jonathan's birth story, part 2

Welcome back for round two of long labor story. You can read part 1 to catch up if you want...

There were times throughout labor that I would get a fleeting thought of What if this doesn't work? What if he won't come out? What if I have to transfer to the hospital? And then things would smooth out and I would forget those thoughts. But then seeing the midwife starting to get concerned really made me wonder what was going to happen. Finally, she actually suggested that we transfer. She was pretty sure his head wasn't going to turn, and since my contractions were slowing down, she wondered if maybe some Pitocin would ramp things back up and hopefully force him into the right position. 

I remember feeling so defeated. So helpless. A transfer? That's not what we had planned for. Going to the hospital? How much is that going to cost? How long will we have to stay there? Will they care for us how the birthing center cared for us? We didn't even have anything packed - at the birthing center you go home a few hours after the baby is born. Really, we have to go the hospital? 

At this point, it was about 4 or 5 in the afternoon, around 20 hours of active labor. All that work. For nothing? I felt so confused. So sad. So angry. 

When we got to the hospital, the plan was to administer Pitocin, start an epidural, and give the meds a few hours to see if anything changed. Then we would try pushing again to see if Jonathan had turned at all. When the new doctor came in, he basically recommended a c-section right away. We were like, Oh no you don't understand. We are not here for a c-section. We are just here for some help in getting over this bump, and then we will have a regular birth. No c-section for us, thank you. We are birthing center people. We don't do surgeries. 

So a few hours passed, and then I tried pushing again for another 30 minutes or so. Nothing. Still stuck. The doctor came back in and again recommended a c-section. It looked like that was going to be our only option. We resigned ourselves to this fact, and the preparations for surgery got under way.

Jonathan was born at 8:17pm on Monday, May 30 - Memorial Day - via c-section. I was a bit reassured of our need for the surgery when the doctor said something along the lines of Here he is! - wait - move his head around that way - no, turn it the other way - ok now pull him out - Now here he is! Turns out he was indeed posterior, and also somehow crooked, so that his forehead was jutting up against my pelvic bone and couldn't get past. 

First family photo. All looking our best.

He cried vigorously right away and was perfectly healthy. Jon announced to the whole operating room It's a boy! I was so proud of my boy for hanging in there during that long and hard labor. All throughout, whenever they checked his heartbeat, he was perfect, just hanging out wondering when we would realize he was stuck. Just like his disposition a year later, he started out life acting pretty chill. Meeting Jonathan face to face for the first time was exhilarating. Even after all that we had just gone through, love immediately welled up in me from places I didn't know I had. After he was born, I was shaking and sobbing and shouting I love him! I love him so much which you can hear in the background of the video of Jonathan's first moments. 

Once we got home, Jon and I admittedly had a hard time coming to terms with our birth story. We knew that birth never goes "according to plan," but we definitely were not prepared for such a drastic detour in ours. If we were honest, we kind of realized that we had been natural birthing snobs, looking down on procedures like c-sections when they are utilized for the wrong reasons. Even though ours was for the "right" reasons, it was still hard to accept that it was the right thing to do. I was embarrassed. We racked our brains in the weeks after, trying to figure out "what went wrong." We were mad at God - where the heck were You? Why didn't You warn us about this? Couldn't you have changed things up a bit? 

As I relayed our story to a friend, she asked me something along the lines of Why does it matter how it happened as long as the baby is healthy? Isn't the outcome the same either way, and isn't that the important thing? The simple answer is, of course, Yes, what matters is having a healthy baby (and healthy mom). The more complicated answer, though, is that a birth changes you. It is a rite of passage in the most complete sense of the phrase. After a birth, a mom is never the same. Not just because now she has a baby to care for, but because whatever the process, whatever the experience, this was the time that you faced your most vulnerable, raw, foundational place. Birthing is what we were made to do. Our bodies were built for it. Going through a labor means turning inwards and standing eye to eye with your most essential self, and emerging on the other side means your eyes have been opened to parts of you that you never knew were there. This happens, I think, whether you have a labor that is long or short, natural or medicated, unexpected or routine. Whether you pop into the hospital to be induced and then sit for eight hours connected to wires and don't feel a thing, or you labor for three days working hard through every contraction your body produces, every woman has a story. Her birth story. And it is a story that changes each and every one of us. For better or for worse - which hard for me to say, but I really think that it's true. Some women are scarred by their birth stories, while others are transformed, themselves being "birthed" into newness along with their baby. 

