Love

I would never have believed how much our lives would change these last few weeks. I find myself just staring at our little man so that I'll never forget his little tiny smiles, puckered lips, and newborn stretches. (His signature move is a fist pump/knock combo straight into the air. He’s either knocking on an invisible door or celebrating his first victories of life, I can’t decide which).

Sure I’ve been extra emotional lately, but I decided that there is nothing better than watching your husband love on your new precious baby. Of course I’ve always loved Chris, but seeing him with Hayes these last few weeks has been amazing and my love for him has surpassed any expectations I’ve ever had! It’s like he was born to be a dad. Thanks for taking such good care of us and for holding my hand during my late night break downs!

So our baby is over three weeks old now and is the sweetest thing. At his two week app. he was almost back to his birth weight, 8lbs. 7 oz. now (39%) and is 22 in. long (90%) with a little head (27%).

Operation Billibed

There is absolutely nothing worse than watching your child scream and not be able to do anything about it. Absolutely nothing! Hayes’ first four days of life were spent in this little torture chamber.

Basically the only times this little champ cried his first two weeks of life was when he was hungry or strapped to the darn Billiebed. We were up night after night trying to comfort him in his bed and bounce it the best we could. Knowing that all he wanted was to be held and that we couldn’t get him out to snuggle on him made his momma cry right along with him. Poor thing!

Day 3 of life, jaundice level 11

Day 4-17

Day 5-15

Day 6-14.7

Day 7-14.2

Labor

After all those episodes of “Bringing Home Baby” and “A Baby Story” on TLC, I was prepared for whatever torture the big delivery day might bring. Watching the screaming, cursing women go through their 5 days of labor got me in the mindset that I could conquer any near death experience that was going to come my way. I was surprisingly prepared for a painfully horrific labor.

“Chris, wake up. I think my water just broke," I couldn’t hide the tone of giddiness in my voice. Chris opened his eyes a little, turned his head to face me, and gave me a hello-my-sleep-is-precious look. Then, just as fast as he registered what I was saying his expression changed from sleep deprived to astonishment. “I was having a dream I was chasing someone and I peed my pants,” I continued without a pause, “but it was really just my water breaking.” By this time Chris was up and grabbing our things to start our adventure. It was 5:00 in the morning and my contractions didn’t start for an hour or so, so we took our time getting ready for the hospital.

When we got there, the nurse told me I was still dilated to a 2 ½ (same as my appointment the day before when Dr. Beirer striped my membranes). She told us that she “thinks” they’ll let us stay. “I’ll see what I can do to get you a room,” she told us, “but they might send you home still.” Hello, Niagra Falls here. What does she mean “thinks”? I looked at the clock as we waited in our make-shift room. It was now 7:30 on a rainy Thursday morning and my contractions were starting to pick up.

After moving in our room and getting situated, we did the only thing we could do. We anxiously stared at the little blue line that showed my contractions getting closer and stronger on the monitor. When the nurse asked me for the fiftieth time, “on a scale of 1-10, where is your pain?” I told her I was ready for the epidural. It was either that or listen to her ask another fifty times. Good thing I did because the next hour was the most “Baby Story” it got as we waited for the anesthesiologist to get out of a c-section. Chris stared at me in disbelief as I kept saying with every breath, “Chris, it hurts, what do I do?” Before this moment I would have prided myself on being pretty tough, but during this hour I was quite the wimp.

When the anesthesiologist finally came, the needle in my back felt like nothing compared to the contraction pains I was having. God bless that man in blue. If only he had a tip jar on his little cart he rolls around, I would have given him our entire life savings at that point. The epidural came at 11:00 AM when I was almost dilated to a 5 and after that I have Kami and Chris to thank for pumping me with pain killers. My amateur thinking thought that I wouldn't push it until I really needed it, lesson learned!

Our little piece of heaven entered this world at 6:30 PM, a mere 13 ½ hours after my water broke and after pushing through only a few contractions. Labor was actually an awesome experience and nothing horrific at all. We waited all this time for this little guy and being a parent is even more amazing than we'd ever imagined! Lungs screaming, arms wailing, Hayes David came to us 8 lbs. 8 oz. and 21 ½ inches long. He’s been a healthy, active baby from the very beginning! We were in love at first sight with his long dark hair and chubby little cheeks. Now we are just soaking it all in and loving him as much as we can while this little guy is still little! What a perfect day!
Kami, thanks once again for sharing this experience with us and capturing Hayes' big entrance!

