Two Months Old

Eight Weeks/Two Months:

We took T. Rex out for his first big outing near the end of February. We met up with Mike and Erin and kiddos at the Denver Aquarium. We at dinner at the aquarium restaurant complete with mermaids waving to us from the fish tank and shark rice crispy treats and Landon trying to take home a piece of calamari (one of the mini squids) to keep as a pet once he found out it was a squid. Tyler spent pretty much the whole outing snuggled up in the Moby wrap asleep but Steve and I enjoyed the outing :)

Right at two months old Tyler started sleeping in eight hour stretches. His sleep patterns had been really really unpredictable at night. Sometimes he would sleep for 5 hours, others 6 or 7 or even 8 but nothing was consistent. When I told the pediatrician this at his two month appointment she told me that if he sometimes slept seven hours then he could go seven hours between eating at night- so next time he woke up after 5 hours try giving him his pacifier and see if he would go back to bed. Well I tried it that night and when he woke up at 4 am I gave him his pacifier and he went right back to sleep. The next night, same thing. Then, the next night he went 8 hours between eating. That meant I got seven hours of uninterrupted sleep! And he has rarely woken up in the night since then. Yep- I am that lucky!

These are potentially my favorite pictures of him to date. He was a preppy gangster on this night. Shirtless, pants sagged down a bit so his diaper was hanging out and a Gap hoodie. Oh ya. Big Time. 

Six Weeks

 
At six weeks, Tyler was eating every 2 1/2 to six hours depending on his mood :) He would normally give me a nice long stretch in the evenings but was still waking up at least once in the night. Up until six weeks I would rock and sing him to sleep. Right around this time after being up for 2 hours or so in the middle of the night I decided that I couldn't do that and be sane anymore. Luckily the next day, Mike and Erin came over. I watched her put her seven month baby to sleep- completely awake. It was a total revelation! So the next night I fed Tyler, swaddled him up gave him a binky and voila- he fell asleep! I didn't have to put him completely to sleep and it was awesome. We would (and still do) have to give him his pacifier back if he spits it out which can be tiresome but not nearly what it was to rock him to sleep every single time!

Tyler smiled at me for the first time on February first. That was seriously a happy moment for me. I loved his big huge grin and how he would do it over and over again. I had just laid him down on his changing table to give him a diaper change and he just totally lit up. I didn't catch a picture of it because I was too busy loving every second of it but I did catch one a few days later

I love the picture of Steve laying next to Tyler. The baby was having a rough time so we laid him on his tummy because he LOVES tummy time and was still a little fussy so his daddy laid next to him and he calmed right down. 

T. Rex and Sarah- cousin love

Grandma Hale loved snuggling in his nursery and turning on the food network. I would see her for hours sometimes because she was so content rocking that baby and watching her favorite show- Chopped :) P.S. see that quilt on the back of the glider? My mom made that for me and it is amazing. I'll have to take some better pictures of it :)

Happy Valentines day!

T. Rex at One Month old

I wanted to post some things about Tyler at some of his younger stages before I forget them!

His Stats-

Weight: 10 lbs

Height: 21.5 inches

TAt one month Tyler was at the peak of fussiness. He would fuss for hours sometimes. We thought maybe it was gas or burps or needing to poop or reflux. Ya- see that list? We had no idea what caused the fussiness but he sure would scream and cry A LOT. Luckily, we had visitors start coming right as this was at its worst! So my Mom came and worked some of her Grandma magic and then Aunt Brittany came to show me how to do it. I loved having our first visitors here. It was so nice to have someone to talk to again- it made a fussy baby a lot more bearable. At this age, Tyler loved being sung to and would calm down most of the time with rocking and or shushing. We also found that he loved the Pachelbel Canon in D Pandora radio station (Thank Steve for that one!). 

