more Zeke

He will be 6 weeks old tomorrow...actually at 1:22 am tonight. He's just started to really try and lift his head up. And look at those eyes! He definitely has Taylor eyes. But I think I may end up with another blonde boy yet!

This is the most alert he has looked so far ....

Just because he's so cute

Posting this just because he's too cute to not share :)

Lake Video

Well this is my first attempt at a video.
Not sure why the quality is so bad, but I'll be working on it.

Fun at the Lake

We spent our first weekend at our new housboat on Lake Berryessa. It was good to be back on the water. The kids LOVE LOVE LOVE it. We bought this new boat with our good friends The Kings, and Luke and Brian have spent soooooooo much time fixing it (it aint even funny). But the results are great, and we have the space for our growing family. We will hopefully even use the boat year round now. Here are some pictures from the weekend...

Unchartered Waters...

Today I entered a land where no 5-week postpartum mom should ever go...............


That's right, the bathing suit department. It was frightening to say the least. The list of "must-haves" was so long I thought I would never accomplish the task at hand.

A looooong tankini so no midriff could show, and loose enough to not hug my "curves". Enough support so that the "girls" are above what used to be my belly-button (now it's just a stretched out mass of circular wrinkles.) And a skirt. Yes, I said a SKIRT. I have officially reached the point in my life where I need a skirt on my bathing suit.

If you thought dressing room mirrors were bad before, just try them out a few weeks after carrying around a 40lb beach ball in your belly.

So I came home with a couple suits that *almost* met all the criteria. I went to one store and one store only. That's all my psyche could handle.

If you thought I was going to post pictures like I usually do, you were so WRONG. :)

They adore him...

One of the questions we keep getting asked is "what do the kids think of the baby?" I think this picture says it all....

Multi-Tasking

What do you do when you have a baby in your arms and you need to carry the laundry basket?



Duh...put the baby in the basket!

BMX track...here she comes

Genevieve decided she wanted to learn how to ride her bike without training wheels like her friend Johnny. To our surprise she "got it" really fast. Here she is practicing on the one paved portion of street in our neighborhhod.

Rounding the corner...

I felt so sick about this that I couldn't even blog about it. But now that we've "rounded the corner" so to speak, I finally feel I can share with you. I took Zeke in for his 2 week well-check on Thursday July 12th. To my surprise and horror, he was only 8lbs! He was 8 lbs 10 oz at birth. It is normal for babies to loose some weight (up to 10% is normal), and then they are expected be back to their birth weight within 10 days, then gain about an ounce a day thereafter. Zeke did loose the 10%, but was not gaining it back. At the time of the check-up he should have been close to 9 lbs. The problem is Zeke likes to sleep. He doesn't wake up to eat, nor does he cry when he's hungry. In fact. he doesn't appear to get hungry. So for the last 4 days I have been feeding him more frequently (2.5 hours), doing some pumping to stimulate my milk supply, making sure he get's FULL feedings, and setting the alarm at night to make sure he doesn't go more than 3 hours between night feedings. It has been really stressful, as I felt like I had failed him. I felt the pressure to make every feeding count so he wouldn't wither away.
Finally, we had a follow-up weight check today, and PRAISE GOD he has gained 8 ounces!

Keeping up with this schedule has made me really tired. If I haven't returned your call or e-mail, just know that I am still in a bit of a sleep-deprived fog. The phone has been ringing alot, and I feel like we are doing a lot of "entertaining" as we have had so many visitors (it's a bit exhausting). It has been overwhelming adjusting to life with 3, and to the lack of (or greatly interrupted) sleep. I had forgotten how hard these first few weeks can be. I feel bad for Genevieve & Dane as they have been homebound quite a bit. But slowly we will enter back into society and the normal swing of things.

Oh, and to top off everything - our A/C is broken!!!!! We have someone coming tomorrow to look at it though. Thankfully it has not been too hot these last couple of days.

Due today

Today, July 8th, is my Due Date. But instead we have an 11 day old! Genevieve and Dane have been enjoying the last few days with the grandparents up in Twain Harte, so we have been toting little Zeke around on all kinds of "First" adventures.

At 8 days old he went to his "first" county fair. We went back to the fair to go through the exhibit halls, and look at all the stuff G & D weren't interested in.

At 9 days old he went to his first "Concert in the Park" in downtown Pleasanton to watch The Bell Brothers play....



At 10 days old he went to our houseboat for the first time...


And at 11 days old he went to church for the first time (no picture of that).

Zeke has had a slow start in the eating department. He doesn't wake up to eat, and at first wasn't eating well at all. He had lost more weight than the Dr's like to see, so we have been working hard at the feedings. He is doing better, but we still have to wake him.

He rarely cries, usually just when he has a bubble in his tummy. He is just soooooooooooo sweet. I love to just sit and look at him - he melts my heart.

Meet Zeke

Yeah, he's here! Our precious beautiful baby boy. I can't believe how much I am already in love with him. I think I can now fully appreciate how fast they grow, and I am enjoying every minute of this tiny newborn baby.

For those of you interested in his "birth story" keep reading. If that's TMI for you, stop here!



So I went into labor 12 days early on Tues June 26th. Contractions started mild at about 11:00am, and were about 12 minutes apart. Luke was working in town, so I told him that it looked like it might be happening and to stay close by. My friend Bev came by for lunch at about noon, and the contractions were still consistent. Luke came home and Bev stayed and helped me labor through the contractions that were getting more intense and closer together. We decided to head for the hospital (Kaiser Walnut Creek) at about 5:00pm (right in the middle of rush hour!), but still got there in decent time. I felt like I was pretty far along and was pleased when they skipped triage and took me to a labor/delivery room. I was checked and told I was 7-8 cm, 90 % effaced, but the baby was still high at -3 station. I really wanted that epidural, but was afraid I would need to walk to help get the baby lower, and wouldn’t be able to “help” if I was confined to a bed. I continued to labor for a couple hours, and the contractions became more than I could handle. I started asking for the epidural, then was told the anesthesiologist had just gone to help another patient and it would be another 30-45 minutes before she could get to me. It started to feel like the baby was coming, so the midwife checked me and told me I was still at 8 cm! I actually started to cry at this point. The thought that I wasn’t progressing AND I wasn’t getting the epidural AND the contractions were getting worse, was more than I could handle. After about an hour more of intense laboring I finally got the epidural, and felt like it was the best decision I had ever made. Unfortunately my progress then became sooooooo slow. My contractions before the epidural were REALLY strong and hard, and then decreased intensity after the epidural (from what we could tell by watching the monitor). The midwife broke my water at 9:00pm, and we thought that would finally kick things into gear. Still we just kept waiting and waiting. I was getting impatient, and second-guessing my epidural decision as my cervix still had a tiny lip, and the baby was still somewhat high. I started having Luke and my sister help me sit-up in bed to get the weight of the baby on the cervix to help open it up. Immediately the contractions intensified and got closer together. This did seem to help. Finally at 1:10am the midwife had me do a “practice push” with a contraction. The next thing I know I am full on pushing and our baby was born 3 contractions, or 12 minutes later.
At the time I felt like I had made the right decision about the epidural, I felt like I HAD to have it. But I just know that if I had been able to hold off that the baby would have come a lot sooner. I am convinced that my body just doesn’t labor well on my back. Still, no regrets.



Oh, and the prediction was confirmed that I had a TON of amniotic fluid, so that was probably why I was measuring so huge, and why my belly was so round even at the end of the pregnancy. And I mean A TON of fluid, can you say "open the floodgates..."


So my first baby was 36 hours of labor with epidural (although it didn’t work very well) and 45 min of pushing, second baby was 2 hours of labor without any pain meds and 2 min of pushing, and third baby was 14 hours with epidural and 12 min of pushing.


We STILL hadn't decided on a name when he was born. I think sometime the next day we decided on Zakayo which is the name of a friend in Kenya, and is the Swahili version of the name Zaccheus from the Bible. We thought it was a nice unique name, and has special meaning to us as part of our hearts are in Kenya and the work God is doing there.


It took us another 5 days to decide on a middle name, which is Reed. Yesterday we had to go back to the hospital to finish his birth certificate paperwork. So our sweet little Zakayo Reed Taylor is here. If it's too much for you, you can call him Zeke!

County Fair for Genevieve & Aunt Lisa's birthday

Since we had Genevieve's birthday party early, we still wanted to do something fun on her "actual" birthday which was sunday June 24th. If you didn't know, she shares her birthday with her Aunt Lisa (Luke's sister).
So we met Luke's mom & Danny, and Lisa, Brian & Baby Jake at the fair. Crazy at 38 weeks? Actually it wasn't so bad since the weather was beautiful (meaning not too hot), and there were enough adults to help so that I could take little breaks and sit down. By the end I was definitely tired of the pressure to talk to strangers about my belly at every corner. Luke was amazed at how many people stared and had comments for me. But it has become the norm to me (as I'm sure most of you who have been pregnant remember how it is at the end). The only thing that really surprised me were how many people who seriously asked me if I was having twins. Or the jokesters that asked "how many are in there?" I mean, I know I'm big, but I've never felt the need to talk to strangers about their pregnancies, other than the casual "when are you do" if I happened to be standing next to someone in line for something.
Anyhow, the fair was fun, the kids had a BLAST, and we spent a small fortune.










Later that night (being last night) we actually thought "this is it". At about 1:30am I started having painful contractions right on top of each other - like 2 minutes apart. I was in a panic because it came on so fast, and I knew I couldn't get into the car like that. My worst fear of not making it to the hospital was happening. Fortunately, they subsided after about 10+ minutes. I didn't sleep well after that, thinking they were surely going to start up again at any moment. It was a TOO REAL reminder of what labor feels like, and to be honest I'm a bit of a nervous wreck now. I wish I hadn't had that little glimpse as to what to expect again.

But here I am 24 hours later at 1:00am and nothing so far. What am I doing up you ask? Well, nights scare me at this point. Starting labor during the day doesn't seem as scary for some reason. But in the eery quiet of the night, knowing everyone else is asleep is unsettling to me. So here I am blogging :)

Happy Fathers Day Luke!

We started off the morning with a breakfast fit for a king!




Then we spent the afternoon at Shadowcliffs lake along with 10,000 other people!

37 weeks and getting bigger?

At 37 wks 5 days I had yet another OB appt. I am measuring 41 weeks! What the heck?????

Princess Genevieve Celebrates "5"

We decided to have her party 2 weeks early "just in case" Zambouie decides to come early. An intimate gathering of princesses & princes gathered at the Taylor Castle to decorate wands, have sword fights, and "Slay the Dragon" (pinata). Aunt Lisa made an AMAZING princess cake for the event, and Genevieve had a great time.

36+ weeks

So I had a Dr appointment today and was told I am still measuring over 2 weeks early (or bigger) so I will be having another ultrasound in the next couple of days to make sure I don't have a ginormous baby brewing in there. I did find out that I am dilated 2 cm and am 50% effaced, which really means nothing in terms of WHEN the baby will come. After the appointment however, I started having a lot of low crampy contractions, and it kind of freaked me out. I was able to take a couple hour nap and relax the rest of the evening, and things seemed to have calmed down for now. But it was definitely a reality check that it will be happening soon. Yikes.

Silly Putty Head

This is what happens when you take silly putty to bed with you.



A lot of tears, screaming, coaxing, bribing, internet searching, baby oil, cooking oil spray, rubbing alcohol, conditioner, and about 2 hours of time to get out.




Parents, don't let this stuff into your house.

Another plug...

Our new Grad Sign. This one is a girl, we will also be offering a boy. And coming soon our bear will have the ability to be a grad bear complete with cap and diploma - perfect for Preschool & Kindergarten graduations.

Shameless Plug

I made a new "accessory" for our bear signs for Special Deliveries - a bouquet of flowers. I used it for Teacher Appreciation Day at Genevieve's preschool. The flowers can be customized to say anything you want - Happy Mother's Day, Get Well Soon, Thank You, Go to Prom with Me, We're Proud of You, etc.
Have you seen our new website?
<------ Under "Links" on the left of this blog page
We're still in the tweaking phase, but it's looking great. Thank you Noah!

Taylor Farm is growing...

Luke called me on his way home from Sacramento, and this is how the conversation went.

Luke: I almost called you to ask you something, but I was pretty confident I knew the answer, so I went ahead with it.
Me: Oh no, what did you do?
Luke: I got the kids ducks.
Me: Ducks!?!
Luke: Shhhhh...Don't tell them, I want it to be a surprise
Me: You're kidding right?
Luke: Nope.
Me: Like big ducks? or babies?
Luke: Babies, like 2 week olds. They can live in the coop with the chickens. The guy at the farm supply store said the ducks can just live with our chickens and it's no big deal. Did you know that ducks can't swim until they're like 6 months old? So they would just sink in a pond. But they do drink lot's of water, way more than the chickens, so I got more water feeders.
Me: Don't ducks poop a lot? The kids get chicken poop on their feet everyday as it is. Is our backyard going to have duck poop everywhere?
Luke: I don't know. Probably. We can keep them confined in the dog-run, that was out intentions with the chickens.
Me: We can hardly keep the chickens out of our house, let alone inside the dogrun.
Luke: I thought the kids would like them.
Me: Um okay, but I wish you would have called, because I don't think you knew what my answer would have been :)