Christmastime!

This is going to be our best Christmas yet, I just know it.  Regardless of where we go, who comes here, or whatever our plans end up being, I know we have reached the "fun" age for Christmas with Greyson.  He is loving everything about our Christmas tree, Christmas lights, Baby Jesus, our advent calendar, snowmen, making cookies, and, of course, the promise of presents.  I'm so excited to celebrate with him.  Here are some pictures of some of our Christmas celebrating so far.

Our advent calendar.  Every night Greyson picks the next number and inside the bag is a piece of candy and a mini ornament that he gets to hang on his own mini tree.  Some ornaments are nativity, some are pretty words, and some are snowflakes.  Greyson LOVES doing the "numbers" each night and asks all day to do another one.  :)

Decorating the tree.  He was totally into it this year. :)

What I found one day after 20 minutes of silence...

A couple nights ago we made Christmas cookies with frosting and sprinkles, but once I get all the sprinkles swept up I will have time to upload and edit those pics :)  Merry Christmas week!!

Master of Negotiation & Imagination

Greyson has been cracking me up lately.  Like, all the time.  He is talking so well now and understands waaay more than I think he should.  So, he comes up with the most grown-up things to say.  And he also comes up with the most hilarious things to say.  I love his sense of humor, I can tell its going to be dry and intellectual, like his daddy's.  He has also started exploring the art of negotiation.  SUCH a first-born thing to do.  He has to have his way snuck in there any way he can.  Here are a couple of recent conversations I want to remember.

Last night at bedtime:
Me: Ok, Greyson we can read one book.
G: How about three books?
Me:  One book.
G:  Two books?
Me:  No books?
G:  One book.

Today after a quick trip to Ikea that ended with a $1 ice cream cone:
Me: You can have two big licks of ice cream and then you need to eat some hot dog.
G:  How about.... ten licks?!
Me:  TEN?!
G:  How about... eight?
Me:  Two licks.
He looks at me smiling and sneakily took a third lick.  :)

He has also been becoming so much more imaginative lately.  I love watching him play.  He loves racing cars, building train tracks, "cooking" dinner, and dreaming up all sorts of new games.  I think Santa is going to have to bring him some imaginative toys this Christmas.  He has names for all his cars and says they are all his friends and they are friends with each other.  Girls have dolls and animals, apparently boys befriend their cars and trains.

He has also really started liking Sawyer.  Which makes it so fun to watch them interact.  He likes to show Sawyer his cars and read to him and teach him about matching (his other favorite pastime).  Here is a sweet sweet video of Greyson reading to Sawyer, which was entirely his idea.  I love this!

iPhone on The Brain

Ok, just had to post this real quick.  Yesterday morning, Greyson woke up crying at about 5am.  This isn't unusual, I guess sometimes he has bad dreams or something.  One of us just goes in and lays him back down and he's fine.  Anyway, yesterday Dan went in to comfort him and came back to tell me that he was crying out, "iPhone! iPhone!" in his sleep.  Dude, I love that kid.  :)

Thankful

We have soooo incredibly much to be thankful for this year!  What a blessed year we've had, and especially a blessed November!  Here's a quick update on my "thankful list" just for the month of November.
-Sweet Sawyer complied with our wishes and waited to be born until 12:00am on November 1st!  What a great start to the month!
-Greyson is LOVING being a big brother, and is growing so much.
-My parents were able to come down right after Sawyer's birth and my mom has been here for over 2 weeks helping SOOO much with all the little things that pile up when you have a newborn (+ a toddler).
-Greyson is speaking in full sentences, is using more big boy words, can identify all the letters of the alphabet and most of their sounds, loves learning, has recently discovered how to jump, and is just an all-around amazing little dude!
-Out of the blue, Dan was offered a position as the Video Arts Director at Sun Valley Community Church, our church home for the last 6 years.  This is a position we have been wanting and praying for for literally YEARS, and we are beyond thrilled that this is now happening!!  Dan starts at SVCC on December 5th.  What an incredible blessing!!!!
-My dad, sister, and brother-in-law were able to come down for Thanksgiving weekend to hang with us and the boys for a few days.  How cool that they were able to take some time to meet Sawyer and just be together as a family.
-I am so excited for December, to watch our family fall into a bit of a routine, for Dan to start his new job, for Greyson to experience the excitement of Christmas, and just for sweet time as a family.

What a great month this has been!

And, just to satisfy any "baby cravings" you may be having, here are some of the shots from Sawyer's little "newborn session."

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Welcome Sawyer William!

Surprise!  Sweet little Sawyer decided to make an early appearance and we couldn't be more thrilled!!  Before I get into all the exciting details, here are the basics:  Sawyer William DeZago was born at 12:00 am on Tuesday, November 1st.  He weighed 7 lbs 12 oz and was 19 3/4 inches long.  We are so in love.

Now, for the long story.  Please feel free to skim these next paragraphs because they will probably be long and wordy.  I just want to remember every blessing of the day, so I am writing it out here.  God just truly blessed us in so many unexpected ways and I believe it is such an awesome birth story!

Now, I will just begin by stating (for like the millionth time) that Dan and I are planners.  Especially me.  We like to know how, when, where, what, etc etc all before things happen and we like to be prepared.  Having just turned our lives upside-down by moving during my 37th week, I was extremely grateful to still have about 2 weeks until Sawyer's scheduled c-section on Friday November 11th.  I had a (LONG) list of things I wanted to accomplish in those 2 weeks.  When I was pregnant with Greyson, I had tons of painful contractions starting at about 37 weeks, and lasting until he was born at nearly 41 weeks.  This time around, I hadn't had any excessive contractions and I was actually feeling pretty good.  SO, I assumed I had plenty of time.  On the evening of October 30th, we were hanging out with some friends and were all talking about how great and stress-free it was that we knew exactly when Sawyer was coming and how to prepare for his arrival.  

THEN, the very next morning I woke up at about 6am feeling some pretty painful contractions.  I didn't think much of it, as this was pretty normal for me.  I went to the bathroom at about 7 and noticed that I was bleeding a little.  That was when I started to get nervous.  I didn't have blood with Greyson until the morning I went into labor.  I waited a bit and called the doctor to see what they thought.  The nurse in triage said that since I was scheduled to have a repeat c-section they didn't really want me to go into labor so I needed to go to the hospital OB unit and have them check me for dilation.  UGH.  I did that several times before having Greyson, and was always told it was a false alarm.  So, I put off going in until about 10am or so.  All the while, I was still having consistent contractions and definitely feeling "off."  At the hospital, the nurse (Joanie) checked me and told me I was already 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced.  WHAT?!  I was shocked.  That was not what I was expecting to hear!  She told me she was pretty sure I was having a baby "today."  We also talked about a possible VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarian) which was something I hadn't even considered.  More on that later.  She had me walk the halls for an hour and then come back to be re-checked for progress.  During this hour, I frantically called Dan and told him the news.  We didn't have ANYTHING ready.  I gave him lists over the phone and he packed bags for us and for Greyson, installed the carseat, and did any other odds and ends left to do.  I went back to triage to be checked again.  No progress, still a 3.  Contractions were still consistently coming every 6 minutes and lasting about a minute each.  Joanie sent me home and told me to come back when contractions were getting a lot worse, which would probably just be in a few hours.  I left the hospital at 1:00.

By 2:00 at home, I knew we were going back.  They were getting BAD.  I did the dishes and put some laundry away so at least we wouldn't have to come home to that.  Contractions were now about 3-4 min apart and I couldn't do anything through them except stand and lean against the wall.  Dan kept asking me, "Was that a bad one?"  Haha, at one point I just looked at him and said, "Stop asking me that!  Just know that they are ALL bad!!"  We dropped Greyson off at Mike & Cindy's house and headed to the hospital.  Joanie was happy to see me again!  At that point I was at 4 1/2 cm and 90% effaced.  Progress!

Now, for a little side note.  While I was at home, Dan and I talked through the option of having a VBAC.  I was so nervous.  My birthing experience with Greyson was FULL of really terrible experiences and I just didn't want to experience those again.  But, with Sawyer coming a full 3 weeks before Greyson did, chances were great that he was significantly smaller.  Meaning, I could probably birth him.  And, chances of me having 3 failed epidurals again were pretty slim.  In the back of my mind, I had always really wished I could deliver vaginally, I was just pretty freaked out by it all.  So, we decided to talk to the Dr at the hospital, but to go for it.

