Our first Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all!

We had a wonderful first Christmas with Noah (and Grandma and Grandpa W.). Noah slept through half of the gift opening. Noah got some fun toys; we're excited for him to start playing with them. Right now he's just staring at them. It's still kind of fun to make the toys move or make noises or whatever and watch Noah really concentrate on it. It's cute. =)

So he's a little over 3 months old now. This is bizarre. He's about to outgrow 6 month clothes very soon (like... now?).

He's still not rolling all the way over, but he rolls onto his side like crazy (he's been doing that since he was 3 weeks old, though). There was one time a few weeks ago where he rolled from his back to his front and looked excited for a second, but then he realized he was on his tummy (which he HATES) and freaked out. He hasn't done it since. But he's super content to go from his back to either side.

Noah keeps trying to sit up, too. We'll be holding him, having him leaning back against us, and he'll try and pull himself up to a sitting position (he gets about half way up, too). He's really loving sitting up. We were thinking about getting a Bumbo seat for him so he could sit up, but he was really close to the weight limit on it (I think it goes to 20-25 pounds). So instead we got him a little booster seat for Christmas that will work up until toddlerhood. We put him in it while we ate dinner today and gave him some toys and he was happy as a clam, sitting up and banging some toys around. =)

Oh, that's another thing- if he can get it in his hand, it WILL be in his mouth. It's so funny to watch him. He stares at the toy, grabs it, and right into his mouth it goes. He's also fairly constantly covered in drool these days (as am I). Slobber, slobber, slobber.

I tried to measure him the other day. He was wiggling a lot, so it was hard to tell what it was exactly, but he's between 27-28 inches. He hasn't been weighed since he was 7 weeks... but I'm sure he's around 20 pounds. He's definitely a sturdy kid.

He laughs a lot now. Oh my goodness, it's adorable. I was holding him facing me last week and he just started cracking up. I wasn't doing anything particularly funny, but he seemed to find me hilarious (I guess he thinks I'm funny looking). He just went on and on laughing! Music to my ears. =)

His hair is blonde. It's cute. And his eyes are still blue- I think they're going to stay blue. And his cheeks? Squishy and kissable. =)

I keep trying to take pictures of him smiling with my actual camera instead of my iPod (iPod pictures are grainy... but it's more convenient to use), but the flash throws him off and by the time it actually takes the picture, he's mesmerized by the flash and not smiling anymore.

Pictures of my cutie. 

 

Cloth diaper review!

We've been using our cloth diapers for almost 3 months now, so I thought I'd write up what I think about them for those of you who are interested. =)

We're using 2 brands of diapers- Econobum during the day, and Kissa's hybrid one size contour at night.

Econobum

Fit-
     Covers for Econobum have different snap settings, so you can adjust them to fit properly as your baby grows. They're one size diapers, which means that with the different settings, you can have your baby wear them from birth until potty training. They've always fit Noah well.

     The prefolds are very easy. They can be folded into thirds to different ways- either long or wide. It's really nice, I fold them up after I take them out of the dryer and all I need to do to put it on Noah is place a prefold in the cover and put it on him. Easy. We've only used the wide fold for Noah so far. The long was much too big for him in the beginning, but we're getting to the point where we'll need to switch to the longer fold, since he's so massively big.

The only downside to the fit is that they're very bulky. Before we moved, Noah was in 0-3 size clothes and they fit him perfectly length-wise in his Econobums. When we actually moved, I used disposables and was pretty surprised when I first put one on him because his clothes had a couple extra inches of room. But that's not a big deal.

Maintenance- I wait until we get down to 6 prefolds to wash them, which usually happens every other day. I do a cold rinse, cold wash, and hot wash (cold is to help prevent stains, hot is to help with absorbency). The covers have to be line dried, but the prefolds are fine to go in the dryer. They do get stains, but laying them out in the sunshine is all that it takes to get rid of the stains.

Performance- They do well when they're changed regularly (every 2-3 hours). The covers are snug enough around his legs that even when he has massively large poops, they contain it. We've only had 2 or 3 blowouts. We have a few leaks every now and then, but that seems to be more due to user error (not getting things positioned properly, not changing as often as we should) than failure on the diaper's part. I don't use these for overnights anymore. I did in the beginning, when Noah was waking to eat every 2 or 3 hours, but now he's regularly sleeping 6 hours straight through, and that seems to be too long for Econobums.

Ease of use- Econobums are very easy to use. Just plop the insert on the cover and fasten it all on and you're done. They're a lot easier than I originally thought they'd be.

Cost- uh, no complaints here. We bought 2 kits (6 covers, 24 prefolds), which is all we need to diaper Noah, for $100. I LOVE that part. $100 for all the diapers he really needs. Awesome.

And a picture of Mr. Noah in his Econobum:

Kissa's Hybrid One Size Contour

Fit- These diapers have no snaps or velcro- you just fold it to fit and use either pins or a Snappi to hold it all together. Noah's a very big 3 month old (26 1/2" and around 20 pounds, I think), and they look like they're getting small. They're supposed to fit until 35 pounds. They're still going to fit Noah for a while, there's some room, but I'm not sure if they'll last him until 35 pounds (although with the rate that he's growing, that'll be in 3 months...) These are also pretty bulky. They do need covers (you can go without, but have to be more diligent in changing- they'll soak through eventually). We just use our Econobum covers over it and that works well for us.

Maintenance- Same as Econobum. These have a microfiber soaker sewn in at the back (and not in the front), which allows it to dry faster than it would if it were all together.

Performance- these work really well for us overnight. They're VERY absorbent. They're very full by the time Noah wakes up, but they don't leak through his clothes (unless the cover isn't entirely covering the diaper, particularly at the leg gussets).

Ease of use- not quite as easy as the Econobums, simply because you have to use something to hold the diaper together. But still really easy.

Cost- These are $10.95 for one on Amazon right now, not including any sort of cover. Even though they're a little more than Econobum, they're still a fairly inexpensive option.


Overall, I really like both kinds of diapers we have right now. I want to try other brands, too, because cloth diapers are fun. I know that sounds weird... but they really are fun. =)

The past few weeks...

It's been a while since I last posted... we've been busy! Noah's adorable. Not that that needed to be said...

He's also growing like crazy. I had to go through his dresser the other day and pull out a ton of clothes that were too small for him. It's amazing to look at the clothes he used to wear and think he used to fit in that. I told Zach afterword that sorting through baby clothes is a very dangerous thing to do- makes me all emotional and makes me want another little one. 

Noah's been working on rolling over. He's rolled onto his side a few times, but not regularly. He squirms a lot when he's laying on his back; it's really cute.

He also really enjoys slobbering on anything he can get near his mouth. His fingers, my fingers, toys, my clothes.... These days he usually has slobber all down his chin and cheeks. =)

He's becoming more independent, too. He's content playing in his bouncer for longer periods of time now, and he's sometimes tolerating tummy time for longer stretches, too.

We decorated our Christmas tree this past week and Noah was quite fascinated with the lights. =)

He's 11 weeks old today... crazy. =)

7 weeks, video, pictures, and new house update

Mr. Noah, for those of you not checking in on the facebook page, at 6 1/2 weeks was 16 pounds, 25 inches. He's a big, big boy. Since birth, he has gained 6 pounds and grown almost 4 inches.
We had our first visit with our pediatrician last week (our midwife does the first 6 weeks of care and then we go to the pediatrician). It was pretty standard, he checked Noah over and talked to us a bit. Noah smiled and laughed for him and then cried a little.

Noah has two new favorite activities: making lots of cute, gurgly, happy noises, and sucking on his hands/hitting himself in the face (he's not so good with the motor skills yet). Here's a video of his royal cuteness cooing and grinning away. Zach's making noises back at him. =)

For Halloween, Noah was a mouse. We spent the whole day cleaning our old house to get it ready for the move out inspection. It was not so fun. But we got it done and Noah was an adorable mouse.

