That First Toothless Grin

You have been smiling in your sleep since we brought you home. It's the cutest little thing, but it is definitely not in reaction to anything we do. However, at 4 weeks old I got you out of bed and during our morning play time you smiled at me. And then you smiled again, and again, and again. Apparently, you think I'm hilarious! When I realized I could actually make you smile I busted out the camera. You are too cute and I'll never forget that morning!

Picture a Day: Week 4

This was probably the worst week as far as Ethan's baby acne was concerned. I took him to the doctor twice for it, and at his regular scheduled 1 month check up, the doctor finally decided it was an extreme enough case and gave us some antibiotic gel. It worked wonders!

Day 22


Day 23


Day 24


Day 25


Day 26


Day 27


Day 28

I look back at baby pictures and wonder why my mom would ever take photos of me with an acne covered face. Well here is why, it was part of my "babyhood" and now Ethan it is a part of yours. You can hate me later for posting these!

Picture a Day: Week 3

Day 15
I can't get enough of this "Just waking up face"


Day 16


Day 17


Day 18


Day 19
Milk Drunk


Day 20
Love your feet!...and this blanket that Auntie D made!


Day 21
Baby Acne...getting worse!

Birth Announcements

Sticking with the Sock Monkey theme, these birth announcements should have made their way to your mailbox in the form of a post card!

I ordered waaaay too many, so feel free to send me your address if you would like me to send you one...or five.

Picture a day: Week 2

Day 8


Day 9
I love this face you make whenever you stretch!


Day 10


Day 11
Proud Grandmas!


Day 12


Day 13


Day 14

Welcome to Bath Time!

Your umbilical cord fell off so we can now give you a bath!!

You weren't sure how you felt about it at first so you peed in the water. But after draining and refilling your bath you decided it wasn't so bad.

I really hope bath time becomes one of your favorite things to do soon! I love baby baths and babies all wrapped up in towels!

First trip to the Pediatrician

5 days post birth, Ethan is almost back to his birth weight.

Weight: 10 lbs 3 oz (95th percentile)

Height: 21 1/2 inches long (90th percentile)

Head: Big (95th percentil)

You are a growing boy, and the doctor told me I have a "truck load of milk." I guess I'll take that as a compliment.

He get it from his Mamma!

I have a theory. When babies are born they look a little less like tiny humans and a little more like something from another planet. So really, it's hard to say who they look like right away. After their travel through the birth canal they are often puffy and discolored. So, since you can't really tell, I think people say they look like the parent of the same sex. If it's a boy they automatically say "He looks like Daddy" and visa versa. After Ethan was born, I heard a lot of comments like "Adam, he looks just like you!" At that point I couldn't tell who he looked like at all. However, as days pass it is quite obvious. Whether Ethan will grow up to look like Adam or me, only time will tell, but for now, I would say he looks just like his mamma!

From this wide eyed look of shock...


to the filipino nose, right down to the point on our ears.


We were even both blessed with really bad cases of baby acne! But I'll spare Ethan the shame of sharing those photos...for now.

Picture a Day: Week 1

I am going to try to take a picture a day for the first year of Ethan's life. My hope is to show who he is and to show what our lives are like as a family of three during this year.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7 (I really love baby yawns, expect a lot of them on here.)

Don't let this cute face fool you, at this very moment he is christening the love sac!

Noisy little sleeper, it's time for your crib

It took a total of 2 nights at home to decide it is crib time!! You are quite the active little sleeper. Our original plan was to sleep you in your pack n' play next to our bed for at least the first six weeks, but apparently you dream about wrestling alligators all night long, causing us to wake up constantly. While you are in dream land, we are up, losing precious hours of sleep. So, at 5 days old we are going to transfer you to your crib.

Spring in February

I was really worried about being cooped up in the house for these first couple of months since last year's winter was especially harsh! We had a huge snow storm in the begining of February that snowed in the entire city of Columbia for a couple of days. Lucky for us we live in Missouri, where the weather is the furthest thing from predictable. The day after we brought Ethan home from the hospital it was 55 degrees! So we took advantage of it and took him for his first walk!

Ethan wasn't quite sure how he felt about the big outdoors at first.

"This is nothing like that warm cozy womb I've been livin' in for the past 9 months!"

But it didn't take long for him to fall right asleep.

Cruisin' in style.

