more pics..

He's awake! Sitting on my lap. Awwww:)

He's so good. Hope you like the pics! I start nursing school soon!

I'm back!

Welcome back to me! We have internet now! In celebration, I would like to show you a picture of Isaac enjoying the 4th of July fireworks:
Oops, yes, he is breastfeeding. Yeah, that's me breastfeeding a baby on the internet. That's how he enjoyed most of the 4th of July.

I'll put up some more pics another time--but I just heard him fussing, so he's up from his nap.

In case you have never seen someone breastfeed a baby--this is what it looks like. And there is nothing wrong with it. It's normal human behavior. *end PSA*

I missed you girls:)

You've got to see him in his swim diaper!

OMG, I'm back sort of!

For MONTHS I have not been able to log in to this account, it suddenly worked! Woohooo!

Will try to post some new pics of the sweetie pie (who bites and walks by the way, he's 9 months old)

Oh, here's some. Sorry one is not upright. I didn't know how to change it. And I have to go nurse the baby.

Much love!

Isaacpants

Hey folks!

I am at the library for a few, and they have the interweb. So I am trying to put up a few more pics of the adorablepants. He is almost 5 months old, and he weighed 15 lbs 12 oz at his 4 month visit, and was 27 inches long--long and skinny! 75th% for weight, 97th% for height. He has two teeth, he smiles and laughs all the time, and he mimics sounds now too--like, he fake coughs when I cough, and he responds to his name. He loves my mom's dogs, and he's a blessing constantly. I can't imagine like without him....although, if I tried, it would involve sleeping through the night. Yeah. Still working on it, but not very hard because it doesn't really bother me to have him sleep in my arms all night long--I kind of like it. When he's not there, I miss him.

I hope this works! I miss you all!

Happy Halloween!

Well, you can see that he wasn't such a happy boy in his Halloween gear. Lots of it was 0-3 months, and just plain too small. There was one of him in a Halloween sleeper that fit him well and he liked that, but, when I tried to post it Blogger said ok it's posted but it wasn't. I tried twice. Sorry.

The one of him in his seat in the sleeper was taken Wednesday morning, and the one of him in the yellow cow outfit was yesterday.

At his monday Dr. appointment, he was 11 pounds 5 ounces, and 24 inches long. In the 95th percentile for his size! Two nights ago he almost slept through the night (sleeping for 6 hours is considered 'sleeping through the night', even if it's 8 pm to 2 am). He slept from 8 pm to 1:30am--he's getting there. Then he ate like a horse instead of a boy.

Last night wasn't that good, he was up every 2 hours or so, and he just wanted you to rock him in a chair while he slept. Once you stopped--he woke up.

He's too big for his Infantino baby sling I got at the baby shower, and so I bought this thing called a Moby Wrap. It's cool, and it's popular among NINO babywearing groups (NINO= nine in, nine out, they believe that after the nine months you carry them inside your body, you should then 'wear' them on the outside of your body for several hours a day in a sling or wrap for nine months, it's part of the attachment parenting theory, it's interesting but I don't have much time to tell you about it, you'll have to look it up to find out more, sorry) and he LOVES that. He's in that a lot.

And I am down 32 pounds! I gained 23 during my pregnancy, and now I am down 32 so far. Just from getting up with him all night, breastfeeding, and walking around carrying or 'wearing' him all day long. I'm telling you, having a baby = best weight loss secret EVER.

For your viewing pleasure!

He weighed in the other day at 10 lb 11 ounces! His hair is red, the pic of him in the blue shirt sitting in the blue chair was yesterday, and yes, his other blue shirt does in fact say 'ladies man'.

I think he's adorable!

Pictures

I tried to include these below, but blogger wouldn't do it for some reason. These were all taken the night he was born or morning after.

The birth of Isaac James

Hello! Sorry I've been so out of contact--I had a baby, you see :):). And I hear that gives me a free pass for a while to eat whatever I want and be out of touch. My mom was here for a while, and Kevin was off work, and now--mom is back home, and Kevin is back at work (he was actually only able to take a few days off). The baby is sleeping, so I have a few minutes.

