And so goes life...

Man, time sure flies for me now!  I can't believe it's almost been a month since I posted!  Life has found a pretty good routine, it's such a blessing to not have any outside responsibilities...I don't know how women return to work with a newborn!  I can focus 100% on being available for him.  I mean, even my household responsibilities or things I want to do for myself just fall by the way side if necessary; "oh, you're going to nurse and only sleep in my arms all day? ok, fine, I'll stay in my pjs and not to laundry!"  :)

2 weeks ago I got to finally celebrate my first Mother's Day!  It was super sweet as the past 2 years have been difficult...2 years ago it had only been about a month since I miscarried and last year the frustration and fear of trying for over a year and getting an not very convincing diagnosis of PCOS 2 months prior kinda put a damper on things.  Plus it was just a reminder that I was STILL not pregnant and didn't know when I would ever be.  Same feelings on my 25th birthday last week.  As "young" as I know that is, for some reason every birthday that rolled around I felt like I was getting older and older and "still didn't have a child".  I would calculate how old I would be if I had the 4-5 kids I'd like with the 3 years in between each like I'd prefer (obviously these are just my ideals at the moment).  Like I said, it just put a damper on things.  This year it was so special to be able to celebrate both those days with my lil man by my side!

So Noah will be 7 months weeks (oops, Mommy brain!) old tomorrow and is holding his head up really well now.  He's all smiles, especially in the morning and especially when Daddy's holding him and Mommy comes in for kisses.

Last weekend we spent up in Big Bear with my family - his first trip of, hopefully, many!  He did so great on both car rides, pretty much slept both times.  It helped that we timed our departures right away his typical "bed time".  

Ready for Big Bear!

My two boys enjoying vacation

Oh that's right, he's close to sleeping through the night a lot of nights too!  Last week he started with a 10-7:45 stretch, followed by a 8-5.  Since then, a typical night is falling asleep around 8:00, waking up around 10-11 for a last diaper change & nursing to sleep until anywhere from 3-6 when he gets a diaper change and again nurses to sleep.  That usually lasts until 7-9.  If I'm especially tired I'll stay in bed and try to get one more chunk of sleeping in til about 10 but sometimes I get up and start the day.  How fun to start the day to this face:

Mother's Day morning

Some more shots of the "Many Faces of Noah"

Catch up

Since I was putting off updating thinking I wanted to get Noah's birth story up first, I've missed blogging about a few milestones so I figured I'd do a quick recap.

4/11 - Noah's first pediatrician appointment.  He was back up to his birth weight (7lbs. 3oz) though we're not sure how much that means he gained between the previous Sunday (4/8) when we were discharged and this weigh-in since they only told us he "lost within the normal range", not an actual number.  I know "normal range" is up to 10% so I'm curious to know what his discharge weight was and plan on asking at his next appointment.  Other than that, there's nothing too significant to mention, other than I LOVE his pediatrician (came recommended by friends and I knew he was somewhat involved/supportive of WPCC).  My favorite part of the whole appointment was when we ask how he felt about a delayed vaccine schedule and he said that whoever created the CDC recommended schedule "was a moron".  That's my kind of doctor!

4/15 - Noah's first day at church!  Yep, only 8 days old and we took him to church.  I'm so not into that whole "keep your baby home for the first 3 weeks" thing.  It's not like I was passing him around (though I'm totally ok with most people holding him).  If you're sick, sure I won't let you hold him but otherwise I'm not going to be crazy protective over him like that.  Exposure to germs is what builds healthy immune systems.  He did really well, nursing during electives and during service (and filling his diaper during worship haha).

4/18 - Noah's circumcision.  We decided to wait til the 8th day, not for religious reasons but because in doing our medical research learned that God had good reasons for directing it to be done on the 8th day.  A baby's blood clotting ability is low in the first 2-5 days after birth and peaks on day 8, 100% higher than normal levels.  After day 8 it's at it's normal levels.  Well, day 8 was a Sunday and the soonest we could get an appointment that wasn't with the doctor that delivered him (who we really didn't like, more on that in his birth story) was 11 days after.  It wasn't as hard as I thought to have it done; granted they had me wait in the lobby so I'm sure if I was in the procedure room it would have been a lot harder.  It was harder before considering I couldn't feed him for a certain amount of time leading up to it and he was not happy about that.  He was pretty fussy the rest of the day but seemed after the first day.

4/23 - Noah has a belly button!  His umbilical cord stump fell off and he's now got the cutest belly button :)

Life as we know it...2 weeks, 3 days old

I kept meaning to post the labor/birth story before posting updates on Noah but it took me forever to jot it all down (and that's just rambling to make sure I can remember the order of events/emotions).  I still need to edit and trim it down a bit so I guess I will just post it when I finish. In the meantime, I'll continue updating on our life and the little man as it happens.  Here's Noah dressed and ready for church at 1 week old:

Noah turned 2 weeks old on Saturday.  It's that weird feeling of "has it really been 2 whole weeks?" and "has it only been 2 weeks?"  Just looking at him I don't think he's changed much, but then I look at one of his newborn pictures and can't believe the change!  He's really starting to fill out (YAY for chubby babies!!!!).  Yesterday alone I swear he put on a pound since he basically didn't sleep and nursed from 5am-5pm straight (can anyone say "mooo"?  I felt like a cow at times).  But then he slept really well last night so it made up for it.

Matt went back to work yesterday, which I think is definitely harder on him than it is on me.  It doesn't change my routine much since it's not like he was able to give me much of a break from nursing or anything.  Noah does tend to sleep a bit longer in someone's arms than the bouncer or rocker but it's not that drastic of a difference.  Matt, on the other hand, misses being able to see him.  I don't know what I'd do if I had to leave him for 10+ hours!  I find that while I sooooo appreciate people holding him and giving me a break to shower or nap or do housework, after about an hour or so I start to miss him, and that's with him right here with me, just in someone else's arms!!

Asleep in his bouncer 

*in Veggie Tales voice* I need to tell you somethin', I DO got a belly button (his stump fell off yesterday, 4/23)

Welcome baby Noah!!

Birth story coming soon!

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38 wks + 2 days

It's getting closer! Starting to have lots of braxton hicks now, pretty annoying but I figure the more work my body can get out of the way now the faster labor should go. Yesterday they were 4:30-5:00 min. apart but only lasting for 30-45 seconds so we were keeping track of them but after a while they started getting shorter and further apart and then I was able to sleep the entire night without any (and with barely having to get up to pee yay!). I've had them off and on today, but nothing regular enough to even bother timing. I figure even if the "timing" is right (drs says go to the hospital when contractions are happening at least every 5 minutes for at least 1 minute for an hour or more) I'm going to stay home until I have to really concentrate on getting through a contraction. The last thing I want to do is go in, be far enough to get admitted but still have a while to go.

At least the contractions have given us a sense of immanency; we finally put the car seat in the car and I'm almost done packing my hospital bag. My mom has been over the past two days helping me do as much reorganizing as I can do to find new places for baby supplies and help me think through where things should go practically. So as far as my "still to-do list" from last post, I've tackled quite a bit:

~Curtains for behind Matt's desk are done (technically, they could be a little bit shorter but they'll more than do for now)

~Will be done packing the hospital bag & diaper bag this weekend. Just need to do some shopping for items we don't have.

~Cleaned out the car today, installed the car seat and put the stroller in the trunk

~Buying the glider tomorrow

~Buying the changing pad tomorrow and then will tackle making the covers

~Decided I don't want to be treated with antibiotics depending on what the pediatricians protocol is for baby if I choose that. Need to call him tomorrow.

Oh, also I received some things I ordered from Target so I have our bed rail & all the disposable inserts & baby wipes for diapers now. I just need to buy a pack of newborn disposable diapers & a few more gPants.

Full term!

Well, Tuesday I hit 37 weeks which means I'm officially full term! I guess that really doesn't mean anything as I want this little one to bake as long as he needs but I guess it's a little bit of a relief to know that if he was born at any moment the chances of too many complications are a lot less.

I had my family/friends baby shower last Saturday and we got our travel system! I feel like being on the other side of my last baby shower is what I needed to feel like I can really start to nest and finish getting ready. I didn't want to go through and buy all the items still needed until I knew what I got there. So Tuesday I spent a few hours going through my registry lists and determining what were things that were needed before he arrives (bed rail, diaper bag, some first aid stuff, diapers) and what can wait til another time. It's amazing how much gift cards covered, we are so blessed! Then we went ahead and ordered our Cal king mattress set finally! It's been almost a year that we've been using a queen mattress on our Cal king bed frame. We found a really great deal online at Costco so we pulled the trigger. Like I said, let the nesting begin! haha

Monday I spent the entire day sewing, first with Shawni & Neeva (working on curtain panels for the office) and then with Mandy (working on cloth diaper inserts). My back was killing me by the end of the day but it feels so good to actually have gotten started on these projects. Mandy and I probably have 1 or 2 more days left of work to finish all the inserts but it's totally worth it. Buying the brand inserts costs $27 for 6 inserts (and a baby going through 10-12 a DAY means we'd need 5-6 packs of inserts if we do laundry every 3 days). Making them ourselves is coming out to $30 for 20 inserts! Plus we added cute accent fabric to the back which doesn't really do anything as far as function or even really show when in use but it's fun for us!

So, what do I really feel like needs to be done before baby? Let's see...

~I'd like to finish at least one window of the office curtains for the window behind Matt's desk. The sun sets right into that window which is usually when he's sitting there and practically blinds him. I think curtains would be more attractive than the pieces of scrap paper he has taped to the window...

~Pack the hospital bag & diaper bag

~Clean out the car & install the car seat

~Make 1 or 2 changing pad covers

~Buy glider

~Finish researching antibiotic treatment for group B strep (I tested positive) and decide whether I want to decline treatment or not during labor.

Everything else will be "if we have time, then great!" haha

33+3 weeks

I almost forgot about this! I can't believe it's been 4 weeks since I last posted.

Last Sunday I had an amazing church shower, put together by Bonnie Saucy, Sheena, Karen & my mom. It was so much fun! I'll post pictures when I get them. It was funny, by coincidence most of the clothes I got for him were in a green/navy blue color scheme AND the dress I was wearing that day was green with navy blue :) I'm not complaining, blue and green are Matt's and my favorite colors; it was just funny to open gifts and everything matched!

I'm actually posting this from our hotel room in Monterey right now. It's our babymoon/4th anniversary trip and so far it's been...well, interesting haha I discovered we left our suitcase with all our clothes at home once we completed the 7 hour drive yesterday so my mom is over-nighting us a box with some necessities. Cost us $92 but I figured that's still cheaper than going out and buying new clothes. We're going to Tracy for Matt's work before heading home and he needs jeans and close-toed shoes to work in the meat plant there so those two items alone would have been close to what we paid for the box to be shipped to us, not to mention maternity clothes for me would have been pricey. Plus, I don't even know if there's a Target or Walmart anywhere near by so we would have been forced to shop at the little boutique-y shops! We got in around 8pm last night and spent today laying around/relaxing. We did walk down Cannery Row and get coffee for a few hours. Tomorrow and Sunday we're planning on checking out 17-mile drive, Carmel, and the aquarium. Then Sunday night we're driving out to Tracy and depending on how late Monday Matt ends up working we'll drive home last Monday or Tuesday.

Next up on my schedule is Mandy's baby "sprinkle" next weekend. I'm really excited about it; gives me an outlet since I can't help plan any of my own showers haha We're doing a pea-in-a-pod theme in pastel greens & white since they're not finding out the sex of the baby. So shower prep will definitely keep me busy this next week.

The following week is finally my maternity photo shoot!!!! I ordered a few outfits that I've been wanting finally for the shoot and I cannot wait to work with Blair (an old friend from HS that I've wanted to use ever since we re-connected via FB and I've seen her work). Then the week after that is my family baby shower! At that point I'll only be 4 weeks away from my due date! Technically I could have him that early and he be full-term, medically it's actually 36-44 weeks is normal gestation (average is actually 41+1 weeks). AH! I really need to get on my sewing projects - changing pad covers & curtains specifically. I'm kinda hoping the nesting thing kicks into high gear to motivate me soon haha