Leah | One Month

We cannot believe she is already one month! I'm still adjusting to being a mom, but I'm loving every minute of it. Luckily we are very spoiled with running our business from home so we both get to spend a lot of time with her.

Weight: 9lb 8oz

Height: 21.5 inches

Clothing Size: 0-3 months! She only wore newborn clothing for the first three weeks.

Diaper Size: Size 1. Thanks to our generous family and friends, we still haven't had to purchase a single diaper.

Feeding: Every 3 hours...wait..two hours? Sometimes every hour.  Sometimes every ten minutes. Our pediatrician calls it "cluster feeding"...we call it "topping her off".

Milestones: She is starting to hold her head up and we managed to get a smile this week after several hours of goofy faces.

Loves: Stretching out, taking baths, and having blowouts when Daddy is on baby duty.

Dislikes: Being ignored.  She loves being stared at and the minute you look away, she let's you know that you've looked away.

Leah's Newborn Photos

(Photos taken by Becca)

Welcome to the World, Baby Leah!

She's here! (Ok, this post is a bit old but better late than never, right?)

Baby Stalker arrived right on time as my water broke on her due date.  However, we waited all day for contractions which were not starting. Toward the evening, we headed for labor and delivery since the doctor wanted her born within 24 hours of the water breaking to avoid complications. Prior to this, I was dreaming of an all natural, medicine free birth but a combination of unpreparedness, ignorance, and perhaps a serious lack of pain tolerance prevented me from making it very far.

Pitocin was added to my IV around 10pm and by 3am I wouldn't stop whimpering at Lance.  After the nurse thoughtfully reminded me that my labor would probably last 24 hours, I threw all desires for a natural birth out the window and begged for an epidural. In hindsight I may have made it without since my labor actually only lasted 12 hours...

Nahh..I probably wouldn't have. It was awful.

The anesthesiologist came in and ten minutes later I was on top of the world. In fact, for the next 7 hours Lance endured me talking about the miracle of epidurals, how excited I was, my craving for a subway sandwich, whether I started the dishwasher before we left, how cute my socks were, that Coco was missing us, and why in the world Lance wasn't getting any sleep.

Finally at 10:20am she arrived!

Leah Marie Stalker
May 15, 2014 10:20am
7lbs 2oz 20inches

Pictures from the exciting day:

Maternity Pictures

Courtesy of my talented sister (whom I always rope into doing our photos)

These were taken around 37 weeks.

Baby Stalker!

I figured I should finally get around to updating the blog on my pregnancy...

We were EXCITED to discover that we will be expecting a little girl in May 2014! The first time I took a pregnancy test, I actually misread it as positive and was overly excited. "We're pregnant! We're pregnant!" I kept dancing around our apartment, but a quick consultation with Google informed me that I apparently didn't know how to read a pregnancy test. In my defense, it was a confusing pregnancy test (not the one pictured above which comes with a handy diagram). We were both really bummed and I felt pretty foolish for raising our hopes. Three days later, I decided to take another one for the heck of it (they do come in boxes of two...so why not?). POSITIVE! I didn't feel so silly after all.  

I am grateful that it has been an extremely easy pregnancy. No morning sickness, no crazy cravings (well...at one point I was convinced that I needed some mutton after watching a Seinfeld episode but I gave up on the idea because I wasn't sure what mutton even is), and very little else to complain about (except maybe the heartburn).  

My favorite part of being pregnant is using it as an excuse to take multiple naps a day.  Before pregnancy I was already a one-nap-a-day type of girl...now I'm on to two or sometimes three. I also love that I don't have to suck in when I wear tight shirts and most of all hearing the doctor say "you're gaining weight beautifully".  In what other world does that actually happen?! I think I will stay pregnant forever.

18 Weeks

24 Weeks

28 Weeks

Returning from Massachusetts

Sadly, our East Coast adventure only lasted four months. We found out I was pregnant and considering Boston's high cost of living, we decided to return to Utah to save money and to be near family. Still, we had some adventures along the way...

We revisited New York City at 3am--it was the only time we felt comfortable driving into the heart of the massive city. 

Proof we drove our car through Times Square: (Even in the middle of the night, the traffic was still heavy)

We also managed to revisit DC.  This was during the government shutdown period so the entire area was very quiet:

We caught the sunrise at the Smoky Mountain National Park:

There aren't many more pictures from the rest of the trip since its was our second time returning home from the East Coast...plus, we were feeling a little lazy. 

Living in Boston

We really didn't have enough time to see everything while living in our short-term rental, but soaked in as much as we could. Boston is an entirely different world from other parts in the U.S., but it was an incredible place! Our rental was just 30 minutes outside of the main city which allowed us to take many trips downtown while still exploring the city's outer parts as well.

Our stay happened to be during baseball season so we had the opportunity to go to a Red Sox vs Yankees game:

Photos of Boston's gorgeous neighborhood, Back Bay:

Fresh Maine lobster from our first ever clam bake:

One of my favorite aspects of Boston was its rich history. A nearby city known as Concord, MA contained a lot of really neat historical sites. Below is a replica of the "North Bridge" at the site of the Battle of Lexington and Concord. This is where the first shot was fired in the Revolutionary War. 

Concord had a lot of really neat sites including the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery containing "Author's Ridge" where a lot of well known American authors were buried. 

Louisa May Alcott (as well as her whole family). The "Little Women" inspired home is also found in Concord. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Henry David Thoreau

We also visited the famous Salem, MA which was a beautiful coastal city: