Seth Clinton Cunningham

WARNING!! This blog will contain extreme baby content. Please proceed only if you wish to possibly experience proud parent overload and biased opinions.

Seth and Em

As many of you know, we celebrated a new addition to the Cunningham Family - Seth Clinton Cunningham. I know, the name isn't Noah....but Emily made the mistake of asking me for the official name moments after his birth. I could have been greedy and attempted "Louie Sakoda Cunningham" but I decided to go with a name we had in our top 2. My real naming plan was simple : If it was a chubby kid who looked like a pushover, it would be Noah. If it was a kid that looked like he would be a handful, it would be Seth. His first few minutes confirmed it was the right choice.

Daddy's Little Boxer...so named for his sweet little gloves

The overall labor experience went much better that we could have hoped, with Emily only having to push through 4 contractions once she was properly dilated. While risking too much information (and possibly a punch from my wife), she actually did a practice push prior to our Doctor arriving and the nurse had to stop her quickly when the top of Seth’s head started to pop out.

There are many more stories to go along with the birth and subsequent days but I seriously doubt most people reading this would truly care. Parents tend to think everything related to their kid is amazing/fascinating to other people but in reality, its not. This doesn’t stop me from being extremely proud and borderline weepy when Seth had a bowel movement after 36 hours of nothing but it keeps me from sharing even more of the story. Instead, I will just leave a bunch of pictures and video for you to enjoy. Side Note – Seth is the cutest baby I have ever seen….and I am unbiased. Emily agrees.

He was 7 pounds 12 ounces, and was 19 1/2 inches long.

No, I am not really a Royals Fan but I like the shirt.

Aunt Char and Seth. Yes, we are related. We both get asked that all the time.

Jon and Bri. This duo brought us Subway and conversation. Both very needed.

Poor Emily's home for 2 days.

Seth had a cone head for a few days, but I mainly wanted to show the side part that Bri gave him. Thanks Bri.

Aunt Kaylyn and Grandpa David. Seth is already as tall as Kaylyn.

One of the first times I held Seth. Notice how snugly I am holding him, think I was afraid of dropping him?

Me watching TV. Poor Em got to watch the World Cup while in labor....and ever since.

Bri, Coney and Jon's hands.

Another Aunt Char and Seth. For some reason, all of her shots turned out well while the rest look like they were taken during an earthquake. Char must be photogenic...or I suck at taking pictures.

I love this shot, Em and her son. Both did amazing.

Nana C and Seth. I have a suspicion she managed to sneak him sugar without me seeing.

Grandpa C and Seth. Looks like Seth already had more hair than you...I know baldness jokes are easy but I can't resist.

Me and Seth. My hand looks huge.

This is one that Em will probably get mad that I put up but I think they both look beautiful.

The Seth Team. She had the baby, I ate all the complimentary ice cream and diet Coke I could find in the "nourishment room".

No, those are not my legs. This is Em holding Seth at home. He is drowning in that bib.

This was his face shortly after delivery. His face was somewhat swollen.

Proud Dad and Utah Seth at his first Pediatrician's appointment. I think that look on his face was left over from his rectal tempature check.

My baby is cuter than yours. Admit it.

Seth shortly after birth. No, he didn't come out with the hat already on.

Mom and Baby. Baby pooping while mom holds him.

Mom being awesome with her little boy. He is a lucky kid.

Seth

Oh Baby, Baby, Baby!!!

Obviously, these last few months have been spent doing nothing but thinking about, talking about, and doing stuff for our coming baby. It is a little crazy that the weird baby countdown ticker thing that we have on our blog is already down to 19 days. It's amazing that it's so close now even though this pregnancy has gone very VERY slowly.

Clint and I have spent a lot of time getting the nursery ready.

Clint repainted and replaced the ceiling fan and I hung a few fun pictures. I think the room is just about ready for our baby to come!

Some very kind people threw me some baby showers in the past few weeks. I can't believe how generous people have been. We got some really really great things. Here are a couple of things that Clint was able to take pictures of before I got in my nesting phase and got everything put away.