Processing my birth story has been as essential as going through the actual process itself. Jon and I found that we each had to ask different questions and needed different answers. I needed to know that I hadn't let him down. That I hadn't let anyone down. That I was a good mom and had what my baby needed. That my body is made for this and that I didn't do anything wrong. That requiring medical intervention during birth did not mean I was a failure (or worse; post-birthing hormones can tell you all kinds of elaborate lies). 

At our six-week follow-up, back at the birthing center, Jon and I both got some much needed closure and assurance. Sarah, our midwife, confided that she knew we would have to have a c-section when she first brought up the idea of transferring. She also knew, though, that Jon and I were not yet at the point of accepting that, so she framed the transfer in light of getting some rest, using Pitocin, and trying to push again. She said in all her years of midwife-ing, all the labors that looked like mine had resulted in a c-section. She said that she knew I wasn't too tired, that I actually had a lot of steam left in me, and that my being able to do it or not wasn't a factor in her decision. I needed to hear that. I didn't feel too tired at the time of the transfer. I did feel like I could keep going. But Sarah knew best, and knew that it wasn't going to happen the way we were trying to make it happen. It was good for Jon to hear from her that we needed a c-section; even six weeks later he was still trying to figure out what could have been done differently, and he needed someone to lay his mind to rest. I did, too. 

I was also asked, by another friend, if I would have done anything differently throughout the whole pregnancy leading up to the labor. Like, would I still use the birthing center, would I have gotten any other interventions like more ultrasounds, etc. The answer was easy for me: No, I wouldn't have changed a thing. I loved being pregnant, and I think that our prenatal care experience at the birthing center had a lot to do with that. I am comfortable now with the very real probability that nothing we could have done would have changed our outcome of a c-section, and so, I wouldn't have changed a thing. 

So what's next for the future Buck babies? Since I had a c-section, my next labor will be considered higher risk because of the chance for uterine rupture, so I can't have my babies at the birthing center. We found a group of midwives, though, that treats pregnancy and birth in a very natural way, but they deliver babies at a hospital. This group has a very high VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) rate, and are huge proponents of women having VBACs. We aren't thrilled about the hospital part, but we realize that being higher risk means I need to have quick access to interventions if anything goes wrong. We still hope to have a natural birth. I freakin hated that epidural - it made me come out of my laborland zone and get all emotional and I hated having to sit still in one position while my body continued the work of labor unbeknownst to me - so I hope that I don't need one of those again. This hospital offers birthing tubs and water births and wireless monitors - yipeee! - so we are thankful that there is a good alternative to our beloved birthing center. 

Alright so that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Hope it was an enjoyable read for you, if you managed to make it all this way. Don't we women just LOVE a good birthing story? I know I do. 

For your reading pleasure, you may want to look back at this post I wrote about labor. Or rather, my thoughts about labor. I hadn't actually experienced it yet, but I think I had some good things to say. Oh how much I've learned since then, though! 

jonathan's birth story, part 1

Nothing like the approaching first birthday of your son to make you feel like you have lots to write about and zero time to do it. I can't believe this is the first time I am sitting down to blog in a week!

I'd been wanting to write out our birth story and I have sure been thinking about it a lot lately. So here ya go. I'll do this in two parts because it ended up being quite lengthy and who doesn't love a little dose of suspense?

I had a pretty strong feeling Jonathan would be arriving before his due date. I had a pretty strong feeling he would be here on Memorial Day, actually. I was right on both counts. And while we are talking about me being right, let me mention that I also knew he was a boy (we didn't find out the gender during pregnancy). I assumed he wouldn't be cute - I don't know why - but thankfully I was wrong there.

At my 37 week appointment, I had dilated one centimeter, much to my skeptical midwife's surprise. Then another centimeter by 38 weeks, and at 39 weeks, I was up to three. I was contracting like crazy (I guess I'm just a major contractor - I had started having Braxton-Hicks since about 20 weeks) and thought I was in labor a couple times up to this point, so I was always relieved to know at my checkups that something was actually going on. At the 39 week appointment, the midwife swept the membranes to move things along, and we figured we would be back to see her within a day or two once labor started.

A little background: Jon and I chose to use a free-standing birthing center for our care. I don't like hospitals and I don't really like medicines used for pregnancy and labor. We both feel that pregnancy and labor and birth are natural and normal things and like the idea of a less medicine-oriented approach to care. We are hippies if hippie means going to a birthing center. Yes, we also use cloth diapers. And, yes, I breastfeed. But also, yes, I am a huge advocate for vaccines, and yes, I am a practitioner of western medicine. You can decide if we are bona-fide hippies based on all of this information.

