Twelve Months of James

Hey hey! We have a one year old! We also had Christmas, a new year, and a little birthday party since I last posted. Definitely a busy time of year, but it did remind me that I’m very grateful that James was born in January rather than late December. Those couple extra days beyond the holidays really did make a big difference!

The vast majority of pictures this month are blurry, because he just moves non-stop. His preferred speed is As Fast As Possible, which is slightly dangerous since he’s not entirely steady on his feet all the time. Hence the little bruise on his cheek, which he acquired first thing in the morning on his actual birthday. It was a bit of a rough start, but the balloons cheered him right up and he would probably say he had a delightful day, if he could tell you verbally.

Speaking of verbal skills, he doesn’t say too many things, but he can say Mama, Dada, and, when prompted, Uh Oh, which is quite useful since he likes to drop food and water bottles off his high chair when he has finished with them. Fortunately, this particular skill didn’t affect his birthday cake.

His absolute favorite thing to do remains climbing up anything he can manage, which has most recently included our dining room table (not pictured, for safety’s sake). He climbs up a dining chair, plants his hands on the table, and then pulls himself right up. And he doesn’t stop there; oh no, if he’s not standing on the table, his ascent is only partially complete.

At his 12 month checkup, his doctor declared that anyone would be hard pressed to find a taller baby, although we have quite a few friends with equally tall children, so perhaps we just have something in our local water. Nevertheless, he is quite tall, and so I find myself using strollers more than baby carriers since those are getting harder to use. He’s also got a couple of top molars and is working on the bottom ones and all of his canines, so teething has been rough lately. In spite of that, he remains a very happy camper the vast majority of the time, and the discomfort has mostly affected his sleep rather than his mood. As a result, all of us are very ready for the teeth to be all the way in.

At 12 months, he was still requiring two naps a day, but within the last two days, he suddenly seems to have perhaps dropped down to only needing one. We might give that a try tomorrow to see how it goes, which will mean some reshuffling of our daily schedule. When better to do that than a weekend, right?

His birthday party was small and I guess sort of Covid-style, although to be honest we mostly do small but happy birthday celebrations all the time. After his balloon-fest and his morning nap, we had immediate family over for a taco lunch, birthday cake, and presents. James loves blueberries, so I decided to make a lemon cake with blueberry frosting between the layers and a whipped cream outer frosting. I will never win any awards for cake decorating, but I can make them taste good! If it’s not too boastful to say, I think this was a very tasty one.

He got a layer to himself to smash up as he saw fit, since I was nearly certain he wouldn’t eat the entire thing himself. He enjoyed stabbing it and squashing it with his fork, and I think he may have put one bite into his mouth. The rest of us ate the other two layers, and then my dad took the smashed up leftovers home and consumed them later. Leave no trace, I suppose.

And then after exploring his new car toy a bit, he settled down for a long birthday’s nap and enjoyed living his best one year old life. Can’t get much better than that, according to him!

He is a joy and a delight, and life with him in it is better than we ever could have imagined. Happy birthday, little buddy. We’re so blessed to call you ours.

Eleven Months of James

And just like that, James is 11 months and his first birthday is right around the corner! He is as happy as ever, and as daring as ever to boot. Just with the past couple of days, he’s learned to climb up on to the window seat in the dormer in the kids’ room, and now that he’s figured it out, he does it nonstop.

He is also fully mobile at this point, and prefers walking to any other mode of transportation. I suspect he’ll be running within a week.

Just today I noticed that he’s popped through one additional tooth, which brings the total up to eight, and I’m assuming is why he hasn’t been sleeping terribly well for the past few days.

His latest tricks include lots of dancing (bouncing up and down or shaking his head back and forth), and, more frequently, blowing raspberries. He thinks it’s hilarious when you do it back at him.

He loves baths, he loves pushing around our hedgehog riding toy, he loves being anywhere near his big sister, and surprisingly, he loves snuggling, as long as he’s the one that comes to you, not vice versa. He despises having his diaper changed and he turns into an absolute alligator whenever you try.

