Saturday, September 24, 2011

Favorite Picture

Today on the way to Mattawa Drew looked back and saw this. Darcy and Ezra had both fallen asleep holding hands. I think it is so sweet that Darcy would think to grab Ezra's hand like this. Sometimes when she's over-tired and having a hard time falling asleep in the car she likes us to hold her hand so she can fall asleep. I wonder if that's where she got the idea.

This was honestly one of the happiest moments of my life. I just can't get over how adorable it was. I even felt a little choked up. I love my babies.

Monday, September 19, 2011

1 Month!

We had Ezra's 1 month checkup today. He had a shot and he hated it and I hated it. He only cried for a minute but his lower lip spent a long time hanging out afterwards. Broke my heart. I love this little man. I was really worried about juggling two kids and we have had our moments, but it has been much easier than I expected because he has been so good.

Things we want to remember about Ezra's first month :

- He is a big boy! 12 lbs 4 oz (95th percentile). The nurses weighed him a couple different times because they couldn't believe how much weight he had gained. He was a little over 22 inches long which is only around the 50th percentile. His head circumference was 16 inches and they measured that 3 times because they couldn't believe how big his head was either. Darcy was always like this so I wasn't shocked at all and it was funny for me to watch them make such a big deal out of it.

- He is such an awesome sleeper. For the most part he sleeps from around 9 to 9 and only wakes up once. He always takes one really long nap in the middle of the day. There was a little part of me that was worried that he slept so much, but the doctor said he was perfectly healthy today so I'm just going to be happy that he's such a good sleeper.

- He is getting really good at holding his head up.

- He does lots of grunting.

- We have had a couple moments when it seemed like he was smiling on purpose. He always looks worried so I am really looking forward to when he starts smiling so I will know he is happy sometimes.

- He has an awesome old man hair line and his roots are blonde.


You can kind of see his worried look and his old man hair line in this picture. :)

He looks huge in this picture! He really seems tiny to us still.

Haha! He does a lot of this too. It's just too hard to keep those eyes straight.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Kiddos

I am having a hard time coming up with new titles for these posts, because basically every post is about Darcy and Ezra. How many different ways can you say that? :)

Darcy LOVES her brother. She also loves to have her picture taken these days. She always asks to hold Ezra and then asks me to take a picture. He is not really a fan of this situation and Darcy is not a fan of him crying so it never lasts very long. I thought I should post all of these pictures of Darcy holding Ezra over the past couple weeks.

Obviously he loves it! :)




She also really loves to give him kisses all the time. She has started saying in a really high-pitched voice (like she has heard us do) "Hi Ezwa, how-a you?" And then she kisses him.

His legs just aren't quite filling these shorts out yet. :)

I caught a little smirk while he was sleeping.

Snoozing with dad.

Drew went and got the bumbo the other day and I was sure he was too little for it, but he sat right up in it. I couldn't believe it. He is showing off with how well he can hold his head up already.

I took this picture of Ezra looking over Drew's shoulder and it reminded us of this picture below of Darcy looking over his shoulder.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Ezra's Blessing Day

Drew blessed Ezra this past Sunday. It was a really beautiful blessing and a great day with family. Just a few of the things Ezra was blessed with were "joy in this life, a desire to serve the Lord, and the courage to do hard things." We had lots of family here from both sides which we loved. Then some of the family came back to our house to eat.

Ezra in his blessing outfit.

Drew and Ezra before church.

I love this picture! I really wish it were a little clearer, but I just can't believe everyone is looking at the camera! :)

My mom got this dress for Darcy for her birthday and I have been waiting to have her wear it for Ezra's blessing day. She usually wears shorter dresses and she seemed a little surprised by the length when I first put in on her. We went outside for a little photo shoot before church and I had Ashley act crazy behind me to get some real smiles from Darcy.

Happy girl.

Packed house.



Ezra with Grandma Becky.

Ezra with his Great-Grandpa Bob.

Ezra with his Great-Grandma Beth and Great-Grandma Jo.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

This Week

Drew got to be home with us for Ezra's first week and it was the best thing ever! He was SO much help and we had so much fun together. I had withdrawals yesterday when he went back to work and I had to figure things out at home by myself with two kiddos. He is the best husband and dad around! I thought I would post a picture of him with each of the little ones (I have a hard time with the word "kids". It just sounds so weird to me.). I am so glad Ezra has Drew to look to for an example of a great man.

Drew with Ezra

Drew just sent me this picture from his phone and I wanted to use it. I love it.

I turned 26 on the 19th. I really am not a big fan of getting older. It's scary to me. Maybe some day I can embrace it. My friend/family Kristen told me about this little bakery called Frost Me Sweet and I decided that's what I wanted for my birthday cake. This is such a lovely picture of me right? Thanks for the suggestion Kristen!

My "HAPPY CAKE!" I dove in a little early and Drew could only get a picture of four of the six yummy cupcakes. Man they were delicious! There was an Elvis cupcake that was chocolate with a banana cream filling, some kind of caramel cupcake that was my favorite, strawberry daquari, maple bacon, chocolate raspberry, and chocolate peanut butter. YUM!

This was my awesome birthday present! A phil&ted double jogging stroller. Drew found it for a steal on craigslist and I think it rocks! I am so excited to use it except it seems a little too intense for me. I think I actually have to become a runner to use such a fancy jogging stroller. :) We took this picture on my birthday which is only six days after I had Ezra and let me tell you...I do not recommend running that soon after having a baby! Whew! I only ran a few steps back and forth for the picture, but it just wasn't worth it. :)

I actually ruined the surprise because I found the stroller in the closet in the office upstairs a few days before my birthday. My sewing machine was in there and I went to get it. Drew assumed I would never get in there. He was so sad that he didn't surprise me and I felt bad, but I still love it.

I really felt like I had the perfect relaxed birthday. I woke up to Drew and Darcy trying to quietly make me a birthday card. I love things like that. Then while Ezra was still sleeping I went outside and watched Drew and Darcy ride bikes together. Darcy loved that Drew was riding with her and honestly something that makes her so happy makes me so happy too.

I told Drew to do some tricks and he delivered! Look at that air!

Darcy riding her trike in her PJ's. We thought it was going to take her a while to figure out how to ride this thing when we got it for her for her birthday, but it really only took a couple days and now she's a pro.

Sweet girl

My next request was to take Darcy to the splash pad for the first time. I think a splash pad is a great idea! She thought it was so fun and we had fun watching her. She loved the slides. Her tongue is kind of sticking out in this picture. She takes her sport seriously like Michael Jordan I guess.

She decided it was proper form to put your foot on the football while playing in the water.

A picture of the splash pad. This place is cool!

It took her a minute to decide she was ok with the water spraying on her head.

A couple Darcy facts:

-She LOVES Ezra. A little too much. I am struggling with knowing when to let her attack him with kisses and hugs and tickles and loud songs and when to let him have his space. Hopefully we figure that one out soon.

- There are a few things she says these days that crack us up:
- Happy Cake! This is what she calls birthday cake and we have adopted that term.
- She uses the "sh" sound instead of the "s" sound at the beginning of words. She says, "shocka ball" for soccer ball, "shucka" for sucker, "shircle" for circle, "shycle" for motorcycle.
-She says "Yes!" when she is excited about something like when we get to the park she say, "Oh park! Yes!" Cracks me up every time.

I had a little photo shoot with Ezra a few days after he was born. I really would love to take Darcy and Ezra to a professional photographer but I am just too cheap. Why does it have to be so expensive?! Some day I will though. These pictures weren't that awesome in color but I thought they were pretty cute in black and white. He is one handsome little man!

He has been such a great sleeper and I am so grateful for that. I really expected to be totally exhausted at this point, but so far I really am feeling pretty rested. From the very beginning he seemed to know when it was night. LUCKY.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Ezra James Christensen

Ezra is here and we are loving it!! I want to write down the story of his birth before I forget the details.

I had a doctors appointment on Tuesday the 9th where the doctor stripped my membrane. He offered to induce me the next day but I told him no. When I got home and told Drew we talked about it for a little bit and decided we would go for the induction after all. My mom and Ashley came that night to watch Darcy when I went into the hospital early the next morning. I didn't end up going in the next day at all or the day after that. Friday afternoon my mom decided she would go back home and get some things done there, and of course they called me that night and told me they could get me in so she had to come back. Waiting was really hard for me because there was so much anticipation, but in the end I am really happy it took as long as it did because my body made progress on it's own which is what I wanted to happen originally.

We got to the hospital at about 9:30 on Friday night and they took us straight to our room and had me change. My nurse Kim got me all situated and the doctor came in around 10:00. She checked me and I was dilated to a 3. They told me I was having contractions about every 8 minutes which I was really surprised about because I didn't even know I had been having contractions at all. I thought they were just Braxton Hicks. They didn't even hurt! The doctor immediately asked the nurse for the hook and I kind of yelled, "WHAT?!" because I knew that meant she wanted to break my water and it really startled me. I just wasn't expecting things to happen that quickly at all. The other thing that surprised me was that the doctor asked me right after she broke my water if I wanted an epidural. I hadn't even had any pain at that point so I declined right at first. The nurse told me when I felt something I didn't want to feel again to ask for the epidural. Contractions started getting stronger and closer together quickly so about a half an hour later I asked for the epidural. The nurse anesthetist Bill came in soon after. He was so friendly and nice and he worked quickly and was careful to wait for a moment when I wasn't having a contraction to do his work (unlike the man that gave me my epidural with Darcy). After he gave me the epidural he started talking to Drew and we found out he knew all of Drew's Christensen side of the family so that was kind of fun. About an hour after my pain began it was gone, and it wasn't even very serious pain. That was basically all the pain I experienced the whole time. It was amazing. I keep saying I feel like I cheated the system because of how little pain I had.

After the epidural Drew and I fell asleep. About an hour later they gave me some pitocin and I went back to sleep. Around 1:30 in the morning the nurse came in to check me and we were both surprised that I was dilated to a 6 or 7. The babies heart rate had gone down a little, which the nurse said was because of how quickly I had progressed so she went to get the doctor. About ten minutes later the doctor came in to put a monitor on the baby, but I had already dilated to a 9 so she said she couldn't do anything. At this point I woke Drew up to tell him I was about to push. He had slept through the whole thing and was really surprised at what was happening. I dilated quickly to a 10 but wasn't totally effaced so we had to wait for that for about a half an hour. I pushed for 15-20 minutes and some of that time was just waiting for the doctor to get there. At one point the nurse said, "Now you're just showing off" because I was such a good pusher. :) Ezra James Christensen was born at 2:49 in the morning on August 13, 2011. He was 8 lbs. 1.1 oz. and 20 1/4 inches long. I know that is a decent sized baby by most peoples standards but he just seemed so unbelievably tiny. At first we didn't think he really looked like Darcy at all but over the last couple days as he has filled out we think he looks more and more like her, but they have slightly different noses. He is tongue-tied like she was (I'm so sad that is a feature I have passed on to both of my babies so far). Oh, and he has huge feet with the longest big toes I've ever seen! They look like fingers. :)

I feel like I am recovering so much faster this time around and I am so grateful for that and how smoothly the labor went. I feel so blessed to have two beautiful healthy babies.

We came home from the hospital Sunday around noon and my mom stayed with us that evening. She made an amazing dinner for us, which I so appreciate as a newly nursing mom. I feel starved all the time! She made us fried chicken, some perfectly mashed potatoes with gravy, corn on the cob from her garden (which basically tastes like candy) salad, peas and carrots, watermelon, and a lemon bunt cake. YUMMO! Drew ate like a king, and I ate like a hog. :) I am so grateful to have family so close and so willing to help. Thanks mom!

Of course we were a little worried about how Darcy would handle this change but she has been a champ. At first she was only slightly interested in him but now she talks about him all the time and loves to help us with him. Drew's parents got her a cute Cabbage Patch doll so she would have a baby to take home from the hospital too and she thinks baby Edwina is pretty awesome. Yesterday she asked if she could hold Ezra so we put her on the couch with him on her lap and she grinned the whole time. I asked her after a minute or so if she wanted me to take him and she said, No! It was so sweet.

She did have a hard time Saturday night when my mom took her home from the hospital and we didn't go with her. She cried and cried all the way out of the hospital, the car ride home, had a little break while she got to drive an awesome cart at the grocery story, and then cried again until she went to sleep. It broke my heart and my moms. I am happy to be back at home with her and for us to get into the swing of things.

We had a really good first night. Ezra woke up a couple times to eat of course, but I just laid him back down and he went right back to sleep. Darcy didn't wake up until 8 so we all slept until then and I woke up feeling rested, which I didn't expect to do the first night. He hasn't been awake hardly at all today though so that might mean tonight will be a little different.

Drew is going to be home this whole week. He gets to work from home Wednesday through Friday and I am so happy about it. We are so enjoying this new addition to our family. Thank you to everyone who has had us in your thoughts and prayers over the last few days. Thank you for your love and support.

Getting settled in before everything got started.

Ezra just after he was born.

Drew with Ezra.

Darcy getting acquainted with Ezra.

Family of four! (Darcy flashing gang signs)

I think it was my dad that first showed Darcy this fish tank down the hall from my room. She wanted to go back and check it out every few minutes.

Snoozing.

Stretched out.

About to sneeze.

A close-up of his sweet face.

I hated the pictures of me with Darcy in the hospital because I looked so ragged, so I got up and did my hair and put some make-up on to have some pictures of me with Ezra in the hospital before we left. Drew said that was proof of how easy the whole delivery had been on me. :)

Right before we left Darcy got up in my bed and she seemed to think she was pretty cool.

Ezra in his civilian clothes ready to go home.

Ready for the ride home.

Darcy holding Ezra at home.