1st Mother's Day!

I feel so loved!

My husband got me an hour long massage and we had lunch with his parents.

Baby boy got me up bright and early. We spent time and played together for a couple of hours. He's learned to smile & coo & "talk"! Hubby's alarm started going off surprisingly early. He went to the kitchen while I went to feed baby.

My mother (in law) showed up. Hubby brought me breakfast in bed and told me that we had to get going... I found out that grandma was going to be watching baby while we went out for a few hours. This was bitter sweet being as I have never been away from baby for his entire existence.

Hubby hasn't been able to surprise me with a gift yet because I always catch on, but baby has been a great distraction: he got me this time! Hubby was very pleased with himself. We got to the massage parlor and we were treated with a wonderfully relaxing couple's massage. Heated beds, velvety covers, soothing music, a full body massage!

On our way over to the grandparent's hubby explained that the couple's massage was truly a day early gift for our anniversary. For mother's day I have another hour long professional massage for just me when ever I want another time to relax.

Baby and I were reunited! We ate with the grandparents then headed over to the great-grandparent's place. Everyone loves baby! We all got to fawn over him.

Hubby and I have been married an entire year now. It has been the shortest, happiest, fun filled year of my life! It is absolutely amazing that I married my best friend and we created a new life together in just one short year. Our wedding day was the happiest day of my life so far (having baby was the most painful, also one of the happiest, but my wedding day was my absolute happiest thus far - there's a lot of life to live still!)

For our anniversary baby gave us the bed to ourselves. He slept all night in his swing. (Which lead to him taking his first bottle so he wouldn't drown in my let down.)

My little family is so amazing! All of my boys adore me and I feel their love every moment of every day. They've made my first mother's day and first anniversary really wonderful (so far) I couldn't ask for more!

One month

Dexter is amazing, cute, and adorable! He's chunked up quite a bit, now weighing 10 pounds with chubby chipmunk cheeks and a double chin. He has pretty good head control already and can lift his head on his own. He's very observant, just as bright eyed as when he was born. When Dex is on his tummy he kicks and wiggles, he's able to scoot himself a few inches. Also, he's out of newborn diapers and into size one! Dexter loves his swing, he spends a lot of time in it & falls asleep quite easily with the movement.  He's started cooing to communicate (as well as ear piercing shrieks & cries.) Dex is also able to stand, with assistance.

Adjusting to being a new mother is quite the adventure! Dexter is letting me sleep through most of the night already. He only wakes me up once or twice during the night. As a new mom I'm so terrified of breaking him. I'm paranoid of everything! His stool looked off colored to me, so now I'm off dairy and soy. The doctor said that his little digestive system may not be able to process the proteins that are passed into my breast milk. Hopefully this will help! After a couple of weeks with no dairy, his stool has started to be the yellow mustardy color that it's supposed to be and I hope it helps his fussing! He's been a pretty mellow baby except at night when he just fusses up a storm and is hard to console. Though, I also think he fusses to fight sleep. There's just to much to see and do to sleep!!!  I understand that well, I remember fighting sleep as a little, I didn't want to miss anything.

 

I'm still on an emotional roller coaster. Some days are better than others. And sometimes I will just cry with Dexter when he fusses and I can't figure out what he needs. I've gotten a new body from pregnancy, that's taking some getting used to. I don't like it some of the time, there are moments I wish I had my pre-pregnancy body back.

Hubby just loves the roller coaster! Some moments I will be loving on him and so happy, then a few moments later I'll be mad about something. He's been quite wonderful about it though and very understanding when I fly off the handle or just break down in tears.

Dexter and I both love going on walks around our condo loop and baby wearing. Those are our happy moments and we enjoy bringing dad and our pup out on our walks too. 

March 17th 2015

Dear Dexter,

Happy Birthday! Your daddy & I are so happy to meet you! We are also glad that we got to meet you on a Tuesday, this March has been so busy this was a good day so that daddy could be here with us. Also it's St. Patrick's Day!

You got me up early to meet you little man. Dad & I went to bed at seven am. Dad had decided it was time to start inducing labor so that he could be there for your birth and not working a wedding.  The night before I had gone for a long walk, ate some pineapple (because that's supposed to do something,) used the breast pump for a little bit & we had sex to get things going. Things did start going too.

At eight am contractions started coming. At first it just felt like I had to poop. So I was stuck in the bathroom, and the contractions really did clear out my bowels, while your dad was fast asleep. I couldn't leave the bathroom because of the pain and moving bowels for what felt like forever. There was a small wall next to the toilet I was slapping and banging against trying to make enough noise to wake your dad up. I yelled a few times too with no luck.

When I made it out to wake your dad I was having contractions two or three minutes apart. The doctors had told us to go to the hospital when they were five minutes apart. Dad helped me down the stairs of our condo and into the car then ran back in to grab our bags.

The hospital was about fifteen minutes away. We got there at nine am. Time was moving so slowly for me and the contractions were so painful. They felt like a really bad charlie horses in my abdomen, knowing the impending return of the pain made it worse too. Your dad and I tried to keep my humor up as we checked into the hospital. The nurse said that I was eight centimeters dilated and needed to get into a labor room immediately.

The rest of delivery was a bit of a blur for me (lucky for you, your dad recorded it.) I remember screaming lots and the doctor getting frustrated with me because I wasn't pushing right. I figured it out though. I pushed you out of me. You came out so fast there was no time for the small hole you were coming out of to stretch and allow your head through. I had to have an episiotomy, the doctor cut me. That, according to your dad, was the worst part. He hated seeing me go through that pain. It was painful.

I remember your dad trying to hold my hand several times too. I wouldn't let him. I was afraid of hurting him. Dad spread his fingers apart at one point and I tried to match my hand up with his... It helped a lot to get my mind off the pain. The nurses moved him over to my other side though and had him hold my leg while I pushed.

They had my legs pulled back toward my chest, I was laying on my back, they told me to stick my butt toward the ceiling and push. You came so fast there was no time for an epidural either. I'm so thankful your dad had them get me nitrous oxide, laughing gas, to calm me down. Your dad laughed at how quickly it calmed me too.

At ten thirty-nine am you were born. They placed you on my chest as soon as you came out. Umbilical cord still attached, a little bloody, and covered in vernix. My dirty baby. I was so happy to be able to kiss your head, I think that's all I did the first few minutes after meeting you. That's what I focused on while the doctor stitched up the cut too.

You were so little! At birth you were six pounds eleven ounces and eighteen and a half inches long. You we're born healthy and strong with all ten fingers and toes. Adorable! You were so alert, big bright eyes looking everywhere at everything. So much to see!

Dexter, I am so in love with you! You've become my whole world. Your dad and I were so excited for this day to come, to finally meet you, and now we're excited to watch you grow. To see who you become, to help you, to guide you, to teach you, to show you everything we can.

Welcome to life outside the womb little man.

Photos by Timothy Capp

The Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon: an awesome, hilarious Broadway play. Written by the writers of South Park. It was amazing hilarity! Hubby and I had a hard time staying in our seats we were laughing so hard, so much!

It's a musical: so many great songs, memorable lines, and new sayings that hubby and I will be quoting a lot!

I don't want to give anything away (because it's an absolute must see) but I want to share the parts we loved:
- The intro song 'Hello' (above) it's been playing on a loop in our heads and we sang / hummed it all the way home.
- "Hasa Diga Eebowai" I loved it!
- The 'hell dream' we loved it!
- and the ending, which I was not expecting at all! Hubby saw it coming though.

Oh it was so great! The tickets were expensive (& we spoiled ourselves with some candy from the performing arts center,) but that made it even more perfect for our 'big bang' of a night out before baby gets here (which we've been planning for months!)

Tonight was quite awesome. I so loved spending this time with hubby before our life changes.
I'm so happy he's my hubby! I chose a good one!!!