.the.next.generation.

The third week in February Graycin and I flew to Richland to spend some time with my parents and for Graycin to meet his great grandparents. Flying with a 6 week old by myself was an adventure but we all survived and I didn't get too many dirty looks on the plane. Great Grandma Richards flew in and some of my best friends came to town to meet our little man. It is very cool to see the next generation of our families! Graycin experienced his first Bomber basketball game and got to meet many members of the Bomber family! We will be making many more trips home in the near future!

After his bath...

Showing his Grampy how well he can hold his head up.

Nanny and Graycin took a nap together.

Papaw and the little man

Great Grandma

Four generations

Graycin is 2 months old!

It has been an eventful February, early March here at the Rodes' house! Big mile stones, big events, new introductions and lots of fun!

Graycin has finally conquered strep, thrush, a yeast infection and his very first cold! Poor baby had a rough first eight weeks but we think he has finally gotten completely healthy and we are really starting to see him become a little man! He had his first (2 month) set of shots on Monday (March 7th). He took them like a champ! He weighed 13 pounds 6 0z (the 97th percentile for his age), was 23 1/4 inches long (the 90th percentile for his age.... are we seeing a trend here?) and his head is 16 inches around (between the 75th and 90th percentiles)!! He is growing like crazy! The doctor was very impressed with how well he holds his head up and how interactive he is.

He started smiling on purpose (rather than just when he has gas) on Valentines Day and hasn't stopped yet! He now finds great joy in funny faces and silly voices and has started trying to 'talk back.' He giggled for the first time on Monday at Mommy sticking her tongue out at him. He LOVES the front pack and facing outward so he can see. He has started trying to interact with his mobile and play mat toys. Before I know it he is going to ripping them all down!! He went on his very first plane ride the day before his 6th week birthday to Richland to meet more of my family. I will post again in a few days with all the details from that trip!

Hanging out with Daddy

Sleepy Baby

Waiting for bath time

Wore his tennis shoes for the first time!
Noah calls them his "cool dude shoes."

His favorite place to sleep

Getting SO big!

Trying to place with octopus on his mat

Sweet smiley boy

As for the rest of us, Zeb is working his butt off, and I'm working harder than ever and feel like I'm getting absolutely nothing accomplished. I still feel like a shower a day and more than one meal a day is a bonus. I am dreading going back to work in three weeks so much I cant even express. Noah and Christina (our two foster kiddos) have been with us almost a year now. We have come leaps and bounds. In the absolute best interest of the kids, they are being adopted!! We are so excited for them to go to their new, amazing, forever family. They have very neat 'forever' parents who will give them absolutely everything they could need or want and will have a huge extended family which, we know, is such an amazing gift! Their new parents came this last weekend to meet them and start bonding with them. They had so much fun and are so excited to be headed to their final stop in all of this! They will be greatly missed and always loved and remembered by us, but we are so excited for them to finally get what they have deserved from day one. I'm hoping that once everything is complete their forever family will allow us to post a few pictures of them so that you can all see these two munchkins that have been ours for the past year!!

Oh how times have changed....

We have had a lot happen here in the last 4 weeks. Graycin has grown from 8 lbs 15 oz to 11 lbs 11 oz before he is 5 weeks old! He was out of all newborn clothes at 2 weeks and is quickly working his way through the 0-3 month sizes and has a lot of clothes that are 3-6 month that he fits in just fine. At 2 weeks he got a staph infection on his bottom. After 36 hours of being off the antibiotics the staph was back with a yeast rash because of the antibiotic... most likely due to the fact that I am a strep B carrier and he didn't get the second round of antibiotic during labor. Now he is back on antibiotics and a cream to get rid of the the yeast. Poor baby!

Noah and Christina came home after two weeks. It has been an all over the place adjustment going from two kids, to a newborn, to two kids and newborn... I think God mistakenly only gave Mom's two hands!

As for me, I think a shower on a daily basis, even a bi-daily (is that even a word?) basis is a luxury. Eating one meal a day is amazing, sleeping more than 2 hours a time isn't going to happen any time soon, being pooped on, pee'd on, and puked on is lovely and yet somehow every time I look at him, I fall more in love with him.

We are going to go to Washington to introduce Graycin to his Nanny and Papaw and all his Aunt's and Uncle's... plus his MeMa and Grampy REALLY miss him! Graycin and I are going to fly early in the week and Zeb is going to come later. Flying with a 5 week old baby is going to either be a breeze or a nightmare...

Here are some pictures of our little man as he is growing!!


Happy 4 week birthday Graycin!!

Future Bronco!

Classic Black Solid Colors

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He's here!!

After all the suspense and waiting, Graycin is finally here!! My water started leaking about about 6:35am on Thursday, January 6th 2011. We both finished our showers and packed our bag. Zeb packed our two foster children's bag and we made phone calls to the family that is taking care of the kids for a a couple weeks, and to our parents and a few friends. My Mom and Dad jumped in the car and headed to Boise, picking up my sister for a caravan along the way, with high hopes to be here before the baby was born! We got to the hospital a little before 8 am and headed to labor and delivery. Since we were pretty sure my water was about to burst they admitted us and kindly took the 'leaking' process to a full blown 'rupture.' Before we knew it, they had us walking the halls trying to let nature speed up the process while they got us a room and got all the technicalities done. We were assigned to room 2401 and that became our home for the next 10 hours. For awhile Zeb and I hung out and watched sports center (imagine that) while my contractions slowly increased on their own. At about 10am we starter Pitocin to speed up and strengthen my contractions. They got going pretty quickly after that. For most women and their first pregnancy, you dilate about a centimeter an hour on Pitocin. I, however, can do nothing normally and in about two and a half hours went from a 3 to a 10! At 9 cm dilated I got my epidural and that was FANTASTIC! Zeb's Mom got there about 11:30 or so and hung out with me while Zeb ran to get lunch before all the fun began. My Mom and Dad and sister walked in at about 12:45pm and I started pushing a little after 1:00pm. My Dad provided entertainment from the other side of the curtain for most of my labor and that kept everyone laughing and a little more relaxed. After 2.5 hours of pushing and a break, and then another half hour of pushing while the doctor tried to suction our little man out, it was decided that his head just wasn't going to make it past the iliac spine in my pelvis. So, the process and prep began for a c-section. Graycin James Rodes was born at 6:35pm (just 12 hours after all this began). He was 8lbs, 15oz and 21 inches long. His 14 inch head (which is not that big) had a pretty good size blister and bruise from the vacuum on it. His blood sugar was fairly low when he was born and we battled that for about 24 hours. Then on Friday evening he started turning a little yellow, due to the bruise and his body trying to fight all those dead red blood cells. So, he spent all of Friday night and most of Saturday under the billirubin lights. We have been free and clear since then! Welcome baby Graycin! We are SO excited that you are here!

His first picture!

Getting Weighed

Our First Family Picture

Mom's First Time Holding Him
Daddy and Graycin

So Alert!

Going Home!!

First Night Home

Welcome Baby Graycin!!

Warm Welcome Blue Birth Announcement

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8 more weeks to go...

Well, since my kidney has not felt the need to function to it's full and normal potential, we have been to the doctor, and will continue to be, much more often than most women at this point in a normal pregnancy. For the second time in the last month, I ended up in Labor and Delivery hurtin' like a mad mammajamma. They can't decide if I have a kidney stone, which is normal for me; or if little man is laying on my Ureter and impairing the function of my kidney, which is apparently very normal as well. Either way, it has not been fun - but on a more positive note, we got to have another ultrasound so we (and the doctor) could check on our little trouble maker. His heart rate is consistantly in the 140 beats per minute range... and he is a chunky 4lbs 6oz's! He is growing quickly! The doctor did tell us that it is possible that if he continues causing my kidney problems that we could potentially do an amniocentesis sometime after 36 weeks and if his lungs are mature, they can induce me the next day. Right now, we are up in the air if this is something we want to do or not. Only time will tell. We will continue to the doctor weekly for now and per the doctors request we will be having another ultra sound at 35 weeks (December 9th). We are 32 weeks on Saturday! Only 8 more weeks to go!!

Once again we have a couple pictures of Baby G's face. You might have to tilt your head to the right to see him look at you but you can see his eyes closed in the first picture and his hands tucked under his chin. The second picture his eyes are open. :)

And his extremities.....