We went to the hospital at 8 am to be induced.  I got an IV, filled out the paperwork, and waited for the doctor to arrive.  Dr. Henderson got there at 10:30 along with a resident.  They decided to start pitocin to get the baby to drop down more.  My contractions started, but weren’t too bad.  At 1:30 they decided to break my water.  Once they broke my water, the contractions got really strong.  I decided to get an intrathecal instead of an epidural.  By the time the anesthesiologist arrived, my contractions were really strong.  It was supposed to be an easy procedure, but we had the same problems that I had with Xander.  Evidentally, my spaces between discs are small and he had a hard time getting it in.  After 6 holes in my back and lots of pain, it finally worked.  Ben and I were able to relax for awhile before the big event.  The nurse stayed in our room the whole time since I went so fast with Linden, and the same thing happened with Brannock.  I was 7 cm dilated and they couldn’t keep the baby’s heart rate on the monitor so the nurse wanted the doctor to put an internal monitor on him.  I suddenly had lots of pressure when the resident came in and was dilated completely.  Unfortunately I had a bad side effect with the intrathecal and had enhanced nerve pain with the delivery and the medication didn’t take away the pain of the delivery.  Luckily, Brannock came fast, yet it seemed like forever to me!  When he was born we recognized the cry.  He sounded just like his siblings.  Brannock looked a little bit like Xander and Linden, but not much. I had continuous pain for a few hours after he was born, but it did get better.

This weekend was a busy one for us because  Ben was in Milyon and Andrea’s wedding.  He had rehearsal 2 hours after Brannock was born.  Although he made it there, he was a little late.  Ben came back to the hospital after the rehearsal to spend the night with us.

The next day, Xander and Linden came to the hospital with Aunt Angie to visit their new baby brother.  Xander liked him but wasn’t too interested.  He really liked the remote control for the TV though!  Linden LOVED the baby!  She kept saying “wow!” and “baby, mine”.  Brannock got lots of hugs and kisses from his big sister.

Brannock did very well during his hospital stay, but he had a hard time regulating his body temperature.  We had to wrap him in warm blankets and the put a shirt on him like pants to help him out.  The weather was very hot and humid when he was born so the air conditioning was on pretty high, which didn’t help matters.

On Saturday, Ben left in the afternoon for the wedding.  Brannock was a wonderful baby at the hospital, so we survived quite well.  We also had lots of visitors, which made the time fly by.  Cathy and Bill from daycare were our first visitors and they came to the hospital right before Ben had to leave.  During the afternoon, Aunt Denise, Kathy Larson, and Aunt Georgie kept us company.

On Sunday we were discharged and made the big trip home where Xander and Linden were waiting for us.  It was a little overwhelming to suddenly have three little ones, but I was very happy to see all of my kids and start our new life as a family of five!  Welcome to the world Brannock James Phillip!  We are so glad you are part of our family!

At daycare, Xander taught himself how to play “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” all by himself. Our daycare provider swears she did not teach him this song and that he started playing it on his own. When he got home, sure enough, he repeated his feat. Not only is it impressive that he was able to go from C to G, but he also maintained the timing of the song. As a three-year-old, he continues to impress me every day (for example, today, he counted to 110)!

Linden has been walking more and more, yet I am still not able to capture this on film. She also hasn’t taken to walking like Xander did. He decided one day that he was just going to walk exclusively and off he went. Linden seems to discriminate more and prefers to crawl as fast as she can. She has also taken to crawling up the stairs at will. She is certainly fearless (unless a camera is in front of her)!

Our Belated Birthday party

This past weekend was certainly action packed.  On Saturday, we left for the mall early in the morning to get Linden’s first-year pictures taken at Penney’s at 9 AM.  On the way there, a conversion with Laura turned into an Abbott and Costello skit with Xander.  Me (to Laura): Look, Kohl’s is open.  Xander: Yeah, close and open.  Me: No, Kohl’s the store is already open.  Xander: YES! Close. Open. I gave up trying to explain things and kept on driving.  We got to Penney’s and Xander immediately wanted a “shake” from Orange Julius.  I had to explain to him that it was too early in the morning for the store to be open, but he wasn’t having it.  So, I had to physically take him there to show him the store was closed.  He cried only once on the way there since we passed an escalator and he wanted to ride it.  However, he was fine with the closed store.  On the way back however, the Apple store was open, so I got my first chance to play with the iPad.  It was heavier than I anticipated and warm, which was understandable.  However, I was in love.  Xander acted like he had owned one since the day he was born the way he was switching through apps and doing things intuitively.  We eventually had to leave and he started to whine.  I said we could come back later and he responded, “I want to come back later now!”

We got back to Penney’s and Linden apparently did not have a good experience.  She did not smile and sucked on her lips mainly.  Laura blamed the photographer.  The pictures were not hot, even though we have had great success there in the past.  So, we scheduled a reshoot for this Thursday.

Saturday afternoon was spent at Target Field, which I talked about here. Xander complained about the noise and covered his ears whenever people cheered loudly.  However, he did not want any ear plugs.  He had acted like this before, so we did not think this was anything new.  But, he started complaining that his ear was hurting.  By Saturday evening, he was in massive pain and bawled and bawled.  We suspected that he had an ear infection.  On a Saturday night, you cannot really do much for an ear infection, so Laura gave him ear drops and comforted him the best she could.

Sunday was more of the same with Xander not feeling well and complaining about his ear.  He was pretty yin/yang where he would be mopey and needy and then suddenly be “normal” again.  Despite all of this, the highlight of the day was to celebrate Linden’s belated birthday.  We had a party for Xander a few weeks prior to Linden’s birthday, so we decided to hold off a week to give us a little time to breathe (we are not party people).  The affair was small; my Mom made a nice cake, and fun was had.  Linden had no clue what was going on and Xander was ailing still, so his mood was not the best.  But, it was nice to see family!

Today, Laura took Xander to the hospital and indeed, he has an ear infection.  We got some drops that might help, otherwise, we will have to give him amoxacillin for seven days.  This is his forth ear infection, so this is not our first rodeo!

Taken by Xander with his Fisher Price camera

The entire family went to the our first regular-season Twins game at Target Field today against the KC Royals.  Here are a few observations from the day.

• We parked a little ways from the ballpark.  It took us around 10 minutes to walk to Target Field.  However, once we got into Gate 14, behind home plate, it took us 15 minutes to walk to our seats in left field.  Seems the concourse was not wide enough for the vastness of humanity milling around.
• Our seats were in the sun as expected.  They remained in the sun during the entire game.  Even though the temp was only 66 or so, it felt a lot hotter than that.  We also learned lesson #1 – bring sunscreen.  Laura got burned while I got a nice tan.  Both kids had a little heat stroke, so we had to take them up to the concourse multiple times to cool off.
• Speaking of which, Xander and I walked around the upper level and it was COLD!  The longest concession line I saw was seriously the coffee line.
• Tried to buy a Hungarian sausage at the Kramarchuk stand, but they had none.  The lady at the cash register said the grills were not large enough to accommodate brats, polish, and Hungarian.  They removed the wrong sausage.
• Beer was $7, but that did not stop people from getting DRUNK!  It was rumored that they temporarily ran out of Budweiser. Laura witness one guy who was super drunk trying to walk up the stairs in our section.  He had to stop with each step to talk to other people trying to enjoy the game.  Worse though, as people were coming down, he was taking food from their trays like French fries and cheese curds!  Laura also got spilled on plenty of times and had to fend off drunk ladies trying to talk to the kiddos!
• I discovered some secret spots of Target Field where to find low lines at concessions and how to navigate around more quickly.  I’d love to share them, but then everyone else would do the same thing!  You’ll just have to go and find out yourself!
• The game itself was thrilling as the Twins won 6-5.  I did not get to see too much of it live since I was in the concourse a lot of the time walking around with Xander since he thought the PA was a little too loud by our seats.  However, I still had a great time and look forward to going back soon!

We spent 2 1/2 hours eating pizza and playing game and it was a great birthday!  He also had a party at daycare so he was the special birthday boy all day long.  This year was fun because he knew exactly what was going on and he was very excited.  We also had a family party for him last weekend and I will post some pictures of that soon.  Xander has grown up so much this past year.  Every day he says something that makes us smile.  He has so much personality.

As for Linden, she is 11 months old now and is on the move.  She is not walking yet but she gets around crawling and walking around holding onto furniture.

She wants to play with everything her big brother plays with and is very busy.  Her personality is a lot different from Xander’s.  She is not as sensitive as he is.  She is determined to get what she wants and doesn’t get her feelings hurt easily.  I think Linden will be our handful, but she is such a happy, smiley baby you just can’t get mad at her.

Linden has also been doing a great job eating on her own.  She didn’t eat baby food very long.  She likes to feed herself and wants to eat table food.  Last week we let her try ice cream and it was a big hit!

The kids are growing up so fast and we are having fun watching them develop.  I will make sure to post more very soon!

Linden is now 7 months old.  She has grown up so much in just the past month.  She can now sit up by herself and play.  She also got her first 2 teeth when she turned 6 months old!  At her six month checkup she weighed in at 18 lbs 3 oz. and is 26 1/2 inches long.  She has definitely gotten bigger since then.

We have had a tough last month.  The day after Linden turned 6 months old, she came down with a cough and a fever that turned into H1N1 like symptoms.  I came down with it two days later and Xander got it a day after me.  This is what our house looked like for over a week.

After a few weeks we were all feeling better and then right before Halloween, Linden had some fussy nights and we found out that she had an ear infection.  Two days after she started antibiotics for her ear infection, she came down with croup.  She was really fussy for a few nights and had a raspy voice.  Her cough didn’t get too bad, but she did have one night where she sounded like a barking seal.  She caught it from another baby at daycare who’s parents brought him even though he was sick because they didn’t want to miss work.  We were not very happy about that.  Thankfully, everyone was feeling well enough on Halloween to go trick or treating and we had fun!  Here are some pictures of our little animals.

Xander didn’t know what to think at first but after the second house he was having a great time.  He wanted to ring the doorbell and would say trick or treat, then after he got his candy he would say “thank you, next house!”  He loved going through his candy when we got home and of course, is still enjoying eating it!

On the Monday following Halloween, I picked Xander up from daycare and he had cried most of the day.  When we got home he cried all evening and was up all night long crying.  I had to stay home with him the next day and took him to the clinic.  He caught the virus that caused Linden’s croup, which is Parainfluenzae.  He was crying because his throat and mouth hurt really bad.  He was sick for the next week with a sore throat, cough, slight fever, and chills.  Xander was absolutely miserable.  The only good thing that came out of his sickness was that his mouth hurt too bad to have a pacifier so we were finally able to get rid of his Nuk!

As of now, we are all healthy and very thankful for that!  Linden still refuses to roll over.  I think she’ll be crawling before she rolls.  Xander has been very busy building with his Legos.  He has quite the imagination.  Here’s a picture of him with one of his castles he built.

And here’s a recent picture of our little smiling girl now that she is feeling better!

Now that we are all healthy, I will try to be better about keeping up with this blog!

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