"Spi-Man!" Birthday Extravaganza!!

On August 10th, my little man turned 2!
So Jack has developed an obsession with Spider Man.
(I have no idea where that came from.)
BUT, it made his birthday SUPER easy this year! And these days - I am all about EASY.
We just had a little party for him at home. I considered inviting some of his nursery besties over, but with Bridget less than 2 weeks old at the time, I thought better of it.
Easy-Peasy!

Jack's Spi-tastic cake:

(Note the blue paper taped to the wall, courtesy of Aimee - she was thrilled to help decorate)

Jumbo Pillow Spiderman! When Jack opened it he gave it a hug and said, "Oh... Love you Spi-Man!"

In addition to more Spiderman gear and toys, Jack got some pirate stuff. He is also a little obsessed with Peter Pan.

Enjoying the (nasty) store bought cake!

Spi-Man!! (He even has a mask)

Fighting Spi-Man

Showing off his Spi-Man moves

Playing with his guys.

Halloween should be easy this year too! :)

Happy Birthday Little Man!

Funny tidbit: Jack totes his Spi-Man guys everywhere! Heading out the door? Jack has to grab his guys first. All of them.
It kind of makes me crazy... mostly because I'm afraid he will lose them (we've already lost and replaced two).
He also has to sleep with them during naps and at night ... In the morning I find him on top of them and I can't imagine that's very comfortable.
Silly boy.

Photoshoot

More pictures!! 

My friend Kara is a photographer (http://claytonandkara.blogspot.com/) and she came over to do a photo shoot of Bridget and the big kids. Unfortunately the stars never aligned in getting a picture with all three of them cooperating. BUT the pictures that Kara did get are amazing! I am seriously in love with these pictures!

Temporarily happy after a quick nursing-break 

Heeeello bright eyes

Thank you Kara :)

Sweet and Sour

My friend Jolyn took these DARLING pictures of Bridget! So, instead of sleeping, or switching out the laundry, or cleaning my kitchen... I am blogging! 

Little miss thing is my sweet/sour baby. 

Sweet when she is sleeping. Sour when she is awake.

She will usually sleep a long stretch at night. We are averaging 4 hours. But I don't know if this is always a good thing. Like last night she slept for almost 5 hours straight! But from about 10 am - 8 pm today she was super fussy and wouldn't sleep more than like 10 - 20 minutes at a time (And would only stay asleep when I held her).  

It was a long day.

She likes going outside. And likes to be held. She also likes the sound of water running. She does not like pacifiers, I have tried 3 different kinds.

Bridget has a natural mohawk and baby mullet. She's just cool like that. 

She also has a quick temper...

 But you might not believe me because she looks so incredibly sweet. 

Bridget Marie

Bridget Marie Brassfield
July 30th, 4:11 am
7 lbs, 13 oz. 20 1/4 inches

She is finally here! And I am sooo glad! I wonder if it's an indicator of her personality, but she was absolutely going to come on her own terms. Just 4 hours before I was supposed to go to the hospital to be induced...

So I mentioned in my last post that my contractions were anything but consistent. On Sunday evening I started having quite a few that were stronger and about 10 minutes apart... and I just felt bad. Like I couldn't walk around without hurting. But as soon as I would sit down, the contractions would basically stop. I had kind of hoped that I would go into labor, but with the contractions slowing down so much I resolved myself to the fact that I could at least get one more good night's sleep before we went to the hospital in the morning.

I was in bed by 11:30 and the contractions started up again. 10 - 15 minutes apart. They were pretty consistent at this rate but the nurse I saw in the hospital (from the last post) told me not to come back until they were 5 minutes apart for an hour. If I had listened to her, I would have had that baby in my bed.

It took me a long time to fall asleep. I had only dozed for about 30 minutes when I had a contraction painful enough to jolt me awake. It was almost 2 am. I had another painful contraction 7 minutes later. I woke up Greg and told him that we needed to go to the hospital. Within a few minutes we were out the door. The hospital is only a few miles up the road but by the time we got there my contractions were every 5 minutes or less and really painful.

We parked at the Labor and Delivery building... but the entrance was locked! Apparently you use a different entrance at 2:30 in the morning. I did not know where that was. Note to future moms: Make sure you know where to go at all hours!
I waddled back to the car - well, I had Greg run back to the car and then drive back to the curb. I seriously could not walk at this point.
We hustle to the ER, the valet there told us where to go. We are at the correct entrance within a minute. But the admissions lady took her sweet time getting us in! I could have smacked her.
Once we got to the room and I got the gown on, the L/D nurse checked to see how dilated I was. She asked if I wanted an epidural. I said I did, if there was time.
"Well... looks like you are at an 8 1/2... sorry sweetie, but I don't think there is time for you to get one."

Ok, I thought to myself. I got one with Jack, but as soon as the anesthesiologist finished and I was on my back I felt pushing pressure, Jack was born just minutes later. Seriously, I pushed 3 times. I recall feeling pushing him out and it hurt a lot. So I kind of thought I had a "natural" delivery - because I could feel something, and it hurt, but it wasn't horrific.
Oh little did I know...
That epidural did something to take the edge off because this labor was absolutely the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my life.
Maybe it's partly because I just wasn't mentally prepared? Or because I was super tired already... I don't know. All I know is that I never want to go that route again.

Not to be insensitive to people that choose to give birth that way... but why? Holy cow - it was awful!
At one point while pushing I felt my tail bone "snap" down. That was fun.

I think I pushed for about 20-30 minutes. Mostly because for the first bit of pushing I wasn't doing it right. Because it hurt to do it right!
Well, after a lot of screaming (like in the movies - I am not kidding, I couldn't help it) she was finally out!
Oh sweet relief!
But then came the fun part, I tore... and had to get stitched up. I got some local anesthetic but it still was a bit unpleasant. I was shaking so bad for a long time. Right then I thought about pioneer women that had their babies out on the plains... and then get up and kept walking. That amazes me.

Holding Bridget, right after I was "put back together"
She immediately looked for something to latch on to and found her hand. Isn't it neat how they just know?

This is a rare photo of me with Bridget. If you look closely at my cheeks/neck you may notice that I look a little flushed. Well, turns out that I burst blood vessels all over my face, neck, chest, and shoulders. Within an hour the pink "flushed" look turned a dark, ugly purple color.

Yeah, so no more photos of mom and baby. 

Luckily I didn't burst the vessels in my eyes. It was bad enough the first time Aimee saw me she had to do a double take and said, "Mom! What happened to your face?"

So that was labor story. Now for some pictures... 

Tasty hand. 

Aimee was thrilled to finally hold baby sister!

Jack was mildly interested

Mom and grand baby #4

Little gnome!
I can't decide who she looks like. I will have to pull out the pics of Aimee and Jack. When she's awake I think Bridget looks like Aimee and when she's asleep or crying, I think she looks like Jack.

Proud Papa!

Don't worry Jack. You'll always be my baby.

So our first two nights in the hospital - Bridget did not sleep well at all. But our first night home, she slept great!! I had to wake her up to feed her and even then she didn't really get up. I thought to myself, I must have one of those magic babies that sleeps! 

Just kidding!
Night #2 at home...

4 am! And I am wide awake!

Last night she did a little better. 

More funny faces...

My sweet baby.