How We Roll

This is how we (by we, I mean Derek) watch Tangled - naked on the couch eating Goldfish. Derek decided he wanted to go shirtless and pantless (thankfully I talked him out of going diaperless) today and eat Goldfish after breakfast while watching "Tangled." Sure, ok. It's 6:30 in the morning, you can have your way til 8. So, who needs to use your hands when you have two perfectly adequate thighs to hold your cup for you? ;) 

"Stinky Cheese" face

Better "Cheese"

His spontaneously new version of the "Fish face"

No photography please!

The Mothership Has Sent Us Another One...

We have another alien baby! Bryce has some jaundice and the pediatrician wants to head it off at the pass. Bryce gets a different bili-bed than Derek had. This one is more like a tanning booth - complete with goggles. :) I think he likes it. He sleeps well enough at night now that he's got his own personal heat lamp. It's not hot, but certainly warms the air in his immediate vicinity. He's doing great and will probably be off the bed no later than Monday - maybe even by tomorrow. He's already looking less orange-y and the whites of his eyes are becoming more white and less that sickly yellow color. That eye color combined with all the fine baby down on his back reminds me of Jim Carey's role in the Grinch movie. :) He's such a good baby though! He rarely cries unless he's dirty or hungry (he couldn't care less if he sat in pee all day though. Just like his brother), and he's really patient when I have to help him latch, latch, latch and re-latch for nursing. I feel so blessed to have such great kids! Yep, I can officially say "kids." How cool is that?! Anyway, here are a few pictures taken earlier today. :)

The bili-(tanning) bed. There is a UV paddle/wand that goes under his back, too, so he gets treatment on both sides of his body. 

Check out those hot goggles. Chicks dig him... legs (almost) crossed and all.

He was more alert than this makes him out to be. I just caught him as he was closing his eyes. :)

Bryce William Heath

He's finally here! After stops, starts, and several guesses, Bryce William Heath was born Monday, October 22 at 4:18 pm. He weighed a startling 8 lbs, 11 oz and was 20.5 inches long with lots of thick... blond?!...hair. Lots of surprises about this one. :) He has Mitchell's fingers and toes with huge basketball ready hands and looong skinny legs. No wonder I thought there were twins in there for a while. I'd feel his bum sticking out of the right side of my belly and his feet waaay back around my left side. We reported for the induction at 7:30 am and the pitocin was started about 8:30 am. I was so very nervous about this birth but my nurse, Chris, was fabulous! She just kept telling me I was doing beautifully and everything was going to be fine (my OB had taken the initiative and briefed her on my last birth experience before we arrived and directed her to reassure me that all would be well). Dr. MacDonald (my awesome OB) came in sometime between 8 and 8:30 to check me and break my water. At this point, I was expecting to be somewhere around 2 cm dilated if I followed my previous progression of about a half a cm a week. He was a little surprised as he told the nurse I was a good solid 3 cm and about 50% effaced. SCORE!!! The contractions (and walking up the stairs to Jeff and Tammy's apartment, lol) had finally worked!!

Me and all my ridiculously massive belly...39 weeks exactly

The traditional last-time-we-have-to-hug-bending-over picture :)

The nurse anesthetist came in around 9 to verify I was a good candidate for an epidural (I was, lol) and the anesthesiologist totally surprised us by coming in about a half hour later prepped and ready to go. I hadn't had much time to mentally prepare myself (or psych myself out, for that matter), so I was kind of in a daze as Chris sat me up and arranged me for the procedure. Mitchell opted to sit in a chair and watch since Chris was occupying me so well and he watched the whole thing in rather horrified fascination. I had to stop watching his facial expressions, haha! Within minutes after the epidural catheter was inserted and I was back on the bed, my feet and lower legs started to go numb. Success!! I think the dr was pretty tired of my broken record "thank you!" by the time he left. I had the perfect epidural - I could still move my legs around a bit and had about 5% sensation (I could feel pressure from cervical checks or feel Mitchell tuck the sheets around my legs) but I had absolutely no pain whatsoever. Chris told me to call her if I felt nauseated at all because the epidural might slow down my heart rate a little bit. I called her a few minutes later when I got light headed and my heart rate had a dropped a little. She said I was still in the normal range (just the low side of normal) but ordered some counter-acting drug anyway. The nurse anesthetist came in and things get a little fuzzy for the next couple minutes. I remember puking in a bag (which is really difficult when you're flat on your back) that looked like the shoulder-length gloves vets use to examine large farm animals and worrying that I got puke in my hair while the nurses were putting stuff in my IV and looking a little worried. Very suddenly, my head cleared and Chris was saying she was glad I called her in when I did because it could've gotten worse. I wasn't ever in any danger of coding or dying, but I sure felt like crap for about 5 minutes.

