December 30, 2013
Already one month old.
I can hardly believe it. This past month has been a whirlwind but that hasn't stopped him from growing. I just love having a baby. I can hardly handle it ;)
Cole turns 3!!
On December 20th Cole turned three years old. Honestly I just can't even believe that I have a three year old. It doesn't feel like three whole years ago that he was born! And now he's so big! I tried to make his birthday as special as I could: we took him to the dollar store on his birthday and let him pick out any toy that he wanted (I know, we really went all out ;) He chose a bouncy baseball that is attached to some elastic string that attaches to his wrist. It was a good choice I guess because he has played with it non stop :)
"Mimi" made him a chocolate cake, which is what he requested. I was so grateful for her help with his birthday because I'm still trying to figure this "being a mom of two" thing out. I seem to hardly have time to go to the bathroom let alone plan a birthday party for Cole! Next year I hope we can have a cute themed party with all of his friends. He would love that so much :)
But for this year he sure did get some awesome presents! Steve and I got him some new books, an art set with water colors, crayons and colored pencils and we also got him a Texas Rangers hat! It seemed perfect since he is a Texas boy after all and he loves hats :) And he definitely loves his hat!! I think he tried to wear it to church last Sunday!
Mimi and Papa got him some hockey sticks! My parents got him the cutest German toys and a new book about a cat named Mr. Wuffles. And Uncle Craig got him a cute little baseball mitt! And he loved it all. At the end of the day after he had opened all his presents, he ran around the house wearing his Texas Rangers hat with his hockey stick in one hand and his baseball mitt on the other ;)
He sure is a lot of fun. What I love about my three year old is how much he loves to play with kids. It doesn't matter how old they are, if they're somewhat small like him he wants to play with them. Even to random kids he sees at the playground or at the store, he'll always say "Oh! Hi, friend!!" It's pretty adorable :) And we have gotten so many comments from people about his "cute little voice." Since Cole is our first, we have nothing to compare his little voice to but of course we think it's cute.
I also love seeing how Cole has interacted with his new little brother. He really is such a good big brother. He asks to hold Logan all the time and likes to pet his head and face :) And he hasn't shown any jealousy so far which has surprised me! He's always so gentle with him. He's such a loving, caring little boy, I can't help but feel proud to be his mama. I hope he knows how much I love him. Both Steve and I talk about how "freaking cute" he is every night before we go to bed. We are such lucky parents. Here's to many more birthdays with our little munchkin man!
December 28, 2013
Christmas!!!
Christmas is over and my family is on their way back to Germany as we speak. I was no good at taking pictures with my real camera but at least I got all these iphone pictures, right?! Honestly, with all that we did I'm surprised I didn't get more pictures. In the past we week a lot has happened!
+We celebrated Cole's birthday.
+Blessed baby Logan
+Had Christmas with my family
+Visited downtown Coeur d'Alene twice!
+And decorated giant gingerbread men!
I'll have to post more about these things later. Not to mention Steve graduated, we packed up our apartment and moved across the country and now live in Washington! Whew! Life has been crazy! I'm just so glad that I got to spend time with my family this Christmas. I don't get to see them nearly enough :( Thanks to everyone for all that they did for us; coming to Logan's blessing and all the lovely gifts that they got us. We really got spoiled this year :)
December 22, 2013
December 9, 2013
Logan's birth story
It seemed like he would never come. Seriously. I tried so hard to have him early since we are moving in a week from tomorrow. I just couldn't handle the thought of him coming late. So at the beginning of November I started doing everything in the book to help him come early! I ate tons of dates, took evening primrose oil every night, did my squats and had accupuncture done on me three times a week.
At my 38 week check up she told me that I was dilated to a 2 and 1/2 and that gave me a lot of false hope. Maybe he really would come early?!? But no. At my 39 week check up I was dilated to a 3 and 1/2 and she also stripped my membranes for the second time. And for that next week I tried so hard to have my baby! I did jumping jacks, danced in the living room with Cole, chased him around.....yep.
On Wednesday 11/27 I called up my midwife and told her that I didn't think this baby was coming on his own. Not for another two weeks at least. And we couldn't afford to wait that long since we were moving. So I asked her if she would break my water for me which really is just another way of saying I was getting induced which I initially didn't want but I was getting really desperate, obviously. She even offered to have me come in right then at 4 pm when I called her but I was like "noooo, it's ok." The next day was Thanksgiving anyway so we set the date for Saturday 11/30. When we set the date and time I was so happy! There was an end to this pregnancy in sight!!
