Breaking Point!

I've been stuck in the house for 5 - count that - 5 days! I haven't done my hair or make up for 5 days either. I came down with the stomach flu on Friday and it was still lingering on Saturday. Then, Emery came down with it on Sunday (after she puked all over me, the kitchen floor, the kitchen sink and herself) and she's still fighting it. She seemed to be better yesterday, but today she said, "my bum is throwing up". Gross, I know, but it's how she said it and I think it's cute (not the actual act of it, but how she described it).

I am not a home body. I have to get out of the house EVERY SINGLE DAY. I go to either Target or Wal Mart literally 3-4 times per week just to get out of the house. I was doing ok with being stuck in the house up until today. To be honest, I was either sick or taking care of Emery so I didn't even think much of it.

Well, after Emery seemed to be doing better all day yesterday, I decided we would go to the Aquarium today for a couple of hours. I was so excited. Once I realized she was still sick today and we couldn't leave the house, I started to feel the pressure inside me. I then made a small grocery list and decided we would do a quick trip to Target. Then, I had the idea to go to Smith's Marketplace instead - the honest reason was just so I could drive further and be out of the house just a little bit longer.

As the day went by and Emery's "bum was throwing up" more and more, reality set in that 1) I shouldn't take her out of the house and 2) I shouldn't risk giving someone else what we have. By 5p, I was counting down the time until Ivan would be home. I even started thinking that I would go to Smiths Marketplace after he got home - at 930p. Then Ivan texted me that he was going to his friends after school and I almost started crying. I needed out of the house! I needed a break.

I have been a 100% full time MOM for 4 weeks and counting. I have had one 3 hour break from both girls to go to dinner with my girlfriends. By the way, Ivan struggled with the one 3 hour time frame that he took care of both girls - he just doesn't get it.

Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying being home, but it starts to hit you when you pretty much do 99% of the care taking for 2 kids and 99% of the middle of the night feedings for a newborn. I'm still keeping up on the laundry and shopping to top it all off. I have been taking Emery to Grandma Lola's a few times a week and Paisley once a week so I have gotten a break from having both of them 100% of the time.

So needless to say, I've hit my breaking point. I had already made plans for Grandma Lola to watch Paisley while I took Emery to the Children's Museum on Thursday. Well, once I hit my breaking point, we had a change of plans. Grandma Lola will now be watching both Emery and Paisley and Mama is getting a well deserved break. In fact, I'm getting a massage and then going to sit at Sanctuary for as long as I would like in their relaxation room. I think I'm going to take a few magazines I've been meaning to read and just RELAX! I now have some ME time to look forward to and I already feel better.

Now I'm off to feed sweet Paisley. I wouldn't change it for the world, but inside I am counting down the hours until I get my massage and ME time.

The Witches at Gardner Village

We headed out to Gardner Village today to see the witches and had a great time. The weather was perfect!

Duncan, Quinlan and Emery
Here's a picture just to show what you get when you try to get the "perfect" shot with three kids between the ages of 2 to 4 I was feeling guilty for never taking pictures of Paisley on our outings so here she is sleeping peacefully in her car seat.Then I decided I wanted pictures with her so I dared to take the sleeping baby out of her car seat. I wasn't sure if I would regret it later or not but to me, the pictures and memories was worth it. I got lucky and she went back to sleep as soon as she got back into her car seat and snuggled away with her blanket and binky. We seriously have the best babies (I hope I didn't just jinx myself)Grandma Phyllis and PaisleyThe whole gang..

Family Zoo Day

We headed out to the zoo on Sunday and it was seriously the best zoo trip I have ever had. We had great company, great weather and the animals were all out and playing. We left Paisley with Grandma Lola because I was a little unsure of the weather and so that we could focus 100% on Emery.

First, we had brunch at Ruth's Diner - it was so yummy! Emery even asked for more of their awesome biscuits and jam. It's very rare for Emery to ask for more of anything.
All day long Emery was asking to see the giraffe's. I never knew she was so into giraffes until this trip to the zoo. Of course, once we got to see them, she was all about the train ride. She looked at the giraffe for about 30 seconds and then said, "ok, let's keep looking".Emery loves carousels as I'm sure most kids do. The last time she rode one was at the fair about a month ago. When the carousel at the fair first started, Emery was holding on for dear life to every inch of my body she could hold on to. This time, she kept pushing my hands away from her. She told me to go ride the animal next to me. It's amazing how much she's growing up and how quickly she is changing.
Don't you wish you could sleep on one thin rope like this?
Family picture on the train
Playground time!!!

The Aquarium

The girls and I went to the Aquarium last week with my Mom and Quinlan. Emery and Quinlan have a great time playing together and by the end of the day, they were holding hands and inseparable. We didn't get any pictures of Paisley - she just slept in her car seat the entire time we were there.
Here is a cute picture of Emery and Paisley. You can't see Paisley's face very well as she was at the end of some tummy time and her neck was getting tired from holding her head up.

