Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Snapshots

Just a few snapshots of life around here lately:


Pretty baby!
I think these are some of the first pictures I've gotten of him awake!
(At least where he is awake and doesn't look like an alien!)
He is spending more and more time awake, but loves to be held and nursed a lot, so we are not able to get too much done...


I guess his hand was cold?


Hanging out in diaper boxes in style!


I love my boys!

Pawpaw and GrandMissy, part 1

Pawpaw and GrandMissy came over from Louisiana for a little visit to meet the newest addition to the family!
Nice to meet you, Charlie!


H enjoyed showing GrandMissy all of his toys and tricks.


Comfy in his grandmother's lap


We headed over to Avent park for a little while before it got too hot.


Weee!


So sweet!

Pawpaw and GrandMissy, Part 2

While Pawpaw and GrandMissy were here Uncle Duane drove over from Alabama to visit with us too. It was a great surprise!


We decided to head over to the Square for a little outing in the morning. It was already hot and muggy but we had a good time.
Riding in style on "Duana's" (Duane's) shoulders.


We went in to Square Books and H went straight to the stage.
He just knew that the stage and the music playing were meant for him!
He put on a good dance show!


"Wes go!"
(Let's go!)


Eating frozen yogurt at Ya Ya's on the square. H made sure that we said a prayer for our yogurt. He makes sure that we remember to pray a lot! Every few days H will say "Love yogurt YaYa's." Maybe he's hoping that by reminding us about it that we will take him!


H loved showing Pawpaw and GrandMissy his pool.


The whole Trahan gang!


Relaxing with a little Baby Signing Time.
(We had tried a little regular Signing Time with H but found that he is more likely to copy the signs if the kids in the video were his own age. We love "Baby soy toym" (baby signing time)!)


We love you, Pawpaw and GrandMissy!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Charlie




Early Sunday morning, May 29th, I was having a dream about setting my alarm so that we would get to the hospital in time to have the baby. It seems like immediately after that dream I woke up to the feeling of my water breaking. I jumped out of bed to see what was happening and it was evident that my water had broken! This happened at 1am. We called the doctor and they said to go on to the hospital, and we called our wonderful neighbor who came and slept at our house until H woke up. (H loved waking up and being able to play with our neighbor Henry and Henry's mama Diana all day!) We made it to the hospital by 2am and were checked into our room and I was hooked up to the monitors by a little after 3am. I wasn't really having any strong or regular contractions at that point and was barely dilated. They put some Cervidil in to try to get the process going. Slowly but surely I began feeling contractions that were getting stronger and stronger going from 10 minutes apart to five minutes apart. With H, this was such a slow process that we were sure it was going to be a long day (for H the process began around 1am, and I got the epidural around 1pm, and then began pushing off and on around 4, and he was born at 6:20). For some reason the monitor was not picking up my contractions, and the nurses I'm sure thought I was a wimp when I asked if it was too early to get the epidural about 5:30am! They didn't even think I was having contractions yet, but I was already very uncomfortable. I endured a little more discomfort and pain, and my contractions were coming every couple of minutes or less apart and were very painful. The monitor was finally picking up some contractions. Nathan was a champ throughout this - he is normally a bit of a squeamish person, but he was dealing very well with all sorts of things he wouldn't normally be able to. I guess I was starting to make some abnormal noises because the nurses finally came in to check me at 7am, and I was 7 cm dilated. They said the baby would be born soon and they would see about getting the anasthesiologist in. I didn't realize how hot you get when in labor. I went from being very comfortable to wanting to be doused with ice water in a short period of time. They came back at 7:20 to check again and I was already at 9.5cm and very much uncomfortable. They told me that it was too late for the epidural, and somewhere in my mind I was thinking that I could stop labor so that I could get the epidural. But once you reach that point, your body and the baby have already taken over. Charlie was coming soon! Pretty much immediately the doctor came in and I began pushing. Because of the pain, I don't think I was pushing effectively, one of the nurses was working hard to get me to focus, so they did "tug-of-war" pushing (where they pulled on one end of a twisted sheet and I pulled on the other) and this helped. It definately was uncomfortable and painful, and felt like a pumpkin was trying to force it's way out, and I didn't think I would be able to handle it, but now that I know what the pain of childbirth is, it is manageable. After about 20 minutes of pushing, at 7:47 - almost seven hours after my water broke, Charlie came into the world!
So, I gave birth the natural way. It was not exactly what was planned, but I am glad it was a relatively short labor. I am also glad that the I didn't have to make the decision to go without an epidural. I am sure I wouldn't have made that decision myself, but since that is the way it happened, I now know that I can handle it, and would even like to do it that way again. It is amazing what the body can do! I do think that the pain would have been eased if I could have moved around and walked some. Since my water had broken they wanted me to stay in the bed.
Comparing Charlie and Harrison's births - H's being with pain free, I didn't feel any pain at all and was really able to enjoy the birthing process and take it all in and really savor the first few minutes with him. C's was so fast and painful that I almost couldn't enjoy the process and even right after he was born I was so overwhelmed with everything that it took a few moments for it to sink in that it was over and he was here (and I was shaking so bad I was worried that I would drop him!). Nathan looked at me after he was born and saw that I had burst many blood vessels in my face, eyes, neck and chest - I looked pretty beat up! But after he was born and the doctor was finished, the nurses all left and let us have Charlie with us for a couple of hours to love and look at and nurse a couple of times. I loved those couple of hours! We called our friends and family and told them the news (we thought we would be calling everyone at that time to tell them we were in the hospital, but we were calling to tell them he was born!).

