E: 2 weeks old

yesterday eliot hit the two week mark. we went to his check up and he was a whopping 10 pounds, 2 ounces (85th percentile). already gained just over a pound since birth! way to go buddy! and he is 21 1/2 inches (75th percentile). you can see Arlo's 2 week stats here.

my handsome men

dan went back to work this week, and it has been a bit hectic with appointments and preschool and not sleeping much, but we are surviving. arlo is still in love with eliot. he still tells me multiple times a day how much he loves the baby and how he is so glad that he has a baby, it is terribly sweet.

eliot wants to eat pretty much constantly when he is awake. making it so i want to eat constantly too. and making him get big way too fast! sleep is still very inconsistent. a few nights he would get up every 3 hours to eat and went straight back to sleep. but, more nights he has either been awake until like 2 or 3am... or he wakes up every single hour starting at 2 or 3am and then wakes up and won't go back to sleep at like 5:30am. but, until today i have still felt fairly good. today i am pretty much exhausted.

even though i am tired and wish i could get in some more zzz's, i wouldn't trade this for anything. i am enjoying the newborn stage so much. i love nursing him and holding him and having him sleep in my arms and on my chest. i love his little facial expressions. and i love how much arlo loves him. 

i love my (huge) little newborn. 

Our Eliot

Where do I even start with this birth story? It was all such a whirlwind and 100% different from Arlo's birth. I am pretty sure for 90% of the labor I was in denial that I was going to be having the baby as soon as I did. For 50% of it, I was even thinking that it could stop and be false labor. So, if you want to hear the whole long story... keep reading... and if you don't mind me giving TMI, because there will be some of that. 

I woke up at around 5ish in the morning, I can't remember exactly, maybe it was 5:30. But, my stomach felt upset and I couldn't sleep. I wasn't having contractions that I was aware of, but I felt like I had diarrhea/upset stomach... so I got up and I dealt with that and also noticed some bloody show. Then I remembered that when I was in labor with Arlo I was on the toilet a lot with the same thing (maybe the ONE thing that was the same between the two experiences). So, I just got up and took a shower in case something was going to happen that day. I think at around 7:30am I started to feel contractions, but they weren't that bad, just like menstrual cramps, and I was having even more bloody show. I decided to wake Dan up and tell him what was going on, but that it might not really be the real thing. Finally at about 8:30 or so I decided that I had better start timing the contractions just to see where I was at. The contractions were about 5 minutes apart, but I could talk through them and eat breakfast through them, so I thought that I couldn't really be that far into it. The contractions stayed the same distance apart until about 10am, so I called the midwife and told her that I was probably going to be having the baby that day. I had a contraction while on the phone with her and I think it made her worried, but I still could sort of talk to her through it. She asked me if I wanted to come to the hospital and I very casually said "oh, I think I will stay at home for awhile" (after the birth I found out that she was nervous when I told her this...). Oh, and I forgot to mention that during this time Dan went to run some errands before we headed to the hospital. I was trying to do some last minute packing for the hospital and get ready myself, but was having a really hard time doing it. Arlo was being really good playing on his own since Dan was gone. Soon Dan called (around 10:45) and told me that he could go into work for a quick 11:00 meeting, but I immediately told him no, I needed help getting the infant car seat in the car and Arlo dressed to leave. He came home and helped out, I grabbed a couple more things, and we struggled to get Arlo into the car to take him to Dan's parent's house. By this time my contractions were about 3 minutes apart and more intense, but I was still thinking "oh, this could take awhile... Arlo's birth was so long" and "these are still not that bad". By the time we got to Dan's parent's house things were more intense. On the way there Arlo kept asking if I was okay, I kept telling him that I was, but that the baby was just trying to come out and it was very hard work. Once we got to Dan's parent's house, the contractions were about 2 minutes apart and I heard Pam tell Dan after seeing me "you better get her to the hospital!", but in my head I still thought we had plenty of time. 

