me hold my own hand

When I was little, I didn't want to hold anyone's hand in the toy store. I told them, "Me hold my own hand." CJ takes after his mama...

my nanny can make me smile!

CJ loves to play with his Nanny. Whenever she holds him or talks to him, he just smiles and talks to her. I love how much he loves her.

2 months

What better present could a little boy ask for than to see his Granny (my mom), meet his Nanny (my mom's mom), and his Aunt Carla (my mom's sister) on his 2 month birthday? After being in the car for almost 8 hours, he was melting down the closer we got to Nanny's house. I was so worried he would cry when he met Nanny, but as soon as he saw her, he started grinning from ear to ear! He liked his Nanny and Aunt Carla...I think they made the long trip worth it. Happy Birthday baby!

scott's been busy

After living in older, military housing for the last 5 years, we have become very accustomed to hardwood floors. We found beautiful, wide plank, dark wood flooring, and Scott is working on installing it throughout the house. He pulled up the laminate floors from the kitchen, the carpet from the office, living room, and hallway, and the tile from the entry way. After all that, he had to rent a machine to level the concrete - hard work! He has been busy making a mess the last few weeks, but this week, he started laying flooring. Yeah! He plans on being finished with what he has torn up by the end of next week. I can't wait to see how beautiful it will look; he is doing a great job. And doesn't he look cute while he is doing it?!?

mommy's little man

fun times on the play mat

CJ has taken to his play mat more this week. His favorite thing is looking at himself in the mirror. He sees a handsome baby, so who could blame him? He's also funny when his foot hits the rattle; it startles him and makes him jump.

sweet smiles

My favorite part of the day is when my sweet little boy smiles at me. 

new outfit

CJ is getting so big, and he is finally able to wear some of the adorable clothes friends and family gave us. The other morning I put him in a new outfit. Not only is it super-stylish, it requires ironing, so I was pleased with how cute he looked. After proudly putting it on, here is how the next 30 seconds went. I came into the living room where Scott and dad were sitting. Dad says, "Is that a new outfit; he looks so cute?" Scott says, "You look so big!" CJ spits up all over the outfit and me. We took a picture of him in in anyway because he looked so cute.

We took pictures longer than CJ wanted to though. He is looking at me thinking..."Aren't you going to get me out of these nasty spit up clothes?" So, to add insult to injury, while we were taking pictures, he peed so much it came out the side of the diaper. Needless to say, he wore different clothes the rest of the day.

unsolicited advice...

Here is my unsolicited advice for the day: don't buy a house and move when you have a one month old if you can avoid it! We absolutely love our new house, but when you are already sleep deprived from having a little one, trying to move is hard on everyone. Uncle Buddy and Granddad were worn out too!

happy birthday

I can't believe CJ is already one month old. I can honestly say, I can't imagine our lives without him. Even in my most sleep deprived, frustrated, hormonal, crying moments, I wouldn't trade him for anything. 

He has already changed so much. Here are some highlights from the first month.

• He LOVES to eat. This man is serious about his food. He goes from calm and sleepy to hungry and upset in about 2 seconds. Luckily I  have gotten better at reading his early hunger cues and I'm usually ready to feed him when he is ready to eat.
  
• He screeches like a little pterodactyl when he is really upset. When he is just a little upset his little squeaks sound more like a little mouse. Both are totally adorable and melt my heart.
• He loves to move. He loves his bouncy chair, stroller rides, car rides, bouncing on your knees, being rocked, and being bounced in your arms. When he is sleepy, he especially likes his bouncy chair. But the last two days he has preferred falling asleep on mom over the chair, and that was quite ok with me. I just sat and stared at him for about an hour. Being a mom is definitely the greatest job on earth.
• We had our first "big outing." We went to visit Zach and Stephanie. Zach and Scott have been friends since they were little guys playing T-ball together. They live about an hour and a half away and they have a little boy, Tyndall, who is 6 months old. We went to visit them last weekend and CJ did great. It will be fun for CJ and Tyndall to grow up playing together just like their dads did.
• He can track things with his eyes. If you move in front of him he will follow you. He likes to play "where's mommy?" and "where's daddy?"
• He no longer hates to be naked. When he was first born, he hated to have his diaper changed and to get a bath because it meant being exposed. I won't say he loves it now, but at least he tolerates it.
• He is growing into his "big boy" clothes. When he first came home from the hospital, he only had a few newborn things he could fit into because he was so little. The last week, so many more things are starting to fit. It makes mommy happy he is growing big and strong, but sad he isn't tiny anymore.
• And he makes the cutest faces. From furrowed brows to sweet smiles, I love all his many faces. 

We couldn't ask for a more amazing little man. 

i love my super cool stroller...

This morning mommy, Connor and I went for a walk. I LOVE my stroller. When I got for a ride, I love to look around...especially at what crazy Connor is doing. Even when I feel a little fussy, the stroller is just about as good as my bouncy seat to make me happy. My stroller is extra cool because it is modeled after an airplane. The guy who designed my stroller designed airplanes as his first job, and this is a special edition for him. And check out the cool camo seat cover it came with. But in case I ever get a little sister the other side is a girly print...but I think it is yucky because girls have cooties...except for mommy.

just the two of us...

Yesterday was Scott's first day back at work, and I confess I was dreading it a little. He assumed he would go in the morning and then be released no later than lunch time to come home. That I was OK with. But, you know what happens when you assume. He ended up having to split a 24 hour duty with another guy. He left about 7:00 for work and didn't come home until about 9:30 yesterday evening. At first, I wanted to cry when he told me he would be gone for that long, but then I put on my big girl panties and dealt with it. And we did great! CJ got a bath, I got a bath, we both ate when we were hungry, I did 3 loads of laundry to include putting them away and we even made sure to have time for tummy time and lots of other playing and being silly. I was very proud of the two of us. Not that we don't love having daddy home, but I think the two of us are going to be OK. :)

so sleepy...

hanging out with dad

friends :)

We had a nice treat this weekend - Ted and Mily came for a quick visit. Connor was soooo excited to see them both, and they gave her lots of love she has been missing out on lately. Of course, they gave CJ lots of love too. Come back soon to see us!

dad is mom's hero

Dad is mom's hero for many reasons, but this week he put batteries in the bouncy seat. CJ loves to suck on anything you put in his mouth...fingers, pacifier, burp cloth. I didn't want to give him a pacifier because it can make breastfeeding hard for babies. But, I gave in while all our company was here and I let him have a pacifier so that he wouldn't cry when he was getting sleepy. And unfortunately, it made breastfeeding not fun for a few days. We took it away, but he was NOT happy. Thus the bouncy seat. Seems the only thing the kiddo likes more than a pacifier when he is sleepy is the vibrating chair. You can see his whole body relax when he gets in it. Too cute.  Thanks daddy!

some cute shots from week two...

Dad really scrubs hard! 

I liked the swing for about 10 seconds, and then I was done with it. I am glad mommy was there to rescue me. I'll try it again in a few days.

Darn my fingers. I get them in my mouth, but then they keep falling out.

Life is soooo hard!

busy week at the hetzels...

Just in case you are wondering, no, I have not been in labor this whole time. But after 60 hours of labor, it sure felt like a week! (Read below for more on that.) New mama needed a week to recover before updating the blog, so sorry for the delay for those of you who have been asking.

This past week, we had a baby, Scott was promoted to 2LT, we had 12 guests in for graduation, and we bought a house. And you though you were busy! There are updates below, and now that life is changing to a new kind of normal, I will be better about showing off the little angel for those who have been asking for pictures.

We appreciate all the prayers and good wishes. Love you friends and family!

CJ's birth and stats

Feel free to skip this first part if it is too much information for you...

After the last post we went to the hospital a second time in the wee hours of Sunday morning. I was having what I thought were really long contractions...like 7-15 minutes long, and we were concerned about the baby. Off the to hospital we went, and it turns out I was starting to get dehydrated and it was causing my contractions to come right on top of each other. What I thought was one long contraction was actually two, sometimes three in a row. I asked them to let me come home (they thought I was crazy), because I still was just starting to dilate. At the hospital they made me stay on a monitor and lay flat in the bed...really uncomfortable. 

After laboring all day Sunday, finally about 1:00 am on Monday morning, I felt like I was ready to go on to the hospital. The third time was the charm, and we didn't have to come back home again. By this point I had been in continuous labor for over 60 hours and I was pooped out from only sleeping between contractions, but so ready to see the little one. I can only imagine what the whole experience was like for him. It is probably good babies can't remember and God hard-wired our bodies to produce chemicals that make women love their babies, or else no one would do this have a baby thing.

Once we got to the hospital, the nurse checked me and I was already 4-5 cm dilated. YEAH PROGRESS, I thought. But after she checked me I started bleeding pretty heavily. It turns out I was having a placental abruption, which is where the placenta separates from the uterus before the baby is born. That means that the baby can't get oxygen, and it is pretty serious. But, because of God's grace we got to the hospital right as it was starting and there was never a time they were really worried about CJ. His heart rate stayed strong through it all so we both felt peace when I had to have a c-section. The hospital staff was awesome at explaining exactly what was happening and they moved quickly to make sure CJ was never in danger. The only complication is that when we arrived at the hospital they were actually doing another emergency c-section in the main operating room, and I had to go to the secondary room. It was a busy night in labor and delivery!

CJ was finally born at 3:08 am on 1 June 2009. He weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. While we were in the hospital he lost about a pound, but the little porker has already gained it all back. They usually gain about an ounce a day, but this little guy, gained about 2.5 a day.

After it all, I would do it again. Isn't this face worth it all...

the cutest baby that was ever born...

Day one

Coming home from the hospital

Bath time

At daddy's graduation