tough mudder

it was just about eight months ago that my older brother ken informed me that he was doing this thing called the "tough mudder" with some people from his work. i initially laughed at the idea - a twelve mile long obstacle course through mud, ice cold water, and the occasional electrically charged wire? never in a million years would i do such a thing. number one, i have never been a long distance runner. i played football - any running over a hundred yards was a flag for excessive celebration. long distance running equals pointless and boring. (that thought process is probably why i'm a good fifty pounds heavier than when i graduated high school, but anyways.) number two, i am a texan at heart - the only place for the words "ice cold" are in front of the words "root beer". cold and i do not go together well. and number three, i must sadly admit that i am an old man, far past my prime. as much as i love obstacle courses, my days of jumping over walls and getting electrocuted for fun should be over. all that being said, the more i thought about it, the more my excuses started to melt away.

first, i had eight months to get ready for this thing. plenty of time to get back in shape. if i ever wanted to lose some of these excess fifty pounds, i was going to have to force myself into working out. what better way than to sign up for a twelve mile run? secondly... well nothing was going to change my mind on the "ice cold" thing. cold stinks. but maybe if i dressed warm enough... and finally, if my brother (who is ten years my senior) was going to do this, how could i not? in addition to all that, us guys need the occasional crazy and stupid adventure. so with some gentle prodding from ken and my younger brother kyle, i said yes and the three of us signed up.

procrastination is a funny thing. it's amusing to look back at think how i had said, "i'll start training six months before the race", and how it quickly changed to "three months", and then, "i really only need a month of serious training." well to my credit, i did pretty good at training that last month, but i did only get myself up to three miles, not exactly comforting knowing i had to run four times that distance while doing obstacles as well. at least i finally got to use my cool nike plus running shoes which i had owned, unused, for the past five years or so.

the big day finally arrived, and of course, it was a "lovely", cold, rainy day. with fear and trepidation, ken, kyle and i made our way out to the course, the spot i was sure we would be calling our final resting place. :) we began the challenge and within a half mile we were facing our first two obstacles. first a crawl under some barbed wire through some nice, wet mud while being sprayed with a giant hose, and then a jump into a giant tub of ice cold water. now there were a lot of challenging obstacles that day, but that is the obstacle that i feared the most, and the obstacle that i, for a moment, thought i would die. my body absolutely locked up for a second and i feared they would need to drag me out of there. somehow i got out and continued on.

there was a total of twenty or so obstacles over the twelve mile course. some of the more memorable obstacles were the electric eel (an army crawl under barbed wire through mud and electric wires shocking you the whole way), the funky monkey (a set of monkey bars that sloped upward, then back downward, made harder because each rung was covered in mud from those who went before us - i made it half way before falling in the water - mad props to kyle for making it the whole way), walk the plank (a jump off a fifteen foot high ledge into a pool of water), everest (a giant quarter pipe we had to run up), and finally electroshock therapy (a sprint through a field of live wires, some of which carried a 10,000 volt shock). i have some good "before" pictures, but unfortunately no "after" pictures. (the company taking pictures charges $25 for one picture - ridiculous.)

i learned a lot that day. first, i really don't like the cold. really, really don't. second, a little training is a whole lot better than no training. while i may have only been doing a little running, ken and kyle didn't really do a thing to get ready for this, and sure enough, their bodies began to lock up on them near the end. all i could do was laugh and throw mud at them. that being said, i also learned that my brothers are studs. despite being completely unprepared for the long distance, they made it the entire way, something i still barely did even though i had trained a lot for it. that's heart folks. you can't teach that. i do love my brothers and am grateful for the bonding time. next time we just need dad, dan, hank, and justin out there with us. :)

i'm not actually in this video, but it's from our day and shows some of the obstacles we had to do. i think you can see ken's face in the back at one point (you can't really tell in the low quality video i got here, but check it out on youtube. it's at 1:53, in the mud in the background between the standing guy's arm - we were right behind the guy in the wheelchair on this obstacle, so i'm pretty sure that's ken :) ).

Fall Fun Family Home Evening

For Family Home Evening this last Monday we went to a corn maze near our home. We went a little earlier in the evening so it would still be light outside and we ended up being pretty much the only people there at that time so we had the place to ourselves! :) They had a little garden center set up with some small games for kids before you get to the corn maze. Claire loved doing the duck races and was sad when we wanted to move on. We ended up going back to the ducks a couple times that evening. :)

We wanted to let Claire do the tractor barrel ride and since we were the only ones there I got to ride it too! It was fun for Claire (and slow and too long for me), but it took Claire's mind of the ducks for a moment. :)

 Then we got to the corn maze. They had a fun little clue game thing for kids. We had to find these posts with different footprints on top and etched them onto our little papers to find out which animals were the criminals... it was interesting, but it gave us something to do inside the maze.

