Plural Potties

We are moving into our first home TOMORROW. If everything goes according to plan that is. I feel like we are really moving up in the world. I mean we are going to have TWO bathrooms! I don't even know what to do with two whole bathrooms! Other luxuries include but are not limited to the following: control of our own temperature--no more layering on the winter clothes in my own house, hot water at any time of day, hot water lasting long enough for me to shave my legs (it's been a while...gross), no obnoxious landlords upstairs screaming at each other or doing various other noisy "activities" that we can hear but would rather not hear, no more living beneath ground level, and best of all--no more moving for a REALLY LONG TIME. Moving is a lot of work. We really appreciate all of our family for helping us move. We couldn't have done it without them! Since we won't have internet for a while I am going on a blogging break. So the next time you hear from me, I will be blogging and then deciding which potty I want to use cause starting tomorrow I will have a choice.

What kind of idiot puts liquid dish soap in the dishwasher?

This kind of idiot. (Note to self: read the labels carefully next time.)

Sweat Pants and Fuzzy Teeth

Do you ever get to the end of the day, run your tongue across your teeth, and realize you never got around to brushing them? When I "retired" and moved on to motherhood, I thought there would be nothing to it. I mean I had been taking care of 25 kids for the past two years so how hard could one little baby be? I was actually worried I would be bored. Now it is 11:00 at night and I have fuzzy teeth that, once again, I never got around to brushing. I took my shower for the day about two hours ago, and I am now wearing my bedtime sweat pants as opposed to my daytime sweat pants. I'm not sure what time or day it is (is it the end of the week or the beginning?), don't know for sure when I washed my hair last, and I'm positive I have lots of things to do but I seem to have lost a significant portion of my short-term memory. What has happened to me? Is this a motherhood phenomenon? Is it due to the exhaustion of sleepless nights? Constant breast-feeding? Never-ending diaper changes and poop leakage? Could it be the unaturally high tone of voice I seem to have developed? Or maybe it's the germaphobia that occupies every waking moment while I boil and sanitize in the fight against swine flu? Whatever the cause of this insanity, this face makes it all worthwhile don't you think? (The picture is dark because the flash freaks her out. If you can't tell in the picture, she has learned to blow spit bubbles. My child is a genius!)

Growing Up

It looks like everyone is growing up in our family. Kellyn has grown so much I can't believe she is the same baby I gave birth to 12 weeks ago. We also are growing up and attempting to buy our first home. Three days ago I said "please can we move?" and since then we found a great condo and are working on the loan. We possibly could close by the end of the month. That was fast huh? We are really excited and stressed. Buying a house is a BIG deal and a LOT of money and a lot of WORK. Growing up is hard. But I really think we will be happy there. So if anyone needs an apartment in Provo, we are selling our contract. We have a nice apartment that is very affordable and within walking distance of BYU. If we were still students I would love to stay here. But we aren't students and I'm staying home now so I need a place to feel more like home. And now I'm getting it! Jared is so good to me. So everyone keep your fingers crossed and send potential Provo renters our way. I'll post pictures of the new place if/when everything works out. And since there are no pictures yet, here are some Kellyn Halloween pictures. She's not really ready for trick-or-treating. But my mom had to buy her a costume, of course. Isn't this the cutest pumpkin ever?

Kellyn's Blessing

We finally found a day to get Kellyn blessed. Jared gave her a beautiful blessing. We had lots of friends and family come to support us which we really appreciated. Here are some pictures of the big day. There are also some random cute pictures from the last few days. She is almost ten weeks old and I can't believe how fast it is gone and how much she has changed and grown already. She'll be graduating from high school before we know it!

