Glutten for Punishment

What's wrong with us? Like it's not hard enough bringing home a new baby and trying to juggle him with our two-year-old toddler. NO! Ben decides on a whim to put up Wilson's new toddler bed and give it a test run. Well, that was like half an hour before Wilson's bed time. Yeah, you can't put together a bed in that amount of time. So we end up putting Wil to sleep like an hour and half late and he's pretty much wired. He's jumping up and down on his new big boy bed while we are trying to say prayers and sing songs. Can you say disaster? We could hear him kicking the walls for an hour after we put him down. I couldn't bring myself to go see what he was doing. Eventually the noise stopped and around 7:30 this morning I could hear him saying, "MOMMY!", but when I went in his room he was still laying in his bed. I must say I was surprised. I guess my only comfort is that he hasn't learned to open doors, so we have at least a little bit of containment.

On top of that we have good news in the mimi department. Thanks to Aunt Jennie and her binky boot camp, Wilson has been mimi free for a week now! He stayed with Jennie while we were in the hospital. She told me she wasn't going to give him his binky unless he was napping or going to bed. I just told her good luck with that. But, turns out Wilson listens to his aunt better than his parents (typical!) Will miracles never cease. So, the binky weaning and the toddler bed are here a lot sooner than I would have wanted, but hopefully it will work out okay in the end! Now all we need is Kay with her bag full of matchbox cars!

Bennett's First Tanning Bed

This is trip #1 of who knows how many to the lab at the hospital. Poor little Bennett's heels! I'm pretty sure he's thinking, "I didn't sign up for this!"

Well, Mr. Biliruben is plaguing our family once again. Ben and I were very excited to hear the nurses say how pink and healthy Bennett looked in the hospital. Then the next day we are told that he not only has jaundice, but his levels are so high our pediatrician has ordered a bili-blanket and an overhead light to be used until further notice. Yuck! There is no worse feeling in the world than knowing you are going to have to spend the night listening to your infant screaming inside this strange suitcase knowing there is nothing you can do to help him. It pretty much goes against everything natural. If a baby is crying, YOU PICK HIM UP! But, you can't. Needless to say, it was a very long night. On the upside, once we finally got Bennett to settle down in his new "bed" he slept from 2:00 am to 6:00 am. I think Heavenly Father was just giving us a little break. The next day his levels went down so we at least got to put away the light and just use the blanket. The dumb thing was that we were very diligent keeping the blanket on Bennett, probably about 18 out of 24 hours, and today his levels went up a little. Curse you Mr. Rubin! So, hopefully tonight will be the last night with the blanket. Bennett is being very patient with the whole situation and even gave us a few 2 1/2 hour stretches of sleep last night with hardly any screaming! He's such a good boy. Plus, if nothing else, we got some cute pictures of Bennett's first tanning bed.

He's Here!!!

Bet you didn't know the newer models came i pod ready, did you? My take home outfit

No, really, this is Bennett, not Wilson!

We pretty much figured this kid was never coming until we were finally heading to the hospital for my scheduled induction (which I highly recommend). I got my pitocin starting at 8:30 am and by 12:42 pm I was holding my baby! Introducing Bennett Ira Harding! He was 7 pounds 2 ounces and was a whopping 19 inches long. Even though Ben will tell you I'm crazy, he has dark hair around the sides of his head and has blonde peach fuzz on top. He is such a sweet baby and we already love him dearly. Of course we are making our way through the first crazy weeks of figuring out a newborn who thinks day is night and night is day and wants to constantly eat, but we wouldn't have it any other way! Ben and I are ecstatic about our little family and want to share some of our first memories with our new baby!
Wilson is coming along slowly but surely. He is no longer in denial about his baby brother because, well, he's here! It's cute whenever Bennett is crying Wilson will walk up to his bouncy chair and ask, "What's wrong?" If I tell him he's hungry, Wilson suggests that we give him chocolate milk. Hmm, what do you think Wilson's favorite drink is? We have yet to get him close enough to the baby long enough to get their picture together, so you'll have to keep watching for that!
I have been recovering remarkably well. I have been feeling really good despite having had about 2 hours sleep the last two nights. It is extremely hard to have a newborn again, but so worth it!

Sitting, waiting, wishing. . . .

Okay, so I thought I would be okay with going past my due date, but I just looked at our baby counter that says 40 weeks and 1 day and I got an e-mail update telling me what to expect in the first month of my baby's life. Talk about a one-two punch in my big fat prego belly! I guess I just feel like the longer I wait, the harder it is for me to imagine him actually being here. Just a little venting, sorry. But, I know when he gets here he will be perfect and all this waiting will be absolutely worth it. I have a doctor's appointment today and my next post better have some darn cute baby pictures on them!

What do you remember about me?

My sister's friend Kim did this on her blog and I am going to copy it and try it on my blog too. Here is how it works...You leave a comment on my blog of a memory that you and I shared. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember! Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments. EVERYBODY PLAY! I want to see what memories are out there!

The Big Mountain Rock

This is Wilson's first trip to the mountains. He is soooo tiny!

As you might already know, Wilson loves rocks. When we are driving down the freeway he will often point to the mountains and say, "Mommy, look, big mountain rock." Apparently, it's just one big rock. So, we decided to take a trip up the canyon to let Wil explore the big mountain rock. It was his second trip to the mountains, but his first was when he was like 5 weeks old when Mike and Kay were camping at Tanner's Flat. Unfortunately, we spent most of that time in the trailer!

We took Grandma and Grandpa Wilson with us. It took a long time to find a picnic spot. Wilson got really restless, but once he got out of the truck, he was in heaven. He was surrounded by trees and rocks and dirt! We went down to the stream to throw rocks in and he almost had a damn built with all the rocks he threw in. Of course he ended up sitting in the stream, but can you blame the kid? Dad took him to see the "waterfall" (a man made one) and then we cooked hot dogs and smores on the fire. I was glad to see that Wilson was very cautious around the fire and kept reminding us that it was, "Hot, hot, hot." He loved being able to wander around and play with no interuptions. He also had to check out the wildlife. There was a man in the next campground that had fallen asleep on a blanket. Wilson kept going over to check him out like he was a sleeping bear. It was pretty funny. We stayed until it was almost too dark to see the stream. We got to see some creepy bats flying over the water. One even buzzed Ben's tower! It was a great break, but it wasn't that much cooler up in the mountains than it was at home! It was a fun trip and we decided that we need to do it more often!