Baby Number 2 We Love you!

Well our lovely baby Carleton joined our family exactly on his due date. He is such a blessing to us! Here is his story:

At 3:30 AM I woke up with a strong contraction, I was used to pretty strong Braxton hicks so I did not want to freak out and wake Seth up if it was not the real thing. So I waited and watched the clock. I noticed that they were around ten minutes apart, and so I started to get excited…and worried that everything would go well.  Of all the fears associated with delivering a baby, one of my greatest is of going to the hospital and being sent home, so I waited an extra couple of hours to be sure this baby was really coming. During that time I cleaned our apartment, took a shower, wrote Seth a Father’s Day card, and around 6:00 AM I started making blueberry muffins. I do not know where I got the energy but I am sure it was because I was so excited to finally see our little baby! I figured Seth should sleep as long as he could and I did not want to wake up our babysitter for Walter too early either. Around 7:00 AM I walked into the bedroom and poked him awake and said “Happy Father’s day, let’s go have our baby.” He blinked a few times to get the sleep out of his eyes and said in a sleepy but happy voice, “Really?” We decided that he had time to get ready and we would try to leave for the hospital at 8:00 AM.

We made it to the hospital around 8:10 AM and started the check-in process. They did not seem too worried as they asked me several questions in a nonchalant manner. I remember this was no fun since I was contracting every five minutes by this time. I was then very slowly, hooked up to computers and other weird machines for about an hour and half before they decided that I was okay to stay at the hospital and deliver. Three hours later the midwife broke my water. Around 3:15 PM they decided to start the Pitocin to help move things along and baby Carleton was born about 20 minutes later. I knew I was in trouble when before I could see the baby, the midwife, in a thick New Yorker accent, exclaimed, “That is one chubby baby!” And that is the story of how our 9 pound 10 ounce baby came into the world. 

here are a few more recent pictures:

 Baby Blessing day! We were lucky enough to have Grandma and Grandpa Sainsbury in town and Matt and Jaime and their kids. It was a full house but we loved having them here for Carleton's special day.

Cute little baby blessing outfit

 These two are best buds...most of the time. ;) Walter loves to wrestle his little brother and give him big kisses so I am busy keeping Carleton safe.

 I started taking a bunch of pictures of just Carleton and I could tell Walter really wanted to be in more pictures by the fact that he snuck into the background. I thought it was too cute not to capture.

So you may be wondering why we have those two stuffed animals in the picture. Sherie Dotson gave Walter the little hippo when he was born. We then took a picture with the hippo every month so that we could see how much Walter had grown. We decided to keep the tradition alive by giving Carleton a tiger. These last three are of his 3 month photos. I cannot believe it has already been 3 months! Time flies when you just want to snuggle with your new baby. 

Sweetie Pie Walter

So last week was a pretty hard one, for reasons stated in other posts. Walter was such a good boy! There was one moment specifically where I was in a lot of pain and needed a drink. So I thought, "what the heck, just try to see if Walter can help." So I hollered to the other room, "Walter, mommy needs your help, can you come help me?" There was a pause as he put his toy car down and then he responded, "okay mommy, I'm coming." I was so shocked at that response, up until that point Walter had been a boy of very few words and they were normally, "no", "mine", "baba" (even though we worked constantly on other words and sentences). I'll admit my heart was filled with so much gratitude that all of my hard work to teach him things was finally coming to fruition. I heard his little feet running into the room I was in. Then I asked him to go in another room and get me my water bottle. And again I was shocked when he said okay and ran and opened the fridge and brought it back to me.

Walter is such a sweet boy! He has his good days and his bad days but at the end of every day, after "tickling" his teeth (brushing his teeth) and saying prayers, he runs to his mommy and daddy and gives big hugs and kisses (and he will say "huuuuugs....Kiss, kiss?") No matter how tough of a day it has been he will always be so happy and loving.

Another thing we have worked on is getting him to tap us on the shoulder and say "excuse me" when he needs our attention. At first I thought it would not work but now everyday he will come up to me multiple times tap me on my shoulder and say "cuse me".....I know that I may be the only one who actually understands much of what he says but it makes me so proud to see how much he is trying to communicate...it's those small things that soften my heart and fill it with an amazing amount of love that I would not have imagined possible. It is amazing to feel that multiple times in a day. I am so grateful that I have been blessed with this sweet spirit in our home.

I was inspired to write this post because this morning he asked for a drink of milk and I gave it to him but he kept saying "thank you" thank you thank you.....(sometimes he just repeats the same thing over and over so I thought it was one of those things) but then he tapped my shoulder and with a big sweet grin on his face he said "cuse me, mommy, thank you!" I looked at his loving countenance and said "you're welcome" and it just made his grin even bigger. If you ever wondered the effect that your attention and words can have on another person this is just one huge example of why we need to give constant nourishment of loving words and actions. Walter was a huge lifesaver when I was physically in so much pain. He is growing up so quickly I miss having my baby boy but at the same time I am loving this independent spirit who just wants to be happy and make others around him happy. Sometimes he'll run around the house saying "appy, appy, appy" now whether he is trying to actually state his feelings or if he is just trying to sing happy birthday, i'm not sure, but it makes me happy to see such small things make this boy happy. I don't have to spend a lot of money to get his love he just wants my attention and love.

On a Happier Note

The beginning of the year is always a super busy time for the Sainsbury family. This year has been especially busy because Seth has been taking his CPA tests.  February: We celebrate Seth's birthday, Valentines day, then Walter's birthday within 7 days. CARAZAY! For Seth's birthday I really wanted to do something special and different. We haven't really gone out to eat since we moved to LA because of my pregnancy cravings and I have been pretty sensitive to smells. I had a great friend offer to watch Walter while we went out. I had reservations and had planned out everything (or so I thought) We pull up to the restaurant and I realize everyone else in LA goes out to eat. They offered a valet service but it cost half of one of our meals (and we are not the wealthiest people in LA). So we drive around for ten minutes looking for parking in the area, due to my pregnancy. Luckily for us, neither of us were starving, or we would have been miserable. Seth's co-workers were amazing and took him out for a big lunch so he was very forgiving and willing to go anywhere for his birthday. So we head to the next best option, ICECREAM! Which wasn't a local option for us so we did frozen yogurt at Pinkberry which was just as close. Here is the birthday boy....

After Seth's birthday comes Valentines day! Right now I cannot remember what we did, must be pregnancy brain. But we certainly love each other!

Then came Walter's birthday. We were lucky to have family in town for Walter's birthday. The Lewis's were out here for a vacation so we were able to put all of our boys and Kathryn together for a birthday celebration. Seth had work off for the holiday so he was able to join us all day! YAY. We decided to go to the beach! What an awesome idea....in February. As you can tell from the pictures it was cold; hence, no one on the beach.

But it wouldn't be a true beach visit if Walter did not get into the water. Which again even in freezing water he did not want to come out. Once he was out he was happy to snuggle next to his mommy and daddy for extra body heat and maybe some snacks. 

 Later that week Walter and I went to Disneyland with the Lewis' and we finally got the chance to get a picture with mickey mouse...And well Walter freaked out! He wanted nothing to do with this giant mouse. So after waiting in line for 30 minutes he was willing to give mickey a high five.  Here we are at Mary and Jared's house, everyone together! man that is a lot of boys! And why is Walter crying for his birthday celebration....the little hat on his head had an elastic strap that shot up into his eyes right before taking this picture.

Later in the month we all went to visit the Hollywood sign (we figured that since we have lived here for almost a year we had better visit).  These pictures are from a lookout point where you can see the Ocean, downtown LA, and the Hollywood sign in one turn. 

My handsome boys and the skyline of downtown LA

Here I am...pregnant...luckily I only had to climb 30 stairs to get to this view, otherwise I might have stayed in the car. 

This month Seth finished his final test of the CPA and boy it has been so nice to have a husband that can be home when he his home. It was especially great because that was right around the time i started needing physical help getting anywhere. My birthday week was a lot more enjoyable because he could take care of me. As for my birthday, Seth bought me a Kindle cover (which is perfect because I am kind of a clutz) and a cuisinart griddler, which I am LOVING! It is a griddle, pannini press, and grill all in one. Another birthday request was that we have a steak dinner. We ended up buying some steaks and had a weekend of steak dinner....which makes me so happy. 

Sunday: Nice big cuts of steak and corn

 Monday: Shish kabab YUM!

 No birthday would be complete without a birthday cake.

Seth hadn't been feeling to great so he relaxed at home while I went out for some frozen yogurt with some awesome friends! 

I had a wonderful and relaxing day, and physically I was doing really great. I had not felt so great in a while it was truly a birthday miracle! 

Pregnancy

Hallelujah! Today marks the first day in a week that I have been able to get in and out of bed in less than 2 minutes. YES, I mean literally climbing into bed. Pregnancy is such a blessing, I realize how lucky I am to even have the physical capability to grow another human being! I know that there are a lot of people who have had it worse than I, but man I never realized how painful pregnancy could be. I guess in a sense you could relate my two pregnancy experiences to those that are depicted in the movie 'What to expect when you are expecting.' I realize now that my first pregnancy was very similar to Mrs. Cooper who basically sneezed her children out. This second pregnancy......is more like the other Mrs. Cooper.

 This clip is a bit graphic but I cried when I watched it because I was relating to almost everything she was saying, and it was miserable.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuoC2bwB9Do

 Well I guess I should say I cried through the whole movie, but that was not because of my physical pain but rather the emotional roller coaster I am on. I can only pray that I can continue to be able to move my body. Only a 104 days left till I get to hold this little guy!