Only in Arkadelphia

ONLY IN ARKADELPHIA will summers be dead as can be because 4,000 or more college students are no longer in the city limits.

ONLY IN ARKADELPHIA will you have an experience where you're 10 feet away from being hit by a deer
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while you're riding a bicycle on a walking trail.

ONLY IN ARKADELPHIA can you be driving on a street, see a HUGE turtle in the middle of the road, and be able to stop your car, get out of your car, pick up the turtle, and put it in the car with you to let go in a safer place...and to show your almost 2 year old daughter what a real turtle looks like. That almost 2 year old daughter was terrified of it and didn't want to touch it.



ONLY IN ARKADELPHIA will this black bear visit your Sonic restaurant at 9PM on evening.




Guess he wanted to try the new Snicker Sonic Blast

AND ONLY IN ARKADELPHIA would you see that same black bear being chased from Sonic onto the nearby college campus by these men.



And then see this...



Yes...I'm serious. Long story short, the bear was sighted at Sonic at 9PM, was followed onto Henderson State University's campus, climbed a tree that was surrounded by police with rifles and shotguns (which were not used, just there for precaution), and shot with a tranquilizer gun by the Arkansas Game and Fish officer. Once the dart finally took, the bear fell from the tree and was loaded into the officer's truck. He was released later into an isolated wooded area.

ONLY IN ARKADELPHIA will you be shopping at walmart, headed to your car with a basketful of bagged items, and be run down by the frumpy greeter lady b/c you have an item unbagged and she wants to make sure you're not lifting the following item....ready for it?? (it'd break their bank, let me tell ya)
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A $3.50 24 pack of bottled water (which obviously can't fit in a bag in the first place!) So...I must say, IF, and that's a "never gonna happen" if, I were going to shoplift at Walmart, I could think of a few more things that I'd want to take besides a pack of bottled water. I'm just sayin'!!!

My Drama Queen

My precious Zoe is now 22 months old. Look at this face!!


I mean, I know I'm a bit biased since she's my child, but doesn't she just make you want to squeeze her and give her lots of kisses?? And those pudgy cheeks...lovin' the pudgy cheeks.

She's my little drama queen.


See?? Told ya!

You can definitely tell she's hit the terrible two age....whoa baby! She is testing limits, whining, demanding things be done or not done, whining some more, speaking her mind, becoming the "mine-o-saur", and becoming "I do it myself"ish. Boy oh boy am I in for some fun this summer....if you want to call it fun of course.

Aside from that little bit of negative, she's had a lot of positives this month too...like acquiring a new brother for instance. She's been a great big sister for the most part. Occasionally, she'll get a little jealous, but if we keep her involved with what we're doing and make sure to spend one on one time with her, she does well. She loves giving "Eefan" kisses and petting his "soft hair". And the fifty thousand two hundred and thirty three stuffed animals that she's aquired from her Grandmother have all regressed into the baby stage and now need naps, diaper changes, and milk. Her babies litter the house during the day. Good thing they're not real b/c we'd have a few crushed skulls and poked out eyes by now from us tripping and stepping on them.

Vocabulary has exploded this month. She's talking full sentences now..anywhere from 3-7 words or so. She can carry on a conversation with you if it's kept simple. And of course she's become our parrot repeating anything and everything she hears. Good thing we don't have any bad habit words that we use or she'd have picked up on them by now. The last week or so, she learned "uh huh", "nu uh", "yep", and "nope". Hmm...where did she learn those from?? Do I use those??? Nu-uh...don't think so.

Let's see...what else? Guess that's about it. She's our busy body, can't sit still, running, jumping, talking little girl.

Potty Parade

After almost a week of "scheduled visits" to the potty, we had our first pee pee success today. As for the video - viewer discretion advised...mention of bodily fluids followed by a series of dance moves.



It makes me smile that "professional potty trainers" think you can actually know the times when your child goes to the bathroom. Umm...hello, your body goes when it wants, and in a child's case, where it wants. So we've just been making potty visits during certain times of the day. We also spent an arm and a leg on the cool alert pull ups and had Miss Zoe pick out some big girl underwear. She REALLY wants to wear those things. Pure and simple motivation at work.

Dora big girl underwear, here we come! - well, after many many of these successes.

And yes, I know we tried this back many months ago and had success with it, but we gave up on it after Thanksgiving when the holiday travels got her off her routine. So we're starting back at square one now.

Gas or no gas, that is the question!

Some pictures just don't need words...but this isn't one of them. These pictures don't need many, however...just a few, really. See, these are my documentation (blurry and as off center as they can be) that this smile...




'aint no gas smile. (please excuse the poor grammer) That what you call a pure and simple ear to ear grin.

He's 3 weeks old today and smiling already! Melts my heart, I tell ya...melts my heart!

Newborn "portraits"

So you know how I LOVE taking pictures. Here are some of the best of my "newborn portraits". I haven't taken many non-portrait pictures b/c there's only so many different kinds of pictures you can take of a non-smiling, inactive baby...you know, like only two different types:

1. Eyes Open

2. Eyes Closed

I love this cuddly age, but they just don't do much! I so look forward to the smiles, laughs, and coos.

I wasn't dumb enough to try to get naked pictures (although I ooh and ahh over the professional portraits of naked babies that look so precious). Actually, even with a diaper on, I still managed to get peed on. Go figure! And (ahem)...one thing I've learned about picture taking especially with babies is to snap, snap, snap. So...I have like 125 pictures. I tried to narrow it down and give you the best of the best, but with that many, there were a lot to narrow down.

Here's the only color one...I love the b/w ones the best.




















So leave a comment....who do you think he looks like (me, Darin, or Zoe)??? I'm just curious...

Below are pictures of Darin and me, and two of Zoe before 3 weeks old.

Doin' The Potty Dance

So it's come to this...

"Poopy!"
"Diaper change, peas!"
"New diaper!!!"
"uh uh uh" (spoken while grabbing...down there)

So we're trying again. Now that things have settled down with Ethan and we're once again on a routine around the house, we're starting the process of...dun dun duuuuuuunnnnnnn....

P.O.T.T.Y T.R.A.I.N.I.N.G!

The potty has made it's grand reapperance in the living room.

Pull Ups have been purchased.

The "Potty book" has been pulled out again.

And....the biggest and best thing of all?? Dora big girl underwear have been purchased!

She is SOOOOO motivated to put on that Dora underwear! We "discussed" last night when she would get to wear them. We told her that she would get a sticker when she would go peepee or go poopy in her potty...and that when she filled a page with stickers, she would get to wear them. All I have to do to get her to sit on her potty is even mention "Dora Big Girl Underwear" and she goes running.

She had a pull up on last night and apparently peed in it a little bit. It's the cool alert pull up, so she noticed something was different and ran to her potty and sat on it w/the pull up on, but of course by then it was too late.

Oh how wonderful it would be not to have to diaper two kiddos!!

Zoe's going to absolutely kill me one day for taking these...but they're so cute!!! How can you not think an almost 2 year old doing the potty dance isn't adorable?? I can see it now: "Crazy picture taking mom took one too many pictures."

Hodgepodge

Well, it's been an entire week since I've posted...almost unheard of!

Here's the hodgepodge of events that occurred this past week.


1. We left for Dallas over the weekend for a couple of different reasons. Darin had a meeting out there that he had to attend, and my ENTIRE family is out there. It looked like that weekend was the best to go since everyone from here on out is iffy. Darin teaches Upward Bound starting next week until mid July. So..two weeks old and we up and travel. Good weekend...just a little (or a lot) tiring. He's a good traveler...sleeps the whole time until feeding time.



2. Colic/reflux seems to come and go. It's been getting worse over the course of the last few days again, so I'm not sure what to think. We took him off the reflux medicine over a week ago b/c it wasn't even supposed to take effect until several days after starting and he was already better the day we started it. We might put him back on it to see if that helps. It was sort of sad...I was at Bunco last night and telling everyone that he was so much better. An hour and a half later when I walked through my door, I heard screaming and walked in to see an exhausted husband who had apparently been listening to him cry for the whole time I was gone except for a 20 minute reprieve when he slept. LOTS of gas last night. Poor guys.



3. Tried to capture a picture of his crystal blue eyes...but did so unsuccessfully. They look dark in this, and they're really not. He got Darin's eye color...and I hope they don't change!




4. Zoe's doing quite well. She's only had a few episodes of true jealousy, but they're few and far between. She's been a lot more needy, but that's to be expected. She loves her little brother.



Zoe has been lining up her animals and dolls next to him. I laid him down on the carpet to change his diaper and in enters dolly. How's this for a size perspective?


He's a skinny little thing isn't he? He still doesn't fit into hardly any kind of pants without them falling off his bum when you pick him up.



5. Zoe had a full conversation with me this morning. I've been sick a little with sinus junk and slept late this morning trying to rest. I was feeding Ethan and heard her from outside the door. Here's how the conversation followed...

Zoe: Mommy! Mommy!
Me: I'm in here sweetheart.
Zoe: "Whimper sound"
Me: You can come in.
Zoe: OK, I comin'.
Me: OK.
Zoe: Sounds of grunts and jumping and fiddling with door knob. 15 seconds later, in enters Zoe. "Mommy!!"
Me: Hi sweet girl!
Zoe: Seeing Ethan, says, "Ethan nappin?"
Me: No, Ethan is eating.
Zoe: Oh....Ethan eatin'. Goodnight book? (She was looking for her Goodnight Moon book).
Me: It's in your room in the bookcase.
Zoe: Leaves room momentarily. "Oh...." Comes back in with a different book. "Here Elmo book!"
Me: Oh, are you going to read that Elmo book?
Zoe: No. (Grunts some while trying to do something). Later exclaims, "There. That better". (Exits room)

Wow...we've got a little talker on our hands, and we can now actually have a full blown "conversation" with her. How neat!



6. Hmm...not much else going on. Things are settling into a routine finally. Everyone's doing well..except for me and this pesky sinus junk...but that'll pass soon, I'm sure. I'll eventually post more pictures. There's just so many you can take of a child who does nothing but lay there and sleep or look at you. We'll take the "baby portraits" soon...I've already got all my desired picture shots written down. Now just to recreate them.

Out of the mouths of babes

"Out of the mouths of babes..." I've always heard that expression, I've just never been able to use it until now.

Lately, Zoe has been as stubborn as ever (ahem..she got that trait from me and her daddy both, unfortunately), so much so that when she gets into trouble, the last thing she wants to do is look at us in the face. But for us to get her complete attention, we've been lightly holding her face in the general direction of ours and saying, "Look at me" until she gives us eye contact.

The other day, she was jabbering something and apparently I was in some sort of a zombie trance b/c I apparently wasn't giving her the proper attention she thought she deserved. At that point, she looked at me, gently put both of her hands on either side of my face and turned my head towards hers. And what came out of her mouth at that point clear as a bell?? "Look at me, mama." And she proceeded to tell me whatever it was she had been trying to say. Soooo hard not to laugh at her b/c she was so serious and genuine. Oh, our precious little parrot...what would we do without her????

Wow...was yesterday really Mother's Day?

So, I guess yesterday sneaked up on me and passed me by. Having a newborn will do that to you. Honestly, I had forgotten that yesterday was even Sunday until last night. Sad, isn't it? The days and nights just sort of run together. I got treated to a nice dinner to Cancun and got my favorite meal of all time...cheese enchiladas topped with cheese sauce. In other words, a "can I have some tortilla with that cheese?" meal. WONDERFUL!

And for my gift...well, let's just say it's an ongoing gift...one that has a four part cycle to him...eat, pee, poop, and sleep, sometimes in that exact order. Oh, and I got my first gift from Ethan too. It was a nice, thick, yellowy and seedy substance that fizzed, or rather shot out of a particular oraphus on his body onto the brand new, been out for 30 seconds tummy time mat that he was laying on for his diaper change. Seriously son, the one time I'm not prepared with your changing mat and you have to punish me by pooping on me?? :-) Oh the things we go through for our children.

So here's the health update.

*Colic/reflux seems to have disappeared. His digestive system has regulated, I suppose, and all the pain he was having has now decreased to maybe once or twice a day that last at most a few minutes or until we get some gas drops in his belly. Hallelujia..that was a horrible first few days for all of us. Him b/c he was in so much discomfort, and us b/c we had to see him that way knowing there was NOTHING we could do for him but hold him until the pain passed.

*Weight check on Friday didn't go so well. He'd only gained an ounce since his Tuesday appointment, so they put me on a nursing every 2 hour during the day routine as opposed to the 3 hr routine he was naturally on to see if he'd gain weight through the weekend. Wow...let me tell you how badly that wore me out...not to mention made me really really sore. I was allowed to let him go during the night as long as I fed him at least once during the night. Most of the time, he would sleep 4-4.5 hour stretches. Sleep....what a wonderful thing!!!!!

*Went back in today for another weight check. Weight jumped from 7 lbs 7 ozs to 7 lbs 13 ozs. Granted, I'd just nursed him, so about 3 ozs was probably that, but it still means he gained at least 3 ozs over the three day period. Whohooo for weight gain! I was getting a bit concerned there.

*Now that we're past the initial colic stuff, he's on a great routine. He nurses for about 30 minutes, we keep him awake for another 15-30 minutes (if he allows us to), and then he sleeps until his next feeding. At night, I'll nurse at about 10, put him straight to bed...he puts himself to sleep most of the time, sleeps for 4 hours until I wake him up to nurse again at about 2, and then again for another 4 or 4.5 hours until I nurse again. He and Zoe were about the same in terms of how content they were...and I attribute most of it to the Babywise book. I'm telling you...great stuff, practical, and best of all...IT WORKS!

Goodbye for now..supper's here!

Little of this, little of that...

Last night....sleep heaven! Well, almost. Seems to be that the junk he threw up the night before cleared his belly out some. He's still had gassy bouts, but only 30 minutes to an hour as opposed to b/w 3-5 hours. Last night, we put him down awake, he went to sleep on his own for about an hour or two and woke up about 1 screaming in pain again. He cried for close to an hour, but he was able to "work some stuff out" and once he was calm enough for me to nurse him, he zonked out....for 5 hours. 5 hours, people!! I was overjoyed...and in pain from being so full...but totally overjoyed. See...when you've been up until b/w 3 and 4 every night since the night you got home, you don't have the luxury of sleeping 5 hours in a day, much less 5 hours at a stretch. Well, I say he slept for 5 hours. Let me rephrase...I woke him up at 5 hours. He was still sleeping soundly and didn't take too kindly to me waking him up. Normally, I'll only let him sleep for 4 hours during the night, but he's been in so much pain and so exhausted, I let him go the 5 last night.

So here are some pictures...just random, and most of him sleeping.

"Talking" to Curious George

Big sis time!
Like father, like son!


Nose kisses....we've been trying to keep her from kissing his face, but isn't this precious??!!

Tummy troubles + lots of crying = One TIRED mommy!

So it's been a while since I've posted, but I decided I'd go ahead and do something "short" tonight...as if I can actually post something short. I'll give you a rundown of the last few days/nights.

First off...we're SOOO excited to have our baby boy home and healthy. What a blessing!

Second off...can I just tell you how thrilled I am not to be pregnant anymore? And can I tell you that I'm ecstatic that I'm able to fit into some of my pre-preggo pants already!! I'm hoping that once all my swelling goes away, I'll fit into the rest of it. I think I was in all of it with Zoe w/in a week and a half, so that's my goal!!

So rundown of night one at home - last night.

NIGHT #1 - So we're thinking "this baby was perfect in the hospital. Never cried...always content just to be "hanging out", and slept and ate very well...this'll be a breeze." Ahem...

So let's just say that I couldn't have been more wrong. He's got tummy issues...tons and tons of gas. Possibly colic, no clue really. Just know that he'll be totally content one minute and then just go from quiet to all out shrill and either ball up or straighten out like a stiff board. Minutes (and more often hours) later, he'll burp a lot and/or pass a ton of gas.

So night 1 at home - 2 hours of sleep...maybe. Pretty much up all night with all out screams.

NIGHT #2 - Same story. Ten o'clock get ready for bed. Put a quiet baby in his bassinett, climb into bed, turn out the lights, and wahhhhhh!! Cried in extreme pain from about 10 until, oh, about 3:30 or so. In the midst of that, our 21 month old had a night terror and was absolutely terrified to go back to bed. So Darin and I spent about 2 hours switching off kids. He eventually ended up in the recliner with her. Ethan finally settled down for me about 3 and slept soundly until almost 7:30...phew.

NIGHT #3 - Same story. Ten o'clock get ready for bed...yada yada yada. Whaaaa!! Tons of gas again! Poor guy!! I wish I could take the pain from him. I had a migraine at this point. Fun stuff! 2:30ish, finally get him settled and then it starts storming. Electricity goes off briefly which means the radio we had on in Zoe's room to help diffuse the noise from his crying (and her nightlight) go out. That combined with a huge clap of thunder had her up and terrified again. So again, by 3, Darin's in the recliner with her. Storms continue all night long. Ethan was nursing sometime around 2ish just before the storm and all of a sudden threw up this massive (seemed like a half ounce - an ounce) of thick yellow gunk...looked like egg nog. Just before this nursing session, he hit an all time peak with his pain and his crying. As soon as all that came out, he zonked out and was instantly better...so much so he slept 4.5 hours until I woke him up to feed him (I had to people...I had to have some relief). I on the other hand slept only 2 or so during that time b/c the storm had gotten so bad that it kept me awake.

DAY 4 - Electricity goes out at 7AM. No lights all day long...and not until just about an hour ago when it was turned on at about 8:30 tonight. Can I tell you how much I felt like I was a pioneer lighting candles to see after dark? So thankful for lights!!!

NIGHT 4 - ????? We shall see. About to head to bed now. After a phone call to the doctor's office this morning about his gassy issues, the nurse seemed to think that throwing up what he did will help if not alleviate the gas. She said it was probably just built up from birth and the whole birth process and just hadn't come up yet. Hope is alive!!!

Introducing Ethan Glenn Buscher

Well, remember the induction date I had set for this morning?? Never happened. And remember this post? Well..that wasn't real. But 12 hours later, it was.

My parents weren't supposed to come until early Saturday afternoon since we were checking into the hospital after 8 that night for cervidil. After knowing what happened, we all decided it was best for them to come up Friday night. Good thing b/c I went into labor shortly after they arrived at 11:30 that night. By 4am we were on the road to the hospital.

Birth story's pretty short this time. No 21 hour labor complete with almost 2 hours of pushing. This was more like a 12 hour labor complete with me saying to the nurse "uhh.....he's coming out.....where's the doctor??!!" They went on and did a little Pitocin to "help" me progress since I was still only 1 cm dilated upon arrival.

I labored by breathing through contractions (and help with Darin rubbing my back during them) for several hours. After a while, I realized thought back to the fact that I'd had a total of 4 hours of sleep during the last 48 hours and with pain intensifying, I decided to go ahead and get the epidural so I could rest before the actual delivery process. Epidurals = heaven on earth...let me tell you!

Getting to 3 cm seemed to take forever...like 6 hours or so. But once I got to b/w 4 and 5, I went to a 10 in only about 2 hours. By the time I was 10 cm dilated, he was moving down so fast that he was crowning before the doctor even got there and after being told, "Don't push yet", thought he was just going to fall out before the doctor even got there.

Here's the scary part of the whole deal. Right before the nurse came in the last time, she started to get a little alarmed by his heart rate. It would plummet from 140bpm to less than 60bpm during contractions. She kept coming in having me switch positions thinking maybe the cord was getting pinched. Nothing worked for long. So by the time the doc finally arrived, and since he was already crowning before I even did one push, I did about 9 or 10 pushes through only 3 contractions and he was out. They confirmed that it was a cord issue, but it was a bit scarier than that. The cord was wrapped tightly around his neck and was being compressed during contractions. Think that's scary? Normally it would be...but in this case, not only was the cord wrapped, but it was tied in a knot. He came out blue from head to toe and the nurses whisked him away before they even put him on me. No hearing, "It's a boy!". No, "Congrats, mom and dad." No, "Dad, you want to cut the cord?" In fact, there was no cry of any kind, even from the baby. I watched in horror as two more nurses piled into the room and tried to get oxygen to him and get him to breath on his own. Almost a minute passed before I heard any sound at all. Let me tell you, there is no sweeter sound than the first cry of your child.

So...that all being said, he's in great shape now. Healthy as could be. All is well...praise the Lord!

Baby Stats:
Born - 5/2/09
Weight - 7 lbs 10 oz
Height - 21 inches