Monday, September 2, 2013

Monday, September 2nd, 2013

Happy Labor Day Everyone!

Today we took Nolan down to Des Moines to visit great aunt & uncle LaVonne and Gary.  He did really well today on his third car trip ever (first was Parkersburg, second Eben & Lynn's place).  He slept all the way down there, was a good boy for LV & Gary, he slept while Elizabeth and I grabbed lunch at A&W, and he slept during the car ride back home.  He's such a good boy!

Nolan with his Awesome like Auntie shirt :)
LaVonne holding Nolan

Then last night Elizabeth and I finally opened the last bottle of wine that we brought back from our honeymoon (I think we had brought back one bottle of white wine that we drank right away, and this bottle of red wine).  It was fun thinking back to our honeymoon :)

Our honeymoon bottle of wine



Sunday, September 1, 2013

Sunday, September 1st, 2013

Today is a day of recovery after a very hot and disappointing season opening football game for Iowa State.  After being favored by 9 and 1/2 points, the Cyclones were upset by the UNI Panthers, 28-20.

Iowa State's young defense just could not stop the Panther's David Johnson.  The Junior running back ran for 199 yards and two touchdowns and also caught a pair of touchdown passes.  Plenty of poor tackling from Iowa State was seen as well :(

The day itself was incredibly hot as the fans suffered through mid-90 degree weather all day while tailgating.  We waited to arrive at the tailgate until around 3:00, but within a half hour from being outside I was already sweating quite a bit.  Usually we try and play a few games while tailgating, but yesterday we spent mostly huddled in the shade under tents. I went with Tim Nevins, his girlfriend Lydia, Dan Becker, and Jeremy Seago.  Elizabeth stayed home with Nolan.  This was definitely too hot of a day for our little guy to be outside.

Nolan all dressed up for Cyclone gameday!
This Second quarter TD pass from Sam Richardson to James White made the score 21-14 UNI.


Cole Netten's second career field goal makes the score 21-20 UNI. It was looking like Iowa State was making a good comeback until Johnson scored his 4th TD of the game in the fourth quarter on a 29-yard pass from UNI quarterback Sawyer Kollmorgen.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Monday, August 26th, 2013

This past weekend we took Nolan on his first overnight adventure.  Saturday morning we left Ames and headed up north to my parents' farm.  We arrived around 9 in the morning, and at lunch time we had quite a few family members stop by to meet him for the first time.  Great grandpa Dick, Terry, Deb, Becky, Great grandma Natalie, Susan, Chris and Marcia all got to meet him for the first time.  Amy also made the drive over from Omaha for all of the fun. 

Great grandpa Dick with Nolan :)
Eben is still getting used to being called grandpa
Great grandma Natalie and Nolan
Four generations of Saltons
Elizabeth took Nolan for a walk around the farm and let him meet the horses





Today I'm also looking forward to the start of Cyclone football season.  It's only 5 more days until Iowa State kicks off against UNI!

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Sunday, August 18th, 2013

Nolan is 5 weeks old today!!  He's been such a well behaved baby recently.  On Friday night he actually was able to sleep for 5 straight hours which is technically "sleeping through the night"... that was awesome to get a little extra sleep :)  Friday was also the first time that he was able to meet his Aunt & Uncle Amy and Brandon.  They came over around noon while I was at work and got to hang out with our little guy all afternoon.  That night we took him out to a restaurant for the first time to West Street Deli, and he was a very good boy.  Then Saturday we took him on his first road trip as we drove to Parkersburg for the annual Kevin Kyhl golf benefit.  There he got to see grandma Becky, her brother Kenny, and a couple of Elizabeth's cousins (Alissa and Jenna).  It seems like Nolan enjoys going for car rides because he was able to sleep for most of the drive to and from Parkersburg.  I think the bumpiness of the car ride puts him to sleep.

Amy with Nolan for the first time :)
Brandon meeting Nolan
Great Uncle Kenny with Nolan.  Check out Nolan's Iowa State onesie.
Elizabeth and Nolan at the golf outing
Nolan was a sleepy baby!

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Sunday, August 11th, 2013

Today Nolan is officially 4 weeks old, and it seems like that time has flew by!  The highlights of today for our little guy included going for a walk around the neighborhood in his stroller, getting some play time in on his play mat, and he just got done with a bath! 


Here is a YouTube video of him playing :)
Today is also his aunt Sarah's birthday.  Happy 42nd Sarah!

