Amy Scott's Thoughts

Graham William Scott. Born at 8:57am on Monday, October 19th. 6lbs. 13oz. 19.75in.

Life is so crazy! The last week and a half turned out totally different than I ever expected! I was feeling good about having an induction date set. I made my to-do lists and enjoyed the idea of having a plan. We were ready for baby to come! Then the week of contractions hit and after multiple visits to the hospital, I wondered if our little guy would make it to the induction date. As it turns out, Graham William Scott wanted to come into the world on the 19th, not the 20th.

On Sunday, my contractions were becoming painful and stayed about 10 minutes apart for most of the day. As the day came to a close, my contractions started to get closer together. Jeremy asked if we could go to bed and I said I wanted to stay up a little longer and count. When we went to bed that night the contractions were about 7 minutes apart. After an hour and a half of sleep for Jeremy, I woke him up saying that I thought we needed to go to the hospital. This was probably our “worst” case scenario. I hadn’t been sleeping great all week thanks to the contractions and Jeremy wasn’t thrilled about being up all day knowing that he was going to be up all night, but babies come when they want. We did the stereotypical drive to the hospital in the middle of the night. Thankfully, Jeremy’s parents were able to come to our house and stay with Owen while we were gone.

Our little family of four!

Once we arrived at the hospital, I braced myself for the news that things were progressing slowly. It had been the theme of my week and the whole labor process up until that point. However, the nurse delighted us with the news that we were already 5 cm dilated. This birth process was so different than with Owen. Going into labor naturally made things go much smoother, even though I still opted to have an epidural. After a week of wondering when our little guy would arrive, things moved quickly all on their own. At 8:57am, Graham William Scott officially joined our family.

Graham has been a totally different kid from Owen right from the start. It’s been fun to compare our experiences. I’m having a hard time telling “who” Graham looks like, but overall, I see a lot of Owen in his facial expressions. Owen was slow to figure out the whole eating process, but Graham has taken to eating right away. We always had to wake Owen up to eat, but Graham likes to eat every two hours. Graham also loves to be held and it’s been harder to get him to sleep in the bassinet. The weirdest thing is how Owen looks so much older to me now that we have a baby in the house. I know that Owen is a big boy, but having someone little around makes me realize just how quickly Owen has grown up.

Going Home

Owen seems to genuinely like his brother. At the hospital, Owen was fairly indifferent to Graham. Now that we are home, he is excited to see his brother and he keeps tabs on where Graham is at. He loves to give Graham kisses on the top of his head. He also enjoys petting Graham’s hair and fiddling with his fingers and toes. With Jeremy at home, the transition from three to four has gone better than I expected. I figure things might get more complicated once Jeremy is back at work and I am outnumbered. Right now, apart from the lack of sleep, all is well in our little world. We are enjoying these days as our family finds our new flow.

I am so grateful for Jeremy through all of this. Once my contractions started last week, he has literally been by my side the whole time. He wasn’t going to let me go through any of this alone. He has been a huge support to me when I haven’t felt good and he has kept up with Owen when I couldn’t. He is involved, helpful and encouraging. Now that we are home, he continues to serve me and our family with a smile. We are both tired, but we are in this together. We are a team! I am beyond blessed to do life alongside this man! I love him and I love our little men. I am surrounded by the most amazing guys a girl could ask for!

Brotherly love

Happy baby snuggles

My men! My guys! My loves!

I debated if I should post this blog… I try to keep some stories in my life personal and private. But after the week that I’ve been having I decided that I need to relieve some tension and blogging just happens to be one of my best stress relievers. Jeremy joked that I should write a blog called “Best Laid Plans”. We have an induction date set. I had my to do list all detailed out for our last week as a family of three. I was looking forward to some down time with my family. I especially wanted to make my last few days with Owen as a only child count and really savor them. Then Monday night happened. I started having contractions throughout the night and I ended up getting about 2 hours of sleep because I was never sure if it was over or if I should wake up Jeremy and tell him it’s time to go to the hospital. The contractions were irregular so I held off and eventually things calmed down. Tuesday, I was having a couple contractions every hour, but that seemed normal to me. I’ve been having random contractions for weeks now and I just figured it might be “after shocks” from the crazy night before. Then we reached Wednesday… I started to contract regularly. Once we reached 7 minutes part, we went to the hospital to get checked at the request of my doctor’s office. I really thought this was “it”. After a day of regular contracting, I thought for sure we were heading in for the grand adventure of labor. Until I realized that unless I was dilated to four cm, they wouldn’t keep me. I was at a one, so home I went. Thursday, the contracts got closer together, but still I knew that I wasn’t in active labor. The contractions weren’t productive enough. They seemed too mild. I tried getting out and about, I tried walking, I tried relaxing. Nothing seemed to make them any stronger. Today, the contractions have gotten even closer together and started to feel more productive. At the urging of the doctor’s office, I went back to the hospital and got checked this evening. Still not dilating, but I’m more effaced than before. I guess something has been happening, but not enough to stay. So here I am, back at home. Contracting and waiting. The hardest part of all of this is the mental struggle. Keeping track of contractions and wondering if you should go to the hospital is not a fun game to play. Plus, I think my body is just getting tired of contracting. Ideally, I wish that things would either ramp up or just stop completely. I know that I have an end date in sight with the 20th being my induction. I really would like to not contract regularly up until that point. The contractions are getting more uncomfortable and I have no idea if I am excited about that or not. Part of me thinks they aren’t doing anything and another part of me hopes that I’ll have a baby before the 20th. Today especially, I have told myself to not expect anything. If you would have asked me on Wednesday night, I would have thought for sure we would have a baby by now. However, after three days of consistent contracting, I will assume nothing. In fact, I didn’t think we would be staying when we went to the hospital tonight. No more hoping, wishing, guessing or assuming. I think that I might take a break from the contraction counting. I know that they are close together, but I am learning that quality is more important than quantity. The amount of contractions doesn’t matter as much as a the strength of them. At this point, I will probably wait until my water breaks, or if I can’t talk through the contractions, or I feel like screaming for an epidural before I head back to the hospital. I have not reached that point and I might not. Thank God for Tuesday being a set induction. I know this end at some point. Maybe sooner, maybe later. Only time will tell.

Owen hanging with Auntie at church. Probably our last Sunday for a few weeks.

Lamby made it to church too… I was grateful that I was able to get Owen into the nursery without Lamby by his side. It took some distracting!

Bedtime stories and snuggles!

Staring down a woolly worm

Our room tonight was HUGE! We were kind of disappointed that we didn’t get to keep it… Gotta love space!

The funniest fortune possible after the week I’ve been having

The final phase of baby prep is underway!

A few posts back, I mentioned that our doctor offered to induce me at 39 weeks. At the point of that post, Jeremy and I had decided to go for it, but we hadn’t yet set a date with our doctor. We did that at our following appointment. The date October 20th was chosen with a few possible exceptions. The first thing we needed to do was an ultrasound to measure growth. I’ve been measuring small. This has happened now with both my pregnancies. I was excited for one more ultrasound and a chance to see our little guy again. Everything looked good and the baby is very healthy. The only thing to note was that he is a little guy. He was measuring in the 12th percentile and his guesstimate weight was 5lbs. 14oz. I was concerned that he might too small for my doctor to feel good about inducing. We had another appointment to meet with my doctor that week and she reassured us that the weight was fine. I was so relieved! The “funny” part of all these measurements is that our little guy’s head is measuring on the bigger side. When the ultrasound tech measured the head it was estimating an October 20th due date. His head is right on schedule for our induction date. Oh goodie! The last hoop to jump through is at my doctor’s appointment next week. I will have to be dilated to a certain point. My doctor doesn’t want to start the labor process if my body isn’t ready for it. After that appointment, we’ll know if we have an official go ahead or if we’ll be waiting. Oh the suspense!

