Changing Table Confessions

A good chunk of my day is spent changing Dax's diaper - and we have lots of conversations while he's getting changed here are excerpts from

"How can I teach you French when I don't know the word for elbow, diaper, crib, onesie...wait I don't know baby vocab in French, where's my dictionary?"

"I hate reusable wipes...disposable ones are so much easier, yet I love cloth diapers"

"I don't need to accessorize anymore - I have spit up and burp rags for decoration now"

"It's 11am and this is our 3rd outfit today - you better not pee on me...dang it, at least it hit the wall and not me"

"my word you're going to be fighting off the girls when you're in school....i really hope you don't date the dumb ditzy ones"

Those are the main ones from today - there seems to be quite a bit of overlap each day. My little man is growing so quickly, there are days where I look at his sweet face and realize that he is growing up and maturing. I get emotional thinking about the day when he'll be 18 (not sure if the tears are more because he'll be all grown up or because I'll be 42), or the day when he gets married, or when he has kids. I wish I could slow down my thoughts, and truly enjoy this stage that we're in right now. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my life as it is, I love my son, I love being a mom, I love being a wife, and I'm so thankful for everything that we have. But sometimes my mind gets ahead of where we're at, and I think too far ahead that I lose time in the present - make sense?

Pictures!!

Yes, my camera cable has turned up - just as I was looking online for a new one to buy, talk about good timing :)

Here's a little montage of our Christmas:

Christmas Part Deux

On Christmas Eve we headed over to Kalamazoo to be with Derek's family. Dax was looking daper in his little button down shirt and cordourys (pictures will be posted one of these days - has anyone seen my USB cord to upload pictures onto my computer??) and we headed out to a traditional candlelight Christmas Eve service. Now, I was a bit skeptical when I heard "traditional", because last year's Christmas Eve service was an abomination to Christmas. While I won't go into detail here let me just say the following: Eminem was played, glow sticks were used, and a computerized monotone voice sang Joy to the World - I shed a few tears after that service.

Anywho we headed out to church and it was great, the music was traditional, the sermon was about 10 minutes, and we even did a candlelight service that brought a flood of memories back from when my dad would do Christmas Eve services. We headed home and let Dax open up his first present - it was a book "Je t'aimerai toujours" (I will always love you). We went to bed, and woke up the next morning to a wonderful breakfast cooked by my brother-in-law. We opened gifts and Dax was pretty spoiled by his aunts and grandparents!! Thankfully he was given a lot of clothes that we will need to use soon, since he is growing like a weed and is outgrowing his 3-6 month stuff. Seriously, where did my 8 pound newborn go?? Derek gave me an awesome pocket video camera that I cannot wait to start using to get videos of Dax laughing and talking. I think the favorite present we received (we're dorks, I'll admit that right now) was the new Mario game for our Wii. The rest of the day was spent playing our new game in-between feeding Dax.

We also measured Dax while we were away, and his more accurate length is 24 inches. We'll reweigh him again soon, but I wouldn't be surprised if this little chunker is at least 14 pounds if not more. Next big holiday will be New Year's, and while I'm pretty sure he will sleep through the ball dropping, we will definitely take pictures to document it and show him one day when he's bigger. I will post pictures hopefully soon - I'm about to just buy a new cord online, I have looked EVERYWHERE for the stupid cord, even at both of our parent's houses and it is nowhere to be found.

All I want for Christmas...

Thanksgiving through New Year's is possibly one of my favorite times of the year. This year is extra special because we get to celebrate with Dax for his first Christmas! A lot has changed over this past year for Derek and I, and we're trying to adjust to all that has taken place. A quick recap: In February we discovered that we were going to have a baby, we took a last hurrah/belated honeymoon trip to Europe for 2 weeks, my oldest sister Jessie got married, we had a baby, I quit my job, and how we're here.

In light of the holiday spirit (which I am seriously lacking this year, sigh) I have decided to share my all-time Christmas wish list. I realize I will not be getting these items, but a girl can dream, can't she?

1. A real camera, the Nikon D90 would be AWESOME

2. Camera lessons and photoshop lessons to go along with the sweet camera - I'm sick of all of my pictures of Dax having massive red-eye and the colors being blah

3. A tummy tuck, with some liposuction - or my pre-pregnancy body and weight!

4. Removal of my sweet tooth

5. 2 extra arms - this would make cleaning the apartment possible

6. A new diaper bag in pink daisy thank you very much

7. Season tickets to MSU men's basketball, courtside or at least lower bowl

I'm sure there are other things I could wish for, like the ability to be an amazing parent, to not make mistakes while parenting, to know how to raise my child as a Christ-follower, and the list could go on.

It will be fun to take pictures of Dax's 2nd first Christmas and show them to him one day when he's older. Even though he won't remember this time, and gifts aren't really appropriate, I still feel slightly guilty that we didn't really get him anything. We gave him a stuffed snowman that he received at my parent's house, and he will be getting a couple of books in French and a new swaddle-me blanket at Derek's parent's house.

What is the one gift you are hoping for this Christmas?

2 months old!

On Friday, Dax turned 2 months old, my how the time has flown by!!! We celebrated by going to the pediatrician for his 2 month well-baby checkup. Boy has my little boy grown, he's put on almost 5 pounds since he was born, coming in at an impressive 13.2o pounds! They measured him, but I'm pretty sure the nurse did it wrong, she said he was only 22 7/8" long, but he was 21.5 at birth, and he's about to move into his 9 month sized clothing because he's too long for his 6 month sized stuff. Derek and I will remeasure him later this week for a more accurate length. I have some cute pictures of him that we've taken recently, but our usb cord for our camera has gone on hiatus.

Dax has really started talking more, smiling, and laughing. He loves playing on his playmat, we frequently find him staring at himself cracking up. He loves talking to himself, and batting the toys on his playmat. Bathtime is still one of Dax's favorite things. He smiles the entire time, and gets pretty upset when it's time to take him out. He is still sleeping 6-7 hours at night (way to go Dax), and is a very content and happy boy. While we've had some struggles nursing lately, he's been getting better, and is still eating like a champ. He's obviously gaining weight, and our pediatrician thinks he's going to be a big boy. She tried to convince us to look into baby modeling for him - she said he looks like he's 4 months old, which is how old the Gerber babies are. The older Dax gets, and the chubbier his cheeks become, the more he starts to look like my baby pictures - at least with how chubby he is :) He is still 99% dad and 1% mom at this point. Pictures are coming soon - as soon as we find our camera cord!

Holiday Cards

This will be the first year that Derek and I are sending out a Christmas card. We decided to combine our holiday greeting card with Dax's birth announcement, mainly to save on the cost of doing 2 separate mailings. We wanted to do a picture card with several of the pictures that our photographer took. I contacted my friend, Sara, who does amazing digital cards - invitations, annoucements, holiday, etc - and she's also a great photographer too! She has an Etsy store for her creations, Less Ordinary Designs , and she can customize pretty much anything and create an amazing card for you. Her prices are inexpensive ($15-20/design), and she'll send you the file to print at the location of your choice. This is the design she pulled together for us, I can't wait to get the prints so I can mail them out :)

News Announcement (you may want to sit down for this)

....I am officially not going back to work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would put enough exclamation points to show you how happy I am about that, but there would be about 5 pages of them and I don't want to lose any readers because of that :) Derek and I have spent a lot of time praying and wrestling with finances (yes wrestling, kind of similar to lassoing a bull I suppose) to see how this will work. Let me tell you, God is a miracle worker. This summer when I was looking at our finances to see if it was possible for me to not return to work and it was impossible. Our expenses required 2 incomes. I did the math a gazillion times this summer and nothing worked. A few weeks after I had Dax we sat down again, after lots of prayer, to see what was possible. Somehow God waved his magic wand, and with a little cutting here and there, it has become possible. We are both really thankful and I feel so relieved to know that I will be raising my son. I have another post with a picture to show off the awesome birth announcement/Christmas card that my friend, Sara designed for us. She does great custom design work (and is an awesome photographer too, she did our engagement and wedding pictures!!) and has super reasonable prices! More on her later :)

Breastfeeding Woes

If you don't want to read about breastfeeding, then you should stop reading now :)

I have been exclusively breastfeeding Dax and intend to do so for an indefinite period of time, but that's not the point of this post. When Dax was 2 weeks old, he ended up getting a bottle of expressed breastmilk due to reasons that I won't elaborate upon here. We continued to give him 1 bottle of breastmilk a day, Derek would give it to him at night while I would pump.

