So Long, Farewell, We Have to Bid Adieu

It's New Year's Eve and so it is only appropriate that I give 2008 a final goodbye. This year has hands down been the most stressful and dramatic year of my ENTIRE life, but it's also been the most joyous year of my life. As some of you know, those who have been reading our blog from the beginning, we started the blog so that we could keep everyone informed about the goings on of our pregnancy. Well believe it or not, it's been almost a full year ago. We discovered we were pregnant on January 2, 2007 and posted our very first post ("How We Discovered We Were Pregnant") on January 5, 2007. Since then you've shared in the scariest moment of our pregnancy ("Just When You Think Life is Getting Boring..."), the saddest day of our pregnancy ("It's Official..."), and the happiest day of our pregnancy - minus the accident - ("It's A..."). I shared my thoughts and my fears with you - I told you how scared I was with the gestational diabetes and the high blood pressure, how horrified I was to wake up and find blood everywhere, my debate about being a stay at home mom, my fears concerning motherhood, my labor, Y's first pictures, my breastfeeding battles, and so much more. And in return I always received positive reinforcement and wonderful advice. Some people may think that I have shared a bit too much. And maybe I have, but honestly I don't think I'd change a thing because this has become my place that I can come when I need assistance or advice or if I just need to vent and cry it out. I sincerely think that being able to blog about my concerns and fears and reading your comments helped me though some of those really tough moments when I was frustrated or tired or scared. But I got through it and we now have a beautiful, healthy and extremely happy baby girl.

To give you an update, I may have been wrong in something I said in my Great Debate post. I said, pretty forcefully, that I didn't want to be a stay at home mom and that nothing could change my mind. I still fully believe that I can be just as great a mom if I worked as I could be if I stay home but as I watch Y everyday I have a stronger desire to stay home with her just to protect her. No one will ever take care of her the way that I can. Even before she was born daycare was never an option for me, I wanted a nanny to come in and watch her while I worked. Now even that doesn't sit well with me. The perfect solution would be if we have family that lived closer, I think I could accept that much easier than any other scenario. I still want a career and the day will probably come when I will feel kind of "trapped" at home, but for now I just have this overwhelming feeling to protect her for as long as I can. Like I said before, holding your baby in your hands for the first time changes a lot of things, a lot more than you could ever imagine - even while you're pregnant.

I am looking forward to 2009! I can't promise you that it will be as exciting a year as 2008 has been but I will definitely keep you posted and up-to-date. Hopefully, we won't have any news of any new additions this year (knocking on wood) but if we do...rest assured that you'll be hearing about it and you can take that journey with us too. I hope you all have a wonderful new year, here's to 2009!

Milestone

Yesterday Y had her 4 month Well Baby Visit and aside from a little head cold, all is well. She is 14 lbs, 3oz and is currently 26 inches long with a head circumference of 16 inches. She is strong, healthy and an amazingly happy baby. We love her more and more every day! Today she ate her first meal that wasn't from a breast or from a bottle! She actually had her first serving of rice cereal. I wasn't expecting her to take to it so quickly but she really surprised me. After the 3rd or 4th spoon she had it down and would even lean forward and open her mouth when she wanted more. She didn't eat much, but then again I didn't expect her to, and she topped it all off with some yummy breast milk. She also played with her exersaucer for the first time today and she really enjoyed it. She was mesmerized by all the toys and lights and sounds. I am sure she will be spending many, many hours playing in it. Maybe that will allow me to get some cleaning done. It really is her own personal amusement park. Anyway, here are some pictures from today.

Y's First Christmas

Christmas was an awesome day, but then again it usually is. At Y's 2 month doctor visit the doctor recommended that we not get her a whole lot this Christmas because she really wouldn't know enough to care much about all the gifts anyway. Well we really hadn't planned on getting her a whole lot anyway because she already had her bouncy chair, swing and gym that occupied much of her playing time. Santa brought her a couple of things that she could just lay or sit on the floor and play with and we got her some clothes. We are glad that we didn't get her toys because everyone else did. She got an ExerSaucer that is more like a personal amusement park, (it is a play mat and an exersaucer and after she outgrows the exersaucer stage it is converted into a play table) she absolutely loves it. A Rainforest Xylophone Piano, a ball that plays music and lights when you move it, a space saver high chair, a lights and sound star stacker, a singing nursery rhyme book, Leap Frog Maracas, a vibrating teething ring, links for her car seat, a snugly blanket, a Laugh & Learn "Cookie Jar", a book that her NanaB. made that is a counting book but she uses the members of the family as the counting objects, a Rainforest Jumperoo is on it's way, a few clothes, and a hooded sweatshirt from this store called Fox Outfitters that says FOX so it looks like it's made just for her (and we'll tell her just that)! Anyway, the whole family had dinner together except Lance who is on his mission in Argentina and Claudia who is in Norway. The saddest part of Christmas was that my brother had to spend the day in the hospital. A few months ago he had to have surgery on his knee and sometime between then and now he formed a big blood clot. Well it is in his thigh but some pieces have broken off and are headed towards his lung if not there already. So we're praying for him. They have given him blood thinners in hopes that they will help, time will tell, but we are remaining optimistic! Anyway, I hope your Christmas was as merry as ours was! Enjoy the pictures!

To Grandmother's House We Go...

On Saturday, December 13, Y and I packed up our bags and headed to the airport. Our flight was scheduled to leave at about 3pm. The day started out pretty smooth, we packed, left for the airport, said our goodbyes and made it through security without any problems. I will say that going through security with a 3 month old, a diaper bag and a carry-on, plus having to remove your coat and shoes is not a simple task. Luckily I had a very nice TSA agent help me move all of my stuff to an area where I could sit and take my time getting everything situated. So after getting all that straight I put Y in her BabyBjorn and we were off to find our gate. We were flying out of a brand new terminal at the airport so I was not familiar with it at all but boy was it pretty cozy. When I reached the gate I quickly realized that I was supposed to go to the bathroom before going through security so that B could hold Y while I went...so let's just say we had fun figuring that one out. But we did figure it out without making any mess at all! Anyway, our flight was about 25 minutes late leaving Detroit so when I made it to Chicago I had just enough time to change Y before boarding my plane for Raleigh. We arrived in Raleigh on time, however, when I turned my phone off airplane mode I had a text message from my brother saying that they had a flat tire before they even left the driveway (they had just bought new tires). He sent me another message saying he had borrowed my uncle's car and that they were on their way. So when I looked at the current time and the time that he sent the text message I figured that I at least had another half hour/45 minute wait before they made it to pick me up so I went to the bathroom and changed Y again because just as we were landed she left mommy a nasty little present. So while in the middle of changing Y I get another text from him saying that they are almost there and that they would meet me, they must've been flying to make it there that quickly. So then I begin to rush and I hurry to baggage claim where I see 2 of my 3 bags already off the carousel with a lady that works for Southwest standing beside them. So I walk up to her and she asks if those are my bags and I tell her yes but that one is missing. My luggage arrived, my pack and play arrived, my car seat (the most important item to me) did not arrive. I look at the lady and ask, "so my car seat is lost" and she looks at me and replies, "no, it's not lost it's just not on the plane, but we'll find it." Now correct me if I'm wrong, but last time I checked if you don't know where something is...then it's LOST!!! We go to the office and fill out all this paperwork and they give me this crappy "loaner" that I have no idea how to use, luckily my brother was able to figure it out. So anyway, I finally get my car seat back 36 hours later at 2am in the morning. As we're leaving the airport my mom gets really sick but we make it home safely. Apparently whatever my mom was sick with everyone else in the house had already had so by Wednesday it was my turn. Now Y had been going through a stage where she wanted no one but Mommy and then going to this far away place which is loud and has so many people that she has never seen before in her short life was probably a bit much for her. But it took my being sick for her to really open up to the rest of the family and from that point on she played with everyone and was great. Needless to say the week flew by for us and before we knew it, it was time for us to leave. Well thankfully for us we managed to make it to the airport safely but we were not excited to leave 60/70 degree weather for the frigid Michigan air. A couple days before the Midwest had been pounded by a huge snowstorm so when we got to the airport we found that my flight to Chicago had been delayed about an hour. This put me in a panic because I would barely have enough time to de-board my plane and board my other flight. That proved to be nothing to worry about because before I even left Raleigh my flight to Detroit from Chicago had been delayed two hours. We make it to Chicago and I find myself with 2 hours to burn, Y sleeps through all of this. Then they keep telling us that our plane is on it's way and will be here soon, blah blah blah. An hour later it finally arrives and we end up sitting on the plane for another 20 to 30 minutes going nowhere. We finally land in Detroit at 1:40am, I rush straight to baggage claim, wait at least 20 minutes for the carousel to start moving, collect 2 of my bags and find that the 3rd bag is nowhere to be found. They lost my car seat...AGAIN!!! I am royally ticked at this point, so we get in line to report it missing and there are about 40-50 people ahead of us. As it turns out, everyone on our plane that checked a car seat, their car seat was lost. I'm sorry, but how do you lose every car seat on a plane along with the luggage of 40 people when the plane was delayed 3 hours? They can't say that they didn't have time to get it on the plane...I think this is the case of lazy baggage-loading-people. But through it all I must say that I have an extremely patient husband who waited there until 4 or 5 in the morning knowing he had to get up at 6am and go to work. I also have an amazing baby because though it all, she never cried. I was horrified of flying with her because of the ear popping but she never cried once. She never needed the pacifier, the breast or the bottle, it just didn't bother her! So I guess my luck was balanced by my misfortune. We got our car seat back by noon but Southwest Airlines will definitely be hearing from me. That was a long story...here are some pictures from the trip.

