Looking towards graduation

Wow, the last few weeks have just been crazy.  It is not the easiest thing to have both Bill and I in school plus learning this parenting thing.  Good thing Spencer is so cute because it really makes it easier to do all the work it takes to take care of him.  There is only one more month of school left and the idea of being done with school for the near future gives me mixed emotions: 1. I'm very happy for a little bit calmer life that will be coming; 2. I'm sad because I love school and learning in that atmosphere; 3. I'm so ready to be done with this crazy time with both Bill and I in school; 4. I'm uncertain what I'm going to do once I graduate with work. This is round two for me and it's still weird. I like the being married with a baby part though. It's much better than when I graduated with my undergrad. :)  I probably need to work, plus I want to do stuff with some of the things I learned the last couple years.  But really I want to be a stay at home mom and maybe work on the side and that means I'll have to go out and market myself and that part isn't so fun.  Hopefully the work I'm doing in my department will help me have a good resume to find some stuff to do.    We shall see.  


In the meantime, we took some new pictures of Spencer.  He's as cute as ever.  He's discovered his hands recently and likes to suck on them.  He is also smiling like crazy.  He grins at me all the time and I love it.  He's cooing all the time and starting to sort of half laugh.  I can't wait for him to full on laugh.  Pretty much he melts my heart.  Bill came to take him home tonight while I went to my evening class and I totally didn't want to let them leave.  I just wanted to walk right home with them and spend the evening together.  Today was the first day I put him in the stroller without his carseat.  It was awesome.  He's getting so big!  He can hold up his head really well these days, though sometimes he gets tired and he doesn't want to anymore and he slumps over.  That's pretty funny.  He loves to stand and gets so mad when we hold him laying down.  He only likes that when he's tired now.  I exercised for the first time besides walking yesterday.  I've been wanting to for weeks but have been so busy, but I finally started with a Jillian Michaels workout video.  Let me tell you, I am so sore today!  That's more because the video is harder than any other workout video I've ever used than because I'm that out of shape.  If you want a challenge, definitely buy one of her DVDs!  

And of course, all the fun Spencer pictures.  :)

Spencer likes to sit up, but for some reason he didn't like this much.  He hates it when we leave him alone, so that's probably why.  He's so social.

Look at that stylin' outfit he had for his blessing!  And those sunglasses of Vince's might be just a tad big. :)

All the wonderful family  members that came for Spencer's blessing.  Yay for family!

These are Spencer's first pair of jeans.  I think they're pretty much the cutest thing ever!  And the sweater just makes me happy.

So funny.  He thought it was hilarious.

Love this little face.  So cute!

And those eyes!  I can't believe how different he looks from when he was born.  I just love how pretty his eyes have turned.

He worked really hard to get his hand out of my swaddle to suck on it.  Apparently it tastes pretty good.

Smiles

Spencer has started to smile a lot.  Last Saturday I had a girls day with my mom and sister and we took a whole bunch of pictures trying to get him to show the cuteness.  He has such great expressions, smiles and normal looks alike.  Here's the results:

We like to do things a little bit different

 So lots of people take monthly pictures of their babies next to a stuffed animal or something like that to chart how big they are getting.  Bill and I thought that sounded nice, but stuffed animals aren't nearly exciting enough.  We have all kinds of plans to introduce Spencer to the great outdoors and all the fun things we like to do, so we thought it would be apropos to show his growth next to something having to do with the outdoors.  So behold, Spencer at 1 month, cuddling up to Bill's mountaineering boot. :)  Well, not yet, but he will sometime!

 

In other news, yesterday I made these adorable booties for Spencer from this pattern.  I copied the ones my sister made out of the same pattern and they turned out pretty awesome.  Don't look too closely at the soles, as they are really strange shaped, but they totally fit Spencer and they don't fall off. 

Our Bald Little Monkey at 1 Month

Earlier this week, inexplicably, all the hair on the front half of Spencer's head fell out.  It's still long in the back, so it looks rather strange.   I'm betting it all falls out and comes back in a different color and curly.  That's what I want at least. :) 

  

Spencer is so much fun these days.  On Saturday I had a little girls day with my mom and sister at my mom's house.  My sister was playing with Spencer, doing "baby exercises" with his arms and legs, and he was smiling like crazy!  I took at least 50 pictures trying to get it on camera, and I got some great shots, but they're on my dad's camera so I'll have to post some later.  

He is officially 1 month old today and growing like a weed.  He weighs 10.8 pounds according to our home scale.  He is starting to interact with us and smile and just generally be more interested in the world around him.  He's out of his newborn clothes and diapers and getting bigger all the time.  He's sleeping in 3 or 4-hour stretches at night, which is wonderful.  Now we just need to get to bed before midnight so we can take advantage of those long stretches.  He has spent a lot more time awake the last few days, which is fun and at the same time makes it very hard to get anything done.  I think we'll keep him! :)

We put up this little stuffed animal net to get them out of the crib so we could use it.  Yes, I climbed up on a stool while holding Spencer in a sling.  It was awesome.  It's amazing what you can do with those things.

His eyes are lightening up and getting so much clearer.  They're so pretty!

Some quality father/son time here.  Spencer was out about 2 second later.

Spencer needed that WHOLE blanket to keep him warm. :)  It's our favorite blanket, so why not let him enjoy it too?  It's lamb's wool kind of stuff on the black side and filled with down.  Talk about amazing.

Valentine's Fun

Bill came up with an awesome idea for celebrating Valentine's Day this year.  He got the idea from a blog he follows.  We did a little world tour via a 4-course meal he prepared for us Sunday night.  It was fantastic!  We had this tasty salad, which Bill and I decided was the best part of the whole meal.  We'll definitely be making it again.  He used to have this same thing when he was on his mission in Peru, and it reminded me of salads when I was in Russia.  They didn't use any lettuce there, so salad was more a mix of vegetables.

The next course was grilled tuna steak over spinach.  It was also really good, though the spices didn't come out nearly as strong as we expected.  Then we had pork chops with another kind of spice on it.  It had the same problem as the tuna, but it was really good anyway.  The dish originally called for lamb, but we could not find any at the few stores we went to, so pork chops worked well as a substitute.  We finished with a dessert of homemade vanilla ice cream and mini cinnamon rolls made from biscuit dough.  Bill discovered how amazing those are last week when he made some biscuits for another dinner and used the extra dough for cinnamon rolls.  They are divine and so much easier than raised ones.  Those will also be on the menu in the future. 

So Bill is pretty much the best husband ever.  The first couple years of our marriage have been wonderful, and now that we have Spencer too, it's even better.  Bill is a fantastic dad.  He does so much to help take care of Spencer and it makes me love him all the more.  Yay for families!  And speaking of Spencer, here's a couple more cute pictures of him.  Oh wait, all his pictures are cute. :)  I'm not biased or anything.

He doesn't quite fit into this yet, but it was hilarious to try!  Can anyone say A Christmas Story? 

Isn't that a fantastic hat?  Bill's dad got it for Spencer, and it's my favorite.  Whenever he's wearing it, when we get to wherever we were driving, it is always twisted around so the Y sign is over his ear or even farther back.  So funny.

Bill's aunt Ann got this blanket for Spencer, and it is wonderful!  He sleeps like a champ under it. 

This is the quilt my sister made for Spencer.  It is beautiful!  Spencer seems to like it too.

At the moment Spencer occupies this little place of honor at night.  It's so much easier to nurse him at night when he's right there, and it's not like our bed isn't big enough.  Hopefully he'll start sleeping a little longer at nights and then we'll move him to the pac'n'play or his crib.  For the moment, he seems to be enjoying the memory foam. :)

The Many Faces of Spencer

Indifferent, but wearing awesome shoes

Hands to the face

Worried

Almost smiling

Kind of pleasant look

Totally relaxed

Falling over

Sucking in his lower lip

Hey what's over there?

Wide eyed

Just chillin' on mom's lap

Yelling at me

What the heck are you doing to me?!

Hi, my name is Spencer and I'm just chillin' here on the couch...

Thinking look

Daddy mimicking the thinking look

Hey mom, I'm kind of tired of sitting up like this.  Can you put me down now?

A Fun Picture Shoot

My sister-in-law Miriam came up with Bill's parents this last weekend to welcome Spencer here.  She is a junior in high school and also happens to be a fantastic photographer.  She doesn't have but a tiny bit of experience shooting baby pictures, but Saturday night we had some fun and took a bunch of shots of Spencer.   Some of them turned out really fantastic.  Thanks for taking them, Miriam!

I love that you can see the little skull on his onesie here.  It's red with white skulls on it, and so adorable.

This isn't entirely in focus, but I love his chest wrinkles and the hand getting in the way and his glowering brows.  He gets his hands in the way all the time.  Those eyebrows are just like mine.  So cute!

Again, slightly out of focus but I can't get enough of that face.  I hope he excuses us for laughing at him when he makes it.  It's not a happy face, but it's so cute beyond cute that it gets a different reaction than he might like.

He's pretty skinny still, but I love his double chin in this picture!

So there you have it.  Our newborn photo shoot with Spencer.  He didn't always like it, but we sure had a good time!

Story of Spencer's Arrival

Feel free to skip this post if you like.  It will be long.  I wanted to write up the details of Spencer's delivery and this is as good a place as any to save it, and who knows, maybe some people will be interested.

Spencer's due date was January 22nd.  They tell you all these things about what to look for to tell you the deliver is imminent.  Dilating, effacing, the baby dropping, etc, etc.  Looking at my pictures from 36 weeks to 38 weeks, he dropped somewhere in there.  I carried him low all pregnancy, so I couldn't believe he could get any lower, but indeed he did!  Aside from the backache it gave me, I'd say that was fantastic because I had so much less distance to push when he it was time for him to come.  We had a bit of a crazy Christmas and New Years.  I was 37 weeks pregnant January 1st, so full term, but two weeks before that we headed down to Las Vegas for Christmas and on to Phoenix for a family reunion over New Years.  Bill and I were worried that he might decide to come in one of those places, but we needn't have bothered.  He was perfectly content to wait.  I'd been dilated to a 1 for a couple weeks and had progressively gotten more and more effaced, so I knew my body was ready, but he certainly came when he wanted to.

Tuesday the 19th I started having contractions late in the evening.  I'd been practicing the Hypnobabies method for the last couple months, so was excited to get going using the techniques.  They really helped me to relax and I was able to deal with the contractions just fine.    They were pretty constant anywhere from 2-5 minutes apart for about 5 hours, but I decided I didn't want to go to the hospital at 2AM in case I got sent home for some reason.  Instead I tried to get a bit of sleep, figuring since they had been so steady that they would continue and I'd have a baby in the morning.  I honestly didn't think I'd be able to sleep.  Turns out I could and the contractions totally petered out.  I was so disappointed!  They definitely didn't feel good, and now I'd had a taste of what they were like and wasn't nearly as excited to have him!

Fast forward two days.  Nothing happened in between except for making and eating super hot yellow curry Wednesday night that didn't have any effect at all.  Thursday night came and I had the same curry and headed out to my Young Women's activity, going bowling at BYU.  About the time I arrived, 7PM or so, I started having contractions again.  They weren't super close together, maybe every 5 minutes, so I just continued to go bowling.  I actually got a pretty good score for me, 112 or something like that. :)  Apparently labor is good luck for bowling.  I came home and called my mom just to let her know things might get started again and we might be calling her in the middle of the night.  The contractions got a little closer together and harder at around 9:30PM and I started somewhat timing them, or at least consciously thinking about them.  Timing contractions can be somewhat pointless I feel, since they can go on for quite awhile without anything actually changing.  My mom told me that at some point they would ramp up and I would just know it was time to go to the hospital.  That time came about 12:30PM.  I had probably 5-10 contractions right in a row only a minute apart.  I started shaking all over even though I wasn't cold.  What a weird sensation.

Bill and I headed out to the hospital and they put us in a room with monitors on.  They wanted to see if I would dilate more, so they observed me for an hour.  I was at a 2 when I came in, and hadn't changed after an hour, but they were nice enough to let me stay awhile longer.  After close to 2 hours, they checked me again.  I had just gone to the bathroom, and right after that had the same thing happen where I had a bunch of contractions in a row and started shaking.  When they checked me I was at a 3, so they admitted me.  It was about 2:30 or 3AM.  We got put in this super nice room.  Can I just give a shout out to Orem Community Hospital.  What a great place to deliver a baby!  They are so wonderful.  I won't deliver anywhere else if I have more babies in Utah.  Anyway, I got checked in and just kept contracting.  Bill played some cards with me and I tried sitting on the birthing ball and then on the bed, then walking around.  I wanted to have this baby natural if possible, but I was really just open to whatever happened.  The contractions felt different from Tuesday.  They were in my lower stomach and back like Tuesday, but I also had pain coming from underneath that was similar to gas pain.  Sorry if that is too much information.  Essentially they just hurt a heck of a lot more than Tuesday's and despite all my Hypnobabies tools, I was getting to the point where I couldn't relax anymore.  I was dilating, but super slowly, and each time I dilated another centimeter it seemed like I had a bunch of those huge contractions and then shook all over.  Not exactly fun.  I finally decided at about 5:30AM that I was done with all this and asked for an epidural.  I just couldn't imagine going another 9 hours with these level of contractions.  I took a shower in the meantime and that helped, but dang, those contractions were heavy duty!

I got my epidural at 6:30AM and I don't think they could have done a better job.  My legs felt tingly, but I could feel them and I could move myself around.  I felt the contractions as pressure, but no pain.  It was perfect.  My midwife came in at that point and broke my water.  She wanted to see if that would help me keep going even though I got the epidural, which could slow things down.  We waited another hour, but I slowed down, so they started me on a bit of Pitocin.  Things went at warp speed from there.  We had decided not to call my parents in the middle of the night and instead called them when I got the epidural.  They came over at 8 or 9AM and sat with me so Bill could sleep.  He was so amazing all night long!  He would apply counter pressure on my back during the contractions and I swear that's all that got me through at the end.   Those contractions were crazy!  So I talked to my parents and Bill slept while the Pitocin got in my system.  I totally started shaking again.  I'm sure it was because things sped up so fast.  It was weird to be shaking but not feel the contractions, but know things must be happening.  Sure enough, they checked me about an hour later and I was dilated to a 10!  I had been at a 5, almost 6 when they gave me the epidural.  My midwife had been floating around the whole time, though not actually in my room since I had gotten the epidural.  She came in to supervise the pushing process.  This is where it was amazing.  The epidural was light enough that I still felt some pain pushing, but I was totally okay with that.  I started pushing at 11:05AM and Spencer arrive a mere 15 minutes later at 11:21AM!  It was fantastic!  If I can have that kind of delivery for my future children, I will be in heaven.  And knowing how long this one took and how it felt, I might go longer without an epidural or not do one at all.  I was totally okay with it, but if labor was shorter, I might not feel a huge need.

I ended up with a second degree tear, so I had to get a bunch of stitches, but I didn't even feel it happen.  They brought out a mirror so I could see what was going on while I pushed, and as weird as that sounds, it helped out SO much!  It was so amazing to see him born.  They plopped him on my stomach after wiping him off a bit and I got to say hello, then they took him over to get cleaned up a bit and my midwife took care of me.  I have to give another shout out to using midwives for a delivery.  The tone in my room was just fantastic the whole delivery.  The nurses were wonderful, my midwife was wonderful, and it was just so personal and fun to be there.  They made my delivery all the better because they were so supportive.  After I was stitched up and Spencer was weighed and all that good stuff, they brought him back over and put him skin-to-skin on my chest.  It was so amazing to finally get to meet him and just look at him while he laid there.  He totally recognized my voice and calmed right down when I held him and talked to him.  It was a precious moment and one I will not soon forget.  Now I know what they mean when they talk about bonding with your child.

It took Bill and I a couple hours to decide what we were actually going to name him.  Months ago we had narrowed to Spencer, Luke, or Lucas, but had no idea what he would really be named.  Luke is a special name for us because Bill always had a friend growing up named Luke.  Different boys, but always the same name.  I've liked the name Spencer for years, though I don't have a particular reason.  It's just a good name.  Lucas was an extension of Luke that we kind of liked. We looked at our baby for a couple hours before finally deciding he was a Spencer.  So Spencer William it is.  Spencer because it fit him, and William after his dad.

Of course I think he's perfect in every way.  He has Bill's cleft chin and mouth, my family's ears and shape of face, my toes and toenails, and who knows what else.  We still can't decide what color his hair is.  I think it's light brown for the moment, but when it falls out and comes back in I bet it will be blond.  As much as he looks like Bill, and he REALLY does, I pulled out my picture album and one of my first pictures could totally be him.  We'll see what he looks like as he gets bigger, but for now all I know is he is my little handsome man and I'm so glad he's here.  After 14 hours of labor, we were so glad for his safe arrival.  Oh, and did I mention the best part?  Spencer was my birthday present this year.  Best birthday I've ever had.