A Recap - Part 1

I've decided to do a recap of everything in the last 3 months of our lives :) It will take 2 posts.

Here are the boys together on our first morning out of the hospital.

Conner turned 3 the day after Caleb was born. Since we spent most of that day in the hospital we celebrated Conner's birthday a day late. (Shhh don't tell him). We also had no intention of still being in Mesa and left his some of his birthday presents at home. Luckily, we ordered one online while in Mesa and grandma and grandpa Rodgers had a few for him to open. Some of the others soon became Christmas presents instead.

Conner went through a phase of forgetting how to smile. Every time we said to smile for the camera, this is what we got :)

 

 



Since Caleb took his sweet time arriving, we had spent about 2 weeks in Mesa and were ready to be home again. So we came back home on Wednesday and had our first Thanksgiving by ourselves. It was nice, we did a lot of resting (ok just me really because Cade was ambitious and put up our Christmas lights) and had a feast (also courtesy of Cade). Since there wasn't time to buy and defrost a turkey we had a rotisserie chicken instead (thanks for the idea Natalie!).

 

For the first 8 weeks of Caleb's life we either went out of town or had company. It was a lot of fun and time just flew by. The Entrekins came to Arizona for 3 weeks and right off they blessed Abby. So naturally we went to Mesa for that. While we were there we got pictures taken of the grandkids together. It was the only wintery day Mesa had all year and we weren't expecting it or prepared for it so the kids were cold and some a little red faced. We also took a family picture for our Christmas card, which wasn't the most flattering being 2 weeks post baby, but that's life.

 

Eli, Tyson, Tyler, Conner

 

The girls - Alyza, Emma, Abby

 

Caleb, Tyson, Emma, Alyza, Eli, Abby Tyler, Conner

Hello Stud Muffin!

 

Caleb's pictures weren't flattering

 

Next Grandma Johnson came for an unexpected visit. Conner loved getting lots of attention and having someone to play with again. (Our little Caleb didn't like to go to sleep for "the night" until about 1 am and then woke up about every 2 hours, so mommy was a little too tired to play.)

 



The Entrekins came to visit us next. No pictures were taken, but we had fun and I didn't want them to think we forgot about their visit. Ashley did help us take some better pictures of Caleb...

 

 

 

I just had to throw in the static hair! I don't think he is amused.

 

The next week Cade and Conner went to Hurricane with Kameron and Jeter. While they were gone my mom came and stayed with me and we got lots of deep cleaning done. It was a win-win for everyone! Well, my mom may have gotten the short stick on that one, but she still liked it :)

 

Gathering chicken eggs with grandpa

Crawling through the chicken door

 

Trying on some cowboy boots

 

Conner and Jeter playing on the hay

 

Next it was Christmas. We went to Mesa for a few more days. We spent Christmas Eve with the Rodgers and most of Christmas day with the Johnson's at Natalie's apartment. The main memory from Christmas is that my dad's friend Lloyd gave my dad his old train set that goes around the Christmas tree. The track was broken and my dad was going to throw it out, but we told him that Conner would like to play with it and to throw it away after Christmas. Well that was an understatement. Conner thought that train was the greatest thing ever and spent all of our trip playing with it. We practically had to force the kid to open his presents because he kept wandering away with this broken down, old train. Cade was so mad that we didn't just give it to him for Christmas. He also says that if Conner doesn't believe in Santa as he gets older its because of this mistake of Santa only giving second rate toys compared to the train. It was really kind of sad. As a side note- the wooden train set that Conner got for Christmas the year before, is still played with on a daily basis, literally. That kid is obsessed. (We stupidly forgot our camera so we only got a few pictures with Cade's phone.)

 

 

Here's a picture of Conner loving the old train

 

 

Conner playing with his new fort kit

 

A few days later, we blessed Caleb in Prescott Valley. It was fun having all of our families come to town for a few hours.

 

The Johnsons, minus Uncle Sam who is on a mission.

 All of the Rodgers

 

Our little family. Caleb and I have changed clothes because of a huge blow out that leaked through onto me.

 

We wanted to do something fun for New Year's, but just didn't have the energy/ motivation to put anything together. So we just spent the evening at home watching a movie. The next day Conner and Cade took the prowler out. Cade brought his bow just in case they stumbled upon something and they did. Unfortunately Conner doesn't know how to sneak up on animals yet and kept talking so loudly they ran off. I think I was the most disappointed because if Cade had got that deer then he would have been done bow hunting for the entire year!

 



 

To be continued....

It's A Boy!

