Life Moves Along in the Blink of an Eye!

Wow, life moves so fast that it seems like just yesterday I was writing my last post and then I realized that 2 months has flown by. Some happenings in the Buttars family include:

Palmer
*Palmer just turned 4 months old yesterday! It's so fun to see him developing and changing all the time. His big round blue eyes just melt my heart.

*He has learned how to roll from his tummy to his back which means it is nearly impossible to keep him on his tummy. He is also able to do a mini-push up on his tummy- he's just working those biceps and triceps out!

*His dad is so great at making him giggle all the time- I'm working on it :).

*He is able to support his head with his extra large cheeks and does a great job sitting with some added support. Before too long though his legs will get too chubby for his bumbo...poor kid. I am very anxious for him to learn how to sit on his own. Hopefully because he has such a large foundation it should be sooner rather than later!

* He loves cuddling with a stuffed animal to help him fall asleep. Don't mind the creepy stuffed animal in this picture! It's a Dr. Seuss creature and was the first thing I grabbed!

*He is just continuing to gain more and more weight! A couple of weeks ago I just weighed him on my home scale and he weighed in at a whopping 18 pounds! He is going through clothes like they are going out of style. He definitely is my weight lifting practice...all day long.

*Here is a picture of him on his blessing day...what a cutie. He was a GREAT baby that day. He didn't spit up all over his dad while up in the front of the chapel...that was what I was so worried about! It was a fun day to have all of our two families here for support.


Brad
Brad just recently accepted a new position at Packsize. He is now in the Sales Department and I believe the official job title is called a Sales Officer (which basically means he is over the salesmen...luckily not traveling to make sales). This should be a nice change of scenery for him. They treat him really well at Packsize and it's nice to be part of a company that is growing during this rough economy. Unfortunately he does have to travel some for his job. He has been gone all week to Louisville Kentucky and I definitely miss him.

Laura
Not too much new for me... I love staying home with Palmer. I can't imagine trying to balance work and him at the same time (thank you Brad). I did unfortunately fall down the stairs a few weeks ago and hurt my foot. It is now finally starting to feel better. Thankfully I wasn't carrying Palmer.

Other Family News:
*Kendra & Kris had a baby girl, Emmie, on January 25th. She is such a good baby and is darling. Here is a picture of her and Palmer...look at the size difference and they are only 5 weeks apart! I love the other picture because it looks like he is pulling the classic "yawn move" to get his arm around her.

*Andrew & Rachel had a baby girl as well on February 27th. She came 8 weeks early but thankfully is doing well! She was born at only 3 lbs. 2 oz. but is now weighing in around 4 lbs. 8 oz.! Her name is Annie. She is so tiny and precious. I don't have a picture of her yet but when I get one you better believe I'm posting it on this blog! We can't wait to get a picture with all 3 of the Davis grandkids side by side.

*Jessica & Riley announced that they are having a baby this September! They didn't announce until she was 17 weeks along so this pregnancy is going to fly by! They are having a girl...first one on the Buttars side.

*Sterling got home from his mission in Mongolia! We are so happy to have him home (especially Jaren who was sick of being an only child). He adjusted really quickly and it's nice to have the family complete.

*Kevin got in a pretty rough ATV accident but is recovering quite well. We're glad that he didn't get hurt worse.

*Rachelle and Natalie are both engaged which means craziness at the Buttars household. Natalie is getting married next month and Rachelle doesn't have a date planned yet. I can't believe they are both getting married.

Well that's all I can think of for now. I swear I need to make a goal to update this thing at least once a month.

2 Months of Fun!

Well Palmer is 2 months old and I can't believe how much he has grown, changed, and learned during the past 2 months. We are truly enjoying having him in our family and it's hard to imagine what life was like without him. Here are some highlights of this past month:

We just had his 2 month check-up and confirmed the fact that he is huge! Dr. Brogli was shocked because he used to be coming in for weight checks because he wasn't gaining enough weight. I guess he has made up for lost time (and mommy has discovered that nursing is just not cutting it). He weighed in at a whopping 14 pounds 10 ounces which put him off the charts so basically the 100th percentile. He measured 24.5 inches long which means he is in the 95th percentile. His head is in the 80th percentile. With all this said though if you take his weight and height ratio he is in the 50th percentile so it's not that he's just completely chubby (although he has his fair share of rolls).


He currently loves his mobile. He will be kind-of fussy and I put him in the crib and start winding up the mobile and he starts to get way excited. He loves following the shapes around.




