Sundays in Springtime

Every six months our congregation combines with other congregations in the area to hear from our leaders, for Stake Conference. Lately they've broadcast the meeting to various church buildings and multiple rooms. It worked well to be in one of the smaller rooms (with the comfy chairs) with a tired baby before she fell asleep. As the meeting ended she fell asleep, and Daddy just wanted to cuddle with her.

Boo at the Zoo

Courtesy of Steffani

For Halloween I wanted to have a family theme, so I convinced Zak to dress as Zorro, while I went as a flamenco dancer and V as my little piñata. The combination came about when I searched for costumes I could incorporate while wearing V in her baby carrier. I didn't see anything except popcorn for that, so I looked at baby and toddler costumes, and found an adorable little kid dressed as a piñata made from fleece. Realizing I had tissue paper in several colors from the baby showers, I grabbed a cardboard box and started gluing strips of it on there. I made sure the cardboard folded to fit around her, and stapled the bottom with my tiny stapler. After that I just cut slits across each strip of paper and stapled on a ribbon to hold it around my neck. I thought about making a donkey hat for V, but I didn't think it would stay on her very long, and she'd be facing me, so no one would see it anyway. I made a make-shift donkey head with leftover cardboard and a section of an egg carton. I think it turned out fairly well for a costume made entirely from items I had at home already.

We toured Zak's work during family
Halloween day, impressed with the themed decorations in each department. Those are dedicated employees, staying hours after work to create a video game/arcade theme, haunted black light hallway with shots of air at your neck, silent picture/roaring 20s theme, and full room of mustaches. That's the first time I've been allowed to tour (almost) the entire building.

For our church congregation's neighborhood trunk-or-treat and youth-led carnival, Zak and the 16-18 year-old boys filled the soda bottles we'd been storing with water, and set up glow-in-the-dark ring toss using glow sticks in the water and as rings to toss. My girls spearheaded the face painting and fish pond. I love seeing everyone's clever costumes as the neighborhood gathers. Unfortunately, I left my camera's memory card at home; we did, however, still have fun with the glow sticks and camera at home.

Courtesy of Steffani

Some friends invited us to the local zoo to see animals and get candy for our little one (who is too young to eat candy...so candy for us, really). In order to let her actually see the animals, I decided to push her in the stroller, which meant she could wear the adorable butterfly costume Grandma Hooper found for her. I didn't use it in the baby carrier, because the wings and big fluffy belly wouldn't fit. It worked really well, keeping her ears, feet, and little body warm with some pajamas underneath. Some of the animals were hidden away for the winter, but we got to see camels' flopping humps, vibrant zebras, and large cats. V was tired, and kind of fussy until she did fall asleep, so I don't think she soaked up much of the animal atmosphere, but I'm glad we went. I miss Cache Valley's pumpkin walk, but the Boo at the Zoo was great fun.

Our women's Halloween craft

At Home With a Newborn

One of the painkillers the doctor prescribed was giving me hives, so I stopped taking it after about a week, and I've officially used up the other painkiller. I have ibuprofen in the cabinet, but I've been all right without it. Thankfully, my GI tract is "regular" again. I'll have to wait on the stitches. I'm still just as wide, but it surprises me each time I see myself from the side and realize I'm not round anymore. Sometimes I miss the pregnant belly, but Baby makes up for it.

I've started taking V to the store and church, but strap her around me with the Boba carrier Mom bought for us. It's worked fairly well so far, mostly because Baby V has slept the majority of the time she's been in it around town. It hasn't been as long as some doctors recommend for keeping a newborn away from crowds, but with her in the Boba, and nice weather I'm not as worried. Please don't get sick, Baby.

I associate with other adults a couple times a week, and have tried to Skype and facetime family members regularly to let them see how she's growing, and give me opportunity to keep up with everyone. V can't straighten her legs in the newborn pajamas (above), so we're setting the tiniest ones aside. I can understand why my cousin let me take her children's baby clothes. They grow out of them so quickly, and then you just store them until the next baby comes.

I've been very blessed to be able to breastfeed, to be a stay-at-home Mom, to not have postpartum depression, and to have a camera. Husband is such a great blessing to me. Last night after her second night-time feeding, she stayed up for another hour, but Dad took her with the goal of letting me sleep, even though he's the one that had to go to work in the morning.

Now that V has some wake time, I feel like I need to be teaching her. I sing Children's Songbook songs about the gospel and Savior. I tell her every time I pick her up to nurse, "I love you, V." I need to learn more Baby sign so I can use more than five signs around her. I still think it'll get more difficult when she won't just sit there and do what I'm doing, when I have to be creative with play and activities. I'm definitely enjoying this time as a Mom now. My dad joked that I won't be able to match the picture documentation with my future children, but I love capturing each outfit, expression, and precious moment. I'm getting a little nervous that I'm feeding too often (it feels like every hour or two during the day), in which she only eats for a few minutes instead of getting a full feeding, so I'm trying to transition now into the "On Becoming Babywise" feed-wake-sleep schedule. I have so much to learn, but when I hold this precious tiny human in my arms and smell her perfect baby scent, I can't help but thank Heavenly Father for giving me this amazing opportunity to care for one of His children.

So far we think she has Zak's hair color (but my amount of hair) and his detached earlobes. Our noses and chins are fairly similar in shape, so we'll have to see how hers look in time. When we had the 3-D ultrasound at 39 weeks, she looked so much like Zak, but now I think her face looks a lot like mine did as a newborn. We'll have to see if her eyes stay Porter blue or change to Hooper brown and green. Either way, I think we've got an adorable daughter.

Baby Zak

Baby Nicole