One Week!

Thanksgiving this year had Jess and I full of so much gratitude. Our little Calvin turned one week on Thanksgiving and we still can't believe that he is in our lives! It's been an interesting week too! There's so much adjustment that is needed to be parents, but luckily we've had my Mom nearby as well as Aunt Aly ( who I'm sure is already Calvin's favorite because she looks just like me!) , and Jess' parents came in twice to help us settle in. Plus we have amazing friends too who are always there to help us with anything!
Calvin is such a blessing to us! He's been such a good baby too, except the first two nights when he woke up every ten minutes! But now we have a little bed that goes in between us in the bed and he sleeps like a champ now! I actually wake him up to feed him throughout the night, and I hate waking him out of his restful slumber but the pediatrician told us not to go over 5 hours without feeding.
Everyone has asked me if it feels weird to have a baby, and it sort of does, but Jess and I feel like we've been waiting for him our entire lives, and now a missing piece of our family is with us. He is such a darling, and the love that I have for him is unmeasurable. And we are grateful that he is a healthy baby too, so many things could have gone wrong, and we are just glad that they didn't.
We gave him his first bath on Thanksgiving, and it did not go over well with him! He was screaming as soon as he was put in the tub, but once he decided that his freshly cleaned arm was wonderful to chew on he was perfectly content.

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Wahoooooo!!!!!!!

so despite my best efforts to avoid the scale I weighed myself last night. To my surprise I already lost 25 pounds!! Holy crap how is that possible?? I think my placenta weighed at least 20 or at least that's what it felt like when it came out, plus I had a pretty hefty child!
Well whatever the reason is, it totally made my day because I was feeling pretty hefty myself gaining 40 pounds over the pregnancy!
Wahooooooooooo!!!!

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Calvin Kingston Butikofer

Early Wednesday morning I finally went into labor! It took me about 4 hours to realize that I was actually having contractions, but once I finally did and Jess helped me time them for an hour, we packed our stuff in the car and headed for the hospital! Little did we know the long day we had ahead of us!
22 hours of labor, with some pretty rough patches, but it was all worth it! My first epidural fell out and stopped working right when my contractions were the absolute worst, so for 3 hours I was in total misery. When they finally gave me my second epidural, it only numbed half my body, so the relief wasn't what I wanted. But thankfully they got me completely numbed by the time it was time to push! After almost 3 hours of pushing, the doctor decided we needed some help, and about 15 mins later with the help of forceps little Calvin Kingston came into the world!
Words can't describe the happiness I felt seeing him for the first time! He was 8 pounds 12 ounces and 20 inches long, (yeah, I can't believe it either!) and totally perfectly healthy! I lost 1000 cc's of blood so was in very rough shape afterwards and the two days after as well, but I am so happy that my beautiful son is finally here! Jess and I could not be happier!!
Calvin Kingston Butikofer
Born 4:41 AM 11/20/08
8 lbs 12 oz. 20 inches

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Excited for the Holidays!

Well...I'm now 5 days late with no sign of being close to labor! I'm trying not to go insane but it's sort of hard not to! I'm sure all you mothers out there can relate, but I sort of got my hopes up about my due date and now that it came and went I am feeling more and more anxious!
Anyways, I am SO excited for the holidays! Thanksgiving is next week and I cannot wait! We are going to have one crowded house this year at my parents but it will be so fun! It will be my parents, Aly, possibly her roommate Shawna, my brother and his family, Jess me and our new addition (yay!!), and a family who our family is best friends with from Philly who's flying out! So, the grand total of people is 18 people!
I always look forward to the holidays and I am getting super excited for them now! I cannot wait for next week and even more cannot wait for Christmas!! yay!!

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Nope..No baby

Well I thought I would write a little update here on what's going on. My due date came and I waved as it passed me by yesterday. Not gonna lie I'm a little depressed! Wednesday at my doctor's appointment they told me I'm still at a 1 for the second week in a row, but am now at least 70% effaced which is good! But since they changed my due date an entire month later at my 20 week appointment..I've already felt like I have been pregnant FOREVER!!
So, I spent the better half of the day today at the hospital. Would have been great if it was actually because I was having the baby,but they needed to do the No Stress Test to make sure the little guy isn't too stressed out in there, and I also had an ultrasound. But labor and delivery was a zoo today! So many babies being born, why can't mine come out??? As I laid on the hospital bed listening to the steady thumping of m son's heartbeat, a woman came in to check in at the desk, and popped out her baby 7 minutes later!! Crazy! I couldn't help but smile as I listened to the cries of the little life coming in the world in the room right next to me and it made me excited for when it's my turn!!!

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nursery artwork

Still no baby..but my official due date is not until Thursday. I am getting very very anxious for him to come out though! So, I'm praying and keeping my fingers crossed that things will happen sooner rather than later!
Anyways, I wanted some cute jungle animal art work for the nursery, but decided to use my drawing skills rather than buy over priced art! They're not perfect, but I love them and I think the personal touch makes all the difference!

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7 days and counting!!

Well folks we've hit the final week stretch!! I cannot believe that 9 months is pretty much over! I am officially 39 weeks and it is exactly 7 days until my due date next Thursday! AHH!! I went to my doctor yesterday for my now weekly check-ups and I am officially at a 1 now! Hopefully things move along and I have him early or on time because I don't know if I can take him being late, I've already felt like I have been pregnant for 2 years!
It's been one heck of a ride, and although the last couple of weeks haven't been the easiest for me with the severe anxiety and panic attacks I have suddenly aquired which are needless to say quite terrifying, I wouldn't take back this experience for anything! And I cannot wait to meet my little nino!! I have had our hospital bags packed now for 2 weeks because I was positive 2 weeks ago that I was going to have him early, but hey better to be safe than sorry! So, whenever he does decide to pop out, we're ready!!!




Boy...I cannot WAIT to bend again!!!

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Halloween '08

This Halloween was so much fun! We didn't celebrate it last year because we were driving from Baltimore to Utah! We actually spent Halloween in Des Moines Iowa, so this year we were ready to do something!! Jess and I love to do couples costumes, and he decided to be Bret Michaels from that trashy dating show that I secretly love Rock of Love, so naturally I decided to be one of his groupies! It made it even funnier that I am pregnant! Jess was hilarious though! He looked scarily so much like Bret Michaels (although a bazillion times cuter!) and would not get out of character for most of the night. He had alot of fun scaring the crap out of the cute little trick or treaters who came to our door that evening!
Our friends Abbie and Nico had a party that we went to and we had so much fun! We ate some yummy food and then there was a little Guitar Hero tournament, and everyone but me and Jess went to a haunted house, (not such a good idea for a woman about to give birth), and Jess and I went to get some scary movies to watch when they returned. We ended up renting "The Strangers" which wasn't all that scary..but still made you jump! So it was such a fun Halloween night and I'm glad we got to do something this year!


Next installment of Rock of Love : Rock the Cradle

Is it bad I secretly think Jess looks hot with eyeliner?
So to stay completely in character Jess rode over to Nico and Abbie's on his beloved bike. I am sad I didn't get a picture of him on it! He said he was screaming Poison songs at the top of his lungs the entire way to their house! The hosts, Abbie a sexy teacher and Nico a nerd

Bill from "Bill and Ted", a pumpkin, a nerd, and Bret

The ladies...plus nico!

Bill and Bret had a guitar hero face-off..Bret was using all his moves!
the Wild Stallion was defeated by the Poison frontman



What a pair!

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