Both Charlie and I were looking a little better at this point.


Meeting big brother


We assumed that C would be very similar to H in the first few days, but he let us know quickly that he didn't like the swaddler that H did, but preferred to be swaddled in a blanket.


He's been a pretty mellow baby, sleeping pretty well and eating very well.
At his two week check up he already weighed 10 pounds and seems to be gaining more!



We are already in love with you!




Sunday, June 19, 2011

Taylor Farmer's Market


Yesterday Daddy woke up with a great idea: to venture over to the community of Taylor to go to their farmers market. It is about ten miles away from Oxford, and is a cute little community - I don't think it is even considered a town! There are cute little white churches, a few old store fronts, a fire station and a restaurant. And that is about it! We were asking if there was an ATM anywhere and got the answer: no. It was sort of neat to go to a little place like that.

It was just a small farmer's market, a little live music, a couple handfuls of booths selling fresh fruits, veggies, meat, quail eggs, homemade soaps, herbs, lemonade and popsicles. Something we will try to go to again!

It's a good life...


enjoying a homemade organic fruit popsicle


making new friends and showing off bruver


Dancing to the music
(at one point H was really eyeing her water bottle on the log...)

Friday, June 17, 2011

SweetHart, Part 2



We fell in love with these little heart shaped leaves at a visit to the park.


Lots of love!




SweetHart's hands and baby's toes


Watching Street in glow-in-the-dark dino pajamas that SweetHart brought


Enjoying the morning


Helping out with Charlie's first bath




Calming down with stories on the iPad

Thursday, June 16, 2011

SweetHart, Part 3


SweetHart helped us out with so much while she was here. In addition to making some delicious meals, loving our boys, offering encouragement and advice, she also helped us organize our garage, clean a few things in the house that don't normally get done (the bottom shelf of the fridge, mopping the kitchen, and more! Thank you, thank you!

We enjoyed watching H swim in the afternoons/evenings,
and tried not to get too wet while he splashed



She rocked and loved little boys


We had a couple of park visits,
and she took H to storytime and a puppet show at the library


She enjoyed our back porch every morning before the rest of us woke up.
After H woke up, she would take he and his breakfast out there before it got too hot.
She taught H about some birds and bird sounds while outside.


Binoculars and Sesame Street.
Need I say more?


We took a picnic breakfast to Lamar park one morning.
It was beautiful but warm already!
We walked, fed the fish, and saw a swallow protecting it's nest.


If someone called SweetHart made you a lunch looking like this, wouldn't you eat it?
H loved it so much, he rubbed broccoli in his eyes...


This is the effect that SweetHart has on us!

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