Plaster, Ink, and an Infant

Explanation not necessary, as you can see this was not a good experience. But...Mimi and I decided that we had to create the plaster footprint of Ethan's "newborn" feet before he truly no longer is anywhere close to the size of a newborn anymore. We received a casting kit at one of our baby showers and were told then that if we wanted it to turn out well we needed to do it while he was young. I had never done this before and didn't realize that plaster set so quickly so I think that we have a cast of his heel. We weren't even going to try to attempt his hand.

Then we felt the need to torment him more and make the ink prints for his baby book. If you're going to do it, why not go all the way. We thought this was going to be much easier...but we were WRONG! Not only was he mad, mad, mad at being victimized by the plaster, he decided to exercise his lungs to the best of his ability (in a VERY high-pitched SCREAM) as we manhandled him to get his hands and feet on the ink pads. Mimi and I decided the best approach was a 1, 2, 3 GO method. So, at the count of 3 we did it and I am so glad they are done. Not my finest or neatest moment, but boy am I glad not to have to think about doing that again anytime soon. OH, did I mention that we decided to do this a few hours before his newborn pictures for the birth announcement.

The First "Play Date"

Keller came to visit last week. She was born a week and 2 days after Ethan and weighed 3 pounds more than he did. Lindy and I spent the whole time holding them (she held Ethan and I held Keller) and talking about the ups and downs of first time mommyhood. Toward the end of the visit, they were pooped. Ethan, a little more so than Keller as we see here. If only, it were always this quiet...

The Little Mamma

Meet Tisha. She is my Mom's dog and she stays with us whenever Mom spends the night or she is traveling for work. Since Mom helped us during our transition period the first few weeks after Ethan came home, Tisha stayed with us, too. From the moment that Ethan came into the house, she adopted him as her own. Anywhere we took the baby, she followed. If he was in the swing, she was sitting below it. If we were holding him on the couch, she was sitting at our feet watching him. If he was sleeping in the bassinet, she was perched as close as she could be without getting in the bassinet. But the funniest thing of all was when he would start to fuss or cry. She would just look at you and you could see her telling you in her doggy way, "HELLO...He's crying. You need to do something...NOW!" She even started to whimper when he cried. So, now we have two Mammas in the house. Our dog, Lucy, is a totally different story. She hasn't even connected that we have a new family member yet.

Chronicle of Our New Life- Pre and One Week Post

Get settled in because it will be a long one. Parts of this might be TMI for some. We begin with a picture of the nursery as it was before we left for the hospital.

And now for the story of labor and delivery...3: 50 pm Monday, July 6th- Just a regular weekly Dr. appt. but when I got there my blood pressure was high and I was preclamptic. Dr. Norwood did not play around: Total bedrest with bathroom privileges only. 11:30 pm Monday, July 6th- Blood pressure still had not come down so, Ben calls the Dr. He said to head to L & D for observation. (Terrific...my hospital bag was not completely packed yet). 4:30 am Tuesday, July 7th-Blood pressure is perfect (of course) and I am released to come back home. Wednesday, July 8th-Blood pressure up and down, but an uneventful day. 8:00 am Thursday, July 9th- Back at Dr. Norwood's office with through the roof blood pressure and increased protein, sent directly to L & D for induction (Lovely, I always wanted Pitocin...but we were prepared and had the hospital bag with us)

Our plan was for a natural delivery. It did not include a continuous monitor and being confined to a bed with an IV of Pitocin AND Magnesium at the same time. God is in control...So, with loved ones(Ben, Mimi, Amber, and Leigh Ann) surrounding us and our doula (Melissa) assisting, we set in for 9 LONG hours of natural labor. FYI: Pitocin is supposed to increase the strength of contractions to spur labor along, but magnesium can stall labor because it keeps you a little out of it so that you will not have a seizure and cut off the oxygen supply to the baby, therefore up the Pitocin to overcome the effects of the magnesium...FUN. After 9 hours of natural labor, still dilated at a 3, Dr. Norwood (and by this time, I'm all for it after the disappointment of only 3 centimeters dilated) tells me we're doing an epidural to see if that will help. Once again, an epidural was not in our birth plan. God is in control...After several hours on the epidural and STILL no progress, Dr. Norwood says C-section is the only way. WHAT!!! That was definitely NOT in our birth plan! God is in control...Ben and Mimi scrub in and go to the OR with me and we soon become the proud parents of the most perfectly precious baby boy that God could have ever given us (not biased, of course). Now that all is said and done, we find out that my perfect little boy spent all day long trying to get through the birth canal, but I have a cupped sacrum that blocks entrance to the birth canal. Result: C-section and a conehead.

So that I do not terrify anyone, all of these pictures are post-epidural...much more tame.

Once we were moved upstairs to postpartum, we continued to feel so blessed by loved ones who cared enough about us to visit and meet our precious new bundle. Some of whom had already spent the entire night of L & D with me!

I just couldn't resist putting this one of Cam in because it was hilarious!

Pay no attention to how bad I look, still swollen from Head to Toe!

After arriving home, Mimi was waiting for us with baby boy ribbons on the mailbox and back gate and Leigh Ann had lunch ready for us, too. We are so spoiled! The next day, Mimi and Leigh Ann worked together and this precious stork arrived in our front yard.

I had to include Daddy's favorite picture. He thinks our child is so advanced that he is about to roll over and already smiling. I think it might be gas...

I also had to include this one of Jill, Cam, and Mimi. Jill really wanted Cam to hold Ethan, but he was terrified. Mimi took care of that...she just walked up and laid him in his arms. Daddy was ready with the camera!

Now, this...this is Mommy's favorite picture of my perfect little angel. I could hold him and stare at him all day long.

Ethan Brewer

July 10, 2009

6lbs 3 oz

18 inches

Do dogs have a paper deficiency?

We have been so proud of our high-energy puppy because it seems that she is beginning to calm down a bit...or so we thought. When we first got her we crate-trained her and it has worked beautifully. Here we are a year later and she's doing so well, so of course it is time to allow her some freedom when we leave. We started allowing her to stay out when we left for short periods of time to run to the store and she has worked all the way up to 4 and 5 hours at a time! We are so proud of her...she's such a good girl! She doesn't get on the furniture, she loves laying on her bed, she plays with her toys and doesn't chew things that don't belong to her! She's such a good girl!

Having said all of that, I've been working on Thank You notes and I am so excited because they are almost finished. They stay on "my" chair and every day I sit and write a few. The other day we left for an hour and a half and when we returned, Lucy had EATEN the gift log that I had recorded everything in, several of the Thank You notes, and way too many envelopes to count. I mean shredded, ripped to pieces, digested, strewn all over the floor, and tore pages clean out of the book. You don't want to know how the hormonal pregnant lady who can't remember anything and had almost gotten all of them written reacted.

Summertime Bedrest

You would think that since I am out of school now and my lovely doctor has requested that I stay off of my feet for several boring hours a day that I would be blogging all the time. I do think about it, but it seems that bedrest lends itself to procrastination...not at all what I was thinking it would be like. I was thinking that I would be reading, reading, reading, writing thank you notes, and spending a lot of time on the computer. Not so much, I am actually doing less reading than ever which really isn't good considering that I have several baby books that I am supposed to have FINISHED before our son arrives. We have less than 5 weeks and there are still way too many things on my baby to-do list for my comfort level. That doesn't stress me out at all, yeah sure! And there are a couple of things that STILL need to be done in the nursery before I post the final pics. Does it ever all get done? Or will he arrive first...

Boys and Their Toys

I am a firm believer that every weekend should be a 3 day weekend with a 4 day work week. I think everyone would get on board with me. It was such a relaxing, beautiful weekend (if you missed the rain)! But somehow Monday felt like it should have been the beginning of the weekend...not the day before we turn around and start the week over again. Even so, we spent Sunday after church and Monday on the lake with friends. By Monday afternoon, the boys decided it was time to really get down to business and do some serious water sports with their toys. The perfect solution...a low-key boat for the girls to watch them and get some sun and a high speed water sport boat for the boys. Ben had a blast wake-boarding and I loved cruising around the lake at a much more desirable speed for my pregnant belly!