Blogging Miz Daisy

First run

2012-01-31T17:31:00.001-06:00

Isaac and I went for our FIRST run together today!! I bought a running stroller yesterday and a car seat attachment. Since winter isn't really here I figured we'd enjoy this warm weather. It was 43 degrees today. We didn't run much, just a mile in our neighborhood, and I wasn't even able to run the whole thing. My lungs froze and I'm out of shape, but I gotta start somewhere!!

Isaac appeared to like it, he just looked around the whole time with an indifferent look on his face. That was the longest he'd been outside and he even got some sunshine on his face :-)

Ch-ch-ch chia pet

2012-01-23T13:55:00.001-06:00

Isaac is growing hair!!!! He's getting a little peach fuzz a top his head. I was a little worried because he had NO signs of hair in a few spots on his head but it's looking to fill in.

Also he's been rolling over more this weekend, three or four times on Saturday and a few times yesterday.

Here's a video of Isaac playing in his crib on Saturday (7 weeks)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wlFZLFavzk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Recent changes

2012-01-19T14:28:00.001-06:00

He roller over again today!!! He's on a roll, lol! I put him on his belly and went over to my sewing machine. When I looked over a few minutes later he was on his back!!

Also he's getting some peach fuzz on his head, maybe he will have hair some day :-P

His feedings have been more spaced out today, which is a first. Closer to 3 hours vs right around 1.5/2 hours.

We also went to bed earlier last night, which meant we were up earlier. :-/ but he's been taking lots of little naps today. Must be learning lots and needing that sleep to sort it out!

Lots of changes, too fast almost.

6 week changes

2012-01-15T23:23:00.002-06:00

Isaac is 6 weeks old today and boy what a difference!! It's like he changed overnight!!

So Friday night I had some girlfriends over and he was a well behaved boy, awake and alert but not too fussy. He ended up staying up late, wanted to go to sleep as the last few guests left, but I kept him up so I could feed him and we'd all go straight to bed... Well he ended up keeping us up until 1:30am.

Saturday morning he was his usual bright eyed self then took a nap about the same time, around noon/1ish. Then kept sleeping.... we actually woke him about 3:30 to get ready to leave for a church group event that evening. He was awake for a short period then ended up sleeping most of the night which kinda worried us as I didn't want him to be awake during the night, but we let him sleep.

We came home around 8, still sleeping. He actually poked himself in the eye as we were leaving the party and his eye started to get puffy and red when we got home. It seemed a little irritating for him to open it so he kept his eyes closed and slept some more. He slept all through the night (well except to get up and eat of course) which we were happy for.

Then this morning he was so wide awake and happy. (and his eye was back to normal, yipee! It was so hard seeing it red and teary last night) He usually has these happy, awake moments throughout the day but they are short, today I noticed these periods were longer and he was more interactive. Staying awake the whole time between a few feedings. And his feedings were going over the 2 hour mark instead of just making it past an hour and a half (which also meant sore boobs for me, but I can live with that, they'll adjust)

Today was also the first Sunday we made it to church with him. He slept in the car there, woke up during worship at 11. I knew he'd be hungry about 11:30 so I fed him in the little feeding corner they have in one of the cry rooms, once he got hungry. Then we sat back out in the Sanctuary the rest of the service and he just looked around the whole time. He was such a good boy!

Also this evening he got his first bottle!! I've been pumping some and have a little supply built up, but thought we should try a bottle so the transition when I go back to work part-time isn't as hard. We had just a few ounces thawed out, ended up being 2. I hadn't labeled the first few bags so I wasn't sure. He had no problem eating those two ounces from Kyle, then he just nursed with me right after since 2 ounces was clearly not going to satisfy him :-)

It is crazy how fast he is changing, but it's so amazing to watch him play more and look at us with smiles and cooing. He is so precious!!

Here's a few pics I caught with my phone today.

A day in the life of a 5 week old

2012-01-13T10:33:00.001-06:00

Wake up about 9 or 10 or 11... Eat
-Lay in bed with mom for a while and get lots of farts and poops out
-Go downstairs, get a fresh diaper
-Then play on the jungle gym mat thingy
-Get fussy when I'm bored or need a diaper change
-Get carried around the house for a bit until I get fussy because I'm tired
-Take a 10 minute nap
-wake up and eat
-play for a bit somewhere on my own
-get fussy need diaper change or need to be held
-after a short period of being happy I'm fussy again cuz I'm tired
-take a few 5 minute naps
-time to eat again!
All this repeats with playtime getting shorter and shorter. Then going to bed about 9 or 10, but not real sleep until 11.

:-)

Rolling over

2012-01-08T21:52:00.001-06:00

You wouldn't believe this... but Isaac rolled over from his belly to his back today!!! He is 5 weeks old today and when I googled this it said babies don't do this until about 4-6 months!?!

