1 year ago
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Sleeping baby
I had put Miles in his crib one morning when Will was at preschool so I could take a shower. He HATES when I do that and spends most of the time crying instead of playing with the toys I put in there for him. I was pretty surprised to find him sleeping when I got done with my shower! John and I had been saying how we didn't have any pictures of him sleeping, so I figured this was a perfect opportunity since his light was already on and it's not like a flash would wake him up.
Peekaboo!
Miles' new favorite thing is playing peekaboo. He's better at it when he has a blanket or something to hide behind than when he just uses his hands. If he's using his hands he puts them on top of his head, which means you're supposed to start saying "Where's Miles?" repeatedly. Once he's had enough of that he pulls his hands away and you say "Peekaboo!" It's pretty amusing!!
Costco
We met my mom at Costco one day this past week, and Will was enthralled with these kid seats. He sat down at the little table and said, "Mom, take my picture!" The recliner was really the big hit though. I'm kind of tempted to get one for each of the boys.
My handsome boys
Last night John and I were in bed at 8:00...we had put the boys to bed at 6:30 because they were so worn out from having spent the night at Gaga's on Friday. I think I was asleep around 8:30, so when Will woke up this morning around 6:00 needing to go use the potty I figured I might as well stay up instead of going back to sleep for an hour...and I'd gotten 9.5 hours of sleep as it was. Hence all the blog updates. :)
We weren't sure how dressy the church at Will's school was for his singing performance, so we dressed up more than we normally do for our church. Miles and Will both looked so handsome, I had to share their pics!
We weren't sure how dressy the church at Will's school was for his singing performance, so we dressed up more than we normally do for our church. Miles and Will both looked so handsome, I had to share their pics!
Will's church performance
Will's preschool is part of a private Lutheran school that's affiliated with a church. When we first went and toured the school we were told that families are requested to attend two services a year at the church since it supports the school. I kind of thought, "Yeah, sure, whatever." Then I found out how they get you there--twice a year the kids sing in one of the services. Tricky, huh? So the preschoolers had their Sunday a couple weeks ago. Will was pretty nervous about going up front to sing, and after the first song he came running back to where we were sitting. :) Then he ended up going back up to the front, but he sat down instead of standing with the other kids.
Not very happy about being up there:
Hiding under the pew when he came back to sit with us:
Begrudgingly returned to sing:
Not very happy about being up there:
Hiding under the pew when he came back to sit with us:
Begrudgingly returned to sing:
A special gift
If you looked at the album in my previous post you saw this picture and its lengthy comment, but I thought this was so sweet, I wanted to share it in a separate post. My friend Benah, her husband Dave, and their kids Fin and Greta came to Miles' party. Fin was carrying a box with a bow on top of it. Benah explained the box to me. Fin had drawn some pictures for Miles (a birthday cake, boogers, and a monster...what can I say, he's almost four!) for a present. He insisted on putting them in a box, so Benah said he walked all over their house looking for a box. He finally found one and put the pictures inside. He taped the box closed, put a bow on top and then wrote his name on the box. She said he was very upset because he had used a yellow crayon and you couldn't really see his name. I thought this was SO SWEET!!! I took a picture of the box before we opened presents, just so I could share this story. :)
Miles' Birthday Celebration
Here are the pictures from Miles' birthday celebration. We had a fun party for him the Saturday before his birthday with a bounce house for the bigger kids, tons of toys in the yard, and snacks and cake. I was pretty nervous in the morning because it was overcast and kept looking like it was going to rain. It did sprinkle a little at one point, and our friend Greg called to see if we wanted to borrow their pop-up in case it stayed raining. I made John go get it for some extra insurance that the rain would stop...and it did! By the time the party started at 2:30, it was gorgeous and sunny! Miles had a good time playing with all the kids, and my friend Laura got him hooked on juice boxes. Ah, his first addiction. ;) My family all stayed after the party for a pizza dinner and Miles' family party. Everyone was so generous with gifts!
