Blue Knight is 3 months old!

Dear Blue Knight,

You are now 3 months old. What a sweet 3 month old baby you are! You are staying up for longer periods of time, are grabbing things, focusing in on different people and objects, and are talking more and more. I love your coos and baby squeals. When you see me, Dad, Blue Rock, or Princess, you smile really big. Catching your sweet smile on camera, however,  can be rather difficult. 

You like music and overall are a very calm and laid back child. I can lay you down awake and you peacefully will fall asleep. It's amazing! Your napping and bedtime schedule ebbs and flows based on what else is going on but here's the rough schedule. You tend to sleep from 7/7:30pm to 8:30am waking up to eat 2-3 times. You usually take a morning nap for about 30 minutes to an hour and an afternoon nap for 2 hours and sometimes an early evening nap for 20-30 minutes. You are nursing great but are starting to spit up more. You also have started drooling which means you are hitting the early part of teething. You are starting to sit up and enjoy standing on our lap while we hold you up. You also enjoy your play gym and swing for short amounts of time. Mostly when we're eating or I need to make a meal.

You wear a size 3 diaper and 6 months clothes. You still don't like the car but are tolerating it a little better. You love to be hugged and kissed and snuggled with. You also seem to like getting a bath.

Your first family trip was a one night camping trip to Fort Griffin. You did great! You slept next to me on a queen air mattress all night long.  

This week you went to a Mommy and Me event. Princess and I made a pilgrim hat and turkey. You slept through most of it but woke up toward the end. 

We love you, Blue Knight! You are such a sweet and handsome boy and I love your blue eyes!

Love,

Mom

 

Blue Knight is 2 months old!

Dear Blue Knight,

These past two months you have grown so much! You are smiling and cooing and just absolutely adorable! You now wear size 2 diapers and size 3-6 months clothing. You still hate riding in the car. Hopefully that will get better as you grow. I don't like riding in the car very long either. You like music and looking at books and listening to music. You also seem to like taking baths which is nice. You also have started noticing different things in your room, including some animals on your wall. When we change your diaper, you look at and start smiling at the zebras on your wall. Some of the biggest smiles happen while you look at the zebras. You also love to look at me while I nurse you. You also like looking at and listening to the music on your mobile for short amounts of time.

It is hard for us to go many places. However, we took you to your first pumpkin patch the other day. You were asleep most of the time until I woke you up to get some pictures. We're looking forward to carving out a big pumpkin and getting some cute pictures of you in it next weekend at our pumpkin party.

Last Sunday was your first time to visit Bible class at church. You seemed to like it and ended up falling asleep. A sweet lady takes pictures of you and your friends on Sunday mornings and emails us them. We love seeing these pictures and watching you enjoy your class.  

You wake up 1-2 times in the middle of the night, which is great. You eat every two to three hours during the day. Except sometimes you'll want to eat every hour when it's getting closer to bedtime. Overall you are doing great! If nobody disturbs you, you can easily sleep until 10am. Typically you will take a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon as well. About 75% of the time I can lay you in your crib. The other 25% of the time you want to be held during your nap. I treasure all the time I have with you.

Your 2 month appointment went great! You doctor said you are growing and developing wonderfully. Here are your stats:

Weight: 13 lbs, 12 oz (80%)
Height: 23.5 inches (75%)
Head: 39 cm (50%)

Here are some lovely pictures of you!

Love,
Mom

Blue Knight is 1 month old!

Dear Blue Knight,

Today you are one month old! I can already tell that this year is going to go by much faster than I want. You are such a handsome, sweet, and precious baby. You sleep more than your brother and sister did and it's a big blessing as I know you are growing and developing while you sleep.

You wake up about once a night to nurse. For the most part you a calm baby but sometimes you cry and want to be held upright like most babies. You just started smiling and cooing. You also have made some really cute noises since you were born. I call them your dinosaur sounds since they are hard to imitate and are so cute and unique! Who knows, a dinosaur could have sounded like that! You are growing great and very healthy. You wear size 3 months clothes and size 1 diaper. You had your one month checkup and here are your stats.

Weight: 10 lbs, 13 oz (75% percentile)

Length: 21.5 inches (50% percentile)

Head: 37 cm (50% percentile) 

Your brother and sister both LOVE holding you and ask to hold you daily. You seem to really love both of them as well. Your went to church for the first Sunday morning last Sunday. We've taken you Sunday evening a few times and last Sunday you slept the whole time we were there. We keep you with us for now but eventually we'll let you go to class.

We are so madly in love with you and happy that you are in our family. 

Love,

Mom

First Sunday morning you went to church

We are now a family of 5!