So much for thinking we were having a girl, Conner got a brother last week. Caleb Mason took his time joining us and didn't arrive until 8 days past his due date. He was born the day before Conner's birthday. (And if we add in RJ and Jen's birthdays then we have 4 birthdays in a row.) Thankfully, he was still only 7.8 pounds and 20 inches long. I was afraid he would be huge and I would miss that tiny little baby stage, but he was still a nice small size.
 

Around 3 am I woke up with mild cramps and told Cade that we might have some action happening. I wasn't holding my breath though because I had been having tons of cramps, stronger ones, in the last few weeks so it was possible it was just more of that. But it was strange that I would have them while sleeping so I figured there was a chance. I went back to sleep and Conner woke us up about 6:00 and the cramps were gone so I told Cade nevermind. We all went back to sleep again and I woke up about 8:00 with cramps strong enough to make it impossible to keep sleeping or even lay down comfortably. So I got up and waited to see what would happen. Over the next few hours nothing really changed so I was beginning to think that it was just a false alarm. Somewhere around 11:30 I timed them and they were about 20 minutes apart and I decided to get ready just in case. During a light lunch we timed the contractions again and they were 8 minutes apart. My mom got a little panicked at this point and was really trying to push us out to the hospital, but I still felt like it was a little early, and I was still eating :) Cade kept entertaining Conner and I slowly got our last minute things in order. Just after 2:00 I had a really strong contraction that forced me to sit down and felt like it lasted about 5 minutes so then I decided it was time to go. Conner had a meltdown, which was really sad and surprising because we've left him with grandma and grandpa plenty of times without trouble.

Our last picture as a family of 3, taken a few weeks prior to test out our camera.

The half hour drive to the hospital was pretty unpleasant. Cade wanted to try timing the contractions again but it was getting too hard for me to tell when one ended and another one began. I half-jokingly asked him to remind me why I didn't want an epidural. (There are multiple reasons that I won't get into.) Since he doesn't pay much attention to me when I talk about such things he had a hard time reminding me of them, but he did point out that I really don't care to have a gigantic needle being stabbed into my back. That helped a little.

Once we were in triage I had to go change into my gown and pee in a cup. The gown didn't have the sleeves buttoned up and it was like a flat sheet. I blame the contractions I was dealing with, but it took me forever to figure out how to put that thing on and I think they should have the gowns already prepared for laboring women. I also ended up having to use the restroom for other business, if you know what I mean, so I ended up being in there a long time. When I came out Cade and the nurse told me they were getting worried and about to check on me. Everyone was being really nice and many were very chatty but I just did not have the energy to carry on these conversations. And they had all these initial questions to ask me that I thought were so pointless and at the very least that Cade could answer for me. Looking back I wish we had gone to the hospital sooner so I wasn't in so much pain during the whole question/answer phase. But you just never know how quickly things will progress. When the nurse checked me she said I was at 7 or 8 centimeters and called my doctor so she could start heading to the hospital.

Soon we were in the delivery room. A nurse started to check me again but then said the head was right  there so she wasn't going to bother. She told me my doctor was still on her way but they got a resident to come in so I was free to push anytime I needed to. I remember thinking it was kind of awkward because he just stood there waiting for me to do something and I was laying on my side and not sure if I was covered back up after the nurse checked me so he might be getting a show already. But Cade later informed me I was covered up :) The contractions were almost unbearable at this point and I just started getting the urge to push. I was getting a little panicked because I didn't know how I could push while having such strong contractions. When I had Conner the contractions had stopped for a few minutes before I felt any need to push so I got a little recovery period and there was no recovery time this time. My doctor showed up at this point and went to check something and accidently broke my water. It eased my contractions just enough for me to take a breath and get ready to push. They got me into position and told me to go ahead when I was ready, but I wanted another minute so the 2 nurses, 2 doctors, and Cade just stood there staring at me. For whatever reason I thought that was really funny and wanted to laugh but didn't have the energy.

Now it was time for business. The pushing contractions were ridiculously strong right away, I could hardly believe how painful it was. (With Conner they started slowly and without pain and I would push, rest, push, rest... and I just didn't think that pushing was that terrible.) After a few pushes they started telling me the baby's heart rate was dropping and I needed to get it out. I feel like I hear that all the time in other people's birth stories so I didn't worry much about it. At some point though I saw my doctor's face as she was again telling me the baby needed to be out and I could tell she was seriously concerned so I gave it all I had. I wish that that meant one more good push and the baby was out, but unfortunately it was still what seemed like a full 5 minutes. I mean, like one push that lasted 5 minutes. Cade says it wasn't that long, but I know I took multiple breaths while continuing to push without stopping. They kept saying it was there and made it sound like I just needed to push a little harder and it would be out. But I was already pushing as hard as I possibly could and it didn't feel like it was budging. I was truely wondering if I was going to be able to do it and I wanted to cry. Finally, after what I honestly think was the worst 10 minutes of my entire life, our little baby arrived at 4:23 pm. With Conner I pushed for about an hour and a half, with Caleb it was a total of 15 minutes, but I will gladly take the hour and a half if it means the pain isn't so severe. Afterwards the doctor mentioned Caleb's heart rate got down to 50 or 60 beats per minute. I asked what it was supposed to be and she said 120, so I guess it was getting low.

Gotta love how he was covered in his poop when he came out.

Caleb has been a great baby so far. He sleeps like 20 hours a day and isn't fussy. He only cries when he is hungry and a little while we use a cold wipe on his bum. Conner really loves him and is always trying to play with him. So far there hasn't been any jealousy. Unfortunately Conner has a little cold so I don't want him breathing all over Caleb but its been pretty much impossible to stop that. Caleb wakes up more in the night to eat than he does during the day so that's annoying but he seems to be changing his ways. Its been 100 times easier for me to adjust to the interrupted/no sleep this time. After Conner was born Cade and I were both exhausted and unhappy for quite awhile because his days and nights were mixed up. But this time its just been way easier for me to go without sleep so I let Cade sleep more and we're all happy. Soon Cade will be back at work and we'll see how things turn out with me watching both boys.

Meeting brother for the first time

A Pregnancy Comparison

With less than 2 weeks until this baby is due I thought I would reflect back a little, for my own record. Being pregnant with Conner was pretty good. I felt nauseated pretty constantly from about week 7 to week 14, I threw up about 5 or 6 times. After that I felt great! It took some adjusting to sleeping on my side, my hips really got irritated and would sting, but eventually my body got adjusted to it. As things progressed I had the occasional heartburn and backaches, but nothing to complain about. For the last little while I got carpal tunnel in my left hand and arm. That made my arm all numb and tingling feeling. It was pretty annoying, but not a big deal. I wasn't sure I would ever fully recover the feeling in the tips of my fingers, but by 6 weeks post delivery I was finally back to normal. All in all, it was a pleasant pregnancy and I even wondered if I might miss it once it was over, just because people are so friendly to you when you are pregnant. And I had no desire to give birth even a day early. I didn't miss it, but that just shows how much being pregnant didn't bother me.

This time around has been much less pleasant. I consistently felt sick until about week 17 this time and never had a stretch of time where I could say I felt good. Sure there were days when I felt fine, but many mornings I still feel nauseated for a few hours. It really cuts into my productivity, I can't stand feeling crappy so often. But I never did throw up this time so that's a plus. Once again I get the occasional heartburn and backache, but still nothing to complain about. I've had mild cramps the entire pregnancy, which hasn't been a problem, but something different than the first time around. I did better adjusting to sleeping on my side this time around, but for some reason I've slept much worse. Ever since the beginning I have nights where I wake up and can't get back to sleep for about 2 hours, for no reason at all. If I'm not having one of those nights, then I'm having a night where I wake up almost every hour with a need to turn over. I sure am ready to sleep on my back again. I try to tell myself that at least all this crappy sleep will better prepare me for sleepless nights with the baby, but we'll see.

I didn't get carpal tunnel this time, although my arms do go numb a few times a day. But it will go away within a few minutes so its much less annoying. Instead, around 33 weeks I developed pubic symphysis dysfunction. Basically my body started producing too much of the hormone relaxin, making my pelvic ligaments and joints too relaxed. And without my pelvis being "locked" together certain movements are pretty painful. This started out as more of another annoying pregnancy symptom, but it has worsened over time and I'm in a lot more pain now than I was after delivering Conner, and that is just not right in my opinion. If I'm too active one day from say cleaning the house or running a bunch of errands, then for the next day or two just about any movement will get the pain going. Again, really cutting into my productivity level these days. Turning over at night is probably the most painful thing, but standing up, walking quickly, or sitting in certain positions will all shoot pain through my pelvis. And the best part is, once you've had it you're more likely to get it with each subsequent pregnancy and earlier on each time! I just can't wait for that.

I know people have much harder pregnancies than me and I wouldn't even classify this pregnancy as hard. But it sure has sucked compared to the first one. I definitely don't wonder if I will miss being pregnant this time. In fact, we have started considering changing our planned number of kids from 5 to 4 in large part because this pregnancy has been so annoying. We just hope these differences are due to the fact that I'm having a girl (we don't know what we're having). If that is the case then I think I'll take boys from here on out! I'm still not dying to get this baby out, but I think that's mostly because I don't want to make that hour and a half drive while in labor, or deliver on the highway. I'd much rather wait until we are staying at my parent's house and the drive to the hospital will be much shorter.

P.S. I was going to add a picture but couldn't find any that didn't have me looking like a fat whale :)

Potty Training? Its a Piece of Cake!

I had been dreading the whole potty training business for months and months, but it was all for nothing. I'm pretty sure Conner was the easiest potty trainer that has ever existed. We originally planned to potty train in April when I wasn't supposed to work for a couple of weeks. But then I got pregnant and felt like crap and wasn't about to deal with cleaning up accidents. So then we decided to wait until July when our summer travels were over. That turned out to be a great decision. In May Conner started occasionally telling me when he needed his diaper changed, he had NEVER been bothered by dirty diapers before. He was also starting to wake up in the morning with dry diapers a couple of times a week. I was afraid we might even miss our window of opportunity.

Conner and I had been reading books about potty training from the library for a long time. Luckily we ran into one called The Potty Train and since Conner is obsessed with trains it really hit home with him. He thought it was fun to go sit on the potty train. During the last week of diapers we started having Conner try to go potty a few times a day so he would get the idea. Then it was time for the big event. After he woke up one morning we put him in underwear. Thirty minutes later he pooped in them. Things weren't looking good, but we had Conner go to the bathroom frequently. We also set a timer for every 2 hours and if he didn't have any accidents by the time the timer went off then he got a small treat, like 2 M&Ms. Each day for a few days we set the timer for a half an hour longer. He didn't have anymore accidents those first 2 days so I stopped telling him to go to the bathroom and just reminded him to stay dry so he could get a treat. He had a few accidents in the next couple of days, but thanks to this underwear my mom helped me make there was no clean up besides getting new underwear and sometimes clean shorts.

I found these on Pinterest from http://itsourlongstory.blogspot.com/2012/01/diy-cloth-training-pants.html?showComment=1328030266224#c6638174278670575212 but of course made a boy version.

 

One week later Conner said he didn't want to put on a diaper at bedtime so we didn't. And that was that. In the last 3 months Conner has only had 1 accident while sleeping, and luckily it was just in the early morning so we didn't have to get up in the middle of the night to deal with it. He has never pooped his pants after that first morning. He has never gotten anything on the carpet so I've never had to clean that. His only bad accident was at Kohl's on a day that I drove the truck instead of the car and didn't have the spare underwear that I keep in the car. But I do take some responsibility in that one. I didn't expect Conner to come with me and at the last second he hopped in the car and I didn't think to ever ask him if he needed to go potty. Conner hasn't had any accidents in weeks and weeks and is pretty good about telling us when he needs to go. Although he can hold it a loooong time so that makes us nervous and sometimes we do make him go, especially when we start seeing a potty dance or before we leave the house.

 

We still can't believe how easy the whole thing has been and dread potty training the next child even more. We know it can't be this easy again and we won't be ready for dealing with lots of messes and accidents. But we will try to remember to wait until our kids are noticeably ready and not just when we feel like doing it.

 

We haven't gotten a new camera yet, but here is a picture we took the first time Conner sat on the potty a long time ago.





Got Him!

Cade has been rifle hunting all of his life. Shortly after we got married 8 years ago he started bow hunting. Bow hunting is much more difficult, you have to get much closer to the animal in order to shoot. That requires a lot more stealth, and more shooting skill. It took a couple of years for Cade to get good at shooting a bow and to acquire a good bow. But then he wasn't having any success.

Finally on August 31, 2013 he did it! I couldn't possibly tell the story anything like him, but here's the jist of it. (If you want actual details Cade would be more than happy to tell them to anyone.) He got a tip of where some big bucks were and tracked them down. One night the stars aligned and he got a shot at one, and killed it. He had been hunting by himself and shot it right as it was getting dark. He didn't have anything but his phone for light and wasn't able to find it. So he drove home and to the store for needed supplies and met back up with a hunting friend of his about 11 pm to find it. They did, gutted it, deboned it, cut it up, and returned home at 4 am.

Here is the beast.

 

Not bad at all for his first kill with a bow. His friend that helped him also co-owns a taxidermy shop so now Cade is paying big bucks to get this thing mounted. But don't worry, it won't make it past the garage. I don't need dead animals staring at me in my house.