This past week, Dax has been extremely fussy at night when I would try to feed him. Then on Friday night, we made our first mistake and could not get the poor boy to calm down, and he would not eat from me. So, we lovingly warmed up a bottle of milk that I had pumped, and Dax ate as if it was the last meal he was ever going to get. That marked the start of a 3-day (or maybe longer, I'll know tomorrow) scream fest every time I tried to feed Dax. What Derek and I quickly came to realize is that Dax was suffering from nipple confusion and had developed a preference to the bottle. After talking to a few people and doing some online research we decided to go cold turkey with Dax and eliminate all bottles and pacifiers for an indefinite period of time. This has temporarily turned my happy son who never cries into a screaming monster when it comes time to eat. I learned a trick though - if I can get him to eat while he's sleeping or just waking up, he doesn't put up a fuss. Today has been much easier, but I don't think we're out of the dark just yet. This would be mistake #3: we introduced a bottle too early. Next time around, a bottle will be introduced around 4 or 6 weeks instead of at 2 weeks.

Mistakes

Tonight I would say that we made our first official "mistake" as parents. We had dinner with friends, so before we headed over we fed Dax-a-roo, got him all bundled up and headed over. I'm still a little uncomfortable breastfeeding Dax (even with a nursing cover) in front of non-family members, so we took some breastmilk and a bottle, and figured that 5oz of milk would be enough for Dax until we got home. That was mistake #1 - especially since Dax has been eating about every 1 - 1.5 hours this past week. We arrived around 6:15, and Dax was fed around 6:45. By the time we were getting ready to leave around 8:50 or so, I could tell that Dax was starting to get hungry, but I assumed that we could make it home in time to feed him. That was mistake #2, our 20 minute drive home drove me to tears, Dax was crying like I have NEVER heard before. We got home, I promptly pulled him out of his car seat, pulled out the girls and proceeded to feed him. I forgot to mention that he had tears streaming down his face, his face was ready, and he was sweating because he got so hot from all of his crying. My little boy wanted nothing to do with food, he was so upset it took about 20 minutes to calm him down enough to eat and when he finally was calm enough to eat he went to town.

Lesson learned, next time feed the baby, it is NEVER a good idea to think/assume that a 2 month old can wait 20 minutes to get home. I'm now happy to report that Dax is sound asleep and will hopefully get a full nights sleep out of exhaustion from crying.

Winters' Family Thanksmas

This past weekend the Winters' Family celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas. Benj, Anna, Kyle, and Vas all flew in to celebrate, and we had Kelsey on Skype. It was a great time, here are some pictures:

Uncle Kyle and Aunt Vas with Dax


The Caramel Pumpkin Gingersnap Cheesecake my dad and I made:


It was delicious:


Another family photo:


Telling stories to Aunt Vas:


Snoozin' with Uncle Benj:


Talking to Aunt Anna:


Look Mom...no hands!


I took a nap with daddy


I read stories with Grandpa (if anyone knows of a good tool to remove red-eye let me know)


In our family, everyone has a handmade stocking. Over the past few years I have taken on the task of making one for all of the newcomers (and my parents, because they didn't have them), so I got to make one for Dax this year:


Dax in his new Christmas PJ's from Grandma and Grandpa


Hanging out with Grandpa and my new snowman from mommy and daddy


Check out my new reindeer hat from Aunt Jessie and Uncle Dustin


We had a great time and it was wonderful seeing everyone, but really sad to see them all go. I sometimes miss the days when we all lived in the same house together - we never had to spend any holidays apart.

Baby and Holiday Pictures

Do you like the new picture of Dax that I am using as my header? Me too. I've always wanted to take great pictures. In high school I took a photography class and would always try to capture artsy shots and images that would really stand out. I usually ended up with a roll of film full of pictures that looked like someone was trying to take an artsy shot instead of capturing something amazing naturally. Sadly, despite all of my efforts over the years to try and become the next Ansel Adams, I am still just your average jill when it comes to capturing those timeless moments. Since I am not anywhere close to being a professional, we decided to have a photographer come to our house and do newborn pictures, as well as family pictures for our Christmas card/birth announcement. When my dad found out that we wanted to get portraits done, he immediately recommended a woman from his church, Brooke Borton. She does amazing work, much better than a session at your favorite place in the mall. Plus, she comes at a time that's good for you, brings props, backgrounds, and takes amazing pictures. She took the one that is on my header and these 2:


This one is my favorite so far:


As many of you know, when I have had a great experience with a product or service, I am very vocal about that experience and will do what I can to spread the word. Even though I haven't seen all of the pictures yet, I am highly impressed with the sneak peak and know that the rest will be just as good if not better. If you get the chance, check out her facebook page , she's a mom who takes amazing pictures and is willing to travel :)

Turkey Day Part 1

We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Robinsons on Friday. Since my family is celebrating this upcoming week, we spent Wednesday and Thursday with my parents helping decorate the Christmas tree. Here are some pictures from our adventures.




