CORA MAE'S BIRTH STORY

Cora's birthday was surprising and exciting, yet very smooth. Here's the breakdown by hour...

3:00 AM

I awake in bed with the suspicion that my water is breaking. I use the restroom and confirm that familiar feeling of when my water broke with James. I wake Jay by saying "Sweetie, I'm going to turn on the lights for a minute". He says "Why?", and when I say "Because I think my water broke", he yells "What!?!?!" and jumps out of bed, just standing there, looking around the room in confusion. After he comes around, we check things out and discuss the situation, and decide that yes, for SURE, my water has broken. I call my OB's office to alert them and tell Jay to call Michelle. (Note to other mommies-to-be: when you tell your husband to call the babysitter because your water has broken, be sure to clarify for him that the babysitter does NOT need to jump out of bed and drive immediately to your house - they can have an hour to get ready and wake up a bit!) Then we call our moms to tell them to start making plans to head to Mississippi. I send Jay to shower to wake him up while I wait for the OB's office to call me back. 45 minutes later we eventually get through to a nurse who reserves us a room in labor and delivery. I take a shower and throw last-minute items into our hospital bag while Jay gets things ready downstairs and goes over details with Michelle. When we're all set, I sneak into James' room to kiss him goodbye.

4:40 AM

We head out of the driveway. Destination: The Baby Suites at River Oaks.

5:30 AM

After a very relaxing and traffic-free drive to Jackson, we arrive at the hospital and get checked-in. And we are placed in the exact same delivery room where James was born!

6:00 AM

I am hooked to the monitors and they confirm that my water has indeed broken. Cora is doing great, but contractions haven't started yet and I am only 1 cm dilated. Jay takes one last belly photo for me:

6:15 AM

They placed my IV and started me on fluids.

7:15 AM

Pitocin was started at 18 mL/hr, the standard amount for inductions (since my water broke, I had only a 12ish-hour window to deliver before they'd start pushing for a c-section to avoid infection). Contractions started shortly thereafter.

7:45 AM

Since I was only 1 cm dilated, I was able to experience the oh-so-fun placement of a balloon in my cervix to speed the dilation process. Yes, a balloon. Filled with water. We had a good laugh over it (once the discomfort of the placement passed, anyway). Surely weren't expecting that!

8:30 AM

Pitocin was doubled to 36 mL/hr. Contractions fell into a good pattern, increased in frequency, and QUICKLY became painful.

9:15 AM

Cervical check showed that I a little over halfway to a 4, when the balloon would fall out. Apparently, with a second delivery, you can get the epidural whenever you darn well please though. I waited until I was feeling really uncomfortable, then called for the anesthesiologist. I had a different guy this time, and rather than lay on my side during the procedure, I had to sit up "Indian-style". The first injection went only to my right side (I immediately couldn't feel my right leg or foot at ALL), so he had to re-place the line. It wasn't a bad experience or anything, but it did take a bit longer than last time, and thus had Jay a bit worried (since they kicked him out of the room).

9:30 AM

Doubled the pitocin again and had another "balloon check". ALMOST to 4 cm dilated...

10:00 AM

Pitocin increased to 72 mL/hr, balloon removed (a little tug and it came right out), and up to 5 cm dilated.

11:00 AM

Dilated to 7 cm, but still not completely effaced. We turned the lights low and I laid on my left side to keep Cora happy (her heartrate had been dropping during contractions, enough so that the nurse had considered removing the balloon early and/or dropping the pitocin dose). For an hour, Jay and I just talked and rested. Jay watched the contractions and closely monitored his baby girl's heartrate. I could easily feel my contractions, but they didn't hurt at all.

12:00 PM

For 3 contractions in a row, right before noon, I began to feel pressure. By the end of the 3rd contraction, I was feeling the urge to push and the pressure had increased significantly. I told Jay to go get the nurse QUICK! When she came out of the lunch room, she took one glance at the look on his face and knew we were in business. She was in the room within 5 minutes, calling in the calvary to set up for an immediate delivery. She took a peek at me: fully dilated and effaced, and at +1 station... Cora was almost out all on her own! She called my OB, but she was still in surgery (Mondays are her surgery days), so the on-call OB (Dr. Moses) ran in to catch Cora. We let Cora do the work for me through one more contraction while we waited on the doc. At 12:10 PM I pushed through the start of a contraction, as they were still setting up. Cora nearly popped out before they were ready, so they all yelled for me to stop pushing. With the next contraction though, everyone was ready. I gave 2 big pushes and Cora Mae Lindsay came flying out. There were a lot less people in the room this time around... I didn't have time to get a mirror for the delivery or reach down and touch Cora's head as she crowned, but because I wasn't exhausted from tons of pushing, I was able to bend completely forward and watch the whole thing myself. What a cool experience to see your baby be born. I was in complete awe of her...

Cora Mae was born at 12:17 PM on June 14, 2010, weighing in at 5 pounds and 15 ounces, and measuring 19 inches in length. She was about 2 pounds and 2 inches smaller than her butterball brother was (no wonder she slipped out so easily)! Regardless, I still tore (maybe because she came so fast at the end): 2 short, 2nd degree tears. The delivery of the placenta and mending of my tears was really fast this time though. Cora scored a 9, then a 10, on her APGAR tests. The nurses called her perfect. Jay and I were just mesmerized by her small size and the tiny little noises she was making.

Cora Mae was born at 37 weeks and 3 days gestation (almost 3 weeks early), and thus she was quite covered in vernix (Jay thought he had an albino baby until we explained it to him):

She also had significant cone shape to the back of her head at first, since she spent so many hours pushing against my non-effaced cervix. The fluid and swelling went down really quickly though, and was barely noticeable by the end of her transition period.

Since we had a much smaller crowd in the delivery room this time, there wasn't a nurse available to take photos for us, so all photos from Cora's birth were taken by her Daddy. Here is the self-portrait he took of the 3 of us immediately after her delivery:Hospital policy had changed a bit in the 15 months since we delivered James there, and for the better! We were able to keep Cora in the room with us for an hour and 15 minutes after her delivery, and it was so wonderful to have that extra time to bond and nurse. And she's such a good eater... she nursed for a full 30 minutes on her first attempt! I am so thankful for that, and so in love with my baby girl.After that marathon nursing session, Jay was finally able to get HIS turn to hold his baby girl:Then they had to take her off to the nursery for the rest of her assessments and treatments, and her very first bath. Jay went along to oversee and photo document. Here she is getting her sponge bath (and NOT enjoying it in the least):
She's half clean...Scrubbing some of the vernix off her "cheese head":Back with us after a short 3-hour transition period, sporting her very first bow: Daddy's first diaper change (with a baby girl, of course):Wide awake and staring us down at 4-hours-old:And wide awake throughout much of the night, though happy and content to look around the room and bond with her Mama. Here she is at midnight, almost 12-hours-old, following another great nursing session:While her poor Daddy suffers through an upper respiratory infection without meds (he had planned to see our general practitioner this morning)...

And because both Cora and I did so well with the delivery, transition, and recovery, we were released from the hospital a mere 25 hours after her birth:

Cora lost only 2 ounces in her first day of life and showed no signs of jaundice. I was up and moving around within hours, and actually doing better than I had in a month! The tears aren't even hurting me, and I haven't really bothered with pain pills. Such a blessing to have a fast recovery this time!

And by the way, we DID listen to Pearl Jam again during delivery (and the last hour or so of labor). Before that we were watching World Cup (and updating everyone on our progress via Facebook)!

WELCOME BABY GIRL!

Cora Mae Lindsay has arrived and already stolen our hearts!

Born on June 14, 2010 at 12:17 PM
5 pounds 14.7 ounces and 19 inches

Our first family photo (minus James, but he'll be here soon):

Right before her first bath (3 weeks early and still covered in vernix):

Our alert little girl, watching her Daddy through the nursery window during her transition period:

Stay tuned for Cora's birth story...

KITTY DOOR MONSTER

Another silly video to celebrate James' seeming recovery...

WOW-MBULANCE

James woke with a 103 fever this morning, following a HORRIBLE night, but has since seemed to have a near full recovery. His temp never got above 100 the rest of the day, and he's really been in a great mood. In celebration of this good news, here is a funny video of James from a couple weeks ago:

(Stephen, we had been teasing him about the "WAHmbulance" due to his constant whining, and he caught on... sort of...)

