2 Months Old!

I cannot believe that my sweet baby boy is already 2 months old! It seems like just yesterday that he was born, but then at the same time it seems like he has always been apart of our family!

2 Months Ago!

1 Month Ago!

Now! He's getting so big

There is an amazing amount of joy that he has added to our lives, an amount that I never knew possible and never knew I was missing! Our life BZ (before Zeke) was so wonderful! We had a ton of fun spending time with family and friends, being active, spending time with the pups, traveling, ect. We were def not lacking in the happy department and I didn't think it could get much better! Boy was I wrong! Z has just added another wonderful level of joy to our family, it reminds me of how it was when we first got Jaxon Bear. We were happy campers before hand, but then he just made life that much better! And now the same with Ezekiel!

I know people say (and we heard it a million times) get ready life is about to change! Some said it in a good way, some said it in a less than good way. Our life has changed for sure, but its for the better, don't get me wrong we still have moments of frustrations, but I do my best to take them all in stride and stay thankful for the little miracle that he is! Even those mornings when he wakes up before I would like to be up (which is most, as one of my favorite hobbies is sleeping :-P) and I begrudgingly pick him up out of his bassinet with my eyes still closed and set him on his changing table and finally open my eyes and look down at him as I begin to unswaddle him and he gives me the biggest smile. My heart melts instantly and in that moment I am reminded how blessed I am to be his mom!

Gotta love those cheeks!

Ezekiel Update:
He had his 2 month well baby visit today. He came in at a grand total of 13 pounds 8 ounce (90%), 23 1/2 inches (75%), and his head was 39.5 cm (45%)! We could tell that he has been growing by leaps and bounds and Mike and I were both super chubby babies, so we weren't really surprised by how big he is. Everything else at his check up looked great! His blocked tear duct cleared up a couple weeks ago, so no more gunky eye! Yeah! I was happy that I didn't have to be a "meany mommy" at this visit as we did not do any vaccinations (yet)! I am still on the fence about doing them or not doing them. I understand why they are important, but I am cautious of the side effects. And from what I have come across in my research it seems as if the chances of getting most of the illnesses are as likely as having a negative side effect from the vaccination. So its hard for me to justify having them done! I have a lot more thoughts on this and maybe I will blog more about it at a later date! I think I have found a good pediatrician for Z too, which is such a good feeling! It seems as though he will respect my decisions and he is SO good with Ezekiel too!

Ezekiel continues to be a rockstar baby! He still is an awesome sleeper! He sleeps through the night most nights with a random night here or there where he will get up once around 3 or 4. PTL for that! He continues to be a great eater and his cheeks are the proof of that! They are def squeezable! I have never had the urge to squeeze a babies cheeks before and always thought it was kind of odd, but now I understand! I try not to do it, but sometimes I just can't fight the urge! LOL! He is spending a lot more time awake during the day, which is a lot of fun and definitely something that took a little getting used to! He is enjoying time in his bouncer now and spends a lot of his awake hours in it looking around and observing everything or watching VeggieTales! He loves it when anyone plays with him or shows him new things but he is also very content hanging out by himself. He also holds up his head really good and is really strong!

Tummy time!

He is pretty much right on track as far as all the developmental things that he is supposed to be doing at this age and as I mentioned earlier he is smiling so much now! We are blessed with such a happy baby! I would like to think that this milestone of learning to smile will always be one of my favorites (even though I know there will be a lot of other amazing ones to come)! I just truly love every smile that I get from him and also find so much joy in seeing others laugh when he gives them one of his famous toothless grins! His smile truly is a little piece of heaven!

Last Monday I went back to work part time, I am in the office Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 8-2. The nice thing about returning to work is the my boss is letting me bring Ezekiel with me for a few weeks! And Z has been a really good boy while at work with me! He pretty much sleeps until 10 or 11ish and that is when we are finished seeing patients for the morning, so it works out perfect as I just have him sleeping upstairs in one of the offices in his carseat. Then once patients are gone I feed him and then he hangs out downstairs with me and for the most part he has been really good during this time too! So I am very thankful that this arrangement is working out so well because I was a little nervous going into it that it may not. Because obviously if he is fussy and won't chill out or sleep we would have to go home and if we had too many days like that then I think my boss may put a kabosh on the situation. So it is very relieving that it is working out so well!

This last Saturday was the first preseason game for the Vikings so of course we had to watch it!

