Introducing Ian!

Well, it's been nearly a week now that Ian has actually been around to hold and cuddle! It was a tough choice choosing between Ian, Kingston, Brighton, Cobalt, and Conner- but Ian was the name that suited our little man the best. That's right, he was born Wednesday May 9Th, as planned. (Coincidentally he just happened to be born 5 years from the day after I entered the MTC on my mission to Portugal- hard to believe it's already been that long!!!) He was 8 pounds 7 ounces, and 21 inches long. I was originally supposed to go into the hospital early Wednesday morning to be induced but the hospital called me Tuesday evening and told me I would have to wait before coming in. Seems there was a baby explosion at the Orem Community hospital that prior day. The hospital has 24 individual delivery rooms, and every one of them plus two operating rooms and 4 overflow rooms were all occupied with pregnant women, or post pregnant women and crying babies. Amazing what Spring time does to the earths population! Anyhow- I was sort of relieved to hear I wouldn't have to wake up super early for my induction- instead I got a good night sleep and had time that Wednesday morning to tidy things up around the house and Noah and I took the car out to the car wash. I wasn't sure when the hospital was going to call to have me come in and be induced, so Spencer and I just kinda chilled all morning waiting for the call. They finally called around 2:30 and had me go in at 3pm. It took a little while to get settled into our room and get all the paper work signed, but by 5pm they had already given me my Epidural (which made the delivery extremely pleasant) and they'd started my patosin. By 8pm I was ready to go, and by 8:14pm, in the middle of the 4Th quarter of the Jazz playoff game I'd delivered Ian. Like I said, with the epidural most the labor was pleasant, all though, in the last 10 minutes before I began to push, it had completely worn off and I was experiencing back labor (definitely not fun at all!). The Anesthesiologist was busy with another patient so there was no second dosing of the epidural unfortunately. I did have an allergic reaction to the tape the nurses used to keep my IV pick line in, so now it looks like I have leprosy on my right hand- I'm hoping it will go away soon. This delivery was much different than the one I had with Noah surprisingly. Ian is 2 1/2 inches longer than Noah was, and almost a pound heavier than Noah had been. He was born without any complications, just some Jaundice, so I got to keep him in the room with me- Noah had been born with a multitude of problems so they immediately took him away into the NICU and I didn't get to see him at first for 6 hours after he'd been born. We got to bring Ian home after a day and half, where as with Noah, he stayed in the NICU for nearly a week. Like I said, it's just interesting how each child can be completely different from one another- and it's extremely hard not compare the two- we have no favorites though of course. It's amazing how we can share so much love for both. Ian is super lean and strong- he has really long arms and super long narrow feet. He has quite a bit of hair with a little curl to it, although it's not quite as long or as dark as Noah's was. He's got a ton of blond peach fuzz all over his body and he's got a blond crows peak on the top of his forehead- poor thing already needs to shave. He has perfect little dimples- we're not quite sure where he got those, since neither Spencer or I have dimples- but we'll let him keep them. We're still not too sure who he looks like- I think if we had to decide we'd say he looks more like my side of the family- where as Noah resembles Spencer. He has a good set of lungs- he's a screamer- fortunately though, he only cries while we're changing him or if he's hungry- or if Noah gets a little rough with him (it's not too often that Noah forgets to be gentle with Ian, but when Noah is tired, that's when he starts getting a little rough). It's so weird hearing Ian cry, I love it actually and I think it's soo cute, so different- Noah never cried- he just mumbled or growled. We're adapting pretty well to the new addition in our family- I think the hardest thing about bringing home another baby is finding a new routine that will work for all us. Everything takes just a little bit longer to get done so we can get out the door. I've been having a hard time staying put at home and relaxing- so I've been out and about. Last Saturday I had to pick up something at the mall, so I made a quick visit to the Baby Gap. While I was there, some lady asked me how old my baby was and after I told her, she had the nerve to ask me what I was doing at the mall with my baby! I could tell by her tone- she was really implying I shouldn't be out with a newborn. I kinda wanted to tell her to take her opinion some where else- but instead I walked away from her. There's something about the women here in Utah County... My mom was here until Sunday evening to help out- she mostly helped by watching Noah- I really appreciated it. I know he enjoyed the extra attention. He's been getting away with staying up a lot later at night than he's used to. He's also really been sneaky a lot lately- I keep catching him out of the corner of my eye, popping the pacifier out of the baby's mouth or taking the baby's bottle so he can enjoy it for himself! What a sneak! I loved having my mom around- it made her visit extra special since she was here with me on Mothers Day. Now that she's been gone over the last few days, I've really begun to miss her and the help she offered. Spencer's been wonderful helping me and helping out with the kids. Noah has even stepped in and he's been a big help. He enjoys throwing away dirty diapers in the diaper pal. He's quite proud of his little brother. In the hospital, he was all too eager but to show off his little brother to all of our visitors. When we brought Ian home last Friday, Noah had just gotten out of the bath, immediately he tried to pull Ian out of his car seat- he wanted to hold him right away. After we did get Ian out of the car seat, Noah ran off for a minute and returned with three of his favorite toy cars, all of which he wanted to share with Ian. It will be a little while before the day comes that the two of them will be playing cars with one another, but it looks promising that the two of them will be friends. It's funny how bringing home a new baby makes us suddenly look at Noah differently and see that he's no longer really a baby himself, but he's beginning to become a big boy. His vocabulary is expanding pretty fast these days. He's finally learned the word "no", and in what context to use it. For a while there, I was afraid he'd never understand what "no" really meant- I thought he figured it was a nickname we used for him. (get it, "no"- "Noah", couldn't you see how a kid could get a little confused.) Yesterday, Noah coined the phrase "I'm done now." I'm not really sure where he learned it, but he let me know after he'd spent a hour in the bath that he was done playing. One of my favorite things Noah says is "Oh geez". The first time I heard him ever say it was once after I told him to come down the stairs- he replied with "Oh geez!". The kid is too hilarious. He's got quite the personality on him. OK, well, it's early in the morning still, I'm watching music videos on MTV, I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd take advantage of my alone time and write some. Oh yeah, this is just a funny side comment- when I told my sister Tricia we were going to name the baby Ian, she asked what it meant. Well I explained that we'd read there were multiple meanings for the name Ian- it's origin is Scottish. Various meanings of the name are "Believer", "God is Gracious" and "Handsome". When I said the name means "Handsome" my sister said " Boy that's kinda vain don't you think", that's when I reminded her, she had just named her last baby girl "Bella" which means "Beautiful". Oh it's getting hot here in Utah- just another hint that summers just around the corner. We just got our Seven Peaks passes- for which I'm truly excited- and I need to remember to sign Noah up again for swimming lessons. One of my friends just asked me about stretch marks and if they go away- wouldn't I love it if they did! I love bringing a new baby home, but I'll be honest, I think post delivery is always a little depressing cuz then you see what pregnancy has done to your body and what new physical flaws I have to work on. Wouldn't it be nice if my body was like Heidi Klum's and I could strut my stuff on the walk way 3 weeks after having a baby! Things to do along with being a wife and mother- #1 get a tan #2 get rid of the baby chub. Is that too vain?