Best Date Ever!

This year I was lucky enough to have two dates for Valentine's, and I received double the love.  It could not have been better.

We had a delicious brunch at my favorite restaurant, then went for coffee and truffles at a little coffee shop.  

Dave picked out our truffles and completely won me over with one filled with Nutella.  Yum.  I'm on a hazelnut kick now, so it paired with my hazelnut latte perfectly.  

 

This was by far the best date that I've ever been on.  I had both my big mister and my little mister, and we were all in the best of moods.  GV was even complemented a couple of times from our waiter at brunch for being so awesome; he slept through the entire date.  We came home to take the best kind of nap--a snowy Sunday nap.  

Ahh...I hope to have many more dates like this to come.  I really do.

Happy Twenty Ten!

I have a feeling that 2010 is going to be a fabulous year.  After all we're now living in the future, right?

Dave, Griffin, and I had a quiet night at home New Year's Eve.  Griffin was just a little cranky as his bed time neared, so we put him down.  But as midnight approached, I decided that he needed to celebrate with us, I mean this is the only FIRST New Years that he'll have.  He wasn't trilled about being woke up, but after a few dances with his mom his joy was rekindled.  We ended 2009 and began 2010 happy and dancing as a family, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

New Year's day we went up to Dave's grandmother's to celebrate her birthday and the New Year.  We stuffed ourselves with a delicious meal that included all the necessary things that you eat on New Years.

We've done a lot of celebrating over the last few weeks, but I think we're all ready to slow down and enjoy this new year.  It's going to be a good one!

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man."

Benjamin Franklin

Griffin's First Christmas

Griffin's first Christmas proved to be the most exciting time of the year for us all.  At long last we got to meet our first little Nephew, Adrian, who was born just a few days before Griffin.  Dave's grandparents also came down from Oregon to spend their Christmas with us.  The house was full of people, but more so, excitement--lots and lots of it.  Not only was it Griffin's best Christmas yet, it was mine too.

After getting settled in, we all made a voyage out into the cold evening to look at the mesmerizing Christmas windows downtown.  Even though it was absolutely freezing, the company was great.  And as usual, Griffin slept through the whole trip.

Christmas Eve rolled around rather quickly.  We spent the afternoon with the Jeffers' side of the family.  Dave's mom made the most delicious Christmas dinner of standing rib roast and corn pudding and cranberry chutney...oh...I wish I could go back and have that meal a thousand more times.  After dinner we listened to the Christmas story got ready to open gifts.  Griffin seemed to have a bit of a tummy ache later in the evening, so he didn't care for much of anything.

For the last couple of years Dave and I had been celebrating our Christmas at midnight after we get home from his parents.  We found no reason to change that this year, so we continued on with our tradition.  Griffin was feeling a little better and was finally ready to play with a few of his toys.  Griffin and Dave made sweet music with his new little keyboard.  After a while of playing and realizing that it was way past bedtime, Griffin doozed off probably dreaming of sugarplum fairies and whatnot.  Being like I am, I found this to be the perfect opportunity to do this:

Early Christmas morning my mom and brother came over to celebrate.  Dave cooked breakfast for all of us and Griffin was wide-eyed and bushy-tailed.  Maybe he realized that there was something special about that day.

Around noon we headed to my dad's house to continue the celebrating.  There was a full house there as well. I managed to forget GV's diaper bag, therefore feeling like a terrible parent.  He slept through most of our time over there, so as luck would have it, I wasn't the worst mom in the world.  We woke up to play with his Grandad, his uncle, and all of his sweet aunts.

It was a long week, but well worth it.  Griffin got lots of awesome gifts and I'm excited to see him playing with them soon.  Like I have previously mentioned, family took on a whole new meaning this year.  It was so nice to celebrate as a little family of three this year; and it really felt so fabulous to be the mom of the greatest little gift I've ever received.  At the same time, it was unbelievably amazing to celebrate with the loving families to which we belong.

Merry Christmas!

