Life with a 14 month old and a 3 month old:)

As you can imagine, life with a 14 month old and 3 month old can be pretty crazy. I finally feel like we have found our schedule and now its hard to imagine what I used to do with my days when I only had Elliana:)

 I will admit that at the beginning it was pretty difficult. It wasn't necessarily how close in age they were that was difficult, but it was the time of year. This winter was terrible. First it was the holidays and although we wanted to get together and celebrate with everyone, Ethan was so little and everyone was sick. So we pretty much stayed home and hibernated for a few months, which can kind of drive you a little crazy, especially when you aren't sleeping. On top of that Ethan was having a hard time. He had reflux and this funny thing called Grunting Baby Syndrome (except it really wasn't that funny). Since he had reflux he would spit up like crazy, like literally soak all my clothes. And then because he was so uncomfortable from the acid in his tummy he would grunt. I know it sounds odd, but he wouldn't ever really sleep he would just toss and grunt. He seemed so uncomfortable. Finally when he was 5 weeks old the Dr. suggested I give him Maalox. I had to give him 1/2 tsp. 20 minutes before each feeding. It was quite labor intensive, but it totally made a difference. He started sleeping good (which meant I was able to sleep), he stopped spitting up and was overall a much happier baby. Thank goodness for Maalox! After a few weeks, I decided to ween him off of it. I didn't know what the long term effects would be of having him on this antacid for so long. 

Anyways, long story short, he was amazing! When he was about 9 weeks he was fully weened off of it and doing so well. He only spits up every once and while and its hardly anything. And he doesn't grunt anymore!! Woot woot! I'm so proud of him. 

Also I am so grateful that this winter is pretty much over. With the inversion and the terrible flu season, I just always felt like there was a dark cloud hanging over us, waiting to get us sick. With a newborn, that was pretty stressful. But the clouds have lifted and now there is sunshine, not only outside but in my soul:) Now I'm sorry but I have to brag about my kids for a little bit. I am just one proud mama. 

At 3 months here are a few things that Ethan is doing:

*HE'S SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!!!! He started sleeping through the night around 10 weeks:) We didn't even have to sleep train him, he just did it all on his own.

*Also he sleeps in his own room. We moved him a little bit earlier then we did with Elliana because we both just felt like he was ready. 

*He is one chunky monkey. He weighs about 14 lbs and is already in size 3 diapers. 

*He is such a happy baby. He literally smiles and talks all day long. His smile makes my life complete! 

 

At 14 months here are a few things that Elliana is doing:

*She still sleeps 12 hours at night and takes 2 naps during the day. I live for naps and I am dreading the day that she only goes down to 1 nap:(

*She can pee on command. Haha I know this sounds funny, but let me explain... So in the morning we take showers together and she would always pee either right before we got in (not in her diaper) or just as I shut the water off. So the last couple of days, while we are still in the shower I tell her to pee and she looks down and PEES!! hahaha so funny, but I am so proud:) 

*She knows how to open my phone. She knows to push the little button on the bottom and then she takes her thumb and slides it across the bar. So I had to lock it and put a password on it and I'm sure it will only be a few days before she figures that out. 

*She can run. It is a funny sight with how small she is, but she can pretty much keep up with the big kids.

*She loves to read. I often catch her in her room with her door closed and reading to herself. This was a picture I caught one time after trying to go in several times to take a picture and she literally yelled at me:)

*She just figured out how to climb up on our couch. Again it doesn't seem like she should be able to with how tiny she is, but she is one determined chica and figured it out. Mainly because thats the most common place that I feed Ethan and she always wants to be up there with me while I'm feeding him:) Now there is no safe place to put ethan.

*She is still learning what "soft" is. Ethan has many scratches from her:( 

*She loves to dance. It is so funny, but she begs me to turn music on so she can dance. Her dance moves include: turning, moving her shoulders up and down, moving her hips side to side, and spazing! I think out of all of her moves her spazing definitely is the funniest. Anyone who has seen her dance knows what I am talking about:) Lets just say, she takes after her momma in the spazing department.

Anyways, I honestly can't even handle how much I love my kids and how happy they make me.  Most days we stay in our jammies. Most days I have spit up, food, and heaven knows what else on me. And most days we just stay home. But everyday they are changing and growing and I am trying to memorize every part about them. Heavenly Father has blessed me so much and I am so grateful that I get to be their mom.

 

Trying to give Ethan her bottle.

 

 

Ethan's birth!

