Cute Stuff

The gifts are getting cuter and cuter!

Last week was a great week! If you didn't know, there is no shopping to be done in this town. So my guilty pleasure is Internet shopping and packages. That daily trip to the post office just makes my day, or ruins it if we miss a day! Last week we got lots of good stuff!

Jason's sister sent Paislee a bathing suit and cover up for this summer, and also a SUPER CUTE diaper bag! THANK YOU Aunt Amber, we LOVE it!

We also got a package from one of my sorority sisters, Berrin--who is IMPOSSIBLE to reach if you don't have her phone number! Berrin DOES read my blog though and I just want her to know that WE LOVE the outfit that she sent for Miss Paislee, it is my absolute FAVORITE outfit hanging in Paislee's HUGE, jam packed closet. Even Jason loves it, we have been looking for the perfect little 'sailor' outfit and you found it! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! This picture does it no justice, thanks to my killer photography skills:

I cannot WAIT to put her in it and take a picture of her and her Daddy on his boat :o)

Yesterday we started tummy time with Paislee. She seemed to L-O-V-E it (man, that word appears a lot in this blog post!). She is looking more and more like her Mama everyday, I can't wait to get lots of my baby pictures and post them, it is CRAZY how much she looks like I did when I was a baby. Funny thing is, I didn't think I was that cute as a baby--until now :o)

                                      

Paislee LOVES bathtime here lately. She just chillaxes, and kicks back and lounges in her little bath tub. It's the cutest thing. I try to give her a bath before bed every night, although it doesn't happen every night I have good intentions, I promise! Jason and I are finally getting things figured out with bath time--put the towel in the dryer so its warm when she gets out, wash her hair last so she isn't cold through her whole bath, pour warm water on her all through her bath, massage her with baby oil, etc.... I think it really relaxes her and gets her nice and ready for bed :o)

Lately, she has been adopting MY sleeping habits from when I was pregnant. For the past 2 nights she hasn't gone to sleep until after midnight, and sleeps until the early morning, and then I put her in the bed and snuggle with her and she goes BACK to sleep until about 10 or 11--it's NICE! 

She sleeps most of the day, and is awake most of the evening from about 5 until bedtime, with a few short naps in between. So in case you were wondering, HOW is she finding the time to write this long blog post with all of these pictures?? Here's how:

She is fast asleep in her swing as I type this :o)

We have made a lot of progress since last week when I couldn't put her down! Still, I'm sure a few months from now I would give anything for her to want me to hold her all day, everyday, so I am still going to take advantage of that for as long as I can, it won't be like this for long!

Off to work on the baby book and write 'thank you' cards. Hope everyone is having a great week so far! The snow is almost all melted and it is 55 degrees outside today!

Please keep all of the people in Tennessee in your thoughts and prayers. I follow a lot of blogs of girls from Nashville, and to see what that town is going through right now is horrifying and makes me want to cry. Please take a minute when you read this and say a prayer for them, they truly need it right now! 

XOXO,

My.Back.Hurts.

I haven't been able to put this spoiled sweet child of mine down this week. She seriously has been held almost every second of every day this week. I really have tried to put her down, make her sleep in her bassinet, put her in her swing, lay her on the couch, etc. she just won't let me. I tried to let her cry for about 2 minutes, yes thats all that I lasted and I just couldn't take it anymore. Yesterday I discovered the Baby Bjorn tucked away and decided to give it a try. She loves it. So now I can get stuff done, with a big, 10 pound baby attached to my chest (as if I didn't have 2 other babies attached to my chest, and as if THEY weren't big enough). I have a feeling I will pay big time for this, but I am desperate to get things done around this house and to get a nap during the day (sleeping in the recliner with her on my chest). My back is killing meeeee......We are ready for daddy to get home!!!!!! Mama needs a good nights sleep, a haircut, pedicure, manicure and a cocktail! Let Jason know, please--my first Mother's Day is coming up ;o)

We received Paislee's birth announcements earlier this week and I have finally gotten them all addressed and half mailed out, the other half will go out when Jason gets back and gets to the post office to mail them out, I am confined to the house in fear of putting Paislee BACK in the carseat and listening to her scream the whole way into town, again. Anyways, the birth announcements are SUPER cute, and I can't wait for everyone to see them! I will post a copy up here once I think most have them have reached their recipients, I want it to be a surprise :o) I had them made here.

