7 Weeks with the Coop!

Well, the first week back went well and now we are on to week two. Things are still going well besides the fact that Miley has yet another cold for some reason and Cooper is really having some tummy issues. I feel bad for my kids that they have inherited my intestinal issues, I just pray that neither of them end up with Crohn’s, thankfully, mine has been in remission now for 3 years now with a minor issue last May. We now have Miley’s toddler diarrhea under control but now Cooper is dealing with something. He is a very gassy baby but it seems to be excessive and when he has a gassy spell he is extremely uncomfortable and will scream out in pain until it passes and this can take up to an hour of screeching cries. And once they pass he sure can clear a room! I spoke with Dr. Heilman and he wants to see him tomorrow as he wants to check to make sure something isn’t wrong as there is fussy and then there is in pain and we are thinking we are at that point where he is in pain and not just fussy. So, we will see what he has to say tomorrow and go from there.


But, when Cooper is happy, he is Happy!! He is really starting to get fun now, he still won’t smile for you yet but he sure is a talker! He is very aware of his surroundings and follows voices very well. He knows when his mommy enters a room and loves looking at his daddy, especially when he is wearing a hat, and adores his sister. She loves to sit and talk to him and give him kisses and he just stares at her like he just knows that she will always be there to watch out for him.

I need to upload pictures from my camera but for now here are some from my phone.

We got this bed for Cooper that goes in our bed between our pillows as he didn't sleep well in the bassinet and we cant' have him move into his room with Miley yet until he sleeps alittle more soundly and he does REALLY well in this bed and puts himself to sleep and is easy for me to get to when he needs me.

He is really getting good at holding his head up now!

Miley fits better in this now then when she was Cooper's age, she had some THUNDER thighs when she was an infant!

I love this hat! He loves looking at Taylor when he is wearing a hat as he stares at the bill- I put this on him and he kept going cross eyed looking up and staring at his bill.

We had popcorn one Friday night and Saturday morning Miley came to our room when she woke up carrying the bowl of leftover popcorn and sat down on the floor and starting having breakfast.

Cooper now pulls his own hair! When he is laying down on the ground he finds it and pulls! He started screaming before I took this picture and I couldn't figure out what the problem was until I looked up and saw he had a handful of hair and wasn't letting go, he now has to wear a hat when he is playing on the ground!

His baptism quilt

Mr. Chubby!!

Back to Work...

My first day back to work was a success! Although, when it was time to go home I was smiling from ear to ear knowing I got to go and pick up my babies! Cooper did really well for his first day of Grandma Daycare. He took to his bottles of my milk really well and was a happy baby. Miley was very excited to bring Cooper with her but once Landon got there she wanted to play with him but Landon was more interested in Cooper, watching him and helping Grandma out. I think Cooper is very lucky to have such a good Big Sister and Cousin to look out for him every day!


When I showed up to pick them up Cooper heard my voice and woke up immediately from his nap and wanted his Mommy and wanted to nurse! He was pretty much attached to me for the rest of the night, but I was OK with that.

So, I have to share another funny Miley moment:

Tuesday night I had everything all set and ready to go for the next morning, which included my pump sitting out ready to be used first thing in the morning to pump off the side that Cooper didn’t eat from. So, I was sitting in the rocking chair nursing Cooper and Miley was playing around with my pump, I thought just looking at it and talking to me about it, then all of a sudden I hear the ‘whoosh whoosh’ sound and Miley goes- Look Mommy, I did it! The little stinker had turned the pump on and put it up to her boob!!! Talk about wishing you had a video camera in your hands at that moment!

My Leave is Coming to an End

Well, sad to say but in 5 short days I will be back at work. :(

I will say it is bittersweet. I will miss sleeping in with my baby and just doing what I want when I want and did I mention sleeping in? But I am looking forward to getting back on a schedule and having some alone time, if being at work can be considered 'alone time'.

