The Little Chunker

Pictures!  Enjoy.  

He is fantastically cute, you know?

The Vaseline Saga and more...

I don't know if many of you saw my facebook posts regarding Lois' adventure in rubbing an entire 16oz tub of Vaseline in her hair in the early month of January...but she did.  And it was AWFUL.  She looked like a greasy monkey (or as I coined her Greasy Mae, a name taken from Hunger Games) for an entire month.  AND my bathroom was covered from top to bottom in Vaseline.  It's amazing what a kid can do in ten minutes.  My lesson?  Never trust a quiet child.  

What's lovely is that not more than a month later, (after her hair had finally returned to its normal state)  she squeezed a nice, large dallop of Vaseline on her head AGAIN - after Simon was born.  You know how you have to use lots of that stuff for the circumcision? Well, she found the stash (which was hidden away! That sneaky girl...) and went to town.  And when she came to declare, "LOOK!" ...we've never seen her more proud of herself.  That little stinker!!  Thankfully, the second time around was just a "dallop" rather than a "gallon" of the stuff, so her recovery was much shorter!  Thank goodness!

Here's some pictures of the initial incident.  I wish I had gotten a picture of just the Vaseline and not the subsequent can of corn starch we dumped in her hair, but we were laughing and trying to mitigate damage as quickly as possible to have the camera out.  I'm not joking when I say the Vaseline was literally a 1/2 inch thick covering her head.   It looked like a Vaseline helmet. 

She looks so torn up about it, doesn't she?

SUCKERS!  

(I totally know this is what she was thinking...)

This was our FOURTH treatment of corn starch...

our little old lady Lois.

And her hair still looked like this after it.  Mind you, her hair is completely DRY in this picture.

I told Jason that her hair looked like Mickey Rourke's - if you don't know who he is, google him.  He's got the nastiest, greasiest hair!  He was pretty upset I compared our daughter to a seriously nasty man, but I'm serious when I say - her hair did look that nasty.

It took a total of 7 corn starch "treatments," some good clarifying shampoo, some dish soap and some fine tooth combing to finally get her back to normal.  I've now hidden all ointments - including Desitin, Vaseline and the like.  I hope I'm smarter than her...:-)

And on to other happenings...We went to the zoo on a day Jason had off and had a great time.  Lois was able to get a butterfly painted on her arm and she was pretty excited about it. 

She loves this frog fountain.  We sat and watched her for a good 20 minutes.  Twenty minutes of self entertainment and a close-by bench for tired parents??  Priceless.

She really wanted her picture taken by the parrot.  Gotta love that little grin!

And her I am MUCHO ripe for the pickin'.  

I'm really happy about the fact that I can sleep on my stomach again.  That is, if Simon lets me!  ;-)

One more thing...

Today is my actual due date.  Yikes.  God bless Pitocin.  I love you, Pitocin (and epidural) - because without you, I would have given birth to a 12 pound baby.  Like I said, BLESSED.  

Simon and Lois

I just thought I'd compare our two little munchkins!  What do you think?  Do you think they look alike?  I personally think they look very different.  There is definitely some "newborn" likeness, though.  I still can't believe that Simon was a pound and a quarter less than Lois.  It boggles my mind that I gave birth to a three-month old!  :-)

Simon

Lois

(Notice the newborn diaper hanging on for dear life...they scouted the L&D floor for size 1 diapers after they realized the newborns weren't going to cut it.  Simon, on the other hand, fits newborns quite nicely!)

Simon

Lois

Simon

Lois

Simon

Lois

We are doing great here at the Wright household.  Simon is a really mild mannered baby for the most part.  My mom is still in town, which is so wonderful.  I feel really lucky to have her here.  I love my mom so much.  There really is nothing like a mom, you know?  We are going to miss her when she leaves.

As for this adjusting mommy, I haven't had any of the emotional ups and downs like I did after giving birth to Lois - at least not yet!  (Knock on wood!!) It's interesting to feel so differently the second time around.  I don't feel as beat up.  I don't feel like I'm on a seriously crazy emotional roller coaster.  I don't feel as tired and worn out.  I just feel really...well, blessed.  I've been able to feel a close bond with Simon much more quickly than I did with Lois.  I know that Heavenly Father is blessing me tremendously.  This has helped me adjust to having two kids without too much trouble.  I still don't love-love the newborn stage, but it just feels so much more natural this time around.  Does that make sense?   

Probably the hardest issue I've run into is that Simon LOVES to cuddle and be held and that makes it a little tricky when you have a toddler wanting your attention as well.  Lois has been a champ so far - with only a few meltdowns.  I consider this a huge success!  She's a loving big sister who loves to help take care of her brother.  The best is when he's crying she runs over and says, "Buddy is crying!" or "Baby Simon is crying!" and proceeds to shove a binky in his mouth or say, "It's okay, buddy!"  I love how she calls him buddy.  It's so fantastic and it makes me smile.

And just a cute anecdote on Lois - we were at Target and as we were roaming the store, Lois was gasping with excitement at all the things she saw.  Then out of the blue she shouted with her arms stretched out, "Mom, This store has EBERYTING! I lub it!"  And she kept saying it over and over again as we made our way through the store.  Darling, right?!?  

We "lub" her.  She's full of life and personality and we are so grateful she's a part of our eternal family!  And we are extremely blessed to welcome Simon to the mix - a beautiful, perfect little soul.

My word of the day?  BLESSED.  :-)

And wanna see something where you'll want to just scream with cuteness??  Check out the photos that we had taken of Simon.  www.jenniferbphotography.com.  You may just die, due to cuteness  - so consider yourself warned.

The Simon Story

I've been getting asked to post more pictures of Simon, so here they are!  

Second children, I can already tell, get the shaft with picture taking.  I'm going to have to work on this and he's only six days old.  

Here are some shots from the hospital when he was finally released from his little tanning bed prison.

 This is a pretty common face we get - i mean, how cute is he?

 And this one, too.  Love that little chin.

 Grandpa Smith and Simon - he's definitely got long skinny arms, legs and feet like his grandpa's (like both grandpas actually...)

 "I'm all shook up, uuuh-uhhh-uhhh!"  His little Elvis "snarl."

 Taking some time off to show us his cool shades.  He was remarkably happy under those shades.  And also, he looks confused.  I think I'd be too.

 Hey!  I'm hungry.  But i can't see.  

 Don't worry about me, I'm just getting some rays so I can go home!

 That's a sweet little face. Yep, it is.

 Just some body shots to show you his little body - look at those long arms and FEET.  Holy cow, they are so long and skinny!  Still can't believe how "small" he is.  Lois was a pound and a quarter bigger than he was.

 The trademark of a Wright - the double chin!  Now mommy, daddy, Lois and Simon all have one!  Our motto:  happy and chubby together!  ;-)

 Thanks to my dearest friend Kat, Simon actually had something to wear home from the hospital.  Gap - your sizing is whack!  Up to 7 pounds?  This would have DROWNED a 7 pound baby as it pretty much fit our 9 pounder quite perfectly...with some room to grow.

 All ready to go!!  So much love and empathy for parents who have to leave their babies at the hospital.  We had to endure one night and I was so weepy about it.

Sleeping in his bassinet, just like he always slept inside my tummy - with his hands by his face.

And just for good measure, here's just another adorable shot of our little man!

And for the birth story:  Nothing exciting - which is good.

I got to the hospital around 8:15am (we were running 45 minutes late! Whoops!)

Hooked up to my IV around 8:30am

Doc broke my water at around 9:15am

Epidural around 11am (and it was a FANTASTIC ONE, might I add.  Way better than the one I had with Lois.)

Pitocin

Contractions without feeling a lick of pain - PRICELESS.

Labored for a couple of hours.

About 10 minutes before I pushed him out, I got the serious shakes because my body knew what was coming...

Oxygen

Doctor got there, I pushed TWICE...

AND HE WAS OUT!

And I may or may not have cried just a little bit.

The End.

His little shoulders got a little stuck, so my doctor had to do a "corkscrew" maneuver to get him out, but he sure came fast and I'm glad he did!   

My recovery has been amazing compared to my last.  I was able to walk within about an hour of giving birth and I could go to the bathroom on my own...all very important things.  Hooray!!  With Lois, I literally could not walk like a normal person for over a month.  It was terrible.  So, I feel so blessed that we are all doing so well.  Plus, Simon has been a DREAM baby.  So mellow and sweet.  I hope it sticks.

Lois is doing wonderfully with the new baby.  She's had her usual time outs and such, but she was having plenty of those TO moments before Simon came home.  She loves to watch and help change his diaper and feed him and we have to keep telling her to be GENTLE.  It's our word of the week!  She hasn't had much interest in holding him yet, but I'm sure that will come. 

Love you all!  

Simon Thomas Wright

He's here!  

Simon Thomas Wright

February 18, 2011

9 pounds, 4 ounces

21 inches long

2:21pm

We're so excited that he's here.  He's perfect and darling and everything nice!  The delivery went exceptionally well.  After arriving at the hospital around 8:15am, the doctor broke my water around 9:30 - and thanks to a FANTASTIC epidural - he came out with only two pushes at 2:21pm!  My recovery this go-around has been a breeze compared to my last, so I feel very grateful  and blessed that I don't feel like I've given birth to a dump truck.  I can actually walk!  It's a miracle.  

And everyone is laughing at us when we say that he's "little" and has scrawny legs.  It's pretty crazy thinking that his sister weighed a pound and a quarter more than he did.  Glad we were able to get him out two weeks early!  :-)  Now, we're dealing with circumcision stuff and a teeny weeny that likes to pee at very lovely times - I'm really excited about this. 

 Here I am minutes before heading to the hospital for inducement.  Look at that belly!  (and the anxiety on my face! ha!)

 That's a nice smile of "I'm peeing my pants" feeling after my OB broke my water.  What an awkward feeling.

 I'm giving Simon a little lecture here.  I was telling him that he was being evicted and that he needed to behave and come out easily.  Looks like my motherly lectures are already working.

We're missing Lois!  

And I HATED that blood pressure cuff.  It's on my blacklist.

 Our cute little bug.  He's just precious.

We'll get some more pictures up soon.  He has long, narrow feet and long fingers - a definite trait he got from his Grandpa Smith!  

Lois is doing OK so far.  She seems to be interested in him for a few seconds and then goes off and does her own thing.  We're praying for a smooth transition for her.

And I'm sorry if some of this doesn't make sense.  I'm doped up on Percoset right now.  And it's lovely.

WE'RE A FAMILY OF FOUR!  HOORAY!