Snow, Smiles and Sleep

Winter pulled into town this week, about a month ahead of schedule. It began on Sunday with a pretty but light snowfall that didn't accumulate to much. The kids enjoyed watching the snow fall, and Allie even seemed enchanted by it. When we got home from church, she stayed outside and wandered around the yard in her dress clothes with a big smile, gazing at the falling snowflakes.

It was all harmless until the phone rang at 5:09am on Monday morning. The school district wanted to alert us of a two-hour delay. So Silas had a few extra hours here in the morning before he headed off to school. Not a big deal...

When the phone rang at 5:09am on Tuesday morning, waking us up with yet another alert, it was quite a surprise––school closed! It hadn't even snowed yet; a storm was expected. At least it did end up accumulating about 4-5 inches, so it was worth closing school. But it caught me off guard. I admit, since Rowan came, I have not been keeping up with the news, and am only vaguely aware of the weather forecast. But I've learned my lesson...I will be checking the weather report faithfully for the rest of the winter!

The snow storm was particularly exciting for the kids, and they were anxious to get outside and play. It took approximately 45 minutes to get all their snow gear on, with lots of tugging and pulling and impatient children and a frustrated mommy...perhaps other parents can relate?

So out they went mid-morning, while it was still snowing, unable to contain their excitement. Allie came back about 10 minutes later, very cold, her excitement extinguished by the chilly temperature. She told me she didn't like the noise the snow made when she stepped on it.

Silas managed to find a mud puddle in the back field, and decided to stand it in for 5 minutes. I convinced him to come back to the yard, and he played a little longer, but also came in far too soon considering all the work it took to get him ready for snow play.

Anyway, besides dealing with snow, we've been busy getting ready for Christmas. Last weekend we decorated the tree, Nate made pizzelles with Rowan in the front carrier (quite a humorous sight), and he and I have been trying finish our online shopping (we get very excited when the UPS truck pulls up). Rowan has started smiling in the last two weeks, and this week it's been a little more predictable. Now we are preoccupied with getting him to smile...once you know it's possible, it's hard not to keep trying every time he looks our way. We're cooing and smiling and giggling and making silly faces and funny noises...and every once in a while he smiles. But it's good. More of a return than we got in the first 6 weeks.

We also had a breakthrough with Rowan's sleep, thanks to a program developed by "Moms on Call". I made a few seemingly minor changes to our routine, as the MOC suggest, and the very first night he slept from 9:15pm-2:30am, when I fed him, and then slept until 6:30am! A huge improvement! And all that changed was that I gave him a bath at 8:30, fed him at 9pm, and swaddled him. I never would have imagined it would work so well. Honestly, I think that it was a gift from God. He intervened, and Rowan slept. Yea!

A sleeping baby is a wonderful baby.

Rowan is eight weeks old now!

The kids "helped" with assembling the tree. 

Jen held Rowan and watched while the tree came together.

Decorations are fascinating to Silas and Allie,
who can't seem to keep from taking them off the tree
 despite our efforts to teach them otherwise.

The sibs hanging out.

Nate gamely trying to get a smile. 

Allie got her fill of snow in about 10 minutes.

Silas and Nate drove the snow blower together and cleared the driveways.

The Sick Hut Comes to Life

The Paines were hit hard by a virus that swept through the household over the last two weeks and took out every member of the family. This is very unusual in that Nate rarely gets sick. But we all had it––fever, congestion and cough. Allie and Jen are still dealing with a lingering cough, and poor Rowan, the last to get it, still has some stuffiness. Thankfully he did not get the other symptoms. Breastfeeding ought to be good for something.

You know it's bad when Allie starts calling music "mucus." Last night she repeatedly talked about the "mucus" she wanted to listen to as she put her CD into the player. Sheesh.

Silas was home from school last week for four days with the virus, and unfortunately this past week he already had off for Thanksgiving. He had a long, unexpected break that was made even more challenging because the rest of us were also sick.

Nate and Silas passed the time by baking several batches of cookies, making chicken and lentil soups, and baking our traditional Thanksgiving apple pie. Silas loves to help with cooking and baking, mostly doing the "dumping" and mixing work. Every day he'll haul out a bag of chocolate chips and ask to make cookies. Although it's fun to mix up a batch with him, it's not so great for our waste lines!

The good news is that God brought us through the sickness, and protected Rowan from the worst of it. We still had a good Thanksgiving, despite being sick. And Rowan is now six weeks old––hooray!

An invention that came out of our long sickness was the
"sick hut". Here is Allie resting in the the first of the sick huts.

Silas' sick hut was more like a secret hideaway.

An early morning game of hide-in-the-cube.

Nate and Silas made a batch of chicken soup, which was a very nice treat
for mommy. Silas has become quite the sous chef lately.

Despite being stuffy these past few days, Rowan
continues to do well and is growing fast!

Sleepless in Salford

Rowan hit the four-week mark today! For me, it feels like a lot longer than four weeks. Not in a bad way...it just feels like so much has happened in that short time. Our lives have changed quite a bit.

We are learning more about Rowan's personality. For one thing, it turns out that he is not such a great sleeper. In fact, he's rather grumpy about his sleep. If he doesn't get to sleep when he wants to, he quickly gets overtired and miserable. So we have to be hyper vigilant to catch that 5-10 minute window of tiredness before he goes into meltdown mode and it becomes very difficult to calm him down.

Even worse, if he gets woken up from a nap too soon––perhaps say if a sibling's shriek rises up through the floor boards and rattles him from his slumber––then we're really in trouble. It's almost impossible to get him back to sleep and the next nap is also in jeopardy. 

When he does fall into a deep sleep, though, it's wonderful. He'll sleep for two hours straight. He loves his naps! And he's the first newborn we've had that actually sleeps in his bed!

Nights could be better. Rowan still wakes up every two hours. It has not been easy to get up that much and then function well during the day. Thankfully, our family and friends have been so generous with bringing us meals these last four weeks. That has saved me quite a bit of work!

Silas and Allie are doing well. You can see some of their adventures below.

Allie playing outside on a beautiful fall day.

Example of Rowan taking a great nap.
Although this one was not in his bed...
an exception to the norm.

Watching a video together...
something they do way too often these days.

Allie was enjoying playing in a leaf pile in the backyard.

Ta da!

The first time Rowan tried out the sling.

Silas contemplating a cat food mess that he had made.

The boys hanging out.

Daddy entertaining the kids.

Time to feed the baby! Like mother, like daughter.  

Rowan: Two Weeks Old

Yesterday marked two weeks since Rowan was born, and we celebrated with a weigh-in...The little man gained almost a pound over his birth weight! That was great news for us. No surprise really, because he eats like a champ.

Nate took Rowan out for his first outing this morning, unbeknownst to me who was asleep upstairs, trying to catch up on lost overnight sleep. Silas, Allie and Rowan all accompanied Nate to our local Landis supermarket for some grocery shopping. Of course, when I woke up I was at first upset, and then jealous, because I wanted to go out too! Rowan had never been in the car before today, and I hadn't been out of the house since Oct. 16th. Not that I'm counting.

So we went out as a family around mid-day to visit Nana and Nick. It was the perfect family outing, and we all relaxed and enjoyed a nice visit there. Nana and Nick served barbeque, and we marveled at the gorgeous November weather––sunny and in the 60s.

So what's been going on for two weeks? Rowan is not sleeping as well as the first golden week, and waking up more frequently at night to eat. Otherwise, he's doing great, and getting more alert as time goes on. His cloudy, dark eyes have cleared and can now focus on the world around him. He gets fussy around 6:00 in the evening, probably because of the noise and commotion in the house since everyone is home at that time. I can't blame him; most days I feel pretty cranky at that time of day, too.

Allie is a nice, calm companion for Rowan during the day. Although, she does get upset when it's time for him to eat. She tells me she's sad because Rowan is "eating that yucky stuff." Of course, I'm nursing him, so he's getting breastmilk. But to Allie, it's the worst thing ever. (Mind you, she nursed for 19 months.) Silas, on the other hand, takes a different approach. He keeps asking if Rowan would like some peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I have to remind him that Rowan doesn't have any teeth, and therefore can't have food yet.

On Halloween Allie and Silas went out trick or treating with Nate, who pushed them in the wagon on our hilly street. He had a helper––our neighbors went with us. But that meant that there were 5 kids in the wagon, not just two. They all had a great time though, and meet some people that they didn't know before. It rained a little, but no one seemed to mind.

Last weekend, Nate's sister Kate visited with Rod and Mikaela. There's a picture of the four kids together, and one of the five of us that Kate took. Tomorrow Jen's brother Matt is going to visit. We love this excuse to see family who don't live nearby! In fact, Jon and Geri are allegedly making their way up the East Coast from Florida in their VW Westy. We can't wait to see them!

Lot's of pictures below...enjoy!

Allie is loving being a big sister!

Silas is an old hat at being a big brother.

"Do you want some peanut butter and jelly?"

The five Paines

Allie, Rowan and Silas with cousin Mikaela

Halloween: Allie was a cupcake and Silas was a dinosaur.

Silas' teacher sent me this photo from his day at school on Halloween.
The kids dressed up in their costumes for a parade and a social.
He's the green one on the right. They were playing bingo,
although Si's pile of candy corns is suspiciously missing...

Someone New is At Our House...

Allie's favorite book for the past couple months is called "The Sister Book", and the first lines of the book are, "Someone new is at our house. Do you know who it is? It's our baby!" So I thought that was a fitting title.

Rowan is doing great! He has been taking in all the noise and stimulation of a house that already has two kids. Silas and Allie have been about as hyper as I've ever seen them over these last couple days! Lots of excitement with a new baby brother + many visitors + plus a lack of a routine = wild kids!

Rowan has been eating like a champ and is generally very pleasant so far. We had a bit of a rough night last night because he wasn't too interested in sleeping, but hopefully that phase won't last too long! Our families have been helping out, and we are very grateful for that.

One thing I'd like to clarify––my labor was longer than an hour. Nate may have misrepresented that in his earlier post. Contractions started around 9:30am and Rowan was born at 1:00pm. So, still not that long, but longer than an hour. The hour that Nate was referring to was the really painful part. But I did have many, many contractions in the weeks leading up to his birth, including several times when I thought I was in labor because I had regular contractions for several hours. So as my midwife told me, my body likes to spread labor out over the course of weeks, not hours.

Check back for more details about Rowan's birth and how he's adjusting to life at the Paine household!

Just minutes after Rowan was born––proud daddy!

A Big Brother twice over!

A new Big Sister! Allie had a swollen right eye
the day Rowan was born, so this picture looks a little odd.

Baby Rowan

Rowan David Paine was born at 1:00pm on Oct 18, 2013. He is 7lb 10oz and 20" long.

Rowan was born at home.  (Some of you may know that Allie was born at home by mistake.) This time it was on purpose and Jen was assisted by 2 great midwives.  As with Allie, the labor was very quick - about 1 hour.

Rowan has been eating and sleeping well right off the bat.  Silas and Allie are very excited to have a little brother.  This time Silas was at school but Allie got to be there right after baby Rowan was born.

Thanks for everyone's prayers and encouragement!  Jen will want to do a more complete post once she's feeling up to it, but for now, these two photos will have to do.

Nate

Baby's Room

With 10 days to go until our due date, everything is basically ready for our little guy to come! Since we don't have a spare bedroom for him, he's going to be sleeping in my (Jen's) closet for a while. It's a mini-walk-in closet, so he'll have enough room. More importantly, I'll have enough room to feed him at night, change his diaper, and put him to bed without disturbing Nate. Our bed is only about 10 feet away from the closet, but we hung a curtain to keep the light out, and give some privacy.

Over the last few months, I cleaned my things out of the closet, and decorated the little room to look more like a nursery. We set up the bassinet in there, and found a great deal on a used changing table––$11 at a local consignment store! Our rocking chair even fits (barely). The baby's clothes, diapers and other supplies are all tucked in baskets in the shelves and on the floor in the back. So, for now, it seems like it will work...

Here's some pictures of the "room" with the curtain open:

"The Small Gym"

Allie absolutely loves going to the Little Gym for gymnastics class (she calls it the "Small Gym")! She's been getting more confident and improving her skills each week. Here's some photos from her class today.

Allie hangs from the rings, a favorite activity of hers.

Running up the slopping mat, then she rolled down the other side.

Practicing an activity where you roll down
with a beanbag under your chin...
(she didn't master that one yet)

Climbing up some different shaped mats

The kids making a train

Bouncing up and down on a ball

At the end of class, the teacher
blows bubbles on the kids' bellies.