He's growing up so fast :(

Our baby grew out of his first outfit today. I knew I didn't have long, but it still hurt my heart just a tad.

I tried to put him in one of his adorable sleepers (newborn sized), and the poor little guy could not straighten out his legs. He sat there with his legs in the fetal position staring at me with a confused look that seemed to say, "Mom, are you crazy, what are you doing to me?" He's just so darn long thanks to his daddy's genes. Actually, I can't say much, I was only a half an inch shorter when I was born.

So, Mommy was a bit sad today, and Daddy was excited to see his "big boy" growing. It'll be interesting to see what his official measurements are at his doctor's appointment on Monday.

Busy Busy

Can you tell life has been busy lately? So sorry we've been lacking in the posts lately. This past week was my first week alone all day with E. My mom (Nana) came over every afternoon last week after Cory went back to work, but eventually had to get back to full days at work. But we survived. We're managing to keep the little guy clean and fed, I'm sort of managing to keep myself clean and fed, and for the most part we're managing to keep the house and laundry clean. Of course, Cory comes home and keeps me sane by taking over. We're doing great by tag-teaming everything so we stay even and don't go too crazy. Unfortunately, next week brings new challenges and changes to the schedule because I'm going back to work tomorrow. I'll be taking him with me, so it shouldn't be too bad.

The little monkey is doing well. He hasn't had a doctor's appointment recently so we don't know how much he weighs, but he looks like he's huge compared to when he was born. Most of that is coming from a sad mommy who already can't believe how fast her baby is growing up. He's eating well and sleeping as well as can be expected. He loves to travel, so we've taken him out on several shopping trips and he's gone out to eat with us. He also went to watch Daddy play volleyball once (well, he slept while Daddy played volleyball). We also have been to Gramma and Papa's house a few times, including for Easter/my birthday. Wish we had some pictures to share of him in his Easter outfit, but the little man didn't even make it out of the house in the outfit because he decided to tee-tee all over himself before we left.

Anyway, that's about all I have time for since E is stirring in his bassinet as I type this. I'll leave you with some pictures of the last couple of weeks and try to update more regularly in the future.

Ethan with Papa (Charles as in Ethan Charles)

Ethan being fed by his cousin David (after Ethan tried to "breast-feed" on David, which of course freaked David out a bit)

Ethan and his great-uncle Mark

Ethan on the day he turned 3 weeks old

One of him sleeping just cause it's so darn cute

Ethan is One Week Old

Actually, he's older than that, but we've been a little too busy to keep up with the blog. Here are some pictures we took of the little monkey last Thursday. He also had his check-up that day, and the doctor is pleased. He is pretty much back to his birth weight and looking healthy. He's very alert nowadays and taking it all in. Mom and Dad are more in love with him every day!

Meeting the Whitsetts

This past Saturday after coming home from the hospital, Cory's family came to meet Ethan. We had so much fun meeting his only aunt and uncles and first cousins. Here are some great pictures of the day that Cory's brother Lyle took with his great camera. We can't wait to visit with everyone again!

Mom with Ethan

Daddy and Ethan

With Cousin Grayson

With Uncle Troy

With Aunt Kalie

With Cousin Madeline

Ethan Charles Whitsett has arrived!

Ethan finally made his appearance on Thursday, April 2 at 4:09pm. He was 7 pounds, 11 ounces and 22 inches long. Everyone is healthy and happy and doing great!

Here's how everything went: We checked into the hospital on Wednesday night after a great dinner at Amaya's to get everything started. After getting hooked up to the monitors, we realized I was already having small contractions on my own before medicine, I just never realized that's what I was feeling. Unfortunately, between the contractions, Ethan's heart monitor, and just being in a hospital, I didn't sleep at all.

The next morning, we got to take showers and get ready for the day before starting the IV. At around 6:30 am or so, the induction began and around 7:30 the doctor came to break my water. I had my epidural around 9:30 or 10. I had very little progress all morning, and was starting to get discouraged, but at around 12:30, they examined me and said I made it to 4cm. The nurse said that was the hardest part, and to expect to progress about a centimeter an hour from that point, so plan on around 6pm. A little while later, I was at 6-7cm, and a little later, I made it to 7-8. Around 3:00, I had a huge pain in the left side of my lower back, which come to find out was the little monkeys head saying I'm ready to come out, and I was at 10cm.

After everyone cleared out, minus my mom and of course Cory, the nurse got everything ready for pushing, which she said takes one to three hours for first-timers. I was not excited to hear that, but thankfully, after one contraction and 3 pushes, she told me to stop. She had to go get the doctor because the head was "right there." One hour, yeah right, like I can take that.

So we waited for the doctor, and when he came, we pushed through a few more contractions and met our baby boy at 4:09. Apparently, I'm a "good pusher." Thank goodness, because my doctor had to leave that day at 6:30 and my goal was to get it over with by then.

I feel very lucky and blessed to have such a great and relatively easy experience. Our doctor told Cory to watch out because when it goes that well, the mom usually wants another baby soon. We'll see how we do with the first one first. :)

Here are a few pictures from his first day:

His first bath, which Daddy got to participate in while Mommy sat around waiting and getting cleaned up. (Men are sooo lucky).

His first weigh in. Thanks buddy for not growing too big in Mom's tummy.

One with his eyes open from his first night home.

Headed to the hospital

We saw the doctor this afternoon, and we still have no progress.  So, I'll be checking into Seton tonight about 7 to get started on some medicine to "prepare" things.  Tomorrow morning bright and early, they'll begin to induce.  Hopefully, we'll meet Ethan by tomorrow afternoon! (please son, don't let it last much longer than that).