cute

Isaac getting his first bottle from Daddy. Awhhhhh!

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Summer is quickly coming to a close here in Montana. Although the temperatures the past few days have still been in the high 80s, the mornings and evenings have a new chilly crispness that can only indicate fall, and, alas, winter will soon be here. Because we haven't done hardly anything outside this summer, we decided to take advantage of the fact Nathan had this last weekend off and headed up to Red Lodge. Our intention was to find a short trail we could take the kids on as well as see what was going on at the Beartooth Nature Center. The nature center is a refuge for animals in the region who, for whatever reason, can't safely return to the wild. Red Lodge is at the base of the Beartooth Mountains, so I thought we'd be able to find a trail fairly easily, but after having lunch and exploring the nature center, we decided to go to the park instead of trying to find a trail. But, I have talked to a few people since then and have some ideas now of where to go for next summer. I am anticipating we will be out "exploring nature" almost every weekend next summer since I hopefully will have much more energy than this last summer.

Isaac slept through the whole exhibit

Admiring the black bear

Big buffalo

The weekend was also busy because I had two baby showers in honor of Mr. Isaac who is now a month old and weighs 13 pounds. The first one was hosted by my colleagues at work and was quite nice. It's always refreshing to see the people you work with in a social situation without the stress of patient care, although conversation always reverts back to that! The other shower was hosted by my extended family here in Billings and was also quite nice. They decided to host it at our house so everyone could see the nursery (I'll post pictures when it's completed - I still have a few pictures and things to hang up) which gave me a good excuse to clean. My grandma Sharon has a tradition of making new members to the family quilts (mine was the first one!) and Isaac now has his! Everyone was very generous and thanks again for everything!

Isaac's quilt

Emma's quilt

My quilt

Great, great Aunt Nettie and a Halloween-ready Isaac

Great, great grandma Sharon

help

Emma, Isaac and I spent the past couple of weeks recuperating in Great Falls with my family. It was wonderful! I got to frequent my favorite GF haunts including Bob's Big Stack Bagel Bakery (owned by long time family friend Bob McNamee. He catered our wedding and made our wedding cake!), Taco Treat, and Gibson Park. Emma loved the park, too, but we weren't able to stay too long because it was quite warm that day and I forgot the sun screen. Isaac slept the whole time. We also went to the Children's Museum of Montana and were the only ones there! Emma had a great time. Isaac again slept the whole time. My grandmother on my Mom's side - Grandma Jeanne (the reason my middle name is Jeanne) celebrated her 85th birthday. Happy birthday again, Grandma! Glad I could share it with you.

This 30 ft boat was built by a family friend, Dick Martin, and actually does float. He donated it to the Children's Museum.

Crawling through the tunnel

Racing the cars. Her favorite attraction at the Children's Museum

Driving the boat/ice cream shop

Grandma Jeanne on her big day

Admiring the ducks at Gibson Park

She would have spent all day swinging if I would have let her

More swinging

We also got to watch Sam play football a couple of times. Sam is carrying on the strong tradition of Wingerter football men. Ben and Jake were both quaterbacks and Nick was a defensive end. I think my Dad even played in high school. Sam is a sophmore this year and plays for both the sophomore team and JV team. However, the varsity quaterback is not doing too hot so there's talk Sam might have to move up and play varsity, which he's not too excited about. Unfortunately, the Bison football coaching program is not the greatest and the teams seem to reflect that this year. In both JV games I watched, the team didn't even score. Makes for long games.

Sam playing football - he's the guy trying not to be sacked. Interestingly, his cousin is the guy on the other team trying to tackle him. My favorite thing about this picture is #93 who is no doubt thinking "huh, maybe I should have blocked that guy"

We also got to watch Maddie play a basketball scrimmage. She's in 6th grade this year, which is unbelievable to me. Also unbelievable to me is how different from me she is. She has such a better relationship with my parents than I did at her age, mostly because she actually talks to them! She's also a lot taller and thinner than I was. She's pretty darn cute. She is such a big help with the kids, too. What an awesome aunt!

Maddie playing basketball - she's #14

Thanks again Mom and Dad for letting us stay! You're the best.

clean

Last week, the crusty remaining umbilical cord fell off of Isaac's belly button. It took quite a bit longer than I remember with Emma. We celebrated the occasion with his first sink bath. He loved it!

bath time fun

Ahhhh, it's like a day at the spa!

He also has begun smiling although I have yet to capture it on camera. He is also quite strong. He is able to hold is head up nearly all the time and can stand (with help of course!) because his legs are so strong. He sleeps pretty well through the night - a good 5-6 hours for the first stretch. He's our wonder boy!

A half smile

welcome

Isaac Asher Meunier

Mr. Isaac Asher Meunier has finally arrived! He was born August 14th at 7:29 am, weighing 10lbs and 9 oz and 21 inches long. Yes, he is a hefty boy! Thankfully we are both doing well although his birth story is a little dramatic.

We arrived at the hospital at around 4:30 am after my contractions had been about 4-5 minutes apart for about an hour. My water still had not broken, but I wanted to at least be checked since my labor with Emma really wasn't that long. Unfortunately, I was only dilated at 5. I had been at 3 for the past few weeks. Initially the nurse said they were just going to monitor me for an hour in the triage room and if things didn't progress, they were going to send me home. At the next check, I was still at 5, but my blood pressure was starting to increase. I think at that time it was in the 140s. I had had normal blood pressures all through my pregnancy.

Since my blood pressure was elevated, they decided to go ahead and admit me and started some pitocin to hopefully get things going. The doctor came in a few minutes after the pitocin had started and broke my water. After about an hour, the contractions were getting really strong thanks to the pitocin and I still was only dilated to 5. At that time my blood pressure was in the 170s.

Even though I was planning to go "au naturale", the nursing staff strongly suggested I get an epidural to not only help the pain, but hopefully bring my blood pressure down. It didn't take much convincing and I agreed. One last check of vital signs before the anestheologist arrived revealed my blood pressure at 197/100 and Isaac's heart rate suddenly dropped to 90. Because of my blood pressure issues and Isaac's heart rate, the recently on-duty OB doc decided to rush me into the OR for an emergency C-section.

It was quite scary. The room suddenly filled with 10+ staff and they literally ran me to the OR. Because it was deemed an emergency, Nate wasn't able to scrub in for the procedure and so had to anxiously wait in the room until the doctor came in about 15 minutes later to let him know he was now the father of a healthy boy weighing over 10 pounds! They still aren't sure exactly why my blood pressure and his pulse responded in the way they did, but I think it's just because he is so darn big, he just didn't have room to get going (thankfully!)

First meeting

I came to about an hour later. Because it was emergent, I had to have general anesthesia. Although I am so thankful everything went well, it was sad that I wasn't able to hear his cries when he was first born. I was pretty much out of it the first day. I'm a bit of a light weight when it comes to strong painkillers. We spent the next 3 days in the hospital getting to know each other.

Siblings

We now are all doing well. I'm feeling surprisingly well given my abdomen was sliced open. The worst part is that I can't lift up Emma. My parents (who are the greatest people in the world BTW) took Emma home with them for a week or so to allow me to recuperate. It's probably the hormones, but I was very emotional to see her go. She is enthralled with Isaac and really does well with him, although did need frequent reminders to be gentle.

Gramma and Grandpa

Isaac eats all the time! He had his first check-up a few days ago and is basically back to his birth weight. He has lots of hair - I can even style it! The mohawk look is my favorite. He seems to have a pretty low-key personality, but at this point he's only awake about 4 hours out of the day, so it's hard to say. He has an assortment of silly faces and grunting noises. I'm still getting used to his, ahem, anatomical differences. I've been peed on a few times already.

Happy baby

I have a bit of anxiety about returning to work, mostly because I'm not sure how I'm going to handle the schedule in the morning. I feel like I'll have to get up at 4 am to get everyone dressed and ready to go. Two is certainly more challenging than one! Despite the challenges, I couldn't be happier. We have two beautiful, happy, healthy children and I can't wait to see them grow!

expecting

She's a brick house!

Today is my 29th birthday and I am 37 weeks pregnant. Unfortunately, I am spending the night by myself - Nate is at work and Emma is spending the week with my parents. I did get to celebrate the occasion a few nights ago with dinner and a movie with Nate. We saw Hangover and I'm still laughing, so tonight is not a total drag.

Sitting here by myself more than ready to welcome this new person into the world, I am contemplating what it means to be expecting. These have been my expectations during these last few weeks - most have not been met.

1. During the hot summer months, I'll be able to keep my cool.

I have never sweat so much in my life. I have to frequently tell coworkers not to get too close and am constantly apologizing to my patients. I am also not keeping my cool as well with Emma. My patience is about an inch long and I feel really bad. I hope she doesn't remember this ranting, irritable pregnant mom.

If you look closely you can see my new nasty stretch marks

2. People will keep their comments about my growing belly to themselves.
It will always amaze me the things complete strangers will say. It ranges from the mild "any day now, huh?" to "are you sure you're not having twins?" to "please try to keep your legs crossed until you leave the store so you don't go into labor on my watch". Yes, someone actually said this. Like if I happened to go into labor at the store the baby would somehow immediately fall out of me. Man people are dumb. I find the best approach is just to not make eye contact with anyone.

Regardless of my unreached expectations, I still am very excited to meet our little guy. Going through Emma's old things, I have been reminded how wonderful babies are despite the last nights and spit-up. So come on Mr. Isaac, we're ready to say hello!

Since it has been so long since I've posted, here are some pictures from our summer so far.

Cowgirl Emma

Emma wearing daddy's shoes

Emma and the birthday boy.

Emma helping daddy with his presents

The bfcw girls.

The bfcw kids Alex, Aidan, Emma, and Ivy.

Emma discovering "baby Eleanor".

Tromping through the park.

Running with daddy.

Practicing lacrosse so she can take on Uncle Josh.

Almost got it.

weekend

I am truly exhausted tonight. Probably a combination of my incredibly busy work schedule and the busy weekend we had. Oh yeah, and I'm pregnant! I think spring has officially arrived in Billings. Today the temperature was in the 70's so Emma got to break out a new spring outfit. What a doll!

Bring on the spring dresses.

It was really nice outside both days this weekend, so we took advantage of the nice weather to start tackling some outdoor projects. First of all, we moved in Emma's new swing set! It was my Aunt Janet and Uncle Chris' and they gave it to us. It's a little old (13 years to be exact) but you can't beat a free swing set. Thanks so much again guys! Emma was so excited to get it and promptly went to town on the swings. She also spent several hours playing on it yesterday, even going so far as sliding down the slide head first! Needless to say, we have our weekend plans laid out for us for the rest of the summer!



We are also doing some landscaping projects, the first of which is to replant the small flower garden in front of the house. We're not big fans of using rocks, which seems to be really popular out here, so the first part of the job involves removing all the rocks and existing plants from the garden. After loading up a wheelbarrow full of rocks, not only did we realize we had not come up with a plan of where to put them, it was also to heavy for Nate and I to move! Whoops! I'm sure more exciting landscaping adventures to come this summer.

Removing the rocks, Take 1.

Saturday marked the 10 year anniversary of my and Nathan's first date. To celebrate the occasion, we went out to dinner and a movie. We saw the new Star Trek movie which I really enjoyed. I certainly would not call myself a "trekky" but I've liked most of the Star Trek movies. When I was younger, I used to watch Star Trek (the TV show) on Saturday afternoons with my brothers (yes you guys know you watched too!) while Dad would grill burgers, our traditional Saturday fare. Ah, the life!

Sunday was mothers day and a really great day overall. I awoke to breakfast in bed made by Nathan and Emma. Tasty! We then spent the majority of the day outside, but I did get to experience a nice nap while Emma took hers. Nathan got me roses and cooked me Mannicoti for dinner too, which was really nice. I also got my first homemade mother's day card from Emma. How cute! Happy Mothers Day to all mommies out there!

Pretty mom's day roses.

First Mom's day card from Emma.

Inside of card.