Updated pictures! So we went to Family Camp in Big Sandy TX in October and thoroughly enjoyed getting a little vacation and camping outside! Daniel enjoyed the camping too, and as he loves being outside, it wasn't any problem at all camping with him. A couple nights it got a little cold, but he snuggled with us in bed and he was warm as toast. :)

Daniel is learning many things these days. He sits up pretty well and only topples over every now and then. He notices EVERYTHING and anything within reach gets touched and goes into his mouth. We're having to teach him that some things are "no". But mostly we let him explore things he can explore. He loves being in his jumper gym thing and will bounce away to his hearts content.

Visits

The Daniel man and I went to visit my Aunt Lee today. (She's my Dad's older sister) She lives in Kingwood, so after Daniel and I got up, and after his first morning nap, we headed to her house. We had a great time visiting and looking at old pictures, and she and her granddaughter were excited to see Daniel for the first time (minus seeing pictures). Besides visiting, it was great because I came home with two new purses, a makeup bag, fun music cd's for Daniel, and pictures! Thank you Aunt Lee!!!

Jonathan was here for a little visit when we got home, and it was always nice to see him. :)

Then off to beat Ratchet and Clank for some good "down time" after putting Daniel to bed.

All in all, a good day!!

Hi!

Life is wonderful. I can't imagine life without Daniel these days - he's so wonderful I just love him more than I could ever say. He's a perfect little man, most of the time. :)

God has been providing for us along the way: we had car trouble with the clutch going out and had to replace it, but that's fixed. Then, due to a stupid mistake, the windshield had to be replaced, and eventually the hood too, but we bent that back into shape and it will do until we can get a new one. No hurry there.

A very big praise is, at the low time in funds, the Lord provided Stephen with a VERY nice raise! Praise God! He knew we needed it to help pay bills, and buy diapers. :-P

Daniel is changing daily and just today pretty much rolled over. He found his legs, knees today and is getting a lot more wiggly and moving around on the floor. Silly little man, he's so stinkin' cute. I pulled out some bigger clothes and put a 6 month suit on him and his newest onesies are 6 month. They're a little too big, but plenty long enough. My problem is that he's out-growing the length, not the width. :) One of his new clothes was really cute today - until he pooped and it leaked. :-/

I'm starting to memorize Psalm 119 with a group from church, and I'm enjoying going over verses out loud while I'm nursing Daniel. Hopefully they'll stick in his mind too while I meditate out loud. Also, he loves while I read the Bible to him while nursing, or even just sitting, rocking in my lap. The sun shines in the window and throws shadows everywhere that fascinate him. Its sweet. :)

He loves bath time, but I'm ready for him to be able to sit up by himself in the sink. He's getting too big for the spongie thing I have in there, but small enough that I don't want him to hit his head on the hard sink. I hope he likes water eventually. We've yet to go to the pool, but hopefully soon. :)

He's still very sweet tempered, slow to fuss, extremely loveable, very happy baby.

Stephen still loves his job. He works 3 days at the office, and 2 days at home.

Here's some pictures from the summer so far.

Update/birth story

Life is going well these days. Daniel seems to be on a pretty consistent sleeping schedule, which is really nice for me. He usually goes to be around 10:30, wakes up at 3:30 to nurse, goes right back to sleep and then feeds at 6:30/7:00 and goes back to sleep for a little while. This morning was nice because he went back to sleep then woke up and "played" quietly in his bed for a long while. :)

He's 4 weeks and one day, holds his head up pretty much like a charm, smiles are growing by the day, poops like crazy still, and sleeps on good schedule. He's as cute as a bug in a rug, even with his little baby pimples. :-P

So a little about the birth: On May 12th I had an appointment at 9:30 at Nativiti. As they checked me (me being 42 weeks) they wondered at me not having contractions as I was dilated 4-5cm. They said if I could start contractions they'd pop my water to get things going...so as they monitored Daniel I got some contractions going and they said to come back at 1:30pm to have a baby! Wow! I still was feeling a little uneasy about having a baby...and so while excited, not sure what I was getting into!! lol

At 2:00 Karen broke my water and contractions started to come a little more often and a little harder. I guess they were about every 5-10 minutes apart. Somewhere in the afternoon they gave me a labor tincture and they definitely got labor harder and more intense.

At 6:30 Megan brought me dinner of Chickfila and for once in my life, I couldn't stomach it. A while later I threw it all up - even though all I ate was a tiny bite of chicken. Erin came by to say hi, but hard labor was starting in and I couldn't really communicate or enjoy anyone being around. Sometime later in the evening we were told the girls were still there - much to our surprise, I really didn't think they'd stay, but it was soo sweet of them.

Meanwhile, I was laboring in the tub and that helped my back with the pain - although Daniel was positioned perfectly, I still had pretty intense back pain. There wasn't a whole lot anybody could do to help me because I didn't want anyone touching me except for me holding onto Stephen's hand. It was hard when shifting around the room because I could hardly get from one place to the other through contractions.

Around 10:40 I started pushing and it was a relief in a strange sort of way. I wouldn't call it nice at all, but being able to do something with the pain helped. It was like trying to push the pain away that was nice. Somewhere in there we were informed that a guy had arrived, did we know? Uhh, no! We thought it was Stephen's dad, but it was really Jonathan F.

I was back in the tub for the last part of Daniel's delivery and he was born at 12:03am on May 13th. It was such relief to have him born and as he was on my stomach I kept exclaiming "he's here, he's here, its over!" Right in line with his personality, he didn't really cry a whole lot, more like whimpering for a little while, so they gave him some oxygen for a little bit off and on, and eventually he gave a good cry. (but he doesn't cry much at all) His cord kept pulsing for 20 minutes and finally Stephen cut it.

After a couple hours and his first nursing session Jonathan, Megan, and Erin came in to watch Daniel get weighed, measured, foot-printed, and generally see if he measured up to being a good healthy little man. And he did. :) It was really special having them there with us - good memories. After an herb bath we packed up and spent sometime with Megan, Jonathan, and Erin talking about everything and them being able to hold Daniel. We left for home at 4am.

It was nice to be home - our little family. <3

A couple pictures

Daniel Joel Nelson

Daniel Joel Nelson arrive May 13, 2010 at 12:03 AM, weighing 7lbs 11oz and stretching 20 1/4 inches long. Labor was 10 hours, with hard labor lasting around 6. Pictures follow, and lest anyone be confused by the hospital bed, he was actually born at Nativiti birthing center. We only went to the hospital because his white blood cell count was high and they wanted to observe him - hence the hospital bed. haha Actually, I think I got more rest there than I had being at home.

He is the best little bundle of joy ever, and we're totally in love with him! I can hardly give him up for anyone else to hold him. He's not fussy and well, practically perfect in every way! :)

This picture is the night he was born - going home

This picture just WON'T rotate!

Bloggings

So I'm sitting here on the couch at approximately 12:47AM wondering what I'm doing still wide awake. I really need to be sleeping, but for some crazy insane reason I'm pretty much wide awake - which doesn't make any sense at all because though we didn't get up until around 10ish (Stephen's day off) I normally would still be super tired by the end of the day with no nap. So why am I still awake?

Its ok I guess that I'm not sleeping because I can sleep until whenever I feel like getting up tomorrow, and unless the baby is born, that will be ok! But, I doubt that will happen.

The only reason I can think of that I'm still awake is that I have heartburn right now and its super annoying. :-( REALLY annoying. Drinking water didn't help. A grape popsicle didn't help either. Or a bowl of cereal a lot earlier tonight. Or sitting up in bed reading for a while. Nada. Stephen would tell me to eat a couple rolaids, well, yeah, I should, but I don't like them.

According to my midwife today I'm having good signs of progression, but I didn't have her check me - what for? I know he'll come sometime, and it won't help to know whether I'm doing really well, or not. If I was progressing really good then I might expect that he'd come early (before Wednesday), otherwise I can expect him to be late. :-P She also continues to say that he's not a big or chunky baby, but fairly long. I can attest to him having knees! And why does he always want to be awake when I'm trying to sleep? "Let's jump on mommy's bladder!! And figure out all sorts of new stretches!!" Gee, thanks little guy.

Well, one good thing. Today was my little brother's 17th birthday and Daniel wasn't born today - so that's good! Not that it would be the end of the world, but I think its nice for everybody to have their own birthday's. Now, Daniel better not be born May 4th either - because we have 3-4 people born that day already. My sister, Stephen's brother, my first cousin, and it seems like somebody else too.

Meanwhile, it seems crazy that David is 17 already. Seems just yesterday, or the day before that he was born. Watching my little nephews grow up, it reminds me a lot of David and how cute he was at their age. Now he's grown up, mature, and about to be an Uncle. Heehee Happy Birthday, David! Actually, now its happy belated birthday since its actually tomorrow...instead of today....or something? He's also a lot taller than me now and this was just from a year ago.

*Sigh* Little monster man inside has decided to wake up - just when I was thinking about going back to bed. hehe He must be happy to roll around - he can still move around a good bit back and forth. Even at my appointment he was on one side, and then flipped to the other.

So goodnight for now!

39 Weeks

So I'm 39 weeks today and no sign of baby yet! Having nothing to base anything I'm going through off of, I'm not really sure what's been going on with me - but I'm pretty sure I've been having stronger braxton hicks in the last few days. At least when my stomach is as hard as a rock and rather uncomfortable - yah, I think so.

Some awesome news - Stephen is going to be able to work from home for a little bit after the baby is born, and even better news - he's going to start working from home (until after Daniel is around for a little bit) starting on Monday!! WOW That is totally amazing and awesome! Not only does he NOT have to take off work, but he can keep working right from the house with his work computer and cell phone.

38 weeks preggo

So here's a picture from yesterday - I'm 38 weeks today. Little muchkin is getting bigger by the day and definitely ready to come out soon. Or at least *I* think so. Getting up several times a night isn't any fun and I'm always really sore and huge during the night. It seems like I'm twice as big and huge during the night....just my imagination I'm sure! But if he decides to stay in late, I'm ok with that, I think.

Since Josh & Kristin had little Erik we're more impatient for our little man to arrive soon!! It will be soon though. :)

Baby Party

We had a total BLAST at our "baby party" given for us by Megan and hosted at Misti & Wes' house. I really think I've not had so much fun in a long time!!! There's something about laughing and laughing until you can't laugh anymore - its good for you. :D Thanks for putting it together Megan!

Here are some pictures from it - thanks to Erin!

<-----I really really like this picture!!

<----Sillyness!!! It says "Really Cute"

<----We were seriously laughing our heads off! Ok, maybe just Stephen in that picture!

<---Wes & Misti!

<---I can't remember what was so funny, but it was!

<----Erin & Jonathan

<----lovely girls!! Megan, Hannah, & Erin!

<---Haley & Micah

There were lots of other fun people there and we had a grand time!! Thanks everyone for coming!