Alaskan Christmas

We headed up to AK this year to celebrate my grandma's 90th bday and see all the rest of my fam. Photo overload. So many great ones!

Compliments of Tyler's ever-present iPhone.

HIGHLIGHTS

- The cute little cousins. Since my sis has moved up to AK, we have even more reason to go up. Between Katie, Scott, and I we have 6 kids who are 7 and under. They were so cute together. Thanks to Skype, the kids see each other quite a bit so there was no shyness. In every picture we took of the 6 of them someone's holding a hand or got an arm around someone. Love it!!

- All the snow gear. The kids all looked so freaking hilarious and I think Watson's snowsuit actually put him to sleep some of the times because of the weight. Made me almost want to live someplace cold. I even rocked a vest. So many more things to wear when you're somewhere where the temperature changes.

The spell is working!

- Watson was a total champ on the plane. None of the scream-fests I was dreading.

- We were there for my grandma's 90th bday, but incidentally it was also recently my dad's 60th, my 30th, and Watson's 0th...so of course we had to get a pic.

This pic has Caroline in it too, but conveniently, she is also 0 so she fits! :)

LOWLIGHTS

- To those traveling with more than one infant, beware. There is only one lap infant allowed per row in the airplane, a fact we were completely unaware of. As a result, our seats were changed on both legs up, resulting in somewhat of an ordeal each time. Eesh. Live and learn.

- Watson started scooting! My freedom is over. Tyler blames Max for showing him. And I blame Tyler for telling Max to show him.

Watson's cheeks and chin were permanently red from the lethal drool/dryness/freezing combo. 

- Went to Zumba with my sis. It's fun to flail around and all and pretend you can dance, but if they could just lose the giant mirror at the front of the room...

- The trip was not long enough! There were still a few key people I wasn't able to see. Just another excuse to get back there soon!

- My sis and her family love it there. I truly fear we may have lost them. :(


A few more pics of misc. goodness:

Watson and Grandpa Fred. He didn't start smiling until he got great-grandkids. They finally cracked him!

Because who doesn't like to mock their children 's discomfort.

Uncle James was Watson's best friend

One of my favorite pictures from the whole trip. 

He's basically an adult, sitting up to the table and all.

See you again soon, AK!

Spit-up, sweat, and tears...

HIGHLIGHTS

- The times, though few and far between, that I can actually figure out what he wants/needs!

- Still on maternity leave for 3 more weeks! AND I can go back to the gym now!

- Starting to giggle. Best thing ever!! Sounds a little like a pig squeal, as Tyler described it.





- He has a bit of a spit-up issue, so for revenge I made a tribute tune to honor his precious digestive system. It somehow made me feel a little bit better:

To the tune of "You Are My Sunshine"
My name is Watson,
I spit up often.
I enjoy eating all my meals twice.
You'll never know Mom, when I will strike next
So you dang well better be nice!

(Working on coming up for one that about naptimes next....)



LOWLIGHTS

- Those days when I feel like I'm covered in every bodily fluid that can come from a baby.

- When those days turn into 3.

- Baby = alarm with no snooze button. Clearly no one ever warned him about what I'm like when I wake up cause he's not even a little bit scared to do it.

This is how we baracaded him from spitting up on the couch. That is, after our very large blanket already fell victim to him.

Tyler with his two babies.

Aunt Hannah and Baby Moses.

He strongly prefers his dad's hands to pacifiers.

Well-placed spit-up. Thanks, Wats.

Sometimes they pose with matching faces.

Staring at nothing in particular. Actually, probably at the guitars on the wall behind me. One of his favorite focal points.

Birth Story Slideshow

Here are the pics that Sharon Johnson took at the birth, set to music.



For more info about her photography and doula services, visit http://sharonjohnsonphotography.com/

Introducing . . . Mr. Watson Samuel Pond

HIGHLIGHTS

- Look at this kid! What's not to love?! :)

- Seeing Tyler as a dad. He loves this little booger to death and I love watching them together! Tyler is Watson's #1 swaddler, shusher, and changer, even at 3am. :)

- Maternity Leave. Did I say that out loud? It's seriously so cool to just be at home and focus on him and spend time with fam.

