Belated Valentine's Day

First, some bragging Mommy photos:
This is a little sleeper my scrappy friend, Denise, got for Sam just in time for Valentine's Day. Of course, me being a scrapbooker, I had to take pictures of him in it. So cutie and sweet.

Knowing Denise's humor, I know she would find Sam's facial expression funny in this one. Just had to include this one on the post. It's like he is saying, "Why Mom, Why?!"

Now about our Love Day:My mom wanted us to get out of the house, otherwise known as "I want the grandkids to myself", so she babysat the kiddies and insisting paying for us to go on a lunch date together for Valentine's Day. Sadly, the other grandparents had Dylan over for a sleep-over the night before and Dylan woke up at 4 AM; so he was knocked out asleep by noon at my Mom's house. Then, Samuel was fed the moment he got to her house and slept the entire time too. Mom was a little pouty about it all I think.

We took our little lunch date to Cracker Barrel. Is that nerdy? Not some fancy Italian restaurant or anything, but it's what we really wanted. We both go for there just for the french toast. And hey, look! We match in our green!

And in other news:I won 10 SwagBucks! That's never happened before. Made me all cheery! Well, until I realized I can't spell.

February 12 of 12

Making sure to get everything documented for this month's 12 of 12, because I have this feeling I won't be getting this layout done on time. Don't wanna forget why I took so and so picture, ya know? :) Note the posting time of this, yes, definitely a newborn in this house. So here goes my 2nd month of this project...

Waking up with Sam, giving him a little sponge bath. On this day, February 12th, Samuel is exactly 10 days old and his umbilical cord had not fell off yet. At his changing table, Sam likes to look at this stuffed doggie that Dylan gave to him at the hospital. Sam just stares at it and grabs at it's paws. I think Sam is so interested in this doggie, because of the black and white contrast.

UPS man drops off a package at the door! I love the way this photo came out too! It's Sam's teddy from Cliff's parents. I just love these teddies! Dylan got a similar one with a green bib when he was first born.

As you can see, we are still trying to figure out what formula, bottles, and water temperature Samuel prefers. Sam likes his babas room temperature so far. Soothie pacis may be awesome, but their bottles suck. So do the cheapo target brand ones. I like the vent-aires and Cliff grabs for the avent ones.

Dylan wakes up in a good mood! "Hops" (ha ha, okay I'll stop now) in to the bath tub and asks me to take a picture of him being the frog king.

I should probably mention at this point that I didn't actually wake up until about 2 PM I wanna say? Maybe it was 4? Pain medicated and over tired from not sleeping in the hospital. Anyhoo, here we are on our way to Grandma's to eat dinner. Dylan's good mood is gone as he ducks out of the picture.

We all get Chik Fil A, but Cliff wanted Chinese from Top Wok. Their spring rolls are the best in town.

Grandma always tends to blink with photos so it's about impossible to get one of just the two of us that is semi-okay.

Packing up to leave after sitting around watching CNN and E! with Grandma. Funny how we can go from smart t.v. to complete mush. Me and Grandma drive Cliff insane with our ongoing commentary. This is Dylan "helping".

We head over to Cliff's parents' house. Cliff's Dad gives Sam a little smooch after I got finished changing him.

Cliff earned his epic flying mount dragon on World of Warcraft.

This frickin smoke alarm kept going off making me insane. It would beep the loudest beep about every 20 minutes. I would groan, Dylan would do his hissing snicker at me. Clifford finally decided to see what was up--needed new batteries.

We finished the night off making valentines for family members. Here's Dylan stamping out the hearts. Dylan always likes to play with ink.

Samuel Avery

Samuel Avery
February 2nd, 2009
7:26 AM
7 lbs. 12 oz.
20 1/4 inches

He's here! Healthy and big! He's the most calm and content baby. Hardly cries, makes little "raccoon noises"/grunts when upset. Sam is so strong. He held his head up off our shoulders his first night. He already tries to roll over, getting about 3/4's the way to doing it.

The Whole Long Drawn Out Story

We showed up for the c-section at 5 am. I wasn't taken back to a pre-op room until about 6 am. That's when it finally, after 9 months, set in that this was happening! I cried over a shot in my hip, but not over the spinal block. I'm silly that way. I think I was just starting to get too nervous and was eventually given something for that, as I was not able to stop shaking.

During the whole c-section, I was alert and aware of everything happening--something I was pretty concerned over before-hand. It was student nursing observation day or something of the sort, so I had a few of them in on the birth of Sam. One of them, Betty, held my hand and it was her first time viewing a birth. She is the one that took the pictures of Sam's actual birth in the O.R., which I'm very thankful about. We have few pictures of Dylan's birth.

Sam came out and I had to wait a minute or two and then Cliff brought him over to me. I was so happy to finally see his face. I just remember saying, "Hi Sam!" over and over. I was just amazed and babbling. Cliff had the biggest, proudest eyes. Cliff took Sam out to meet the family. I was off to recovery for about 3 hours due to having a low temperature.

Dylan had been waiting with his grandmas and papas. Our hospital has a little window where family can watch the baby get his check-up, bathed, etc. Dylan had been peeking through the blinds to this area very anxiously. He was ready to hold and feed his baby brother. Any shirt with writing on it says, "Sam is the little brother and Dylan is the big brother" according to Dylan. We got to go home only after 2 nights-- so happy, as I was being told 3 nights was the minimum and I should expect 4.

Second children really do mellow you out. I'm not as bossy and anal about how I want things done. I still have ideas on how I would like it, but don't stress/freak out when it doesn't happen that way. Maybe it is because Sam is so chill compared to Dylan? Or being 25 vs. 21 years old this time around? Or because I'm not nursing an episiotomy and already up riding in the car? Or that Cliff got 2 weeks leave for Sam vs. 4 days for Dylan? Probably a combo of all of this. :) I'm not good with babies, I'm just not. But, I am honestly happy.