Happening Since Serenity's Birth

Well, here is a quick update of what's been going on since Sernenity's birth. (in no particular order):

• Ethen turned 2 years old! Yikes he is really turning into a little boy and is no longer a baby. Crazy how time flies. He also finally got the concept of gifts and opening them. It was soo fun to see.

•  Serenity Started sleeping 6 hours at night at 2 weeks, and at 2 months she started sleeping 8 hours at night! Feel like a normal person as far as my sleep is concerned!
• Ethen is starting to pick up phrases and words! This is exciting as he hasn't had a lot of interest in talking. One of his phrases is "gotta go'. I say this alot as we are running to make appointments or to pick Ben up from the bus station. He also says "bye bye. I love you." This is what we say when we are leaving so he's picked up on that.
• We got to go to Ben's work party which was really fun!
• Serenity was blessed on November 25th. It was Such a blessing to have so many family members come! My mom made her beautiful dress! (I will post more from the blessing when I download them).

• Ben and I finally went to the dentist! (we hadn't gone in 5 years)! Yea, I had 4 cavities. Two of which were major repairs. Then I also had 3 sealants put in to prevent cavities. I also am on a high fluoride tooth paste to help prevent more cavities. Needless to say glad this is done. And for Ben...NO Cavities! He even has a wire from having braces and he still didn't have cavities! hope our kids get his genes for such great teeth!
• Ethen also loves to copy whatever Ben does. Here are two examples: Ethen saw Ben putting jell in his hair to go to church. I feed Serenity and everything is quite....I go into the bathroom and just had to laugh that he put jell in his hair to be like daddy. Second picture he put on daddy's work boots. Yes...he's a daddy's boy! If dad's around when he gets hurt he goes to him. It is really cute though to see this.

• I also got Ethen's pictures taken at 2 years old! Alot too late as I didn't do the offical 3,6,9, or 12 months pictures of him. I will post these later. 
• Serenity's two month apt. She weighted in at just over 15 lbs and is 24 3/4 inches long!

 That's all I can think of for now. If I think of others I will post them!

Introducing Serenity...(2 months late but better late than never)

          Well, it's been 2 months and its time I get this written. So, my due date was Due Oct. 4 and my due date came and went. Needless to say I was kinda of disappointed. My doctor had me set up an appointment for Oct 8th in case I didn't go into labor by myself. So My due date past. On Monday the 8th we went in for my appointment. I had the bags packed and in the car as I was having contractions and so I was hoping to just be admitted. So I dropped Ethen off at Alaina (Ben's sister house), then I went to pick up Ben from work, as he didn't want me to drive while having contractions. So we arrived at my doctor appointment to find that I did not dilated just effaced. However, she wanted to do a stress test and an ultrasound to make sure baby was fairing well. So after was said and done everything was ok. (To say the least I wanted at least like low amniotic fluid so they would induce as I was soo uncomfortable). So my dr. asked me if I could wait till Friday to be induced if I didn't go by myself. I told her "No" I can't wait that long. This baby would drop into my pelvis but she always would come back up. I swear she was not coming unless induced. My dr said that she could check with the doctor who was delivering on the 9th to see if I he had room to induce me. So about an hour after the appointment my dr called and said that he had room but they would call as early as 7 am to have me come in IF they didn't have a lot of woman come in the middle of the night. I was very hopeful that they'd call.
         On Oct. 9th at 7 am they called and asked me if I wanted to have my baby today. I said "YES". So we got everything for Ethen ready to take him back to Alaina's house. We went in and they got my room ready and they started my IV at about 8. Then after about an hour of being on the IV for having group strep b, they started pitocin. Everything was progressing pretty slowly. Then contractions started getting painful about 1:30 and that's when I got the epidural. While we waited we watched an episode of Dowtown Abby, talked to our nurse (who was with us the whole time except a 30 minute lunch, that's what they do at Swedish Hospital), and slept. At about 6:30 they said they started getting everything ready for this baby to come. At about 7:30 I started pushing. However, this little girl was still high. The dr said that after a couple of pushes she'd be here. He said since the amount of time i was over due with my last baby that this should be easy because since they'll probably be about same amount the same size. While pushing I was worried because part the cord came out before. Luckily she came out and everything was ok. (an hour and forty-five minutes later). Right after they put her on my stomach and I was relived and so excited to finally have our little girl with us.  After a short period of time they had me breast feeding. One thing I noticed which was totally different from Ethen was how hard she sucked. While we they were getting everything thing cleaned up and after Serenity had eaten they took her over to do her stats. She was 22 inches long and 9lbs 15.2 oz! I was like what! Almost 10 lbs! she didn't look like a chubby baby but I guess her length helped with that. After that her temperature was a little high so they came to draw blood to make sure she was ok. It was the saddest thing. The first nicu nurse tried 3 times and had to call for another woman from nicu to come try. Finally they got it and we could hold her again.
         After about 2 hours in the recovery room they moved us to postpartum. About 2ish (am) the dr came in sat in the chair and said "she was almost 10 lbs! That's why it took an hour and forty-five minutes to push her out!" After that we slept.
         The next morning we decided to name our little girl Serenity Renee. Later that afternoon Ben left to go pick up Ethen to bring him to meet his little sister. (Our nurse gave some great advice about neither of us holding the baby when Ethen first came to visit. She also suggested holding him and giving him a gift from baby sister and tell him how excited she was to have such a good big brother like him.) So Ben bought a Thomas the Train for Ethen 'from' Serenity. So we tried this and it helped. He kissed Serenity but that was about it! He didn't really pay much attention to her. However, it was interesting b/c you could tell he knew something was different.
         Moving ahead we were scheduled to leave the hospital on Thursday the 11th however on Thursday morning they did test and said she had to be under the bellirubin lights. Sad day! I could only hold her to feed her and then she was suppose to go right back under. This was hard because one I couldn't hold my baby a ton and second she didn't take to the pacifier so it was harder to get her to stop crying under the lights. Breaks a mom's heart to watch that.
       My mom also arrived Wednesday and she stayed with me at the hospital until we went home on Friday. I am so grateful for my mom, she truly is an amazing woman!
      Finally we got to go home on Friday which was so nice to finally be a family at home! Here are some pictures hope you enjoy!

Pictures

Happenings lately:

Picture taken in Janurary 2012. Ethen with daddy. Ethen is definitely a dad's boy. He gets very grouchy if he does not get his wrestle time with daddy when he gets home from work.

Ethen being a good sport while grocery shopping!

Ethen helping daddy clean our carpets. Shortly after though we had new carpets put in which was nice for us!

Ethen this summer (Aug) at a wading pool at a park near our house. Ethen loves water!

Catch up...understatement!

Well, it almost like where do I begin as it has been soo long since I've posted last. So instead of giving a detailed version of everything I will just do a couple of highlights.

So Ben graduated from BYU April 2011! After his graduation we stayed in Utah for his job with a non-profit company. After a while we could see this was not working and needed to change. About that time Tres (our brother-in-law) who lives in Seattle area told Ben his company (KMPG) was hiring and that he should apply. So Ben applied and by December we were packing up and moving to Washington! We were so excited to live a lot closer to family! Ben officially started work in January. He works mostly in Redmond consulting Microsoft. He was just recently switched to a new engagement for him and he loves it!

 Also, when we first moved here we lived with Tres & Alaina (Ben's sister's family), until we found a resident manager position. We are so grateful for Tres & Alaina letting us stay with them. It was a blessing and now there are relationships that were built that I do not feel would have been as strong as they are now had it not been for that time there! At first we didn't know if getting a resident manager position was possible because we had no prior experience. However, my high school friend Crystal manages an apartment complex for a company and when a position came available she let us know and we applied. Needless to say the Lord blessed us and we got the manager position. We manage 15 units and feel it is definitely enough buildings to manage.

Since living in the Seattle area Ethen has outgrown his milk allergy. (around his 1 year b-day he had his flu shot and he started whizzing so I took him to his pediatrician who said his oxygen exchange was to low to go home. after a series of events he was hospitalized over night and discharged the next day. Once we got home we started him on milk again and he started whizzing again. We took him to the allergist and found out he was not only allergic to milk but also to eggs and wheat). SO now he is only allergic to wheat and eggs and he should be tested with in the next month to see if his wheat allergy is gone! That would make life a lot easier and groceries a lot less expensive! Also, while living in Seattle area Ethen has grown so much. When we first moved here he use to just watch other kids play but after living with cousins he wrestles and is very out going!

 Also, in August Ethen fell down some concrete stairs in our complex. Needless to say he bleed everywhere. So I picked him up called his dentist and took him. There they said take him to the pediatrician which I did. They however, sent me to Children's Hospital where he ended up getting two stitches in his gums. With in a week his gums tightened enough to his teeth in a more solid position. However, due to this accident one of his front teeth sticks out. So needless to say that was a very stressful week, especially since Ben was out of town on a business training!

 Some exciting news we got in February was that we were expecting again in October. I am now days from my due date and can't wait to meet this little girl! Needless to say though my patience is wearing very thin as none of my shirts fit and I don't want to buy clothes that I might only wear a week! I must say I hate the end of pregnancy because of the waiting game! I guess I don't have a choice though. So let's just hope she decides to come sooner rather than later.

 That's it for now. I will post some pictures of our activities we've done this past year.

The first pictures if of Ethen on Ben's shoulders at a small beech area near us. The park is called Carkeek Park. Great place, they have trains that go through pretty regularly, play area, grassy area, and a lot of little trails that you can go on!