Photos

10-22-09 My mom and dad with Liam.

10-23-09 All ready to go home.

10-27-09 Liam's first bath.

10-29-09 McKayla nursing her lamb

10-30-09 Halloween party with my parents.

10-30-09 Beckham the garden gnome

10-30-09 Kayla the butterfly

10-30-09 Liam's adorable booties

10-30-09 awww, cute!

11-6-09 I love this picture of Beckham!

11-6-09 His shirt says, "My dad is my hero"

11-15-09 Family photo

11-22-09 1 month old

12-7-09 Liam

12-2-09 The kids

Has it really been 2 months? (warning . . . very long post)

Sunday, December 13, 2009
Well, the entire month of November came and went without a moment of time to write. How do I sum up the last 7 and half weeks since Liam joined our family? Blessed seems to be a good word. For the first two weeks after he was born my mom came over every morning to help me feed and clothe the kids, get a shower for myself and keep up with laundry and other household duties. Liam has been a great nurser and sleeper from the get go. There have only been a few truly sleepless nights . . .
I got interrupted by a phone call and it is now Sunday, December 20th! Anyway, Liam is a great addition to our family. My mom thinks he observed our family from heaven and knew exactly what he needed to do to survive here! Liam seems to be very responsive to interaction. He smiled for the first time right around a month old while I stroked his chin. He sucks on his tongue the way that I did when I was a baby. He basically sleeps through the night with one major feeding around 4am. I just started him on formula. I give him two bottles a day and that has been wonderful. It gives me just a little bit of freedom to leave the house for longer than an hour! He is a super chunk. He has big chubby cheeks and has nearly doubled his birth weight. He’s wearing 3-6mo clothes and will be wearing size three diapers very soon.
Everyone was worried about how Kayla would handle having a new baby, but she’s handled it very well. She has been very helpful and loves to hold Liam. She didn’t throw any tantrums when daddy started putting her to bed instead of mommy. She has also started staying in her room all night long until I come to get her at 7. That is a major accomplishment for her since she generally wakes up every morning at 4:30. She lays in bed listening to her glow worm and reading books in the glow of her nightlight. She looks forward to quiet time everyday and loves to do ABC time on the computer. She has been attending speech preschool and her language skills are definitely improving. I love to hear her say new things. She just got her hair cut to her shoulders and looks very cute. In January she’ll be going to Children’s Hospital in Seattle to have an EEG, MRI and sleep study. She’s actually been seizure free for several months but I’m curious to see if the doctors are able to discover what the cause of her seizures is.
I think Beckham has the hardest time adjusting to baby. For the first 3 or 4 weeks he was terrified to sleep in his own bed. He was afraid that I would leave. I started having to rock him and sing to him before bed and naps. Thankfully he’s bounced back and goes to sleep on his own after a few songs. I think he still gets nervous about his place in the family. When Lonnie’s home Beckham is very territorial. He doesn’t want Lonnie to hold Liam or Kayla. Overall, Beckham is very kind to Liam. He gives him kisses and is atentative to him. I think they will become good friends once Liam starts to play a bit more. Beckham just turned two on the 18th. We had a birthday party for him last night at my parent’s house. He has fallen in love with Toy Story and received lots of fun gifts . . . Buzz and Woody galore. He has definitely hit the terrible twos. He’s started hitting and setting Kayla up to get in trouble. He’s also a bit of a practical jokester and speaks very well for his age.
Lonnie has been working a lot at the factory. He’s the assistant manager of his department and has gotten a few raises. We just bought a “new” van and his school loans will start soon so we are very grateful for the raises. He’s been working a lot of overtime which is good and bad. It’s hard when he doesn’t come home on time at night. Dinner until bedtime is hard for me because the kids seem to go crazy. Lonnie has been very helpful with the kids and has handled my mood swings pretty well. He is wonderful daddy and husband. We are all lucky to have him.
I’ve had my ups and downs. I’m so tired all the time and can’t seem to get everything done no matter how hard I try. I’ve been having major pain in my right arm and shoulder. I’ve had several sleepless nights from that problem. That’s frustrating. Thankfully I start physical therapy this week. It’s hard to imagine that there is more to life than laundry and poopy diapers. It’s like the light at the end of the tunnel . . . it’s just a really long tunnel right now.
I have been horrible about keeping in touch with friends . . . Sorry . . . I'll try to be better!

Labor and Delivery

This is the 3rd time I've been on the internet since Liam was born on the 22nd. Sorry for the delay in info and cute pics. Here's the low-down on the whole labor and delivery. Wednesday the 21st my mom and I took a super power walk. My whole body was sore when I got home. Around 12:30 in the morning on the 22nd I woke up and started timing contractions. They were very mild but they were happening every 4 minutes. After about 4o minutes and several prayers, I decided to wake Lonnie and call my mom. We got to the hospital around 2am. I told my nurse I was a little nervous that I was jumping the gun but I didn't want to have the baby in my living room! I was dilated to a 2 and she reassured me that I had made a good choice to come in because I was definitely in labor. Well, unfortunately my labor stopped around 5:30am . . . completely! After the waiting for it to pick back up on its own and getting a new morning nurse they finally put me on pit around 8:30. My nurse was new and was worried that there were problems with the umbilical cord so they upped the pit very, very slowly. At noon I was only at a 3. Ugh! I was feeling so frustrated because I had expected Liam to be born by noon. At this point, they decided to give me the epidural. I was really shaky because I hadn't eaten anything and my blood sugar was low. I kept telling the nurse I felt like I was going to fall of the bed while the anesthesiologist was getting started but she didn't come to me and brace my shoulders. The epidural sent shooting pain down my back and leg. I started sobbing and finally the nurse came to me. The anesthesiologist tried again . . . more shooting pain followed by my right leg flopping around like a fish. Excruciating. I was so glad that Lonnie wasn't in the room because it was so painful and I was crying so hard. Around 1:30pm my doctor came to check on me. He wasn't pleased with my progress and decided to increase the pit a little more. Then he said he'd be back after his office hours . . . around 5:30. I almost had a panic attack because that meant he didn't think Liam would be born for another 4 hours. I was trying so hard to keep myself in control. Luckily my contractions did eventually pick up and by 5:30 I was ready to push but the doctor wasn't there! The nurses kept telling me to hold on but after nearly 18 hours I didn't want to hold on. I wanted him out!!! Thankfully my doctor got there by a quarter till and Liam was born at 6:03pm after 3 massive pushes. He was 7lbs 12oz and 20 inches long. He is a great nurser and sleeper.
Just barely born.

