Henry Hatch Martin

Henry Hatch Martin was born November 19, 2012 at 7:42PM.  He weighed in at 8lbs 2oz and was 20.5 inches long.

All of Sunday night I had contractions every four minutes for about 20 seconds each, but they weren't terribly painful: nothing to rush to the hospital for.  I was so pooped from the contractions that I would awaken half way for the contraction and then fall right back asleep for another four minutes.  It was quite the night.  Monday morning they kept coming with out letting up.  I finally decided that we were just going to go to the hospital to have them break my water and have the baby.

We drove to Timpanogos Hospital an hour away from Grantsville hoping that they wouldn't turn us away saying come back later.  Timp Hospital is apparently small but pretty busy.  They did not have any delivery rooms open for patients that weren't in full active labor.  They put me in an evaluation room to see if I would qualify for active labor (dilating 1 cm per hour).  After the hour of waiting the nurse told me that I had dilated and that they would some how make room for me to have the baby.  YEA!  They moved me to a delivery room.  I had told them that if they would just break my water that the baby would come on out.  For some reason we waited FOREVER for them to break my water.  I never felt like the nurse gave me a very good reason why.  It seemed like they were always waiting on something else.  So we waited around ALL day.  

I kept having my contractions every four minutes.  They were getting quite long and a bit more painful, but I could handle the pain.  I knew that I would want an epidural for the actual delivery, but I also knew that I wanted to feel as much of what was going on with my body as possible for as long as possible.

Finally around 6 o'clock ish my water was broken and contractions turned from bearable to the most wrenching pain ever.  I got an epidural which was incredibly painful to get at this point in labor since everything the anestesiologist did induced more contractions which were harder.  Things went pretty quickly from there.  Henry's head was about ready to pop out and so they rushed to get set up and to get the doctor in.  After pushing for three contractions, out popped Henry at 7:42PM!  I had much more energy with this labor to be able to fully sit up during delivery and got to watch pretty much the entire birth.  It was a pretty amazing experience.

My recovery was phenomenal.  My epidural wore off quickly and I had very little residual pain.  I completely contribute my great recovery to all of the labor intensive yard work I did this summer.  I was able to walk pretty well by the time I got to the recovery room and was up and about the next morning.

Henry's recovery from delivery was great too.  We are working with him on his sucking ability though. He is a very sleepy eating baby and his sucking ability is not very good at all.  With a few days practice I am sure he will be getting better.

Charlie loves his little baby brother.  I have tried to show Charlie other babies but he never cared about them, but some how he knew that this baby was different.  He was pretty excited and proud.

He loves looking at Henry and pointing to his nose or eyes.

Charlie climbed into my hospital bed with me and wanted to hold Henry.  He gave him kisses and laughed and squealed about having a brother.

Charlie is adjusting fairly well to having Henry around.  The novelty has kind of worn off, but he still loves him just as much.

Charles is the Best

Yesterday my power cord broke and started sparking while I was using it.  I was pretty sad because that meant having to buy a new one and not being able to use my computer for a while since it wasn't very charged at the time.  When Charles got home he took a look at it and decided that he could fix it.  He had all the tools needed and the superb know-how to put it all back together again so that it works great.  It doesn't look fabulous anymore, but it works and I am glad we don't have to buy another cord.

Snow!

It snowed here in Grantsville!  Charlie really loved it.  We went out in the morning to wave bye-bye to Daddy as he left for work and Charlie REALLY wanted to play in it instead of being wrapped in a blanket.

Here is our backyard!  I love that it was so cloudy that you can't see the mountains.

Our back stairs were quite snowy; our cat didn't care for that since she often hangs out there.

 The snow looks really neat on our mailbox.

I made this cute little wreath from weeds in our backyard for the fall season. 

But at our house we have quickly moved past the fall season and are ready for Christmas.  Charlie doesn't bother the tree much.  He will softly touch the ornaments, but never anything violent.  I put our tree up early since I might not have the energy after the baby is born.

Halloween 2012

Charlie was a French painter for Halloween.

He wouldn't leave his costume on for any longer than a few minutes.  I think we may reuse this idea for next year.

 Charlie isn't old enough to trick-or-treat, but he did enjoy playing with the candy that we gave out to the kids that came by our house.   Thankfully the secret that candy is food hasn't reached Charlie so there was no fussing or crying for candy!  Hopefully he doesn't get let in on the secret for a few more years :)  We did although have a "fun" Halloween dinner.  Charlie and I made a pumpkin pizza.  It doesn't look fabulous, but it was fun.

While I was rolling out the dough Charlie loved playing in the flour!  He sure knows how to make a mess, but it was so fun.  While Charlie was swiping flour off of the counter, I could hear in my mind my Mom saying, "He's acting his age."  I am glad that she always told us that about younger kids when they did things that were so immature.  It helps me realize that little kids just don't get it, patience is always needed, and it is fine for them to act their age.

Gingerbread Houses

I am really into Christmas right now since here in Utah it feels like Christmas in California, minus the snow we just got.  I have tried to refrain from putting up all of the Christmas decorations, but I have started listening to Christmas music and got out our Christmas blanket.  And last night Charles was so nice to me to humor me in making gingerbread houses while every other sensible person was out celebrating Halloween.

Before getting into the house that we made last night, I wanted to point out a few ways that I have matured my gingerbread house making skills.  As a kid we always had fun making gingerbread houses, of course though we always used graham crackers instead.  After actually making gingerbread I can see why graham crackers were SO MUCH EASIER!  Also, as a kid the whole goal was to pack as much candy as possible onto your house because that meant you got more to eat later.  Consequently I would make a little house and a huge candy garden.  This time around I actually tried to make our house look nice.  I probably wasn't as tempted to throw as much candy on since all of the extra candy is ours to eat anyway.

Here is our cute little cottage with its Christmas lights on.  There is a little couple sitting on the front porch in their chairs and a mail box on the left of the house.

 On the right of the house is a wreath, dog house, and well.

 We had our friends come over and this is their cute little house.  I love their shutters and rail around their porch.  They have such cute little flower beds with chickens out front.  On the left is their little manger scene.

I really like their little chimney. 

Charlie was really good while we made our houses.  The only things that he begged for was the graham crackers and pretzels that we had out.  I am so glad that Charlie doesn't know what candy is or last night would have been so hard since we had about 12 or so different kinds of candy out.

Charlie is Growing Up (you probably could have guessed that))

Here you are folks, Charlie using a spoon!  Not super great, but I think he might get up to half of the food off the spoon.  The other half often falls or drips down his chin.  I still don't always give him a utensil, because they still often become toys.  Utensils are a privilege not a guarantee.

Charlie got his first pair of real shoes.  Like me when I was little, he cried when we first put them on.  Thankfully he only cried for a few minutes, where me on the other hand cried for a few hours.

Charlie LOVES corners or anything similar to a corner.  In one day I took photos of all of the corners that he went into.  Kitchen table legs.

 Next to the stairs.

 In between couch cushions.

Fireplace and the autumn.

 Elbow of couch.

Bathroom counter and wall. 

 Speaking of bathrooms, Charlie LOVES playing with our plunger.  I often find it in random areas of the house!  Thankfully it is quite clean, especially since he tries to drink from it.

 Charlie LOVES making silly faces, this is his current favorite.

 We call it his "Oooh Face" or the "Surprised Face."

Charlie is getting 3-4 more teeth at the moment.  It is kind of hard to tell since he doesn't really let us look in his mouth.  This will put him at about 12 teeth!

Charlie loves picking up Kitty like Mommy does.  Unfortunately for Kitty, Charlie doesn't do a good job.  He usually gets fist fulls of fur, Kitty's hind legs, or the tail.  He also doesn't get the idea of petting and smacks Kitty instead.  We are trying to teach him, but it is a long process.

Family Photo Before Baby #2 Comes

We took a family photo and here it is.  You can see the cute little baby bump in this one.  If you want to compare it to when I was pregnant with Charlie, here is a post when I was about just as far along.  With all of the yard work I have been doing (about 3-5 hours a day) I sure haven't gained as much weight this pregnancy.  I hadn't realized that I gained so much weight in my face with Charlie.  I think that eating with a one year old also helps.  He can sure help me loose my appetite quickly when he eats his regurgitated food, puts his food in his water, or other such things that shouldn't be said out loud for fear of keeping women from having children :)