Whose child is this, anyway?

Today was Seth's 2 week appointment (although he's technically 2.5 weeks). Last Tuesday he weighed in at 7 pounds, 11 ounces, so we were betting he was somewhere in the 8 to 8.5 pound range.

Try 8 pounds, 12 ounces. From a birthweight of 6 pounds, 15 ounces. That's a whopping ounce and a half gain EVERY DAY. At least he grew another inch, so it's not all going straight to his cheeks.

It's been an exciting couple of weeks with Grandma and Aunt Bethany here to help. It's been so nice to wake up to a clean kitchen every morning, and to have my laundry all done and folded for me. The best part has been having someone to talk to while Jon is at work (and someone to hold Seth while I eat). I'm not excited for next Tuesday--my first full day as a stay-at-home mom.

All of you who mentioned what a nice schedule Seth has can feel free to retract your comments. His new schedule is: eat EVERY two hours. Sometimes he wants to eat after an hour. Rarely he makes it two and a half hours. Which means I get an hour and a half of sleep MAX between feedings at night. It's exhausting. The pediatrician said he should start sleeping longer once he reaches 10 pounds (which could be next week at the rate he's going).

He successfully ejected his umbilical cord, and survived his first bath with a surprisingly small amount of crying (his second and third baths have been much more traumatic). He also went to his first sacrament meeting, although we arrived late and took him out early so no one could touch him. He behaved very nicely (meaning he slept the entire time).

Jon is back at work this week, so Seth is sleeping in his own room. Which means I'm stumbling down the hall 5 or 6 times every night to grab him before he starts screaming. Someday I'll take a picture of his nursery, now that my mom has totally organized it for me.

That's basically life right now: nursing and sleeping. I'm excited for him to be more interactive--he's just started going cross-eyed trying to focus on our faces when we talk to him. It's adorable, and hilarious.

2 and a half months until "baby boot camp" is over, right Adrian? I think I can make it... It's amazing how much one little snuggle or smile (yes, I know it's just gas, but still) can make all those 3:30 am feedings worth it.

40 Weeks Pregnant! Oh, wait...

Yesterday was my official due date! It's weird to think I should still be pregnant--even though I'm sleep deprived, I'm definitely glad to be done with the heartburn and other joys. Due to a loss of appetite that kicked in right after Seth was born (is that normal?) I'm almost down to my pre-pregnancy weight. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that my belly still isn't pooching out or that my stretch marks are fading. At all. But I'll take what I can get!Yesterday Seth weighed in at a whopping 7 pounds, 10.8 ounces. This for a 10 day old baby who was born at 6 pounds, 15 ounces. The nurses were quite impressed. (This is Aunt Bethany holding Seth, who is apparently hungry. If only it were that simple...)

We're still working on figuring out a schedule. For the past two nights he's wanted to use me as a human pacifier for two straight hours until he falls asleep. So we made an executive decision last night at 1 am--when he falls asleep, I'm not waking him up. He slept until 7 am (when I woke him up because I was afraid I was starving him) and is still totally zonked out despite waking up twice more to eat. Makes me nervous for tonight...

I think I'll go take a nap.

One week down...18 years to go

As I type this, Seth is sitting next to me pretending he's hungry when really he's just sleepy. We're working on that, although he pretty much just gets whatever he wants.

It's been a week now, and we're still alive. We look slightly zombified still, but we're functioning. Jon actually went to church (just sacrament meeting). Seth and I aren't up for that kind of fun yet.

That first night home with him was the worst. It could have been lots of factors, but I'm pretty sure at least half the problem came from me eating a chocolate chip cookie that day. It was delicious, but there was definitely more chocolate than cookie in there. I should have known better, considering he'd spent the last 9 months kicking me whenever I ate sugar. Let's just say it's not a mistake I'll be making again. Jon was amazing that night--he took him downstairs and walked him for hours so I could sleep (I was in tears by that point--it was 4 am and he hadn't slept at all).

(In case you're wondering, Seth won this round. So 40 minutes later he's fed, asleep, and I'm back).

It turns out that first night was a fluke. Ever since then he's been an AMAZING baby. We never hear him cry unless I wait a bit too long to feed him, and then it's more like a squawk. Half the time I still have to wake him up to feed him. He goes to bed around 10:30, I wake him up to feed him around 2:30 am, then he wakes up again to eat at 6:30 am (newborns can't go more than 4 hours without eating, darn it. Otherwise he'd probably sleep all night). In other words, I can't complain about sleep--most new parents have it much worse.

