Henry's first girlfriend, Samantha

As promised, more updates! I have so much to put on here that I need to do a blog a day for a few weeks. :)

My friends Laura and Justin had their first baby, Samantha, about 2 1/2 weeks before Henry was born. I went to college with Laura and Justin and we have done annual MS150 bike ride together in various states. I was so excited when I found out we were both going to have babies so close in age. I think it will make for years and years of fun getting together (albeit, only a few times a year -- they live in Chicago). I can already see the toddlers in a bike attachment as we pedal 150 miles of some chosen state. :)

They just happened to be in St. Louis when we flew in to visit. So we had to get together to at least have the babies meet. It was so much fun to see them next to one another. Samantha couldn't be cuter and they both were very cooperative with our cameras. Here's some good ones I got of them together and a video, too (I finally figured this one out)! It was so much fun seeing you guys and I can't wait till Sept when we get together again!

Warning -- this is GROSS! (and funny)

Had to quickly share this. I have a thing about sucking boogers out of Henry's nose with the bulb syringe that the hospital sent home with us. I look up his nose to see if I can see anything and then I suck them out. I just feel bad for him because they always look like they're occluding his nares. And he HATES this part of the day. So yesterday I'm sucking his nose out. I think I'm done and trying to soothe him. He sneezes and then this....

I guess he showed me. :) Now we're on guard a bit when he sneezes.

I have so much more to post... St. Louis pictures (we had so much fun with the family and got to see Laura and Justin and their new baby, Sam) and a pretty funny story with great pictures of Daniel's new hair do. More soon! PROMISE. :)

My boys

We laid Henry down for a nap in our bed while we were getting ready for the day. Henry looked so cute just laying there that Daniel laid down impersonating him and I quick grabbed my camera. I took some pictures and within a couple of minutes they were both sound asleep and I had to grab a few more pictures.

Henry's getting to be quite big. He's almost 12 pounds now when I weigh myself and then weigh me and him together. We go for our 2 month visit in a few weeks and then we'll get an official weight and length again. But I'm sure he's growing just by looking at him. He continues to be such a good sleeper and usually lays down at night around 9pm and sleeps till 1am. Then he goes until 6am! Then goes back to sleep until around 9am or 10am. We couldn't be luckier!

We leave to go to St. Louis on Friday! We're going down to Branson with my whole family for a week and I'm so excited to just hang out with everyone and have Henry meet everyone. I'm sure when I get back I'll have lots of pictures to post. Hope everyone is staying cool in the blasting heat! :)

Funny faces

Daniel made some disguises for Henry yesterday. We found this hysterical.

Henry puts up with us so well. :)

Then we did a few without disguises...

Henry is growing like a weed and weighs 10 pounds now -- I weighed myself and then held him on our scale. His face is filling out and he's getting cheeks that don't end. And his eyes are getting a lighter blue everyday -- I think they might just stay blue. Daddy's feet, daddy's eyes. :)

My sister came in last week and I'm horrible cause I didn't take my camera out once! I think we were just having so much fun that I completely forgot about capturing the moment. It was so great having you here Anna and I can't wait to see you in less than 3 weeks! Remind me to take lots of pictures!

We go to Waukon, Iowa on Friday to visit Daniel's family. Then a weekend at home and then to St. Louis. Here's hoping we have a good traveler! :)

Busy weeks

Only a week has gone by and yet I feel like I have enough to write about to make up at least 10 entries! So I'll just pack this one full!

First off, on Tuesday, we went to the doctor with Henry and guess who's 8 pounds 12.5 ounces?! I was so happy and relieved to hear that he'd surpassed his birth weight and then some. He's grown an inch and a quarter since birth too -- 22.75 inches now, which brings him into the 95th percentile for length. His head circumference and weight are both in the 50th percentile. His jaundice is all better now and he left the doctor's office with a clean bill of health. We won't go back until the middle of August for his 2 month.

We can tell he's growing too. Wanting to eat so much that we went and got him a little formula for when my well is dry. :) He's only needed it a couple of times, but we've been very glad we have it when we've needed it! I know you won't know it from these angelic pictures of him, but he can get quite loud when he's dissatisfied and hungry. :)

We got Henry and Teddy's trees purchased and planted this week too! We decided when we were at the nursery looking at trees that we wanted a birch (small, white, and relaxing to watch) for Teddy and a maple (grows and gets big) for Henry. We still need to take pictures of Henry in front of the maple, but here's a picture of Teddy's birch tree. It sits right out the window from the couch in the living room where Teddy loved to soak up the sun and lay. I love sitting at the couch feeding Henry and looking at the tree thinking about Teddy. Hard to believe it was just 3 weeks ago that Teddy died.

My parents came in on Friday and left last night. It was so fun having them here and I hated to see them go last night. We watched some dramatic movies, ate a lot, and did a lot of cuddling with Henry. It was very sentimental watching my parents hold Henry. I just kept thinking of them holding me as a baby and now they're holding MY baby. Images I won't soon forget.

Oh and we got a grill this week! My parents had given us some money for Daniel's birthday and for Henry, since we didn't need the baby furniture that they were planning on buying for us. So we got a grill and I think the whole family is happy with the purchase! Henry's been getting all the yummy iron and protein from it too! :) We ate ribs and rib eye steaks while my parents were in and tonight we're grilling steaks again. Daniel's a really good griller -- watch out Bobby Flay! :) Thanks for the present mom and dad! All three of us love it and will love it for decades to come!

Another busy week this next week. Tomorrow we go vote yet again on a hospital contract, but I think this one will pass. If 50% plus 1 person vote to accept it, NO STRIKE! The hospital gave us our pension and our pay increase and presto, the union accepted. And this strike was all about the patients, it had nothing to do with our personal pay. :) Bologna. I just hope it passes and we can forget about all this mess.

And then Anna comes on Wednesday! I'll post again with pictures from the visit over the weekend!

I'll leave you with this cute photo from yesterday of Henry in his July 4th outfit my parent's brought him. Happy 4th (now 5th) and enjoy the day off if you've got it off!

Where do the days go?

I know I said I'd post more soon, but until today I hadn't even taken a picture of Henry for the week! The days fill up and pass so quickly. Daniel and I have been making a point to doing one thing out of the house each day with Henry. It feels good to go on our outings and Henry seems to like the change of scenery too (he mostly just sleeps). We've been to a coffee shop by our house a few times and today we went for our first walk with Henry in the stroller. It was the first time we'd gone for a long walk without Teddy and the first time we'd taken Henry. I told Daniel that Henry doesn't stop to pee nearly as much as Teddy did. :) We miss Teddy a lot, but Henry has been such a great distraction to help us with our mourning.

Henry goes for his 2 week doctor's appointment on Tuesday and I'm anxious to know what his weight is. He was down to 8 pounds even at his one week appointment, which the doctor said was pretty normal, but would like to see him at 2 weeks and make sure it's consistently going up from here on out. I think that his face is starting to look a little bit fuller and he's been eating really well. So I think he'll be up.

Work has set another strike date that will start July 6th and last as long as there's no contract. Since we're already out on our leave of absence, we should still get our vacation time and our insurance, which is a big weight off our shoulders. I sure hope it doesn't last too long though.

Not too much else going on here. My parents come up Friday and I can't wait for them to finally meet Henry. I'll let you know how the doctor's appointment goes on Tuesday and I'll try to be better about pictures this week! Take care!

Almost a whole week old!

I can't hardly believe that a whole week has almost gone by since Henry's been born. He's proving to be quite the easy newborn -- eating great, sleeping immediately after feedings until he's ready for the next one, and staying up for a few hours every day so that we can look at each other and fall in love with him even more than we had. Last night he slept for 4 1/2 hours straight. He's amazing!

First I'll tell you quick about the delivery and then I'll tell you all about the fun stuff we've been keeping busy with. So last Tuesday I woke around 2:30am and found a puddle underneath me -- my water had broke! I was dreaming about it because I could feel that it had broken and just incorporated it into the dream. So when I woke I was pretty happy that I wasn't just dreaming! I woke Daniel to tell him and he questioned if it was for real. I stood up then and a huge gush came out -- YEP, this was for real. We called the midwife and she said I could wait until my contractions were about 3 to 5 minutes apart. She said to get some sleep and come in once the contractions are steady. Daniel and I still hadn't buried Teddy because on Monday night there was a guy mowing his yard at 9pm that was quite loud. So at 3am we went out into the rain and cried and buried Teddy as contractions started coming now about every 5 min. At 4am we were showering and I thought I'd lay down for a bit. Then a huge contraction came on and I realized there was no more sleeping. We hurried to get everything together and off to hospital we went at 5am. I wasn't sure we were going to make it because I couldn't talk during the contractions anymore and with some of them I felt the urge to push. Daniel drove quickly and stayed very calm and got us to the hospital in 25 minutes. Once I got there it all went so quick. I was at 9cm when they checked me and within 2 hours, Henry was born. Daniel did an absolutely fantastic job keeping me calm and focused. I think he could easy have a future as a doula. :) The whole delivery was beautiful. Daniel set up the video camera in the background and I watched it the other day, which was really fun. I feel so blessed to have had such a smooth delivery and a healthy baby. So blessed. Okay so that was a long story, but there it is.

Since then we've been trying to enjoy every moment. We took our first outing to Menard's the other day. Thought it'd be a good first outing. Henry bought a chisel. :) Then we went to get a nursing bra, which we didn't take any pictures of. :)

This weekend Grandma and Papa O'Hara (Daniel's parents) came up to visit from Iowa. They stayed the weekend and got lots of Henry time in. Daniel's brother's family came up to visit too. Henry is so fortunate to have so many people that love him! Thanks for coming to visit us everyone!

Henry and Grandma and Papa O'Hara (Daniel's parents)

Henry and Uncle Mike (Daniel's brother)

Henry and Aunt Kari (Daniel's sister-in-law)

Henry and cousin Mason

Henry and cousin Kade

Henry and cousin Kyra (with cousin Kylie in background)

(Didn't have a single one of Kylie with Henry -- if you guys do, could you send one?)

I think Daniel had a pretty good first Father's Day. I woke to finding him and Henry at the computer playing poker. Daniel says that Henry has pretty good poker instincts so far. :) Here's a picture of them from yesterday morning at the computer -- their poker faces. :)

July 4th weekend, my parents are coming up for a visit and then for my birthday (July 7th), my sister, Anna, is coming up. Then we'll make our first visit to Iowa in mid July and then to St. Louis in early August. Lots of pictures to come from all of these visits! Thanks for all the well wishes lately! Henry can't wait to meet all of you. Okay, sorry for such a long post this time. Next one will be shorter!