Big Sister

2011 Balloon Rally

The Great Prosser Balloon Rally. It's great. Really! We love this weekend; it is an annual affair hosted by our charming, little town the last full weekend of September. We have also decided to add to the affair and each year I make a HUGE batch of super, dooper delicious Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls.

Last year, we were invited to our friend Nancy's house to watch the balloons take off early in the morning. Her house is right on the river and the balloons are so close you could touch them. LindyJean is stoked!

... touching down on the river...

This fella landed his balloon in Nancy's front yard and then proceeded to give all the kids who were in attendance (and willing) a bit of a ride. Adelaide was excited and then completely terrified by the decibel level of the propane blower.

The POW/MIA balloon readying for take off.

Balloons over Yakima River.

Children and Daddy, excitedly awaiting the appearance of the balloons.

Did you know?

Isn't he cute? (For more of these super fabulous newborn photos, please check out Aunty Staci's photography blog) Gunnar is chalking up to be a baby with an interesting temperament. He is generally calm and very snuggly... but when he gets angry, he demonstrates that he has, indeed, inherited the hotheadedness that so many of our family members possess.

Gunnar was born with a cleft soft palate. I had no idea what that was, hence I am going to assume that you are in the same boat and educate everybody. Because, as reality would have it, none of us know what these things are until we are immediately affected.

This is what your mouth should look like, if it has formed normally in utero. This is helpful, because you may not even realize that you are looking at a malformed palate without a reminder of what the usual looks like.

First and foremost, there are many, many variations of a cleft. Cleft lips (unilateral or bilateral), cleft soft palate, and cleft hard palate. A child can have an isolated incident of one of the aforementioned or a combination of all three. It is a congenital defect (happens early in utero) and can be hereditary (although no one on either side of our families has one). Fortunately for us, Gunnar's cleft is only of the soft palate, this means he has no facial deformity and that his hard palate is intact.

This photo that I found, depicts Gunnar's cleft type nearly indentically. You can see that the hole to the throat is enlarged, as he is missing the membrane of skin and uvula.

What does this mean for us? His throat, nasal passages, and middle ear are basically all open to one another and he cannot generate any suction. He cannot nurse from the breast or feed normally from a bottle. Also, every time he spits up, it comes out his nose (which is painful and makes him REAL mad). Babies such as he are prone to ear infections, although breastmilk fed ones are much, much less likely to develop them. As I insist that he be fed breastmilk, I am pumping exclusively and then bottle-feeding him. I will never, ever take for granted the ease of simply putting a baby to the breast for feeding. He will have to undergo a corrective surgery at around one year of age.

At first it was hard to accept that our child was not perfect. It was hard to accept the reality of all the work required to feed him. As a control freak, perfectionist, and "type A" personality I do not expect things to be difficult for me. My expectations are always that of "I will accomplish this with ease and fluidity," and when things go otherwise I am vexed and frustrated. However, we are rising to meet the challenge and truly Gunnar is perfectly healthy and normal otherwise and a complete blessing.

Thank you to our NUMEROUS friends, neighbors, and family for being so incredibly supportive. Eric has been truly great. He is a man accustomed to being doted and fawned over and he has really stepped up to the plate - working a full day and then coming home to cook, clean, care for the girls, and handle sleep-deprived, hormonal postpartum, sometimes weepy/other times bitchy wifey. You are a champ, handsome, and I love you.

Cheers to babes!

P.S. I am crazy busy with the pumping story, so I will post intermittently and when I do look for a few a couple days in a row and then it will likely be a while before I get to uploading photos and posting again!

First Bath

Gunnar got his first bath today! His cord fell off and we decided to give him a dip. As have all my children, he loved it. The girls watched and were highly disappointed that I wouldn't let them scrub him.

P.S. Today is our fifth wedding anniversary. Happy Day to you my love; cheers to many, many more!

hello baby

Gunnar Wayne Stagg

Born 9/11/11 at 7:12 am at home. He weighed 9 lbs 6 oz and measured up at 21 inches in length.

I started feeling strange at about 4:00 in the afternoon after I had been on some crazy nesting cleaning frenzy. Kristin came over and checked things out and I was dilated to a 4 or 5. She said, you can have the baby tonight if you keep going at the pace your at, or you can lay down and stay in bed and maybe delay this a day or two (I was having issues about having a 9/11 birthday baby). Throughout the evening I continued to have what felt like very heavy Braxton-Hicks. We ate dinner, Eric cleaned the birth tub (it had been delivered that morning!), we put the girls to bed, finished setting up, and then went for a walk. Then we had a nap and I woke up at 4 a.m. with REAL contractions; the kinda stuff that requires you to focus and breathe. By 6:30 a.m. I started to go through transition, however it was much easier than with LindyJean because my water had not yet busted. My body began pushing, so I hopped in the tub. Eric brought both the girls downstairs and they all watched his arrival. My water broke as his head was crowning and one last good push and out the rest of him came along. It was really quite lovely. Eric was my night is shining armor, I was very connected to him this time. You should have seen the emotion and excitement that exuded from him as we realized I had given birth to his son! I know plenty of you think I'm nuts, but I much prefer the surprise.

The 2 subsequent photos may be a bit much for some of you, but before you get your panties in a wad - if you ever watch television or movies, you see people more naked than this regularly, so get over yourself. Also, my ability to share them certainly says a few things about me... any shred of modesty that I had retained post Adelaide & LindyJean has been completely eradicated. While we're at it, let's throw my vanity out the window too. They are immediately postpartum and show that I am not some graceful birther of babies who glows and looks unstrained by the tremendous effort my body has just put forth.

Just out the womb! Cord is still attached, beautiful baby boy. Both Adelaide & LindyJean witnessed their brother's birth.

This photo I love for Bitty's expression. She looks so very pleased. To my surprise, she did decline to cut the cord.

Couldn't believe how big he was. I thought he was a lot smaller than LindyJean.

Bitty & her baby brother. It took us nearly all day to name him, we really liked all of the possibilities and after carefully weighing their meanings, possible implications for personality, and other things, it came down to fate (we literally starting playing games and pulling the names out of a hat (Gunnar nearly always came up the winner)) and Bitty's insistence that he was a Gunnar.

RowdySue says "baybee Nahnuh," which we believe is her attempt at his name.

First nap. He looks identical to LindyJean at birth.

The infallible Aunty Staci & "Lil' Gun."

Attempt numero uno at our first family photo... fail.

Everbody smile... Lindyjean gets an A+, everyone else - pay attention dammit!

Ta-da!!!

We are glad you have come to join us Gunnar, bienvenidos.

Opening weekend.

We started the weekend at Sophie's first birthday celebration (she is the daughter of a good pal from home) LindyJean really enjoyed toddling about with a bunch of kids right in her age range.

The menfolk after the hunt. Labor day weekend included opening day for dove season, Eric spent the majority of the weekend attached to his shotgun!

Dead birdies.

This one has lost its head entirely... wait, which one are you referring to?

Bitty loves helping Nana with anything horsey. Here she is assisting in the preparation of the horse trailer for an upcoming show.

Aunty Staci - wonder gal - made a cake for Miss Bitty. She wanted a pink & green butterfly and Aunty Staci always delivers the goods. The cake was even green.

RowdySue was stoked too!

Everyone, please admire the handiwork.