Dayton's 1st Birthday

I can't believe our sweet boy is one already!

 

He was all smiles that morning.

Our dear friends Sandy and Bill (aka Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Bill) stopped by on their way out of town that morning.

We started off the party by letting Dayton open his presents. He did a pretty good job and Bridget and Felicity couldn't help but jump in and help him.

 

This airplane toy from Grandma and Grandpa was a big hit.

Then it was time to move on to cake and ice cream. Once again Bridget and Felicity were ready to step in and blow out the candle for him.

At first he wasn't too sure about the cake (pumpkin with cream cheese frosting)...

But within a few minutes he devoured it.

 

By the end, he was pretty tired and ready for a bath and his crib.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAYTON!

11 Months

How can my baby be 11 months already? In many ways it feels like I just gave birth to him a few weeks ago, and now his first birthday is right around the corner. He's certainly growing and changing, and I've started to notice lately that he's less and less of a baby and more of a toddler now.

Dayton is walking more than crawling these days, but still falls frequently and has to crawl to get to something so he can pull up to stand and start walking again. I can't help but smile as I watch him toddle around.

He's quite the climber, and I gave up the battle of constantly pulling him off the hearth of our fireplace. I figured he'd learn to climb down eventually and probably take a few small tumbles to the ground in the mean time, and most of the time now he is able to get off by himself safely. I love his mischievous grin in this picture.

Anything is a step stool for this kid. He's very strong too and moves large toys all over the place.

He loves being a big boy and trying to keep up with his sisters.

Thankfully, he's been sleeping really well at night for the past couple of weeks and napping well too. I hope this is a permanent change although it will probably only last until he has more teeth come in.

I've also decided that wrestling must be something that is innate in boys. He loves to wrestle and climb all over anyone who might be laying on the ground. And he smiles and laughs the whole time.

CAUTION: Don't read this paragraph if poopy diaper stories gross you out. You know those stories people tell about children playing with their poopy diapers? Thankfully, we never had that happen with either of the girls, but Dayton did it for the first (and hopefully last) time just yesterday. I could tell he was in his room doing his business after he woke up from his nap, so I gave him about 5 minutes because I was in the middle of something. Felicity wanted to go in and play with him, and just seconds after she went in, she informed me there was poop all over in his bed. Somehow it leaked and squished out and down both of his legs and then he proceeded to get it all over in his bed. Nate was gone running, so I had to deal with the mess myself and was dry-heaving in the process. Nasty. At least Nate came home just as I was finishing up the bath, so he helped with cleanup.

Dayton's also finally learned to clap and waves more than he used to. It seems like anytime I try to teach him things like this, he just stares at me like I'm crazy and has no interest. Right now I'm trying to teach him to blow kisses, but he just laughs at me. I've accepted the fact that he prefers to do things on his own timetable, and my teaching and encouragement does very little to change that.

I love my sweet boy and can't wait to get going on planning his first birthday party!

10 Months

If I had to choose one word to describe Dayton these days it would be -- busy. He's extremely mobile, fast, and curious which combined equate to busy . Sometimes all it takes is me turning my back for a few seconds and things like this happen:

I've pretty much given up on doing dishes while he's awake because he just can't stay away and wants to be helpful. Look at him ready to hand me that breakable ramekin. Yikes!

He eats mostly table food at this point and definitely prefers to feed himself which is nice because I can give him food and go about whatever I'm doing. But the obvious downside is how messy it can get at times.

As of about a week ago, he is completely weaned which I'm enjoying - especially the part where I can make Nate get up to feed him a bottle when he wakes between 4-6 am.

He's already taking steps and will probably be walking within the month. He loves toddling around holding onto just one finger and will even let go to take 3-4 steps. Since he weighs around 25 pounds, it will be nice not to have to carry him around as much, but with that increased mobility comes even more busyness and trouble. Here's a short video of some walking practice:

 

As far as sleeping through the night, he's still more inconsistent than I'd like. Some nights he does just fine and others he's waking up and screaming multiple times. I'm not sure if it's teething or what, but hopefully we'll get it sorted out soon.

