Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Today we went and got portraits done at Target and I love how they turned out. The only thing I'm bummed about is how long I have to wait to get them back. Cooper cooperated for a bit, but we weren't able to get some poses that we would have like. Savannah was actually amazingly good and kept asking to get her picture taken. She was all smiles too! We took a couple of Cooper alone, both kids, a few of Savannah and some family photos. I'm so happy with how they turned out and can't wait to post them. But like I said, it's going to be awhile. :(

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Buddy

Carter and I have been calling Cooper "Buddy" ever since he was born. I'm not sure if we individually started doing this, or if one of us started it and the other liked it. I really can't remember. But soon after getting home and still calling him "Buddy" a lot, Savannah started calling him "Buddy" too.
As I look at these pictures taken a few days ago, and then glance down at him right now, he already looks different. It's crazy how that happens. On Friday he had his two week checkup and appointment for his circumcision. They didn't do it at the hospital which was a surprise to us. They said more people are doing it in the doctor's office now, so we just went with it. Carter wasn't able to go to the appointment with me, so that made me a little nervous but all turned out well. When Cooper left the hospital he weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz., down 4 oz. from birth. At his appointment he weighed 8 lbs. 4 oz.! We're so glad that he's actually gaining weight, compared to skinny mini sister. They measured him at 21 inches too. I'm not sure how accurate that is though because he was "supposedly" 18 1/2 inches at birth. That seems like quite a bit to grow in 2 weeks. I think somewhere along the line someone got something wrong. But I'm sure he did grow a little cause that is quite a big difference. He's 50% in length, 25% in weight, 25% in head circ. and the doctor said that's great for his size and proportions.
He did really well during his circumcision, apparently. I wasn't in the room, thank goodness. They gave him some sugar water, which he had in the hospital too, and that kept him happy throughout. He was very calm afterward and cried more getting his PKU test done on his heel. I had taken a bottle of breast milk with me to help soothe him if needed, so before we left I was giving him some. All the sudden he started to freak out! He would not stop crying for like 10 minutes and I could not figure out why. I was starting to worry that he was hurt or something because he was hysterical and I'd never heard him cry like that. I decided to just leave and see if the car ride would help. I ended up stopping around the corner and getting him out and holding him in the backseat for a few minutes. Out came a loud burp. And then he was fine. Talk about freaking me out for a bit, and all it was, was a burp. He has a terrible time burping. A lot of the time he never does. He's still spitting up too and has drenched himself and me multiple times with nasty milk. He's gaining weight though, so I guess that's the most important part.

Savannah turned into a "little girl" while we were gone at the hospital for a few days. We came home and I swear she felt much heavier and like she'd grown a bunch. Her hair seemed longer and she was talking even more than she already did. I thought maybe it was because I was away from her for a few days and only used to holding a little baby, but no, she weighs more. I know it. She just talks non-stop now and can have a conversation about anything. Somehow her hair is sticky all the time. Her sort of bangs are growing out and she's constantly swiping them out of her eyes, with sticky fingers. Her hair is in constant tangles and she doesn't want me to brush her hair either, so it just gets worse. She loves singing, especially Disney songs. We have a few soundtracks in our car and she always wants to listen to them. She is incredibly social, when she wants to be. She loves playing with the neighbor kids or kids at play centers like Arctic Circle. She goes up to kids and says, "I'm Savannah, what's your name?"











This little guy is so strong already. In the hospital we'd be holding him upright and he would just start holding his head up. We couldn't believe it. Since getting home, he holds it up even more. He still flops around sometimes, but he's had like a 2 minute stretch of just staring at me face to face. The other night we gave him some tummy time, which he's not very fond of. His arm was propped up a little and all the sudden he just rolled over! Already determined to not have tummy time! As you can see in this picture, he is great at wrinkling up his face.







I'd say it took Savannah about a week to warm up to Cooper. She would either ignore him or occasionally give him kisses, but not much else. Now she is much more interested in him and gives him even more kisses and hugs. I love the picture below because it almost looks like Cooper is smiling at her.





On another note, I am back to my pre-baby weight. I'm not sure how that happened so fast. After a week and a half I'd lost like 16 lbs, well more like 8 lbs. because Cooper was the other 8 lbs. Then by two weeks it was all gone. Now it's time to start working out so that I don't have a flabby tummy. I swear, pregnancy weight re-distributes to other areas of the body after giving birth. I want to avoid that this time around if possible. It's all about being motivated though, so I better start giving myself pep talks.






Sunday, April 19, 2009

I'm here to see my son

As you can see, we very recently had a baby boy. I haven't had any time to actually write about the birth and afterward. So here goes...

On Thursday, April 9th I was set to be induced to have Cooper. I had been sort of hoping that he might come early so that I wouldn't have to be induced. We chose to be induced for a couple reasons, but the main one was that I wanted to have my doctor deliver the baby, as one of her partners delivered Savannah, and there were complications that we felt could have been avoided. So all morning Thursday I was awaiting a call for when to come in. This was incredibly frustrating to me and I was worried that the later it got, the more tired I'd get or that my doctor would go off "on call" status. I was told to call by noon if I hadn't heard anything. I hadn't, so I called and they said it shouldn't be much longer, but that they were trying to clear out rooms. They were busy. Dang Utah County. So maybe 25 minutes later I get the call to come in. We headed straight down, making a last minute stop at Arby's for some curly fries and a farewell to Dr. Pepper for awhile. I needed SOMETHING on my stomach, as I didn't want to eat anything all morning. I was anxious and feeling nauseous. We got to the hospital around 1:20 pm and I was hooked up immediately, and my doctor came in at 1:30pm. She checked me and said I was already at a 4, so she just wanted to break my water right then. OKKKKAAAYYY. She broke it and they started pitocin. Within 30 minutes I was feeling contractions and they kept coming and were pretty close together for awhile. A little before 5pm they came to check on me and I was a 5. I was ready for an epidural at that point. I was proud of myself for going that long, because with Savannah I had it at like a 2. Anyway, so the nurses say that the anesthesiologist is on the floor and it will be a little bit, but they'll put me on a list. A LIST! My contractions were getting stronger and closer together and I was getting very antsy to get that epidural. I think I only waited maybe 15-20 minutes, but that feels like forever. Once that baby kicked in though, OHHHH, sweet relief. I was so numb it was unbelievable. So between 5-6:30, I went from a 5 to a 10. Luckily I was able to rest during that time. With Savannah I wasn't able to rest at all. The nurses wouldn't leave me alone ever! Anyway, my nurse came in to tell me she was leaving, which was disappointing because I liked her, and she decided to check me real quick. She's like, "Oh, you're done." So, I'm ready, the nurses are in the middle of shift changes and it's really busy. A bunch of new nurses come in and my doctor. Everything was moving so fast. I couldn't believe that everything had progressed sooo fast. At that point it had only been 5 hours. I started to push, but I could not feel a darn thing. A good and bad thing. I had no idea how hard I was pushing or when contractions were coming. The nurses had to tell me. That was kind of weird. With Savannah I could at least feel a little bit of the contractions. I was just beyond numb this time. It took about 40 minutes of pushing. The doctor kept telling us that he had lots of hair. What!? Really?! So, at 7:23 pm he made his debut. The cord was wrapped around his neck twice. Wasn't expecting that one. He wasn't in any kind of distress thank goodness. He seemed small to me when I first saw him and he was up next to me. He weighted 7lbs. 15 oz. (What?! I was so sure that he would not be over 7 lbs. ), and 18 inches long. And he did have tons of hair. He was pretty purple though. Rather than crying, he was grunting. He was having a little bit of a hard time catching a breath. After a few minutes they decided they wanted to take him downstairs to the nursery to see what was up. At this point, I was thinking (and I'm sure Carter was too), not again. Carter went with him, while I rested in labor and delivery. He came back to give me updates and they thought he'd gotten some fluid in his lungs so they put him on a c-pap machine to help him breath. After awhile, I got to come down to mother and baby and see him in the nursery. We weren't really sure what was going on, but we couldn't hold him. After a couple hours, they moved him to the level 2 nursery (sort of like a nicu, but nothing like what Savannah had been in). They wanted to monitor him. We talked with the pediatrician and he said that he'd gotten some fluid in his lungs and that as a pre-caution, they wanted to give him antibiotics for 48 hours, to avoid any infection or pneumonia from possibly occurring. What a bummer. But the doctor was very reassuring and said he would be just fine and that some babies just need a little help sometimes. We were finally able to hold him and Carter helped give him a bath. He really looked nothing like we had expected. We expected a boy version of Savannah. And especially not all that hair. He was pretty swollen too, so he looked like this little sumo wrestler chunk. But he was obviously just adorable and we were relieved that he was going to be just fine.

The next couple days were extremely hectic and tiring. I checked out after about 36 hours; I could have stayed a couple hours longer, but new at that point that I'd be going back and forth to feed him, so we had to make some adjustments to our plan. Carter's brother Taylor was very nice to let us stay at his place, which is 5 minutes away from the hospital, so that we could go back and forth every few hours for feedings. That was rough. After about a day and a half of Cooper being in Level 2, he got jaundice. They started him on lights. His lungs were fine and he was in the clear, but that darn jaundice had to pop up. They aggressively put him under two lights and a bili-blanket to try to knock it out of his system fast. He was changing a lot in appearance too. He wasn't so swollen anymore, so he didn't look that chunky. Every time we went to see Cooper, before we could enter the Mother/Baby area we had to pick up a phone and give a code. Most of the time Carter would do this. He would say, "I'm here to see my son.", and give them the code. It was weird to hear him say that. One day I decided to pick up the phone, and I said, "I'm here to see my son." Weird. Reality set in for sure. So rather than Cooper coming home on Saturday night when he should have, he didn't get to come home until late Monday night. He came home with a bili-blanket to wear and the next morning (Tuesday) we went and had his bilirubin checked at the hospital. A couple hours later they called and said that he didn't have to be on the blanket anymore. He ended up using it for less than 24 hours. Kind of annoying.

Cooper is now 10 days old. He is a pretty good little baby. He only gets mad when he's hungry. And he can get really mad. He gets so frustrated and can't focus on eating that sometimes it takes awhile to get him started. He loves to fall asleep when he's eating, which in turn makes our eating experience around an hour. He's not chunky at all. He has a little bit of a double chin, but that's all. His hair is awesome! Little faux hawk's are so cute. We're still trying to place who he looks like, but we're not sure. He looks nothing like Savannah did, and Savannah looked like Carter, so maybe he'll look more like me. We'll see in time. We know he doesn't have my lips, that's for sure. He loves his bouncer. He's starting to spit up just like Savannah did. I'm hoping that doesn't stick. He doesn't sleep well between the hours of 2:30 am - 6:30 am. And he gets the hiccups during those hours too. And they are loud and last for awhile. He's pretty calm and easy going. He recognizes his Daddy's voice really well. He is just so sweet and we love him so much. Savannah is pretty cute with him, but she either ignores him or is a little too in his face. She calls him Baby Cooper. She loves rubbing his hair. It's still kind of strange that we have 2 kids. Thank goodness Carter has been home during this time. He's been able to spend time with Savannah, when I've been busy. He goes back to work tomorrow, (Monday) so the real test starts. We shall see.

I do have one regret about everything. The day after I gave birth, one of my nurses came in and asked if I wanted to get a tetanus shot. I actually think it was a couple shots all in one, but can't remember. Anyway, I said yes. I wasn't really sure, but they said if I hadn't gotten one in 10 years that I probably should. I knew it had been longer than 10 years. So they gave me the shot. Horrible decision in my mind. Within a couple hours, my arm was killing me. I could barely move it. My whole body was already very sore, and in areas that I wouldn't expect, but then that shot made it much worse. I wish they would have told me realistically that it was going to hurt so much. And for days!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Our Kiddies

































I love this one...I just wish Cooper's eyes were open.













What he wore home from the hospital.


























Saturday, April 11, 2009

Baby Boy Cherry

I have zero time right now to post much, but here are a few photos. Commentary to come....


Cooper Donovan Cherry
April 9th
7lbs. 15 oz. 18 1/2 inches
7:23 pm
Loads of black/dark brown hair








Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Savannah's Room


I've been working on Savannah's room for awhile now, and it's mostly done at this point, but I still feel like a few touches may be needed. Those touches will be on hold though until I have some time and can figure out what I want to do. I found these cute letters at Roberts Craft and they were originally white, but my Mom and I painted them in the colors of her bedspread. We found these butterfly decals at where else, but Target.



Her very cute curtain made by Grandma Barbara. I wish you could see the pretty embroidery, but it's pretty small. She also made a pillow cover in a very light pink with a small pillow that we had. I didn't take a picture of her bed because it was all messy, so another time you'll have to see the full effect of her room. Maybe by then I'll have more done too.


This shelf was mine when I was little and has been in her room since she was born. I also painted frames for her room (all the frames in both kids rooms were from our wedding, so I just re-painted them).








These tall blue flowers were from my baby shower and the smaller ones my Mom got and I covered the bottom part, because it was black and didn't really match, with pretty light blue ribbon.
She's still got a few small spots in her room where I'd like to find cute pictures to put up or make something. I still feel like even with her name up on the one BIG wall, that it's kind of empty and will need something else too. Like I said, eventually....





Baby Boy's Room

I decided that since Savannah is very quietly watching a movie right now, that I would attempt to put up pictures of both of the kids rooms for all to see. Enjoy!


We already had the rug so it was meant to be!

All the picture frames are awaiting pictures of the little guy!


Is it wrong that all 3 drawers are this full?



Target really is my favorite place to shop for kids clothes. We received a $100 gift card to Target early on from our health insurance if we enrolled in a pregnancy program. Such a sweet thing and they just called me 3 times to check up on me and see how I was doing. Anyway, that $100 went sooo far. I have Targets markdown schedule almost memorized at this point. I got tons of stuff at 75% off all the time. Plus, our extra 10% off employee discount! A few times I'd spring for something that I really loved and didn't think would last until the 50 or 75% off, but I don't know that I really bought much that was over $8 or $9. I got so many adorable things for $3 that were normally $12. Complete outfits!! I really could not contain myself on these days when I'd walk in and see the 75% off signs! It just made my day. He really is set on clothes til about 9 months and then we have a good amount between 9-12 months. It sure helped us out too financially because I got so much with the $100, that I really haven't spent all too much of our own money. Sweetness.













I love the polka dots in this bedding set!










These wall decals are so fabulous! They were so easy to put up and take off, if we needed to change something. When we were pregnant with Savannah, but didn't know she was a girl yet, we were looking at bedding at the Baby Depot at Burlington Coat Factory. We had found an adorable monkey bedding set there that we would have got if Savannah were a boy, and then Savannah's cute flower and dragonfly one. Obviously, Savannah was a girl so we got the girlee one. When we found out we were having a boy this time, I went back to see if they had that monkey bedding, from 3 years ago! I figured it wouldn't be there, but wanted to see if they had any other monkey patterns. Nothing that I was in love with though. I had told my Mom kind of what I wanted to do for a boys room and to keep a look out for anything. She called me a few days later and told me I had to go to Babies R Us because they had this adorable brown and green monkey set. I looked it up online right then and fell in love with it. I called Carter at work and asked him if he'd mind going to Babies R Us that night, because I had to see this bedding! We went and both loved it, so we registered for it. It was even better than the one we'd seen 3 years ago, and in my mind was exactly how I had invisioned his room.






Grandma Barbara made curtains for both the kids rooms with fabric that I'd found. His curtain turned out EXACTLY how Carter and I had imagined it. The camera made it look kind of funny, but it's brown and beige stripes, with the brown tabs on the top.














There is one wall that I didn't post a picture of because his name is up on the wall, in wooden letters. So, once he's here, I'll put it up. Everytime I walk in that room, I just love how it turned out!