Blessings Unnumbered

Thursday, June 6, 2013

I tried to get a group photo but this is what happens..

Kylie actually took this last picture. I love this one because Carter is our smiliest baby so far- seriously he smiles ALL the time but the minute I get out the camera nothing. So after having a zillion serious pictures of this baby Kylie caught this! Carter has changed so much already. He's gotten chunkier since these photos were taken and his hair is getting lighter. His head seems to be growing but his hair is not!

Friday, April 26, 2013

Updates:

Kylie- After an especially few hard days of pulling my hair out trying to deal with her constant, never ending whining to play with friends, do this for me, do that for me, never ending list of demands of "me me me" I made a plan. It was high time that she start having some chores to do around the house everyday. So we are five days into this and so far things are going well. She gets to do three chores everyday. First chore is making her bed/ cleaning her room. Second is putting the dishes in the dishwasher away and the third changes. I've had her mop the floor, clean a dirty bathtub, put a load of laundry away etc. It's going well so far and only one day this week have I really had to get on her tail to finish them. It's been taking her about an hour do get them all done and not being able to play with friends in the afternoon until she's done with them has been a good motivator.

Among other news is that Kylie made the lottery into our local charter school. I could hardly believe it. Her going there hadn't even been on my radar really. I have mixed feelings about it though. Some of my friends who have children that attend there seem to love it but to be fair I also have heard good things about our local public school too. The local elementary is just down the street from us so at this new school I'll also have to carpool as the charter school is probably a 5-7 minute drive from our house. I'm not as thrilled about that. They also have a pretty specific dress code/ uniform look that our local elementary doesn't have. She will have to wear white, red, or navy tops that have collars, plain cardigans and navy, khaki or black pants or skirts. No logos, lace, prints, ruffles or colors outside the approved school colors. I think it's kind of overkill to have a dress code for Kindy but I think once kids hit those 4th, 5th, 6th grads on up it will be helpful.We will give it a try for the year and see how we like it.

Kipton- His latest favorite activity is watching random you tube video's of garbage trucks. Who knew there are video's that people have made of garbage trucks doing their thing. But this three year old little boy thanks you. Several weeks ago I couldn't get him to watch anything besides Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He's also enjoying filling his dump truck in the front yard with my bark mulch.

Carter- My little stinker still isn't sleeping through the night. He's just a little peanut of a thing- he was in the 17% percentile for weight at his last check in. He's three months now and I'm guessing he's about twelve pounds or so. I call him my little peanut, or my pup. I've really never done this with the other kids, but I can't help myself but give narrative about what he is thinking to whoever will listen when I'm holding him.

Me- Jared and I have been trying to figure out how to deal with the constant mess in the garage of bikes, scooters, wiggle cars, strollers, wagons and other random items that make it hard to park our cars in there. At the H.D. I stumbled upon a Rubbermaid Fasttrack system that is pretty cool. I mounted a 84" bracket onto the wall and there are different type of hooks that attach onto it. You can slide the hooks around or take them completely off without having to screw them on/off individually. I'm loving it and plan to install at least one more smaller bracket onto our other wall. It's been so helpful getting some of these items off the ground and out of the way.

I bought a sectional and ottoman today for the basement. I will be thrilled to have some additional seating in this house. I feel like I'm pulling my hair out trying to decide on light fixtures for the basement. Light fixtures aren't cheap and they sure add up. Trying to have a nice matching, cohesive look is also proving more difficult than I thought. Carpet should hopefully be here in a week or two. I finally got the cabinet leveled and screwed into the studs. Just need to get that tile down. I am SO ready to be finished down there. It's been dragging on forever.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Stitches

I have lots to update! My laptop is being fixed so pardon the lack of pictures.

Last Friday Kipton became the first in our family to need stitches. I was in my bedroom when he fell but Kylie is always quick to give the report. From what I can piece together he was in the garage standing the workbench trying to push the garage door opener. We have a workbench that is the same level as the first stair when you go out in the garage so the kids usually step on it in order to hit the garage door opener. He must have slipped or lost his balance. He came in crying and his entire face was covered in blood. Kipton usually bleeds forever so when I saw how much blood there was I knew I was in for it. I cleaned him up in our bathroom as best I could and was surprised when the wound stopped gushing about two minutes into it. I could see that his skin was drooping where the cut was and you could see some of the fatty tissue underneath but had my neighbor Jen come look at it just to make sure. By that point it had stopped bleeding and Kipton just wanted to lay in his bed.

Carter and Kylie went over to Jen's and I met Jared at the Instacare. At first I thought it was overkill to have Jared come home from work. He has tons of sick time he's wanted to burn up and in the end I'm really glad he came. Kipton didn't want to leave the house though- he's a tender heart just like Jared and he said that he was "scared". Kipton perked up in the waiting room and was playing with Jared quite a bit. The nurses cleaned his wound and put a patch on his head with a gel type version of Lidocaine. That stayed on his head for a half hour and then they also numbed him up more with two more shots. I felt awful for him while they were doing the stitches. Kipton was screaming like c.r.a.z.y the entire time. They had to restrain him in a swaddle type of blanket. Jared and I were both holding his arms and legs down, two nurses were holding his head still and the doctor was stitching him up. I know the process was terrifying for him. He cried, screamed, fought and pleaded with us the entire time :(. It took the doctor a good twenty minutes or so to get those stitches in. He will have to wear a hat when outside for the next six weeks to try to limit the scaring. He needed eight stitches and a few additional stitches underneath.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

These were Kylie's Valentines for her friends at school this year. We punched a hole in each of her hands and put a sucker through the paper.

Monday, January 28, 2013

Carter's Birth- Part 2

The ride to the hospital was excruciating. It’s a short drive, just about seven to ten minutes away but I was having contractions about a minute apart by that time. Ironically the lights at the intersection of Bangeter and 13400 South were out due to an accident. Things were moving okay, as far as a 4-way stop goes at about 7:15 am. When he was only a car or two away from making it through the intersection, the emergency responders arrived. At this point all traffic came to a halt and Jared was desperate to get through. He yelled at a police man who had gotten out of his car but evidently the officer couldn’t hear him and went went to help with the car accident. My contractions at this point were on a pain level I’d never felt before and I was screaming through them at this point. Somehow Jared eventually bullied his way into the intersection and was able to make a left turn and get to the hospital. I was on my hands and knees in the front seat with my head buried behind his back during the entire ride. Jared told me that I kept knocking the gear into neutral and he’d have to put it back into the correct gear. Our SUV’s interior lights were on because my weight was throwing off the sensors in the front seat. I remember thinking I’m sure we were quite the sight but my pain was off the charts at this point and I couldn't have cared less.

After what seemed like forever Jared pulled up to the drop off at the south entrance at the hospital. He immediately saw someone in the hallway in what otherwise seemed to be a pretty empty area. He jumped out of the car as fast as he could before that person disappeared since he wasn’t sure where the labor and delivery unit was. We later found out this woman was an instructor at the hospital. She grabbed a wheel chair and they helped get me out of the car. I was in so much pain at this point I was almost delirious. I couldn’t sit in a wheelchair and so I climbed into it backwards with my knees on the seat and facing backwards. They rushed me up the elevator and into the labor and delivery unit. I’m certain we surprised everyone at the front desk. They immediately asked who my doctor was. Jared answered and then he made eye contact with Dr. Langer who was all scrubbed up and standing in the hall with several nurses. Dr. Langer didn't recognize me right away because I was turned around in the seat. We later found out that she was the only doctor there at the time and was ready to perform a c-section on a patient. She normally delivers at Jordan Valley and we felt so fortunate by the turn of events that she was there.

It was a whirlwind being rushed in. They threw me onto a bed and in an instant my pants and slippers came off and they checked me. The nurse immediately said “he’s right here”. I was out of my mind in pain at this point and was still hoping for an epidural. We had NO idea I was fully dilated and so finding out that I needed to push without so much as a Tylenol in me sent me into somewhat of a panic. Dr. Langer said “okay if you feel like you need to push you push” and two pushes later he came right out. This all happened so quickly. They placed him on my chest and Jared was able to cut the cord. I was in still so much pain I wasn’t able to get a good look at him but I remember that he had a lot of dark hair that was wet and curly. Apparently when some women give birth the au natural route they sometimes have feelings of euphoria and relief after. This was hardly my experience. I was still in an incredible amount of pain and almost delirious about what was going on around me. I was unaware of what nurses were helping us and what doctor was helping me.

When Carter was born I was still in my shirt that I came in with and the nurses hadn’t put an IV in my arm yet. Sadly the most memorable thing I remember about the moments after his birth was the high amount of pain I was in. Immediately after his birth one of the nurses gave me a shot of Pitocin in my right thigh. Some of the pain was relieved once the placenta was delivered but I was still in a lot of pain that caused me to shake and cry. Our doctor had left to perform her c-section since her patient was already sedated and would return when she was done to stich up my second degree tear. The nurses gave me a dose of Fentanyl which didn’t seem to be working. I felt very traumatized afterward by what had just transpired. I felt awful that during those first forty five minutes of his life I wasn’t able to hold him or do much more than acknowledge my baby, let alone bond with him. Jared was able to hold him and a nurse was kind enough to hold him in front of me for a few minutes so I could see him. He looked healthy and beautiful. The nurses eventually doubled the dose of Fentanyl and I started to feel some relief from the pain. About a half hour after he was born our doctor returned and was able to stitch up my tear. About an hour after he was born they finally were able to get my pain under control. I was able to get cleaned up a bit and they moved us into a recovery room.

