More on the game

We went to a minor league baseball game on saturday night. The rivercats were our team and i have to say they stink! The end score was 17- 0....(zero being us)we were on the edge of our seats wondering who was going to win the whole time! :)  Maya slept through half of it under a bunch of blankets and then was pretty happy for the second half. We went with our friends Drew and Mindy, it was awesome to hang out with them. The best part was the fireworks at the end. Maya was crying before that but as soon as they started she stopped and stared for the whole show. As soon as they were over-she was crying again. We had a great time though-can't wait to go to a giants game now!

The Rivercats Game

I love this picture of maya and her dad, they are so cute! 

Lucky Shot

We were so lucky to catch this smile on camera! This is Ryans best friend Drew who is holding her. I took Maya to him to take a quick picture and she was frowning when I started to take the picture. She gave this huge smile as I took it and by the time I looked at her she was frowning again! What a cutie she is. So now we just show this picture to Drew's dates and tell them how he charms babies!  ;)

The Best Daddy Ever!

Ryan is the best dad ever! I was excited to see him with maya because he is an only child and never really been around babies before. I envisioned that the first time he would hold her he might be a little awkward or not really sure what to do with her. I was totally wrong! I think he was more calm with her than I was at the beginning! He was so good with her and could get her to calm down when I sometimes couldn't.

He was anxious to play with her-this was one of the things he always said he was most excited about, until he soon realized when she came home from the hospital that uh....she doesn't play yet. Nope she runs a pretty tight ship with only 4 things on the agenda-eating, pooping, crying, and sleeping. But he still loved holding her and I swear her favorite spot to sleep is on her daddys chest. She squirms a lot if I try to have her sleep on me like that, but ryan must be more comfortable because as soon as you lay her on there she goes right to sleep.

I love seeing the tender side of Ryan coming out with his little girl, calling her sweetie and angel and just staring at her. She is amazing I have to admit, we are so happy to have her in our home and she has brought such a wonderful spirit there. I dont think anything makes us happier than seeing our daughter smile, or bulge her big eyes out.

21st birthday!

I know it has been a few months since then, but this was honestly one of my favorite birthdays ever. Why? My husband made it so special for me and it was great to spend some quality time for him before the baby came. If you cant tell from the picture I am very pregnant there- I went into labor the next day. I really wanted to go out to eat so we went to Carinos (my favorite restaurant next to Olive Garden) I got a pasta dish that had bacon cheese and tomatoes in it-it was amazing. My only frustration was that I was so pregnant I really couldn't eat that much. :) 

For my birthday present Ryan got me a down comforter and a journal. I have wanted a down comforter for so many years. I remember going to my Aunt Christies house and sometimes a couple of us kids would get to sleep in her guest bed where she had feather blankets. We would take turns fluffing them and then rolling in it. It felt like I was on a cloud and I have been determined I would own one someday-my dream finally came true! 

In the journal ryan got me he wrote a note to me on the first page to personalize it. I love my husband so much and he is so thoughtful, nothing makes my day like getting a love note from him, he is my best friend and I am so lucky to have him.

Instead of birthday cake....cake doesn't make much sense at this point because we dont know that many people here and I sure am NOT going to eat a whole cake by myself. Mind you-I probably could, but I think that would be the worst thing for me! In its place we got the best dessert none to mankind-COLD STONE!!!! My signature ice cream is Cake batter, brownie and caramel (if I am feeling really indulgent I get double brownie) I swear I could never work at cold stone because I think I would gain 50 lbs. I cant resist it! Anyways this was a wonderful birthday...thanks sweetheart!

Getting back into things...

It has been so nice to no longer be pregnant and be able to move about freely as I want to. I would say the biggest thing I missed while being pregnant is exercising. Early in my pregnancy I had morning sickness too bad to do anything....walking for 15 minutes was hard enough for me. I waited to exercise until after my 6 week appointment to make sure everything was ok. Everything checked out well and I bought a Tae Bo DVD and luckily there is a small gym in our complex so it is pretty convenient to work out. I only wish it was open in the evening since that is my favorite time to exercise. (I hate exercising in the mornings)

I have worked out almost every day for the last two and a half weeks and I feel like I am getting a bit of my muscle back. The first time I tried to do situps  at 6 weeks it was totally depressing. I never knew how weak my muscles were until I tried to get em to actually work! Day one after working out I felt it was hopeless. But lately I have noticed that I am getting a bit of my tone back and I can actually feel  a bit of muscle in my abs (non existent it seemed a few weeks ago)

Exercising can be one of my addictions, but it sure is harder to find time to do it with a baby. I have managed to figure it out though, even if  it is done in increments.

One month Photo shoot

This outfit was the only one besides five basic pink onesies Maya fit in up until 2 weeks ago. I took her outside by a tree to take these. I think they turned out so cute!

For Wendy Bird

This post is dedicated to my sister wendy. when I looked at this picture-I totally saw wendy in it. So Wendy bird, your little niece might end up looking a bit like you. 

First time at church

It sounds pathetic, but if any of you have a baby that is grouchy like mine is-you will understand. At almost two months old we finally went to church together as a family. Before that Ryan would go to our ward and I would go to sacrament meeting in the next one while he watched the baby at home.  Luckily she slept almost the whole time and things went so much better than expected. Thank goodness for mothers lounges though, those things are awesome! It felt so good to be at church as family again. I had missed it so much. I love relief society and I got to go to half of it. (until she got hungry)

Getting a little chunk on her!

2 months old!

