Disneyland Video, part 2

Dos:


Nylands & Disneyland: Part 2 from New Land Media Works on Vimeo.

Disneyland video, part 1

Last month we took our biennial (that means every two years, folks) trip to Disneyland/California Adventure with Rob's family. Isn't Disneyland the best? This trip's highlights include: June's first visit to the parks, lots of time with cousins and other family - especially the "big" (teenage) cousins, June demanding to ride the carousels - we think she rode about a dozen times, having an extra day at the park with Grandparents all to ourselves, not being pregnant so being able to ride the thrill rides for the first time in 5 years, boycotting Dole whips but drinking lots of apple freezes, perfect weather, cousins playing hide and go seek in a small condo, not losing any children, and the kids just being close to 100% awesome.

Favorite moment: when I look back I think my favorite experience was standing in line for Pirates of the Caribbean late one night with a ton of our family, including Jerry and Linda (G'ma and G'pa) who snuck into line with us at just the right moment. We must have waited close to 40 minutes but it was a lot of fun. And New Orleans Square is so magical at night.

This brings up something about Disneyland I was reminded of while there, but had forgotten while I was over-preparing before the trip: the lines are not big deals, even when they're long (and with the biggest crowds we've experienced for this time a year, the lines really did get long). The kids don't get bored and they don't run away... well June actually did quite often, but was always easily recovered, if even by strangers/line neighbors. And, as demonstrated above, time spent in line can make up the best memories.

Another small but related realization is that people don't steel your stroller and you don't totally lose it, I didn't need that big neon sign marking that our stroller was our stroller that Rob had convinced me not to make.

There are more realizations/reminders that all boil down to the point that spending a day at Disneyland isn't a big deal - I mean, not the bad kind of big deal. You don't need bubbles or creative activities to occupy the children in line, nor do need that big neon sign. I guess what I'm saying is that Disneyland can totally be done in a more "chill" manner than Pinterest would have you believe.

What we would have done differently, and hopefully will do differently in two years is to recapture more of the Disneyland Magic by letting the kids dictate the day a little more. Rob observed that Disneyland can be like a sport for parents and you're a champion by perfecting the agenda - you know which rides to go on when the park first opens, how to get a good spot at the parade without sacrificing time for rides, which rides to skip and which to make sure you fit in 2-3 times. I guess it's hard to avoid it entirely, especially if you've only got 2-3 days at the park, but we enjoyed our experience more when we let go of our "perfect" agenda and let the kids decide which rides, when, and how much. I'm guessing the formula in action here is that in order to feel the magic that the kids feel, you need to follow the kids' lead.

Whoa, ramblings. Here's part 1 of how our trip turned out... magic included.


Nyland & Disneyland 2015: Part One from New Land Media Works on Vimeo.

Christmas 2015 video

Merry Christmas, in case you didn't know.



Christmas 2014 from New Land Media Works on Vimeo.

Summer trip video

Oh my goodness, Rob has three videos we've never posted. Here's the one of our trip home to Seattle last summer.


A Summer Trip to Washington: Part 1 from New Land Media Works on Vimeo.

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.

Family Photo Session

This past summer you may remember that I did this video for our friend Kali.  In return, she agreed to do a family photo session for us.  We've never really done one of these since Henry joined our family, so it was a pretty fun opportunity.  The day after Thanksgiving we drove down to Maple Valley and met up with Kali at an old golf course.

Here are some of the results:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out Kali's website. Beautiful work.  

Henry's B-Sides Video

So I've probably mentioned previously that Henry is really into videos of himself.  More specifically he really likes the videos that I make of our adventures together.  Well, It's been getting a little boring around here watching the same videos over and over again from our trips (more like depressing because I really want to go back to those places), so I decided to pull together some random clips from some things that we've done over the past year.

I call it Henry's B-Sides because it is like the B-sides to an album.  This is the stuff that didn't quite make it into it's own video.  One of my goals this year is to take more videos and pictures of things, so hopefully you (and Henry) will be seeing more in the coming months.

Enjoy!  Warning though, this video is pretty much just of Henry being cute, so if you're not into that you should probably just turn back now.

Our Little Christmas 2012

One thing that I want to make sure to do this year is make more videos.  Henry absolutely loves them and he often throws a tantrum if he can't watch them (I'm actually a little fearful that I am distilling a sense of narcissism in him).  So anyway, here is a video of the great Christmas that we had this year.  Here's to hoping there will be more documenting of events throughout the year.

This years Christmas was special for a few reasons.  One reason was that we had Stephanie's sister Monica and her husband Jachen visiting from Switzerland for the holidays.  Henry has loved seeing "Chi-chi" and "Ca-ca" and has been able to play a lot with them.  Another reason that the holiday was special is that we were able to announce Stephanie's pregnancy with our 2nd baby due in July.  The surprise to our mothers is documented in the video.

We hope that everyone had a great holiday and we are excited to see what 2013 brings.

Henry's Amazing European Adventure // Part 4: Switzerland, Again

The exciting conclusion to our epic European adventure!!!

Henry's Amazing European Adventure // Part 3: Venice

Henry's Amazing European Adventure // Part 2: Milan

Here's part 2 of our adventures in Europe.  As mentioned in our post, we were a little unprepared for Milan.  It's definitely a big city, and other than finding some Pizza to eat, we really didn't know what to do there.  However, in the end we had some good times and captured some of them in this video.

Enjoy!

Henry's Amazing European Adventure // Part 1

Yes, I realize that we haven't finished blogging about our trip -- but let's just forget about that.  While we were on our trip, I shot a lot of video (about 40GB worth).  I've since distilled most of this down to a 4 part video series.  This first part covers our arrival in Switzerland and goes up to the part of our trip where we separated from Monica and Jachen in Varenna, Italy.

If you want to read our account of this part of the trip, be sure to check out the previous posts.

Enjoy!

Henry is 6 months old

I just noticed that the last time we posted anything was Henry's five month post. Oops - not doing very well at this blog thing these days!

This month definitely seems more significant than other months - half a year old! I think the main reason why it feels significant is that I always figured by six months I'd have this baby thing figured out. Ha. I'm happy to report that a lot of things, most things even, are a lot easier - but we're not out of the woods yet. And now I'm starting to see the possibility that it's not ever going to be "all figured out." He's almost a new baby all the time in so many ways. Here's a picture of the kind of baby he is at six months:

• We always start out these posts talking about sleep (our lives revolve around how to get him to sleep better) - he is doing really well going to sleep at night. For a little while we were putting him down awake, and these days we're putting him down pretty much asleep, which feels like a step-back. I don't even know how that happened. He sleeps until 4am-ish when he wakes for his only feeding at night. We worked hard to get him from waking up every four or three hours. Working hard = a night or two of letting him cry. All three of us hate those nights.
• Henry is a nap champ! I backed off on trying to get him weened from the swing and the swaddle. He rarely cries when he's put down. We'll tackle getting rid of those things in the future. The third nap of the day only happens on occasion and depends on how the first two naps go.
• The kid is mobile - he makes his way all around the living room floor. He either grips the carpet or blanket with his hands and pulls himself forward or uses his arms and ab muscles to move forward. I don't know how to describe it - but it's not really his legs at this point. It's fun to see him get everywhere and he's pretty happy when he's playing on the ground. The only problem is that he still spits up, but since he's able to leave the blanket we put him on we're using a lot of carpet cleaner these days!
• Not only is he moving his whole body, but each little limb is always going. He prefers to be on his stomach, and he just kick, kick, kicks his little legs all day long. At night when he wakes up we now hear his legs kicking along with his waking cry. When he's nursing he waves his arms back and forth and he's always "scratching" with his fingers - either scratching me or whatever is near him that has an interesting texture. It is so clear that his developmental "job" at this age is to learn about the world around him!
• Henry is talking all the time. A couple of weeks ago he started some CVCV or reduplicated babbling. That's speech-pathology terms for saying that he goes "ba ba ba." It's really fun to hear his voice but the first time I heard it I didn't know what baby was in the car with me - it was so strange to hear him in this way!
• We started solid foods about a week and a half ago. His reaction was a little anti-climatic - not surprised, disgusted or excited. A little, "yeah, I've been wondering when you guys were going to give me some of this stuff." We started with rice cereal and he has now had zucchini, pear and carrot. With the onset of eating solids, I now have to deal with cloth diaper messes that can't just be thrown in the washing machine. Yuck.
• Henry is currently battling a cold. His first time being sick, the poor baby. He's a trooper, though. After the first night of refusing to nurse and screaming, causing Dad to do a late-night Sabbath Day run to the store for medicine and to my sister's for a humidifier (we were not prepared for this), he has been happy and smiling despite the goopy eyes and stuffed nose.
• I reported in the last post that Henry was out of his 3-month clothes. The next few days after that I realize that I was too early with that announcement. But now I think he really is just wearing 3-6 months. We go to his 6 mo check-up in a couple days to find out if he has "moved up" on the growth percentile charts. He was in the 6th %ile for weight and the 11th for height at 4 months. Last night during his bath we noticed that his legs actually might have some chub on them! update: After Henry's 6 month checkup - 14lbs 13oz (7th%ile), 2'11'' (3rd %ile)

We love our little baby boy. Yesterday I watched him scoot himself across the living room floor after a ball that kept rolling off just as he would reach for it. That scene, with recent scenes of him eat food that doesn't come from me, plus feeling a little sad for him with being so sick - all made me a little weepy. We're proud parents of our big six month old but do miss our tiny baby boy.

You can imagine the small bit of tears that came when viewing this latest video by Rob. It's snippets from all of the footage of our boy thus far and a document of him growing up:

Henry's birth story

“Labor” started around 2am on Monday morning. I woke up in bed with bad menstrual-like cramps and thought to myself that they were probably actual contractions, just like I was hoping I would have soon, and then I fell back asleep. I was a few days overdue, and despite knowing that the due date is just an estimate and should be treated as such, I had been feeling impatient for his arrival for a few days. I think it was because we had hoped for so long that he wouldn’t be early and come during Monica’s wedding, that once her wedding was past, I already felt past-due. Even though I wasn’t.

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Anyway, those contractions that started around 2am came infrequently enough that I was able to sleep between them.  The pain was mainly in the hips and back and I just sort of shifted and rolled my hips and was fine. Around 5am I wasn’t able to sleep in between them – now I realize that it’s because they were getting more frequent, at the time I thought I was just too awake to go back to sleep so I went out to sleep on the couch thinking that would help. At that point the contractions became more painful and as time passed my two thoughts were, “If I can just make it to 7am, Rob will be awake and I’ll start timing these.” And, “finally, I’m having contractions!” The couple of hours until 7am lasted a really long time! I didn’t sleep, but I tried – tried sleeping on the couch, on the floor, and while sitting on a balance ball. 

Rob woke up at 7am and I asked him to help me time the contractions. They were pretty unbearable and I was disappointed in myself that I admitted to Rob, “Okay, I’m ready for an epidural.” It was surprising to me that I couldn’t find any relief during the pain despite attempting different positions and comfort measures. How naïve of me. The only thing that helped was putting my arms around Rob’s shoulders (in “slow dance” position, as Rob likes to refer to it) during the contractions – it helped that I could totally lean on him and not have to support myself at all. Timing the contractions just confused me. I was anticipating five minutes apart or more and because they were coming so fast I thought they were longer contractions with breaks in the middle. Plus, the pain was pretty much restricted to the lower back and hips and I thought it would eventually “wrap around” to the abdomen. That’s what the book said would happen! So, I was basically holding off going to the hospital because I thought “true” early labor was still on its way. Rob had been on his laptop all morning trying to figure out how to get out of teaching his classes for the day. I thought it was preemptive and told him that I thought he should teach his first class, and then by noon when class was over, I’d be further along and ready to go to the hospital.  Rob convinced me to call the hospital and I ended up playing phone-tag with my midwife. Finally, the receptionist called back and said the midwife said to just come in. They knew nothing about how long or how frequent my contractions were when they told me to come. I was still a little doubtful until I finally concluded, “there’s no way this is anything but labor.”

I was really nervous about the car ride to the hospital – but luckily it was all kind of a blur. Rob parked in the garage and I did not think it was going to be possible for me to get out of the car, walk from the car to the elevator, and then walk from the elevator to the check-in desk.  They were just coming so fast! Waiting at the check-in was really hard, but it probably was only a minute or two before they brought me into the labor and delivery triage room.  Every single step was so hard and when the nurse asked me to go into the bathroom to change into a hospital gown, I stopped mid-way and started crying. I guess I was just really overwhelmed. This seemed to make the nurse nervous because I heard her go to the phone and urgently request the midwife again.

There was another couple in the triage room, separated by curtains from my section of the room, and I heard a doctor telling them that they should go home and come back later because he thought she still had some time until the baby was coming. I think it was at that point I realized that I was very much in labor, because there was no way anyone would think to tell me to go back home in the state I was in!

