My babies and their friends....

One of my best-est friends, Emily, was in town this week with her 1-year-old little man, Harrison. You met him for the first time in this post. Sheesh! Time is flying by I can't believe it's been a year already! I'm so excited for Em and her hubby, Brian. They're expecting their second little man in March!

Micah, Aaron, and I spent some time hanging out with them and with Brittany and her little man, Griffin, who you met for the first time in this post.



We cleverly arranged them from oldest to youngest- Micah, Harrison, Griffin, and Aaron. The 2 middle boys hated sitting still-- and Aaron just wasn't happy.

We had such a great time getting all of our kids together-- however its not really the same kind of great times we shared as nursing students in college, but times change I suppose.

This next part is for my mother, mother-in-law, and grandma. They've been complaining about not having any current pictures of my children. So here you are. Just 3 simple steps to get them on your computer-
1. Click on the picture to open it in a new window.
2. Right-click on the picture and select 'save image as'.
3. Select the location you would like it to go on your computer and press ok!

The faces of Aaron

Fish Face

Big Eyes!

Pure cuteness.

A new blog!!

I'm so excited to introduce my brand-spankin'-new blog!

www.injensfreetime.blogspot.com

Get excited! Add it to your favorites, bookmark it, link it to your blog, and tell your friends!! Just don't forget to check it out!!

Growing and getting loud!

The Tooley household, like most households with children, has been LOUD lately! After about 5 weeks of a blissfully peaceful existence, Aaron decided to make some noise-- and he didn't stop until yesterday. After about a week of non-stop fussing I had nearly lost my mind. I didn't hesitate to take him to walk-in hours on a Saturday morning to insist on something for reflux. Good thing the doctor agreed with my diagnosis. He's doing much better now.


Micah has enjoyed helping me out-- she's such a little mommy. With any noise that Aaron makes she is convinced he needs his "pacies" and won't hesitate to try to force one into his mouth. Which can only make the situation better, right?

Everything I do my little helper is right by my side, helping me keep track of the baby. I think she thinks he's going to wander off and never come back. I almost have to tape her down just to keep her out of the bathtub while I bathe him. He takes the chaos well, I must say.


As you can see, Aaron is starting to look more like his daddy everyday... blue eyes and hairline included. At his 1-month check-up he weighed 10lbs 10oz (65th percentile) and was 22.25in long (66th percentile). I'm sure he's over 12lbs now since his cute clothes are finally starting to fit. I love the outfit he wore to church this morning! (Thanks to Aunt April and Uncle Josh for the shirt!!!)

My little 2-ring circus.

I've decided not to send out birth announcements-- mainly because I'm not satisfied with the results of my several attempts to get some baby pictures. Sorry to all of you running to your mailbox every afternoon hoping to see some adorable pictures of my child. I'll show you what I've been able to get-- they're still cute, but not the drop-dead-gorgeous baby photos I had envisioned.




Adjusting to life with a second child hasn't been the circus I had thought it would be. Don't get me wrong- I definitely feel like I'm running a zoo sometimes, but I chalk that up to the crazy 2-year-old living with me. From the moment Micah's little eyelids open in the morning she is ready to go bye-bye. And, while she was an only-child, we usually did have some place to go or something to do. Now that her little brother has entered the scene she can't seem to understand why we're not conquering all the end-of-summer-sales at the Castleton Mall.... oh, how I wish we could!!! Playing with "bubblef" and going to the park are only fun the first 15 minutes, or however long it takes Aaron to realize he is hungry.... again.

The last 4 weeks and been a whirlwind- a little stressful, but a lot of wonderful. My baby boy has gained a little over 2 pounds already!! He weighed 9lbs 11oz a couple of days ago and is starting to outgrow some of his newborn clothes. He's looking like a little man- complete with a beautiful pair of blue eyes to compete with his sister's.


Speaking of that little girl- here's what Aaron thinks of her....

Another big day!

As planned, the nasal cannula was discontinued early this morning. Feedings went really well during the night-- so well that I only got about 3 hrs of sleep. The IV nutrition was discontinued late this morning because of his great breastfeeding. I was able to give Aaron his first bath, unfortunately I was alone at the time so I wasn't able to get any pictures. After his bath he was upgraded to a normal crib-- clearing the warmer out of the room. YAY!!



Micah was able to visit again today- this is her 4th time seeing her new brother. She is thrilled with the baby. I asked her what the baby's name was and she quickly replied, "ELMO!". Too bad the birth certificate is already filed.



Aaron is finally our normal baby. I can't begin to imagine how families cope with NICU stays lasting weeks and months. Our 7-day tour was quite enough. We anticipate going home Saturday afternoon-evening sometime.



Thank you all again for your thoughts and prayers for our family and our precious baby boy. I truly believe that without our faith this small bump in the road would not have passed so smoothly.

And he's off!...

Big day for Aaron- he's off the vent and breathing on his own!!! And doing great, too! In fact, he's almost off everything! Shortly after he was extubated, the doctor discontinued one of his umbilical lines, leaving the other in place for him to continue to received the antibiotics. Then, about 30 minutes after that was out I got to feed him! He did wonderfully breastfeeding, picking up right where he left off on Saturday. I couldn't be more proud of my little man. As you can see in the picture, he still has on a little bit of oxygen. If you ask me, it's such a small amount I don't think he really even needs it-- his nurse agrees with me. That should be gone by the morning.

The plan now is this--

**Antibiotics for another 3 days.
**Eat
**Sleep
**Pee and poop.
**Get circumcised.
**Pass hearing screen.
**Watch fireworks from NICU window.
**Go home and live happily ever after.