I really can’t believe that he’ll be one in a month. We have so much stuff going on between now and then (like…actually a lot, not a sarcastic pandemic a lot) given that we’re trying to observe Advent and we’re looking forward to Christmas. It’ll be a fun month!

We love you, little buddy!

Ten Months of James

Every month post is getting a bit later here. For what it’s worth, the pictures were taken right at the month mark, so at least we know that much is accurate! This past month was a big one for James, so I didn’t want to let it go un-commemorated.

For starters, he took a few steps! He had been independently standing before the 10-month mark for a few seconds at a time, but then one day he decided it was high time to take standing up to a whole new level and add some motion to go along with it. I don’t know if I’d quite say it’s full walking, but it’s definitely an accomplishment nonetheless.

I had to take two sets of pictures…his regular white onesie was in the wash at first!

He also said his first and only word, which was “cow.” Elise and James and I were all sitting around the table at breakfast time, and we noticed that there were pictures of cows on several of our food items at the table. I pointed to each one and said “cow!” after each point, and then James just followed suit! His favorite non-word syllable is “gah,” so while it is a bit hard to differentiate between “gah” and “cow,” they were different enough that I’m pretty confident in calling it a word.

While the steps and the word were notable, his most significant accomplishment appears to be climbing on things. He climbs on literally anything climbable, which has led to some close calls. I don’t take my eyes off of him for a second when climbing structures are nearby, including things that are not your typical climbing structure. Example A:

Less you miss it while having a heart attack over his position, please take note of his expression. This is a very, very accurate representation of his approach to life, and I am here for it. Oh, you want another look at the rocking horse ascent? LET ME OBLIGE.

I should also note that I was closer at hand than this picture makes it look. He is always spotted. Gotta cover my bases in case some variety of mom police are out there.

He also climbs your standard things, like benches.

Last but not least, he sprouted two more teeth! We had some rough nights when they were coming through, although I think we’re mostly back on track after that setback.

So there you have it! Way to go, little guy.

Nine Months of James

Another month, another post. Also, another several days late…I think every month yields a later post. Hopefully I’ll get back on track by his first birthday!

James at nine months is a hoot. He figured out how to clap recently, and he likes to do it all the time.

He moves constantly, and one of his favorite activities is pushing Elise’s cart or rolling hedgehog toy all around whatever room he’s in. He gets very, very frustrated when he bumps into something and can’t figure out how to turn himself around, screeching and throwing a baby tantrum until I point him back in a direction with more room. Once he’s off again, he’s instantly delighted. Moods change on a dime these days.

He has a favorite book - In My Tree - that has a built-in finger puppet of an owl. He laughs and laughs when the “owl” says, “Whoo whoooooo!” and he likes to poke the owl with his finger.

When it comes to eating, he still has yet to meet a food he won’t try. He makes a disastrous mess every time he has a meal, but it pays off in the sense that he feeds himself until he’s full, and he eats what we eat and I mostly get to eat my food at the same time in relative peace. This month he’s seeming to really enjoy watermelon and pretty much any kind of meat…the little carnivore.

In addition to clapping, he also likes to both flap his arms all over the place and also thump them on things, including me. At bedtime he alternates between snuggling his head into my torso and then sitting upright and flapping both arms to thump my shoulders, which sounds somewhat painful but is really just funny.

Whenever we’re in a room with cabinet doors or drawers, he takes it upon himself to open them and explore their contents. He particularly likes the bathroom cabinet that contains a box of Q-Tips, but fortunately he has yet to dump them all out. In the kitchen, he goes straight for the drawer that contains all the kid cups and bowls, probably because they’re colorful.

Speaking of the kitchen, he’s earned himself “Dangerbaby” as a nickname - he figured out how to climb up Elise’s tower, which allows her (and I guess now him) to stand at counter level. I can’t turn my back for a second with him before he’s off to explore new heights.

He’s very pleased with his newfound abilities. And I think that’s all we have for now! I still can’t believe we’re creeping up on a year already…but I can’t wait to see what he’ll accomplish before then.

Eight Months of James

Well. I guess I only post on my blog once a month now. Here we are at eight months and James just keeps on growing!

Getting non-blurry pictures of this kid is becoming increasingly difficult. He’s on the move constantly, crawling like a speed demon and pulling himself up like it’s his job. He cruises around furniture with ease, transferring himself between coffee table and couch like he’s been doing it his entire life.

On his 8 month birthday, he both graduated to size four diapers and started making a new clicking sound, which is his new favorite thing to do. He clicks all the time, and seems quite pleased with himself for having figured out how to do it.

This month was also momentous in that he got sleep trained, which wasn’t the most fun process for three nights, but now that those nights are behind us, he goes to bed between 7:00 and 8:00, sleeps all night until between 5:00 and 6:00, eats once and goes back to sleep, and then gets up for the day between 7:00 and 8:00 am. I had been totally against sleep training with Elise, but after not sleeping through the night until 22 months with her and now seeing how much better we all are getting a full night’s rest each night, I’m totally on board with it now. Three (hundred) cheers for Taking Cara Babies once again.

He and Elise are also now sharing a room, which is fun! I have a few more decor changes that I want to make, but it’s nice to have an actual nursery room.

In other news, he also learned how to scale the staircase, which means we now have it blocked off with a pull up bar (very high tech) to make sure that he doesn’t climb up and/or fall down while my back is turned. Of course, that didn’t stop me from spotting him and letting him do a little exploration to document his accomplishment…

He also continues to love to eat almost any food put in front of him, and he seems to enjoy gobbling every variety of fruit, toast with peanut butter, bell pepper, and chugging water with particular gusto. I’m trying to capitalize on his enthusiastic food exploration now, since things change around the year mark, so we’re trying to get as much new food exposure as possible now.

Finally, he’s started really enjoying watching Elise play, and he tries to see what he can do with her, occasionally to her chagrin.

And with that, I think we’ve had enough of a report for this month (even though the report was two weeks late). We’ll return next month for more, although I hope to post at least once more between now and then. Huzzah!

Seven Months of James

This little guy is seven months old, and I’m almost two weeks late on reporting the details!

All of the photos this month are a little blurry because he won’t. stop. moving. The only times he stays still are either when he’s sleeping or occasionally when nursing, although the very second that he’s done he’s twisting his body out of my arms to be on his way again. He went from almost crawling at 6 months to speed-crawling and pulling himself up all day every day at 7 months. The only downside is that diaper changes are now nearly impossible, but we make it work.

He’s also been loving eating solid food, and seems to particularly enjoy Cheerios, shredded carrots, and freeze dried fruit. He also likes toast strips, which is both good and bad - within the last few days I’ve needed to give them to him just one at a time, or else he’ll stuff it all in his mouth and start choking, which is scary.

He’s also completely stopped using his bath sponge while bathing, which means that he’s in an open tub. It’s become one of his favorite activities - I fill the tub with only an inch or two of water, and he crawls around in the water, stopping every so often to lift his hand up and down over and over again to make a splash. He must really enjoy the patting/splashing motion, because lately he’s taken to doing it on any surface, whether it’s water, a table, or my shirt.

In terms of growth, James is busting out of his 6-9 month clothes and starting in on 12-18. At his last doctor’s appointment in between 6 and 7 months, the doctor noted that he was in the 99.9th percentile for height, and he has an appetite to match. Between all his growing and moving, I think he eats nearly as much as Elise does at every meal. He and Elise are starting to play with each other a bit more, which is fun to see. I’m hoping that they’ll be lifelong friends, and that they’re setting the groundwork now. She likes to give him a kiss before he goes to bed, which is particularly endearing.

He’s just such a delightful baby and it’s the best thing to see how excited he is about discovering the world around him. What a gift.

Six Months of James

I’m a few days late in writing this down, but James is now six months old! It feels like a lot has changed since last month, which is pretty exiting. The two main ones are that he has started sampling non-milk food and that he’s probably just a couple of days away from crawling!

He loves getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth, and hes managed to move his knees forward a few times already. He hasn’t quite figured out the hand motion yet, but he’s getting there! While he’s figuring that out, he’s conquered the army crawl, and he can wiggle his way from one spot to another in no time. I suppose we’ve reached the point where we actually need to baby-proof.

He can also sit up unsupported for brief spurts of time, although he’s liable to tumble backwards since he hasn’t quite figured out that there isn’t anything behind him when he’s in that position. Based on the fact that he’s nearly mobile, it looks like we’ll skip the potted plant phase entirely…sitting and crawling are happening simultaneously rather than sequentially. Elise did that as well, so it’s not like this is unfamiliar territory!

Sometimes you just need a break, you know? Also, look at all his hair! I realize that “all the hair” is relative, considering some babies are born with significantly more hair than he has now, but it’s fun to see it starting to come in.

James is still very early in his food-eating experiences, but we’ve checked off all the major allergens so far: he’s successfully eaten eggs, strawberries, and peanut butter with no reaction, and he’s also sampled red pepper, guacamole, a taco (which he loved), broccoli, pork carnitas, oatmeal, plain yogurt, sour cream, and a bit of bread. He may have also licked some bacon at one point. Essentially, he gets a little taste of whatever we have on our plates at every meal. He still hasn’t really gotten used to having anything with texture in his mouth, so his reactions are pretty amusing.

These days, it’s very hard to get him to stay on his back, which is particularly challenging during diaper changes and (to a lesser extent) baths. He just wants to practice crawling so much that he doesn’t have the patience to stay facing up, so I’ve resorted to handing him whatever object is both hold-able and nearby whenever I change him. Frequent objects have included diaper cream, a tennis-ball-sized plastic Playmobile tunnel piece, and a 1/2 cup measure. Aside from the diaper cream, I’m not sure why any of those things are nearby, but they hold his attention long enough for me to change his diaper like a ninja. Thankfully while he’s taking a bath, splashing his feet distracts him enough that his rollover speed is slightly slower.

If you want to make him laugh, either kiss his cheeks or brush his teeth. Both of these will reliably produce contagious giggling. I can’t wait to see what he can do by next month!

Five Months of James

The world feels a little bit heavy right now, so this post seems almost frivolous amidst all of that. So the quick facts are these:

1) James has started laughing all the time at all sorts of things, and it’s the best sound in the world.

2) After four months of hating tummy time, he now prefers to be on his stomach most of the time, and flips himself onto his stomach to sleep.

3) He absolutely adores being in the door frame bouncy seat that we have, and goes crazy every time I put him in it.

4) He seems like he might be starting to discover that his thumb is a nice pacifier. I’m torn about whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

5) He’s wearing 6-9 or 6-12 month clothes, and has recently outgrown a pair of Elise’s old pajamas that she wore when she was between 6 and 9 months old.

The innocence of a baby is such a balm in a hurting world. The quarantine has been a tedious period of time, but the more recent racist altercations have everything in a more painful uproar.

As a result, I’ve had Micah 6:8 on my heart more than usual. My main job, as the mother of both James and Elise, both of whom are about as fair-skinned as one can possibly get, is to guide them to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with their (and my) God.

Doing that behooves us to recognize the image of God in our neighbors, of every tongue, tribe, and nation. I pray for unity and reconciliation in our land, and that the country that these kids grow up in becomes one that is more just and merciful toward our POC compatriots than it has been in the past.

I’m not sure what else to say today. I’m hoping that between now and next month, things will both have improved and calmed down. 2020 has been…a year.

Four Months of James

What day is it again?

#quarantineproblems

It took me a hot second to realize that another month had passed. Fortunately, I paid just enough attention to the calendar to remember to take some photos during the daylight hours, and even get a blog post up on time!

All my photos are slightly more blurry this month, because he just likes to wiggle around! He successfully rolled over from back to belly at exactly 15 weeks, and has repeated it a couple of times since. However, being on his back is much preferred to being on his tummy, so he’s not too motivated to get all the way over very often. That said, he has taken to sleeping on his side, so I imagine that he’s pleased to have found a means to rotate himself even part of the way.