Proud daddy had to stop and take a picture, so this proud photographer wife had to document it! :)

Just call me the Schedule Police

Ok, it's time to fix your day and night time mix up little guy! You sleep all day only to wake up, wide eyed and ready to party around 7pm. You did this in the womb. You did this each night in the hospital, and here at home we just can't have it. So what's the solution? You need to know there is a distinct difference between day and night, so here is the plan.
8:00am
Blinds are open, lights are on, music is playing, washing machine is running, phone is rining, and lots of stimulation is happening.

But as hard as we try, you are still asleep. So we wake you every hour, even if just for a diaper change.

8:00pm
Lights are out, TV is off when you are in the living room, talking is kept to a whisper, stimulation has stopped. We have also started a little bed time routine. After the lights go out we either wipe you down or bathe you, diaper you, rub you down with nightime lotion (clinically proven to help babies sleep better...haha yeah right!), gown you, swaddle you, feed you, rock you and lay you down to sleep.

As the doctor said, keep the day time busy and night time stictly busniess. This is exactly what I intend to do!

Let's see how long this takes to see you this asleep during the night.

Good Bye Hospital, Hello Reality!

We stayed at the hospital for two nights after I delivered. This was two days and two nights of food being a phone call away, guests visiting, nurses helping me with my every move, and free babysitting via the hospital nursery! I personally think this service should not be offered because it gives a sense of false hope. Everyone says "Send your baby to the nursery so that you can get a good night's rest." WHY? What for? Are they going to come home with me and continue this free overnight babysitting until he is sleeping through the night?

Leaving the hospital is a bit of an ordeal. There is a pile of discharge paperwork, videos we had to watch, bags to pack, and a baby to put inside of his carseat for his first ever trip on the open highway! I was moving pretty slow. Like snail's pace slow. I was still recovering from the deliver and just sitting was painful. Adam put some pillows down where I would be sitting in the car and he assured me he would drive as "bump free" as possible. I hobbled down to the lobby of the hospital, and waited as Adam got the car. At this point I see a woman who appears to have also just had a baby. Except she made me look like the biggest wimp. She was standing in the doorway holding the pumpkin seat with her baby inside, happily swinging it back and forth across her entire body. The valet brings her car to her and she clicks the carseat in, hops in the front seat and drives off...probably to her house where she will scrub all of the floors and have dinner on the table by 5:00. I on the other hand have to have Adam carry the pumpkin seat, I can hardly walk, and getting into the car was a slow and ungraceful process.

Anyhow, I got in and we headed home. I felt like every car was flying, rolling stop signs, running stop lights, and not looking both ways. At this point I am regretting the decision to skip out on buying one of those "Baby on Board" signs for our window.

We got home, introduced the dogs to their new brother and hung out for the rest of the evening with our brand new baby. Soon it was time for bed. We had everything ready. Ethan in his pajamas with a clean diaper and a full belly. The pack n' play was set up next to our bed with the video monitor. We put him sleep came out to the living room to watch some TV before heading to bed, but in reality we sat and watched the screen of the monitor, all night long, as if Ethan would be performing some kind of show for the two of us. It felt so weird. Up to this point this tiny has been handled, watched, passed around, poked, and prodded since he came out of the womb. Now we just set him down and left him all alone in this big huge world to go to sleep. Or so we thought. It only took us one night to confirm what we previously thought. Ethan has his days and nights completely backwards.

It's a good thing he's cute!

We love you and your day and night confused self!

Happy Birthday Ethan Thomas: My Birth Story

The short version:
My contractions started around 5:00pm on January 31st at 15 minutes apart. I labored through the night, went to the hospital at 6:00am February 1st and Ethan was born at 8:15am! At a whopping 9 pounds 5 ounces and 21.5 inches long, the doctor announced to the family, "He's here...and he's deliciously full bodied!"

The really long version:
My estimated due date was January 31, 2012. Nobody thought I would make it to that date, but low and behold I woke up the last day in January...still pregnant.

But, the doctor wasn't too far off. In fact it was that very day that I went into labor. I had some cramping on and off all day but didn't think much of it. Starting around 4 it was getting a little bit worse, but still not anything that I was concerned about. Adam and I decided to run some errands and go out to dinner that night.
Side not: If you are in labor, do not choose the Golden Corral as your last meal. Not only was the food terrible, but with kids running and screaming all over the place I couldn't help but wonder, "What the heck are we getting ourselves into??"
I guess I should be thankful for the lesson in how not to parent.

Throughout the evening I had to periodically stop in my tracks while the pain came and went. Still thinking they were completely random, I didn't think this could be it. By the time we got home that evening Adam told me that he had been timing these "cramps" as I called them, and they had been 15 minutes apart consistently for 2 hours. We watched a movie we had rented for the night, during which we started timing the contractions together, Adam timed the length of each contraction while I kept track of the time each one began.

By bed time they were 10 minutes apart. I thought, "I'll go to sleep, wake up in the morning and they will be three minutes apart!" I know, I was delusional. I laid in bed and 2 contractions later I couldn't take it anymore. I had to get up and move around. I spent the night in every inch of our house, timing contractions and trying to escape the pain. I tried the couch, the glider, the bath tub, the living room floor, leaning up against a wall, leaning over the counter. Nothing helped to escape the discomfort. It felt like the worst cramps you have ever had, paired with a vice wrapped around your hips, trying to squeeze you until you pop. I loathe this imaginary vice.

As the night went on I decided I needed some company, so I woke Adam up from his two hour nap. He got some last minute things together, showered, watched T.V, and video taped some of my contractions. Please don't ask to watch this...it's not pretty.

Mentally I had decided ahead of time that I didn't want to go to the hospital until my contractions were down to 3 minutes apart. Throughout the night I kept playing little mental games, telling myself "Well they are three minutes apart, but now I'm going to try to wait until 5:00am to leave the house." I kept setting little goals, and once they were reached I would make another, attempting to leave at the very last possible second for the hospital. However, there came a point where I told Adam, "We have to go to the hospital now, I can't do this anymore, I just can't take it." He kindly reminded me of all of the reasons why I wanted to stay at home as long as possible. I reluctantly agreed but told him, "If I'm not at least 6 cm when we get to the hospital I'm getting the epidural" which was not the plan! But I was in pain, and again, playing little mental games with myself. This is when my "Focus Sheet" came into play. I asked a few women who I know personally and who went through natural childbirth for some advice. I wanted to be able to imagine them telling me their advice while I was actually going through the labor process. This advice helped me tremendously.



And this chicken scratch is the method I used to track the progress of my contractions.

We stayed home as long as we could. My contractions were about 2 minutes apart and Adam decided it was time! In between contractions I had enough time for Adam to put a coat on me and for me run to the car. I had a few contractions on the way to the hospital and let me tell you, contractions in a small confined car=hell!

We got to the hospital at 6am and checked into labor and delivery. I was doubled over in pain and the receptionist looks at Adam with a straight face asks, "How can I help you?"

"Umm, my wife is in labor," Adam responded as he pointed in my direction.

The receptionist looked over his shoulder and said to the doctor and nurses in the next room, "Thinks she's having labor pains."

Thinks? THINKS? There's no thinking about it buddy. This is the real deal!

The nurse put me in a room and the doctor immediately came in to check my progress. I was absolutely terrified of hearing something along the lines of "Well you are at a two you big baby so you can't be in that much pain!"
However, the next words that came out of the doctor's mouth were,
"She's at an eight!"

I swear I could have kissed her! At that point I yelled, "Oh thank God!"

I was so relieved and encouraged. This was the moment it all became a reality and I knew I could do it! From there nurses and doctors were flying in and out of the room. Asking me a millions questions, putting bracelet after bracelet on me, and prepping me for delivery. At 7:00 the doctor broke my water and about 3 minutes later it was time to push.

Adam thought that he was just going to be one of those, "stand by the bed, hold your hand, not get in on the actions" kind of supporting husbands, but as soon as it was time to push the doctor yells, "okay dad, grab a leg," and his vision of sitting on the side lines ended right there.

Pushing, well it's awful. Especially if you aren't doing it right. And let me tell you, I was terrible at it for the first hour! All it took was a little threat from the doctor, "Don't worry, most first time moms push for at least two hours" to know it was time to get this right and get this baby out! I think in my very next push after that nurse threatened another hour of pushing, Ethan shot out like a cannon ball (Adam's words).

Welcome to the world little guy! Your dad and I have anticipated this day for 9 months and we could not be happier! You are absolutely perfect! And we already love you more than words can say! We are truly blessed!



























This last photo melts my heart!

I have to say I had an amazing support team. Adam was "Super Husband!" He cheered me on and encouraged me from beginning to end. And I absolutely LOVE my doctor and the nursing staff I was assigned. They were like natural birth cheerleaders. They had faith in me the entire time and they were so awesome to work with. After moving to St. Louis I just might have to drive back to have the rest of my children!!

Ethan Thomas Lunn
Born February 1, 2012
9 pounds 5 ounces 21.5 inches long

Happy Birthday to our son! God is good!