GROWING PAYNES

Yes… just as Josh got home from 17 days in Alaska he turned around and left for a San Diego/ Hawaii trip…work trip that is…a work trip that consisted of playing golf at Torrey Pines and eating surf and turf on Waikiki Beach!!!!!  Can you blame me for becoming a little resentful   So in honor of his return…which will be at about 4:00am this morning, I thought I would post some pictures of Josh and Easton just before he left.  Though I like to tease my hubby about him leaving us to go on these “strenuous work trips” I know he would rather be home with us…and I think these pictures show it…

Getting ready to play airplane...

...stopping to pose while playing airplane

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I thought I would post some pics of Easton in his exersaucer.  He is really getting the hang of it and enjoying himself…atleast that is one would believe by all the squeals and cheers he makes when he plays.  It has been a lifesaver for me…allowing me to get some stuff done 20 minutes at a time   I think we are going to be moving to the jumperoo next…I have to bring these toys out one by one because I will not let them takeover my living room.  As of now we are at the limit…a swing, a play mat, a pack and play, and an exersaucer.  I must teach Easton these lessons early.  We had a talk and he decided he wanted me to bring down the jumperoo so he was ok with letting the exersaucer go back upstairs.  So before it goes upstairs to live awhile I took some pictures of him mastering this mayham of toys…

Look a man that can multi-task…playing in the exersaucer and watching tv!!!!! He is one of those rare men…just like his daddy

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I posted a couple pics from this photoshoot earlier but wanted to share some more.  These were Easton’s 3 month pictures taken by our good friend Rebecca Dodson of Rebecca Dodson Photography (www.rebeccadodsonphotography.com).  If you need some family photos taken I highly reccomend her…she does a wonderful job and is very reasonable on her pricing. 

A funny side note…you will notice the chair in the picture…we pulled up to the site where we were taking these pictures a man drove by and asked “ya’ll gonna dump that?” No we definitly weren’t going to dump it…but him saying that only gave more validity to Josh’s view that what we were doing was crazy.  But that is why I love him…he knew this was something I had been wanting to do so he just went along…or in his words he just “shut up and colored.”  Hope you enjoy…

Thats All FOLKS!!!!!

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Just look at that smile!!!!!!  That is the best part of being a mom right now.  Easton started truly smiling around 10 weeks and I just can’t get enough of it.  In fact I am going to post a few of my favorite smiling pics right now…

So other than having a beautiful smile…Easton is just a wonderful baby.  I hope I am not going to be eating my words in the near future but Easton is more than I could have ever hoped for in a baby.  I planned on being in love with him because well…he is my flesh and blood…but I didn’t anticipate that he would be so well behaved.  He has been super easy to take care of…sleeps 12 hours at night…happily eats anything I give him…lets anyone hold him…smiles and flirts with people when we are out and about…rarely gets fussy…poops max 2 times a day!!!!   And on top of being well behaved he is so sweet and snuggles on me all the time.  I guess I was just bracing for the worst but I got the best.  Only a wonderful and generous God could create something so perfect and hand him over to me…and for that I thank him everyday!!!!

So what else has Easton been up to???? 

-At about 2 and 1/2 months Easton was great at sitting propped up.  He would sit and watch tv (sometimes up to five minutes) leaning up against the back couch cushions.  Now he isn’t so good at it though because he tries to sit too far forward and falls forward.

-Easton has been drooling and chewing on his hands since about 3 months like he is teething. I am just waiting to go pick him up from his crib one morning and see that some little teeth have popped out over night. 

-Around 3 months Easton started using the exersaucer.  I had to put a couple towels around him to keep him from flailing about but he loved playing with all the toys.  Now he is a champ and works his way around the whole circle banging on the sound buttons and pulling on anything he can.  He also likes to spit up on the hardest to clean places.

-Easton also had his first taste of cereal around three months…it was a mess.  We tried feeding it to him on a spoon and it was so runny it got all over.  We put it away for a few weeks and brought it back out about a week before he turned 4 months.  He is doing wonderful with it now. I can’t get it into his mouth fast enough.  This was about the same time that he started sleeping a good 12 hours a night.   Before this he was sleeping about 8 hours at night and was a little restless throughout the night.  Since that cereal got in his belly…he has slept like a rock!!!!  Good for Mommy!  Now I am mixing a little fruit and veggies into it and I think he would he all  night if I kept feeding him

-At three months Josh went on his first trip away from us for an extended period of time (20 days to Alaska).  We got through it fine but there was a noticable difference in Easton’s behavior once daddy got back home…his behavior just seemed more even keel.  How appropriate…I think he is just trying to make me look like a crazy woman. 

