Out and About

Friday night we had our first "date night" with Sawyer in tow. (Actually, our first date was last Friday night, but all we did was rent a movie...not as exciting!) We got Red Mill Burgers to go, and took our little son for his first picnic at Ella Bailey Park in Magnolia. It was such a beautiful, clear day, you could see all the way to Mt. Rainier. Jacob brought his guitar along, too, so we ate, enjoyed the weather, and had Jacob serenade us as we enjoyed the sunset.

Saturday, we spent several hours at Matthews Beach, celebrating our friend Sheila's birthday. The weather was amazing (summer seems to have finally arrived in Seattle!) We had a very relaxing and enjoyable time visiting with friends and cooling off in the shade.

Sawyer pretty much slept through our visit to the beach. We can hardly believe he's 2 weeks old now! He had his 2 week checkup on Thursday, and he has gained almost an entire pound as well as grown 1.75 inches since birth! He is doing incredibly well. Our pediatrician told us he is "advanced" in a couple of areas - smiling intentionally, and his level of alertness. But don't worry, we won't let it go to his head :) We just love having him with us.

To top off our wonderful weekend, we went over to Matt & Lynn's house and Sawyer was introduced to his "local cousins". These are kids I nannied for years. We are like family. Lynn, Claire, Micaela, Sam & Kaitlyn were delighted to meet Sawyer. We sat and chatted in their shady backyard while the kids splashed around in their new kiddie pool. Kaitlyn kept scooting close to me and then touching Sawyer's little fingers and toes. And Sam kept saying "he looks like a mini Jacob". We look forward to many fun times with these kids as the days go on. Funny thing is, now Claire and Micaela are old enough to babysit my baby! In a few months we might just see if they're up for it! Today will be Sawyer's first time going to church. I sure hope he likes it! Most likely, he'll just sleep through it! We had such a wonderful time getting out and feeling a bit more social this weekend. While still feeling a little sleep deprived, we can report that we are doing wonderfully. We are truly blessed!

One Week Already!

It's amazing how time flies! We can hardly believe that as of last night, Sawyer has been with us for a whole week! It has been so much fun getting to know our little guy the past 7 days. He is so tiny. Everyone who meets him says he looks like a baby doll. He does! His skin is perfect and he is just so cute to look at. We love his wakeful time when we get to play with him. We've found he seems to like music, just like us. Last night we danced him around to the Beatles, which he thoroughly enjoyed. We are very much looking forward to all the days to come with our little son.

When you think about it, it's quite amazing how much newborns learn in such a short period of time. They learn to breathe, eat, smile, cry, use their body for various functions, etc. Tysha is actually feeling amazingly great. She even took Sawyer for his first outing in his Ergo carrier yesterday. It's hard to stay in the house and sit down when the weather is finally nice! But she needs to remember to take it easy a little longer as well :) Sawyer lost his umbilical cord this morning, and the past two nights he slept in 4 hour stretches, which we greatly appreciated. He smiles a lot for a little guy. Maybe he takes after his parents - who both love to smile :)

We thought we'd include a cute video of Sawyer. It's nothing that exciting - just baby. But it's exciting to us, since he's ours! We just can't get enough of him!

Until We Meet Again...

In life, we have great joys, and great sorrows. I think without one we wouldn't know the fullness of the other. Exactly one week ago today I experienced the greatest joy I think I've ever known - meeting my son for the first time. Exactly two days later, to the hour and minute, I experienced one of the greatest sorrows I've yet to know, as I held my little son in my arms and Jacob and my Mother told me the news that my Grandpa had passed away. Needless to say, I have been reflecting a lot about the circle of life. I know my Grandpa lived a full, long life that was wonderful. It was filled with hard work, goodness, and joy. Even though I know he can now rest peacefully and move on instead of in misery as he has the past several months, I don't think anyone is ever really ready to say good-bye. Especially to someone who changed your life, molded your character, and loved you unconditionally. So today I want to tell the world how lucky I am to have had such a great man in my life, to have called him my Grandfather. Because Sawyer is so little, we were not able to travel and attend the funeral service today, but we will be there in spirit. There is so much I could tell you about my Grandpa, but here is a little story to shed light on the kind of man that he was.

