4th of July Fun

This past weekend was a nice long 4 day weekend for the 4th of July.  We had record temps here...the most days over 105 in a row.  Gross.  But we took that opportunity to let Luke have his first pool experiences!

I went to Target and found a fun little 4th of July swim shirt on clearance, and a little swim hat.  And I ordered an Applecheeks swim diaper from Amazon.  Yes, we use cloth/reusable diapers and I plan to do a post on that in the near future.

It was a fun and very busy weekend.  Thursday we went to a friends house for a bbq/pool party.  It was about 110 degrees that day, so the pool water was about 87.

And then on Saturday, we were invited to another bbq/pool party of a former co-worker of mine.   

The hat is a little big...even for that 88th percentile head!  All in all, a very fun weekend.  

Hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th!

2 Months Old

Time sure does fly!  Our precious little bean turned 2 months old on May 28.  Unfortunately this also means that he got his 2 month shots this day.  At his appointment he weighed 13 pounds 4 oz.  He was about 23 inches long and had a 16 cm head circumference.  We are so thankful to the nurse who gave him his shots because she was a real pro.  She had all of the syringes and bandaids ready to go.  Our boy took it like a champ and was nursing within 90 seconds of getting the shots.  Barely any time to cry!

So far he is right on track developmentally.  He is holding his head up on his own, but it's still kind of wobbly.  His eyes are still bright blue (yay!) and he is losing almost all of his newborn hair.  Although new hair is starting to grow in a lighter shade.

On June 20th, our sweet boy laughed for the first time!  It was music to my ears.  Unfortunately we were watching Daddy play ultimate so he didn't get to hear it.  But wouldn't you know, in true BOY form, what made him laugh.......? He pooped.  He pooped and then he laughed.  Little boy humor starting already.

He does really well with sleeping at night normally.  I believe he had a growth spurt right around the 2 month mark, and that was causing him to wake up more often at night (every 2 hours or so).  But that passed after a week and he was back to sleep from 8:30-4 and 4:30-6ish.  We have a good bedtime routine going of taking a bath, putting on pjs and then getting a bottle from Daddy.  I think this helps him realize that its not just another nap, that he's going down for the long stretch.

Napping is a bit more of a challenge.  There are days when I don't get more than a 30 min nap out of him at a time.  This makes for a super cranky baby by bedtime.  But I suppose it's just another phase that will pass.

He is growing and changing so much so quickly!  And we are absolutely loving being parents.

Newborn Photos

We had newborn photos taken of Luke and I just wanted to share a few of my favorites

Thank you to Megan Squires for the amazing pictures!!

1 Month Old

I know this post is long overdue considering out little man will be 3 months old this month (where does the time go?!), but better late than never right?

Our little bean turned 1 month old on April 28th, 2013.  And he had a weekend of firsts!  According to the pediatrician, 4 weeks old was a good time to start trying some different things, so try them we did.

During this 1 month milestone weekend, Luke had his first (of many) pacifiers:

Took his first bottle from Daddy:

And slept in his crib over night which I don't have a picture of unfortunately.  I think that night was harder on me than it was on him!  I spent most of the night awake watching our video monitor.

At 1 month old Luke weighs around 11 pounds.  He is losing his newborn hair and new hair is coming in lighter.  His eyes are still bright blue (crossing our fingers they stay this way!) and he is able to lift his head and hold it on his own for a little while.  He is starting to enjoy wiggle time more and he is definitely a man on the move.  Luke enjoys walks with mommy and sleeping while being held for naps.  He is also starting to enjoy bath time more :)

2 Weeks Old

Luke's First Bath

Yesterday we took Luke in for his 2 week check up.  He was a champ.  The doctor was very impressed with him (which a parent always loves to hear).  He is already up to 9 lb 6 oz, which is an entire pound heavier than his birth weight.  Normally they like for babies to be back up to their birth weight by 2 weeks, since all babies initially lose weight in the first few days after birth.  But our little guy is a champion eater!  He's on his way to those adorable chubby cheeks, and rubber band thighs.

His neck is already very strong and he is able to lift and turn his head on his own while on his tummy.  He also has very strong legs and arms which makes feeding and changing time difficult sometimes!  But we love our little cloth diaper wearing Q T Pi to pieces and are so happy that he is healthy and growing.

Cubs Opening Day with Daddy!

Favorite Sleeping Position

Bib courtesy of Aunt Heather

Bib courtesy of Great Aunt Jeri

Chillin with mommy

Buddies

Luke Thomas Barker

Now that our little bean is two weeks old, I figured it was way past time to write about his birth story.

Around 2:15am Thursday March 28, I woke up with contractions.  They may have been going on longer, but they weren't strong enough to wake me up until around 2:15.  So I laid in bed for about an hour timing them.  They were around 10 minutes apart.  Around 3:30am I woke up the hubs.  He laid there with me for a little while timing them with me.  At this point the contractions were closer to 8 minutes apart.  So we decided we should get up and get ready.  As the morning progressed, the contractions got more uncomfortable.  So it helped me to walk through them.  I basically was walking circles around our bedroom until we were ready to go downstairs, and then I was walking circles around our downstairs all while continuing to time the contractions.  By about 5am the contractions were around 5 minutes apart. 

John's parents (who were in town visiting and asleep upstairs) woke up around this time and were able to see us off.  By 5:45 we left the house for the hospital.  We called my parents on the way to the hospital to let them know...this baby was coming on his due date!

We got to the hospital around 6:15 am and I got checked into Triage.  When the midwife came in to check me, I was already dilated to 6cm.  Within about a half hour they had me checked into my birthing room suite.  The contractions were much stronger at this point, and were seeming to last much longer than I had anticipated.  Within the next 2 hours I had progressed to 8cm and the contractions became unbearable.  This is when I got the epidural.  It was so reassuring to have John by my side through all of this.  I know it was hard for him to see me screaming/crying in pain, but he was such a good coach, and so motivating.   

Let me tell you, that thing was a life saver.  After that I was able to relax and sleep some.  Which turned out to be a very good thing.  My contractions were not regular, and were not progressing in the "wave-like" motion that they are supposed to.  I was having contractions that were 7 minutes long versus 1-2 minutes.  They would intensify, and just stay there.  Luckily after the epidural, I only felt some mild to moderate pressure when the contractions came.  The midwife and nurse ended up having to give me pitocin to regulate my contractions because apparently 7 minute long contractions do not help with getting the baby out. 

It took a very long time for me to progress the next 2 cm.  My water still had not broken and Luke had not dropped.  The midwife was holding off on breaking my water because Luke's head was not lined up with the opening of the cervix and there was a possibility of the umbilical cord coming out before his head if they broke my water too early.  And that would mean emergency c-section.  Finally, after I had gotten sick (for the 4th time) he dropped down enough for them to be comfortable breaking my water.  That was around 6pm.

Around 7pm was when I was ready to start pushing.  First I tried laying on my back to push (the more conventional way I suppose).  But in that position, I felt as though I couldn't breathe.  Then they tried sitting me up some to help me breathe.  But that made it so that Luke's head couldn't fit under my pelvic bone, so the pushing was not going anywhere.  John and my mom were amazing coaches for me during all of this.  Finally I laid on my side and our baby boy was born about 30 minutes later. 

Luke Thomas Barker was born (on his due date!!) on March 28, 2013 at 8:13 pm.  He weighed 8 lb 5 oz and was 21 inches long. 

The nurses laid him on my chest and he stopped crying almost instantly.  We opted for the delayed cord cutting.  So once it was ready, John was able to cut the cord.  We are so in love with this little guy.  He melts my heart every day.  And seeing John with his baby boy just makes me feel complete.  I love our new little family :)

Nursery Update and DIY Projects

We pretty much have the nursery complete at this point.  There are a few last minute touches that we still have to add, but they are all decoration related.  If our little guy were to come now, the room would definitely be liveable!  But, I will hold off on the true nursery reveal until all the final touches are done.

All of the bead board, chair rail, and baseboards are done, all of the shelves are hung, and all of the furniture is in place.  So I wanted to share some pictures of a few of the details of the room.

The plate was signed by guests at one of my showers

A portion of our cloth diaper stash

I also worked on a couple of DIY projects over the weekend.  Our nursery theme is airplanes and maps.  And while we had a lot of airplane themed elements, we were a little lacking on the maps.  So, what I decided to do was take my old lamp that was mine when I was a baby and re-use it.

The lamp used to be a mauve-y pink color with a plain white shade.  So I spray painted the base white, and then put a coat of Mod Podge Spray  clear coat on it to give it a shiny finish.  Then I took the shade and cut up some regular old maps (the kind you get from AAA).  I used Mod Podge for Paper and a foam brush.  And basically ended up with a patchwork feel.  Then I used  Mod Podge Matte-Antique to brush over the top to give it a little bit more of an antique feel rather than the bright white.

I also did something similar with some wooden letters.  The only difference with the letters was that I used whole pieces of map to cover the letter instead of cutting up smaller pieces.  But you could really do either way.  I purchased some white wood 9" letters from Hobby Lobby.  I Mod Podged the map to the letter, let it dry, and then used an exacto knife to trim off the excess paper.  Then, again I coated the top with the antique finish.  Since we are not revealing the little guy's name yet, I took some ambiguous letter pictures :)  

Once he is born, these will be hung!  We hope to get the remainder of the decorations done this weekend, and then I can do a full nursery reveal!!