Christmas 2010

Christmas morning started out great! We had a happy girl, and Santa had filled most of our stockings to the brim! Paige joined us in our bed so that we could empty out our stockings and see what treasures we got. We found lots of candy, a paddle ball set, pens, razors and Paige's favorite...RINGS! She has been chewing on them since!
After the stockings we headed out to look at our tree and see what Santa had left there. While we got organized we had our traditional breakfast of sausage puffs. YUM! Somebody got WAY more presents than anyone else...but it's OK, we won't name names. (that is really just her stuff, and we didn't buy most of it)

Santa brought Paige a Glow Worm which was one of her mommy's favorites as a child. She fell asleep half way through...I was surprised she lasted that long!

This is what things looked like at the end...isn't it great!

We had a great time with our little family. Hope everyone else had a great day as well!

Santa Baby!

Paige is all ready for her very first Christmas! She posed for our Christmas letter, met up with Santa, and got to wear the super cute dress her Grandma Barton sent her. She even got to taste a candy cane (not really...it was wrapped...but she chewed on it anyway.)

Merry Christmas!

Two Months Old!

Dang, my kid is cute! Just look at her...she's squishy in all the right places and how can you resist that smile? I know I can't, and neither can her daddy!

Paige is two months old (I know, this post is late). At her two month check-up she weighed in at 12 lbs. 3 oz. and 22 inches. The Doctor said she must eat cream.
She got shots at her two month check-up and cut her first tooth the next day. She is the proud owner of a bottom left tooth, and the right is not far behind. She was only fussy for about a day, but she has slobber bubbles that seem never ending.

I LOVE this picture! This is Paige all wrapped up in one of her favorite blankies. Her Aunt Pam sent it to her and she sleeps with it (or the blanket's twin) every night. She loves to have "nakie time" but sometimes its just too cold in our apartment, so the blanket comes in handy.

Paige also loves bath time, and Mike likes to make bubble sculptures on her, so they play well together.
Here's my two cuties together after church one day. I can't believe how much she looks like Mike's family. I think you can really see it in this picture.

All in all, it's been a great two months...now if only I can get her to sleep longer at night...

Catching Up

It's been a busy few weeks! First off, Paige had a play date with her buddy Harvey. This is them chatting before he had to go home to bed.

Thanksgiving came and Paige got to watch her very first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. (she might have been a bit sleepy through some of it) She watched the Rockettes and kicked right along with them. We practice her routine every day so that she can master those high kicks.

We had some of the Marines from Mike's work come for dinner. I put them to work for a while, but mostly they vegged.

We had a great spread, and LOTS of left-overs.

On a totally different note, Paige sure loves her daddy...she even dresses like him. Can you see her?

If...

If...I were still in Virginia, and If...I were still teaching...

I would have had to go back to work today. Paige hit her 6 week mark yesterday, so my maternity leave (with pay) would have ended then, and I would have had to go back to work. I can only imagine the tears that would have accompanied that action.

But...

instead, I get to stay at home with this little cutie every day!

I get to play with her, and make her laugh and smile, and put her in girly clothes, and .
sing silly songs.I get to snuggle up with her on my chest, and rock her to sleep, and just listen to her breathe.

I am so blessed to be able to stay home with my little one. Although it's hard, leaving her everyday is something that I don't think I would be able to do. I am so glad that my husband can provide for us, and that I get to stay home and play with my baby girl.

One Month Old

One month old! It goes by fast!

Here are some of the highlights of Paige's first month.

We went to White Beach. Couldn't wait too long...she is 5 days old here.

After the beach we got cleaned up and went to the church so that Paige could be blessed. In our church we don't baptize babies, but we do give them a special blessing and they are officially added to the records of the church. It was extra special because Grandma and Grandpa Dixon were there for it!

We had to make sure that Paige got some culture, so at 6 days old we went to Ryukyu Mura. Here the Shisa Dog and his Master were blessing the crowd...she got extra blessings.

Sometimes she takes naps with her daddy.

Sometimes when Paige is cranky we turn on the washer and put her in her car seat...she usually goes to sleep there.

Paige likes to help her daddy work.

She got her first bath...and liked it...but also seemed a bit confused.


Grandma sent her a super cute Halloween outfit that said "Cutest pup-kin in the patch" (there is a puppy on the outfit). She helped hand out candy.
Daddy had to work on Halloween, so we went up to see him and show off the cute outfit.

This is Paige at one month...she is getting so big! She is super cute and we love having her around!

Two Weeks Old!

It's hard to believe that two weeks have passed! Here is our sweet girl at two weeks.
Some things that Paige likes to do right now:

• pucker her lips (kinda like in the pic above)
• eat
• sleep
• take naps on mom or dad's chest
• eat
• roll onto her side when she's asleep
• go for rides in the car
• eat
• burp like a man
• chill with her daddy
• eat

You get the idea. Mike calms her down very well. She sleeps anywhere from 2-4 hours at a time during the night (which I am quite thankful for!) and she loves to be cuddled.