When the midwife finally joined us in the triage room (I really don’t know how long we waited for her – probably 15 minutes. I was very much out of it, not very aware of what was happening around me, especially of time passing by). She checked me and found that I was 5 cm. dilated and 100% effaced. I was shocked and felt a little sheepish for not thinking I was even in early labor and thinking that Rob should have left me to teach his class. They were shocked too – at least they made it sound like I was pretty far a long for having just arrived. I had been waiting for early labor to start, when really, I had just slept through it!

They had me walk to the labor and delivery room where they shortly found out that I was now 7 cm. dilated. I felt like the contractions were 30 seconds long and 30 seconds apart, but they told me they were 1 minute long and 2 minutes apart (1 minute b/w each contraction). I was very much unable to think beyond the contractions. I thought about how I had learned that during a later labor stage all your concentration is on the contractions, and at this point I was conscientious that that’s what was happening. People around me kept asking me questions about how I was feeling and what I needed but I couldn’t really answer them. At one point the nurse was rubbing my back during a contraction and I really thought it helped, but I couldn’t even tell her that. The contractions didn’t feel like they lasted very long and once one began I knew I could get through it, but it became so tiring just knowing that soon after that one, another would be on it’s way. I continued to prefer to hold onto Rob to get through each one.

I was told that the anesthesiologist was just about to go into a scheduled c-section, so we knew it would maybe be a while until he would be available to administer an epidural. I think it ended up being about an hour, but luckily it felt like half that time. I had been nervous prior to this about the pain of receiving an epidural, but it turned out to not be bad at all. I also was worried about having a contraction during the epidural and not being able to remain still like you’re supposed to, but the doctor said that even though it was likely that I would have one, it would be okay. Somehow that eased my concern. Everyone had Rob sit in front of me so I could concentrate on him rather than on the needle or the contraction.

It was amazing how much changed after the epidural. I was myself again! I had planned on getting an epidural all along for many reasons – I really had no interest in having the baby “natural.” I had heard some women say that because they got an epidural they were able to enjoy the birth, which is so true for me.  I felt one or two more contractions, then that was it. Rob’s mom soon arrived to the hospital, she brought Henry a really cute stuffed zebra which was fun to receive just before he was born. My mom came soon after that and it was nice to have them both there, and nice that I could actually enjoy their company, which I wouldn’t have if I was still feeling the contractions.

I had tested positive for Group B Strep which meant they wanted to give the baby antibiotics before he was born. The medicine was going to take four hours to administer so the nurse told me they were wanting to hold off the birth until 1:15 at the earliest. I was totally fine with that since so far everything had been moving faster than I imagined it would – I didn’t feel ready to have the baby yet anyway!

I should say something about the midwives and the nurse – everyone was so great. The midwife on call was Peggy Kimmel who I had met just one or two times prior to this. She was working with a student intern that day – Rebekah. We found out later that this was Rebekah’s first birth, so it was neat that Henry was her first, knowing she’d never forget it! The nurse’s name was Linda. They were all very attentive – the nurse stayed with us 100% of the time (except when she took her lunch) and the midwives (Peggy and her intern) were there a lot more than we thought they would be. They were there from the time they met me in the triage room until after I received the epidural. In fact, the baby’s heart rate dropped a little right after I got the medicine, so the nurse called the anesthesiologist and the midwives back into the room and they all stayed until the heart rate stabilized. I felt really confident in the care of these three ladies and was really grateful for the calm feeling they helped maintain during the entire experience.

At some point I started feeling pressure in my lower abdomen and the monitor showed that the pain was during the peaks, which were the contractions. I mentioned it to the nurse and dealt with it for a while because it wasn’t as bad as the pain had been before. It started to get worse and so the anesthesiologist returned to increase the amount of medication (I don’t really know what he did). It didn’t make a difference and because the pain was increasing the midwife had me push to see if it eased the pain, which it did. They still didn’t want the baby to come until after the baby received the antibiotics and it was getting really close and they figured that I would be pushing for a while anyway, so they had me push as much as I could since that eased the pain. Well, the pushing turned out to be pretty effective and it became obvious that this baby was coming pretty fast! It actually was great – I had been nervous about the pushing part of labor because that had been the difficult part for my sister (whose baby’s birth I had witnessed just four months prior). It felt like a blessing for it to turn out this way, for the pushing to actually act as a pain reliever as well as what got the baby out! I only pushed for 30-40 minutes, until 12:56… 19 minutes before the medicine would’ve gotten to him! It ended up being fine, no big deal that he didn’t get the meds. The pushing was only hard the last few pushes, and it wasn’t painful when he crowned like I expected it to be. Rob was great during the pushing – he stayed up by me encouraging me to push, reminding me that we were going to meet the baby soon. He was asked if he wanted to feel the baby and watch closer. He declined :)

So, the moment he was born… it was so crazy! I just couldn’t believe that it was happening – that I was having a baby, that he was finally coming and that it was finally time to meet him. The nurse and midwives knew that we weren’t set on a name and during the pushing the nurse asked if the name choice depended on if he had hair, because he did. That was really fun to hear. It’s funny being the one who is pushing because everyone else in the room gets really excited and you have no idea what’s really happening. With almost every push they make it sound like that’s the one that will get him out – and they are genuinely excited! Then, all the sudden, whoosh! Out he comes and they put him on my chest. I couldn’t get over how tiny he felt! Rob cried, but I don’t think I really did. I actually wish I felt more present at that very moment, I wish I could have taken a moment to look at Rob right then and have that moment take a little longer. It was so amazing to have the baby on my chest, he was whimpering for a long time and he felt so warm. I will always remember that feeling of him laying on me with the blanket on top of him and rubbing his back and his little tiny bum, and him with his arms up near my neck. Even though I didn’t quite feel like his mommy yet at that moment I loved that he seemed so comfortable there as if he knew who I was.

He was 7 lbs 1 ounce (.6 of an ounce, actually) and 19 inches long. Not long after he came I heard Rob telling my mom and his about some of our name choices – Henry or Wade. Rob turned to me and said that he thought the name is Henry. I think we both knew that would end up being his name but it helped that Rob was so sure about it. We didn’t settle on Lewis as a middle name for another 20 minutes or so. We had many names throughout the pregnancy, we weren't going to decide until after he was born. Of all the many names, Henry had been on the list the longest. Wade was the other name we liked that day, although it had only been on our list for a short time. Arthur was the other option for a middle name. 

And that’s the story of how our little Henry Lewis came to us on May 2, 2011. I loved the birth, just as I hoped I would. I don’t feel like it could have gone much better. I’m so glad my mom and Rob’s mom could be there and experience Henry’s first minutes of life. I’m so grateful that Rob was my support – what an experience to share together! We love our little boy!

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Birth video, by Rob

Welcome, Henry from rob nyland on Vimeo.

Our baby boy

Henry has arrived and we've been enjoying him for three whole days now! Rob played his two roles of Coach and Videographer well - here's the big day (Kendra, this is for you especially!):

Disneyland

Steph and I would definitely spoiled when it comes to going to Disneyland. My entire family went last year to celebrate this life of my Grandma, who frequently took us there when we were younger, and this past President's Day, we were able to go again. It was definitely a different experience with Stephanie being pregnant and all (she couldn't go on most of the bigger thrill rides), but we still had a good time being with our family.

As with most major life events from here on out, the trip needed to be documented. So without further ado, here are some highlights from our trip:

A Baby Story

No, not our baby. He is still on his way. But on New Years Eve at 3 in the morning our brother, James came banging on our door. Alicia, Stephanie's sister, water had broke, but the baby was supposed to be one-month away. We went to their house to stay with the boys and in the morning we went to the hospital and began the wait.

I had agreed to document the process a while ago, but I was unprepared in many ways. Unprepared for the waiting, the anticipation, and then the joy that accompanies the birth of a new little one. I tried to capture all of these things in the video. Now, after it all, I am not sure if I am more prepared than I was before -- but at least I have a better idea of what is coming.

Christmas in the Northwest

A Day at the Farm

Will and Emily

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to film the wedding our friends Will and Emily. It was one of the only rainy days in Seattle this summer -- which doesn't always bode well for an outdoor wedding, but the ceremony was great anyway, and I was lucky enough to capture it in digital form.

Here is a shorter edit of their wedding with some nice melodramatic music from Jens Lekman.

Consequently, I am also looking for more wedding clients to fill up my weekends. If you know of anyone who is getting married, feel free to send them my way: robnyland (at) gmail.com