Our first days with Grant

"Grantimus Maximus" (as Daddy likes to call him)

Mommy & Grant

Uncle Joe, Ryleigh & Grant

Papi & Grant

All dressed & ready for the ride home

This is the way Ryleigh greeted Grant when we arrived home. She kept saying, "Hi, Baby!"

An update & a few more pictures

I'm feeling a bit more rested, now, & the nurse just arrived to take Grant to the nursery, so I thought I'd add just a few more pictures to the blog. I also promised a bit more of an update, so here goes... as I had mentioned before, I was to be induced yesterday morning at 6 a.m. I had really hoped to have labor start on its own in the middle of the night, but no such luck. When we got to the hospital, Arlie checked me & declared that I was 3-4 centimeters & went ahead & broke my water, hoping that labor would start on its own - which it did, but not without lots of walking the halls to get things going strong. By 8 a.m., contractions were still not very strong & Arlie told me that I was smiling too much. ;-) Thankfully, though, things really picked up not long afterward, & I ended up spending most of the rest of my labor in the whirlpool tub. (It's amazing how much the hot water helps to deal with the pain!) I surprised myself & ended up allowing them to give me a little Nubaine through the IV (I had an epidural last time b/c I didn't want to be loopy from the meds). I was surprised that just having that to take the edge off the contractions, made a big difference in my ability to cope - & I was also able to catch a few winks between contractions. Finally, they made me get out of the tub when I was about 8-9 cm because I was involuntarily starting to bear down through the contractions. Things progressed rather quickly from there, even though it seemed to me to take forever. I only had to push for about 20 minutes (compared to 2 hours with Ryleigh) before I was finally holding my sweet little boy. Everyone kept commenting about how roly-poly he is. His little thighs are so fat & his back has so many rolls & folds of skin, that it looks like a little bull dog's! ;-) He has brownish red fuzz on his head & doesn't really look like Ryleigh at all, in my opinion. He also has broad shoulders & big hands &, in our very biased opinion, he is simply beautiful! He's eating like a champ, even though he is starting to go through the sleepy phase. Ryleigh couldn't be more proud of her baby brother. She is just thrilled to death with him, & kept saying "My baby," over and over. Some of her other comments were "awww, cute!" "gentle," "I wanna hold him," "sweet baby," & "baby want binky" (every time he cried - I think she's picked this up from watching Cayden). Well... I guess I better wrap this up. Today is sure to be a busy day with lots of people here to see Grant & I should probably try to get a little more sleep before things start happening. Thanks for all of your many comments of congratulations!

Ryleigh & Grant meeting for the very first time.

Ryleigh, Grant & Nana

At long last...

Grant Logan Stratton

March 18, 2008

2:53 p.m.

8 lbs. 14 oz. 20 in.

Baby & Mommy are doing well. We're both exhausted & need to get some sleep. We'll give a more complete update & more pictures as soon as we can. Thanks for all of your thoughts & prayers!

Anxiously awaiting...

the arrival of our baby boy sometime within the next 24 hours! I had another OB/GYN appointment this afternoon, during which the midwife stripped my membranes & told me to be at the hospital by 6 a.m. tomorrow morning for an induction. My mom & dad are here & all is in readiness for this baby to be born! We'll post an update & pictures on the blog as soon as possible after the baby is born.

Baby update, belly pics & creative projects

Okay, so I thought I would take a little break from packing for Bus Convention & post something on here. Even though I love to take pictures, I very rarely allow myself to get in front of the camera (I know, something that I need to work on). Anyhow... it seems like that gets even worse when I'm pregnant. Consequently, I have very few pictures of myself while pregnant. Because I've been wanting to do a comparison photo from how looked during the last pregnancy, vs. this one, I finally broke down & allowed myself to be photographed. Here are the results:

36 weeks with Ryleigh

37 weeks with Baby #2

This pregnancy has been so different than the last one. Some things have been good (i.e., less puking, less weight gained) & some not so good (i.e., more aches & pains, more painful Braxton-Hicks contractions, etc.). Over all, I think that I have felt much better during this pregnancy than I did with the last. It has also seemed to fly by much faster than the last (one of the benefits of having a toddler ;-).

Lish decided to have a 'belly picture' taken, too! ;-)

As of my doctor's appointment, yesterday, things are about the same babywise. Blood pressure is borderline, but still okay. Arlie is really trying to keep an eye on it & says that if, by my next appointment, things start to change for the worse, we'll talk about inducing sometime next week. Mom & Dad are planning to fly in on the 13th, so I'm greatly looking forward to having them here with us for a few weeks!

While visiting the Street of Shops, last week, Lish saw a sign that she really

liked & asked me to see if I could duplicate it. Even though I used the same saying & basic shape, I added my own touches to it & this was the result. I think Lish really liked it & I'm thinking about doing one for myself, now.

I've also been experimenting with making my own gift bags, lately.

This is my latest attempt (along with the gift tag).

I played around with altering canvases for Christmas this year. When I packed them away for next year, I decided that I wanted to try to make some for year-round use. So far, I've only made this one.

The things she says....

Ryleigh is a typical girl in that she's very 'in touch' with her emotions. She doesn't hesitate to let us know when she's feeling happy, sad or grumpy. This morning, Ryleigh looked up from eating her breakfast, & said "Grumpy. Really grumpy!"

For some reason, she can't seem to say 'popsicle' or 'tricycle'. She calls them both 'Sunday school'. So, we have to try to figure out which one she's talking about, based on the context that she's using. Every time we try to get her to sound out 'popsicle', she says 'popsundayschool'.

This morning, Ryleigh was looking at one of her Bible story books, pointing at people in the pictures & asking about them. She came to the picture of Elisha & the leper that he told to wash in the Jordan River. I said something about the man being sick, & that he was asking Elisha to help him get better. She nodded with complete understanding & said 'Tylenol'. (In her opinion, Tylenol is answer to every sickness!)

Ryleigh is really fascinated with Doug & Sarah's new baby, Cayden. Whenever anyone asks what her baby doll's name is, she responds with "Baby Cayden". She also thinks that we should name our baby "Baby Cayden", even though we have tried to explain to her that our baby needs a different name.

She's also really glad to have Tia Lish here for a week & a half. After her nap, the other day, she was trying to help Tia study. (She's going through this cheesy grin stage, in case you haven't noticed. Every time we ask her to smile for a picture, this is what we get!)

In other news, I am so ready for this new baby's arrival. According to last week's OB appointment, baby has not dropped & I'm just barely starting to dilate. I'm scheduled for another OB appointment tomorrow, as well as an ultrasound & a non-stress test. Arlie, my CNM, is really watching my blood pressure because of my previous history with pre-eclampsia & post-partum blood pressure issues. Thankfully, I've not had any major problems with blood pressure during this pregnancy, with the exception of a couple of high readings a few weeks ago, but if I do start having problems, the plans are to possibly induce on the 11th of March. On the other hand, if all continues to go well, we'll wait until closer to my due date. So... I've been nesting, nesting, nesting. The baby's clothes are all washed up & hanging in the closet. The nursery is coming along rather nicely. I still have to hang the valance, finish making the two short bumper pads, get a crib mattress & make the crib sheets & THEN it will be finished! I'm really pleased with how it is turning out & I'll be sure to post pictures as soon as it's done.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Just playing around with my sweet little Valentine & my camera!

Happenings

I know I have not blogged in forever... mostly because we've been so busy getting ready for & then recovering from our annual youth convention, but also partly because I just haven't felt like it. Not a good excuse, I know. Ryleigh's 2nd birthday is this weekend, & since Steph & Glenn (Jeff's sister & brother-in-law) were going to be stopping in on their way to Florida, we decided to go ahead and have her birthday party a little early. She has been looking forward to her birthday for several weeks, now, so we were excited to see her reaction to a birthday party. I couldn't believe it when, the morning of her party, she woke up sick. Other than a cold or a cough every now & then, Ryleigh is rarely sick, but this was the miserable puking/diarrhea type of illness! I was afraid we were going to have to cancel the party, but she seemed to feel better as the day progressed, so we went ahead with it & it ended up being a success after all!

Ryleigh & Kaitlynn were having fun "hiding" behind the door!

The ladybug cake that I made for Ryleigh. I'm by no means a pro at cake decorating, but this was a lot of fun & not too hard to do. Best of all, Ryleigh loved it!

New Arrivals

Cayden James Rine

7 pounds, 12 ounces, 20 inches

January 27, 2008 at 4:35 a.m.

Congratulations to Doug & Sarah Rine on the birth of their sweet little boy. We were able to go see him yesterday afternoon & he is simply adorable! Mommy & baby are doing great after a relatively fast labor & delivery. (Lucky girl! ;-)

Ryleigh wasn't exactly sure what to think. She was so excited to get to see "Baby Cayden". In fact, she even wanted to hold him, but quickly changed her mind when it came right down to it. She's still talking about "Sarah's baby" this morning. ;-)

We also want to congratulate Merle & Melissa Hoover on the birth of their daughter, Liliana Mae, born January 26, 2008 at 11:17 p.m. We also visited them yesterday, but I didn't get a picture of her because her proud grandpa was holding her!

Working on the nursery & other news

I haven't posted in a while because, besides being busy, Ryleigh & I have both been sick. Ryleigh still has a lingering cough & I'm still feeling pretty miserable, but I have managed to try to squeeze in some much-needed work on the nursery. Throughout the holidays, I told myself that I would "set aside" the month of January to work on it, because I know things are going to get even busier during February & March. However, much to my frustration, things have not slowed down as much as I had hoped, so I'm trying to get everything done in between doctor's appointments, baby showers (for friends who are due soon), church responsibilities, etc. Anyhow... here's the material we picked for the nursery & the crib bedding that I'm using for my inspiration.





I spent today brainstorming & cutting out coordinating pieces to use on the bumper pads. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, hoping that this project doesn't turn out to be more difficult than it seems. I'll post more pictures as things progress.

Christmas 2007

Thought I would post a few pictures of our Christmas in Kansas with Jeff's family....

Enjoying Grandma's cookies.

Watching while Uncle Joe & Carson play a computer game.

One of the rare moments when Ryleigh & Kaitlynn were getting along. We all went to a Chinese restaurant the day after Christmas. After holding hands to pray, neither wanted to let go!

The results of Ryleigh's Christmas photo shoot. I have not had good experiences with taking Ryleigh to "professional" photographers (i.e., Sears). The last time, she refused to smile for them because she didn't know them. I'm also not impressed with their lack of imagination for poses. SO... I decided that I could do just as well at home. However, this really caused me to get all uptight about getting the "perfect" shot. I have been having a hard time getting really good pictures of Ryleigh, lately, because she has this horrible habit of wiggling as she's smiling for the camera. The result is gobs of blurry pictures & very few that are as clear as I want them to be. Oh well. These are my two favorites.





Carson & Kristin

Ryleigh & Carson had fun making a snowman in the front yard.

Steve & Kristin

Kaitlynn & Ryleigh ride on Uncle Jon's back.

Carson, Kristin & Ryleigh in their new pj's from Grandpa & Grandma. We tried to get all four of the grandkids in the picture, but were not sucessful.

Ryleigh, Kristin & Kaitlynn in their matching outfits.

Nick & his new wife Teri were able to spend a couple of days with us. (Nick has been a good friend of Jeff's since high school, but they hadn't seen each other for several years.) It was really nice to see Nick again and to meet Teri for the first time. She's really sweet & fits Nick to a T!