He was laying on his belly in the basement and Kyle was playing with him. We have a block that makes a crinkly sound and he was very interested in this toy. So Kyle move it a little higher and crinkled it some more. This caused Isaac to move his head back to continue looking at the block and he rolled himself to his back!

At this time I was upstairs (I missed it :-( ) but Kyle picked him up and ran upstairs to share the news!!

Although it might have been a fluke thing and not really regular yet, it was still pretty exciting! I can't wait to see it myself!

Grandma Judy's Visit

2012-01-08T19:42:00.002-06:00

Isaac had a visit from Grandma this weekend. He loved sleeping on her and listening to her sing silly songs.

Yesterday we even went for a walk! Yes, on January 7th in Minnesota, it was warn enough for a walk!! (about 40 or so)

We loaded Isaac in the K'Tan and I put a jacket over him and we went for a short walk on the stone arch bridge.

Then we went for our first out to eat experience. Because of the timing I needed to feed him right before we ate. So I fed him in the car, carried him inside (Olive Garden) and changed his diaper. We had the car seat with us but he was wide awake. He did great though and was very content in daddy's arms during lunch. It was a success!! He usually cries when I put him in his car seat until we get him moving, but as we left the restaurant he was smiling and cooing up a storm. I think he enjoyed his first out to eat experience :-)

Smiling Isaac

2012-01-03T13:50:00.001-06:00

Isaac has been a smiling baby from the start but yesterday he had just finished eating and was in my arms looking up, when we were smiling back and forth he have me a nice strand of real smiles!! It was adorable. Although I didn't capture that moment on camera I have a couple other smiley pictures to share :-)

Completed Project 52

2012-01-01T16:53:00.001-06:00

Here's to 2011!!

Happy New Year!

Project 52 {weeks 48-52}

2012-01-01T15:42:00.002-06:00

Well I made it! 52 weeks of photos! I haven't been the best about posting them, but at least I've been snapping pictures :-) Here are the last five weeks:

Week 48

The last few weeks of pregnancy (weeks 40-42) began to get long. Luckily (and oddly enough) the weather was still warm and I was able to take Harpo for a walk to the dog park. One last time before he became a big brother and before he became a little more neglected. Although Christmas day we returned to this dog park on a walk with the whole family - yes it was about 40 degrees on Christmas day here, bizarre!

Week 49

This was in the hospital later the same morning after Isaac was born on Sunday, December 4th.

Week 50

My friend, Rhiannon, sent this darling hat to us as a shower gift for Isaac. Isn't he darling in it! And it'll make a fun newborn photo prop too!

Week 51

Harpo has been an excellent big brother. He likes it most when Isaac gets down on his level. He stays pretty close to him.

Week 52

Christmas isn't complete without a little baby love and tree light bokeh! Isaac is 3 weeks old here.

Isaac's Birth Story

2012-01-01T14:36:00.004-06:00

I typed this up a while ago, but hadn't had a chance to proof read it. I finally got to it. It's rather long and I mainly just wanted to get it documented just to have, but you're welcome to read it :-)

December 2^nd, 2011 - 41 weeks 6 days

8:00am Ultrasound appointment and Midwife check in with NST (Non-Stress Test) Monitoring - Had my 42 week check up. Ultrasound looked good, he had enough fluid in there, NST looked great he was a happy little baby in there. I did not want to schedule induction as I was confident he would come on his own. My midwife (Karen) agreed to let me ‘come in’ on Monday morning for induction if nothing were to happen over the weekend. She did check my cervix I was dilated 3cm (I was 1cm the week before) She did a little ‘stirring things up’ to help as she said “it doesn’t hurt when you’re knocking on the door” She said it would do one of three things 1-nothing 2-give me cramps 3-give me cramps that lead to labor. Okay great, so I could pretty much count on getting cramps, lol. But I also knew that it wouldn’t do anything if my body wasn’t already ready, I liked how Karen put it “sometimes our bodies just need a shove in the right direction”. This was about 10am when she did this.

Kyle and I left the appointment feeling kinda down. We went and had brunch at Panera before I dropped him at work. I had to work the night before so I was pretty tired and pretty worn down from the past two weeks of just waiting. When I went home I tried to nap, I ended up bawling a little and drifting off for about a 30 minute nap in or so, then it was time for me to go into work. It was my last day working as I already said I wanted to take Saturday and Sunday off. If I was going to still be waiting over the weekend I didn’t want to spend it working. Kyle had also said his last day off work was Friday as we knew we were closing in on the time that we’d need to do something ourselves if he didn’t come on his own.

