The Trade

This semester was really difficult for Tyson, especially after his surgery. We made a deal: I focus on helping him get caught up, leave the house alone, and he would help me clean...and by help, he meant pretty much do it. We got him caught up by Thursday and I awaited his end of the deal to be fulfilled.The whole weekend passed and I wasn't feeling very happy with how this deal had gone down. 
Last night I got really sick. I was up until 3 or 4 in the morning just feeling ill. I finally got to sleep but was up again at 8 to feed William and get ready for work. Work was tough since I wasn't feeling well plus I wasn't looking forward to coming home to a messy apartment. My dear, sweet husband  was mopping the kitchen when I got home. He had finished decorating our Christmas tree and our apartment. He had done all the dishes, laundry, vacuuming, and he even cleaned the stove! Our apartment looked so beautiful, and I was so tired, I gave him a big hug and cried a little bit. Our home felt like our home again. I'm so lucky to have a husband who does wonderful things for me, like cleaning our apartment. 

Appendix and Smiles

Tyson had his appendix removed Sunday, November 13. His appendix had formed stones, which is a very rare condition. He was in the hospital for two days. Luckily, we were in Ogden when it happened so Tyson's parents could help us watch William. Tyson's surgery went well. During surgery he bled into his abdomen wall and a hematoma formed at the site.

We were gone for a long time. I am blessed with a very understanding boss who was not mad at me for missing so much work. I'm making it up by working during Christmas break. I admit that I enjoyed the time with William. He's getting so big and we spent a lot of time together.

We got back to Provo the day before Thanksgiving so I could work on day in that pay period. Tyson wasn't well enough to go to class but he still had to meet with his professors so he brought William to visit me at work.

I am waiting for pictures from my mom to add to my post about Thanksgiving and William's blessing. Needless to say, this semester has been super rough for our little family. We've been tried and tested but our families have helped us out so much. Tyson and I feel like we've grown closer together and stronger as a couple. We finally have our cars back, Tyson is feeling better, and he got all caught up on his homework before finals. We're looking forward to the break from school to just work, relax, clean our apartment, and enjoy our time together.

Au Naturale Hair

After almost five years, I am back to my natural hair color. I highlighted my hair for the first time EVER my freshman year of college. My sister-in-law just graduated from cosmetology school and she graciously helped me dye my hair back to brown. I like my hair this color! What do you think?

Halloween with the Little Monster

For Halloween we went to Tyson's parent's house. We all dressed up, had great food, and his parents hid bags of candy outside around the house. Father-in-law hid out there too and we had to go walk around in the dark and wait to be scared by him. We watched Goosebumps too! Oh, the '90s. We had a great time.

Then, we had our own party with some of our friends. We made chili, pumpkin face cookies, and homemade rootbeer with dry ice. We had a ton of fun.

Sibs

I must say that I love having my siblings here in town. LOVE!! Since I'm the oldest, I've been away from home for almost six years and during that time I've only been home for one summer, three Thanksgivings, but every Christmas, of course. I have really missed my siblings and have felt guilty for being so far away! They came to all my stuff: choir concerts, band performances, musicals, etc. Did you know I had never seen Jane sing until this semester? She's in Women's Chorus at BYU and I made SURE I went to her show. I wanted to show my support so I left my men at home and enjoyed the evening of beautiful choral music. Nelson is still harder to see but when he does come over it's awesome. He is so funny, just like my dad. Okay, not exactly like my dad but funny nonetheless. It's too bad Katie is home all alone now. I know she hates it. I miss her silliness and sweetness. Conclusion: my family rocks and I love them all. Cheers!

Life as I Know It (Oct. 14): LOTS of pictures

I know it's been a while since I've posted here and I apologize. Things have been super busy for us: I'm back to work, Tyson is powering through school, and William is growing more every day. We went to Disneyland for my birthday and it was a blast! My mom went with us and she watched William so Tyson and I could go on all the rides we wanted. I got to use the Baby Care Centers at D-Land and CA Adventure. It was great to have a cool, quiet place to nurse and change William. William was perfect all day. And the whole way to and from CA. Can you believe it? 

