December Fun

While we've been adjusting to our new little guy, we've got to do a lot of other fun things with both sets of grandparents being here for visits. Here are some pictures of our December activities...

Sydney got to attend a Rapunzel birthday party and had tons of fun

Grandma Shinsel and Sydney made peppermint Christmas Rice Krispie treats 

We made a gingerbread house 

Sydney got to sit on Santa's lap at Wal-Mart :D 

The beginnings of sibling rivalry and love have begun! Sydney has been adjusting very well actually. She loves to help with Wynn and has completely accepted him as part of the family. We can tell she feels a little insecure and wants to make sure she is still noticed and important, but she is doing very well. She is missing her time with her mommy, but we're all adjusting in time.

Sydney and Grandma and Grandpa Pack made and decorated a big gingerbread man!

 

Wynn had his first bath and Sydney was a big help 

Sydney been helping keep the house clean while I'm busy doing other things :)

We were grateful Papa was able to come for this past weekend so we could bless Wynn in church Sunday. It was a beautiful blessing. Unfortunately Wynn wet his outfit as soon as we got home from church so I don't have any pics of his blessing outfit :(. After I get it washed, we'll have to recreate the moment. Merry Christmas!

Wynn Cooper Shinsel

Wynn joined our family on December 6th, two days late. Andy and I were literally turning out the lights for bed when my water broke at midnight. I was so nervous and anxious I was shaking with anticipation once I realized what happened. I called my doula immediately and by the time I hung up the phone the contractions were already coming strong. I calmed down and started to focus on allowing the contractions to do their work. By 1215 they were 2 minutes apart and about 40 seconds long. The midwife on call advised us, it was probably time to come into the birth center. Having been having strong false labor contractions almost every night for three weeks, Kaye (the attending midwife) was more surprised than I was to find out that by the time we got to the birth center about 1230, we were at 5 cm and in active labor. At 514 AM, Wynn was born. The birth was hard work but satisfying, and I am so grateful for how present and supported I felt throughout the whole process. I had to draw on everything I read and have more faith in myself than I've ever had to have before. Wynn had a little trouble getting out since he had his whole arm up and across his face, but I never felt afraid and the three midwifes present at the birth helped him out without any panic or delay. Afterwards everything felt very surreal, and I was exhausted! After spending some time getting to know each other, the newborn and maternal exams were completed, we took a nice warm bath-which Wynn loved!-and about three and half hours later, we went home. I didn't think I would be so crazy about going home so soon after the birth, but in the end I think it was a good thing to come home to familiarity and comfort and make one less environment transition in the first few days after birth.  We got home right before Sydney woke up in the morning. Imagine her surprise to go to bed one night and wake up the next morning to mom and dad already home with a baby :). She initially was a little shy, but warmed up to 'Baby Wynn' quickly and has become a loving, excited big sister. Wynn was 7 lbs 11 oz and 20 1/2 in at birth. He is a very cuddly little boy and took to nursing right away. He is a good sleeper too. I can't say for sure if having a natural childbirth has affected the transition to being a new mother again, but this time around I definitely feel more empowered and in sync with Wynn's needs. We are working on getting him to sleep on his own but for now I love that he needs to be cuddled and snuggled with us to sleep. His brown hair appears to already be getting lighter and his eyes are almost completely brown. His first sleep smiles are showing now too. Grandma Shinsel has been an indispensable help these first few days and we are so grateful so have her here with us for another week too. Thanks to all for your well wishes and prayers.

Pre-Christmas Decor

Since I'm due very soon to have this little boy I told Andy a couple of weeks ago that I really wanted to spend the weekend after Thanksgiving getting all the baby's stuff organized and getting set up for Christmas so that if I delivered early or even on time I wouldn't miss out on the Christmas stuff. I am so grateful that even though it made for a busy weekend he helped me accomplish that goal. We didn't bring our fake trees up so for the first time, we have a real tree this year! Its fun to show Sydney how to water it and wake up to its smell in the morning. Nemesis likes to try to eat it too. On Friday and Saturday we got our lights put up outside, set up the tree, decorated it and the house, assembled all our baby gear that we'll be using in the first month or so and organized all the clothes, blankets, and all things baby. It wore both of us out! But now, we're ready and just waiting. I'm having all the pre labor getting ready signs but not definitive yet. After Maxine gets here, we'll be all ready to go! I'm excited to be able to see both sets of parents over this Christmas season and get to bring our little guy home. Happy Holidays!!!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving this year with our friends the Stephens. In the morning, our family spent some time just to ourselves playing in the snow and then in the afternoon we met up for lunch. We had fun playing games, visiting, eating pie, and then Sydney and her friend Trevor made apple turkeys. They enjoyed eating the marshmallows and raisins more than making them into turkeys though. Thanks to my sister Audrey who I stole the idea from ;). We're grateful for the many people who invited us to spend Thanksgiving with their families and glad that we've already made so many friends in Juneau. We feel right at home.

Sledding and Shower

As I try to wait out the days til baby boy makes his entrance, I've been trying to keep busy. Since we've been having tons and tons of snow, on Saturday, I convinced Andy to take Sydney sledding during the few hours of daylight we have a day when Sydney isn't napping. With Andy's schedule having switched to days for the time being and early church on Sunday, the only day where he is home during daylight hours is Saturday mornings! Unfortunately, by the time we got out to sled Sydney was already tired and we found out the next day on the verge of getting pretty sick, so she definetely wasn't as excited about it was she was last year. I think she was just tired and getting sick though. She enjoyed a few runs down the hill in her sled but then said she was done and just wanted to pull the sled herself and watch the other kids go up and down the hill. We'll try again after Christmas perhaps and maybe she'll be more enthused :). Some friends of mine threw me a baby shower last week as well. I didn't get great pictures, but we had fun and the food was awesome! Somehow no one brought anything chocolate and I don't think the hosts really knew I don't like chocolate... amazing! Little boy got tons of warm pajamas, some blankets, diapers, and toys. It just makes the waiting even more intense. However, I really don't want to deliver early since Maxine won't be here yet but come next Saturday, we're ready to go!

Its beginning

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Earlier this week, we got our second large snowfall of the year and the schools got their first snow day :). I like the idea of snow on Thanksgiving. It makes everything seem so cozy and I actually think I prefer the snow to the rain, although the rain hasn't bothered me too much either. The first time it snowed we got about 7 inches or so. Too bad we hadn't dug out winter gear out of our storage so Sydney didn't get to play in it. I felt kind of bad because she was really excited and then within a day it started raining again and melted it all. I made sure that we got our stuff at the following weekend so we could be prepared. This time we got about a foot and a half. Sydney and I headed out one morning to play but it was so deep Sydney couldn't walk and kept falling over. I dug her a hole in it so she could sit down and play and made a circle path for her to run around. She enjoyed digging in it with a shovel and eating all the snowballs she could make. We were both exhausted however after she decided to run around because she fell down every few feet and I'd have to help her get back up out of the deep powder! Bending doesn't suit me so well right now ;). When Andy came home, he helped her make a little snowman to put on our porch since I couldn't help her with that either; she enjoys walking in her boots through snow every where we go. I'm excited to take her sledding some weekend when we have time since Andy is always at work when its daylight during the week and get to enjoy the snow until... about April I hear! Happy Winter :D

Halloween

This year we had two Halloween's as Sydney would say. Friday night we went to the annual trunk or treat and chili cook off at the church. Luckily it rained all day until right before it started! Sydney wore three layers of clothes under her costume and slipper over the feet in an attempt to keep her warm and dry... the warm part worked. Andy took her around to collect candy while I handed it out at our car, decorated with our jack o lanterns. There were so many kids though we ran out of candy after like 20 minutes! However, that gave us time to sample all the chili's (one of Sydney's favorite foods) and other treats. Sydney had fun seeing all her little friends in costumes. She couldn't figure out to say only "trick or treat" but said "trick or treater" instead; I don't know why. Monday night was a lot more rainy and cold. I met up with my friend Angela and her little girl to go trick or treating since Andy was at work. The girls rode in strollers while we picked a few houses with fun decorations to stop along the way. It was kind of exhausting getting Sydney in and out of the stroller so I was grateful when Andy was able to join us for his lunch break for a while. Sydney was happy to see him too. She always asks about him when he is gone and thinks every noise in our house is him, like he is just hiding. We only trick or treated for about an hour because we all got soaking wet and then the girls enjoyed playing, eating candy, and having hot chocolate at Angela's house before we headed home. It was a fun Halloween :) By the way, Sydney chose Andy and my costumes... I was glad to be a witch since I already had a black maternity dress and Andy was a trooper being a cowboy...

Bunny claws?

Pre Halloween Activities

One of the things I remember most from my childhood, and I don't remember that much, is all our family holiday traditions. Even now that I'm an adult, I still feel robbed if we somehow don't fit the major traditions in. The first tradition I remember is decorating for the holidays. Ever since we first got married, I had a meager but existent holiday decor budget to start my collection. I limited myself to one tote for Christmas and one for all the other holidays when we moved to Alaska, but I'm happy to say my Halloween decorations were up about the middle of September :)! Sydney and I made Halloween sugar cookies again this year, but this time we didn't frost them all at once. We frosted a few, waited til they were all gone and then frosted more a few days later, etc. etc. I like that tradition because we got to do the funnest part in my opinion, decorating, more than once. While in Texas earlier this month we had decorated pumpkins with pipe cleaners and on Monday, Sydney got her first real carving experience. She was excited to pick out the pumpkins, not so excited about what as inside them though as you can tell from her face below. Andy helped her draw the face and she was thrilled when we put a candle inside and let her keep it in her room for a while. She named hers Jack and mine Jill. The last of our Halloween activities so far involved making haunted Gingerbread houses with some friends last weekend. Again Sydney loved eating the candy and randomly placing it on the house, but she has a hard time understanding why we can't just eat her house now. I had to move them higher up out of her line of sight because she constantly got frustrated at the fact that we said we had to wait to eat them because they were like decorations now. I understand that I could just let her eat it, but with all the other treats around right now we don't really need nasty cement candy. Our trunk or treat is tomorrow night. I'm excited to see how much more she understands and gets into the festivities this year since last year she was really confused and didn't understand what was going on. Happy Halloween!

Recent Happenings

These pictures were taken about a week ago. Fall is drawing to a close and winter dawning on Juneau. Every day Sydney looks at the mountains and reminds us that the snow is getting closer and closer. She knows when it gets here it will be almost time for baby brother... but more exciting to her is the fact that baby brother means grandmas are coming. Only six weeks to go! Since last week most of the trees lost their leaves due to the wind, and there is snow on all the mountaintops now, not just the glacial mountains in the distance. My Relief Society president described fall in Juneau to me as 'someone putting the lid on.' I think that's a pretty good description. The clouds completely cover the sky day and night, so it kind of always looks like dusk. They are usually pretty low as well, but it keeps it warmer than if it were clear. It stays about 40-45 without wind chill right now. I don't feel really bothered by the weather. I didn't think I would be so that's great! Sydney misses being able to see the stars and the moon. She asks about them every time its dark, but we're enjoying the fall. Our outings since the weather has taken a turn for the worse include more library trips, more trips to the bookstore to play with the trains, the pet store, the pool about once a week and the indoor park when I'm not at an appt in the morning. For some reason, it seems like I have a million appointments! I do meet with a midwife a lot more than I would with a doctor and I meet with my doula regularly as well. Baby boy is doing great. Measuring exactly how he should be and getting cramped. I'm feeling pretty awesome despite my endless heartburn and increasing acne (I think it may have something to do with all the fall sweets though :) ) and I can still sleep really well at night which I'm very grateful for. Just like with Sydney, we are slow in the naming process and probably will go into delivery with a few names to choose from, but I'm getting more anxious/excited the closer it gets. I believe today marks 40 days til my due date... let the countdown continue!

Fairy Princess Tea Party

Sydney got to go to her first friend birthday party this past weekend. It was fairy princess themed and all the little girls were asked to come dressed up. It couldn't have come at a better time because in the past two weeks, Sydney suddenly realized what a tea party is... although at home I was calling it a water party.  She talked about the party all morning before and kept reminding me that we needed to hurry so we wouldn't be late. She liked getting all dressed up and I think she liked it even more when she realized all her other friends were dressed up too.

At the party, the girls got their nails painted, faces painted, got new fairy wings and wands, ate cake, sang happy birthday, and best of all they got to have a real tea party. Carrie, the birthday girl's mom, is apparently quite the birthday party genius. She had a tea party table set up with individual tea cups, saucers, and spoons for each girl. She had tons of yummy food for both the kids and adults alike. I came home having ate way too much food and sugar; Sydney was loving it! I was really proud of Sydney... this having been her first birthday party for her patience in waiting to do things until the hostess was ready, (She wanted to paint her nails and eat as soon as we walked in.) and being content to watch the birthday girl open her presents without getting upset that nothing was for her. We didn't talk much about party etiquette before we went, and she had a really fun time. I couldn't get any really good pictures because she was too absorbed in loving everything around her.

I love watching her grow up and experience new things for the first time. I think I had as much fun as she did... even though I never thought I'd get so much joy from the girliness. I guess she inherited the girly genes from somewhere, so even though it's not my forte, I like to help her be girly when she wants to because she loves it  and is so dang cute :).