Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!! We are heading out to Delaware tomorrow and I'm so excited/nervous! Excited because we get to spend Christmas with my whole family! And nervous because this is the first time I will be flying with a child. haha. Hopefully it all goes smoothly!!

Chloe's Blessing

On December 11th we had the opportunity to bless Chloe in church. My parents came into town, and then our families that live in Utah came. It was so nice to have family there during this special time. Doug did such and amazing job! The blessing was beautiful and I'm so thankful that Doug holds the priesthood so that he was able to give his daughter the blessing.  Chloe did really good too!  She slept through the whole thing!  Afterwards we went to Wayne and Kari's and had lunch. My Mom and I made 3 kinds of soups and then bought rolls and some yummy breads to go along with it. We made Chicken Noodle, Cheesy Potato, and my new favorite soup (thanks to Chelsea and Marcus!) Golden Potato! My Mom also made the beautiful blessing dress that Chloe is wearing! Thanks Mom!! And thanks to everyone that came to the blessing to support our family!

Smiling

Last week Chloe giggled for me when she was half asleep. It was the cutest giggle I have ever heard! Yesterday she giggled for Doug while I was at church while he was sleeping. She smiles pretty frequently but it hasn't been in a reaction to one of us smiling. Today she smiled at me!!

Thanksgiving

Double Thanksgiving - yes please!

My parents came into town to meet Chloe and we decided to have an early Thanksgiving! The week before Thanksgiving, on Thursday we did our preparations and I learned how to make pie and dressing. On Friday we made everything else. It was oh so delicious! Everyone of course looved Chloe, but it was so nice to have everyone over our house. The only thing missing was Charisse, her family, and Dalton. If she was here it would have been perfect! Destin, Chel, Raina, Danny, my Mom and Dad, Lindsay and Duncan all were there.

Our second Thanksgiving was over the Buhler's house on the real Thanksgiving. Jenn and her family were in town so it was nice to have all of the family in town!

Chloe helping me make the pies!

4 Weeks Old

Chloe is now 4 weeks! She is getting so big and I can't believe she is already 4 weeks old.

Things Chloe is doing:

Grabbing with her hands more and more.

Sleeping at night in about 6 hour intervals.

Fitting in size 1 diapers.

Making funny faces - wrinkly forehead, big eyes, fishy faces, raising one eyebrow

Squealing - happy squealing. Sometimes she sounds like a little kitten. So cute.

Kicks her legs.

Moves her arms a lot.

Loves sitting up.

Rolls over to her side.

Smiles - not at us yet, but she smiles!

I can't believe how much she has learned in just 4 weeks! We love our baby girl so much and are excited to see what else she learns.

She loves her new swing that Doug's cousins gave us :)

2 Weeks Old

Chloe

Newborn check up stats: Weight - 6 lbs 9 oz - 13%, Height - 18 in - 2 %, and Head Circ. - 13.2 in - 13%

Chloe is now 2 weeks old and more adorable than ever!

2 week check up stats: Weight - 7 lbs - 13%, Height - 20.5 in - 58%, Head Circ. - 13.3 in - 7%.

She has grown so much in the last week or so, and I'm so excited to see that she is healthy and strong!

She gets better at eating everyday and she loves to grab things with her hands. She loves making funny faces, and he has also starting to kick her legs for fun and not just when she is mad. She is really strong and when she is hungry she will wiggle up your chest to find food. She started on Doug's stomach and ended up at his neck just by using her legs and kicking. She is sleeping really well at night too. Poor little girl though, she is always cold so we have to bundle her up pretty good for bedtime. We swaddle her in two receiving blankets, put a hat on her head, and then have two warm blankets on top of her. Without all of this, she doesn't sleep very well. But for the last few days, she has only woken up twice during the night, which is amazing for me :) I'm hoping that she continues to get better and better at sleeping. I'm totally ok with this twice a night for only one hour at a time wake ups.

2 Weeks Old

Rookie Parenting

Doug and I are definitely rookie parents, but we always have a pretty good laugh at what we do.

