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 I took a two and a half week hiatus from blogging and hung out in Utah.

The Utah trip was extraordinary. I got to hangout with my favorite people in the world: my family. We did some crazy fun things and I especially loved not being alone all day. 

Of particular interest to me was the fact that this was the first time the siblings have been around and I didn't have to work. I could do anything and everything. It was a dream come true. I feel like Redd learned a ton since he had so many cousins to look after him, and somehow he didn't get sick!

Now we are back home in Maine; the laundry and grocery shopping are done, and we are all three together again. Just the way it should be. 

Redd's 2 month dr. appointment was successful. The kid is now in the 50th percentile for height and weight. That's a big jump up from 10th percentile. The Doc told me to start forcibly stretching the length in between feedings. I feel like that has been a dream come true. Currently he eats every 3 hours instead of every 2. Yeah, I needed that.

Doc also told me since he has reflux and doesn't sleep on his back very well, that I should sleep him on his own on his tummy. It does increase the risk of SIDS, but only minutely. He says it's safer than having him sleep on his tummy on me. So I've been working myself up to it. It means he has to sleep in his own room, in his pack n play. I've always had him in my room and have had a hard time transitioning. 

I'm happy to report that last night he slept in his own bed all night long. Only woke up once to eat, And then I put him right back in his bed. I slept in a different room and didn't check on him more than twice. It means I actually slept for the first time in 10 weeks.  I'm proud of us. The next step is to get me to sleep in my room instead of on the couch. I hear him better from the living room. Baby steps, people, baby steps.

He's totally learning to suck his thumb. And there's nothing I can do to stop it, so I'm helping him learn :), much to my dear Watson's chagrin.

We recently ferried over to one of the nearby islands. It was so quaint and beautiful. This is a yellow house. It has a name, like all the houses on the island, but I can't remember what it is.

 A view from the island.

No, this isn't a smile. This is a poop face. We spend a lot of time trying to help this kid get his gas out, and when we get this face along with a grunt, we know he is finally pooping. It's hilarious.

Beautiful Things

We had a great weekend.  On Thursday we went to The Flatbread Co with some friends from my dear Watson's program.  It's a pizza place...kind of a weird pizza place. Your only options are 5 different sauceless pizzas (who wants a sauceless pizza?) or like 3 different one topping pizzas. But don't worry, they have nitrate-free pepperoni. (What the heck is nitrate?)

Friday night we watched the Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It was a good movie. Definitely a little weird, but overall one of my favorite Ben Stiller roles.  

Saturday we went to the Eastern Promenade. It's about 10 minutes from our house - just a paved walkway along the ocean. There were a lot of sail boats out that day.

What's the Polar Express doing here?

Arghhhh a pirate ship!  It looked like it was about to tip over, but there were people on it like they were getting ready to sail.

A few cool looking sail boats.

Ew.

Sunday after dinner we went to Kettle Cove with our next door neighbors (who are also our 3rd cousins). Kettle Cove is a little beach area, and parking is free. Most beaches charge for parking and/or entrance fees. Lame. Anyway, the neighbors have a one year old little boy and he loved splashing around in the water.  It was fun to watch and crazy to think that someday Redd will be splashing around in the water too.

We saw tiny little crabs like this:

And TONS of hermit crabs of all sizes, like this:

I discovered that I'm not really that thrilled about touching things like crabs and hermit crabs.  So I didn't.  Maybe someday I won't mind. I'm getting used to poop and pee, so I might get used to shelled creatures.

Redd is doing well.  He's the best. We're still in shock that he's ours.  He eats every 2 hours while he's awake, but every 3-4 during the night. It's amazing how good it feels to get 3 straight hours of sleep.

side note:  The Walmart here is HUGE. 3 entrances!

We're loving it here, and as the weather improves, it just gets better and better. As we walked around the beach Sunday evening and the sun began to set I was reminded of many an evening/morning spent at the beach in New Zealand.  Something about that scene speaks to my soul. I love to be next to the ocean with wind blowing my hair and watching the sun set or rise. Breathing in that ocean air takes me to a happy place.  Thanks to God for creating such beautiful things. 

Kettle Cove

When it Rains

Last week my plans to go on a walk everyday were fuddled by the rain.  Finally by mid-week I just had to get out of the house, so Redd and I went on a walk anyways.  I decided if it's going to rain everyday, we've just got to get used to doing stuff in the rain.  We explored Back Cove - a 3.63 mile loop around a cove  (I didn't do all 3.63 miles this time). The tide wasn't in, so there wasn't any water, but it was still cool.  I can't wait to go back.

On the other hand, when it doesn't rain, you can do all kinds of stuff like eat lunch on the deck at Silly's, walk around Old Port for the festival, and go to a Portland Sea Dogs baseball game. There is always something going on in this city, I love it.

Here are some pictures:

Back Cove

The trail takes you to the bridge you see in the distance.

The trail is a sandy dirt/gravel - good for the knees.

That's downtown Portland on the other side of the cove.

Silly's

The food wasn't that great, but it was a fun experience. I guess if you name your place Silly's, you can do whatever you want.  The waiters all looked like they just rolled out of bed, and everything was so colorful. The menu, napkins and salt and pepper were in this little pink lunch box on our  table. The water cups were as big as the play kitchen cups.  When our waiter brought our check it had a rock paperweight on it that said You Rock, and here's a picture of the pens they give you to sign the receipt.  So silly.

There's a bike in that tree.

Ew. Random guy photo-bombed us.

Tiny cups!

Old Port

Old Port is downtown Portland. There are lots of shops and restaurants and it's right up against the ocean.  It was 81 degrees and humid this day, so we were kind of sweatin'.

Portland Sea Dogs
I really enjoy the atmosphere of baseball games.  We met some of my dear Watson's classmates at the game and really enjoyed getting to know them.

The mascot is a Sea Dog...so a dog with flippers for feet, I guess?

 Redd is one month old now!  He's growing up so much.

A smile!!

My good from Lauren from high school made and sent us this quilt. It is sooo cute, and he looks good in it, huh?

Every Day a New Day

Remember last post when I made this comment:

"He eats and then sleeps or sometimes he likes to be awake looking around, but I don't have to always hold him in order for him to be happy."

It's like he knew I posted that and wanted to prove me wrong. I have a strong-willed son, that's for sure.  He may have his daddy's looks, but he's got my temperament.  Today I pretty much had to hold him all day long.  He's so gassy...it seems really painful. Every time I put him down he wakes up and cries.  I feel bad for him because I'm sure it's really uncomfortable. I had bad gas issues all throughout my pregnancy, so I'm not surprised he's got them too. Gas isn't fun, so I feel like he needs his momma to comfort him.

But, it sure does make it hard to accomplish anything. And, it makes it hard to be sane.  I cried some tears right along with him today.  On another note, he did really well last night. Woke up only twice and slept soundly between feedings. I even got to sleep in my bed most of the night instead of on the couch like usual. I usually take him out of our room for feedings and stuff so I don't wake my dear Watson. He's got enough on his plate with school stuff.

Speaking of school stuff, my dear Watson has been gone all day today and won't be home until late tonight.  It's his one day a week of going to the other campus for Anatomy, and he's staying after to study in the cadaver lab.  Sad day.

Well something I'm learning is that with a new baby, each day is a new day.  Just because he was good yesterday doesn't mean he'll be good today, and just because he was bad today doesn't mean he'll be bad tomorrow.  It's kind of the only thing that gives me relief during these rough hours.  Tomorrow might be different.

And, that fact that he's so cute.

His cute little hand!

I thought this outfit was adorable.  It didn't take long for him to get poop all over it and my outfit though :).

Welcome to Maine

Well, we finally have internet in the apartment. Thank goodness for data plans and smart phones that allow you to take care of the essentials until your internet gets hooked up. 

We're in Maine!  I think it has rained everyday so far.  My dear Watson went through his first week of orientation and now the real thing starts up on Monday.  Apparently  this summer semester is the very hardest.  The advice previous students gave spouses was to pay attention and make sure their spouse takes a break from studying every now and then. Apparently there is enough stuff to learn that you could study 24/7 and still not be fully prepared for the test. 

My mom left today. She was amazing. She unpacked my ENTIRE house. It would have taken me months to do it.  I was in charge of unpacking my bedroom and by Thursday mom finally came in and did it because I was making no progress :). But hey, I feed my baby a bagillion times a day and change his diapers too, so....I do stuff. 

We've already met some great people - neighbors, ward members, class mates etc.  I think we'll like it here. We are both trying to figure out how we are going to do everything. How do we take care of ourselves, our family, and all the day-to-day essentials?  I'm not really sure yet, but I guess we'll give it a go and find out soon.  If you remember, please keep us in your prayers. The truth is, we're going to need all the help we can get. I think we're scared to death.

I'm feeling great physically. Still a little rocky emotionally though.  Hormones. New baby. Big move.  I'm not sure what to blame it on, but I'm a little sensitive.  Our biggest scare right now is that we're not sure what to do for medical coverage for Redd and me.  We will apply for Medicaid but it could take up to 6 weeks for them just to review the application....so, not sure what to do in the meantime. Hopefully we get that figured out. 

Redd is adorable. According to my scale, he weighs 8 lbs.  He's a little gassy so that means fussy at times, but really he isn't bad.  He eats and then sleeps or sometimes he likes to be awake looking around, but I don't have to always hold him in order for him to be happy.  He doesn't like to be cold, so baths, lotion, diaper changes and clothes changes are all really frustrating to him. He does that cry where he doesn't breath for a few seconds almost every time he gets his diaper changed. I don't like that very much.

We made it through all this crazy stuff and now we just have to endure the challenges ahead.  It seems like everything has worked out so far, so we should expect things to work out from now on as well.  Before we know it, this will all just be routine.

The kitchen. We bought that pantry because there isn't enough cupboard space.

View from the front room.

Our purple couch. I'm not complaining, it's my favorite color.

Sleeping with daddy.

Lighthouse selfie!

Ihadababyitsaboy - The Birth Story

Remember those commercials? They were for 10-10-2-20 or something like that.  Anyway, here's the story.

Tuesday, May 6th I had a Dr. appointment and he tells me there's no chance of being induced before a week late. Not that I really wanted to be induced, but given our tight time frame, I wanted to be induced.. So that was disappointing (although I know the Dr. has that rule to help prevent C-section and other complications).  

Wednesday morning I notice some spotting. I called the Dr. and they said just watch it - if it's a lot of blood, that's bad, otherwise it's normal. 

Thursday I was still bleeding so I called again and this time they sent me to Labor& Delivery for an assessment.  All seemed to be fine and they expected I would go into labor soon. 

So we came home and went on a hike, did squats, etc.  

Friday I was real frustrated.  I wasn't feeling great and all I wanted to do was focus on getting the baby here. So I stayed home from work and we loaded up our stuff from the Watson's and took it to my moms.  Then we walked around the aquarium,  then later we walked/ran/squatted around the track. 

I still wasn't feeling any progress.  So that night I made a treat.  Then around 8:00 pm  I started noticing a stronger contraction coming about every 5-10 minutes.  I kept expecting them to get closer together, but they stayed that far apart, but did get stronger. At about 12:30 I called my mom and asked her when I should go in. She said to go and then call her after they check me out.  The contractions were strong enough now that I had to stop whatever I was doing when one came on.  

We got in the car and my dear Watson sped to the hospital like the baby was about to pop out.  I told him he probably didn't need to go so fast, but he said it was the only time he could speed and not feel guilty....so, whatever.  

 We got to the hospital and I was dilated 1 cm more than when I was at Labor & Delivery the day before....so that was  disappointing.  They kept me there for an hour to see if I made any progress.  After an hour I was dilated a tiny bit more, but effaced now at 100%.  So they called it labor and I called mom and decided I would get the epidural.  I was nervous about it, but it was no big deal. It made labor so easy.  I took a nap and before I knew it I was at a 6.5.  Somewhere around that time the nurse thought baby's heart rate was way too slow....that was a scary moment. So they broke my water and put a lead on the baby's head. His heart rate was fine. She was picking up my heart rate mixed with his on the external fetal heart rate monitor.  The lead on his head was much more accurate.

By 8:30 am the doctor was here and I was complete (at a 10). We were ready to start pushing. They didn't think it would take much because the baby was already down pretty far.  

Two long hours later he finally came out.  

Everyone who came in and out kept saying "oh, that was so close" "it's like he pops out and then pops back in" "keep going" "harder" "push down".  

I was so tired of everyone - I just wanted that baby out.  Pushing was nothing like I expected and was by far the worst part for me.  By this time I had very little epidural in my left side so I was feeling concentrated pain on that side of my body.  I was getting a charlie horse type cramp on the left side of my rear end, and they made me wear an oxygen mask because baby's heart rate dropped when I held my breath and pushed for 10 seconds. Imagine that.  The blood pressure cuff kept going off right during pushing and I wanted to rip it off my arm. 

Finally the Dr. said he was going to do a small episiotomy and he felt that would be the trick to get the baby out.  I think it was the next push, maybe two pushes later that he came out.  Alien head and pointy nose, and pretty much perfect.  I got to hold him right away (thanks to my great nurse who made sure that happened).  I wasn't feeling very good at this point, so they took him away and did their stuff.  

The Dr. stayed down there forever....I heard him talking to the resident who was there about lacerations and it seemed like he was stitching me up.  I didn't think it should be taking that long.  Then I learned I had torn pretty bad and he was doing a complicated stitching-up job. He pretty much said it looked like a bomb went off down there.  After he was finished he ordered a little more epidural and boy was I glad. I started to really feel the burn.  I also almost passed out and then got the shakes.  So they took my dear Watson and the  baby to the nursery without me and I rested in Labor & Delivery.  

And so Redd entered the world.  6 lbs 9 oz, 19 inches long, May 10th at 10:34 am. You can tell from the pictures, he is a clone of his daddy. I still don't see any of me in him.  

He was small for his gestational age so they had to check his blood sugar every 6 hours for the first 24 hours.  He passed all those tests just fine.  I was really feeling good after the first day so we decided to go home.  They wheeled me down and waited for my dear Watson to go get the car. They watched us load the baby up and then let two 25 year olds ,who had no idea what they were doing, drive off with a newborn baby and no instruction manual.  I still can't believe it. 

He smiles a lot in his sleep though, and it makes me think we're doing alright.     

 

#BecauseofHim

Last week my dear Watson's brother came to town and we had a whole week of fun with everyone. Aquarium, Zoo, Hike, Easter Egg Hunt, etc.  One of the things we did was go to the temple to do sealings (learn more here). All my dear Watson's siblings and their spouses, and his parents, were there.  It was a cool experience. 

We had the great privilege of having a man named Brother Mourik conduct our sealing session.  The same Brother Mourik that President Monson talks about in this talk in 2011. Here's the story:

President Monson was dedicating the Frankfurt Germany temple and had an impression to announce Brother Mourik as the opening speaker. President Monson asked Elder Asay who was traveling with him if Brother Mourik was at the temple dedication that morning. Elder Asay gave President Monson a note saying Brother Mourik wasn't there and was instead planning to attend the afternoon session.  President Monson got up to the pulpit and announced Brother Mourik as the first speaker anyways.  Meanwhile Brother Mourik had received a strong impression that he needed to get to the temple right away.  He didn't understand why, but he had another church leader drive him to the temple as fast as possible.  When he arrived, the song had just ended and President Monson stood at the pulpit again to announce Brother Mourik as the first speaker. 

Brother Mourik bore strong testimony to us during that temple session about many principles, including what he learned that particular day with President Monson about ALWAYS being obedient to promptings received.  Another thing he talked to us about was that as a patriarch (since age 36) he knows that children are foreordained to come to Earth at a specific time, and we are selected to be their parents.  Given my current state, that really touched me. I don't know why, but I hadn't really thought of it that way yet.  I've mostly just been worried about how to handle all the stress and change, but in that moment I finally realized the great blessing and privilege Heavenly Father is awarding my dear Watson and I by sending us this baby boy. 

It made me realize: I can't mess up...I've got to take seriously my responsibility to raise this child, and my other children, to know Jesus Christ and the way to return back to Him someday.  But it also made me realize that I can expect the Lord's help along the way.  He cares, He wants us to succeed as parents and He wants our children to return to Him. I can pray and fully expect He will help me know what to do along our parenting journey.

This is what's on my mind this Easter Morning. Because of Him in 3 short weeks (hopefully two...crossing our fingers) we get to be parents to one of His children, sent to Earth at this time and sent to us specifically to be his parents. And the best part? We'll be together as a family for eternity (read more about eternal families here).

Happy Easter.