California Trip 2014!

Again, summer is my season.  I love the relaxed feel, the sunshine and of course the vacations!  We went to California with my family and the boys LOVED it.  The plane was really exciting (obviously), the sand tasted yummy (gross) and they were enthralled with the ocean! 

I was a little worried about the flight.  I knew Paul would be okay because he likes to watch movies and he is obsessed with planes.  I was right.  Charlie was our wildcard.  My friend gave me a leftover drink ticket which I promptly used to order a bloody mary.  Nothing can be that bad with vodka and tomato juice.  Again, I was right.

Charlie was just fine on the plane.  He bounced around from person to person and even fell asleep at the end.  We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves until we started driving through the mountains of Mendocino.  Then Charlie got carsick.  SIX times.  At one point I just sat in the back seat with a clean diaper under his mouth and told Ryan to just keep going.  We just had to get it over with.

However, once we were there is was a great vacation.  I love that little boys are thrilled to chase birds, throw rocks, and build sand castles.  The drive back was much more successful as in no one got sick and Charlie was a little more restless on the plane, but we made it out with little to no judgement from other passengers and I call that a win-win.

Thanks for my dad for taking all of these pictures.

Exploring! 

He is so blonde and so cute! 

The windup to play croquet.  In case you wanted to know what that looked like. 

Someone tries to keep up! 

Life is good! 

Sometimes all you need are rocks.  

Eating Sand.  Yum?

This is what you do to your big brother when he won't pay attention to you! 

Christmas 2013

Well a little late on the Christmas post but I want to share these pictures!!  We had a great Christmas this year, mostly because this sort of Santa situation is the best thing ever with a THREE year old.  The bribery was nice with the Elf on the Shelf and the "Santa is watching you" and the excitement was contagious!

We celebrated with Ryan's side of the family the Sunday before Christmas.  I drank wine and held the boy's new cousin Eli, so I had a great time! The boys had fun opening gifts (well Paul had fun since he opened all of his, all of Charlie's, and probably all of mine).  We had a good dinner and a nice celebration. 

Christmas Eve we went out to dinner just the four of us.  It was perfect.  We had cocktails and good food and the boys were so good.  Then we drove around and looked at people's Christmas lights.  Some people are incredible.  And their electric bill must be CRAZY.  We came home and put Charlie to bed and then Paul decorated Christmas cookies.  He was very serious about this and knew just what Santa would want. 

We put Paul to bed, watched Christmas Vacation and wrapped all our other stuff!  Paul woke up around 6:30 and was more worried about Santa's cookies then the presents.  We grabbed Charlie and headed downstairs where Paul was impressed with his art easel, his Jessie doll from Toy Story and his marble run.  Charlie didn't know what the heck was happening, but he still seemed excited.

We hung around a bit and then headed over to my parent's house for brunch.  That's where all these pictures are taken from because apparently I don't know how to use a camera.  My parent's got Paul a two seater jeep, as they told us it was their dream for Paul and Charlie to drive together around their neighborhood some day.  The jeep is staying at their house.  We had great food, opened a lot of presents, and then drank champagne.   We headed home for nap time (everyone) and then had a quiet dinner at home! 

 Presents await on the porch

He was a little bit happy.

 Joy.

 God help us when they are both in there

I love this castle!

I usually don't think the boys look alike, but in this picture they do.  Perhaps it's the matching pajamas?

Happiest baby in the world.

And now it's 2014! 

Charlie Man 9 Months, 10 Months, and we Might as Well say 11

When I was at parent teacher conferences a couple of weeks ago, I had a dad sit down and chat with me.  When he found out that I only worked 3 days a week and spent the other two at home with my boys he offered me some advice.  He said to take more pictures of the 2nd child.  Apparently, he and his wife were in the midst of trying to put baby pictures together for their second child's yearbook page and were coming up short.  This was good advice because frankly I could see how this happens.  We love our Charlie so much but are not being great about documenting this love.  Hence the 3 months of progress bundled into one post.  I hope he understands.  I'll guess I'll pay for his therapy.  Anyway, here we go!

We call Charlie a lot of dumb nicknames: Fatty, Char-Char, Charlie Barley, Toot-Toot (Paul's favorite), Mooshie Baby, and other ridiculousness.

