A Thousand Cranes

Like many of you, I look around and see the devastation caused by so many natural disasters and my heart aches. My heart wants to help, but with limited finances and two kids at home, it's hard for me to find a way to help.

I had the opportunity to attend part of elementary school in Bangkok, Thailand. Because of that experience I was exposed to different books than many children who attended school here in the US. I remember reading the book "Sadako and the thousand paper cranes" when I was there. I read it several times and even learned how to make an origami crane because of the book.

I found out today that Oshkosh B'Gosh is hosting a fundraiser of sorts called Cranes for Kids. For every paper crane you make, Oshkosh will donate an article of clothing to the those affected in Japan and the Pacific Rim. Now I can't do much, but I can make lots of paper cranes. So make some paper cranes and mail them, bring them into the store or load a picture onto facebook to help in this effort. Go to the Oshkosh website to learn more.

Already?!

Aiden is one month old! I can't believe it's been a month already. :) He's still doing great. He loves to eat and it shows in all the chub and rolls he's got. According to our scale here at home he weighs 11 lbs 8 oz. Yeah, he's a big boy. He's about 21.5 inches long, give or take a little (he was wiggly while I tried to measure him).

I love that Aiden has this little outfit. Aiden's grandpas were both baseball coaches for their children. Mike was on the Allstar team that his dad coached and I was on the t-ball team my dad coached. So here's to you Grandpas. :)

Esther loves helping out with Aiden. I think she's over her cold now and her ear infection is all cleared up (which has helped remarkably with her mood). She LOVES holding Aiden and thinks she can do it all on her own. She loves to help by getting diapers, burp rags or whatever else we may need to help care for Aiden. This morning I left Esther in the room with Aiden for a few seconds and when I came back she was trying to get Aiden to hold onto one of her prized possessions: her teddy bear. It was sweet that she wanted to share, even though it lead to a conversation about not putting things on Aiden (do other mothers worry about siblings and blankets?).

Esther is doing fairly well. She's had a hard time with the fact that we haven't really gone out of the house for the past month. But now that she's healthy again I can send her over to friend's homes for play dates. :)

Aiden is really a great baby. He is rather easy going and he eats great. He has however been colic-y at night, usually between 8 and midnight or so. Thankfully Mike has been helping out by taking him between feedings if he's fussy and now that I have a pump I can pump a bottle for Mike to give him and sleep for more than two hours at a time.

We are a happy family! :)

P.S. Most of these pictures were taken last week, except for the baseball outfit pictures, which were taken this morning. So they're fairly current pictures of our growing boy. :)

Esther-isms

Esther talks all day and she comes up with some cute things to say. Rather than saying "so much" she says "too much". So she says "I love you too much!" or "thank you too much!"

Esther will tell us something she wants to do and we'll repeat it back to her to make sure we understood her correctly. Then she'll say "Okay!" like you just came up with the best idea ever. :) Here's an example that just happened.

Esther: Let's watch Jesus movie, daddy.

Daddy: You want to watch a Jesus movie?

Esther: Okay!

Lately Esther has been frustrated that we haven't been coming immediately when she wants us (slow moving due to sleep deprivation, or busy changing Aiden's diaper or something). So she's started saying this: "Mommy, come here right now! One...two...three..." and then she seems to forget what she's doing and she'll count up to eleven. It's really cute. :)

She is constantly sending everyone and everything to time out. She sends Aiden to time out any time he's taking daddy's attention or when I'm busy with him and Esther wants my attention. She also sends her parents to time out when we don't do what she wants. And of course all of her toys go to time out several times during the day. The other night after Esther went to bed I found a pile of her stuffed animals on her time out stool. Apparently they weren't behaving. :) Oh, and she doesn't say "time out" she says "pime out!" so it's even cuter. :)

Esther loves to give knuckles (hitting fists with someone else) but when she wants to give someone knuckles she says "guckles" instead. It took us a while to figure out what she was saying. :)

Drinking Cream

That's what everyone keeps telling me anyway; Aiden must be drinking cream. He has been awesome in the weight gaining department. Esther was such a featherweight, it's kinda fun to have this different experience. When we left the hospital 3 weeks ago, Aiden weighed 7lbs 12oz. When we went to his newborn visit 4 days later he weighed 8lbs 7oz, which surpassed his birth weight of 8lbs 5 oz. :) When I took him to get registered with WIC this past Monday, he weighed 10lbs 7oz. My boy knows how to eat! It's so cute to see his chubby cheeks and rolly polly limbs. :) He's a happy and healthy boy! :) We don't get much sleep at night because that's his awake time and he's been a bit colic-y this week, but we'll take him anyway! :)

