Adam and Emily

18 months , oh my!

2011-09-21T00:17:00.000-07:00

i haven't written a post since maizie turned one...i think. i could check but i am already writing. maizie turned 18 months tonight and i thought it appropriate to write some of the fun things she has been doing.

*she's a talker! its really nice because she is starting to tell us more of what she wants when she is crying, or why. ask her to say anything and she will attempt to say it. my favorites so far are:

serisly (seriously)
benny (gwyn, her cousin)
cock (clock)
some (she says this when she wants some of whatever we are eating)
dood it (do it -- she says this when she wants to do whatever we are doing)
poop
emmy (emily)
abum (adam)
'gain (again)
dang it!

*maizie loves swings and slides. when we drive past them she yells "sfing, slide!"

*she loves to go on walks, but mostly when she is being pushed in the taylor tot:

*she loves babies. has to have her baby doll when she sleeps, and when she is playing she pretends to feed it.

*she can point out letters when you ask her to.

*she loves to sing, and have music on. we have a whole list of songs we have to sing in the car.

*she has a hard time with new shoes. i have to force her to wear them the first time, and then she doesn't want to take them off.

*if you have bubbles, you're her best friend.

*she is starting to let me put her hair up. again i have to force her but then if it comes out she wants it fixed.

*she loves rocks. loves them. if there is a rock maizie will pick it up, especially at my parents house. they have an area with gravel in it and she loves to "wash" her hands in it.

*the shower, sprinkler, and anything that drops water is "raining".

*she points to things all the time and says what they are.

*absolutely loves ladybugs.

*she tries to dress herself. i usually end up having to do it.

*she likes to sit on her potty chair and say "poop", but then run into the other room to go in her diaper.

*she is kinder to marissa. (marissa is/was maizie's nemesis at daycare. now maizie will hug her after beating her up)

*when we ask her a question she doesn't know the answer to she puts her hands up in the "i don't know" gesture.

*she still loves to snuggle.

*tonight she said "i love you", it was the first time i heard it but adam says she has said it before.

*she loves being around other kids, and trying to do everything they do.

*her favorite yard toy is first a teeter totter, and then the sit and spin.

maizie is a pretty freaking awesome kid. she always has a smile for everyone. she runs to the defense of those she feels are wronged (mostly she yells, but thats a lot more than what some adults would do), and when she gets knocked down or her attempt at something fails she jumps right back up and tries again until it works.
she inspires me to be better. i have truly loved this last year and a half. happy 18 months, my l.t.b.g.

1 year old!

2011-03-24T22:14:00.000-07:00

maizie turned 1 on march 20, 2011! it truly is unbelievable to me how fast this year has gone. my baby is not so much a baby. she amazes everyday with the things that she can do, and how fast she learns something. she's one of the best things in my life, and i am so grateful to be her mom.

maizie has started trying to run. most the time it doesnt work very well.

she loves pointing at lights, and turning them on and off.

she says "nana" (banana).

her front teeth are finally breaking through! i thought this day would never happen.

she doesnt really care for cake.

maizie has her own sign language. instead of pointing to things she will look at them. ask where grandpa is, she will look in the kitchen...or wherever. she points and does other things with her hands that i just have to figure out.

she is starting to be softer with other kids...at least attempting. she pats them kind of hard while saying "oooh", so she is at least trying to be soft even if she doesnt know how yet.

maizie absolutely loves being in wind. when she feels the breeze she giggles and sticks her hands out to try to touch it.

adam felt that since maizie was turning 1 that she needed to taste a lemon. here is how that went:

we celebrated maizies birthday on saturday with some family and friends. i thought about trying to do it at a park so the kids could run around, but this early in the year in oregon is kind of dangerous to plan anything outside. so i reserved our church building because the gym would be big enough to let kids be crazy. i got playground balls and kid-sized bowling sets, taped out foursquare and hopscotch, and also got some mini lacrosse things to use. i also set up a table for coloring and making old school paper hats:

my mom made the cake and i got a ton of finger foods. the kids were running around and having a great time, when adam accidentally broke one of the big lights in the ceiling while kicking a ball. that was when we decided to have everyone eat, while we cleaned up the glass. maizie liked all of the food but her favorite by far was the strawberries. after that we sang happy birthday to her. she was sitting on my lap and enjoying everyone singing but as soon as they said her name she became very bashful. i also forgot to bring a lighter so we couldnt light her candle. with her cake we decided to put a giraffe and a couple of rubber ducks on it because maizies first favorite toy was a giraffe and she loves ducks:

here is what happened with the singing and the cake:

after that we opened presents. all of the presents were great for her, and we love them all.
it was a really fun day and we are so thankful that everyone could help us celebrate!

goodbye

2011-03-22T20:29:00.000-07:00

my grandpa passed away last night. one day after maizie's birthday, and one day before my aunt leann's. my heart is aching so much. there are times that i feel like weeping but i cant because of where i am,or i have maizie. my mom left this morning to be with my grandma.

my grandpa was a great man. he always took care of his family, and worked hard. the things i remember most though are the family dinners we would have in their house in las vegas. he was an amazing carpenter. he helped build the chapel that my family went to church in for years. he would also build things for us grand kids for christmas. (which was no easy task since there are like 40+ of us) i remember sitting on his lap and him teasing me with his dentures, its a fuzzy memory so i cant give details. he would make caramel popcorn, and milk shakes. he taught me how to play yahtzee, and rummy. i loved going into his woodshop, the smell of the lumber was intoxicating. i remember thinking that my grandpa was tough, that he would always be here because nothing could hurt him. even as an adult i still had this belief and its hard to accept that he is gone.

grandpa battled parkinsons disease for decades, (this my be why i always thought of him as tough, he always put up a good fight), and in the last few years has had balance problems. last week he fell and broke some ribs. as a result he was hospitalized had surgery, and had a good prognosis. but when it came time to come back to us he didnt. i will miss him dearly, and will always be grateful for the example he is to me.

may he rest in peace, william walter newell sanders.

give and take

2011-03-19T22:26:00.000-07:00

today was an awesome day, and towards the end of the afternoon a sad one. we celebrated maizie's birthday with family and friends today, even though she is not one until tomorrow. i want to post about it but i will tomorrow, and will do pictures. this post tonight is about the sad part so you dont have to read if you dont want to...if thats the case stop now.

as we were cleaning up from the party my cousin scott got a call from his dad looking for my mom. he found out that my grandpa had fallen and broken his ribs. the doctors dont expect him to live through the procedure to fix them. my mom had just left, and wouldnt be home for at least a half hour. i kept trying to call because my dad was sick so he was there, but not awake.

i kept thinking that i didnt want to be the one who told my mom her dad is dying. when she finally picked up i asked her if she had talked to my uncle brent, i had this hope that maybe she was on the other line and thats why she didnt pick up. she said no that she had just walked in the door, and asked whats up. i told her that i didnt have good news. i told her about the call from brent, and that grandpa wasnt expected to make it. she started hyperventilating, and talking about getting to the bank and finding checks. im guessing so that she could have money to go to hermiston where my grandparents live. she asked me about details that i didnt have, and all i could say is that she needed to call my grandma or brent, and that i was so sorry. i dont think i have ever felt so helpless.

my mom and her brother left tonight to be with my grandparents. i plan on going to the funeral. but i keep thinking that i needed to do more. i feel like i have missed out on so much with my grandpa, that i should have visited more often, written letters, or called. i feel so guilty for all of the should haves. going to someones funeral doesnt make up for that.

the count down

2011-03-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

i was thinking today that one year ago, while pushing a chair in at the table my water broke. and thus began the final drop on the roller coaster ride that was my labor, that finally ended 4 days later! i'd like to think that i will never forget that experience, but the last few months of seeing adam's grandma has made me think otherwise. anyway just thought i'd share that tidbit.

11 months!

2011-02-20T22:21:00.000-08:00

tonight maizie turned 11 months old!! my baby is almost a year old and it makes me so sad. here are some of the things she is doing:

maizie calls everybody "mama". i was a little sad about this but i know lots of kids do it until they really understand names...so i'm over it, sort of.

she LOVES her binky. so much so that she will sometimes have one in her mouth and one in each hand. i don't know how we will break her of it.

maizie loves to watch duck videos. anytime i sit down at our desk she takes it as her queue to climb on my lap and say, "guck, guck" and sometimes "cuck, cuck" which i am taking as another form of duck.

she got her first pair of shoes that actually stay on.

she knows how to blow kisses.

she is babbling more. and there are some definite words in there, you just have to listen for them. she asks "whats that?" a ton. she also can say car, and moo (although it sounds like boo). she "barks" when she sees a dog, and says cheese ("eese").

she points to herself.

maizie actually let me hold another baby without getting jealous! instead she kept saying "ooooooh", and tried to pat the baby. i guess all the "be soft" talk is paying off.

she has learned about noses, and points to them regularly.

maizie got her first haircut today. she had a super long strand that never fell out that has been getting in her eyes. so today at 8:16pm as she was turning 11 months old we cut that part off. we saved the hair tied in red ribbon.

2011-02-19T08:26:00.000-08:00

have i told you that adam's grandma is living with us? in january, doris came to live here again. i don't really know that she wanted to, but she had to. none of us in the house are very happy or excited about it. doris has dementia, so living with her is like living in lockdown in a mental facility. any time we leave our room, we have to lock it and have our key on us...i lost mine about a day after this all started. for the first few weeks we kept the key above the door, but after she tried every key she could find to try to get in our room we decided it wasn't safe to leave our key out anymore. there are times when she is nice and behaves perfectly. then there are times when nothing is right and you can't convince her of anything. it's really hard to understand, and to also try to not be frustrated by her. the person this is hardest for though is jill. she doesn't want to give up on doris and put her in a home, but at the same time can't go on like this until doris' inevitable end. jill has the most contact with her during the day since the rest of us have jobs. jill does everything she can to make her mom comfortable, and to see that she is getting everything she needs. in return doris will say "thank you" once in a while. but she mostly just expects it and then doesnt remember people doing things for her. i guess i just needed to vent a little. i hope things get better.

sick

2011-01-30T08:16:00.000-08:00

i have to admit that i hate people who refuse to accept that their kid is the reason everyone around them is sick or getting sick. i feel like a snotty nose is one thing, not that i want it but if it comes down to that or pneumonia i'll take the snotty nose. anything else though and i want them to stay 1000 feet away from my family. i feel like i take every measure to keep maizie away from people when she is sick, why cant they do the same with their kids? and dont come over to me and say "dont get too close we have blah blah blah, hahahaha!" no. not funny, take your nasty a$$ germs and get the heck out of my house, or my bubble, and dont come back til you have been completely disinfected. the only time i want sick people around is when they have chicken pox and maizie is at least 3. til then, STAY AWAY! in the mean time i'll just be here listening to my baby cough, have shallow breathing and diarrhea. thanks so much typhoid mary.

10 months!!

2011-01-20T20:00:00.000-08:00

wow. 10 months. maizie has started doing so much this month. it blows me away how fast she learns things.

maizie has started sharing. no, not toys. she shares her binky. thats right, straight from your mouth to hers. and if you turn your head to try to not take it, she turns you back towards her with her other hand and jams the binky in your mouth.

maizie has finally gotten that waving is for both hello and goodbye. it's really sweet to see her waving to everybody.

she climbs. it makes me crazy because she is not very aware of edges. and although she has fallen a few times, it doesnt stop her.

maizie absolutely adores books. we have started reading to her every night as part of her bedtime routine. she loves to point things out and listen to the animal noises, her favorite are the lion and the frog.

she knows how to quack, growl, click her tongue, say mama, dada, go, and hi. (i think some of those have been mentioned before, sorry)

she eats everything but baby food (unless it's fruit). i cant say that i blame her.

she likes to have us love her baby doll. she shoves it in your face a lot like when she shares her binky.

if you are holding her and not paying enough attention to her, she will turn your head to her and grin like crazy.

maizie is learning to defend herself. since she is at daycare, she picks up on things. and this i am not entirely proud of but glad she's not a pushover: she hits if someone takes her toy or something. i am really trying to work on getting her to be nice, but, until she can talk more, i dont know how well it will work.

maizie can walk! she is still wobbly, but she has it. sometimes when she gets too excited, she drops down and crawls since that is still faster.

adam's surgery

2011-01-02T20:30:00.000-08:00

adam had to have surgery on december 23. that's right, 2 days before christmas. we went to the doctor thinking that it would have to be taken care of after christmas, but, to our surprise, they did it that day! it wasn't a huge surgery, but it's taking a while to heal. he had a pilonidal cyst. you can look it up if you really want to. since then, though, he has a hard time sitting for any extended amount of time. i feel bad for him; it would be lame having to lay down most of the day. the wound from the surgery is in a place where you can't have stitches because the skin moves too much and would tear around them, so we get to pack the wound...when i say "we" i mean "i". the first time i had to do it, it was really difficult. i wasn't expecting it to be so big (it's about 2 inches long and 1 ½ deep). we went for a follow up and the doctor says it's healing well and that he wished all of his patients' healing went this well. hopefully it finishes healing fast so adam wont hurt anymore.

2011

2011-01-01T23:14:00.000-08:00

The year 2010 has come to an end. It was a very special year for us because it was the year that Maizie was born! She brings us so much joy and is such a great baby! :)

On the day of New Year's Eve, we thought it would be fun to go to the park and take Maizie down the slides and let her ride in the baby swing. When we got there, though, we discovered that the slides were wet and there weren't any baby swings. Sad! What else is sad is that we didn't really do anything else that day besides that; we just lounged around the house.

Once Maizie was asleep, we played a card game called cribbage. Emily won. Scott and Cody came by after 11:00. Scott saw my C# book, so we talked about programming for a while. Later on, Cody and I talked about how much common knowledge she and I lack since we didn't pay attention in school. The main thing we talked about was history. Scott and Emily both have much more common knowledge than Cody and I. The four of us ended up doing some history quizzes online, just for fun. We also had pumpkin pie, which Emily kindly made.

My New Year's resolution is to get my weight back down to 182 pounds, which is what it was at the beginning of my mission back in 2004. In order to get off to a good start, I waited until 11:59:50 PM, ran to the bathroom, and started urinating into toilet. By the time I was done, it was already the year 2011, which means that I was in the process of losing weight at the very beginning of the year. Awesome! When I was done in the bathroom, I went into our room and shared a New Year's kiss with Emily :) She was calming Maizie down, who was laying in her crib.

Scott and Cody left at around 1:00 AM. We went to bed shortly after that, but we stayed up for a little while using StumbleUpon. Here is one of the pictures that made us both laugh:

That's about it for New Year's Eve. As for New Year's Day (today), we woke up at about 8:00 because Maizie was ready to be up. Emily asked me to watch Maizie for 45 minutes so that she could sleep, so I fed her some puffs, baby food (pears), and string cheese. I had some pumpkin pie. After that, I let Maizie play for a while. When it was time, I had Emily take over while I laid in bed.

My nephew, Elijah, is homeschooled by my mom. He usually gets here on Wednesday and then goes back home on Saturday. Such was the case this week, so today was the day he went home. I was the one to take him home (I offered to so that I could set up his parents' wireless router). We left shortly after 11:00. He was really sad to go home.

I got back home shortly after 2:00. Emily and I just hung out for a while and then I got Maizie down for a nap. I hadn't intended to fall asleep myself, but that's what ended up happening. It felt nice to sleep! When Maizie and I got up, Emily was painting a footstool that she got from Scott and Cody a while back. She was painting it the same purple color as Maizie's dresser. After she was done with that, she made an awesome dinner! She described the dinner to me a few days ago and I wasn't sure if I would like it or not, but it ended up being very good! It was a salad with chicken, cranberries, almonds, an orange pepper, Mandarin oranges, and Asian sesame dressing. There was also pilaf rice on the side. Delicious!

After dinner, I did the dishes and Emily gave Maizie a bath and started rocking her. I ended up being the one to finish rocking her since Maizie seems to prefer me. I heard that baby's sometimes have trouble with their mothers rocking them to sleep because they associate their mothers with food and get distracted by that thought.

Once Maizie was down, we read Matthew 7 and watched some videos online. That about sums up our New Year's Day!

We're planning to move out of my parents' house sometime around May. We're not sure where we'll go, though. It will be interesting to see where the year 2011 takes us!

going for distance

2010-12-31T09:21:00.000-08:00

this morning maizie was tossing and turning because her diaper was wet. so like a good, bleary eyed mom i got a new diaper and started to change her...on our bed. i think you can see where this is going. i got the new diaper under her but then i thought maybe some desitin would be good since she was a little red. while reaching for the cream i hear this "shhh-ing" sound and felt drops of stuff on my arm and foot. yes maizie was peeing, and not just letting the pee run out, she was pushing it out. she managed to get it all over my side of the bed, herself and me. i didnt know that girls could do that!! in other news, i have to go back to work on monday. after 12 days off its kind of lame.

8&9 month post

2010-12-20T21:06:00.000-08:00

ok i am a bad mom. i neglected doing an 8 month post. not that i forgot about it; time for doing it just kept slipping away and before i knew it, maizie turned 9 months old. so my few lucky readers get two months in one post!

maizie has started saying a few things. sometimes she repeats things but mostly she says things at random. her favorite right now is "ooh". her other words are "mama", "dada", "wow" (which she said while i took a corner a little fast), and "uh-oh".

she graduated herself onto real food. she won't take baby food unless she is totally desperate. her favorite thing is string cheese.

she kisses her dolly...and then shakes it by the arm.

maizie pounces. she sits on her knees a lot and bounces, and then BAM she pounces on a toy. it reminds me of a kitten learning to hunt.

maizie thinks that nice furniture is there for her to chew on. i know that teething isnt fun, that's why we have spent a small fortune on teething toys and medicine. but our sweet girl prefers to gnaw on tables, chairs, and these glass knobs on a dresser at my mom and dad's house.

she has started standing by herself for longer periods of time. i think so far about 30 seconds has been the longest she has been able to do.

she LOVES books. she has one book that she plays with regularly and the only way she could open it was by throwing it around.

she is trying to walk. we bought her a little stroller to push around. she loves it!

maizie started climbing the stairs. she just cant figure out how to get back down.

she really likes fires. whenever we make one and the flames are big she can hardly stand it, and shrieks and laughs.

today maizie got her hands on a pear, and before i knew it she had taken 2 huge bites out of it.

worst. idea. ever.

2010-11-19T20:39:00.000-08:00

i keep hearing about this "cry it out" method that works wonders for everybody's kids. i kept thinking someday we will try it. i thought today would be that day. and it was that day. we tried it. and we have dismissed it as something that will work for maizie...let's be honest, it wont work for us either. i was almost in tears, and in the end adam and i were fighting about who gets to rock her.
when we got in there poor maizie was standing in her bed sobbing, and then kept going back and forth between adam and me. like she wanted us both at the same time. she had a totally confused look on her face and was shaking. i got her for a few minutes while adam used the bathroom, and then she wanted him. i think she is totally pissed at me because i was the one who put her in her bed and left her alone.
adam is currently rocking her. every couple of minutes she lets out a sob. the worst part is i know that she is crying in her sleep. it makes me feel heartless, like i was totally abandoning her, and that, my friends, breaks my heart. i would rather have her sleeping in our bed til she's 10 than have her think we dont love her or that she is alone.

7 months

2010-10-19T19:31:00.000-07:00

right now i am listening to maizie scream her self to sleep while adam rocks her...bedtime is not her best time. so this month maizie has been perfecting everything that she was doing last month and i feel like there isnt much to tell you about that is new.

her first tooth has FINALLY made its way to the surface! the second one is on its way but is taking its sweet time. fingers crossed, it will be here this week.

maizie has started blowing raspberries on people. it cracks me up! when i pick her up from day care she will always give me a huge hug and then a sloppy kiss with a raspberry at the end.

she has started doing a full body shudder when she eats something she doesnt like or gets a flavor she wasnt expecting.

she loves baby dolls. as soon as she sees one she has to have it. if another kid has it she will take it.

maizie is getting used to hearing the word "no!", and the phrase "maizie, thats not for you!". she listens most of the time and will move away from whatever she is going for, but sometimes she just has to have whatever it is.

she is learning to whisper. she will whisper "da-da-da-da-da-da", and then smile and giggle a lot.

she is also learning to recognize herself on the camera after we take a picture. she gets really excited anytime she sees the camera and starts to smile.

maizie is so much fun and she is learning so much so fast it just amazes me.

gah!

2010-10-01T08:05:00.000-07:00

so i used to be crazy good at keeping all of maizies 10 million blankets and things folded and put away...i even had a special order in how i put them away. lately though i have gotten to the point where its the ultimate triumph to put stuff away. not just maizies, but mine and adams too. and i hate it. i think i used to be pretty tidy but since moving, and maizies arrival i let things slide. somehow there is always an excuse to justify not doing something. so i guess i have to take away my lame excuses and send myself to tidiness boot camp. here goes. no more "i will do it tomorrow", "i just got home from work", "maizie was crying all day and i had to take care of her" (we all know that crying kids can cry in their bed or on the floor just as well as in your arms). from now on i will pick something up when leaving a room and take it with me to put it away, and i will clean up as i go along in projects. wow my boot camp is the wussy kind of boot camp, hopefully it works.

6 months

2010-09-19T15:46:00.000-07:00

at this point six months ago we were at the birth center just starting to have contractions. it's really weird to think back to that time. it feels like a lifetime ago and at the same time not. maizie has changed so much and is able to do so much it's crazy!! i miss how she was, but love who she is becoming. every day she makes me laugh, and every day she learns something new. this last month has been a crazy month for her. here are a few of the things she is doing now:

maizie was army crawling around labor day and by the end of that week was really crawling. still a little wobbly but she was getting it and now has it down.

along with the crawling she started pulling and pushing herself up on things. she has had a few bumps on the head so far, but nothing too terrible.

she is tough. when she gets hurt she sort of fusses for a minute and then wants to get back to whatever she was doing.

maizie is finally sitting on her own on the floor. for a while she would lay on her side and play with toys but yesterday she pushed herself up and sat playing with her toys. now thats all she wants to do.

she is teething like crazy. she has been teething since she was like 2 months old, but now there is some hope on the horizon. there are a few minuscule points breaking through her gums so i sincerely hope her teeth come in now.

maizie is getting used to sleeping in her own bed...sort of. we got her a crib because she was too big for the cradle and i didnt like leaving her in our bed by herself. she likes the crib but still wont sleep through the night in it.

she pulls this funny face a lot where she tucks her bottom lip in her mouth and just sucks on it:

maizie is a talker! she loves to join in conversations or just have someone listen to her. she has been saying "dada"...i'm not gonna lie it makes me jealous and we have had many coaching sessions trying to get her to say "mama" but she just looks at me like i am crazy. someday she will get it.

when she eats she almost always points her index finger, jams it into the tabletop, and wobbles her hand back and forth. it's almost like she is demanding something be put "right here".

5 months

2010-08-28T07:15:00.000-07:00

a sad confession: i keep forgetting to post this. part 2 of the confession...i even wrote this a week early so i wouldn't forget. that didnt work too well. so better late than never here is maizie's 5 month up date...a week late.

today maizie is 5 months old! i know i have said this before but the time is going by way too fast!!

maizie has found her feet. it doesnt matter where she is; she is almost always holding onto her toes, especially if i put socks on her. i am tempted to paint her toenails to see what she does. she has also become more interested in her hands. it's really sweet. one night after she was done feeding, she was laying on my lap, holding her hands up and turning them over and over, staring at them.

she likes to play peek-a-boo. she really likes it when you play with a blanket and kind of drag it over her.

maizie is becoming mobile. if you lay her on a blanket for some tummy time she will be off of it in five minutes or less. i consider this really good for a kid that doesnt realize that rolling more than once in the same direction would be faster than dragging herself inch by inch...if you dont tell her, i wont.

maizie loves the color orange. it's really awesome to see that she has a favorite color already. any toy with orange on it is bound to get a spit bath when she is around.

she likes to sit at the table with us in her very own chair. adams parents have a chair that hooks onto the table so she is right at our level. we give her toys and she will sit there for a long time scattering them and yelling at them. it makes me think of a little dictator and their army pieces planning strategies and then losing their temper and shoving them all to the floor.

maizie is getting pretty good at sitting up. she still tips but is going for longer amounts of time without help.

well that was as far as i got and planned to add more from the week leading up to her 5 months mark, so in that week she realized she could go more places with rolling. she also discovered pushing on her hands and knees...no not crawling, it's more belly flopping as she doesnt move her hands at the same time that she pushes with her knees. it wont be too long and she will get it down.

maizie also loves to eat peaches. every mouthful she has a big "mmmm...mmmm...mmm" to go with it.

maizie makes us laugh and brightens our lives, we are so grateful to be her parents!

4 months

2010-07-24T16:51:00.001-07:00

maizie turned 4 months old on last tuesday. just one day after her tumble off of my lap. she had a follow up/4 month checkup on wednesday. she has successfully beaten everybody her age at being tall and weighs in at 18.3 pounds. she is officially off the charts in both categories. the doctor kept saying that if she was shorter and weighed the same then he would worry but that she is perfectly proportioned. this makes me happy, as we dont want any disproportioned kids in our house ;)

maizie might be one of the happiest kids i have ever met! she always has a huge smile on her face that makes everyone she meets light up.

she has recently taken to pulling my earrings out of my ears. not just the dangling ones; studs too. thankfully it doesnt hurt and she hasnt ripped my earlobes. along with the pulling of earrings, maizie likes to claw people, specifically their faces. i am currently sporting a red streak down my cheek from a temper tantrum in the doctor's office.

i am currently trying to teach her what "soft" means. maizie can be a rough little kid. i dont think that she is aware of how strong she actually is, especially when she is pulling you in for a kiss.

maizie is starting to sleep in her bed...sort of. she will lay in there for a while and then cry to be out. we were going to have her in there all night last night but i couldnt do it. it made my heart ache to not have her with us. so this process is going to be a long one, and it will mostly be because of me.

maizie has found her toes! its awesome when we put socks on her. through out the day she pulls at the toes of the socks so they are barely staying on her feet.

she is starting to last a little longer at church. its nice to be able to stay and hear most of what is being said.

gravity

2010-07-19T21:19:00.000-07:00

this morning was interesting. at some point during the night, maizie woke up wanting to eat. seeing that she cant manage to eat while laying down, i have to get into the rocking chair to feed her. i dont really remember getting up or getting to the chair, but i did. then somewhere along the line, i fell to sleep and maizie continued eating and then fell to sleep. the next thing i know, i feel her sliding over the side of my lap and onto the floor headfirst! on the way down, she managed to flip a little, so her forehead hit the ground. i scooped her up as fast as i could and realized that no, that is not her head that i was trying to comfort, but her bum. as soon as i had her right side up, i flipped on the lights and woke adam up. this was at about 4:15 or so. i was totally freaked out and trying to explain to my bleary-eyed husband what happened while trying to not cry, and to get maizie to not cry. my poor baby! she was sobbing, and any time we touched her head, she would cry harder. we eventually got her calmed down enough to nurse a little. while she was nursing, we were trying to decide if we should take her to the emergency room or not. by the time we finally decided to go, maizie was asleep. that kind of made me nervous because with head injuries that is not a good sign. she was also puking a bit more than what i think is normal for her...another bad sign.

we got to the hospital and they took us right back. i guess that is the benefit of a hospital in a very small town. they were very nice, and very fast. maizie was awake again and very flirty with the intake nurses. they weighed her, took her temperature (rectally; talk about adding insult to injury), and took us back into the room where we waited for the doctor. we didnt have to wait more than 10 minutes and the doctor was there. he did a quick exam looking in her eyes for both pupil dilation and tracking, and then checked her reflexes and had her stand for a little while. after that, he said that he didnt think there was anything wrong but to keep an eye on her and if she acted out of her normal attitude or if there was any swelling or bleeding from the nose or ears to bring her in right away. he also said that if we wanted a cat scan, he would order one, but that if it was his child that he wouldnt worry about it, especially since there is a really high chance to cause brain cancer on someone so young. so we opted to not get a scan and brought maizie home.

after we got home, we all slept until about 10. today maizie stayed home with adam while i went to work. she was normal and played and slept and ate, which makes me feel so much better and not so worried.

we told a few people what happened and they all told us their horror stories of when they dropped their babies. it makes me feel a little better knowing that i am not the only one, but still so bad because i feel like it could have been prevented somehow. i am just grateful that maizie is ok.

Maizie's First Fourth of July

2010-07-11T14:46:00.000-07:00

Last week was the Fourth of July. Not just any Fourth of July, though; it was Maizie's first Fourth of July! It was a Sunday, so we went to church for the first part of the day. I'm the ward clerk, so I usually go to church three hours before it starts so that I can attend the leadership meetings. However, two of the members of the bishopric were out of town, so we didn't have those meetings on the Fourth of July. It was pretty nice to be able to sleep in!

After church, Emily put the drawer liners in Maizie's dresser while Maizie and I slept. I slept for quite a long time, as I usually do on Sundays. Eventually I woke up and Emily and I did a little cleaning. Before too long, Emily's parents arrived. We talked for a little while and then went to the cemetery in Mount Angel to have dinner and watch the fireworks. I know that sounds like a super weird thing to do at a cemetery, but it has a big open field that's away from the gravesites, so it's not weird. Before we got everything all set up for dinner, I took some pictures of Maizie in her stroller. I really like these two:

For dinner we had chicken, potato salad, coleslaw, rolls, pickles, cheese, grapes, cherries, and probably other stuff I'm not thinking of. For dessert we had apple pie! After that, we talked for a while. Eventually Scott and Cody joined us. Scott and I played catch while we were waiting for the fireworks to start. As the time drew nearer, more and more people started to show up in the field. Emily and I think that there were probably about 20 little clusters of people scattered throughout the field, which was more than last year.

At around 10:00, the fireworks started. We had a great view of them, just like last year. They were beautiful, too. Emily and I were wondering how Maizie would respond to them. She actually did extremely well. For the first part, she just sat there, mesmerized. It was really cool to see. I got a video of it, but it's really dark, so I won't post it. After a while, Maizie started fussing, but it was just because she was tired; the fireworks didn't bother her at all.

The fireworks lasted for probably 20 minutes or so. After that, we went home and went to bed. So there you have it, Maizie's first Fourth of July. It went quite well!

maizie's dresser, and things that maizie is doing

2010-07-10T19:36:00.000-07:00

we had been looking for a dresser for maizie for a long time. we finally found one on craigslist a couple of months ago. and i finally got around to painting it a couple of weeks ago. i decided that i wanted the body of it to be a dark purple, and the drawers to be hot pink. i also bought some new hardware for the drawers. on the 26th of june i finally got tired of it just sitting around waiting to be painted. i had adam drag the dresser out to the garage and we got started. it was pretty hot that day so it made it feel like it was taking forever. the purple only took 2 coats of paint but the drawers took 5!! yes, 5 coats. which i believe is lame, but worth the effort so i will stop complaining. here are the before and after pictures:

maizie has learned to roll over! i have to admit that i was getting a little worried because before this week she would roll just to either of her sides, sometimes going all the way over, most of the time not. i began to think that she didnt spend enough time on the floor and that she would never learn because maizie would rather have you hold her and cart her from place to place than have to learn to do it on her own. but this week she has surprised me. i had almost all of the week off from work so we could go camping with adam's family, and even though there were plenty of hands ready and willing to hold her, she was getting a lot of tummy time and now is really good at rolling over. she still prefers to be held like 95% of the time. maizie hasnt figured out that she can "travel" by rolling, which is something i am grateful for. she will get onto her tummy and turn around in a circle on her belly and then start to whine until someone rescues her. sometimes she will start to get her knees under her and try to scoot. i think it would work but her face keeps getting in the way and ground into the floor. along with the rolling over came a "u" shaped bald spot that goes around her head from temple to temple. i think we need to get lots of headbands and flowers for her.

here is a video adam recorded of maizie rolling over today:

maizie is now in a size 3 diaper and, incredibly, 9-12 month clothes!! but i think she has reached a bit of a plateau with her weight; she has been 17 1/2 pounds for a couple of weeks now.

she has learned how to give kisses! i love them. they are some of the sweetest kisses ever! maizie will put both of her hands on my cheeks or in my hair and pull me right in for a big wet one:

when she was first learning how to kiss she gave lots and lots of them, but now she is more stingy with them. i guess thats a good thing; i dont want her to kiss just anybody. she also gives hugs. and i love when i pick her up from daycare that i always get a huge squeeze from her.

maizie likes to flirt. i think this is why strangers feel like its ok to touch her...which it's not. most of all i think she likes to flirt with her dad. she will sit and stare at him and talk and try to get his attention. she works really hard to get him to look at her sometimes and she is patient, she wont give up until he smiles at her and talks for a bit.

maizie has started reaching. it's really cute to see her do it. sometimes she lunges for people, but other times she just stretches out her arms. i LOVE it! it's the best feeling when she is going for you, and then you get a hug to go with it.

