Aaron James is FOUR months old!

Look at that sweet boy!  He is such a ray of pure sunshine!  It only takes a glance in his direction for him to give the biggest of smiles!  He's still pretty stingey with the full out laughs, but maybe we just aren't that funny :-)

 

At Aaron's four month check-up he weighed in at 14 lbs, 9.5 oz, and is still in the 50th percentile in both height and weight.  Dr. V was impressed with his core strength (he sits up very well, almost by himself, except he can't balance!) and said he could tell that he is such a calm, happy little baby.

He is starting to really enjoy toys now, and one of his favorite things to do is to dig through Rosalie's big box of PlayDoh toys while he sits in his Bumbo, it's so cute the way he rifles through the box like a big boy.

 

By far my FAVORITE thing that Aaron does is... kiss me!  It's so cute!  If you pucker your lips at him for a second he tries to do it too!  It ends up more of an open mouth bass kind of situation, but the effort is heart-breakingly adorable ;-) 

Aaron's months 2 and 3 and Rosalie too!

     I can't believe it's been so long since I put ANYTHING on "paper" about these kids!  There is so much going on everyday (even though we rarely leave the house, lol)!
     Rosalie is as cute and funny as ever, but OH. BOY.  Her attitude/tantrums are out of hand! I think that there are several reasons behind the development: we've taken her naps away, because she wouldn't go to sleep at night, so in the evenings she gets pretty tired, she has a new baby brother, whom she loves to death.... but Mommy can't always help her with things IMMEDIATELY, the way that she's used to... and also. she's a normal two-year old!  But all day I hear "Don't say that to me! Don't say not now/later/when Daddy gets home/after lunch to me!!!"

     She is speaking so well!  I just love to watch her think about her sentence structure, you can see her little brain working through her eyes ;-) She often will start a sentence "We going to ... um... Are we going to the store?"  It's so much fun to see her correct herself. I'm so proud of her!  She's also adding these little phrases she hears to all of her little sentences, like 'every time' and 'all the time', 'not yet', 'not today' and 'really soon'. She doesn't always use them correctly, but it's always cute!

     Favorite Foods: Still fruit, guacamole, salsa, veggie straws, chicky nuggies and fries, buttered toast, cereal, yogurt pretzels and anything sweet!
     We're working on our Alphabet recognition and sounds by having a weekly letter... Monday's we do a "letter animal" craft (like a "B" shaped Bumblebee" Tuesdays we do letter tracing and a letter activity (B is for Ball Pit, balloons...), Wednesdays we do letter lunches (Bananas, Buttered Bread, Berries in a Bowl) and a letter book (Baby, I Love You, Bumble the Bee...), Thursdays we go for a photo safari walk (take pics of "B" words... bug, bottle, basketball goal, bush... and take them home and look at them on the computer... and Fridays we try to do a field trip (Bouncy house in the Backyard).  We definitely don't always get everything done, but it's nice to have goals :-)
     Favorite toys: Lego Duplos, Slide, Betsy the Elephant, her iPod Touch, crafts, water balloons
     Things we're working on: Sharing, volume control, self control, potty training (a little)
     Other Favorites: Curious George, Daddy's iPad, riding her 4-wheeler
     Things I can do: Count to 20-ish, identify almost all my letters, help with chores, make Baby Aaron smile, put on my shoes and take them off, ... a million other things....

     Aaron James is SUCH a sweet boy!  He's a great sleeper, he's been sleeping through the night (about 7-8 hours) most night since about 8 weeks old, the only exceptions being growth spurts when he wakes up about every 4 hours to eat.  When he does wake up to eat, I don't even have to put him back to sleep!  I just feed him in bed for about 5 minutes and then lay him back in his co-sleeper and he just goes back to sleep on his own!  So different from Rosalie!  He prefers to sleep in his co-sleeper still, but will usually snuggle with me in bed after he wakes up around 7:00 for about an hour or so :-)
     Aaron has, unfortunately started to hate his car seat like his big sister did at this age, although as in most things, he is a bit easier going about it.  Sometimes he's okay, others, like every time I have to drive far by myself. he is NOT!
     Aaron started to give us the biggest smiles around 7 weeks old, and will smile at you all day!  Anytime I just pop up and smile at him he'll cheese at me like I'm his favorite person in the world!  And he'll do that for almost anyone else too!
     We call Aaron "Buddy", quite often, but I don't know if it will stick :-)
     On May 2nd Aaron laughed for the first time! It was just a little laugh, and I've only gotten a couple since then, but it was so cute!  And what made him laugh his first laugh you ask?  Sigh, I was dancing him around on the floor after a diaper change to a commercial with the song "I'm Sexy and I know It" on it.... He LOVES this song!  How embarrassing! But of course I had to buy it on iTunes to try to get him to laugh again!  He didn't laugh at it again, but it will still keep him from crying in the car longer than anything else!!!
    Also, Aaron now LOVES his baths!
   

Aaron James - One Month!

He is so cute!
I can't believe we're already here, but it also feels like we've always had this little guy!
I know I don't have time or the brain-power to do this in complete sentences/paragraphs, so I'm going to go with bullet points!

- Aaron James had a cold for his second and third week, just a stuffy nose, but he was so pitiful!

- He has the sweetest face, it’s so much like, and so different from Rosalie’s. I wish I had more time to stare at it.

- At his three week check-up Aaron was 8 lbs 4.5 oz.

- Aaron hates baths and diaper changes just like Rosalie did

He's still a really good eater and he's mostly a good sleeper (really he's doing better than Rosalie is right now!)

He's starting to stretch out from a little ball and become more cuddly... yay!

