The Middle Child

Dalton is proving to be an excellent big brother himself. He continues to amuse us but I am not good with remembering all his silly things. I do remember that he is fond of saying, "Not again" with a smile anytime Autumn loses her paci...which he is happy to help replace:


Or his "cheese" face when Jason was trying to get a good picture of us shortly after we came home:

Or how he was a little mad at his brother the other night and when saying his prayers he was thankful for "Mommy and Daddy and Autumn and not Easton". I wish I could say we corrected him but all we could do was laugh. We still laugh about that one.

I wish I had more Dalton stories right now to amuse you all because that boy is a rascal and we love him to bits:

On a Blanket with my Baby...

...is where I'll be.

We heard some live music yesterday and "Under the Boardwalk" has been stuck in my head since then. I thought it'd be a fitting title for this series of pics.

First, Autumn merely enjoying some tummy time, biggest bro helps provide some entertainment since she can't do much but lay there right now:


But it turns into just laying there right now anyway:


She also has a touch of diaper rash already. :( With the boys we were putting Vaseline on their bums from the beginning...well, we hadn't with Autumn and now poor girl's got a sore booty. So...she's been airing out a bit during her tummy time:




She gets pretty comfy that way:


Then her brothers come along to check her out, it's really quite precious. They still like her:






And while we're still on the subject of blankets and my babies...here they all are piled in our bed one morning before school:


We're not under a boardwalk but this'll do for now. :)

Dates with Dad

With the changes around here and Jason's time off, he's taken the opportunity the last two days to have some one-on-one time with each of our boys.

Yesterday he took Easton to a Rockies day game. They took the train again and were able to snag a seat in the shade for a nice Dad 'n' Lad afternoon:






Easton wanted to go to the tippy top!


You can see some of downtown Denver behind him and the baseball diamond reflected in his glasses:


After an afternoon apart, Easton and Dalton were too sweet once they were reunited again. This was non-posed:


Then they played together in the basement for quite some time without anyone crying or coming upstairs or anything. They even picked up their Legos before coming back up without being asked!

This morning it was Dalton's turn for some time with Dad. While Easton was at school they headed to Chuck E. Cheese, Dalton's most favorite place!




Lovin' the look of concentration:






Grabbing more tokens out of Dad's pocket:


They tried their hardest to get the 80 tickets they'd need for a new Chuck E. jibbitz for Dalton's Croc shoes (his old one keeps breaking) but once they got their 83 tickets together they learned that jibbitz had been discontinued. :( They got a spoon and some suckers instead. And went to pick up Bubba from school.

Not wanting to forget his littlest child, Dad is getting in one-on-one time with Autumn too:

They've been snuggling while I do my nightly Bible reading and get ready for bed each night. Then she comes to bed with me.

I know it won't always be this easy to get in some quality time with each child as an individual but I hope they'll always know how important each one of them is to us and their special role in functioning as family as well.

I've been MIA and it's not because I just had a kid...

...I think it's because my husband is home with us. I don't have my regular routines and I think that makes me less likely to blog...what with all the weekend posts and then, like, 3 days of nothing.

Anyway, lots to catch up on, of course.

First thing would be Autumn. That's why everyone comes by right now, right? The baby? :) Anyway, she's doing great! She's been the perfect addition to our family...even if she's yellower than the rest of us and sleeps a lot more.

In fact, on Saturday morning we woke up and her eyeballs were yellow when they hadn't been before. And she hadn't woken up all night! I'd fed her, but that's because I'd realize it had been a long time and would just offer her the ol' milk bag in her sleep. She was even more lethargic in the morning, and as they were already watching her jaundice they told us to give them a call if we noticed some of those things. So we called. And they had us go to the lab to check her bilirubin again and then the on-call pediatrician actually opened up the office just for us because she wanted to check Autumn out.

Autumn was really close to her birthweight...she was 7 lbs. 7 oz. that day and she was born at 7 lbs. 9 oz. When we were in the hospital she was 7 lbs. 2 oz. the day after she was born and 7 lbs. 3 oz. the night before discharge...so that meant she had gained more than an ounce a day. Wow! Other than the jaundice, Autumn looked good to the pedi...no fever, no problems she could detect otherwise and her bili came back fairly borderline. Not requiring phototherapy just yet but she had us come back on Sunday for a re-check--but we'll get to that in a minute.

So we're just trying to enjoy her sleepiness and she naps in the sunlight a lot:




At night we've been co-sleeping with her. We did it quite a bit with the boys as babies too. Anyway, here she is in the big bed:


And with big brother who just wanted to hold her while he watched his show:


Here's Miss A on Sunday morning before her first trip to church. Ain't she pretty?


I wore her in my new Hotsling and it worked really well. She wasn't bothered a bit by the loud music but seemed rather content to be snuggled up with Mama all womb-like again. After church we drove over to get her heel poke for the re-check. It came back okay. It seems the bili level had finally peaked and would be expected to head back down if they were to recheck it the next day which she didn't think was necessary.

We then went to Gymboree to use my coupon that was expiring that day. I was all excited but forgot that really only summer stuff would be on sale (read: in my price range) and dudes, it's September and well, it's Colorado too...so she really doesn't need a lot of summery stuff. I bought one outfit for her and I'm going to take it back. My mom bought her some cute summery stuff and that'll be more than enough, honestly.

Anyway, Sunday night we went to a BBQ with some of the higher-ups from Jason's work. Easton has made it a habit to look out for his sister in the car giving her her paci as needed, adjusting her car seat canopy to keep her properly shaded, and even reading her stories. Here we are on the way to the doctor on Saturday:




And on our way to the BBQ on Sunday. Pretty much you can always find him with his hand over there:


Dalton wants some of that big-brother-love for himself too:


I wore her in my sling that night a lot too...loving that thing! Thanks again, Gramoo!


Monday Easton had school again in the morning. He did really well for drop off for Jason...hope that continues all year, even when I'm driving again! While he was at school, the rest of us headed to Autumn's first real check-up with her regular pedi. Still looked good.

Gramoo and Lauren came over and brought some take-out for dinner Monday night. I think they were having withdrawls. :)

Our sweet napper on Monday night:


It was worrying me how non-alert she seemed when I compared her with the boys. I was praying for something to reassure me she was okay and that night my prayers were answered when she had lots of alert time with us before her shampoo:




And then she loved her shampoo, of course:






That night she even woke up on her own both times for feedings which was an answer to prayer too...that she could wake up on her own when she needed to (some babies don't and then don't gain weight/develop properly...Baby John was one of those and nearly had to be hospitalized for his "good sleeping". Anyway...) She's still quite fond of sleeping in between...here she is in her pink nightgown:


Tuesday morning the guys started on a new puzzle that arrived in the mail:


Then they ran off for Doughnut Tuesday as Mondays now have Easton at school. Tuesday also came with the added challenge of Dalton having a cold and wanting to keep those germs as far as possible away from my new baby. I hear it's not so possible but hopefully breastfeeding will help with those antibodies too. Still... :(

We ran to a second hand store in the afternoon to look at what they might have. I dressed her in some second hand stuff (from Jessica's Kaiya) for the trip:


I think the little yellow flowers on the sleeper compliment her current skin tone nicely. :) And she looks so petite in her car seat:


Tuesday night I put my snoozy girl down while I hands-on helped with the boys' bedtime routine for the first time in a long time (like, since bed rest). I was so tickled to see how she'd curled up all fetal-like:

Cozy!



And in an attempt to keep Baby A away from her germy brother this morning I put her in her crib for the very first time...I know, I know...she shouldn't have the Boppy there but otherwise her crib seems too big and stark. She still likes to be cozy:


Anyway...that's what we've been up to lately. Autumn's been a lot more alert since that night my prayers were answered although she still sleeps a lot she seems appropriately alert for me. Whew.

Now you're all caught up and the grandparents have more pictures to look at. :)