Sorry for the lack of Noah-updates. It's been kind of crazy with moving. We didn't have internet for a week, and the hard drive on my computer went caput. And unpacking is taking forever. We're getting there, though!

Noah pictures!

Month 1 in pictures

Holy cow. Noah's 1 month old. Um. Wow. 

Height/weight stats:
    Birth- 9.14, 21 1/4"
    4 weeks- 13.10, 23 1/2"

And now begin an onslaught of pictures of a cute little boy. =)

1 day old =)

 Zach's playing with Noah. Noah's tolerating it. =)

Mali's keeping watch.

 



Look at his chubby arms!


 

 

   Zach's given Noah a new nickname: Grossicus Maximus




















Tummy time is (sometimes) fun.












That's been our month. Lots of pictures, lots of sleeping, lots of diapers, and lots of feeding. =)

Weeks 2 and 3

I had typed up a 2 week post and was waiting to add pictures before posting it, but... didn't, and now we've hit week 3. So.

We're getting used to what life is like with a really freaking cute little boy around. It's very cute. And is more often than not accompanied with being covered in some sort of bodily fluid (usually spit up). It's funny how much I don't even care about it. Today, I had put my Sleepy Wrap on and put Noah in it because he wanted to be held and I wanted to go downstairs and get lunch. So I got Noah situated in the wrap and he looked up at me all cute like, and then spit up all down my front. He does that a lot. Stares right into my eyes with his serious face and pukes all over me.

He smiles real smiles sometimes. They're adorable. And he giggles sometimes, but I don't think he means to yet (mostly he giggles in his sleep).

We're officially a cloth diapering family now! We started off in disposables so we didn't have to worry about washing laundry on top of adjusting to having a baby around, but now we've moved on to cloth. They're working really well. They're one-size diapers, so they're very bulky. Zach thinks they make Noah look like an oompa loompa. I'm loving how easy they are. When we were about to start cloth, I was worried about them being difficult- I think the prefold-ness worried me. But then we tried them and found that they're very simple. Yay!

Picture time!

Operation: Popsies, Meet Noah is a success!

WE DID IT! With the help of people both donating money and other gifts we will easily be able to get Popsies here to meet Noah! Operation: Popsies, Meet Noah is a success!

Thank you all for your help - sorry if some of you wanted to help and couldn't - there are some very generous people that reacted very quickly.

This is very touching. Thank you very much. And I am sure my Dad will be very, very excited at what you have done for him.

Operation: Popsies, Meet Noah

Be sure to check out the new page we added to the site. You can finding by clicking right here. Or by clicking the link right next to "home" that says "Operation: Popsies, Meet Noah"

You'll find out more about it there - be sure to check it out!

1 week photo

His hair is definitely looking reddish. =)

Noah is 1 week old!

1 week old and he's cute as can be. =)

Zach and I have both been puked and peed on. We've been well initiated into parenthood now. =)

Yesterday, I had finished nursing Noah and put him up on my shoulder to burp him- he turned his head to me, gave me a big (involuntary) smile, and spit up all down my front. I laughed at him.  =)

Noah's such a good baby. I just can't believe how amazing and wonderful he is. Most of the time during diaper changes, he just stares up at me. Once in a while he'll fuss, but for the most part, he just practices his serious face (he's gotten quite good at making a serious face). He spends most of his awake time doing that.

He's been awake for a lot of the day today. We have a nursery rhyme book from his Grandma Westphal, and I read a few nursery rhymes to him today and showed him the pictures. I know he doesn't care right now (he just looked at me with this really cute confused look on his face while I read them), but someday he'll like it.

Exciting news for today: Noah has a belly button now! =) The cord stump fell off today and I was very pleased to see it go.

Aside from being tired (and a bit sore from nursing, but that's getting better), I'm feeling great. My midwife says I'm still not allowed to do housework, though. Which is ok, I'm happy to spend my days resting and snuggling with my little Sea Monkey. =) Also, I'm 5 pounds away from pre-pregnancy weight. Score!

Our nights are kind of difficult. There have been a few nights where he wants to nurse all night long. It's exhausting. But we've had a few good nights, too, where he gets a 4 hour stretch of sleep in. I like those nights. It's amazing how refreshed I feel after that. I try to sleep when he does during the day, but it doesn't usually go very well. Usually I get him settled and then I lay down and 5 minutes later, he wakes up.

We're slowly adjusting to our new life. It's draining, but Zach and I are both so, so happy to finally have Noah here. =)

I'll add some pictures tomorrow. I'm nursing right now and can't get up to get my camera. =)

(This post has an awful lot of smiley faces.....)

Pictures!

Pictures from the labor, Wednesday night and Thursday morning. There's nothing graphic, but it's birth, so it's a bit messy at the end. And I look like quite a mess as well (...well, yeah...).

The last belly shot, taken Wednesday night- 41 weeks, 5 days

Between 12 and 2 AM, Sept. 16th. I think I was 6-8 cm dilated at this point?

Zach pushing on my back to help me through a contraction.

He's here!

A few minutes after Noah was finally here, Mali decided it was ok to go to sleep. She'd had a long night sitting on Val's suitcase of supplies, waiting for us to finish what we were doing.

After we'd moved to the bedroom, sleeping on my lap. =)

And 2 days post-partum belly picture:

That's all the pictures for now. =)

Welcome to the world, Sea Monkey =)

Noah Wynn made his grand entrance into the world at 6:33 AM, Thursday, September 16, 2010. I was 41 weeks, 6 days pregnant (WOW).

Here's not-so-little Noah's birth story.

All day Wednesday, I had been having very sporadic contractions. These contractions were completely different than the contractions from our false-starts. I just kept an eye on them throughout the day; they were anywhere from 5 minutes apart to 90 minutes apart. They were different though, because they would come in like a wave and would actually hurt a bit, then ebb off. My other contractions hadn't ever hurt. We decided to call our midwife, Val, just to let her know what was going on, and that this was possibly it, but we really had no idea, since Sea Monkey had been a little trickster beforehand. She said to call her around 10 and let her know how things were going.

Thankfully, Zach and I had decided to go to bed early the night before, so we were both fairly well rested. I also took an hour long nap (which is unusual for me) during the day, and then Zach and I took a 45 minute nap when he got home from work. Turned out to be a wise decision. =)

We ate dinner around 7, and that's when the contractions started coming more regularly- they were about 7-10 minutes apart. We decided to go on a run to WalMart to get soda and chocolate (I'm not really sure why, but it was fun). Contractions in the car sucked. When we got back home, around 8, the contractions were about 5 minutes apart and it was taking more effort to work through them.

At this point, we put down the protective plastic liners on the floor and inflated the birth pool. Around 9:30, we called our midwife to let her know that the contractions were coming around 5 minutes apart and that I was beginning to have trouble working through them. She arrived at our house around 10, took my blood pressure, checked Sea Monkey's heartbeat, and told us to just keep doing what we were doing.

We decided to watch Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog (because it's HILARIOUS, and one of my favorite movies), so Zach turned that on while I rocked and rolled around on my exercise ball (after owning it for 6 years, I FINALLY got use out of the thing).

At 11 PM, Val checked me. I was dilated to 4 and 75% effaced. She went downstairs to take a quick nap and Zach and I kept watching the movie (I made him pause it every now and then when I was having a particularly difficult contraction). Val had said to wake her up if my water broke or if I started feeling like I needed to get into the pool. I think around midnight I started feeling like I needed to get into the pool. Zach woke Val up and she suggested she and I go on a walk up and down the street while Zach filled the pool. So we did. We had to stop periodically so I could work my way through contractions.

When we got back to the house, I put my bathing suit top on and stepped into the pool. The water was warm and felt amazing! It didn't take away all the pain, but it made it so much more manageable.

Around 2 AM, I started feeling like it might just be impossible to bring this baby into the world, and Val checked me again and said I was at 8 cm, 100% effaced. I think around this time, Val called the secondary midwife, Kim, to come over.

