Details

The birth story ... sorta TMI.

Monday (1 week ago) I was exactly 3 weeks from my due date.  I started feeling contractions early in the day.  They were clearly not braxton hicks but I still doubted it was real labor cause I had three more weeks to go.  And they weren't that frequent anyway.

By the time Hot Cup got home from work they were 3-4 times an hour.  I started timing them at about 11 PM and they were 9 minutes apart.  By 1 AM they were 6 minutes apart so I called to see what the midwife would have to say.  She didn't think I was really in labor and suggested drinking lots of water and taking a warm shower to make them go away.  Neither made a difference.  When they were still 6 minutes apart in the morning she said maybe I should come get checked and that if it was false labor they'd want to give me something to help me sleep since I hadn't slept all night and would need rest in case real labor did start.

Since I didn't think I was really in labor (although I'd started to wonder) I debated taking our first born with us.  But the contractions were so ... uncomfortable ... that I realized it would be difficult to have him there and decided to take him to a friend's.  Thankfully that was not a problem!

The midwife said I was at 6 or 7 centimeters and should go to the hospital.

My mom headed up to take over the care of our first born for our stay in the hospital.

We checked into the hospital at 10 AM and once I was settled in they set me up with an IV for the antibiotic for GBS.  Then I got off the IV.  The contractions were pretty strong and unpleasant and at the very end of it the midwife was trying to calm me down so I wouldn't hyperventilate.  I don't think I was handling it too great.  I was lying on my side by then, which is how I delivered this one.  1st push: water broke.  3 minutes later, 3rd push: head out.  1st degree tear.

I was screaming.  There were a whole lot of things that were different from the last time, including that I don't believe I handled it as well!

He was born at 2:08 PM. 6 pounds 11 ounces, 20 inches.  They gave him to me right away and I got to hold him quite a while there at first ♥  We love him!


That evening big brother, grandma & grandpa, & an aunt came to visit the tiny little guy.
Big brother seemed pleased that I'd saved my room service Boston Cream Pie for him.



Our Family!

Introducing

Our new baby!

Ribbit!

6-30-13 Ribbit 
So very worth the 43 seconds.

Reminder: Password is 6 character title of this site, no spaces.

D-A-D-D-Y

A couple days ago I showed my boy DADDY on the magna doodle.  I took the magna doodle out today and it was still there.  My smart little guy saw it and pointed to each letter and said D-A-D-D-D-D-D - daddy!

I was like - what?? and asked him to repeat it.  He pointed and said D-A-D-D-Y - daddy.  I asked him to do it a couple more times and he agreed, and then he stopped agreeing.  I may have overdone it.

I've shown him the word daddy a couple times, I guess he got it!  I don't do words very much, but since he loves both vehicles and letters I'll occasionally write BUS or CAR or TRUCK next to the picture he's had me draw of one and talk about what it says.  Does he know any of those words too?

UPDATE 7/13/13
This morning we were playing with crayons and paper and I wrote CAR.  He said each of the letters then took a toy car and put it on the letters and said car.  Since he'd already been holding the car I wasn't sure if he was recognizing the word exactly.
Then I wrote BUS.  He said each letter as I wrote it and then excitedly pointed above the word and said bus! bus! bus!  I said, do you want me to draw a bus?  And he said yes.  I'd say he knows that one!

Independence Day Weekend

Hot Cup had a four day weekend and at one point we thought we'd take the opportunity to have a nice family outing one or two of the days. But we didn't. I've been having sciatic nerve pains and decided to use the long weekend to lay around so it wouldn't hurt and have my poor husband do everything else. While it still hurts often, I really benefited from being able to give the nerve a break for a more extended period and feel that the whole situation with it in general has improved.

On the 4th of July I was still trying to participate in everything. I didn't actually realize it was sciatica until late in the day and didn't talk to a nurse about it until the 5th. So I tried to keep up with my boys but it would just feel worse. Thankfully Hot Cup had already planned to be the chef for the day so I got to eat great and didn't have to worry about cooking.

Anyway, here are some pictures!

In the morning we did sidewalk chalk and then Hot Cup took our boy for a little walk.


After naptime we tried to coax our boy into the pool but he wasn't interested. He figured out ways to play with his daddy quite a bit anyway. Here's one of their games.




In the evening we took a quick trip to the park to see if you could see fireworks from the hill. You couldn't. Our little guy let us know he wanted to go to bed anyway.


For lunch Hot Cup grilled burgers he'd stuffed with cheese and bacon. He also grilled pineapple and chocolate stuffed bananas. For dinner we had more grilled pineapple, in a sandwich with cheese and bacon, and frozen raspberry lemonade. Everything was delicious!


Over the next few days Hot Cup took our toddler on a couple outings, pushed him around the neighborhood in his tricycle a few times, and did lots of other fun things with him. Here's an adorable picture of them watching TV Sunday evening.

June 2013

Our boy's favorite words are 'no' and 'uh-oh'. Hot Cup said that maybe one of the reasons he likes watching Curious George so much is cause he often gets to say 'uh-oh', haha. It's fun to see his reactions to TV shows and see how he really understands.

In an episode or two of Daniel Tiger, they use their hands as binoculars.  So our boy will do the same and tell us what he sees.

There is another episode of Daniel where they play in cardboard boxes that have been made into cars.  So Hot Cup made one for our son but the only time he hasn't run away from it was while that episode was on.  We think that in time he'll love it.

He loves his daddy.  Hot Cup has always been more fun than me but I've been slowing down a bit and that doesn't help.  Here are a few pictures of them playing together.


He loves to have us count. It doesn't matter if there are 2 of something or 20, he'll point to whatever they are one at a time and insist we count.

He loves songs that have motions. The Wise Man, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, One Fine Face, Wheels on the Bus, etc. Alphabet songs are also favorites.

He groups parts of the alphabet together. Like A-G, H-P, Q-V, and W-Z. It's cause of the rows we make when we line his magnets up on the fridge for him.

He's recently become resistant to having us brush his teeth.  We're pretty sure it's cause he's actually starting to get good at brushing them himself.  I'm not sure how much longer simply holding out until he agrees to let us brush is going to work.

When we were in Utah he got a couple fun puzzles as belated birthday gifts from his Aunt Clar & Uncle A.  The piano puzzle is pretty neat, the letters on the keys match the letters underneath so of course he's a natural.  As you put each piece in it plays the note.  Hot Cup showed him how he could take all the pieces out and drive a car across the sensors to play a scale.  He's figured out how the jigsaw puzzle pieces can fit together, he just hasn't discovered making the picture fit together yet.

Happy 31st!

My wonderful, fun, hard working, and sexy husband turned 31 Monday. Happy birthday babe!

I tried to make it a good day for him but he didn't get his official birthday dinner and cake until today.

Our little guy was pretty excited about the cake, even more so when we added candles and lit it; it was really cute :) He loved eating it too.

Hot Cup made a perfect choice of cake. It was really good, I'm glad it turned out! He picked it out of the cookbook CakeLove. It's a Black Forest Cake, brushed with syrup from the Soured Cherries, and topped with Whipped Cream with Cinnamon and Soured Cherries.

Hot Cup said it tasted like chocolate chip pancakes. He's not wrong.

(The ingredient list and the instructions didn't match each other on amount of sugar. I sort of picked a middle ground and since it was good I'm still not sure how much sugar is supposed to be in it.)