He is a sleeping champ! Last night he slept for 10 hours! It usually averages around 8 or 9 hours and he hasn't been getting up until about 7:00 am. It's wonderful and we hope it doesn't change!

On the other note he has some struggles taking long naps during the day. He will take little 20 minute cat-naps here and there which sometimes makes for a little fussy Palmer. I love the days when he takes 2+ hour naps.


We discovered that a trick to getting him to calm down (and often times fall asleep) is to stand next to the stovetop fan. He usually just immediately calms down and if tired his eyes will start drooping. We use this trick A LOT.

It's so fun to hear all the new sounds he learns to make. Sometimes we'll be able to play together and he'll repeat the sounds we make. He also is getting louder with these sounds.

For the most part he really doesn't like being on his tummy. I'm trying to do it more often because he needs to learn how to strengthen those muscles but it doesn't last long because he'll start bawling. The boppy does help with this because it helps hold him up higher so he doesn't feel so close to the ground. Here was a moment when he was actually very happy chillin' on his tummy.


He spits up a ton! We are trying all different kinds and mixtures of formula (luckily he doesn't even seem to notice or care that they all taste different) and techniques of burping/feeding to see what will help. We are still experimenting... His face often looks like this after having a burp. Needless to say...he wears a bib all day long.


Here are just some other pictures that I love of this lil' boy!

Gotta Love Those Smiles!

Palmer is smiling and talking so much these days. It makes all the hard and frustrating times worth it! He LOVES this mat that my friend Jenni gave us. This is when he smiles the very most. What a cutie!

Germany

Brad had the opportunity to go on a week long business trip to Germany a few weeks back! He obviously had mixed feelings about going- excited to visit Europe for the first time but sad to leave the two of us behind. Luckily my parents let me stay over at their place for the week so I wasn't alone with Palmer the whole time. He obviously did not love doing work while he was there but he was happy to be able to spend time with our friends Jan and Viola and tour Hamburg and other sites. One of his adventures was trying to not slow down traffic too much on the Autobahn- cars were flying past him easily going 100+ miles per hour. Palmer and I are so glad he came home safely! Here are some pictures of sites that he saw (unfortunately he didn't take any pictures of him as well).

Palmer Bradley Buttars

December 20, 2010
11:27 pm
8 pounds and 12 ounces
22 inches long
__________________________________________

For journaling sake I have typed up the whole birthing adventure in my baby journal so in here I will touch on the highlights of the birth and life so far!

1) Just a few hours after typing my last blog entry my water broke in the Walmart Parking lot- yikes! What a hard decision to know whether to run into the bathroom in Walmart of risk driving home. I'm so glad I drove home. I would have hated being stuck in that bathroom. I had no idea how much water came out!

2) I held out and went for 6 hours without an epidural. Brad was a HUGE help to me during this time. He was by my side the entire time- helped me breathe through the contractions and maintain eye contact with him. I could have never gone through this experience without him by my side. He was incredible. BUT- I realized that it was only going to get worse and was so not worth it so I broke down and got the shot. Oh blessed relief! Luckily I had been in enough pain to not even notice them giving it to me. After it set in I took a nap!

3) My body was progressing pretty quickly and then it just STOPPED! I stayed at a 6 1/2 for 4 hours- blast it! The doctor didn't want to give me Pitocin due to the fact that my contractions were plenty strong (2 minutes long and 1 minute apart) and his heart rate was slightly dropping with the contractions. Also our baby was staying at a -1 station and not dropping anymore. Oh and he decided at the last minute to flip around so that his head was facing up which requires more room to fit out (which the doctor had previously been shocked as to how NARROW my bone structure in that region is).

4) So after about 8 hours of laboring and all of the above issues we decided to go with a c-section. We knew beforehand that this was a huge possibility but it was still hard to make the final decision. After that decision was made things just went very fast!

5) An operating room is everything you have ever imagined- large, bright, sterile, etc. They numbed me up even more (weirdest feeling in the world), put a sheet up to cover my lower region, put an oxygen mask on my face, and secured my arms down. They said that I might feel some tugging and pulling but luckily I don't think I felt a thing! Brad got to peak over the curtain as much as he wanted to view the surgery. He watched some of it but stayed with me to keep my attention away from what was happening.

6) After only about 8 minutes of beginning the surgery I heard the best sound in the entire world- my baby's first cry. Brad and I both immediately started crying. What an amazing and incredible experience. We had waited and hoped for 9 months to hear that first sound and know that he was healthy!

7) The nurses had told me that they would hold him up for me to see- they didn't. Brad said that he was purple and they had to suction fluid out of his mouth so that may have been why. The nurses invited Brad over to help clean him up. I guess Palmer hosed the area down immediately when they set him down. Brad then came over to me and I in tears told him that I wanted to see our baby. He offered to show me a picture of him from our camera. So the first image I got of our son was from our digital camera. Pretty sad but better than nothing! He then brought him over to me. It was so hard for me to not be able to hold and cuddle him because he was BEAUTIFUL. Tons of dark hair, calm as can be, and a miracle.

8) The adrenaline from the days events got to me and I was SHAKING all over the place. It was so hard because when I finally did want to hold him I didn't dare because my arms were shaking so bad. Luckily that finally died down and I was able to hold my son. I still couldn't believe that he was really here.

9) The hospital stay was great. The nurses were so helpful and I'm so glad that with the c-section I got to stay there longer. I definitely needed their help with my recovery and most of all the whole nursing thing (whoever says that nursing is natural for you and the baby is not telling the truth!) It was fun to have people come and visit but I especially cherish those times that it was just our little family at the hospital enjoying our time together. Because it was the week of Christmas Brad didn't have to go to work for most of the week so he was there for a majority of the time. I loved it.

10) We came home on Christmas Eve- what a neat next few days! I had always imagined how much I would love being able to sit in our living room with only the Christmas tree lights on as a family and we were able to do it. This was an incredible time of year to have a newborn.

11) Palmer has been a fantastic sleeper from the beginning. He usually gets in at least 5-7 hours of straight sleep before waking up to be fed. This definitely makes the transition into parenthood a whole lot easier. We just hope it sticks!

12) Palmer takes after his father. He has a bottomless stomach that can't seem to get enough food. I have had to supplement him because my body can't produce what he needs (thanks Mom for those genes). If he doesn't nurse from me he drinks about 6 ounces from a bottle. This is as much as an average 4 month baby eats! His cheeks are starting to gain some weight on him from all this eating! Funny thing is that for awhile we were worried because he was losing weight. Now we definitely don't have that problem!

13) I had no idea how time consuming it is to take care of a newborn! I feel like I just get through a feeding (although it takes twice as long when I am nursing and then giving him a bottle) when it's almost time for him to be hungry again. I now understand why they say that a mom is lucky to get dressed by 3:00 in the afternoon. I feel like I live in my pajamas.

14) He is so strong! From the beginning his neck has been so strong and he can push away from you so easily. He will be supporting his head in no time!

15) He LOVES getting his diaper changed. He will calm right down when we set him on the changing table and sometimes I just want to leave him on there afterwards because he is so content.

16) He is officially smiling. They say that at this time they are gas smiles but no no- I can tell when it is a gas smile versus a real smile. We'll be playing with him and kissing his face and his whole face will light up. It makes my heart melt.

17) Brad has amazed me with how naturally he has slipped into the whole parenthood thing. That is definitely a bonus to marry someone that was the oldest of 6 children. He can sometimes calm Palmer down in ways that no one else can.

18) It is just so much fun to see him change and grow every day. In some ways it makes me sad that he is growing up so fast but it is exciting to see what new things he will learn.

We are learning along the way but LOVING being parents to such a wonderful little boy. The three of us couldn't be happier!

Still Waiting....

Well if you were to look at my blog today you would see that it says that I have only 3 days to go... I hope that it's only 3 days (or less)! This anticipation is very nerve-wracking! I'm not sure how much more of it I can handle! I've been trying to be pretty active the past while to help these contractions come more often (I've been having contractions off and on for the past week but nothing super consistent) but it doesn't seem to be helping. The question is...if he doesn't come by the 23rd do I continue to try to be active to get into labor or do I lay low for a few days so I can get Christmas out of the way?

Am I done with work yet? Who knows. I took a personal day today and my principal just approved one for tomorrow as well. I can do a half day on Wednesday right? The main reason why I don't want to go in this week is that the longer it takes to start my maternity leave the more things that I think I need to do to prepare for my long-term substitute or other things come up that require more time than what I want right now! On Friday I was at the school until 6:00 trying to finish up all sorts of things. I wish that my school had gotten out on Friday for the break like other schools in the area!

Luckily things have looked like they are progressing as far as my body goes. As of last Tuesday I was dilated to almost 2 1/2 cm and 70% effaced. I go in today and I hope that I have progressed even more. We got to have an ultrasound and see our lil' baby last week! It was fun to be able to see him one more time before we REALLY see him. We did learn a couple things though...he's not so lil' after all (he measured at being around 9 lbs. and 1 oz. - those ultrasounds can be off but we're pretty sure that he won't be a 6 pounder), he took after both of his parents and has a very large head (they measured his head circumference as being in the 96th percentile...ouch), but everything else looks very healthy (we were able to see the 4 chambers of his heart and other organs working just perfectly). Unfortunately the doctor has been very shocked about how narrow my pelvic bones are and with the size of this kid we have had some good chats about this delivery. He has just warned me that a c-section is a very large possibility. I still want to try to have him normally but it's good to know ahead of time that it might come to a c-section so I won't be upset. The thing we care about the most though is that he comes out safely and that my body does okay during the whole process as well. We just need to get him out before he continues to get bigger!

No, we don't have a name yet. We still roll a few around our head but haven't made a decision about it yet. Brad likes to call us "name snobs". No, I'm not worried about other people "stealing" it before he comes. We just don't want people's opinions, we want to wait and see him, and it gives somewhat more of a surprise to people when we have him. Hopefully we can decide on one before we leave the hospital!

I do have to say that this whole business of being ready for him to come any day has been pretty neat around the Christmas season. Let's just say that I had to hold back a lot of tears at church on Sunday when two of the speakers not only talked about the miraculous birth of the savior but their own experiences with the miracle of birth. I think it will be so neat to have him in the hospital and our home this season. I can't wait!

Second Trimester

Well I have successfully made it through 2nd Trimester and these are my thoughts so far:

1) 2nd Trimester is a heck of a lot more enjoyable than the 1st Trimester! Besides having to eat a little more often, a growing belly, and some more sleep required it's been fun!

2) I LOVE watching the lil' guy move around in my belly. Brad laughs at me because he'll walk into the room where I'm resting and I have my shirt pulled up so I can watch my stomach. It's so crazy! (In fact I'm trying to watch him move and type at the same time...it's a slow typing process :) ). His favorite time to move around is around 8-10 at night. I've discovered that if I try to be motivated and go to sleep early I lay in bed without sleeping because he's moving too much.

3) Belly Bands are a lifesaver. I wore maternity pants for the first time this week...I've been able to hold out this long. It was a well spent $16.00!

4) Heartburn has been a constant companion for the last 5 weeks. Tums are a lifesaver...I wouldn't survive without them. They say that the more heartburn you have the more hair the baby has...this is going to be one hairy kid!

5) I was somewhat dismayed to realize that what I thought were "loose" and comfortable pajama shirts are now too small. I wear Brad's t-shirts now...

6) It's taken me awhile to figure out the most comfortable sleep position that will help keep me on my side and keep the heartburn to a minimum. I think that I have finally figured it out and it requires 5 pillows to make it happen. Brad has had to give up all ideas of sleeping anywhere close to me.

7) I think that God made us have to go to the bathroom a lot during the night to help us get used to what's to come. I think that I'll be pretty well prepared.

8) Some pregnancy symptoms that I haven't experienced any more than my pre-pregnancy days (but I'm sure some will come): intense cravings for a certain food, forgetfulness, clumsiness, and being overly emotional.

9) Leg cramps in the middle of the night are terrible.

10) The confusion of the whole months/weeks thing with pregnancy. If they are going to say that a pregnancy is 40 weeks why the heck do we say it is only 9 months? I am currently 29 weeks which if I do my math correctly that would mean that I am 7 months along but if I tell that to people then they will think that I only have 2 months left when I really have 3. But I feel like if I only say that I am 6 months along (and that won't be 7 weeks for 3 more weeks) that I am cheating myself of some time. How did they decide to go with such a screwed up system?

11) I thought that I would hate people touching my belly. It doesn't bother me so much.

12) I am NOT a needle person but I have to say that I have done very well with all the blood tests and shots that I've had to get. (I have the rH factor and have had to get a couple of shots periodically for that). I haven't passed out once!

13) We keep getting asked the question if we have a name picked out. Nope! Pretty sure we'll be one of those couples that are deciding one quickly as we're leaving the hospital so it will have a name on his birth certificate other than "Baby Boy". I can't even make up my mind on where to go out to eat...how am I supposed to decide on a name?

13) This whole constant worried thing that I experience for my baby's well-being...is this what mothers experience for the rest of their lives? I think I'll die of stress! I keep on thinking the worry will go away once he is in my arms but I have a feeling that it will only be increased.

Well I feel good so far...we'll see how 3rd trimester treats me! We're sure excited for him to come. I haven't yet thought too much about the delivery thing. I'm sure I'll get more worried about that when the time gets closer :).