Wesley: the first month(ish)

This post will consist mostly of pictures of our little family with little snippets of story interspersed here and there. 

Tenderly holding his brother's hand 

My boys :)

I love the way Jeremy is looking at Wesley here

First picture with all 4 of us

Pretending to lick the baby, because why not? 

"Look how big I am!"

Love the grumpy old man face 

Random trip to Costco, where Jeremy insisted on wearing his Mario hat. Eh, why not?

Silly faces! 

 

All dressed up in their Sunday best

Jeremy on the left, Wesley the right around the same age

We went as a family to pick peaches at Schnepf Farms. Jeremy had a blast, Wesley mostly slept. J's favorite parts were the train and the shooting gallery, even though we didn't pay for him to actually play the shooting game!

A day in the life of a mother of two

Justin and the boys got matching ASU ties for father's day

A brief update

Hello blogging world! I'm still alive, and well aware of just how far behind I have fallen. Thanks to the occasional reminders from my sweet niece, I am making an effort to catch up!
Since it's been 4+ months, I'll break up the update into a series of posts. I'll try to get them all written this week, but it will depend on how helpful (or not) two little boys are.
For this post, just a hello, and a sprinkling of cute pictures.

Today is Talk Like a Pirate day! We love to celebrate by getting free krispy kreme donuts. 

Random picture from during stake conference. He's cute. 

My favorite part of our pirate costumes was Wesley's mustache. 

The birth story

The story of how little Wesley made his entrance into the world. Please note, this is the full story, so it will include some content not suitable for squeamish stomachs.

On Wednesday, May 4th, at exactly 38 wks pregnant, my water broke. It was just after 2pm. I had gone into Jeremy's room to wake him up from a nap. I was sitting on his bed. I leaned forward to rub his back, and felt a sudden gush. My first thought was that I didn't realize I had needed to go to the bathroom. I have a very strong bladder, and was shocked that I could pee that much without realizing I needed to! I immediately got up and went to the bathroom, thankfully right next door to Jeremy's room. Once in there, I realized it was not pee. For one thing, it was the wrong color; pinkish instead of yellow or clear. For another, it kept coming. And coming. And coming. I was in Jeremy's bathroom, so I grabbed a towel and hobbled to my bathroom, where thankfully I had already stocked up on some adult diapers for recovering from birth. I did a few tests to make sure it really was amniotic fluid, and not urine. Once I had convinced myself, I called Justin. He didn't answer, and from the dial tone, I could tell it was because he was on the phone with someone else. He texted to say he was in a meeting. I texted back saying to get out of his meeting, because I was pretty sure my water just broke. I waited a few minutes for a call from him, and when I didn't get one, I decided he probably didn't read my text during his meeting. I called again, and this time he answered.

I told him my water broke, and he needed to come home. I can't imagine what he was thinking, since neither of us ever imagined I'd go into labor on my own, let alone do so 2 weeks before my due date!

We hung up, and I started working on gathering some of our things. Thankfully I had mostly packed my hospital bag just the day before, so there were only a few things I needed to throw together. Unfortunately, I hadn't gotten to packing Jeremy's overnight bag yet; I had planned to do that on Thursday, after doing the laundry. So I tried my best to pack, all while worried my leaking wouldn't stay contained.

Jeremy continued to nap through this whole process, which actually made it a bit easier. Once Justin got home, he was able to help finish up, and at about 3:30, an hour and a half after my water broke, we were headed to my mom's to drop off Jeremy.

After that, we went to the hospital. It took a while to be admitted, despite my own certainty that my water had in fact broken. A lot of women go to triage thinking their water has broken when they've actually just leaked a bit of urine, so they run 2 different tests to confirm that it is amniotic fluid. Before she could even run the tests though, the nurse knew it was my waters. It was no small amount, and ended up all over her hand just from collecting for the test! She also found that I was already dialated to a 3, and once the tests officially confirmed my water breakage, they started getting me admitted.

After a short wait, I was taken up to my room. The nurse talked over a bunch of stuff, the different protocols for different things, lots of boring stuff that I don't remember. I got an iv, and after a bit, they checked me again. I hadn't really dialated any more, so despite my hesitancy, they started me on pitocin. In retrospect, I wish I had pushed to wait another hour or two, and walk around to see if I could get things going on my own.

Once the pitocin started, the contractions were close behind. They ramped up in intensity quite rapidly, which was unpleasant. Because of my horrible experience with an epidural with Jeremy, I was determined to avoid getting one if at all possible. I was worried the pitocin would make that harder, but was determined to try.

After a few hours, during which my contractions continued to worsen, but I wasn't dilating much more, the Dr came in to discuss options. The contractions were getting harder to handle, and I still had a ways to go. We settled on getting an iv pain med, which was supposed to take the edge off and help me relax.

Let me tell you, that iv medicine was strange. It made me very tired (it WAS the middle of the night. Around 2 I think?), and kind of out of it. We had put on Discovery Planet earlier in the evening, and it was still playing as I tried to rest. It was very soothing to listen to, but then, because of the medicine, it became a sort of out of body experience. It was an episode about monkeys and in a semi-dream state, it felt like I was there, part of the episode. The narrator was describing the behavior of these monkeys, and I was one of them. It's hard to really describe, but it was definitely a strange experience.

While in my monkey dream state, I could still feel the contractions, but time was passing very strangely. After was felt like 5 contractions, the nurse came in to check me again. Apparently it had been an hour or two, during which time I had been having consistent contractions every 2ish minutes. I was much closer now, so the nurse decided not to give me another dose of pain meds.

The nurse started getting things ready in the room, even though I wasn't at a ten yet, when very suddenly, I NEEDED to push. It wasn't at all what I expected. I thought I would feel it more, but it was less a feeling, and more of a certainty. I needed to push, and I needed to push NOW.

I told the nurse, who checked again and confirmed that it was go time! The Dr came in, and after about 15 minutes, Wesley Scott came into the world!

My favorite part was after getting his head out, how the rest of his body just slipped right out. It was such a neat feeling, especially since I could really feel it all. Much better than with Jeremy! The placenta was worse, though. I don't really remember delivering the placenta with Jeremy. It just kind of slipped out with 1 push. This time, it took a bit more effort, and a lot more pain.

After delivering the placenta, I was stitched up, during which time I very impatiently waited to hold my baby. The nurses were cleaning him up, checking his breathing and everything. I was very annoyed that it took so long to hold him. With Jeremy, they immediately placed him on my chest, did the most important tests from there, and waited to do the rest. I expected the same thing this time, and was not happy when that didn't happen. I just kept telling them, "I need my baby."

Finally I got to hold him, after what felt like forever, but was probably about 10 minutes (still way too long). I don't remember much from that stretch of time, other than just soaking up the baby snuggles.

I honestly don't remember too much from the rest of the hospital stay. We had a few visitors, which was nice, some awful food, some good food that Justin brought from restaurants near the hospital, and lots of interruptions from nurses.

Wesley was born on 5/5/16, weighing 8lbs10oz, and 21" long.

A bit out of order, but my very last bump picture, taken right after my water broke. 

Jeremy meeting his little brother. He was very tired, and a bit unsure about the whole thing. 

He looks a lot like Jeremy here. Same grumpy old man expression. :)

He's here!

Surprise! Two weeks early my water broke, and less than a day later, little Wesley made his debut. Welcome to the world, cutie pie!

Getting close

I love the tail end of pregnancy. I'm probably one of very few women to ever say that, but for me, it's when I feel the best! Starting about 2 or 3 weeks ago, I finally have energy again! Combined with motivation, because of how quickly my due date is approaching, I've been getting so much done!

I still have a bit to do before baby gets here, but it's so refreshing to be crossing things off the to do list on a near daily basis. Justin is really enjoying it, too. He's been so helpful during this (and the last) pregnant, picking up the slack where I'm too tired. Doing the dishes more, and the laundry, and generally trying to keep the house tidy. But the last few weeks, he hasn't had hardly any housework to do! He still helps with dinner dishes, but he has really enjoyed not having multiple days worth of dishes to catch up on when he finally gets a chance too.

So, all around, things are going great here! People keep asking how I'm feeling, and most of them seem surprised when I say I feel great, and actually mean it. I guess my body just does pregnancy different!

In other news, I recently got a new calling. I'm now the primary chorister! I'm so happy to be back in primary. I was only the RS Meeting coordinator for a few months, but the whole time, it just didn't feel right. I felt like I'm supposed to be in primary, and I guess I was right, since they put me back in! It's a little challenging with timing, since I don't have a lot of lung space right now, and I'll be missing a few Sundays pretty soon here. Luckily the previous chorister was called as ward choir director, so she's available to step in for me when I have the baby. And she's very happy to do so, which is awesome.

Jeremy has been a lot of fun lately, too. The more vocal he gets, the funnier he gets. Yesterday we were trying to get him into his pjs, and he wasn't interested. So Justin balanced them on his face, to where he was looking through the neck hole. When Jeremy saw, he said "silly old man!" We both busted up laughing!

He also still enjoys pretending to be a dog, which has actually started coming in handy. We'll tell him which of his dinner foods dogs like to eat, and he's more likely to eat it. We brush his doggy teeth, and he's much more cooperative. It's also great for wearing him out without wearing me out. Doggies love to play fetch and do tricks. :) And I love it a little more than most moms might, because it's a little bit of me coming through!

This past weekend, Justin and I decided to have a little vacation without the pup. Justin's parents watched Jeremy overnight Friday to Saturday, and we went to the Arizona Grand Resort right by south mountain. Most of our time was spent trying out different foods in the valley that I've been wanting to try. We had a lot of ice cream, and just a lot of good food in general. We also did some swimming, since they have a water park at the resort, and some exploring around Phoenix on Saturday morning. It was a fun, relaxing weekend.

Those are the main updates I can think of right now. I'm not sure if I'll post again before the baby comes, so my next post might be very exciting! Fingers crossed that this delivery goes better than my last!

Jeremy helping with the dishes

We've been trying to figure out the best way to fit two car seats in our civic. We're still working on it. 

I love his static slide hair! 

I made a super yummy cheesecake. This is me bragging about it. :)

My latest bump picture. In other news, I figured out how to add captions! Yay!

A few pics from our "stay-cation". Yummy ice cream and croissants, my adorable hubby, and a not super great picture of the 2 of us right before swimming

The cactus incident

I've been pretty tired lately, so it's been harder to put my thoughts in order enough to write a blog post. But this is me, making an effort. A for effort?

About a week ago, Justin decided to take off work early on a Friday so he could go check out a camp site he was planning to take the boy scouts to the following weekend. We decided to make it a family affair, so Jeremy and I, and even Lacie, came along.

Lacie wasn't too sure about the car ride, but once we got there, she was in doggie heaven. She does really well staying by us and not bolting off, so we kept the leash off to begin with. She loved being able to roam around the desert and explore! Jeremy thought it was great fun having Lacie there, too.

It was all going swimmingly, until Lacie started sniffing around a cactus. She's not the brightest dog, so despite my efforts to call her away, she ended up with a nose full of cactus. Boy, let me tell you, Jeremy learned a lesson he will never forget, that we should always stay away from cactus!

We were able to get it out with some work. It was tricky, and involved me trying to keep Lacie's head still, and keep her from pawing at her nose, while Justin used a bit of moleskin to try to pull the cactus off. Because apparently his first aid kit is useless, and doesn't have tweezers. That will be changing.

But we got it off, and Jeremy and Lacie both learned a valuable lesson. Lacie didn't go sniffing around off the path anymore, and Jeremy kept talking about how we should stay away from cactus.

Even with that incident, we all had a great time being out in nature. Lacie didn't seem at all traumatized by the experience, once the cactus was out. She went right back to being happy to explore with her boy. She was just better at staying on the path. :)

In other news, Jeremy is slowly getting used to being in sunbeams. He's had a pretty hard transition, I think largely because of how young he is. Note to self, have babies in the first half of the year to make sunbeams a smoother transition! But the last two weeks have each been a step in the right direction, so hopefully, within about a month, he'll be good to just go sit with his class without any meltdowns. Fingers crossed!

We also recently transitioned Jeremy out of his toddler bed (since it's also the crib) and into a twin bed. He has not had any problems with the change, and absolutely loves his new big boy bed. We also took away his night time diapers, the last stage of potty training. He probably would have been fine to lose those even sooner, but I wasn't quite ready. But he has been sleeping in undies for 2 weeks now, and hasn't had a single accident. He even woke up at 1am to go potty last night.

Saturday morning, when Jeremy was first starting to make noises in his room, I suddenly here him say, "Pop! The baby's here now!" He is convinced that's how it works. My belly will get bigger and bigger and pop! The baby will be here. So I hear him say that, and when I go in to get him, he is holding his stuffed dog like a baby, and tells me his baby is here! He then spent the whole morning pretending his dog was a baby: feeding it pretend milk, putting it down for a nap, telling me when the "baby" was crying. It was pretty adorable. I don't know how much he really understands how life will change when we have the baby, but it makes me happy to see him already trying to understand and simulate what it will be like. And any time he talks about baby Wesley, it's usually to say something he's going to share with him, or how he'll help when he's crying. I love that he's already showing compassion for his little brother. Hopefully those feelings stick around once Wesley is actually here!

That's about it for updates for now. As usual, enjoy the onslaught of pictures! I wish I could intersperse them through the post, but I use the blogger app, and for whatever reason, it will only let me attach a bunch at the end. So, here you go!

"Your can say a prayer, mommy?"

Lately, Jeremy has started getting nightmares. I was kind of expecting it to come, since it's really common at this age, and also very common in my family. It's still hard to hear your son wake up in the middle of the night in tears. :(

One side effect of the nightmares is that, at bedtime, after Justin and I leave his room and close the door, sometimes he will start to kind of freak out about monsters or robots coming for his stuffed doggie. One night earlier this week when he did this, I went in, and, unsure what else to do to alleviate his fear, I said a prayer with him, specifically to keep the monsters and robots away, and keep Jeremy safe.

Well, last night, after Justin and I put him to bed, and a few minutes had passed, he started talking about the monsters and robots coming for his doggie. After a few sentences of that, I heard him call for me over the monitor, saying "Mommy, your can say prayer about the monsters?"

Sometimes I wait a little bit before going in, to see if he's insistent or just trying to stall bedtime. That sentence, though, had me up right away! My baby asked me to say a prayer to keep the monsters away, and I am so proud that he is learning that when we're scared, we can pray for comfort. It's hard to watch him have nightmares and be afraid, but it really makes me happy that he's learning to trust God, and learn what source he can turn to for peace and comfort.

Plus his little ungrammatical way of saying "your can say prayer about monsters?" is just adorable. :)

Some weeks (last week in particular) are hard, and I feel like I'm barely accomplishing anything besides keeping my child alive, but last night was a good evidence to me that some of the things I'm trying to teach him are getting through. Those are the moments I lean on when it feels like I'm accomplishing nothing.

I didn't write all this to brag, mostly just because it's something I want to remember in the future, and it'll make a great story to tell Jeremy in the future. The story of how he learned that prayer brings comfort. <3