a bird story

I've told my bird story to several of my friends and family, but I still think it is pretty amazing, so I'm going to tell it again.  Don't worry.  It's very short.

It starts with a robin's nest that was built in a pallet in our back yard.  I sadly did not get a picture of it... I went to take one and the birds had hatched too soon on me.  It had four eggs, and looked something like this:

link to image source

I'm not sure what day the eggs hatched (as faithfully as I tried to watch them ;)), but this picture was taken on May 7th, shortly after they were born:

Cute little things, huh?!  One week later on May 14th, I checked on the little guys again, and much to my surprise, they looked like this:

I think if I would've stood and watched them all day, they would've grown feathers before my eyes!  Who knew birds changed so fast?!  When we would walk over to look at the nest, the birds would startle and put their little heads in the air, beaks open, just hoping for food.  Sorry to disappoint.  We did catch a glimpse of the mother watching over her little ones a couple time too...

And three days later on May 17th, they had plumped up even more and were about to burst out of the nest:

And that is the last picture I captured of our little friends.  We were gone over the weekend and when we came home, the nest was on the ground empty and pallet had fallen over.  We are hoping that the birds flew away and this story did not end tragically.  There weren't any dead birds on the ground, so I'm thinking they must be ok. :)

And that's the end of the story of how amazingly fast birds grow.  It was my first and maybe last time to observe newly hatched eggs turn into little birds.  It was a fun way to kick off spring and Beck thought they were pretty neat too!

one month

One month has flown by already since Creighton was born.  And what is it like being a mother of two instead of just one?  It's definitely more challenging and I wouldn't say that I'm not overly loving this stage right now... hum, sounds horrible to say.  Don't get me wrong... babies are sweet and I'm thankful for Creighton, but feeling needed by both him and Beckham at the same time can be stressful and exhausting!  However, I do not want to wish away any stage and it can be my tendency to look ahead and think the next stage is going to be easier or better in some way (like when they can play together and entertain each other :)).

Beckham spoiled me by sleeping through the first month of his life, so in comparison to that, Creighton seems like a much needier baby.  But maybe he's just normal and is awake a normal amount of time and cries a normal amount of time.  It just takes some time for babies to adjust to life outside of the womb, right?  With Beck, it seemed like after month two things were more routine, scheduled, predictable... all those things that make me happy and my world seem right.  I think I'm going to have to just let some things go a little more with two kids.  Really, I'm just selfish and it takes more of my time and energy to take care of two kids than one, so it's hard to transition to that.  It's funny how you can always look back on the previous stage and think about how easy it seemed... life with just Beck wasn't too hard!

So on to pictures...

Here is one of the little cutie (thanks to Ames for the fun little sticker tie):

For Beck, I took pictures each month in his diaper on his changing pad.  I decided to do the same with Creighton today, just to compare.

Here's Creighton:

ah... the double chin is showing up already!

And on to one of Beck.  This one is actually of Beck at two months b/c I didn't take one at one month:

Ok, I'm thinking there is some major resemblance going on here.  Their lips may be different, but other than that they're looking kind of the same... and it's not like me!  (or so I hear :))

who does he look like?

That's the question you get all the time after a baby is born, right?  Who do they look like?  Why does everyone try to figure it out anyway?  It doesn't really matter... they look like them self!  But I will say that it is kind of fun to compare baby pics of Beckham and see if him and Creighton look alike.  We heard that Beckham looked like Chad 90% of the time and I'm starting to hear that about Creighton too... except that he has my mouth.  They definitely have different mouths - Beck had Huge lips and Creighton's are smaller, more normal sized.  When Creighton was born, right away we thought he looked like Beck, but now I'm not so sure.  What do you think?

Pictures of Beckham during his first couple weeks:

Pictures of Creighton during his first couple weeks:

Creighton's definitely more alert than Beck was at this age!  Beck slept away his first month of life (likely due to being so early), but Creighton actually has some awake time after he eats.

Ah, love the little smiles they make in their sleep!  This one turned into a massive grin!! (no this isn't a yawn!)

2 weeks old and already weighing in at 8 lbs. 6 oz.  That means I gained 1 lb. 5 oz. in 9 days, according to the Dr.  I'm already starting to get little rolls on my legs... see them?!  Mom's pretty proud.  :) 

he came!

Yes, Creighton James decided to make his arrival on 3/28.. already over a week ago!  The Wednesday we went to he hospital Chad and I both had a little bit of a feeling that it might be the big day... plus, I had a full moon on my side, as Chad pointed out.  :)

Since Beckham set the expectation that babies come at 36 weeks, I was feeling overdue at 38 weeks and was thankful that Creighton humored me and decided to come a couple weeks early, especially when he was already 7 lbs 3 oz.  I've learned that pushing out babies isn't one of my gifts in life so I was glad he wasn't any bigger than that!

Some people like birth stories (most women who have had kids), some people don't (men like my husband) so below is a quick version of what happened the night of C's birth.  It was very similar to Beck in that my water broke and I had to walk to get contractions going, but it was a little more stressful towards the end with pushing.  Overall both kiddos took 14 hours to come from hospital arrival time to birth:

6.00p:  stand up from the dinner table.  water breaks (gushes)... looks like it's baby time!
8.30:  arrive at hospital and get checked in.  no "real" contractions yet.  1 cm dilated... great. :)
9.30:  walk the halls.  walk the halls some more.  keep walking.
12.30:  the walking paid off and contractions are strong enough I don't want to walk anymore.  3-4 cm dilated.
1-2a:  sit in bed and doze on and off.  contractions keep coming on stronger.
2-3:  sit in bed and contractions almost go away.  still only 3-4 cm dilated.  time to get on pitocin.
3-5.30:  lots of contractions that get stronger and stronger.
5.30:  6 cm dilated.  very, very painful contractions (at least to me :)).  decide it's time to get an epidural.  need to receive bag of fluid before epidural.
6.00:  fluid's gone and getting epidural.  suddenly start to feel lots of pressure and the need to push.  get checked and the baby looks ready to come out.  nurse calls for the Dr., get ready for delivery.  wow, how did that happen so fast?
6.30:  epidural has kicked in some and Dr. is there.  start pushing but no progress.
7.30:  Dr. decides I'm wasting energy.  stop pushing.  turns down epidural and I get back on pitocin to get contractions stronger to help with pushing.
8-10:  a haze of the epidural not wearing off, not feeling contractions, being on pitocin, "practice" pushing here and there, monitoring C's heart rate, being on oxygen b/c C's heart rate would go up and down.  trying to be patient.  feeling like I was never going to get to push again.
10:  Dr. decides there has been enough of this waiting game and C needs to come out.  will turn off pitocin (C wasn't responding great to it) and try to push some more.  if no progress then forceps or potentially a c-section are my options.  start pushing again and more progress is made than before.  Dr. leaves and Chad, the nurse, and I get serious about getting C out.  keep pushing and finally making progress!
10.30:  C ready to come out.  get Dr.  try not to push baby out while he comes back.
10.42a:  C arrives!  praise the Lord to no forceps or c-section!

Overall we were just thankful he was able to be born vaginally and was healthy.  In hindsight, had I know how far along I was when I got my epidural, I think I would've held off on it and that might have helped me push C out, as I wouldn't have lost the feeling of my contractions.  I'll make note of that for next time... or will there be a next time?!

And on to the sweeter stuff... some pictures (which I failed to take many):

ah, so glad to have that over with and to be holding sweet little Creighton!

meeting dad for the first time

He was Mr. alert for a while after he was born... quite the opposite of Beck, who went straight to bed for 8 hours without even eating!

Sleeping away at the hospital.  His cheeks look chubby already in this pic!

Beck meeting Creighton and finally being willing to say hi.  Let's just say Beck was a little jealous and wouldn't acknowledge me or C for the first hour of his hospital visit.  Since then he has been very sweet towards his brother, but still isn't overly interested in what he's doing.  I'm thinking that's a boy thing.

going home - I love how the carseat just swallows them up and they look so tiny!

chocolate for breakfast

After seeing a recipe for homemade donuts online, it sounded like a fun thing to do on a Saturday morning, so we did!  Yes, it was slightly messy and now we have too many leftover donuts to eat, but hey, sometimes you just have to do fun things like this once in a while.

I used this recipe for the donuts and it was good... not that I'm a donut lover and a great judge.  I would have probably chosen a baked donut recipe, because who likes to fry food?  But Chad thought we needed to go all out with the fried kind, so we did.  And he did the frying, so I lucked out.  :)

After I refrigerated the dough I did have to add quite a bit more flour - I would say 1/4 to 1/2 cup (Beck kept dumping so I wasn't keeping track), as the dough was way too sticky.  Maybe I didn't refrigerate it long enough?  And I only had semi sweet chocolate for the glaze, so I added a heaping T. of cocoa to give it a richer chocolate flavor.

just waiting to be fried up

helping cut out the donuts and getting flour everywhere :)

time to dip in the glaze

sprinkles of course

temptation overcame Beck and he couldn't wait for the glaze too cool to dig in  :)

"mmm, good" was the verdict

licking the extra sprinkles off his fingers, he declared "Beckham likes sprinkles"  :)

the final product!

a good cause

My cousin Emily had a great idea and is helping raise money for her sister Molly's (also my cousin) family, who is in the process of adopting a child from Columbia.

Click here! to read a little more about their story and find out how to donate if you have a heart to give towards their adoption.  Emily has rounded up some fantastic prizes that are available to those that donate.... not the reason to give, but a very nice token of appreciation!

where's a cup?

I think Beckham is catching on to my urine sample routine at my prenatal doctor's visits, the few that he's been to.

Today Beckham went in the handicap stall with me in a public restroom.  Right away he asked me, "where's a cup?"  It took me a little bit to realize that he was wondering why I wasn't giving a urine sample.  :)

In other news, I'm almost 36 weeks pregnant, meaning that if the baby followed Beck's schedule, it would come in a week - sounds crazy, huh?!  Not sure I feel quite ready for that, but I am getting more curious as to what this little guy looks like and am for sure ready to not be pregnant any more... as fun as it is.  My skin is ready to stop stretching and I'm Very ready to sleep on my back at night!

And with the timing of the baby arriving soon, Beckham has decided to enter a new stage of difficulty. Things are starting to become "mine" or "my's", he's more defiant, and throwing fits is becoming more regular.  Is there really such a thing as the "terrible two's?"  We might be starting those, and right after I was just telling Chad that he was such a great kid that hadn't been doing those things. :)
I'm thinking there might be a little jealousy involved after the baby comes, but he'll love him lots too, right?  I think it will be cute to see Beck be a big brother, even if it takes him some time to adjust.

And speaking of the Beckster, here is a picture of his new favorite routine:  taking all the pillows off his bed and piling them on the floor after most naps and nights.  He's also known to take his nap on top of the pile instead of his bed as well.  :)