My hiccuping little peanut...

James' new vibrating seat--he loves it!

a priceless look

going for a walk

all bundled up in an outfit from Auntie Gail

It's sort of late (okay, it just feels late after a day of lots of activity) to be 'blogging', but I'm waiting for my little James to stop hiccuping so I can feed him one last time before bedtime. This is the second time he's gotten hiccups this evening. Poor little guy. His hiccups usually last from 10 up to 20 minutes at a time! They shake his whole body. He doesn't seem to mind the first few minutes but then gets frustrated. Especially when he's hungry!

Yesterday was a big day for James! We went to the doctor's office for his 'two-week' check up, although he's closer to two and a half weeks. While there his umbilical cord stump fell off! I was so proud of him!! I know it's silly to be proud of him for that, but I was. And the scale indeed proved that my little guy is growing...he's already 8 pounds, 6.5 ounces! That's over a pound gained since he left the hospital. He's doing well enough that I'm able to let him sleep as long as he'd like at night, without waking him for a feeding! Last night he went 7 hours between feedings...we're trying not to expect that every night, but we'll take it while it lasts!

Okay, the hiccups are over and James is getting verrrrry impatient! Goodnight!

2 Weeks Already?

I can't believe James is already two weeks old! Everybody warned me time would fly--they weren't kidding! Each time somebody says, 'oh wow, he's changed so much since I saw him last...', I think 'NO!! Don't say that! I want him to stay little!' But at the same time, there are so many things we're looking forward to. I'm excited for him to be more playful and for him to smile back at us--but I'm not rushing anything, trust me. He's just so sweet!

Here are some pictures of things we've done this past week. Mark has been back at work most of the day each day. My mom has helped us out a lot, visiting so I could take a shower and accompanying us on little outings (like the mall and K-Mart).

I still can't figure out how to type captions for each picture...when I upload photos, they just go wherever they want and I have problems moving them around. So these are all in a random order!

This week James played on his farm quilt my mom made and tried out a new vibrating chair we borrowed. His face was just priceless the first time he sat in it. I think he really likes it, though. There's also a picture of him resting on my legs. He likes to be reclined--and I think it's funny that you can see my feet, looking like funny ears on him. He also loves to be held by his daddy. Mark is so good with him and looks forward to seeing him after work! We've gone on walks a few evenings this week...it always makes James fall fast asleep. The photo at the bottom just goes to show that he may not be the most trendy little dresser. I was afraid he was cold yesterday morning, so I just grabbed the closest socks and pants. He looked a tad nerdy...but at least he was warm! :)

ps. does anybody have any photo-uploading tips? I generally choose to have them post 'left' but, as you can see, that doesn't even work for me...help!

One week at home...

...and we're doing pretty well! I'm including several pictures of some of James' 'firsts' this week, as well as some of our visitors we've had in the past two days.

James went on his first walk Thursday. We just strolled around the block. He liked it a lot and fell right asleep! He's also 'played' on his blanket on the floor a little bit each day, some on his back and some on his tummy. He feels most comfortable on his tummy if he's on Mark's tummy.

My brother Joel and his wife Elizabeth flew into town to meet their new nephew and my other brother Jeff and his girlfriend Anna drove into town, too. My grandparents were also in town, so we had a big 'party' for James' first week 'birthday' on Friday evening. He was passed around a lot and loved on plenty! We were a little afraid that Joel and Liz would kidnap him on their flight home, actually! :)

Saturday we were visited by my cousin and her fiance, as well as friends Brian & Andrea and Jenny. My siblings, parents, and grandparents came and went throughout the day and we ended the evening with a visit from our dear neighbors! They loved James, too, and told him he can come over and get a popsicle from their freezer as soon as he's big enough. They have two little granddaughters of their own that they just love to spoil!

Today was his first trip to church. He sat with us the whole time and really liked the music. He was a very popular little guy and made several new friends. After such a busy weekend, we're looking forward to a little rest. Tomorrow will be Mark's first day back to work, so it'll just be the two of us! We're so thankful that we've had two good nights in a row. He's had at least two stretches of 4 hours between feedings, which has allowed Mark and I to sleep pretty well...it makes a world of a difference!

Thanks for keeping up with us!

We're home!

I'm going to make this as short a posting as I can. I could get really carried away, blogging about my delivery, hospital stay, and past three days at home....it's all been wonderful! Mark and I are SO enjoying our James and feel like God has blessed us immensely with our son. We love to watch him sleep and squirm, and I can't get enough of the little guy. Here our some brief stats on him: born Friday, September 19th at 4:57pm. 7lbs, 10oz. 20.5 inches long. He's feeding really well and already gaining a little of his weight back! Received a healthy report yesterday at his first dr. appointment!

Here are a few things I never thought I'd be so excited about:

• sleeping a whole two hours in a row (the lack of sleep has actually been quite easy to handle)
• laying on my tummy again (yay! it's been a long time!)
• little baby bowel movements (who knew poop would be so thrilling...we're so proud of him when he has a dirty diaper because we know it means he's digesting really well...wet diapers are great, too!)

Last night Mark's mom spent the night with us to help us get a little more sleep. It has been awesome to have the extra hands (and experience) around the house. Today we're planning on giving James another washcloth bath...he doesn't love them yet. I'm trying not to post a million pictures. I've limited it to 15, instead of 60, like I'm tempted to do. Thanks to everybody who has helped out, visited, and shared meals! We appreciate you all!

New Bookshelf

On Sunday night I decided to check Craig's list one last time before we went to bed. We've been on the hunt for a bookshelf for James' room. Twice before I'd found a nice shelf on Craig's list, emailed the owner, and found out I was just a few hours too late. They'd already been sold. :( This time we found a great shelf that had been posted only 12 minutes prior to checking!! I was really excited, emailed right away, and we were the first of 20 or so emails over the next day! We decided to swap the C's list shelf with the one in our kitchen...and put the kitchen shelf in James' room. Perfect! So here you can see our new shelf in the kitchen--and guess what--it was only $30! It's our first Craig's list purchase. I'm so excited!

You can also see the kitchen shelf in James' room...I haven't finished putting things on it yet, though. I just realized that his room already looks cluttered! Oh no! Well, if it makes any difference, all of the things on the chair are 'staged' to grab quickly for the hospital...which will hopefully happen very soon. As of Monday I was still dilated 1 cm and effaced 50%. (hope that's not too much information!) Could be today....could be two weeks from today. This morning when Mark said goodbye to me (I was still snoozing in bed) he said, 'Let's have James today'. He's just as anxious and excited as I am!

39 weeks...and waiting :)

Well, I really don't have a single exciting thing to post about right now, but felt like I should update 'the blog'. So here we are. 39 weeks and waiting. Tomorrow I have another appointment and am hoping to learn that I've effaced even more since last week. We currently have three different due dates 'in the works'. Friday, September 19th (according his size during our most recent ultrasound), Saturday, September 20th (according the very first ultrasound back in February), and Tuesday, September 23rd (according to our May ultrasound). But really, there's just a small percentage of babies born on their 'due date', so I'm just hoping for soon and not after all three of these dates have passed. Confession: my brother Joel and his wife Elizabeth are visiting from Chicago the 26th/27th and I'd really like to have a baby to introduce them to by then! :) Mark and I have been surprised how quickly the last nine months have passed! Soon we'll have pictures of our little James to post. I can't wait!

A Parade & our new dog Bootsie

Mark and I had a nice weekend. Saturday morning we met some friends to watch a local parade and walk around the 'fair/festival' atmosphere. I grew up marching in that parade every year I was in band, so it really 'took me back'.

Saturday evening we went to eat dinner at our neighbor's house. We have the sweetest neighbors. They do a good job of looking out for us. (They do things like check up on me when the electricity goes out in the neighborhood.) The husband is retired and forever working on a new project around their house and the wife still works some. Well, they said they've been wanting to have us over since we moved in...I think they were good friends with dear old Harold who lived here before us. He grilled his famous pork chops and his wife made more side dishes than we could possibly eat. To top it off, he had made us a baby gift! I hadn't realized how talented he is at woodwork. I'm not sure what to call this little gift, but it's like a 'rocking horse' on wheels, except it's a dog! So we're calling it a doggie scooter. The handles on his head make the front wheels turn left and right--it's really fun!
That night I mentioned it would be a great 'farm dog' for our 'farm-themed' room, and that we'd have to name him Bootsie, after Mark's favorite ol' farm dog. The funny thing was that our neighbor had grown up on a farm and she, too, had a dog named Bootsie growing up. So Bootsie, it is!

Mark continued to work on the deck. He's scraping off the old paint, replacing rotten boards, bracing the bottom portion of the deck, and going to paint soon! You can't tell in this picture, but he'd rigged up the perfect set-up...the Chiefs were playing so he brought out our little T.V. and was watching on the deck while he worked!