Month of Love

Can you believe that Gunner is almost 6 weeks old? Time flies. He is changing right before our eyes and I'm thrilled to report that we got our first smile out of him this week. I have also been very pleased that Gunner started sleeping in 4 hour stretches at night, which is really helpful. Gunner has grown out of a lot of his "newborn" size clothes and is enjoying making a fashion statement with his cute little wardrobe (or maybe his mom loves dressing him up and he doesn't care...can't remember). Most of the pictures speak for themselves, but I love the bottom middle picture when I caught him yawning :)

Gracie is doing well. I had a stroke of genius about a week and a half ago and decided that I should just potty train Gracie to make my life a little easier. How hard can it be, right? Well, she isn't potty trained and I might have to go back to her regular diapers, but I did try some cheap pull-ups this weeks. We're making some progress (she can now change her own wet diapers, even though she isn't going in the toilet- How is that for being a self-sufficient 2 year old?). I'd love any potty training advice or better yet, any potty training volunteers :)

Justin is busy with school and had several tests, assignments and projects due this last week. I have also been busy, trying to pick up a few projects that I've put to the side. It is nice to feel like things are getting a little bit back to "normal" and some days it feels like we're coming out of survial mode (Don't be too fooled,we're still there quite a bit). That's about it right now for us.

The best of times, the worst of times

This week has been wonderful and also trying. I think Gracie has done well with the transition of becoming a big sister. That said, it HAS been a transition. She likes to give Gunner kisses and hugs but also like to poke eyes, yell in his face, and do other things to get our attention. I guess I can only hope it will continue getting better. The other day Justin got home and we were talking about his day and spending some time together. Gracie disappeared upstairs and we decided after awhile to go up and check on her. This is what I found.

My mom got Gracie some special kid's handsoap while she was here. It's purple so it showed up really well in Gracie's white-blonde hair. No damage done, but it made us laugh. Today I looked behind me in the car while driving and Gracie (AKA houdini) was completely out of her carseat. She had worked her way out of the arm straps and then slid out of the bottom strap. Arrrrgh. It was so frustrating. I had visions of being pulled over and my social work license being revoked for child abuse. Gracie only laughed to see her mother so upset. She finally got back in her seat when I threatened not to let her watch her barbie princess movie today.
This was a happy moment the same day as the soap incident when Gracie got to go to the park for a special time with mom.


This is a more recent picture of Gunner. I think his cheeks are starting to fill out a little more.

This is Gunner telling everyone how many weeks old he is. LOVE IT!
Lastly, I wanted to post this picture because I've been thinking a lot about the hope of spring. I was so happy that I could take this picture at 5pm and it wasn't already dark!!! Speaking of hope, I was given new hope when I survived a trip to the grocery store with 2 children and a trip to a toddler gym today with both kids as well. See, I won't have to stay in my house for the rest of my life :) What gives you hope?

Back to Blogging

Well, I'm not sure if I realized how much free time I had on my hands to blog until I got just a little busier. I always feel badly when I don't get around to posting because it usually means that I am not taking enough pictures, or that I'm too busy doing things to take time to sit down and record them.

In the last week and a half we had visits from both Justin's parents and my mom. We felt like we were getting away with something to have such good company and so much help. We had great meals and were able to do a lot of projects around the house. Justin is now back in school, our company is gone, and life as we know it is in full gear again. I was able to run some errands while my mom was here. We took Gunner to his 2 week appointment at he doctor. He had regained his birthweight and a little extra. We are looking forward to his cheeks getting chubbier and chubbier. I still haven't dared to take the two kids anywhere all by myself, but other than that we are happy and doing well.

What some of you were just dying to know

As I've thought about labor and the details that I could share, a phrase keeps coming to mind... TMI (too much information). So...here's my attempt to retell my labor story minus TMI.

I woke up last Thursday morning at 4:30. I couldn't sleep because I was uncomfortable and had some cramps. I got up to walk around, folded some laundry and then decided to shower about 5am. By then, I was pretty sure my water had broken and that I was in labor so I went to tell Justin the good news. The only problem was that I was so excited to finally be in labor that I couldn't keep a straight face. Justin totally didn't believe me (or at least he acted like it). I kept getting ready, Justin gave himself a haircut :), I packed my hospital bag and was hoping Gracie would be able to wake up on her own. Once She did (around 7am) we got her dressed and made our way to the hospital.

