I’m hoping this week is a bit more relaxed than last week. Not that last week wasn’t fabulous!!! But it was crammed.

I was going to write a full crazy report on Dekker’s birthday party and all the events that took place, but I summed it up in my pervious post and I think too much follow-up would be redundant. So I would prefer to opt for a photo post. However, I want to make sure I have permission from everyone to post them on the dreaded interweb. So that may have to be tomorrows post. Or tomorrows tomorrows post. We’ll see.

We spent the morning at church with almost everyone who attended Dekker’s party sitting in two benches, one in front of the other. From there, we spent our afternoon with dear friends, eating bush pies and holding babies. I feel like I ate all afternoon. We hit my parents house for a quick supper and visit before we headed home. I suppose it wasn’t super eventful, it was quite perfect actually! However, I want nothing more than a lazy day tomorrow and already know I am not that lucky. I discovered this morning when I went to change Dekker’s diaper that we have about ten diapers. Ten. Thats it. So a diaper run is in order! That amongst the several things that get added to the list every time we go into the city.

One day things will slow down, right? Not quite yet. Not this week.

What a fabulous day 🙂 I am completely tired and if I wrote all about today right now, you would get a very poor, watered down playback of the events. So all I’m going to say is that we had a full afternoon and evening with family from close and far, all of our favorite friends that could make it (missed you Cody and Jessica!), our pastor and his wife, a couple beautiful baby girls, honorary grandma and grandpa who we thought couldn’t make it, and our great neighbor whose son is the exact same age (as in born on the same day) as Dekker.

We ate awesome burgers (shout out to the BBQers!), lots of fruit and veggies, and drank freshly squeezed lemonade. Our rainbow cake was a bit of a flop though. I suppose it was warm in our house with all the people, and the top layer split and started to slip away. It was a total mess but tasted the same.

Dekker hauled in tons of awesome gifts, which I’ll list off when I have them in front of me, since I don’t want to miss anything!

It is now before 10am and I am completely finished. In a good way. Now to gear up for an early morning tomorrow.

I was feeling guilty that I hadn’t blogged yet today (you’re about to hear why) but when I came to my page stats, I saw that I’ve only had six views! So I don’t feel as bad. I feel tired.

My mom came over and officially saved my life today. She was here at 9:00am and we worked our crazy little bums off until about 10:00pm, stopping only to eat. Of course, Brady and I dad also arrived around 5:30-ish and joined the fun. Dekker’s party is tomorrow, and our house was a complete mess. Sweeping, dusting, organizing, tidying, dishes, dishes, more dishes, vacuuming, laundry, mowing, and getting our new picnic table off the deck and onto the lawn. Plus, cakes needed to be bakes, lemons needed to be juiced, presents needed to be wrapped, etc. Everything went surprisingly smoothly though! It is amazing how days like that can be so fun! And how having a friend to help can be such extra motivation.

Only once were we held up. Mom was mowing and it started pouring! I ran out to convince her to come inside. We have mowed and bagged enough these last few days. As I was putting my sandals on, the rain got crazy loud, and I realized it was actually hail! I bolted outside, getting blasted in the side of the head, my ear filling with water and ice. I yelled at my mom “Come inside! Its hailing!” and she goes “Its hailing?” My mom is always so happy to help anywhere she’s needed, even if it leaves her mowing my lawn in the a hailstorm. I love you, mom.

I had a big scary list of things to accomplish today. Wanna knows whats left on it? Bathing Dekker. And then the obvious stuff, like setting out the tables and condiments, fruit and veggies, put the lemonade in the drink dispenser thing, etc. Obvious party stuff. But tonight, I am done. I will have a bubble bath, paint my nails, and watch something light-hearted on Netflix.

My feet hurt. A good hurt. *Sigh of relief*

So. Dekker climbs stairs. When no one is looking.

I was having lunch with my mom this afternoon. Dekker was playing on the floor in her sunken living room. We figured we’d let him play there as long as he was happy, and if he got sad we’d stick him in the high chair and feed him Cherrios while we had soup, leftover chicken chunks, and strawberries. Yum! We hadn’t been eating too long at all when I looked over for Dekker and saw him standing on the first stair. I was surprised and caught off guard, uttering the life-saving “um…” My mom was quicker on the draw than me and rushed over to hold her hand behind his back. I followed and we celebrated Dekker’s big step. He looked totally bored. Then he climbed up the last step and sat down, looking around for toys.