Happy 28th Birthday, B!!!

So today is B's birthday and I have decided to make a list of 28 Reasons why I love him, so here goes (in no specific order):

1. He's a great dad.
2. He's patient with me.
3. He's the Ying to my Yang.
4. He supports me in my decisions.
5. He loves his family unconditionally.
6. He's funny.
7. He can quote every line of Billy Madison & Happy Gilmore.
8. He's dependable.
9. He loves the Lord.
10. He respects me and my opinions, even if he doesn't agree with them.
11. He's pretty dang sexy! :)
12. He loves my family and they love him.
13. Most of the time he lets me have my way.
14. He doesn't mind helping people.
15. He doesn't require a lot.
16. He sacrifices his wants/needs for mine.
17. He loves me as much as I love him.
18. He listens while I babble (or at least her pretends to).
19. He gives me encouragement when I need it.
20. He never criticizes me.
21. He always there to give me a hug and kiss whenever I need it.
22. He would get up and get me whatever I wanted while I was pregnant simply because I didn't want to get up and get it myself. (He actually still does it now that I'm not pregnant).
23. He's gentle and kind.
24. He's dedicated.
25. He cooks and cleans.
26. He doesn't snore! Although I'd still love him if he did, I'm grateful that he doesn't.
27. He's very easy to buy presents for, either electronics or Piston's stuff.
28. He really is my knight in shining armor.

Some Pictures!

