Almost 7 months old!!!

I know that every time I finally put up a new post I say that I'm way behind and I'm going to try harder. Well this time I'm just going to say lets face it, I'm not very good at keeping up on my blogging. As a child I was never able to keep a journal going longer than 2 or 3 days. I don't know why I thought I would be any better at this.
I guess I can honestly say my health has improved a ton since my last post, but not as much as I would have liked to have been able to say. I'm still having some small complications from when I had Braxton, and still I will say they are all worth it. I never imagined how much love Jeremy and I would have for our little boy!!!
Braxton is now a few days shy of 7 months old! He is getting so big and he is so much fun! He's already passed a few of the milestones that I have neglected to blog about. He's been rolling both ways since he was 4 months old, he got his first 2 teeth around 5 months, has recently started sitting up on his own, and he's ready to crawl any day now. He's mastered crawling backwards, however he's not crawling forward yet. He still manages to get where he wants to go though. He lays on his stomach and pulls himself forward. Despite the fact that he's not crawling just yet doesn't mean he's not in to everything! I'm slowly baby proofing the house as needed. There are things I never thought would be a problem, I was so wrong!! He's in to everything. I'm seriously considering getting a baby gate so he can't go in to the kitchen. My only hesitation is that I'm not really known for being too graceful, and I'm kind of concerned it might do more harm than good. I can only imagine what Jeremy would say if I called and told him I needed to go to the hospital because I tripped over the baby gate and broke something!!!
I can't believe how fast the last 7 months have went by and how fast my little boy is growing up. He is starting to jabber a ton and say things like da da, ma ma, and ba ba. I'm not sure if he's actually trying to say those things or if they just sound similar and he's really just jabbering, but for the sake of making myself feel loved I'm just going to say he's intentionally saying ma ma for sure!!!
Right now Jeremy is working a ton as usual. I guess in this economy I should just be greatful for the 14 hour days he works. Braxton and I miss him like crazy and we're so excited to see him when he gets home from work. The huge smile Braxton gets when he realizes daddy's voice is coming from the front door and not from my cell phone is priceless! He gets so excited to see Jeremy and can hardly control himself. He starts laughing(which is the sweetest sound), kicking his legs, and his hands start shaking. He loves his daddy so much and I'm pretty sure he's got Jeremy wrapped around his finger! I love watching them play, its so cute. Jeremy doesn't get much of a break on his days off because I'm usually working and he's watching Braxton. I never get any complaints about it though.
Jeremy and I really love being parents and can't imagine our lives without Braxton! He's been such a great baby and I couldn't ask for anything more!!!

Braxton at 6 months

Braxton

I'm finaly getting around to updating the blog. Things have been crazy the last 5 weeks and my spare time has seemed to disappear. Our baby boy finaly arrived on February 2!! I was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 1 to be induced. After 33 hours of labor and not dilating past a 3 for over 24 hours I decided it was time to get the baby here and had a C-section. Braxton J Mitchell was born Feb. 2 at 5:47 pm. He weighed 7lbs 6oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. We were so excited to finaly meet him, he definately made up for the long labor!! We were both released from the hospital 3 days later and finaly got to go home and start our new adventure. Unfortunately we only got to stay home for a few days before we were back at the hospital. My incision from the C-section got infected and I had to go back in to surgery wed. night and have it reopened and cleaned. That landed me a hospital stay for 4 more days and 6 long weeks of recovery. I was lucky enough to be able to keep Braxton at the hospital with me through my stay. I was so happy to be released from the hospital. I think we all(me, Jeremy, Braxton, my mom, and Jeremy's mom) were more than ready to be at home and not see a hospital room for a very long time!!

I have been fortunate enough to have a ton of help which has made my recovery as good as possible. My mom and Jeremy's mom were both able to come and stay with us and offer some much appreciated help. I was a little nervous when it came time for Braxton and I to try things out on our own. It went a lot smoother than expected!! I was starting to get cabin fever by the third week of being home so thanks to my sister in law, Trisha, I was able to get out of the house for a few hours a couple different days and go spend some time with their family.

Even though things got off to a rough start for us we are so excited to have Braxton here and to be starting this new chapter of our life. He is such a good baby, I couldn't ask for more!!

Our new view

These aren't very good pictures, I really need to get a new camera. Its been a long time since I have been able to look out the back window and see deer! Its been nice to be away from all of the houses and traffic.

Baby Update

We went and got my 3D ultrasound this week. Jeremy and I were really excited to get to see more pictures of him!! Now we just need to get started on everything else we have to do before he comes. We haven't even started to get his room ready and we still need to go buy a crib. I guess 12 weeks might go by faster than we think and I need to get stuff done while I still can!! I'm starting to find that there are a lot of things that are starting to become a challenge for me to do. I decided the other day I needed to write them down before I forget so here are some of the challenges and changes I'm experiencing.

• Putting on my compression socks and regular socks in the morning is rather entertaining, Jer will just sit there and laugh until I'm completely exhausted and frustrated that I want to give up and then he does it for me. He thinks its funny to watch!!


• Trying to get off the couch, out of bed, and in and out of the car is seeming like in another month its going to be impossible!!!


• No matter what I eat I get heartburn, I'm becoming great friends with Prilosec and Tums!!


• My clothing selection is becoming very slim, 2 pairs of pants I can still wear and 8 shirts. I think its time to buy some maternity clothes.


• Sleeping is starting to become a problem. Waking up 5 times in the night just to use the bathroom is starting to become annoying. I take forever to get back to sleep. Maybe if I stop drinking liquids at noon I'll be able to control that better.


• I have become strangely motivated to do things around the house. Jeremy tells me I have OCD but I think vacuuming everyday to keep the carpet looking like its going in the same direction and asking him to avoid standing on the rugs in the kitchen so they don't have footprints in them is just trying to keep things clean. I think I surprise Jer everyday with something new I've become obsessed with. I'm pretty sure he thought it would all blow over but its yet to stop. I've had some people tell me I'm nesting, so I'm hoping for a happy medium to level out at or I think I'm going to drive Jeremy crazy following him around cleaning up after him and picking up his clothes as soon as they hit the floor to wash them. I always wondered what I'd do with my spare time when I went from working 60-70 hours a week to 35 hours a week, I guess now I know.


• I have to say I'm so grateful for Jeremy and all he does. I guess I never realized how much he was working while I was working that much as well. I truly have a great appreciation for what he does now. I always look forward to him coming home to see what kind of comment he'll make that day. He says things so matter of fact without considering he's talking to an emotional pregnant woman and then acts so innocent when he gets that look of , you might want to run, did you really just say that out loud to me? For example he walked in the door the other night, changed out of his work clothes, and walked up to me and said "Wow I think your stomach got a lot bigger overnight!". He keeps me laughing with his comments and is always so supportive when I'm having a meltdown over my many insecurities with pregnancy. I love you Jer!!

Enough about the pregnancy...

I'm going to try making Thanksgiving dinner this year. Jeremy will be working so by the time he gets off we wouldn't make it to Oakley for anything so I thought I'd try to make dinner. It could get interesting, but for the sake of the others that will be eating with us I hope it all works out!!!! The next couple months are going to be rather busy with Thanksgiving, Jeremy's birthday, Christmas, and baby stuff. I guess we better get busy so everything will be ready!!!

Family Pics

We went to Oakley the end of September and got family pictures with Jeremy's brother and sister's. Last picture before we have one more person to add to it!!! We also went to Jeremy's grandma and grandpa's Christmas party. We had a really good time, it was fun to see everyone. We're really glad they had it early. Come Christmas we have to be picky about what party's we go to. Its too far to travel in the snow to make it to all of them. Hopefully this year will turn out better than last Christmas.

First baby stuff

Last weekend Jer and I bought some clothes for the baby. We were shopping for us and Jer seen the blue shirt and had to buy a few things. Its a good thing he works so much and doesn't make it out, I think he's going to be worse than I am!! It was exciting for us to get our first pair of clothes together though!! Jer also talked me into posting my baby belly. I was just going to keep the picture to myself (not loving the big belly thing), and he convinced me its normal and I should keep it posted if I want to remember it. We just went to the Dr. on Wed. He's told me the compression stalkings are a go all the time from now on, I was getting away with them just during the day. I guess its for my own benefit! He's thinking the swelling isn't a good sign but I'm hoping that he's just scaring me into being good. Working in the medical field I know they do that more than not!!! I was really loving red meat for a long time (that's when Trisha was feeding us everyday), but now the smell is in my house and I have to touch it I'm having some issues with it. Maybe I should just talk Trisha into cooking for me the rest of the pregnancy, I love food when i don't have to touch it!! I don't think I'd have to talk too hard either she's really good to us!! I'm loving being in the new house, room to move a ton has been really nice! Not loving the increase in heart burn, constant compression stalkings, and huge belly. Guess its a small price to pay!! I've just started to feel him move recently, to be honest it kind of freaked me out at first!! I'm getting ready to send Jer off for the week to go hunting and I'll be on my way to Oakley!

IT'S A BOY!!!