Charlie loves the bath.  He loves water.  He loves to splash.  I almost hate putting him in the bath because he gets the entire bathroom soaking wet.  By the way, what is the amount of times I am required to bathe my children?  I think I am embarrassed to admit how often they get baths.

He can say dada, hi, ba-ba (bottle), uh-oh, up, and a lot of other things we can't understand.  He sort of says Mama.  But not really.  Which is nice since I only carried him for almost an year, had him with no drugs, and fed him from my breasts.  Thanks.  It is very clear that Charlie talks much more often and with much more gusto when Paul is at school.  Weird.

He LOVES Diddy.  He climbs on Diddy, pulls Diddy's tail, pokes at his nose, and God only knows what else.  Diddy is such a good sport that we should be nicer to the old pup.  But that might be asking too much.

I wouldn't say that Charlie has much of a schedule.  He is sleeping SO MUCH better at night- there was 3 weeks or so he wanted to get up and have a bottle every.single.night.  It wasn't a great habit but when your alarm goes off at 5:15 AM and you know a bottle will be quick and he will go right back to bed, it is hard not to conform to a baby.  I had to let him cry a little bit which was heart breaking.  I did  this with Paul when he was 3 months old.  But my heart has obviously softened a bit, because I almost couldn't handle the crying.  But now that he never wakes up, it was worth this.  And I am totally aware of the fact that since I am writing this with such confidence, he will wake up tonight.  Awesome.

Ideally, he takes 2 naps a day.  I don't really know when these naps are going to be which is 100% my fault because he's always in the car or on the go with his brother.  When I have both boys I do everything in my power to get them to take their afternoon nap together.  Sometimes this is successful, and other times I want to pull my hair out.  I am in complete denial that either of my children will stop napping.

Charlie can stand up and hang out for endless amounts of time.  He can literally squat up and down in the middle of the room without holding on to anything.  It is impressive how strong his quads are.  Especially with how big his booty is!  He took a few mini steps yesterday (video coming) and is more surprised by our hooting and hollering than anything.  We will have another walker any day now.  And I am nervous.  

Charlie loves to give kisses, and laugh, and play with his brother, and speed crawl.  He loves the dog's water dish and trying to put his hand in the toilet.  He loves to unravel toilet paper and knock down anything he can reach in the pantry.  Charlie loves to silently try to pry open the basement door and give his parents a heart attack by trying to "climb" down the stairs.

Charlie is honestly the best little lover and I can't believe he is almost a year old.  It has been a busy year, some of which I can hardly remember, but I wouldn't change a thing.  He is so perfect for our little family!!!

Charlie's Birth Story

 Charlie was due on a Monday.  For some reason, we all thought he was going to come early.  As the last weekend approached, I was beginning to get a little antsy!  That Friday I went to the doctor and she told me I was 3 centimeters, and 65% effaced.  I was making progress but I told her I did not want to talk induction quite yet.  I am sure if I were a few days late, I would be changing my attitude on that induction situation, but I wanted baby Charlie to come when he was ready.

Saturday I began to have a few contractions, but nothing too painful and nothing regular.  Then they went away.  Saturday night I woke up with a few contractions, but again they were irregular and I could talk through them.  Ryan and I went downstairs to see if things would pick up, but after a couple of hours I told Ryan we should just go back to bed and if I fell asleep we knew that things were not progressing.  I fell asleep.

Sunday, NOTHING happened.  Maybe one or two contractions but mostly NOTHING.  I was feeling very defeated and bummed that this baby was not going to come on time.  So I called Nurse Maureen.  She told me to tweak my nipples, take a walk, and eat something spicy.  I got right on those nips, went to Target to walk around since it was freezing outside, and sent Ryan for some vegetarian sushi with extra wasabi.  By the end of the night we still had no signs that birth was impending.  So Ryan called his "just in case" substitute and told her he would be at work on Monday.  We called daycare and told her that Paul would be there.  I made a little list of things to do in order to keep myself busy.

Ryan and I went to bed disappointed.  And then the clock struck 3 AM.   I woke up with a pain that felt very familiar.  I immediately got myself on all fours and rested my forehead on my pillow.  In 1/2 hour I only had 3-4 contractions, but they were pretty serious in terms of pain, so I woke up Ryan.  Ryan looked at me (on all fours) and called my mom within 10 minutes.  Let me interject here and say both Ryan and I thought we were being very conservative on giving ourselves plenty of time to get to the hospital.  Paul came quickly, and my one hope for this delivery was NOT to have the baby at home or in the car.  My mom drove over while we finished up packing.  I had a quick contraction in the kitchen with my mom watching, and my mother later reported that based on what she saw she thought we had plenty of time to get to the hospital and receive pain medication.

We left the house at 4:15.  I requested that the radio be turned off and we drove the 10 minutes to the hospital in silence.  It was very uncomfortable.  Very.  There had been part of me that thought I would have baby #2 without drugs, just as I did with Paul.  I thought that when it was actually game time, I would tell myself that I had already done it once and I could do it just one more time.  But during that drive to the hospital I changed my story.  I was welcoming of the idea of a needle in my back and my legs becoming numb.  I started to guess how far along I was.  I was hoping for a 5. 

We pulled into the very empty emergency room.  They called up to labor and delivery and I was told to just have a seat while they came to get us.  This was the longest part of the entire evening.  I am sure it was only about 10 minutes that we were waiting, but it felt like FOREVER.  Sitting down felt awful, so I stood up and draped myself over the chair and tried to get a grip.  I am sure I was a sight to see.  Finally, the nurse came through the double doors with a wheel chair and we were on our way.  I could not sit in the chair without excruciating pain, so I walked.  The nurse called ahead to the delivery room to get everyone ready.  As we approached labor and delivery, the doctor followed all of us right into the room.  I stripped off my clothes, but myself in an hospital gown and tried to lay down.  But again, sitting back felt terrible, so I sort of sat sideways on the bed with my legs dangling off the side.  The nurse told me that the anesthesiologist was just in the other room and the doctor asked to check how far along I was.  As the doctor did her exam, I watched her face to try and get any clues about the dilation situation.  After a minute she reported that she did not feel any cervix.  I had to have her repeat the news.  She said I could push whenever I felt the urge.  I was sad for a second, knowing that I couldn't get an epidural, but then I was distracted as my water broke.

Since the doctor had to break my water when I had Paul, I always wondered if the water breaking was similar to what you see in the movies.  My curiosity stemmed from wondering, if I was standing in front of my class of 16 year old students, would they know that my water had broken?  The answer?  It is way less dramatic than it is in the movies, but there is a bit of a popping sound.  If you were wearing jeans, I think you could get away with it, but if it was summer and you were sporting a skirt or a dress, it would be a little harder to hide.

After two sets of pushing, the doctor told me that she could see a lot of brown hair.  I was pretty surprised to hear this since Paul was a baldy.  After the second round of pushing, I had to lay on my left side and get a bit of oxygen.  They told me that the baby was a bit in distress, and I needed to push the baby out.  And so I did.  Ryan said I went in pure primal mode.  I remember that it hurt a lot and I almost felt like I couldn't do it.  In fact, I think I would have let anyone cut me open from head to toe, if that would have made the pain stop.  But just as those thoughts entered my mind, I heard "look down, look down" and there he was.  My 7 pound, 13 ounce baby boy.  They brought him right up to my chest and I was instantly in love.

Charlie's oxygen was a little low, so they took him to the nursery to help him a bit.  This was the only negative to my entire birthing experience. All of a sudden, Ryan was gone, Charlie was gone, and there were no nurses to be found.  I was alone for almost 30 minutes, not sure if the baby was okay.  My purse was across the room, and I couldn't get my phone to call my mom.  Finally Ryan came back to tell me that everything was okay, that Charlie received a bath and was breathing just fine.  He gave me my phone and headed back to be with the baby.  I called my mom, who thought I was checking in after getting an epidural.  She was surprised to hear that baby had already been born.  So was I.  The contractions had started at 3 AM and Charlie was born at 5:02.

I was wondering how I would feel after having my second son.  How he would fit into our family?  What would Paul do?  How would we make this all work?  But those worries were for nothing.  Charlie just fits.  It is like he has always been here, right where he should be.  You don't have to find the extra love or patience.  It just grows.  My heart is so full and I am feeling beyond blessed to have two healthy boys that are surrounded by so much love.  I cannot express the gratitude I have for my little family of four!  Welcome to the world Charlie Ryan!