Ugggggggggh.

Well, we FINALLY have an answer to Andersen's fussiness/throwing up/nasty diapers. The results came back from his tests we had done a couple weeks ago and he has MSPI (Milk Soy Protein Intolerance). They did a study of his stool. In normal babies, the level (can't remember what the name of what they were testing for was) should be under 50. Andersen's came back at 672! Yikes! The good news is that now that we know what we're dealing with, we can treat it and get him feeling better. The bad news is that I have to stop nursing for the time being and cut out ALL dairy and soy. I've been off of dairy for two weeks now, but it's only made a minimal improvement. He's on Alimentum now -- a hypoallergenic formula. It's idiotically expensive and smells awful. Poor AJ doesn't really like it and it's making him consitpated and have awful (and smelly!) gas. Hopefully our little guy will be feeling much better very soon. I just wish we'd found out a bit sooner since I started back to work this week and AJ went to daycare -- it was a lot of adjusting all in one week for us.

Andersen on his first day of daycare:

In other news, Law moved to his BIG big boy bed last weekend. He was in his crib converted to a toddler bed and now he's in a full. He loves it. We love it, too, because we can climb in and read him books and snuggle.

We hit the zoo last Friday with Nana and Aunt Si Si. It was a nice day and lots of fun. Andersen was a trooper and Law loved running around and seeing all the animals.

Today was quite a change from the nice weather we'd been enjoying. We have almost 7" of snow on our deck. Law helped daddy snow blow/shovel this afternoon and did NOT want to come in.

Here are a few random recent pics:

Hope you're all doing well!

What a gorgeous day!

We ventured outside today to enjoy the beautiful weather. It was in the 50s! Lawrence was on cloud 9 -- he LOVES playing outside and asks all the time to go out, but it's been too cold. His face absolutely lit up when I asked him if he wanted to go out when he got up from nap and I could hardly get my shoes on fast enough for him.



Lawrence stepped in mud while he was playing. If you know me at all, you know that mud + shoe = a freaking out Jess. You'd be proud, though, because I was chill about it. And my mother probably wouldn't believe me (I could hardly believe it myself, even as I was saying the words), but Law said "uh oh" about the mud and I told him "It's okay -- we can get dirty outside."

Lawrence is definitely my kid, though...because being dirty really bothered him. I kept telling him it was okay, but he found a leaf, dipped it into a puddle and tried to wipe off his shoe.

While cleaning his shoe, his hands got messy...and then he wanted to go inside. I was almost moved to tears!

Not at all a good photo, but in case you were wondering, Andersen enjoyed the nice weather, too. He was snuggled in my BeeByMeCouture wrap (which he loves! Sometimes, it's the only way I can calm him down) all the while Lawrence and I were coloring with chalk, driving his new trike and freaking out about getting dirty.

In other news, AJ gave me his first true smile yesterday. I was starting to freak out just a bit because my weekly baby development updates keep telling me I should be "enjoying baby's smiles" and I hadn't gotten any intentional ones yet...only the ones in his sleep. It was so cute, too -- I was talking to him and he suddenly grinned and then he seemed to get all embarrassed and looked away. Andersen shared the love with his daddy this morning.

Hope you all have a fabulous Super Bowl Sunday!

It's all going too fast!

I knew it would...time went far too quickly when Law was a baby and I knew it would only go by faster this time around. It's hard to believe Lawrence is now TWO and Andersen will be six weeks old tomorrow.

Here are a few pics of my big boy:

And here are some of Andersen over the past few weeks:


Around two weeks old:

First smile on camera:


you can see his red hair in this one:

...and his chunky cheeks in this one (I can stop kissing them! They're so squishy and delicious!)

And here are some of them together. Lawrence still loves his brother and hasn't shown any jealousy. He is, of course, still a normal two-year-old and spends plenty of time in time-out, though.

The boys just before bed in their matching onesies:

Lawrence had a great birthday. He started off the day with an extra-special birthday donut (the remnants of which can be seen on his face):

After breakfast, we went to the Durham Museum to see the trains. He LOVES "choo-choos."

We had birthday cake at Nana & Papa's that night:



Law had his birthday party this past Saturday. It was a "Choo Choo! Lawrence is turning TWO!" party.

He had SO much fun!

He had a great time with his friends and family and the slide he got from Grandpa was an especially big hit!

A pic of mommy and her little guys:


Tonight, the boys had their first bath together. I think Law was a bit annoyed to share...his LOVES his bathtime and AJ's tub took up more room than I think he was happy about.

Hope you're all doing well and having a great start to your 2009!

Best.Christmas.Ever.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was amazing -- we're truly blessed. Seeing the joy on Law's face and getting to share our new little guy with our families were the best gifts.

