Monday Menu

I don't have much of a menu this week, but I thought that I would post anyway.

Sunday- Get yo' Man chicken, Cesar salad, Garlic Bread

Monday- Chicken Sandwich's, sweet potato fries

Tuesday- No clue.

Wednesday- Laura gets in from Australia, so we are going to Adam's parents for dinner.

Thursday- Chili and Corn bread

Friday- Maybe out, maybe something from the freezer

With my addiction to Pinterest, I'm hoping to try out some new recipes soon.

{Three}

Three weeks have passed since Graham entered our little family. I feel like it's been a really long three weeks, but then other times, I'm like "oh my, he's almost a whole month old?" He and Dylan are very different babies, that's for sure.

I took Graham for his 2 week checkup. He weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs. 2 oz. So right there that is a difference. He is gaining weight. Adam and I wised up, and when he would still be screaming after nursing, we figured out that my supply was once again, not there. So supplementing with formula it was. Dylan wasn't 8 lbs until at least a month old. Graham eats all the time. I feel like he eats, sleeps and of course poos. We have had two blow outs this week. I can't even remember Dylan having one.

Graham needs to be swaddled. All. the. time. I have very few pictures of him where he isn't a burrito. If he breaks a foot out, or hand, he goes ballistic. Therefore this week we started doing the double swaddle. It seems to have worked, he hasn't gotten his arms out yet. I know, you would think if he is getting his hands out, maybe he doesn't want to be swaddled. Trust me, he still wants it. I hope he gets over that soon.


He also sounds a little like a pug. The kid didn't stand a chance in this house to not get a cold. Dylan was sick, then Adam got a bad cold for a week, I got a sore throat and runny nose for a few days. Luckily, he isn't that bad, but you can tell he has some stuff in his nose, I can't get it out with the bulb though, so that's no good. Poor little guy.

I can't believe next week he will be a month old. It's going to be a busy second month. He is getting baptized, his aunt Laura is coming in for a few months from Australia, and his first family photos, so we are sure to be busy! Hopefully, I'll be able to stay up to date with photo's because I know there will be many.

Big Brother

One of the many things that I was concerned with , with bringing a new baby into the house was how Dylan would react. I was worried he would think we didn't love him anymore, and I was worried there was no way that I could love Graham as much as I love Dylan. He is my little monkey, my first born, and my wild child. Boy was I incorrect.

Yes, Dylan is a wanting a little more attention. His new favorite thing is to carry around his shoes, saying " Dooes" ( Sounds a little like Jews), and pointing at the front door, the child could live outside if we let him. He is also a little more hitty, if you will. If he doesn't get what he wants, he starts flapping his hands around hitting whatever comes his way. Including, his new baby brother's head. Now of course this is unacceptable, so he goes to timeout. I'll be honest though, when you have one child attached to a boob, and one that is being bad, it's a little hard to get up and put him in timeout. Off subject, but I never thought timeout would work for my kid. You mean, tell him to sit in one spot and "think" about what he did? I will tell you though, it works, he will sit there, and stay, and if I keep getting onto him, saying " We do not hit" he gets this big tears in his eyes. I think I hurt his feelings. I'm just surprised he will stay in one place.

Dylan's saving grace for being a naughty little monkey, is that he is super sweet with his brother. He will hug him and kiss him. Without me even saying to. He will just sit and watch him. He will rock him in his chair. He will pat his belly if he is crying, and he pet's his head. He will try to give him back a pacifier if it fell out. He just melts my heart. I knew he would be sweet, but I never guessed that he would be as good with him as he has. Now as our pediatrician told us, that will probably all change once Graham is mobile and stealing Dylan's toys!

So to say the least, Dylan is a great big brother, and we are surviving, and possibly even thriving as a family of four. Everyday we get a little more adventurous. This weekend, we went to dinner with Adam's parents. Saturday, we went over to Becca's parents house to watch the Rangers game. We stayed until after 10. Dylan was great. Graham screamed the entire way home. He was starving. The kid has Dylan and Adam's metabolism I think. He can eat until the cows come home. Though he still has frog legs! He does have him some cheeks though!

The first two.