Mike was SO excited, it was so fun to see him share this moment with our little boy as I know it is something that he has looked forward to for a long time! My parents were staying with us for the weekend so they joined us watching the game, along with Darek, Steph, Toby, and Hunny! Then after a while Jamie, Gabe, Addie, and Jamie's dad and step mom stopped by to hang out for a bit. It was so fun to see Zeke watch the game, we put him in the bouncer and put him in front of the TV and he sat there so content and watched the game as Mike explained to him what was going on!

This last month he also got to meet his cousin Ellie (Mike's oldest brother Jeb's daughter)! Jeb and Ellie came to visit and we went for his first visit to the Mall of America and then they spent the night, it was a ton of fun to have them come and visit! Then last weekend we went up North to Mike's family cabin near Hibbing. Zeke got to meet a lot of his aunts, uncles, and cousins on Mike's side of the family. It was a cool day so we hung out inside the cabin for the most part, but it was really nice to visit everyone and catch up!

There are a million other things that I could write about that have happened this month and I am sure I am missing some important ones, but I must wrap this post up as I have been working on it for 3 days now! Such is life as a mommy, right?

Jaxon wanted to get in on picture time!

Brotherly love!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

This last Friday was a day that I had been looking forward to for quite sometime now and though it wasn't quite as I envisioned it to be it was still very special, fun, and interesting to say the least! :-P

As you may of guessed by the title of the post, we took Z-man to his first Twins game (though you wouldn't of known it, you woulda thought it was a t-ball team playing against the White Sox)!

My brother has season tickets and so earlier this year when he had the schedule available they let us pick any games that we would like to go to, as they have in previous years. This year we only bought tickets to one game as we weren't sure if I would really be up for heading out to the ballpark while pregnant and then if we would want to bring Zeke to too many games. So we figured we would just buy one set to be safe. But this time instead of just buying 2 tickets we bought all 4 and we gave the other 2 tickets to my dad (& mom) for Father's Day.

For those of you that are not overly familiar with my family, we are a baseball family! The love of the game goes all the way back to my grandpa Harry (my dad's dad) and maybe further, I guess, I'm not sure. My dad played baseball growing up and so did my brother, I personally wasn't overly interested in the game until my brother got season tickets in college and my family (my best friends) spent many weekends at the dome (what we were thinking when we thought that was a good place to watch baseball)! So I adopted the mentality instead of trying to beat them, why not join them! So I started going just to hang out and I started asking questions and learning a lot, I did have two of the best teachers out there, and inadvertently I began to really enjoy the game! Then when Mike came along and quickly learned that along with me came my family and along with my family came baseball! Our first date was actually with my family at a Twins game! He had some things to quickly learn, one thing for example is that the Schwarz family does not participate in "the wave". As my dad says, people just do "the wave" when they are bored at the games and there is no reason to be bored so there fore we do not do "the wave"! So now the Bemis family is now also a baseball family (but it takes a close second to us being a football family, that's our #1)!

So when I found out I was pregnant and that we were having a boy I was so excited to have our little man go to his first of many baseball games with my family! And I know this is something that my dad has been looking forward to for many years, so I was so excited to have it finally take place!

So on Friday we all got our Twins gear on (Ezekiel too) and jumped in the car and headed to the game! We toted Zeke around in the Baby Bjorn, which worked great!

When we got there we headed down to the Twins dugout and had a short photo shoot!

Then we walked around for a while and everyone got their food of choice and we also stopped off at the guest service desk to get Ezekiel's "1st Twins Game" certificate! Then we headed for our seats as the game was about to start which unfortunately did not last long! Our seats were behind home plate and under the over hang, so every time something good happened (which was often in the first inning as they scored 3 runs (and none for the rest of the game) and everyone would cheer it was so loud because the sound resonated right where we were and freaked Z out! I have never seen a bigger pouty lip in all my life (though my dad disagrees, he thinks he knows where Zeke got it from, I don't know what he's talking about)! So my mom and I bolted and ended up taking him to the top level (where it was also cooler) and we ended up finding a random chair under a stairwell, my mom went and got my dad and mike (as both mine and my mom's cell phones were dead!) and then we sat there for the remainder of the game!

As long as his feedings a diaper changes came regularly Zeke was a happy camper and we had a lot of fun even though the Twins were playing pretty terribly!

It was so special for me to see my hubby, dad, and son hanging out together and bonding over baseball!

My dad was teaching Z all about the game and telling him what the Twins need to do to be better. We decided that Zeke will be the first player again in a long time to play both football and baseball professionally! :-) We also decided that he should play 1st base and he will be a home run hitter for sure! That is if he wants to, of course! But why would he not?! :-p

I will leave you with my favorite picture from the night!

