Tynlie's labor story

Well I made it to the 38 week mark and Dr. Jones informed me he'd be on vacation for a week starting the following week.  I'd been having contractions off and on through out the last few weeks and now was dilated to a 2.  I'd been contracting enough that I had called in sick to work 1 day and then only did an 8 hour instead of a 12 hour day.  I knew that I'd probably deliver when he was out of town, cause that's my luck.  So I was scheduled to visit with the Nurse Practioner the next week.

So I went in on the 24th Tuesday, and the NP was worried that I was measuring small.  I'd been measuring on the small side throughout the pregnancy so I wasn't too worried.  I knew that Dr. Jones had sat on the edge about doing an ultrasound for a few weeks, but had decided against it that last 2 visit that I'd had.  She also said I was dilated to a 3.  Well the NP thought it would ease her mind if I got one done.  The soonest they could get me in was on Thursday afternoon.  Chad took the afternoon off so he could come with me.  Well the Ultrasound tech told us that the baby looked just fine in size by the abdominal girth, since that's the biggest indicator of small growth, but that if she measured the femur that she was a little behind.  (So we're going to have a short little girl she said).  But then she told us the amniotic fluid looked "thick", and was cause from either 2 things, one is the sluffing off of the vernix or skin cells, or two meconium (stool) in the fluid.  The only one to worry about would be the meconium stained fluid since it can cause respiratory difficulty if the baby takes any of it in during the delivery. So a little bit to be concerned over.

I was then checked again by a nurse (who said I was maybe pushing a 2, I wasn't happy to hear that!) and sent home with papers to be admitted for an induction.  I started crying on the way home cause I just really didn't want to be induced again.  Kherrington's birth process was just so long!  I really wanted to do most of the laboring at home and not in the hospital hooked up to monitors.  I was also lucky enough to be GBS negative with this pregnancy, and so I thought that I'd really get to do that since I had been slowly dilating over that last few weeks.  I could also feel that my hips had been spreading and I'd have to stablize my low back when I first got up from bed, just to walk anywhere. So I called my mom to come be with Kherrington and she hurried and got arrangements made for someone to take over Pack Meeting for her that night and she headed down.

Well I was instructed to call in to the Portneuf L&D at 5:30 pm to see if they had a bed open to induce me.  Well the nursing staff wasn't out of report quite yet so they had me call back at 6 pm.  I was then told that they didn't have a room and to call back at 8 pm cause they expected 2 moms to deliver by then.  When I called back at 8 they still didn't have room, so they took my name and number and said they'd call anytime of the night when they had a bed open.  Thank heavens my mom was staying with us (and Dad came to Pocatello on the bus since he didn't have to work on Friday) so if we got called in we wouldn't have to find someone to come stay with Kherrington (even though the Nelson across the street had offered to generously). 

Last picture of our family of 3.

Really showing you my tummy

Well at 6am I was still at home and I called in just to be sure they new the circumstances of the induction and that it wasn't an elective induction.  They did know the circumstances, but didn't have a bed open and they would call when one came open.  We were a little frustrated to have been given the inpression that it needed to happen earlier than later and then to be put off. Well Chad decided to go into work at least for a half day and so my mom, Kherrington and I went out and did errands.   I was having contractions that morning kind of like I usually was but some of them were starting to get a little uncomfortable.  Kherrington fell asleep so I was packing her around the DI while my mom was looking through the books, and I was getting more and more contractions and some of them were kind of hurting.  Well from 1 to 3 pm I was having regular contraction lasting more than a 1 minute and coming less than 5 minutes apart.  So I called in to L&D and told them that I was thinking I was in labor and gave them my report, so they reluctantly (or unhappily) told me to come in.  

