A love like this

I know it sounds corny but I am amazed at how much I love my son.

He's been nothing short of a fussy pain in the rear the past three days. I haven't slept very well at all and am so frustrated that I can't figure out what's wrong with him. Like tonight, I tried keeping him up, feeding him a little extra and he still cried for an hour and a half for no apparent reason. It's midnight and he just now stopped crying! But after he stopped crying I hopped onto my computer to look at pics and browsed my delivery photos. Then I started crying!! Going back to the day he was born brought back all these wonderful and happy feelings.

He's the best thing to ever happen to me, and I am so thankful to have him in my life. After the loss of our two angel babies looking at what a miracle he is makes me melt inside. It takes ever scream and temper tantrum he throws so worth every single minute. I wouldn't change a thing, he could scream for days on end and I'd still be on cloud nine...granted I hoped he doesn't!!!!

The sleep god's answered my prayers!

After hearing all my girlfriends talk about how their newborns- babies basically the same age as E- and how they are sleeping 4+ hours a night, I started questioning what was wrong with my little guy. I know that every baby is different but his sleep was actually starting to get WORSE! We were up every 2-3 hours still and he was over 6 weeks old. Finally I told Chris we needed to put him back in bed with us cause that was when he slept best- when he slept in his little snuggle nest next to me.

Low and behold it worked like a charm! Last night he slept 7 hours straight- after screaming for 3 hours prior but that's another story, and the night before that was almost 6 hours! I know we're gonna pay the price for this when it comes time to move him to his own crib in a few weeks but for now I'll take the risk in exchange of a few extra hours of sleep :P

Time to make a change...

With all these new things happening in my life I have decided I want to make some changes to help better myself and my family. With that I am doing the 101 goals in 1001 days challenge. I have a rough list in my head but look for the complete list later this week :D

Halloween Pics and doctor update

I am so excited that I finally scheduled Ethan's Halloween picture session! Our little lion is gonna be so darn cute :)

We went BACK to the doc today for E's cough and they said his lungs were looking good and that it probably was just a little cold, so no need to wory. Phew- mommy was starting to get really worried. They did weigh him and drum roll please...our chunkier is weighing in at 11 lbs 4 oz!!! He gained almost a whole pound in a week...yikes!

What a big guy we have!

I know all mom's think their kid is amazing and more advanced than others but I SWEAR E is doing so much more than the doc's said he should be doing at this point. For the most part, he can really hold his head up without anyone helping him.

He no longer likes to be away from us at dinner time- usually he's content being in his swing or bouncer- and his high chair thingy is still being ordered so I bought his "Bumbo" a little early and he seems to like it!



He seems like such a big boy in his little seat! It feels like yesterday he was born and just so tiny when I held him. I can't get over how fast he's growing :(

Birth Story

For those that didn't get the play by play but want it- here it goes....

Baby's Name: Ethan Nicholas

Due Date: 09-18-09

Birth Date: 09-04-09 (38 weeks)

Length: 20 in

Weight: 6lbs 7ozB

Birth Story: Early AM on Sept 2nd I started getting a really bad bachache that would come and go. We walked around and sometimes it would intensify, sometimes it wouldnt so I didn't think much of it. By that night I started thinking it was backlabor cause the pain was getting pretty bad. I didn't want to call the on-call OB cause I wasn't sure so I basically grinned and bared it all night. After taking 5 showers to help ease the pain at 6:30am I called and they said to head to L&D. I woke Chris and said I needed to take another shower to help get me through the pain and they we needed to go. Of course there was rush hour traffic and after an hour we arrived at the hospital.

