Baby Faces

Spending all day with Keric the last 6 weeks has taught me a lot about what he is trying to tell me. I always wondered what those baby books meant by "you will know what your baby is trying to tell you." I thought crying was just crying, and you had to just kind of figure out what exactly they were crying about. I didn't think there were honestly different little cues each baby gave their mom's, but I'm figuring out there are certain little things he does that mean different things.

I'm still not perfect yet, but there are a few I have figured out. I do know what his hungry cry sounds like, I know when he arches his back and pushes his legs against me that he is so tired he's frustrated, I know the cry that tells me he has spit up on his little face and he wants it wiped up immediately, and my all time favorite is the face he makes when he's leaving me a nice present in his diaper!

Most babies wrinkle their forehead and or their nose, turn bright red and grunt, but not my baby. His eyes get really wide, he raises his eyebrows and then makes a funny little "o" mouth and looks around the room innocently. It makes me laugh so hard every time he does it. It almost makes changing the diaper "enjoyable".

Anyway, I thought I would post some pictures of his little diaper face. Poor boy will never forgive me when he grows up and reads this! Oh well....I'm claiming that it's my right as his mother to write down memories I have of him as a baby, even if they may be a little embarrassing!

Packin on the Pounds!

I usually am not at all thrilled about stepping on a scale and even less thrilled when the scale shows even an ounce higher then the last time, but in this case, I was ECSTATIC!

Keric has been going into the Dr.'s office once a week pretty much since he was born, to get weighed. He has been the exact same weight down to the tenth of a pound since May 31st, 5lbs 8.2 oz. Not even his birth weight. This has been more then a little upsetting and stressful to me and everyone else who has been worried about him.

I had been trying everything I knew how to do, and was even trying whatever people suggested to me, which was a lot! I went to a lactation specialist hoping she would have a magic cure to help the poor little guy put on some weight! He just looked like such a little old man with loose skin everywhere! She gave me some good suggestions, one of which I would have never thought of on my own....Get rid of the binky! Babies burn a lot of calories sucking on binkies and they get nothing out of it. (Maybe I need to get a binky for myself! ha ha) So last week I went home, got rid of my binkies, and started trying some new things she suggested to me.

Today we went in for yet another weekly weigh in. I was a little more hopeful this time because I kept thinking his face had gotten a little bit chubby, and the loose skin didn't seem so prevalent. So I crossed my fingers, held my breath and laid him down on the scale. The scale beeped and the numbers that flashed up made my heart jump! He had put on 14 oz in 10 days!!! I was so excited, I even did a little jump in the Dr.'s office! The scale now read 6 lbs 6.5 oz! So maybe by the time any of you see him, he will be a chunky monkey and the presence of a too tiny man will be long gone!

Don't you think he looks a little more chubby???

Just for Cameron

It seems that I have unintentionally neglected Cameron on our blog. Reagie and Keric both got posts on their birthday's, and here his birthday has come and gone along with his first Cub Scout meeting and I have yet to write anything about either one! ( I may have been somewhat distracted over the last several weeks.....) So this post is just for him, and also to get you all caught up a little on what "Wham" has been up to lately.

Cameron turned the ripe old age of 8 on June 3. That's a pretty big age! He has "graduated" from the K-2 School building and gets to go to a new school just for 3-6 this next school year. He is going to be baptized on July 12 and he started Cub Scouts this month as a Bear.

For his birthday he told his Dad and I that he just wanted to be "surprised", he didn't give us any ideas as to what he wanted. (Is that kid talk for I have everything I could possibly want and can't think of anything else to ask for? ha ha) So we went shopping trying to find something that we could "surprise" him with. Chris had a brilliant idea of getting him a new bike. The bike he has here still works, but he is getting pretty tall, and is looking pretty small on his bike,so we looked at bikes and picked out a pretty cool red one that we thought he might like. We also got him a few little things to open as well. He started taking tennis lessons this summer, so we bought him some Sponge Bob tennis balls, and a new CD.

We invited everyone over for cake and ice cream the night of his birthday. He wanted a Ben 10 cake. Ben 10 is a cartoon that he seems to love these days. It is one of those Japanese cartoons I think, and has some fairly odd looking characters. I was a little worried as to how in the world Chris was going to come up with a cake, but luckily, he found the Ben 10 logo on line which ended up not being too complicated. Chris got off easy on the cake finally for one birthday! ha ha

Cameron loves anything sour, and especially loves lemons, so his cake was a lemon cake with lemon frosting. We had his party and he opened his presents from us and then he got a cool Batman Lego set and beautiful handmade quilt from "Mama Anne and Pampa Fraig", a new Transformer from his cousins Jack and Anna, and a much needed new summer outfit and a very nice savings bond from Mama Lynn and Grandpa Dan. After he opened all the presents Chris asked him if he was missing anything. He kind of looked around and said he wasn't sure. He asked him if he thought he maybe needed one more present, and he admitted he thought we had jipped him with some tennis balls and a CD. So Chris told him he would go down to the basement to see if he could maybe find something else for him, that might be a surprise. Then he came up the stairs and rode the bike into the Family room. He seemed genuinely surprised and happy with his new bike. He took it out for a test run that night, and has even since ridden it with Reagie and Chris down to Maverick to get a treat.

The following Tuesday he started Cub Scouts. It works out nice because his Den meetings are on Tuesday night at 7 which is the same time Chris has Young Men's, so he just rides over with him and comes home with him. He seems to have a good time. The first meeting he went to they made bottle rockets out of 2 liter bottles and set them off. He and Chris of course had to try it out when they got home later. He took his bottle rocket that he made at home to his next meeting to try out and Chris said his leader said "Now that's a bottle rocket." Tomorrow and Tuesday he has Day Camp that starts at 7 a.m. and goes until 4 p.m. It sounds like it will be really fun. It's up at a nearby campsite so they will probably get to do all sorts of fun "camping" things. He looks so cute and grown up in his Scout uniform.

Cameron is a good boy, and is growing up very fast. He did such a great job this year in soccer, did some rather heavy duty running with his dad, learned to play basketball and is learning a little tennis this summer too. He is much more adventurous and athletic then his poor step mom could ever hope to be with sports! He LOVES his cartoons, and his little sister and brothers. He is a very protective big brother, and I know his younger siblings love him too! Some days I wonder what in the WORLD Reagan would do without him! They are great little friends, and they don't even hardly fight that much!

Happy "late" Birthday Cameron! We love you and are very proud of you!





Cameron's Ben 10 cake




Present time! Stupid me, I didn't take an actual picture of the bike! Just video. :(



Told ya he was cute!

Happy Anniversary!

It has officially been two years since Chris and I got married. In so many ways (GOOD ways) it seems like we've been married for much longer then two years, and yet somedays the day we got married seems like a few weeks ago.

I'm sure like everyone, I will always remember that day and look back on it with such fond and wonderful memories. It was such a FUN day, and it seemed like it just didn't quite last long enough.

Now here I sit as the other half of an "old" married couple who has added another dog, another room to our house, and another sweet baby to our lives, and I wouldn't trade any of it for the world.

I am so happy I married my best friend, and I'm excited for the many many MORE anniversary's I get to spend with him!

Thank you for putting up with me for two years! I love you Chris!

Snickers makes ya happy.....!

I'm sure one day this picture will be one of many that Keric will resent me for taking, but I just HAD to do it, and when it turned out so cute, I had to show it off. I don't know what made me think to put that huge candy bar next to him, but as you can see, it's as big as he is and so of course we had to take pictures! He was even a little hesitant to let it go. A tiny man after my own heart!

"Bubby" - My too tiny man!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Seems like all I have done is go to Dr.'s appointments, and on the days I don't do that, I'm too exhausted to do much more than the "have to's". That all being said, it truly has been one of the most rewarding two and a half weeks of my life! I can't believe how much this little man has changed my life, and my outlook on it! I know it's cliche to say and every new mom says it, but I truly can not imagine my life without him!

I thought I would at least post some more recent pictures of him. He is still very tiny. He has yet to gain his birth weight back. We are hoping tomorrow's weigh in will be higher. He is such a mellow and good baby! He sleeps through anything! Dogs barking, doorbells ringing, kids playing, and even the radio and vacuum going. He has had a little bit of a hard time at night recently. I've had a few nights where I was literally up from 1 a.m. until 8 a.m., but I think we are getting on top of that now. I hope anyway. Last night was much better! He has somehow picked up the nickname "Bubby". Chris called him that one day out of the blue, and it has stuck ever since. So it is with great pride, that I introduce you to my little "Bubby". He's a little heart breaker...at least in his mommy's eyes.


