yesterday marked alex’s first official giggle! i was playing with him and telling him what a chunky monkey he is and all of a sudden, he giggled! it was a split second thing but there’s no mistaking it. he smiles a lot, but a giggle comes from the tummy!

he did it again today too! any day now, he’ll be giggling…LOL

here’s another difference between him and the girls: he sucks his fingers and thumb (more correctly, half his fist). then he drools all over his chin.

alex had his 2 month old well-baby appt yesterday. for james and i, phase one again. lol

he is now 13 pounds and 8.3 ounces. what a chunky monkey! and he’s 23 3/4 inches long. he’s moving right along there. he receive his shots and boy, he gave a such a sad cryy that it broke my heart all over again (from the early days of my girls). as soon as it was done though, he stopped so he was a good boy. jaelynn also received her flu shot – before she knew what it was, the nurse had already given it to her. she didn’t have time to cry. saying jaelynn was amazed is an understatement. you should have seen the look on her first.  it was sorta like – what the heck just happened? i got poked? i didn’t cry??! it was quite endearing, really.

on a side note, i subscribe to women’s health magazine for 2 years for $5. now, that’s a deal! courtesy of slickdeals, as always.

want one too? go to discountmags.com and add the magazine (2 years) to your cart. use coupon: 9177 and your price should be $5. here’s prevention (i’m already getting prevention) for $5 for two years too – use code 1501. note that you’ll probably have to place two separate orders.

my little alex is almost 2 months old! wow – times flies as always. he’s so chunky and he’s smiling alot. he’s also very very (very) impatient. when he wants to be feed, it’s either right away or he’ll be mad and won’t feed until you calm him down. james have been holding him in front and when i do that because it calms him down, my arms get tired very fast. all in all, he’s such a joy and i just love being a new mommy again.

i don’t know if it’s a good thing that i caught the gap’s family and friend’s 30% off sale right before midnight but i did. alex received a bunch of clothes from our friends and families so i think he’s good for a while. i bought him some anyway because i just couldn’t resist the organic onesies from gap. and really, for about $6 a piece after the discount (and with free shipping!), i think they are just too cute!

here are some of the ones i bought for alex; aren’t they adorable?

still haven’t take any more photos but…here’s one more from last time. none in cloth yet. i need to get some taken, i know.

the little cutie pie

this friday past, we went in for his 2 weeks check up. he’s doing great – he no longer have jaundice. his current weight? 9 lbs 2 ounces. that means he gained 23 ounces in 12 days. his pedi said he’s growing just like he should. it’s what every parents want to hear right?

here’s the sad part – his pedi is leaving the location we go to starting august 1st so we’re getting a new doctor. it’s sad to me because we have been with her since faith was 2 – so about 4 years. she was jaelynn’s pedi for the last almost 3 years and we were looking forward to having her be alex’s. she’s just this great doctor – very soft spoken and so quick to answer your questions and concerns. we had a wonderful relationship with her and i wish her the best but we are so going to miss her. we are already missing her. she’s still with the same practice but just a different location, about 45 to 1 hour drive from us so it won’t be easy to drive there with all the kiddos.

she recommended a pedi to us and we are going to go with her and hopefully establish a good relationship with the new doc.

i found time to take some photos and made a birth announcement.

we started using cloth diapers a few days ago – i’ll have to take some CD shots. it’s working out fine – james is really supportive of the whole cd thing. he’ll even rinse poopy diapers AND do the laundry. wow! he’ll only use fitteds though. he said prefolds are too much work…LOL i’m still working on my prefolds. i’m not getting the hang of flats, maybe they’ll work better when he’s a bit bigger.

i’m thinking i may just go all fitteds on the next size up. they are really easier and no foldings…hahaha with the prefolds, it seems like i’m always changing alex. i do love the newspaper fold – it contains his poop so much better – no leakings at all. hopefully it stay that way.

out of all the fitteds that i bought, my favorite are the motherease sandys! i just love love them! i am looking to just using all sandys or motherease one size after alex outgrow these newborn diapers. i mainly use the sandys for nighttime (i only have 5) – i can just add a doubler and fleece liner to the sandys and alex will sleep 2-3 hours just like a disposable. i don’t even use a cover at night. the sandy will feel damp when he wakes up for a feeding but nothing major and i heard fitteds allow their little bottoms to breath more. i hope so.