Jeremy and I went and got my Ultrasound today and we're having a BOY!!!! We're both really excited. Jeremy especially is a very proud dad right now! We got to see some really cool things. All of his measurements look good and we also got to see his blood flow to his heart and that looks good as well. They changed my due date from Feb. 8th to Feb. 12th so not much of a difference. My ultrasound tech, Cody, said he was moving a lot and it made some of the views difficult to find, but she found all of them. He is a very active baby right now! I'm surprised after seeing how much he moves, that I can't feel it. Now I guess its time to start looking at names!

Denver Pictures

Me, Betsy, and Kara

Chrissy, Kara, and Betsy

Betsy and I boating

Heather, Chrissy, and Kara

Bryan

July and August

Many of you probably already know this but Jeremy went to Clearfield, Pennsylvania from July 5th to August 1st for work. I think that July was probably the longest month of my life. I was so excited to have Jeremy home. He would never admit it but I know he was ready to come home(at least I tell myself he missed me!) In all reality he was probably relieved to have been away from the pregnant lady that looks like his wife but is having some serious mood swings!! We moved out of the old place we were renting and Jeremy is working on a new house we are going to rent as soon as we get it ready. We kind of got set back with Jeremy going out of town for a month but it will hopefully be ready soon. Right now we have a camper at Jeremy and Trisha's which turned out to be a really good thing. I had somewhere to go for company, air conditioning, and home cooked meals!!! Thanks to Jeremy, Trisha, and the girls I ended up doing pretty well with Jeremy being gone, but especially thanks to Trisha, I don't know what I would have done without you, she was there for every craving I had, to help supply me with things that I didn't realize until 11pm that I was out of, and making sure I didn't get lonely!! You guys are the best!!

A week after Jeremy got home I flew out with Betsy to Denver. We went for a 4 day vacation to relax and shop. Her sister lives in Littleton so we stayed with them and had a great time. We went shopping, boating and the rest of the time we just relaxed. Betsy was a sport. This was only the second time I've flown and the first time I flew I was highly medicated. Betsy was very patient and supportive of all of my off the wall exaggerations of what was going to happen to us on the flight. The flight home was much better. I think that's probably a vacation we'll be taking again.

The posts are probably not going to get any better any time soon considering it would be extremely hard to fit the computer in the camper. I'll try my best but no promises.

JEREMY'S PENNSYLVANIA PICTURES

This is mostly the kind of tanks they were hauling.

This is one of the locations they would go on.

This is an old church.

This is an old milk barn.

This is a bridge Jeremy would pass on his way to work in Pennsylvania, he thought it was cool because the whole thing is made out of concrete.

Jeremy's work truck

Memorial Day

In honor of memorial day I thought I'd post a couple pictures I have of some great men that I have been blessed enough to have in my life and have passed away. There are many I wish I had pictures of but unfortunately I don't. Uncle Gary who treated me like his own granddaughter and I loved so much, Ty who passed away when we were kids but I know I missed some great times with him, Uncle Neal whom I never got to meet but I know was a great person from all the stories I've been told, and Jeremy's little brother Tyler who died when he was less than a month old, we would have loved to have known him.

There's Ed who I have only known for the short time I've been in Roosevelt but has made an impact on my life that would take most people a whole lifetime to make. He was always there for you no matter what you needed or what he had to drop to come help you. He was always willing to help whether it was his words of advice or washing the dishes while Elisha and I made chicken noodle soup when I had pneumonia. It never failed that he could always make you laugh or smile when you was down, he had a personality that radiated. I'll never forget going to the gym, the Vegas trip, or the times we spent with all of us just hanging out. I miss you and will always feel grateful that I met you.

Grandpa Jay reading to Wes

and I.

Then there's Grandpa Jay who taught us all so much and taught us to work hard. The summers we spent working with Grandpa Jay were great and I wouldn't have spent my summers any other way. He was always such a tease and even though I'd get mad I secretly loved all of the teasing and I can't forget him and grandma Bethel spoiling me!!! I miss and love you Grandpa.

Jeremy's wedding and Me, Dad, and Wes

I never thought the day would come that I'd have to live without my dad. But the longer that time passes the more I know he's still with me everyday helping me like always. He was a great example and very intelligent. It never failed that he made sure we had good horses to ride and practiced hard. He taught my brothers and I how to compete and be competitive and to do it gracefully. He was my best friend and most of all a great father who was always there with mom to support us in anything we'd do. I'm grateful for the time I had with you and can't thank you enough for all you did for me and taught me. We couldn't have had a better dad. I love and miss you more than anything.

I've truely been blessed to have some very special people in my life and I've spent this memorial day appreciating every one of them.