We loaded up and was in there at 4pm (after kind of guessing where we needed to be since there weren't any signs really telling us where to go), just in time to get settled in a bed, an IV placed, and admitted to the floor.  At 5 pm, Roxanne checked me and said that I was a 5!  She said that she was surprised since I had been so calm through all the questions, she didn't think that I'd be progressed that far along. She decided that I better get hooked up to the monitor to get a look at the baby.  She was just getting off so she went to report off.  Nicole? then came on and I had to use the bathroom, and so she came in and unhooked me.  She was asking us what we wanted to do for a birth plan, and I told her that I'd like to try to do it naturally but may want a epidural later.  So she told me that since I didn't have Pit that I could be up and off the monitor and could walk around the room, she also had said that if I wanted we could break my water since it hadn't happened yet and that would speed up the labor. I told her I'd think about it.  I decided that I'd try to do what my neighbor Jenny had talked to me about and I started pacing the room, as Chad went to grab something to eat before the cafeteria closed.  I was doing pretty good, but the contractions were getting more intense and at time I had to stop and support myself on something at the first part of the contraction.  It got to a point where I felt like my legs were getting shakey so I started staying close to the bed.  Like in the picture below.... Well my nurse checked me at 7 and I was dilated to a 7 and I think it was 75% effaced.

So we were trying to get a picture of us in the L&D room, but this is the best we could do.  (Mike and Jen how do you do it.  I think you have it mastered!!)

Anyway so I was thinking maybe I'd have them break my water, so I called the nurse, but another one came it.  They were so busy that my nurse was actually in with another nurse's patient while she gave birth, since that patient's nurse was in with her other patient in a C-section.  They were really busy!!  But this nurse said that if I broke my water that the contractions would get more intense....so I decided I'd wait.
So Nicole had stopped in to see how it was going and give me some encouragement. I heard her in the connecting room getting the Labor table ready.  It wasn't too long later that I called her thinking I needed a little something to take the edge off.  I was even hoping for Tylenol.  She offered some Nubain since she said that Tylenol wasn't even going to help this, but where the Nubain had made me nauseated at Pullman I opted to not get any.  She also said that I was probably far enough along that I would be pushing soon and suggested we check.  She said I was a spongy 9...Where she could stretch me to a 10 and just had a little lip left to go.  She suggest that we get the Dr. in, have him break my water and then I could probably start pushing.  By that time I was getting a little nauseated, but I didn't have much come up, so I must have stopped eating at a good time.(another thing that I hated with Kherrington's birth, throwing up tons)  We had a woman resident that came in and ruptured my membranes to find clear fluid.  No Meconium!!!  Yeah!!   The resident was from Logan area and was in  U of U Med school.  She was funny, saying that I needed to do more screaming cause she was starting to think that maybe she could even give birth natural.  (She was single still and never given birth).  My nurse teasingly told me that I needed to start offering natural child birth classes, which I said apparently my neighbor does, since that's where I learned what I knew.  It was nice to hear though.
I started pushing soon after Dr. Jacobs came in, after a few pushes they decided to help get the lip of my cervix around her head which helped a lot, not that it was pleasant cause I could feel it a little bit, but the contractions weren't bad when I was pushing through them. About 30 minutes of pushing and Tynlie was born at 8:12pm.  I got to hold her for about a minute,(all the while I was saying, "I can't believe I did it.", over and over again, but then the NICU nurse took her to get her stats and clean her up a little bit.

Chad went over to be with Tynlie while the resident and Dr. Jacobs started stitching me up since I had a 2nd degree tear.  While they were stitching up me we were talking and Dr. Jacobs was commenting on all of Tynlie's hair, asking me how many kids we were wanting.  I was telling him we wanted at least 2 more kids, which my nurse said that I was quite the woman, being able to say I wanted more kids even while being stitched up.

Tynlie JaNae Christensen

7 pounds 2 ounces

20.5 inches long

Bathing in some of that heat!!

All tagged up with our matching bands

And don't forget my goopey eyes from the ointment

What you can't see in this picture is the ruptured blood vessels in my eyes and the petechia on my neck and face from pushing.  Even though I'd do it again, just cause I felt like I was a more effective pusher when I could feel where Tynlie was positioned.

Loving the mascara under my eyes from crying after Tynlie arrived safely!

Chad and his newest little girl!!

By 10 pm (6 hours after we arrived) we were being wheeled down the hallway to the post partum area so they could get another patient...  We decided that we'd have them keep her in the nursery until she needed fed, which gave us a pretty decent nights sleep.

36 weeks

So Monday (May 2) marked my 36 week mark.  This is the other reason that I haven't posted forever is cause I'm getting really tired....Sorry for the whining.  This pregnancy has been so different from Kherrington.  I've been contracting off and on, some that make me a little nervous cause they can make me a little short of breath or even make me double over if I'm up walking around when it starts.  The Dr. doesn't seem overly worried about them so I try to keep the same mentality.  I've been told from sister-in-laws that they felt more contractions with each pregnancy they had.  So I'm just being paranoid, but man there are evenings where they get too frequent for my liking at this stage.  Give me 2 weeks and I'll probably sing a different tune.

That is also different cause I didn't really feel like I "need to have this baby" with Kherrington and that was going to 41 weeks and being induced. Which brings me to another dilemma....When is it that you have gone to the hospital with your contractions.  I've never gone in to labor on my own and have no idea when to head in. (I'm hoping it's after the 11th so I deliver at the new Portneuf Hospital.) In some ways it's like being pregnant for the first time; Anyone give me some good advice, I need it!!

I also had to share that I wake up in the morning at times and feel like I've been doing sit-ups all night long.  I'm just so sore and tired on nights like that. On Sunday night I totally had a dream that I was back in Elementary and doing the physical fitness challenge  HAHAHA!!

***So obviously this was written forever ago and I didn't realize that it wasn't published.  So sad.  The pregnancy story to come sooner or later.***

Catch-up Post (Really long)

Wow has time flown by.  I was just looking at how long it's been since I posted on any of my blogs.  Crazy.  I only have a few pictures to share.  The first 2 pictures are from Conference weekend.  Chad is serving in the Young Men's organization in our ward and the YM's President decided that it would be a good activity to take the YM and their fathers down for the Priesthood session and hope to get stand-by tickets.  So they loaded up that morning and headed to Temple square and after waiting in a long line all afternoon did eventually make it into the Priesthood session of conference.  Made for a really long day of driving for Chad, but I think it was a good opportunity to get to know the boys better and make some memories with them.  

So with Chad being out of town Kherrington and I went and hung out with my family in Idaho Falls.  Since I've been back working at EIRMC on occasion, (only 2 days a month), Kherrington gets the opportunity to spend some great time with Grandma and "Papa" as she says.  We usually go up the night before my shift and she always heads right into Papa's bedroom to see if he's already in bed and to give him hugs.  Since he gets up around 4 am for work.  It's pretty cute.  And then she plays the entire day with Grandma and loves every minute of it.   I also love coming to pick her up and have her be so happy to see me and ready to go see Dad too.  What a sweet little girl.   

My brother Derek and his family came up on Saturday morning also and we had a fun day of Conference watching and food of course.  Then Derek's kids talked Britt and him into letting them stay the night and the adult stayed up later and chatted.  Something we all love to do but never get the opportunity without all those interruptions that come with kids!!

So this is Sunday morning during the morning session where Kherrington is hanging out with Papa.

And this a just a few minutes later.  So cute!  Have to say that I get this same reaction at times with conference, even though I love conference and I'm just greatful for a DVR that records it so I can rewatch them at home. It was sad to have to  wake her up about 20 minutes later so we could meet Chad in Blackfoot to have lunch with his family.  Which was also great to see everyone and have a house full of people to watch the afternoon session!!

The next pictures are from a random day that Kherrington though she needed her entire basket of hair bows and flowers out and she needed them all in her hair!!                  

She think she's hot stuff you can see it in her face.  Loved every minute of it!!  What a silly girl.  The other thing I wanted to mention, just so Chad and I could remember is that you can see Kherrington's pajamas in the background on the floor underneath the seat with the massager on it.  This is one of Kherrington's favorite places to hide from us (or more Mom, cause I don't want to use the energy the climb over the bean bag chair to get to her) when we need to get her dressed.  She'll put her "B" (blanket) back there and cover her head and pull the bean bag up close and hide.  It's so funny to see her starting to understand the concept of hiding a little better than just, "If I don't see you...you don't see me."

HEY, HEY, HEY!

