Monday, June 29, 2009

Wal-Mart

Today I ran to Wal-Mart to get a little grocery shopping done.

After fighting people in the isles and waiting forever in the check out line, I finally made it outside to my car.

I loaded the groceries in the trunk, snapped the boy's car seat (with him in it) in the back seat, then went the 4 stalls down to drop off my cart in the designated spot.

In that 10 seconds I was gone dropping of the cart, a group of people came across my car and infant and decided that it was their responsibility to call the police. I mean, why not? Someone had OBVIOUSLY abandoned their child. They were outraged, I could hear it in their conversation.

I was back before they even got the number dialed saying, "I didn't leave my baby. I was just dropping off my cart."

The woman who had called 911 hung up her phone and proceeded to give me a short lecture on why I should never do that again.

I decided next time I'll just leave my cart behind their car.

p.s. For the record, I do NOT think it is okay to leave your child in the car, and what the people might have prevented was noble. But seriously, I saw them walk up. They saw me at the car. I passed them while dropping off the cart. Come on now people, think before you act.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

His Favorite Pastime


This picture may resemble bad parenting, but in reality HE choses to be in this position. No matter how much I try and resist, he likes to stretch back and stay that way. We lovingly refer to it as the C Curve, C for his name and for the fact that his back bends in half the wrong way forming the letter C.

Be ready for LOTS of baby pictures from now on. We are over-excited first time parents, what did you expect? If you don't like them, shame on you.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Warning....This is a long one

so...I'm sorry it has taken me so long to report the details of our little boy's arrival, but I've been a little nervous to write this post. Watching your child come into the world is hard to comprehend, let alone explain.

When I returned home from serving a mission for the LDS church, I kind of dreaded running into people that I knew because I knew they would ask me..."How was your mission?"
That might sound weird, but when you serve a mission, or perhaps you're in the military and return home from serving your country, or after you climb Mt. Everest, or watch a loved one pass into the next life, or do pretty much anything that stretches you to extremes that you never thought you were capable of surviving... a question like that is almost insulting. I just wanted to ask them in return, "Do you really want to know? Do you really care? Because it was the most exhausting, difficult, rewarding, beautiful, sacred, humbling, miserable, and challenging learning experience that I have ever endured. I gave my blood, sweat, tears, and heart and people spit on me, yelled at me, berated me, threatened me, and hated me. I loved every minute of it. Even the parts that I hated. Everything that is good in my life right now is a direct result of the time I spent serving others in Washington DC. I would never trade it or do it over. It was the best time of my life."
But you see, even a response like that can't impress upon someone the feelings and the reality of it all. In the end, words can't describe it so you end up with a short but trite replay like, "good, thanks". The truth is there is no substitute for experience...and unless you've been there you just couldn't really comprehend. That's how it felt to watch my beautiful, healthy, and PERFECT son come into this world. All of you who have experienced it are nodding your heads because you get it, and those who haven't might be too....but you can't really understand until you've been there.

At some time around 7AM, after a long night of tossing and turning from anxiety, the phone rang. Hanna jumped a bit at the sound and it woke me up. She answered. I could hear a woman's voice coming through the receiver asking, in essence, if we were ready and how soon we could come in to be induced. We knew they might call, but weren't really expecting anything until later in the day, but she replied that we could leave within a half an hour. The bags had been packed for days and we had been ready to go because of the 4 days or so of false labor that Hanna had been experiencing. The contractions would begin to come and they would get consistent for hours at a time, but would never increase in strength. She had dilated to a 3 and 1/2about 10 days earlier and was 90% effaced. She probably walked 20 miles in those couple of days trying to motivate him to come. She was ready, but I guess our little guy wasn't.

I climbed out of bed and just kind of wandered around the room in somewhat of a daze trying to figure out where to begin and finally remembered where we kept the bathroom and decided to start there. About 35 minutes later we were both upright, clothed, clean, the car was loaded up and the dog was fed. We got to the hospital just before 8.
9am they broke Hanna's water, 1pm she decided she'd had enough fun and the epidural was given, and in the following 2 hours she went from a 4 to a 7. Just before 5pm she was declared a 10 and the real work began.
I was exhausted at this point. I just didn't think that I could take much more. I thought about asking if we could just keep her numb until the next day after I got a good nights rest, but Hanna insisted. I trudged forward.
Hanna was a total champ at the whole push the baby out thing. She was really great.I was pretty nervous going into this thing because Hanna can be a bit "aggressive", shall we say?? I think that she might have considered that trading my life for our son's would be an acceptable proposal so initially I wondered if it was really in my best interest to be within arms reach of her. Luckily, the drugs had made her quite pleasant, and we had a very positive and healthy experience working together to get that baby out.
After about 40 minutes of pushing, and still no baby, we were notified that we liked our children sunny side up. I guess they don't so much. Instead of coming through the birth canal facing down, he was facing the ceiling. I think that it was just because he was just SO excited to put a face with the very manly and comforting voice that had given him pep talks every night before bed. Maybe he's a back sleeper like his mom. Who knows. Whatever the case, it was cause for much more effort from Hanna. After about an hour of pushing Hanna just looked at me with pleading in her eyes and I knew she was ready to be done. She had done so great, but she was losing energy and confidence. So I did what any good husband would do...I lied. "Oh he's SO close he's like right there. Just 1 or 2 more pushes and he's here." I was just practicing though for when I'd get to tell my kids, "Oh we're almost there. Just up around the next corner. Keep walking and quit whining."
6:36pm Our precious baby made his appearance. (FYI...I too was born at exactly 6:36pm) What a moment. After the doctor unwrapped the umbilical cord and cleaned the airways, there was the beautiful sound of an infant crying. The single most amazing moment in my life was watching my lovely Hanna reach out and hold our firstborn for the first time.