He is HERE!!!

Was it my persistent begging , with my face pressed up against Mitzi's belly every time that I saw him?


Was it the full moon?


Was it because we just finally got his nursery done yesterday, and he knew they were ready?


Or maybe it was the little something that the doctor stirred up at Mitzi's appointment yesterday... What ever it is, IT WORKED! He is here, and he is BEAUTIFUL!





Let me introduce...

Hayes David T

04.09.09

6:30pm

8 lbs 8 oz

21 1/2 in long

I'll let the glowing mommy tell of her wonderful birthing experience, but it went PERFECT and Mitzi is feeling great!!! Stay tuned for all of the pictures I already had the opportunity to take of this cute little boy!

Oh, and did I mention... I AM AN AUNT.... hee hee ;)

-Kami-

Showers!

My family had a huge shower to get us a little more ready for baby to make his big debut. Seriously, there were so many of us. Kam and Meri are really getting taken advantage of during this entire baby ordeal. Thanks for the shower and help once again! If there is one thing baby will have when he gets here, it's definitely a lot of people who already love him.

Then at work we went to Wingers and had a little baby party. It is so nice to have such awesome, supportive friends to hang out with at school. I really hope I can go part time next year so I can stay with all of them!

After that my high school friends all got together and had a little shower for me at Olive Garden. It was so fun to just sit and catch up on life. I love these girls!

And to wrap it all up, my mom's family finished all the spoiling with a shower last weekend. His room is so full of fun things now!

This is the cute little dog that Navie picked out for the baby all by herself, and was so excited to give to me! She really is the most thoughtful little girl!

Thanks again guys!

Big news!

As if having a baby in the next week or so isn’t big enough news, Chris got the best phone call on Thursday.

My super smart, amazing husband was accepted into pharmacy school at the University of Southern Nevada!

Wait, it gets even better…

All of his hard work paid off because he got accepted in the top 10% of all 2,000(ish) people that applied and got to pick his campus. As tempting as Las Vegas would be for him, he picked the South Jordan campus and it couldn’t be more perfect for us. There are only two pharmacy schools in Utah and it’s really competitive to get in, so you can only imagine how proud I am of him! Plus, it’s an accelerated program so he will be done in three short years instead of four. Sweet!

Good job babe! You deserve this!

These girls rock!

We took second in our first tournament by 5 shots last Tuesday, but we came back Thursday and beat everyone by 21 shots! That has to be some type of a record! After how hard they have worked lately, these girls definitely deserved a win!

Week 37

While you were pregnant, did you ever...

• have more zits on your face than your entire class of 16 year olds combined?
• eat Ramen in the bathtub because you were so sick and the bathtub was the only solution for you to breathe (and you just happen to be on the "eat every couple hours or die" schedule)?
• puke so loud at the Circle of Life that every head nodded with empathy at you when you came back into the waiting room?
• take a power nap behind your desk at work and hope nobody would see your feet sticking out?
• cry so hard (because your stressed about grades being due the next day and you can't stop thinking baby is going to come early to be welcomed by a desolate house of unpacked boxes) that you make yourself sick, literally.
• cross your fingers (and legs) every time you sneeze, just praying your bladder holds true?
• yearn for the smell of the mall?
• sign up for parenting magazine because you should, even though you haven't read a single one?
• not want this little baby to come out so you could always be inseparable?
• want this little baby out so bad because you can't wait to snuggle his face?

I haven't done any of these things either, I was just wondering if you have ;)

Anyone need some post-its?

I wish it was, but unfortunately this wasn't staged. Welcome to my desk...
Okay, so I like post-its. Wait...what's that under the binder?
My deepest darkest secret-I go a little overboard with to-do lists. I came to school one morning and looked at all my post-its, overflowing with things I haven't done yet, and it made me sigh in disgust. My reaction, I pushed them under my binder so I wouldn't feel so overwhelmed. I don't think it worked. Now those hidden yellow squares of horror are always lingering on my brain.

Can I quit yet?

Moving to Las Vegas

No, not really. We are just moving across the street. I just wanted you to realize how much you'd miss me for a second!

Yep, along with work, the Praxis test, coaching, my family shower, my google reader account with 100's of unread blogs (you guys, don't take me so seriously...I'm not that addicted to blogs), and everything else this week, I am nine months pregnant and we are moving. As if my toes aren’t hanging off the cliff already. I guess it could be worse though, it's just across the street.

The story goes that my grandpa will be selling our condo, so he wants us to move into one across the street. I guess it's better now compared to the week after the baby comes like we were first told. It's newly refinished with new carpet and appliances and it even has an extra room, so that will be nice, but packing is such a pain.

Now the rush is on to paint and set up the baby’s room so we can get everything ready before he comes. Thank heavens for everyone's willingness to help our desperate butts.

Week 35

I’ve heard that a man can get the same “symptoms” as their pregnant wife before, but I never thought my husband would be one of them. Don’t worry, he isn’t lactating or getting colossally huge (like I am), he’s taken on nesting. Obviously, I wasn't going to do it.

I woke up in the middle of the night last night (baby hates it when I try to sleep) and I could hear banging downstairs. When I went down to see what the heck was going on, you can imagine the glee in my eyes when I smelt cleaner and saw our organized cupboards . Cleaning in the middle of the night, man do I love this guy!

This wasn’t the first time I’ve caught him doing such a thing either. I’m so grateful he’s gotten the cleaning bug the last couple weeks because it’s perfect timing for our MOVE. We just found out that we are going to be moving a week from Saturday. Wish us luck!

Bring on the moving, bring on the end of the quarter grading, bring on the weekly I-hope-I’m-not-dilated-more-so-this-baby-doesn’t-come-early appointments, bring on the beginning of coaching another girl’s golf season, and bring on the pressure of not having a name picked out yet! I think I can handle it. I don’t think I can get anymore crazy than I already am, can I?

Love-sitting (it really wasn't babysitting)

I love them, but is it rude to ask Kami & Dax to leave town more often? What could possibly be better than an entire weekend with two of my favorite kids ever? The world was ours, so we decided to do the insane...Chuck-E-Cheese's. This was our first time experiencing the disneyland of Layton and it was truly a test of our parenting skills. Why didn't anyone tell me it was a requirement to bring every kid on the planet to Chuck-E-Cheese's on Friday nights?

Navie loved her uncle Chris all weekend long and was his best buddy. First she shoved her feet in his face and forced him out of bed during the night. When she realized he had moved to the couch, guess who ditched me and followed him? This is what I came out to see in the morning. Isn't it the sweetest! Ridge was actually pretty good for the most part too. We'll definitely have to have more sleepovers this summer!

I can't leave these out

Here are a few more pics from the shower. I can't resist this one. Amelia guessed how big my belly was and the string was almost big enough to fit around both of us! It's okay melia, I feel that big! Rosie gets props too because I'm sure her string would barely fit around one of my legs when I'm not pregnant! Thanks for the well needed ego boost.

One word...perfect!

Think your looking at shots from a magazine? Nope, your not... this was my shower! I'm still baffled by all the amazing little details everywhere! How do I possibly say thanks enough? My sister did her thing, like normal, and rocked the decorations. Seriously, can you believe her? Steph planned some crazy games and they made the most delicious food! These guys should go professional! I can't even tell you how perfect it was. Ever since the shower I've felt an overwhelming feeling of gratitude and support. People are so thoughtful and giving. I got spoiled and I still feel guilty that a bunch of my greatest friends came together for me and little baby, they gave him the most thoughtful gifts, and I have nothing for them in return except a thanks and a hope that they know how grateful I am for them in my life.

I wish I got pictures of everyone there, but I guess I missed the boat on that one. Anyway, thanks again for an amazing shower!

If the secret door out was on the left, he'd never get out.

If my right side is a Royal Suite, my left side must be a Best Western.

I always thought my left side was my good side. Obviously, I've been wrong all along.

Baby thinks my left side is ghetto. Every appointment we go to, there he is always squished into my bladder as far right as possible. Anytime I see a bulging body part, it's always on the right. It never fails, if I lay on my right side I squash his little paradise and he gives a hi-ya right back at me full force. If I lay on my left it's like those mattress commercials where the glass of wine withstands a bouncing bowling ball right next to it, he doesn't move an inch.

Meet my ever-so-protruding right side. Yes, I do think my stomach is going to be permanently lopsided.