We took him to the pediatrician on Tuesday, and he'd actually gained an ounce instead of the usual newborn weight loss. Unfortunately, they were worried about jaundice since his bruising was so bad, so they had to prick his heel. He's got a good set of lungs when he wants to use them, poor guy! Sadly, the results came back a bit high, so we had to take him to get his heel pricked AGAIN on Thursday. Luckily everything is fine. He just gets to do a little sunbathing to get some Vitamin D.

Things are sort of settling down. He kind of has a schedule, and I'm getting used to his signals for "feed me." Even though I feel like I'm nursing ALL DAY LONG, I'm trying to get some things done in between sessions.

As we all secretly know, the real reason we have kids is for entertainment purposes. We don't actually own a baby comb (or baby bath stuff yet, oops), so Jon has been using his whiskers to comb Seth's hair. So far he has three do's--regular, old man comb-over, and mohawk.

In response to my last post, I feel like I need to do a bit of repenting. I realized last night that people in our ward have let us borrow a ton of clothes, sold us baby stuff for way cheap, and GIVEN us a jogging stroller, crib, and NICE dresser. Would I rather have those things than a meal every night for a week? Yes. So no more whining from me.

My mom and Beth get here tomorrow evening. I'm excited, although I don't plan on being very entertaining. I'm leaving that up to Seth. Now to go make some lunch before Jon gets home!

Details (and way too many of them)

This may be in installations, since my life has been taken over by every-two-hour feedings (or, more specifically, every-two-hour attempts to wake him up so I CAN feed him).

And now, the story of how Seth decided to grace us with his presence 10 days early:

Surprise, Surprise

Friday (the 11th) I woke up and generally didn't feel well. All I wanted to do was lay in bed and read--and so I did. I made it through Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream and a few other plays in between various napping sessions (I'm a total nerd, I know).

When Jon got home we decided to finally try out the neighborhood pool. I started noticing some cramping while we were there, but ignored it since it's happened several times before. After dinner I still wasn't feeling too hot, so I spent the next 177 minutes in the basement watching Braveheart (Cleanflicks, thank you very much). Such a good movie.

Around 7 pm (mid-movie) I noticed that the cramping wasn't going away. By 9 pm I started paying attention to the clock and realized that they were coming every 5 minutes and lasting for about 30 seconds. I still didn't believe this was actually happening--I didn't even tell Jon until he noticed that I was grimacing fairly frequently.

Jon was hoping to get a few hours of sleep before we left (he gets up at 5:25 am), but no such luck. I called my doctor and he said to come on in. So at midnight we collected all our stuff (minus the pillows that we forgot) and headed to the hospital. Side note: my doctor later told me that after talking to me he'd turned to the nurse and said, "I bet you 5 million dollars she's just going back home tonight." Apparently I sounded much too calm for a girl in labor.

Judgment Day

It must have been a pretty slow night at the hospital--they were really efficient at getting me all hooked up and monitored. After about a half-hour of monitoring, they informed me that yes, I was having contractions (like I didn't know) and that I was dilated to a 3. I was pretty thrilled with myself, thinking that they wouldn't send me home if I was at a 3. I was totally dismayed when the nurse informed me that the doctor wanted me to walk around for an hour, and if I didn't make any progress, they would send me home.

So we walked. I'm pretty sure Jon was actually sleepwalking for most of the time. Poor guy. I, on the other hand, was pretty ticked off. The contractions were getting a bit painful at that point, and I was not happy with the idea of going home and toughing it out.

Lucky for me, the hour of walking got me to a 4. We were officially in!

The Infamous Epidural

I have to admit--for a few short weeks I was contemplating trying to avoid having an epidural. My friend Mindy did it, and my mom never got one (although she really, really wanted one). When the nurse asked the first time if I wanted one I was hesitant, but by the time she asked again I was all for it.

I was expecting it to hurt when they jabbed the thing in my back, but it was almost painless. Except for the contractions that were coming right along, that is. I'd like to see the anesthesiologist sit perfectly still when it feels like someone is crushing HIS pelvis. Funny observation--both the anesthesiologist and my OBGYN are men. Everyone else I saw while I was there (and there were many of them) were women. Guess who were the only two people who tried to talk to me while I was having a contraction? Did they really think I was actually listening to them, much less that I was going to respond?

