Christmas 2010

Wow it was crazy! I had all gifts bought and wrapped by the weekend before, lower 48 gifts sent out 10 days before Christmas, but somehow or another I ended up scrambling to get everything together in time for Christmas morning!

Christmas was wonderful! We spent Christmas eve with close friends and were shocked to receive a blue ray player from them! Chris wont stop talking about renting a blue ray now. Christmas morning Kimberly flew in from Seattle with LOTS of presents. It was like Santa walked in our door, only in a fur coat and heels! James made out like a bandit, thank you everyone!!! Josh and Angela joined us for brunch and gifts and then came back later for a game scene it, where the girls kicked butt!

Today is the day after and I already took down our Christmas decor. It's amazing what I can get accomplished when I have someone around to watch James. He is having a rather tough day though, he's cuddling with dad watching world strong man. I think he's fourth tooth is about to pop through and it's taking its time!

Tomorrow I'm going through our closet for outgrown and never worn clothes so we can donate them for taxes before the end of the year. Chris wants me to hold onto James outgrown clothes, but I don't see another child in our future and we need the write off!

So now that we have a lap top again I will be able to blog and post more photo's more often. I also received a video camera for James so I wont have to rely on Chris's iphone.

Over all I would like to thank everyone for Jame's gifts. It's all very appreciated!

October

This month flew by! Overall James has his two front bottom teeth in, loves to play with his tongue, touch other peoples faces, pull his mothers hair, laugh, smile, roll over onto this stomach within a minute of being put on his back, smile back at anyone who smiles at him and then act shy and rub his face into his holders shirt, reach for whatever your drinking, put his toes in his mouth, remove his bib, knock his spoon out of his feeders hands and make big messes ..... oh and his has officially outgrown his 2nd carseat!!!!!

After our vacation to Washington/Oregon I started my own route in Wasilla, shortly after that the work Chris had lined up in the valley fell through. So it is possible that we may be staying in Anchorage and I'll either commute or give up the route and continue being a relief driver.

On the positive side I had 40 hours of vacation time I wasn't aware of and received a paycheck while we were on vacation that I wasn't expecting, PERFECT TIMING! Also JetBlue is coming to Anchorage and providing a seasonal non stop flight to Long Beach !!!!

So we have till Friday November 5th to decide weather I'm taking this route or not. Lots of idea's and thoughts floating around our heads, just no plan yet .....

Thats about it for October!!!! oh and BUMBO'S RULE!

3 months, 3 weeks

I couldnt help but have him try out his wedding outfit, I think it will fit perfectly by October 22nd, but I am going to look for a collared white onsie. Isn't he CUTE?! Eugh I swore I would never be ones of those moms, guess not!

so after spending another amazing Monday (I love our Mondays together!), baking, laundry, movie watching, and just hanging out, James falls asleep on my chest for a nice nap. I'm combing his hair getting all emotional about how fast he's growing and Chris comes home. He goes straight into the kitchen, grabs a glass of milk and a plate of cookies. It was a nice little reminder that James may get bigger, but it will take a while for him to grow out of his inner-child! Oh, and of course he dipped the cookies in the milk!

James is VERY vocal now, when you cant hear him, its because he's rolled over and talking into the mat. The problem with rolling over, he he only goes half way, then gets all aggravated because he's on his stomach! He's pretty good about sitting up against pillows. Sometimes he'll go head first forward, but usually he just tips over. He's kicking his feet in the bath, laughing (especially when he's up high), blowing spit bubbles, rolling halfway over, and talking up a storm. He has also started to put his hands around the top of his bottle when your feeding him, but he just cant hold up the 8oz he drinks.

I have noticed he has a long torso like his dad, which makes his onesies a little tight, and his pants a little long. His feet are also big. For everyone who wants to buy him outfits, pants and shirts, no onsies or one-piece outfits for this kid! He has a four month checkup in early october, any guesses on how big he'll be?!?!

Were going to be pretty busy the next couple months. A route is coming available in Wasilla which is where Chris and I want to raise our family, so I'm taking it. I however am not willing to make the 1 hour commute each way, maybe if it wasn't at 3 am I would, but I'm not getting up at 1:30 am every morning! So Chris is looking for paving and plow companies out there, and were getting our house ready to either rent or sell. Which would be easy if we didn't have a few projects to finish first, and it wasn't football season!

So thats about it from our household. October is the wedding in Seattle and a 24 hour visit to my family in Oregon, November my mom and brother visit for Thanksgiving, December Kimberly comes for Christmas, January we head to Fairbanks ..... I may need to switch James to formula so I can drink caffeine in order to get it all done!

Whoa where did all this weight come from?

So I only gained 25 lbs when I was pregnant with James, I then rapidly lost the weight the first 2 weeks after I gave birth and started to breast feed. Then suddenly I was hungry, no not hungry, STARVING! I was always stuffing my face with food! Now its time to do something about it. I bought Zumba because I could do it at home while James was napping or just hanging out. It was supposed to be 'great for loosing baby weight', 'easy to learn', 'fun'. Well Zumba isn't working out to well for me, apparently I'm not very coordinated. I can get either the hand or feet motions down, but not together, and then add my hips? Forget it! I don't have 2-3 hours every day to do P90X (although I think it would be perfect for me). So I'm going old school and breaking out the Step aerobics!

I hope to get some video of James posted once Chris gets home today (he has the iphone). Were counting down the days till we see everyone in October!

Valdez

We spent 5 wonderful days in Valdez with Chris's dad, dad's girlfriend Lisa, cousin Melissa, and dog Mel. The boat could only fit 3 people so whoever stayed back at camp was on James duty. Although I did notice some rather young babies were out on the water in somewhat small boats, I cant imagine reeling in a fish with a baby on my front. We had a blast. We had a great camping spot where we could hear a waterfall from our beds, lots of fish, a few shrimp, great food, wonderful family, a bear in camp twice, free hot showers, and pretty decent weather. I'm looking forward to next year!

Whoa I have hands!

James found out he has hands this past week. He's perfectly content to just sit there and play with them. He also enjoys shoving his right hand in his mouth, and putting them in front of his mouth when your trying to feed him. I love watching him grow up! Pictures later this week, first I have a lot of fish jerky to make!

Life as a family ....

well now that I have most of the recent events caught up I think I'll 'blog'.

When I was pregnant everyone told me how much my life was going to change, how amazing it is to be a parent, etc etc. However it never really settled until the second week I was back to work. It is SO hard to crawl out of bed with his little body curled up next to me looking SO peaceful. Then 2 weeks ago when he gave me the sweetest smile after I fed him. It just wrecks havoc with my heart! Then all i can think about is getting home to him. Overall its an amazing feeling being a mother, and i wouldn't trade it for the world!

Chris and I decided we didn't want James to be raised with a bunch of fancy 'stuff'. We opted for the simple life. I didn't want a top of the line matching nursery set, I wanted a cheap non matching re-cycled nursery set, so thats what we got! At about a month old James started to enjoy moving around, a lot. I had no problem walking around the house with him, but it quickly got old. I thought about buying a swing, but it wasn't a 'need' so I chose not to. Well this past week I broke down and bought a $18 used swing. He LOVES it! So much that I feel like a TERRIBLE mother for not buying it sooner! He smiles and coo's at the non-mobile mobile, he gets drowsy in the swing and falls asleep faster (I try not to let him fall asleep in the chair, just let it ware him out). I'm pretty mad at myself for not buying it sooner, I feel like I'm holding him back from developing faster or something. Ah well cant take it back now, can only improve on the future!

The joke at work while I was prego was "The bread lady has a bun in the oven" haha soooo funny. Well now that a few co-workers have caught me breast pumping at work the joke is, "Rachel's increasing sales by selling milk with the donuts". I hope to breast feed for a year (only 10 months to go!), Chris is aiming for 6 months. Did you know you shouldn't drink caffeine or energy drinks, and eat super healthy while breastfeeding? Did I mention I get up at 2 am?!?!? This motherhood stuff is pretty hardcore, sure makes you appreciate your own mother more!!!!!! Love you MOM!

We have been pretty lucky when it come to clothes for James. A friend from highschool had a boy and gave us ALL his hand-me-downs. I have a garbage bag for every 3 months for the first 2 years! All I'v had to buy is socks (which he's about to wear 6-9 month socks, bigfoot!). However when it comes to toys and developmental stuff we have nothing! So my goal this week is picking some up.

Well sounds like nap time is over, I hope everyone is caught up on us! Check back every month or so for updates!

Chris, Rachel, and baby James!

Great Grandma Gray, Grandpa Gray, and Cousin Melissa!

Great Grandma Gray and cousin Melissa came all the way from Texas to see baby James! We had a great weekend off-roading and being tourists. GGma was amazed at how strong James is, while Grandpa commented on how quiet James is! James tried out Melissa's bug eye sunglasses, they took up most of his face!

Grandma Kimberly visits!

Grandma Kimberly came and spent some time with her first Grandson too! We didn't take many pictures but she gave mom a must needed rest! Its amazing how fast things get accomplished when your not holding a newborn!

James goes off-roading!

We took James on his first off-roading trip when he was 3 weeks old, either Chris or I sat in the back seat with him with a blanket wrapped tightly around his head and body so he didn't get tossed around. He slept 90% of the time. I wasn't to worried about him hurting himself, we went with his Dr!

Chris's first Fathers day!

Every year off-roaders across the state (and some from other states) gather together for a weekend of pot-lucks, bbq's, kids games, RTI ramps, raffles, and this year we had an obstacle course and mud pit! Meet and Greet 2010 was the BEST one yet! Chris's burb won 'Most Family Rig' and he was the KING of Meet and Greet!

Grandma Wright and Uncle Tyler come visit!

James is my mom's first grandchild (he's everyone first baby, grandchild, and great-grandchild). A week after he was born Grandma Jeanette and Uncle Tyler came to visit from Oregon. Uncle Tyler was rather bored since James couldn't leave the house, However Grandma Jeanette was pretty happy to have someone to brag about!

Juandice

What a terrible thing to do to a new mother! At our 2 day checkup on Monday the Doctor was a little worried about James's Juandice level. After a blood test showed higher levels then she liked we were ordered to eat more often and spend time in the sun. When we returned on Wednesday he was even higher and we were given a light blanket. This is when I had my first 'new mom breakdown'. Chris was at work, my mom was arriving that weekend, and our son had to be connected to a wall outlet with a light blanket wrapped around his torso 24/7. IT WAS TERRIBLE! Thankfully on my baby shows I had seen a few baby's use the blanket and it had helped them, I did NOT want a blood transfusion (especially since he's my bloodtype).

After about a week with the blanket he was given the O.K. That day we went for our first walk, woo hoo!

June 5th 2010

Quick summary of James Birth! I was Due June 10th, however because of Jame's size the Doctor wanted to induce early. So Thursday June 8th we got the call to come on in. We gobbled down our spaggeti dinner and headed out the door. However our room wasn't ready when we arrived so we headed to Cold Stone for ice cream.

At 10pm I was induced, by 1 am I could feel the contractions, but not enough to bother me. Chris enjoyed watching the monitor to see 'how high I could go' with the intensity of the contractions. The next morning I was given more "induction stuff" (it's been 2 months I forgot what the drug was called). Around noon my water broke, which it didnt "GUSH" like everyone told me, it trickled. My contractions got stronger and by 1 pm I had back labor. No-one told me about back labor, NO ONE! I tried everything! Walking around, laying on my sides, the ball (which was the best), I was in AGONY! Then around 6 pm magic happened, "Your at 4 cm, you can have your epidural". 2 hours LATER I was one happy lady! After that it sort of runs together. I remember at 11pm they put an oxygen mask on me, and I was OUT. Then at midnight I was at 10cm.

At 12:15 they took away my mask and told me to push. It was really weird how low James was in my belly, it made it all seem very real that it was 'time'. I was really groggy and not awake enough to push like they wanted, so it took a while to get the process going. Chris felt pretty worthless standing there holding up my leg while I was clearly in pain, but I'm very happy he was there. At 1:30 I had enough of pushing, they kept telling me I was doing great and they could see lots of hair, but it just wasnt enough. So I dug down deep and pushed with everything I had. At 1:43 James Michael Gray entered the world, covered in white stuff, cone headed, and screaming.

Chris cut the cord (although he REALLY didn't want to), mentioned him not making the "9lb mark", and watched the nurse take all the vitals. James latched on to breast feeding right away, which was a HUGE worry for me. Chris fell asleep once everything calmed down, meanwhile I was wide awake holding our son. What an amazing feeling!

We wanted to go home that afternoon, but the hospital had a rule about '24 hours', so we waited till Sunday afternoon. I was told later that all the nurses thought I had other children because of how I handled James. I think it was because of the hundreds of hours of baby TV shows I watched while pregnant, and they say you don't learn anything watching TV!