Lucas William {Two Months}

Dear Lucas,

Not going to lie, I have been waiting for this day since you were born. Although I am definitely, definitely not wishing away your newborn/baby-ness, I am so happy you are 2 months old today! You see, all of your anemia issues stemmed from my body attacking your red blood cells. And the doctors told us that red blood cells reproduce every 60 days....which brings us to today. I am hoping that 90% of your anemia is now behind us (I'm leaving a little 10% in there, just to cover those doctors who told us red blood cells can take up to 120 days to reproduce...but let's hope those guys are wrong, and yours have all reproduced in 60 days because you're an overachiever and awesome like that!).

Anyways, enough medical talk! Here are some 2 month (60 days!!) highlights:

Height: 23.5 inches (70 percentile)

Weight: 12 pounds, 1 ounce (41 percentile)

Head circumference: 39.4 cm (55 percentile)

Clothes: You moved up to being consistently in 0-3 month clothes around 6/7 weeks. I can still squeeze you into a few newborn things, but Daddy makes fun of me and let's be honest, they are a little tight. But I just can't let go! You are still rocking size 1 diapers. 

Nicknames: Lou-Lou, Baby brother, Luke, Lukey...Ella still calls you "Baby Woo-cus"

Milestones: You smiled this month! And also started laughing, as of yesterday! I just love when you smile and laugh; I could eat you up! You are much more alert than last month. You also have started cooing and it is the sweetest little sound ever! Your neck muscles are also getting stronger and you look all around in every direction. You can hold your head up really well for a few seconds during tummy time!

Sleep: THANK YOU for getting my memo on sleeping more at night, buddy! I am happy to say you are sleeping through the night probably about 75% of the time. Most nights, you go to bed around 10 or 11ish, and you will sleep until about 5 or 6 AM (sometime even 7 AM!). Sometimes, you still like to party at 3 or 4 AM, but it isn't happening as much as last month, so thank you for that!! You haven't been quite as sleepy during the day now, so I am thinking we might try to implement a nap schedule sometime soon. You will catnap in the car, but if we are at home, you are pretty much wide awake!

Best Moment: Taking you to the beach and the zoo! You are getting to experience things so much earlier than Ella did...but don't tell her, k?!

Worst Moment: When your hemoglobin went down to 7 at your 1 month check up and we had to get another blood transfusion. Yuck.

Likes: Kicking your feet, car rides, your wubbanubs, lights/fans, EATING, warm baths, being held, being on your tummy, your rocker chair, your bear mat (that you stole from Ella!), when we clap your hands for you and when we play "drums" on your tummy.

Dislikes: Being cold, getting out of the bathtub, when you have a really wet or really dirty diaper, when Ella smothers you (no matter how close we watch her, she still manages to sneak over and lay on you occasionally!).

Health: Still not perfect, but this past month was definitely an improvement from your first month! At your 1 month check up, your hemoglobin fell pretty low and you had to have a 3rd blood transfusion. But the silver lining to that is we got to go to an affiliate clinic so we didn't have to go back to the hospital and we are now working with an awesome team of doctors who really know what they are doing (not that our pediatrician didn't...these guys are just specialists in this field so they have a lot more experience with your condition)! We had your hemoglobin checked today and while it is still kinda low, your reticulocyte (how quickly your body is making new red bloods cells) was SO awesome that we don't have to go back to the clinic for a month! Yay!! 

Eating: You are still an awesome eater. You are nursing every 3 hours about 10 minutes per side. I haven't given you any bottles in this past month, but I would guess you'd need around 4 ounces or so?!

Another month in the books for you, sweet little Lucas! You just keep getting cuter, sweeter and most importantly, HEALTHIER as the days go by! We love you more than you know!

{And, just for fun...Ella at 2 months}

Life with Lucas {week 8}

Eeeek, I am so late in posting this! 

We were at my parents' house for most of last week, so we didn't get to take our weekly picture until this weekend...anyways, here is your weekly recap a few days late!

Backing up to 7/7, the day after my birthday...I walked in to our kitchen to find this:

Yep. Totally annihilated my birthday cupcakes. I left her unattended for like 2 minutes...and she was supposed to be playing in the family room with her toys. Lesson learned: never leave a 2 year old alone with cupcakes on your kitchen island!

Later that day, we had another hemoglobin check for Lucas!

Friday, we went to ImaginOn for story time and Mr. Potato Head...

Afterward, we walked over to Trav's office! Ella loved playing with his coworker's bobbleheads and only broke one...whoops!

Lucas loved being at Daddy's office!

After naps, we hit up the car wash, which is always good for a solid half hour of cheap entertainment. 

Saturday morning, I watched baby P for Kathryn!

While I love all 3 of these children, I don't think I will be signing up to have another baby for quite a while...it was a lot!!

Sunday, we went to the pool with our friends!

Lucas stayed home with Trav because it was too hot...but when we got home, I finally managed to capture a smile on my fancy cam (I had been trying for the past 3 days)!!

Later that night, we had friends over and we did Fourth of July round 2, with s'mores and sparklers that we had left over from the actual Fourth!

Monday, it was time for our annual trip to the sunflower field!

It was really hot (like last year!) and Ella, once again, wanted nothing to do with the sunflowers. Oh well. Maybe next year?!

Tuesday, I was crazy enough to bring both kids with me to my dermatologist appointment. I was just there for a skin check, but ended up getting 2 moles removed!

Surprisingly, Ella did great at the derm, and little Mr. Lucas was the fussy one! He is probably just sick of doctor's offices by now...

It was also Cow Appreciation Day, so of course we had to go to Chick Fil A in our cow attire!

Not pictured: Ella covered in ketchup. I am an idiot for dressing her in a white shirt. Anyone have any good stain removal tips?! I've already tried bleach and the stains are still there. 

Later on Tuesday, we hit the road for my parents' house. Since Trav had to go out of town for work, I figured the kids and I would leave too since I don't like being home alone when he's gone!

When we got there, my parents had a Paw Patrol placemat waiting for Ella. She is obsessed.

Lucas wasn't so sure about this place...or this ginormous dog in my brother's old room.

The next day, we went to the Richmond Zoo. I took a lot of pictures, so I'll share all of those in a separate post...I know you can't wait! ;) 

Lucas's Nursery

I really, really love Lucas's nursery. 

I painted it when I was 18 weeks pregnant (on New Year's Eve! Oh how times have changed...), when I was still a little unsure of how everything would come together. I wanted navy, Carolina blue (duh!) and gray, with lots of sports accents, and I think I did a pretty good job in achieving my vision! I am by no means an interior designer, and this is no way a "Pinterest-worthy" nursery, but I love it and hope my little guy will, too.

Come take a look! 

Crib: Babies R Us

Crib sheet: Pottery Barn Kids

Crib skirt: Amazon

Curtains: Target

Monogram: Etsy

Paint color is Sherwin Williams Hinting Blue. 

Shelves: Ikea

Basket: Home Goods

The shelves are the ever-popular Ikea spice racks that I spray painted using this paint (also used this spray paint to do the large monogram above his crib too!). 

These little baseball guys I actually got from Trav's mom...they used to be in his room! I love that we were able to use them!

Shelf: Ikea

Frame: Michael's

Laundry hamper: Home Goods

Changing pad cover: Pottery Barn Kids

Frames: Ikea

Prints: Etsy

Basket and liner: Pottery Barn Kids

Diaper pail: Buy Buy Baby

That dresser...was a labor of love to say the least! It used to be Trav's and if I had known then what I know now, I think I would have just bought a new dresser! Big thanks for my friend Rachel for answering my 204828 questions, and for providing this helpful tutorial that I referenced about 8000 times. 

Also props to my husband for doing 90% of the work, since I wasn't very good at sanding and then couldn't paint (the paint was oil based, which is a big no-no if you're pregnant)! 

We not only refinished the dresser, but also installed new trackers on the bottom of each drawer (which required several Lowe's trips to get just the right size). And I wanted to get new drawer pulls, because I couldn't stand the old ones. This proved to be a challenge since the space between the 4 bottom pulls was not standard. It was a huge pain, but we made it work! We ended up getting these, these and these!

After about a month, several trips to Lowe's and Home Depot, and tons of sweat and tears, we finally had a dresser for Lucas! He better use this thing forever!!! 

Baskets: Target

Chalkboard tags: Michael's

Closet dividers: Etsy

Ahhh, the closet. Not quite as full as Ella's, but I'm sure that will change in no time ;)

Glider and ottoman: Amazon

Quilt: Pottery Barn Kids

Lamp base: Target

Lamp shade: Pottery Barn Kids

Pillow: Target

Canvas bin: Target

Lucas loves his new room so far! Although he has yet to sleep in it (except for his newborn pictures)...

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Life with Lucas {week 7}

Too bad I hate odd numbers (especially the number 7...yuck!), but this guy is 7 weeks old on 7/7! 

Last Thursday, he smiled LOTS and I was able to get half a smile on camera!

Now I just need to get one of him smiling while he's wearing his "first smile" sticker! 

Before we headed to the beach, we had to stop at the doctor for a hemoglobin check.

Guess who's kid is so used to heel pricks at this point that he actually falls asleep during them. Yep.

Good news! His labs were so terrific that the nurse practitioner drew smiley faces all over the paper with the results! 

Thursday through Monday, we were at the beach, which you can read about here!

Monday (the 4th of July!), Lucas was a little sad to be driving home from the beach...

....especially because his crazy mom insisted on another photo shoot with big sister!

Also, whoever decided this romper is size 3 months is seriously on crack, haha. It's HUGE!

We grilled out and Ella got to make smores!

We also did sparklers, which made me incredibly nervous, but Ella did a great job holding them and not burning anything or anyone! 

Tuesday, we didn't really do too much. I was running out of hangers for Ella (and Lucas!), so I sold a bunch of Ella's old clothes on a Facebook group. While I was doing that, Ella decided Lucas needed to help her with puzzles (notice the lion puzzle piece). 

Yesterday was my birthday so we celebrated by blueberry picking with Chelsea and Mackenzie!

It was SO hot and the girls wanted to eat the blueberries as soon as they got them in their buckets...but we had a lot of fun!

And strawberry ice cream after blueberry picking makes perfect sense ;)

Kathryn also came over later that day to bring me cupcakes and wine (thank you again, Kathryn!!!). P and Lucas had a little love-fest on his bear mat!

I can't handle the cuteness!!!