End of Summer Recap. Part 1

More than ever, I craved some serious vitamin D after Jaz was born. I was getting the "baby blue's" and just needed to feel like I had less routine, and more sponteneity. Every day that Dustin had to work, I was taking the kids out on the lawn to enjoy the nice weather. When Dustin had a day off, or even after he would get home from work, he'd do whatever it took to get me out of the house. He could see I was struggling. He's always so selfless, something I am so in love with. Prior to having Jaz, I obviously didn't feel like being 30lbs heavier and 110 degrees, so I didn't want to be outside. I don't handle being too hot very well. I become a beast, to say the least. Not only did I want to be outside, but I wanted my body back. I wanted to feel more confident, and I wanted to be able to grab clothes out of my closet and just get dressed without worrying how it'd make me look or feel. I was extremely exhausted with going through shirt after shirt after shirt to find one that didn't make me look as terrible as I felt about my appearance. Of course, it was all for a good cause, and I wouldn't trade it for anything, but there's something about pregnancy that once you've had your baby you really want to find something that makes you feel less frumpy.

Towards the end of my pregnancy Dustin and I had been on the hunt for a good mountain bike for me to ride. Not just leisurely riding around town, but full on mountain biking sounded more than appealling. (Not that I would be ready for that this summer, maybe next!) Something to help me get my body back in to shape, and a hobby that Dustin and I could do together. We ended up finding one that I adore and I spent the entire end of summer riding from Salina to Redmond up the Willow Creek road, and back home. A good 15 miles. It was rough at first, but I was slowly getting more and more used to riding. Dustin would ride with me on an older mountain bike of his dad's, because he could see how anxious I was to excersise, but moreso, because he loves riding just as much as I do. It also gave me an hour or so without changing diapers or breastfeeding. Me time.

We made some great memories in Jaz's

first few months just staying close to home. Family is everything.

So, here's our end of summer pics. Filled with lots and lots of outside playing.

Please don't ever have good grammer...

(This was a post I never published from months ago. I had to just post it as is so I don't forget these little sayings from Jaiya)


Ok, well we all know that's a joke...
I'm a fan of good grammer.
(not that I always have good grammer or anything...)

I just can't go any longer without blogging. This sweet little one of ours comes up with the silliest things. We laugh all. of. the. time. I'm sure I've forgotten some, but I'm gonna try my best.

Nutella- Vanilla
"You know who I love?......YOU!"
When she wakes up she walks in to our room saying, "I slept so good!, hey, good morning Mama, I slept So good!"
Uses our dishwasher door as an X-ray machine. (she doesn't know that's what I do for a living. She thinks I'm doctor...)
If she's in trouble, she breaks our hearts by saying, "Do you still love me?"
"We're best friends..."
Wal Mart and Richfield are both Rickshfield.
If you ask her where she got something, "The shop"

TODAY

I feel like all of my posts in the last year, maybe even longer, have pretty much only consisted of constantly playing  catch up. No real depth has been shown because with the amount of pictures and info I need to quickly update, I'm exhausted by the time I'm caught up, and therefore I don't get much 'expressing myself' in. So as part of my New Year's Resolutions I'm going to document not only the big, but the little things as well. I want may babies to have this when they're older with families of they're own. I want them to know we love them with every fiber of our being. That our entire world consists of life with them. We adore them.

The last few days Jaz has been getting more and more sick. We luckily were able to enjoy our Christmas 'bug free.' But by the next day, Jaz was coming down with something, this was a first for little guy. I can always tell when my babies are sick. Their eyes tell me so much. By last night Jaz was fevering, coughing terribly and crying from feeling so miserable. Jaiya had a sleepover with her cousin Shandee at Grandma Candi's so we were able to concentrate solely on each of us taking turns with Jaz, and getting some rest. All without having to worry about Jaiya waking up.

Today we stayed home from church, cuddling Jaz, watching tv series, and eating lots of pizza.

Jaiya and I also got in some cuddles before she quickly fell asleep. Apparently her bedtime last night was 1a.m. Grandma's was so fun, there was no time for sleep I guess.

Hopefully my sick little punkin baby gets feeling better quickly. He's so handsome and sweet, even when he's sick. It took riding around in the car to get him to finally fall asleep.

Johnson's...Party of 4

We took our first vacay as a family of  4.
Mom needed a much needed break from the all too familiar and indented spot on the couch, doing nothing but pumping and feeding like an animal, and J needed school clothes. So, we took a little stay-cation to Lehi.
It was just what we needed. Or, I guess I should rephrase that...It was just what I needed.
We played, shopped, ate and swam. Jaiya got some one on one time, mainly from daddy since mom has to feed the babes and change dipey's and such...but, she enjoyed every minute of it. Having a little one is an adjustment for all of us, but we have been doing our best to make Jaiya feel just as loved and important as she was before.

