Blogging hiatus

So, between the holidays, a wicked bout of mastitis (you moms know what this is), a cold, and taking care of little Henry, I decided to take a blogging break. It's hard to keep up with all this technology I tell ya! It's enough to just put on a shirt that doesn't have a spit up stain on it.

Our little boy is already almost 3 months old! Here is his 2 month pic in his crib....really more like 2 and a half months by the time I took it.

At his 2 month appt. he weighed 13lbs, 4 oz and was 23 inches tall. That puts him in the 75th percentile for weight and 50th for height. And as Barney would say on "How I Met Your Mother"...."wait for it"...........95th percentile for head size! I knew he would have a gigantor Schroeder head! For those of you who don't know, us Schroeders all have huge heads. I allow Marc one crack about my head size a month and if he goes over that, it's on. These usually involve how my head is too big to fit in most hats. He really needs to get some new material.

So, Christmas was of course, fabulous! We spent some good quality time at home and Henry was a champ on both of the plane rides. He got so many presents from Santa and his elves (aka Gee-Maw, Grandpa, Nana, and Gramps). A Bumbo chair, a Rainforest jumper, an Exersaucer, tons of adorable Baby Gap clothes...the list goes on! Over Christmas, he really discovered his hands and started to turn on his side. He also started smiling and cooing a lot more. My favorite memories of our first Christmas together are us dancing and singing in the kitchen to Christmas songs. We had such a good time at home together bonding during the Christmas break.

We spent New Years over at our buddy Jim's house with all of our Skybrook peeps. Henry and Ian had a blast hanging out together as you can see. Ehh.....give em a few more months and maybe they'll both be awake at the same time. Marc and I barely hung in there till midnight. This was the week we transitioned Henry from sleeping in the infant car seat to his crib. Um yeah, there were some sleep-deprivation induced crying jags.....from Marc. Aw, I'm just joshing.

My hair looks really awesome in this picture.

Henry is getting more and more fun each day. We got his first belly laugh this past week from fart noises no less. Typical boy. He rolled over this past week too. Who knew he was so close? He hadn't even been going on his side as much and all of a sudden he worked up some crazy momentum and flopped right on over. Of course, he was very tired after this and promptly needed an hour nap. I'll post more pics in my next update!

Love,

Lyndsey, Marc, Henry, and Betsy

So much to be thankful for!

We had a great Thankgiving week with Nana and Gramps Maldoff! He started to smile this past week, so that was great timing with them here.

All the decorations are up and we're getting in the Christmas spirit around here. I just put together my "Christmas 09" itunes playlist to get even more in the festive mood. Everything I'm reading about baby development says that right at 6 weeks is a really important time for them listening to music, so Henry lucked out that it's Christmas season.....because I tend to sing Christmas songs all the time!

Love,

Lyndsey, Marc, Henry, & Betsy

One month old!

Can't believe it's already been a month!

Here's a glimpse into his little personality:

- Quite the big man! 10lbs and 4 oz and 22inches long at 1 month. 75th percentile across the board.

- Henry is obsessed with ceiling fans & lights. When he's crying and nothing will calm him down, we just lay him on his changing table where he has full view of the black ceiling fan in his nursery. He just lays there and coos and sighs and is happy as can be.

- Bath time is another big fave. Just like his mom, he loves his baths!

- Little H is quite the sleeper too. We still have our nights, but he's been sleeping 4-5 hour stretches. Just like his dad, he loves his sleep!

Love,

Lyndsey, Marc, Henry, & Betsy

Chilling on the couch

More pictures!

Here's some more pics from the past week including some of Baby's 1st Halloween! It mostly involved nursing while Dad was handing out candy and trying to keep Betsy away from the trick or treaters. So, overall Henry thought it was pretty awesome.

Love,

Lyndsey, Marc, Henry, and Betsy

Henry is here!

Our little baby boy has arrived and is already a week old! I know all new moms say this but it's so true, time really does fly by.

Henry has quite the little personality already. He is a very sweet and chill baby, but when he does cry, he does not hold back! His cry is similar to the velicoraptor in Jurassic Park. Ear-splitting! He has the most extreme neck strength of any baby I've ever seen. When we burp him, he raises his head up like crazy up off our shoulders. I can always tell when he is hungry because he will bang his head up and down on my chest like a rooster! He does not like laying on his back to sleep. He would rather be at an incline- thank goodness for the miracle that is the vibrating bouncy seat. He loves to eat. I'll take the sleep deprivation over this adjustment to breastfeeding any day of the week- talk about a labor of love! This boy has a voracious appetite and it's taking "the girls" a little while to get in the swing of things.

Here's the story of how he arrived.....

Henry arrived on 10/20/09 at 8:24am weighing 8lbs 2oz and measuring 20.5 inches long. I started having contractions on Monday at about 5:00 while I was taking a nap. We had scheduled the induction earlier that day for Thursday, but this baby had other plans! The contractions started out about 15 minutes apart and pretty mild. I kept feeling them throughout the evening and they gradually started getting closer. I tried to stay calm- we took a walk, I took a shower, and finished packing my bag. As we started getting ready for bed, they started getting quite a bit more painful but we both thought labor was still a long way away. I tried to sleep but OMG- talk about the most pain I have ever felt in my life. I don't know why I was worried about knowing what a contraction would feel like, you definitely know!

By 2:30am, I woke Marc up and told him it was time to go (ah, just like the movies)- they were about 6 minutes apart and hurting like a motha. When we got to the hospital, I was already dilated 4cm which made me very, very happy because that meant I could get my epidural. After 3 tries (ugghh), the anethesiologist finally got the epidural going. Once that got cranking, we all just rested and tried to sleep. The nurse kept a close eye on us because mine and the baby's blood pressure was pretty low. I had to wear an oxygen mask to keep our pressures up. But....I started feeling a little scared with how closely they were monitoring us.

By 7:30am, the doctor came in and checked me and said I was 9.5cm! I couldn't believe how fast it was progressing, especially after so three weeks straight of doctor's visits with no change in dilation. They felt the baby's head and said he was face up instead of the preferred face down, so for the next 45 minutes they had me switch positions and try to get him to move. By 8:15am, the doctor came in, checked me again, looked me straight in the eyes, and said it was time to push and we needed to get this baby out quickly. All of a sudden, there are like 10 nurses in the room and my mom's holding one hand and Marc is holding the other and it's time to push! I pushed about 15 times and then he was out, but there was no crying. Henry had the cord wrapped around his neck and shoulders and was blue. The look on Marc's face scared me most of all since I couldn't see the baby from where I was. He was crying and I heard my mom crying behind me. But, thank GOD, the doctor worked quickly and cut that cord off and we heard him cry! They took him away to check him out and I just rememer feeling sort of in shock and numb with how fast everything happened and how truly frightening it had gotten. After they made sure he was A-ok (9 on the Apgar, thank you very much), they brought me my precious baby boy and I cried. I love him so much :)

Love,

Lyndsey, Marc, Henry, and Betsy

Are we there yet??

In about two hours from now, it will be my D-day. So close.......yet, so don't know when this baby is going to want to make his appearance. I'm trying to be patient and think about other things but at this point, it's getting pretty impossible to do that. Mom and Ash are helping me to keep a good attitude and stay upbeat and focused on the prize. Well, all the cooking they've been doing isn't hurting either! Oh, banana bread how I love you. And my necessary hour long siestas everyday. Better take advantage of that while I can!

We had an ultrasound today just to make sure everything looks ok and all is progressing just fine. He looks to be about 7lbs 12oz and is in the 56th percentile at this point. The pics were a little hard to make out at this point since everything is so scrunched up. We had fun playing "guess the body part" on the ultrasound screen. Oh, wait that looks like his hands (no, that's his liver). Oh, look at his spine (no, that's his ribs).

Since I'm not high risk and everything looks healthy, they are not willing to induce till at least this coming Sunday or Monday. We are praying that I will go into labor naturally and soon!

Mom and I took a little day trip up to Blowing Rock on Friday. It was so pretty with the fall foliage just starting to peek out.

For our 3rd anniversary, Marc got us a sweet Flip video camera. It is so easy even I can use it :) Can't wait to take some home movies. Just not in the delivery room, seriously.

We'll keep everybody updated on any news. Next time I post should be THE DAY!

Love,

Lyndsey, Marc, baby, and Betsy