One thing we love about him is how cuddly he is. He loves to snuggle, especially when he's tired. In fact, the whole cry-it-out method does not work on this kid. He likes his pacifier but isn't nearly as attached to it as Bridget was as a baby and can go to sleep without it. And he doesn't seem to care about having a blanket or not which is what Felicity has always required. He needs to be snuggled. So we hold him and rock with him until he's drowsy enough to lay down. I enjoy every single second of those snuggles and hope he stays that way for a while.

9 Months

Cutest father/son picture ever!!

As I think I stated in a previous post, 6-9 months is my favorite baby age, and sadly it's now over. Now that Dayton is 9 months old, he's much, much busier and getting into trouble faster than I can keep up with sometimes. It is fun to see his personality continue to emerge, and I do look forward to hearing that little voice of his make some actual words soon.

 

Not too much has changed with him in the past month other than he's probably a little bigger in size and he continues to get faster at crawling, pulling up to stand, and getting into things. I know he'll start to slim down soon, but even though he's been crawling for about a month, there's no noticeable difference yet.

 

One thing I find interesting with each of our children is that each of them got into different things as babies. Bridget loved the plastic food containers. Felicity loved the dishtowel drawer and sitting in the cupboard with my Bosch mixer and largest pot. Dayton loves that same cupboard but just prefers to take the lid off my Bosch and sometimes even the bowl off the stand. He also loves the lazy susan cupboards, and a large bottle of honey that's in one of them.

 

He still doesn't clap or wave and just stares at me when I try to get him to, so hopefully that will come soon. The fact that he's still not stranger-phobic is a big plus because he does well when we leave him with other people or if he gets passed around in a group setting.

 

9 Month Stats:

Height: 29 inches (76th percentile)

Weight: 24 lbs. 5 oz. (97th percentile) - Whoa!! That was about a pound more than I expected.

Head: 19 inches (99th percentile)

 

I love my chubby boy!

8 Months

Dayton's hit many milestones in the past month - the biggest being he is very, very mobile now. He's crawling all over the place, pulling up to stand on everything, rolling over and getting to a sitting position by himself in seconds. Although it's fun to watch him progress, one of the downsides is how it affects putting him down for naps and bedtime. Just a few weeks ago, I could lay him down awake on his back and he would stay on his back all night and just go to sleep pretty easily on his own. Now he will quickly sit up then stand up in the corner closest to the door of his room crying to be rescued. It is cute though when he's standing there in the morning, and he gets a big smile on his face when someone comes to get him.

Sadly, he's currently in the middle of another bad cold and on top of that he's getting his top 4 front teeth at the same time. He's been a real trooper though. I can't wait to see how he handles teething when he's not sick on top of it because so far all of his teeth have come in when he's been really sick.

Another big milestone is how much he's improved at taking a bottle! He got the hang of using his sippy cup to drink water, and it helped him not hate bottles so much. In fact, he's kind of been weaning himself because he prefers a bottle to nursing during the day. He's not completely weaned, but this is major progress. As far as eating goes, he also now loves to feed himself cheerios or the dissolvable puffs. And he continues to be a good eater of any baby food.

He's still a pretty mellow kid and lets you know when he wants something - usually to be held. He always wants to be held for several minutes after he wakes up, and if you try to put him down, he screams until you pick him up. Luckily he's pretty easily distracted with food or toys within a few minutes.

He continues to keep a good schedule and goes down for bed between 8-9 pm, wakes around 4-6 am to eat and goes back to sleep until 7-8 am. His naps vary a little, but part of that is from being the third kid and always having to adapt to other people's schedules.

Recently, he's also started giving kisses more on demand than he used to. He opens his mouth big and wide and often licks your cheek too.

We just love him and feel so lucky to have him!

7 Months

 I just can't get enough of this cute face!

I just love this sweet boy and sometimes it feels like he just gets cuter every day. He's certainly a busy boy and working hard to become more mobile. I'm trying to enjoy each day we have left before that happens. In the last few days he's even started pulling up on things to get to his knees.

 

Although he's not crawling, he gets onto all fours occasionally, but from there he either goes back to a sitting position or flops onto his belly to get whatever he's trying to reach. 





As far as his eating, I'm happy to say he's enjoying solid food a lot more now. He still doesn't like carrots much, but he seems to enjoy everything else. Bananas, peaches, and sweet potato are probably his favorites. Sadly though, trying to get him to take a bottle still isn't going well. He either flat out screams or just wants to play with it most of the time. If by chance he does drink, it's never been more than 2 ounces. I'm ready to be done with breastfeeding, so hopefully things will start improving soon. Part of the problem is that I would prefer not to be the one to work with him on taking a bottle since he's supposed to have an easier time taking it from someone else. But Nate's work schedule and Dayton's eating schedule never really coincide to make that happen.

On a happy note, just in the past few days, he's seems to finally be doing better at sleeping through the night and taking 2 good naps during the day. We've tried a few different times to sleep train him, but it's been more difficult than it ever was with the girls. He would scream hysterically forever and not calm down at all when we'd go in to check on him and comfort him. After about an hour and a half we'd cave and pick him up, and he'd immediately settle down. The good news is that he'd sleep great after that. I think one of the reasons he's been harder to sleep train is that he always falls asleep when I'm nursing him at bedtime, and even though I try hard to wake him before I lay him down in his bed, he's so tired that he won't wake up. I just hope this change is permanent, and I can finally get some better sleep on a regular basis.

6 Months

Yea! Dayton has finally entered my favorite stage - 6 to 9 months. I love this age for many reasons, but if I had to name just a couple it's probably because their little personalities start to emerge and because they are learning so many things so quickly.

 

Dayton's actually been sitting pretty well for about 3 weeks now. I LOVE being able to set him down and know he's not going to go anywhere. Although he is capable of rolling, he rarely chooses to do so. I just wish this stage would last a little longer and am not anxious for him to become mobile.

 

Our pediatrician is very big on waiting until 6 months to introduce solids, so I waited until just a few days ago to give him rice cereal for the first time. And he HATED it! I've never known a baby to hate baby cereals, but he was not a fan at all. He acted like he was gagging on it, made faces of disgust, and spit out most of what I tried to give him. Today, I tried giving him pureed carrots and got the exact same response. I'm kind of afraid we might have a very picky eater on our hands. He doesn't even like the taste of infant Tylenol and spit that out and cried when we had to give it too him a few times a couple of weeks ago.

 

Another big milestone this past month is that his first 2 teeth emerged. I was pretty surprised because both of the girls got their teeth around 7 months. The first tooth had actually been there a few days before I noticed it, but one day he grabbed my hand and stuck it in his mouth so I noticed as soon as he started munching on it. The second one was already breaking the surface too.

 

Sadly, Dayton's first big illness also happened at the end of March. All of our kids had amazingly stayed pretty healthy throughout the winter with the exception of a couple of mild colds. This time, however, Bridget brought home a cold from school which turned out to be RSV - not a big deal in older children but very dangerous for babies. Dayton had a really bad cough that kept getting worse and we were supposed to go out of town for spring break to Arizona. I took him into the doctor to get checked out which is where he was tested for RSV. The virus had also caused bronchiolitis which is why he was coughing so much. Because he was highly contagious for 7-10 days and also passed it on to Felicity, we ended up not being able to go out of town, but I'm just glad he never had to be hospitalized.

 

As far as sleeping goes, he was finally starting to do really well at night until he got sick and then his teeth came in. Hopefully he'll get back to sleeping better soon.

 

When we took him for his checkup today, he also had an ear infection we didn't know about. As usual, he's still our chubby little guy:

 

Height: 27 inches (67th percentile)

Weight: 21 lbs. 5 oz. (96th percentile)

Head Circumference: 18 inches (97th percentile)

 

Dayton also got the opportunity to meet all of his aunts, uncles, and most of his cousins on my side of the family today. He did really well being passed around and enjoyed everyone.

Uncle Mark and Dayton playing together

5 Months

Guess who finally learned to roll over yesterday? He's certainly not fast at it most of the time and not inclined to do it very often, but he did it six times yesterday. He's rolled from his back to his tummy once, but most of the time he just likes to roll onto his sides as he's trying to grab for his feet.

 

Speaking of feet, they seem to be one of his new favorite things. It can certainly make it a little more difficult to bathe him or change his diapers sometimes because he wants his feet where he can grab them.

 

As far as sleep goes these days, he's doing a little better . He's had a few nights this week where he's slept for 8-9 hours straight at night, woken up to eat, and then gone back to sleep for another hour or so. Hallelujah! We've also gotten him to go to sleep on his own so he doesn't always have to be held or rocked to sleep. The only downside is that his naps still tend to be shorter - about 45 minutes on average. And by the evening, he's pretty tired and ready to go to bed for the night no later than 9 pm. 

Don't let this next picture fool you. He's much more of a momma's boy than a daddy's boy, but that's because I'm his only source of food and spend more time with him than anyone else. He's to the point he will sometimes cry if I'm out of sight and he's wanting me or turn when he hears my voice and start crying until I come rescue him. It's okay though because someday he'll realize that Nate is the fun one.

He's also gotten really, really grabby with his hands so watch out. Felicity is NOT a fan when he gets a hold of her curls. (Thanks to my sister Jill who got this awesome action shot).

Other things to note:

• Loves his pacifier
• Started making loud squealing/squawking noises that are almost birdlike (thank goodness for the pacifier)
• Still extremely drooly
• Wearing almost all 9 month size clothing
• Birthmark still hasn't faded at all and left tear duct is still blocked
• Loves to be held as much as possible which is hard when he weighs over 20 lbs. I'm pretty sure my left arm is 2-3 times stronger than my right.
• Loves to give open mouth, slobbery kisses
• Very observant and still loves to look around at everything around him with those big blue eyes
• Still gets really excited when he smiles resulting in many blurry pictures trying to capture them
• Very, very wiggly
• Can sit up for a few seconds by himself before he topples over to one side or another

4 Months

 

Dayton is growing way too fast, and I mean that very literally. He's getting so big that carrying him around is exhausting and carrying him in his car seat is even harder. I've decided it's time to move him up a clothing size again because the 6 month size is too short in the sleeves and the pants. Seriously, how many 4-month-olds wear 9 month sized clothing? I took him for his checkup at the pediatrician today, and his stats were as follows:

Height:26.5 inches (94th percentile)
Weight: 19 lbs. 6 oz. (97th percentile)
Head Circumference: 17.5 inches (99th percentile)

Technically, he's still not rolling over. He rolled over one time from his tummy to his back about 3 weeks ago but has yet to repeat it. The doctor said that the bigger babies tend to be a little slower at accomplishing this milestone. I don't blame the kid though. He's got to have some super strong muscles to push and roll all that weight over. I'm sure he'll learn soon enough though.

He still isn't sleeping through the night, so I pulled out our favorite sleep training book again and decided that the first thing we needed to work on was getting him to go for a long stretch at night without eating. So for that past week, we've worked on getting him to go at least 6-7 hours without eating at night. The next step will be getting him to fall asleep on his own rather than being rocked to sleep. I look forward to that. Although I do love snuggling with him, I've been spending way too much time rocking him to sleep to have him wake up when I lay him down and then have to start the whole process over again.

He's getting more predictable with his schedule, but I can't say that I love it. He goes to bed much earlier than I would like and is usually struggling to stay awake by 8:30. I would prefer that he stay up a little later just so I can get a larger chunk of sleep at night. Then he's up for the day sometime around 7-8 am. He's usually ready for a morning nap around 9 or 9:30, but it's always a short 30 or 45 minutes - barely enough time for me to shower. He's usually ready for another nap around noon and this one can sometimes be short or sometimes a couple of hours. Then he takes another couple of short ones in the late afternoon and evening. If I could somehow get him to take 3 good naps, I think he'd be much more rested, happier, and not need to go to bed so early at night. We'll have to see how this pattern progresses and changes as he gets older. I'm hoping the sleep training will help him take better naps.

He also started blowing raspberries this week which is kind of fun. It makes the constant stream of drool even worse, but it's cute anyway.

A couple of other things to note: His left tear duct is still blocked as it has been from birth, but the doctor thinks it may still unblock itself. I have a feeling it won't and we'll end up having to take him to an ophthalmologist in a few months. His "stork bite" birthmark hasn't seemed to fade at all either. I keep hoping it will, but it could still take several more months. 

3 Months

 

Dayton is getting so big! I would guess he's somewhere around 18 pounds, but I haven't stepped on the scale with and without him to verify that. My arms, back, and shoulders certainly get a workout each day. He's also really wiggly which makes it even more of challenge to hold him for very long. He's mostly wearing 6 month size clothes but is still able to fit in a few 3-6 month things. I'm sure it won't be long before we're onto the 6-9 month stuff.

 

He really is smiley but capturing them on camera is tricky because he get's really excited when he's smiling, so he moves around a lot and then pictures end up blurry like this one.

He really hasn't changed that much from last month as far as other daily things. He still isn't sleeping through the night (boo!). I'm usually up with him just once but sometimes twice depending on when his last feeding was before he went down for the night. He also continues to be more of a morning person and likes to be down for the night around 9 pm and up around 7 am. Once he's up for the day, he doesn't sleep much in the morning - just a short 30-45 minute nap. But he usually takes a long 2-3 hour one mid-day. Then he likes a couple more short ones in the evening.

He's getting much faster at eating though. If he's awake he's usually done in 10-15 minutes. If he's sleepy, it still takes 20-25 minutes. And we've now reached that time just like we did with the girls where he no longer wants to take a bottle (boo!). I haven't fought it too much though and figure I may just wait to fight it when I'm ready to wean him in a few months.

Up until now, he's hated tummy time and been really terrible at it. I'd put him down with his arms in front of him, and he'd immediately put them behind him over and over again and get really mad because he couldn't lift his head that way. He seems to have finally caught on to leaving them in front of him so he can lift his head and lasts for a few short minutes now. I was beginning to thing he'd never roll over because he wasn't getting tummy time figured out.

Bridget and Felicity still love him to pieces. Bridget's pretty good at getting him to smile and laugh. He seems a little more unsure about Felicity though. I'm sure he'll enjoy her more soon enough.

So, I'm still hoping for more restful nights and a more regular schedule during the day. Otherwise, sleep training will be in our very near future.

By the way, I should mention that he's been able to sit in his little chair for a couple of weeks already because his thighs and belly are so chubby making him pretty secure in there.

2 Months Old

Seriously, I love this kid. Now that he's much more alert and smiling, I not only get to enjoy snuggling with him, but I get to look into his bright blue eyes and see that cute smile more and more all the time.

He's definitely at his happiest just after he's eaten and had a diaper change. And he's even starting to laugh a little.

I wish I could say he was sleeping through the night and getting on some sort of a regular schedule, but I'm not that fortunate yet. He usually sleeps for a 5-6 hour stretch at night and then wakes up to eat and goes right back to sleep for another 4 hours or so. And he does generally go to sleep around 9 pm and is up for the day around 7:30-8:00. But daytime is still unpredictable. During the day, he loves to be held to sleep. If you try to lay him down anywhere no matter how asleep you think he is, he almost always wakes up within a couple of minutes. So his days of taking long naps seem to have passed unless I hold him all the time. It certainly is making it harder for me to get things done.

And because he started out big, he's still a big boy. Here's his stats from his checkup:
Weight: 16 lbs. (98th percentile)
Height: 24 inches (87th percentile)
Head Circumference: 41 cm (92nd percentile)

I'm certainly getting some strong arms from carrying this kid around all of the time. I should also mention he's in 3-6 month or 6 month clothes, and even a few of the 3-6 month stuff is almost getting too small.

I'm hoping this next month brings longer stretches of sleep at night and a more regular schedule during the day.

Dayton's Blessing

Today was this handsome boy's baby blessing at church.

Nate likes to give me a hard time because I didn't make Dayton's blessing outfit like I did for the girls. But it's not my fault that patterns for boy's blessing/christening outfits are either way too summery for this time of year or way too girlie/ugly. Instead I bought an outfit and made an alteration to it. The cute little vest he's wearing had a super big and ugly collar that went all around it. A few minutes was all it took to remove it and sew the vest back together, and it looked much improved. What a cute boy!

 

The blessing was perfect, and I'm happy to say that Dayton didn't fuss at all. I'm so grateful to the wonderful woman in our ward who has the amazing ability to take notes short-hand, so she's able to take notes during the blessing and then transcribe them so we have a written copy of his blessing. She did the same for Felicity, and I love it!

 

Those that participated in the blessing circle were Nate, Bishop Bradford, Grandpa Scott Waldron, Grandpa Ian Wilkinson, Uncle Brant Waldron, and Great Uncle Blaine Holmes.

 

Afterward, we squeezed people into our house for some lunch and family time. It was a beautiful day!

A family picture with Nate's parents on the left and my dad and his wife on the right.

I'm so lucky to be this sweet boy's mom!

1 Month Old

It's amazing how the last month of pregnancy truly feels like an eternity yet the first month of Dayton's life has flown by. Maybe part of that has to do with the fact that most of my days and nights all seem to blend together, and I'm lucky if I know what day of the week it is let alone the date. And maybe part of it has to do with the fact that taking care of 3 little kids is busy and exhausting.

Dayton continues to be a good baby. He's been a very good sleeper and eater, although we did have a few feeding issues after we got home from the hospital. I think he had the pacifier a little too much once we got home and that combined with me being engorged made for a tricky couple of days, but we got it figured out.

He's currently eating every 3-4 hours, but it seems more frequent just because his feedings take so long. I must admit I didn't realize how spoiled I was that the girls were such fast eaters (15 minutes usually). Dayton is usually 25-30 minutes and sometimes longer. When I'm up with him in the night (usually twice), I'm lucky if I can feed and change him and be back in bed in 30 minutes. Sometimes it can take almost an hour. It will certainly be nice when that time between feedings grows or if he happens to get faster at eating.

It took a little over 3 weeks for his cord to fall out, so he didn't get to enjoy a real bath in the baby bathtub until just recently. He always cries right when I put him in, but then he loves it and cries when I take him out.

For the first 3 weeks he preferred to be held if he was awake, but he's now starting to enjoy sitting and staring at things and people more from the swing or bouncer.

We certainly love this little guy, and hopefully the next few weeks bring longer of stretches of sleep at night because this tired momma really needs it.

Happy Halloween

Our Halloween festivities this year were pretty much the same as last year. The only added activity was my good friend and Relief Society President invited us over the week before Halloween to paint pumpkins and have pizza with her kids and grandkids. She's definitely taken us under her wing lately, and I've really appreciated it. Sometimes it's hard to not have grandparents and cousins close by.

The Sunday before Halloween, my Aunt Jennine invited us over to participate in the Halloween activities and dinner she does with her kids and grandkids. It was lots of fun and we appreciated being included.

The day before Halloween was the Halloween party at church. For the first time in 4 years, I didn't have to be in charge of or help out with the party. There was a costume parade, chili cook-off, and trick-or-treating.

On Halloween, Bridget got to wear her costume to school for the costume parade there and had a Halloween party that afternoon. That evening we did a little trick-or-treating in our neighborhood and then took the kids to see Nate's Aunt Linda as we always have. This was the first Halloween since Nate's Grandma passed away, and I have to admit it was sad to not make our usual stop to see her too.

Here's the kids in their costumes:

Once again, I made Bridget's costume. She chose Merida from Disney's Brave this year. And yes, the red actually washed out of her hair very easily.



With Felicity's crazy curls, she makes the perfect Annie. I even showed her some clips from the movie so she would know who Annie was. Having a new baby made getting costumes made a lot more difficult this year, so my super-amazing friend Sandy (mentioned at the beginning of this post) helped me out with this one. I handed her all the materials and some measurements, and she whipped this dress up in an afternoon. Love it!

Not many people got to see Dayton's cute costume since he slept through the Halloween party covered up in his car seat, but he still needed to be cute for his first Halloween. He's definitely the cutest skeleton I've ever seen. I picked this costume up at a consignment sale for $2! Next year, he'll get a handmade costume too.

Happy Halloween!

