Maverick's 1st Christmas...and My Life in Pictures

Being only 1 month old, Maverick didn't quite have the holiday buzz. But it was awesome to have our first Christmas with our son!


We hope everyone out there in Bloggy land had a wonderful time with their families too!!


Today, December 27th, is my birthday...and I'm now closer to 30 than 20. Okay, so I'm 26. :)

This birthday has been wonderful. I got to hang out with the coolest people in the world--my family. And eat LOTS of ice cream cake (my faaaaaavorite!). There was ice cream cake awaiting for me at both my parents' house and Robbie's parents' house!!

Plus, it snowed all day!!

I loooooooove having my birthday 2 days after Christmas. Most people think it would be awful. But I love it. My family has always accomodated a special party separate from Christmas for me. :) And I love that my birthday is smack dab in the middle of the holidays.

Here are some pictures through the years. Have a good laugh!


December 27, 1983: my "birth" day!


Christmas 1985: My sister Stacey is holding me, and my sister Robyn is showing how excited she is to open presents. :)


My sister Robyn and I chilling at Grandma's house. 1987


My preschool picture. 1988


My sister Robyn and I swimming!! I'm in the blue lifejacket, Robyn is in the orange lifejacket. Circa 1994


My 8th grade picture. 1997-1998


My first car. A 1993 Geo Storm. It was awesome!!!!!!!! 2002


Prom, 2002


High School Graduation 2002 with my BFF Rachel. Nevermind the ridiculous face I'm making!!


The infamous picture of all time! The first time Robbie and I danced together, and it was TOTALLY set up by our friends. It was our friends' wedding; both Robbie and I were friends of the bride and groom. Robbie came over and asked for the next dance. Which just happened to be the worst slow song of all time ("I swear" by All 4 One). Just as the music started the ENTIRE dance floor cleared. It was just me and him. And all our friends watching from the sidelines. VERY awkward. But the rest is history. 2003


Our first "real" date. We went to the Fox Theatre and saw "Oliver". 2004


All gussied up for a date with Robbie. 2005


Robbie proposing marriage to me in the Starbucks where we had our first date. I was on my cell phone because Robbie wanted to have one of my favorite bands (Calibretto 13) play for me during the moment. However, the band was broken up by then and the lead singer wasn't able to fly out. So he sang to me over the phone. August 2006


College Graduation, 2007. Bachelor's of Elementary Education, with an emphasis in Middle School Science. Magna Cum Laude from the University of Missouri-St.Louis.


Our Wedding Day: May 26,2007


We bought our first house in the fall of 2007.


We rescued Belle from the Humane Society on December 1st, 2007


Christmas 2008


The day we learned we were going to be parents: April 5th, 2009. I actually had no reason what-so-ever to take a test, and Robbie didn't know I was going to take it. To this day, I still don't know why I took it when I did. We were actually trying NOT to get pregnant; and we didn't know for sure if we could have kids because of Robbie's testicular cancer. You can imagine our suprise when it turned positive!


My first moment as a Mommy. November 26,2009


I've been ridiculously blessed with an amazing life filled with the best family and friends. I don't know how life can get much better, but I'm looking forward to it!

Information Overload

They say kids don't come with an instruction book...so why have so many people tried writing one?

At the risk of sounding way too cheesy and overdone, I must say that Robbie and I look to the Bible as our "instruction book" for life. (anyone else picture the bumper sticker on a Crown Victoria?) There, I've brought the cheese! Granted I've never read a passage about teething or soothing diaper rash in there. But I have read that God will give you wisdom if you ask.

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. James 1:5-7 (NAS)

My inspiration for this post came from some self-induced stress. During the many (many!) moments I spend feeding my son, I often need to entertain my brain. That sounds awful because I know that feeding time is bonding time. Lots of bonding going on, no worries!

I'm referring more to feeding time that occurs between 12 am to 6 am, when I need to keep myself awake. So I usually flip on the tv for some ambient noise, and I often grab a book too. Over the past few weeks I've read books on parenting styles and what to expect raising an infant. The result: feeling more confused and insecure than ever.

Going into the parenting world I've never really had crazy expectations for myself. I figured that I'd learn as I go. And I am. But I thought it wouldn't hurt to educate myself on techniques other people have tried, hence the reading material.

Let's pick the topic of crying. One very popular parenting style says "you will teach your child to control your life forever if you pick them up when they cry; from day 1 you should let them cry themselves to sleep as to not let them become dependant on you".

