Adjusting To Life With Two

We are finally getting into the groove of caring for two sweet little boys at the Drapp household.  It has been an a bit of an adjustment.  Thankfully Owen has been so loving to Grayson since the moment he met him.  This is a picture of Owen hugging his baby the day we brought him home from the hospital.

Owen uses this sweet little high pitched voice when talking to his brother.  He loves to hug him, hold him and rub his head.  Owen also loves to point out all of Grayson's body parts and often gets caught trying to pinch baby's nose.

I asked Owen who his best friend was - expecting to hear that mommy is of course but instead he said Baby Gray.  I am sure this will hold true for many years to come.  My sisters and I are the best of friends so I expect nothing less from my two boys.

Although Owen loves his brother he is definitely testing his boundaries at home and at school.  He has been spending some time in time out for misbehaving and I am sure it is a bit of a cry for attention.  He has had mommy and daddy's full attention for two years of his life so it has been difficult to share with the new baby in the house.  We are working on not only focusing on the negative behaviors but giving rewards and positive praise for his good behavior.  This seems to have helped the last few days.  Owen struggles with change and so I hope it won't take much longer to start seeing our happy, sweet Owen again.

In the meantime, I have finally mastered getting the two boys dressed and out of the house in time to take Owen to school.  The first few days were rough and were done with tears and possibly a few curse words from mommy.  However it has only gotten easier.  We have been back to playdates, birthday parties, music class and the bookstore of course.

Thanks to my playgroup I have only made dinner a few times since Grayson was born.  Someone from my playgroup has brought us dinner every other night since we came home from the hospital.  Sadly that ends next week so I am going to have get back to making big weekly trips to the grocery store.  I will have to figure out the logistics of two children and a grocery cart.

We are also getting ready to say goodbye to my mom who has been with us off and on since before Grayson was born.  Not only has she been more than helpful, but it has been fun spending time with her.  She travels to Arizona for the winter and won't return until April.  Six months without Nana, I'm not sure if I will survive.

I have also been looking into creative ways to entertain a toddler at home.  Pinterest gave me this idea of a homemade car wash.  We put Owen's hot wheels cars in this bowl with soapy water and Owen was supposed to wash and splash his cars around.  Instead this is what happened.

Honestly I didn't care - it kept him happy and busy.

My favorite time of the day is nap time - I am still exhausted from Grayson's nighttime feedings so taking a nap is necessary for me to get through the evening without being a complete grouch.  I love to snuggle with my sweet baby while we sleep.

I just started putting Grayson in his crib at night which is in our bedroom and he has been sleeping really well.  One night he went four hours between feedings.  However the next night he was back to every two or three hours.  But at least we had one really great night!

Grayson is becoming more alert and interested in his surroundings.  We are really sure if he has smiled or not - there have been several questionable instances where we thought maybe he did but weren't sure.  Here are some of our most recent pictures of our chubby little man.

Halloween

I have some updating to do but I really didn't want to go without doing a post about Halloween.  I was so happy to be home from the hospital for Halloween.  We came home Wednesday morning and Halloween was on Thursday this year.  I was VERY concerned my entire pregnancy about missing out on Owen's Halloween.

Owen had this super cute costume to wear - The Very Hungry Caterpillar costume.  But could we get him to even attempt to put it one?  NO!  This is a picture of a very cooperative child wearing the costume Owen was supposed to wear.

So instead we decided to dress him in something that is similar to the clothing he is used to wearing - jeans and a shirt with some added accessories made Owen into his favorite cowboy - Woody.

Owen actually understood the whole trick or treat thing this year - and he had a lot of fun with it.

Grayson made his big debut at 3 days old in the neighborhood that evening.

We met up with some of our neighbor friends.

Then Owen's favorite dog - Shelby brought him a special Halloween treat.

This was my favorite costume of the night....

Notice the Elf's cooler in the back of his wagon - I think every wagon in the hood had their own cooler of adult beverages.

Introducing......Grayson Frederick Drapp

The newest addition to the Drapp family arrived at 11:30 p.m. on Monday October 28th.  Grayson weighed 9 lbs. 4 oz. and was 22 1/4 inch long.  Needless to say he was one big baby.  Weighing almost 2 lbs. more than Owen did at birth.  I thought he may have been a big baby, but I wasn't really expecting anything over 9 lbs.  

So now back to how it all started - labor I mean.  I was playing the waiting game and thinking that Grayson could arrive at any time, but right on cue - on the due date, at 3:00 a.m. I started having real contractions.  No more of those easy Braxton Hicks contractions, we were on to the real thing.  They were pretty consistent with 4-6 minutes apart and lasting about 35-55 seconds.  So I got up, finished packing my bags and then contacted my sister to have Tim come over (which was our plan if it happened that evening), then woke Brad up and told him it was go time.  We left the house around 7:00 and went straight to the hospital.  

I have several friends who had their second babies so quickly after they went into labor so I didn't want to miss my opportunity to have an epidural.  We got the hospital and I was still only dilated between a 3 and 4.  They had me walk the halls for an hour and see if I made any progress.

While walking the halls I was continuing to have contractions that made me stop and breath through them every 4-6 minutes.  My midwife, Melissa Courtney, said that she thought I was in early labor and that they wanted me to go home and wait until the contractions were lasting longer than a minute and were stronger for at least an hour.  It was a terrible feeling being sent home from the hospital.  I was expecting that once I went into labor with the second baby I would have him in no time.  My midwife also told me that some people experience this type of labor for several days before they make any progress.  Of course this made me start crying.  I cried through my contractions pretty much the rest of the day.  My body was exhausted and I was emotionally drained. I finally called the midwife after suffering through these contractions all day at home.  It was 6:00 p.m. by this time and she told me to come to her office and she would see if I made any progress.  By the time I got to her office my contractions were stronger and closer together, I was finally dilated to a 5.  She sent me to the hospital to get set up for an epidural.

Everything from this point was smooth sailing.  I had an epidural by 8:00p.m. and Baby Grayson was born by 11:30 p.m.  I didn't push more than 15 minutes and it was a great experience!!  With Owen my labor was hard and fast, I had back labor with him and the epidural really had worn off by the time I delivered him.    

Brad and I were so excited to finally have Grayson here and to know that he was a healthy and large baby boy.  It was truly love at first sight with this little man.  I never thought anything could be as special as the day Owen was born but this day was just as remarkable.

Kristin was such a calming presence when I was in labor with Owen and it just so happened that she was available to be with us in the delivery room.  

Here is Brad holding his baby boy for the first time.

The week before Owen helped pick out a jellycat toy and helped decorate the gift so he could bring it to Grayson in the hospital.  

Now it was time to introduce Grayson to his big brother Owen.  Owen brought baby Grayson his new lovie, the puppy.

Our first picture as a family of four

Checking out his new best friend.

This sweet baby is so easy going.  He nurses like a champ and has since the moment he was born.  He is a great sleeper so far, allowing mommy to sleep for 3 hour stretches at night.  I am very thankful, because Owen was not so easy in the beginning so it is nice to get some rest especially because I still have a busy toddler to keep up with.

Here are some of Grayson's first visitors....

I am happy to have my two boys home together!!