The Zoo!!

My cousin Nicole and her family had a family membership to the Minnesota Zoo and invited Callen and I to join her and Parker for a day at the zoo. With her membership, she is able to have a guest come along with her for free. As we first walked in, our first stop was at the Moose area and we were shocked to see the moose so close to the rails. Normally they are so far in the back, but these guys decided that they could hang out up front on a quite Tuesday afternoon.

As we were walking by the bear exhibit, we were lucking enough to get there right when they were going to work on training the bears. Each bear had a shape that was theirs, the one in the picture had a star and then there were two others that had a circle and a square. The bear was to follow a little pole along the fence and would get a treat if he followed it correctly. He isn't attacking in the picture, he was told to stand up by his trainer.

One of the areas that I actually got to show Nicole was the aquarium area. She said that they hadn't been there before since getting the membership 2 months ago. It was nice to be able to show her something since she had been showing me everything before then. :-)

This aquarium had a shark in it that had just passed by when she took the picture. My camera is fast but not fast enough. You will note that Callen is no longer in his stroller. Yes, I planned ahead and so thankful I did. I borrowed this baby bjorn carrier from Jon and Kristine the night before "just in case" I would need it for the zoo. And of course within 30 min, he was tired of his stroller and wanted out. So I slipped on the carrier and he was happy as a clam snuggled up with mom.

All of the camels were out in picture view also. There were a bunch of them all cuddled up together. Which I don't know why b/c it was beautiful out.

Thank you Nicole and Parker for inviting us...we had a great time and was so nice to do when there were no crowds and we could amble along as we pleased. And what a great thing for us to do the week before I have to head back to work. Callen may not remember this trip to the zoo at 7.5 weeks old, but I will.

Daddy time

Jerad's job requires quite a bit of travel and it will be increasing in the next year or so as his projects mature. So it is great when he gets a chance to spend time with Callen. They get some cuddle time together and also with Nattie. I think Callen looks awfully comfortable. Can you see how fast Callen has grown in just these pictures?

One thing that Jerad loves the most is to be able to lay down and cuddle with Callen. He is just a little warm body that fits so perfect on his chest. (9 days old)

Of course, if Jerad is on the floor, Nattie thinks it is her time to cuddle with Jerad as that was the case before Callen came along so of course, Jerad includes Nattie in on cuddle time. And it is a great way to get Nattie used to Callen and show that he is part of our family. (13 days old)

At 5 weeks old, not only is he finally starting to fit into those "newborn" shorts we bought for him that fits a 3 month old, but he and Nattie are really starting to bond.

We got this little "lovey" blanket/bear that has silky and fuzzy fabric, that babies love, from Great Grandma and Grandpa Miland. He was (unintentionally) cuddling with it, but it was so cute I just had to get a picture of it. (5 weeks old)

Callen and Nattie are learning to respect each other at an early age. Callen is giving his very first treat to Nattie at 5.5 weeks old. Normally Nattie can get rather grabby when there are treats around, but she was so gentle taking it from Callen that we had to tell her she could have it about 5 times.

My new friends

So I have some new friends, and I have a feeling we will be wreaking some havoc on our parents in a few years.

Riley is my neighbor and is a very active little boy. He really really wanted to hold me but as soon as I was in his lap, he was done with me. And I thought I had a short attention span. :-) I think he will be teaching me a lot as I grow up in this neighborhood.

So Brad came to see me again with his parents. This used to be his swing but his mommy and daddy lent it to my parents as they didn't need it anymore. It has definitely been my favorite place to nap. But it looks like he wished it was still his as he was really intrigued by the mobile. He is about 10 months old and already crawling and really close to walking these days. I think we will be the best of friends and we will be rough housing in no time. But I just need to get a little bit stronger first. I would like to be able to hold my head up and sit up first. :-)

One Month Old!!

Our baby boy is one month old today. I can't believe how fast the time has flown by. He is currently 11.8 lbs and 23.5 inches long. I think he may be a tall boy. We will see at his two month appointment where he stands percentage-wise.