Right around a month he started really looking into your eyes when you talk to him. I love it!

He grasps and holds his head up really well

Aaron and Rosalie: Rosalie LOVES baby Aaron James and is super helpful in taking care of him! She loves to carry her potty seat/stool to wherever I’m changing his diaper or clothes and help me by putting her hand on his head and telling him “Ssssh Baby it’s okay!” She also loves to hold him in her lap and knows that she has to sit down to do so. She’s very gentle with him… for a two year old… meaning the things she does that aren’t gentle are accidental :- ) She calls him “baby Aaron” “Sweet Boy”, “Handsome Boy”, “Little Buddy” and Cutie (tyootie) Pie”. Anytime she passes him by she stops and leans down and says “Hey Little Buddy!” She also explains things to him and shows him how to do big kid things! She is an amazing big sister, she makes her Mama proud!

Aaron James Herrington

Aaron James Herrington was born at 2:34 AM, Monday January 30^th, 2012.

Weight: 6lbs, 10 oz

Length 18.75 inches

Baby Aaron made quite an entrance into this world! Here is the story!

Sunday evening I began having mild to moderate contractions at about 11:00PM, but they were very irregular, 7 ½ minutes apart then 2 ½ minutes apart, then back to 5 minutes apart and so on, so I was pretty sure I was in false labor. I had two bouts of very painful false labor with Rosalie, so I figured I might have some this round as well! I did all of the things you’re supposed to, in order to stop false labor: laying on my left side, drinking water etc, and honestly thought it was working, so David and I went to bed. After about 15 minutes, the contractions were a little too painful to lie down with, so I went downstairs to draw a bath. Well, I never got that far. I started having a little bleeding, not a frightening amount, just enough to pretty much convince me this was looking like the real thing, so I called David down and we discussed it and decided that with my history of short labors and really fast transition, that we should go ahead and call my parents to come over. They got to the house around 12:45 and Dad stayed with sleeping Rosalie and Mom, David and I headed to the hospital. Since around 12:15, the contractions had at least been bad enough that I couldn’t talk through them. We got to the hospital just before 1:30AM. I filled out some paperwork and went back to triage.

The nurse in triage couldn’t get my name entered into the computer, and they wouldn’t check me until I was “in the computer”. I let them know that my last labor was only about an hour and a half. but I guess that doesn’t matter if you’re not “in the computer” then they just risk it J. Anyway, someone came and helped her enter my file in the system and they checked me, and I was at 8 cm, 100 effaced. They pretty quickly got me into a room then, as my contractions gradually worsened.

(This is the only picture we had a chance to take before the big event)

I was still signing papers when the contractions got really bad, around 2:25. I had about three horrible ones and after the second one I told the nurse that I felt the baby was moving down. She smiled and nodded and continued going about the arrival procedures, IV, monitors, etc… After the third one I told her that I was pretty sure I had pushed a little, for like half a second on that one. So she asked if I wanted her to check me again and I said yes. I was at 9 cm with a bulging bag of waters. She said I still had a little work to do, and I asked if I was still allowed to pee…. She said “Sure.” So my Mom followed me into the bathroom and within about 4 seconds I sat down started peeing, my water broke and Aaron’s head was out! During that four seconds, I tried to stand up and screamed “HE’S COMING!!!”, my Mom held me up while the Nurse dashed in and caught him out of mid air, placed him on my chest and said “Congratulations Mama!” like it was the most normal thing in the world! I squatted there for a minute asking over and over again if he hit the floor, and was he okay, to which the nurse replied that no he was fine and it’s really not that big a deal and it was definitely not the first time she had ever done that…. I can’t say I’m sure that she wasn’t just trying to make me feel better! So before I even got to the bed I just kept saying “This is SO weird!” “Why don’t I ever have normal stories!?”

(Just after getting into the bed)

So after that Mom and the nurse helped me walk to the bed and I met the on-call Dr. (my Dr had been paged, but clearly if Dr. Price couldn’t make it from three rooms down, Dr Franz wasn’t going to make it from home!) She stitched me up and we all lived happily ever after! He is so far the sweetest, calmest boy and I love him so much! Everyone thinks he looks like someone different, I just love the way he looks! Rosalie loves him to death and SO FAR hasn’t shown any jealousy.

(Rosalie opening her present from Baby Aaron)

(Reading the book he got her)

(Holding Baby Brother for the first time)

My Postpartum experience has been SO different and SO much better with this baby already! When Rosalie was born I tore badly and lost a LOT of blood and had complications healing, and all in all wasn’t able to do much more than survive for the first couple of weeks and it took me months to completely recover. This time around I wore jeans home from the hospital! JEANS! I wasn’t in those for weeks after Rosalie!!! I’m so glad that it went better this time, because I was really worried that I wasn’t going to be able to play with and snuggle adequately with Rosalie during this transitional time in her life, and I was really worried about that!

So… It was a dramatic delivery, but really it basically went quite well! I’m so grateful to my nurse, who managed to catch a little slippery baby in the blink of an eye! I plan on taking her some cookies or something!

(Headed Home!)

Aaron sleeps and eats like a champ! The only time that he really fusses is when he gets his diaper changed, and how can you blame a little boy for that when he just got circumcised! Rosalie loves to hug and kiss him and sing songs about him, little Baby Aawon!

Update:

First Pediatrics visit, Aaron is an ounce up from leaving the hospital (6 lbs 5oz. SO TINY!!!!))

Rosalie’s Two year visit she weighs in at 25 lbs, 14 ounces, 35^th percentile and measures 33 inches putting her in the 25^th percentile! Both are healthy and happy!