He's here!...

My sweet Baby X has been here for a month! Even though his due date was May 24 he wasn't able to make my body contract and make the trip out on his own. So Hubby and I went to the hospital on our 1 year anniversary, June 1st and I got induced.

The contractions didn't start to hurt for a while, but then I ate some lunch... bad idea! After getting sick with the food I started having severe pain with the contractions. I got an epidural to make it more manageable. After about 5 hours though, I started feeling all of my contractions in all their glory! At first the nurse and anesthesiologist thought I just wasn't pressing my button enough or I was just super sensitive. So they kept giving me stronger stuff through my main line with my epidural. I felt really light headed and they weren't really concerned, except for the fact that none of it took away the pain. At all.

The next 5-6 hours I was in constant pain, begging and pleading for it to stop. When the anesthesiologist got back from helping with a C-section, he gave me the "strongest stuff [he] had". I blacked out. Hubby says that I was out for a while and the nurse said, "That isn't supposed to happen". All I can remember is being able to hear Hubby's voice and feeling pain. When I finally was able to function somewhat they found out that my epidural was not in the proper spot anymore. It had wiggled out when I moved or something and they had to do it again. When they finally got it in the right spot I only got to enjoy 2 hours of my labor before starting to push.

I pushed for 2 hours. With the help of my doctor manually turning him face down and a vacuum extraction we discovered that my little guy had a hard time coming out because his umbilical cord was wrapped his neck 3 times. They immediately checked his respiratory and he was perfectly fine. And he had fantastic RED hair!!! He came out 21" long and 8lbs!

We are so proud of him being such a trooper! I loved meeting him for the first time.

However, his blood sugar started to drop and no matter how much I nursed him, he wasn't getting any higher. So they gave him formula. Nothing. So they admitted him into the NICU. I pumped with all my might and they fed him through a series of tubes and put him on antibiotics. Slowly but surely over the next 3 days we got him off the machines but he still had his IV in his head.

 

Then he turned extremely yellow that day. His jaundice was pretty high. They put him under the billi-lights for two days and I finally got to take him home! As long as I put billi-lights on him at home.

I wish I was a glowworm. A glowworm's never glum. 'Cause how can you be grumpy when the sun shines out your bum!?

 Look at him with the billi-lights on! He was a cute little glow worm his first week home. With the cutest hiccups!

Having him home we've been adjusting and figuring each other. Also, I've been finding out that Baby X is a really sweet boy. Most of the time at night he will wake up only once if at all. For that I'm extremely thankful!

So fast forward through all the diapers and screaming and bottle pumping. He was blessed two Sundays ago at our church. I've worked for a few months on his out fit. 100% hand sewn or crocheted:

Look at how charming he is!

Our first picture together as a family outside of the hospital.

He was so well mannered the whole day! Hubby also did a fantastic job in blessing him. It was a great experience to have.

In the family pic, do you see his had in his mouth? That boy will suck on anything and everything. He doesn't care if it's a binki, me, a bottle, or your chin; it's his to suck on!

He is so funny. I love his guts!

Now, Baby X is officially 1 month old! I can't believe that it was a month ago that I gave birth to his sweet soul! He is such a blessing into our lives already. I find that Hubby and I are try more actively to love and respect each other. We are quicker to forgive flaws and try to make improvements in our lives. I find it's easier to love my Hubby when he comes home after taking care of a baby all day. I may be tired but I appreciate him working and supporting us.

Baby X is growing so well too! Check out his recent milestone:

I'm so proud of him! I made his do it about 4 or 5 times in row to make sure it wasn't a fluke! He's getting so big!

Sorry this was such a long post, I needed to catch up :) But you got to see cute baby pics so it's all worth it! :)

Have an awesome day!
-TBC

March! We are getting closer!

I don't think I shared Baby X's first picture on here yet. Here it is:

Look at the cute little guy! This was him at 20 weeks.

I can't believe it but, I'm now 31 weeks along... do you know what that means??  9 WEEKS LEFT! SINGLE DIGITS!!!!! Yes. :) I'm extremely happy about being in the single digits. I'm so excited sometimes that I can't even handle it! Hubby has to remind me though, "If you were able to wait 9 weeks for us to get married then you can wait 9 weeks for our baby to come". So, I can do this.

Something that has been happening for the last couple of months in my pregnancy that I'm not the biggest fan of. I've been getting sick constantly.  During President's Day weekend I got really ill, it was a cough that made it into my chest and really got to the point where I was coughing every time I breathed out. So, I went to the doctor, and I got some cough syrup and antibiotics to get the nasty-ness out of my system. It worked! Now, 2 days ago, I've caught the same nasty cold like thing that I got during President's Day. So before it gets worse, I'm taking a break to knock it out of my system before going to work so it doesn't just get worse. Luckily it's just in my sinuses right now and a little bit in my throat. I'm hoping I can knock it out enough for me to go to work tomorrow. Crossing fingers!

Baby X is getting really big! Hubby has a picture of me on his camera of me a couple of weeks ago, I'll see if I can get him to send it to me (his camera hates my computer, it never wants to export for me) and then I'll post the BUMP. Anyway, back to Baby X, he is quite the wiggler! I hardly ever get sleep at night anymore because it's his favorite time to be awake! From 8PM-ish until about 4AM he is kicking me and letting me know he is alive. I try to go to bed when I'm exhausted hoping that I can just sleep through the kicks and pushes, but it doesn't work. The pregnancy wedge helped calm him down for a while, but now he is getting used to it, so it doesn't calm him down anymore. But, he's still cute! When I tap my tummy, he gets after me by wiggling away from me or pushing me away. He is a major bum wiggler, his bum is what moves across my stomach the most. I'm able to tell because it's the biggest thing that does move across my stomach, I'm also getting to the point where I can distinguish some of his body parts! Mostly just his feet, bum, and elbows. But still really cool!

I'm almost done sewing Baby X's coming home outfit/ newborn pic outfit. He's going to look so charming! I've also made out 3 burp cloths out of some Winnie the Pooh fabric that I was going to use to make him a blanket, however the fabric got a huge dye stain in it from the wash that I couldn't get out, so burp cloths they became! They are really cute.  Next on the list is a Winnie the Pooh blanket that  I want to be with him in his Newborn pics, it has really nice color contrasts to his outfit. Next after that is his blessing suit. Luckily his blanket won't take long.

Nesting. Let me tell you about nesting! Our apartment isn't that big (it's bigger than most 1 bedroom apartments, but bear with me), and I had a lot of stuff that we hid in the back of our bedroom where there is a small storage closet. Well, I went to a Relief Society activity where we were able to attend some classes where speakers talked to us about strengthening our home, ourselves, and our family. Well, I attended one class that has changed my outlook on cleaning for forever! It was about organizing your life and why to do it. Well, it made such an impact on me that nesting took over my life for about a month! So, I started in the bedroom and worked my way into the back storage area. I have 10 15-gallon garbage bags full of stuff I'm getting rid of! I threw away about 3-4 garbage bags of trash as well. Now this is only my stuff from before Hubby and I got married that I went through. 10 BAGS! I haven't even touched the bathroom or any other rooms with this technique! The basic thing about the organizing class is the questions she said we need to ask ourselves when going through things.

1. Do I need this?

2. Do I want this?

3. Do I have space?

If you say no to one of these, they need to leave and need to go into trash or charity bags/containers. Also, she said before you start organizing you need to ask yourself, "What is this space going to be used for?" And the key to keeping it organized long term is keeping the space's job simple. For instance, our desk was being used for everything that we didn't know if it had a spot or not in our house so receipts were scattered all over, along with books, batteries, papers, etc. So, I looked at it, and gave it this job. Electronics and school supplies are the only things this desk is going to be used for the most, so that's what will stay on here. I asked the 3 questions as I was cleaning and everything that didn't apply to the space's job I put in a goes-somewhere-else box and labeled boxes so it's not just me who can put stuff away, like art and sewing supplies. Now my Hubby knows where the batteries go, all of our pencils, stationary, etc. 

Our house has never stayed this clean for this long! I'm so happy!

To get rid of those 10 bags of stuff, I'm hosting a community swap where everyone brings their stuff to a central location and can go through other's stuff and see if there is something they want or don't have to bring stuff to look through, or can bring stuff and don't look through, and it's just going to be a day where it's a free for all. Anything leftover at the end of the day we are going to take to a thrift store and donate the whole load. I hope it ends up being successful!

So, other than being sick, it's been a really productive month! Hubby is happy and well, and we are getting excited!

-TBC

Birthdays and Fun Stuff!

Last week was Hubby's birthday!!! I spent the whole week preparing for his birthday. Last year for my birthday, he went above and beyond and bought me a really nice sewing machine that cost quite a bit. So for his birthday I really wanted to do something nice for him.

When he got home from work I had to go to a quick training and left a note on the door with the bow tie he wore at our wedding to put on his nice suit and that I'd be back to pick him up.
When I came back to pick him up, he came down and I took him to Edible Arrangements where a treat was waiting for him.
After that we went to one of our favorite restaurants and had sushi. (Don't freak out, I only had California rolls and such like it, no raw fish, I promise.)
I then gave Hubby the choice: do we rent a movie or go see a movie. He's been itching to see Ender's Game and it just so happened to be at the local discount movie theater.

For the most part, Hubby's birthday was a HUGE success.

Since a lot went into his birthday planning, I was given permission not to stress out about Valentine's Day. YAY! However, I came home this week and a box was sitting on our living room couch. It had Hubby's name on it so I left it alone. When he came come I asked him what it was, "You're Valentine's Day present, you can open it now if you want to." Well... yeah I wanted to open it!!! So I did. It was....

a pregnancy wedge!

I have been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately because of Baby X kicking REALLY hard all night long and also my back has been hurting due to the lack of back support and heavy front I have. So Hubby did some research and found this beauty. I used it for the first time last night and I slept like a baby! (I say figuratively not literally... because let's face it... babies don't really sleep...)

Also this week has been fun, because I have new projects for Baby X! I'm working on making him a pair of booties (1/4 done), a white blessing suit, a blue sleeper for him to come home in, Winnie the Pooh material to make a few burp cloths, and some fabric for a light weight blanket, mostly for cuddles if it's really hot when he's born.

**side note**Hubby is squishing my cheeks all of the sudden... not very nice of him... HMPH!!!

Any-who!!! I also was given a TON of Winnie the Pooh books for Baby X, I'm really excited! Some are easy read, a majority are harder but the pictures will make him interested to know what the words say and might motivate him to read. I also got a few books that help promote color, number, and shape recognition along with book that talks about the basics of sharing. So, I'm excited to see which books he gravitates more towards as he grows older. 

Yeah stuff, has been going well in our home. Lots of love and learning. My heart is doing well on the medication. I have insurance finally and am happy with the coverage I'm receiving for the time being (it only lasts for my pregnancy... so we shall see where I go after that). Hubby is always sweet and loving and tires to be his best, even though it can be hard sometimes. Yep! There we go!

How is your week going? Have any thoughts for me or want to ask questions? Please do!

-TBC

Being in Love

Lately I have come to a realization. During this pregnancy I've been ill, tired, cranky, and down right lazy. My poor Hubby has had to put out tons of effort to keep our house clean and try to make me comfortable and happy. It was this week that I was thinking to myself, "Ew, our house is a mess, I wonder if he's going to do anything about it." and then I thought. "Why don't I do it?" I've reflected back on the last couple of months and I've become aware that because of my selfishness, I have in turn lost a lot of vibrancy in my life and it's starting to affect my Hubby. We aren't as happy as we were a while ago and so, I decided to change something.

I cleaned the dishes.

I HATE CLEANING THE DISHES.

Early on in our dating I told Hubby that dishes are the one chore I will avoid at all cost. I despise it! Hubby was cool with that because he said that doing the dishes often gave him a break and he could do whatever he wanted while cleaning the dishes and he actually enjoyed it.

Well, I did them. Then I realized how dirty I thought the sink was, I started deep cleaning that. Before I knew it, I had deep cleaned the whole kitchen. Hubby came home and he was happy. In return I noticed I was happier too. The next day, I couldn't help it, I started to deep clean the living room. Hubby became super thankful and affectionate, and I couldn't help but feel a deeper love growing for him. I've made it a goal to not let him clean anything this week until his birthday (on Thurs). I want him to be happy so badly!

Today I was skimming over the First Presidency Message in the Ensign, and President Thomas S. Monson says, "the Savior is telling us that unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives. Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and figuratively lose their lives, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish..."

I can't know what love is until I try to show that I do love. I can't grow unless I make an effort to help others grow. By serving others, I can expect to feel better about my life and where we are going and begin to feel a deeper love for my husband and those around me.

:) Isn't service great?

__________________________________________________

Pregnancy Update: Hubby felt the baby kick for the first time!!! Baby X has been pretty good at not letting Dad feel him so, Hubby caught him in the act of a kicking fit and you should have seen the smile on his face!!!!

We are both doing well, my feet are beginning to swell a little bit and life is pretty good right now.

-TBC

My Battle With A War I Thought I Already Won

This week has been VERY interesting to say the least. Hubby and I had a nice 3-day weekend away from work/school due to MLK Day where we chilled and cleaned and really just had fun being together.

Tuesday: I was at work doing things I normally do, when my heart started racing really fast for no reason. I was trying to breathe deep and calm my heart down when I began to feel light headed and the world went black for a few seconds. About half-an-hour later of dealing with the light headed-ness and the speeding heart I knew I couldn't function at work and called Hubby to come and get me because I didn't trust myself to drive home. He came as fast as he could and was going to take me to the Emergency Room when my heart calmed down and I felt like I was getting back to normal, I was just REALLY tired. Hubby took me home and I slept for a really long time, I almost felt like I had run from work to home not driven in a car because my heart had been racing for around 1 hour.

I felt like I was going to return to normal when about 9pm, it started up again. This time was different then before and I knew it. The light headed-ness started kicking in again and I began to fear for mine and the baby's well being and didn't know what to do other than go to the ER. Hubby helped me get into the car and drove me down, I explained my day to the guy up from and told him, "I'm pregnant... 22 weeks along", he quickly stood up and started to talk to one of the nurses that admits people into the ER. A minute later, someone sat me down in a wheelchair and checked my heart rate. It was 200rpm-230rpm. At one point someone asked, "Is our machine broken?" and the nurse answered, "No, that's her real heart rate." They asked some basics about my day and I told them how long these racing heart sessions were lasting. 1 hour had passed by this point and it wasn't slowing down. They rushed me into a room where the put IV in and I met my ER Doc and told him that I have Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome but had it corrected a couple years back. They needed to do a bunch of different tests on me but were running out of room by the number of nurses and specialists they had working on me, they moved me into another room that was bigger and had my heart rate stats behind me.

A lady from Labor and Delivery came down to check on my baby's fetal heart rate, as she put the jelly on my stomach she looked at my monitor and her mouth dropped, "Is that real?" she asked the Doc. He confirmed it. She quickly found the heart rate of my baby and asked if I was having pain. My baby had a normal heart rate and he was just mad that my body was having minor spasms and my heart was pounding so loud, so he kicked his disapproval every now and then. He was fine and I couldn't ask for more, I didn't care anymore what happened next, my baby was fine, and his normal stubborn self.

-2 hour mark-

The EKG guy measured my heart rate and I was asked who my doctor was that worked on my WPW, I told them, I was in luck, he was the doctor that was on call to analyze EKGs that night. He was contacted and sent a copy of my EKG. He told them what to do since I am pregnant. There is this drug that when placed into my bloodstream will stop my heart for a few seconds, wear off, and then my heart should restart by itself once again. Hopefully my heart rate will be normal after the drug wears off. It's kind of like a restart button. Well, after plugging me up to an EKG monitor, heart pads, and going through the risks and what back up plans are and confirming the baby's safety. We went through with the drug. I think I felt death.

As a little kid, I always thought that death would scare me and I wouldn't be ready for it and that I would be ashamed to meet my maker. But as I felt death, I wasn't scared, I was calm, and I knew I was safe. The Lord calmed me in my scariest hour and helped me breathe, I felt my pulse come back and my eyes could function again and I felt my cheeks regain color. My pulse felt normal.

They got some hydration in me, and I was finally left alone with my husband for an hour. We were safe, me, Baby X, and Hubby. This needed to happen, and it needed to happen here while we still live near my old cardiologist and family doctor. If we were somewhere else having this baby, they wouldn't have known that it was my WPW acting up once again, they would have not been sure what to do. But my cardiologist knew heart and knew what needed to be done. The team that was helping me in the ER, they knew what to do to help in every way they could, they did it fast and efficiently.

I am so grateful for the love surrounding me, my family (both sides) really stepped up to the plate to show they care and are there for me and my small new family. I was watched over by my Heavenly Father, and felt his love so intensely. I have no doubt in my mind. This was a blessing in disguise, and I've learned a lot about my Hubby, myself, and my baby.

-TBC

Gender Revealed!

So, last week we had our reveal the gender party for our baby, I had a lot of fun making the cake. It was a hard thing to do, but I finally accomplished it and it turned out nice enough. I made a classic yellow cake but I'm not the biggest fan of the taste of just plain old yellow cake, so instead of using regular milk I used buttermilk and that helped make it moist and add a little bit more flavor. I'm also not a fan of icing that tastes of only powdered sugar so I made it into a mint icing. It turned out pretty yummy. Here is the cake:

 I didn't add anything on the pan because I was getting kind of tired at the time that I was done. So, no brown sugar sand or any fun candy displays on this one. Which is fine. It still was awesome and people loved it. Excuse the mess-ups, this is my second time doing buttercream transfer, I'm still trying to work out the bugs.

For the party I made a poster (which I don't have a pic of) of Old Wives' Tales of which gender the baby SHOULD be. Majority said Girl. One said twins. Which was fun, because there were a couple of previously pregnant women there and they all compared my answers with their experiences. It was pretty fun.

I also make Mario hats and Princess Peach crowns for people to hold to guess the gender they thought the baby would be. The genders were originally split down the middle but Sa decided to switch to girl to make it easier for me to decide which side to cut into.

There are some of the guesses.... now.... time to reveal the gender!

Woot! It's a boy!!!! And his name will be Baby X (he eventually will become Mr. X, but he's Baby X for now) So, in May I can expect a cute bouncing and stubborn baby boy! You can tell Hubby is thrilled, hehe. :) He really is, we just are super tired so we look funny in this pic.

Anyway! Yay!!! Boys!

How did you feel when you found out your baby's gender? Or when you found out your neice/nephew's or little siblings gender? 

-TBC

Christmas and other fun times

Not much has happened these past few months concerning the pregnancy. I started to feel the little person move every now and then. Hubby thought he felt the baby move, he says it felt like "feeling a heartbeat".

My morning sickness has basically disappeared with a few exceptions of being nauseous because I might be sick. I still don't really like eating meat, I can eat some but not that much of it. Mostly red meats tend to bother me, but, I still will eat it if someone makes it for me.

Right now, I'm at 19 weeks (20 on Saturday), I'm a little under halfway done! I don't feel like I should be but I am! I also get to find out my little person's gender on Monday. I'm way excited! Guesses anyone?

I really want to do a reveal the gender party, but we'll see.

November was ok, I felt kind of queazy during Thanksgiving due to morning sickness. We had Thanksgiving Dinner up at my Brother- Wally's house. He is quite the cook! He made these fantastic cheese balls that were to die for. My other brother-Jar was the talk of the party because he brought tons of mini Martinellis. It was really fun, and a lot of people came.

Christmas! Christmas time was fun. I did the 12 Days of Christmas on Hubby this year, I was pretty proud of it.
Day 1- One face mask (he rides his bike to work/school everyday and his face is always freezing when he does)
Day 2- 2 cufflinks
Day 3- 3 raquetballs
Day 4- The Fantastic Four
Day 5- 5 oranges
Day 6- 6 Goldtoe Socks
Day 7- A lucky tie
Day 8- 8 pocket Kleenex
Day 9- a 9V battery
Day 10- 10 Facebook praises
Day 11- 11 songs that made me think of him
Day 12- Coupons for any time
Christmas Day- Shirts and movies

It was way fun, I found everything on Ebay & at Black Friday (I went after the crowds died down and it was really nice) and I spent $20 below my initial budget. I felt pretty proud about that :).

Christmas break was fun because we spent a lot of time with Hubby's family that were in town, so we got to play with little kids for most of break and work on puzzles. In Hubby's family it's a tradition (that no one knows how it got started) to have puzzles on a table in one of the rooms and they try to finish the puzzles that they get that year or didn't finish the previous year. I'm really bad at puzzles, so I have made the choice to practice puzzles. There were 1000 piece puzzles in my parent's basement so I snagged one and have been practicing. Hopefully next year, I can be helpful in the puzzle excitement.

Christmas Eve was delicious, my Mother-in-law is a really good cook so I enjoyed a very yummy meal.

Christmas Day is always interesting for Hubby and I, we spend some of the morning together, exchanging our gifts for each other. Then we went to my parent's house for the morning. Then we went to his parents house for the afternoon. We will switch it up every year because they only live a block or two from each other, so, not much traveling being done and we get to see everyone!

New Years Eve was exciting, the day before we had a fancy cheese dinner at my In-law's house which was fun, there were definitely some fun and interesting cheeses there. Then on the day of, we went to my parent's house and watched movies until midnight. Hubby & my mom took a nap around 11:00 PM so I was the only one awake and when midnight hit I woke people up, we cheered the New Year with Martinelli shots and stayed up for another hour or so.

Overall, a very good break. I also got a TON done. My pantry which was a total nightmare (we haven't touched it since we got married), I finally pulled out everything and redid the whole setup. We actually have a food storage space now, and can actually incorporate it into our meals now and rotate out old cans and such.

Thanks to everyone who helped make the year great (even if I didn't mention it) and I'm excited for what the New Year will bring!

-TBC