We loved the birthing center and the midwives. I am so happy that we went that route. It was a perfect fit for us.

Ok. So early labor started 48 hours - almost on the dot - after the midwife swept my membranes. That was Sunday, when I was 39 weeks and 2 days. By about 9pm, active labor was in full swing. I labored at home for a long time, getting in and out of the tub, leaning on the backs of chairs, riding the contractions and feeling pretty good. I actually loved it. And that is not just post-baby amnesia. I actually remember thinking during labor that I really love this. Not that it didn't hurt, not that it wasn't hard work, but for some reason I was just so happy and excited.

Jon had been talking back and forth with the midwife, updating her on our progress. Around 1 or 2am, she wanted us to come on into the birthing center because my contractions were really close. I didn't want to go. I was feeling so good at home - (someday I want to have a home birth!) - but since she knew I dilated fast up to this point, she was pretty insistent that we head over there.

When we arrived, we found out I was 7cm. Yay! I was entering transition and still happy as a horse. I got into the birthing tub right away. Oh how I loved that tub. Ladies who are reading this: if your birth place has a tub, get.in.it. The contractions were intense at this point for sure, and I was having a LOT of back labor this whole time. Jon and my mom told me later that they had to contort themselves into all kinds of awkward positions in order to reach my back to put pressure on it while I was in the tub. During the contractions I HAD to have someone push on my back.

I had no concept of time throughout labor, until they told me that I needed my second dose of antibiotics (I was group B strep positive). When I had arrived and they gave me my first dose, they joked that I probably wouldn't need a second because things were progressing so rapidly. When they made me get out of the tub to administer my second dose, I clued into the fact that things were taking longer than everyone had anticipated.

At some point they checked me again and I was 9.5cm. There was one small lip of cervix left. The midwife had me out of the tub and on the birthing stool so she could try to move that lip of cervix back as I pushed during contractions. During this time, the midwife also broke my water (it hadn't broken yet--which I think was a major factor in how good I felt up to this point!). In the process of all her manipulating and my pushing, my cervix got really swollen, and Jonathan's head actually moved further back up rather than down, and so I was no longer almost 10cm.

I was pissed. When the midwife realized what was happening and told me to get off the stool so I could rest for a little while, I was like What the hell??!? Rest?!!? I just went through the most awful pain of my life and you want me to REST??!!!? Was that all for nothing?!!??? (The process of her manipulating my cervix while I pushed was seriously the most intense pain I have ever had; I remember thinking through that time that I'm not sure if I can do this.)

So I rested. Whatever that actually means when you are in labor. The contractions actually did slow down a little. Later on they checked me and my swelling had subsided, but now I wasn't 9cm anymore, so I had to dilate again. They were giving me some herbal thing to make my contractions stronger, and oh boy it worked. Yikes. Those contractions were crazy.

Once I got to 10cm again, the midwife was having me push during contractions while she was trying to move Jonathan's head so that he could fit better. It was at this point that she started to suspect that he might be posterior (face up). At all my check-ups he was in perfect anterior position, but with my back labor and halted progress, she figured maybe he had turned at some point. Great. So now his head was stuck and wasn't able to descend into the birth canal. I was pushing with all my might, and she was doing everything she could to turn him. If I thought earlier that I had experienced the worst pain of my life, that was nothing compared to now. But it was crazy that I didn't care. I wanted to push through the pain. I wanted this baby out. I was totally in the zone, totally in labor land, and everything in me was working for a single purpose.

---I'll stop there for now, but stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow! :)---

playing with food

Yesterday morning we had some friends over for breakfast, and despite being surrounded by four competent adults, Jonathan still managed to grab hold of his yogurt bowl and had half of it dumped out before anyone saw him. I think it was a good learning experience. For him and for us.

nursing

Hello, ladies. There's been lots of talk lately about breastfeeding, thanks to TIME mag's wonderfully accurate portrayal on their cover. I've been wanting to reflect on our year of nursing, and I will chose to do so with no regard for the recent hype :). I'll also mention quickly that this post is not well-written. I'm in the mood to write about it but not really in the mood to edit it. Oh and the last warning is that it is all about boobs.... So read at your own risk.