the nanipoos and kissaluvs are okay – they fit great on alex though. i just like the sandys much much better! the ones i didn’t like at all were the gdiapers. maybe because whatever i tried to use in the liners do not fit or were way too bulky on alex’s frame. and they look very small to me. i haven’t even use one yet to see how the liners and covers hold up. just way too bulky. i shouldn’t have bought so many *sigh*. i think i’ll list them back on the “for sale or trade” forum.

i had my baby! he weighed 7 pounds and 11 ounces and was 19 1/4 inches long. he was born on 7/7 in the evening. he’s such a cutie!

on 7/7 (jaelynn was born on 9/9), i went in to be induced at 8am in the morning. they got me all set up and monitored the baby. my contractions were consistent at every 10 minutes but they weren’t painful at all. i was barely 2cm at 10am and so i was given the cytotec tablet (a quarter of the whole tablet) to get my cervix going.

the contractions got closer together after 2 hours – about every 2-3 minutes but still not painful. so all that time, james and i just watch movies on the in-room tv – let’s see, what did we watch? eagle eye, the duchess, forbidden kingdom, spiderwick chronicles, and not sure what else. actually, i only really watched eagle eye and the duchess and part of the forbidden kingdom. after that, the contractions got too painful.

i dilated to 3 cm after a few hours but nothing exciting. my doctor said she wanted to break my water at about 2pm to hopefully push things along. she got real busy with her other patients and didn’t get to break my water until 4:30pm but that’s okay because i was content to wait.

things did move a bit after breaking my water and i was having painful contractions now but my cervix didn’t do anything major. after another 2 hours or so, my doctor said she was going to start the pitocin but that i probably only need just a tiny bit since i was already given the cytotec.

then the contractions got seriously really really painful. i thought it was because of the pitocin. i didn’t choose any pain medications for faith, for jaelynn, i had nubain through the iv. the contractions with the girls were also more centered on my back so i felt like my back was breaking and numbed throughout my thighs. with alex, my contractions were centered right on my stomach, some on my back and thighs. they were just so darn painful that i wanted to scream. they felt like my uterus was going to explode every single time the contractions hit. after about an hour or so i couldn’t stand it and asked for some pain meds throught the iv. at this point, i was only at 5cm. i read a few days ago on the forum that one of the mamas went in at 8am to be induced and didn’t have her baby until 6pm. i told james i don’t think i could stand that long – jaelynn’s labor was only 5.5 hours! guess i was surprised huh?

when the nurse came in to give me the stadol for pain, i told her between breaths  that my contractions were so much stronger and painful and asked if it was because of the pitocin. she looked my my iv and said the pitocin was set up but hasn’t been started yet! she then turn it on…just a bit because again, the doctor didn’t think it was going to take much. yikes! after i was given the stadol, i was seriously thinking of getting the epidural if the pain med didn’t DO something. james was like, are you sure? that’s because i was way more scared of the epidural needle than the pain of labor. however, i didn’t care anymore – this pain was just way too intense for me. i was telling james about getting the epidural and i got so drowsy he said with a smile i talked like someone who had a few too many drinks. i was trying to reassure him about my decision for getting the epidural and i could tell he was really trying not to worry. he suggested that i wait a bit to see if my pain will be any different before getting it. i said okay.

i think i may have dozed off for about 15 minutes although i can still felt the pain. all of a sudden, i felt this huge pressure like the baby was going to come out right away – i told james to call the nurse. she came right away and checked me and said, ohgosh! the baby’s head is right there and you’re dilated all the way!! she asked if i can hold/wait a bit and she started putting on gloves and calling the doctor to hurry because i was going to have the baby soon. i was in so much pain and told her i can’t wait – the pressure was too much to bear and so was the pain. another minute or so with another push and the baby popped out, the nurse dropped her phone (was still calling every one to come to the room) and caught alex. the doctor and a bunch of other people came running into the room then and everyone talked at once. i was just so glad that was done…i was shaking so hard. they put alex on my chest and he was bawling his lungs out. i looked at his tiny little face and feel in love…he’s just the most beautiful thing!

the nurse told me this is the first time she’d delivered a baby…lol she was so cute. anyway, this labor was different from my girls in so many ways – the first and foremost was the pressure. i was very surprised and didn’t know what it was…i know weird. the 2nd was that the contractions was just killing me.

the baby had a bit of jaundice but he’s doing much better now and just feeding beautifully! i have not started on the cloth diapers yet because we’re using the leftover diapers from the hospital. we did started using the cloth wipes and they are just absolutely fabulous! they are so soft, and only take 1 wipe each poopy change. we were using disposable wipes at the hospital and using about 3-5 wipes!!! james love the cloth wipes too!!

i am loving staying home with alex and the girls…