Little man is here!

So everyone always likes to hear the story leading up to the birth of a baby so here goes our story:

I had a regular OB appt on thursday the 9th at 940am. Dr checked me out and said I was 3cm. He noticed while we were there that I was having pretty regular contractions. They werent hurting me at all, just my belly getting really tight and hard and then relaxing. He told me to come back later that afternoon to get checked again, he sounded pretty sure that baby was going to be arriving very soon. **keep in mind that my entire family all jumped on an airplane and left for texas this very same morning, so if baby did come anytime between then and sunday we would be flyin solo. So i went back home and did the dishes and waited to pick Landen up from preschool. Swung by McDonalds and got the kids some lunch then put Tay down for a nap. Dropped both kids off at my friend Kendra's house for a while and headed back to the dr's office. Checked me again and this time I was 5cm, this was about 3pm. He decided to call the hospital and see if they could get me checked in, they had a bed open, so I was sent over.

Got me all hooked up with monitors and IV fluids (had to get a couple antibiotics for a heart issue I have, but nothing serious). I continued to have contractions all afternoon. My girlfriend kept the other kids overnight and we figured we were in for a long night. One of my really good friends, Carianne, was invited to watch the delivery so i was really really hoping that she would get to the hospital in time! My contractions continued to be nearly painless but they were still progressing my body right along. At 6cm , which was around 7pm, i went ahead and got an epidural even though i wasnt dyin yet, i was just worried that id wait to long and then have to go natural and be in a ton of pain. Carianne got there about 830 and my dr came in to check me about 1015pm. He said i was fully dialated and ready to start pushin. He broke my water and after a couple pushes little Nathan was here!

I stayed in Labor and Delivery for about four hours and was then transferred down to recovery. everyone appeared to be doin good. baby was making a whole bunch of little wimpering cooing noises that we all thought were just soo cute! the nurse in recovery said she was concerned with the noises that he might be having trouble breathing tho. she ran a couple tests and checked all his vitals but everything came back normal. she was still sure that there was a problem so they took him down to the NICU to have him "evaluated". four hours later i call down there to see whats going on and i get a slew of info: baby is having trouble keeping himself warm so he's under a heater, baby is breathing shallow and quick, they have him on IV fluids and started on antibiotics (just in case he has any sort of infection) and they have sent off some blood cultures to check for infections. oh and did i mention they were keeping him for AT LEAST THREE DAYS!?!?!?

ya so we are in the hospital with no family in town, other kids are excited to come meet their brother but now they wont get to for at least three days cause kids arent allowed in the NICU. so i cant nurse him until we get dr orders that its ok for him to eat (apparently he will get everything he needs thru his IV). and we cant hold him cause he has to stay warm underneath the heater! ya so u can probably imagine how happy i was right about now!

so we hung out at the hospital for the three days (i got to stay for two of the three) and joe took the kids home and got sleep while he still could. i stayed the last night across the parking lot at the ronald mcdonald house which was great! sunday afternoon we got the call that he had finally been discharged after getting back all good test results!!

so we are all finally home and together and the big brother and sister love their new sibling. landen is soooo proud that he has a little brother because that is just what he wanted! we have had several follow-up appts with our dr and they are just keepin an eye on his weight. most babies love 5-10% of their body weight within the first few days and then start putting it back on, and he lost a bit more than that (started at 7lb1oz and is now down to 6lb6oz) and hasnt gained anything back yet. so they are having me supplement him with extra concentrated formula at every other feeding and hopefully that will help him get some meat on his skinny little body. our next appt is monday for a weight check and if all looks good then we go back wednesday for his very unpleasant boy snip snip experience.

thats all for now and i will try to get some more pictures and updates on here as time goes by. no guarentee's about how often we will have updates now that i am a mom of three kids! holy cow!

im still alive!!

k so my good friend made me aware that i am way beyond officially slacking on my blog. its been oh like five MONTHS since i made a post so here i am. today is not the day for catch up because that is gunna take a very long time and it's already been a long day. but just thought id give a quick shout out to anyone who reads this whats goin on in my life. landen just started his second year of preschool with his old nursery teacher Heather Ball. he doesnt seem quite as eager to work on homework or get dropped off as last year but once he's there and im gone he loves it. taylor is getting huge and has really become a little girl with a big personality instead of a little baby. she definitely knows what she wants and makes sure u know what she's askin for. for the most part the kids play great together but landen is, well landen, and he likes to push her buttons. let's just say she is going to be a very tough little girl when he's done with her LOL
i am hitting 31 weeks pregnant with #3. i didnt check back on my previous blog posts but im pretty sure i already made the announcement that our family was growing. my doctor has my due date set for december 25 but that is sooo not gunna happen!! not gunna be pushin out a baby on christmas day no thank you! the other two both came exactly two weeks early and that has worked great for me up til now so no point messin up that routine :) one bummer bein prego right now is that my brother buddy who lives in texas is tying the knot in december. which means that we dont get to go cause ill be right around popping time. but me and the kids decided to take a week long trip this past month to texas to go visit instead. it was so much fun!
maybe i need to make myself a list of posts that i need to do updates for. ill have to write em down on paper and look back over the last half a year and see what might be worth sharing.
so until then :)
oh and we're going to disneyland this next weekend so there's hopefully some fun pictures of info to look forward to

free living scriptures dvd

for all those members who follow my blog check this out
u can get a free living scriptures dvd for linking to their facebook page at:

http://www.facebook.com/livingscriptures

im just now trying it so i cant vouch for sure that it works, but what do i have to loose right?

anyone with kids want some free money??

k so as many of you know i have become addicted to finding and entering any cloth diaper giveaway i can find. i have been lucky enough to actually win a few things too, so its not a waste of time! well today i found another contest but its for some free gymboree bucks and the contest is only running for 24 hours! so im sure not a ton of ppl will have time to notice the contest, which just increases out chances of winning! just follow the link below and enter to win! good luck to us!


http://www.faithfullyfrugal-and-free.com/2010/04/gymboree-gymbucks-24-hour-giveaway.html?showComment=1271113997483_AIe9_BGdXm8jgGQ6AkLKsFie1rdQQwKFgk1hSyGkM3Jww9lccM_yD-JmYIylOusGpsbwW629RqhcGW2Iw7eKVMvBjKMTheycWjkvIkV1sD8-JuOIVyEjUTtLCxrh6MgTe_aZGg0avvbYqA8jCOExdX0ZVy4YmZpqLkzpN6fXZs-OW404WZ6838ZKRWXe8OyKAs2e1wZKml3Zhmv5HvUzs3M9B_ZIC7l4CEJVAcVKMq0PkpHkqW2NHTu-aOWRRTpsl4tJHAVaPk3y#c5370166728311843753

cloth as easy as huggies!

k so i know most of my mom friends think cloth is gross and old school and hard. but i have recently been introduced to a new diaper system that i promise is just as easy as disposables. its called the grobaby. its a one size fits all diaper shell that has a snap in absorber inside and mesh where to two layers meet. u just reuse the shell all day long and replace the soaker at each diaper change. the outside comes in cute prints and bold colors and attached around the baby with velcro. the velcro wont last forever but its much better than tossing away every single diaper after one bathroom episode. you can buy these daipers online at http://nickisdiapers.com/catalog.php?category=1378 or come hang out with me for a day and see them in action on taylor :)

so many giveaways!

k so i have been doing cloth diapering for over six months now but i have just recently started finding a large cloth diapering community on facebook. not only has it been awesome to "meet" other cloth diapering momma's but i have found that there are constantly different stores doing giveaways. some do it as often as every friday! u usually have to do something in order to get a chance to win, but its a matter of leaving a comment on their blog, becoming a fan on facebook, writing a review of a product they sell that you've used or putting a button on your blog to promote their store/blog. this one im trying to win now is giving away a TON of stuff. im not even sure what the dollar value is, but its awesome! one of the stores "kellys closet" is celebrating nine years of operation and is doing this awesome giveaway for it. if you plan to have another baby, currently have a baby in diapers, know someone who will, i suggest u check our their store. they sell tons of different products, mostly cloth diaper related, but not all of them. you might even wanna try to enter the contest yourself and try to win the same products im trying to win :)
here's the link for all the information

http://www.theclothdiaperwhisperer.com/2010/04/networking-nine-giveaway-in-celebration.html

and yet another contest!