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| Miles Birthday |
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Miles' Birth Story
My best friend Brooke recently posted the birth story of her sweetie daughter Alison, and I thought that would be a great idea to do on Miles' first birthday. Well, his birth story--not Alison's because that just wouldn't make any sense. Personally I love to read birth stories, but I'm sure some people are weirded out by them, so don't feel obligated to read it if you don't want to.
And can I just add that I can't believe my BABY is a year old already?!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At my OB appointment two weeks before my due date, I was 3cm dilated and the nurse practitioner said my mucus plug was gone. She said I’d go into labor anytime. Everything I planned, I had to tack on, “As long as the baby’s not here.” One week before my due date I was 5cm dilated and still no baby. “No way will you make it to your due date or your appointment next week,” I was told. Imagine my surprise when, in fact, I did make it to my next appointment, the day before my due date. At that appointment they were concerned about how big the baby would be since Will was 9lbs 2oz and born three days before my due date. They wanted to schedule an induction for early the next week, but I wanted it earlier since that was getting close to Thanksgiving. The nurse stripped my membranes to see if that would start moving things along.
I started having a few mild contractions on the way home from the doctor’s appointment. John had gone with me in case they wanted to admit me right then, given how dilated I was the week before. Will had stayed at my friend Jen’s house during the appointment. The contractions kept up pretty regularly, ever 8-10 minutes. I called Jen to see if she’d mind Will staying there a little longer. The contractions started to slow down and then stop, so John went in to work, and I went and picked up Will. The rest of the day was more of that--have a few contractions at regular time intervals, then nothing. Although, as the day progressed I got more and more uncomfortable and just didn’t feel quite right. We were about to sit down to dinner, and I told John, “I’m going to have my mom come get Will...I just don’t feel right and would rather him not be here tonight.” Our plan had been that if we had to go to the hospital right away, Will would go to Jen's and my mom would get him there, but we figured might as well cut out the middle man and just have her come get him since it seemed things might be progressing. The only thing that was comfortable was being in the shower or sitting on my exercise ball.
We ate dinner, and my mom showed up to get Will around 7:00. They left, and I told John I thought I’d get back in the shower. At this point I’d been having regular contractions for probably close to two hours and they were about seven minutes apart. My doctor had said to head to the hospital when they got to be 5-7 minutes apart since I was already so far dilated. We went upstairs, and I turned on the shower and then changed my mind and said why didn’t we head to the hospital then. I figured the worst that would happen would be they’d send me home. By the time we got back downstairs, the contractions were regularly five minutes apart.
I called a couple friends to tell them we were on our way to the hospital. We left our house around 7:15, we were sitting at the admitting desk around 7:45. When I was admitted to OB Triage, the nurse checked and said I was 5-6cm dilated. I was surprised I wasn’t more since I’d been 5cm that morning and having contractions off and on all day. She said she could go ahead and admit me or I could walk around for an hour to try and speed things up or I could go home and come back later. I knew the last one wasn’t an option since my contractions were more like 3-4 minutes apart then and getting stronger. I said I’d go ahead and walk, she told me she’d come back with a gown for me. This was around 8:15.
I could hear some commotion going on outside my little pod/cubicle/”room” and overhead talk about someone only being 24 weeks along and in labor and needing an emergency c-section. Needless to say, it was awhile before the nurse came back. I had really wanted a natural childbirth, but by that point the contractions were so strong I said to John, “Forget natural childbirth--I don’t have anything to prove! I want drugs!” I decided I’d go ahead and be admitted so I could have an epidural and be more comfortable. At this point I was being pretty vocal during the contractions-—moaning, screaming, etc.—-because it made them seem a little easier to manage instead of trying to be quiet through them. When the nurse came back I told her to forget walking, I wanted to be admitted. It was awhile again before someone came back and when she did, she said, “You must be the one in labor.” Apparently I was a bit loud. ;) They checked to see if there was a room available for me and started to move me. I remember it feeling so good laying there being rushed down the hallway with the cool air; I had been so hot in the OB Triage area. John would rub ice on my neck which helped a little, but taking sips of ice water made me feel nauseated.
By the time I got in the L&D room, the contractions were more like two minutes apart and really strong. This was about 8:45 I think. The nurse checked me, and I was 8cm by that point. I told her I wanted an epidural, she said I’d need to have a whole bag of IV fluid before I could get one. It took forever to get the IV in because the other nurse kept messing up on it. I literally had blood running down my arm because she couldn't get it right. Like I wasn't in enough pain at that point?! I knew since I was at 8cm my chances of having an epidural were getting slimmer and slimmer. A little after 9:00, my water broke. It was strange to me that it took that long to break since with Will that's what kicked off my labor. And with Will it was just a little drip at first and then got to be more and more, but with Miles it all came gushing out at once. The contractions were horrible—-I was literally screaming through each one. The nurse would rub my back which irritated me, but I didn’t want to be rude, so I didn’t say anything. I had read a ton of information on natural childbirth, but at that point it had all flown out the window and all I could remember was to breathe and be vocal during contractions, so that's what I did. And watched the IV bag to see how much was left!
Around 9:15 my doctor came in to see how I was doing. I had my eyes closed most of the time, so when I opened them he was checking my vitals and Miles’ on the monitor next to my bed. The next thing I knew (or so it seemed), he was back and in scrubs. I knew at that point there was no chance whatsoever that I was getting an epidural or drugs of any sort. He told me that when I felt the urge to push to go ahead with it. I had a couple contractions where I did feel like pushing, but I didn’t feel ready for it yet. I needed to psych myself up for birthing a baby without any drugs. Finally I told him I was ready and started pushing.
They had me count to ten three times during each contraction. It hurt SO MUCH. I was so motivated to get Miles out as soon as I could. I heard the doctor tell John that his head was out, and before I knew it they were all telling me to look because Miles was coming out. I pushed through three contractions, that was it. Miles was born at 9:36 PM. Everyone’s reaction when they first saw him (nurses and my doctor) was, “Wow, this is a big baby!” I anxiously waited to find out how big he was-—10 pounds 2 ounces!! They were right. Forget having a newborn-—I gave birth to a two month old! A friend of mine has the same OB, and when she had her appointment with him a few days later she mentioned I was her friend and he told her my labor was four minutes (I knew it was short, but I didn’t realize it was THAT short!) and he was rather impressed I pushed out a 10 pound baby without drugs.
Even though I had decided during labor I wanted drugs, I was so glad it hadn’t worked out. I felt great afterwards, way better than I did after having an epidural with Will. I just couldn’t believe how fast Miles came. I called my mom a few minutes after he was born, and she didn’t believe me at first that he was here already. She’d just seen me 2.5 hours prior! I was so hyped up on adrenaline I couldn’t even think about going to sleep until about 1:00, even though John conked out as soon as we were in the Couplet Care room around midnight.
And can I just add that I can't believe my BABY is a year old already?!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At my OB appointment two weeks before my due date, I was 3cm dilated and the nurse practitioner said my mucus plug was gone. She said I’d go into labor anytime. Everything I planned, I had to tack on, “As long as the baby’s not here.” One week before my due date I was 5cm dilated and still no baby. “No way will you make it to your due date or your appointment next week,” I was told. Imagine my surprise when, in fact, I did make it to my next appointment, the day before my due date. At that appointment they were concerned about how big the baby would be since Will was 9lbs 2oz and born three days before my due date. They wanted to schedule an induction for early the next week, but I wanted it earlier since that was getting close to Thanksgiving. The nurse stripped my membranes to see if that would start moving things along.
I started having a few mild contractions on the way home from the doctor’s appointment. John had gone with me in case they wanted to admit me right then, given how dilated I was the week before. Will had stayed at my friend Jen’s house during the appointment. The contractions kept up pretty regularly, ever 8-10 minutes. I called Jen to see if she’d mind Will staying there a little longer. The contractions started to slow down and then stop, so John went in to work, and I went and picked up Will. The rest of the day was more of that--have a few contractions at regular time intervals, then nothing. Although, as the day progressed I got more and more uncomfortable and just didn’t feel quite right. We were about to sit down to dinner, and I told John, “I’m going to have my mom come get Will...I just don’t feel right and would rather him not be here tonight.” Our plan had been that if we had to go to the hospital right away, Will would go to Jen's and my mom would get him there, but we figured might as well cut out the middle man and just have her come get him since it seemed things might be progressing. The only thing that was comfortable was being in the shower or sitting on my exercise ball.
We ate dinner, and my mom showed up to get Will around 7:00. They left, and I told John I thought I’d get back in the shower. At this point I’d been having regular contractions for probably close to two hours and they were about seven minutes apart. My doctor had said to head to the hospital when they got to be 5-7 minutes apart since I was already so far dilated. We went upstairs, and I turned on the shower and then changed my mind and said why didn’t we head to the hospital then. I figured the worst that would happen would be they’d send me home. By the time we got back downstairs, the contractions were regularly five minutes apart.
I called a couple friends to tell them we were on our way to the hospital. We left our house around 7:15, we were sitting at the admitting desk around 7:45. When I was admitted to OB Triage, the nurse checked and said I was 5-6cm dilated. I was surprised I wasn’t more since I’d been 5cm that morning and having contractions off and on all day. She said she could go ahead and admit me or I could walk around for an hour to try and speed things up or I could go home and come back later. I knew the last one wasn’t an option since my contractions were more like 3-4 minutes apart then and getting stronger. I said I’d go ahead and walk, she told me she’d come back with a gown for me. This was around 8:15.
I could hear some commotion going on outside my little pod/cubicle/”room” and overhead talk about someone only being 24 weeks along and in labor and needing an emergency c-section. Needless to say, it was awhile before the nurse came back. I had really wanted a natural childbirth, but by that point the contractions were so strong I said to John, “Forget natural childbirth--I don’t have anything to prove! I want drugs!” I decided I’d go ahead and be admitted so I could have an epidural and be more comfortable. At this point I was being pretty vocal during the contractions-—moaning, screaming, etc.—-because it made them seem a little easier to manage instead of trying to be quiet through them. When the nurse came back I told her to forget walking, I wanted to be admitted. It was awhile again before someone came back and when she did, she said, “You must be the one in labor.” Apparently I was a bit loud. ;) They checked to see if there was a room available for me and started to move me. I remember it feeling so good laying there being rushed down the hallway with the cool air; I had been so hot in the OB Triage area. John would rub ice on my neck which helped a little, but taking sips of ice water made me feel nauseated.
By the time I got in the L&D room, the contractions were more like two minutes apart and really strong. This was about 8:45 I think. The nurse checked me, and I was 8cm by that point. I told her I wanted an epidural, she said I’d need to have a whole bag of IV fluid before I could get one. It took forever to get the IV in because the other nurse kept messing up on it. I literally had blood running down my arm because she couldn't get it right. Like I wasn't in enough pain at that point?! I knew since I was at 8cm my chances of having an epidural were getting slimmer and slimmer. A little after 9:00, my water broke. It was strange to me that it took that long to break since with Will that's what kicked off my labor. And with Will it was just a little drip at first and then got to be more and more, but with Miles it all came gushing out at once. The contractions were horrible—-I was literally screaming through each one. The nurse would rub my back which irritated me, but I didn’t want to be rude, so I didn’t say anything. I had read a ton of information on natural childbirth, but at that point it had all flown out the window and all I could remember was to breathe and be vocal during contractions, so that's what I did. And watched the IV bag to see how much was left!
Around 9:15 my doctor came in to see how I was doing. I had my eyes closed most of the time, so when I opened them he was checking my vitals and Miles’ on the monitor next to my bed. The next thing I knew (or so it seemed), he was back and in scrubs. I knew at that point there was no chance whatsoever that I was getting an epidural or drugs of any sort. He told me that when I felt the urge to push to go ahead with it. I had a couple contractions where I did feel like pushing, but I didn’t feel ready for it yet. I needed to psych myself up for birthing a baby without any drugs. Finally I told him I was ready and started pushing.
