One Month

Andie is now one month old. What a big girl. We just love having her. Kacen has been such a good boy about it too. He doesn't really too much care about her but he hasn't been too big of a pill about the adjustments. I have totally noticed that her nose has come out a little more in the last month, it is so cute. She has super cute chubby cheeks and is just totally darling.

 One hour 6 lbs 8 oz

One week 6 lbs 2 oz

Our Weekend

Kacen got a horrible mosquito bite on the side of his eye Friday night and by Saturday it was nearly swollen shut. Poor kid. It is looking a little better now.

Kace and Andie have these sad stuffy noses. Well Andie's is sad and Kacen's is yucky cuz he wipes it on anything, but his mucus made him have a sad cough. Ky Ky had a sore throat. Luckily I am feeling alright, keep your fingers crossed.

I saw a spider last night that made me run over to a chair and literally stand on top of it screaming. Ky's response was, "Go kill it." But he didn't want to kill it either. I decided that people hate killing big spiders because we're afraid that they will jump up and get us. Admit it, you've thought that before.

Ky and I are a little hooked on Cher Lloyd's "Want U Back." If you haven't heard it, youtube it.

Today was totally a chocolate souffle day. It was so good, and Ky loved it. I love making food when my hubby loves it, it makes me so happy. Isn't it funny that with all the people in this world to please I really just want Ky to love my food, and that is pretty much all that matters. PS chocolate souffle is totally one of my favorite deserts now. 

Also we love Andie girl, she smiles all the time, real or not it is so cute, and she isn't fussy any more either, let's keep our fingers crossed on that too. I will be posting her one month update soon.

The E-Town Fair

This week my main squeeze and I loaded up the kiddos a couple of times  and headed to the E-Town fair. Pretty much the biggest summer event here, well pretty much the biggest event all year. 

 Kacen loved the tractors they had out that people could climb on.

 He was a little iffy about the petting zoo. The favorite of last year.

 He hated this car ride, by the end he was clutching his seat belt and saying "Mama, mommy, mom." with every turn around the track.

 Loved this train ride too.

 Didn't care about the boats

 And actually said "woooh" while riding the balloons, which went pretty high up in the air.

It was a really hot week, but the fair was fun, we just had to keep Andie in the shade and misted with water. Kyle and I shared cheesy bacon french fries topped with mozzarella sticks, Yikes! Actually about half of them fell on the ground and we were really happy for it because we both felt a little sick from eating them, we went home and had salads.

However my healthful eating went out the window the next day when Kacen once again decorated the room with POOP, SERIOUS! I found him in his room only five minutes after being put down for a nap. I rushed him into the tub and was about to have a full fledged breakdown because Ky was asleep resting from a long weekend of work and I had to deal with it all by myself and deal with Kace for the remainder of the night. Right as the tears were welling up, Ky wearily walked out of the room and started to help clean up, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for such a wonderful husband. Then I decided to take a friend up on her offer to help watch Kacen if I needed it, and did I ever. So after cleaning up the poop and making dinner and other cleaning I took him over to Brenda's and headed to the fair. I met my friend Christie for a pumpkin funnel cake, and butterflied potatoes topped with fake cheese, yumm.  No the eating didn't make me feel better but the time to myself just chilling and people watching was really relaxing.

On that note I want to say I am so grateful for all of the wonderful people in my life. I am blessed to have wonderful friends and family who love me and show so much generosity and  compassion towards me and my family. I don't want to say names because I know I will leave someone out but I have had people offer to watch my kids, people watch my kids, offer to bring me food, and bring me food, bring me tons of kids clothes, hang out with me for girls nights, hold my baby and tend to Kacen in social situations, and just show love and concern for me through meaningful conversation, special notes and phone calls. I truly appreciate each of these kind tokens and I am so grateful for each of you. I hope that all of my friends and family also know that you can call on me in your times of need and I would gladly help you out. That's what friends are for.

Little Randoms

It is happening once again, post pregnancy hair loss, ugh. I can't stand finding hair all over Andie, Kacen and myself. Hopefully it doesn't last long though.

And what is this? Just an unassuming packed suitcase? Yeah or try a deep box of depression. AKA a box full of all the clothes I used to be able to wear and now can't, yeah yeah I know I just had a baby but the worst part is some of these fit me when I was nearly ready to pop and now with my hips as wide as can be they don't fit at all.

 Oh yeah and this simple little button, I hate this button, it popped off my pants today! Serious? So lame.

We went to a concert in the park this last Sunday and, eh it was ok. But here are the pictures from our adventure. The band was from Salt Lake and the lead singer obviously had some spiritual conflict going on, or I suppose their lyricist whoever it was. But the beats were good.

The best part was seeing all of the free spirited people. The best was a middle aged woman in earthy clothes and no bra, wow. Well I don't know that sort of ties with the hippie grandma with low cut shorts, mid-drift shirt and a tramp stamp. I love to people watch. And in all fairness people were watching us and our attempt to wrangle a two-year-old throughout the show.

 Our great friends Christie and Derek, he is doing a great job of protecting little Andie girls ears, at least we think she can still hear.

  We went to Costco the other day and Kacen was playing by the curb while we loaded the car. I went around the front of the car to find him playing with a peice of chewed gum on the curb. I said, "Ew Kace don't touch that's a yucky." He looked up and me and stopped playing with the gum on the curb, then reached in his mouth and pulled out a peice of it and put it back on the curb. Hahah, yuck.

A Beautiful Thing

Please check out my friends Laura's blog once again for another beautiful take on Andie's birth and some new photos. 

Enjoying the simple things

Also here are a couple of pictures from that week that I didn't put up.

 Ky and Andie at the hospital.

 Kace jumping on the tramp, he so bad wanted me to go play with him when I got home.

 Cousins playing at the park.

My wonderful sister K'Leena and her little cuttie Emily, with Kace in the background and Andie in a super cute dress my sister crocheted for her.

Things That Make Me Laugh (Like serious bust a gut laugh)

A disinfecting wipes commercial where the mom comes home to find her kids jumping on the furniture and grandpa, the supposed sitter, doing a marionette puppet show with two chicken carcasses. Couldn't find it on youtube sorry.

Another commercial with a heavy set boy about eight years-old at the kitchen counter with a jar of peanut butter and a jar of jam in front of him. He reaches into both jars simultaneously and grabs huge handfuls of each. He then clasps his hands together and tries to fit both fists full into his mouth. Both Ky and I totally wanted to try it. Not on youtube either.

Neither of those are quite as funny being re-told haha.

I had my hair pulled back with braids on either side meeting in a messy ponytail in the back. I asked Ky, "Does my hair look cute today?" He grins as me and nods his head in assent and says, "It looks 1800ish." Serious and you count that as cute? Come on Ky.

I was getting dressed one morning and pulled out my old slipon Vans which have holes in them, as I put them on I said to Ky, "I look homeless." His reply was, "Yeah because you are wearing them with socks, well actually no you don't look homeless you look like a 12 year-old going out to play in the sand box." I guess Ky doesn't think too much of my fashion sense these days.

Ky is a great dad. Andie has a habit of becoming super cranky from about 8:30-11:30 and likes to scream out her frustrations. One night Ky passed her over to me after he had been watching her for about an hour. I was trying to rock her and sooth her but she kept screaming. Then Ky offered, "Sometimes when she is screaming, I blow in her face, and for one second she stops screaming while she tries to catch her breath and that one second is sweet sweet bliss." Please don't call child protection on us, he was mostly just joking.

A blast from the past. Today I couldn't even re-tell this story because I was laughing so hard but it probably won't translate correctly when I write it. About three years ago Ky was sitting on our couch and went to put some saline drops in his eyes. Next thing I know Kyle lets out a huge scream, throws the bottle across the room, jumps over the couch and recklessly runs around the living room and finally into the bathroom clutching is eye.  Instead of grabbing the small bottle of saline he grabbed the small bottle of glasses cleanser (aka rubbing alcohol). Ok I know as a loving and caring wife it is not right for the story to make me laugh so much but his reaction was just nuts-o. In that one split second when he realized what he had done he thought he was going to go blind, poor guy. I flushed his eye with water and saline for like 20 minutes after that.  

A New Frame of Mind

I made the decision the other day that I am going to count Kacen, Andie and any possible future children as blessings not trials. That change in my mind set has made all the difference today.

I feel blessed that Kacen is so active, it is incredibly tiring most of the time, but I love that he isn't a whiner baby about going into water, climbing high things and having adventures. It will be so much fun as he gets older and we can take him to enjoy even more recreation with us.

I feel blessed that he has such a tender heart.

I feel blessed that he cares about Andie and he cares about me. Once again we had a rough car ride with Andie girl and Kacer just said in a quiet calm voice, "sshhh it's ok, it's ok, ssshhhh." And the other night Kacen kept crying and screaming when it was time for him to go to bed. Finally I walked in with Andie who was also crying and when Kacen saw us and saw her having a hard time he became a really good boy and went right to bed after another kiss and hug. I feel that he noticed I was tired and ready for bed, and trying to deal with Andie and respected that.

I feel blessed that he is so creative and artistic, it is so fun to have another hobby to share with my son.
 
Today I had a great day with Kacen, he was truly pleasing to be with. I hope I can keep this perspective every day. Yeah there were still fits and struggles but nothing too melting.

Your Kidding Right?

Serious last night 10:00 p.m. I went to check on my supposedly sleeping child to find him standing in the middle of huge poop smear on the floor with crap all over his hands and feet. Serious? Are you joking? Three times in one week, you have got to be kidding me! Luckily today's poop stayed in the diaper because I will probably scream if it happens again. Anyway we ended up giving Kacen a shower (I gagged like three times trying to clean his hands), cleaning the carpet for an hour, then scrubbing out the tub. Not the way I wanted to spend the last hour of my evening.

OK something so sad, Ky and I didn't yell or anything at Kace but he knew he was in trouble. This was the first time when I saw guilt on his face and when we would talk to him you could just tell he was so sad and felt so badly and was worried that we were so upset with him. But we made sure to tell him we loved him before we put him back to bed.

I probably should have taken a picture of my poop smeared kid but in the moment it was a little too much to handle.

Another epic fail this week was family night. I thought it would be fun for everyone if we went bowling. Well it was fun until the idea of taking turns became waaaayyy too much for Kace to handle and he ended up screaming during everyone elses turn. He and I ended up sitting out side for the last two frames, not even sure who won. Not to mention my huge headache and Perry was getting a migrain too so, yeah not the best family night ever.

Tonight Andie shot a waterfall of vomit down my front right before I was about to go to bed and I had to shower and do laundry, which I am still up waiting to finish. This kid sure has a set of lungs and knows how puke! But she is also so sweet and just a little cutie. 

On a completely different topic, I made these recepies lately and they were all fantastic. Asian Noodle Salad, Cheese Zuchini Rice, Healthy Fruit and Veggie Muffins. 

Look Alikes

So we can all coo over pictures and hypothesize about who Andie looks most like.

Mama at hospital

 

Andie at hospital

 

Ky a couple months old

 Andie yawn

Kacen yawn

 Andie pink blue hat

 Kacen pink blue hat

 Mom three months

Andie

 Kacen

Andie

The Ugly, The Bad, The Good. Real Life

So in light of a recent post let's get down to the nitty gritty.

The Ugly
The past week has brought me:

One 30 inch tall energy ball who doesn't like to poop in his diaper. Aaaannnnddd if he does poop in it he feels the need to shed the diaper immediately and proceed to bathe in the feces.

Two mid night feedings followed by diaper changes that included shotgun poop all over my front. I really need to learn not to change her on my lap.

Three or maybe Four crying sessions for me (reference the above).

The Bad
I am an emotional eater. M&M's, licorice, seven layer bars, cinnamon rolls and mint brownie ice cream.

Kacen learned the word "No" and how to correctly use it when asked to do anything. This has lead to lots of solitary confinement, screaming (which also leads to solitary confinement) and crying (all emotions represent both of us).

Ky went back to work, five nights in a row, and my little one thinks that 8:30 p.m. is the signal for fussiness and likes to cry for about an hour or two while I am trying to get ready for bed. By last night I started having panic attacks when he left for work, luckily I am a sort of tough chick and my short bouts of discouragement and frustration are cured by a quick moment of seclusion and a few tears. Ya know when there are things to take care of you can't really do much but let it out and try to get over it and move forward.

The Good 
Kyle has been so helpful. Washed clothes, changed diapers, took Kacen on daddy trips, fixed my car, hung a mobile by finding some cute pink ribbon and making a cute little bow on top, without being asked. Oh yeah and lest I forget he goes to work to make money that I go and spend, what a great guy. 

 I went on my first outing alone with both the kids, not really on purpose but I realized yesterday morning that I was putting the last newborn diaper on Andie and the size one drowned her. We went to Wal-Mart, the park, and the Country Market, there was not even one fit, whine or cry the whole time, serious. Kacen just listened to me and went where I asked, it was like magic.

The night of the cinnamon rolls we also had a family dance party. It was so fun! Kacen loved dancing with his aunt Maddie and I love grooving my body. 

Got two new shirts, viewed in each pic, and a new bed, which I would love to get a chance to spend a full night in uninterrupted. 

 

Pic from Laura, so cute huh?

The Good the Bad the Ugly?

I recently read a friend post about her wish that more people would, “admit to having normal lives where you're not always pretty and things go wrong and who appreciate and write about all of it, good, bad, beautiful, ugly, hilarious, simple, heartwrenching, giddy…”

What your views on this? I really like this subject, especially as a church going person in a religion where our worship includes classroom settings and people often get to share their life experiences this is a topic I have thought about before. What do you share in public? Where are the boundaries set?

Here are my views:

1.   I have gone through spurts in life where I have stopped reading blogs because I get sick of reading about how wonderful everyone else lives are when I feel mine isn't quite going the way I expect. For instance when we moved out here, I was living with my in-laws, my husband hadn’t found a decent job yet and we were quite unsure of where our life was going. Blogs made me sick and I got angry and started to feel that people were always boasting about their lives, however, I have changed my mind and don’t think this is the case. I now feel that most people probably have similar views to me. I actually stopped writing for a short season because I thought, “I would never want a friend of mine to read my blog and be upset or feel let down that perhaps I was leading a more interesting life than they are or that my family life was more put together than theirs.” Haha that was probably never the case but I would never want anyone to read my blog and feel I am boasting.

2.       My blog isn't always rainbows and butterflies but it does portray a more positive aspect of my life. I try to never write anything that would hurt those I love or make them feel that I am upset with them or disappointed in their actions. So sometimes the hard things that make me angry or upset are skipped over; especially when it comes to my spouse and children.

3.       I have read some blogs of people who are a little "too real" for me, I think you need to be respectful of those in your life and when you write about everything you tend to alienate those in your life.

4.       In conclusion I also often remember a quote from President Gordon B. Hinckley, former Prophet of the LDS church, where he spoke about the fact that we have enough women who are harsh, sarcastic, hard and pessimistic and we need more women who are kind and loving. I don't try to make a fairytale of my life but I do try to take an optimistic view to life.

My blog may be boring to read sometimes but I do try to post things about our life that help others stay involved with what we are up to. I guess I just don’t find all of the boring day to day stuff to be super interesting, so I don’t always post about those things, and I do tend to just put up pictures of the fun things we do. I think that a lot of personal bloggers feel the same, but don’t let me speak for you add a comment if you have one.

-Heather

Because I can't help myself

Oh man little Andie babe is so cute I just can't help myself from putting up her pictures, and Laura just keeps taking the cutest darn photos. 

 Mama and Andie Girl

Close up

 Sleepy head

 All smiles

 Cute little feet

Kacer and Andie, a good big brother.

Last Tuesday we were driving home from Roots and Andie started to cry because she was hungry. Kacen was sitting next to her and became really worried that she was crying so much he started telling us all to help her, "help, help." Then he started whispering, "shhh it's ok, it's ok." After that he started doing the actions for wheels on the bus because he knows when he fusses in the car I sing to him. It was so cute that he cared so much about her. Most of the time he is rather indifferent to her and mostly just mad at me for not getting up to help him right when he wants me, even if I am nursing. And sometimes he thinks he needs to adjust her blankets so they cover her entire body. But most of the time he just doesn't really care that she is around. 

I forgot to post this one of Ky and Andie so we'll put it up now.

The Birth Story

If you are into really long, boring, poorly written birth stories read the captions, if not, just look at the beautiful pictures of our baby girl caught by the talented Laura Montgomery. If you want to see my pregnancy photo shoot please read her blog here.

At 9:00 p.m. on the 25^th I started to feel some pains that we were a little worse than the Braxton Hicks I had for two days prior. I knew these pains were different and that our baby was on her way. Kyle had left at 7:00 p.m. for work that night so I had to call him at the ER and tell him to come home. By the time he got home my contractions were about 5 minutes apart and I was doing alright staying on top of them by just relaxing. I kept thinking with each contraction, “Ride the wave up and over this contraction let the contraction open your cervix, just relax and get ready for your baby.”

As the contractions went on they started to become more painful; I tried to coach Ky through each one telling him where to rub my back and I started to get sort of discouraged that I wouldn’t be able to make it through this delivery without an epidural.

 

baby girl meets the world

Because I was starting to feel defeated I called my sister K’Leena, who had been a huge support in my decision to deliver naturally and who was driving across the country to hopefully be here to coach me through this delivery. As I talked with her I started to cry because I just didn’t feel I could do it, she told me that I could do it and to go get in the tub, “I had labor pains with Emily for three days before I actually went into labor, and if nothing else it will at least relieve a lot of pain.” I am pretty sure we both knew this labor wasn’t going to stall for the three days that it would take for her to make it from Wyoming, but I did feel comforted to know that it was a possibility.

Ky started the tub for me and once I got in it felt soooooo good. All of the pressure was lifted off my back and I was able to completely relax through each intense contraction. After about 20 minutes my contractions were 3 minutes apart and 1-2 minutes long. I thought there was no way that things were progressing this rapidly. Kyle called my doctor and they said I should head to the hospital. But when I got up to walk around the contractions were much shorter and I thought that things were going to slow down again. As we were driving away from the house we actually talked about turning back around and waiting it out longer at home, thank goodness we just kept driving.

Kyle was hungry and because we thought we were in for a much longer night we decided to stop at McDonalds, it took us forever in the drive thru because their credit card machine was down and I had three contractions while we waited for our food. I scarfed down a bunch of fries and some spicy chicken bites, and they were sooo good.

We finally got into the hospital at 12:30 a.m. and they took me into triage. I kept having lots of contractions really close by and they were extremely painful, forgetting everything I knew about the stages of labor I didn’t realize I was hitting transition and that my baby was just around the corner. I didn’t see the markers of confusion as I was offered the epidural and unsure of what to choose, or the marker that I just felt like giving up, actually I just threw everything I had studied and practiced out the window with one little mention of pain relief and began to let the pain take over. Two contractions went by with my writhing in pain through each of them. The midwife (I will call Dr.) was coming in to check my cervix and I told the nurses if I am not ready to push I need the epidural. With the first check I was seven centimeters. She said they would try to get the epidural for me. Four minutes and two contractions later my water burst. Three minutes later I was fully dilated and ready to push for my baby.

When I heard this news I let joy take over realizing my decision about pain medication was made for me. With a smile on my face I told the midwife and nurses, “Ok this is so great! Let’s do this!” They quickly gathered my things; got the bed ready for transport and off we went towards the delivery room with my fearless husband pushing the bed as fast as he could. I just remember the walls going by quickly and the first contraction on the bed had me screaming, “I NEED TO PUSH.” The Dr. got in my face and said just breath quick burst of air. I managed to hold in the urge to push. Once inside the delivery room they wanted me to move myself onto the delivery bed, I don’t know if I did or how it happened I just remember thinking, “Are you crazy? I am gonna push this baby out now!” But somehow I went from lying on my side on the gurney to sitting up on the deliver bed.

With the next contraction they told me to push, and begged me to relax between the contractions. During each push I was screaming things like, “I can’t do it! This hurts so bad!” And each time I said something negative six people in the room would come back with positive affirmations. This was so lucky for Ky, he didn’t have to use one thing from our meager study time, all he had to do was repeat what the Dr. and nurses were saying, “You can do this! You are doing great! Your baby is right here.” After the second pushing contraction I finally relaxed and remembered what I had read once about laughter and love and kind feelings during labor and how they all increase your endorphins which allow you to relax and allow your perineum and cervix to open and stretch easily. So I told everyone in the room “You are so nice thank you so much, you are all doing so great and are so nice.” Then I tilted my head down and told my baby how much I loved her and that she could come out and see me. This had everyone laughing and telling me how sweet I was and just kept the feeling in the room light and filled with love. I also remember at one point someone asked if I wanted a mirror so I could witness her birth myself and I was just so overwhelmed that I said, “There’s no time for that.” Realizeing that obviously there was time if the nurses were offering it and I mustered out, “I can’t be bothered.”

But seriously everyone was so terrific. The Dr. was doing everything in her power to keep my tearing to a minimum and the encouragement I felt was overwhelming.

 

big yawn during the her bath

1:21 a.m. July 26, 2012: With the third and most painful push my little girls head emerged. The Dr. asked me to not push for a minute while she, the baby, wiggled herself in the best position. Isn’t that so neat that my baby wasn’t too fatigued or drugged and was able to take such an active role in her own delivery? One tiny push later her whole body was out and I was holding my second precious gift from heaven. A perfect little being ready for love.

 

babies first bath, she loved getting her hair washed

The nurses encouraged skin to skin contact with my baby and let us just be together while I nursed the wee one. They also let the cord go for a couple of minutes to give back all that precious cord blood and Ky cut the cord. Everyone in the room was amazed at her alertness. Her eyes were wide open and she was looking at me and taking everything in, it was a wonderful moment and experience. I was so exhausted from staying up through the night that when they took her to get her cleaned a little bit and check her out I just laid on the bed and kept drifting in and out of sleep.

Around 4:30 a.m. we were finally in a recovery room and ready to get some rest.

My wonderful friend Laura Montgomery was there to document the whole experience for us, we had hoped for some great labor pain photos however by the time she got there the staff told her she had to leave because the baby was coming out.

Our whole experience was so wonderful. I could not believe how fast it all went. It was so neat to have the experience of feeling every pain associated with child birth.

The next morning Kyle decided to name our baby girl Andi Danielle Conger. She was 6 lbs. 8 oz. 19.5 inches tall, dark brown hair, and healthy as an ox. 

Kyle’s parents and Madison came to visit, so did my dad and Christie Egbert. I really don’t mind the hospital I actually love the help and the alone time, the only thing that I didn’t like one bit was the uncomfortable bed.

4:30 a.m. about ready to get some sleep

My recovery has been so much better than it was with Kacen. I am up and walking and feel really quite well. That is of course after one horrible terrible day, Saturday. I had been released from the hospital and we finally got home and were ready to just relax. After an hour or two I started to feel ultra-tired, then I started to feel chilled all over, after the chills I would feel real hot. This went on for hours until I took my temperature and it was 102.5 the doctors said any fever over 100.4 for either me or the baby was too high. So we called the doctors and they told me to go to the hospital. After a round of testing they said I had mastitis and prescribed an antibiotic. And within one day I was feeling much better. Now we are doing great and getting adjusted to the sleeping and eating, luckily she is a pretty good sleeper (5 hours straight). 

Kacen is doing well, he is a pretty good big bro. I will try to write more about that later. I have actually been working on this post for days so just be patient my alone time is slim these days but I do love getting you all involved in our lives and hope to share more soon.