First Month

I'm a little late, but Knox's first month although challenging at times has been great! He fits right in and the kids adore him. Grayson was a little concerned about hurting him in the beginning, but now feels more comfortable with him. The first two weeks of his not being able to nurse were a very tough time for me. That will have to be my next blog post. After he turned 2 weeks the nursing took off and his weight and height go to show for it at his one month check up. He was 10 lbs. 11.4 oz. and 23 3/4 inches long. 75% for weight and 97% for height. He's going to be a tall one! The dr was very pleased, b/c the last time we were there at his 6 day appt, he was 7 lbs. 14 oz. He got one shot and HATED it! Poor baby! He's a good baby and is sleeping so well at night. His first stretch is the longest and we usually get 5 hours. A few times he has given us 6 or 7, which have been wonderful! He is not that much of a napper, which gets hard sometimes. We are still swaddling him and that seems to help him sleep at night.

Knoxton Calhoun's Birth Story

Here's Knox's birth story I wrote right after having him.

On Monday night, I got woken up several times with semi strong contractions. It had been happening for days, but had gotten tired of timing them. I thought maybe they could be leading to something. I was planned to be induced on the 8th anyway, so I didn't think much of it. I had a dr. appt that morning anyway, so Brandon was staying home to take me and my mom was already there with the kids. I got up and started getting ready and they were getting stronger and closer together. By about 9ish I had two contractions that brought me to tears. I waited to have one more bad one and then called the dr. They had me come in to the office early and get checked out instead of going to L&D. I had one bad one of the way to the dr. When I was called back to see the midwife, I got another "teary" contraction. The nurse still made me step on the scale, and get my blood pressure taken. It was high, and they think only b/c I was in mid contraction. MW checked me and I was 3cm 80% and -1. As I was in tears with another contraction, she said I had two options. Go home and see if they get worse or go to L&D to get checked... Duh, labor at home with 3 kids... no way! We went to the hospital. I had several more bad ones, and was in tears again as I walked in to check in. They took me to triage and I was 4 cm and 90% now. I was in labor and getting to stay. That was 11:30 am. I got a room and got into the whirlpool tub. I took about 7 or 8 STRONG contractions in there, before I just couldn't take it anymore. I got out to start getting my IV bag I needed before the epi. (forgot to mention it took 4 tries to get an iv started) I got my fluid bag while having really bad contractions and finally got my epi. My back is weird and epis have been strange for me before. She put it in and it took all the way up my chest and one arm and only a little in my legs and bottom. So I was numb starting at my neck. It's not pleasant. I then felt like I couldn't breathe and started to have anixiety about it. It took this way for all 3 of my boys. Aubree's epi was perfect! The anastegologist (sp.) was awsome though. She kept trying to figure out how to fix it and finally after a while it wasn't perfect, but it was bearable. I got very sick to my stomach though and needed Zofran through my IV. I then progressed to around an 8 pretty quickly. I got stuck there for a while. Knox's heartrate kept going down and he wasn't behaving. I had to constantly go from side to side and try to get his rate back up. They did a node thing on his head to keep track of his hb, but that eventually wasn't working either. I needed to get to 10 so we could get him out. We tried to push past the lip of the cervix and that seemed to work. He was turned facing left though so he wasn't in the best position to come out. Dr. let me stretch a little and he came back in to try pushing some more. We turned my epi down a little so I could feel more and then I got better at the pushing. Dr. was thinking a vaccum delivery, and I was wanting to avoid that at all costs...I pushed for about 40 minutes and finally he was born at 7:07 on August 7th... Cool thing with all of the 7s. We were in room 7 as well!!! He was a whopping 8lbs. 9 oz. and 21 inches long. He looks just like Anderson. We think we have traveled back in time and are holding him. We are in complete love with the puzzle piece we never knew was missing. He is nursing ok. Having a little trouble with is latch, but this mama is determined to make it work!

Growing Belly and Busy Summer

Well, the photos uploaded in the the wrong order, so I will go backwards! We are having a busy summer here at the S house! The kids got out of school and we hung out for the first week and tried to get into the summer groove. The first week went by pretty slowly and the kids weren't sleeping in yet. The next two weeks we went to Good Shepherd VBX and VBS at River Hills. That was rather tiring, b/c we had to get up and get ready to be there at 9 for two weeks. It almost felt like school again. All three kids were old enough to attend both weeks, so it gave me a little time to get some things done around the house and get some errands done. Now we are in full summer mode with sleeping in and pool hopping! It's really nice to be able to wake up on my own or with the assistance of Grayson (he's always the first one up) rather than my alarm clock. I'm hoping to get to sleep like that until baby comes...so maybe 4 1/2 more weeks. The kids are loving the carefree days!

We are busy trying to get ready for baby boy! Brandon had to paint the other two walls in Grayson's old room and then we could get the room put together. I love how it turned out. There are some shelves I've added since the pics, but here it is almost finished... Can't see the wall above his bed, b/c his name is there..... only a few more weeks before we can share it! :)

A TV for mommy for middle of the night feedings

I love how the beachy/surf theme turned out.

I recovered the glider that we have had since Grayson was a baby.

Since we sold everything after Aubree, we have had to buy everything "baby" again. I took full advantage of the 20% off coupons for Buy Buy Baby and Babies r us. I would try to pick up one needed item everytime I went over on that side of town. I think now we have everything that we will need for a while. I have also made a few things for him too. Along with his bedding and curtains, I made 2 nursing covers and several little outfits. I've made his coming home outfit too!

The title said Growing belly too, but since the pics are backwards, we might should call it shrinking belly. Some of my pics are on my phone but here's three to share.
32 or 33 weeks... can't remember

This was around 20 weeks

And here's when I thought I had a belly! I think this was around 9 weeks!

I promise to update dear old blog more often since I'm done with teaching. I'm still sewing, but it's getting less the bigger I get. I'm really excited about taking two months off after he's born. I can't wait to just sit on the couch, do nothing and stare at my baby boy!

Baby Belly

Well I never thought I would be posting another belly pic, but here it goes!

The pregnancy has gone really well so far! It's flying by and I can't believe that I'm already 16 weeks along. The first trimester was kinda rough with fatigue and nausea. At least it was only at night, so that I could function during the day and at work. I started feeling a lot better around 11 1/2 weeks and have started to get my energy back!!! We are really looking forward to finding out if we will have a boy or girl. Anderson and Aubree are convinced it's a girl. Daddy and Grayson say it's a boy! I am leaning more towards boy as well. Aubree still says she's putting her baby dress on the baby regardless of the gender! :) We will be telling what the gender is, but this time around unlike all of the other times we are keeping the name a total secret! We are kinda excited about being the only ones that will know the name. I think it will be really fun! I go to the doctor on Friday and then I can schedule my gender/anatomy scan!!! Let the countdown begin!

Christmas 2011

Christmas was wonderful! We shared the new baby news with my parents on the 23rd after I had my first ultrasound and they were super excited! A little shocked, but really excited for us! We did our little family thing with David, Bek and Keslynne and mom and dad. The kids got all kind of fun things from mattie, pappy, David, Bek and Kessie.

On Christmas Eve we met Brandon's family at a little State Park outside of Clinton for a Christmas Picnic. It wasn't the warmest, but it was fun. We had bbq and opened gifts! We all got some super fun stuff from Grammy, Papa, Uncle Mike and Aunt Brandy. We even went on a little nature hike. It was a much different way to spend Christmas with them.

Here's Grammy opening her calendar with baby's u/s picture in it. They were very excited for us as well!

After we spend Christmas Eve with my Grandmother, Aunt, Uncle and Cousins we headed back to Lake Wylie to get ready for the big man to come see us!

Here's daddy setting up the xbox! Snow white looks rather uncomfortable!

The sweet babies waiting to come down the stairs!

Grayson loved his Packers jersey!

Aubree opened all of her gifts with her helmet on! It's a dangerous job!

We even got to enjoy some of our gifts outside. It was a pretty nice day.

I'm Back!

Hi there blog world! It's been a long time! I thought I would jump back on the bandwagon since Brandon put our blog into books for me for Christmas. It's a motivator for me to get back in the swing of things. We have had a busy couple of months since I have updated. Teaching preschool is a lot more intense that I had imagined. It makes me super tired to keep up with that and all of the home things I have to get done. Who decided to build a house with all of these bathrooms anyway. Well, soon I will post Christmas pictures!

Lots of Changes Headed Our Way

It's been a while dear old blog!
Our summer has been CRAZY. At the beginning I thought it was going to drag, but boy did it ever go by fast. Anderson starts school two weeks from today! We've been busy with VBS for two weeks at the beginning of summer, lots of trips to Carowinds, riding bikes in the street (I love our little secluded neighborhood) and even a little weekend trip to Charleston with the Holby's. I've been crazy busy the last few weeks with Sew What Mommy. Our little venture has really taken off and right now people are in full "get ready for Fall" mode, which is great!

The Snyder Family is going to have a lot of changes come school time this year! Anderson will be starting the 1st grade and is really excited about it. He ended up in the same class as his best friend Kai! They are really excited about that! I think he will be glad to get back into school, routine and normalcy. The big changes come with Grayson, Aubree and myself.. yes me too!
Grayson got into the Pre-K program at Crowder's Creek which is a state supported Pre-K that starts a week later than regular school but has the same schedule as elementary school. I have my fingers crossed that 7:30 - 2:10 five days a week won't be too much for my little guy. I really feel like he will benefit from it though. He's always been my "challenging" one and the one who I didn't push to learn things too fast, because he gets frustrated. Although right after he broke his wrist this summer, he just started to bloom with handwriting and spelling. It amazed me that even with a cast on his right hand, out of the blue he began to write all of his letters (most the right way) with his left. He learned how to spell his name and loved to write it. He is a child that does things in his own time and does them well. I love that little guy. I'm praying that he will love his new school. It's just going to hard for me to drop off my 4 year old in line and watch him walk into that big school. At least he will have his big bro bro (as he still calls him).

Aubree and I are going to have an adventure of our own. I haven't really announced yet, but after 7 years of not officially having a "money paying" job, I now have one. I was offered a preschool teaching position at our Church/Grayson and Anderson's old preschool. I'm really excited about the opportunity to teach little ones again, although they are a lot smaller than my 4th graders were. Aubree will be going to the 3's class since she turns 3 at the end of August. She will be the baby which I'm a little nervous about, but I think she will love it! It makes me feel better that I will be there with her though if she needs me.

Brandon also continues with his MBA program after taking a few weeks off to enjoy the end of the summer. He's doing really well in it! He's a little straight A student so far.

So, this Fall shall be interesting with all of us schooling! Now off to enjoy the last two weeks before all of this starts to happen.