Eli - 3 months

Eli - 2 months

Eli - 1 month

My first picnic

After we left the Heritage Lake house, we headed North on 65 to Rensselaer. We had a lot of stops to make that day and not a lot of time to do it. Poor Eli didn't get any full feedings, just a lot of little ones because we just didn't have time. Mike was surprised at how often and how long they would take since he never had to wait on us before. Back then, a full feeding would take us over an hour!

We took a break at Chick-fil-A in Lafayette for a picnic. It was so fun to lay Eli out on a blanket in the grass. They had the best grass, it was so green, thick and plush. He enjoyed his first picnic immensely, he ate and then napped in the sun. Couldn't get any better than that for a little guy!

We got a milk shake for dessert. Somehow, while trying to juggle Eli and the dogs, we weren't paying attention and Bear was able to discover how tasty whip cream on a milk shake is. Geez, you would think we don't feed him!

Mouth wide open

Just have to love this picture of Peanut sleeping with his mouth wide open!


And what's not to love about a screaming baby? Bear's trying to figure out what's wrong. He looks so tiny is his clothes!

Eli - 1 week

Since I enjoyed the belly pictures so much, I decided we would continue the tradition once Eli was on the outside :)

Proud Momma and Pappa

I just couldn't believe I finally got to shake his hand! He was so cute and little and perfect in every way.


We read about the importance of skin to skin bonding and how it was a great thing for the dad's to do as well. This has to be my all time favorite picture, it's so cute! Kisses from Daddy!


What a proud Papa!

Original date: September 7

Laboring Laura

I sat in this chair most of my labor. I was having contractions for a long time but couldn't feel them, which meant they weren't intense enough. They had to give me pitosin to speed the process up and I was worried that we would not have a baby that day. We really wanted it to be on the 7th because that was Mike's football number and his favorite number, so it was a very special date!

5:30 p.m.
The pitosin did not work very fast for me at all. At this point, I was dilated to 4 cm.

Mike was so awesome and we had so much fun during labor! I thought we would be bored and would want to read books, play cards or watch TV, but we just enjoyed the time together. I was so thankful that we had taken a natural childbirth class because it had a lot of tips for labor. We had calming music playing, dim lighting and some fabulous lavender bath salts for some relaxing aroma. The instructor also made a rice pack that Mike could heat in the microwave for me.

My Man

It was a lot of work taking care of me so Mike was excited to get a boxed lunch during the process. I, on the other hand, got to drink chicken broth, yum! (Actually, at that point, it really hit the spot.)

7:00 p.m.
I wanted to deliver naturally but I was open to an epidural. By this time, I was dilated to 5 cm and was having strong contractions. Mike was such great support and I could not have gotten through it without him! It was starting to really hurt, but I could handle it. But I knew that it would get worse so I wanted to get the epidural before it was too late.

7:45 p.m.
The anesthesiologist arrives. I really wanted Mike to be in the with me. He had several of them for his back, but he said he couldn't stand the thought of it so he left. It was good he did because it really, really hurt! It didn't seem to be working right so they had me lay differently with no luck. Then I started shaking and it hurt so bad! I closed my eyes, curled up in pain and could hear the nurses talking about what to do with me. I thought I was dying and I was in so much pain I didn't care!

8:40 p.m.
By this time, I was dilated to 8 cm and the epidural was only working about 60%. It was pretty painful and I thought I was just going to have to get through the delivery like that. They said they could try to give me another dose, and boy am I glad they did! The pain was making me very nauseous. Luckily I had a peppermint sachet from the childbirth class and that helped some. I held onto that thing for dear life, it was like my blanky, I loved it and had to have it in my hand during every contraction. I did end up getting sick and then a nurse said something about a head. More nurses came in and they were all getting ready. I asked if they could see his head but they said no. They didn't want to freak me out because my doctor wasn't there yet! They didn't move me at all for fear that baby Peanut would come before they were ready.

9:20 p.m.
My epidural was finally working thank goodness! After my doctor arrived, I was able to start pushing. It's hard to hold your breath and push like that. Apparently, I held my breath in my cheeks which you aren't supposed to do because when you release it, you can't help but spit! Mike and the nurses were laughing at me, but I had no idea why at the time. I guess I was spitting on everyone!

I would highly recommend an epidural. I was able to enjoy the delivery process! In between pushes, I would say things like "wow, this is great, wow!" and "I love the epidural, this is easy, I feel great!". I felt like I was tipsy because I was so relaxed. It allowed me to hang out and chat with the nurses and doctor between pushes. As strange as it sounds, it was a blast!

The room smelled of lavender, the lights were dimmed and my relaxing music was playing. Mike and I have no other words to explain the experience other than magical. One of my favorite memories from my childhood is waking up on Christmas morning really early and going into the living room, which was lit only by the Christmas tree lights, and seeing the beautiful tree and the present Santa brought me. This moment compared to that, it was just perfect and I couldn't have asked for any more beautiful.

9:50 p.m.
After only 30 minutes of pushing, we had our baby boy! The labor and delivery was so much fun. It was such a special time for Mike and me to enjoy by ourselves. It was truly perfect. Thank you God for such a great experience to remember for a lifetime!

