June

Brooke Elizabeth

This month ended with the first “sick” visit for Brooke in about a year and a half. One tube left and two infected ears she is on a round of meds. She is taking this lingering cold quite well, besides a little crankiness here and there. She has become quite a pro at asking for a nose wipe….we are trying to perfect, “I’d like a nose wipe please” but is always come out “I have boogies please”. At least she is getting the please part right. Hopefully we are not in for round 2 of ear tubes. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Brandon Jon

Five months and counting. We have been attempting to sit this month however he chooses the most inopportune time to try to sit…for example: when he is strapped into his car seat. It is fun to try in the boppy or on the couch because he is still quite wobbly. Things around the house have been must easier this month because he is very interested in what his big sister is doing these days. He follows her all around the room with his eyes which is usually followed with “he is looking at me” stated by Brooke. It is nice when they entertain each other, expect for when he has a toy Brooke would like. She has also been quick to learn how to bring a toy to Brandon in order to trade for the one that he has…..it slowly begins…..

May

Brandon Jon

Well Brandon is quite the growing boy these days. At his 4 month check up he clocked in at 15 pound, 3 pounds shy of Brooke at age 1 year. To keep up with his intense feeding schedule he recently began waking up every hour or two at night (more than he ever did as a newborn). Mommy is just thrilled about that! Also at his 4 month check up the Doctor gave him the nickname of Mayor because he was so social and smiled at just about everyone. He has also found his voice this month, jabbering and talking or yelling as Brooke calls it, at his toys and anyone who will pay attention.

Brooke Elizabeth

While Mommy is disgusted with the infestation of gypsy moth caterpillars, Brooke is quite enthralled by it. She thinks that it is normal to wake up from nap every day and go outside to find 10-15 caterpillars crawling on the outside of the house. We have a bug hut too keep all of them close by (mommy and daddy open it each night to release the frightened insects). In a few short hours of playing with them Brooke learned what “Don’t squish them” meant. And she also learned to get rid of the ones that were “sleeping”. One afternoon as one tried to escape the bug hut, Brooke frantically tried to close it so he couldn’t get out. Needless to say, one caterpillar turned into two…. As I told Brooke I think he got squished, she replied with, “He’s not squished Mommy….he’s happy”. Beware of Kacee because she is also quite fond of these things and she tries to steal and eat them from Brooke. Needless to say Mommy will be very glad when this infestation is over!!

Easter and New Orleans

This month, much like his first to has been filled with many firsts. Much to my delight, Brandon laughed for the first time this month. All I had to do was sing to him…(keep the comments to yourself). His first plane ride went off without a hitch. The people behind us even commented that they wanted a baby just like him. Nice and quiet…I just let them think that it is that easy! Once we made it to NOLA, even though he slept through it, he had his first night out partying on Bourbon street and even slept while a jazz band (tuba and all) played right over his head. While I liked to food….it wasn’t his favorite…but he survived! He continues to be very social with lots of smile almost anytime anyone talks to him. He is definitely a growing boy, but beware….he is still a spit-up king as we call him. Don’t come around here wearing black or low cut/v-neck shirts….he has good aim! If you don’t believe me, just ask Nana.



April was a fun month for Brooke because of “Tracy’s Party” as we call it. Her and Daddy had a lot of bonding time. They got to share a bed in the hotel and Eric carried her all over the place (not quite sure why he is anti-ergo carrier). In NOLA the animals at the zoo were “too far away” while the lobster at the aquarium made her nervous because it was so close. She even touched a shark! We know Brooke is a smarty pants but she proved it again at the aquarium. When daddy told her she could pick out one animal…she picked out the stuffed animal that was 2 sewed together! We have been encouraging the beginning stages of potty training these days….so when we she her start to concentrate, and ask her if she wants to sit on the potty…most cases she says no (which is fine), but it was amusing when she replied with “it’s too late” one time.

February

Mommy is finally writing the journal entry for February!