This year has proven to be much more merry and bright than the years past.  I am defining "family" a bit differently now, and to me, that's the most important part of the holidays.  This morning (Christmas Eve) Griffin woke up with wide eyes and just kept smiling--I think he may just know what's going on.

Merry Christmas!  I hope yours is filled with lots of love and yummy food.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Griffin may not realize it now, but we LOVE Christmas.  Especially his dad.  If he could he would light our entire house and yard with lights.  I really can't wait to see Griffin get excited about Christmas too.  I can't wait to see him and Dave on the roof hanging lights or for him to help pick the year's tree or hang his own ornaments on the tree.  I know that I'll be seeing all these things happen before I know it. 

I believe that my favorite part of the holiday season is tradition.  I love counting on certain things to happen their certain way each year.  My family didn't really have any Christmas traditions that I remember, except that we had to stay at the top of the stairs until Dad got the camera cued. But I enjoyed that.  Sometimes I find myself missing waking up early Christmas morning running down the hall to wake my parents; but soon I'll be the one being woken up.  Soon I'll be starting our own family traditions, and that excites me.

Dave's family has tradition of giving each child an ornament every year.  Dave has all of his including his first.  So we've continued the tradition with each other.  Our tree is mostly all Dave's ornaments and only a few of my own that I've acquired in the last five years and the dogs even have a few.  And now Griffin has his very first ornament hanging from the tree.  This is just the beginning of his collection that I am excited to add to.

Last year Dave and I did Christmas pictures of us and the dogs.  It was our first Christmas as a married couple, so it was fun to do.  This year I almost didn't want to send cards, then I kicked myself and realized what holiday it was.  I would have been sad for ages if we had not taken pictures of our first Christmas as a little family.  I will post the final picture of this year's card soon, but for now I'll give you an outtake.  I didn't even think of how difficult it was going to be to pose a baby and two dogs.  Difficult, but worth it.

Griffin, who had been calm for the whole weekend, decided he wasn't happy about the camera being out.  Jack, who's usually the photogenic one, wasn't in the mood either and kept trying to run away or lay down and sleep in the middle of a shot.  But Lucy was pretty good, except for getting easily distracted by Dave or Griffin or the voices in her head.  After what felt like 1000 pictures, we finally got ONE that worked.

Griffin has been impressing us with his development lately.  Not only is he making eye contact with us all the time, he's following objects with his eyes more consistantly.  I didn't realize that one day I would be so astonsished with someone staring at things like I am with him.  I've also caught a few smiles.  In the evenings while Dave is working on his homework, Griffin and I will have conversations that consist of him cooing and we'll work on his leg and neck muscles, and a couple of times he's smiled right at me.  Can't wait for that smile to be permanently glued to his face. 

Dear Griffin...

...please slow down!
I took the first picture at one week, and the second one was taken at five weeks.  Looking at this just about takes my breath away.  I had heard everyone say, "oh, they grow so fast...yadda yadda yadda."  However, seeing is believing.  I hadn't ever imagined that a person could literally transform in just a couple of weeks.  I am going to need to hit the gym and do some weight lifting just to carry him around if he continues on this track.  (Or he may be carrying me pretty soon.)

I am learning that right now there is no such thing as a norm.  For a while, he had been sleeping from around midnight to about 6 in the morning.  He was also just fine being laid down wide awake.  I had hoped that this was just the way he liked it, and a nice foundation to sleep a full eight hours.  But...he has seemed to change his mind.  He is now waking up around 4:30, however I am feeding him a tad bit earlier.  He really really wants to get up when he wakes up; no crying it out for ten minutes.  I am about to start reading (oh, I've said that a million times) The Happiest Baby on the Block that my dear friend, Emily, got for me.  On Amazon it has four and a half stars out of 708 reviews, and one calls the book "pure magic."  He is also getting fussier during the day and I'm not too sure what to do about it.  I don't want have to hold him all the time, but at the same time I don't want to traumatize him either. 