Our family of FOUR (that's still a little weird to think about...) on Christmas Eve:

Lawrence LOVED opening gifts. He was so cute about it. He'd point to the one he wanted to open next and once he got the "okay," he'd just tear into it. The toys interested him and he'd inspect them pretty well before moving on to the next package...as for clothing items -- he just tossed those aside and practically RAN to the next gift!

Grandpa Pat and Andersen hung out together most of the night. They seemed pretty content with one another.

Lawrence really liked his new (huge) Mighty Mighty Dump Truck. Of course, he thought it was a riding toy (it isn't) and ended up biffing it a couple times...

Another favorite toy was the Caterpillar train set from Uncle Ryan and Auntie Sarah. Mike's especially excited to get that toy out of the box!

The best Christmas present ever:

Andersen wasn't particularly interested in Christmas...

Law got three Pez dispensers and I don't even want to think about how many of those little candies he's consumed in the last couple days. He loves them! Also -- please note the scooter cousin David uses in the background. That thing entertained Lawrence for HOURS on Christmas at Great-Grandpa & -Grandma'sThis is the scary after-math from everyone's awesome generosity:

And a pic of our sweet boys (notice that Andersen's smiling -- AW!). Lawrence has been doing great with his brother. He loves holding him and giving him kisses on the head. He also loves pointing out all his body parts...which usually involves a poke in the eye or two. We're so thankful the adjustment is going well thus far. There has been a bit of jealousy, but it's gone remarkably--and surprisingly--well.

He's here!

Baby B #2 made his debut yesterday at 2:32am. He must have been listening all those times I said that it would be ideal if he would be born the 18th!

Here's a pic of me at 38w0d. If I don't look particularly happy, it's because I'm huge. And in labor.

We got to the hospital around 7pm. I was 4cm dilated and having regular contractions. My OB happened to be there delivering two other patients, so she was able to check on me. She had me walk for an hour to see if I would progress. While it made the contractions much more intense, the walking didn't dilate me any further. I was afraid she'd send me home, but after monitoring me for awhile and seeing I was having moderate contractions every 4-7 minutes, she decided to check me again. At 10pm, I was dilated to 5cm and she broke my water. I really didn't expect it and it was a weird feeling -- both physically (ew) and mentally since I knew there was no turning back and we'd be welcoming our baby in a matter of hours.

Things went pretty quickly after Dr. S broke my water. I started pushing around 1:30am. The nurse (Chelsie -- she was awesome!) thought I'd have the baby before 2am. Not.so.much. The baby was coming out weird -- his body was "sunny side up" and his head was crooked with him facing completely to one side. He came out with one ear up. It was a bit scary because his heartrate kept dropping. They kept having me tilt from one side to the other and put an oxygen mask on me. When I heard them talking about putting the node in his scalp, I gave the pushing everything I had. The delivery part was a lot harder than it was with Lawrence.

Check out the disfigurement on this child's head! His face was super-cute, but one of my first thoughts was "Dang! Get a hat on that baby!"

We named him Andersen Jace. Andersen is a combination of Mike's grandpa's middle name (Andrew) and my maiden name. Great-aunt Sandy suggested Jace this summer and Mike and I both liked it. And grandpa was pulling for Jason or Jacob -- and it's close, right?

As for his stats -- he got an 8 and 9 on his Apgars. He was 7lbs7oz and 19.5" long. He has dark blue eyes (like his brother had) and blonde peach fuzz (which is MUCH different than the thick mop of black hair Lawrence was born with!).

Auntie Jill couldn't be with us for A's delivery like she was for Law's. She has finals this week. We were all pretty disappointed, but are looking forward to her being home for the next three weeks.

Since it was just Mike and me this time, we don't have a pic of the three of us together. So, here are pics of Andersen and each of his parents solo (and don't mind me. I look ROUGH. We got an hour and a half of sleep Wednesday night):

Lawrence came to visit last night. He did pretty well and gave his brother some kisses and loves, but generally wasn't overly impressed with the new addition. I don't think he'll really get it until we're all at home together for a few days.

Law did say "my brudder" to Andersen. And when he left, he said "bye mommy's baby!" It was so cute!

Here's what Mike and A are doing as I type...last night was a bit rough for all of us. Andersen apparently has his days and nights mixed up. He slept all day yesterday and became alert and fussy at 10:30 last night right when Mike and I started trying to go to sleep.

We'll go home tomorrow...unless they decide to kick us out tonight because they need the bed. The hospital is PACKED -- so much so that we're in the High Risk OB unit because the Mother/Baby floor is full!

We feel so blessed to welcome Andersen into our family and are so thankful he's healthy. And we're so excited he arrived not only by the end of the year, but in time for Christmas!