Another very popular parenting style says "from birth to 3 months you can never spoil your child; crying is their only way to communicate--when you ignore their cry they are deprived of their sense of security".

No wonder new parents go crazy! I'm as new at this parenting thing as you can get, so I'm not claiming to be any source of wisdom yet. But I do believe with everything in life, it's all about moderation. Extreme is extreme for a reason. I think it will be possible to discover what works for your child without compromising your sanity or your child's development.

With that said, I am kinda proud that Maverick is "sort of" sitting with his head up! He loves to sit in his Bumbo seat and stare at the ceiling fan. He also much prefers to be held so that he has to use his neck muscles, rather than lay sideways in my arms.



Although I should mention this was our first attempt, ha! I snapped the picture just as his head sunk forward. Once I tucked a blanket in the back of the seat he was able to balance himself better. :)

Robbie vs. The Garbage Disposal

About a week ago we noticed that our garbage disposal stopped working. We figured something must have clogged it, but it turned out to be "its time". It was kaput, working no more, on its way to the appliance heaven in the sky.

Last night Robbie went out and purchased a new garbage disposal and got to work replacing the old one. As with most home improvement situations in our house--things are always worse than first anticipated. In this case it was discovering that the old disposal was rusted badly, so all the parts were stuck together.

As Robbie was trying to get the old disposal detached, it fell unexpectedly and his hand wasn't ready to catch it. I was in the other room when I heard the loud "thunk" quickly followed by a teeth grinding growl. The edge of the rusty disposal pinned Robbie's hand to the floor, specifically landing on the middle finger knuckle.

Oh the amount of pain he was in!!! Poor Robbie was concerned about waking the baby by yelling, but I told him to let it out!! The gash in his finger warranted waking the baby if needed. However, Maverick was completely unfazed (as expected) by the whole scene.

I didn't take a picture of his finger, which is probably a good thing. The gash went to the bone and he probably broke his finger. Robbie treated it with alcohol and antibiotic ointment so it wouldn't get infected. He waited until this morning to get it seen by the doctor but by then it was too late to get stitches because it had started to heal.

Tomorrow he gets an x-ray to see if its broken, or if its tendon damage. I know this sounds funny, but hopefully its broken because that's easier to deal with than tendon damage.

After all that, he still got the new disposal installed last night. Thankfully our brother-in-law was already stopping by, so he helped him. Plus Robbie's dad also came over to help remove the rest of the old rusty parts.

Never a dull moment around here!

Measuring Maverick

So life has been super crazy! I don't even know where to begin, or what to write. Maverick pretty much has me tied to the house 24 hours a day. I am going crazy being inside this much. Maverick's doctor was pretty adamant about not taking him anywhere unless absolutely necessary for a few more weeks since it's the middle of cold and flu season.

You would think being home this much would give me time to write more on the blog. But free time is precious! When I get the chance I don't know whether to load the dishwasher or read a magazine. It's usually spent trying to catch a nap. Cumulatively I'd say I'm getting about 4 hours of sleep each day.

Mostly because Mav has to eat every 2 hours, and then it takes another 30 minutes or so to get him back to sleep. So by the time he is hungry again, I've barely caught a wink.

Going to sleep at night has been harder than I expected. I was ready for the lack of sleep for the usual reasons (the baby is hungry, needs to be changed, etc). But I find that I just cannot relax when Maverick is sleeping. I am constantly waking myself up to make sure he is still breathing. I have to make sure his face isn't covered, and make sure he is on his back (he already likes to turn on his side).

I am really trying to focus on the verse "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6

This verse helps me to take all my fears to God and find comfort that He is watching over Maverick.

I decided to have fun and track Maverick's growth by taking his picture next to his favorite stuffed animal. Well, we've decided it's going to be his favorite because it's a siberian husky just like his "older sister" Belle. This is his one week photo:


Here is the photo I took on his 2 week birthday. He looks longer, and he actually is because at his follow-up doctor appointment he had grown 1/2 inch in 4 days! But he also looks longer cause he is stretching out his anger. :) I tried, but I couldn't get a happy face for this week's picture.


I plan on doing a weekly photo only for his first month. After that I'm just going to take a monthly shot. I'll leave you with a picture of Maverick and his real life husky. Belle loves to sleep on the couch with him.

The Best Thanksgiving EVER!

