Dear Dairy

One might look at the title to this one and think, "Kelli doesn't know how to spell." Well, that's true, however, I wrote that as a tribute to an assignment I had in elementary school. I must have been in 3rd or 4th grade and our teacher handed out a paper to each student for creative writing. It said, "Dear Diary," and the rest of it was full of lines for each student to write in their diary.

I got the paper and read it... "Dear Dairy..." "That's interesting," I thought. "We didn't go to a dairy but what the heck, I'll write to them and pretend we did and that it was a great experience." So, instead of writing to my diary, I wrote to the dairy. (I excelled in math, okay. Not spelling.)

I really feel like I run a dairy here. Almost every day I hook myself up to the breast pump and sit there while it pumps my milk so I can freeze it for Morgan. Every time Tom walks into the room I beller. Mooooooo!

Here are some pictures of Morgan having tummy time and bath time.

ready to walk

her neck muscles are getting strong

it looks like she's holding her head up with her arm and waiving with the other

Today is the day I turn over a new leaf and start eating healthily. I weighed myself -- 163.3. Twenty five pounds to my skinny jeans. I've started jogging and my mom got me Dance Dance Revolution for my birthday so I can exercise while I'm with Morgan. I'm going to write my progress and post pics like I did while I was pregnant. That way I won't forget my sacrifice (no cookie dough).

Happy Mother's Day!

Morgan turned two weeks last Friday. Her milestones are yellow poop, laughing in her sleep, eye contact (sometimes), sleeping for short periods in her bassinet, and, I think, recognizing her mommy.

She and Tom are buddies. He is already wrapped around her little finger.

Morgan sleeps very well in her swing (thanks Robb and Shell). I would put her in it at night but I want her to get used to her bassinet, then we'll transition to a crib.

We had some friends over yesterday for Mother's Day. We got a new bar-b-que grill (supposedly for Father's Day, but we'll see) so we wanted to try it out. It was awesome.

Anyway, here are a couple of cute pictures of Morgan with Carter and Brooklyn. Brooklyn was so cute with her. She kept touching her arm and her little toes.

Some other friends were going to come but couldn't find our house. Our phones were in our room so we didn't answer. Sorry again Tasha! Later on, Tasha did come over to see Morgan and bring her little baby, Kade. He is adorable. He was born prematurely and was in the NICU for a couple of weeks. He is getting big though and tops the scales at 9 pounds, making Morgan look tiny.

We took her to church yesterday for one hour. Some of the women thought we were crazy for taking her so soon. Honestly, I don't really know what is normal because this is my first time to be a mom. I feel fine though and she is doing well so we figured an hour at church wouldn't hurt. I ended up spending half of it in the mother's lounge feeding her. I did make it out for the mothers' gifts at the end of the program. My first time to get one that wasn't a sympathy gift!

Happy belated Mother's Day to all the mothers out there! I hope you had a great day.

We're really excited for our new ward. It is smaller that we're used to but the people are awesome. The Relief Society president is super cool. She is the type that is young and vivacious and claims that she never thought she'd be Relief Society president because she tried to live just below that line. I'm excited.

Here is a picture of Tom and Morgan playing and another of them resting.

P.S. We are going to be blessing her in Leamington (Utah, near Delta) on Father's Day. Sacrament always starts at 11:50 there. If you will be in the area, you are invited.

Pictures of Morgan

Morgan's first bath

Morgan and Mommy

Morgan and Daddy

Morgan and Aunt Shyanne

Morgan and Uncle Jackson

Welcome to the World, Morgan!

This has been the most action packed week of my life. To make this blog shorter I will do a timeline.

Wednesday, April 22 - Signed documents for purchase of new house.

Thursday, April 23 - Started moving boxes to new house. My boss, Cathy, and her family helped. Saw Monsters VS Aliens in 3D.

Friday, April 24 -

8:28 am - got up and went to bathroom for probably 5th time that morning.

8:29 - washed hands.

8:30 - water broke and dripped down legs. Told Tom and we stared at each other until 8:32.

8:32 - called my mom.

8:33 - took a shower.

8:40 - got dressed.

8:45 - blow dried and straightened hair.

9:00 - packed bag for hospital.

9:25 - went to new house to pick up car seat base that was moved the night before.

9:40 - went to McDonald's to get a fruit and yogurt parfait because we were told I should eat before going to hospital because I would get no food during labor.

9:41 - first strong contraction hit.

10:00 - arrived at St. Luke's Downtown Boise hospital and parked our car in "no parking."

10:01 - valet asked if we need car parked. Gave him keys.

10:03 - signed in at front desk of labor and delivery.

10:15 - got checked by nurse and hooked up to fetal monitors in triage room.

11:00 - got my own delivery room.

11:01 - asked for epidural.

12:00pm - started crying tears of pain because hadn't received epidural but was dilated to a 6 and 100% effaced.

12:01 - Tom left room to make someone give me an epidural.

12:30 - anaesthesiologist arrived to give epidural.

12:40 - felt really good.

1:45 - started pushing.

3:52 - felt her head with my hand.

3:54 - Morgan was born.

I absolutely love this picture. She is so cute!

She weighed 6 pounds 1 ounce and was 19 inches long. Her hair was light brown/silver with blond roots.

Today she is a week old and has captured her daddy's heart. Tom is so good with her. He's such a good dad and has found a new definition of love.

Alright, back to the timeline...

3:57 - got stitched up because I tore.

4:44 - tried to pee but couldn't.

4:45 - my parents, Jackson and Shyanne arrived.

5:15 - tried nursing with help of RN.

5:30 - overflowed the bag for a urine catheter.

5:35 - went to my room in the maternity ward.

8:30 - still couldn't pee so overflowed another bag while being cathed (I drink a lot). Sometime before midnight I finally was able to go so I didn't have to have a permanent catheter for my entire stay.

Saturday, April 25 - I spent the day with Morgan in the hospital while Tom, Robb (his bro from Green Bay who flew out around midnight to help), Adam, Dana (other brother and wife), my family, and a bunch of our awesome friends around Boise moved everything from our rental to our new house. It was so great. I had hired a couple of young women to clean the house first and they did on Friday. Then Cathy (my boss) arranged for the carpet cleaners and movers to help with the big stuff. I am so grateful and overwhelmed by the kindness and help that everyone has given to us during this time. I hope that we can repay all of you or at least pay it forward. Thank you!

Sunday, April 26 - Morgan and I came home to our new house. Adam and Dana went back to Salt Lake.

Monday, April 27 - Grandpa Doug, Aunt Shyanne and Uncle Jackson went home to Utah. My mom stayed, thank goodness. I couldn't have gone through this week with the fraction of sanity that I have without her. Robb took amazing pictures of Morgan (which I will be posting soon). Organized some things in the house.

Tuesday, April 28 - Robb left. Organized some things in the house. Went to American General to have my baby shower that was previously planned and introduced Morgan to my friends there.

Wednesday, April 29 - My birthday. Went out to eat at Pad Thai. Organized some things in the house.

Thursday, April 30 - Took Morgan to her doctor appointment. Everything is perfect except that she weighs 5 pounds 11 ounces. That was her weight when she left the hospital so the doctor wants to see her on Monday to make sure she is gaining. Organized some things in the house.

Now here we are. I am typing this while Morgan is in her bassinet. I'm trying to get her accustomed to it so she will sleep there during the night. I have a hard time putting her down at night. I just want to hold and cuddle her. I love her so much.

Thank you all who called/texted/wrote on facebook. I appreciate all the support and love you have shown us.

Full Term

I am now 37 weeks and considered full term. Yay! We went to the doctor again today. He said that I am dilated between a 2 and 3 and the baby has started to drop. It could be any day now or in four weeks.

We are supposedly closing on our house tomorrow at 4:30pm and we get the keys on Thursday. The baby has to stay in at least through the weekend so I can clean and get a little bit organized.

I'm getting a haircut tonight. Here are some pics of what I like. We'll see in a couple of hours how it turns out.

April Showers Bring May... Babies

We have such a great group of friends here. Yesterday Collette, Russell and Lindsey threw us a baby shower. Collette knew I didn't want the attention to be focused on me so we had a party where the guys were invited too.

We started out with a competition. The guys had a race to see who could eat a bottle of baby food and down a bottle of juice (through the nipple) first. The winner got a prize. Robbie won and Brandon took second. Tom was a close 3rd (maybe). It was so funny because they didn't get the yummy kinds of baby food like bananas and peach cobbler. They got garden vegetables and chicken and vegetables. They were all really good sports.

Everyone who wanted to got to decorate a onesie, then Tom and I judged them. First and second place got a prize. Tom and I also decorated our own. Tom's is the "Made In Idaho" onesie and mine is the tulips (that's about the extent of my drawing abilities).

The winners are "Mommy I have a present for YOU" and "Got Milk?"

We opened gifts then had Blimpie sandwiches, chips, fruit salad and cookies for lunch. It was so well done. Thanks you guys!

Tickets and Tulips

Here I am, awake in the middle of the night again. We went to Famous Dave's for dinner and it is taking a while to digest. I probably stuffed too much into a stomach that is already too squished.

We went to our 36 week appointment last Tuesday. Everything is still looking good. I'm dilated to a 2 and 70% effaced, which, I understand, means absolutely nothing.

Here is a picture of me sometime last week (35-36 weeks).

In other news, I got a speeding ticket the last Friday. I was on my way to work Friday (and on time for the first day that week) driving on a 40 MPH road with five lanes... you know, the type that should at least be 50. Anyway, I was going the speed I thought it should be (actually 51) and was the only one within a block. Therefore, the cop pulled me over. I gave him my Utah drivers' license and he gave me a ticket then said, "why don't you have an Idaho license? It's a misdemeanor to not have one." I explained that we don't have an address in Idaho until we close on our house so I can't. Then he told me to "try to have a better day." Thanks bud!

I'm not arguing that I deserve the ticket, I did. I've been speeding every day since we moved here and I finally got one.

When I got to work I called Tom to let him know. I tried to start with the good news that it was only $75 for going 11 over when in Utah it is about double (I think). He was laughing the "I'm a little bummed that the insurance is going to go up" laugh and I started to cry. He felt so bad that he called his mom to ask for advice. She told him to do something to make up for making me feel bad. A couple of hours later I got a bouquet of tulips with a card that read "I found myself speeding to find a way to make you feel better. I hope this is the ticket. Love, Tom." What a sweet heart. It did make me feel better and the clever card made me laugh. Thanks babe!