Friday, June 19, 2015

Gemma Geneal Allred

So I obviously suck at blogging since my last post was over 2 years ago haha! That being said, I blogged Asher’s birth story and I have loved having it to look back on and putting it on my blog has been a good way to always have access to it! So, here is the story of how our sweet Gemma joined our family!

End of Pregnancy
I am not going to lie, the last 4 weeks of my pregnancy with Gemma were TERRIBLE!! I was soo hormonal and grouchy and just beyond ready to be done! I had an extremely hard time getting any sleep but my life was super busy still with all of my projects and crazy little Ash man to chase around so I felt exhausted and worn down on top of being huge pregnant! I was SO sick of the “when is baby coming?” or even “How are you feeling?” every 2 seconds! I know everyone was just being nice checking up on me but I just didn’t want to talk about being pregnant because I was so over it haha! When I first found out I was pregnant everyone told me “Don’t get your hopes up that you will have this baby early too just because you had Asher 3 weeks early!” and I tried so hard my whole pregnancy to remember that and plan on going the whole time! I did really good until my 36 week appointment when I found out I was already 2 cm and 75% effaced and the doctors started telling me it was definitely looking like I’d go early. I was having WAYYY more contractions and signs of labor than I ever did with Asher so I was positive I’d go early. Every appointment I was told my cervix was soft and ready and I could have a baby any time and then a week would go by and I’d be at my next appointment still pregnant and a little more discouraged…

Labor… Take 1…
Between my 38 and 39 week appointments I was MISERABLE! Dr. Bierer had told me when I started having contractions that were 3-4 minutes apart for 2 hours I should head to the hospital. That Friday night I got a super sick stomach and started having strong contractions every 3 minutes. They weren’t causing me a great deal of pain but they were super regular and definitely getting stronger and kept coming even after taking a hot shower and doing a few other things. Since they weren’t super painful I decided I would probably be okay to wait longer even though it had already been about 2 ½ hours. Eric had work the next morning and his job is very strict about attendance and so I knew I didn’t want him to call-in unless I was positive we were having a baby. Even though they weren’t incredibly painful, they were definitely uncomfortable enough to keep me from getting any sleep. I laid on the couch and tried to relax but I felt pretty terrible. The next day was rough… I was beyond exhausted and still contracting every 3 minutes and by this point my back was aching and the contractions were making my upper thigh muscles cramp. I was nauseous and feeling super crappy. I went to Walmart with my mom to try and keep my mind off of things and while being out, things kept getting worse and I kept feeling like this could be it more and more. I went home and laid down for about an hour before Eric got home from work. When I laid down and drank a bunch of water things slowed down but I was still having contractions every 4-5 minutes and my back aches and cramps were still super strong. Eric got home and we debated back and forth for a while whether we should go in or not (Eric didn’t get home from work until 8:30 and by the time he showered and we figured dinner out it was 9 and we were both tired and didn’t know if we were up to driving all the way to Ogden.) Finally we decided it was better to be safe than sorry… We got to the hospital and they hooked me up to the monitors and sure enough, contractions were every 3 minutes. They then checked me and I had made no progress since my appointment… At that point I knew it wasn’t the real deal because I had been having contractions for almost 24 hours… The on-call doctor wanted me to stay for an hour and get checked again and this was even more discouraging. I knew if the past day hadn’t done anything, the next hour wouldn’t do anything either and it was already 11:30 and we still had an hour drive home with both of us dead tired. We were finally discharged at 12:30 and got to drive the hour home, still feeling as miserable as ever. Since they checked me twice my cramps and aches went up about 10 notches and I was sooo miserable on the way home which just made the whole situation that much worse! I was so ornery and discouraged. (Poor Eric!)
Well the rest of the week was pretty much just as sucky! I had contractions every single day and only had 1 night that I was actually able to get decent rest. By the time my 39 week appointment rolled around I was completely spent and worn down. I was sure I’d get there and be super dilated and find out we’d have a baby soon! (I was really hoping he’d send me to the hospital that day saying I was in labor haha!) Well he checked me and I hadn’t even dilated a full cm since the week before… I was glad I had at least progressed a little but still super discouraged. The only thing that perked me up a little was that Dr. Bierer actually gave me a timeline estimate of when she’d come rather than just saying “she could come any day now!” He told me he’d be surprised if I made it to my appointment the next week and he would say baby in the next few days! This was great news, not only because I was so sick of being pregnant, but because Eric had just been switched to a different team at work which changed his schedule that had been arranged perfectly for a baby. Dr. Bierer had agreed to setting up an induction if I made it to my due date so Eric’s old schedule would have been perfect. He had 1 day he could take off and it just so happened that the Saturday-Tuesday following my due date was Eric’s 4 day weekend for the month… Eric had taken his 1 scheduled day off on my due date so he would have had 5 days in a row off which would have given us a little more time together with baby. When they switched him to the other schedule it made his long weekend the week before my due date and also made it so he had to work the day of Baylee’s wedding, making it so his 1 scheduled day off had to be moved to the wedding. This meant I had 4 days after my 39 week appointment to have a baby while Eric was off if I wanted to have a husband around right after having her…

Labor Begins… Again?
Well Eric’s long weekend flew by of course and no baby… Tuesday was his last day off and we decided we would go to Park City to pass some time and get just a little bit of couple time in before baby came. We got to Park City and my contractions started right up but I refused to get my hopes up. We walked around and they kept getting closer and stronger together and painful! Since my other contractions hadn’t had a lot of pain associated with them I started to get excited… By the time we finished shopping they had been going for about 2 ½ hours and were 2 ½-3 minutes apart. I wanted to sit down and eat and drink something and make sure that they didn’t go away. We stopped at Subway and they kept coming so we decided we would head to the hospital from Park City rather than go home and wait a little longer since my mom had Asher already and we wouldn’t have to worry about getting him picked up in a hurry. The whole drive they kept getting worse and I felt more and more nauseous and achy. I was sure this had to be it! We got to the hospital and at this point they were super close together and way stronger than I’d ever had before! They hooked me up to the monitors and contractions were super strong and every 1 ½-2 minutes apart! The nurse acted so excited for me and I felt so relieved… then she checked me and I hadn’t dilated AT ALL from my last appointment! I felt like someone punched me in the face! My contractions were so strong and regular so they said they wanted me to go walk for 45 minutes and then come back and check again since it really appeared to be labor… After walking, contractions were every 1 ½ minutes consistently and I was soo uncomfortable but still no change. They discharged us AGAIN and I bawled the whole way home. I was so miserable but nothing good was happening! The nurse was so sure I was in labor she suggested we stay in Ogden and hang out for a while but Eric had to go back to work the next day so we headed home. Well I got NO sleep and my contractions got worse and worse and worse to the point I just laid on the couch and cried. I was sooo exhausted but couldn’t sleep at all. I went and soaked in the tub for 45 minutes, tried eating some food, tried drinking lots of water, and nothing made me feel better. At this point I had no clue what to think. I didn’t understand how it was possible I wasn’t in labor (or at least the point of labor where I was progressing.) Around 3 AM my contractions slowed down a little and I got SO sick! I was sweating and having heat flashes, felt like I was going to pass out, wanted to throw up, and felt so weak and light headed. The contractions were still about every 5 minutes apart but more than anything I couldn’t take how sick I was! Eric woke up to go to work around 5:30 and I was a bawling mess in the living room. He gave me a blessing before leaving for work and told me to go back in to the hospital if I didn’t get feeling better soon. I refused to get sent home for a third time so I told him I probably wouldn’t go in. I was such a mess that I must have worried Eric enough to call me 3 times while at work to check on me… This is a big deal because he doesn’t get service at work so he had to use the office phone during his breaks to do this haha! Around noon my contractions picked back up to 3 minutes apart and were just as painful and achy as the night so I got up and tried to clean my house to keep busy… I quickly found out I was in too much pain for that so I decided to work on some crafts instead since I could sit down and do that. My contractions were so strong I had to stop walking and moving around when I had one because of the pain.
Eric called me for the last time at 6 PM and I just cried to him about how much pain I was in. I told him I thought I wanted to go back to the hospital because I was just to the point I needed rest more than anything else. I was to the point that if the contractions weren’t doing anything I just wanted a morphine shot and a sleeping pill so I could at least have a few hours to relax. Eric agreed I should go in so I drove to Grantsville to pick up my mom (who had kept Asher overnight and all day for me since I felt so terrible) and we headed back to Tooele to drop Asher off at my Grandmas before we drove in. Eric gets off work at 7:30 but then has an hour long drive so our plan was for my mom and I to drive in and then call Eric if he needed to come in. That way I could at least get some relief but Eric could still be home and in bed at a decent time so he wouldn’t have to miss work the next day. I refused to believe they would keep me and was just planning on getting the shot instead. We got to the hospital at 8 PM and they hooked me up to the monitors to tell me (once again) I was having strong and regular contractions. They then checked me and I had dilated to a 5 (about a cm and a half more from the day before) and I about cried tears of joy knowing I had at least made some progress! The nurse left to get ahold of Dr. Bierer and find out what he wanted me to do. It took them FOREVER to get back to me because Dr. Bierer wanted them to monitor my contractions for a decent amount of time to see how regular they were before he made a decision. After about 45 minutes they came in and said Dr. Bierer said I could stay!! FINALLY!!! I called Eric and told him to come in and got moved into a delivery room and officially admitted at 9 PM.

