No-Routine Routine

Marshall is now 5 weeks old, and he's getting lots of Mommy time. This is the first week I've been officially on my own during the day with the boy, now that Daddy is back at work and N&P have gone home. Thankfully, the days are easier than I remember them being when I was home with Miles. Not sure if it's the previous experience, Marshall's temperament, or just that I'm getting used to the hectic pace of two kids. Miles is going to "school" during the day, so I get a chance to spend some quality one-on-one time with Marshall that actually doesn't involve feeding him.

That said, our days are still mostly spent feeding and diapering, with some occasional sleeping bits if I'm lucky. This boy spends a lot of his day awake, but he's generally calm. He even chills in the bouncer while I take a shower. I'm sure that Jason is relieved to not have to come home to stanky mama like he did with Miles. I even made a trek out to the grocery store yesterday, and Marshall slept through the whole thing!

Sleeping at night still isn't quite happening as we'd like. Marshall is pretty good during the first part of the night - will go 3 to 3 1/2 hours before fussing. After that, there's no telling when he'll go back to sleep. He's spent a couple of nights in his car seat, which helps slightly, but there's usually still a good amount of whimpering in between feedings until 4 or 5am.

Marshall is starting to chunk up and is even outgrowing some of his newborn-sized clothes. We're still waiting for his official first smile. There have been a couple of times when I thought he was smiling at me, but I couldn't get him to repeat it. I think the rule is that you need more than one witness before officially writing the date down in the baby book, right? Here he is, looking very serious while reading the paper with Daddy:



Marshall took his first road trip this weekend to his Aunt KK's house. It was spur-of-the-moment, thanks to Miles. Nana and Papa had plans to go there from our house, so Nana mentioned to Miles, "We're going to go to Aunt KK's house." Miles then got the biggest smile on his face and said, "We are?!? YAY!!" Just as I was getting ready to tell him that that he couldn't go with them, I realized...why couldn't he? So, Miles made the trip with N&P, and Marshall came with us parents the next day. We thought he'd have no problems, but we had to make two unexpected stops on the way to calm him down. Luckily, the way home was much better and both boys slept most of the way. We had a very nice low-key weekend with the Kolbs, just kicking back at their house. Here we are at the restaurant in their neighborhood - deelish and walking distance!

Bunny Bloggin'

Miles spent a lot of the last few weeks asking "Is the Easter Bunny coming to town?" He even got to get his school pictures taken with a real bunny!

When the day finally came, we had a very nice, low-key Easter as a family of 4 + 3 (thanks to a visit from Uncle Craig, Nana, and Papa). The Easter Bunny came and filled up Miles' plastic eggs from last year, as he requested. He was especially impressed by the eggs that had coins for his piggy bank.



The Bunny even brought Marshall some goodies, and Miles helped to open his basket:




Marshall liked checking out the scene, too!

We have no cute church pictures, sadly. Not surpringly, we were running late and didn't have a chance to take pics before leaving. I made the rookie mistake (but I'm not a rookie!) of thinking we'd take pictures afterwards. Well, of course Marshall had a diaper disaster during the service and Miles wanted to eat blueberries and strawberries for lunch.

Grandpa Ron stopped by for a visit that afternoon and helped us look for the outside eggs. Miles was so excited every time he found an egg!





In other news, Marshall had his one-month doctor's appointment today - everything is perfect. Here are the stats:

• 8 pounds, 8 ounces (up to 25% from his birth weight of 10%).
  
  
• 21 1/2 inches (holding steady at 50%).
  
  
• 10% head measurement...same as at birth. Jason says Marshall gets that from him, since I was Big Head as a kid. Harumph.

Manic Month

Seriously? It's been almost a month since Marshall was born? Guess time really does fly when you're fighting bilirubin, bacteria, and big brother blow-ups.

To continue the trend of poorly-timed illnesses, Jason and I both came down with strep throat. Jason was first, and it came rather inconveniently on a day when Miles decided to go nap-free and not listen to anything either one of us said. It was also a momentous occasion in my life as a mother - the first time I spanked my child. So proud - should I write down the date in Miles' baby book? After that, I moved into "I don't care what you do" mode. For Miles, that meant taking the contents of our entire game closet and spreading them all over the loft (complete with "swimming" in the entire set of Trivial Pursuit cards dumped on the floor). It also involved unraveling an entire roll of toilet paper in the bathroom. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry when I walked in to that scene...I eventually chose to cry.

Thankfully, Grammy came that evening, long enough for Jason to go to urgent care and for Nana to make the emergency drive from Ohio. Thank God for grandmas - otherwise, I'd probably be writing this blog post from the Psych Ward.

The saving grace of all of this is that Marshall continues to be a great baby. During the day, he spends a lot of time awake checking out the world but can sleep through most noises (and we have a lot of loud noises!). We're still working on the night time sleeping though. He's usually pretty good the first half of the night - will sleep 3-4 hours until 1 or 2am - but then he wants to be awake for the rest of the evening after that. A bit challenging now that Jason has gone back to work. He's doing well at holding his head up - check out this bit of tummy time:





And some more overdue pics from Marshall's first month:













Hopefully things will be calmer now that we are illness-free and Nana and Papa are back to help out this week. I plan to post soon with Easter updates and stats from Marshall's doctors' appointment tomorrow.

Visitors Descending

Our new family is slowly settling into a semi-routine lately. That is, if you can call being up every 2 hours a routine. I think Marshall got used to his jaundice eating schedule and now won't slip into more reasonable increments. We even broke out the pacifier for the first time last night - a couple weeks earlier than we had hoped - but it did get us one glorious 3 hour stretch. Nevertheless, Marshall is proving to be a much more manageable baby that we're used to, which leaves us more time to attend to brother Miles' increasing need for attention.

Thankfully, Jason is still on paternity leave until Easter, and Miles still goes to day care every other day, which makes the days a little easier than the nights. We're doing well with just the four of us, but it was really nice to have so many visitors after Marshall was born...especially the visitors that provided Miles-sitting, cleaning, and cooking!

Grammy, Aunt KK, Nana, Papa, and Miles all came to see Marshall the day he was born. The next day, Uncle Craig came by, and so did Uncle David, Aunt Hilary, and Cousin Gavin - check out this first picture of the next generation of Kahl men:

The weekend we came home, Grandpa, Granny, and Aunt Ashley visited and took Miles downtown to the Women's Final Four festivities. Miles really had fun and only just yesterday let us wash off the tattoo he got there. We all watched the Butler game (Dawgs to the NCAA Finals!). Our family looked a bit different than when we watched the Dawgs' win to get to the Final Four (L).

Then, the aunts and uncles from Mommy's side descended upon us for a nice Sunday afternoon with Nana and Papa. Aunt Kat got some snuggle time with Marshall, while Uncle Vinny entertained Miles:

Aunt KK and Uncle Davy even took the day off from work to spend a special day with Miles at Monkey Joe's. He loved to "jump, jump, jump"!

Once Pops was healed enough to climb the stairs, he and Nana "moved back in" and took care of us wonderfully as usual. Grammy also continues to make her weekly visits to help us out too. We're so lucky to have our extended family! Miles especially loved having everyone come, just to visit him and congratulate him on being a big brother. ;-)

It Comes in Threes

Marshall has been a great baby. His first few days in the hospital, he slept a couple of 4-hour stints. Contrary to his brother's ways, he actually spent some awake time not crying or eating. He's very chilled out and will spend good chunks of time just checking out the scene. He mostly cries when he needs to be fed or needs a diaper change.

Depsite the good luck we've been having with Marshall's disposition, we had a few not-so-joyous happenings since his birth. Thankfully, as of yesterday, we're in the clear now...but the last week has been an adventure.

First, Miles came down with a cold the evening that Marshall was born. He was luckily able to visit him that first day in the hospital, but his fever and coughing meant that he couldn't come any time after that. Pretty disappointing for big brother, but especially disappointing for Mommy and Daddy who missed seeing the big brother.

The next event made the little cold pale in comparison. While Miles was at home with Nana and Papa, Papa's appendix ruptured. Nana decided to call the rescue squad, who brought with them not only the ambulance but the fire truck as well. It certainly made our neighbors curious! Papa is doing better now, but it was obviously very serious and required surgery. Pops and Mommy are now comparing abdominal surgery notes...

