Travels

It's been a very busy month for our little family.  I've been working a lot, covering for doctors who are on vacation so I've been away from home.  I do enjoy my work and Grace gets to spend extra time with her Mimi and Grama Brown.  Poor Zach is the one stuck by himself.  Although he manages to keep himself busy with rock climbing and the new Starcraft he got for Father's Day.  

  

Grace turned 5 months old a few weeks ago.  She is still just a sweet baby.  She has moved her bed time up to about 8:30 PM which means she wakes up around 5:00 AM and is very hungry.  Still not too bad and I can't complain.  She is getting more hair but I still can't tell what color it will be.  Depending on the light it will look red, blond or light brown.  She is much more alert and will even respond to her name (most of the time).  She has found her tongue.  I love that stage.  Her eyes have settled on a dark blue.  She loves her bath and swimming.  She has a new very cheesy grin and likes to smile at everyone, unless she's mad and then she just cries.  We just love having her in our family.

  

At the end of June my Mom, Grace and I made a very quick trip up to Wyoming for the surprise 60th birthday party of our good friend Kim Gasson.  It was a lot of driving for very little time in Wyoming but it was definitely worth it.  The Gasson's are such great people and we loved seeing them.  Grace did great, as long as someone was sitting in back right next to her.  Otherwise, she was not happy.      

Wyoming is such a beautiful place, in my opinion.  It is my birthplace so I may be biased but I love the wide open spaces.  It was also green and cool which is polar opposite of Arizona.  While we were gone Arizona had 121 degree weather.  I was glad to miss that. 

I got to see and spend time with my friend Sarah and her family.  That was a blast for me!  We always have such a good time together.  She is a great hostess.  We also got to meet little Isaac.  He is about 6 weeks younger than Grace and such a cutie.  We decided we wouldn't mind if these two hooked up in the future.  

Yes, Isaac was bigger and heavier than Grace despite the age difference.  They had fun playing together and by that I mean they sat on the floor and kicked near each other.

When Grace and I finally got home she was overjoyed to see her dad.  She was all smiles all evening.  She really did miss him.  

It was a good month!  We're doing our best to get through the summer.  We have another trip planned to Idaho for Tessa's graduation in a few weeks.  It'll be Grace's first plane ride.  We'll see how that goes!

4 Months

My grace turned 4 months old on the 25th.  She is growing up so fast and learning so many things.  Her hair is turning red and her eyes have finally settled on dark blue.  

  

Grace has found her hands.  In particular, she has found her fingers, 2 of them.  She is rarely found without them in her mouth.

Grace is also an expert at rolling over to her left.  She hasn't figured out rolling to her right or getting from her belly to her back.  She'll roll over, play for a minute and then get really mad that she is on her belly.  She is getting better though.
She has also started talking up a storm.  I love to hear her sit and babble.  She'll even laugh occasionally.
Grace is so easy going.  She smiles all the time.  She'll get mad but is very easy to comfort.  She is a great sleeper.  We have our nightly routine of bath, which she loves, dinner and then she is out by 10:00 and usually sleeps until 7:00 am.  I really can't complain.  I just can't believe how quickly she is growing.    

Mother's Day

This year was my first Mother's Day and what a great day it was.  I feel so privileged and blessed to be the mom to this beautiful little girl.  She has brought more joy to my life than I ever imagined.  I love watching her learn and grow.  I'm so grateful to my  mother who has always been a wonderful example to me and to all the other women in my life who have influenced me for good.  Many are mothers and many are not but they have helped me become who I am today.  So thank you! 

Zach did a great job.  I got a new vaccuum!  I'm very excited to have one that works.  He also conveniently got me movie tickets (Star Trek comes out this week) and a few other little things.  He is the best!

Disneyland

We had a great trip to Disneyland this last weekend.  Tessa is on Spring break and Dad really wanted to go.   We decided to join them.  We loved it.  Disneyland really is one of the happiest places on earth.  We ran around everywhere and rode so many rides.  Having Zach around is always a plus because he figures out how to avoid lines.  The longest line we waited in was probably 20 minutes.  It was great.

