New Baby

Babies do not come with instruction manuals. You'd think they should considering how important they are, though if people will not read warnings to keep their tongues out of the garbage disposal, I wonder if they would ever read a manual on babies anyway.  Having one baby throws most people for a loop, though you never know how easy one is until you have two! And since every child is different, one should never try to figure too much out ahead of time. These are just a few things while Cole was under two, before I forget.

Cole has bright blue eyes, just like his mum. Our kids got lighter eyes as they came - brown, hazel and now blue. He loves mommy, certainly the most "mommy's baby" of the three.

He does this cute "scoot crawl". Better to see in a video:

Definitely a cuddler. When he's upset or knows it is bed time, he'll put his head down on your shoulder. So sweet! "A++, would cuddle again. "

When he was about 3-9 months, he did this "rolling R cry." Like the rolling R of central or south America languages. That was Cole's "I'm really upset" cry. It was not as loud as a full cry from other babies, and since it sounded so cute we had to remind ourselves that he really was upset!

Miah was always with baby Cole, especially during his first year. Hugh was in school most of the time during those early months, but Miah and Cole have always been together. She was a good helper to mommy, and genuinely liked to care for him (not in just a "do this thing to help me out" kind of way).

The joke for third babies is real. They will survive without all those things the firsts had - like hand sanitizer, shopping cart covers, food that was not on the floor, brand new toys, etc. There was about a four year get between Miah and Cole, and I had forgotten all the baby things. They were fresh this time through, again : )

Misc Things from Room Cleaning

They other day I cleaned my room. Kind of because I am an adult, but mainly because my wife likes a clean room and house. We moved over two years ago and there was still a box in the corner of the room that somehow was just accumulating more stuff! That was my main goal, beyond my normal mess. For some reason I have a hard time throwing things away, and I have the ability to ignore clutter. Or step over and through it. Is it s super power? Possibly. Genetically, I could be a border-line hoarder. Thankfully one role of a spouse is to make us better versions of ourselves, so I started cleaning : )

To avoid throwing out something "important", that I will never look at again, I took some notes while cleaning which allowed me to get rid of trash I was saving.

I wrote down a little quote by Hugh in 2014 on some slip of scrap paper. He was five at the time. Hugh was reminded that his hat was from Gramps, and he wanted to call him. We told him he already thanked Gramps, and Hugh said, "I want to thank them. I want to remember." I liked that quote. We can thank people to remember : )

Somewhere in the room was Baby Aurora. This is Miah's most favorite doll. (Unavailable Amazon link, if it still works.) Hard plastic head, arms and feet, soft middle. Worn and dirty face. She has a puncture wound on the side of her head (don't know how that happened, though I do remember a bandaid on it for a while when it did). This is the item the can hold up bedtime, the most precious when we leave somewhere and ask, "Do we have the kids? Do we have the dog? Wallet, keys phone? Do we have baby Aurora?"

Live to Lead was a leadership simulcast I went too last fall and I found my conference notebook. I have intentions to review my notes from those things. I never do. Before chucking it, I did type up these nuggets (paraphrased from my notes) to reread on this old blog post someday in the future. (Hint: I never will.)

• "Leaders see more than others see, and they see before other see. Developing leaders grow to see more "more" and more "before". There is more-more and more-before out there! Think abundantly, not scarcity. " ~ John Maxwell

• "Organizations are not limited by their opportunity, they are limited by their leader. Your education, ability, capacity and vision is the limit to your organization . . . and these are choices; they can be learned." ~ Ramsey

• "Bosses push. Leaders pull. Everyone will know where we're going, so they don't need to ask! They adopt to the plan, because it's what they want too." ~ Dave Ramsey

• "If you are at the head of the class, get out of that class!" ~ Ramsey or Maxwell

Room is much cleaner now. Give it time, I'll have another blog post ready : )

Third Time Around - Birth Story

Going to the hospital to deliver one's third child would seem familiar. Jessica had healthy pregnancies and deliveries with number one and number two, so number three should be a walk in the park. And, spoiler alert,  for the most part it was! Of course, I'm writing this while Cole is two, so maybe I forgot some details.

Jessica was forty weeks when we scheduled the delivery. Still a natural birth, but our doctor does not see any benefit in waiting longer (and sometimes waiting too long adds complications). Waiting another week or so might have been better, and perhaps a little more natural, but we scheduled our time and drove to the hospital in the morning.  We did not know if this was going to be a boy or a girl, so for all the familiar sights (same hospital, same birthing suites, etc.) there was still some unknown anticipation.

It is kind of odd writing about this as the guy, as contractions and all that is not something I experience personally. Still, things seemed to go smoothly. The doctor set up with pitocin, like the first two, and then left for a few hours while the nurses helped us with everything else. He did try this "balloon" to help dilation but it was kind of a bust (pun!). Hours of being together, bouncing on the ball, and relaxing in the tub (well, Jess did all the bouncing and relaxing) led to Cole! (From a bed, as doc did not prefer tub births in the room we were in.) Clean up, first nursing and all the other baby firsts went very well too.

Gramps and Nana were watching Hugh and Miah, and came to visit the new baby while I ran out to get our traditional Domino's pizza (it is the closest pizza joint to the hospital). A few visitors stopped by and we went home after two nights as family of five : )

Side note regarding this hospital birth, Cole was the most expensive. Like dummies, we did not plan our pregnancy around the yearly insurance cycle and high deductibles, so all of the pre-natal stuff (and Jess's work, which is not a baby so is not pre-natal) had us nearing our deductible by the end of the year. Then our insurance year reset in December, and we started over on all the deductibles for Cole's birth in February! Insurance is weird.