Pretties

Hopefully our newborn photos will be done (late) this week.  While everyone waits, here are some by me:

Differences

This also could be called "My kids look nothing like me" or "Boys and bigger than girls"

When we brought Tessa home from the hospital, I had this cute footed sleeper for her to wear home.  Asher did not wear it this time around because I wised up and realized that when it is 115 degrees outside, you do not need to bring your baby home in a footed sleeper.  (Maybe it was only 105 when we brought Tessa home, so that was acceptable?)

So here they are, same outfit, same bed, different house.  They look so different, but at the same time, they look so alike (like their Dad).

Tessa at 4 weeks, Asher at 2 weeks

Asher was a pound larger than Tessa, and he is gaining weight much faster!  I don't think his newborn clothing is going to fit much longer.  And he does have hair on the front of his head.  It is just blonde.  The whole combination makes him look like an old man though.

Tessa was super strong from the beginning.  Asher is doing a great job holding his head up, but doesn't have the desire to stand up like Tessa did, and I think we are all enjoying a cuddly baby.  And he likes to sleep, which is much different than Tessa, too.  So seeing him with his eyes open is rare.  A little bit of awake time, and then he lets you know he wants to go back to sleep!

today, and 2 weeks

Tessa, Asher and I spent the whole day together today (I think this is only the second or third time this has happened since he was born).  And it was a good day!  We all got showers/baths.  During Ashers big morning nap, Tessa and I baked banana bread while listening to Martin and Sylvia at Home (her Sparkle Stories, which have been a life saver during feedings in keeping her occupied and happy!).

We also dyed onesies and a t-shirt for Tessa that I plan to try some freezer paper stencils on.

Tessa calls pinecones porcupines.  So we discussed the difference between the two.  We now have a picture of a porcupine on our kitchen wall. 

We also played the mystery bag game.  I filled it with common objects and blindfolded Tessa and she was able to guess all of them.  She then filled the bag with rocks for me.  Like 20 rocks.  

Mom got to lick a beater as well today!  Hooray for not being pregnant any more! 

I let her lick the bowl, too.  

blue onesies before being dried.  And our porcupine.

The mystery bag.  Sleeping baby.

And Asher is 2 weeks old today!  He is filling out already! 

Finally some sleepy time

We've had a busy past couple of days, and busy days makes for a sleep disrupted baby!  Poor guy is catching up this morning (picture me smiling right now!).  We had Tami Proffitt come by the past two days to take pictures of the family and of him.  I cannot wait to see them!  We also had Asher's checkup yesterday, and he has gained his birth weight back plus some (7 pounds 9 ounces).  We both got shots as well (His first Hepatitis B and received my Tdap - ouch!)  Tessa has been enjoying her preschool prep week, and is off with Taylor, Talon and Venice today.

And I do have to say his is super easy.  He goes 3-4 hours between feedings at night (from feed to feed) and goes right back to sleep, so I have been getting 2 and 3 hour stretches of sleep at night, which is heavenly!

Here are some phone photos from the past week:

Eyes open/snuggling with Mom/Sleeping after his first bath

Dada and Tessa playing/new bar stools (old ones in the background)/dancing in her new dress from Aunt Linda

fabric for Asher's room/Tessa pulling Daddy

Enjoying his second bath/not enjoying being cold

Mama and her babies/Enjoying the evening/sleeping in his swing

looking outside/enjoying his new bouncer

1 week

We are stepping it up this time around, à la young house love style.  Although I will do a 

"giraffe" photo each month as well.  But lets not jump ahead.  He is only 1 week old!

T & A

T for Tessa and A for Asher, right?  When we were thinking of baby names, I came to the realization that their initials would spell T&A, and after I told Scott this he was sold on the name Asher.  (Tate was our other boy name, same middle name though).  So obviously Asher won out in the end, and I love my T&A!

Tessa has been in mega girl mode for the past two weeks, requesting to wear a skirt daily.  Tutu and ballet shoes at 6am?  No problem girly!

Being a good helper this morning while I made breakfast.  She thinks his binky is funny.

Day Two

His first night went really well in the hospital.  Asher woke up less times than Tessa did according to Scott, who slept at home that night.  (She is back to her regular sleeping habits now, poor girl was all out of sorts those first couple of nights!)  The nurses knew that we wanted to go home that day, and we got to a point where all we were waiting on was the pediatrician.  One of the nurses made a comment that she was probably doing us last because he was Coombs Positive.  What?  Why was I not told this before?  The Coombs test is done on every newborn to see if there are antibodies from me in his blood. This can happen because of Rh difference, or in our case the ABO blood type.  I am O+ and Asher turned out B+, and our blood type does not like each other!  (I am assuming Tessa is also B+, and that is where the antibodies came from).  These antibodies destroy red blood cells, causing jaundice.

