Halloween 2013...

For Halloween this year, I wanted Leland's costume to be something that was really "him." Since he can't pick his own costume yet, I just wanted him to be something that I knew he is interested in. And since he is currently obsessed with trains and tractors, it was either a train conductor or a farmer. I went with farmer, and decided to make him a tractor that he could wear as well.

With a little help from my husband, I created a pretty sweet farmer/tractor costume, if I do say so myself.

It was fairly easy to make, but did take some time. I had Leland try it on last weekend and he had fun running around the backyard.

Our town has trick-or-treating the Friday before Halloween at all the downtown businesses. I wanted to take Leland but it was too cold for Alden to be out, so we skipped it.

Then on Sunday, we went to a Halloween carnival at my Grandma's assisted living center. He wore it for a few minutes, but had a hard time participating in the activities with it on. So he took it off and enjoyed the festivities.

Bean Bag Toss

Parachute

Apple Cider

Grandma Josie with Alden

Then tonight, we went trick-or-treating at the mall, because - again - it's just too cold for Alden to be out and about. Plus, the forecast called for rain, and well...rain and cardboard tractors don't mix. 

He was not all that interested in collecting candy, but loved running around.

It was so busy, so we took his tractor off so people would maybe stop bumping into him.

Checking out what's in the bucket {I think he got about 4 pieces of candy at the mall}.

After trick-or-treating, we ate dinner in the food court, rode the carousel and then went home to visit a few important houses in our neighborhood {Grandparents, daycare, and friend}.

Mmmm...spaghetti!

Yay for the carousel! Always a good time.

Overall, it was a good Halloween. Leland had fun, and that's the important part. Alden enjoyed himself too. Well, he spent most of the day sleeping, but he really seems to enjoy doing that.

Happy Halloween, friends!

Surprise Blessing...

For about a month, maybe a little more, Dave has been laid off from work.

When we first found out Dave would be laid off, we were nervous. We knew it would be a few months before MAC {Dave's work} would have work for him. And with a new baby coming, and me not making a full paycheck until January, the thought of Dave not working was a bit concerning.

Thankfully, Dave has been able to work with his friend, Matt. He has also had other friends offer him work, so we know that he has enough to keep him busy until MAC has another job. His work with Matt hasn't been full-time, but that has actually been a blessing.

It was so nice to have Dave home for a day when Alden came home. But what's even nicer is that every few days, he has an early day, where he gets home at noon or maybe 2:00. Last week, he came home early two days in a row! He brought me lunch one of the days, and we enjoyed just hanging out together at home.

And then Friday he was off work completely. We kept Leland home from daycare and enjoyed the extra family day.

After Leland was born, Dave went right back to work and never had any time other than weekends to spend with us. And at that time, he even had to work some weekends to get jobs done and make up for the time spent in the hospital while I was in labor.

I can't explain how nice it is to have extra time with Dave right now. I love that he gets more time with Alden, that we get more time all together as a family, and that with both of us home, we can give Leland more one-on-one attention to help him adjust to our new family.

Surprisingly, Dave being laid off has been a blessing. It's not really helping us financially - AT ALL - but it's a blessing to be able to spend more time together.

Big Brother Leland...

As excited as I was about Alden's arrival, I was super nervous about how Leland would handle it. He is still so much a baby himself and such a mama/daddy's boy, that I wasn't sure how he would do with a baby in the house {even though he loves babies}.

When Dave brought Leland up to the hospital to meet his baby brother, I made sure I wasn't holding Alden when he first walked in. My mom and stepdad were visiting, so my mom held Alden. After not seeing me when he woke up that morning, I didn't want the first thing Leland saw to be me holding someone else. I didn't want him to think that the baby took me away from him {even though that's basically exactly what happened}.

So Leland came to sit with me on my bed for a minute before we introduced him to Alden.

He was pretty excited about the baby. He kept looking at him and saying, "Baby!" and pointing out Alden's eyes, ears, nose, etc. He also gave him kisses.