I am finally writing about the day that Ethan came into our lives. It has taken me several weeks to write this post because I've tried writing when both kids are down and that's rare:) It is still crazy to say "my kidS" and it is still sinking in that I am a mother of 2! It is complete madness at times,  but I am loving it. 

At the end of my pregnancy I was huge! Ethan was bigger then Elliana, I had a TON of amniotic fluid, and my belly felt like it was about to burst at the seams. I was so uncomfortable! 

December 7th (my half birthday btw) was the day. After much begging and pleading, they decided to induce me.  It was a week before my due date and it couldn't come soon enough. They were hesitant to induce me because Ethan's head wasn't engaged due to the amount of amniotic fluid.  He was pretty much swimming in there. Because I was planning on going natural, my midwife kept trying to convince me not to be induced. But I told her I had done it before and was prepared to do it again.

It was such a strange feeling. On one hand I was so done being pregnant and could not wait to get this baby out. On the other, I wasn't quite sure I was ready to give up the one-on-one time I had with Elliana. I didn't want her to feel gipped of her time being the only child. At the same time, I could not wait to meet this little boy. I knew he was special. Through the whole pregnancy I felt and knew that this little boy was a very important person. I felt honored that Heavenly Father thought I could handle this and I already felt privileged to be his mother. 

Leisa came and picked Elliana up from the hospital. I told Zack to go get something to eat because I knew it was going to be a while. Then they hooked me up to the pitocin and my contractions began (although I had been contracting off and on for several weeks). Eventually my midwife, Claudia, came in and again tried talking me out of being induced. She said that by 7pm that night if there wasn't a lot of progress that they would probably just send me home. I was so upset and more determined than ever to make sure that I progressed. Every hour or so the nurse would come in and turn up my pitocin until I was at the max dosage. Luckily my contractions were consistent and I was dilating pretty quickly. The only problem was all of the fluid surrounding Ethan. His head wasn't putting any pressure on my cervix and so it wasn't thinning out (tmi? sorry:) When I was dilated to about a 5 Claudia decided to break my water. I swear my stomach shrunk 2 inches. After that his head finally engaged and things started to progress faster. 

Now his labor was totally different from Elliana's. I was up to the max dosage of pitocin and for some reason it did not hurt nearly as bad as it did with Elliana. I don't even quite know how to describe it. Of course it hurt, there isn't anything quite like labor pains, but it didn't hurt that bad this time. I was a lot more focused and knew what to expect. Claudia kept asking me if there was anything she could do, but honestly all I needed was my husband. He seriously is THE BEST labor coach! Anytime a contraction would start, he was there. He would remind me to breath and focus and kept telling me that I could do it. I can't even begin to describe how much I love that man! Without him and his faith in me I don't know if I could have made it through either of my labors. He never left my side, was so involved and (if it was even possible) I fell more in love with him.

When I was 100% efaced and about a 6 or 7, Claudia decided to take me off the pitocin (hallelujah!!) and get me in the tub. Oh the tub!! What a glorious thing!! It was a huge jetted tub and it made all the difference in the world! It took so much pressure away and was so relaxing. I don't quite remember how long I was in the tub but I knew the end was close. I told Claudia that I was feeling a lot of pressure and that I was ready to push. As soon as I laid down on the bed she told me his head was right there.

I pushed and she slowly maneuvered his head and then each shoulder.
Then time stopped.
She told me to reach down and I delivered my son the rest of the way.

Again I'm at a loss for words for that moment when you see your child for the first time. It's a little peek into heaven. There are so many overwhelming emotions. Those moments are seared into my mind forever and my eyes well up with tears just thinking about them. Child birth is a true miracle.

Ethan John Wilson
12/7/12
7 lbs. 12 oz.
20 1/2 in.
born at 10:13 pm
room 107

Elliana's labor was so chaotic and dramatic and his labor was completely opposite. It was so peaceful and calm and I got to deliver my baby. I didn't know that doing it naturally could be that peaceful and easy. Then the best news, after being told that Ethan was healthy and everything was good, was when Claudia said that there wasn't any tearing or anything! With Elliana  I pushed so hard that I burst every blood vessel from my shoulders up. I burst blood vessels in my eyes and my lips were black and blue. I looked like I had been hit by a train. But after Ethan's birth I was ready to do it again! Ok not really, but I felt so accomplished. It was a labor and delivery like I had always hoped I would have. And at the end of it, my perfect little boy!

It's crazy how your heart grows with each child. How there's one more human being that will call me mom and look to me for all of their needs. One more person that I would do anything in the world for. I feel so blessed to have my little family and I find so much joy in being a mother. There really is nothing more rewarding.

It's a BOY!!

As most of you know, we are expecting... again:) And this time it's a boy!!! 

Most of you were probably pretty shocked at first, as was I when we first found out, but now we are just so excited to be blessed with another child. When we were ready to start our family, we thought it would be as easy as it was for all of my sisters. There was a joke in our family that the Delgrosso girls are very fertile so be prepared to get pregnant right away. Well that wasn't the case with me. Once we started trying and we didn't get pregnant right away it was very frustrating. It was such an emotional roller coaster. I would look at all my friends and family who could get pregnant so easily and wonder what my problem was. After a long 6 months (which to me felt like forever, but I know actually is really short in comparison to most) we found out that I have PCOS (PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome). We were glad to finally know why we weren't getting pregnant but then also not quite sure of what our future family would look like. We both have always wanted a big family and realized then that having children would probably be unconventional for us. The only example of PCOS we knew was my cousin. Her and her husband tried for years before they were able to find out that she had PCOS and ultimately after trying all of the fertility pills and shots they had to turn to in vitro and luckily that worked for them. So we figured that that was probably going to be our route. Anyways the week that we were starting our first round with Clomid, I found out I was pregnant with Elliana. What a miracle. And what a blessing she is. She honestly is the best baby and being a mother is more amazing than I ever dreamed it could be. 

Well after she was born, we didn't know when our next child would be, but we both knew that whenever they came we would take them:) Little did we know that it would be so soon. 

When Elli was about 3 months old, I started feeling some weird cramping.  I also was starting to lose my milk and didn't understand why. I didn't know if that was just post pregnancy feelings or what. So I made an appointment to go in and see what was going on. Because we had moved from AZ when Elli was 2 weeks old I never went in for my 6 week post pregnancy appointment so I thought it was time to go in and make sure everything was ok. When I went in, the midwife never checked me and just said it was nothing. In the back of my mind though, I knew something was up. So I had this pregnancy test  my sister gave me and took it that night. As I watched the test work, I suddenly saw 2 lines appearing and about died. Literally I was in shock. I ran out and said Zack get in here! He thought I was just playing a joke on him, but then as we both went into the bathroom again there clearly was 2 big lines!! Honestly my first reaction was to cry. I just started crying. That test was a dollar store test, so I said to Zack, "I need a Clearblue! Go to the store and get me a Clearblue!!" But immediately after my initial cry, Zack and I just looked at each other and felt so much peace. We both had the overwhelming feeling that this was meant to be and knew that this was another miracle. 

Zack went and got the Clearblue test, and it clearly said "pregnant." We had no idea when we got pregnant and how far along I was. Ultimately there was no possible way we could have gotten pregnant. Not to go into too much detail... but I have PCOS, I was breast feeding and lets just say we were preventing:) But this little stinker was determined to come down. After our first ultrasound we found that I had gotten pregnant 8 weeks after Elliana was born. Pretty crazy, I know. So my Due date is 12/12/12 right now and they will be 11 1/2 months apart:) 

Life is crazy but I honestly can't even express how excited and humbled I am that I get to be a mother again so soon. Elliana has been, and is, such a wonderful baby that I am not afraid to have another one. I also can't express how much I love this little boy already. I know him and Elli are best friends and probably planned this all up in Heaven. They decided to come down pretty much as close as they possibly could. In fact they are going to be "Irish twins." Right now I am 23 weeks and appreciating the short time I have just with Elliana. Our family, in the span of 1 year, will go from 2 to 4 and we couldn't be happier. 

Latter Day Bride magazine!!

A couple of weeks ago I was looking at Naomi Masina's blog and stumbled acrossed a couple of posts that she did about our wedding. She was our photographer for our wedding and we absolutely LOVE her!! Not only does she take amazing photo's but she is one of the coolest people in the world. Anyways, then I saw a post on her blog about us in the Latter Day Bride magazine. (Here is the link to her blog, it is amazing:) http://www.omiphotoblog.com/2011/01/afton-zach-wedding-story-published.html) I had no idea that we were even in it! Haha it was such a funny moment, I kind of spazzed! 

When we were very first married she told us that she was going to submit our photos to them and we filled out this short questionnaire. We never heard anything back so we just figured that they weren't going to use it and then didn't think twice about it. Well what a surprise it was to stumble across this post of hers and see that we were in it and that it had been out for a while. So I went online to latterdaybride.com and ordered a few copies. We were in the 2011 edition and it just tells a little bit about our love story. 