I’m also happy to report that my suspicions about teething last month proved to be correct - he has two bottom teeth! He was pretty miserable in the two days just before they popped through his gums, so I’m glad that the worst is behind him for those at least. He had a brief reprieve from drooling but seems to have started up again, so perhaps more teeth are on the horizon for him. Time will tell.

He has now mastered a wide range of vocal skills, his evident favorite being a sort of growly squeal that, in spite of “growly squeal” sounding dreadful, turns out to be rather infectiously joyous. Would that we all had such skills.

His two favorite activities seem to be lying on the floor to (visually) explore his surroundings, and standing up with a supporting hand or two. In fact, if he’s fussing, standing him up will almost always quell his agitation. Standing up also highlights the little rolls on his knees, which is adorable.

He naps like a champ and goes to bed like it’s his job, although he’s not currently spectacular at sleeping through the night. He’s typically up three to five times per night, so I’m tired. The fortunate thing about that is that he doesn’t need to eat every single time, so often popping his pacifier back in will do the trick.

Eventually, he got tired of his photo shoot today…

…so I guess that’s as good a place as any to stop. Until next month!

Three Months of James

Well…I meant to have at least one other blog post up between two months and three months, and considering we’ve been practically quarantined, I definitely had the time, but no dice. Next time!

James is three months old today!

He’s the smiliest baby there ever was. He’s also growing like a weed and has started inching his way into 6-9 month clothes. That’s been kinda fun, because the only 6-9 month clothing I currently have for him has come from Elise’s stockpile of baby clothes, so she definitely wore the onesie in these pictures.

Fortunately, white onesies are the most neutral of baby clothes.

In addition to smiling a ton, he has also started exploring his vocal range, which is adorable - he’ll tell you all kinds of “stories” that only he can understand. If you respond in a way that he finds particularly amusing, he’ll even giggle at you.

He spends a lot of time chomping on his hands and drooling, and I’ve actually thought that he might be teething. It seems ridiculously early, but I miiiiiight be able to see two bottom teeth just under his gums. I’ll report back next month to tell you if I’m delusional or not.

He has come very close to rolling over from back to tummy, pulling his knees up as high as he can and getting over on his side, although he hasn’t made it quite all the way to his stomach yet. He did manage to roll from tummy to back one time, although I don’t think it really counts because I had positioned his arms in such a way that rolling wouldn’t be terribly difficult.

He absolutely despises tummy time, and will start fussing within 30 seconds of being put down in that position. As a result, I’ve been quite indolent in my efforts to make sure he fits tummy time into his obviously very busy daily schedule of eating, playing, and sleeping.

He seems quite unaffected by the current quarantine situation, which is great. In fact, he’s probably benefiting from staying at home, when my natural tendency is to try to get out of the house at least once a day to run errands under normal circumstances. Instead, our near-daily outings have been limited to outdoor walking areas or our backyard, both of which seem decidedly healthier habitats for children than…say…Target.

His nicknames range from the normal (Jamie) to the slightly unusual (Guy) to the downright weird (Bubbo, Buddaboo, The Jamesophone). Those last three are limited to at-home use only, which is pretty easy these days. We’re all looking forward to the end of the coronavirus so we can visit with everyone again!

We love you, little guy! Keep growing!

Two Months of James

TIME FLIES when you’re growing by the hour. James is two months old today! We’ll get his stats for height and weight at the doctor tomorrow, so I’ll add a postscript at the bottom when that info comes IN.

His biggest accomplishment this month is mastering the art of the smile. He’s a smiley kid and will light up when you talk to him. He’s a little more skeptical of the camera, but he warmed up eventually.

As of tomorrow, he’ll be in size 2 diapers, and he’s started wearing 3-6 month clothes within the last two weeks or so. While his growth in length and width are impressive, perhaps even more impressive is the fact that he seems to be growing hair. I had expected him to be bald until he turned one or so, but he has far surpassed those expectations. In person it looks brown at the moment, although in the pictures it seems blond, so the color remains up in the air.

He remains a pretty good sleeper, which is again somewhat expected. We’ll see if that changes around four months, but I’m hoping for the best.

Within the past week has has acquired an appreciation for “standing,” where we hold him up and he holds most of his weight (although he’s far from balancing). If he’s fussy, it’ll stop his disgruntlement in its tracks and he’ll start smiling.

He likes to stick his thumb between his other fingers when he’s holding a fist, which is just sorta funny.

It seems like he’s going to have blue eyes, which is somewhat surprising given that only one parent has blue eyes. We were discussing over over dinner the other night how we thought it was supposed to be a statistical near-impossibility to have two children with blue eyes if one parent has brown eyes (anyone else remember the punnet squares of 10th grade biology?), and I guess he is still too young to say for sure that his eyes will forever be blue, but we do seem to be on that track.

We’re having so much fun watching him grow. It’s the best! Here’s to month three…

One Month of James

Look at this! Two blog posts in a row? HELLO, WORLD.

James is one month old, plus a little change. In fact, if we’re being honest, he’s actually closer to 1.5 months, but who’s counting?

It’s very fair to say that babies don’t do a whole lot in their first month of life, but the things that they DO do, they do with significant expertise. All that to say…he’s a champ at eating, sleeping, and pooping. We change a looooot of dirty diapers. I’d say his area of most success is sleeping, though - he sleeps in his own bed, in a swaddle, on his back , and puts himself to sleep! Considering newborn Elise slept completely unswaddled, either in our bed OR on her stomach in a pack and play, and had to be nursed to sleep, this is like a whole new world. I credit that success 100% to Taking Cara Babies, and I wish I’d had it as a resource during my first round of newborn care.

He’s typically sleeping a solid 6-hour stretch at night already, which I attribute again to Taking Cara Babies and also the fact that the kid loves his milk. He’s gained over three pounds since birth and has some adorable rolls to show for it.

He has started to smile recently, and though I haven’t yet caught it on camera, it’s possibly the cutest thing in the world. Overall he just seems like a pretty happy kid, although he’s also mastered the grumpy old man face and has a hairline to match.

He doesn’t have any unusual nicknames. Most of the time we just call him James, although I tend to call him Jamie when I’m talking either directly to him or to Elise.

At this point…I think that’s most of what there is to report. It’s exciting to see him sort of wake up a little more as each week passes! He’s our little buddy, and we love him so much.

As a bonus, Elise wanted in on the photoshoot action, so here’s a shot just of her, since she’s been upgraded to Big Sister. Enjoy!

James Ashley: An Arrival Tale

As previously stated when I typed up Elise’s birth story, feel free to skip this if reading birth stories is not something you enjoy. But also as previously stated in Elise’s narrative, I want to have written it all down for my own memory-keeping, since it’s amazing how fast the details start slipping away, even a couple of weeks after the fact. So here we go!

My due date was New Year’s Eve, and since Elise was a few days early, I expected that I was going to go into labor even earlier the second time. Basically, once I hit 37 weeks, I woke up every day wondering why I was still pregnant. On the other hand, I was MUCH more comfortable at the end of pregnancy this time compared to last time, so the wait wasn’t terrible. I was shooting to give him a birthday any time between 12/10 and 12/22 at the latest, since I really wanted to avoid either giving birth or being in the hospital on Christmas. December 10th came and went, as did the rest of the week, then the week before Christmas, and then Christmas week was upon us and I started praying that I would NOT go into labor until after Christmas was over.

I guess God heard my prayers and answered them with interest, because while everyone was telling me that I would be so relaxed after Christmas happened that I would automatically start the process on December 26th, nothing happened at all. I had some sporadic contractions that didn’t really hurt here and there, but nothing that had me ready to call up the hospital. I took a picture at 12:59 pm on December 28 to mark the fact that I was officially more pregnant than I ever had been before (by one minute, at that point) and hoped that I’d have a baby that night.

I did not.

