Alaska

In his few weeks of life, my Apollo boy has already been to our Mariner Theater three times! Thanks to this Christmas season and outings with my nieces.

The most recent event was Natalie’s Christmas concert. She’s in 4th grade and they played some songs on the recorder! It was so classic and great. Their music teacher does a great job making a program for a big load of kids, and they even had ukuleles in the performance too.

Little Katy wanted to hold Apollo as much as she could. It was pretty cute. 

Another outing was to the Nutcracker! I love watching the Nutcracker each year and Homer does a great job at putting the performance together.

Katy and Natalie love holding their baby cousin.

My sister got us free tickets because the night we went was like some performance for schools/families or something. I don’t know, but it was great and I saved $10. :)

How adorable is my boy? Goodness, I love him I love him. 

My fam all likes to hold him, but so do I. Sometimes I have a hard time sharing him, especially when he’s just so cuddly and molds to my chest. He’s the best.

Our first time to the Mariner Theater (which is just the auditorium at the high school) was for Katy’s Christmas program. Lots of cute kindergartens and first and second graders! Again, their music teacher does so great.

Apollo listening with his grammy. Oh he’s so cute.

And then Holly held him, but he was like 3 people away form me and I missed him! I just kept staring and wanting him back. :)

This boy fills my heart with love. Chris and I are so happy to have him and to share our life with him.

That’s me. I’m the milk machine around here. That means I’m the soul who feeds our sweet boy all the time, and it really feels like it is all the time. He’s a growing boy and needs to eat! And technically I could pump and we could have a supply of milk and Chris could feed him with a bottle sometimes, but I’m scared of the breast pump. :) And he’s only 3.5 weeks old and I don’t want him to use a bottle yet. I’m lucky I get to feed him.

Breastfeeding wasn’t super easy for the first few days. Like weeks 1-2 were harder with some raw/sore nipples, but we’ve gotten over that. And I know breastfeeding can be much more difficult for some new mothers, so I’m glad it’s been pretty good for us. And I’m grateful for the nipple shield that was helpful when breastfeeding hurt.

When he eats, I get to watch his cute little face and hear the funny noises he makes. Sometimes he acts so desperate and head bangs around looking for his source of power, aka breast milk. I just watch him and he’s so cute. And sometimes he smiles a little bit which always makes me smile and laugh. And when he has a burp or a toot he gets pretty figetty and sometimes cries till it comes out. Sometimes he gets his arms and hands in the way while feeding and sometimes he uses them to navigate around. And when he’s done eating he unlatches and his head gently falls back and his eyes are closed and sleepy. 

I’m really grateful I can breastfeed and help sustain my boy. So far I am not a big fan of any of my nursing bras and I have a hard time finding good shirts to wear that  I can easily nurse in, that I feel good in, and that would look okay with milk stains haha, but I’m figuring things out. But it’s a lovely bonding experience being the one to feed little Apollo. I love being his mother.

I remember my midwife telling us pregnant women to lower our expectations for ourselves after birth. Good advice. No expectations equals no disappointments! :)

Many days I’m pretty good about low expectations for what I accomplish each day and I just focus on taking care of the little boy. Other days I get a little discouraged when I don’t feel I do anything other than taking care of my sweet Apollo. He eats often and goes to the bathroom often and falls asleep often too. He’s such an angel. I just love him. 

My purpose right now is to take care of him so that’s what I’m doing. He’s just munching away as I write! 

During his naps sometimes I nap. Or sometimes I eat. Or I take care of myself and do things like showering and putting leggings on. Sometimes I clean up. 

We go out sometimes too. Or go on walks. We should go on more walks. It’s good for me and Apollo and Edel especially. 

Today I don’t feel very great about not getting much done. Full baskets of clean laundry, unmade bed with annoying sheets falling off, full dishwasher of clean dishes, full garbage can of dirty diapers… it all keeps staring at me and I just stare back haha. And then I stare at Apollo and get lost in that. I feel great about being Apollo’s mother. 

