Christmas 2020

Christmas came and went without much hoopla this year, as we decided not to travel anywhere what with the new baby and the pandemic. Elsie had 2 weeks off school so it was nice having her around to play with and enjoy the holidays. My parents came up the weekend after Christmas, and Mary and Hayden head come the week before so that was awesome!

I mostly just wanted to upload some pics, here you go: 

Baby's first christmas outfit, gift from Jillayne Koss.

Dad and Elsie making Spencer's specialty cookies, looks like they have a strawberry batch on the way.

Leo loves looking over the shoulder and being carried around, pretty good neck control though sometimes he just leans over to one direction without a care, good thing we are there to catch him!

Chrismas PJs! Leo looking for boob, Elsie holding her new Elsa barbie doll, she was not into the PJs like I thought she'd be.

Elsie is great at rolling the cookie dough in powdered sugar.

Playing on the new carpt

THANKS SANTA! New Barbie house with over 20 barbies and box fullll of accesories, clothes, furniture, vehicles, you name it!

Elsie picks out her own outfits these days :) And she is in LOVE with the sparkly Elsa shoes Santa got her.

Learning how to play Crazy 8s.

Always need a playdoh session when grandpa comes :)

Cookie decorating was lots of fun too :)

Happy Holidays, here's hoping 2021 is a great one!

Leo is 2 months old!

We just had Leo's 2 month checkup with doctor trias, and he's really been growing!  He now clocks in at 13 lb 11 oz (78 percentile) and 24.2 inches (92 percentile). Doctor said he's looking really fantastic, holds his head up well, smiles and is eating well so keep up the good work 😀 

 At 6 weeks he was 11.5 lb, so he really has grown in only 2 weeks! Hes pretty good about sleeping in crib and putting back to sleep, can put himself back to sleep which is the opposite of Elsie!  He's not so loving the swaddle these days as he's getting baby pudge so harder to get his legs to stay up like he likes. Might have to drop it soon anyways since he only has one swaddling sleep sack left to fit his long legs. Generally 3 hours or so sleep at nights between meals. Screaming less at dad so starting to get to know him. So that's great and I get a break too!  Already in 6 month clothes, lots of kicking and arms and baby noises, lots of looking around, holds head up pretty great now, lots of smiles, Some laughs but usually when no ones around and he's looking at the wall.

He's been having some tummy issues and the stinkiest farts ever! Going 6ish days between poops but lots of pee diapers so prob just growing fast and poop has farther to travel to get out. Dad is great at getting him to feel better and we can get him to stretch out his legs by tickling his thighs which is pretty cute. 

Likes baths, falling asleep on our shoulder,  kicking legs and smiling, when Elsie plays rattle and sings to me

Hates gas snc tummy pain, swaddling he's love hate, doesn't get to play outside cuz too cold

Elsie has been on break for 2 weeks from school and the holidays were great but she is looking forward to seeing her friends again and we are excited for some time to do computer work. 

She is living the imaginative play, she comes up with things like ready set action obstacle course, but also constantly ropes is into playing family by telling us our roles like mom, your the kid and I'm the mom, and then we carry on with what we were doing with our new role. Not really into Xmas movie since most have a scarry part, except frozen of course. 

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Elsie singing and making up her own song,  singing at the top of her lungs...

"I love my familyyyyy, i love my familyyyyy, I love my familyyyyy, especially meeeee!"

Elsieism 11-19-20

She was scratching something like her butt that she should keep her hands off and Spencer told her like 3 different times to stop scratching it. She would stop and start again. Finally, she told him, "I'm not scratching it in feeling it with my nails".

Leo is 1 month old!

 And just like that Leo is 1 month old! Holy cow time doesn't get any slower, does it? That first month home with Elsie seemed so calm and chill comparatively, we just sat around with her, watched Netflix and ate sandwiches. I remember she never liked to be set down or sleep in her crib so Spencer and I would have to hold on to her allllll day and she would sleep on us or in the baby wrap. Night time she slept 2 hours and we barely got her to sleep so that we could attempt setting her in her crib before it was time to do it all over again, and she was formula-fed too!

Leo couldn't be more different, he loves to be swaddled, I can set him down in his crib awake for naps and he'll chill and put himself to sleep, but man does he get cranky when he's hungry! He's breastfed only (whole different story), and he likes to eat more often which lets me sit and take a quick break too, bonus! However, I get all the night shifts for the most part unless I pump and I hate pumping and feeling like a milk cow. But it's not nearly as stressful as with Elsie, I can only remember a couple of times that I felt stuck to the chair and couldn't get the baby to be willing to sleep in his crib. Much less stressful as I can feed him and get back into bed myself. So far the longest stretch he's gone is 4 hours, usually 2.5-3 hour stretches at night still. He also has a slight aversion to Spencer for now (not either of their faults, just a fact), but Spencer is really great and keeps trying and pushes through the crankiness. Elsie is a great big sister and she will do everything and more that we ask her (for the most part), she gets jealous sometimes but not nearly as much as I was dreading. When Elsie is at school and Leo napping, it has been pretty manageable to get some other things done around the house even!

Spencer is hell-bent on finishing this house before the cows come home, haha! He is doing an amazing job. The kitchen is done, hallway finished, stairs done, now just want to finish a built-in media center for the living room and then paint the downstairs before our new carpet gets installed. After that we are DONE until we can no longer stand our old-fashioned, out of date bathrooms with hobbit-sized toilets. I think I'll hold out longer than Spencer, but who's taking bets?

Back to Leo, man of the hour. He can already hold his head up pretty great, hates to be on our chest, doesn't hate tummy time too much, and loves to kick out and stretch his legs. He's getting more and more awake during the day, has his days and nights figured out, and loves to sleep on his back, usually swaddled with his legs really really tucked in helps. In fact, when I dress him I obviously put his legs in the pants legs of his PJs, and when I grab him a couple hours later he has put his legs up by his belly all tucked in like them must have been when I was pregnant. It's getting tougher for him to get his legs up there and get them tight like he likes it now that he's getting some baby pudge, so we will see how long that lasts :) <3

I don't remember Elsie pooping or farting this much, maybe its a breastfeeding thing? He has like 10 pee and 10 poop diapers a day (usually together thank the sun). And he really grunts and makes lots of noise to get the poops and farts out, which I find hilarious as it's usually not painful looking. And I think his hair is here to stay, it looks like it's thinning out and definitely getting longer, and no bald spots. I remember Elsie started with hair but as her head grew the hair either fell out or was pushed back. I think Leo will keep his luscious locks that are always everywhere <3

Leo loves:

• Arms and legs swaddled
• Eating
• sucking on things
• likes to grunt when pooping or getting comfy to fall asleep
• laying on his changing table to look around, and I think he likes to get diaper changed
• Bob Marley music

Leo hates:

• reflux and tummy issues, though I think it would be worse if he was on formula.
• Hates foot pokes to get blood drawn
• When mom is busy and can't feed him at the exact second he wants it

Leo's favorite spot (besides my boob).

Elsie made that art piece in school and hung it on his crib today

Spencer buys a giant 75 inch TV, looks pretty dinky on our old TV stand.

Let's wall mount it, yes Spencer you need to let go of the TV at some point.

Cheap bookcases from target, frame/trim it out:

Finish trimming, sand and paint, add molding = DONE with another project!

Welcome to the world, Leo!

 Nov 2, 2020 Leo Alexander Slinger decided to come into the world 2 weeks early, which was totally fine with Mom! All week I was feeling lots of pelvic pressure, and back pain, and just tired. We had a wonderful Halloween/Birthday weekend with Grandma and Grandpa, who were set to leave Monday morning. In the middle of Sunday night (Nov 1) I woke up for really no reason, I felt a little bit more pressure in my belly but I put them off as more Braxton-Hicks contractions. A couple minutes later when my water broke and a huge gush of liquid came out I knew we needed to head to hospital. We arrived at 11:35 pm, and I was 4 cm dilated. Nurses took me to a delivery room while Spencer moved the car. 20 minutes later I was 8 cm dilated and nurses said there was no time for an epidural :( :( :( The contractions themselves were bearable, definitely lots of pressure but it just made me want to push. The pain I couldn't handle was all the little dinky things they would poke into me or do to me: trying 3 different spots to put an IV into the back of my hand, a COVID test where they shoved it crazy deep up my nose (I was negative). I almost thought they were going to try to make me wear a mask the whole labor but I quickly threw the mask across the room, and I almost felt bad breaking the rules but then my COVID test was negative. 

I came into the hospital with a slight temperature for whatever reason (I didn't feel sick) but that gave the baby an elevated heart rate so they were worried it was an infection. About an hour in to pushing they realized I would need some help getting his giant head out, so they decided to vacuum assist. Spencer told me I definitely needed the help getting him out, but in retrospect this highly contributed to his jaundice :( 

At 2:25 am Leo was born after a crazy tiring, painful labor (they said it was a little difficult). 9 lb 1 oz, 22.5 inches. Big little dude, I'm happy he came early for that reason as well!

Our first picture together totally showcases what we both went through! His head was pretty misshaped, and I don't even want to know everything they had to put stiches in for me, I know I had an epistomy also, and sooo many more stiches, uh! 2 weeks later and I'm finally starting to feel ok sitting down. Leo had to go straight to the NICU because of his elevated heart rate, and I slept for an hour or so. 

We got to go see him at 7 am or so, and the nurses told me that during his 4 hour observation there was one time where the nurse had to help assist him breathing, scary! She said becuase it was a difficult labor this was not super concerning but that they wanted to keep him another 24 hours under observation in the NICU :( So we spent most of our time in the NICU with him, and I slept upstairs and came down to feed him. Long night! His head was still crazy misshaped, like almost flat on his left side and big cone head, poor little thing! But over the course of 48 hours it was CRAZY how it went to a nice round perfect little head! The nurses in the NICU were amazing! So loving, caring, and good at their job. They would prop him a bit on one side so his head could even out, they were so helpful to me, and it was a great experience even though we were in the NICU. After 24 hours of good news, and eating well (breastfeed) he was cleared to come up to my/Spencer room to be with us in the Family suites, YAY! 

I was really missing Elsie at this point, Grandma Elsie was so amazing and decided to stay at our house until we got out of hospital. Spencer would go home at night to give my mom a break and put her to bed. And because of coronavirus both Elsie's couldn't even come visit the hospital :( 

Our last night in the hospital was pretty chill, we just watched election coverage all day but there was no clear winner even by the time we left hospital, so it was more stressful than entertaining, as we were all hoping for a HUGE Joe Biden blowout, but the mail in ballot counting took the rest of the week to complete, so it was sadly almost looking like Trump was getting another 4 years. 

The nurses in the family suites were also sooo amazing, especially Nitasha who was kind of like a mom to me while I was there. Discharge took way longer than we all wanted as the doctor was called into an emergency c-section so couldn't sign the papers. But overall another great experience and we are so glad to have Leo with us at home now!

Right after delivery, I think both of our faces says how it was, we are both glad it's over!

Weighing and checking him over, all hands on deck there were probably 4 nurses and 2 doctors in the room from what I remember.

 

Little Leo my lion! The nurses are so good at swaddling. The purple thing is a little sugar syrup they would put on his pacifier when he got fussy. You can kind of see his cone head here, didn't get a good photo of it cuz we had a hat on most of the time.

Tried to get a picture of his head, it was super flat on this side. 

Visits in the NICU, have to wear a mask!

Brand new human!

IV for antibiotics, heart rate monitor, breathing monitor, lots of pokes into his feet to get blood, cords everywhere when I held him.

First diaper change for dad! I think the different plumbing threw him off for a little bit.

Tiny coming home with us. Let's just say this car ride home was not so tentative :) haha

Meeting grandma!

Love seeing our big sister, who is so loving and gentle with him.

My babies ;) <3

Happy Birthday Betty and Quarantine-o-ween!

 Trick or treating is not an option this year with coronavirus, so we decided to start some new traditions that I think might stick around for years to come!

Grandma Elsie and Grandpa Ron visited for the weekend, and they were amazing help in fixing up the house and I can't believe they fit all of those cardboard boxes in their van for a dump run, wish I had a picture of that. Elsie took care of dump while Ron helped Spencer frame out the new pantry and door. 

Halloween around 3 pm we got some costumes on (Ron/Elsie were cats, Betty a hula girl, Spencer a referee, and Elsie was ELSA!) We decided to drive around the neighborhood around 4 pm to look at lawn decorations and do a car scavenger hunt. Turned out to be really fun! Funniest part was little E falling asleep in the car halfway through the hunt, haha. 

When we got home it was time for the great pumpkin hunt, a scavenger hunt I set up around the house. Little E got really into it, and had everyone helping her look around the house for the next clue. I did 8 clues with little prizes and the final big prize was a barbie playground set. Little E didn't have any trouble with the clues, and she has become obsessed with playing Barbies so I think she liked her gift :) Def want to do again next year, even if we are able to do more fun things like actual trick or treating.

 

open and unusable to --> THIS! We added shelves and it was pretty instantly full of stuff!

Elsie loves this picture of Grandma on the countertop :)