This is also the time of the terrible skin conditions that newborns incur due to Mommy's hormones leaving their bodies. Callen just started getting the baby acne. We will see how long it takes for it to clear up. But if he gets fussy, I just tell people that he is just in a hormonal mood.

Just look at this kid, he is a chunk..do you notice the second chin? LOL But with his chunk, he also has the most kissable cheeks in which I do take advantage of everyday. He better just get used to having his mommy giving him kisses. He will be getting them all the time from here on out whether he likes it or not!!

Callen's First Month

Callen has had a very busy first month of life. We have made sure to expose him to quite a bit. We have been to the Mall of America at 8 days old, we went for our first walk at 5 days old, we have had a number of visitors and we also went to his very first autograph signing. Grandma Nona came to stay with us while Daddy went to the National Sprint Car races in Knoxville Iowa when he was 5 days old. We had quite an adventure that week as there was a pretty big storm and we got a TON of water in the basement. Luckily, I have a mother who isn't afraid of getting busy and took charge of the clean up while I was up and down the stairs taking care of Callen. We had 5 full shop vac tubs and about 30 containers from the hoover floor mate. It was awful and I would have been a basketcase if I was by myself. When Callen was 13 days old, we went to get an autograph for Daddy. I will be honest, it was not on my priority list of "to-dos", but Jerad hinted at it several times that if I wanted to get out, there was an autograph signing I could go to. So we packed ourselves up and met Danny Valencia of the Twins. Now this trip was also a bit of a stressful adventure. When you take out a newborn, you just never know what you will get, well he was just a doll while we were there, but due to some confusion on the location, we were about 10-15 minutes behind schedule and was really close to not getting it. We arrived about 11:15 (started at 11AM) and stood in line behind about 150-200 people. We were getting closer and closer to Danny and were getting the warnings from his marketing guy saying there was a good chance we wouldn't get our autograph. Well he must have seen the hormonal emotional breakdown that I was going to have if I didn't up there b/c he finally cut off the line at 3 people behind us. He probably understood how hard it is to get a newborn out and keep calm. So there was no breakdown and Jerad was thrilled to get the above picture in his email at work after we were done. Mission Complete!!

This was also the same night we decided to get our two "children" together for their very first picture together. They both look so thrilled, don't they? They don't know it yet, but I'm sure they will grow up to be best of friends.

At 21 days old we had a few visitors that traveled from a couple hours away. My grandparents - Callen's Great Grandma and Grandpa Miland came to meet him for the first time. Of course he was delighted with all the company. He also had a visit from his Grandpa Jeff and Grandma Evelyn. Grandpa Jeff visited in the hospital, but this was the first time Grandma Eve met him. They loved holding their grandson as they both love babies and definitely love their very first grandchild.

Twenty-two days old and we were out at Uncle Gary's work farm. Luckily, Uncle Gary gave Callen a pass this weekend and only made Daddy work this time. We headed out to Gary and Sue's house this afternoon so Jerad and Gary could set up their deer stands for this fall. Nattie also got in some puppy playtime as she saw her doggy cousins Frankie (shown in picture) and Freddy (who walked out of the photo). Freddy is her favorite cousin b/c they can rough house, but Frankie is in LOVE with Nattie and will walk around trying to hump her where ever she is...and mostly he is humping the air b/c Nattie walks away. It is quite comical.

Today was D-DAY!! Welcome Baby Zeus!!

I was up ready to call at 6AM!! And they will be ready for us at 7:30AM!! We get to meet our little guy today!! So here is our birth story:

We got to the hospital at 7:30AM where they had me put on the beautiful hospital gown and hooked me up to the monitors that are ever so comfortable and not in the way at all when you move around. (Yes, that was sarcasm) It turned out that I had already been having contractions every 6-8 min apart and didn't even know it. They started the Pitocin at 8AM and I think I started to feel slight contractions within 30-40 min. At 8:30, Dr. Cho arrived and said that I was 3 cm dilated and broke my water - no going back now. :-) At this point I am nervous because this is a completely new and unknown experience for me and no matter what others have told me before, my labor and delivery is going to be unique to me but at the same time very excited. When we were checked in, I was assigned to a wonderful nurse - Nurse Liz. I just wanted to state that right now...I wish she would have worked 12 hour days so she would have been the one to finish with me. Back to the story...by about 10:30 I had asked for the epidural and Nurse Liz had checked me and I was at 6 cm so I was moving right along. Dr. Bryan came in a little bit later and administered the epidural. I wasn't pain free instantly, but I will say that it worked pretty quickly. I was asked to lay on my left side for a while and then my right side started getting pains. It turns out that the epidural works with gravity...so I had to flip to the right side for it to flow to the right side. Ahhhh...now things are feeling good. By 12:10, I was at 9 cm....Nurse Liz was pretty shocked at how fast I was progressing. At 1:05, she came in again an I was at 10!! She had me sit in a laboring position in order for Little Zeus's head to drop a little more - which is sitting up in bed with my legs in the butterfly position. At 2:08pm, I started pushing. I will say it is hard to know when and how to push when you don't quite feel it. At 2:55, Nurse Liz showed Jerad the head. And there was a lot of hair on that head!! At 3:30pm I was still pushing and Nurse Liz was off the clock so I got a new nurse, who I don't remember her name and didn't quite connect with. She was great at the encouragement in pushing but I needed her to count b/c I was out of breath and didn't think her counting was on track as she would interrupt it with her cheers of "push push push". But later on, Jerad said that he was counting in his head with her and that she did stay on track....but in my shoes...or stirrups...it didn't feel like it. And Nurse Liz stood by my side, held my leg and counted and I had Jerad on my other side. This other nurse didn't stand by me...she stood at the end of the bed and was very hands off.....I had to hold my own leg! At 5pm I was still pushing and didn't have much left so Dr. Cho suggested the vacuum. I was hesitant b/c when we were in the birth and prep class, they showed us a vacuum and it was kind of scary and Jerad and I were opposed to it at that time. But I was so tired and needed some help and I really preferred not to have the C-section. Jerad left it up to me and supported whatever decision I made as he said that I was the only one that could know how much I had left in me. So I agreed to the vacuum....Dr. Cho pulled it out and it didn't look anything like the one they showed in the class...it looked much friendlier. I felt better but still needed to have steam left to push as she used the vacuum. After one episiotomy and 4 pushes/pulls, our little Zeus arrived at 5:07pm on August 7th, 2010 with the biggest conehead I have ever seen. He was 7lbs 15oz and 21 3/4 inches long. After he was out, I now know why I struggled...the little guy was coming out a little crooked. The left side of his crown was coming out first, not the center of the crown...so this conehead was also cock-eyed. But we love him so much that we don't care!!

Here our little guy is, getting weighed right away.

Here is the proud Daddy holding his son for the first time. Here is the Proud and VERY EXHAUSTED Mommy holding him after getting cleaned up. And here is baby Zeus - now named Callen Christopher Barker after what must have been a soothing bath as he seems quite relaxed.

40 weeks and still no baby!!

So today I am 40 weeks and sorry....we missed taking the picture of me at 40 weeks...but don't worry..it wouldn't have been that pretty and I can tell you that my belly circumference was 42.5 inches. So we went to the doctor today and saw Dr Cho who, by the way, told us at an earlier appointment that she didn't think I would make it to the due date...I would go early. So I had to remind her of that comment at this appointment. In the appointment she told us that we had a couple options, wait it out or induce. Everything was favorable as I was about 3-4 cm dilated and 65% effaced so it was up to us. Of course, as we are already at 40 weeks and today was Friday and it was the afternoon, our first question was if we choose to induce, when would we do it? She responded that she was on call this weekend, had sent her kids away and that she was open for business if we wanted to do it tomorrow or Sunday. We just had to call the appointment desk who sets up the inductions with the hospital. So Jerad and I decided to go for the induction - we are hoping to get in this weekend! I was ready to call as soon as we hit the parking lot, but Jerad said that I could wait until we got home. I called the number she gave us and they had an opening tomorrow at 7:30AM, but would need to call the hospital at 6AM to make sure they didn't get a ton of women delivering on their own before we got there. Looks like I have a little more waiting to do before I know for sure if we will meet our little Zeus tomorrow.