I bathed him today which he likes. And I like too because he likes it. And I fed him about 3000 times and I’ve changed a bunch of diapers. And during his naps I’m working on altering his precious suit that just came in the mail. 

He’s getting blessed on Sunday and I figured it’d be nice if he had something to wear other than the green monster suit. :) 

So I searched and searched on Amazon and I couldn’t find anything newborn size. The best I found was 0-6 months with reviews that’s said it fit small. It is definitely not small. 

Apollo is smiling more and it’s so cute. I love feeding him too. And we listen to lots of Christmas music. I love my boy and it’s been a heavenly 25 days with him.  

First time in an airplane, at three days old. Chris was excited to take his little buddy to the airport and show him the airplane he flies in. 

First Thanksgiving and first time meeting uncle Jake. 

First aurora show! At four days old we walked Apollo out in the driveway in the middle of the night to watch the northern lights. Quite magical. 

First (and maybe last) time in the little green monster suit. :)

First books received in the mail. They’re thoughtfully from our friend Danny! First time reading Love You Forever. 

First time blasting poop on to the wall. 

First time to the Nutcracker Faire! I love it. But he got hungry on the five minute cat ride home. And he got really upset and it made me sad. 

And his first time to the Nutcracker  

First time to the bagel shop. He liked it. Duh!

First Christmas concert. It was Paul Banks elementary’s and really cute. My niece, Katy, invited us. Auntie Holly and grandma both held Apollo through it and I missed him. 

And HIS FIRST BATH. He’s the cutest and sweetest. ADORABLE. 

Our hospital bills just came in the mail… and the grand total is $20k!! That’s the most expensive few days of my life! And the most worth it. My birthing experience didn’t go as I envisioned, but I love and appreciate the experience just the same. I loved our stay at the hospital and our midwife and nurses. They’re all angels. 

Hopefully our healthcare will cover most of our bills, because I definitely don’t have 20k in my cash stash. But it’ll all work out. And who cares how much it costs because look how precious this sweet baby is!

The advice I received most for having a newborn is to sleep when the baby sleeps. The dishes will wait. Vacuuming will wait.  But you need your rest. So sleep when the baby sleeps.

I’ve been doing a decent job at that. The first few days Chris had to make me sleep when the babe was snoozing, but now it seems to be better as long as I can sleep in with Apollo. Lately we’ve been getting up about 10 or so.

He’s sleeping for two hours at a time at night between feedings. I feel like all day and half the night all I do is breastfeed. He eats quite frequently! Not unlike myself though haha, always looking for a snackie.

Sleepy now.

Here’s a bunch of pictures Chris has captured of me sleeping with my Apollo boy from the beginning. 😍

And my favorite, a picture I found on Chris’s phone from last night. Oh sweet. We fell asleep for watching a movie and stayed like this for a couple hours. I love my cuddle boy.

My sweet Apollo was born two weeks ago. We’re so glad to have him with us and feel so blessed that he’s healthy and happy. I love our boy so much and it is humbling to be the mother of this precious babe. I want to give him my best and always remind him how wonderful he is. He’s snoozing on me right now and I’m kissing his fuzzy little head. How blessed. 

After a long day home with my sweetest Apollo boy, Chris knew I needed to leave the house for a bit. My mom and sister and nieces were going to the movie Trolls, so we joined them! Apollo was not feeling superb just before we left and crying more than usual, but once we got a good burp out he was nice and content again. He’s a great baby. 

And Trolls was a great movie! Really funny and happy and colorful and lots of good music. Apollo woke up once so I fed him a little snack and he fell back asleep for the rest of the movie. 

Then we went to Barb’s for his first time too since was still asleep and so good. It’s our great video rental place. But we didn’t see anything we wanted so we came home, and we watched the Happiest Baby on the Block.

The Happiest Baby On the Block teaches about the 4th trimester, the calming reflex, and the 5 s’s. Swaddle, side/stomach position, shh noises, swinging motion, and sucking. Good things to learn!

And here’s our calm, sleepy boy with a full belly. I love being his mama and it’s hard to believe that he was coming out of my belly two weeks ago. 