On December 30th, I walked into my 40 week appointment (which was actually at 39 weeks + 6 days), a little shocked that I had actually made it, and saw my favorite midwife. She told me I was at a 3 and tried to help me get things started with a sweep, commenting that she was going to be the one at the hospital that night and hoped to see me there. I was similarly hopeful, but NO DICE. That evening we went over to the shopping plaza near our office to walk around and look at lights, and we stopped at Elise’s favorite shop: the Amazon bookstore. We had done the same thing the day I went into labor with Elise, and I thought it would be a fun bit of parallelism if I had a baby that night. I had some light contractions that were 8 to 10 minutes apart that evening, but they were only 45 seconds long and fizzled out when I went to bed.

I should add a comment here that with Elise, the day before I went into labor I felt like I had the stomach flu, so I was expecting/dreading that to happen again before going into labor a second time. My labors would probably be very, very similar, right? Famous last…thoughts.

Yet again, the next morning (my due date!) I woke up and thought, “WHY AM I STILL PREGNANT?!?” Chaz went to work, we carried on with a normal day, and once again I had a few random contractions, but nothing consistent. The same thing happened the next day, so I decided this baby was never coming out and I might as well just “enjoy” being pregnant forever. That evening we ate a PF Chang’s frozen meal for dinner and I hoped that I wouldn’t see it later. We all went to bed.

I woke up at 2:30 with a contraction. It felt like the light 8-to-10-minutes-apart ones from the previous days, but it HAD woken me up, so I just made a mental note that it had happened and tried to go back to sleep. Just a few minutes later, I had another one, but I told myself it was probably nothing and tried to go back to sleep again. When the third one came, I decided that maybe I should start timing them, just to see if they were still 8 to 10 minutes apart, or if they were longer than 45 seconds. To my surprise, they were 6 to 7 minutes apart and lasting a full minute and a half, which is (unfortunately) normal for me during active labor. Still, I wasn’t convinced, so I got up to use the bathroom and figured they’d stop once I did that. As soon as I got up, they sped up to 4 minutes apart. Since I could still manage them easily, I continued to believe they would probably die down, but Chaz woke up when I came back to bed and I told him he might want to think about moving his meeting scheduled at work later that morning.

Unlike me, he decided things were actually happening (which was wise) and got up to take a shower and pack a bag. I called my parents at 3:18 am to come watch Elise (THANKS, mom and dad!) and then called the birth center at the hospital at 3:27. I said something to the effect of, “Well, I think I’m in labor, but I can still talk through contractions so it seems like it’s pretty early…”

They told me to come in anyway, so I got ready to go and hoped that they wouldn’t end up sending me home in an hour. Just like with Elise’s labor, I made sure I put in earrings, for some unknown reason. Every time a contraction hit I’d squat all the way to the floor and breathe. By 4:20 my parents had arrived and we got in the car, with me turning around in the front seat to continue my squatting and breathing routine. Things slowed down a little bit when we left the house, so I was somehow STILL convinced that this wasn’t real and they were going to send me home.

That changed when my water broke as we were driving down the highway. Since my water hadn’t broken with Elise until they broke it for me in the hospital, I was completely unprepared for that possibility and therefore only had a feather down blanket in the back seat to keep amniotic fluid from getting all over my car. Fun times! It worked well enough, and I realized we for sure wouldn’t be leaving the hospital without a baby.

We arrived at the hospital just a few minutes later, and I had two or three more contractions as we walked in through the emergency entrance - the regular entrance was locked during the night hours. We actually tried the ambulance door first, and some security guard gave us a funny look before we realized it was the wrong spot.

The nurses were waiting for me when we got up to L&D. They opened the door for me without us having to press the buzzer, and whether it was because I told them my water had broken or just because it wasn’t my first baby, they skipped bringing me through triage and brought me straight back to a delivery room. They asked me if I needed a towel to clean up the car and I said something like, “Oh no, I had a blanket, and I guess these are very absorbent leggings!” They humored me by laughing at that…but in reality my water just hadn’t broken all the way because the rest of it broke all over the floor of the delivery room just before I changed into my hospital gown.