Griffin had his first snow day the day after his first I'm-staying-up-all-nightlong-night.  So I wasn't thinking clearly and thoroughly.  G's Uncle Jacob was spending the day with us since Dave was in class for eight hours.  Jacob asked if we could take Griffin outside to see the snow and I responded by saying something like, "NO!  It's cold out there."  Then out of the corner of my eye I saw the camera and realized how awesome Jacob can be sometimes.  I would have hated to have not captured Griffin's first snow day on film a memory card. 

Thanks Jacob!

G-Day [10.28.09]

It's about time that I got around to writing this before it escapes my memory.  I have obviously been a bad blogger as I have been adjusting to my new-found mommyhood.

As I was getting ready for bed the night before G-Day I knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep as much as it would benefit me to do so.  I kept finding one thing after another to do.  Honestly I don't remember much from the night before, but I do remember that our house had quite a calmness to it.

After our four hours of sleep I woke up to shower and get ready to go meet our Griffin.  Sadly I had wanted to actually "get ready," as in fix my hair and apply a little bit of makeup, which would later make me laugh at myself.  Dave made sure that everything was in the car and soon we were on our way to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital at 5 AM, where everything went incredibly smooth which kept the nervousness away.  I tried to keep all expectations out of my head to be able to absorb everything I possibly could.  The c-section was scheduled for 7 AM, so I hung out on a comfy hospital bed hooked up to the monitors that I got to know during my false alarm visit.  I had a few contractions while lying there and Griffin was wiggling around, I think telling me that he was ready.  Dave's parents and my family came early to visit us while we waited, so the time was passed easily.  I believe that this may have helped keep my mind off the potential un-nerving events ahead of us. 

Seven o'clock rolled around rather quickly, so Dave slipped into his bee suit, as he called it, and we headed to the O.R.  There was a shift change at 7 AM so I got a new nurse right before going back who I really really enjoyed.  She was a younger girl and the first thing that she asked me was if I was ready.  I responded saying something like, "Yea, you?  What are we waiting on?" rather nonchalantly.   She made sure to mock my calm state of mind.   I appreciated that she was able to poke fun at me immediately before I was about to experience the most life changing event of my life.

Dave had to hang out outside of the O.R. while I was receiving the spinal.  I didn't realize this till the day before, but when having a c-section you are given a spinal instead of an epidural.  Basically the difference is that a spinal is a smaller needle that is inserted into the spine one time with enough meds to get the job done; and an epidural inserts a catheter into your spine and continues to dispense the meds as you need them.  I was told by the anathesiologist that there was actually a lower risk of complications with a spinal and I should only feel a minimal amount of pain as the little needle was inserted.  I was so ready to meet my son that I really didn't care what they were going to be doing to me, as long as he wasn't negatively affected.  I sat on the bed of the O.R. with my spine curled out toward the CNA and my head laying in the chest of my new nurse friend ready to get this part over with.  However this took about 20 minutes, instead of the five-ish that it should have.  I started to feel my nerves creep in and make my knees knock, and for a split second I really thought that it just wasn't going to work.  The CNA tried three times to find the "sweet spot" in my spine, while navigating the needle around inside of me.  This was insanely uncomfortable, to say the least.  This is where I laughed at myself for fixing myself up.  I had a hair net around my shiny straight locks of hair, and during this intense 20 minutes I happened to sweat like CRAZY.  My hair turned fizzy and the little bit of makeup was wiped away as I tried to clean off my face.  I learned my lesson.

Things were a piece of cake after the drugs finally found where they needed to go in me; and my nerves went back to normal as Dave entered the room.  (I believe his did too)  Dave and I have a trust for Dr. B and knew that he'd do the best job possible with me, so we knew there was nothing to worry about him cutting on me.  In just a matter of a few minutes we were hearing the first cries of our Griffin.  At 7:43 I was hearing the most beautiful baby cry ever.  A cry that glued a giant smile on my face, a cry that filled my eyes with tears and, a cry that filled my heart with pride and joy.