I just had to write this down this morning cause I can't forget it.  Yesterday I decided that I'd make some angel food cake, since we had fresh strawberries and blueberries in the fridge and I have another bountiful basket coming tomorrow.
So it was getting close to Kherrington's bedtime and I was ready so I got the whipping cream ready and got Chad and I a plateful of angel food cake with fruit and whipping cream. It just sounded so good to me!  I was excited.  Well as soon as we sat down Kherrington decided she wanted a bite.  I was a little surprised cause she'd eaten tons of strawberries earlier when I had cut them up.  But after a few bites that Dad was so nice to share, she just stole his entire plate and ran over to the loveseat with it and then came back to get the fork.
It was cute to see her tactics.  Then when Chad followed her over after she'd grabbed the fork, she grabbed the plate and said, "Hey, Hey, Hey!!" and ran around the living room with the plateful of dessert.  Now this probably isn't very funny to anyone else, but I've found after the fact of hearing it, that Hey hey hey is what I say to get her attention when she'd doing something she's not supposed to. And it's funny that she's saying it to Chad when all I wanted to do is say it and grab that plate of dessert before it ended up on the carpet!!
It's amazing what they pick up and things I've never even realize that I say....I'm just glad I'm not one who curses.

What we've been up to...

So I thought these pictures were totally appropriate today since we woke up to more snow today.  These pictures were from several weeks ago though, since I'm so on top of my family blogging lately.  Really if you want to see what I've been up to you can see the posts on my craft, etc blog on the side bar and add on the  extra shifts that I've been picking up and that is how I've been spending my time.  

So isn't this the cutest little snow suit.  My friend Brittni let us borrow it a while ago and we finally got to use it.  It's so cute i

Here she is in prep to go outside!!

 

I can't believe this, of course instead of getting the reaction, the mom in me turned it off so I could really see her reaction!!

Chad is trying to talk her into coming inside.  THis is after the sledding and shoveling off the driveway.  

And I just had to share this.  This was 2 days later, she wanted to go out again...and isn't this appropriate outdoor wear?

Crazy entertaining girl!!  We love her

The BiG changes that have happened for us!

***WARNING:Totally a long, long, long post. Helps me to reflect and see the blessing in my life so far this year with conscious decisions we've made.***

So as I hinted at in the last post, since having come out of the 1st trimester and living in the 2nd has helped quite a bit with being sick, but I still have had days when I didn't feel well, until I started Pepcid AC on a daily basis.  That has done wonders for me.  But I also had been feeling bad about how much Chad had been doing at home and working the hours he does.  I felt like I was passively floating through life and not really living it as I should be as a mother and a wife.
Enter Lori and her request for help making a vinyl Laundry list.  You can see some of the examples that I made for her HERE at my other blog.  And it explains more about a laundry list or a chore list. But she was teaching a RS New Years organization class.
Well I am totally a list person and I thrive off of being able to cross something off the list.  I love the satisfaction of it, but also it keeps my random thoughts written so I don't forget them too.    Well I haven't make myself an actually vinyl laundry list yet, I'm still working on finding a great way to organize myself and household all together.

It will be coming.  Just you stay tuned.....
So here are some of the goals that I knew that I really wanted to change in my home.  Some of these I pick up on just because I knew I needed to improve on them, and others I chose because I knew it would make Kherrington or Chad feel loved.
I knew that I needed to be more consistent with scripture study.  Chad and I have been pretty good to do couple scripture study even though every once in a while we get a little slack, but for the most part we do well.  So my focus was more on my personal study.  Now I love to read the Ensigns, but this last year I had totally slacked with the move and never got caught up.  I have a stack of Ensigns I haven't read yet.  I refuse to get rid of them until I read them all.  I guess it's my frugal side.  I'm not going to throw out something I payed for.
***So goal #1 was to read each Month's Ensign this year, plus catch up with last years.  (this does 2 things in my house.  My scripture study and also de-clutters my home)  So far I've read and January and February's and then I finished June's and most of July's!!!  Progress!!  I guess when I run out of extra Ensign's I'll get back into the Book of Mormon since Chad and I are reading out of the New Testament hoping to get through it all this year.
The other things that I had noticed was how my house had become cluttered and grungy!!  We bought an 8 year old home and it's in pretty good shape to begin with, but I hadn't been cleaning it like it should be and I don't think the previous 2 sets of owners had either, which then makes things get gross and require a more deep clean, that I HATE to do.  So Chad and I sat down went room by room and made a list of what needed to be cleaned in each room and put a frequency of the chore.  Then I took that list and broke it down to the daily, biweekly, weekly, bimonthly, monthly, quarterly, and bi-annual items. As I've been going I realize that somethings we put down as too frequent and some things that needed it a little more often than what we originally assigned.  And I think that it depends on the household and how many live there to really pick frequencies.  (Report:  It has been well over a month now that our Master bathroom has been cleaned once a week.  First time in our married life. AMAZING I know. I'm quite embarrassed to even admit that.)
***Goal #2, I needed to make a cleaning schedule and stick to it.
So I had totally become the slacker of cooking dinner.  I would cook 3-4 times a week, but the other days would be something slapped together and not as health as I'd like, (Like boxed or frozen items).  I knew I could do better, and really it was kind of strange cause I really do like to cook most of the time, but I hate coming up with ideas of what to make.  That part would stress me out and then I'd shut down and not do anything until it was too late to thaw any meat, etc.  Chad and I try to sit down on Sunday evening and go over the events of the week, our work schedules, plan meals that would be time appropriate and match them with the chores that needed to be that week.  Try to balance things out and not be overwhelmed with the demands that we set up for ourselves. And most importantly eat better, less processed foods, and stay in food budget, which I'll get to down further in the goals on this one.
***Goal #3, Make a weekly menu.  Not that I have to follow it to a T.  I've been amazed that as I have ideas written down, I've started to enjoy the cooking process again. And I've been trying tons of new recipes and I get together with some ladies from my ward a few times a month and do recipe exchanges.  (I've gotten so most of them are on the computer so if you guys want copies some will be on my other blog, {Like this , we've made it an additional time since then cause we like it so much} also hoping to post my menu for the past week on Monday and if you want recipes I can send you a Word doc. with what I did different or what I'd do differently now that I've made it once).
So the other thing, I've noticed is that we have the TV on all the time at our house. It's horrible!!  Not only for the spirit to be in our home, but what am I teaching my child!!  I'm a bad coasting mom, just getting by day by day without any thoughts of the future.  I knew I needed to change how time in general would be spent through the day. I need to spend constructive time with my family, especially the time I have total control over....during the day when it's just me and Kherrington.  I've decided to make a conscious effort to do more reading, coloring, playing, and going downstairs where we have inherited some play toys (while there is snow on the ground) otherwise it'll be outside play when it gets warmer.  !!!Can you tell I'm getting anxious for that again!!! Kherrington loves to be outside, even if it's windy snowy, etc.  But I don't love it all the time so it's a rarity around here. It'll be nice to get that morning walk back into our day.
***Goal #4, spend more constructive time playing with Kherrington. So I'm not sure how much I've mentioned this on the blog, but Kherrington has been such a Daddy's girl.  It is really hard for me to get her to willingly come to me when Chad is at home.  She just prefers him over me.  For most mothers that would be really bothersome, but in reality I've just learned to embrace it and realize that with having another one that will be taking more of my attention, I should be glad for that.  Well it's amazing what happens when Mom puts her own agenda aside for even a few minutes here and there and just play with a little girl, how much she feels LOVED!!  I think I totally have a quality time girl here, for those of you that have read the 5 love languages book. (If you haven't I strongly suggest it, good read and totally applicable to any stage of life's relationships)  She is more loving toward me on a regular basis, plus at times she actually will pick me over Chad.  Now I know that, not just suspect, that it's because Chad will do whatever Kherrington want him to do when he gets home, that she preferred him hands down.  Just so you know, He's still the favorite though!!
 So if it isn't totally obvious to anyone but myself, we were getting pretty depressed around here.  Not exactly what you want your family to be feeling.  As Chad and I were talking about goals that we want for our family and ourselves, we realized this and that we needed to make some changes.  Number 1 stressor in our lives right now is money, We are on a tight budget...not that we are lacking things, but it's hard to think about saving for a future when all your money that you make is going to student loans, house loans, and a car loan.  The first 2 being the biggest contributors and budget eaters are both on a 30 year loan.  How do you start saving for retirement when we'll be 5 years away from retirement before you have those things paid for.  Totally depressing thought right.  Well as I was talking with an older brother the other day he pointed out a few things for me that helped my depressed outlook on this subject.  We are looking at our finances as if they are fixed and that we'll always be bringing in the same amount of money.  It's just the beginning of Chad career, he'll make more as he progresses. (And for those of you that are under the assumption that if your a Dr. (regardless of what type of Doctor) you make lots of money, that is FALSE, we have a few members of our family that make comments that make it seem that they think that way).  It just seems like we'll be paying for his education forever.  It's been helpful to be able to work as a nurse on the side just to help out and take some of that stress away, but again balance is our goal.  And to make it clear I think that Chad's education was/is important, if I'm going to have debt, that is where I'd prefer to have it come from...something worthwhile and unworldly!  Now just to get rid of that car loan...GRRR!
So one of the ways that I've been trying to cut down our cost are through Bountiful Baskets.  For those who haven't heard of them I had a post on them before, find it HERE.  I only get it 1-2 times a month because it's hard for us to go through the produce all by ourselves, but it's such a money saver and I go to the store less.  Also been using more coupons and got the Sunday paper to help increase my coupon stash for the great items I need.  Also have a friend that said she'd save me all the diaper coupons from her 5 sets of coupons she gets every Sunday!  I'm excited about this one.
***Goal #5- Make the budget tighter, make a financial plan for our future and get out of debt quicker.  Most of you know that I've been using Mint.com to keep track of it.  It's been the easiest way to do it for us. (Also wish we'd used this as soon as we were married).  But we're tightening down and sticking to budget.  Using the calculators that are on providentliving.org, and saving for retirement, NOW, and realize that if we can do this now, even a year from now we'll be better off for it.

And last but not least we decided that another reason we were feeling so down is that we haven't really made our house feel like it's ours.  This is technically the first house that we've owned that hasn't been a new house.  It's hard to not feel like the house is yours if it was built for you and you are the only ones that have lived in it.  But there are numerous things that we don't love about our house, but we bought it cause it was in the price range we needed, and new that it was adequate. But it's so not us because of choices that were made.  Well most of you know that renovating isn't cheap.  And I can tell you we don't have a budget for it.  So we will be fixing up our house on a strict budget, slowly over the next few years.  We'll finally focus on the upstairs, (and not the outside like we did last year)and we'll be starting with the girls' rooms.
***Goals #7, Making our house our HOME.  We're excited just about the thoughts of it.  Chad has most of the trim work holes already filled in the baby's room and I have cleaned out most of the closet so we're getting close to painting time.  POOR Chad and my parent's (They are coming to help too.  Thank you!!)  Makes me feel bad for being pregnant and not able to help with those things.  I'm sure you'll get to see pictures in the future if you stay tuned in long enough.

So those are the things that have made our lives change so much in the last 2 months it's crazy!!  Do any of you have great ideas to help us improve our improvement plan in an area????I'd love to hear them.

Announcing.....

So I'm so sorry that it has taken me this long to post about our ultrasound that was at the beginning of January, so here it is 6 weeks later.    So I was so surprised by the poll of guesses on the blog stating that 71% thought that we'd have a girl.  Well I was glad that I hadn't posted anything that we were thinking.

So this pregnancy has been so different from my first one.  Kherrington's pregnancy was a breeze.  I had no morning sickness and didn't get sick in the least as long as I snacked and ate regularly.  I had no problems with any appointments, no major weight gain. (Only 25 lbs over all) I had a little acid reflux in the last trimester, but I only had that when I laid down at night at times. I worked full-time as a nurse without any restrictions til my due date. I even went a week over and had to be induced, but I still was feeling pretty good and wasn't miserable.  Even with my first 12 weeks of my miscarriage last May I didn't feel bad at all.  (I know there are many out there that want to kick me in the face right now!!! And I would totally agree)

Well before any of you get too mad, this pregnancy has been SOOOOOO different.  I have had days when I've thrown up several times and they had no rhyme or reason to why, except that anything that made me cough or gag would really bring it on.  And then there would be days when all I could really accomplish was laying on the couch and watch Kherrington play, cause I just didn't feel good, can't tell what it really was though, can't even explain what I was feeling!! Yeah me!  I've felt really bad for Chad through all this, I mean really who really doesn't love going to work for 10+ hrs5-6 days a week and come home every night and not having anything ready to eat and the house looks like a tornado (Kherrington) has been through it.  Well Chad and I were totally convinced we were going to get a boy out of this horrible trimester.  We'd had several gals say that their girl and boy pregnancies were very different.

But low and behold we have another little girl on the way and really it would be exactly what we'd choose if we could.  So Chad has some nieces that are just about 2 years apart that have just been the greatest friends to each other...and that has made us hope to have another little girl before we have a boy, just in hopes that they can have a friendship like Shayla and Erica.  Another nice thing is that our girls will be about 23 months apart and so we have all the clothing that we'll need since they'll both be born in about the same seasons.  We really don't have the finances for clothing and everything, so we were relieved about that side of it.  

Now our friend Jen that we met in Pullman, (one of couples that were sucked adopted into the Vet group that we spend a lot of time with) told me she TOTALLY knew it'd be a girl, cause none of us have any boys yet (it seems like you had to have children before you came to Vet school to get a boy), even several years after many of them have graduated!!  The count is quite astounding really.  

So now that you've heard me rant and rave about how miserable I've been.  I just have to say that overall, I know I still haven't had a totally horrible pregnancy.  I've felt better since getting on some Pepcid AC that I take daily, and along with the 2nd trimester, I feel much better.  With this being said, I knew there had to be some big changes for New Year so Chad won't leave me.  Okay not really, but I have felt like I've been slacking in the mother and wife department.  So that's what most of this year has been dedicated too.  Making changes that needed to be changed and strengthening the relationships that mean the most to me!!  So I'll eventually be telling you a little about the goals I've set for myself (A lot of these came from inspiration from my friend Lori, which probably had no idea what she inspired), and I've had some awesome results too.

No post!!

Sorry for taking forever to post. Just so you all know, all is well with our little one. Just has taken me forever to scan in ultrasound pictures. So stay tuned for the announcement for those of you who don't facebook!! or those that want some more details!

New Year's day/Janet's birthday

So Chad was on call again for New year's (Well was supposed to be but at last moment Dr. Rowntree took call for the weekend.  Oh darn I hate when that happens)  So the plan was for the Christensen side to come to our place for a celebration of the New Year, but more to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday (Dec. 31st).  

We got together and made homemade pizzas on pizza stones...HMMM and then had lots of goodies and ended with apple cake with vanilla sauce topped with vanilla ice cream.  I was stuffed!! It was a great day to have those that weren't too busy with other things to come be a part of it all.

Reece and Carlos hanging out, but Carlos changed once they got the TV on to check out some football scores!!

The girls playing/hanging around!!  

Here's a picture of Janet as she's going to blow out her candles.  I had forgotten that I had some trick candles so they kept relighting.  OOPS didn't mean to get anyone light headed.

New Year's Eve

We got together with my brother Greg and his family for the festivities.  We had so much fun with just our families.  We got together for dinner and had Hawaiian Haystacks.  Which really hit the spot for me.  We ended up having to cook more rice cause we ate it up pretty fast.  We then had a dance party with Darian, Demetri, and Kherrington.  Kherrington really got into and has since continued to dance in the front room and then wants Chad and I to turn in a circle (like ring around the rosies), just like Greg did with her and the boys that night.  It was great.


It's amazing what you do as a parent to make your kid feel comfortable and be included.  Please disregard the dancing of myself that Chad thought was so hilarious to get on camera. Notice he wasn't out dancing at all....PARTY POOPER!!

Then when Kherrington went to bed the boys got to watch "Mr. Incredible" and the adults got to play games and talk!  So fun to just relax.  We didn't even try to stay up to the ball drop, but did stay up til around 11.  Darian had fallen asleep, I guess something that doesn't happen often while watching a show.  But Demetri was up by they time they left.  Too back Greg had to work in the morning or we would've had a slumber party!!  maybe another year!!