They gave me the epidural around 3:30 am and I had an hour and a half of relative bliss. I still felt the pressure of the contractions, but not the pain. Until around 5 am. Then I felt the pain. A lot. The anesthesiologist gave me the biggest dose of the best stuff he could, but it did nothing but turn my legs into stone. Apparently the baby had shifted into some lovely position where he would put intense pressure on my back and pelvis with each contraction. So I wasn't actually feeling the contractions, thanks to the epidural, but the medicine could do nothing for the pressure.

It was at that point that I decided we were not having any more children. Ever. I also decided that Mindy is my hero--no way I would voluntarily be feeling any of this. For the first hour I was seething mad that I actually got the epidural and was still in pain. The second hour was bad news--lots of tears and uncontrollable shaking. I made Jon give me another blessing at this point because I was sure I would never make it through this. From 7 to 8 am I was so exhausted that I slept--for as long as I could between contractions. Which was only a minute or two. Poor Jon--it had to have been so frustrating to watch me and not be able to do anything about it.

Around 8:30 am they brought in the next anesthesiologist, who proceeded to do EXACTLY what the first one had done. Except this time IT WORKED! The baby must have shifted or something, but I didn't feel a dang thing from that point on. I was so happy to be pain free that I was almost giddy.

Delivery Time!

At 9 am they announced that I was fully dilated, which thrilled me to pieces. The nurses were convinced I would have him out in record time since he was already so far down. No such luck--he was perfectly content to stay where he was. With lots of cheerleading from the two nurses (both named Judy), I made it through an hour and a half of pushing before Seth graced us with his presence.

I don't know if it was pregnancy hormones, pure relief, or what, but as soon as I heard his first little cry I burst into tears (happy tears, don't worry). I was just so glad that he was here and everything was okay. Jon looked so happy--he even cut the cord despite having informed me earlier that he wasn't going to.

Seth was so good natured--he cried for a few minutes right at first and then not at all (not even when they gave him a shot). Even the nurses were impressed with how mellow he was the entire time we were there. Now we're just praying he stays that way--no colic, please!

Recovery

After they stitched me up and gave Seth his bath I figured we could all just relax. I learned quickly that there is no relaxing in the hospital. For example, I had just gotten Seth to sleep at 1 am, when exactly 19 minutes later a nurse walked in to take his vitals and woke him right back up. And then came again at 5 am, not to mention the other random people who kept coming in to pester me or him. Thus, we decided that 24 hours of hospital was enough.

Driving away from the hospital with Seth was a weird feeling--knowing that everything is different now. It will never be just me and Jon again. Yes, this still makes me a little sad, but he's worth it. And I love watching Jon be a dad--I honestly could not have made it through without him. He's got way more baby care skills than I do.

I'll post later about the first few days home, but let's just say things are really quiet around here. Since he came early my mom wasn't able to be here (she flies in the 21st), so it's just me and Jon. Which in some ways has been really nice (more later). Our only two visitors have been Joyce and her daughter Anna who came to the hospital and brought us delicious (and soon to be dreaded) chocolate chip cookies. One complaint, though: I was sort of counting on at least a couple of meals from the ward to tide us over until my mom got here, but no such luck. I'm actually kind of ticked off because now we're having to eat all the food I froze for Jon to eat later when I'm still not up for cooking. I know I probably shouldn't assume anything, but I feel like we were sort of forgotten. And I wish there was someone I could tell off, but I don't know who. Instead I'll just glare at the RS Presidency when I make it back to church in a few weeks. That'll teach them.

All complaining aside, things are going really well. We're happy and getting a pretty decent amount of sleep. Sorry for the lack of pictures--we exhausted those with the last post. And now for a speedy shower before it's feeding time again...

Pictures (finally)

Here's Seth! We think he's adorable, even with his cone head (which has gone down dramatically, thank you very much).Why I swore that there would be NO pictures until after I had showered. I wish I could say I looked better now that I'm clean and make-uped, but I don't. Jon looks great, though. He's so happy to be a daddy.

Family picture (side note: right after this was taken we realized that someone had turned the room temp up to 78. It was really, really hot in there).

