Week 3 — sleeping on Daddy.

Week 4 — wearing his first outfit, already a bit snug.

Week 5 — my family came to North Carolina for Christmas. Clayton got a new smock! (Apparently I took off a week of taking pictures of Knox)

Week 6 — second Christmas with the Andersons.

Tummy time — taken yesterday.

Happy New Year to you!

Floor time with Daddy.

I love those newborn froggy legs.

Brothers!

For my female readers…

Our plan for the birth of baby #2 was to use the Bradley Method, which emphasizes relaxation while your body labors and has the husband playing a large role in coaching and advocating for their wife. I wanted to see how far I could get with this method and to attempt childbirth without pain medication, although I wasn’t ruling out an epidural.

Having been induced with Clayton, I was looking forward to going into labor on my own. It happened just a few days before my due date, on a Saturday morning when Luke was home and my parents were here to care for Clayton for when the baby came. I had had Braxton-Hicks contractions for the entire third trimester, and for a few days had been having stronger than normal contractions. That morning I ate breakfast and then had a few strong contractions, so I went upstairs to shower in case this was The Day. After my shower I told Luke I was going to lay down (part of the relaxation technique for the Bradley Method) and he jumped in the shower. When he was done and started timing my contractions, they were 7-8 minutes apart and strong but not painful. I was laying down comfortably on my side, breathing deeply through each contraction and staying relaxed. It was 9 a.m.

The contractions continued getting closer together and stronger  for the next hour or so and eventually I asked Luke to get the hospital bag ready. At about 10:30 the contractions were 5 minutes apart and I knew we needed to go to the hospital because it was becoming difficult for me to stay relaxed. In the car I was tensing up for each contraction (exactly what you’re not supposed to do, but there was no stopping it), feeling lots of pressure from the baby and I was breathing heavy and fast. Thankfully the hospital is five minutes from our house. By the time we made it up to Labor and Delivery I was starting to feel lightheaded from breathing so quickly and not having much rest between contractions. They brought us into a room and when they checked me I was dilated 7 cm.

At this point I wanted an epidural because the pain was becoming too much and my body was incredibly tense and I still was very lightheaded. The midwife said it would take a while to get the medication, and at that moment I knew there was a very good chance there would not be enough time. They wheeled me up to a delivery room where they changed me and hooked me up to an IV. While they were prepping me for the epidural I was screaming with each contraction. One of my hands was gripping Luke’s hand, and the other was squeezing as much skin as I could pull up from his shoulder. The anesthesiologist  had the needle in and the midwife went to check me one last time before the drug went in, and she felt the baby’s head — too late for medication (nooooooo!!!!). They had me lay back and I screamed bloody murder into Luke’s ear. Two pushes and Knox’s head was out, one more and his body was out. He was born at 12:08 p.m. and weighed 9 lbs 5 oz. No wonder it hurt.

Later on I felt pretty good. Luke was holding Knox and I was amped up on adrenaline and was feeling relieved it was over. Before Knox was born I had thought if I made it through without drugs that I would feel proud for having a natural childbirth, but all I really feel (albeit only one week later) is 1) that I never want to experience that kind of pain again, and 2) wishing we had left for the hospital a half hour earlier. On a positive note, Luke was an excellent coach, encouraging me, taking care of me, and letting me damage his eardrums.

Another positive: our baby boy Knox is a delight and we’ve had a wonderful first week with him. As an infant, Clayton had a lot of needs and comparably Knox is easy. We’ve had a few minor issues to overcome, but overall he is a good sleeper and good nurser and cries little, mostly while we are changing his diaper. My parents were here for the past week (they left this morning) and were an incredible help by taking care of Clayton and doing all the cooking and cleaning for us.

More to come later…

His first time blowing out candles.

Frosting first . Is there any other way to eat a cupcake?

Opening gifts with Grandma. (And the remains of the cupcake when Clayton had taken all he wanted.)

Finally, video of Clayton while we sing Happy Birthday to him. We love you, sweet boy!

Smile!

It was Daddy’s first full day home and he was up for some Halloween activity, so after naptime we headed out to a neighborhood party. A half hour later it started raining, so we went home. A few minutes after that, it cleared up and the sun came out so Clayton and Daddy went trick-or-treating.

A handsome pair. And a nice smile from my son!

They set out and after hitting two houses, Clayton told Daddy he was done and wanted to go home.

“Do you want to go to more houses and get more candy?”

“Nope.”

He was happy with his haul.

Here we are waiting.

The Patriot Riders on motorcycle preceded the buses that carried Luke’s company (they do this for many homecomings), and that was all it took to get Mommy teared up. Although when you’re 36 weeks pregnant and your husband is deployed, it doesn’t take much.

Buses! There were four of them, and we weren’t watching the one Luke came off of, so it was a few minutes before we found him.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

His first tickle from Daddy in a long time.

This was the expression on Clayton’s face for the rest of the night.

The sign waiting for Luke at home.

We had a wonderful night last night and a wonderful day today being together as a family. Thank you to Ben for capturing our homecoming! And thank you to all our family and friends for your support and prayers during the deployment — you held us up!

Until today, it was reaching near 80 every day and it was still a bit humid and buggy. This morning the temperature finally dropped, and it was a wonderfully cool 60 degrees.

On the tractor ride.

This boy LOVES tractors.

Shifting gears.

This was taken outside the farm’s store where we picked up a few oatmeal raisin cookies. Which, by the way, make for great bribes.

“Smile for Mommy and get a cookie!”

Some updates: I’m 35 weeks and feeling pretty great for being that far along. Clayton has become a bit more independent since I can’t lift him as much and he’s handling that well. He’s doing fantastic at preschool and adores his teachers.

We recently received Luke’s homecoming date, which is now under two weeks away! We just can’t wait to have him home and are busy readying the house for his arrival. Finally our wait it almost over!

Where did we go for fun? The aquarium, of course. Here’s Clayton loving the camera.

Fish!

Turtles!

Birds!

More turtles!

Clayton and Shelly.

Clayton and Mommy and ???. I’m 32 weeks here.

My sweet boy.

In preparation for school, we recently went backpack shopping. Clayton tried on his backpack for a mini photo shoot in my parents back yard and my dad took some wonderful photos of him.

A real smile! And looking very grown up. *sniff*

It took a while to find a back pack that was the right size for him. I found this one at Pottery Barn Kids, which has a line of products with art from Eric Carle, the children’s illustrator. I let Clayton choose between a blue back pack with the Very Hungry Caterpillar on it and this one, Brown Bear.

A perfect fit!