Busy Week

 Here are our little Halloween monsters.  Pierce was a little monster and Madison and Hayes were vampires.  We did some trick-or-treating and went to my Uncle's house for scones.  The kids definitely thought they scored with the candy and I let Pierce lick sugar and cinnamon off of my finger from the scones so he was happy.

 The Boise temple was recently remodeled and the open house is going on right now.  We went through this last week.  It was a great experience.  Hayes liked the mirrors in the sealing room and Madison loved all the chandeliers.

 Madison was baptized and confirmed Saturday night.  She did a great job preparing by reading the Book of Mormon this year.  We started January 1st and finished Friday night before her baptism so that she would be all ready!  We had a lot of family and friends come so it was a great experience.  We had nacho bar after the baptism to celebrate.  Nachos are one of Madison's favorite foods.

 We decided to wait and bless Pierce the same weekend as the baptism.  A mistake?  Maybe.  He is absolutely HUGE and his 0-3 month blessing outfit was straining to hold the rolls in.  My aunt said it had been awhile since she had seen such an old baby blessed (she thought he was like 4 months old), but no.  He is two months old and is quickly approaching the 18 lb. mark and is already wearing 6 month clothes.  He also has super-baby strength and was holding himself up and looking around.  He definitely did not look like a little newborn.

8 is Great

I can't believe that I am old enough to have an 8 year old kid.  Alas.  Madison's birthday was today.  Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Dan were able to visit from Yakima, so she is pretty excited!  She and Hayes went swimming at the hotel pool this morning and then shopping with Grandma and Grandpa.  We went out to dinner at Red Robin, Madison's favorite place to eat.  

8 things about Madison:

*She loves being a big sister.  She is Hayes' bff and dotes on Pierce.

*She is awesome at reading and loves to do it.

*She makes friends regardless of where she is.

*Her favorite song right now is "Call Me Maybe."  She also loves parodies of this song on YouTube.

*If it is warm enough she LOVES to swim and is really good at it.

*Her favorite food is pizza.  She would eat it everyday for every meal.

*She is excited to get baptized next weekend.

*She is a sports fan and roots for all of her dad's favorite teams.

2 Months

This little guy is now over 2 months old!  At his doctor's appointment he was 15 lbs. 10 oz. and 25 inches long.  Month 2 was hard.  He had an ear infection and then was diagnosed with acid reflux.  Fortunately, the reflux does not seem to have any impact on his ability to pack on the pounds.  Now that he is being treated for acid reflux he seems to be feeling better.  He smiles and loves it when we sing to him.  Madison and Hayes continue to be such a great help.  He sleeps pretty good at night and finally started sleeping in his crib 2 nights ago!

 Here is a profile shot so that you can see he has been amply blessed with chins.

(Not so) Little Guy

Our little guy is already 6 weeks old!  It is going by so fast.  At one month he weighed in at 12 lbs. and had grown two inches since birth.  Curious, Joe and I weighed him again at almost 6 weeks and he was already up to 14 lbs.  It literally wears me out to hold him and carry him.  His super baby strength also makes him a handful.  He loves to arch his back and I worry sometimes that he is going to muscle his way right out of my arms.

Madison and Hayes are still big fans of Pierce.  It is nice to have helpers who will get diapers for me and hold him.  The big kids started school over a month ago and are loving it.  Hayes' teacher sent an email to us after the first week of school praising his obedience.  Madison is thrilled to be back with friends again and enjoys to read.

Joe is submitting his residency applications (only about 35) so we have no idea where we will be this time next year.

Now that I have had 6 weeks to recover, I absolutely have to finish my thesis, but I lost the really good momentum I had last year.  I am hoping that once I start reading about dams again my fervor for them will return.

Pierce

Joe and I went to the hospital at 7 a.m. to be induced on Thursday Aug 16, with the assurance that we would probably be holding our new born sometime that afternoon.  The nurse asked what our birth plan was and I said "baby out" and "epidural."  We sat around for hours waiting for things to start happening.  I watched hours of quality day time programming on TLC.  Joe started a baby pool asking friends and family to guess the time of the birth and the weight of the baby.  The latest time was 10:30, by which time I assumed I would already be asleep.  We had a great nurse whose shift was from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.  When she left after 12 hours and I was only dilated to 4 cm, I realized things were not necessarily going the way I anticipated.  

