Cute

Two things: First, a funny little anecdote. So Jeremy is in the bishopric, and so he does a lot of interviews. Well I guess last Tuesday he was interviewing two 11-year-old girls who were going to be turning 12 soon. So later that night he saw the Young Women's president and she came up to him and told him that after the interview the girls ran up to her and she asked how it went and they said: "Lori, he is SO cute! Don't you think so?" I thought that was great. My hubby is winning the hearts of the 11 year-olds. Yes.

Now for something else that's cute, here's a little video we took of Eli the other day. Of course he did the best smiles when the camera wasn't on him, but this is still pretty cute.

Oh, and Eli and I survived going to all 3 hours of church for the first time today! He ate during Sunday school and slept through most everything else. Yea! I feel like it's a big accomplishment, especially since Jeremy is off doing his stuff all day and all through church too. So we made it!

Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend we had a big family reunion with my dad's side of the family. They pretty much have one every year and it's always lots of fun. So the reunion officially started on Saturday, but Friday, my sister Amy and her family came into town and so did my parents and little sister Heidi. So we went over to my Aunt and Uncle's house for dinner and visiting. Amy's kids are so cute and they are getting so big! Her youngest, Russell, is 6 1/2 months and it's crazy how much bigger he is than Eli. But in a few years, I'm sure they'll be great friends.
Grant asked me to take this picture of him. He just turned three a couple weeks ago.

Then Saturday everyone went to Lagoon. We didn't think that was the best place for a 4 week old baby, so Jeremy and I stayed home. We had a great relaxing day. We took a nap, cleaned up a bit, watched a movie, and just relaxed. Then Sunday we all went to my grandparents' ward and then over to their house for lunch. We then learned some interesting info about some of our ancestors and then everyone went to a couple cemeteries to clean their graves and put flowers on them. Jeremy and I went home to grab a nap during that part. Again, we didn't really want to haul the baby around to the grave sites. Then that night we went to my Aunt & Uncle's house for dinner and then each family played some old family videos. That was pretty funny. My dad had some from 1988, 1989, and 1992. Pretty awesome. We all laughed at the styles back then. The crimped hair, my mom's perm, the bulky sweaters, etc.
Eli and I at my aunt's house.
Cousin Aly, sister Heidi and nephew Russell.
My cousin Michelle holding Eli, and aunt Marie and cousin David.
My grandma and Eli.

Then on Monday we met up at Little Cottonwood Canyon for "breakfast" (it was breakfast food, but we met up at noon and I think we ate at about 1:00). We just had fun talking and playing at the campsite up there. Then we roasted hot dogs for dinner and had some smores later. It was a fun weekend! Eli was a trooper. He'd never had so much activity, but he slept through most of it. :)
Jeremy and Eli.
All bundled up at the canyon.Family around the campsite. I meant to get a picture of Jeremy with the guitar. He was goin' to town playing and singing some Bob Marley among other things. :) We had fun!

Catching Up

Before I blog about our fun weekend I wanted to catch up on some other things. Last Saturday (the 16th) we planted our garden! Our garden was a big success last year, so we're hoping for a good one again this year. Jeremy's friend from work came over with his big rototiller and they prepared the area where we were going to plant. We have 4 little "plots" this year. We planted roma tomatoes, celebrity tomatoes, garlic, yellow and red onions, green beans, red, yellow & green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, cucumbers, parsley, basil, and cilantro. We're excited! The pictures I took are terrible, but I'll put up a few anyway. I'll take more later when things start to grow more.

I also wanted to take a picture of this:
These are dishes and thank-you cards to people that brought us meals. Look at all those! Our ward was so great and we were very well fed. Thank you everyone!

And then here's a few more pictures of the little man:



And finally, I wanted to say Happy Birthday to my Grandma! My mom's mom turns 90 today! She is amazing and I'm so grateful for her. We're having a big party for her with my mom's whole family in June out in California, so that should be really fun. Thanks for all you've done Grandma!

'Cause the Grandmas want more pictures!

Enjoy.

My birth experience

Well I thought I should write down all the details of my birth experience before I forgot them all. I've already tried to block out some things :) but I'm pretty sure I can remember most of it. Don't feel like you have to read all of this, but if you want to, go ahead! I read a whole bunch of birth stories right before I had Eli, and I thought it was really fun. Anyway, so here it goes:

Eli was due on April 17th, but that day came and went. I was dilated to a 1 at my 40 week checkup, but I had been that dilated for a few weeks already. So at 41 weeks things started to happen. I went in to the doctor that morning for my checkup and I had 2 contractions while I was hooked up to the fetal monitor. Jeremy had taken the morning off to come with me and was planning on going back to work, but I kept on having contractions. I'd had Braxton Hicks contractions before, but these felt real...meaning they hurt. :) So we went to the grocery store and I kept having them every 10-15 minutes, so he decided to stay home. Well I had them all day long from 9:30am - midnight and then I fell asleep and they were gone. I was so sure we would be heading to the hospital that night, but they died down. The next 2 days I had some more for a few hours at a time, but again they just died down.

So I was scheduled to be induced on Monday, the 27th and the doctor said I was supposed to come in on Sunday night at 9:00pm and they would give me a suppository thing that would dilate me to a 2 or 3 by the next morning. Then he would start me on Pitocin or break my water or something. So we went to the hospital Sunday night and I got checked in and everything and by about 10:00 we were settled and the nurse came in to check me and I was dilated to a 2.5! I was pretty excited because I felt like all those contractions had at least done something. So she had me hooked up to 2 monitors - one to track his heartbeat and one to track my contractions, and I was having contractions pretty regularly already. So she called the doctor and he said not to do the suppository, but wait a couple hours and check me again. So we just hung out for a little while, trying to get some rest and then she came back around midnight to check me again. (Side note - holy cow, that hurt so bad. That made we wish I had an epidural for that because my cervix was really far back and she was not gentle. Ugh.) Anyway, so she checked me again and I wasn't any more dilated. So she said to walk around a bit and she'd come back in an hour or so to start me on Pitocin.

So we went for a little stroll around the maternity wing and then I took a hot shower. I was having a lot of back labor - which now I know was because he was face up - so the shower felt really nice. Then at 1:40 she started me on Pitocin. Fun, fun. I felt like I was doing pretty good dealing with the contractions. I couldn't sleep, but I could rest and I was staying pretty relaxed during the contractions. But she kept coming back and increasing the dose and pretty soon I was struggling. She started at a 2 (which I don't know exactly what that means) and by 5:00am it was at a 10 and I asked for an epidural. The contractions were right on top of each other and there was no gradual build up. I didn't have to look at the screen to know that they just shot up and had all sorts of spikes. I had quite a few that would start before the previous one had ended and I was starting to panic. So luckily they got the epidural going pretty quickly and by 5:30 I was feeling much better. I didn't plan to get an epidural, but I'm sure glad I decided to. They actually told me I could have gotten one the second I walked in the door because I was dilated enough, but I wasn't in excruciating pain then.

Anyway, so then the nurse checked me again (this time no pain, hooray!) at about 6:00 am and I was dilated to a 4.5. So I tried to get some rest since we had been up all night and then my doctor arrived at 8:00 and checked me and I was dilated to an 8! I was so surprised because I had been so comfortable, it was weird to think that I had progressed so quickly. (I was also glad I hadn't felt that quick progression). So he broke my water then and told me to get ready because he thought it would be pretty soon. I had a new nurse by then, Heather, and she was awesome. She came in about an hour later to check me and I was just about fully dilated. I was still feeling pretty numb so I was wondering how I was going to push because I didn't feel the urge to at all. But then I did. By 9:45 I was fully dilated and ready and my epidural was starting to die down. They didn't want to give me anymore because they wanted me to push, which was fine because I wasn't in any pain...yet. So I started pushing and I could feel the pressure of his head down there, but still not too much pain. After a little while of pushing I started feeling the contractions again and I could feel his feet up in my ribs which made it hard to lean forward and push.

Anyway so Heather pointed out to Jeremy that she was starting to see the head. I was getting excited and I asked them if he had hair. They said it didn't look like it (which made be disappointed, because I'd had heartburn the entire pregnancy - that should earn me some hair). Then she realized that he was posterior (face up, "sunny-side up"). Babies are supposed to come out face down with the back of their head coming out first because it's the smallest part. Well my little guy was not only face up, but his head was tilted back, so his forehead was coming out first - not so good. That's why they saw no hair. So she called the doctor in, who had been in surgery, and he came in. By this time I had already been pushing for over an hour and no progress had been made (which is why they finally realized he wasn't coming out right). And I was feeling a lot by this point.

So the doctor came in and he looked a little concerned - not something you want to see. He said he didn't think the baby was going to make it out without some help. He said he thought he should use forceps so he could tilt the baby's head so he could come out easier. He said I could keep pushing for hours but it wouldn't do any good. So, I decided to trust his judgment. I was a little nervous because I was feeling a lot and I didn't think those forceps would feel too nice, but he said we'd try it and if I couldn't handle it maybe they could up my epidural. So anyway, I geared myself up and he got the forceps in there and tilted the baby's head. This is where everything gets fuzzy because I was in a lot of pain. I definitely felt when he tilted his head and all of a sudden there was this huge amount of pressure and pain and everyone was telling me to push and I'm thinking "Are you kidding? I can't even breathe!" But somehow I pushed as hard as I could and in about 2 or 3 pushes he came out!

I felt such a relief when he was out, not just physically but mentally, emotionally, etc. So they put him on my stomach and again I was kind of in a bit of a shock, but I gave him some kisses and was so happy to see him! The nurses were laughing because he had a big lump on the front of his head (kind of like a unicorn). My nurse was so worried that I would be freaking out about it, but I thought he was perfect. (The lump was gone within an hour, by the way). They had to take him away after a few seconds because he was a little blue, so they gave him some oxygen and then they weighed and measured him and everything. Then they put him back on me and he fell asleep sucking his thumb. So cute! We were so happy! The doctor had to spend about 45 minutes sewing me up because I got a 3rd degree tear, but it was all worth it. So I nursed him after awhile and I finally got to eat too :) and then we all just rested for a bit. I almost passed out when they moved me from the delivery room to the recovery room (that was an exciting little experience). I guess it was because loss of blood or something. I just remember everything going black and the nurse and Jeremy yelling at me to keep my eyes open and look at them. I kept telling them "I can't see anything!" but they didn't seem to care if I could see them so long as I was trying to open my eyes. Anyway, I made it and once I was back laying down my color and sight returned.

Then it was so nice to just be able to relax and spend time getting to know each other. The doctor said if I wasn't so tall he probably would have had to do a C section because he wouldn't have had room to tilt the baby's head, so I was really grateful for my long genes!

So now it's been 3 weeks and it feels like a lifetime ago. Physically, recovery has been a lot harder than I ever anticipated, but I'm getting better. I bruised my tailbone really bad (okay, Eli's head bruised my tailbone really bad) so that has made it hard to sit or stand for very long, but it's getting a little better every day. There's been some other unpleasant recovery-related things, but all in all, I'm starting to feel more like myself. That's my story! Congrats if you made it this far. :)

***ELI UPDATE: So I took the little guy to the doctor last Thursday for his check up and he was 10 lbs. 7 oz.! Yeah, he's growing quite fast. The doctor said everything's great and he's doing really well! I also took him to Sacrament meeting yesterday and that was pretty fun. He was like a little celebrity with everyone coming to get their peek at him. He behaved very well and only made a few grunting noises, but nothing too disruptive.

2 weeks old

First of all, Happy Mother's Day yesterday! I am so grateful to have a wonderful mother and mother-in-law. We were lucky to see both of them recently. Jeremy's parents, sister & her kids were here a couple weeks ago and they stayed just long enough to come see us and the baby in the hospital. It was so nice to have them be there and join in our joy of welcoming our son into the world. Then a couple days later my mom came and she was a lifesaver. She left last Sunday night and I really wish she could have stayed longer. She spoiled us by fixing delicious meals, cleaning the whole house and making sure I rested a lot. Thanks to both of our moms for being so wonderful!

Well, I know I've been a bad blogger lately, so I'm going to try and repent. Last week was pretty rough, I'm not going to lie, and pretty much any free time I had was spent trying to get some rest. My mom left last Sunday night and Jeremy was back to work and I was just a little overwhelmed with lack of sleep, pain from recovery and just trying to figure out this whole motherhood thing. Anyway, after a nice weekend with a lot of help from Jeremy I'm feeling much more rested and recovered.

So now what you all want. More pictures of our baby! He is two weeks old today and he's doing really well. I think his hair is thinning a bit on the top, so he looks a little like a balding man, but he's still so cute! Here's some recent photos:

More Eli

It seems like our little guy changes so much from day to day, so I thought I would put up a few more pictures. We took him to the doctor yesterday for a follow-up test on his bilirubin level and he was fine! The pediatrician said he was the perfect baby. He's already gained weight! He's 9 lbs. 5.7 oz. now and he's eating and pooping like a champ. :) The doctor said he was very alert for a 4-day-old baby and that he has great muscle tone. We think he's pretty amazing too. He slept from 10pm - 3:15am last night, then ate and went back to sleep until 6:45, which made his parents very happy. He just seems to be thriving. He's so easy-going and hardly ever cries. He's not too fond of getting his diaper changed, but even then it's just a little whimper most of the time. Anyway, so we feel very blessed. He's such a handsome little guy and it's fun to see him changing from day to day. And we can see and feel him getting chubbier too. He has a little double chin now! I'm glad to know I, like my sisters and mom, have that Astle cream instead of milk. It makes for fast growing babies!

Tummy time with dad:
Loungin' on the couch. I love his olive skin tone and dark hair.
More snuggles with daddy:And these are from today:

"Mmm, I love my mommy's milk. It puts me right to sleep."
Hangin' out.
Big yawn!
Are you lookin' at me?
Happy boy.