Christopher Conrad Morrise

Well he's finally arrived! Our new precious son came Thursday, February 3, at 12:04 a.m. He weighed 8 lbs 11 oz and was 21 inches long. I seriously keep falling in love with him every minute I see him! He is such a good baby, he eats wonderfully and hardly cries, only when he's hungry or wanting to suck. Hopefully that will stay after we leave the hospital.


For those who are wondering, I was scheduled to be induced on Wednesday, Feb.2. I didn't know how I felt about being induced, I for sure had my reservations, but in the end I consented. As the time drew nearer, I was actually looking forward to it and all the benefits. It would take the guess work out of labor; I could clean the house before we left, make sure someone was available to watch Steven, I didn't have to guess when the right time to go to the hospital was or if I even was in labor.

So a break down of the long day.
Wednesday
6:00 a.m. - Jacob called the hospital to see if there was a room available. They told us that there was no rooms, but I was first on my Doctor's list to be induced, so I would get a room next. Maybe later on in the day there would be one available.

6:30 a.m. - the doctor called and said, there is literally no room in the inn. We would see if I would go into labor on my own or be induced on Sunday, a week over due.

9:00 - We went to the hospital around 9 for a non-stress test, to make sure I had enough fluid still and the placenta was fine. It was.

11:00 - So Jacob went back to school, and I went to pick up Steven from Grandma Morrise's. He stayed the night, because well, I was going to have the baby that morning.

12:00 p.m. - My mom and sister came to town the night before, they didn't have school that day due to the weather, so they thought they'd come down and be here right after he's born. So we visited and discussed whether they wanted take Steven in the chance I go into labor soon, or wait and come down again when I was induced. At this time I thought I was having contractions, but couldn't be sure they weren't just braxton hicks. So they left, then Steven and I took a nap.

3:00 - Woke up from my nap, still having random contractions

4:00 - I called Jacob to tell him I thought I was in labor, he told me to just go about my day and to call him if anything really changed.

5:30 - Still having contractions, Jacob came home and I had a bath to see if my contractions would stop. They didn't.

7:30 - Jacob's sister came over to the house to watch Steven while we went to the hospital to hopefully have the baby.

8:00 - They check me...I'm only at a 3. I thought for sure I was at a 6. They kept me for an hour to see if I was in active labor and therefore could keep me.

8:30 - I was in horrible pain, I told Jacob if they kept me, I wanted an epidural. (I really wanted to go naturally, but that was when I thought I could handle the pain. Come to find out, I couldn't)

9:15 - They check me and I'm at a 4 1/2...they'll keep me.

10:00 - I'm at a 5, and they give me an epidural.

10:30 - I'm dilated to a 6, and they break my water.

11:00 - They but an internal monitor on the baby's head for a more accurate reading. While doing this, the nurse stretched me from a 6 to an 8. They called the doctor and started preparing me for delivery.

11:55 - Our doctor shows up and I start pushing.

Thursday
12:04 - After only a couple of pushes, and a pause because the baby's cord was wrapped around his neck, out came Christopher!



We love him so much! I can't wait to take him home and get into our own routine. Steven by the way did great with him, we'll see how he is at home though.



Thanks to Susan, Jacob's mom, for helping watch Steven up till now. And my mom for taking Steven from now until Monday, hopefully by then I'll be up to our new life!

Waiting...

Today is my due date and there is still no sign that this little guy. But luckily we all feel better, and I'm not TOTALLY miserable so I'm ok to wait for a little while longer. But here are some projects I've done while waiting, I still have some things I want to do. We'll see if I still have time to do it.



Here is a car caddy I made for Steven that I found here. I think he's still a little too small to truly love it, but he likes to take the cars in and out of the pockets. Any way I like it, and it's going to be a church toy.





And here is the quilt I made for little Christopher. It's made from flannel shirts we bought from Walmart for $1, and the denim is from a jumper that we bought at the D.I. for the buttons. I think it turned out pretty cute.

5 days...

5 days until my due date, and here is what's happening at home.

Steven has RSV. No good. He's had it for about a week and we are hoping it will depart before little baby comes.

I am also sick, but getting better. Just in case your wondering it's no fun to be 9 months pregnant, sick, and take care of an 18 month old who's sick. But we're getting through it...day by day.

Jacob is feeling better, he's getting over a sinus infection, and trying to get caught up on his school work, so when the baby does come he can be home. (Long sentence I know).

And my favorite part, I just went to the doctor. At 39 weeks, I'm dialated to a whopping 1, and 75% efaced. Wow, this baby is taking his time. But we really can't complain becuase we want him to come when we're healthy.

My Growing Boys

Steven never ceases to amaze me, the other day I came into the kitchen to find him doing this. Putting his forks in the slots of the oven, who would have thought of that?

Also yesterday was quite the day for him to show off. Steven is the type where if he doesn’t want to perform…he won’t. He doesn’t just say or do something just because you ask, unless it’s putting things away or shutting drawers, then he most always does. Anyway, because of this personality trait, I often don’t think he knows things, because he’ll either just say it the one time then refuse or just keeps it to himself. But yesterday he added pizza, juice, amen, and my favorite "all done" to his list of words. He also was able to tell Grandma what a dog, cat, cow, duck, elephant, frog, bee, and monkey say. (Half of those were for the first time). I love to see him develop and start to understand the world around him.

As of yesterday I am now 37 weeks along, 3 weeks to go until this baby is due. I can’t believe it’s already this close! I’m feeling very well, although it seems with each day I seem to realize just how big I am and how hard it is to get up, sit down, and bend over. But such is life, I really feel SO much better than with Steven. There might be a couple of different reasons for this, mostly the season (Steven was born in August, hot, and this baby in January, cold). Anyway here’s a list of things I’m excited about with this pregnancy.

1. I’m still wearing my wedding ring, with Steven I traded mine for a cheap Walmart ring at about 25 weeks, then had to get rid of that ring around 33 weeks just because I was so swollen.

2. Which brings me to my shoes still fitting, all of them! Once again I was so swollen that I could only fit into a new pair of church shoes I bought and some new bigger flip-flops.

3. My back doesn’t hurt nearly as bad, which I contribute to exercising a lot more during this pregnancy.

4. My pants still fit, pregnancy pants that is. But I was out of those by about 7 months along with Steven, on to bigger shorts that I couldn’t button up.

5. Last but not least, I FEEL better about myself. I haven’t gained as much weight; I’ve gained less than half as much as with Steven. I’m not nearly as emotion as I was with Steven, which I know Jacob appreciates. Before I didn’t like how I looked, so it was hard for me to believe that Jacob could still love me, I know it sounds silly but in my highly hormonal pregnant mind that made perfect sense. I hated looking the mirror and getting dressed, nothing fit. Now with only walking a bit each day and trying to control my sweets intake, I feel good. Let’s not stretch the truth, I don’t love what I see in the mirror and I’ve exceeded the weight I wanted to gain, but I know it’s a whole lot better than before. And once again I feel better about life. Hopefully that will continue after the baby’s born as well.

Playing with the ducks

Towards the beginning of the month, Steven and I went on a walk to see Jacob at school. On the way back we decided to stop and play with the ducks.

Waving good-bye to the ducks

Playing peek-a-boo with mom

Christmas Morning

We stayed the night at Grandma and Grandpa Morrise's house on Christmas Eve and had a blast visiting, eating, opening presents and playing Mario Cart until the wee hours of the morning. Steven let us all sleep in until 8, which was greatly appreciated by those who went to bed so late. He didn't seem to care about much except for the food in the stockings.


Here he is modeling the fun homemade P.J.'s from Grandma Balls, they fit perfectly!
And now modeling the handsome church outfit from Grandma and Grandpa Morrise
All in all it was a great holiday and we feel blessed to have such wonderful families to spend it with, plus all the great things we received!
The other day I went in to get Steven from his nap and found this. Apparently he got a little bored while falling asleep and squished his new bear in between the wall and his crib. Silly kid.

Christmas Festivities

Here's some fun stuff we did leading up to Christmas.

We had a fun ward Christmas Party. I thought Steven would be ok with Santa, because he got a candy cane....but I guess not.

We did a live nativity with the Morrise side. Here Steven is showing us the baby Jesus's eyes.

Mary, a sheep, a cat-herder (he wanted to be a kitty), and Steven playing with a stroller because he he refused to put his sheep headband on.

Once again telling his dad he would not be a sheep even for a picture.

A couple of days before Christmas, we headed to Idaho for a Balls Christmas celebration. We had our annual Christmas program, here are all the boys singing Silent Night accompanied by Jacob on the guitar. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I took, but it was fun to be with everyone for at least a little while.