Brothers

Carter still does not like to hold the baby. 

He was pushing baby away saying "Can you put him back in your room?"

But, thanks to David, you would never know it!

I found this outfit yesterday that is just like Carter's and couldn't pass up a photo op.

He has a name!

Beckett Bowen Lewis

Sick Sick Sick

Carter is not feeling well. He had a fever of 103 degrees F last night, and vomited twice this morning. 

I have never seen a kid so upset when we told him he could not go to church. He has been BEGGING to put his church clothes on all morning. "I won't throw up any more!" he has been saying. "I'm not sick, the thermometer says so." His fever is gone, but his appetite has not returned.

This is him sleeping with his Baby Elmer doll:

I found him crammed all the way up to the end of the bed:

My father "Pop Pops" came to visit. He brought Carter two new monkeys. Carter ran to get the rest of his monkey family. He now has a "Daddy", a "Mommy", a "Carter", and a "Baby Elmer" "Soccer Monkey". He thinks they are Soccer monkeys not Sock monkeys. It is really cute.

Carter built this:

It is a Lego man with a chain saw climbing to the top of the Christmas tree to cut it down. What an imagination!

My mother sent Carter Christmas cookies this year. She has been sending cookies for a couple years now. She has been very good to include cookies for Carter. David saw that this year there were two plates - a great big one, and a little tiny one. He thought the great big one was for us and the little tiny one was for Carter. NOPE. The little tiny one was marked with a skull and cross bones. He he he.

We are very close to having a name for this little guy. As soon as we have one, I will let you all know. 

Carter has narrowed it down to three options: LegoBuilder Lewis, Lee Carter Lewis, and Ben Mitchell Lewis (after a boy from church). We are carefully considering all of our options - but these have not made the final cut. Sorry Carter. 

We have been talking to Carter about naming the baby. He is very resistant. He knows we changed his name when he was born, and he can tell you he was "Vern". However, he has not been able to make the connection. He corrects us if we call baby anything other than "Baby Elmer". I told him that he can call baby anything he'd like. Eventually he will come around. 

Last night at the store, he tells me "Sometimes I don't like Baby Elmer. Sometimes I do, but sometimes I don't." I told him that was okay, we all have feelings and we have to listen to them so we can work them out in a healthy manner. I don't want to suppress his feelings and cause him to resent new baby. I also want him to verbalize those feelings as his outlet so he doesn't harm the baby instead.

I found David had tried to hide the baby from me the other day! Camouflage Baby! 

Snow!

Yesterday we got snow. Not much, but enough to build a snowman!

At preschool yesterday morning, they had snowball fights with marshmallows. When I picked him up, he really wanted to build a snowman. Luckily, baby cooperated with his nap so Carter and I could make a snowman.

We practiced first by making snowballs:

I let Carter use my camera because he wanted to take a picture of me throwing a snowball. He did a pretty good job.

This was our finished product. The funny snow thing on his head is the hat Carter made. The stick in the background was the stick Carter chose for the arms. Unfortunately, it didn't fit on our creature.

Afterwards we came in the house and had some hot apple cider. Our snowman was melted within hours. Poor guy.

The other day, I went in to get Carter from quiet time and found him dressed like this:

A basketball jersey, suspenders, a tie, and church socks. I was impressed that he was able to get all 4 clips from the suspenders attached to his pants!! That takes work.

Hi, it's me .... Lunch

This kid eats every 2 hours! Carter, as small as he was, ate every 3 to 4 - even from the beginning.

I think all Carter sees is me feeding baby. He is so excited to do it himself.

 Carter is also super excited to take pictures of the baby:

Christmas Cards

My husband has always been very creative with pictures. I am so grateful that he spends so much time to make sure I like the picture also. This year, he came up with this idea to make baby #2 the present. He found a box and wrapped it so carefully. 

Then, he set the fireplace up and made everything look so nice. The hardest part was getting Carter to cooperate. 

This was one of the pictures we came up with. I really like it. We got quite a few good ones:

We wanted to make our Christmas Card picture fun this year. I'm just hoping to get them OUT this year.