Steve was able to be completely off work for the first three weeks and then worked from home for another week. It was so nice to have him home for so long. Tyler loved learning the ins and outs of Amgen's medical devices... well not really but I sure think he liked having so much time with his daddy :)

 My mom got here when Tyler was almost 4 weeks old. She was a total lifesaver doing all of the cooking, cleaning and a whole lot of holding and comforting a crying baby. She also let Steve and I go on our first date post baby. We got dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen and saw Les Mis which I loved. It almost made me cry, and I never almost cry in movies!

Cute even when he's wailing!

 Aunt Brittany came after my Mom and also was a lifesaver. She cooked, cleaned and let me sleep a whole lot. Love this girl :)

 Tyler loved (and still loves) arching way back and staring at the ceiling. It relaxes him. 

I love this little shirt. On the front it says Boulder Nurse Midwives but what I really love is that little Mom 'tattoo' on his arm. Look at those little one month old muscles!

This is the only picture I have of him right on his one month birthday- but look at how smart he is- showing you how old he is with his index finger :) 

Parenthood

Today I have been a parent for eight weeks! Can you believe it? Actually I feel like my man Tyler has been around for much much longer than that. I can distantly remember what is is like to not be working around a baby's eating/sleeping schedule, getting a full night of sleep and living without the most adorable smiles that melt my heart into a little puddle. I fall more in love with this little guy, and his daddy every day. T. Rex has been growing at a fast clip, I love seeing him develop his little personality and get fat :) 

This post starts when we got home from the hospital... 

 The first night home, we didn't have a bed for him because he came so early. We put a cushy beach towel in a drawer and it was his little bed for the night. He didn't seem to mind!

 Tyler loves bathtime and has from his first bath... we gave him the pacifier anticipating a mad baby but he was calm as could be- until it was time to dry him off!

 We experienced the first of many blowouts while we were skyping with my mom and sister. I could tell they were wishing they were there in person to experience the cleaning of the sticky mustard yellow poop!

This picture kind of embodies the first month of parenthood for me. Exhausted. Besotted. 

Introducing.....

Tyler Rex 

Our little Tyler was born on Christmas day! He came at 12:15 pm, weighed 8 lbs 1 oz, was 21 inches and as perfect as a baby can be!

Labor and Delivery Story

I want to preface this story by saying that I spent my WHOLE ENTIRE pregnancy saying "As long as he doesn't come right on Christmas day....". Welp, I guess Heavenly Father was reminding me who is in charge- and its certainly not me :) Now on the details.... 

Christmas Eve- Go to sleep at Mike and Erin's house anticipating the arrival of good ole St. Nicholas and  having absolutely no clue that I was going to have a baby the next day.

5:30 am Christmas day: Woke up with a start and felt like I was peeing!!! I tried to stop it but couldn't. Started to get nervous and waddled to the bathroom. As I got up to go to the bathroom, a sizable gush of fluid came out and I started to get REALLY concerned. It took a good ten minutes for me to convince myself that this was really happening and that my water was indeed broken. After I finally accepted reality, I woke Steve up from a deep sleep and the conversation went something like this:

Me- tapped Steve on the shoulder: "Steve, I'm pretty sure my water broke..."

Steve- immediately sat bolt upright in bed and urgently said: "We have to get to a hospital right now!!!!"

It was just like in the movies :) I convinced him it wasn't quite time to go to the hospital but decided to call my midwife and ask what exactly I should do considering we were in Parker (about an hour away from our hospital). She reassured me that it would probably be a good long while until I even started laboring let along need to come to the hospital. She told us no rush- to have our Christmas morning and call about 8 am and update them on my progress. So, we decided to do just that. We woke up the family, and let them know our news and we started Christmas morning! 

6:30 am: About the time we got everyone gathered to open presents, I started having contractions. Luckily, I had downloaded an app to help me keep track of them. They were lasting about 20 seconds and 9 minutes apart at this point. I felt pretty good still and quite calm and maybe a little in denial :)

7 am: We were still opening presents when the intensity of everything amped up quickly. My contractions were lasting one minute about six minutes apart and I told Steve, we had better just finish opening up our presents and get out of here. 

