2 months old!

On Monday, October 8th, Tacy turned 2 months old!  I cannot believe that she is already that old and that Brad and I have been parents for that long.  The week before I measured her and she was 23 inches long and weighed 11 pounds!  She is getting so big, but mostly I feel that she is just getting really long.  She has a doctor appointment this Monday so we will see what her percentages are.

Tacy said "Hi" to me on Wednesday night!  It was pretty exciting.  She also said "oh dad" on thursday.  Granted I really don't think that she knows what she is saying and is just baby babble, but the Hi was very clear and she said it to me while smiling at me.  She said "oh dad" when Brad and I were changing her diaper I think.  But it's still cute when her baby babble sounds like actual words!  

Crazy nap hair!

Now that she is 2 months old Tacy likes bath time a little more.  She will at least only cry when she first gets in the water and then she calms down and starts to smile.  

Tacy is talking a lot, in my opinion at least.  She loves to babble and it's so cute.  

She can roll over, but she only does it when she really wants to.  She rolled over 15 times one night.  But then there are other days where she refuses to roll over.  She also will sometimes just roll onto her side and stay that way and never go onto her back.

Ready for Halloween!

Tacy now cries if she has a poopy diaper, she did not do this before.

She still makes lots of funny faces, but she smiles a lot more at us.  However, she has not yet laughed when she is awake, only in her dreams.

Tacy wakes up at 8am almost every day.  She still isn't sleeping through the night but she has started to sleep for longer periods (4-5 hours).  Unfortunately for us she fights sleep now at night so even though she is tired she will cry and we have to rock her, bounce her, etc to try and coax her to sleep.

Tacy sits in her bumbo now and doesn't mind it as long as it is not for very long.  But just like with rolling over, she is only good about holding her head straight up when she wants to.  She tends to lean over when she sits in the bumbo and will sometimes put her arms up on the side like an arm rest which is really cute.

chilling in her bumbo

When Tacy is mad, she stretches her body out (emphasizing how long she is) like she is trying to stand and will be stiff like that until she gets what she wants (usually food).

Overall Tacy is a very happy baby still.  It is so fun that she gets to spend every day with her Aunt Jody and cousin Grant because I think she and Grant are getting to be close.  She was crying one day and Grant reached over and rested his hand on her like he was trying to comfort her (Grant is 5 months older than Tacy).  Also, Granted started rolling across the room when he wanted to get close to Tacy.  The second time that he crawled, it was to get to Tacy.  Now if she is on the floor and with him, he will start crawling for her.  It's cute, but we have to protect Tacy a little because Grant is still working on trying to be soft.

With Mommy

As for me, school is going good but getting crazy.  I started my clinical rotations this week.  I was really scared to actually be caring for patients (I know, silly when that is what I want to do for my career).  But they went great even though all I really did was pass medications, check a blood sugar, give insulin shots, and helped toilet a patient.  Exciting I know.  But now with clinicals, we only have Monday, Tuesday, and Friday for lecture.  So we have a test or quiz and an assignment due almost every class day.  Fun!!!

Other than all that, life is good, and we are staying very busy.

Tacy and Daddy

One Month

Our sweet little Tacy is one month old today. Can you believe it because we sure can't!  We love her so much and think that she is the cutest baby in the world.  Here are some of the things Tracy does right now:

Tacy hiccups. She hiccupped a lot in utero but she still has whole body hiccups. I feel bad for her but its kind of funny too. Unless of course its the middle of the night and then the hiccups wake her up. Her aunt Christine calls her Hiccup (from how to train your dragon).

She makes all sort of faces and is such a poser with her face and hands.

Tacy loves to have her hands by her face.  It can make feeding her hard sometimes when she won't move her hands away from her face.

She has really strong arms.  When she locks her fingers together it is hard to get her arms apart.

She has a very strong neck and loves to swing her head back and shake it like crazy.

Tacy laughs in her sleep and we think she has some crazy dreams because she will have a big smile on her face and then a huge frown and then the maddest face.

If Tacy is ever mad and crying you just have to start smacking her back like you are burping her and she gets happy again.

We love our sweet baby.

"How do you do it?!"

Sweet Tacy doing some tummy time

Five days after having my baby I started nursing school.  It was a good thing I had her early because otherwise she would have been born during school and I would have missed a lot and been behind, which was a big concern for me and the instructors.

Well, having a baby and starting school right away had not exactly been a cake walk either.  The night before school started I was an emotional wreck.  I was crying uncontrollably and freaking out and paranoid about being a bad mom and failing school.  Brad thank goodness is amazing and calmed me down and gave me a blessing.  The first day of school went okay.  The program director was happy to hear that I was healthy, that my baby was healthy, and that we no longer had to worry about me missing school to have a baby.  My nursing class has 40 total students, 5 guys and 35 women.  I'd say about half of the students are parents.  We all had to go around and say a bit about ourselves and why we wanted to be nurses.  Well, telling everyone that I had a baby 5 days previous has made me very memorable.  I had girls coming up to me asking "How are you doing this?" or "You are amazing I don't know how you are doing this!" 

They are all very nice and ask me every day how my baby is doing.  I was ready to quit after the first day of class though.  When they went through the schedule and how fast the program moves and how demanding it is, I was ready to quit.  Brad once again calmed me down and assured me that I could do this.  I survived the first week, even with minimal sleep because Tacy woke up every hour some nights.  The next Sunday night I had another breakdown though.  I had a test the next day and was freaking out because I had not been able to study as much as I would have liked and didn't know how I could manage school and being a mom.  Brad calmed me down again (see how lucky I am to have him?).  

I passed my test the next day.  I can thank my husband and family for helping me by watching Tacy so I could study.  When I have homework or studying to do, there is usually someone I can pass her off to.  Other than the crazyness of balancing school and baby, I have been having a hard time being able to rely solely on breastfeeding.  My doctor said that even with pumping, it's probably just all of the crazy stress/life that I have right now with my crazy schedule.  Granted, formula does help so Brad can get up and feed Tacy at night, or family can feed her while I'm studying, but I wish breastfeeding satisfied her enough because formula is expensive.  Oh well, I keep doing my best and hoping that fenugreek helps. 

On the plus side, I have been doing well in school and actually got a 98 on my test today, which is pretty awesome.  We will see how it goes, but hopefully I can survive this crazy time with a sane mind.  One good thing about my schedule is I have no time for postpartum depression because school keeps me occupied when I'm not home with the baby.

We Have a Baby

For those of you who haven't heard, our daughter was born on 8/8/12 at 6:50am.  Here is the story.  So I went in for my last ultrasound on Tuesday, 8/7, and at the ultrasound they did an amniocentesis. Well the nurses told us that the baseline for lung development was 50. Our baby was 208 so her lungs were really ready. My doctor then called me and told me to go to labor and delivery at 6 that evening to be induced.

So I went back to work and Brad was shadowing one of my PAs for the day.  Everyone told me I was crazy for working instead of going home but I needed to stay busy.  Well 6pm finally came so I said bye to all my coworkers and Brad and I headed to the hospital.  After checking in and getting situated in our room, my nurse was hooking up all the monitors that checked baby's heart rate and my contractions.  She then told me, "did you know that you are having contractions every 2-6 minutes?" I told her no but my back had been bothering me that day. Brad and my nurse laughed when she told me that was contractions. I was still only dilated to a 2 so my doctor said they should still give me pitocin. By the time the IV was started I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes.  My nurse said that if I hadn't come in to be induced that I would have been coming in anyways to have the baby.

Well by 10:30 I was almost completely effaced but only dilated to a 4. So my nurse called my doctor and she asked a resident to come break my water.  Well the resident came in and said that he thought he got it.  My nurse didn't think so because of the lack of fluid but he said he was pretty sure.  Well I stayed dilated to a 4.  The pain was getting worse and worse from the contractions so finally I got the epidural.  Man alive I was in heaven.  I could finally sleep and no longer wanted to punch my nurse very time she did a cervix check.  I think Brad was happier to because I was more pleasant.  

Right after getting the epidural and feeling pretty good

Well by 4am I was still only dilated to a 4 so my nurse called my doctor and they decided to have my nurse break my water.  Well 2 hours dilated I was fully dilated and effaced so my doctor came and after a little pushing and the help of a vacuum our sweet baby was here.

