Giant Bubbles

Dan and Sara gave Henry a giant bubble wand as a gift when William was born. Dan has one like it and Henry really liked playing with it at their house. Henry loves it! It makes these absolutely ginormous bubbles. He and Patrick have had lots of fun outside playing with it. Thanks Dan and Sara!

Halloween

Henry was a duck this year for Halloween, although it was a totally last minute thing and ended up being almost a complete disaster! I bought a lobster costume (thanks Holly!) for him early in September; however, he always refused to try it on. So finally the week before Halloween, I had Patrick take it back to the store because I didn't want to spend the money on it and have him refuse to wear it on Halloween. So then on Halloween morning Patrick ran to Jewel to buy some Halloween candy for trick-or-treaters and found this duck costume there for Henry for $6. He bought a 4T, however, it's a one-piece and if you look at the first pictures, you can tell that he was absolutely busting out of it. He could barely walk and when he did he walked like Frankenstein because it was so tight! But we couldn't laugh at him because it was almost impossible to get the costume on him...we bribed him with our candy. So then Patrick had Henry lay on the floor and cut holes in the feet of the costume (with Henry in it) so his feet could stick out. Then it ended up being like a capri-pants duck costume. Too funny. Next year we will have to do something really great to make up for it.

Anyway, then we went trick-or-treating to a few neighbors houses on our street. My dad was here helping us that week so he came along with us, which was fun. Henry was totally confused at why we were going to go to people's houses and ring their doorbells and get candy. At the first house he wouldn't even reach into the bowl to take out the candy, but once we got to the second house, he dove right in and grabbed one. It's amazing how quickly he caught on...with candy involved. Then we came home and handed out candy to other trick-or-treaters. Every time someone rang the doorbell, Henry ran to the door and brought candy back to me. :-) William came with us on our walk, but he snoozed right through his first Halloween!

A List

I need to set aside a chunk of time and get my blog updated! I have so much to say and so many pictures to show, it's just finding that chunk of time that I'm finding tricky. :-)

Things are going well with the two boys. William is such a precious baby and Henry is loving his new brother. It's just busy!

Updates that are coming:
William @ 2-weeks
Halloween
Fall Fun
Big Bubbles
Brothers

The first days

It's so hard to believe that tomorrow William will be one week old. Last Thursday night we were preparing to go to the hospital for our induction. It has definitely been a busy week, full of changes, recovering and settling in.

William has been the sweetest baby. He really hasn't made much of a peep. He's very cuddly and as long as he's swaddled and warm, he is so content. He didn't love his sponge bath and doesn't love having his diapers changed, he will cry just while we're changing him and then as soon as his clothes are back on, he's happy and content. It's amazing how your heart does just expand to make room for a new baby. We already are so in love with him.

Henry is doing well. He had a hard weekend being away from Patrick and I. Sunday night when we got home was pretty tough. He was really over-tired and was pretty obstinate and defiant. He's really getting back to being himself as the days have passed and he has settled back into his routine. He absolutely loves William and is constantly kissing him. He doesn't want him to be in his moses basket or bassinet and always asks for him to come out if he's lying in one of those places. Last night we played with both boys on the floor. William lay on a blanket and Henry drove his tractors all around him. He really is fascinated when William's eyes are open, when he moves, or when he makes the slightest peep. He'll even say, "it's ok William" if William cries getting his diaper changed. It's so sweet to watch him love someone.

Patrick has been so wonderful. He's been doing everything and not complaining at all. I can't imagine what I'd do without him. Having the c-section has definitely made things tough this time around. The recovery has been so much different and isn't what I was expecting. It's really hard for me not being able to do what I feel like I can do or should be doing. And it's hard letting others do for me. Henry has been upset with me, too, which is so sad. I'm not the mommy that he's used to right now and it's really hard on him. That's been the hardest thing for me. I'm looking forward to feeling better so that I can be the mommy that he needs.

Welcome William!

We are so thrilled that William Edwin has arrived! (Thank you Sara for updating about his arrival last Friday.)