It's amazing how busy you get after you have a baby. And how your whole life revolves around whether he's hungry or crying or sleepy or needs a clean diaper....

Anyhow, Mr. Pants was born Friday night, September 29th. I went into labor that morning at 12:30 am, and he was born at 9:37 pm. It was the hardest thing I ever did, but the most awesome.

I did not have a euphoric labor and orgasmic childbirth. And even though I read Ina May Gaskin's guide to childbirth, and took Hypnobirthing and read that book and practiced frequently, my labor was also not painless.

My due date was Tuesday, September 26th. I woke up really sick that day with some sort of cold or 24 hour flu thing. My mom got here the next night. Thursday the 28th, we watched the price is right, went to the mall, and went to the birth center for a class and an appointment. At the mall, we walked around and a bunch of people asked when I was due and if I was having twins. We ran into a woman at a booth that was selling rocks and minerals and meteors and stuff, and she had one there called moldivite that is supposed to be a meteor that makes your cervix dilate. So of course, my mom bought it for me, and had it made into a necklace and I wore it all day. we picked Kevin up from work, went to the birth center, and had my exam. They said I was a stretchy 1 cm dilated, 90% effaced, and that my water bag was bulging. The midwife said I was really close, and maybe I should think about taking some castor oil to get things going. I went to my class, and of course everyone there was like "Oh my god! You didn't have the baby yet?" No. Not yet. They were telling birth stories in the class, and one girl was saying that she took castor oil and it made her go into labor. Hmmm.

The midwife gave me some castor oil, and that night while I watched the Office, I drank 2 ounces of it. It was nasty and hard to drink, because I kept gagging. But I got it down.

Mom and I watched ER, and I went to bed after that.

At 12:30, I got up, beause my back was having some sort of spasm. It went away after a couple minutes, but then, it came back. It kept doing that, and I had to keep getting up to go to the bathroom (remember, I did drink 2 ounces of castor oil). At one time when I stood up, I felt something warm trickle down the inside of my leg. I wondered "Hmm, is my water breaking? Or is that my imagination?" I didn't feel anything else like it, and I couldn't tell if it was really wet because I was so hot and sweaty that honestly, al of my clothes felt damp, so, whatever.

I decided to start timing my back spasms, just in case they were contractions. They were about 5 minutes apart. So I woke Kevin up (at about 2:30) and told him "Hey, I think I could be in labor, but I'm not sure". He started timing the back spasms, and decided they were in fact about 5 minutes apart. We woke my mom up, and she said, go back to sleep. If you can sleep through them, they aren't contractions. But I hadn't been able to sleep since 12:30 because they hurt like a son of a bitch, so after trying to go back to sleep, I gave up and sat in a rocking chair in the living room. I was worried though that I hadn't felt that big gush you are supposed to feel when your water breaks, and I didn't know if I was having contractions or not because I didn't know they were supposed to feel like a really severe back spasm.

Kevin went back to bed. At 4, I got him up again, and he timed the contractions, and they were 3 minutes apart, and lasting about 2 minutes each. We got my mom up again, who decided I should call the midwife. I called the midwife, she told me that if I was in labor, I would probably be in labor a long time, and should just try and get rest and if I am still having contractions later in the day, then I should come in. But I couldn't rest, and my mom and Kevin were both up timing every contraction and getting more excited with every second. I called the midwife back about 5:30, and told her I didn't want to wait until later in the day, I couldn't rest, because they were too painful and too close together, and I wanted to be checked sooner. Like before rush hour, so I wouldn't get stuck in traffic with a bunch of painful contractions. So she agreed to have the other midwife that would be on call at 7 am meet me at the birth center.

Kevin called work, and told them that I might be in labor, and if I was, he wasn't coming in. If I wasn't, he would be there late.

We got to the birth center, they did an exam, and said my water had broken, I was totally effaced, and dilated to 5 cm. So I stayed, and they knew I was in active labor, and i would have the baby that day (you have to have the baby after a certain amount of time once your water breaks, or they have to take you to the hospital for a c-section).