As Griffin exited my body the drape in front of my face was dropped and I got to see what would change my life forever.  I literally couldn't wait to hold my screaming baby in my arms.  Once Griffin was completely out Dave was able to leave my side to watch all the fun stuff.  He watched the nurses clean him off, take his footprints, take his vitals, swaddle him up, etc.  Then he brought him over to meet me.  I couldn't believe that this was our child and I couldn't believe how incredibly beautiful this little boy was.  The nurses told me that he was 7 lb 4 oz.  Woah!  That was bigger than we were expecting, but boy was this baby long.  He certainly didn't get his length from his Mom.

I was back in the recovery room in no time, sitting beside myself in the bed.  I just couldn't wrap my head around everything that had taken place in just a matter of 30 or so minutes.  There was a little time that passed before I got to see and hold my Griffin while he was in the nursery, but that time was occupied by visiting with our family that came to see him.  Ahh!  Then my sweet nurse friend brought my baby to me and laid him in my arms.  He was the most peaceful little baby that I'd ever laid eyes on, and he was mine :)  Dave and I enjoyed sharing the awesomeness of our son with our visiting family, while Griffin just slept through the all the commotion.

Griffin was taken back to the nursery again and I was rolled to our "Mother Baby" room, where I would spend the next 2 nights.  In this room we were allowed to have as many guests as we wanted so I wasn't worrying about breaking any rules with our vast entourage.  The staff had been very accommodating to not point out our rule breaking in the previous rooms.  I believe that we took a short nap when we got to Mother/Baby while Griffin was being poked in the nursery.  Then just a little later our little son was brought back to get acquainted with his Daddy and I, and we all cherished ever single second of the beginnings of our new journey together.

Getting so close, I can feel it…Really.

I realize that my blogging momentum last slowed down in the past few weeks. Right along with that, so has any of my creative energy, or more like my motivational energy of all sorts. As exhausting as it was to want to "create" every hour of every day (minus a few for sleeping), it sure was a lot of fun. Hopefully it will come back soon along with the desire to clean. Oh please let it be!

Speaking of cleaning, Dave and I worked on cleaning the house a bit Sunday afternoon. We decided to go ahead and move the bassinet into our bedroom to make sure that it fit in its prospective home. And it fits rather nicely. Our plan is to have Griffin in our room, not our bed, when he is little bitty and then move him to his crib soon after. I'm not sure if I have mentioned that we have a full size bed that accommodates two adults (one of which, pregnant) and two rather spoiled dogs. Please don't tell me to make the dogs sleep on the floor to make room for the baby; it just won't work and I know it. Not because our dogs are too spoiled, but because there is NO room at the top of the bed…it surely is not a safe place for a small child. I am pretty sure that putting a baby at our feet, where the dogs currently sleep, isn't acceptable either. Hopefully baby Griffin will appreciate sleeping by his lonesome in the beautiful bassinet that his great granddad made years and years ago. Although if he needs company, we do have two willing dogs that can cuddle with the best….just saying….

Sunday was quite eventful for us. In addition to cleaning, we joined a church, and celebrated my baby brother's 16^th birthday. I am so proud of Jacob for making it to 16^th without doing anything too seriously stupid (just kidding…). Since Jacob is 8 years younger than I, I have been able to watch him grow up. I have been able to prove the age old theory that boys mature slowly ;) But it's happening; my little brother is finally growing up. He's not just a whiney little kid anymore; he's turning into a really good guy. I no longer feel like flicking him in the ears anymore and I can talk to him like an adult. Aww…. Once again, Happy Birthday Jacob!

