that hair!!

So lets just pretend for a couple minutes that it is the middle of January & Pax is one week shy of being 4 months old (instead of just a few days older than 7 months old!).  Ok... are we all on the same page now?  Good, now we can move on.

Pax's hair is amazing.  It has been since the second he was born.  It's thick & dark & long & does it's own thing.  Everyone comments on it everywhere we go.  It suits him. But it was getting long.  Too long.  Use this picture as an example- it is almost down to his chin!

 

So, at under 4 months old, Pax got his first haircut.  My friend Breanne is amazing & does all of our hair (except Dathan, because all he uses are clippers!) so of course she is who I asked to do the honor of cutting Pax's hair for the first time.  She's a pro, even though she said Pax was officially her youngest customer she's ever had!

  

 Pax sat very still in his bumbo.  He did SO good!  It didn't seem to bother him one bit that someone was tugging on his hair.

  

At the very end he got slightly fussy.  And honestly I think it was just because we kept having to turn his head in the same direction for her to cut part of it straight.  But this sweet little face?  That's the worst of it.  Best haircut client ever!

  

I forgot to take an "after" picture the day of the haircut, but this one was taken a few days later. 

  

Everyone was freaking out about us cutting his hair.  I'm not sure what they were thinking we'd do to it, but all we wanted was the same style he already had, just shorter. :)

Now lets fast-forward to last week... when Pax needed a haircut again already!  So we decided this time to go a bit shorter, because it grows so fast & it was starting to warm up outside.  He now looks like an older, completely different baby!!  But still SO cute!!

 Oh, and you know how I said he sat so still for Breanne the first time around?  Yeah... definitely not this time! Ha!  He was squirming SO much and trying to grab the scissors and the comb.  At one point I had to put my cheek next to his so that he would stop looking around.  He's a busy boy!! :)

10 on Tuesday

No, he doesn't cry all the time, but when he does he still is cute!  Here are 10 faces of fussy Pax:

3 months new!

I have been taking Pax's monthly pictures on a big chalkboard that Dathan made me.  It was supposed to get hung on the wall in our house but now we'll just have to wait until Pax's first birthday because I love the look of these & want to do it until then! ;)

So here are the 1st 3 months. I just love my little guy with the awesome hair. He is a joy!!

The big boys also like to take pictures when I get the chalkboard out.  Here is one I took for Thanksgiving (when I did Pax's 2 month pics).  It was a big hit in the Facebook world ;)

 

And the other day when I did his 3 month shot the boys wanted another picture with the chalkboard.  I think this one is so fun!  Look at Nolan's fat lip.  Oh the life of having boys!

 

Stay tuned for more, coming every month (hopefully, if I can keep up with my blog LOL)

pax's first 2 days

The first few hours of Pax's life are a blur to me.  I honestly think my body was in a bit of shock because of how fast he came.  I do remember waiting forever for my parents to get there with Sean & Nolan (it especially felt like forever because we were waiting to announce the name until they got there).  Here's Memaw holding Pax for the first time.

Uncle Kellen, not only holding Pax for the first time, but holding a newborn for the first time. :)

Hanging out with Uncle Timmy (aka Uncle B) watching Little Einsteins on Disney. Nolan looks so serious in every picture! Ha!

What did we do before technology??  I can almost guarantee all 3 of them (Dathan, Timmy, & my dad) are posting something on FB haha

Finally in our room!  We tried to get rest but instead got lots of visitors, which of course we loved!  Some of the visitors included: Memaw, Papa, Uncle B, Uncle Kellen, Uncle Swanny, DJ, Mercy, Jen, Amanda, Mike, Jessie (who also came & got our keys and then went to our house & cleaned up for us so we could come home to a clean house! She's the BEST!) John, Veronica, Crystal, Kym, Duane, Heather, Lorena.... I'm sure there were more but I can't remember. And I don't have pictures of all of them, I'm more writing this for my own memory ;)

For several hours the day after Pax was born we didn't get any visitors.  Dathan, Pax, & I were all able to nap, and then I took advantage of the beautiful natural light coming in the window and took some pictures (sorry, but you can't shut off a photographer's mind, even 24 hours after she's had a baby!)

And I set the camera up so Dathan could snap a couple of me & Pax. I just love these pics (and it's rare that I ever love a picture of myself... especially after having a baby! LOL)

Getting ready to leave the hospital, only about 36 hours after Pax was born.  He was not happy to be unswaddled & have us change his clothes.  You may recognize his special coming home onesie from this post here ;)

Ready to leave!  I know I'm blurry, that's what happens when you have a fancy camera but you are the only one who knows how to use it. LOL.  That's ok.  Here we are about to leave the hospital!  I love it that when the boys came during the sibling visiting hours they always made them name tags that said "Big Brother" on them.  Too sweet!

I just cannot believe how much he has changed already!!

the big brothers meet pax

Ok everyone, I'm going to need you to put your imagination hats on.  And then I need you to pretend with me that Pax will NOT be 2 months old tomorrow and that he is only, say, 1 week old.

You got that? Ok, now read on.  Thanks.

I was so excited for Sean & Nolan to meet their new brother.  It was fun to be pregnant this time because Sean was old enough to comprehend more of what was going on, and he was so excited about it.  Everyone is so concerned about Nolan being the middle boy.  We keep telling him he has a special job of being both a big brother & a little brother... nobody else in our family has that job ;)

The boys had stayed the night at my parents' house the night before Paxton was born.  I was on the waiting list to get called in for an induction when they had an opening, so we brought them over just in case I got a call in the middle of the night (I just had a feeling that we would need them to be over there that night).  Paxton came SO fast that my mom was still feeding the boys breakfast when he was born.  So we had to wait a bit for them to get the boys dressed & get them to the hospital.  We had kept Pax's name a secret and didn't want to share it until we told our families first, so we could not wait for everyone to get there!

It was fun to see how each boy responded (side note: all of these pictures are taken by somebody else with my camera, because I was limited to laying in the hospital bed).  Sean was just enthralled.  He had brought one of his little Lego toys to share with his new baby brother (you can see him giving it to Pax in the picture below).  Nolan, on the other hand, was not sure of what the heck was going on (which you can also see in the picture below).

It wasn't even 5 minutes that they were there before Sean asked to hold Pax.  It's still one of his favorite things to do.  And it only took Nolan 3 days before he asked to hold Pax (ha!), and he has only held him 1 other time. But he tries to cuddle with him all the time while he's on the swing.

This picture cracks me up! Sean: "I'm saying cheese & smiling but I'm not taking my eyes off the tv!" Nolan: "Don't take my picture! I don't even know why the heck I'm here or what in the world is going on!"

He was this serious all day long. And wanted to sit right next to me for a long time. He needed his momma to comfort him during all this confusion ;)

We got the boys "new big brother" presents to give to them at the hospital after Pax was born.  Sean loved his new Star Wars figurines & Transformer.

And nolan LOOOOOOOVED his trains.  Of course. :)

My mom surprised Dathan & I with the shirts the boys wore to meet Pax in (they said "Most awesome big brother") :) Sean was also dressed in Nolan's shorts.  I was trying to figure out for 5 minutes why Sean's shorts looked so weird on him.  May be because they were size 24months... and he wears a 5! haha!

Paxton Ryder is here!!!!

After being pregnant for 41 weeks, I am SO happy to say that our sweet baby boy is here!!!

Paxton Ryder Stephens

(meaning: Peaceful Warrior)

Thursday, Sept 22, 2011 @ 8:11am

9lbs 8oz   21.5in

His birth did not go anything like I had expected it to, yet was everything we knew it would be, if that makes sense.

I was on the list to get called to be induced for Weds the 21st.  The way it works here is they "schedule" 4 women to get induced per day and then call them in the order they are scheduled whenever they have an available bed.  I was #3 out of 4 on the list.  A friend of mine waited 3 days for them to call her and even when she did go in, she ended up calling them.  So, we didn't "announce" to anyone except a few close friends that we were even on that list, since we didn't know how long we would have to wait.  All while praying that I would go into labor on my own (I had a really strong feeling that I would. Some people thought I was crazy or just had wishful thinking).

By Weds night they hadn't called us yet, so we took the boys over to my parents' house to spend the night, in case we got called really early to go in.  We came home & Dathan went to bed & I sat up almost all night with pregnancy insomnia I'm sure (and a little bit of restlessness).  Around 3:00 I was finally able to go to sleep.  At about 5:00 I woke up to a contraction.  Now, I had been having contractions on & off for about a month, so I didn't think anything of it.  I got up, went downstairs, & walked around for a little bit.  The contractions kept coming every 5-7 minutes, and were pretty intense.  After an hour I finally decided to wake up Dathan.

Dathan gets up, gets ready, makes coffee, etc.  We are not rushing because my water hadn't broke yet & my contractions weren't unbearable.  On our way out I said "Oh, lets take one more belly shot so we can remember how big I was when I finally went into labor."  Please excuse the fact that I look like a wreck, you have to remember I was going on about 2 hours of sleep, have no makeup on, and was contracting ;)

 

At about 6:15 or so we are driving to the hospital.  It's only about 5 minutes away, but in those 5 minutes my contractions seemed to have gotten more intense.  Regardless, I had Dathan park the car in the parking lot & we walked into the Women & Infants Pavilion, or WIP (as opposed to him dropping me off at the door & getting a wheelchair to wheel me in).  I said "walking helps labor move along faster!"  We left our bags & camera in the car saying Dathan could go get it after we got into our labor & delivery room.  We get inside & there is only one lady working the registration desk (I was pre-registered) and there was a lady in front of us getting registered.  We stood there waiting for what felt like forever, but Dathan said was only about 10-15 mins.  By now I'm having a hard time breathing through my contractions.  I even said something along the lines of "that girl getting registered looks pretty calm, can the registration lady not tell I'm in labor??!?!" HA!  Finally she calls us in & gets all our paperwork, asking me questions that Dathan had to answer because I couldn't speak through the contractions.  Finally she takes us into triage.

The nurse shows us our "room" and explains that they have to tend to the lady who was in front of us first, so it will be about 30 mins before a nurse will get in to see me.  Remember, my water hadn't broken yet so nobody had any cause to worry.  We sit in triage playing "words with friends" and talking in between my (very painful) contractions that are now coming every 2-3 minutes.

After about 30-35 minutes a nurse finally comes in with a student nurse.  They get me hooked up on all the monitors & she gets ready to check me.  She explains to the student nurse that because I was dilated to a 3 at my appointment on Mon, and because I was having my 3rd kid, and because I was quite uncomfortable that I was probably already dilated to a 4 or a 5.  I was hoping for a 6.  She checks me and gets this strange look on her face and says "you are dilated to an 8!" An 8?!?! What?!?! The first words out of my mouth are "is it too late for an epidural?!" She tells me it depends on what my dr says.

I send out a text to my mom. Then I send out a text to some friends.  Then I update my FB status (yes, I am that person) with "In triage and dilated to an 8! Ready or not, here baby comes!" That was posted at 7:40am.  After that point is kind of a whirlwind for me.  We waited a little bit longer (I think for them to get the room ready) then they wheel me over to the labor & delivery room.  I am in pretty extreme pain at this point.  My Dr just happened to be doing his rounds at that time (praise God!) and he comes in all suited up.  I said "it's too late for an epidural, isn't it?"  He tells me yes & I try not to freak out (I'm pretty sure I asked for an epidural about 3 more times, including while I was pushing LOL).  He checks me.  I'm at a 9.  He breaks my water.  I start pushing.

Ok let me just say that after having 2 children with an epidural & having something to compare it to now, all of you women who willingly choose to not have an epidural are crazy! In the best kind of way of course :) Haha!  I don't remember exactly, but it was about 4 or 5 pushes and Pax was out!  I couldn't believe it.  After Dathan cut the cord, he & I kind of sat there in shock as the nurses cleaned Pax up.  It all happened SO fast.  He was born at 8:11am.  31 minutes after I posted my FB status.  How's that for a fast delivery???

Our camera (and everything else!) was still in the car, so we have no "nice" pictures from right after he was born.  The picture at the top was taken with Dathan's phone.

So the pictures on my nice camera went from the one above of me still pregnant to this:

 

And WHAM! Mommy of 3 sons!  Hard to believe!  What an incredible blessing!  I am so thankful for a healthy baby & a quick delivery.  He kept us waiting a long time to meet him, but then once he was ready to come he didn't mess around :)

I just love our family of FIVE!

 

 This picture kind of sums up how the boys are reacting to Pax- Sean is SO excited & into him, and Nolan just couldn't care less (we finally got him to hold Pax for the first time yesterday... it only took him 4 days to want to! ha!)

Pax was a "big" baby, but not as big as Nolan was, and he doesn't seem that big.  He is so sweet and laid back, nursing great & sleeping great.  I am thrilled.  And so in love.

 

God gave us a promise when I first got pregnant that this baby would bring peace & restoration to our family & to the lives of others.  About 4 years ago God gave Dathan a promise that restoration would come to him, but not in the way he had planned.  That it would be long awaited for, but then would come suddenly.  God also told us that Paxton would come when He told him to & not on anyone else's time frame.  

I think that Pax is already fulfilling those promises from God :)