COOLING DOWN AT THE WATER TABLE

Whatever this sickness is, it's hit James hard. The poor baby has been skirting a 102 fever all day. In one attempt to cool him off, we took his new pirate ship water table on a maiden voyage:

James has been loving his water table (a recent gift from his grandparents) even without the water, in the kitchen (where he and his Daddy set it up together), for a couple of weeks. Of course, he thought it was even more awesome once we added the water (and he especially likes the cannon and strainer cups)."Hey, where is sunroom kitty going?"

A SNEAK PEEK...

Between my OB's surprise at my last visit and all the exclamations at our work shower yesterday that we hadn't started Cora's nursery yet, I figured I better make some headway this weekend, seeing as she'll be here in about 3 weeks...

The basic necessities are all set: changing table stocked with diapers and dresser full of washed and organized clothes. And we have the pack-n-play/bassinet and glider all set up in our room too. So, whenever Cora chooses to arrive, she'll be assured a safe place to sleep, clean clothes and blankets, and plenty of diapers. By the way, see that gorgeous birdie lamp and the pretty organizer baskets? Those are from Cora's Grandma. And the pink CD player (for the Rockabye Baby CDs) and pink changing pad cover are from her Grambot.

Perhaps next weekend we'll get the crib set up and do some decorating...

WORLD CUP BEGINS

Jay is not the type of guy that spends much time watching sports on TV. In fact, there is RARELY sports on at our home. When there is, it's either soccer or the Olympics. And occasionally some Gator football. Well, World Cup 2010 began tonight, and Jay was thrilled that James was willing to sit on the couch and watch it with him:

I expect to see (or hear, at least, since I tend to preoccupy myself in other ways when sports are on TV) a LOT of soccer in the house this month...

THE FRIDAY CURSE

So, for MONTHS now Team Lindsay has been suffering the "Friday Curse", as I call it. Not every Friday. There are a few weekends that have started off well. But for the most part, we have come to dread Fridays. Either the baby gets sick, or one of us does. Sometimes it starts in the wee hours of the morning (AKA Thursday night) and sometimes it happens RIGHT at the end of the day (as the pediatrician's office is closing, of course). This Friday it happened both ways, and it was James' turn. AGAIN. Poor baby...

Yesterday's swim lesson involved quite a bit of head-dunking and James "drank" a significant amount of pool water. All was well yesterday evening and he went to bed as usual (just a bit later than schedule due to the lesson), but he woke at 9:45pm SCREAMING and crying. And we could NOT get him to relax. It seemed he wasn't even fully awake. We tried cuddling/not cuddling, walking/laying very still, talking/singing, lights on/lights off. It was HORRIBLE! The boy was obviously in pain. We finally gave up after 30 minutes and went out to turn the TV on, hoping it would distract him. No dice. He just kept screaming and crying even though he seemed awake at this point. He couldn't get comfortable. He was SO gassy. So, we figured perhaps it was a tummy issue from drinking all that pool water, and we decided to try Mylicon, even though we haven't given it to him in almost a year. That didn't help either. Finally, I asked Jay to bring him a sippy cup of cold water, to distract him if nothing else. IMMEDIATE calm. He took 4 huge gulps, sighed a big, ragged, out-of-breath-from-crying sigh, then relaxed against me and started watching TV and "talking" to us about the show (it was Deadliest Catch, by the way, which he LOVES for some reason - he ignores cartoons, but he loves the crab boats - go figure). Anyway, he started to really calm down and look sleepy, so Jay took him from me so I could get comfortable. Apparently that was a bad idea becuase he started throwing a major fit again, so we sat there until the show was over and he was completely asleep, then Jay took him to bed. This was at about 11:30pm. He slept well until about 2:30, then woke up screaming and crying again. Jay was able to calm him down in less than 10 minutes, but he was gassy again. Jay decided to stay down in bed with him to keep his eye on him. When Jay first woke at 5:30am this morning, James had a fever (high 101's), so he gave him ibuprofen and he never even woke up. Jay finally had to wake James at 7:00am to get him ready for the day, and his temp was a cool 98.8. James was completely happy and normal and full of energy, as though last nights' episodes had never happened, so we took him to daycare (thinking the fever was either teething, or him just getting hot from sleeping with Jay).

Well, daycare called late this afternoon (4:00pm) to tell me James had been fussy almost all day (which is not like him) and was spiking a 102.7 fever! They gave him ibuprofen and we headed right over to get him. He's still on his antibiotics from his ongoing ear infection, so the pediatrician couldn't recommend anything more than alternating ibuprofen and acetaminophen to get rid of the fever and keep it away. It's most likely something viral (unless the ear infection is fighting back), so there's nothing they can do anyway. He's been fine since we got home, eaten a ton of food, and no longer has a temperature. Hopefully he'll sleep well tonight and this will all be over tomorrow. And we can hope that our Fridays go back to being "fundays" before Cora arrives...

To end this post on a lighter note, however, here is a great video of James from last weekend. He wasn't sick or anything, just exhausted from playing hard with his Daddy and Mama all morning. We thought it was hilarious - such a good multitasker our baby is:

SURPRISE SHOWER

We had a somewhat surprise (last-minute, anyway) baby shower at work today. It was a great way to celebrate Cora's full-term milestone (reached today, at 37 weeks) and revel in more pink, girly baby things. Many thanks to all our coworkers for providing yummy cake and punch, sweet baby gifts, and perhaps most importantly, the promise of frozen meals to stock our to-be-purchased chest freezer! You're all awesome and we're very grateful for your generosity!

And I've come to a conclusion... While folks seem to like buying baby clothes in general, they go wild with the opportunity to buy GIRL baby clothes - seriously, check out that stack on the left. That is ALL clothes! Cora will definitely not have time to sport her big brother's hand-me-downs anymore - too many cute outfits of her very own!

NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS

I suppose. I was hoping to have made at least a TINY bit of progress at my 36-week prenatal appointment today, but no such luck. No dilation. It's OK though. It would be best for Cora to stay put a bit longer anyway. We don't hit full-term status until Friday. And it would be especially convenient if she stays put until her Grandma arrives. I also had no change in blood pressure and was negative for Group B Strep - both excellent pieces of news!

They clocked Cora at 155 bpm today - good and strong. My doc agreed with me that I am definitely carrying Cora lower than I carried James. It's apparently pretty common to carry your second (and subsequent) children lower. I've noticed it not just from photos (and comments by friends and family), but also because I can BREATHE, and my ribs have been completely free of kicks. I'm pretty sure James had his feet wedged up under my rib cage for at least his entire final month in utero... So thanks my little darling, you are making this pregnancy pretty easy on your Mama!

Of course, we can't end the post without an updated belly photo.
Here I am at 36 weeks:

KICKS AND BUBBLES

James had his first swim lesson tonight, and other than just playing and getting used to the water, the main goals were to learn to kick and blow bubbles. And he did both. Again, a very good student for his Daddy:

Here he is making a big splash with his kicks while his instructor watches him and his buddy Coltin:

Watching intently as his Daddy demonstrates how to blow bubbles (with Will and Christina in the background):

Then giving it a shot himself, not the least bit scared of the water:

Coming over to the side of the pool to say hello to his Mama, happy as can be:

Enough lessons, time for some independence! He spent the last 10 minutes or so walking VERY cautiously in circles around the shallow end:

And this was the aftermath:

We're very proud of our boy for doing so well at his first lesson and we think this is going to be a great 2 weeks! Now, if only we can get dinner, bath, and bedtime done on time tomorrow...

SPRINKLED

We were very lucky yesterday to attend a relaxing, low-key baby shower (or "sprinkle") for Cora, hosted by our friend Christina. We enjoyed great company, yummy food, and fun gifts for our baby girl!

I won't post pictures of everything, but here are a few highlights...

We SWEAR by the Rockabye Baby CDs for getting babies to sleep through the night, and we hope they work as well for Cora as they have for James over the past year - thank you Team Mitchell!A couple of the adorable outfits Cora received - thank you Team Hancock and Team Bourne!A gorgeous handmade dress and blanket - thank you Team Hollingsworth!And adorable Mary Jane socks and tights - thank you Team Kennedy!There were many other cute blankets and girly outfits, bibs and a book (The Berenstain Bears' New Baby, a gift for James, actually), a pretty PINK nursing cover (with NO patterns, since I learned with James that they are major distractions for breastfeeding babies), and even a giftcard to my favorite baby clothes store (thank you Team Sanchez)! You were all very generous and we really appreciate you taking the time to celebrate this big event with us! Miss Cora will be here before we know it, and we're growing more excited by the day!