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Sunday, July 28th, 2013

As of today Nolan is now two weeks old!  He's been doing very well and is gaining weight like a healthy baby boy should.  He's also been waking up mommy & daddy quite often during nighttime (which is to be expected).  He's had a lot of visitors over this past week... Aunt Rachael met him last Monday, Grandma Kyhl got to see him for a second time Tuesday, Elizabeth's co-workers Tara & Kristina got to meet him, Tim Nevins was here yesterday, and Erick Ude stopped by this afternoon. 

Our main struggle to date has been finding time to get enough sleep for ourselves... Elizabeth has been trying to take naps here and there when he is napping during the day.  He was pretty fussy this afternoon, but I was able to get him to sleep for over two hours while I held him on my chest.  Of course an hour and a half of that time we were watching the full replay of ISU football vs #2 Oklahoma State 2011 on YouTube, so I like to think that the Cyclone football is what calmed him down and got him to rest :) 

Aunt Rachael meeting Nolan for the first time!
Quality time for Nolan with Grandma :)
Taking Nolan for a stroll around the neighborhood.
Erick with Nolan.
Erick gave Nolan some awesome Harry Potter themed clothes!
Nolan & mommy :)

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Wednesday, July 17th, 2013

NOLAN EBEN SALTON was born on 2:11 p.m. this past Sunday, July 14th :)

That's right!  Our little bundle of joy has finally arrived, and Elizabeth and myself could not be happier.  We have been pretty exhausted these past few days, but I guess it takes a little getting used to having a newborn baby in the house.  We've been looking forward to this for a long time now.  It's been hard to keep his name a secret as well, so it's a relief to finally say Nolan!!  Let's review how this all went down for the record...

Elizabeth and I were just minding our own business on Saturday night the 13th of July.  For supper I made Elizabeth some fettuccine alfredo with spinach, and then we relaxed with a Law & Order marathon on TV.  We also munched on some Cheetos, which was the last thing Elizabeth ate before all the fun started.  We were just getting ready for bed (around 11 or just after) when Elizabeth's water broke!  We quickly gathered up what things we could think of, and headed off to the hospital (we left the house at 11:11).  By the time we were getting settled into our hospital room at 11:30, Christian and Becky had already found out that we were there (they had a tracking app on their iphones that sent a notification when we headed towards the hospital).

Elizabeth was not yet having contractions when we got to the hospital, so we walked a few laps around the birthing floor to get things moving.  Shortly thereafter her contractions started.  They were still light, and we had the idea to try and lay down to rest (since we had been up all day)... but that didn't work as she would have a painful contraction every 5-10 minutes.  So we ended up staying awake all night as her contractions grew in intensity.  She took two separate baths that night to ease her low back pain.  By morning, her pain was significant, but she was only dilated to 3 centimeters.  She ended up having an epidural between 7:45 and 8:00.  At the time, the anesthesiologist was available, but if she had waited he would not have been able to return until 4 hours later.  The epidural was great for Elizabeth, as it eased her pain but still managed to allow her to move her legs.  More importantly though, it allowed her to sleep for about an hour or hour and a half.  Eventually they administered pitocin, which really got her contractions moving along.  By noon she was at 8 to 9 centimeters, and she was still not in much pain.  She was given the green light to start pushing at 1:15, and within an hour (at 2:11), our little man was here.  They told us in the hospital that most first time mothers will take two to three hours to push, so Elizabeth did quite well in that respect.

Other things to note: The midwife who delivered Nolan was Alice May.  We stayed in room 477.  We were discharged from the hospital yesterday, the 16th.

Nolan weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces at birth, and he was 20 inches long.





Other information about the day and time that Nolan was born:

  • July's birthstone is a Ruby
  • The Zodiac sign for July 14th is Cancer (between June 21st and July 22nd)
  • A gallon of milk at Hy-Vee in Ames was $3.19
  • A gallon of gasoline in Ames was $3.49
  • Ames, IA weather saw a high of 86 degrees and a low of 61 degrees on 7/14/13
  • The #1 song on the Billboard top 100 was "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke featuring T.I and Pharrell.  I had never heard of this song until now, and I must say that it is quite terrible IMO, and painful to listen to.
  • Other celebrity birthdays of 7/14/13 include Jane Lynch, Matthew Fox (star on ABC's show LOST), Gerald Ford (38th president of the United States), and Darrelle Revis (NFL cornerback).