Gracie was a huge sport too.  She sat in her little carrier and slept most of the time.  She would wake up on occasion to be fed but mostly she slept.  Disneyland also has what is called rider swap.  If you have a child that can't ride the ride, you get a special pass.  One of you goes on the ride and then you swap the kid and 2 more people can go up the fast pass line.  It was great!

Cars land was new this time and it was adorable.  My parents especially liked it.  Grace was indifferent as you can tell from the picture above.
We did all the traditional stuff: ate at the Blue Bayou, Tikki Room and Mom, Dad and Tessa even tried Autopia, which apparently is not worth even the 5 minute wait they had.  I couldn't take motion sickness medicine so the only ride I rode in Tomorrowland was the Buzz Lightyear ride.  While everyone else went on Space Mountain and Star Tours etc, I rode Buzz.  It was also great because Grace could go with me.  I think her and I ended up on that ride about 12 times.  I was ok with that because it is my very favorite ride.  I also got the high score and am now the undisputed champion.

We managed to snap a little family pic while Grace was awake.  That didn't occur very often so we were glad to get this one.  We sure do love this little girl.  Zach can't wait to bring her back when she is old enough to remember and appreciate it.  However, with Zach as her father I have a feeling she'll be back before then.  

Easter and Blessing

Sunday was Gracie's blessing day.  It was Easter and I thought that the day we celebrate the resurrection of the Savior was the perfect day to celebrate her life.  Zach gave her a beautiful blessing and Grace was on her best behavior.  She wore the same dress I wore for my blessing.  I did have to add a little color, the pink bow and pink polka dotted bloomers.  She was so cute.

A little family pic.  Grace didn't want to look at the camera so this is the best we could do.

As a special Easter present, a family of ducks moved into our pool.  There were 9 babies.  We spent days watching these little guys run around.  Mamma duck was so protective of her babies and they followed her around everywhere.  It was a great Easter!

2 Months

My little Gracie turned 2 months old last Monday.  The time has gone by so fast.  She is such a joy to have in our home.  It feels like we have always had her.  What did Zach and I do without her here to entertain us!

A few things about her:

• She loves to blow spit bubbles.  It's adorable.  She's always playing with her tongue and blowing those bubbles.  
• Preston has names her Beads because she has beady little eyes.  I don't mind the nick name.  She does have beady little eyes but they are so cute.  
• She loves her baths.  If she is upset and we put her in the tub she calms right down.  She does not get that from me.  I hate baths!  However, my mom tells me that I liked them at her age.  
• Her hair is turning more and more red every day.
• She doesn't smile a ton but when she does it is a huge grin.  She usually smiles when someone new comes to see her.  
• She loves to play on the floor by herself.  She will sit there forever kicking and looking around.  I love watching her entertain herself.  
• When she's tired, we'll swaddle her all up and she'll sit very quietly and look around until she falls asleep.  She doesn't cry, just calmly looks around.  

I love being a mom.  Gracie makes it so easy! I hope she doesn't grow up too fast.  

One month

Gracie turned one month today. Time sure has gone by fast! We love having her in our family. She is already growing so fast. Everyone sees her and comments about how little she is but I can tell that she's much bigger than when she was born. It makes me a little sad that they grow so fast but I'm excited to watch her learn.

She is a very sweet little girl. She's been sleeping through the night since she was a week old. She only fusses when she needs something. She is learning that mom and dad are pushovers and all she has to do is get a little upset and we come running. She loves to cuddle and those are my favorite times. I'm enjoying them because I know they will be gone before too long. Sometimes she will sit and just look around at things. It makes me wonder what she is thinking. Zach and I sure do love this little one!

Grace Abigail

Grace was born on January 25, 2013 at 7:26 am.  She came out at a perfect 6lb 14oz, 19in long.  She was immediately adored by her mother, father, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  Her birth story is fairly uneventful and ordinary, thankfully, but still worth recording. 

