Bailey's birth

Well the baby arrived. We were scheduled to be induced Friday June 4th but of course this being Rexburg, the hospital was full so they delayed it to Saturday. The boys were really excited to have the baby and were really glad the hospital had time to get the baby out on Saturday. We checked in a little after 11 and after waiting for the doctor for quite a while the nurse just put in my IV and started the fluids. Lets just say I am a hard stick and ended up with the IV right on top of the bone in my right wrist, not a convenient or comfortable place. At 1 the doctor finally came in and said we were good to start the induction. After some more waiting they finally started the medicine. I ended up having my blood drawn twice in the next 2 hours because the doctor ordered the wrong test the 1st time. Yeah this was not exactly the doctor I had hoped for the 2 I like were not on that weekend of course.

The doctor told me if I hadn't made good progress he was sending me home, never what you want to hear. Well luckily I had made enough progress that he didn't send me home. We waited 3 more hours and after much effort from the anesthesiologist, finally got the epidural in. I guess my back is really tight, which they always say is a sign of a healthy back but that doesn't make the 40+ minutes it took to get it in any more enjoyable or the recovery from where they put it any less painful. By a little after 7 the epidural was in and working great. I started feeling lots of pressure and by 930 the baby was here. That means 5 hours off my last induction (18, 13, and this one was 8).

So a few bumps in the road but over all a smooth entrance into the world. She eats and sleeps really well and poops like a champ. Like within an hour of birth, when the nurse was getting ready to bather her she pooped on the nurse. Yeah we found it highly entertaining. I had to wait what seemed like forever for the removal of my IV and epidural once again because of strange doctor's orders. So I could do nothing for like 3 hours after she was born.

The boys got to come the next morning and LOVED her. They fought over who got to hold her and how long they got to hold her for and who she looked like. They were very said that they couldn't take her home when they left but they were able to come back later that night with my parents and were really glad to know we would all be home together Monday.

HOLY CRAP!!!

The title of this post has oh so many meanings. First, our family has all had the flu which means lots of barfing, sleeping and well, you can guess what else. This is Connor on one such flu stricken day. This kid never holds still or takes naps so this should tell you just how ill he was feeling. Tyler was equally sick and lethargic for a day but Connor was down for an entire week again. I even got to be sick for about 2 days. I thought we were all over it when my aunt with downs syndrome that I am taking care of while my parents are out of town got it for 2 days. But now I think it has actually finally completely run its course through my sisters kids too.
On the last day of Connor's sickness when he was done throwing up and just really tired he asked if we could go baby shopping because he'd delayed it multiple times due to the sickness. We did make it to the mall and got a lot of shopping done in the store after spending one of the sick days online shopping. So now I think we actually are almost totally outfitted for the baby. After the mall we went to feed the ducks on the green belt and that's what the 2 pictures below are from. This is the only time I let Connor walk at all, I had made him ride in the cart or stroller the entire time. After this we went to a fabric store and Connor asked if we could be done so he could take a nap. See very odd since he HATES naps. He took a 4 1/2 hour nap as soon as we left the store. He fell asleep within 2 blocks of the store and continued to sleep until nearly bed time. Got up ate, and went to bed for the night.

Brian had been asking me for an updated belly pic and so this is the best I have, it's almost a month old now. Yes I know you can't see my face and that is on purpose. I can handle the fat belly but the swollen face is not my favorite part of pregnancy.

In other news we are moving for Brian to go back to school. This means the next 2 weekends I will be in Jackson packing like crazy so that we can actually live in the apartment by May 15th because Brian will be home around May 20th. We are SO SO SO excited for him to finally come home. He has been gone for almost 6 months and we are not loving being without him. Tyler and I have been looking at he calendar quite regularly to see how many days til daddy gets home and how many days til the baby comes. It seems weird that the baby is due in 5 weeks because there is so much craziness happening between now and then. It seems like with my other pregnancies the baby gets all the attention and that's what all the excitement builds up to but this baby is the end to 9 months of craziness so as of yet I'm not too anxious for her to get here but I'm sure once Brian gets home I'll be more than ready to get her here. Oh and we do officially know it is a girl. The boys came with me to a doctors appointment and when the nurse discovered we didn't know for sure she got the ultrasound tech to do a quick check and she was much less shy this time.

TAX SEASON IS OVER!!!!!!!

The most exciting part of the week is that tax season is over. I am officially unemployed and LOVING it. The last couple weeks have been really hectic and not very fun running on little to no sleep and being 7+ months pregnant. I am looking forward to being able to wear whatever I want (that fits). I am tired of dress pants and collared shirts. I'm also really excited about not having to get ready every day. I know lame but it takes a lot of effort some days.

Connor is still not feeling well and keeps spiking fevers, getting headaches, stomach aches, throwing up, having nasty diapers, sleeping a LOT, and just sitting on the couch. Yeah not so fun but it has made me sit down and relax on this first post tax season day. I did take him to the doctor and they think he is having reflux and allergies so hopefully the meds they gave him will help him and allow him to get back to his regular self.

Tyler had his kindergarten testing this week and he was REALLY nervous. We are in the process of moving to a new place and so the testing was at a school he had never been to before and he also had never taken a test and didn't know what to expect and all I knew was that they did a test so I wasn't too much help. I got to sit with him for the test and about half way through when he had easily given all the right answers you could see the relief on his face and he did really well on the whole test. They did an extra test because he had done so well on the first test and he was surprised he knew lots of the sight words and all the words the teacher said one letter sound at a time and he was really glad to be done but proud he knew so much of the information they wanted.

Brian should be home in about 5 weeks and we are more than ready for him to get home and he is equally ready to be home. He even said he was looking forward to going back to work. That should tell you how ready he is to be done with the training. He is a little leery about the fact that we are likely going to be all moved in to a new apartment he has never seen since I'm an idiot and forgot to take pictures when we toured it 2 weeks ago. Tyler is pretty nervous about moving and going to kindergarten in a new place without his friends or cousins but that is a big reason we are moving now as opposed to August when we would actually need to move. Brian is looking into going back to school and we're hoping for September but it may not happen until January with all the hiccups we've run into.

That's about all that's happening in our lives. We are planning on actually starting to shop for the baby so it will have more than 5 outfits to wear but with all the sickness going around we haven't been able to yet but hopefully next week before I have extra kids all the time for 3 weeks but we'll see if it works out.

Easter Egg Hunt 2010

So Saturday morning we had planned to do a family Easter Egg Hunt. Saturday morning at 3:30 I woke up to Connor throwing up in my bed. Tyler was also asleep in my bed so I moved him so I could strip the bed and get it all in the washer. I got Connor all stripped and the couch covered in towels and Connor bedded down. After starting the washer and cleaning out the bowl we keep by my bed for just such an occasion all cleaned up I set it by Connor who looks up and says, "Thanks for cleaning up my Barffies mom." Moments later he was fast asleep. An hour later I finally was too. At 7:30 in the morning Connor woke up sat up and was poopy above his belly button. After another incident on the bathroom carpets, we finally get him cleaned up. We still did the Easter Egg hunt and nothing could keep Connor on the couch to hold still with all the cousins here and an Easter Egg hunt going on.

Here are Sam and Connor finding Eggs with Lexi.

Connor running to get more eggs.

Tyler was a little annoyed because he had not found any animal shaped Easter Eggs and was telling me how unfair it was, but I get this look ALL the time and thought you all would enjoy it too.

A few more of the cousins hunting eggs.

So the niece on the left is 8 months old, the niece on the right is nearly 17 months.

We were trying to compare heights.

We had a lot of fun with all the cousins and the Easter Egg hunts. We had a bid family brunch and my dad was even able to take some time off work in the heat of tax season and come home for the party. My brother and his wife were also able to make it up. There were 12 of the 21 cousins at the Easter egg hunt so it was crazy busy but really fun. The afternoon was filled with misbehavior by the cousins and lots of discipline but after 5 days together it was kind of expected. They can only be good for so long.

Oh and Connor is feeling much better except the lingering croupy cough from the beginning of Feb.

Connor's 3rd Birthday

Connor is a little hard to shop for so I asked him what he wanted for his birthday. He said his dad to come home from the Army. After a near breakdown on mommy's party I explained to him I couldn't get that and so I asked for a second best option. He asked if his cousin Sammy could come. Well I called my sister and asked when their spring break was and if a little gas money would give them the ability to spend spring break in Idaho. Luckily my sister was able to work it out and make it up here for Connor's birthday.

Brian also had a hard time shopping for Connor so after much research and trial and error at online browsing, he finally chose Mickey's Choo Choo Express and a Fire truck floor puzzle. This is Connor's reaction to the movie daddy gave him. Connor is really getting into boys things like trucks, cars, trains and the like.

This is him opening a race car from his Great Grandma Carson.

This is what Tyler gave him, Thomas Uno,

once again the fact it has trains on it makes it way cooler.

Just a few of the many many guests at his party

and Connor's Mickey Mouse cake, once again courtesy of Broulims.

Here are 8 of the cousins at the party

(there were 4 more but no more Mickey ears to wear)

Well the party was a hit, I'd like to apologize for the outfits my kids are in, I worked all day got off just in time to get the pizza, drinks, and the cake and make it to the party and so they had changed out of what they had been wearing when I left for work 9 hours earlier.

I think his party was a lot of fun and he only had a little fit that daddy didn't get to come. Connor and Tyler LOVED having my sisters kids here for the week and getting to play with them and have them to themselves for a few days. Since we usually go down to New Mexico to visit after tax season but I figured at 8 months pregnant it wasn't such a good idea this year, we were even more excited they were able to make it.

An end in sight. . .

We are on the down swing. There is an end in sight. I am in the second half of the pregnancy and the last part of the separation from Brian. Tax season is just 6 more weeks and we will finally be back to a semi normal life. We are so ready for the end of May to get here and so we can see Brian again. With my work schedule and his class schedule don't allow for much real communication, just a lot of text messages sent in a free second here and there. Tyler has started to rebel against me and my parents and most other leaders in his life. Connor on the other hand has started to calm down and be far more obedient than he has been in months. He was sick with croup and double ear infections but after healing from that, and my hours being cut back at work, he is doing much better.

This pregnancy is really starting to get to me. My back is out and staring at a computer screen at work is making my neck throb so from 4pm-10pm I am pretty uncomfortable but am planning to go to the chiropractor this weeks so hopefully I'll be able to cope with it soon. We finally started getting stuff for the baby in the last week. The baby now has bedding, a car seat and a stroller. Clothes are waiting for us to KNOW what we are having not just speculate at the gender though if you ask Tyler we know and have known for a long time and the baby really needs some clothes so it won't come home from the hospital naked. But hey it will at least have a blanket and a car seat to come home in. I get to do the glucose test next week and maybe sometime I will get another ultrasound so we know for sure what we're having but I'm not sure we will find out for sure what we're having until the baby actually comes.

Well I do have some pictures but they are all on my phone and I can't find the cord to download them so once again sorry.

WE ARE ALIVE!!

Tyler's preschool Christmas party Tyler would only sit on Santa's lap if Connor did it with him

Connor was more than a little excited and Tyler was more than a little leery to do this.

Sorry I have been so long between updates. My trip to Oklahoma worked out well and we had good weather for travel the entire time, just cold. We did get kicked out of the casino we were trying to eat in for taking a picture by the slot machines. We got lost a few times and had some interesting flights, like the smallest plane I've ever been on for an almost 3 hour flight, which is not the one that I got sick on oddly enough. We made it home and Tyler was REALLY excited to see his daddy, and after Connor warmed up to him again (10-15 minutes) he wouldn't leave his daddy's side.

We went to Jackson and spent the next 2 weeks just hanging around with Brian's family. There was so little snow that we couldn't snowmobile up the mountain to get a Christmas tree and so we used our fake tree and Brian's family wasn't too happy about it but since I am allergic to pine it was much nicer for me. We kept Christmas low key and minimal this year and yet still got totally spoiled so it was a good and relaxing Christmas over all.

Brian left on New Years Eve and flew on a late night flight to Georgia. Where he thought he would be processed and start school around the 11th of January. No such luck, he is still waiting for class to start but they think it will start this week. Which if he can leave the base as soon as the class gets over he will be home just in time for the reunion for his family I got put in charge of oh and within a week of my due date :)

Tyler came with me for my 20 week ultrasound and thought it was all really cool, even the blood draw though I told him multiple times not to watch that part. The baby would not roll over and was facing my back and so we aren't sure the gender but they are leaning toward girl and we have been pretty sure it was a girl the whole time so we have started buying pink and thinking of girl names but not agreeing on any.

I did take pictures at Brian's graduation but they didn't turn out and my camera had been left in the car and was still too cold to work on Christmas so I'm waiting on my mother-in-laws pictures to get to me. So I apologize for how few pictures this post has.