Well Brooke is becoming quite the 2 year old, vocabulary and all. It sometimes gets interesting out in public as she is very observant with everything involving her baby brother. While out to lunch with some old co-workers, I began feeding a bottle to Brandon when Brookes starts saying, "Mommy's pump, Mommy's pump" getting louder and louder each time she said it until I answered her by saying yes Mommy's pump. (As you can guess she watched me pump it earlier in the day.) The best part......the three co-workers....all men....good thing they all found it amusing.

Other saying Mommy unintentionally taught Brooke:

"Don't pee on me please Brandon"

"Get out of here Dog" (you can imagine the tone)

Some more sayings to come next month.

Brandon is doing the usual baby things this month. He is becoming much more active and alert, not to mention eating non stop. Unlike Brooke at this age, he enjoys having his diaper changed....specifically the part where he is diaperless.....hopefully he grows out of this stage or we could be in trouble. He is quite the puker these days as well. We go through about 5 or so bibs a day. I am used to this because I am home with him all day. Daddy on the other hand is not so used to it. After puking on one of daddy's shirt, I offered Eric a burp cloth, which he refused. A few short minutes after Daddy changed his shirt.....yep....Brandon got Daddy again. Eric should have taken the burp cloth! I found this very amusing....as you can guess...Daddy did not! His eye's are still blue....we are hoping they stay that way.

Say Hello to Brandon Jon

Well January was quite a busy month for the Selander household. Brooke is officially a 2yr old, even though she has been acting like one for the past 6 months. We managed to save her birthday party even though a huge snow storm was expected (ended up with only 3 inches). We are glad we had her birthday when we did because she has moved on from Blue Clues and now prefers Dora.

On the 26th at 1:58AM we welcomed Brandon Jon. He was 7lb 2oz, and 19 and 3/4inches. He is a lot like his dad was when we was a baby and doesn't complain too much. So far he is pretty chill so he is making things seems somewhat easy around the house for now. Unlike his sister, we should invest in pampers. He is setting some records in the diaper department....making his Daddy proud. Somehow Eric has managed to avoid changing a single diaper but I have only gotten hit twice so far.

Brooke is adjusting to the changes very well. She asked for her brother to join her on the bed the other night to jump around....we had to explain to her that he is still too little for a lot of those activities. So it is pretty busy around here...keep checking back for more updates.

January 26th, 2009

It is about time I write Brandon's birth story down, now that he is over 1. Brandon's story was very similar to Brooke's but it was much shorter the second time around.

His story starts on January 25th, 2009. I had been having minor random contractions for a week or two, but on the 25th at around 5PM, I started having them all of a sudden 15 minutes apart or so. By 7PM (they still weren't painful) I had already made some calls to family telling them we would be headed to the hospital that night. I knew it was coming! We called the hospital and I told them I didn't think I needed to come in just yet, but that it would be at some point that night.

Since this was the second time around, we had a plan for grandparents to come and watch Brooke, so we were all set in that regard. By 8:30ish or so, we were on our way to Morristown Memorial Hospital in NJ. I wasn't in too much pain, so I wasn't rushing around or anything, but Eric was really concerned that we needed to get to the hospital. By the time we got to the hospital at 9, my contractions were pretty intense. They checked me and told me I was only 2cm...lovely....and that unless I progressed they were going to send me home.

After the nurse walked out, I told Eric that I would leave the maternity ward and the room if they made me, but that I was not leaving the hospital and that they didn't know what they were talking about because he was coming. So I got my lovely hospital gown on and started walking to try to get things to progress and we would meet the nurse back in my room at 9:45 for another check.

By the time I walked from my room, to the nursery (for a little inspiration) I couldn't stand through my contractions, and they were every 1 to 3 minutes apart. It took me 15 minutes to get back to the room because I had to stop so many times. We got back to the room around 9:30 and by 9:45 I was in agony. By 10 the nurse wasn't there and I yelled at Eric to go find her. Reluctantly, he went to get her....As she was checking me, she said, "Wow, you aren't going anywhere." In my head I was saying "no sh*t now will you get your hand out of my V and call anesthesia" I don't quite remember how far along I was at this point, but I think it was around 5cm or so. So I had gone from 2cm to 5cm in about an hour.

