Biggest Apology Ever

So in my last post I was struggling with keeping balance from work to home to being a mom. I can't say that it's gotten easier, but I have been doing a little better. I thought I was doing really great, getting some much needed cleaning done in my bedroom, until I moved our filing cabinet to get some things I knocked back there. Well I found more than just the bills that I knocked down there. I found a bunch of thank you's from by baby shower that had also fallen back there at least 4 months ago. That was one thing I was feeling pretty good about. I had them all written, addressed and sent by the time Little Man was 4 months old. I didn't think that was too bad seeing I didn't have my shower till after he was a month old. So too all of you who think I am selfish and unthankful, my deepest apologies! You will be receiving them shortly. I feel rather silly sending them after so much time, but I am sooo thankful for everything that was given to me, so I will send them anyway. Please accept my apologies if you have not received a thank you from me!

First Trim and other noteworthy news

My little man got his first trim last week! It was not a full blown haircut, just a trim across the top. If he were a girl you could say we cut his bangs. There were pieces that were so long! I just can't believe he is getting so big. He is sitting up all by himself. We have started him with rice cereal. He hates his bottle but likes cups and sippie cups. He can't be this old already? Where did my tiny little newborn go?

Last week I started baby proofing his room. Since it serves as the office/crafts/storage/baby room, there was a lot to be moved out of his reach. I got most of it done, but am not sure what to do with the bottom shelves of the book shelf. It can't go in any other room, and I don't have any other space for the books on the bottom 2 shelves. hhmmm will have to get creative there I guess.

Mike has started his last full semester at ISU. He commutes 2 days a week and then works 31/2 days and devotes 1/2 day and most of his evenings to homework. He tries to keep weekends open so we can have fun and see each other once in a while. It works for now, but I will be glad when he is done. He has gotten his study guide for the GRE, that is one step further than we were this summer, so hopefully soon he will take the test so he can start applying for Schools.

I am still working full time at Kimberly Nurseries. This is the time of year when things are supposed to be slowing down, but it seems to be getting busier and busier for me. It doesn't help that one of our sales people have quit and I am doing all of the things he did on top of what I am already doing. Lots of things to keep me busy I guess!

Because I am working full time and coming home to a baby now, I am finding it very hard to keep my house organized. When I come home the last thing I want to do is clean house, I want to spend time with my little man! I am very frustrated because I can't seem to find the time to get the house cleaned the laundry done and the clutter is driving me nuts! I try to get one room done a night, but not even that is working, especially lately since little man has been teething, and has allergies, and is just uncomfortable, its hard to get things done. If any of you readers have any advice for me please help! My mom comes in and watches little man 2 days a week and if it wasn't for her picking up the living room and the kitchen, I don't know what I would do. She is definitely my life saver! I need help!

Some Pics, etc.

So I finally have a bit of time to get some pictures on the blog. For those of you on fb they are the same ones, for those of you not on fb here are some update pictures. These are all the pictures I have left from age 1-3 months since the ones on my camera were sadly deleted! But there are some fun ones here too! So enjoy

He took a pacifier very well when he was newborn, Now not so much.

He was sick-with the sores in his mouth. Poor guy. I felt so helpless!

He spent most of the day out at our garden in his bouncy chair. He was such a good boy. It sprinkled on us a little bit and he just loved the rain! He tried to catch it in him mouth. It was cute to watch!

His has says Junior Bronco. We are BSU fans, despite the fact that Mike goes to ISU their football team, not so good! Go BSU!

The first picture I got of him smiling! A rare one at that. I love love love this picture and am so glad it was taken on my phone and not the camera. It would have devastated me if I lost this one for sure!

Just chillin in the crib with the awesome blanket that Renae made for him!

Time with dad when I was out working one day.

I think he was about 2 months old when I took this pic.

Another time with dad when I was working.

Learning to sit up wasn't sure if he liked it or not.

Our crib also serves as a changing table since there is not enough room in our little home for one. We take the blankets out and put down a towel just in case he decided to let loose while we are changing him! It works...most of the time!

This was after my friend Michelle came over and took pictures of him. (Which will be the next ones I post) He was so good, but exhausted by the end!

There was a time when he would only nap in this position. He is not a snuggler unforunately, but at least he's napping right?

He was making a strange face, don't know if I captured it or not.

Hey watch it mister! Michael sent this one to me I love it. Does he know who is boss or what!

No this isn't a baby picture of Michael it really is little man! Mike took this while I was working too.( Man it sounds like I work a lot, It was mostly on the weekends when I had to fill in for our water girl. I think....)

So sweet!