P.S when we pulled in to our hotel, standing right beside our car was the famous Mr. Danny Glover! cha-ching!!!

Jaz/ 2 Weeks

Fun Facts:

From day one,  Jaz has been the most smiley baby.  

Jaz loves a diaper change.  I don't know if it's that his changing pad is in front of his window or that he's getting a clean bum, or if it's both, but he loves it. 

He loves when his sissy sings to him. 

Jaiya cannot stand when Jaz is asleep. It just begs for her to give him kisses.  I cannot tell you how many times we've had to get after her for waking him up because of this!

Since the moment we brought him home, he has been the noisiest baby. Not fussy. Just noisy. He grunts and moans constantly. It took me a while to learn that no matter how long I held him asleep, the moment I lay him down he starts making noises until he falls asleep again on his own.

We've tried putting him in a bassinet and a bouncer to sleep in, but he sleeps much better in his bouncer. It must keep him more cuddled. 

Jaz is definitely a gassy baby. Hiccups and toots non-stop! But surprisingly not too fussy!

STATS:

9lbs 2oz---52%

22" long---82%

Head 39cm.

Jaz's Birth Story- Part 2

As we arrived at the hospital, I quickly got the exciting news that our nurse would be Krista Blackett. I had mentioned to her that I thought it would be fun if she could be my nurse, but unfortunately she was supposed to have that Tuesday off. Bummer....

Or so I thought...

She had been called in to work the Labor and Delivery dept. due to the fact that they had two inductions that morning and needed some extra help. Of course, she obliged, under the condition that she could be my nurse.

SCORE.

In all honesty I don't know Krista extremely well, but I had been asking her questions here and there about things going on with the pregnancy and I just felt like personality wise, we totally hit it off. She's a sweetheart.

***

Deb, the secretary at the nursing department, walked Dustin and I down to our room. I was still struggling with my urge's to cry, trying to comprehend the news we had gotten shortly before we left for the hospital. I was puffy, sore, excited, nervous, tired and anxious. I felt so rundown with emotion, yet I had just woken up.

 I quickly changed in to the dreaded maternity gown, got strapped in to the monitors, recieved my i.v, and then Krista checked me to see how far dilated I was. To my dismay, (I swore my contractions that I had been having days prior were doing something) I was still only at a 3...a larger 3 than I was a week before when Krista checked me at work. (perks of the job)

My mom had arrived by now, and it was so good to see her. I was nervous. I am not one to get emotional, it's too uncomfortable for me, but she was surprisingly doing great. She is strong like that so I don't know why I was surprised. I am just extremely grateful she could be there with us. I always want her there for the big and little things. It's fun to have her with us knowing she enjoys being with us as much as we enjoy having her. 

So, monitors were in place, and I was contracting on my own. Nothing too serious since I wasn't progressing naturally, but we waited a little bit anyway. Krista let me order some breakfast before they started the pitocin, which I unfortunately quickly threw up. I was so hungry all day. I hoped the nerves would override the feeling of hunger, but it didn't at all. Knowing I was unable to keep any food down, and with the okay from the doc, they started my pitocin. I was starting to feel some pain, but not very strong, so they raised the dose of the pitocin....then raised it again...I started contracting pretty good but I was only progressed to a 5. So they raised the pitocin yet again. Soon after, Krista called Dr. Abbott to relay our progress. Both Krista and myself wanted Dr.Abbott to say he'd break my water. I had told them that I didn't progress all the way with my first baby until I had my epidural and they broke my water. So, needless to say, we needed him to break my water to move things along. He agreed, surprisingly, to do just that! So, he came in to the hospital around noon or 1...I can't quite remember, and broke my water. I had my epidural first with Jaiya, so I didn't realize just how much gushing happens. I kept asking how much more I could possibly have in me. It was the strangest feeling. Now that the amniotic fluid was out, the contractions were getting stronger and stronger. I wasn't sure exactly how long to wait for my epidural, but I went about 45 minutes with hard labor before I caved. This was all going so differently from my labor with Jaiya. It all felt so new, like it was my first baby. It's true that no pregnancy or labor is the same. My epidural did almost exactly what it did with Jaiya. It went too high up on my body. Krista was pinching my chest to see just how far up I was numb, and I never felt a single pinch. So they turned off the epidural to give me some time to un-numb. I went over an hour with it shut off, and then I started feeling a lot of pain in my right hip so, they turned the epidural back on.  After some time had passed, Krista checked me to see exactly where baby was sitting. She noticed that the baby had plenty of room to move more to the left before he would fully make his way down. Hence, the right sided pain for a good five months prior. To help, she rolled me up on my left side and put my right leg in a sturip. After she checked me not too long later, it had helped so much I was now at a 7. She sat me up cause I was getting another dose from the epidural to hlep with the pain again. I sat upright, feet together and knees out for a good hour or more. She checked me again and I was still at a 7. I mentioned that since it was really helping to be on my left side, we should try that again. She agreed, and by ten to 6 I was at a 9 or so...she said, "Oh, it helped! We're ready to push, let me go call Dr. Abbott and see how close he is." He was on his way, but we were trying hard to keep from having baby before he could get there.