1. In the hospital I noticed that Chloe pooped so I changed her. Mid-changing she decided that she wasn't done and I didn't know what to do, so I grabbed a wipe and tried catching it while yelling "Doug...Doug..Doug!! Help me!!"

2. When we got home from the hospital I had to go into my doctor for a rash that I had on my stomach and Doug drove me and Chloe to my doctors office. We get there and we are waiting in our room for the doctor to come in and Doug looks at me and says "Did we bring any diapers?" I just start laughing because we didn't even bring her diaper bag! Good thing she was asleep the whole time!

3. Changing Chloe on our bed - I started to change Chloe and then she pooped all over my bed.

4. At home holding Chloe - Doug was sitting her up on his lap and we checked her diaper right before to see if she pooped and she did, but we were getting smarter so we waited just a little bit to make sure she was actually done. Well the diaper didn't get wrapped back up tight enough and she peed on Doug's leg.

There are plenty more stories, but this is what we have learned. Always make sure to have Chloe's diaper bag. After I hear Chloe poop - ALWAYS wait a little longer before changing her diaper. And most important - ALWAYS use a changing pad, because it is so much easier to clean those off instead of my bed, or my carpet, or her clothes.

Doug and I are having so much fun being parents. Chloe always puts a smile on our faces and we are so grateful for the happiness that she has brought to our family!

Chloe ReNae

We are sooo excited to have our little girl here with us. Chloe ReNae was born on October 25th weighing 6 lbs 12 oz and measuring 18 in long.

Some people have been asking me about the birth story, so here it is, without too much gross detail. haha.

On Monday, the 24th, I was having on and off contractions all day, but they weren't too painful. Around 6:00pm they were a lot more consistent and painful. I started timing them (with Doug's help..he would time how long they were and remember when the last one was. I could have written it down, but I didn't want to get up.) and they ended up being 7 minutes apart for 3 and a half hours. We had decided a while ago that we would wait to go into the hospital until they got to be around 4 minutes apart, just so we wouldn't get turned away. They started to get more painful, so we called our Moms asking for advice. We ended up taking a walk around the block around 10:00 pm to see if they would go away or get closer together and they got more painful, so we got ready and drove over to the Utah Valley Hospital in Provo. On the way over I was still having them about 5 to 7 minutes apart, but I was still unsure if the hospital would really admit us. Doug also realized that he had left his wallet at home. haha. We got to the hospital around 11:30 pm and they put me in a gown and checked to see how dilated I was. I ended up being 2.5 cm dilated and 90% effaced (same as my doc appt the Thursday before) and I was pretty upset. But they hooked me up to a machine to monitor the contractions and Chloe's heart rate and they said they would check me again in an hour. One hour later I still had made zero progress even though my contractions were now 3 to 5 minutes apart. The nurse said to us "you are definitely in the beginning of active labor and I wouldn't be surprised to see you back soon." I was pretty pissed, because I knew I was having Chloe soon. They gave me a shot of morphene for the pain and phenegran to help me sleep and they sent us on our way. By the time we got to the car I was feeling good, nice and loopy from the morphene and super tired from the phenegran. When we got home, I passed out in our bed.

2 hours later I woke up convulsing, in a ton of pain from my contractions, and terrified because I didn't know why I was shaking. I woke up Doug crying because I was scared and he tried to calm me down a little bit and then he called the hospital. We thought that I was having a reaction to the morphene because I've never taken pain killers stronger than ibprofen, so I had no idea if I was allergic or not. The hospital said that I was fine, and that my body was shaking because of the pain I was in. Doug gave me a blessing and it helped calm me down a ton and I was able to relax and focus on breathing through my contractions. We decided it was REALLY time to go to the hospital considering my contraction pain was going through the morphene and the contractions were 2 minutes apart. This time Doug made sure we had everything...my hospital bag, car seat, diaper bag, wallet, keys, phones, chargers...we were good. On the way over they were getting more painful, but I concentrated on breathing so I was doing good, and the pain was bearable (not sure if that is the correct spelling). We got to the hospital and they admitted us, checked me and I was 5 cm dilated. We decided that getting the sleep helped relax me to help me progress more.

Within the hour of being admitted, I was in lots of pain and having contractions almost constantly..well that's what it felt like, and the nurse called in the anesthesiologist and gave me the epidural. It is really hard to curl up into a ball when you are pregnant, and it is also very hard to not arch your back when there is a needle going into your back. I was lucky that Doug was there with me because he helped me focus on not twitching so I wouldn't get paralyzed or something crazy. It took about 10 minutes for the epidural to kick in, and let me tell you, AMAZING!!! I was able to sleep for a couple more hours and that was super nice. I could still feel the pressure of my contractions, but no pain. It was wonderful.

Side note - I had asked Maraina if she wanted to come in and see Chloe be born and I told her it was totally up to her. If she wanted to, then fine, but if she didn't, I wouldn't be offended or anything. She said that she wanted to and I was really excited to have my sister there with me too.

We called Raina and Danny around 7:30ish a.m. and they got there around 8 am. They brought Doug some McDonalds and I was lucky enough to be on a diet of ice chips - orange flavored :) We hung out for a while and then I kept falling asleep and what not. But around 9:30 am I started feeling really bad pain again and kept feeling like I had to push. Doug and the nurse told me I couldn't yet, so they got the anesthesiologist in there to give me some more medicine. And again, epidurals are amazing!!! He gave me just enough to where I couldn't feel the pain, but could feel the pressure as to when to push. 10:00 am I started to push. Doug was super supportive and was a fantastic counter for me. 1 hour and 49 minutes later, Chloe ReNae was born and it was incredible. The second I saw her face, I started balling my eyes out. It was so overwhelming. The doctor cleaned her up and I got to hold her for about a minute. The nurse came over and said to me "how about we see how big she is." She was so calm and I was excited to see what she weighed I didn't think that anything was wrong. Turns out that Chloe's lungs weren't opening up all the way and they had to bring her to the NICU. She was also making this weird grunt sound that they wanted a specialist to check out. Doug went with her and reported back to me with everything that was going on. We were never worried about her though. We knew that she would be ok.

In the NICU she was hooked up to a C-PAP machine to help open up her lungs all of the way to get an entire breathe of air. After about an hour I had moved to my recovery room and I was just hanging out with Raina and Danny when Doug came back in and said she was moving to the nursery! I was so excited because that meant we got to see her soon. BUT in the nursery she started grunting again so a group of specialists came down and looked at her again. The diagnosis was pretty simple - the giant bruise on her head hurt, so she was whimpering. She decided that she was going to come out sideways. Instead of looking down on the way out, her head was turned slightly right. Everyone thought she was vacuumed out, but she just came out sideways...well her head did. At about 4 pm I finally got to hang out with my baby girl! I was so excited.

Chloe is now 1 week and 5 days old and she is awesome. The swelling on her head has gone down a ton (she still has a funny shaped head, but the doctor said that should go down withing 4 - 6 weeks) and she is now eating like a champ. She doesn't cry too often, when she does, it is always because she is hungry or needs a diaper change. She sleeps all of the time and loves cuddling with her Daddy. She has also recently started gripping things with her hands. It is so cute! We love her so much and thank Heavenly Father everyday for bringing her into our lives.

My recovery is going pretty good. I'm definitely not 100% but I feel better and better everyday. I am looking forward to when she is 6 weeks old so I can start working out :) Doug has been awesome. He was able to get more time off for work than expected and he was helping any chance he could. He went back to work on Halloween and worked 17 hours, but then the next day he only had to work 8!

I have had some awesome support. Way more than I expected. My neighbors have been awesome! Mindi has brought us dinner 3 times, and Rachel has been really nice to talk to (she just had a baby too) and she is bringing us dinner next week :) My ward actually got meals set up for this whole week and that has been nice. Maraina and Danny have brought us dinner, and so has my Destin. Doug's parents have come over a few times and brought me lunch and dinner. Kari even came over and cleaned my apartment! I am so thankful for all of the support that we are getting! And I am so excited to have my parents in town right before Thanksgiving, and then my best friend Chelsea and her hubby Marcus are going to be in town right after that!