The night before he came I wasn't nearly as nervous as I had been with Cole. I was still nervous but mainly just excited to have him finally come and to meet him. I got up early Saturday morning and made sure to actually do my hair and makeup this time ;) I also made sure to eat a nice breakfast because when I was induced with Cole I was starving the whole time!
We got to the hospital at 7 am and checked in. Baylor Irving Medical Center is much smaller than Plano Presbyterian and we really liked it that way. The nurses were so nice! Maybe the fact that I brought them a plate of brownies helped ;) Their names were Heather and Christine. I got changed, got my IV which hardly hurt this time. I had been dreading that but my nurse was awesome! Rachel my midwife got there at 8:30. She checked me; I was dilated to 4 and 1/2, almost a 5, she said. Seriously?! How did that baby not fall out of me?! Then she broke my water which didn't hurt at all; it just felt weird. Then they let us walk around to get the contractions going. They said I was already having contractions when I got there but I'd been having Braxton Hicks contractions for weeks so that didn't mean much to me. We walked around the hospital floor. It was really quiet and empty probably since it was a Saturday morning. I was definitely having contractions but they weren't really hurting. I'd had Braxton Hicks contractions during the past weeks which had hurt much more so I didn't think much of them. We were allowed to walk around for 40 minutes but we spent most of the time in our labor and delivery room. Steve tried to get me to do squats when I would have a contraction but I refused haha. Squats are the worst when you're huge and pregnant.
^^After getting my IV, before Rachel broke my water^^
While we were in our room we realized that the contractions were actually getting kind of close together. They still didn't really hurt though. They were kind of uncomfortable but I was still up pacing the room and talking/laughing with Steve. When the 40 minutes were up, Heather my nurse came back in to put me back on the monitor for 20 minutes. She asked me what my pain level was. It's always so hard for me to gauge so I said a 2. ??? I didn't know where I was on a scale of 1 to 10. How does anyone ever know!?
After being monitored for those 20 minutes, Heather came back in to see if I wanted to get up again and I definitely did. It was about 10:15 am at this point and Heather said she would be back in at 10:30 with Rachel to check me again and see if I'd made any progress.
Within those 15 minutes a LOT changed. I remember being up pacing the room and saying to Steve "Hey, that one actually hurt!" and then I would just laugh about it because it didn't hurt for very long and then I was fine. And then I got another one and it REALLY hurt and I told Steve "I have to lay down now." And so I kind of just curled up on the foot of the bed because I didn't have the energy to scoot all the way up into the bed. My contractions really started hurting and I remember thinking "ow ow ow ow ow." Then Heather and Rachel came back in the room. Heather said "Well things have really changed since I was in here 15 minutes ago!" Rachel told me to tell her when the contraction was over so she could check me. They helped me up into the bed better and when my contraction was over Rachel checked me. I was dilated to an 8! She told me that if I wanted an epidural I needed to get it right then.
I was happy that I was already dilated to an 8 and I couldn't decide if I wanted an epidural or not! I seemed so close but at the same time it hurt SO bad. But not having to deal with getting a huge needle put in my back? That sounded nice. I've never been against getting an epidural but they still make me so nervous. I mean, getting paralyzed is one of the risks even if it is super rare. I asked Rachel what she thought I should do. Did she think I could do it without? She just wanted me to do whatever I was most comfortable with. She could see that I was having a hard time deciding so she said they would give me and Steve 5 minutes to decide.
They left the room and we talked about it for a minute and then I got a contraction and I thought I was going to DIE!!!! And that helped me make my decision! I want the epidural, I told Steve. I want it, I want it, I want it! I told him to go tell them. It'd been like 1 minute since they left ;) And that's when it got really bad. I'm pretty sure I was screaming and stuff even though I can't even picture myself doing that now haha. I think his head was starting to come down the birth canal because I started to feel this weird, painful pressure down there and I started freaking out. I was acting in so much more pain than when they had checked me 5 minutes prior so they checked me again. They didn't tell me how dilated I was, or maybe they did and I just don't remember but suddenly Heather was telling me "Lauren, you're not going to be able to get the epidural, this baby is coming now!" And I was like NOOOOOOOOO! The thought of pushing him out and actually feeling all of it really scared me. I totally started to panic. I remember briefly seeing the anethesiologist in the doorway but then he left.
Pushing him out is all kind of a blur now. All I really remember is that it really hurt, like really bad. I think I only pushed like 5 times but it felt like an eternity. Every time I pushed and he wasn't out, all I could think about was how I would have to push again! And I didn't want to push again! The pressure was so intense that it was really a mental block for me to get myself to actually push into that pressure. I didn't want to! I could feel it pushing my bones apart and I thought they would break!