- Watson's proud cousins. He was born into a lot of love! His Grandma Kerry took the 4 other rugrats to make a Build-a-Bear for Watson as a surprise. I was told proudly when presented with the bear that he has 7 hearts in him. That tells you enough right there. :)

- When he does his little koala bear roll. I love how bendy and cuddly he is!

- His many faces and the fact that since he's our first kid, I have time to just sit and stare at them.

I call this one his "sweet Cheerio lips." Tyler calls it "Blue Steel" from Zoolander. That is the difference between men and women.

- Motherhood has helped me to perfect the art of picking things up with my feet.


LOWLIGHTS

- Leaving the house for our first outing. Much like trying to run into a Double Dutch jump rope--trying to time the escape in the magic cycle of feeding, puking, pooping, car seat strapping, and crying. He did all of those at least twice between leaving our bedroom and getting into the car. Only took about 25 mins. :)

- Some of the times when I burp him, I end up burping myself instead. Most of the time, actually...

- All the freaky things that happen to your body as it's trying to put itself back together. Oh well. Most of it I'd been forewarned about, and I just tell myself it's a part of what I see as the beautiful sacrifice that is Motherhood, even if it's not so beautiful in and of itself. :/

- When Katie started talking about Watson's aunt and I assumed she was talking about me. It's gonna take a bit for this whole "I'm a mom" thing to sink in...

- Parenting 101: Peeing during diaper changes and projectile spit-up is to be expected. Burping is not to be performed by patting the back of the head, even in a state of delirium. Always check your own pants for poop before leaving the house.

He puts the "pee" in PJ pants. Hehe. (Sorry, Tyler)

I made him wear this "Bananas over Mommy" shirt the day he spit up on my 3x and peed on me twice within an hour. Sweet vengeance!

Labor & Delivery

Our original plan was to deliver at Best Start Birth Center with a midwife and a doula. I wanted desperately to avoid the hospital setting because of the rise of medical interventions I see being used in births that seem to make them more complicated than necessary. But alas, at the end of the day, we are not the ones in control (right, Mom? :) ) My water broke early Thurs AM and 24 hrs later I had to transfer my care to a hospital because it is considered too high risk for the B.C. After 24 more hrs of laboring at the hospital (this time with more intense contractions) there was still no considerable progress. Watson wasn't reacting well to any amount of Pitocin and the risk of infection was getting too great, so they decided to do a c-section. Blah, blah. At this point I just have to trust that we did what was safest for the baby, regardless of my personal views of the whole thing. So...onto highlights and lowlights:


HIGHLIGHTS

- The end result. No kidding. I don't feel like I can even attempt this post except to say that I feel so, so blessed to have Mr. Watson Samuel as the end result. Oh, and the fact that labor HAS an end! Haha.

- Contractions. Is that weird to say? I wanted to deliver naturally because I wanted to feel what billions of women throughout time have experienced and what I believe is a beautiful part of motherhood. Even though I never got to push, I love that I could feel the depths of the contractions that I did have for that second day.

- My support team! My sweet mama, my best friend/sista, my dear friend Sharon (doulagrapher extraordinaire!! So super glad we flew her down!), and of course Tyler. Many ppl would argue that 4 ppl is a little much to have in the room but they all brought a unique energy that I needed and it was a long couple of days so I was glad they could swap each other out. They had so much faith in me through the whole thing.

- Tyler. Can I say him twice? I think my fam was pretty impressed with how he handled me and how incredible and supportive he was. I can't say the same because that's exactly what I expected from him. Those are the qualities I've seen in him all along and the reason I married him so to me, it just felt normal and perfect and right. He is the best. :)

- The nurses! So even though it was totally random that we ended up delivering at Palomar, I really feel that the nurses we had (one of them who saw us through 2 night shifts) were meant for me. I really came to love and trust them in the short time we were together. Both came back after Watson was born to check on him. Both of them have a special place in my heart for their encouragement, skill, and sensitivity. Love Judy and Jen!

