June at 5 Months

How cute is our June!? She is just all smiles these days. I know I say that every update, but really, she is just so happy. The smiles are now joined by laughter and happy "screeches." I'm starting to see that she may be the extravert I am - getting all her energy by being in the company of a lot of people. Two recent examples of this are when we were on the airplane on the way home to Seattle. She was so happy during the flight, looking at and "talking" to the passengers all around her. As soon as we got off the airplane she broke down, crying and tired for the first time. I also just had a get together with friends that I took her to. It began past her typical bedtime and was almost three hours long. I brought her thinking that she would get tired and I would nurse her to sleep while I visited with my friends. Nope, she was at her happiest the entire three hours and then as we left, being the last to leave (because I'm the extravert like her!) she started crying as soon as that party was over and fell asleep on me on our walk to the car! Silly baby.

Just like our trip at Thanksgiving, we are excited to be home for Christmas for a couple weeks where we can show her off to family and friends and where she can get constant attention. We left when she was only five weeks old, so of course she's a very different baby for them to get to know now.

June is giving me a run for my money in the napping department. Actually, nothing too difficult - just the back-and-forth that I think is common when starting out with sleep-training. It's just so easy to slip into "bad" habits of nursing her all the way to sleep a couple times, then she begins to depend on it, which makes it a struggle to get her to sleep in the first place and also stay asleep. The other problem is just that extravert issue - the world and the people in it are too exciting, she doesn't seem to want to miss it in order to nap!

She's starting to hold onto toys better and manipulate them in order to put them into her mouth. She plays with her Sophie giraffe, a tag blanket, a small plush bunny and an oball (I had to look it up in order to know what it's called). But, like I reported last month, she's still just as happy holding onto and chewing on a burp cloth.

June has suffered her first cold this month. It's been two weeks and running, which seems like a long time. Her cough sounds bad but doesn't wake her up at night, although it does sometimes get in the way of falling asleep.

It's official, she's totally balding (again, I think I report this every month). It's hit an ugly stage, I think, where it's beyond baby balding and in the realm of old-man-who-just-should-just-go-ahead-and-shave-it-off-already.

I feel bad that this is all I have to report on for this new month, but I can't think of anything else to say.

We love having a five month old in our house again and think our particular five month old is the best!

June at 4 months

Sorry June. It takes us three days to take your picture and write these posts. You're a second child, you'll be used to the mild neglect soon enough.

On November 17th June turned four months old. What fun four months is! She continues to be a happy baby, always eager for someone to look at and talk to her (maybe it's the second child neglect again?). We've begun sleep training and although it's not a walk in the park, she is doing better than would be expected after the few days since we started. We have had to hear her cry when going down to bed or in the middle of the night (poor sweet baby) but only for a couple days or inconsistently and her "cries" are more calling out than full on crying. Which just means it's more bearable for her parents.

Have I mentioned yet that June has the cutest chubby legs and belly? I don't think you can classify June as a "chubby baby" but after our skinny skinny Henry, it's so fun to see her little rolls on her legs and to cuddle with her and her chubby belly.

She has begun to enjoy holding toys and bring them to her mouth - her Sophie Giraffe and her taggie blanket are what I offer her but her favorite is actually just a burp cloth. I think she can hold onto it best. She also loves to grasp onto my hand and hold it at her mouth to suck on my hand or fingers. I like that too.

She's strong - loves to stand and doesn't mind being on her belly because she's able to hold her head up for a little while. We can sit her against the couch cushions and she can stay upright for a long time. New possible positions seem to add to her continuing to grow into a more and more complacent baby.

Her Grandpa and Grandma Nyland visited us last week. I was so excited to finally show her off to family after months since anyone has seen her in person. She charmed them, just as I knew she would. She's not the most photogenic at every opportunity, but in reality she is so so cute and beautiful. Big blue eyes, an always smiling open mouth (as the above picture captures). Or maybe I'm just her biased Mama:) I'm looking forward to next week when I'll see Alicia and her family along with our good family friends for Thanksgiving in Idaho and be able to show her off for the whole weekend. And it's only one month until we fly home to spend a couple weeks with all the rest of our family! Honestly, what I'm most excited about is for everyone to get to know our adorable happy baby girl!

June at 3 months

Our happy baby has returned! Right after her two month update on this blog where I mentioned what an easy baby she is, she developed a sore on her lip that got worse and worse. I didn't know how it would heal since it was constantly being bothered by nursing, spitting up, and her rubbing it with her hands. It was obvious that it was painful for her. Now, finally, about a month after it formed, it has begun to heal. It's now even more apparent how much she was hurting because, now that it's better, she's back to being cheerful pretty much all of the time.

She really is so much fun. She is so easy to get to smile- just smile at her and she returns with the biggest smile of her own! She remains pretty chatty, but mostly with just Rob and I (I can't usually get her to "talk" to anyone else). Speaking of Rob - she loves her daddy! If he's around she just stares and waits for him to look at her, she'll also follow him around the room with her eyes, it's sweet and also comical.

June is still our good sleeper, although wakes up more than I last reported. This is due to falling asleep earlier at night. If we can get her to nap around 7:30-8 for even a half hour then she'll last until 10 or so at night and then only need a feeding once. But, without that nap she's pretty tired by 9pm and then I know she'll be up twice in the night. Oh well, it could be worse.

I think I've figured out that she's not quite the comfort nurser that Henry was. In fact, if she's mad then trying to get her to nurse can often make her even more angry. The other day I accidentally hit her head on something and she was so upset, but would not nurse. After a number of attempts I tried what I know always makes her happy - I took off her diaper. She quickly became happy, talking and smiling. I wonder how not being that into nursing, besides when she's hungry, will play out differently than it did for Henry. It's so funny how much she loves to be without her diaper on. We take it off most nights for the last hour or so that she's awake. The second it comes off she gets super wiggly and begins scooting herself all over. She's at her happiest - she must just love the sense of freedom!

The only other new thing that I can think of her doing this month is that she holds her hands together, like in the picture, and puts them in her mouth. Before now if her hands made it to her mouth it was a sign that she was hungry and now she does it all the time. Oh, and she doesn't hate the car so much. I'd better be careful saying that, because it's a brand new development, but she didn't cry the last few car rides we've been on. It's life changing.

We love our little blue eyed baby girl! Now that she's begun to develop a fun personality, we're anxious for the coming months to see how that continues to develop.

June's birth story

June was born nine days late. The first week that she was late was tough because I wanted to meet her, wanted to stop being pregnant, wanted my family to have more time with her before we moved, but mostly because waiting to have a baby feels like "limbo" - you can't really plan anything. You kind of just sit around and wonder if today/tonight will be when she comes. After that first week I decided to change my attitude and be grateful that I still had time alone with just Henry and grateful that I was feeling really good at the end of my pregnancy. It's amazing how simply changing an attitude can change a situation.

... and then she came!

I had gone to have my 41 week prenatal appointment and while there the midwife stripped my membranes and checked to see about dilation. She said there wasn't much to strip and guessed she would come really soon (although I guess that's an easy prediction to make when a woman is 41 weeks pregnant:). Henry had gone with Alicia and her family to Tacoma for the afternoon/evening and so we decided he would just spend the night with them. Rob and I took advantage of a night alone and went to eat some spicy thai food and see a movie. It was nice to have that time together and know that Henry was just as happy spending lots of time with his cousins.

Whether it was the membrane stripping, the spicy curry, or just finally being ready, I woke up around 3am to contractions. I could tell this was "the real thing" but they weren't too painful at all. I told Rob that I was having contractions but to go back to bed for now and I would wake him when they worsened. About 15 minutes later he got out of bed, and 15 minutes after that... BAM! The contractions were BAD! It was crazy seeing how fast I labor - with Henry I just figured I slept through my early labor, now I realize my "early" labor goes super fast and I go from a 1-2 on a pain scale to a 7-8 within a really short amount of time.

Because my labor with Henry was pretty fast and knowing that most women experience labor going faster with each subsequent pregnancy, I had been worried about how fast it would go. I asked each midwife I saw for advice and they each said, "just come in as soon as your contractions get painful." That really simplified things - no worrying about how far apart for how long, just come when I really hurt. Well, despite the advice, I still waited too long. I'd say we were home for probably another 20 min or so (making the bed - you know, important stuff) before we got in the car. By the time we got to the hospital, I was crying after each contraction and just like I remembered with Henry, I didn't know how I was going to make the short trek from the car to the elevator. Hugs and encouragement from Rob was the only way I made it!

When we checked in with the receptionist I was leaning on her desk with my head down and crying. Rob gave our names and she called the nurses. It was funny because in most cases you go into a "triage" room where they determine if you're really going to be giving birth or if they need to send you home. But on the phone we heard, "nope, she's for sure ready. It's pretty intense." Luckily it was in the middle of the night and was pretty empty there because the nurse quickly got to me and somehow I was able to follow her to my room. On the way I told her that I really wanted an epidural and kept stating that as she asked, "are you sure?" and told me there might not be time. Even though I knew she thought I should just go for having the baby right then, I was really happy that she still advocated for me by pushing to get the anesthesiologist there right away. Also funny, I had three or four nurses rushing to get me into bed and ready - one giving me an iv (is that was she gave me?), one asking me questions, one helping me get out of my clothes and maybe another (?) that found that I was 9 cm dilated and 100% effaced!! Although I'm grateful they were all there urgently getting me ready, that chaos was just not what I had envisioned or hoped for this birth.

The anesthesiologist arrived quickly (thank goodness - with Henry it took 30 minutes to get one available!) and told me that I would start to feel some relief with each contraction but that the baby would probably come before I felt the full effects. Receiving the epidural hurt a lot more this time, at least more than I remembered with Henry. I didn't mind much, it was a different type and location of pain, so it was welcomed.

Luckily he was wrong. The epidural ended up slowing the progression of labor, which I think is common? We were glad about that because everything else slowed and calmed down. Alicia and my mom arrived shortly after I stopped feeling pain and Rob's parents were even able to get to the hospital. Honestly, it got a little boring in the meantime. The midwives (one plus an intern) stayed with me most of the time and I kept thinking how bad I felt about all the time they were in my room since nothing was happening. They wanted to wait until I came to the full 10 cm. I can't remember the time for all of this, but I think it was about 8am that they planned to check again, which was not long after a shift change for the midwives.  Which maybe is why they wanted to wait - so they could make a clean switch without me being in the middle of labor?? That's my assumption, at least. The student intern stayed but we got the new midwife. I really liked having multiple midwives, actually, because they are all wonderful. In fact, the next day while recovering at the hospital the midwife who came on staff was the midwife I got to know well during all my prenatal classes so that was lucky!

I can't remember what we did in the meantime - I know we finally spilled the beans about names we were considering (June, Sybil, Lane and Drew). Everyone liked June and Lane the best, I think. We also took bets on how big she would be. Since she was nine days late we guessed eight pounds and over.

So when it was finally time to push it was very relaxed and calm. They had me do a "practice" push which would help them determine how ready I was and they exclaimed that it was a really productive push and that she was ready to be born! So, with everyone standing around, they told me when a contraction was coming so I could push. Everyone was very excited about what each push accomplished, but for me it was a little frustrating because I was pushing with all my might but didn't feel anything. Luckily it didn't go too long and I didn't get a chance to get too frustrated or exhausted. This was very different than with Henry because although I had an epidural with him as well, it had begun to wear off so I knew when to push and could feel the pressure so I felt a little more proactive. Even during the pushing it was so so calm. Between contractions we would chat a little and a couple times the midwife would calmly state, "oh, we missed one, let's wait for another." One amusing thing that happened at the beginning of the pushing was due to the midwife suggesting that they not break my water. It hadn't become broken on it's own and she felt that sometimes, left whole, it can create a cushion for the baby and prevent tearing. But, she warned, sometimes it pops on the way out and can spray everywhere. And that's what happened, although not very dramatically - but I heard a gasp and laughing from everyone before I knew what happened.


So, finally I was told that just one more push would do it and then I felt the awesome "woosh" of her coming out. They put her on my chest and, just like with my first birth, I was surprised and excited about how tiny she was (7 lbs. 2 oz, 19 3/4 inch long) I was also excited to see how much hair she had and I remember thinking and maybe even saying how pretty she was. I think I remember crying too (and I didn't with Henry). She didn't cry much and not much the rest of the time in the hospital. The few times she cried I laughed because her cry was so cute!

I told Rob he could go ahead and decide her name was going to be June - that was a top choice for a while and his favorite. Her name isn't after anyone, we just liked it (that's how all the first name options were). The night before he had told me that he didn't like Drew, and that was probably my top choice. Except that Henry had been referring to her as June for a while so I think I did know that would be the name we would settle on. We had a few middle names, but each middle name worked with a specific first name so once we knew her name was June we knew her middle name would be Beatrice, which is Rob's grandma's name. Grandma Bea passed away a few years back, I even was able to meet her.

That's the story of how June Beatrice Nyland came into our family on July 17th 2013!

The waiting (after the epidural, I think. I just can't imagine there being time before for a picture)

Our weight predictions. We were way off!

Our beautiful new baby girl!

playing on the floor

June loves to be on the floor looking around, smiling, talking, and kicking.

Nine weeks old.

June at 2 months

I love this picture. Our goofy girl.

June had her two-month well child appointment today. The doctor told me that June seems more like a three month old to her which confirmed what we already knew about her - our daughter is gifted :) Mostly, she just seems exceptionally social - smiling, cooing, watching our every move, and getting upset when we're out of the room (she can stay happy for the most part - but it does surprise me how much she notices when we're not there).

She continues to be a good sleeper. A few weeks ago I didn't know the tricks to get her to fall asleep and stay asleep for naps. It seems like a swaddle is the answer, and since I've utilized it for naps (not just at night), she takes great naps, sometimes one that lasts 3-4 hours in the afternoon. She wakes up just once every night and then easily is put back in her crib after a short feeding. Having her and Henry in the same room has been no problem at all. Sometimes in the morning I have to quickly get one waking child out of the room before they wake the other, and when they're both up on the early side I wonder which is the guilty party that aroused the other. I usually suspect June.

No interesting update on her birthmark. She's been on her meds for almost a month and all it seems to have done is stop any spreading. Which is fine. We wonder what it will be like when it's completely gone, since we're so used to seeing the redness of her lip and chin. Her eyes are definitely turning blue, which I take as a personal victory that both our children have my blue eyes!

The other day I was thinking about how young she is and how easy it has been to incorporate her into our lives. Having a newborn makes some things tricky, mostly working around her naps (because I love her to nap at home where I can get things done, but also because I hate being out and about with a fussy baby), but for the most part the transition to two children has been really smooth.

She's acclimated to her new life in Provo. Just kidding, of course we wouldn't be able to tell that. But I think as a family we feel quite settled. We're missing family, especially missing them being a part of June's life when she's this little.

June at 1 Month

Our little girl was born one month ago! We're excited to start these monthly updates again, just as we did with Henry - and just as we did with Henry, June is pictured with the quilt my mom made for her and with her little plush friend from Rob's mom. Here is what our June Bug is like at just one month old:

• The biggest deal with June these days is lots and lots of doctor's visits and tests. She has a birthmark, a hemangioma, that has the potential of spreading into and obstructing her airway. Because of that big risk, they are going to treat (get rid of) her birthmark with medication - a medication that needs all sorts of tests to make sure it's safe to take. The wrench in all of this is the fact that we're moving out of state in a couple days, so trying to get all these tests and visits before then has been a little crazy-town. Seriously, that's the short version of the story. I guess once the treatments start, these monthly updates will also serve as evidence of the drug working, as the redness of her lip and chin slowly disappear (I realize it's hard to see in this month's pose - and, by the way, she does have all 10 fingers).
• Sleep. Isn't life with a newborn all about sleep? She's been awesome since her first night - yes she wakes up for feedings, but they are short and she goes right back to sleep. The last couple nights she has only had one feeding, five or so hours after she goes down to sleep. It's awesome. And now she's in the room with her brother instead of in our room with us, we're still testing that out.
• June is already smiling, which is surprising and so fun. In fact, the last one to two weeks has given us a more interactive and less sleepy baby. She follows us with her head/eyes as we walk past her. Unfortunately, the busy time we're having these days with the move has made us hold her less and gawk over her less than we remember doing with Henry when he was a newborn. We have to make an effort to enjoy this stage of hers.
• She loves her big brother and, oh boy, does he love her! He is so sweet and gentle with her and also surprisingly helpful (getting a burp cloth, throwing a diaper away). She seems to be really interested in him when she knows he's close by. She got him a present when she came into our family - a really cool scooter - so I think that won her some points :)
• June's growing like a weed! She was 7 lbs 2 oz when born and now she's two pounds over that. Maybe this is how fast all babies grow and I just don't realize it, but with all of doctor visits and being weighed each time, I just keep seeing that scale go up and up!
• Her eyes are getting lighter so we think we have another blue-eyed baby in our family. It's fun that she has so much hair but we're already suspecting that she's losing some of it from the front/top - oh well, luckily she's a girl and can wear cute bows to hide the unattractive pattern of hair loss!

