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Friday, October 9, 2009

The whole reason to go

The Happy Couple

We went to Iowa to see Eric's brother Jon marry Shauna. They had a great wedding, a great turnout and a beautiful bride. We wish them the best!! Here are some snips of it

Our family of four!!

Caden with Eric's cousin Jeff, Caden loved him and thought he was the best!!

Macey and Nanny, two best buddies

Macey's looked adorable in her dress, it was all over the place but I think she secretly loved being dressed up.

The grooms cake and wedding party table

The Head Table

Some of the best people I know, so great seeing them and chatting with them. Pop is missing here: Nan, Marlene(her sister) and Glenn(Marlenes husband)

Caden covered in chocolate, but still so handsome

He love playing at Nan and pops. Caden had such a great time playing with Nanny. He was so spoiled with love and cookies.

Caden who noramlly doesnt fall asleep anywhere but in bed alone, was so exhausted from playing so much that he fell asleep everywhere, this pic is at Eric's cousins hosue, we were playing Rockband and he just sat there and fell asleep.

This is how we came home to him after we went out on a date.

Caden got to play with Eric and Jon's old Legos. He had a blast and gave us a good idea for a brithday present.

Here's Macey in her adorable little hat. She handled the surprisingly cold weather GREAT!!

Macey in Iowa

Macey finally is to the point of not hating the bath.

She is so fun and so chubby.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

These two...

It's so fun having two kids. I've got to say it is so much easier this time around, I dont know if with Caden I was just young, stressed, inexperience, I dont know.

I am not maternal it is something I was born without so when I had Caden it was a struggle, the hours of no sleep, the breastfeeding problems, I just didn't know what I was doing and wasn't comfortable or confident in myself as a mother.

With Macey I just feel so much more relaxed, in every way. The recovery has been AMAZINGLY easy. I feel great and have for weeks. For this I know I am lucky. I'm not stressing about breastfeeding this time. I didn't make enough with Caden nor did I this time with Macey. It's not the end of the world if I have to give my child formula. I don't want to sugar coat and say that I'm not tired, I am. But so far she is a great sleeper...so far. But babies change at a drop of a hat.

It's funny when you have two kids or more you compare, not in a one is better then the other but experience characteristics etc.

Caden-super swaddler, if he wasn't swaddled there was hell to pay, he would wake up. He was so extreme about it we had to wean him off of swaddling at like 8 or 9 months.

Macey-don't even think about pinning her arms down to swaddle her. She will have nothing of it and that's how its been since day 1.

Caden-had projectile reflux but we didn't know til 6 months.

Macey-has "silent" reflux and found out at 2 weeks.

They are both great kids and I love them both dearly and can't believe Macey has only been with us for just over 3 weeks its seems as if shes been with us forever.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Here is crazy, goofy Caden. Still the same old crazy kid. We sure do love him.

Caden is so in love with Macey, he just wants to talk to her all the time and kiss her. We have a new rule though if her eyes aren't open dont go talking and kissing her. He is in her face, which is a really cute big brother thing but when I'm trying to get her to sleep not very helpful. But when I'm changing her diaper he's in her face saying "Macey, dont cry, your okay, its going to be okay. Mommy's just trying to help you." or he will come to me and tell me "Mom, Macey peed in her diaper" then turn to Macey "Macey, you aren't supposed to pee in your diaper you need to go pee in the potty." so cute.

Caden has also offered to breastfeed, so funny.

And here is our sweet Macey, we went to the doctor today for two week check up and she looks healthy as a horse and a whoppin' 10lbs. I can't get over those sweet cheeks.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Blessing Day

While my mom was in town we thought we would have Macey blessed.

Eric gave a beautiful blessing and Macey did great, she whimpered for a little bit but did great.

Here is Macey in here beautiful hand-made smocked dress. Too Cute!!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

This is what were doing

Kinda some funny faces, but we like her and think we just might keep her.

This crazy spider outside our house that Caden is obsessed with.

And Macey has been doing a lot of this. Too cute!!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

How it all went down..

Okay, prefacing this is a birth story meaning details of BIRTH. So, if you dont want to hear the details, please skip entirely.

Birth Story

I had been having contractions for 3 days and had gone to the doctor three days in a row thinking that this might be it. I went to the OB on Friday the 28th I was 4cm and 80% effaced. But still not time. My spirits were crushed and we went home. I continued having contractions that took my breath away for the rest of the day.

Let me back up and tell you my birth with Caden. It was long but not painful in anyway thanks to the Epidural, it was great and I was a fan. Well, I started to talk to some friends about labor and they were telling me about going Natural, I thought they were crazy, but what they said made sense. All your body wants it to get the baby out, you go from pain at 100 to once the baby was out to a 0. But the Epidural you go from the pain at 0 to slowly reaching 100 and uncomfortable. So, I started researching and found this book and documentary about Natural Delivery and choices that women have. Birth is not a medical procedure but it is a natural occurrence and should be treated that way. Epidural or not the choice of how you give birth should be given to you. It was called “The Business of Being Born” and how the USA is slowly making birth a money driven business. Doctors are inducing for any reason nowadays which a lot of the time leads to un-necessary c-sections. Granted some would have a c-section or not. But if you give the body time do what it is meant to, the outcome is usually different. Let me get off my soap box for a minute. So from there I switched to a Midwife who was great. Let me tell you I saw the same OB for 36 weeks, that’s almost 9 months and she still didn’t know who I was or what I was having until she looked at my chart. The Midwives are more personable and really care about the well being of you and your body, they listen to and I was immediately glad to make the switch just weeks before giving birth.

At night we started to watch a movie and I noticed they were semi frequent so I started to time every 20 minutes-pain. After the movie I decided to take a bath and see if it helped, it did but they weren’t gone. I tried to go to bed but they were becoming more frequent and painful, no sleep for me. Finally after 20 minutes of that I woke up Eric saying “If I have to be up suffering than so do you”. He was grumpy to say the least, we kept timing they kept getting closer. Finally they were 3-6 minutes apart. We called the mid-wife and our awesome babysitter Donna to come over.
We headed to hospital and now see why every person in Labor HATES riding in the car, so incredibly uncomfortable. I love the looks we get from people in the hallways at the hospital me pausing and holding on the wall rail trying to breathe through the pain.

It was about 1:30 and we were admitted and I was a 5. YEAH!! Our Midwife, Courtney, showed up and we waited and breathed through the pain for about an hour. She checked me and I was a 6. YEAH!! I knew I could do it. We changed positions several times, standing, birth ball a.k.a. a Sports Ball. Finally they let me get in the shower and I’ll tell you what if I could have just labored in the shower the entire time it would have been AMAZING. I loved it and help relieve the pain so much. Lying down was the worst, I hated it but she needed to monitored due to me having a fever and higher blood pressure as I labored. After two more hours she checks me and I’m a 7 and defeated she says she has to give me some Pitocin-which freaked me out because I know it makes contractions, stronger, harder, and closer together so I said give me some I.V. meds. I think they gave me Demerol/Stadol(not sure), not sure and don’t really care, instantly relaxed UNTIL contraction. So the medicine was good when I wasn’t contracting I was sleeping. I know I kept asking for an epidural. My awesome husband would tell me to breathe and I would tell him breathing was stupid. So lets just say I was out of it a little bit. I told Eric “Did you cash the check for LDS Babycenter?” and he responded “What?” and I said, “Did you request my Epidural yet?” So I knew and I didn’t. It’s hard to explain. My mind was more relaxed but my body could still feel everything.

Side-note I almost bit Eric’s finger and shoulder. I was in pain and that is my defense.

So 5:15 I felt “the pressure” and I said I’m going to push and start to do so, they weren’t ready and I guess my midwife stiff armed the baby to hold her in while she finished putting on her gloves and getting changed. They told me to wait, yeah you can’t hold in a 7lb+ baby when she and you are ready to get her out. Two pushes later and she came out. And it was AWESOME! I was still fuzzy and tired from the medicine and in retrospect had I known I only had 45 minutes more I probably would have not gotten it because it kind of made me sleepy for awhile.

Let me tell you the recovery from having Caden to having Macey is night and day. I was up and walking around in no time, I wasn’t hurting, it didn’t hurt to go to the bathroom. I honestly felt better that day than I had in the last several weeks of pregnancy. I walk normal and feel normal it is great. All the pain was worth how I feel now. Many people have mentioned how alert Macey is and let me tell you she came out crying and didn’t stop for a long time, she came out with quite the appetite too.

It was a crazy experience that went super quick. Eric was my rock he stood there letting me squeeze his hand, he rubbed my back almost the entire time and held my hand while in the shower, my rock people and without him I’d never do it again. It was painful but I enjoyed it and obviously love the outcome of it.