Christmas

I forgot to recap what we did for Christmas and New Years's. Seriously, every time I try to write on this thing, Emma poops or cries or something! But that's life:) So we went up to Idaho for Christmas and New Year's for a relaxing 2 week vacation. It was a blast! The best thing of my life was to have a washing machine close by and not have to walk to a far off laundromat every time Emma had a blowout or a spit-up fiasco. It was a beautiful thing.

Emma hit her 6 week mark the day we drove to Idaho and I was so excited to take her out into the world! I was kind of paranoid those first few weeks after she was born and didn't want to take her anywhere. Good thing too I guess. Anyone hear about the measles coming to Utah over Christmas break? Yep, that's real...at the Walmart where we shop no less. Ridiculous! Vaccinate your kids people! Anyway, when we got to Boise, we went shopping, out to eat, etc. We were living it up. Good thing too, cause i was going just a little stir-crazy! Josh can confirm that. Spending the winter in a tiny apartment is not ideal.

Emma during the trip. Those cheeks!

We mostly hung out with family the whole break, but I did get to catch up with some of my best friends, Brianna and Bethany. I miss them! During the break my mom and I caught a nasty cold. I  was achy and exhausted for a few days which was awesome. But by some stroke of luck it was the same time Emma was going through a growth spurt. She seriously slept for 2 days straight. At first I was worried she was sick too, but when she was awake, she was totally alert and happy. So I just counted myself lucky. After those 2 days, she woke up an older baby. She smiled more, made new babbling sounds and started to sleep through the night. It was like magic! The most magical thing was that she started breastfeeding. I'd been pumping and feeding her bottles constantly before that because she never got the hang of breastfeeding. Not even close.  But after her two day hibernation period, she did it perfectly. Yay!

Baby's first Christmas outfit. Thanks Grandma Groen!

Christmas day was fun pretty chill. We did a nativity scene on Christmas Eve and since Emma was the newest baby, we were the lucky couple to play Mary and Joseph. That was always the coveted role when I was younger. Dad played the donkey, like always. But, I must have gained a few pounds or something because when he was carrying me to "Bethlehem" he sounded that like this was the last trip this donkey was ever going to make...when Mom, who was the narrator, heard the donkey's howl she just lost it. The little girls were solemnly trying to be angels, but Mom was laughing/crying and couldn't get a word out and then we all lost it. The whole scene was pretty hilarious and memorable.

We had the classic and infamous Christmas breakfast...wheat buds. I was so excited to see Josh's face when he ate it for the first time! For those of you who don't know, wheat buds are whole grain kernels cooked in water. My mom makes it in a crock pot over night. In my opinion, they are best served with lots of honey and milk. For Josh, this is his worst nightmare. He hates whole wheat, honey and milk. I instinctively loaded on the honey and milk for him and it didn't go over well. But like a trooper he ate it all. Next time we'll skip the embellishments for him;)

Emma's Blessing and Thanksgiving

We stayed in Utah for Thanksgiving and Josh's parents came out here to celebrate with us and his sister's family. It was really fun! It was nice since Emma was only 2 weeks old and we really didn't want to travel with her yet, at least I didn't. We decided to bless her around the same time since both of our families could be there.

Isn't she precious?

Josh gave Emma a beautiful blessing. It was an amazing experience to have so many family members from both sides there. We've felt so much love, support and encouragement from everyone.

Family!

Birth Story

 November 30, 2014

 We had our baby! I can’t believe it’s been 3 weeks since Emma came into our lives. She’s beautiful and perfect. Our lives have changed forever. Really. Our lives revolve completely around her! But we wouldn’t change it for anything.

So before it got too late in the game I wanted to write down Emma’s birth story and be able to remember all the details and emotions of everything.

So on Thursday November 6^th at 10 PM I finally started feeling some painful contractions. I was almost a week overdue already so I was getting really antsy. I was scheduled for an induction that Monday the 10^th, so when I felt contractions on my own, I was just a little excited! They weren’t super painful and I could sleep through them. I was timing them but they were still really far apart, maybe 20 minutes. The next morning I got worried because I started bleeding. I called a nurse and they said we should go into the hospital and get it checked out. So I called Josh home from school and we went in.  They monitored my contractions and baby’s heartbeat, but I had maybe one contraction that whole hour, which was really frustrating. So they sent me home. Josh and I went out to the Malt shop for lunch after to sulk. All the while, my contractions were actually getting worse. So I just watched them all afternoon and sat in pain on the couch. They kept getting longer and closer together. Josh came home from campus around 7 and he helped me time them and breathe through them. Around 10 PM I threw up everything because of the pain. The contractions were strong and fast. At 11 PM we went to the hospital, and parked but then the contractions paused. I was so frustrated! We went to the grocery store so I could walk around and Josh could get some caffeine ( we had a feeling it would be a long night). Then we went home and tried to go to sleep. As soon as I laid down, I felt one really strong contraction and my water broke, all over our bed! I couldn’t believe it! Josh, half asleep already, literally didn’t believe it poor guy. He was exhausted from school and dealing with me. But I knew for sure. And I was so happy to have a reason to go to the hospital! My water breaking was like a dream and an answer to my prayers. I was in a lot of pain and the contractions were 3-5 minutes apart, longer than a minute.

Epidural? Check:)

The hospital checked me in right away because it was obvious my water broke. I was leaking everywhere. They checked my cervix and I was only dilated to a 2! That was sad and frustrating, but since my water broke they could give me an epidural. It was the most amazing thing of my life. I couldn’t feel any pain. Just pressure. This was at 1 AM.  I was monitored all night and checked to see how far along I was. I only dilated a cm every 2 hour or so. I tried to sleep but I was so excited it was hard to. They were worried about giving me Pitocin because every time I had a contraction, Emma’s heartrate dropped. But they gave me a very low dose and at around 11 AM, I was finally to a 10. I went from a 6 to a 10 within 2 hours. It was a great surprise! They had me pushing for 2 hours. 

Emma little body stressed so the doctor had to try to vacuum her out! It popped off 3 times and he finally had to use forceps to get her out. I felt so bad for her! When Emma finally came out it was the most beautiful moment of my life. Her eyes were wide open looking over at me and Josh. Then she gave out a big cry. Josh and I looked at each other and were both crying. It was such a special moment. Emma had to be taken to the NICU for a couple hours because she was grunting. She had a little fluid she needed to cough up. And she was so white! It scared us. Josh went with her and she held his hand, but I was by myself most of that time.

She's here!!!

Finally after the doctor finished up with me, the nurses wheeled me down to see her and Josh in the NICU. Josh made sure to take pictures for me to take with me to my room since it would be a couple more hours before I would see her.  When she was finally brought to me it was amazing to be able to hold her. Her head was bruised because of the forceps, but she was beautiful. She weighed 6 lbs. 12 oz. and was 20 inches long. Tiny for an overdue baby, but she’s perfect. 

Poor Josh was really tired...

She is so perfect

The next day her head already looked better.  One of my favorite memories from the hospital was in the middle of the night. Josh was asleep on the makeshift couch/bed and I had let the nurses take Emma to the nursery because I was exhausted. When they brought her to me to nurse during the night, there she was, this perfect little person swaddled up, with big eyes looking into my soul. Sucking on her binky and staring at me I felt so many emotions. I felt so much love for this little baby of mine and knew I would never be the same. I also felt apprehensive and thought,” I don’t know how to take care of a baby! I thought I did, but do I?” But her little face made me have confidence that I could do anything.

Back in Utah

September 7, 2014

I'm It’s just amazing to me that we’ll both be parents. I feel so blessed to be having this baby. Every time she kicks I feel grateful to be a mother. We already feel so much love for her. She is a mover and loves to turn and kick. She also gets hiccups once or twice a day. I can’t wait to meet her and kiss her cute little face!

Me at about 32 weeks. Getting excited!