Seriousness

Happiness

3 Months or 13 Weeks

In just a matter of hours my baby will turn both 3 months and 13 weeks - she was born on a Thursday which just happened to be on the 4th day of September. As I looked at her as I rocked her to sleep tonight I could not believe how much time has gone by. A couple days ago as I was playing with her I heard her giggle for the first time. As hard as I tried to get her to repeat it, it never happened so I will be watching and listening intently over the next several days waiting for her to do it again. But as I reminisce over these past few months, I realize how blessed we have been. We're healthy, we have a healthy and happy baby, and things have worked out for the best for us in all situations. I mean, not long ago I was crying and upset and completely ready to give up on breastfeeding then when I finally thought I was getting the hang of it there was another wrench thrown into the situation when she stopped gaining weight. Now that I look back on it, I am so very happy that I stuck it out no matter what. It is so rewarding to me to be able to provide that for nourishment for my baby. Not to mention that I love the time that we get to spend together while she nurses. It definitely wasn't easy but I'm glad we stuck it out! I've said it before and I'll say it again, I never could have imagined how much a baby would change our lives. I can't think of a single thing that hasn't been changed in one way or another since she was born. I have learned a thing or two about myself as well as a few things about motherhood. This has been one of the, if not THE, most rewarding time periods of my life. I've gained a little more patience (although not too much more) and I've also learned a very, very valuable lesson: I am not superwoman! As disappointed as I am to admit it, I realized that I cannot do everything. I guess I've always wanted to do my best and be the best at everything, juggling a million things at once. Well, I think I'm over that! I've also gained a huge appreciation and respect for my own mother. I have always had a really close relationship with my mom but I don't think I ever really understood just what a mother sacrifices for her child until I had my own. There is nothing that I wouldn't do for her. I've also never wanted time to slow down as much as I have over the past few months...my baby is growing up and there is nothing I can do to stop it. I guess that means I'll have to appreciate each day a little more. One thing that I am extremely grateful for though is that now I tend to have a little more free time each day. For a while there I had very little time to myself and that can be tough on any one...even superwoman.

Small Changes

FYI: In an effort to be slightly more "safe" I have started referring to us using our initials. So from here on out you will see us refered to as B, U and Y (That actually spells BUY, and that wasn't intentional). I just didn't wanna make it super easy for some internet wacko to find out information about us and I didn't wanna change our blog name in order to disguise our last name. I also wanted to avoid making the blog private if at all possible, so we'll see how this works. I've gone through all of our previous postings and changed those as well.

Thanksgiving and Such...

We had an awesome Thanksgiving. It was a small group, just B and I, Y, and B's parents and brother drove over from Canada. I cooked my very first turkey (B had cooked them in years past) and it was pretty dang good!!! We also had macaroni and cheese, green beans, mashed potatoes, collard greens, NC style barbecue (pulled pork), hush puppies and apple pie for dessert (Queta made the pie). It was all amazing but the turkey was definitely the best! It was Y's first Thanksgiving but she didn't get to enjoy any of the food...not directly anyway! P, Q & T stayed overnight to watch Y so that I could go shopping on Black Friday while B was at work. I was up at 4am with a goal to be out by 4:30 but i ended up having to pump because I was engorged, so it was closer to 5am when I left. Luckily BestBuy is just down the street, but even so it was nowhere near as bad as last year. Maybe I just got lucky but I don't I didn't really wait in line for too long anywhere I went, even Walmart. I have a couple more gifts to buy, but I got a large amount of the shopping done. Now we are just gonna go buy Y some new clothes (yes, more clothes) this weekend.

My perfectly marinated and roasted turkey!

Yanna with her PapaBums

Napping with Mommy!

Yanna's tree sitting atop one of her gifts that I've yet to wrap (I figure she doesn't know the difference yet anyway).

She loves to look back and forth between her tree and the TV.

100

This is post number 100, woohoo!!! Hard to believe that I've posted that many times in less than a year. I guess with the pregnancy I had quite a lot to say, not to mention I actually had time to say it all. Sometimes I miss having all that free time, or at least being able to dictate my own schedule. One day that will happen again, it'll probably just be many years down the road when we've had all of our kids and they've all started school. Anyway, now that that's out of the way, lets get down to the nitty gritty.

Y had therapy today and she is doing exceptionally well!!! Her therapist is pretty amazed at the progress she has made and kept talking to Y telling her that it is all due to mommy's hard work. As I thought about that tonight, I thought about how wrong that therapist really was. I mean, sure B and I do her stretches and exercises with her but we honestly can't take credit for her quick progression. There has been a higher power at work in all this. Before she started her physical therapy she was given a priesthood blessing by her dad, granddad and uncle. Many prays have been offered up, diligently, on her behalf. So as much as I would like to, I know that I can't really take the credit for this. Even in a minor case of torticollis it would take a minimum of 3 months to correct and we're looking at just one month of therapy when all is said and done. We've been at this for a couple weeks now and her therapist said today that she can't see Y showing any preference any more. She is able to move and support her neck on both sides pretty evenly. We're extremely grateful for this blessing.

