Happy Halloween

and
1 month to Asher
watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,"
which wasn't quite as wonderful as I remember it being as a kid

I made a special trip to borders to purchase it today since I thought beckam would be spending the night on the couch--
poor guy has a fever but after a little dose
of tylenol he was ready for some Trick-or-Treating!

these are a few of my favorite things...lately

--FYI--
for those less familiar with blogging
WHEN THE WORDS IN A POST ARE A DIFFERENT COLOR,
RUN YOUR ARROW OVER IT AND IF IT'S UNDERLINED, YOU CAN CLICK ON THE WORD AND YOU WILL BE
NAVIGATED TO ANOTHER WEBSITE WITH MORE INFO. ON THE SUBJECT. TRY IT OUT.

• lansinoh (advice to new moms: apply GENEROUSLY. do not use sparingly. do not conserve. your life will be so much better when used in excess.)

• the pee pee teepee ("for the sprinkling wee wee")

• candy corn with peanuts or cashews(try it. trust me)

• new moon and now eclipse (has anyone not enjoyed them?)

• 6 hour kindergarten (after a 2 week break)

• seeing how much jaden adores his new baby brother and how helpful he is

• visits from family!

my sister janie and brutha-in-law dennis
WE LOVED YOUR VISIT!!

• my moby wrap

Recipe for a FABULOUS Fall day

one good nights sleep
(well, at least as good as it gets for a mom with a newborn)

a great trip to Earthbound Farms with good friends
for some Halloween/Fall fun
(it's not Apple Hill, Impossible Acres or Bishop's Pumpkin Farm--sob, sob--
but at least there was a corn maze and spooky hay tunnel. and real bathrooms so there were no port-a-potty incidents for those of you who remember that story. and if you don't--scroll down to the bottom of the Bishop's Pumpkin Farm post.)

one PRECIOUS baby who slept through our entire outing in the Moby wrap

a heaping helping of beautiful blue sky along with the perfect temperature

a surprise package on our doorstep when we arrived home
containing 6 caramel apples coated in a variety of flavors of goodness (i.e. cookies and cream, cordial cherries and dark chocolate, cashew and chocolate chip)
**The Wiscombe's are THE BEST**
we LOVE you and miss you

a huge batch of butternut squash soup for dinner
along with a super sweet husband to clean up the mess after jumping on the tramp with the boys while I rocked and fed my sweet little baby!
and top it off with a good dose of New Moon!

Party's Over

today my party ends.
tomorrow the big boys return.

good-bye

• sleeping in until whenever I feel like rolling out of bed
• hours of relaxing, snuggled up cozy admiring our new baby
• napping
  
• time to read a 500 page book in 4 days
• leisurely walks around the neighborhood at my own pace
• peaceful strolls along the beach with my husband to watch the sunset
• meal times whenever we get around to eating
• fearless visits in the home of my 70-something year old neighbor
  
• trips to Border's with micah to purchase New Moon and Eclipse while silently meandering through the store enjoying my hot chocolate with my new baby sleeping soundly in the moby
  
• daily blog posts

THANK YOU
MOM
and everyone else who's helped make our last week
blissful

the time with our new baby was priceless.
the greatest gift EVER!
WE LOVE YOU!

and we are excited to have our family back.

Let the Wild Rumpus Begin...tomorrow

Happy One Week! (yesterday)

post by micahThis little guy is amazing!

His birth was "FUN" (quoting cheryl)
He sleeps great, he eats mighty fine, he is alert for good spells and looks at you with the cutest little face . . . and until yesterday he never pee'd on me while changing his diaper.

We had this unspoken agreement. While he quite frequently pee'd on everyone else that would change him, I was just positive that he knew to keep any liquid waste inside him until we had closed up shop. But, alas, he has broken our understanding, shattering my confidence that I was somehow too special to him to pee on.
And not only did he pee on me, but while I was cleaning that up he pooped on me. Then while I was cleaning that up, he pee'd AGAIN! So I guess what I mistook for an unspoken agreement was actually little Asher saving up to really let me have it all at once.
That's okay. I still am ever so fond of this strapping young man. It's amazing that after only one week I can't imagine our family without him.

Asher
Hebrew; “happy, blessed”
eighth son of Jacob.
one of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Kindred Spirits, 1849--Asher B. Durand

“All these were the children of Asher, heads of their father’s house, choice and mighty men of valour, chief of the princes...”
1 Chronicles 7: 40

“And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren….
Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.”
Deuteronomy 33: 24, 25

Asher is SO well-loved!