Dax also got to meet several people for the first time. Here's a picture of him and Uncle Dustin.


This was also the first time his great-grandma Adam got to meet him as well.


Last but not least, he met our Aunt Carol, Uncle Clyde, Cousin David, and Cousin Rachel (below). He also met his Uncle Dan for the first time, but I didn't get a picture of it...next time!


More pictures to come next week from the Winters' family celebration of Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Answer to prayer

Praise God! Derek and I have had a HUGE, and I mean HUGE answer to prayer today. The final details need to be reviewed, and a few teeny-tiny questions answered, but we have just had an enormous burden lifted off of our shoulders. The stress, anxiety, and tension that I have been carrying around since this summer has just lifted and has been replaced with a peace that can only come from God. I can't share just yet, but I just wanted to share how thankful I am this week and what an irony it is that God would answer this specific request the same week of Thanksgiving. More to come in the following weeks :)

1 month old ( a day late )

Dax turned 1 month old yesterday! The first month has been an adventure for Derek and I filled with lots of memories. Derek and I are quickly learning to function on a lot less sleep than normal, and are both thoroughly enjoying our new roles as mom and dad. Here's a look back on the past month.

Dax enjoying his lamb chair, this is a mid-sentence picture. He's become so much more vocal since he was born. He likes to grunt and squeel, and coo at me. He's especially noisy when he's trying to wake up - a process that takes him about an hour to do.

Dax about to roll over (he did this for the first time yesterday!) Tummy time is going really well, although he's been holding his head up really high since he was born, so it's a breeze for him!

Snoozin on daddy's lap, one of his favorite places to sleep. He hates having his arms confined, and no matter how we swaddle him, he manages to houdini his arms out of the blanket.

Wide-awake on mommy's pillow, there are some nights where little D likes to stay awake instead of going back to sleep after eating. I usually try to take over night shift when he's wide-awake, since Derek gets up for work in the morning. Derek has been a HUGE help with Dax at night when he does wake up for his 1 feeding.


Out like a light at the hospital. Such a little doll, it's hard to believe he's only been around for 1 month, it feels like he's been with us for so much longer than that. I am starting to forget what life was like before we had Dax, it just seems so natural having him a part of our lives.

His birthday! This was taken after he was all taken care of and swaddled up at the hospital.



And last but not least a video of a major milestone - Dax rolling over for the first time. He actually did this yesterday, but we took the video today to send to my mom for her birthday. He still hasn't done this in front of Derek yet, but we will keep trying!!

Post-pregnancy me

I hate how I look post-pregnancy, I'm sick of feeling fat, I spent 9 months feeling ginormous and now it just continues. I don't have anything that fits right now, I have maybe 4 tops that fit, and that's because I bought 2 of them, and the only pants that I can wear right now are my maternity pants. Can I just say that I'm sick of wearing elastic waist-banded pants?! They're too big on me, so my plumber's butt is constantly hanging out, and I always have to pull them up, but NONE of my pre-pregnancy pants fits. Not even my fat ones. I have one pair of pants that I can pull up, but I look like this in them:


I'm still not allowed to work out yet, hopefully when I see my mid-wife on the 30th I'll get the all clear to start some sort of work out regimen again. I've been trying to take 30 minute walks with Dax each day, but our lovely Michigan weather has made it pretty difficult for me to do. Most days I'd rather take a nap during "walk" time anyway, especially since I usually have a migraine thanks to the weather. Yes it's wonderful being a mom and having a son, but that does not eliminate my frustrations about my body right now or solve the fact that I'm chunking out and don't feel like I'm losing any weigh. Sigh.

Weight Gain

2 weeks ago at the pediatrician, Dax weighed in at 8lbs 14oz. His doctor was really happy with his weight gain. I know Dax has been getting big so on Sunday, we weighed him naked and much to our surprise our little chunky monkey came in at a whopping 11lbs 4oz! That's 38oz in 2 weeks, it just blows my mind how fast this little one is growing.

Day of Grandpas

Today was our first road trip and will be our first weekend away from home! While Derek is out hunting Bambi or Bambi's mom, Dax and I headed down to my mom and dad's house for the weekend. I'm not ready to spend the night alone with little D yet!!

Since we were in town, we headed over to Dax's great-grandpa's place for his first visit and a photo shoot. Needless to say, my Grandpa Bill was so happy to see his newest great-grandchild.

