Milestones

My little E is getting to be a big boy and its driving me crazy. I can't believe how much he grows and learns from week to week.

He rolls from his tummy to his back and often as he can, he does it the quickest when he is mad. He has started to make loud hollaring noises for no apparent reason. He loves to stand as often and as long as you will let him. (He has been doing it for about 3 or more weeks now, but he is getting too good at it). Ezra will stop crying if you give him a drop of lemonade or vitamin water ;), loves straws. His favorite thing to have in his mouth would have to be his hands, so yummy; paci is a close second.

Ezra usually only gets up once during the night. Daddy usually gets up with him. Its their special male bonding time. He loves to cuddle with mom, he nuzzles right up under my face, its the cutest thing ever, and I never want it to end. He has to fall asleep either hanging on my necklace or the neck of my shirt. :)

He talks a lot, just not sure what it is he is saying, but he is sure excited about it. My little Boogs is possibly the most smiley, and bright eyed 12 week old anyone has ever seen! I love my boy. I just can't believe how quickly he is growing up. It is bitter sweet. It makes my heart ache to see him grow, and to realize that these are phases that quickly pass, but he gets more fun every day. :) Lets hope he remains mommy's cuddle bug for a few years...I can't get enough of it!

Looking up...

So things haven't been super hard or taxing or anything like that. Its just now that things are starting to take on a schedule and I have more time to myself while Ezra naps and likes to sit in his Bumbo. I am actually really excited. I can paint things outside now that the weather is nice (consistently), set up my glue gun and craft table on the deck and enjoy the sun, the breeze....ugh! It sounds like heaven right now.

On Tuesdays I go to the park with the other moms in the ward that don't work. :) So there is a designated day, and time, that I get some adult interaction. We can talk about things that only we would understand. Like how much you love your child, but on some occasions when it just feels like you barely survived the day without pulling your hair out. :) And how many more of those you have to look forward to! I have friends in my ward, but this week I made a new friend. She is a transplant just like me, so that makes things nice, and we can relate on a lot of things. So naturally we have a lot to talk about, and she is a stay at home mom as well, so there is lots of time for that!

Cody and I have also started paying attention to the things here that we can take advantage of. Like the other day when went to the Gateway (the outdoor mall) for the Chalk Art Festival. It wasn't anything spectacular, we just got to walk around as a family, enjoy the art, and have day outside in nice weather. There are gorgeous places to hike near our house, there is the Farmer's Market in downtown SLC, the Hogle Zoo, Heritage Park, the Aquarium, Handcart Days in Bountiful, countless things that Cody would never think to do because he has lived here his whole life and barely done any of it. So I am looking forward to doing things here as a couple, a family, and hopefully being able to like living in Utah just a little bit. Because we all know I have a hard time even tolerating it a lot of the time. (Sorry, but its SO true)

So things are looking up.... I have read 3 books (since Sunday), I have had Ezra down for at least 2-3 naps a day for the last couple weeks (which usually last about 2-3 hours each), I have been planning my trip to California next week (and this time Cody is even coming with me!), and I have started making goals of things I want to learn how to do and a list of crafts I want to try and tackle. So all in all, its been one of the best weeks so far as mom, not mention my little man hit two months last Friday! Can you believe it? He's the best, not to mention the cutest! He is just growing way too fast. I love it so much, he is just getting to be more fun every day.

So here's to a good start of normalcy, and lets hope this keeps up! :)

Ezra's Firsts...

Who doesn't love a sleeping baby picture??

Ezra's favorite thing is bathtime. :) I love the way he smells afterward!

Before his haircut...its getting too long.

After!

He gets cuter everyday!

On to the post!

Well its been a busy couple of weeks for our little man. He has had many awesome experiences and has been growing like crazy.

This past weekend Ezra went on his first airplane ride outside the womb, and visited Arizona for the first time ever. It was a last minute decision, but Cody bought us a plane ticket to visit my sister, her 3 children, my dad, and my mom would be there too.

Fallon, my niece who turned 6, has been telling me for the past 6 months that she "needed to hold and love that baby". So as it turned out, my mom was going to visit them for Fallon's 6th birthday, and to see her & Emery play their last soccer games. So I thought, wouldn't it be fun if I surprised my nieces and nephew and my mom and dad???
So Erin & I conspired and found me a flight that came in only 20 minutes before my mom. She didn't tell the girls, or my dad that Ezra and I too was coming to play, and my mom had NO idea.

So on Thursday, Fallon's birthday, I flew out (Ezra was a champ on the plane, and security and everything turned out to be a breeze).

I had Erin pick me up and then we went to the park & wait. Porter didn't know what hit him. He had been napping in the car and when he woke up Ezra and I were in the car. He kept staring in disbelief, and looking back at me to make sure I was in fact still there.

Then my mom called to tell Erin she had arrived. Here we go!!! So we went to find her, and I hid in the back seat when she opened the front door to greet my sister and Porter. Finally she went to open the hatch to put her stuff in the back and I nearly gave her a heart attack! She seriously shreaked out loud!

Then we went to lunch, and we were off to go pick up the girls from school. They didn't know my mom was coming either, so they thought it was just a regular school day, no surprises. Fallon gets out a little bit before Emery, so Erin walks her to the car. First she sees my mom, and she starts running...then when she tried to get in the car, Ezra's seat is in the way (I was holding him in the 3rd row, so there was no baby in the seat). She was quite confused...she just said..."a baby??", she started walking to the other side of the car to get in, and you hear her put it together and scream "EZRA!!!". Emery did the same thing. Needless to say, it was a fun day. Fallon had an awesome birthday.

We took them to swim lessons, they went to soccer practice, and were so excited to show my mom and I what they could do. Friday we went to Fallon's kindergarten program where they sang lots of cute songs. Saturday was the last soccer games, the girls did great. Emery did some awesome stops as the goaly, and scored a goal when she got out on the field. Fallon showed off her ball handling and team skills and assisted a great goal. :) What talented girls!

We had a fun weekend, spent lots of quality time and just enjoyed eachother's company. (I hadn't seen Erin, Emery, Fallon & Porter since mid-February). The only things missing were my sister Kelly, her husband Randy, and their son, Rhett. Wish you were there. But we called Kelly nearly every day! :)

While we were there, I started noticing how long little E's mohawk was...so Wednesday I decided to cut it. He stayed pretty still, so it turned out pretty good :) (If I do say so myself).

Like I said, its been crazy around here, and lots of first for the little man, with tons more to come.

Glad he could meet 3 of his cousins, his auntie, uncle Jeff, and Papa for the first time. They ate him up almost as much as his mommy does every day. :)

We will look forward to meeting auntie Kelly, uncle Randy and cousin Rhett next week when they are here!

Love you guys!

Ezra Jonathan Fitts

Ezra finally decided to join us on Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 4:06pm. He was 7lbs. 15oz. and 20 1/2 inches long.
I went into labor on Saturday night, and stayed home until I couldn't stand the contractions anymore, and they were around 5 minutes apart. I started having stronger contractions around 2:30pm, and we waited until around 9:45pm to go in.
When we got there, Ezra decided to stop labor...but since I was over they decided that they wouldn't send me home, and they would start me. So they broke my water (weirdest feeling ever) and started me on pitocin. As soon as they did that I asked for my epidural. Wow, was that the best thing ever! One of the craziest things not to be able to move your legs, or to feel anyone touching them, or your stomach, you can just feel the baby move like you used to because of the pressure they put on your insides ;).
So we hung out, watched movies and waited while things progressed. Cody got some sleep, I didn't get much...funny thing...my epidural machine stopped working for a little while, so I went natural for a bit...wouldn't recommend it. It was AWFUL! See, I and my nurse didn't notice that the light in the machine had gone off, so it stopped working. And by the time I had figured it out, I was going through contractions feeling everything. Cody tried to get me to push my nurse call button, but I kept telling him she would come back soon, and I didn't want to be THAT patient. She did come back, and got me hooked up to another machine, but I had to wait for it to set in...ugh!
Around 18 hours into it, they discovered that poor little Ezra was trying his darnedest to get his head through my pelvic bones, but he couldn't fit. He was just a little too big of a baby for my body. So they broke the news to Cody that they would be doing a C-section. I have never seen Cody so panicked. So he quickly gave me a blessing and suited up for the OR.
Everything went well, and he was out and crying within 15 minutes or so. I don't think things could have gone any better. It really was what was best for both Ezra and I. My delivery doctor, Dr. Ward was amazing, love him, he stitched me up good and prescribed some good drugs!
The nurses at LDS Hospital were awesome. They took such good care of us, I didn't have to worry about one thing!
Poor nurses thought I was going to pass out. Little did they know that I hadn't slept in almost 2 days, and my eyes would try to roll back in my head every time someone would talk to me. And I didn't want to hold Ezra too much, because I was afraid I would fall alseep and my grasp on him would loosen. Luckily they took him to the nursery that night so I could start catching up on my sleep.
We got home on Wednesday the 20th, and life has gone on. It seems like Ezra has been here longer than 10 days.
But both of us are doing well. I was off pain meds after only 2 or 3 days home, and I have been up walking, and functioning as normally as possible. I still am not allowed to lift anything over 10lbs, or do laundry, cook, or vacuum, but I unloaded the dishwasher, washed dishes, straightened my house, and just hang out with my little man.
My mom has been nice enough to stay with us and do all the things I can't for 2 weeks. Its just going to be hard to see her go! :)
Ezra has been such a good baby. He eats well, he sleeps pretty well, especially for his age, and he is just one happy, relaxed, easy going little boy! We love having him here. I just don't want him to grow up, he has already changed so much. :( Love this little boy, he's the best.

Cody and his look-alike. You can definitely tell he is Ezra's daddy.

He loves to snuggle with his mommy!

His skin is gorgeous!

He loves his hands, and his paci...

He is such a happy little guy that brings such a sweet spirit into our home. We are truly blessed to have such a sweet, loving, pure little child of God in our home. I couldn't have asked for more. :)

We love you Ezra!

Eviction Notice

So as most of you know my due date is tomorrow...and this wouldn't be that big of a deal had I not been hearing "you won't make it to your due date" from 2 different doctors the WHOLE time. Word to the wise if you are a doctor...DO NOT tell your patients this no matter what you think will happen. It makes it that much more discouraging when you make it to week 40!

To make matters worse, I was going to go in to talk to my midwife Gretchen about my options as far as induction and things like that (cause she can tell I am beyond done and he is just being stubborn) and what do you know, 30 minutes before my appt. she gets called to labor and delivery. So I have to see Sandae (pronounced Sandy, why her parents did that to her, I don't know), who does not believe in induction and tells me I am doing great and I am "progressing", a word I have learned to detest, it means nothing to me anymore, and I can schedule to see Gretchen again on Friday. For the love of all that is good and holy, I do not want to make it to Friday with this person still inside my body!!!

The texts and phone calls of "any baby yet?", "have you popped?", "any news?" do not help. They just remind me of the fact that yes, I am indeed still at home, waiting....my favorite are people that look me right in the eye and say "oh, you are still here?" obviously....I know you are just excited, but please refrain from comments like these to me, and any one else that is in this position. Its just awful. And if you have been in this position before and still insist on commentary like this, shame on you! hahaha.

I am glad he has made it to full term, I am glad he is healthy, I am glad we are in "the home stretch", but Little E, ITS TIME TO GO! Mommy is tired of caring you, and all of your glorious vital fluids and extras, which make me so front heavy...consider this your notice of eviction.

But we love you! :)

Happy Retirement

So the time has come to say goodbye to my paying full time job. Now we wait for my unsalaried full time job to begin.

It was actually harder than I thought to let go. I have been earning my own money since I was 11, and have had a constant full time job since I was 15. So the thought of me not having a set time to be at a set place to do a job is SO WEIRD!

I loved working, I loved being able to help Cody provide for our family and get ourselves as far ahead financially as we possibly could. (Not to mention the fact I am insufferably independent and self sufficient, it drives poor Codes bonkers). I can't say that I won't be trying to find ways to make money, I still do hair at our house, I make hair accessories, and I will be trying out some other things, but as far as a scheduled Mon-Thur. or Mon-Fri. job, I am retired.
I am also excited at the prospect of being able to go back to school at some point. :) I am not sure how many of my credits will transfer between California and Utah, but even if I have to start over, I wouldn't mind. I really enjoy school.

Cody was sweet and took me out for my little retirement party. I think he has been more excited than anyone else for me to be done working. He has been beaming all week at the prospect of me being home and not having to get up early or stay at work late. What a sweetheart. He has been waiting for this for some months now and has had a countdown for weeks. I have been anxious and unsure.

For the next couple of days I have a list of things to get done, but after that, I don't know what I will do to occupy my time. Maybe curl up and read an entire book? Take naps while I still can? Deep clean every room in our house? I have a couple things I want to make for little E, lets hope I can get it all done, and hope he gets here by or before his due date in 24 days!!!!
Then life as we know it will be turned upside down!

I am very aware that I am one very lucky girl. Cody has gone above and beyond to make sure that I can stay home and raise our son and I will be eternally grateful. Not everyone is able to stay home and raise their family, but I have the blessing of being able to do so. For those of you who do both work full or part time and parent, I don't know how you do it! But I am hoping that I don't have to find out. :)

My Valentine

(Not the best picture, but I like it)

I learned something a couple years ago, the simplest things in life make you the happiest. Thats why a little over a year ago we decided as a family we would keep everything in our lives as simple as possible. So this Valentine's Day we were thinking wether we would abandon that idea for our "Last Valentines Day" with just us, and go all out. But quickly decided, no way, that just wouldn't be our style.
So we tried to see if we knew some of the simplest things the other one loved. So what did Cody get this year??? Pastry! The bakery we used for our wedding is closed on Mondays, so I had to find an alternate this time, but Cody said it was just as good. The boy is a fool for eclairs and anything with custard or cream. He couldn't have been happier when I walked in the door with that box (1. because he had been trying to get ahold of me for like 45 min, but I wasn't answering my phone, and he called my work and I wasn't there. So he was starting to freak out, and 2. because he knew I had been being sneaky and knew what was in the box.)
I was told to change my clothes and put on a jacket. I got one of my favorite things in the entire world...a nice long walk OUTSIDE!!!! (if you know me well, you know the time outside, and good weather is what I miss most about home). You might be thinking, wow this guy is a go getter...(sarcasm), but no really, he couldn't know me better. That is exactly what I would have wanted, well that, and he took me out to dinner for one of my favorite meals. What can we say, we are food people! :)
But we quickly realized, sitting there enjoying our time together, how it wasn't our "Last Valentine's Day", but we get to add another member to our party next year and share with him our favorite things. I'm sure he will be a big fan of bakery treats and any amount of time spent outside. :) So I think he might just make it that much more fun. :) It may not be everyone else's idea of a wonderfully romantic Valentine's evening, but it was perfect for us.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYBODY!

Sad but true...

I have had a hard time getting too psyched about our little guy getting here. I try not to get over excited, just in case. I have had friends who have lost children up to 36 weeks of pregnancy, or have them get here only to have them depart shortly there after. Its been stuck in my mind since I found out I was pregnant at 6 weeks. And the thoughts never entirely leave. I know a lot of my friends wondered why I waited until I was about 20 weeks or more to say anything about us having a baby, and that was why.

I have had so many friends with so many tragic stories that I find it hard thinking it couldn't happen to me. They are such good people, the best of people, yet they faced such awful trials.

As I hear of these things I can't help but think, if it happened to you, why wouldn't it happen to me? Why would I deserve all of this, with no problems, when you have had so much happen to you?

We didn't ask for our son, we weren't trying to have a baby. Yet there are people who can't have them, who lose them, or have to try so many things to finally have a child. It makes me feel an imense sense of guilt. God gave us a gift, we feel, that we weren't sure we deserved when there are so many out there that will probably be better parents. Or who have already endured so much.

With that said. I feel greatly blessed to have my little family. The cutest, probably most attentive husband I could have ever asked for. Someone who walks to the other side of our bed in the middle of the night because I have had to move around so much just to get comfortable, yet I have travelled too far over....:) A guy who thinks the world of me, especially when I don't think much of myself. I love this little person, who I know knows me, yet he chose me to be his mother anyway. I love the opportunity we have had of getting to come together as a family, and decide whats most important to us.

And if something were to happen, heaven forbid, I am glad I had the opportunity to grow so much as a person and be touched by a little life more than I ever thought possible. I am grateful for the closeness it brought between me and my Father in Heaven and my Savior. As we have had many conversations in quiet times, I have come to know that they think I am capable of so many great things, when I doubt I can handle much of anything (as is the case with most of us I would assume). I am grateful for the gospel and everything it teaches us about families and their eternal nature.

Sorry this post is so depressing, but it was something I needed to get out. I know the probability of something happening is slim, but it is there. And I don't think I have ever been more aware of it than I have become in the last couple of years. Don't worry about me, I am excited to play with my son, but know that have witnessed so many things, that yes, I am extremely guarded.

For those of my friends who are reading this and have gone through tragedy, know that I think the world of you. :) Love you guys!

Winding Down and Gearing Up

So I hit 30 weeks this last Wednesday...something I thought would never come. Yet, at the same time it came so fast. My sister Erin put it in perspective for me yesterday when she said I was going to be officially down to single digits. Needless to say, its a surge of mixed emotions.

I have already explained to a lot of my friends, I don't do pregnancy pictures. I think they are weird, and I don't feel like sharing with the world. So if you see me, you see me. If you don't, sorry you missed out. Watching someone's midsection inflate really isn't the exciting part of it anyway. It will be most exciting watching a little boy grow and do funny things. And I am sure we will post lots of that, because if he is anything like Cody and I, he is going to be quite crazy and do things neither of us can explain.

Little E is doing well. He has been very nice to his mommy thus far. (Yes, I just dropped a hint as to what his name will be). I can still reach my toes, yet Cody says if I keep doing it we might have a baby a little too soon ;). I have still been sleeping pretty well. He usually winds down with me at night, and then we both go to sleep, which is hopefully a good sign of things to come? haha I can hope right? I still have two or three pairs of jeans that I can still button and wear, low rise has been a blessing. I am still under on weight, but he isn't, so thats all I need to be worried about. My doctor says she thinks my body has done perfectly thus far and not to worry about not gaining as much weight as most. I eat like nobody's business, ask my poor husband. But E must take most of it, which I tell him as long as he takes it with him, we will be just fine. He's a good boy.

I gave my notice at work this week. Which was such a blessing. Cody calls it my early retirement. My last day of work will be March 18th. (I pushed it back a month so I could cover some of the other girls' vacation, aren't I so nice? haha jk). So I will start prepping the kitchen for the little remodel we have planned, and hopefully Cody will be able to start on tearing out and reassembling the new bathroom. We hope to have quite a bit done by the time our little guy is blessed. We will see what happens.

Cody has been crazy busy with his job. They moved to quite a larger building and he has been preoccupied making sure everything is organized the way he wants it. He is paranoid that if someone else tries to do it, it won't be the way he likes it. So he is home a bit later, but it gives me a bit more time after I get home from work to have dinner on the table af before he gets home. :)

Next thing to tackle is our hospital tour and birthing classes the next couple of weekends. Its going to be here before you know it. I still need to pick my pediatrician, crap! Wish me luck!

Update

So its been a little while since I have posted, but life just gets crazier, and keeping up gets harder. I am still working, sometimes over 40 hours a week, sometimes less (which I prefer). Doctor's appointments have become more frequent. I will hit my 3rd trimester next week, so now I will have to go every 2 weeks instead of every 4; which doesn't seem neccesary since I talk to her for like 10 minutes and she either listens to his heartbeat, looks at him on ultrasound or both and then I'm out.

We had a low key Christmas this year, no hustle and bustle, no crazy stress. We had dinner with the Fitts family on Christmas eve, came home and opened our annual Christmas Eve pajamas and put them on and watched a movie. Christmas morning we slept in, Cody made some orange cinnamon rolls, we opened our gifts and stockings. The rest of the day was just spent hanging out with eachother and enjoying the day. :) Thats our favorite kind of day.

I went home to Camarillo to see my close friend/relative by marriage, marry my other close friend from high school, Chelsey & Christian. It was in true Chelsey style, and it was absolutely lovely. They are so good together, and I love them both very much, so it was great to see them so happy. I got to spend some much needed time with my sisters, my nephews and nieces and my mom and dad. It was a great trip. I can't wait to go home again in February and stay a little longer so I can actually make time for more friends (although any time doesn't seem like enough time). :)

Little guy was breach a couple of weeks ago, but has finally turned and now is in the correct position. Which made me breathe a little easier. His legs are the longest little things I have ever seen, they are like 2/3 of his poor little body just like his dad. We have showed the ultrasound picture to a couple of people, and they all say the same thing "WHOA! Those are some long skinny legs"....He is Cody's boy for sure, but the upclose shot of his feet look like mine. We will have to see when he gets here (can you believe his due date was exactly 3 months from yesterday?!?). I was going to upload the picture, but the scanner was being weird.

I still need to get some things on the walls of his room before I can post pictures of his "non nurseery, nursery". We aren't doing any characters, baby animals or cutesy prints, his room is black and white with accents of lime green and aqua. I will have to finish that up in the next couple of weeks. I just have to find the supplies to make the shelves I want to make and put some other things up on the walls. So stay tuned!