So I start a blog and then I dont write on it for another month.  I read my cousin Caitlins blog today and it inspired me to be more consistent if I get the chance. It has never been so difficult to get things accomplished as it has been in the last 6 weeks of my life. Maya was so calm when she first came home from the hospital, didn't mind when we washed her hair, didn't even mind when we changed her diaper-she only cried for about 5 second when she got her first shot! So I thought to myself. Wow, we have a calm baby! this is going to be so great. So it was for the first 2 1/2 weeks. But things changed overnight. All of a sudden she wouldnt sleep unless she was being held (we are talking 4 hour naps here!) and if I dared try to set her down, she would scream and scream and not calm down unless I held her. I figured it was just going to last a day or two, maybe she was just needy? But it never stopped.....it just got worse. She cried and cried and cried and her sleep got worse and she got to be more and more gassy. By the time ryan would get home in the evening I didn't even want to hold her anymore because I was so so frustrated. One can only take a baby screaming in there ear for so many hours.

I was trying so hard to figure out what was wrong. I never ate chocolate, broccoli, spicy food, anything that might even remotely bug her. This wasn't helping. I went off dairy for 4 days and it didn't help either. I remember going in for Maya's 1 and 2 week appointments and the doctors were amazed at how calm I was for a first time mother. I attributed it to the fact that I had 6 sibling and an amazing mom who has taught me so much.

I was getting worried something was wrong with her so I called the pedicatrician and I had an appointment for the next day. I got there and luckily maya was sleeping and I had to wait in the room for the dr. about 15 min. As soon as she walked in she asked me how I was and I just cried and cried. I guess I should feel stupid at that point, I was just glad my Pediatrician was a woman who had a colicky baby herself. She was so awesome and let me keep talking and tell her all about the troubles I had with Nursing and Mayas major grouchiness. She let me talk for an hour and was in no hurry to get me out of there. I think she would have talked to me another 30 min. if I had needed it. I feel so lucky that I got such a great pediatrician (and with no referral.)

She basically said just let her grow out of it. That is probably the last thing I wanted to hear but at least I knew I wasn't doing anything wrong. I was beginning to feel way inadequate as a mom.

So on a happier note, about two weeks ago I decided to try going off dairy one more time and do research on it. It can actually take up to 2-3 weeks to get it fully flushed out of your body, but on day 6 of being off of it Maya one day woke up quite happy. She took longer naps, was happier overall and I was able to get simple things done-like laundry and such. She is still a grouchy baby but doing better than she was. I hope this keeps going. She had a really grouchy day yesterday but I think it might have been because I ate broccoli (beef and broccoli over rice-it was SO GOOD!)

Like I said though, she is two months old now (well a few days away from it) and she is so cute. she is starting to smile more and now she is starting to play. She can see her mobile in her swing and loves to watch it. Oh P.S. Thank you Mom and Dad for the swing!!!!! We got it a few weeks ago and it has been the best gift we have recieved because she will actually sleep in it and I am more sane as a result because I dont have to hold my baby for 11 hours straight (which is what was happening) ! It is the kind that goes back and forth and side to side. She really likes the side to side way.

Maya is awake and crying now-big suprise... :) so this is the end of this post. I will try to put some of her adorable pictures on.

The birth

Like I said in the previous post, our little sweetheart Maya Kristiina Vasso is finally here and we have had so much fun with her. I used to make fun of new parents and how I swear they take a picture of there child's every move. Now I realize I am no different! Here she is a few minutes old. Everything with the birth went well. I was in labor for 45 hours total but I still had to be induced because the contractions wouldn't come quicker than 5-7 min. on a regular basis. They induced me after 43 hours of labor and two long sleepless nights. I was so ready for her to come. It didn't take long for the medicine to kick in and within 30-45 min. I was having contractions every 3 minutes or so. Finally the pain got bad enough that I wanted an epidural after about 3 hours. I was dilated to a 5 at this point and I can say I was pretty desperate for some medication. The anesthesiologist had a hard time putting it in (I had pure back labor and was having a hard time getting lose enough for them to put it in the right spot). After about 40 min it was in and as it started to kick in, I realized that epidural's are one of the greatest things on this earth!

About 15 min went by and I was still feeling a lot of stuff going on, it wasn't like a contraction but more just pressure. I asked the nurse if I should still be feeling things and she said "you shouldn't feel a thing at this point, but later on as the baby comes you should feel pressure." I told her I was feeling a lot of pressure and she said that usually she isn't supposed to check people but she did and said " oh, that would be why...your babies head is right there. Oh-and she has lots of hair."

I was completely shocked! I always figured I would cry when my child was actually born but I started to cry right then, probably just because I was overwhelmed and wasn't expecting her to be born for another 3 or 4 hours....not in the next half hour!

I started pushing and after one push she had the Doctor come in and within 25 min Maya was born. Nothing is better than hearing your babies first cry. She was smaller than i though she would be- 6 lbs 14 oz.  19 1/2" but she definitely had more hair than I thought she would, although its kind of funny. Really really short in front and about an inch in the back. We say our child has a mullet, and it isn't too far off from the truth. She is our little "Billy Ray Cyrus"

The picture Im standing next too in the hall of the hospital was my inspiration to keep going through labor. I had to walk the halls for hours to try to induce myself naturally-no luck. By the end of that evening, all the nurses knew who I was in the delivery unit because it really wasn't that big so passed em all at least 20 times.

  

Getting Started!

People have been after me for a year now to start a blog, and now I am finally getting around to it. Right now we are living in Sacramento, CA and Ryan is doing summer sales for pest control. We will be here until the end of September and then we go back to Cedar City where my husband has school. Luckily I get to be a stay at home mom with our beautiful daughter Maya ( I will blog more about her later). It has been really fun to live in California for the summer and I love how green everything is. The weather has been great as well and our complex has a pool and a hot tub, so it has been really fun.