I need to post more often. Once again I have a whole list of things I want to write down and remember. Let's start with James, work out way to Annika and then have a little bit about me? Okay? What, no Kris? Well, that's because not much is new with him. Work, parent, snuggle, discipline, etc. Boring, boring, yawn. Hee!

OK, James. He's getting so big and cute and is still so cuddly and just the greatest little baby ever. Monday he took his first naps in his crib. As in his actual crib in his bedroom, not the co-sleeper by our bed. I figure we should get him used to it so that when he starts sleeping through the night we can transition him to his own room. He did pretty well in it too. I'm sure it helps to not have Annika (the noise maker) in the same room when he's trying to sleep. Believe me though, I had the monitors on full blast to make sure I heard him. It was pretty cute too because one time he made a little noise and Kris practically sprinted up the stairs to get to him. I was waiting to see if he was actually waking or just making noises in his sleep (he's a pretty noisy sleeper) but now Kris! James still goes typically 3-4 hours between eating during the day and early night. Last night he ate from 9:30-10:00pm and then woke up at 2:30am to eat again. Nice! Of course then he woke up again at 5:00am and was up on and off until after 6am. Then he slept until 8am when Annika woke him up. The early mornings are not so good for him. I'm not sure why but I'm just rolling with it for now. Not much else I can do! I am loving our co-sleeper though. It is working out so wonderfully! He is in his own bed, right next to mine and is bed level so I can roll over and see him or touch him if he needs help settling down. I highly recommend the Arms Reach Co-sleeper. And I think James has given us his first real smiles! He's been smiling in his sleep for a couple weeks now and once in a while he'll smile when passing gas. Sunday night Papa thought he might have a real smile but then James passed gas right after it so we didn't count it. Monday morning though as I was holding James in bed, he looked up at me and gave me a big, gummy grin. Kris saw it too and agreed with me that it was a real smile. Ah, heart melting! He's given me a couple more since then too. And Krystle got one last night too! Well, a half smile as he put it since only half his mouth smiled for her. The smile I got tonight showed a small dimple on his left cheek. So adorable! I wonder when I can capture that on camera! And a small bit on breastfeeding now. Well, it's going great. James latched on perfectly the first time, just as Annika did. And it was physically a lot easier this time around for me. And I just love breastfeeding him, just like I did Annika. I love that satisfied look he gets when he's done. I love when he falls asleep after eating and is snuggled up against me. I love it when he looks up and stares deeply into my eyes while he's eating. I'm so happy that it's going so well again for me. I think I'm going to get the pump out pretty soon so I can start saving up some milk. And I think we'll introduce James to the bottle in a week or two. My goal with James is the same as it was with Annika - all breastmilk for the first year. I'll nurse when I'm with him and pump when I'm not. Then, at a year, we'll transition him to cow's milk and, I'm guessing, his nursing will slowly taper off, just as Annika's did. Well, at least I hope that's how it works again.

And now Annika. Good things first. Annika says the cutest things sometimes! She'll walk up to James and exclaim "He's so cute!" And today as we were coming home from story time at the library and then lunch out afterwards Annika asked me "What's your problem, Mommy?" The truck was silent at the time, no talking between any of us so we're not sure why she asked me this. Now, can someone make the girl listen? She used to be so good at listening to us. And for the most part she still is. However, we are threatening time outs (and giving her them when needed) more and more lately. I've been counting to three and she knows that if I get to three then she gets a time out. Usually all I have to say is 1 and she comes running to do whatever it was I told her to do. However, I don't want to have to count or give a million time outs a day (or lose my patient or raise my voice, etc.), I just want her to listen and do what I (or Kris) say when I say it the first time. That's a parent's pipe dream though, isn't it? I remember my dad saying to us (my brother, sister and myself) "I should only have to tell you once." And I know she that's only two and is pushing the boundaries and that she's still adjusting to James but man is it frustrating sometimes to have to repeat everything a million times and counting and time outs and argh! So, give me some ideas. How did you/do you discipline your young child. I don't want to spank so give me some other ideas please.

So, I have these huge bruises on my arms. Huge, purple and starting to heal. How did I get them? Um, emergency room nurse trying to find a vein? Yep. Now don't freak out (Gramme!) because I'm fine. Here's the story. I woke up Friday morning at 12:45am with a pain right in the middle of my chest, just below my breastline. I thought it was maybe heartburn and tried different positions, laying on my left side, right side, back, stomach and nothing was comfortable. James woke up at 1am to eat so I got up and sat in the rocking chair. That hurt too. After James went back to sleep, I couldn't. The pain was too bad. I've had heartburn before and I always have an acidic feeling in my chest/throat and I didn't have that this time. Plus, the pain was so much worse than any heartburn I've had in the past. That's why I wasn't sure if it was heartburn or not. I took some Tums (the only medication of that sort we had in the house) and then threw it up. I threw up about 5 more times. I'm not sure if I was throwing up because of the pain or something else. And the pain was so bad that I was pacing back and forth and using my labor breathing to get through it at times. So, at 3:30am I told Kris that I was going to the emergency room. He helped get James in his car seat and then went back to bed. Obviously he had to stay home with Annika but James to go with me in case he wanted to eat again. Once at the emergency room I was brought right back to see a nurse. If you say chest pains, you get immediate attention, you know? So, I was given a GI drink and it didn't touch the pain at all. Then they came in and did an EKG, just in case it was heart related. All was fine there. Then the doctor came in and said he wanted to take some blood to run some tests. One thing he was looking for was a marker for blood clots. Since I had an epidural during birth, blood clots was a concern. That's where the bruise on my right arm came from. So, off my blood goes for testing and in the mean time I'm given a Pepcid. After a while the big pain in the middle of my chest is gone but all across my upper abdomen spreading to my back is still hurting. The doc orders some x-rays to rule out something which I can't remember. By this time I'm starting to feel a little better. The x-rays show all is fine. The doctor comes in to do an exam. I'm sitting up in the hospital bed and he lowers me down until I'm laying on my back. He pokes around on my abodmen and I'm telling him where it hurts. Then he sits me back up and the pain comes back with a vengeance. I'm once again losing my breath through it. A few minutes later the pain starts going away again. Now my blood test results are back. The blood clot marker is elevated. This could be serious (a blood clot) or it could be elevated because I'm only four weeks postpartum and this marker is usually elevated during pregnancy. The doctor is taking any chances though and orders a cat scan be done. That's where the second bruise came from. They need an IV line to inject some nasty stuff in my for the cat scan. The cat scan comes back clean - no blood clots. By this time it's 6:30am and the doctor comes back to talk. He says he thinks it's one of two things - really bad heartburn (so bad that I'm puking!) or a gallbladder attack. He can't rule out my gallbladder without doing an ultrasound. And he can't do an ultrasound for a couple of hours. I was feeling just fine by this time so he agreed that I could go home. If I have another attack I'm to go get an ultrasound done to look for gallstones. And if I don't, well then I probably went to the ER for hearburn (how embarrassing!). I've felt just fine ever since. And then I went home at 7am, went back to bed and slept until noon.