ten days.

well, our little kiddie is 10 days old now. it feels like he's been around forever, how can he only be 10 days old?? 

greysen is an amazing baby. like for reals amazing. we thought we had it pretty easy with zak, but this one is 10 times easier than him. he's much more mellow, which is a good thing, the world doesn't need two crazy lowry siblings. 

he sleeps in four hour increments, almost to the dot. lucky for us  me since the husband doesn't have the goods. the first couple days of two hours was going to kill me. 

he never cries. ever. unless it's to wake mom up to tell her to feed him. he will sit for hours in between feedings, just hanging out and staring at the world, just like his brother did, except with less noise. and then he'll go to sleep. in the swing, car seat, bed, anywhere. which is also unlike his brother, who would only sleep in his crib from day one. 

speaking of his brother, he looks just like him, except less fat. dad has a hard time distinguishing between the two of them in this picture. 

{zak is on top, greysen's on the bottom}

zak is still an amazing big brother. i think it stresses him out when he cries, so he will tell me "mom, baby greysen is hungry" or that he needs to take a break in his bed because he's whining. both of which crack me up. 

 {mom loves her ergo. best investment ever. so comfy. and awesome. go buy it. do it. you won't be disappointed.}

{don't you like how he's awake in a majority of this pictures? and when he is awake, he just hangs out. i love it.}

we absolutely love having him in our family, i don't know what we did before we had him. zak is going to grandma and grandpa's in canada for the week, so i will be toddler-less and not know what to do with all my free time. cuddle baby greysen and sleep. that's what i'll do. 

the greysen story.

here we go. the baby story. stay away if TMI bothers you. i gotta remember for next time, before i forget because my child is just so so cute. 

greysen allister lowry 

7/18/2012 @ 4:45am 

7 lb 11 oz 20.5 in

let's just say it did not go as planned. i was a little skeptical about delivering in california, because i knew they were a lot less thrilled about doping me up with medication like they did so fabulously in utah. my suspicions proved correct unfortunately. i was due last friday, and then my ob decided to be so gracious and give me the choice to be induced monday night at ten, or the next friday night. monday, duh. just like last time, i was dilated to a big fat zero, and had no contractions on my non stress test, so he was not coming on his own again. 

we went in monday night and they told me they were going to give me some pills up there to soften my cervix and make me dilate. every four hours. well, those did absolutely nothing. except make me not sleep in an uncomfortable bed for 16 hours, hooked up to the monitors for no reason. so that puts us at tuesday mid-afternoon. the doctor came in and said he was going to basically shove a balloon up there and inflate it with water to manually open the cervix. that is a pleasant feeling, let me tell you. tuesday evening rolls around and he decided to start my petocin because the balloon was guaranteed to work so we would have a baby no later than sometime on wednesday. 

the lovely hour of 2:00 am rolls around on wednesday and my water finally broke. and i started having deathly contractions pretty quick after that. according to the hospital, they won't give you an epidural until you're about at 4 cm since labor takes so long, but because that balloon was still up me, the nurses wouldn't measure me. i asked for the drugs and the nurse politely said "your contractions are really mild and short, so we should wait". as i was going to punch her in her face. so i had to sit there and die through each contraction every two minutes, lasting for thirty seconds. i asked/yelled for the drugs again, about 45 minutes later and they again, said no because i was not very far along. and my stupid contractions were not showing up on the monitor, so basically it looked like i was whining about nothing. 

finally, i got up to go pee in between dying, and the balloon fell out, so they called the anesthesiologist to give me the epidural, because after it falls out you should be at a 4 at least. as he is putting the needle in, they ask me to lie down on my side, and i immediately feel like he is going to come out right this second and i needed to push. so i'm yelling at the nurses saying he's coming right now, {i really was very pleasant by this time} and they finally call the doctor in and the nurse finally measures me and lo and behold, i'm at a 10! {i'm super pissed at her by this point because i know the drugs aren't going to work} so they call him again, and tell him he needs to come right now, and he runs in, puts a gown on, tells me to push twice and lo and behold the baby is here! at 4:45, almost three hours after my water broke and 30 hours after being admitted to the hospital. i don't want to say it was terrible.... but it was. it is going to take me a while to recover from the nurses totally not listening/believing me and making me feel like i was going to die, so yes i'm still whining about it. i have no idea why people purposely decide to give birth naturally. more power to you, but i will never choose to do that having experienced both. 