Dayton's Birth

As I expected, my due date with this pregnancy came and went. I must admit I was pretty grumpy about it too because I was so ready to be done with pregnancy and hold my baby boy. As I sat in church on my due date (10/13/13), I seriously felt like I was going to be pregnant forever - no contractions at all up to this point, and I was 3-4 cm dilated and 70% effaced at my appointment just 4 days before. If I had known what was going to happen that night, I certainly would have made an effort to go to bed much, much earlier.

At 2:30 am, I woke up needing to go to the bathroom but soon realized it was much more than that. I crawled back in bed not sure if I was having real contractions or not. They were different than what I had with Felicity. With her, I would feel my whole abdomen get tight and then relax. These felt more like cramps and were really low in my belly. Nate was sleeping away while I timed them, but after just a few I was sure they were the real thing because I got the "baby shakes" really bad just like I did with Felicity. I'm honestly surprised I didn't shake Nate awake as I laid there for 45 minutes timing and shaking. It wasn't until my 3rd trip to the bathroom during that time that he woke up. Then he timed them with me for quite a while. They were really irregular, short, and not very intense at first, but soon they started getting stronger, lasting almost a minute, and became more regular. I hate having to wake someone in the middle of the night to come stay with our kids, so I held out as long as I could and finally started getting dressed and throwing last minute things into my bag about 5 am. We called my Aunt Jennine at 5:30 and she was there a little before 6 am. At that point my contractions were only 2-3 minutes apart, and I just kept praying my water wouldn't break or I'd be in trouble.

I look terrible in this picture, but it's just before we left to go to the hospital, so I was living on 3 hours of sleep and in pain.

We got admitted to the hospital quickly, but the bad news was that they were really busy and it was also shift change time for the nurses at 7 am. I got gowned up and walked and walked around my room waiting for a nurse. Finally a nurse came in, and I told her I really needed to get my IV so I could get an epidural. She checked me (I was 6 cm and 100% effaced), so they very quickly got me my IV and got the anesthetist in there. I didn't know that once you hit 7-8 cm, your epidural might not work. Luckily, I got mine just in time and ended up being very, very numb. My doctor came and broke my water about 7:40 am, and about an hour later, he was ready to come. Thankfully, I was so numb, I didn't feel the need to push because we had to wait about another 20 minutes for a nurse to help her with the delivery.

I pushed through 3 contractions (about 7 minutes I think), and he was here!

When he came out, I asked my doctor what she thought about his weight because I was expecting him to be about 8.5 lbs., but she said he was well over 9 lbs.!

I was shocked when they told me he was 9 lbs. 12 oz. and 22.5 inches long! I can't believe he was that huge! No wonder I'd been so uncomfortable the past month. Soon after, Nate asked me if I was ready to commit to the name we'd been thinking about, and I was. So we named him Dayton Scott. Dayton is just a name we both liked, and Scott is after Nate's dad.

After I got moved over to postpartum, we let Jennine know she could bring the girls to meet him anytime. They were both so excited and each wanted to be the first to hold him.

We had a few other visitors during the time I was there. Jennine got her turn to hold him after the girls, and Megan came to visit after work that night. My friends Corey and Desaray and their 2 girls also came that afternoon, but I forgot to get a picture. The second day, my dad and Bev came to visit too.

Some of our visitors

Our first photo as a family of five

My stay at the hospital was really nice. I had wonderful nurses in labor and delivery as well as postpartum. I also got to spend a lot of alone time with Dayton since Nate had to spend more time at home with the girls this time. There was lots and lots of snuggling going on. Love it!

One of the other things I was REALLY looking forward to was the spa services they offer for free with the cosmetology students from the Applied Technology College. This program wasn't around when I had Bridget, and they were on Spring Break when I had Felicity so I was hoping I wouldn't be disappointed again this time around. Luckily, I got my pedicure!

Dayton Scott

Born October 14, 2013

9:04 am

9 lbs. 12 oz.

22.5 inches long

Look at those cheeks! They've certainly been getting a lot of kisses. We are so thrilled to have this little boy join our family and grateful he's healthy and all went smoothly with his arrival.