Trials & Blessings....

The last couple days have been some of the hardest of my life. On Thurs afternoon my mom and best friend passed away unexpectantly. It's still not completely real and hard to deal with, so i will explain more later. We believe she went peacefully though.

As the side of my blog says, I'm supposed to have a baby in 11 days. Because of the awful circumstaces my doctor and I felt it would be best to go ahead and induce labor rather than run the risk of going into labor on my own and missing my mothers funeral. Yesterday morning we were supposed to go in, but things got very busy and we weren't able to get started until 5 p.m. Things were slowly progressing for hours and I decided on an epidural, I haven't had nearly enough sleep to not have it. At about 12:50 a.m. I was checked and at a 4, about 5 min later I felt extreme pressure and the urge to push, sure enough.....fully dilated. I pushed 3 times and he was out. 6 lbs 12 oz, 18 inches long. We hve had a hard time naming him, but as soon as I saw him and knew we needed to call him Nathan. He has lots of hair and lots of similar features to Johnny. I also see a lot of my mom in him, and I think he kind of looks like one of her baby pictures. I had the strongest feeling while I pushed that my mom was right there with her arms around me, it didn't last long, but it was so comforting and gave me the strength to deliver.

Things will be very crazy for the next little while I'm sure, we'll be staying at my parents for the next couple weeks until things settle down. These pics were emailed to me, not sure who took them, but I'll have more soon.

Nathan Andrew Graves

Another Baby Update...

So, I went to the Dr. again today. They said it was my decision if I wanted to be checked or not, I said no because I haven't really had any contractions since last week so I don't really think anything has changed. He checked the baby's heart, which is good, and talked to Johnny who thought that the Dr. was going to give him fruit snacks. He's such a funny kid, I think he kind of understands why we go there but also wants the Dr. to pay attention to him. Luckily we have a nice Dr. who always makes Johnny feel included in the baby process.

My sister Emily came up a couple days ago to help out and let me get some rest. It's been nice, we got a lot cleaned up yesterday that I couldn't have done on my own, and I got to take a long nap. This morning I slept until 10:00! It was awesome, I don't think that's happened since Johnny was born. I really needed the help and the sleep, and Johnny's really enjoyed playing with his "Aunt Icky". I'm sad she has to go home tomorrow.

The Dr. says that since I'll be 38 weeks next week he's willing to help things along then, he'll strip the membranes and sometimes that can help start labor. They did this when I was pregnant with Johnny and it didn't help at all. But everyone's telling me that since this is my 2nd child it should make a difference and help this time. I hope so, I'd really like to have this baby a little early and not have to be induced. So, next week we'll see if I go into labor, keep your fingers crossed.

(Sorry if all this Dr. and pregnancy talk bothers or grosses anyone out.....)

So Uncomfortable!

No baby yet....this would still be a bit early though I guess. People say I'm not that big but I feel so huge, I can't stand to wear normal maternity pants, I just lounge around in yoga pants half the time. I was pretty uncomfortable with Johnny towards the end, but not like this time. This time I hurt everywhere, and I am exhausted all the time. The Dr. says it's because of the position baby's in, but that his position will help make delivery faster. I'm hoping he's right.

We haven't done too much lately because I'm so uncomfortable, just a lot of sitting around and watching movies. Johnny wants to play outside all the time so I try to get out with him once a day at least. He loves playing with bubbles and chalk in the back yard. Today Davie was home early and we got to have a picnic at the park. Johnny had so much fun playing on all the toys with his Daddy. We have some new pics of Johnny, I just need to upload them, watch for em on the next post......

Baby Update

Well I went to the Dr today. Things are looking good, they did one last ultrasound, the baby's measuring great, they estimate that he is 6-6.5 pounds right now, so he may be a big baby like Johnny was depending on when he comes. This one also has hair! They could see quite a bit in the ultrasound, so that's fun, Johnny's could be seen in his last ultrasound also. They said this baby is sitting a lot lower than they were expecting at this point, which is good for me, less pushing when I deliver! The contractions I had the other night didn't do much unfortunately, only dilated 1 cm and 50% effaced. But, I'm not going to worry about it and stress myself out, I did that with Johnny and it made the last month drag on forever. I'm just going to be happy with what they say and know that this baby will come when he's ready. I'm hoping to go naturally this time and not get an epidural. I was induced with Johnny and broke down pretty early, but I hear if your not induced it's a bit easier to go without the epidural. Anyways, next week I'm officially considered full term, so hopefully sometime soon after that baby will make his appearance, Johnny keeps asking for baby to come out, so I'm hoping that he really is excited and happy when he comes.

3 Years & Labor? Warning...long post....

Yesterday was our 3 year anniversary. Sometimes I can't believe it's been that long, other times it seems longer.....I'm so glad I've got such a great husband though. He is such a hard worker and is always putting his family first, I really appreciate him.

A lot's happened in the last 3 years for us. We've lived in Chicago, Salt Lake, Stockton, Burbank, and Logan. We've moved 7 times! Crazy! 5 of those times I've been pregnant. Davie's worked for 5 different companies. We had our first baby, and our second is on the way. We bought a condo. We went from being able to fit almost everything we owned into my little chevy cavalier to actually having furniture. We've paid off all debt! Yay! (hoping to keep it that way) It just seems like a lot for 3 years, and we've had our really hard times too, but it's exciting to see how far we've come since we were first married.

We couldn't really do much for our anniversary since I'm so pregnant now, but we wanted to at least go on a date alone. Some friends babysat Johnny for us. We went to a movie, that's about all you can do when you're this big.....we saw Wolverine, it was really good. I know a movie sounds boring to some, but we don't see movie's too often now that we have a kid, so it was fun for us to get out and see something on the big theater screen. During the movie I started having really strong contractions. I kept thinking they'd go away, but they kept getting closer and stronger. When the movie was over we went out to eat, but I told Davie we may have to call it short and go to the hospital because the contractions were not going away and kept getting even worse. We ended up getting our food to go and calling the hospital. The lady I spoke to wasn't very nice and told me it was too early to have my baby. Well, I know that 4 weeks early isn't great, but there's nothing I could do if he was coming. She basically said if I wanted to come in I could, but I probably was making myself have the contractions from too much activity earlier in the day. Well, I sat on my couch and folded laundry all day, then went to a movie with my husband, so I guess that's too much activity? Anyways, I decided that even though the contractions hurt, I didn't want to have to deal with that lady if I did have to go to the hospital. So we picked up Johnny and came home, my mom called the hospital down by her and they actually had some good suggestions. So, I took their advice and took a warm bath, drank thirty-something ounces of water within an hour, and took 2 extra strength tylenol, and then laid down. About an hour and a half later, when I was about to give in and go to the hospital, the contractions finally slowed down and eventually stopped. So, I went through about 5 hours or so of false labor last night. I'm glad our baby didn't come this early, although in a couple weeks I don't think I'd mind so much. It's just really frustrating when it feels like you're in labor and the people at the hospital are really rude to you.

So, our anniversary didn't turn out quite as planned, but we still had fun hanging out together and getting out of the house. We ate our "take out" dinner at about 11 because of all the drama, and finally gave eachother our gifts. Davie got me a great gift, I get to go have a pedicure at a spa here in town. That's perfect for me because I can't even reach my toes right now! I can't wait to go in!

We have a Dr. appointment thurs where we'll find out if the contractions have done anything and if he thinks we'll have the baby early or not, so we'll keep people posted, but as for now, a whole lot of pain last night and no baby.

Vinyl Open House!

I'm having an open house at my place this sat from 4-9. My friend is bringing her vinyl machine and can custom make vinyl for you on the spot. Feel free to bring friends and family. It's going to be later because she has work that morning, but please drop by. She recently started her own vinyl business and needs help spreading the word, she has great prices and does a great job. If you need directions leave a comment or give me a call. Hope to see everyone there!

Fun at the park.

Johnny and I went to the park with some friends yesterday and he had a blast! I love the park we went to. It has an area just for toddlers and it was the perfect size for Johnny, he could climb all the toys in that area himself without me having to follow him or worry about him falling off. He loved the swings and slide especially. He was having too much fun to look at me in the pics.

New Bed!

With the new baby coming in about 6 weeks we decided it was about time to get a bed for Johnny. Since we're having another boy and our place isn't too big we decided to go ahead and get a bunk bed for when they're in the same room someday. I still need to decorate Johnny's "big boy" room, and also finish decorating the baby's room, but Johnny picked out a bedspread for his bed. It's so cute! Here are some pics.

I still need to find a bedspread for the top bunk, we're just putting some plain sheets and a blanket on for now, maybe we'll let the baby choose what bedspread he'd like when he's older.

Johnny fell asleep so fast for his nap today. I'm really suprised, he's actually sleeping in the bed, I thought that since he could actually get out of it that he would play with his toys and fall asleep on the floor, or come bang on the door and try to get out. Last night he cried a few times but never got out of bed, he just called to us and after we'd come give him hugs he went back to sleep. I hope the adjustment stays this easy, I was really dreading it.

Easter!!!

This year we stayed home for Easter. We had a pretty busy weekend. On saturday we went to the American West Heritage Center for Baby Animal Days. Johnny had so much fun! They had tons of baby animals for the kids to pet and play with. Johnny got to ride a pony (Jig-jog, as he calls it). (I promise that makes sense if you're a Graves) His favorite thing was the snakes! I couldn't believe it. He actually touched a huge yellow python! It was so gross, he kept wanting to go back and play with the snakes more. We weren't completely prepared for the day and forgot our camera at home, but we did get a couple pics on our phones, they just aren't the best quality. (Pictures coming soon....)

Later that day we dyed Easter eggs. Johnny had fun with this, but didn't understand why he couldn't stick his hands in the dye. He was excited when the eggs were finished though and they were all cool colors.

Our finished eggs. We woke up very late Easter morning and had to rush to get to church, but Johnny got to look in his basket and play a little during breakfast. He got a Spiderman book and puzzle, some bath toys, a bubble wand, and some fruit snacks. He was pretty excited about all of it. Davie picked out a policeman toy set for his basket for he and Johnny to play with, Johnny was having lots of fun with it until he broke the gun last night. (I'm actually ok with that though.)

Johnny playing with the cop set.After church we came home and I made ham for dinner, it was ok but it didn't really feel like Easter dinner to me, I guess it's better when you aren't the one cooking it. We had a fun Easter weekend though, Johnny had tons of fun and keeps talking about all the animals he saw Saturday.

Easter Egg Hunt.

We went down to Clinton and Salt Lake to visit our families this weekend before it gets too hard for me to travel. Johnny had a blast with all his aunts and uncles and everyone. The whole way home he would ask for them and why they were "buh-bye".

This morning he got to do an Easter Egg hunt with his cousins at Davie's parents house. They were so cute running around finding the eggs. Johnny got pretty into it and excited for his first time, he was very focused and thorough checking the yard for eggs. Here are some cute pictures we got.

Johnny finding his first egg.

Johnny and Tommy checking the basketball court for eggs.

Cousin Emma showing us how many she found.

Johnny was too busy looking for more eggs and wouldn't smile for me.

Cousin Liam showing us his 2 eggs he found. He blinked right as I snapped the pic, he's so cute.

Goofy Kid!

Johnny found this hat when we were sorting through clothes for the baby. He kept putting it on and making goofy faces and just being silly. I had to take pics and share them.