Related much?

More similar than we thought! Jessica is 4 weeks older than Gabriel in these videos (hence the actual leg movement) but at the rate he's growing we didn't think Gabriel would fit in the Pooh Bear sleeper if we waited any longer...

YouTube Doubler

Selfies...

Before you master the camera angle after having a second child.....

but by the time you get second child in the shot... first child has had enough...

G-Bear is 2 months

9 weeks later... Gabriel is 2 months old. How has it possibly been that long already? 

Stats
12lbs 14oz 64th percentile
22.25 inches 16th percentile (yup he's going to be a shorty too!)
41 cm head circumference 94th percentile (big heed!)

He had that same bewildered look in both photos, I couldn't resist. This continuity shot thing is harder than I expected.

He's such a lovely baby. So much simpler than my dear sweet Jessabear ever was. I don't think it's simply because I have a clue what I'm doing this time either. He's just more chill. Don't get me wrong, he still demands to be held just as much as J ever did, but I can put him down when he falls asleep and he'll actually stay that way! He'll even sit in a swing and coo at you! 

Self settling? *kablewy* mind blown. He can do it! This is not a skill J learned till close to 2! I'm still boggled every time it happens. 

He sleeps in incredible 4-5 hour stretches at night, wakes to nurse and then goes straight back to sleep. I don't think I even got this much uninterrupted sleep while I was pregnant!

Oh my gosh the baby spew. It never ends. In addition to dairy, his belly is not fond of caffeine or eggs. (Both learned the hard way.) Still trying to piece together what I can and can't eat. I have developed a new love of avocado though. Did not see that coming. Oh, but how much do I crave pizza, a cherry coke and a latte. Don't get me started on cereal...

Had his 2 month jags yesterday. Not fun. Some sort of shortage of the combined vaccine so he had to have 4 separate injections. He bright red rage-faced it through the entire ordeal, nursed and then went to sleep for a while. Mad again when he woke up, nursed, slept,.. repeat. Every time he woke up he whimpered or cried. Around 9pm we were finally treated to a few happy baby smiles, then he went back to sleep. He slept all night, but it was a restless sleep with lots of thrashing, snuffling and gurgling. 


Update on the previously reported dishwasher battle scores:

Dishwasher: 1
Me: 0 

Despite a thorough cleaning there's STILL sand everywhere and an unidentifiable rumbling noise. :(

Sand

There's a new rule in the Smith household. Toys that venture into the sand STAY in the sand.

"I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere." ~Anakin Skywalker

Oh Anakin, you may not understand how to have a romantic conversation, but your discourse on sand is faultless.

For a while now I've been very lax. Jessabear and her friends have taken mega blocks, easter eggs, plastic animals, dishes, and all manner of things out to the sandbox. I haven't been strict. I figure, sand washes off. Right? Wrong. No matter how sleep deprived or frazzled one may be, do NOT let your babybrain tell you to put those sandy toys in the dishwasher. Just don't. 

Or you and your 8 week old infant will spend the evening taking apart your dishwasher, excavating sand from every crevice in an attempt to figure out what is making that new rumbling noise. The tough part? Getting it back together. 

Dishwasher: 0 

Me: 0.5 

spare washer : 0.5

8 weeks old today!

He's growing so very fast. So fast that I haven't even posted his birth story or his one month update. oops. 

I have a few minutes now. 

Jessica is watching a show about legos that fight. Legos are her new big thing - we're trying to hold off on buying any since the last thing we need right now are more tiny things to step on. She keeps talking about how Bo and Papa will have legos next time we visit them. Yes Jessica, they do indeed have legos at Papa and Bo's. My pretty pink and purple legos. 

and Gabriel, well he's still asleep! I'm hearing little baby squeaks every now and then though so it sounds like he may be up any minute.

At 8 weeks we thinks he's about 13lbs. (This is our rough estimation from holding him on our scale. We'll get an exact weight and height next week at his 2 month checkup.)

• He's holding toys! Yes HOLDING!! He can use both hands to move a toy around and get it to his mouth. At first I thought it was a fluke but then he repeated it multiple times over the course of a day and with different toys! His lion that was a gift from one of our neighbors and the cow which was a marketing present from Cow&Gate when we had Jessica. 
  
• He's smiling. His first smile was way back on August 2nd and we've had at least one good smile almost every day since, but two nights ago it was really amazing. We'd smile at him, he'd smile back, I'd giggle, he'd smile, Mark would stick out his tongue, Gabriel would attempt to copy him and then give us a big toothless grin. The smiling went on for a solid five minutes. He's really engaging with us. 
• He's still spitting up. Like ALL the time. When I'm strong (or not forgetful) and don't eat dairy he's much better. We were all sick this weekend though and it hit Gabriel differently. It upset his belly. There was more baby sick and less baby poop. He seems to have developed a little cough now but it hasn't kept him from getting a good night's sleep. Yesterday he threw up his entire feed directly afterwards at the park... I was worried but his next feed stayed down and he didn't seem upset. 
• He's generally a very chill baby - unless we're in the car. He hates the carseat just as much as his sister did. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have one of those babies who you actually put in the car to calm them down.... 
• He's getting a little eyebrow fluff now but it's not noticeable in photos yet.
• His eyes are still blue and getting lighter by the day. We've decided that while Jessica has my eye shape and almost my eye colour (hers are more hazel), it looks like Gabriel will have his father's eyes entirely. The shape and the colour are both Mark's.

Wow... he's not awake yet.. I've got about 30 minutes before we need to leave for J's gymnastics class so I'd better start pulling things together. If I don't make sure he's fed BEFORE we get in the car the poor boy will be hoarse from crying by the time we get there. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We met Mark for lunch today. Gabriel was the perfect baby and allowed me to eat with both hands by kindly sleeping through lunch. Here's the happy baby before he realized he had to stay in the car seat...

Oh and have you seen Jessica in her gymnastics outfit...? Yes. ADORABLE!

and for your dose of all things Gabriel, I'm officially releasing to the viewing public:

 Gabriel One A Day

Let's try this again.

We made it to midday relatively incident free. Gabriel is fussier than normal because we're all sick. (All at different stages sick and what feels like completely different sickness as well. Example. Jessica is coughing, Gabriel has a low fever and an upset belly, I have a headache that won't quit and that delightfully husky sick voice, Mark's sneezing and his nose won't stop. See? Like I said, it doesn't make sense.)

I decide that since all is going relatively well that we should get to the store. I NEED stamps and I was also hoping to find something caffeine/dairy free at starbucks that might make me happy. 

Get Gabriel dressed.
Put Gabriel in the carseat. 
Collect my things.
Gabriel poops.
Take Gabriel out of carseat, change and replace back into carseat.
Tell Jessica to head out to the car. 
She wants to go out the front door and meet me in the garage. I grudgingly allow it. 
I head out to the garage via the kitchen. 
*all hell breaks lose*
Apparently I was not to open the garage. She wanted to wait outside for it to open. She is angry, sad and inconsolable. I put Gabriel into the car. (Can you believe that my anti-car child is actually sitting happily awake in his carseat while his sister rages?) Jessica is crying and won't cooperate. I decide to call it quits. 
Turn off car.
Take baby inside.
Practically drag toddler back inside. Eventually carry her upstairs. 
I send her to her room until she's ready to relax. 

She comes out a few minutes later with questions about a recent tragedy in our family. I know it's hard for a three year to grasp death and some families might not even mention it, but I wanted her to know that someone we loved and who loved her had passed. There's no way I can stay angry with her when she's obviously decided to be worried. 

Gabriel is sleepy and I put him into his rock n play. (Major difference between him and his sister here... Gabriel decides, 'okay this'll do.' and GOES TO SLEEP! Something Jessica never figured out.) Jessica and I talk about her Uncle, how much we loved him and what happened and how you don't die from being a little sick like she is now, but that he was very very sick for a long time. We rock and she falls asleep on me. I move her to the bed. 10 minutes later she wakes up a little and cries because I'm not next to her (see I told you she still hasn't mastered it.) I lay next to her and she goes back to sleep. It's been 40 minutes and both my children are asleep at the same time during the day. I'm not sure this has ever happened. 

I think I'll just ask Mark to buy stamps on the way home...

Part One: Breech.

Tuesday the 9th

        I have my weekly OB appointment. (According to my dates I'm already 40+4. According to their dates I'm only 40+1) I'm seeing the midwife for the first time. She seems rather likable and I wish I'd thought to request her on previous visits. She takes the fundal height and feels around on my belly. She mentions that there's rather hard lump quite high up, she wonders what the chances of that being a head is. We both joke that that would be unthinkable. She decides that she wants to send me for an ultrasound 'just to be sure.'

        Ultrasound: The midwife is going to do the scan herself. That's a head. He's breech. Somehow not a single doctor noticed that the baby was still head up. Everyone just kept assuming he had a really hard butt I guess. She decides that because the baby is breech she needs the actual tech to come in and do the scan so they can check the placenta and get all the measurements correct.

        Back to the midwife: This means a c-section. They estimated the weight during the ultrasound and it's coming back as 8lbs 13oz. The midwife tells me that while I might be able to find a doctor willing to try a breech delivery vaginally, she doesn't know of a single doctor who thinks it would be safe to try to a normal delivery. She looks at me. I nod. She mentions that I'm awfully calm for someone who just found out they have an almost 9lb breech baby and needs a c-section. I stare at her some more before I find my words. "Well, what am I supposed to do? The baby needs to get here the safest way for him possible. Stressing out about it isn't going to change anything." With that she sends me off to do a 'non-stress test' to make sure babe will be happy waiting till the end of the week for a c-sec appointment.

         Non-stress test: These are the most stressful test ever labeled NON-STRESS. Lay back in a chair with monitors stuck to your belly and push a button every time the baby moves. Did the baby move... or was that just a gas bubble? Did the baby roll... or was that just my heartbeat?? aaaah! Babe wasn't cooperating and the test took ages. At first he wasn't wanting to move much and then (after having me drink a large glass of ice water and a Dr. Pepper) they weren't getting the proper heart-rate accelerations. [apparently when they move the doctor wants to see the heart-rate go up at least 15bpm and then stay elevated for at least 15 secs. Babe's was going up but not staying up. After about 40 minutes they were finally happy and I was released. At first they wanted me to wait for the appointment time but they couldn't get ahold of anyone at the hospital. Super busy. July is THE month for birthing babies.

         Lunch: I was texting Mark constantly throughout my appointment (thank you unlimited data plan and new phones!) so he knew what was going on. We had about 40 minutes before we needed to collect Jessica from school, so Mark drove out and met me for a very blah lunch at Jersey Mikes (I do not recommend.) He knows how terrified I am of a c-section. Mostly I'm worried that I'll have to have general anesthesia and it will be hours before I even meet our baby. Plus who wouldn't be freaked out about having their abdomen sliced open? There's a lot of staring at each other and Mark telling me it's going to be okay. I had my CBC (complete blood count) done at the OB's that morning so we won't know till tomorrow what my platelet numbers are. An anesthesiologist won't do a spinal if my platelets are under 100. We still don't have a day or time for the delivery but the clock has started to get my platelets up.

        Scheduled: I finally get a call from the hospital around 3 in the afternoon letting me know that I'm scheduled for 12 noon on Thursday the 11th. (A couple hours later they call back and ask if it's okay to bump me up to the 10am slot. Sure. Less waiting = less stress right?) I call mom. Well I called mom multiple times prior but this is THE call. The, we have a time and date and we need you to come down, call. She decides to head down in the morning.

       Family date night: I really needed to get my mind off things so we decided to take Jessica out to a movie on one of our last nights as a family of three. We let her choose between Monster's University and Despicable Me 2. She chose Despicable Me 2. (Only slightly upsetting as both Mark and I were secretly hoping to see the new Monster's movie.) We headed to the cinema and let Jessica chose anything she wanted.. mistake I know but we were in the mood to spoil. A cherry slushie, a box of junior mints split with Daddy, some popcorn and a bag of fruit snacks later, we had one very wired girl on our hands, but everyone was happy. 

[Stay tuned for Part 2. The Hematologist.]