Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Farm to Fork

You might remember reading about our attempt at a garden this year.  I should clarify that by garden, I mean, 3 zucchini and 3 tomato plants (and a small herb garden). We've been wanting to try this for several years now and finally, in my last trimester of pregnancy - - we planted it.  What's even more amazing is, it seems to be successful!  Well, truth be told, we lost one tomato plant.  However, I think we are going to be enjoying plenty of tomatoes that we aren't mourning the loss too much!


Picking the very 1st zucchini for "harvest"

The 3 winners!

One large zucchini made enough yumminess for a double batch of muffins and two loafs of zucchini bread! I sent one home with Ryan's mom and froze the other.  Madison cannot get enough of the muffins, which thrills me because there are lots of veggies inside.  I'm going to need some new zucchini recipes...anyone??

Monday, June 24, 2013

Father's Day

I'm a little behind on this post..I'm hoping the toddler and baby are good enough excuses.

We want to wish a very happy Father's Day to Ryan.  Madison and Luke love their dad so much.  They are fortunate to have a daddy that gives them so much attention, flies them around the house, stays up late to feed them, always remembers to put in a bow and gives them unconditional love.  Seriously, Ryan is an amazing father.  I know we both feel like we are "winging-it" around here most of the time.  Parenting is serious stuff! But, he does it with ease and grace and a lot of laughter!
Father's Day 2013 with Madison and Luke

Pool-side with Luke

Giving Madison her first dance!


Thursday, June 13, 2013

Sleeping Beauties

Sleep is a high commodity around the Castile Household these days.

Let's start with Madison.

Our dear, sweet, amazing sleeper Madison.  Seriously, we have been ridiculously "lucky" with her sleep. She goes down consistently at 7pm and sleeps until between 7 and 8 in the morning. She doesn't fight bedtime/naptime and will play in her crib for an extended period of time upon waking.  With that being said...she's had a rough week.  On Monday we visited with some friends until 7:30, so she went down late, but I thought we were still OK.  However, she managed to stay awake until 10:30.  10:30. Never before has Madison seen a bedtime this late.  This came on the night before her first day in her new daycare class (the "older twos").  Where, she had an excellent day socially, but managed to not nap at all.  I'm not sure if she was afraid she'd miss something or it was just and adjustment, but she never laid down.  It took her being home for approximately two minutes before she started melting down.  No surprise from this mama.  She was served dinner early, where she promptly feel asleep while eating. Which, earned her a 6pm bedtime and 13 hours of sleep.

Hopefully, we are back on a schedule.  We have been talking a lot about nap time at school and that she is supposed to go "night-night."  There might have been a bribe involved, which I have no idea if she is old enough to understand, but we will see how naptime goes today...



Now Luke.




What a surprise little Luke has been since the beginning.  I would not use mellow or chill to describe this child.  He's sweet and snugly, but high maintenance.  During the day, Luke naps a variety of places.  Of course, his place of choice is being held.  But, he does great in the car seat when we are out and occasionally will nap in the bouncer.
sleeping at the pool


sleeping in the Moses basket


Snuggled in the car seat


 The biggest issue is if he wakes up before he's ready.  Whoa - what a grouch!  At night, we are sticking to the crib.  I've discovered the "double swaddle."  Google this. It is amazing and he can't break out of it.  Last night we were rewarded with two four-hour stretches.  Which, for me is 6 hours of sleep.  I've been going to bed at 10pm, Ryan does a feeding around 12 and then I'm up at 4.  I'm a whole-new mama.  A much, much better mama with sleep!!  Please cross your fingers for us that this trend continues!!!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Luke - 1 month old



Date: June 4, 2013

Weight: 7lbs 3 oz

Feeding:  Luke is nursing 99% of the time and takes 1 bottle a day of pumped milk.  Generally, he goes 3 to 4 hours between feedings.

Sleeping: Ehhh...hopefully more to come?  He would be content being held 100% of the time and would likely sleep long stretches at night.  However, Luke does not seem to like being flat on his back and struggles to get the burps out.  This has made for a lot of trial and error.  My parents bought Luke a beautiful bassinet.  That he screams in.  We've tried the crib, elevated 1 -textbook high, where he will sleep for a few hours.  My dear friend lent us her arms-reach, co-sleeper, which has worked maybe 10% of attempts.  Last night, I caved and he spent from 4-6 in the bouncer seat while I slept on the couch.  Today, my friend lent us her rock-and-play sleeper to try.  The irony is, I had big plans regarding sleep for Luke.  We created so many bad habits with Madison that I was eager to teach this child how to put himself to sleep from the get-go. Ha! I am currently just in survival mode.  Any tips from seasoned moms out there?

Likes: Being held and snuggled.  He is such a snuggle-bug!  His awake times are later in the day and he enjoys a few minutes of tummy time and playing/lying and looking at his toy mat.  Madison - Luke loves to look at Madison!  Eating.  His paci - for a few minutes at a time.

Dislikes: Being swaddled (Luke much prefers to have his hands together and often up by his face), lying flat on your back, being put into the car seat.  Luke don't love to have your diaper changed or be bathed, but is starting to relax a little more.

Fun Facts: Madison loves to hold Luke. She isn't too sure about him and really doesn't like when he cries (it often sends her into a crying fit).

As a family: Going from 1-2 children is definitely an adjustment!  Madison has struggled, mostly just being more sensitive and emotional.  The first two weeks were filled with melt-downs and whining.  I do think that things are getting better and she is starting to return to a clam state!  Ryan and I have been working on stopping the melt-downs immediately.  We've been giving her a lot of lap time and snuggles and I do believe it will all even out.  She has become such a Daddy girl and it is sweet to hear her talk so much more!  Madison will be transitioning rooms at daycare and we are both nervous and excited to see how it goes next week.






Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Belle of the Ball

Ryan's sister, Michelle, married Jimi on Saturday May 11, 2013.  As a family, we have been so excited about this celebration.  We love Michelle and Jimi so much as a couple.  I enjoyed hearing about all of Michelle's decisions and couldn't wait to see all her hard work and planning play out for a beautiful weekend.  And, as icing on the cake, Madison was asked to be a flower girl!

Unfortunately, with Luke's early arrival and my c-section, I was advised to miss the wedding.  After shedding many tears, Ryan took on single daddy duty and rocked it!  The pictures and stories are proof that their wedding was absolutely perfect and we couldn't be happier for the new couple!

The bride, her bridesmaids and flower girls

Madison



Dancing with Daddy



Madison loves her Aunt Shell so much and this picture melts my heart!

Madison in the middle of the dance floor!

With the bride and groom!



He's Here

We welcomed Luke Ryan Castile 5 weeks early! He was in a hurry to join our family and completely caught us off guard.  For those of you that know me well, you know I like to plan.  I have often referenced the quote "If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans."

Here's the back story.  On Friday May 3, Madison and I had a fun day planned with shopping in the morning and a late afternoon play-date.  Ryan had plans to see a movie and play in a golf tournament that Saturday.  I had just finished my last day at the clinic and was looking forward to getting things together and wrapping up loose ends in May.  Madison and I went to Target for some shopping and a few stores searching for flower-girl shoes.  We came home in time to make lunch.  Just before lunch we had a few minutes to play "babies" on the couch.  At 11:30, I got up to get lunch started and in the middle of the living room my water broke.  I freaked.  Instantly.  It is probably my worst parenting moment (to date) with Madison because I could not contain my fear and emotions and I was a mess.  Which, meant Madison was hysterical as well.  I yelled up to Ryan, who luckily was working at home.  Unfortunately, he didn't understand what I was saying and told me he was on a call and he'd be down shortly (he thought maybe a pipe was leaking).  I was able to express that this was an emergency and luckily he came down.  We instantly went into "go" mode.  Between our sweet neighbor, my bff Casey and amazing Aunt "Shell" Madison was covered 100% and I quickly threw together a bag for me and Ryan.  And, off we went. I wasn't sure if they would try to stop the delivery or let it go, but I was terrified either way.  At 34 weeks and 6 days I knew we were right on the border of Luke being healthy and able to come home versus being immature and needing additional NICU/special infant care intervention.  Which, given my profession, is pretty terrifying to me.

Long story short - the OB was fine with Luke being delivered.  There was a lot of discussion about if he was to be born before or after midnight, as this was the difference between him being born at 34 weeks versus 35 weeks (crazy that an hour made such a difference!).  I got my epidural and basically things just went very slow. Overnight, we noticed that Luke's heart rate was dropping with each contraction.  Apparently this is pretty common, but with my progress being slow the OB started to be concerned about lack of oxygen over the next several hours.  Immediately, I was on board with a c-section (lack of oxygen is a scary thing).  I boo-hooed a lot when they told me I couldn't pick up Madison for 6 weeks and was generally an emotional mess!

I won't go into detail, but an emergency c-section at 3 am is not really fun.  I am sure I'm on some list of "crazy patients" as I was so emotional the.entire.time (seriously).  But the end result was so worth it.

Meet Luke Ryan Castile.  Born 3:31 am, 5 lbs 1 oz, 19 inches long


After having his oxygen sats monitored for 6 hours and passing with flying colors, Luke was able to be with us the entire time in the hospital.  Aside from some jaundice issues, there were no additional concerns from his prematurity.  We both went home on day 4!



Family of 4 now!

Headed home.