The Real Deal!
My mom needed to run a few errands so she had left just before they admitted me so I hung out in the delivery room, got my IV, and took care of all the paperwork and such while I waited for Eric to get there and my mom to get back from her errands. Just before Eric got to the hospital they decided to check me again (around 10:20 PM) and I was only at 5 + (so basically between a 5 and 6) so I started preparing for a long, slow night. Eric got there about 5 minutes later and we started talking about my progress. I told him I hadn’t even progressed a cm in the 2 hours so we probably had a long time and he asked why they weren’t breaking my water to try to speed me up. I told him 2 hours in labor is like nothing and some people labor for 30+ hours so they probably wouldn’t try to speed me up until the morning at the earliest. I then told him you didn’t want your water to break because it acts like a cushion to the contractions so the longer they let me go without breaking it the better! We finished that conversation and Eric was texting his parents the progress when I started having a contraction and, no joke, my water broke mid-contraction! (around 10:35) Talk about crazy timing! I was telling Eric it broke and he was asking if we tell my nurse or what I need to do and while I was deciding if I should page my nurse or just wait for her to come in I got another contraction ( about 1 minute after the first) and the intensity of it was CRAZY!! At that point there was no doubt I should let my nurse know… I called and let her know. She came in about 10 minutes later ( 10:50ish) and checked me and I was at a 6. The contractions were coming every 1 minute and were SOOOO strong and painful! I couldn’t believe how fast it got that bad! I felt like such a wimp but at 11 I asked for an epidural because they were not slowing down and getting more and more painful every contraction. I was squeezing poor Eric’s hand off and moaning and groaning like crazy through every contraction and I was thinking of going through what I was feeling for a few hours and knew I’d die haha! The nurse told me I had good timing because the Anesthesiologist was just about to go into a c-section so she’d go grab him and have him stop by my room first… She came back about 5 minutes later with a look on her face that I knew wasn’t good… She hadn’t been able to catch him before he went in for the c-section and now he wouldn’t be able to leave until they were completely done but he knew to come straight to my room when he was done… I asked how long I had to wait and she told me only 30-40 minutes… HAA! (Eric said “that isn’t too long! You can do it!” and I just said “that’s 30 contractions!!” hahaha!) She told me I was getting a new nurse since her shift was ending but she wanted to check me again because of how fast my pain had intensified (at this point I was crying and chanting “ow, ow, ow, ow, ow” during every contraction hahaha!) and how close together my contractions were (less than a minute apart!!) even though she had just checked me 15 minutes earlier. (Natalie had got back from her errands sometime around this point… My eyes were closed pretty much the whole time at this point and I was kind of in my own little world.) She checked me and I was at an 8!!! (11:10) They introduced my new nurse (Carrie. She was AMAZING!!!) and started getting a little panicked to get Dr. Bierer there since I had just dilated 2 cm in 15 minutes! Every contraction got worse and worse and I was dying!! My nurse was amazing and grabbed my hands, had someone change the TV to relaxation music (I hadn’t even noticed the background noise was overstimulating me until she did that!) and made me open my eyes and look at her through every contraction. She breathed through them with me since I was breathing way too