Flooding

I forgot! Yes, we did get flooded here. But it could've been worse. We were in the basement because of tordano warnings and then the rain just kept coming and suddenly it was getting the basement floor wet! So I was holding Caleb and Gabe on the steps while Josh and my mom were plugging the drains with old spray paint cans and vacuuming out the water! It was not fun. It was pretty scary actually. When it was all over we had to rip out most of the basement carpeting and throw out a lot of water damaged stuff but our side of town got it the least. Other homes had to be bulldozed so we consider ourselves lucky!

Check out my Slide Show!

Still adusting...

So I know it's been a little while. It turns out life with a newborn and a two-year-old is pretty busy! It could be worse though. So far Caleb's been a really good baby - much easier than Gabe. But that's not saying much! Any kid without an oxygen tank, reflux, and a heart monitor would be easier. Plus Gabe's overall temperment was pretty demanding. Caleb's pretty relaxed. He eats only every 3-4 hours (Gabe was 1.5, plus pumping/bottles/burping forever) and he hardly ever cries. He had his 2 week doctor's check up yesterday and the doctor told me he's gaining weight at an above average rate. ("Is this bad?" I asked.) He said it's fine and that my milk must have a high fat content. I said, "Good, better on him than me!" So he now weighs 8 lbs 12 oz after being at his low of 7 lbs 5 oz about 3 days after he was born. He is starting to be awake more and so far his eyes look dark blue. I'm curious to see if they stay blue like Gabe's or not.

Gabe is also doing well. He just cracks me up sometimes. (Then other times I want to beat him of course!) But we go for walks every day and he has this big wheel type bike that he always rides and he's like a little daredevil on it. There's this one road where he zooms ahead like he's going to hit the median then at the last minute he'll turn his wheels and hook it into the space next to the curb that wraps around the median and zoom all the way around and across the road up the ramp onto the sidewalk. (Luckily this is on a quiet cul-de-sac by my house.) He also makes me laugh so hard when the Jonas brothers are on the Disney channel because he has a toy guitar that he jams along with and dances and jumps like they do. He's pretty rockin!
We'll see if he ends up playing football like his dad or being in musicals like his mom. (I'm sure Josh would love that!)

Well, those are our updates. Also, we close on our house Monday and are looking forward to having money! Yay! We're probably just going to be boring and pay off Gabe's dumb RSV shot bill from when he was six months old and got a $4500 shot! (Isn't that like, the average cost of having a normal child - total?!) And then pay off our car and start saving for our next "first home". Not very exciting stuff but it'll be nice to be debt free right? Josh is still plugging away at his online classes. Right now he has a geology and a Media Technology. He actually really likes the geology one. It has a lot of stuff about Yellowstone and Arches national park I guess. I am doing well too - just a little tired. Hope you all are doing well!

Check out my Slide Show!

He's finally here!

Yay! I have to say I was pretty bummed after reading some of the comments by fellow preggers or moms out there about being dialated to a 3 for a month, etc. but luckily my uncomfortable last month was very short-lived. I know I shouldn't say, "He's FINALLY here" because he was still technically almost 4 weeks before my due date but when you expect your water to break every time you get up to pee (which is a lot)for the past four months it really seems to go slow! And here's the really ironic part - the doctor had to break my water!!! Wow. You just never know. Well here's Caleb's birth story...

Due to lots of rain this past week Josh had a couple days off, including Friday. This was nice because I had a doctor's appointment at 1:30. Thursday night my sister and friend from church had thrown me a surprise baby shower - where I told everyone I wanted my baby to be born tommorow because I had a feeling he was already eight pounds and everyone told me, "No way" - so Friday morning was spent writing Thank you's, Josh doing his homework, and getting presents organized. We went to Target and Wal-Mart around 11:30 to make some exchanges and get a couple more baby necessities, like a bouncy chair and more diapers, and then we went to my docotr's appointment.