I love nursing Jonathan. I was pretty sure that I would like it, but I didn't know I would love it. But I do. I really do. I'm thankful that we were designed this way, to nourish our babies like this - nourish them with food but also with love and comfort and contact.

That's not to say we haven't had some bumps along the way. We actually hit a major speed-bump right from the start when my milk didn't come in for SEVEN DAYS. Yes that is the truth. Little baby Jonathan just drank colostrum for his first week of life. He lived on the boob. And boy did I make some colostrum! I am around mommies and babies all the time and have never heard of someone being able to pump a whole ounce or more of purely colostrum. But right here ladies - this mama did.

I admit that when it comes to nursing, I did not know what I was doing. At all. Part of the reason my milk didn't come in for so long is because we didn't even nurse at all in the first 24 hours after J was born!!! I will do a lot of things differently with the next baby (if I had a nickel for every time I say that...).

For example, I will not watch the clock. I was a major clock watcher. I would wake him up when I thought it was time to nurse, and I would make sure he nursed for a certain amount of time. Not that I think these practices are that awful, but they have their down sides. With the next baby I will just be ok with nursing whenever s/he wants. I won't get so worried that I am doing something wrong if I have a hungry baby who seems to want to eat all the time. Who cares. Babies go through like a hundred growth spurts in the first fifty days of life, which I know from medical experience, but really know from mommy experience.

Gosh I remember those first few months of nursing - singing to him through the whole feeding to keep him awake enough to finish; wondering, do I pump? Will he wake up hungry in one second if I do pump? (Always the answer to that was YES, he WILL!); sore nipples - take a deep breath before he latches - YIKES!; feeling like we were getting the hang of things and then the next day feeling like we were doing this all wrong.

When I went back to work I started pumping three times per day. Jonathan never had much trouble with bottle/breast switching. I really feel lucky that pumping at work has never been much of an issue. An inconvenience, yes, but never a problem with my employer or anything. Pumping sucks (no pun intended), but it's worth it. I never was one to be able to pump a large volume, nor was I ever a big milk producer in general. I admit that sometimes I'm amazed that we've been able to nurse for as long as we have. There have been multiple times that I have been worried about my precarious supply, but things always seemed to work out (Jonathan would be less hungry for a few days so I could build up my storage supply, for example).

I didn't think much about nursing for a whole year or not. I just figured we would go for at least a year and see what happened. It wasn't really a big goal or something to work toward, it was just what we did, what worked for us. I do feel proud in a way I guess that I have been able to give this gift to my baby, but I understand nursing so differently than before I had Jonathan. I think it would have been weirder not to nurse, rather than something to try really hard to make happen. It was just so normal and natural. (Not to mention CONVENIENT!! Plane rides are much more pleasant with boobs full of milk available at all times.) And I do think it makes for a strong mommy-baby bond, because I know it is a major way that he and I connect.

I remember the first time Jonathan actually looked up at me and made eye contact while he nursed. I remember when he started always touching my face and mouth while he nursed. These days it is such fun cuddle time -  he is so cute when I tickle him and he does this funny grin/giggle but doesn't want to unlatch. Oh I will never forget these times.

So, aside from the first three days of major difficulties, and even with the few issues since then, I have absolutely loved nursing. (Have I mentioned that yet?) I am one of those moms. I get all teary-eyed and dreamy and hormonal-high when I think about nursing. I.just.love.it. You can lean past your computer keyboard to puke if you need to because of all the mushy-gushy-ness.

So now he's almost a year. What do we do next? I am sad to think about not nursing him as frequently, and pretty much crushed when I think about not nursing at all. I plan to start cutting back on our daytime nursings in the next month or so, and then cutting out the morning and before bed times when he is ready. I feel good about where we are at. If there is anything I have learned this year, it's that Jonathan is pretty good about doing things when he is ready, so I'm not feeling (too) worried or anxious about these next couple months.

Ok so that is our deal with nursing this past year. This was one of those posts that was just good for me to get into words. Sorry, no pictures to go along with this topic. I'd love to hear any other thoughts about nursing, though, especially how things went with weaning/switching to whole milk. (I know, I know, I'm supposed to know all this stuff - but you've heard me talk about how different it is to give advice to patients vs. actually do it!)

late-week confessions/randoms

Who even knows what this post is about...

-I admit that when I know Jonathan is hungry but I don't have his food ready I will put him in his highchair with a pile of Cheerios and let him sort through them until he finds the one he wants to eat which results in most of the pile being thrown on the floor but at least it buys me three minutes to get his food ready.