3 of my favorite guys in the world! love them all!

A friendship for a lifetime!

We are so excited to be able to say that we officially have a new addition to the family!

Tobiah William Schwarz

Born Tuesday, July 26th, 2011 @ 5:21 am

7 lbs 5 oz and 19 in

He is so perfect in every way and we are so excited that he finally decided to join us in this world! Mama and baby are doing great! We are so excited for Darek and Steph and it is so fun to see my brother with a baby as I think Zeke was one of the first babies that he has held!

Cute family!

We are so excited to be an uncle and aunt again!

Uncle Michael

Auntie Emily

Proud grandparents!

I just love this picture! It fills my heart with so much joy! I know they have waiting for a long time to be grandparents and now they are doubly blessed and I know they are so excited! I am so thankful that they are close enough to be able to visit often, I love that they will be such an active part in Z's life!

Time for the cousins to meet!

KT introducing Zeke to Toby

Best buds already!

Love it!

I am so excited that Zeke and Toby are so close in age and will be able to grow up together! I know that the will be best buds just like their parents! Darek and I have pretty much always been best friends (even though sometimes we may of had a crazy way of showing it) and then when we got married our spouses fit right into the mix and the 4 of us are best friends and so it is so special to both have baby boys so close together and have them be best buds too!

Adding babies to our family is sure making for interesting family gatherings already! We all got together for the first time, along with my uncle Mark, and Steph's mom and there wasn't a boring moment! :-) And it may be a while until we are all able to eat as a family again and if we do it sure won't be on our time! The joys of adding little ones to the family! But of course its totally worth it!  Its so fun to have our family growing, it's about time and I am loving every minute!

That's all for now! Zeke is calling! :-)

Babies Vs. Puppies

So as we have started this journey down parenthood lane we have recalled the moments in which many people have told us that having a puppy is way different than having a baby!

BOY WERE THEY RIGHT!!!!!

At the point of being one month in we have decided that having a puppy is WAY harder than having a baby! Comparing the two at this point in the game:
- Zeke sleeps through the night the majority of the time VS. Jaxon would not of if we wouldn't of let him sleep in the bed with us, he would wake up every 2 hours if we had him sleep in his crate (so we let him sleep with us so we could get some sleep).
- Zeke poos and pees in a diaper VS. Jaxon pooed and peed on the floor and we had to take him outside every hour or two to train him to do his business out there.
- Zeke stays where ever you put him down at VS. Jaxon was running around the house getting into everything, we had to keep our eyes on him constantly.
- Zeke eats for free VS. Jaxon needs dog food and treats that we have to buy.
- Zeke has no teeth and can't bite VS. Jaxon had the sharpest little puppy teeth and would bite us and everything as we were training him not to.

:-)

Jaxon Bear when he was a puppy

Zeke when he was a day old

Though I know a lot of these things will change and soon Zeke will be running all over the house and we will have to teach him not to bit and so on. But as I look at the comparisons I realize that having a puppy is like getting thrown straight into toddler-hood! So though we will eventually get to that same point again now with Zeke at least we are getting eased into it this time! But after the first 8 months to a year with a puppy you are usually done with most of the challenges as with a baby I hear that it is always changing and hard times continue to come. Puppies don't have hormones, though ours does seem to give us some attitude from time to time! :-)

This is all in fun and of course we truly love both of our boys! And take every moment, good or challenging, and cherish them!

New milestones!

Our little Z is continuing to melt our hearts one day at a time as he continues to grow up way to fast! He has passed through a couple milestones and they are so bittersweet! It's so fun for these new things to be happening, but they seem to be coming so fast!

The first new milestone is that he has officially grown out of his first outfit! And he is on the verge of growing out his first round of onesies! On Saturday I put him in this outfit

I could barely squeeze him into it and could only snap a couple of the snaps on the bottom! When I took it off of him and thought that I'll need to wash it and then pack it away I got a little sad. It's so crazy to think that we are already at this point! Though I honestly thought it would come sooner,  because I thought he would be bigger when he was born because both Mike and I were about 8.5 pounds when we were born and then became very chunky babies! Though he is def holding his own in the getting chubby department! We think he is probably already over 9 pounds if not close to 10 pounds.

His second milestone is more of the heart melter! Mike was gone on Saturday and Sunday this past weekend and when he got home I handed Zeke over to him. He was saying hi to him and then all of a sudden Zeke's face totally lit up and he started smiling! (He is at the point now that he smiles in response to seeing people that he knows (mostly Mike and I) or when he gets excited.) It was the sweetest thing and Mike got so excited! I felt like my heart was just spilling over with joy seeing this all take place! I loved seeing Zeke get so excited to see his daddy and also seeing Mike get so excited to have Zeke smile at him! It is a moment that I want to make sure that I never forget! It's amazing how this little guy has the ability to make us feel this way!

I hope to get a few more blogs up here soon! I have so much I want to write about, not to mention we have had some other exciting things happen in our family! My mom is staying with us tonight and will be here tomorrow, so a lot of times I can get some good blogging done! So, sorry if I bombard you with new posts!

The good, the bad, and the ugly

We've had a lot of good thus far as I have mentioned in my previous posts.

We've had a few "bad" days, as will be the case in new adventure.

Unfortunately we have also had a handful of ugly days! I hesitated writing this post as I am not one to complain about things and I hate being a downer, but as I have mentioned these things to ladies I have come to discover that they are quite common. It had really made me wish that I had known that sooner so I could of asked them for advice or even just for support. I felt like I was alone on this and battling through something that very few have. So I am writing this to let others ladies know that they aren't alone and that I am more than happy to answer any questions or be of help in any way that I can.

So here we go:

A couple weeks into this whole being a mama gig, I developed mastitis, I won't go into what it is as it can be a bit TMI. So you can read more about what it is here. I started to feel really yucky and have flu-like symptoms, then it got to the point that it was so painful when I would feed Zeke that I would just cry (this hurt way worse than labor!). At first I didn't really know what the deal was, as I didn't know what mastitis was (which also means that I didn't know what to do to prevent it). So I super googled it and realized that my symptoms matched up perfectly. I researched natural ways to combat it and started to improve, but then the next day it got way worse and so Mike and my mom ganged up on me and made me go in and get it checked out. They gave me an antibiotic (which I am so not a fan of at all) and something for pain (which I am also not a fan of so I never ended up using them) and told me to REST (which is hard for me)! It took a bit but it finally did start to clear up, but in the mean time they said that I should pump if it was too painful to feed. Then shortly after that I was still having a lot of pain but with different symptoms and so I super googled again and figured out that I probably had thrush. It is a common occurrence when you are on antibiotics (stuff like this is why I dislike medications and antibiotics, though I understand there is a time a place for it). Again you can read about that here. Thrush is easily passed between mom and baby while breastfeeding, but thankfully since Zeke was being bottle fed at the time he never got it. So I got some cream and some more medication (I don't think I have had so many prescriptions combined during my whole life as I have had in the past month) and now thankfully I am coming out of it and hope to be done with all of this crazy stuff soon!

I am anxious to get this all officially behind us and start breastfeeding Zeke again. I am a bit nervous that he might have nipple confusion once we start again, so I am really praying that he takes back to it. I never really got the opportunity to enjoy the experience, I know a lot of ladies talk about it being one of their favorite things. So I really hope to be able to experience that yet. Pumping has been quite time consuming and is making it tricky to get things done around the house since Zeke has been cluster feeding during the day. So I pretty much will bottle feed him, play, do diaper changes, put him down to sleep, pump, try to quick grab something to eat and then start everything over again. Though we are getting good sleep at night, so I try not tot complain too much.

My brother asked me today if having a baby was what I thought it would be and as I have said before the baby part of everything has been way easier than I thought it would be. But the "me" part of everything has been harder than I thought it would be, it made it a bit harder too because I was feeling so good the first couple of weeks until I was hit with these things. I just try to remember the saying " Your biggest struggle will be your greatest victory!" So that just means that this will start to get easy for us here soon!

I just want any ladies out there that is fighting either of these things now or in the future to feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions or just want some support and want to talk about it. I totally understand that its really painful and can be hard to deal with on top of the lack of sleep and emotional state that we are in. It was also really hard for me to switch to just bottle feeding as I felt like a bad mom and that I was failing, but I had to remember that I couldn't properly take care of Z or my family if I wasn't taking care of myself first. Also to those new moms or about to be new moms out there, read up on these and do your best to prevent them from effecting you. I really wish I would of known before hand how common they were because then I definitely would of researched them and found out how to do my best to keep them from hitting me.

YouTube Channel

We created a YouTube channel to upload our family videos to. Its a bit quicker and more convenient than uploading them to the blog or emailing them out to everyone as we have a flip video camera and they have it all set up in the software!

Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/bemicrew

 

Add it to your favorites and check back often and I will do my best to keep it updated with the newest videos of our family adventures!