Ok, back to labor.  Once I was admitted and in a room (maybe around 5:00), we were able to discuss a VBAC with Dr Peatross and she was very reassuring that it would most likely go well.  Joanie was all for it too, so I felt like we were in good hands.  Then, I got to talk to the anesthesiologist who was also very reassuring!  He told me that basically what had happened with Greyson was a fluke that is so rare the chances were extremely slim of it happening again.  So, I said we should go for it and got the epidural at about 5 cm.  Finally, RELIEF!  Here's me in my hospital bed, with the blessed epidural pump behind me:

They laid me in the bed on my side with a giant peanut-shaped inflatable "ball" between my knees.  That thing was awesome.  They would have me flip every hour or so, which definitely helped labor progress.  At about 7:30pm, I was 7cm dilated so the Dr decided to break my water.  I didn't seem to have a problem dilating, but Sawyer was still sitting pretty high.  Waiting for him to descend took quite awhile.  By 9:00 I was already 10 cm, but he needed to come down more.  The new nurse (Susan) had me push a couple of times at that point, but it was still too early.  

By 10:00 or 10:30, I started pushing again.  I pushed for a good 45 min+ and got him really low.  At about 11:15 I said, "Man, we are so close to November, maybe he won't have to be a Halloween baby!"  Sweet Susan then asked me if we wanted to hold off on pushing until just before midnight so he could be born November 1st.  I felt so silly, but Dan and I looked at each other and said, "Yes!"  Susan said I could push one more time and he would be on his way out, or we could wait about 30 min and try again.  We decided to wait :)  At about 11:45 I started pushing again and got him low enough that it was time to call Dr Peatross in.  She came in, along with the nursery nurses and they got all prepped for Sawyer's arrival.  I pushed a couple more times and Dr Peatross asked me if I wanted to touch my baby's head.  That was incredible!!  I was so pumped because these were all experiences I totally missed with Greyson's birth.  His head was half way out at 11:58.  Susan told Dr Peatross to wait a minute so he would be born on the 1st.  So we waited.  And Susan watched the clock for what seemed like the longest minute of all time.  Then, at 12:00 on the dot I pushed a couple more big pushes and there was our sweet baby Sawyer!  I can't even describe to you the intense feelings of joy, peace, accomplishment, and just gratitude that overflowed at that moment.  He was here!  He was healthy, beautiful, perfect, and his birth was successful!!  There are no words. 

I held him on my chest with all the blood, goop, and slime and just fell in love.  Dan got to cut the cord and they wiped him off and brought him right back to me.  Then, the most amazing thing happened.  He nursed!  I was so relieved, as this was one more thing that never worked with Greyson.  It was awesome.  

I just kept saying, "I did it!  It worked!  I can't believe how great it went!"  I was so beyond happy.  What a sweet angel baby we had.  

In the moments following his birth, Dr Peatross just sat "down there" and stared at me with a very concerned look on her face.  Not really what I wanted to see.  She was very thoughtful and concentrating.  "How bad?"  I asked.  "I'm trying to decide if its a 3rd or 4th degree tear," She replied.  GULP.  Not really what any girl wants to hear.  I will spare you dear readers the details, but she did spend about an hour stitching me up.  And we will just leave it at that.  

Back to the cute pictures :)

I LOVE this one of his inked foot, and love how it looks in b&w:

Dan was amazing through it all.  He held my leg and coached me through pushing.  He told me I was beautiful.  He stayed with Sawyer through everything and was such a great daddy all over again.  I love my husband.  

Later Tuesday morning Dan picked Greyson up from the Brantons and brought him back to meet his little brother.  He knew he was going to see baby Sawyer, so when he came into the room, he pointed to my stomach and said, "Baby Sawyer."  So then I picked up Sawyer from his bed and we explained to Greyson that now Sawyer was outside mommy's tummy and he was going to live with us.  He wasn't super excited, and then discovered the remote on my bed that made it go up and down.  That was way more awesome than a sleeping baby.  Greyson got to stay in the hospital with us until about 4pm that day, which was so great.  We watched movies, took naps, and just enjoyed our first hours together as a family of four.  Greyson loves talking about Sawyer and always wants to know where he is, but still won't touch him or hold him.  All in due time :)

Wednesday morning we had Sawyer circumcised and then started getting ready to go home.  I was still in a lot of pain, but being home definitely seemed more desirable.  

Here we are, all dressed and ready for our new life with sweet Sawyer!