Original Date: September 7

Saving the wallet and the planet

Believe it or not (and laugh if you want), but we are going to use cloth diapers! They have come a long way since the big white rectangles that you pin together. They are now cute, colorful and fitted! The brand we chose (with recommendations from my cousin Maria who made the blanket and pillow for Peanut) is bum genius. We got 28, which means we will probably have to wash them every other day or so.

Here's what they look like up close (click pic to make it larger).



For the first month or two, we will use disposables, but after that, it's time to save money and the planet! It's a significant upfront investment, but after about 6 months, it pays for itself and then you are just paying a little extra for water and energy to clean them. Also, you should be able to use them for your next child as well! They also say that kids that wear cloth diapers potty train sooner since they can feel when they are wet easier.

I know there is an argument that cleaning cloth diapers uses valuable resources too, but it takes a lot of water and energy to make disposables, not to mention the fact that they take more the 200 years to break down (and that would be if they weren't wrapped in plastic with a million things on top of them)!

We know what you are thinking... it's pretty weird and daring (especially since I hate getting dirty). But we got to thinking, we are going to have to clean up poo either way! And after reading many blogs, we decided to get a special sprayer that attaches to the toilet so we can rinse the stinky right in to the bowl and flush it away!

I'm sure it will take some getting used to, but we are going with it. We'll let you know how it goes :)

Shower Power!

On August 8th, my mom and sister threw a family shower for Peanut and me. The invitations had an elephant and were really cute. They found some fabulous elephant decorations! There was an elephant diaper cake (including a bib that said "Little Peanut!"), elephant baby book (which I never even thought to register for one), they baked elephant sugar cookies, and even had an elephant gift bag. They also had a clothesline of baby clothes – Peanut even has some new threads to wear next summer!

We played a few games and got to visit with some family we hadn't seen in a while. They also made the diaper cake themselves! It took a long time to dis-assemble so I can't even imagine how long it took them to make it.


We got lots of great stuff, including some hand-made blankets. One of them was from my cousin Maria. It's a football blanket and orange and blue for the Bears (Mike's favorite team). She also made a special pillow for us to put in Peanut's room. It says "Lots of love from above" and "Love Grandpa Dave" on the back. I had asked her to make something special from Grandpa Dave.


This is Mike's sister Angi and his mom Jill with the pillow.


My mom and sister did such a great job making this day special for me. They even had a craft of decorating onesies which was really fun!

32 week belly

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted a belly shot! My has it grown!

Peanut's had the hiccups the last month which we think is pretty funny. And Mike has had fun visiting with Peanut (he squishes my belly to tell him 'hi' and he tries to guess which body part he can feel).

Shower Fun!

My friends Jenny and Angela threw me a friends shower on Aug 1st at a cute restaurant in Clay Terrace. It was so much fun, they did such a great job! And it was nice to see everyone, especially at the same time because we are all so busy now.


Jenny made a cute jumbo cupcake cake with little cupcakes around it. And Angela added an extra special detail – circus peanuts, to go along with the 'Peanut' and elephant theme. (It was kind of an inside joke and we used to eat them all the time together). She and I were the only ones enjoying them, because as another friend put it "they are gross, so nobody wants to eat them."

During the shower, we had a wonderful lunch, played a few games, laughed, talked and opened presents. I got lots of wonderful gifts! And Jenny also had a special print made for me from an Illustrator she knows. It was what I call an 'ele-print' (an elephant print). You can see it in the photo, it's so cute!

Jenny and I are getting bigger! I made her make her belly apparent in this picture unlike the pool shot where you can't even tell she's pregnant next to my big, white belly!

4th of July

Every year for Forth of July, Mike's family goes back to Rensselaer to celebrate. We have a family reunion for Jill's side (Mike's mom) and we also celebrate Dave's birthday (Mike's dad). This year would have been his 64th birthday. And this year, the trip was obviously different than past years.

We went to the cemetery to see the headstone. Those take months to get in and we had not seen it yet. The cemetery is the most beautiful and peaceful one I have ever seen. It's way out in the boonies, along an old dirt road. There is an old school house along the way that Dave and Jill attended elementary school in. The cemetery has woods around it and it is so quant and beautiful.


I was a little worried because we had the dogs with us and I didn't know what to do with them. The cemetery is fenced in and there was no one else around, so Mike let the dogs go and they ran all around – free as birds, and loved it. After about 2 minutes of that, Bear ran over to us and laid right down in front of Dave's headstone. It was as if there was no place else he wanted to be. He wanted to say hi to Grandpa Dave. It was such a cool thing to see and made us feel very comforted.


"Shu" fly, don't bother me!
Another funny thing happened during our visit. Bear had a pesky fly that would not leave him alone. The fly would land right on the back of his neck, just in the perfect spot to where he could not reach it. It drove him crazy and he jumped, scratched and danced all around trying to get the fly off. It was hilarious and we know that Dave was entertained by it too.


Most people would think that this would have been a very somber experience, but it was quite the opposite. We picked the perfect time to go since it rained the rest of the day (we only had a few sprinkles when we were there) and with the dogs there, it really helped. It was nice to visit Dave and we miss him dearly. We were also glad that Peanut David got to visit too.