2 Month Stats

Our big girl just keeps getting bigger.

Height: 25 inches (97%)

Weight: 12 lbs. 15 oz. (95%)

Head: 16.2 inches (95%)

*Make that 12 lbs NOT 15 lbs ...duh.

EASTER

Fooled YOU!

I had a lot of fun "fooling" my family this year. Particularly the boys.

We had meat loaf "cupcakes", jello "punch" and pound cake "grilled cheese sandwiches". They were totally fooled by it all. It was fun to see their surprise. Kyle totally ate it all up (no pun intended) but Noah seemed kind of disturbed by it all. It was pretty funny.

Weekly Update

...Experienced my first Wal-mart temper tantrum scene, compliments of Noah. Now that I have three kids my control has dwindled. No more Mister Nice Guy! You run and hide from me? No more fruit snacks for you! Now every time we go by the baby dept. at Wal-mart (which is where the trouble began and fruit snacks discarded), Noah tells me "Let's go and get my fruit snacks."

...Counting calories for the first in my life... Gotta fit into my summer clothes again.

...Noah has decided he wants to be "little" because little boys don't have to be potty trained.

...Went up to Rock Springs this last weekend to see my brothers two little girls, Emma and Holly, perform in the colleges production of "Music Man". It was SO nice to get out of town and even nicer to see those two cute girls on stage.

Staying in the hotel was the highlight of Kyle and Noah's trip. They decided it would be cool live there. Who doesn't want to live in a teeny room with no kitchen or play space? Oh and don't forget the Disney Channel!

The only pic I got of the whole trip...

From the Mouthes of Babes (Noah)

Today we asked Noah after church what he learned, not expecting much. His response, "We learn about Jesus. Jesus dieded and come back alive. The bad guy take Jesus clothes. The bad guy tie up Jesus. Jesus in jail and and and they putted Jesus on a cross. Jesus fall in the water." We think the water part was because the nursery teachers had a picture of Jesus walking on water.

We asked Noah where he learned this "My friend told me" and then added "Jesus is our Super Hero." Noah's teachers know Noah well enough to adapt the lesson for him to understand. To Noah a Super Hero is the greatest thing anyone can be. Calling Jesus "our Super Hero" made him understand what he did for us.

Thank you nursery teachers. You probably don't understand what an impact you make on little two year olds that can't even sit still during the lesson, but apparently you do.

-Adam

Super Addiction

Noah and Kyle are, in a word addicted...to super heroes. Anything with a picture of Batman, Power Rangers, or Iron Man is something worth having. The boys have everything super hero from videos to undies and we recently had a Batman Christmas.

Noah is especially obsessed since he cannot be without his "little Batman" and/or "big Batman".

The obsession sometimes gets in the way of eating, but he works through it.

OnE mOnTh oLd!

One month today!

What a month! It has been so wonderful having a baby in the house again. And I'm just going to be cliche' and say, I can't believe she's already a month old! Where has the time gone? It has completely flown by... and all that stuff. I can't help it if it's true.

During this first month Megan has already learned to smile her little heart out. You may not believe it but Daddy got her first real smile out of her at about 4 days old. I know. I know. I couldn't believe it either but these were big, open mouthed, crinkly-eyed smiles. My boys started at the more typical age of 5-6 weeks so 4 days was definitely hard to believe. Megan has been a very focused, calm baby which I think really contributed to her ability to smile. Anyway, the proof is in the pudding as they say so here you go.

Here are some more random pics of my girl during her first month of experiencing life.

This is her "happy face".

Those cheeks are just asking to be smooched!

Megan and her cousin Lyndsee.

Megan is just a few days old in this picture. Notice how well she fills out her 3 month jammies already!

Megan's brother's LOVE her. Noah already has nick names for her- Megsies and Princess.

Look at those eyes.

Megan has only been here a month but we feel like she's been ours forever. We LoVe her!

...pray for them which despitefully use you...

That is a quote from Mathew 5:44 and no one has applied this more aptly in their lives than our Noah. Every time Noah prays he says something like "thank you for the bad guys", "bless the bad guys" or our personal favorite, "help the bad guys to be good."

Yes our little Noah is obsessed with bad guys. As Kyle puts it, "he has bad buy in his blood." In fact whenever Noah is having a bad day in nursery at church all the teachers know that the way to calm him down is to talk about bad guys. Usually he comes out of class with some kind of depiction of Joker (his favorite bad guy) and a super hero.

Noah's favorite game is to play bad guy with Kyle, who always wants to be the good guy. Noah runs around chasing Kyle, trying to talk as low as he can in a monotone voice saying "Hey, I'm a bad guy."

Luckily the "bad guy" addiction is only skin deep. Noah does not have a bad bone in him. He is sweet and we love him dearly. He has taught us that we need to pray for our enemies... cause someone has to love the bad guy... and that someone is Noah.

--Adam

Noah update: The other night Noah and I were playing when he said to me, "don't do that you freaky bad guy." I took it as a compliment knowing how he feels about bad guys.

Precious

My sweet girl at 3 days old...

and some other sweet faces.

Getting BiGgEr!

What can I say? My baby girl is an over-achiever.

They told us at the hospital that Megan had lost 10 oz. and that they expect her to be back up to birth weight by her 2 week appointment.

Well, today we found out that Megan has been doing her homework. She sits at a nice plump

10lbs. 13 oz.

A good 1 lb. 8 oz gain in two weeks. Hello! She's also

22.5 in. long.

The doctor says she looks healthy and strong.

How blessed are we?

Introducing...

Megan Kate Shiflett!

Born February 26, 2010

@ 4:47 PM

9 lbs. 15 oz.

22 in.

We are SO excited to finally have our baby girl here and in our arms. She is more than we ever imagined. (I mean, did you SEE her size?) She has Mommy's big eyes, Daddy's cleft chin, and sweetness in abundance.

If you read the post previous to this one you may have gathered that I was getting a little impatient for Megan to come. That post was written on her due date but still Megan wasn't prepared to show her sweet, round face. So when I went to my 40 week check-up I decided to go ahead and induce the upcoming Friday. Adam was practically begging to induce Wednesday but I really wanted to give the baby a chance to come on her own.

I know I'm (Adam) not supposed to be the one that gets impatient, but I wanted my little girl to come. I get frustrated towards the end of the pregnancies. Erin gets to feel the baby moving around all day and that becomes a way to bond with them, but I just have to wait. I was sickof waiting. I WANTED MY BABY GIRL!

.

Friday arrived and of course, still no baby. Adam just about had a nervous breakdown waiting for the hospital to call and tell us it's "our turn". They finally called around 9 AM so we dropped what we were doing -literally- and set out for the hospital around 10 AM. We dropped the boys off at G-ma and G-pa's and with nervous excitement arrived at the hospital. After we got all settled in our luxurious hospital room, they got me started on a delicious cocktail of saline (Whooda thought salt water tasted like rubbing alcohol coursing through your

veins?), pitocin, and penicillin (I had strep B).

This is actually the start to my favorite part. With all the pricking and prodding of my wife (no that's NOT my favorite part) they also wrap a bunch of monitors around her belly. I love this because it allows me to see what is going on in my wife's stomach. I watch the monitor constantly and tell my wife when she is having a contraction, to which she says, "I know I'm having a contraction." The monitors are the only time that I get to have the same experience as my wife with seeing what the baby is doing every second.

Time for the contractions to kick in and force that little girl out of her warm, protected cocoon (sad!). They started me at about 11 am. Doc came down to check it all out and break my water. She was still up high and not at all engaged so he worried that it would be a long labor. I wasn't too concerned. As long as I get my drugs I'll be good...yeah, well that's what TOOK A WHILE! AFTER they dial-up my pitocin and AFTER they break my water they tell me it'll probably be about 45 minutes before the anesthesiologist can see me since he was starting a c-section. This is my nightmare. I'm a pansy!

45 mins roll around and still no drugs. ("He should be here any second." Mmmhmmm...) By this time I'm panting and cursing anyone that even tries to talk to me.

Seeing my wife in pain I ran back and forth from the nursing station "Is he coming?", "When is the C-section done?", "Where is he now?", "He's coming down the hall? Can he run?".

FINALLY, my hero walks into the room (I wish she was talking about her husband...), sticks a giant needle in my back and leaves me praising his name. What a job he has.

After getting my drugs the nurse tells me I'm dilated to a 4 cm. Cool but I'm sure I still have a little time left to go. Yeah, no. An hour later she tells me "you're ready to push!" I was like seriously? So soon? I've only waited a mere 9 months. This point of labor is so surreal. Here comes baby!

I saw the baby's head almost immediately after Erin's first push. The first thing I noticed was the hair. Lots of babies have hair, but not ours, so this was a bit of a surprise.

When Megan's full head made an appearance my doctor just looked at me and said (almost solemnly) "This is going to be a big baby." At this time I saw that the doctor was moving his hands around Megan's neck. He told us later that he was unwrapping the umbilical cord. It was wrapped around her neck 3 times. Kyle's was wrapped once, Noah's twice. Stats say that 1 in 3 baby's have the cord wrapped around their necks, but we're batting 1,000. They were guessing she would be "big" and in the 8 lb range before she was born. Well, they were right that she was going to be big but boy, did they underestimate.

In the chaos that followed (weighing, cleaning, de-gooping) I followed Megan around with my cameras as the nurses passed her around. One of the first features we recognized was her cleft chin (like her father). The next thing we saw was her big eyes (mommy's) as she opened them and started to look around at the world.

The hospital stay was a great opportunity to get to know our baby. True I had to run back and forth for the boys, but thanks to our families baby sitting them, I was able to spend most of my time at the hospital. I enjoyed the quiet times Erin and I got to spend looking at her and getting to show her off to everyone that showed up.

Thanks to everyone who came to visit us at the hospital. The H1N1 rules made it a little hectic (only 2 at a time and no one under 14 not a sibling), so I appreciate everyone's efforts to come and see us.

The best visitors were Kyle and Noah. My parents brought them over to meet their sister and were waiting in our room when they brought Erin up from delivery. They reacted completely differently:

Kyle was quite and careful. He wanted to hold Megan and did so like a pro. He stared at her lovingly looking her in the face. If he said something he spoke softly. It seemed like he did not want to take his eyes off his baby sister. He would periodically bend over and give her a kiss on the head. Erin and I had been anticipating this moment and Kyle reacted just they way we thought he would.

Noah was a complete shock to me. I did not know what to expect from him (jealously?, confusion?). He wanted to look at the baby and started talking to her, "Hi, Megan, hi. This a baby. Her name Megan." He told everyone that walked in about her, even the nurses. He walked around the whole room announcing her name, obviously very excited. When it came his turn to hold her he sat still and kept talking to her.

The best Noah moment came when we were leaving. I went outside to get the car. Since I was not there and Erin was in the wheel chair the nurse picked up the car seat and started carrying it. Noah was concerned. "That's our baby," he said and grabbed on to the side of the carrier, not letting go until Megan was latched into her car seat base.

I very much appreciate everyone who brought over meals. A new baby, no work for a week and good food, does life get any better?

Megan is naturally a gorgeous girl and is, so far, a very calm, good-natured baby. She lets her mommy get some sleep at night but she is an even better sleeper during the day. Hoping to switch that around soon.

We are all very attached to Megan. We are so blessed to have this tiny girl in our lives.

(Thanks for the beautiful pic, Nichole! :)