Brayden is 8 weeks old today!

Brayden is 8 weeks old today! He is such a sweetheart and still a great baby! Harly ever cries and is full of smiles. He loves standing up and talking to Blake and I. He makes the most adorable cooing sounds, it melts my heart. I heard him laugh in his sleep for the first time and it was SOO cute! I want him to do it again but he still hasn't and it's been about a week. His 6 week growth spurt was pretty difficult for me since he was wanting to eat a lot more frequently and my mastitis was awful. He wanted to get up at night more often and since I had mastitis and was exhausted all the time and in pain, that was very hard. Luckily, the mastitis is gone and he is through the growth spurt- but holy cow, where did my newborn go?! He is HUGE now, he is going to make my arms ripped!

During his growth spurt since I was so exhausted I had him sleep in bed with me so I could get some sleep and he is such a bed hog haha. He kept nuzzling into my neck and so I would scoot away (I didn't want to squish him in my sleep) and he would wiggle his way back over and into my neck. I took a picture of him after I had woken up. He started out being where his binky was in the picture above and you can see how much he scooted over haha.

He loves to stare at his hand and suck on it. He hates tummy time so the second we put him down on his belly he flips onto his back. He is much more alert and awake during the day and sleeps about 17 hours a day, which is a lot less than he was! He sleeps about 6 hours at a time at night, so he goes to bed around 10 then wakes up around 4-5 to eat and then sleeps in until 10-11 normally. It's very nice for me.

Well, looks like this is all the time I have to blog because squeaker's awake and ready to play!

The Mommy Life

Brayden is one month old today! I really can't believe it, time has flown by! Once he wakes up I will snap some pictures of him and upload them to facebook. He now weighs 10 pounds, in the 59th percentile for weight and 88th percentile for height! His waist is little tiny so he doesn't fit into any 0-3 month pants, only newborn pants and they are getting too short for them so it's looking a little funny. His hair is hilarious, he has a receding hairline and is slowly balding all over the rest of his head. His new hair is coming in blonde to match his eyebrows. His eyes are bright blue now just like mine :)

He rolled over two days ago, can't believe it. He almost rolled over again last night but was getting a little too upset about tummy time to roll all the way. He loves making cooing noises and smiling at Blake and I. He is a really good sleeper, he goes to bed at 11 now and wakes up around 5 or 6 to eat, then again at 9 then again around 11 or noon :) I really can't complain. We have done a pretty good job on getting him on a night sleeping schedule just need to work on the naps during the day more, which has been difficult since we've been so busy.

He is eating really well, taking about 4 ounces everytime he eats and he eats every 2 1/2 to 3 hours about, unless he's sleeping. I have been mainly pumping since he takes so much longer to nurse, at least an hour compared to 15 minutes from a bottle. Pumping only takes me 5-10 minutes and is much easier. I've found that for my own sanity pumping has helped me a lot.

Being a stay at home mom is definitely a full time job, even with one kid. I didn't think I would be quite as busy as I have been but things just pile up! I don't have much time for myself, which is fine, but it has definitely been a transition. Now I really can't imagine being a single parent, it is hard work! It is the best job ever though, I wouldn't trade it for the world! Brayden is my little angel and he makes us so happy. I am trying to cherish every moment I have with him because I know 20 years down the road it's not going to matter if I didn't get the laundry folded or the dishes done. It is amazing to look at him and know that I made that! Even though my body is nothing like what it was before I got pregnant (hopefully it will come back again once the doctor gives me the okay to work out) but none of that matters because I have him. I can fit into most of my clothes except for jeans so it's better than it could be.

Blake's first day back to work was this past Tuesday and he is enjoying being back but it's hard for him to be away from Brayden. Blake's 24th birthday was on Monday and we had a very fun day. He got the new Microsoft Surface tablet and it is awesome, I can't wait to get one for Christmas! We also went to the mall and out to eat then to a movie. Brayden does so good when we take him out, we are so blessed.

