Ezra is 10 weeks (tomorrow). We went to the Dr this morning for a check up, and she said everything looks great. He weighs 12.65 lbs and is 23.2 inches long. We're still waiting for Ezra's passport and praying it comes this week. Mike continues to get ready for deployment and it is fast approaching.
This picture wasn't taken on Friday night (a couple of days before), but it goes well with the story below.
We had kind of an unfortunate situation on Friday night. I was told it was funny and to put it on the blog. I hope it doesn't make me seem like a horrible mother. :)
I went to a ladies fellowship on Friday night and left the men-folk at home (Mike and Ezra). I pumped to bottles to leave and was planning to be home by 9. At the fellowship after I had finished eating, I moved back into the living room to chat so that I could keep an eye on the clock. At 8:30 I started making my way toward the door to leave. About 5 minutes down the road, I get a call from Mike and hear Ezra screaming in the back ground. He says, "Are you coming home soon? I thought you were going to be home by 9." I asked if he was out of milk and he said Ezra wouldn't take the second bottle and had been crying since about 8. I said, "I might be a few minutes late, but I should be there around 9." He said, "It's after 9 right now!" To which I replied, "Ok! I'm on my way." I looked at the clock in the car and it read 9:47. As I sped toward home to feed my hungry and crying baby, I tried to imagine how this could've happened. There was no way I chatted that much on the way out. It then occurred to me that the clock I had been so diligent to keep an eye on, hadn't been sprung forward. The clock was on the wall high above the entertainment center and the lady hosting the party is about 6 mos. pregnant, with a deployed husband. So it's not like she could just shimmy up a ladder to change it.
I got home and fed Ezra. Contrary to what I thought, he survived. Once the situation was explained to Mike, he wasn't quite as mad. It's funny in hindsight, but that night when I had a long drive ahead of me and could hear my baby screaming on the phone, I guarantee you I wasn't laughing. I was praying I didn't get killed as I sped down dark country roads at about 120 km per hour (don't tell the Carabinieri).
I'm off to work out. Gotta get those last couple of lbs off and down to my pre-pregnancy weight before I come home. :)

The first picture is Ezra with his Easter dog. It's big enough that he's able to hold onto it a little and bring it to his mouth. He likes how soft it is and plays with the dog's ears. Although, I don't really think it's intentional.
We took the flower pictures after church Sunday. We had Ezra's baby dedication so we were in the picture mood. I guess I should re-phrase that to say I was in the picture mood. :) But, Mike and Ezra did cooperate for the most part. The picture of Ezra and me in front of the white flowers is actually in our neighbor's front yard.
Mike and Ezra with the pink and white tulips is in our yard. And the "family portrait" (minus Skyla) in front of the purple Irises is in our yard. We have quite the variety don't we? No thanks to me. All these beautiful flowers were already in our yard, and they survive and bloom every year with no help from me.
We go to the Dr. for Ezra's 2 month check up next Monday. He will actually be 10 weeks. So, I will report on weight and any other news next week.
A kind soul has graciously volunteered to keep Skyla for us while Ezra and I are in the States so hopefully we'll get Ezra's passport in the next couple of weeks and we'll be all set to arrive in the States the first week of May. Keep praying that it all works out like we hope it will!

Happy Easter! What a cute boy in his new Easter outfit?! There are many fields of yellow flowers on our drive from our house to the base. I made Mike pull over and trespass with me so we could snap this picture. If you click on the picture it should enlarge and you can see the snow on the mountain behind me. The picture with the red tulips was taken in our front yard.
Mike and Ezra decorated the Peeps that Ezra received in his Easter basket. We had to help Ezra eat them of course. At our church picnic, he participated in his first Easter egg hunt. (By "participated" I mean he slept and I picked up a couple eggs for him.) Maybe we'll have more involvement from him next year. :)

See, I told you he could smile bigger. He was a happy baby this morning and smiling all over the place. We almost got a laugh out of him. I thought these were just too precious and couldn't wait to post them.

