Alan

When we asked Alan what we should name our baby he came up with LOTS of ideas. A few of his names were: Owis, Wolf, Panda, Bone, Tank, and Skipper

Alan is really good about sharing. A little while ago our family had 3 cookies. I said I didn't want one so Reed had one and he gave one to Conner and one to Alan. Alan was concerned that I didn't have one so he turns to me and says "I'll tell you what..." then he breaks his cookie in half. One half was considerably larger than the other. He looked at them and then he held them out to me and says "which half do you want?" I thought that was sweet of him.

Alan really likes to do things for us without being asked. He likes to get dressed and make his bed and then he will come out of his room with a HUGE smile on his face and say "Surprise!" He really doesn't like us to ask him to do things. Sometimes he will throw a fit when we ask him to get dressed or go get a diaper for Conner because he says "I didn't want you to tell me!" So we have found that if we indirectly ask for things we get a much better result: for example - If I am changing Conner's diaper and I say "Hmm, I could really use a clean diaper" and I make sure I am just saying it into the air, not directed at Alan he will always run off and grab a diaper and come back with it and be so pleased with himself.

Alan loves to have books read to him. I love how when we come home from the library with new books he will climb on the couch and just sit and look through the books. It is nice that he likes all kinds of books now. For a long time we only read books about trains or construction trucks.

Alan's new favorite colors are "all the colors of the rainbow"

Alan likes to draw and write. He loves to sit down with me and write a grocery list or a to-do list. In the past he has enjoyed writing letters and numbers on a piece of paper and then asking me what it says. For example: xyzoafafiotd8io. However he got frustrated when I sounded it out and he realized it wasn't a real word. Now he asks me how to spell something and then he writes it out.

Alan really likes Micah. He loves to come over and put his finger in Micah's hand and feel Micah squeeze his finger. Then he will talk to him and say things like "You sure are cute Micah" or "I am glad you are in our family now Micah".

Alan loves to help in the garden. I am glad he doesn't see weeding as a chore, more like a fun activity.

Alan doing the Magnum.

Meeting Micah

Reed brought the boys to meet their new little brother on Sunday night. Alan and Reed each brought me some flowers which were very pretty. Both of the boys were pretty excited to see Micah.

Getting a look at their new brother

Alan looked for a minute or two and then he was off to look at the rest of the room. Conner on the other hand was completely fascinated with the baby. He crawled up beside me and kept pointing at the baby and excitedly saying "Baby!"

After a couple of minutes I wrapped Micah up because he was having a hard time keeping his body temperature up. Conner didn't like that. I tried to explain that Micah was cold and he needed to stay wrapped up but Conner kept trying to unwrap him so that he could point to his toes, diaper, legs, ect. Finally Conner turned to me and said "un mo" (which means one more) so I unwrapped him again as a reward for talking. Then I wrapped him back up again. Conner asked again and I said no so Conner grabbed my hand and placed it on Micah's blankets and then looked at me expectantly. He was so determined that Micah should be unwrapped so that he could look at him better!

Conner wanting the blanket off.

The three Bassett boys

We asked Alan if he wanted to hold Micah and he got SO excited:

Reed showing Alan how to support the baby's head

Grandma Bassett arrived that evening. It was really nice because she stayed with the boys and Reed stayed with me at the hospital.

Grandma Bassett holding Micah

Grandma Pitcher arrived the next morning to stay for the week.

Grandma Pitcher getting acquainted with Micah

We decided to go home on Monday. The nurses said that usually Sunday is a really slow day, with maybe 1 or 2 babies being born. On the day we arrived they said that 10 babies were born and they turned 12 people away who thought they were in labor, but weren't. In fact 2 other babies were born in the same hour as Micah. On Monday morning all 21 rooms on the birth floor were full. So I think the nurses were pretty eager to have us leave.

Here is Micah, all strapped in and ready to go home. Some older ladies knit hats for all the babies to have so that is where Micah got his cute hat from.

Introducing Micah Pitcher Bassett

I woke up on Sunday morning, Sept. 12th with a few light contractions. Then I noticed that I was leaking fluid which meant that I was going to have this baby today! We hurried and got the kids dressed for church and dropped them off at a friend's house. Then we waited at the house for a little while until the contractions were closer together. After we got to the hospital they checked me and said I was definitely leaking amniotic fluid and I was dilated to 3 centimeters. So we checked into the hospital at 9:30 am and our baby arrived at 1:15 pm. The labor was relatively short (although it didn't feel like it) and it was uncomplicated. Our baby arrived with the cord wrapped around his neck so he was completely bluish grey from head to foot but he turned pink fairly quickly. He cried as soon as he came out and they let me hold him.

Carissa holding her new baby

Getting warmed up under the baby warmer

He weighed in at 8 lbs and 11 oz and he was 21 inches long, so he was a biggest baby so far. He came out with a ton of dark hair. After his bath the nurse had fun combing his hair in different ways.
He loved his bath. He completely relaxed in the water and he especially liked when she washed his hair.

After his bath he enjoyed his time under the warmer.

We struggled to decide on a name. We narrowed it down to 3 finalists: Tyler, Mason and Micah. After almost a full day of thinking we decided to name him Micah Pitcher Bassett.

Proud daddy with his newest son

My Pregnancy in Review

I am way behind in my posts so here is a quick recap of this pregnancy:
This was another normal, uncomplicated pregnancy for which I am very thankful. I did get bigger with this one than with the other two - but I have heard that that is the way it goes. I was also grateful that this summer was a cooler one than average. I don't think I could have handled being 36 weeks pregnant in 90 degree weather. I didn't have much heartburn and my hands and feet only itched for the last month of the pregnancy and not as bad as they did with Alan's pregnancy. I didn't have any swelling either which I heard was common with summer pregnancies. On the down side the baby dropped by about 35 weeks and so that was rather uncomfortable. In his new position he could kick my ribs and press on my bladder at the same time. I was really looking forward to Sept. 21st!

Here I am at 36 weeks pregnant

This is on Sept. 12th right before we went to the hospital. I am 38 1/2 weeks pregnant.

The Hottest Day of the Summer

Last Thursday we hit 96 degrees - which made it the hottest day of the summer. The weather has been somewhat cool this summer so we haven't played in the water as much as we normally would. We had some water balloons that we saved for just such a day - the boys were so fun to watch as we played with them.

Alan was pretty sad when his favorite balloon popped by accident.

Conner was thrilled to pop as many as possible

Alan just wanted to fill them up and save them.

Here are a couple of videos of our fun.