Picture Fix

I thought I'd post a bunch of pictures of our cute kids, especially Aiden so that you could get to know him a little better. :)

Here's Esther helping take care of Aiden. :)

My mom was able to come for a quick last minute visit. She was here for 6 days and it was great having her here. :)

One thing about newborns is that it's really hard to capture in photos how cute they really are in person. The pictures just don't do them justice. But hopefully you can get an idea of how cute Aiden is from these pictures. :)

I've been trying to do fun things everyday with Esther. One day we were playing with playdough and Esther made a baby that she was taking care of. :)

I was getting ready to feed Aiden and apparently wasn't moving fast enough because he latched onto my chin and was trying his hardest to get some milk. It tickled!

I love that Aiden's kinda smiling in this next picture. :)

Look at those chubby cheeks!

Daddy and Esther looking cute!

Our first picture as a family of four. :)

My men. :)

Another try at a family picture.

Here Aiden's sporting the high priest look (pants up to his chin and sound asleep...)
Esther likes to love up on her brother. :)

Esther has been sick since just before Aiden's birth. This picture just sums up how she's been feeling lately. :)

Esther loves to play the piano with daddy. :)

Grandma Sampson with two of her grandbabies. Esther was so excited to be holding Aiden. :)

Aiden's hair has a little bit of a curl and is kinda light brown. So cute. :)

Handsome boy! I love to nibble on those chubby cheeks! :)

Aiden smiles in his sleep all the time. It's hard to catch it on film though. This picture just catches the end of a smile. :)

Hey bright eyes.

I was putting something away in Esther's room during nap time and I found Esther sleeping like this. It was so cute. :)

Sorry, that was probably too many pictures, I just love my kiddos and want to show them off! :)

Esther's friend

Esther loves to play at her friends, the Brinkerhoffs. This past Christmas, Esther got a doll that she calls "Baby Claire." Can you see why?

Happy birthday, Brinkerhoffs!

Birth Story

During my last OB appointment before Aiden was born, we scheduled an induction date for February 23rd at 5am. I wished it was sooner, but that was the first available date my doctor had. So we made the necessary plans for Esther to go to our friend's house the night before so the amount of people awake before the sun was limited.

On the 22nd I was getting everything ready to go to the hospital in the morning. This included cleaning the house, finalizing babysitting arrangements for Esther, and packing up the last minute things for the hospital bag and Esther's overnight bags. That afternoon Esther was napping and I decided I'd better lie down for a nap as well. After about 30 minutes I was awakened by a contraction. I didn't get excited because I've been having contractions on and off for several weeks. I went back to sleep, but woke up 15 minutes later with another contraction. Soon after that Esther woke up so I gave up on the nap. Over the next several hours the contractions got closer together, but they weren't really painful, just kind of uncomfortable. By the time Mike got home at 6 that night the contractions were 5 minutes apart, but still not very strong. That night we took Esther to a friends house to sleep over (so they wouldn't have to get up at o'dark thirty the next morning before we went to the hospital). We came home and finished up a few other chores and then sat down to watch a movie together. I had wanted to try to go natural with this birth, like I did with Esther. After a few hours it was obvious that the contractions were not going to stop and although they weren't getting closer together, they were getting stronger. Since I wasn't going to get any sleep at home, we decided to go to the hospital so we could at least have an idea of where we were in the labor. So at about 11pm we went into the hospital. Since we were planning on being there in the morning anyway and because we had been on the phone with labor and delivery, they were ready for us when we got to the ER. They had a wheelchair and escort ready for us (unlike when we went in with Esther and waited for 20 mins). On the way up to labor and delivery we kept hearing comments like "Another woman in labor?!" Apparently the entire mother and baby unit was full and labor and delivery was getting close to full.

The nurse checked me and I was at a 4, so the contractions were doing something. We were able to walk around and play with the labor ball and all that fun stuff. By about 1:30 in the morning I was beginning to have back labor. Aiden was sunny side up and it was causing some rather painful contractions. Both Mike and I were falling asleep between contractions, which were still about 5 mins apart. Finally I decided it was silly to try to go on like this, since Mike and I had both put in a full days work and we were just so tired. So I asked for an epidural. Soon the anesthesiologist came in and gave us the low down on the epidural. The whole time we were looking at him trying to figure out if we knew him. Finally Mike asked if he knew someone from our ward, and Dr. Burton did. Then it came out that he was in the singles ward and we probably recognized each other because we're in the same stake and he lives down the street from us. Small world. :)

So Dr. Burton gave me a wonderfully effective epidural that I am so grateful for. The nurse at that point was not very good at cheering me on and helping me through the contractions, so I was very grateful that Dr. Burton was so encouraging. Seriously, he was awesome. I was especially appreciative of that since Mike had to leave the room while I got my epidural and I had several contractions during the 20 mins it took to get the epidural in.

After I got the epidural we pulled in a cot and both Mike and I were able to sleep for several hours. By about 6 that morning I was at a 6 and the resident on duty talked with me about breaking my water to help things progress, since Aiden wasn't dropping. Since she was going to be going off duty soon we decided to wait until my doctor came in to break my water.

So at 7:30 my doctor came in. She looked at me a little surprised and then checked me. She was even more surprised that I was already at a 6 and she asked the nurse how much Petocin I was on. Apparently no one had mentioned that I went into labor on my own. Once we updated her she said "I was surprised that you already had your epidural and everything! But you're a great patient for going into labor on your own." So on the next contraction she broke my water, but she strained a little bit doing so because the amniotic sac was so thick. I think that's probably why I hadn't gone into labor earlier with all the contractions I had.

One they broke my water, Aiden flipped around to how he was supposed to be and dropped down like a good boy. :) By 9:30 I was beginning to have pain with the contractions. We topped off the epidural but it didn't do anything, so the nurse checked me and said it was time to push. Since it was time to push, it wasn't worth strengthening my epidural, so I was able to kinda feel the delivery. We called in my doctor and I started pushing after she got there. Actually, I pushed for about 60 seconds and then they said "Stop pushing!" That was probably the hardest part of labor this time. Not pushing when I'm feeling the urge to push was really difficult. They made sure everything was good with Aiden and with the next contraction I pushed twice and then he was here. :) In all I pushed for less than 5 mins. :)

Many of the nurses had been taking bets on how big our little man was going to be. Since Esther was only 5 lbs 11 oz most of them guessed he would be between 6 and 7 lbs. The highest guess was 7 lbs 6oz. I guessed 8 lbs, so I was the closest when he ended up being 8 lbs 5 oz. :) I think it's kind of funny that my pregnancy and delivery experiences for my two kids were so totally different. :)

Since there weren't any mom and baby rooms available we stayed in labor and delivery most of that day. When they came to take Aiden for his vitals, bath and more in depth check up (which would take about an hour and a half) Mike went to get Esther so she could meet her brother. While everyone else was gone, I napped. :)

Esther was curious about Aiden when she met him, but that soon wore off and she just wanted to play with Mike. :) Since Esther had (and has) a cold we have been trying to keep her at a distance from Aiden. It's only kind of worked though, and Aiden currently has a stuffy nose...

Anyways, it has been so fun as we adjust to being a family of four. Of course we're sleep deprived, but I have been overall really happy. This is partly due to the fact that Mike has been able to work half days from home (the other half in the lab) this past week. It has been wonderful having him to help with Esther. Especially since Esther doesn't want anything to do with me at the moment. :) But we're happy and loving life (and laughing at all the funny things that happen due to our sleep deprivation).

Twoisms (post by Mike)

Aiden is amazingly cute, but Esther has her moments. Yesterday, we were coming off the freeway, when Esther started saying "Tempo! Tempo!" Robyn and I looked at each other puzzled, and then Robyn smiled and said "Temple?" "Yes, tempo!" was Esther's reply, pointing to a big building with lots of lights.

We were listening to some music during dinner to calm Aiden down (it turns out all he needed was burping), but anyways, Esther with a mouth full of food started saying "Banno! Banno!" Again, I looked at Robyn expecting her translation, but then Esther started bouncing her fingers up and down off her tray like a piano--it was awesome:)

And we have been getting some delicious meals from some wonderful cooks in the ward. I thought out loud "Thank you, friends, for this yummy dinner!" Esther smiled and said "You're welcome."
Oh and I sat down for a bowl of Esther's pretend soup today (her favorite meal), and before she dished me up, she came up to me for what I thought was going to be a hug since her arms were out, but then she touched the sides of my neck and said "Bib on," and went back to her chair. If it wasn't so cute, I'd have felt slighted for the hug fake-out.

What's a post without pictures? Here are some of Esther and 1 of Aiden for comparison. Kinda fun!