-Easton has his first air plane ride on May 28th at 3 months old.  We flew from Tampa to St. Louis.  He did great.  He fell asleep and staed asleep for most of the take off.  We just had a little whimpering on the way down and as soon as he started drinking a bottle he was fine.  That made daddy proud

-Easton went swimming for the first time at 3 months and 1 week old and has been several times since.  He loves kicking his legs and splashing himself.  He loves to be on his belly and kick his legs behind him.  He even put his face in the water and pulled it back out and didn’t even cry!

-At about 3 and 1/2 months he started getting very active on his playmat…arching his back and reaching way over his head to pull on the toys.  He also somehow scoots himself all the way around and sometimes even off the mat.  He is acting like he wants to roll over but nothing consistient yet.  When I put him on his belly for tummy time his legs get going and he puts his hiney in the air…if he could just get his arms coordinated he would be crawling…im sure that will take some time.

-Easton is also outgrowing clothes like crazy.  I try as hard as I can to get him into every outfit in the closet but some of them miss the mark.  At 3 months I had to go buy him9monthsleepers because he couldn’t straighten his legs in the 6 months.  But he can still wear 6 month onesiesand shorts and shirts.  I was surprised to find at his four month checkup however that he only grew 3/4 of an inch?????  We did go to a new doctor and they measure a little differently so that might have something to do with it.  So his overall measurements were…height: 24  3/4″ (50th percentile), weight: 15 lbs 6 oz (50th percentile), head: 17.2″ (75th percentile)

-Right at 4 months Easton had his first day care experiences and did wonderful…it is always harder for mom I think.  He went to the church nursery for a couple of hours while participated in bible study.  He is also going to the play center at the YMCA every morning for an hour while I workout and try to get back into shape.  It has been great for us to get out of the house.  I have learned that I am a better mom when I take an hour or two a day for myself.

Overall my little man is just too much fun.  He loves to sit and grab mom and dad’s faces and giggle with us.  He reacts with a giggle when I play peek-a-boo with him.  These last two months have been so much more fun than the first two.  Now that Easton can interact with us parenthood is so much more rewarding.  I can’t wait to see what the next months hold for us!

I’ll leave you with a few more of my favorite pics from the last few months…

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Bath time at Mimi and G-Pa's

Easton meets Grammy!

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Okay, so it is obvious that I have had a tough time keeping up with this blogging business.  Right now I am trying to get together a four month post   We just got back from vaction out at Clearwater Beach and after unpacking and reframing a few pictures I am just too tired to get it done.  My mom however has been horrified that she has had to look at the picture of Easton getting his shots for the last 2 months so for now I am gonna just post some pics just to give this blog a fresh look Hopefully I will be back tomorrow with a four month update on all Easton has been up to these last two months…

This was Easton at about 3 months...I just framed it and put it in his nursery along with a couple of other sleepy pics. He is so sweet when he sleeps!!!!

...and another one from Easton's 3 month photoshoot with Rebecca (www.rebeccadodsonphotography.com)

...and this one made the wall too!!!! YES now I have an Easton wall in my living room...our wedding pictures have been replaced with a much more precious subject This is probably one of my favorite pics to date. My best friend Teah came down to visit and did another photoshoot with Easton (he is very comfortable with the camera now). She is the best at photographing Easton...just look at this priceless picture!!!!!

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 Easton’s First Ouchie! Those legs are getting chunky…I love them!!!

Yes, today was Easton’s 2 month check up…everything was perfect except for the fact we had to get his shots.  I felt so guilty the whole time because Easton was on the table just smiling and “gooing” (no GooGoo he hasn’t said your name yet) like a little sweetheart…he didn’t know what was about to happen to him but I did.  I don’t know why I felt so guilty…its not like I could have warned him or anything.  I think it was even harder because Easton rarely cries at home.  Sometimes he whimpers and whines but never a distressing cry…you know the kind where there mouth opens and they start screaming but nothing comes out because they are so upset…and then after a short delay they belt it all out.  I saw his face progress through like 5 shades of red ending in the brightest red I had ever seen him get.  Thankfully the nurse did the three shots super quick, got the band aids on, and I could pick him up in just seconds.  Surprisingly it took only a minute to get him calmed down and we have faired pretty well the rest of the day. 