fast through them, causing them to last even longer. She really knew what she was doing and how to help me! Eric was so awesome too and rubbed my lower back and thigh through every contraction and kept telling me how good I was doing and that I could do it! Neither, Eric or my nurse, acknowledged the fact that I was hollering and being one of those crazy ladies you see on TV which made me feel way better haha! At one point I made a comment about how I was trying to not yell and be that crazy lady and they both assured me I was fine and doing great! (Probably not true but it made me feel a lot better haha!) At this point they were checking me every other contraction and it was taking me 2 contractions to dilate a cm. By 11:20 I was fully dilated but not at the right station. By 11:30 Dr. Bierer was there and I was in the right station and ready to deliver… The only problem was that the edge of my cervix was still pulled up over her head on one side so they had to wait for the contractions to move her head very slowly down so I didn’t tear my cervix and cause all sorts of problems for myself… The only problem was that because my body was ready to go I had the STRONGEST urge to push. I wanted to push so bad and through every contraction I kept saying I want to push, I want to push and they kept saying “Don’t push!! Don’t push!!” and then I started saying “I have to!!” haha! It was the worst sensation to fight that urge! They kept telling me she was right there and my contractions were so strong that if I pushed she would for sure come and if I tore my cervix I would have major issues! My nurse was her amazing self and every time I tried to get them to let me push she would tell me I needed to breath through the contraction instead and she would help me! She was so good and she even caught me every time I tried to cheat and breath out longer than I should since it helped fulfill that pushing urge so she would make me breath in instead hahaha! At 11:40 Dr. Bierer checked me and said my cervix had finally cooperated and moved and I was ready to push and right then Dr. Silver (the anesthesiologist) walked through the door. I asked if I could get the epidural still (I think Dr. Bierer was mad they let me know the c-section was done because when he got there at 11:30 he had clearly just woke up and was super tired and he just wanted me to push so he could go home haha!) Dr. Bierer, my nurse, my mom, and Eric all told me I was ready to push and they all thought I should just finish because they could tell she was coming fast… I didn’t want that advice and asked Dr. Silver if I could get one and he was completely honest with me and said “Well sure! You can do it now, all women can do it without an epidural if they want to, but if you want the epidural I’ll do it!” so I asked if it would work in time and he said “I don’t know! I guess we’ll find out!” and everyone laughed (except me of course haha!) He had the epidural in just after 11:45 and at 11:50 I had a contraction that I could feel but was MUCH better! I started pushing and I could feel through the first 2 contractions just not as strong and that kind of made me wish I would have just waited because not fighting the urge to push made everything a million times better! That and the fact that I literally pushed through 4 contractions and had a baby haha! I am happy I did end up getting it though, even if I did only have it for 10 minutes and it only worked for 2 contractions just for the fact that the second I got it I was able to mentally calm myself down. It made me feel much more calm and like I had a much better grasp on what was going on so I was able to be better prepared to meet my sweet princess!  After pushing through 4 contractions and less than 10 minutes, they placed a beautiful, healthy baby girl on my chest!

Summing It Up
Long story short, I was in early labor for a little over 24 hours, active labor for probably around 8 hours but I’m really only counting the true active labor as the last 3 hours! I am so glad that Dr. Silver was in a c-section so I couldn’t get the epidural right when I asked for it because it really proved to me that I could do it! This labor was pretty much the complete opposite of my labor with Asher and I came in completely unprepared for it to go so fast and intense. If I could go back I wouldn’t change a thing, however! Now for our next I’ll know to go into it more prepared and with a better idea of what to expect!
Gemma Geneal was born at midnight exactly (she kept our streak of all our birthdays, and our anniversary, being on even dates haha!) She was born and I got to do skin to skin immediately! She got quite ticked off when they were getting all the fluid and stuff out of her mouth and nose but the minute I got to do skin to skin with her she calmed right down and just snuggled me! Eric got to cut the cord which was new since I had a c-section with Asher. This whole birth experience was so different from Asher’s and so amazing! They let me hold her  skin to skin as long as I wanted before they took her and wiped her down really well and weighed her and did the tests they needed to!
We hung out in the delivery room for about an hour and a half, I had a first degree tear so they stitched me up and then they moved me to recovery.
Gemma has been the best little baby I could ask for! She has nursed great (she had a little trouble latching last night but my nurse and lactation consultant promised that was normal!) and is such a SNUGGLE BUG!! Seriously! She loves being held and  just curls right into me!
I have been feeling soo great (tired, but I guess that is to be expected when you spend one night up sick as can be and the next night up giving birth haha!) but the recovery is night and day from Asher’s, and I thought I felt good after Asher!
I had tested positive for Group B Strep and since I went so fast I only had the antibiotic for 3 hours instead of the required 4 so Gemma is required to stay in the hospital for at least 48 hours for monitoring and testing so instead of being discharged today, we will be sent home in the morning!
I’m a little nervous to have 2 babies at home, especially once I have them both on Tuesday and Eric is gone to work but I’m sure we will be fine! The bonding time for Gemma and I in the hospital has been amazing and I am so thankful to have such a healthy little baby!
We had lots of visitors the 18th but today has been a lot more low key! My mom, dad, Baylee, Weston, Wyatt, Kenya, and Eric’s parents (and Mercedes but she wasn’t allowed to come back since she isn’t 14) came right after she was born at midnight. Grandma G-G, Aunt Sharon, Jennie, and Holli, Great- Grandma Cheryl, my mom, Wyatt, and Asher all came back during the day too! Eric had to go back to work today so Gemma and I spent the night by ourselves and all day today as well! My parents and Asher came to visit around 4 PM on the 19th and Eric is coming straight from work so we are expecting him to get here around 9 PM and he’ll sleep here and be ready for us to be discharged tomorrow morning!
It has been super interesting the different emotions I’ve felt compared to when I had Asher. I was in the hospital for 5 days with Asher and Eric had to go back to work and school as well and it was during the school year so most of our family couldn’t spend much time other than evenings visiting. I remember feeling so lonely and bummed having to spend so much time alone so I had been a little nervous for spending the day alone today but it has been great! It has given me the chance to nap and just relax and have some me time! Not to mention I’ve got to snuggle my baby girl all to myself the whole day!

