Baby Max is here!!!!

After 39 weeks of waiting, Max is here! We are so happy he decided to actually come!!

Labor and delivery were normal, no major complications (except when the drugs from my epidural ran out - fortunately the nice anesthesiologist came and fixed me up before anything got too bad...). I was worried that this one would be harder to push out - I've never carried a baby this long and my last one was a 6 pounder, but he came out just like he was supposed to in about 3 pushes.
Daddy with the new baby.
Pearl meets Max
Sam meets his new roommate! Well eventually they will be roomies...
Stats
Can you believe the hair? I used to look at fat bald babies and think they were so cute. Apparently I only make the somewhat scrawny hairy variety:)
This boy is already a champion sucker... he is nursing perfectly except he wants to suck ALL THE TIME, so out comes the trusty soothie. As I write this post, he's been going to town on it for like 45 minutes. I love it how the pacifier is as big as his head!

One funny story...

So, we spent sunday night in labor and delivery triage and I was only dialated to a 3 and thick, so they sent me home with some drugs so I could sleep through the contractions. So, that was nice, and at about 11 or 12 monday the contractions that make you wish you were dead started, but they were like 15 minutes apart for 4 or 5 hours. Finally, they came down to 8-10 minutes apart, but STRONG so I told Jared it was time to go. We dropped the kids off at my mom's house, and decided to get a bite to eat before we went in. I was still like 7 or 8 minutes apart, and didn't want to be sent home AGAIN, so we decided to go to Chipotle. I was going to wait in the car, but decided it might be good for me to walk a bit, so in I went. Just as it was my turn to order, I had a contraction and had to pause for a minute - I think the women behind me were looking at me a little strange, as in, why is this lady in labor in Chipotle? Well, we finished ordering and Jared realized that his wallet was in the bag we were taking into the hospital, so he had to run to the car to get it. While I was waiting, the nice lady behind the counter asked me when I was having my baby. "Hopefully in the next few hours" I told her. The lady behind me in line hit her husband and said "I told you so!" and that sparked some stimulating labor conversation. Well, the nice lady behind the counter said "you don't have to wait for your husband" and carried my food to a table for me while Jared paid. Then, she comes to check on me a few times, and the last time she brought me cards for a free burrito and told me to bring the baby in. Never would have thought of this as a ploy to get a free dinner, but apparently it worked! After dinner I was admitted and had the baby about 5 hours later. Yeah Chipotle!

We are so glad Max is here and healthy!

New Pool!!!

Well, this summer it's been a race... what will come first, the baby or the pool? Apparently, much to my disappointment, the pool is the winner. Oh well. At least I can sit in the water until the baby comes out.

Well, it's not REALLY done yet... we just had to try it out anyway! They did the plaster this morning, and when I walked past at about 11:00, the hose was in the pool, and it was being filled with water! How exciting! I knew the kids would be SO HAPPY, so after lunch, we walked out there and Grandpa said we could try it out!!!! Yeah!!!
The water wasn't that deep yet, I wasn't planning on getting all that wet... apparently, I should have worn my suit!

The reason it looks so small is because it IS so small... it's really a big spa/exercise pool. The two big circles at the top in the back are jets that make a current for swimming (like an aquatic treadmill). Actually, you can walk in the current too. We decided to put it in for Great Grandpa Hulbert as he likes to swim for exercise. It's about 18 feet long - perfect for the kids to swim the length:) This will definitely be a relief to the 105+ temps we've had for the past week!

Fire Shoes

As I am STILL waiting for baby, I have gotten ultra prepared. This includes school shopping for Pearl and Sam. I think they are both ready now, until the cold weather hits. Yesterday, we went to the mall and Pearl picked out her first day of school dress and we got new shoes for the kiddos. Nordie's was having a sale, so Pearl got new church shoes and new lightweight tennies for the winter. Sam got some Keens (which I think will be really good for him, especially since it will be HOT for like two months after school starts) and he picked out some Vans with flames on them (picture pending, I promise). Well, you can guess which ones he likes better. Whenever we get new shoes, we try them out to "see how fast we can run." Well, the "fire shoes" are super fast, apparently, because I turned around to hand the shoe boxes to the clerk and he was gone. Gone gone. Like, panicking, other moms searching, calling the security guard gone. Well, it was probably only like 3 or 4 minutes, but it felt like FOREVER that one of the clerks found him running through the girls clothes. He runs up to me, very happy and excited. "Mom, I run FAR!!!" Yeah Sam, I noticed. Now let me padlock you into the stroller so I can go pay...

And they call the thing RODEO...

We went to the Folsom Rodeo for the first time this fourth of July. It was so fun!

Thanks to Grandma Hulbert, both Pearl and Sam were decked out like cowboys and cowgirls:)

Sam adored the whole thing...the rickety bleachers, the cattle wrestling, the bucking broncos...
They had all the kids come into the arena to look for money and have a dance contest... Sam kept trying to escape his dad's notice so he could go ride a horse. That didn't work out for him so well.
My favorite part was the skydiver who landed in the arena with a huge american flag. Super cool. It was fun, but I wouldn't recommend it to someone else as pregnant as I was... sitting that long on wooden bleachers not so fun. Towards the end, while they were getting the fireworks ready, Pearl and I went to the car and spread out a blanket to lie on and watch the fireworks. That was great!

The next morning, Sam woke up super early (considering we didn't get home until like midnight) and said "Where's my hat? I need to be a cowboy! Let's go to the RODEO!!!!" Apparently, it was a big hit!

grateful

Ok, so I know I complain about being pregnant A LOT. And, I'm fairly nervous to have three kids to take care of... two is so easy, especially when they're three and six and Sam's potty trained and they play so well together...

Anyways, Jared had some business associates in town from China for several weeks, and he invited them up for dinner at our house. After making dinner (always more exhausting than it seems it will be) and having had a very full day, I was TIRED. Then, of course, Sam has a potty accident while we're eating, and I think, I really can't handle this. I just can't.

Later on, one of the guys was watching Sam and Pearl play. They were playing the "Pearl thinks she can pick Sam up game but she really can't" so it kind of turns into a bear hug with Sam lifting his feet off of the floor. He mentioned to me how lucky I am. He has a son a little older than Sam, and that is all of the children he is allowed. He was so sad that his son would never have a playmate like my kids have.

So, I am grateful. Grateful I am strong enough and have the ability to carry these babies. Grateful that I can make my own choices (yes, I know I have only myself to blame for the craziness that is about to ensue...) I'm even grateful that I haven't delivered yet, (only after many lectures from my mother, the NICU dietician...). Grateful to have such good kids already, hopefully Max follow suit! Grateful to have such a great husband who works so hard to support us so well. I'll probably still complain, like about the parts where I can't even cut my own toenails or shave my legs or the fact that I have to get all the way up just to turn over at night, but this too shall pass... soon, I hope:)

Last Day...

So, the last day was fairly eventful. Sam escaped the supervision of 13 adults to take a walk down to the beach by himself (talk about a heart attack for me) and was discovered by Uncle Paul with poopy pants. Great. Shortly after that, we left and headed to Monterey so the kids could visit the aquarium one more time. By this time I was TIRED, so I skipped the aquarium and got a manicure and pedicure down the street instead. Brilliant, I was in a much better mood by then.

Then we had lunch at El Torito overlooking the bay, it was really neat. Jared really wanted to drive down to Big Sur to see the cliff coast, so we took off next. It was kind of funny, you know, the kids were supposed to be enjoying the drive, but we had to keep telling them to look out the window. "Can we watch a movie?" No! You're supposed to be appreciating this!!! Maybe next year...or the year after...:)

We did stop and take pictures using my tripod and remote, which was fun. Well, I mean, the last thing you really want when you're 35 weeks pregnant on the last day of your vacation when you've been traveling for hours and you're wearing a men's extra large t-shirt is to be in a picture, but my camera toys were fun and at least there is a record that I was there.

Fun Vacation! Can we go back now?

Fish Market

So, pretty much the only request Jared had besides visiting the aquarium was to find a fish market and buy and cook some fish. I mean, you just have to at the beach, right?

Well we tried a few, but the one we ended up at was Phil's Fish Market in Moss Landing. It was super cool. The kids really enjoyed looking at the fish with him. He ended up buying tuna steaks, which he then had fun cooking.

Pearl meets an oyster.
Sam and the lobsters
While we were out on our fish buying adventure, the rest of my family was building a bonfire at the beach. The kids and I went down there while Dad was geeking out about his fish and garlic oil and whatnot. While we were there, Pearl suddenly shouts "There's a fish on the beach!" We ran over to find a baby Dolphin (about 3 feet long) beached on the shore. It had some cuts on it's belly, and blood on it's tail. Well, Uncle Peter and Uncle Tim couldn't let it just sit there. So, they very patiently help it work it's way back past the waves. I hope it made it. I just wish I had my camera! I think Annie got some pics, I'll add them to this post later. It was very exciting for the kids, they got to touch it before it made it back. Pearl kept saying the rest of the night, "I have sharp eyes. Don't you think I have sharp eyes? I was the first one to see that fish."

Races

Ok, just a few more vacation posts...

One thing that was so fun was that thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Weir all of the kids got two wheel bikes this year, so we taught them about races. Pretty much, this is how it went.

Pearl was VERY into it, she was so excited about winning. Unfortunately, though she is three years older, she is not the most coordinated of the cousins. She did win the running races, at least, the advantage of much longer legs!

Lizzie creamed them every time in the bike races. She's been practicing! She's also very coordinated for a three year old:)

Sam thought it was great fun. Most of the time, he would forget to start because he was so happy looking at the other kids. He kind of needed a one on one support adult to participate. When he would finally get to the finish line, he was pretty sure that he won too!

Jack did pretty good, especially as the only 2 year old. I think he just really liked that he could ride bikes with the other kids... it's hard to be the youngest, sometimes.

With 4 Weir grand babies being born this year, I'm sure there will be more races to come...