This week Taylor had spring break so I think we were all a bit spoiled on getting to see one another and sleep in, especially with this time change, Miley has been up past 10:30 every night! Urgh... but the wake up call for all of us hasn't been until at least 8:30, some days even 9:30! Cooper has been doing 4 hour stretches over night for the past 4 days so I hope this is the new schedule. He eats at 10 or 10:30 and then up around 2 and then again between 5:30 or 6, which is when I will have to get up for work so that is perfect! Although, I have been going back to sleep with him after that 6am feeding and not getting up until 9 so it will be an adjustment to have to stay up and go to work.

Miley is finally feeling better, she hasn't had to have a neb since Wednesday during nap time so that is great! But the steroid shot she got is still in her system as she isn't sleeping so well and she is SOO HUNGRY! I bet every 10th sentence out of her mouth lately is, Mom, I'm Hungry! She could seriously eat non-stop right now if we would let her. (a side affect of steroids is sleeplessness and hunger)

So, with my leave coming to an end I am going to cherish my last few days that I have. I made a new rule in the house, since Taylor will be gone until later in the evenings now that his coaching baseball season starts on Monday and it will just be me and the kids getting home around 5:15 and having to do dinner, play time, bath time and then bed time- we won't be doing any chores during the week. I get very stressed out when I can't get things done so if I just don't worry about it during the week I hopefully won't get so stressed. All the laundry and cleaning will just wait till Saturdays and Sundays. When you only get so many limited hours with your kids during the week why should I spend the time I have scrubbing a bathtub or putting mounds of laundry away?

Here are some fun photos from this week:

HAHAHAHA!!!!

Miley put these on him, She came running to my room saying Mommy Mommy come quick, I got to the living room and she goes, Look Mommy! Too Funny!!!

She wanted to rock some shades too! Cooper wasn't amused anymore.

 I have to share some funny conversations between Miley and I. As you would expect, with now having a brother and watching diaper changes she has noticed his penis. And with nursing she has noticed my 'boobs'.

First conversation, we have decided we are going to call the 'pee-pees' what they are, a vagina and a penis. So I was trying to explain that to Miley as she was curious.

Me: Are you a girl or a boy?

Miley: A girl

Me: Is Cooper a girl or a boy?

Miley: A boy

Me: (thinking, good we have that straight) Since Cooper is a boy his pee-pee is called a penis, and since you are a girl your pee-pee is called a vagina. (to make sure she understood I had to ask the next question) Where is your vagina?

Miley: My gina at home.

Me: HAHAHHAA laughing until I cried

Next conversation: Scene set up: I asked Miley to go to my room and grab my breast pad as I had started nursing in there and then moved to the living room, she knows exactly what my breast pad is. She ran and got it and here is our conversation:

Me: Thank you Miley for getting my pad

Miley: You're Welcome Mom, you put it on your boob?

Me: Yes, I will once Cooper is done nursing.

Miley: I put it on my boob?

Me: Sure, if you want to

Miley: (trying to lift up her shirt while holding the pad) I can't find my boob Mom

Me: Maybe when you get bigger you can

Miley: Ok Mom

I love having conversations with a 2 year old!

Cooper's Baptism 3/14/2010

On March 14, 2010 Cooper James was baptised.

We, thankfully, had beautiful weather, as compared to the -15 degree day we had for Miley's baptism. Cooper was perfect throughout the whole thing. We then had family and his Godparents, Nick and Kathryn, over for lunch.

Unfortunately, Miley woke up in the morning with a bit of a cough, again, and it got worse as the day progressed. I ended up having to cut the party short to take her down to urgent care as she had a horrible coughing spell at the party and threw up buckets of phlem. I thought her pneumonia was back so we rushed down there. When we arrived her oxygen levels were low so they gave her a nebulizer right away as the doctor thought she had croup versus pneumonia. We did a chest x-ray to confirm that the pneumonia was indeed gone and it was. But, the poor thing, now has croup. They gave her a steroid shot and we now have an at home nebulizer to give her if her coughing gets out of control or if she gets really wheezy and short of breath. We had to do a neb once in the evening and one more in the middle of the night and she is already starting to sound better today. I hope we can just kick these winter illnesses because it is no fun for anyone. Thankfully I am on maternity leave so I have been home to take her to the doctor and be with her.

Here she is eating some nuggets after being a trooper at Urgent care for 3 hours.

A little Sisterly Brotherly love I had to share

Homemade Pizza and Toddler Tuesday

Sunday night while Taylor was running the men's basketball league Miley, Cooper and I were at my parents house and Miley and I decided to make homemade pizza!!!

Tuesday was Toddler Tuesday at the Mall of America and Ralph's World who sings the Pull Ups Potty Training Dance song performed and had a Pull Ups event. Miley got to experience her first Rock Concert and we got a bag full of Pull Up things such as a package of Pull Ups, the Potty Dance on DVD, a Ralph's World CD, a Potty Dance poster and a DVD about potty training- and this was all FREE! It was pretty cool! We then went on rides of course and had lunch and headed home for nap.

And just a cute photo of Daddy and his babies

It's a Good Thing...

1. Cooper is now nursing like a champ WITHOUT the help of a nipple shield! YEAH! He's been doing it all week and doing awesome! Now, we just need to teach him to let go of his gas!


2. My king size bed is seriously the most comfortable thing ever!! When we got it I was pregnant so I haven't really had a chance to fully enjoy and appreciate how comfortable it truly is. Laying on my back and stomach is like laying in a cloud! I love my bed!!


3. Campbells V8 Soup- Golden Butternut Squash is VERY yummy! I do recommend!


4. Grocery shopping at Target versus Wal-Mart is so much more fun! They have so many different options and products for a good price. I recommend the Target on Pilot Knob. They even have the new products I see in commercials that I want to try that I still haven't seen at Econo Foods or Wal-Mart such as Red Velvet Cake yogurt!


5. My homemade Moby Wrap Sling- I love it! I even cleaned up after dinner and did dishes while wearing my sling with Cooper in it. Funny though, I told Taylor that I couldn't wait to get him out of me and when I put him in the sling he sits balled up in front of my stomach, quite like he did when he was in my stomach- I wanted him out and now I put him right back where he was. Funny!

Updated Photos and Comparison Shots

Just a nice shot of Daddy with his Baby Bear

Hanging out with Mom

A proud big sister!

What is with the flashing Mom!?!

Miley wanted him to lay with her, this lasted 2 minutes until he started grunting as he had to burp and she thought he was going to poop on her!

Meeting his new buddy Grayson Malloy!

Comparison Shots

Birth Story- As Told By Me

I just realized that I haven't taken the time to tell you the Birth Story from my angle. Taylor did a very good job in his but I know, Mom to Mom, some like to hear it from the Momma.

It all started out on Friday night and I had a fun evening planned. Jackie and I went and got pedicures as a little treat for ourselves and we went all out and did the Spa pedicure treatment and the ladies there loved working on two hugly pregnant chicks and really spent a lot of time massaging our feet and legs, it was very relaxing and what we both needed. Then we headed to the mall to do some walking and a little shopping with Kelly and ended the evening at Olive Garden for a delcious meal and some great laughs!

Saturday morning I headed to Lookin' Good and got a cut and color, it had been since APRIL since I did that! I was just loving the pampering.

Monday I had an appointment at the chiropractor and to meet with the massage therapist and I told her to focus on my feet and ankles and to hit all the pressure points she could because I knew this baby was ready to come out! Well, much to my surprise, it actually worked!!! My contractions started in around 5pm and were 20 minutes apart. They stayed that way all through the night and Tuesday morning I woke up at 5am and they were around 8 minutes apart! With us having a big snow storm to battle with I decided to take a shower and get things ready as I knew it would take us awhile to get to Red Wing if things started to pick up even more. After my shower they went back to 15 minutes apart and stayed that way all through the morning. Taylor's school was two hours delayed and he decided to just call in and stay home as something was happening and I didn't want to be home alone, especially with the snow and knowing how long it would take Taylor to get home if I needed him.

Through the morning I could feel the baby dropping lower and lower and I went through the cleaning out process and I decided to call the hospital to see what they had to say. They wanted me to come in at 11 and meet with the doctor to see if things were progressing. Of course, on the way to the hospital things slowed down even more. She checked me and said that his head was so low it was very hard to check me, and painful! She stripped my membranes and told me to go walking to see if things would pick up again.

