Preschool

Tayah had her first day of preschool this week and it went GREAT!! She is going twice a week from 12:30-3:00. It's a class of 3-4 year olds. Although Tayah will not be going off to kindergarten next year, since she has an October 4th birthday and misses the September 1st cutoff date; I thought this would be a good opportunity to get her out of the house to interact with someone other than mom. The best part is that she gets to go with her best friend, Ella. Ella comes to my house for daycare and Tayah and Ella have been good friends for a couple of years now. Sending Tayah and Ella off together made things MUCH easier for Tayah and for mom and dad. A little bus comes to pick up them up and drop them off. This week it is "All about Me" week at school so Tayah had an assignment for the first day to go home and find 5 things that would describe her to fit in a small paper bag. Tayah brought a few photos of her pets, a photo from her trip to Disney, a picture that she colored since she likes to draw, and a Barbie. We practiced what to say for each item as she will have to describe the things she brought to the class. So, today is day 2 of preschool and hopefully her project goes well. Here is a few photos from the first day.

One Month Old!!

I can hardly believe it has been one month already since Collin joined our family. I have to say he is really a good baby. Much more easy going and laid back than Tayah was. No offense to Tayah cause we love Tayah's character and she sure knows how to make us laugh. I compare him to Tayah, which I know I'm not supposed to do, but personality wise he is just so much different. Tayah was very much more high maintenance from the beginning. I hate to admit it but probably a girl thing! You could tell weeks after she was born that she was going to be very independent and never wanted much assistance from us parents. She wanted to do things on her own from the beginning and would easily get frustrated if she couldn't. This holds very true today. Tayah is very smart and picks up on things quickly and an incredible artist. She draws and colors better than most kids twice her age. So, I think the independence thing has obviously worked for her.
Collin is much more of a mama's boy. He likes to lay chest to chest with me. He rarely cries much and is very laid back and goes with the flow. He is a pretty easy kid to travel with and is easy to soothe when he is upset. He is a good sleeper and is just starting to have longer periods of being awake during the day. At night he tends to go to bed between 9 and 10 and wakes maybe twice, usually around 1:00 and 4:00. Getting up during the night is never easy and I miss my sleep but I really am trying to enjoy this last stage of infancy because they really do grow up so fast.
Collin eats well and is really starting to want to eat more and more!! I am detecting a growing spurt.
I started back to work this week and it is going well for the most part. My biggest challenge is juggling Collin's feeding schedule with time to meet all of the kids needs. Sticking to a schedule helps but becomes a challenge when Collin's schedule overlaps with the rest of the kids schedule. But I manage and sometimes it is just that...juggling and lots and lots of patience.
Tayah starts preschool next week. A bus will be coming to pick her up and drop her off twice a week. I'm a little nervous about this transition and I am sure I am much more nervous than she is. I will update the blog with that next week.

Dear Collin:

Mommy's due date was 8/19/10. Early on I said it would be really neat if you were born on 8/9/10. So from that point on that was the date that I had in my head and if anyone would ask when I thought you would be born, I would say, 8/9/10. As the date approached closer I was feeling ready to have you and was still holding out for that 8/9/10 birthday.
On Sunday, 8/8/10, Mommy, Tayah, Grandma, and Katie were doing some shopping around town and planned on staying for dinner that evening. Daddy was working at the Game Fair in Anoka that weekend, on call if something were to happen and needing him to come home. The weather that day was so HOT!! It must have been over a 100 degrees and very humid. I wasn't feeling quite myself that day but wasn't sure if it was early labor stuff or because it was just so hot outside.
After dinner Tayah and I headed home to meet daddy. Daddy just got home and made a comment that he was going to shower and clean up in case we needed to head to the hospital that night. Again...the darn weather. We had tornado warnings and had the sirens go off briefly that day but it was nothing major. But I feel like every time we had bad weather recently, my contractions would get a little more intense and more often, as was happening that night as well. So, just as daddy was getting out of the shower I peeked in and said "My water just broke". I was still feeling pretty good, a few minor contractions, but I had been having those all week. I called Papa and Grandma to come pick up Tayah before it got too late and things got too worse. Ben and I decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood to get the contractions going more. After the walk my water was still leaking and so when we got back I called the hospital to say we would be coming in. We got to the hospital around 10:00 that night. We got a room and tried to rest through the night. My contractions were gradually getting worse as the night progressed. By morning things were really starting to pick up. I was still only 3 cm. by morning so I sent Ben home around 9:00 a.m. to let Bella out and clean up. He was gone for maybe an hour and by the time he got back to the hospital, I was in much pain and jumped to 7 cm. Ben walked into a room of commotion, me feeling sick, and nurses prepping the room for the delivery. It was maybe another hour later that I reached 10 and was more than ready to go. I had to wait for my doctor to get back to the hospital from the clinic, which seemed like it took forever. Once she arrived I was ready to go and it didn't take too long for you to arrive after that at 11:49 a.m.
They laid you on my chest immediately and I was so happy and couldn't stop looking at you. Daddy got to cut your umbilical cord. You were so beautiful with tons of dark hair just like your big sister. We loved you from the start!!