He looks so cute all bundled up and sleeping with his thug hat on.
Daddy and baby hanging out.

All ready to go home! So we're all home safely now. We left after just 24 hours--it's impossible to get any sleep when someone's walking in the room every 30 minutes to do some random job. I'm feeling relatively well, especially since Jon & Seth just let me take a two hour nap. More updates to come (when I'm feeling up for it).

BABY?

I'm not Megan. But I think she'll be OK with me posting that we had the baby for those of you that might check this before we (hopefully) put some pics up tonight.

STATS

Name: Seth Jonathan
Birth Weight: 6 lbs. 15 oz.
Length 20.5 in.
Hair: Yes. Lots of it. About the same color as mine with a bit more red in it.
Birth time: 12 July 2008 10:54 A.M.
Temperament (so far): Mellow. Sleepy.

Mom's in good condition. No complications.

Okay, fine.

Are you happy NOW, Aaronhead?

A Week of Ecstasy

How else can I describe the pure joy of spending an entire week with Aaronhead? He's been complaining mightily that I haven't posted anything about him, so I figured I'd better get this up ASAP.

As I mentioned before, Aaron is getting ready to leave for his mission in Chile here in a month. Since Jon & I will be unable to attend his farewell due to the soon-to-arrive baby, his parents were kind enough to fly Aaron out here (after a week in Charlotte with Scott and Mary).

We picked him up on Saturday and then proceeded to spend the afternoon playing Starcraft and Doom in the nice, cool basement. And by "we played Doom" I mean that Jon & Aaron played, while I ran around the map, generally lost, and unwittingly took all the ammunition.

I feel like I should apologize to Aaron for being such a lame hostess. Jon had to work Monday through Wednesday, which left me & Aaron home to entertain each other. Let's just put it this way--I'm a homebody naturally, so add exhaustion and 25 pounds of baby-related weight and I pretty much never feel like running around town. Thus, Aaron got to do exciting things like go grocery shopping and help me cook. For the record, he makes an excellent chicken curry.

Actually, the real reason we wanted Aaron out here was for free labor. Thursday morning Jon put both of us to work elevating the shed in our backyard. My job was to sit on the other end of the lever and hold up the shed. Good thing I'm a fat cow and can do this with ease (at least until I had to stand back up).

That afternoon we actually did something fun--a "hike" to Kilgore Falls. It was a really nice day for it--not too hot, and not too crowded. We had a delicious lunch, made by yours truly, and then braved the water.

It was cold. Really, really cold. As in I thought it might send me into contractions. Aaron was the bravest (or stupidest) and got in up to his neck. I made it almost that far, but couldn't keep my balance thanks to my protruding belly. Jon, however, didn't want to get his hair wet and thus ventured no further than his waist.

Before we left, we decided to "hike" up to the top of the falls. It was a nice view, so I asked Aaron to take a picture of me & Jon on top of the falls. Of course, on the way over to Jon, I totally turfed it in front of everyone. Did you know that rocks are extremely slippery when covered in algae? Yeah, so did I. I didn't even get any awesome bruises to make it worth it.

We spent Friday cleaning the house in anticipation of the Bloods' arrival. I now know we can semi-comfortably fit at least 7 extra people in this house and have enough hot water for them to shower. I also now know that it's possible to go through 6 rolls of toilet paper in less than 48 hours.

As this was our first 4th of July out here, Jon & I had no idea what we were doing. Our celebrations consisted of driving to some random middle school, hunting down parking spots, and then spending 20 minutes watching fireworks while Jacob kept us informed of how bored he was. We'll do better next year.

On Saturday, everyone (except me) headed to D.C. The baby wasn't happy about me running around D.C. in March, so I could just imagine how much fun it would be at almost 38 weeks. So I got to do some chores and shopping while the Bloods had a good time seeing the sites. They got home just as I was about to die of boredom. For dinner we ordered Papa John's for the kids and then Mom & Dad Blood took me & Jon to Red Lobster (and it was FABULOUS). I haven't dared step on the bathroom scale after that meal.

We actually got everyone to church on time, which ended up being unnecessary as no one from our ward was there on time (at least not in Primary). My favorite part of the day was when they tried to introduce Jacob & Joanna as my nephew and niece (not to mention how Jacob was totally non-responsive to the chorister's attempts to make him smile). Just for the record--I was officially released from Primary and Activity Days. I knew it was coming, but I was still surprised at how sad I was. I really like teaching Primary (and I really don't like going to Relief Society. Sorry). But this is the only way things will work with a newborn.

