Isaac Makes His Parents Giggle

Man, do we love our baby. He cracks us up every day. He has recently started making some very interesting noises, and as luck would have it, James bought me a simple little video recorder (which is AWESOME, by the way) for Christmas, so I have a little sample of these strange sounds coming from our baby:

James No Longer Looks Like the Abominable Snowman

For a while, James was growing a beard. At the time, I quite liked it, but now looking back at the pictures it seems he looked a lot like the abominable snowman from Monsters, Inc.

Compare:


No wonder they call him the Beast, huh?

Well, now he has shaved and is looking more like himself:

Ok, just kidding. Here he is:

as "Chuck"

Isaac Finds His Hands

Isaac has recently (within the last 2-3 weeks) begun to show serious interest in his hands, especially attempting to eat them. He gets either his whole fist or anywhere from one to three fingers, but never his thumb, in his mouth and smacks away. Actually the best is when he tries to get both hands in there at once. It's hilarious cuz he doesn't really get good suction, so he really makes a lot of slurpy-smacky noises. So funny.

Isaac Loves Technology (But not as much as you, you see)

But he still loves technology. Always and Forever.

Man, all this work tuckered me out.

Dad, that's not helping.

Isaac is Two Months Old

Isaac is now two months (and six days!) old, and growing! At his two-month check up he weighed 11 pounds, 8 ounces, and was a whopping 23.2 inches long. People are always remarking on how long he is (and how handsome). I guess you have to be able to stand up before people start calling you tall.
These past two months have gone by so fast, and at the same time it feels like a lifetime since we brought our little guy home from the hospital. A good lifetime. Isaac has brought so much joy into our lives, and our little family is a truly happy one. James and I laugh about how we are now those "lame parents"--all we can talk about is our kid and we think everything he does is amazing. Because it is.
Here is a pictorial representation of just some of the things we love about our beautiful boy:

His sparkly eyes.

His pointy little ears.


His chubby baby hands.

How he has recently discovered those hands.


This little half-smile that he got from his dad.

And this big, gorgeous smile that is all his own.


Even when he's not smiling, his little mouth is so sweet.


We love how he loves to cuddle.


And how peaceful he looks in his sleep.

And so many other things that we haven't (yet) caught on camera - like the funny little sounds he makes (and is making more and more), how his eyes slowly droop as we rock him to sleep, how he snorts when his nose gets stuffy, how he laughs in his sleep, and how he smiles when he hears our voices.
All in all, we have loved the two months we've had so far with our happy little guy, and we're so glad we get him for the rest of eternity (ha ha, kid, you're stuck with us!).

Isaac's First Game

So today we took Isaac to his first BYU football game. I spent the early afternoon preparing him for it--taught him the fight song, practiced the hand motions, reviewed who the players are... just kidding. What I actually did was made him a little outfit to express his future love for BYU football. There's not much in the way of BYU paraphernalia for tiny people, so I got to express my own creativity and make him this little version of the BYU uniform:

We put Isaac in his carrier and by the time we had walked from the parking lot to the game, he was sound asleep - and that's pretty much how he stayed throughout the entire game. The game was really fun; the team made short work of CSU, so nothing to complain about there. We had a lot of fun sharing our passion for the game with Isaac.


One really cool thing-- in the women's bathroom in the lower part of the stadium, there is actually a little area set aside, like a little mother's room. I was able to go down there at half time and feed Isaac no problem. Coolest thing, though, I met another girl with a baby about the same size as Isaac. We got to chatting and comparing ages and found out they were both five weeks old --and born on the same day! In the same hospital! How neat is that? And they both weighed the same when they were born. Crazy huh? She was a really nice girl, and I hope we'll run into each other during future half time feedings. :)

Isaac's Two-Week Checkup

So, we took Isaac to the doctor again for his two-week checkup. My handsome boy is doing great - healthy and growing! When we left the hospital, he weighed 7 lbs 5 oz - 8 oz less than his birth weight. At his two week appointment he was up to 8 lbs 5 oz - so he's gained a whole pound in two weeks. He has also grown a bit taller: he is now 21.4 inches tall. It's crazy how much a little guy can change in two weeks. Every day I look at him and his face seems a little different. There's more alertness in his eyes, his expressions get more and more varied. We've even gotten one or two smiles out of him. All in all, this is just incredibly cool. I love being a Mom, James is the greatest Dad, and Isaac is the best kid ever. No offense to anyone else's kids. Your kids are the best ever, too. It works like that. Anyway, here are some more pictures of my handsome boy:

Here he is, just chillin' on the couch.
He looked so cute all stretched out like that, I couldn't resist taking his picture.