As for other news...Y LOVES television, much to my dismay. I dunno, maybe I'm just weird, but I really don't want her to watch TV. I hadn't really noticed her watching it really until sometime late last week. I had her sitting on my lap facing forward and I picked her up to turn her around so that I could play with her and she kept her head turned toward the television. Whenever I would turn her so far around that she couldn't see it, she would get very upset. This gave us a good laugh for a little while I must admit. But we've noticed her watching it a lot since then. She also likes to look at this chime that I have hanging in the house, she also likes it when we make it move so she can hear the noise. She is talking and smiling all the time now and brings more joy to our lives than I ever thought possible. She's up to 6 pairs of shoes now (like mother like daughter). She has officially worn every piece of 0-3 month clothing that she owns, which for those of you who haven't seen her closet, is no small feat. I take her home to NC for the first time in 2½ weeks, and I am extremely nervous about traveling with her. I have a 1 hour 15 minute flight (30 minutes in the air) from Detroit to Chicago, then a 1 hour layover, a 1 hour 45 minute flight from Chicago to Raleigh and then a 1 to 1½ hour drive home from the airport. Hopefully she's a good traveler because I don't wanna deal with a screaming 3 month old. I am really looking forward to her meeting her PopPop as well as her uncle, aunt and cousins. In talking to my mom, I mentioned how different it would be for Y. She's really not accustomed to being surrounded by so many people, typically it's just me, her and B. Another huge difference will be the noise level. With only 3 people in our house, you can imagine that it's pretty quiet...well back home it's is completely the opposite. Always loud and something is always going on. Babies are resilient so I am sure she will adjust fairly quickly but it will still be very interesting nonetheless.

Well it's my bedtime so I will say goodnight and leave you with only one picture for now! Goodnight!

This is what they mean by, "Sleeping like a baby."

Updates and Photos

On Thursday Y officially started her physical therapy and well, so far so good! We learned that she has great rotation and range of motion, however, we do need to work on stretching and strengthening the muscles on her left side. To do this they taught us an exercise to perform to stretch and another to strengthen. We do it each time that we change her diaper simply as a reminder to do the exercises. Luckily for us she doesn't mind doing them at all and even though we've only been doing it for a few days now it seems as if she is making some progress. We are supposed to go in for an appointment twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, until the problem is corrected and since she's not that severe of a case, hopefully that won't be for too long. She is now 10 weeks old and growing so fast. Sometimes I think back to the day she was born and I'm in awe by how fast it has all gone by and then I think ahead 18 years and think that at that point I'll still be sitting and thinking about how it all went by so fast. But for now I'm holding on to each day and just cherishing it for what it is. Babies change your entire perspective on life. Everything that I do now is done in consideration of how it could potentially affect her life and I am so much more cautious now than I used to be. I've even slowed down my driving speed, both when I'm driving with her and without her in the car, because I don't wanna increase the chance of something happening to me and thus causing me not to be able to be there for her like a mother should be. Granted that I can't control everything that happens, but I certainly can try to change the things that are within my control - so no more practicing for the Autobahn for me! I love that little girl sooooo much and it only increases with each smile that she gives me. It's also helped by the fact that she is sleeping through the night now. I mean, a couple weeks ago she started sleeping until 5am and that was great! Then she moved it to 5:30-5:45am and that was even better! But now, she lets mommy sleep until 7am, I'm in heaven!!! It allows for nights like this when I know I should go to bed but then I think to myself, "Hey, she'll sleep in until 7." I'm lovin' this and to top it all off, on Saturday she woke up at 7am, I fed her, she went back to sleep and I put her back in her crib anticipating that she would only sleep another hour of two (if that) but to my pleasant surprise she slept until about 11:15am. I actually had to go in and check on her to make sure she was alright. So things are going great and I finally feel like I am settling in to motherhood. It is such a drastic change, more so than I could have ever imagined and I realize now that this is nothing that I could have planned for. Yes we planned to have a baby, but I never ever could have planned or predicted the way it would change our lives and the things that you want out of life. I want to be better than what I am because I want to be better for her. Now I only need to remember all these feelings in the future when she begins to talk back to me and I begin to lose my temper, haha. So when that time comes, please send me back and tell me to read this post, I'll need the refresher I'm sure. But long story short - I LOVE being Y's mommy!

Anyway, enjoy the pictures:

I hate snow, even in small amounts!

After we finished her stretching exercises.

Look at how thick those thighs are getting! Breast milk...it does a body good! But then again with the amount that she kicks those legs they probably won't stay that way for too long!

Brandon was gone grocery shopping so Yanna & I started snapping pictures, as best we could with only one hand.

In one word...BREATHTAKING!! My baby's gorgeous and even she knows it!

Read the bib, not the face!

My two favorite people in the whole wide world, I really couldn't ask for a better life!

A Little News & A Lotta Pictures

Y starts physical therapy on Thursday and she will go twice a week "from here on out." What does "from here on out" mean, I have no clue but it sounds like a pretty long time! I am just happy that I was finally able to get her an appointment quickly. I called two other hospitals and they both said it would be at least a few weeks before they could get her in so I finally called the children's hospital again and was transferred from person to person until I could find the one that I needed. The same one that I've been waiting for to call me for the past week. Her reply to me was, "You were on my list to call today," (uh huh, sure I was)! Anyway, here are some pictures and even a video or two.

Hiding in the Rain forest

Gangsta Baby!

Posing with Uncle L

Can you tell how much she loves her daddy?

A couple more before bed.

Saying goodbye to Uncle L before he leaves for his mission. (She'll be 2 the next time he sees her and #2 will probably be on the way).

Random videos of her happy times.

Doctor's Visit & Shots

Well if you haven't guessed from the title of the post, Y had a visit with her pediatrician and received shots today. I took her to the county health department to get her immunizations because our health insurance doesn't cover them (who's ever heard of such a thing) so it ended up being way cheaper for us than had we done it at the doctor's office. Anyway, she did really well, I was honestly surprised at how well she did as was the lady who gave her the shots. She did cry but only while getting the shots. After the needle was in and out she'd quit crying. She also hasn't been very cranky or upset for the remainder of the day. She has slept quite a bit (which I've enjoyed) and while she was awake she was her usual smiling and happy self.

As for the doctor's visit, there was good and bad. The good: she's now 12lbs, 23¾ inches long with a head circumference of 15½ inches. For those of you who have asked about her color (pigmentation) there is still hope for her getting darker, Keep hope alive!!! But really she is a healthy, happy baby! The bad: apparently she has what is called torticollis, which is fancy doctor language for a head tilt. Her doctor said that it's congenital torticollis so she either developed it while still in the uterus or during the whole birthing process. The good news is that it is totally treatable. I am taking her to get xrays on Monday to make sure that there's not some type of tissue mass causing it and we also have to start taking her to physical therapy. There we will learn the techniques we need to know in order to stretch the muscle and teach her proper balance and all that stuff. From what I've read online this may take up to a year or she may even have to have surgery to correct it, but that is pretty drastic and from what I understand doesn't happen all that often, so we're remaining optimistic. If you look at the pictures to the right you can see what I mean by the way she tilts her head to her left side. This weekend B's family is going to visit so while they're here we're gonna make sure she gets a Priesthood Blessing. Also add her name to your prayers and we're sure this will pass without any problems or complications. One of the websites that I visited said that first time parents often mistake it for just the floppy neck of a newborn. And that website was completely right because that is definitely what I attributed it to being. However, now that the doctor has pointed it out I have been able to pinpoint things that I should have noticed before. Like the way she likes to hold her head when in certain positions or how she hates some when he head is in another position. But anyway, like I said before, it is totally treatable and not something that we think she will have to live with for the rest of her life. It's just sad knowing that she has a problem like this and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it and I always tend to expect the worse out of every situation. It's something I'm working on but, hey, it takes time!

If you are curious and wanna read up on it yourself, here are some of the websites that I visited: Torticollis Kids, Baby Center and Wikipedia. They're in the order that I found them most helpful!

A Beautiful Day in November!

This week in Michigan we have been having some absolutely AMAZING weather. We've reached 70 degrees two days in a row and to have this weather here in Michigan is rare during this time of year. And it means one thing and one thing only...next week we'll have snow! Anyway, on Tuesday I took her to the park during the weekly playgroup with a bunch of women from church and their children. She couldn't play with the other kids but I got to do some socializing. Below are some pictures of that as well as her wearing a cute little shirt that her Aunt S gave her. (For those of you that don't know any spanish, it say, "Daddy's Little Princess." Enjoy!

So Happy I Could Cry...Literally!

Well all the major news stations have just called the presidency in favor of Barack Obama. This is huge for me and honestly, as much as I wanted it to happen I didn't really believe that it could happen. I mean, clearly, I believe that Obama was the better man for the job but I guess I didn't have enough faith that this could actually happen. Maybe I didn't have enough faith in Americans in general. Maybe, having been raised in the south, my view of race relations is still pretty negative on most accounts. I suppose I have learned a valuable lesson tonight, as has the rest of the nation. I didn't think it could be done and I honestly refused to get my hopes up. So as I said in the title, I'm so happy I could cry...and once the shock wears off I probably will (either then or while I watch his acceptance speech)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Results Are In...

So for those of you familiar with Gestational Diabetes you know that six weeks or so after a gestational diabetic delivers the baby they have to have another screening for diabetes. Well I went in for the test on Saturday, October 18th. It was a pretty stressful day because I cannot tell you how badly I didn't wanna have to deal with diabetes. Well yesterday I received the results and I'M DIABETES FREE!!!! I was soooo happy. Some might not really understand why I was so happy about it. I mean, very rarely does it not go away after the pregnancy. Well in my case, the doctor was pretty certain that I would have diabetes. Most people aren't diagnosed until 24-28 weeks of pregnancy, they typically don't even do the tests before that point. Well due to my lovely family history my doctor decided to test me early and I was diagnosed at 12 weeks. So it's kind of a big deal to me that I don't have it because I really went through my whole pregnancy thinking that I had it for sure.

Every year on our anniversary we take a picture to add to our wedding album, this is this year's picture.

So this definitely isn't the most flattering picture of me but it's pretty funny. Yanna can latch on to my top lip and she does it quite often when she's hungry. It's a mobile pacifier and it keeps her quiet until I can feed her!

She loves her bouncy chair (but not as much as she loves her swing)!

Time Flies

They say time flies when you're having fun! Well it's true because I've had the best 3 years of my life married to B! Yep, today is our 3 year anniversary! That's short compared to most of you but a milestone for us nonetheless. Especially for me! I mean 6 or 7 years ago, had you asked me, I would have told you I wasn't getting married and I definitely wasn't having kids! So if you've learned anything about me it should be that what I say is worth a grain of salt! Because this awesome guy came along and convinced me to marry him. And to top it all off he convinced me to have a baby too! The power of persuasion!!!

All jokes aside, I can honestly say that I have had the best three years of my life married to B and this year it takes on a whole new meaning as I sit here holding our daughter. If I can be blunt and honest then I must admit that growing up I had a pretty crappy impression of marriage. Though I love my parents and I know they love each other, it was not exactly a great depiction of what a marriage should be. Honestly, none of the relationships that I witnessed as a child were really "healthy" relationships. It wasn't until I joined the church that I really started to see what marriage could be. But I didn't think that was possible for me so instead of risking it I just said I'd spend my life single. And then along came B, convincing me that not only were there loving, gentle and kind guys out there but also that I was worthy of one of those guys. I don't think we have a perfect marriage, I don't even think the perfect marriage exists. But I do know that I will do everything in my power to assure Y (and her unborn siblings) that marriage is a wonderful blessing when it's with the right person. And I want to teach her (them) this by action and not words. I dunno what I did to deserve him, but Heavenly Father sent me the greatest gift I could have asked for and every day that I awake and see him laying next to me I am even more grateful. I love you, BPF and I'm welcoming eternity with open arms thanks to you!!!