Baby #3

(Yes.... this is a little lengthy.)

Its been a few weeks, but I still wanted to post this. We welcomed our 3rd addition to the family and he couldn't be cuter. Tyce Ryan made his debut 2 days past his due date on Halloween. To be honest, I was really shocked he lasted that long. I started having preterm labor at 28 weeks when I traveled to Eastern Idaho for my nieces baby blessing. It went away for a couple days when I got back and I figured I had just over done it a little. It started coming back though and over the next two weeks it got pretty intense. I had to go to the hospital twice, I was given the shot to stop my labor, and was put on perscription meds to keep it from happening again. I was told that I wasn't technically on "bedrest" but I was banned from doing a lot of things. Something as simple as carrying my one year old upstairs would start contractions. So I had to take things REALLY easy.

From week 37-39, probably 3 times, I thought it was go time.(and my dr. was out of town) I was close to going to the hospital. The last ten days I felt like I was in labor but I couldnt time the distance between the contractions. I wasn't dilated much and that absolutely baffled me. The only time I have felt that much pain in pregnancy was when I was actually in labor. I talked to my Dr. at my 39 week appt- Unfortunately he had been out of town for the previous two weeks, and without a medical reason-the hospital wont let you induce without a week notice. So I was given two options-being induced on halloween or november 4th because he was booked on surgeries till then. Wanting to keep my sanity...I chose Halloween. :)

Then mothers guilt set in. Is that a super lame birthday? Was I being totally selfish for not waiting 5 days? Will my kid never feel like he actually has his own special day? Would this put me as a candidate for worst mother of the year?

Then reality set in. I couldn't it handle anymore....and even if he hates his birthday, someday if/when his future wife goes over her due date. He'll understand. :) Besides, Halloween COULD be a cool birthday right?.....right???

aaahhh.... I felt MUCH better after rationalizing in my brain. (and a few phone calls to my sisters having them agree with me)

.......................................................................

The day of the inducement came. My last appt. with my OB  had been 15 hours earlier.( I was still dilated to barely a one.) Over the last 48 hours I had told ryan, "I feel like I am in labor" 60 times. Literally. But I still couldn't time my contractions. We got to the hospital at 7am and at 8 when my dr. checked me....I was almost at a 5!! I was already in full blown labor. Whoohoo!

This immediately solved two problems for me.
One: I now felt very justified for every one of the 60 times I said, "I feel like im in labor!"
Two: Mothers guilt about the halloween birthday???? What guilt?? Pshaw...this baby decided to come on Halloween by his own free will!

All I needed now was a magical epidural, a tall cool glass of ice chips, and CNN to pass the time. Bliss.

I was dilated to a 10 by 10:30am. However.....apparently my dr was trying to finish seeing all his morning patients quickly so they asked "since I had an epidural and wasn't feeling anything if i could wait?"

"Huh?"

"Um..."

Is that humanly possible? You do realize this is a baby being born right?

Then my nurse explained that the baby wasn't fully descended and it actually would be easier on my body because I wouldnt have to push as much. Sounded strange but fair to me. I made it 45 minutes before I felt like the baby was going to come crawling out on his own.

My Doctor ran over from his office across the street. Once he got there I did a practice push, pushed through 2 more contractions, then without even pushing- Tyce was here. :D

My immediate reaction has been different with each of my three kids births.

Maya: I was more in shock and just like. "oh wow, so this is what you look like. You are so beautiful!......wow im a mom! ect...."

Jax: I choked up a little and I was amazed how much he and Maya looked alike. Holding a son for the first time was an amazing experience.

Tyce: Tears. Lots of tears. I couldn't hold them back. There were so many challenges that came with this pregnancy. But as cliche as it sounds, it is so true that as soon as you hold your baby in your arms you know that every minute was worth it. There was such a flood of emotions as I held him. Relief, gratitude, amazement, and just so much love for this new little boy of ours.

 

My 4 year old princess!

 They spent so much time just on the trampoline.

 The one "prince" at the princess party. :)

Well, I officially have a 4 year old. Ok, she has been 4 for a couple weeks now (ok....almost a month), but with moving, visiting my family and laziness  other things.....I just didn't get around to a big party till later. I figure what better time to have a late party then when they dont really get how calendars work? You can tell a 3-4 year old any day is their bday. :D and they believe you.

We had a great time though. Lots of little princesses and one "prince" running all over for a couple hours. It was a blast. What a fun age to have a bday party.

Maya is so grown up and I love how well she communicates. Its fun to have "grown up" conversations...well kind of. She is such a huge helper with Jaxon and even though they may have their "sibling spats", dont mess with her brother. She is super protective and I find it adorable. She is loving learning time, crafts, and is absolutely in love with the trampoline.

I love my girl. What a blessing she is in our lives!

A needed update

Wow. 4 months since my last post. Thats a long time. But to my credit, I was sick for half of it, the other half I was just lazy. :D

Lets see, so much has happened since then, but most of you are friends on facebook so im pretty sure you know all the updates anyways.

For starters (as many of you already know), baby number 3 is on the way and growing well. This was by far my hardest pregnancy, but for the shortest time. I actually started getting better at 12 weeks instead of 17 or 18. It ended up being such a huge blessing for many reasons, but we also ended up buying another house and moving right when I was about 18 weeks, so that made things a ton easier. I am now 24 weeks and in the best phase of pregnancy that exists I believe. We found out we are having a boy, (which maya was less than thrilled about), but after recently meeting her first cousin at 2 days old-I think she was won over by the size of "the baby's little toes!" and I think as long as we show her the babys toes.... we will be just fine. Although we did have an hour and a half discussion after my ultrasound about "why a baby brother is not a curse". ( she was dead set on a sister)

A pregnant zebra. At 24 weeks. ;)

My parents are living their dream and bought a house in eastern idaho. I would never call that my dream location. Too much snow. HOWEVER, in the summers it is SO beautiful over there. They live on a farm and are getting right into the whole "animals, growing things, enjoying my aunts 4 wheelers....." and my kids love it. Heres some pics from our last visit.

 They Loved riding the horses.

 3 baby kittens were there to play with

 with grandma werner

 feeding the baby calves

 Jaxon would pass on the animals if he could have his own 4 wheeler. He's obsessed. :)

 4th of july outfit

 travelin' in style

I bought this for mayas bday, but I think Jax uses it more.

 The house we bought was my parents house, and we are currently renting out our other house. Its decently bigger and on a much bigger lot, so we are loving it....and I am trying my best to not kill all the vegetation that exists. The pluses of this lot is a big raspberry patch (i came back from vacation and had about a gallon and a half waiting for me), peach trees, and a huge spot for a garden. I would take a picture but you might have a hard time distinguishing between the plants and the treacherous weeds. (we were gonna for over a week and they took full advantage)

Ryan Graduated. Enough said. Hallelujah and let the party begin! He is still working at the same company he was working before, however he got moved over to marketing, now has salary instead of commission, doesn't work saturdays or late hours, and gets to go on business trips, (he just went to New Orleans and will go to Missouri next month)

I became an aunt! This just happened two weeks ago. I went over to take her newborn pictures- I will post one. I came back with 300 on my memory card. hmmmmm..... new aunt syndrome??

Did I say i'd post just one? Sorry. I couldn't contain myself. Little Jaylee Ann was 5 lbs 14 oz and was just soooo tiny. She came three weeks early, but was on her best behavior for Aunt Holly to bombard her life and take a bazillion pictures. I LOVE being an aunt. Seriously so fun!

wow this is a long post, last pictures I swear! I took Ryan and kids to a park with me to scope out some spots for my latest family shoot I had. I had to take a couple of them while there. So far my pictures are coming up crappy lookin' on blogger....any ideas on how to make them look like how they are supposed to? Anyways, here is our last 4 months in one HUGE post. enjoy! (if you got this far)

my munchkins

She let me straighten her hair a little for this. So fun. :D

We've only had a couple snow days this year. literally. like two. I haven't minded one bit.

Isn't he a doll? Half of the pictures didn't work because he was laughing and his eyes were scrunched closed.

They ride this bike in circles all day in my kitchen. It will have to do till the weather is warmer.

Her face before preschool for the first time. Id say she was excited.

Of course, being my offspring-she had to throw some poses in. Actually, if you saw all the photos- I only got one of her standing against a wall. All the rest are exaggerated poses. I don't know where she gets it from.

So Maya has loved preschool way more than dance, which has been quite nice. I don't have to shove her out the door like I had to when dance class was about to start. She gets up excited and cant wait to get there. Its just an hour long, so its perfect for her.

Jaxon has been growing like a weed. I think he is about to get his molars in because he has been pretty cranky, but with no apparent cause, until today when he was crying the sunlight caught inside his mouth and I saw some major Red swollen gums. He loves to play and follow his sister around. He is a cuddler and wont leave his crib without his blanket. Talking has not been a priority for him, so we've been working on signing Vs. just plain screaming. we are making progress.

As for me and Ryan, we are doing well. Just the normal busyness of school, work, callings, and being parents. Wow. I cant think of anything else to say about us..... I give up. Maybe we can count ourselves in the "old and boring" category this month. ;)

took some thinking...

Somehow every new years I manage to feel like this:


Maybe I'm weird, overly ambitious, and quite possibly crazy. Whatever it is that makes me this way-its ingrained in me. Somehow it lights a fire inside me when there is a designated time to make goals. I LOVE making goals....it also go's along with my great love of these as well


This is probably a more realistic "accomplished" list for my day, ya gotta start somewhere right?

I always have lists around. Maybe its due to my poor memory and the only way I get things done, but it works for me and that seems to be all that matters.

My tendency is to make so many new years resolutions (really- like a whole page of them) as I decide that I am going to seize and conquer all my bad habits that I end up feeling like there is no way in this crazy world that I would be able to accomplish them. Which soon after ends in utter failure. So after thinking about it I have narrowed it to three main goals divided into categories.

• Physical
• Mental
• Spiritual

The best visual for me was a triangle. With one of these words at each end it gives balance.

So here are my New Years resolutions. and I fully intend to keep them. Yes.... Maybe.... OK Yes I do!

Physical- I want to start AND finish a weight lifting program. There is a 12 week program that I am considering. (I have one more day to figure it our since the gym is closed today.) The gym is literally 2 minutes from my house. No excuses. This last year I lost all of the weight I have been meaning to for years. It feels wonderful, but I have to admit I found a new love. Goodbye cardio and hello weights! (but dont worry I still do both) It not only made me lose weight but shaped my body different than cardio ever has. I felt like I had more energy with my kids and more motivation in life.

Mental- I want to continue my learning in photography. I have owned my camera for one year now, and I feel like I have only used one crayon in the 64 crayola box. There is so much to it! But I LOVE it. It keeps me awake at night reading about it and playing around taking pictures of my kids in the day.

Spiritual- I am going to set a specific time of day where I read my scriptures. I am what you would call a flip-flopper. I get it done, but when and where is another story. And some are certainly more meaningful than others. I came across this quote:

“It is certain that one who studies the scriptures every day accomplishes far
more than one who devotes considerable time one day and then lets days go by
before continuing. Not only should we study each day, but there should be a
regular time set aside when we can concentrate without interference. …
“A quarter of an hour is little time, but it is surprising how much
enlightenment and knowledge can be acquired in a subject so meaningful. The
important thing is to allow nothing else to ever interfere with our study”
Howard W Hunter

So thats my goal. 15 min at the same time every day.

Here it is. This post is more for me. As much as I love lists, they often end up in the trash by accident. This way I have a reference.

Happy New Years everyone! Any fun resolutions??? Make this year your best yet!