the Wordy Easter Post

Since the last post was just a pic and a vid, I had to come back to actually write something. (Jay and I were up late last night just trying to get the video to upload, hence no real "post". By the time the stupid thing worked, we were ready for bed!)

Laina's first Easter - our neighbors invited us over for Easter dinner so we had church in the morning (with Jay working video or sound and I working in the nursery - I could write a pretty good post about how bitter I was that we were both "serving" (it's not really serving if you do it grudgingly, is it?) on Easter, but somehow by God's grace by the time the day actually came around, I was ok with it), and then back home for a nap (Laina, not us - I was busy making easter egg bread and Jay was measuring the basement for a hopefully soon-to-be-designed finishing), then over to the Fox's for dinner. They had a few people over and it was fun getting to know our neighbors better and feasting on the delicious Honey Baked Ham they had. Yum!

Laina got to play with their 7 mo old baby boy and then also feast with us on the yummy food. She has been eating pretty much whatever we eat, and she loves it.

It was kind of neat, they knew we went to church in the morning, and they asked Jay to say a blessing before we ate. I totally didn't expect that. It was a nice opportunity to share our faith in a totally non-threatening and actually invited way.

We didn't get any pictures of the dinner gathering or huge feast, but I do have a this video of Laina crawling, talking and clapping (one of the very first times she crawled, she is already much better and faster!)

Happy Easter!

Laina posing in her Easter dress

And here's a promised video of her enjoying her slide (on a different day)

First Tooth!

Okay, so that's not actually the tooth... Its around bottom-left, and she likes to poke it with her tongue, so we couldn't get a clear shot of it.

In other developmental news, she has also started crawling forward (she was scooting around backwards for a couple of months), and can stand for a little while when I hold her up next to the couch and put something up there she might want.

She's been making an attempt to say a lot of other "words" besides "dada", but still hasn't picked up on "mama". When I take her outside and point at airplanes, she no longer looks at my finger, but up at the sky and gets all excited at the planes. She gets excited about a lot of stuff lately, and is developing a great sense of humor. I think we're going to have fun as she gets older.

The doctor guessed a long time ago that because of her extra-flexible hips she'd probably crawl at 11 months and walk at 15, so so far her predictions are dead on!

Her pediatrician has been concerned about her weight for months now, as she's hanging at the very lowest percentile, and according to the scale today, she gained zero weight in the last month (although the nurse was having problems with the scale, so it could be a misread) and is off the charts. Its weird, because she seems to us to be getting bigger, and is otherwise happy, eating plenty, growing taller, and acting very baby-like, so we're not overly worried about it.

Jenna has found that there are different growth charts that have been developed specifically for breastfed babies (who don't weigh quite as much as quickly) that place her within a reasonable range. She will probably be a small girl given her parents' genes, so hopefully the doctor will go easy on the tests and the poking and prodding. Laina had to get her blood drawn today, which was from what I hear not a fun experience for anyone involved. Luckily she seems to have gotten over it pretty quickly, because she was happy as always by the time I got home (which was late because I'm working on another deadline on another project after the last one went on hold... again).

Things I Miss

In no particular order:

1. my husband when he's at work
2. Laina's smile and giggle when I'm away from her
3. my pre-pregnancy body, even though I weigh the same (or less) now than I did before, I was definitely more fit before
4. riding and working with horses every day
5. the storage space in our old house
6. in fact, sometimes I just miss the old house all together (sentimental, you know, the first house we bought and all)
7. Family and friends back in CA
8. 24 (stupid writers strike)
9. the Le Peep restaurant that closed down here in Parker
10. the Cheeburger Cheeburger restaurant that also closed
11. going to the movies
12. a really good night's sleep
13. Trader Joe's
14. In-N-Out


Things I Don't Miss
(in no particular order):

1. The mortgage on our old house
2. the traffic in So Cal
3. working in an office
4. having to look nice every day
5. the beach (call me crazy, I know)
6. the slightly humid, 100+ days in Santa Ana
7. the people peeling out at the stop sign in front of our old house
8. the people slamming on their brakes because they didn't see the stop sign
9. the loud motorcycles and trucks that regularly drove by our old house
10. not knowing your neighbors
11. my period (sorry if that's too much info)
12. waking up multiple times a night with a newborn


Things I am Looking Forward to
(again, no particular order):

1. Spring and summer
2. "mommy and me" swim class with Laina in April
3. Laina's 1st birthday in April
4. Both sets of grandparents being able to come out for Laina's birthday
5. Our trip to NC with old Life Group friends!
6. Our trip to Tahoe for my good friend Heather's wedding
7. my trip to CA in August when my brother will be back from Japan
8. Easter dinner with our neighbors
9. a visit from our friends, Tara and Tommy, in a couple weeks
10. Laina going to one nap a day (yes, that could be a ways off, but I am still looking forward to it)
12. growing my little sewing business

"The Business of Being Born"

We just watched this movie last night. It's a documentary about childbirth in America and how it's really just big business. I was interested in the movie because originally I had wanted to do a home birth with a midwife. After talking to several people about it, I decided to go ahead and tour the 2 local hospitals, and decided that Parker Adventist Hospital would work out ok. It was a new hospital and didn't have that nasty "hospital smell". Their birth center was as beautiful as some hotels. So I basically forgot about the whole midwife idea and had a relatively ok experience in the hospital.

As many of you know, I did end up being induced with pitocin, but still did not get an epidural or other pain relief. I feel like this was maybe not the best decision on my part (to be induced) but my body was definitely showing signs of being ready and it seemed the right thing to do at the time. By the end they had turned the pit off anyways, so I was not using it the whole time which makes me feel better about it. The one thing that was horrible was the 2+ hours of pushing, of course with me laying on my back in the most unnatural birthing position possible (yet that is how they consistently do it in hospitals), ending with an episiotomy and little Laina finally emerging. At the time I was very thankful that my doctor did the episiotomy just so the whole thing would finally be over. Looking back on it now, I wonder if things would have turned out differently if I would have labored differently.

The movie brought up some very interesting points, especially the fact that America stands alone in the way we birth, the plethora of interventions during the labor and birthing process, the high number of Cesarean sections performed, and very surprisingly, one of the highest infant mortality rates! It's really a huge cycle where one intervention leads to the next, to the next, and on and on, until finally the mother is wheeled to the OR for a C-Section.

The nice thing about the movie, too, was that it is not anti-doctor. It does make it clear that there is a time and place for medical procedures, and that we are very fortunate to have specialists here who can step in if needed. It just makes the point that not EVERY woman needs those interventions. I am pretty sure I am going to handle the next baby differently (not that there is one in the near future), and I will be looking into midwives and a home birth much more seriously the next time around.

*I should add for anyone interested in watching the movie - there is a substantial amount of nudity and multiple actual births shown - be forewarned*

Laina's blocks

For the Laina fans, here is a video of her playing with blocks. Jay let the camera roll a little too long, so just stop when you get bored, or ignore the end when she gets fussy.



And just for kicks, here is the new video game we've been playing, We ♥ Katamari, where the object is to roll your "katamari" up as big as possible. In this particular level, instead of rolling around a katamari, you are rolling around a sumo wrestler to make him as fat as possible!

Fun weekend

Saturday was absolutely gorgeous out, and Jay had Laina most of the day since I worked at the barn in the morning then got my hair cut after that (after a pit stop at home to nurse Laina and shower). Jay played with Laina in the backyard on our swing set and Laina had a blast. She is a little slouchy in this pic on the swing, but she was having fun. She loved the slide, but Jay couldn't get any pics of her smiling on it. When I was home I tried to get some video of Laina going down the swing and landing in Daddy's arms as he swung her up in the air. She loved it! But silly me, I took video with the regular camera and held it vertically instead of horizontally, not even thinking that it would make a sideways video! Oops.Then on Sunday it was practically a blizzard out! So weird, only in Colorado.