Work was fairly busy, which was good. I was walking, trying to be up and about as much as possible hoping SOMETHING would start. I walked to subway a little before 7:00pm and got a cinnamon roll and a side of jalapeños. When I sat back in the provider area to eat, I noticed I started getting some cramps. I started tracking them on my contraction app at 7:14pm. Since I was up and about it was kinda hard for me to get every single one, but the ones I did get in a row were about 4 minutes apart. They started getting worse and my goal was to make it to 9:00pm then I would leave early. (I usually work until 11:30pm) We were starting to get more kids in the ED and I felt bad I was leaving but I knew it was the right thing for me to do. I asked Heidi to check my blood pressure before I left as I was starting to feel rather crappy, sweating and just plain icky feeling. She checked it and it was about 140 which I knew was high for me as I am usually 107-118.

I got home around 9:30pm and got in the bath tub hoping that would help me relax and feel better. As at this point I wasn’t sure what I was feeling was just the cramps from my cervical exam or the start of something real. Kyle then began timing things for me on an app he downloaded on his phone. I was having them from 20-40 seconds with about 2-8 minutes in between. We came downstairs, watched the latest episode of New Girl. I took a bath again, came back downstairs again and at 11:10pm I went to the bathroom. I noticed some blood but I couldn’t see anything because my belly was in the way so I called Kyle in. His face did not look pleasing. It was a big line of snotty looking blood coming out, which turns out was my mucus plug. We kinda started to freak out at this point thinking this really COULD be the real thing. We came back upstairs and called the hospital. They paged the midwife on call, whom called us back, this was Jenny. I talked with her and said we just weren’t sure, but that I wanted to call to get some advice. She knew I wanted to do as little intervention as possible and advised me to stay home. She did say I was welcome to come in and she could check me and we could come back home. She said that I would start to feel crummy between contractions as well, not just during. So with this we headed up to bed to try and get some rest for the night.

December 3^rd , 2011 – 42 weeks

About 12:15am the crampy contractions changed to something different, and I knew this was probably the real deal. They felt more wide spread than the cramps. And sometime before 2:30am, we decided to just go on into the hospital. I was laying in bed and felt a pushy poopie kinda feeling but I was afraid to try and poop in fear it was something else. And I didn’t know how fast this would all progress and we both just felt more comfortable getting checked out and being in the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital at 2:30am. We left our bags in the car because we figured we were going to get sent home. We parked in the purple ramp because I had badge access. I forgot that the main entrance would be closed and Kyle had to run back to the car to get my badge so we could get in the building, while I continued to have pressure waves so I leaned up against the pole outside. It was pretty cold out as well. Once we got to the hospital they took me back to a triage room and put me on the non-stress monitor to see how baby was doing and to measure any contractions. And asked us lots of questions; which I wasn’t really in the mood to answer, but I just focused on relaxing and listening to my hypnobabies on my headphones. My midwife, Jenny, came in and did a cervical check and noted me as “a loose 5cm/6” saying “You’re staying! You’re going to have a baby today!” We were actually pretty surprised as we had every intention of getting turned away. But we were also excited because things were happening and we had been waiting SO long for this moment J

They took us to a labor and delivery room. It was rather spacious. I was considering a water birth so I think those rooms are a little bigger so they can get the tub in when needed. At this point we just labored in the room as time went past. I would go in the bathroom tub and labor, come out and lie in the bed, sit on the ball, lean on the bed. When I was near the bed I asked to be on the monitor just because I liked hearing the baby’s heart beat and I wanted to see the contractions, although I could feel them. When I was in the tub, my wonderful nurses came in every once in a while to listen to the baby’s heart beat with the Doppler.

I was lying on the bed when I looked up at the window and could see some light forming behind the pulled shade. I felt very discouraged as the sun was coming up and the baby was not here yet. Shift change was also at 7:00am and midwife Jenny was leaving and Jill was coming on. Nurse Sarah was leaving and Nurse Kristen was coming on. At this point they checked me again…. NO CHANGE. Not only was the rising sun discouraging but finding out in the past four and half hours of contractions there was no progress made. Okay, okay, I thought we’ll just keep going. So we labored some more, changing locations. I almost felt like my contractions slowed down in the tub, although my midwife said it could just be they don’t feel as strong in the tub. Kyle also said I had my closest contractions while in the tub. I would have them pretty close together, regular contractions, then get up to go in the other room for a new position and they seemed like they would stop for a bit…

Around 10:00am (don’t remember exactly) Midwife Jill checked me again. Still no change, I was still a 5cm/6cm. This was very VERY discouraging. At this point we talked about options and the decision was made to break my water in hopes to get the contractions starting closer together and get progress to start. I was kinda scared about this because one, I didn’t want him to be without fluid in there, that was his safe place, and two I was afraid this would suddenly bring on stronger contractions. Once my water was broke my contractions did get a little stronger but nothing like I was afraid of. Some fluid came out when my midwife broke my water, but not much. When I would sit on the birthing ball more fluid would come out… I was kinda worried about this as it was what he was living in at the time and I didn’t want him to be without his fluid inside me, but they could tell by the monitor that he still had plenty of fluid around him. So we labored some more hoping this would help push things along. I began to feel like I couldn’t do it anymore, and I was a little hopefully in that we were getting close. I had heard when you feel like you can’t go on anymore you are almost done! So I became very hopefully that he was going to be here soon.

A little before 1:00pm I was checked again. And there was no change. I was done! I couldn’t take it anymore. I thought maybe it was me that wasn’t letting things progress, maybe I wasn’t relaxing enough. So with this thought, I thought maybe I needed help relaxing and medication was going to be that. My midwife asked if I knew my options, which of course I didn’t because I had every intention on having an unmediated birth. So she explained three different options, all the while I’m continuing to have contractions and we’d take a break then she’s continue to explain. We settled on the most popular option: an epidural. Before they could place the epidural I needed to have about an hour of fluids in me. So they placed the IV and got the fluids going. At this point I could still go labor in the tub while I waited that next hour.

The hour was up about 1:50 and I made my way to the bed to have the epidural placed. It didn’t hurt at all, I just remember a LOT of tape being placed on my back. When the epi was placed I was bed bound and food was no longer an option, just clear liquids. Although up to this point I had puked up all the snacks I was trying to keep in my belly. The epidural made the contractions go away, but was also the beginning of boredom! They wanted to keep turning me as to help and kinda cork screw his head down a bit further and get him engaged. There was a little pocket at the top of the left side of my belly, where his feet still were that the epidural wasn’t reaching, since the epidural works with gravity they first moved me to lay on my left side, with my right leg up on a peanut shaped ball. About every hour or so they’d turn me and get my legs positioned a different way. But since that first position my left leg was very heavy and ‘pins & needle’ feeling – like when your foot goes to sleep. Both my legs felt like that. I was able to wiggle my toes and move my feet and legs a little bit, not much, it took a lot of concentration to get them to move. Also by this point it was snowing outside, FINALLY the snow had come – it’s odd that Minnesota hadn’t had any snow yet as it was already December. But sadly I was stuck inside not able to enjoy the snow (little did I know this would be the only snow until January that we’d get)

Around 4ish I was checked again in hopes that maybe the epidural helped my body relax and progress was made… but unfortunately there was still no progress. :’( Pitocin was our next option, which was started at 4:18. At this point, since I had already had the epidural that I did not plan to have, I didn’t really care about pitocin. (Again another thing I didn’t want to happen originally, but we needed to get this baby to come out!) And since I had the epidural the pitocin wasn’t as scary since I wouldn’t be feeling those strong contractions, well not until the end anyway. This also took some time as they started me out on a small dose and increased it every 30 minutes. I believe it was increased 3 or 4 times with the last time being decreased to find the amount that worked best for my body. All the while Isaac was just a happy little baby in there; his heart rate showed no change, the nurses just kept saying “he’s so happy in there!” This we already knew lol.

I was checked around 7:00 pm (24 hours after the start of this whole labor thing) and progress had been made WOO HOO! I was now about 8 cm dilated, FINALLY! They say it takes about a centimeter an hour to dilate so now we were just waiting.

About 10:15pm I was checked again and I had made it to 10 cm! Yes he’s coming!?! Not so fast, although I was fully dilated he was still up high and still happy as a clam. So they turned up the pitocin just a bit to get him to labor down and descend enough that I could push him out. At this point my midwife said “I take back what I said about the baby being born today. But he WILL be born on my shift (she was finished at 7am) and on December 4^th” We sure as heck hoped so! Lol At this point I was able to go in and out of naps. Once they turned the pitocin up I was able to feel the pressure of the contractions, nothing like what they would feel like without the epidural, but enough that they’d wake me up from a snooze. Mean while Kyle did get rest during this time.

December 4^th, 2011 – 42 weeks 1 day

About 2:30 am Nurse Sarah woke me up as it was time to push! I woke Kyle up; we were both a little groggy and had to figure out what was going on. I did a few practice pushes starting around 2:45 with the contractions, then about 3:00am the real deal started. Kyle helped hold my ‘heavy leg’ on the left while the nurse held my right and midwife Jill got into position and helped work his head out. After a few pushes we were talking in between contractions “oh maybe he’ll be born at 4:00 on the 4^th” Jill replied “I don’t think we’ll make it to then” I asked “well maybe 4:44 then?” She answered “No, I mean I don’t think we’ll make it til 4, you’re pushing good, and he’ll be here before then”

I have to say my favorite part was the pushing. After laying in bed for so long not being able to play an active role in my labor and then getting to finally do something again I was so excited to push that baby out! Although I did think it was a lot of work and I don’t know how I would have been able to do it after 33 hours of engaged labor, so I was thankful for how things turned out and just happy that I was finally able to hold my baby boy in my arms J

Isaac Levi Simpson was born at 3:46am. Jill immediately placed him on my chest and I was ecstatic with joy! He was here! I had waited so long and patiently those last few weeks and I was so thankful he finally made it into my arms! We had the name Isaac picked out for some time, we were wanting a family name and a name from the bible. Kyle had 4 great grandparents with that name and it just kinda stuck out when we were going through family trees. We had decided on the middle name Levi in those last few weeks of our pregnancy, well we had it and a few others to decide on last minute. We had searched for names meaning ‘late’ or ‘procrastinator’ lol and Levi means ‘Attached’ or ‘Joined’ so we thought it was appropriate. J

First Church Service

2011-12-24T23:11:00.001-06:00

Tonight we went to our church's 4:00 Christmas Eve service. Isaac was an angel. We were wondering how it's go so we sat in the back with all the other infant and toddler families and close access to the crying room with the feeding corner.

We left home about 2:45 because we wanted to run by Menards since they were having 50% off Christmas sale and we wanted to get a stocking for Isaac. It didn't take us as long as we thought because we were at church by 3:30. I knew since we had left early that as soon as Isaac woke up he'd be hungry and sure enough as soon as the music was finished and Dave started speaking Isaac was ready for dinner :-P but he didn't scream and cry. We just gracefully walked to the feeding corner in the cry room, fed him, then came back out to our seats. He loved looking around, he had a facial expression of: "wow, where are we?"

Then after the service we loaded up, picked up some take out Thai food, and came home. Pretty uneventful, but so very eventful all at the same time! ;-)

ETA: I almost forgot! Isaac was ripping some major baby farts during service! It was so funny hearing toots during church. He had both Kyle and I cracking up!

Here he is at the start of the service snoozing in his car seat.

2 week check up

2011-12-19T22:25:00.001-06:00

I haven't blogged much lately. Not much new to blog about. Kyle's parents were in town for the weekend, it was so wonderful to see them interact with Isaac and we also ate some great food :-)

Isaac is quite the spitter upper... so he has officially become a bib boy. Looks like I should have made a few more back when we were waiting on him :-) I'll try and crank out some more if I get a chance. He has still been eating good and sleeping good. He is such a sweetheart!

Pediatrician visit was today, weighing in at 9 lbs 6 oz, 21.5 inches and head was 14 7/8th. He's a growing boy! I also liked the pediatrician we met!!!

Umm that's about it, here's a cute lil smile I captured today:

Christmas lights

2011-12-13T17:52:00.001-06:00

We set the penguins out today. That about completes our outdoor Christmas decor. Now if we get a tree or not.....

Busy bees

2011-12-13T13:30:00.001-06:00

We've been busy bees this morning. Isaac had a six hour stretch of sleep last night! Then he'd wake up eat and go right back to sleep. Honestly I feel a little more tired today having all that rest last night.

Kyle and I did a few things around the house in preparation for Grandma Cindy & Grandpa Del's visit this weekend. We had some brew gear that got super dirty throughout the basement construction. We cleaned that up and got it put away in our wet bar cabinets.

Kyle has always hated our house numbers and we had got a new plate the weekend before Isaac was born. Kyle hung that today in place of the old numbers.

All the while Isaac has been enjoying our work from the warm comfy, cozy, spot in the K'Tan carrier. He seems to like it in there especially when I am up moving around.

Moving into week two

2011-12-12T19:52:00.001-06:00

Yesterday and today we just laid low around the house. Isaac has been up a little more during the day and eating what seems like ALL the time. We're wondering if it's a growth spurt he's hitting.

They only did foot prints in the hospital and I had been wanting to do our own handprints so we did that today. He wasn't really happy about that :-P

We also got the rest of our Christmas lights together. Put the little tree lights out in the yard and assembled the penguins we got two years ago on clearance. I was hoping to wait til after the snow to put our ground decorations out... but by the looks of things that might not even happen in time for Christmas. We have had te weirdest warmest weather lately. It is very unusual for it to be Dec 12th and not have much snow on the ground.

Here he is relaxin' yesterday morning:

6 days old

2011-12-10T22:06:00.001-06:00

I woke up this morning remembering one week ago. A week ago I watched the sun begin to light the sky from our labor & delivery room, wondering if this baby was ever going to come. I remember losing a little hope seeing the sun come up and my body hadn't made any progress since we had checked in to the hospital 5 hours earlier. It was a weird feeling I had this morning. One week ago was an amazing event, an event I hope to never forget.

Today it feels like that was so long ago. I'm happy because we have a beautiful baby boy in our arms but also sadden a little that he's already a week old, he's no longer in my belly (it took a few days to not think those little muscle twitches were him moving around), and that our lives are forever changed. Hormones are still running amuck with me. Kyle has been doing great, super dad in a way. Taking care of the house, spending good time with Isaac as I rest or soak my bottom in the tub as instructed by my midwife. Today he kinda hit a wall so we're hoping a good nights rest will help with his spirits. I think this is why they say the "first two weeks are always the hardest". We were starting to wonder because it had been so good... But I'm starting to see lack of sleep, baby newness ohhhh and ahhhh wearing off and just plan wear down ourselves. We pray for strength, rest, and patience.

We hit a few milestones today:

*first outing (well second if you count the pediatrician visit) to target. I had to run to the pharmacy then we needed a few things so we ran into Target. Left Isaac in his carseat and just put him in a cart. He did great as long as we were moving. Boy it was a mad house there!!

*Isaac's umbilical cord fell off, well most of it. It looks like there is still some goop in his belly button. It was hanging on by a tiny thread most of the day then when I changed him tonight it had fallen off.

*we have moved on to size 1 diapers. Used the last newborn diaper today, they were getting a little snug so we ran out just in time. Tomorrow I plan to do cloth again so Isaac can support our team in his chiefs diaper cover :-D

*And I caught him sucking his thumb as we headed up to bed for the night. :-)

Friday: Day 5

2011-12-09T18:31:00.002-06:00

What a busy day for us! Home health visit nurse came. Mom and Isaac are doing GREAT! Spitting up has improved! He must have just needed a day or two to get used to mommy's milk :)

Isaac weighed in at 8 lbs 3 oz!!! So the spitting up hasn't really effected his eating too much.

Then we had his newborn photo shoot with Megan (Megan Crown Photography). Photo shoots are hard for little guys, but I know she got some great pictures. We all were pooped after that. Glad to just lay low with no plans for the next few days!!

PS: I am blogging from my phone, wondering how this will work. I think that will be easiest for these short update posts.

ETA: we have found a routine in Isaac's wake schedule (well routine for now... it constantly changes) when we hear him a poopin' then we know he's about to wake up :-P

Baby Isaac is HERE!!!!

2011-12-08T19:13:00.002-06:00

As the days hazily pass us by I realize I should be getting some of these stories, thoughts, and feelings down to look back on one day. Because heaven knows I'm not going to remember :-) That's why when people ask what it's like to have a new baby at home everyone answers "really those first few weeks are a blur" So please excuse the lack of pictures, although I'll try and get some on here from my phone. The ones on my camera... well those will be staying put for a while.

Birth story is a story of it's own and one I've told a few times so I'll come back to that.

Baby Isaac was born Sunday, December 4th, 2011 at 3:46am. He weighed in at 8 lbs. 1 oz and measuring 20.5 inches long. He has unusually large feet :-) that barely fit on the footprint paper they use in the hospital.

Sunday morning two or so hours after he arrived we were taken to our room in the BirthPlace. It was so confusing since it was dark out and 7:00... and felt like 7pm but it was indeed 7am. The hospital was nice to just recover in, bleed on their bed, order up food when we were hungry. But what we didn't like was getting walked in on ever chance we tried to catch some shut eye. We had some amazing nurses, all who were lactation certified. The first nurses to help baby Isaac breastfeed felt to 'man handle' me and him a little... but it was all in good health and it helped him learned. He didn't feed right out of the birth canal, it wasn't really until 11am that they got him latching on (forcefully) he was kinda like "WTH is this" ;-)

then the next feeding he was more like "oh okay so this is a regular thing"

by the third feeding he was "give me more!"

Needless to say he was a good eater. In the hospital they tell you how many wet/black diapers to expect... first day: one of each. Isaac's tally: FOUR of each! We were thinking what the heck is going on?!? But they just kept saying "Oh that's great! He's eating good then" Sunday night we had our first 'non-staff' visitors (I work in the hospital I delivered in, had one co-worker come visit and the nurses from labor and delivery come up to see as us well). Michelle and Enoch came to see us. We had our first peed on diaper change during their visit, weren't they lucky to witness this :-)

Monday we were tired... the night seemed long with them coming to check on us. It seemed like as soon as we'd get baby Isaac sleeping hard enough to put him in his bassinet next to us someone would come in. He was taken out of the room once, I was okay with this since it was four in the morning and he was sleeping anyway. they took him to do the tests they do after the 24 hour mark: hearing screening (which is just a little ear plug they put in their ear - I've seen it done on kids many of times and they like for them to be quiet (sleeping) during this), heel poke to draw labs for metabolic testing, and also a jaundice test they run on their forehead. Well turns out that forehead jaundice reading as a little high so they checked his blood - only one heel poke, that second test just added in. His blood jaundice reading came back normal.