this cap was their attempt to sterilize me? i'm pretty sure they put it on as i was pushing. so it was very effective.

but, after all that waiting/hurting/yelling we finally have a fantastic baby. thank goodness, he was a whole pound smaller than zak was, but he is just as good as his brother was. the doctor had to wake him up when he came out because he was still sleeping, no joke. he spends his time sleeping {much more than his brother did during the day at least, the night time, we still need to work on}, eating and being loved on by his brother. 

speaking of him, zakary is a fantastic big brother. he loves to check on him, and try and entertain him, and he cannot wait until greysen is big enough to play trains and trucks with him. he has been nothing but loving and helpful with him, and its fantastic. i'm excited for the two of them to be able to play together in the future. 

 we left the hospital thursday morning, and i have been feeling quite good actually. it might have to do with having no drugs left in my system, but i don't really feel as exhausted or as in as much pain as i remember last time. so i guess, that's a plus, or it could be that we've done this before so i knew what to expect and our kid was much smaller? i don't know, but i'm surprised at how well i'm doing. we will see how things go when my mom and mother in law leave in a couple of weeks and i'm supposed to entertain two of them by myself. but until then, i will enjoy cuddling both the big kid and the baby and relaxing. =) 

big kid brudda.

i figure that before our next big adventure, we should talk about our cute first born's antics before we get too wrapped up in entertaining two of them and forget to write them all down.

he is cracking us up on a daily basis. there are some days when i might be close to locking him in his room forever, but the majority of the time he says something hilarious almost every time he opens his mouth. a few of my favorites include: 

"whatchu doing there mom? mom whatchu doing? mom, mom, mom whatchu doing there mom?" 

"no singing mom. no thank you mom. no singing please" - only music approved by him may be sung outloud. 

"i look so handsome mom. so so handsome"- every time he gets dressed. 

"mom, cereal is too squishy. i need a new bowl"- shredded wheat is the devil. 

"i need some milky milk milk mom. i need some milky milk right now"

"kittyyyyyyy, whatchu doing up there? come down here right now! no being bad." 

"i being so reverent reverent mom." 

"wake up mommy! i wanna come outta room!"- every day during naptime when mom's still sleeping. 

"i so so hungry mom. i need in n out"- who's kid is that? 

"i have germies on my fingers mom"

those are just the ones off the top of my head, he has a ton of hilarious things he says everyday. he is an amazing talker, and never shuts up. it makes me wonder what he did the first two years of his life. no wonder he was/is so loud ALL the time. 

he is so excited to go to the hospital to "pick up baby greysen". we haven't told him much up until this last month, but this month we have been asking him about the baby and he is very stoked to be a "big kid brudda". however, greysen will not be his little brother, he will only be the big kid brudda. very specific. 

he wants to share everything with the baby. if you didn't know, "bubble" is his dog he is obsessed with. he's on the right. we needed to find "greysen's bubble" too. which was impossible because none of the ones we offered big brother were satisfactory, due to the fact they didn't have a tail he could shove up his nose or a rattle that makes noise in him. but super mom found the dog on the left on some random ebay-like website and he is very excited to give it to him in the hospital. 

he is seriously obsessed with trains. i'm pretty sure that 95% of his daily conversation revolves around trains, crossings, going to see the trains, tunnels, crossing the crossings, needing to see the trains again, faster-faster trains, all-aboard trains {two different types of trains we have yet to determine which is which}, chuggington etc. etc. 

he has loved doing boy things with dad recently. with dad having a whole month off, they have been camping, swimming, lighting fireworks, going to the park, and doing all sorts of things mom doesn't really want to do. it's been so great for them to be able to spend time together before his whole world changes. 

 he is so independent. it's about time we have another one that needs me, because he can do everything by himself. including opening the fridge and getting out what he wants to drink. nothing is safe now. 

he loves his underwear. he is an excellent potty trainee. we haven't had any accidents out and about or at home in the last few weeks. just his diaper for nap time and bed time and he's good to go. 

he has gotten better than his "terrible two's" we were at a few months ago, thank goodness. we love being his parents 95% of the time, and can't wait to see him be a big brother in a few days! =)

by the way, i'm getting induced monday at 10 pm! woohoo!