New Years Desires - New Things

There has been a lot of new in my life lately, and not all really the fun "look at this new ___ I got!" More of the "oh, crap. Now what are we going to do?" new.

So what's a girl to do?

Give myself the fun newness to balance the other not fun stuff, of course! Here is my wish list:

#1

UGG Lo Pro Drawstring boots. I fell instantly in love. I will continue dreaming...

#2

Book #12 of a series I've been reading since I was 13. The story used to be good, but now I'm just dying to know how it ends. You figure each book was around 800 pages, that's 9600 pages - a lot of pages to invest in and NOT find out the end. Matthew was awesome and gave me a gift card to the bookstore, so I will definitely pick this up after I've refreshed myself on the series.

And #3

An infant who sleeps through the night!!!! Attainable, yes. And hopefully soon!

There you have it. One thing I want and probably won't ever get, something I'll get, but just have to wait a while, and one thing I can have as soon as I take the time to order it. Sounds good to me.

My Sunday

8:30 am - woke up and fed Lily

9:00 am - Got Lily, Ivy and I dressed for church

10:00 am - arrived at church for our 9:00 ward (super proud of this one, for sure!)

12:00 pm - devoured a sandwich that could feed Somalia

5:00 pm - kept Ivy from smothering Lily for the second time

5:01 pm - kept myself from hurting my eldest and subsequently realized that I need A LOT more patience

I don't think my life could have changed more dramatically from what it was just days before Lily joined us. I eat more now than when I was pregnant with no effect, I'm with both my girls 24/7, and I haven't had to talk to stupid people on the phone in months. General consensus? Life is WAY better this way!

Lily Kazee's Birthday

I know it took me a while to get started writing this down, but life with two children is a lot different than I expected. Its hard, and I knew it would be. But its hard in different ways than I thought it would be.

So how did my newest sweetheart come into the world? VERY easily! Well, compared to most births at least!

I really wanted a natural birth and had planned it that way for most of my pregnancy. Then I hit 38 weeks and had had enough. Isn't that horrible?! I was having so many problems with my back, going to the chiropractor every week, and it just stopped working like I needed it to. Sweet baby Lily had decided to camp on my sciatic nerve for the majority of my pregnancy, so at times, I could barely walk. So the doc set me to be induced at 12am on Nov. 30th.

He inserted a balloon earlier that day to help me dilate, and it got me to a 3 by the time I went in. They started the pitocin, and at that point I was still hoping for a natural birth. The poor nurse had a few rough hours in the beginning because Lily just wouldn't hold still. Every time they put the heart monitor on me, she decided to move so it looked like she was flat-lining every few minutes. Eventually I just started moving it myself to save the poor woman the hassel! Eventaully Lily decided to come down a little further so they could break my water and stick a monitor on her scalp. From there, things were pretty much smooth sailing. The contractions were getting worse and worse, but they were very erratic and coming one right on top of the other. I'll tell you, it was brutal! I could hardly finish a sentence between them. I was at a 7 and was so exhausted and so done, I decided to get the epidural. I am SO glad I did! Lily's heart rate started to wig out, so the nurses ran in to see what was up and I had gone from a 7 to 10 in 20 minutes! All my body needed to do was relax and it got the job done in no time. They called the doc and he came running in ( if you know Harter, you know he literally RAN in) and a few minutes later, after only 5 1/2 hours of labor, I had baby Lily in my arms. She was SO little! Just 6 lbs 13 oz and 18 1/2 inches long. And just perfect. There is nothing like those first moments when you meet your little ones for the first time. Moments I will never forget.

Lily is such a sweet baby. I hoped the Lord would be merciful and send me a more mellow little one, and he thought it was a good idea too! This child does not cry! She'll yell at us a little when she's hungry, but other than that, you have to really REALLY make her mad to get her to cry. Even then she calms down almost immediately. She loves to be held and is a bit of a cuddle bunny, and the girl can eat, at least when she stays awake long enough to get the job done! We had a few bumps in the road with nursing (normal nursing problems and a scary bout of diarrhea when she was just a few days old) but now everything is going great. I just really love this little girl, and I can't wait to find out who she is, what she's interested in, what she's like.

I love being a Mama. There is nothing like it in all the world.

Lily

Hi everyone!

Update For a Very Neglected Blog

I figured enough was enough. I had to blog eventually or give it up for good. Problem is, I have way too much, and way too little I want to say.

Dad's passing away has been tough. That's my understatement of the year. But I figure the world doesn't need a synopsis on this aspect of my life at the moment. I will say this: Pooka wanted to watch Up yesterday and she called it the "boy, dog and Papa movie" and I broke down.

Enough of that.

We are moving on Saturday, which is consuming the whole of my life at the moment. Matthew is doing a great job getting everything ready, but there is still so much to do, I am freaking out a little. But things will turn out well in the end. They always manage to. I just hope men from the Ward show up...

And then there is Lily. Prepping for her arrival is one of the most interesting things I have ever experienced. With Ivy, I was freaking out. I read everything, watched everything, did absolutely everything I could to make sure I was prepared. And when I actually had her, the only thing that did me any good was having my mother and my sister-in-law Stacie to talk to. Without them, I think Ivy wouldn't have made it past day two.

Now, life is so busy with work, Ivy, the move, and Dad that I haven't really had time to freak out. I come home every night sore and exhausted to a house that needs more packing, and eventually I just feel like I'm about to burst. Matthew usually takes that opportunity to remind me that I'm not allowed to have Lily until Monday. After that, sure. Bring it on. Just not before.

I read today on a baby website that women who are severely stressed during pregnancy have a much higher chance of having babies with developmental problems. Then I read that women with nausea and vomiting have babies with an obvious increase in mental capabilities, ie smarter kids. Do you think it will balance itself out so Lily is normal?

I can only hope.

One More Reason I Love Her So Much

For a 3 year old, it doesn't get any better than this.

Some Random Updates

I figure its been a while since I actually wrote something of substance, so...

First, the phone is STILL awesome :)

Kipper is still driving me nuts. But the Lord is merciful. The dog is still not house trained, but since I threatened to skewer him and tell Matthew he ran away, he has been peeing only on hard surfaces. Right now, I'll take what I can get.

Matthew is in Idaho again. He went up last Tuesday as planned, but wasn't notified that the fund raising event he was supposed to be attending in order to get some introductions had been moved to this week. So he plodded through the week, applying to various places, interviewing at some. We decided, as hard as it was, that he needed to stay this week to attend the event as planned, sit through the interviews and meetings his cousin is setting up for him and then come home Saturday. We really feel this is what he should be doing, no matter how much it stinks. And boy, does it stink. The only thing that keeps me going is knowing that the Lord wants us to do it. Life isn't supposed to be easy, right?

Meanwhile, I have concluded that I am not going to give birth to a normal human child. It MUST be alien. How else could it contort itself in such unnatural ways? Or make me feel as though the child is going to rip through my belly like some horrible D SciFi movie? I blame it on Matthew. Not my genes!

Ivy started school at the beginning of the month. She was so stinkin cute on the first day of school. We, of course, were the annoying weepy parents taking pictures of their kid for five minutes straight. She was totally like "peace out, Mom and Dad. I'm going to school!" But that is Ivy. He teacher is great and really loves Ivy, although she acknowledges that she is a bit of a handful. I'm just glad to have her in a good structured program that she can have fun in while learning. She's just growing up!