I'm an aunt!

Again.  But this time on my side of the family.  Stephanie gave birth to boy/girl twins last Saturday.  Jesse & Hailey were born 11 weeks early!  They have had a couple of rough patches, but are both doing well despite being born so prematurely.  Hailey was 2 lb 12 oz and Jesse was 2 lb 9 oz.  SO tiny!  I can't believe Stephanie and Jay are parents now!  It's so exciting!  I know they will do a wonderful job and be the best parents.  I love these babies so much already, and I haven't even met them yet.  I can't wait to meet them in April.

Jesse Jay

Hailey Jane

2 months already!

Grayson is already 2 months old!  I can't believe how quickly time has flown.  :(  I love seeing him reach new milestones, but can't time just slow down?  This week I'm packing away the newborn clothes.  Grayson is already 14 lbs (according to the home scale) and growing out of the newborn sizes.  He's even getting close to growing out of some of his 0-3 month stuff.  I do have to say that I LOVE this stage, though.  Over the past week Grayson has become a lot more social.  He is smiling at us a ton, and just tonight he started cooing and "talking" to me.  I was holding him as Allen and I were watching a show, and I'd look down and he'd be staring up at me with a big grin on his face as if to say, "Come on, Mom. Play with me."  I love the cute little sqeaks and squeals he makes and wish I could record everything.  Before I know it he'll be 3 years old!  Here are some of my favorite pictures.

 Grayson with his Grandma Wilcox.

 Grayson with his Grandma Williams.

 Grayson with Great-Grandma Williams

He learned a new trick!

Introducing Grayson Daniel Wilcox

Grayson Daniel was born on January 18, 2011, at 4:18 p.m. He weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and was 20 inches long.  This was my 2nd VBAC, and was a lot harder than the first.  Here is his birth story.  Don't read if you don't want to know the details. ;)

My mom came from Seattle on Monday afternoon.  I had been telling Grayson that his Birthday would be Monday night or Tuesday, so I guess he is a very obedient baby.
Tuesday morning at 8:45 a.m. I rolled out of bed achy from a long night at 9 months pregnant . I went to the bathroom and saw blood, so I knew something was starting. Called my midwife, Gretchen Faucett, and she said to wait around and see if any contractions started. By about 10 a.m. I was sure labor was starting--I was getting contractions about 10 minutes apart that didn't feel like my normal Braxton Hicks contractions.

Allen and I showered and got ready to head to the hospital (about a 40 minute drive). I got to Labor and Delivery and they put me in a closet. LOL Ok, not really, but it was not one of their regular L&D rooms, it was just a tiny monitoring room. Pretty sure they thought they'd be sending me back home. I was checked and 3-3 1/2 cm (same as I was at my appointment last week). DH and I walked the halls for about 40 minutes and they checked me again at 12:45 p.m. I had made some progress (though, only to about 4 cm), so they admitted me and gave me a "real" L&D suite.

Around 2:45 they checked me again and the nurse said I was still at 4cm. My midwife "agreed" with her at the time, but told me once she left the room that I was more like 6 cm.  She broke my water at that point and the contractions started coming stronger and closer together. And boy, were they intense! A little before 4:00 I called Gretchen in and told her I was feeling more pressure and thought it would be time to push soon. She stayed with me through a few contractions and agreed that he would be here soon. I started pushing at about 4:00 and he was born at 4:18 p.m. on 1/18/11. He weighs 7 lb 6 oz and is 20 inches long with lots of blonde hair. I think he looks like Allen.

I had absolutely NO pain meds this time. No epidural, not even stadol/nubain like I had with Torrin, and believe me it was HARD. With Torrin I remember feeling little to no pain while pushing. It actually felt good to push (of course that was only for 7 minutes). But this time, pushing was TOUGH and I still felt the contractions through the pushing. My mw said he was kind of at a weird angle and it took a bit for him to get under my pubic bone. I ended up with only a tiny tear or two, so I just needed a couple stitches for that.

Grayson and I are doing well.  He is a little jaundiced, so we've had to go in for some heel pokes, but his numbers are stable now and should be dropping soon.  He is nursing well and is already starting to get chubbier.  Though, he still has those cute scrawny little legs.

Pile o' Wilcox Boys

We added Grayson to our little family this week.  I'm definitely outnumbered around here.  :)

The pregnancy so far.

As I was reading through my old journals I found myself wishing I had written more about my pregnancies and what I was feeling & when.  So, this post is probably more for me than anyone else.  (I don't blame you if you want to just skip it).

Today I am 32 1/2 weeks pregnant.  To be perfectly honest, I still feel great!  I know by this time with Torrin I was so ready to be done with pregnancy, and with Hayden I was so HUGE that I'm sure I was miserable by now.  (Again, wish I had written more about those pregnancies).  I'm definitely looking forward to meeting this baby and getting to know his personality (and losing the weight), but I'm not completely uncomfortable.  (Of course, maybe there's still time to get there).  Over Thanksgiving I was pretty miserable, but I think that was because of all the food I ate (both in the car, and the actual Thanksgiving food).

Weight: (No, I'm not going to share the number, but if you REALLY want to know, I'll tell you.  It's not a secret.)  I've gained 26 lbs so far with this pregnancy.  Still hoping to keep it under 30, but we'll see.  Most of that weight came between weeks 16 & 28.  I was consistently gaining 1.6 lbs a week during the 2nd trimester.  Once I hit 27/28 weeks, my appetite plummeted, and the weight gain slowed down (with the exception of the week of Thanksgiving, but we won't talk about that).

Exercise:  I was doing really good for a while during the 2nd & beginning of the 3rd trimester (I even did The Firm a few times), but I think the holiday has thrown me off.  I've only exercised once or twice since Thanksgiving.  Part of that is because I sold my elliptical, and part is because I just haven't gotten the motivation back.  My recumbent bike is a bit awkward with my growing belly.  I'm hoping to find an inexpensive or used treadmill sometime soon.  It's just too COLD to walk outside, and I want to do a lot of walking as I approach my due date.

Aches & Pains:  Like I said, I'm feeling pretty good.  But I'm going to write about the few aches and pains I HAVE experienced.  Around 26 weeks I started to get some light cramping (probably braxton hicks contractions), but it has mostly gone away since then.  (Though, I was a little worried I was in early labor while driving in the car on our road trip).  Sometimes in the evenings my back or ribs are pretty sore, but it hasn't been too terrible (yet).  The rib pain was probably the worst over Thanksgiving--at that point I wasn't sure I'd be able to make it to full-term.  ;)  When I do a lot of walking I get some pelvic pain/pressure, which is no fun.  These are all just the things you put up with to get a baby.  :)

Overall I feel pretty darn good.  I don't know if that's because I haven't hit the "miserable" phase yet, or because I started this pregnancy 18 lbs lighter than I did with Torrin.  I guess we'll see what the next few weeks bring.

Baby:  Baby is doing great!  He is measuring perfectly and moving around all the time.  At my 31 week appointment, my midwife estimated his weight to be about 4 lbs.  (Which, BTW I love my new midwife and will be delivering at LDS Hospital, where Allen works.  Allen has always worked in hospitals since I've known him, but I've NEVER delivered at his hospital even when it was the closest.  Now that it's 45 minutes away, I think I'll go there.  LOL  I guess that just means extra visits from co-workers?).  Anyway, baby is doing well, and is still turning a lot in there.  I just hope he decides to settle into a good position before I go into labor.

Did I mention I CAN'T WAIT until I get to meet this little guy?

Here I am yesterday at 32w3d.

And just for fun, here I am in the same shirt at 20 weeks.

Soccer guy.

I didn't post about Hayden's first soccer season yet.  He did soccer through Clinton City.  He absolutely loved it.  It was so much fun to watch him run and play so hard.  He never stopped running, even when he got tired and his feet started to drag.  He came very close to making a goal in the first game, but for the most part he left that up to his teammates.  He was so cute.  Often he would get into the action, kick the ball once, and then let someone else take over.  Kind of like he was thinking, "Ok, I kicked it, now it's someone else's turn."  Here are a few pictures.

A couple things about Hayden.  It's hard to believe that he'll start Kindergarten next year.  He just lost his first tooth and has another loose one.  That was pretty exciting.  He is SO smart!  I think he is going to be our techie.  He can already do 1st grade level math (he gets that from me).   He can write his name now, and he's still a bit of a perfectionist, so he gets frustrated easily if something is off.  We are working on reading with him, and he already has a couple books that he can read to Torrin.  He has a REALLY good memory.  Once we were listening to Backyardigans in the car, and they requested one of the songs.  We weren't sure which number it was, so I asked Hayden and he didn't hesitate to answer "Number 4".  Sure enough, he was right.  And of course, he LOVES his video games.  We have to limit him because he would play ALL day if we let him (and yes, we have let him before).  He has a great imagination.  He likes to tell stories and add to the bedtime stories that we tell (often correcting us when the story is "wrong").   He is getting to be quite the helper too.  He will help me clean the bathrooms and clear/set the table.  I am so proud of him and happy to be his Mom.

A 3-year-old and Halloween. (A picture post).

 Hayden just needs the tongue hanging out, and who does he remind you of?

Ok, I just have to add that I can't believe Torrin is 3-years-old already.  He is sick today, and it makes me so sad for my sweet little "baby". ("I not a baby, Mom, I a BIG boy!").  His speech has really improved in the last few months, and he has become quite the chatterbox.  At the end of June, we couldn't even understand him and got him into speech therapy.  But we only needed one session with the Speech Pathologist before we decided he didn't need it.  Now we can understand almost everything he says.  He is such a BOY.  He loves to run, jump, growl, and anything else that little boys like.  Instead of stuffed animals (which he'll take some nights), he prefers to sleep with balls.  Often he will have a collection of 5 or 6 small balls in bed with him.  He's such a cuddle bug, which I love, and other times he is so independent and can easily entertain himself for hours.  He has the sweetest disposition.  If he hurts anyone, on purpose or by accident, he is really quick to give them a hug and say sorry.  You can see that it just breaks his heart that he hurt someone.  I love this little man!