Month 4

Ethan got his first shot when he was 3 1/2 months old. It was HIB. He cried for like 24 hrs after. It was horrible. I am dreading doing it again. He is 4 months now and 27 3/4 inches and 14.6 lbs. He outgrew his Gerber 0-3 clothes (they are too short) they run small. He's still in his other 0-3s and his carters 3 months. But he's a long baby. He also has started teething so that's no fun. It makes him fussier and he's been waking up every 3 hours to nurse. Luckily, those hyland teething tablets help. He is obsessed with grabbing his feet and then extending his leg. He's quite amused by his feet. He also wants to eat EVERYTHING. He's started grabbing my hair which is no fun. He's SO strong. We sort of traumatized him for his carseat by taking him on too many roadtrips but he loves being sung to and watching lullabies on youtube. He's discovered his voice so he squeals a lot. I'm trying to teach him to use his inside voice. I'm also trying to teach him a few american sign language signs. I think he recognizes the one for milk because when I do it he stares at my hand and gets all excited. His eyes are also glued to me I don't know how he knows when I walk in a room but somehow he does! I also recently started watching TWO other babies for some extra money and Ethan's the best one! :) Still wont sleep in anything but mommy, daddy, or yiayia's arms though! Anyway, we wont get to take his four month pics til next month tho.

Month 3

I couldn't be more excited about Ethan's little milestones. Today he just laughed for the first time! Not, coo, or squeal, but actual LAUGHING!! It sounds like he's choking! But no, it's a laugh! What else? I can literally let him go and he can stand up until he tips over and I have to catch him. he also has started raising his upper body up and holding it for a few MINUTES at a time. He is grabbing for items now and holding his wubba nub. So Cute. I'm so grateful that wes and I are home to take pictures and videos of these milestones. He is 12 lb 6 oz and 24.5 inches and wears 0-3 month onesies but the 0-3 pants he still swims in! He seriously has little baby abs!
We got him a starlight cradle swing..which is exactly like his other swing only with lights..and it's a MIRACLE. We also got him this ocean wonders aquarium bouncer. Apparently lights make ALL the difference for him! Anyway, hope I'm not forgetting anything. He's just getting over another growth spurt this one lasted a week..Much better than his other one at one month which lasted 2 weeks!! He's also still keeping to his same sleep schedule.

He also moved on from the ooo sound to liking goo for a little bit and I put him in my super secret sleep hold at night when he's fussy (our heads together and I give him his wubbanub and stroke his hand).  He likes the bath when he's in it but cries when you take him out. He just started liking Peek a boo with wes (he lifts his sunglasses up). He only likes it with him though.  Hes so strong. He punches me in the eye when he's fussy and he just started "honking" my nose. I woke up the other day with a "shiner!!"
Ok I think that is all for now. :)

Oh I don't know if I mentioned it before but I discovered I have an oversupply of foremilk! Normal is .5 oz of foremilk and 2 oz of regular/hind milk...I produce between 1-2 oz of foremilk..which means if he just drinks that he is fussier, gassier, and hungry faster. Im so grateful to have learned this. Since pumping and saving my foremilk for when he's on rice cereal he now is hungry less and stays satisfied longer. I wanted to take him for his HIB shot at 3 months but I had to wait til this growth spurt was over. We are going to Tahoe for our anniversary/Ethan's first road trip tomorrow! So it'll have to wait to we get back. So excited! Wish us luck!

Month 2

Ethan turned 2 months old yesterday. So far not much has changed. He weighed in at 11.2 lbs! He is just now starting to fit into his 0-3 month clothes. He smiles now..and he will give you forewarning sometimes if he is going to cry with this cute baby pout. (See pic). He is a very good baby, and is always happy as long as you have milk for him! Everyone is impressed at how strong he is and how he is able to stand on his own (with just my hands to steady his hands) at such a young age. He and I both can curl down our pinkie toes alone. He does it a lot while he eats. He also is soothed by someone stroking his hand and he likes to hold your hand or have his arm wrapped around you when he sleeps. In not so cute news, he has farts that could rival those of an adult male!! I heard him let one loose while I was in the bathroom the other day! He also got some cards in the mail with black and white shaped animals that he started to get interested in at about 7 weeks. He still has nights where he stays up and fusses until like 2-4 am! but he still likes to sleep in! He is taking his two month pictures with Kristen on Wednesday and he also has his 2 month appointment on Thursday so I will update more later.

