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.

37.5 weeks along and a wonderful visitor

Tonight my brother came to visit us for a few days before he was deployed to Kyrgyzstan. It was really fun to have him here as we went out to eat with our uncle Lynn one night and then Scott took me shopping for a baby gift. It was so sweet. He bought us our stroller (which gets used almost daily). Since he won't be here for Christmas, he said it was a baby gift and our Christmas gifts all wrapped up in one. The next night he went to play basketball with Jerad. I think he had a nice time up here too as he was also able to go visit my grandma in Hastings while both Jerad and I were at work during the day.

Yep...look at that belly grow...37.5 weeks along. It could be any day now..so we hope. I also got my first taste of heart burn last week. It wasn't horrid, just a little uncomfortable and it doesn't plague me all the time. Just kind of pops up every now and again. My ankles are still cankles and I still cannot wear my wedding ring. It has been pretty hot and humid out as the summer progresses, but I still get out and walk every day at lunch time with a co-worker of mine. We get in 2 miles which is the length of the trail around the lake by our office and walk to and from the trail. I guess that is what is giving my skin that sun-kissed glow. :-)

Jerad just finished up his last trip for work until delivery day so it is nice to have him home for a while. I wonder how soon he will have to start up again after little Zeus is born.

35 Weeks along

Today I am 36 weeks along and here I am at the doctor's office getting checked out. Everything is going great as the heartbeat is strong and little Zeus keeps moving about like crazy. I am already 1 cm dilated and 60% effaced. Maybe he will be early or on-time? The nursery is coming along wonderfully too. I'll post some pictures sometime. :-) Time has just gotten away from me these days.

Storm

We had a pretty bad storm last night. Straight winds took down a branch at my neighbor's house and then also took down a smaller branch in our yard. This storm also brought water in our basement which we didn't find until it was too late. We have some lovely (note the sarcasm there) window wells that are located at the back of our house in our garden area where the rocks in the window well were built up a little too high and sloped toward the window. So when we got the heavy rain, the rain poured off our roof (gutters had been taken down when we re-sided the house) and pooled up in the garden area and also pooled in the window wells which pooled in our basement. The sad news on this is that we are missing the 4th of July weekend up at the cabin and we also miss seeing Jerad's cousin and family who live in Georgia. We rarely see them so it was really upsetting, but we had to take care of the carpet and get it out of the basement so there was no mold growing down there. Our neighbor's branch.

Our branch...after Jerad had already moved it to the side of the house.

Baby Shower with my wonderful neighbors!!

Tonight my neighbors Jess and Robyn threw a neighborhood baby shower for me. I do have to say that I love my neighbors. One thing that is great about them is that they are from different generations so I have been able to learn from all of them in different ways. The majority of us live on Raleigh Drive, but there are a few others that live off of River Hills or neighboring streets. It has been great to get to know each and every one of them. For this shower we played some team games that really brought out the competitiveness. Luckily we split the games so everyone went home with with a little present, not just mama and baby. Tonight I received some more great gifts but this one seemed to have more stuff for me to decorate and organize the nursery. We got some hangers for baby clothes (I can stop using my own), a bumbo chair, clothes, bottle warmer for the house and the car, wall decorations, blanket with nursery theme, toys, gift card, diaper genie and so much more. I really think women love shopping for baby stuff since everyone was so generous. Thank you so much to Robyn for opening her home and to Jessica for hosting the shower with Robyn. And also a big thank you to my neighbor ladies as I love when I get the chance to see you all together. And I'm glad I was also able to introduce a couple of you that didn't know each other before. As you all know, I am a social butterfly!

BABY SHOWER!!

