Baby T is here!

We think all it took for Baby T to want to come was a trip to the hospital. My niece broke her arm and we went to the hospital to see her, and less than 24 hours later, my water broke.
I guess he just needed to see that hospitals weren't bad places to go.

He arrived at 12:37 p.m. and surprisingly, his delivery took longer than his big sister's. M came in 3 hours, 56 minutes. Baby T came in 5 hours, 47 minutes, although I think he might've come sooner if the nurse had checked dilation a little sooner. I'm not complaining though—I know many moms labor a lot longer.
There was no waiting for an epidural this time. With M I was 7 cm along before the epidural; I was about 5 cm dilated when I got to the hospital (I dilate fast, what can I say? Besides Thank God!) and there was no waiting. Anesthesiologist was there making jokes about my back artwork and my husband was being entertained watching the huge needle enter my back. Funniest thing for me was the doctor telling Matt he could watch but he had to watch while seated. I bet he's deflated a lot of male egos...
So what an easy labor! And I pushed for less than 40 minutes, also another blessing. Our little bundle of boy was 8 pounds 1 ounce, 19.5 inches. And now, he's already 16 days old!!

I'm hoping other mothers experience the same thing, but I have a big case of I-forgot-what-a-newborn-is-like-and-does-itis. It's funny looking at your 25 pound toddler and then almost falling because the 8-pounder is so much lighter that you used too much momentum on the pick up.
I had to ask the doctor how much spit up is too much spit up. Wouldn't a mom already know this? Not really!! For all I can remember, M never spit up!
And all that talk about boys being better/worse/different than girls? TRUTH.
Baby T is not falling for the schedule thing. He's a hungry little man, and he's been defying medical convention that a newborn can only hold about 2 ounces—he's done 4 at the most (and kept the majority of it down!). He's lanky and long compared to M, who almost immediately became my little chubbsters. He was impossible to keep dry for the first week and a half because I was scared to manipulate his private part too much and thus, pee went all out the back and sides instead of into the diaper (I have never done as much laundry as the past two weeks!).
But he is a phenomenally sweet and happy baby, with very little to fuss about unless Mom is sleeping too well and he's hungry. I am so thankful for that!

As for big sister, she loves Titus. She just doesn't love that things have changed, and there's some attitude happening. Who can blame her, it's a big adjustment!

A little rain, a little shine

Yesterday did not start off in a way that might've made me worry. In fact, baby M had a great morning and we even got to go swimming with Grandma in the afternoon.
Once we were leaving though, the big gray clouds rolling in could've been playing an ominous tune, because they forecast nothing but trouble.
I was scheduled to do maternity photos with my friend Alise and her hubby, whose little bundle is due July 10, 2012. When I spoke to her, I said, "Pray it doesn't rain on our parade!" even though it seemed apparent there was no amount of praying that might stop this mighty storm.
As it came closer for me to go meet them, it started to rain, and hard. I found my phone, obviously wanting to touch bases with Alise, and found it mysteriously off. Sure, you'd think I just forgot to charge it, right? That would be the blonde excuse. But oh no, it was charged. It had sat on the charger all night. So the stupid thing mysteriously died, leaving me with no way to contact anyone except my parents' landline (I know, dinosaur.)
But does anyone memorize numbers anymore? I don't, except for the hubby's and the home number my parents have had since moving to Colorado. So the next step was trying to get Alise's number, which I knew was in my Facebook messages, which was easily accessible via computer, right? Wrong. Facebook is worthless if you cannot access it, which you cannot if the Internet your parents use is down.
So, the count is 1. Phone dead and 2. Internet down. What more could possibly happen? Well, how about walking out to your car ("Stella") and finding the door locked. Hmmm, that's strange, you might think. So you go ask your dad if perhaps he had locked it from some strange concern it might be stolen right in front of our eyes. But no, no he did not. Oh boy.
I go back out to Stella and go the driver's side door, and to my growing dismay, find it locked. Stella had locked herself. Key inside. CAMERA inside.
Yep, I sure wouldn't have cared if that thing had locked itself only with my key inside. But that camera? Alise and I live over 50 miles apart and she's due in literally 3 days, who knows when that baby will come?! I needed that camera!!
I guess it is good that I have my husband's cell number memorized because at least I could get a hold of him, no problemo. Crazy guy was just leaving work (he worked like 13 hours, bless his poor tired heart) and told me he'd go get the spare key and come to my parents' house.
That brings it to: 1. Phone dead 2. Internet down 3. Car locked with camera inside.
I jumped into my dad's pickup to hopefully track down Alise at our designated meeting space, not knowing if she had maybe decided to cancel due to rain, or maybe the baby coming, so I just hoped to see her. To no avail—so I went back and finally the Internet had returned.
Amazingly, the evening rounded itself out. The storm cleared, Alise and her hubby passed some time with dinner and visiting with me, my great rescuer hubby arrived and unlocked my car, and, being very thankful for late summer light, we got to take photos.

 This is photographer's favorite. I'm really thankful to Alise for being a good sport, being patient, and most of all, allowing me to take photos for her. I learned so much, it was absolutely invaluable. Thank you Alise!!
We may not have gotten to do playground photos (my original idea), but I think overall, it turned out just fine. And if Alise gets her way, her little bundle of joy will arrive sooner rather than later, so it's awesome that we did get this session in. Thank you, Lord!

Day 11: Tiny Feet

Critique time! I'm not really thrilled about either of these images. What are your thoughts?

I'll bet there was something I could add to give them a little dimension, a little more feel. But, since I'm days behind on this photo project, I'm excited to have gotten a few toe shots in.
We walked to the park about 3/4 mile away from our house, and now that M is big enough to understand that eating gravel is not okay, I was excited to let her play in it. What made our little adventure interesting to me is we were about a hundred yards away from a couple and their child that appeared to be close in age to M.
As I drew nearer, I could see them stop and debate continuing straight (toward me and M) or turning left to go up the street. The chose to go left, and it appeared fairly obvious that the intention was to avoid crossing paths. It made me sad.
Here was the potential to make a new friend, someone who lives where I do that has a baby near in age to my own, and it didn't happen because of... shyness? Fear of dogs? (Roxy is a big pug...) I'm not sure what drove their decision but I thought it was a missed opportunity. Perhaps I'm a little bored (or lonely, call it what you want) but I definitely would be excited for M to have more interaction with babies her age. Alas, it seems our society is moving farther away from the "social" part of it.
Farther along our walk, we passed two kids with a "chiweiner"—part chihuahua, part weiner dog who were friendly and well-mannered. And when I say well-mannered, they moved out of the way for us to pass, and then when we passed them on the walk home, said "Have a good night!"
That surprised me, because it seems a majority of children lack basic social skills. I wanted to find their mother and say, "Good job!" Too many times I find myself focusing on the things children do wrong or that simply annoy me, and it's refreshing to come across kids like that. Even if it was just a polite moment, I think I'd enjoy hearing that my child is behaving well from a stranger.
Maybe that should be the topic of a 30-day challenge: See the best in the children you interact with. Ready, set, GO POSITIVE!

Day 10's actual picture!

Well, I'm waaaaaaay behind in this little experiment but I'm trying to play catch up:

Things like this happen when you're busy (babycleaningnetworkingbabycleaningworkingbabycooking) and I can't believe I haven't posted in almost a week! It also helps to be home at the same time as my husband.
My mom commented on the situation that's happened to millions of families this past weekend, along the lines of "everyone works so much and so often just to make ends meet, there is no getting together just to enjoy each other." How true?!
Matt works Monday through Friday but my schedule is erratic, and I usually work weekends. I also work evenings so that we don't have to pay a babysitter to watch M at all. It makes for precious little time together as a family, so yesterday we soaked it up!
My dad came down to have lunch with us and he doesn't get to see the baby as often as I'd like, so it was nice to spend time with him (silly baby spent most of the time napping...) And the hubby and I actually got to spend the entire afternoon with each other and M, not needing to go anywhere or do anything. It was awesome!
All of this boils down to one conclusion: Money cannot be the priority. Family must be. To make this a reality in my life (and after reading the inspiring stuff at thepeacefulmom.com—if a 6-person family can make it on less than $30,000/year, we can live well with what we're blessed with!) I've given myself a mental smack and am going back into broke-and-just-married mode.
 That, for us, means every single penny is budgeted with no wiggle room. It seems to be the reverse of what I said, but I believe that by budgeting and conquering our debt, our family will be first. We've already made the decision for me to stay home with M and only work part time (not including my building photography business) and from here out I am determined to make the best of what we're given. I'm so thankful that we are so blessed, and I won't let myself fall in to the "I wish" trap anymore—that's living in the world and I'm called to live outside it!
I know God has great things in store for me and my family. I can't wait to see what's coming up! 

