We Are Thankful...

We are thankful for so much...two precious girls and this happy little man...

A Kiddo Update

A few new facts (and pictures from my recent at-home attempt at a photo shoot) about Mr. Grady...

1.  At his two week check, he weighed in at 8 pounds 13 ounces and was 22 inches long - doing great all around! 

2.  Grady's an excellent eater, a pretty impressive burp-er, and a relatively consistent 3-hour eater (with an occasional 4-hour stretch at night - hope this start to become more frequent).  At night, he takes care of business pretty quickly; we only have trouble if he eats too quickly because then he seems to get a bit of an upset tummy.

 3.   Overall, Grady continues to be an incredibly content little man.  He's rarely truly upset, totally okay with whatever noise the girls dish out, great at giving lots of good cuddles, but also really good at drifting off and napping on his own too (maybe because I let him sleep on his tummy sometimes during the day - shhhh). 

4.  Other random facts:  Grady enjoys his swing, still occasionally pees through diapers at night even though I moved him up a size), shows me he needs to burp by bobbing his head all over the place, has some pretty impressive neck control, and, as far as I can tell, doesn't mind his car seat.

And, a few new facts about Miss Olivia and Miss Grace...

1.  Olivia is getting her 6-year-old molars...probably about a month ago she told me she felt something felt funny in her mouth.  I ignored her at first, but after watching her make weird faces for awhile, I had her show me her mouth...sure enough...the two bottom molars are popping through - they're taking their sweet time about it though!

2.  In combination with the molars, Liv's got two loose teeth!  Crazy!  And, of course, as she has been trying to tell me she has a "loose tooth" for the last six months, she was VERY excited when I told her she was right this time!

3.  Besides having a slight regression in her manners, Grace's newest thing is to talk about two things with relative consistency:  Who is the biggest/smallest in our family? and Who is the cutest in our family?  First question...easy answer.  Second question...we tried to be real neutral about this one at first, but quickly realized that she thinks Grady is the cutest, so obviously we should all think the same.  :)

4.  Both girls continue to be great with Grady...Liv likes to hold him a lot more than Grace, but even more than holding, she just likes to cuddle next to him on the floor - Grace is similar in this.  They both love touching his hair, and Olivia is trying to take possession of one of his "silkies" because she "lost" hers.  Actually, she just stopped using her silkies for over a week, so I hid them - only to have her ask for them a day later.  We've told her we don't know where they went...Grady's may have to disappear for awhile too, I think, while we work through this transition.  Grace loves helping give Grady his baths - she's very hands on and very gentle with this...Liv is more about helping me get the baths set up up and observing the entire process.

Sisterly Love

Olivia and Grace are fantastic big sisters!  I just love how they treat Grady and care about him so much already...

Grace:  Grace is my perpetual narrator...when they came to see Grady after he was born, Brian met them in the waiting room with a short video of Grady getting cleaned up and measured by the nurses.  She probably watched this at least 50 times in a row (thankfully it's short) and 100 times since then!  Throughout came the comments:  He's naked...he has poop on his butt, he has boy parts, he's sad...he wants his mommy, what's that thing on his belly (belly button clamp), he's so little, he's so cute....  I know I'm missing so many others - tell me what else you remember so I can get it on record!  Needless to say, her comments were both cute and funny.  She was very excited about holding Grady immediately, but now, she mostly likes to come up and cuddle his head and touch him.  She comes running any time she hears him cry and talks to him in a "mommy voice" to sooth him which bring tears to my eyes.  Grace wasn't perturbed by my being in the hospital at all; lately, she's very interested in nursing, likes to talk about nipples (ha!), and is intrigued by the breast pump - she also likes to make comparisons to what Grady's doing and what she, Olivia, Mom, Dad, and anyone else she can think of did when they were babies.  Grace is very conscientious about giving Grady kisses before she goes anywhere and at nap/bed time.  She's looking forward to "helping" give him a bath this weekend.

Olivia:  Unlike Grace, Olivia was very quiet at the hospital - my perpetual observer.  She was so excited for Grady to arrive.  One night she asked me if the baby would come tonight, and I told her to "cross her fingers."  I didn't know I'd never said this to her, but after some explanation she caught on to the phrase!  At the hospital, Olivia, surprisingly didn't want to hold Grady for nearly as long as I expected.  She, unlike her sis, was a little more surprised and concerned about me and wanted to know about my clothes, my IV, my slippers, my bed, etc.  However, opening her gift from Grady helped distract her from these things temporarily.  But, when they came to see me Friday and Saturday, Olivia had a hard time leaving; she got really cuddly to me and shed a few tears - Olivia was probably the most happy when I came home from the hospital.  Since then, Olivia's been a little mommy - just like we were all expecting.  She sat with Grady for an entire hour one day and frequently holds him...she's one I don't hesitate to leave the room with because she won't move an inch unless Grady starts fussing.  She checks on Grady constantly and is super helpful giving me reports on what he's doing if I'm in a different room and getting me whatever it is I'm requesting. Olivia's interested in the whole eating process too, but she doesn't ask nearly the amount of questions (repetitive ones!) as Grace.  She too is excited about giving Grady a bath this weekend.

I can't wait to watch the sibling bond grow between these three.  I've been so pleased at the lack of jealousy I've seen, and while this may not always be the case, I'm impressed with their loving-ness and maturity thus far.  Olivia and Grace certainly qualify as excellent big sisters, I'm pretty confident that they're going to be major recipients of Grady's first smiles and laughs. 

One Week Old...

It's hard to believe how quickly a week has slipped by...and it's overwhelming to think about how quickly your life can change.  Our first week with Grady has been a really great one, and to quote Brian, "This has been the smoothest transition yet."

We're both giving many thanks to my mom for this; her help this week was invaluable, and as much as I tried not to, I shed a few tears when she left Thursday afternoon.  She left me with a clean house, plenty of food in the fridge, and no laundry - priceless.

We came home from the hospital last Saturday afternoon.  Grady weighed 8 pounds 2 ounces then, and when we went back on Monday for our weight check he was 8.3, which the nurse was very happy with...speaking of the nurse - he peed all over her - quite honestly, the sight of pee arching through the air stunned me into immobility!  :)  We do have to go back in for another infant screening blood test because Grady's thyroid number was a little off; however, this is the most common "error" in the screening process (happened with Olivia too), so I'm not worried about it - just know it's a good idea to get tested again to make sure all is well; too bad the test comes with a needle prick.

Grady is such a good baby - he's so calm and easily comforted.  He likes his swaddle at night but doesn't seem to care about it too much otherwise; however, he does really like to have his hands up by his face when he's swaddled.  With the girls I always wrapped them with their arms down, but I've not done this with Grady because he doesn't seem to distract or scare himself by flailing them around like Olivia and Grace did.  Same goes with the pacifier: sometimes he likes it, but it never seems to be a necessity.  Each morning he's taken a long three hour nap which I've taken advantage of and gotten some napping in myself.  It would be great if this trend would continue!  Days have been pretty easy this week too - Grady likes to hang out in his swing, seems to enjoy tummy time (his neck strength is pretty impressive), and loves to be cuddled.  It's been fun to have some longer awake times during the day too - especially these last couple of days.  Noise doesn't seem to be an issue for Grady at all thankfully because while Olivia can be pretty quiet, this is not the case for Grace!  :)  Nights have been pretty good too with Grady getting up every three hours or so - the best part about nights is that Grady's pretty quick to go back to sleep.

What else...yesterday we had a pretty calm bath time - I hope he learns to love his baths as much as his sisters because this was such a nice night-time ritual, and he's stopped getting upset (most of the time) when I change his diaper.  As of last night, I'm officially moving him up a diaper size at night-time...we've had an occasional wet through at night, but last night, after changing his outfit and blanket three times, I decided a bigger diaper might be helpful!  His belly button is almost ready to fall off and his circumcision has healed really nicely.  Every once in a while Grady seems to get a little troubled with gas, but I've started some drops that seem to be helping with this and in addition I'm not having much to do with milk just in case that's part of it.

Overall, it's been a relatively peaceful week here at the Huinker house...I feel like I have a good case of "baby" brain as this entry is kind of all over the place, but I guess that's to be expected too!  Hope you enjoyed a few updated pictures!

A Few More Pictures

I'm going a little crazy with posts...so make sure you scroll down to see them all!  My friend Auny was so kind as to stop by to take some pictures of Grady yesterday.  More are coming, but these are what she emailed to me last night.  I love, love, love them!  I'm so fortunate to have a talented friend who was willing to share her skills with us.  Thank you Auny!

A Birth Story

As you know, I was feeling quite ready for Grady to make his appearance!  After a few long days and nights with plenty of irregular contractions and lower back aches after Monday's appointment, I called the clinic to check in.  Thankfully, they squeezed me in right away on Thursday morning...I was happy to hear that my uncomfortableness was justified - I had dilated to 4cm and was 70% effaced - Dr. Menke also said my bag of water was "bulging" and that if we had been in OB he would have gone ahead and broke it.  After some discussion of the day's events, we decided I would report back to OB at 5:00.

So report we did...I was a little more dilated and a little more effaced after a day full of contractions about 10 minutes apart or so. At approximately 5:45, Dr. Menke broke my water; this was painless for all involved.  It took maybe 15 minutes or so for my contractions to really get a move on - very similar to how it was with Grace.  At 6:40 the nurse decided to check me again as the contractions were extremely regular and getting pretty intense (this was definitely freaking Brian out - he asked me a number of times if he should get the nurse before I actually let him!).  I was only at 5cm but was 100% effaced.  I feel like overall, I handled the pain of everything well; I did a better job breathing through contractions instead of holding my breath which I struggled with with Grace.  I think I'll thank two years of yoga and some mental toughness from running the half last fall for that!  :)

Back to the story...the nurse, who was there for Grace's birth as well, was very supportive.  She said, "You can do this...after seeing how things went last time, you can make it; you're going to have a baby by 7:00."  She left the room for a few minutes after that, and Brian said, "Amanda, it's 6:50 - we could have a baby in 10 minutes."  What!?!

After that, everything got pretty intense. The room filled with my doctor and 4 nurses (as they were in the middle of a schedule switch).  The contractions continued intensely - basically I dilated almost a centimeter a contraction.  When it came time to push, I ended up having to role a little bit onto my left side - Grady was doing great overall, but being on my left side at a 45 degree angle seemed to make him happiest.  Thankfully there were four nurses to help out as there's no way I could have kept myself in that position without them.

Pushing started shortly, and, needless to say, that was intense.  Unlike with the girls, this time I could tell that Grady moved back when I stopped pushing after a contraction was over.  This did encourage me to take advantage of the contractions though!  Brian stayed right by my shoulder and let me give his hand some serious squeezing through the pushing process, and the doctors and nurses were so encouraging telling me about the type of progress being made with each push.  My doctor even made me laugh a few times in between contractions, and I remember hearing everyone laugh when Brian told them I had driven us over the the hospital myself - my response to that was that we knew who the real "man of the house" was!  :)

A difference from the girls was that once Grady's head was out, he didn't just come out smoothly with no effort like the girls.  This time more pushing was required to get shoulders and a body out!  :)  Wonder why...thank you 8 pounds 9 ounces!  Something I loved about having a bigger baby who wasn't so traumatized by the whole delivery thing...he got put on my chest after being born and got to stay there!  Both the girls were quickly taken to their little beds to be monitored by the respiratory doctor, but Grady and I just got to hang out.  I may have shed a couple of tears.

After delivery, it took a while for me to get cleaned up...I had a number of stitches placed in addition to just needing time to breath and relax.  After Grady nursed a little, Brian was able to bring the girls in; they were so sweet; they'd been anxiously waiting since Grandma and Grandpa had picked them up from daycare and told them that the baby was on his way!  They each took a turn holding him and were excited to open their present from the baby which included new pajamas, new "big sister" shirts, and some other goodies.  I will write more about their reactions to our new addition soon. Pat, Roger, and my mom, were also able to come in and see Grady - it was really special sharing his name with everyone:  Grady - Pat's maiden name...Brian had told his grandma Grady that this would be the name of our boy (if we were every to have one) before she passed away, and Lawrence - my grandpa's Hanz's name.

How to conclude...I think I'll keep it simple:  I'm happy with my story.

Finally here!

Grady Lawrence Huinker entered the world on November 7, 2013 at 7:20pm.  He was 8 pounds 9 ounces and 21 inches long - a much bigger baby than was expected!  I will definitely write more later, but here are a few of our first pictures of Grady entering the world and meeting his family.

This was the first thing Olivia showed me 

Friday morning when they came to visit again...

Almost there...

Special treats from my 7th hour English 11 class - awe...

As of today, I'm officially 39.3 weeks pregnant - can't say I ever thought I'd make it to this point, but here I am.  And, here I am, very ready to meet this little guy!  This last week has been a pretty uncomfortable one for me...I really try hard to be positive and to concentrate on the fact that more time equals more positive baby development, but it's only getting harder as I'm starting to suffer the typical end-of-pregnancy ailments - sore back, trouble sleeping, really-weird eating habits (wait, maybe that's not "typical" that's just me), and feeling very pregnant.

To be honest, as I left school on Friday, I really thought I'd have a baby this weekend, but, nope, not the case.  I just like to keep surprising my students (and the rest of the faculty/staff) but continuously showing up for work.

Another "to be honest" - I could really do without some of the comments I've been receiving lately...they're just getting plain ol' old.  Here are some of my favorites...

"You must be over-due by now, right???" - No actually a few more days to go.

"Are you putting on about a pound a day now?" - What?  Are you crazy?  I don't even know how to respond to this completely inappropriate and ridiculous comment.

"I just don't know how you put all that lunch in your stomach." - Really, did you just say that to me?

"Didn't expect to see you here today." - This one's not too bad, I just here it all.the.time.

"Were you this big with your girls?" - Again, really?  Seriously, I'm measuring a week small, am on the low side in regards to weight gain, and just want you to go away before I become violent.

Okay, okay, I'll stop.  But, seriously, people need to have a filter when it comes to pregnant women...especially pregnant women who are nearly at their due date.  Recently one day in the teacher's lounge, some older women started talking about babies who were sadly lost in the final weeks of pregnancy.  Why???  Are they out to torture me???  Oh, and the only people I'm comfortable with touching my stomach are my family and close friends...and just because we work in the same building does not make us close!  I'm thankful that Thursday will be my last day no matter what...I can't imagine what the comments would be if I showed up for work next week.

On a positive note - my students are sooooo sweet.  Never once has any one of them said anything offensive - I'm being totally honest here too.  Mostly, they're just curious - and very concerned about what their role is should my water break in the middle of class.  One girl even asked if I was going to be instructing them on what to do if that happened...clearly, they've watched too much unrealistic television!  :)  Last Friday, my 7th our English 11 class surprised me with cupcakes and a sweet little gift and card.  Now, can't some of the adults in the building take some cues from these juniors!

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday, and he said, once again, everything is ready to go.  Didn't gain any weight this week.  I'm still about 2.5 cm dilated and 50% effaced.  I think Dr. Menke was surprised our little guy hadn't already made his appearance.  Baby's heartbeat was 150 - a little higher than normal, but he was jumping around all over the place, so it was obviously an "awake" period.  Keep your fingers crossed that labor instead of the endless braxton hicks contractions is just around the corner!

Halloween 2013

The girls - a butterfly (Olivia) and a garden fairy (Grace) had a great time with Halloween this year!  At school, Liv got to have a costume parade and to have "spooky" reading time where they shut all the lights off in the classroom and read with flashlights.  Grace got to have a mask and trick-or-treat party on Friday with her friends; both girls enjoyed sharing treats with their classmates and receiving them!

Halloween night, I think I can safely say they fully embraced the concept and were fired up about it rather than a little unsure as they have been in years past.  As per tradition, we hit up the neighborhood with the Gavles...it was pretty nice this year to just get to hang back and watch them trick-or-treat instead of having to actually do the process with them.  :)  We were out and about in rather chilly weather for an hour and a half for sure.  Grace and Mags endlessly shouted trick-or-treat before anyone could open the door - but at least they said it loud enough this year, and everyone was pretty solid in regards to their thank-you's.  After stopping home to pass out candy while we warmed up, we headed out to visit a family friend where the girls proved they'd had plenty of candy by being rather wild!  Their sugar high took a drastic dip as it was time to come home and get ready for bed, and Grace proved we'd probably let her indulge in a little too much candy by asking to sleep in the bathroom because she thought she might get sick...whoops.

 Olivia, Grace, and Maggie

 Olivia, Grace, Maggie, and Elsey

 Our view for most of the night!

Overall - a fun night - and while it didn't send me into labor like I was secretly (or not so secretly hoping), trapezing about the neighborhood with our two cuties and friends was a good time!