Pioneer Day Breakfast

Our stake did some awesome Pioneer day activities on the 23rd.  They had a really good pancake breakfast for everyone starting at 8 and then after eating and hanging out with everyone, there was a little parade for the kids.  They brought bikes and rode around the church and a lot of them were dressed up in pioneer clothes.  So cute!  Afterwards, they had someone come set up a petting zoo.  Kayton fell in love.  He absolutely loves animals and he had fun getting to touch them, inside and outside the cage, and would jump and laugh after everyone he touched.  I am anxiously waiting the day we have a place where I can get a dog for him.  

Breakfast

The guy in charge of the petting zoo brought this outfit and had a bunch of guys put it on

He loved the dogs

Ride 'em cowboy!

Now that we are home

Things have been going good.  Granted it's only been like 3 full days, but Nate was able to take a few days off work and stay home to help me and we have had some friends help us out too along with people from church bringing us food.  I have recovered so much better than with Kayton and it has been such a blessing.  I'm hardly bleeding at all and am able to do pretty much everything again.  

Kayton is doing really well with Merrick.  He gets so excited whenever he wakes up and he wants to go get him out of his bassinet and hold him.  He loves to give hugs and kisses, and is really good at helping us burp him.  I am still trying to make sure that he doesn't really feel left out but it is a little harder since I don't really want to take Merrick outside just yet, so we are stuck inside with not much to do.  

Merrick has slept pretty well.  His first night home was good, I actually had to set alarms during the night to make sure that I woke him up to eat.  But then the next night was a different story.  He was up pretty much all night, I'm surprised I survived the day after.  Now he has been a good sleeper again.  We'll see how this really turns out.  He has some problems with not wanting to sleep on his back, but he is being a good eater.  He hasn't had any problems with feeding and at his 48 hr appointment yesterday, the doctor said that he is looking great and his weight is doing good so I'm loving it.  I'm nervous for when Nate has to be gone all day for work and I'm home by myself, but I just have to get use to it.  I love being a Mommy though.  

Merrick Bruce Adams

Our second little boy is here!  He came on July 24, 2011 at 8:26 am.  He weighed 7 lbs, 10 oz and was 19 1/2 in long.  Here is the story.

On Friday, I had a doctor's appointment and the doctor stripped my membranes to try to get the process started.  Well, it must have worked because the next day, Saturday, we did our normal stuff and I got lots of cleaning done so that I felt ok with going into labor and coming home to a mostly clean house.  At the end of the day, I was starting to feel contractions but they weren't consistent at all yet.  I had 2 false labors and so I wanted to make sure that what was happening was for real before we headed to the hospital.  I went and laid down at around 9 o'clock and then the contractions stopped for a little bit and I slept for like an hour.  Nate came in and woke me up to check on me and at 11, I started having real heavy contractions. Again, I was a little hesitant to jump the gun and go right to the hospital, so I hung out and kept track of them for about 2 hours.  I got to the point where they hurt too much so we left.  Thanks to our neighbors Kylie and TJ, they came over and slept at our house with Kayton so we could go.  We got to the hospital and they hooked me up to the monitor and sure enough, I was in labor.  7 cm to be exact.  Since I wanted an epidural, they rushed to get the tech up there so I could get it before I got too far along.  I liked the tech a lot better than my last one and it worked great.  They let us rest for a couple hours and of course I couldn't sleep for very long, but I did get a little sleep and then they came and checked me and I hadn't progressed at all so at around 6:30, they gave me some pitocin to pick things up again.  Within an hour and a half, they came in and checked me and said I was just about there.  My water didn't break yet, so they broke it and then said that I was ready to go.  According to the computer, I started pushing at 8:19 and he came out at 8:26.  So I pushed for 7 minutes and the nurse said that it was only like 4 contractions and then he was out.  Crazy.  It was so easy for me and I was so glad that I didn't push for an hour like last time.  He basically slid himself right out and I saw his head come up and then they put him right on top of me.  While he was on me and they tried to clean him off a bit, all the sudden I feel something going down my side and he had peed on me.  They joked and said that at least they didn't have to wait for him to pee in a diaper now.  They took him and I got all cleaned up and had to get 5 stitches.  With the epidural, I got a little extra dose and so when they took me off, it took forever for me to get feeling in my legs again.  I had to have help for like 3 hours after if I needed to stand up.  

At around 11, Nate went and got Kayton from home and had someone from church meet us at the hospital to take Kayton with them and that was the first time he saw the baby.  He really did look so much bigger when I saw him just like everyone said he would.  He was a little unsure of everything, but we got him to hug and kiss the baby before he left and he was really good about it.  He left and then we got moved up to recovery.  We had a few visitors throughout the day and I just basically got to relax and sit in a bed all day.  It was really nice.  Thank you to our friends Randon and Jerah for taking care of Kayton basically Sunday night and Monday morning.  We couldn't have done it without them. 

 On Monday, I was ready to go home.  I wanted to be with Kayton like I'm use to so I wanted to get discharged that day.  Merrick was good to go that morning but I needed to wait for my doctor to come up and discharge me.  There were lots of deliveries going on that day so she wasn't going to be able to come up until the afternoon.  We ended up not leaving until 6 o'clock that night, but we got home and had dinner waiting for us and now we are just trying to get used to our new life.  Adjustment is hard.  He is such a sweet little boy though.  I love this age where they will just lay on your stomach and sleep for forever.  I'm really enjoying it right now.  He is really cute too.  He has a good mixture of Nate and I, but he reminds us a lot of how Kayton looked when he was born.  We love it and I'm so glad the pregnancy is over.  

(Fun fact: Both of our baby's were born on a Sunday morning, and each was a special day of sorts.  Kayton was born on Superbowl Sunday and Merrick was born on Pioneer Day)

Get Out

I am now 38 weeks (tomorrow) and I know that's still normal and I should want to wait until I am 40 weeks before the baby comes, but I am just so uncomfortable and so miserable right now that I just want him to get out.  Last Wednesday, I was having contractions and things were hurting so I felt like I should go.  Turns out it was false labor but they gave me the option to walk around for an hour and see if the contractions would start up again.  After the hour, still no contractions and they sent me home.  I was dilated to a 4 in front, but when they went back by the cervix, I was a 2.  So they called it 2 centimeters.  I have been trying most things to get myself to go into labor but even though this little guy is down and in position and pretty much ready to go, I guess he's not totally ready yet.  While we were at the hospital and were doing our walking around, I was walking by a room and I could hear the woman pushing and then I heard the baby come out and have the first cry.  It made my mother instincts kick in and made me realize how much I really want a baby again and I feel ready now.  I'm ready to hold another little boy in my arms and take care of him and see him grow up with his brother.  So please baby, either help mommy be a little more comfortable for the next week or two, or just do us all a favor and come out now.  Thanks.  I love you and can't wait to meet you.

4th of July

We have been needing to get out of Flagstaff for a long time now and with the baby coming soon, we decided that we would make it a big trip and so we went to Durango, CO to see our family there.  I am so glad we did because we had so much fun.  We got there on Friday night and on Saturday we just hung out and then my friend from high school got married and our families are really close so we got to go to her ring ceremony and wedding reception.  Aside from Kayton not wanting to be there, we had fun and I got to see a lot of my old friends from church and stuff.  

Aunt Mikayla

Kisses from Papa

On Sunday it was just relaxing and hanging out some more.  We had a little game of horse going on with the basketball and Nana and Papa set up a little kids pool with water for Kayton to play in.  He loved it.

Then, Monday the 4th was our big day.  We started out by grabbing some lunch and taking it to the park to eat.  The one we went to had a drop area where you can go right down to the river.  It's so amazing and we let Kayton play there for a few minutes.  Some day we will go do a rafting trip on the river.  After we were done there, we headed out to see Granny and Aunt Cindy at their house.  Dad and Mom did some yard work and we did some catching up inside with everyone.  I miss being so close and going out there whenever I want.  After we were done visiting, we went back and had a lovely BBQ dinner, watched the firework show on TV and then Nate, Kayton and I journeyed out to see the real firework show.  We went up to Fort Lewis College and sat on this great spot overlooking the city and we were basically looking right at the fireworks.  Kayton was good fora bout the first ten minutes.  He sat on Nate's lap and pointed out to the fireworks after they boomed and said "ooh and awww."  We then got him home and put him to bed.

He just loved sitting on that little stool and watch Nate play pool

At the fireworks

Pointing to the fireworks as they were going off

Sadly though, our trip had to come to an end.  On Tuesday morning, we packed up and got everything loaded and then we had lunch with everyone at Serious Texas BBQ (yum) and then we were on our way home. 

Sisters

Yummy Texas Taco

It was definitely too short of a trip for us, but now that I'm home, I feel like I am ready for this baby to come and I feel great having my little getaway.  One of the best parts for us was that Kayton wasn't really shy this time.  He gave everyone loves and kisses and even let people hold him.  He learned to say Nana and Papa and that just made us all happy.  Thanks for letting us come Mom and Dad.

So beautiful!

Duck Ponds

In downtown Flagstaff there is a little pond where people can go fishing and they have ducks there.  We have been a couple times before now but have never really seen the ducks until last week.  They were right there on the edge of the pond and the mom had babies which made it even more fun.  We took some bread and fed them and tried to follow them around and then all Kayton wanted to do was play with a stick in the water.  He was so cute and so were the ducks.