Well, things are a blur after that. He was in the wrong position, and not coming down. So they had me doing all sorts of things to get him to turn the right way so he could come down easier. I walked up and down flights of steps sideways. I labored on my side, in a rocking chair, on a birth ball, with one leg on the bed and one leg down on the floor, laying on the bed with my huge belly hanging off the side-nothing brought him around. By 10 am, I was 7 cm, and my 1pm, I was 9 cm--almost the full 10. They said I would get an urge to push, but, I never did. And then I tried pushing, but I didn't know what the hell I was doing. He still wasn't coming down.

I laid on the floor on a blanket and they tried to shake me to get him in the right position. My contractions were a minute and 45 seconds apart, and lasted for a minute and 30 seconds. It was like that for several hours. I asked if me or the baby was going to die, because I couldn't imagine that we would both live through this. Then I told them that I hoped the next baby was in the right position--and thought I must be insane to be planning the next one at a time like this. But I seriously thought I might die.

At 6 pm, they gave me 2 choices. I could go to the hospital, or they could give me an IV for some fluids and something to relax me called stadol (might be spelled wrong) so I could get some rest, get rehydrated, and hopefully just push him out. If I couldn't though, I had to go to the hospital. I took the IV.

At 7, they got me up, I went to the bathroom, I laid on my side on the bed, and I was like ,"I'm f-ing pushing him out. He's coming out now.

I pushed for a couple hours, and I pushued him all the way down and all the way out. Once i could feel his head, I was like, "You've been in there long enough!" And I just pushed all the rest of him out. And he was bornat 9:37 pm. And he was perfect. And I didn't have an episiotomy, but I did tear a little bit near my labia (they said it was a very weird place for a tear). I have 5 stitches.

He had the biggest conehead I've ever seen! And he shrieked like crazy! And he breastfed right away. And he weighed 8 pounds 14.5 ounces, and was 21 inches long. I've never loved someone so much. Girls, when you have your baby, it's the absolte most intense feeling of love you ever felt.

We named him Isaac James. He's everything.

Dreaming of baby part deux--symbolic birth dreams

Last night I dreamt that my mom was in an ice cream store, and I was trying to get to her. In order to get into the ice cream store, I had to crawl through this big long dark tunnel. The tunnel was totall darked, and filled with coats and blankets that I had to crawl around to get inside, and it was really long--it went around half the store before you could actually get in. I kept thinking "What a stupid way to make an entrance to your store--who would do this? This sucks! I can't believe my MOM got in this way!"

But then I got in, and I saw my mom, and she was buying a carton of superman ice cream. (Incidentally, last weekend, I had a mad craving for superman ice cream, but they don't have it in this part of the country apparently, and I couldn't even find anyone who had ever heard of it. I did not get any:(.) When I saw her, we were both so happy, and I was happy to see her and to eat some superman ice cream.

OK, here's where it gets weird (yeah, as if that first part is all totally not weird.....whatever....bear with me here)

While we were talking about purchasing the ice cream, and I was telling her how hard it is to find that kind here, a woman came up to the counter and asked if we wanted a dessert called oreo madness. I immediately thought of the dessert called that from TGI Friday's (although they discontinued it---I think they will probably go out of businss now, that was the only reason I ever went there) and said yes, I want one, let's get one.

Mom was like ok, as long as you share it with me. So the lady went away, and then came back and said I'm sorry, I can't make oreo madness for you, because we don't have anymore rum raisin ice cream. I said I didn't like rum raisin anyhow, and couldn't she just make it with vanilla or chocolate? Then she said "Oh! I'm sorry, how long have you worked here?" and I told her I didn't work there. She got really mad and said "I know! But I have worked here my whole life! And I KNOW that you can't make oreo madness without rum raisin ice cream! So NO! I will NOT make your oreo madness with chocolate or vanilla."

But I didn't really care, because mom and I were buying the superman anyhow.

I woke up then, before getting some ice cream, and that was quite disappointing because I will have to wait until I am in Michigan again to have superman ice cream I guess, and by that time, there is no guarantee I will have a taste for it.

No pants yet.....five more days until my due date!