Thank You

for coming to meet me
ma-maw and pa-paw

lexi ashlyn, morganne and auntie shelli...not once but TWICE!
uncle scott, westin, shawnee, papa dave
and mimi
for all your hard work here
AND all that you have ahead of you this coming week
with the Big Boys!
we know they're in good hands.
spoiling hands!

p.s. we LOVE the blanket darlybird

The Story of Asher's Arrival
for my sake
you may read if you wish.

it occurred to me on tuesday afternoon that with my previous deliveries, I've always gone into labor in the evening after my last Dr.'s visit before my due date.
my last scheduled Dr.'s visit was on wed., oct. 3 at 10am so we were curious if our luck would hold out and if our baby would arrive on oct. 4.

to our surprise my contractions started strong at 3am wed. morning and were 2-3 min. apart. after an hour I decided to wake micah, call my parents and call our neighbor to come over.
it was more premature than I've acted in the past by far but there were so many more variables this time that we didn't want to take any chances.

it was the perfect day for a baby because it was our babysitting co-op day and beckam was already going to his friend Lily's house for a playdate from 9-12 (while I went to the Dr.) and jaden would be in school from 8-12:45 (wed. is min. day).
our neighbors pick jaden up from school everyday since they have 3 boys at his school so they just took him to school for us also and stayed with beckam until he was picked up by our sweet friend Jaime for his playdate.

we arrived at the hospital at 6am. I was at a 3 but my contractions weren't nearly as intense nor coming as regularly so I was a little worried that they might not want to keep me.
however, I learned the words: "It's my 3rd" work like MAGIC.
when I called to tell them I was coming, I was also sure to tell them that I wanted an epidural.
and I'd already decided that since I'd made up my mind to have one, I wanted to feel as little pain as possible.
so by 7:30 my epidural was placed and unbeknownst to me, I was on my way to HEAVEN!
my contractions had actually stopped completely just before the anesthesiologist came in but nobody seemed to care. they started up again after about half an hour but weren't nearly as intense so they started pitocin.
they chose not to break my water since I was still quite high.

the part that really worried me about the epidural was not being able to feel or move my legs.
I thought I would hate that sensation but let me tell you how mistaken I was!
It was FABULOUS. I've never been more relaxed in my entire life.
I felt so warm and cozy and at peace and I liked the heaviness or weight I felt from being numb.
I loved feeling the pressure of each contraction without experiencing any of the pain!
I could control with the click of my thumb if I wanted more medication.
actually, micah enjoyed that job and in 4 hours, he pushed it twice.

my mom, dad and sandy arrived by 9:30 and we visited until 11:30 when the nurse came in to check me. I was at an 8 and my water was ready to be broken if it could hold out long enough for the Dr. to get there. the nurse was confident that the baby would be born very soon so she sent micah out to get the others.
the Dr. arrived at 11:45 while micah was out debriefing my family.
he broke my water and then told me to go ahead and give him a push with my next contraction.
I thought he was out of his mind. I hadn't felt any pressure. no pain. no indication that I should start pushing. even the nurse said, "you want her start pushing with the next one?"
his reply, "well, unless you want to sit here complete without having a baby."

so I pushed. and he said, "okay, two more just like that and your baby will be here."
still in shock that this was really happening, I asked if somebody could please go get my husband. micah and the gang made it just in time to turn the camera on for those last two pushes. for the 2nd time, I had a baby born with the chord around his neck but he was perfectly fine and never showed any signs of distress.

and for the very first time, I didn't have a single cut or tear, which was the icing on the cake!! WOOO-HOOOO!

it all literally felt like a dream. it is completely amazing and bewildering to me that I experienced all that without any pain. pushing was just so strange because I didn't feel anything and couldn't believe that I was actually making any progress.

it was an awesome experience!

they put asher on my chest as soon as he was born and he didn't leave my arms for a good hour when I realized that his daddy still hadn't held him. after I passed him off, I noticed that my epidural was already wearing off and I could feel my legs again.
I had been so worried that I'd be numb for hours afterwards but
the timing was so perfect that I was able to get right up and walk to the restroom by myself!

I believe that I have the greatest appreciation for the piece of heaven that is an epidural since I've experienced both a fabulous and beautiful unmedicated birth and an unmedicated water birth with pitocin--not quite as glorious.
I'm so grateful for each of these experiences.

I have to tell you that in between pushing, I calmly and casually said,
"epidurals should be mandatory!"
(I've never been able to say anything in between pushes before let alone, calmly and casually)

and I like how one dr. put it:
"you're like the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland: your legs and body disappear and you're just left with your smile!"

my mom made it back to pick up the boys by 1:30 and they got to meet their new baby that evening. jaden is a very proud and involved big brother. beckam is less interested but stops by for a hug and kiss periodically.
The Boyswe had LOTS of surprise visitors in the hospital!
jenny and jeremy happened to be 45 min. away at a work meeting and she just happened to call an hour after the delivery to say that she was totally tricked by my previous blog post and really thought the baby had arrived and couldn't believe it had been 5 days and she hadn't heard from me--but then realized that it was just the trampoline.
so micah then got to give her the news for real and she ended up getting to meet him when he was one day old.
then 2 minutes after saying goodbye to my sister on the phone because she had to "run into the kids school" she walked into my hospital room with all three of her girls and my niece Demi, Janie's daughter (we missed you Janie but hope to see you soon). they just came for the day but it was such a fun surprise and when we got home, she had prepared a delicious dinner and brightened our bedroom with this beautiful arrangement:

asher is so pleasant. he hasn't given us any trouble so far. he's a great sleeper and eater and we're all just getting along beautifully. doing this for the third time is so nice and comfortable.

the boys left today for bakersfield with my mom for the week.
jaden starts his two week break from school on monday so the timing was great.
they were so excited to go and we're glad they'll be so well entertained while we catch up on rest and gear up for this new phase!

Announcing......

Asher

John-Patrick
Nilsson

October 3, 2007
12:05 pm

7 lbs. 7 oz.
20 1/2 inches

John Patrick Smith III