2 mo. check-up

Leslie weiged in at 11 pounds 9 ounces yesterday! I can't believe all that has happened even since two and three posts ago. Today she's got a fever though. I'm amazed that between her sweet little wimpers she can still smile. She's such a sweety.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

It has been a tradition in my family since before I was born that Santa visits our Hall family Christmas party. This year Leslie got to meet Santa for the very first time.

Four generations: Great-Grandpa and Grandma Hall, my dad, me, and Leslie.

Proud Grandpa


Two red-heads: Uncle John and Leslie

Leslie's new favorite position.

So adorable!!!

Morning Faces~7 weeks old

Week 5-6

This has been an eventful week for Leslie. She met her Grandma and Grandpa Buczak, her Great-Grandma Nelson, and her Great-Grandma Hall. We visited Portland, OR and spent the night in the house that her Great-Great-Great-Great Grandpa built when he came over on the Oregon Trail. We visited Multnomah Falls, and last night she and I went to the Nutcracker with her Great-Grams and Aunt Jody. Aunt Jody is going to have her baby cousin Randi in a few days. Leslie can't wait to have a little playmate!

For Auntie Amy

Thank you for my Christmas stockings Auntie Amy!

5 weeks

Leslie was weighed at the midwife yesterday. I was amazed that she is already 9 pounds 5 ounces! It's should be no wonder. She's already outgrown all of her newborn size clothes. It's kinda bitter sweet to put those clothes away. The bitter part is that she's growing so fast. The sweet part is that she's growing so fast. She can now copy kissy lips and sticking her toungue out. She also smiles, which is my favorite thing the the whole world!

First Thanksgiving

This is the only year Leslie will be smaller than the turkey. She didn't like being compared to a turkey. Yes, that's a fried turkey, and yes, it was good. It tasted the same, but took less than an hour to cook.










She ate enough,
















and had her Thanksgiving nap.

Leslie and Auntie Iya.

Thank You Valley

Thank you Valley Bible ladies for the wonderful shower you threw for Leslie and me. We are blessed by your generosity, but most importantly, your love and friendship toward us.

We love you!

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A special thanks to all the sweet girls who decorated and sent home posters for Leslie!

And to Maddie who helped Leslie get acquainted with all of her new things!

Creation and Me

I just love my little girl's hair! It's so long and thick. It must be from Ryan, because most kids in my family are born right near bald. Look at those cutie ears!

On another note: We visited Alderwood Community Church yesterday. It was a great church and Ryan and I are pretty sure we're going to settle in there. The SS teacher said something that struck me again this morning. He asked what God had to give up to make the universe. I thought, "well, maybe some dust or something." Then he asked, what did God give up for man? Boy, that sure put a whole new fling on creation for me. When I look at all of creation, the stars, the mountains, flowers, animals, etc., I'm amazed at how awesome our God is, but to put it into perspective, he sacrificed nothing for all that. He did, however, sacrifice Himself for me. He must really think I'm special, 'cause He could have gotten along just fine with just Him and creation.

Ponderings of a new mom

For the past four years, I've worked as an administrative assistant to different administrators at Piedmont Baptist College. There it was easy to "measure my success." Each day I would ask myself at the end of the day what I was able to accomplish. Most days, I could go home satisfied that I had completed such and such a project. I could look at my desk and see that a stack of papers were missing which meant that they were completely taken care of and I could move on to different projects.

Now that I'm a mommy, "measuring my success" is not as simple. Success right now is having a somewhat tidy home when Ryan comes home from work. It's having another load of laundry at least in the washer waiting to be put in the dryer. It's a clean load of baby clothes folded in the basket waiting to be put away. It's remembering to eat. It's that garbage bag full of diapers by the door waiting to be taken out. It's having the vacuum out ready to vacuum at the next available opportunity. It's showering before noon. It's feeding my little girl, changing her diaper, and feeding her again because I upset her changing her diaper. It's getting a burp out of her.

OK, so maybe it's hard to measure the success of a new mommy. Maybe a really successful day is holding my baby again because her gassy little smiles just melt my heart. Lord, may I manage my time wisely and measure success by Your measuring stick and not mine.

Online Registry

People have been asking what needs we have for our little Leslie. We would like to do cloth diapers. The link below is our gift registry for BumGenius one-size diapers. Our shower date is yet to be decided, but I will post the time and date here when I know it.

Much love and many thanks!

http://www.ewish.com/X/?buczaks

Hiccups

Born in the Car: the birth story

Born in the car. Where do I begin? I guess the beginning would be our choice of a midwife. I found Nancy when we lived in NC. We thought we would be living in the Sumner/Auburn area. To make a long story short, Ryan ended up finding a job in Everett which is about an hour and 15 or so minutes away from Nancy. When I told this to Nancy she offered to help me find a midwife in Everett, but I liked her and didn't feel like it would be a problem getting to her in time. After all, most women are in labor for 8 hours or more with their first babies.

Soooo, we got in the car accident (see previous post) and found a new car. Our new car was at my uncle's shop (an hour and a half away) getting an inspection. I was really eager to get the car back in time for baby to come. Tuesday morning, the 28th, I drove to pick up our car from my uncle's shop and then went to my dad's house to hang out with the kids for a few minutes before getting back on the road. I started to feel some contractions so I figured I'd better get going before I got stuck in Port Orchard. On the drive home, my contractions were about 6-10 minutes apart, but not too bad so I didn't think much of them. Before going home, I stopped at the library near our house and did some stuff on the internet. I don't really recall having contractions at the library, but there must have been a few. At 4:30 I picked Ryan up from work. We took the car to get an emissions test and then headed home. Once home, Ryan and I made dinner together. By this time, my contractions were getting more intense, but I still wasn't sure that they were the real thing. At dinner, I commented to Ryan that the baby would be here within the next 48 hours. After dinner, I called my mom and asked her to stop by our home after work to help me determine what to do next. At some point I called Nancy and told her that my contractions were between 5 and 8 minutes apart. Nancy told me to take a bath, thinking that would slow the contractions, and to call her when they were three minutes apart and lasted for a minute and a half. They never got there.

My mom called for my sister to come meet us at the apartment. They were almost here when they realized they forgot the video camera. They went all the way back home to get it and then came back to our apartment. By the time they got back I started getting the tremors. My mom knew what was going on and insisted that we get in the car and leave right away. So at about 12:00am we all got in the car and headed down the freeway.

Ryan seemed somewhat nervous so I calmly told him not to speed. I still felt like we had plenty of time. Somewhere around Bellevue my contractions went from six minutes apart to one on top of the other. Once we hit Hwy 167 my mom strongly suggested that we just go ahead and stop at a hospital, but I insisted that we would be fine and that we would make it (besides, I hate hospitals and I didn't want everyone in a rush to whisk my baby away from me, etc, etc.). On we sailed. Along the way more detailed things I'll refrain from discussing happened. I dropped subtle hints to my mom letting her know that it was happening.

Somewhere between the Algona Pacific exit and 8th Street E at 12:47am, little Leslie came into the world with Daddy driving about 100 miles per hour and Auntie Aliya passing back supplies to my mom who delivered her. We were just six miles from Nancy at this point, so there was no point in stopping now. Ryan turned up the heat in the car and we wrapped Leslie in the cheau pads that were provided in my birth kit. By the way, if you wonder about the car, it's fine. We had planned for my water to break so we had the seats well protected. There's not a spec to speak of anywhere in the car.

We made it to Nancy's in record time. Nancy came out with warm towels, helped my mom cut Leslie's cord, and then delivered the placenta. She then helped me inside where we were given plenty of time to get to know our "Little One" and rest. By 4:00am we were all back in the car again and heading home to our own cozy beds.

For all the drama our sweet girl has been through in the last several weeks, she is quite a content little thing and not half as dramatic as her little life has already been.

Prego Shots

Here's a link to some pictures from a photo shoot we did before Leslie arrived.
http://emhphotography.photoreflect.com

The link I left before didn't work. Try this one.

"Little One" has arrived! She's a Girl!

Leslie Ryan was born on October 29th at 12:47am. She weighed 6 lbs 4 oz and was 19 inches long. She was born in our new Toyota Camry somewhere between the Algona Pacific and the 8th Street E exit on Hwy 167. A more detailed story will be available in the future for those who are interested.

Beautiful, I know!

Clumsy Mommy sat on a wall
Clumsy Mommy had a great fall.
The doctor glued Mommy together again!

Before Saturday I had been marching around the house singing Humpty Dumpty over and over again. Who can blame me? I look like an egg with sticks attached, but what I didn't know was that I was predicting my own future. Saturday evening I was at a wedding reception when I tripped on a rippled rug. Having nothing to hold onto, I went face first into a large, solid table. Fortunately, I landed (other than on my face) on my hands and knees so "little one" suffered nothing, thank the Lord! I was taken to the hospital in an ambulance where the doctor super glued the cut on my forehead back together. Altogether, I aquired three cuts on my face, a fat lip, and a black, swollen eye. I was so glad not to have to have stitches. I've already had 80 stitches on my face and am quite sure I can't afford room for any more (Ha!). Yes, that would make this my fifth visit to the emergency room for injuries to my face.

Baby and Mama at 29 weeks

Baby Buczak

I had a midwife appointment yesterday. We are blessed to have a very healthy "little one." I enjoy watching baby rumble and roll around in my belly. Sometimes I'm not sure if the rumbling is because I'm hungry or baby just kicked my stomach and made it rumble. Sometimes both.

I'm beginning to try to imagine the change that will take place in our family. It's been just Ryan and me for so long, it will be a big change. It couldn't be a more welcome change though along with all the others we've seen in the last two months. This is by far the most exciting!

As for belly pics, I've been putting it off. Really, there's still just a little bump, but I think it finally looks like a pregnant bump rather than a doughnut bump. I guess it depends on what I wear.

The picture above is from our 22 week ultrasound. We are now 26.5 weeks.

Yes, A Baby!

What more can I say? Amy wants me to share how we told our families. Actually, that part was pretty cool for me. I found out on my trip to Seattle a few weeks ago. My mom and I found out together with crying and all that goes along with girls and emotions and then I called Ryan. His words to me were "I knew it" and "We're going to have a monster?" I don't know how he knew it, because we had been on an emotional roller coaster for several months by then. Needless to say, we were excited.

My mom and I decided we wanted to tell my sister, Aliya, in person. So we called ahead and made sure she knew that we'd be picking her up at school that day. I wanted the way we told her to be kinda cool, so I wrote "I love you Auntie. Love, Baby Buczak" in a gum wrapper, wrapped the gum back up, and put it in my purse. My mom warned me that when we picked her up from school, we needed to listen to all of her day's drama before we told her the news. Lya got in the car and spilled out her guts while my mom and I listened intently, and then when she was done, my mom and I noticed that she already had gum in her mouth. My mom said, "Lya, don't your think your gum is a little old?" and I piped in with, "yeah, it stinks. (nice of me, eh?)" Lya looked at us both strangely and said, "I just put it in." By now she was a little tripped out that we were concerned with her gum so we went to Starbucks for some drinks (fruit drink for me please). Somehow my mom managed to get her to throw her gum away. We sat down by the fire and started in on some small talk. Then my mom encouraged me to give her my gum. Lya resisted since she knew we were up to something. Finally, she took the gum, unwrapped it, and read the message inside. Her adorable jaw dropped as she realized what it said. She said, "You are???" Its a picture I will have in my head for a very long time.

I told my dad that night at my pre-birthday birthday party. I wrote a note that said, "Dear Grandpa, I can't wait to meet you and ride quads with you. I'll try to hang in there till you get back from your hunting trip. Love Baby Buczak." It took him a minute to grasp what his note was saying, but when he did, the smile on his face was one that would make a daughter like me proud to be his little girl. The reason I put the part about the hunting trip in there is because my dad goes hunting for the first week of November every year for his birthday. Our baby is due that week. Here's the picture of him before he grasped it. You should have seen his face after it clicked!

Below are some other pictures taken to distract dad so that I could get away with having a camera and handing him a note at the same time. One is of Bubba and Morgan, and the other two are of my Grandma and Grandpa Hall.