moving on

After numerous applications, phone calls, emails, sleepless nights, weighing options, and especially prayers...
we finally have some exciting news!

Jonathan has been accepted to intern at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, OR! We will move there sometime in April :] We don't know much about it yet except a few little facts...

1. The hospital is this place. Yes, it is a mental hospital- the ENTIRE THING. Cool looking, huh? We recently watched "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and it was filmed there. The movie makes it out to be really creepy but recently the hospital was remodeled and it is not so creepy anymore :)

2. He will be working with the population on patients that are ready to transition into the community. He also has the opportunity to work in the other departments, too, so he can gain more experience.We are hoping this turns into a real job for him afterwards.

3. Salem seems to be a pretty rad place to live. It is not far from the coast and less than an hour from Portland! That's where the nearest temple is.

Leaving Rexburg will be bittersweet. Despite what some people think they know about this city, it really is a wonderful place. This little college town has been good to us. It's a very LDS family friendly community, but that can have its disadvantages too. We've made lots of friends while living here but many have already moved away. I knew I wanted to have children here- and we've done that. It's been easy and convenient raising our son here and getting our daughter started with her pediatric appointments. It's also been so nice having a temple just up the street from our apartment and a beautiful new church building within walking distance. Our apartment is quaint, but its been really nice for us. My only problem with it is the size. I love all the little local shops around here and how much the city has blossomed since we've been here. I love to walk on campus and enjoy the free amenitities it has to offer, and the Spirit there is very strong. I have enjoyed the local parades and farmers markets in the summer, and the weather during those summer months is gorgeous.

But...for reasons I won't mention on here, we are ready to move on.

So all in all we are really excited to start this new adventure! It will be a little nuts moving with a 2 month old and a 2 year old but hopefully worth it in the end.

On April 1st we are having our baby blessing between Conference sessions and a bunch of family is coming for that. April 14th is Talmage's birthday, and the 26th is mine. And somewhere in there we are moving. April will be a CRAZY month!

so totally in love

Baby Charlotte has completely turned the world we knew upside down. In just one and a half weeks she has made the days harder and the nights longer. She has spit up, pooped & peed, and tooted aplenty- creating multiple loads of laundry per day. She grunts and squawks and squeals in her sleep. She has slight jaundice and I had to take her to get tested twice at the hospital, a process taking hours to complete. In order to make the jaundice go away, I've been breastfeeding her every 2 hours day & night. She takes about 30 minutes to eat each time. So you can imagine how much I get done in my "spare time". She has my hands (and boobs) completely full every hour of the day...

and guess what! I love it!

I love our daughter. She is perfect to me. That's all I really wanted to say.

And just for fun- here are some of the latest pics...
(I probably take about a dozen a day...it is hard to resist. so hard)

This is our first Sunday as a family of four. We all wore something pink :) Talmage has a pink bow tie on, though you can't really tell from the pictures...

 Charly just being cute!

Comparison pic of both kiddos on their boppy...the resemblance is uncanny :]

big brother

I was really worried before our daughter came into our lives that Talmage would not take to her very well. But in the last few days he has completely surprised me. He LOVES his little sister.

For the first few days, he didn't acknowledge her anymore than the occasional "baby!" when he noticed her in the room. He was otherwise distracted with family members staying with us. We got him to call her "sissy" and he liked that better I think.

After our guests left and we had the apartment to ourselves, Talmage realized that the baby was here to stay. He became more interested in talking to her and touching her head and such. When I put her in the swing, he would sit on the floor and watch her, sometimes rocking the swing himself. It was very cute :]

Now when he wakes up in the morning, he runs into the living room, looks around and asks for "baby sissy". When she naps in her crib he tries to climb onto our bed so he can get a peek at her. And this morning I used a bulb syringe on her nose to get the snot out, but he thought I was hurting her and told me "No no no!"

He loves to give her stuff, too.

like kisses...

food...

and the occasional ear poke!

