Me and My Boys: November 2012

Sunday, November 11, 2012

My boys

Just some pictures...

These two things greeted me when I came home from the hospital.

Bryson sleeping in the cradle that my grandpa made for my mom, and she passed it down for Ariane and I to use.

Close-up of that sweet face

The boys love to hold Bryson and have their picture taken.

Due to Carter's "roughness," he doesn't get to hold the baby very often.

Sometimes when I take pictures of my newborn babies, they look more alien than baby. Such is the case for this picture, but it was a cute one of Caleb.

Caleb holding Bryson's head straight

Bryson admiring his big brothers

Big brothers admiring Bryson

Things are going pretty well. The lack of sleep is always difficult. I wish I had the talent of falling asleep quickly after nursing. But after changing a diaper and nursing, my brain is stimulated enough that it takes me about 30 minutes to fall back asleep. Having two older children who wake up on occasion in the middle of the night or who wake up at an earlier time after I've just fallen back asleep from nursing Bryson sure adds a lot of frustration to sleeping! We're adjusting well, and I have the energy to be a mom and keep up with the laundry for the most part! :o)

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Baby Bryson

Pictures first, for those of you that only care about that. Labor story at the end.

First bath

Measurements

Caleb and Carter meeting Bryson for the first time when Bryson is 4 hours old. They did so well and were so gentle! Carter kept saying, "This is my baby."

First snuggle with Daddy

Meeting Grandma and Grandpa for the first time

Meeting some cousins

Snuggles with Mommy

2 days old

Friday morning I started feeling a few contractions, but they weren't very hard or long, and I wasn’t sure if it would amount to anything or not. I went to help sort vegetables for a veggie co-op I participate in, and felt a few contractions while sorting and on the drive home. I decided to start timing them and as of 10:30 am, I noticed the contractions were coming about 10 minutes apart, but none of them lasted longer than 30 seconds. I decided to call Matt home from work, and he arrived home around 10 minutes past noon. He gave me a priesthood blessing to calm my nerves, and my mom arrived around 12:20 to watch Carter. We got to the hospital around 12:45; we were put in a triage room for me to change while the nurse did some paperwork. She came back and checked me, and I was dilated to 6 cm. (Phew! It's always scary that you won't have progressed as much as you've hoped for!) I was able to work through the contractions by myself up until this point. Once I was changed, I laid down into the position I find most comfortable where Matt could massage my back during contractions. They were coming 4 to 5 minutes apart at this point.

A new nurse came in to move me to the labor/delivery room. Between contractions, the nurse was asking all kinds of health-related questions and having me sign and initial. This happened last time as well, and it doesn’t allow me to fully concentrate on relaxing as I would like! Matt did a lot better at coaching this time around. His praise and relaxation reminders made a huge difference. My contractions started coming a minute apart, and the second my water broke, I felt the need to start pushing. I announced such and asked them to get my doctor in right away!

Matt says when the doctor walked into the room, the baby’s head was already partially out. He had enough time to put on some gloves and “catch” the baby. (My doctor had been upstairs in the hospital while I was laboring--I'm not sure why!!)

I was so relieved when it was over, and of course my first concern was for the baby. I heard a nurse say the cord was wrapped around his neck, so that made me nervous! Bryson was healthy and born at 1:59pm. He weighed 8 pounds even and was 21 inches in length.

While natural labor is difficult, I think it is worth it for the after-effects. I love being able to get up right away, and I just feel like the recovery is so much faster. I need to add that my favorite part about the delivery was the fact that I didn’t have to have an IV in my hand! There wasn't time to get it set up; the IV is such a nuisance while laboring! I'm not sure if there is any proven research, but I will continue to swear up and down by my running throughout pregnancy which I think makes labor/delivery/recovery so much easier!

It was so fun to see Caleb and Carter meet Bryson for the first time. We were so excited to call and tell Caleb the good news after he got home from the bus stop. My mom and dad brought them later around 6pm to meet Bryson. Carter said over and over, "This is my baby." Caleb talked about how he knew to be gentle with Bryson, and they both enjoyed holding him. They are going to be such great big brothers!

We are so grateful to have Bryson in our family! The newborn stage is so precious and with each baby I am amazed at God's trust in Matt and me as parents to raise these special spirits. I learn so much about what matters most in life through motherhood and appreciate the perspective it gives me.

We're grateful for all the well-wishes and for family and my good friend, Kim, for stopping by to visit Bryson and me in the hospital. We're glad to be home and learning to adjust to being a family of 5!

*At Bryson's doctor's appointment yesterday, he weighed 8 lbs. 3 oz. By day 3, he'd already gained back his birth weight plus some! (And this was after a major diaper explosion in the waiting room at the doctor's office!) Like both my other boys were, he's a champ at eating.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Month 1: Organization

The first month of my happiness project was focused on organization and getting ready for the baby. My goals specifically included going through the closets in the house, going through baby clothes, and making some freezer meals. I discovered right away why I haven't taken the time to really organize the closets as they collected more junk...it's so time-consuming. It was difficult to do these tasks on top of the daily cleaning and laundry that I do. Carter takes a nap about every other day or every third day, and it's always so tempting to use a portion of that time to take a nap myself. But in order to accomplish my monthly goal, I had to utilize this time to go through closets or to prep freezer meals. At the end of the day, it felt so good to look at all that I accomplished.

All of it was rewarding, but it felt really good to go through my own closet and weed out all the clothes that don't fit anymore. I lost some weight due to nursing Caleb that I've been able to keep off for the last 5 years with running, but a part of me was afraid to get rid of these larger sizes of clothes just in case I ever needed them again. It was liberating to donate them all and clear out that space in my closet as well as promise myself that I won't need those larger clothes ever again. :o)

So I went through everything in my closet, the boys' closet, the baby's closet, and a linen closet organizing and throwing out. (Matt went through his closet as well!) Another good feeling was going through our filing cabinet of insurance papers, house papers, bills, etc. that we've been hanging onto since 2009. I organized clothes and dressers to get ready for the baby. I also have 5 meals in the freezer that will hopefully make things easier when baby Bryson comes. (I wrote this Thursday night, but didn't post right away. I had no idea Bryson would come in just over 12 hours. Post to come on that soon!)

Some other goals I accomplished this past month that I want to be monthly goals were to read a spiritual book, finish another year of turning my blog into a book, and index 200 names. I read The Peacegiver, which had some insights in relation to the atonement about the story of Jonah and Abigail from the Bible that I've never considered before. I'm really enjoying indexing, and I love finishing my blog books by year. (I just got year 2009 in the mail today!)

I wanted my goal for next month to be simple since I know I'll be super busy and out of it with no sleep. I decided the perfect goal, and fitting for this time of year, is to have a month of gratitude. I'm going to keep a gratitude journal every day writing down at least one thing I'm grateful for each day. That's it. :o) I plan to work on my monthly goals as well again and just see how I do.