Kayla meets her new baby brother.

Beckham wasn't too concerned about having a new baby . . . he just wanted my fruit cup!

Officially a family of 5.

My parents holding Liam . . . their 6th grandbaby.

Liam and his new monkey.

Dressed and ready to go home.

Cute baby!

Waiting

I have to say that the last week or so of pregnancy is not my favorite. As most of you know, I'm the type of person who likes everything nicely organized. I like to plan things in advance and schedule them in so I know exactly what to expect. Well, unless you are getting induced or a C-section you can't really pencil in when you are going to go into labor and have your baby. It makes me just a little batty waiting for this little guy to arrive. I had an appointment yesterday and I thought for sure I'd already started dilating. The doctor told me that if I wanted to feel good about my progress I could claim a centimeter. That doesn't make me feel good. I thought I'd be a 3 or 4 with all the pressure I've been feeling. Ho-hum. I've finished everything on my "Get-it-done-before-the-baby-arrives List" and now I'm just waiting.

Pumpkin Time

Yesterday we took the kids to the Pumpkin Patch and got to do a few fun things like a bounce house, carousel, hay pyramid, corn maze and hay bale maze. It was FREEZING outside but we had a good time. We ended our fun with a trailer ride out to the pumpkin patch where both kids picked pumpkins. All in all, some good family fun.
Pyramid . . . I was so scared Beckham was going to fall off!

Freezing on the trailer ride out to the pumpkin patch.

Kayla looking very serious about her pumpkin. She was probably too cold to smile all the way!

Beckham loved his very little and very bumpy pumpkin!

Baby Shower

Well, it's official . . . I have the best sister-in-law ever! Actually all of my sisters-in-law are great but yesterday Jess threw me an awesome baby shower. Everything was so beautiful and the food was fantastic. We had chocolate fondue and lots of yummy things to dip in it, cider, an apple cake, a veggie tray, crackers and pumpkin butter. There were a nice mix of guests . . . some people I haven't seen in at least 10 years. I wish we could have gotten a group shot but . . . my camera's batteries died. This was the first shower I've had where my mom and grandma could attend. That was nice, too. I received a lot of really great gifts and several packs of diapers. All of which will come in very handy. I can't believe that I am 37 weeks. I miss laying on my stomach and being able to run. I've been getting tons of braxton hicks with this pregnancy . . . I hope that means Liam won't incubate too much longer. I think he will be born on the 23rd and I'm crossing my fingers he won't be late.

YUM!

Debbi playing the Dirty Diaper game . . .

Julie, Shelli, Sue and Natallie checking out the contents of their dirty diapers . . .

Natallie?!? Don't worry, it's just chocolate!

At home after the shower showing Lonnie some of the things we received. Thanks everyone!

Lonnie's Birthday

Lonnie just turned 29 and this is the first time in our marriage we haven't been in CA with his family to celebrate. I think it was a little weird for Lonnie but we had a fun day anyway. We got a babysitter and went to the movies. It's amazing that it's been so long since we've been to a movie considering we used to do that all the time . . . before we had kids that is! We saw the newest Harry Potter and loved it. Then we went out to dinner at Red Lobster and finished the night off with homemade icecream cake. YUM!

That's one cool cake!

Beckham helping daddy blow out his candle.

Kayla feeling the love for daddy's cake!

My mom and grandma.

Happy little family full of cake!

McKayla's Potato Heads

A few weeks ago McKayla made these potato heads. I thought they were quite ingenious!

One cute kid

A little while ago there was a blog post going around of childhood pictures. Well, I finally got a few pics of me scanned into the computer and thought I would share.

Me and my parents a day or so after birth. April 1979
My Grandma Sue and me. August 1979

One year old. April 1980

My brother Benjamin (20 mo.) and me (4 mo.). December 1980

Mother's day 1981.

Free Ultrasound

My new doctor just got a new ultrasound machine and was offering free ultrasounds. Well, who am I to turn down anything free. It was fun to see Liam's face in 3D and know exactly where he's at in my tummy. He's about 5 and a half pounds now which means he'll probably be about 8lbs when he's born. The doctor said my due date according to today's measurements is probably around the 23rd . . . that's also when I think the baby will be born. My official due date of the 27th has never seemed right. Only a few more weeks to go.

Prince of Pizza

Okay, so not long after we moved to WA we were really hungry for Pizza one night and splurged. We even shared with my parents and grandma. Needless to say, there wasn't much left . . . a slice, maybe two. When we got home I put the box on the table and hurried to get the kids ready for bed. I was finishing up with McKayla and calling the kids to come in for family prayer and scripture time. Hmmm . . . no Beckham. We all went out to the kitchen to find this. He was laughing like crazy. I think Lonnie was disappointed he wouldn't be having pizza for lunch the next day but . . . you gotta admit this is pretty cute!