We had a lovely visit from Emily and Max the other day - Max was super good with Isaac and Emily brought me the most delicious cake. Thanks again Emily!



Hanging out, having lunch with Grandma at the Burger Supreme.


Once again, just looking cute on the couch.


This is at his checkup - you can see how chubby his little tummy is getting :)


This is one of my favorite things he does - right after nursing he just cuddles up on my chest with his face looking up at me, resting on his crossed arms - it's just so cute. I can't take it.



Seriously, is that adorably or what?



Plotting and scheming.

Playing with Daddy.

Introducing: Isaac David West

Sorry for the long delay in updating - my days have been occupied with staring in awe at my newborn son. Oh, and feeding him. He's a little hobbit - always eating :). But no more excuses - at long last, may I introduce: Isaac David West.


For those of you who have not heard the story yet, Isaac was a tiny bit overdue and we were planning to go in to be induced on Thursday the 20th at 6am. Well, on Wednesday the 19th at 6pm I started having contractions. The hospital called to confirm my induction and I told them I thought we'd probably be in on our own. Mom and I started timing contractions and they were pretty regular - 4 minutes apart and lasting about 30 to 40 seconds. So, we did all the things you do in early labor - I took a bath, we went for a walk, Mom made me a little sandwich. We kept counting contractions. And things just progressed pretty much how they are supposed to - I spent most of my contractions hanging onto James and rocking back and forth, either standing and doing the "labor dance" or sitting on the exercise ball that my doula had brought. As things got more intense, Mom turned down the lights and we put on my John Schmidt playlist, which helped me stay relaxed. At about 2:30am we decided to go to the hospital. I say "we" but it was really my mom... I was so scared they were going to tell me I was dilated to 4 and still had a long way to go. I didn't want to make the decision to go; luckily Mom is awesome and knows what she is doing. We got to the hospital and as I handed them my insurance card, I felt my water break. We got all checked in and the midwife checked me and confirmed my water had ruptured and then she said, "Oh wow - you're at 9 centimeters." I was so relieved. So I then spent an hour in the tub, getting through the last of the contractions. Then it was time to push. I will spare the details on this part - those of you who have been through it know and those who haven't don't want to. I'll just say I cried a lot but I made it through and the second I saw Isaac's face it was all forgotten. He was born at 5:01 am after 11 hours of labor. I didn't care what they did to me after that, which was good because I was hemorrhaging and they were poking me with all sorts of needles trying to get an IV in. They eventually did and got the bleeding under control fairly quickly. Isaac had a little fluid in his lungs so they were working on him too. When I finally got to hold him after that, it was just the sweetest moment.



So there's the story. Here are the stats:

Weight: 7 lbs 13 oz
Length: 19.5 inches (though at his doctor's visit he was 20.5 or thereabouts - can't remember what they said, whoops)Birthday: August 20
Hair color: blonde, but sometimes it also looks a bit reddish
Eye color: starting to look more and more blue
Favorite things to do: Eat, sleep, and suck on his daddy's finger



And, for those of you wondering about the name change, I promise we didn't pull a fast one on you on purpose. Up until the week before he was born, we really were going to name him Anders Octavian. We still think it's a pretty great name. But one night about a week before he was born, James and I were talking and James told me he didn't think we had the right name. I felt a sense of relief - I hadn't realized til that moment, but I didn't think we had the right name either. So we stayed up all night that night brainstorming new names. One thing I really wanted was to name the baby after my dad, so we decided on David for his middle name. We came up with a whole bunch of names we liked and then throughout the week we narrowed the list down to three - Benjamin, Charles, and Isaac. I think Malachi was in the running there for a little while too. But anyway, while I was pushing, the name Isaac kept coming into my head and I used it to encourage myself mentally ("Come on Isaac - come out!" etc.) so, I told James that I thought his name should be Isaac and he agreed. And that's the story of the name change. Sorry for the confusion.

James and I are extremely happy to be this special little guy's parents. He is already bringing so much joy into our lives. We feel incredibly blessed. Allow us to share a few more pictures of our little guy:

Update

The phrase of the last ten days: Still no baby.

Yep, our little boy has not yet decided to grace us with his presence. I still feel good though, which Aunt Katherine says is a sure sign I won't have him for a while - I have to be fully miserable before I'm really ready to give birth :P

But just to give everyone a little update on what's happening - tomorrow I will go in for a non-stress test and ultrasound, and then if things still haven't happened on their own I will be induced either Thursday or Friday.

So, we promise a baby by the end of the week - for all of you anxiously waiting :)

Thanks to everyone for your support and love, and we'll let you know once anything exciting happens.

Love,
James, Charity, and Son

My DIY Nursery

So, this is a big first for me - I'm linking up to the DIY Thursday party over at A Soft Place to Land. I have been a blog stalker over there for quite some time - I think I've pretty much read every post she's ever written - and I've gotten a lot of inspiration. And I've been using a lot of the inspiration I find there (and the Nesting Place and Centsational Girl and Thrifty Decor Chick and... the list goes on) to put together the nursery for Andy (due date is just a week and a half away!!). So, without further ado, here are all the projects I've been working on:

First an overview (you'll probably have to click on the picture to enlarge it if you really want to read my clever in-picture commentary.) :


My inspiration for the whole room was (were? I hate antecedents. I think it's was.) these three prints I found as I was wandering around on etsy. (They can be found in Gumball Grenade's etsy shop.)

I fell in love with them and knew I had to have them. Once I decided to base the whole nursery theme around them, though, I found that there really wasn't a lot out there in the baby realm to complement them, which necessitated many DIY projects - which suits me just fine.

So here are some of the projects I did:

I would have loved to have these prints custom framed, but I'm cheap and working on a small budget, so I bought those super cheap unfinished wood frames at Ikea ($2/per I think?), painted them, and then made "mats" out of scrapbook paper. They deserve so much better, but for now this will have to do.

Also in this picture you can see my shelves that I painted (same color as the blue frame). They look better in person. Really, they look better than the unfinished wood condition that I bought them in. So that's always good.

Here you can see the quilt that I made- it's a rag/shag quilt and it's fairly simple. Just blocks of color that echo the colors in the paintings. I also made that dust ruffle out of a plain red flat sheet I found at DI (like Goodwill). I just ripped two long pieces from it and sewed them together. The bottom was already hemmed hallelujah, and then I just tucked it around under the mattress in a ruffly sort of way. Totally pleased with myself there. Oh, any opinions - to bumper or not to bumper? I'm tempted to make one, but then I keep hearing how you shouldn't use them. Thoughts?



And here's the mobile I made using this tutorial. It uses the red, white, blue, and yellow motif from the paintings (and the rest of the room) and also the sail boat that is in one of the three prints. I like it. It's not amazing, but it's kinda cute.

And, my piece de resistance, the window "mistreatment" ala Nester. When I bought sheets for the crib (from Ikea) I was saddened to find that one of them had a hole in it. I couldn't be bothered to take them back (I'd lost the receipt and Ikea is a bit far away), so I racked my brain thinking what I could do with them. Then, after seeing several curtains and window treatments, I finally hit upon the idea of this, my own window mistreatment. I used 1/2 yard of 50" dark blue fabric for the top, the rest of the red flat sheet (from the dust ruffle) for the trim and ties, the crib sheet (that's the big blue part), and - as the lining - a curtain from Savers that I originally bought for the room and discovered was too small. Oh yeah, and some left over yellow fabric from the quilt, which I used to make the stars to cover the hole in the sheet. Whew. I only sewed one seam (across the top). Everything else I did with hemming tape, which I loved because I have issues sewing straight lines, especially when the fabrics are all different textures (that crib sheet was danged stretchy). Oh yeah, and of course I used the glue gun. How could I not?

Last of all, some advice? This room is doubling (tripling? quadrupling? It's also my office and craft space.) as a guest room while my mom stays with us for a month or so after the baby's born (thanks Mom, you are the best). I feel like that wall needs something, but I don't know what. I've got four prints by the same artist who did the sail boat painting over the bed - they are gorgeous prints of Greece, but they don't really go with the nursery. I was also thinking of doing an alphabet wall, but then I'm worried things will get too busy in the space ... and also that it isn't fitting for the "guest room" zone of the room. Any ideas? Should I just leave it? Really, I should just leave it, seeing as 1.) The guest room will only exist for the month that Mom is here and 2.) we're looking to move out of this apartment (I wonder why?) and into a house in the next few months, so it's probably just not worth the aggravation. Still open to suggestions though.

Anyway, thanks for looking at my DIY Nursery :)