They had me count to ten three times during each contraction. It hurt SO MUCH. I was so motivated to get Miles out as soon as I could. I heard the doctor tell John that his head was out, and before I knew it they were all telling me to look because Miles was coming out. I pushed through three contractions, that was it. Miles was born at 9:36 PM. Everyone’s reaction when they first saw him (nurses and my doctor) was, “Wow, this is a big baby!” I anxiously waited to find out how big he was-—10 pounds 2 ounces!! They were right. Forget having a newborn-—I gave birth to a two month old! A friend of mine has the same OB, and when she had her appointment with him a few days later she mentioned I was her friend and he told her my labor was four minutes (I knew it was short, but I didn’t realize it was THAT short!) and he was rather impressed I pushed out a 10 pound baby without drugs.
Even though I had decided during labor I wanted drugs, I was so glad it hadn’t worked out. I felt great afterwards, way better than I did after having an epidural with Will. I just couldn’t believe how fast Miles came. I called my mom a few minutes after he was born, and she didn’t believe me at first that he was here already. She’d just seen me 2.5 hours prior! I was so hyped up on adrenaline I couldn’t even think about going to sleep until about 1:00, even though John conked out as soon as we were in the Couplet Care room around midnight.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Then and Now
When Will was a baby I took him to Tolmachoff Farms around Halloween to take his picture with the pumpkins. I had him sit in the same spot this year because I thought it would be fun to compare--and see how Miles now compares to Will then! What can I say, I'm pretty dorky.
Pumpkin Patches
We hit up two pumpkin patches this year. One of them was at the Desert Botanical Gardens. Apparently they do this Pumpkin Festival every year, but this is the first time we'd gone. It was so fun! There were little games for the kids to play and then we took a hay ride to the pumpkin patch. We had to go through a hay maze to get to the pumpkin patch, then there was also a petting zoo. Will liked petting the animals, but Miles would just grab their fur and pull, so he didn't stay long. We picked out two pumpkins and took the hay ride back to the gardens.
The second one was Tolmachoff Farms. We went there last year, too, with our MOMS Club group. It's really fun, although this year was much more crowded than I remember it being last year. The kids get to pick vegetables (zucchini, cucumbers, and radishes), go through a corn maze, pick a pumpkin, ride a little train, and get ice cream. We all took our lunches and had a picnic there, too. Last year it was really hot and I was really pregnant, this year it was really crowded--I'm not sure which was better. ;)
Pictures from both places are in one album.
The second one was Tolmachoff Farms. We went there last year, too, with our MOMS Club group. It's really fun, although this year was much more crowded than I remember it being last year. The kids get to pick vegetables (zucchini, cucumbers, and radishes), go through a corn maze, pick a pumpkin, ride a little train, and get ice cream. We all took our lunches and had a picnic there, too. Last year it was really hot and I was really pregnant, this year it was really crowded--I'm not sure which was better. ;)
Pictures from both places are in one album.
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| Pumpkin Patches |
Halloween!
We had a great several-day-long celebration of Halloween this year. Not counting pumpkin patch trips, we had a MOMS Club Halloween party last Wednesday, went trick-or-treating to my mom's and grandmas' (and my aunt was there too) on Friday, then had regular Halloween festivities on Halloween night. Last year my friend Laura had some of our friends over for a potluck dinner then the kids all went trick-or-treating together. It was so fun, and she graciously hosted it again this year. Will has so much fun getting to go around with his friends.
Will dressed up as Chewbacca from Star Wars (thanks, Doo, for the costume!!) and Miles was Frankenstein's Monster. Will already has his next several years' worth of costumes planned out, but we'll see if those hold true. :)
Click on the album to see our pictures from all the festivities!
Will dressed up as Chewbacca from Star Wars (thanks, Doo, for the costume!!) and Miles was Frankenstein's Monster. Will already has his next several years' worth of costumes planned out, but we'll see if those hold true. :)
Click on the album to see our pictures from all the festivities!
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| Halloween09 |
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