Two months old!

 Josiah is now two months old!  This is a picture I took of him in his church outfit.  I bought this outfit before he was born and intended that he'd wear it for baptism.  However, because we baptized him at 2 1/2 weeks old, it didn't fit yet.

Josiah (or baby Siah as the kids call him) is really starting to be fun.  He is starting to smile and react to people around him.  I must say that I enjoy holding him more now that he smiles and makes cute noises.

Here are his two-month stats and other miscellaneous information:

Weight: 11 lbs, 11 oz (my smallest kid so far) He's at the 50th percentile. So, he has gained four pounds since leaving the hospital.  (He was 7 lbs, 11 oz. the night before we left, and 7 lbs, 12 oz. at his one-week appointment.)

Height: 23 1/2 inches..70th percentile  I knew he was around this because his 3 month sleepers were getting hard to button.

Sleeping:  Josiah is my first baby that does the eat-play-sleep routine.  (My other two were eat-sleep-play).  He also needs to be swaddled in order to sleep in his crib.  He LOVES the swing and takes a long nap in it every morning.  I have to watch the clock because sometimes he'll sleep so long it will be more than four hours between feedings.  He also can take long naps in his car seat if he feel asleep in the car.  At night he does one stretch of five to six hours followed by a three-hour stretch.  Sometimes he won't go right back to sleep, but he'll just make noises for ten to fifteen minutes (It could be longer; I fall asleep).

This month:
-First overnight trip to Pake and Beppe's and then to Mike and Karena's in Sacramento.  He did very well! We weighed him at Mike and Karena's, and he was 10 lbs, 6 oz at a little over one month.  Here he is with his cousins Makayla and Madelyn (8 mos.).

 --First smile at six weeks and one day.  This is actually his second smile in the picture.

-He started getting a lot of baby acne, so we do a lot more baths than before.  He neither likes it nor dislikes it.  I'm pretty sure he finds it calming, though.  He also has a little bit of cradle cap, but it's not very noticeable.

-He's really starting to respond to his brothers.  Sometimes he'll just see Jacob and smile.  I'm also starting to trust the boys more although we have had a few close calls.  Yesterday I left the room for a minute during tummy time and came back to see John sitting on Josiah's back!  He's also been hit with a ball a time or two.

Joey's Baptism

On January 20 (when he was 17 days old), Josiah was baptized.  I never intended to baptize this early, but the week before it was announced in the bulletin that we were joining the church the next week, and Josiah would be baptized at the same time.  I was shocked for a few seconds until I realized it would mean my parents just had to stay an extra day.  I didn't expect anyone else to come except for Larry's parents.  When we heard it would work for them, we just went ahead with it.  I must say that it was the easiest baptism ever because he didn't even wake up or fuss at all!  The only issue was that I had to send John down halfway through because he wouldn't stand still, nor would he let me hold him.  This was probably because we stood up in front of church for our membership questions and then through a brief teaching on baptism (I think, I wasn't listening because I was struggling with John the whole time) before doing the actual baptism part.  Oh, well!  Luckily, John went straight to my dad.

Here are some pictures of the day:

First bath--his umbilical cord stump fell off the night before! 

My "helpers"

Baptism outfit I bought two days before 

(the one I intended him to wear was too big due to baptizing so early) 

Answering membership questions--notice John getting unruly.

The actual baptism

Baptism cake

Mrs. Kitts made the cake--it was beautiful...and delicious!

an attempt at a family picture--Larry had already changed, so I made him put on the top part.  Unfortunately it got in the picture...Oh, well! 

How I came to be outnumbered four to one...

And now the title of my blog is true...I am surrounded by boys!  I guess I am destined to play trucks, trains, and wrestling for the next several years.  That's fine with me...I love each of my boys.  However, I may have to borrow my nieces every now and then for some girly time to do shopping, manicures, etc.

So, my third son, Josiah Lawrence, was born on January 3, 2013 via C-section.  The day was also my parents' 44th wedding anniversary!  We arrived at the hospital at 5:25 in the morning for a scheduled 7:30 C-section (I found out when we got there that we were supposed to be there at 5:00).  They started prepping me until they realized that the OR was TRIPLE-booked!  Well, actually, my surgery wasn't even on the OR schedule, but we were all in the books for the Labor & Delivery floor.  So, they did three C-sections in a row and mine was the third.  At first they told me it wouldn't be until 12:00.  I started crying.  No one likes last minute changes, especially pregnant mothers.  I was worried my kids wouldn't be able to see the baby anymore before my mother-in-law took them back to her house.  However, I was taken to the OR a little bit before 11:00.

The C-section went SO well.  My anesthesiologist was FANTASTIC!  And, this being my third one, I felt pretty calm and felt like I knew what to expect.  Once I was all fixed up, they wheeled me into the adjoining room (recovery room) where they brought Josiah to me.  This hospital has a policy where they require at least one hour of skin-to-skin between the mom and the new baby.  That was fine with me, especially since I had to wait in the recovery room for one hour anyway.  It was really precious.  He did have low blood sugar, though, so we had to give him some formula (which he spit up!).  He weighed 8 lbs, 4 oz and was 20 inches long!

Once the hour was done, they wheeled me into my room where my parents where waiting.  They were pretty excited to meet their anniversary present.  They each got to hold him for a while before my mother-in-law brought the kids to meet their little brother.  Jacob was pretty excited to meet his brother "Basiah," and John just kept saying "baby" and waving "Hi." It was pretty cute.  Then we said good-bye to our big boys and were able to focus on and get to know our new little boy.

Larry ready to go into the OR

39 weeks, 3 days pregnant! 

My first look at my third son!

8 lbs, 4 oz. 

Grandma Van Duyn

My four boys! 

Beppe with John, Jacob, and Josiah

Ready to go home! (bad picture, I know!)  

All three boys wore this outfit home from the hospital.

Christmas

I didn't take any pictures this Christmas...but my brother-in-law Philip did.  Here are some of his shots.  Most of them included unflattering pictures of me in a red tunic that makes me look like I am 300 pounds. I am getting VERY big, but not that big!  These were acceptable...

This picture is actually from Thanksgiving day...My mother-in-law bought the shirts and wanted a picture for her Christmas card. However, all the boys wore the shirts on Christmas day, too!

Beppe gave the boys stools--Uncle Mike found a different use for them...an instrument in tickle torture!

John sitting on Beppe's lap.  

John on his light up turtle from Uncle Phil and Auntie Rosaline

(Jacob has taken this over for now...)

Also a picture of my big red bowl full of jelly belly!

"All I want for Christmas"

Being the mother of only boys, I often wonder how much longer they'll want to  hug and kiss me, snuggle on the couch, or hold my hand.  I also know that someday soon I will start to embarrass them in some way or another...it's inevitable.  For example, at Christmastime, I love to put on Christmas music and dance around the house, singing at the top of my lungs.   However, this year the boys decided to embrace my craziness and dance along.  Here's proof that little boys don't mind being as crazy as their mom:

My little pumpkins...Comparison

When I dressed John today, I realized that two years and one day ago, I put Jacob in the same outfit.  So, I decided to take a picture of John with a pumpkin in honor of Halloween.  John is technically six weeks older than Jacob in terms of age, so that's why he looks older!  They probably weigh the same, though. 

Random Vidoes (to help me remember this time in my life)

This happened a couple of days ago. I told Jacob his feet were dirty, and then I caught him doing this about two minutes later! I wouldn't normally encourage this, but it was just so cute, and he was so

proud of himself! 

 

 

 

 

 

Not very exciting, I know...But I posted it so I could have proof that I've taught John how old his is. This movie was probably recorded over a month ago.