when Beau met Lauren

Let me begin by saying, leaving a toddler in the middle of the night while you go have a baby is somewhat traumatic. for him and for his parents. Kim Percival aka "Kimmy" is one of Beau's favorite people. She came over at the crack of dawn, took off work and stayed with mr bear for 2 days. She is straight from Heaven. We are so blessed to have her and the whole Percival family out here in the woods with us. Love Them. By the time Mike got back home to check in and give out some bear hugs, Beau was really emotional. He said, "find Mommy". They called me that night in the hospital and I heard his little quivery voice say, "unna come home mommy?" "pweeze come home mommy." I was literally crying so hard I couldn't talk to him. He was heart broken and confused and not old enough for a good explanation. Phooey.

The day we came home, Mike dropped us off and then went to pick up Beau from Joy's house. When he came through the door, he ran into my arms with the biggest smile ever and literally hugged my neck as hard as he could. Melt. We had Lauren on the couch and we went over to meet her. This is what he did (in the photo) he layed down close to her and sucked his thumb. He didn't say anything, just took her in. Looked her over. We really don't have good pictures from the 1st meeting, we were trying to manage poking fingers and potential slaps to the face! He wasn't harmful at all and Lauren didn't fuss when he held her! Hooray!

We came home on a Thursday and Mike had to leave for the weekend on Friday to the state track meet. So that didn't help our little emotional crisis Beau bear. Grandma Judy came to the rescue and was able to be with us for the weekend. Whew! It was good to have special Grandma attention to cope with new baby. He didn't seem to mind her being around a whole lot until I needed to feed her. That was a struggle for him to understand I couldn't play and run around for a little bit. He used this opportunity to fuzz up and be ornery. I don't blame him. He was never really mean to Lauren... on purpose. The first "incident" involved a ball chucked into the bassinet while a then sleeping Lauren was suddenly awaken when the ball bounced off her head. She was ticked. Never really went back in the bassinet. I don't blame her. I'm sure Beau didn't know she was in there. (insert sarcasm) He quickly learned it was trouble to tick off the baby and well, none of us enjoy the scream she conjures up. It makes your teeth itch. After this, he decided to be sweet and come up with ways to pacify Lauren. She was crying really hard once on the couch. I came back in and she had a pile of Cheerios on her tummy!! I didn't get a picture, dang it. But I did catch this one.

Together they are a handful and equally precious. We've already had so many wonderful memories. I'm totally looking forward to this adventure. and it is an adventure.

a little about the day we met...

Sunday was my birthday. We stayed home, Mama and Jenny came out to celebrate. Mike made an awesome smoked pork and we had a fabulous day. Monday I went to work and knew I had overdone it. I felt like crap-o-la. I called the dr to see if I could get an appointment. The evil nurse totally vetoed the appointment and didn't care about me. I'm exaggerating, however I didn't get to go and therefore cried hard (I told on her and she got in trouble for that. heehee) I went home and continued to feel bad but wasn't having any sort of labor. Well that all changed at 2:40am. A bad contraction woke me up. I thought, "Ooo that was good one." and went back to sleep. 8 minutes later another one. Hmm. 8 minutes later came numero three. I woke Mike up at 3, he was all confused and couldn't figure out why on the earth I was poking him. He showered, we called the Percival's phones about 22 times to have Kim come over to be with Beau. She was on her way. Meanwhile the contractions were now every 4 minutes. YIKES. We left before Kim got there, but passed her in the road close to the house, there wasn't any more time to wait!! Plus, the low water bridge was closed because of the rain AND a tree had fallen across the road! We had to go the back way to town which means an extra mile of gravel road and a curvier highway. I'm not sure I could accurately describe the pain and fear of having that baby girl on Hwy 60. It wasn't good. However, my Superman came through. He drove So Fast, but So Careful at the same time. When we got to 60, he put on the flashers and floored it. Contractions were 3 minutes apart. PRAISE the GOOD LORD I had a long conversation with roommate Jenny the day before about managing labor pain. She opted to give birth sans medication and actually educated herself on the subject - genius idea even if you know you'll have an epidural. That was straight from the Lord because I would have been in serious trouble without that talk. We made it to National and as we're flying down the road, each stoplight turns green as we're whizzing through, another blessing straight from above. Superman basically carried me into the St Johns ER because well, he's Superman and I could no longer walk, or sit, or do anything really. The St Johns staff is Amazing. They literally ran me to Labor and Delivery. Now I'm what you call "Modest" and this time, that was actually honored. I can't sing their praises enough. I made it all the way to a 9 by myself before the epidural and I've never been so thankful for drugs in my entire life. We waited for Dr Lehnert to come to work, he put his Cardinals hat on the shelf, chatted briefly about my early morning surprise, I pushed once and on Tuesday, May 18th 2010 Lauren was in my arms at 6:36am. She was 6lbs 13oz and 20 1/2 inches tall. Mike and I actually didn't say anything for a while because we were literally in shock. I was preparing myself for another marathon pushing session (3hrs with Beau. seriously) Dr Lehnert said, "and that is how you have a baby Miss Carrie. Congratulations!"

a little about Lauren...

Today is her big Two Months Old Birthday!! Such a big girl!

She is pretty, she is loud, she knows what she wants and exactly when. She has a gentle touch and holds on to the collar of my tshirt. Her hairbows clip right onto her hair. She has big beautiful lips and her eyelashes are coming in thick and long! She is a snuggle bug. She is a straight baby when angry. She can get very angry. She coos and smiles when you talk girl talk and throws up all the time. She does not like to have a dirty diaper. She is all girl and I am so in love with her.

back in the saddle again

I'm bbaaaaccckkk!!!

I obviously couldn't post blogs from home while on leave which is a big PHOOEY in my world. So many memorable things happened that I don't want to forget! I have intentions of one day turning this into a book (you can do that, I've been told) so there may be some back tracking to be said.

So hold on, I've got two now, and so much to say about them!!!