Welcome to the family Collin Lee Cade!!
Born: 8/9/10 @ 11:49 a.m.
Weight: 7 lbs. 9.8 oz.
Height: 20.5 inches.

Still No Baby!!

Yesterday I was getting lots of action from this little guy!! I thought for sure maybe something could happen. I was having contractions almost all day long. I wasn't in pain but they were leaving me very uncomfortable. After supper, I was going to run to the grocery store to pick up a few things so I wouldn't have to do any of that this weekend, just in case. Ben was getting nervous having me go out while having contractions and said he and Tayah would run the errands so I could stay home and rest. THANK YOU!! So, I stayed home and was relaxing on the couch and could literally feel the baby moving down. I thought, Okay..he is coming out or my water is going to burst right here, right now. Well, unfortunately none of the above happened. Ben could even tell with the way I looked that he was sitting much lower now. So, I made it through the night and I am even working today. I have another doctor appointment on Monday if I make it that long. Ben and I are still hoping he will be born Monday, 8-9-10!!

Note to ALL Dads...Especially Ben

Things NOT to say while your wife is in labor!!

1. (looking at the monitor) See honey that contraction wasn't so bad.


2. I am going to pull through drive-through, do you want anything to eat?

3. Did you lay out clothes for me?

4. You know this is going to take awhile. Is it alright if I take a nap?

5. Wow honey, you are really digging your nails into my hand, could you be more careful?

6. Are you sure you're in labor? Maybe we should wait a while longer.

7. If you are going to get upset with me I will just leave.

8. (watching monitor) Get ready this is going to be a hard one!

9. I've heard passing a kidney stone is worse.

10. At least you're not having twins like your mom did.

11. I still can't believe Suzie was wearing a bikini at five weeks post-partum. She looked great, didn't she?

38 Week Stats

So, I had my 38 week appointment last night. I first sat through a stress test on the baby to check the baby's movements and heartbeat. The baby must have been sleeping because he wasn't moving very much so they had me drink some juice and sit a bit longer to wait for some movement. He eventually perked up and we got some movements recorded on the graph and everything looked good. His heart rate looked good and we even picked up some contractions on the monitor as well. I'm still having lots of little contractions throughout the day but nothing consistent or real strong enough to send me to the hospital. Well, those little contractions must be doing something because I learned that this week I am now 2 cm. dilated, 50% effaced, and baby's head is sitting much lower than it was last week. So, quite a bit of progress in just 1 week. I'm happy with that considering I was only 2 cm. dilated when I went into the hospital in labor with Tayah. The difference with her was I was having VERY STRONG contractions that kept things moving fairly fast. So, now we are all on edge waiting for something to happen. I feel like a ticking time bomb...no saying when this baby is going to come. At this point it could be soon or he could keep me waiting for a bit longer. We shall see!!

Baby Month is HERE

So, it is officially August which means, THIS IS IT!! Let the countdown begin. I'm just waiting now for things to start happening. Overall I've been feeling pretty good. I'm getting more and more of the little contractions and as of today I could start feeling them into my back. I took it pretty easy this weekend and did alot of relaxing, resting, napping and sleeping in, which I normally don't do. But, hey, might as well take advantage of the opportunity now, right? Saturday was the open house for the new birthing center where baby boy will be born. They officially start using the new section of the birthing center as of tomorrow. The old birthing center will be eventually transformed into operating rooms, as I'm told. This baby needs to at least hold out until tomorrow because that new birthing center is just AMAZING!! It is so beautiful!! It is like staying in a hotel suite with chocolates on your pillow and all. All the amenities included that you could ask for during a hospital stay. I actually can't wait to have the baby there. And Ben is excited because there is actually a loveseat that turns into a twin size bed for the dads. YAY!! Beats sleeping on a uncomfortable chair...which I think he did when Tayah was born. So, I have another checkup tomorrow. I'll update with that soon. Off to bed...Good night!