Because I'm diabetic the hospital had to monitor the baby's blood sugar for 24 hours because babies of diabetics can have blood sugar issues since they are used to compensating for their mom's highs and lows.  Well our baby girl had a blood sugar of 23.  This is way low and Brad was not happy that the nurses seemed to be really slow at feeding our baby.  Come to find out babies blood sugar runs lower than adults and 50 can be considered normal.  Well our baby's blood sugar got up to normal. We spent 2 days in the hospital and I had a lot of great nurses and cnas.

5 days after having her I started school.  Everyone was pretty shocked that I had my baby already and that I was at school.  I'm crazy that's for sure but what are you gonna do.  Our daughter is perfect and healthy.  School is hard.  Doing both is harder but I have an amazing husband who helps a lot.  So now I'm learning to function on almost no sleep.

Effaced is a Funny Word

I have started my goodbyes at work and it's hard.  I have been working at the same place for over 3.5 years so this is crazy to be leaving.  Tuesday was the last day I worked with John, one of the two PAs (physician assistants) that I work closely with.  I did not realize it until halfway through the day when one of the other girls, Halee, reminded me.  I forgot again until right when John was asking if we (Holly who is replacing me and myself) had any questions for him before he left.  He was walking away and I shouted, "John!  Today is our last day working together!"  John came back and was like, "What!  You didn't give me enough warning to cry!"  It was sad, I really have liked working with John, he is so chill, funny, and easygoing.  

Today I had to say goodbye to Garrett, one of the psychologists, who has been with the company just a little longer than me.  Garrett is great.  He got me through a lot of stressful times because he is such a good listener and friend.  Garrett showed me that psychologists don't have to be stiff like in the movies.  He is also absolutely hilarious.

Next week I get to say my last goodbyes and it will be hard.  I have worked with a lot of great people, it has been a good job, and I have had a lot of good experiences there.  I have also said bye to a lot of great patients.  Now, there are definitely patients that I wanted to shout hooray when they left and I knew I would never see them again.  Just like after some phone calls/patients and I would be so mad/frustrated/done I just had to remind myself that I just had a few more days to go.  

Other than my goodbyes I have already done and still have coming, I have been busy with doctor appointments.  I had 3 just today, a non-stress test (NST), my OB, and the diabetes clinic.  General consensus is that I'm doing great.  Because of the timing of my school starting, I asked my OB if instead of waiting until 8/20 to induce me (which is a Monday), if we could possibly start the Friday before so that Brad wouldn't miss a lot of work and I didn't miss a lot of school.  My doctor told me that I can have an amniocentesis on Tuesday, when I see Maternal Fetal Medicine, and if my baby's lungs are fully developed then she would be fine inducing me next week.  Crazy!  On top of this, I had my first cervix check and amazingly I am already dilated to 1.5-2cm and 70% effaced.  I was shocked by this because I have felt no contractions (at least that I am aware of).  My doc said that this is good because it means they would probably just give me pitocin to get contractions started.

So craziness.  Now I have a bunch to make sure is ready just in case the doctors decide to induce me next week.  Exciting, nerve wracking, and all that.  I have been especially putting off getting stuff ready for the hospital cause I have no idea what I need.  I will take any suggestions, in the mean time I am just going to grab a few things, go to the store to get stuff we still need, and start reading my fat nursing text book.  

The Waiting Game

Well, life has been interesting lately.  I'm training my replacement at work.  So far we have had 3 days together and she can room patients and do vitals pretty well.  I showed her how to use our scheduling system and have had her listen to my phone calls, but I need to let her try and schedule people.  Then I will let her take nurse calls.  Then I'm supposed to help her with authorizations, indexing, etc.  Oh boy, only 3 weeks to do it all.  I'm just a little worried.

I have now had three non-stress tests.  So far so good.  The nurses always tell me that the baby is doing well and her heart rates is good and healthy.  My test this Thursday I had a nurse who I wanted to slap.  While watching the baby's heart rate, she started to talk to me about names we liked.  I told her we like Tacy.  The nurse says "Tasie is interesting, I have never heard that before."  It bugs me when people hear the name wrong, she even had me spell it for her.  Then she tells me "It's a cute name for a little girl, but what about when she is older?"  Oh my goodness, if I did not have a bunch of monitors attached to me...I mean seriously, this nurse works in periantology where she works with lots of pregnant women and she criticizes baby names!  It pissed me off to say the least.  She then went on about how I could use a grandma's name for the middle name, so at least there is a more adult name option.  I stopped talking at that point.  I just wanted her to leave me alone.  Thank goodness during these tests they are only watching my baby's heart rate and not mine, cause I would have failed miserably.

Thursday night my mother-in-law through me a baby shower.  It was nice and we got more clothes, some towels, burp clothes, car stuff, and a glider.  My mother-in-law also sewed a really cute diaper bag for me.  Now that all the baby showers are done, I just want to get everything organized and ready.  But I can't.  Why?  Because we are waiting for the room to be available.  

So we live in a basement and currently use one bedroom, a bathroom, and the living area down here.  But there is a second bedroom.  Brad's parents said that we can use the second bedroom for the baby.  After measuring and everything, Brad thinks the second bedroom would work better for us because the space would be more accommodating for our stuff and sleeping baby.  So then we would use our current bedroom for her nursery.  Problem is, the second bedroom is still full of his sister's stuff, stuff she left behind when she went to college, got married, and now lives in an apartment with her husband and baby.  Stuff she apparently wants to keep, but is not important enough to take with her.

Brad's mom has said she will clean up the room.  Brad is ready to throw all of his sister's stuff in boxes, and he tells me he would not care to be nice to it all because she hasn't done anything with it for 4 years.  My hesitation with his plan is that there is a ton of stuff, a desk full of crap, picture boards, and a full closet.  

So we are waiting, and waiting, and waiting.  It is driving me crazy because I want to feel more ready for this baby.  We still don't have a crib, which Brad's parents are buying, but they are waiting for a sale...Oiy, the baby is going to come and we will still be in the same room, with nothing for her to sleep in, no dresser set up yet, and all of her clothes in bins stored in the storage room.  This is my nightmare.  I'm sure it won't come to this, especially since Brad gets more and more frustrated with it all and if it comes to it he really will just toss everything in boxes so we can move our stuff in.  I just hate waiting.

In the mean time, I'm also trying to get ready for nursing school.  I called up the program director with a few questions and in the process she told me that she is really worried about me having a baby and being able to keep up.  I wanted to scream!  I spoke with her in May about me being pregnant and she was all optimistic and saying they could work with me.  Now she tells me she is worried and sounds all pessimistic about the situation.  Just another irritation to my life.  Thank goodness Brad can calm me down.  So now I will be calling her again and seeing if I can go meet with her and go over this whole thing since she has changed her tune and her optimism in May was the whole reason we decided I could do this: newborn and nursing school.  So much fun.  

One day we will be ready for the baby and one day everything with school and having a baby will be worked out.  Until then, I just have to keep my cool and wait patiently (ok I try and wait patiently).

Prayer for Rain

The news last night said that Utah has already had 450+ fires that have burned more than 250,000 acres so far this year/summer.  That is ridiculously high.  It does not help that we had not had measurable water for 38 days.  So May/June were extremely dry. 

The fourth of July really had me worried because of this.  I was worried the whole state would be in flames from fireworks.  Our stake fasted/prayed for rain to come.  I hear that people have been praying for rain all over Utah.  

Well the fourth we went to the Kaysville City parade and luckily had seats under a tree, so it was not too bad temperature wise.  The bands and dance squads sure made my baby girl move a lot.  Meanwhile our nephew was passed out through it all.  The boys (Brad, Eric, and Sam - Kimber's bf) got in a lovely water fight at the end of the parade when the fire trucks all drive by and spray the crowd down and everyone still hanging around shoots people with water guns or water balloons.  Some people got a little upset with Brad, Eric and Sam's water balloon bombarding so they came charging after them.  I got a little wet from that.

After the parade we all drove up the canyon and the boys and Kimber floated down the Weber while Brad's mom, Jody, Christine, 4 month old Grant, and I drove along and watched them.  Then we had a nice BBQ.  At night Brad and I just watched the neighbor shoot off fireworks, but they were a little scary cause some of them would go haywire and come shooting sideways instead of up.  I really thought the tree was going to burn down, or me for that matter.

Well, Thursday morning Brad and I were leaving for work and we saw that it was drizzling.  By 10am it was raining pretty good in Orem and it did so until about 2pm.  It was awesome.  It was actually a little cold, smelled like rain, and was exactly what we needed.  Apparently the whole state got moisture which is exactly what Utah needed.  Thank goodness for rain and prayers being answered!  Plus, what better day to rain than the day after the fourth of July?