Guess who has 2 kids now?

We do!

Connor David Easton was born on October 18th at 3:56 pm, weighing 7lbs 8 oz and measuring 20.5 inches long.

On Tuesday, I had an appointment scheduled with the midwife to see how I was progressing. I was dilated to 5 cm, so labor could start soon. Given my history of fast labor with Dallin (read about it here), she was concerned that once labor started, it would take too long to get to the hospital. She was almost reluctant to let me go home to pack. As a precaution, she gave me her personal cell phone number and brief instructions on delivering in the car. She was making me feel very nervous.

After a while at home, I was having regular contractions (every 5 or 6 minutes), but they were not really that strong. I was nervous about what would happen when they did get stronger though, so I called the midwife and we went over to the hospital a little before 1pm.

I felt silly walking into the ER and telling them I was in labor, when I didn't feel like I was at all. I thought about making my contractions look more dramatic so they would believe me. But they knew I was coming because the midwife called ahead and they took us right up to Labor and Delivery to get settled.

My last belly shot at 38 weeks, 5 days

They monitored my contractions and the baby's heartbeat for 20 minutes while they got all my information down and paperwork signed. I had to get a stupid IV lock on my hand "just in case" anything happened. It was annoying having it on my hand the whole time, but it was much better than being attached to an IV. Sharon, my midwife, checked me again and I was already at 7 cm. By this time contractions we definitely picking up in intensity, but still pretty manageable. They filled up the birthing tub and I got in. It was kind of nice relaxing through the contractions in the warm water. For the next hour or so, we just relaxed, watched some Law and Order on TV and chatted with Sharon.

I really liked having my freedom during labor rather than being constrained to the bed by wires and tubes. I could go to the bathroom whenever I wanted, I could walk around the room, or sit in my tub of warm water. Sharon just needed to monitor the baby's heartbeat occasionally to make sure everything was still going well, which it was.

A little after 3pm, things were really picking up and getting intense, but the warm water was helping to soften the intensity. After sometime, things were really getting intense and I was feeling some pressure. During one contraction, Sharon broke my water and that really got things going. The baby dropped pretty quickly after that and I was feeling strong pressure to push. After pushing through 2 or 3 contractions (maybe 5 minutes?) Connor was out and brought up on my chest.

Notice the green glove on my hand? That was to keep the IV dry while in the tub. He was a very calm baby, but very alert and opened his eyes after just a few minutes. Mckay cut the cord and then Connor and I got out to get dried and warmed.

We got to relax and bond for a while. Connor ate his first meal like a pro.

He got to snuggle with his Daddy.

He was weighed and bathed, and then they moved us to the Mother and Baby wing.

My mom got into town Sunday night, so she made it just in time.

She stayed at home with Dallin while we went to the hospital. Dallin took a nap and when he woke up, they came over to the hospital to see us.

Dallin has loved Connor from the very first moment.

He's so sweet to him and always wants to hold him...

...and hug him...

...and poke his eyes.

We got to order a special celebratory meal for our family after Connor was born.

We had Filet Mignon, Lobster Ravioli, Pizza (for Dallin), and enough for drinks for twice as many people, apparently.

Dallin enjoyed walking around the room eating his pizza and getting into stuff.

He would play at home with Grandma during the morning and night...

...and then would come to chill with us during the day.

Connor is a very laid back baby. He's not a big crier (except when you change his poopy diapers, of which he's had several).

He's mostly content to eat and sleep, as long as someone is holding him.

On Thursday, we got to come home.

I think I like having another little boy in our family.

37 weeks

Today I am 37 weeks into the pregnancy which means the baby is officially full term! Of course, there are still 3 weeks until the due date so I'm not quite there yet, but if he did happen to come now he'd most likely be developed enough and healthy. Since it's getting down to the end, I've made my list of all the things I still need/want to do before the baby comes. It's a pretty big list, but most of it is stuff that doesn't have to be done before the baby, but I'd like it to be. Things like getting a haircut, making more freezer meals, cleaning and organizing things. But I have my hospital bag packed, so I guess that's really all I need before baby boy is born. Maybe picking a name for baby boy would a good thing to have done before he comes...

