It’s spring now…and it’s been hot. The AC went on, even when thoughts of a power bill kept me from turning the temperature below 80. It’s a little cooler today…it feels like perfect weather. The trees are getting their leaves which makes me happy inside. The kids and I have been enjoying the nice weather with visits to parks, trails, leaving windows open…today I even bought a few plants and seeds. I would love to spend more time outside but it’s a billion times harder to get out with a baby and tantrums over shoes.

Joe’s computer became quite ill at the end of last week. I have spent hours playing nurse on it…but it remains un-functional. I immeiditely start to get in a bad mood when I think about it. Luckily my computer is fine, and we’ve just been sharing. It’s not the greatest replacement though. Before, Joe would hole up in our bedroom to do his homework, but now he’s out in the main room. A certain little someone likes to see what’s going on…so Peter is learning the names of all the bones on the x-rays Joe is studying, and his homework takes a little longer to get done. We ordered a Kindle Fire as a cheap replacement and plan on sharing both the computer and it. We’ll see how it works.

Peter and Curtis vary between being completely adorable or dropping bricks on my foot and crying. I use a lot of prayers to maintain patience and love. Kids are a lot of lovable fun, but a ton of work too!

Here’s my advice for the day. If you have a baby, ditch the clock. It’s easy to get distracted by how many hours, or lack of hours of sleep I’m getting. Or how long it’s been since baby Curtis nursed, or if he’s nursing long enough, etc. (He’s an incredibly efficient eater for how young he is.) But clocks and babies really don’t mix.

I am doing so wonderfully. I certainly don’t feel like I had a baby two weeks ago. I feel like I should be sleeping more–but in actuality I’m fine with the sleep I’m getting. I’m not nearly as tired as when I was pregnant. I went to take a nap today, and really couldn’t fall asleep. I’m still a little bleary from getting up at night, but not actually tired.

Peter’s been alright with everything–he skipped or shortened his nap for a while, but today he’s actually slept. He does usually like his baby brother, except I’m no longer available to meet his requests all the time. (It’s a good thing that he’s learning to wait a little more and do a bit more for himself.)

I’m very bad at taking things easy…the weather’s perfect right now too. We’ve gone to the park and library, but have spent a lot more time at home. It’s been fun to cuddle a lot.

My sister-in law took some of the pictures with my commandeered camera.  Looking at them, it’s amazing how fast babies change. Already he’s a bit bigger, much more stretchy, and more awake when he’s awake.

Well, after waiting several hours with no progression in labor, I was started on pitocin. Within about two hous, I was holding my brand new baby boy. I conviently forgot how much labor can hurt, but luckily it went fast for me. Pushing was nice and fast–my midwife was in a bit of a rush we almost missed her. We all made it home Sunday afternoon.

I feel super great now. I love being able to be a mom all over again. Peter is being a great big brother. He’s mostly excited about baby Curtis, but is also learning the need to be soft. My husband has been a tremendous help–couldn’t do it without him.

Curtis is doing great. And you probably want to see him, so here’s some pictures:

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“Hi Peter”

“Hi! Eh doing?”

“I’m at the hospital. I’m going to have a baby.”

“Oh, great.”

“How are you?”

“I’m playing with my butterfly”

“Have you had breakfast?”

“Mommy have baby”

“Do you want to come to the hospital and see baby today?”

“Yeah, great…..Bye Bye!”

Not bad for a two year old. He sounds excited. Now I have to just convince the other one that my water broke and that means you are supposed to come out now. Not move around and bide your time! Starting pitocin to hopefully get some progression here…

I have a first. The tornado siren went off in the area, and I realized that I frankly had no idea what to do in the event of a tornado warning. Go in a basement or bathroom and wait it out? We weren’t’ that worried about it, and it was bedtime. Peter was already asleep. So all we did was make sure all the windows were closed.

I was also thinking how it would be interesting to go into labor and have to venture out into the storm. And then I woke up at 1:00 in the morning and my water broke, so away we went. It was rainy but not bad. Now I am awaiting the birth of little one.

I took these pictures at a few parks in the area and at the LDS Atlanta Temple grounds over the last couple weeks. Spring is fun. I’ll get excited when I see something new blooming and announce it to whoever is in the car, “Hey look, that Magnolia is just starting to bud out!” My two-year old, who I usually drive with, is going to be quite a good plant identifier. It’s a wonderful time of year–I simply wish I lived around better gardens to enjoy it!

I love  yoga. This morning I was feeling kinda down. So I decided to take a whole hour and do an entire yoga class. I picked a restorative class. The hardest pose was downward facing dog. Most of it was done lying down. Exactly what I needed: it helped stretch out my aching back muscles and helped me be happier.

I practice yoga nearly every morning. I’ll wake up, read my scriptures and then spend a half hour, usually completly by myself, to do yoga. I often split hour long classes into two mornings because I feel a half hour is just enough. I’ve actually been doing yoga pretty consistently since I graduated from college. It’s my favorite from of exercise and by the far the one I’ve stuck with through everything.

Yoga is supposed to make you more flexible. It does. But it has also taken me five years to be to the point where I can touch my toes regularly. I’m far from flexible in many areas of my body. I think flexibility takes more time than any other aspect of fitness. The one thing that I like about yoga is it is very non-comptetive. You don’t push past the pain. So sometimes it takes a little longer to increase in fitness level than other methods. But I’m also hardly ever more than minorly sore, which is very nice and one reason I’ve stuck with it.

Yoga really is for anyone. Some poses are hard, but I’ve learned over the year the value of modifying a pose to fit your skill level. Forcing into any pose often just makes the whole practice worthless. Learning to back off and work on proper alignment and breath is far more important. Gradually, you get better too. Although I still can’t do most arm balances, a headstand, handstand, or anything that is crazy. But I can do poses pretty easily that I at one time found strenuous.

I love doing yoga through pregnancy too. It’s easy to modify things with a growing belly and still get a decent workout in. But mostly now, I focus on more restorative practices. Nothing hard, just work on releasing on the muscles that get all tight due to a huge tummy.

I have taken one yoga class, two years ago in college. But mostly I like doing it home and stream videos offline. There is tons out there. Yoga Today was one of the first sites I found, and I still love all the teachers. I usually do the free class there every week. You Tube has a lot, including some shorter practices from Yoga Today, and lots of other teachers. This teacher is great for getting a good sweat. I’ve done some videos off of Yoga Journal too. There is also a series on BYU TV I visit. (That’s where my class today came from. They have pregnant ladies on there too, which is nice when you are pregnant.) Hulu actually has quite a few as well and you get commericial breaks which can be a nice thing.

Peter sometimes joins me if he’s up early. Mostly this means I don’t get as good a practice in, but he can do a great downward facing dog. And he loves getting out his own mat.