Big Willie Style

My little man is two months old now and growing like a weed. We visited the doctor yesterday, and he weighed in at 12 lbs 10 oz. He is also 24" long, which is the 98th percentile!

He is still full of smiles and funny faces. 

He is great at making eye contact, but when he's in his bouncer he would rather look at the monkeys that hang down. 

He's usually well-tempered, but he can get cranky at night. 

He loves taking baths and we like giving them. 

He's getting better at tummy time, though he still doesn't like it very much.

Sometimes he likes to sleep on his stomach and stick his bum in the air.

William loves sleeping in our bed, so we take naps together.

 He is starting to enjoy his play gym more and bats at the toys on it. I think Dad likes it too.

Cute naked bum!

He's really funny when he sleeps, making lots of noise, laughing, and smiling.

William in his blessing outfit.

William has also recently learned to blow bubbles, and has grown some beautiful eyelashes. We love our little boy!

A Little Update

Well, my baby boy is a month old. He weighs 9 lbs and 6 oz, and is just starting to grow out of his newborn clothes.

He gets hiccups every day and is not happy about it.

He also hates his vitamin d drops and neck exercises, and barely tolerates tummy time.

He's starting to focus on faces and smile at people, especially right after he's been fed.

He likes his bouncer, his play gym, and his car seat, but only after we start driving.

When he's tired he loves to snuggle and suck on his pacifier until he falls asleep.

He's always full of funny faces, particularly as he falls asleep.

We had a great Christmas with our little guy, but he didn't appreciate getting dressed up and stuffed in a stocking.

Sometimes he gets mad...

But he's usually a pretty happy kid.

In other news, Adam and I moved back into our own apartment at the end of December, and started school again today. I'm excited to get into my last semester before graduation, but I miss being home all day with my baby.

 How could I not miss this face?

The Unexpected

William Oliver Ainge was born on Thursday, December 6th at 1:12 PM. He weighed 6 lbs 9 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. For those of you want to hear the birth story, read on. If you don't want to know, enjoy the pictures!

Nothing ever happens the way you expect it to, and my labor and delivery definitely fell into that category. The classes I took and books I read didn't prepare me the way I thought they would. First of all, everyone said that when I was actually in labor, I would know it. Well, not exactly. I woke up Thursday morning with a backache, but didn't think too much of it because it didn't feel like contractions. It was hard to pick out the waves of pain because my back hurt ALL the time, not just off and on. So I sent Adam to work and tried to relax with a heating pad, but after about an hour I realized that wasn't working and called Adam to come home. He asked if I thought I was in labor, and I said I didn't know, but I was in enough pain I wanted to go to the hospital. When we got in the car Adam started timing my contractions, and they were only 3-4 minutes apart. Well they say to go to the hospital when they're five minutes apart, so Adam was a little freaked out.

Things weren't exactly how we thought they would be at the hospital either. We got checked into the hospital around 10:30, and I was only at a 2+, so they made me wait an hour and make sure I progressed enough to keep me. I only went to a 3, but it was enough that they said I could stay. Everything we'd learned said that it would be another 5-6 hours after that and then pushing, but we soon found out I wasn't having the average delivery. About half an hour after only being dilated to a 3 I thought I had to pee, so I got up and went to the bathroom. Then something started coming out of me, and it wasn't a baby. I yelled for Adam and when the nurse saw what was going on, she looked a little worried. I had no idea what was going on, but the next thing I knew I had an oxygen mask on and there were a whole bunch of people in my room flipping me all over the place. Basically, I had gone from a three to a ten in that half hour, and my bag of waters kind of came out when I got up. I didn't even know that could happen, but apparently it does. The baby's heart rate dropped, and then meconium started coming out with my water. I started getting really nervous that I would have to get a C-Section, but they pushed my bag back inside and got the baby's heart rate stabilized. We were both okay, but they still hadn't gotten a hold of the doctor and the anesthesiologist showed up right in the middle of all the chaos. The nurse told him it was too late and I was going to deliver the baby right then (uh...what? without a doctor?), but then my doctor finally talked to the nurse and said to give me an epidural so I could wait until he got there. Not that I enjoyed not pushing when I really HAD to push, but I was glad to wait for the doctor. And really, by that point I was already feeling much better than when I was dilating.

The anesthesiologist was a really funny Indian guy who kept calling me "my dear," and got me the drugs as my baby was trying to push his way out. I had always planned on getting an epidural as soon as the pain really set in, but that didn't really work out. He only got started on the epidural about half an hour before the the doctor showed up, so I never went numb, but I think it took the edge off. Luckily, I only had to push for 12 minutes, and then our little guy was here!

So, was it how I'd always imagined it would go? Not in the slightest. Next time I will be a little better prepared and make make them give me drugs immediately! But everything worked out and Adam didn't even pass out when he saw all the gross stuff coming out of my body. And now we have a beautiful baby boy and couldn't be any happier!

Welcome to Texas

For the conclusion of our adventures together this semester Jenn and I decided to take another trip to Texas. You may ask yourself "Didn't you already spend way to much time in Texas?"

Really, the answer is YES! Our time in Texas before was so long. There were times when I thought we had stumbled into some sort of Groundhog Day sequel with rednecks and fast food. However, we had heard great things about Houston and wanted to give it a shot. Our first stop was Galveston. After our experience in Florida we really wanted to go back to the beach. 

We realized on our way that the GPS was telling us to take a ferry to get to there. Neither of us had ever been on a ferry so we were pretty excited and actually it ended up being one of the highlights of the trip. We got out and went to the front of the boat. Almost immediately, a nice Texan named Lori approached us and started chatting. She welcomed us to Texas and told us about the area a little. Then she pointed out a dolphin swimming around just a ways from the ferry. We thought that was so cool! As we pulled away and started our journey toward Galveston we started seeing them all over. They were so playful, jumping out of the water and swimming around together. Lori told us that when she lived close by she was able to see them every morning from her house. Jenn and I both thought that was awesome. 

 Unfortunately it is hard to get them to pose for pictures. This is the best we could do.

 Even though the beaches were not quite as nice as those in Pensacola, we had a lot of fun. There were fish swimming around us, and some really big waves. The weather was beautiful and the water was really nice. We didn't want to leave!

Jenn's dream home...

 We stopped for lunch at Wendy's and this was the view from our table...I am falling in love with the ocean and the beach. 

While in Houston we stopped the visitors center. I really wanted to buy this buckle for my friend Jared Oldham. He loves Texas so much. I really wish he could have been there to enjoy it with us. We toured the town a little and did a some shopping (we seem to do a lot of that when we travel). We really liked Houston. It was clean and had tons of things to do (none of which we had time to actually do). 

The next week flew by and before I knew it Jenn was on a plane back to Utah. I am glad that she is safe and with family. I worry about her a lot less now that she is home...although it doesn't seem to make it any easier to be away from her. 2 weeks down...4 to go.