I am so glad that we have it written down. There were little things that I had already forgotten about and laughed so hard again reading them. It will be fun for our kids to read and I'm sure Zack and I will have fun reading it in 40 or so years remembering everything again:) 

Elliana is 12 weeks old:)

Our beautiful daughter is 12 weeks old today! And I have to say, that I have learned more about life and love in the last 12 weeks then my whole entire life combined. Being a mom has changed so much. It has changed my outlook on life and how I look at everyone and everything. I don't think anything can prepare you for how much you are going to love your child. I had heard that before, but I didn't realize just HOW MUCH  I would love her and that sometimes that can love can make things harder. What I mean is, well since Sunday we put Elliana in her own room and I didn't realize how hard that would be on me.

Ever since she was born we had her in a playard right next to the bed so I could literally just reach my hands over and get her. We had decided when she was born that when she was about 3 months old we would transition her into her own room. So Sunday night was that dreaded night that we had decided to make that move. Being a little ignorant we thought lets just stick her in there and see how she does. Ok now let me preface that with saying that I had been putting her in her own room for a while now for her naps so she was pretty much used to sleeping in there, but what we hadn't realized is that we had been creating a bad habit with her. When she would sleep we would put the monitor on and anytime we heard her fuse at all, we would run (and I mean literally I would run, I considered it my work out:) and as quickly as possible put her binki back in. We thought we were being helpful, but Sunday night proved to us why that was such a bad idea. 

So Sunday night we had the monitor up in our room almost as loud as it could go. My reasoning was I wanted to be able to hear everything and be there as soon as she needed me. Suffice it to say that I did not sleep even a minute that night. It was awful. It was almost worse then when she was a newborn. Every 2 seconds we were running in and putting her binki in her mouth. So Monday I was a walking zombie and was pretty frustrated. I then turned to, "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer." This book was recommended to me by my sister Autumn. She had used it with her kids and I have to say that her kids are the best sleepers in the world! They literally ask for bed and usually sleep 12 hrs. Now I had read this book when Elliana was first born and it helped me get her on a good eating schedule, but then I had stopped, thinking I would pick it back up as Elliana got older and I needed to learn more. So anyways I fast forward to the sleeping section and found out what we were doing wrong. 

Now the reason I love this book is because she takes such a "middle" approach. Anyway we were rushing in right away and not letting her learn how to self sooth and sleep without her binki. She naturally would spit out her binki when she fell asleep, but then she would realize that she didn't have it and fuss and wake up. So Monday we had to learn how to let her cry:( She would cry for about 5 minutes and then we would go in and reassure her and give her her binki. And oh my gosh, that literally was the hardest thing ever. I have been around babies my whole life and thought that this wouldn't be that difficult for me, but it was. Seeing her sad makes me so sad. I definitely was the mom that cried when she got her immunizations. Monday was tortures. But then that night Elliana already was doing sooooo much better. That night she didn't even really need her binki. We had to go in and sooth her a couple of times, but she would never cry longer than 10 minutes and then she would fall asleep. She slept for a good 8 hrs, ate and then slept another 5 (without her binki and without us going in and putting it back in). I was amazed. And then the same thing happened last night! She is learning how to fall asleep on her own! This book is so amazing, but one thing I really love is she explains WHEN you need to put your baby down. There is this window of time when your baby tries to give you clues that let you know they are tired. She says to put them down as soon as you see those clues, while they are awake so they know where they are and they learn how to fall asleep in there. For the past 3 days I have been putting her down, fully awake, but knowing that she is tired and within minutes she is asleep on her own. 

Now I know there are still going to be hard nights and it is still a work in progress, but I am just to happy with how its going so far. Its still really hard for me to hear her cry, knowing that I could go in and make it better, but I'm learning too. 

This morning Zack said that he had read a really good article that was in the Ensign this month and thought that I would like it. It's by Mark D. Ogletree and it is called "Helping without Hovering." Now, yes, I do have the best husband in the world and yes I know I am the luckiest:) Anyways it is an amazing article. I think every parent or anyone who is becoming a parent should read this. I learned so much from it. I never thought that it would be hard for me to let me children learn on their own and go through heartache and pain. I know she is still just a baby, but through this process of "sleep training" I'm learning so much about myself. This article helped me realize the wisdom in letting them go through trials and have setbacks and to not swoop in and fix everything right away. This is an article that I will keep and have to read over and over again as Elliana grows up and as we have more children.  

