Back to Work?

Always munching on her fists!

I LOVE this outfit on Violet! It's fun to dress her up in more than just onesies now!

So while I was on maternity leave I cried almost everyday telling Eric that I didn't want couldn't go back to work! He told me I just had to figure out how to make it work (financially, insurance, etc.) and I could stay home. Well during my first week back I figured it out...we are going to be poor! Haha that is how it's going to work! Eric was game since he realized how hard it is being a stay at home dad, going to school full time, and working on the weekends (super dad award goes too...) Anyways I am totally excited to be staying home, in fact I feel like two weeks notice is literally killing me! Violet is changing so much and TOO fast for me! Can I just freeze time for a second? I love being her mama, and I am excited to really get a chance to be her mama! I feel new respect for working moms, I know they want to be with their babe's as much as I do, but they are doing the best thing for their family. It's was so hard to make the decision to quit because I really had to have faith that everything was going to work out. It is scary to dive in, but I know it's the right decision for our family and I will be blessed for making the sacrifices. My working hours are seriously the worst! I go to work as soon as Violet wakes up and I come home in time to put her to bed! Awful! I feel so blessed to have worked 6 YEARS for Mountain America, it has been such a wonderful job, it feels so weird to think that I won't be going back when it has been such a huge part of my life for so long!

Growing Girly

 As you can see, Violet is getting huge!! We are having so much fun with her. She goos and gaas all day, mostly while changing her diaper...she loves being changed! She had her 2 month appointment last week, and she weighed 10 lbs. 2 oz.! She went from the 4th percentile (2 week appointment) to the 23rd percentile! Go Violet!! I go back to work next week and it is really sad! I am going to miss this girl, I took her to the babysitter today for a little trial run and she was a champ...didn't even know I was gone I'm sure. I have to say that Mountain America is a great place to work...too great, they are making it so hard to leave. If I had any other job I think it would be easy to just leave! Things got a little crazy for a while, Violet didn't want anything to do with a bottle, but she overcame that little phase and is showing me I have nothing to worry about. I love her for making this easier on me! I am going to miss those goos and gaas that I was talking about! It is so fun to watch her grow and change and I love the stage she is in right now. I love how active and alert she is, but still a cuddly newborn!

My sweet Violet is growing so big! We are very excited to see her grow, she was so small it was scary to just put her in her car seat. Violet was born July 16th, she weighed 6lbs 2oz and was 19 1/2 in. long. She was just perfect! I wish that she could have been bigger, but perfect just the same.
Toward the end of my pregnancy, the last 4 weeks or so, I started loosing weight. I would loose about a pound a week, and even though my Dr. wasn't concerned it was making me nervous. There was even on week that I lost 3 pounds in that week alone. My Dr. (and I agree) thinks that it was due to my restricted diet for Gestational Diabetes. It was hard to get enough calories while cutting my carbs.
After Violet was born they came in to give her a bath and then took her to the nursery to quickly check her vitals. The nurse came back into the room and informed me that her blood sugar was way low and they needed to give her formula quick. The reason for the low blood sugar could have been because of my high blood sugar during pregnancy or just because she was so small. After giving her formula her sugar went up, but not quite enough so they decided to take her the NICU. They set her up on an IV that was just basically sugar water too get her blood sugar stable. While testing little Violet, they found that her white blood cell count was high so they started treating her for an infection with antibiotics.
It was really hard to not have Violet in my room with me, I could go see her anytime I wanted (except the first night because I was still completely numb) but I had to eat and sleep in my room so we were constantly going back and forth. I felt like I didn't get to spend very much precious time with my sweet baby. We also couldn't have many visitors at the NICU. We had to pick just 5 people that were aloud to visit, and only 3 people could be in the room at a time (including us).
The NICU is something that we were not prepared for, and we didn't really know how to handle that. I was discharged on Wednesday, but Violet had to stay. We would wake up in the middle of the night and head to the hospital so we could feed her, we thankfully were able to take her home Thursday afternoon.
She is doing well now and we are so glad to have her home! She is eating so much in fact, I weigh less than I did pre-pregnancy. I never had to wear maternity clothes post hospital! As of today Violet now weighs 7lbs 5 oz! She is growing fast! Our lives are not so simple anymore, but we wouldn't go back if it meant Violet wouldn't be in our lives. We are totally in love with her, it's amazing how after a night of no sleep I can wake up and look at her and smother her with kisses!

Violet's Birth Day

I was due to have Violet on Saturday, July 14^th I started to anticipate this day the week leading up, wondering if maybe I would be early. As my due date approached I started to get more anxious, thinking that I really needed Violet to come as soon as possible. My due date came and Eric and I walked all over Logan! We were trying to get labor going. On Sunday I was really nervous and wanted to really get the baby out of me, I don’t know why I was feeling this way, because I was so comfortable during my pregnancy. Sunday came and we went to Sacrament and Sunday school, I cooked dinner, and we decided to go for another real long walk so we took a trail up Logan Canyon. I know that walking isn’t a sure thing, but I was desperate to try to get labor started on my own since I knew that I would not be induced for a while.

All night Sunday I was experiencing more intense contractions than I ever felt; they were also very consistent, so I was sure that I was in labor. I didn’t fall asleep until about 5:30 am, then I woke up to my alarm at 8:00 am. I no longer was feeling the intense contractions, but I did start to feel Braxton Hicks contractions again. I was confused and upset and concerned. I called my doctors office, and the nurse recommended that I come see my Doctor and she could see how far along I was. I made an appointment for 11:45, I was able to shower, get dressed, and put on make-up. I felt great! My Doctor even told me that I definitely did not look like I was in labor. She checked to see how far along I was and there really was no progress even since my last appointment. She decided that we should do a non-stress test to see how baby girl was doing. I sat for 20 min and when the Doctor came in to check the status, she looked concerned. She told me that I was going to have a baby today! I was happy, because I knew I needed to get Violet out of me, but I also got very scared.

The reason she decided to get labor started was that, while monitoring Violet’s hard rate it was just flat and it should have ups and downs. I headed up to Labor and Delivery at about 1:00 that afternoon. It was funny because as I walked away my doctor was just like “okay I’ll be there in a minute to break your water” like it was no big deal. I got all checked in and my plan was to receive my epidural as soon as was able, I wanted labor to be a positive experience, I did not want to think negatively about having my beautiful baby. My doctor came in and broke my water…wow I really had no idea that much fluid came out!! Then my nurse asked about receiving an epidural she said something along the lines that I should get it right away just so we were prepared for an emergency…meaning C-Section. I received my epidural, which was great because breaking my water was all it took to kick start labor, and I didn’t feel a single contraction!

When I was about six and half centimeters, the nurse came in very concerned, all of the sudden there were five nurses, my doctor was in there, she looked like she had ran from office. They also gave me oxygen and a shot that is supposed to ease my contractions, and started pulling out scrubs for Eric to wear…for surgery. It was so intense and confusing and nobody was really telling us what was going on, they were just talking to each other and working really fast to help my baby. Her heart rate had dropped dramatically with a real bad contraction and was dropping with each contraction.

Eric asked the staff if he could quickly give me a blessing so they all left for a moment. It was so amazing. Almost immediately after the blessing her heart rate went back up and I just needed to focus on deep breaths through my contractions, Eric just had to tell me when they were since I couldn’t feel them or know  when they were coming on. It was such an amazing testimony to receive that miracle during that very scary moment.

After a while they were able to take the oxygen away, and at about 6:30 I was finally complete. They told me that we would wait an hour to let the baby’s head descend then at about 7:15 they took my temperature and I was getting a fever. If my fever got too high, my sweet baby would automatically be taken to the NICU so they decided to just let me start pushing, I was surprised how easy it was for me to push! They actually wouldn’t have me push through every contraction because I was pushing so fast, we needed to give my doctor time to come up. I pushed from 7:15 until 7:36 that is when beautiful Violet finally arrived! She was perfect! I loved having her on my belly right after birth and just taking a moment to be amazed by this tiny little angel that was growing inside of me! It really is amazing to be in a delivery room. With every push the feeling in the room grew stronger and stronger, and when Violet was finally out in the world it honestly felt like heaven! Those nurses have a tough amazing job, but I can see why they love it so much. You get to feel a piece of heaven every day!

My testimony has never grown so much in such a short time. I know that the Lord is blessing me greatly, by giving me this perfect little gift to take care of. I know that he loves her by the way he helps me to care for her and know what she needs. I am so grateful to have Violet here now, and I’m grateful that she is happy and healthy!

Sore Fingers...

We'll start this post with a few pictures of this growing belly of mine. She is starting to really take up space in there!

 25 weeks

 27 weeks

 29 weeks

m

 30 weeks

I recently learned that I have gestational diabetes...hence the title of this post "sore fingers" I have to check my blood sugar 4 times a day and while at first it didn't hurt...it's starting too! So far I only have to change my diet and I don't need any medicine or insulin to help. It doesn't seem so bad usually, until I just want nothing but a burger and some fries...or a milkshake from Charlie's! In fact as soon as my little babes comes that will be my first request! The good news is that my body should go back to normal, but I have a risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. My dad has type 2 diabetes and I have never felt so sorry for him...I used to get really upset when I would see him eat things he shouldn't or when he tells me he hasn't been checking his blood sugar as often as he should. Honestly, if it wasn't for sweet baby and the constant worry I have that she is doing okay, I probably would just eat what ever I wanted! It's a pretty restricting diet and can get depressing and annoying. Other than that baby is good, she is just the right size so well try to keep it that way! She always sticks herself in the most awkward looking positions, my stomach will just stick out it's pretty funny mostly. We are currently setting up her sweet crib, and by we I mean my handy husband and I supervise/blog, so my next post may just have pictures!

The Bump

So here are some picture of my little growing bump, and for those of you who didn't hear the screaming from the rooftops... IT'S A GIRL!!
We are so excited to bring a little girl home in July. I have been browsing pinterest for cute little girly ideas and have already made her some cute little headbands.
We had our ultrasound and she was all curled up, and the technician wanted a better look at her heart and spine so we got to have another ultrasound. She was all curled up again, but they could see what they needed. She is pretty shy about showing us her face, we don't have a good shot of her face at all. She has her knees up to her nose and her arm shielding her face, shy little girl. She is a girl though....she was not shy about proving that. Right now I have been feeling pretty good, my headaches seem to come in series I had a few weeks there where I felt amazing, but the headaches have returned for a while. Other than that I feel really good, and I love to feel her squirm around inside me! I also really love my maternity clothes! I feel so much better in them, I feel like I look huge in regular clothes and maternity clothes are just more flattering now, I really don't understand people who don't like wearing them! Well her are some pics:

17 weeks

19 weeks

21 weeks, 5 days.

The people I help at the Credit Union, well the brave ones, are starting to make comments. I am glad that I look like I'm expecting and I actually prefer when people say something cause if they don't I just worry that they think I'm chubby!

photo credit meringue bake shop

FYI...I would love to find out what we are having via biting into a delicious cupcake and see what color cream filling is inside!!

Anyways we have our gender ultrasound in a couple weeks, and if our little sweet potato (pretty big huh!) corporates we will know! It would be fun to see what everyone thinks we could be having so leave a comment and see if your right...go ahead and throw in a name suggestion if you have any :)