Everybody knows

You have a near toddler when all of the toilet paper rolls in each bathroom looks like this.

A Heaping Plate of Grateful

I cannot possibly put into a list all of the blessings that have made their way into my little life. Allow my heaping plate to be a metaphor.

That's a lot of gratitude!

Counting teeth

Someone has been a little bit fussier than his usual fussy self. A face full of teeth coming in at the same time will do that to you.

What do we have so far? Two middle bottoms, two fang teeth, and one left bottom discovered today at lunch time.

Finally figured out how to get mr. Peanut to eat his spinach, too. Mix in in homemade cinnamon applesauce.

Top o the mornin' to ya!

We spent the morning at Sky Top Orchard today the forecast called for thunderstorms, but we trekked up to North Carolina anyway.

37 lbs of fruit, and a shared apple cider donut, later We're happy we did.

If you build it...

The most stressful things in life are having a baby, moving, public speaking, and getting a new job. Public speaking is the worst! Ha ha, just kidding (but not really). I am a glutton for punishment. I have done all of these things in the past year. And I am about to do another again!

We bought a house. We have been renting a house since June and finally pulled the trigger to put down roots. Honestly, we didn't do much house hunting like we did to find our home in Chandler, AZ. That was like mining for diamonds in the desert!

Naples by Ryan Homes

We looked at home prices in the Greenville area and saw that we could build one for the same price for what we wanted. Done. Decision made.

We break ground in about a week. I need to start looking for some boxes....

The First Two Weeks

Henry James at two weeks old

The first two weeks of motherhood were rough. Whatever expectations I had were oh so very wrong.
I didn't think breastfeeding would be difficult, first off. I mean, I have gigantic hooters. I was made for this! Henry didn't have a good latch, he had a downright awful latch. He actually lost too much weight, losing a pound from birth to his fourth day outside the belly. I was ill prepared for the atomic bomb siren that is my son's cry.

The biggest unexpected side affect was just how much I love my husband. Truly, I had no idea just how much having a baby would instantly magnify one thousand time the capacity I have of loving him. I knew that I would be overwhelmed with love and caring for this little new life, but was caught completely unawares by the new affection for the one who helped create him. When I looked at Henry in those first moments and hours, I could only think of Shawn. It is not his fathering that has brought this entirely new level of wholehearted loving, it is simply becoming a mother that has done it.

Whatever hurdles we jumped those first weeks of parenthood, we were greeted by constant and unconditional tenderness by not only us, but by each other.

A Babe is Born

 I scooted out of triage with my IV drip and my butt firmly planted in a wheelchair at 4am. My contractions were making me double over and I was dilated three centimeters. The birthing room where I would deliver my baby was a place of serenity with its flat screen and wood floors. The husband was digging the comfy couch by the window. I was happily anticipating that nectar of the gods, King Epidural.

I met Dr. Price who ordered the anesthesiologist and a dose of Pitocin. "Are you ready to have a baby today?" Yes, sir, I was ready to have a baby.

At 10am Dr. Price returned to examine me. He took one look and said we would have a baby by the afternoon. Shawn's face beamed. His boy is coming! The the shizz got real. Dr. Price felt my gigantic belly. "Hmmm..." he hummed. Then he did an internal exam. "This baby has a soft head," he said... out loud.. to a panicking me. What?! WHAT?!?! "How long has he been breech?" What?! I had an appointment on Monday...this was Wednesday. I think I would feel if this giant baby flipped upside down. To be sure he pulled a portable ultrasound machine into the room. Four minutes later I was looking at my baby's head by my tailbone.

Emergency c-section. I have never had surgery before aside from getting my wisdom teeth pulled. I have never had my organs removed from my body and placed back all willy-nilly. I was terrified of the dreaded episiotomy. Dr. Price called Dr Chasedunn-Roarke who saw me on Monday and she was shocked, but told him that at least I wouldn't have the episiotomy like I was worried about. No, now I was going to be opened up on a table in a cold and sterile operating room rather than this hotel suite I was crying in. I was seven centimeters dilated and progressing fast. 14 minutes later I was being prepped for surgery, getting dosed with even more epidural and Shawn was putting on his scrubs.

At 10:33am on Wednesday, January 11, 2012, our baby boy came into the world with the loudest cry I have ever heard. Shawn looked into my eyes and we both teared up. The nurse showed Henry to us and asked Shawn if he would like to hold him. I wanted to jump up too and hug that screaming and wriggling body. Obviously, I couldn't feel anything below my shoulders, so Shawn held our sweet baby and brought him over to me to kiss and snuggle. By this time, Henry's baby blue were wide open as he took in the scene. By 10:50am I was sewn back together, intestines in their rightful place, and was being wheeled into the closet sized recovery room where we would spend the first three hours of our lives as a family of three.