A Family of Four

We officially became a family of four on Sunday night August 7th at 3:19am. Bentley weighed 7 pounds and 4 ounces and is 20 inches long. I started having contractions at 8:30pm. They were much more painful than the ones I had with Jayda and they were every 3 to 4 minutes. We waited for about an hour and then decided that we definitely needed to go to the hospital. We dropped Jayda off at my parent's house and checked into LDS at 11pm. They made me wait for an hour to see if they were going to keep me. When that hour was up I had progressed from a 3+ to a 4+ so luckily I got to stay. My contractions were so painful I would have cried if they had sent me home. After that I got my epidural and Dr K broke my water at 1:30am. Everything went very quickly after that. I was progressing so fast that Bentley's heart rate would drop down to 90 each time I had a contraction and they were having a hard time finding his heartbeat so they put oxygen on me and stuck a heart rate monitor in his head. This made me very nervous but I tried to stay calm so it wouldn't affect him even more. In 15 minutes I went from a 6 to an 8 and then within the next fifteen minutes I pushed 3 times and that was it. He had his cord wrapped around his neck but Dr Kasteler was really calm about it and just quickly slipped it off.

The cute nurse on the left was 9 months pregnant herself and was supposed to be on bed rest. She was also working her first graveyard shift, poor thing.

Jayda loves her little brother and likes to hold him and know where he is at. She has adjusted extremely well and has acted like having a brand new baby at home is completely normal. We have been really grateful that the transition so far has been relatively easy for her. She is such a sweet big sister.

Just like Jayda, Bentley was borderline for jaundice when we left the hospital so we tried to give him some sun to help his levels. Unfortunately when we took him back two days later his levels had jumped from 8.8 to 17.4 and he had to be put on blue light phototherapy. We brought him back on Friday to check him again and hopefully get rid of the machine, but he had only dropped to a 16. I am grateful for the machine, but it makes things a little difficult when he has to be plugged into an outlet for the majority of the day. We are keeping our fingers crossed that on Monday he will be better.

We have had lots of visitors at home and at the hospital. I haven't been good about taking pictures of everyone, but we have really loved having everyone visit and are grateful for the meals and all of the support we have received.

Jayda's 2nd Birthday

9 Months

Ok, this is the last dang pregnancy picture. Let's get this party started already.

4th of July Weekend

Our weekend started on Friday night when we went up to Mueller Park Canyon with my family and cousins from California to celebrate my mom's birthday and have tinfoil dinners and smores. Jayda LOVES anything to do with water but luckily she was careful enough to stay away from the gushing river. She enjoyed being with the older kids and finding bugs.

On Saturday Bryce had to work, but Jayda and I went up to Deweyville for our annual all day tradition.

This is the group from oldest to youngest minus Jason and Bryce. This picture is part of the annual tradition and just keeps getting bigger and bigger!

On the 4th Bryce had to work again, but we went down to Fashion Place mall to take our rings into get them plated and took Jayda to build a bear for the first time so she could pick something out for her birthday. She picked out Woof Woof and got to pick out a little heart and stick it in before they sowed her up.

While Bryce was working Jayda and I went up to my parents to hang out for a bit and got to take a walk to look at the water and feed apples to the horses. Unlike her mother, Jayda has no fear of these big beasts.

We stopped at the park on the way home to let her get some energy out. The little stinker has a thing with slides. Sometimes she likes them, but usually she is just afraid of them and would rather go up and down the stairs. We pretty much had to force her to go down this little slide the first time so she knew it wasn't scary and then she loved it.

On Thursday night we were able to spend some time outside together and Jayda held her first sparkler. She loves fireworks and every time she hears or sees one she says "work!". I am happy she isn't afraid of them. That makes the festivities more fun.

8 months and a baby shower

My awesome friend and neighbor, Jen was kind enough to throw a baby shower for little Bentley and I on June 11th. The whole thing was adorable, the invitations, the decorations, the games-it was a blast. I felt a bit embarrassed because people typically don't get a baby shower for their second child, but I was really grateful that everyone came and supported us so thank you so much to all of you!
The food was amazing! She made Bruschetta burgers which I had never tried before but am now a big fan of, homemade fries, red velvet whoopie pies which I had never tried before and also love and Kim brought cute fruit skewers. YUM!

A few people left before we took this picture, but here are most of the lovely ladies I am lucky enough to be friends with. Notice the cute paper lanterns, those have always been a favorite of mine.

And the 8 month pic. I have sleepy eyes and not the best hair day, but the picture was necessary. Pregnancy is such a short little part of life that I feel like it is better to take pictures even if I don't love how I look in them, cause it is super easy to forget. I count the forgetting part as a blessing though, pregnancy and I are not great friends. I do have to say that this is probably my favorite part of the pregnancy. I am close to the end, I feel pretty well and I can feel my little guy kicking all the time. I am sure next month I will have had enough though.

Abnormal

Sometimes life takes looking back to realize that your perspective although it was reality to you was not in fact reality.
I used to work with a lady in her late 50's, short, skinny and a totally different personality than me. We had our share of run-ins and of course none of them were my fault. She was the old ornery one not me. I am sweet and loving right?
Well I got pregnant about a month after I started working there and in the summer when I was around 7 months along I would come into the office and the temperature would be super hot (like 74 degrees). I would get SO irritated. Who keeps an office this hot? It was just ridiculous, plus we had a wall of windows that let all the hot sun in right at our backs. I would huff and puff and turn the air up a bit thinking to myself what a loon this lady was while giving her the stink eye for the first half hour of work.
The whole time I thought she was the crazy one and I could not see that I was actually the one in the wrong.
Now I am pregnant at almost the same time again. I share an office with a short, super skinny lady in her late 30's who is ALWAYS cold. Bad luck. Seriously, I think that about 50% of women who have to work at a cubicle for 8 hours a day are.... plump. Why couldn't I share an office with one of them? We could run our fans and keep this office at 60 degrees and love life but no I got another skinny, cold one.
Luckily I have come to the realization that not everyone is as boiling hot as I am. Pregnancy makes you feel about 10 degrees warmer. I was the crazy pregnant lady with the raging hormones who tortured that poor lady not the other way around. I can't even imagine what she went home and told her husband about me. Well, not this time. This time I will be turning on a fan by my feet in hopes that my legs don't explode from edema, but I realize that I am the abnormal one, not everyone around me.

(On a happy note, the good news is that lady and I ended up on pretty good terms. I had a baby and cooled down and we were both able to work through our differences and enjoyed working with eachother. Luckily that poor lady made it though my life lesson and didn't have a heart attack from stress)

7 Months

I have hit the 7 month mark and I am feeling good. This pregnancy has been such a blessing but has also brought a mix of emotions. I am realizing that Jayda will no longer be our little baby, this new little boy will require a lot more attention and holding. Will I neglect Jayda because I need to pay special attention to a newborn?
It also makes me realize that Jayda is getting close to being out of the baby stage where she cuddles and needs me and I can carry her around. I'm afraid having a newborn around will only speed up the process of her growing up. I am excited to have our little boy join our family but also sad because I know I will never get this part of my life back. It will never just be the three of us again. It's bitter-sweet.

Below are evidences of our little baby growing up:

Not quite the same..... She had a little princess party with her cousins and her friend JoJo. She got this outfit for her first birthday and I thought she would NEVER fit into it.

She is learning how to take off her clothes and also put them on.

I guess there is still hope. This kid never grew up :)