Valdez is looking better and better everyday, we can see grass in our front yard! Woo hoooooo! I never want to see snow again, ever ever ever.....I am ready for warm, sunny days, cookouts, walks, and having the sun out until midnight so I'm not scared on the nights that Jason isn't here :o)

We hope everyone has a great weekend!
XOXO,

Happy Hump Day!

Ahh...2 days down, 4 to go!

My mom was here from the day Paislee was born, and Jason has been home every night (minus one or two duty days) since she was born. Monday, they both left me. Yesterday was ROUGH. Paislee must know who the softy of the house is (me) because she has taken full advantage since they have been gone. She was awake all day yesterday, wanting to be held ALL DAY LONG. Anytime I put her down, she screamed. I know, people tell me I need to let her cry it out, or even better--scream it out, but I just CAN'T. I'll probably regret it, and pay later but that pitiful little cry just breaks my heart every time and mama has to come to the rescue. Her lack of sleep paid off last night and she slept from 2 a.m. until Jason called and woke us up this morning at 7:30. I figured I would take advantage of her 3 hour nap she is working on right now and blog--how come I feel guilty for going a few days without blogging?

Really though, there isn't much to say. It's me and Paislee girl this week by ourselves, and we are hanging in there :o) I am procrastinating, as always. I have 2 projects left and I will officially be DONE with school, problem is--I haven't even started on one of those projects-whoops! It's hard to type with one hand, while holding a squirming baby in the other! I have until Monday to get the projects finished and turned in, wish me luck! (Luckily, one is a group project and ALMOST finished!)

Okay, sorry to cut this short and be so boring but I see little arms shooting up in the air every minute or so from the bassinet, which means...dun dun dun...she's waking up! Hope everyone is doing great :o)

XOXO,

Thought's for Thursday

Sorry I haven't been updating much lately. Being a Mommy is hard work! People warned me that it would be, but I thought for sure that I would still have plenty of time for blogging and for Facebook--boy was I wrong!

--It HAS been the best week of my life though. Busy, yes. But I have never felt so much joy and happiness and LOVE in my life. This little girl is just the sweetest thing I have ever laid my eyes on. I could hold her all day long and just watch her every little move and listen to her every little grunt and never get bored. Sometimes I want to cry because I love her so much and realize that I am responsible for keeping her safe and that just scares me. I dread her first skinned knee or smashed finger, and will probably cry harder than she does.

--Paislee was born "tongue tied". The little piece of skin under her tongue was too far to the front, keeping her from being able to stick her tongue out, which made it hard for her to eat. The Dr. wanted to wait a couple of days to see if she could adapt to it, but after 2 days of her going 12 hours without eating--we decided that something needed to be done. Saturday we took her to the hospital and had the Dr. clip it. Paislee didn't cry, or even seem to know that anything had been done, and has since been a brand new baby. She is eating great now, has gained all of her weight back and is sleeping good too.

--Now that I have caught up on sleep, I am back to staying up pretty late. We usually go to bed around 12 or so, and I feed her before we go to bed. For the past 3 nights she has slept until about 4 a.m.! That's like 3-4 hours of sleep I am getting at a time, which is great compared to no sleep the first two nights, which was EXHAUSTING.

--My milk has came in, and let me tell you--Pamela Anderson has NOTHING on me. Girls with no boobs, when you have a baby and your milk comes in, you will realize WHY you should be happy that you weren't "blessed" with a chest.

--My mom is here for 3 weeks to help with Paislee and thank God for her. She has been a lifesaver and I don't know HOW we would have gotten through the past week without her. She has not only been helping with sweet baby, but has been cooking and cleaning as well. THANK YOU MAMA! I LOVE YOU!

