My milkshake brings no boys to the yard...

*disclaimer*- this post deals with breast feeding. Translation: dad, just look at the pictures and skip reading to avoid learning too much about your daughters boobs.

So after Tyson was born, I struggled (and by struggled, I mean constantly nursing/pumping while sitting in the same chair weeping and scaring the crap out of my husband) for 6 weeks trying to make enough milk for my hungry baby. This time, I was determined to have a different and more positive experience. I talked to lactation consultants before Nolan was born, started taking herbs, basically anything I could think of short of giving my girls a daily pep talk. Things started out great but at Nolan's 1 week appointment, we quickly learned that we were headed down the same road. His weight was down almost an entire pound and he was extremely jaundiced (24 on day 8 of life for those of you who are interested in the numbers). I was completely disheartened but still determined. So week two began with a bili blanket (a special light to help decrease jaundice) ...

and the pump. After a week of pumping my brains out around the clock, I sought help from a doctor who specializes in breast feeding problems. Ultimately, I found out that I am physically unable to breast feed and no amount of medications/herbs/interventions can change it. In layman's terms, my boobs have a tumbleweed rolling through them.

I won't lie, I was devastated. I preach the importance/enjoyment of breast feeding daily at my job and it seemed ironic that I wouldn't able to do it. Though it may seem silly to some, this is something I have to grieve. I am allowing myself to be sad but remembering that I am lucky to have a healthy baby...and lucky that we can afford the formula to feed him.

Luckily this face helps.

Nolan Dale

Meet the newest addition to the Haak House

Nolan Dale Haak

Born October 16th, 2011

7lb 1oz 19 1/2 inches long

It all happened like this. After a super fun bout with what I thought was labor on Saturday morning, I was convinced I was destined to go past my due date. That night I made the decision to take a sleeping pill (perfectly safe for pregnancy I promise) and within two hours I woke up in actual labor. Arrived at the hospital around 2;30 am and this little nugget was born a 5:23. Though extremely intense, I am lucky to have such fast and uncomplicated deliveries. I was completely shocked when someone yelled, "it's a boy!" but I'm really thrilled.

Tyson is pretty smitten too...

I promise I'm not actually naked in that picture

Here's to our new adventure.

A cowboy wedding

Jason's brother Darel recently got married and it was no surprise to anyone that he and Cassie were going to throw a great big cowboy wedding. Everyone in our little family was able to participate. Jason was a groomsman, Tyson the ring bearer and I got to play piano for the ceremony. As for the fetus, well...he/she just decided to have enough of a growth spurt to make the 12 hour drive extremely uncomfortable.

Tyson was so excited to wear his wedding clothes. The first thing he said was, "hey, I look like uncle Darel!" (he totally did).

He was a total trooper when he had to wait and wait for everyone else to get ready. (He was actually a trooper for the whole thing)

If you look closely, his belt says "Haak" on the butt. It was Jason's when he was little.

Of course, I remembered to get a picture of my two cowboys but forgot to get a family shot...turns out having pictures taken of myself at 34 weeks pregnant wasn't high on my to do list.

During pre-ceremony pictures Tyson found a few ways to entertain himself...

Of course the dinosaurs had to make an appearance.

And because I was too busy playing piano during the ceremony, I wasn't able to get any pictures of the couple. The only one I ended up with was from the reception.

Congrats Darel and Cassie!!!

temporary update

So this summer has disappeared almost as fast as my waistline and I still haven't improved my blogging frequency. We've been on the go quite a bit and this whole growing another human seems to have sucked some of my blogging mojo/energy up. We have one last trip to South Dakota for my brother-in-law's wedding and then I'll be free to start nesting. In the meantime, I thought I'd leave you with a couple of pictures from our recent trip to Minnesota. Tyson was able to play with all of his cousins (a rarity) and loved every second of it. I will include more pictures at a later date but for now this will have to do.

The youngest three cousins 'swimming'

Because even badass superheroes have fun jammies.

Scenes of summer

Our summer is flying by with a flurry of activities along with the joy of just hanging out outside (when it's not 100 degrees anyway). I know I will have many more things to post and talk about but for now, here's a few images of what we've been up to lately.

25 weeks

So here's the belly at 25 + weeks. I opted to crop my head out of the picture as taking a self portrait while maintaining a less than ridiculous face proved to be too much of a challenge. Other than some mildly uncomfortable reflux and some varicose veins that would make my grandma proud, it's been a pretty good couple of months. I haven't horked up my lunch in weeks and am probably at the most energetic part of the pregnancy. I still (and always will) think I should be able to do way more than I can actually accomplish but I really can't complain. Also, Tyson has finally stopped telling people there's a dinosaur in my belly. Cheers.

Still living in the land of dinosaurs...

Jason's mom, step-dad and sister traveled all the way from South Dakota last week. In addition to completing almost all of our 'before baby to-do list' in the house (painting walls, stripping the deck, some serious deep cleaning etc), we also made the 100 mile trek to Chicago for a day. Our first stop was the Field Museum which housed a very impressive dinosaur exhibit. You can imagine what kind of reaction we got from our dinosaur obsessed child.

Even being chased by a flying Pteranodon didn't deter him from plugging along.

Meeting T-rex Sue was the best part of the whole day...and other than a brief attempt at stealing Sue's tooth from an elderly museum employee, all went pretty well.

After wearing ourselves out at the museum, we headed to the Shedd Aquarium.

Of course, nothing truly lives up to a full sized t-rex (or your grandparents and aunt buying all kinds of fun at the dinosaur gift shop) but there was some pretty neat stuff there as well.

Best parts of the day= spending a really fun day with family.

=going to places I've never been (always up for new stuff!)

=watching the person I love most in the world have the best day in the world.