Peter's first trip to Disneyland

We took Peter down to California a few weeks ago for a trip full of firsts.

Here are a list of some of the places he went for the first time.

An airport
An airplane
A pool
An aquarium
A hotel
Disneyland
A Disneyland ride
And I'm sure lots of other places.

He also got to experience his first 103 degree weather. Woof! While I can say he did not appreciate Disneyland or The Aquarium of the Pacific he did seem to like the pool quite a bit. I will post a video of his first swim soon.

Disneyland!

We stayed on property which was very nice and gave us a home base for nursing and cooling off. There is also a baby care center in each of the parks that has a nice nursing room, big changing tables, and anything you might have forgotten at home.

The best part of the trip was the World of Color show that's running at California Adventure in the evenings. It is a lighting-geek's dream. LED's, jets of water, projections, lasers, and 30 foot streams of fire! What more could you want? We saw it once from the hotel room, and liked it so much that we went to see it for real the next day.

Low point of the trip was getting stuck five boats from the exit at Pirates of the Caribbean. Peter was sleeping, so that was fine, but it still took an hour before they would let us get off the ride. We had to climb over the other boats to make it to the emergency platform.

Other than that, we had a great time visiting with family and swimming and playing in Disneyland. Here are some pictures!

Babies first ball game!

We took Peter to a Mariners game last night and had a blast. He stayed up way past his bed time, but was very well behaved. He even went and sat a few rows back for a couple of innings with some friends who happen to be sitting behind us.

Serena and Megan went with us and at times paid more attention to Peter that to the game. In fact he was turning heads all around him in his adorable hat. I guess if either team had a chance at play-offs it might have been different, but it was still a fun game to watch and lucky for us it was a game!

He slept for about half of the game and spent the rest of the time checking out the many people around him. He didn't seem bothered by the crowd or the noise. He seemed to have a pretty good time and they even gave him a little certificate for his first game. Oh yeah, the Red Sox won.

Baby Stats:

Almost 3 months
14 ponds
26 inches

10 Weeks!

It's been a great 10 weeks. We are all doing very well. Peter just had his 2 month check up and passed with flying colors. He has grown 4 inches and and gained almost 5 pounds. Here is a list of thing he has learned to do since he was born.

Rolls from tummy to back.
Smiles when tickled or smiled at.
Grabs his feet.
Rocks his bouncy chair.
Sleeps for up to 8 hours without waking up.
Stays awake for a significant portion of the day.
Follows me around with his eyes.
Grabs our fingers and puts them in his mouth.

That's all I can think of at the moment. I know what you really want is pictures. So here you go.

Graham Clan Meets Peter

A week without visitors hanging out with Peter made us very happy to have more grandparents show up to help. Susan, Ward, and Great-Grandmother Nunnie visited for almost two weeks and helped with everything from holding Peter to fixing our dilapidated gate.


It's amazing how hard it is to get even the simplest things done when you are constantly watching a baby. Well, having dinners made and getting a few nagging fix-it projects done around the house was a godsend. So lawns were mowed, doors were painted, and Gracie went on lots of walks.

We didn't make them work the whole time though, as we found time to do a little sightseeing and had some nice dinners out. It's still a learning period, as we get to know Peter's schedule, and his cues. He does pretty well in Moby carriers, and we have yet to buy a stroller. Lauren has taken him to Yoga once, and we have successfully navigated six restaurants with him. Loud ones, but restaurants all the same.

Now we have to get through without parental support, but having help for the majority of that first month was wonderful.

Photos by Kaarin

Kaarin and Keri came over the other day and Kaarin took some really good pictures. Here are some of my favorites.

Peter Hiccupping

Peter had a little jaundice developing after a couple days, as his Bilirubin level was a little high. The therapy for this is to have him lay on a light-emitting bed for as long as possible. He was done after a couple of days and now all is well. Here is a video that Stephen took of Peter laying on the light bed while he had the hiccups:

My birth story

On Friday the 18th I went into the midwives’ office for an ultrasound and a non-stress test. I was 41 weeks that day. My amniotic fluid level was a little low, but other than that everything looked great. The midwife tried to check my cervix, but it was still too far back to reach. We talked about the various methods of induction in case any problems arose or I went past 42 weeks. I left the office very disappointed.

Later that day I inadvertently did a bunch of things that are said to bring on labor. We went for walk in the Kubota Gardens, my mom rubbed my feet, I ate spicy BBQ, and some other things too. My contractions started at about 11PM and were from the get go pretty intense and about 5 minutes apart. It wasn’t at all what I expected early labor to be like. In fact I thought I just had a very bad stomach ache. Because it was just at the start of the night I tried things to slow or stop the process. I tried a bath, I ate, I paced the house, and nothing seemed to be helping. My Dad was awake with a horrible tooth ache so at least my misery had some company.

Sometime around 2 or 3AM I called the midwife on duty to check in on situation. She told me it was likely I had a long way to go and recommended a warm shower and to stay in bed as long as possible. It was very difficult to sleep because the contractions were so close together, but I managed to get about 2 or 3 five minute segments of sleep before having to get up and move around. Around 7AM I decided that I needed some more support. I called my doula Jennifer, but told her not to come yet as I was still able to talk through my contractions and I woke up Stephen to help me cope a bit better.

Not long after I called the midwife again because I thought I might have been bleeding more than normal. My contractions were coming pretty close together, but weren’t very consistent so I feared I still had a long way to go. The midwife said I should just come in and get checked out just to be safe. We got a few last things together, I took a quick bath, and then Stephen, my dad, and I headed to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital at 10AM and met our midwife at triage. I was half expecting to be sent home after hearing similar stories from so many people. I could not believe when they told me I was 7 centimeters dilated and 90% effaced. They admitted me promptly and Stephen called my mom and Jennifer and told them to get there quick.

We got to the room and I immediately got in the jacuzzi tub. It helped a lot, but the contractions were moving from very intense to out of control painful and it took every fiber of my being (and Stephen and Jennifer) to remain relaxed. I hadn’t thought I would want my mom in the room for the birth, but it ended up that her added support was indispensable. After a couple of hours I started to have an uncontrollable urge to push. They checked my cervix again and after a few more contractions my water broke. I moved to the squat bar on the bed and started the ungodly painful process of trying to push the baby out.

Jennifer took pictures of the birth and the expression on my face is disturbing. After the longest thirty minutes of my life Peter was born. He came out with his fist to his head and my mom thought he had a huge head tumor. They put him right on my chest and we all thought he was the sweetest baby ever.

They left him on my chest and I started to nurse him while we finished the birthing process which included 45 minutes of painful stitching to repair tearing caused by Peter’s elbow. After that we had some visitors and then I got into the routine of nursing and Stephen got busy changing diapers and swaddling all night long. We were so happy with our amazing midwife, doula, nurses, and all the other hospital staff. It was an awesome experience and we are so happy to have our new little boy.

One of my funnier facial expressions: