Update

Wednesday: a night conversation

2012-02-02T02:22:00.001-05:00

3am
Ben: i'm afraid
Amanda: what are you afraid of?
B: oceans
A: why are you afraid of oceans?
B: they make my books wet.
A: are you afraid of hoses?
B: some
A: are you afraid of glasses of water...
B: and babies. Babies make everything wet
A: true

We had dinner with Ben's family...everyone was able to be there and so it was a little crazy, but in a very good way. Autumn tried teaching Isaac how to laugh, it didn't work. :(

Hunger Monster

2012-02-01T00:37:00.001-05:00

Hunger Monster has been one of my nicknames for Isaac. Today it worked for us and against us.

Once again it was every two hours between feedings last night.

But...he also took his first bottle from Ben without any problems. Hurray! (Of course, there also wasn't enough in the bottle so he was hungry again 15 minutes later.)

Monday: one month

2012-01-31T10:45:00.001-05:00

Isaac is one month old today!

He got dressed in his Animal shirt because it had been a rough night. He kept waking up.

Isaac and Flurry are starting to get along better.

I pumped for the first time! I had wanted Isaac to eat before an appointment, but my attempts at gently waking him up failed completely. Next up is actually getting him to eat from the bottle though.

And sleeping. He took two amazing naps during the day; I wish they were at night instead.

Ben and I were talking about how much he's changed in just a month. He's grown a ton...clothes that used to be way too big are almost too small. His head can stay up easily during tummy time. He can roll over (when he's in the mood). He doesn't sleep as well at night.

Sunday: socks and sheets

2012-01-30T02:56:00.001-05:00

This morning Isaac soiled the last pair of clean socks that he had. (That fit...he had some that were too big and lots of pairs waiting to be washed.). So since he was going to wear socks that didn't fit no matter what, I thought he might as well wear some of Ben's.

We also went to the new house and put our bed together. Guess what we found? The bottom sheet from our sheet set! The movers hadn't taken it off, which is why I was unable to find it in April.

It also snowed ton this morning. Around 7 I don't remember seeing much accumulation (although I wasn't looking very hard) and by 11 there was about ... 8"? I'm bad at estimating snow depths, but it was a lot.

Saturday: moving part 1 and tears

2012-01-29T05:15:00.001-05:00

This morning I saw isaac's first tears...one from each eye. He had just conked his head on my collarbone pretty hard and apparently it hurt.

We also have all the stuff from the storage building moved into the house! A huge thanks goes out to Bens dad, who we didn't expect to be there but helped a ton. But all the furniture is in the house and in the correct room. Well, I guess there are a few pieces left, but nothing big.

Friday: 4 weeks

2012-01-28T01:40:00.001-05:00

Today Isaac is four weeks old!

(the quilt is almost done, too)

We also went to the new house to get a few thing ready for moving phase 1. In doing so, we got some pictures of Isaac in his new bedroom.

Thursday: a house, a date

2012-01-27T03:16:00.001-05:00

Today we bought a house! However, I don't have any pictures right now. We'll be slowly moving in over the next few weeks. Isaac was great at the closing and slept right through it. While the process was somewhat stressful, we had an amazing mortgage agent who was one of the most responsive service-industry people i've ever worked with, and that was great.

Then tonight Ben and I went on a short, but very nice date. We left Isaac with Dad and Pat and went to a nearby restaurant. Isaac was apparently on his best behavior while we were gone...hurray!

Wednesday: post 2

2012-01-26T05:50:00.001-05:00

So here I am, feeding Isaac, and find that I already wrote tonight's post. So I thought I'd write another.

A lot of cool things are happening tomorrow. It will be an exciting blog post. Actually, it might not be. But it will have exciting news.

My finger pads are dry. Not cracked, but a lot drier than they were before Isaac was born.

I pronounce the j in bjorn (buh-jorn). I think it is because I read the word fjord before anyone said the word to me, and the hard j stuck. I even think I read it in "a wrinkle in time" but would need to reread the book to confirm.

Following jess' example, i've been doing a lot of reading to Isaac from the book I'm reading. And I've found out that weird names of people and places are really annoying. I have no idea how to pronounce them, so stumble over them a lot. It's especially annoying when the name is only going tobe used once. When reading to myself, I don't think that I pronounce weird names, but look at the letters in the name and go with that.

Isaac seems gassy tonight. I wonder why. It certainly isn't helping him sleep.

Wednesday: pictures and video

2012-01-25T16:42:00.001-05:00

Today the baby pictures were posted! Woo-hoo...I love them. If you want to see all of them, you can go here: http://www.pictage.com/1203102

But here are some of my favorites (copied by permission). Christen did a great job, and you can see more of her work here: http://www.christenbphotography.com/ (and she is available for other photo sessions if you're interested!)

I might have to expand my picture wall. How am I going to have all the cute ones of Isaac and still have other memories and people on it?

Here is another video of Isaac rolling over because that's the only trick he currently has in his repertoire. It takes him forever, but he does it. Sound was removed.

Tuesday: in the hood

2012-01-25T04:42:00.001-05:00

Last night did not really go all that well. Isaac did not want to be put down, so we watched a movie. Then he was hungry about every two hours. :(

This morning we both had hoodie sweatshirts on. Actually we both had them on all day, not just in the morning.

We also tried the Bjorne again. Yesterday it didn't work, but today I realized I had to put some straps through some loops. Once I did that Isaac calmed down. I was hoping that he would stay awake in it, but he fell asleep. I had a 12:30 appt and I was trying to get Isaac to start a nap cycle in the car, but it failed completely. Oh well.

Monday

2012-01-24T10:18:00.001-05:00

Today Isaac was cranky.

Here he wasn't cranky for 15 minutes...

(ok, there were several other times he wasn't cranky. But as he is getting older he is getting fussier.)

Flurry had an awesome pose during the above nap. She was trying to get my ham sandwich. Too bad my collection of water bottles joined her too.

And here are Ben and Isaac bonding before bed time.

Sunday: 5 diapers

2012-01-23T00:25:00.001-05:00

Amanda removes a dirty diaper from Isaac (#1).

Isaac pees, soiling the diaper that is under him for such emergencies (#2).

Amanda gets a new diaper and wrap under Isaac. Isaac poops. (#3)

Amanda quickly removes the soiled diaper before it gets over anything. Isaac finishes pooping on the new emergency diaper (#4).

Amanda finally gets a clean diaper on Isaac (#5). Phew.

Saturday: one outfit

2012-01-22T01:30:00.001-05:00

Today's big news is that Isaac managed to stay in the same outfit all day! Hurray!

Friday: 3 weeks

2012-01-21T01:00:00.001-05:00

Today Isaac is 3 weeks old!

He also started using the next size diaper, which worked very nicely.

I put him down on the floor while I was going to the bathroom this morning, and made Flurry make a choice: get water but get close to Isaac or stay away from both. She decided to get the water, but stalked by Isaac very carefully and as close to the wall as possible.

Thursday: more rolls

2012-01-19T21:04:00.001-05:00

We went out today and saw Christen and Samuel. And it was a lot of fun. It was nice to get out and see them and swap poop stories. (And a lot of other stories too.)

Then Ben was spending tummy time with Isaac and gently bonked him on the head with his head. And Isaac said "Ow"

Then Isaac rolled over. We both saw it. Then he did it again. Then we got it on video.
He just did it for a fourth time, and this time he didn't start with his arm under him but to the side.

Wednesday: busy

2012-01-19T06:36:00.001-05:00

Today was another busy day, but good. It started with a trip to Grand Haven to get Isaac on my insurance and show him off to coworkers. He did an awesome job of being cute and sleeping while we were there.

Then Dad came over during lunch.

Isaac had his first real bath, but it didn't go very well and ended up being a half bath.

Then he decided to show his support for Hope College. (there was also a Hope/Calvin game tonight which I was completely unaware of at the time.)

(of course, he got it wet a short time later so I don't know if that is a sign.)

Then Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner and a game of bean farmer. It was fun, and the food delicious, but isaac got fussy near the end. Ben weighed Isaac on our scale, which is only precise to the nearest half pound, but he was at nine pounds.

Tuesday: trifecta

2012-01-18T05:16:00.001-05:00

scene: changing a diaper on a plastic changing pad

Amanda: all right! The diaper is just wet!

Amanda puts diaper in hamper.

Isaac poops.

Amanda: the outfit!

Amanda scoops up Isaac, hoping nothing got in the poop as the watery part runs all over the middle of the pad.

Amanda: now what do i do with you?

Amanda puts Isaac perpendicular to her on one of the pad sides and starts getting the new diaper ready.

Isaac pees.

Amanda quickly puts the diaper over Isaac.

Amanda: oh, you got me that time!

Amanda gets the diaper on Isaac.

Amanda decides that while the outfit was mostly saved, it should still be replaced and takes it off Isaac.

Amanda picks up Isaac to check his back and the diaper.

Amanda: You could complete the trifecta and spit up on me too.

Isaac burps.

Isaac spits up all over Amanda's shirt.

Amanda: thanks.

Monday: fussy

2012-01-17T00:10:00.001-05:00

Last night and today Isaac was fussy. I was up an extra time or two during the night and when I was up they were longer stretches. Now, I'm sure it could be worse; we weren't carrying an inconsolable baby or anything. But it was still annoying.

The fussiness continued throughout the day...kind of the same thing. Only one person was able to hold him in one position or he wasn't happy. Oh well, we made it through the day.

Well, here's hoping for a better tomorrow. Especially since Ben wont be around during the day.

Sunday: this and that

2012-01-16T05:37:00.001-05:00

Today Isaac got to wear his crazy drummer Animal

But it was short sleeved, so he also wore the sweater from grandma.

I thought putting those two articles of clothing together was hilarious.

Ben also had Isaac doing a "trick" this afternoon. When I came over to watch, he wouldn't do it. Then hegot huge grin on his face. (I know it was gas, but the timing was perfect.)

Saturday: snow and dominion

2012-01-15T00:08:00.001-05:00

Last night Flurry joined us on the bed for most of the night. She also got up with me for all of Isaac's feedings, which was nice of her.

It has snowed nonstop here since Friday morning, and we've probably gotten around a foot of snow. It's beautiful.

Some friends came over this afternoon with their seven week old son. Our goal was to finish one game of Dominion. We managed to finish two because both boys took good naps at the same time.

Friday: two weeks...and more

2012-01-14T05:45:00.001-05:00

Isaac is two weeks old today!

But first, here is a sneak peak at some of his newborn photos. I really like all of them, but some of my favorites are the first one of me holding him (he has that look all the time after nursing), the wrinkled brow, and the basket. http://www.christenbphotography.com/?p=2898.

Here is isaac at two weeks

Good job with the head! (there haven't been anymore rolls, so it must have been a fluke).

Isaac also decided to play with a tiger.

First it scared him

Then it got him

Then he got the tiger by its tail

And finally Isaac captured the tiger. It was tiring work.

Isaac also lost his umbilical cord today!

Thursday: out!

2012-01-13T02:45:00.001-05:00

Last night we tried a new swaddling blanket...with Velcro. It was awesome. It contained Isaac's hands while only requiring one adult to put it on. He also slept for over four hours at one point. Er, he waited four hours between feedings. I guess there is actually a large difference between the two statements,

In the morning we went out for the first time! It was a little challenging trying to remember what buttons on the stroller do what,but we got it figured out. We really werent out for long...we were home within 45 minutes and most of that time was spent in the car. But I was exhausted for the rest of the day

Wednesday: eating. Sleeping. Rolling?

2012-01-12T08:15:00.001-05:00

Eating.
Isaac seems to have developed a few poor habits in regards to eating the last few days. 1) when he's hungry (and in eating position), he turns his head as far as possible in the opposite direction of where his food is. He is still looking for food, straining his neck, it's just in the wrong location. This of course makes him even "madder" than he was because he still doesn't have food. It only takes about 10 seconds to turn towards the correct direction, but it feels like a really long time. 2) Isaac sometimes just seems to play with his food. I'm not sure if this is because milk comes out so easily in the beginning that he gets a taste without latching and that makes him go crazy or if it is another reason. I'm not sure if this is interfering with eating.

Sleeping
Several pictures were taken of a sleeping Isaac today.

With his hand straight up in the air (it stayed there for a while).

In his crib

And in his bouncer. Flurry is jealous of the hanging things

Rolling?
I put Isaac on his stomach for tummy time. He got mad so I started patting his back. Next thing I know isaac is on his back. Did he do that by himself? Did I unknowingly help? We will find out.

Tuesday: more pictures

2012-01-11T02:59:00.001-05:00

This morning Isaac slept until a little after nine, so I actually got up about ten minutes before he did...and it was wonderful. I was able to get dressed (at least as much as i "get dressed" these days) and get some breakfast together.

Isaac slept better in the swing this morning so I was able to do some light housework.

This afternoon we had our first official tummy time. (he's had unofficial tummy time on our chests.). Since he was awake I tried to get some of his facial expressions...it's amazing how many he can make in a short time.

He also took a nap on the floor. Flurry watched.

Monday: home alone

2012-01-10T02:49:00.001-05:00

Today was our first day home alone. It went fine...not great but not terrible either. Isaac was a bit fussy so I held him more than I expected too. (although I'm sure I could have tried a little harder to get him to sleep somewhere else...but why would I want to? He's so small and cuddly.)

Sunday: another laid back day

2012-01-09T03:32:00.001-05:00

Today was another easy day, although Isaac was awake a bit more today. He took an awesome nap on Ben's lap while Flurry slept next to me.

Dad and Pat came over for a little bit this afternoon and watched Isaac while Ben and I took a nap.

Saturday: laid back day

2012-01-08T02:37:00.001-05:00

Today was a pretty laid back day. Isaac slept a ton.

At one point Ben was in the middle of changing a diaper when Isaac feuded he needed to urinate again. He pretty much completely missed his goal (Ben) and instead got himself in the face instead.

Friday: busy day

2012-01-07T07:23:00.001-05:00

Today was a busy day, as we had another home visit from the nurse and newborn pictures.

Since there were pictures, we started the day with a bath.

"help! Im being eaten by the monster shark."

The nurse said everything is still looking great.

Isaac did a great job with the pictures. He was man-handled for three hours but only started getting fussy at the end. He didn't always do exactly what the photographer wanted, but at least he wasn't mad.

The photographs, of course, threw off any schedule that he might have and so he slept soundly for the rest of the evening.

Thursday: super Dad

2012-01-05T23:51:00.001-05:00

So, continuing from last night. Around 1:30 I had no clue what to do. Laying him down didn't work, holding him didn't work because he would just root around, and feeding didn't work because he stopped to quickly. So Ben took over and managed to get him to sleep. And didthe same thing a few more times at night.

We have noticed that Isaac will more easily calm down in Ben's arms. He seems to have a magic touch.

The day again went pretty quickly, although not much of note happened. Yesterday I realized that I hadn't taken many pictures, so today I tried to remedy that.

This is the quilt I'm making him. It isn't quite finished, but enough for pictures.

This one is my favorite.

Wednesday: unpredictable

2012-01-05T03:44:00.001-05:00

Last night continued to be better. I only had to get up three times during the night, which was awesome. (we'll note that they way we figured out the actual count was the swaddling blankets...the first time was monkeys, the second time I didn't get a diaper on fast enough so we ended up with plain white, and the third time there were other fluid problems so we ended up with lions.)

Isaac continued this great trend throughout the day, sleeping for rather long periods.

Ben's brother and sister in law brought over an excellent dinner and we played some games with them. Half way through games he wanted to eat. No problem. But then he wanted to eat again ten minutes later. And again ten minutes later.

This trend continued, with one or two slightly longer breaks...until midnight. What happens after midnight? You'll just have to wait for the next installment of "new parents living with a new born."

Tuesday: four days old

2012-01-04T07:19:00.001-05:00

Last night went pretty well. Isaac still fed more often than I hoped, but the swaddling and bouncy seat meant that it was easy to put him back to sleep in between.

It was a morning of firsts. Isaac was dressed in his first cloth diaper. I was happily surprised at how easy they were and how well the plastic thing kept everything dry. Maybe surprised is the wrong word since no one would be using them if that were the case, but surprised that my first try worked so well.

Isaac was awake, so we read our first book together. However, I didn't explain to him what a book was, so he kept looking to the side of the book.

I then needed the use of my whole body, so he got his first swing ride.

Dad came to help out after that and Ben was able to come home early, so most of the rest of the morning/afternoon passed by as normal.

We were getting ready to go to the doctor when we got a call saying Isaac's great-grandmother was coming over with dinner. We felt bad that it would have to be a really short visit, but were glad she was coming and were keeping an eye out for her. Then Ben said "someone's in the driveway" as I saw a pair of legs fall to the ground. My heart raced. But on further inspection it was only the neighbor kids having a snowball fight. Phew.

The doctor's visit was pretty uneventful. We got a few more questions answered, and found out that Isaac is back over his birth weight already at 7lb, 2oz. (they like to have babies hit that mark by two weeks.). Three cheers for Isaac! But then we told him that maybe now it would be ok to not eat so often.

Monday: nurse visit

2012-01-03T05:23:00.001-05:00

Last night went better than the previous night. Still a lot of room for improvement though, but we'll be trying more different things tonight.

Isaac's appetite was still voracious, so a lot of the day was spent feeding.

A nurse came by to check everyone at home today. We got this because we could have spent another night in the hospital but chose not to. (Our first night there didn't count as a night since Isaac wasn't born until the a.m.). Anyway, she was very happy with how Isaac is doing. His bilirubin number is low, he is strong, alert, and nursing well and he gained a tad bit of weight since being discharged (now at 6lb, 13oz). The only thing she didn't like was the lack of diaper changes needed and the stool color.

So tonight Isaac worked on increasing that number. Significantly. He also managed to get the right stool color.

Can you tell we're proud parents?

We haven't forgotten about Flurry. Mom brought over some catnip toys with dinner and she loved them.

This evening we're trying two different things with sleeping. 1) We're putting a bouncy seat in the bassinet to help him feel more confined. 2) Mom brought over some actual swaddling blankets. After Ben looked up how to swaddle last night, I was rather disappointed in what the birthing class had taught us. They just used receiving blankets (not large enough) and the technique wasn't quite the same.

P.s. To whoever cleared our driveway from snow, thank you so much. It was an awesome surprise

Sunday: hunger

2012-01-02T13:09:00.001-05:00

The theme of today was hunger. Isaac was hungry pretty much all day. It often felt like he finished nursing just to start again 15 minutes later. Luckily, he liked being held by grandparents, so we did get a few breaks in the day.

The other thing we found out is that Isaac doesn't like the bassinet. We aren't really sure what to do about this since he is too young to just leave in it. We'll ask the nurse who comes tomorrow and have a few other things to try.

There were several fun things that happened today too...

Isaac had woken up and was wide-eyed, so both Ben and i were looking at him. He discreetly looked at Ben's face, then my face, then Ben's again.

Ben showed him, by example, how to sleep on his back.

We started to wrap Christmas gifts.

My family came over with a delicious dinner and we opened presents.

Dad found a picture of me as a baby...I look a lot like Isaac.

We decided that Isaac might become an escape artist after he repeatedly escaped from the swaddling sleep sack, in spite of Ben's best efforts to put him there very tightly.

Dec 31: coming home

2011-12-31T23:36:00.001-05:00

To begin with, i'm happy to report that Isaac seemed to figure out how to latch on after we sent him to the nursery last night. Maybe there was a class they didn't tell us about, but we've barely had any problems today.

Therefore, Today we came home from the hospital. The day was much more relaxed than yesterday. Not as many random people, more sleep at night, etc.

So here's Isaac, ready to go home.

Oops...he had a small blowout. Back to yesterday's outfit.

Amy and Brian stopped by on their way north. They weren't able to stay for long because Isaac got hungry, but it was still nice to see them for a little bit.

Then my family stopped by after dinner. While it is always nice to see them, it was especially nice this time because they did some laundry. I hadn't washed much of the newborn clothes since I was expecting a larger baby, so I wasn't really sure what Isaac was going to wear tomorrow. Instill don't have an answer to that, but at least there are possibilities.

I was going to post this tomorrow, but this child won't stop eating. I'll think hes done because he is almost asleep and not responding to stimulus to keep eating, but then he says he's sill hungry.

Friday: first day of life

2011-12-31T07:06:00.001-05:00

Today brought a few challenges, lots of holding, and lots of visitors.

For example, it currently takes two of us to clothe Isaac. And since he liked to sleep, we had to unclothe (and then reclothe) to make him wake up for feedings. There was also a struggle to make him nurse on the right side...he won once, but we won most of the time. Of course, after the time he won he was hungry soon after, so I'm not sirens really won.

But besides that, we just spent a nice day with him and with visitors, getting to know him as he mostly slept. (there were lots of pictures with family and I'm not going to post, along with some cute ones taken on phones that I can't post right now.). Oh, he also had his first pee, which was expected. Unfortunately, I also got peed on. While I'm sure it is the first of many, I was hoping it would be longer.

Here we all are!

Isaac. The hat kept falling off, but his temp was on the cool side so we were trying to keep it on.

Isaac's celebratory dinner...that he didn't get to eat.

Mom and Isaac. We had both managed to get dressed.

Thursday: happy birth day

2011-12-30T22:30:00.001-05:00

2:30am (Thursday): Amanda's dream about what a bad basketball player she is gets interrupted by contractions. For some reason she keeps going back to sleep even though it is a dumb dream.

3:00am: amanda gets up to see if they are real.

3:30am: Ben gets up. They play a few games while timing contractions. Things seem to be progressing and they call the doctor's office and plan to go the hospital around 7am

6am: they take a quick stop at Burger King

7am: Contractions are spreading out, but taking longer. They decide to wait to go to the hospital.

12pm: Contractions are close to 5 minutes. They hope to go to the hospital after lunch.

1pm: Contractions spread out again.

3pm: Contractions start to really hurt.

4pm: Amanda calls the doctor to see what is going on and if they should go in, even though contractions are not constant and range between 5-10 minutes.

5pm: the doctor says that it is Braxton Hicks and that I don't need to go to the hospital. Amanda pretty much cries for the next hour. How is she supposed to go through real labor if fake labor hurts so much? How is she supposed to sleep? How is she going to last through the night with the pain before her doctor comes on call?

6:30pm Amanda calls the doctor again, And this time talks to the doctor on-call (vs through the nurse). He says that Amanda is not in labor because those contractions are two to four minutes apart. And while I could go get checked, there isn't a good reason.

7pm: Amanda throws up her dinner.

9:30: after trying to sleep and completely not succeeding because of contractions, Amanda gets up and thinks her water broke. After looking all night for an excuse, she declares it is time to go to the hospital, even if they send every one back home. Ben quickly gets the last things together in case they get to stay.

10:00: Amanda is dilated to an eight! She doesn't have to leave! The baby is coming! Amanda asks for an epidural, even though the nurse says it is almost time and she could probably make it without one. (Did we mention even walking was getting painful?). A few contractions occur before the drugs can be administered and Amanda almost squeezes Ben's fingers off. Ben proceeds to only touch the top of Amanda's hand and Amanda squeezes the bedrail. The anastesiaiogist shows up promptly and administers wonderful drugs.

10:10: Everyone is happier once the epidural kicks in.

10:30: Amanda is dilated to 10!

11:45: Amanda starts pushing. (the doctor finished another delivery and so while he isn't there he is available.

12:00am: a mirror is brought into the room. Amanda enjoys watching the head crown, even though she wasn't sure she would.

12:15: the doctor is called in because the baby's heart rate was slightly in distress.

12:57: Isaac Bruce is born!

Tuesday: 39 weeks

2011-12-27T21:26:00.001-05:00

It's that time of week again! Doctor appointment time!

I'm dilated to a 2-3, 90% effaced, and the baby's head is still low and facing the correct direction. The OB also stripped the membranes, which is supposed to help if you're close to going into labor but not really do anything if you're not.

Stay tuned.

Monday: no work

2011-12-26T21:36:00.001-05:00

Yay, we didn't have to work today. We took it pretty easy, putting some stuff away and going to see the mission impossible movie.

Saturday: high school

2011-12-24T21:00:00.001-05:00

Some friends from high school got together for breakfast this morning. It was really nice to talk with them again. I haven't seen some of them for...probably seven to ten years. So we all got caught up. I was taking the recycle out to the garage just as they were starting to arrive and reflected on how weird it is that we're adults now. It might not seem that way to us, but we really are. We are in charge of bringing the recycle out to the garage. (And lots of other things too :) )

Thursday: done

2011-12-22T23:02:00.002-05:00

Hurray! We're done with work for a long weekend. And I got to leave early, which was awesome.

Tonight Ben and I went to play Hand and Foot with his grandparents. We did really, really well the first hand but decided they must have just been being nice to us. By the last hand, we were way behind.

Wednesday: conversation

2011-12-21T22:47:00.001-05:00

Amanda: I feel like I've been having little contractions all night.
Ben: do they hurt?
Amanda: no.(sigh)
Ben: (laughs) this is the only time that we want pain.

Tuesday: 38 weeks

2011-12-20T21:57:00.001-05:00

Today was a doctor's appointment! They're fun.

I'm dilated to 2, 70% effaced, and the head is "very low". Progress!

Due to various things though, it would be nice if he would wait to start contractions until noon on Saturday. Or do it tonight. But I'd like to be out of the hospital Friday and Saturday. It probably means that's when he'll come.

Monday: dropped

2011-12-19T21:35:00.000-05:00

Apparently the baby dropped a lot over the weekend. "Everyone" at work mentioned it when they saw me today.

It also meant that I had to go to the bathroom any time I walked for more than 50 feet.

Sunday: Christmas

2011-12-18T21:44:00.001-05:00

Today was Christmas with one of Ben's extended families. We brought banana pudding. Below is a picture of it being made to make Dusty jealous. We had a lot left over, so if any one wants some, come on by. I'd also like to say that I have an awesome husband who got some puzzles in the gift exchange because I wanted them.

Flurry is also enjoying hanging out under the Christmas tree. Her white fur does make her seem like the perfect accessory for the tree.

Saturday: pep talk

2011-12-17T22:05:00.001-05:00

Jess asked what I'm telling Baby to convince him to come out...

*It will be more fun to be out.
*You can see Dad (and other relatives)
*Christmas is a fun time...you don't want to miss it.
*There's more room to move.
*You have a name
*We have everything that you'll need for the first little bit...and most of it is set up.
*It works with scheduling better if you come sooner.

What I'm not telling him...
*It will be cold
*it's hard work to communicate
*Going through the birth canal is traumatic.

Friday: It's time!

2011-12-16T21:37:00.001-05:00

It's time to meet the muppets! (Did I trick anyone? Please?). Ben and I went to see the Muppet Movie. It was good. A bit more singing than I expected, but a ton of cameos.

Wednesday: Christmas party

2011-12-14T21:51:00.002-05:00

Today we had a work Christmas party. It was pretty fun. There was a ton of delicious food and we did a white elephant exchange. We did the stealing game, but didn't unwrap the presents first. That made it a little weird, but it went a lot faster. Someone (easily) managed to convince someone that is scared of critters that something was moving in the box she had. It was fun to see her proceed to hold it as far away from herself as possible. In the end, it was a kazoo.

We also submitted Christmas child pictures. Here's mine.

Tuesday: 37 weeks

2011-12-13T21:09:00.001-05:00

Today we hit the 37 week mark, which means Baby is full term and can come whenever he wants. I've started giving him pep talks on why he should come sooner rather than later.

I went to the doctor and am a "true 1" dilated and 50% effaced. So at least there is progress. The last day or so has also had an increase in cramps, but nothing that hurts. On the weird side of things, I've felt better the last week or two than I have for a majority of the pregnancy. I am still pretty tired, but nothing else is really wrong. And I can deal with being tired.

Monday: phone

2011-12-12T20:08:00.001-05:00

Work gives their employees cell phones. Pretty nice, right?

Except that mine won't do an audible ring. I know it can make noise because I can hear what different ring tones sound like, but it won't ring when someone calls. It will vibrate, but I take it out of my pocket often, and then it really needs an audible sound.

And the volume is all the way up. And I tried setting a ring tone in case the "default" was silent. So now I am going to bring it over to tech support. Bah.

One more reason to not like phones.

Sunday: easy

2011-12-11T22:26:00.001-05:00

Today was a rather easy day. The house had gotten cleaned Friday night, so there were just a few things to do this weekend. So Flurry and I spent quite a bit of the day on the couch...napping, watching TV, and writing emails. The first round of quilting is also done on the quilt, next I'll have to decide if I want to do a second round or not.

Saturday: stuff

2011-12-11T09:02:00.001-05:00

Baby's stuff is taking over our house and he's not here yet and not all the large items are set up.

We had a delicious dinner with Dad and Pat.

Friday: first snow

2011-12-09T23:34:00.001-05:00

Today I woke up to about two inches of snow on the ground. For the first time ever, I had really conflicted feelings about it. I love snow and the first snow is always fun, but we don't have a garage, we do have a long driveway, and we have two people that don't want or can't shovel. The plan, as time goes by, is to park closer to the street so t least there is less to shovel.

We didn't shovel this time; it will probably melt in a few days.

Tuesday: more baby

2011-12-06T20:34:00.001-05:00

I had another OB appointment today. Today we found out that he probably has a long torso. The head is down and it took her a while to find the heartbeat because it was higher up (on me) then expected. I'm not dilated, but that is normal I guess.

The glider also came today! It got here super fast...I ordered it Sunday night. And it is tall enough. Phew.

Monday: flowers

2011-12-05T21:56:00.001-05:00

Ben brought me some flowers a few days ago. The pine in the arrangement smells wonderful and the lilies are beautifully opening up.

Sunday: one month

2011-12-04T17:50:00.001-05:00

There's only a month left until this baby is due! Hooray!

In honor of that, we're having a baby post today.

Shower

Ben and I had a shower on Friday night for the baby. I again don't have any pictures, but it was a lot of fun. We got several things that we need (or think we need) and had a wonderful dinner. It was fun to have both guys and girls at the party...it's interesting to see how both sides think.

Diapers

Ben and I are probably going to go with a cloth diaper service. In case you wanted to see the breakdown, I included a picture of the spreadsheet and some of my assumptions below. Beware though: I only spent about 30 minutes getting some of the numbers so they might not be completely accurate.

*77 diapers/week (this might be on the high end, but some forums had really high numbers)
*disposable diapers were assumed to be $0.25 per piece
*the diaper service gives free diapers if the child isn't potty trained by 2.5 years.
*transportation impact was not included in environmental impact
*initial cloth diaper cost was estimated based on some Amazon numbers...but still an estimate

Laundry
I did my first load of baby laundry today. Aww. Probably the first of a million loads though.

Packed
I also packed for the hospital. (Which is one reason I did some baby laundry.) The problem is that I need a lot of the stuff yet. I only have so many pants that I fit into. And I still am using the electronics and toiletries. So by the bag there will be list of last minute things to stick in.

Clothes
I'd like to complain that only half the maternity clothes still fit. It is a little annoying to put on a shirt that covered my belly fine last week only to have an inch of skin show this week. (Although I'll admit, some of this has to do with which pants I'm wearing.) However, it made it easier to pack shirts for the hospital.

(ok, ok, it isn't a maternity shirt. But it still seemed to fit well in the section.)

Glider
We also decided to purchase a glider on-line without having tried it out. This is a little nerve racking, as most of the gliders that we sat in where too short to rest our heads against. But the reviews for this say that tall people can rest their heads against this one. And this way it is in the budget to get a footstool too.

Day care

I visited a day care near where I work this past week. It's gotten very high recommendations from some of the people I work with and it is Christian-based, so unless I saw something that really scared me I was planning on using them. Everything seemed fine. And it is about five minutes from work so I'm planning on going over there to nurse at lunch. (At least, that is the plan.) I'm hoping that will take away some of the angst I might have about leaving him.

Nine month picture

Since there are so many other pictures in this post, I thought I'd add one more of how I'm looking today.

Saturday: today

2011-12-03T23:27:00.001-05:00

Today was a very nice day. I got to see a lot of people. I took a nap. I worked on the quilt.

:)

Thursday: off to bed

2011-12-01T21:23:00.001-05:00

It's bed time again! Hurray! It's one of my favorite times of the day. I love the going to sleep part, but even the relaxing in bed before sleep is really nice.

However, at the rate I'm going there is no way I'm going to finish my son's quilt before he gets here. I finally managed to get it all pinned, but I've only done about one quilt seam in the last week. Oh well. It would be nice to finish it, but I think sleep is more important.

2011-11-30T20:17:00.001-05:00

I realized the other day that it's been a while since five question Friday. And since I'm tired and want to pretend that I can't think straight, it seemed easier than coming up with my own post.

1. Have you ever testified in court? For what?

No.

2. Do you still have your wedding dress?

Yes. Although it's in the storage building.

3. Is there a special place you like to go when you're happy, sad, stressed, etc.?

Those are all so different. I'm not sure there's a place I go when happy. When I'm sad or stressed I like to go under a blanket. Preferably somewhere I can sleep too.

4. If you have kids, do they sleep with you? If you don't have kids...will you let your kids sleep with you when/if you have them?

Probably not. Flurry takes up too much of the bed as is.

5. Do you watch late night TV?

No, mainly because we don't have cable. When I'm in a bedroom that has a TV in it I'll often watch something before bed, but then when I get to engrossed in it I'm glad that I don't do it often.

Tuesday: baby update

2011-11-29T21:30:00.001-05:00

Today I was in for another OB appointment. Im still measuring a week large and the baby still has a heartbeat (although I forgot what the number was). Baby's head is also pointed the correct direction too. I still have a hard time feeling how the baby is pointing...I might be able to guess from where I feel kicks, but it would still only be a guess. She can do it from the outside! I suppose that comes with practice.

I also got to briefly see Betsy and Bryan in the waiting room, so that was a fun surprise.

Sunday: tester

2011-11-27T21:11:00.001-05:00

Flurry is about the same size as a baby. So we've made her try out several of our new baby items in advance of the baby.

The monster-shark didn't fit her very well, although she did have good teeth for it.

We've also put her in the stroller. It doesn't keep cats in very securely...she kept jumping out.

Saturday: Happy Birthday

2011-11-26T22:46:00.001-05:00

Today we celebrated Ben's 30th birthday. 30 years. We did quite a bit of relaxing during the day, including trying out the new StarWars game. It was fun, although neither of us see ourselves playing it much past getting to the highest level. This was a free testing weekend, so we're not even sure if we'll get the game in the end. Then for dinner we went out to eat with the family.

Friday: Christmas tree

2011-11-25T22:04:00.001-05:00

Today we put up the Christmas tree. It's in front of the window so that we can enjoy it and it can be our neighborly Christmas decoration

However, we're not putting any ornaments on it and we probably won't do any other decorations (although I do still have a string of white lights.)

Oh, I did end up putting one ornament on it. I got it at last Sunday's baby shower and so it got to the house instead of being with all the other ornaments. It looks a little lonely, but eventually it won't be.

Thursday: happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T10:49:00.001-05:00

Today we spent a very nice day with the family.

It's wonderful to be blessed by a great family.

Wednesday: emergencies

2011-11-23T21:10:00.001-05:00

Today Ben and I figured out the family plan for three different emergencies.

1) House fire.
Get out of the house. Meet on the road (or the other side of the road) across from the house. Flurry's plan is the same.

2) Lack of donuts
Call a family member to bring you some.

3) A goose egg breaks open on your head.
First: don't open your mouth. Second: If you do get raw egg in your mouth, spit it out and rinse with water. Note1: We didn't actually cover how to deal with the broken egg on the outside of your body, since that isn't an emergency. It's just a mess.
Note2: Getting raw egg in your mouth is declared an emergency as pregnant people aren't supposed to have any type of raw egg. It isn't really recommended for non-pregnant people either.

(image credit)

Tuesday: hi

2011-11-22T22:01:00.001-05:00

Baby Hilldore says hi.

(Or "get me out of here! There's not enough room!". But don't worry...i'll be a good parent and tell him he has to stay in and doesn't have a choice.)

Monday: hot chocolate

2011-11-21T20:55:00.001-05:00

Betsy and I had drinks after work today. As always, it was great to see her. And she had a camera, so we were able to get a picture of us being pregnant together!

Sunday: baby shower

2011-11-20T22:17:00.001-05:00

I had a baby shower today. It was a lot of fun to see the ladies and hear the various stories that came out about their children. And Baby Hilldore has a lot of cool new stuff. :)

I don't have any pictures right now, so you'll just have to take my word that everything was very nice.

Saturday: birthing class

2011-11-19T20:02:00.001-05:00

Today Ben and I went to the child birthing class at the hospital. It was pretty good, although also a bit scary...everyone in the videos looked like they were in so much pain. (A little later they talked about pain medications and such, so that eased the scariness a little bit). There was also a tour and just general information about how the hospital works and what to expect. There were a few hands on activities, but they were all pretty short...we all had a baby doll but all that we did was swaddle it once.

At the end we got a certificate of completion, although it kind of felt like a certificate of having no clue what we're getting into.

Friday: dining

2011-11-18T20:37:00.001-05:00

We went out to eat this evening, as we normally do on Fridays. The wait to get seated was a little bit long, but oh well. When we finally got seated they took our drink and dinner order.

Two minutes later our food came out. Thirty seconds after that our drinks came out. Now, it sure is nice to get your food quickly, but that was a little bit too fast.

Thursday: hair cut

2011-11-17T20:35:00.001-05:00

I got my hair chopped off today. I know I've been talking about it for a while, but I finally set up the appointment.

Here I am in the morning:

Here I am after the cut.

I don't think I love the cut, but I usually don't love my hair quite this short. I do like it though. And I get to send five ponytails of hair off to a hair donation place. I was told that usually people get to send two, maybe three. Yay! It makes me feel special.

Tuesday: baby

2011-11-15T19:17:00.001-05:00

Today was another prenatal checkup. :) They're fast, but I enjoy them.

Baby is measuring at 34 weeks (1 week larger than expected). The heart rate was 138 but going up because he started moving. The head is facing my lower right.

Right before my appointment I went to the hospital to see an old childhood friend that just had a baby. The baby was early (34 weeks) but is doing well. Her baby is very small, but at the same time very large when I consider that I have something that size inside me. I'm not really sure how he fits.

Monday: another first - honking

2011-11-14T20:15:00.001-05:00

Today I did my first "watch what you're doing" honk. I was driving down the highway (luckily not minding my own business). You can see my car in the picture below as the brown car. The Other Car (silver oval) was doing a Michigan turn. (Side note: Michigan turns are weird left turns. Basically you take a right onto the highway and the do a U-turn around the median.) The other car was moving as I approached, but I wasn't thinking much about it. I figured they would scoot into the turn lane or into the right lane; it happens all the time.

But no. They slowly turn into the left lane. Slowly. By the time I realize that they're not being polite and that they aren't speeding up quickly I have to step on the brakes. Not super hard, but hard enough to topple the bag-of-stuff that I have in the back seat. Then I honked. It was a polite honk, but seriously...they really cut me off and there was no good reason. Then I had enough time to see no one was in the right lane (where slow cars are supposed to be), switched lanes, and continued on my merry way.

Sunday: solid foods

2011-11-13T21:27:00.001-05:00

I got to watch Autumn eat her first piece of solid food today. She as not thrilled and the looks on her face clearly conveyed that. It was fun to watch.

Saturday: early Thanksgiving

2011-11-12T21:09:00.001-05:00

Today we part of the day with family and celebrated an early Thanksgiving. It was wonderful to have everyone together for a bit.

Pat made a delicious meal.

Nathan and Liz gave us some baby presents. Here is the monkey modeling the awesome shark-monster towel.

And Nathan and Liz took a trip down memory lane with a well loved book.

Friday: 11/11/11

2011-11-12T08:24:00.001-05:00

happy 1 day! I missed 11:11 both times, but don't feel too bad about it.

Nathan and Liz came by for dinner, so that was a lot of fun.

It gets dark too early.

Thursday: laundry

2011-11-10T20:13:00.001-05:00

Well, I am about to put a load of laundry into the dryer, so I did manage to get that done tonight. I didn't even touch the quilt, so I guess that won't get pinned together this weekend. I'll have to find a different time/place to do it.

Today was the first snow of the season! Yay snow.

Wednesday: sleepy...again

2011-11-09T20:54:00.001-05:00

Oh, I'm going to say the same thing I say every few days...I'm tired. I make it through the day ok, but then once I get home I crash. The last two days haven't been too bad, but I'm not getting my second wind tonight so I'm going to bed.

I need to finish the backing for my quilt so that I can use Dad and Pat's table to pin it this weekend. I also need to do a few loads of laundry...we're all out of towels. Chances of these happening tonight: 0%. Chances of these happening tomorrow night? A strong 30% for each.

Monday: ?

2011-11-07T22:03:00.000-05:00

What to say tonight?

We have a smart cat.
And a squirmy baby.
Ben found an awesome deal on a cool looking baby monitor. It has video and will play music and we can talk to the baby and tell him to go back to sleep. He'll listen to us, right?

Oh! Flurry has a love of the penguin blankets. She usually won't come cuddle with me, but if I'm under these blankets she will. So I make it a point to use them a lot. She likes the outside, I like the super soft inside. It's a win-win situation.

Sunday: Pininterest

2011-11-06T20:39:00.000-05:00

Well, a few weeks ago I joined the pininterest craze. It's because there are so many cool quilt ideas out there and this way seems like the easiest way to keep track of them. I had been using a power point file, but it was getting large and bulky.

So if you happen to be interested, you can see the ones I like at http://pinterest.com/ahilldore/quilts/

Saturday: a wedding

2011-11-06T09:46:00.001-05:00

Once upon a time there was a large group of friends (many friends missing from the photo though)

Seven years later, one of them got married (a few people still missing)

Only to find that the group had grown rather large.

After the wedding we went to someone's house and hung out, which was a lot of fun. We played games, laughed at each other, met each other, and got caught up with life.

Friday: yay for the weekend

2011-11-04T21:37:00.001-04:00

It's the weekend! Ben and I were both thinking of the same thing for dinner...ordering in pizza. It was nice - both that we were thinking the same thing and that I didn't have to leave the house after I got home.

Thursday: dinner

2011-11-03T20:46:00.001-04:00

We hadn't seen Dad and Pat for a while, so we had dinner with them tonight...it was nice. However, I didn't take my nap after work so now I'm tired. And Flurry won't cuddle with me.

