Happy Thanksgiving!

"Hi. I'm thankful for boobies. Burp."

Tiny Bubbles

Our little man sure does love bath time!

"Hi. Burp."

The bath time below was a result of some major explosive poop time on Grandma Marian. He has never done this to us before (yet), so the inaugural flying poop was quite a surprise when she went to change him for the first time. It was a bit ironic that we have lived here for months without a drop of anything on the carpet and then the last night in town, a mustard poop shower. We sent Grandpa "The Dude" Lloyd on a carpet cleaner run - the stain was quite persistent.

"All clean! The carpet, however, is another story..."

It's all True...

...The sleepless nights, the poop, the pee, the crying, the fussing, the cuddles, the sore nipples (mine, not his), the poop, the hiccups, the poop, the crying - it's all true. He is still super cute (at times) and is coming along with some basic eye contact skills, but I really love catching tiny glimpses of a smile. Yes, it's probably gas but I don't care - I'll take it. It's the only thing keeping me going in this sleep-deprived and hormonal state at this point.

Some snippits from the quote log this past week:

After realizing Landon was breech and my time spent in labor at home was ultimately futile:

Nurse: Well you should have just come in sooner and saved yourself a few extra hours of unnecessary labor.

Kate: *Glare*

After using diaper cream for the first time (and liberally):

Erik: "Landon, you have enough butt paste on you to paste 8 butts together."

While we were roto-rootering our son with a thermometer to stimulate a bowel movement over the weekend:

Erik : "Maybe we should put on some soothing music or something for him."

Kate: "I don't want him to have a complex about Jack Johnson for the rest of his life."

Peace and diaper grease,
Kate

Birth Story: Landon James Halvorson

Around 3:00a on Tuesday morning, November 2nd, 2010, I woke up with some cramping pains. Having not had any contractions nor any other signs of labor in previous weeks, I just kind of brushed off the pain as the Braxton Hicks ("practice") contractions and tried walking around the house to ease up the crampiness. Erik woke up but I told him to go back to sleep and I assured him it was nothing.

In the meantime, the pains were coming more regularly every few minutes and I started to finally have my suspicions that something (THE thing) was going on. Then I went into crazy nesting mode, putting things away in the nursery, cleaning up the kitchen, etc - stopping every couple minutes to breathe through a contraction. By 5:30a, I told Erik it was time to call the doctor. They told us to come in to the hospital to be checked - yay! And yet: I hesitated some more. I told Erik I wanted to take a shower and repack my bag - I was pretty sure once we left, we weren't coming back. I think I was hanging out to absorb the last few quiet moments, as well. There was excitement in the air as Erik and I were anticipating what lay ahead and it was just a very special moment. We arrived at the hospital around 6:30a, Erik with coffee in his hands and me with a pillow stuffed in mine as I worked through the contractions.

Sure enough when we were evaluated at the hospital, we found we were in active labor. But when the nurses were checking me, they looked slightly quizzical and a debate started whether they were feeling the baby's head or the baby's butt. Sure enough, it was butt. Poor guy was getting his buns poked at. The doctor came in with the ultrasound machine and confirmed that the little booger was indeed breech. This means somewhere between his Thursday appointment and Tuesday morning, he had a disco party and flipped around. Erik and I thought his movements were odd throughout the weekend, but we did our "kick counts" and everything seemed fine movement-wise. Now we know that - after months of being in the correct position for his grand exit - he was poised for a different entry into the world.

I sat in labor for another hour or two - they tried to slow things down with medicine, but everything was moving along a little too quickly to nip the pain in the butt. I have a whole new respect for women who naturally progress through labor without relief - those several hours of contractions were admittedly very painful and all attempts at breathing/focusing were half-assed in effort as my eyes begun to cross.

By 9am, we were headed to the OR to prep for our c-section and Landon James Halvorson was born at 9:43am. It took a few seconds to hear his cry, but when the sound hit our ears, Erik and I started crying immediately. The doctor's first words were "Wow, what a nice round head you have!" And then it became known to us that the kid had a full head of hair. To our surprise: It was a full head of brown hair. Erik and I both kept commenting that we thought he would be blond. Erik was able to walk over to the clean up area to meet Landon right away and follow him to the nursery. I was able to greet him with a kiss while the nurse nuzzled him against my face and it was of course a ridiculously special moment that was far too brief. I hung out for another 20 minutes or so while they finished up the business on my tummy. I was then reunited with my new little family about an hour later in the recovery room.

So overall things did not go as envisioned originally, but what really does in this life, anyways? He is here and he is healthy... and I believe he is happy. It will be our mission to keep that going for the rest of his life.

All our love...

Happy Halloween!

Next Step: More Jet Noise!

It is official: Erik has finished Primary. This means the first part of pilot training is complete so now he can move on to a more specific platform. And of course he got his first pick - Jets. This is a really great milestone! The random hours, the various instructor personalities, the various fellow student personalities, the scheduling nightmares - it can all take a toll on a guy... especially with the combined stress of wondering if he will finish in time before Peanut arrives. I will also brag (since he won't do it himself) that he graduated on the Commodore's List with Distinction, no less! So...raise a glass and toast him wherever you are. Peanut and I are so very proud of dada-to-be.

"Smell you later, T-34's!"

So where do we go from here? Thankfully he selected jet training in Kingsville, TX which is about 45 minutes south of Corpus Christi (the other option would have been Meridian, MS). He will continue with a more specific training jet at that location - we should be there about 12 months. At the end of that? He will get assigned a particular jet (*cough* Prowlers *cough*) and we can hopefully make our way back up to Whidbey Island, WA to rejoin our friends!

"Aloha, T-45's!"

This does mean we will be moving next month. Second time this year. And now with a newborn. To a town where they list "Chili's" as the fine dining option. Wunderbar. The saving grace being it is only 45 minutes south and apparently they can deliver your stuff the same day that they pick it up - this blows my mind. I bet the stuff from our 2 month Japan move that journeyed across the sea may arrive in better shape (as it was packed by meticulous Japanese hands and 5 tons of paper and tape) versus what these local Tey-has guys will pound out in a day. Time will tell.

Will keep everyone posted of the move plans. We are trying to secure a house in the next couple days before you-know-who gets here!

Our Other Pumpkin

While incubating one pumpkin, we decided to purchase another for $3.99 at our local grocery store. Erik has been excited to carve a pumpkin this past week so he can get his skills back in action and impress Peanut down the road. He did a great job; it's spooky... but not too spooky!

"Innards... gross!"

"I'm too pumpkiny for this."

Concentration

Final Product! Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife!

A Birthday Has Been Scheduled!

Although anything is possible in the next week or two, the doctor has gone ahead and scheduled an induction date. This is based on the fact there hasn't been any progress or signs of labor. I suppose Peanut is super cozy so I will take it as a compliment.

So! We will go in on the evening of November 3rd to be induced for an intended delivery date of November 4th (around the 41 week mark). I really really really do hope that Mother Nature will start things on her own before then, but I'm overall comfy with this back up plan. It's hard to articulate this, but after all the anxiety and worry and getting ready over these last several months, it's almost anticlimactic that the delivery day is almost here. It's difficult to convey the feeling, but it is a positive and special place to be.

Until then, I'm keeping my tootsies up and enjoying the calm before the beautiful teeny weeny wittle storm!

Thirty and Still Nerdy

Last week Erik and I celebrated our 30th birthdays and I must say we are feeling pretty darn good! I think the whole having-a-baby-thing usurps the anxiety one may feel with closing the chapter on their 20's. Still, I would be lying if I said there wasn't some "Yikes, life is changing so fast!" thoughts floating in the air from the combination of everything. But all in all, we feel just plain blessed and lucky with where we are at.

Erik's birthday was nothing crazy, but a fun time nonetheless! Matt came down to visit, we watched a bunch of football at Buffalo Wild Wings (Redskins won in overtime!), they hung out Dewey's Beer Garden and we noshed on slow cooked bbq pork sandwiches later in the night. I also got Erik a PlayStation 3 (or as I liked to call it: the PS3-0 in honor of his birthday) which he has been faithfully playing since then. Whether the purchase prior to having a newborn was an intelligent choice? That is debatable. If anything, at least Peanut can use it to watch The Wiggles on Blu-Ray over the next couple years.

"I don't know it yet, but I am about to log 30 hours of Lego Star Wars playtime in the first week of having this."

Erik blowing out the candles on our birthday cake for the week. Maybe I'll make an effort for his 40th birthday to load the cake up with 40 candles. Until then, we are going with the decades method to avoid mass amounts of dripping wax.

In case Peanut decided to show up on our birthdays, we had his game time outfit ready.

My birthday was perfectly lazy and Erik surprised me with a really nice sewing machine after I had been making some comments over the last year or two that it was something I was interested in getting into. I promptly headed to the library to start getting my learn on. If you receive a couple mangled pillows as a gift or notice the curtains are all uneven in our house moving forward, just bear with me as I learn.

30th Birthday and 38 Weeks!

Trying to be artsy and form a heart over Peanut, but my puffy fingers were a little off in their design.

So no birthday surprises from the little one, but it is for the best since Erik still has a few more flights left before he can wrap up things here in Primary. As long as Peanut stays put until then, the timing will actually work out perfectly since Erik will have some extra free time on his hands to help out and love on us when baby is here!

Thanks to all for the wonderful birthday wishes!

I Believe You Now, Betty

Wow, when you don't eat the cookie dough along the way (aka "the one scoop on the cookie sheet, one scoop in my mouth method"), it turns out recipes really do yield numbers such as 3 dozen cookies. Who knew?

I know it's generally "frowned upon" to eat potentially salmonella-laden doughs and batters, but it is indeed one of the food groups I look forward to having a relationship with again down the road. Ah Peanut, if you only knew what mommy gave up for you for the last several months.