Can you believe it? Graham is two whole weeks old. Time sure does fly. As I had assumed, he doesn't have nearly as many pictures taken of him, he gets put in some kind of baby contraption as soon as he falls asleep, and overall, has much less stressed parents.

Having a newborn in the house again has been an adjustment. There are many things Adam and I had forgotten about having a newborn, like, did you know they don't hold their own heads up? That's something we forgot. I hate to admit it, but his head has almost fallen off a few times from forgetting this little bit of information. Did you know they cry for no reason? How about they don't sleep through the night? Though I can't really complain about this. Adam and I have a pretty good system going. I get up for the first feeding, then Adam handles the second. We are getting 4-5 hour stretches because well, we like sleep, I know he is gaining weight, and well "don't wake a sleeping baby!"

Graham has been a great addition to our family, Dylan loves him, most of the time. The only time he has shown real jealousy is when I am nursing him. Dylan has become very interested in my boobs, as well as pacifiers and bottles. As long as I'm not nursing, Dylan loves his brother, he will lay next to him, kiss him, give him hugs, and say " uh oh" when he is crying. He loves to rock him in his chair, as well as the swing. Sadly, Dylan also thinks that because "baby brother" can play in these items so can he. Luckily, he doesn't exceed the weight limit on the swing yet, because if he breaks that, he is a dead kid. ( only kidding of course, we would just buy a new one.)


I'm adjusting to having two kiddo's pretty well I think. This week, I managed to get to the grocery store, while Dylan was in school of course, I even took both boys to story time at the library, and I would have been on time if I could have found my phone. After that we ventured out to lunch with our friends Becca and Carson. Graham slept the whole time, so that makes it easier. It will be much harder to do anything I think once Graham is awake more and requires more attention. But for now, I will savor his sleepiness.
Graham has gone on walks in the neighborhood, had his first "real" bath, which he loved, and gone to one of Daddy's soccer games. He has been a busy boy in his first two weeks. I can't imagine what the next two hold for us in this house.

Grahams Arrival {part two}

Friday morning, my Dr. came in around 9 AM, and had the nurses start the dreaded Pitocin. He wouldn't start it until I had gotten the epidural though, so that was what took so long. I love epidurals!:) So they started me on a drip and also put an internal monitor on Graham. He was moving around so much, they were having a hard time keeping a monitor on his heart rate. At this time, I had gone from 2 to 4 cm, just on the meds they gave me before. My cervix was still very unfavorable. I wasn't happy to hear that needless to say. After about 45 min on the pitocin, I was contracting well so they came and checked me, 5 cm. I also didn't know at this time that they were going to turn off the pitocin. Graham was having some heart rate issues. So for the next 2 and a half hours I was just contracting and dilating on my own. Then when I got to an 8, they turned it back on to finish it out. My Dr. thought that I would have delivered already, so he wanted to get me complete. My epidural started to wear off on my left side, so I felt a ton of pressure. I called the nurse to tell her. She said that I was close but not ready. About 5 min later I called again, my nurse had gone to lunch, this is what the other nurse said.

Me- I'm feeling LOTS of pressure.

Her- Megan went to lunch, can you wait 20 min for her to come back?

Me- I guess.

2 min later she comes into the room. " Dr. Chester called and wants me to check you. Oh yeah you are complete. I'll call Megan and Dr. Chester"

Megan comes in and since Graham had been really high and not dropping, wanting to try some practice pushes, to get him to come down a little. The first push, she stops me halfway through telling me he is RIGHT there, and that I don't need to "practice." Dr. Chester took about another 5 min to get there, I was really afraid Graham was going to just fall out. After one and a half pushes he was here. My first thought was that he looked a lot like Dylan.

I know many people are wary of inductions, but other than a few hiccups, I had a very successful induction. Less than 4 hours from pitocin to delivery. They said why the other stuff sent my body into fits was that it was just way to strong. So aside from that, I would be induced again. It was kind of nice knowing when it was happening and having a plan for Dylan. But of course I wouldn't do it until I was 40 weeks.

We are surviving as a family of four. I won't lie, it's hard. Dealing with a newborn and a toddler who wants attention. Dylan loves his baby brother, and hopefully my next post will be on how he is adjusting:)

Graham's Arrival- {Part One}

I am writing this mainly for me, so I don't forget anything. It was semi eventful. I'll do two parts because it's kinda long.

