David's First Christmas

It's hard to believe that Christmas is over already! It always seems to come and go so quickly. My older sister Sharon and her family are visiting this week and we've been having lots of fun, so I haven't had as much time for blogging, but I thought I'd take the opportunity to make a post since everyone else is occupied at the moment.

In my last post I wrote about my sister Laura and how she had a baby last Wednesday. She's been tired as she recoverers from childbirth, but it's been nice to have her family over at the house more the past few days for Christmas so that we can spend time with baby David. I love newborn babies since they sleep a lot and I can hold them on my lap and snuggle. This phase doesn't last long, though, and I know in just a few weeks David will be more awake and alert and too wiggly to sit with me.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of him from his first Christmas.

Labor of Love

Yesterday was a very special day. My sister Laura had a baby and I was able to be in the delivery room and witness the birth of her son, David. This is Laura's second baby and she wanted to go into labor naturally, but at her doctor's appointment Tuesday her doctor wanted her to have the baby right away since there was lots of protein in her urine, which is indicative of preeclampsia. SO, Laura headed to the hospital Tuesday evening to get the ball rolling!

On Wednesday Laura called my mom mid-morning and said that she was having lots of contractions and labor was progressing nicely and that it was time for us to head to the hospital. We dropped everything and headed up to the hospital and arrived around 12:30 PM. My mom and I hung out in the delivery room with Laura and her husband Brett all afternoon and Laura finally delivered her baby at 5:28 PM.

This was my 17^th time becoming an aunt, as I already have 16 nieces/nephews, however this was the first time that I was actually able to not only be at the hospital, but to also be in the delivery room. What a special experience it was to be there with my sister! She was indeed a champ as she labored hour after hour. I'm so proud of her, especially considering the fact that she had her baby naturally. Most women opt for some sort of medical intervention these days to help manage the pain that labor and delivery inevitably brings, but not Laura. She wanted to try going all natural, and she succeeded! I have to admit as happy as I was to be in the delivery room, it was hard for me to hear Laura crying out in pain. I know she was in excruciating pain and I don't like to see anyone in pain, especially someone I love.

After what seemed like an incredibly long time, David Alexander was finally born at 5:28 PM. He weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs. 3 oz. and had a full head of dark hair, just like his older sister Amy had when she was born! Although my mom and I left the house in a rush, I remembered to have her grab my camera on the way out the door. My mom got some great shots of the delivery!

Here I am providing Laura with some support/encouragement!

I love Laura's facial expression in this next picture. They say a picture says 1000 words, and I certainly think that's true in this picture! The next picture shows the time that David was born… 5:28 PM.

This Is Laura's OB/GYN, Dr. Whalen, and Laura's labor and delivery nurse, Keri They were a wonderful team! Dr. Whalen was so relaxed and experienced, as well as Keri who did a great job coaching/encouraging Laura as she labored for hours with NO epidural or pain meds of any kind. Laura wanted to try having her baby naturally, and she was a "real trooper" as my dad would've said!

Dr. Whalen predicted that Laura's baby would be somewhere in the 7 pound range, but he was a little off as David weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs. 3 oz.! (This makes Laura's natural childbirth seem like even more of accomplishment!)

Proud parents, proud Grammy holding her newest grandson, and then a few shots of me with my newest nephew!

This is a picture of the stake dinner Laura ordered after the delivery – she earned every bite! Also pictured are David's "first impression" footprints and then two pictures of his first bath. Check out all that dark hair!

 

Approximately 14 hours later my oldest sister Miriam who lives in Texas had a new baby delivered via C-section. Victoria Marie was born this morning and weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. My new niece and nephew are definitely a Christmas gift from God and I feel so incredibly blessed to now be an aunt to 10 nieces and eight nephews!

I'm Still Here!

I know I've been "missing in action" the past few days and I appreciate the people who have contacted me making sure that everything is all right, but I promise I have some good excuses as to where I've been! First of all, I've been devoting just about all of my computer time trying to finish my 2011 Year in Review family slideshow that I make at the end of each year as a way to document what my family's been up to throughout the past year. This past Monday I opened my slideshow to put the finishing touches on it, and I was dismayed to find out that someehow the timing had gotten all messed up. Ugh! VERY frustrating, to say the least! SO, I've been furiously trying to do damage control and get my slideshow fixed so that I can still finish it up and get it ready to mail to my other family members so that they can still watch it by Christmas. I spent a good 6 – 8 hours on Monday alone fixing my slideshow, as well as several hours yesterday. I think I've pretty much gotten it back on track and I'm almost ready to say, "It's as good as it's going to get!"

I've also been extremely busy this week with a doctor's appointment, Christmas shopping, visits from friends, book club, etc. Then today my sister Laura went into labor and my mom and I spent a huge chunk of the day at the hospital with my sister. Laura's baby is my 17th niece/nephew, so you'd think that births/deliveries would be "old hat" by now, but since Laura is pretty much my only sister to have a baby here locally (except for one of my sisters who had a C-section in November of 2005) I've been anxiously awaiting her baby's arrival so that I could hopefully be at the delivery (so long as Laura didn't go into labor in the middle of the night). I've been praying the past few weeks asking the Lord to make things happen in a timeframe to where both my mom and I could be present for the delivery. The Lord always comes through for me and I was able to be there. It was so exciting! I don't have time to write about the whole experience tonight, but I will make a blog post about it very soon, so stay tuned!!

I hope all of you are well and I promise to write more soon!

Toy Conspiracy

I've been doing a lot of Christmas shopping lately and toys sure are getting cheap! And when I say cheap I don't mean inexpensive; I mean poorly made! I'm only 27, but the toys I remember playing with in the 80's and 90's were so much better quality than a lot of the toys that are around today. A lot of times it's the same toy, but they are made much more cheaply these days and aren't as nice.

Then there are the updated versions of things. Take board games, for example. Sure, you can still buy some of the more classic games like Monopoly, Life, Clue, Candy Land, Mouse Trap, etc. These games are still around and they're basically the same games, but lots of them have updated rules or they look different as the look the game boards/pictures have been modernized. I like things to stay with same! For example, when I bought Guess Who? for one of my nephews last year it was sad to see that many of the classic characters didn't look the same, or they had different names and things like that. I suppose it's good to keep things current and fresh so that today's kids will still enjoy them, but it still sad. Why can't they just leave well enough alone?

Lots of the popular toys in this day and age require batteries since they have screens or sound effects or things like that. These tech-y toys are neat, don't get me wrong, but I just like the classic toys that I played with when I was a kid.

While I don't encourage hoarding, I would suggest that parents hold on to some of their kids toys for when they are adults. My mom has hung on to some of the toys my sisters and I had growing up and they are some of my nieces and nephews favorite toys to play with. (I wish my mom wouldn't have gotten rid of quite so much, or it would be nice to go back in time and "save" some of the things I got rid of as I aged. What can I say, I'm sentimental!

The Stockings Were Hung…

My sister Kristin sent me some pictures last week so that I could see how she'd decorated different parts of her house for Christmas. When I saw the homemade snowman stockings that she'd made hanging on her mantle I knew I had to make a post about it on my blog. Kristin is my dream girl! She's extremely talented and is pretty much a "Jack of all trades" as she is so good at so many different things. The snowman stockings are her own creations that she designed all by herself.