Out first picture as a family of four. This is a photo that I missed out on with Leland because he was taken to the NICU right away. I never got my "new family" photo until after he was home. Dave and I may look exhausted, and I have no make-up on, and Leland is hardly paying attention, but I adore this picture.

Then he ran around the hospital room playing with everything. My mom had brought me cupcakes, so Leland and Dave shared one and then Leland visited with Alden some more.

Giving kisses

Saying, "Hi, Baby!" and patting his head.

That night, Dave took Leland home instead of staying at the hospital with me. We both agreed that we wanted as much normalcy as possible for Leland. As much as he loves his Grammy Patti {Dave's mom}, and he did well waking up with her that morning, we thought it would be better for him to have his daddy there.

Leland went to daycare the next day because Dave had to work, and I was discharged from the hospital so I spent the day with Alden at home. When Dave got home from work, I went to get Leland from daycare. Again, I wanted Leland to see me alone first instead of with the baby. And I am pretty much always the one that drops him off and picks him up, so I missed doing it. Since daycare is just a few houses down, it was pretty easy for me to do. 

So I picked him up and brought him home where he "met" Alden again. Again, he loved looking at him and pointing out his body parts and then went off to play.

Over the weekend, we tried to make sure Leland got lots of one-on-one time with each of us. Dave would take Leland outside or downstairs to play while I nursed Alden, and then I would play with Leland in his room while Dave had some baby time. It worked out pretty well. 

Leland's transition has been going well so far. He is very interested in what his brother is doing and loved "helping" give him his first bath.

My husband, God love him, only took one picture of Alden's first bath. But you can see Big Brother in the corner watching over him.

The hardest part is that Leland doesn't always understand how to be gentle and has to be reminded that he can't poke the baby's eyes when pointing them out. Ha ha. He also doesn't understand why he can't sit on my lap when I'm nursing. I let him sit next to me, and I read to him or sing with him, but there's just not space in my lap with Alden there. But most of the time, when he touches Alden, he says things like, "nice" or gives him gentle kisses.

Leland doesn't seem jealous or angry at all, which is a relief to me. He is sometimes a little confused, but is really doing so well with the whole thing. 

I was planning on taking Leland to daycare most days this week, because I wasn't sure I was ready for both boys by myself. But our daycare provider came down with the flu, so I unexpectedly had my first solo flight with two boys today. It went really well, and I am so happy. 

Leland will probably go to daycare 3 days a week while I'm on maternity leave. He likes to go and he needs to stay in the daycare routine, but there will be days when I just want him home with me. I really missed him yesterday when he was at daycare.

Overall, the transition has gone really well. Better than I expected. I'm sure we will have our rough moments, but I am so relieved that our first few days have gone so well.

It's Here!

It's here! It's here! My double stroller is here!

A few months ago, I was debating whether or not to get a double stroller. I had a hard time finding one that had everything I wanted/needed that was affordable. Eventually, I decided it would probably be good to have one, since Leland does not stay with me when left to walk on his own. We're working on it, but he's just so curious and independent that I can't count on him walking with me when I need him to.

I had one picked out, but I had my reservations. It was only $240, which is an awesome price for a double, but after reading lots and lots of reviews, I wasn't sold on it. So many people talked about the front wheels shaking when running {or even fast-paced walking}. I have witnessed this brand's single stroller shaking at barely a brisk walk, and since I plan to jog with my double, this concerned me. Then other reviewers said that it was too wide to fit through many standard doors. Since Traverse City doesn't really have a stroller store or any place that I can check out doubles {Target and Toys R Us have your average single strollers, but no side-by-side doubles}, I have to go by reviews. Ultimately, I figured there must be a reason that particular double stroller was so inexpensive - the saying "you get what you pay for" comes to mind.

So, I decided to do some more research and found the Bumbleride Indie Twin. It was pretty much perfect. Here's what I wanted/needed in a double stroller:

• Jogger - even if I don't run a ton with it, joggers just maneuver better than anything else
• Side-by-side - I hate inline doubles - impossible to steer and eventually the kid in the back ends up too tall to fit back there or picks on the kid in front.
• Enough foot room for two kids - amazingly, a lot of side-by-sides have angled footrests and so the kids have to either turn their legs in or have one leg hanging down. Looks so uncomfortable when I see it. {The Bumbleride has two separate footrests, so each kid has their own space.}
• Folds up easily and can fit in my car - I wasn't sure the cheaper one would fold down enough to fit well in the back of my car.
• Can fit through standard doorways - what good is a stroller that can't fit through the Target doors? A friend of mine has a Bumbleride and said she's never had a problem with it fitting through the doors.

It's amazing how NO strollers fit all of this criteria except for the Bumbleride. The only problem...the Bumbleride ain't cheap. At $730 for a new one, I was pretty sure I wouldn't be getting one. Even if we had that much money, Dave would never agree to it.

So I checked online - eBay, craigslist, facebook, etc., and couldn't really find any in good condition for a good price. Eventually, I found one for $500 online. It was a 2012 model, but was still brand new. I was all ready to buy it, but they only had brown left. Now, I'm not incredibly picky about color, but brown was pretty much my last choice. I felt silly for not wanting it just because of the color, but at the same time, this was $500! That's a lot of money to spend on something you're not entirely in love with, and something that you'll be using for years.

Long story short, a local retailer was willing to sell me a 2013 model for $580. I almost said yes, but then realized tax would make it around $620. So I called the online company back, told them the local store was offering $550 {yeah, I lied}, and asked what they could do for me price-wise on a 2013 {so that I had some color choices}, and they eventually agreed to $550. Free shipping, sent out that day, and in any color I wanted. Score!

Also, the 2012 didn't come with a car seat adapter or bumper bars, so I would have to buy those separately if I wanted them. The 2013 comes with them. So $50 for the color I want and the optional accessories. Not bad. It's still a lot of money, but I have some leftover from my summer job, and now have two strollers that I can sell {my regular one and my jogger} to help pay for it. And considering I will have it for a long time, it's not a bad investment. I know I will be happy with it, and I know I can sell it when we're done and get some decent money for it.

So anyway...all that to say...IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE! And it's so, so pretty! I can't wait to take both my boys out in it.

Alden's Birth Story...

Before I start on the actual birth story, let me back up about a week and a half.

A few days after my 36 week appointment and exam, I started to lose my mucous plug, and a few days after that I started having very mild contractions. The contractions and mucous continued for over a week. Contractions were never regular or strong, but they were there. Then a few days ago, they just kind of stopped. I assumed this meant I had some time before our baby would be making his arrival, and started to worry that he would come late.

Wednesday night, {the 16th}, I did some report cards for school. They're not due for a couple of weeks, but I figured I should get a head start for my sub and I posted this status on facebook:

"Okay, Baby No-Name, my conferences are done. My reading evaluations are done. My character ed report cards are done. MEAP (for my kids) is over. My substitute is finished with her other long-term sub position, and was able to visit my room twice this week. And I even have a head start on academic report cards so she won't have so much to do. What I'm saying is...all of Mama's crazy work for October is done, so you can come anytime now. We're ready. Even though you don't have a name. I promise we'll come up with an amazing one; I think we just need to see your face before deciding."

I was feeling relieved to have so much work done for school. My to-do list was pretty much complete, which felt good and I went to bed at 10:30, with no thoughts of my baby coming anytime soon.

Cut to 12:30am when I woke up from a contraction. It wasn't awful, but it was certainly stronger than the other ones I had been having. I fell back to sleep and woke up with another one 10 minutes later. Again, I went back to sleep, and when I woke up again 10 minutes later, I knew baby time was coming.

I got up and told Dave {who was watching TV...yes, at 1:00am} that I was having contractions, but I probably had a few hours before we needed to go to the hospital, since they were 10 minutes apart. I told him I was going to get in the tub to relax for a bit. He then asked if I minded if he took a quick shower first so that he would be ready when it was time. He hopped in the shower, and when he was done about 10 minutes later, my contractions were strong and three minutes apart. No time for me to get in the tub. I called the on-call doctor from my OB office and she said to get to the hospital and have them check me.

