17 months | Jack

Unbelievable that I managed to document this month amidst the end of pregnancy and having a baby.
Here's what happened between 16 mo.- 17mo.

1.  At the beginning of the month I tried to spend a lot of quality time with Jack.  We went to baby bookworms, we went on walks, we played outside, I tried out a few sensory/learning/play activities for toddlers that I saw on pinterest...

whole wheat flour.  Let's be honest, I don't bake with this stuff.

we also fed him ice cream

 2.  The top 2 molars came in!  (ouch)  Here I am trying to stock up on as much sleep as I can before the baby comes, and then we've got Jack waking up crying at all hours of the night.  :/  poor baby.  It was good to get to rock him though.  He's sweet when he doesn't feel good.  (not that he isn't sweet when he is feeling good... he's just more snuggly.)

3.  He tucks his arms under and lays his head on your shoulder whenever you hold him and rock him.

4.  He's using a fork or spoon to feed himself... kind of.  It's a pretty good attempt.  As if it didn't already take him forever to eat.

5.  He's become a parrot.  You can say, "Jack, say __________" and he will make his best attempt at it.  He can now say "Jesus."  HA!  "Jack,"  "baby," "diaper"

6. Saying his name when you ask him, " what's your name?"

7. Climbing up in his high chair by himself.

8. Becoming a big brother. He gives his sister sweet kisses on the head without being prompted.  I've been really impressed with the transition.  I thought he would be jealous, but he's just curious and always wants to give her kisses on top of her head.

9. The week we welcomed Charlotte Jack figured out how to open doors. :/. Oh bother. At one point he stood on our couch leaned out and unlocked the deadbolt on our front door- geez!

10.  Day one of me flying solo with both babes Jack gives himself a black eye on the bench in our living room.  I'm not sure how exactly because I was loading the dishwasher when it happened.  Poor baby.  He got over it as soon as I picked him up and held him, but man... it looks bad.  I promise I'm not having some terrible bout of postpartum... he really did do this to himself.  ;)  We refer to him as "big-bruiser" sometimes and now it's accurate.

11.  Now that we have Charlotte I feel as if Jack has gained 20 lbs. and swelled.  He looks so HUGE to me!  I'm sure it has something to do with holding Charlotte throughout the day, but sometimes I really think he grew overnight.  I mean, look how chunky he is...

12.  This face.  I think his Poppa taught him this.

random photos that didn't fit with a number:

Jack | 16 months

1.  going to baby bookworms and gathering all the jingles.

2.  pushing buttons on the microwave and dishwasher.

3.  climbing on the bench/rocking chair and getting back down.

4.  looking up from the dishes and seeing jack standing on the couch scratching off things on my to-do list.

5.  going up and down stairs by himself holding one of my hands!

6. I discovered a molar... not sure how long it's been there.... and another one appeared later in the month.  I think the latter caused a day of fever and naps... or it was some random bizarre sickness- I'm not sure.  I was worried, so we ended up going to the Dr, but they couldn't find anything wrong.

7. Not gonna lie, the toddler stage on top of being 9 months pregnant is wearing me out. Jack is into and onto everything. Nothing in this house is safe. He's also making me work double these days... For instance: I vacuumed the whole apartment and then when I went to roll up the cord I looked down and realized that jack had disconnected the hose from the vacuum when i left it unattended for a few moments. Oh bother.  There are times I want to duct tape him to the wall for a few moments of peace.

8. Taking down baby gates.  He knows how to lift the arm on them to open them.  :/

9. 1st brain freeze.  He chugged ice water through a straw at Tim's Pizza, then ducked his head, made an awful face and cried.

10.  Imitating mommy and daddy... whether it's vacuuming, cleaning, cooking, or doing push-ups.  (p.s. I'm not the one doing push-ups- HA!  I would probably high-center.)

11.  1st haircut!!!!

12.  I'm amazed at how much he understands.

13. Patting my belly and saying, "Bay-bay."

14.  He is still completely and utterly obsessed with keys.  I've had to stop letting him play with mine b/c somehow from inside our apartment he can set off my car alarm, pop open the back hatch, and unlock all of my doors of my Jeep out in the parking lot!  (which by-the-way, I can barely get my Jeep to lock when I'm 20 feet from it in the Wal-mart parking lot.)

Our Home Birth Story | part iii

We should seriously hurry up and conclude the birth story of our 1st born before our 2nd child arrives (any day now!)