If you have not been receiving cards from us, and you want to, email me and let me know.

Pictures

Just a couple pictures to update you with:

Here's a picture I wanted to get with Carter, but was never able to:

This is Carter's first impression of baby. It lasted just long enough to take this picture, then he was off doing something else. Not interested in holding him or seeing him again. He just wanted to play with Daddy.

He's here...

Baby Elmer is here. We still don't have a name, but we are working hard on it.

Baby Elmer was born today: 3 years, 3 months, and 3 days younger than Carter, and almost 4 lbs heavier. He weighed in at 9 lbs 1 oz and 20 1/4 inches long. The doctors estimated that he'd be about 7 1/2 lbs. Boy were they off!

We're all doing well. From the first contraction to baby in arms was 8 hours. He made it out with no drugs at all. It was pretty quick once it really started.

We'll all be home soon - baby and I are doing great. We both survived better than they expected.

Week 41

Depending on the date you go by from the doctor, we could be almost to 42 weeks - but we are certainly past 41. We have been keeping very busy. I have felt great - up until I had the bright idea to take my support belt and my compression hose off. I spent an entire day almost not able to walk. I put them back on for another day, and am now back to my normal activity. I thought it would help baby drop. What it really did was stress every muscle and bone underneath him!

We are really working hard to get this baby out. I had a massage therapist work the pressure points in my feet, and I had my chiropractor adjust some magic spot to help my body release the chemicals needed to bring on labor. Nothing so far. I have done a ton of research on all those old wives tales about inducing labor. Nothing looks like it really works. Some women may claim that it worked for them, but unless your body is ready, that baby isn't coming out. 

For example - taking Castor Oil is only going to flush my bowels out, dehydrate me, and give me diarrhea. It is not going to soften my cervix. 

Walking is great for helping the baby drop down further in to the birth canal, but won't push him through it.

Other Myths

We had an ultrasound yesterday to make sure baby has enough fluid. What we discovered is that baby has his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck twice. He has lots of good movement, his heart rate is normal, and he has plenty of fluid. They are not worried. It is called a Nuchal Cord. It is perfectly normal. I was afraid it would keep him from descending the birth canal (which he hasn't done yet!), but from what I read, that is not the case. I read this very helpful article about the subject:

Nuchal Cord

My body is not ready for this baby to come out yet. I have told him he needs to leave before they induce me. He seems to like it in there.

Christmas Eve in Bethlehem

On Saturday we went to a nativity exhibit at church. There were nativities from all over the world on display. Carter's favorite were the ones made of Legos. He didn't want to leave those ones. He almost ate the Baby Jesus in one that was made of marshmallows and candy. I had to put Baby Jesus back 4 times!!

They had a children's craft room, refreshments, and very talented singers. My favorite part was the picture opportunity. They had a room full of costumes, and another room where you could get your pictures taken. Carter was not interested in dressing up. David and I got all ready, all the while he stood back absolutely against it. We didn't push it, a picture wouldn't have turned out anyways. 

David thought it would be fun to take a picture of just the two of us anyways. He calls it "Christmas Eve in Bethlehem." We thought it was quite funny. All we needed was a donkey. (Or our little shepherd boy)

Dance Performance

This year we did not get to go see our favorite A Capella group, Straight No Chaser. We have seen them in Seattle the last two years in a row. However, it was too close to my due date to purchase tickets in advance, and then we realized that they were performing on a Monday. David works late on Mondays and cannot take the time off for a concert. Oh well.

We went to a wonderful performance anyways. The Pacific Ballroom Dance Company had a Christmas performance on Friday. It was awesome. We have gone to their performances every year for a number of years now. When David was a Boy Scout leader, he had a young man in his troop that danced. He got us hooked. Although he has graduated and is not dancing for PBD right now, we still go. 

David thought it would be fun to take Carter. Indeed, he had a blast. Carter was a little grump before and after the performance - he refused to fall asleep at nap time - but during the performance, he was enthralled. 

I am hoping that Carter will be interested in dancing with them when he is older. It is so athletic. Unfortunately, their next performance is not until June, but we will be ready.