We got family pictures taken as well. William was fussy at the beginning but after I fed him, he was happy as a clam. Except lots cuter than a clam. The few days after we got home were interesting but it's all smoothed over.

I went back to work this week. Our child care situation fell through last minute so, for now, I just work on Tuesdays and Thursdays so Tyson can watch William. I hope that we can find someone to watch him Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings soon.
Tyson has taken his first round of mid-terms and is doing well. I try to help him all I can with his writing and humanities classes. His friend, whom we affectionately call Dr. Joe (I don't know if he knows we call him that), has been helping him with his Materials of Engineering class. Tyson is so smart. I can't imagine trying to learn the stuff he studies.
Tyson surprised me with a date last Friday. He got two of our friends to watch William and we went to dinner. Tyson also surprised me with some belated b-day presents. He had ordered them a few weeks ago but they weren't ready until after my b-day. He got me two box sets of books: The LOTR series and the Percy Jackson series. He also got me a beautiful frame/mat for my diploma. I love it! Right now it's on our piano because we can't agree on where to hang it. But it feels great to look and it and Tyson looks at it as motivation to get his! The best present he gave me was a singing card in which he wrote the most beautiful love note he ever has written me. It made me cry a little. My man is so good to me!

William is starting to smile! I love that I can start talking to him and he'll smile right back. The other day, Tyson was laying on the floor with William on his stomach. Tyson was talking to him in Spanish and William would coo back to him. I should've recorded it. It was adorable! And my hubby wonders why I kept smiling at them.

William loves to stand. I know, he's only almost 7 weeks old but the kid's leg muscles are ridiculous. We keep our hands under his arms for balance but he can totally stand! We try to get him to do tummy time but he hates it. I think it's because he's too close to the ground: it's boring down there! He wants to be up and looking around! His arm muscles haven't caught up to his leg muscles but I have a feelings he'll be causing mayhem fairly soon.

One month!

William is one month old today! I can't believe it's been a month already. Time seems to have flown by. My little man is growing lots and doing well. He's starting to smile and coo just a little bit. He is so adorable! I have a hard time putting him down to get stuff done around the house. I just want to hold him all the time.
I am planning to go back to work on Monday, October 10. Luckily I am only working part-time and the first week or so will be laid-back whilst I try to figure out the best schedule for our family.
Tyson is still doing well in school and work despite the late-night disruptions and distractions. I am so glad that he makes time to help out and to play with William.
My car broke again. The guy that sold us our transmission sold us a leaky one, so he's repairing it now. I hate not having my car! But my in-laws came to the rescue, again. They are letting me borrow the family tank (uh, I mean, Suburban) so that I can still drive around town.
My birthday is in a week! If you know me, you know I LOVE my birthday. I would say it's the one day that is set aside just to party and celebrate me :D but with Tyson and William pampering me all the time, the only thing special about this birthday will be that we'll be at D-Land with my mom. We are excited to use our passes and to take William even though he's so little. I'm particularly excited for Katie to meet William. She wasn't able to come up with my dad since she had school and dance classes but that's okay.
General Conference is this weekend and I cannot wait! I was telling Tyson that we have to listen to every talk now since we have a kid. We don't get to ignore the ones about parenting or kids. Okay, we never ignored them before, but I think it'll be interesting to listen to Conference with the ears of a parent, not just those of a married woman.
I'm really terrible at conclusions so I'll just say that October is the best month of the year and I love my man and my little man more than anything!