When I started this blog, I thought we may only have one child. God has been so gracious to us! After four miscarriages between Blue Rock and Princess, I have had two more relatively easy pregnancies and healthy children. I am so pleased to introduce you to our 3rd born child, we'll call him Blue Knight. Knight because chess is one of his brother's favorite games and knight is one of my favorite pieces from chess. I'll start with a letter to him and will include some sweet details from my labor and delivery. Only read if you want to know his birth story. Otherwise, here's his stats: 7 lbs, 10 oz, and 20.5 inches long. He was born in the evening after almost 11 hours of labor.   

Dear Blue Knight,

This is your birth story. I want to start off with saying how happy and excited that God placed you in our family. You are welcomed with lots of love from me, Dad, your brother, and sister as well as many others, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

You were born on at 7:27 p.m. You weighed 7 lbs, 10 oz, and were 20.5 inches long. You have dark hair and blue eyes. You came 10 hours and 45 minutes after my OB broke my water. Normally I would not schedule an induction but I felt with the planning of your siblings care, that it would be fine to schedule a partial induction. It was the hardest and most exhausting and painful day of my life! But you are more than 100% worth it! After my water was broken, Dad and I did lots of walking, climbing stairs, I sat on different birthing balls, and was able to let you progress without the use of Pitocin, IV, and pain medicine. Your birth has been my hardest yet but I was so happy I was able to pull through and have another drug free labor and delivery. You are so handsome and we are so blessed!!

I ended up with a 2nd degree tear and am trying to take it easy as I recover. It took about 5-6 pushes to get you out! We arrived at the hospital at 7:30am, the doctor broke my water at 8:45am. I was having mild contractions at first so Dad and I walked and walked and climbed stairs. The nurse kept thinking I should get Pitocin to move things along. My wonderful OB recommended that we just wait it out and not have any extra medical intervention since I've had two natural births in the past. I was able to eat crackers, pudding, popcorn and a protein bar that I hid in my bag on the way to the hospital, and drink lots of water and juice. I requested no IV and was able to not have one. But that meant I had to drink lots of fluid on my own.

Since you were born so late in the evening and they said it would take about 2 hours before I could go to my room for the night, I decided to wait to let your brother and sister meet you the next morning. Plus Dad and I were exhausted! When Blue Rock came in the room to meet you for the first time, he raced to my bed and confirmed you were his brother. He asked why you were not crying. When Princess was born, she cried a whole lot at the hospital. He then asked to hold you. When Princess came over, right before Blue Rock, she wanted to hold you right away as well. She kept saying, "baby, baby. Hold hold the baby." For a 19 month old she speaks very well and can even say your name. Both kids got to hold you and kiss you. Opa and Grand C came to the hospital to meet you and so did Aunt M. We had some church friends visit us as well. We are looking forward to our friends coming by and meeting you at our house over the next few weeks.

The first night at the hospital you slept great. We were even able to swaddle you and put you in the bassinet by my bed. You did one 3.5 hour stretch of sleep. Of course a nurse came in around 4am to take 3 viles of blood from me so I didn't get to sleep that much. But you and Daddy both slept through it. We were hoping to leave the hospital soon after your 24 hour check-up. You looked great except you are a little jaundiced so they wanted to keep us another night to check your blood in the morning. We asked if we could just leave and come back in the morning. Thankfully our nurse got a hold of your doctor and she said we could go home. We were released from the hospital at 10:30 pm the next day.  Your first night home you slept well but wanted me to hold you and nurse you almost all night. From about 3:30am to 7am, you had a good stretch of sleep. Which is excellent for a newborn. You are calm and as sweet as can be!

We praise God that you are here, healthy, and part of our family. We love you, Blue Knight!

Love,
Mom

Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from Him. - Psalm 127:3

Here are some pictures from your birth and the first few days at home.

After my water broke walking the halls in the atrium at the hospital

Dad and I getting excited and thinking about your arrival!

It was great not having an IV and pole to drag around as I labored

You can labor and deliver in a hospital without being attached to things in the U.S.!

Princess looking forward to her baby brother to be out of my belly!

Blue Rock is super excited to meet his little brother

Last picture as a family of 4 and looking forward to meeting you!

You are here!

You're so handsome and perfect!

Born as the sun was going down

I have the BEST partner ever! Your Dad is the best! I couldn't get through natural childbirth without him!

My doctor who delivered you! She is awesome!

It's so nice to have a supportive medical team.

Big sister loves her baby!

Both kids love their baby!

You are blessed with a wonderful older brother and sister.

We are now a family of 5!

First bath

Getting all soapy

Bath is over! Now I'm just smiling

Friends from church

Home in my big brother's arms

Handsome sleepy boy

Getting some sun

First time we're all in the van together on the way to your first doctor's appt.

3 kids in the back, so precious and blessed!

3 days old with your doctor at your first appointment. You weighed 7 lbs, 2 oz. and are very healthy!