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. :)