A few years back Grandpa gave me a fly-fishing pole for Christmas. I had mentioned I thought it would be fun to learn sometime, and he of course took note. So for the past few years I have made a special trip so that Grandpa and I could spend a day together fly-fishing each summer. There are two things I will never forget about our fishing trips. First, Grandpa’s sense of humor and indulging me in thinking I was a real fisherwoman. The thing is, we never caught a fish! But we couldn’t let Grandma know. So Grandpa had the bright idea of going to Ray’s Market and bringing home some King Salmon and claiming we caught it ourselves. He sure got a kick out of the idea of tricking Grandma. The three of us had a great laugh. Second, and most important, is what I call the Wildflower Incident. You see, the past couple of years Grandpa sometimes had a hard time saying the things he wanted to say. But, just like not coming home empty-handed from our trips, somehow he found a way to get his message across. So it was that as we took a break from fishing to eat some lunch, I found a bunch of wildflowers stuffed carefully into the seams of my backpack. For a moment I wondered, how did those get there? But then I looked up and I saw Grandpa’s face. I didn’t have to wonder anymore. I don’t think Grandpa could say it with words any better than he did looking down at me with his beautiful smile. I love you, is what he was saying, loud and clear. Now, whenever I see a bunch of wildflowers, I will always be reminded of my Grandpa and his love for me. I know he loved me more than anything. Grandpa – I love you, too, more than anything. Always.

Millard Roy Tope
The World's Greatest Grandpa

February 17, 1919 - June 14, 2008

You are greatly loved...
You will be greatly missed...

Welcome Sawyer

Sawyer James Carter
Thursday, June 12, 2008
5 lb 12 oz
18 inches
8:50 pm

Sawyer takes his first look at his amazing Mom. I'm so proud of her. She did the entire labor without medication.... Tysha will fill you in with the details later.

Hi everybody!

Sawyer gets his Apgar test.

Cute, little wrinkled feet.

First trip in his new car seat. Home sweet home.

Daddy makes a nice pillow.

Tiny guy.

Sweet D Day

Today is Sawyer's estimated due date. And it doesn't look like he'll be showing up to celebrate it! But it's okay. We celebrated without him this morning. Jacob made a stop by Starbucks on his way home from the gym and we had some yummy sweet cinnamon rolls and milk for breakfast before heading to our check up with the Doc. Jacob said the cinnamon rolls were to celebrate that I have fully baked a little person inside of me. He said that is something to celebrate - even if that little person takes a few minutes - or days - over what the recipe calls for cooking time. I suppose we just have to poke him a few times with a toothpick and check, and sooner or later he'll be perfect and ready to come out of the oven :)

Nothing much has changed since last week's appointment, except that he has moved even further down (maybe he's listening to Jacob after all). The Doc offered to "sweep the membranes" if I wanted to see if that would help jump-start things, but we decided to be patient and just see what happens this week. She also said she has a "good feeling" something will happen this week. I'm holding her to that! If nothing does happen this week and we go back next Wednesday, they would then do a non-stress test and check on the fluid levels. And then, she would do the sweep of the membranes. If nothing happened after that, then next Friday they would intervene. Since she knows and respects that we want to do things as naturally as possible, she would try all the tricks she knows before putting Pitocin into my veins. So we'll just see what happens! I figure perhaps Sawyer is perfecting his lungs or something spectacular these last few days, and I don't want to interrupt him. I'm feeling pretty okay. Not GREAT - but who does at this point? I have some good moments and of course moments of not feeling so well. But I'm trying really hard to be patient. I know that patience is an ESSENTIAL virtue of the practice of parenting...so it doesn't hurt to start practicing it now!

Wish us luck!