We walked around Menards, Wal-Mart, sat at Caribou for awhile to relax and lastly headed to Target. Things were still 15 minutes apart so I called in to see what they had to say. They wanted me to come in at 5pm for observation and it turned out the contractions were 4 minutes apart so they admitted me. I labored naturally all evening and at 2am they went to 5 minutes and were very weak. They said my cervix was behind his head and having a hard time flipping to the front so they wanted me to get some sleep to see if relaxing would help things move. At 5am I woke up and started walking around and got them going again but only to 5 minutes. By 9am we had a conversation with the doctor and she said I could go home and see if relaxing at home would get things going or if I wanted to try a bit of pitocin and then break my water and go from there. After discussing things with Taylor we decided going home without a baby was the last thing we wanted to do. They hooked me up to the pitocin and in the words of the doctor, they could have just dabbed some behind my ears like perfume, I hardly had any and I started contracting like crazy all on my own. They broke my water and nothing came out and she said it was because he was so low and she was preparing to get a shower once I delivered him! By noon the contractions were finally too much for me to take and I opted for an epidural as I was at 6cm. Shortly after I got the epidural and my body relaxed we heard my cervix flip through the monitor and my water gushed out! An hour later I started feeling all kinds of pressure and my mom could see it in my face that I was feeling something.

She wanted to get the nurse but I said she was coming in in 10 minutes anyway and I'd just wait. When she came in I told her what I was feeling and she went to check me and said Oh, we have a head! They called the doctor in right away and they rushed to get things ready and in 3 pushes we had ourselves a baby boy!!! No tearing or anything! So, we were at the hospital longer than I had hoped but once I got just a little bit of medicine to help put some intensity behind things I went super fast and had a quick delivery.

Late on Tuesday night in between contractions

Just had decided we were going to try the pitocin, waiting for the nurse to hook me up.

It's time to push!!!!

My Baby Boy Cooper!!

More of Cooper and Miley

Things have been going well with Cooper at home. A lot of adjusting, but well. We had a small set back in the nursing category which created for a VERY rough day. Since he is two weeks early he is pretty lazy and when my milk came in at full force it intimidated him and he decided he didn't want to latch anymore, then without latching well for a few feedings he forgot how to do it. He went 8 hours without having a really good feeding and then I struggled for almost 3 hours to get him to eat again and ended up having him suck on my finger and use a dropper dripping the milk down my finger.

Along with my stress of him not eating Miley has a pretty bad cold so she wasn't feeling well and needed cuddle time, which I just couldn't give to her with trying to work with Cooper for so long. So, I was quite the emotional wreck yesterday. We brought Miley over to Grandma's house as we then headed to Red Wing to work with Anne, the best lactation consultant ever! After her seeing how much we were struggling she decided that the best thing for him and I would be to use a nipple shield which forces him to latch correctly and will be a teaching device for him until he can figure it out on his own and remember what to do. This little piece of soft plastic has been a Godsent! He latched immediately and he ate and ate and ate last night! Mommy felt so much better!! I have plenty of Golden Milk and the last thing I wanted to do was to let it go to waste so he is now working with me and is a much happier boy now that he knows what a full tummy is like.

Other than that set back everything else is going well. Here are some things we've been up to the past couple days.

Going Home Outfit

First time in the car seat

We got home at noon on Friday and Miley got dropped off after nap time, she wanted to bring Cooper to their room and watch a movie with him and she told me right where she wanted Cooper to sit on her bed.

Our first meal with the four of us.

Little Brother

Ms. Dress Up Queen

One of the sweetest moments!

They both love their Daddy cuddle time

She wanted Cooper to sit with her in her chair.

And then she wanted to hold him on the couch and pet Joey.

More Cuddle time with Daddy

First bath at home, a double bath, got Miley all washed up and while she played we gave Cooper his bath.

Miley during her first bath and Cooper during his:

We occasionally let Tigger come in the house and play with Miley, he's out in the garage and outside because he pees on the carpet, so here she is loving him up. He is pretty anxious to get back to his garage after playing with her!