-I changed Jonathan's crib sheet this week after about three months of not changing it.

-My 11-month-old son fits into some 18-month clothes now, but I still squeeze him into some 9-month jammies at night because I like them.

-He is ABOUT to figure out crawling. Crawling FORWARD!! I am watching him right now start to get the arm/leg coordination down.

-He pulled out this mirror from his toy basket that he hasn't looked at since he was about 1 month old. It is sweet to watch him play with it again.

-I like when I find Jonathan's toys in random places, like tucked into my sheets, on the floor of my car, in our laundry hamper. Seriously, I do. Whenever I find them I smile.

-Yikes I really am a total sap this month.

Oh look at me I just got to where I wanted to go!

Hm what do we have here?

Yesss I love pulling all the toys out of my basket and look at me learning to crawl!

it's may...

...which means at the end of this month my sweet baby will turn one...

...which means I will spend the next thirty days being very sappy and sentimental and mushy and weepy...

...which means you may chose not to read this blog for a while! Ha! Or you can chose to be sappy and mushy right along with me :)

Happy may day!

11 month update

I don't even know where to start. Once again, Jonathan is a different baby than he was just one month ago. This is the month of learning new tricks! Haha, he's like our little puppet. He has learned so much... ahh I have so much to write about!

Dangit I still can't find this chapstick...

Let's just get right to the fun stuff.
I don't know how he learns the stuff he learns. For example, I had been trying to teach him to clap for about four months with no success, and then he just starts clapping one morning at breakfast. And, he understood right away when I said "clap" and he started clapping. THEN, I said "play the drums," (which I had never said before) and he started banging on his high chair table and will do this consistently now. He also randomly kissed me on the mouth when I said "kiss" one day. I don't know where he got this. But it is super cute. It's a big wet slobbery open-mouthed kiss. But he won't give mommy any kisses lately.

He really has some rhythm, eh?

This month he has figured out that different things have different words so we do a lot of pointing at things when we read stories. When we were on our cabin weekend, he pointed intentionally for the first time, at the ceiling fan of course (we don't have ceiling fans and he is fascinated by them whenever we are around one). He has been pointing at things non-stop since then, so we do a lot of naming things around the house as he points to them. He learns things really quickly, like today we were sitting outside and I pointed to a tree and a few minutes later I said "tree" and he pointed to it. He also likes pointing to my nose. And just a few minutes ago he did his first definite sign for "milk."

Pointing at the "tree."

The race for the first word was a close one. Mama and Dada were close contenders, but in the end, it looks like Dada will win out. Dada is still his word for excitement a lot, so we haven't officially counted it as his first word, but it pretty much is. He definitely says it in relation to Jon. Oh, and he has completely refused to say Mama for the past week or so. No big deal. I bet "ball" will be his official second word and he will just not bother saying Mama for another year or something. Cool. We also have a lot of success with "p" words like Pop and aPPle and sometimes uP. He may or may not have said Pizza at dinner tonight. He also knows our friends Barton and Sarah and we think their "names" are something like Ba and Sa.

Buds.

Still no pulling up on furniture. He loves standing up though and is getting good at it. He will cruise along furniture a little bit. He has still not figured out the crawling thing, but manages to get where he wants to go. His fine motor skills have developed a lot this month. He is so good at manipulating small objects.

He WANTS to crawl but can't figure out how to move those hands!

sleep
Still sleeping all night. Still one morning nap for 1.5-2 hours. No swaddle. Life is good.

haha--Every mama's favorite picture!

Happy boy waking up from his nap.

personality
He is getting SO independent and opinionated. And it is hilarious to watch him play with toys and put them all where he wants them, which is often behind him. When we nurse, my hands have to be in exactly the right spots and he will move them into those spots if I haven't already. He is still such an "inspector," noticing all the little details about everything around him and having to touch them all. He will study the cause and effect of so many different things. ("What will happen if I drop this pancake on the floor?" "What about if I drop this Cheerio on top of it?" "Will mommy stop being mad if I start wobbling my head around and laughing?") He's definitely a thinker and an observer. And I still describe him as so eager. Eager to play with other kids. Eager to learn to things. Eager to start the day. Eager to let go of my hands while he's walking--oh wait, that's actually called fearless. Yep. He's definitely fearless too.

I don't know if this is playing or bored.

Wishing he was playing frisbee with the big kids.