Wednesday: raking

2011-11-02T21:54:00.002-04:00

Today I got home and since it hadn't rained I thought I'd get the leaves off the driveway. They had nicely piled up, so all I had to do was move them down the driveway. There were a few more than I expected, and so half the time I ended up using my legs to help push them instead of a rake. It was fun. Well, as fun as raking can be.

Monday: squirmy

2011-10-31T20:43:00.002-04:00

Today the baby was squirmy. He made it hard to concentrate a few times, when I really needed to be concentrating.

So I emailed his father that he was being squirmy, since if I am distracted it's only fair that he somehow distract Ben too.

Sunday: it's Sunday

2011-10-30T21:13:00.001-04:00

Hi.

It was a normal Sunday today, so this is a rather boring post. We went to church, I took a nap, we did some chores, and we watched a movie. My legs are a little sore from raking yesterday, which is unfortunate.

Saturday: raking

2011-10-30T10:13:00.001-04:00

Today we raked leaves with people from the church. The raking itself wasn't really that fun as the leaves were wet, but it was nice to get out and meet some people and help people that would have had a hard time raking.

Friday: excitement!

2011-10-28T19:27:00.003-04:00

1) Flurry's doppelganger was from ICanHasCheeseburger.com and choice A. Congrats to those who chose choice B as Flurry!

B) I had an OB appointment. I'm measuring 31 weeks at 30 weeks, so a little large. Which is nice; I feel a little large. But I still have a while to feel large. Anyway. The heart rate was 155 and all my urine nitrates disappeared.

C) Our house in NY is sold! Hurray! It was supposed to close a few weeks ago but didn't, due to floods and lawyers. But it did today, and we are super, super happy about that. It doesn't quite seem real yet.

Wednesday: doppelganger

2011-10-26T20:42:00.004-04:00

A few days ago we found Flurry's doppelganger. Can you figure out which one is Flurry and which one isn't?

Choice A:

Choice B:

P.S. Here are some actual pictures of Flurry that you can use to compare:

Tuesday: 3 quarters

2011-10-25T19:52:00.002-04:00

Today starts week 30 of being pregnant, so we're 3/4 of the way done. Woo-hoo.

Apparently the baby is the size of a squash right now. It seems appropriate since it is fall/Halloween time. However, squashes come in all sorts of different sizes so I'm not sure it is a really good comparison.

My circumference is 39.5"

Sunday: a grocery conversation

2011-10-23T12:59:00.005-04:00

Ben: So we're stopping by [the close-by grocery store]?

Amanda: Yes. We need milk, yogurt, and shampoo. That should make us, uh, let us...

Ben: Those things are going to make us lettuce?

Amanda: ...survive for a few days.

Ben: Those aren't ingredients I would suspect for lettuce making.

Amanda: yeah, well, it should work. I read it on the internet.

Saturday: crash

2011-10-22T21:50:00.002-04:00

I had a post to write today but then I crashed. So Ben got me in bed where I can fall asleep, probably sooner rather than later, but I need the desktop computer to write the post because it'd be easier.

Baby says "hi" and "I have legs! Do you want to feel them?". But Baby might be getting his arms and legs confused. It's hard to tell in the dark.

Thursday: phone call

2011-10-20T21:31:00.002-04:00

I made a phone call the other day about a problem I had with the NYSEG bill (power bill for the NY house). The problem was that there were three estimated readings in a row. Usually they do estimated/actual/estimated, but that didn't happen because of the flood. And because the house was vacant, the estimated values were too large. Normally it would just average out in the next bill, but since this should be our last bill it wouldn't average out.

So I called. The people on the other end understood the problem. They checked the meter. And I managed to save $140.

Score.

Wednesday: with age, comes wisdom

2011-10-19T19:18:00.001-04:00

Flurry, six and a half years into her life, finally realized that getting into the cat carrier only leads to bad things. For the first time ever we had to "jam" her into it.

At the vet she got her distemper shot, so she should be happy for the next year.

When we got home she had another first: hiccups. I've never seen a cat with hiccups before. They were a lot less frequent than human hiccups, but they were repetitive just the same. Flurry did not seem thrilled.

Tuesday: hi

2011-10-18T20:32:00.002-04:00

Hi.

Today was much better than yesterday. However, I had to get up early to have a meeting with people from 3rd shift, so I'm tired now.

I'm often tired. I'm going to blame some of it on getting dark earlier though, because I always get extra tired around that time. The rest we'll blame on Baby.

Monday: eyes

2011-10-17T20:59:00.001-04:00

I wish my frustration wouldn't leak out of my eyes. It is so inconvenient.

If it insists on leaking out, I vote that it should leak out of my toes.

But, three cheers for blaming everything on being pregnant.

Sunday: drums

2011-10-16T19:28:00.002-04:00

Today Ben played drums in church for the first time; I think he did awesome. However, it was a little weird because it was the first time since we've been dating that I wasn't there for the practice. Usually I just did random things during practice (sleep, homework, read), but it was always nice to listen to the songs ahead of time. But now we have two cars and church is close by, so there's no reason for me to go early.

It's a little sad, but not sad enough to get me out of bed two hours earlier than I need to.

Saturday: inside

2011-10-15T22:05:00.002-04:00

Today ended up being an inside day. We had tentative plans to go out, but they didn't happen. Partially because it was very windy, and partially because I was exhausted about three hours after I woke up.

So I took a nap for most of the afternoon, and the wind did the raking for us. Win-win!

Friday: tired

2011-10-14T22:46:00.002-04:00

I've been tired lately; it was a busy week.

Ben and I went and saw "Real Steel" tonight. It was good, but not great.

Tuesday: productive

2011-10-11T21:38:00.004-04:00

Today I felt productive. It's been a while since I've felt that way, so it was a good day. I got some stuff done at work and then I drove all around town picking stuff up and dropping stuff off. Now I'm tuckered out.

Hmm, I need some more content for today. How about some random pictures that I've been taking but have neglected to post?

Here are the wonky stars for Baby's quilt. I ended up changing the yellow star because one side seemed too stubby.

And what post would be complete without a picture of Flurry?? She has found a new chair to hang out on sometimes.

Monday: walk

2011-10-10T22:22:00.002-04:00

I went on a walk with Betsy today. It was a beautiful day for a walk. It was also especially fun because she's due about three months after I am...it's amazing how many things are the same and how many things are different between the two pregnancies.