this post is worth about 20k words

Somehow, it's been 6 months since our little guy came into the world. Why didn't anyone tell us it would go by so fast?! Just kidding. Everyone told us it would go by so fast and everyone was right. Since I've restrained myself from posting monthly updates/been to lazy to do it (y'all know), I'm going to indulge myself with one fatty post about my main man.

 

Anders is such a happy little guy. He's seriously so quick to smile and laugh and it's my absolute favorite thing about him. We're pretty much willing to do any ridiculous thing to get him laughing. Sometimes I don't know if he's laughing at us or laughing at us, if you know what I mean, but it don't matter.

 

kickin' it in his bouncy chair

This dude is totally a nugget. Looking at his tree trunk legs and Buddha belly you'd never guess it, but at 6 months and a little over 15 pounds, he's kind of a shrimp. Or as Adam would say, "he's just so compact!" Yeah. He's a shorty. 

little Martha Washington in the bath

Anders' pallet has recently gone for quite a ride. We started solids with him a couple of weeks ago and he's been pretty enthusiastic about food. Mostly, he enthusiastically bangs it on his tray or throws it on the floor but hey, it's a start. Also, I feel like he poops out way more solids than he takes in. Like, he'll eat 1/3 of a sweet potato strip and I'll find an entire sweet potato in his diaper? It's magic!

First taste of broccoli. I feel like we could start an "Anders is not impressed" meme here. 
He has since come around to it.

Favorites seem to be carrots and melon. I also gave him this quarter of a bagel a month ago after I hosted a brunch and had some leftover. He was weirdly into it which is excellent news for me as one of my main reasons for having kids was so that they would eat all our leftovers. 

Anders + bagel from Allison Ottley on Vimeo.

Anders is a little bookworm but only certain books, please and be sure to make the animal sounds really convincing and don't even try that paper pages crap on me because I WON'T HAVE IT! This kid's got standards! We basically read all of his Sandra Boynton books 12 times a day. It's a good thing they're catchy.

The prince condescends to allow his cousin Emma to read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".

Anders doesn't seem too interested in becoming mobile. He didn't earn the nickname "the beached whale" for nothing. He's very content to just lay around. Not much to report here.

 

Hanging out in his Jumperoo. Or, as Anders knows it, the "Loungeroo".

Anders is a pretty popular guy. He's in very high demand and his social calendar is always packed. Luckily, he lets me tag along to take pictures of him and his friends. Clockwise from top left is:  

Anders + Will: Future hiking buddies. Yosemite 2015, Mount Rainier 2035? Will might still be squeezing into that onesie....

Anders + Sadie + their dads: Tyler is Adam's old roommate from his single in Seattle days. Here we see Anders and Sadie sleeping through their meet-cute. Oh well. 

Anders + Audrey: Adam made a good friend while working in Seattle in 2007 and they've kept in touch ever since. She and her husband had baby Audrey in March and we happened to end up in the same PEPS group since they live fairly close to us.

Anders + Oliver: Adam's co-worker had a baby 2 months after we did and I watch him during the day. So far, they're not too interested in each other but I'm looking forward to the day when they can pal around.  

 fun! fun! fun! fun! (lookin' forward to the weekend)

So, the elephant in the room is...sleep. If you must know, Anders is not sleeping through the night. As in, he has actually never slept through the night. Which means that I also haven't slept through the night since before he was born. I kind of take the blame for this a little bit. We've trained him to put himself to sleep at night but I let him eat once in the middle of the night, usually around 3. I know he'd be fine without it but we're/I'm not ready to give it up. I also know that if I feed him, I can usually get another 3 solid hours of sleep out of him, so it's a bit of a crutch. Something will probably have to change in the sleep department when we get back from vacation in a couple of weeks. 

 Sleep? I don't know the meaning of the word. 

Anders, your dad and I feel so lucky to be your parents. I don't know how we ever got along without you but we're sure glad you're ours now! Thanks for helping us figure out this parenting thing together. xoxo! (and about 1000 more x's)

baby anders

I can hardly believe it but my little baby is a month old today. Its been the fastest and slowest month of our lives and it's true what they say...we can't imagine life without him! When I think that this little boy was the same one whose heart was fluttering away on the ultrasound screen in June and then wiggled around in my belly for months and months it seems unreal. I know birth stories are not for everyone but in my last month of pregnancy I scoured the internet for them so I wanted to at least give the Reader's Digest version of mine for anyone who's interested. Creating good internet karma for myself! (And then maybe Hanford will post their public tour dates for 2014? Pretty please?)

