Samantha Michelle

Right before we left for the hospital...

Samantha Michelle Fahrney was born on Monday, November 2nd at 9:56 am. Nick and I got to the hospital at 7:15 for a 9:30 surgery. It was a completely different experience to know exactly when she was coming. I got up and took a shower and did my hair and makeup (something I won't do with the next one(s) because I ended up putting my hair up and rubbing all my makeup off anyway).

Surgery went well. I love my OB and I really liked the anesthesiologist. It took a little longer because my doctor had to work a little to make my incision look pretty (I told him I didn't care... it's not like I'm a bikini person). I was nauseous off and on all day Monday -- I think in part because I was starving. Samantha latched right on and is a great nurser, although she's a bit of a barracuda.

I spent all day Tuesday in the hospital and got to go home Wednesday afternoon. Grant loves Daddy so much he didn't necessarily care that I was even home. He has taken peeks at Samantha, but hasn't really made any attempt to meet her yet. He does get a bit jealous when Daddy holds her, but Nick's doing a great job helping Grant.

She's sleeping well (mostly) and letting me sleep for at least a few hours at at time at night. She poops a ton (if I remember right all newborns do). The pediatrician gave her a stamp of approval. She is beautiful!

Grant's Antics

Grant is such a boy! He loves his daddy and playing rough, loves to go outside (brings his shoes to me multiple times a day), and has more bumps and bruises than any poor kid should. Within a 2 week period, Grant rolled his ride on toy down the driveway into the bumper of the truck (no bruise but it looked like it hurt), fell off the curb he was sitting on and ate asphalt (goose egg on forehead, scrape on nose), and then tripped running around stepping off the curb (his forehead as shown). Interestingly enough, all 3 of the things happened when Daddy was in charge. Hum...

Grant has been a trooper the past few weeks (well months really) going to doctor's appointments with me. We get kind of bored sometimes waiting for the doctor. Recently, he has found it to be a fun game to empty my diaper bag. He finds my camera and hands it to be and signs "more" and then will stop and let me take a picture of him. This one I thought was particularly cute!

If there was any doubt in my mind that Grant is not ready for a big boy bed, this moment made it clear (again). He moves WAY too much for a big boy bed. It is so fun to go into his room and find him in different sleeping positions.

Grant is trying to communicate with us so much. We taught him two signs -- more and hungry. He has added ball and fly (he hits his head- thawp). He is mimicking sounds, and loves trucks and buses. Anytime we hear a bus (or truck that sounds like a bus) go by he says "bus." He loves ice, and says ice, which sounds just like socks. He makes a doggy, kitty, pig, and elephant sounds, as well as the gorilla in the video. I want to get a video of all of his cute things. When he gets tired (and delirious) he spins around and makes himself dizzy. That's really fun too! He says Lily, banana, milk, and baby. I'm not sure if anybody else know what the word is, but it's the same every time. I can't believe how much he is growing and learning everyday!

Halloween!

For Halloween, we went to the church for the annual "Trunk-or-Treat." Grant was a monkey. I'd bought a skunk costume for him on E-bay but then a friend of mine offered me the monkey costume and it was so fitting, I had to use it. Grant could pretty much care less about going from car to car -- I think his attention made it about 5 cars, until he found a flower bed to play in. He pretty much spent the rest of our time there playing in the dirt and stepping down the curb. He didn't do his job of collecting candy for Mommy =).

Nick and I went to our first Halloween party since college at a friend's house the weekend before Halloween. It was kind of fun to get dressed up. I'm glad my friend had a big pregnant lady costume though -- it worked perfectly!

Grant at a little Halloween party with some of his friends. I'm constantly amazed at how cute and creative some of my friends are -- I never would have thought to have a Halloween party for Grant and his friends, but it was fun to see the kids dressed up (although none were too happy about it).

Yeah for real wood!

After
After

Before

Before

As Samantha's coming got closer, we started looking for a used dresser. It was tough because I wasn't really in the mood to search for a good one, but didn't want to go to Target and buy a cheap particle board dresser either. My mom had a dresser that was her Grandmother's that she was willing to give us -- the problem (for me) was that it was a mess! I didn't mind the color, but there were watermarks and other stains all over it. Nick and I spent a weekend sanding and staining the dresser and it looks fantastic! When Mom saw it, she said, "I want it back!" We are now hoping to find a bookshelf in the same type of wood that we can do the same thing to. It was fun (even though Nick did most of the work) and way cheaper than buying a new real wood piece of furniture.

Yeah for stress!

I love to be stressed. I have as long as I can remember, felt and done best when I've had a million things going on. I had the opportunity to plan our ward's "Super Saturday" because the Enrichment counselor moved and we needed to get it done. It was scheduled for 10 days before Samantha was scheduled to be born.

We had a "Christmas in October" on Friday night, instead of Saturday morning. It was a huge hit -- we had fantastic attendance and I think everyone had a good time. We offered different 5 different craft projects, a service project, a class on using Shutterfly, and cookie mixes in a jar (kind of crafty).

I realized that it wouldn't have been stressful (at all) if I would learn to delegate. I did a little, more of a just in case than because I wanted to, but definitely had my little hand in almost every aspect of the evening. To just organize something is one thing -- to organize and plan and prepare 4 different projects is another. Goal of mine: LEARN TO DELEGATE!

The crayon fiasco!

It is never a good idea to wash a crayon. Good advice: make sure you don't sort laundry on top of crayons hanging out on the floor. They can get picked up and washed. I, unfortunately, made that mistake with a very large load of dark clothing. It was the first time that I washed a lot of the clothes too -- I just finished buying a bunch of fall/winter clothes for Grant and was getting them ready for the first wear. Imagine my horror when I pulled them out of the dryer and found orange crayon on EVERY single piece of clothing. Some were worse than others, but there was at least a handful of marks on each. After researching online (what in the world would I do without the Internet) crayola's website said to use WD-40 and dish soap, and then to wash with oxy-clean and regular detergent. I started with a few items to test it out. I spent a good 2 hours finding the spots, spraying them with WD-40, letting it soak, and then rubbing dish soap into the spots I'd sprayed. I think I only did about 8 items too before I ran out of stuff. I didn't want those stains to set in (in case the WD-40 did damage) so I washed what I had done. I hadn't sprayed the maternity panel of my jeans (not visible=not worth it) or finished one of Grant's shirts because I'd run out of spray, but yeah!!! it came out anyway! Turns out, after a week of procrastinating and 2 hours starting, all it needed was a regular wash with detergent and oxy-clean. Yeah for oxy-clean. I no longer have crayon on anything EXCEPT the only two dark shirts that Nick wears on the weekends! Bummer for Nick, yeah for me!

Poor sick baby!

We have been really lucky with Grant and he has only been sick twice in the 18 months or so that we've had with him. The first time was back in May, from a bug we picked up at the doctor's office (grrr), and we managed because he just slept. All day. This time around, Mom got sick first. It is no fun to care for a sick child when you are sick! Poor Grant was so tired but wanted to play so bad. He is not the type to fall asleep anywhere but his car seat or crib. I took this picture because he wanted to play so badly but just couldn't muster the energy. He was laying on the dog's bed with his paci and yarn, reaching for the steering wheel. Poor guy. He got better faster than I did though!