This is a quote thats in the article that I love. Its by James E. Faust and he said, "In my opinion, the teaching, rearing, and training of children requires more intelligence, intuitive understanding, humility, strength, wisdom, spirituality, perseverance, and hard work than any other challenge we might have in life." Ogletree closes with this, "As parents help their children make righteous decisions by letting them experience natural consequences, they will foster strong, independent, spiritually minded leaders in the kingdom. It takes courage, faith, spiritual sensitivity, patience, and persistence, but the rewards are eternally worth it." 

It's not always easy, but being a mom is the best thing that has ever happened to me. And thank goodness for other wise parents who have tried and learned and write about their experiences so I can learn how to become a better parent. 

Elliana's blessing

Last Sunday, March 4, was such an amazing day! It was the day that Elliana was blessed by her dad. It was one of those days that makes you realize how blessed you are. I am so grateful for my wonderful husband, my beautiful daughter and my testimony in the gospel. There is nothing better than seeing all of your family (over 100 in all:) come together just for your little family. Watching all of the men go up and hold my baby and bless her brought tears that I could not control. What a wonderful day that I will remember forever!

8 weeks old!

Wow! Today Elliana is 8 weeks old! It went so fast and at the same time feels like she's been here forever. I feel so blessed. She is such a good baby. It's hard to describe how good she is, but I'll try:) 

Elliana:

*Is such a happy baby. Some people don't believe me, but she really smiled when she was only 3 days old! It honestly wasn't a gas smile, it was her genuine, full smile and it was in response to us smiling and talking to her. Everyone who was around her when she was first born, saw it and witnessed that amazing and beautiful smile. Since then the smiles have only increased. It probably is my most favorite thing in the entire world, to just sit and talk and smile with her. And lately she is trying SO hard to talk back. She moves her tongue frantically and makes all kinds of sounds. It is the cutest thing. She makes so many sounds and coo's all the time. 

This was 4 days after she was born!

This was 5 days after:)

*Can usually just be wrapped up tight, given her binky and put in her bed and she can fall asleep on her own. 

*Lately has started sleeping from 8:30 pm -3:30 am! An amazing 7 hrs!

This was this morning when I went in to get her:) So happy all the time!

*Can stand really well. It's kind of crazy, but with only a little assistance from us, she can stand up. Her legs are extremely strong (which I knew from when she was in my belly and bruised my ribs from her strong legs).

*Since she was born has this little dramatic cough that she does when she is about to cry or just wants attention. It's hard to describe, it's this short cough almost like clearing your throat. It is hilarious. Sometimes I just laugh and it makes her more mad:)

*Absolutely loves her bath. It is her favorite time of the day. She has never cried during bath time. Just lays there and smiles so big. She's just like her mommy like that. I love taking a bath or shower, it's my favorite. 

*She also loves getting her diaper changed. As soon as she's dirty, she lets me know, she doesn't like to sit in a dirty diaper:) 

*LOVES her binky! Thank goodness, because when she was first born she would not take a binky. I brought several different kinds of binkie's to the hospital for her to try and we tried all of them and she would gag and cry and spit them out. I thought we were doomed! I tried almost everyday and it was always the same reaction. Then finally one day after we had moved to Utah (she was about 4 weeks) my sister Autumn told me that her girls only took "mam" binkies and that was the only kind that I had not tried yet. So I immediately went to the store and bought some, and as soon as I put it in her mouth she just started sucking away!! It was like Christmas, we could not believe it! And it is the funniest thing now. She sucks on that binky like her life depends on it sometimes. 

*Makes me love things about myself that I had never even thought twice about before. Features like her eyebrows, are definitely mine. Her unattached earlobes, because Zack has attached and I have unattached. Her chin is my chin, because Zack has a bum chin and I love it, but Elliana didn't get it. And just things like that. It's fun to see how her features are developing and to see who she looks like. 

*When we are sitting on the couch and I lay her a certain way so she can see this picture of Zack and I that hangs on the wall above the couch, she just lays there and smiles and stares. We love it! She honestly smiles so big and can stay there for like 20 minutes, just staring at our picture.

*Is the all time cutest stretcher in the world! Every time you pick her up or after she is done eating, she stretches so big and it is adorable. She arches so big and always puts her left hand up and rubs her eye and is so cute that I have to refrain from squeezing her:)

*If she gets fussy in the car the way to calm her down is to first make sure she has her binky and then give her my hand. She'll reach up with both arms and just grab whatever fingers she can and that's how we ride in the car. Although a lot of the time my arm falls asleep and kills afterwards, it is all worth it to just ride in the car holding my daughters hands:)

I could go on and on all about her. She is cuter and better than I could have ever imagined. She makes me so incredibly happy! Being a mom honestly is the most rewarding and fulfilling thing I have ever done.