The pediatrician eventually came in, and explained everything to Scott, since he is just an orthopedic PA (made me grin from ear to ear!) and said she wanted us to stay another night.  His Bilirubin levels were very low that morning, so I pleaded with her to let us go home tonight and I would follow-up with my clinic in the morning to make sure he was doing fine.  She agreed to let us go home after one more check at 36 hours.  So we hung out until 4:30 when the lab tech poked his little heel for the second time that day.  A little before 6 we got the go ahead to take off!  Hooray!  We drove home (much slower this time) to meet Tessa and Grandma Linda at the house.

I did follow-up with Dr. Mickey in the morning.  His weight was 6 pounds, 15 ounces so he hadn't lost much.  Even better news was that his bilirubin level was even less at 48 hours than it was at 36  (it probably helped that my milk came in that night and that he wanted to eat every 2 hours - made for a long night!)

Being a big sister has it's perks

For example - you get to drive a tractor with your Papa while your little brother has to stay inside!

A month long project is winding to an end in the backyard.  The back and front walls are almost complete, as well as the retention wall at the back of the house.  Extra thanks to Scott, Pat and my Dad for their hard work yesterday!

A birth story

I started having contractions the 20th of June.  They weren't painful, and very sporadic, but it gave my hope that my body was preparing itself!  My next OB appointment wasn't until June 29th, and after 9 days of contractions I was 2cm and 80% effaced.  Although this means nothing in predicting when a baby will come, I was excited.  And then another week went by.  I finished my last day at work before maternity leave, had an eye doctor appointment that I had been needing for the past 6 months and tied up other loose ends.  At my 39 weeks and 4 days appointment on Friday I was checked again - 2cm and 80% effaced.  What?  No progress?  My midwife, Belinda, did comment how low the baby was.  My response was "I know!"  She told me she was on call this weekend, and she thinks that I won't go beyond that.  We talked about labor a little, and I asked if my water broke at home would it be okay to labor at home a little.  She said yes, but then added that with the way everything looked, labor would probably go pretty fast.

Saturday not much was happening.  Sunday we went out shopping in the morning, and I was having stronger contractions, nothing painful or regular, but definitely stronger.  Everyone took a nap that afternoon, and I actually had a contraction that woke me up.  Contractions came and went for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening, but I was definitely not convinced the baby would be coming tonight.  I went out to the barn that evening to take pictures of Toronto in the evening light (the last on my to-do list).  I even stopped by the grocery store to buy Gatoraid since someone decided to eat a rare hamburger for lunch earlier that day!

We laid down around 10, and this is when I knew that I was officially in labor.  Scott wanted to make the phone calls, but I figured it would not be until morning that we would be going in, so I told him to wait and let everyone sleep, since my labor with Tessa lasted 17+ hours.

At 11, I gave in and got up since these contractions were not letting me sleep.  I let Scott stay in bed and sleep while I walked around the house.  The contractions were not unbearable.  I walked thru them, and in-between sat on the couch and looked at blogs, etc.  Some were 30 seconds, some over a minute. Some came every 2 minutes, some came 6-7 minutes apart.  At 3am, Scott got up to check on me.  Looking back, that is when the contractions changed.  I had some back pain with the one he witnessed. He wanted to call his Mom to have her come over to watch Tessa.  I told him to give it another hour and let her sleep.  Then I had another very strong contraction, and changed my mind.  I gave Scott the go ahead to make some phone calls.  I decided to get into the bath to relax a little, and called my Mom to let her know to start to get ready, and we would call when we were on our way to the hospital.  After calling his parents, Scott hopped in the shower.  That was 3:44am.  Then all hell broke loose.

My next contraction my body began to push.  I yelled for Scott, who jumped out of the shower with shampoo in his hair and told him that I needed to go to the bathroom and to help me out.  He told me that I didn't need to go to the bathroom, that I needed to push.  "No, I just need to go poop, get me to the toilet!"  I stood up and my body took over, pushing again.  On the toilet, Scott could feel the head pushing down.  I stood up and my water broke.  He quickly rinsed off his hair and was running around grabbing things to throw in the car, all while talking to his parents, my Mother, and calling Belinda, my midwife.  I could barely move without feeling the need to push again, but slowly made my way into the car.  We pulled out of the garage, leaving our sleeping three year old alone in the house, knowing Pat and Linda were hopefully not far from the house.  We left the house at 3:54am.