39 weeks (and 2 days)

These are the last preggo pictures you'll see of my belly - it's as big as it's gonna get! We went to our check up this morning and joked around while waiting for Doc to make it to the clinic. She had an emergency C-section to do this morning. Jacob and I were thinking it must be weird to be in an intense surgery and then just gallop back over to the office and walk into our room and be like "hey, how's it going?" She said it is a little weird, and that it certainly keeps her on her toes! I really really love our Doc, I feel so happy to have a Doc that I trust and that respects us. She's great! Anyway, this is the report: 1cm dilated, 50% effaced, and -1 station. Things are slowly progressing. She was honest and said there's a good chance we could go over the due date so not to get it too stuck in our heads. She said there's also a chance things could happen quickly and we could have him this weekend. Basically, she was trying to let us know it's better to expect he could be "late" than to get discouraged if he doesn't come on the due date. If he comes before, what a nice surprise. If after, no big deal. She also said she is confident things will happen on their own, and because she knows we are hoping for things to go Au Natural, she said patience will pay off. So that's the scoop! I am feeling pretty relaxed about all of this - Sawyer will come when he and my body are ready to work together in the best way to help him out into this world! In the meantime, he's having a grand old time doing Taekwondo in there. And my friend, who is due the day after me, invited me to go get a pedicure this afternoon. That way, we will at least have pretty toes to look at! And we keep making plans - tonight some friends invited us to the Fremont Art Walk, where we get to see a glass-blowing demonstration. Here's to good times, and baby boy coming when he's ready! Jacob keeps telling him "Swim down Sawyer, swim, swim, swim towards the light!" Do you think he's listening? Any bets on when he'll come are on!

One Week

Exactly one week from today is Sawyer's official "due date". We like to consider that he could arrive anytime in the first 2/3 of June so we don't get too fixed on that date. I don't want to get my heart too set on the due date because I know it is quite rare for babies to arrive on the due date. And no matter how anxious I am to meet our baby boy, I am not one for induction (unless it's a medical necessity - and no offense to many of my friends who choose elective induction). So really, it could be tomorrow - or it could be 3 weeks from now! (We'll still hope sooner rather than later!)

We got a call this morning that our Doc had to rush off to the hospital to be with a patient today, so our 39-week check up has been rescheduled for Friday. Kind of a bummer considering I got up at 6am and got all ready and excited to go to the Doc's office and see if any new progress has been made. But it's fine - the day will come when she might have to cancel another appointment so she can rush to the hospital to deliver our baby. No worries!

As for me, I'm hangin' in there. I finally reached a point where at times I can best describe my feelings as claustrophobic in my own body. I think that's the best description. I mean, a few days ago I was walking around Greenlake on a beautiful and sunny morning, listening to my iPod. I was speed walking as much as a prego gal this far along can, when a song came on that I used to pick up my running pace with. At that moment, a sleek and smooth runner passed me on the trail. All of a sudden, more than anything in the world, I just wanted to have my old body back and jolt forth in time to the song and RUN. SPRINT. Move my body like I can't quite seem to do these days. I just walked faster. Maybe waddled faster...and repeated my mantra of Patience, Patience, Patience, someday you'll have your body back...

Even though my body seems to have some good days and some that are definitely more uncomfortable lately, I don't want to be a complainer. So I have been finding things to keep me busy - even if they seem mundane and boring to some. I love playing Spider Solitaire and have conquered more than 40 puzzles in my Sodoku book. I have enjoyed practicing my deep relaxation skills I plan to put to use while in labor using Hypnobirthing techniques. I take a nap almost each day. Jacob and I don't watch tv, but we borrowed a couple of seasons of "LOST" from friends, and let me tell you, I'm hooked! (That's one reason we don't watch tv!) Anyway, today, I am going to get my favorite Jamba Juice - Orange Dream Machine. That will make me smile. I am also happy today (sorry for those who don't like to get into politics) that I can say: Yeee-haw Barack Obama! Go, man, go!

Happy day to all!