We ended up staying about a day and a half in the hospital. Jared was able to bring Kylie and Kipton in to see the baby that day. Kylie loved holding him and couldn't get enough of him. We asked Kipton if he wanted to hold the baby and he said "no thanks!" and kept asking to go home. His cousin, Ethan had been over to play all day with him so I'm sure cousins are much more fun :) Janiel was able to come down that evening and stayed with our children overnight and took them back up to my mom's house the morning after. It was really, really nice to have a few days after we got home from the hospital to have some alone time with Carter and to get some time to heal. Though we weren't really "alone". We had a crew scheduled to install drywall in the basement and they ended up starting the day I went into labor. Remind me please that next time I have a baby to not be in the middle of finishing a basement. I have to say that even though my recovery immediately after his birth was rough in the long term it's been great. The long term recovery has been so much quicker this time. We are sure excited to have this little guy in our family and are so happy that he made it safely!

Carter's Birth- Part 1

Our baby boy’s due date was on Friday, January 11^th. I had a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday, January 9^th at 1pm. For that appointment I dropped Kylie off at preschool and took Kipton over to a friend's to play so I could go to my appointment. I had only marginal progress from the week before and was 70% effaced and a little more than fingertip dilated. The appointment went smoothly and my doctor gently massaged/stripped my membranes hoping to help start my labor going. It didn’t hurt and she told me it gave us about a 50% chance of going into labor in the next 72 hours.

That evening after making dinner I finished putting some caulk between the tub and vapor barrier as we were working on finishing the basement. I remember having really strong nesting instincts that night. I cleaned the house, vacuumed and finished adding a few things to my hospital bag. I also made sure the children’s suitcase was packed and ready to go. I remember thinking that it would be a good time to go into labor since everything was ready. About ten or eleven pm that night I noticed I was having a few light contractions. They weren’t strong or happening very close together. I was curious if they were considered “false labor” as they would go away if I changed positions and they weren’t timed very close. On the other hand they were enough that I had a strong hunch they would turn into more than that during the middle of the night. It was unfortunate that it was so late because we hadn’t warned anybody to expect a call in the middle of the night if necessary. Jared sent a quick text to my sister late that night but we didn’t anticipate her seeing it.

Jared fell asleep on the couch and at about 1am I decided to get into the tub. The hot water felt really nice and helped take away the pain of the contractions. I also expected it to slow down my progress as it had with Kipton’s birth. I’d spend an hour or so in the hot bath and when I’d get tired I’d go lay on my bed in a towel and would try to sleep as best as I could until a contraction would wake me up. When they got too difficult I’d take another hot bath. This repeated a few times and I had hot water continually trickling into the tub most the night. I was relaxing in the bath as best as I could but it wasn’t really possible to sleep in there. I remember being really tired. It seemed like around 6 am I recognized that my contractions were getting much more painful. At the time I felt like they were about 8-10 minutes apart but only lasted 20 seconds or so. I felt like they weren’t getting closer together but they were sure increasing in intensity. Looking back I wonder what the true reality was as Jared was still in the other room and I didn’t have a clock near me. I just knew at a certain point that the intensity was there and we needed to get going to the hospital.

About 6:30 am or shortly after I got out of the tub and was trying to dry off and get dressed when Jared heard me. He jumped into the shower and noticed that I had several contractions while he was in the shower, much closer than the ten minutes I was telling him about. He essentially cut his shower short and decided we needed to get to the hospital quickly. He made some last minute calls to my sister to let her know I was in labor and to head over to our house. Because of how long Kipton’s labor was we hadn’t really thought about getting a last minute plan for who would watch our children if we went into labor in the middle of the night. I was having some excruciating intense contractions by then. The contractions went very quickly from manageable to being excruciating. Poor Jared was running around trying to help me, get the bags into the car and calling our neighbor Becky to come over at the spur of the moment and watch the kids until my sister Vaylene could get there. While Jared was in a hurried rush making phone calls and taking bags out to the car I had a contraction next to my bed where water started running down my legs and I knew for certain my water had broke. At this point both Kylie and Kipton woke up during all the commotion but stayed out of the way. I’m sure they were concerned about what was going on. Jared helped me into the front seat of the SUV and unlocked the front door for Becky. I remember asking if Becky was there yet and she wasn’t. By that point I was on my hands and knees in the front of our SUV, in severe, severe pain. I told Jared we couldn’t wait any longer- we HAD to leave. We left and Jared called Becky’s cell to tell her that we had left and she told him she was on her way out the door.