So right now, Josh is in school and work from 8 to 5 every day and I get to stay home. It’s been such a blessing to think about what we need for this baby and getting our apartment ready. Being in Michigan all summer was hard for that reason and not being able to nest at all and get things ready. But living in Michigan was great over all. I’m really happy I got to know Josh’s side of the family. We went through some hard things during the last few weeks. Josh’s Aunt Joan died of cancer. I felt really blessed that Josh was able to be there with his family and I was able to support his mom. It was difficult, especially since she was only 59 and the oldest sister. She was a great lady. Even though I didn't have the chance to know her that well, she was always super nice to me and generous. The night before the funeral I had terrible abdominal pain. It made me throw up over and over and I couldn’t move. It was awful! It was so bad that we had to go to the hospital. It was scary but ended up just being an infection. I’m just glad that the baby was healthy and I wasn't in preterm labor or anything. But Josh was pretty raw emotionally after that and his aunt passing away the same week. We grew close during that time and it made us reflect a lot on life and death and the blessing we have been given to have the gospel. We are blessed to have the promise of eternity. I feel that even deeper being pregnant and being a mother soon.  The blessing of together forever is beautiful and I have taken it for granted. I can’t wait to meet this beautiful little girl of ours!

We also had the chance to go up to Idaho to visit my grandparents during Labor Day. Usually we hike and fish and do a ton outdoors, but I was almost 8 months pregnant and not really feeling it. So I ate a lot and relaxed on the couch. But it was fun hanging out with family!

Trying to figure out what game to play for hours...classic

The view!

Our turn cooking breakfast for the family

Summer Recap Continued

So the rest of the summer was me hanging out with Josh's family while he went faithfully to his internship every week day. I went boating, watched Netflix, went to Canada, and played, all while he went off to work. I felt pretty bad, but he just told me to enjoy it while it lasted:) I know now that those days will never come back or be the same, not with a baby. We did go to Mackinac Island for my birthday/ honeymoon celebration. It was gorgeous and so much fun! We also went to Michigan adventure, and I got to explore Canada with Josh's parents and see where they grew up. It's beautiful and so green, very different from my native Idaho. Here are some pics so I don't forget about it.

Mackinac Bridge

Gorgeous view!

Oh, and I got bangs and dyed my hair

Tandem Bike. Sweet ride!

Canada Day Fireworks on the Detroit River

At Miyako's for my Birthday. Best restaurant ever!

Michigan Summer

So I totally lost track of the blog and its now 8 months later! I think I just got bored of my life and didn't feel like I had anything too interesting to report. But now! I have my beautiful perfect little girl and can write novels about her:) I need to go back and report on our summer and add in a few pictures so we'll start with that:

June 24, 2014

Josh got an internship with General Motors IT department. We’ve been living in Michigan with Josh’s parents for the past 6 weeks or so. It’s been such a blessing to have free rent and board for the most part. It’s been really great because I’m almost 6 months pregnant! We are so excited for our new adventure. We found out about 2 weeks ago we’re having a girl, a baby girl! Everyone though it would be a boy since the Groen’s seem to make boys. But we should have known.  When we first found out we were pregnant back in February we both had dreams about a baby girl. I woke up wanting to hold her so bad!

 This is me the week of the ultrasound

When we saw the ultrasound, she was moving and kicking a lot. The woman doing it for us had a hard time figuring out if she was a boy or a girl because she kept rolling and her legs were closed tight! Modest already.  She is healthy and strong, maybe a little tinier than normal but not much. My belly is growing but I’m still pretty small for how far along I am, almost 22 weeks. But Josh and I love to feel her kick and roll around. I love seeing how attached Josh is to her already. She’s going to have him wrapped around her tiny little finger. We love the name Emma. I’m not sure because it’s so popular but Josh feels really strongly that’s the name she wants. Who knows? I just can’t wait to meet her!  So it’s been great to be here with Josh’s parents while I’m pregnant, just in case anything goes wrong. I was sick during the first trimester when I was still working but threw up only every other day or so. It could have been a lot worse! We still don’t have an apartment when we go back to Utah so I don’t have a place to put baby stuff yet. But I’ll have about 2 months without work when we get back to get ready for her.

Something else exciting is the Josh got into the masters program for Information Systems. So we’ll be in Utah for 2 more years now. But then he’ll be done with school forever! Yay!!! He really loves what he’s studying so I hope he finds a job that fits him just right. We really want to live out west so we’ll see where his internship is next year. It’s been a good experience to live out here and get to know the people who knew and loved Josh growing up. His mom loves to tell stories about him and how good and kind he always was and how the girls always loved him haha. It's pretty entertaining:)

This is me a month later. I was so excited to be showing!