I didn't have any more problems til around 2 pm when progression had slowed down. I'd been at a 7 for about two hours. Chris had me switch to a hands and knees position (which I got into all by my numb-legged self!) and I rocked and swayed for about an hour trying to get Bryce to move lower and dilate my cervix more. After an hour, I had progressed to an 8! Woo!! Only two more centimeters to go! Fortunately, I was a 10 and ready to push within half an hour. Chris actually coached me to push until Bryce started crowning and then Dr. MacDonald came in a suited up in what seriously looked like a HAZMAT suit. I only pushed for 18 minutes and then Bryce popped out all in a rush. Dr. MacDonald suctioned his mouth and nose out a little bit and plopped him on my stomach. I was honestly just so shocked to see him out (and how HUGE he was!) that I just stared at him in disbelief until another nurse handed me a towel so I could help dry Bryce off. He was much "cheesier" than Derek was. I almost couldn't see his face for all the vernix covering him, but after a few minutes (and an enthusiastic nurse), his features began to emerge. The nurse took him over to a warmer as Dr. MacDonald started stitching me up. I had a stage 2 tear (not all that bad) and I actually got to watch him work this time (he was wearing a plastic face shield with reflective properties). I'm still totally amazed that all this happened with absolutely no pain whatsoever. I feel like I was able to focus and enjoy the process and be much MUCH more aware of what was going on around me. I can't wait to have another baby!! The recovery process has been much smoother and far more manageable than I ever thought possible. THIS is how childbirth should be (for me, anyway). I joked with the nurses after delivery and indicated I could have ten kids if this was how the rest of the deliveries went. Chris actually thought I was serious and repeated my statement to the next shift nurse who took over. I loved her look of shock. It always makes me laugh when I tell people I want five kids and they act like that's a huge family. So funny. :) Here are picture of Bryce from the first two days....

Such a sweet little pumpkin baby!

"Stop touching meeeeee! I KILL YOU!!!"

Hee... :)

The nurse who bathed him tried to get his hair in a mowhawk, but it's pretty wavy.

Hey baby, how you doin'?

Frog legs!

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

Meeting Nana, Papi and big brother Derek! (Jeff and Tammy came a little later but we forgot to take pictures :S)

Such a cute roly poly face!

Oh, the sun!

Dad, will you PLEASE get that thing out of my face?

Going home! Mitchell makes me laugh - he's sitting here saying, "Whoa! I don't know what happened in this picture, but you do NOT look that big." Haha! He cracks me up. :)

Shirt and a Haircut... Priceless

Ok, so not quite the "shave and a haircut" bit of the song, but it was a cute impression. :) Here is Derek's newest version of go-dress-yourself...

 This hat is originally for kids 18-24 months... just a little tight, lol

 He had been wearing Mitchell's flip flops, but they were too big for him to walk around in, so he picked them up when I told him to go stand by the door so I could take pictures. 

 Definitely too tight...

 We were both cracking up!

"I see you!"

Trunk or Treat!

We went Trunk-or-Treating with Giga and Papa today! Derek had a blast when he realized all he had to do was say "trick-or-treat" and someone would give him a fistful of candy (or better yet, let him TAKE a fistful of candy). He made several rounds of the parking lot full of members of Jeff and Tammy's new ward. Everyone we met was very friendly and it seemed like a great ward. Hooray! Mitchell and Giga took Derek on his rounds while Papa and I held down the fort at the trunk passing out candy. We saw the same ninja at least 6 times... must have been a freshman at the ninja academy (Mitchell kept saying, "If he's a ninja, we shouldn't be able to see him.") Haha! It was so much fun! We went back to Jeff and Tammy's apartment afterward and had pizza and wings, drank sarsaparilla like the cowboys of old (yes, that's the correct spelling) and watched Wipeout. I keep having a harder and harder time climbing all those stairs but maybe that will help Bryce come sooner. At the very least, I get my workout in for the day and completely justify eating the cake or goodies that Tammy offers us. ;) Here are pictures of the trunk or treat...

My mom found this monster suit at Toys R Us. Derek and I dissolved into giggles when he tried it on before we left for the trunk or treat. Isn't it so cute!! :D

Happy Halloween!

He's testing the waters... what is the secret to getting at the candy?

See the three-fingered hand/glove? I love it!

"Eye" see you!

Snapped a picture of him saying "Help please." He's such a good kid!

Yep, double fistin' the suckers. He just crunched the head of a dum dum off that little stick.

Chillin with Papa... sucking on a sucker... watching a gorgeous Texas sunset...life can't get much better than that.

Kadi's Birthday and Derek's Daddy Time

 I had an awesome birthday last weekend! A quarter of a century old and still going strong! ;) We partied with both sides of the family and, once again, I forgot to take pictures. I only took these pictures of my mom,  Kelly and Derek because I thought it was something I should document - Derek actually acting tired. Haha! He hadn't had a nap in two days and these were taken somewhere around 7pm I think. Nana and Aunt Bella were trying to help him get past a level in his favorite monster truck game and he looks... so excited. Right? Poor kid was just exhausted. We went home soon after and he fell asleep by the time we got onto the highway. :) Music to my ears...

Trying to figure out how not to blow up

 Pensive Derek is... pensive

 This is his first ever solo bug catch! Little critter was moseying along in the kitchen when Derek scooped him up and announced, "Mama! Bug!" He even offered to take it outside for me. What a kid!

These next few photos are from today. Derek loooooves to play video games with Mitchell. Well, sort of. Mitchell usually holds the live controller and Derek holds the dummy (battery pack removed) and pretends he's playing the game. His facial expressions and verbal cries of outrage (oh man! what THE heck?!) are super cute. :) Mitchell had a few spare minutes left from his lunch break before he had to go back to work and Derek was begging to play "race cars." Mitchell, being the fantastic daddy he is, flipped on the xbox for some quality bonding time. 

 Trying to tell Mitchell where he went wrong on that lap

 Cheese!

Sometimes you just get tired of losing to the "freaking hippie bus."

Surprise!

No, you're not seeing things - we've decided on a different name for this baby. Connor just wasn't sitting well with Mitchell or I and apparently Bryce has been Mitchell's favorite all along. That man! Why didn't he just say something?! Gah. Derek has been calling the baby Bryce off and on since I was about 26 weeks too. Seriously. Guess I'm the last to feel the Bryce-vibe but I like it better than Connor. Since we're quite sure we'll be sticking with Bryce William from now on (and since this blog is also meant to be a family yearbook for us), I went back and changed all the posts that mention "Connor" to Bryce. No need to confuse the kids in the future. :) Sorry if anyone has gotten monogrammed stuff. :S

Feeling a Little Sheep-ish?

Derek loves Shaun the Sheep. So does Mitchell. In fact, it's most often Mitchell who starts it by announcing after dinner, "Who wants to watch Shaun the Sheep?" :) Derek started doing this little Shaun the Sheep impression the other day. Too cute!

Bryce at 36 Weeks

We have the best ultrasound tech ever! She let me take video of Bryce and printed off a bunch of pictures for me. This kid is a chunk! He already weighs about 7 lbs and is measuring about 10 days ahead of schedule. He was still as a mouse so the tech could take all her measurements but when she tried to get a better look at his face, he wiggled back and turned his head away. Little punk. :)

Face Explaination

Heartbeat

Can you see his chubby little cheek?! He's so adorable!

 36 weeks 0 days

I guess most of you know but since this is more of a journal bit for me you get more details (or repeat details). I ended up having to go to Labor and Delivery at the hospital a little over a week ago. My doctor thought my water might have broken, so I dropped by to get checked out. Membranes were intact (my water hadn't broken) but I was 2 cm dilated and 40% effaced so the nurse called the on-call OB to be advised. The nurse came back about 10-15 min later and said rather casually, "So, are you feeling your contractions?" I'd been feeling what I thought were Braxton-Hicks (false labor pains) that were tight but not particularly painful... but apparently they were registering as big-time contractions and were coming every 2-6 minutes (sidenote: apparently I don't feel pain with upper-uterine contractions unless they're HUGE. I was feeling mostly upper-uterine contractions at this point). The contractions, coupled with the fact that I was dilated and effaced, meant that I was going to have to stay in the hospital for two hours so the nurses could keep an eye on me and make sure I wasn't actually going into labor. Thankfully, I hadn't changed at all (though the contractions stopped and started fairly regularly) and I could go home. Ever since though, I've been feeling some MAJOR contractions off and on throughout the day... especially after cleaning up or sitting in the car for a long time. I ended up calling Mitchell during the Relief Society Broadcast last Saturday in tears asking him to come get me. Really bad night. Understandably, I was rather nervous for this OB appointment today. The dr checked me and said I was barely a centimeter dilated. Wait, WHAT?! He said it wasn't uncommon for women to dilate and then close back up a bit, particularly since I'm not quite full term and especially since I'd been trying to take it easy and appease the contraction gods. Oh well. At least I can clean through the contractions and not be particularly worried. Plus, as of next Monday I'll be 37 weeks which is considered full term and Bryce can come whenever the heck he wants at that point. Mitchell even jokes that he's going to take me for a 5 hour car ride to really start my labor. HA! We'll see. I still have a huge list of things to get done before this baby comes so, as far as I'm concerned, he can take his time. Just as long as he doesn't come on the 14th - I'm not too thrilled about possibly sharing my birthday. ;)

Derek's "Baby" And The Proper Way to Eat Cereal

Derek has adopted a teddy bear. The past couple days, he's been calling this little guy his "baby" and telling me when is cries, needs a diaper and wants to be "colored" (ie, cuddled). He's probably getting this stuff from nursery and some of his little girl friends but I think it's super cute!

He's cuddling the bear and patting its back because it's crying

Isn't this the cutest? I love the reality check at the end, lol. Just in case you thought I was getting a little too comfortable with Derek handling babies...

Part Two: Derek has been asking for cereal for just about every meal. Usually I can talk him into something else but sometimes he refuses to eat anything but his beloved cereal. He can't sit still long enough to eat cereal with Silk (almond milk), but I finally found the solution to our dilemma - cereal and yogurt!! He found the best way to eat it, too...

Legs crossed, bowl in lap. Too cute!