 He does have his jealous moments though, like when one of us is snuggling her he just has to climb onto the other side of our lap. Sometimes its annoying, but most of the time its kind of sweet :]

Last night for Charly's first bath, we stuck her brother in there with her- and he loved it! He kept handing her his toys and splashing her.

She wasn't enjoying it as much...(this is her at the beginning of the bath)

By the end of the bath, she wasn't crying anymore- just making funny faces.

Every once in a while I'll let him hold her. He thinks her soft sleepy squishy self is pretty interesting. (And if she happens to sneeze or cough while he's holding her, he thinks that is HILARIOUS. haha!)

meet miss Charlotte

Born: February 17, 2012
Weighed: 7 lbs 14 oz
Height: 19 in 
Some things we love about her: her chubby arms and cheeks, ducky lips. dark hair, soft whimper, dark blue eyes, "yoda-like" expression, and sweet temperament :)


I thought it would be a good idea to write about her birth story now before I forget. The day seemed to go so fast and there are a few details I'd like to remember.

On Friday morning I checked into the Labor & Delivery around 7 am. We filled out a lot of paperwork that seemed to take forever and got settled into our birthing room. The floor seemed so quiet, and when I asked the nurse if they were busy that day she said I was the only scheduled induction going on, but that earlier that week it had been very busy. They had to bump people's inductions to the next week, so it was very fortunate that I got in when I did. Because I was the only one there, the nurses were happy to talk to me and keep me comfortable and give us lots of attention :] Due to the fact that I had been freaking out the whole week whether or not I'd get to come in that day, I was feeling so relieved and I knew that today was Charlotte's day. There was light powdery sugar snow falling outside our window and we kept the lights off. I was relaxed and ready.

Soon after we got through our medical histories, the nurse put in the IV. Well, she tried. For some reason my vein was being stubborn and the poke didn't work, so she stuck me again- this time in the hand and it really hurt. (I am a wuss, I hate IV's more than the epidural). It didn't work the second time either, so my midwife came in and stuck me a third time in my other hand and it took. The entire process took way too long and by the third prick I felt like I was going to pass out, so they gave me oxygen while the IV went through. The midwife said I had a vasovagal response to all the pricking. I was totally embarrassed that here I was becoming unconscious and hadn't even started laboring yet.

Then Rachel (midwife) checked my cervix and I was still at 3 cm and 80% effaced (same as it was 2 weeks ago). She broke my water without me even realizing that she was, and boy did it hurt! She said, "I bet you'll have her by 5 or 6, so just take it nice and easy. At noon I will come back and hopefully you'll be ready for the epidural."
Around 8:45 am the pitocin kicked in and I had my first gut-wrenching contractions (I had been having them off and on for the previous week). They got stronger and closer together over the next few hours, and it became unbearable to manage. I kept getting up to use the restroom and contracting on the toilet and standing up, which really doesn't feel too great. By 11:00 am I was ready for the epidural. Rachel was still out & about, but I decided to go on and get it anyway.

The anesthesiologist had to stick me three times, because the first two times the epidural leaned to the left side of my body. This part was the hardest to get through, and I had a bad feeling the entire time that something wasn't right with my body (with Talmage, the same thing happened and it took forever to feel numb on both sides). Of course, I was just being overly emotional and it was fine, he finally got the needle to go in straight. I was sitting upright on the side of the bed sobbing into the pillow they gave me to hug. I felt like such a big baby, but I couldn't stop from crying out in pain. After I laid down, I felt the numbing right away- on my left side only. I told the nurse and she had me lay on my right side and let gravity help the medicine even out. To avoid any further pain, the anesthesiologist went ahead and gave me more medicine through the tube. It worked, and after about 15 minutes I was completely numb (moreso on the left, and on the right I felt the slightest pinch through every contraction). It was about 12:00 pm.