Easton’s New Stats:

Height: 24″  91st percentile       Weight: 12lbs 12oz  77th percentile     Head Circumference: 16.25″  82nd percentile (smart boy)

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The last two months have flown by and might I say…they have been eventful…so eventful I haven’t had time to write on here.  Instead of making a bunch of posts to try and catch up for the last two months I am just gonna hit the highlights and put up some of my favorite pics of Easton.  And from here on out I will try to stay caught up with so I can remember all the details and share them with you.

So lets start with our return from the hospital…wow how I did not want to leave the hospital.  I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect labor and recovery.  I cherish the time we got to spend in the hospital just enjoying our new, and might I add perfect, little boy.  The nurses and their support staff took care of every need and made the transition to motherhood/fatherhood so very easy.  We came home on monday afternoon and I was feeling great…thanks to percocet!  Easton made the transition into our home very nicely too.  His sleep schedule was much better than I anticipated…for the first few weeks he woke up about every three hours but as soon as he finished eating he went back to sleep pretty quickly.  After about three weeks he started giving us 4-5 hour strectches every now and then.  By five weeks we were occassionally getting a six hour stretch and now at 8 weeks we are up to about 8 hours…we put him down around 10 and he is up around 6 or 6:30!!!!  I hope he is not playing a joke on us   Like I said…Easton was very well behaved at night…but Josh and I were a different story.  I will leave the details out but lets just say it took us a while to get a routine down so that we didn’t want to strangle each other deciding who would get up.  I will admit I was most to blame…my fuse is apparently very short at 3am.  So…. while enjoying life with Easton at home…which was absolutely wonder…everything else in our life seemed to be spiraling out of control.

I told you in my last post that before we even made it to the hospital Josh’s driver side window in his truck broke…that was just the beginning.  A few days after being home our microwave broke…yes my microwave!!!!!!  Leftovers aren’t so convenient to eat when you have no microwave to warm them up in!!!!!  I am not gonna spend much time talking about that because it was just the tip of the iceberg.  A couple of weeks later (we still didn’t even have our microwave repaired yet) Josh and I were leaving the house for my 4 week post partum check up and Josh noticed that he had left his tailgate down all night.  But as we took a second glance we realized that we did not leave it down…it was no longer there…thats right someone stole his tailgate…just the tailgate!!!!  They didn’t even touch the five or six hundred dollars worth up stuff that was in his truck bed…but after doing our searching around for a new tailgate we found out why they didn’t bother taking anything else…it costs $1200 to replace a tailgate!!!!!!!!  Apparently whoever took it made a bunch of money that night because we personally know three other people with ford f-150′s who got theirs stolen too!!!!  In the scheme of things however the missing tailgate wasn’t too horrible…we paid our $500 deductable, the insurance picked up the rest and it was replaced.  Somethings are irreplacable however…

About a week or so after the tailgate went missing…our dogs went missing.  They had been spending a little extra time outside since Easton came and I guess got a little stir crazy.  They escaped the yard a couple of times but I would always go out and look for them, find them and bring them home.  Well, this particular Wednesday night I wasn’t able to find them.  So I went to bed and prayed that they would just return home on their own.  I woke up around 2:30 am and went to the back porch to experience the most eerie feeling I have ever experienced…Brandi was laying there all by herself…Major did not come home with her.  I had a feeling right then that he wouldn’t be returning home but for the next four days I searched for him, hung posters, and checked our front and back door 100 times a day to see if he was sitting there staring at me with his cute little face.  Unfortunately, he never made it home.  That Sunday afternoon Josh realized that the debris on the highway outside our neighborhood was actually Major and not from the construction going on.  It was horrible to discover but it helped me have closure and begin to heal.  We are now adjusting to life without him…he is greatly missed.  Major, we love you, we miss you and hope to chase cats with you in heaven one day…

It took me a good two weeks before I went a day without crying.  Just as we were adjusting to life without Major we got our microwave back from the repair shop…yes we went a whole month without a microwave.  Just as it looked like things were on the up swing we came home to find a bullet hole in our front window!!!!!!  Come to find out it was from a BB Gun that the yay-hoos across the street were playing with.  Nonetheless, none of them would admit to it and there really is nothing we could do to get them to replace the window so we will probably be paying for that one too.  Hopefully, that is the end of this long string of crazy events.  I do have to add that while all of this was going on Josh was in the middle of two master classes, his annual performance report at work, as well as preparing for a fitness test and check ride.  It has been trying to say the least but we found peace knowing that God was in control all along.  Through all of this chaos he has given us a beautiful baby boy that reminds us everyday of how much He loves us.

And now…some of my favorite pics from the last few months…

Just a week old!!!

Easton's First Bible Story...it was the creation story...how appropriate

L'oved Baby - our favorite clothing line for Easton

Its so easy to love on Easton!!!!

Daddy doing double duty...watching Easton and doing homework for class. SUPER DAD!!!!

Bath Time - 3 weeks

Easton takes Major's place...for those of you wondering...this is by no means allowed in our house. Brandi is never on the couch but I just had to do this. Josh wasn't home but did forgive me

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EASTON JOSHUA PAYNE...Feb 27th @ 8:04am 9lbs 6oz

Well, when I left you last I was just at the end of my pregnancy and I had no idea what the road ahead would be like.  I am on the road now and it is absolutely wonderful.  As you can tell by the date of my last post…it has taken me a little while to get in the swing of things.  Getting used to taking care of Easton wasn’t too bad but finding time to get other things done has been the challenge.  Not to mention we have had quite a few shenanigans going on…some of them quite serious.  Now that our visitors have come and gone and things are getting back to normal…I am recommitting myself to keeping up the blog…especially since my whole reason for starting it was to document all the little moments we don’t want to forget.  So here we go…

Friday February 26th was my last scheduled checkup  before my due date, February 27th.  I was hoping and praying that when I went in the doctor was going to tell me that I was in labor and needed to get to the hospital and push that baby out.  Well, I got to the doctors office and boy did they send me right to the hospital!!!!  But it had nothing to do with being dilated or effaced but everything to do with my blood pressure…170/110!!!!!!  Ouch!!!!  Not to mention I had horribly swollen feet and protein in my urine…this was looking like the perfect recipe for pre-eclampsia.  I somehow remained unusually calm.  I called Josh and he left work immediately and headed home.  Being 40 weeks pregnant I was hoping this was it!!!!! I was going to the hospital and hopefully not coming home until I had a baby in my arms.  I calmly cleaned up the house, gathered all our bags for the hospital stay, and layed back in the recliner waiting for Josh to get home.  About 10 minutes later Josh pulled up and came running in the door like I was delivering the baby right in our very own living room.  He looked at me like why are you just laying there…lets go!!!!  I was in no rush though because we had been through this before and everything ended up being ok. I told him to settle down, get something to eat and we would leave in a few minutes.  He then informed me that we would also need to take care of the driver side window in his truck.  It had fallen down on his way to work that morning and it wouldn’t go up!!!!  We couldn’t just leave it in our driveway…if we had the baby then the window would be sitting open in our driveway the whole weekend.  So before we could leave Josh had to rip of the interior panel of his door….push the window up as far as it would go…put a bolt in there so it wouldn’t fall down…and then cover the remaining crack with a trash bag.  Then we got in the car and headed to the hospital…

We got to the hospital around 1:30pm and were immediately admitted to triage.  I was pretty calm and Josh was a nevrous wreck!!!  After being examined by the nurse it was determined that I definitely had pre-eclampsia.  The nurses told me that most likely my doctor would just keep me and induce me even if my blood pressure went down.  They monitored me for a few hours…and ofcourse it went down.  The nurses reported my results to my doctor and he said to monitor me for another hour and if my blood pressure stayed down then he would send me home.  By that point I was not gonna leave that hospital just to have to come back and go through all this again.  So over the next hour my blood pressure somehow went back up and I started having contractions every four minutes!!!!!!  I got to stay!!!!

They moved me to labor and delivery at 6:00 that night.  As soon as GooGoo (Wilma) and Grand-dad (Alan) got the news they jumped in the car and started driving to Florida.  The doctor’s plan was to give me a cervix softener that night and then they would induce me in the morning with pitocin.  Hopefully I would be delivering Easton late that morning…and GooGoo and Grand-dad would get there just in time  

At that point we had been at the hospital since 1:00pm and the only thing I had to eat that day was a string cheese on the way there.  I was having hunger pains like I never had before.  I had no idea how I would have the strength to push a baby out…but you would not believe what those iv fluids can do…apparently they filled me up and I wasn’t hungry anymore.  Josh got the computer out and we Skyped with MiMi (Linda) & GPa (Keith) and Aunti MoMo & Ryleigh.  We also had a few friends visit us for a bit and then it was time for my next dose of cervix softener.  This was at about midnight and the contractions were starting to get somewhat uncomfortable.  By 1:00am I was in the worst pain I have ever felt and ready for my epidural…they told me I couldn’t have it though because the last time they checked me I was only dilated 3cm and I need to be at 4cm.  I told them that they needed to check me again because something had to of changed   They checked me and I was 4cm!!!  They ordered the epidural but told me it could be 45 minutes to and hour and a half before I got it.  By this time I was having contractions every 2 minutes.  I said to my nurse, “45 minutes???? You know how many more contractions I am going to have before tha!!!!!!”  So they gave me something to take the edge off and then I got my epidural about 20 minutes later.  I was so happy…I told all the nurses they were my angels…I even called them “my angels in the outfield????????”  Then I went to sleep for a while. 

Apparently while I was asleep Easton was bored and decided to flip over and lay sunny side up!!!!  He also decided that he didn’t want to drop either!!!!!  In an attempt to get him to drop they sat me up to let gravity do some work.  When they realized that wasn’t working they layed me back and thought they should flip me over to get Easton to flip back over.  This is when things got a crazy…as soon as they flipped me over Easton’s heart rate went down to 70 and mine shot way up. The nurse started moving in fast forward…she put an oxygen mask on my face, called in nurses for backup, called my doctor, and started getting ready for a c-section!!!  Josh started getting a little queasy and I just kind of laid there in a daze…not at all as freaked out as I thought I would be when the nurse started talking abut a c-section.  But my wonderful doctor came in and checked things out.  He realized that I really wasn’t completely dilated so he had me push through the next contraction and POOF!!!! everything was ok!!! Easton started moving down and I pretty much just pushed him out from there!!!! Oh but wait…not before they asked me if some nursing students could come into watch the birthing process.  Thinking that it would probably be some young, 20 year old girl I said, “oh sure why not????”  :-)  And then in walks this 40 or 50 year old man and I thought to myself “maybe you need to ask MY HUSBAND if the nursing student can come in.” Nonetheless…I pushed and pushed for about 45 minutes and out popped my 9lb 6oz   21inch beautiful baby boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It was very surreal!  There are many more details but I dont think I will share them on my blog   I’ll just end it with…we spent the next two days in the hospital admiring our little Easton.

Now that you have read my labor story…you can get what you are really looking for…the pictures.  These were taken by Bella Baby…the photographers at the hospital.

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One week to go!!!! Maybe I shouldn't be wearing yellow...at this point it kind of makes me look like a school bus

Many of you have been calling to check up on Easton’s progress, but unfortunately there is not much to report   Nonetheless, I thought I would take some time to do at least one more post before Easton comes and fill you in on what I do know…

I had an appointment yesterday and things look to be measuring just perfectly!  Despite my very large belly the doctor says Easton is probably about 6lbs right now…just looking at me on the exam table even the doctor thought it was looking like Easton was on the big side.  But after measuring my belly and pressing around on it he says I look bigger than I really am I don’t know if that is a compliment or not?????  There’s not much more news than that except the fact that Easton has been head down for about 3 weeks now; however he hasn’t really dropped.  I’m thinking that he is just surveying and making a great escape plan so when he does drop he will move out fast!!!!!  We did find out that the due date was changed to Feb 27th somewhere along the way, which falls on his soon to be Grand-dad’s (Alan) birthday.  If Easton decides to sit and plan his escape too long, however he will be evicted on March 2.  That is the day that we have scheduled for his induction.  As far as momma goes…I am doing great…almost too great.  I have a bunch of energy and not many aches and pains; however my feet want to swell up the second I put them on the floor to stand up!  It is kind of frustrating because there is so much I want to do but I have to sit and keep my feet up to keep the swelling down.  And actually sitting doesn’t do the trick…I really need to lay in order to see any improvement.  So I can’t even catch up on emails, facebook, and blogging to pass the time   But it will all be over soon!!!!! 

As of now we are just sitting on go.  Both of us have our bags packed and Josh gets excited every time I have a little pain.  He acts as though he is concerned for my suffering, but really he just hopes they are the real deal contractions and we can head to the hospital.  Speaking of heading to the hospital…many have requested to be on the “to call” list when things start happening but most likely we will just send out an initial text (except to immediate family of course) and then update our facebook pages and blog along the way…so tune in here.  We don’t want anyone to feel left out of the loop but we know we won’t be able to call everyone to give updates.  We plan on bringing the computer so hopefully there will be lots of pics to upload!!!!!  Please keep us in your prayers.  See ya on the other side…”The Mother Side”

Look how far we've come!!!!! I ran across this picture in my "maternity pics" folder...it made me laugh when I viewed it next to my most recent picture (the one at the top of this post). I now officially have come to the conclusion that I have sacrificed my body...I don't think it will ever be the same again and its weird because at this point really I don't even care :-)

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