Baby Love

We've all got it bad.

Camryn and Kendra could not wait to come meet Connor. Grandma and Mickell brought them to the hospital on Monday as soon as Camryn was home from school. Bethany came back to the hospital to take pictures of our girls meeting Connor for the first time.

 It was love at first sight.

 Camryn got to hold him first.

 She has been great with Connor from the start.

 Corinne thought it should be her turn, and kept trying to crowd in. So we made it her turn next.

 The look on her face says it all.

  She kept snuggling her face close to his. Corinne wants to hold Connor all the time too. We had been worried about her being jealous, but she just wants to hold him and help take care of him. 

Each of our girls couldn't get enough of little Connor.

Kendra waited patiently for her turn.

 Corinne kept trying to take him back.

 Everyone got another turn, but they all crowded around him most of the time.

 Bethany also took some pictures with just Connor.

 We love Connor's hair. It looks like he's already been to the stylist. It spikes up naturally. He's just so darn cute.

 Out of everyone in our family, I am the biggest baby hog. I can't get enough of him. I just want to hold him, and snuggle him, and talk to him, and stroke his baby soft skin. His little forehead has received countless kisses. He is such a sweet, sweet baby.

Daddy is just as enamored, but he usually seems to be waiting in line for his turn with Connor.

We all love Connor so much. He is such a good baby, with a tiny little cry. He doesn't cry much, and he already gets at least one 5 hour stretch of sleep at night, then eats and goes right back to sleep. During the day, he has a big appetite, and seems to be eating all the time. I don't think he'll be tiny for long, not eating like he does. He also gets the hiccups at least 3 times each day. He used to get them in the womb quite often, and that hasn't gone away. Here is a short video of it.

Camryn loves to hold Connor, any chance she gets. She will still sit and just hold him for half an hour. She sure loves her baby brother.

Kendra was holding him first thing this morning. She also likes holding him, but she has focused more on being a big help. She helps me with everything. She has been loading the clothes washer, then moving them to the dryer. She has been helping clean and getting things for me. She has been a super big help, and she acts like she loves to do it.

My sister, Nicole, made Connor two adorable little hats. They are so darn cute!

We all love Connor so much. He is such a blessing to our home, such a sweet little miracle.

18 Years Ago, Today

My brother, Dane Tyler Petersen was born.

I was 13 years old, and so happy that my mom was having a baby. Everything about it excited me. I remember looking at my pregnant mother, and thinking she was so beautiful, thinking that she just glowed. I wanted to do something special for the birth of this baby boy. I walked down to the craft store with my money from babysitting. I picked out a cross stitch pattern and all the thread. I wanted it to be a surprise for my mom, so I worked on it secretly in by bedroom.

I still remember the night Dane was born. I had been sleeping. My parents came in and woke me up. They told my that mom's water had broken and asked me to sleep in their bed so that when my brothers and sister woke up I would be there. Dane was born on April 28, 1994. I was so excited to meet him and hold him and help take care of him.

And I did help take care of him, quite a bit. I loved it! Dane was such a fun little guy. When I moved out 5 years later, leaving Dane and Mickell was the hardest part for me. I loved helping those two little ones.

Dane grew up to be an amazing person. He showed all of us so much about patience and selflessness. I love him so much. It is still so hard for me that his life was shorter than any of us expected. I think of the amazing husband and father he would be. I wish my children would have had more time with him; that I could see him with Connor. My heart aches at our loss.
But I am so grateful for the blessing of having Dane as my younger brother for 17 1/2 years.
This is one of my favorite pictures of him from Jonathan and Jessica's reception. I love the way it captures his smile and the light in his eyes.
 Dane, you are truly amazing. Thank you for all you showed me, and each member of my family. I love you so, so much.

Connor's Birth

I am finally doing a post. Bethany took all of these pictures. I am so happy we she took birth pictures for us. We have so many great pictures that we never would have gotten without her. I would highly recommend her as a birth photographer. She also made us a video montage that is so precious it makes me cry. It really tells his birth story with photographs, in a way you can't tell it with words.

Here is Connor's birth story, from my point of view:

 On Sunday, April 22 I got up that morning and got ready for a 9am to 5pm shift at work. The day went as usual. I normally get lots of contractions in the last few months of my pregnancy. So a light contraction here or there doesn't mean much. What sets things apart for me is when they get frequent, or strong enough that I stop what I'm doing. I had a few light contractions between 3pm and 4pm. At 4pm I had one that was a bit stronger. I had another like that at 4:25pm, and another at 4:48pm. I got hopeful that I might be headed towards labor. I went home after work and Kent and I got our stuff loaded up. The contractions got closer, 10 to 12 minutes apart. We got to the hospital at around 6pm.

We were very anxious about getting to the hospital early. I tested positive for group B strep with Corinne. My labors go fast, and despite trying otherwise, I only got the antibiotics 45 minutes before she was born, which wasn't soon enough and she ended up in the NICU for a week. We didn't want that to happen again. So we left as soon as we thought there was a possibility labor was coming.

It seemed that it took forever to get checked in and answer all the questions. When the nurse finally checked me at about 6:40pm I was dilated to 3 or 4cm. Then she had to get the order to start antibiotics. The antibiotics were finally ready to start at 7pm. The nurse knew how anxious I was to start, so she just let them go in quick, instead of a slow drip.

With Corinne, at this point, I was dilated to 5cm. The nurse told me to walk around for an hour, because the baby hadn't dropped yet and it would help progress things along. So Kent and I walked around, and ended up holding Corinne about 40 minutes later.

So this time I laid in bed and tried to relax as much as possible. I wanted things to progress slowly. We were told it takes an hour for the antibiotics to get to the amniotic fluid.

We had been praying for months that this would go smoothly, and that Connor would be protected.

My water never broke. Connor came down the birth canal still enclosed in the sack. The doctor finally broke the bag after his head was partially out.

He was born at 8:34pm.

Our little angel had arrived!

Here are LOTS of pictures. He cried after he was born, and cried some more. He has the sweetest little cry.

 I was finally able to calm him down, such a sweet little baby.

 He was grabbing on to my finger.

 He cried again when they took him to weigh and measure him.

 He calmed down when Daddy got to snuggle him up.

Our prayers were answered. Connor didn't get sick. He is a healthy, absolutely perfect baby boy. He is so sweet and so cute. He is such a blessing, such a miracle.

We love you so much, little Connor.

Our Boy is HERE!!!

Connor Dane Parkinson was born on April 22nd at 8:34pm. He was 7 lbs 2 oz and 19 inches long.
It may be some time before I can get to a full post, but Bethany took was there and took some amazing pictures for us.

Here is the link to her blog:
http://setintimephotography.blogspot.com/

March Birthdays

We have two birthdays in March at our house. We had to double the fun with four birthday celebrations. First we got to celebrate Corinne's birthday.
Corinne turned two this month. She's not a baby anymore. It has been so fun seeing her personality develop and the sweet little girl she is growing up to be. She's a lot of fun!
Grandma and Grandpa Lincoln drove up on Saturday to see Corinne for her birthday. They brought presents that Corinne loved.

Corinne got her first birthday cake.

Joy also brought some things for Connor.

She didn't want us wrapping him in any of the girl blankets she made for Corinne (even though we have photographs showing Kent in his sister's pink clothes as a young boy =)).

She made Connor his own set of baby blankets and burp rags.

I didn't take many pictures, but we had a fun day together at our house.

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We had Corinne's official birthday party a couple days later. We invited some of Corinne's favorite kids over for her party.

This is Henry. He is the cutest little boy and Corinne loves him.Camryn and Kendra also love Henry's older sister and brothers.
Here they are with Maya and Ian.

We started with pizza, one of Corinne's favorite foods. It is so cute the way she says "pizza," she loves it!

Ian and Noah, chowing down.

Then we went on to presents.

Her friends have sure gotten to know her well. They take care of her while I am at work and Kent is at school.

They picked out her favorite stuffed animal, a monkey, and a cute little dress.

The kids had fun playing with Corinne and her presents.

Then we moved on to the pinata.

They sell pinatas at our local grocery store, and every time Corinne sees them she wants one, so we decided this was the perfect time to try one.

We let the kids take turns giving it a wack.

The kids were getting some pretty good hits.

The pinata broke off our stick, and Kent had put his hands at risk, holding the pinata out for the kids.Corinne got to take the first and last wacks, then we let the kids loose after the candy.

Those boys can sure hold their own; they got more candy than any of the girls.

We finished the party with birthday cake.

That wrapped up our second birthday celebration for Corinne, but that was not all for her.

We headed to Grandma and Grandpa Petersen's house later in the month, and they had more presents for her.

They got her this cute little barn with animals that make noises. Grandma showed her how to make them work.

What fun!!!

Corinne loved them!She also got some lacing cards, which all the girls like.

We were there on St. Patrick's Day and Grandma still had school to teach. That would mean that Camryn and Kendra would have to wait until after school to spend time with her, but they got a very special treat. She invited them to spend the day as her special guests in her class.

They were a little bit shy at first, but they had tons of fun. They got to be there all day and do all sorts of fun St. Patrick's Day stuff.

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Later that month we had our fourth birthday celebration. This one was for Daddy.

At least, it was supposed to be for Daddy.Corinne had gotten really good at this birthday thing, and tried to do most of it for him.

She even helped him blow out his candles.

Daddy did get a few treats made for him though. He got his birthday cake, and homemade apple pie, and my mom made him an ice cream cake. Other than that, I would say Corinne stole the birthday spotlight for this month. He adores her so much though, that I'm sure he wouldn't have it any other way.

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Happy Birthday Corinne and Daddy!