So, we were finally on our way to OHSU. By the time we hit about Sylvan Hill area, I was starting to feel some pressure and was getting very uncomfortable sitting in the car, not being able to move how I wanted to. I started feeling scared because I could tell that the baby was coming soon. It was a weird set of emotions: on one hand I could feel it getting very close and I was involuntarily holding myself like I had to pee and I was scared about not making it there, on the other hand, I kept thinking that this would still take some time because last time it took what seemed to be forever. I had Dan call the midwife. He got her on the phone when we hit the tunnel and she could hear me while talking to him and I heard her say "tell her to cross her legs!" and she told him to head straight for the ER and leave the car with the valet. I told Dan that I felt scared about having the baby in the car (but it sounded more like "I'm scared! I am scared!") and he offered a very calm and thoughtful prayer. I remember that I still felt some worry and fear, but the prayer really did help me feel comfort that it would work out and I was able to feel somewhat in control and was even able help navigate where the ER was (this was about the 2nd time ever that Dan had driven to OHSU).

At this point the contractions were pretty close together, I don't even think I was really getting a break in between them. We pulled up to the ER entrance and then someone put a wheelchair up to my door and asked me if my water had broken. I told him that it hadn't, but I felt like pushing and that I didn't think I could get out of my seat. He pretty much pulled me out of the car and into the wheelchair, which was not a fun thing to do. The wheelchair was rushed around, I remember passing by mostly hospital staff, but there was one visitor/patient walking by who I heard say "Woah, she's havin' a baby!" and then I remember that right before we got on the elevator a guy with scrubs put an emergency vaginal delivery kit on my lap and got on the elevator with us. Once we got off the elevator, I saw my midwife & the nurses. (The midwife was one who had been running our prenatal group the last several sessions, so I knew her). Seeing them made me feel more calm and then when we rounded the corner & I saw the hospital bed, I knew everything would be okay, a wave of relief... we made it.

I felt like I had to pee and the nurses hesitantly helped me to the toilet and pretty much ripped my pants off. I did pee and felt a pop... my water breaking... but not much fluid came out. I had another contraction and my body started pushing. The nurses were telling me rather firmly that I needed to get off of the toilet or my baby would be born there. I was in denial that that would happen because with Arlo I pushed for 3 entire hours, so I would at least push for about an hour this time, right?!? I was pretty much yelling at the nurses that I could not walk to the bed, I just couldn't do it... and so they pretty much pulled me onto the bed. I climbed on and just stayed on all fours while I pushed with my head pressed against the back of the bed. When I pushed with Arlo, he came out so slowly that it really didn't hurt much and pushing felt like a relief and was a lot more work. Eliot was coming out so fast it hurt to push like nothing else I have ever felt. It made me not want to push. (Now I understand how you can "breathe your baby down" as they talk about with hypnobirthing, I did not know how that was possible after just having Arlo. There were some contractions I felt like I needed to hold back.) The midwife also said that it also probably hurt so much because of all of the scar tissue I had from my 3rd degree tears last time. Dan rubbed my back and told me that it would be okay and to just listen to my body. It was hard, I felt like I was going to explode. I hadn't been pushing insanely hard because he was sort of just coming on his own and it hurt so much, but then I reached down and felt the top of his head coming out.... it was further out than Arlo's was when it was stuck which made me feel like I could do it. I wanted to be able to hold him when he came out and so I rolled over to my side. I reached down again and felt how close he was. Even though it hurt, I knew I was almost done and so pushed harder. In probably two or three more pushes (this I am not really that sure of, but it was fast) he came out and I got to hold him at 12:35pm, just about 10 minutes after we got to the hospital.

I was sort of in shock that it was already over. Was that it? Really? He was such an amazing baby and I was done! He was fairly calm and not crying much, but the nurses were sure he was fine and he was. The stitching up part afterwards was totally not fun, but I was done and holding my baby in my arms for the first time. So cute and warm. About 6 minutes after he was born our photographer, Ravyn, came (the photographer in me was pretty happy that he was born on a sunny day, the light was gorgeous & perfect).