As said by a friend, nothing is safe anymore.

Yesterday we just wanted to celebrate Dekker! Brady took the day off work, we had Dekker’s one year check up in the morning, and then head plans to go for a ride on the carousel, go out for lunch, let him have a little ice cream maybe, and then go to Long & McQuade and let him pick out a shaker or little drum.

We started at the doctor. As usual, she was lovely and interested and full of information. When she listened to his lungs, he grabbed onto the stethoscope and pulled her really close to him. While I was dying on the inside, waiting for him to grab her glasses off her face or pull her hair, she just asked him ” Are you pulling me in for a secret?” He just smiled at her and let her complete her exam. As good as he was though, he was tired, and hot from being held. He was so loud the entire time! When we finally got him out and into the car, he was asleep. Brady and I found ourselves disappointed. We wanted him to feel so loved and special that day, and this was changing all of our plans! I was then reminded by a friend that if he wants to spend his birthday sleeping, let the boy sleep! Of course! I think a lot of people want that for their birthday! So we scrapped lunch out and instead went pretty much straight to Long & McQuade so we could get him something to play with on the drive home. Turns out they have nothing! They had one brand of a 6″ hand drum and when I pulled it out of its box, the skin was all puckered! Ridiculous. So we ended up ordering one that won’t come for another 2-3 weeks. I had to keep reminding myself that Dekker didn’t know what was going on and wouldn’t be disappointed even if I was. We bought him a teeny little set of shakers and took him home. He stayed awake the whole drive home, fussing a little here and there. When he got home, he had lunch and went to sleep for about 3.5 hours. I finally had to wake him, since he was sleeping too close to bedtime. He lasted maybe an hour and then was down for the night.

Now today, he is awake and bright and happy. We’ll see how long that lasts before his teeth start bugging him and he gets tired. But until then, we play!

One year ago…

The timeline of this gorgeous day is messy. I look back now and of course I wish I had kept better track of when things were happening. I will likely be more on the ball with whichever babies follow in the years to come.  However, the forgetfulness properly documents that Dekker was my first child and I was new. What a perfect day.

I woke up around 7:00 am on Saturday August 20^th, 2011 with some suspicious “leaking.” Brady and I immediately got excited. The baby was coming!!! However, I was having no signs of labor whatsoever. So I called my mom and she agreed that I should likely go get checked, just to be safe. I then called the health line and they agreed. “Go to the hospital” they said, as they had said so many times while I was pregnant. So while we packed our last minute stuff, I felt a little silly. I wasn’t laboring, which according to every chart and video, I was supposed to be doing. I knew they would just send us home and say to wait for more to start happening. But I had also heard horror stories about people whose water broke and were sent home, and they got terrible infections, as did their babies. I felt kind of torn, and I didn’t even know what was going to happen yet! Classic over thinker. We left the house shortly after 8:00 am. I think.

We got the to hospital around 9:00. I had quite the belly when I was pregnant and as soon as I walked into the emergency room the lady at the desk said “Wow, are you having a baby?!” I had to say that I didn’t know! So I told her what had happened and she said that I needed to be wheeled up, and that was just the policy with any kind of leaking. So I gave them all my information and Brady wheeled me to the elevators and to our first room. I was put in a room and was there for quite some time before anyone even came to see us. We took funny pictures of me in the blue gown and stalled and laughed and had a fun time.

I still wasn’t even admitted, they needed to make sure it was my water that had broken, and not that I had accidentally just peed myself or something awkward like that. After a while, Dr. Boechler (a resident) and Lindsay (an intern) came to check me out. They asked if Lindsay could do my exams for practice and I said yes. That was the worst mistake I made that day, hahaha! Those exams are quite painful and she was nooo kind of gentle! She used large tools and moved roughly and quick. I cried, and she got very impatient with me. This didn’t seem to make her feel any more sympathetic. It was tough. She would uncover me so I was completely vulnerable, and then she would leave to go do something and leave me completely uncovered. I thank the Lord for Dr. Boechler who would come cover me. She examined me two or three times, and after all of that, she was unsure about how far dilated I might be. So Dr. Boechler had to double check for her. Miscellaneous fact: Men’s fingers are larger than women’s fingers, no matter how dainty. However, he was apologetic and went nice and slow. I was only 1.5 to 2 cm dilated, which is very early. They swabbed me and didn’t find any amniotic fluid, which was discouraging. So after the exams, the doctors left and Brady and I just hung around and talked while we waited, as no one had really told us what happened next. We were laughing about something (of course I don’t remember what it was) and suddenly – I peed. It was crazy! I burst out laughing out of embarrassment and every time I would let another laugh out I would pee more! It was horrifying! Lindsay came back into our room and told us they weren’t going to admit me since I wasn’t in labor at all. I mentioned to her that “something gross happened.” She seemed surprised when she lifted the sheet up. She went to get Dr. Boechler and he swabbed the fluid, smiled, and showed me the swab that had turned dark blue, showing amniotic fluid! It was so exciting! From there on, I was known as “the woman who laughed so hard she broke her water.”

So I was finally admitted, moved to another room (about three doors down that same hallway) and I awaited labor. Brady and I tried to watch some Big Bang Theory while nurses came in and out and put monitors on my belly, took monitors off, checked my blood pressure, etc. I met the on-call doctor and she checked me out to see what progress I was making. None so far. Another miscellaneous fact: Wearing gel nails while giving a cervical exam is awful and should be outlawed. Who do people think they are anyway? Either way, I wasn’t progressing yet.  At this point it was likely noon-ish. (Again, didn’t think to check the time.) I was informed that if I wasn’t in active labor by the time visiting hours were over, Brady would have to leave. I would have none of that so I agreed to get things rolling. I was given Cervadil, which is a tampon-like medication that is used for “light induction” that was supposed to “ripen” my cervix. Yet another miscellaneous fact: Light induction isn’t real. Serious induction however, is a real thing. Within 15 minutes (I think) I was contracting all over the place. This being my first labor, I don’t have anything to compare it to, but after not even an hour of labor, I had heard several nurses saying amongst themselves things like “Her labor is terrible, poor girl! She’s getting maaaybe 15 seconds between contractions!” So it wasn’t in my head, which was a relief. I labored that way for about an hour or two before I needed to be checked again. I was truly relieved when Dr. Boechler came into my room. This man followed my whole labor and delivery, and was easily the most caring health care professional I worked with. The world needs more Dr. Boechlers. He came in to check me, and said he’d try to wait until my current contraction was over. Unfortunately, such tiny breaks in between didn’t leave room for that so I was examined anyway with many apologies from him. He said I wasn’t dilating which was pretty discouraging consider how hard my labor was. It was suggested that I take a little pain medication and get in the jetted tub. I’m never one to turn down a bath so I took the Gravol/Morphine magic mix and got in the warm tub.

I sat across the short way in the tub. Brady sat in front of me with his legs in the water. Every time I had a contraction I would lean forward and Brady would brace his fists on my lower back and put some pressure there. It worked wonders. A few times I heard a nurse come in but I don’t know what they wanted. From about that point on, Brady did most of my communicating. I genuinely don’t know if I ever opened my eyes while I was in the tub. And all of a sudden I had been in there for about 2.5 hours. I decided to get out at that point because I knew labor was getting harder and the longer I hung out in the tub, the worse it was going to be when I got out. I got out and limped my way back to my room where I had a “Brady, I don’t know what to do! It hurts! *Insert profanity here!!* Ouch!” contraction. I only had one of those panicky ones, and then I moved back to breathing and being in my own weird labor zone. Needless to say, I asked for an epidural. From the moment I asked for one to the moment I had one that was in full working order was about three hours. A looong wait, but it passed relatively quickly. It went from asking for one, to Dr. Boechler coming to check me (I was at 5 cm, woohoo!) to waiting and waiting, to being wheeled up a floor. I should actually add in there that trying to get into that wheelchair was pretty tough. Just standing up was tough! We tried to get me in between contractions but as I’ve said, there wasn’t time. I was plunked in a chair and rushed up pretty quick. Not because I was about to deliver, but because it hurt.

I waited in the room where I would later deliver my son. The anesthesiologist came in and gave me the pro/con list of epidurals. It is very low risk now, which is nice to know for the person who is agreeing to have a needle put in their spine. I was so blessed to have a good anesthesiologist who didn’t give me a migraine, I was so blessed that they put a freezing balm on my back first so I didn’t feel the needle, and I was even more blessed to have the longest break between contractions I had through the entire labor when he put in my epidural. When another contraction was coming on, I was holding as still as possible, and when I finally buckled and asked if I could move, he said yes! I was done, and it was easy. I was assured that these things should be in full working order in 15 minutes. Miscellaneous fact number four: That is not a guarantee. I was in a lot of pain still a good half hour later, so they gave me a button to push every 15 minutes to give myself another shot of the medicine until it was working. Three shots later I was in good shape, completely comfortable. Such a relief!

I decided it was naptime and Brady realized he had barely eaten all day so he went to the Subway across the street and I rested for the first time all day, pain free. Dr. Boechler woke me up maybe 15-20 minutes later to check my progress. I don’t really know how long I actually slept but Brady wasn’t back from Subway yet. The doctor warned me that some people, even with the epidural, found the cervical checks uncomfortable. He then checked me (totally painlessly) and seemed a little surprised when he said I was completely dilated and effaced! I remember commenting after he checked me without me crying about how he probably liked me a lot better now. He looked me right in the eye and said “I like you just the same.” Our only problem was that baby hadn’t moved down at all. He gave a call to the new doctor on call to see what she wanted us to do. She said to let my epidural wear off and for me to sit up straight, and maybe that would coax baby down. So I spent the next…while…back in pain. I didn’t have the pressure that I was supposed to be feeling, but I felt pain again! I mentioned it to the nurse who was in our room with us and she seemed to think this method of moving baby down wasn’t working.  She mentioned it to Dr. Boechler and he called Dr. Cameron back to see if she still wanted me in this position. At this point, Dr. Cameron had not met me and didn’t know much about our case. So I believe that she was doing what she thought was best when she said to keep going on no epidural. When Dr. Boechler came and told us that, I felt a little deflated but I new that the big moment would come soon anyway. After he left the nurse seemed a little flustered, and made a quiet comment about how, for some reason, she hadn’t unhooked my button yet, and if I chose to push it another one or two times, that would be fine. Yay! So I drugged myself up a little extra and felt comfortable again. Our nurse brought me a pineapple Popsicle as I hadn’t eaten since that morning and we waited.

She was a lovely nurse. When I had yet more fluid suddenly and dramatically make its way out of me, she just laughed and laughed and cleaned me all up. Part of the general line up of events is that the mother needs her bladder to be empty before she delivers. The nurse let me go try to pee but having no feeling in my lower half made it near impossible so we had a good laugh over that too, and she just chucked a catheter in there and took care of it for me. It was weird to hear myself pee and not feel it.

A while later Dr Boechler came back in just o see how we were all doing. I guess Dr. Cameron wasn’t in the hospital yet and he was just waiting like the rest of us. He brought another round of Popsicles and we had yet another laugh when we discovered that I STILL had a bag of water that hadn’t broken! So he broke my water. Again.

Finally, Dr. Cameron came in, and brought Lindsay with her. She said straight out that I likely wasn’t ready to deliver, as my baby still hadn’t come down, but she did offer me that I could do a trial push and just see how things went. I pushed, using all my strength, and all my knowledge from all the baby shows I’ve watched in my life, and baby moved down! We were ready to push!

I began pushing at 11:20 pm. I know that for a fact. I pushed for a total of one hour and fifteen minutes. My room consisted of very few people. There was me (I was the star) and there was Brady and the nice nurse who gave me extra epidural. They helped me hold my legs up while I pushed. Then there were Dr. Cameron, Dr. Boechler, and Lindsay. They alternated approximately every three contractions being in the baby-catching position. Each one had a different approach. Dr. Cameron was professional, more quiet, and then between contractions she would talk with everyone about weekend plans, etc. Lindsay had the scary “GET MAD! GET MAD!” approach of getting the baby out using the “anger” that I didn’t actually have. I was feeling wonderful, I wasn’t in pain, and I was delivering my first child. Dr. Boechler would call my baby by name while I pushed, tell me how wonderful I was doing, and anytime I looked up, he was watching me. Even between contractions. I definitely felt like a person with him, not bed number whatever.

At certain points during pushing, I was offered to be able to feel how far out the baby’s head was. It was surreal to know he was already half a head out! Turns out that half a head out isn’t quite enough and his little melon got stuck. However, because of my awesome epidural, I wasn’t in pain. Therefore I wasn’t panicking, my blood pressure was good, and so was the baby’s, which is the most important thing. I was having a great time, loving the experience, and then all of a sudden, he was on my chest. He had such a large gurgly cry for such a little boy. His color was beautiful; he barely had any blood on him or anything. He had lots of hair on his head, and a little calcium deposit thing in his right eyebrow. He had wide hands with long fingers. He had a square shaped birthmark on his right thigh.  He had a very long tongue that he stuck out at me right away, just in case I was curious . He was huge. He was perfect.

 Dekker Thomas Born entered the world on Sunday, August 21^st, 2011 at 12:35 am. He weighed 10 lbs 10 oz and was 22” long. He was a huge hit that weekend in Royal University Hospital, no pun intended. Well, maybe a little bit intended.

Maybe some people will think this is a silly thing to post about, but not me. I love Dekker’s details. There are unlimited beautiful things about him, but I’m going to go on the physical side of things today. One. Beautiful. Part. At. A. Time.

If you look closely, you can see a little dot in Dekker’s right eyebrow. We thought it was one of those little white bumps that every baby is born with, just a little bigger, but this one never went away. Perhaps a little calcium deposit?

Skin. Soft skin. So touchable and smooth.

His tongue. He stuck it out at me the first time we met. How could I not love it? He is just a very animated character and this only adds to his entertainment.

Dekker’s smile lights up the world. Ask anyone. Everywhere we go, he makes friends. He is so engaging and his smile is so charming, its hard to ignore. Why would anyone want to?!

Chubby legs. Now these  are LEGS! Squishy and nummy and perfect for nibbling! Not to mention the toes attached at the bottom!

Not too many babies I’ve met have eyes this huge, and always this open 🙂 Kind of shocking when you’re not used to it, and a little nerve wracking when he glazes over. I love them.

BELLY! A definite favorite. Obviously, these are not in any specific order. The belly, similar to the chubby legs, is perfect for munching on.

You have to look close for this one. Dekker’s birthmark. On his upper right leg is a perfectly square brown spot. I looooove it! Its so different, completely its own. Countless nurses tried to wipe that spot off but its staying put! I’m sure he’ll love my interest in it when he’s a teenager…

Besides obviously loving his expression in this picture (and the drool all over everything), I love his weirdo hair. He has a cowlick on either side of his forehead. I have no idea what we’re going to do with his hair. Ever. Hopefully it will curl and we can just let that happen. But as of right now, his hair usually looks pretty strange.

Lastly, I love my sons sweetness. It is undeniable. I could go on forever about all the things I love about him inside and out, but there are the fun ones.

Dekker boy, you are a hottie. I love you.

My boy is such a smarty-pants.

I was never concerned about trying to teach him a whole ton of stuff his first year. He should be playing!!! Right? Right. He has picked up a few things on his own though. Most of the day, he babbles “dadadada,” like pretty much every other baby. But if I enter a room and catch him off guard, or if he’s in his high chair and I’m getting his food, he babbles “mamamama.” So I think he’s starting to understand that, which I find really exciting! Also, a couple of months ago already, he picked up high fiving. Well, low fiving really, but still. Anyone who knows Dekker knows that he likes to pat/hit most anything thats nearby. I think thats where it started. When he would hit our hands, we would say “Oh, Dekker, are you giving a high five?” It was sort of an unconscious effort, but when we asked him for a high five and he gave it, we were thrilled!

The same thing happened with clapping. We learned how to clap by himself, but as soon as we would ask him for it, or clap along with him, he would stop. So we decided not to push it at all and just celebrated every time he clapped . Then one day, while he was playing on the floor, I just said to him “Dekker, can you clap?” BIG smile and lots of clapping! I was so excited, I called Brady right away. Those of you who are parents can understand celebrating silly little things 🙂

After all of this had happened, I made the mistake of reading something online that said how “developed” my son should be in certain areas. Apparently he was supposed to be waving at ten months. I laughed that off right away, thinking that clearly my son was developed fine, and just because he hadn’t learned to wave didn’t mean he hadn’t learned other things. Right? I mean, how often do we leave him, and wave goodbye to him? Not often! Either way, I forgot about it. For a few days.

Everywhere we go, Dekker is very popular. You’ll know this if you’ve ever ran errands with us, or went on a road trip. He seems to really charm pretty much everyone. I’m always so proud of him. However, people are starting to wave bye-bye to him, expecting a response, and more often than not, that just gets a deadpan stare from him. So I’ve been thinking he needs to learn to wave.

About a week ago, we had some family out, and we all started waving at Dekker when he would go to bed. Just a couple days of that, but he was always really happy to have a crowd waving at him. Over the last few days, I’ve been waving at him when Brady carries him off to bed at night. Its taken convincing, but already a couple of days ago, he’s been waving at me at nighttime!!! He learned how to wave in less than a week! He’s getting way to smart. I’m not sure I’m ready for this!

I only have one picture of him clapping, but you can’t really tell. He’s going in for a clap anyway. Just true me ok? These events are hard to capture on camera.

I’ve decided that leading up to Dekker’s birthday, I will dedicate each post to something I love about having him around, or just about him in general.

*Disclaimer: There will be “potty talk” in this one, so if you can’t stand the stench, get out of the…blog post…

This first one is often not true. I definitely don’t always enjoy changing diapers. No one does, I don’t think. I am, however, very thankful to have diapers! A fresh diaper can really make everything better. Our routine at home is to change Deks right before every meal, and then as needed in between. The in betweener is usually for his daily poop, if that doesn’t fit into the “before every meal” schedule. That diaper change is of course, the yuckiest one of the day. No one wants to be that close to poop. Including Dekker!! He usually fusses until I discover what’s “gone down.” But when I pick him up and carry his stinky bum to his change table in his room, he is a happy camper. Cleaning him up may leave me with oily fingers and a yucky smell in my nose, but its such a relief for him. He feels sooo much better after he’s all fresh and dry. Makes it completely worth it!

Something I also like about diaper changes are that he knows his change area very well. He’s never come close to rolling off. Not that we don’t hold him! But he knows. I could count on one hand the number of times we’ve changed him in our house where we haven’t opted for his change table. He doesn’t put up much of a fight at all. Just lays there and patiently waits, and plays. Not sure what I’m going to do with his enormous frame, as its starting to really fill that table up! But it works now anyway.

When Dekker does fight a diaper change, I sing to him. Always the same song, and it always works. I don’t know how old the song it, but its derived from “K-K-K-Katy.” I’ve changed it into “D-D-D-Dekker” but the rest is the same. He loves it, and he watches me intently while I sing it over and over, doing up his diaper and pulling the leg wings out in the meantime.

Lastly, my faaavorite diaper change is the tired diaper change. These are the ones you don’t see coming. He’ll be playing away, totally happy, and I’ll catch a whiff of something. So I’ll pick him up and take him away from all his toys to go change him. Instead of protesting, he’ll heave a big sigh, rub his eyes, and lay his head on my shoulder. My heart melts for this boy! From there, I change his diaper very gently and not very playfully. Everything is dim and quiet. Then I can wrap him up and put him down, knowing he will be comfortable and dry for his entire nap.

He is so happy.

Dekker will be a year old in one week. Mind=blown.

You know how people say time just flies and all of a sudden, they’re graduated and moving out? I used to laugh at those people like everyone else does who doesn’t have kids. And then I had Dekker, and still laughed at them. When Dekker was born, he just fit right in. Seriously! We barely had to change anything to accommodate him, he just fit into our schedule! When he was two weeks old and we brought him to church, everyone kept saying how he was already  two whooooole weeks old, and I just never felt that way! He had just always been there, right? But that also goes with the feeling of not really remembering life before your babies.

I turned a corner when he was six months old. SIX MONTHS?!?! As in, half of a full year?! Working in an office position, time always dragged. A year took forever to get through. And then all of a sudden, my baby (who I swear I delivered yesterday) is half a year old! It was a bit of a kick in the face. Since then, time hasn’t slowed at all. I can barely fathom the fact that Dekker is almost a year old. I could pretty much cry at the drop of a hat, haha!

I don’t want to get too wrapped up in this post, as the time for that is next Tuesday. Also, Deks is yodeling from his room so I should probably go save him soon.

To clarify, while it feels like I delivered him yesterday, I’m happy that I didn’t. That would certainly be  record-breaking (among other-things-breaking) birth!