Apollo Ray, he’s just the most adorable and precious boy. I love our sweet baby and will maybe share too many pictures but that’s aokay. Look at him yawning… I just think it’s so darling. Every time he yawns or sneezes or smiles or frowns, it makes me heart melt more and more. 

Little boy is getting chubbier. He sure loves milk! He feeds a lot. Today I felt like that’s all we did – breastfeed. He just ate and fell asleep and ate and got his diaper changed and ate and I ate and he fell asleep and got his diaper changed… a cycle like that. :) I did manage to rehang the driftwood G back up the wall to complete the alphabet in the nursery though. I’ve been trying to do that for a couple days haha. My expectations are quite low for the things I get done each day so it’s all good. My job is taking care of the bambino right now and I’m happy and grateful to do that. 

Here he is eating. And falling asleep. 

And asleep and stretching! With my postpartum belly. Apollo is such a good stretcher and helps me stretch too. 
And our glorious nap today. I love cuddling with this baby boy. 

Sleep is nice. The past couple days I can sleep for two hour stretches between feeding him during the night. The first two days home were three and a half hour periods of sleep! He’s sleeping again right now, and he’s adorable. I need to sleep too. 

It’s nice to think that most people have a loving mother who think their son or daughter is the greatest in the world. So special how loved we all are. 

Cheers.

When I went to the hospital 10 days ago, the weather was pretty fall-y, and all of the sudden it’s winter now! It started snowing while I was at the hospital and it is hopefully the wintery weather is here to stay.

Today we finally made it on a family walk outside! That was  big. :) I love our family walks. The cats didn’t join, but they were staring at us through the window when we came back to the house. :) Funny creatures. Edelweiss sure enjoyed the walk though and it always makes her so happy.

Apollo started with a full belly and a clean bum and we got ourselves all bundled up. I put him in a moby wrap that our cousin gave us and I look forward to wearing him more!

We started our usual trek through the forest trail but I walked slower than usual since I did just give birth ten days ago. Still have some good recovering to do but it’s all going pretty well.

At the beginning there was bleeding and incontinence and hemorroids and sore body and sore breasts from lots of milk and lots of feeding, but I’m doing pretty well. It’s no walk in the park though! I know it could all be much worse, and it’s all worth having this sweet angel boy with us. We adore him. And I think he’s adjusting well to life on earth too, and we’re working to keep him nice and close to heaven.

I don’t know if there’s anything more perfect. I just can’t get enough of this sweet baby boy.

Our sweet baby arrived November 19th, 2016, at 11:29 pm, weighing 8 lbs 10.5 oz and measuring 21.5 inches of perfection.

I can’t get enough of him. We’ve had 4 days with him in our arms and it’s heavenly.

(a picture from this very moment)

Yes, postpartum recovery is not easy- sore bum and peeps, sore nipples, exhaustion… but my heart is so full of love. And I have so much gratitude for all the thoughtfulness and help of heavenly and earthly angels along the way.

I still plan on blogging the birth story, but for now, here’s one of our first family pictures. So happy to have sweet baby with us. 

Love love love this sweet boy. And his father too. I just love and appreciate experiencing Chris as a dad. He’s wonderful. I’m excited for all three of us to cuddle in bed tonight, as soon as Apollo wakes from his nap. :)

Apollo Ray Palmer

19 November 2016

11:29 pm

Homer, Alaska

21.5 inches

8 lbs 10.5 oz

I haven’t blogged in almost two weeks! Sorry Alyssa. :)

Much has happened and I’ve learned a lot. BUT our sweet baby isn’t born yet! Hopefully within the next 24 hours he or she or she or he will arrive. I’m 10 days overdue today, but baby and I are both still doing totally fine. Pregnancy has been splendid and I’ll miss it, but I’m really looking forward to having a real baby to play with (aka take care of) and stare at! It’ll be magical. And hard. But really really special.

These pictures are before my stretch marks appeared. I made it, like, 38.5 weeks without stretch marks and now they’re growing everyday. But that’s alright. Chris said they’re just marks of one of the best times of my life. Word.

I love these two girls lots and lots. I maybe already blogged about the girls’ birthdays, but maybe not. They were both born in October and are two years apart.

Natalie being born was one of my favorite days of life. I was so so so happy to become an auntie. And now… I almost have a bebe of my own! I’m getting more and more excited. How amazing it all is and how blessed we are.

Our little babe will be very lucky to have Natalie and Katy around too. They’re so excited to have a baby cousin near by. And it’s so nice that my other sister’s babies will be so close in age to ours. Her little Hudson is just seven? weeks old and it’s so nice that she’s going through everything just before me, which helps me prepare mo’ betta.

Anyhoo, some pictures from Chris and I taking each of the girls out for a special birthday lunch! It was Natalie’s idea I believe, and I think it’s a lovely new tradition that I hope to always do.

Chris and I have some really exceptional and adorable and good looking nieces and nephews. Hopefully we’ll be able to see all the rest of them in January!

Also, one last shout out for me red check Sherpa flannel. Where would I be without it??

I  wish you could see the live photo of our sunday evening family walk. It cracks me up and my belly looks huge, because it must be pretty big in real life.

I enjoy Sundays. I enjoy going to church and setting the Chelsea reset or refresh button on life and self. I love seeing family and friends there. And today I really enjoyed the sacrament meeting talks. I didn’t enjoy sitting on the pews for 3 hours, since I’m heavy with child, but oh well. I can’t lay down everywhere and that’s okay I guess. I’m excited to have our little baby and take it to church and have it be blessed and take care of he or she. I think more people are thinking baby is a girl now, but a few weeks ago there were more boy votes. We don’t really know or have a preference. 

Sooooooo, today is October 30th, which means it’s my sweet Natalie girl’s birthday! She loves animals, Piper included. She’s so funny and curious and asks great questions. She’s helpful and compassionate and likes hearing old stories. This girl made me an aunt 10 years ago and I love her very muchly.

After church today, Chris and I went to family dinner/lunch at Natalie’s house. We made her a card, gave her a jar thing of bean boozled, and her very own can of whipped cream to eat whenever she wants. :) My nieces always get ribs as their birthday meal, so that’s what we ate today. Everyone loves them! Except me, I’m not a big rib fan and usually just have a teeny tiny bite to participate and to eat a bit of meat.

Chris and I came home and had the usual sunday sleepies, so I put on the Addams Family and we took nappies. His nap lasted for most of this weirdo movie, and I missed a few parts. What a bizarre story and kooky family, this Addams. But it’s October, so we must be festive and watch such things. 

As always, the cats napped it up too, and cuddled, then stretched out. Precious.

Then came our family walk with the beautiful sunset, and then my honey boy, Christopher Robin, finished painting the baby’s room that he started yesterday. Nice to have some fresh paint! We painted, I mean Chris painted, I didn’t do any painting… anyway, it’s painted FOG aka light gray. Bold, I know. I love our white walls in the house and now a bit of gray is good too.

I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies tonight and added a bunch of mediocre christmas movies to our netflix watch list. Halloween is almost over and I’m ready for the Christmas season! Hopefully we…. I mean Chris… will get our lights up outside tomorrow.

Tomorrow I get to put the nursery back together! I love that room. We’re taking natalie girl to a birthday lunch tomorrow too. And I need to do some visiting teaching and deliver some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. :) And then it’s FHE and Halloween! Not sure what we’ll do… maybe go out trick or treating with the nieces. Or maybe watch Casper. What a classic. Or maybe we’ll watch a couple hours of Blue Bloods like we often do. Or maybe I’ll go into labor. Who knows! I do hope our bebe isn’t born on Halloween, but sweet babe knows when is best. 

Last niiiiight was the ward Halloween party. It turned out super great in my opinion, and I’m happy happy that it’s over! I do not like being in charge of stuff. I’m totally good helping out from beginning to end, taking orders, giving suggestions, doing whatever, but I’d definitely prefer to not be in charge. So, I’m glad the Halloween party is over and I don’t have to overstress about it anymore. Everything turned out pretty great, except for a poor little boy who was jabbed in the eye with a sword. I guess it’s necessary to write “no weapons” on the flyer now… Also, kids maybe filled up with cupcakes and candy, which parents might not enjoy too much. But the chili cook off was great, the costumes were great, the carnival activities seemed pretty good, and the turnout was really great. Hoppy Halloween!

And here’s my Wilson and Mr. Castaway. I love our costumes. <3

Same ol’ stripes around here. Stripes seem to be my signature color of pregnancy, and of course this nifty to plaid Sherpa flannel that keeps me warm.

Currently I’m annoyed at the dog’s barks. We have a bunch of new neighbors and some new neighborhood dogs that Edel barks with and it’s super annoying to me. Anyway…. I still like her. And I’m so grateful she gets me outside and walking and such. But I don’t want her to wake a sleeping babe with her barking sometimes.

Speaking of sleeping baby, our little one keeps moving around quite a bit and I still love it. I love being pregnant. It’s the best. I love it.

I don’t really love that my pants have been ripping lately, but I just sew them up until they rip again. :) It’s mostly the inner thigh that keeps ripping, I guess because they’ve been so well used haha. Especially now that I only have a few pair of pants low enough and stretchy enough to work for my pregnant body. I tried on some maternity jeans at target a couple times and they didn’t work for me, so still going strong with the regular pants, when I have to have pants on at least.

Today I’m writing thank you cards for all the loving baby gifts we’ve received, and I’m listening to Christmas music! TIS THE SEASON. Well it’s not quite Christmas music season, but whatever. It is definitely pumpkin pie and pumpkin chocolate chip cookie season.

It’s also Halloween season. We’ve got our ward Halloween party tomorrow night that the youth/youth presidencies are in charge of. That’s been plenty of work for me and I’ve over stressed, but oh well. The party will be grand and I look forward to mine and Chris’s costumes! Stay tuned to see how precious and Halloweeny we will be. :)

ALSO Chris is famous. Proud of my Chris the aviator.

Anchorage is 220 miles away, or a four hour drive.

In the summer months, Chris and I make it up there pretty regularly to pick up visitors from the airport and show them around the Kenai Peninsula. In wintertime, we don’t need to go as often, and sometimes the snowy roads want to keep you in Homer. The roads were great though, and so was my Odie’s sandwich on the drive up. Also, super glad I wore my sweat pants in the car. 

Anchorage has costco and the temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Other than the airport, that’s why we go to Anchorage. Oh! And for our favorite Moose’s Tooth pizza. :)

A purpose of this trip was also to see one of Chris’s good friends, who was in Anchorage on a big layover of flying a cargo 747 from Hong Kong to AK. It was nice to meet him and hangout and spend time in a cool book store. And we all ate moose’s tooth pizza together with our other good Anchorage friends too. Success.

With a little baby arriving soon, we decided we needed to make a trip to Anchorage to go to da Lord’s temple and da Lord’s costco. ;) My dear mother took care of our animals for us, and so it was nice to not bring Edelweiss, though sometimes it’s really really great to bring her on our trips with us. There’s a hotel that allows pets that we stay at when we have her. But our car was so full of costco and target goods that we would didn’t have any spare room for the pooch. Since we didn’t have Edel, they gave us a non-pet room, which was great! We got Wendy’s frosties and ate them. Funny. Haven’t had a frosty in long time

My dear ol’ dad happened to be in Anchorage at the same time as us! He was at the airport for a few hours going from the slope (work) to California to be with my grandparents. Nice to see him! It had been a while since he’s spending most of his time not at work with his parents.

I just got paid from a bunch of summer work, so it was nice to have monies to stock up on our food storage and get some last things we needed for bebe. And I went to Value Village too, which is always excellent. I found some perfect snow boots and a great basket. I love baskets. And I love thrift stores.

Going to Anchorage = going to the temple, or at least it usually should. :) We helped out with some sealings, along with many other people, and it was really really great. So glad to have a temple in our state and just 200 miles away.