2 Weeks Old

For just 2 weeks old Cannon has been pretty consistent with his sleep/wake times. He likes to sleep at night, usually for 4-5 hours between feedings. Here's hoping that with some consistency and direction he will be sleeping through the night before I have to go back to work. 

So little!

Napping in his bouncy chair

  

The day Cannon turned one week old he started sneezing a lot. He sneezes 3, 4 and even 5 times in a row! We are thinking he might be cursed with his Dad's bad allergies. Boo.

Other than that, Cannon is healthy and happy. He has such a big personality! When we gave him a bath this week he wanted to sleep instead and pulled the hood down over his eyes (maybe not intentionally, but it was still super cute!) 

Who turned the lights out?

 He has so much hair, and it's growing in thicker. We are really hoping it will continue to keep growing and not fall out. It's so much fun to style! We may need to trim up the back soon since he's starting to get a mullet. Ha ha!

Mullet baby

Rockstar hair

 

One big accomplishment this week was losing the rest of the umbilical cord and discovering Cannon has an adorable belly button! :) 

Cute belly button

We had more visitors this week: 

So Lisa and Alyssa (Anthony's mom and sister) came to Rexburg the Saturday before Cannon was born. Marc (Anthony's dad) drove down on the 13th and stayed for the weekend, then he and Alyssa headed back to Washington and Lisa stayed with us. 

This last weekend Marc and Alyssa came back down from WA and Andrew & Brittany (Ant's brother and sis-in-law) came up from Utah. Then a couple days later Ashley & Madison (Ant's sister and niece) drove over from North Dakota. We were so happy to see everyone and it was quite the family reunion! :) 

Cousin Madi giving kisses

"If you think I'm handsome you should see my daddy"

The weather warmed up enough for us to go out and enjoy Cannon's first ride in the stroller. (Thank you again Oma for the car seat and stroller. We are loving them!) We even got adventurous enough to go on our first outing to Porter's Craft Store. I bought stuff to make Cannon's first Christmas ornament. I have to admit, the store is so jam packed with crafting ideas it took me 45 minutes to pick out what I wanted. So many choices! I left feeling overwhelmed and tired. :)

First ride in the stroller!

 

 

 

Christmas ornament

We couldn't be happier with our new little man! He has such a big personality and so many fun faces. He is really smiley all the time and so expressive. Here are some expressive snapshots from the week.  

kisses!

It's amazing how quickly Cannon is growing and changing. Look at the differences between his face at 9 days old and 14 days old. We are glad we are taking so many pictures and capturing each phase.

9 days old

2 weeks old

1 Week Old

One Week Old

 

   Thank you to my sister, Kelly, for doing such a great job with your weekly blog and inspiring me to keep up with Cannon the way you did with Ramona. The above pictures are Cannon at one week old. In his first week we've taken hundreds (literally) of pictures of him. He's just so cute!!! Here are some highlights of Cannon's first week in the world.

 

We love you from your head to your toes.

 In the hospital. Cozy and lounging.

Coming home from the hospital.

He's just a tiny little thing in that big car seat. Dad was extra careful driving home that day.

Our little glowbug on the bilirubin light.

Cannon was a bit jaundice and had to be on a bili light for about 5 days.

 

First bath at home.

Cannon didn't like being cold, but he did like getting his hair washed.

Just like Dad. 

Anthony twists the hair on the top of his head when he concentrates. I caught Cannon playing with his hair. Except, instead of twisting he was pulling. He pulled his own hair hard enough to make him cry.

 What a personality.

 Handsome boy.

The Spud Has Arrived!

Welcome to the World 

Cannon Marc Armstrong

Born: Wednesday, April 11th, 8:58pm

7lbs. 3oz.  18 3/4" long

I woke up at 6:48am on the 11th and realized my water broke. Anthony was still asleep, so I woke him up and asked "do you want to have a baby today?" He was still a little fogged in and thought I was just implying that it would be a good day to have the baby, and he rolled over to go back to sleep.

"My water broke," I said. Anthony couldn't have shot up any faster!
"Do I have time to take a shower?" he asked.

And before I even finished calling my mom and Anthony's mom to tell them the news Anthony was in and out of the shower and already dressed.  I called the hospital and they told me that since I wasn't feeling contractions yet to walk around and try to get things started.

My doctor called and told us to head up to the hospital around 9:00am so I could get on pitocin. It was a long, slow morning staying dilated at 4cm (from 2 weeks ago) and 90% effacement until about 4:00pm. As the doctor put it "you look entirely too comfortable to be in labor."

The nurse continued to up the dosage of my pitocin IV (from 3 to 17 over the course of the morning) until all of a sudden around 4pm I went from 4cm to 9cm in about an hour. It was so quick I got a pretty good dose of contractions before the anesthesiologist made it in my room.

When it was time to push I was really happy to have so much support from friends and family in the room. Anthony and Macie Robison (one of my best friends) counted for me and Lisa and Alyssa (mom-in-law and sis-in-law) gave words of encouragement from the sidelines and were ready to go with cameras when the moment arrived.

Some people tell me they think it's weird to have people in the room when you are delivering. Macie was kind enough to invite me to the birth of her daughter, Layla. And after having that experience I wanted to be able to share it with others. There is nothing that compares to the moments of first seeing a new life come into the world, fresh from heaven. It is the most spiritual, loving moment, as you can see from the faces of those who were there.

Many thanks to Macie, Lisa and Alyssa for helping me to capture this moment. 

Macie & Lisa

1st moments with Cannon. He grabbed my finger so tight.

 

Our happy little family

Dad holding Cannon for the first time

With Gram

with Macie

with Aunt Alyssa