That's a little look at our June Bug. It's been such a blessing already in this short month to have her join our family!

Looking Back: Pumpkin Farm

I've had pictures set aside from this fun day at the pumpkin farm since we went in October 2012, but there are just SO many pictures that I've put off posting it. But, what the heck, here they ALL are!

"The Farm" in Snohomish, WA is our favorite place around Halloween - it's probably my favorite part of the holiday, actually (dressing up sure isn't!). Most years we go as an entire extended family, but this day Alicia and I decided to go with just our kids in the middle of the week. It's opportunities like this that make being a stay-at-home mom so much fun, and why I feel like my husband should be so jealous that I get to play all day while he has to work (sorry, honey!).

The Seattle Great Wheel

As you saw in our previous post, while we were on our babymoon we rode on the Seattle Great Wheel.  I took a little video while we were on the ride and made this.  Enjoy!


A Ride on the Great Wheel from New Land Media Works on Vimeo.

Babymoon

A few weekends ago, Stephanie and I decided to go on a "Babymoon." As we've been telling people about this, we've come to find out that not a lot of people know what a Babymoon is.  Honestly, I didn't know what it was either, until Steph kept telling me that she wanted to go on one.  Our problem with truly getting away had one little kink -- I didn't have anymore vacation left for the year.  In the end we decided on a plan to do an overnight trip to Seattle and splurge on a few things that we wouldn't normally do.

Having dropped off Henry earlier in the day for watching by Steph's sister Alicia, Steph and I met up after work, packed our backpacks and headed to the bus station.  Taking the bus to Seattle is a recent discovery: it is cheaper and faster than driving over to the city.  Plus we didn't have to worry about parking once we got there.

We sat on the pivot point on the bus, of course:

Crossing the 520 bridge toll-free (if you don't count the bus fare).

We stayed at the Hotel 1000.  The story behind getting the hotel room is fun and could inspire a long tangent.  After looking for a few weeks a room at the Worldmark resort in Seattle, we weren't really having any luck.  I then remembered an app that I had heard about called Hotel Tonight.  The app posts same day hotel deals, with the only catch being that you can only see stuff after noon on the day of your booking.  I had been looking on Hotel Tonight at the types of rooms that were available in the days going up to our babymoon, but it was a little nerve-wracking (and exciting) to not know exactly what room we were going to get.  First time users also get a $25 credit, so that would help us getter a better bang for our buck.

At 12:00 on the day of our trip I logged on and found quite a few good deals.  Hotel 1000 was the nicest of the bunch but still within our budget, so I booked it.  The feeling was pretty exhilarating.  The reviews for the place were positive and James and Alicia had stayed there for their honeymoon and anniversary, so we knew that we would be happy.

When we arrived at Hotel 1000, the woman checking us in said "Are you visiting us for a special occasion?  Is it because you have a 2nd baby on the way?"  When she said this I was thinking to myself "Wow, this woman is good", but we later found out that Alicia had called ahead to tell them that it was a special occasion.

When we got to our room there were chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us.

And this nice card.  Seriously, these people are so awesome!

We changed into somewhat nicer clothes and began walking to our dinner.  We had a hard time deciding where we were going to eat, but in the end we decided on Tom Douglas' restaurant Lola. Tom Douglas is pretty famous around these parts, and I think that we wanted to say that we had tried one of his restaurants before we moved away.

We were definitely a little intimidated by the menu, but our waitress was helpful and we ordered some fun things.  Lola is Tom's take on Greek food, and while we wouldn't say that we were blown away by the meal, we enjoyed our time and enjoyed trying something new.  Our favorites from the meal were probably pita and spread appetizers, the salmon kebabs, and the chickpea fries that came with our lamb burger.

Oh yeah,  remember how our baby is coming in less than a month?  I guess we need to have some sort of pregnancy photo on the blog.  This is Steph at 34 weeks.

After dinner the plan was to head down to the Seattle waterfront.  I love passing through the Pike Pl. Market after it's closed.

Our reason for visiting the waterfront was this:  The Seattle Great Wheel.  The wheel is actually pretty new and probably something that we would never go on because of its price and also its touristy-ness. But it seemed like a perfect activity for our babymoon.

We had heard some mixed reviews of the Wheel, and so we were going in with relatively low expectations.  We were a little worried that we would have to share a gondola with someone else, but luckily they were letting couples go alone if they wanted to.

Some of the views from the Wheel:

The best view:

We actually enjoyed the wheel quite a bit.  The ride ends up being about 20 minutes (the time it takes to load, go around 3x, and unload), and although it may not be totally work the $15 per person admission, it was a perfect way to spend our evening.

Ski-ball on the waterfront followed:

Plus Wack-a-mole:

These are the prizes (minus the 1 starburst that I immediately ate) that we got for $1.25 worth of ski-ball and wack-a-mole.  I'd say that's a pretty excellent deal.

After Ski-ball we headed back to our hotel.

The bottom of Post Alley.

That evening we got some Ben & Jerry's half baked and headed back to the hotel.  We kept our ice cream in the hotel freezer while we got some mocktails from the bar downstairs.  Stephanie also randomly ran into a good friend from High School who was a waitress at the hotel restaurant.

Our room at Hotel 1000 was probably the most fancy room that I've stayed in (I guess the bar is low). They had this cool bathtub separated from the room by a glass wall.  The coolest thing about the bathtub is that it fills from the ceiling in a perfect cylindrical water flow.

We checked out of our room in the morning and got ready to head off for our morning adventure.

I forgot to mention the best part of our hotel's location -- it was conveniently located next to a video store.  We need to really support these small video rental places, they are getting killed by Redbox.

This is the site of our Ben & Jerry's extraction the evening before.  It was awesome by the way.

Walking up Post Alley toward the market:

The gum wall:

Worst prom invite ever?

Here's breakfast.  Bag of hot doughnuts? Yes Please!

Our plan for the market in the morning was to go on a historical walking tour.  I had found a Groupon for the walking tour the week before, and have always wanted to know more about the history of the Pike Place Market, so we thought this would be perfect.

Ear gear:

Our tour-guide Ezra.  World class.

On the tour we learned tons of nuggets of info about the market.  One of the nuggets is that El Gringo imports (pictured) is one of the only places that is allowed to sell non-handmade items because they have been around the market for so long.  We also learned that every morning there is jockeying to get a good spot to sell wares, but everyone knows not to take El Gringo's spot.

We also learned that this is not the original Starbuck's but technically the 4th Starbucks.  Regardless, it's still a tourist trap.

We learned about the order of the buildings in the market and how they are named fairly literally.  The Sanitary Market was named so because it was clean.

We never noticed this monument that was placed on the entrance to the market until this tour.

The tour told us the history of the gum wall (It mostly involves people putting gum on walls).

I learned that the stone on this street was taken from some street in San Francisco.

This used to be a cattle ramp:

Overall, it was a great tour that I would recommend to anyone that is interested in knowing a little bit more about Seattle history or the Pike Place Market.  Check em out here: http://www.publicmarkettours.com/

After the tour we had a little bit of time before we grabbed lunch so we headed to the shops underneath the market.

Most of the stuff in the market has been there forever, so I was happy to see Orange Dracula, a bizarro goth / punk / surplus store that was new on the scene.

Our plan for lunch was to have our own Pike Place food tour.  We wanted to get some of our favorite things from around the market.

First up, Hom Bow from Mee Sum Pastry.

We got a Curry Beef Hom Bow, which I later learned wasn't Stephanie's favorite.

Next up was Beecher's Mac 'n Cheese:

There's a street called Post Alley in Pike Place Market.  Post Alley is short for "hitching post alley". This is the hitching post:

Ginger Molasses Cookie?  I'm a sucker for them.

Unsatisfied by the earlier Hom Bow, we returned to get Steph a BBQ Pork steam bun.  She was happy.

Well that's the end of the pictures.  We finished our lunch and hopped on a bus back to Kirkland. Before we picked up Henry we saw the new Star Trek movie -- which was great by the way.

Thanks Steph for joining me on this last hurrah before we become parents of two!