Picked On

Literally. I cannot help myself. I have to pick at this little guy all day long. It's not my fault. It's genetic you see. My grandparents pick, my dad picks, and therefore - I pick. It drives Andy crazy. He spends a good amount of time trying to get me to stop picking. I pick at my arms, dry skin, the occasional zit, peely sunburns, etc. Stella may have this trait also. We have caught her recently picking at a sore on her finger. So since the little man has baby acne, he is getting picked on. I have made a little promise to stop though. This way he won't have red spots on his face along with the zits. I will still pick his dry skin, but not anymore on his face... poor little guy.


Sterling is growing like a weed. At his two week appointment last Thursday he weighed 9 lbs, 9 oz. He is already outgrowing his newborn clothes, and has a couple chins. He was 75th percentile for weight, and 90th percentile for both head measurement and height.



We took Sterling to Sacrament meeting last Sunday. He did fantastic. Slept the whole time. He was probably just really tired from being up all night;).


We sure love having the little man around. Stella continues to take out a little of her aggression on the poor guy - but she also loves him a ton. She loves to kiss him, probably a little too much.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day will always be extra special for me, because it was on Valentine's day 4 years ago when Andy and I went on our first official date. I'm so glad Andy asked me out, all those 4 years ago, and that it has lead me to the wonderful life I now have. This year - having a real romatic day was going to be tough, but Andy pulled it off pretty well. Of course I got beautiful red roses, and two cards, one from Andy and one (that I wasn't expecting) from Stella. During this extra emotional time, having just had a baby and all, of course they brought tears to my eyes. Then we went out to Coldstone, and shared some delish ice cream, and then Andy and Stella made me some fantastic, and romantic food. It was wonderful, and I am so grateful to Andy for making the day as special as it could be for the two of us, while we are still adjusting to the four of us.

"Photo Shoot"

Time was flying by so fast, that last Thursday I decided I needed to take some real pictures of Sterling before he lost his newborn look. The "shoot" didn't last too long with Stella by my side, and most of the pictures have her in them somewhere. She wanted to be in front of the lens so bad, so I took plenty of pictures of her precious silly little face too. Unfortunately, I don't have my computer right now, which also means no photoshop, which is my favorite part when it comes to the whole picture thing, so I will just have to do some more "shoots" in the future I guess.

(Sorry that the pictures are so huge. They are also cropped, at least on my computer, so to see what they should really look like, click on them.)

Out-numbered

So my Mom is gone, and I'm left alone all day with these two little munchkins. I won't lie - I was stressed out about this moment, but it has worked out much better than anticipated. The biggest problem is just making sure Stella gets enough attention to know she has not been replaced. This is the only thing I worry about. Otherwise, everything is fine. (well, and the lack of sleep is becoming quite the problem, but thats a whole different issue.) So it seems I will be able to take care of two at the same time all by myself - and I just have to hope Stella will be understanding towards me, and get back to really loving me soon. Thanks Mom - for helping us out so much with Stella, we know - it was your pleasure, but we (especially me) really appreciate it.

More pictures

We are so excited to have little Sterling home with us. He is so precious of course, and we are trying our best to get adjusted. Stella has been treating me a little differently, preferring her father or Grandma Lund, but is slowly starting to warm up to me again. She loves to hold Sterling (pictures of that after they are uploaded) but only if he is NOT crying. When he cries - she gets a little scared of him. She now says his name - which is the sweetest little thing to me. She is able to pronounce it pretty well too - so that is fun. Today in the car she told me over and over again that "Sterling, night night" because he was asleep. Sterling unfortunately has his days and night mixed up - so I have not gone to bed before 5 in the morning since we have been home. This is the reason not much blogging or picture taking has hppened since we got home. I am sooo exhausted, and am trying so hard to keep him up all I can during the day, but you know how it is trying to keep a tired baby awake. Practically impossible. So far he takes a pacifier fantastically - which makes me want to shout for joy, and he also sat in his swing while we ate dinner tonight (hallelujah)- something Stella never had the patience for. So if we can just get this whole sleeping at night thing down, I think things are going to work out just as I had planned. Hopefully I will be back to blogging as normal - and maybe do a couple little "photo shoots" of the kiddos for all to see. As for now - I am off to bed - or something like that.

Sterling Andrew

We have a baby boy! We love our little guy. He weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces, and was 21 inches long. That's a whopping 2 pounds bigger and 3 inches longer than Stella was. His birth was much different (in a fantastic way) than Stella's, and I feel I am recovering much quicker also. (thank heavens) We feel especially blessed that all went well, and that we finally have him in our arms. After realizing that Sterling might be posterior, or at least positioned off to one side quite a bit, we decided to try to re-position him to see if it would get things going for real. I knelt on the floor in a downward dog style sort of way for as long as I could stand to (which wasn't much longer than 15 mins... not too comfy for an "overdue" pregnant lady) and then tried to stay leaning forward right afterwards so that he would get into the "right" position. After I did this, I didn't think it had worked, because I didn't feel any major moving, or any huge differences. Well, I must have been wrong, because I did this around 6 pm., and at 10:33 - to be exact, my inconsistent contractions got real serious real fast. I had one contraction, the one at 10:33, that lasted 9 mins, and it was extremely painful. In the middle of the contraction, my water broke. At first, I thought there was no way it could have been my water breaking, because I didn't think I was really in labor, and not too many people have their water breaking as their first sign of true labor... but after a few minutes, and a little online research, I knew that had to be the case. We called my Mom to come sleep with Stella, and made our way out the door to the hospital. Poor Andy even had to peel himself out of bed, so he wanted me to make sure my water had really broken before we left. By the time we got to the hospital, it was 12:01, and my pain level had risen dramatically. Luckily, I only had three hours to go, and it would all be over and done with. It only took 14 minutes of pushing, and little Sterling was out. He was so clean, and his cry was great. He cried for a while, and I let him, without trying to calm him too much because I knew it would help his little lungs adjust. He cried a lot, but it was different than the cry Stella had. His was more desperate and sad, whereas Stella's was mad and angry. In Provo, the dads hold the baby first, but here, they put him right up onto me while they wiped him down a little. He was so precious. Andy cut the cord, and then Andy did most of the holding after that because I could not keep my eyes open. They couldn't give me an epidural until my bloodwork was done, so they gave me a different drug to "take the edge off". I was grateful to have it, but it did make it so I slept through some of the labor... not that I minded that too much, but after he arrived, I wish I was just a little more awake. Luckily, the nurse was fantastic, loved her, and the doctors I saw have more of the same idea's about how a labor should go as I do. One of the best things about this was there was no episiotomy this time. This has seemed to make all the difference in recovering. Even though I did tear - Sterling decided to pop his fist and elbow out along with his head (thinks he's superman already), I have been able to move around so much better, and haven't needed the pain medication I did last time. The nurse rated Sterling with the highest apgar scale she has given to a vaginally delivered baby, and he was healthy from the start. We were the last couple of the night to get into a recovery room, the rest of the rooms were full, and so of course we got the smallest one, but that just made us and all of our visitors get a little more cozy. Stella loved to see her baby brother. The first time she was in the room with him, the nurses came to take him out for something, and Stella cried. She loves to point out his toes, cheeks, eyes, and knees. She makes a sad face when he cries, and imitates him, unless he really lets loose, then she actually gets scared and nervous. I hope she gets used to him crying soon, because it is pretty sad having two genuinely sad kids at the same time. The whole ride home from the hospital, Stella talked and talked about the baby, sleeping, and his hat. She loves to tell us about him over and over and over again. Stella did so well having Me and Andy gone. She never cried for us, or threw tantrums for my mom, she just acted as if she knew what was happening, or she didn't mind the adjustments at all. We are so grateful for that, because if she would have had a hard time with it, I would have probably been much more emotional, and the trip would not have been nearly as enjoyable for my Mom I am sure. Sterling seems to enjoy food much more than his sister did, which is a relief for me. I guess that comes with the size difference. He has taken to nursing well, and when he can keep himself awake, he eats a ton. Anyway, I should take advantage of the sleeping babies, and go get some rest myself. I will write more later.

January is gone...

and I thought for sure I would have a little boy in my arms by now. For sure! A February baby? Seriously? I cannot believe I am still pregnant. I was so bummed that I needed to try to wait until this past weekend to have the baby, so that Andy wouldn't be in school, but now the weekend has come and almost gone, and it looks like I am destined to have the baby on a school day, or wait till next weekend. Not happening, the waiting till next weekend part - at least if I can help it. However, it appears I can't help it, or at least haven't been able to so far. I am all ready, washed all his clothes, hung up his cute little shark towel, car seats in the car, half my maternity clothes are already packed away, just keeping the ones out I need, and can wear after he comes without looking like I'm still pregnant, but he is on hold. I was making such great progress in the beginning, I was a little worried my mom wouldn't make it out here in time due to her flight. Well, she got here over a week ago, and doesn't have much more time here before she has to leave, so he better make it quick! How many pounds a week do they gain in the end. Man, he may end up a ten pound baby - kinda doubt it, but at this point, he's fooling me all over the place, so maybe he will be. I have had good contractions fairly regularly 4 times now, but rather than progressing like they should, after a few hours, they just stop. Ummm... thats not how it is supposed to work. Oh well. Maybe all the football sounds of the superbowl today will coax him out. Thats what I'm hoping. Next post should = baby announcement... at least I think so.