And finally, Marshall developed jaundice during his last day in the hospital. Just yesterday afternoon, we got the all clear on him...8 days later. Marshall spent the majority of that time connected to a bilirubin light. That meant he was tethered to a 3-foot cord for most of that time, making the normal newborn activities (nursing, burping, diaper changing, snuggling) more difficult than usual. Part of the regimen was also to feed Marshall every 2 hours, which meant no more than 90 minutes of sleep at time for the parents.

Marshall's "dragon tail"...and this was the extra-long hospital version, longer than the home light on which he spent most of his time.

In an even weirder occurence, we had snow last week! View from our hospital room:

Yesterday's 68-degree day was the one I had packed to come home to...my dress got tossed to the bottom of the suitcase for the pair of sweatpants I came in wearing. Marshall's coming-home outfit still remained cute:

More of the good stuff to come soon...

Marshall!

Better late than never...announcing:

Marshall Anderson Kahl
Born March 27, 2011 at 2:24pm
6 pounds, 10 ounces
20 inches long

We've had an eventful week and a half, so it'll take at least a couple of posts to catch you all up. Please be patient with us!

Marshall's arrival began with Butler's win in the Elite Eight game to send us to the Final Four. Our friend Jen came over to watch the game and bring us dinner. She gave us a warning when she arrived - the last time that she brought a pregnant friend dinner, she went into labor at 2am the next morning. Well, we only made it until 1:11!

After fending off short contractions every ten minutes until about 7am, we finally decided to head to the hospital. The doctor said that it was likely early labor, so she recommended that we just move forward with our C-section. Jason had spring break that following week, so we had just a few things still left to do...as I've heard a few times since then, "Man plans. God laughs." One of those "little details" was Marshall's name - we didn't pick it until a few hours before he was born!

So here are some long-awaited pics of his first day. Other than a low temperature, the nurses and doctors gave him a clean bill of health (that day).

Right after delivery, taking his usual pre-birth pose:

All cleaned up after his first bath. Marshall was very alert and had his eyes open quite a bit:

And we can't forget big brother!

More adventures to come...

The Home S-t-r-e-t-c-h

In two days, little Coney (yes, we still call him that) will be at 37 weeks, which means I'll be full term. I'm feeling every bit of the full part. Is it sad when every person I walk by gives me a smile or a look of pity? Yes, I know I look huge, but imagine how it feels to actually be this huge!

I've been having lots of benign yet uncomfortable contractions, but the doc says I'm far enough along that they won't do much to stop the baby from coming at this point. "No need for bed rest now" she says...but it sure feels like I need some sort of rest! I'm so busy at work trying to get everything together for my maternity leave, and I'm busy at home, well, trying to rest. Jason has been a great help, but you can only do so much when you're both working and have a two-year old. Discomfort and exhaustion aside, the doc doesn't seem to think I'll have too much trouble reaching the C-section date on April 4. We'll see!

Coney is still a very active little boy, too. All the books and websites say that movement will diminish at this stage because there just isn't enough room for the baby to kick. He still seems to do a pretty good job at it! Yes, the movements are more stretches than kicks, but he still manages to get quite a few jabs in.

Big brother seems to still be taking this all well. We took the hospital tour last night, and he seemed to be interested in the whole thing. Miles was a bit confused why the nursery didn't have toys or kids in it like at church...but then again, there weren't any babies in it either! The standard for our hospital is for babies to "room-in" with the parents, so it was like a ghost town in there. Pretty amazing considering that our hospital has the largest number of single rooms of any maternity unit in the entire country.

In other news, we're cheering on the Bulldogs as usual and just enjoying as much time as a family of three as we can. Miles has been really into playing "Daddy's games" - or any board game that is not geared for children. He loves putting together the Trivial Pursuit pies and saying the numbers and colors on the Uno cards. He even got out Scrabble this weekend and spelled some pretty interesting words:

He must be a future student of Arabic, because he mostly "reads" from right to to left. Plus, it's confusing to know whether a line is an upper-case I or a lower case l. Nevertheless, we're so proud of how great he does with his letters. And here's just a cute after-church pic: