Ah ha!

I have finally discovered why parents embarrass their children! Mike and I have been joking since before Nolan was born that we are giving him material for therapy years down the road, but now I finally understand why I shouldn't feel bad about giving my child a complex.

The trip from Evanston, IL to Le Center, MN should be about 6 1/2 hours. Little did we know that the flooding that took place through Iowa and Wisconsin would close down a 50 mile stretch of Interstate.

As we work our way through Madison, WI, we start to see signs for the highway closure. Out of nowhere we see a road closed sign in front of us and we're forced to get off the Interstate. The frustrating part was that there was no detour posted at the time. We had no idea which way to go. And of course, Nolan picks this exact moment to dirty himself.

The traffic through Madison trying to find a detour was pretty heavy because everyone was doing what we were doing, trying to figure out our own detours! Since stopping and getting out of the car would prove to be difficult, I decided to climb into the back seat and change Nolan to save ourselves the time.

I set Nolan on my lap with his head back at my knees and his feet at my belly. As I take his diaper off, I see him grunt and prepare to continue dirtying himself. I lift the diaper back up and catch poop attempt #1.

I grab a baby wipe and proceed cleaning off his bottom. While deep in concentration, I miss the next grunt, but see the gooey substance in time to use the wipe to catch poop attempt #2. Of course by this time, Mike is chuckling in the front seat and paying little attention to the growing frustration around us.

I grab for the diaper bag to get the plastic bag we're using for dirty diapers. As I toss the dirty wipe into the bag, poop attempt #3 begins and hits my pants and the bottom of my shirt before I'm able to grab the clean diaper and block the projectile. This raises Mike from chuckling to giggling.

As I quickly reach for another clean diaper, Nolan continues to poop into the diaper I have covering him. I sit for a minute, trying to wait for Nolan to drain his bowels. Apparently I didn't wait long enough because as I remove the 2 dirty diapers and reach for the clean diaper, Nolan sends projectile poops my direction, covering the front of my shirt, my arm, and the top of my pants.

By this time Mike is laughing hysterically, forgetting that maybe he should attempt to find a place to pull over so Nolan and I can clean ourselves off. By the time we finally get to a gas station, I'm covered in poop, Nolan is only slightly covered, and the car and Nolan's car seat are completely clean.

After Nolan and I get changed, Nolan is a happy camper, I'm cranky from smelling like poop, and Mike is still laughing. You better believe, I'm going to continue to embarrass my little boy to get back at him for that "outburst."

Too bad he's so darn cute. Here's some of the outfits we showed him off in in Minnesota.

Mike is working at turning Nolan into his mini Irish fan.

And of course my little preppy boy in his golfing outfit. All he needs now is the cleats.

Do I Look Like a Becker?

Auntie Bethel was around the weekend before I was born, but this is the first chance I got to meet her. She keeps telling me that she's my favorite. I'm not sure what that means just yet. I hope that means I get spoiled!

I already met Auntie Bridget. I waited until the last day of her finals to be born. She didn't even get to celebrate being done with law school for the summer before she found out about me. I do know that her law books are super boring! They put me to sleep in no time. But she can snuggle well, so I'll keep her around.

Now Grandpa Becker, that's my kind of guy. We can hang around and sleep and watch television and sleep and eat and sleep and fart. He even let me sleep in his bed! Now wonder we get along so well.

Grandma Becker spoils me really good. Every morning mom would drop me off in her bed. With the fan and the mirror and all the colors, I could hang out with Grandma all day! And when I got sick of her bed, she's just let me sleep on her! Who could ask for more.

Thanks for putting up with me all week! I'll be back!

60 Years Strong

This past week Nolan, Mike, and I headed to Le Center, Minnesota to celebrate a milestone. My grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. The amazing thing about the celebration is that not only did my grandparents survive 60 years together, raising 7 children, spoiling 12 grandchildren, and now 1 great-grandchild - most of their wedding party was in attendance for the party as well. Their maid of honor and best man and one groomsman and one bridesmaid were able to join the family to share in their 60 years together.

The maid of honor, my grandma's sister Lucille

One of the bridesmaids with the best man - my grandpa's sister Donna with my grandpa's best friend from high school John

There are a lot of things that can be said for a couple that makes it together for 60 years. They are devoted, obviously. But how did they do it?

For my grandfather, that's a no-brainer. My grandmother is a great woman, and I would like to think that it was easy for my grandfather to see her face day in and day out.

As for my grandmother, she headed for sainthood! Enough said!

John's wife Doris with my grandpa

My grandma with her first great-grandson, Nolan.

Congratulations Grandma and Grandpa on 60 years!

Here's to hoping for curls

So this may be wishful thinking, but I think I'm seeing the beginning of unruliness in Nolan's hair. Yes, I'm fully aware that he'll lose most of this hair before his true locks grow, but I can hope can't I?! After every bath, with no prompting from me, his hair makes a turn for the sky. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Besides the hope of curls, things are going very well. I can say this today because we successfully made it through a string of days last week where I was ready to pull my hair out! Nolan spent a number of days very fussy and seemed to be crying for no apparent reason. I would feed him, change him, adjust his temperature, sing and play music, and nothing would work. He would calm down every time I tried to feed him, but this would only last long enough to tuck the food source away and he would be ready for more! After doing some reading and many frantic phone calls to my mom, we determined that it was a growth spurt and he's now perfectly content again.
What a relief!

I guess his fussiness could have come from the thought of future embarrassment from his parents! You can see from the picture below that Mike and I are starting early. Poor guy!

What a whirlwind!

Nolan is three weeks old today and we have been busy. I thought I had things under control for the first week that I had my little guy home, but then my mom went back to Minnesota! That is when reality set in! Nolan and I have been trying to master the art of racing around quickly between feedings and diaper changes in order to get anything accomplished.

We have discovered that no matter what, Nolan is the person in the house that determines our schedule! When we're going to sleep, when we're going to eat, if we're going to shower, and when we'll leave when we need to get some errands done! Who would have thought that a short, little, almost bald man would run my life!

Below are the highlights of Nolan's hectic schedule:

Nolan has taken over our bed!

Bath time! He's been very good in the bathtub until we get to his head and he gets cold.

Time to take a walk. There is so much to look at when we finally get to leave the house!

And of course nap time! But during the day, Nolan has mastered the art of waiting just until I lay down and close my eyes to wake up!

And a visit from Bailey Kerins and her parents. Bailey was very good with Nolan and we had a successful visit with no fatalities!

And of course - here come the pictures!

Me with my little Nolan Michael

Nolan's hand in Mike's hand. Nolan has my nice long fingers. I think they're for playing piano, Mike thinks they'll be good for gripping a ball. I guess we'll find out!


Nolan with Grandpa Becker - what a good looking pair!



Nolan getting ready for a sponge bath. The color of the towel must be fascinating!

Mike and my dad starting Nolan off with the baseball early. Although I think Nolan was a little more interested in passing gas.

My fingers next to Nolan's feet. He's got big feet compared to the rest of his body, but they are still so tiny. With the long fingers and big feet, I think he's going to be a big boy! I guess only time will tell.

The Rolih family.

And of course my little sleeping angel. I think I could just stare at him for hours!

What a Week!

My little man is a week old already, so I suppose it's about time to begin to reinsert myself into the real world. First of all, thank you so much to everyone that called, e-mailed, sent their thoughts, prayers, and well wishes our way. I am working my way through acknowledging all of you, but it may take a few days. All of the love that came our way along with little Nolan has been unbelievable.

All of the fun and excitement started Friday, May 9th with the contractions three minutes apart at my weekly checkup. Those fun and wonderful "tightenings" in my abdomen continued all weekend. They never really got painful, they never really got closer together, but they never went away. By Sunday I was going crazy!

Sunday night the babies movements in my abdomen seemed to slow down. I called my doctor on Monday with the feeling of being a first time mother that tends to overreact. I told her about the slowed fetal movements and she said I should go into the hospital to check to make sure everything was okay. She said at the very worst, they would send me on my way.

I went to the hospital with my mom completely expecting to be leaving a half hour later. We even made dinner plans that night because we figured our stubborn little guy would drag out his entrance into the world as long as possible. Sorry Sean!

At the hospital, the baby's heart rate was great, the contractions were still about two minutes apart, and I was still only dilated about two to three centimeters. The cause for concern was the low fluid level. We made the decision to be inducted. I was checked into the hospital - we were going to have a baby!

By the time Mike showed up and we got checked in, my contractions were starting to get more intense without being induced. The resident made the decision to hold off on induction because I seemed to be moving along without medication.

That didn't last long. A few hours later I hadn't made any progress, so the induction continued. I was induced around 9 p.m. By 1 a.m. I was ready for the drugs. The epidural made my life easier, but certainly didn't help things move along.

By 3 a.m. I was hanging out at six centimeters dilated and didn't seem to be making any progress. The baby's heart rate was fine, so we just kept waiting for things to move along.

Two hours later - I was still at six centimeters! Ahhhh. The issue at this point was that after every contraction, the baby's heart rate would drop. The doctor came in for decision making time. We could continue as we were. The baby was under no danger at this time, but that wasn't saying that would change with time. As far as the doctor could tell, we had at least eight to ten hours of labor ahead of us. Or we could opt for the C-section.

Let me think about this - I had been having contractions for four days, some annoying, some painful, some drug-filled, but none of it extremely pleasant - let's go for option number two and just get this birth thing over with!

We were in the operating room by 6:30 a.m. and Nolan was born at 7:02 a.m. What a relief! And he had no complications, just the way I like it.

This may have been a long dragged out process, but it was worth every minute once I say that beautiful little face and heard that amazing little cry. I guess you can say I forgot about the entire evening once I got to hold onto my baby boy. What an experience!