-sleep-repeat routine throughout the day, and eats about every 2 1/2- 3 hours.

When Hayden was 3 months old, I decided to start running.  The weather outside was unseasonably awesome, and the baby weight was just not coming off so easily like it did with Tenley.  I have always hated - no - loathed running.  Well, the day before I started running I got mastitis.  I am so glad I caught it early and was only sick and good for nothing for 1 day, and that day happened to be one of Stephen's normal days off work.  So I started antibiotics and started running on the same day.  My milk supply dropped noticeably, and I assumed it was because of the antibiotics.  We suffered through those 10 days, and I figured my milk would come right back within a week after finishing the meds.  I drank Mother's Milk tea to give myself a boost and noticed a slight increase, but still not enough.  After struggling through this for awhile, I asked some of my friends for advice and some of them thought the drop in supply could have to do with me exercising.  I was really bummed.  It had taken me 3 full weeks to work up to running a mile without stopping, and then I had to stop.  So I quit working out, except I decided to continue going to Zumba class once a week.  I noticed a very good increase in my milk.  But it still wasn't where it had always been.  Another friend suggested I work on trying to drink more water.  So I decided I would make sure I drank 100+ ounces each day.  I actually drank like 130 the first day.  My milk came back with a force immediately!!!  I was so happy!!  After over a month and a half of feeling like I could never have enough milk to satisfy my baby boy, this was an awesome day.  So now I am drinking water like crazy and peeing every 15 minutes.  Ugh.  But I guess that is a really small price to pay!!  I am still pretty bummed that I did all that work running and I might have to start all over again later.  Man, it felt SO good to be able to run a mile and not hate it.  I actually found myself wanting to run.  That is craziness for me.  I am afraid to start back up again with all the problems I've had with milk supply in the last 2 months, but I will try to start up slowly again soon.

 When Tenley was almost 18 months old, we decided to have a go at the potty training thing.  I was potty trained by 18 months, and I have quite a few friends who have potty trained their children this young or even younger, so we decided to try.  We did one solid day, and that evening I got sick with mastitis.  So we stopped.  I haven't had the motivation to clean up more pee from the floor yet, so we are waiting for awhile longer!!  We did get some cute pictures, though.  For now, we are just talking a lot about the potty, I take her with me, she says bye-bye when I flush, and she knows to wash your hands after you go.  Sometimes she will sit on her potty or the big potty, but she will rarely actually go.  She now like to take her baby to the potty and pretend with her.  The first time she did this, I played along and pretended with her, and after the baby was done on the potty, she took her baby to the pile of diapers and wanted to put a diaper on baby.  I 

 told her no, baby pee-pees in the potty, baby doesn't have a diaper.  I think she understands what pottys are for, but doesn't understand yet that when you go on the potty, you don't get to go in your diaper too - only the potty.  When we do start again, I think she will get it quickly, but I think I will wait another couple months to make sure she is ready.

everything you need for potty training (take 1)

princess underwear

reading on the potty

At the kids' checkups last week, Hayden was 25" long and weighed 15lbs (both 50th percentile), and head circ 42.5cm (75th percentile).  That is all steady with his growth pattern from birth.  (Yes, how lucky was I to push out a 8lb 5oz baby with a big head!?)  Tenley measured 31.5" and weighed 27.6lbs, with head circ 48cm.  Her height is 50th percentile, which is short for her.  But this was the first time they had measured her standing up.  Weight and head is 75-85th percentile, which has always been normal for her.

Tenley is learning new words every day.  I don't keep count anymore.  It seemed like for a very long time, her only word was, "Hi!"  Oh, but she was a pro at saying hi.  Anyone who had ever seen her before knew that.  Ha!  She is now saying and repeating all kinds of words, which also means we have to be very careful about what words we say around her, because she very well might repeat them - a lot!  Her first phrase was "more cheese."  She is so much my child.  I think that is still the favorite phrase for almost every Roehr family member. Tenley eats great - lots of fruits and veggies.  I'm proud to say she is not the picky eater I was when I was a kid.  Good for her.  And she has finally started to enjoy holding my hand when we walk.  I love it.  It used to be impossible to get her to hold my hand, but last week at the hospital, she got to walk through the parking lot and the building all by herself because she would hold my hand like a good big girl.  She is such a good girl.  Sure, she has her moments, but if you ignore her fussing/"tantrum," she stops.  She loves to help me dust, put away dishes, sweep, fold laundry, take care of Hayden, vacuum, organize, etc.  If something is out of place, she quickly corrects it or lets me know and we cannot move on until it has been put in the correct place.  I'm not sure where she got this cleaning gene from, but I like it!!  Hopefully she will still love all of this when she is actually old enough to really help out.

Hayden is finally getting good control of that big ole head of his, and he is such a happy baby.  He laughs and smiles and loves to talk to people.  He loves to kick and punch and grab toys.  He is also trying to roll over from back to belly, but Lord help him when he finally does, because he HATES to be on his tummy!  He will have to learn quick to flip back, or to just stay where he is, or else we could have some interesting nap/nighttimes.