 We made it out and got our picture taken as ghosts. Everett was there too, but slept the whole time.
We saw the ducks one more time and then after buying Claire her own little duck we went home. :)

football

some day, in the not so distant future, my kids will look at me and see the old and feeble man i will have become. i'll tell them stories about how once upon a time i was a pretty darn good football player. then they'll look at my huge gut and they will just laugh. so you'll have to forgive me for doing yet another football blog so i'll have something to show those darn rascals. i do try to limit these blogs to once a year.

now that we have a couple kids, amber can't make it to many games, but we got a baby sitter for everett so amber and claire could come to one game. there is nothing better than playing football and looking over and seeing your family there cheering you on.

the differences between boys and girls

or at least the differences between everett and claire.

which are many. here are some of those observed differences.

with boys, it is imperative that you change that diaper fast. there is no time to mess around. but if you must mess around a little, keep your mouth closed. girls may pose the same risk of peeing on you, but the risk of getting shot in the face is greatly enhanced with him than it ever was with her. it is not a pleasant experience.

he loves to sleep on his tummy. claire hated it, which is probably why she had a flat head and we almost got her one of those helmet things. i don't believe he'll have that problem. i just wish we could let him sleep all night on his stomach and not worry.

just found out today my boy seems to like sir mix-a-lot. boys just must have a better ear for good music. too bad i only know the first line of that much-famous song, but he doesn't seem to mind the repetition.

he cries so much harder than claire ever did. so, so much harder. his face turns what i lovingly call "barnie purple" when he really gets into it. he does tire himself out before vomiting though, which isn't something we could say about claire.

he is so much better at not spitting up than claire was. i know it's still early, so knock on wood, but he is the occasional teaspoon seeping out while claire was a raging volcano of regurgitated breast milk.

claire always seemed to have a smile on her face as she slept. everett seems to have a permanent scowl. i always feel like i'm doing something stupid and he just doesn't know what to do with me. if these faces are any indications of how they'll be as teenagers, anyone want to adopt to a little boy? :)

he's a grunter. even when he seems to be asleep. it's like watching a bad episode of 'home improvement' all night long.

and speaking of sleeping, claire was such a good sleeper. we were actually worried about her sleeping too much and skipping her feedings during the night. not so much with him. if it's been over an hour, it's time to eat. he's going to be a chunky one. he already has a double chin and is working on the triple. i just don't know where he gets it from. speaking of food... it's 4 am. i'm hungry. what do we have to eat?

all that being said, they definitely do have their similarities as well. they are both the cutest, most precious, and most loveable kids that we have ever laid our eyes on. we love these children so much. :)

this might be me just a little

Life With Two...

...is hard. I guess I'm still in the recovery phase so once that uncomfortableness finally goes away it won't seem as bad, but right now I'm looking at all those moms with more than just two kids and I'm just amazed. How do they do it? How did my mom manage 11 of us? How do they ever leave the house or get anything done? I'm sure it gets easier, just like when Claire was a newborn I wondered the same thing, but we managed and I found time to do things for myself that time, so I'm sure we'll figure things out this time too. :)

So I realized it was time for an update on our blog, but things have been pretty quiet around here. We've mostly stayed indoors and have spent our time relaxing and getting to know our new baby. I've realized I haven't taken as many pictures of Everett as I did with Claire (something I promised myself I wouldn't do with my kids so I'm busting out the camera as soon as I finish writing! ). I wanted to write a little bit about him though and his first few weeks with us.

 He has been a good baby. He eats great and is growing fast. At his two week appointment he weighed 9 lbs 5 ounces and had already grown an inch. That put him in the 90th percentile for height and 75th percentile for weight. He doesn't sleep as well as Claire did (she slept 5 hours her first night home), but I'm sure he's probably more normal and I was just lucky with her. He wakes up and eats every two or three hours like he's set an alarm clock and he expects food as soon as it goes off. :)

 Another reason why he doesn't sleep well is he really likes to sleep on his tummy. I let him take naps on his tummy during the day when I can watch him, but when I put him to sleep in the bassinet, I try swaddling him up real good like I did with Claire, but he fights it and wakes up often.

Everett makes a lot of faces like most newborns I'm sure, but he does have this funny permanent scowl a lot of the time. Even in his sleep he scowls sometimes. I've already seen a few hints of a smile though, so I'm sure those scowls won't stay there long. :)

Claire has been really good with Everett. She hasn't shown any signs of jealousy and she's been interested in him, but not too interested. I haven't worried about her trying to pick him up by his head or anything. She loves to get down on the ground with him and just look at him. Sometimes she'll want us to move out of the way so he'll look just at her. She thinks all the noises he makes are funny and she'll try to imitate them. And she has been so helpful getting things for me if I'm nursing and can't reach something.

