Christmas!

(Sorry, the perspectives on this story change back and forth from Dvan to Heather without warning)

This year we spent Christmas at home, with the Parker/Mackintosh clan. Christmas Eve we went to church for a service and then we all headed over to G and G Parkers for Chili and Chicken Noodle Soup dinner. We then exchanged our gifts from our Secret Santa and gave the kids their presents from the aunts and uncles. Donovan got a Baby Bjorn (baby carrier), a Leap Frog musical caterpillar and a baby photo album that has waterproof pages to put pictures in for him to look at, when Mommy finally puts in some pictures! We'll put some pictures of Daddy in there before we go to Seattle to visit Grandmas and Grandpas. Mommy got a wooden plaque that says, "Be Careful How You Address the Queen", and a Chili's gift card. We also received an Applebees gift card, an Outback gift card and a Wii game. For Christmas Mommy got a Nintendo DS from Daddy and Grandma Inabnit has a Tetris game waiting for her in Seattle. Daddy got some Eddie Bauer slippers and a suede pullover, and a book from Mommy. Of course before Mommy could go to bed on Christmas Eve she had to make her Sweet Potato Mallow dish for the Christmas lunch the next day, she didn't get to bed until after midnight.

Christmas Day we woke up to lots of snow, not there the night before, and made our way to Great Grandma Rood's for a Christmas breakfast and to do our stockings. After the stockings were opened and Grandma Rood opened her gifts, we all headed over to the Boulder church to have a our WHOLE family gathering. We had to go to the church because that was the only place that would hold us all. All of the Roods were there except for Grandpa Dale and Grandma Althea. All 14 (12 plus the two buns in the ovens) of Great Grandma Rood's great grandchildren were there and we had a picture taken with her, although Donovan was screaming bloody murder because he was hungry and everyone and there mom wanted to take a picture. He also got his picture taken with Santa, aka Grandpa Parker. Daddy and Mommy played a rousing game of IDI (I doubt it, aka BS, we didn't think BS was appropriate considering the company) with Uncle Brandon, and Josiah and Amberle Thorngate, also a part of the holiday festivities. After having a huge feast we did a white elephant among the adults and we all soon realized that Grandma Alice Parker has a lot of junk lying around her house.

After the white elephant the party died pretty quickly and as soon as things were cleaned up we went back to Great Grandma Rood's house. Daddy and Dusty played the Wii and Mommy and Anna and Arabelle hung out. We headed home around eight and it was still snowing. We drove around hoping a restaurant was open because there wasn't really anything at home since the fridge has broken down (again). The only place open was Walgreens so we got a frozen pizza and a battery for our beeping smoke detector. One stop shopping. We ended the night watching Keeping the Faith and finally headed to bed. We had one busy Christmas!



Cousin Kayleigh and Cousin Logan decorating Dusty/Anna/Logan birthday cupcakes.



Would you like some cupcake with your sprinkles?



Mommy found the silly kitty in my stroller. She'll sleep anywhere!



We dubbed her "Santa Anna", huh, get it?



Unwrapping our Bjorn.



Watching Grandpa Parker, with cousin Josiah's help, open our gift to them. They got a picture of us in a frame.



This is what we got cousin Kayleigh for Christmas.



This is what we woke up to Christmas morning. My and Mommy's first white Christmas.



Mommy took pictures of bunny tracks in the snow at Great Grandma Rood's house. She's a sucker for little animals.



My silly Daddy, Uncle Dusty and Uncle Brandon on "Santa's" aka Grandpa Parker's lap on Christmas Day.



Our pretty Christmas tree!



"Donovan's" Christmas gift from Auntie Anna and Uncle Dusty. He's not supposed to face forward yet, but we were just trying it out. He'll like it better when he can face out, he's still pretty iffy about doing it the other way, but hopefully he'll get used to it!



This was totally not posed. They were both sleeping in the same position!

Pro Xmas Pics

I love this picture!



He's already easily distracted!



One of the Xmas pics taken.

My Everyday

Sleeping with Mommy.



Daddy didn't know his picture was being taken.



Bathing for the first time in my bathtub.



My faux hawk!



My Daddy loves me.



My Mommy's lifesaver, the swing.



No flash photography please!



All bundled up to go out in the snow.



Chilling out with my Grandpa Hemminger.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a big event (although Mommy took no pictures on that day because she was making food and super busy). The most exciting thing though was meeting my Grandma and Grandpa Inabnit and Grandma and Grandpa Rood. I also met my Uncle Nate who is super cool and bought me my crib!



This is my Grandma Inabnit, she's so pretty.



This is my Grandpa Inabnit.



I like his yellow sweater!



My Uncle Nate is super cool.



Me in my Grandma Inabnit's arms.



Grandma Rood changing my diaper.

Hanging out at home

 

Me and Daddy watching football.

 

Amen!

 

My favorite pose, PRAISE JESUS!

 

Reading with my Mommy.

Welcome to the world little man!

Donovan Asher was born at 10:22PM on November 14, 2007. He was 7lbs 10oz and 19 inches long. He's very quiet, a good eater, and extremely adoreable.

I was in labor for about 24 hours, but for the most part it was quite easy, thanks to an epidural. My contractions at first weren't painful, just constant. After finally being admitted to the hospital (we were in triage from 4am to 9am) my contractions practically stopped. I was given Petocin, which brought the contractions back, but the nurses said that I wasn't in enough pain, and my water was broken. Almost instantly my contractions intensified, and I promptly signed the epidural consent form. The most pain I went through was that half hour to forty five minutes that we had to wait for the anethesiologist. The epidural was relatively painless compared to the contractions, and almost instantly I enjoyed the sweet bliss of pain relief. I received an epidural around four in the afternoon and within a few hours I was 7 centimeters and around 7PM I was 9 1/2 centimeters. We waited as long as we could, for Donovan to descend on his own, and at 9:30 PM I vomited (signaling transition) and we were ready to push! Through the whole delivery I was pain free, only feeling the pressure and the need to push, but I was able to talk between pushing. I was aware of when the contraction was starting and usually started pushing by myself, alerting everyone else that it was time to push. Jeff helped hold my left leg while pushing and gave me a play by play of what was going on. Jeff's Aunt Alice was present through the whole delivery since Jeff and I were by ourselves and there was no one else to share in our experience. She was our stand-in/surrogate grandparent, since the real ones are out of state. When he was finally crowning, we had to wait for the doctor and Donovan didn't really want to, I was forced to use a breathing technique that I learned in Child Birth to try and stop him from coming out, because the contractions were pushing him out without my help.

Finally at 10:22PM he was born, (still no pain) and he only cried a little, and he had a full head of dark brown hair! He was taken to the table to be cleaned and I was cleaned and sewn up. Finally I got to hold and feed my baby boy for the first time, and then I got to eat!! I hadn't eaten in more than 24 hours and I was starving!! There were very few side effects from the epidural, just some nausea (a little vomiting) and then the itching, but all of it was worth it when I got to see my little boy. (I'm now a huge advocate for epidurals. I thought I was a wimp at first for choosing it so quickly, but in the long run, it was one of the best decisions we made during this whole process.)

The first night he was taken to the nursery so we could get some sleep but he would be brought in to be fed in a few hours. I woke up before he did at 5am but he was in soon after for another meal. The whole second day was filled with nurses, visitors, more room service (I ordered each meal as soon as it was available), and I also was given a complimentary massage. Unfortunately halfway through the day we had to be moved to an overflow suite because the labor and delivery unit was filling up quickly. We were bummed, and the new room, although larger, wasn't as nice. We no longer had a DVD player, and the heating and air were out of whack. There was more room for guests, and Jeff had an actual bed, but overall I missed our original room.

Friday morning we met Donovan's pediatrician, who took him upstairs to the nursery for a check up and to be circumcised. My doctor came in and we asked when we could leave. She said as soon as we were ready, so at 9am I was up and getting things packed and having the nurses start our discharge papers. We were out of there soon and home by 11am! It was nice to be home and we were relieved to see that the house was in one piece since we had left in such a hurry and animals were left behind! We hung out all day, took naps, got the house back in order and overall had a chill day. Our first night was pretty uneventful. I didn't attempt to go to bed until 1am and Donovan and I hung out and I fed him again and put him down at 5am. We didn't get up until at least 9:30!! I was so surprised that we were allowed to sleep that long!

Today we just hung out and enjoyed each others company. My milk came in today and Donovan is now receiving some serious meals. He is a great eater, he latches on like a pro, and I feel amazing. I felt so great that this evening we went to WalMart and picked up some necessities that we have discovered we needed. We bought some smaller onesies and more receiving blankets, some burp cloths and a pack of socks. We have a lot of clothes for when he puts on a few more pounds, but he is just small enough where a lot of things are not fitting well at all.

So far we have had little drama, fussiness and we're still getting a hang of mess-less diaper changes, (he'll soon be winning peeing distance contests). We're excited for the holidays and the first of the grandparents will be showing up on Tuesday. We are enjoying our little bundle of joy and I'm finding that I do have patience, I just needed the right motivation.



Mommy after having her epidural, she was VERY HAPPY!



The last picture of Mommy and Daddy before I was born.



My first picture, I'm getting cleaned up.



CLOSE UP! I'm too precious for words!



Calling all grandparents! Daddy calling all my grandparents to tell them the good news.



Proud Papa! He's been waiting a long time for me!



Love at first sight! My Mommy finally gets to hold me for the first time.



Eyes wide open!



The cause of Mommy's heartburn. It's supposed to be an old wives tale, but it's proven to be true. If you have bad heartburn, your kid is going to have a lot of hair! Mommy and Daddy were both surprised that I had hair at all, let alone dark brown!



Mommy made this sign the day after I was born before all of our visitors showed up.



Going home! This was the outfit Mommy brought for me to wear home, but NOTHING fit. Oh well, I was still cute!



Finally home! Showing off Mommy's swaddling skills and her hospital bling.



Me with Aunt Alice aka Grandma Parker. She was my first visitor at home, bringing Mommy and Daddy pizza for dinner. She has been very helpful and we don't know what we would do without her.



I am conked out! You can really see my jaundice in this picture, but cheeks are still real kissable!



Me and my Mommy's hands. I look like my Daddy, but my hands definitely look like my Mommy's.



Me and Mommy at home the first day.



Our first trip out, we're going to WalMart!