Nora's Blessing

We blessed Nora on August 5th. It was a really nice day and she looked so cute.

Jeremy gave a really good blessing... i think. Nora cried through the whole thing ( the one thing I DIDN'T want to happen!). She did so great before and after the blessing, but I think she just didn't like being held out away from someone. She is such a cuddle bug!! I really wish we would have given her a paci. Dang it.. now I know for the next kiddo.  I felt really bad because I was so focused on Nora crying (praying that she would stop) that I forgot to listen to what Jeremy was saying! Half way through, I realized I wasn't listening to Jere to I tried to focus on him more than Nora's cries. I wish we would have had someone take notes or record it (I didn't even know that was allowed), but anyway, the part I heard was really beautiful. So here are some pics from Nora's big day...

Nora and I before church... She is so stinkin' cute!!! 

Janica and Cale came down for the blessing. I was so happy to have them here.

Grandma and Jake

Grandma Stevenson and Nora

Jeremy's sister, Katie. We were so glad that their little family could be here for the blessing and that we got to spend time with them for a couple weeks! 

Jeremy's mom painted a beautiful picture for Nora. It is currently hanging in her room and fits perfectly with our colors (Go Debbie!!) 

Grandpa Stevenson and Uncle Matt 

Here are some pics of our little family that Jere's sister, Katie took for us. Thanks Katie!!

She was blowing bubbles!

I'm pretty sure Nora slept the whole day besides when she was crying through the blessing. She slept through ALL of church. That's a first! :)

Well until next time... and we are still working on Nora's room. I have some killer ideas of what to do, but I am just a little slow at actually doing them. Haha. I want to post pics of it as soon as I get it done.

Peace!

Haley

Love our Little Nora

Being a mom is a lot busier than I ever imagined. It is so time consuming... so I have begun to neglect our house.... I should be cleaning it right now but I'm not. I feel like I constantly have Nora in my arms because she is such a cuddle bug. I love it though! We snuggle pretty much all day. My favorite is when she curls up on me and falls asleep on my chest. She just fits so perfectly in my arms!

So I just wanted to post a couple things that have been going on in our lives... mostly Nora.

My mom was here at the end of June to help us adjust to parenthood (ps there is a tv show called parenthood that I just finished watching and they named their daughter Nora on the show... I don't know why that bothered me but it did. I feel like I stole it from them even though I named my daughter Nora before I even watched it...anyways) It was so fun to have her here! She was so helpful especially with dishes!! I didn't wash one single dish for over a week! Awesome! We are going to go visit her next weekend so that will be fun to see her again.

This was her the first week. She was wearing a premie onesie! 

We also had Jeremy's Winter family reunion last week. It was really fun to be with his family. We had the Winter Summer olympic games and pioneer day while we were there! It was really great to just hang out with the gang. I think my favorite part was when pretty much the whole Stevenson clan was upstairs just sitting around on the bed chatting. It was so great!

Nora has been growing like a weed! I feel like she is so big but everyone keeps telling me how tiny she is. She is almost 6 weeks old and I just wanted to make note of a few funny things that she does.

She will not poo in a wet diaper... no, she will wait for you to change her wet diaper and then immediately poo in the nice clean diaper. She especially liked to do this when we used to swaddle her. She would wait until we got her all swaddled up and then poo... I'm pretty sure she did it on purpose. It was her own special game she was playing....

Nora used to hate taking a bath when she had to get sponge baths, but once she could lounge in her little chair in the tub she loves taking a bath. Last week, she was so relaxed in the tub that she poo'd... so we cleaned it all out, filled it back up, put her back in and within 5 minutes she poo'd again. The little stinker! But third time was the charm. We successfully gave her a bath.

She also likes to pull her hair. It is so sad when she does it because she just screams and screams but she won't let go because she can't realize that she is the one causing the pain. It is awful to try to get her to let go of her hair. The other day I had to put something in the oven really quick so I laid her down in her crib for less than 30 seconds and when I came back she was screaming and I could see the skin pulling away from her skull. It made me so sad!

My two favorite people

Proof that she cries!

She is such a cuddle bug! She loves to be held. It doesn't really matter who by. She just loves to be held close to someone.

