Week 2

We made it through Week 1 and we are all alive and healthy. Sometimes I think I am getting my energy back and other times I feel like I need Diet Coke through an IV. Easton is still adjusting to everything and I am really learning how much patience I lack. Most days in moments of crisis I ask myself, "Does he need a nap or do I?"

Kesler is doing great. He really is such an easier baby than Easton. I didn't know how hard Easton was until Kesler came. He sleeps for long stretches all day and night and only cries when he is hungry or has to burp. I try hard not to pick favorites, but the sweet little baby sure is preferable to our crazy toddler sometimes. I am SO glad I have Soren to help deal with him at the end of the day. I don't know what I would do as a single mom!

Sweet Baby

Crazy Toddler

Thanks for everyone's words of encouragment and support!

Motherhood

Today was my first day on the job of mothering 2 kids. Mom left this morning and Soren went back to work. What a day.

I barely got done the 3 things on my list today and was SOOOOO glad someone else made and brought dinner. Thank you Anne!

Lets just say I take back anything I ever said I thought I knew/know about mothering. My new policy is

"Do Anything You Have To To Maintain Sanity and Survive."

Wish us luck tomorrow.  :)

Kesler Ryan Nickels- He's Here!

The second son of the Nickels family has arrived! It was a whirlwind of an event, but boy are we happy with the results.

With a name soon to be decided, it has been a fabulous last 24 hours and we'd love to share the story. Tuesday October 26th was my official due date and we were feeling ready. All of the errands had been done, Soren had taken off Monday to get his list of to-do's done, the house was clean and the bags were packed. Easton was born the day before his due date so we had good reason to suspect this little one would keep the same plan. On Friday I had been dialated to a 2 and had been contracting for weeks.

Tuesday morning I sent Soren to work, but about 9:30 am I started getting contractions in my lower back. This was exactly how Easton's 5 1/2 hour labor started, so I felt fairly certain things were moving along. I called Soren and he came home from work ready to go. Unfortunately, nothing happened. Things stayed in the same place with no real progression all day. I had consistant contractions, but they were sparce at times and weren't getting any worse. We tried going on a long walk, getting on the elliptical, doing laundry and vaccumming and nothing worked.

To some degree I was okay with this because Easton was having a hard day.  He wouldn't nap with Dad home and when he finally did at 4 pm, he woke up in a terrible mood. It wouldn't have felt right to leave him with anyone at any point that day. So we just spent the day together and wondering when this baby was going to show!

At around 9:30 I showered and my contractions started coming on harder. I was in enough pain to stop what I was doing so we decided to call the hospital. They convinced us to stay home for a while longer and I agreed when I realized that getting to the hospital wasn't going to make the pain go away. (I was planning on another natural delivery.) We started a movie and packed the car up. At 11:00 pm our neighbor came over to spend the night with Easton and we headed out. My contractions were about 5 min. apart and I had to kneel or get down on my hands and knees to get through them. We pulled up the car at the hospital at around 11:20 and left it at the curb.

Soren helped me in and they gave me my gown to change into. During a contration in the bathroom my water broke and went everywhere. I was really glad we weren't still in the car for that! I made it back to triage and they checked me. I was already dialated to a 7! This surprised me, but not for long because the contractions really started coming then. They called for about 6 nurses and my doctor once they saw how fast things were moving. We made it to the delivery room and they tried to get my monitors hooked up. I was in a LOT of pain by then and the breaks between were getting shorter and shorter. I finally got one I just couldn't take anymore- I started yelling/screaming through it and nothing was relaxing. I knew I had to start pushing and could feel him coming. Soren could already see him. After that one long contraction of death, I had one more and his head came out along with the rest of him! Three nurses delivered him; my doctor was halfway to the hospital listening to me scream over the phone. They pulled in a random doctor down the hall to help finish things and we were basically done.

Baby was born at 11:54 pm, about 30 minutes after we arrived at the hospital. He was 7 lbs. 7 oz and 19.9 in. long. (A pound and an inch smaller than Easton- no wonder he slid right out!) It was the best and worst experience of my life. The condensed pain was the worst, but such a short labor is the way to go!

No one could believe how fast things went, oh but I was glad it was over. So, so glad.

We spent the night getting things washed up and checked and even got a little sleep. Soren went home before Easton woke up and even knew we were gone. That was a big stress relief and blessing for me. They came back later that morning and Easton met his little brother. So far, so good. Easton was very curious and kind. He tried to give the baby his binkie and was concered about the band-aid on his foot.

My mom is flying in tonight and will be with us for a week. We get to go home tomorrow morning as long as we all look healthy. I can already tell this recovery is going to be cake- another bonus to a short delivery. I feel great and couldn't be happier.

I love bath time photos!

Dad's first time with him.

Snuggling.

Friends already.

We are so happy to be a family of 4. New babies are so wonderful; I just wish you all could squeeze him and touch his soft little cheeks. We'd love any and all visitors so feel free to come see us.

Family Date to the Pumpkin Patch

We had such a fun time at the pumpkin patch/petting zoo today! I wasn't too opptimistic when it started raining right before we left, but it really turned out great! They had so many kinds of animals and Easton loved them all. We got to feed the ducks and bunnies and the turkeys. Easton just giggled and squealed at how eager all the animals were to eat.

Fun with the ducks

Pygmy goats

Jumping to Dad!

Mom's favorite- the baby pigs!

Brand new ducklings

Even newer ducklings- these were in the process of hatching! It was so cool!

Petting the bunnies

We made it to the pumpkins!

What a great family date!

Taking a Break From Nesting

Well with 4 days left until my due date I'd say nesting is officially in full swing. I have been cleaning and organizing and to-do listing and more cleaning. I told Soren I feel like I am cramming for a test and that as a long as the baby isn't here yet, I've got to keep charging along to get things done. Unfortunately that usually means I over do it and wear myself out. So although the bathroom is calling my name to clean it, I'm taking a break to catch up on the blog.

September was a busy month for us, especially in regards to ONE little BELT. I had the opportunity to fly to Utah for a day to do a boutique sale with my dear friend from college Seidi. Soren and I, especially Soren, worked so hard a long all month getting things ready to go. We printed pamphlets, made over 90 belts, put together packing and a table display. It was quite a whirlwind. The trip was a great get away (all by myself!) and also great experience. We didn't sell as many belts as we had hoped but the exposure was great and we have a good inventory for Christmas now. Thanks so much to Seidi and Danny for putting me up and helping so much!

Our table at the sale.

Seidi and I at the airport-trying again for a decent picture together. :)

Easton and I have been spending lots of time together too. We do lots of sidewalk chalk and playing catch in the parking lot. We are usually having more fun than is pictured below- we just couldn't resist a picture of Easton's face-plant in wet chalk.

Last week we took him on a family date to the Children's Museum in Everett and to Taco Bell. We all had such a fun time. Easton loved all the kids at the museum and all the awesome exhibits. Hopefully tomorrow we'll make it on one more family date to the pumpkin patch.

We are pretty sure he doesn't understand the concept of a brother coming his way, but he is getting much more clingy to me. I think is suspects something. Either way we are doing what we can to enjoy the last few days as a one child family.

As part of my nesting, I have also been couponing A LOT. I feel relatively well stocked on a lot of things now and that eases my mind. Here is a picture Soren snapped on my way out the other night. I usually go on Monday or Tuesday nights after Easton is in bed. Soren wanted to capture the 4" coupon binder in this shot as well. :)

Soren's most recent news is that he got a new bike! This isn't a great picture of it, but if you know anything about bikes you should still be able to tell how awesome it is. :) He dented the frame on his old one this summer at Youth Conference which aparently made it unsafe to ride. Thank goodness for the REI return policy because we were able to return his dented bike and exchange it almost straight accross for this upgraded bike. He is just thrilled and hopes to get a few accessories for his upcoming birthday and Christmas to make it just right.

Otherwise, we are hanging in there. I really don't have too much to complain about although I can tell my body is nearing the end of this stage. I CANNOT wait to have myself back- well relatively speaking. I definitely feel like I have been pregnant my whole life at this point, so don't expect us to be doing this again soon. We don't have a name picked out yet and that is somewhat stressfull to us. If we had a few more solid options we'd feel more prepared. Hopefully something comes our way.

All in all we are very excited for this new little tiny one to join us. It feels very strange to be on the eve of something so life changing, but time will pass either way so we are just trying to make the most of it all. We will try to keep everyone updated as soon as things start happening. Otherwise, wish us luck!

A Few Random Shots From September

 Easton just keeps getting older and hitting new milestones. Not the typical milestones like talking, (we are still working on the whole words thing) but milestones like today when he successfully put on my shoes and walked around the house like a big "boy?" It was really cute and worth documenting. :)

I'm always trying to get him to eat and enjoy something besides Goldfish and fruit snacks so these pictures were also well worth taking. Not sure what the body-builder pose is about. :)

This was probably one of Easton's happiest moments yet. He drank 16 oz of chocolate milk in one setting. We wanted to capture his true reaction, but this doesn't do it justice. His grin was to die for; I think he stopped breathing all together until that milk was gone. He couldn't get enough!

These are actually gloves that go with a book Easton has, but they were just so cute as little monster feet!

This is me at almost 36 weeks. I am due one month from today and ready to have a few of these prego symptoms GONE!

Kilee's 24th and our 4th Anniversary Weekend

I'm late blogging about this, but for my birthday and our anniversary (8/20 and 8/22) we took a long weekend trip down to Oregon and the southern west coast of Washington. It was such a fun weekend and really felt like a vacation for our little family. We went with our friends Sarah and James and their son Emerson. Every year they go down to the Kite Festival in Long Beach, WA. Since we are still pretty  new to Washington we decided to try out their tradition with them.

Soren took Friday off and we left town about 10:00 that morning. I was so happy that the mail man made it in time to deliver my birthday package before we left. Thanks Mom! On the way down we had to stop at Cabella's for the guys to look around. Easton LOVED all the stuffed animals and the fish. Here are some cute pics from there.

Dad's favorite animal- the wolverine!

On the way down I also realized I forgot something. Usually I forget my toothbrush, but this time I forgot pants. Yes, pants. The only pair I brought were the leggings I had on. Seriously I don't know where my brain was. :) So we had to stop at Target and get another pair of leggings to get me through the weekend. I was not about to buy $30 jeans at Target!

We made it to Long Beach that afternoon and set up camp. Our camp site was great with a bathroom nearby and even showers! After a quick trip down to the boardwalk we ate dinner and came back to camp to put the babies to bed. Sarah and James were awesome and surprised me with a cake and presents around the campfire. What a fun birthday!

The next day we went back to the boardwalk for the festival. Easton loved the beach! He and Soren had so much fun running around in it. The kites were all really cool to see; there were so many!

Easton hugging the sand. :)

Kites!

Kites!

Easton found a rock candy sucker in the sand. We aren't sure how he knew it was edible at one point because it was literally a sand pop. He stuck it in his mouth before we saw it and he found out the consequences all on his own. Yuck!

After a day or two at Long Beach we drove down to Astoria, OR and some other beaches. The beach was AMAZING! It was so beautiful! Easton loved it!

In Astoria we climbed The Column. It was a tower that overlooked all of Astoria and the water. The view was neat, but I didn't realize how terrified I would be on the way up. It did not seem safe to me! I guess I have a thing with heights and rod iron railings. Lets just say I was a little nauseaus the whole time, but I toughed it out and at least made it all the way up!



All in all it was a great family vacation! Three days was just enough of a getaway. We hope to do something like it again soon.