7:30 am: We finished opening our presents and started getting packed up. Steve, Mike and Brent gave me a blessing before we left that all would go smoothly

8:15 am: Unbeknownst to me, Mike and Steve decided that they need to print of directions from google "How to deliver a baby in the car"- you know just in case. 

8:45 am: We finally get in the car to start driving to the hospital, and I start puking my guts out. The family tried to convince us to go to the nearest hospital but we decided to press on and go to Boulder to our hospital. Did I mention that there it snowed about 4 inches the night before and road conditions were less than favorable?!?

8:45-10:15 am: The drive to the hospital was pretty excruciatingly long and painful. I was having contractions that lasted a minute or more about three minutes apart. Poor Steve was trying to drive on snowy roads and coach me through the contractions. He did a great job maintaining his cool - I was not quite so able :) I'd say this had to be the longest car ride of my life! 

10:15 am: Get to the hospital, hooked up to the monitors and immediately get into a warm bath where the contractions got more intense and more painful very quickly. I don't remember a whole lot of details after this  point because I became some kind of delirious. It was almost like I had an out of body experience and I can remember kind of what happened but forget that it was happening to me- does that make sense? 

11 am: My midwife asks if I want to have my progress checked for the first time since I had arrived. I said of course- I needed to know how much longer I was going to be in pain! I was a little in shock when she said I was dilated to a 9 and would be ready to push soon. Right after she checked me, I'm pretty sure I hit the peak of transition labor- I was in so. much. pain. Luckily, I had my trusty husband right there beside me coaching me through each contraction and continuing with his calm encouragement.

11:15 am: I had to get out of the tub and move to bed to start pushing. It took a couple of positional changes to figure out where I would be most 'comfortable'. I did a couple of practice pushes and then the real thing came. Holy Moly. They talk about a 'ring of fire' but it more like my whole pelvis on fire! It hurt when I pushed and when I stopped. Once again, Steve kept coaching me and my nurse and nurse-midwife were great. They just kept encouraging me through the whole thing.

12:15 pm. Tyler Rex Hale made his grand appearance in the world. I was greeted by the most perfect little person laying on my chest. He was absolutely calm right after and just laid there looking around at his new surroundings. Steve and I were in awe of our perfect little man. 

I have to admit I didn't have euphoric moment that everyone says immediately follows a natural birth- more of a calm shock and happiness. It was crazy how in an instant all of sudden Steve and I were parents! 

Tyler has long feet and big hands. He loved having his hands right up by his face. He stayed perfectly calm and alert most of the afternoon and eventually fell asleep. Steve and I spent a good portion of our afternoon staring at this baby in awe. 

Later in the evening, Steve's parents, came to the hospital to meet their newest grandson and best Christmas present ever! 

We LOVE our baby and are just over the moon with how sweet and cute he is. Can you tell we are new first time parents?

Reflecting

One year ago today, I was in the hospital for a D & C after finding about having a miscarriage. I've been thinking about my whole miscarriage experience and comparing it to what is happening in my life right now. I am three weeks away from my due date and bringing a little man into this world.

The other night I spent the evening making a crib skirt and decorating a nursery, when a year prior I had been laying on the couch trying to force myself to eat. Though the two experiences were polar opposite, and in spite of my extreme sadness and worry I still felt blessed last year and continue to feel so blessed and excited for the change about to come into my life.

I tried not to ask myself the question "Why me?" last year but it happened, and while I still don't know 'why' or if there really is a 'why', I feel like I've learned a lot about myself and my relationship with Steve and my Heavenly Father because of that trial. For that I am truly grateful to have had an experience that brings me closer to where I need to be. In many ways, I feel so grateful that I had to experience the pain and sorrow of a miscarriage so I could fully appreciate the happiness, anticipation, and excitement of being pregnant.

