"Not So" Happy Howl-o-ween

So I thought I had a genius costume idea for Sawyer this year with him being a cowboy atop Moxie, his trusty steed. I spent all morning designing the perfect cowboy hat and boots for the occasion. It seemed like a great idea, until I tried to make it a reality. Watch the video to see what I mean:

**If it seemed like an absolute disaster...it WAS.**

Video for Grandma

The last video I posted on here just for you mom was the one of Sawyer bouncing

around in utero. Now here he is much bigger, with longer legs and arms (I think

he was only a few inches in the ultrasound)and still bouncing. Enjoy Grandma! Also

you'll hear my hesitation as to what to call dad: is he grandpa howell or grandpa dave?

Sawyer going for a stroller ride yesterday when it was a little more then brisk outside. He is sporting his pumpkin hat from Aunt Peggy and blue gloves from Aunt Chele.

A semi-smile for me. I think it was more like a pre yawn I just so happened to catch, but he looks more animated here.

Just What We Were Afraid Of

Moxie has come to the realization that she has some tough competition now. She probably can't figure out why she's been replaced by a little wiggley worm that screams a lot and is allowed to poop in the house. Perhaps she thought that if she too had a binky that we would find her just as adorable as Sawyer when he's gets one bobbing in his mouth.

The Great Pumpkin

Since just like daddy said he would be and Sawyer was born in October I thought it was only fitting to take some pictures of him with something Octoberish. Spiders, witches and ghosts are out so pumpkins it is!

Had to cover up the goods with the blankie because he had no interest in being modest.

And lastly the one below was my indication that our photo session was now over.

Boys will definitely be boys.

New Pics

So our blog is turning into being all about baby. I can't help it! Matt and I did a mini photo shoot of Sawyer this afternoon in the backyard and these are some of our favorites.

Just Curious

Matt and I are beginning to wonder how a little guy who is just over 8 lbs can have more gas then a room full of grown men combined. This is after a long night of taking turns patting his back, rocking him, and massaging his tummy trying to get all his gas bubbles to exit out of one end or the other. I had no idea either how such a small person could have such LOUD bodily functions. If I'm ever out in public with him during one of his gassy episodes I'm gonna have to point a finger at my baby so people don't think I'm the one just letting them rip. I made a massive pot of soup before he arrived so I could freeze it and have something easy and healthy to heat up and eat in the first few weeks. I ate some of this soup the day before this terrible night. Did I mention that it was chock full of cabbage? Yeah, the following day we threw all the frozen soup away. I'm also going on a no broccoli, no caffeine, no dairy diet which combined with my already no wheat diet I'm hoping will help cure his tummy discomfort. Looks like I'll be having a tall glass of tasty water for lunch.

Little clip of Sawyer getting an aired out bum. He has a red bumpy rash on his cheeks so we were letting him being a nudist for a while. We were more concerned with him marking his territory on our bed and weren't paying much attention to the sucking action he was doing on his arm. Apparently he was hungry because he had sucked three hickeys onto it! His sucking reflex is ridiculously strong, just ask his mom whose milk storehouses feel like they've been put the wringer. Good thing we had already taken him to the pediatrician that day otherwise it would have looked a little suspicious that our newborn had purple bruises all over his arm!

10 Things I Didn't Know About Motherhood

1. That the labor and delivery of a baby is something you always hear about and are somewhat prepared for it's difficulty. What you aren't informed of is how hard the recovery process is and all the "fun" things that go along with that. I was in for a shock when I found I could barely walk, let alone use the bathroom!

2. The moment you see the little being that has been inside you for nine long months you realize how insignificant all the annoyances of being pregnant really were. The bathroom breaks every half an hour, the insane nausea and vomiting in the beginning, the tossing and turning every night trying to get comfortable, the being so huge you can barely bend over, all of it is so worth it if that's what it took to create this perfect creature with ten toes, ten fingers, cute miniature nose and teensy mouth.

3. You don't realize the vast amount of patience you really have until you are trying to diaper and swaddle a newborn who is crying his little head off every hour during the night.

4. You get overwhelmed with emotion and intense love for the individual in this tiny packaging and suddenly realize why your parents did the things they did for you growing up.

5. Hearing gaseous noises coming from your baby's butt that are so loud you're surprised his diaper didn't get blown off is actually endearing and so is seeing the stinky parcel inside that he's left for you. Also the fact that he peed on my leg as his first way of saying hello after he was born is pretty cute and I'm sure he'll get a kick out of that when he is older.

6. I didn't realize how one of my proudest moments to date would be when I saw the trickle of liquid coming from Sawyers mouth after I was feeding him and knew that my milk had come in! For some reason I was so afraid that my bubbies wouldn't get the job done, that ecstatic doesn't even convey how excited I was when I saw the evidence that they were working properly!

7. How amazed you are that some people still think that humans are a product of evolution and not a product of God when they can witness themselves a new baby. Inspecting each tiny feature is more then enough evidence of how we are uniquely designed by God.

8. You find that seeing your husband in the role of Daddy like watching him sleeping with your baby or snuggling the little man on his chest is far sexier then anything else.

9. You are flabbergasted at how your mom had her first two kids by age 25, raised 4 altogether, and spent so much time and energy on all of us individually. I can barely imagine having enough energy to raise just one so far!

10. And last but not least you find that watching your baby sleep and hearing him make funny noises that sound like piglets snorting or a seagull squawking is more entertaining then watching your favorite sitcom on tv. I guess we can cancel our DVR now.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night.....

To preface let me just say that when my other blogger friends were having babies recently I was always super anxious and impatient to have them post pictures and the story of how their labor went. If I knew they had already had the baby and it was three days past I couldn't figure out what was taking them so long!! Well, now I know. Getting on the computer is the furthest thing from your mind when you have a newborn who is demanding your attention round the clock. So here we are a whole week past Sawyers big debut. And his story goes like this......

It really was a dark and stormy night, the wind was out of control. In the future we will probably tell Sawyer the wind blew him to us that night. Matt was insistent that he would be born in October and sure enough it was October 1, 2009 at 3:00 am when I first woke up with pain. The whole week before I was looking up on the internet what exactly a contraction feels like because I wasn't sure I would know. Now that just seems silly because it's true what they say that when you have one you WILL KNOW. From 3 am til 7 they were consistent about 5-7 minutes apart so we left for the hospital at 8. I was afraid we would get there too early and they would send us home.

Once we arrived, they hooked me up to a monitor and apparently my contractions were more like 3-4 minutes apart, but unfortunately I was only dialated at that point to a 2. They thought about sending me home, but wanted me to walk around for an hour first and see if I progressed. After an hour of shuffling the hallway with many, many, many stops to breathe they rechecked me and I was a 3. They doctor on call decided to admit me and wanted to break my water. We called Matt's mom Carol at that point to let her know that we were definitely going to be having a baby that day and she headed to the hospital. They started an IV after 5 attempts to get the needle in my hand, and after 5 times of me nearly passing out from their poking the needle around in my veins. At about 10:00 they broke my water and that's when the fun really started!
I really thought I was smiling in this picture when it was taken, but I don't think my attempt to mask the pain was very convincing. I got some kind of medication to take the edge off at around noon when I was dialated to a 5, which didn't do a thing except make me loopy. Matt was feeding me ice chips, and gobstoppers to suck on, and rewetting my washcloth for me. From 12-2 I don't really remember a thing, I almost felt delirious from the pain or it could have been the medication too, but now I know why when you ask someone on a scale of 1-10 how bad their labor pains were they say it was a 30! I didn't want to get the epidural too early, but finally I was getting to the point where I was gonna rip of the nurses head if she didn't get me something STAT! It felt like an eternity before that glorious needle got put into my back. Little did we know (since they didn't check me before the epidural) but I was already dialated 9 at that point and was almost ready to push. The nurse had to turn the epidural down so I could have more feeling to be able to push. We did a practice push session and he was ready to come out!! She called the doctor and told here to come over asap. I couldn't feel any contractions, but my body was doing a good of a job of getting him out on it's own, so good that the nurse had to hold my legs closed until the Dr. got there. She barely had time to put her gown on! After some excellent coaching from Matt and Carol and a few pushes later and out came baby Sawyer Emmett at 4:12 pm.
Here Matt is cutting the cord.
Proud Daddy.
Tired and exhausted, but also relieved that it ended up being an easier labor than expected. I highly recommend getting an epidural by the way. I was a happy camper after that and was even joking to Matt that we should have 6 kids if was going to be this easy of a delivery. Because the whole process was so fast, the nurses all told me that with any future children I better be ready to rush to the hospital or I'll have the baby on the way there.
Grandma Howell holding her second grandbaby to be born in one month.

Grandma Carol holding Sawyer.
On his way home from the hospital. Looks like he is contemplating whether he is going to like it here or not.

My favorite shot of Matt and his new son.

Eyes wide open.
Moxie trying to greet her new friend.

Our little beanie baby.