My pregnancy was pretty difficult from the beginning.  I was nauseous throughout.  My energy level was so low that I hardly ever lasted later than 9 or 9:30.  I couldn’t brush my teeth and I had horrible heartburn so by the time I was at 38 weeks, I was ready to go.  They had done an US at 36 weeks and she appeared to be a little bit small so the doctor decided that he wanted to have her monitered twice a week.  We started going in for a NST and US on Monday and then an NST and doctor visit on Thursday.  Once we ended up in the hospital for monitoring but of course she was just fine.  At 36 weeks I was 60ish percent effaced and dialated to a 1 so at least I knew I was progressing.  When I hit 39 weeks, the doctor said that I could get induced if I wanted to and I really really wanted to.  The date was set for Thursday, January 24, 2013 at noon.  I spent my last night of being pregnant eating double stuff oreos and morning of induction eating donuts!  At 11:30 am Zach and I packed up the car and headed to the hospital.  We checked in and a nurse took us back to our room to get settled in.  The doctors started me on gel at around 2ish and that got me to 75% effaced and dilated to a 4.  I got a second gel around 5ish and contractions started getting a bit worse.  I was still at about 75% and a 4.  Zach and I sat around watching movies and playing on our phones until around 7 when they started the pitosin.  Once that started, the contractions got much stronger, especially in my back.  They thought that Grace was sunny side up because of my back contractions.  My wonderful nurse, Rachel, came in and started using the peanut ball and moving me around to get her to go face down.  I felt quite a bit better for a while.  Around 9:30 I started getting very uncomfortable and having really hard contractions.  By this time I had a new nurse, Michelle.  She came in and asked if I wanted an epidural.  I did.  I had one about 30 minutes later.  Once that set in I felt so much better.  For the epidural to work its best you need to be moving from side to side and again on your back about every hour.  Michelle came in to move me to my side at around 11:00 and stayed in the room looking at the monitor.  15 minutes later, all of the sudden there were 6 nurses in the room.  Grace’s heart rate had dropped.  They gave me a shot to stop the contractions, turned off the pit and started rolling me from side to side to get her heart rate to go back up.  It finally did but they kept me off the pit for the next few hours to make sure Grace was ok.  They put me back on pitosin around 1:00 am and that’s when the puking started.  Every time they would try to turn me from one side to another my heartburn would act up and I’d throw up.  It was horrible but in the end probably helped move little Grace move down quicker.  The second time I threw up it gave me a horrible cough that wouldn’t go away and I coughed the rest of the night.  Because of the cough, I was on my back for several hours which made the epidural start to wear off.  Not to worry, Michelle had the nurse anesthetist there in no time and I was numb again   My water broke sometime around 1:00 am as well.  I didn’t feel any of this mind you.  I was numb!  From 1:00 am to 5:00 am I tried to sleep, threw up, and got moved every hour.  At 6:00 am Michelle came in to introduce me to Carol, my new nurse.  Carol came back at about 6:30 am to check me and see how I was doing.  She checked me and said, very surprised “Oh, you’re at a 10.”  I could tell because I was starting to feel the contractions through the epidural.  They were hard enough that I was having to breathe through them.  Zach woke up; thankfully he had gotten good sleep.    Carol got everything ready and called the doctor.  She had me do a practice push but in the middle had me stop because Grace was coming out.  The doctor arrived and I started pushing.  3 pushes later and she was here!  My beautiful baby girl was here.  She had her cord wrapped around her neck which is why her heart rate kept dropping when they would put me in certain positions.  She was fine though.  They put her in my arms and I thought she was gorgeous and perfect. 

She’s been the perfect baby.  She doesn’t get really upset and hardly ever cries.  If she needs something, she whines.  She even sleeps through the night.  I put her to bed at around 11:00 pm and she sleeps until 6:30 am.  I feel very lucky.  Zach and I feel so blessed to have her.