Dax really was in a good mood during this picture, we just caught him mid-stretch. He had been sleeping up until I took him out of his carseat, he woke up long enough to get a few pictures with his great-grandpa McKinley, and then promptly fell back asleep after the short visit was over.


My dad was also thrilled to see Dax today. Dax loves his Grandpa Winters and even was able to get a bottle from him tonight. I think they both enjoyed the bonding time, this picture shows it all - Dax looking up at my dad.

I am enjoying being off of diaper duty while I'm here, although I will be back on it tonight while everyone is sleeping, but I've had a nice break so far. Speaking of diapers, I cannot be happier with our decision to use cloth diapers. They are working out so well and we are saving so much money by using them. I don't mind the extra load of laundry every 2 days. So far we had more leaks and accidents when we were using the disposable diapers we received from the hospital than we have had with our Bum Genius diapers.

3-6 Month Size

Today Dax has officially started wearing his 3-6 month size clothing, I am still amazed at how big he is getting. I was in denial for a couple of days about him needing to move into the bigger size...all of his 0-3 month size onesies were way too small, the neck would come about halfway down his chest because we were stretching them to fit. I suppose he should start wearing his 3-6 month size pants too, I don't know if I'm ready for that yet!


This was taken after his tummy time for today. His neck is getting so strong, the only pictures I managed to take of it were not very good ones. I'll try again next time.

Look at how big I'm getting!!

Grandpa Robinson

On Sunday, Derek's parents and sister, Bethany, came up for a visit. My father-in-law hadn't seen Dax since he was born. We were able to get a couple of shots of them together.


Dax has been growing so big lately, we think he has inherited Grandpa R's height genes!!

Thumbs and Walks

Dax has HUGE thumbs, in general I think he has pretty big hands for a newborn. He's going to be a thumb war champion!! Up until now, he's managed to suck on his fist. He somehow manages to get most of his fist into his mouth and then proceeds to suck it while I get ready to feed him. Yesterday, as I was getting set up to nurse him, his fist started to creep up towards his face, and at the last minute, he opened his hand, and managed to find his thumb, and started sucking on his thumb. I cannot believe he's sucking his thumb already, I shed a few tears. I know this is just the first of many milestones to come, but I just can't believe my baby is almost 3 weeks old already!!! I don't have a picture of him sucking his thumb yet, but here's a picture of his sweet little hands and thumbs : )


I know as his mom, I am biased, but seriously how adorable is my son?!


And here is his massive thumb :) I'm sure it will come to good use one of these days!

Today we also went for a walk. We went around the apartment complex and it felt great to get some fresh air. We have a snowsuit type of outfit for Dax, and he looks like a little bear with it on! It's a little big, but he is just too cute when we put him in it, and then put him in his carseat. I was able to get a good picture of it today.

Big Boy Bath

Since Dax lost his umbilical cord on Saturday, Derek and I were able to give him his first "big boy" bath on Sunday! The only part he didn't like was getting out of the tub because it was a little chilly, otherwise he enjoyed every minute of bath time.



Things have been going really well. Derek and I are adjusting to having our beautiful son around all of the time. I think each day we fall even more in love with him - if that's even possible. We went to the pediatrician yesterday for a 2 week check up and little Dax put on 1lb 4.5oz in 10 days!!! He is now up to 8lbs 14.5oz. His doctor was very impressed with his weight gain and said that it means he is extremely healthy. Apparently babies tend to put on 1-1.5oz/day, and with him putting on 2oz/day, she was thrilled. All of the nurses at the doctor's office are in love with little D, they love his blond hair and have all commented on how beautiful he is for being a newborn! We're slightly biased, but Derek and I both think we made a great looking kid : )

Happy Halloween

Dax did have an awesome Spiderman onesie that he wore today to celebrate Halloween, but sadly he peed all over it before we were able to get a picture. We did manage to take our first family photo today, and it turned out great! Both my mom and dad came up to visit today so they were able to take some pictures for us.



Derek also wanted to get a picture of him and Dax in their Michigan outfits, don't worry, Dax has plenty of Michigan State clothing, it out numbers his Michigan clothing :)


Grandma Winters also came up to visit today, it was the first time she was able to see and hold Dax since he was 2 days old. She got in some great time with him, and he was even awake for several hours during her visit. She enjoyed every moment, even changing his poopy diapers hehehe : )

First Bath!

