5 1/2 months already?

Time has FLOWN by. I cant believe my sweet Adalynn is 5 months and two weeks this Friday! She has definitely been an amazing gift and though its been hard at times, I could not be more grateful for my baby girl.
So, remember when I was talking about Adalynn crying all the time and not knowing what to do and babies just cry.. Turns out she had colic AND reflux.. yeah that was a rough few months. I look back and think about how much she was spitting up and I laugh at myself for not knowing any better. She was soaking at least one burp cloth EVERY TIME she fed.  It got really bad right before we went to Alabama for my family reunion so I made a last minute appointment to see the pediatrician the day  before we left. Luckily the Dr asked enough questions to figure out the reflux issue and prescribed medicine that helped right away with the issue. The first few weeks of giving the medicine to her was really hard, it is NASTY and made her gag and cry, which would make me cry.. So at first I avoided giving it to her myself, I would dish it off to my mom or husband. Dont worry, Im tough now, I can do it all by myself! Thankfully around three months she grew out of her colic. She is such a happy baby!

A few weeks later she stopped wanting to eat. EVER. At first I was really worried and everyone kept telling me she will eat when she is hungry, she will eat when she is hungry.. Well. not my Adalynn. If she didnt want to eat, she was NOT going to eat, darnit. There were days when she would go 8 hours and be totally fine. I, on the other hand was not! This has been my stressor ever since. Some days she eats normal, some days she refuses. But she is still a happy baby mostly! Even when she is not eating...
Though she is very small for her age in weight, she is developing mentally and physically very well. We started her on rice cereal at month 4

She HATED it. We couldnt get her to eat any of it at first, she would just cry as soon as it hit her mouth. So we moved on to Oatmeal cereal and she took to it right away. Even now, I bought a pears, apple and rice cereal and she wont eat it even though she loves fruit. I dont know what it is about that rice cereal but at least we know she does not like it!

We have hit some major milestones thus far! She started rolling at month 4.

She went to the pool for the first time and loved the water! Dad wants to teach her how to swim already but it makes me a little nervous. I know its good to start when they are little but I worry about ear infections, her being traumatized. You know, the usual.

Jared used to teach swim lessons, I know he knows what he's doing..I still worry.

She has fallen in love with Daisy, and Daisy is starting to love her back. Daisy is still a little weary partially because of me, when she was brand new I kept Daisy away from her because she just wanted to be in her face all the time, can you imagine how many germs are on that nose and mouth of hers! Butt germs, poo germs, whatever dead thing she just ate germs... GROSS. No thank you. But now I cant say no, Adalynn loves her too much. She belly laughs when she gets in her "play with me" stance.

Blurry, but you get the idea.

I dont know what it is about her tongue lately, but she loves to stick it out. Its too adorable. I think its even more adorable because its totally her Dads tongue. I have a tiny tongue that I can barely stick out of my mouth and here comes Adalynn with her cute little tongue and flared nose showing me up. So. Cute.

She turned five months and has really been wanting to be mobile, she tries so hard. She just wants to be a big girl. We havent got the crawling down yet, but we have the sitting up all by herself down so thats a start!

Somebody told  Jared, "dont teach her how to drink from your cups because thats all she will want to do!" Well, we taught her how to drink from our cups and guess what? Thats all she wants to do! She loves to drink water! But, we love it. (I dont have a picture, we will get one soon) I cant help but smile at how big she is and how much bigger she wants to be already. 

5 months!

I just thought this was cute, drool and all..

Jared keeps saying, Im just waiting for the day when one of us drops her. That will never happen on my end! But he hasnt ever said, Im just waiting for the day when one of us sucks her foot up in the vacuum... Yep, I did that. I was holding her as I was vacuuming and in my defense, it was just the stair vacuum so it was little and did not hurt at all, maybe just scared her half to death. She cried for a second and was over it after that. And no, she is not still afraid of the vacuum. Im still kicking myself for doing it though! Poor girl.

She always keeps us smiling! Even on the rough days I am so grateful I get to stay at home with this sweet girl every day. 

She's here!

I think I have waited long enough to adjust and get settled to start this entry! Some of you know this story, most probably dont. I feel like I have told it a MILLION times but I should probably write it down.

I really wish I had more of a smooth delivery..I did end up having an emergency C section but we will get to that.

First off, my scheduled induction was changed to 4pm rather than 5am on March 21st WITHOUT US KNOWING. No one informed us at all until I went in for my last visit two days prior! I was pretty furious to be honest. We had problems throughout my whole pregnancy with this Drs office communicating with us and this just pushed me over the edge. Looking back, it was so silly because it was just twelve hours difference but I broke down. Called my mom bawling and she just listened and told me it will all work out. I knew it would, I just wanted it to go as planned!