Today was my very first baby shower and I have to say that it was also a stress relief for me. Lately I had been feeling very unprepared and as many of you know, I like to plan ahead for things and have stuff ready to go, but I didn't feel like I had a single thing ready for our little Zeus. Sure we have the crib, the dresser, the rocking chair, and a few clothes, but what about bottles, blankets, mattress, changing pad, diapers etc?!! Well this weekend my great friend Kristine threw a shower for us at her house and it was so much fun. Among the guests were some friends from work and Jerad's family. When I arrived I got to see my cake and I had the best laugh - I thought it was hilarious and so cute! I do hope when the time comes that my tummy does go "bye bye"! Another friend of mine, Becca, from work also helped get some things set up and organized some activities. There was a piggy bank that was passed around where everyone made a well wish for us and the baby as they deposited some money into the bank, all the while being recorded by Jon (Kristine's husband) so we could have a little video memory of it. They also had all the guests fill out cards with name suggestions for us since we don't have one picked out yet. Some where serious and others more humorous. As we opened gifts, I would read them out loud to everyone. We received and abundance of gifts. Everyone was so thoughtful and generous. We got a number of books -which was part of the shower, instead of a card, guests were to bring a book with a message to us and Zeus so we would remember them. We also got our changing pad, bottles, clothes, toys and so much more that I felt more prepared after. Thank you so much to Kristine for opening her home and putting on such a fun and memorable shower and to Becca for assisting and to all the friends and family that were able to make it.

Could it be....a functional kitchen???

Today my stove and dishwasher arrived!! Jerad's uncle Jeff came over to help move them into place as I am getting a little too big to be lifting these items with Jerad.

Aren't they pretty?? Even though they were put into place tonight, they will not be functional yet. First, Jerad has to re-run the gas line to make it up to code and he is not able to do that quite yet, but it looks nice. Second, the dishwasher will not be functional until we get the sink and garbage disposal hooked up....which won't be until our countertops are installed...which won't be until our counters are measured. The guy is coming soon - June 14th - to measure and we were told it would take 2 weeks. But we HAD to have the stove and dishwasher in place prior to them coming to measure. They never said they had to be hooked up.

Still to do on the kitchen: put microwave up, organize cupboards and cabinets, countertops - with sink and disposal, hook up stove and dishwasher.

31 weeks

Today I am just a couple days over 31 weeks. Hasn't little Zeus just sprouted? I am really starting to feel the little guy take up more and more room. I have been lucky so far as I haven't been kept up at night with any heartburn or kicking or moving around. Just the occasional trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

It is also coming to the stage where my feet are starting to swell more and more during the day. so I have started to just wear sandals or flip flops to work as that is all my feet will fit into. I really need to go find some dressier ones. Lucky for me, I have a very understanding boss.

I am still attending yoga about once a week which really helps me stretch out and relax. But as we are moving forward on different jobs on the kitchen and I have a couple of showers coming up and Jerad is traveling for work, I have a feeling that my yoga will be put on the back burner. But at least I still have my walks at lunch time with a good friend and a dog at home that needs her walks also. The stretching after those aren't quite up to par in comparison to yoga, but I will take what I can get in this busy schedule.

Zeus's very first Twins game

Today I won tickets from our company lottery to the Twins game. As you can see, we had some pretty great seats. Our company has season tickets to all the pro sports games for client entertainment and when there are no clients going to a particular game, they do a free lottery to all the employees. This game was part of the series with the New York Yankees. The night before, the game was suspended due to weather so the other half of that game was played just before our scheduled game, but our tickets worked for that game also. Jerad was able to get out of work earlier than scheduled and watched the ending of that game and I arrived when our game started. I will say the ballpark is beautiful and definitely gives you options on what kind of food you can choose from. You are able to walk around the entire perimeter to check out food options and still keep your eye on the game. I really don't know if there is a poor seat in the place. All in all, while in utero, Zeus did enjoy his first game at Target Field. Our next game will be July 15th - tickets Jerad won from his company. Boy do I love free tickets!!

Cabinets and Cupboards go in - its beginning to look like a Kitchen

This weekend my parents came up to help install the cabinets. Okay, let me rephrase, my parents came up so my dad could help Jerad install the cabinets and mom and I could be gophers and do other odd jobs. Below are some pictures of the cabinets that went in at different stages. Mom and I did get the job of installing the cabinet doors - well the ones we could reach. Don't you think we did well?



Practically done now, except that the lazy susan arrived with a big crack in the side. We were able to use the broken one as a space saver in order to install the other cabinets, but it pushed us back on getting the countertops measured. At this point, who knows when installation will be for those. So the below picture you can see the only appliance we have installed is the refrigerator.

If you go back to a previous post, you will see that our prior cabinets were quite a bit shorter since there was a 12in soffit above them, now we have cabinets that go to the ceiling. Guess who is going to need a step stool to get to items? It will take some strategic planning on our part on where to store items. Most used will go on the shorter shelves, items rarely used goes up top and towards the back. But with the storage we are gaining, I have no problem with planning. :-)

Another rather exciting event happened this weekend also....while I was out mowing the lawn, a storm decided to head in. I was kind of watching it move in so I was just booking it to get the front lawn complete before it hit...but I did not make it. I had maybe two lines that were 6 feet long left and the bag got too full so I had to dump it and then it just started hailing on me. It was only pea-sized hail, but who knew what was coming up behind. So I had enough time to dump the bag, get the lawn mower in the garage and get under cover before it started pouring on me. So, needless to say, our front lawn had a mohawk until later in the afternoon when I was able to finish the rest of the lawn. And as it looks right now, I don't see myself mowing the lawn much more until the baby is born. The mowing isn't bad, it is the bagging. Lifting the bags and shaking the grass out takes a lot of energy. But if I need to do it, I will, just at a much slower pace.

Time to Tile!

Now that we have all the cabinets out and all of the appliances unhooked and out of the way, it is time to put in our new tile. Jerad (at a time when I was down visiting my parents) heard about a big tile sale going on up in Maple Grove and decided to head up there. This sale was too good to resist - so he told me. 50-75% off amazing tile brands. Most women probably wouldn't want their husbands to pick out tile without being present, but I trusted him. For the kitchen he picked out a greyish swirl tile with a few specks of tan in it and is a Versace tile. It is really great. So this weekend we decided to install the tile. And trust me...even though I'm not in any pictures, I really did help.

We really needed to get this done this weekend because next weekend my parents were coming up to help install the cupboards. It needed to be dry and sealed by Friday night at the earliest and Saturday morning at the latest. One of the things I love the best about the tile is that it really feels good on bare feet. I know that sounds weird, but I rarely walk barefoot in our house. We have a lot of hardwood floors and some carpet and other tile, but this one just feels really nice on my feet. Who knows...maybe it is just the pregnancy talking.

TAYLOR SWIFT - what a concert!!

For one of my Christmas gifts from my loving husband, I received Taylor Swift tickets to see her peform tonight at the Xcel in St. Paul. Jerad was such a sport and was my date for the night. I don't think we have ever seen so many little girls, tweens and teens in one spot before. Not to mention the random tween and teen boys that were there also - Jerad said that it was the smartest way to pick up chicks. :-) The opening acts were Gloriana and Kelly Pickler which were really good and then when Taylor came out - watch out....I needed ear plugs. That girl knows how to work the crowd of young girls. I have never heard a crowd so loud in my life. There were moments when I had to plug my ears and wished that I had ear plugs for little Zeus as he is at the stage of hearing things these days.
She had some amazing performers in her show that helped tell the story of her songs. It made me wonder what would have happened if I would have just stayed with dance when I was a little girl. Too bad I quit at the ripe old age of 6. I guess I figured it wasn't my dream.
Here she came out to the middle of the audience halfway through the show to do a song and then on the way back to the stage, she greeted and/or hugged about 500 fans. She even gave out little bracelets from her wrist to some of the younger girls. It was pretty neat to see. Oh and I have to mention that some of those teen boys in the audience got kisses on the cheek from her and seeing their reaction was hilarious. It looked like they screamed like little girls.