At the end I know I was screaming with every push and Steve said that he screamed with me as moral support but I don't remember him doing that! He said that the nurses laughed at him for it, but they also said that he was a good coach :) During the last couple pushes I remember telling them "Get him out of me!!!!!" How was I still pushing? How was he not out yet?! I was pushing so hard that every muscle in my body was sore a few days later. Even my teeth started hurting a few days later! I must've been biting down but I really just don't remember.
Finally I pushed one last time and he was out!!! They immediately put him on me and I remember the nurses saying "Wow! Look how long his arms and legs are!" They also commented on how perfectly round his head was! Since it all went so fast, he wasn't in the birth canal long enough for it to get molded into a cone head. Ha!
I held my sweet baby for the first time and I don't remember him crying. He was SO cute. I noticed his blonde hair first. I just thought it was perfect. He was so sweet. I remember I couldn't hold him very well because I was still in a lot of pain. I thought I would feel immediately better once he came out but it still hurt/ached quite a bit. I didn't want to shift in bed because it still hurt so bad. Rachel stitched me up; luckily I only got a little 1 degree tear.
I was so happy that he was finally here and that he was finally out of me! We tried nursing a little bit but I didn't have the strength to hold him up the right way to latch on. I initially asked for some Tylenol for pain relief but then realized that was going to do nothing for me and finally gave into the hydrocodone. Those strong drugs always make me nervous but I only took one so that's good. And it definitely worked for about 4 hours so I can't complain!
I thought that having him would be more of a magical experience, especially since I didn't get an epidural but I think I was in a little bit of shock afterwards. I mean, I've never been in that much pain before and it all happened so fast! During the next few hours after he was born all I could think about was "WOW. That really hurt." I was also kind of in awe of myself for actually being able to do it and that I survived! Both the baby and I were fine! I'd been dying for him to come for so long and here he was!
I spent those first few hours of his life just looking at him and stroking his perfectly cute face. We call him our little cuddle bug because he loves to be held and snuggled and I just love it so much. He really is such a blessing in our lives and I'm so happy he's mine :) I'm a lucky lucky mama.
I love you, little Logan and I'm so happy you're finally here :)
^^After getting my IV, before Rachel broke my water^^
While we were in our room we realized that the contractions were actually getting kind of close together. They still didn't really hurt though. They were kind of uncomfortable but I was still up pacing the room and talking/laughing with Steve. When the 40 minutes were up, Heather my nurse came back in to put me back on the monitor for 20 minutes. She asked me what my pain level was. It's always so hard for me to gauge so I said a 2. ??? I didn't know where I was on a scale of 1 to 10. How does anyone ever know!?
After being monitored for those 20 minutes, Heather came back in to see if I wanted to get up again and I definitely did. It was about 10:15 am at this point and Heather said she would be back in at 10:30 with Rachel to check me again and see if I'd made any progress.
Within those 15 minutes a LOT changed. I remember being up pacing the room and saying to Steve "Hey, that one actually hurt!" and then I would just laugh about it because it didn't hurt for very long and then I was fine. And then I got another one and it REALLY hurt and I told Steve "I have to lay down now." And so I kind of just curled up on the foot of the bed because I didn't have the energy to scoot all the way up into the bed. My contractions really started hurting and I remember thinking "ow ow ow ow ow." Then Heather and Rachel came back in the room. Heather said "Well things have really changed since I was in here 15 minutes ago!" Rachel told me to tell her when the contraction was over so she could check me. They helped me up into the bed better and when my contraction was over Rachel checked me. I was dilated to an 8! She told me that if I wanted an epidural I needed to get it right then.
I was happy that I was already dilated to an 8 and I couldn't decide if I wanted an epidural or not! I seemed so close but at the same time it hurt SO bad. But not having to deal with getting a huge needle put in my back? That sounded nice. I've never been against getting an epidural but they still make me so nervous. I mean, getting paralyzed is one of the risks even if it is super rare. I asked Rachel what she thought I should do. Did she think I could do it without? She just wanted me to do whatever I was most comfortable with. She could see that I was having a hard time deciding so she said they would give me and Steve 5 minutes to decide.
They left the room and we talked about it for a minute and then I got a contraction and I thought I was going to DIE!!!! And that helped me make my decision! I want the epidural, I told Steve. I want it, I want it, I want it! I told him to go tell them. It'd been like 1 minute since they left ;) And that's when it got really bad. I'm pretty sure I was screaming and stuff even though I can't even picture myself doing that now haha. I think his head was starting to come down the birth canal because I started to feel this weird, painful pressure down there and I started freaking out. I was acting in so much more pain than when they had checked me 5 minutes prior so they checked me again. They didn't tell me how dilated I was, or maybe they did and I just don't remember but suddenly Heather was telling me "Lauren, you're not going to be able to get the epidural, this baby is coming now!" And I was like NOOOOOOOOO! The thought of pushing him out and actually feeling all of it really scared me. I totally started to panic. I remember briefly seeing the anethesiologist in the doorway but then he left.