Six Weeks

I can't believe that my baby is six weeks old. I also can't believe how wonderful but HARD it is to be a mom. I think there must be a secret motherhood pact that says no mother tells any soon-to-be mother any details of exactly how hard it is to have a baby. And I don't mean just pushing the baby out. I mean having a baby that you are totally responsible for. I was debating whether to go into detail about the challenges of being a new mom. Just in case there is a secret pact that I wasn't informed about, I don't want to risk breaking it. Instead I will just leave you with this quote from a book that saved my sanity the first few weeks with a new baby. I would recommend this book to every new mom. I wish I had read it before I had Kellyn just so I was prepared. But you may want to wait until you are up three times in the middle of the night feeding a baby and just read it then. Reading can take the place of that thing you used to do called sleeping. It's called "The Girlfriends Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood" by Vicky Lovine. So here's a list from the beginning of her book. This kind of sums up my experience.

Top-Ten Biggest Shocks of Childbirth

10. How big you really got during pregnancy

9. How fat you still are when you leave the hospital

8. How messy childbirth and recovery are (she's not kidding...)

7. How frightened you are of ever having a bowel movement again in this lifetime

6. How fat your face looks in the delivery room videos and photos

5. How certain you are that you will never want sex again
4. How irresponsible the hospital was to have released this precious baby into your care, considering you'd never even changed a diaper until yesterday

3. How complicated nursing a baby really is

2. How overwhelming your devotion and enslavement to the baby are already

1. How nobody ever told you how much it really hurts to have a baby

Hopefully that doesn't scare any of you potential moms too badly. I think I know the real reason why mothers didn't tell me how hard it is. I think that you forget because it gets so good after the initial shock wears off. After six weeks I feel one million times better and I really love it. In fact, I think I'm even getting used to the idea of maybe having another child...someday...in the distant future. So here are some pictures of Kellyn from the past six weeks. She is growing so fast. And I am officially one of those people now who thinks everything their child does, whether it's smiling or blinking or moving her little finger, is the cutest thing in the world. My blog will now be filled with pictures that I think are adorable and everyone else thinks are pretty boring. But it's my blog so I can do whatever I want. Here she is!

Another newborn picture from the hospital

Wearing sunglasses at Aunt Jenny's wedding and not happy about it...hence the pouty lip.

Freezing after bath time
Hanging out in the swingKellyn and Uncle AndrewI finally caught her kind of smiling on camera. As soon as I get the camera out she quits doing whatever cute thing she was doing. She is wearing a dress her Great Grandma gave her. These are the kind of dresses my mother tortured me with as a child and now I'm doing it to Kellyn too. Poor child.
GO UTES! Unfortunately she may turn out to be a BYU fan. When I was first trying to take a picture of her in this outfit she was screaming. She wore herself out so I took this while she was sleeping. Maybe all the Happy Valley air is getting to her...



Kellyn and Dad

Our Baby Story...Finally

Note: I wrote this post a few days after I had Kellyn. It has taken me three weeks to get the energy to add some pictures and click on "publish post." Mommyhood is a lot harder and busier than I thought. I have lots more to write about since this post but I'm tired...more to come later.

I gave birth on Wednesday August 19th. Nothing prepared me for what a powerful experience that would be. I'm not even sure how to describe it or where to begin. I think instead of trying to describe my feelings about this sacred experience, I'll just give some technical details and show some pictures for my blogging friends. The rest of it I think I'll keep to myself for now. Although I'm nervous about this huge responsibility, I am so grateful that my life just changed forever because Heavenly Father entrusted us with this beautiful baby.

DETAILS: No induction was necessary, thankfully. On Monday the 17th I started having contractions while eating at the Olive Garden with my mom. I think our waiter was confused as to why I was clutching the edges of the table and making weird faces. From 12:00 p.m. Monday until 1:33 a.m. on Wednesday I was in labor. That is 37 hrs. and 3 min. in case you were curious. I stayed home until Tuesday morning when we went to the hospital. I labored all day at the hospital and ended up not progressing for about 6 hours so we decided to try a pitocin drip. That did the trick and kept me going. She also was in a posterior position which means she was facing my belly button instead of my back. That made labor longer and pushing the baby out more difficult. So, to make a long 37 hours short, I made it! For some reason I have had a life long goal to have an unmedicated childbirth and, despite the challenges, I was able to do it. I still can't believe that I made it. It was not what I expected and was really hard. I definitely couldn't have done it alone and am so grateful for Jared, my supportive family, AMAZING midwives, and most of all my Heavenly Father. I can't believe she's actually here! We are so happy!