I really can't believe that my life could change any day now, I'm trying to get the finishing touches going on the nursery and I need to pack a hospital bag, and wash all of the little baby clothes etc. What I'm really trying to focus on is enjoying these last days/weeks I have with just me and Steve because I know it will never be quite the same after we bring our little guy home.

Wish me luck- I might be a mom by the time I get around to writing another post :)

September and October

We had an incredibly busy couple of months in September and October. We were lucky enough to visit family all over the place, move homes and start getting ready for this baby. We enjoyed every second of being with family and now are really starting to anticipate the arrival of our little man. 

We kicked off the Fall season with a visit from the Hale family over Labor Day weekend. Mike and Erin's new baby, Sarah, got blessed that weekend so Annie and Joey and Brent and Sandra came into town to celebrate with us. 

The 22 week bump

We spent a whole lot of time feeding lettuce to the giraffes at the zoo... 

And did lots of snuggling with this adorable little girl

Check out Abbie's face. Classic. 

At the end of September we moved! After 5 years of marriage we got our first non-apartment home!!!! We were hoping to rent or buy a house but the timing just wasn't quite right. We rented a slightly larger townhome with a two car attached garage- definitely a step up from our last place. This place is tall and skinny so we have lots and lots of stairs. It took some getting used to but now that we're used to it, it's not so bad. Its helping me get some exercise :)

A view of the new living room...

Kitchen- This one has more cupboards than we've ever had before! Woot woot! 

We took a drive into the mountains one Sunday to get a peek at the fall colors. It looked like we were about one week too late but still got to see some of the brilliant gold aspens against the deep green of the pine trees. 

The 26 week belly... 

One week after moving we took off to Utah to see BYU beat Utah State in a football game. It was also general conference weekend so we hung out with family and got in a leaf peeping trip up the Alpine loop and took part in the Annual Hale Family Leaf Peeping Photo Shoot. The colors were phenomenal and we so enjoyed listening to conference talks as we drove through the mountains. 

The 27 week belly... 

Our next stop was to Arizona. We had a whirlwind trip there that included an awesome baby shower given by my momma and cousin. I got showered with lovely gifts from family and got to hang out with my Mom and Dad and Megan! Unfortunately, we were sooo busy playing numerous games of dominoes, eating good food, and chatting that we didn't take too many pictures but snapped a few shots just before we got in the car to go to the airport. I LOVE my family, I really miss living two hours away and getting to see them pretty much every month. 

This is the 29 week belly...

Three days after we got home from Arizona, we hopped on another plan to Atlanta Georgia. Steve's sister and brother in law moved there last December and we have been looking for an excuse to get out there. When we found out that BYU played Georgia Tech this season, we decided that would be the perfect time. All of the Hale's minus Annie and Joey were there. We visited a Civil War battlefield, saw a football game, got some authentic Georgia BBQ and played lots cards. Laura and Jordan also happen to live around the corner from their cousins so we got to see some extended Hale family as well! It was a whirlwind of a weekend. The best part of the weekend was a Lucy story....

Steve and I stayed in Lucy's room so the first morning we were there, she came in and she and I played together while Steve was in the shower. A little later I had left the room and Steve was in there. Lucy came out had this casual conversation with Laura...

Lucy: "Hey Mom, who's that boy in my room?" 

Laura: "What boy?"

Lucy: "You know, Kalli's friend."

Laura: "You mean Uncle Steve?"
Lucy: casually- "Oh yeah. Uncle Steve."

Steve didn't like that he was forgotten so he worked extra hard to get Lucy to love him :) The fastest way to her heart is through reading her a book... Steve did lots of that to win her back. 

The Hale clan at the battlefield. It is the one "mountain" in Atlanta. It was a beautiful fall day and so cool to see this historic sight. This is the 30 week belly :)