Holidays Part 1

We've been meaning to blog for a while now, but things have been pretty busy. Now we have lots to catch up on! We'll start where we left off in November.

The 23rd was my 24th birthday. It was a really good day. First of all, Portland got a slight dusting of snow that morning (the only snow we've seen here so far). Here is what it looked like from our window that day: 

Hardly anything. . . but since we live in Portland, schools were canceled and even Rob's school was delayed 2 hours! It was a birthday miracle. Rob took Collin and let me sleep in while he cleaned up the apartment a little and cooked me a delicious breakfast of an omelet and toast. Then, when he left for school, Collin and I headed to the gym where I had a good workout but did not step on the scale, as a gift to myself :) (another little gift was not checking our bank account that day! haha) Then we came home and relaxed until Rob came home with dinner. We had meatloaf and mashed potatoes from Costco which were delicious. A little later, we had some friends come over for cake and games.

I really wanted a Costco cake because they are my favorite, so we justified getting one with the plan of bringing the leftovers to Rob's family when we went for Thanksgiving. I had a caterpillar cake!

My birthday present was a new camera which has been well used already. It was a really fun and relaxing day for me and Rob did a good job of making me feel special. And Collin was a happy boy and gave me lots of smiles!

For Thanksgiving, we headed to Kennewick to have dinner at Cory and Minnie's house. Tiffanie and Amber were there with their families as well. We were nervous about making a road trip and sleeping away from home with a baby, but Collin did great. He slept through all of the car rides and he loved seeing new faces and watching all the excitement.

Funny sleep smile on the way

Exciting game of Quelf

Keanu really wanted to hold his baby cousin

Collin and Keira

Our handsome driver

The weekend after Thanksgiving, on December 5th, was Collin's blessing day. Rob gave him a blessing and Collin's uncle Rob Hamilton stood in, along with friends of ours Nathan Anderson, Mark Brandt, and Rich King. It was very special and luckily, Collin slept through it. He looked handsome in his white outfit, although he was not a fan of it as we were dressing him in it.

A nice picture of the 4 of us.

Here are a few more pictures of Collin at around 2 months:

He loves his daddy

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Holiday blogs!

Big Smiles

Collin will be 2 months old on Tuesday. He's growing so fast and he changes every day. He gives us big smiles all the time, mostly in the mornings. He especially loves getting kisses. He makes cute noises when he's happy and thinks his parents are hilarious, obviously. Because they are.
I am one of those moms who takes a billion pictures of my baby at a time, in the same position, and I still think each one is the cutest ever. So, here are some smiles I've caught on camera!

Rob took this picture when he was only 3 weeks old

He even smiles when he sleeps. I love waking up to this cutie!!

 For some reason, I think his yawning pictures are super cute too.

Here are a few more of our favorite recent pictures.

He was the cutest little pumpkin for Halloween! We went to our ward trunk-or-treat and Collin slept through everything.

He loves his mommy

Uncle Jeff came into town and Collin got to meet him.

Hanging out with daddy

He looks so chubby in this picture.

Such a big boy in his bumbo!

Collin LOVES bathtime. Even if he is really cranky, he is immediately calm when his bath starts. He has never smiled during a bath though . . . we think he is too busy concentrating on how good the water feels.

 I know our blog is basically just pictures of our baby these days, but that's what everyone expected, right? Rob is really busy with school still, and spends a lot of time studying. We will be glad when he finally gets a break. I have been busy with taking care of Collin and going to lots of appointments all the time, it seems. I also joined a gym here and even though I was super nervous about leaving Collin at the childcare center there, it has worked out great and I can usually plan it so he sleeps the whole time. Also, I can check on him a lot. :) I am loving being a stay at home mom. I don't think we have anything else exciting going on, but we'll try to keep the blog updated a little better!

Since we've been home . . .

We came home from the hospital Saturday, Sept. 25th. Week One was a little miserable sleep-wise. Collin had his days and nights mixed up and hardly slept at all. . . and we hadn't quite figured him out yet. He escaped every swaddle we tried so his own arms would wake him up. Then, we found out that he wasn't getting enough milk from nursing, since he was always sleepy when he nursed and would fall asleep about every 3 seconds. After working on the feeding (with frequent, frustrating lactation specialist appointments) and swaddling, we had a happier baby and he started to sleep for longer stretches.

Swaddled next to daddy

Funny sleeping positions

 During week 2, Grandma Grothaus came to visit, and to help while Rob started school. During this time, we started to give Collin formula after he nursed to make sure he was eating enough, and that made a huge difference in his sleep patterns since he was well-fed. He began having long stretches of sleep at night (5-6 hours at a time!!) and we started getting into a better routine. He started to love baths and started having more awake and alert time. Then, during Week 3, Grandma Grimmer came to help. It was nice to not have to be alone right away with my new baby when Rob was at school all day. 

Also this last week, some girls in the ward had a baby shower for me. It was so nice of them, since we were so new in the ward. It was lots of fun to get out of the house and celebrate our cute baby!

  Collin is lots of fun. We're still working on the feeding thing, since he is still a sleepy eater. But we're getting more and more used to being parents now.

Collin with Grandma Grothaus

He makes the funniest faces!

Aunt Lindsey made him this blanket.

With Grandma Grimmer 

Hanging out with his sock monkey friend. 

We love our cute boy!!

A Baby Story

 Our baby is 3 weeks old already! I decided that I needed to write down my labor and birth story before I start to forget details. **I wasn't going to post this because it is long and boring and mostly for my own records, so don't feel obligated to read it!**

We were hoping that our baby would come by at least his due date (Sept. 26th), since Rob was starting school a few days after. Our doctor (Dr. Carter) was willing to induce labor starting at 39 weeks as long as my cervix was looking good. It was really hard to decide whether we wanted to do that: we preferred that it would happen naturally, but we also really wanted to have some time together with the baby before Rob got busy with school. We felt like we had been sitting around for a long time doing nothing but waiting, and we didn't want to waste our time when we could be spending it getting settled in with our baby. Anyway, since our doctor thought my cervix would be ready, we decided to plan for induction and meanwhile try to get labor to start on its own. . . which didn't work.

We went to my doctor Tuesday the 21st, and she said that we could come in that evening to start cervical ripening stuff overnight. That day was so weird. It's so crazy to know that in a few hours, you're going to the hospital to have a baby. I was stressed. I'm not very good with decisions so of course I was worried that we shouldn't get induced, and that things would go wrong. It's also pretty scary to know that you're about to be in the worst pain of your life for probably a very long time. . . I know that lots of women, at the end of their pregnancies, get so anxious to have their baby that they aren't even scared of the birth any more. My pregnancy was relatively comfortable and easy, even at the end, so I never really got to that point. It was still scary to me.

We spent that day packing our hospital bags, relaxing together, taking a long walk, and eating at Olive Garden right before going to the hospital. Rob also gave me a blessing before we went, mostly for comfort. It really helped me to feel better about the whole thing.

When we got to the hospital, the nurse started me on a low dose of Pitocin to ripen my cervix overnight. I was able to get some sleep in the uncomfortable labor bed, and at about 5:30 in the morning, Dr. Carter came in and turned up the Pitocin to a labor-starting dose, and broke my water. I was dilated to about a 3 at that point. I went back to sleep and we woke up a little later, still feeling fine. My nurse told me to do some walking, so Rob and I walked up and down the halls for a while. I was starting to have mild contractions but overall felt okay. When we got bored of that, we went to our room and played card games. My contractions were getting a lot stronger by that time and I decided to sit in the jacuzzi. It really helped soothe the pain.


After I was done in the jacuzzi, the nurse checked my cervix and it had not changed at all. It was about 1:00 in the afternoon by this time so we were starting to get nervous that the pitocin wasn't working. Since my water was already broken, I needed to have a baby soon one way or another. Dr Carter told the nurse to stop the pitocin for a while because she thought maybe my body wasn't responding to it any more since I had been on it for so long. The nurse stopped the pitocin and gave me a morphine shot, to give me a chance to rest before starting the pitocin again. I rested but never really fell asleep. . . just half-slept. Rob slept like a baby.


At about 5:30, the nurse started the pitocin again and we did a little more walking. Soon, the contractions started getting really strong. The pain was mostly in my lower back and Rob put pressure on it whenever they started. He was super helpful throughout the whole ordeal. After walking, we went back into the room and I tried sitting on the birthing ball. As soon as I sat on it, I started to feel really queasy. I grabbed a barf bag just in time. This was kind of a big deal. . . I hadn't thrown up since I was young, maybe 6 or 7 years old. I ALMOST made it through the entire pregnancy without throwing up, but lost it on the very last day. Rob and I laughed about it quite a bit, because I guess I was kind of dramatic about it. After that, I let the nurse know that I was in enough pain to get the epidural.

At the beginning of my pregnancy, I was convinced that I would try to go without the epidural. But, as it got closer and more real, I was leaning towards getting it. Not necessarily because of the pain, but mostly the anticipation of pain really freaked me out and I wanted to know I could have relief when I needed it. I know everyone says this, but the epidural was so great. Almost instant relief and comfort, and I could finally relax. It was really good for me emotionally I think, to not have to sit there waiting for the pain to keep getting worse all night. The nurse checked my cervix after that, at around 9:00, and it was still only between a 3 and a 4. We were disappointed and felt sure I was going to need a c-section in the morning. The baby's head wasn't quite pointed in the right direction, so the nurse put me in an exaggerated sideways position (right leg up in left stirrup) and I went to sleep. At 11:00, she checked my cervix again and shockingly said, "you're at an 8!". Apparently that position helped the baby to move right where he should, and I'm sure after getting the epidural and being able to relax, I was able to progress better. We were so excited and hopeful. I still wasn't feeling pain, so I went back to sleep.

At about 2:00, she came back in, woke me up, and checked me again. She said I was ready. I woke Rob up and started to get nervous about the whole pushing thing. Even though I was numb, I expected that pushing out a baby would still be really scary. I suddenly got chills and started to shake. The nurse checked my temp and I had a fever. I couldn't stop shaking and even though I knew it was because of the fever and onset of delivering a baby, it felt like I was shaking out of fear of pushing. I started pushing at about 2:30. My contraction monitor wasn't working so I had to tell the nurses when I had a contraction. Even though it was really hard work to push and hold my breath, I didn't feel pain, only pressure. After an hour and a half of pushing, my baby was here!

**As a side note, After Collin was born Rob told me, "All I could think about while you were pushing was, 'I have really bad gas!'" That made me laugh, and laughing hurt.

Because I had a fever, Collin did too as he came out so he needed antibiotics for 2 days. They gave it to him through an IV in his hand. His fever went down quickly, though, and we were so glad our baby was perfectly healthy.

I felt so lucky that things turned out so well. Even though I spent a long day in the hospital, I felt calm and relaxed the whole day. I didn't spend that much time in pain either and felt like I had a pretty good labor and delivery. Also, when Collin was born, one of the nurses said that he looked like he was overdue (because of his wrinkled hands and long fingernails) so it was a good thing we had him when we did. That reassured me of our decision to be induced. Rob was so good at helping me feel relaxed, and all in all, our birth experience was very calm and peaceful.