My doctor was again thrilled to see me and told me I could do anything my heart desired, no more restrictions! She also said I was at 4 cm and "so ready" and I told her I'd see her tommorow to have the baby. It seemed like the perfect weekend because both her and my chosen pediatrician were on call and with seven OBGYN's and seven peds that just seemed so lucky it was meant to be!

So we all went to Family Video to rent a movie then to the bank to deposit a check and while we were sitting there at the drive through the pain I had been trying to ignore got more intense. I had been having some cramps the night before but it wasn't regular and then stopped so I wasn't sure this pain meant anything. I told Josh I was so hungry and needed Culver's so we hurried there and I scarfed down all my food in about 10 minutes, nervous I would have to go to the hospital soon and they wouldn't let me eat! So we got home, I laid down, and after about 5 minutes I decided I should go to the hospital just to get checked, after all, it didn't happen this way for me last time! So my mom came home from work an hour early and stayed with Gabe while we went.

We got up to labor and delivery and I told them, "I think I might be in labor" and they hurried to get me a bed. A nurse hooked me up to a monitor and after about 30 minutes it was clear there were regular contractions about five minutes apart. She called my doctor who told her, "Don't admit her just yet, this is just what she wants and she may not really be in labor." (haha, she knows me well, huh?) But then when she finally came to see me at about 5:15 I was at 6cm and she said, "You're gonna have this baby, I'm gonna break your water." I was like, "Really?!" I kind of expected her to send me home!

So she broke my water and immediately the contractions got more painful which I figured would happen to I told her to send for the drug lady pronto- I wasn't missing my chance this time!!! The epidural was put in about then and I was surprised how long it took. I sat on that bed very still for about 30 minutes while she putzed around and made a couple attempts - which made me a bit nervous. Finally, she said she was done and I right away could tell that only my left side was numb. She told me to lay on my right side and it would seep over. I tried that and was in even more pain, feeling every contraction with the right half of my body still. It was pretty strange. I will say though, Gabe's contractions were a lot worse. So even half an epidural is a miracle! Then soon it was time to push. I probably pushed for about 30 minutes - but it definitely seemed like more. Everyone kept saying, "He's right there!" I think they could see his hair like, the whole time. But he just didn't want to come! Finally, at 8:02 Caleb Joshua was born and right away the nurses said, "He's a big boy!" He officially weighed 7 lbs 15 ounces and was 21.5 inches long - thank goodness he was 3.5 weeks early! When they did his tests they said he was actually 37 weeks though. His face was a little bruised and he has a slight cone head but otherwise he's a typical squishy faced newborn! It looked like we adopted our kids because Gabe is so blond and then we have this indian baby! I looked like an indian baby when I was born though too.

So, we stayed in the hospital until this morning at around 11:00 when we were all released. It was so cool taking a baby home with me this time! It was also nice to have Caleb in our room so much. I kept saying to Josh, "Aren't they going to come take him for stuff?" and Josh is like, "Well he IS ours!" They did take him a couple times but overally it was so nice that he could stay by us. Josh had his own hospital bed the whole time (he liked that much better than Rexburg's pull-out chair) and the nurses babied him. He had his own big water mug and I was saying to the nurse, "This isn't fair, he's like a patient but with none of the pain!" and she's like, "Should I check his bottom too?" It was pretty funny. Maybe she thought he was cute...

Well, this is long. Thanks for reading! I better post some pictures now!

Pictures:

Okay, I just have to quick say:

The first picture was at this horse show we took Gabe to. He put his toy horses head down into the dirt and thought it was so funny.

The second picture is what I found when I went into Gabe's room a couple nights ago when it had been like, 20 minutes since Josh had gone in to put Gabe to bed. I thought it was so funny that poor Gabe was like, cuddled against the wall while Josh was all sprawled out in his bed! He's gonna be mad at me for posting it but it's just too hilarious.

The third one is fat me at 35.5 weeks. At least I can take comfort in the fact that it's obvious Caleb is growing bigger every day. (At least I hope he is and it's not just me!)