Mali was wandering around in the office and even jumped up on the top of the pool a couple times (she apparently didn't realize the pool was filled with water, otherwise she may not have been so keen to see what we were up to). It was pretty entertaining having her around (at least when I was paying attention enough to notice it). I was on my knees for a while, leaning on the top of the pool, and resting my head on the top when I was having a difficult contraction, and every so often, Mali would stand up on her hind legs and sniff my head. It was cute. =) She stayed awake the entire time I was laboring and only went to sleep after Sea Monkey was in my arms. =) Cutest cat ever.

Anyway, I don't remember a lot of what happened after that aside from the contractions getting closer and harder to work through. I changed positions every so often (the midwives had to remind me to do it; I was kind of out of it). Zach was in the pool with me for the majority of the time, and I leaned on him and tried to squish his hand or leg (or both) like jello every time I had a contraction. When I started feeling pressure and the urge to push, Val checked me and said that there was just a tiny lip of my cervix still in the way. I was supposed to push lightly with contractions so it wouldn't swell up. I don't know if I did that very well. I think she had to help it out of the way while I was pushing. I'm not really sure.

I was zoning out or dozing off in between contractions a lot, and I'm pretty sure when I felt another one coming, I made a sad, mopey face.

At one point during this, Val said she could see some dark hair. I remember thinking something about how glad I was that this kid has hair, with all the heartburn I had had (even if the heartburn/hair thing is just an old wive's tale).

I have no idea how long I pushed. It was intense. A couple times, I reached down while I was pushing to see if I could feel the head- I did, and it was encouraging and bizarre. Eventually, after what felt like hours more pushing, Sea Monkey's head was out and before I knew it (I had my eyes closed), Val had put him on my chest. It took him a second to cry, and when he did- wow. He's a big boy and has a big cry to go with his big body. I think Val said his initial Apgar score was 8... Zach was sitting next to me, and I was holding Sea Monkey to my chest and talking to him, rubbing his back, trying to soothe him. After some indeterminable amount of time, I asked if anybody had seen what Sea Monkey was, so Zach lifted Sea Monkey's legs up a bit and said he was a boy. =)

A few minutes later, he started nursing. The nursing helped the placenta detach from my uterus, and I delivered that a few minutes afterward. After the placenta was delivered and one of the midwives made sure it was in tact and not missing pieces, they clamped the umbilical cord and Zach cut it.

I think around this time, I asked Zach what he was thinking name-wise. We had had a few names in mind to possibly use, but we wanted to meet Sea Monkey before deciding on one for sure. Zach said he was thinking Sea Monkey was a Noah, and I agreed.

After that, I think we decided to move into the bedroom. Zach stood up, I handed Noah off to him, and tried to get up. I had to sit for a second because I felt a little queasy or something, from my organs shifting around. After I felt ok, Val helped me out of the pool, dried me off, and we made our way to the bedroom. I think around this point, Val and Kim did a full check-up on Noah and declared him practically perfect in every way (they didn't really say that, but it was true). They weighed him and told us he was a whopping 9 pounds, 14 ounces, and 21 1/4 inches long. I have yet to pick my jaw up off the floor from hearing that. I was expecting Sea Monkey to be big, since he was almost 2 weeks past his due date, but not almost 10 pounds! I gained a little less than 30 pounds through the whole pregnancy, and he alone accounts for about 1/3 of it! It's crazy. But he's so, so cute, with his chubby little cheeks and fingers and toes. =)

After checking to make sure Noah was fine, Val checked me. Other than one teeny tiny tear that doesn't need stitches, I'm just fine. Tired and sore, but just fine. =)

An hour or so later, I think, Val and Kim headed out. Val will be back tomorrow to see how we're doing, and make sure everything is still fine.

Noah is nursing well, as far as I can tell. I asked Val if we were latched ok before she left, and she said yes and gave me a few things to look for to make sure we're doing fine.

And that's our home/waterbirth story. =)

I have a few pictures that Kim took of everything, and I'll post them later (they're not graphic- you can see that the water looks murky, but there's nothing gross or inappropriate to see).

Zach, Noah, and Mali are all sleeping, and I think I'll be joining them shortly. =)