Nap time! Yes, I took one with him, but he slept longer than me. Remember the days when we used to be able to sleep no matter what time it was? Ya, wish I could still do this. Oh, and check out his cloth diaper. Nothing like when I was young. They work pretty well. My friend Jen hooked me up with this brand and they were way cheaper than the name brand ones out there. We use cloth at home and if we are going out for a longer period of time we use disposables. He is 5 1/2 months old and I we haven't spend any money on diapers or wipes. We are still using stock from the baby shower! Michael's sister has bought one package of the bigger diapers for him, and we are still using them. It won't be long though before we have to buy diapers for the first time. We still have a lot of wipes though!

He's just soo cool! He has 2 pair of sunglasses. He doesn't like them on unless he is out in the sun, then he leaves them alone. They were a little big here, but he has grown into them nicely.

I hope you all enjoy these pictures as much as I do. He is growing up so fast! I can't believe he is sitting up by himself. I wish it would slow down before I know it he will be potty training! Yikes. Don't want to think about that right now! He had his first taste of rice cereal the other day. Other than dumping it all over himself he quite enjoyed it. Till next time!

The hard way

Well, lots has happened in the months I haven't posted. I have learned the hard way why it is important to get photos off the camera and saved elsewhere. When Mike and I were at our family reunion he was resetting the dates on the camera and he accidentally reformatted the memory card. If you don't know what that does, it erases your card. So sadly the pictures I had been waiting to put up here, and print off for scrapbooking purposes are all gone! SAD DAY! Luckily we had his birth photos off, so we only lost about 1 months worth of pictures, and I have quite a few on my phone, but there were some awful cute ones that I shall never see again! Lesson learned-the hard way of course. I have been very busy with work which has been very nice, but leaves me little time for posting updates. Things are slowing down, so hopefully there will be more time. It was good to see the family at the reunion, I can't believe how much everyone is growing up! Time goes by quickly! I am sadly back to work full time. Wish I could be at home with my little man more often, but am sooo thankful my sister and mom are able to help out and watch him. I could definately not afford daycare, or not working. I don't know how people do it! Little Man is growing like a weed. We had to go to the doctor last week. He was sick :( had open sores in the back of his mouth. Poor Kid. He weighed 15 lbs 3 oz. He goes in for this 4 month check up next week, so we will get official stats then. He is a very active little boy and wants so hard to roll over, but hasn't quite got it down yet. He has done it a couple of times, but doesn't remember how he got there. He loves his hands, thinks they are the coolest things ever, and is just starting to play with his feet. He loves swimming and being in the water. Which will be a good thing when he gets older. I love him to death! He is the most adorable little boy and has the biggest smile that will melt anyone's heart! I will try and get what photos I have left posted, so you can see how much he's grown. Hope all is well with everyone. Have a great weekend!

2 Months

Oh my where has the time gone? Little Man goes in for his 2 month check-up and shots tomorrow. I hope he does well. I don't really know what I was thinking scheduling it for that day. It also happens to be our 5 yr. anniversary, Oh well, too late now. Life is good, I am slowly working back into work. By June I will be back full time, and not looking forward to it, but I guess you do what you have to do. The hospital bills have started arrived and its back to reality. I sure do miss the little guy when I am gone though. I am glad I get an hour lunch and live so close I can go home and spend time with him! He is definitely going to be an active child. He hardly ever stops moving, even when he sleeps hes moving! He loves to stand and bounce on your legs. Unless he is very tired or hungry he very rarely will just let you hold him. I can't wait until he can hold his own in the johnny jump up! He will have a blast!

Yesterday my friend came over and we did pictures of him. We have been trying to coordinate this for about a month now, and finally got it done. I hope we got a few good ones out of it. He seems to be like his dad, as soon as the camera comes out he stops doing anything, its crazy. When we get them all edited I will get some announcements put together and send them out. If you want one, let me know and get me your address! I will also post some pics here of course. I was rereading my blog and I realized that I never put up the pics. she took of me when I was still preggo, So maybe I will put a few of those up too.

On another note, an update on the rest of the family. Michael finished another year at ISU. He only has 6 more classes left until he graduates. Too bad 2 of them are only offered in the spring, so he can't finish them all up in the fall. He will be studying for that special test he has to take to get into physical therapy school this summer. He will also take the test this summer so he can start applying to schools this fall. Then by next spring he will know where he has been accepted. Our top 3 choices are in Idaho, Washington, and Utah. We don't really want to go back east. One summer was enough of the east for a lifetime. Once he gets into PT school he only has more years and will graduate with a Doctorate. I never thought I would be able to see the end, but we are finally closing in on it! He has gone back to work full time with the Landscape company he has always worked for.

We are now waiting for it too warm up so we can get down to the river and enjoy some sunshine, I am beginning to think it will never happen! What is with this crazy weather? We are planting our garden tonight and I can't wait to get back into that, nothing is a better stress releaser to me than spending time out in the garden, besides a good hard run that is!

The long awaited pictures are here!

So they are finally here. These are some of my most favorite pictures we have taken of Little Man so far. I don't remember if I posted his official stats, so I will do that again. He weighed in at 8lbs. even and was and even 20 inches long. By one month he was up to 10.5 lbs and 23 inches long. his 2 month appointment is at the end of the month. He is a very good baby most of the time. He does have his moments though. I have enjoyed being a mom for the most part. I think next time I would like to have the stork deliver, it sounds way easier! :) I am getting down to the last weeks of my time off, and am not looking forward to going back to work. I have started a few hours week, but nothing too strenuous yet, I still get tired very easily and have to tell myself to slow down and take a break. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I do!

Isn't he so sweet! This was shortly after they extricated him from me. He was black and blue from the shoulders up. Poor little guy. He has recovered well though!

Just after his first bath!

His nose looks huge in this one!

My absolute favorite picture!

Spending what little time I could with my little man when he was under the bili light.

Precious!

Look at that huge hand!

We had our own Avatar Baby for a while!

He learned to hold his pacifer by himself. Poor guy, it was the only comfort he had when he was under the light!

Holding the pacifier again....Smart little boy!

Just hanging out enjoying those rays!

Yay! its 10 pm and we FINALLY get to go HOME!

All dressed up and ready to go!

We can't forget the BSU colors!

Even when he got home he wasn't free of the bili light for 2 more days!

He likes to sleep like this way

I loved his hair after the bath. The face is cute too!

Nice and content after his bath!

His hair is brown much to Michael's disappointed. It also has some curl to it!

This was too cute not to take a pic. of!

So I put the blanket on him when he fell asleep and the next thing I knew he had pulled it up over his head and all I could see was his feet! It was adorable!

1 Month

So it's been over a month since I had little man and I have been having all sorts of trouble getting pictures posted for everyone to see. Sorry about that. I don't have internet at home, so that makes it hard to get access to it. When I was over at my mom and dad's when Little Man was first born I tried to upload pictures from their camera since I forgot mine. Do you remember how slow Dial up was? Well, that is what my parents still have and it took like 4 hours just to get 4 pictures off the camera, then I lost connection and the pictures didn't save. So I said screw it I will do it some other time. Well that time still isn't today. I have been coming to back to work slowly a few hours a couple of days a week. I keep meaning to bring my memory card in so that I can get pictures up, but keep forgetting. I get to bring Little Man in with me since I wasn't supposed to be back for 3 more weeks, that is the deal they made, so getting him ready and me ready, I always tell myself, don't forget the card, then when I get to work it hits me.. I forgot the card! So tonight I am going to go home put it in my purse and then I will have it for sure tomorrow.

So to update everyone, I finally did have little man, I was hoping that since I had a fairly easy pregnancy that I would have a fairly easy labor as well. After all, I do have a pretty high tolerance for pain. (Just ask the surgeon who took out my appendix, he couldn't figure out why I waited so long to go the the hospital) I was very wrong! I will not go into details mostly because I am still traumatized by it, but also because there may be some people who read my blog who would never have kids after hearing my story. I know I wouldn't! So hear is the not so painful version. Sunday morning, March 21 I woke up having contractions. They were more painful than any other ones, so I was hopeful we were getting somewhere. I took a shower and timed them, they were 5 minutes apart. I didn't get my hopes up though because I had had them that close together before, then they stopped altogether. Well, they continued to be 5 minutes apart until 1 in the afternoon. Then they went to 3 minutes, with the same intensity. They stayed at 3 minutes for 3 hours. The doctors and everyone told me that when they get 3 minutes apart you go to the hospital. So at 4 we headed over there. They hooked me up to all the eqiupment and checked me, I was still only at a 1. Are you kidding me? So we walked around the hospital for an hour got all hooked up again, Checked me again, only at a 2. Since I wasn't at a 4 I opted to go home and wait it out since there was nothing they could do anyway. So I went home and had some soup and crackers for dinner. Then set out to do more walking up and down our culdesac. I didn't know how much contractions were supposed to hurt or how strong they could get. So I kept walking, the contractions were still a steady 3 minutes apart but got much worse, it got to where I couldn't continue to walk through them, I had to stop and wait them out. At 11 pm I thought it was time to go back. Yay, this time I was at a 4. I had my epidural at 1 pm. and things got better from there for a little while. I was only able to lay on one side so the epidural kind of wore off on the other side. at 3pm I was at a 7 and the doctor broke my water. By 7 am the doctor said we were ready to go and that this baby should be here within the hour! YAY! That's some good news! At 8 am I still hadnt had the baby. That is when I started pushing. After 2.5 hours the doctor came in and did some things and said that should progress things right along. Good! I was getting tired. Then1.5 hours later you guessed it still no baby, the doctor came back and was thoroughly suprised I had not gotten any further than when he was in earlier. So he said we would push for 3 more contractions while he pulled with the vaccum, if there was no progress. C Section. I was so sure that baby would come flying out the way I pushed because I didn't want a C Section. Luck was not on my side! So we went and had a C Section. Turns out my hips aren't made for child bearing. I will never be able to have a natural birth because of the shape of my pelvis. Well, thats good to know now. I was pretty upset that I had to have a C Section and that is putting it mildly. Just ask Michael or my mom. But little man is healthy and happy (most of the time) and that makes it all worth it. (That doesn't mean I will be having another baby any time soon though! I am still a little traumatized) So that is the nicer version of what happened. Hopefullly tomorrow I can show pictures for all you who haven't gotten to see him yet!

