Two Weeks Old- Baby Jed

Two weeks of this little guys life have already flown by! We continue to look at him in awe and wonder how it is we are so so blessed? He still sleeps a lot but he goes stretches of being awake. He's not a big crier, when he gets hungry he just starts kicking around and gets a little fussy. He loves being held and gazing at you and is truly just the sweetest little thing. I love how soft his checks are and want to nibble them all day! The only difficult thing about him is trying to get him to eat at night. He lets me know he is hungry so I wake up and get his bottle and get everything situated so I can feed him, but he gets about an ounce in and he's lights out. I change his diaper, and have resorted to tickling him all over to try and wake him up and get him going again. Sometimes I'll find a tickle spot like on his collar bone that will wake him up enough to start sucking again but lots of times he just ignores all my efforts. I guess he loves his sleep as much as I do! He is getting stronger every day, he likes to lift his head up to try and look at you when he's on your shoulder, peeping around as his head bobs a bit. My best efforts to capture him at 2 weeks old!

Just another typical day!

It was a PJs and diapers kind of day today. As much fun as it is having a newborn and a toddler, it is also a lot of work and it's still a bit hot outside so putting clothes on everyone gave me one less thing to worry about! Probably the biggest challenge is keeping an eye on Ollie. Every time I turn around he is into something or trying to "take care" of his little brother. And inevitably if I'm trying to feed Jed or change his diaper Ollie either needs me or is crawling all over me to help. And if I'm trying to tend to Ollie it will suddenly be time to feed Jed. As soon as I get Ollie down for a nap, Jed will wake up making it hard for me to find time to do things like feed myself! But I know this is just a short phase of our lives and in between all the madness there are plenty of moments where I laugh out loud at Ollie because he is so dang cute and says and does the funniest things right now, or that I look at Jed and just want to freeze him in time because he is so precious!

Checking on baby brother

A little love <3

Ollie reading books to his brother

Jed just chillin'- he hardly makes a peep and likes to just observe

Ollie playing a little drama- the book wasn't exciting enough!

When he got to the monkey he wanted to dance around (on the book) to show us what monkeys do.

Since I am always cleaning up after Ollie's messes, and since I am constantly cleaning the house in between the feedings, changings, etc. I've enlisted Ollie's help. He loves to sweep so I took a few bars out of the Swiffer to make it Ollie size and put him to work!

He got his favorite snack for helping out, I really didn't even need to give him that though because the big smiles were not for the snack, he likes to play games like run away from me with the Swiffer giggling and waiting for me to chase him. I caught him!

Why not crawl under Jed when he's trying to sleep?

Or tickle his toes?

He's dangerous with his nails right now so the gloves are on!

We had someone bring us dinner tonight and Ollie heard her say there were cookies, before she was even out the door I I heard him say "cookie" and found that he had crawled up on the counter and extracted the cookies from the bag of food they brought over!

 

And then there is Daddee time! Ollie thinks he can already wrestle Jed and we are constantly on guard telling him to be soft!

He just can't resist being near him

Cute boys :)

Loves for brother

My favorite moment of the whole day was when Matt sat Jed up and Ollie went to blow on his tummy Jed kind of slumped over on him and was nibbling on his ear (he must have been hungry!) Ollie got the giggles and couldn't stop laughing! Cutest thing ever. Just another typical day!

Nibbling on Ollie's ear

Second Visit

We were looking forward to our visit with Sarah all week and it did not disappoint! We got to sit and chat for hours and I loved every second of it, and so did Jed- he was cuddled and coddled the whole time :) After a short visit Matt and Ollie had to excuse themselves to go get some Saturday errands taken care of, which left plenty of time for Sarah and I to catch up. It is fun having our girl time and I love that she loves every little move he makes and every little look he gives just as much as I do, she doesn't get tired of me talking about him either. It was also good to look back together and fill in some of the details- things we might not have known or said, experiences we had along the way. Just one more confirmation after another that we were meant to find each other. Truly amazing to reflect on all the things that happened, feelings and impressions we felt. I always feel uplifted getting to see Sarah, there are still difficult choices for her to make and steps for her to take but I am amazed at her strength and how she is allowing this experience to change her. There were no tears today, just smiles :)

I know that it may be hard for some to understand the relationship I have with both of my sons birth mothers, and I realize it may not be for everyone and every situation but my life is so much richer having them in it. They both understand me in a different way than any other woman ever will, we've shared experiences that bind us together that are unique to us and therefore it is hard to explain it to someone that has never been in our shoes. It's funny, even at our visit Sarah and I talked about open adoption. She wanted to know if we always wanted open adoption- I told her the truth that we knew nothing about it going in and when we heard about it we initially thought it probably wouldn't be for us, but our hearts changed and we opened our minds enough to believe that we really couldn't make a decision one way or anther until we met our birth mother. From the very first contacts we had in both cases our hearts went out to both of our birth mothers and everything following just came naturally because we love them. We count it as a blessing that our sons will always know the miracle of how they came to our family, and that they can know and be proud of their first mothers and the choices they have made. It was fun to hear Sarah's thoughts and experiences as well, how she also had reservations about openness. Admittedly we don't have everything all figured out and yes, someday our sons will have a say in all of this but for now we go with what feels good and right, always with what is best for our sons at the center or every decision. In our case, which may be unique, we feel overwhelmingly blessed each and every time we have the opportunity to see our sons birth mothers and their families and feel like it is a good thing that our sons will know they have been there and have loved them all along. And no, we don't think it will be confusing for them. I am their mother. I hear those words every single day and it isn't just something Ollie says, he knows who his parents are! Their first parents are more like an extension of our family and there is no limit to the number of people we can love and call family!

I guess I share all of that because people have asked if visits are hard for us, and hard for them. The answer is no, we look forward to any time we get with our birth mothers and it is not something we do because we have to, we do it because we want to. A way to compare it would be to say that it's the same excitement you would have when any friend or loved one comes to visit. I hope in the pictures you will see a glimpse of the joy we felt at our visit today. It warms my heart that Sarah loves Ollie too and that she is just as excited as he is that Ollie has a baby brother! :)

Ollie talking all about his baby brother

Kisses

Hugs

Ollie "helping" Jed give Sarah bones!

Cuddles and Giggles

He loves everything about him!

Such a good helper <3

Melts my heart- he loves her too!

A beautiful Day!

One Week Old- Baby Jed

Jed has been in the world an entire week now! And as Sarah said to me a few nights ago "the world is just a better place with him." Still feeling so blessed and loving every breath he takes. His first week of life he has done a lot of sleeping but every day he becomes more and more alert. He's a calm little guy and he surprises me at times because I won't even realize he is awake yet I'll look down to find him peering up or looking around the room without even making a peep. He has the cutest little sneezes and when he is in and out of sleep if I talk to him he starts making little smiles, that is when my heart melts all over again. 

For his one week birthday Sarah and her family came over for a visit. We were excited to have them, I love to see how much they adore him and am so grateful for the love they have shown and continue to show our whole family. Ollie makes quite sure that Jed doesn't get all of the attention. He's such a funny little guy right now and continues to make me laugh every day- sometimes it is bad because there are many moments I shouldn't be laughing but I just can't help it- like today when I was trying to hold Jed and keep my messed up toe elevated he decided it was too much fun to tackle me while I was helpless. I tried my hardest to tell him to stop, but I couldn't raise my voice too loud because I was holding Jed and Ollie is not the greatest listener right now so my pleas for him to stop only made it all the more exciting for him to keep going! 

Not quite in a position right now to chase Ollie all day, Mom came and picked him up to allow me to take care of Jed and rest my toe. With just the two of us at home I had some time to do his one week pictures and some of him in his outfit that we brought him home in from the hospital. 159 pictures later...haha! I'll just share a few!

Bear is a little bit hard to prop a newborn up against!

And for the bloopers...

Both of my boys have a special outfit they wore in the hospital when they spent time with their birth mothers and their families, and both of them have a special outfit we brought them home in. Ollie's is framed in a shadowbox and hangs on our wall. I like to lift him up sometimes and hold him next to it to see how big he's gotten. Although right now all I have to do is have him sit next to baby Jed! 

In addition to his pictures with bear, I took some pictures of Jed in the basket in his special outfit so I can put it in his shadowbox with it when I hang it on the wall.

Here is a throw back to Ollie at one week old in his outfit...

More of my favorite shots...

Little Sneezes

Lady killer already- call me!

Little yawns

Little smiles

Sweetness!

Little moments and precious memories!

"Shhhh! Sleeping!"

I know I have a lot to catch up on but couldn't help but jump ahead to share one of the many precious moments we've had this morning. We were all gathered in the kitchen, our little family of four and I was sitting back in wonder asking Matt and Ollie how we got so lucky to have two boys!? Baby Jed was asleep near us, one of the first times we've actually put him down! When Ollie was done eating he wanted to see his baby brother one more time. It warms my heart how much he loves him already!

It's so cute when Ollie tells us "Shhh! Sleeping."

He loves to look at his tiny little fingers.

So reverent :)

I love his little grin as he touches his tiny little head.

What an amazing blessing it is that these two boys will always have each other! Ollie has been such a little helper too, he gets excited when it's time to feed him because he "helps" us make a bottle and carries it into the room for baby Jed. One my of the cutest little things is when he pulls up his shirt and looks at us and says "Tummy?" and pats his tummy, his way of telling us he wants to hold his baby brother on his tummy. We let him hold him with close observation and it is the cutest thing to see him examining his fingers and toes, his eyes and head, and of course his little tummy. Every time he gets to his toes he starts tickling his feet and says "tickle, tickle" with a little giggle. Here is a video of the first time I remember him tickling his feet, it was during one of his turns holding brother yesterday...

Some of the fun moments from yesterday...

Love, Love, Love my boys and all these tender little memories I will treasure for a lifetime! Feeling so blessed, and overwhelmed with gratitude for Sarah and Jess, the fathers and families that sacrifice so much for us to be a family. Sending all our love! XOXOXO