One of Keric's first days home.


Bubby on his "Billi Bed." Keric had some Jaundice when he left the hospital. He had to sleep on this bed for a week. We fondly called it his space ship bed.


He ACTUALLY sleeps like this on his own. I lay him on his back, and he rolls to his side and puts his little hands like that. It's the sweetest thing I've ever seen. I love to just watch him sleep.





Doesn't he look so small snuggling with his Daddy?



Cameron's 8th birthday party. (I'll blog about that next! I'm so behind!)



He's way to little for it, but he loves to sit in his swing and look around.

Welcome Baby Keric!!!!!

Well, he is finally here! It was a long and hard 24 hours for all of us, but Keric finally decided to join our little family!

We checked into the hospital at 8:00 p.m. on Friday night. I got started on some medicine and IV's to get me started contracting and dilating. The contracting was going just fine, but the dilating was another story. When I came in the nurse checked me. I knew it wouldn't be good, since I wasn't really coming in on my own, but after she checked me, I figured it was going to be a long night! She said I was dialated a "finger tip". How sad!! I continued pretty much like that the rest of the night, just not doing much, and even continued that way into the next morning. I was definatly having contractions, and they were coming awfully fast, but I stayed at a 4.5 for 12 hours. I was a little more then frustrated. I got an epidural later that morning, but I was exhausted, and upset that I had been there for almost 24 hours. I mean I come from the Mom who goes to the hospital, pushes twice and has a baby in 10 mins at the MOST! What was wrong with me!?!?! Another Dr. came in and broke my water hoping that would help, but still nothing seemed to be happening!

My nurse came in around 7:15 p.m. and told me that my Dr. said if I hadn't progressed any by 7:30 p.m. I was going to have to have a C-section. I was really upset when she told us that. It was like my worst nightmare come true! She said even if I had only progressed to a 5 they would hold off, but I needed to be showing SOME progress. Here I had been here for so long, and was trying so hard, and I was looking at a C-section! I knew all too well what that entailed because of my tumor removal a few years ago, and a C-section really was the last thing I wanted to have!!

So after some crying and lots of prayers on both our parts, the nurse came back in to check me. Much to BOTH our shock and amazement, I had gone from 4.5 to 10 and a +2 station! I was FINALLY ready to start pushing!

I pushed for 45 minutes, not the two pushes and ten minutes later I was hoping for, and finally Keric entered the world at 8:15 p.m.! Just over 24 hours from the time we checked into the hospital. His poor little head was pretty much cone shaped from all the pushing, and his little foot and hand were bruised because he came out with his hand on his face, and his leg in sort of an "Indian style" pose. They look much better now, but it was sad to see him sort of so beaten up. We were both quite the site!

They had to take him to the NICU for some oxygen and a few other things. He was down there for about 3 hours before I got to have him back. He weighed in at a whopping 5.9 oz and was 19 1/4 inches long. He started breathing on his own after a couple hours and his chest x-rays showed his lungs were clear, so he got to leave the NICU and come back to the room.

He got to spend the night in my room with us, and he was such a GOOD baby. Pretty much slept the entire night! In fact that's what he has done for most of the time he has been in this world!

He is having a hard time eating. My milk has still not come in yet, and the formula isn't agreeing with his little digestive system. He keeps a little bit down, but spits most of it up with in 20 mins or so after feeding. He is so mild mannered, and hardly ever crys. He only crys when he is cold, usually from getting his diaper changed, and when he is hungry. He didn't even cry during his first bath, or when they gave him two shots in the leg right after he was born. My Dr. discharged me to go home today, but the pediatrician would like to see Keric stay for another night, so I guess we are going to stay put for right now. His blood sugars have been good so far and he just went in for another round of "vitals testing."

My mom is flying in this afternoon to spend the week with us, and my Dad and Cicily will be joining her this weekend, so that will be fun. We are excited to get to bring him home, but of course want to bring him home when he is ready.

We think he is pretty darn cute, and I can see lots of Bennion and Wexels in him. I think he is a good mixture of both of us. His full name is Keric Daniel Wexels, and the funny thing is, I think he sort of even LOOKS like my dad in a way. :)

We'll let you know how he's doing! I wont post TOO many pictures, but I'll give you a little taste of what my little man looks like!