God was able to do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine!  What a huge lesson in letting go and letting Him, and his perfect will, take over.  Here are some specific worries/desires/prayers that were answered that day:

-That Sawyer would be smaller than Greyson's 9+ lbs -->  He was 7-12!

-That his birth would be uneventful --> It was perfect!

-That somehow, someday I would get to experience a vaginal delivery -->if Sawyer hadn't come early, he would've been too big and we would've gone with the c/section as scheduled.

-That the epidural would work (I had 3 separate ones that all failed with Greyson) --> It was beautiful!

-That Sawyer would breastfeed without issue --> Check!

Thank you to all our friends and family who have been praying for items on the above list.  Your diligence has made a difference, and we are so grateful.  And thank you so much Brantons and Roberts who so willingly took Greyson into your homes with hardly any notice.  You are true friends.

Welcome to the world, sweet baby Sawyer!  You are loved more than you'll ever know!

Welp, It's Done! (ish)

We moved!  Yep, that's right, we did it.  It could be the hormones raging through my VERY pregnant body, but I definitely feel a giant mix of emotions.  Definitely sadness mixed with frustration and nostalgia about leaving our house.  It definitely wasn't ideal.  We walked through with the realtor today and seeing Greyson's room all empty was really hard.  But, I also feel relief.  That mortgage was such a point of stress in our marriage, finances, and just every day life.  It was always in the back of our heads.  I'm glad to finally be free of it.  (Although, there was a slight pit in my stomach today when we saw the listing price written on the contract, of about $130k LESS that what we got it for.  Ouch).  I also feel excitement and anticipation.  With this new house comes a blank slate.  A new beginning.  Fun new projects (even though its a rental) and the opportunity to freely dream about what the future may hold.  Who knows?  We aren't tied down to that other mortgage anymore, so really, the sky's the limit.

I also feel an immense gratitude.  So grateful that this worked so quickly.  That we were blessed with a new rental that fit our physical and budgetary needs the same weekend we decided to do this.  Grateful that everything is IN our new house and I haven't gone into labor yet.  And SO incredibly grateful for the help Dan's mom gave us last week.  She was here for 8 days packing, lifting, unpacking, more lifting, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning...  She was awesome and there is absolutely NO way I could have taken care of all (or any) of that myself.  And, it just so happened that Dan worked like 300 hours (well almost) last week, so her being here was truly priceless.  THANK YOU MARI!!!

On another note, I had my 37 week (!!!) appointment yesterday and everything looks awesome.  This was about the time I started feeling really bad with Greyson (swelling beyond recognition, seeing spots, having constant contractions, etc) but I am still feeling awesome.  Blood pressure looks great, and no swelling!  Woo hoo!  Also, she was feeling around on my belly and I asked her if she could tell if he felt big.  She said that he felt really good and if we make it to delivery date she would expect him to be in the 7lb range!  Now, I realize that they can't tell much just by feel, but it was so encouraging to hear that!  (In case you don't know, Greyson was 9lbs 4oz).  Yesterday marked exactly 2 weeks until said delivery date, so we will definitely have our sweet Sawyer on (or before) the 11th.  And aside from the boxes piled all over our house, last minute laundry to be done, and a few projects I'm hoping to complete, I am ready!  Photos to come soon, I still have to locate all my memory cards...  :)

Really? 2 Months?? What is wrong with me?!

Lots of people stop posting on their blogs or "take a break" when life gets slow.  Like, nothing's going on so there's not much to post about.  On the contrary, I seem to "take a break" when life gets nuts!!  My oh my, we've been busy.  I (again) don't have a ton of time this morning to post, but I just wanted to give a quick list of the major highlights.  I will (TRY) to post pictures soon.  I've been formulating many posts in my head, why can't you all be mind readers?!  Ok, the quick list:

-At the beginning of September, we took yet ANOTHER trip to the ER.  Greyson fell into a toy box at a friend's house and needed three stitches in his forehead!

-Right after that, Greyson and I spent 8 days in California visiting my family.  He had a blast playing at Aunt Mimi's house, visiting the zoo, petting baby sheep and goats at the barns, playing with Gra-mama and Papa, and just being loved on.  I had a great time too, it was so nice to be back home!  I also had a couple photo shoots that week, so that was fun too.

-After getting back, Dan and I had several long conversations about our current financial situation.  Based on a number of factors, we decided to put our house up for short sale and move into a rental.  All-in-all it will save us about $700 a month, and return to us a priceless amount of peace of mind.  Its sad, but the right thing to do for our family.  We will definitely miss our home of 4 1/2 years, but I'm excited to get settled in a new place.  We actually move this week!

-I started a new "branch" of my photography business, which has kept me pretty busy!  I opened an etsy shop, and I'm selling digital copies of customized invitations, birth announcements, holiday cards, etc.  The url to my shop is http://www.etsy.com/shop/erindezago.  And, actually, I've been averaging one new order per day, so that has monopolized my computer time!

-I will be 36 weeks pregnant tomorrow.  WOW.  I feel gigantic, exhausted, in pain, and just plain ready to meet this sweet little boy!  Each day, I can feel him wiggling around inside of me and I am just so ready to hold him in my arms!  It was so strange last week, because I was packing everything in their bedroom.  I had been ambitious and hung things on the wall, gotten the crib ready, put his name up, etc.  Then I took it all down.  That was kind of sad.  But, I am ready to put it all back up again and get this show on the road!  We have my c-section scheduled for 39 1/2 weeks and we are hoping he follows in his brother's footsteps and decides to cook at least until then.  I thing Greyson was 6 days LATE, so hopefully we won't be facing any early labor this time around either.

-Dan's Dad just spent 3 days with us after a conference he had in Phoenix.  It was a great visit, and he got some quality time with Greyson, which was awesome.  The boy had so much fun with Papa.  Dan's mom is coming tomorrow for a week to help with the move.  I am so thankful to have her help because I have pretty much reached my limit of what I can do.  Moving is a lot of work!

Hopefully that brings us up-to-date (sort of).  I will try and get some pictures up soon, but with our house upside-down right now, its hard to get anything done!

I HATE SCORPIONS!!

So, lately, we have been finding more and more scorpions in (yes IN) our house.  I don't know if its the weather, new construction in our area, or just that all the scorpions like our house, but its getting really old. So, they bug guy has been scheduled to come tomorrow afternoon.

THEN, last night just before 10pm, we heard Greyson wake up screaming.  That's not abnormal, because sometimes he has bad dreams and wakes up crying.  So, I went in there and he was rolling on his bed grabbing his neck and screaming.  I picked him up to comfort him and something that felt like a stick fell on my hand.  Then said "stick" stung my thumb.  And I immediately knew what it was.  "Turn on the light!!!  Scorpion!!!"  I screamed to Dan as I jumped off Greyson's bed and waved my hand in the air.  The light went on, scorpion flew on the floor, and Dan crushed it all in one big motion.  Praise God he was home, because it was his late night and had just gotten home at about 9.

Anyway, so poor Greyson is still screaming about his neck sting, and I'm in pain and freaking out about BOTH my babies at one time.  I frantically called my dear friend Cindy thinking that between her Google skills and his AZ experience she or Mike had to know what to do.  Hey, at least I didn't call 911!  Sweet Mike calmly said to take Greyson to the ER.  So, I threw some pj's on him and Dan loaded him up.  We were checking in less than 10 min later (thank goodness we live so close to the hospital!).  They got us right back to see the Dr and were so calm and sweet to us.  Greyson was screaming his brains out because he was so scared of the Dr's and nurses and all their gadgets.  Hey, if you were woken in the middle of the night by an intense pain and then rushed to the hospital just to be poked, prodded, and have medicine forced down your throat, you might scream your brains out too.  Then they made us stick around for 2 hours or so because they said that the toxin takes about 2 hours to really take effect if it was going to.  We were to watch for uncontrolled muscle movements, tongue twitches, excess saliva, and his eyes rolling around in his head.  Praise Jesus, because none of that ever happened.  If it had, I don't think I could have handled seeing my sweet boy go through that.  Ugh.  Once we were hanging out in an ER room, Greyson was having a great time playing with the TV, the remote, and our phones.  Of course. And I was fine too.  The Dr said that if I didn't have any symptoms that Sawyer would be fine too.

At a little after midnight we got the ok to head back home.  Greyson was more than ready to climb right back in his bed and go to sleep.  I think I was less ready than he was!  He woke up at a wonderful 8:15 this morning, ready to go for the day.  Like nothing ever happened.  Thank you, Lord, for protecting our sweet boys.  It was definitely a little miracle.

Moral:  the bug guy is spraying extra tomorrow, both inside and outside.  For FREE!

Greyson's 2 Year Shoot

Enjoy!