Last week, Dax was given his first bath at home. He likes the sponge baths, and now that his cord has fallen off (as of today!!), we can use the baby bathtub. We're excited to see him enjoy those baths even more! Here's a few pictures to document bath time:


The rubber ducky is an important part of bath time :)


Mmm my hand is so nummy!
Hey, look at me I'm cute and all clean!

Introducing...

Dax Christian William Robinson, born on 10.18.2009 at 6:18pm, weighing 8lbs 4oz, measuring 21.5" long.

Here's my birth story (we delivered at Ingham County Regional Medical Center):

Saturday afternoon my fluid started leaking - I just thought it was pee, but after the continued leaking and "smell test" (amniotic fluid has more of a sweet odor to it) I realized this was fluid and not pee. I was having contractions about every 7 minutes lasting for 60-90 seconds. I honestly didn't want to get my hopes up because of all of the irregular contractions I had been having for the past week. Derek was a little worried and called our friend who is an OB at Ingham, he told him about the fluid as well as the contractions and he said that we needed to go in stat because my water was breaking. I didn't really want to head in, but we decided to at least confirm if this was "it" or not. The minute I hopped into the car my contractions stopped. We arrived at labor and delivery, and they proceeded to call my mid-wife to have her come in and check to see if it was my water or not. Once she arrived she did the tests, we were told that if it was amniotic fluid the swabs would turn blue right away, and they were bright blue. This meant that we weren't going home, we were staying until the baby arrived. They were pretty concerned that I wasn't contracting, my mid-wife said that they wanted to induce within 12 hours of my sac breaking...this would have been about 4:30am! I was only dilated to 3cm, so she said that if I wasn't progressing by 7-8am they would start me on petocin. We got checked in and transferred to a labor room, they started me on the IV for the group b strep (this was why they wouldn't let me leave, they were worried about the risk of the baby getting an infection), and we tried to go to sleep. In the morning, our nurse came in and tried to help me start contracting normally, by giving me a birthing ball, encouraging me to do squats, and she even massaged the pressure points on my ankles. NOTHING! At this point I started to freak out a little bit. I've heard nightmare stories from other women about the contractions on petocin, and I started getting worried that I would end up needing the epidural because of the petocin. They decided to wait until noon to induce me.

I had a breakdown around 11:15am about having to be induced, but Derek was great, he prayed with me and just really helped calm me down. They started the drip at 11:45 at 2 whatever per hour. The nurse let me know they would continue to increase the amount by 2 each 1/2 hour as needed. Within a few minutes I started having contractions, nothing too intense. Around 2pm things started to get really intense, so Derek had my mom come into the room to help calm me down and help me relax. The nurse we had, Karen, was just phenomenal. She did a great job of suggesting different positions for managing the pain and different ways of trying to relax, she gave Derek some things to try out as well. They had a great hollow rolling pin that they filled with hot water that he would roll on my lower back during a contraction. Around 4:30pm they checked me and I was only at 4cm. Around 5pm I felt the need to start pushing, but tried to fight it because in my mind I was only at 4cm. After a few agonizing contractions of trying to not push, I told the nurse, she checked me and I was cleared to start pushing. I pushed for 1 hour 15 minutes, and I think the worst pain I ever felt was the crowning. They say it's a ring of fire, more like my crotch is being ripped out of my body. I'm sure every person in the labor and delivery unit heard my screams. Thankfully it was short lived and our son Dax Christian William Robinson was born at 6:18pm. He weighed 8lbs 4oz, 21.5 inches long and his head was either 14 or 14.5 inches around. I tore in 2 places but they were very minimal. Our midwife did a great job of helping me to push in the right way to not tear as much. Seeing our son made the pain entirely worth it in the end, that's something I never could understand until I actually went through it myself.

Ingham was great, we had 3 AMAZING nurses, the staff was phenomenal, we don't have enough good things to say about them. They were very accommodating to our wishes in our birth plan, and very supportive of all of our requests. We were able to hold the baby right away and spend lots of time with him, they only took him to the nursery 2 times, once was to weigh him at midnight and the nurse brought him right back, and then again for the circumcision. Derek was able to go with Dax for the procedure and stay with him after. They offered me pain meds right away, and made me as many ice diapers as I needed/wanted. They also gave us more freebies than we know what to do with, including a blanket and hat. We stayed a full 24 hours, and I thinks that next time around we will take advantage of the 48 hour stay! I felt like a train wreck (and still do) and it was so nice to have people waiting on us hand and foot. I think the only complaint about the hospital that we had is that dads don't get to eat for free, they have to pay for their meals, but I really can't complain about that!

Here are some pictures of Dax: