Our Week With Mimi

We loved having Mimi here this week! Not only was it a special treat just to have Mom here period; she was a HUGE help as Steve went back to work this week. I was thrilled to have her here the entire week, but I really can't imagine surviving the mornings without her - she got the girls breakfast, helped them get dressed, brushed Bella's hair, and took over transportation duties. (All while I sat on the couch and nursed Henry...the boy eats a lot!) 

She baked cookies, watched movies, did crafts, played in the playroom, helped with Henry's newborn pictures, cuddled, cleaned, and chauffeured. It was such a fun week and the girls were in 7th heaven to have her here! 

On Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa get here, and the fun starts all over again!

 

 

 

 

#WannabePaparazzi

We had Ellen come over on Saturday afternoon to take some pictures for our Christmas  card, but I may have gotten a little trigger-happy the morning of, and forced Steve to pose for photos early. I love black-and-white photos, so I decided to make him my guinea pig and snap a few pictures of he and Henry together. I just took these on my phone, so there's nothing like professional lighting or anything (not that I even know how to do that!), but I still had fun documenting Daddy and Henry together!

 

 

 

I think we can all agree that he's pretty much perfect. (Especially because he was sleeping in all of these pictures!)

 

A Belated Halloween Post

Usually moms are the only ones who notice when their kids look like a hot mess, but this was definitely our "Hot Mess Halloween"! We brought Henry home the morning of the 31st, so Steve and I were not really in the mindset to trick-or-treat. 

The plan was for Bella to be a unicorn (shocking, I know), and Evelyn was going as Princess Anna from Frozen. Weeeellll...technically that still happened, but we threw our own "flair" into the mix!

Bella decided at the last-minute that she didn't want to wear the unicorn horn that I had made for her weeks ahead of time. I was way too brain-dead to think of any sort of outfit for her, so I let her choose, and she went trick-or-treating in a unicorn shirt and flip flops. Yep. She did at least tuck her ribbon tail into the back of her pants as she went whinnying down the driveway. 

Thankfully, Evelyn had an actual Anna dress that I had bought at Target months ago. I had grand plans to braid her hair in two little braids (so cute!), but on the actual evening, I ended up just throwing her hair into two ponytails, so it came out a little more "German barmaid" than Princess Anna. Oh, and she decided she wanted to wear her cowboy boots instead of black, church shoes, so she was a Western German barmaid. Those are good times right there.

Taking pictures with Henry before they headed out with Daddy.

 

Steve said they did great and we're very polite at each door.

 

As you can see, they were very eager. We're working on boundaries.

Divvying up candy at the end of the night was a very. tense. experience. It's how I imagine men look when they sit down to do their Fantasy Football drafts. I could be totally wrong, but don't ruin it for me. 

Our First Week Together

These are unedited, sometimes blurry, slightly filtered snapshots of our first week together. Today was Henry's official due date and tomorrow night marks his first official week.

He had his first doctor's appointment yesterday and already weighs more than his original birth weight! Breastfeeding has been really painful starting out, and last night around 3:30 AM, I finally Googled "breastfeeding latch". My response in my head was, "Oh yeah!" I've noticed a difference already today in the discomfort, which is really nice!

His first time ever nursing! He latched on immediately, which the girls never did.

Daddy changing the first diaper. Steve has been a rockstar on the Mr. Mom front. I've changed a total of two diapers this week - Henry peed all over his own face the first time and all over Evelyn's leg the second time. Clearly, I am not used to boys yet.

In the hospital, they were a little concerned about Henry's blood sugar being low, so we gave him a tablespoon or two of formula, just to get his sugar up. The fun part was that it gave Steve a chance to feed him!

All swaddled and pink

Steve and Henry, having a Daddy moment

Enjoying a quiet moment when Steve and Mel changed shifts and no nurses came in to bother us.

Nursing and sleeping...it's pretty much all the two of us did in the hospital. 

The girls seeing Henry for the first time. 

 

I love how excited they BOTH were to meet and hold the baby!

It doesn't matter what noises or faces he makes - Evelyn pretty much thinks he belongs to her now.

Our "this is our new normal" picture.

 

Finally got him out of the pink hospital hat.

Going home!!! Such a different moment than the mini photo shoot we had with Mel when we took Bella home from the hospital. :) This time, we managed to grab a quick selfie while I corralled Evelyn and Steve went for the car.

In our own space at last!

Steve's present for me when I got home..."initial" bracelets for all three. When I first opened the box, I was like, What's the "h" for? (Blame extreme exhaustion.)

Yep. Pretty sure she's going to smother him on accident.

Meanwhile, Bella lost her second bottom tooth, but didn't even realize it and has no idea where the tooth went. There's just never a dull moment with our firstborn!

Snuggled up and so wise

 

Settled in with Henry to nurse. I looked over, and Evelyn was doing this with her doll...

 

Love it! 

 

Bella has surprised us with how much interest she's taken in Henry. She asks to hold him and does a really great job with handling him!

 

The boys getting some rest

This morning, while Steve took the girls to school, we had some skin contact. It's my favorite thing about the newborn stage, just holding them right against you when they're all warm and naked.

 

Henry's Birth Story

We've had Little Man in our lives for almost a week, so I thought I'd sit down and document how he got here. In case you never saw pictures of Evelyn's birth story, I'm warning you now: there will be breastfeeding shots and, if you're lucky, a "crowning" picture or two.

 

Whitney's first question when I talked to her after Henry's birth was, "Did it go just like you wanted it?" I kind of chuckled and said, "No. Not at all." It didn't go like we planned, but it did pretty much go like I expected a hospital-after-a-homebirth to go. It wasn't a negative experience - some of the changes were our decisions and some of them just happened to go with the territory of a hospital birth where there are procedures and policies.

 

The biggest decision we made was whether to have a natural birth or not. When we were first exploring a homebirth with Evelyn, one of my initial motivating factors was the desire for a natural birth. I honestly didn't think I'd have the guts to go through the pain if I knew all of the drugs were right there at my disposal. So we started investigating homebirth...

 

It turns out, I was right. We showed up at the hospital, knowing that the contractions were real (finally!) and that this was going to be the day. When we had delivered Lily, the midwife had given me a light drug that took the edge off since I only had to be dilated to 3 centimeters before she could be delivered. We were warned though, that in full-term labor, the lighter drug didn't really do anything to dull that pain. I walked into the hospital hoping for a natural birth, but not knowing what to expect...

 

 

Getting checked in. One of my "pros" was that they let me wear my own clothes throughout the entire labor and delivery process. It just felt good not to be in a hospital gown.

 

At this point, Steve and I were just so happy to know that we were finally doing this, we were a little bit in denial about the whole pain thing...

 

We labored in the hall (And I kind of love that Steve looks like he's bossing me around in the picture)

 

I was really thankful to be able to use water, too. The nurses kind of left us alone and let us do what we wanted.

 

Mel and Cathy were our support team, and they were amazing! They were our moms, paparazzi, defenders against crazy nurses, hand-holders, and comedic relief, all rolled into one.

 

This was one of my last contractions before I looked at Steve and said, "Okay. No really. I want the epidural. Not like, I want you to talk me out of it; I really want it." Don't you love it when husbands just say yes? I told Whitney later that I was disappointed that I got the epidural, but so thankful to have it. And I'm really okay with having both of those feelings. I know it wouldn't be honest to say that I wasn't disappointed at all, but in that moment, I was so thankful to have some pain relief and be focused on the birth. (And I felt accomplished making it to 7 centimeters! At least that's what I told myself in the moment!)

 

Cathy loved this picture, because it was taken right after the epidural kicked in, and it's obvious that there's a difference.

 

Heart rates and contractions...

 

I'm pretty sure I'm kissing him here just because I was so thankful that he said yes to the good drugs!

 

All ready for Little Man to arrive!

 

We did not care for our labor nurse. Since this blog is a happy place, we're just going to leave it at that, but, bless her heart, she had no business being a labor and delivery nurse.

Starting to push...

 

You know that moment when the baby's heart rate goes down so they have the mother wear an oxygen mask? Yeah, that sucked.

Coolest moment ever! With our other births, the baby's just kind of came shooting out (I think that was my fault), but with Henry, the nurse stopped me after his head came out, so I got to look down and watch the rest of him be born! It was so cool!

 

Here he is! (How Mel got these amazing shots, I'm not sure, but I love them!)

 

Having a baby has got to be the most amazing thing about being a woman. There is just nothing like that feeling.

 

The moments after birth were the biggest differences for me compared to a homebirth, and I found it hard not to have an irrational freak-out moment. There were just so many hands on him and I wanted him back in bed with me so badly!

Thankful to be done!

 

A hearty 8 pounds, 8 ounces. (And his head was 14 centimeters, which I'm told is large!)

 

A few moments alone with Daddy

 

Steve was amazing. I think this was the most I relied on him out of all of our births. I've always wanted him close and he's always been a huge help, but I distinctly remember wanting to hold onto him throughout most of my labor this time around.

 

Getting used to the world

 

I love this picture.

 

Mel getting to say hello.

 

He started nursing almost immediately. One of my concerns with the epidural was that it would affect the baby's ability to nurse, so I was really thankful to see him latch on right away and not have any problems!

 

Cathy getting her turn with Little Man. I'm so thankful for this woman! She is so incredibly selfless and such a wonderful mom when I've needed her!!!

 

So that's the story! I don't know if I remembered to include all of the details, but I'm sure there are enough. We are so thankful to have a healthy baby boy in our arms. He has already stolen our hearts and we are completely in awe! Thank you so much to all of our friends and family who we know covered this pregnancy and birth in prayer from the very first moments. We are truly blessed.

 

 

Henry Cash Wires

October 29, 2014

11:15 PM

8 lbs. 8 oz.

20.5 inches long

 

"But thou, O LORD, are a shield for me, my glory, and the lifter of my head."

Psalm 3:3