Blessing day

Gabriel's baby blessing at church was September 14, 2014. 

Friends and family joined us at church and afterwards at home for a cook out.  

 With my parents (MaMa and PapPap)

With the Pitzer's.

 If you combine both of these you get one decent one.  Please ignore my dead flower beds.  Yikes!  And poor Zach is hidden by Libby. 

 Gabriel wore the same suit both of his brother's wore at their blessings.  And this is the beautiful blessing blanket that was crocheted for Landon (and all my babies since) by one of my second mom's.

 He was not about to wake up for a photo op.  

Grandma was in her glory with all her grand babies in one room.  

"I'm going to play in the World Cup!"

Landon has started his first soccer season with AYSO.  He has been excited for this since registration back in May. Making a kid wait until September to start is just torture!  He is convinced that he is going to play in the World Cup one day.  I'm wondering if all pro soccer players started out as distracted while playing as he is.  His goalie skills are pretty great, we just have to work on focus.  Watching a herd of 4 and 5 year old's chasing a ball around the field is pretty entertaining.  We laugh every game and cheer for all the kids, regardless of their team.  They are all out there having a great time.  Landon's first game was in the rain.  It was cold and wet, but they were still having fun.  Only a few minutes into his game the sole of his shoe came half off.  It was still attached from the toe to arch and he played on with it flopping along.  Hand me down shoes can be treacherous!  Here's pictures from his first game. I haven't taken any since then, but these are pretty much what it looks like every week.  Minus the rain of course.

 Before the game and the rain began

 Practicing dribbling and his goalie skills

 Check out number 6!

 Will wasn't bothered by the rain. He liked licking 

the rain off his face.

 If you yell anything at him like, "get it, Landon!"he stops and looks, therefore losing the opportunity.  Focus, it's a skill we will gain one day when he's older....I hope.

 Getting a piece of the action

 Coaching.  If you can't find him, look by the coach.

 Rosy cheeked, soggy, and full of curls after the game.

I love that face!

Let's go GREEN!

Gabriel: 1 month

My big boy is back to being a big boy.  He had lost 9oz at his one week appointment so we were excited to see that since then he has put on two pounds and is up two inches from birth too. He's a growing machine!  No wonder he loves sleeping and eating so much.  He is a wonderful little guy who loves being held and is learning to love his brother's constant affection.  He's getting into a night time routine that is pretty nice.  He's down for the night at 9:30 and up around 1:30 and again at 4 or 5 before getting up at 8.  I am enjoying that schedule very much, but I am definitely looking forward to eventually getting down to one wake up a night!  

 He looks surprised about being a month old

Just a little brotherly love

He's not sure about this whole thing

Maybe they aren't so bad after all

Getting kisses

Gabriel's newborn photo shoot

Gabriel had his newborn photo shoot when he was one week old. He did a wonderful job of posing and being easily calmed down and put back to sleep so we could continue.  The wonderful Mindy Chase Photography took these shots.  Here's just a few.  Not putting them all up is so hard!  She does amazing work!

Ok, I know it's the same picture, but I love it in color and in B&W.  I couldn't choose.

 Look what we caught!

 The clock is set to his time of birth.

My little love.

If you ever need photos taken, family, maternity, newborn, children's milestones, senior pics, etc, call her up.  Her work is always great and she has wonderful ideas to share and knows how to work with you to get the best photos.  I can't say enough good things about her work.  I am lucky to have her as a friend and photographer.  I'm going to have a hard time picking which ones to use around my home.  I love my little Gabriel.

The things I'm glad I got back post baby

There's so many things I can do now that I missed while pregnant.  You know, all those little things that you slowly lose the ability to do and they magically return in one day.  Here's a few of those glorious things.

1. Laying flat to sleep.  I can actually go to bed without being propped up on three pillows nearly upright.  
2. Waking up only because a baby needs me, not because I have to pee, take a tums, drink milk, or sit upright.  I was up nearly every hour by the end just to use the bathroom.  Only getting up once or twice a night with the baby is so much better!
3. No more heartburn.  I had such terrible heartburn, the kind that made you want to die.  During the day, or in the middle of the night.  I would be awoken in the night with it. It didn't matter what I ate. Just drinking water, or eating bread could cause me intense pain.  I'm so happy to have that gone!
4. I can get up off the floor with ease.  No more rolling onto all fours to get up or asking for help.  
5. No more wearing my husband's clothes.  Well, perhaps just because they are comfy I will.  But I won't have to wear his lounge pants because none of mine fit.  Or wear his scrub pants to work because not even my previous pregnancy pairs fit me.  I got made fun of pretty good for that one.
6. Energy.  Having energy back is the best!  I was tired all the time and barely accomplished anything.  Having the energy to actually get up with the baby and then function during the day and feel alive is amazing.
7. Bending over.  Not only could I not bend over just due to the giant belly in the way, but because it made me sick.  Bending caused my heartburn to flare up in a way that made me want to vomit. Due to this I didn't get much cleaned up unless I sat on the floor and scooted around to pick it up.  Then you can refer back to number 4 to see how that had to end.  It's a vicious cycle.
8. Seeing my feet.  Hi there toes, I've missed you!

I'm sure there are more things, but that's all I can come up with right now.  I love being pregnant, it's one of my favorite things, but after 9 months I sure am ready to get back to my regular self.

Landon on his new brother

Landon has had several silly things he's said since we brought Gabe home.  

Constant questions about his belly button and umbilical cord.  "Why does his belly button look like that?"  "What is that thing for?" "Why does he have it?"  "Will his belly button look like mine?"

"Why is your belly still big if the baby is out of there?"  

"Are you going to have another baby since your belly is still big?"  (way to make a woman feel good there, son!)

"I don't want to give baby Gabe a kiss.  I still love him, I just don't want to kiss him."

"He's so soft! Was I that soft when I was a baby?"

Baby time

He's HERE!!!!

Gabriel John Pitzer

8-11-14 @ 11:22am

8lbs 10.3oz

20inches 

We decided to go into the hospital because my contractions were steady.  They weren't strong, but they were 3 minutes apart and we didn't want to risk anything.  The Dr. at our last appointment had told me he'd rather have me come in too early and walk the halls than risk me going too far at home.  He took my fears to heart and that was nice.  We arrived at the hospital around 4am.  They said I wasn't really progressing and were thinking of sending me home.  I was not going home, I would have just sat in the car, crazy people.  I knew I was having a baby regardless of what they had to say.  Luckily for me I had high blood pressure.  Odd to say, but it bought me a ticket to stay and get induced.  Hooray!  I never have high blood pressure, so it was an odd occurrence and confusing for everyone.  They ran my blood work for preeclampsia but everything was normal. I was just weird.  Once the pitocin kicked in I was able to get my epidural.  The nurses I had were great.  At shift change, which was when I called to get on the epidural list, they came in with interesting information.  Apparently the anesthesiologist that was on was not their favorite doc, and he was getting called into an emergent c-section anyway.  So they were going to wait for the next guy to come in and have him attend to me and then relieve the other physician.  Turns out the doc who came in next was one of their favorites.  And he was awesome!  They told me he did a great epidural, and they wanted me to have a good one.  (my last one sucked).  He gave me the longest lasting, must numbing epidural a woman could ask for, it was glorious.  After that they broke my water so that things would continue to progress, and cranked up my pitocin.  I told them that once things started to go they would really go,and they found out I wasn't lying.  I seriously lucked out with the staff I had this time.  My nurse had been a labor and delivery nurse for 30 years and she was wonderful!  She was fun and happy and just all around wonderful.  The midwife that came in that morning was also one of my favorites.  She is a woman who loves her job, and you know it.  She's exuberant and full of life and energy.  When I knew I would have those two combined I knew it would be a good day.  Back to my delivery here.....They checked me at 10:45 and I was at 5cm, the midwife checked me at 11:00 and I was at 7cm.  At 11:10 I called for them because I felt ready and I was at a 10.  Woohoo!  The nurse paged for the midwife and got me set up for a trial push.  She only counted to three before she told me to stop because he was coming!  I only had to push through two contractions and he was here! 

We were shocked to see how big he was, I mean, wow!  I never thought my little body was carrying around an 8.10lb baby!  I understood why I had such pain and difficulties in the end now.  I barely got to see my little guy before they took him away though.  His temperature was already a bit low when he was born and it was going down instead of up.  He also was twitching around and the nurse said he had low blood sugar.  Sure enough, he did.  So they took him to get warmed up and feed him to get everything set.  I hated it. I told John I felt like I didn't have a baby because there was no baby in my room or with me.  And I got very little information about him for hours.  He was born at 11:22 and I don't think I actually saw him again until 3 or 4.  Believe me, I barely put him down once he came back! 

Who could put down this little guy?  

My epidural was so good they finally had to get me out of labor hall and into my room so they got me up, but I had no control.  I had to walk with the assistance of the nurse and John and my legs would just randomly give out on me.  It was rather humorous.  My legs still felt like big fluffy pillows and I had no idea where my feet were.  Magic I tell you, that man was magic.  

I finally got my baby back, I had to love on him.

Peek!  

Wrinkly baby toes

The boys and both Grandma's came to visit that evening.  Landon was curious about him, Will didn't even want to sit near him.  They were content to play in the wide windowsills of our room and look at him from a safe distance.  

Time to go home!  After two days of boredom we were ready to go! 

Gabe was ready to go too.  

We came home to a welcoming party from the boys.  They decorated the house with MaMa.  Gabe was sweet enough to bring them each a ball and a car as a gift.  They thought that was pretty cool. The boys fought over helping me get everything put away and getting him his bottle.  The helping started early!  

Welcome to the world baby Gabe!  We are thrilled to add you to our crew.