Porter seems to be adjusting...

Being a big brother hasn't been that difficult an adjustment for Porter. He has been adjusting really well. Although, unless Bridger is making noise (which he doesn't do that often) I don't know that Porter even realizes he's around!
But, when he does take notice of our little one, Porter gets very excited and tries to be very helpful.

He loves to point out all of Bridger's body parts.
Porter's favorite...eyes.
Our least favorite...eyes.

Porter loves to hold Bridger, even if it's only for 10 seconds (which it usually is, cause that's as long as Porter's attention span lasts)

Porter loves to give Bridger things...stuffed animals... pacifiers... spatulas... books... toys... cans of soup... you know, the basic needs of a 4 week old.

Porter tries to be quiet when Bridger is sleeping by saying "SSSHHHH" as loud as he can. (thought that counts, right?)

Porter takes all of Bridger's diapers to the trash...Mommy loves this one.

Porter loves to help give Bridger his baths, he gets to clean Bridger's foot.

Porter loves to give Bridger hugs and kisses and demands to give Bridger a kiss every night before he goes to bed.

He loves to push Bridger in the swing while shouting, "Wee Wee Wee" at the top of his lungs.
The only line that Porter has drawn is in regards to his blankets. Porter's blankets are Porter's blankets and there will be no sharing. He will gladly bring Bridger one of Bridger's blankets, but Porter's are off-limits to anyone but himself.

Not too bad for a 20 month old trying to learn to share everything with a newborn baby... I have to hand it to him, I think Porter does a great job as a big brother.

new places to play

So, Porter has always liked our sunroom, and now that it's warming up a little (not much, but enough) Porter can be found playing out there daily. It has all sorts of things in it that will need to be cleaned out when we get around to "Spring Cleaning" around this place. This for instance, is a dryer that we inherited from Kari and Craig a while ago. I think that they believed it would either be dropped off at DI or that it would go to someone who needed a dryer...so did I.
Kyle apparently has other plans for it...like tearing it apart for some reason or another.

Porter has found it useful as a new place to play. Can you see him?

That's okay, I couldn't at first either...

Can you see him now?
This is his new favorite spot to play. The empty dryer. He likes to climb inside with a screwdriver or a tape measure and will literally stay here, clinking tools around, for hours.
Boys...go figure.

Conference

Kyle and I really wanted to watch Conference this weekend, but it wasn't a very likely possibility with Porter.

Luckily, Kyle found a way to keep Porter watching too...
Yes, that is President Monson being flanked by Buzz Lightyear...

Kyle and I were able to watch Conference after all.

And, we finally found a good use for picture-in-picture. It's something I didn't fully appreciate until this weekend.

Conference was great.

yesterday was a successful day...

we all got dressed.

content

It's been one and a half weeks filled with smiles, poop, burps, poop, lights, poop, grandma, poop, laundry, and some more poop... I may have left out a few things...and I've possibly understated the amount of poop.

I was induced on the 17th and our sweet little Bridger joined us at 9:26 in the morning. They didn't need to flip him, he was still head down, and no c-section was needed. I must say that this was a much easier labor and delivery than with Porter. I was only in hard labor for about 2 hours and only had to push for about 10 minutes (yay me!).

I've had a lot of questions about his middle name. Kyle and I are big on naming our kids after family members. Porter was named after Kyle and Bridger was named after my great Grandpa Dime. My great grandpa's name was actually Lyman, but he was called Dime. That's what I knew him by... Grandpa Dime. Nobody knows why that's what he was called. We've tried to find out what the story is behind the nickname, but to no avail. If anybody does know, please share. Bridger Dime just seemed to fit, and he's named after an amazing man.

The night of the 17th, I had the nursery take Bridger while I got a little bit of sleep. My nurse came in at about 2 am and they hadn't brought Bridger back to me to feed him. I asked my nurse and she reassured me that they would bring him in when he cried.

About an hour later the nursery room nurse brought him in. She looked at me and said, "I'm sorry that I didn't bring him in earlier...but he hasn't cried. I've been watching him and when I saw that he was awake I thought I would bring him to you so you could try to nurse him. But he hasn't cried." And he didn't...all night. And he doesn't...unless he's really hungry. He's such a good baby, the most content baby that I've ever seen. Carri mentioned that it isn't fair that I've had two content babies in a row...I guess I'm due for a fussy one next time.

We only stayed in the hospital until the next afternoon...I didn't want to stay any longer than necessary and Bridger and I were both doing great. We headed home and were greeted by Gramma C. who had been watching Porter while we were in the hospital. We are so grateful to her for watching Porter while we were gone.

We then enjoyed a weekend full of family stopping in to meet our new little addition.

On Sunday we were blessed to have my momma come to stay with us. She stayed for the entire week and helped us adjust to life with a newborn and a 20 month old (a life that will take more adjusting than I had thought). She made us wonderful food, cleaned the house and took care of Bridger and Porter while Kyle and I got some sleep. I don't know what we would have done without her.
My favorite part was just having her around... chatting, laughing and watching Gilmore Girls til all hours of the night. I miss being around my momma and wish I was closer to her to see her more often. It was great to have her here and she is greatly missed (by all 4 of us). Thanks Momma for coming.

Sunday night, we not only had my Mom show up, but Home Health stopped by to drop off this. Yes, to the untrained eye it appears to be a suitcase, but if you look closely you will see a baby in that suitcase.

Bridger was a little jaundiced and his bilirubin kept climbing for several days after we left the hospital. So they dropped off bili-lights and we had to keep him under the lights round the clock. We were only allowed to take him out to feed him, change him, burp him and bathe him. It's not an easy thing to do...for a mom. I had a rough time putting the eye patches on him and leaving him naked in the suitcase all day. It made me cry. I hated not being able to hold him whenever I wanted. Luckily, it was only for one night.

We apparently did a good job because he was allowed to come out the next day. The doctor had expected it to take at least 2-3 days for his level to come down but we didn't even have to keep him under lights for 24 hours. It's a good thing too...I don't know if I would have been able to do it any longer...but, Bridger didn't seem to mind. He just took it as an opportunity to catch some rays. It made it a little easier for me to see him sprawled out, enjoying the warmth.
Porter has been adjusting pretty well. He gets so excited about "baby Bidjo, Bidjo". So excited in fact, that we're amazed "Bidjo" still has both of his eyes. Porter likes to hold him for about 10 seconds and then he normally gets distracted by something and tries to shove Bridger off his lap. I'm sure it's a big adjustment for Porter, but he seems to be handling it really well.
(See how yellow Bridger is in comparison to Porter?)

Also, I'm pretty positive that Porter grew about 10 times bigger in the two days we were gone. I don't know how it happened...maybe Gramma C. gave him some kind of growth hormone while we were away. But, bringing home Bridger made Porter seem massive.
Just look at the size of Porter's hand compared to Bridger's.

And I think that about sums it up. It's been a crazy couple of weeks, but we're all settling down into a good routine. We're all pretty content.

over the past 36 hours I've been a little busy...

I've been tickling these...

smelling this...

holding these...

nibbling (just a little) on this...

and smiling, non-stop, because of this...

Bridger Dime

March 17th at 9:26 am.

7lbs. 15oz.

20.5 inches long.

"Porter, What does an Alligator say?"

OOOHHHHMMMPP!!!

(And yes, the hand gestures are a must when attempting to make such a noise.)

No, he's not in his crib because he's being punished or because it makes it easier to clean up the house when the little tornado is playing in a corralled area (although, that is a bonus)...the boy actually likes his crib.

He will grab your hand and drag you back to his crib so he can jump and play in it. However, in order for it to be fun, he must have every one of his stuffed animals in with him, along with any blanket in sight. But, if the circumstances are right, he will play in here for hours if you give him the chance. And he will get slightly upset if you try and remove him from his entertainment too early.

My favorite is when he starts traipsing all around his crib making his alligator noise...he's just too darling. Here we are again...mid chomp.

I just can't get enough of this kid...he makes me smile.

good use

My belly has many uses these days, not only does it carry around a baby but it can be used for many other things.
I use it at work as a desk to prop my charts on, I can now chart anywhere.
I can use it as a place to put my plate if I'm eating on the couch, works great as a table.
And Porter decided just yesterday that it was a perfect armrest.

an indecisive little bug

This is me today at 37 weeks 5 days.

A few weeks ago we found out that our sweet little boy was breech.

Then he wasn't.

Then he was.

Now he isn't...unless he is...

He just can't seem to decide which way he wants to sit. They say the reason that he flips back and forth so much is that Porter was such a big boy that he made all of this extra room for this little guy to flip around in. (I don't know what extra room they're talking about...it sure doesn't feel like there's any extra!)

I guess it's not so much the baby's fault as it is Porter's fault and Porter can be expecting a LONG time-out for this.

So basically we wait. At 39 weeks they will either induce me if he's head down or try and turn him if he's not. If he doesn't turn, I'll have to have a c-section and if he does, maybe I'm in for another 42 hour labor. Sounds like fun, right? Either way, this boy is getting bigger...

I present exhibit A.

Oh yeah, why does the belly seem to get so much bigger if the shirt is allowed to drape over it?

And what is it about a large belly that makes ones arms so pasty white?

discovery

This past weekend was simply beautiful. We decided we shouldn't waste our Saturday inside, so we headed out to find something we hadn't seen in this city. We wanted to find a cool park if we could...and let me tell you, our city has one of the coolest parks imaginable. I'm so glad we found it before this summer. There will be many days spent at this park in the coming months...I can feel it.

It's a gigantic wooden park that was donated to the city by hundreds of establishments/doctors/businesses/wealthy people in the community and everyone who donated (I don't know how big the donation had to be) has their names carved into the wood all over the playground.

It's enclosed with only two entrances to the park, and if you have your child playing in the little kids area, there is only one way in and out. I'm sure that they had to restrict entrances due to the intricate winding walkways underneath all of the structures...I'm sure there's been more than one child who got out of their parents sight...but that's why there are only the two entrances.

Porter loved it. Every minute of it...and I have to admit so did I.

Porter really enjoyed the slides and he'll go down them all by himself (unless they are covered... he likes to see where he's going).
The bumpy green one was a particular favorite.


They have all sorts of things built out of wood...a shuttle...cars/jeeps...boats, etc.

In the shuttle they have a metal telephone from the top level to the bottom level. Kyle went inside the bottom level to talk to Porter, but he had to speak so loud to make the sound come through that you could hear him just fine through the floorboards. Porter finally realized that Kyle was just underneath him, so he sprawled out on the floor of the shuttle to look at his Daddy and yell things at him. He started pointing behind him trying to tell Kyle something that was incredibly important...but the kid speaks in code...and neither of us understood the message.

He had a fun time driving the jeep too. From the inside...


and from the outside.They have swings too...including a large tire swing...large enough for an 8 month pregnant chick.
Oh yeah, I don't recommend that if you are 8 months pregnant that you should climb into a tire swing because there is a time when you have to climb out...Kyle was nice enough not to document such a thing with a photo, but I assure you...it was a sight to see.They had sandboxes and climbing walls and a little amphitheatre and so many more things that I can't list them all. But we had fun...And, after a long day...we came home to clean the house a little bit. I stripped our bed of our sheets and I threw the pillows on the couch to febreeze them. Porter found this to be the perfect place to watch a little Cars before it was time for bed. I think we wore him out. And vice versa.