I am SOOO glad I’m not pregnant anymore and beyond blessed to have such a perfect and healthy little daughter! Everything about these past few days has been a dream and so worth every ounce of pain and struggle the last few weeks of pregnancy! I have a beautiful, perfect baby girl, feel great, and have a pretty awesome story and memories to share! 

Our Gemma Geneal
Born June 18th, 2015
12:00 AM
7 lbs 13 oz
20 inches long

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Asher's Blessing

So I'm finally getting around to trying to get caught up on all my posts... I need to be better at keeping up because I will never forgive myself if Asher grows up saying "I wish my mom would have kept a better record of my life!"
Sooo my new years resolution is to stay on top of documenting what happens to my beautiful little family!
That isn't saying that I'll never get behind (especially during the semester) but I am going to try extra hard to at least keep notes somewhere so that when I finally do get around to blogging it will be accurate and have all the information!
Anyways... on with this post!
We blessed Ash on November 25th, 2012 at my Grandma's ward in Tooele (Skyline Ward) at 1:00 PM and did a luncheon at my Aunt Sharon's house afterwards. We ended up blessing him on the 25th rather than wait the extra week for fast sunday because my dad had to be back in Maryland for work by then and Chad also had to be at a special conference for their stake!
Eric did such a wonderful job blessing Asher! I can't express how much I love and admire my absolutely amazing husband. I would never have the courage to give a blessing in front of an entire ward, let alone one as perfect as Eric gave. I had so many people come up to me after and tell me how impressed they were with the message and blessing Eric left with our sweet boy and I could do nothing but agree with them!
We were very blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family there to support us. Our wonderful friends, The Boltons and The Richens, both travelled at least an hour and fifteen minutes to be there to support us and it meant so much to us.
We also had so many wonderful men that were able to stand in the circle and participate in the blessing. Eric, my dad, Eric's dad, Grandpa Paul R. Eric's Grandpa Mike, Nate Rimington, Brandon Pehrson, Jake Clonts, Ken Nunley, Grandpa Bud, and Austin Bolton are all such wonderful examples to our darling little Asher and we appreciate the role they play in our lives.
After the blessing we all went to Sharon's house for a luncheon of all different types of soups and desserts! Again, we are so blessed to have so many wonderful people willing to help out who brought delicious food!
The day was so perfect and the only thing I would have changed would have been for me to have been more on top of things and take more pictures! :( Here are the few pictures I took the day of his blessing and then a few that we tried to take with our camera after (no judging... I am an awful photographer but we wanted to wait until little man was 3 months old to pay for professional pictures and since he is such a little fatty his blessing outfit was already fitting a little snug... hence, the crappy pictures taken by me haha!)

(Well I typed this post yesterday but waited to post it because for some reason it wouldn't allow me to add the pictures... for some reason it still won't so here is the post without pictures for now... I'll try again later!)

Friday, December 21, 2012

Halloween/ Thanksgiving

So this post is mainly going to consist of pictures haha! I'll just do a quick recap of our holidays!
Halloween:
So since Halloween was on a Wednesday and during the semester we had to just make a quick trip to Tooele! Asher was barely over a month old so he obviously wasn't a huge trick-or-treater haha! We did look pretty cute though ;) We dressed Asher like Yoda and I dressed up (kind of dressed up I should say) as Princess Leia and Eric was Han Solo! We got to Tooele and went and walked main street with Kami and Brandon and the Pehrson kids. Then we went to the Allred's trunk or treat for a little bit and then headed to Tooele where all of my family got to see the baby. Since it was kind of cold we decided we would stay at my Grandma's and hand out candy rather than go trick or treating haha! That was about it for our halloween though! A couple days before Halloween we also carved pumpkins with our good friends, the Bolton's!
Princess Leia and Yoda :)

Our cute little family of pumpkins

Star Wars Fam!

The whole gang :)

Ash's halloween Jammies from G-G

Cutest baby ever! :)



Han Solo and Yoda! :)

Our awesome pumpkins! :)
 
Thanksgiving:
So our Thanksgiving was pretty crazy but a lot of fun still! We started the day by going to my Grandma Barrus' house and having a small Thanksgiving lunch with that side of my family, then we went to the Allred's for Thanksgiving with a few of Eric's cousins and their kids and then we went to my Grandma Geneal's for desert and to get ready for the big shopping trip! We did the walmart door busteres Thanksgiving night and then headed out for a day full of shopping at 6 AM the next morning! We had to drag Ash along the day after Thanksgiving but he was such a trooper!
My cute little family :)


All the cousins LOVE Asher :)

Especially Ruby haha!