Moon Dough

Emery's favorite show right now is Max & Ruby. She gets to watch a few episodes a day and has taken a liking to every single toy advertised on the commercials - she says "Mama, I want that" to everything - even commercials for hotels. Anyway, she's been saying that she wants Moon Dough for about a month now.

I finally broke down and bought it for her. I actually bought it a week ago and had it hidden until Ivan or I actually had a good amount of time to sit down and play with her. It's sad that I'm not working and the Moon Dough sat hidden for several days because we were too busy to sit and play with it for an hour or so.

The other day, I opened the cupboard to get some apple juice out (assuming Ivan put the apple juice in front of the hidden Moon Dough) and Emery spotted the Moon Dough (the apple juice was behind the Moon Dough - don't as me why??). She got so excited and it went a little like this:

"Moon Dough!!!"
"Mama - Moon Dough!!"
"Mama - thank you for buying me Moon Dough - did you buy it from Target?"
"Mama, let's play Moon Dough. This is so exciting"

Now, I wasn't really planning on playing Moon Dough. My intent was for Ivan to play Moon Dough with her since I knew it would be messy and I tend to focus more on the mess than the fun at hand. I had also been trying to get to the store for 3 days to do some grocery shopping but Emery was so excited I couldn't turn down her request to play it. So, needless to say, we sat and played with the Moon Dough and Emery was on cloud 9 for the rest of the day.

Paisley's 2 Week Check Up

We went in to see Dr. Ring for Paisley's two week check up yesterday. She is doing great and growing like a weed.

Weight - 8 lbs - 40th percentile
Height - 20 3/4 inches - 70th percentile

Most babies get back to their birth weight by two weeks and Paisley surpassed her birth weight by half a pound. We think she is going to be a lot bigger than Emery, although that isn't very hard to do with how petite Emery is.

Paisley is eating 4 oz bottles (hence the weight gain) every 3-4 hours. She's a very happy baby and very sleepy. It seems like she's always sleeping, eating or pooping but I guess that's exactly what newborns should be doing. She's sleeping really good at night as well - most nights only waking up 1-2 times - yay for sleep time for Mama!

A Day in the Life of Emery ..

First off ... helping Mama wash bottles for baby sister Paisley ..
Enjoying a big cookie after breakfast..Face painting at Oktoberfest ..A quick nap on the ride home from Oktoberfest .. What a life this little girl has.

Is this a Sign of What's to Come?

Emery was in our room last night watching Max and Ruby before bed. I went in to check on her and this is how I found her - in Paisley's Pack N Play, on the sleep positioner, covered up with Paisley's blanket. I'm surprised she didn't have the binky in her mouth too. I hope this isn't a sign of what is to come and that we will be in trouble soon.

In other news, I forgot what is involved with a newborn. Yesterday afternoon I went through 3 diapers in one diaper change - Paisley kept pooping every time I got a new diaper on her. I can't believe how many diaper changes I do in one day.

We went to the Aquarium today for a couple of hours to get out of the house. It took me 2 hours and 15 minutes from the time I got into the shower to the time we all finally were in the car. Before Paisley came along, Emery and I could be completely ready and in the car in an hour - crazy how one little one adds on an extra hour + to your routine (remember all those diaper changes I just mentioned).

8 Day Update

I can't believe Paisley has been with us for 8 days already. It seems like time is flying by. Ivan took 6 workdays off of work and it was wonderful having him home. He was a huge help and it was tough adjusting to him being gone from 8a to 930p tonight since he had school after work. When Ivan left for work this morning, Emery said to me, "why you no go to work today?" I think she's starting to catch on that I haven't gone to work for several days now. I'm worried about how the transition will be when I do go back to work in 9 weeks.

I was a little nervous about my first day alone with both girls but it went great. It does seem like my days fly by though. I can't remember what I did with all of my time before this.

Emery is still doing great with Paisley. She asks about her "baby sister" all of the time and wants to help with everything from washing bottles to changing diapers with me. She does say "ewww disgusting" and plugs her nose at every diaper change whether they are poopy or not. Emery also does a great job of shhing Paisley when she starts crying.

Paisley has been a wonderful baby. She basically spends all of her time sleeping, eating or pooping - just as you would expect an 8 day old baby to be doing. She's sleeping for 4-5 hour stretches at night which is also nice.

Here is Emery dancing to the Cruella De Vil song from 101 Dalmatians. She is obsessed with the movie and after it's over, we play the Cruella De Vil song about 15 times over and over while Emery sings to it. We really need to get a video camera so we can document exactly how she sings and dances to the song - it's too cute!



On Ivan's last day at home with us, we went to Murray park for an hour to play. Emery loved dragging Ivan around the playground to play with her. Ivan is such a good dad and always does what it takes to be sure Emery has a good time.
Miss Paisley



Is this not the cutest thing you have ever seen? Paisley sucking on her thumb! Prescious ..

Introducing Paisley Marie

The story:

I was due Monday, 9/20 but as of my last Dr appt on 9/14, I hadn't been having any contractions or signs of labor coming. So, Dr Quinn and I scheduled an induction for Wednesday, 9/22. I was completely planning on having the baby on Wednesday. I was planning on going to work Monday, 9/20 and had a fun day of events planned for Emery and I on Tuesday, 9/21. Baby Paisley had a much different plan.

Monday, 9/20, my alarm went off at 4a so I could get up and get ready for work. I snoozed the alarm a couple of times and thought I was having contractions. I was immediately stressed - I was not ready to have a baby! I figured weather I was going to work or having a baby, I would get up and get ready for the day so I hopped in the shower. The entire time getting ready I kept having contractions so I figured it was best to go to the hospital. I woke Ivan up at 5:45a and told him I was in labor. He wasn't ready to have the baby yet either!

I hadn't packed a bag for Emery or wrapped her "present" from her little sister. So, in the middle of contractions at 530a, I was packing her bag and wrapping presents. When I went into Emery's room to pack, she woke up, sat up and said to me, "Mama, what are you doing in my room? Get out, I'm trying to sleep". Someone has some attitude.

We got to the hospital at 7a and I was only 2 centimeters. My contractions were 2 minutes apart. I started in the triage room and nurse was taking down all of the information and watching my contractions to see if I would stay or be sent home. By that point, I had committed to having the baby and told her I wasn't going home. At 730a, my water broke and that sealed the deal - we would be staying. She moved me into an official labor and delivery room and I started asking for the epidural. My thought is that if I know I am going to have an epidural, why go through any pain. Once again, baby had another idea. The nurse tried twice to get the IV in and wasn't successful (I have a nice, huge nasty bruise on my left hand to show it) so she called the anesthesiologist in to place the IV. She then asked him about the epidural so he stayed and gave me the epidural around 830a. The nurse checked me again and I was dilated to a 5 - that was 3 centimeters in 1 hour.

The epidural was only taking on the left side so I was laying on my right side trying to get it to move over and numb both sides. At 930a, I thought I was feeling pressure and the contractions were intense so I asked the nurse to check me - I was at an 8. Things were moving quickly and needless to say, the epidural never took 100%. By 1015a, I was complete and started to push. I pushed for about 30 minutes (it took so long because I was essentially having the baby naturally and I didn't want to push because of the pain) and out came baby at 1112a. She weighed 7lbs 7 oz and 19 inches long.

It took us a few days, but we finally decided on a name - Paisley Marie. She has been a wonderful baby - very quiet and sleeps a lot. Paisley and I stayed in the hospital for 2 nights and came home this afternoon. Emery is adjusting very well to her baby sister and always asks where she is and talks about how cute she is.

Ivan and I are very happy to be home as a family. I do think he's getting a little dose of reality that he's got 3 women in his life now but he's adjusting well.

Utah State Fair

As tradition has it, we headed to the Utah State Fair last Sunday. I was so happy that the new baby didn't come before we were able to hit up the fair.

Emery had a great time playing with games..
Feeding the animals ..
Riding the train with Mama (that was quite the ride - I thought I would for sure go into labor after all of the bumps of that little train)..
Riding a few rides like a big girl ..

Riding a car racing ride with quick turns with Grandma Phyllis. Ivan tried letting Emery ride this one alone and I was the freak Mom who ran up right as she was getting on saying, "No way, someone is riding with her or she isn't going". It's a good thing I did, the corner turns were really fast and Emery didn't like the ride. I know for sure she would have cried and possibly gotten hurt with the sharp turns if she had ridden alone.
Ivan and Emery went down the big slide together ..
Emery had her first taste of Cotton Candy and loved it - thanks Grandma Phyllis!
We saw some seals on our way out ..
We ended up having a great time at the fair. I was asked about 5 times why I was walking around the hot fair being so pregnant. Honestly, I did fine and we left around 3p right when it started to get really hot. Ivan enjoyed a corn on the cob and we shared a Philly steak sandwich and I had my famous funnel cake. Everyone knows I really just go for the food. Emery loved the snacks as well and had a good time on the rides. I have to admit, I felt a little lonely for Emery when she was riding the rides by herself. I can't wait for about 2 years from now when Emery and the new baby can ride the fair rides together.

Lastly, here is Emery enjoying her Sunday night tradition with Papa. She loves to shave with him and put on his deodorant.