My mom arrived the day before we went in. It was so good to have her here knowing she had been through this a million (6) times already! All I needed was my Husband and my mom there and I was set. At this point I was anxious and terrified. This was actually about to happen! Then suddenly, I wasnt so ready to push this baby out.. maybe we should wait a little longer to have kids and keep it just Jared and I for a little longer! I knew that obviously wasnt realistic but it might have been in the back of my mind..





On our way into the hospital! (don't mind my face..)





When the day came my mom and I had to fill the day to keep me occupied so we went shopping of course! Time flew by! Jared beat us home (he went to work for half a day) and when we got home he had most everything ready to go waiting by the door! I think he was starting to get more anxious than I was... We get to the hospital, check in, I get in the lovely robe, get in bed, the nurses come and set me up with all the monitors and I think hey, this will go by fast! I was wrong..We spent the next few hours sitting there, waiting for the Dr to come and put in the Cervidil. FINALLY the Dr comes and places the Cervidil and it was time! In reality it was time to sit around and try and get some sleep.

Though the nurses told me its not common that Cervidil starts labor, I was one of the minority, I guess! I started getting crampy and I could tell something was going on! About an hour after the Cervidil was placed, the babys heart rate dropped and the nurses come rushing in to tell me the monitor moved and it wasnt reading her heart rate so they needed to move it. This happened a few more times over the next few hours so the Dr made the decision to take the Cervidil out and we would wait until the morning to break my water and start the Pitocin. Around 4am I got up to use the bathroom and my water broke all by itself! It was a weird feeling. I just thought I wasnt able to hold my bladder but when I got to the toilet, my bladder was still full! I just laughed and told the nurses.

I slowly started contracting on my own, it was pretty painless at this point. After a restless night, the Dr came in and started the Pitocin. Adalynn didnt seem to like the Pitocin either, her heart rate dropped a few times while I was on it as well so after a couple hours Dr stopped the Pitocin. I continued Laboring on my own and at this point the contractions were strong and painful but I wanted to wait as long as I could before I got the Epidural. I took some pain medicine and was able to sleep for about an hour before it wore off and I was in PAIN again. I gave in and requested the Epidural. My mom had to leave because I could only have one person in the room. It was more painful than I thought it would be! Jared had to hold my shoulders down at one point because I kept flinching. My left side numbed just a little bit slower than my right. I felt the first contraction on my left side and not on my right, once the second contraction hit, I was in Heaven. Though it didnt last long, since her heart rate kept dropping the Dr decided it was best to put a fetal heart rate monitor (which attaches to her scalp inside) and shortly after that they realized her heart rate really was dropping so I was rolled over to my side, then the other side, then I was given and oxygen mask and put on my hand and knees rocking back and forth to keep her heart semi-happy. During this time the Dr informed me it was time for a C section.I cried as my Dr told me and assured me everything would be ok. I never doubted that, I just did NOT want to have a c section.. but whatever we needed to do to get her here safely. 

Though I was being informed what was going on as they were rolling me from side to side, Jared on the other hand was left in the dark. From his point of view, all of the sudden he was yelled at to get the scrubs on and go and find my mom to tell her we were going in for a C section.

when I got to the O.R they gave me the morphine and started the incision asking me if I could feel it, YES. What does it feel like they said "it feels like I'm being stabbed!" If you remember from before, my left side numbed slower with the epidural... well it did the same thing with the morphine! They had already made the incision when Jared came in being told "DONT TOUCH ANYTHING BLUE, GO STRAIGHT TO YOUR CHAIR, SIT DOWN AND HOLD HER HAND" (yes he felt like they yelled at him again) so he did as he was told and I was relieved to see him but I could still feel some on my left side. They were inside me at this point! I kept saying ow, ow and they kept telling me it was just pressure. UHH, NO. Thanks for trying to convince me otherwise though..i knew i wasnt feeling everything but what i was feeling wasnt just pressure. Pretty soon they were jumping on my stomach trying to get Adalynn out and for some reason had a little trouble so the pressure seemed to last forever. I looked over to Jared as they are jumping on me and tell him "I'm going to throw up" the nurse behind me says, "calm down, just breathe.." I say "NO, I AM GOING TO THROW UP" Luckily she actually listend to me then because as soon as she gave the tiny bowl to Jared, I hurled. Right in his face. I felt so bad! Here I was laying with my guts out, and vomiting right in my poor husbands face. Good thing he loves me.

She FINALLY arrived.  

I don't remember much after that. I want to remember them bringing my sweet baby over to me for the first time but I only remember bits and pieces for the next few hours. The medicine hit me so strong and all at once it seemed. I already have a very low tolerance for pain medicine and since I kept saying i was in pain, they kept pumping me with more. By the time they wheeled me to the recovery room, I was passed out. This is when they needed to check Adalynns blood sugar levels because  sometimes when the mother has gestational diabetes, the baby has a hard time regulating their sugar levels at first. When they checked her she was at a 31 (i believe) and she needed to be above a 45 (my numbers may be off but this is what i remember) so i needed to nurse her right away to get her sugar level higher but how was i supposed to do that when i couldnt keep my eyes open if i tried. I couldnt even lift my arms or feel anything from the neck down! Never fear, my husband and mom didnt hesitate to jump in and nurse Adalynn. So between the two of them and the lactation specialist telling them how, they were able to get her to nurse enough to bring her sugars back up to normal, all the while trying to wake me up enough where I could try on my own. I was just unresponsive. I remember answering them in my head but I couldnt seem to spit it out or open my eyes to let them know I was hearing what they were saying. This is when my mom was really starting to worry. She says I just looked comatose. Because she knew of my low tolerance for medicine she mentioned something to the nurses and they had to give me a shot of ephedrine to give me a little boost. Shortly after that I was at least able to keep my eyes open!



Recovery from then on was thankfully, very quick for me. The first couple of days were rough of course but after that I was pretty mobile and trying to be independent. My mom was able to spend the next week with us to help and then Jareds mom stayed and helped the week after. All the help was amazing and exactly what I needed. Since both sides of the family were here the week after she was born that is when we decided to have her blessing, even though it was crazy and overwhelming, I'm so glad we had some memebers of both families! It was wonderful.

Luckily, I have an awesome sister who helped find Adalynns beautiful blessing dress a day or two before her blessing.. yeah i dropped the ball on that one. I was too focused on getting the house and everything else ready, I didnt even think about a dress! But Kelsey worked it all out and found us 5! I had a whole rack to choose from. I was so thankful!
And its been down hill from there! Sort of... learning how to become a mom is different than I was expecting. I knew it would be hard. But its much harder! I thought I knew a good enough amount but I'm learning how little I actually know as the days go on! The lack of sleep isnt the hard part for me. Its the not being able to solve the problem when the baby is crying or fussy. Thats the hard part so far. The more I read, the more I realize babies sometimes just cry. WHY?! We will never know. We just have to help them get through it!
Jared is the amazing daddy I knew he was going to be. Even the nurses from the hospital kept saying he deserved the Dad of the year award because he wanted to jump in and help with everything, and he still does. I am so grateful for my family who helped me through the first couple of weeks and especially for my husband who is still helping me through the tough days! We have been so blessed and seeing Adalynns sweet smile makes all the craziness totally worth it.

3 weeks to go

I was able to go see the specialist and they told me my blood sugars were looking great. That is where I also found out that baby Adalynn is growing really well! A little too well for my sake.. At 33 weeks she was weighing 5lbs 15oz. 34 weeks, 6lbs 5oz and our last appointment was 35.5 weeks and she was 6lbs 12oz! I am now 36 weeks and nervous that I wont be able to get this baby out on my own if I go full term! As of a few days ago, she was in the 71% for her weight and the specialist told me that if i go full term she will be well over 9lbs according to the measurments through the ultrasound. For my first baby, thats a little scary! What I am most afraid of is going through labor for hours and hours and then having to go into an emergency c-section because I couldnt do it on my own. Two weeks ago I had an appointment with my OB and I saw a different Dr. than I normally do but that was the week we wanted to ask about being induced a little early. When we asked, the Dr said inducing makes labor harder and I dont believe anyone should get induced unless totally necessary. So in my case, I was not going to get induced. That didnt calm my mind in the slightest. Luckily, we have an appointment every week and the next week we learned the real plan. After we had our appointment our normal Dr says okay well the plan is still the same, we will induce you at week 39 and go from there. Jared and I look at each other in confusion, wait what? We were told that I wouldnt be induced unless something was wrong? Dr says well because of the Gestational Diabetes, we wont let you go any further than week 39. Jared and I still looking at each other in shock and say well, okay then.. it was funny how knowing that she would be here no later than March 21st was scarier than just waiting for me to go into labor on my own. But it brought a little more comfort knowing that she will be one week smaller! I still secretly hope that she will get here before then on her own..
I am so ready. So ready to have my body back, to be able to move and sleep any way that I want, run, play soccer! My body hurts. At the end of the day Im ready to just sit and do nothing. But now is the time that I should be walking and walking to get this going! Its a lot harder said than done. Now what Im not necessarily ready for is having a baby! Ready or not, she will be here in three weeks!
In the past week, I have had two baby showers. One was a complete surprise. Jareds co-workers threw us a baby shower Friday, I could not believe all the gifts they spoiled us with! They really went through a lot of effort to make it special for us. I was so grateful for the love and support they have showed through talking with Jared through adventures of becoming a new dad and the perfect shower. Then Tuesday I had Activity days with my girls. They threw me a surprise shower! I was SHOCKED to say the least. I really had NO idea. This was my last week because of the baby coming and I was so touched how much all of them care so much. Each of them participated in some way, bringing food, decorations, and planning the games. They were all so excited to show me what they had done or given me. It was so sweet! i felt like a big fat jerk because all day I had been laying around because my head was hurting and I was so close to calling and saying I couldnt come when here they were all getting there early to put it all together for me. I have only been teaching them for a few months and I didnt think we had spent enough time together for them to even care. But as I mentioned before I was truly touched. 
Its amazing how many people love and care about Jared and I when we have known them for so little time. Im overwhelmed with gratitude. 
I cant wait to see this little girl and see all of my family when that time comes! 3 weeks and counting...  

Everything happens at once!



Our trip to Destin



Once Jared graduated we took a short vacation to Destin with his family. We got home and packed up! It was overwhelming to say the least. We didn't know where we were moving all we knew is that we needed to be in Virginia in May so Jared could start flying with his unit and we were leaving on our honeymoon in a few days! Our plan was to move all of our stuff into a storage unit in VA while we went to New Zealand/Australia and when we got back, I would fly home to Alabama with my family and Jared would fly back to VA and start working away and search for our new home.



Australia



Side note: We chose to go to New Zealand on our official honeymoon because the first day we met we started talking about places we wanted to travel and since Jared had traveled everywhere already, New Zealand was the place he decided he would take me because neither of us had been there. So when we got married there wasnt a more perfect place to go!

We get back from our fairytale vacation and the real world hits us. We have no home, we dont know when we will see each other next since Jared was living in the barracks temporarily while we were searching for a place. I stayed with my family for a few weeks and decided it was time to head to Pennsylvania to stay with my sister Kelsey and her family while we were really buckling down on buying a house, which was so much fun. It was about a 4 hour drive to DC where Jared was staying and where our potential home could be.

The baby talk still happened during this whole time. We were both overwhelmed and starting a family was the last thing on Jareds mind at this point, which is very understandable. If we didnt have houses to look at during the weekend, Jared would come stay with me at Kelseys for a few days before he had to be back at work. One weekend, I brought up starting a family again. He wanted me to tell him why I all of the sudden changed my mind, why I felt the way that i did, what my plan was. My answers? I don't know.. its just how I'm feeling. It was then that I realized, guys don't understand why changing our whole world on a "feeling" is reasonable or logical. It just doesn't make sense to them, there needs to be solid reasoning as to why we should change our plans (which makes it difficult to determine whether its you that just wants a baby because you have baby fever or because you really are being prompted that its time).

We continued to converse (argue) back and forth and tears were definitely flowing. In the end, we both said we would pray about it, I would start school, and we would go from there. I agreed and we moved on. The next day I was DYING! No, not because I wanted a baby, I was literally dying. I was so sick, I had a headache where I couldnt even open my eyes, I had NO energy, my throat was killing me and I just wanted to lay in bed all day and DIE. I refused to go to the Doctor and decided to take some medicine and go to bed in hopes that I would feel better the next day. I really thought it could only get better from there, I WAS WRONG. I was worse the next day. It took all I had to drag myself to the Dr. I got there and they sat me in a room, ran some tests and left my room for an eternity. A good hour later they walked in the room after I had fallen asleep on the bed and announced "YOUR PREGNANT!" I say what? The Dr repeats "you're actually pregnant". Whats the next thing I say? "OH SHOOT." yep. thats the first thing that came out of my mouth when I found out we were going to have a baby! In my defense, I was worried about what Jared was going to say because not two days earlier we were going to wait until we really prayed about it and I started school in VA.Turns out at that point I was already 4 weeks along. I was in shock. I drove as quickly as I could to the store and bought myself a few pregnancy tests because the Dr determining that I was pregnant just wasnt good enough. I took all three tests before I decided it was time to tell my sweet husband.

I kept all three tests, bought a daddy card and a babys first year book and headed to VA to give him the surprising/exciting news. When I got there we immediately went out to the museum to meet some friends and the whole time I am going crazy wanting to hurry him up so we could go back to his room and I could tell him everything. I dont hide things well so it was a good thing that I was getting over this sickness so I could blame my weirdness on that. Finally, we get back and I didnt know what to do or say so I just go to my purse and hand him everything as he was sitting there watching TV. He looks down and looks back up at me and just smiles, hugs and kisses me. He was just as surprised as I was! But, he was very excited. Yes a million things started running through his mind like, we dont have a house to put this baby in, kenzie hasnt started school or work, I just started work, and so on.. I would say it was an overwhelmingly exciting day.

While I was in PA I looked for an OBGYN and scheduled an appointment as soon as I could because the first doctor and the three positive tests just wasnt good enough to believe.



There she is! Our sweet baby in her first Sonogram!

We settled on a house shortly after that. Started moving in and fixing it up. I found a new job and we decided I would wait to start school again until after the baby arrives. Talk about starting a whole new life all at once!

The morning sickness wasnt too bad unless I didnt eat enough or I tried painting. The smell made me sick! But I could eat anything I normally did and have been able to eat normally. The pregnancy has been smooth so far. She has always measured slightly bigger than average and I have had absolutely NO problem gaining weight. Week 28 is when you have the Glucose screening test and thats where we hit a little bump in the road. After two different tests it was determined that I was one of the unlucky ones who has Gestational Diabtes. I was immediately sent to s specialist where they told me to change my diet and test my blood sugar 4 times a day! I was a little upset when I found out. I kept thinking "this pregnancy couldnt have just been perfect. Something just had to go wrong." I was mostly upset because i thought I had been pretty healthy and I will admit I could exercise more but I was on occasion! I felt almost as if i were failing as a mother before I even gave birth because it was  making the sweet baby inside me work harder than she already had to! ( Yes this sounds ridiculous, I blame it on the hormones.) As i read more about Gestational Diabetes, I found that its genetic. There is not a thing I could have done to prevent it, that brought some comfort. Thankfully, since I have been testing 4 times a day I have had completely normal levels. So much so that I almost feel like I want to go retake the test to pass the stinkin thing so I can stop poking myself with a needle every single day! But, I have to remember to be grateful for the advances in medicine to help monitor this seemingly silly condition. I go to the specialist next week and I still I hope they tell me I can stop testing so much! I am grateful for my husband and for the love, patience and support he has given me throughout this whirlwind of a year. (yes I have become even more of a crazy person since pregnancy) I am now 33.5 weeks, I am terrified for whats to come but I cannot wait to have this sweet baby in our arms.

32 weeks

A little background..



Our first date weekend at Monte Sano



I decided it was about time to start this blog with our new arrival coming so soon! I just dont know where to start.. A little background on Jared and I, we met at a YSA conference. That sounds so silly! But its true, neither of us cared to go to these conferences but I guess it was meant to be that we both just so happened (were forced) to be at this one.

If you ask him, he will say that I was the one who started it all because he was just so irresistible. Partly true, we were at a service project and he was the last person working! I felt bad seeing him work all alone so I went over to offer him some help. We were tending to the gardens at a shelter and what does he say to me you ask? "Oh good, I've been looking for a good hoe" yep, thats him! I suppose he caught me with that goofy line. After that it was kind of a whirlwind, from dating, to engaged, to married all in a matter of months.



After the wedding I moved to Fort Rucker Alabama with Jared while he finished flght school. Boy was that an adjustment. I loved being married! But it was difficult going from my parents house with family and friends all around, and a job that kept me pretty busy, to being a full-time at home wife! I didnt know what to do with myself, I looked for a job but after a short time gave up because once Jared finished school we were off to Virginia! So I started cleaning, cooking, crocheting and trying not to let myself go crazy! I was so excited to move when the time came not only because we were going on our official honeymoon to Austrailia/New Zealand, but I could finally start to do something like school or work or anything but being home all the time!





Plans quickly changed once I started getting the feeling that our plan to start a family after I finished school wasnt quite the right plan. Jared is a planner, we make a plan and he is really more comfortable sticking to it. He is also very strong willed. SO! A man with a plan and a very strong mind? Hard to change.. At first, I gradually started talking to him about what I was feeling. He might have thought that I was baby hungry because I was a bored house wife who needed something to do... I started to think the same thing! But I still had that nagging feeling in the back of my mind that waiting until I finished school was too long, especially on Sundays when we were sitting there in Sacrament meeting the feeling was even stronger. I kept bringing it up to Jared and we would talk/argue and then drop it because we would get no where. Jared finshed flight school and thats where everything started to get complicated..We had to grow up!