Bandelier National Monument

On Labor Day weekend we decided to take a day trip to Bandelier National Monument. The plan was actually to drive to the monument and spend the morning there, then let Ethan catch a nap for an hour in the car as we drove over to the Jemez mountains, then go swimming in a hot spring and then head back home. As it was, we actually spent until 3:00 in the afternoon at the Monument, Ethan did not fall asleep in the car (probably because he had a 15 minute catnap on the bus that we took back from the Monument), and we never found one of the hot springs. Oh well, I guess that will be for another day.

The National Monument was really cool (although the name Monument is deceiving because I don't think there is an actual "monument" it is more like a State or National Park). Most of the hikes here in New Mexico seem to be opportunities to learn some of the history of the pueblo people. This was no different. Bandelier marks a place that was inhabited by Ancestral Pueblo people from about 1200-1400 AD.

In the valley the people built a huge village with over six hundred rooms that have been excavated.

(Ethan thinks that if you squat down then he should squat too)

Here is a view of the village, only some of the walls remain, 

but you can see kind of what it would have looked like.

 

In the cliffs behind this village the people carved caves for homes out of the soft rock. In addition to Trent and Ethan's muscles this picture shows hundreds of little holes in the cliffs because the rock is so soft.

The hike led us up in the middle of the cliffs and had ladders so that we could enter into some of the caves.

Ethan loved climbing the ladders and talked about it for days afterwards.

Here are the remnants of where they had one long village that extended along the cliff. The little holes are where they stuck logs to help support the structures the built onto the face of the cliff. The hike was just under three miles but it took us so long because there was so many neat things to see!

 

We took an extra little trail to a sacred area connected with these same people. We had to climb up a ton of high ladders, and even though Ethan was a real trooper, Trent had to carry him up some of these ladders because they were just too hot for his little hands.

 Up at the top we had a view of the valley and were able to climb down into a Kiva, which was a sacred room where they performed rituals and had meetings.

It is so fun to go on historical hikes like this and learn to appreciate the culture of New Mexico more and more. We are glad that Ethan is such a good hiker too. He walked all by himself for the whole hike except for the last fifteen minutes or so where Trent carried him on his shoulders. I guess we are putting all that energy to good use!

22 Weeks

Oh yeah, and I am 22 weeks along! Over half way. Super exciting, but kind of weird to think that we will have an addition to the mother-son duet of daily life. I, of course, am super happy, but it is a little sad to think that Ethan won't get as much of my attention. I am trying to really relish these days alone with him. I know that he doesn't understand how much I love him, but I hope that some day he will.

And I have been a slacker. It took me until 22 weeks to take a picture of my stomach!

Prayer!

Ethan is pretty good at praying with us. Normally when we announce prayer time he kneels down right away and then says, "Daddy kneel, Mama kneel." As he motions to each of us. Even though that isn't my favorite prayer position, I usually comply. In the unusual event that we can't get him to cooperate we just start to pray without him (normally when we are in a hurry). Almost inevitably, he runs over, folds his arms, and joins us shortly after we start. It makes me happy that at least he knows what is right, even though he doesn't always want to do it.

Trent and I try to help Ethan say his prayers everyday. We of course say mostly the same things since he doesn't have a very large vocabulary. He normally repeats only the last word or two of each short sentence, but as least he is participating.

This morning shortly after we got up Ethan saw an unopened jar of applesauce on the kitchen table and said, "I want applesauce!" He then climbed onto a chair at the table, folded his arms, and laid his head in his arms. "Father" he started, and then proceeded to say a bunch of gibberish with real words mixed in. It included most of the basic words we use when we help him pray-but I was most surprised by his intonation. I have never before noticed that we use a different rhythm when we pray, but it sounded exactly like he was praying except that I couldn't understand most of what he said! It was hilarious and although I at first closed my eyes, I just had to open them so that I could take in this scene. His prayer sounded something like this: "Thank you {gibberish} day, thank you {gibberish}, I love you tia (this is his Aunt Natalie), love you mama, love daddy, {gibberish}, food {gibberish} thank you {gibberish}, {gibberish},{gibberish}, {more gibberish}. It sounded exactly like sentences too! Then after rambling on for a good while and me waiting for him to say amen, he turned around and said with a big grin: "I pray Mama!" "Good job!" I said, "Did you say amen?" He quickly turned around, laid his head back down, and said "AMEN!" He was smiling so big and after I plastered him with lots of hugs and kisses he again declared: "I want applesauce!"

Sunday naps

Sundays are hard for us because Ethan's usual nap time starts only about 30 min before we leave for church at 12:45. Sometimes we try to put him down early, but normally he isn't tired enough and can't fall asleep. So, no nap. Ethan normally handles Sacrament pretty well and in nursery he does great, but shortly after we get home he crashes. It is hard because this inevitable pushes back bed time and I know he doesn't get a sufficient rest. The upside of it is that Trent and I then get to make and eat dinner together with no interruptions. It is kind of fun to remember what that is like! Here are some pics of Ethan sleeping on Sunday evenings.

He laid himself down on the couch and Trent propped him up so that he could watch us in the kitchen. 

A few minutes later...

He was bouncing off the walls when we got home this day and would NOT calm down. I made us a fruit smoothie to drink and put him in his high chair. Some people then came to the door, we talked and when I looked at Ethan I busted up laughing! I couldn't believe he had fallen asleep like this! Poor thing!

In other news, on August 21st, just two days before my 21 week mark, Trent was able to feel the baby kick! He seemed pretty excited. I think it helps make him realize a little more that we have a baby on the way. As a side note, when I was pregnant with Ethan I didn't feel him kick (or at least I didn't know that was what I was feeling) until around 22 weeks. It is amazing to me that it took me so long to realize it was a baby kicking then, when this time around Trent felt the baby kick a good week earlier!

Baby Spratling #2

Well finally, at 20 weeks, I am announcing that WE ARE PREGNANT! I don't know why it took me so long to announce it but I suppose it was that I wanted to make sure that everything was alright. Plus, I love to relish in good news and just think about it. Announcing it opens it up for everyone else to comment and I just wanted to be in my own little world with my thoughts and not everyone else's. Not that we haven't told people, we have. We just haven't announced it over social media until now. Also, I don't get embarrassed easily but I also don't like to seek out attention so posting a picture on Facebook or the Blog just seems like *begging* for congratulations. This is why I don't announce it in Relief Society. I just let people talk and/or see me start to show and figure it out for themselves (not that I mind AT ALL when other people announce it-I actually love it when they do. It just makes me, myself, and I feel a tad awkward). But now that I am posting this you do need to congratulate me in a comment because I am expecting it ;).

I also wanted to do it in some cute way and it took me until 19 weeks to finally get out and take some pictures of Ethan so that I could do it in the way that I wanted! So the above picture and these below were taken last week. I really wanted it to be Ethan who "announced" the pregnancy. He, however, didn't really like the idea of having to hold still while outside. Luckily, I got a few good shots. This one was taken right before he threw the paper to the side. That is why the rest are just of him playing ;).

 Riding the horse. I love his face in this one.

I just love the rocking motion of his head and face in these shots. He is pretty focused.

When we had our first appointment with Ethan at 13 weeks we got to listen to the heartbeat and we also had an ultrasound because the doctor didn't think my uterus was big enough to be that far along (Ethan ended up measuring 5 days bigger, which I thought was ironic). My point in telling you this is because we left our first appointment knowing for sure that we REALLY did have a baby.

In my first appointment with this baby, at 9 weeks, we didn't get to hear the heartbeat or see an ultrasound. I couldn't find anyone to watch Ethan (everyone I could think of was sick or out of town) so Trent took Ethan out while she gave me my exam and felt my uterus. She told me that my uterus felt like it was the right size (which confirmed to me that I was pregnant) and also cleared me for a VBAC (which I am SUPER excited about...more on that later). When I went out to see Trent he said, "So? Are we pregnant for sure?" I laughed because I felt the same way! It felt so inconclusive to have the only evidence be that my uterus was bigger than normal! I assured him that we were and told him that she had felt my uterus, even though I felt a little unsure myself.

Because Ethan came 6 weeks early though, my doctor recommended me to get an ultrasound that next week to confirm the due date (so that if I have preterm labor we know exactly how old the baby is). It was so comforting to see the baby on the sonogram! As soon as she started the ultrasound we could see the baby kicking and moving and I think we both breathed a sigh of relief that we were "really" pregnant. It was truly beautiful. The baby kicked and moved and made it hard on the sonographer but she came out with measurements that said the baby was a week farther along than we thought. She also said that it looked as though the baby might have a mass by the stomach which could be a gastroschisis. Gastroschisis is what Ethan was born with, where his intestines were outside of his stomach. You can kind of see what she is talking about in the picture below. You can see the baby's head from the top and two arms and there is a whitish/gray mass in between the arms. She told us that 10 weeks is too early to tell because technically the intestines could still be moving into the abdomen at this time and that if they were still out at 14 weeks then it would be a for sure thing. We were of course worried, but seeing as how we had been through it once before we knew that we could handle it and that babies born with this can and normally are completely healed within a few months. We decided to be happy that we were pregnant and try not to worry about something they may not even happen.

This is shot of the baby's back.

 

With Ethan I didn't start feeling movement until about 22 weeks, but with this baby I have been feeling it since 15 weeks! In the last three weeks though I have felt kicking just about every time I have sat or laid still. I love this part about being pregnant. It is like a constant reminder that I am carrying a baby and that he/she is doing okay!

And today we got to have our 20 week ultrasound! We did not find out the gender, so don't skip ahead to see what we are having ;). When the sonographer first started she said the baby was in a ball and unless it moved we wouldn't be able to see anything! Luckily, she got it to shift around and we were able to see how the baby is doing.

She took shots of his/her feet and spine (pictured below) and of all the organs, even the top lip.

And she assured us that this baby definitely does NOT have gastroschisis. I had told myself that it would be okay if it did, and better us than someone else who didn't know what a relatively easy defect it is to fix. We also decided that I would probably do a c-section again for the baby, just to make sure its intestines were okay. And even though I had convinced myself it would be okay, I was so relieved to hear that the umbilical cord had a nice strong connection to the stomach and there was no chance of that birth defect. We discussed with the sonographer how most people look forward to a 20 week ultrasound because they will get to find out the gender of their baby. She said that it always seemed a little more like a miracle when a couple who had a previous child with a birth defect, like us, came in and were able to find out that this new baby was healthy. And when we thought Ethan was fine at 20 weeks we were grateful, but knowing now that this baby appears healthy means so much more. It is amazing all the little things that can go wrong, and yet somehow, most of the time, they all seem to go just fine. Also the baby is right on track, measuring at 12 ounces.

I LOVE these 3D shots where you can see the baby's face.  Trent says it looks like a boy ;). We didn't get any of these with Ethan and although I have always thought these were cool, it just seems that much more beautiful to see one of your own baby. It kind of makes me emotional.

And before you get excited about some of these pictures and think you see some boy parts, just let me tell you that the sonographer assured us she hadn't seen anything to make her think it was a boy and a girl and that for most of the ultrasound the baby's umbilical cord was wrapped between his/her legs. Just letting you know ;). You can also really see in these pictures that the baby is curled into a ball and has his/her knees up by his/her face.

Well, we should see be seeing this baby's face for reals in about 20 weeks!

Hiking at Tent Rocks

We are trying to take advantage of the neat things to do in and around Albuquerque so went for a fun little hike this past weekend at Tent Rocks National Monument. It is a little under an hour from Albuquerque and right next to a little lake, which we didn't realize-so next time we are bringing our swimming suits! It is called Tent Rocks because there are rock structures that are in the shape of cones or "tents". You can kind of see them in the picture below.

It is just a short little hike, probably about 3 miles if you hike the whole thing, which we did not because Ethan was ready for his nap. But we hiked about 2 miles and it was awesome! We went on one of the legs called Slot Canyon and it was so cool, we were literally sandwiched between two walls for a lot of it. Ethan was a great hiker and walked/ran most of the way. We got several comments from parents carrying older children and we just said that we had started training him young when he actually wanted to walk!

You can see the sides of the canyon in some of these shots.

We were amazed at the conditions the trees were able to grow in. This tree below started to grow before the ground was washed out from under it. Its roots somehow became super strong and are holding it up! Pretty crazy!

Trent kept climbing everywhere and Ethan just wanted to follow him.

 Being a trooper and even carrying his own water! ;)

The token picture of me. I guess that's what I get for carrying the camera. 

Next time I'll make Trent do it more.

Here you can kind of see how narrow the path got sometimes, 

and sometimes it was even smaller and we were squeezing sideways!

Showing off muscles and taking a water break.

 They wore themselves out so much that they crashed on the bed together! 

I ♥ my boys!