Life continued...

The rest of October

So after Jaycee was born, we still had no name for her.  I was hoping/expecting that after everything I went through to have her Tyson would finally just give in and jump on board with my choices...  He didn't.  Instead he "veto'd" them and told me he still really wanted his pick.  And since there was no way I was naming her his pick, we were back to square one.  So frustrating.  And I was sooo exhausted.  So they moved us to my new room, and we were talking and people kept asking us what her name was, and Jaycee randomly just popped into my head!  So I said, what about Jaycee?  (Fully expecting to be shot down, like my 2985893 suggestions before had been)  and he goes, ok.  I like Jaycee...

ARE YOU KIDDING??  haha we argued about her name for 9 months and then it was that easy?  We decided next baby we arent even talking about names till they are here. 

Ok...I'm gunna be honest here...I dealt with being pregnant and throwing up all the time pretty well.  I expected that to be awful, so I was mentally prepared to deal with it.  Being in labor for 18+ hours was hard, but I expected labor and delivering a baby to be hard, so I dealt pretty good with that too...

No one, not in all my millons of conversations with moms everywhere, ever mentioned to me that recovering from having a baby could also be very hard.  So no, I can't say I dealt with that very well.  haha...I would LOVE to be one of those amazing super women who jumped right out of bed and didn't need any pain killers, and functioned great on the lack of sleep they got those first few weeks, but I'll be honest.  I wasn't.  haha I WAS IN PAIN.  And I WAS TIRED.  And I WAS NOT EXPECTING IT!  

Call me nieve, but I don't really know what I thought was going to happen after I actually had my baby.  To be honest, I don't think I ever actually thought about life after I wasn't pregnant any more. 

Between my crushed (not really but it felt like it) tail bone, and my milk coming in (ok, I guess thats not awful for everyone, but it was for me) and the crazy hormones, there were A LOT of tears that week.  haha I was a mess...And honestly don't think I couldn't have done it without my mom there!  Kudos to all those amazing people who do it on their own...

LUCKILY I had this amazing little girl to make it all worth it!  

Brand new baby yawns are the best...

First Bath at home!!  Wasn't the biggest fan...

But, she was the cutest in her baby towel!

Classic family picture...notice I had no pants that fit yet...rocking the yoga pants still

We were VERY grateful for grandma that week

AND uncle Brad!  He learned way too much about what girls go through post baby though I think haha 

I'm BACK?

Hmmm...turns out people actually read my blog!  And they wanted me to write again!  (Ok, its my mom and my grandma, but it still made me feel special!)
So, lots has happened since I wrote my last blog post!!  mostly, this little gem:

 Except she looked more like this at first:

Seriously, what a cute baby right??  I'd go into a ton of details about how I was in labor for 18 hours and how my epidural was beautiful, until it wore off every hour and a half then I would turn into the grumpiest in labor person ever, or how I pushed for 2 hours and and after all that when she FINALLY came out of me they realized she was facing up instead of down, which apparently was why she was soooo unbelievably hard to get out of me, and why my tail bone felt like someone hit it with a sledge hammer over and over, but you know, it was such a long time ago I'm pretty much over it now...

So I guess I'll just try to do a quick recap of the last 8 months or whatever its been since I blogged last! :)  and I'll post some pictures cuz thats the best part!! 

September:

Boring...I was mostly just extremely prego and HOT.  Thats all I really remember.  I unpacked the rest of my house, and worked a bunch...still threw up almost every day...MAN I miss being pregnant...not really...

We set up Jaycee's room, still had no idea we were going to name her Jaycee...that wasn't even an option yet...

Here is a nice prego picture for you!  haha and nice neatly folded towels hanging in the background (Thanks Tyson)  Technically this was the day before I had Jaycee, so this is actually an October picture, BUT I didn't take a lot of prego pics of myself...

I still look at this and die at how that was actually possible to grow so much...

October:

This was such a happy/painful month!  haha I worked my shifts the first half, then was scheduled to get induced on the 12.  Except they were so busy I had to keep calling back every 2 hours all day long because they had no room for me at the hospital.  Then around 3 in the afternoon I started having contractions pretty good and by 5:30 I wondered if we should just go in anyways!  Then by about 6 they slowed down a ton...then at 8 ish they called me and told me to come in and get induced!!  They told me when I came in that I was already having good contractions...clearly I knew that too, and was already dilated to a 4, so they just broke my water and started me on a really low dose of pitocin.  

I changed my mind PS...I'll give you a short version of the Jaycee story...I should write it down somewhere haha. 

So, the nurse told me after they broke my water it would be a while before I started to really feel anything...WRONG!!  I was instantly in labor!  I tried telling her I was in a lot of pain, and I really wanted my epidural, and she kept telling me they didnt want me to get it until I was actually in labor...all I knew is I was dying and if this wasnt really labor I didnt want to know what real labor was! This was about midnight ish...FINALLY at 3 I made her check me cuz I was pretty sure I couldnt handle not being in labor anymore...so she did and was SHOCKED that I was dilated to a 6!  She goes, Oh my!  Ya I'll go page the anesthesiologist and we'll get that epidural...

thanks...

Turns out in the middle of the night it takes 45 more minutes for the anesthesiologis to get to the hospital so it was about 3:45 before I got that in...best part of that whole story is that the nurse woke Tyson up and said, you better come and hold you wifes hand or she's gunna be REALLY mad at you in the morning...

Anyways...epidurals are amazing...seriously best I'd felt in 3 months to be honest...and I slept till around 7 I think!  Then the Dr came in and checked me, and I was still at a 6, but he said, by the way you are progressing, I'd say worst case scenario you will be eating lunch today... 

WRONG.  

Turns out I was still dilated to a 6 at 11.  And to make it worse, my epidural had worn off a couple times and so they had to keep tracking down the anesthesiologist to give me more drugs...basically thats how my day went...

At noon, the doc came in and said if I hadnt progressed still they were going to put something in there to measure how strong my contractions were...lucky me I was almost a 7 then!  

at 1 I was actually a 7....

at 2:30 I was at an 8...and my epidural had worn off again

at 2:45 Tyson tried to eat a kit kat in front of me, and I politely asked him not to (or gave him a death glare and yelled at him to put it away) 

at 3:30 I was still at an 8...

also at 3:30 I still hadnt got me epidural fixed...there were some tears at that point...

at 3:40 I got my epidural fixed and fell asleep almost instantly...

at 4:15 they woke me up and checked me again...10!!  What??  I had no idea!  haha the nurse was like, don't you feel any pressure or anything?  apparently you are supposed to feel pressure even with the epidural...but nope...

So I started pushing...and I'd push so good...and she didnt come out.  After an hour of pushing my epidural wore off...sweet, but by that point I just wanted her out!  Every time I finished pushing they would say, next push for sure, she'll be here.  She wasn't.  The doctor pulled out the suction... He pulled SOOOO hard while I was pushing he actually pulled the suction right off her head...(worst sound ever by the way, I was pretty sure it took all her skin with it...) Later Tyson told me he was pretty amazed at how rough they were getting her out...I didn't really notice in the moment!  FINALLY after another hour of pushing, she came out and everyone in the room went OHHHHH, and the doctor said, She's a star gazer!!  

...Like that meant anything to me...I figured something was wrong with her eyes...

But apparently that means she came out facing the wrong way, meaning she couldnt bend the way she needed to so she could just slip out quickly...also meaning she put a ridiculous amount of pressure on my tail bone during the delivery...seriously I'm crying remembering the pain...The doc told me its pretty much equivalent to pushing out a 2 lbs heavier baby!  Lucky me...

So, she was a meconium baby, meaning they took her away from me as soon as she was born so they could make sure she was breathing good and all that...honestly I was so exhausted it didnt even phase me...I just made Tyson feed me chicken nuggets cuz I was too tired to feed myself!  haha Finally after a little while they let me hold her...it was pretty amazing to meet this little girl!!  Seriously we are pretty obsessed with this little girl and can't even remember what life was like without her!!

Anyways....phew...that was long...so I'll update on November - Now later...now I'll just post some sweet pics! 

Just getting started...we had NO idea what we were in for haha

Haha...seriously...I was so excited!

haha Freshly born!!  I though she was the cutest...makes me laugh now...her poor squished head....she's WAY cuter now...no worries

Seriously, she was half an inch longer on the day she was born than at her first checkup a week later...pretty sure it was cuz her head was so squished!  Thats what happens when you get stuck in a birth canal for 2 hours! 

Just getting weighed

I like this picture cuz it shows how bruised her head was the next day from the suction...poor Jaycee..

Going Home!!

New Things!

Ok...so this has been a summer of NEW things for us!!  Its been super busy, and we've been loving it!!  So I figured its time to write it all down and post some pictures!!  

First off... Meet Stewy...

Stewy is my surprise 3rd anniversary present.  Stewy is a chocolate lab puppy.  Not gunna lie, if Tyson had asked me instead of just showing up with a puppy one day, I probably would have said absolutely not.  I mean, we are having a baby in 6 weeks!  We cant have a puppy AND a baby right?  But Tyson was so excited when he brought him home, and I didn't have the heart to not be just as excited with him!  :)  Lucky for us Stewy has been a pretty awesome puppy.  He stays outside 95% of the time, hardly ever barks, and besides a few issues (like my brand new flip flop being chewed up, or the 1 AM wake up call when our sprinklers turned on automatically and FREAKED him out) he's been pretty much the dream dog.  And now after 3 weeks of being puppy owners we can't imagine him not around! haha so I guess he stays.  

New thing #2

Meet our new house!  

Sadly, this is the only picture I have of it.  Its on I took with my phone, right before going to work.  I didn't even take the time to close the garage door.  oops!  But we love the house!  One of these days I'll get the energy to clean it up all nice and take pictures of the inside and put those on here.  But for now this is all you get!!  We moved here about 2 days after Stewy came along.  Basically moving when you are 7 months pregnant is not the funnest, but I guess it was better than moving when I was 8 or 9 months along, right?  Its been so fun to have more space and decorate and have a room to get ready for our baby!!  I'm in love with it!  And now we have tons of extra space, so COME VISIT ME.  :)  

The last new thing...

I'm gunna do something I said I would never do...

Mandi...all prego....

There I am.  34 weeks.  Fresh out of the shower.  haha I can't believe we only have 6 weeks left till we meet this little girl!  We are pretty dang excited.  Feel free to tell me how huge I am.  I've had 2 people this week ask me if I'm having twins... ouch.  And I still have 6 weeks left!!  Oh well...what can ya do....   :) 

Anyways...there is our summer update!!  

Made me laugh...

Found these gems on my lap top...Seriously LOVE this guy!!  

Seriously how can these not make you laugh???

Also....for those of you waiting in suspense...

WERE HAVING A GIRL!!!  Seriously I am sooo excited!!  And as of this Friday I am HALF DONE BEING PREGNANT!!  Crazy stuff

17 Weeks, 4 Days

How far along? 17 weeks, 4 days
Maternity clothes? Some...mostly I just cant do my pants up anymore so I found some super cute and cheap maternity ones at Ross!  I love Ross...
Stretch marks? Nope
Sleep?Always...No longer having issues in the sleep department!!  Now I wish I could sleep all day, every day.  It's been awesome!  I can work all night, come home and go to bed at 7 in the morning, sleep till 2 in the afternoon, and still go to bed by 8 or 9 that night and sleep all night!  I love it!  
Miss anything? Having energy...and not peeing every hour all day long and all night long...seriously, I thought that was supposed to be better in your second trimester!!  I think this baby is camped out on my bladder and thinks its funny.  Tyson thinks its great cuz that means its got his sense of humor...
Movement? Twice I have felt it move for sure...other times I wasn't sure.  So fun tho!
Food Cravings? BEEF.  Seriously all I think about all day long is hamburger and roast and steak.  It's ridiculous!  Seriously its a dang good thing we got an unlimited supply of beef on the farm or I would be DYING.  haha...that and potatoes still.  Oh my I'm getting hungry...
Gender? Mandi still thinks boy...Tyson thinks girl now.
Labor signs? nope
Symptoms? Still having the nausea on and off...I was doing so good and then kinda back tracked this week and threw up like 5 times in the last 3 days...but today has been better again...
Back pain...seriously killing me!! I think that has to do with all the lifting I do at work too...
The whole bathroom every hour issue...
Sleeping always...
Seriously want a hamburger right now...
Belly Button in or out? in
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody? I'm getting better control over the whole mood issues I feel.  I still have my moments...like when Tyson fed my left over roast beef to an outside kitty trying to lure it in...SERIOUSLY lost it!  Tyson calls that side of me the beast.  Hopefully none of you have to ever meet her...She scares me too...
Looking forward to? Finding out what we are having in LESS THAN 2 WEEKS!!!!  Gahhh...I'm dying to know...seriously its killing me!  Is it a boy??  Is it a girl??  I've been calling it a boy, but what if its a girl and mad at me now?  Seriously its ridiculous how impatient I am.  


Anyways...there is my update.  Our life is basically the same as usual...I gotta go practice building a shelter tho...I'm supposed to be certifying the YW in that for their camp this summer...seriously??  Why couldnt they give me the first aid station!  There I'm comfortable.  Shelter building...I sit in the car and Tyson takes care of it!  haha should be fun...

13 weeks!

How far along? 13 weeks!
Maternity clothes? Nope
Stretch marks? Nope!
Sleep? Having some issues...I usually fall asleep super easy ever since I got pregnant, but I am having trouble staying asleep...I'm usually wide awake every morning around 6:30 lately, which is WEIRD for me...and sucks when I have to work nights! haha but I can usually have a nap so I wont complain too much...My other issue is I am having the most bizarre and messed up dreams since I got pregnant! Seriously woke up sobbing for the first time in my life the other day! Freaked Tyson out! haha but what can you do, right??
Miss anything? Not feeling nauseated! Seriously, what is that like?! And...ice cream...I can not eat the stuff...Seriously DQ blizzards used to be my favorite thing ever...but they just make me puke these days... :(
Movement? nope
Food Cravings? Depends on the day for me...Usually I want something so bad, then I eat it for like 3 days, then I never want to eat it again. Probably the most consistent thing has been potatoes! Good thing I live in Idaho! haha
Gender? Mandi thinks boy...Tyson thinks boy. haha...we will definitally be finding out as soon as possible...we are both WAY to impatient to wait the whole 9 months!!
Labor signs? nope
Symptoms? Constant nausea! I wont complain though...2 weeks ago I couldnt make it 2 hours without puking, and now I usually only throw up once in the morning when I first get up, and sometimes at night if I get overtired! Seriously compared to then, I feel AMAZING! But I am hoping that soon I can go through the day without feeling nauseated at all! Or even without puking at all!! Other than that...I've been pretty lucky...nothing too extreme...But I think I'm starting to get heart burn sometime? I've never had it so I don't know...haha
Belly Button in or out? in
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody? I would tell you I have been completely happy always...But that would be a lie. I have been MOODY! haha but you try throwing up all day every day and then never being grumpy! This has actually improved a ton too the last week and a half now that I'm starting to feel a bit better!! haha but Tyson did tell me once after one of my "episodes" that he missed not prego Mandi! haha After that I have tried a lot harder to control my hormones :) Today, Im happy!
Looking forward to? Finding out what we are having...even though that is forever away still...And looking pregnant, and not fat. I'm getting into the awkward stage that nothing I own fits right and anyone who doesnt know I'm pregnant probably is thinking I'm just letting myself go...sigh...

Anyways...there it is! We are having a baby! YA! haha We are so unbelievably excited it is ridiculous! Other than that life is pretty much been the same old for us! Tyson is finishing up this semester of school and I am just working!

HI!

Ok...I need to blog. I get it. Tyson is going to kill me because he thinks I'm a freak, for 1, putting the picture up of myself that I did on my last post, and 2...leaving it there so its the first thing people see when they look at my blog for the last 4 months!! haha, but lets face it...Our life is a little boring I feel sometimes! haha. So I decided I would post about re-doing our trailer last September...haha I know it's now February of 2012...but I think that is seriously the last time I took pictures of anything we did...so thats all I got! Haha

Ok...so I forgot to take a before picture...and this is the best I got...Basically the whole house looked like the bottom part... Just rotting and falling apart. NASTY!!

Here is Tyson working sooo hard! Seriously...I pretend I did a ton, but mostly I complained about how hard this was, and Tyson did the hard work. He's a champ! :)

See here I am. Working HARD!! I'll be honest...I painted EVERY SINGLE board that we had to put up on our house. And they all needed 2 coats!! ARE YOU SERIOUS?? Ya...I had some major blisters after about 2 hours, and it took us 3 days to finish...see why I complained?! haha I hope your all feeling really bad for me now.

My injury that I cried about for at least a couple hours! Haha...I think Tyson finally felt bad for me...or got sick of me complaining about painting, so he gave me another job...to use the hammer and dig out the stones that go around the edge of our house...I swung real hard, missed...and this happened. Haha...I don't think he felt a whole lot of sympathy for me...

And, the finished project! Looks good eh? It was a lot of work, but totally worth it! The paint job looks AMAZING right?? :)

We had some left over supplies and thought it would be fun for kitty to get a matching new house...cute right? It's got 2 levels, carpet, and shingles...rough life, right?

Kitty also somehow managed to climb on the roof those 2 days...this became her favorite hang out...weird...she couldnt get down though, so Tyson had to keep climbing up to get her off.

Putting the deck on...Also a funny story...I won't go into much detail, but lets just say I've never been a big muscle girl...and this deck is HEAVY!! Tyson tried to move it with just me, but ended up having to call in some reinforcements...He kept saying, Ok Mandi, when I say lift, just bend your knees, and then stand up and just pull the deck up...you can do it... (he has so much faith in me...clearly never seen my try to lift weights...) He would count down, and when he said lift it only moved on his side...so then he would have to come to my side and lift it so that my side would catch up to his side...Anyways...we decided that doing it that way would have taken HOURS, so we called Matt and Riley...THANKS GUYS!!

Anyways...thats my exciting life!! :)