Lawson's birth story- part one

Thursday morning (september 19) I was talking on the phone to my mom when she noticed I was out of breath. I didn't think much of it because I've been out of breath a lot lately, but she was concerned. I had a doctors appointment (37 weeks) already scheduled for that afternoon so I told her I would mention it to Dr. Brody. A few hours later my sister showed up at my house to take my blood pressure because my mom had sent her :). It was high (148/90 and 138/94). When they checked it at the dr that afternoon it was high again (147/92), and I mentioned that it had been high all day. It was up the previous week too, but nothing to be alarmed by. Dr. B asked if my sister could check it at least once a day and if at any point it was over 140/90 he wanted me to call. He said he would like for Lawson to cook a little while longer, but that it wouldn't take much of a high BP for him to induce me.

Friday morning Camille and I took the kids to the aquarium (enough to make my blood pressure rise even not pregnant), and Ashley came over during lunch to check my BP. She kind of freaked when it was 160/102 and 158/106. I knew how this was going to go. Of course the office was closed for lunch so I had some time to get organized. Fortunately, Jodi was headed over to pick something up. I asked if Crawford could go home with her for nap time so I would be free to go to the office and then probably the hospital, which I was sure would need to happen when I talked to the nurse.

Sure enough, the nurse said Dr. Brody wanted to see me right away. I ate a peanut butter and honey sandwich and a plate of grapes for lunch in the car, and I grabbed the finishing touches for my hospital bag.

Meanwhile, David was at pin strikes bowling and playing laser tag with his division from Blue Cross. I told him not to come to the doctors office because I suspected how this would end up. 

My BP was 159/95 at the office, and Dr. Brody said "let's have a baby!". I shed a few fearful tears, but he encouraged me that having the baby was the most risk-averse option. So I sat in the car in the parking lot making phone calls and off to the hospital I went! David met me there and we walked in together- our last time as parents of one.

birthdays, belated

This post is ridiculously overdue.

David's birthday is August 23, the twins are the 24th, mine is the 26th and my sister's is the 27th. I'm pretty used to birthday chaos since Ashley and I grew up sharing a birthday celebration, but adding David to the mix- and the fact that our anniversary is August 9- makes it that much more overwhelming. 

Let's be honest, I don't do overwhelming well. 

So basically we do/did nothing for our celebrations.

Ashley and Chase kept Crawford for our anniversary, but I ended up being sick so we got takeout and stayed home. We decided our "gifts" to each other would be the dining room. After all, the traditional five year anniversary gift is wood. Totally fitting!

Here's a recap of our birthdays in photos:

1. David

Crawford and I went to gymnastics, took selfies and put them on Instagram. Duh!

doctor appointment to see Lawson (hey, at least he got to leave work early!)

dinner as a family at Las Margaritas (actually was really enjoyable- Crawford was great at a restaurant for once!)

2. Me

Ash took the day off work and we met her at Chester Frost park. I was grumpy, but it worked out beautifully! Literally. It was a gorgeous day, Crawford was a DREAM, and it was exactly what I needed. 

I share a birthday with our sweet buddy Ben who has moved back to Germany but was in town for a few weeks over his second birthday! We spent our evening with our friends and kids eating some good ol' German brats (the best!) and celebrating Ben!

3. Ashley

Crawford and I dropped off balloons, cupcakes and a card at the facility where Ashley has a meeting on Tuesday mornings, and she was so surprised and excited to find them waiting on her. And clearly, I instagrammed a birthday wish from C.

For our actual birthday celebration we got a babysitter and went out to a nice dinner with the Wrights and the Collins. I look bloated and huge, but we had such a nice time together!

19 months

Crawford, at 19 months you...

• are learning your letters and some numbers! You can identify A, B, C, D, F, L, O, Y, 2 and 5 - and you do alllll the time! If you see any of those letters on a tshirt or sign you point them out. Daddy works with you using the foam letters in the bathtub and I've printed out worksheets that we color on and talk about during the day.
• try so hard to dribble a ball. It's adorable. You definitely have an athletic bent, which obviously came from your daddy :). You still dunk and shoot the basketball with crazy precision. You've even started attempting trick shots. You get on your knees or lay on your back and try to make baskets. True story. 
• basketball is your favorite thing ever. As soon as Daddy gets home you run to his car and drag him to get basketballs and make him start shooting them. He gets a good hour in every night of shooting baskets for you to watch.
• can be so, so testy. You want to do things your way and you really don't like me messing with you. You are happiest doing your own thing by yourself. This obviously makes outings that require compliance (ie- toddler time at the library) not so much fun.
• are very physical towards me. You bite me (ONLY me...) and hit me and kick me. Sometimes out of anger or frustration, but sometimes it seems like you just can't communicate your excitement or something... it's weird.
• are getting spankings. We went through the Dr. Dobson Dare to Discipline study last year, and we are practicing what he teaches about spanking. So, you're getting spanked for things you know to be wrong. You do have a defiant little will about you so it's not an irregular occurrence. I made these spank sticks and we keep them everywhere (upstairs, downstairs, garage, car, diaper bag). You know what they are and what they are for, which is half of the purpose in my mind. You bit me the other day and then as soon as I picked you up you said "'panking?". Even though you're obviously still defiant, I can tell the discipline is working. We are praying these verses as we discipline you too. It is so hard and SO not fun, but we pray that we can instill a healthy respect for authority in you at an early age. 

• say most of your friends names (Max is your favorite, Anya is second).
• stay occupied playing with cars for a while. You play with them in the window sill, on the bumper of the car, on the retaining wall outside, etc.
• say "amen!" at the end of prayers. And, if we forget to pray (especially at breakfast and lunch...) you remind me by saying "amen!". You also say amen at random funny times, like when the lady at library story time finished reading her book. 
• love airplanes, your mower ("mow mow"), football and golf. 
• say your name "Cawfod"
• try to do a forward roll which often leaves you in the downward dog position which is funny.=
• have some adorable funny words you say "guc"= yogurt, "nas"= snack and funny things daddy has taught you to say: "nice", "aw nuts" and "oh no".
• are obsessed with John Bryant.

It's completely crazy to think that this is likely your last monthly update before you become a big brother. I cannot wrap my mind around the changes we're going to experience in this next month, but I'm excited to watch you develop and grow as we add a new member to our family. Love you, buddy. You're my favorite one!

36 weeks

We're in the homestretch. The one month countdown until Lawson's due date. I can hardly believe we are this close to having two little boys, and yet I've been dreaming about it for so long! With Crawford I never felt that "so ready to not be pregnant" feeling, but boy do I now :). I really can't complain, though. I am large and uncomfortable but that is part of growing a baby. Crawford is the real challenge. He is just busy. He likes to be super active, including running away from me and fighting me on most things. It just takes a toll on my already weary body. I'm way ready to turn over the reigns when David gets home every night. And can I just say... he (David) is wonderful. He loves playing with Crawford so much that he never complains about being on "Crawford duty" for the evenings. They play in the yard until they are both sweaty and gross and exhausted. It is a total joy to watch (and not have to participate). I pray they always like to hang out as much as they do now.

Pregnancy notes:

• In spite of the heat, I haven't been very swollen. I'm still wearing my wedding rings most of the time!
• My doctor checked me this week and I haven't started dilating at all yet, which is fine.
• My tailbone hurts a lot. Boo.
• I am a never-ending pit of hunger. I eat non-stop. Some favorites lately have been cheese and crackers, apples with peanut butter and... ice cream.

Recent highlights:

• Crawford somehow timed his pooping for almost two straight weeks to when David was home to change it! Hallelujah! 
• Nights I only get up two times to pee.
• LOTS of fun play dates and outings. Literally every day we have something fun to do with fun sweet friends.
• Maternity/18mo pictures with Becca. Can't wait to see them!

Things I'm looking forward to:

• Date night on Friday. Ash & Chase asked if Crawford could have a slumber party with them (yeah, they are the bomb), so we're excited to go out!
• Girls' night out/shower for Lawson in a few weeks. My friends are the sweetest.
• More consignment sales! I love this time of year. We don't need much, but I'm trying to plan ahead. I'm on the lookout for a few things to introduce to Crawford to distract him during these upcoming weeks of transition and get his Christmas taken care of.

Things I'm loving:

• new pots & pans (you know you're officially old when...). I asked for Bed, Bath & Beyond gift cards and used my birthday money to get this set, and I LOVE them.  
• my Chaco flip flops (similar to these) that I bought practically brand new off the mom's resell page (actually from one of my good friends :)) for $15. 
• the mom's resell page. I'm a purging machine. 
• Instagram. Still. Duh.

the boys' bedroom

Oh, this room.

Sarah reminded me that I never really showed pictures of the "completed" version of Crawford's nursery. That's because I never really felt like it was finished. I didn't love the paint color (especially in pictures! EW!). This post and this post and this post show a bit of the room, and you can get the gist from these pics:

The decision to stay in this house for the foreseeable future meant we needed to seriously consider where to put baby #2. We sort of have to have a guest room because most of our family lives out of town, and we regularly have friend guests too. So I guess the decision was easy to put both kiddos in one room. Crawford's bedroom is probably the largest in the house anyway, so it wasn't going to be difficult to make space. We sold the bed, dresser, nightstand and bench which freed up a ton of space for a larger dresser and a second crib (both from Children's Fair, this line). Other than the paint (thanks to my dad!) and the additional furniture, not too much is different.

Changes:

• name decals (from this etsy store)
• mirror above the bookshelf (which was downstairs previously)
• rain gutter bookshelves (a Pinterest fav). We really needed more storage for diapers, so the new shelves freed up lots of space on the bookshelf for another bin (and I added labels so we can keep them organized).
• I switched the pelmet boards so the monogrammed one (with Crawford's mono...) wouldn't be quite so front and center.
• One of my favorite new additions to the room is the trunk between the beds. It was my dad's foot locker from the Marine Corps, and it is a perfect place to store extra linens.
• We also maxed out the storage and organization in the closet, thanks to lots of Ikea tools.
• Matching bedding is still on the wish list, but I didn't want to wait to post pictures until we decide to spring for two of these bumpers and crib skirts.

Obviously we still need a mattress for Lawson, but since he will start out sleeping in our room we're not too stressed about getting one soon. It still is a little freaky to see two cribs in there and know we'll have TWO kids to put in there before we know it, but I'm getting really excited about these boys sharing a room - hopefully for a long time!