Thursday, May 31, 2012

Playing Outside

Micah loves to be outside. I mean, the kid is obsessed with being outside! Sometimes when we get him up in the morning, the first thing he says is "shoes." The week that Judah was born Brad was home from work so he spent a lot of time with Micah. They had a little routine. After breakfast in the morning they had some relaxing time then they headed outside to play. Micah totally knew it was time to go outside and he would get so excited! They spent a lot of time walking around the yard going in and out of the garage pulling out all of Micah's toys, playing in Brad's car (Micah loves unlocking the door, then climbing in and playing with all of the buttons), and coloring with chalk. Brad has gotten really good at drawing the characters from Micah's favorite TV show, Yo Gabba Gabba. They often went to the park, too. Sometimes they rode the bike and other times they drove there. It made for some really good naps! :)
This past Memorial Day Weekend Brad had off all three days. We knew the weather was supposed to be warm so we had decided we were going to break out the water toys we bought. Brad was super excited. After Micah's nap he and Micah got in their swimsuits and played outside in the pool and sprinkler. Micah loved the sprinkler! He picked it up and tried shooting it all over. Brad had to show him how to run through it and he thought it was hysterical! They had so much fun playing outside together! Judah and I even ventured outside for a while, too. I can't wait for next summer when Judah can join them and play in the water.
Sunday we went to my parents' house to celebrate my dad's birthday. It was supposed to be very warm so we decided to bring this sprinkler pool that we bought at the end of summer last year. My nieces brought their swimsuits, too, and everyone had a blast playing in it! It was so fun to watch Micah playing with his cousins. And the sprinkler pool is pretty cool. We brought the pool to Brad's mom's house on Monday, too. Uncle Kevin and Aunt Mindy got a kick out of watching Micah playing in the water and trying to drink the water from the sprinklers!
On Tuesday, Micah's friend, Rosie, and her mom came over for a playdate. Since it was still warm out, we took out the pool and let them play. This was Rosie's first time in a pool! They had so much fun playing together. They loved splashing each other and just laughing. These two get along so well together. We have a playdate with Rosie typically once a week and the two just love playing together. They're like two peas in a pod. I predict many more fun water-filled playdates for these two!

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Judah is Here!

I know it's been a long time. A really long time. But our lives have been completely turned upside down the past month. Yep, that's right, we've added to our family. Judah Samuel was born on Friday, May 4th (his due date!). We've been adjusting to having Judah in the house and loving every minute of it. However, having a newborn and a toddler leaves little time for blogging so I have a lot to catch up on! For now I'll just give Judah's birth story and leave you with some pictures. Hopefully, I'll be able to blog some more later this week. Earlier in the week I had been having regular contractions that were about 3-5 minutes apart, but they were not very painful. I ended up going to the hospital to get checked and was admitted because I was "in labor." But labor stopped and I was sent home. Thursday night when we went to bed I told Brad that I was pretty sure we'd be having the baby that night. Of course, there were storms predicted to come through the area, which would make getting a baby sitter for Micah difficult. Sure enough, I woke up around 1:45am. By 2:00 I woke Brad up and told him I thought we needed to start timing my contractions. After 15 minutes we called my parents and told them they needed to head over. This was a slight problem because we were in the middle of a pretty bad thunderstorm, but my dad left the house right away. Then, we called the midwife and she told us to go to the hospital (duh!). So, as soon as my dad got to the house we left for the hospital. Once we got there we found out that we got the last available room. The place was crazy! The nurses didn't even check in with us until I'd been there over an hour. As soon as we got there, we started walking the halls because I needed to keep moving. Our midwife came in around 5:00am because no one had called her to tell her we were there or what was going on. She checked me and I was 5cm. So, we kept walking around. At 6:30 I was 7cm but my blood pressure was up. So, we decided to break my water and get the labor progressing quicker. My plan was to not get an epidural and really I never felt the need to ask for one. Until it was time to push. That by far was the worst part for me. Up until then, I was laughing and talking with the nurse and our midwife. They kept making comments about how I was smiling and talking between contractions (this labor was so different from my first--makes me hate pitocin even more!). Once I hit transition it was a whole other story! But I knew it was too late so I had to suck it up and push that baby out! I pushed for about 40 minutes before our beautiful little boy made his entrance into the world. He was 8lbs exactly and 21 inches. We were expecting him to look like Micah, but he looks nothing like him. He has hair, but not nearly as much as Micah did and his features are just so different. He's a very sleepy baby, but he knows that he has to be loud if he wants to be heard. Fortunately for us, his temperment has really calmed down since his first couple days--he doesn't cry nearly as much (we were seriously worried because Micah rarely ever cried--we thought Judah was making up for it). We're adjusting pretty well. Micah loves him. There have been no signs of jealousy or anger. He loves to give him hugs and kisses. It doesn't upset him when I'm feeding Judah. Life with two is definitely more difficult. We have to learn how to balance our time between the two. And still get things done. But we're getting used to it and learning what works for us. Brad had off the first week that we were home which was really nice--especially for Micah. And I've had friends bring us meals so I don't have to worry about making dinner. I'm slowly easing back into cleaning the house--with Brad's help. And I'm getting out with the boys by myself. I'm loving being a mom of two boys and I can't wait to see who these two beautiful little boys grow up to be.