This labor was incredibly faster and much more intense than the first time. I was literally rolling around from side to side, squeezing the bed rails with each contraction almost in tears. Having been through this before I thought I knew what to expect, but this was a million times more painful than the first time. It literally felt like a giant was on each side of me pulling my hips apart. It was at this point that they told me I had to wait until a whole IV bag was emptied before I could get the epidural. Thank god I remember it being awful, but I don't actually remember the pain.

SO.....water broken, IV bag done, epidural done! They actually did my epidural mid contraction. I was in so much pain that I told him to just do it an not wait until it was in between contractions. In all honesty, sitting on the edge of the bed was the least painful position, so I didn't mind it really. At this point it was about 10:45PM. The doctor was in and was guessing he would be there around 11:30PM.

Needless to say, I wasn't surprised when lo and behold, my right side went numb and not my left. Before I got the epidural, I told them this happened the first time just so that they were aware of it. But hey, one side numb is a much bigger improvement than not being numb at all. I was left laying on my left side trying to get the medicine to trickle to the left side to get me numb (same thing as last time....that didn't work....Last time I was ready to push before the anesthesiologist came back so I delivery Brooke feeling everything on the left side) This time they called the anesthesiologist back to give me another round of meds in the epidural so that I was comfortable. Well that did the trick...I was so numb it wasn't even funny. I could not feel anything at all from the waist down...but it was so great not to feel after the past few hours!

They let me hang around for about an hour to progress. They came back in...I was ready to go!!! By the time they got everything set up, it was about 1:35AM. I still could not feel a thing...no really...nothing at all. I couldn't even feel the doc checking my cervix! I told them I couldn't push because I couldn't feel anything at all, but they told me, pushing is like riding a bike, you don't forget, so just try like I was going to push.

I just remember the delivery room being so relaxed (probably because I couldn't feel a thing...TMI Warning...I didn't even feel him come out I was so numb). Dr Culin was awesome. She was reassuring and calming through the whole thing. I think there was only one other woman in labor besides me, so that probably helped too.

At 39w2d, Brandon Jon was born at 1:58AM on January 26th, 2009. He was 7lb 2oz and 19 3/4inches long.

His APGAR scores were great and he cried as soon as he was born, but he didn't cry as much as the nurses would have liked. They really wanted him to cry to get his lung clear and everything. I held him for a few minutes afterwards, but they wanted to get him to the nursery to get those nurses to check him. He was a pretty calm baby, they were really trying to piss him and he wouldn't get upset...but he did pee all over the nurse! They did some tests, his sugar was low and he was having some problems regulating his temperature so they wanted to keep him in the nursery through the night and give him some formula to increase his sugar levels.

All I wanted was to have him in our room, so I was kinda upset, but I was trying to rest until after the 7AM pediatrician rounds when they would bring him back in. Our hospital lets you keep the babies in your room except for the pediatricians rounds and various tests (hearing and so forth) Just typing this up makes me a little sad because I remember our room felt so empty. I laid in there until they gave him back to me, but I didn't sleep...at all. I was thinking about him, I could hear trucks out side (the annoying ones that beep when they back up) and not to mention I could hear every other noise outside of my room.

He ended up being fine...and was just a really chill baby. The 1/2oz of formula seemed to do the trick to get him back on the right track.

December Updates

Well, Brooke was very impressed with the turn out in Christmas cards that came to our house this year, however, she was quite upset by the cards that had "no music in there". She was very excited about all of the cards that Daddy brought inside until she realized the majority did not play music. Thanks to those of you who did send the music cards. They are now on Brooke's bookshelf!

Christmas dinner was at the Harm's household and went very well. We even got Brooke to eat some ham by telling her it was a hotdog!

The day after Christmas we went to PA to celebrate with my side of the family. At this point (round 3) Brooke was really getting the hang of presents and opening gifts. She got it so well that when she opened an outfit from Aunt Tracy she screamed "No Thank You" and started pushing it away. Atleast she was polite. She still was not thrilled the next time she opened clothes even after being warned that it wasn't a toy. Next time mommy will open the gifts that are not toys!