Here's a picture of my belly at 36 1/2 weeks.

Now compare to my Dallin-belly at 36 1/2 weeks.

I think baby #2 belly is bigger, and definitely more protruding.

30 weeks

I am 30 weeks into my pregnancy today! That means only 10 weeks (give or take) left to go!

I am so ready for labor. I've been doing a lot of reading about child birth and I feel very prepared for another natural birth. But I had a realization the other day. All this reading has been getting me pumped up and prepared for labor, but what about after the baby is born? I will have 2 children to take care of! I have no idea how to do that! How do you go grocery shopping with 2 kids? And how will we get out the door in the mornings? It takes so long just to get me and Dallin ready to go places, if I'm getting a baby ready too, we'll never make it anywhere. I guess it's just something that will fall into place and I'll figure it out when he comes. I didn't know how things would go when Dallin was born either, but we seemed to figure things out ok.

Here are some thing you may or may not be wondering about:

Do we have a name picked out for the baby? Nope.

Dallin's name came very easily to us, so we're surprised it's taken us this long, but we still have no idea for a name. We've thrown around a few names, but I guess we'll really have to pick something in the next 10 weeks.

What are the chances that this baby will have Williams Syndrome as well? About 1 in 10,000, so very unlikely. The nature of the syndrome is such that either Mckay or I would have to have WS for our children to "get it" from us. It's not something you can be a carrier for, you either have the gene deletion or you don't. Since, obviously, neither Mckay or I have WS, Dallin's case was a random occurrence (as most cases of WS are). Therefore, our chances are the same as anybody's for having a child with WS: about 1 in 10,000. (And if somehow this child did have WS, we would be so happy to have another beautiful boy to raise.)

Will the baby be early or late? I know it's pretty hard to tell when a baby will be born, but it seems like many women tend to have delivery times similar to their other deliveries, i.e. one woman will have multiple early deliveries and another woman will have mostly late (past due date) deliveries. Since Dallin came at 41 weeks (and only because we made him come), it would make sense that this baby would also come past the due date. EXCEPT..... I have read that babies with WS tend to be born post term. This is not always the case, but I've heard from many parents that their children with WS were born much later than their other children. So Dallin's late delivery might have been the exception, and all my other babies will come early! I know it's ridiculous to speculate and plan on, so I'm preparing myself for another post due date baby, but you never know!

The downside: WS babies tend to have smaller birth weights than their siblings. Dallin was born at a decent 7lbs 2oz. This means that this baby will likely be bigger. If it's only 1 pound bigger, I can handle that. But I'm not super excited if he's a 9 or 10 pounder.

Big Baby

We're continuing to unpack and get things set up in the house. We put together Dallin's old bouncy seat and put it in the baby's room. We reminisced about how small Dallin was when we first got it.

We captured his first smile in that chair. And he helped me make cookies from that seat.

Soon it will be time for a new baby to do all those things.

But we thought it'd be fun to see how much Dallin has grown in these 2 years and how he compares to the chair now.

This was one of the few times in his life where he actually looked huge! And, surprisingly, he enjoyed playing in the chair. He kept trying to climb back in after we took him out.

Recently

We have finally moved into our new house! And we just got internet hooked up yesterday, hence the lack of blog posts. We are still unpacking and getting things settled in, so don't get too excited because this post will not be full of house pictures. I want to get things looking a little nicer before we do the big "house pictures" post. However, the following pictures were taken in the new house, so you will get a sneak peek of it here and there.

Ok, this is actually outside the house. This was how our lovely front yard looked on the day of our walk-through. Don't worry, it has grass now. Though I think Dallin preferred the dirt and rocks.

Just after signing papers, we ate our first meal in our new home - Burger King.

Dallin thought it would be fun to sit down backwards in the bumbo seat, until he realized it was trickier to get out of it that way.

He also thought it was a good idea to try to climb into the little space between the refrigerator and the wall.

After getting stuck, he's learned very quickly to not try it again.

Last of all, a picture of my ever growing belly at 25 weeks.

Little baby No Name is moving and squirming all over the place. Sometimes he thinks it's fun to play the drums on my belly. He's got some rhythm! And as hard as I tried to keep it from him, he's discovered that his home extends all the way to my ribs now. I'm not very fond of it.

It's a....

...baby!

We had the 20 week ultrasound today and it's offical: There's a baby in there!

Oh, you probably wanted to know the gender too.

It's a boy!!!

We are so excited to be having another boy. We're already equipped to have a boy so that will make things a little easier. And he'll probably catch up to Dallin's size in no time so they can share clothes!

The ultrasound was great! This one seemed a lot clearer than what I remember from Dallin's ultrasound. We could see everything on our little guy. His heart, kidneys, brain, etc. looked great.

We even got an awesome/creepy shot of his face.

You know he's gonna be and already is a cute baby, but his face still looks like an alien.

We got a CD of pictures and videos from the ultrasound. I'm having trouble trying to post a video, so I'll try again later. Just know that he's so much cuter in motion!

His size is right on track with where it should be, so we're still looking at a due date of October 27th.

We're excited to have 2 boys that will be close together developmentally. I'm sure Dallin is going to be a great big brother and help out, but I think this little guy will also be able to teach Dallin a few things.

Gender Poll

The date for our 20 week ultrasound is set for next Thursday. This gives you a week to guess if baby Easton #2 is a boy or a girl. Cast your vote in the poll on the right of the blog. Hopefully the baby will cooperate with us and we'll be able to tell you if you're right!

Baby Bump

Some people mentioned that I don't look pregnant in those last pictures at the walk for WS.

Here's some baby-belly proof for you, or at least, proof that I've been eating a lot.

17 weeks

I know I don't look huge, but the baby is the size of an onion now and only 5 inches long, so I think I have an appropriately sized onion bump.

If I recall, I was about this size when I was this far along with Dallin, so at least I'm on track to have a 7 lb baby that never gains weight after birth!

Big Changes

There are some big changes coming up for our family.

One change already happening is that Dallin has started to actually eat solid foods. It's amazing to give him a piece of food and watch him chew and swallow it. He's not eating everything yet; he sticks to soft foods (like mashed potatoes and refried beans) or foods that dissolve (like graham crackers, cookies or cheese puffs). I love being able to sit him down and have him actually consume a bowl of food. It's amazing! My problem now is that I don't know what to feed him. This is new territory! I only know how to feed babies milk. What do you feed them when they start eating?!

He really likes to eat mashed potatoes:

And he makes a big mess when he does it.

Notice the ankle braces Dallin is now sporting.

Here's a close-up:

It's called a Supra-Malleolar Orthosis (or SMO).

It keeps his ankles and legs in a proper, straight alignment to keep his feet in a position more conducive to walking.

Sine he started wearing them almost a month ago, his balance has improved tremendously, and he can stand up all by himself without holding onto anything for 10-20 seconds at a time.

He has even taken a step or to by himself from this position. He's not walking yet, but he is making great progress and his physical therapy is really helping to strengthen his muscles. I imagine he'll be walking on his own sometime this summer.

Another big change is that we're in the process of buying a house. Nothing is signed yet and no decisions have been officially made, but we've been looking at neighborhoods and houses and we have a pretty good idea of what we'd like to get. We're getting very excited about the thought of living in a much bigger, much nicer house in a few more months.

The biggest change is not very big at all right now; it's only about the size of a lime.

But in the coming months, Baby Easton #2 will get much bigger, along with my belly.

I'm 11 weeks along in this picture. I know I don't look very big, but trust me, this baby is growing and I feel bigger!

Our little baby should be joining the family around October 27, 2011.

We are very excited for all the growth and change that we'll be experiencing in the next few months.