So...as I mentioned before, my due date was January 8th. Or 9th. Whatever. I went in for my (nearly) 41 week appointment on January 13th and in addition to the normal exam, they did a non-stress test to make sure the baby was still doing well. Things initially looked good, and then they started to look maybe not so good and when an ultrasound showed low fluid levels my doctor was like, "do you just want to have this baby?" and I was all, "I JUST WANT TO HAVE THIS BABY!" Game on.

We ran home and grabbed a few things and then headed back to the hospital for what we expected to be a long night of preparing my body for labor ("cervical ripening" is the technical term but I would never say "cervical ripening" on my blog) before they administered Pitocin in the morning. Once I was checked in, the nurse hooked me up to the monitors again to get a baseline for contractions before they started the medicine. After a couple of hours she came in and told me that I was contracting too frequently for them to induce me. Essentially, in the 3 hours between when we left my doctor's office and arrived at the hospital I had gone into labor all on my own which is just the kind of sassy thing my uterus would do.

We stayed in the antepartum wing for about 7 hours as my contractions got more intense and closer together. Around 2 AM, I was dilated to a 3 and my nurse told me they could send me to labor and delivery. Hallelujah! I kind of hated my time in antepartum and more importantly, I knew what was waiting for me on the other side. My contractions were now coming every couple of minutes and were so so painful. Basically, I was totally unequipped to handle them. I requested an epidural right away and 30 minutes later things were looking up!

Adam and I were able to relax, although I had a lot of trouble sleeping that night. Nerves? I don't know but whatever it was was not afflicting Adam in the same way. He probably had the best nights sleep of his life. I roused him a few times when things were getting exciting (every time I got checked) but other than that I'm pretty sure he got about 10 hours of sleep which is also (spoiler alert!) how much total sleep we've had since that night.

Around 6 AM I had progressed to 6 centimeters and by 10 I was at an 8. Do you follow? Around 11 my doctor told me that she didn't like how the baby's heart was reacting to some contractions I was having (the same concerning thing we saw during the NST) and that if this kept up there was a chance we would have to move to a c-section. I was pretty discouraged by this thought but knew that ultimately we would do whatever my doctor said was best for the baby.

Flipping me on my other side seemed to help a lot and by 1:00 I was completely dilated. I started feeling like I needed to push around 2:00. Pushing was so much more exhausting than I had anticipated. I don't know if it was because I had an epidural but it didn't feel really relieving to be pushing, something I had read in a lot of other birth stories. I was so parched and Adam fed me ice chips between contractions until I threw up (my first time all pregnancy!) and they cut me off.

Adam had initially hoped to be more involved in the delivery but a combination of a nuchal cord and meconium in the fluid meant he spent his time coaching me on the sidelines which turned out to be perfect. After about an hour the baby started crowning and Adam made an 11th hour switch in his gender prediction. "That looks like girl hair!" Ha! At this point the gender was actually the least of my concerns. My doctor told me, "ok, we're going to have a baby with the next contraction". I gave it everything I had and sure enough a perfect blue slimy little baby came out looking straight up at the ceiling! Adam announced, "it's a boy!" and our baby let out a wail that to me said, "peds team? who needs em?". To be on the safe side my doctor handed him over to the pediatricians who cleaned him up and looked him over and within a couple of minutes Adam brought him to me for some skin to skin time. He just calmly stared up at us a we marveled over his perfect little face. To me, he looked, and still looks, exactly like his Dad. It was the best moment of my life.

tears of joy from both of us

 

you say you want a revolution

 

those purple hands and feet that kept him from the perfect 10 

on the APGAR that Adam was hoping for.  #tigerdad

We spent the next hour holding him, nursing and settling on a name. I thought I would know just looking at him which of our 3 boy names fit perfectly but he didn't look like an anything and it was stressing me out! We eventually settled on Anders Wolfe and now I can't imagine him being anything else.

Well, that didn't turn out to be very abbreviated after all. I want to write more about our first month with him. Magic. We love him so much. I think we'll do this again.

A Christmas Miracle

Hello? Is anyone out there? I'm sure all my faithful blog readers have long since given up on me. 1000 apologies for my absence, etc.

The biggest thing that's happening around here is that...we're having a baby! In 3 weeks! This is news to no one I'm pretty sure. I've been terrible at documenting this pregnancy but I would be remiss if I didn't mention how thankful I am for a healthy body and a healthy baby. I recognize that I've had the world's smoothest pregnancy (no real morning sickness or tiredness, no back aches/heartburn/sciatic nerve pain, still sleeping like a log at 37 weeks, etc.) and I'm so so grateful for that.

I didn't deliberately give up on blogging when I got pregnant but truthfully, I've felt incredibly vulnerable ever since we found out we were expecting and guess I went the road of "the less I share now, the less I'll have to share if something goes wrong". So, there you have it. Do I sound cynical? Maybe I am. I'm not sure if that will change once the baby comes (I hope it does) but luckily I have a husband who always anticipates the best and willingly smacks me when I'm letting the crazy out. Thanks, Adam! I think.

36 weeks

Some things about this pregnancy, for those who are interested:

I'm due January 8th which is Evlis's birthday so please bless that the baby comes on time.

 

We found out we were expecting super early (before 4 weeks, even!) but we were able to hide it pretty easily since, like I said, I trucked right through my first trimester. 

I have a major torpedo belly. One of the most common comments I got when I told people I was pregnant was "I bet you'll hardly show at all!" False. I had strangers start asking me when I was due when I was 18 weeks along. So. 

Braxton Hicks. I've had them for like...4 or 5 months? Lately they've gotten much stronger but I can't say they've been more frequent so I guess that will be my sign that I'm in labor. I'm also hoping my water breaks although I've heard that's not all it's cracked up to be.

Before I got pregnant I really wanted a boy first, but now I totally feel like it is a boy and I'm all...wait! how about a girl, maybe? I'm a hard woman to please. As for Adam, he doesn't care if it's a boy or a girl (to which I always add: as long as he's healthy) (I'll probably get in trouble for that one later). 

I'm totally unprepared to birth this baby. I'm regretting now that we never took a birthing class especially since some of the doctors at my office look at me with big eyes when I tell them I'm not taking a class. Come on, people. You're supposed to support me in my ignorance. This is why I don't go to a midwife. One doctor did tell me, "once you get the epidural everything else just works itself out". That's more like it. 

 the bebe at 20 weeks and behind that at 9 weeks. be still my heart!

 

Aaaaaand, that's about it, I guess! Now we wait for the baby and you wait for the next blog post. Let's pray it won't be another 6 months for either of us.

Adam Graduates! Hooray!

In contrast with the 3 hour long graduation ceremony, I'll keep this post short and sweet.

 

HE DID IT!

AZ in 3

When Adam and Nathan almost got into the next edition of this best seller

about as close as we got to the edge

is green even my color? don't answer that.

We traveled to Phoenix with a dead camera battery so most of our trip pictures are either stolen from the Burts or crummy cell phone pictures. I know, I know. It was pretty amazing, though. I feel a little bad saying that the weather was perfect because I know how it feels when someone visits your city in its best season (eg Seattle in August) and then wonders why anyone ever complains about the weather there. But the weather was perfect! (And also you should totally come to Seattle in August! I'll even let you tell me how amazing the weather is!) We got to see lots of great friends, Adam played golf,  and we both got sunburned. So yeah, I'd say it was a success.

PS Is anyone still reading this now that google reader is gone? I know my blog has been dying a slow death since like...its birth, but I still think it was a little rude of google to just kill it without my consent. Also, is this analogy too dramatic? I need answers, people!

Match Day!

Match Day 2013 has come and gone and HALLELUJAH! I told Adam that there's no way he's going to do a fellowship because I simply cannot handle that kind of stress twice in one lifetime.

After all our promises that we were going to head back east for residency, in the end staying in Seattle just felt right. I have to admit that I'm mourning the loss of our number two choice (UNC) a tiny bit. Surprisingly, letting go of DC was easy as pie. It would have been nice to be close to my family and our friends there (shout out to the Hamills for adopting Adam for a month!) but it just wasn't a good fit and there is so much keeping us here. Not the least of which is the fact that I have a job, we have great friends, and the Seattle Children's residency program is top notch. There was a time when I never thought I'd say this but three more years in Seattle sounds just right.

MatchDayVideo from Allison Wolfe on Vimeo.

Thank you Courtney for being our self-appointed photographer/videographer for the day.

the royal tannenbaum

 the men folk chop the tree

 the ornaments are placed just so

 honeymoon ornament//tiny guard courtesy of bro and sis ottley

le masterpiece

 betcha Adam hates this picture

It's getting quite festive in apartment H. Since we'll be staying in Seattle for Christmas this year, we decided to do it up right. I'm not sure we're technically allowed to have live trees in our apartment, and technically we did sneak it in the back door as our apartment manager was leaving out the front but this is Christmas, dangit! And in the Wolfe family, Christmas isn't Christmas until the smell of the the tree is so strong it makes you gag a little when you walk in the front door. All I want is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share.