We drove 80 miles per hour to the hospital, running red lights and all.  We actually passed 2 police officers, who did not even switch on their lights, not that we would have pulled over anyway.  Belinda was at the hospital already and alerted the staff, so when we pulled up to the ER, two L&D nurses met me at the car with a gurney (thank GOD!).  We arrived at the hospital at 4:13am.

I apologized, saying maybe I was wrong, that I was a long way from pushing, but they probably knew better as they rushed me thru the hallways, up the the 3rd floor.  When I saw Belinda in the hallway I told her "You said it would go fast".  I was able to scoot over to my bed where Belinda confirmed I was fully dilated, 2+ station and to go ahead and do what I needed to do.  It felt so good after holding the baby in for the past 20 minutes to be able to push.  It took three contractions before the head came out.  One more push, and our baby was born at 4:23am.

I looked down and announced to everyone "It's a BOY!  Everyone, this is Asher"

Still in my clothes, no hospital bracelets or anything.

The nurses were great, and let us soak Asher in until we were ready to part with him.  At some point my mother arrived, and was a little confused when they told her to wait, and let them check if I was accepting visitors.  Visitors?  She thought.  She was here to help me thru labor.  Scott met her at our room door with our baby :)

We are loving this new addition to our family and couldn't feel more complete with a boy in the mix.  That's not to say that more are out of the possibility, but I learned my lesson and probably will go to the hospital earlier next time!

Want more Asher?

Tessa meeting Asher for the first time.  And the yellow flower headband?  That was for Quinn.  Who is Quinn?  Why that was our girl name we had picked out :)  We will trust that it looks much better on Tessa than Asher.  He looks all boy!

That's the first day :)

Meet Asher

He has a pretty awesome birth story, but that will need to wait. He arrived promptly on his due date, 7/9/2012 weighting in at 7 pounds, 6 ounces and was 20.25 inches long. He is awesome.

Asher Everett McMillan, welcome to this world.

San Diego!

Two weeks ago, we escaped the Arizona heat (I seriously think it was in the 115 range that week) to go to San Diego, where Scott was attending a shoulder conference.  It was a welcome break, and although we brought along the infant carseat just in case, I didn't think anything would happen.  Turns out I started having contractions on the drive out of Phoenix!  But obviously we still don't have a baby, so it was just false labor (I'll do that math for you - that's 18 days of contractions and no baby yet).  The way to San Diego takes you pretty close right next to Mexico.  That dark brown line is the border fence.  Tessa entertained herself with movies and jewelry making.  Jumping on the bed was a must after arriving at the hotel after the 5.5 hour drive!

After hanging out at the hotel the first day, Tessa and I went to Balboa Park while Scott was in his conference.  We played on the playground, rode and train and carousel multiple times. 

We met up with Scott the day after and headed down to La Jolla to look at the seals at Children's Beach.

After driving fighting thru traffic, we ended up at Mission Beach.

Later that evening, we met up with our friends Barry and Rachel, who invited us out to Island Prime.  Scott and I ordered the trio of sorbets for desert - obviously we were not expecting to share a gallon of ice cream!

Tessa and Jaxson were treated to complementary chocolate sundaes, but it wasn't enough for them so they finished up our gallon of sorbet as well!

The next morning, we met up with them again for breakfast at The Red Sail Inn, and then headed over to SeaWorld!

Tessa was a little less than impressed about the Shamu Show 6 ton 26 foot long trained ocean mammal, but was super excited to pet a dolphin and feed "sting rays" (aka manta rays).

The kids had fun playing at the splash pad and riding the rides in the toddler area.

Tessa loved the polar bear and talks about his cave all the time.

After a busy day at SeaWorld, we had to wake her up to make it to dinner with some more friends that evening.  I thought I would snap a quick pic of her asleep before the sunlight woke her up.  When she rolled over, we noticed a large bump underneath her shirt.  She slept the whole time with a stuffed mouse in her shirt!  Silly girl!

After a fun time with Arizona friends Christina and Christimon (Simon) and our long distance friends Kelly and Ty (we met them at Christina and Simon's wedding in Costa Rica), the following morning was our last day.  We headed back down to the tide pools in La Jolla.

I am proud to say Tessa is no sissy, and held a hermit crab and some other crab-like sea creature.

Hooray for our last vacation as a family of three!  It was an awesome time!