Things picked up rapidly from there. I’d checked in at 5 or 6 centimeters, and contractions were coming fast and furious, so as soon as I was in my hospital gown I told them that an epidural sounded REALLY GREAT. They acted a little surprised and told me I was “doing really well, so was I sure?” I figured they must say that to everyone, so I said, “No, really…it sounds like THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD.” They put in an order for one and got me hooked up to an IV bag of fluids. Apart from surviving through contractions, the only thing I could think about was the fact that I was extremely thirsty and I think I chugged two full giant cups of water during the whole labor process.

I need to give a quick shout out to the phlebotomist who did my blood draw right before the IV went in. I despise blood draws more than any other standard doctor procedure, and I literally didn’t even feel it. I don’t know what his name was, but he deserves some kind of medal.

The nurses left the room for the most part while the bag of fluid drained, checking in every so often. I knew I just had to stick it out until all the fluid was gone and the anesthesiologist arrived, so I kinda used my fists to simultaneously lie on my back and give myself some counter pressure, which was the only thing that was giving me any comfort. “Comfort” is a complete lie, as it was extremely UNcomfortable and at one point, I looked over at Chaz and said, “I JUST DON’T WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE!” and swore to myself that I was never having any more children. The only thing getting me through was a) picturing climbing a mountain when each contraction came and b) knowing that there were drugs on the way.

Actually, there was quite a lot of swearing to myself. If anyone had been inside my head, they might have concluded that I had been a very salty sailor in a previous life.

Around 6:15, the anesthesiologist waltzed in and said, “I’m Dr. Parker and I’m here to administer your epidural,” and then went through the litany of risks involved. I was well aware of those and just agreed to everything, while keeping my eyes closed and trying not to die, and also (so sorry, tmi warning here) feeling like I needed to use the bathroom rather desperately.

The nurse and anesthesiologist told me to swing my legs over the side of the bed, and that I’d need to sit still through the contractions while they placed the epidural. I remember saying, “Are you sure you can’t do it like this?!?” while I sat with one leg off the side of the bed and the other under me as I curled my back over like a cat. They said no.

At that point my body literally took over and the urge to “use the bathroom” won the day, except I didn’t actually need to use the bathroom. My eyes were shut this whole time, so I heard the anesthesiologist say, “When was the last time she was checked…?” I think I was sob-grunt-yelling as the nurse said, “It was about an hour ago…” and I just said, “I THINK I’M PUSHING.” The midwife was suddenly there and she told me to get on my side, which I thought was impossible but somehow happened anyway, and I opened my eyes just a crack to find that the room was filled with people before I shut them again.

I can’t tell you where Chaz was standing, I can’t tell you what happened to the anesthesiologist (was he there? did he leave the room? had we called him out of his warm bed at 5:00 in the morning only to send him back home? did he get shoved into the bathroom since there were so many people in the room? WHO KNOWS), and I can’t tell you what it looked like when my baby was born, but all of a sudden the midwife was saying, “Look what you did! You’re amazing! You did so, so well!” (still not sure they don’t say that to everyone) and there was a baby on my chest. So I guess I also flipped back onto my back?

Anyway…it was 6:21 am and he was here! (Side note: I myself was also born at 6:21, though it was in the evening. Crazy!) Start to finish, the entire labor was 3 hours and 51 minutes. They waited bit and then asked Chaz if he wanted to cut the cord (he did not), but I asked if I could and they let me! The midwife mentioned she’d never had a mom cut the cord before, which I thought was pretty cool. They cleaned me and everything else up, and then they let us just cuddle him for a couple of hours. Also, I got to order breakfast, which was the second best thing after having a fresh baby to snuggle.

Recovery this time was dramatically easier than recovery after my first birth, so if we ever have another baby, I think I might plan on a natural birth instead of wanting an epidural and then not making it. Considering I’d always wanted to have an unmedicated delivery but had also been dreading labor enough to want the relief of an epidural, this was probably the best possible outcome.

Now he’s a month an a half old, and he’s about as snuggly and wonderful as you might expect a baby to be, and we love him to bits.

Happy birthday, little buddy! We’re so very happy you’re here!