Update on Life

A lot has happened since Labor Day, and I'm usually home to update this thing, but I don't. haha.

Birthdays

Doug's birthday is Sept. 16th, and mine is Sept. 26th, so we tend to combine fun birthday presents and what not. This year Doug turned 27. We went to Red Robin, just the two of us, for Doug's birthday and he got a few fun video games. We also had a nice family dinner at his parents house. Kari (Doug's Mom) made some yummy mashed potatoes and something else. I blame my pregnant brain for not remembering.

This year I turned 23, and I will always feel young because Doug will always be wayyy older than me :) But for my birthday we went to Joe Banditos with Maraina, Danny, Daylin, and Blaine and had a really good time. I looooove their chips and salsa. I usually fill up on those before my meal comes and then I have a meal the next day! Kari also made me a birthday dinner which consisted of a delicious roast, mashed potatoes, and some yummy veggies. For my gift, my Mom bought me some good cookie sheets, a cake pan, and a brownie pan. I was sooo excited because my pans always burn my baking.

For a combined present, we decided that we would get some tickets to a BYU football game. Doug goes to the BYU vs Utah game every year with his friend Joe and I have never been to one, so I was really excited to get to go and watch a game. We decided to go to the BYU vs San Jose St game and we invited some friends to come watch with us. Chad, Jenny, Daylin, and Blaine all came and BYU won! I am very glad that we decided to go to this game and not a later game because I don't think I could have made it through the game on the bleacher seats being pregnant. Lucky for us, Doug's friend Joe had 6 seats open up all around him and his girlfriend and called us to come over to the nice seats. I couldn't believe how much of a difference a real seat made! So we got to enjoy the 4th quarter in style in $100 seats.

Overall we had really great birthdays. We got to spend them with each other and a bunch of friends! That's the best way to celebrate.

Part-Time Job

I started working at a salon as a receptionist to keep myself sane. It has been so nice to get out of the house every once and a while and talk with grown ups. I work at Sage Creek Salon, and my job is super easy. I answer the phone, I schedule clients, I talk with the stylists, and I read People magazine. It really is the best job for me right now, and who can say no to a little bit of extra money? I know I can't. When I first started, I only had a few shifts here and there, but now I'm working about 15 hours a week and it has been great!

Grandparents House

At the beginning of October I got a phone call from my Grandpa Cox cordially inviting us to dinner at his house with the family. We accepted of course, and had a really good time. It was nice to see my Dad's side of the family. We don't see them very often even though they aren't THAT far away. Destin and his girlfriend Chelsea, Raina, and Danny were also invited so that was a super bonus to be able to see them too. The food was delicious and it was nice to be able to eat what they made. (Last time we were up there, I had really bad all day sickness and couldn't handle any food) While we were up there we got to play with my grandparents cute dog Buster, and our cousins dog S......I can't remember his name. But he was super cute! The day of the dinner also happened to be my younger brothers birthday, so our whole family used google+ and had a good video chat. At first we were all on Destin's computer, but then Doug and Danny decided it was too crowded and took Destin's iPad and sat on another couch to join the conversation. I love google+ and their video chat. It is so nice with our family because we are all over the country.

Doug

Doug is still working hard at Flowserve and going to school. After this semester he only has one more!!! Yesss!! Hopefully his work will be accommodating with his schedule. He is so close to finishing, it is hard to pick and choose classes to work with his work schedule. We are hoping that everything works out, but we're trying not to stress about it. Things will happen the way they need to for our family.

I really admire Doug and the way he is handling all of his stresses. Going to school while working insane hours, having a crazy pregnant wife has got to be hard on him. But he always puts a smile on his face and just deals with it day by day. I am so thankful to have such an amazing husband!! I love you Doug!!!

Baby

I still haven't had our baby yet, but the doctors have said it could happen any day now because of how far I have progressed. Which that really just gets my hopes up, so I'm trying to keep telling myself that she is still coming at 40 weeks and not early. I am currently 38 weeks and the days are definitely getting longer! Doug has been great at helping me stand when I can't get up, or just sympathizing with me when I just need someone to feel bad for me. We are both sooo excited to meet our little girl and we will both be so grateful for when she decides to make her cute little appearance.

37 Weeks in this picture

Labor Day Weekend

Doug and I had a really fun Labor Day weekend! We went on a fun family vacation with his family down to St. George! I have only been to St. George one other time, so I was pretty excited. St. George is sooo beautiful!! For the most part, the houses and buildings there are the same color as the landscaping so it won't take away from the beautiful scenery.

Saturday morning we started our 4 hour trek down to southern Utah. We stopped in Cedar City to get some lunch, and then we got to the hotel just in time to watch the first BYU football game of the season. Doug and Wayne stayed and watched the first half, while Stacie, Phil, Danaca, Kari, and I went to the pool to play. I looove just sitting and standing in pools. It so comfortable and relaxing! There was also a hot tub there that I couldn't go in, boo. But after the pool, we went and watched the rest of the game. BYU ended up winning, which was great because then Doug was in a fantastic mood :) After the game we went to Brick Oven for dinner and then went to Tuacahn amphitheatre and saw the performance Grease. I loooove the movie Grease so I was verrrry excited, Doug not so much, but he isn't too into musicals, but he went with no complaints! Overall it was a pretty descent performance, I enjoyed it because of it being Grease, but it could have been better for the price of the tickets. Doug explained it by saying that it was just like they got a bunch of BYU students to do it. What was super weird was that I knew the guy that played Kenickie. I went to Middle School with him.

We woke up on Sunday morning ate some breakfast at the hotel and then headed over to the church that was right down the street and stayed for Sacrament Meeting. I have never been to a ward that was sooo full! They had 3 baby blessings that day, plus it was Labor Day weekend. Lets just say if there was a fire, there weren't any clear paths to any exit. There were even people who sat up on the stand in the choir seats. We only stayed for the first hour and then we went back to the hotel and just hung out for a while. We went to Chuck-a-Rama (an all you can eat buffet) for lunch/dinner and I ate sooo much! I even had enough room for ice cream with some sprinkles on it. The rest of the day we relaxed in the hotel room, went to the pool, and then later that night, all of the kids went and hit up Wendy's for a late night dinner.

Monday morning we woke up, got dressed, and packed up all of our stuff. We went and ate some breakfast and then headed out to Zions National Park for some site seeing/hiking. The day before we talked about how we weren't going to be able to do Angels Landing because we thought it was 10 miles round trip, and decided that was a little much for us, so we just decided to just do a few smaller hikes. When we actually got there though we found out that it was only 5 miles round trip! I was super excited because I hate being told that I can't do something. (Which I get a lot now-a-days being pregnant. It's always "you can't lift that," "you shouldn't do that," or "that will be too much for you." It drives me crazy. I know when I'm at my limit and I will decide if I can do something or not.) Anyway, so we first hiked Weeping Rock - .5 miles round trip. I was shocked when it was over. It was so short!

Then we headed over to the fun hike - Angels Landing. I have a wonderful husband who knows that I can't stand when people tell me I can't do something so he was very encouraging the whole entire way. I told him at the beginning of the hike that I would tell him when I needed breaks, or water, or if I needed to turn around. He never once asked me to stop, so I was more willing to tell him when I needed to take a short rest for some water. Hiking to the lookout point (where the bathrooms are) was hard, but I was still doing good and so was everyone else. Doug and I made it to that point first, and everyone else came up about 5 minutes after us. We sat and rested for a little bit, then headed up the rest of the way. The last bit of the hike is up steep rocks and there is a chain for you to hold onto for stability. This part for me was the most fun. Trying to figure out how to position my feet so my belly didn't get in the way was funny to watch. Doug helped me up a few spots by just holding my hand and pulling me up, but I still claim I did the entire thing by myself. Once we got to the very top I was sooo excited! It was so beautiful and I was so glad that Doug was encouraging the whole way. He kept saying things like "you are doing great," "I can't believe you're doing this almost 8 months pregnant," and my favorite "you're killing it." Going down was harder for me then going up, but mainly because my stomach was hurting a little bit. Then Doug taught me the correct way to go down a mountain and I did good the rest of the way.

At the bottom of Weeping Rock

The whole family at the top of Weeping Rock

Wayne and Doug

Kari and Stacie

Phil and Danaca

The Saddle (the lookout with the bathrooms before the rocky hard part of Angels Landing)

Stacie's Profile

Me and Doug at the top of Angels Landing

Man I was tired

Kari and Phil

Doug and Wayne fighting

We had a great trip! It was a much needed vacation for all of us.

30 Weeks

Happy 30 Weeks to me!!! Three-quarters of the way through my pregnancy and I am very excited! Doug is definitely excited too, I think he is missing his not pregnant wife. haha.

Baby Girl

She is a verrrry active baby. She loves trying to remove my ribs and hips, they just seem to be getting too much in her way. She still loves her Daddy and always shows off for him when he is around. The other day he came home from work and I was laying on the couch and she started kicking. Well he came over to feel her and her foot was poking out of my stomach. It was soo cool to see and feel. I thought she would only do it a few times, but that was not so. Doug kept saying "come on do it again" and she would. She kicked her foot then slid it along my belly. They definitely had a good time playing. Right before we go to bed Doug always says goodnight to her and she gives him a few kicks, then she stops when his hand is off of my stomach. It's pretty cool, and even if it is coincidental, I don't care, it is adorable.

Another thing that happened was our attempt at trying to hear her heartbeat. My doctor said that if Doug puts his ear right below my belly button, he would be able to hear her heart beat. Well we tried it, and all he could hear was my stomach gurgling. He was also able to feel our baby girl kicking him in the cheek. She did it twice and I laughed so hard, I started to cry! It was so funny. We've got a kick boxer on our hands.

Me

I have definitely been counting down the weeks until she comes, but over all I have felt pretty good. I am getting to the point where sleeping is really uncomfortable and I usually wake up with my back hurting pretty badly, but I figure the bigger I get, the more it will hurt and I can't do much about it.

Here is a list of things that I am thankful for while being 30 weeks pregnant.

1. An amazing husband that even if he's worked 12 hours that day, he always asks me how I am doing.

2. A yoga ball because I can't sit in real chairs very long or else my butt hurts. It also helps alleviate some back pain.

3. A Lazy Boy recliner that I can sleep in very comfortably.

4. Not being sick.

5. A wonderful sister who has sent me half of the wardrobe that I wear. Thanks Charisse!

6. A husband who is so excited to have a baby girl.

I am thankful for so much more, but it is the simple things that I really appreciate right now.

PS - Doug took that picture of me! He said I'm big enough now that he would take them. haha. He is so silly.

PPS - The dress I'm wearing is my sisters! It's so cute and I got so many compliments on it!

3 Years!!

The fun thing about being pregnant is that when I wake up, Doug wakes up too. On Saturday morning Doug and I both woke up at 4:30 in the morning and weren't tired anymore. We both laid there pretending to be asleep and then I finally just got frustrated and sat up. My back was super stiff and in a lot of pain so Doug gave me a wonderful massage! After the massage he said to me, "hey let's get a hotel room in Salt Lake and go to Pat's BBQ for dinner tonight." I was soo excited because all I wanted for our anniversary was to get out of Utah County. So Doug went to work around 6am for about 4 hours, and then around 3pm we headed up to Salt Lake. When we got to the hotel, we went swimming and then we went out to dinner to my favorite place! Pat's BBQ. If you ever want good BBQ, hit up Pat's. Their ribs are sooo yummy!

And another picture of Doug being silly and making me laugh.

Our yummy dinners. Ribs, brisket, cornbread, for each of us, then I got a side of mashed potatoes and Doug got a salad.

After we were finished. I had a piece of brisket left and one small rib left, but hey I did pretty good!

Yummy breakfast the next morning. We went and ate at Dee's.

Happy Anniversary Doug!! I love you! Thank you for an awesome weekend get away!!