Our next nurse realized something was amiss when she kept trying to find the baby's heartbeat.  An ultrasound showed that the baby was head down, but facing straight up which may have been why labor progressed so slowly.  I finally had dilated enough to push, so the doctor was called.  When he arrived we realized that although I definitely had the urge to push the cervix just wouldn't dilate enough to allow the baby's head out.  I then proceeded to try several agonizing hours of trying different positions and enduring several attempts by the doctor to vacuum baby's head out.  I had to fight the whole time to not push, which was horrible.  The nurse kept saying things like "this is not how I saw this going" and "this is not how I planned to spend my night."  I was torn between laughing at her cluelessness and wanting to slap her.  Finally, the doctor gave me 30 minutes to try and get the baby to turn and then proceeding to a c-section.  We waited out the longest 30 minutes ever, and then realized this little dude was not coming out.  The doctor said we may never know why he could not come out the usual route.  

I went in for the c-section, and as soon as the incision was made, everyone in the room went "Oh."  The cord was wrapped around and under both of his shoulders and around his neck.  There was no way he was ever coming out having tangled himself up pretty tightly.  At first glance he was huge with enormous hands.  8lbs. 8 oz and 21 inches long.  Our biggest baby yet and a week early.  I was surprised to see my mom in the recovery room at 1 a.m. but I am glad she came.  I was so shaky and out of it I could not actually hold baby boy for awhile.  Joe and I finally settled on a name after months of debate: Joseph Pierce Deaver.

 Poor, little cone head had a huge bruise on his head from the vacuuming attempts.

 This is what hours of labor and various drugs makes you look like.

 Big Brother!

 Big Sister!

 The kids...and mom still looking out of it in the back ground.

 Finally going home from the hospital on Monday (had to spend an extra night so that Pierce could work on his tan and knock out his jaundice in the bilirubin box).

Still torn about which is a harder recovery, c-section or vaginal birth.  The doctor promised me I could have a VBAC next time.  I was like, "next time...ha, ha, ha."

Dog Days

 Summer has been extremely hot this year!  Obviously blogging has not been a major priority lately, but staying cool has.  We have had fun at the "splash-down" park.  Having a pool in our complex has been great!  The kids both took a month's worth of swimming lessons and are now going to give Missy Franklin and Michael Phelps a run for their money.  They actually literally line up at the edge of the pool, slap their chests and backs like little Olympians, and race across the pool.  It is pretty funny.

 Hayes did a week long tee ball camp.  He is great at hitting fielding and hitting, but hitting was his favorite.

 Madison did a cheerleading camp for a week where she learned a cheer, dance, "pyramid building," and "voice projection."  She was already proficient at voice projection, but excelled at the cheering as well.

 Grandpa Bret took us boating a couple of times, and Madison and Hayes both tried the tubes.

Joe did a weight loss competition in Boise starting in January.  He worked out like crazy and did some portion control and lost around 80 lbs.  He ended up taking fifth place, which was really exciting.  We celebrated by hitting a Brazilian grill afterward, he was pretty hungry.

Joe may have lost weight, but the scale has continued to creep up for me.  I am 39 weeks along now and measuring 40.  I am ready to ditch the heartburn and swollen feet.  Baby is coming VERY soon, so we celebrated with a trip to Red Robin and a couple of rounds of miniature golf.

Oh!  And Hayes got glasses.  They make him look like a little genius.  He has an astigmatism which will hopefully correct itself if he wears the glasses for a couple months.

I was utterly convinced...

...that it was a GIRL but found out yesterday that it is a BOY! I am still in shock. I have only been thinking of girl names, looking at girl clothes, and planning for a girl. I have never been so surprised! Everything looks good and we are measuring slightly ahead of schedule. Just 19 more weeks to go...so excited!