Here are some more things that I don't feel like writing into paragraphs:
-He will make an attempt at a high five. A weak attempt though.
-He likes the swings at the park.
-He will eat just about anything now. That is, I will feed him just about anything.
-He has learned to spit things out that he doesn't like.
-Still nursing.


mama time
Gosh I am so crazy about this kid. So so in love.

I'm becoming more confident about and comfortable with his pace in life. Like sometimes I get worried that he's not doing something, but then he wakes up the next morning and does it. Like with the swaddle--he all of a sudden just didn't need it, but up until that day he needed it and that's ok. We have gone through enough of these cycles that I know we will eventually get there, wherever "there" is. I freak out a little thinking about starting whole milk and decreasing nursing, but then I remember that we will get there. When will he walk? He'll get there. When will he be better at feeding himself? Eventually.

He was on a little mama strike for a while this month. Of course he still wanted to be held and nursed and loved on, but he wouldn't say mama or give me a kiss or be as excited to see me when I got home. But he knows I'm mama. He knows I'm always there. Early on this would have freaked me out--"Why doesn't he love me more!??!?" But now I'm cool with it. I guess this will be my whole mom-life. Loving him so darn much with or without anything in return. And having such a strong desire to have him close and cuddly and mine, but also being so proud when he takes a step away from me and into the world. When he learns a new thing. When he becomes increasingly independent. He knows I'm here. I know I'm here. We're a pair.

sitting by the pond

Jon fixed up our backyard and pond area, which is one of our favorite spots in the spring and summer. J was too little to really enjoy it last year, but loves it now! Especially because the grass is nice and soft and tasty. Oh and we have 25 new goldfish in the pond!

Picturesque

This grass is stretchy

Look at this cool stuff I found, Mom!

Oh my sweet blondy boy

weekend recap

As you may have noticed, no medical mondays today. That's because we were having a fabulous weekend with friends in a cabin in Woodland Park, CO. We had a great time!!

Jonathan loved this car swing. 

We played an epic game of settlers. Can you tell who won?
Probably not because it is too hard to see... so I'll just tell you that I did not win.

View of Pike's Peak from our cabin.

Junior and Senior on our hike.

Jonathan with his gal-pal Sarah

More time in the car swing, this time with matching hat.

Did you have a good weekend?

sunday slideshow

Just have a couple pictures hanging around that are cute enough to be blog-worthy. :) Enjoy!

G'day mate.

Something was funny. Probably Daddy.

Lookin' slick in his Kenneth Cole shirt and combed-over hair.

Learning about modes of transportation. 

Mixing plaids = trendy, right?

Better put your hat back on or your hair is gonna blow away.

I can hear those giggles.

Hey cheeks.

Lazy day. He likes lounging around watching cooking shows with Mommy.

why dinnertime lasts so long...

weekend recap

We had a great weekend.

Jonathan received THREE packages in the mail on Friday.
Here he is wearing a new outfit from Nanny, new socks from GG and chewing a new toy from Grammy.

He got to spend time with his favorite Anna. 

They love each other.

Sunday morning we woke up at 5am to catch an Easter sunrise atop Mt. Falcon. 

It was COLD, but Jonathan enjoyed being carried on Daddy's back.

On Easter, Jonathan wouldn't look at Mommy for a picture because he was so enthralled with the grass...

...as well as the hole in the bottom of his new ducky toy. 

Clearly my attempts at a cute picture were thwarted by the ducky. 

Happy Easter and Happy SPRING!

i shouldn't let him do this

Dad is strict about jonathan playing with wires. Good thing dad's outside.

pop and bebe!

 Pop and Bebe visited last weekend and we had a lovely time. Jonathan didn't recognize them at first (he hasn't seen them since Christmas), but quickly warmed up to them.

It's funny how he somehow knows when people are family. He definitely acts differently around our parents and siblings than he does around our friends.

I think he senses all the LOVE in our house when family is visiting.

The weather was unusually warm so he got to wear cute spring clothes and we played outside a lot!

We headed up to Evergreen to enjoy the scenery and take a walk around the lake.

Aunt Susan (aka Aunt Soupy) joined us too!

Jonathan soaked up the sun and of course all the attention.

Sometimes the attention wasn't his favorite.

He did so great on our long outing--not even fussing when he didn't get a nap or had to sit at a restaurant forever waiting for our food. I can't say the same for his mother.

Thanks for visiting us, Pop and Bebe! We love you so much!!!!