Drew's Last Day Home

Today is sadly the last day that Drew has off work :( It will be sad not having him around. I'm a little scared of what tomorrow will bring. Hopefully I will be able to keep the crying to a minimum. For the most part they are really good together, but it seems like when one of them needs your undivided attention the other one starts to have some kind of melt down. For example Gabe hardly ever cries unless I'm trying to rock Molly to sleep. And Molly always seems to want me to read her a book when it's time to feed Gabe. We'll have to work on getting a schedule going. But so far so good I haven't felt too overwhelmed by either of them yet. I'll only have a week alone and then my mom is going to come in town for a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to that.

We wanted to use our zoo membership once more before it got too hot. Molly loves it when we let her walk all by herself. We have to keep a close eye on her, she loves other kids and sometimes she'll just start following one of them.

Another picture from the zoo

This is Gabe this morning 4/28


It's amazing what a size difference there is. Gabe is trying to catch up. He had another check up on 4/24 and he weighed 6 lbs 14 oz. So he gained about 13 oz. in 7 days.

Molly loves looking at books and recently she has started handing us books and sitting in our laps. It's so cute.



I love his little smile.

Kids Are a Blast

There come times in every child's life when they pass the point of being tired and crabby, and enter into the realm of being drunken with laughter. Molly briefly entered this realm the other night and we were quick enough with the camera to capture the moment.

Life so far is great with two kids. The strangest parts I think have been two car seats in the back seat, and having to use two carts at the grocery store. That's when it really hits you, when you each have your own cart. However, Sam's Club has extra wide carts with room for two, so that is quite the luxury I must say.

The most challenging part so far, figureing out who is crying in the middle of the night...

Getting into the swing of things

I kept telling Drew that I was ready not to be pregnant anymore. Yet I wasn't planning on Gabe coming so early. I woke up at 2 Monday morning from a contraction. I didn't think too much of it until 5 minutes later when I had another one and they just kept coming. I guess I just thought that things would be the same as they were with Molly. Gabriel knew when he wanted to come. Everything went really well and I'm happy to be at home. Gabe had his first check up today. He's 6lbs 1oz and they said that he is 20 1/4 inches, I'm thinking that someone must be a little off because I don't think he grew 1 1/4 inches in three days. He has been sleeping a lot. Last night he let me sleep four hours straight, it was really nice. Molly is really cute with him. She gets so excited when she sees him. She does this funny laugh as she breaths in, very cute. We do have to keep a close eye on her. She likes to share with him. She tries to give him all kinds of things...pacifiers, crackers, toys anything she thinks he needs. It's very cute and scary at the same time. I always thought that Molly was small, but next to Gabe she's a giant. She hasn't had any jealous moments yet and I'm hoping that it will stay that way.

Gabriel and Dad taking a nap

He loves getting swaddled and then moving around until the blanket is almost covering his whole face. He looks like he's in a cocoon.

What a great big sister

Welcome Gabriel

Well, if you think that you were surprised (if you were someone that got a phone call), we were even more surprised. We had our baby Monday morning, and for those of you less confident with numbers than I, that is about 3 weeks early. So here is the mini story. My self and Molly are passed out sleeping when suddenly Jenny is standing at the side of the bed and wakes me at about 3:30 in the morning. She says she has been having contractions every five minutes for over an hour and is pretty sure that we need to go to the hospital. Me, still being in a drunken stooper from the NY-Quil I had taken didn't really comprehend. So Jenny takes a quick shower and I continue sleeping. By the time she gets out, it finally hit me that it really was happening. So I shower and start getting everything together. We had absolutely nothing packed. We were sure that we had at least a week or so. In fact, if Jenny hadn't gone shopping on Saturday, we wouldn't really have had any clothes for him.
So anyway, by the time we get everything packed and ready to go, we arrived at the hospital at about 5:15 AM (a very inconvenient truth). Jenny got the magic pain meds by about 6:30 while Drew was dropping off Molly with some friends (the Chirstensens for those of you familiar with the Orland Park Ward). Jenny pushed twice for the nurse, and twice for the doctor and out he came. At 10:36 AM Gabriel Andrew Wilkerson was born weighing 6lbs 4 oz and 19 inches long. Everything went perfect. Mom and Gabriel came home today already and are doing great. Well that is my version. I'm sure Jenny will provide her own version when she regains her strength.Enjoy the pics...

Yesterday

Yesterday I had a doctors appointment (4/9). I was dilated 2 cm, the doctor said that the baby is right where he should be. So it's exciting to know that the little contractions that I've been having are doing something. The doctor thinks that he will be here soon, but I was dilated with Molly the whole last month of being pregnant. I'm interested to see if there is any more progress next week. That is the Jenny update.

Molly is getting into more trouble everyday. Most recently she has learned how to open the screen door. Luckily she's slow and loud so we know what she's up to before she's outside. She is so adventurous. She loves pulling out my plants. She has also found a love for shoes. She brings me different ones throughout the day. She likes dancing with them on the tile. She has really come out of her shell since she has started walking. We went to the zoo last week and she was talking to all the animals. Usually she is more interested in the kids, so it was fun to see her notice the animals.

The Waiting Game

Well, we are still playing the waiting game on schools. I have heard from 5, and waiting still to hear from 4 more (yes, I applied to nine schools, crazy. We are almost finished paying off the application fees). I have been accepted at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, but have been put on the wait list to receive a TA-ship which would pay for tuition and a small salary. So that is a draw back. On the plus side though, Lincoln is almost as cheep as Rexburg (1200 sq. feet for under $750 a month), and we will be only a 7 hour drive from family and some very dear friends a little further north. For those of you still keeping score, I am waiting to here from U of Minnesota, U of Iowa, Michigan State, and Notre Dame. At this point, I am definitely not a top choice for any of them, but at the same time, I haven't been denied, so that is good. I was dumped by U of Wisconsin, U of Illinois, Purdue, and Northwestern. Hopefully this will be the week I hear, but I have been saying that for 3 weeks or so. My sinking suspicion is that I may not hear until after April 15th when the top choice students have made there decisions.
We are getting a little restless about knowing where we get to move, but we'll keep playing the waiting game.

A picture update

Molly on the patio in the pool that she got for her birthday.

She loves the computer if we don't push the chair in she climbs up and opens all kinds of things. It's scary when you see her and there are screens open asking if you want to change your password.

Molly this morning (3/31)

Molly is such a girl. She loves to walk around the apartment carrying this purse (the one I got over the summer from Kelly's purse party). It's so funny that she knows to put it over her shoulder. She's attempted to walk around with the diaper bag this way, but it doesn't work too well.

Here is a belly picture. Four more weeks to go assuming that he comes when the ultra sound predicts (4/25). Now all that is left is to pick a name. I had a dream the other night that he came early and the doctors wouldn't let us take him home because he didn't have a name :(