Month One

Ethan's first month has been very interesting. He slept great in his little cosleeper in bed in between us until he was 9 days old..At which point he began crying/screaming all night long. I had a lactation consultant help me with breast feeding (because he'd been exclusively drinking breast milk from a bottle since he refused to latch). She suggested he had acid reflux because he would cry after eating, have bubbles at the mouth, and threw up/spit up a lot. We got him on Zantac and he's been doing much better now. At about 3 weeks old he figured out his days from his nights and will sleep most of the night now. Unfortunately, if he naps at all during the day...add that many hours to how long he's up at night (the last two nights he didn't go to bed until 230-330) but sleeps in with daddy til like 11! The last week or so he has started smiling. The last 2 weeks he's been making cooing baby noises. It's so cute. He makes this O face and his eyes get all wide when you bring him close to your face. He loves the Christmas lights in our room. He eats like a champ CONSTANTLY. He nurses like 7 hours at a time when we are home and he can. Luckily, he sleeps when he's out because he likes his car seat. He won't, however, sleep in his co-sleeper, his pack n play, or the rock n play we just bought him. He will only sleep on mommy's chest/belly or in one of our arms. I wish he would sleep in his bed because I'm so paranoid. I wind up poking him a lot during the night to make sure he's okay. He is still in his newborn clothes (at 6 weeks), because he's long and skinny. He can't wear the kind with the feet because he's too long for them so I had to buy him some long sleeve/pants ones without the feet in NB size. The last few days he's been able to stand for AWHILE supporting all of his own weight. I even will let go of him for a sec or two while he's on my tummy (before he tips to the side) and he can hold his own weight up. It's amazing. Aside from that, he's just gorgeous. As you can see below. He has his 2 month appointment in 2 weeks. Will update more later!

Ethan's Birth Story

On Thursday, June 9th, at about 1:30 pm Captain Gookin stripped my membranes in the clinic. Boy, was that painful! We were both sweating by the end of it. I'm pretty sure half her arm was up there!Anyway, I was 4 cm dilated for a few weeks prior to this procedure. This procedure put me to 5cm. She was SURE I was going to go into labor that evening. So was one of the other doctors...So sure that she handed off my chart to Captain North who would be on duty in L&D that night. She let us go home to get some stuff together before my labor started (as opposed to keeping us, as she said North would've wanted to do). They were so sure that they didnt even have my schedule my 40 week appointment. Dr. Njoku said I'd be having him soon so I didn't need another appt. So Wes and I went home and got our stuff and dropped Daisy and Duke off at my friend' Miranda's and got a room on base. Well at about 10pm I started having contractions consisently 3 mins apart..then starting to go to 2 mins apart. They were painful, but not unbearable. So we went in to L&D, and much to my dismay I was STILL at a 5. So Wes and I gave up and just went home. Nothing happened for a few days and then Monday, June 13th...after some help from Wes' prostaglandins, I started contractions at about 9 am. They were irregular ALL DAY LONG...so I walked back and forth around our backyard and bounced around on the exercise ball. This was (according to the ultrasound) my due date by the way. Well as we're laying in bed at about 1030pm, it feels like something explodes inside me. I go to the bathroom but there's no "water" or blood or anything...The next couple contractions were UNBEARABLE--so I tell Wes we need to go NOW. We start driving to l&d--they're asking him a bunch of questions on the phone and finally say for us to come in since I didn't know if it was my water or not (it didn't really matter because I was going anyway, we were halfway there by that point). Somehow Wes got there in like 29 minutes. I walk up to the ER doors and have to keep stopping between contractions. He gets me a wheelchair and races me across the hospital to L&D where I have to get weighed and all this. We get there about 11:45pm. They ask me for a urine specimen..I go in the bathroom and then there's this RUSH of blood. I hobble back to my bed where they're trying to get a swab to see if it's amniotic fluid. As I lay there writhing in pain, the sample comes back inconclusive...soo they have to do another one. So after that, the nurse says she's going to check me (they can't tell if the bag's broken because they said it felt like some of it was still there) but she said "we're keeping her anyway, she's at a 7, go ahead and start the IV". Okay the IV! Now it takes 2 people and 3 attempts to get my IV started..I'm getting less and less happy. They ask if I wanted an epidural I said I didn't, but I think I do now because I didn't think it'd be THIS painful. They said they'd get anesthesiology to come talk to me about my options. Well then they tell me they need to get an ENTIRE bag of fluids in me first....Now I'm well hydrated so I know this is going to take awhile..as I look over and watch...drip......drip..........drip.. All of a sudden I'm feeling the urge to push. I say to Nurse Musshorn...I'm not going to get any meds am I? She said Honestly, we could do a prudential block but it'd probably take longer than if you were to just push him out yourself now. At this point there's no sign of the doctor or the anesthesiologist..the doctor (Captain Snow) has been "getting dressed") for what seemed like an hour! Musshorn says "I'm just going to push this again"..as she pushes the red call button for a second time, letting them know I feel like I need to push. So she said push when yuo feel like it, dont' wait for me..So that's what I did..I pushed when and for as long as I felt like it...trying to do it slow and steady and breathe down so I didn't tear.They wind up telling me to hold my legs up..Hold my OWN legs up? That just wasnt happening. I said I can't! And started complaining about my back hurting. So luckily a nurse and Wes held them for me until I found that I could hold them up by grabbing from inside my thighs and that worked very well with pushing. Well all of a sudden they say Ethan's heart rate is dropping and they're going to need to use the vacuum extractor "and noone wants that" the doctor said. They got serious. I got scared. Musshorn said "you need to push...like you never have before!". So I did..I pushed as hard as I could---this time for as long as they told me to..and Snow said Oh good! It's working..We're not  going to need to use it if you give another push like that! So one or two more pushes like that and he was out! Born at 1:11am...not even an hour and a half after we had arrived. There was no nursing immediately after--I was like jello and frozen..I had them put him on me skin to skin..we waited a little (I asked to wait 1-2 minutes for cord clamping) and then Wes cut the cord. The placenta was delivered and it was huge and gross I asked Wes take a pic of it but he looked at me like I was crazy and said no. Luckily, I only needed one stitch. He went with Ethan for his first bath while I was moved to recovery. He said when they rolled Ethan over onto his stomach he propped himself up on his own like he was doing a push up! We stayed in the hospital until Wednesday evening because Ethan wound up getting jaundice pretty badly and lost a lot of weight. He was born 8 lb 5 oz (and 21 inches) and when we were discharged he weighed 6 lb 15 oz. They were making me supplement with formula and they put him under the lights Tuesday night. Wes stood most of the night holding Ethan's hands as he cried. It was heartbreaking. At his highest his jaundice was 17.1 so they were making us come back EVERY DAY to prick his foot and check his bilirubin. Luckily, he's always had a great appetite and lots of pee and poopy diapers to help flush it out. He is 5 weeks and 3 days old today! And aside from what we believe to be acid reflux, he's doing well and we couldn't imagine life without him! <3

Ethan James Linder Born: June 13, 2011, Weighing 8 lb 5 oz, 21 inches long

These photos were taken the day he was born. :)

MOPH Banquet

These are probably the last pre baby outing photos! Taken on Sat at the Military Order of the Purple Heart Banquet. :) (I'm 36weeks 5 days in them).

36 weeks

The last two weeks have been interesting. Pregnancy should get to be over at 34 weeks. After that it just gets confusing and super uncomfortable! I thought my water broke cuz I smelled vanilla in the bathroom, I couldn't distinguish between cramps and contractions on Monday...but definitely had contractions on Wednesday. Went to my 36 week appointment today. Capt. North the Midwife told me that Im 75% effaced, a -2 station, and 3 cm dilated...so that's very exciting for me. The doctor says she doesn't think I'll go past my due date, and that I could even have the baby tomorrow! I'm hoping that maybe I'll have an easy labor since the pregnancy was so hard! Wes has a purple heart banquet on Saturday so I said I hope I don't go into labor there because that'd be awkward--he said he'd be stuck at the hospital for two days in a 900 dollar suit. hahah!! Here are some pics at 36 weeks.

32 week update

Went to my 32 week appointment yesterday. They said I was measuring 2 weeks ahead..which is the first time that this has happened. Dr said it might have been the tech who was measuring me. Morning sickness has gotten pretty miserable again. I threw up 3x yesterday all before noon. I'm excited that this is almost done. 52 days until baby Ethan's here. I wrote my birth plan today in Wes' little book. I told him to put it in his wallet..so hopefully he helps me to help the l&d staff to follow it. I think i'll probably give Kristen a copy too so she can help if she's there...since, no offense to my husband, but he's not typically the most loud spoken about things. What else? Oh..my next appointment will be at 36 weeks and I will also have an appointment with anesthesiology then too. Our baby shower is next weekend so we have a few more things to get ready for it..Surprising how expensive it is! Other than that, Ethan's heartrate was like 143..I wish I knew how big he was! He seems long to me..but who knows! Wes is out buying me a mother's day gift :) which was totally his idea and I think is the sweetest thing ever. Well I'm off to go buy some stuff for the shower and a comfy nightie for post delivery. I'm getting anxious!!