I love the mittens... we call them her boxing gloves.

SOMETIMES she will stay in the swing...not for very long yet...we're working on it!

Welcome to the World!

We have waited a long time for this!

Here are the details. My due date was Sept 29th, which had come and gone. I was ready to have this baby, so much so that we had already tried to go to the hospital once, only to be sent home. I was scheduled to be induced on Wednesday Oct 6th. I was hoping that I would go earlier, but was still waiting on Tuesday.

I started having contractions Tuesday afternoon/evening. I told Mike that I was thinking about going to the hospital again (he didn't want to go and get sent away again). He took a nap and I went and woke him up to tell him to get things together so we could go. He was not moving very quickly. I went and sat down on the couch to wait for him only to jump up a minute later...I was pretty sure that my water broke. I ran in to tell Mike and he jumped up and we were out the door a few minutes later.

We got to the hospital at 11:15pm. I told them that I thought that my water had broken, and they said "you officially have our last bed now." So we were put into a triage room and hooked up for monitoring, and then we waited and waited and waited. They were busy.

The nurse finally came in to check me and told me that my water did not break, but I had a very rapid change in my cervix which had caused the liquid issue bringing us into the hospital. I was at 3cm, so we waited again for the Dr. come in. He came in about 90 minutes later. I had progressed to 4cm and 75% and so I was fully admitted and told they were going to find a labor room for me.

We got to our labor room at 2:30am and Mike went to sleep on the "very comfortable" fold out chair thingy...I answered about a million questions and got hooked up to tons of stuff. I had some pain meds put into my IV at that point and tried to get some sleep. At 6am the Dr. came back in to do a check before he had to hand off his patients to the next guy on call. He decided to break my water and call for my epidural. The Dr. who came to do the epidural was there 10 minutes later and was holding surgery for me :) At this point I was at 6cm, and they had started a low dose of pitocin to regulate my contractions.

By 7:30am I had jumped to 9.5cm and was almost totally effaced. I had a "hot spot" on my right side where the epidural didn't take, so I could feel everything, but just in that spot (I'm really glad I couldn't feel it everywhere else!) I was complete by about 8am, and asked if they would roll me onto my right side, and then the epidural made it to my "hot spot" and all was well in the world!

Just after 9am the Dr. came in and the nurse asked if she should push with me for a while and then he could come back and finish up. He said "Yeah, I have some paper work to do, so lets see a few pushes and then I'll come back in a while." That plan didn't pan out for him. I pushed for 23 minutes (including the time he told me to stop so he could put a gown on and get the tools ready) and out she came.

Paige Elizabeth Barton

October 6, 2010

9:43 am

7lbs 5oz

20 inches long

After getting cleaned up

Proud Papa!

Very happy (and tired) Mama!

Beautiful girl

We had to change her out of the hospital shirt because she works her hands out and it always ended up around her neck. She likes her hands up near her face. We have a sonogram picture with her like this too.

Her first sleepover. Daddy stayed the second night to help out, so she got to cuddle with him.

Ready to go home.

Riding in style, on her way home from the hospital.

PICTURES!!

People keep asking for pictures of

the baby...this is all I have right now.

I get induced Wednesday morning!!!

Still Waiting...

So we are past the due date. This little one is comfortable or something. I keep feeling kicks and I remind this baby that there is WAY more room on the outside so coming out is a great idea.

That hasn't worked yet.

We went to the hospital last night after over four hours of contractions. The nurse spoke to me like I had no idea what was going on, and then told me that my choices were 1. stay and walk for 2 hrs and be checked again, if they didn't think I progressed enough I would be sent home; or 2. go home and sleep and come back if the contractions got more painful or my water broke. At this point it was already 1:30am...we came home and slept. She also told me that they won't induce "just because." Isn't that what they are going to do next Wednesday?

So here is where we are at. I'm hoping to have a baby soon. If the baby doesn't cooperate, I will be induced (but not "just because") on Wednesday Oct. 6th. We will keep you posted!

PRAY FOR SOONER!!!!

Due Date

So...here we are on my due date, but no baby. I laughed at the countdown ticker at the top of the page, it says "Our baby is fully baked, but may hang around a bit longer because it is very cozy." So now the question is how do I make things not so "cozy"?

Any ideas?

YUMMY!

So, since this baby has decided to bask in the warmth a bit longer I had some extra time on my hands. I found this recepie a few weeks ago and wanted to make it, so here it is--Homemade honey wheat bread. My house smelled sooooooooo good!

Mike fell asleep and missed the 'warm from the oven' bread, but no worries...I tasted it without him. It is yummy! We are enjoying it, and I just might make it again sometime.