- My remote support team. :) Once I resurfaced from the whole ordeal and finally checked my voicemails, I had many, many messages of encouragement from people I love. It warmed my heart and made me ready to get back to life!


LOWLIGHTS

- No room in the inn. Not only were we not able to labor at the birth center (since my water broke and 24 hrs went by with no significant progress), but Kaiser, our backup hospital, was full. They had to call around and finally found us a place at Palomar. It was a drive to get there but it was lucky to be close to our families there and the nurses and docs were pretty open to my idea of a natural birth, I think more so than our other hospital options would have been.

- Throwing up. I don't like doing that. Ever. Especially not 3 times in one day.

- Getting the epidural. I don't like pumping drugs in my body to begin with but we were going to try it to let me rest while the Pitocin was administered until I was closer to being ready to push. My body was shaking uncontrollably from the drugs, plus I was still having pretty intense contractions. The mean lady kept getting mad that I wasn't holding still and questioning why I took so long to get the epidural. Grr. Even after the drugs kicked in, I didn't love the feeling, so I don't think I was missing out on much up to that point...

- Finding out I needed a c-section. This was tough news to handle, and even tougher I think on my sweet sis who's had 3 c-sections herself and was really rooting for me. It's nearly impossible to keep from playing the "what if..." game and thinking what I could have done differently to avoid this outcome. It's not so much about not obtaining my goal this time of delivering naturally/vaginally. It's more the concern about how this will impact subsequent pregnancies. But I'm so happy to have my new little buddy here safe and sound and I'm trying to just focus on enjoying that!

- The gnarled mess that my hair became. After 3 days of blood, sweat, and tears it was a team effort to get it untangled enough that I could even shower!

So much for an "unplugged" labor experience. :/

Seeing Wats for the first time!

First family photo. Huge fail. Haha.

There, that's better!

Ms. Sharon holding Watson before she had to hop back on a plane a few hours later. :(

The best nest.

The requisite sleeping baby on sleeping dad pic.

So...How are you feeling?

My two-cents on the journey o' pregnancy:

HIGHLIGHTS

- The fact that I'm pregnant at all. I recognize this is a great blessing that not everyone is able to enjoy on their own timelines and I'm thankful for it and all of the challenges/blessings that will come with it.

- Feeling the baby move! And watching my stomach move independent of me. Soooo weird and fun and cool. I'm addicted to watching it. Before it was pretty subtle and I'd have to pretty much hold my breath while I stared intently. Now it feels like breakdancing.

- My veiny hands. This is from the extra blood flow. Tyler calls them Old Lady hands. I call them Bodybuilder hands. Thus, highlight.

- Being pregnant is restoring my faith in humanity. I've gotten many comments from strangers about how great it is to have kids and raise a family. Even from the man at the campground with the devil-horn beanie.

- Our birth class. I'm planning to deliver at a birth center and we've had a 7-week course with other moms/couples. Super cool group and fun to trick myself into thinking I can prepare myself to deliver a baby. Although in the words of a wise old woman, it's as simple as "learning to crap out a pumpkin." Easy peasey!


LOWLIGHTS

- The acid reflux. :( It tends to wait to sneak up on me when I lay down to relax...meaning I have to then unrelax and sit up and wait for the lava guts to subside.

- Water retention issues. This results in waking up with my hands all puffy and tingley every morning, and sometimes they fall asleep in the middle of the day. Caused some slight concern when I went to do my ASL interpreting tests and couldn't actually move my fingers all that well. And sometimes they look like little sausages--which is weird.

- The vicious cycle of symptoms and attempts to alleviate them...Oh, you are retaining water? Just drink more water! But not right before bed or with a meal, because that exacerbates the acid reflux. To get rid of that, just drink some milk! But careful because that interferes with your absorption of iron and you're borderline anemic. What helps with the iron absorption? Orange juice. But gotcha! That causes acid reflux! And so on...