Monday we were ready to leave, I was seen by the midwife and she gave me the okay as long as the pediatrician gave Isaac that okay to go home. Which he did, but since we were leaving 'early' and he had a high jaundice reading he wanted us to go to our pediatrician on Wednesday to get it rechecked. We were okay with that.

As zombies we got all loaded up, put Isaac in his car seat (for the first time!!!!) and was on our way. we arrived to the hospital= no snow; we leave hospital=4 or so inches on the ground - snow that will stay until March.

Monday evening we were blessed enough by Michelle, when she dropped Harpo off that morning she also left a crock pot of goodness going and bread in the bread maker. It smelt amazing!!! We are so blessed for great friends!

Honestly I'm already forgetting that night.... we unpacked and took care of Isaac I assume... nothing too exciting.

Tuesday:

I'm going to try and remember as much as I can. Baby Isaac is such a good sleeper the first few days were basically just getting used to having him home and feeding, changing him then holding him while he slept :-) it was SO EASY! ;-)

Tuesday we did have a poop catastrophy, lol. He did not like getting his diaper changed. So we decided if we change it when we switch boobs - mid feeding, then after the second boob feed he'd be sleepy and go right back to sleep... well the first time we tried this we caught him mid-poop. Covered him back up and waiting til he finished. Not sure why this didn't serve as warning because we tried it again... except this time it was a LOT more poop and then he started spitting up as well! Our laughing turned to crying (well I was) because of too much bodily secretions! We learned NOT to change him mid feedings and either do it before or well after a feeding, lol. He also got a little crusty eye this day and daddy quickly determined it was a blocked tear duct and to massage the nose to help work it out (today, Thursday, no crusties so he was right!) Kyle has been an amazing daddy so far! He has really helped us out as I am just a milk factory. Kyle has become the burp factory as well :-) I love my family!

Okay before I start crying again lets try and get these other days out so I can take a nap!

Wednesday was the outing day, we needed to get to the pediatrician, and while we were out I needed to run into target to get some other nursing bras/tanks. We fed right before, Isaac slept all the way there and was such a good boy during the appointment. Weighing in at 7 lbs 13 oz. He didn't get his jaundice (heel poke) re-checked because she said he looked great. At this point he did have a little rash forming on his chin (but again today, Thursday no rash)

We then drove across the road to Target... boy did I feel like a zombie and why was it so CROWDED!! Walked was a little rough as I was quite sore. Since it was nursing bras, I had to go since Kyle wouldn't be able to pick it out. So Kyle stayed in the car, Isaac was pretty sleeping if not asleep at this point. I ran in got: oranges, pads, nursing bra, two nursing tanks, fruit snacks (craving), and a NEW bed for Isaac! So the story behind that is we had a pack and play upstairs we bought many moons ago, that he would sleep in while up in our room since our room is upstairs in the half story. Well we put him in it the first night and it just did not seem comfortable. It wasn't a complete loss as it is a travel pack and play that we will get much use out of in the future just not now. So we purchased a Rock and Play that I had heard great things about. They had ONE boy one left! There were about 7 butterfly ones and no plain ones left in the section... I was hoping to be lucky so I looked through the butterfly ones just incase and found one plain one. Thank you Lord!!!

We came home, rested, hung out, don't really remember the rest. Kyle read some articles for school, I cleaned the upstairs (not sure why but it was on my mind) Got Isaac set up in his rock and play. He is such a good sleeper!! OH I remember now, our friends Rachel & Nick came over and brought us dinner! Such wonderful friends!!

Wednesday night went awesome, we got a routine down (for this one night I assume) but the rock and play was awesome. Isaac had started spitting up Wednesday as my milk was coming in and the rock and play helped to keep him elevated enough that spitting up wasn't as bad. he still did once after each feeding. But Thursday morning I felt refreshed getting roughly 4 hours of sleep (obviously not all at once) there isn't really much for Kyle to do during the night since it's just feeding, changing a diaper, and putting him back in his bassinet so I let Kyle sleep. One of us might as well get a good nights rest and he also had class the next night and I didn't want him to be miserable during that.

Today! Yeah I made it I'm trucking through this I just want to get it out before I forget :-P

Today was a little rougher, meaning Isaac didn't just sleep the whole day. He is spitting up like I said so we are trying to be good about keeping him elevated well after a feeding, I've switched to just doing one boob at a feeding and he seems to increase his feedings now that I look at our log. We also broke out the cloth diapers today, just for fun ;-) but that meant more changes since he can feel the wetness more (which is a good thing because it's crazy how long a disposable can stay on - not good really. And we dirtied a lot more laundry with the spit ups. But we're just going to have to deal because that's how it is. he's still a very happy baby, I feel bad when he's crying because he needs to burp or poop or fart or spit up :-(

Honestly today I feel like he has gotten bigger. We have an OB nurse coming for a home visit tomorrow (it's free when you leave the hospital before the 48 hr mark, YES!) She'll weigh him and just see how things are going with us, although when they called today it was pretty much a visit that covered everything anyway.

I didn't nap today, last nights good rest could be deceiving, we'll see how tonight goes. Oh Kyle left for class tonight, the first time he's away. We miss him! Another friend, Brandi, brought over some dinner tonight, we are so blessed.

We also learned today that Isaac loves music and books! Wait yesterday we learned he loves books! But today he was fussy after a feeding because of this whole spitting up, so I laid him down in his crib to get my K'Tan sling on to put him in (which he is in right now as I type all this up) I hit the little music button on the mobile my brother loaned us, it was classical music. I start putting the sling on and I look down and he's SLEEPING! haha. Since then I turn on the music when I do his diaper change and he seems to enjoy the change more, he even went through a whole one without crying. Oh yeah and we put a binder under the changing pad to help it be a little more elevated, I think that helps too.

Alright that's our update through Day 5. We better get our rest as tomorrow is a big day. Home health nurse visit then family photos! Megan is coming to the house to do newborn pictures.

Oh I do have one other picture uploaded on the computer. It's of his beautiful long eyelashes!

Project 52 {weeks 45-47}

2011-11-27T15:39:00.002-06:00

Week 45

I had these fun labels made to put on all the random stuff I've been making :-) It took them a while to make/ship (from Hong Kong) but I was pretty excited when they finally made it to me!

Week 46

While waiting for baby to arrived, I knitted a few hats. I first knitted a bigger one (the one in the back) but thought it was a little big and wanted to adjust some of my settings to the pattern I made up... so I made a smaller one which I still found some adjustments to be made if I make anymore.

Week 47

Harpo is soaking up all the love he can get these last few weeks before the baby arrives. Although he is still part of the family and will continue to get love, he's just going to be sharing the spot light soon :-)

Baby Projects

2011-11-15T09:34:00.004-06:00

I've been meaning to update on my past 'nesting' projects and am just now getting around to it. Tired enough I needed to sit still at the computer I guess. Or I'm just looking for something to do as I patiently await our little one's arrival :-D

Besides the many diapers I completed months ago...

When my mom was here, a month ago, I had some craft shopping to do. I made up some thank you cards for showers and what not gifts. I hemmed a few swaddle blankets, thanks to an amazing shower gift!! I also purchased a little kit to make a shopping cart cover. Boy was that more than I bargained for. I don't like sewing things BIGGER than my machine, not very easy to maneuver.

I also made up some cute bibs with a pattern I saw via KAMsnaps FB page on Things For Boys blog:

I think I was at my peak nesting time about a month ago. Wow I had so much energy it was great! Where has it gone??

About a week - 2 weeks ago I also sewed together some diapers for a friend, about 6 or 7. And got some NEW labels to add :-)

I had these custom labels made at through World Wide Labels

In the last week I've made two cute little football hats; one 6+ months and then one newborn:

I had to make up my own pattern for these so it was nice to practice and get a couple of sizes out of it.

And I also cranked out a pair of fleece longies which are meant to be used over fitted diapers at night, although this newborn pattern looks to run really small.... so they might just be around the house pants.

This fleece longie pattern came from Katrina's Sew Quick Soaker. Since the newborn size was pretty small I decided to make smalls next. Well when I printed off the small pattern it turns out you make the inseam length 'as needed'.... well since I don't have a little one here to measure these are getting put on hold.

And just for fun a 39 week belly photo!

Photo 44

2011-11-15T09:26:00.001-06:00

44/52

It's Fall! Well the leaves started falling a while ago. But it was Friday and I was running out the door to work, realized I didn't get a picture yet this week so thought I'd be creative with my camera phone :-) phew almost missed a week.

Baby Belly

2011-11-06T13:46:00.003-06:00

Well he sure is a-growin' in there. Here's my latest timeline - up to a week ago 37 weeks.

Then here's this week - 38.

A few weeks ago we had some pictures taken. I found a new photographer via craigslist, she didn't have any other maternity photography experience and I was HAPPY to help out :-) The following pictures were taken by Nicole.Mae Photography. (October 18th - 35 weeks pregnant)

It was about 42 degrees, and we got cold pretty quickly. But it was nice to get some photos of the two of us and our growing little one :-)

October 26th {photo 43}

2011-11-06T13:29:00.004-06:00

Harpo had his fifth birthday last week!! So I had to pull out the ol' birthday hat. :-)

43/50

Baby Pool

2011-10-25T13:10:00.004-05:00

I set up a baby pool game if anyone is interested in guessing when baby boy simpson will arrive :-) I have my own two estimates, but they are purely on preference of dates, lol!

Here's the link: http://www.expectnet.com/games/GuessBabySimpson