Week Three: Our pumpkin went to the patch


Pumpkin patch: Judah was sporting his cute little outfit thanks to Grandma Barb. We took advantage of the small window without rain and went to spooner farm with the Fores. Judah fell asleep in the car and then was so cold he just kept his little eyes closed and body curled the entire time. Maybe next year he will actually look around and notice he is at the pumpkin patch.

Judah discovered his thumb this week. This baby pretty much always wants to have something soothing him whenever he is up. Good thing we got a ton of pacifiers

Judah was still sick this week with a stuffy nose so I took him back to the doctors. They said he does not have anything wrong except a cold so we should just keep giving him saline nose drops. I let him hang out in his jammies all day that day cause he just sounded so miserable and looked so comfortable.

Books, Books, Books: We read a lot of books this week and got some skin to skin time with Daddy

Week Two: Getting the swing of things!

Because Judah has been having such a hard time sleeping at night Joshua used $ Grandma Shadle sent us to buy him a swing! He loves it in here and it has been a huge help for me to be able to put him down! 

This week we had Judah's first doctors appointment, a lactation appointment, and his circumcision. So we really got to practice loading up the car seat and supplies this week!

His appointments went well. He lost a little weight as to be expected but everything looked good. The circumcision was scary for me but he handled it like a champ. Dr. Grubb gave us a little trick and dipped his pacifier in sugar water for him.

Lactation appointment also went well. I do not produce enough milk so we have to supplement and the specialist gave me tricks for that. Judah however did not like the special tube we were using and made a huge mess of himself so we have stopped using that!

Judah got a bad cold this week and I was lucky enough to get one of his darling sneezes on camera! Unfortunately he is so stuffed up he can not lay flat so he has spent a lot of time sleeping in our bed or on the couch with me. He is loving it but it sure does not make for a good nights sleep for us.

Judah's first week!

                                            

Heading to the hospital

Tuesday:

On Tuesday I went into labor with my son. Joshua and I really wanted him to come early but it started on his due date. I went for a walk with Kaaryn in the afternoon, went to my doctors appointment, ate 5 star curry and started contractions 30 min later. Joshua and I were afraid that it would be false labor or stop so I walked around the house and neighborhood for the next 4 hours and then we headed to the hospital. Unfortunately they were very full when we got there. The front desk told us the baby center asked them if a bus of pregnant women had showed up because I was the 6th in a row. Because of the busyness I got left in a cold room by myself (with Joshua) and strapped to some machines so I could not get up and move. This slowed down my contractions and after an hour they sent me home :(

Wednesday:

But that didn't last long because when we got home my contractions picked back up. Joshua got some sleep and when he woke up an hour and a half later and found me in the chair delirious, moaning, and sick he put me back in the car.

When we got back to the hospital they checked me and discovered my contractions were about 2-3 min apart. They got me all set up and within 2 hours it was time to push. After two hours of pushing my Son was born. He had to come out side ways of course to keep it interesting. He was born at 9:37am 20.2 inches and 7.6 lbs. Joshua got to cut his cord right away which caused him to get teared up and was fun to see. We are so excited Judah is here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday:

Judah passed all his tests at the hospital except the hearing test (100% in one ear and 90% in the other) so we get to go home today. We have to come back in two weeks to redo the hearing test once the fluid in his ear is dried up. At home we got settled in and ready to adjust to newborn life. Judah and his cousin Mia finally got to meet! What surprised me the most is when it was time for bed we had so much stuff we had to haul from downstairs to upstairs. Speaking of night time, that is the least pleasant time for us. In the womb Judah was a nighttime sleeper but now he stays up from his dinner time nap all the way until 3am. We have got to figure out how to break that pattern.

Friday:

Judah got some visitors today! My friend Savanna who is expecting twins herself and my cousin and his wife. Lucky for them he was happy and asleep when they were over and then stayed up half the night again. All of us are getting very tired staying up all night so we took a family nap! The dogs are doing great with him. Echo is very protective and wants to know where Judah is at all times. He will run around to the pack and play, car seat, couch, etc until he finds him.

 Saturday:

 Today was going to be Judahs 1st bath at home. However it ended up going differently then planned. Joshua was changing Judah when he got his first experience with Judah peeing while the diaper was off. Joshua picked up our naked pee-soaked baby and told me to get the bath stuff ready. Unfortunately everything was still in packaging and had tags on it. So I ran around frantically while Judah cried and Kaaryn laughed a us. We finally got him in the bath and figured it out from there. Of course we have no pics because the whole thing was rushed. I look forward to him umbilical cord coming off so we can put him in the shower!

                               Hanging out with daddy

Sunday:

Judah's newborn pictures! My friend Katie blessed us with the pictures for free as my baby shower present I am so excited to get them. It was a long day because we wanted to keep Judah asleep for them so every time he woke up a little I fed him. I was exhausted when we got home. Here is a sneak peak video she created for us:

Sneak Peak at Judahs newborn photos

Day 37 HOME SWEET HOME

Joshua and I got up at 1:45 am after about three hours of sleep to drive the 13.5 hours home. Which since I don't drive stick and I was sick Joshua did the whole thing! Usually i always stay up when Joshua was driving but this time I left on my Pj's and put my seat all the way back and got out my sleeping bag! I had a hard time sleeping but got a few hours off and on. At one point we almost hit a bird and that scarred both of us but other then that it was a pretty uneventful drive home just very very long.

When I got home I went and got out my precious pup and he was so excited to see us he peed in three different spots in the driveway while running and jumping around.

Joshua and I had such a blast traveling and seeing family and friends. We thank you all who were praying for us and checking in! It is nice to be home and back in the routine but I will sure miss traveling the country.

                                                                home sweet home

Day 36 Lake Tahoe

So even though I slept over 13 hours last night I still woke up sick this morning. Krista and Michael had gotten up early to go hiking but we had passed on that and the rest of the family decided to go play mini golf. Since I was not feeling well I wanted to stay home and rest and Joshua stayed with me and packed. Below are some pictures from their outing.

When they got back from golfing we packed up lunch and headed to the beach. Even though I was beat it was still nice to lay in the sun. Joshua and Willie went snorkling and some very few fish but the water was very clear and it gave them something to do for an hour. My sisters and I laid in inner-tubes and floated around.

Tristan wanted to get on the inner tube with Krista and he insisted on wearing my snorkel mask even though he would not put his face in the water. It was a little big and his upper lip would get caught in it haha.

Joshua and I enjoyed soaking in the last of our sun before we had to head home!

When we got back to the condo we finished packing up and played games the rest of the evening. We had decided to leave in the middle of the night to make it home by four tomorrow so Joshua could go to the union hall and fill out some paperwork he was supposed to have in.

Day 35 Lake Tahoe

Today we decided to go to visit some wineries and fruit farms and have a picnic lunch. Another activity that my sister had researched and found. It was about an hour drive out into the country but we got see seem some beautiful property. My favorite spot was where we had a picnic lunch. The grounds were very pretty and they were preparing for a wedding that weekend.

They had this darling sign posted

After lunch while some of our family was doing tastings Joshua and I played with Tristan. He decided it would be fun to run up to Joshua and push him down and make this growling noise. Well the first time Joshua dropped to the ground really quick which made Tristan fall on top of him. After that every time Tristan would just run and jump in the air and fall on top of Joshua while he pushed him. He was having so much fun it was a joy to watch.

After we left there we went to a fruit farm and picked up a huge basket of Jalapeno's for 50 cents! And we got dressing and marinades! Yummy.

At the last winery Joshua found this great garlic olive oil for dipping! We got a lot of great things today!

When we got back to the condo I realized I did not feel good so I decided that even though I wanted to stay up and play games I had better go to bed. So I turned in at 7 pm :( while Joshua stayed up and had fun. 

Day 34 Lake Tahoe

My older sister Krista and her husband Michael have turned into hiking Machines so they picked out another hike for today. We decided to drop one car at the base on the hike today and drive to the top so that we only had to hike one way. It was going to be a 4.5 mile hike and we had afternoon plans so we did not want to hike all the way back.

We were hiking along the ridge of Lake Tahoe and the waters were VERY clear and beautiful. I wish I had my swim suit!

It took Willie several tries to get this photo because he kept having to climb on a rock and set up the camera and then jump down and run over. Unfortunately he is in the shade :(

Tristan got pretty tired on the hike and took a nap but made sure to keep a grip on Willies tripod. He was actually pretty funny about his backpack carrier. He did not want to be in there at first but after about a mile he settled in and did not ask to walk any more!               

The problem with this hike is they do not label the trails very well there. My sister kept assuring us that the parking lot was somewhere before we would at a old house. So when we arrived there we were a bit confused where to go next and there were not any signs. We knew we had hiked more then 4 miles and still had to make it up to the parking lot. We continued on our trail until we realized we were almost at a campground that we knew was about .5 miles down the road from the parking lot. We turned around and started asking people and finally found out we had to go back to the house and go straight up a small service road for about a mile. The bad news for me is that Joshua took off running up the hill so he could go to the lower parking lot and drive up to get us to save time... unfortunately he did not know my inhaler was in his backpack. So I spent a long mile uphill hike wheezing and being pathetic but I made it!!!! And of course when i got to the top I remembered that I had felt a little sick that morning so I had cough drops in my pocket... which I would have remembered that have a mile earlier. The methanol cleared me up in no time! We think we ended up hiking about 6 miles. It sure was beautiful views though.

On our way home we stopped at an awesome burger joint for lunch! They serve you HUGE burgers and   plates of fries. We got garlic fries and pesto fries yummy. We all ate WAY to much but it sure was good.

We met up with my mom and aunt Becky and Lexi to go up to Skaw Valley where they had the winter Olympics years ago. 

    Tristan was very excited to ride the gondola and so were we......................................

                            

At the top we looked around and went in the Olympic Museum. 

My Aunt Becky and Lexi went in the pool up there but I thought it was a bit to cold and windy. 

The best story of the day was when we were getting ready to leave. Tristan was running on the gravel and fell and cut his hand an knee. We were trying to catch the gondola so Michael picked him up and carried him while he screamed. When we got in line Tristan could have calmed down but was still upset. So we were standing there looking at a full car of people while Tristan screamed his head off. Michael and Krista tried to reason with him and give him choices. they explained we could either stop crying and ride the car on we needed to wait for the next one. Well my precious nephew decided to say in the most whinny voice...."I wanted to cry in the car going down" and then continue with screaming. That got several laughs from the people already inside the car and made it clear we would be waiting 20 min for the next one to come. Another awesome day on the Meeks Road trip.