It was so interesting talking with my midwife afterwards and the nurses about what had happened. I guess when I was on the toilet sure that I had more time and not wanting to move they told me that they could see the top of his head. No wonder they were so worried! My amazing midwife (pictured above) said she was pretty worried when Dan called on our way there, but she had everything lined up and ready for us when we pulled up. I was so glad that it was her who helped me deliver Eliot. With Arlo we had a midwife that I had never met and I didn't feel any connection with, it wasn't bad, but I cannot tell you how great it felt to have someone there that I knew & liked to deliver my baby. All in all, I would definitely say that I prefer the quicker labor. Although, maybe it would be nice to not have cut it so darn close :) 

Eliot James Blaisdell

9 pounds 1 ounce

19 3/4 inches

Another reason I was so glad that he was born during the day was because I really wanted Ravyn to be there when Arlo got to meet his brother for the first time. These pictures are priceless to me and are my favorite by far (sorry for the overload, I could not narrow it down anymore than I already have). It was so incredible and filled my heart with such joy to see how much Arlo already loved his brother. He kept saying "I love the baby" over and over, it was the sweetest thing. I am so blessed to have two amazingly sweet little boys. Arlo still adores Eliot and wants to hold him all of the time and has mostly been very soft & gentle with him, you can tell he is trying hard. He seems to be adjusting very well, better than I ever could have imagined. I think he is also enjoying having his dad around more too. It has brought me such joy to be with my family these past 6 days. This is the most amazing thing I have ever experienced, this loving family that I have been blessed with. 

We are doing well and are so incredibly blessed to have such supportive family, friends, and ward members. I have been overwhelmed by all of the wonderful & kind things that people have done to help us, I cannot thank you all enough. I have truly felt so blessed and happy. 

Eliot is thriving and eats like a champ, already at 5 days old he was up to 9lb 6.5oz! Impressive! He has mostly had his days & nights mixed up which has kept me pretty tired, but I am really enjoying this sweet newborn phase. It is not very long that they curl up and sleep on your chest. 

I was hoping that I myself would have a faster recovery this time, but so far that is not proving to be the case, so I am extra thankful for all of the help we have been getting. Especially from Dan. He is truly an amazing father & husband. I don't know what I would do without him. He has been still keeping up with his business (from home) as well as helping me out so that I can camp out upstairs and try and rest & heal as much as possible. Seeing him with his new little son just multiplies my love for him. How did I end up with such an amazing man? I really am not sure. 

I am so grateful for my family and our newest little addition. They make me so very, very happy. Welcome to our family, Eliot! We are so happy to have you here!

all photos by Ravyn Stadick

bike riders

these guys are killin' me... wishing i could be riding as well. hopefully before the weather gets yucky again, i will get out and ride some more. arlo is loving his new bike and getting more and more confident with riding, which is a little scary for me because with my size i can hardly keep up with him.

this was his first ride outside

getting better

riding with dad, which he might love more than riding his own bike because he goes faster

last night i took arlo & lucy out all on my own because dan was out playing lacrosse with some guys to get ready for his men's league, which starts tonight actually. it was a bit crazy because arlo is getting faster and more confident and lucy kept trying to either run in front or stop and smell things. arlo even fell down twice on this ride and happily, bravely got right back up and started riding again. i was very proud of him. 

once i am recovered after this baby is born, it will be fun to take him out and let him go faster and i can run along side him. 

lately

i apologize in advance if you follow me on instagram because this will be very repetitive for you. but, i wanted to document on my blog what we have been up to.

the weather has been so nice here lately, amazing for oregon in may. we are loving it. we have been spending as much time outside as possible.

Dan is going to be playing on a men's lacrosse league this summer (along with some friends and ward members). He has gone out a couple times to practice and get ready. Yesterday we tagged along while the guys played. Lucas & Arlo also played and had a fun time running around.

Dan had a birthday on the 14th, he is now a whopping 27. I will be joining him in about 2 weeks :) 

Our ward boundaries changed a couple of weeks ago. We are now in the Orenco ward. Arlo is pretty excited that he now goes to church with Lucas. I hope that the Evertons won't get too sick of us now :) 

So far it has been fun to meet some new people and also get to be in a ward with some people we already knew. We are sad to have left Quatama ward, which we loved... but I am confident that we will love Orenco just as much. 