We had to wait a few minutes for Dave's mom to get to our house. Thank goodness she lives next door, because by the time she got to our house, my contractions were even stronger, and I had only a little break inbetween them.

We left for the hospital and on the way I told Dave that I wanted an epidural immediately. I was hoping to do this natural this time, but my contractions were killer.

We got to the hospital and they checked me. I was in serious pain and was only 5cm dilated. I asked for an epidural and they moved me from triage to my room. Well, actually, I walked to my room and nearly died from the pain.

Once in my room, I asked again for an epidural and they said they needed to hook me up to monitors first and then they gave me my IV of fluids, saying that I needed to get all the fluids before they could give me my epidural. They said it would take about 30 minutes. I was pretty mad. Why couldn't they start the fluids when I got to triage? Why make me wait? Jerks.

Less than 30 minutes later, my contractions continued to get stronger and stronger, and suddenly I was crying. Literally sobbing like a baby through them because I was in so much pain. The nurse decided to check me and said I was dilated to 9.5. So I went from 5cm to 9.5cm in less than 30 minutes. And the nurse let me know that it was too late for my epidural. It was time to have this baby and I still hadn't gotten all my fluids.

I was livid. But still crying and whining like a baby.

So I laid back on my bed and felt my water break. Giant gush...way different from my water breaking with Leland, which was a trickle on and off for 30 hours.

I felt the need to push, but the jerk nurse told me I couldn't yet because the doctor wasn't there. If you've ever been in this position, you know how awful it is. Your body naturally pushes and you can't hold it back. But I had to. Finally, Dr. O'Hagan arrived {not my OB, but from my OB office}, and I started pushing before she was even ready. I couldn't hold back anymore.

{Side note: The nurse was actually awesome. Like, super amazing. I just didn't like her for the three contractions when she wouldn't let me push.}

I pushed three times. THREE. Three pushes {big pushes, but still only three...holy crap} and my boy was born. They laid him on my chest and Dave cut the cord. It was 3:43 am.

So. Like I said, super fast delivery! Labor with Leland took 33 hours. This one was 3 hours. Holy crap.

I spent a lot of time just cuddling my precious boy. This was amazing, because with Leland I only got to hold him for a minute before they whisked him off to the NICU. I held my nameless baby for a long time. And at some point, Dave got to hold him too.

Then they weighed and measured him and checked his vitals. His temperature was low, which they were concerned about, but they had him lay in his bassinet with warm blankets for a while. When his temperature was still low, they let me nurse him and hold him skin to skin, and that worked like a charm.

Because of my gestational diabetes, they had to check the baby's blood sugar four times during the day. Once after his first feeding, and then before the next three. His levels had to be above 40. If they were below for any of them, he would have to start over. His levels were 42, 60, 44, and 56. HURRAY!

Our baby boy had no name for approximately 12 hours. Dave still really wanted Henry, but I just didn't think he looked like a Henry. I feel bad for shooting down his favorite name, but it just doesn't work for me. We debated between Alden and Casen for a while, and finally decided he looked more like an Alden. But then we debated on the middle name forever, and eventually decided Walker sounded best with it. The birth certificate lady was happy that we finally made a decision. She had called me about four times throughout the day.

Our family of four

Alden nursed like a champ, passed his hearing test and jaundice check, and we were discharged from the hospital the next day at 9:00am.

In the car seat, ready to go home.

I still can't believe how fast labor was. I still can't believe I only pushed three times. And I still can't believe I did it without an epidural. I was so mad at the time that I couldn't get the epidural, but now I'm glad I was able to do it naturally. It was awful, I'm not gonna lie. But once you can push, you have a place to focus all that energy and it doesn't hurt so much. It's the sitting around waiting and feeling all the pain that's hard.

But all the pain is so worth it. Look at the prize I came home with in the end.

My sweet Alden Walker

Alden Walker...

In case you missed it via facebook or instagram, our sweet little bundle has arrived!

