Welcome, Charlie

Misty says she's "too tired" to post a blog entry about our new addition to the family, so she asked me (Travis) to do it for her. Yeah, right, I say -- come on, how hard can delivering a baby and nursing him be?! :)

Okay, so first the vital stats. Charles David Moesser was born at 2008-06-11T14:07-0600 (that's 2:07 PM MDT Thursday if you're not an enginerd like me) at the Logan (Utah) Regional Hospital Women's Center. If you want to know the latitude and longitude, check my blog entry on Jack's birth. He weighed in at 6 lb 2.2 oz (2784 g) and was 19.5 inches (49.5 cm) long. By the way, if you didn't know, I work for an aerospace company that does business with NASA and the scientific community, so I'm used to reporting numbers sometimes in both imperial and metric units -- usually, though, it's hundreds of thousands of pounds and metric tonnes, not ounces and grams. He was delivered by James P. Benedict, MD, as was Jack.

Misty was induced at her doctor's order, at a gestation of 36 3/7 weeks (by ultrasound measurements), so little Charlie was technically born premature by 4 days. Probably because he was born "medium rare" instead of "well done," he had three brief episodes where he stopped breathing in his first four hours of life. Luckily, he was being observed by the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurses at the time, because they're always concerned about lung development on premature babies. His O2 saturation dropped below normal levels, and he started to turn "dusky" when the nurses had to pat-start his breathing again. He was admitted to the NICU for observation. His blood work initially seemed to indicate that he might have been fighting an infection, but this later turned out to not be the case. So we still don't know exactly why he stopped breathing those times, but otherwise he was a completely healthy baby boy, and was discharged from the NICU after only 19 hours and not having another apnea episode. He spent the remainder of our 48-hour post-delivery stay with us in Misty's room or in the well-baby nursery. We left for home around 3:30 PM Saturday.

Here are some pictures from the hospital:

Charlie is quite exhausted from his birthing ordeal, and from those mean nurses wiping and poking and taking blood and injecting and rubbing and inspecting him. You can relax now.

Despite having known each other for over 8 months, Misty and Charlie are properly introduced for the first time. He seems to be less than thrilled.

Charlie is recuperating from his first two apnea episodes. He has started to regain his pink coloring and is no longer "mottled."

In the category of "first time for everything," Mommy struggles to control her elder child while taking delicate care of her younger.

Jack assists Daddy in a cheesy self-portrait. Thankfully, our new camera has smile detection, so simultaneous perfectly cheesy grins are now possible from multiple self-photograph subjects.


Misty thinks, "Are we ready to do this again?" or maybe, "You'd better help more this time," or maybe it's something more tender and loving.


Charlie's dressed for the ride home, and has everything he needs -- namely, his Binky.


Jack holds still for 0.75 seconds, just long enough to pose for a picture with Charlie in his car seat. The chest buckle in the car seat doubles as a chin support for Charlie. I don't remember Jack being this small, but he was!

Jack, what do you think of your baby brother Charlie? Well, no, this is actually what he thinks of his peanut butter/tortilla roll-up, but we can pretend.

Actually, Jack has been a pretty good big brother so far, and Charlie has been a very good baby, except he hasn't got his schedule set to Mountain Time yet (that's why I'm finishing this post at 1:00 AM). Jet lag is what I'm thinking -- those storks likely travel thousands of miles to make their deliveries. Let's see, what else... he's a skinny little guy, and I'm afraid I'm going to break him whenever I have to change is diaper. He has zero butt and chicken legs. But he's a good eater, so hopefully that doesn't last long.

Well, I'm done, but Misty's up and so's Charlie, ready for another feeding. Good night!

Ready, OR NOT, Here he comes!

So, the decision has been made and we have scheduled the induction for Thursday! So, my July baby is going to be a mid-June baby! I have to say that I am excited to almost be done, but a little nervous because he will be a little more than 3 weeks early. The doc doesn't seem too worried though. Jack was 2 weeks early and just fine...but all babies are different. I think that we are ready! My great friend, Annie, is going to come and stay with Jack here at the house. We thought that it would be easier for him. I bet he is going to have fun playing with her girls!
I'm also pretty sure that the hospital has internet, so we can post pics when we get them! So, keep your eyes open for pictures of Baby Charlie coming soon!!

Head Start!

So, the doctor has informed me that our baby boy is going to get an early start in life outside the womb! I was praying that I could talk him into inducing me sometime between 38 and 39 weeks along. That is how far along I was with Jack...and pregnancy with Jack was much more pleasant! Well, when I was at the doctor last Friday, he said that he wasn't going to let me get past 37 weeks, which is on the 15th...AHHHHH!! So, Baby Moesser #2 will likely be here in about 2 weeks. My body is very excited, but as I make the list of things to be done, I am terrified!
We need to paint Jack's room, clean the house, wash everything from car seats to clothes. Luckily, my wonderful friend, Annie, is going to come and stay with Jack and I don't think that we need much more for the baby! I think that Travis is happy that I didn't procrastinate in getting the things that we needed! Travis is almost done with his thesis...and I think that the doctors plans are great motivation for him to finish!! ;)
So, hopefully there will be a post with a cute little squished and alien looking newborn (we all know that newborns are a little funny looking)! We are excited!

ABSOLUTELY NAUGHTY!!

