0 & 13 Months!

Birth story of Lucas Steven 

(0 months)

The past weekend I had timeable (but painless) contractions. Dr told me I was in early labor but who knew when things would take off.

I woke up Tuesday morning feeling a little crampy but that was no different than the weekend so I brushed it off. I stayed in bed thinking about plans for teaching for the day. Got out of bed at 6:21 figuring I ought to shower when I stood up and realized... Did my water just break?! (Last time my water never broke until we were partway through pushing). Still not quite convinced I thought I should call in to prep for a sub just in case. Woke up Tyler, told him I was barely feeling contractions and to keep sleeping but that I think it could be baby day. During my shower contractions picked up and turned from uncomfortable to pain. Tyler got up and started getting Katelyn ready for the day. We traded off so he could get ready but those contractions went from bad to worse quickly so I called Ty's mom over to watch Katelyn so I could try to focus on relaxing through the pain. We were ready to go and things just seemed to be going fast. In the car Tyler was trying to get an "on the way to the hospital" picture and I told him he'd have to wait for this contraction to pass. It was taking forever and Ty was trying to get out of the driveway so he kept saying "just try to smile". I told him to just wait a minute. Contraction passed , he snapped a picture, and we were on our way! ( good thing bc that was my last break in contractions). Waves of contractions hit but there was never rest in between. They went from painful to unbearable back to painful and back again, but no rest. Tyler was freaking out over traffic and I kept telling him to relax, we're not having the baby in the car.

We got to the hospital and the lady at the desk asking questions realized how intense things were and rushed us into a triage room. I went to the bathroom and felt nauseas.  Immediately after throwing up I felt the urge to push. Nurses were scurrying to get me into a wheelchair to get me to a delivery room (insert typical birth movie scene here) Then trying to rush me up on the bed. Not quite an easy way to relax through contractions;) I somehow managed to get on the bed just in time to push and 30 minutes after pulling into the hospital, Baby Luke came into the world! (8:48am)  It was such an insane whirlwind of events!  Less than 2.5 hours from plans to teaching for the day to welcoming our 2nd child into the family!

We are so blessed and thankful for our miracle baby! Now two healthy children!  One that we thought we had surely lost at 3 months of pregnancy (Luke). (Look earlier in the blog for the entire story). We are now home figuring out how this whole two children thing works:)

A little about Luke:
-He is massive! (9 lbs 6 oz)
-Because he is massive he wants to eat. A lot. And ALL the time...
-What works to soothe him: tight swaddles, warmth, bouncing, and he's been finding his fingers here and there.
-His cry sounds like a pig squealing. -To make things funnier, he often snorts while crying.
-He can self soothe?! The other night I laid him down drowsy but quite awake. A few minutes later he fussed for two minutes and then fell asleep! On his own! Is this a fluke? I'll take it :)

Katelyn is close to 13 months!

(I think ill blog once a month in between Luke's and Katelyn's next month of development.)

-Katelyn now likes to give a sarcastic laugh (a deep hardy Ha Ha)-still as joyous as ever-starting to cry and really throw tantrums over things she wants.
-now kisses. Tonight when reading a book, she leaned forward to kiss the animals in every page. Sometimes kisses are open mouth toward an object with a lick. Sometimes it's a kiss noise a few inches away with a quick nuzzle.
-still treats her bed like a crib. Even though she often climbs in and out during the day, she always stays and cries until someone comes to take her out of bed. I specifically haven't encouraged her to see that connection as it's kind of convenient for now. She'll figure it out sooner or later.
-The day we brought Luke home, she decided to grow up overnight and walk!  She is starting to take off and can walk across the room without any help and boy can walk fast!
-If you turn on music, even if it's in the background of a commercial on tv, munchkin shakes her groove thang!  Those little hips get going and she bounces.  She's hilarious as it's like she cannot control it.  Even in a pool area with background music, she immediately dances. She notices music when most of us don't.

12 Months... 1 Year Old!

It's so hard to believe that our baby is already 1 year old!   I will say that birthdays have changed their meaning this year... Although my birthday is the day before Katelyn's, I was far more excited for hers as it carries such amazing memories welcoming her into our lives.  

Birthday Party!: We celebrated Katelyn's birthday a few weeks early since we had so much going on in September-October and then we'll have a newborn so we really wanted her to have her own day.  My mom flew in to help me prep for it and of course to celebrate and spend time with Katelyn.  Katelyn did a great job!  Woke up from a nap shortly before the party, she ate a great supper, loved all the attention, got excited with each gift opened, and loved the cupcake I made her.  It was actually a healthy version made without sugar but made with bananas and applesauce.  The icing was made with mainly powdered sugar (and a tiny bit of greek yogurt) and although I thought she'd go crazy over the icing, she was more excited about the cupcake (more like a muffin) and turned it upside down to eat the underside more than the icing!  Silly girl!  Note to self- make more muffins!

Vocabulary: We have added the words "down", "yep", and signs milk and all done.  She also points a lot- often to ask for more.

Sitting: We LOVE to arrange things, turn around, squat down and sit on it.  Whether it's a pillow or stuffed animal or just a bucket.  Anything that is her size!

Steps: Gaining more balance as she practices walking holding on to one of our hands.  She sometimes accidentally takes a few steps without realizing it.  We need to work with her more on it because it's really just about confidence now.  She has the balance and skills.

Teeth: We have 5 teeth now!  2 on bottom, 3 on top!

Toddler bed!: Grammy helped a bunch by painting Katelyn's new room and cleaned the room.  As soon as Grammy left town, we switched the room over for Katelyn with a toddler bed and transitioned her over.  We thought we'd go slow- just for naps to start.  The first day we did a nap in there, it was as if there was no transition at all.  Because we felt confident about it, we haven't gone back to the crib since!  We put a body pillow down on the floor in case she somehow got out and we rolled up towels and put it under the sheets across the opening just so she doesn't fall out (since she came pretty close in one of her naps!).  I know- most people freak out when they hear we've transitioned her before she can even walk, but she knows what edges are and that if she leans over them that she can fall and she knows how to turn around and climb down from the couch or other high things so we feel confident.  It's been a few weeks and so far so good!

*videos of Katelyn at the bottom*

Baby Boy

This should be the last post by me before baby boy is born!  We have about 2 weeks left until the "due week" but we'll see what he decides on timing (or even more so what God decides on timing).  I won't lie, I'm feeling very uncomfortable.  I don't remember pregnancy feeling like this to the point where bending down is nearly impossible with how incredibly low he is and everything I do causes contractions.  Anyway, I think baby boy will look a little different than Katelyn- at least their 20 weeks ultrasounds shows a little different face shape in my opinion.  Baby boy on the left, Katelyn on the right.  We're excited to see him in real life!  Dr. said "this is NOT a small baby..." scaring mama quite a bit, but then she mentioned that Katelyn wasn't small either (oh phew- I was thinking she meant 10-11 lbs?!)  Sounds like he's probably about 7lbs already with a few weeks to go.  Praying God knows the timing best and that labor is a little faster and even more efficient than last time but you just never know!  Baby boy loves to stretch out those legs and push hard!  Anyway, his appearance should be coming shortly in the next few weeks so keep us in your prayers that labor goes well, that he's perfectly healthy, and that Katelyn learns to transition and love her baby brother!