this one if for all the mommies of little ones or for anyone who has a friend that has a little one or is expecting a little one soon! check out the blog and enter to win a hotsling of your choice! and there are some really cute prints too!!


http://www.nickisdiapers.com/

my new addiction

k so since christmas i have started this thing that if there's a new movie in the theater that i want to see i have to read the book first. it started with the book "my sisters keeper". loved the book, liked the movie except for the ending. since then i have read "dear john" which i absolutely loved but have yet to see the movie. now i am reading "the last song". i am not quite half way done with it, but am really enjoying it alot. found the trailer for the movie and it just makes me want to hurry up and finish the book so i can go see the movie! anyone up for a girls movie night??

its a new week and a new chance to win! drawings are held every friday

another cloth diaper contest

tryin to win somethin!

can it please be june yet??

hope this link works

im counting the days!

Make your Stick Figure Family at FreeFlashToys.com

nice day at the park

a couple days before christmas all the big people's decided to go snow boarding. i couldnt go cause at the moment i was still technically pregnant. man if i had known that i could have gone without messing anything up (it was already done for) i sooo would have loved to go! but anyways.....i stayed home with my kiddos and decided we needed to do somethin fun too. we ran a couple errands doing some very very last minute christmas present shoppin then decided to grab some mcdonalds and do a picnic at the park. taylor got pooped out shopping so she stayed with nana and took a nap. uncle mike even rode his bike to the park and hung out with us.
we like this park cause its just around the corner from my moms house and its hardly ever crowded. it has lots of clean safe fun toys for landen and lots of benches for me to sit and watch him from.
he managed to make a little friend and enjoyed running around with him. we had a fun day together :)

and finally CHIRSTMAS!!!!

christmas with our families is always a few days worth of events. this year we went down to joe's family a week before christmas so we could be back home to visit bud as long as possible. we went and saw christmas lights together and had a nice family dinner for uncle nicks birthday too. but of course the highlight of the visit was exchanging gifts. christmas is so fun with small kids that are soo innocent and excited to open toys.
landens latest toy favorites have been the toy story characters. he loves loves loves buzz lightyear and enjoys woody too. so alot of his gifts were the toy story theme this year. who knows what next years requests will be :)
taylor was easy to please with a baby doll and some cute outfits and a few other baby toys. most of the time she just wants to be involved in whatever her big brother is doing.
poor joe didnt get to unwrap any of his own gifts cause landen wanted to "help". joe LOVES to open presents and to get suprises, but he was a great sport and let landen open nearly ever one of his gifts.
after christmas with the brooks side of the family we were headed home to do christmas morning at our own house. we put out cookies and water (landen didnt want to give him milk) and some baby carrots out on the lawn for the reindeer too.
christmas morning was soo much fun with the two kids. landen was so excited for taylor to get her gifts and he would just talk to her about how fun her things were going to be.
no clue who's present this is being upwrapped, but not superised at all to see that landen is the one doing the unwrapping!
taylor knows how to close all these little doors, but still hasnt figured out how to do all the different knobs to open em back up. guess it'll take a while :)
santa brought taylor some cheerios in her stocking. landen had to open em up for taylor and let her have her treat. gee thanx landen :) gotta love the mess huh!

after christmas at home we still had three more houses to go to! we were in for a very long but fun day!
first up was Nana's house (my mom). we had a ton of people crammed in her not so big living room. and with presents and wrapping paper goin everywhere it was a miracle we all made it out alive.
next up was my grandmas house. she lives on the total opposite side of town as everyone else so thats about a half hour drive. everyone went back to their houses from nana's house and the babies took naps and the grown ups took showers and got dressed. all landen wanted to do was play with this new toys.
he wanted to ride in uncle buds truck to get to grandma's house and suprise suprise he fell asleep on the way over there. took him a while to wake back up to do more presents.
the babies were tryin to be so helpful and open out stocking box of household goodies.
we had a big huge christmas dinner at grandma's house and had a great time with family. after her house we all went back home to let the babies take another nap and then off to grandpa's house (my dads)
the big boys all got these cool indoor remote control hellicopters and landen got a spider man helicopter toy too. he totally felt like he was one of the big kids!
as you can tell we had a huge and tiring and exciting and wonderful christmas. every year our families do way too much for us and we are so grateful for everything they do. we try to teach landen the true meaning of christmas but it sure is fun watching his open all his gifts. its cute tho, cause if you ask him about christmas he knows to tell you that we are celebrating Jesus' birthday. :)

landens first REAL beach trip

so landen has gone to the beach several times but he always refuses to touch the water. he will want to put on his swim suit and take his sand toys and he plops down in the sand and never budges. so we didnt think anything of it when grandpa watched taylor at the house while she was napping and we hopped in his little electric car (that has no windows and no doors, more like a street legal golf cart) and headed down the road to check out the beach, we didnt even pack extra clothes or towels.
landen stepped foot onto the sand and as expected plopped down. joe decided to walk around the rocks and look for giant star fish while i watched landen dig. landen wanted to join dad and walked over towards the edge of the water where the rocks shoot up. landen actually touched the wet sand with his feet and just got braver and braver.
he has NEVER let the waves his his ankles ever until then! we werent there very long, but he somehow managed to get soaking wet from his toes all the way to his ears.
luckily grandpa's car had some extra beach towels in the little trunk compartment for emergencies. we wrapped landen up and buckled him into his carseat and headed home. poor guy was freezing cold covered in sand and tired but he sure had fun!

Legoland and the aquarium

While we were down celebrating christmas with joes family we decided to stop by legoland and the little aquarium next door to it. this past summer we bought season passes to go but this is actually the first time we were all able to go together. landen had a great time riding the rides and visiting with his cousins and auntie april and grandpa. i was rather suprised at how many little rides they actually have there. i know they are just about as expensive as disneyland but never knew if it was close to as fun. id say if you have a small kid thats at least 3yrs old then they would love it. anything younger and they cant really ride much. anything older than maybe 13-14 and id say it might be too babyish for them. they dont really have alot of bigger kid rides.
this is the smaller cars ride they have. there is one for older kids where the track is huge and its like a little town with stop signs and intersections and the whole bit. but for landen this was awesome. kinda like the disneyland autopia ride but without the thing between the tires so you dont crash and the kid actually gets to be the driver all by themself!! he rode this one a few times in a row!
grandpa was even a good sport to ride a few rides with landen.
this is like a kiddie version of freefall at magic mountain. it pulls the row of seats up pretty high and then lets it freefall for a second and then bounces you back up and drops you a few more times. i totally thought landen would be scared but he absolutely loved it! he just laughed and laughed the entire time!
this one you drive this jetski lookin thing and it actually goes over water. i think its supposed to be a water ride where other people get you wet, but the boys were lucky and stayed dry.
this was by far his favorite ride of the day. just one of those big huge slides where you sit on a mat to go down. we were there during mid week so it was pretty empty so he would just slide down and turn around and climb right back up and do it over and over again. legoland is only about 5 minutes from the in-laws so i figure we will keep the season passes and go back lots of times!
this is how long of a day we had! for those of you who know taylor the idea of her falling asleep and cuddling you at the same time just isnt in the picture. but i was so happy to be able to capture it on camera with her falling asleep for the very first time cuddling her daddy. he loved it too!
the aquarium is nothing fancy just lookin thru glass at fish but landen enjoyed it. he knew some of them from our fish tank and most of the ones from Finding Nemo.
it is nice cause all the viewing windows are pretty low so the kids get a perfect view. i think inside this one was some sea horses. he recognized them from pinocchio.
he was especially excited to get to touch a starfish. the two starfish we have in our tank hide pretty much all the time, so we're just lucky to get to see them!
and my happy little girl cruisin in the double stroller daddy is pushin. she is soo much more content that landen was at this age. i totally remember carrying him and pushing around an empty stroller when he was a baby. and she just takes her seat and enjoys the view!

christmas cookies

it is pretty often around here that we make cookies. landen loves to put colored frosting and sprinkles on sugar cookies. this time we had our neighbor friend Lacey and her mom come over and help us decorate some. they even brought over a bunch of christmas shaped cookie cutters. we made a big huge mess but had a big amount of fun!
they each had to have their own knife to spread the frosting because it is IMPOSSIBLE for a three year old to frost a cookie without licking the knife. we nearly made it through the whole adventure without spreading germs but of course the wrong knives got licked and put back into the frosting. oh well, no one was sick and we all love each other :)
didnt they do a great job!!

a little of this, a little of that

one of the joys of christmas with a three year old is they have no concept of the dollar value of gifts. that doesnt mean you get him something expensive and expect them to love it soo much more, but it means they can get something that costs $2.50 and it can be their very best favorite gift! one of his favorites this year was his shaving kit. he actually got two of them, but i have the second one packed away to bust out in a few months for a new exciting thing to do. he thinks he needs to shave every day just like his dad. joe showed him what to do, and he was hooked. he actually does a pretty good job. of course ive never tried to shave my face before, but he looks like he'll do good when the time comes. by then the razor will be a blade rather than just rubber tho.

i totally dont remember them having shaving kits to teach my how to shave my legs way back in the day. might have saved me some pain!even tho today is actually the day im doing all these blog updates, most of the pictures and stories go back over the last couple months. rather than trying to rack my brain about which event came first and puttin em all in that order, im just postin em as they come. today was one of those lazy sundays and we didnt go to my dads for dinner cause they are all outta town. the boys watched football after church then played a little wii. taylor was major messy eating dinner so i just took her shirt off and let her play while i made dinner for the grownups and attempted to clean my never ending mess of a kitchen. but to sum our day up after church. this is pretty much what we all did:
taylor discovered that a few of the cupboards dont have those annoying baby latches on them and she can actually open them and play. this one on the bottom is fairly safe, mostly just bendy straws.
the critters all laid around and enjoyed being warm and dry. today was the first day of what the weather channel says will be lots and lots of rain. thats all it shows for the next ten days at least!
the boys sat on the couch and played the wiil. since landen got indiana jones and batman lego for christmas thats ALL he ever wants to do. we limit him and only allow him to play when one of us can play with him which means taylor has to either be down for the night or taking a nap.
taylor also discovered that its fun to climb around on upside down things. like landens little lightning mcqueen chair for example
and cosmo just had to look cute :)

santa barbara cont.

i didnt realize that i had some other great stories and pictures to talk about during our santa barbara trip. and i have no idea if its possible to go back and edit an entry after ive already posted it. so we'll just add another one on top :)
while we were walking around on the pier some of the guys noticed a lonely pelican hanging out on the fence. now my brother and his friends are not the brightest bulbs around, but they do tend to bring a good time wherever they are. they all thought it would be a good idea to go introduce themselves to the bird. not sure if they gave him a name or not, but here he is meeting the gang.
i dont remember who's idea this was or which of the guys got close first, but it was scary! they totally were petting him and he was just chillin there. PS- do not attempt this at home!
we found this super cute hat while we were out walking thru the shops. landen just had to put it on and test it out and to my suprise he actually let me take a picture of it. soo cute huh!?!another kinda funny thing we saw was these blankets laid out off the edge of the pier. i guess bums would make these up and people walking by are supposed to throw coins into their buckets, and then at the end of the day they come collect their winnings. doesnt sound like a bad idea to me. maybe ill bring a sign and blanket next time we go. set it up in the morning, go play in the sand and waves, walk around the shops then come collect my money before the ride home LOL this first one says "Just plain hungry" and has it all set up like a dining place.

you cant tell from this picture, but all the other blankets are huge. like at least bigger than the size of a beach towel. this poor guy has this tiny little hand towel laid out. it was soo hard to even read the sign. but it does say "I know those other guys have bigger blankets, but im new at this". guess he was hoping to earn some sympathy points and get extra cash.