 

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Adventures of motherhood and being a full time student... AKA getting WAYYY behind on your blogging! ;)

BE PREPARED FOR PICTURE OVERLOAD!!!!
Sooooo I will start this post just as I start every other post... With lots of excuses as to why I haven't blogged in a month and a half!
I don't have anything fancy this time, just the typical, "I have been super busy with lovin on my cute chunk, trying not to fail my classes, and attempting to be a half decent wife who prepares dinners like hamburger helper and keeps our apartment from growing some kind of bacteria or fungus!" haha!
Sooo I have LOTS to catch up on... where to begin??
I think my best option is to try and do a basic coverage on Asher's life in this post and then do seperate posts dedicated to Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Ash's blessing day! :)
So I'll attempt to keep the weekly reports going but since I have only blogged 4 weeks of my 11 week old baby's life, try to understand if the first couple are SUPER vague and don't have very much info! :/
Here goes nothin..
5 weeks old!
Wyatt and Ash
 
Great Grandma Cheryl and Asher and a sneak peak of his halloween costume haha!
 
"Handsome like daddy" shirt! :)
 
What a stud!
 
mean Aunt Baylee haha!
 
Little Miss Oakley and Asher
 
Pops and Ashy!
 
1 whole month!
 
Sooo Ash man's fifth week of life was the week of halloween! We went to Tooele for Halloween and dressed up as a little star wars family (we were cute, what can I say?! ;)) but I'll get more into that in a different post. We took Ash to the doctor this week because we were starting to wonder if our sweet little guy had a sensitivity to lactose or if he had reflux because he had been getting progressively more and more fussy the older he got and it was always right after he ate. The doctor, unfortunately, told us that he didn't have reflux, that he was just a gassy baby and the only thing we can do about that is gas drops or gripe water! Gripe water has been doing the trick luckily, but we definitely have a gassy little man on our hands!
 
6 Weeks:
This week was election week... BLEHHH! haha! I can't really think of anything that happened this week otherwise though! No doctor appointments, holidays, big milestones... He just got cuter and chunkier! haha!
Cute chubby bug! :)

grinnin in his sleep :)

 


So chunky! :)



hahahaha! :)

 
7 weeks:
This week was the big 1st smile! :) We were so happy and excited when he grinned at us that we almost forgot how big of idiots we looked like trying to coax that little smile out of him haha! The joys of being parents. We also found out that our chunk weighed 12 lbs 14.5 oz and was in the 90th percentile haha. Lastly, we had our first natural parents disaster this week haha. Eric put his cell phone in the diaper bag with a bottle that didn't have a cap on it... ohh no! We will add that to our list of learned parenthood rules, right underneath don't change diapers on anything you don't want to wash, increasing your water bill isn't all bad if it can keep you sane, and just get used to people thinking those loud stinky farts came from you, not the baby. haha!  
LOVEE this smiley face :)





Wearing his take home outfit for the last time! :(


My precious sleepy baby!

New church sweater! :)


SOO handsome!
 
8 weeks:
This was a super eventful week! Thanksgiving, Asher's blessing day, and my little man's first time getting to experience black friday shopping. Again with Thanksgiving and Asher's blessing, I'll save the majority of the details for a later post but I just have to quickly express how blessed and thankful Eric and I feel to have such a wonderful loving family and group of friends who care so much about us! Black friday shopping on the other hand... We had such a great time and my buddy was and absolute ANGEL! We left him home with G-G (Great Grandma Geneal) for the insane walmart doorbusters but starting at 6 AM he was with us for the longhaul! He literally only cried if he was hungry and even that was only like 3 times for the entire day. We had lots of fun getting to spend time with Tristyn and Kayla and all of our crazy moms, aunts, and close friends. My baby turned 2 months old on the 24th and it is SOOO hard to believe!