Every day, I am amazed at Tenley and Hayden.  I am amazed at everything they learn.  Not because I think they're not smart, but because I am amazed at how God created them so wonderfully.  Having the two of them around all day constantly reminds me to stop and praise my Creator and Savior for his good work and his grace.  They are both such great gifts from Him.  I am so, so thankful that God chose me to be their Mommy.
                    

Hayden 4 months - he loves baths

Tenley 19 months - playing with her favorite baby doll  

 

Hayden 3mo pics/ Tenley 18mo pics - by Jessie Mason

Hayden Titus: 2 months old!

On Februay 28, Hayden turned 2 months old! He had a doctor's appointment that day and is now 23" and 12lbs 9oz (50th percentile in both areas). I looked up my record on Tenley, and one week before she turned 2 months, she was 22.5" and 12lbs 14oz. Haha, I think that is about the time she started to chunk up!

This month, Hayden has slowly started to fall into a better routine. He still only sleeps about 5 1/2 hours at night, eats, and will go right back down and sleep 3-4 hours more. I am trying to be patient and tell myself this won't last forever. Tenley was sleeping 8-9 hours at this point, so this is a new experience for me. Hayden also eats pretty frequently during the day still. We have gotten into a decent eat/wake/sleep routine, and much of the time he doesn't cry a bit when going down for a nap. But I'd say at least 75% of the time, he wakes up in the middle of his naps. Half the time he will cry himself back to sleep. The other half he won't, and will have to wake up and eat. So depending on how his naps go, he eats every 2-3 hours during the day. Even though this schedule is not what I would call ideal, I will say that Babywise has still helped a lot. If I had not worked with Hayden to get him to fall into a schedule this month, life would be a lot more difficult. He is so unhappy when he doesn't get enough sleep, and I have learned that it is much harder for him to fall asleep and stay asleep if you hold him. He would rather just work it out on his own in his crib! That is very nice for me when we are at home. It causes some issues when we are gone a lot during the day, but I think he will learn to adjust more easily as he gets older.

When he is awake, Hayden is developing such a fun personality. He loves to smile and coo and talk to you! He also loves watching his sister - she is such an interesting character! His favorite toy is the basketball that hangs from his car seat. He could stare at that thing all day I think.

Hayden had his first trip to the zoo yesterday, and slept through the whole thing. He loves the stroller. Tenley had so much fun watching all of the animals. I think the monkeys were her favorite!

Tenley and Hayden are about to go on their first overnight trip. We are going up to Indy to see my Aunt and Grandma. I'm excited to see them and introduce them to Hayden for the 1st time.

Thank you, Aunt Michele!

Last Sunday, Michele gave her old bean bag chair to Tenley. She was a little sad to see it go, but Tenley loves to use it. We added it to her "reading corner" that is filled with pillows. Tenley's eyes lit up right away when she saw it. She ran over and jumped on top of it, and has played on it every day since. Thank you, Aunt Michele!

Hayden: 1 month; Tenley: 16 months

1 month old today

This is the sweet life

Today Hayden is 1 month old! He is growing so fast. I feel like he is so big already. 2 days ago at his doctor's appointment he weighed 10lbs 2oz and was 22". This month seems like it has gone by so fast. It is very different having a newborn the second time around. I don't have as much time to spend just staring at him and taking it all in. But I am much more comfortable - I don't feel like he's going to break or stop breathing for no reason, and it doesn't phase me if he has to cry for a few minutes while I'm in the other room taking care of Tenley. It's nice to not be stressed out about those little things this time. Unfortunately, Hayden hasn't done much in the way of lengthening his nighttime sleep yet. We do the whole Babywise thing (also not so stressful this time), and he has his days and nights straight, but he still eats every 3 hours at night. About half of the time he will have one 4 hour stretch, and about once a week he will have a 5 hour stretch, but nothing consistent. During the day he eats every 2 1/2-3 hours. I already see so many differences between him and Tenley. He is much more vocal. He eats more often and is awake much more often. I also think he is going to be an early riser, unlike his sister who loves her 9am wake time. Hopefully we can train him to love that too, because I love to sleep in as well! Although at times I just wish we were past this stage so that I could get some good sleep, I also love having a little baby around again to hold and cuddle. He's so sweet.

1st cloth diaper

Yesterday, I switched the kids rooms with the help of my parents. I wanted Tenley to have more room to play and I wanted her room to be more kid-friendly. In her old room, while in her crib she could flip the lightswitch. So I started moving her crib out at naps and bedtime, and then she could reach her drawers and pull out all her clothes. The room was just too small for a toddler and all of the stuff we had in there. In her new room, we took out the twin bed and we are storing it. The glider is now in our living room. Here is a picture of her new room. Today we made a fort and had so much fun playing in it!


God is so good. I am so thankful for God's grace for me as a parent. I am not the perfect mom by any stretch, and although I struggle with that sometimes, I know that God is faithful. My goal is to lovingly and consistently show them who He is, and as I do my best to train them up (and as I mess up all the time), I trust He will do the real work. They're really His kids; I just get to take care of them and enjoy them for awhile.