I am now 34 1/2 weeks pregnant (on wednesday I hit 35 weeks). This pregnancy has not been the most fun, but I can say with confidence that I am very, very excited to meet this handsome little man. Maybe I am weird, but I just think he looks so cute in the above picture. I can't wait to hold him in my arms instead of my uterus. He still does not have a name, but we have about 5 names that we do like... just can't decide which one to use. 

Arlo is definitely turning into a little boy and leaving the toddler stage. He is constantly standing up tall and saying "look at me!" because he wants us to see/say how tall and big he is. He likes to be independent, except when it comes to pulling his pants back up after going to the bathroom. He is constantly full of energy and can go forever. We have gone on some long walks and he will go the whole way almost running. 

He still is in love with trains and constantly talks about having a train cake on his birthday. His favorite thing to do at home is make massive train tracks all over the living room floor. 

He also seems excited to have a baby brother, he frequently comes up, hugs my belly and says "I love the baby". He is also very affectionate right now and constantly tells me that he loves me. It is very sweet and I adore it. 

Also, whenever we drive somewhere, he has to ask every 2 minutes where we are going even though he already knows. If you ask the question back to him, he answers it the right way. 

He also LOVES to talk. He is quite the motor mouth. When he wants to talk to us and shoot the breeze he will say to us "Let's talk about it". It is pretty cute. 

I think he will mostly do well with the new baby. Problems I am predicting are him thinking that he can pick up the baby on his own... this baby might need protection. And then once the baby is mobile and can break his train tracks... I think he'll get pretty ticked. Of course, I am sure he will get a bit jealous, but I honestly think he will do okay. He is pretty excited and he does love other babies. Even though I am not nursing those babies for hours a day, which will be an adjustment for sure for him. 

some awesome camera stuff

One of my favorite blogs/bloggers made this amazing book trailer for an amazing book. It is all about instant film photography, check it out:


Not only that, but on his blog post about it, you can win a copy of the book AND a restored Polaroid for yourself! How sweet is that?! And by posting this, I am definitely trying harder to win the prize for myself because I would absolutely LOVE it.... and I think it's about time that I won a giveaway for all of my efforts :)
But seriously, check it out.

a newly painted room and a day at the doctors office

First of all, I have this awesome friend & neighbor who helped me out big time. I have been wanting to paint our room since we moved into this house over 4 years ago. I finally picked a color, but I am pregnant & hate painting. I really do. So, this awesome friend said that if I watched her kids, she would paint for me. And she did it on Saturday... and it was awesome. Dan & I took her two girls and Arlo to the zoo for Packy's 50th Birthday along with our friends Melissa & Kyle. It was pretty fun, but also pretty crowded. And EVERY animal that we went to go see what out and active, it was really neat. 

Then Monday rolled around. I had grand plans to get my newly painted room back together (it is still insanely torn apart), but life got in the way. Let's rewind to Friday, the day after I found out that my placenta was happy and out of the way. I get a call from my midwife telling me that I did not pass my glucose test, in fact I was over 200, so I didn't even need to take the 3 hour test. It was not a fun weekend and I was having a really, really hard time coping with the news. Anyway, Monday morning I got a call from my dietitian seeing if I could come in for an appointment at noon (I hadn't gone in yet, just got the call from the midwife) and she also told me that my insurance would not cover my meetings with her. So, I spent the entire morning on the phone with the insurance company until I finally had to leave to head to my appointment, which went very well. She said about 3 times during the appointment how interesting it would be to see how my numbers would look over the rest of my pregnancy since I seemed to be an "atypical" case (I have no real risk factors other than the fact that Arlo was over 9 pounds and I have not gained an abnormal amount of weight this pregnancy, etc). So, it is pretty mysterious, but my sugar levels have been GREAT since I started testing them Monday afternoon... they are actually almost low. Dan has been joking that they mixed up someone's test results with mine. Who knows, but we will see what happens over the next few weeks. After I met with the dietitian, I felt MUCH better about the diet and could eat a lot more carbs than I thought I was going to be able to, so far it has not been that big of a challenge to follow the diet... except when I go to the grocery store and see some sweets... I will miss having an occasional cookie/slice of cake/bowl of ice cream... but, it will just be better for me not to. And maybe once and for all I can give up sugar all of the time, as I have been thinking of doing for some time, but never stuck with it. 