Things are settling down. We're getting used to things with two kids. And I'm enjoying this newborn phase with Everett. I remember how quickly it passes. Pretty soon he will be sleeping through the night, but he won't be sleeping as much through the day and then I'll really be busy. :)

Everett Tyler Bryson

Introducing...

Everett Tyler Bryson

born August 22, 2012

10:39pm

8 lbs 3 oz

20 inches

Pregnancy...

I didn't take any growing belly shots like I did with Claire, but we did attempt to take some maternity pictures at about 36 weeks along. I just didn't like how they turned out so much so I never posted any.
First of all, I have to say I don't love being pregnant, even though I'm one of those lucky ones that doesn't get sick during the first trimester. I do love feeling those first small kicks though, before the kicks get stronger and uncomfortable. Everett was super active and kicked a lot... I'm pretty sure he was more active than Claire. During one doctor's appointment, the doctor was trying to hear the heartbeat. He never actually got a good listen but called it good anyway, since we could see him kicking my belly and moving around like crazy.

Birth story...

This birth story was completely different from Claire's. With Claire I was induced a week overdue and not dilated or effaced at all. And then, after a long labor, she came by c-section. So throughout this pregnancy I knew I wanted to have a VBAC, and the doctors were optimistic, but they kept telling me it just depended on whether or not the baby came on time. Well at our 36 week appointment, I was 1.5 cm dilated and about 60 percent effaced. Then a week later I was at a 3, so this really excited me. I was definitely feeling contractions, more than I ever did with Claire. I kind of assumed, since I was already at a 3, this baby would be coming early, but I stayed at a 3 for the next two weeks. Then, at our 39 week appointment, they stripped my membranes for the second time (they had done this the week before). Our appointment was Tuesday afternoon, and I was told there wasn't any change from the week before, which left me feeling very frustrated. They were talking about how next appointment they would schedule the c-section if he hadn't come by then. That evening I was feeling contractions, but nothing different from what I had been feeling the previous week and a half. Scott and I went on a walk that night and then Scott left to play basketball and I headed to bed. My contractions were always worse at night and I'd woken up to them before, but they usually went away after a little bit and I'd fall back to sleep. That night though they were pretty consistent. They weren't painful, but they were keeping me from sleeping. They started getting a little more painful and closer together around 4 a.m. I was timing them and they were about 5 minutes apart, but I didn't think they were painful enough for it to be the real thing, so I debated for a long time whether I should wake up Scott or not. I'd never gone through this with Claire, so I had no idea what I should be waiting for. I  was really worried about going to the hospital and being sent away. Finally, around 6:30, I woke up Scott (he had only slept for 2 or 3 hours) and told him we might want to go in. The nice thing about living in my parents basement... we just had to run upstairs and let them know we were leaving and they were able to take care of Claire for us while we were gone. :) 

We got to the hospital around 7, checked in, and got comfortable (well as comfortable as I could). They then checked me to see how far dilated I was, and to my disappointment, there had been no change since the day before. They could see that my contractions were regular and painful though so they decided to keep me. They gave me an epidural (which didn't want to work on my left side) and kept checking me every hour or so. I progressed slowly and around noon I think I was about 5 cm dilated and the doctors were trying to convince me to let them break my water. Because of my experience last time, I was hesitant about letting them break my water, but everything was going so different this time, and the doctor was confident that breaking my water would help, so I let them. The nurses kept checking every hour or two and I had progressed like half a centimeter every time. I had made it to a 7 and then I remember the contractions were really strong and painful (I felt them all in my left side). The nurses decided to check again and said I was complete and ready to push! That brought a smile to our faces! I started pushing around 7 or 7:30 and 3 hours later... I was still pushing. I was getting so tired and had pushed for so long they decided to use forceps to help guide him out. Just a few more hard pushes later and at 10:39 p.m. Everett was here. :)

The next day Grandma and Grandpa brought Claire to visit at the hospital and see baby Everett. She was so excited and happy to see the baby when she first got there and then quickly lost interest and started playing with buttons and drawers and cupboards and everything else interesting in our recovery room. :) 

Everett is doing so well and Claire is adjusting to him really well also. She loves to give him kisses and make sure he has a paci or the music is playing on his swing. It's cute to see her with him.  Everything seems a little easier this time with the recovery and nursing and everything. The only thing that has been a little interesting is figuring out how to juggle two kids. :)