La Famille Armstrong

At our WIC appointment Asher made a great discovery... his belly button!!! I know, seems a bit late huh? Later, we were at the store using our WIC vouchers and Asher kept pulling up his shirt and trying to look at it :-) The guy bagging our groceries thought it was pretty stinking funny. Then in the car, he was peeking between the harnesses, lifting his shirt and trying to see it again. So hilarious! It's crazy to see his little mind working and watching him react and think about things. I'm sure I'm going to be amazed more and more as he grows up.

I'm quite tired tonight though - I stayed up a bit too late last night working on some stuff, then Cole didn't sleep quite as large chunks of time as he has been, and I think I've just been doing too much as well. Tomorrow I hope to get a little more rest - although, they're showing our house in the middle of Asher's nap so I'm not sure what exactly we'll be doing then... ugh! Thus the move! I really wish we could move next week but financially it just works better Oct 1st and it's a lot to prepare for so... I'll have to wait. Please pray for patience for Mark and I. It's frustrating to be expected to leave your house whenever someone else wants, especially after recovering from major surgery and birth plus taking care of 2 small kiddos. Also, pray for our patience with Asher. He has officially entered the stage where he tests our limits and throws fits when things don't go his way. He also tries desperately to get out of discipline by hugging and clinging when he's in trouble... we know the course of action (mostly) but it's tough to follow through 10 times or more in one afternoon. Pray that God would give us wisdom and that our methods would be effective!! 

Alright, I have just a couple things to accomplish (no worries, all while resting on the bed with my laptop) before I can completely crash for the night. Have a great rest of the week!

Anyway, so Asher has been kinda cranky to say the least. Yesterday he slept in the car super early in the morning for 45 minutes and then proceeded to not take a nap at 3pm. But then at 4:30pm he was falling apart so we tried the whole nap thing again... and then we had to wake him up at 7:30pm to feed him before bed!! Craziness! We tried not to worry about how he'd sleep at night and thankfully, he slept great! Only woke up once and went right back to bed! Asher has actually be sleeping great since we brought Cole home. We've been giving him hot chocolate right before bed to try and fill him up and that has seemed to help a ton.

So, we apologize again to all you visitors who came on Monday :-) I was a bit out of it and throwing up in front of everyone - either that or nursing unashamedly (yikes) and completely zombie like during most of the rest of the time. We had Asher at night so by the time we had visitors I had finished puking and being crazy... so having Cole (yes, we're officially calling him Cole) in the morning was a different scenario that I hadn't thought about. 

The hospital stay was pretty good overall. Asher did really well hanging out with the grandparents and was only a small hassle while visiting in the hospital. Mark was pretty worn out by the time I came home but he's hanging in there and I feel blessed to have a husband who can take over the kid-duties so easily. So far, Cole is a great baby. He's already sleeping a 5 hour chunk at night and eating on a pretty regular schedule. 

We didn't last long nursing this time either. Even though Cole was a better nurser than Asher, it was still much harder than expected. And trying to recover from surgery while nursing was taking it's toll on me. I think my personality made it hard too... I'm way too A-type for my own good. It was far more painful than expected and Cole was starting to look super jaundice. At his 1 week appt we had to see a different Dr (since his was on vacation) and she had prepped the sub-Dr to have to try supplements and techniques to get him to gain weight since he had already lost 11% of his birthweight the day before we left the hospital... so that made me feel even better for switching to formula knowing that he is on the upswing and staying healthy. Plus, with me trying to work on the photography more, it takes some stress off of trying to deal with pumping and scheduling for photo shoots - overall this will work out best for our family.

And speaking of Dr.s... we got things fixed so we could stay on OHP "open card" so I can see local Dr.s for the kids and myself!!! Such a relief... I did not want to have to make so many arrangements to drive 2 kids to Tualatin for appointments while sharing a car! Thank you Lord! Well, I don't think there is too much else to report. We're certainly enjoying the kids and Asher is growing up before our very eyes! He's looking so much more like a kid and becoming so independent... he won't even let us feed him with a spoon anymore... he just has to do it himself! We had a great time at G&G Armstrong's today - Asher sure loves it there and Cole seemed to enjoy sleeping on the chair most of the time :-) 

I'm hoping to take some newborn photos this week while Cole is still small and "new looking" so maybe within a few weeks I'll get the chance to post some of those too! I should be ready mid-October to start scheduling photo shoots again... just in time for beautiful Fall leaves! We love you all and are so grateful for your support! Call anytime and drop in to see our new little guy, we'd love to visit!