With the arrival of our little guy is coming quickly, we’ve spent this weekend finishing up the last things to-do for baby. We pulled out all the disassembled baby stuff from the garage and have been attempting to put things back together from memory. I know that we have instructions somewhere, but doing things from memory is much more fun. Right? I washed all the things with fabric and wiped down all the hard surfaces. Baby contraptions are a bit like puzzles, but we have conquered them. It was funny to see Owen’s reaction to the baby stuff. He wanted to fiddled with the buckle on the car seat and sit in the bouncer. Hopefully, he won’t mind baby brother using these items. He was trying to throw things into the Pack’N’Play earlier today… Of course that made me feel awesome. Poor little brother. I’m praying he can survive us all! His family is a bit zany.

Other than the final baby preparations, we’ve spent some family time getting Owen some more big boy stuff. Using his birthday coupon from Toys’R’Us, we got Owen a booster seat so he can more easily eat the table. Dinner was a bit messy last night, but breakfast went better this morning. We also had a coupon for potties at Toys’R’Us. We purchased one, but it has since gone into the closet since we’re not quite ready to start the potty training process.  Our outing also included a stop at Cabela’s where Owen ran around like it was Disneyland. He loved the fish especially and went up and down the escalator about a dozen times.

We’ve been spending Owen’s post-birthday days munching on birthday leftovers and playing with new toys. With only two weekends left of being a family of three, it’s been great to spend time together and enjoy this season while we are still in it. Big change is coming and we are excited!

First ride facing forward in the car

Good times at Cabelas

Enjoying his birthday treats from Toys’R’Us

Eating breakfast at the table like a big boy

I love the month of October. It has always been my favorite month. The month has only gotten better for me now that I can add celebrating my son to list of things to do in October! Owen’s birthday adds to the joy of the month and makes a great kick off to my favorite time of the year. And soon we will add another October birthday to the calendar! While it might be a lot of birthdays in one month, I happen to be a big fan of cake, so bring on the parties!

This weekend we celebrated Owen’s 2nd birthday with two family birthday parties. I am so thankful to all the family members that came out to help Owen feel special and loved. He is truly a blessed boy. This year I was able to host both parties away from my own house. Both set of grandparents agreed to let us take over their homes and create a heap of chaos for a few hours of their weekend. I will admit that I loved this set up! I didn’t have to clean the house before having company over and I didn’t have to clean up after they left. It was perfect! Thank you so much to my parents and Jeremy’s parents for opening your homes to us. We appreciated it so much!

Last year I didn’t do a theme for Owen’s 1st birthday. I kept things very generic in the birthday decorations. I figured Owen didn’t care. He barely understood what was happening. This year I decided we would do a construction vehicle theme since Owen loves dump trucks, diggers and bulldozers. He can even say “backhoe” now which totally took me by surprise the other day. I had vision of how this theme would pan out, but my dream took a step back when I realized the party theme I picked was “online only” and not sold in our local party store like I had thought. Of course, I didn’t have enough time to order the supplies online. Even with paying extra for rush shipping, the supplies might not have arrived on time. This lead to us purchasing solid color plates, napkins and cups in orange, yellow and red. Jeremy kept reminding me that Owen wouldn’t care, but I felt bad that I dropped the ball on the theme tableware. We did get a happy birthday banner with a bulldozer on it, a cake with a dump truck on it,  and a birthday shirt with a dump truck on it. We purchased little mini machine toys to use as decor and then gave them away to the kids who attended the parties since Owen already had the same set at home. We used construction cones and caution tape that Jeremy had from work. While it felt a bit pieced together, it all worked out. Owen had a good time at the parties and I very much doubt he missed the plates and napkins that I mourned.

It was a fantastic weekend and Owen is now happily enjoying the new goodies that he received. We still have his actual birthday to celebrate on Thursday. I feel bad because we had to schedule a doctor’s appointment for me on his birthday, but we are going to do our best to make the day as special as possible. Currently we plan to go to a local farm and maybe even out to lunch at one of his favorite spots – Chipotle. I’m still debating what his special birthday dessert will be. Its a toss up between M&Ms or a brownie. This little boy loves his chocolate. I am excited to do one more day of birthday joy. He’ll have his gifts from Jeremy and I to open and hopefully a whole lot of fun throughout the day. I can’t wait!

Party Day #1

Party Day #2

It’s the first day of October! My favorite month of the year! The trees outside are looking beautiful and I’ve been enjoying the last few adventures that I will have with Owen before his little brother arrives. I know I’ve said it many times, but slowing down is really hard for this little family calendar. There are just too many good and fun things to do.

Last week I got to visit my friend, Christa, while she was recovering from her kidney donation surgery. It was great to see her doing so well after such a big surgery. I am so proud of her strength and I truly admire how awesome she is. It was fun to see her a few times while she was in the northwest. She is back in California now and I miss her being just down the freeway.

Another highlight of September was my forever friend, Maggie, welcoming her little Luke into their family. It’s been fun having Maggie as a pregnancy buddy. I can’t wait for our kiddos to meet each other and hopefully be buddies. On Tuesday, my mom, Owen and I went up to visit Maggie and her little family. Our moms got a chance to talk, Owen got to play with Summer and Maggie and I got to talk about the joys of labor while I snuggled Luke. It’s so fun to watch my friends as parents and be able to bond with them on an even deeper level as we grow our families.

Jeremy was out of town a good part of the week at our annual staff retreat for church/work. Usually, I would attend this event, but it was 4 hours away and that long of a ride in the car would be very uncomfortable at this point. Also, I’m far enough along in my pregnancy that I feel more comfortable staying close to home and my doctor. My mom came to spend the days with us as extra help with Owen. It was greatly appreciated. I do an okay job keeping up with Owen during the day, but the evening can be rough for me. I am worn down and just low on oomph. My mom did an awesome job keeping up with our household chaos.

Today, Owen and I ventured down south to go a farm and pumpkin patch. My sister-in-law invited us to join her mom’s group for the outing and I’m glad she did. My MOPS group will be doing the pumpkin patch scene right after our little guy arrives, so this was really Owen’s one chance to experience the pumpkin patch this season. Owen loved almost all the elements of our outing. He had a blast keeping up with his cousin, Nolan, and meeting Nolan’s friends. He enjoyed the hay bale maze (until he had leave the really cool tunnel and actually complete the maze). He got to pet and fed various farm animals. The highlight for Owen was the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch. He was so obsessed with the tractor that was pulling us. Once we arrived at the pumpkin patch all he wanted to do was get back on the hay wagon. He had no interest in picking a pumpkin. After a bit of struggle, I gave up. I snapped a little pumpkin off the vine and we went to sit in the wagon and wait for the tractor ride back. It was really sweet of Beckie to invite us and I know that Owen really loved the time with Nolan and the farm visit.  Since I didn’t want to use the portable potties that they had available at the farm, Owen and I made a quick stop at Wendy’s before leaving the area. This was my first time going into a restaurant with just Owen. We used the bathroom and had a quick meal. Owen ate 3 fries and drank a milk while I ate a burger. It was a fun little lunch date before we loaded back up to head home.

I thought that my month of October would be a slow and restful one. I pictured myself with next to no commitments and being a total bum. But I don’t think that is going to pan out. This weekend is Owen’s big birthday party weekend. We will get to celebrate Owen turning two with our families. All of our October weekends hold plans and I still have weekly commitments with church and MOPS. I’m trying to not pack the days, but the weeks are turning out to be fuller than I expected. I guess if life gets to be too much for me, I can just start declining my plans. I’m sure people will understand that the pregnant lady needs to slow down and rest. Hopefully! I struggle with wanting to everything and wanting to do nothing… Oh well. I’ll only be in the waiting season for a few more weeks before the next phase of life arrives. I’m trying to enjoy each day for what it is. Especially these times with just Owen and I.

Jeremy and Owen supporting the Seahawks for a few minutes before Jeremy went out of town

Meeting Baby Luke

Snuggling with Grandma before bed

Visiting the farm with cousin Nolan

Tractor love

A quick lunch date after a fun outing