Go Hat

My sister Sharon http://sharon-c-thats-me.blogspot.com/ is going to be having her third baby any time now (if she wants my opinion, I think she should have him on December 29th...) I wanted to make Baby Boy Carpenter a hat to keep his little head warm in the cold Idaho winter. I came across this one on ravelry and thought it was so cute. I didn't buy the pattern, "Go Hat". Instead I just figured it out. I thought it turned out pretty well. I can't wait to make on for Samuel too. It might be a smidge too big on him initially, but then again, Sharon will feed him well so he will quickly fit into it ;)

Congratulations (soon) Sharon!

Random Samuel pictures

Ah, my sweet little boy. I love this picture, but I wish his ear wasn't bent... I just want to fix it everytime I see it!

All dressed up for church. He looks so handsome in his church clothes!

He has recently discovered his thumb and the joys of sucking on it. I adore seeing him suck on it, but am trying to make myself make him stop. I have seen how difficult it can be when they are older to get them to stop so I'm trying to forget the cuteness and be more disciplined in stopping it and encouraging the pacifier. It's been hard. Last night we put socks on his hands, besides swaddle them tight by his sides and he managed to loose his arms, and get that sock off. I found him contentedly sucking away on his thumb in the morning. Little Houndini!

I just love how alert and engaging he is in this picture.

Christmas Stockings

After 6 Christmas's together, I finally made us some matching stockings. There were many different types I thought about doing, like crosstitch, felt, sewn, knitted and lots of variations within them. I asked Derek what he wanted. I really tried to impress upon him that this was going to be what we'd have for THE REST OF OUR LIVES, and that our kids would hold fond memories of them, and want to take them with them when they got married, etc. He didn't seem to be as invested in it as I was. "I don't know Babe, what do you want to do?" was his frequent reply. And, with Sam here the pressure intesnsified to have it done. I wanted to have matching stockings from the very beginning with him. As you can imagine, it was a big decision. ;)

I really thought about making some knitted ones, but just couldn't decide how I wanted them, and in the end, the sewed ones just were easier. SO, here they are:

I really liked how they turned out and think it will be fun to pick out new patterns and Christmas fabric as our family grows. I will probably add our names at some point. I asked Derek if he thought we should have the same stocking every year, or put our names on them and have assinged stockings. He initially said to keep them unassigned and we could choose each year.... I'm not sure I'm a fan of that, but we'll see for now. Mine is the middle one :) I'm happy with them and now we have coordinating stockings!

Christmas crafts

Today, Sam took a 3 hour nap. So I picked up some stuff around the apartment and made these two onesies. The hat I finished a few weeks ago.
I put little Christmas lights that I found in the button aisle on for the decorations. I was so excited when I found them!

The gift onesie I saw at a craft fair and thought I could reporduce it. The Christmas tree I made, mainly to use up the little pom poms that I had originally gotten for the hat.

Poor Sam was pretty patient throughout the photo shoot! Hopefully we'll be able to get our tree put up today. I love Christmas time and love December!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving. We had my parents, my sister Rebekah and her boyfriend John, and our friends Amber and Aaron over for Thanksgiving dinner. The food was awesome and plentiful, and the company was excellent!

I didn't have any special Thanksgiving clothes for Samuel, so I made one up real quick the night before. It's pretty cheap, but I actually ended up liking it quite a bit.

The back of his onsie says, "Gobble 'til you Wobble"

On the front I drew a goofy turkey. It wasn't my best work, and I'm not an artist, but I liked it. This picture I think is funny because Derek caught Sam right when he was spitting up. And I didn't realize until I took a closer look that it was RIGHT when he was spitting up, as in you can see it in the picture by his left cheek!

These next few pictures Derek took of him remind me of the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes where it has a bunch of goofy close-ups of him making alot of faces. At the end of the strip you see his parents looking at what turned out to be his school pictures! haha, I love Calvin & Hobbes!

haha, they crack me up!

Misc. pictures

Ok, I'm trying to catch up a little with my blog and so there is going to be alot of pictures added (and on facebook, so you can look at those too if you're interested). Of course, we have taken a Bajillion pictures of Sam, so I just chose a few to show.

Here he is in another before church picture. I think he looks so dapper! I had my finger in front of the flash, so the lighting is goofy, but you can still see all the cuteness! This is when he is about a month old and just starting to give smiles.