Tenley and Navy

This past Tuesday night, Stephen kept both the girls (Tenley and Navy) while I had Bible study and Jonathan and Rebecca went out to dinner. He was a little hesitant to say yes, but it actually turned out really well! Now that we know he can do it, he may have a few more gigs coming his way! Just kidding....maybe. :) Both of the girls were great for Stephen and I think he had fun too. I love that Tenley and Navy play so well together and are growing up as very close cousins.

Welcoming Hayden Titus Helm

Baby Helm #2 is here! Hayden Titus Helm was born Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at 12:51am. He was 8lbs 4.8oz, 21" long, and head circ 14.5cm. We are so happy he his here and momma and baby are doing great! December 28 is my parents' wedding anniversary, so this makes the day even more special. This year they celebrated their 48th year of marriage. Wow, awesome. I would love to have a marriage just like theirs and be parents just like them. I am blessed to have such a great example to look to.

Labor and delivery with Hayden was great. His head and face came out bruised and swollen, though - all purple, and his eyes are still a little bloodshot. That is all from coming out so quickly. This bruising and swelling is gone now and didn't seem to bother him at all.

Now for the birth story:
Over a few weeks, I was slowly dilating and effacing. One week I was 2cm 80%, next week 2 1/2, then 3, then 4cm on Dec 27 at my 9am appt. I had several episodes over a couple weeks of regular contractions when I thought Hayden would be born. I never went to the hospital for them, though, and they always went away. I came to not get too excited over these episodes, so when I started having contractions and pain on the 27th, I thought it was probably nothing. But I ran a bunch of errands and kept moving much of the day to help things along, just in case. Around 6pm as Stephen and I were at the grocery store, I noticed them being about 2-3min apart and not stopping still. I told him that if they stayed this way, I wanted to go to the hospital around 7. They were very close, just not very painful. Still, I called my parents and they came and got Tenley. After putting away the groceries, we set out for St. Mary's. I felt silly telling them I thought I might be in labor because I was just not in pain. They checked me and I was 4-5cm, 80-90% effaced. Not much change from the morning. I was disappointed. We walked around the hospital for almost an hour, the nurse checked me, and no change. Ugh. We sat and thought about if we should go home or stay. I called one of my doulas, Jessie Mason, and she was close by, so we waited for her to come and talk to her to see what she thought. We just sat and watched TV and I didn't move around at all. We decided to go home. We told the nurse and she said my contractions were like 2min apart now and getting stronger, and if we stayed 20 more min she would check me again. So we did, and I was 5-6cm, 90-95%! I loved that sitting did more to progress me than walking. :) So we stayed. It was about 9:30pm and they started antibiotics for me because I had tested positive for group B strep. My doctor, Dr. John Reid, didn't think they were necessary, but I had to fight so much on things with Tenley that this was just one thing I was willing to get and didn't want to fight about with the nurse. I should have listened to him. I am allergic to amoxicillin, so they gave me vancomycin instead. Turns out I'm allergic to it too! I got itchy all over and wanted to scratch my skin off it was so bad. I started turning red and getting hives too. So they stopped they antibiotic, gave me benadryl, and I refused any more antibiotics. I was better in 15 minutes. Thankfully contractions weren't hard yet. Jessie communicated everything to my other doula, Mary Schwambach. Around 11pm things got hard, and Mary came in too. Things got HARD - FAST. My guess is I was about 7cm then. I labored on my side because my back hurt from my SI joint issues, and I had heard that laboring on your side could make things move quicker, although also more painful. My nurse, Wendy, was incredible. No fighting this time around. She knew my birth plan and did everything she could to follow and support it. Such a blessing. She even checked me on my side without me specially requesting it and sat next to me to monitor Hayden for short periods instead of strapping me to a monitor 15 min every hour. Contractions got so hard and came without much break. Finally I started to push lightly at the end of them for a little relief. I didn't want to push too soon, but needed to do something. All of the sudden I pushed a little harder and longer and felt him crowning! No one had confirmed I was 10cm, but I knew it now! It was bout 12:45am probably. I said he's coming now! And the nurse and Dr. Reid came over to catch him! It was one long, hard, painful push to get his head out. A short break and another push and he came out as my water broke. Dr. Reid handed him to me as he said he has a bruised face, but he's perfect. Hayden nursed well almost immediately and the placenta slid out on its own. No pitocin for bleeding - Dr. Reid said I didn't need it because Hayden was "saving my life" by nursing. I have the best doctor. 2nd stage was so much different than with Tenley. So much better. I had a brain and could function and have conversations afterwards this time. I wasn't so exhausted. The pain was more intense, but didn't last as long. I might have died if that kind of pain lasted longer. Well, that's how I felt. But it was all totally 100% worth it.

Life is much harder adjusting to a newborn when you have a toddler. Thankfully Tenley is an excellent sleeper. Stephen went back to work today, but it hasn't been as dreadful as I thought. God has brought me this far and will continues. He is good all the time. The first few nights home, Hayden did not sleep well at night. However, the last 2 nights have been great. Last night he had a 5 1/2 hour stretch of sleep, and ate every 3 hours other than that.

Right now Tenley is napping, Hayden is waking up to eat, and once I feed him I'm going to take a nap too! Goodbye! :)