We get in, they checked me and there was NO progress at all. I started bawling my eyes out cause I couldn't believe after all that nothing was happening. They hooked me up and saw I was having minor contractions but though that it was just early labor. My backache started getting worse and my OB wanted me to walk the halls in hopes of getting things going. I got up and made it just out the door before I started screaming for something to vomit in. The pain for some reason got so intense that I was vomitting and almost passed out. Needless to say walking was out of the question. They sent me to do an ultrasound to check his weight and were thinking they were going to have to send me home cause nothing was happening. They did a weight check and said Ethan was weighing appox 6lbs. 15 oz. ! They were just about to release me at 12pm when she checked me again and I was now 3cm, and almost 90% effaced! She looked at me and said it looks like we are delivering a baby today! Within 30 minutes of her saying that my contractions went from sporatic to every 2 min and VERY painful. At 1pm they had me admitted and sent me to my room and were getting my epi ready cause I was crying hysterically the backlabor hurt so bad.

They came in to do my epi and I was terrified! Chris stayed and watched- which i did not like at all. I couldn't stop sweating and shaking while they were getting it ready. Long story short- it took them 5 frickin tries to get it in! He even said I was the hardest epi he's done in almost his whole career. Apparently I have a very deep groove or something?? Once everything was in I felt good! Around 4:45 my OB came in to break my water. I was only at 4cm at that point and still 90%. At 6:45 I was at 6cm, then all of a suddent at around 8pm I was at 9cm and almost 100%. I started feeling a lot of pain in my pelvic region as well as having the urge to push. At 9:45pm I was complete but they had me hold off on pushing for a while. My pain got MUCH worse- to the point where they had to give me another round of the epi directly into the injection site. The nurse had tried to give me two dosages via the push button and it had NO EFFECT at all. At 10:30pm I was begging to push cause the pain was so bad. I did 45min of pushing with no relief. Ethan started going into distress and they called my OB and she said I needed to stop pushing and they put an internal monitor on his head since his heart rate started to drop greatly. They had an OR prepped for a c/s for me cause it really looked as if we were heading that way. By this time my epi was not working at all and I was in so much pain I couldn't stand it. They flipped me side to side for 45 min while they waited for my OB to come. By 11:30pm I was hysterical saying I couldn't do it any longer and begging for a c/s! When she got there she checked me real quick and said baby had flipped right side down finally and was much very close. She really thought I could get him out pretty quickly and wanted me to keep trying. Despite not having slept for about 36 hrs at this point I got a second wind and agreed. After an additional 45 min of pushing Ethan Nicholas FINALLY came out!

Cord was wrapped around his neck and he swallowed fluid so they had to take him to the NICU for 2 days. That was probably the hardest thing about the whole labor. Seeing my little man with a CPAP and wires everywhere made me so sad. When I first saw him I was in hysterics cause I felt so bad for him- I couldn't even stay very long cause I couldnt calm down. He was just so tiny and helpless. They finally let us go home on Sunday the 6th. I am just amazed at how much I love him and couldn't imagine my life without him!

Ethan's first trip to Build-a-bear

Chris had some leftover build-a-bear bucks after making me a wedding bear- cute I know- so we took E today to "make" his own.

It seems like all this child has is puppy dogs or turtles so we decided to change it up a bit and get him a polar bear! Seems appropriate since we moved him to freezing cold, right?


I can't say it enough, but I've got one cute kid huh? AND he's already learned how to pose for the camera. Who ever said that boys can't be trained just didn't start early enough :D

I have the cutest lion...EVER!

Our little man is going to be a Lion for his 1st Halloween- of course he will be wearing his special onsie Auntie Keri gave him underneath though :)

Is he not the cutest thing you've ever seen?!?! I'm not biased at all though ;P

We're here!

The move to WA is complete!

It was a hard and long move but we are finally here and mostly settled. I don't think I have ever been so stressed in my life and am so glad that things are finally over. I do however miss AZ, and everyone there, like crazy. I am hoping that we can come home for Thanksgiving though!

Chris and Ethan both are sick- Chris with bronchitis, Ethan with a minor cold (nothing the doc is worried about thankfully!) so I have had my hands full beyond belief. My only ray of light through this ordeal is that I have been forced to stay at the house for the most part which has been nice since we were so on the go before we left AZ.

I've taken LOTS of cute pics of E so I will get to posting them soon :)

Ethan Smiling (it's a VIDEO)

Our little man has learned how to smile! Too cute!!