Here's some labor details...we went into the hospital at 8 am for a scheduled induction. I was feeling nervous and jittery, but really excited to know that we would be having our baby that day. They wanted to move things along quickly for me, so by 8:30 my pitocin was started and we were all checked in and ready to go. My doctor came in a little after 9:00 am and the plan was that she would break my water and really get things moving along. When she examined me in preparation for that, she looked at the nurse and I could tell something was awry. She told me that she wasn't feeling the bag of waters or head of the baby, so the nurse went to get the ultrasound machine. As soon as she put it on my belly and his little picture popped up on the screen, she again looked at the nurse (the same look) and then looked at me and said, "your baby is transverse", meaning he was lying side-to-side. His little head was on the left side of my belly with his back stretched out and legs across to the right side. I was still all smiles thinking, ok, he'll just turn. She went on to say that it was dangerous to leave him that way because if things did progress on their own and my water were to break on its own, he could be in danger and that they would need to get him out asap. I still naively thought (or maybe hoped) we could get him out naturally.

She explained that I would have to have a c-section and that he would be born by 10:00 am. I was shocked and scared all at once and burst into tears. Patrick was a pillar of strength and did his best to comfort me as he got his scrubs on for the surgery. I walked back to the OR which felt very "Grey's Anatomy" to me. I got a spinal block and the doctors started surgery asap. The only problem I had was that my spinal hadn't totally taken effect when they started and I was feeling some incisional pain. Because of that I was given more meds which didn't put me totally under, but I was pretty out of it. The c-section started around 9:45 according to Patrick and William was born at 9:53 am. Things definitely did move fast. I sadly cannot remember the moment of his birth or when Patrick says they showed him to me. That's the saddest thing of it all for me. However, the blessing is that he is here and that he is healthy.

We are truly blessed. Henry came to meet him on Friday afternoon and showered him with kisses. He couldn't believe that his brother had finally come "out". It's wonderful to have two precious little boys. I couldn't feel more fortunate.

Meet William

(This is Sara, Christina's sister-in-law writing.)

William Edwin Vance was born at 9:53 a.m. this morning, weighing in at 7 lbs. 9 oz. and measuring 18 inches long! After a scheduled induction, Christina ended up having an emergency c-section due to the fact that the baby was transverse (laying side-to-side). I will let her fill you in on all the details when she gets home, but for now, here are a few pics of our new adorable nephew! Henry was thrilled to meet his little brother and kept showering him with kisses and exclaiming "out!," as in the baby's out!

Congrats to Christina and Patrick and big brother Henry!!

Can You Guess?

So I thought that since we already know our baby's birthday, it might be kind of fun to guess other things....like the baby's weight. I found pictures of me at 40 weeks when I was pregnant with Henry (excuse the outfit, for some reason I thought I had to keep wearing the same black spandex for all of my pregnant pictures throughout my pregnancy with him!), and then we took some pictures today. I'm 39 weeks 4 days, but it's my last day of this pregnancy. (I can't believe that I'm not going to be pregnant by the end of the day tomorrow...it's just so weird how things that you wait for and wish for for so long do end up coming and then it always feels like it's snuck up on you.)

Based on these pictures, how big do you think the baby will be?? Closest guess wins a prize. Ok, maybe not a prize, but I'll recognize your good guess on my blog! (ha ha) FYI, Henry was born 3 days after that picture was taken and weighed 6 lbs 13 oz.

What do you think??

Mr.Independent

Henry is turning into such a little talker, and with all of his talking he is becoming very independent. Today we were at the children's museum and he wanted to go up a climbing wall (a very small one) to come down a slide. I usually stand really close and without even thinking about it put my hand on his back or somewhere to support him. Today he started to go up and turned to me and said, "bye bye, I do it self." I started to laugh and almost started to cry all at the same time. He's really growing up. When he did get to the top by himself, he was so proud, so I made a big deal about how he did it all by himself and he just beamed. I just wondered when he learned to do so much by himself??

It's amazing to me that my "baby" will soon be the big brother. I know he will seem so big once we've held our new baby. I feel really emotional about how fast time has gone with Henry and just that he's grown up so much. I am also so amazed by him and all that he's learned and is doing now. He's loves to count and can count to ten, if something has more things than ten he will get to ten and then start at 8 again. So he's gets to ten and then goes 8, 9, 10, 8, 9, 10, etc, until he's done counting. He also knows his colors and loves to name colors everywhere for everything. His favorite is green...I think it's a tractor thing. He's also started talking so much and is using lots of expressions. He'll say, "watch this (insert name)", and "Look, see that", just so much talking about everything. Every day I'm amazed by what he knows and does.

39 Weeks

We're inching closer to baby's D-Day. I had an appointment this morning and am still sitting comfortably at a 1. After talking things through with my doctor, it looks like we'll be going in Thursday night at midnight to be induced and will have our baby sometime on Friday, October 19. It's very crazy to me to know the date and make plans for it. I am getting so excited to meet this little one and also getting really nervous to go through the labor/delivery part of it again. Please pray for us that things will go well...and expect to hear some good news on Friday!

I forgot to mention

Good point Holly about the sneaking in veggies and never actually expecting your children to eat them whole. I forgot to mention that Jessica said she always still serves up veggies on the side for her children so that hopefully they will eat them, but she feels like even if they don't she knows that they're getting the nutrition they need from the meal. I think the goal is to keep serving them though and then eventually they will choose to eat them on their own.

Deceptively Delicious

I just watched our DVR'd Oprah from yesterday when her guest was Jessica Seinfeld. I'm so excited about it. She purees all sorts of different veggies and puts them into everyday/kid friendly meals and DESSERTS! One example is her macaroni and cheese....she blends in either butternut squash puree or cauliflower puree and voila the veggies are hidden in there and her kids automatically get the veggies they need but may not otherwise eat. I was just stressing out the other day about Henry not eating enough veggies, so this is really the right time for me to hear this message. She even has a recipe for brownies (that Oprah swore were delish) with carrot and spinach purees in them!! I guess she purees one night each week and then stores the bags of pureed veggies in her fridge to use in her meals throughout the week. I'm thinking I will buy her cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, to give it a try. Oh, the big hitch that I am forgetting to mention is that these veggies are hidden, hence they swear that you can't even taste them in there. So some cauliflower doesn't ruin macaroni and spinach doesn't ruin the brownies. They say it just enhances them....ok she even has a recipe for putting beets in a chocolate cake that looks so yummy.

Here's a link to some of her recipes from Oprah's website:
http://www2.oprah.com/foodhome/food/jseinfeld/recipes/jseinfeld_recipes_main.jhtml?promocode=HP23

Just some pictures

Just wanted to share a few of my favorite pics from the last month...

(I love this one because of the expression on Henry's face...he is sooo excited to be up in the tractor!)

One!

I went to my 37-week appointment today and I'm so excited to report that I'm dilated! To a one! I'm excited because I never dilated to anything when I was pregnant with Henry until the day he was born and only after some pitocin-an induction medicine. So, I'm excited because it's progress. Also, the baby's head is down and I even had a contraction while I was at my appointment. My doctor had to tell me though...I really couldn't feel it, she said it wasn't really doing anything but she could just feel my stomach tighten up. I've felt those recently, but always just thought it was the baby bunching up. So it could definitely still be 3 (or more) weeks away, but at least it's progress. I will keep you posted!

Henry's First Day

Well, Henry loved school! It was definitely harder on me than it was on him...I was getting teary before I left the building after dropping him off and once I got into my car I really started crying. His teachers said that he did great and didn't cry once. I went grocery shopping, did some laundry and baked some banana bread. I felt like I had to be really busy and productive to pass the time. It definitely was hard dropping off my baby and leaving him in such a grown-up setting. At the grocery store I felt so lonely without him, especially everytime I would see another mom and her baby.

When I went to pick him up he was sitting so nicely at a table with his little bag in front of him just waiting for me to come in. He was so content and I could tell right away that he was happy and full of energy. It wasn't the sad, teary-eyed boy that I had pictured all morning in my mind that I would come back to. Also there was a fire-drill yesterday and all the way home he talked about the "noise" from the "drill". I asked him if he was scared or brave and he said he was scared (so sad), but that Miss. Julie (one of his teachers) held his hand. I think he will actually be disappointed next time when there's not a fire-drill. Whenever we talk to him about school, he talks about the "noise".

Thanks to everyone for your well wishes and prayers. I'm thrilled about this program. I think it's going to be great for him. He all of a sudden does seem like such a big boy though to be going to school.

Henry's Going to School

Our little Henry is starting school tomorrow! He'll be going to a program at a church near our house on Monday mornings from 9-11:45. And I'm a nervous wreck!!

I've heard a lot of great things about this particular program from some other moms that I know whose children have attended since they were toddlers. I just found out at the end of August that they have a program for 2-year olds and after talking with Patrick and praying about it we decided that it would be a great chance for Henry to be out of the house, interacting with other children and learning some preschool-ish social skills. They didn't have an opening when I called to ask about the program, so they put us on their waiting list. Then last week they called to say that they now have an opening and Henry can come. I went last week to meet with his teacher and the school's director and to check out the classroom and get a feel for the program. I really like his teacher, she seems really sweet and didn't seem phased when I told her I thought Henry might cry (there's also an assistant in the room and only 10 children, so a really good ratio). Of course, I'm a worried mess. Part of me is thinking, will Henry think that he's getting a brother and now I'm sending him off and abandoning him? But then rationally I think, this will be fun for him and also a great chance for me to have some time with the baby and also to go grocery shopping or other errand running with just 1 child. And it's one morning a week...perspective, I know.

He has to bring a backpack (!) with a change of clothes and his diaper bag and we get to bring snack once every other month or so. This month his classroom's theme is "Fall Extravaganza" and they're doing finger painted pumpkins, handprint spiders and painting real pumpkins. Also on the last Monday of the month the parents are invited at 11:30 for a fall festival and the children are going to sing the songs they've been learning. So all of those things will inevitably be showing up on my blog! I'm excited for him and I really do think he will love the chance to play with other children his age. I'm just super nervous and could really use prayer in dropping him off tomorrow.

What should we name brother? (a video)

This video is from last month....one morning Henry and I were sitting at the table eating breakfast and unprompted I asked him what we should name brother. This is what he said without any coaching from me. This is actually the 2nd time I asked him, I went to get my camera to record his response and asked him again.

It's just amazing what they pick up...

Apples and Pumpkins

Yesterday evening Patrick, Henry and I went to the apple orchard/pumpkin patch. Henry had the most fun playing on the playground/swingset there and also riding on these cars (as pictured above). (It wasn't easy getting him to leave those.) There was also a bouncy house set up which he jumped right in and loved. We didn't pick any apples though. We bought some apple donuts and let Henry pick out a couple of pumpkins. After picking up almost every big pumpkin he could, he ended up choosing 2 small gourds to bring home! They're cute, just not carvable. I absolutely love the apple orchard and it was great to see Henry loving it so much there, too.

Mistaken Identity

So we just had our first case of public embarrassment. On Friday Henry and I were at the park when a person went riding past us on a bicycle. This person was decked on in a fuchsia sweatshirt, red sweatpants, some glasses and a white bike helmet. As this person was riding by us Henry shouts out, "boy!" and points to the person on the bicycle who turns and says, "I'm not a boy, I'm a girl", and keeps riding on! I sort of laughed and said, "he calls everyone a boy!" Which is totally not true!! But I didn't know what to say and I felt bad that this person heard him and also felt compelled to shout out her true identity. The other thing was that she wasn't a girl either, she was a grown woman! Anyway, I know it's probably just a first of many more to come.

36 Weeks

And no news! I went to the doctor today to start my weekly exams. There's no news to report. I'm not dilated or effaced yet. I'm not surprised, but a little disappointed because I thought maybe I would be surprised and find out I was dilated to 4! I asked about induction and she said that my cervix has to be doing something before she can induce.

My mom was here this weekend and helped me so much to get the baby's room all set up and ready. She did tons of laundry for me and helped me to organize his clothes and all of my baby supplies. We also went shopping and picked up any baby necessities that I'll be needing. So I'm feeling pretty ready now. In 4 weeks (or less, but maybe more) we'll be meeting this new baby. I'm definitely feeling excited and anxious all at once. Our lives are definitely going to change. I'm also getting emotional about not being able to give all of my time and attention to Henry. I'm feeling like I'm having to let go of something, but really I know we're just adding to our family and it's going to be such a blessing. It's just all still the "unknown".

Height Predictor

I get emails monthly now from babycenter.com, and in this months email they included a link for a height predictor. Believe it or not, I put in Henry's information and our information and it predicted his height at 18 to be.....6 feet 2 inches!!! They note that it's just a prediction (obviously) but do say that there's a 50% chance that the child's height will be within .8 inches of the predicted height and a 90% chance that it will be within 2.1 inches. For a Vance, that is still ginormous!

Here's a link: http://www.babycenter.com/child-height-predictor?scid=mbtw_post26m:20070917:0:0:0

Strong Man

Dan and Sara recently put up a post of Gabe writing some letters...Henry wanted to keep up with his cousin, so look what he did....

You have to get one

A Pumpkin-Spice Latte at Starbucks. Mmmmmmm, there's nothing like ushering in this great cool, fall-feeling weather like a delicious Starbucks Latte. The pumpkin-spice is delish. Just thought I'd pass that along...

Getting Closer...

I had my 34-week doctor's appointment today. It just made the baby's arrival feel so much closer. She told me that his head is down and she thinks it will probably stay that way now. Also, the next time I go is at 36 weeks and they will start internal exams then (yuk) and then I start going weekly. It's just crazy because I know that means that technically once I reach that point, the baby could be here at any time. Also she said that she doesn't want me traveling out of town after 35 weeks. It just all made it feel so close. I get really excited butterflies thinking about it. I just can't wait to meet this little baby and introduce him to Henry and have him be a part of our family.

Our New Closet

Our former closet (I know, it's bad!) Note: Patrick's hook to the right
Patrick (and Henry) building the new closet

The door leading into the new closet
Here you can see the door to the new closet is open and behind it is the old closet door
Patrick's side-sure beats just a hook!
My new side--space for clothes (even my maternity clothes have a special rack), purses, jewelry, love it!

Patrick's been at it again...he just built a walk-in closet in our master bedroom. Our former closet had a slanted shape from the way the roof curves just above it and had just one long bar which my clothes completely took over. Since we've moved into this house, Patrick has had just one hook in which to (try to) hang all of his clothes. He built a wall into our bedroom and dry-walled it and then hung all of the closet organizers and voila! A new, spacious closet! I'm sure it took more work than that, but he did it pretty quickly-about 2 weeks start to finish. In the pictures above I know it probably just looks like a closet, you're probably thinking, how boring? However, it represents organization to me and I have been loving getting things organized and having the extra space. Our former closet we're now using as a storage space which is really handy for bulky stuff (luggage) and baby stuff (the swing, baby bath, bouncy seat, etc). He also painted the trim (white) and walls in our room. So our master bedroom is now a finished project.

Feeding the ducks

One of Henry's new favorite things to do is go to a park close to our house and feed the ducks. Actually, Henry thinks it's fun, but secretly Patrick and I are obsessed with duck feeding. It's so fun to watch them all swim over and be so competitive for the bread pieces. Last week when we discovered the duck feeding at this park, we raided our bread supply and used up everything we had including hot dog buns! Then this week, I bought 3 loaves of the cheapest bread I could find just for the ducks. And they love Henry because he throws in whole pieces for them, he's not really into tearing bits off. It's been fun going in the evenings, especially since the weather has been cooler (i.e. more bearable).

A Bug's Anatomy

Yesterday Henry and I were at the museum and at this exhibit where you can make bugs using different plastic pieces. He was putting things on his bug and I was asking him what he was making:
Me: What's that piece Henry?
Henry: arm
Me: Oh and what's that one?
Henry: Pee Pee
Me: What is it?
Henry: Bug's pee pee

It definitely made me crack up. I'm totally amazed at where this stuff comes from. I know that I have never labeled a bug's parts for him, especially those...