They say every baby is different. Graham has been different since his arrival. "They" say, the second baby comes earlier, and faster. Well, "they " are not always right. With this tid bit of information, I expected to have a September babe. When October rolled around, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little sad that I was still pregnant. Now, even though my husband will always remind me of how much complaining I did at the end, I still enjoyed being pregnant, I was just "done." So when I went to my 39 week appointment, and was told I hadn't made much progress and that my blood pressure was going up, come on people, I was STILL pregnant, it took all I had not to cry in the Dr. office. He wanted me back the next week to check my blood pressure, if it was high, he was going to induce me that night. Fast forward to that Monday. Dylan woke up sick with a fever, so my plans of dropping him off at Becca's were off, but he wasn't going to help my blood pressure. I made Adam meet me at the Dr. yes, it was an appointment that took 5 min, but I knew my pressure would be high with a sick, crying baby with me! After the check, my Dr. asked me if I wanted to get on the induction schedule for the end of the week. I would be 40 weeks, he wouldn't let me go further than Saturday. We were to be at the hospital at 10 PM on Thursday night to start the process, IF I didn't go before then. I didn't.

We get to the hospital, and after all the paperwork, and IV's and set up, I don't get my meds until about midnight, by then I was exhausted, and ready for bed. They offered me an Ambien, I denied, but after about an hour of just laying there, went ahead and asked for it. When she brought it in, she asked me if I could feel all of the contractions that I was having. I could not. My blood pressure was pretty high, of course, so she had me flip onto my side, and try to get some sleep.

About an hour or two later, I can't remember, Ambien, remember? I woke up with about 6 people standing around me. One was putting an oxygen mask on, one was adjusting the contraction monitor, one adjusting Graham's heart rate monitor, one jabbing me in the arm with something to stop my contractions, and one telling me that I was contracting constantly, and they needed to give my uterus a break, and Graham's heart rate had dipped significantly. It was a good time. Shortly after, all was good, and we would reconvene around 9 to discuss the next step.

The Fenner Four

Introducing...

{The Fourth Fenner}

Graham Wesley

10-7-11

7 lbs. 6 Oz.

Breakfast of Champs

I've never been a big fan of breakfast food. I eat breakfast because I have too most of the time. I'm a huge fan of eggs Benedict, but it's bad for you and takes forever to make! Since being pregnant, I've really just had to eat breakfast. Usually it's a bowl of cereal . Though recently I stumbled upon a recipe that was not only healthy, but easy to make and well, didn't last long in our house. Baked Oatmeal. I'm sure I'm not the last person to try this, but it really is so much better than your plain oatmeal made on the stove top or microwave. I love that it has a nice crunch, and you can really add anything to it you want. I made one with just banana's, and then this one last weekend I made with blueberries and bananas. It needed to be cooked a little longer because the blueberries make it a little more mushy. Other than that I highly recommend giving it a try. It takes me about 3 minuets to put together then you just have to wait for it to bake.

Baked oatmeal with bananas and blueberries

1 Cup Old fanshioned rolled oats
1/4 cup chopped nuts- if you want them, I don't use them
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/4 cup of maple syrup
1 cup milk
1 large egg- slightly beaten
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1-2 ripe bananas
1 cup blueberries


Pre-heat your oven to 375 F. Lightly grease a 2 Qt. baking dish. In a medium bowl, combine rolled oats,half of the nuts ( if you are using them) baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. combine with a fork. In a measuring cup combine maple syrup, milk, egg, butter, and vanilla extract. Spread your banana slices in a single layer on the bottom of your dish, top those with half of your blueberries. Next sprinkle the oat mixture on top of that, then top with the liquid mixture. Put the rest of the berries, and nuts on the top of that. Bake for 35-40 min, until the top is brown and the oats of set. Now if you have the patience, let cool for 10 min before serving.

You can use any fruit you would like. Unfortunelty this can't really be made in advance, but it makes for really good leftovers. But like I said, Adam and I can finish a whole pan!

Oh yes, and I'm still pregnant. Graham seems to have missed the memo that the second baby is supposed to come earlier than the first. Oh well!