Forrest's haircut

After many tears and much bribing, Forrest finally got his hair cut.

Forrest pictures

Forrest desperately needs a haircut. This picutre doesn't quite do his hair justice. It is REALLY long!

On Sunday we had a big family dinner at Bill's mom's house. Forrest played really hard with his cousins and didn't take a nap. He was so tired he fell asleep at the dinner table.

More Madeline pictures

Here is Madeline with her cousin, Tyler. Tyler was born on March 11th and until last week, I thought he was tiny! But just look at him next to Madeline!

It is so sweet how much Forrest loves his baby sister. This morning he was going to stay at Grandma Sherry's and before he left, he went over to her crib and said "bye, Madeline, love you!"

This was Madeline's first bath at home.

Another bath picture...she was so good! She didn't really get fussy at all.

This is my cousin Kathy's little girl, Shyanne. They came to visit when we were still in the hospital. Shyanne loved Madeline and wanted to hold her.

Madeline at the hospital

Finally, some pictures of our beautiful little girl! I was scheduled to have a c-section on May 28th, but apparently Madeline wanted to come early! On the morning of Tuesday, May 19th I started having some contractions. They were actually pretty close together and pretty strong. I went to see my doctor and he sent me up to the hospital, saying we would probably do the c-section after 5 that afternoon. Then, when I laid down at the hospital with the monitors on, the contractions stopped. I was so bummed! I figured he wouldn't do the c-section! But, I still had a few contractions...one or two an hour, and the monitor showed that her heart rate may have dipped a little with at least a couple of the contractions. Because of that, because I didn't object, and also for convience I think, he decided to do it that afternoon. So, shortly before 5 they took me to the operating room. Bill was in there with me (luckily not seated by the blood bucket this time around!) and thankfully it went much more smoothly this time. Last time, with Forrest, the epidural didn't work all the way and I could feel them cutting...this time I couldn't feel much of anything, certainly no pain. She was breech...which we didn't know...so I guess she probably would have come c-section anyway. I was excited to have a little girl! She was born at 5:23 pm and weighed 6 lbs 12.7 oz and was 18.5 inches long.

She lost some weight at the hospital...as all babies do. She was 6 lbs 4 oz when we left the hospital and the next day at the pediatrician's office she was only 6 lbs. She nursed very well the first time, but then she had a hard time after that. We stuck with it though and thankfully we got the hang of it. I'm SO excited to not have to buy formula or wash bottles! At least we won't be washing bottles yet...I'm guessing I will eventually have to pump and let other people feed her...but not any time soon!

The first night the nurse said she was going to take Madeline for her hearing screening. Much to her surprise, I asked her to wait until I could go along, because I wanted to be there. She hadn't ever had someone who wanted to watch it before, but I explained that I'm a teacher for the deaf and wanted to take pictures while she got her hearing screened. So, we didn't do it until we were almost ready to go. She was very fussy in the beginning and it took a while to get the sensors on in the right place, but eventually it worked and she passed....as we knew she would. We could tell she could hear before she was born because she would jump when her daddy blew raspberries on my belly!

Finally, after being in the hospital for 48 hours, they let us go home. She was so very tiny that she didn't seem to fit in the car seat!

Forrest loves his new baby sister. Before she was born we told him he was going to be a big brother. He said "No, me a big boy!" But now he says he is a big brother and "that baby is pretty, pretty precious!" He wants to hold her all the time and he gives her hugs and kisses. He is still learning to be gentle...but he will get there!

She's Here!

Our little girl, Madeline Elizabeth, was born at 5:23 pm on Tuesday, May 19th. I was scheduled for a c-section on the 28th but went into labor, so she came early! She was 6 lbs 12.7 oz and 18.5 inches long. We are both slowly recovering. I'm exhausted and sore from the surgery. She is a little jaundiced and so she is hanging out in the sun. Forrest loves her and is doing really well. He has accepted that he is a big brother and that she is "our baby". He isn't as gentle as I would like, but he is learning. I will post more with pictures later...right now I'm going to take a nap!

Celia's New Baby

My friend Celia just had another baby. She had her first baby, Brian, three weeks before Forrest was born. She had her little girl, Tegan, on April 30th, four weeks before our baby should be born! Celia lives in Green River, which is only about 2 1/2 hours from Lander, but we don't get to see each other too often. Below are some pictures of Forrest and Brian when they played together last April. Then, there are two pictures of Celia's beautiful little girl. She looks so perfect!

Visiting Family

The weekend of April 24th my mom, Forrest and I were in Laramie. I was presenting at a conference and my mom was there to help with Forrest. My cousin Cori and her three little girls live in Laramie so we were able to go and play at their house on Friday and Saturday night. Forrest was in 7th heaven! He doesn't have much opportunity to play with other kids, so doing it two nights in a row with three kids was awesome.

This is Cori's youngest daughter, Breezy. She is a sweet little angel! She is a little over 1 1/2 years old.
Here is Forrest with Cori's other two girls, Emily who will be 5 next week and Charlie Anne who will be 4 in July.

This one is a little blurry, but cute!

We left Laramie on Sunday afternoon and went to Denver to have graphics put on our work truck. While the truck was at the shop getting worked on, my aunt Cathy drove us all over Denver. We picked up my cousin Renee and her new baby, Van, and had breakfast with my brother. Then we did a little shopping and got Forrest a new carseat to use in the jeep. Then we went to visit my cousin Ashleigh. She is a nanny for two little kids. Forrest played with them in their toy room for a while and had a fantastic time. After that we went to visit my grandma Criswell at her apartment. The picture above is of me, Forrest, my mom and Grandma. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera with me every where we went, and then my battery went dead!

I hurt my little boy!

I am clumsy. That is just a fact of life and it has been complicated because I'm gigantically pregnant. Last week I twisted my ankle when I was walking in my grandma's driveway. I didn't fall, thank goodness, but my ankle was swollen and it hurt. Then, exactly a week later, I was walking with Forrest, holding his hand, when I twisted the same ankle again. This time I fell, and since I was holding Forrest's hand, I dragged him down with me. It was awful! His little hand is all scraped up and he has a big scrape on his cheek. He was crying very hard and then I started to cry too. We made it into the house and were sitting on a chair, when he noticed that I was crying too. He said "Mommy no cry, me crying!" He is so adorable! We put band-aids on his scrapes and he is fine, although he won't let me hold that hand because it hurts. He tells me "hold this hand, this hand better".

Sending Off Our Soldiers

A few weekends ago the largest deployment of Wyoming National Guard in the history of our state was sent off to the Middle East. The Lander unit was one that was deployed. We had a big parade through downtown Lander to send them off.

Forrest liked the little American flags the Junior Naval ROTC program students were passing out.

Our niece, Allison, is a member of the Junior Naval ROTC. She, along with three other students, provided the color guard for the parade. Allison is on the far left carrying a rifle.

Here is the Lander National Guard unit. There are over 80 people in it, not all of them from our area.