This is Kellyn and I right after she finally came out! Sorry it's a little revealing with my shoulder and all. (If you're grossed out, just be glad I didn't post a picture of the placenta or something...) As you can see, I was exhausted. I hadn't slept in two days and I couldn't believe I was finally holding our baby. Jared and Kellyn. I don't know who was more tired, Jared or me.

Just a little while after she was born. She looks pretty tired too...I guess all three of us had a pretty long couple days.

Getting ready to go home from the hospital. It was the scariest feeling to be going home. I still can't believe they let us take her home without passing some parenting test or giving us a baby instruction manual. But so far we're making it. I think that's what Grandmas are for.

It's a Girl!

I sent out a mass text after I had the baby but I don't think a lot of you got it. Sorry--I tried! I had Kellyn May on Wednesday morning at 1:33 A.M. I feel like I haven't slept all week so while she is sleeping I'm going to try to do the same. I will post more details when I don't feel like a zombie (a happy zombie though.) For a picture and a few more details check out Grandma Debbie's blog here. More to come!

And waiting...

. . .

Still waiting...

...and waiting and waiting and waiting. Induction is set for the 20th. Let's hope we don't make it that far.

FINALLY!

The moment we've all been waiting for! Black Rat finally got her stitches out. We are officially done with exotic vet visits...for now. Oh you thought I had the baby? Nope...still waiting...

Am I still Pregnant?

Yes I am! I've come to terms with the fact that I may be giving birth to an 18 pound baby. I have been feeling more optimistic, however. These extra days of pregnancy just mean more sleep, a few less diapers to buy, and more time just me and Jared. Last night as I laid on our mattress on the living room floor, I looked around at our tiny, messy, cinder-block-walled, one bedroom apartment and I realized that we will never have this time back. Things are about to change forever. So I'm going to enjoy these last few days of our simple life while I look forward to the next stage. (But seriously Baby M...any day would be great.)

Nine Months and Counting

The baby must not realize how excited Grandma Debbie is for him/her to come out. The midwife said today there's been basically no progress. The baby must be pretty comfortable in there cause it's sure not in a hurry. I'm glad at least one of us is comfortable. If you need me, I'll be laying in front of the air conditioner awaiting labor.

P.S. Despite my pessimistic comments and constant complaints, I am really grateful for this baby and I'm grateful to be pregnant--even when it isn't fun. We have been so blessed and I shouldn't complain. I am also grateful for the air conditioner.

Still Pregnant to the Max

Today is my official "due date." In reality that doesn't make it very much different than yesterday or tomorrow. But I am starting to wonder...besides that lady on TLC, has anyone ever been pregnant forever? I mean, isn't delivery inevitable? It is going to come out sometime?? Right?!?

Do you know where that's been?

Yesterday while driving up 800 South, I saw a man riding a bike ahead of us. As we got closer, I saw that he was wearing a short shirt and low pants and that where his back/bum was peeking out, there was something red. At first I thought, is this a tattoo? a bumper sticker? a strange new kind of underwear? All of these guesses were wrong. Apparently his red box was due back and the only place he had found to stash it while peddaling to Smith's was down his pants. I looked more closely at this sweaty, greasy man and pledged then and there that I would never rent a redbox again. You really don't know where they've been. It's just too risky.

Whoa

I had Jared take a couple of belly pictures for posterity. I can't believe how huge I look since my shower a couple of weeks ago. This kid is getting big fast! The baby better get a move on before it's too big to come out and then it will have to stay in there forever. A couple of things I would like to mention about the pictures. Please notice that I am wearing the same shorts in both pictures. I basically wear these everyday because they are the only ones left that fit. Also, notice our matress leaned up against the living room wall. It is hot and the only air conditioner we have is in the living room. For some reason pregnancy adds 100 degrees to your body temperature so we have been having sleepovers in the living room to make my nights bearable. Come on little baby--I'm ready!

Rat Surgery...Really

A couple of weeks ago I discovered a small lump in Black Rat's armpit. (We never could come up with suitable names...so they are now called simply by their color...but that doesn't mean I love them any less.) Fearing the worst, I made an appointment with the vet. That alone was a trick because apparently most vets do not take rat patients. I finally contacted an exotic pet vet and made an appointment. I ended up taking both the rats in cause Grey Rat has been sneezing and getting bloody noses so I thought they might as well both get a check-up. I would like to mention that never have I felt so validated in my love of strange animals as I did at this vet appointment. All the techs and the vet gushed over how cute they were. They also called them by their names "Grey" and "Black" and referred to them as "the patients." Very professional and a little bit strange. So they were both checked out, she prescribed some antibiotics for Grey Rat and confirmed my suspicion that the lump was a mammary tumor. I was given a quote for surgery to remove the tumor. When I realized the cost of the check up alone would be twenty times what a rat cost, I couldn't decide whether I should go ahead with the surgery which was twice that. So I paid for the appointment and antibiotics and tried not to think too much about the fact we might not be buying groceries that week. They said I had two weeks to decide if I would have the tumor removed or else it would cost even more because tumors like this grow so fast. Surgery for a rat. It seemed ridiculous. I put off the decision as long as I could. I kept trying to convince myself that the rat was dying of natural causes and it was okay to just let the tumor stay until she needed to be put to sleep. But every time I settled on this decision I felt so guilty! I think this could stem from my childhood pet trauma. I've had pets "run away" (to the pound...ahem parents...), I've left them in the backyard because I was too busy, I've given them away, I've tried to nurse them back to health and failed, and a few have been set free into the "wild" where I'm sure they met a quick demise. So after literally losing sleep over the situation...really I did...I decided it was just money and I would redeem my past pet failures to save Black Rat. Yeah I felt a little ridiculous. Especially considering the fact that rats generally live for about 2-3 years and our rats are 1 1/2 years old. But I couldn't sit by and watch a tumor take over her body while she slowly died. So my supportive husband, who definitely would not have ever purchased a rat in the first place let alone spent this much money on rat surgery and who probably was wondering what kind of crazy person he had married, drove us down to the vet to drop off Black Rat. She had to stay overnight so they could keep an eye on her. The surgery was successful and she is now back home. We have to keep her in a separate cage from the other rat so that she won't pull her stitches out, we are trying to keep her from climbing around too much, and we have to give her pain medication every twelve hours. I have learned from this that rats do not enjoy having an eyedropper with medicine put into their mouth. I have also learned that the smaller the animal, the harder it is to force anything into their mouth. It is kind of sad to watch her because her incision looks nasty, and she acts really lethargic. But I think they recover quickly and I'm glad we got it removed. I'm sure surgery is pretty traumatic for a rat but hopefully she bounces back quickly. If it makes her feel better, paying for surgery for a rat is probably just as traumatic for people.

Here are some attempted pictures of the incision. I could not get a good picture of it but you can see on her left side they shaved her and she has a pretty long incision starting under her leg.

Happy Valley

After a summer of searching, Jared found a job! He'll be doing the new grad residency at IHC in Provo. That means at the end of August we will be leaving the Ute Nation for Cougar Central. We are excited but a little worried about all the BYU fans. As long as Jared can make it through football season I'm sure it will be fine. Really though, everything has fallen in to place once again. I always worry and stress about the future but we are always blessed and things just work out. We are close enough that I can still have the baby here. We are going to be close to family so Grandma can help me with Baby M. (which is a blessing because I have no idea what I'm doing.) And we were also able to find an apartment already.