He smiles when we read to him, and yesterday he smiled when Skyla walked past his swing. It seems they are finally getting used to each other. After our walk, I laid Ezra on the couch while I let Skyla out of her kennel. I asked Skyla, "Where's the baby?" She went first to the stroller, then to the swing, and then heard him on the couch. She went over to sniff him to confirm that is was him and then ran back to me satisfied with her find.

This is a half smile. He can smile bigger, but it's kind of hard to catch on camera.
He's cooing more and more every day. It seems like he's getting more hair too.
I can't think of anything else worth noting--that's the problem with weekly updates. Sometimes not too much happens in a weeks time. I hope you enjoy the pictures at least...

I didn't blog on Tuesday when Ezra was officially 6 weeks, because we had a really crazy day. To top off the craziness, my wallet was "stolen". Stolen is in quotations because I enabled it to be stolen when I left it on the bumper of the car and drove off. All our cards have been canceled, so I think I was able to get away with just having the inconvenience of getting new cards, driver's licenses (US and Italian), and SS card instead of having our credit ruined by fraud. The error was a combination of having way too many things to put in the car (grocery bags, diaper bag, stroller, baby, etc) and operating off of about 3 1/2 hours sleep. Ezra picked the worst possible night to stay up until 3:30.
These pictures were taken on our walk today. The one with Ezra and the purple flowers was the last one I took and I think he was protesting me making him take a picture with so many flowers. He is a boy after all. :) The picture at the top with Mike and Ezra was taken when Mike got home today. It's always priority #1 when Mike gets home to make Ezra smile and talk (coo or gurgle) to him.

**I have my wallet back!! It stayed on my bumper until I got off base. Some kind-hearted Italian turned it in at the Carabinieri (Italian police) office. Since I canceled all my cards, that obviosly can't be undone, but at least I don't have to worry about getting another TX DL or SS card. Thank God!!**

We had an unexpected winter blast last night. Still no snow at our house, but we had some sleet and the snow came further down the mountain than it did all winter. The picture is taken from the front steps of our house. There's actually a chance for more snow this week. At least it gives Ezra a little more time to wear his cute warm outfits.

Ezra is 5 weeks old. We actually hit a 6 hour stretch of sleep a few nights ago. I think he takes after his Uncle Garrett in that he likes to stay up late and sleep in. I guess I don't care which way he does it, as long as we get an uninterrupted stretch some where in there.

We also had an appointment on Friday of last week and Ezra weighed in at almost 10 lbs.

In the picture on the right, it almost looks like he's smiling, but he's just stretching. We haven't really seen any true smiles yet, but we relish when we see him smile in his sleep. It's so cute.

The picture on the left is a close up of Ezra in his swing. I think he likes it, but doesn't want to stay in there for too long. If it's possible for him to be spoiled (which it isn't), he is. He constantly wants to be held, which is fine because his mother and father constantly want to hold him.

I put the last picture in because it looks like he's dancing. What a nut! :)

Ezra is 1 month old! There's not too much to report. The picture on the right is Ezra and I in a patch of violets in the back yard. The daffodil pictures are in my neighbor's yard. I also wanted to point out his cute sweater outfit. It's wool, and I accidentally dried it, so this was probably both the first and the last time he'll be able to wear it. Oops. The beautiful Tulip Tree is in my friend Andrea's yard. (Sorry Andrea--we had to trespass to get the picture. :) Isn't your tree gorgeous!) The Mickey out fit picture is for Nana.
Sleeping stretches at night are getting longer (even if they don't start until later...). He's really good at holding his head up and does so much of the time when I'm walking around and he's on my shoulder. He will even hold it up if we have him in a sitting position. We laugh, because it's really wobbly. Mike says it looks like he should have a soundtrack because it's as if his head is bobbing along to the beat of a song that no one can hear but him. Don't worry, we have a good bit of it on video so you too can laugh at him when you see it.

A couple of nights ago we have our first undisputed encounter with gypsies. The past couple of months some of the gas coupons we keep in our glove box had gone missing. (We buy gas coupons at a discounted price to offset the high cost of gas in Europe--it's still a little higher than the cost of gas in the States.) The first time, Mike and I blamed each other for misplacing them, or we thought that we had simply forgotten that we used them all. The second time it happened, it was a whole pack ($60) and we were both convinced they had been stolen out of our car. We keep them in the house now. Monday morning when Mike went to leave for work, our car door was open, the glove box was open, and a pack of gum that we had left in the car was completely eaten and laying on the seat. Annoying huh?

Well, I guess that's all the exciting stuff that's happened to us in the last week. :)

We went to the Dr. today for Ezra's "2-week" Well Baby check up today even though he's 3 weeks. He weighed 8 lbs. , 8 oz. So he's a growing boy. They checked hearing in his right ear because it had failed in the hospital right after he was born (not uncommon) and after several attempts he passed. But the Dr. said that everything looked great. He's beginning to get some baby acne. They're just little red bumps that come and go in about a day. Mike went back to work Monday and Ezra and I got through the day just fine. I was definitely ready to let Daddy do some holding and diapering by the time he got home though. Which he was willing to do--I think he missed us. :)
Ezra's sleep schedule is still pretty crazy. We haven't really managed to keep him from taking a very late afternoon nap, after which he likes to stay up until midnight or 1. Once he goes to sleep he'll sleep a good stretch with out waking up. During the day though, he eats like every hour or two.
Well, I guess that's about it from here for this week. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Ezra's 2 weeks today! I guess you could say we are getting into more of a routine. He wakes us 3-4 times a night. Mike will get him and change his diaper and then hand him off to me to feed. He doesn't go to the Dr. again until March 6th. He's got a little bit of diaper rash and absolutely hates diaper changes. Everything is going well and we are having a lot of fun caring for our new,tiny family member.

In other news, on Monday morning we experienced a strange phenomenon. I had just put Ezra back in the bassinet after feeding him. I laid back down next to Mike and a few minutes later we heard the door of our room rattle and then the dresser across the room began to shake. Both Mike and I sat straight up in bed. We checked for Skyla (our dog) thinking maybe she had bumped into something, but she was on the bed looking just as alarmed as we were. Mike got up to look out the window to see if the wind was blowing really hard. It wasn't. Eventually, we went back to sleep. Later that day I emailed my friend Shelly who lives here in town to see if she had experienced anything similar. She responded to my email and said that we had had a small earthquake. I told Mike that the good news was that our house wasn't haunted, and that we had survived our first earthquake. Mike did some internet research and apparently the epicenter was in Claut; a town not too far to the north of us. The one at 6:50 am registered a 4.35 on the Richter Scale. You can check out a map at this website http://rtweb.units.it/dbrecenteqs/. Click on the big green square and it will take you to a map that shows the proximity of the epicenter to our town, Cavasso Nuovo. Apparently, there were a couple more later in the day, but we didn't feel it. My friend Shelly said she didn't feel the first one. Anyway, it was quite a bit of excitement. Just as long as they don't get any bigger than that...

Ezra's 1 week old! Or at least he was when I took these pictures a couple of days ago. We went to have his passport photo taken. He had to have both eyes open and see both ears in the photo. Not an easy task for a 7-day old baby. However, after an outfit and diaper change, he was a little more willing to cooperate. It only took about 20 minutes.
Not too much more to report. Even though Mike is off work, he's still having to go to class. While it was scary to be left with an infant by myself for the first time, I'm getting used to it. I guess it's better this way to ease into it for a couple hours at a time, before he has to go back to work and is gone for the whole day.
Maybe next week, I can get around to putting pictures on here on his 2-week "birthday". :)

We took Ezra to a 2-day weight check today.

He's lost a couple of ounces. He's down to 6 lbs 8 oz. -- well within the allowable limits. But the milk is finally in so we should start to see that weight go back up. When we went to the weight check, the nurses told us Ezra had perfect color. She said he was a perfect example of a baby with not even a hint of jaundice.

I wanted to post some pictures of Ezra's eyes open. He looks highly suspicious of me. Maybe he's wondering when we can get past the photo shoot to the feeding.

I'm going to do my best to describe for you the horrors and tremendous joys of the last week.

It officially (at least in my eyes) began last Saturday. I had been having painless contractions (1 every 30 min. or so) for the last couple of weeks, but I woke up about 3 am on Sat and noticed that they were getting closer together. I went for a walk about 10 am on Sat and by the time I made it home, they were about 10 min apart and getting more painful. started timing them at 5 pm and they were 5 min apart like clockwork. I called the hospital about 7 pm and told them what was going on, but that I didn't want to come in yet. They said that was fine and come whenever I was ready. So about 9 pm, we made our first trip. At the hospital, they hooked me up to the monitors, and my contractions were 2-4 minutes apart, however, I was only dilated to 2 cm. So they sent me home with Tylenol #3 to help me "sleep". Yeah right. It did help me to sleep for 2-4 minutes at a time, but every time a contraction came, I would wake up in pain. About 5 am, they slowed back down to 1 contraction every 15 or 20 minutes.
Although I kept contracting (every 5 min after a walk), on Sunday I didn't really feel as though much had changed. I took Tylenol, in hopes of getting some rest, but it was the same as the night before. (Picture is Ezra in the warmer after his bath)
Monday, I went to the clinic just to see if I could get checked for any progress and I was at 3 cm. She gave me Ambian to try to get some sleep (since I hadn't really slept since Sat night). It did knock me out in between contractions, but I when I would wake up in pain, I would try to get up and I was so out of it, I almost fell several times. I remember feeling uncoordinated, grabbing things to keep from falling down, and Mike yelling at me not to get up, but between the pain of the contractions and the disorientation from the medication, I couldn't really make my mind and body work together. Mike said he almost called the hospital because I was really pale and he was afraid I was going to hurt myself, but at 2 am, I was wanting to go to the hospital anyway.
(The picture on the right is Ezra's first bath)
When we got there, they hooked me up to the monitors. I was 4 cm dilated, but they were hesitant about admitting me, because the contractions weren't very regular. They knew I wanted an epidural, but didn't bother to call the anesthetist until regular hours. She finally got there at about 10 am and I was at 8 cm. I debated about getting it, but it still took another 7 hours or so until I delivered. I could have fought the pain for maybe another hour, but DEFINITELY not 7 hours. So I got the epidural and they numbed me up good. But, as is a frequent drawback with epidurals, I was so numb, I couldn't push. So they took me completely off the epidural which slowed the contractions. Then they had to put me on Pitocin to try to get them to speed up again. I was so tired and still in so much pain that they gave me some other narcotic to help with the pain. I can't say it did very much.
When they could feel the baby's head easily, they learned that he was face up. By this time, I was running a fever and the baby's was beginning to creep out of the comfort zone. When I started to push, I was very confused about the manner in which to do so. At one point, the nurse told Mike to look to see the baby's head crowning, but they it went back in. In the end, they decided they would have to use the vacuum. Once I had the extra help, he was out in 2 pushes. I think I probably could have done it by myself if I had gotten some sleep the past 3 days, or if I hadn't been so worn out from the pain of not receiving the epidural in a timely manner. Ezra's not really any worse for wear though. He had a little cut and a big suction ring on his head, but that's already faded tremendously. He swallowed quite a bit of merconium (he had pooped in the amniotic fluid) and between that and the fever, they thought they might have to give him antibiotics and an IV, but thank God they were able to get all the merconium out of his lungs and his temp when down to normal. The above picture is the nurses sucking out the merconium.
I did rip, but the Dr., said it wouldn't have been any better or worse with an episiotimy.
Mike, poor thing, was so steadfast by my side, he didn't have anything to eat or drink all day. He was in pretty sad shape after the adrenaline crash. He was sick to his stomach, pale, and had a headache. We decided it was best if he went home to relax, get some real sleep, and eat some real food. As he was leaving, we learned that they were so full, that I would have to move to a shared room. In a shared room, partners can't stay anyway. It was pretty scary being left with the baby all alone. Especially, because it was such a painful ordeal for me to get up out of bed. But, we survived and are now at home and Dad is doing a GREAT job taking care of Mom and baby.
Thanks so much for the prayers and encouragement. We are so blessed that more problems didn't arise, and that the ones that did, were easily taken care of. Thank God for no C-section!!
The last 3 pics were taken this morning. Hopefully, you can see the ring on his head from the suction. It's just a ring now. Before, it was a giant, purplish-red circle.
More pics to come--I promise.