holding sis and helping out

I know I have a million pictures like these, I just love them!

Yesterday Mathias wanted to hold Azlyn. This is nothing new since he wants to hold her all the time. However this time Dev was pretty brave and let Mathias hold her all by himself while he was cooking dinner. Mathias held her by himself for a good 15 minutes. He held her even when she got fussy, he would just give her the binky and tell her that she was ok. I was so nervous that he would just push her aside when he was done so I wasn't to far away but he did so good and just told me when he was done.

ice skating

Today was a fun, low key day spent as a family. We are so sad that Dustin has to leave in the morning. Mom and Dustin brought over Pita Pit and we watched Avatar while Mathias was taking a nap. Dev and I hadn't seen it yet. It is not the type of movie that I would normally watch but it still amazes me what they can do with special effects. When Mathias got up we went ice skating. This is something all three boys love to do. Azlyn and I sat under the nice warm heater and watched everyone skate.

Here they are just getting on the ice. Mathias likes it when he holds two peoples hands the best. He mostly wanted to hold Uncle Dustin's hand and Mema's.

Here he is getting a little more brave. He loves his uncle Dustin so much probably because they are so much alike and both have a ton of energy and a love for the same things.

This is our first attempt to get him to skate between them, he was not to sure about it though. If you look closely you can see me and Azlyn in the background watching.

Waiting for the zamboni.

These were our best attempts at getting a family picture. Mathias wanted nothing to do with it though and just wanted to go back out on the ice.

2 week doctors appointment and other random ramblings

Today we went to Azlyn's 2 week doctors appointment. She now weighs 8 lbs 2 oz and is growing right on track. She is in the 40-50% for everything. She had to get her PKU test done as well. She did very good. She only cried for half a second when the nurse pricked her heel and for a minute towards the end. She is doing so good.

Tonight we went to see one of our nieces in a little play. I always said I wouldn't take sis out for a while especially since Mathias got sick when he was only 3 weeks old but the weather has been so nice and I have felt so good that it has been driving me crazy to stay inside. So little Miss Azlyn has been out quite a bit already. Anyways we had to take some pics of her in her cute little dress when we got home.

I am seriously the most impatient person. When I look at this picture I just can't help but wonder what color of eyes this little one is going to end up having. Oh and I just love those chubby little cheeks, I just want to eat them up.

We also decided to try some tummy time tonight. She doesn't seem to mind it and I even got a few smiles out of her!

Park with the whole family

We have been trying to come up with things that we can do as a whole family and for fairly cheap while Dustin is in town. Today we decided to grab some dinner and head out to a park. It was just too good of weather to not take advantage of and it was so much fun to just hang out.

Azlyn enjoying some some fresh air and a little sun.

Uncle Dustin trying to teach Mathias the correct way to throw a Frisbee. He kinda got it.

The boys played some frisbee and some soccer. Mathias also enjoyed the swings. I joined him for a minute with baby sis.

Uncle Dustin hanging out with Azlyn. She looks so tiny with his hand on her!

She has such a cute smile. Catching it on camera at the right time is proving difficult but we get pretty close.

I don't think Mathias loves his sister at all...

I just absolutely love this picture! She is just so precious.

Introducing...

Our very own rock star, Mathias!

Mathias loves to get out his guitar and sometimes his microphone and do a little dance and play some music for anyone willing to watch and listen. I must say that the kid has some awesome dance moves.

Uncle Dustin

Uncle Dustin is here visiting us for the week. Mathias totally knew who he was when he saw him even though he hasn't seen him in about a year and a half. We love that he is here and wish it was for longer.
Mathias loves him so much and has so much fun playing with him. I think it is because they both have so much energy! I also think it is because they are so much a like, it is actually kinda weird. I even call Mathias Dustin on accident some times. Anyways we love our Uncle Dustin!

A real bath!

We were finally able to give sis a real bath after her umbilical stump healed over. It went a lot better than her sponge bath.

The instant I put her in there she went to town sucking on her fist. I remember Mathias doing the exact same thing in his first bath but he actually found his thumb and that was the only time he used it. Anyways she sucked on her fist the whole time till I took it away to wash her hands and arms.

That is when she got upset. Poor thing, I hate seeing her so upset so I hurried as fast as I could while still getting a few pics.

When I was done scrubbing her down I turned on the faucet to get some clean water to wash her off.

As soon as I turned on the water she went super quiet and I realized she went right to sleep.

I just thought that was super funny. She was not asleep for long though because as soon as I went to get her out she got mad again.

She was happy again though as soon as I got her all wrapped up in her super cute new towel.

neighborhood bbq

Since the weather was so nice a bunch of couples in the complex got together at the park behind our building for a little BBQ. It was so nice to be outside and to enjoy the nice weather and hang out with everyone.

This was Mathias' very first time at attempting some baseball. He actually hit one after a couple of swings. I love that he is still wearing his helmet from riding his bike and that he swung the bat with his eyes closed and his tongue out. He is such a cute little guy. We are thinking about signing him up for T-ball this week.

This was Azlyn's second time at the park. She spent most of the time eating and sleeping away, as usual. I can't wait for the warm weather to be here to stay.

random pictures

Mathias asks to hold his baby sis all the time. He just loves to snuggle her and give her kisses. He is doing really well with her, however he is trying to get away with a bit more with us and push our buttons more. This is kinda hard for me cause I know he still needs to be disciplined but at the same time I know that his world has just been turned upside down. Hopefully this doesn't go on for very long. He has been getting to spend a lot of time with grandma and mema, in fact I think last night was the first time that I have had both kids by myself.
Also, tomorrow my brother Dustin flies in for the week so he will have all sorts of fun hanging out with him. Let's hope this warm weather is here to stay so we can go outside more and he can use and get rid of all his energy and and therefore won't drive us as crazy.

Azlyn loves her swing already. She will sleep in this thing for hours!

The other morning Dev was changing Azlyn's Diaper and as usual Mathias was there to observe. This time, however, he had on his safety goggles just in case.

She is just so cute. I love how it looks like she is smiling in this pic.

first doctor's appointment

We were supposed to have a five-day doctor's appointment but couldn't make one in time so she had one at exactly one week. She was so good for the appointment and didn't make a peep when the doctor poked and prodded her. They weighed and measured her first. Her length is the same but she is up to 8 lbs now! She was born weighing 7 lbs 15 oz and when we left the hospital she was down to 7 lbs 8 oz. so she is definitely eating and growing a ton already. The doctor checked everything else out and she is doing very well. She does have a goopy eye which I guess is pretty common and we got some eye drops for that. We were also told to go get her biliruben checked again. He told us he was pretty sure that it was going down but to get it checked just to be safe. So after the doctors we went to the hospital to get it checked. The last two times we went in to have it checked they just held some electrical thing to her chest to check it, this time they actually pricked her heel and collected some blood. Poor thing did not like that. I don't think I have ever seen her cry so hard but as soon as the nurse was done squeezing her foot she stopped crying. We got the results back fairly quickly and they told us that it is definitely going away and that we don't need to worry about it.
She is doing really well. She still sleeps a lot and wants to eat the instant she is awake. The last couple of nights have been awesome with her only getting up about two times a night and sleeping in till about 9- 9:30 ish. We are so lucky to have such a good little baby.

first sponge bath at home

We decided to finally give her a little sponge bath tonight. As I went to lay her down on her towel, her umbilical cord fell off. I think it snagged on my shirt and came off (it was hanging on by a thread) but either way as soon as I put her down she let out a huge cry. I felt so bad.
So needless to say the bath did not start on a very good note. She was super mad the entire time. I was trying to hurry as fast as I could as well as keep the bink in her mouth to try to make her calm down. As soon as it was over and I wrapped her up in her towel she calmed right down. Hopefully next time will be much better.

Easter outfits

Like I mentioned in the Easter post we always take a picture of Mathias out in front of these bushes with his Easter basket. This is the fourth year of doing this. This year didn't really work out though because Easter fell on General Conference and because there was snow on the ground. So we took them today, a week later and instead of his Easter basket he gets baby sis. I got Azlyn a matching outfit just in case she came early even though I knew that was not going to happen.

When Dev came out of the bathroom after getting ready I just laughed. He totally matched the kids clothes without even trying so I just had to get a picture with all of them.

We took pictures after the guys got back from church. I brought out the bouncy because Mathias can't really support Azlyn's head all by himself yet. He doesn't really get that concept.

I liked both of these and I couldn't really decide so you get both.

Mathias is not into taking pictures at all unless it is his idea. He pretty much refused to look at the camera but would smile anyways. He is such a little stinker!

She is seriously so cute, if i do say so myself. I am gonna have so much fun dressing her up.

Wide awake. I just love it when she is wide awake and looking around at everything. She is so alert.

day 2 and jaundice

So on our second morning home we had to take her into the hospital to get her billiruben levels checked. They were 8 something when we left the hospital. When we got there the lab nurse kept calling her a him. Ok, I know she is wearing blue but come on there are flowers all over it and she is wearing pink mittens, not to mention her car seat is all decked out in pink! So when we got home I put her first headband on her. I think she looks so cute and hopefully when she is wearing one of these she won't get mistaken for a boy. Man some people are so dumb! Anyways back to her billiruben levels. Unfortunately they are higher than when we left. They are now at 14. The nurse told us to come back the next day and that she would send all the info to our pediatrician and we will see were we have to go from there.

Other than her jaundice, Azlyn is doing awesome. She eats like a champ and will take a bottle of b.m. as well as breastfeed. She also takes a binky really well and can keep it in really good. She can go as much as 5 hours during the day without eating, but then again sometimes she wants to eat every hour. I think she is gonna be a little chunky monk just like her brother was. She also goes from 0 to 60 just like Mathias did. She can be sound asleep and when she wakes up, she wakes up starving and wants to eat right then. I just really can't wait to get on a schedule. I am so tired of being so sore! I also can't wait till she gets her nights and days not so mixed up. However I really can't complain to much, she is such a good baby.

first time home for baby sis

My mom had this sign and balloons to great us. Mathias was out riding his bike around the complex with her waiting for us to get home. They thought they would see us coming but apparently we snuck in and I had to go out and find them.

As soon as we came in, Izzie Kitty had to come check her out. She didn't stay for long though and still isn't very sure about Azlyn.

We put her in her swing and Mathias had to get this certain blanket and make sure she was covered up just right. He also got the swing going for her. I think he is going to be a pretty helpful big brother.

Seriously how stinking cute is she! I just can't get enough of her.

I just lover her chubby little cheeks! You can't even see her little neck they are so chubby.

This was her first time in her bassinet. As you can see she wasn't really all that sleepy. She definitely has her nights and days mixed up. Let's hope we can end that pretty soon.

D day and hosptial stay

Sorry this is going to be a very long post with about a million pictures...

Alright, I guess I better hurry and write down our labor story before I forget all of the details. We were scheduled to be induced at about 6 am Wed morning, our due date. We scheduled the induction because I was just done being pregnant and it was nice to have a set time in advance for someone to be around to watch Mathias. We were told to call the morning of and make sure that they still had rooms and such available. They told us to be there at 6:30 but of course I can never be anywhere on time so we got there at about 6:45.

We had to get one last belly shot. Here we are at 40 weeks exactly.

I quickly changed into the ever-so-lovely gown while Dev filled out some paper work. Then it was time to get things started. I had an awesome nurse even though for the life of me I can not remember her name. (Dev's note = Bev) She was also training a student nurse, Aubrey. Anyways, it was now time for the IV. I was so not looking forward to this. I hate needles and because this was an induction there was no pain or anything to take my mind off of the IV. It took the nurse two tries to get it in and it didn't work. She said after two tries she calls someone else so another nurse came in and got it in right away, which was awesome, but it was in a retarded spot. It was on the inside of my left wrist and anytime I bent my wrist it kinda hurt.
After the IV was in the nurse checked me and said I was at a 2 and 75% effaced. This was at 7:30. At 7:55 Dr. Weibell came in and broke my water. At this point I was having some contractions on my own but they were nothing big, just like the ones I have been having for weeks before. At 8:15 I got my pitocin. The contractions really picked up not long after that, maybe 10 minutes or so. After about 20 minutes or so I had had enough of them and wanted my epidural. However, I had to get more fluids in me so I had to wait about 20 more minutes. I got my Epidural at 9:15. LOVE epidurals!! This one wasn't as strong as the one I had with Mathias. I could still kinda move my legs and such and feel a little bit, which I actually liked. With Mathias I was numb well into the next day. I got my lovely catheter at 9:30. The student nurse actually did it and I was her first live patient ( I guess they practice on dummies all the time). I actually didn't care that she was learning on me as long as I couldn't feel anything ;) They checked me again at 9:35 and I was only at a 3 and 80% effaced. Kinda bummed I hadn't made more progress. I actually stayed at a three for a few hours but fully effaced. I was so bummed about this and thought we were gonna be there for a while. Then at about noon the nurse came in and said that the baby is showing signs of being stressed. She checked me and I was at a 4.5. yay for progress. She had me lay on my left side to see if that would help and put oxygen on me. I was so nervous at this point. She came back in two minutes later and said that it was not working and moved me to my other side and watched the monitor for a few minutes. That didn't work either. I was so scared! I was hoping that everything was alright with the baby and I was really nervous we were gonna have to do a c-section. She then told me that she was putting an internal contraction monitor in me and that she might have to put more fluid back in to relieve some of the pressure from the baby (they thought that maybe she was on her cord or something). However when she went to put in the contraction monitor cord I was 9 cm dilated! I had gone from a 4.5 to a 9 in about 5 minutes. That is why Azlyn was showing signs of stress. It had gone very quickly. Not even 5 minutes later I was a 10. They called the doctor and told them he needs to come right away and he was like, "Are you sure?" They were like, "Yes, and hurry." Waiting for the doctor was not fun at all. Because I moved so quickly I could feel the contractions very well. It was like the epidural was not working at all. I gave the epidural pump a push but it did nothing, then the nurses told me it takes like 15 minutes to kick in. Hello I did not have 15 minutes. I was so nervous to push because I really did not want to feel that pain. Luckily the Epi worked good enough that I did not feel much of the pushing pain. It only took maybe 4 or 5 pushes and she was out! Azlyn was born at 12:32. I am so happy it went so fast (even if that meant more pain) and that it all went really well. I would say from start (which I count at when they broke my water) to finish it was just over 4 hours. Not too shabby. For anyone wondering with Mathias from start to finish it was about 9 hours. The nurse kept saying the second comes at half the time of the first and man was she right!

The nurses suctioned out her mouth a little more, they said that she had swallowed some fluid and got her to cry a little bit. They then brought her over to me to see her.
She really didn't cry a whole lot. She made more of a grunting noise. They took her over to the warmer and got her cleaned up a bit more.

Then they weighed and measured her. She was 7 lbs 15 oz and 20 in long! They then bundled her up and brought her over to me so I could finally hold her.

I then finally got to hold my precious little girl. I can't believe that she is finally really here! We have waited a very long time for her. It took us two years of trying and 9 months of waiting. She is so worth all of it!

Daddy's turn to hold her. I think she already has him wrapped around her little finger.

The super proud parents with sweet baby Azlyn.

Mathias seeing her for the first time. He was a little apprehensive at first. He saw me in bed hooked up to a bunch of things (iv's and the blood pressure cuff) and just wanted to go back out in the hall. I think he was a little scared. Then he just wanted to snuggle me in bed. I think that since we were gone when he woke up and his schedule was a bit messed up and there was a lot going on in the room and bunch of people around he didn't really know what to think. Plus my little guy has to do things on his own terms. But once he decided he wanted to see her it was just so sweet. He kept telling her that it was ok when she would make a peep and would rub her head and such.

He thought it was so cool when she held on to his finger. He just got so excited and kept telling her that she is so sweet and cute and that he loved her. Then being the typical Mathias he got really bored in there and started running around and driving us all crazy.

Apparently at the Timp. Hospital they take care of the baby right there in the room with you. They gave her her shots and eye goop and everything right there. They even gave her her first bath right there in the room. We had an awesome nursery nurse who included Mathias in everything. She let him help her fill up the little basin with water, open up some q-tips and place them in the baby warmer etc. She was seriously the absolute best and made Mathias feel like he was just so big and the best big brother.
Then it was time to take our stuff and everyone went to the recovery room where we would be staying. While they did that Dev and I stayed back for a bit and I fed her for the first time. She is such a champ and ate forever. After she was done we got wheeled down to our room.

I am so in love with this little girl. I seriously can not believe that she is here. It is just starting to set in that she is here and healthy and ours.

I just absolutely love this picture! She is always making the funniest faces and making us laugh .

Day 2
Just chilling out in her bed. She wasn't in there very often. She is definitely already spoiled!

I just loved how she was sleeping on her hand. She always has her hands by her face... she was even born this way. I also just love her super chubby little face!

Mathias seriously just thinks it is the coolest thing ever when she holds onto one of his fingers.

On the second day Mathias really wanted to check her out. He wanted to see her cute little hands and toes and he just loved holding her hand and rubbing her head. He just loves her so much! He is always telling her that he loves her and that when she is fussy that everything will be ok and that he is right there.

Our first family picture! I have been looking forward to this for a long time. As usual Mathias didn't really want to cooperate for pictures but rather watch the cartoons that where on in the background. Oh well it turned out pretty good anyways.

last day at the hospital

Here we are getting ready to escape the hospital and get her dressed for the first time. I forgot how hard it can be to dress a tiny, stiff little newborn. The outfit was huge on her. I think we are gonna have some fun though dressing her with all the cute little girl clothes.

We thought we were gonna be able to be out of there by 10 but it turns out that the pediatrician was not going to be there till around noon so we had a while to just sit there and wait and hold baby sis. I was so sick of sitting though so Dev took over my bed.

Getting in the car seat for the first time. It is seriously so weird to me still at how tiny she is. I know Mathias was about the same size once but you seriously just forget. She actually didn't mind her car seat. She was just starving by the time they told us we could go and when she is hungry she goes from 0 to 60 just like her brother did. Awesome timing.

Anyways everything went great during the delivery. I would say it was definitely easier and faster this time around. I would say the recovery is a little easier as well. The stay at the hospital wasn't to bad either minus the being cooped up in a room for a couple of days just sitting there. We had awesome nurses who always asked if there was anything they could do for us or get us, and not just me but for Dev to. I have to say I think I liked Timp. a lot better than UVRMC. So ya, that is our experience in a nut shell!