Brotherly Love

Willis Grandparents

My parents flew in from Michigan last night and we've enjoyed Day 1 of hanging out! This was their first time to meet their 6th grandchild. Lots of reading, playing, and snuggling...

Lamp Grandparents

Ethan's Big Boy Room

Even though Ethan's been in his big boy room since September, I just never got around to completely finishing the decorating, which means I never got around to taking pictures and blogging it. But, I can officially declare it done! Here's a little tour:

Ethan's bulletin board with artwork he's done in school:

One of my favorite parts. All his toys go in the closet, so at night time we can close the door and he's not tempted to play instead of sleep.

The weird part. This room used to be a guest room, where we had a TV mounted with VCR and DVD player. I don't really want Ethan to have a TV in his room, but there's no point taking it down, either. At least it's up high where he can't play with it. I'm sure it will come in handy some day.

The best part of all....the baby gate on the door! That way he's not roaming the house if he wakes up at 3am!

I'm almost done with Eli's room, so I'll post pictures of that soon.

Comparison

Can you tell who is Ethan and who is Eli????

Okay, it's not really that hard - Ethan has a much darker complexion than Eli. (Eli's the first picture, Ethan's on the bottom.) But they do look quite similar!

Eli's First Week

We've been lucky to have lots of family come visit us over the weekend. It's been great for Ethan to get some extra attention, Eli to get lots of snuggle time, and for us to have adult interaction!
So here's what we've been up to the past week...

Eli's been having jaundice problems, so he's been hanging out by the window a lot:

LOOOOOVE this picture:

Sunbathing with Uncle Curt:

We got over 8 inches of snow Saturday night! So much that they had to cancel church on Sunday! Crazy...

Ethan with his Elmo "boombox"

Making pizza:

Keira thought Eli needed a stuffy:

First 'bath' at home:

Crazy after-bath hair:

Mostly we just eat and sleep around here! Ethan's still going to daycare while I try to recover and while we get in a good routine. Lonnie's off until the end of next week. My parents will be here this weekend. Yea!

Eli's been jaundiced since leaving the hospital, so we've had to go every day except Sunday to get his blood drawn and his numbers checked. They've gone from 7 at the hospital, to 11, 12, then 17 yesterday. Yikes! We're waiting on results from today. If he gets to 19 we'll have to do the whole light therapy thing, so hopefully we can avoid that.

Other than that, things are going well. Eli sleeps all night except to eat, and sleeps most of the day too. He usually has an hour stretch twice a day where he's awake. Ethan's seems to love his brother more each day. Yesterday when he woke up the first words out of his mouth were, "Where's Eli?" So sweet...

I can't wait to watch them grow up together and grow into playmates and friends.

Eli's Birth Story

We were scheduled to be at the hospital on Wednesday, March 17th at 5:30am, which meant a sleepover for Ethan at the Grubbs! We took him over there Tuesday night and tucked him into bed, then headed home to TRY to get a good night's sleep.
We got to the hospital right on time and the nurses were ready for us! I signed all the paperwork, changed into my gown, and started the pitocin. Rachel had predicted we'd have the baby between 11:30-12:30, so she was on a mission! She kept walking over to the machine and cranking up the pitocin. Ha! It helps having connections. The nurse checked me as we were getting started, and I was already at 4cm and 70% effaced, so we figured it would go quickly.
At 7:45, Rachel and Lonnie went downstairs to have breakfast, and missed all the action; Dr. Sarver showed up and broke my water and checked me - 6 cm! At 8:30 I got my epidural. By 10:00 I was 8, then complete at 11:00!

Backtrack to 9:45ish...My epidural was good, but I could still feel everything on my left side, so we called the anesthesiologist and she gave me some extra good stuff, and boy did that work! I was SOOOO numb that it competely freaked me out. Rachel and Lonnie were laughing at me; I kept saying the same thing over and over again - "I can't feel ANYTHING!" and "I don't like it!"

Fastforward to 11:00...I still couldn't feel A THING. AT ALL. So when they said I was complete, I was worried that I wouldn't even be able to push. So we didn't rush it - let nature take it's course so I would have to push only a minimal amount. They called Dr. Sarver and she made her way over. By the time she got there it was about 11:25. Once she was dressed and ready, I pushed one time and Eli was delivered at 11:31!!! Now that's the way to do it! I will forever be a fan of drugs.

I LOOOOOOOVE that my sister 1. lives here and 2. is a labor and delivery nurse. What could be better? I know we could do it without her, but it is SOOOO nice having her there, explaining everything along the way, using her connections to get stuff done, and the fact that she can do stuff that normally only the nurses do. After Eli was delivered, Rachel was able to assess Eli, do his footprints, clean him up, etc. I love that he got his aunt to take care of him in his first few minutes of life.

So, I guess that about sums up his delivery. We were discharged Thursday around 2ish. Once we got home and settled, Lonnie went to get Ethan from daycare. He was a little skeptical of having Eli around at first, but he's warmed up and likes to help by giving Eli his paci (even when he doesn't need it), and giving him kisses on the top of his head.

We're doing well now, on Day 5. Eli's been jaundiced, so we had to go back on Friday and Saturday to get it checked, and it's risen each day. We're getting close to the point of having to put him under lights, so hopefully when we go back tomorrow his numbers will look better. I don't want to have his little feet pricked anymore!
Eli's sleeping well at night for the most part. The first night he wouldn't sleep unless he was being held, but we haven't had that problem since then. He's been sleeping in a bassinett in our room and Lonnie and I are taking turns with feedings, so it's not so bad.

Lonnie will be home for the next two weeks - yeah!

So that's our life these days!

Eli's Birthday Slideshow

Create your own slideshow

Tomorrow's the Day!!!!!

Tomorrow will be Eli's birthday!!! We are going to the hospital at 5:30 in the morning to get induced. Soooooooo excited and ready.
Since pretty much everyone is on facebook, we'll update there frequently, but I'll try to blog something as soon as possible for my non-facebook friends/family.

Marathon Men

Lonnie and Shad tackled a half marathon this morning. I couldn't be more proud of them! It was a cloudy, cold, drizzly morning - not very motivational, if you ask me. But they did a great job! Ethan and I stalked them throughout the morning and cheered them at different points along the way.
The screaming fans: (plus Eli and I!)

Ethan enjoyed our periodic stops to cheer them on and loved running towards them.

Lonnie about to cross the finish line:

Way to go, Lonnie!

Shad about to cross the finish line:
Way to go, Shad!

The aftermath:

We'll see how they're feeling tomorrow...