Pushing him out is all kind of a blur now. All I really remember is that it really hurt, like really bad. I think I only pushed like 5 times but it felt like an eternity. Every time I pushed and he wasn't out, all I could think about was how I would have to push again! And I didn't want to push again! The pressure was so intense that it was really a mental block for me to get myself to actually push into that pressure. I didn't want to! I could feel it pushing my bones apart and I thought they would break!
At the end I know I was screaming with every push and Steve said that he screamed with me as moral support but I don't remember him doing that! He said that the nurses laughed at him for it, but they also said that he was a good coach :) During the last couple pushes I remember telling them "Get him out of me!!!!!" How was I still pushing? How was he not out yet?! I was pushing so hard that every muscle in my body was sore a few days later. Even my teeth started hurting a few days later! I must've been biting down but I really just don't remember.
Finally I pushed one last time and he was out!!! They immediately put him on me and I remember the nurses saying "Wow! Look how long his arms and legs are!" They also commented on how perfectly round his head was! Since it all went so fast, he wasn't in the birth canal long enough for it to get molded into a cone head. Ha!
I held my sweet baby for the first time and I don't remember him crying. He was SO cute. I noticed his blonde hair first. I just thought it was perfect. He was so sweet. I remember I couldn't hold him very well because I was still in a lot of pain. I thought I would feel immediately better once he came out but it still hurt/ached quite a bit. I didn't want to shift in bed because it still hurt so bad. Rachel stitched me up; luckily I only got a little 1 degree tear.
I was so happy that he was finally here and that he was finally out of me! We tried nursing a little bit but I didn't have the strength to hold him up the right way to latch on. I initially asked for some Tylenol for pain relief but then realized that was going to do nothing for me and finally gave into the hydrocodone. Those strong drugs always make me nervous but I only took one so that's good. And it definitely worked for about 4 hours so I can't complain!
I thought that having him would be more of a magical experience, especially since I didn't get an epidural but I think I was in a little bit of shock afterwards. I mean, I've never been in that much pain before and it all happened so fast! During the next few hours after he was born all I could think about was "WOW. That really hurt." I was also kind of in awe of myself for actually being able to do it and that I survived! Both the baby and I were fine! I'd been dying for him to come for so long and here he was!
I spent those first few hours of his life just looking at him and stroking his perfectly cute face. We call him our little cuddle bug because he loves to be held and snuggled and I just love it so much. He really is such a blessing in our lives and I'm so happy he's mine :) I'm a lucky lucky mama.
I love you, little Logan and I'm so happy you're finally here :)
^^♥ Logan and his daddy ♥^^
December 7, 2013
Hi Baby Logan!
Cole is a big brother now!! It's been fun seeing how he interacts with his new brother. There hasn't been any jealousy at all which has been nice. He always wants to know where baby Logan is and when he cries he talks to him the same way I talk to him. He says "Shhhhh don't cry, sweetheart." :) He's always calling him "cute" and asks to hold him all the time. I just love my boys so much. I can't believe I have two now! I'm so happy that they have each other as brothers ♥ And I hope they'll be best friends one day :)
December 2, 2013
My sweet little Logan
He's here!! And I'm so happy!! I have a million pictures of him that I want to post already but I thought I'd wait until I have a chance to write down his birth story. So for now I'll just introduce my sweet little baby boy.
Logan Ryan Byers
born November 30th, 2013 at 11:17 am
7 lbs. 12 oz. 20 inches long
And he has blonde hair! We're so excited about that. And I think he looks like me as a baby in the picture above :) We are completely in love with him and we're so happy to have him as part of our little family. Cole loves him to pieces and always asks about "baby Logan." He calls him cute all the time and especially thinks he has the cutest little hands :) We can tell already that Logan especially loves his daddy. He seems to calm down easily with him; I think it's Steve's voice that he likes. And Logan has already gotten the nickname "cuddle-bug" because he loves to be held and to be snuggled so much more than Cole ever did as a baby. I'm not complaining at all ;)
We're also so grateful to have "Mimi" here with us right now. She has spoiled all of us rotten but especially Cole. I think it has made the transition so far much better for him.
We're feeling so happy and blessed here at the Byers home. We just love our baby so much. I will have to write down his birth story soon :)
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