Picture Fun

So far the past several years I have really enjoyed taking pictures... Although it is something I know nothing about I still totally love doing it... I LOVE trying to be creative... These are some little newborn pictures I tried taking of Asher and I know a professional photographer would have done a way better job, but I had fun and thought some of them turned out pretty cute... Don't mind the fact that he has baby acne all over right now and for half the pics I couldn't get his pacifier out of his mouth... Oh well, I still think he is stinkin cute!

growing kids

ASHER Birth Day
1 Month
MORGAN

0-4 weeks

1 Month

2 Months

3 Months

4 months 5 Months

6 Months

7 Months 8 Months

9 Months

10 Months

11 Months 12 Months

13 Months

14 Months

15 Months

16 Months

17 Months

18 Months

19 Months

20 Months

21 Months

Today I was thinking wow I can't believe that Asher is already a month old... Where did the time go? And then I looked at Morgan and I thought to myself, Wow Morgan is almost 2 years old and my little girl is growing up... Its amazing how much she has grown over the last 22 months and how much she has learned and accomplished... I love watching my kids grow although it does make me a little sad knowing that they won't be my babies forever... For the time being I will just have to soak up every minute I have with them being sweet innocent little babies that brighten my day and fill my life with laughter...

Spring/Easter blocks

The other night I went to do a nail party at a craft night that these two ladies host about every 2 months... When I was done doing nails the lady told me she had some extra crafts left over if I was interested in doing some... I have been in a crafting mood lately so I decided it would be fun to make these Spring/Easter blocks... They are double sides which is nice cuz it takes up less room in storage when you are done using them for the season... I had so much fun making these and they were super easy... It totally makes me want to have a craft night of my own!

Bunch of sleepy heads

This is how Paul found us one afternoon when he got home from working... I love family nap time! I hope there are many more in the future!

Brother and Sister

Morgan absolutely LOVES being a BIG SISTER! She is always asking for "brother" and wanting to hold him... She loves to help out any way she can whether it be changing diapers, throwing them away, giving him bottles or his binky, cuddling with him etc... And she loves to give her brother hugs and kisses! I am so glad that she is such a good big sister to him and hope that they have fun growing up together...

Who does Asher look like?

So people always ask, who does your baby look more like? The Mom or the Dad? unfortunately I don't have a baby picture of me to post on here but you tell me if Asher doesn't look almost Identical to his daddy?! And then people always ask does this baby look anything like their sibling did when they were born...

Here is Morgan at 2 days old

And here is Asher at 2 days old... See any resemblance? I have decided that Pauls genes run strong in our family... Are any of my kids going to look like me?

Baby is here!

Introducing...

Asher Joseph Holgate

Born February 25th, 2010

at 4:28 pm

Weighing 8 pounds 5 ounces

21 1/4 inches long

So I was originally supposed to be induced on Wednesday the 24th at 5:00 am, but I got a call from the hospital at 8:00 pm Tuesday night telling me that they were backed up and that I wouldn't be able to come in at the time I was scheduled but to go ahead and call back sometime after 8:00 am the next morning... As you can imagine I was kind of disappointed that I wasn't going to be able to go in at the time that I had been planning on for the past week... Anywho I decided I was going to try and not let it get to me and that I would just wake up early in the morning and get ready so that in case when I called and they said I could come in I would be ready to go... So I woke up at 7 to get ready and called the hospital at 8:15 only to find out that they were still backed up and weren't going to take any more inductions for at least two days... By that point I was super disappointed since I was anticipating on having this baby early so he wouldn't be too big... After calling my mom to let her know she could go into work that day and informing my mother-in-law that she no longer needed to come and watch Morgan I decided to just go back to bed... Around ten I decided to call my doctor to see if I should just come in for my weekly visit... The Nurse told me he wanted me to come in and that he would try and get things started my stripping my membranes... I went in 1/2 an hour later and was already dialated to a 2 and 60% effaced... He told me that if I didn't go into labor that I could go ahead and come back in the morning and that he would strip them again... Well nothing happened so I went back in the morning and got them stripped again... By that point I was dialated to a 3 and 70-75% effaced... I was glad that there was some progress from the day before... He told me to go home and do some walking and hopefully that would help to...

So here I am at my moms walking on the tredmill hoping it would help put me into labor... I told her that I just really wanted to go and get a pedicure hoping they could trigger something by pressing on points in my foot and my mom offered to save me some money and that she would give me a good foot rubbin... We decided to look up videos on you tube on accupressure points to help induce labor... Anywho while she was doing that, at 10:22 am, I got a call from the hospital asking me if I could come into the hospital to be induced... I was really kinda suprised since I wasn't expecting to be able to get in til at least friday...

Here is a pic of my belly right before I left to go to the hospital... We got to the hospital at about 11:30 and then got back to the labor and delivery room about 12:00... By the time they asked me all the questions, hooked me up the the IV it was about 12:40 when they started the pitocin... At 1:15 the doctor came in to check on me and he broke my water... I tell you once he did that the contactions really started to come and they were SO painful and every two minutes...

In all of the pictures above I am having contractions and trying to smile through them! I really wanted to not be a whimp and get an epidural right away but about an hour into it all I decided that I wanted one... So I called in the nurse and told her that I thought I wanted to get one now but felt that I was being a whimp for getting one so soon and he nurse said when there are tears it is time... I felt so much better after getting the epidural, although one side was way more numb than the other and that was kinda wierd...

For some reason when it gets close to pushing time I get really shaky and feel like vomiting... I guess its from the hormone changes and the same thing happened with Morgan...

Here I am getting all set up and ready to push! I did one little practice push and the nurse said it was time to call the doctor to come in... He was there in like 10 min and I was ready to go... He had me push once (you know the three pushes lasting 10 seconds each) and I guess his head had popped out and he told me to hold off pushing at the next contraction because I had started tearing and wanted to stretch me out a little before I pushed again... Well the next contraction came and what do you know little Asher just came out on his own! I was so shocked that I only had to push for a grand total of 60 seconds and that I was only in labor for a little less than four hours... I have to say that I think Morgan definately paved the way for him..I had told the nurses that I didnt want the baby put up on me after he was born because I was scared of having all the bloodiness up in my face but I guess they did a good job convincing me that I should have them lay him on me... I have to admit that I thought it was kinda wierd and scared me a little...

First time getting to hold the little guy after he was bornAsher with Grandma Heywood

Asher with my friend Krystina

Getting his hair washed... He loved it... Can you tell by how relaxed he looks?

All done with his bath and ready for people to come and see him!

Morgan metting her little brother for the first time... I don't think she quite knew what to think of the whole situation but She sure does love him now!