Introducing William Paul Remy

William Paul Remy was born August 29 at 6:38am. He weighed 7 pounds 13 ounces and was 21 inches long. He is perfect! If you want to know the whole arduous labor story, read on! 
Tyson and I checked in to the hospital at 3:30pm on Sunday, August 28. At 5:30pm I got my first dose of Cervadil: a drug to help ripen my cervix. By 6:30pm I was having mild contractions. My contractions got worse pretty quickly. They moved to my lower back and were about a minute and a half apart. I also had the shakes: my jaw and back muscles were shaking really badly. Finally at 1am I was super uncomfortable so they gave me a dose of IV pain meds. My nurse also put me on oxygen to help with the shaking and to help the baby. My contractions were so close together it was stressing him out. Anyway, the pain meds worked great for about 20 minutes. I couldn't get another dose until 2am and by then I really wanted an epidural. However, my cervix hadn't changed a bit so I was denied an epidural until my cervix changed. I got another dose of IV pain meds which only worked for about 15 minutes that time around. At 3am my cervix had dilated to a 3 so I was able to get an epidural. The meds started working about 15 minutes later and I was able to fall asleep for a bit. The meds worked so well I couldn't feel a thing! My contractions continued at a minute and a half the whole time. My nurse came in to check me again at 4am and I was dilated to 9.5! She called the doctor and got things ready for me to start pushing. The doctor came and broke my water at 5:15am. The nurse had me start pushing and things went fast. She finally had me stop pushing so that the doctor could get his gear on. He finally had me push a bit and he gave me a small episiotomy. William's head came out and then once the doctor had the first shoulder out, William just sort of fell out haha That was probably the WEIRDEST sensation ever. Suddenly my stomach was very empty! I was still shaking and my legs were tingling something fierce but I was so happy to have William here. When I finally got to hold him I just cried! He is so beautiful and I instantly loved him more than I could ever have imagined. The nurses moved me into my recovery room at 9:00am and Tyson and I could finally sleep a bit.

William is a week old and still beautiful and still perfect. He did have jaundice so we had him on lights for a few days and had to take him to the hospital every day to have his blood tested. Watching your new baby have his heel sliced and hearing your new baby scream is heart-breaking. I'm so glad we don't have to have his blood tested anymore.
My mom flew up on Tuesday night and she came to the hospital on Wednesday morning to help us get checked out and home. She was a great help while she was here. I had several breakdowns due to tiredness and she helped me so much. She and Tyson have kept me sane while I have struggled to learn how to breastfeed and take care of a baby. They're help has been much appreciated. My dad came up on Friday and my parents left today. It is sad to not have them here anymore but it was great to have them here while they could be.

William is a gem and a cuddler. I love to hold him and snuggle. It makes everything hard about pregnancy and motherhood totally worth it. I especially love when other people hold him and he fusses so they hand him back to me and he stops fussing instantly. LOVE :) My son is the most beautiful baby ever and I love him very much.

D-Day: What News From Gondor?

My dad keeps asking me "What news from Gondor?" but what he's really asking is "Any sign of baby?" At least he's creative about it, right? haha

Today I check into the hospital. I'm excited, I'm nervous, I'm tired, but I'm ready. I cannot wait to meet my son and hold him in my arms. Tyson cannot wait to be a daddy and have me return to a state of semi-normality. To pass the time last night, Tyson and I had Cafe Rio tostadas for dinner and watched "Ocean's Eleven" and "Star Trek". Would you believe I picked both of those movies? Tyson told me I could pick any movie I wanted and those are the two I picked. I asked him if that was okay and he told me it was. He got lucky. I was going for distraction but I could've picked "Return to Me" or "Pride and Prejudice" and then he would've been sorry.

Today is also the first day of our new church meeting time. Instead of 2:30pm we now meet at 8:30am. Cruel, cruel world. Tyson and I decided I should try to sleep as much as possible so church wasn't going to happen this morning. But since I'm up, alert, and anxious, church will be good for me. I love going to church and this will help set the mood for the craziness we're about to embark in. I don't think my hospital has wireless internet so I don't know if I'll be able to post an update once we're there. Y'all may just have to wait for me to give birth and come home. I know...that seems unbearable...but I am confident you'll be just fine.

Lullaby Baby Boy

Recently I have started singing lullabies to my baby while I'm in the shower. I know that sounds sort of weird but it helps me not feel so upset that my baby boy is still in my tummy and not in my arms. The two I sing most frequently are "Baby Mine" from Dumbo and "Moonshine Lullaby" from Annie Get Your Gun. Now, "Moonshine Lullaby" is, in fact, about moonshine and I do not condone such activities but it's an awesome song with a beautiful melody. I decided that my baby will care more about me singing to him and rocking him rather than the fact that I'm singing about illegal homemade alcohol. "Baby Mine" is a very tender song and it is so tender that it frequently makes me cry. In the shower. It's sort of pathetic. I just sort of rock side-to-side and sing and imagine holding my baby soon and the words just really get to me. Honestly, this song has always touched a spot in my heart and for years I refused to listen to it. Why I suddenly decided that singing it to my unborn son in the shower was a good idea, I'll never know.
I thought I would post a little video of the songs so y'all could enjoy them as well.

Last Day

Today is sort of a surreal day for me. By this time tomorrow I should be in the hospital getting set up to have a baby. Today is my last day as a no-child person. I feel like I should be doing something exciting before having this baby but I really don't know what I could do. I guess I should probably clean the fish tank. And put my clean clothes away so my room is clean. Finishing up the dishes isn't a bad idea either but somehow I feel like it isn't enough. 
The anticipation is driving me crazy. It's driving Tyson crazy too. Can you tell? Well, at least one of us gets to sleep. One out of two ain't bad.
I want to get out of the house and do stuff but there's nothing left to do! When my family was in town we saw every movie we could. We even saw Captain America twice, which, I have decided, was not a good idea as I dreamed about Old Man Stark that night. Weird.
Anyways, I'm feeling incredibly weird today and wishing it could be Monday already and wishing my baby boy were here and wishing my dishes would do themselves magically and wishing my family didn't live so dang far away and wishing I knew what would help calm my nerves.
And that's a lot of wishing.

Happy Birthday Jane!

 Today is Jane's 18th birthday! Happy Birthday, Jane! For her special day, we all got together and ate lunch, ate cake, and played Killer Bunnies. Yesterday I asked Jane what she wanted to eat for lunch and she said Mac & Cheese. So that's what we made her. FIVE BOXES of Mac & Cheese. We didn't eat nearly all of it so Tyson put the extras in a Ziploc and we sent it home with her. I have no idea if she'll actually eat it, but at least it won't be sitting in my fridge.
Jane invited a friend from home, Stacy, and her new roommate, Bella, from Washington. Do you think she gets teased about Twilight? I didn't ask. Nelson came too! It's so nice having both of my siblings here in town. I like it.
Tyson made Jane a yellow cake and I frosted it with chocolate frosting, per her request. I love sprinkles so I added some and then I found some green sparkly gel and wrote "Happy Birthday Jane!" on her cake, although you couldn't really read it since there were many, many sprinkles. The cake was moist and delicious. YUM. We even sang to her and had her blow out 18 candles. My dad told me to pinch her...you know..."A pinch to grow an inch" but I forgot. Guess she'll always be one inch shorter than her older sister...MUAHAHAHAHA!!
I'm glad that we got to do this for Jane. It's fun having siblings around to feed and play games with. You know, if my baby comes on Sunday my family will have birthdays on the 25th, 27th, and 29th. How coincidental is that? Or maybe my baby will be really stubborn and he won't come until September 1 and he'll be the only one with a September birthday. He won't make it that long. Sorry, baby.
Anyways, so here is my birthday post to Jane and pictures to go along with it.
Happy Birthday, Jane! I love you very much!

Stacy, Jane, and Bella

Baby Bump: 30 to 40 weeks

I thought I would post two pictures: baby bump at 30 weeks and baby bump at 40 weeks. I am anxiously engaged in waiting for our baby to make his appearance. In the meantime I am enjoying watching movies, working on setting up the baby book, and trying to keep the house clean. Tyson is busy reading a book so he can finish it before the baby comes and school starts. Two of our favorite people are back in town and we are so happy to have them around again.