Once at the hospital (about 8am), they said I was really far progressed and about to have a baby. I was positive for strep B and so I needed to get my antibiotics before I could get my epidural. By the time they were ready to give me an epidural I was really really close to being "ready" so I contemplated going natural but decided that I hadn't really prepared to go natural and that I didn't have a strong enough desire to see what it was like. So... I got an epidural but still felt shooting pains through my right leg and hip. The anesthesiologist replaced the epidural in a higher spot and it made the pain go away but I was totally numb (I could not move my legs an inch or even feel if I was pushing). Anyway, Gunner was born at 10:19 am. The delivery went really well- he DID have to be vacuumed out at the end because his heart rate dropped, but he was healthy and there were no real complications.

As for an update of how things are going now that we are home, it is going well. We feel blessed by the ease of the transition. We are looking forward to the arrival of Justin's parents tomorrow and my mom on Monday.It is an adventure to have a newborn baby again. I feel like I've forgotten a lot and it has also been fun to remember what life is like with such a tiny baby around. The other night as I was tucking Gracie in she said, "Mom, I like Gunner". It was pretty sweet. I think we'll keep them both for now.

He's Here!!!

Introducing...
Gunner Justin Gardner
7lbs. 40z 20.5 inches long
Born January 8th at 10:19 am
(sorry for the wait. I'll post some more details later).




Part of the happy family- right after Gunner's first bath

The hospital where I delivered is one of the top 100 hospitals. They offered a bistro dinner for two. Here is the steak and lobster (oh, and the cheesecake). Justin and I felt kind of special.
Gracie admiring her new brother. She is a sweetheart.
Getting ready to leave the hospital.
Once again, the adoring big sister and baby Gunner.

If you don't laugh, you might cry.

No baby yet, but I liked this comic. I went to the Doctor today. I'm making progress, but who can say when this baby will make his appearance. For right now I'll just picture my sister Mary telling me over and over, "Patience is a virtue".

What we do best

One of the "big" things that Justin and I have done most since we got married 3 1/2 years ago is move. We have seemed to be in transition a lot between going to school at BYU, waiting for veterinary school to start, and even just being where work was. One of my friends described us to her dad as being nomads. Hey- we are what we are. Here is the chronology of our moves:

1) Pine Valley (Right after we got married we lived at Justin's parent's place there for 3 months)
2) Provo (We stayed for 8 months for the school year and continued renting the place to return after the summer).
3) Pine Valley and St. George ( We stayed for 4 months working and going back and forth between the two places- Justin was working full time in Pine Valley and I was working full-time in St. George)
4) Provo (Another 8 months- same place as #2, until we both graduated)
5) Pine Valley (Back to Justin's parent's place for a month)
6) Pine Valley (We moved a couple houses up the street and stayed there for 5 months)
7) St. George (We rented an apartment and stayed there for 7 months)
8) Pine Valley (We moved back to location #6 and stayed for 2 months)
9) Fort Collins (We rented a little house and stayed for 5 months)
10) FORT COLLINS (WE MOVED INTO OUR FIRST HOME... Hopefully to stay put until we are done with school-unless we are lucky enough to come home sometime for the summer)

* We are excited and scared to embark on this new adventure. Justin and I have been busy unpacking and nesting . We closed on New Year's Eve and I was secretly (or not so secretly) hoping that all the stress would send me into labor so I could reach my "first baby of the new year" goal. Oh well. I've heard from some sources that they don't even give very good prizes for that anymore (I can find another way to get my name in the newspaper).

Lucky for us, my dad and Bob were driving to Chicago (Bob's doing an internship with Ernst and Young) and they helped Justin move all the heavy stuff. Thanks again. I think the timing worked out better for us than it did for them :) Anyway, we feel very grateful and happy. We'll post some pictures when we get just a little more settled and a few pictures hung.