Cooper Benjamin

So, it's official--on the birth certificate.

We got home on Monday, and all is going really well. I'm healing much faster than last time and Cooper seems to be doing great, too. Guy's been wonderful with him--he's excited to hold him and feed him. The cutest thing, though, is that in the middle of playing, he'll just go over to Cooper, kiss him, and go back to playing.

Today I snapped away--taking way too many photos. Here are more than a few because I can't pick fewer favorites, sorry if it's overload.I guess he was done . . .

A couple photos

Proud Dad

more photos to come--but probably not until we get home. he doesn't have the oxygen stuff anymore, but the i.v. is still in his poor little hand.

He's here!

started Saturday:

So, we think we have a name, but it might be a litle too popular for me, so I've been having a hard time committing. Right now we're thinking Cooper Benjamin, but I feel like every time I tell someone the name they say they know a kid named Cooper. One friend knows two kids named Cooper Benjamin. At least I'm sure none of them have the last name Justiniano. I like that Guy's name is uncommon but not unheard of.

This morning I was trying to sleep, but had a horrible headache. I finally went out to the couch and took a headache medicine pill my OB/GYN prescribed early on in the pregnancy because I've gotten such bad headaches this time around. I fell asleep after 1 am, but then woke up in less than 20 minutes when my water broke.

Guy's and the baby's deliveries were eerily similar in a few ways. It was 2 years ago on a Friday night/Saturday morning that my water broke with guy. After getting to the hospital, though, things were realy different. This time, after I woke Rob up, we called Eden and she rushed over to be with Guy (can't thank you enough!). I didn't think I was in as much of a hurry as I ended up being in. Guy was born about 11 hours after my water broke. This time barely over four hours later the baby made his appearance.

Two days ago I packed a bag and wrote out a list of last minute things to collect (since we use them too often to stow them in a bag). After Rob collected everything and got us ready, we were off.

The hospital isn't too far away (about 35 blocks), and on the way there contractions began. By the time I got to the hospital I was at a 5, but less than 20 min. later I was a 6. They didn't get the epidural in for a while, and holy pain. I was getting contractions every minute or one and one half minutes. I'm so grateful for modern medicine--especially the epidural. I had to hold off pushing for a while, to get the epidural in, and everything was super painful. even with the epidural, I felt lots of pressure and a little pain.

It took longer than I expected for the baby to make his appearance, but when he did, I quickly recognized why. 9 lbs. 11 oz. later--almost 2 lbs. heavier than Guy's birth weight. No episiotomy and just a little tearing, things were much more rough last time. This time, the birth process was more painful, but the recovery has been much faster. Guy turned in the birth canal, so what he did to my body was the equivalent of delivering a 15 lb. baby. This time, though, for the actual labor I was exhausted, and contractions were every minute or minute and a half--it was tremendously exhausing. After about 45 minutes, I couldn't do it alone anymore. I said a prayer, asking for help to be done, and on the next contraction, I got enough help and energy to push long enough and hard enough for the baby to make his appearance. Whew!

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finished Sunday:

From the birthing room the nurses felt that the baby was having a hard time breathing because he kept making grunting noises. Eden might be on to something thinking the kid just wanted food. Unfortunately, he went straight to the NICU, and has been there ever since. He was on oxygen for a little while, but got off that at 1:45 this morning. For a little while, we were told he'd be able to get out this afternoon, but now we don't get him until tomorrow at discharge. He's doing just great, and I'm grateful for that, but it's not the idal set-up in terms of convenience. Thankfully, he's an all-star eater, but for every nursing session I have to go down to the NICU. However, I recognize that things could be much worse/more difficult. I'm healing really well. A lot faster than I expected. I've only taken Percocet since I've been here, and the walk from the maternity ward to the NICU has gotten much faster and much less painful.

Guy came to visit tonight with my folks and Eden. We've missed him these two days, but he's doing great. I was a little sad that we could only show him Cooper through the window. He wanted to see more of him, but was quickly distracted with the prospect of a cookie waiting for him in the room upstairs (thanks again, Adriana!).

Hopefully all goes as expected tonight and we get to head home early tomorrow morning. It'll be the best Valentine's Day ever.

Life is good, I know we've been blessed, and I'm tremendously grateful.

Guy is 2!

Thankfully on Monday I had more energy than "the usual" these days. We had a fun filled celebratory day. I've definitely been in survival mode these days, so some things weren't top notch (like the only present I wrapped was in Christmas paper upside down), but he won't remember.

We started the morning off at the aquarium. Guy loves Mr. Ray, Nemo, and Dori--can you guess what his favorite movie is?

Then we met Dad at McDonald's by his office--where they have a play place.

Mostly Guy just wanted to shoot hoops with Dad.

A little out of focus, but that tongue--wow!

The beaters he liked more than the 2 bites of cake. We always have to talk him into desserts. Sadly, that isn't a trait he inherited from me.

He has lots of balls, but this is his first football. He loves it, but spends a little too much time shooting into his basketball hoop already. Next ball he gets will be a soccer ball. In November, I bought a TON of Fisher Price Little People off ksl ($80 worth). It took over 2 hours to disinfect them all--it really was a massive amount. That was his main Christmas present (about 1/2 of them), and we gave him a couple more of the sets for his birthday, too.

We had pizza for dinner, then this cake. Guy's favorite friend Chloe came over for a little while for cake and a little play time.

Under the influence of Dad, Guy is already learning to LOVE Spiderman. Not a perfect cake, but he was happy with it.

In some ways, I already feel like he's growing up too fast!

15 Years Later . . .

I'm taking a four week evening course of photography right now. As I was walking through Taylorsville HIGH SCHOOL last night, some kid asked me if I go there.

I thought it was bad when I was 19 and the flight attendant told me you have to be 14 to sit in the emergency isle. . . apparently, some things (like my face) never change.

what should have gone out

We finally took these the night I actually took our Christmas tree down (Jan 3). Yeah, it's been quite a season, but at least we got some photos. I'm grateful for the tripod Rob's dad gave us last year, and the $1.50 camera remote that Rob found online earlier this year.

It was a great season, and we had a wonderful holiday.

Guy would have been content with much less than he got (we had to convince him to open the last few presents), but I got a killer deal on some used Fisher Price Little People (thanks ksl.com). We gave him less then 1/2 of what I bought, but it was more than plenty, plus gifts from grandparents and aunts and uncles.

Rob surprised me with some great kitchen stuff, and now I need to find ways to use the new food processor (suggestions wanted, please). He also surprised me with a recliner, which I'm REALLY thrilled to have for when the baby comes, among other thoughtful gifts.

Rob got everything he asked for (my creative juices didn't flow too well, unfortunately), and is now getting a lot of use out of the weights and new clothes he got.

This season I have been really grateful for the tremendous blessings I have. I love my boys. Both of them have been a huge blessing in my life, and I'm really looking forward to increasing our family by one more so soon.

I hope you had a great Christmas, too.

6 weeks left

Here I am at 34 weeks--happy to be done pretty soon. Last week the Dr. said I could go a week early (plan an induction), however, if I do that, then the baby and Guy will be 2 days apart. I think I'd prefer to keep their birthdays a week (or more) apart, if I can help it. If I can't, that's fine, but I wouldn't choose it. Honestly, I'm kind of hoping for a Valentine's Day baby. Not to be cheesy, but because I'd like to have something else to celebrate on the over-rated, commercialized day. If it was a girl coming, I wouldn't wish it on her, but I don't think it would matter to a boy . . .

Aside from the birthday thing, I'd be a little hesitant to get an induction anyhow, what I hear about them isn't so great. Any words of wisdom in that regard (natural labor v. induction)? Last time my water broke.

Yikes!

What a month it's been. I had the best intentions of finally getting off Christmas cards for the first time this year--I really wanted to do that. Those golden intentions have turned into the ideal of getting a baby announcement out in February.

The rundown for this month . . .

The good:
Guy is counting to 6. On a good day he doesn't forget 7 and 8 and gets to at least 10, but most the time he goes from 6 to 9.
He knows a lot of the alphabet, but C, T, and a few other letters all sound like D.
We're rid of the naptime and bedtime bottles.
Finished with the pacifier immediately after the plane ride home from visiting Rob's family.
Into his own bed, with sports sheets (he loves balls!).

Verdict's out (not sure where to classify this yet):
An invitation to participate in the Midvale Stake Days of '47 float commitee--lots of drawing, which I haven't done for years--a little bit scary, to say the least.

The bad for Guy:
Coughs and colds disturbing all hours of the day and night. Thank you "Hands Hands Fingers Thumb" for the line: "Hands with handkerchiefs Blow! Blow! Blow!" At least that's made things easier.
Guy missing nursery twice so far--we have, at least, gotten to sacrament meeting (I'm ready to keep him out now 'til April since that's where he seems to get sick in the first place).
Night waking, screaming, and opening his own door to come pound on our at all hours of the night.
Refusal to drink milk - even strawberry and chocolate.
Stomach sickness causing us to go through the fastest pack of diapers ever.

For me:
Lots of blood test pain and bruising. A diagnosis of gestational diabetes, just in time for the holiday season. Fortunately, that has since been changed, however, that was after 30+ finger pricks/blood sugar checks, aggressive carb counting for seemingly forever (though it was only about 4 days), and just a lot of hassle.
Also, a couple of colds and bit of a stomach virus, myself.

All the while Rob's working hard at the two jobs and being amazing as he fills in all the holes I try to not leave, but sometimes can't fill.

Here's hoping next month and year are better--however, I certainly realize that things could be harder/worse. I know we're blessed and though we have troubles, they are minor and/or insignificant in comparison to what they could be.

Before Christmas I will post a few photos we've taken recently . . .

A little catch up

Snapping a few photos, but not as many as I could. Life's been pretty hectic and busy.Story time had Curious George. Guy was a little scared at first--this was his first costumed character experience--but he warmed up okay and gave George a few high fives by the time we were done. Please excuse the bags under my eyes--this was about 3 weeks ago now, and sadly, I think the bags have gotten worse.
Guy's first time on Trax-we went to the Children's Discovery Musuem with Guy's friend Chloe and her mom, Jessica. Chloe is a little more than one month older than Guy and they love playing together. Guy can't say Chloe--he calls her "Bobo." The kids seemed to be content with the thrill of the train and probably wouldn't have missed the museum. I'm glad we went to the museum once, but more glad we did it for $5 total, rather than the "real" price of $8 each for both Guy and me. The Sunday before Thanksgiving we got a lot of snow--more than they warned for with the blizzard that was supposed to come later that week (thankfully it didn't make much of an appearance and we were able to get out of town no problem). Rob built a snow fort for Guy and they both had a great time. Since then we've gotten gloves for Guy, so now there will be no more hands in socks and plastic bags. But hey, it gave them over an hour of play time, so it worked.Eating the goods. He does almost every time he sees snow. I know I did that as a kid, too.I just love this shot.
Action shot by Rob. Sometimes I think we need a trampoline for the kid already.

Edible Play Dough

Reading through a cookbook (a hobby of mine), I found a recipe for edible play dough. I know Guy is too young to do play dough (the real stuff), but I decided to give this a shot. It's a simple recipe made up of creamy peanut butter, powdered milk, flour, and powdered sugar.

I made it while Guy was napping on Sunday. When he got up, we played. It's been a long time, and my creative juices weren't flowing. To start off, I gave Guy a ball I shaped (pretty decent sized), and he immediately ate about 1/2 of it. Yum.Then Dad came to help--making this little man.Obviously Guy had no problem pretending to be a dinosaur and eating a man. Dad then made this, and told him it was a horse. Remember how Guy loves horses? Well, he was done eating. Even after Dad told him it was a dinosaur, Guy still wouldn't eat it.

Next time I think I'll dye some/all of it.

Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 c. creamy peanut butter

3/4 c. dry nonfat milk

1/2 c. flour

3/4 c. powdered sugar

Mix peanut butter and dry milk together. Stir in flour and powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

Our Cowboy

I wanted Guy to be Zorro for Halloween (fitting, right?), but nobody makes that distinctive round hat in his little size. So, another year . . .
Rob found the above photo online, and we liked it, but decided to make a few motifications. Right now Guy's favorite animal is a horse. So, I whipped out my paper mache skills--in second grade I won 2nd place and $25 to an art store for making a paper mache squid. These skills haven't been honed since then, but I think my horse head turned out okay (free handing it). It took a lot of work, and I've now decided it's going to be Guy's costume for the next 10 years. I don't think I'll ever spend so much time on a costume for a one year old again, but it did work out well and he had a good time. The morning he saw it all put together, he couldn't stop neighing.

Oh, and I had the extra jeans and fake boots for him too, but the costume just got too heavy for him, so maybe another year. Really, it won't be his costume for years on end, but I will reuse it--whenever it is that we move next, the horse head is coming, we'll just make it a new box. :)