Tesla Jean Schafer

 Tesla Jean Schafer made her arrival on her due date, June 20, 2012 at 11:04pm.  She weighed in at 7 lbs, 11 oz. and measured 20.25 inches long.

Even though she arrived on her due date, we were all feeling like she was long overdue.  Lennon arrived 3 weeks earlier, at week 37, and we were told the entire time that this little one would come early as well.  At our 36 week appointment, my body had progressed so much that we were told she would come sometime in the next week or so.  My body continued to do so much work leading up (and I felt it) that each day I felt cramping or contractions and had the "maybe this is it" feelings that went away brought impatience and discouragement.  The finally stopped giving us a timeline (which we shouldn't have listened to in the first place) and just started telling us that, because my body was so ready, that labor would go really fast.

So on Wednesday the 20th, my constant cramping didn't spark any excitement in me because I had been experiencing that since week 36.  Around 6pm that evening they started to increase in intensity a bit that I tried not to get my hopes up too much, because again, I felt like I had been there before.  At 8pm I was pretty sure labor had began--tolerable, but the worst it had been.  By 10pm we were told to head to the hospital.  We got to the hospital, checked in and got to our room.  I told our midwife I was feeling some pressure--she checked me and said I was 9cm and my water was about to break any second and she and the nurse were going to get what they needed to help deliver this baby.  My water did break right after that and I told them I had to push.  After our midwife scrambling to finish getting everything, I pushed a couple times and our little girl showed her pretty face and cried that beautiful cry!  We were only in the delivery room for 5-10 minutes, after just 3 hours of labor--once this girl decided to come, she definitely did not make us wait!

The hospital staff was great about letting us leave early--we were home 13 hours after we delivered.  Lennon wasn't sure what to think at first--I think he was struggling with multiple emotions at one time:  excited to have us home, so excited to have a sister, yet apprehensive about the whole thing.  It wasn't until that evening that he felt comfortable enough to climb up and soak in his sister:

Saturday morning:  Lennon climbed into bed with me and Tesla to cuddle after his breakfast (which, I'm happy to say, has become a regular occurrence).  He rubbed her back and head and said, "she's so little and cute!"  Tesla made a noise and Lennon patted her back and said, "that's okay, Tesla."  Despite my appearance, I am feeling very rested and adjusting well to less sleep.  My body is healing fast and I feeling a lot closer to normal than I was expecting this soon, which I am so thankful for.

Lennon climbed up on Grandpa's lap to cuddle, kiss and admire his "baby sister." I grabbed the camera as Tesla was starting to fuss and get hungry.  After not putting the camera away immediately, Lennon started to cry and said the camera was scaring her and for me to put it away.  I hugged Lennon and said that it wasn't the camera that was making her upset and told him what a good big brother he is--that he is doing such a good job protecting her.  He seems to be adjusting to all the changes like a champ--he is sometimes a little more quick to cry or overreact when he is tired, but that seems to be the worst it so far (fingers crossed!)  He continues to fall more and more in love with Tesla--his face lights up when he sees her and makes sure we don't forget about her!

Our beauty...we are all so in love!

Oh, and I think I finally got a child that resembles me!  After having Lennon look exactly like Adam, maybe Tesla will have some of my traits...you be the judge, here's my newborn picture:

Lennon got his first haircut by his Great-Aunt Diane over Christmas.  It amazed us at how fast his hair has grown since (if we would have know that hair would have grown once we removed the baby hair, we would have done this long ago!).  So, in mid-April, I decided to attempt a haircut myself.  Lennon sat very still, though he looked a little nervous at first (not trusting me as much as Aunt Diane...smart boy!)

Those first cuts made me a little nervous--afraid I was going to butcher my child's beautiful hair--my nerves showed themselves through laughter and giggles, which Lennon took to be a good sign (Adam and I knew better!)

 But it all turned out in the end--I only did the back and sides, and was thankful for the slight curl in his hair that covers up all my mistakes. Here's Adam trying to get Lennon to stand still so I can take a picture of his haircut--I must say that I impressed myself--and was mostly relieved for not butchering it too much!  Now it's June, and he's needing another haircut--I'm not sure if he can make it until August when Aunt Diane can give him another haircut...but I'm wondering if I can luck out with giving a decent haircut twice in a row!

Lennon and his magna-doodle--He rotates between his little orange tablet (in the bottom, left corner), which has taught him to write all his letters and his shapes, and drawing his alphabet, numbers and art masterpieces on the magna-doodle (and the Steak n' Shake hat must be his thinking cap!)  He now uses his letters and numbers as a very smart stall tactic--how are we supposed to say no when he says that he just needs to finish his alphabet before he comes up for bed!

 Here's one of his earlier attempts at the alphabet--he erased everything before I could take a better picture because he "didn't like the S"--so he started all over.  He's very eager to start spelling and reading as well--he can spell and ready simple words like mom, dad, cat, dog, but the other day, while playing with the sidewalk chalk with Adam, he asked Adam how to spell "concentrate"--so Adam told him and Lennon wrote a very large "Concentrate" in front of our door (not sure how visitors will interpret that!)

Easter

We had a low-key Easter weekend.  On Saturday we dyed Easter eggs and on Sunday we had an egg hunt and then went over to Beka's for dinner. Here's Lennon taking his egg dying very seriously (as he does most things!):

Very proud of all his eggs!

Lennon was a pro at hunting for eggs...

This is the real egg that he dropped back on the rocks--part of me thinks he did it on purpose so that he had to eat it right away!

Lennon's Easter Basket--hidden in his car:

We actually had to pysch Lennon up for his Easter basket--he was having far too much fun hunting for eggs that he wasn't quite sure if the Easter basket was worth stopping for!

Now he's into it!

Lennon is obsessed with music--he will put in one of his CDs in the stereo (which he can do totally independently) and go sit on the couch and just listen--he sometimes concentrates so hard that it's like he's mesmerized!  Thankfully he rotates all his music, and he usually varies the songs he sings too--here he is singing "Day-oh" by Raffi: