happy wednesday! oh what a great morning! Tyler slept almost all through the night last night! I couldn't believe it! We put him down 11:30pm and he didn't wake up till 3:30am! After we fed him and changed him, he slept again until this morning at 6am! This is seriously a HUGE improvement from all the previous nights where he would constantly wake up and be fussy and cry and not calm down. I am a proud mommy - but also I'm going to just appreciate it for what it is and not expect it from him all the time. What a wonderful baby! Will was able to get good sleep since he's got this baby filter working - he can ignore all the little sounds and movements Tyler makes in his light sleep; but not me! I'm wide awake with any little sound and breath! That's next on my task to work on. Guess what happened yesterday - Tyler's umbilical cord fell off! It had looked like it was hanging by a thread for a little bit and then we went to change his diaper and ?? where'd it go! There's still a little bit of redness inside but the main part is gone - kind of momentous - I told Will that I GREW that cord to feed Tyler and he was like - you GREW him! ... ahh very true. :)

Here's Tyler minus his umbilical cord stump!I realized that I haven't gotten a chance to talk about my delivery! To make a long story short - it was FANTASTIC! It was so great that I am dying to do it again - seriously! My contractions started late Sunday/early Monday 7-9 morning around 1am - except I didn't know they were contractions. I woke up in bed with a really really sore back ache (which was nothing new to me since I had been so uncomfortable sleeping for a while) and a lot of pressure back there - I just kept thinking I needed to go to the bathroom! I kept trying to go but nothing happened and I'd go back to sleep. This seriously went on for like 3 hours - me waking up in pain and trying to go and then the pain subsiding and me falling back to sleep. I had seriously NO clue they were contractions. By 4am though, they were a lot closer together and I was like hm..... so Will and I started timing then and Will was on the internet looking up real vs fake contractions. Uh oh - mine were falling more in the real category and not so much in the fake. I was still in denial though! I had Will go back to sleep to get some rest while I continued to time then. They were averaging 5 minutes apart, about 50 seconds long. Gee that was fast - thats pretty much what my doctor had said to as the point I should be heading to the hospital! By 6am I called my older sister and got confirmation that these most likely WERE contractions and I should head to the hospital. I actually had time (the 5 min between contractions) to get dressed, brush my teeth and put on some makeup - I knew we were going to be taking a lot of pictures! By 7am we were at the hospital. We had the most awesome Labor & Delivery Nurse - Kelly - who checked me and said I was only 1cm dilated. I wasn't surprised - my doctor appt just on Friday I was completely closed! She was great and didn't want to send us home because she could see my contractions were getting closer and closer together and somehow managed to keep buying time for me to stay. She had us walk around the halls for an hour or so to try to get my more dilated - didn't really work - I was still the same afterwards but boy oh boy is it not pleasant to walk around with contractions that close together and strong!

Will and I walking the halls:
FINALLY at 11am I was at 2-3cm dilated with contractions literally 1-2 minutes apart lasting a minute each! Whoohoo, I was admitted by 11:30am, had my IV put in right after AND my epidural immediately after! Usually they wait until 4cm dilated but thank goodness she had me get mine early. They were really quite painful! Although, if I may say so myself - I handled them really well - no crying, screaming, whimpering, etc - I think I was just too excited that we were ACTUALLY going to have the baby that day! The epidural wasn't even that bad - Dr. Holken was super fast - it was like bamn! bamn! bamn! ahhhhhhh. Probably helped that I didn't see the needle. I think the worse part was the IV - the top of your hand is really not a great place for needles! The next several hours were great - I felt great, Kelly monitored the baby and my heartbeat and contractions and we waited for me to fully dilate. She really encouraged me to take a nap since she said for a first time mom, it was going to be tiring later. I was so excited I could barely sleep! Good thing I did though! By 7pm - it was time to start pushing!! Did I mention I loved my epidural? Pushing was pretty tiring but not painful at all. We pushed for about 2 hours+ and then out came Tyler! :)

my awesome doctor - Dr. Jennifer Lee, and our new little family!It was a wonderful experience and I can't wait to do it again - in a year or two! The hospital staff was great too the next couple days we were there and the nurses were really helpful and encouraging when it came to breastfeeding. Tyler is finally getting the hang of things - or maybe its me thats finally getting the hang of things.

one of the things that totally calms Tyler down is his swing. We actually haven't had to use it too much lately, but in those first few nights after coming home from the hospital - it was our solution when we were about to crazy. Its so cute watching him in it - hes so alert looking around and up at the little stuffed animals. Plus it puts him to sleep which is GREAT.

Tyler so cute in his swing!Tyler has been such a trouper with all the pediatrician appointments we've had to check his jaundice levels. He gets these cute little band-aids too after each prick of his heel. Thank goodness there won't be anymore of those! His two week checkup is next week - I'm excited to see how much additional weight he's gained! It was kind of nice having these appointments (minus Tyler getting poked) because it got us out of the house - even for just a short period - and then we could stop by a drive through somewhere and get something different for lunch! Although, for the rest of the week, I'm going to hole our little family up here at home and enjoy every moment!

At his doctor appointment!Yesterday my aunt and grandma stopped by for a short visit to meet Tyler. My aunt loved holding him and was telling us stories about her having her kids. She lives super close to us and she had her kids at the same hospital in Newport Beach - Hoag. Although back then they hadn't renovated and built a brand new wing.

My aunt and grandmother with me and Tyler!Here are just a few more random shots from the last couple days!
I like this picture because it has Will/my fobby Chinese wedding picture in the background!Look how tiny Tyler's fingers are compared to mine! I love to nibble on his toes!Proud daddy with Tyler in his car seat. Its so convenient having a light weight snap'n'go frame!Here's daddy with sleeping Tyler reading about what foods I should and shouldn't be eating!
Keep the comments coming! :)