Still pregnant!

Hi everyone!
It's been a little while and we've had a couple calls wondering if Caleb's here but no, he is still not! I can't believe it! It's like, 75-80 degrees today, my feet are huge, my rings don't fit anymore, my back hurts, and I feel like I'm waddling at 2 mph or less everywhere I go. This is what full-term feels like?! This stinks! I'd say I never want to do it again but I know Caleb will have to go through a lot less than Gabe did - maybe he won't have to go through anything! I'll be 36 weeks in 2 days and there's babies that come home from the hospital right away that are born at that age right? So hopefully I will get to experience bringing my baby home from the hospital with me this time around. Last time it just kind of felt like I had gone in for an emergency procedure or something and left three days later in a wheelchair with an sore body and empty arms. This should be a lot better and totally worth the bloated hands, etc. right? But if this kid gets past 40 weeks there may be some more complaining. How long can you be dialated to a 3? Anyone? It's been 10 days! Well, let me know what you other pregos or recent new moms are going through. I miss you all!

So many exciting things!

So here has been my past 24 hours:

- Yesterday morning: Josh and I decided to list the house, see what happens. Listed for $20,000 higher than our buying price.

- Met with realtor yesterday afternoon, officially signed listing papers. Crossed our fingers.

- 8:00 this morning: get a call from our realtor, house was shown last night to a lady who "loved it, loved it, loved it!" and we received an offer to purchase!

- 10:00 am: go to doctor. I'm 3 cm dialated. Doctor says "Go home and lay down but I won't be surprised if you deliver this weekend."

- 11:00 am: Go to realtor's office (bedrest? what?) Accept offer. Do a happy dance. :)

So that's pretty crazy, huh? We had prayed about it and said, "We feel like this is what we want to do so let's just list it and see what Heavenly Father makes happen." Both Josh and I feel really good about it. It will be nice to get some of our bills paid off and it will give him less stress about working so many hours to make house payments while taking classes. My mom is probably thinking, "When will these kids leave!" No, actually I think she really likes it. We'll see how she feels when Gabe and a newborn are crying at 2am. She said, "I'll just roll over onto my bad ear and smile and go back to sleep, happy I'm just the grandma." Thanks mom! No, but really we will be saving a lot of money the next few months living here. We're scheduled to close June 30th so everyone keep your fingers crossed for us that everything goes through. I'll post some pictures of Gabe at swimming two nights ago with Josh. He was a crazy man! He loves the water. Hopefully soon we'll post some new baby pics and this will become "Gabe and Caleb's page!"

33 weeks!

I am officially 33 weeks today (possibly 34 by baby's size)! Gabe is doing great. He's been answering the phone lately before we can get to it. People are probably confused when they hear, "He-woh?" and then "Deebee yaya?" He has his own language that I think Josh understands better than I do most of the time. He loves books about dogs and cars. And he recently discovered Bob the Builder from a rummage sale DVD my mom found. "Bah bah bah bah?" is "Can we watch Bob the Builder?"

The weather is so nice today, about 70 degrees and sunny. I'm so ready for summer! I'll post some pictures of Gabe playing outside at Lakeside Park with Josh. We were on our way to our house the other day to do some more work and Gabe reached over and opened the car door! (only a little and we were going slow) But I quick reached back and held it until we were able to stop and when we did stop it just happened to be in front of this daycare center. Then Gabe, seeing the play equipment right in front of him and Josh then getting out of the car(to come around and child-lock his door), Gabe yells, "Yay! Yay!" Cause he thought we were getting out to play there. Then when Josh got back in and we started to drive away he's like, "Oh no! Oh no!" and tears up. We felt so bad that we then went to the park and let him play for a while. It actually worked out because then he fell asleep in the car when we left the park and stayed asleep (on the crib mattress in the living room) while we worked on the house. I'll post some pics! Hope you're all doing well! Keep your blogs updated! And congrats to Annie and Jordan on the baby!