Look at ALL the clothes we got!

I've got some pretty talented friends!

My friend Marie stitched the white onesie and my other friend Holly made the yellow one. I think these are so cute and can't wait to put our baby in them!



My friend Holly also made this adorable car seat cover. I love it!



Clint's friends from Anserfone bought this cute baby swing for us as well. I love the pattern!

So interesting story...I went to Carter's with my mom a little while ago and saw this little shark outfit and took a picture of it to show Clint. I didn't end up buying it though. My good friend Briana stopped by a few days later with a gift and, what do ya know, one of the outfits she had picked out was the shark outfit! Love it!

This little kid is off to a good start! Check out all the fun shoes he already has!

His mommy is so proud!

Just a couple of pics...

Here are a few pictures. I've been a slacker and haven't really been posting much:

This has become Molly's new favorite spot to hang out. She will stay on this couch all day long. I'm wondering if she has arthritis or something because she refuses to move from this couch unless I have food to give her. Very odd.

Clint found the "take home" outfit for our baby. He doesn't put his foot down on ANYTHING! Until now. He has absolutely refused to allow me to put our baby in a BYU onesie. I'm thinking that's a little unfair!

I hate the belly shots but I knew I needed to take them for our baby to see later on. This is in my 30th week...

This is in my 37th week...you can't tell in this picture but my feet are starting to swell! It's almost comical to look at them. When the weather gets stormy (which it has been lately) my feet look like two loaves of french bread with little toes on the end. So awesome! Let me tell you.

This past Saturday Clint talked my little sister into coming over to help with our yardwork. I have been anxious to get some flowers planted and the beds weeded. Between the three of us we got everything done in 3 hours. Not bad. The only problem was that the little kids next door (who are babysat by the fire hydrant) decided it would be fun to trample my flowers the next day even after I asked them not to. Clint and I caught them red-handed when we came home from church and found them pulling petals off the flowers in the corner of the yard. I was pretty furious and we marched right over there and talked to their parents about it. They have stayed out of the yard since then...for the most part. Then we had some unlucky snow the following day but Clint dashed outside in his barefeet and covered all the plants with grocery bags. They are still alive...for now!

Long-time Goal Accomplished!

Some of you may know that I have been working in the Human Resources profession for awhile. I debated telling the whole long story of how I ended up in HR in the first place but decided it wasn't all that interesting to anyone but me. Long story short...a job that was haphazardly thrown in my lap several years ago became a career I really enjoy.

In the HR industry there are a few national certifications that can be acheived. It's a way to be recognized in the industry as one who has a high level of practical experience and knowledge of HR practices, laws, etc....all that boring stuff that the rest of you probably don't care to know. When I learned of the PHR certification (Professional in Human Resources) I really wanted to get it. Why? You ask. Pretty much because I'm weird like that.

In my previous job I worked so many hours a week that I never had time to prepare for the test. In my current job I don't work quite as many hours but there always seemed to be something going on that would make me push the PHR certification to the side. But early this year one of my coworkers told me she was going to take a class to prepare for the PHR test and asked if I wanted to take it with her. I was about 6 months pregnant and decided if I didn't bite the bullet and try for the certification now, I would probably never do it! So I signed up for an 11 week class, studied and studied, studied some more and then took the test on May 6th.

Let me just say...this is NO easy test. You have to have a certain number of years' experience in the profession before they will even allow you to take the test. And it isn't one of those where you spend several days memorizing things just so you can regurgitate it on the test and then forget it once you walk out of the testing center. The test relies heavily on the practical experience you should already have and incorporates all these crazy hypothetical situations where you have to apply everything you know.

BUT...

I'm proud to say that I passed! It's official. I am now

Emily Cunningham, PHR.

Here's the official certificate I received in the mail:

And here I am almost 9 months pregnant and SOOOO glad that I have tackled this project now before my life will be forever changed by this little "thing" growing inside me! I'm sure Clint is super happy this test is behind me now as well. Because I was nothing but a stress ball as I studied for the exam. And he was so incredibly supportive through the whole thing! Gotta love having a husband like that!