 

 
These are the only 4 pictures I want to post so I don't steal all the Thanksgiving and blessing day pictures! You have to admit though, my baby is pretty darn cute! ;)
 
9 Weeks:
The dreaded 2 month appointment complete with vaccinations and all. That is what we got to look forward to this week... In addition to that, my poor little guy had his first sickness (a stomach bug that we basically just had to let run it's course!) so needless to say, we had a lot of extra cuddles and loves this week. The verdict from the doctor? We have a HUGE baby! He was 24.13 inches long (85%) and 14 lbs 5.5 oz (94%). We also ended up taking him back to the doctor a second time this week because of his stomach bug but they basically just told us to watch him to make sure he didn't get dehydrated any worse and let him get better on his own.








Ahhhh! I love him!

big guy in 3-6 month clothes haha!
 
10 weeks:
This was just this past week and nothing too exciting happened! We discovered a pocket of fluid on the back of Asher's head between his skull and his scalp over the weekend and he was exposed to influenza type A but we took him to the doctor today and everything is okay (I'll give details in a second!) but other than that we have just loved trying to get him to smile ALL the time! He is our pride and joy and we love showing him off and just kissing and snuggling his chubby little self! :)



CHUBBY!!

My little look-a-likes! :)

You can't even deny how CUTE this is! I love it!
 
11 Weeks:
Lastly, this week. As I mentioned above, we took Ash to the doctor today about the pocket of fluid in his head and to ask about anything we could do since he had been exposed to the flu. The doctor looked at his head and said that as long as it doesn't start to hurt or bother Ash that he should just grow out of it and just to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get bigger or start to bother him. He also said that since it has been 2 days since the initial exposure to the flu, he should be safe! What was super fun to find out was that out big guy now weighs 15 lbs 10.5 oz. HOLY COW!! What a chunk! :) Other than that he has just been smiling and cooing A LOT and we have been working extra hard with him to get better at supporting his big noggin. He is cute as ever and now that I am done with the semester I get the whole week to just smooch on him! :)
Grandpa's little Braves fan! :)
 
Okay and so now for a quick boring bit of information, happenings with Eric and I:
I am currently, already finished with the semester (Thank heavens for no finals! :)) and Eric is finishing up this week! He has two more finals until he is free from this semester! :)
Other than that we have done a few fun things here and there like Eric's work party, and we even left Asher with my mom one night to go out. Other than that, we have just been enjoying our lives as new parents and watching our relationship grow as fast as our chubby little baby :)
 
and now for a somewhat cheesy/sentimental moment.... I just feel like I need to take a second and write about how much I absolutely love being a mother. I know everyone tells you it is so wonderful and that you don't know true love until you see your baby for the first time and that being a mother is the greatest job in the world and all the non-mothers out there just kind of roll their eyes and think "Yeah, yeah, that is what you have to say so you feel like a good mom." (I know, I was once one of those non-mothers) but it is soo true. I have seriously never loved anything or anyone as much as I love my sweet, perfect baby. You think that when you get married there is no love that can compare to how you feel for your husband and then you have a baby... don't get me wrong, Eric is the love of my life and I would probably die without him, but the love you feel for your baby is totally different and unlike anything you have ever felt. (Eric would tell you the exact same thing.) I just feel soo privledged and blessed to have the opportunity to not only be a mother but to have so many amazing people around who love Asher so much as well. Deciding to have a baby was the best thing I have ever decided on, no matter how dumb so many people thought I was for having a baby so young. I love my little Asher more than words can describe and bringing him into our family has done nothing but strengthen mine and Eric's relationship and helped us to grow and mature together.
I suppose I will end my rant now... Just know that I LOVE LOVE LOVE my handsome chubbers haha!
 
Sorry for making this post 3 million years long and for posting so many pictures... I'll try to get my Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Blessing day posts done this week and then stay caught up so I only have to bore my 2 loyal readers (Heather... shout out to you! ;)) in small amounts haha! :)