2 Week Visit

Baby Faith had her 2 week visit today. It was a really good visit. The Dr. thought it was phenomenal that she had gained pretty much a whole pound since her birth. She weighed in at
7 lbs 9 oz. She hadn't gained any in the height area, but that's ok. She was in the 50th percentile for her height regardless and her weight still isn't quite on the charts. Tall and skinny, just like Dad.
It was our first long interaction with our new pediatrician as well. It went great. I really liked him. We had met him a couple other times when our old one was out but they were brief encounters so it was nice to spend some longer time talking and interacting with him. He talked to us about a lot of stuff and even told us the names of her little birth marks she has. He says they are the kind that will fade over time. But the ones on the back of her neck are what's referred to as "Stork bites" and the one on her eyelid is one of what's called "angel kisses". He checked her out and said she was perfect. We agree. She only got upset twice. Once when we undressed her to get weighed and I don't blame her, it was chilly in there. I would have been mad too. And then again when they poked her heal to do the PKU testing.
The babysitter had taken the twins for the appointment and Caleb was at school so we took advantage and enjoyed a quick and quiet lunch together. Just me, Mike and baby girl. It was a nice break and little outing overall.

At the Circus

Yesterday we finally got to take the kids to the Circus. It seems like every other year I have wanted to, something else came up around the same time. So this year I was determined. Even knowing I would have to tow along a newborn didn't deter me. Mike wasn't thrilled with the idea but he went along. First thing was first though, once we arrived we had to get situated with popcorn, sprites and cotton candy.


Of course so they can charge and arm and a leg you could buy the cotton candy with the souvenir hat. So we played with that a bit.

Then it was all eyes on the action once it started. The kids were mesmerized for the first little bit.

We got to see all of that fun stuff just in the first half. Then sadly right when intermission was getting started, Zaden climbed onto my lap and managed to knock the camera off of it and break it so no pics from the 2nd half. But we got to see the tigers and some other really cool acrobatics and stuff during that half.

The kids were behaved for the most part and baby girl slept cuddled in the sling with me through most of it. We were in row 3 which made the frequent potty breaks from the twins a huge undertaking. But we survived and all managed to enjoy ourselves. I even caught Mike smiling, laughing and clapping a few times. I'm so glad we were able to make it this year.

First Photo Shoot

Our CD of the pictures taken at the hospital of Miss Faith arrived today. I couldn't wait to share. Now comes the hard part, deciding which ones to print.

Adjusting- 1 Week Old

Baby Girl is already 1 week old today. This last week has been a blurr it went by so fast. We are loving having the experience of bringing home a baby with us from the hospital. Such a difference it makes in every one's lives. And I have to say, she is seriously the best baby ever. She hardly makes a peep and when she does, it's very short lived. She'll nurse, she'll take a bottle. She'll take formula, she'll take Mommy milk. She just goes along with everything. She sleeps right through her brothers wrestling and yelling and fighting and playing loudly. A couple of times a day she'll be awake for a couple of hours at a time for us just to talk to her and adore her. And best of all, she puts up with Mommy's need to play dress up. Of course she helps by having a diaper blowout here and there and a few spit up episodes that require wardrobe changes a couple times a day. But neither of us seem to mind. Here's a little of what we've been up to.


In case you've ever wondered, Yes they do make Baby Nike's. I found these at Ross for $3. No, seriously $3. There's no way they were staying there without me.

The big Utah state college rivalry game was this weekend. Of course we (ok I) adorned her in the appropriate attire. Go Utes! Final score Utes 54, BYU 10. I'm pretty sure it was her giving them good luck. Mike tried to remind me that day that Nebraska also had a game and she has some Husker stuff. Me and baby girl ignored that.

I couldn't resist taking a sleeping pic of this little lady bug in her crib.

I asked Zaden who the cutie pie was the other day. He promptly replied, "Baby Sister." I can't argue with that.

Caleb adores her.

It took Zaric almost all week, but he finally wanted to hold her yesterday morning. He liked talking to her and checking on her before that, but it took a while to actually want to touch her.

Zaden insisted at the hospital when he came to visit that she was, "Scawry." That faded pretty quickly once we got home. He warmed up in just a couple days and it constantly checking on her and making sure he knows where Baby Sister is at all times.

Daddy and I just can't get enough of her. We love to hold her and feed her and we have both remarked that it doesn't even feel like we have a newborn here. She's such a part of our family already, it seems like she's always been here.

Healing-wise, I feel really good. Other than a little soreness and most of that being in my back. I have felt great every day for most of the day. I was pretty nervous about going with the VBAC option, but I am so glad I did. That's one decision, I will never regret.

I also wanted to say a thank you to all of you who have endured all of the ups,downs, complaints and worries with us throughout this pregnancy. It's meant a lot to us to have so much support behind us. A special thanks to Mike and my sister, Tracey, who endured the brunt of my nervousness and complaints almost on a daily basis. I couldn't have done it without you. And having you both by my side while we welcomed baby Faith into this world and to listen to her first cry was the perfect ending to a long 9 months. I love you guys.

Baby Faith- A Birth and Middle Name Story

Most of you have seen the other pics floating around FB so I won't blast this post with pics. After being my biggest baby and my hardest pregnancy, Faith was my easiest birth and we were able to sucessfully do the VBAC. For those of you (like myself) that like to hear all about babies coming into this world. I thought I'd share our short, sweet story.
I was expecting the hospital to call on Monday around 9 am. Of course I was nervous and excited so I was up and showered and ready to go by around 6. It worked out well because they ended up calling around 7:30 and telling me if I was ready to head on over. Mike had morning school duty to get Caleb off to and my Dad was close but not quite to the house yet so I drove myself over and got checked in and all settled into my room. They managed to burst 3 of my veins getting the IV in so that took a bit. The Dr came in and said he would be back after they got it started to break my water. They finally got it started and started the meds around 9 and Mike showed up just a few minutes later. The contractions started right away but they were bearable enough. They came in to check on me about 11 and told me that the anesthesiologist was going into a C section and wouldn't be available until after 1 pm and asked if I would like my epidural then. I figured I could handle it just 2 more hours and elected not to.....and that's when the trouble started. :)
Not 5 minutes after they left the room I shifted to one side and bam! My water broke on it's own. This was great but we also knew that would intensify the contractions. I immediately called the nurse in and told her I was changing my mind and would love the epidural NOW if she could catch him. He was in my room pretty quickly after that and did a hurry job. And after it took effect all was right with the world.
My sister showed up not too long after that. And we all hung out and talked and laughed and and even napped a little while we waited. It took what seemed like forever for me to move from the 3 I was when I got there to first a 4 after several hours and then finally a 7. I didn't feel much of anything all this time which was wonderful. Once I hit a 7 though.....Watch out!
They came in and started getting stuff prepared. My Doc had 4 women in labor at the same time and we were all getting complete about the same time too. He came in and checked me himself and said the lady next door was pushing and he thought she'd be done shortly and then he thought I would be 2nd in line after that. Well the nurse that was helping me got everything set up and checked me again about 20 minutes later and viola...I had went from a 7 to complete that quickly. She said the baby was pretty high up still and so we would do some pushes to get her to come down and be all ready for the Dr. She had me do one practice push and said things seemed to be working well. Then she told me to get down to business and we would do 4 big pushes. Well I was just finishing with push #1 when she said "Whoa" and told me to stop pushing. The baby's head was starting to crown.
She went to find the Dr. who was still next door pushing with that lady. It seemed like forever to get him in there and we were all thinking she was going to come out on her own before he got there. Turns out he had to abandon the poor lady next door who had been pushing for about an hour at that point and rush over to me. Once he was in place, I pushed 3 times and we had a baby girl. She came out crying without any help. They laid her on me and Mike cut the cord. I knew right away that she was for sure a Faith. She was born at 5:19 pm. We won the race and were his first birth out of the 4. Way to go baby girl!
She was 100 % perfect and weighed in at 6 lbs 10 oz and was 21 inches long. They cleaned her up while we held and adored her and while we were waiting the 40 minutes or so to be moved upstairs we had a chat about her middle name. We thought we had narrowed it down to 3 options. Mike was holding her at this time and our conversation went a little something like this :
Me : Ok I'm not feeling the Olivia-Nicole option. That name is bigger than she is.
Mike: Yeah me neither
Me: Ok so is she a Faith McKaylyn?
Mike: No
Me: Ok so she's a Faith Isabella?
Mike: No
Me: (insert confused look on my face): then what is she?
Mike: (with a little tear in his eye that he won't admit to): She's an Ellisyn

Ellisyn was a name we had tossed around a little bit. Mostly as our only other option that we could agree on as a possible other first name if we felt like Faith didn't fit. We weren't sure before we went in that we liked it as a middle name so it was never on the "list" as an option. After we talked about it some more and made sure we were both ok with it, I did the closest thing there is to making it "official" and posted it to Facebook. It just felt right. Not a second thought in the world. So Mike then officially wrote it on the birth certificate documents and here we are.

Welcome to our world Faith Ellisyn Ouren

Leaving it to the Professionals

Between weeks 32 and 38 of this pregnancy when I was told to stay off my feet at home as much as possible, I decided that I needed something to at least keep my hands busy during that time and keep me from going crazy. Since I had been seeing, ordering and receiving so many gifts for baby girl from the crocheting world, I decided to try my hand at learning how to make a few things of my own. So I set off to Michaels for a book, some hooks and some yarn. I was rip-roaring ready to learn something new.


I am happy to say that I got that basic chain stitch down fairly well and have been practicing keeping my stitches even off and on.

And yeah, that's where the education ends for me.......right there......basic chain stitch. For the life of me, I can't figure out how to get to the next row and no matter which stich from the book I try to replicate, it looks juvenile. So to make some comparisons of what I am talking about I thought I would share some of my goodies. Starting with this cute sock monkey hat I ordered from Etsy.

Random Etsy Lady

Me

Leg Warmers from a co-worker

Me

Afghan from Roberta in Nebraska

Another one of Roberta's afghans complete with Ladybugs.

Me

So I am hanging up my hooks and deciding to leave this business to the professionals. I'll keep my begging for stuff to a minimum and my debit card handy. Anyone want a free crocheting book and hooks?

Eviction Notice

Today was my 38 week appointment. The Dr. is still in shock and awe that I lasted so long and so am I. He checked me and I haven't moved since last week despite all of the painful contractions I have been having so he decided it was best to go ahead and plan an inducement for next week. He called and got my name on the list for Monday. They will call me that morning with the time and instructions so I don't know anything more than the day at this point.

So it's official, she's been served her notice of get out this weekend or get kicked out on Monday. Any bets on which offer she'll take?

Shark Board

Yesterday I had very good intentions of getting the house back in order. I mentioned to my sister in the morning that I was feeling crafty and was trying to decide which one of my millions of projects in my head to work on. I noticed Mike had been outside for a bit. When I went out to see what he was up to, I found him drawing on a board to do the project we've been talking about to finish of the kids new shark bathroom. Apparently he was feeling a little crafty too. So he cut it out for me, sanded it and painted it. Then I broke out the Cricut for the decorations and words. I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. Now we just need to get it hung.


Needless to say, the house chores went neglected one more day and we created more of a mess to clean up. I also tried out another project I had seen on another blog while I had the Cricut out. It didn't turn out perfect but it turned out pretty darn good for a first try. I might be making some more for Christmas gifts this year so sorry no pictures yet. Good thing it's a 3 day weekend. Time to get to those chores, unless another project pops up ;).

A Visit from Omaha

Grandma Braska and Aunt Kari headed out of town this morning after a week long visit with the boys. It was fun to have them here. Sorry I didn't take any pictures during their time here. Mostly because I was just plain lazy. But they had fun with the boys for sure. The boys got to stay home from the babysitter and be with them every day. They went to the park, to the zoo and played here at the house a lot. Mike got to go race them at the fast track go-karts while me and the boys watched and we got to spend time just visiting, eating and playing a couple games together. I also had the bright idea to take the twins to Build a Bear on Friday to let them build their first animals. Zaden picked out a puppy and Zaric picked out a koala bear. After they were stuffed we picked out a light saber accessory for them each and boy was that a mistake. Now they want nothing to do with the animals. All they want to do is play with the sabers and play Star Wars. So much for good intentions. We then ventured up to Midway to Swiss days for their last evening here and walked around all the craft booths. I bought only a few girly things. Mike and his sister also got some new tattoo's during the visit. They also got their first tattoos together at the same place 5 years ago so we thought it was funny to do their 2nd ones that way too.
We were all hoping for a visit from little Miss Faith and a couple of times with the wicked contractions I've been having, we thought we were onto something but no go. She's still baking and comfy. So I guess they'll have to plan another trip after she gets here.