Sweet Baby James

  Yeah, I know I dropped the ball (again) by not posting for so long. But at least I have a good reason this time, lol! I had the baby!
  I went into labor on Monday, November 8th, on the way to Tristen's occupational therapy. My midwife was meeting me there for my 38 week appointment, so I thought the timing was pretty good. Nathan wasn't too far away from home, so he was able to make it back in plenty of time. We weren't able to reach the birth assistant, however. Luckily there was another midwife, Dorothy, who agreed to come to help with the birth. Honestly, I'm glad it worked out the way it did. I was so comfortable with Angy and Dorothy here, and I wouldn't change a thing. With help from the Lord, and my two wonderful midwives, I was able to have the home birth that I so badly wanted.
  James Alvin Putnam was born into his Daddy's arms on Tuesday, November 9th at 12:10am. He weighed 8lbs. 12oz. and was 20 3/4 inches long. He is about as close to perfect as you can get :) His big brother and big sister are absolutely in love with him; Rebecka isn't even disappointed that he isn't the baby sister that she wanted ;)
  I feel really bad for not realizing that we didn't get pictures of Angy holding James :( Heck , I didn't get one of Dorothy holding him until she came to the house to check up on us Saturday evening. I made sure to fix that, and hopefully I'll get a few good ones of him and Angy when she stops by the house this coming weekend. I'll be sure to post a pic of the two of them just as soon as I can. Here are a few of my favorites so far:

This was taken about half an hour after he was born:

And we took this one the next morning:

Dorothy holding James :)

Dorothy, James, and I (geez I look tired, lol!):

We sure do love our midwives :)

I'm in love all over again :)

What a week!

  This past week has been hard on all of us. It's difficult to come back after a week and a half and jump right back into the routine. But that's what we've done, easy or not. We spent the weekend relaxing and spending time with Nathan, we missed him so much while we were gone. I made an honest attempt to get everything unpacked and put away, but it ended up taking me until Tuesday to get it all done. I had forgotten just how exhausting the training is, and had absolutely no energy whatsoever this week. Being 37 weeks pregnant doesn't help, I'm sure, lol!
  We had a full schedule Monday. First up was an appointment with Tristen's psychiatrist. I really didn't feel like going, but we needed to get Tristen's prescription changed back to pill form instead of the liquid, so I got everyone ready and into the van. Dante came with us, of course. I want to take him with us as much as I can to help the bond between him and Tristen. He wasn't too happy about wearing his vest, but he perked up after Tristen gave him a few treats.
   The psychiatrist was definitely impressed with Dante, and Tristen's behavior due to having Dante there with him. Tristen sat in the floor and I had Dante "lap" on him. Tristen sat and petted Dante the entire time we were in the office, he never even tried to get up. He has NEVER sat down in the psychiatrist's office, not even for a second! He was also maintaining a conversation with her. Granted, it was about Dante and training, but he was actually answering her questions and staying on topic! Dante behaved perfectly the whole time, he definitely knows his job well. I was so very proud of both of them :)
   Then it was off to occupational therapy. I'm not training Tristen's therapists (or anyone else, for that matter) to handle Dante, so he stayed in the waiting room with Rebecka and I while Tristen went to his therapy session. I think he enjoyed the opportunity to take a nap :)  Tristen's OT said that Tristen did extremely well, which is typical since he loves Amanda (his therapist). She did say, however, that he seemed calmer and more focused than normal.
   We met up with Angie (my midwife) after OT so she could give me the birth pool that we're renting. I'm hoping to have a water birth, if I have time to get the pool set up, lol! I need to take it out of the box sometime this week and do a "dry run" to make sure I know how to set it up. It would be really bad to be in labor and have to try to figure out how to set it up!
   Rebecka had dance class Monday evening. I've decided to leave Dante at home during dance class for now. There are so many kids there, and I'm hesitant to take him into that scenario. I keep remembering how awful it was taking Ajax into the school when I'd pick up Tristen. The kids just wouldn't leave us alone, and Tristen would end up getting overwhelmed. Even our "no petting" policy didn't really help, since few of the other adults would help me enforce it. While I know that the parents at dance class would help enforce the "no petting" rule, I'm just not comfortable trying it just yet. I want to give Dante more time to bond with Tristen before throwing him into a situation like that.
   Wednesday, Tristen got to introduce Dante to Julie, his speech therapist. He did incredibly well, especially considering that I had to "drop him off" and take Rebecka back outside for about 20 minutes. She seems to be having trouble adjusting to being back home, and has thrown some of the worst tantrums this week. I figured that Tristen would be the one to have the most trouble getting back into the swing of things, but he's doing remarkably well. Rebecka on the other hand... well, not so much. I know it's just a matter of time though, so we're hanging in there.
   Dante and Daisy are getting along well, they play together a lot. Dante and Ajax are also getting along well. Ajax and Daisy? Yeah, that's gonna take some work. See, I hadn't really thought about Ajax's cat issues for a while now. He got used to having Bella around, and they're like best friends, so it never occurred to me that he would go nuts having a kitten in the house. He just wants to play with her, but he scares her and she hisses at him. I can't say that I blame her, he is so much bigger than she is. So for now (until everyone has a bit more time to get comfortable with each other) we're keeping him gated to one side of the house, and he sits and whines and whines because she won't come play with him. Bella and Dante don't exactly get along either. I hadn't thought that Bella would have a problem, since he and Ajax get along so well, but he walked up and swatted at Dante the first time he saw him. Hopefully with time everyone will chill out and get along. Until then, I just have to be vigilant when I take Dante outside so he doesn't get ambushed ( BTW, Bella is bigger than he is).
   We took Dante to church with us for the first time this morning. He did wonderful, of course, and most of the congregation didn't even realize that he was there until after service was over. He laid at my feet while Tristen went to Sunday school and children's church. I'm hoping that with Dante's help I'll eventually be able to take the kids to church on Sunday and/or Wednesday evenings. It would be really good for me, I know that.
   Well, I am off to bed. Tomorrow starts another week! Hopefully I'll manage to get a bit more sleep than I did last week. But I'm not holding my breath...