Day 9: Having a Meltdown or Crying

Okay this is from a week ago, but she didn't get upset today! It was a great, great day for both of us. Up at 6:40, a nice couple hours playing/cleaning, I read her to sleep for nap #1, she slept for an hour and a half, woke up cheerful and playing in her crib, I was able to shower even though she was awake (shocker!), a trip to Walmart (scored a few photo frames and some photography props on clearance, I don't know why people hate that store so much...), some time in the sun, and another read-to-sleep nap, which then allowed me to barbeque our dinner without any baby worry!
(That is likely the longest sentence I have ever written.)
If only I didn't get more bad news about our house-buying situation when I got home, this day would've been pretty nice. All I can say is, must be nice to live off the government, hope all those people enjoy themselves. :p

Day 6/7/8

Days 6 and 8 were a total flop for me. :( There was just no way to get M to play by herself long enough for Day 6: Crack a Door and Photograph What They're Doing (I tried to set up my tripod and photograph her directly after waking up from a nap but I was caught making too much noise, silly Mom!), and Day 8: Silhouette I just plain gave up on.
Day 7's photograph for Playing in the Bathtub pretty much expresses how I felt:

... but M was quite enjoying herself.
Yesterday while scrolling through Pinterest I saw a pin entitled something along the lines of "10 tips to make your kid a swimmer". It was interesting to me first because I am a swimmer, second because I was a lifeguard and taught swimming lessons for 8 years.
I clicked, and lo, it was also a "mommy blog" and the writer's husband, who also was a lifeguard and taught lessons, had guest written his advice for parents.
I was a lifeguard long before M was around, when this chic would've told you, "No, I don't want kids. Ever," without hesitation. That's the truth, I didn't. (M changed my life, but that's another blog post.) My distaste for kids was well known but I was considered a fabulous actress, because I could get any kid to swim.
Pre-mommyhood, I also had some pretty set opinions on why kids had issues in water, and I am pleased to say that now I am a mom, those opinions were right. Ninety percent of the time, in the kids I've taught, their fear of the water was caused by their parents.
I remember starting many parent-tot classes (parents in the water with their kids, usually age 3 months to 3 years) with this speech: "Welcome to parent-tot. You will be expected to GET WET in this class, so please be prepared. Your whole body, by the time we are done with each class, should be wet." That was just the beginning; my speech covered all the basics and generally a "you don't have to dunk them, but I encourage it" bit.
Typically, the older the child, the worst the fear, and I loved getting babies because (even though parents hated it—maybe I enjoyed making them squirm?) if I had them in my class at 6 months, I knew I could start them in the water right. Putting a child under occurred the first day, not to just get it out of the way but to get the parents familiar with the fact that their child would not drown after a few seconds in the water.
That was always the first mistake I noticed—freaking out if a child fell in inches-deep water face first. A parent's reaction is SO IMPORTANT. Yes, as I know as a mom, it is scary to see your child's face in water. But in the five seconds or so that it takes an adult to grab that child, he/she will not drown! In fact, they'll usually splutter a bit and if they don't look at their parents, they'll keep playing.
The desire to prevent drowning is very strong—I understand that better now—but babies don't drown in five seconds. This is what supervised swimming means—you sit with your child close enough to grab them if they go down but you let them explore!
So my number one piece of advice after my first number one piece of advice (GET IN THE WATER WITH YOUR KIDS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD) for parents: DO NOT LET THEM SEE YOU PANIC. If they fall face first, make your face say "Wow! Wasn't that fun?" while telling them "Blow bubbles next time!"

You, too, can have a baby that loves water!! :) But I make no promises about hats.

Perhaps tomorrow or sometime this week I'll write about what to look for in a good swimming instructor—because there are many, many teenagers teaching swimming lessons who are no good at it. 

Listening to: Nothing, because my iMac is overloaded with huge programs (Adobe!) and is having fits if I run too many apps. I promised it I'll get more ram but I just got a brand new lens and it may be a while...

30 day photo challenge

I subscribe to a ridiculous amount of things, which makes my e-mail a disaster, but all of my favorite things come from my photography interests. Click It Up A Notch is doing a 30 Day Challenge that I've decided to take on.
The real challenge here, for me, is that because M is only 10 months old, there are things she doesn't specifically do. Thus, some things will be adjusted (crawling, not walking, for example) and I'm going to have to get creative, which is great.

Day 1: You and your child

 Yes, I employed the bathroom mirror for this shot because I cannot for the life of me find my tripod. I have a horrid feeling it's in our stuffed-to-the-brim storage closet and I'm afraid of opening that door. The bathroom thing is also appropriate because I often sit M in the sink just to occupy her while I'm trying to get ready to go out the door. She grabs toothbrushes and I'm able to get makeup on, because I rarely go out in public without at least foundation, eye liner and mascara on.
Since M has been very insistent on being held lately (she's teething and is recovering from hand, foot and mouth disease, or for her, Nasty Rashes Everywhere But The Bottom virus) so the sink is my compromise. Lucky for me I've been pulling the hair back and up because I get so hot now, so trying to curl or straighten the hair is now a non-issue.
I realize I've skipped my "wife/wives" study a few days and it's on my planner for tomorrow... In the mean time, I'd like to share a few more photos of my beautiful girl.

But why am I fenced in?!

 

Is it edible?

Listening to: Life, Love & Other Mysteries, Point of Grace