Yes, I am talking about my sweet 18 month old son! I can't believe that he is old enough to be in Nursery! He LOVES it, by the way...(we are going to have to work on NOT kissing the girls!)
It all started Wednesday when I was helping with the Primary activity. Natalie and I were in charge of helping the kids make job charts. Jack was there, along with Natalie's little boy, Harrison, who I believe is around 2. They were playing the piano when we got a group of 16 VERY crazy and mouthy boys. We finally got through our talking sch-peel and were starting the job charts, when I realized that I had not heard the piano for a minute. Then I noticed that someone had propped the door opened. I didn't freak out because 1) we were in the church, 2) there were tons of people there that knew the boys and 3) I knew that Jack couldn't push the outside door open.
After I went around the church twice, I started to get nervous and some of the ladies started helping me look...
We found them...Both boys had climbed out the primary room window and were clear across the parking lot throwing rocks!! Little boys in pairs are dangerous!! And by the way, he now CAN push the outside doors open...did I mention he only weighs 23 pounds and is in the 15th percentile for weight?

Later that night...I put Jack to bed and put the baby gate in his doorway because he is now tall enough that he can open doors. I heard him playing in the dark, but I figured that as long as he made it to bed shortly, I really didn't care if he played a bit. Self-regulation is a great thing for kids to learn, right? I finally heard him get in his bed and when the light snoring started I went in to tuck him in. And what do you think I saw? First, I saw the big tub of Eucerin Cream (Jack has my dry skin) open with the lid across the room...then I noticed the greasy spots all over the sheet on his bed and finally the nasty, greasy hair that was created when he rubbed the cream all over his hair!!! He thinks that any kind of lotion or soap is shampoo!!
So, what did this "good mother" do? There was NO WAY that I was waking him up, so I wiped his hair with a wipe and turned his pillow over!! Needless to say, it took about 3 baths to get it all out of his hair!
This kid definitely keeps me entertained!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

Jack has a favorite book now. We have read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" a million times! He loves it! He will point to the pictures that you ask him to and will even help count the food by moving his finger over the items and trying to imitate the numbers! He does well with "two", "five", "ten" and "cheese"! It is SOOO cute!

He is hitting milestone after milestone and it is so fun to watch him try to figure things out!! I think that this is my favorite stage so far...minus the tantrums and stubborn moments!! :)

Ice cream, speckled eggs and a speckled boy?

It's been a while since I posted anything! Things have been busy here with Travis finishing up his thesis, me trying to clean up behind Jack and the spring cleaning that I am not accomplishing! So...where did I leave off last time?
Jack had his first ice cream sundae all to himself earlier this month. He enjoyed it for a while, but since he was not too interested in using a spoon, his fingers got old and he was done with 2/3 left to go! He did get really messy, which was the whole point!
The Easter Bunny actually came to our house this year! He left a trail of plastic eggs leading to Jack's basket. We didn't dye any eggs for the bunny to hide because Jack won't eat eggs (yet), we don't need the cholesterol and the smell would have killed me! Jack loved finding the eggs, but wasn't too interested in the basket...until he figured out that there were bubbles in there!
Later that day Travis' parents, sister and her husband came to dinner. It was fun! Luckily Jack was there for entertainment because I am a boring and quite terrible hostess!!
Jack also had is first sick doctor visit in 18 months! :( He ended up having an ear infection and possibly a slight case of RSV. The doc put him on an antibiotic, and we gave him a few breathing treatments. The Howells were kind enough to let us borrow their nebulizer so that we didn't have to rent one for $60 for 3 treatments!!
10 days later we went in for his 18 month checkup and he is in the 91st percentile for height and the 15th for weight! I would have never thought that I would have such a skinny kid!!! He conveniently woke up with a rash that morning and it turns out that he has a viral rash that will go away within 1-6 weeks!! It was so light when he woke up, but by the time we got to the doctor I thought he had leprosy and I was expecting body parts to start falling off! So, now he is my speckled boy! We need a new camera, so the picture doesn't give him any justice for the nasty rash that he has! He started nursery on Sunday, so I am praying that he didn't spread it to anyone else!
Aside from the rash, he is doing great! Baby Moesser is coming along too. He seems to be a little more aggressive than Jack was! I am definitely ready to not be pregnant!!

Big Boy Bed!!

Well, it is official! Jack is in a "big boy" bed now! And I do mean BIG bed! We decided to skip the toddler bed and jump right to the twin size bed. My grandma was nice enough to ask us if we needed a bed when she was looking to find a new home for a twin bed that she didn't use anymore. My great friend, Amy, also gave us a a safety rail for the bed (and a jump-a-roo that Baby Moesser #2 is going to enjoy). We are so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives!

We were planning on setting up the bed after we painted Jack's room, but since that has been postponed until May when Travis is done with his thesis, we set it up anyway! I am definitely nesting and ready to get the entire house ready for the baby that is still 3 months away...although I am shooting for 2 weeks early! ;)

He has done so well! It has been 3 nights since we set it up and he has slept through the night every night! The first night it took me sitting in his room facing away from him and putting him back into bed about 25 times, but after that Travis and I switched and he was down within 15 minutes! Beautiful! Saturday night took about 25 minutes and Sunday a little longer becuase Travis was not home and I think that Jack was waiting to give Daddy kisses! Needless to say, it has been very easy...maybe too easy! I'm waiting for the honeymoon to be over!

We are very proud of our little guy!! I hope this next one is as easy!!