I couldn't stop staring. He's Perfect. For days now all I can do is stare. We have loved having him here and I don't think that either of us knew that we could love so much. We think that he's pretty special. Hope you agree.

Here's our first family picture....

Friday, June 19, 2009

Just Two More...

Just another picture while Cody prepares the update of a lifetime...

He is home now, but due to a little Jaundice has to spend every second possible on this glowing bili-bed.



He hates it.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Little Gus Gus


















Well, he is finally here.

Born June 16, 2009 at 6:36 p.m.

7 pounds 15 ounces, 19 1/2 inches long.

We think he is the most wonderful thing in the world.

p.s. Cody will post more of the details later.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Baby Update

Well, it is now 3 days past my due date and still no baby. But, it could be worse.

The plus side to this is that my doctor moved my induction date from Friday to tomorrow. Every time he sees me he says something to the effect of, "I can't believe you haven't gone into labor yet. You are a lot farther along than most women who do."

It doesn't ever make me feel better.

Anyway, there is the update for now. Lets just hope that I don't get bumped too far back tomorrow by women who have their children 'naturally.' I might just have an emotional breakdown.

Friday, June 12, 2009

No Longer A Puppy

Zoee turned 1 on June 10. I can't believe our little pup is growing so fast. haha.

As I have mentioned before, I am not too keen on animals. Just ask anyone who really knows me at all. My soul was not meant for them, nor theirs for me. As a baby I used to scream whenever I went near one. And, while I tolerate Zoee quite well, and even like her a little (because she is a very good puppy, well behaved and sweet) she and I both know that there will never be a strong tie between us. Not like there is between her and Cody.

I hope none of you out there think I am too heartless. I'm just telling the truth.

Anyway, with all that in mind, a weird phenomena has happened for the past few weeks. This lover of Cody ONLY, who follows him like...well...a puppy dog, and disobeys my every command has flipped. She now follows ME everywhere.

For example, last night I was pacing the house trying to help along some weak contractions, and she was 2 feet behind me the whole time. Where I go, she wants to be...even the bathroom. And I haven't changed in the way I treat her one bit, she just changed. Its weird. She has even started hiding in her cage from Cody when she knows he is trying to get her to leave ME at home.

Isn't that just insane? Or am I just out of the animal behavior loop? I think she knows something BIG is going on, I'm not sure to what extent, but her loyalty and concern for me make me wish I loved animals more. They have such interesting and unique personalities. Its kind of exciting to get to know.

Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZOEE!

Monday, June 8, 2009

4 days until my due date...still no baby.

We have tried everything (minus Castor Oil because that's just nasty), but I still don't think he is even close to getting here.

The doctor said he would be very surprised if I made it to my induction date (the Friday after), but I think he was just trying to make me feel better.

P.S. We still haven't settled on a name. We had one for a while there, but then changed our minds as of late. ANY IDEAS???

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

The BIG 2-5

I love my birthday. Cody loves me. It made for a good combination.
He had the whole day planned, ready and waiting to surprise me.

First we went to breakfast at One Man Band, a personal favorite of ours.












Then we headed to a spa in Midway for a couples massage.













After that we stopped and got my favorite treat...
an Avalanche (its a snow cone with ice cream)
















Next we made our way to pick up my presents.

The first stop was Runner's Corner to find the perfect pair of running shoes.
Then to Grey Whale to get a CD I've been missing (YES, I like Alanis).












By this time we were starving, so we met my mom for an early dinner.
She treated us to Chili's.
















Then, after a quick trip to visit my sister, we ended the day at the movie theater. We ate yummy treats and watched Angels and Demons.
















All and all, it was an INCREDIBLE day.
Thanks Cody, you're the BEST!

p.s. I hope you all enjoyed my hugeness...and the fact that I didn't do my hair or make-up. Only a few more days...