- When Tyler parks too close to the car next to us at Yogurt Express and my belly gets stuck in between the side view mirrors while I try desperately to inch closer to my precious frozen yogurt!

- The thought that as soon as I get used to all this pregnancy nonsense, this wiggly little bump will come out as a real, live human depending on me for life. No pressure.


Here's the belly pics requested. Watch me grow...!:

Anniversary Trip - San Fran

To celebrate one year, (well, really b/c anything should be an excuse to travel...) Tyler and I went to SF for a long weekend.

HIGHLIGHTS

- Within hours of getting there, we were outside Boudin and a dude was throwing baguettes into the street and I CAUGHT one! I never catch anything!! Especially under pressure. But then again, it's never been free food...

- PERFECT sunset on the Golden Gate Bridge. Sure it was preceded by me forcing Tyler to run across one way and promising we'd take the bus back. But alas, no bus in sight on the other side of the bridge so as fate would have it, we had to walk back. Turned out to be my very favorite moment and the whole way back I was just thinking of the reasons I was glad to be married to Tyler Pond. Even if he was cursing my name. ;)

- 5-story record shop we found for Tyler. He was in heaven. And I did a little indulging myself, investing in my fav Amy Grant Christmas album for a mere dollar! And other goodies like a collection of fab 1997 radio songs. Tyler found lots too. We've already watched Iron Maiden: The Early Years since being back. Pic below is view from the third floor:

- The Sheraton we stayed at the first 3 nights. Got it through Hotwire so it was a good price. They had about 1,000 pillows on the bed and the decor Tyler kept saying was straight out of "That Thing You Do." He was totally diggin it. Oh, and perfect shot of the NY's Eve fireworks from our room. Sweet!

- Buster's Philly Cheesesteaks. Tyler said it was the best he'd tasted outside Philly, plus it was a welcomed relief from all the little trendy/$ restaurants we kept running into. Just down-home and greasy!

- The last night there we downloaded a baby name app and started going through boy names. (Mostly cause Tyler gets more excited about the boy ones). Had a few good laughs over the "unisex" names listed like Isabella.

Isabella Michael Pond??


LOWLIGHTS

- Broke my flip flop while out on the town. Yes, this is the second time now (at least) while traveling in a big, dirty city that I have irreparably damaged my footwear to the point of having to forge ahead half-barefoot through the dirty streets and public transit. Yum. Didn't probably help my image since Tyler was already telling me the whole trip that I looked homeless. But hey, less likely to get mugged, right?

- Our "splurge" anniversary night at a steak place. WARNING: Always read the Yelp reviews, no matter how fancy the place sounds on paper. Esp if it's half-empty at 7pm on New Year's Eve. We had a less than mediocre meal for more than we'd ever care to pay. However, it was so bad that at least we got a few laughs out of the deal and later got to wash it down with a Ghirardelli brownie sundae. Oh, and the manager gave us a whopping $2.50 off our meal. Thanks, buddy.

- Did I mention Alcatraz was sold out for the weekend? And did I mention that was one of the main purposes of our trip??

- Getting sucked into a candy shop in Sausilito called Munchies. It looked so quaint! Came out 4 mins, $10, and about 5 small pieces of candy later. Hmph.

- In attempts to get to our last hotel "close" to the airport, we ended up having to walk through almost a mile of total hood from the nearest bus stop. Yes, with all our bags. Although let's be honest, a long tough walk and risking getting killed to save the price of a taxi - this may have secretly been a highlight for one of us.

Are those pillows or chicklets? (To put this to scale, that's on a double bed).

- We both got sick. :( Spent our whole post-vacation week sneezing and snotting and watching reruns of Wonder Years.

All in all, awesome time!

And a special thanks to Hannah Pond for providing Tyler with the iPhone camera lenses that contributed to 90% of our pics on the trip.