He's gonna hate these pictures, but he's got new parents that think everything he does is cute, even just sitting there in too big clothes, or naked in the bathtub! Sorry for the overload of new mommy love, can't help it. ;)

Lovin' his bath, and modestly covered...

Another costume for Halloween- a little monster. Very cute and warm for when we went outside. It wasn't that cold so he didn't get to wear it very often :(

Halloween costume

I came across this picture a few months ago and thought it was the cutest thing, so I decided I would try to make this for Sam for Halloween. I looked and couldn't find a pattern, so all I had to go off of was the picture. (disclaimer: This a very cute baby, I don't know who it is, so I hope they don't get mad that I put their baby on my blog).

This is the results. I made most of it before he was born and it was hard to guessitmate the size so it turned out a little big still for Samuel, but I think I did a good job reproducing the candy corn outfit. I think he is so cute!! Now I can't wait for our Ward's Chili feed/Trunk or treat night to show him off :)

First Sunday...

Well, acutally I mean the first Sunday at Church. We don't have any suits or many other clothes that fit him yet, but we had this onsie with a tie on it. He is dressed a little casual for church with the jeans, but his heart is in the right place ;) Unfortunately, he only had this on for about an hour covered up by a blanket, before he had a major diaper blow-out and had to be changed. Fortunately, I had some pajamas in the diaper bag otherwise he would've been in just his diaper!

Otherwise he did great during church: didn't fuss any, and was very calm and just looked around for the most part. I navigated the whole feeding thing out in public for the first time and got inducted into a new club: the mother's lounge club. I have to say that I like this new social hang out spot! We have alot of nursing babies in the ward at this time and I talked to many sisters that I've wanted to get to know but somehow never find the chance to talk to them before... its because they're in the mother's lounge! haha

Anyway it was good to go to church again, feel the Spirit and fellowship with other people. I have been a big homebodie and its nice to start being more active. I can drive again, and I have been taking walks every day and feeling great!

The Delivery: Part 1

Here is the story of Samuel Robert Wood's birth:

This little baby boy had been in breech position (butt down) pretty much from 28 weeks on, so I was having my doubts if he would be able to be turned. Around 36 weeks we had an ultrasound to verify his position, and he was indeed breech. We were referred by our Midwives to see an Obstetrician to talk about out options. We chose to see a Dr Silverstein. She is one of the OB's that I work with on a regular basis at the hospital, so I was very confident in her abilities and judgement. She evaluated my baby, uterus, and reviewed my history and deteremined that an External Cephalic Version (trying to turn him manually by pushing on him from the outside) wouldn't be an option in my case. Sooo, we scheduled a cesarean section to be done 2 weeks later. I asked for it to be done in the evening, so it could be done by my night shift co-workers and she was fine with that. So, we had the date set for Thursday, 9/22/11 at 7:30 pm but only told our families. We still wanted to suprise people with the birth. It was actually nice to have the date set, so we could get everything done beforehand, and that last two weeks went by really fast! It was so exciting to think that we would be having him soon!
So, this is me just before we are going to head over to the hospital to have our baby. I was 38 4/7 days along, and measured about 46 1/2 inches around, and had gained about 25 pounds.

At the hospital I had so many well wishes from my co-workers, day and night shift. I felt so cared for. Zibby was my check in nurse and got me all ready (Oh, I should have gotten a picture with her!) and then Jackie took over because it was scheduled for just after change of shift happens. I really have fabulous people that I work with!!

Us, just before getting wheeled to the OR.

This is Lauren, one of my midwives. She came to be there for the birth.

The handsome Papa waiting to be called back.

Here is a great shot of the surgical team. On the left side is my good friend Erika, in the middle is Mimi, and on the right is Dr Silverstein. Erika and Mimi are fabulous Surgical Techs! This shot is just as they are entering my uterus and had just punctured the bag of waters.

Just

about

Delivered!

It's a Boy at 7:43 pm!

This was them holding him up for me to see. He was way cuter than I ever imagined!

Derek cutting the cord... or "trimming" it, I should say.

7 lbs, 11 oz

19 1/4 Inches long

Apgars 9, 9

My first moments holding him and touching him... It still maks me cry when I look at these pictures and think about that moment. I already loved him before he was born, but it is still amazing how bottomless the love is I feel for him. It started the instant he started to cry, before he was all the way out of me, to feeling his weight on me, right as they pulled him out, to first seeing him under the warmer and then being able to touch him finally. I feel so honored and humbled to be this little boy's mother.