Tummy Time, First Bath, and Bubbles!

Tummy Time! Cortland decided he would rather push himself up and over the boppy instead.

First Bath! He looks so calm and peaceful .... which wasn't the case when he was in the bath. Poor little guy didn't like it much - except for when we washed his bath.

My two favorite men!

Lily and Johnny having fun with bubbles.

Cortland checking out his Little Einstein toys.

First Full Day at Home

Lily in her element. She loves outside (an accessorizing with necklaces : ) ).

In his element. We are enjoying Cortland in his newborn sleepy stage.

Sorry about her eye on this picture. I was trying to fix the red eye and it did this instead. Lily loves holding Cortland. She watched her Saturday morning cartoons for almost half an hour just like this.

Being a big sister is tiring. Lily fell asleep before she even finished her bath.

Home

I failed to mention in the last post that Johnny and I had planned to go to Park City this week. With both of our families on vacation at opposite ends of the United States, we thought we would take a little babymoon ourselves before Cortland made his arrival. Luckily, we decided we wanted to wait until after my doctor's appointment on Monday before we made any reservations.

Having a fairly fast labor with Cortland on Tuesday allowed me a nice little retreat at the hospital instead. I love the labor and delivery nurses! I always cherish that time of just being able to relax and snuggle with a newborn. Since my labor didn't have as many complications this time, I was able to enjoy that time even more. Johnny went home to spend the night with Lily both nights, but my Dad was nice and watched Lily for a few hours on Wednesday night so Johnny could have more time with the little guy.

I wondered if coming home would be a reality check, but so far we have been doing pretty well. Cortland fits so well into our family. I'd forgotten how fun and peaceful it was to have a new little one snuggled up to you. I love it!

All buckled in for the ride home! Don't worry - we tightened it again before we left. Cortland did great on the ride home. Lily was thrilled to have him riding next to her in the car.

Who wouldn't want to come home to this? My three favorite people!

First night at home. Cortland slept fairly well. It was me who needed the crash course on how not to fall asleep while you are nursing!

Lily is adjusting as well as any two year old. We thought she may be jealous of Cortland, but she is more jealous of us. She doesn't want us - she wants him! She does pretty well holding him nicely on the couch. So far she has only tried to feed him strawberries and granola bars. We'll have to watch these two closely!

Cortland John Parker

38 weeks 5 days

Our big day finally arrived! I went to my 38 week doctor's appointment on Monday expecting a regular in and out check up. Unfortunately, my blood pressure was slightly elevated, and due to my previous experience with pre-eclampsia, my doctor told me I had the option of being induced on Tuesday or on Thursday. I had truly hoped to avoid being induced - especially since my mom is out of town this week. Also, my labor and delivery was less than ideal with Lily so I didn't want to have a repeat experience.

Johnny and I decided to have the baby on Tuesday and I am so glad that we did! It was a beautiful, perfect, amazing experience! I couldn't have asked for a better labor and delivery. We checked into the hospital at 7 am. I was already dilated to a 3+ and 70 percent effaced. Pitocin was started at 8 am and I was thrilled that the nurse was able to get the IV in on the first try - WOOHOO (my miracle #1)! My blood pressure was still high, but not as high as it was at the doctor's appointment so it was decided that I didn't have to have the magnesium drip unless it escalated (miracle #2).

I pulled out my IPOD and listened to all my Hypnobabies relaxation tracks as the contractions picked up. It must have relaxed me because my blood pressure never went too high and I was able to get in a great nap even while having some semi-intense contractions.

Around 10 am, the contractions were coming hard and more closely together. I was feeling a lot of back labor. Johnny was awesome and gave me a deep tissue foot massage to distract me. I had told the nurses that I would let them know when I wanted the epidural and that they didn't have to ask me how I was on the pain scale when they checked in on me. Johnny and I had to laugh because whenever they checked in on me they would smile and say, "Are you SURE there isn't anything else you would like us to get for you?"

By about 11:15 am we decided that we were SURE it was time for the epidural. I had progressed to a five and was starting to have a harder time relaxing during the contractions. I really wanted to save my energy for when I had to push. The anesthiologist arrived and our nurse kept accidently calling him Mike Meyers. Now that would be an interesting anesthiologist! He was fabulous and the epidural felt GREAT! Loved it. I was able to relax and take a little short nap while Johnny enjoyed the lunch that I wasn't able to have.

At 12:45, I felt several small pops and we discovered that my water had broke. I actually had two bags that broke one after the other. When the first one broke I was at a 7 and minute later when the second one broke I was at a 10. The nurse said we were ready to go and have the baby. I was shocked at how quickly we went from a 5 to a 10! It was awesome! Our doctor was called in and they topped off my epidural. I was glad they did because the pressure was pretty intense. I pushed for about 15 minutes. Pushing was so much nicer this time! I pushed for two hours with Lily. I didn't tear at all this time which was pretty nice.

Cortland John Parker arrived at 1:28 pm. He was born with quite the set of lungs!

All in all - it was the perfect day. We love our new little boy and we are enjoying every second with him. And, of course, Lily is THRILLED to have a baby brother.

The little girls were excited to see him! Thanks Aileen for watching Lily. She loved spending time with Kyrie and Ally.

Tot School - the Letter Z

With Baby Boy only being 20 days a way, I am trying to focus more on getting Tot School underway with Lily and getting ourselves in a routine. Mainly so she isn't bored silly when the baby comes! This week is the first week where we almost did an activity every day that actually had to do with the same theme. Tot School was a little unorthodox - we started with the Letter Z instead of A, but that's because I knew I had all the supplies that I wanted for the week. Overall, we had lots of fun and I am excited to come up with activities for next week. Nesting has definitely kicked in! Now if only I can get it all done by the 30th!

Lily traced the letter Z with her fingers and put sticker animals in her letter Z Zoo.

We've already been to the Hogle Zoo this year so we decided to check out the Living Planet Aquarium instead. It was actually a lot better than I thought it was. Lily loved it! She was fascinated by the sharks and eels.

Lily became a bit possessive of the fish at this tank. When they swam near her, she would put her hands over the glass and shout "mine" at whoever was standing near her. She met her match because the little girl standing next to her did the same thing. And she just happened to be named Lily, too!

Lily and the sting ray. She did not want to touch them!

Lily found Nemo.

I also set up a mini-zoo in her bedroom. She had fun for a little while looking for all the animals and taking pictures of them. Her favorites were the mommy and baby animals that I put together.

We read books about Zebras and Lily put Zebra stripes on her letter Z's.

More from the aquarium - sorry they are out of order. She loved the stuffed snakes in the gift shop!

Lily driving the boat in the Utah section of the aquarium. She liked to use the handheld radio to give out orders.

Happy Fourth of July!

We had a fantastic 4th of July with family this year! We started the day early and checked out the Hot Air Balloon Launch. It was awesome! Lily loved the hot air balloons and also got to see a helicopter take off at the hospital next door.

oWe spent the evening hanging out with my family. We had a yummy BBQ and then headed out to see the fireworks. As you can tell from this picture - Lily was most interested in running!

Luckily we had Aunt Ada the human jungle gym!

Happy Fourth of July! I can't believe we'll have an almost one year old by this time next year!