If you missed it, go back and read:
Part 1
Part 2

Sorry to be so long winded.  Part 3:

Ok, transition.  (meaning the the part of labor that is toughest and means that you are almost done!)  Around 5:30ish/6:00 in the AM we give my madre a ring.  It was time to bring in a fresh face.  I wanted to let her sleep as much as we could because she would be the one who had to stay the next night while everyone else went home to sleep.  (fun fact: my mom almost gets a speeding ticket on her way over.  :)
     Sometime in the 7:00 in the AM hour the midwife suggests that we check again to see how much I'm dilated.   Once again, I want to know... but I REALLY don't want to know if it's not good news.  Dear Lord, what if I'm only at a 4???  Everyone seems to think I'm getting near the end.
     She checks- EUREKA!- I'm at a "good" 8.5-9 cm.  PRAISE THE LORD IN THE HIGHEST.  Spirits are up.  She then mentioned that there was one area of my cervix that didn't seem to be dilating.  If it would just dilate then I would be at a full 10 and could push.   Hmmmm.
     This "lip" of cervix really slowed me down.  I moved into transition soon there after.  Contractions were VERY strong.  The pressure was pretty intense, but it would only last a minute... then break for 3-4 minutes and then pick up again.  I changed positions in the pool trying to find the most comfortable position I could muster.  I think this is the point that I'm praying out loud: "Oh God, please help me"  (LOL)  I meant it though.  It was a very sincere prayer.  "Jesus please have mercy on me..."  This went on until like noon or later.  (It normally shouldn't last that long, but it was that dang lip of cervix.)  I told Corey that something was going to have to give because I couldn't last the rest of the day going on like that.  I feel like God was very gracious in the amount of peace that he gave me through the whole thing.  I never once felt afraid or panicky.
     Finally, something in me was like, I've gotta do SOMETHING.  I had been told that when you're ready to push there's no mistaking about it.  Well, I couldn't decide if I was ready or not.  Mentally, I was there, but I wasn't really getting unmistakeable physical cues that it was time.  I was worried because I knew that if you weren't dilated all the way and you pushed through that, that you could cause the cervix to swell, and then you would have to wait for the swelling to go down before you could try to push again.  This would be tragic, so I hesitated.  The midwife told me just to try pushing with a few contractions and see how I felt.  Everyone thought it was a good idea.
     Up to this point my water hadn't broken yet.  We wondered if it broke if that would help.  It didn't seem to want to break on it's own.  At last I decided let's just commit to this pushing thing and be done with it.  We headed into our living room.  I felt like I needed gravity's help and needed to get out of the water and have a pressure change.
**** I'm sure you're wondering how all of this works.  Having a baby in your living room, that is.  Well, we put down a plastic sheet, put a regular sheet over that, and then laid out 3 large "chuck pads"...(these giant flat absorbent pads that they sell at walmart next to the depends).  We also had several towels to wrap baby in.  Does that help?*****
     In all my research I read that squatting was the best position for pushing.  Corey sat on the edge of the couch behind me and supported me.  I rested my arms on his legs.  If my mom hadn't been watching the clock and texting my dad at this point, I would have never believed the amount of time that went by.
     Oh Lordy.  I pushed for like 2+ hours.  In our birthing class I was told to "push to the point of comfort."  That is a big load of crock.  Comfort is not a vocabulary word that comes anywhere near birthing a babe.  It should have been worded, "push so hard with every fiber of your being until you think either your brains or your bottom are going to blow out."  It was a lot of work.  I was told that lip of cervix was really holding me back and that this wouldn't have been such an ordeal otherwise.  Alright, speeding things up... water broke, I pushed, I cussed (I told them it hurt so bad I could cuss and they gave me permission- bad idea), I pushed harder... more of the same.
     Finally, at 2:15pm Jack Mitchell is born.  We didn't know it was a boy at first b/c he had his little legs together.  My first thought was, "OH MY GOSH THIS BABY IS HUGE."  (He did do a big ginormous stretch.)  I don't know what I was expecting, but I couldn't believe that thing had just come out of my body.  (no wonder)  After a few seconds our midwife said, "Well, do you want to see who it is?!"  (meaning: boy or girl)  She lifted his little leg and we were all like, "It's Jack!!!"  haha!  She put him on my chest and wrapped us in a towel and I just held him.  Kinda in shock.  Somewhat relieved.

And we should just leave it there...
Jack's birth story concluded.
Praise the Lord for a safe and healthy delivery and for new life!




  

Easter Weekend

I feel like enough happened this past weekend to warrant a blogpost.  (or at least we took enough pictures I should probably do something with them.)

1.  Saturday morning we enjoyed breakfast at Rick's as a family.  Jack had his first sausage roll and a couple of donut holes.  Delicious!

2.  We then headed to the Barber shop to get Jack's very first haircut!  (Love his curls, buuuutt he's been looking slightly Joe-Dirt-ish lately with his mullet.)  He was slightly worried, but holding the keys helped.  (He LOVES keys.)

3. Saturday afternoon Corey and I sanded the buffet/hutch that I plan to add to our dining area.  It was covered in white crackle paint and was a beast to sand.  Fingers crossed we'll get this piece finished before baby #2 arrives.

4. I threw Corey a Bday party with friends at our casa Saturday night and this is the only photo to document it.

5.  Corey's actual birthday was on Easter and I made him a cheesecake.

6.  We hunted eggs and it was a hoot.  (note:  Jesus is the reason for the season.)

7.  Also fun to note, Mason (my brother) and Hayley (sister-in-law) are having a baby!!!  Hooray!  They announced it on April fool's day, but it really is true.  ;)

8.  Speaking of April Fool's day, but out of order chronilogically, we pulled the best prank we've ever thought of on my Dad this year.  (Those were locked to his car all day ;)

9.  Sunday evening we took our Easter photo.  We might have started a terrible tradition of taking a family Easter photo every year.  I say terrible, because after a long day it's really hard to find something in bloom and take a pic with it and everybody look their best.  Especially those of us who are 9 months pregnant.

We scored some fun pictures of Jack in a flower patch while we were at it.  He was so entertained by opening Easter eggs.  To his delight he did find a chocolate mid-photo shoot and proceeded to peel and eat it.  :)

....and as if this blogpost isn't already heavy-laden with photos enough, I thought I'd include some Easter pics from last year for fun.  See, we have to take a pic every year now, right??

Jack | 15 months

Once again, I got a little behind.  This is a short list because I'm tired and pregnant.  :)  Here's what happened between February 10th- March 10th.

1.  He will now point at my belly when you say, "Where's the Baby?"  I was so impressed the first time he did this.

2.  Blinking his eyes when you say, "where are your eyes?"

3.  We are exclusively at one nap in the afternoon now and things are operating much more smoothly.

4.  outgrowing all of his clothes.  He's moving into 18 month clothing.

5.  1st kiss :)  And we actually got a pic of it!!!  We're working on making this an arranged marriage ;)

6. 1st snow.

Jack | 14 months

Here's what happened between January 10th - February 10th.  I'm a little behind on hitting "publish."

1. Saying "dog." And "woo-ooo" for "what sound does a dog make?" He now goes "woo-ooo" every time he sees a dog.  (Even on the dog-food aisle at Aldi.)

2. Snots McGhee. I'm ready for our family to pull out of the crud we've been having.

3. Cooking in the kitchen with me. :). He likes to pretend to stir things.  He can do this for an hour or more and he LOVES it.

4. Saying "mama" and "dada" a lot clearer... Although he still doesn't address me unless I say "what's my name?", but he says, "da-da-da-da-da..." Whenever Corey comes home. He runs to Corey and wants to be held until it's time to eat dinner. :)

5. No more paci! I was tired of going in and out of his room during nap and bedtime to pick it up off the floor. :/. Surprisingly, he didn't really miss it. This kid is too easy.

6. Moving on up to the big boy car seat! I think he enjoys being able to look around.  It cracks me up that he actually uses his cup holder as well.

7. We've been experiencing some separation anxiety at church and whenever I leave the room in an unfamiliar place.

8. He whistles. No lie. Corey and I have been so impressed. It's only one note, but still!

9. Learning to ride his little trike. When he got it 2 months ago at his birthday party he couldn't even touch the floor. Now he can get on and off by himself and ride it around a little.

10. He can "roll it up" now when you sing patty-cake.

11. He's getting even more curls. On a particularly humid day he had a uni-curl on top. It was too cute.

12. Going to the park and climbing up the stairs to slide. He's still not a fan of the swings.

13.  Showing out when we have company.

14.  He's becoming more and more brave with the vacuum cleaner.  He used to cry anytime I vacuumed.  Now he plays "chicken" with the vacuum cleaner and tries to run in front when I'm on a down stroke.

15.  Problem solving.  Jack loves to put things together and take them apart.  He's been working on putting shape blocks in their correct holes, putting lids on things, stacking rings, etc.

16.  He just started liking stuffed animals.  He's kinda partial to a particular polar bear.  :)

17.  Reading the book "baby naps" (which consists of 4 pages- ha!) and kissing all of the babies in the book.

18.  Still jabbering like a mad man.  He is Mr. Social.  When we grocery shop he likes to talk to all of the strangers.

19.  Saying the word, "bear."

20.  pointing to his nose or your nose when you ask about noses.  :)

21.  I think we can say that he runs at this point... it could probably still use a little practice, but he gets up and goes.