Alden Walker Nowak

After a fast and furious labor and delivery, our newest addition to the Nowak family arrived on October 17, 2013 a t 3:43am.

He weighed 6 pounds, 8 ounces and measured 20 inches long.

Because the birth was super fast, I should have it up on the ole blog in no time so check back soon for details.

38 weeks...

How far along: 38 weeks

Total Weight Gain: 24 pounds - this still surprises me so much. This is less than I gained with Leland, and I only made it to 34 weeks with him.

Size of Baby: pumpkin {fitting, since it’s pumpkin season}

Maternity Clothes?: Yep. And I actually am now sporting yoga pants at work. I don’t like wearing yoga pants to work, because it feels so unprofessional, but my maternity pants just weren’t working anymore. They were a bit big on me to start, but it seems that the bigger I get, the more they fall down. Weird.

Sleep: Pretty much awful until last night. My husband snores, and I have to pee about 40 times a night. But somehow, miraculously, last night I slept SO good. It was amazing.

Food Cravings: Applesauce, pudding, ice cream.

Food Aversions: Nothing really. Just tired of the things I’ve been eating.

Gender: Boy…still without a name.

Symptoms: Early labor symptoms have begun. I have lost my mucus plug {Which is super gross, by the way…never experienced it with Leland.} And I’ve been having contractions on and off for about a week. They’re nothing major, but they give me hope that something is happening soon-ish.

Milestones: Beyond full-term. Only two weeks til my due date. I can’t believe I made it this far. As much as I enjoy pregnancy, I am ready to have this baby.

Movement: He wasn’t moving much last week, which got me worried, but he’s been moving more the last few days.

Best moment this week: Lots of things to love about this week. I ordered our double stroller after a difficult time finding the one I want in our price range. And we visited the pumpkin patch, which is always a good time.

Looking forward to: Going into labor, hopefully soon. Was hoping I would before today because…well…today is MEAP testing {state standardized test} and our schedule is all crazy and I just don’t feel like dealing with it. Ha ha. Also, at my appointment last week, the doctor didn’t do an exam, so next Monday when I go in, I’m hoping they do one, so I can see if I’ve made any progress.

Extra Notes: It’s so weird to be at this stage of pregnancy. Basically, since I was 32 weeks, I wake up every day thinking Is today the day? For most of that time, I was hoping it wasn’t the day, and now I keep hoping it is. It’s just weird to be in this “normal” stage of pregnancy and sit waiting. But it’s so fun too. I love surprises, and going into labor is certainly one big surprise.

Pumpkin Patch...

This weekend, we visited the pumpkin patch. It's one of my favorite things to do in the fall. My family has visited Pahl's Pumpkin Patch for years. We used to all get together and get all the kids together for a fun day. But the last few years it has been hard to get everyone there on the same day at the same time. This year, it was me, Dave, and Leland, along with my mom, Melinda, and her girls, Ella and Madeline.

We were supposed to go last weekend, but it was rainy and cold. I was so thankful for the sunny, 65 degree day on Saturday. It was perfect for the pumpkin patch!

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Heading to see the animals: a baby cow, pig and piglets, sheep, pony, bunnies, a donkey, and lots of goats.

Checking out the baby goats.

Sheep

And then straight for the food stand. Yeah, he's my kid. 

We shared a doughnut and some apple cider.

Dude is obsessed with bottles and cans. When he found this bucket for empties, he said, "Oooooh" and wanted to play with them. My kid is weird. ;)

He likes the pumpkins better than the animals.

With Grandma Jill {my mom}

I love my family.

Ella and Madeline {my nieces}

With Grandma Jill

If he could have spent all day with the tractor and barrel train, he totally would have.

  

Crawling through the straw tee-pee

Hmmm...do you think Leland enjoyed the wagon ride?

Walking through the pumpkin patch.

He kept getting distracted by the barrel train. He wanted to ride it all day.

Hay maze

He made it out!

Cousins on the porch swing 

And more pumpkins.

It was a wonderful afternoon - perfect weather, lots of fun, and doughnuts. What could be better?