Time is flying

You blink and don't post for a bit...and your baby is five months old! Or turns two! Life has been pretty hectic around the Easter house since I returned to work in mid-July, but we are loving life with two...most of the time at least!

Lucas is growing like a weed and seems to be enjoying life. We did find out a bit after his two month check-up that he had acid reflux -- so there was a reason for all his anguish while I was on maternity leave. We started medication after that, and he improved quite a bit. However, nothing like the improvement we saw when we started him on cereal at four months. As our sitter says it, he's like a completely different baby. He's full of smiles and coos and really enjoys playing peek-a-boo. Still fights sleep unbelievably hard and wakes up a couple times a night, but he just seems to be feeling so much better on the whole.


Maggie is two! We had her second birthday party at Miller Park Zoo with all her little friends on August 14th, and a good time was had by all. She's an incredibly sweet little gal, and she just seems like such a little person now. Her language is really impressive for someone her age -- it's full sentences everywhere all of the sudden! She loves entertaining Lucas and really seems to like being a big sister. She'll run and get us pacis or burp cloths or diapers, sometimes even without being asked. Now we just have to get her more interested in potty training, so there are less diapers to buy!


Now that Lucas is doing better, we've been able to get out and have some fun little family trips. Pool nights at State Farm Park when it was still warm, a nice little outing to the Labor Day Parade, a trip to Apple Blossom Farm in Peoria with the Easter family. Our first Illini football game of the year was delayed as we missed tailgating last week due to stomach flu :( But it will come soon enough!

On August 29th, we were blessed to have both sets of grandparents, the Rapp family, and many of our friends with us for Lucas's baptism at First. He did beautifully during the service, and big sister stole the show a bit by crying out because she wanted to go "with brother" when Pastor John walked him down the aisle. How nice to be surrounded by such a loving caring church family on such an important day.


Don't have too much time to wax philosophical tonight, but I wanted to post an update. That's perhaps the biggest thing I've noticed in going from one child to two...there's really nowhere near enough time to get things done. We are behind on thank yous and birth announcements, laundry, housekeeping....but our life is wonderful and we are blessed. Wouldn't have it any other way!

Lucas - Arrival and Month One

I can't believe Lucas is almost six weeks old! At the rate I've been updating the blog lately, this really isn't bad for frequency though.

So Lucas made it a Mother's Day I will never forget! And as Steve reminded me today, hopefully I will never have a Mother's Day where I have to work quite that hard either! Steve and Maggie were at church that morning, when I noticed I had a major nosebleed while eating breakfast. Used the home monitor to see my blood pressure was really high, called the on-call physician, and they directed me to Labor and Delivery again to be monitored for a few hours. Like the previous week, my blood pressure calmed down but they wanted me monitored for 2 hours before releasing me since I had been at a '4' for three days and was still contracting. We just kind of assumed we were heading home; I was working on thank-you notes and Steve took off for a bit. But when the nurse did a final exam at 2 pm to call the doctor with the results, my water broke...so we were staying!

Everything actually went very smoothly. In retrospect, it may have been a good thing that my water broke at the hospital. I actually got to try most of the things on my birth plan this time. I used the labor tub for about an hour until I'd dilated to a '6' at 3:30 pm. Steve and I walked the halls, and I sat on the exercise ball. Either the water had really helped mask the pain or things were getting intense. Back in the tub at 4:30 and maybe 15 minutes later, I was having enough pressure that the nurse checked me, ordered me out of the tub and called the doctor. So yes, I made it through sans epidural again -- only a few minutes of wondering what in the world was I thinking with that decision!

Now the semi-funny part of this whole story was that neither of us realized the baby was that close to arriving. Both our families were in town, as they'd planned to be for Mother's Day. Around 4:55 or 5 pm, Steve's parents were bringing Maggie to the hospital. So his cell phone rings and he leaves the room, which was a flurry to set-up activity at that point. Maybe 3-5 minutes later the nurses start flipping out. "Where's Dad? He's going to miss the whole thing!" The doctor wasn't there yet, and I hadn't pushed once...so this was a little confusing to me. I kept telling him that he was out in the hall on the phone, but they couldn't find him. He was in the OB waiting room visiting with Maggie and his folks. Luckily he cut the visit short just in time, and headed back down the hall to see my doctor fly past him in scrubs.

I think I started pushing about 2 minutes after Steve returned to the room. This round was nothing like Maggie, who took 20-30 minutes. One push and the head was out, two pushes and we had a baby. Lucas was born at 5:15 pm on Mother's Day -- 9 lbs and 10 oz and 20 inches long with reddish-brown hair and slate blue eyes.


The first week home was pretty challenging. We'll spare you all the details but it involved an ER visit the first night he was home (bloody spit-up that thankfully was nothing major), weight loss for several days, and constant monitoring for his billirubin levels. He is an adorable little guy on the whole though. To answer the million dollar question, his big sister Maggie thinks he is pretty great. If anything, she's a bit too loving and affectionate - lots of kisses and hugs and trying to feed him Cheerios.


I am still on maternity leave until after the Fourth of July, but it has been busy the whole time. Primarily due to the fact that Luke is what most would call a "high-maintenance" baby. We're not sure if it's acid reflux or colic, but he just does not sleep very well or like to be put down and doesn't like swings, bouncy seats, or pacifiers. This makes it difficult to get much of anything done around the house without incessant screaming, but I'm trying to force myself and schedule some outings with him. (As I type, we have just returned from an emergency trip to Steak N Shake happy hour to get Lucas to fall asleep for his second real nap of the day...and soothe mom's nerves with a milkshake!)

Despite all the worrying and complaining we may have done the past few weeks, we feel incredibly fortunate to have this little man join our family. He's already starting to change on us. He gained approximately 2 1/2 pounds between his 2 week and 1 month check-ups, clocking in at 12 lbs 3 oz and 21 3/4 inches. He's rolled over for us (tummy to back) approximately 8 times - know it's kind of a fluke thing but he's kept it up. He's also starting to do some of the standard baby things -- being fascinated by fans and lights -- and occasionally sleeping for 4-5 hour stints at night. We're looking forward to him growing even more and starting to do a few field trips soon.

In the meantime, thanks to everyone for the prayers, well-wishes, and incredible meals. It has meant a lot to have your support and help the past few months!

What a Mother's Day!

Lucas Benjamin Jacoby Easter arrived in our lives at 5:15 pm on Mother's Day -- Sunday, May 9th, 2010. We've had an eventful few days, but he is such a sweet baby and a huge blessing so far. Maggie is in love with her little brother and so are we! I will update with a bit more of his birth story when things settle down, but here's one of my favorite pictures to tide you over.

Another week -- still here!

It's Friday again, so I thought I'd drop a quick note out on the blog. This week has been much less eventful than last -- no crazy visual disturbance, surprising spike in blood pressure, or anything too alarming. But still...at this point, we are starting to just be ready for this little guy to come!

We packed it up last Saturday and headed to Morton for my niece Lucy's first birthday party. My sister had done a great job with cute decorations and food, and Lucy really seemed to like her cake. Maggie enjoyed tearing around the enormous empty hallways just off the church party room, and Dad enjoyed chasing her while I watched. :) She also had a great time with Nana and Grampa -- even pointed at him and called him "Jake" for the first time. Luckily I was feeling pretty good Saturday, so I got to visit with people a bit, and we had dinner with Steve's mom before heading home. Then we spent a nice lazy Sunday recovering from the eventful day.



My blood pressure was fairly constant (130ish/80ish) all weekend, so I headed into work for a while Monday. Thought I did pretty well and tied up loose ends, but Steve was upset I stayed so long. But that was the end of that, come my check-up on Tuesday. My diastolic blood pressure is just not dropping below 84 or so anymore, so they requested I be taken off work. I'm trying to tie up loose ends from the couch, but I think even that's coming to an end on Monday. Just had a few days where I was exceptionally tired and didn't feel right. Even though I'd like to keep up my usual routine until the end, I'm realizing it's just not going to be possible.

So we shall see. I keep telling Steve I don't think we'll go the whole way to term, but at this point...this pregnancy seems fairly similar to last time. Maggie was due August 11th and came the 15th...so look out for May 15th perhaps? I wouldn't mind us going earlier. It doesn't seem like he can get much bigger! Heartburn and sleep disturbances are back, so we must be in the home stretch. Know it will be worth it once he's finally here safely - keep us in your prayers until then!

Three weeks or less?

Just thought I'd post another quick update for anyone following along. We had a pretty eventful Monday here at Casa Easter. I was supposed to have my 37 week check-up at 8 am. As soon as I got up though, I discovered I had light stringing through my vision. We packed a few just-in-case bags, took Maggie to the sitter's, and headed in to my doctor's office.

As expected, my blood pressure was spiking a bit to the 140/90 range. I also had a non-stress test, and the baby wasn't very reactive. And I was having fairly big contractions every 4-5 minutes apart. Between all those things, I was sent to do pre-eclampsia labs and take it easy until Thursday. Luckily, the contractions died down, everything looked good on the labs, and my blood pressure stabilized closer to 130/80. So I have been on "couch rest" this week, as I like to call it. I'm working from home and trying to get everything squared away before maternity leave...and also trying to put off labor a little longer.

We shall see how it goes! Anytime next week or later would be great. My friends from church put on an awesome little shower for Baby E tonight at Kelly's Bakery and Cafe (yum!), where they proceeded to spoil the little guy rotten. Seriously, so many cute clothes and things. Tomorrow is my niece Lucy's first birthday party, so we are journeying over to Morton for that. But after that, all bets on arrival date are off. The only thing it would really make a difference for is the baby's birthstone at this point. Emerald would match with Maggie's green peridot, but I could live with it if we have an April diamond boy too.

Thank you all for the prayers and support, and I will try to keep you posted!

One month to go!

Today is one month from Little E's due date. Obviously my resolution to blog more during this pregnancy hasn't gone so well, but that's probably what having a toddler takes out of you! So at almost 36 weeks, we are doing fairly well.

This pregnancy has been pretty easy, but quite a bit different from Maggie as well. Still no nausea or crazy food aversions. However, a few things have been a little different -- heartburn at something like 12-13 weeks, a really sensitive gag reflex, an intense craving for greasy food. Once we got past 16 weeks, the heartbeat seemed a little lower than Maggie Jo's. About a month later, we found out that old wives' tale had held true for us...it was indeed a boy. Since then, we've had more of the same -- heartburn, kicking in the ribs constantly, lower heartbeats. I'm still a really comfortable pregnant woman though, so I take some comfort in that.

These last few weekends have been a blur of trying to get things ready and not quite succeeding. We've decided to wait on really decking out the nursery until after our company has slowed down a bit. We have yet to order another bed, although we are leaning towards getting a new cherry convertible crib/toddler bed for Maggie. We've got a couple ideas on bedding but nothing ordered yet. In some ways, we've got the second child syndrome in full effect already.

Hoped to get a lot done this weekend, but I ended up getting overheated while shopping at Kohls (trying to finish out Maggie's summer wardrobe). I was actually worried I was in labor for a while, so I ended up taking it easy most of the weekend instead. But it did convince me to finish my birth plan and start thinking about packing for the hospital. We have our last ultrasound and a check-up tomorrow, so we may have a bit better idea about how close we are or aren't then.

All in all though, we are starting to feel ready to meet this little guy. I'm treasuring being able to dote on Maggie a little bit, as I know these relaxed evenings are fleeting, but I think we are excited to see what our family is going to become. Appreciate any extra prayers sent out our way these next few weeks as we finish up all the 'essential' tasks and start to get ready for our new reality!

Easter with a little Easter

Sort of a poor-man's-post I suppose, but here are some pics of MJ's second Easter. As you can see, she looks a lot different than the last set of pictures I posted here!