29 weeks

It's been a really long time since I updated. Primarily because I'm never on an actual computer. I have a ton of belly shots but I can't figure out how to sort them to upload them aside from by month. Anyway for now here are some from our maternity photo shoot taken by my bff kristen at kmh-photography.com As for my update, I have no clue how much Ethan weighs or how long he is. They never tell me and the military doesn't give me another ultrasound at all. My anatomy scan was at 20 weeks and I won't see him again until he's born. They thought I had gestational diabetes so that worried me and I was checking my blood sugar 4x/day for two weeks but it turns out I don't. I have 74 days left of this pregnancy and I can't wait for it to be over. I didn't honestly think I'd spend every day for 9 months nauseous and/or throwing up. Luckily it has subsided a lot...Well the vomiting that is, not the nausea. But I can't wait for him to be here. Turns out the hospital will keep me for 48 hours after he is born. So that's news to me, aside from not being in the comfort of my own home, I think it will be a good thing. Wes is hoping to have surgery on his right arm before Ethan's born..and that kind of worries me because he will have no use of it. But it should be ok and his mama said she would come help if we needed it. He seriously better be like the best and cutest baby ever for how hard this pregnancy has been.
Anyway the baby shower is April 30th and Im soooo excited because it's going to be like a bbq/pool party and should be a lot of fun.
We are also looking to/hoping to take a "babymoon" before the baby comes..maybe a little weekend trip to Cali or Tahoe. We can go get a couples massage and spend some alone time together. We haven't been alone since we moved back to Vegas in Dec. with Yiayia. I would like to go back east like NJ or the Bahamas to see my family and so they can meet him..but financially with the cost of plane tickets and as far along as I am now and as nauseous as I still am every day I don't think a long trip like that is a good idea. I guess I'm not supposed to take the baby on long trips until he's about 8 months old when his immune system's more developed so we will have to wait til a year from now to travel with him.
Well...Duke is whining and eating his bed so I must go tend to the puppies. That's another reason, I don't think Yia would be able to handle these puppies for more than a few days..even that is pushing it right now. Anyway,  I will post more belly pics once Wes helps me figure out how to figure out the date stamp. PS it's VERY VERY HOT here already! 82 degrees today and it's still march!

Overdue!--and pregnancy week 20

Ok so this is much overdue. We have been so busy with getting readjusted back in Vegas and the holidays. We got to spend a nice Christmas with Wes' family. I made Christmas cupcakes with those little Kings cake babies in them to share the surprise, and inside the cake was blue for a boy! It was funny! :) I need to upload the pics from our 4d ultrasound when we found out it was a boy.. Ethan James Linder. I'm started to get really excited/nervous/impatient about making sure we find out which carseat/crib/etc to get. These decisions are so hard, and Im sure he'll be safe no matter what--but I guess it's a first time mom thing as I look for carseats with anti rebound bars! LOL. On Monday is my anatomy scan, and also I just realized we never heard anything back about all the genetic testing we had done--which they said no news is good news. So yay! I have my next follow up on the 4th of Feb so I'll make sure to double check then. I may start physical therapy to help with my back for the remainder of the pregnancy. Aside from that, we got two new lab puppies which are exhausting. I do not recommend ever getting puppies while pregnant and still suffering from morning sickness. We wake up at least 3 times a night with them. Daisy and Duke--Daisy's a yellow girl, Duke's a black boy. They are half siblings.. Daisy was born in Nov 22, 2010 and Duke on Dec 2nd. On the baby front, I can feel him moving a lot now..and my belly's gotten hard. Funny, I never put it together that the hard pregnant looking belly I wanted early on was just hard because the BABY was pushing on it. Turns out it's not so comfortable. Anyway, when I had the 4d ultrasound they said I have an anterior placenta so I wouldn't feel the baby move as early, which is true cuz I just now really started to this week and only on the inside. I can't wait to feel on the outside so Wes can feel too. I'll post pics soon!