Nora with Gma Stevenson

Nora is now in size 1 diapers. After a couple blowouts I called it quits on the newborn diapers. She can also wear 3 month onesies because she is so long, but she can only wear newborn shorts or skirts... she has a small bum I guess.

Also we bought her a crib! We found a great deal on KSL and we got a crib and mattress, changing table and mattress, diaper genie and boppy for a killer price. And they are so nice. The crib is made out of maple so it is a great wood. The only thing is that it is a drop side crib, but we contacted the manufacturers and they are sending us the conversion kit to fix that. I'll post pictures later when I finish the entire nursery. It is kinda crazy in there right now...

We also bought a camera from Jere's sister so we've had fun playing around with that! Thanks again Katie!!

Katie took this pic though... not us! And the next one..

So that is our little update. We are blessing Nora on Sunday and we are excited about that. I think Jere is a little nervous but I know he will do great. We just bought her an adorable blessing dress so she will look so cute... obviously :) !

Sorry this is crooked! But isn't she just so adorable!!!

Our Little Addition: Nora's Birth Novel

 I wanted to make sure to record my birth story novel. So here is goes:

I kept telling Jeremy that I wished my water would break so I would know for sure that we need to go to the hospital. Well my wish came true! So our story begins:

Once upon a time on a Thursday afternoon (about 2:30) I took a shower (I had been pretty slow going in the mornings since I didn’t have much else going on). When I was stepping out of the shower, I noticed that a small drop of something came out of my body... it was a clear substance. I wasn’t sure if I peed a little without realizing it (not too uncommon during my pregnancy haha ..sorry if that is an overshare) or if I was still dripping wet from taking a shower or if my water had broken. So I read somewhere that you should smell it. If it is amniotic fluid it will have a sweet smell. So I smelled it... but it didn’t really smell like anything. I also read that if your water has broken, then it will leak out more if you lay down because the baby’s head is not stopping the flow. So I got dressed (I now realize that I shouldn’t have done this) and laid down on our bed. Nothing happened so I went to get up to fix my hair and then it came. As I sat up a big gush came out and soaked my pants. Hmmm... time to call the doctor. I was trying not to freak out but I knew that my water was broken! I was still a week early and didn’t think she would be coming so soon. When I called the Dr. I had to leave a message for the nurses that sounded something like this “Um hi... I think my water is broken so if you could call me back as soon as possible that would be great.” I decided to pack the hospital bags while I waited for the nurse to return my call....40 minutes later she called and told me to go to the hospital right away. Jeremy was at work, so I called him and told him that he should come home because we need to go to the hospital ( I didn’t call him until now because I didn’t want to freak him out). 

            We got to the hospital about 3:45 and they had to do a couple tests to make sure that my water really had broken. These tests were one of the most painful parts of the whole labor... but not the most painful. I’m getting there. So turns out my water had in fact broken! I was going to have a baby!! So they got me hooked up to an iv. I am positive for a bacteria called Group B strep so I had to have penicillin go through my iv 3 times (This was the most painful part of the whole labor!!!!!) When the penicillin went into my arm it burned so so so so so bad!! I wanted to rip my arm off. I’m not trying to be dramatic but you can ask Jeremy about my reaction to the nasty stuff... I was balling so hard! Anyways... now that you all think I am a wuss let me continue on with my story....

            I didn’t ever go into labor on my own so at 5:30 I was started on Pitocin. By 7:30 I was really feeling the contractions and decided that I wanted to be done feeling them. At 8:00 I got my epidural. They gave me a local and then put in the epidural, but as the anesthesiologist turned around to grab the tape to tape it up, his finger caught the epidural tube and pulled it out! Ha! So he had to give me the epidural again. Good thing I didn’t look at the huge needle because I might not have wanted to get it again. He felt really bad but I wasn’t that worried since I was numb where the needle went in anyway. I also got a cathedar... I was nervous about this, but then I remembered I couldn’t feel anything anyway!

            9:15 I was almost a 4 and got another painful dose of penicillin... Yikes!

            11:15 almost a 6

            1:30 am. I was fully dilated. So they called the doctor and I was ready for her to come. I got another painful dose of penicillin (the epidural did nothing for the pain in my arm, dang it!) I also got a fever at this point. I was also shaking uncontrollably from labor and then I threw up to top it all off! Plus I hadn’t eaten anything since noon so I didn’t really have much to throw up so it was kind of painful too. They put me on oxygen because of... I don’t know why, but they did. I was also really thirsty. All I wanted was to down a thing of water but the nurse told me that it would make me more sick so I voted against it.

            1:40 am. The baby’s heart rate dropped. The nurse kept moving me from side to side to back to try to bring the heart rate back up. I could tell she was trying not to freak out, but she was a little nervous. She had the nurses call the dr and told her to get there stat (which I know means right now! From watching Grey’s anatomy). So I was getting really worried that the heart rate wouldn’t come back up and I would have to have an emergency c-section. Luckily, the nurse was able to find a position that the baby was happy with and the heart rate came back up to normal after just a few minutes.

            2:00 The nurse told me that the dr wanted me to “rest and descend”. She said they wanted the baby to work her way down on her own for a bit before I started pushing. I thought that this would be like a 15-20 minute process... well an hour later...

            The nurse came back in to take my temp. It was up to 102.5! They were worried about what was causing the fever but it was about time to push.

            3:15 am. We were about to start pushing. The nurse wiped me down and I felt it! I panicked for a second... I was worried that since I felt that I would feel EVERTHING when I was pushing. I was worried that my epidural wore off. But I just pushed the button again and hoped that it would work quickly! I started pushing and pushed for about 6 or 7 contractions (pushing is tough work, I tell you) and then the nurse said that we weren’t going to push anymore and we were just going to wait for the doctor to come in. It was like 3:30 at this point and baby girl’s head was out a good few inches. As I had contractions I could feel her wiggle and push even further out on her own. She was ready to come!!

            The dr. had 2 patients that had their water break within an hour of each other so we were racing to see who would deliver first. The other girl went first... hence why I had to wait for the doctor to come. She was busy stitching up the other girl! Crazy right! What are the odds!

            3:42 am. The doctor comes in and I push through one more contraction.

            3:43 am. Baby girl is born!!!

Nora Lynn Stevenson was 6 lb 9 oz and was 19 inches long.  She was perfect!! They cleaned her up and handed her to Jeremy while the doctor stitched me up. I only tore a little bit and I had one stitch that was wrapped around a couple times. Overall, it was a good experience... despite my long post and nit-pickiness about the details. I really couldn’t have imagined it going any better (ok I could have done without the penicillin, but still)!

            Recovery wasn’t that bad except I was EXHAUSTED!!! I also had to keep my IV in until Saturday at noon because I had to be on antibiotics from the fever. Which was quite obnoxious. My first iv, in my wrist, started leaking, so the nurses decided that I needed a new one at 1:30 in the morning on Saturday so I’m running on like zero sleep at this point. They chose the veins in my hands. I’m pretty sure the nurse sticking me hadn’t ever done an iv, ever! She stuck the first vein and dug around for a while with no luck, the vein collapsed. It hurt so bad and I was so exhausted that I just started crying again! She says “wow, I’ve never made anyone cry doing an iv before”. Well I’m glad I could be her first!! Gee! So the nurses left me alone for a couple hours and came back to try again... She stuck another vein in my left hand... no luck. It also collapsed. Finally on the third try, they were able to get a vein in my right hand. So my hands were a little tender.

            In between all of these glorious visits (I know they were just doing their job and I’m not mad at them), I had to feed Nora. So I felt like I got absolutely no sleep. Then the nurses came back at 5 because I needed to get my blood drawn... of course! So the same nurse decided that she still liked the veins in my hands better than the veins in my arms so she stuck me in the same vein in my left hand... and dug around for a while again. And guess what! Yep. It collapsed again! She decided she was sick of failing so she got another nurse to come draw my blood. The other girl came in stuck my arm in two seconds and was done. It was fabulous. (Side note: I am not afraid of needles. Never really have been. I am actually quite tough when it comes to needles. I have had to get my blood drawn every hour for 4 hours and didn’t have a problem with it. I just don’t particularly love to be mistaken for a pin cushion especially when running on no sleep).

            But recovery wasn’t that bad other than this one incident. I healed pretty quickly and was up walking around on Friday night. I think overall the whole delivery went great! (I know I have focused on the 2 bad things that happened)

            Nora is perfect! We love her so much! She had a couple rough nights when we first got home, but we are working on getting her to sleep at night and not so much during the day. She is a breast feeding champ! I’m not so much, but she does great! I’m a little sore, but it is getting better. She weighed 6 lbs when we left the hospital but at her dr. appointment on Tuesday, June 26, she was back up to 6 lb 6 oz. The dr said she is doing great! She is really healthy.

We love our little peanut! She is so fun!! So here are some pictures! 

She makes some of the funniest faces!

my friend Hilary Briscoe took these newborn pics for us (the rest of the pics are from her).She did such a great job! Thanks Hilary!   

This girl loves her paci!!

Nora's signature hat! I made this for her and all the nurses couldn't stop talking about it. Nora was the talk of the hospital! When I got a new nurse, she said how cute the hat was. When she found out I made it, she said that she heard about the hat from other nurses but didn't know it was me that made it. Ha ha... I just watched You tube and did what a lady was doing... it wasn't that hard! 

So there you have it. Thanks for reading if you stuck around this long. Sorry it was such a long post, I just wanted to make sure I got it all down! Until next time! 

32 Weeks

Things are pretty much still the same here at the Stevenson's abode. Jeremy and I both graduated (Yay!) and we walked together in April which was fun. It's nice to have be done with school!

Also Jeremy turned a quarter of a century old the same weekend as graduation. He is such a great guy and I know he will make the best dad! I just love him so much!!

Jere has also turned out to be quite the baker... He was always talking about how he wants to make bread, but I hate to make bread (mostly because I'm awful at it). However, last Sunday Jere made some bread with dinner and it turned out great!! He will now be our official bread maker in the family since I still refuse! He did so great and it looked gorgeous too!

Since I have finished my student teaching, I pretty much just hang out around the house... I try to do productive things, but a girl can only clean her apartment so many times... So if anyone has any kind of hobby suggestions (that are relatively cheap) send them my way! I have started learning to crochet, but I'm not sure that I have the patience for it.

Mostly I just like thinking about and looking up different things to help prepare for the arrival of our little girl in less than 2 months!! Yikes! It has come so fast it feels like, but we are so excited. Now that we got the insurance issue figured out (after about 10,000 phone calls), we are set and ready for her to come and our stress levels have decreased significantly.

But I saw on someone peoples blog a pregnancy information thing to help me remember what it has been like.... So here it goes:

How far along: 32 1/2 weeks (it will be 33 on Thursday)

Due Date: June 28, 2012

Total weight gained: I'm not sure how I feel about sharing this one.. but I am putting it for myself. 22 pounds (at least at my dr's appt last week).

Stretch marks: Not yet (knock on wood)

Belly button: Still innie, but I can tell that it has stretched a little but I don't think it will pop out.

Maternity clothes? Not too much. I have a few tops and one pair of shorts but other than that I just wear a belly band over my normal jeans (if we go out of the house), but since I am at home most of the day anyway I mostly just wear sweats! :) I am trying to avoid buying maternity jeans, especially since it will just start warming up now anyway so I might just stick to skirts and my one pair of shorts for the next couple months haha.

Wedding Ring on or off: Off unfortunately... I hope it will one day fit again. I can get it on in the morning but by the time I go to bed it is a battle with cold water and soap, so I have retired the wedding ring for the next couple months.

Miss anything? I miss having more energy and being able to move around more easily. I also miss sleeping on my stomach... I desperately miss sleeping on my stomach! :(

Movement? Yep! I feel her move a lot. The worst is when she takes a good kick to my ribs haha!  But she gets a little shy whenever I want to show someone else... She also gets hiccups a lot. I'm not a super big fan of the hiccups. They were cute the first time, but the repeated, constant twitch in my stomach drives me a little crazy.

Food cravings: No, not really. There were a lot of things that didn't sound good at all in the beginning, but I am past that stage now.  I really like cereal, but for those of you who know me well, that probably has absolutely nothing to do with the pregnancy... I have always loved cereal!

Anything make you sick or queasy? Nope. I can even officially brush my teeth and tongue without gagging! Success!!

Labor Signs? Just the Braxton Hicks contractions about once or twice a day, but nothing regular or painful... Until Jeremy pokes my stomach too hard when it gets all hard from the contractions. Um.. ouch! :)

Mood? I have been okay, fine, meh... Not overly happy or sad, but I can't complain too much with this pregnancy. I haven't been super emotional at all (no sudden bursts of tears for no reason...don't get me wrong, I have cried, but I had good reasons)

Looking forward to: Sleeping through the night COMFORTABLY and also being able to sit for long periods of time and not feeling like I am going to cry! (See next section)

Aches and pains: I get the WORST back pain of my life if I sit for too long. It literally makes me want to cry it hurts so bad. It gets better if I lay down or stand up. So driving for long periods of time (more than 30 minutes) definitely never happens anymore. But I can be a passenger as long as I can lay the seat back.


Overall, this pregnancy hasn't really been anything to complain about too much. I didn't have morning sickness (with the exception of the couple times I gagged myself with my toothbrush which made me throw up). The comments I receive most often is that I don't look like I am due in June. I'm pretty sure that it is because I have a super long torso. The doctor says I am measuring right on, but I think this little girl just must be burrowing deep into me instead of trying to poke out. Jere says I look pregnant, but I mostly just feel like I look like I am just getting a little round around my middle.

Anyway, there is my little update... And here is a picture so that I can remember what my belly looked like. This was taken about a week ago so 31 weeks:

Well, until next time...

Haley

Our not so exciting news...

We are still around, even though its been a while since I've posted anything.

Hmmm.. I'm not sure what to post about.. We don't have any exciting news going on in this house. Well, maybe just a couple things.

1. Jeremy Graduated! Yay! He finished school in December, and has been looking for a job since then. He majored in Industrial Design and has been sending out his portfolio to companies all across the country. Who knows where we will end up. It's scary and exciting!

2. I have been doing my student teaching. I have 3 weeks left which is pretty exciting. I am really looking forward to graduating in April. I am almost done with college... it's been a long time coming I feel like.

3. I got a hair cut. I have noticed that I like to post about my hair cuts. It's mostly just so those far away can see how fabulous I am looking these days! haha... So I didn't get a before picture, but I have 5 months worth of out growth and my style had definitely grown out... It was just hanging around my shoulders with no shape at all. So it was nice to get a fresh look...

Its longer on the left side... I'm so edgy! Haha.

The back is super short, but I really like it. It stacks really nicely. Thanks Hailee! 

So I went for a "mom cut"... you may be asking yourself why... Well... that brings me to my last piece of news. 

4.

Yep! I peed on this stick... I am pregnant! We are so excited. I am due June 28th, so I am about 25 weeks along. We are having a little girl... We couldn't be more thrilled! I am starting to feel a little overwhelmed with all the baby stuff. I have no idea what is needed and what isn't. But I do know that everything is cuter when its tiny... We have some of the cutest shoes and clothes! 

So here is a current baby bump picture and a picture from when we first found out (like 4 weeks) just to compare the size difference. 

                         

So there is the update on our life in 4 little sections. We are so excited to see where life takes us next! Also, if any of you moms out there reading our blog have any suggestions or advice on stuff for babies let me know. I would be happy for any kind of help (carseats, baby tubs, cribs, bedding, necessities, things that are not needed, anything!) Thanks for reading! Hope you have a great day! 

Xoxo, 

Haley 

The Summer is over??!!! What??

So... we have been kickin it here in Vegas for the past couple of months, and I can't believe that we will be leaving in a week! It has gone by fast, but it's also nice to be heading home. So what have we done this summer?? Not much really...

Jere has been working at his internship all day during the week, and I was lucky enough to get a job working for my uncle's electric business as a secretary figure. It has been nice to have a little bit of money coming in... Other fun things we have done this summer: 

1. Playing with the three fun little boys we have been living with. They are a riot and so much fun to be with. (Sorry I don't have any pictures... I would go take one now but they are at Disney World. I will get one later.)

2. Family reunion in Park City. We enjoyed spending time with Jeremy's family. We stayed at a nice cabin and it was fun to be with everyone. We played games, watched slides, and went boating. I got burned pretty bad, and peeled pretty badly afterword, but it was so worth it. My next purchase will be a jet ski just so you all know... okay maybe not my next purchase but it's on my list of things to buy.  Here are our pictures:

HA! This is the one picture we took over the weekend. We are horrible picture takers. I am setting a goal to try to take more pictures... we'll see how it goes. Blogs are always more exciting with pictures.

3. We have seen quite a few movies. July was packed with hits! 

Transformers 3: Better than the 2nd, not as good as the first, but still fun to see. 

Harry Potter: Of course! I thought it was the best of the Harry Potter flicks... just my opinion. 

I know this is not a picture from Harry Potter, but I thought it was cute so it will do.

Crazy, Stupid, Love: This was probably my favorite movie I have seen all summer. Don't judge me. It is a little scandalous.. but I thought it was a cute story with a good message. It made me laugh. It made me cry. I thought it was great. 

Captain America: This was good. I liked it better than Thor. I thought it was a fun movie with a lot of action. Jeremy liked it more than I did, but that's to be expected. Plus I saw it the day after Crazy, Stupid, Love, so I think I was more in the mood for a romance rather than action... 

That's all the movies we have seen in theaters so far... the next on my list is "The Help". 

4. We went to Magic Mountain in California! 

Oh my land! This was the funnest/scariest day of my life. I thought I was seriously going to DIE at times! Some of the roller coasters seemed like the giant drop was never going to end! It was so fun to ride all the crazy coasters. I haven't ridden any seriously huge roller coasters since I went to Busch Gardens Virginia after 8th grade... (Lagoon roller coasters DO NOT count... they are weak compared to these coasters)

My favorite ride was called X2. Basically you drop straight down and follow the track that spins and turns and all the while you are in a side car that is on a free axis so you are spinning the whole time anyway! Intense??...yes!! 

Can you see the straight down drop? So fun!! 

One ride, Goliath, had a HUGE and I mean HUGE drop. I think it was 255 feet, and you go into a tunnel below ground. I wanted to get off when we reached the top... I needed a bailing point so I could just get out of the car and walk down some stairs or something. However, I stayed on the ride and I survived... Barely! I thought the drop was never going to end! Ugh. But Jeremy really liked that one. 

So this is the humungous drop... you can't even see it all in the pic it was so huge! HUGE!

It was a fun day to spend with my Aunt, Uncle, and two cousins. My 8 year old cousin rode everything he was tall enough for.. I don't know how he did it. I wanted to bail on a lot of the rides, but he pushed me into doing them. Magic Mountain was a blast and I would definitely go back again! 

5. My mom came to visit. We had fun shopping and going to movies (Crazy, Stupid, Love, and Captain America). Mostly it was just fun to see her and to get to hang out. We will hopefully be able to see her soon before school gets started back up again. 

We went to the Conservatory at the Bellagio and looked at the flowers. It was really pretty. 

There was also an industrial design store called Droog... Jeremy was a kid in a candy store here... It was cute!

This was one of the items from the store... it is a log with chair backs attached. 

It was fun to hang with my mom. I love her so much! She is so fun and we enjoyed having her here for a week! 

6. We have been working on reading the Hunger Games.. we have read the first two already and are working on the third.. don't give away the ending to us. It all started as we were traveling in our car to the reunion.... our radio doesn't work that well and I was reading the first one, so I offered to read it out loud so we would have something to listen to at least... well, Jeremy got hooked. We have been reading them together ever since.  We like them... its been a fun little thing to do together. We are almost done, so we will have to start a new series after... any suggestions? 

7. Turd Bird!! Who is Turd Bird you ask? Angie (my aunt with whom we live) 's dad is at Sturgess for two weeks so his bird has been here for the past week and a half. Lets just say I know that I NEVER want a bird for a pet... NEVER EVER EVER!! He is loud and just bites people... where's the fun in that? And yes... his real name is Turd Bird. 

8. Lastly, we have gambled away every penny that Jeremy earned at his internship!! Disappointing I know, we thought we might have a chance at winning big, but it didn't happen... Maybe next time. 

We are heading home in about a week and then school starts the week after. It has been a fun, hot summer, but it will be nice to get into our old routine again! Thanks for reading! Have a good rest-of-summer!!!! Loves! 

XOXO, 

Haley

(P.S. for those of you reading who are concerned about our gambling problem, Jeremy is doing an unpaid internship...hehe)