Life with Brayden

Brayden will be 1 week old at 12:22 :-/ I'm having mixed feelings about it. I'm not ready for my baby to grow up! I want him to stay my baby forever. Our time with him has flown by.

At the hospital he slept great because he was so worn out from delivery. We were supposed to stay 48 hours since my water had been broken over 24 hours before he was delivered and because I had a fever during delivery as well. Luckily, the doctor gave us the OK to leave a day early so we could come home.

The first night we brought him home I probably got 2-3 hours of sleep, he had his days and nights confused and was wide awake all night long except when he was nursing. Blake and I really didn't know what to do but now we have a few tricks up our sleeve and have learned what he does and doesn't like.

Does like: EATING, cuddling, pooping, peeing on mommy, having his hands up by his face, being warm and wrapped up in a blanket, falling asleep in his carseat, having his eyebrows rubbed (weird, right?), peeing and pooping out his diaper
Does NOT like: Having his arms swaddled, diaper changes, clothing changes, getting bathed, getting his feet tickled

Each night had progresively gotten better as he has transitioned to the right schedule. Last night Brayden slept 8 hours in his bassinet and only woke up once to eat and poop. I have been pumping to try to get my supply up because this child can eat. He woke up and nursed for about 45 minutes, then took 3 oz that I had pumped, pooped his pants and went back to bed for 5 hours. Normally I would be worried about him sleeping that long but the doctor said since he had gained weight that it's fine.

At his doctors appointment he had gained 5 ounces (I told you he ate alot!) and the doctor said he was doing great. I forgot to mention in my last post that he had his hearing test done in 3 minutes and it normally takes around 15 (said the nurse) and he passed with flying colors and got a certificate to prove it, sorry little bragging moment.

Today  he had his newborn photo shoot and rocked it. We got there and he was wide awake and would look right at the camera while letting her pose him. The photographer said Brayden looks JUST like his daddy, and it's true. Blake's baby pictures and Brayden's are really similar, but he has more of my temperment. I had pumped 5 oz before we left thinking that I would have at least 2 oz left over... he ate all 5 oz and then nursed. I seriously don't know how he has room for all of this food! She said he was the best baby she had ever photographed because he never cried and let her pose him however she liked. It was so cute watching him, I am so proud of my little man! We couldn't have gotten a better baby and we are so blessed.

While we were taking our family pictures holding our naked little baby he peed ALL OVER me. He had a steady stream going for about 8 seconds and it was just puddling up in my arm and soaked my shirt. Good thing I didn't bring an extra shirt so I was covered in pee haha. It's funny because I thought things like that would bother me, but his pee and poop doesn't gross me out in the least. Everything he does is so cute! When he is hungry he makes monkey noises and it cracks Blake and I up, he's our little monkey.

He is really good at holding his head up and likes to look at whoever is holding him. Last night when Blake and I were putting him to bed I said "I love you Brayden" and he smiled at me! I thought it was just a fluke thing but I said it two more times and he smiled both of those times too!! I can't wait until I get a picture of his smile so you all can see it, it's adorable!

I have lost 35 pounds so far, almost all my water weight is gone except in my thighs and butt (oh yeah, it's cute). Can't wait for this weight to be gone so I can wear normal clothes again! I'm feeling much better, the only thing hurting pretty badly is my back. I feel very blessed that things are going so smoothly for us, prayers are definitely being answered. Having a baby is the most amazing thing in the whole world even though pregnancy sucks. I'd totally do it again because the end result is truly amazing.

He's finally here!!

Tuesday October 2^nd I was 41 weeks pregnant and woke up to contractions that were about ten minutes apart. They started around 6:50. I didn’t think anything of it until my water broke at 9:30. At first I didn’t know what happened, I coughed and then it felt like I peed my pants! Luckily I didn’t pee my pants and it kept coming out, not the most comfortable feeling in the world haha. Blake and I were jumping for joy that something was FINALLY happening and we were going to meet our son soon… well, kinda soon.

We got all checked in and they put in my IV to start me on Pitocin. They checked me and I was only a fingertip dilated and a little effaced, so it wasn’t looking like I would be having him anytime soon. The contractions started getting pretty painful pretty fast and I was huffing and puffing through them. I got in the Jacuzzi which felt AMAZING and was able to hold off on the epidural for another couple hours. Then the contractions started getting way too painful that I couldn’t take the pain anymore and asked for some pain meds. The nurse put me on some narcotic that lasted an hour and I could take 3 doses of. It really only helped with the pain for the first 30 minutes and then the next 30 minutes was spent in pain waiting on the next dose. After the narcotics I was ready for the epidural. The anesthesiologist came in and quickly became my best friend haha. They checked me after being in labor for 24 hours and I was a 3. I stayed that way for awhile and it was looking like a c-section might be in my future. Brayden’s heartrate was slowing down and the nurses were pretty concerned so they stopped the Pitocin and gave me a thing that filled me back up with water so that Brayden was able to move if he needed. After a couple of hours they started me back on the Pitocin and things weren’t progressing for a long time. A doctor came in to talk to me about how much longer I wanted to wait before I gave in to a C-section. I told them I really didn’t want a c-section and I have made progress since getting there so I would wait as long as it took for a normal delivery unless it takes too long and becomes dangerous for Brayden. An hour after they came in the nurse checked me and I had dilated to a 5! This was such exciting news after being told I probably wouldn’t be able to delivery vaginally. Then my epideral started not working in one spot that was VERY uncomfortable and so I had to get a second epidural. They checked me again about 50 minutes after and I was an 8! Shortly after I told them it felt like I needed to push and was in a lot of pain. The epidural still wasn’t getting everything numb, but it was too late now. Around 11 pm on October 3^rd I started pushing. Not to toot my own horn, but the nurses and doctor said they haven’t seen such a good pusher in a long time J After being in labor so long, people telling me that made me feel a lot better. The contractions had actually slowed down from being every 2 minutes to every 4 minutes during the delivery, and waiting was not easy because I was so ready to meet my baby! An hour and 22 minutes later, at 12:22 am on October 4^th Brayden was born! 7 pounds 12 ounces and 21.5 inches long. The umbilical cord had been wrapped around his neck twice so he was pretty purple and had a definite conehead! Words cannot describe the happiness that overcame me when I got to hold my precious little angel for the first time. He was absolutely perfect in every way. He was wide awake and we just looked into each others eyes for a few minutes. It was such a long wait, but SO worth the wait. I’ve already forgotten about how hard it was to be in labor for 30 hours because I got a beautiful baby boy in the end, the rest doesn’t matter.  He hardly cried at all and was more interested in looking around. The nurses kept saying how funny it was that he was already so awake, he stayed awake for a few hours after being born and loved looking at mommy and daddy.

Since I was in labor over 24 hours after my water had broken, they had to run more tests on Brayden and I. Poor Brayden had a low blood sugar test result for one of the pricks so he had to be pricked 5 more times L So hard to watch! That’s not including the other 4 or 5 pricks he had to get anyways. He only cried during 2 of the pricks! Mommy’s little tough guy. He started out nursing like a champ and still is! Such a blessing for me, so much stress is taken off of me because he’s such a good eater. The next day he got circumsized and didn’t even cry! The doctor said that he was one of the best babies they had ever seen during that procedure, Blake and I were so proud! He is such a good baby and we are so blessed to have him!

Waiting on baby Brayden...

So I'm officially 40 weeks... it actually isn't as horrible as I thought it would be. I had my 40 week appointment this morning and I am still not dilated at all :( Kind of depressing, but it doesn't really mean anything. My sister and mom didn't dilate until they went into full on labor so I hope that's how I am too. Next week we will see how baby is doing and if everything is fine they will let me go until 42 weeks and then induce me then. She told me I could get induced earlier if I wanted to but I'd like for him to be able to come on his own naturally, but we'll see!

She told me today at my appointment that right now I have an "unfavorable cervix" and I about died laughing. It reminded me of Baby Mama when the doctor tells Tina Fey "I just DON'T like your uterus." If I still have an unfavorable cervix before the induction I will probably not be laughing since that means my chance of having a c-section is much higher, but it's out of my control at this point so might as well just accept everything that's happening and realize that this sweet baby has a schedule of his own.

My mom gets here tonight and we are so excited to have her! Blake's family will come the 9th of October and we are looking forward to them visiting as well. We have never been able to have our parents visit us in our own apartment so we have been trying to get it all ready. I still need to upload pictures of our apartment but I've been slacking, maybe this week I will get them up!

Anyways, I will keep everyone updated through Facebook, hopefully we can get this little guy here before the weekend!

Let the nesting begin!

Just moved into our new apartment yesterday! Blake told me not to over-do it with unpacking, but you can't tell a nesting pregnant woman that soooo I unpacked the whole kitchen and bathroom and half of our bedroom in a few hours. Needless to say, I'm pretty darn sore and swollen today. I feel like an old woman walking around. But... we are LOVING it in our new apartment, no complaints. It feels so big compared to our first apartment, just in time for an addition to our family!

Like I said, I've been nesting like crazy since the moment we walked into our apartment. We got a brand new washer and dryer in our apartment so I've been enjoying that! Yes, enjoying laundry! That will get old fast. I am also loving that we have an actual laundry room and we don't have to display our laundry in our kitchen anymore haha.

As soon as we get everything unpacked I will upload pictures of the new apartment, which might take awhile. Brayden's room is full of empty boxes right now and we are waiting on his bedroom furniture to be shipped to us, but I'm hoping I can get his room all decorated in time for him to be born :)

Crazy to think I only have 2 1/2 weeks left until my due date, I seriously thought this day would never come. I'm feeling pretty good and keeping active. Still counting calories. I went to my appointment today and found out I have gained quite a bit since last week :( But she said it's all fluid retention and out of my control. Sure feels great being a whale though... NOT. I am very excited to lose all of this weight, I don't ever want to be this big again haha until the next time I get pregnant. My hands and toes are very balloon-esque, it's attractive. Also, my face feels like it's doubled in size. Ohhh pregnancy... very bitter sweet.

It's hard waiting for this little guy to get here! He is still moving and kicking like a crazy man, not sure if he's going to slow down ever. He likes to flip his legs around from side to side and push his bum up into my ribs. Anyways, I've got to go unpack so I better get off here!

27 days to go!

I had my 36 week appointment today and found out some good things! 

1) I am not dialated at all, so baby shouldn't be here until after the move (good news for me).

2) He is about 5 to 5 1/2 pounds right now, so since they gain about a 1/2 pound a week from here on out, he should be 7 to 7 1/2 pounds at birth! I think I can manage that. 

3) I've only gained 4 pounds in the last 3 weeks since I've started watching what I eat more and trying to exercise. 

4) I talked to the financial adviser at the hospital and found out our insurance covers 100% of the delivery (ceserean or vaginal), circumcision, and everything else associated with giving birth, which is a HUGE blessing. 

Overall a pretty good appointment I would say :) I am very happy about it! Also, when the doctor was feeling around to guess his size, he kicked her REALLY hard and it made her jump. Of course I'm used to feeling my little ninja in there, but it was pretty funny. He likes to show off his kicking skills. 

We move a week from today. HALLELUJAH! I don't think I could stand this temporary housing crap anymore. Don't get me wrong, we are very happy we didn't have to pay for a month of rent and got to save up for the baby instead, but it is very small and very humid. I just want to get into our permanent apartment so I don't have to stress about where the baby is born anymore and so I can NEST. 

Where we are moving (Issaquah) is actually where Costco headquarters is so we bought a Costco membership on Saturday and are pretty dang excited about it!

We had the birth center tour on Friday and our tour guide was a crazy old lady so she made it pretty entertaining. She was in her upper 50's and was wearing a short dress that a teenager would wear and when she bent over to show us how the pull-out bed worked for the husbands, I saw her bright neon undies. I was a little disturbed, but it was funny. Anyways, the delivery rooms are awesome, I'm pretty excited to give birth actually just so I can be in the cool rooms haha. 

 Here is a picture of one of the birthing rooms.

 The Hospital bed.

My personal favorite feature, the jacuzzi. 

 

The tour helped calm some of my nerves, so I'm really glad we took it. After the tour we went and got Red Robin and stuffed our faces, it was great.

The countdown begins: 27 days!!

Pregnant scaredy cat

 I had my 35 week checkup today, my weight gain has slowed down a little bit since my doctor told me to count my calories, but still gaining more than I would ideally like to. The baby is measuring right on track and he is head down ready for delivery. His heartbeat is very strong and he is still active as ever. He makes this pregnancy so much easier for me because I already love him so much and I would do anything for him! We are so excited to meet him!

So back to my appointment, everything was going great at the appointment until she told me that I would need to get a pertussis vaccination at the end of the appointment. For those of you that don't know me that well, I have a severe phobia of needles, it's ridiculous. I figured it wouldn't be such a big deal since I've gotten poked many times since I've been pregnant without too much of a problem. This time was a little different. 

The nurse came in to give me my shot and I really wasn't too worried about it. I told her I had a problem with needles so she laid me down to get the shot. She poked me and everything was fine, then I sat up and felt super dizzy all of the sudden. I laid back down and started blacking out and getting super sweaty. Now I don't usually sweat unless I'm working out really hard, but I was SWEATING bad and felt super nauseous. My face was flushed so she went and got me a cold rag for my head and told me to close my eyes and relax, and if I felt like I was going to pass out to yell for her. So I laid there for about 30 minutes before I could finally sit up, I felt like I was going to vomit but luckily I didn't. 

I have no clue why it was so bad this time, but luckily the nurse was super sweet and didn't make me feel stupid for being such a wimp. 

On another note, I felt my first painful Braxton Hicks contractions last night while Blake and I were out for a walk. It scared me to death because I thought I was going into labor since I was getting them about every 7 minutes, but luckily once we got home and sat down they stopped. As long as he doesn't come before we move into our next apartment I'll be happy, just please don't come while we are in this one bedroom apartment! haha I better knock on wood so I don't jinx myself. 

The doctor said I need to have my hospital bag all packed just in case I do go into labor and I need to install the carseat. She said if I do go into labor now since I've 35 weeks, they won't try to stop it so I need to be prepared for anything. She also told me I need to meet with different pediatrician's to find out which one I feel most comfortable with since we will be seeing them for many years to come. It's all becoming very real, very quick. I am anxious and excited, and a little freaked out of my mind haha.

Being a stay at home mom... minus the baby

I'm finding it harder and harder to keep myself busy during the day while Blake is at work. We've never really been apart for longer than a few hours while we were in class so this is a difficult transition. Me being pregnant is probably making it even worse too haha, I know, I'm a big baby!

I've washed all of the baby things and cleaned our temporary apartment a few times. Grocery shopping is pretty exciting... sadly. I have to wait until Blake gets paid to go shopping for more baby things so in a couple weeks I will be able to keep myself more busy, but it's hard to wait!

My doctor's appointment went well this week, it had been about 8 weeks since I had been to the doctor because of graduation and vacationing in Kansas for a couple weeks so I was worried I would have some sort of problems but everything is good! The only thing I am concerned about is the fact that I have already gained about 35 pounds and have the appetite of a teenage boy! Still waiting for the whole "your stomach will be so squished from the baby you will have to eat like a bird" thing to take effect... haha. My doctor isn't concerned about it since I started out pretty thin, but goodness knows I am concerned! I'm worried I'm going to be stuck with all this weight after he is born and not be able to fit into any of my pants! But mainly I'm worried because my doctor said the more weight I gain, the bigger my baby will get! Ummm yeah probably not the best thing to tell a girl who is already freaking out about labor haha but it's definitely motivated me to start watching what I eat more. If you have any advice I would love to hear it :)

I started doing prenatal yoga to help with my confidence issues since I'm not feeling all that attractive at this point. My main issue is that my face is so swollen, and I can't hide my face lol. I know I'm complaining a lot but I figure if you don't want to hear my complaining you don't have to read :)

Good news is that Brayden is healthy as ever and still kicking the crap out of my belly! I love how active he is, I already think he is the most adorable little boy ever. I've also heard he's supposed to slow down his movements around now but that's definitely not happening haha at least not yet. I'm glad that he moves so much though because then I know he's okay, and as a first time mom I'm always paranoid.

Blake LOVES his job and everyone that he works with. He is in charge of deploying updates for SharePoint and hiring contracted workers in their department. Pretty crazy that he will be hiring people! His boss sees a lot of potential in him and is impressed with his work so far :) I'm so glad that he loves his job!

Let me know if you have any suggestions for good books to read! I'm starting Pride and Prejudice today but I'm going to want more books on the list to read after!

Beginning Chapter 2

So I said I wouldn't start a blog... and then my husband went to work full time and before the baby comes I basically have nothing to do so I figured I would blab on about everything that's going on in my life and whoever wants to read it can! Haha.

We moved to Redmond a week ago today and we love it! It's just outside of Seattle and really close to Bellevue, which is also a pretty big city. We moved here because Blake got a job with Microsoft on the SharePoint team (if you know what that is) and we decided it was way too good of an offer to turn down. We are incredibly blessed to be able to live in such a great area with a great job and a sweet baby on the way, things just have seemed to stack up in our favor lately and we are very grateful. I'm sure that challenges will come soon with the baby, but for now everything is going pretty perfectly :)

Majority of last week we spent looking for an apartment, which was quite the task! The cost of living in Washington is VERY high, especially coming from Rexburg, Idaho haha. We ended up finding a perfect apartment complex located literally across the street from where I will be delivering our little boy and having all my appointments before he comes! So I figure if I go into labor while Blake is at work I can walk over if I had to, which gives me peace of mind.

 Here is what our apartment complex looks like, you can see my hospital at the very back.

 Our kitchen will look identical to this one, with different decorations :)

 This is a picture of the model, so none of these decorations will come with this apartment but we have the exact same floorplan as the model. The angle of this picture makes it look pretty crowded but it's pretty spacious :)

 This is a picture of the indoor hot tub mainly with the pool in the back.

 Half court basketball, Blake is pretty excited about this.

 Here's a picture of the indoor pool, which I am VERY excited to use! 

We are in Microsoft corporate housing for the first month, but after that we are going to be moving here into their 3 bedroom floor-plan, I can hardly wait! It's just shy of 1400 square feet and has a nice balcony and full sized laundry room so we don't have to do our laundry in our kitchen anymore! Haha! These apartments are located in the Highlands, where there are lots of other Mormons and Microsoft workers. We will be moving in most likely on the 3rd of September, so I will be full term, but luckily Microsoft is moving us into our apartment which makes it a lot easier. I'm sure I will be spending most of my days before the baby comes unpacking things out of boxes and organizing, which I am perfectly fine with!

Today is Blake's first day of work and I went to visit him during his lunch break on the Microsoft campus, it was so cool! They had tons of different places you could eat at in the food court and stores you could shop at. Also, wherever you go there are huge refrigerators full of free drinks, basically any drink you could imagine! They have random Xbox and Kinect stations set up so you can play games during your break. It's like a techie's dream come true, Blake had a huge grin on his face the whole time I was there haha. He is enjoying himself so far :)

Pregnancy Update: I will be 34 weeks tomorrow, crazy that it's only 3 more weeks until I am full term! I felt like it would never come haha! I am feeling pretty good and huge, like really huge. I have had a problem with water weight, my mom had the same problem, but I'm getting bigger than I normally would and there's not much I can do about it. Since I've had this water weight issue, my swelling has been worse than the average pregnancy also, especially in my legs, feet, arms and face. It stinks because usually pregnant women don't feel super attractive anyways, but the swelling is just making it worse :-/ that's my only real complaint though. Other than the swelling I feel pretty darn good! Definitely excited for our little guy to be born though :) 

Well, that's about it for now! Let's see if I can actually keep up with blogging!