--Is anyone as bored with American Idol as I am? This season just isn't doing it for me, maybe I am just distracted and not paying enough attention, but I'm bored with it already.

--I gained about 45 lbs. while I was pregnant :o( But I've lost 25 lbs. so far! Halfway done! Hopefully my little piggy will drain me dry and help me lose the rest and maybe even more--wouldn't that be nice? Either way, it's diet time!

Well, that's all I can think of right now! Hope everyone is doing great and enjoying the WARM weather that we AREN'T getting here in Valdez. Is it time to start a countdown to when we get to leave this place? I think so.
The way it is looking right now we won't be able to leave until around July 15--106 days left!

Happy 1 week Birthday to my sweet little girl!!!
XOXO,

Labor & Delivery

She's finally here! I know everyone probably knew that already, sorry I've been a slacker and haven't posted since...Wednesday...I think? My days are so mixed up now, I don't know one day from another so let me try to get this right.

Last time I posted I think was Wednesday night, after we had gotten back from the hospital and were supposed to go back at ten for another dose of the Cytotec. Funny thing--I just looked back and it WAS Wednesday night, and my post was titled 'No News'. I posted at 8:24 pm, and said nothing was going on. I must have been eating my dinner at that point and watching American Idol. After I finished eating, I got up, busted a couple of dance moves like the nurse told me to do, and five minutes later got up to take a shower and felt a 'POP' and my water broke! This was at 8:45. True Story :o) After my water broke I noticed my bloody show and mucus plug, and knew that my water had broken FOR SURE, so I had Jason call the hospital and let them know and I took a shower. By the time I got out of the shower I had gone from not feeling my contractions to being in full blown labor. My contractions were about 3 minutes apart and were lasting 60 to 90 seconds. I tried to get ready, I really did. I wanted to put my makeup on and at least blow dry my hair so I would look decent for a couple of pictures when we got to the hospital--that didn't happen. I managed to get my hair up in a ponytail and my clothes on and at that point was ready to go. I remember having to stop every few minutes and call Jason in to hug me during my contractions while I tried to breath through them. By the time we were ready to go, Jason was asking if I wanted to bring the laptop and I screamed at him and told him I didn't care to just HURRY UP!!! :o) Sorry Jason :o)

So we drove to the hospital, got there and got back into my beautiful hospital gown and I started hounding them for drugs. I didn't want to throwup--I am terrified of throwup and they told me that I needed to pretty much get over that--evidently most women throwup when they are in labor. We had to wait for Dr. Todd to come in and check me, but I remember the nurse told me that by looking at my contractions I was probably dilated about 4-7 cm. I was excited to hear that but also scared because I knew that there was a point that would be too late for drugs, and I NEEDED drugs. ASAP. So finally the Dr. came in and checked and I was only 2.5 cm, so I told her I wanted medicine so I wouldn't throw up and I wanted something for the pain. She gave me Phenergan (sp?) for nausea, but wanted to wait on pain medicine until I was at least 4 cm, because it could slow things down. So we waited for maybe an hour (this is coming from Jason at this point, I can only remember a few details), and I was begging for pain medicine so they got the Dr. to come in and check again and she told them I could have some Demerol. Let me tell ya'll, that mess didn't do CRAP for me. Jason says he thinks that it toned my contractions down a little, but I don't think so. Those things HURT like the devil. People always told me that contractions feel like really bad menstrual cramps. I don't agree-they feel like the devil crawled in your stomach and is twisting your insides. Ugh. I'm in pain just thinking about them. That's what I dread the most about having another child--the contractions!

So from what I can calculate, I got the Demerol around midnight. I think I dosed on and off for a little while there, waking up for every contraction which was every few minutes. I know somewhere in there I wanted to take a bath, so I went in the bathroom and they put a chair in the shower and I just sat there spraying the hot water on my stomach, which seemed to make me feel a tiny bit better. At this point I was dilating about 1 cm per hour. Around 3 am the Dr. came in to check and said I could finally get my spinal tap, which is similar to an epidural except that it doesn't last as long, and doesn't numb you. She injected morphine into my spinal area--thats as detailed as that gets because I don't really understand much about that stuff. What I do know is that mess made me feel MUCH better. It seemed to have gotten rid of the contractions all together, but I could still feel the pressure. I was able to get a little sleep after this and so was Jason. The nurses kept coming in and checking on us, and told me to let her know when I started feeling like I needed to push.

I guess it was around 6am, I started feeling a TON of pressure--like I needed to take a poop. I told the nurse and she went and got the Dr., who came in and checked me. I was almost fully dilated so at this point everyone just stayed in the room and started getting things ready.  I remember I kept telling them that I really needed to take a crap, and they kept telling me that it was okay, they would just push it out of the way if I did. That didn't sound like a game plan to me. I tried to get over the idea of pooping all over the bed, in front of a bunch of strangers, and I just couldn't deal, so I finally asked them if I could just go try to poop. First, the nurse wanted to sit in there and watch me--that wasn't cool. Finally she let Jason come in to sit with me, so I sat there and tried and tried--but nothing. Jason said he kept looking down there to make sure I wasn't pooping out a baby, ha! So with no luck pooping, we went back to the bed. When I laid back down Dr. Todd finally told me that I could start pushing. I started pushing at 7am, pushing about 3-4 times every time I had a contraction. Everyone always told me you just push like you are taking the biggest crap ever, but I didn't really think I would be pushing like that, I thought I would push with my stomach. Nope. You literally push like you are pushing out a crap that will NOT come out. And you push and push and push. So I pushed and pushed and pushed, and finally they started saying they could see her head so I kept pushing and pushing. From here everything happened so quick I don't even really know what happened, I just know that Dr. Todd wanted to cut me and she gave me a shot to numb me, which hurt, but not any worse than pushing a baby out. Then I could feel her snipping away, UGH, but that didn't hurt. So I pushed out her head, that hurt but not as bad as the contractions and I remember there being a panic about her shoulders being a little wide so they got the suction and put it on her and had the nurses push my belly to help bring her on out. And there it was! My little 'crap' was out! Well, actually it wasn't. I STILL had the urge to take a big crap! Eventually, Dr. Todd told me to push one more time, and I pushed one little push and PLOP! Out came the placenta--thats what it felt like, another gush of relief, and THEN my 'crap' was out :o)

They whisked her away from me and cleaned her up, she wasn't crying at first so they didn't put her on my chest, and I was sad because I wanted to see her :o( I do remember asking if she had five fingers and five toes, they said no, but she has ten fingers and ten toes, ha! Yeah, I was a little out of it--the rest of the day was a blur...

Sorry if that is more detailed than ya'll would like, but people have been asking for details so there ya have em!

XOXO,

I just realized.....

the holidays will NEVER be the same for Jason & I, ever again! I hadn't even thought about it, but thanks to Jodi I realized that this Easter we will be playing Easter bunny for the first time! At least we are hoping she will be here by Easter since that's almost 2 weeks after my due date--heck, I'm hoping she will be here so I can pinch her little cheeks on St. Patricks day! Thank you Jodi for Paislee's "Baby's 1st Easter" bib, and her adorable socks!!

Is there anywhere to get an Easter basket in Valdez?
Not only will we be playing Easter bunny, we will also get to go trick or treating and play Santa Claus too! I remember when I was little my Daddy ALWAYS got me flowers for Valentine's Day, and I think my mom did too! I can't wait to start new traditions with my little family! I want to be the type of mom that goes all out for the holidays--changing bathroom and kitchen towels for each holiday, decorating the house, and making cookies and candy--the whole shebang! When we did our wedding registry, we registered for a huge set of 100 cookie cutters, just so I can use the different shapes for pancakes in the mornings and sandwiches for lunchboxes, and of course--cookies! I rarely took my lunch to school, but when I did my mom always snuck a note or surprise in there and I loved it! It's the little things that you will always remember, and I hope that Paislee remembers all of the little things that we do for her over the years, and I hope they mean as much to her as they will for us!

11 days down, 10 days to go until Jason is HOME! :o)

XOXO,