And speaking of Sunday, there was a little bitty thought in the back of my mind that I may have been possibly going into labor. While eating Jacob's birthday dinner my body temperature rose to what felt like 1004, although I just felt really hot and not dizzy (like usual). I figured that it was just too hot in the house for my blood, and tried to not think anything of it. Then those lovely Braxton Hicks contractions started. I don't know if I had ever described for those of you who haven't got to experience them. Basically, for me, my belly feels like it turns into a rock for several minutes. Typically this isn't painful, but it can make movement difficult and such. Sometimes instead of taking over my whole belly, it will hit in certain spots. At this particular time, the BH didn't stop (for the entire night) and began to increase in intensity. These were causing me to feel pretty darn uncomfortable, but I didn't want to make a mountain out of a mole hill, and told myself that this was normal. We were playing Volopoly and I was really trying to not let my discomfort get to me, but it was getting obvious that something was wrong. After Dad checked my blood pressure, which was normal, Dave and I went home to watch a movie on the couch. I am pretty sure that Dave wanted to call the doctor, but I wasn't having it. I was so afraid of going into the hospital on a Sunday night for nothing. I think I had said that the next time that I am laying in a hospital bed, I better be about to meet my Bean Sprout. (Note: I am not too stubborn to call my doctor when something is wrong, I just didn't have that feeling.)

At home the intensity of the BH let up a little, but they became more spread out, something Dr. B described as more like real contractions. Dave decided to time the length of occurrences and the time in between. For a split second I thought that there may have been a possibly Griffin was trying to get out, but I wasn't ever convinced. (Hence why no one was called about this.) The irony of moving the bassinet into our bedroom just a few hours earlier made me a little nauseous. However, I prayed that Griffin could just hang on a little longer so I could make it to the baby shower that my coworkers were having for me Monday evening.

Even though the BH continued through the night and I didn't sleep but a few hours, I never really felt like we were in a state of emergency. And by no surprise we were still baby-less Monday morning. Thankfully I was able to make it to my first baby shower and it was a blast. The ladies that I work with are so gracious and generous. We ended up with lots of super cute things and useful things, some of which I never knew you could buy. They had me play a cute little game of matching their baby pictures up with them…great shower game! It turned out that everyone there was a mom, so they all shared birthing stories with me to get me ready scare me to death. I didn't realize that labor could last 48 hours!!! What have I got myself into!?

Pop's Pictures

What is this fourth dimension?

Excited doesn't begin to describe how I'm feeling right now. 

As scheduled, our 4D ultrasound was today.  I am almost speechless as to how fascinating this was.  I am literally sitting here trying to figure out how to describe it, but I am drawing blanks.  Good thing there's pictures!

All four grandparents came to this appointment with us, and it was very nice to share this special occasion with everyone.  Pops came equiped with his camera and we can't wait to see what he captured.  We had a room full, but it was completely worth it. 

Griffin was quite the cooperative little bean sprout today.  Before we started the doctor explained that the ultrasound would be as good as the baby let it be, which made me a little nervous at first.  Then Griffin showed me that worrying is for the birds.  He left his face completely uncovered the entire time.  He showed us his little hands and even gave us a nice yawn. 

Dave's mom is pretty sure that Griffin has Dave's "Jeffers' nose."  I think I'd have to agree.  I also had an ultrasound yesterday to check to see if my gestational diabetes has affected him.  (hopefully Griffin won't have an extra foot from all the ultrasounds)  They told me that Griffin weighs 4lb 2 oz, and that is perfect for where he is.  The GD could cause him to gain extra fat if I don't control my blood sugars with my diet.  But so far, so good.  Yesterday I was also told by the miniature Bob Ross look-a-like doctor that he should gain about 1/4 to 1/2 a pound a week, so we're still on track for Griffin to be around 7 lbs.  We'll see...

 

I am so grateful that we were able to see him with such clarity before he gets out here.  It's also nice to take advantage of technology every once in a while.   I just can't wait to feel his little fingers wrap around mine.

On a side note, my normal Dr. B did not preform this ultrasound, instead a much younger quite handsome doctor did this one.  Sitting in the car after the appointment I looked at Dave and said, "He sure is a cutie."  Dave responded with, "Who are you talking about, the doctor or our baby?"  Hehe..."Well, our baby is cuter."