3 HAIRCUTS

Team Lindsay got haircuts today.

We debated and discussed for months whether to cut James' hair... We didn't want to do it. We considered waiting until he turned 2-years-old. We thought the flyaway fluff was adorable. But you've all seen the video of James being "full of crazy". We really were becoming convinced that his long hair was tickling his neck. Then something happened that convinced us a haircut was needed... We accidently snapped James' rat-tail into his PJs one night (you know, those PJ tops for babies that have the snaps down the back of the neck?) For the rest of the week it became an issue as we realized how many of his shirts (and PJ tops) have snaps down the back of the neck. Fighting with his hair (on top of already fighting a wiggly 15-month-old who does NOT want to get dressed) was just not something we were willing to continue doing. Besides, just look how long that rat-tail (and his "bangs") had gotten:

So we searched for the "perfect place" to take James for his first haircut. My requirement was child-friendly AND cute. I was envisioning one of those salons where the kids sit in brightly colored boats, but the 'burg has no such place. Luckily, we found something even better, thanks to our friend Dawn. An old-timey barber shop with an old-timer barber who has been cutting hair for well over 30 years (at least - we met a 32-year-old there for his 1-year-old son's first haircut, taking him to see the same barber who gave him HIS first haircut 31 years ago). For some reason, James is a HUGE fan of older men, so we figured Mr. Downey would be a hit. He was. James didn't care for the booster seat (he actually pitched quite the fit when we tried to set him down), but as soon as he was allowed to sit on his Daddy's lap, he was good to go. All smiles for Mr. Downey, no crying, and no fidgeting (thank goodness, since one of my biggest fears this morning was of James jerking his head around and getting stabbed by scissors). He even read a book while he was under the trimmer:

And THEN he noticed himself in the mirror, so he was content to sit and watch the rest of the haircut:It ended up being quite a bit shorter than Jay or I expected, but we think he looks oh-so handsome. And older (boo). Mr. Downey even gave him his first part before posing for a photo:Jay's turn was next. It's been a LONG time since I've seen Jay's hair this short (or this well cut, since I usually do it for him myself). I left the shop with two very handsome dudes and an envelope of my baby's hair (and one free haircut, since Mr. Downey doesn't charge for first-timers)! You can see the back of James' hair in this photo (as he's gazing at the barber shop pole):Don't worry grandmas, we've still got some fluff up top to blow in the breeze:On our way to the barber shop, Jay promised James that he could have a smoothie from The Tomato Place if he behaved during his haircut. And since he was such a good boy (even waving at all the other gentlemen awaiting their turn, clapping for the little boy who was in line before him, and flirting with the little girl who was waiting on her daddy), we stopped by for some "Heavenly Blues" on the way home. Ah, the anticipation:Delicious!

(For some reason James always holds his arms/hands like this when he drinks from a straw - so cute!)

Oh yes, and I got my hair cut this afternoon as well. Nothing fancy, just a shorter version of my norm, in preparation for Cora and to battle the summer heat, which is really starting to get to me...

PRACTICING PREFOLDS

Cora's newborn prefolds are now prepped and ready for her, so Jay and I figured we better start practicing. There are a variety of ways to use prefolds: as simple inserts or "doublers" inside the pocket of pocket diapers, trifolded and laid flat into diaper covers, or folded in various ways and "Snappi-ed" or pinned (yes, with those "old school" diaper pins), then covered with a diaper cover. Since we aren't using pocket diapers with Cora for at least a few months (and stuffing inserts doesn't require any sort of practice anyway), we focused our efforts this evening on mastering the 3 common folds: the Angel, Twist, and basic Wrap. We folded and we Snappi-ed. Then we folded some more. I think we're pretty well prepared now, as long as Cora lays as still as a stuffed animal... I practiced on the teddy bear, while Jay had the monkey:

(And yes, Jay is a VERY good sport about letting me take photos for the blog)

Even James participated (and mostly cooperated) and let his Daddy practice on him (though wiggly 15-month-olds, in my opinion, are NOT well suited to prefold folding and Snappi-ing... we'll definitely be sticking with our AIOs, pockets, and FLIPs for the toddler)!

(And no, that is NOT a newborn prefold. We just happened to have a large prefold on hand, received as a free bonus from my favorite online cloth diaper retailer)

MILESTONE MONTH

They say 15-months is a "milestone month". Sure, we'll agree with that.

While the past 3 months have been full of changes and developments and "milestones" for James, it's the past few weeks that have been especially busy... He has learned to walk (he's a slow-but-steady, confident walker, about 90% of the time now), he says all sorts of things (about a dozen real words used correctly, words he randomly imitates from us - even words such as "pirate" - awesome!, and little sentences that we can't quite figure out - he even has little mumbled "conversations" with himself and his toys that are adorable), he is using more of his toys and "toys" (i.e. random kitchen items) for their intended purposes (actually sorting shapes in the shape-sorter, etc.), he can point out and correctly name a few objects (ball, flower, light, cat, etc.) as well as find them in books (and on flashcards, and also on these fun picture cards I made him months ago of items around the house), he can climb onto couches and coffee tables (as long as there is something nearby for him to get a boost off of), he sleeps in a big boy bed (and has done so by himself, all through the night, for 3 nights in a row now), and we hear this is just the beginning of the REAL learning explosion, which usually hits around 18 months... We can't wait! He already amazes us every day - he is pure entertainment!

James actually turned 15-months-old yesterday, and today was his well baby exam. He wasn't such a "well" baby though... Turns out that double ear infection is STILL hanging around and his cough has developed into some sort of infection as well. Since he's had no fever and has been sleeping wonderfully, we really had no idea. He's not contagious, so he could have gone to daycare today, but we decided that since it's so much quieter at home he'd be better off sleeping the day away in his own bed. Which is exactly what he's doing right now. He's been asleep since we left the pediatrician's office 3 hours ago!

His official stats this month are 24 lbs 4 oz (25th percentile) and 32 inches (75th percentile). You seriously would have thought we were pulling his toes off to get those measurements! James is still suffering from white-coat syndrome (and his sickness, which causes EXTRA clingy-ness in him, is likely not helping). He's following right along his usual growth curves, which are flattening out at this age, so we won't be expecting huge changes in weight or height between appointments anymore, let alone the monthly weigh-ins we do at home. We were sad to find out our little man is still sick today, but happy to hear that he is otherwise doing great and developing on schedule.

UNSACKED AND UNCAGED

James' new room is complete. He has fresh paint, room-darkening drapes, and a brand-new mattress. On the floor. This weekend (starting Saturday night, so as not to disrupt the weekday routine), we moved him from his crib in his nursery, all the way downstairs, to his new mattress in his new "big boy room". Here are a few before/remodel pictures of the old guest room:

(Man, we really hated that steely-blue color, and the paint was SUCH bad quality!)

This is an in-progress photo of the magnetic wall Jay made for James:

And here the first coat of "Candid Blue" (nice and bright!) hits the wall:

Jay worked really hard on James' new room. I could tell he wanted it to be PERFECT before we moved him in, just like the nursery (way back when). The magnet wall he added was such a great idea! We'll get pictures of that finished product a little later (Jay is making a frame for it, so James will know where the magnets stick). He also replaced all the socket covers (for once the DIY wiring of the previous owners didn't make him scream) and the closet doors (so that James wouldn't be pinching his fingers in bifolds). I am SO happy with the outcome! By the way, we moved all James' decorations and some of his bedding down from the nursery (keeping with the pirate theme we love) and the furniture is a hand-me-down from his Daddy (the same bedroom set Jay grew up using - though the bunk beds are on hold for a few years). The only addition we still plan to make (excluding the magnet wall frame, of course) is the "repurposing" of James' crib bumper. I had a fun idea to cut it up and make pillows out of it, and since I have ZERO sewing skills, James' Grandma was gracious enough to work on it for us. I'll definitely post photos of the new pillows once they're complete!

For now though, here is a round-about view of James' new room: Here is a close-up of the photo Stephen sent James for his new room, all the way from Maui. He took it himself, of course, on one of his daily snorkeling trips. We like to show the print to James and tell him that his Uncle Stephen and Auntie Robyn live with the sea turtles now.

This is the view James sees from his new bed (notice the location of the baby monitor... we tried hanging it high above the mirror, so we could survey the entire room, but found we needed to see our baby up-close at night to feel assured he was safe - and you can also see the furniture straps Jay used to secure the dresser to the wall):

James really loves his new room! We let him play in there all day Saturday as we added the toys and decorations. At first, we think he was just in awe of the fact that he was allowed in the room at all (since we always keep the door shut, except when company is visiting), but as his toys made their way into drawers (the bottom drawers of both dressers hold "noisy" toys - not that he can't get to them, he can, but at least they are "out of sight, out of mind" in the middle of the night), closets (push toys and the giant toybox, holding more "noisy" toys, are behind closed doors for the same reason), and bookshelf (holding only "quiet" toys and books), his enthusiam just grew and grew. It was so fun to see him realize that this was HIS room now and he had free reign to really do as he pleases. And he can go in and out of his room as he pleases, which is a new concept for him, since his nursery was upstairs and required one of us to take him up there (and then stay in there with him).

I think it was harder on us than James the first night, having him so far away. Jay was anxious, just waiting for James to wake up and need him to run downstairs. He even made me sleep with the volume on the monitor turned way up (and I normally don't use the volume at all, since James had previously been sleeping practically outside our bedroom door). I admit that I was a bit nervous too... Would he stay in bed? Would he sleep well? Would he wake himself by falling that 6 inches to the floor? Would he just play with his toys all night? Would we get to him fast enough if he woke up crying in the middle of the night, scared and needing us?

I tell ya, the stresses first-time parents endure are never ending...

Saturday went better than expected though. Luckily, we had weaned James of his sleep sack about 2 months prior, so we didn't have to add that into the mix. He doesn't use a blanket (he literally moves ALL OVER the bed when he sleeps, and he gets tangled every time, so we quit trying), but it's plenty warm here in the south this time of year, so he doesn't need it anyway. We had reinstated bedtime stories. We had even reduced the amount of rocking-to-sleep we were doing. We were ready. James went right to sleep after his 8pm bottle and stayed that way until 1:45am (Jay snuck out around 8:30pm). He had woken a few times prior to that, but put himself right back to sleep after getting comfy again. At 1:45 though, he woke enough to realize he was in a different bed and different room, and he launched himself off his mattress and high-speed crawled to the door. Jay was down there in less than a minute and had him right back to sleep, but then stayed there with him the rest of the night to be sure he slept well. It was cute to watch them both on the monitor, Jay's feet hanging off the end of the mattress and James literally sleeping on top of him!

Sunday night was even cuter though. Jay passed out right along with James at 8pm (we had a busy day, what with the swimming adventure and start of the computer room remodel) and just stayed there all night. Since I was wide awake (I even had ice cream ready, waiting to watch a DVR show with Jay after he got James to bed), I decided to take some photos of the baby (and Daddy) monitor:

(Good thing we bought James a good mattress - ahhh, TempurPedic!)

On Monday afternoon, right on schedule for naptime, James took a nap in his room all by himself (and he even put himself to sleep):

And last night went so well! James was asleep right after his bedtime bottle and slept by himself all night long! We heard him shift positions a few times, and once he either fell out of bed or crawled out of bed after waking up, but we watched the monitor and the little man just climbed right back onto his mattress, snuggled in, and went back to sleep. Jay had to wake him at 7am this morning to get him ready for school!

Finally, I'd just like to note that while the title of this post says UNCAGED (as in, James is no longer in his crib), he is still caged, technically, since his room is gated (to keep him from wandering the house at night). The gate was also suppose to keep the cats out (it has worked for over a year with the nursery upstairs, hence the reason we bought a second one), but Jude decided this new room was too interesting to be kept out of, and she learned to jump over the extra-tall gate! Bummer... Guess we'll just have to keep the door shut, as usual.

Congratulations Bub Bubs, only 15-months-old and sleeping in a big boy bed! We're very proud of you, and also relieved that your baby sister will have a crib available for her when she arrives. You're such a good big brother already!