I am back, I think!

I have taken a two week hiatus from posting. I swear I could just sit here and hold Maxwell all day long. It feels like this time went by so fast with Wesley and I just want to enjoy it as much as I can.

Wesley has really taken to his new role as a big brother. I was worried the first few days because he really had little interest in Maxwell. Anyway, since then, he asks to hold his brother every day. He is also extremely affectionate - giving Maxwell many hugs, kisses, and pokes. Shane and I are really enjoying the new found task manager in Wesley too. He is our runner and always willing to help. We just hope this go getter attitude doesn't wear off too soon. I have to also share a funny thing Wesley told me a week ago. He told me, "Mommy, your belly is still big." Of course, I am thinking - thanks sweetheart. And he gave it a few minutes of serious thought and said it again - just in case I didn't understand. We may have to work on his tact!

Maxwell left the hospital at 7 lbs 10 oz and we had a 6 day check up and he was up to 7 lbs 15 oz. So I am feeling pretty confident that he is eating well and growing. Unlike Wesley, Maxwell never had any jaundice concerns. I think we are all adapting well to our new schedule. He is a great sleeper right now and I hope it continues. Our only challenge is that is a pretty gassy guy and seems really uncomfortable during those moments. If anyone has any pointers in that area - please let me know!

It's a Boy!!!

Maxwell Tate

Born February 20, 2008

At 11:48 am

8 lbs. 2 oz.

21 inches long

Here is a link to the hospital pictures:

http://www.our365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?birthid=e66a0c11-da3f-4a58-9adf-9a53bd8f98b8

Baby Update

Tomorrow is the big day (unless something crazy changes). We go in at 7:30 am and get tapped into the juice that will bring on the contractions. I am a little bit bummed because I really wanted to do this on my own but it doesn't appear that will be the case (I could still go in the next 10 hours, right?). My blood pressure has risen and I am measuring at 40 weeks, so my doctor felt this was the best decision. I guess I cannot complain about being done. So we look forward to making a baby announcement to everyone tomorrow!!!

As a side note, I just want to send some love to my mother... She just had her hip replaced today and beginning the recovery. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers and that her recovery is speedy and exceeds all our expectations!

38 Week Appt.

Just a quick update - I had my 38 week appointment today and am dilated to a 3. This may be no change from my previous appointments but it was the first time she could actually get a measurement since my cervix has been posterior.

Happy Valentine's Day

Just in case you needed a reason to smile today...

I don't know about everyone else but we are on a sugar high here. Well, Wesley is at least. Wesley exchanged Valentine's with his friends and has been bouncing off the walls tonight. They also made their own Valentine's boxes at school, which brought back some fun elementary school memories for me... Anyway, I tried to get Wesley to take a nice picture once he got home. First to go were his pants because they were a little wet around the bottoms from snow. Then I was trying to wet his hair a little and got a couple drops of water on his shirt. So, the only shots I could get of him were in his flamin' underwear. He is extremely sensitive to wet or dirty clothes and could hardly stand still for one second!

Our romantic holiday was spent at the dinner table with a delicious bacon wrapped BBQ pork tenderloin (from Lund's) and a favorite - sweet potato casserole with marshmallows. Even Wesley ate everything and he hates potatoes. We just called it marshmallow sweets and he didn't catch on. Although, there was probably enough sugar and butter to out weigh any nutritional value.

Well, as a final note, we'd like to send our love and prayers to all of our family and friends today. We feel truly blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives. Much Love, the Kavanagh's

"The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart." - Helen Keller

"Fourscore and seven years ago

our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Wesley and his friends celebrated Abe Lincoln's birthday today. Did I mention that I love our daycare? I think he gets to do so many neat things plus I get pictures emailed to me, which totally make my day!

He is also learning what is okay to say and not. On the way home from "school" yesterday, Wesley said "Oh My Gosh!" So I was like, what?! And he said, Mom that is okay to say. So then I was like okay but I prefer we say "Oh my goodness." Anyway, then he proceeds to tell me what is not okay to say "I hate this" and "STUUUPID" and "poopy butt." I really think he enjoyed saying them because he kept telling me that we don't say this or that. So basically he found a way to say them all without upsetting me. He is too smart for his own good. ; )

3 for 3

I have been dreading posting because we don't have anything great to say. We've been to the doctor at least six times this past week and a half. Wesley and I are doing much better but Shane now has a miserable ear infection. He went to Urgent Care today after a painful evening and sleepless night. His ear was even bleeding, so that was scary. So, we are all on antibotics and I almost feel like we know the pharmacy staff at Walgreens too well. We should be under house lockdown until we are all healthy!

My 37 week appt went well. I am officially full-term so I am anxious to get this over with. Shane probably wouldn't be the best birthing partner in his current condition so I will patiently wait. My doctor just said that my cervix was super, Super soft - moving up the scale of softness I guess. I was telling Wesley to look at my belly tonight because the baby was moving and he asked, "Mom, is it going to pop?" He isn't too far off from describing how I feel!

Things are looking up for us...

Wesley came home from daycare happy! When Wesley's happy, we're all happy. Yeah!!! He was in such a good mood we made a point to channel all that energy into making cupcakes. It was a lot of fun. So I took some pictures and even a little video clip of Wes counting to 12. You can tell that he his back to himself in the video - I hope you can view it.

We also found a trick to doing his nebulizer treatments. It includes a fish mask borrowed from our daycare's daughter. Once he thinks he is a fire blowing dragon fish it makes life inhaling meds not so bad. I found a couple more masks online and ordered them right away... soon he'll transform into Eden the Elephant and Nic the Dragon. Hey, anything to make this work is worth it!!! We followed up with reading books about "feeling good" to help retrain the brain. His hugs even made me feel like it was worth the pain of the past week.

I feel sorry for his future wife...

because I can hardly handle the whines and cries that are accompaning Wesley's illness. Usually a day or two is manageable but this is over the top. I know he isn't himself yet so I may have to go in for a recheck tomorrow if we stay on this path. We have battled constantly these past few days. He doesn't want milk, water, juice but it is thirsty. It takes an hour to get a 10 minute nebulizer treatment out of him. One second he wants something and the next he doesn't want anything but you cannot do anything right and everything is yucky. And he is reverting back to baby talk so productive conversations have been limited. It is very frustrating! Fortunately we are still potty trained (only one accident since we took away the night time pullups)! Anyway, if I ever want him to move out of the house and find a lovely wife - we'll need to work on breaking this whineness! ; ) Poor guy!

I've got chicken chili and regular chili warming in the crockpots and we are getting ready for the small Superbowl Party we are hosting.

36 week appt.

and nothing too exciting to post. My doctor said I am measuring along at 38 weeks, which is only freaking me out for a huge baby. We'll have to address that next week... This was also my first exam and she really couldn't tell much. Probably TMI - but she said that my cervix is really far back so she couldn't really tell if I am dilated at all. She didn't want to put me in much more discomfort so God Bless Her! She said that my cervix was super soft - whatever that means. I am a number person and need a little more quantitative data but that was good enough for me today. The baby's heart rate was in the 140's. I guess it was pretty uneventful but we are getting closer regardless!

Wesley and I are still pretty sick so I am just focusing on that right now.