Part 2 here

observation

This baby has two mothers. One is Kylie. And then there's me.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Introducing...

Carter Benjamin

January 10, 2013 7:38 am

7 lbs 13 oz 19.5 in

Our little guy is here! He's been so wonderful and our entire family is just smitten with him. He's the most popular person around these parts and the children are constantly swarming him. I will share his birth story soon but he came unexpectedly came quickly- so quickly that he was born minutes after arriving at the hospital. He has lots of dark hair and Kylie loves shaping it into a faux hawk (she calls it his peacock). He sleeps great at night, hates all and every diaper change and has been eating great. Breast feeding has been going heaps and bounds better this time around. He's been getting a different rotation for every feeding (ie one side, one side, bottle) and that's really helped. Part of the reason I haven't updated the blog sooner is because we just.haven't.been.able.to.decide.on.a.name. It's now day ten after he was born and I think we've decided that we are going to stick with Carter Benjamin. We are all very happy he made it to our family safely and that he's healthy.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Lets see...

The carpel tunnel seems to have moved from my upper arms down into my hands and wrists. The good news is that I'm not waking up as much at night but my hands are pretty much numb and useless in the mornings. And I can be regularly seen chewing on tums these days. It's been so much fun watching my stomach move around in the evenings. It's one of my favorite things about pregnancy. We feel so blessed to be able to experience this a second time. Still no name (sigh).

On Sunday morning Kylie came down with pink eye. I'm glad Kipton hasn't caught it (yet). So we came home early from church and she didn't go to preschool today. She was disappointed to miss school today because they decorated miniature three dimensional foam Christmas trees with frosting and candy. So I made a quick trip over there and brought the supplies home so she could work on it at home. We made some frosting and both Kylie and Kipton had fun decorating their tree's with candy.

The basement is coming along. We had our four way inspection a week ago and let me tell you I was PUMPED that we didn't fail it outright. There were a few minor things we need to do but we were given the go-ahead to start insulation (fist pump in the air) So we've started putting up insulation and I still need to add a few pieces of blocking near the windows so I can screw our curtain hardware into studs, put some metal plates in front of some plumbing etc. We also added a soffit in the first bedroom kind of after the fact. When we originally had it framed there was a large 6" pipe in the ceiling in the first bedroom that hangs down below the joists. I just had them frame around it knowing it would look out of place. After staring at that for a few weeks I decided it was driving me crazy. So I ripped it down and Jared and I built a shallow soffit running the entire length of the room that hides the pipe. I'm a lot more happy with how it looks but building that soffit a lot of work! I told Jared that if we were professional framers we would be dirt poor because of how slow we are at building that. And that insulation is so itchy I can only stand to work with it for a couple of hours. So progress is slow but I've been down there working most days 2-3 hours. I need to get busy with the nail gun tomorrow.

Kipton in the car today: "Look Kylie look! Dirt!!!" (and points towards a construction site... such a boy)

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

What have we been up too this week? Kylie got a haircut... which makes me sad because it's been getting so long :( It's very think and she's been better at letting me brush it than she used to be, but it's still a struggle on many days. She's been asking me to take her to cookie cutters (Jared calls it the cut'n corral) for awhile now and I keep putting it off. Finally last Wednesday night was the last straw. On Monday she got ice cream in the bottom two inches of her hair. Tuesday there was popsicle in the bottom of her hair. And then the next day- hours after she had had a bath she got her jammies on and had pudding in the bottom couple inches of her hair! So off we went to get her hair cut the next day. She had two inches taken off the bottom and had it slightly layered. The hair dresser put it in a cute braid/princess crown and she loved it!

My arms have been driving me crazy this week. I officially have pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel in my hands and arms (lucky me!). Some nights I've woken up almost every hour because one or both of my arms will go completely numb, and the joints in my fingers just throb. My entire arm will go numb. So I wake up, try to move my ams and hands enough to get feeling back into them. And then an hour later the cycle starts all over again. It usually happens when I'm sleeping but it's been happening during the day more and more. Heartburn has been kicking into high gear again so I'm quite the sight at night sleeping at almost a full incline. This little guy has been moving a lot lately and we are sure excited to meet him! All in all I'm glad that we've had such a smooth pregnancy so far with this little guy.

We got our carpet cleaned today. How bout a YEAH for clean carpet!!!