We called Mike and Candi, who had so kindly taken Jaiya since the night before. We wanted them to head over in time so Candi could be in the room for the delivery, and Jaiya would be there to see this little baby she had so patiently waited to arrive. Kayla had been there for a while at this point. She came around noon and left for a bit, but returned within a few hours. So she had been there most of the afternoon. We planned on my mom, Dustin's mom, and Kayla being in there with us, just like when we had Jaiya. I am not against having people in there, as long as they aren't down by the goods...if ya know what I mean.


Krista's shift was supposed to end by 5:30, but she had said if we were going to have the baby shortly after she'd stay to help deliver. Dustin kept joking with her that by 5:59 (or something wierd like that) I'd be ready. He was right, and she was kind enough to stay. Because of the shift change, Laura Obrey had just come on and was assigned as my nurse. Casey Dyreng had been in with Krista the last couple hours so she too decided to stay. So, at this point I had three nurses. They all got set up, called in respiratory, and we were ready. Dustin held my leg, Krista the other. And I started pushing. (As I started to push, I looked over at my mom who was crying. What an emotional day it had been for her. It was an incredibly spiritual and emotional day.) Three sets of 10 seconds of pushing with every contraction. Krista did the counting and I remember hearing every one in the room rooting me on! "You've got this sweetie..." "You're doing so good!"..."Come on Tash!" I specifically remember hearing almost every one of the people in there individually, cheering me on. There was Donna Duffin, Chelsey Roberts, Casey, Krista, Laura, Dr. Abbott, my mom, Candi, Kayla and I think even Rex Belnap (the anesthesiologist)  all in there. Dr. Abbott looked at me in between pushes and said, "There are a lot of people in here, are you okay with that?" I said yes of course, I definitely didn't care at this point. I was sooo ready! I pushed another three sets of 10 seconds and relaxed. Doc mentioned that we were really close, so I needed to push really hard again and the baby would probably be out. I did. I gave every single push my all, and I could hear people talking about all the hair they could see. I sat back and relaxed. No baby yet. Then Dustin said, "Look, the baby is coming out!...He's coming, look!" Dr. Abbott responded, "Yes he is, here he comes...." Dr. Abbott looked as though he could barely catch him as he made his way out. I don't know for the life of me how he came out once I relaxed, it was so bizarre. Dustin said you could see the crown of his head while I was pushing, but it sucked back in once I relaxed, then suddenly he shot out...

WE DID IT!

Every one was saying how beautiful he was, while they suctioned his nose, and made sure he was okay before they could hand him to me. 7 lbs. 15 oz of sweet, healthy baby boy. And tall...21" long.

They put his cute little nakey baby body right on my chest underneath my gown so we could have those first few moments of bonding together. It was more than words could describe. He was perfect. Almost immediately, Dustin went out and got Jaiya for her to see him. She seemed a little aprehensive at first...not knowing what to expect and all, but she was so excited to see her new baby brother, and was immediately fascinated with how tiny he was.

The rest of the family, who were ablet to make it, came to see us that evening. Having went the entire day without food, Dustin's parent's went out to get some for themselves and brought me back the yummiest, fattiest, cheeseburger with french fries and a nice sugary coke. Best meal ever.

After everybody left for the evening, they transferred us to a different room for our overnight stay. I let the nurse's take the baby to the nursery for the night, so Dustin and I could both get some rest before the sleepless weeks/months we had ahead of us. We were both exhausted. Dustin had started to get sick a couple of days before, and he had thrown up right before leaving for the hospital. I felt so bad, but he was such a trooper. He did his best to act as though he felt fine, but I knew he was
feeling terrible.

The first night went well, outside of the usual soreness, baby and me were both doing great. The next morning we had a few visitors, Jaz went in for his circumsision and we were headed home by about 6 pm that evening. My mom was so sweet and stayed that first night with us. She's always so helpful, and I loved having her here. I felt bad that the entire week following, she was busy planning grandma's funeral, her talk, trying to take care of us, all the while planning the stake hoe down that was only a week away.

Jaz was up all night the first few nights. Leaving us with the usual small amount of sleep most parent's get with a newborn. Jaiya always slept good, so this was new to us. It wasn't until about the fourth night that he started to get his days and nights down.

We could not have been happier with our decision to have our baby at SVMC. The staff was awesome, and we had the best experience. Krista was more than we could have ever expected in a nurse. She totally took charge and was so in control and on the ball the entire time.

Having our baby boy here has been so amazing. It's taking us all a little bit of adjusting, but our family feels complete.

Jaz Dustin Johnson

7.22.14