October 14th forever changed my life.

A little over 2 weeks have passed. I finally feel like I have things back in order and life as 3 is now casual and everyday.  Our sweet baby boy finally joined our lives, after 3 long days of labor and waiting, in the early hours of October 14th, at 1:43 am. After all that speculating that he would be a 10+ pound baby, he weighed 8lbs 7oz, which I was so happy about. He was 21 inches long and had a head circumference of 14". He was and is absolutely perfect. We named him Hazen.

Hazen was a week late. I wanted more than anything in the world to have my baby completely natural, no epidural or pitocin, without an IV shunt in my arm or anything strapped around my belly tying me to that bed. At one point during my pregnancy I got a little rude and bitchy with my doctor about it.  But of course, its the "policy" of my OB office not let moms go more than 10 days overdue, so on my last appointment before my due date I was scheduled for an induction on October 16th. If he came in the days leading up to that date, great, if not, then my 9 months of planning and metal prep were for nothing. To me, the idea of having a needle in my arm forcing my baby to be born and one in my back making me unable to feel what my body was doing made me sick to think about. It would be like going to a concert and getting stuck in the elevator.  You can sort of hear the show, but totally missed the experience.  My doctor didn't even want to let me go the 10 days because he was going to be such a "big" baby. But she wasn't going to fight it, probably just figured I'd learn my lesson when he got stuck and she was moving me to the OR for a C-Section.  I had to get my labor started, and I had just over 10 days to do it.

To make the long story short, and skipping the details no one wants to hear... Thursday, the 11th, I started having all sorts or random weird contractions that came and went with the day.  Friday was more of the same, only with a little more frequency. I was pretty frustrated by Friday night when we weren't in active labor yet and was feeling that Tuesday deadline looking over my shoulder.  Saturday morning I woke up early and went and sat with my mom and talked to her about the whole thing.  I was upset and decided to go snuggle back in bed with Kam.  Thats when it happened.  I cried.  For a good 10 minutes.  And as soon as I stopped, my contractions started coming 10 minutes apart.  I had tried every home brewed method to get labor started, my mom and I had walked about 10 miles over those 2 days, and the icing on the cake was a good ol cry. I had read somewhere that if your labor stalls at any point, try and cry to release more endorphins and labor may resume progress.  Worked for me! So that was 7am on Saturday, we headed for the hospital at 7:30pm and I was 7cm dilated, and Hazen joined our lives at 1:43am on Sunday. All drug free.

So that's a brief birth story on one of my now 3 favorite days! Mine and Kam's birthday, our wedding day, and now the day our sweet Hazen filled our hearts.  Now I get to overload this blog with pictures of my little boy.

The last fruity adventure...

We did it.  We went to every fruit picking season.  Strawberries, Cherries, Peaches and Apples.  It was deliciously fun!  Now I have a few pictures from each that shows the progression of the growth of this belly.  Today, I am 4 days overdue.  I have a feeling my sweet little boy will show his face soon.  Maybe tomorrow.  Then his birthday will be 10-11-12, which if I were being induced on that day I would find totally tacky, but I'm not, so it would be pretty neat birthday for the little fella!  So think positive thoughts for us over here in Spokane, we are ready to meet our baby!

MIA again.

Hi. So I had a lapse in blogging again.  What can I say, I've been a little distracted.  Lately I've been doing massive cooking and craft projects.  But we did get new furniture and I think we are basically ready for our new family member to arrive.  Our freezer is stocked with pre-made meals, crib is set up and diapers are bought.  One week from tomorrow he's due to arrive! Doctor thinks he should be here right around the due date, but first timer's baby, we will see. Anyway, here are a few pics of the going ons in our simple life these days.

I do have a few more little things to share...I better get to it! 

Peaches anyone?

We went, we picked, we had fun, we ate.  You can fill in the other details.

 

 

 

 

 

Party Animal!

This post is a week over due.  Sorry.  Last weekend we had our second baby shower, and it turned out really wonderful. My mom and our dear friend Lee Anne threw a beautiful party for our little guy at Lee Anne's house on the Satsop river.  One thing I have learned about myself in the course of these two baby parties, if I am not there to strictly take pictures, then I'm not going to have much to show after its all over.  Just like our first party, I failed to get pictures of the wonderful ladies that made this party happen.  I just get so busy talking, you know!  The weather in the area had been in the 80's and 90's for probably a week and was supposed to remain that way for about another week, so we had no worries for our outdoor, along the peaceful river shower. Right, thank you Grays Harbor!  It rained.  So most of the cute detials had to be moved inside before they were ruined.  But all in all, I think everyone had a nice time.  

1) The guess the birth weight 50/50 raffle was really fun.  I can't wait to send the winner their half of the loot!  2) Cute toys were everywhere through out the shower 3) My mom bought the baby an apple tree for our property.  I was SOOO excited! 4) You may remember my 31 week shadow pic.  My mom blew it up and everyone at the shower signed it.  Pretty awesome idea!  It surprised me.  I guess when she took it in to print it, the people told her it was a professional photo and they couldn't blow it up. Ha! I took it with my phone.

The bottom pic is Lee Anne's daughter Shannon.  She is about 5 weeks behind me.  Had to get the silly belly to belly shot.  Shannon is the best! And yes I'm wearing the same dress that as the other baby party.  I bought it at the beginning of this adventure for a wedding and the two baby showers.  It will probably pop up again too! 

Thank you to everyone who made the two showers happen and to every one who came.  This is going to be one loved little boy.  We are getting excited to meet him and introduce him to the world.  Much love to everyone!

Week 31 Shadow

and still lots more to grow...

A Baby Party!

Happy friday friends.  Last weekend was our first of two baby showers.  This one was hosted by Kam's mom and sister.  They put a lot of thought and effort into the details and the shower was beautiful and fun.  Thank you two so much.  I was too busy chatting with all our family and friends that I didn't take too many photos.  These are the best that I have of the details.  You can see more over here on Lizzie's blog.  She did a better job at taking photos than I did.

The shower was co-ed and I was so thankful it was.  It was so funny trying to open gifts and keep up with tear-and-throw Kam.  Thank you everyone who came and for all your generosity.  We appreciate everything!

So what's the plan for the weekend?  We are clearing out my recycled pallet armoire.  I love that thing, but we just don't have room for it anymore, so onto craigslist it goes.  We are also thinking about going to the peach festival, but may put that off until next weekend.  I also need to do a little fabric shopping for a few projects I need to start.  Just little stuff.  Anyways, enjoy your Friday and your weekend!

360 Degrees of Awesomeness!

We ordered our car seat last night!  This may not sound very exciting to anybody else, but let me explain why we are so super stoked about our new purchase.  We have/had a dilemma. We bought a Honda Element, which we love, but(!) the back seats are not baby lifting friendly.  If you have never climbed into the back seat of an Element, its a bit of a stretch/reach into the seat.  So lifting a 10 or 20+ baby in and out could potentially become a problem.  Especially for a momma's back.  Insert the Combi Zeus 360.

What appears to be a clunky old car seat is actually a work of genius.  It rotates 360 degrees!

After considering our options, and questioning if we were going to have to trade in our beloved Element for something more conventional, we discovered the Zeus 360.  Every other reviewer on Amazon said that they were considering getting rid of their Element too because of the same issue until they bought this car seat, and their troubles were over.  Obviously we don't have the baby yet to know for sure if this seat will be a dream come true for us, but I'm optimistic.  Bonus, we found the chestnut seat last night on sale for $110 off the normal price.  So thats why we finally bit the bullet and purchased the seat.  I will have to do a review on the seat after we have used it for a few months. Some of you parents might be thinking that we are going to miss out of the bucket type travel seat that you can remove and keep baby in while they are sleeping, and we know know we are missing this element, but you can't have it all I suppose. 

This post, my friends, will be continued....