Now the only thing we are waiting for is the baby. He/She is taking her/his sweet time in coming though. My due date is technically Tuesday so I guess I need to be more patient. But any day would be fine with me! I'm huge and hot and ready to see this little person who's been kicking me for the last few months. (I mean that in a very affectionate way...I don't mind the kicking.) Even though I'm nine months pregnant it still doesn't seem real that a human is going to come out of me any day. I don't feel ready to be a mom. I'm not sure anyone ever really feels ready though. But we are both super excited and getting anxious to finally know if it's a boy or girl! Here are some pictures of my belly at about 37 weeks. This was the weekend my mom threw me a shower. I really appreciate everyone who has been so generous to us! We seriously have had everything we need for the baby given to us. So thanks everybody and especially mom for your hard work on cupcakes and shower planning. Next post--baby pictures (hopefully)!

Summer Update

I am a different person since June 9th. I was able to get my classroom cleaned out with Jared's help and I'm officially retired! We've been keeping pretty busy since then. Since I finished teaching I have an amazing amount of energy. I've cleaned out our whole apartment, been walking, swimming, camping, cooking, and practicing hypnobirthing. I thought the summer would be miserable but it's been awesome so far. Until this week when I unfortunately got a sinus infection. So this week has been a lot of laying on the couch in front of the air conditioner, blowing my nose, and watching movies. It doesn't seem fair that you can be pregnant and sick at the same time! But I'm starting to feel better so we can hopefully have a fun 4th of July with Jared's family. Jared has spent the summer looking for a job. He passed his boards and is officially an RN, but even nursing jobs are hard to come by right now because of the economy. We are just having faith that it will work out and having fun together while we both have the summer off. He has a few interviews coming up and we may be moving pretty soon depending on what happens. My stomach keeps stretching bigger and bigger and Baby M. is moving like crazy. Only 4 1/2 weeks left. I can't believe how fast it's gone! We are really excited. So that's about it for us. I'll try to post a pregnant picture soon because I know you're all dying to see my belly. Happy 4th of July!

It was a big day...

Today marked the first day of my last full week of school. Also, I had two students in my class suspended for smoking weed. 10 year olds. Awesome. And Jared and I started our hypnobirthing class tonight. I really liked it. If you don't have any positive comments about un-medicated childbirth, I am requesting that you keep them to yourself. Thank you.

CRTs

All year I have labored diligently in preparing my students for one test. One test that defines my success as a teacher. One test that ranks a child on the scale of intelligence. One test on which the fate of the universe rests (or if not the universe then at least our school's "no child left behind" status.) The CRTs. And today, we finished! My whole class is done. I thought I would be flooded with relief. I thought I would be happy. But for some reason I don't feel the exuberance that I expected. I'm not sure why. Oh wait...maybe it's because as I watched my students answering the questions on their computers I saw things like this.

Problem: 3 x 7 x 0 x 2 =
Answer: 42
My Thoughts: ARE YOU SERIOUS? YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MULTIPLY SOMETHING BY ZERO?????

Problem: What is the area of a square that has sides of 24 inches?
Answer: 24 square inches
My Thoughts: ARE YOU SERIOUS? WE REVIEWED AREA SEVEN THOUSAND TIMES!!!!!!!!!!!

And my favorite was seeing kids who didn't even bother to work the problems out at all. I mean, it's on a computer right so it's probably some kind of game where you select random answers and see how fast you can finish. Yeah right [Billy]! I bet you finished those 70 problems in ten minutes!! (Name changed to protect the guilty...)

I'm so grateful that "the man" decided this test is the perfect indicator of how successful teachers are. Well at least they can't fire me for the horrible scores that are going to be attached to my permanent record. Only thirteen more days left until retirement...

Integers

I am not feeling particularly grateful for anything today. My students are out of control, my belly is itchy, I have to pee every five minutes, and I'm so tired that I was ready for bed two hours ago. (Current time: 8:09 PM) But, despite all of the things I have to whine about, I realized today that I have a lot to be grateful for. So instead of my usual pessimistic post, I am going to tell about all the great things in my life right now. First, I am married to the greatest person in the world. He listens to me whine, lets me buy pet rats, cooks dinner, does dishes, does laundry, and rubs my back any time I need him to. Second, we get to have a baby! Even though being pregnant isn't as awesome as I thought, I am so excited and grateful that this baby is going to come into our family. I'm grateful that I have a stable job. I am also grateful that I only have 6 weeks until I get to retire so I can hang out with the little person in my belly full time. I'm grateful that Jared is graduating and willing to work hard to support our family. I'm grateful that both Jared and I have amazing families. They love us, feed us delicious food, and give us good advice. Our kids are definitely going to be spoiled in the grandparent department. I'm excited that my little brother comes home from his mission in three days! I'm grateful that I have the gospel and am sealed to my family forever. I'm grateful for good friends who are so positive and help me remember to be grateful for what I have. Wow, that's a lot of gratitude. But the crazy thing is that it doesn't even scratch the surface of the blessings in my life. Writing it all down makes the itchy belly, shrinking bladder, and rotten fifth graders seem pretty insignificant. And to end this post...here is a picture of my big fat belly (that I am very grateful for.)

Baby Madeo

No we didn't find out if it's a boy or girl. Everyone seems to be very concerned about this...except for us. But, good news: It has 2 arms, 2 legs, a heart, kidneys, a brain, a spine and bones, an umbilical cord, 10 toes, 10 fingers, and it was moving around like crazy. So no we do not know if it has ovaries or a penis. But I'm pretty excited to know about the other stuff it has! Only 19 1/2 more weeks till we get to meet him/her!

I will never eat pizza again.

My first experience with heart burn...what a blessing. Now I understand why there are so many Tums commercials. My husband got out of bed to go purchase some while I sit at home and feel sorry for my esophagus. That's love.

On a more positive note...

I think I felt a baby moving in my stomach yesterday. That was a pretty weird but amazing feeling. And I get an ultrasound on Tuesday. I'm already 16 weeks and I can't believe how fast it's flying by! I'm so grateful that we are being blessed with this baby. Thinking about him/her gets me through the hard weeks of teaching. Only 24 more weeks to go! P.S. We have decided not to find out the sex. Everyone seems shocked about our decision. Is that really so crazy?

Hell Week

I could not have possibly had one more thing to do this week. My final project was due for the lame class I'm being forced to take. So Tuesday I had to make sure that was finished and go straight from school to class. Wednesday and Thursday I had parent teacher conferences until 7:00. Science fair had to be done this week. (Science Fair is a whole blog entry itself...like a whole other dimension of hell. LUCKILY my whole family came and helped me one day. Bless them!) Also the District Writing Assessment had to be completed during the week. On top of this we had assemblies, short days, and various other things interrupting our already overscheduled days. During this time I am expected to still be teaching 9 hours worth of material in the less than 6 that I am given, plus teaching these kids to be good citizens, stop them from bringing knives to school, and get them to quit talking while I'm trying to teach math. Oh and did I mention that I only have 2 months left until CRT testing and probably 6 months worth of material to cover? At least it's Friday. We do have Monday and Tuesday off. Normally I would be happy about the long weekend if I wasn't so worried about the time I'm missing out on that I could be teaching line graphs and integers. I'm tired. Happy Valentine's Day!

Fat Pants

Time again for my bi-monthly blog entry. I'm normally better at blogging but I just haven't felt so hot for the last couple months. I've been really tired, bloated, nauseous, dizzy, lost my appetite (yeah-believe it!), and suddenly I can't button up my pants. Turns out it's a baby. He or she will be making his/her debut on August 4, 2009. I have been hesitant to blog this exciting news due to my paranoia and belief in jinxes. But now that I have passed the three month mark, I feel more comfortable in sharing my news. Most of you probably already know because I couldn't contain my excitement, despite the eminent threat of "the jinx." But I am now officially coming out of the maternity closet to the blogging world. Only six months and (hopefully only) 25 more pounds to go! P.S. Can I wear sweat pants to school?