3 months 7 days

2010-06-27T17:38:00.000-07:00

ok i know i am a little late with this, but better late than never...right? maizie is over three months old!! i cant believe how the time has flown. maizie is getting so big already, she has definitely lost her newborn look. while i am happy that she is growing and thriving, it does make me sad that she didnt stay smaller a little longer. she is now over 16 pounds, more than double her birth weight. i thought we would be hitting that closer to six months.

maizie loves, loves, loves jumping! a friend of mine gave us a jumparoo, which is just like the jumping seats you can hang in the doorway but is on its own frame. she figured it out pretty quick. it makes noise when she jumps so she jumps more when she hears the songs it plays. there are also some spinning toys on there that she has gotten good at using:

she has gotten a little more coordinated with holding toys and getting them to her mouth. this is something that i am grateful for, and i am sure she is too, because she is teething so much. speaking of which, i am pretty sure that her chest is never dry because she drools so much. along with the drool has come bubbles. maizie figured out how to make spit bubbles. its pretty funny to watch her do. sometimes she gets a fairly big one and lets it sit on her tongue for a long time.

she is a very vocal baby and likes to talk back to you when you talk to her. she will also answer yes and no questions with uh huh and uh uh. adam thinks it's a coincidence but it happens too often to be a coincidence so i am sure she understands everything and is trying very hard to talk to us.

maizie is close to rolling over. she gets on one side or the other and then gets stuck. its pretty cute. she is also trying to scoot a little. she can get her knees under her so her butt is really high and her face is being ground into the floor as she pushes, but she is able to get around quite a bit like that.

as we were sitting at the dinner table on thursday night, maizie decided that she was hungry so she started pulling the place mat with my bowl on it towards her. i thought that she was just wanting to play with it, so i gave her the mat and kept the bowl. a few minutes later she had my bowl in her hands. that night, we decided to give her her first banana. she liked it well enough but wasnt too excited, so we got some applesauce which she seems to like better. today if i let too much time in between, spoonfuls she would cry.

with a little help, maizie can pull herself into a standing position. a couple of weeks ago, after changing her diaper, i was helping her stand and she actually "walked" up onto my leg. i put the quotes because had i not been holding her under her arms, it wouldnt have happened. but she was alternating her legs on her own and very deliberately. i couldnt believe it, so i set her down and tried it again and she did it again. i think we are in for an early walker.

maizie is becoming a pro at hair-pulling. she especially likes grabbing the hair at the back of my neck. and when shes really ticked off she likes to claw my face, so we keep her nails short. i feel sorry for anybody she gets in a fight with.

maizie is an awesome little girl with lots of smiles and plenty of spunk. i am excited to see her grow more and to see more of her personality.

teething

2010-06-05T20:36:00.000-07:00

maizie is teething like crazy! the poor kid. i felt around her gums the other day and not only are the bottom front teeth moving around so are the canines. and she is pretty miserable. the other night even after pain medicine and some teething tablets she had to cry herself to sleep in my arms. i felt so bad. she kept stuffing her hand in her mouth and doing this sad little wa-aaah cry that i am embarrassed to say i think is pretty cute. i feel bad saying a cry is cute but there it is. finally after what seemed like and hour she passed out fist in her mouth and all. needless to say she has been drooling like no other. her neck and chest are constantly wet from all of the drool. its gross, but i guess it is better than puke. speaking of puke, that has increased by like 100% during this exciting time. we have tried using the baby oragel but she hates it and cries even more when i give it to her.

at night she is not sleeping very well at all. up and down all night. that means i get to be up and down all night too. the other day maizie was up every hour or less from midnight until i decided to stay up around six. i think we both are hating life at the moment.

on the bright side she is really happy during the day and smiles a lot. she will also let me put her in the swing for extended amounts of time, which is a development i really like. maizie also has a jumping seat type thing that i can put her in and she loves it and hasnt cried once to be taken out of it. i think i will build a shrine to the person who invented it. they really are a genius.

Memorial Day Weekend

2010-05-31T23:09:00.000-07:00

Today was Maizie's first Memorial Day. This is how the weekend went down:

Saturday, May 29th

We didn't do anything really exciting or noteworthy on Saturday. We did get paint for Maizie's dresser, though. Emily found the dresser on craigslist and we picked it up on Thursday the 27th. We're going to be painting the dresser itself dark purple and its drawers pink.

Sunday, May 30th

We went to church. It was my second Sunday as the ward clerk. Maizie did pretty well in sacrament meeting, but throughout the rest of church she got more and more fussy, so Emily ended up going home about a half hour early.

After church, we quickly ate because we needed to go to the church in Woodburn so that I could be set apart as ward clerk. My mom made sausage, eggs, and toast for us, which was awesome! Sadly, we didn't have time for the waffles that she was making. When we got to the church in Woodburn, we found out that I actually marked it wrong in my calendar and we were an hour early! They were able to make an adjustment and get us in, though, so we didn't have to wait very long. After that, we went home, got ready, and went up to Cody's house for the family reunion for Scott's family.

At the family reunion, I got to meet Scott's sister, Michelle. Now that I've met her, I've officially met all of Scott's siblings. The funny thing about that is that I still can't say that I've met all of Emily's siblings! I still have to meet her brother.

Scott and Cody just got two trampolines, so we jumped on those for a while. It's been years since I've jumped on a big trampoline like that! It was pretty fun. I got quite a lot of air. Since it had been so long, though, I was somewhat hesitant to do any flips. Emily's cousin, Casey, was trying to get me to do one. He said, "You'll be fine! Just do this!" and he proceeded to bounce on his back at an odd angle and ended up hurting himself! It was pretty funny.

We had a nice dinner and a good time talking with everybody. We left at around 8:00 or so. Shortly after we were past the gravel road and onto the pavement, our front left tire went flat! Although Emily had a spare tire and lug wrench in her trunk, her jack was broken. We were very lucky, though, because it was still light out, it wasn't raining, it wasn't far from Cody's house, and Emily's cell phone had a signal. Casey and his dad, Brent, came to our rescue, which we were very grateful for! We were back on the road in no time.

When we got home, we talked with my parents and took some pictures of Maizie. Here is one of my favorites:

Monday, May 31st

I wore red, white, and blue today and didn't even mean to! It was my Relient K T-shirt and blue jeans.

We went to Salem to get new front tires for Emily's car and also to spend time with Emily's family. The tire shops were closed, though, so we decided to just drive carefully and get tires tomorrow instead (Emily's spare tire is an extremely good one). We went to Brent's house and had a good breakfast. Since there were a lot of kids there, we watched part of one of the Land Before Time movies. I just looked it up and they have thirteen movies! Crazy!

Before long, we headed over to River Road Park, where we played games and talked. The two games I played were ladder golf and horseshoes. I haven't played horseshoes since I was a kid. I was actually able to get two ringers and a leaner!

We left the park at around 1:45 and went home. My brother and his family were visiting. We had a nice meal with various styles of hot dogs, pasta salad, and corn. We didn't really do much other than talk, though. But Jill took an awesome picture of me and Maizie:

Other than that, we just slept and watched Better Off Ted and Wonderfalls.

two months

2010-05-20T22:32:00.000-07:00

today maizie turned two months old. its gone by in a blur of sleepless nights and sometimes maizie crying to the point where i want to cry with her. but there is so much that maizie has started doing and it's all so cute it makes up for the zombie-like state that i find myself in almost daily.

you might have thought that maizie was the most adorable baby in the world, but now that she is smiling and laughing she definitely is the most adorable baby ever! ok i might be biased. she has started laughing a little when she is awake but when she is asleep is when we get the best laughs of all. truly it is the most beautiful noise i can imagine.

i believe that maizie is a genius. now i know that all parents say that about their kids but really she is. you want proof? ok, maizie is starting to turn from side to side, grasp at things, AND she has her own sign language! it's true. when she is hungry she will pat her mouth with the back of her hand and wait somewhat patiently for me to catch on to her hint. if that doesnt work then she adds her other hand to the mix and pats her mouth with both at the same time. and if i still dont get it she will add a little bit of a cry to the double handed pat. i know, it's like i said, genius. maizie will also coo when you talk to her, and she loves to look at pictures on the walls. this is motivation for me to put up as many pictures and decorations as i can find.

maizie had her two month check up yesterday. she is 25.25 inches long and 13.6 pounds!! she is thriving to say the least. i have already put away all of her newborn clothes and it makes me so sad. i thought she would be just a little smaller for a little longer. we think that maizie is teething. i know eveyone we tell says "no way she is too young." but there is a way, i had my first teeth by the time i was 4 months old. i feel so bad for her because she is so fussy and isn't coordinated enough to be able to hold something to chew on. she does manage to get her fist in her mouth though.

we are so excited to have maizie in our lives and we look forward to seeing all of the awesome things she is going to do!

maizies blessing

2010-04-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

today maizie is five weeks and one day old. she was blessed today. it was beautiful, and perfect. i have been thinking about today since i found out i was pregnant. it was almost like planning a wedding for me. ok not a wedding, but it was a big deal to me. growing up i remember going to blessings for members of my extended family and always there were a kajillion people there and tons and tons of food...or maybe i am remembering just about every other holiday and family get together. either way thats what i kept thinking about as i was planning this. it all went perfect, i think.

friday adam actually had a vaction day planned which worked out well seeing that we needed to get all the food and stuff for the lunch after the blessing. we went to get it at costco and while we were in town we stopped by my parents to get maizie's blessing dress. my mom made maizies blessing dress out of the leftover silk and crystals from my wedding dress. it's beautiful!

saturday i spent the morning holding maizie and trying to get her into a sound sleep. she wasnt having that. so she had to fuss a little while i started cooking all the food. we had brisket with veggies, pasta salad, deviled eggs, and little quiche squares that adams mom made. my mom also made a huge cake for dessert. it took all day to get everything done, especially having to take breaks to feed maizie. so saturday night was late for us, and maizie was incredibly fussy on top of it. poor baby. we have had to start giving her formula during the week for some of her feedings and its not really agreeing with her and she lets us know about it.

because maizie was so fussy on saturday i didnt have high hopes for her being in a really great mood today. i had visions of her screaming through the blessing finishing off with her cat cry and then having to leave because i couldnt comfort her. but she woke up this morning in really good spirits, and fell into a really deep sleep before we left. i didnt put her dress on until we got to the chapel so it wouldnt get too wrinkled before the blessing. she didnt even wake up for that and it took a while to get it on her. so then we sat and waited and i think the wait was an eternity for adam. i dont envy him. he normally doesnt get nervous but with this he was. i could actually see it in his face and attitude. finally it was time. adam, my dad, his dad, and his brother went to the front of the chapel and gave maizie her first blessing. it was very sweet and beautiful. maizie slept through it, much to my relief. after the sacrament meeting was over we left to go eat at home.

there were quite a few people here, and it got really loud! there were lots of little kids and chatting adults. much like when i was growing up. maizie slept through it all. my mom took a turn holding maizie around 2:00 and woke her up trying to adjust her dress that was bunched up around her armpits. that was when maizie decided it was time to eat. so i took her and changed her and fed her. we were able to get back out to the party fairly quickly.

i am so grateful for everyone who was able to come and celebrate and share in this day with us. we really enjoyed having everyone!

Maizie's First Time at Church

2010-04-18T11:57:00.000-07:00

We took Maizie to church for the first time today. We only stayed for sacrament meeting, though, because it's my brother's birthday and we're going to be leaving soon to go visit him and his family.

Getting ready for church went very well. We woke up with lots of time to get ready, so we weren't very rushed. We even had time to take a family picture before we left:

Surprisingly, we were able to arrive at church early. Not on time, but early! That's pretty much a miracle in my book :)

I was expecting to get bombarded by everybody wanting to see Maizie (which would have been fine), but it wasn't bad at all. We sat down at the row nearest to the door, just in case Emily had to take Maizie out. She did very well right from the beginning. She was just calmly looking at the people behind us. The prelude music didn't seem to bother her at all. The music for the actual singing was much louder, though. We were thinking it would bother her, but it actually didn't! The three songs we sang throughout sacrament meeting were "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty", "Reverently and Meekly Now", and "Lead Me into Life Eternal". She was completely fine for all of them. In fact, she slept through the last one!

The only time that Maizie got fussy was right after we got the bread during the passing of the sacrament. Emily had to take her out to feed her, but that was it. I'm glad it went well!

Maizie's Birth: Her Father's Perspective

2010-04-10T10:58:00.000-07:00

At 8:16 tonight, Maizie will be exactly three weeks old. I have yet to write about my perspective of her arrival, so I'd better do that now while it's still pretty fresh in my mind.

On Friday, March 19th (the day before Maizie was born), the midwives, Emily, and I all knew that Maizie was bound to be born that weekend. There was no question about that anymore; the remaining question was simply when it would happen during that weekend. That was kind of a weird feeling for me, knowing that she was so close to being there and that it was actually a sure thing this time. It was like a butterflies in the stomach sort of feeling. I was still trying to distract myself, though. I played a lot of Solitaire and Minesweeper. We also watched FlashForward. It took forever to get through the episode (part one of Revelation Zero), though, because the midwives needed to check up on Emily quite frequently.

Once nighttime came, Emily's signs of labor were at the point where we thought it was going to happen really soon, like within the next twelve hours or so. At that point, I was getting pretty excited. I called Emily's parents to give them an update. Her mom was the one who I talked to. She seemed so excited and also kind of like she didn't know what to say because it all started happening so suddenly and she couldn't believe that labor was finally here, and therefore Maizie would soon be here too!

Emily tried laboring in the water and out of the water. The whole time, I was sitting there in a surreal state. It was so weird to me that we were this close! Eventually I got so tired that I had to sleep. That was around 3:00 AM, I think. I only slept for a couple hours, though. Maybe three. I can't really remember. I don't think I would've been able to tell you even back then. Everything was such a blur. But I do remember waking up and looking at Emily while she was having a contraction. She was squatting by the side of the bed, but I could see her face. She looked so beautiful to me! She always does, but right then there was something about the way she looked that just really stood out. I know that sounds weird since she was in the middle of a contraction, but it's true!

The next morning at maybe 6:00, I got up to continue supporting Emily in any way that I could. She wanted to try going back in the bathtub, so that's what she did. She stayed in there for a really long time. After a couple hours, I fell asleep in my chair. I was so tired. I had my laptop in there with http://onlineclock.net/ on the screen. That way, if Maizie was born, we would know the exact minute. I'm kind of weird about time and I didn't really trust that the midwives' watches would be accurate down to the minute. Emily didn't like that I had the clock, though. She kept saying, "I don't want the clock in here!" I just moved it out of her view, though.

At one point, Emily said that she felt like she was going to throw up. Let me just tell you right now that I had never once seen Emily throw up. I've known her since around September of 2007, which was about two and a half years. Never during that time did she throw up. But on this day, she actually threw up. I had to plug my ears because I don't like the sound of vomit splashing. She ended up throwing up two more times, too. I felt really bad for her.

Even before Emily had thrown up, she was having a hard time with her back pain. Now that she had thrown up, though, the back pain was even worse. She kept having me apply pressure to the lower-left portion of her back using my fist and rotating it.

We tried a lot of things to help Emily get into full-blown labor. She tried a birthing stool, which looked pretty much just like this:

I was behind her doing the rotating fist motion on her back. Whenever a contraction would come, she would scream and grab onto one of the bedposts. I tried to comfort her, but there wasn't much that anybody could do.

There were a lot of times that Emily would say "I can't do this anymore," but we all kept trying to reassure her. It was so hard to watch Emily in so much pain. It felt like the kind of nightmare that you would give just about anything to end. Emily was such a trooper, though. She did really, really well. I can't emphasize that enough.

Hours passed and it continued to be very difficult for us. I won't go into detail, though, because it's pretty personal and emotional. I'll just skip ahead to about 5:00 PM. It was then that Emily said that there was no way she could continue without drugs because the back pain was simply too much to bear. After the decision was final, I packed up our stuff and put it in the car. I could have gone with Emily in the ambulance to the hospital, but then we wouldn't have our stuff with us and we'd have to arrange to have the car picked up. I didn't want to deal with that, so I just took the car by myself.

After I left, I realized that in my flurry of packing up our stuff, I put both of our cell phones in my pocket. It was then that this dreaded thought entered my mind: what if Maizie was born in the ambulance? I wouldn't be there for it! That thought really scared me. I said many prayers, asking that I would be able to be there when our child was born. I got to the hospital and had to wait. That was probably the most antsy I've ever been. Eventually, one of the employees told me that she thought the ambulance I was waiting to arrive had arrived. I looked out and saw them, but I didn't see Emily. I was anxious to get to them. The employee took me down there. If I recall correctly, I got to go the staff route to get down there, which was cool.

When I saw Emily in the stretcher, it was clear that Maizie hadn't been born yet, which was a huge relief. I said a prayer of thanks (or perhaps multiple prayers of thanks). Emily was in a lot of pain, though. We went to the room and got her on the bed. It was really hard for me to watch Emily sit in that bed screaming. I wanted her to get an epidural probably close to as bad as she wanted to get an epidural! But, of course, the hospital has a protocol with that, which had to be followed. They asked a lot of questions. When they asked her where her pain level was at on a scale of one to ten, she, of course, said, "Ten!". Their follow-up question to that was pretty ridiculous: "Where would you like your pain level to be on a scale of one to ten?" Wow! Do they really think anybody would give an answer other than "one"?

It took a while, but Emily was eventually given an intrathecal. After that, she looked so much better, which was a great relief to me. They asked her where her pain level was at now and she said "Zero!" It was awesome. There was one lady there that was super nice. Her name was Elizabeth. She was a sweet older lady who kept telling Emily how good she was doing. She was the one who started Emily's pushing. She had to leave, though, so somebody named Nicole came and took her place. She was really nice, too. Also, there was another girl there who was there for the non-stress test we had on Tuesday the 16th.

When Emily was pushing, Patricia (the midwife who rode in the ambulance with Emily) held one leg, I held the other, and Nicole did the rest. At one point, both Nicole and Patricia were saying that they could see the head. I looked and I could see something, but my mind didn't really identify it as a head. Later, though, when the head was more visible, I was able to tell that it was a head and then what I saw earlier became more clear to me. At this point, I was starting to feel like, "Whoa, this is really happening!" It was kind of a weird feeling. I'm sure it would have been weird no matter what, but I'm betting the fact that I was super tired made it even more weird. I was getting excited. Eventually, it was time to bring the doctor in. When Nicole went to push the button, the doctor walked in. He had been watching the monitors elsewhere and could tell it was time for him to be there. He was a cool doctor and was actually the one who talked to us about the non-stress test on Tuesday the 16th. When he got there, he said that he thought the baby would be born in the next 20 minutes (I believe that was the number he said). It was quite weird to hear that.

Emily kept pushing. At this point, I was holding her right leg because I was told that the left side of the bed had to be open for the "sea of blue" to have room later on. As time went on, more and more of the head was becoming visible. It was a weird feeling. It looked like the head was kind of caved in, which was somewhat concerning to me, but I figured it was normal since none of the hospital staff was saying anything about it. Eventually, the doctor said that he thought Emily could do it in one more push. It was crazy! Maizie was about to arrive! The time came for Emily to push, and push she did. She pushed so hard. If I remember right, Emily usually pushed three times during each contraction. This time, however, she pushed a lot more than three times. I was really amazed. After one of them, the doctor said, "You got more or do you need a break?" To my surprise, Emily kept right on pushing! The doctor kept telling her how close she was. I was telling her the same thing. Finally, Maizie came out! Immediately, Emily said, "She's so blue!" Everybody in the room then said, "It's normal! It's normal!" It was kind of funny. The doctor then had me cut the umbilical cord. The cord was stronger than I thought it would be, but I was able to cut it just fine. Since there was a possibility that Maizie had inhaled meconium, they couldn't immediately put her on Emily's chest. Instead, they took her a little ways away from the bed to do whatever it is they do. Emily was crying, but I couldn't tell if it was because she couldn't hold Maizie or if it was because of pain. Although I was anxious for Emily and me to be able to hold her, I wasn't really sad that we couldn't yet because I understood the necessity of what they were doing. Not only that, but I was in too much of a state of awe to be sad. The hospital staff who were doing stuff with Maizie had her sit up and look at us. They also lifted her arm and made her wave to us. Maizie was crying, of course. Eventually, they put her on Emily's chest. I was still in a state of awe. I think I was pretty speechless for a long time. I just couldn't believe that she was finally here!

It was really fun to watch Emily interact with her. I think the first thing I noticed about her was how much her tongue was moving. I also thought she had big hands. Both her hands and her feet were really gray and wrinkly. Eventually it was my turn to hold her. It was kind of a weird feeling. I don't really remember much of it. I don't think that's because I'm writing this three weeks later, either; I think it's because that whole time was such a blur and I was so tired!

If I had to describe Emily's labor and delivery in a single word I would probably say "difficult". Two words? "Difficult" and "emotional". If I had to describe Maizie's arrival in a single word I would probably say "surreal". Two words? "Surreal" and "amazing". It was truly great. I suppose there's more I could write, but I'm satisfied with what I've written. Maizie is an amazing child and we're so happy to have her in our lives!

all about our girl

2010-04-10T10:57:00.000-07:00

we had maizie three weeks ago but it seems so much longer than that. there are so many things about her that i LOVE!

she can smile already, and i know it's not gas because she cries when she has gas. sometimes when she is sleeping she will laugh. it's not a full laugh yet, but the beginnings of one.

maizie likes to look at things. i usually feed and burp her in our bed which is against a brown wall. she got tired of looking at the wall and lets me know it anytime i try to burp her facing the wall.

she can already scoot. i had her on a blanket for some tummy time and she managed to get across the blanket in about 5 minutes.

she has already outgrown many of her newborn outfits but still doesnt quite fit into her 3 month outfits.

maizie has super cute feet that have super long toes on them. sometimes when she is really excited to eat she will lace a few of her toes together like you would your fingers. i wish i had a picture of it.

maizie also loves music! which makes me happy because i love music too. my goal is to get a lot of instruments to have around the house so our kids can play with them any time they want.

she is sleeping fairly well for a newborn. she has a really hard time getting to sleep but once she is down she is out for about 5 to 6 hours; sometimes more.

when she is getting hungry at night, maizie will start to smack her lips in her sleep. she never cries for food at night; in fact, i have to wake her up to eat when i hear the smacking. she is also one of the noisiest eaters i have ever met! she really appreciates her food. before she starts eating, she has this little excited cry and starts to shake a little, sometimes making it hard to get her started. then after she is going, she hums while she is eating. it's the best!

maizie has the same look on her face every time she cries. adam has taken enough pictures of her crying that you could crop them to be just her face and you would swear they were all the same picture. she also has the most adorable pouting face, it melts me every time.

Emily's Labor and Delivery Story Video

2010-03-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

I'm guessing that pretty much everybody who reads this will already know Emily's labor and delivery story, but I thought it would be good to have the story told by Emily on video. So if you're interested, here you go:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

who knew

2010-03-23T18:15:00.000-07:00

today maizie's umbilical cord fell off. it was worrying me since yesterday because it was bleeding a little so today i asked the doctor about it and she said yeah thats totally normal, and some fall off sooner than this (three days). after that, adam went with her to do a blood test to check just how jaundice she really is. i couldnt go because i knew that they were going to stab her and make her cry, which in turn makes me cry. i was waiting in the room for them to come back and i was fully expecting to hear her screaming, but when adam walked in she was totally calm. but we did find out that it is a normal reaction to poop yourself when you get stabbed, which is what she did. so we opened the blanket up to start to change her and—surprise—the umbilical cord is sitting there with some mucous and is almost completely unattached. it scared me because i thought we still had another day or so before that would happen. we still have to be careful with her and we cant bathe her until all the little scabs are gone.

Videos of Maizie

2010-03-22T16:24:00.000-07:00

23 hours and 39 minutes old:

Crying:

Crying just a little bit, but mostly whimpering:

Crying:

maizie jane

2010-03-21T21:32:00.000-07:00

maizie jane was born on march 20 at 8:16pm after 29 hours of labor, 17 hours and 16 minutes of which were considered active labor. she weighed in at 8 pounds 0.6 ounces, and is 20.5 inches long. she has very dark hair and a lot of it. she also came out with not one but two hickies on her right arm. her tongue never stops moving and she likes to suck on her middle and ring finger on her right hand. maizie startles easily, which leads to some of the cutest cries i have ever heard! in between each wail she will do a high pitched gasp; i will always know when my baby is crying because of that gasp. maizie already has a very steady gaze. she will stare at you for a long time and coos a little when you talk to her. other than getting startled easily maizie is a very calm baby. there is no way to explain the love i have for her, and i dont want to share her with anyone. as soon as i hand her over to someone i want her right back.

as i mentioned before, labor was ridiculously long, and unbelievably painful. my goal with the birth was to do a 100% natural child birth. and i lasted almost all of the way and then i couldnt do it anymore. right around 6 in the morning i was told i was 9cm dilated and that i would probably start to push soon. so we filled the tub and i got in. for the next 5 hours i was in the tub still violently contracting and to top it off, vomiting. because i was vomiting during contractions it made my back spaz out. it really was the worst feeling ever. i knew then that i wouldnt be able to do a natural birth. i think i even said it a few times. but i really wanted to be dedicated to my plan and i really wanted to do what i thought would be best. and i continued to labor at the birth center. it was getting to the point that i knew i needed to go to the hospital. i couldnt push because the back pain was too intense and it magnified each of the contractions by 100%. i said that i needed to be transferred and that i couldnt do it anymore. the midwives asked if adam and i wanted to talk about it to see if thats what i really wanted to do. adam gave me a blessing at the time and i tried to carry on. it went on for a couple more hours with no progress. maizie wasnt coming down any further in the birth canal, i was losing what energy i had left and the back pain was only making everything worse. at that point i decided i was done. i told them to call an ambulance and to take me to get the medicine that i needed. the midwives asked again if adam and i wanted to talk about it, and i said no, i already know that i cant and i need to go.

the ambulance was called. but the ambulance people who volunteer to do it all had to drive to the fire station that is about 15 miles away from the birth center. guess where they all live...the same street as the birth center. and because i was not in a life-threatening situation, we couldnt say "it's an emergency; please speed." we had to go with "she changed her mind about the whole natural thing and would now like drugs. can you take her?" it took them about half an hour to get there. the whole time i was having contractions that were 5 minutes apart and doing nothing but causing me to be in agony. part of the reason things were not progressing is maizie had her head aimed towards my right hip, preventing her from being able to go down the birth canal. finally the ambulance gets there, they take me and get me all ready and BUCKLE me down. really, are you kidding me? it was horrible not being able to move during a contraction. they take me and put me in the ambulance and then the driver says he needs to use the bathroom. what? no, i need medicine and it's not my fault you didnt think about your bladder before you left your house like half an hour ago. cross your legs and drive; you can pee later. but i, of course, couldnt say that because i was in too much pain. finally the dude gets in and we go. it was the longest drive of my life. the more i tried to relax, the worse it got. somewhere along the line, maizie decided that she would happily turn to get into position. this made the contractions worse and more frequent. by this point i am that crazy pregnant lady that you expect to murder anybody that breathes the wrong way and is blaming her husband for everything. i couldnt help but yell because of the pain, and i am sorry for the hearing loss of those around me. we finally got to the hospital, they take me in and i tried my best to be quiet. i really did. but i couldnt help it; i started stuttering and moaning and as soon as i got into the room i had to let it out. if there were any teenagers witnessing this it would be guaranteed they would not be having sex because they wouldnt want to end up like "that lady".

the sweet nurses were trying to do the intake as fast as they could and i had to try to answer questions for them. ha! nice try on that one. i kept asking for the medicine, they all told me i had to wait for the doctor to examine me. the entire time i was still yelling when the contractions were coming. they kept telling me to "bare down", and i kept thinking "is nobody understanding that my back wont let me bare down? wouldnt i have just finished this if i could bear down during a contraction?" so the doctor comes in and he checks me and says, "you know youre too far along for an epidural...", i start to freak out a little more in my head at this point, "but what i think you would be a great candidate for is an intrathecal...". he did try to explain what it was but i already said "fine, do it, great do it now, where's the anesthesiologist?" and he still was trying to explain it. finally the anesthesiologist came in and starts explaining things again to me. and i couldnt let her get a word in edgewise, i just kept saying, "great, lets do it, ok, just do it" finally they had me sign the release and they started to get me ready. the whole time they were explaining what they were going to be doing and, thinking about it now, the last thing i remember is her saying "ok i am going to numb the skin now." and i remember her numbing it and saying that "feels good." how sad is it when getting numbed to be even more numbed that it's a relief to you. a short time later, all of the pain medication was in and i couldnt feel any pain. it was like i got my personality back, i could talk again, without stuttering or yelling, i actually had a desire to push, and the contractions and back pain became a bad memory. i was able to talk to people and focus. life was good. and a few minutes later i was able to start pushing.

after a couple of pushes they were able to see maizie's head, and after a few more we were ready for the doctor, who walked in as soon as they pressed the button to call him. maizie was born after about 20 minutes of pushing. i didnt get to hold her right away because there was meconium in the water and they didnt want her to inhale any of it. so the nicu had to check her out first. and even though she was only feet away from me i couldnt help but cry. i needed to hold her. after she was checked out they gave her to me and life was complete! i could look into her eyes and smell her and kiss her and it was perfect, the last 29 hours were a blur. she was here. adam was able to watch the whole thing, front and center and he even cut her umbilical cord. adam was an amazing support to me the entire time. anything i wanted, he did. i am so grateful for him and for how it all turned out, even though it wasnt how i planned i am grateful for the ending. here is my favorite picture so far:

breaking the water...

2010-03-19T15:17:00.001-07:00

today is the day that we thought we were going to break the water...notice how i say "thought". i believe that my water broke all on its own on tuesday, march 16. all day on tuesday i was having contractions. most of the time they were about 5 minutes apart, but there were some times that they were anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes apart. after dinner i was pushing the chairs in around the table and all of a sudden my pants were wet. i thought maybe i lost control of my bladder, but the more i think about it, the more i know that it was my water breaking. when you pee—even when you are almost 2 weeks over due—you definitely know that you are peeing yourself and have lost control. this was nothing like that.

when it happened, i called angie, the midwife who is over my care. i told her what had happened and that i wasnt sure, but i thought my water broke. so did she have me come in to get checked? no. she wanted me to see if the contractions formed any pattern and got stronger because the contractions i was having were not painful at all. at most it just made it a little hard to breathe, but i could still talk through it. she also wanted me to go and have a non stress test to go along with the second ultrasound just to make sure things were all good.

ok so we go to the hospital and they hook me up to the monitors and i am having contractions 3 to 4 minutes apart but still not painful. on the scale from 1 to 12 that they use i think the "biggest" one was about a 6 or 7, which, to me, didnt really hurt. adam and i decided that since we were already halfway to the birth center that we should stick around salem for a while to see if anything happens. we went to target and walked around for about an hour. during that time, the contractions stayed the same pain wise and were still about 3 to 4 minutes apart; at most they were 5. they were also getting to the point where i would have to stop walking. i also had to pee, so we decided to sit down for a little while. when i was in the bathroom i didnt notice any contractions, so that made it look like they stopped for about 10 minutes. but after we sat for a few minutes they were back to normal, 5 minutes apart. i called angie and asked her what we should do. her answer: go home and sleep, take a bath, etc., and hopefully the contractions would continue to get stronger and then give her a call.

we went home and—surprise!—i was able to sleep through the night. i was still leaking water; not a ton, but enough to need a pad or risk the chance of looking like i peed myself again. when i talked to angie again, i told her that i was still leaking but no regular contractions anymore. did she say she wanted me to come in and see if my water really is broken? nope. just take it easy, go for a walk, take a bath, eat something. i was getting slightly annoyed at this point and was kind of scared to do anything that might cause me to lose any more fluid, so i pretty much stayed in bed all day on wednesday; i only got up to pee and get more water.

on thursday (yesterday) it was kind of the same thing! angie called to check in with me but there was still no change at that point. i didnt do anything again in fear that i would lose more water. but by the time adam got home i was getting restless and thinking that i was having good contractions when i was walking so lets go for a walk and get them going again and that will be it. on the walk i definitely felt the water leaking out so i told adam that i really thought my water was broken, and called angie as soon as we got home. so finally she was like, "ok, we can check you." and we set up a time and then she called me back to have me do a "roll over test" which is to get some toilet paper, put it in your underwear, and then lay on your side, go to your back, and then to the other side. this should make some fluid leak out if your water is broken. it didnt work; there was no fluid when i got done. i called her and told her that and it sounded like she was trying to tell me not to worry about it and it felt like she was trying to get out of checking me but i insisted.

on the way to the birth center, i kept doubting myself and thinking that i was just making a big deal out of nothing, and feeling horrible. we got here and waited for a while; angie was running behind. she called to let me know that the lady who was cleaning would let us in. so we went in and i did the urine test and things were way out of whack. there were trace amounts of protein, my pH was off, i was slightly dehydrated, and there was blood in the urine. sounds amazing, right? so i am all freaked out while we are waiting for her to get here. angie got here about 10 minutes after i did the pee test. i told her all the results and we talked for a few minutes, she took my blood pressure and then she did the exam and test to see if the water is broken. guess what, it was and the little q-tip thing that tests the pH of the water was as dark as you can get! so i wasnt crazy, my water did break and i was probably headed towards labor on tuesday had she listened to me.

after the exam, we were given the option to go home or to stay at the birth center. i chose to go home because i thought i would be more comfortable and be able to start labor easier. thats not how it worked out. i did get a little more sleep than i would have at the birth center, but labor didnt start. i slept through all the contractions that i did have, which i dont think were all that many. but i woke up about 5 this morning, worried, and forced myself back to sleep and then again at 6, still worried. i couldnt stop thinking about my sister who had to have an emergency c-section because the doctor didnt catch the fact that her water broke and she lost all the fluid. i was crying and having horrible worries and it made me feel really discouraged and like i didnt want to go back to the birth center. so i was dragging my feet getting ready, i didnt even try to wake adam up. eventually i knew we had to go, so we did and we got here about 1:00.

patricia, who is the midwife i started out with, was here and doing my intake papers. i really have missed having her as my midwife. she could tell right away that i was out of sorts and asked me how things were. i feel more comfortable with her and i really wish that i could have kept her as my main person. but, as it is, i cant. she will be here, though, and that makes me feel much better. after she finished all of the paperwork, she checked my blood pressure and listened to the heart tones of the baby. then said that we could walk, but just be back in an hour so she could check the heart tones of the baby again. it was a relief to be able to be outside. it's been a gorgeous day and we were able to walk through some beautiful farms. while we were out i had a few contractions but nothing painful...i think i am one of those ladies who just doesnt feel it til the end.

when we got back they had a breast pump waiting for me for "nipple stimulation". it's one of the natural ways they induce labor because it will make your body produce oxytocin which is the natural form of pitocin. i dont know whats more awkward, as far as natural methods go, the castor oil or the breast pump. either way it is not much fun, but i think the breast pump method at least has more merit than the castor oil and you can control it more.

right now it's about 6:30. and we have been having contractions regularly, but no pattern. i keep hoping for a pattern and for it to form quickly because i cant take much more of this. i just want to hold my baby and be moving on with our lives, instead of wondering what is going to happen next.

41 weeks and no end in sight

2010-03-15T20:24:00.001-07:00

today we hit 41 weeks. we also got to have another bio-physical ultrasound and a slightly unproductive appointment with the midwife. we have been praying and trying to decide if we want to have my water broken because of the high blood pressure. adam and my dad also gave me a blessing. so far i have not come to a decision either way. both of our options, waiting for a spontaneous labor and inducing, have risks. it's trying to decide which is less risky that is the hard part. most of me says that waiting will be ok and things will go well. but then there is this really pesky tiny part of me that is panicking and even though it is a small part it has a very loud voice and trying to weigh my options without that panic taking over is really killing me. the other hard thing is that i was pretty sure that desiree wouldn't let me go this week without scheduling to induce. at the last appointment she was sure about it, but now she isn't. i am grateful for her listening to me and trying to help me have the birth that i want but i also feel that at this point i need someone to tell me what to do. i almost don't feel capable of making this decision.

on a lighter note, during the ultrasound today we got to see our beautiful baby girl. she was busy sticking her tongue out and licking her fingers and doing all these adorable things. the pictures weren't as good as last week's so we wont mess with putting them up.

quick update

2010-03-11T20:19:00.000-08:00

yesterday we went for a bio-medical-i-don't-really-know-the-name ultrasound. the whole purpose of the ultrasound is to look at everything that is going on with the baby, the placenta, how much water is in there with her, her growth—everything. the reason why the midwives wanted this is to be able to see if there was something going on with the placenta in particular because most often when a mom's blood pressure spikes it's because there is something going on with the placenta and it's a way of telling you the baby needs to be born or something needs to be done as soon as possible. i dont understand why they waited a week to have us do that but whatever. we got the results back and we scored 8 out of 8, meaning i have made everything in there super nice and cozy and maizie will never ever want to be born! it's a relief to know that things are looking good though.

The Feelings of a Father-To-Be

2010-03-10T19:02:00.000-08:00

As Emily noted in a previous blog post, I've been pretty anxious for Maizie to be born ever since Emily got to be around 37 weeks pregnant. Since the time that this feeling of anxiety first hit me up until the time I started my paternity leave (Friday the 5th), I was able to distract myself on weekdays thanks to my job. Weekends were pretty killer, though, since I was just sitting around at home. Overall, I would say I was doing pretty well with staying sane.

Lately, however, my sanity has been a little more questionable. You see, when we found out that Emily was going to be induced on Friday the 5th, we assumed that it was a pretty sure thing that Maizie would be born either that day or the next day. Because of this, I decided to start my paternity leave on Friday the 5th and then return to work on Monday the 22nd. But as it turns out, the birthing center's definition of "induction" is not the same as it is for most people in America. Remember, this is a natural birthing center we're talking about. Although we did see some results from what they did, it didn't send Emily into labor. In other words, what we were so sure was going to happen didn't happen. And since I'm on paternity leave, I no longer have my job to distract me with. I could go back, but it would be a pretty big hassle and I'm not even sure it would be a very effective distraction anymore since we're past Emily's due date.

This is how it's been lately:

I wake up in the morning wondering "is today the day?" I then try to go about my day and do normal things, but I have a hard time focusing on anything other than wondering "is today the day?" Any time Emily makes a sound that has the slightest hint of discomfort, I immediately get hopeful, thinking maybe she's having a meaningful contraction or maybe her water broke. When I find out that this isn't the case, I get a little bit let down, but then I think about something else to give me hope, like the fact that we're this far along or the fact that Emily's mucus plug has already come out. These things keep my hope up because they must mean that labor is just around the corner, right? Eventually, night comes and there are still no signs of labor, but I don't let it get me down because I think "OK, so it didn't happen today, but it could happen in the middle of the night tonight!" Then I go to bed wondering "is tonight the night?" and I eventually fall asleep and dream about Emily going into labor. I then wake up and repeat this entire process.

Living like this has been very hard and it has also made time go by extremely slowly. The thing that has been able to keep me semi-sane throughout all this (and also kind of break up the cycle) is the thought that "maybe at the next appointment the midwives will say that it's time to break Emily's water" or "maybe when Emily gets adjusted at the chiropractor it will tweak her body in such a way that will cause her to go into labor". But each time, I'm let down once again.

For some reason, today's letdown was the worst of them all. Yesterday I was so convinced that Emily was going to go into labor either that day, that night, or the next morning (which was this morning). It didn't happen, but I didn't feel too bad about it because, for some reason (I have no idea why), I thought the midwives would have something to say at our appointment today that would give me hope. But when we got there, they were talking about Emily's labor like it could still be several days away, or even longer. I'm not sure why, but that really, really let me down today. I've lost count of how many times I've been let down now, but it's a lot. Up until today, I've been able to quickly find something to bounce me back into a state of hopefulness, but not today. I was feeling pretty down after the visit with the midwives. In fact, I was feeling a little bitter too; not at the midwives, Emily, Maizie, or anybody else, but at the situation. After that letdown, I finally decided that I am not going to let myself get excited or get my hopes up anymore at all until Emily is absolutely, positively, without any question or doubt in labor. Since I made that decision, I've been feeling much better.

I know that much of what I've been feeling lately has been irrational, but it is what it is. My advice to anybody anxious for their baby to be born is to absolutely not get your hopes up for a specific day or even a specific week; just do anything in your power to distract yourself and be patient. It's extremely difficult, but it will save your sanity.

To end on a more positive note, we got another ultrasound today and got to see Maizie's face! Here's a picture (her head is sideways with her forehead towards the right and her mouth towards the left):

It will be so great when she's born!

40 weeks...where the heck are you baby!!

2010-03-10T08:32:00.000-08:00

we have reached our first estimated due date. we have also reached our second estimated due date. we are well on our way to blow past our third estimated due date. i kind of feel like this is going to go on forever. i know that it cant and wont but the light at the end of the tunnel is barely a glimmer.

after the foley bulb and castor oil, and stripping my membranes, and the black and blue cohash didnt work at the birth center, i have resigned myself that our little girl is stubborn, and very much likes to make an entrance. which is all fine and dandy but doesnt she realize that no matter what you do when you are born that you are making an entrance? and everyone including strangers will be happy for us? i guess not.

last night i started having some braxton hicks contractions, which may or may not mean something. hopefully it means something. every time i got up i was having one but i didnt really try to time them since there wasnt any pain. secretly i was hoping that every time i got up my water would gush all over the floor and then maizie would have no choice but to be born. my moms labor with me was somewhat like that, no gushing but she slept through it all and i was almost born on the sofa. lucky lady, sleeping through labor.

today we get to go to salem and then to the birth center. another day of driving. i am going to the chiropractor in the hopes that she will be able to get everything in place, hips and back wise, so that it's more conducive to labor. also, it might make maizie turn around instead of being face up which would be more ideal. we will see. at the birth center, we are going to discuss the potential of breaking my water. i am not happy about that and i dont feel comfortable with that plan so i dont think i am going to do it. i would rather wait and see how things go for a couple more days, especially since my blood pressure has leveled out. i really feel like the urgency has kind of died out to get her here. so unless there is a real threat to her or me we arent doing the breaking of the water thing.

The Partially Effective Castor Oil Induction

2010-03-06T23:30:00.001-08:00

Emily was given three 2 oz. doses of castor oil today, which started contractions, but she's still not in full-blown labor. We're currently at home, again, hoping she goes into labor either tonight or tomorrow. We'll keep you posted.

Here's a compilation of videos we recorded throughout the day:

The Anticlimactic Induction

2010-03-05T19:29:00.000-08:00

Emily was induced today by means of a Foley bulb. It caused her to become 4 ½ cm dilated and she also had a few painful contractions, but that's about it. We're currently at home, hoping she goes into labor either tonight or tomorrow. We'll see what happens, though.

Here's a compilation of videos we recorded throughout the day:

39 weeks 3 days

2010-03-04T17:31:00.000-08:00

yesterday i went to my weekly appointment with the midwife and found out that my blood pressure was sky high!! so much so that they think i have pre-eclampsia...but i dont have the standard swelling that goes with it. so they drew some blood and gave me a bottle to collect my pee for 24 hours. they also got me in with a naturopath that has a special concoction for getting blood pressure down. i was also 1 ½ cm dilated and 75% effaced which they said was a really good sign, especially since i am a first time mommy. they also told me no more work! and to just lay around and watch movies, sweet deal! so today i thought would be a quiet day...not so much. i scheduled myself an acupuncture appointment because that can also help lower blood pressure, and then went straight from that appointment to the naturopath doctor who is an hour away from us. so i spent a lot of my day driving. then after that i went back to salem to drop my pee specimen off and go grocery shopping. so much for relaxing.

after i got home, desiree, one of the midwives that i see, called to let me know that they werent sure if they were going to induce me tomorrow because the lab that is supposed to have my blood work lost it. so they dont now if i really do have pre-eclampsia or if i was just super stressed out. if i dont have pre-eclampsia they dont want to induce me because it would be best to go into labor spontaneously. this is kind of lame because with the medicine that the doctor gave me there is a certain amount of time that we have before my blood pressure will go up again, so if they dont get the answers they need, it could all have been really pointless for me to drive the two hours round trip and get the iv of medicine. so the point of all of this is that i think salem hospital sucks a whole bunch right now. and i might have to go and get more blood drawn tonight at silverton hospital.

at this point as much as it would be best to go spontaneously i almost feel like lets just induce to be on the safe side and screw the rest of the results. on monday we will be 40 weeks and plenty of babies are born before even 39 weeks and they are fine. but that is probably me just being selfish. so my dear maizie i have an idea, we can just go spontaneously tonight and not have to worry about anything else. sound like a plan? i think so.

about an hour after i wrote this, angie called me to let me know that the problem with the blood samples was that salem labs didnt come pick them up even though they were told they needed to. so they went to get them about 6 o'clock tonight and hopefully we will have an answer about being induced by tomorrow morning.

update - 7:52 pm: i will be induced tomorrow morning at 9 am and will hopefully have maizie here either tomorrow night or saturday:)

38 weeks

2010-02-24T21:39:00.001-08:00

i had an appointment with the midwife today. we are 38 weeks and 2 days. everything is going great, and pretty much it's all up to maizie now. she is big enough and would be a healthy weight if she was born right now. to be honest, i am hoping that she will come this weekend. a couple of weeks ago, patricia, one of the midwives, told me she thought maizie was about 6 pounds. that was a couple of weeks ago, now i am guessing she is at least 7 pounds; most likely more. and that is why i would like her to be early, because i would like to not have a ginormous baby. i was 8 ½ pounds and adam was 9 and at least 5 oz and we were both late. which scares me because i would really like to not have a 10-pound baby...which i guess woudnt be the worst thing and there are women who have had worse but it doesnt appeal to me.

last night i had a dream that i was in las vegas hanging out with chelsea and we got a smoothie. i woke up totally needing a smoothie. so my plan was to go to jamba juice after my appointment with the midwife. so i go in and decide what i want. when i go to tell the girl my order she goes "are you going to pay with cash or were you going to use your card?" of course i'm going to use my card, who carries cash anymore? so then she says "i'm sorry our computers are all down right now so we can only take cash." oh how sad!!! you're telling a pregnant woman that she cant have what she really really needs! i almost cried, but choked it back and went to work. maybe next time i can get one.

do you know how hard it is to shave your legs when you are 38 weeks pregnant? i do. i also know that i am lucky to be able to get my pants on every morning without toppling over. and putting on socks has been out of the question for at least a month. just thought i'd share that thought with you.

this week maizie has found that she can put her feet on my ribs and her hands on my hips and press out really hard. fun for her, not me. when she first did it i thought i might pass out! it hurt and made it really hard to breathe. thankfully she doesnt do it that often. when i lay on my side she will stretch out on the bed too. i really like feeling her move but as she gets bigger it kind of hurts...a lot. sometimes i have to stop what i am doing until she is done doing what she is doing. guess i better get used to that.

lately we have gotten a ton of advice on how to naturally stimulate labor. like walking, castor oil, herbs...all kinds of things. the best advice came from my aunt leann. she told me that she tried everything to try and get her first two kids here early and in the end they were only 2 days early and she was more exhausted than she should have been. so moral of the story: just relax and let it happen when it happens. which is what i am going to try to do.

to labor or not to labor

2010-02-15T21:59:00.000-08:00

37 weeks...or 21 days...or 259 days down and 21 to go, but who's counting? me for one, and adam for another. since my almost 36 week appointment i have been super anxious for maizie to be here. my midwife told me, "if you go into labor now it will be ok." just meaning not to freak out if i do go. but my mind takes that as "you can go into labor any minute, get ready!!!" so every day i am wondering and hoping that it will be the day. and every time i feel a braxton hicks contraction i wonder if it's going to turn into the real thing. no luck so far. adam has been calm about it up until yesterday. we watched a documentary called the business of being born. it's on pregnancy and birthing in the u.s. and it was awesome to see. very informative. and that is when it was like a switch was flipped in adam's head. he started asking "do you think you will go into labor today?" and when i would say no he would try to come up with ways to try and force labor. like trying to scare me, watching scary movies, going for walks, and eating spicy foods. it's cute:) today he started asking again and when i would say no he would say, "no you have to say yes and mean it so your body will think it has to go into labor!" i dont mind it, i REALLY want to go into labor and be able to meet maizie!!

maizie is still very active and i love it!! she is always kicking or turning, or pressing the air out of my lungs...ok sometimes it sucks to have her moving so much but it's worth it. she has been getting the hiccups a lot lately and i feel bad for her. it cant be comfortable in there to begin with but to get hiccups so often while so confined has to be lame. she also likes to press on my ribs. sometimes it feels like she is trying to dislocate them. she has also been responding to adams voice a little more. i like when he talks to her because she will start moving more. maizie also likes it when i rub her back, at least thats what i think it is. she is like a cat and will arch into it. i really hope she likes to snuggle, that will make my day!

we are now the proud owners of one ginormous car seat:) we ordered it from target and finally got it last thursday. i have decided that online shopping is for sure not a good thing for me. not because i order too much, but because i dont get the instant satisfaction of giving my money away and getting something in return. shopping just has to be done in person. but the one thing i did like was being able to read about the product and get reviews for it. we decided to get a convertible car seat that everyone kept saying they wished they had gotten before any of their other car seat purchases. so maizie will be in this car seat til she is 65 pounds!! i got to playing around with it and i think it might be one of the best designs ever. instead of having to take all the webbing out and relacing the entire thing when you have to adjust for the baby's growth, you just turn a knob. really. it's that simple. and it's super cushy, and the cover is soft and velvety. here is a picture of it:

next month

2010-02-02T21:09:00.000-08:00

holy crap!!! maizie will be here next month! suddenly i feel quite unprepared for her...we dont even have a diaper bag yet, or a car seat. so for sure the car seat has to be one of our next purchases. talk about procrastination. BUT we do have diapers and clothes so at least she will look cute and be well fed as long as i am around.

people have asked me if i have her room ready, and i dont. with us moving and me still working odd hours it felt like an impossible task. so instead of stressing myself out about it i decided her room could wait until after she is here. especially since she will pretty much be in her cradle in our room for a while. yes, i am that over protective mother who cant stand to have the cord cut...at least i admit it.

last night i was sitting and watching maizie move and i got the distinct impression that when she is in school we are going to be getting a lot of phone calls from teachers telling us how bright maizie is and how very social she is and that maybe if she would apply herself more her grades would be better. to which i will probably say, true. i guess i just hope that she is curious and interested in what there is for her to learn but i also dont want her to be the nerdy little kid who gets a 4.0 and never misses a day of school and gets ulcers trying to figure out what she wants to be by third grade. i just want her to be happy. and i guess if the 4.0 and never missing a day makes her happy then thats what we'll do, but i never want her to feel forced into it.

so excited!!

2010-01-23T21:58:00.000-08:00

today i went and made a baby registry at target and while i was there i found this: ok i couldnt leave without getting maizie something, and this was just too cute! i was also thinking about all of the stuff on the list that i was making and as much as i was trying to avoid scanning everything that was pink it was hard not to. so probably she will look like somebody dumped pepto-bismol all over her until she can decide what she wants. poor kid. i hope she likes pink. but then i saw this and i knew maizie had to have it...and it might be the only non-pink thing she gets...ever... but the entire time i was scanning things i kept thinking about how much fun it will be to have her here, and how awesome it will be to dress her and take her shopping and teach her the importance of shoes and purses and chunky accessories:) and by the way, only 47 days left, if she is on time that is.

Yesterday's Madness

2010-01-22T09:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a crazy day for me as far as health goes. This blog post might be too much information for some people since it talks a little about bowel movements and that sort of thing, so skip this one if you're the type of person who gets bothered by that.

I woke up at about 6:30 AM as usual, but I was feeling a little bit queasy. I didn't think much of it, though, since it wasn't a very intense feeling. I began my morning routine as usual, but after my shower I was still feeling queasy and gross, so I decided that I should stay home from work. I wrote an e-mail to my coworkers to let them know.

Emily left for work at about 7:45. I don't know when my mom left, but whenever it was, that's when I was now home alone. I had many bowel movements that weren't fun, but that was about it. Then the queasy feeling in my stomach got a lot worse and I felt like I had to throw up. Since my bowels were so weak, I figured it would be best to sit on the toilet and hold a trashcan between my legs to throw up into. That's what I ended up doing, and at first I just dry heaved several times, but eventually I threw up.

After I had thrown up, I tried to relax. I was watching some nerdy videos on my laptop to get my mind off of the sickness, but I kept having to pause it to collect my composure. Eventually I felt the need to throw up again, so that's what I did using the same method as before. At that point, I felt like I was probably done throwing up, but I wouldn't be surprised if it happened again.

Slowly my condition worsened. I started getting short of breath and I felt dizzy. Throughout this whole time, I had been texting Emily to keep her updated. I could no longer focus on texting, so I called her. We decided that she should come home from work. She wanted me to stay on the phone with her, but at this point, I felt I needed my mom's help since she was so much closer than Emily or else I might pass out, so I called her. Unfortunately, she wasn't answering. I called and called, but there was still no answer. My breathing was so bad at this point that I was feeling very light-headed and my whole body felt like it was asleep and that I was about to pass out. That's when I decided to call 911. The last time I called 911 was when I was about 5 years old and didn't know any better. As I was giving them my address, I had big gaps in between each number because I was having such difficulty talking. Finally my mom came home while I was on the phone, so I had her come in and help me. She continued to talk to the 911 lady while I began my third puking session into the trashcan. After I finished, I didn't feel like I needed an ambulance since my mom was there, so my mom told the 911 lady that we would go to the hospital ourselves. And that's what we did.

At the hospital, we tried to go into the normal part so that we wouldn't have to have such a high bill by using the emergency room, but they referred us right to the emergency room. Once in the emergency room, my mom explained the situation and they put me in a wheelchair. I kept asking for oxygen and water, but they wouldn't give me either due to protocol. I didn't like that.

They put me in bed and did lots of tests. Soon Emily came and was at my side, which I was very grateful for. They would only allow one visitor at a time, though. At one point I started feeling extremely cold, most likely because of the IVs. My whole body was shaking. They kept asking me to slow down my breathing, but I could not. They put some kind of heating pad thing on me and that eventually helped a lot. I eventually fell asleep.

Emily called my manager to let him know that I most likely wouldn't be at work the next day either. She also called my dad and asked him to come give me a blessing, which he did. It was very good to have that.

I think I was at the hospital for a little under six hours altogether. It was quite an experience. I think all they really knew was that my white blood cell count was elevated. I'm guessing they'll know more later.

Today I'm feeling much better. I'm still having lots of bowel movements and I still feel weak, but this is nothing compared to yesterday. Yesterday was pretty scary, and I'm so grateful that my family was there to help.

again...really?

2010-01-20T07:46:00.000-08:00

ok so i thought the heart thing was improving...not so much. yesterday after i got back to work from lunch i was leaving a message for someone and realized that it was kind of hard to talk and keep my voice steady because my heart was beating so hard. so i pulled my handy dandy heart monitor out and it said that i was over 140 bpm. ok. nice. i "captured" what was happening and hoped that it would stop. but after about ten minutes it didnt stop so i thought i should go to the urgent care again.

when i got there they took me right back again and as i was explaining things, the doctor walked in and started out with "i already heard what you said and we're calling 911 and you are going to the emergency room in an ambulance." hi, ever want to really freak a pregnant woman out? because that will do it, stupid doctor. so i said that i wanted adam to take me and that i didnt want an ambulance and that it was all unnecessary, because by that time my heart had settled down and things were almost normal. she then wanted to talk to adam and so i gave them his phone number but somehow they couldnt manage to dial right because it kept going to a fax machine. he was at a dentist appointment so i gave them the dentist's number. i called him and, surprise, was able to get a hold of him—not a fax machine—while they called the dentist office. they got the receptionist at the dentist office and decided that she needed to know what was going on in my life with my health care so that she could promptly tell the whole office. how nice of my nurses/doctor to forgo all the privacy laws they are bound by. as i am talking to adam, i hear the dentist (who is also our bishop, by the way) come in very concerned because "they are taking emily to the hospital in an ambulance. is she having the baby?" so guess what i have to explain on sunday? because we all know that our bishop will ask about me. i told adam what was going on and that i would like him to come and get me. then the doctor came in and was all "i would like to talk to him." fine whatever and she told him everything that i had and that her concern was that i would have another episode on the way and that was why she wanted the ambulance. let me just make this clear, i understand where she was coming from with the concern about another episode and the possible dangers posed while driving myself or having someone else drive me, but i also know my body and have had enough of the episodes this last week to know that it would have been ok. so back to her talking to adam, all he said was "i understand." she took that to mean "sure call the ambulance and ignore everything that my wife is saying about what she is wanting for HER healthcare." so she went and called 911. and while all of this nonsense was going on they were hooking me up to another ekg and oxygen. oxygen? really? am i turning blue? did i say i had shortness of breath? no. no i didnt, i dont need this.

so the ambulance gets there and they come in and get me. the emt's are nice and talking to me and trying to make me feel better. then when we get into the ambulance, the one who was in the back with me was asking me all these questions, and then he goes, "so the doctor said that you are feeling dizzy." not once did i say that i was feeling dizzy. not once. and i told him that and he said something along the lines of "oh, that doctor, she does that." kind of like shes a regular at this and makes stuff up. great. so i got a crap doctor, and that is why i am in an ambulance, which, by the way, i got totally ripped off on. they didnt even use the lights or siren. i feel like if we're going in the ambulance then i better get the full effect, right? thats what i am paying for.

so i get to the hospital, and adam is already there. the nurse does the intake and they do more blood work and yet another ekg and hook me up to even more things. i felt like i was broken and they were trying to tape me back together or something. there were so many cords. while we were waiting for the emergency room doctor, i got tired of the oxygen, so i took that off. but i still had a blood pressure cuff and a million electrodes and wires and one of the things on your finger that measure your oxygen absorption. i slowly started taking all of the hardware off...the only thing this experience has taught me is that i am not a good patient.

about ten minutes before we were set to go, the person from labor and delivery comes to "monitor the baby:)" nice lady, but a little late, seeing that i am set to go. but ok, lets monitor the baby just to know that everything is ok with her. just like every other person that has listened to maizie, she found out just how active maizie really is. the thing is i would know if something was wrong with her, theres no way i could miss it. i know her schedule, i know what foods make her move more, i know when she is the most active, i know her.

finally the doctor came in and we have results!! my heart is normal. there is no irregular heart beat. when the episodes happen, it's as if i was running, just a higher heart rate than normal and not affecting maizie at all. he still wants me to follow up on everything with my primary care doctor but i am good to go. here is where i am supposed to say that i am being good and still wearing my heart monitor...but i am not. i feel like if everything is normal then why bother, so i can go through all of this again? i dont think so...unless i get the lights and siren ;) to be honest i have never had a really high opinion of western medicine and this didnt do much for making it better, and if there is no irregular heart beat or anything then i would be wasting my time and the doctors by recording more of my heart at a "running" pace. who knows, maybe tomorrow i will wake up and feel guilty about not having the monitor on just in case, but right now i am a little too bitter to care.

Hiccups, Sneezing, and Palpitations

2010-01-15T07:37:00.000-08:00

so we are now in the 8th month of our pregnancy. maizie is growing and growing and i feel like i cant stretch anymore! but i know i will, it just seems amazing to me that my skin can go any farther than it already has.

maizie is very active and sometimes keeps me up at night with all her moving. she has been getting the hiccups a lot lately and i always feel so bad for her; it cant be fun to have them when you are so confined. she has also been sneezing more often. the other night i was laying next to adam and everything was super still and maizie sneezed and my whole stomach shook. adam was so surprised! he asked if that was me and, i think, was stunned that it was maizie.

i love being able to have this experience! it is one of the best things ever, and so far everything has been good, but this week things have changed a little. on sunday we walked into church and sat down in sacrament meeting and my heart started pounding like i had just gotten done running, and then i started sweating and felt like i was going to die from the heat but my skin was cold. i kept thinking, "just take a deep breath, you are fine" but it wouldn't stop but by that time they were in the middle of passing the sacrament so i didnt want to get up during that and then possibly pass out in between the benches. so i waited. FINALLY they finished passing the sacrament and i could leave. as soon as adam and i got outside everything stopped. my heart stopped pounding, i felt cooler no more sweating, life was good. i didnt really know what to think about what had just happened. scary? yes. was i worried? yes. but if we went to the hospital nothing was happening anymore so what could they do? so i stayed at church through the second hour and then i had adam take me home. lets face it i wasnt really listening much at that point.

we got through monday just fine and i thought ok maybe it was just a fluke kind of thing right? no. tuesday, it happened again. the only difference is the heat and sweating lasted just about all day. i called my midwife, who ordered tests to be done the next day. they came back as 100% normal minus slight anemia, which is normal during pregnancy and easily fixed.

so thursday morning rolls around. i am getting ready for work. i was standing in the bathroom flat ironing my hair and my heart started pounding again. and again this time it was only for a few minutes, if that. so thinking that i should just go to work i got my stuff together and left but as i was driving i couldnt stop crying because i kept thinking, "what if we are missing something here? what if when i am in labor i start to really have problems and something happens that since we are not in a hospital cant be taken care of?" needless to say i didnt even get halfway to work before i had to pull over. i called adam and told him what had happened and i also called my midwife, patricia. she is awesome. she was completely calm and trying to calm me down. she obviously advised me to go to the emergency room if am that worried, but that most likely it was maizie just sitting on something causing my body to have this kind of response, because all of the tests were normal. to be on the safe side i decided it was best to go to urgent care.

i met adam at home and we left for keizer. when we got to the urgent care there was a little bit of a wait and i thought that we would be sitting for a while but as soon as i told them i was having heart issues i was taken back immediately and hooked up to a heart monitor and they did an ekg and blood tests and pee tests. again everything came back normal. BUT now i get to have my very own personal heart monitor for a month. i feel so old. the only time i dont have to wear it is in the shower. they are hoping that if i do have another "episode" that i will be able to capture it with the monitor and then they can have more of an idea of what is happening. the doctor also said that it is "possibly just the baby pressing on something." now if my body stays true to form i can expect to have and episode on saturday seeing that we have gone every other day this week having them. i hope that it doesnt happen again and that it really was maizie doing this, and not a serious issue.

For Auld Lang Syne

2010-01-01T20:06:00.000-08:00

Another year has come and gone. Not only that, but another decade has come and gone!

Before I talk about the new year, let me bring you up to speed. Around the beginning of November, I was thinking about mine and Emily's financial situation and how January was going to be difficult since Emily would have so much time off in December. I wasn't necessary worried, but I wasn't sure what we were going to do. I was also thinking that April would be tough since Emily would have even more time off in March when Maizie arrives. Meanwhile, things were kind of a mess at my parents' house due to my grandparents' health (my mom's parents were living with them at the time). My grandparents ended up moving about five miles away, leaving my parents alone in their big house in Silverton. Then my parents offered Emily and me the opportunity to move in with them. Emily and I thought about it and decided to take them up on their offer. We ended up moving in with them on December 19th (two weeks ago tomorrow). Some people might think it's weird for a married couple (especially recently married) to live with their parents, but I promise it's not a bad situation. We totally have our own space and it's completely fine. Anyway, we're now in a much better financial situation. There's a lot of other blessings that have come with this move, too.

Now that you know about that, I can talk about the new year. Yesterday I was by myself at work. I don't mind that at all. In fact, I actually like it because I can really focus on my nerderies :). Pretty much immediately after work, Emily and I went to her parents' house where we celebrated New Year's Eve. Emily's Uncle Brent and Aunt Janet were there too, so there were six of us. There was delicious food, good conversation, and fun games! We played a game that we affectionately call Poohead and we also played Up and Down the River. In between going "down the river" and going "up the river", we watched the following videos on YouTube:

When it was almost midnight, we turned on the TV and flipped through the channels. It was mostly dumb stuff. We saw Jennifer Lopez singing and other stuff. We ended up watching the second half of an episode of the Twilight Zone called "The Grave". Shortly after midnight, we opened the door to see if anybody was making any noise, and there was quite a bit of cheering and we could hear fireworks, too. Emily's dad blew a little horn thing that sounded really funny. It kind of sounded like an injured duck or something :).

On our way home, it was raining, so we had to go quite a bit slower. I took a different route home so that I could show Emily the new route that I take to go home after work. I like it because there are no traffic lights. When we were almost home, we were in a residential area and there was a cop driving in the opposite lane coming towards us. As soon as he passed us, he stopped, turned around, and started following us. I immediately thought about how fast I was going and I thought I might've been going a little bit faster than I should've been. I totally thought he was going to pull me over, but he ended up turning, which was a relief.

At home, my mom was using her laptop and my dad was already sleeping. Apparently he had just barely made it to midnight and then crashed. I can't remember when Emily and I fell asleep, but it was probably between 1:30 and 2:00.

Emily woke up at around 9:00 this morning and I woke up at around 9:45. We've been super lazy today, though. We haven't even gone outside. I'm still in my pajamas and haven't taken a shower. Great way to start off the new year, eh? Jeremy called me from Germany and we talked about video games and movies and stuff. Speaking of which, I recently got to play New Super Mario Bros. Wii at Cody's house. My parents went to visit my aunt and uncle in West Salem, so I had them pick up a copy of the game on their way out there. You know what I'll be doing tonight :)! Emily and I got two free movie passes for Christmas from my uncle Ken. I'd like to see Avatar since it's supposed to be super amazing and worthwhile. Emily would rather see Sherlock Holmes, though, so we're probably going to go with her parents. Emily and her mom will see Sherlock Holmes and her dad and I will see Avatar.

Talking about Avatar got me thinking about the Nickelodeon TV series called Avatar: The Last Airbender. I had never seen it, but Jeremy and Mary said it was good. I'd like to watch the series before the Last Airbender comes out in the summer, so I watched the first episode today. It wasn't bad. I haven't seen enough of the series to really have an opinion on it, though.

After that, Emily and I played three games of Rummikub. I won one and Emily won two.

Other than talking to Jeremy, watching the first episode of Avatar, and playing Rummikub, we haven't done much else. It's been a quiet, lazy day. And that's the start of our 2010. Oh yeah, like I mentioned on Twitter, I'm calling this year "Twenty ten" because it's one syllable less than "Two thousand ten". And that's that.

25 weeks

2009-11-24T22:10:00.000-08:00

time is really flyin' by! maizie is about 25 weeks old, or six months (however you want to look at it), and my belly is finally starting to look like a preggo belly:) that makes me really happy! even though i hate the maternity pants, i like that i am over the "is she pregnant or just chubby?" stage. things are getting a little harder to do now...like putting on socks and, depending on where maizie feels like sitting, pants can be a hassle too. i haven't given up on the high heels yet:) that at least is something. i hope i can stand to wear them all the way through to the day i deliver! how awesome would that be? i can also see maizie moving! that is the most exciting thing to me. the other night she kicked so hard that the blanket i was using moved, she's strong! she has also decided that she doesnt really like my kidneys, and practices her baby kung fu on them regularly. it was really bad a few days ago, and i could hardly walk without pain. luckily, she got tired and took a break and i am good to go. whenever i try to show adam that she is moving she stops. she could be doing back flips but as soon as his hand is on my belly or he is looking she acts like she's not even there.

in about two days is thanksgiving, gobble gobble! we are heading out to hermiston on thanksgiving morning. a lot of my extended family is going to be there so it will be a lot like when i was growing up, lots and lots of people:) i am really excited for that. we are only going to be able to see everyone for one day though. friday we are coming home so we can see adam's dad in a play. it is called reckless. friday evening we are going meet up with his mom and aunt and uncles, to watch ferren do his thing.

we are moving. due to some interesting/sad business, adams grandparents have moved out of the house they shared with ferren and jill (adam's parents). ferren and jill offered us the rooms that his grandparents were using. after talking about it we decided that it would be foolish not to take them up on the generous offer. so by december 19 we will be completely moved out of the apartment in salem, which i will say is a very happy thought to me.

Ultrasound Video!

2009-10-16T21:34:00.001-07:00

Today Emily picked up a DVD of the ultrasound! It has video footage and a slide show. Here's the video:

it's aaaaa....

2009-10-15T19:03:00.000-07:00

today we found out the gender of our baby, and i am guessing that since you are reading this that you really want to know what it is, right? well i will tell you how it all went down. we had our appointment at 4:30 and i had to drink 32 oz of water before the appointment and then not pee, really?! i have to hold it for that long? it was hard to do, let me tell you, especially when they started pressing in the general area of my bladder, but all was well and about 10 minutes into the ultrasound she let me go to the bathroom. after the ultrasound tech did all of the pictures of things that they are looking for like the placement and stuff, she kept showing us the profile of the baby and the fact that the baby was testing out how limber they are by putting their toes to their nose. yes i did say that right, toes and nose, they are very bendy at the moment. when she first tried to tell us the gender, the baby had their legs crossed so we waited and we got to see them move a little and put their hand in their mouth, and stretch. it was amazing! i wish that it was safe to do an ultrasound every day, i would watch the baby for hours.

after a little while the tech tried to get a good shot of the goods but the baby needed a little coaxing so she (the tech) would shake my belly a little...it made me feel fat because i could feel my whole stomach moving, but it worked and it turns out that i was wrong and the baby is NOT a boy but is a GIRL!!! she will be known as maizie jane :) here are some of her first pictures:

this is a view of her profile

in this one you can sort of see the foot on its way to the nose

definite picture of the foot making its way closer, and you can see that she is concentrating on the placement and feeling the stretch

and there it is -- toes on the nose, with a little smile on her face :)

we also recorded when we told our parents:

adam's parents:

Direct link

my parents:

Direct link

"quickening"

2009-09-24T20:54:00.000-07:00

i felt the baby move today!! i have been thinking for a while that i can feel little flutters, but today was a for sure "move it mom!" kind of thing. i was at work and reaching for some papers which may or may not have closed off some of the baby's space for a few seconds and he/she didnt like it so they let me know. when i first felt it i jumped because i wasnt expecting it, but it was awesome to feel, and i kept thinking do it again...but no such luck. a little later at my parents house they did move but not like before.
this was really exciting for me since its one of the first things i have experienced so far that really means i am pregnant. you might be saying "what?" so let me explain. i never really had horrible morning sickness, it could have passed for a mild case of the flu, and other than my hips getting farther apart there hasn't been any other "signs" of pregnancy. sometimes i would be driving or i would see someone who is farther along and i would think "i wish i was pregnant". then i would have this whole conversation between me and my voice of reason in my head that went a little like this, "you are pregnant, remember the hips?" , "yeah but i could just be getting fat" " what about the ultrasound?" "yeah but that didnt really look like a baby, more of a jelly bean or something". and it would go on for a few minutes, finally it would come down to my voice of reason saying "you're pregnant, shut up!" and that would be the end of it...for a while. so long story short this was AMAZING!! and i cant wait for more:)

Atticus! Atticus! Atticus!

2009-09-13T22:05:00.000-07:00

Well, we've finally agreed on a boy name! As you can probably tell by the title of this blog post, the name we decided on is Atticus. Yes, like the father in To Kill a Mockingbird.

We decided on it last night, just before 7:30 PM while we were at Applebee's. I think both Emily and I had thought about that name previously, but once we thought about it more last night, we finally decided that it was the one. We still don't have a middle name, but I think it'll be easier to think of a middle name now that we've thought of the first name.

I don't think Atticus is a name that you can easily make fun of. Sure, it's not a very common name, but that's about it. With Maizie (the girl name that we thought of), there's all kinds of ways to make fun of it (Crazy Maizie, Lazy Maizie, etc.), so that's something that she'll just have to deal with.

better late than never

2009-08-31T12:01:00.000-07:00

ok ask me how much i LOVE my new midwives and birth center! they are awesome, and i think anybody having a baby should go there. i just got back from my first official appointment with them, and i love how relaxed i feel. they went over my chart that was transferred to them and we all had a laugh at the things they tested me for. really do i look like someone who would use pcp...do they even still make it for that matter? i guess the previous clinic sees more interesting people than i thought. i should have caught on when i was asked to sign a contract saying i wouldn't do drugs while i was pregnant. but that is over with now. today we were able to hear the baby's heart beat and figure out exactly where it's laying. baby taylor is a little higher than they expected so patricia, my midwife, was a little surprised by that and said, "well it's ok we know there is only one baby in there" and in my mind i took that to mean that twins ride higher, and i quickly came up with the idea that when we did the first ultrasound that maybe the embryo was too small to tell but it's actually twins that share a heart since we only saw one heart on the monitor...over active imagination? yes. very entertained family and friends...maybe. today is also the first day of the second trimester! which means we can breathe a little easier now...except for my other fear that baby taylor will be a hermaphrodite. i know what are the odds, but it could happen, and then how do you explain that they could be a boy or a girl? or do you just have something removed and raise them as whatever it was you wanted most? and then what if you screwed up and made them a girl when they should have been a boy? this is why i had to stop reading pregnancy books, they just made me worry more about things i dont need to worry about. we will be able to find out what we are having in october:) this morning i was weighing myself on our scale before i got dressed and then after i got dressed to see how much weight the clothes add, five pounds just so you know. and the midwives dont minus that when they write it in your chart either. it's a little distressing. even though it will look like i lost a lot of weight when i deliver i will know in my mind that really it's not as much as they say.

on the 21st of august we left on our trip to visit mary and jeremy one last time before they move to germany. we had a great time. we got there friday evening, and mary had made really tasty home made spaghetti for dinner. on saturday we all woke up about 5:15 or so to get ready to take a ferry from the island back to the "mainland" to go camping in the olympic national park. it is a really beautiful area with a lot to do. we went on a hike and saw a lot of these plants with HUGE leaves. i kept thinking about how different the forests look in washington compared to oregon. in washington there are a few ferns but mostly these plants that look like they came out of jurassic park or something, and oregon there are just tons and tons of ferns. i think i prefer the ferns. at our campsite we had some fun neighbors. to the back of our site we had "big" dan and his friends who were on a "wild hogs" type of trip, and drinking beer and belching a lot. and then to the right of our site was an asian family that would talk very fast in their native language then randomly toss some english in. this was also our first time using our tent. on the package it says it's a 4 man tent. i would like to say that it would only be a 4 man tent for midgets...or 4 really cuddly men. the next morning when everything was packed we went up to hurricane ridge. it was pretty amazing! the road up there is really steep and winding and i was starting to get car sick so when we got to the visitor center i was really grateful. we were there for about half an hour and were able to see the tops of the whole mountain range.

2009-08-09T13:09:00.000-07:00

the "morning sickness" has gotten much better. i have figured out that if i eat every 2 hours that i am just fine and i don't have a hint of nausea. BUT if i go longer than 2 hours boy do i pay for it. needless to say i always have food in whatever bag i am carrying that day. i have been trying to be good about what i eat and not have a bunch of junk. lately though its been a little hard because i crave salty things, not just a little salty but heart attack salty. last week it was taco bell, nothing else would do. before that it was a sausage mcmuffin. i know, i know, i'm even grossed out by it, but the second i get whatever it is i'm craving i'm completely happy. thankfully those fast food cravings have only happened a couple of times, and the rest of the time i eat better.
my jeans have officially gotten too tight. i don't understand this because i haven't gained weight and in fact have lost a little the last couple of days, but if i manage to button them i want them off immediately. so i guess its time to find more dresses and stretchy pants.
i think i have found the place where i want to have our baby. it's a birth center in west salem called bella vie. i was really excited to find this place because giving birth in a hospital freaks me out. i know that sounds weird but i have never really liked the idea of all the monitors, ivs, and drugs. women have been having babies for centuries and it's really only been in the last century that we have been convinced that western medicine has the right take on it. don't get me wrong, i appreciate western medicine and all that it can do, but when it comes to women and their health western doctors are way too happy to cut you up. and i dont want that. so i have been looking for midwives and trying to make the best decision, and i think this is the place. it reminds me of a day spa, and i like the relaxed feeling. i also like that it's more one on one and they take time to explain things to you. each appointment they set aside an hour for you so you can ask any questions that you want and take your time understanding everything. they also offer a lot of classes on nutrition, prenatal care, post natal, mommy and baby yoga, everything! i am really excited about it and cant wait to go and visit. here is the web site should you feel the need to check it out: www.gentlebirthcenter.com
this week was adam's birthday:) he turned 25. on wednesday, the day of his birthday, we went to his parents house to celebrate. it was nice we got to see all of his immediate family that lives close. he requested that we eat pumpkin pie instead of cake, which was a tasty treat that we don't normally have this early in the year. his mom made an awesome dinner of steak sandwiches and baked potatoes. after eating adam opened his presents. he got quite a few shirts, a speed racer lamp shaped like the car, a couple movies, black socks and a case of "nostalgic sodas". the next night we went to my parents house to have dinner and celebrate a little. i made him an apple pie (per his request) and my mom made taco salad. both days had beautiful evenings so we were able to eat outside and enjoy the cool air. it was a nice break from the horrible heat that we've been having.
yesterday i had a baby shower to go to for my friend amy. this is her third baby, and it is a boy. she is one of the cutest pregnant women ever! it just looks like she has a basketball under her shirt. she and her husband just bought a house. it is beautiful! they are still decorating, but they have redone the floors and painted. it feels really nice and cozy.
last night, august 8, was our nephew conrad's birthday. he turned one. we went down to corvallis to celebrate. we had a spaghetti dinner and chocolate cake for dessert. YUM, chocolate! conrad thoroughly enjoyed the food, and i think he enjoyed some of the wrapping paper his gifts came in but really didn't want to play with his new toys. in the end like most one year olds he had enough and cried a little, poor guy. his brothers on the other hand were thrilled to help him break in his new stuff and had a hard time waiting for things to be opened.
on the way out to the baby shower i was supposed to get gas in my car. i had enough to get to amy's place in albany so i figured why make an extra stop? so i went. but what i wasn't planning on was not having a gas station near her house. she lives kind of on the edge of albany and on the way to corvallis. so i figured well i will get it on the way to kevin and jill's, but i guess corvallis and albany don't really use that much gas because there was no station, that i could see, on the way. at this point i started to kind of feel panicky because the gas needle was going into the red area, and i didn't have my cell phone. normally i am the kind of person that fills up, always, at the half way point. i'd like to say that it's because i get better gas mileage,(and that is part of it) but that is mostly a lie. it's because i am terrified of running out of gas and not being able to get help. so there i am in an unfamiliar area, no phone, and trying not to panic. i was able to make it to kevin and jill's without getting gas, but after we had to fill up. we still had to find a place, but i felt better because adam was with me this time. we found a place, and filled up 12 1/2 of my 13 gallon tank...this will never happen again.

dear baby

2009-07-19T18:44:00.000-07:00

dear baby,

first i would like to say i love you and am excited to see you, but what the crap baby taylor? i thought we had a deal, you don't make me sick and i eat all the food we can handle. but the last couple of days you've been kind of a punk about things. really, even making water taste nasty, isn't that going a little too far? i mean we NEED that at the very least! so i have a proposal: you stop making me sick and i go back to eating like normal and then we can all be happy:). by all i am including your dad in this, he's had to put up with a lot of whining lately and i am sure he would appreciate it if we stop this "i can't stand to look at food, make your own dinner" nonsense. so i'm going to go eat some crackers right now because i think that might be safe, and you can get back to me on this...hopefully soon!!

love,
your mom

update

2009-07-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

this week i had my first ultrasound...at first it wasn't that bad. and then the baby was too small to see with the traditional kind so they chose another way to do it. let's just say it was not that much fun, and the next time we have a kid we are waiting a few months to have an ultrasound. other than that the experience was kind of surreal. we were able to hear the heart beat, and see that the baby was about the size of a bean. the heart beat was very clear, and was beating about 160 times a minute. at another doctor's appointment we went over the test results from the last one. everything was fine except my results from the glucose test. the normal results are in the 70-130 range. i was at 59. she said that i just have to eat more often, which surprises me because i already feel like i am eating every 5 minutes.

up until this week i wasn't feeling very sick at all. the last couple of days though have been a little rough. if i eat anything that's too sweet, i'm down for the count. adam and i went for a walk yesterday. it wasn't very long and was one of our usual routes. about half way through it, right above my tail bone and in between my hips started hurting so bad i could hardly walk. i couldn't even stand up straight, i had to hunch a little. it looked rediculous i'm sure. it even got to the point that adam asked if i wanted him to go get the car while i waited. which was a very sweet offer but i didn't want to give up that easily. so i hobbled all the way home, sometimes crying out because it hurt...really i should have given up. it's not so bad now.

today we went swimming at the silverton reservoir with cody and scott. it was a beautiful day and the water was perfect. we were out there for a few hours, long enough to get a sunburn. i now have a farmers tan and adams shoulders look like they are going to be super painful in the next day or two.

When's that bbBBBABY DUE?!

2009-07-02T16:51:00.000-07:00

If reading the title of this blog post wasn't a big enough hint to you as to what I'm about to write, then perhaps this picture will help:

Emily and I are going to have a baby! We found out just after 8:45 last night. We were stunned and didn't know if we should believe the test. In fact, we're still not 100% sure that the test is accurate. Although Emily did take a second one, which also came up positive. Also, the instructions said that it could take three minutes for the results to appear, but the results showed up extremely fast both times.

A long time ago, we talked about what we would do when we found out that Emily was pregnant. We decided that we would wait before telling anybody, but once it became a reality, we wanted to tell people! I felt like it was important that Emily's parents be the first people we tell, so I set up my microphone to record the conversation and we tried calling them, but they didn't answer. We waited a few minutes, tried again, and there was still no answer. Tried a little later, no answer again. We tried to keep ourselves occupied by playing Dr. Mario Online Rx, but my Wiimote batteries died, so we stopped. We were fairly antsy and all we could talk about was the fact that Emily was pregnant! In a way I'm glad that Emily's parents didn't answer at first because it gave me time to re-arrange my microphone setup so that the quality of the recording would be better.

Finally at around 10:50 PM, Emily's dad answered the phone! I have a clip of that conversation. Unfortunately, it's a little bit hard to hear Emily's parents. I should've used two microphones -- one for Emily and one for the phone, but I just used one. Oh well; now we know for next time! Here's the clip:

Embedded:

Direct link

As you can tell, it was pretty easy for Emily to give the news to her parents. But when I tried telling my family, it was a lot harder! My sister, Jacquelyn, happened to be visiting from California. In fact, she had just arrived that same night. That being the case, I wanted to somehow get them to put me on speakerphone with Jacquelyn and both of my parents listening, but without them knowing what was up. When you listen to the clip from that conversation, you'll see what a challenge that was! And by the way, I'm quite aware that what I was saying about having to repeat myself made no sense, but I was put on the spot! One more thing you should know is that we have a lot of plans for the weekend that Jacquelyn is in town, so when I say that I want to talk about the plans, that's what I mean. Here's the clip:

Embedded:

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That phone call started at around 11:07 PM, by the way.

Emily and I are both very excited! We'll keep you posted on how things progress.

Easter

2009-04-14T17:38:00.000-07:00

I'm home sick today. I've been sick since around Saturday with a sore throat and cough. It's the same thing Emily had last week. Lame!

I'd like to talk about our first Easter being married so that I don't forget what we did. I have no idea what we did for Easter of 2008, so that just goes to show you that I'll forget it if I don't record it!

On the Friday before Easter (April 10th), we had Scott and Cody over to dye Easter eggs with us:

On Easter Sunday, I stayed home from church due to my sickness. Emily was still fairly sick, but she went anyway so she could teach her primary class. When she got home, we went to her parents' house, where we had a very nice Easter meal. The ham was amazing! After we ate, we sat around the table talking and then played Speed Scrabble using letters from a game called Changeling. The letters were nice because they were big. After a while, we left and went to Silverton to visit my parents. Towards the end of the drive, Emily talked with her sister, Rachel, on the phone for a little bit. When we got to my parents' house, we sat around upstairs talking. We later had cake, which was good, and we also played Speed Scrabble (using real Scrabble pieces this time).

That's about it for our Easter. I know it wasn't too thrilling to read about, but now it's written down and I can remember it! Mission accomplished.

Maizie Chain

2009-03-30T17:03:00.000-07:00

Before I say what I'm going to say, let me assure you that Emily is still not pregnant.

Every once in a while, we talk about baby names so that once Emily is pregnant, we won't have to spend so much time thinking of baby names; we'll already be done with that.

Emily has been watching Spooks (also known as MI-5), and on that show there is a little girl named Maisie. Emily asked me what I thought of that name and I said I liked it. I know that name from Uncle Buck, except it's spelled like "Maizy" instead of "Maisie". We looked up the meaning of it and it means "pearl". Sure it's not an amazing meaning, but it's a lot better than the meaning of "Tristan", which is "sad" and originates from a story about a doomed romance. Once we decided that we both liked the name, we talked about how to spell it. I wanted it to have a "z" instead of an "s" so that people don't read it like the word "mace" with a "y" on the end and Emily wanted it to have an "ie" instead of a "y", so we decided on Maizie.

So last night we made our first final decision on a baby name -- Maizie. We made the decision sometime between 11:00 pm and 12:00 am. Now if we end up having a daughter, we can tell her how and when we thought of her name.

Today I was texting Emily and I tested out the various spellings of Maizie in my phone to see which ones my phone already knew. The only one it knew was "Maizie", so it must be meant to be! Now we only need to think of a middle name for Maizie and then a first and middle name for a boy. Then we'll have a boy name and a girl name on reserve and we won't have to think about another baby name until much later.

our new bed!!

2009-03-14T16:40:00.000-07:00

we just got our first bed today:) for the last 4 months we have been sleeping on my old futon...lets just say a bed of nails might have been more comfortable. no matter how much extra padding was put on you could still feel the bars in your back, and if you tried to stretch out you would hit the arm rests on either end. (this was more of a problem for adam than for me) so i heard about a sale on the radio that i thought was just too good to pass up. i went and checked it out and the bed seemed ok, but then i read reviews. it was a 50/50 mix of "don't ever buy this" and "it's the best mattress we've ever owned", it left me feeling confused and a little frustrated. I was talking to my mom about the bed and she mentioned a place that is liquidating everything in their store here in town. so yesterday we went and checked out some of the beds. we found one that we liked and when we layed down on it almost instantly we both wanted to buy it. so we asked the normal questions and found out that they didn't have any more in stock, BUT if we wanted to buy the floor model then they would take more money off. since we like saving money this sounded ideal. so we took it! today we borrowed cody's truck and scott, adam, and i went to pick it up. everything went very smooth, especially getting it into the apartment and setting it up. which is very surreal seeing that nothing ever goes this smooth, not that i am complaining. i appreciate it, but it seems like there should've been a struggle somewhere in this. i mean they gave us an even better deal without us asking, and the box spring didn't go flying off on the way home, and it took only about 10 minutes to set it up. it's just too good to be true:) so here is a picture:

when we got on the bed for the first time we noticed how close the ceiling is and how different everything looks. the bed is at least 3 times higher than the futon. adam took a nap and i think this is the first time that he has not tossed and turned while he slept. we love it!

St. Valentine's Day

2009-02-18T22:10:00.002-08:00

I suppose we should blog about our first Valentine's Day after being married. Emily and I have talked about it before and we both aren't really into Valentine's Day. Every day is Valentine's Day as far as we're concerned! Last year we didn't do anything for each other. So why should this year have been any different? I came home on Friday the 13th planning for us to head up to Washington to visit my best friend, Jeremy, and his wife, Mary and then go back home on Monday the 16th. Much to my surprise, I opened the door and saw that Emily made me an amazing cake as an early Valentine's Day gift! It was so nice of her and the cake was so delicious! I loved it, but it made me feel bad for not doing anything for her. Here are a couple pictures of it:

After we enjoyed the cake together, we left for Washington. Emily drove the whole way and had no problem with it... until Seattle. She hates Seattle! And bridges too. And driving at night. But other than that, it was good! Because we were on a trip, I decided it would be OK to eat at McDonald's. More on that later... we got to Jeremy and Mary's at around 10:45 or 11:00 and talked with them for a while. It was good to see them again. After a while, though, I started feeling horribly ill. It was definitely from the McDonald's. I took some Pepto-Bismol that Mary gave me, and that seemed to help a little, but I still felt like I needed to throw up. At first I didn't want to throw up, but eventually I wanted to just to get it out of my system. Luckily I fell asleep without throwing up. So that was my Friday the 13th -- getting sick from McDonald's. Come to think of it, I got sick on Friday the 13th in May of 2005 from eating a burger, only that was in the Philippines.

On Saturday, Jeremy and I went to the store, then went home and made breakfast for Emily and Mary. I felt better after doing something nice for Emily. We had strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, bacon, some kind of Danish thing, and orange juice. It was quite good! Emily wasn't able to enjoy the bacon, though, since she's been getting sick from meat. No, she's not pregnant.

After breakfast, we hung around for a while and then went to Deception Pass. It was fun, but freezing! We got some cool pictures there:

Aside from going to Deception Pass, we also played a lot of board games. The one I had the most fun with was Crazy Uno. We had a dinner planned, but we were too full for it because we went to Applebee's and got a bunch of appetizers. That's about it for our Valentine's Day.

On Sunday the 15th, we went to Fort Casey State Park, where, once again, we froze! It was a cool place, though. At one point, Mary wanted to take a picture of us, but Emily saw that I had a booger. She was having me remove the booger before we took the photo, but it turns out that Mary was taking photos throughout the booger removing process:

After that, we watched Uncle Buck, which is classic. Oh, and one of their cats pooped on Jeremy. At first he thought it was just her breath. Boy, was he wrong! We ended up having the dinner that we were going to have on Valentine's Day. Jeremy accidentally spilled grease in their oven, though, so we had to cook the meat on their barbecue instead. We played more games, which included more Crazy Uno. The cool thing about their deck is it's a Nintendo deck, which includes a "Power" card. That card can be used to block the "draw 2" and "draw 4" cards. We also used it to block the "draw 5" punishment for being the last one to slap the 5, in which case the second to last person would have to draw 5 (unless, of course, they had a "Power" card). It was a lot of fun.

On Monday the 16th, we hung around a little in the morning and then went home. Once again, Emily drove the whole way. It was pretty nice driving in the daytime. We had a great time with Jeremy and Mary and a great Valentine's Day weekend.

Now for a little news pertaining to the here and now:

We just finished playing Yahtzee. Out of six games, Emily beat me by 60 points overall. I did pretty good, though, considering that Emily got three Yahtzees and I only got one.

Emily and I are currently liking this song ("Breathe Me" by Sia).

Oh, I never said how things went with our talks in church on the 8th. Emily did good, as I knew she would. However, her talk only lasted about five minutes! My talk went well too, but I wasn't able to fill up all the time. I think mine was about fifteen minutes. Thankfully, the bishop had two members come up and bear their testimonies. My dad was there, and he enjoyed both of our talks. That same day, we both got callings! I'll be teaching the youth Sunday school class. I'm not positive about the age group, but I think it's ages 14 to 16. Emily will be teaching the primary. Again, we don't know about the age group. This Sunday will be our first time doing it. Hopefully it goes well!

Wedding Photos and Videos

2009-02-08T00:30:00.000-08:00

We just finished getting ready for the talks we'll be giving in church tomorrow (or today, if you want to get technical). It was quite an ordeal for Emily. She'll do fine, though.

Last week we finished going through our wedding photos getting rid of the blurry ones and all that. We ended up with 117. If you're interested in seeing them, you can find them here.

We also bought Wii Fit last week and have been having a lot of fun with it. Emily is a lot better at the yoga poses than I am. I was able to get a perfect score on the soccer game, though, which is cool.

We've been watching Brotherhood 2.0 lately. Emily's seen many of them before, but I had never seen it until just recently. It's pretty entertaining. We've also found some other funny videos:

This next video may seem kind of weird for us to like, but I think it's the accents that make us like the video so much.

We should probably get to sleep now... good night!

Christmas and New Year's

2009-01-04T19:55:00.000-08:00

I was doing the dishes when I decided to see what Emily was doing. I went into the living room and was floored when I saw that she was writing a blog post. She never writes blog posts! It was crazy.

I've actually been meaning to write another blog post so that we could have the memories of our first Christmas and New Year's Eve being married written down. That way in 20 years from now, if our kids ask about how it was, we'll be able to tell them.

It continued to be snowy around Christmas time, as shown in this photo album I put on Facebook. Our plan was to spend Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with Emily's. We were somewhat concerned about going to my parents' house in Silverton since it's about 15 miles away from where we live. However, we made it out there just fine. It was a pretty quiet Christmas Eve. My nephews were a little bit crazy, but not too bad. That's to be expected of kids their age (one is one, one is two, and one is three). We had spaghetti for dinner, which my sister, Jacquelyn, and Emily made. That's kind of a non-traditional meal to have at Christmas time, but it was good. Our original plan was to leave that night, but we ended up staying because of the weather. The next morning (Christmas), we opened presents. We got a lot of nice things. I really liked my Firefox shirt and Gorillapod. It was nice to be able to spend the morning there. We left at about 10:30 and made it home pretty quickly. The roads were very clear, which kind of surprised me. Also, the fields that were white the day before were now mostly green. When we got home, we got things ready at the apartment and then Emily's parents came over in the early afternoon. We talked and had a nice French onion soup, which Emily made. It was very good! We also played Rummikub and watched a few videos on YouTube. Emily's parents are really great people (I promise I'm not just saying that). A lot of people have issues with their in-laws, but I really do like mine. It was very nice to spend Christmas with them.

Since Jacquelyn was going to be heading back down to California on Sunday the 28th, we spent time with her on Saturday the 27th. On our way to meet up with Jacquelyn and my mom, we saw this:

It was pretty neat to see. Once we met up with Jacquelyn and my mom, we did a little shopping at Target. Emily got some earrings and some kind of body spray and I got some audio stuff and a headset. I got the headset so that I could record nerdy screencasts. After that, we ate at Taco Del Mar. It was then that we decided that Emily and I would spend the night at my parents' house, so we went back home afterwards to get our stuff together. Then we met back up with Jacquelyn and my mom at Good Will, then spent the rest of the night at my parents' house. We played Speed Scrabble, which is always exciting. I also took some random pictures while we were there. I like how this one turned out:

As for New Year's Eve, it was so different than it has been for the last few years. For 2005 and 2006, I was on my mission in the Philippines, so it was very interesting (especially with the fireworks). For 2007, I was with my best friend, his wife, her brother, and his wife. That was when I first played Apples to Apples. For 2008, I was at Scott's old studio with several friends. This year, however, we just stayed at home. I had a pretty bad headache and fell asleep at around 10:30. I woke up a few minutes before midnight and heard people making noise outside and then fell back asleep 30 or 45 minutes later. We had a New Year's kiss, though, morning breath and all. It was nice :) That was about it for the real New Year's. Emily already talked about our New Year's celebration last night. Before we left for Eugene, we were at Fred Meyer looking for a toy for Chloe and we found an awesome Elmo toy. I was having a lot of fun messing with it. We got a video:

Emily's reading Harry Potter right now. I'm going to see if she wants to play a board game or maybe Dr. Mario.

first blog post of 2009

2009-01-04T17:42:00.000-08:00

it's finally 2009!! and by finally i mean holy crap it's 2009!! we had a fun christmas season and new year. we had a lot of snow days and i ended up having over a week off. if was nice to stay home and be domestic. i actually kind of like it. we were finally able to organize our spare room and find homes for the things we have. i never thought i would be excited by cleaning, and i guess i'm not such a freak that i am excited about cleaning, it's more the results that i like, the process sucks. how do you like that run on sentence?
last night we went to autumn and alvin's apartment for the first time. it was fun :) we got to see chloe for a little while before she had to go to bed. she is an awesome kid. cody and scott were also there. this was our new years celebration because we couldn't really do it on thursday. we had a white elephant gift exchange. we took home a HUGE tub of black licorice and this amazing light bulb:

on the way home we got a little lost trying to find our way back to the freeway. we found it after about ten or fifteen minutes...or maybe more, i don't know. so we start following the signs to "portland" and after not too long we saw a truck diving on our side of the high way in the wrong direction. kind of crazy. luckily he passed us without incident, we called 911. hopefully they caught him. but because we were caught up with the 911 operator we missed our exit and went into springfield. oops! we were able to get turned in the right direction and safely home to salem in just about two hours. (it normally takes about an hour)

...ok the end

A Snowy Day at Home

2008-12-21T12:50:00.000-08:00

Church has been canceled due to the snow, so we're relaxing at home right now. Emily is playing Bubble Spinner. In fact, she just cleared all the bubbles for the first time and then more came! Her final score for that game was 606.

We have most of our thank yous done now. We're planning to finish the rest of them up today. I'm also planning to make a CD for my sister's Christmas present. Whatever we end up doing, it will be nice to be warm at home.

We had friends over for the first time last night. I posted some photos on Facebook.

On the topic of photos, we have a photo from last week of some old broccoli cheese soup that was left in the fridge for too long. It looks like a brain!:

We're getting excited for Christmas. We're going to my parents' house for Christmas Eve and then having Emily's parents over for Christmas Day. It will be great fun!

virgin blogger

2008-12-17T22:23:00.000-08:00

adam is making me do this. he says it would be good for me to make an appearance on here...i guess so. i'm not very good at writing so this really is out of my comfort zone, just thought you should all know. AND this is my first blog ever!!

so today was another snow day for adam, and i had about a half a day of work. which was nice we got some extra time together:) we are working on our thank yous for the wedding. i've decided it's hard to be grateful on paper, and a lot of them tend to sound the same, but they are genuine so that's what matters.

back to the snow! i want to go play in it and actually be able to use my snow clothes this season. and maybe build a snow man and make snow angels and have a snowball fight...and then have lots of hot chocolate!

k bye

Nose Hairs, Thank Yous, and YouTube

2008-12-16T21:26:00.001-08:00

Emily just plucked my nose hairs. The joys of being married. Actually, the joys of being in a relationship (she did this before we were married too). She claims that she does it to help me breathe better, but I think she just likes to see me wince.

This week has been exciting due to the snow. Monday was a snow day and tomorrow will be too! Unfortunately, we don't get paid for those days, but it's still awesome. Hopefully we can finally get our thank you cards out to people this weekend since we'll have so much time to work on them tomorrow. People probably think we're ingrates... but hopefully they don't.

I have been watching this video quite a lot lately and it never gets old!:

Emily likes watching me laugh at it. This next video is pretty fun to watch too. It's just somewhat amusing throughout it, but then the ending is amazing!:

This one is awesome too:

Here are some more:

Snow

2008-12-14T22:42:00.000-08:00

I don't want to dictate. You should erase that... don't type that!! *laughs* You are such a punk! *yawns* *laughs* Hmm-mmm! You start and then we can write it together.

OK, apparently Emily doesn't want to dictate, so it looks like I'll be writing this again. It's been over a month since we got married and so far it's awesome, except our apartment still isn't where we'd like it to be. Well, its physical location is fine, I mean in terms of its organization. It's not that bad, especially after the progress we made on it today, but it's still not done. I would like it to be totally clean for when Emily's parents come over on Christmas. I also want our picture frames to have our pictures in them, as opposed to the stock pictures that come with the frames.

We went to Portland for the zoo lights last night. Even though we bundled up, it was still quite cold, especially on the train ride. We got some good pictures, though. I will put them on Facebook after this. I'm glad we went, and we had fun. I wanted to see primates, but there didn't seem to be any because of construction. Speaking of primates, Emily wants a pygmy marmoset. She loves the one in this video:

And speaking of YouTube, we watched some awesome videos last night. I love this one (but don't think I'm cruel):

Anyway, the main thing we wanted to write about was the snow today. We left church at about 3:00 and had the pleasant surprise of seeing snow falling! The roads were fine, though; it had apparently just barely started snowing. After getting home, we looked outside a little later and saw that the snow was beginning to stick. We took some pictures of that, which was exciting. Then, right before dinner, we looked out the window again and then entire parking lot was white! I haven't seen this much snow in a long time. Emily thinks it might've been two inches. We got some pictures of that, too. We're excited that we got to see snow during our first Christmas season being married.

The Weddin'

2008-11-11T21:04:00.000-08:00

This is our first blog post. Adam is the one writing it, and that's probably how most of the posts will be. Emily will be contributing to this one, and hopefully the others too! We thought it would be a good idea to write down the moments of our wedding weekend that stand out to us so that we'll be able to read this in 50 years and remember it clearly.

Friday, November 7th was hell. That's probably normal for the day before any wedding, though. We won't talk about that day. November 8th, on the other hand, was great! We woke up in our separate houses after a night of constantly waking up. I went out to my living room, where Jeremy and Mary were. We talked for a while while waiting for Emily and Jacquelyn to get to my apartment (it wasn't quite Emily's apartment yet). Jacquelyn called and let me know that she would be there soon. Emily called me on her way over, saying that she had forgotten to take some ribbon home to her mom the night before and asked if I would take it over to her house while Jacquelyn did her hair. I said that Jacquelyn would be another 15 minutes, so she could do it while I showered and did other stuff. So that's what ended up happening. I consider that a foreshadowing of how our marriage will be. I wear the pants and call the shots! Kidding, kidding.... Once all that was done, Jacquelyn came over and did Emily's hair. That went perfectly smooth, which was quite a contrast from how things went the day before. As 10:45 drew closer, excitement was in the air. To help pass the time, Jeremy and I played one of our favorite Super Nintendo games, Secret of Mana, which caused Mary to roll her eyes.

Once it was time to go, we gathered our things and went out the door to find that it was raining quite a bit. We rushed everything to Emily's car and got in without her hair getting wet, so that was good. We stopped by Emily's house, then went to the bank, and then Arby's. The Arby's guy was funny because immediately after he asked what he could get for us, he said, "Will that be all?" before we could even respond, and then said "Just kidding, just let me know when you're ready." Jacquelyn got tons of Arby's sauce from him. While we were getting our food, Emily said that it was her wedding day, and the guy mentioned the weather being bad. It was kind of lame that it was raining, mostly because of the pictures, but we figured we could just get our pictures taken in the atrium at the temple.

On our way to the temple, we saw a rainbow, which was the second one Emily saw that day. She was very happy about that! When we were getting fairly close to the temple, I saw a van merging onto the freeway, and saw that it was my parents' van! Quiet a coincidence, if you ask me. Once we got even closer to the temple, we saw another car ahead of us, which was Emily's friend Mary's rental car, with Mary and Emily's family inside. All three of our vehicles were in a row. How random! When we got to the temple, Emily quickly exchanged some garments at the distribution center and we went inside.

The temple workers were expecting us. We were on time, but we still had to wait around for instruction. Emily was still somewhat stressed out because we were waiting around when it felt like we were supposed to be doing something. Before long, we went in to review the paperwork. Everything was fine, which was good. The lady told us that some couples in the past have forgotten their marriage license and they've had to turn them away. That would suck so bad! I would feel terrible.

After the paperwork, we got dressed and were sealed together. While it was happening, Emily cried, even though she tried not to. It was an awesome moment! Not the crying, but the sealing. There were probably around 25 people there. Afterwards, they all hugged us, and it was very nice. We then got ready to get our pictures taken. I went outside to get Emily's jewelry and our wedding bands from her car. I was very surprised to see that the weather was quite good! The sky was blue and it was nice and sunny! I told Emily the good news, and she was happy. We went outside and met up with our families and our photographer, Jade. We went to get our family pictures taken first. Throughout that, and also afterwards, there were some young women commenting on Emily's dress and shoes. It was funny to watch them be very stereotypical girls. After that, our families left to go get things ready for the reception, and we got pictures of just the two of us taken. Jade did a very good job, and was fun to work with. We're both very excited to see the pictures!

When the pictures were done, we went back in the temple to get our things, then drove down to Fred Meyer in Salem so that Emily could get some gels to put in her high heels. Unfortunately, they didn't end up being very good. After that, we headed down to Turner for our reception. It turned out pretty well. We talked with a few people at first, but then we went in the unused portion of the gym to wait for the ring ceremony to start. We talked a little bit with Kevin, Jill, Erin, and Jade. Soon, the ring ceremony started. Scott was the DJ, and he played Pachelbel's Canon. It was a little awkward walking out, because we didn't know exactly what pace we should be walking at. It wasn't too bad, though. When we got to the front of the room, our bishop, Bishop Russell, talked for a few minutes. It was very nice. We then exchanged rings. I dropped Emily's ring, and people laughed, but I didn't mind at all; I thought it was funny. After that, Bishop Russell said that people could come up and congratulate us, but nobody came up at first; people just sat there taking pictures. We think that nobody was coming up because everybody was waiting for our parents to go up first. Eventually people went up, though. Later on, my dad gave a blessing on the food and we ate. It was a very good dinner, very much like Thanksgiving. Everybody did an amazing job on the food. After a while, it was time to dance. Neither of us wanted to be the only ones dancing, but we were kind of forced into it. It was the Mariah Carey song "Hero", which Emily actually doesn't really like all that much. It went all right, though. Of course there were lots of people taking pictures of us. After a little while, Kevin and Jill started dancing too, which made us feel better, and then a few more couples. When the dancing was done, we socialized a little more, then cut the cake, which was quite awkward and pointless. I didn't mind too much, though, because that's just how weddings are. After a little more socializing, Emily and I decided to bail without letting everybody know. The only people who knew were Jeremy, Mary, the other Mary, and Jade. We just didn't feel like making a big scene. We drove away and left all the stress that comes from preparing for a wedding behind us. It was done and over with! It went very smoothly and we are both so grateful for everybody who helped us out. We have awesome families and friends.

We got gas at the gas station near Emily's house and then went to Lincoln City for the weekend. It was awesome, but we won't go into the details! The room was great, though. Here are some pictures of it:

We are very happy with how our wedding went, and we are ecstatic to be married!