Sadly, the Bloods had to leave on the 6.5 hour drive right after lunch. We'll see some of them in a month for the baby blessing, and some at Christmas, but we had to say goodbye to Aaron for two years. It's going to be strange to not have him there at Christmas, but he's going to be a great missionary. I promised to send him cookies, although Jon later informed me that we would just make Marah send him cookies since shipping would be cheaper for her (and it would impress her roommates that she was already sending stuff to missionaries).

And so it's back to just me & Jon again, at least until my mom & Beth come out in two weeks to "watch" me until the baby shows up, according to Marah.

In closing, I'll leave you with the results of my weekly calendar after the Bloodlings got ahold of it:
(In case you can't read it, let's just say I have a semi-annual terrorist convention to attend this Wednesday, followed by duckling hunting on Saturday).

Is this normal?

Dear girlfriends who have had babies,

Is it normal for me to be 37.5 weeks pregnant and NOT have my OBGYN do an internal exam? Cause I'm thinking it's not. And it makes me nervous, especially if this baby decides to come early (like Jennie's did, the lucky girl).

Please help!
Love, Paranoid first time mom Megan

The Marah Fish is 18!!

My little sister is turning 18 today. Crazy. I really haven't registered any of her birthdays past 15, so this is getting a little rough on me.

And so, in celebration, here are 18 things we all love about Marah:1.) Marah is an excellent dancer and a fabulous singer, but her greatest talent is making sure no one knows that she has any talents.

2.) Her eyes change colors depending on what she's wearing. So I buy her lots of green clothes so I can look at her green eyes and wish mine were green, too.

3.) Marah is a food mooch. If you start cooking something, she'll casually saunter into the kitchen, strike up a conversation with you, and then--when your food is all ready--sweetly ask, "Can I have some?"

4.) If you're hard up for some entertainment, ask her to help you put the dishes away. Let's just say her response includes lots of moaning and rolling on the floor.

5.) When she was a kid, anything that walked on 4 legs was a "moo-cow."

6.) Marah finds math boring because it's too EASY for her. Obviously we inherited two very different genetic makeups.

7.) When she was little she had an invisible purple dog. One day she left it with me and Grandma Jan with strict instructions not to let it pee on the floor. In case you're wondering, it's really hard to keep an invisible dog from peeing on the floor.

8.) Marah thinks she's Jon's favorite sister in law. So does Kenna. And I'm pretty sure Beth's going to make a play for the position when she's here for two weeks in July.

9.) She owns a pair of flip-flops in every possible color.

10.) She refused to apply to ANY Arizona schools, so it's a dang good thing she got into BYU (I can't believe she's going to COLLEGE!!).

11.) There was an extended period of time when she would only wear clothes that had Princess Jasmine pictured on them. In fact, she insisted on being called "Princess Jasmine," and was furious when my mom tried to call her "P.J."

12.) As decided by me & Kenna, Marah is Dad's favorite child. No way either of us was going to get to drive the Avalanche when we had our licenses, much less our PERMITS. Driving it to school wouldn't even have crossed our minds, it was so out of the question. But not for Marah...

13.) Her nickname for a long time was "Muggy Marah." You couldn't sit down on the couch for any extended period without having Marah snuggled up against you, laying on your shoulder, or sitting in your lap (regardless of how hot it was).

14.) She has lovely olive skin and can get a better tan than Kenna without having to fake-bake. Proof, once again, that she and I came from opposite ends of the genetic spectrum.

15.) Kenna & I used to make her cry by singing about Barney getting killed. Worked every time.

16.) Due to a slight fireworks malfunction when she was little, Marah was terrified of "flowers" (those spinning fireworks) for a long time. We had to take the tulip sheets off her bed because she wouldn't get in them.

17.) She somehow ended up as Student Body VP despite being incredible shy and not really caring about getting the position.

18.) She is, quite possibly, my Dad's last hope for getting one of his girls to take up engineering. I bet she'll do it just to cement her position as his favorite child.

Happy Birthday, Fish! We're so proud that you're officially "a dolt" now. We love you!!