Date day with Garrett

Tuesday I was given the gift of having a day with Garrett.  My mom kept Carter and Garrett and I had a "date day".   Oh my goodness we had such a special day!  It was just what I needed.  Garrett and I started the morning off by taking Sandy for a walk.  It was such a BEAUTIFUL day and we had to be outside.  I let him pick out his own clothing and he picked out his favorite, a muscle shirt (tacky of course) and athletic shorts!  He was happy to say the least.  Along our walk Garrett picked me all sorts of weeds flowers!!  It was BEYOND sweet and melted my heart!

The "flowers" from our walk.  He picked out the vases!

After the walk we went to paint pottery.  Garrett LOVES to do this and I had to check my anxiety at the door.  There is no painting in the lines with kids, they express their creativity.  I like order and  plans, with children there is no such thing.  He said going in he wanted to have five different colors.  That alone stresses me out...ha!  He picked out a dog for Sandy to paint.   I just let him pick out whatever he wanted.  Well this dog is some sort of special looking.  Ha!

Garrett with his dog.  We pick it up Sunday!

We went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch and OMG it was sooo good.  I don't eat out much now that I'm on maternity leave. Before maternity leave I ate out all the time, so I actually enjoy eating at home :-)

Garrett started baseball and needs cleats.  So while I had Garrett just to myself I decided to go and let him get a pair.  To say he was excited was an understatement!  He was so stinking excited.  He wants to wear them all the time. 

 

 After that we headed to the park and played. Then we headed to Baskin Robins where they were having a great deal on scoops.  1 scoop for a dollar, 2 scoops for 2 dollars and 3 scoops for 3 dollars.  I mean you cant pass that up!  While we were eating the ice cream I looked at Garrett and asked what his favorite part of the day was.  Painting?  Lunch?  Park?  New shoes?  Ice Cream?  He shook his head no every time I asked.  So I was confused and asked what his favorite part was and he said "spending time with you".  Holy tears!  That was just the sweetest thing he has ever said.  It was from the heart.  I looked a hot mess in Baskin Robins with tears streaming down my face. 

We had a good time and then came home and rested for about 45 minutes.  I was exhausted.  So we had about 45 minutes before we had to go and pick up Carter so I asked him if he wanted to play baseball.  So he put his cleats on and we went outside to play.  He asked me to pitch to him.  Oh he had no idea what he was asking me to do.  I am a horrible thrower (well and catcher).  I made him wear his helmet.  Good thing because I hit him in the head twice!  Don't worry he had his helmet on and I was tossing underhand so there was no damage.

 

 

 

Mom look at my muscles!  HAHAHAHA

 

Getting ready for mommy to throw the ball

It honestly was the perfect day with him!  I look forward to days like this with Carter and Garrett.  So much fun!!  God gave me such a huge hug that day!  These boys are such a blessing to me (including my husband!)

Carter Hayden Dail

Well Carter Hayden Dail has arrived!  I went to work on Monday March 31st just like any normal day.  I had my 40 week appointment that afternoon to schedule his induction.  Well we never made it to the appointment because around 9:30am my water broke at my office!  Ha!  I called the doctor's office and they said to go on to the hospital.  I was very calm and about this.  I wasn't having any contractions still and got my boss to drive me to the hospital.
Josh met me there and we went on into triage.  They had to determine if my water in fact had broken.  By the time we got there and checked in it was around 11am.  The first test they did came back inconclusive.  To say I was ticked was an understatement.  I knew my water had broken.  No question!  They had to do a second test and it took about an hour and a half for them to get the test in.  That test determined that my water had broken.  Yay!  Once that was confirmed I was able to go to Labor and Delivery.
I got to a room a little after 12:00 in the afternoon.  I found out that I wasn't allowed real food at this point and had to be on a clear food (jello, popsicles etc)...not fun.  When they asked what I wanted I told them a gin and tonic!  ha~  They didn't bring one.  Oh well.
The nurse I had was BEYOND wonderful and I wish I could have brought her home with me.  They monitored me for a bit and checked for dilation.  I was 5cm dilated (half way there) but my contractions were non existent.  He was also too high up so they had to do Pitocin to get my contractions going.  My main concern was if I could have my epidural.  I definitely wanted one.  They promised I could have it! 
Well after about an hour on Pitocin it was time for the epidural.  My nurse warned me that the doctor that did the epidural did not have great bedside manor, but was the best in the business.  He came in and he was just as she had described, but he ended up opening up to me and we laughed and had a good time.  He did an excellent job!  When I had an epidural with Garrett I couldn't feel when it was time to push.  It also took FOREVER to wear off.  I had no feeling whatsoever from the waist down.  With Carter's I could feel and it made it so much easier and it lasted an appropriate amount of time.
The nurse went to put my catheter in and couldn't get it in because Carter's head was so far down and it was GO TIME!  She called the doctor in and we got started.  With Garrett I pushed for 15 minutes.  With Carter I only had to push for 6 minutes and he was here!  He weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces and was 20 inches long.  It was such an incredible delivery.
He was a really good baby in the hospital and would just go to sleep when we put him down.  Things were going great.  We got home and the first two days were magical.  I thought we had won the lotto.  Then things started to get a bit complicated.
He had bad reflux/gas/something going on.  We changed formulas, didn't work.  He was not sleeping, especially at night.  He would fall asleep, but then would be up every hour and a half.  Night time was just HORRIBLE.  I cried and cried.  I'm just going to be honest.  I had forgotten this stage.  I know newborns don't sleep at night...I get it.  Something additional was going on with him.  Something internal.  We went to the doctor twice, called almost daily.  Changed formulas again.  That didn't work.  They changed us again to a soy formula (this one is supposed to be the BEST for digestive issues) and paired it with Zantac.  It seemed to be working until the spit up got worse and then he got diarrhea.  Apparently this is a side effect of the formula.  So we made the decision to change his formula back to Gentle Ease and pray.  We changed it this morning and hope that his stomach feels better.
We are very blessed to have this beautiful, healthy boy in our family, but look forward to him feeling better.   I think he will do better once he isn't hurting all the time.
Garrett LOVES his brother.  It is a bit overwhelming for us at times because all he wants to do is talk to him, touch him and be in his face!  Shew.  We just take a deep breath and try to tell him to be gentle, etc.  It has been a journey.
Josh and I are alternating nights currently taking care of Carter.  Luckily our new house has an upstairs bedroom and playroom and we can close it off so that the other person can get sleep.  It is amazing what we took for granted before an infant!  Ha!  Shew. 
Carter is a sweet boy that we look forward to watching him grow.  He is starting to smile for me on times first thing in the morning and it is the sweetest thing that melts my heart.  He also has strawberry blond hair and BIG blue eyes.  Looks like he may be hanging with his dad at the beach if he is as fair skinned as his dad is :-)
We would appreciate any prayers for Carter that whatever is going on internally will be healed and that he will feel much better. We truly believe if we can get that figured out he will be so much happier and things will go smoother for him.