Well, we are 2 days past my due date. Not much seems to be happening. Yesterday a friend and I went down into the canyon and did some walking and some picture taking. She really likes photography and wanted to take some pictures of me in all my pregnant glory. We had a fun time, and I think the pictures are going to turn out great. Other than that we are just waiting not so patiently for our little man to arrive. At my Dr. app. on Tuesday they did a bunch of tests to make sure the baby was still doing good, and he was, we even got to see another ultrasound of him, and it was confirmed he's still a boy! So all in all things are going well. We will see what the weekend brings and see if Leslie will get a nephew for a birthday present or if we will have a baby born on the first day of Spring! If I don't have the baby by Tuesday, I go in for one last appointment and then they will set up a day to induce. Until then we keep on waiting. Its a good thing they are still letting me come to work. I think I would go crazy if I had to be at home with nothing to do.

The end is near right....

So we went to the doctor yesterday. I was pretty excited last week when the doctor told me to be ready at any time because I was that close. Well those hopes were dashed yesterday. The women's OB clinic in Twin has about 5 doctors who all work in it, you don't get to choose the doctor you go to, you see all of them. Well I am learning that some doctors tell you like it is, and others like to get your hopes up and think things are moving so quickly and be ready at any time. But my doctor yesterday is one of the best there and the one I am crossing my fingers is working when I actually do go into labor. He gave it to me straight like he has been the whole the time. I have started yet, but I still have a long way to go, and don't expect much this week or even next week. My due date is Tuesday, but he has been telling me at most of my visits when I do see him that he would be surprised if I delivered that soon. So with the lack of sleep I have been getting and the frustrations from the doctor last week. I wasn't very happy yesterday.

But on a good note, I finally figured out how to sleep through the night with out waking up stiff and sore and being wide awake from 4 am to 7 am when I normally get up. The last couple of days and nights have been really long! But I finally got a good nights sleep last night and plan on taking every advantage of that as I can for the next week or so.

I haven't been very good at taking pictures since I have been pregnant, not the belly photo type of girl, but since so many people are requesting to see some pictures here are the few that I have.

This is right around 4 or 4 and a half months. I woke up and bam, there was the baby bump. It really felt like it happened over night!

This one is gross. The date is wrong, I don't know why. My feet didn't start swelling until about 8 months, but when they swelled they SWELLED! I think they have been even bigger than this. Oh the joys we go through! I would have to say, the last month has been the hardest month for me. It was pretty easy going until then. I haven't worn real shoes since the end of January, couldn't get my feet in them even if I tried, but since I hate shoes, I don't really mind. I did get some funny looks when I was downtown doing snow removal for work a few weeks ago in just my flip flops and a sweatshirt!

We took these on Sunday after we got back from Payton's blessing in Dietrich. I went to see Zed on Friday and he moved the baby down into the top of the birth canal, he said he should stay there, that he should be able to get out but as you can see, he didn't stay put! I was carrying him much higher than even this, and he has still managed to get back up into my ribs since this picture has taken. I think he's making a stand, letting me know he's not ready to come yet. So the wait continues!

I couldn't leave dad out could I? He's getting pretty excited for the big day. As long as I can wait until after Friday to go into labor he will be fine. He has a physics test and calculus test that day. For those of you who don't know, Michael travels to ISU 3 days a week for school. So it would be better for Micah to wait for his dad to finish his classes for the week if he does decide to come early. We shall see. Until then I hope all is well with everyone! We will try to keep everyone as updated as possible when the big day finally does come!