As soon as I got home from that appointment, I went to pick Arlo up and noticed his infected finger was WAY worse than it was the last time I looked at it the night before. It was pretty bad... so I called his doctor and then they had me bring him in to have it checked out. It was very swollen, almost twice it's normal size, very red and a little black/green where the skin met the nail. 

It involved enough of his finger that the doctor put him on oral antibiotics. She also poked his finger and drained a little puss out and took a culture of it. It was the hardest thing to hold Arlo down when she massaged his finger... it had to have been so painful. The worst part is, he has to soak in 3x a day for 15 minutes... which he does really well at, but then I also have to try and get more puss out after he soaks it, and it is just as hard if not worse each time because he knows how much it hurts and fights it. Hopefully it will heal soon because I do not enjoy doing it. Oh, and it got infected because Arlo obsessively picks at his nails/hang nails... which I do not encourage. By the time we finished at the doctor and went to Target to get his prescription filled, we were not home until 5:30pm and I was starving and tired... it was a long, long day. And I am still playing catch up with other house work and my room sits a torn up mess as I write this. But, it is the first thing I will do once I am done with this blog post :) 

And I am not going to proof read it, so enjoy any typos and/or grammar errors. 

beautiful pregnancy & birth

I had my ultrasound to check the status of my praevia today. Exciting news: it has moved completely out of the way! I am very happy about this. In addition, they double checked that this baby is in fact a boy. I am so glad that I got that extra check because they really weren't sounding too sure the last time. Can you imagine if we would have just gone with the first technician's answer of it being a girl?! hahaha... what a surprise we would have gotten in the delivery room :)

They didn't give me digital copies of the photos, just a print out... so I have no cute photos. But, none of them turned out that amazing anyway because this little guy had his face completely smashed up against my uterus. I guess he finds that comfortable... smashed face.

I don't know if I have mentioned this, but my prenatal care this time around is a little different and I love it. At OHSU they have group prenatal care. You are put into a group with other women who have similar due dates and your appointments are all together, scheduled out in advance on the same day of the week at the same time with no waiting in the waiting room. Just go in and head to the conference room, weigh yourself, and go sit and talk with the other mom's. The first hour of the "group" you go meet with the midwife one at a time in a sectioned off portion of the room (she listens to the heartbeat, measures you, takes your blood pressure and chats with you a bit), while the rest of the ladies talk or watch a birth video. The second hour of the group, we can ask questions to the midwife and then they always have some sort of dialogue planned to discuss, it is almost like childbirth class. Today we chatted about pain in childbirth. It was amazing. I love the midwife that runs it and it is great to hear what others think. There are 6 of us in the class and all 6 of us are going for un-medicated births, so that helps in the discussions that we are all on the same page that way.

I feel very calm about the birth of this baby. I have no fears or worries. I know that I will accept whatever happens and however it happens and I am excited about the experience that it will bring. This time I also am going to possibly give birth in the water. Although, if it doesn't end up happening for either medical reasons or because I just don't feel like I want to when the time comes... I am totally fine with that. But, I like the idea of a water birth and at least laboring in the water. The midwife says that it is the easiest and most comfortable way to sit in the position that allows your body to progress at it's fullest... where your pelvis is open and relaxed. I can't wait to see what this labor brings.

If you are up for a beautiful video about birth, take a few moments and check this one out (shared with me by my mother):

no rain?!

we actually had maybe two full days with no rain and it was glorious. we decided to make the most of it before the downpours started again and went to the beach. we timed it perfectly and it started to rain again on our drive home. oh, and i actually took photos... something i have been horrible at doing lately.