I would like to introduce our son:

Maverick William
November 26, 2009
3:25 AM
7 lbs 6oz
20 1/4 inches



Wednesday (11/25) morning around 10 am, Robbie and I had just sat down on the couch to plan out our day of errands. Go to the bank, the store, clean the house, etc, etc. It was then that I realized my water had broken...but I didn't say anything for a few minutes just to make sure. I didn't want to prematurely freak Robbie out. We were just talking about how he still needed to pack his hospital bag. But he figured it out when I got up to go to the bathroom for the 3rd time in 10 minutes. :)

We were alot more calm than what my mind rehearsed in anticipation. Robbie packed his bag while I got a shower. And then Robbie got a shower. We sort of tidied the house and made sure things were okay to leave for a few days. Then we left Belle, our dog, with my parents. Although--we did sort of fib to my parents as to why we needed to drop her off. We didn't want to sound all the alarms until we got to the hospital and for sure knew that I was in labor.

Our dog Belle goes to hang out at my parents' house all the time, so she loves to jump out of the door when we pull into their driveway. But Belle knew something was up this time! Instead of getting out of the back door, she climbed into the front seat with me!! She curled up on my lap with her ears and head down. It was soooo sweet! And once she got inside, she stood at the top of the stairs and watched Robbie leave.

The drive to the hospital was sooooooo surreal. The sky was crystal clear blue and the sun was shining bright. Almost no traffic on the highway. Even though I wasn't even feeling contractions, Robbie decided to speed on the way there. His reason: to actually have an excuse to be speeding. :)

We did stop in the McDonald's drive thru before getting to the hospital. I was hungry and I knew that as soon as I got there, food would be off limits. So we both munched on chicken nuggets and french fries for the ride. Unfortunately the drive thru attendant wouldn't give us an "I'm in labor" discount.

This is me in the triage room. I looooooove ice chips, so I was quite happy. Oh and I wasn't in any pain yet either.


We finally got into our labor and delivery suite, and I was still feeling okay. My goal was to go as long as possible without an epidural. I was feeling quite confident that I could do it.


I made it to 6cm dilated, with contractions being 30 sec apart before I was in the most excruciating pain of my entire life. It was so crazy how much the pain intensified in just a few minutes. I couldn't breathe or relax between contractions at that point. So I went ahead and got the epidural. Looking back, I feel I did the right thing. I wasn't able to focus on breathing and felt my energy dwindle. The only thing I wasn't prepared for--no one ever told me, or I hadn't read it--was the vomiting! During the last couple of hours of labor I was vomiting quite frequently. I think it was a mix of an empty stomach and the stress. My doctor said that it's actually quite common for women to vomit frequently when the baby is descending. It's like the body is trying to help push him out.

After the epidural I progressed roughly 1cm per hour, and by 2am the doc asked if I was ready to do some practice pushes. Her original plan was to let me get to 10cm and still wait an hour before pushing. But after the practice pushes Maverick was (sort of) ready to come out.

An hour and a half of hard pushing later, Maverick arrived! He sort of got stuck actually. I could definitely feel him stuck in the right side of my pelvis. The pain actually ended up helping me push, otherwise I wouldn't have felt anything. There was talk of having to use a couple devices to get him out, but thankfully we didn't have to. This is the first time I saw my baby boy:


When he first delivered, all I wanted to hear was him cry. But he didn't, and it was the longest moment of my life. I kept asking Robbie if he was okay, but the nurses wouldn't let him near the warming table yet. After a couple minutes, Maverick finally gave a small whimper. By then they had called in a pediatric doctor for Maverick. His 1 minute APGAR score was a 5, but by 5 minutes it was up to a 9. Maverick just had a little trouble breathing after being stuck in the birth canal a while. It turns out though, that Maverick isn't much of a crier anyway.

Once the nurses gave the green light for Robbie to come over, she asked if he wanted to feel his heartbeat. So Robbie reached out to feel Maverick's chest, and Mav grabbed Robbie's hand and stopped crying. It was their first "moment". :)


The rest of the night is pretty much a blur. I remember being wheeled past the nursery where all of our family was watching Maverick getting the "once over" by the staff. And I remember our families briefly coming to the recovery room with us, but I quickly passed out from exhaustion.

About 8am, I woke up as the nurse wheeled Maverick into our room. Robbie was passed out on the little couch next to my bed. The nurse briefed me on all his tests and that he was nice and healthy. She put Maverick in my arms and I spent the next couple of hours internalizing that he was our baby--and the cutest one ever!

Maverick joined me in my first meal after delivery: pancakes, sausage links, and a blueberry muffin. I hadn't had pancakes in FOREVER because of the gestational diabetes. It was the best breakfast ever! Probably because our little family was all enjoying it together. :)