I took the next hour and a half to sleep. I was completely exhausted and the warm tingly sensation in my gut and legs was very relaxing. I felt sort of loopy, too. Jonathan sat by me and held my hand. It was just us in the room. Every once in a while I felt a tiny amount of pressure, which I thought was from contractions. The nurse came in and I told her about it, and she said we would wait for Rachel (running late) to come in before we checked things out. I wondered how much I had dilated, since I hadn't been checked at all since the beginning. I had so far been in labor for almost 5 hours.

Rachel rushed in, quickly put her hand up between my legs and exclaimed "Oh! There she is! She's crowning! Let's push!" I was shocked, and so were the two nurses. At the same time, I felt completely calm as she prepared the tray and other "baby-catching" materials at the end of the bed. I was so excited and anxious. I pushed 3-4 times, and not very hard. Rachel told me to take it easy since she was so close. They wanted me pushing through each contraction, so in between we waited....and then one of the nurses said, "Um...she's sliding out." Sure enough, our baby girl decided she wasn't going to wait for me to push as her head slid out ever so slowly. Just for the sake of pushing out my own baby, I gave a little pressure and in a matter of seconds they had her on my chest, cord still attached. I couldn't believe how easy and fast it all was.

She was beautiful, so small, and crying so softly. I fell in love instantly and held her there for a few minutes. I nursed her on both sides and she was such a champ at it, I couldn't believe it. After I was finally okay to let her go, the nurses weighed and bathed her. When she was all clean and bundled, they gave her to Jonathan to hold and his face was priceless. I've never seen him so quiet and smiley...

Since there were no complications and recovery was going well, we stayed just one night in the hospital being eager to get back to our son. He did come and visit us that night, along with Grandma and Auntie Cressa :] It was a sweet moment that we'll never forget.

Now we're just adjusting to life at home with two children, and well its interesting to say the least. Charlotte is a doll, sleeping LOTS and eating a ton. She doesn't seem to mind the noise from Talmage too much, and she really loves being held and rocking in her swing :)

^This is Jonathan's favorite thing to do with our babies...he could do it for hours and not mind it one bit!

We love our Charly girl so much, and I just pray we can make it through the first few weeks okay with BOTH kids :]

so much love

This is the week! Hopefully we get to meet our baby girl on Friday! We love her so much already.  
There is a chance that my induction will get bumped to a later day, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it won't :/

Today I am 39 weeks, and it truly feels like the homestretch...I remember being so relieved after giving birth to our son, and I am anxious to feel that way again soon. I just miss not being achy all the time, not being so hungry, and sleeping comfortably. I know there are new pains associated with having a newborn but at least they won't be pregnancy related...

In the meantime, I'm trying to keep myself as busy as possible so that I'm not just sitting around counting down the hours. There's nothing to pass the time better than a good craft, and I've been meaning to finish this one for a while...not until I saw my friend make one of her own did I decide I needed to finish what I started. (thankyou Brittany for motivating me to do it!)

The project is called a "birth print", and generally it IS printed, but since I don't have the fancy technology to do that I made mine with card stock and mod podge. It took a lot longer to glue each individual letter on, but this way I could use my Silhouette and personalize it exactly the way I wanted. The down side to this, though, is that it totally looks homemade and not very professional...oh well :)
I am making one for Charlotte, too,  but since I don't have her birth stats yet I have to hold off for a bit!

The two frames are the same but with different mattes. Here is the one I made for Talmage:

I will post pics of our little girl's print when its done- I can't wait to finish it!

I also had lots of fun crafting some Valentine's Day things for Jonathan. One of them I saw on Pinterest and a few friends said they were going to try it out, so I jumped on the bandwagon :D It is a little "love book" made from a deck of cards.

I couldn't help but be "punny" with some of them, like the King of Diamonds. Get it? super cheesy, I know.

Besides craft projects, other things keeping me busy are:
*Making variations of smoothies for all of us (but mostly me since I seem to be craving) to enjoy. Why haven't I done this before? They are SO EASY to make! Just 3 ingredients: 1 cup plain yogurt, 1 cup orange juice, and 5-6 frozen strawberries. I've tried it with mangoes and raspberries, too. soooo yummy.

*LAUNDRY & DISHES. These two things never seem to end and they keep me constantly on my feet.

*Our CRAZY son. He has such a funny personality and a very active imagination these days. It's exhausting keeping him stimulated & entertained. Right now he is VERY into cars & trucks, trains, books, the alphabet, Elmo, & Winnie The Pooh. So for his Vday present I got him a little Pooh of his own. Let's just say he hasn't let that plushy bear out of his sight.

He loves showing it off to people, like in the store. He'd hold it out to passers-by and say "POOH! YA, POOH!" and again to the maintenance guy that just came by...haha. And this morning we were reading his books with paper pages, which we hardly do since they don't keep his interest, and he found a few about Pooh. He was very happy about this and quickly sat in my lap with his Pooh bear so that we could read them. He also puts his bear in the baby swing and says , "Nigh, night" and rocks him back & forth...I just love him so much :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Waterworks

disclaimer: this is pregnancy related, and a bit gross. You were warned!

I would be happy if my water broke on its own, because my least favorite part about being induced is when they break it for you. I don't mind the IV, or the pitocin if it is low, or even the contractions. I don't mind the needle of an epidural that the nurse sticks in my back as I'm contracting. Nope, the worst part for me is the first thing they do- break my water!

They take this thing that looks like a really long crochet hook and *pop* (the pop part REALLY hurts, at least for me), then a very strange warm gush follows that doesn't stop for a few hours. Every time you move, squirm, cough- more gushing. I remember sitting on a gigantic pad and just feeling like I was peeing everywhere uncontrollably. Sorry to be graphic, lol...but it is the one thing I am NOT looking forward to.

With that said, let me share a funny little story. The other day I was walking my son to a friend's apartment. We had just gotten home from running a few errands and I realized that I forgot to pee while we were out. But since we were already walking, I figured I would wait. The more we walked, I thought "Ok...I may have to use my friend's potty" When we got there, the visit was very brief and I didn't think it was necessary- her building is just across the lot from mine after all. On the walk back, I thought "I am definitely going to pee when I get home!" As we walked into the door Talmage decided to bolt it outside through the snow, so I had to chase him like a sheepdog and herd him back into the apartment. By the time I had him inside, and was standing in the middle of the kitchen, I felt a warm wet feeling all down my legs. I saw it on the floor around me, and freaked out. "Did my water just break?" I thought. Well, of course upon further inspection I realized that NOPE, IT WAS PEE. This is not the first time I've peed myself in the last few weeks (due to Charly being SO very low and me having multiple coughing fits), but it was always just a trickle- nothing like this! I was SO glad that no one was around to see me, even Jonathan. I get embarrassed every time even when I'm alone. The weird part is that I could not control it at all. Charlotte is incredibly low in my pelvis and constantly putting pressure on my bladder.
ps- I never experienced this with Talmage, he preferred my ribcage :)

Jonathan, in his attempt to make me feel better, tells me that at least I won't have to push much- she will just pop right on out. He thinks that's funny. I think it's worrisome.

I guess it's a good thing that my water hasn't broken yet, because if it did I fear her dropping out with no effort on my part. It's pretty much the only thing between her and the outside of my womb : /

Since then I've had a few more "accidents" on the same kind of scale, and it freaks me out every time. It's really gross cleaning up the mess, and I just hope our apartment doesn't smell like pee. I'm afraid to go anywhere because I don't know if I'm gonna BURST... I'm sure I'll laugh about this later but for now it's just humiliating. I'm afraid to go to my appointment and get my cervix checked cause it may trigger something, and I'm afraid to go to church next Sunday and walk through the halls. I am so pathetic...lol...but I can't imagine ANYTHING more horrid than peeing myself in front of other people.

I will be VERY happy when Charlotte is snuggled in my arms and not using my bladder as a waterbed.

We picked a name!

yep, that's right, I did change my blog design again. I change blog layouts like I change clothes, except maybe more on the changing clothes- but that's for a different reason because I can barely fit into any of my clothes right now. Even maternity stuff is uncomfortable, not because I'm huge but mainly because of the style, or the fact that I feel uncomfortable regardless of what I am wearing even if I am just in pjs.

Whew! Glad I got that off my chest!

Anyway, back to the main point of this post- We have finally decided on a name! There were a few floating around in our heads for quite a while, and one in particular that we really loved. I thought that we would just wait until she was born to decide, but the more time went on we realized that we would give her that one name we were so much in love with and pretty much nothing could change that. Plus I was getting tired of saying "baby girl", "no.2" and "little one".

So, it's official that our daughter's name will be Charlotte Mae Dennett. I was really giddy about the idea of nicknaming her Charly when we first thought of the name, and now it just seems to fit. We've already caught ourselves saying things like, "Charly, stop kicking your mama in the ribs!" and "This outfit is gonna be so cute on miss Charly Mae" and so forth. And I love how old-fashioned, southern, and feminine Charlotte sounds. Jonathan's mom is named Edmee- a Dutch name. We took the "mee" part and changed the spelling so that people would say it properly, hence her middle name. And there you have it! No longer nameless :]

I was thinking of posting another belly pic...but then I realized that there's really no point because I look exactly the same as I did 3 weeks ago. So maybe at 38 1/2 weeks, or 39 weeks, I will. But here is my lil update.

How far along? 38 wks on Tuesday

Total weight gain: I can't even keep track anymore, but gosh I haven't weighed this much EVER.
Maternity clothes? Mostly
Stretch marks? Oh yeah, they are getting even more prominent too. lovely.
Sleep:  Oddly I only get up once or twice at night to pee because I am so tired....this is weird to me, since I would get up at least 5 times at this point the first time I was pregnant.
Best moment this week: This is non-pregnancy related, but taking Talmage to a "mommy and me" class. He loved it so much and got his wiggles out, and I got a pretty intense workout chasing after him.
Miss Anything? So many things, but I know I won't be preggo forever :)
Movement: YES
Food cravings: Chocolate, cold fruit, fruit juice...pretty much anything with sugar.
Anything making you queasy or sick: an empty stomach and the smell of red meat
Gender: Girl
Labor Signs:  Braxton Hicks every day, pretty irregularly. I never had these with Talmage and they are definitely not fun.
Belly Button in or out? Still out, the hernia makes it extra pokey-outey looking.
Wedding rings on or off? On only when we go somewhere.
Happy or Moody most of the time: Just overall emotional.
Looking forward to: The 17th! The 17th! The 17th! (only 12 more days!)
Bra Size: I don't even know, something D. Only one of my bras fits decently but its still too snug and its a 36 C.
Pregnancy acne or glow? Acne...I don't recall ever "glowing" throughout this entire pregnancy.

In other news, we are still waiting to hear back about where Jonathan will intern in the spring. It's nerve-wrecking and we just hope he gets accepted somewhere soon so that we can make moving preparations. He still loves his job at Journeys here in Rexburg and I love that I get him all to myself on the weekends :]

Talmage is awesome to say the least. He's in a really good place right now, and I am so grateful. He's healthy (ear infection is finally GONE- it took 2 months!), spunky, and sometimes a real big sweetheart. He communicates his wants and needs really well, thanks to his ever growing vocabulary. And though he still loves Pooh, the Baby Einstein movies are his new favorite. They kinda creep me out, but he likes them and learns a lot. He really likes to sing along to songs he knows, and usually he'll sing the last word of a line really loudly. His favorite food is apples, which he asks for about 6 times a day. His hair is a curly mess again and I need to cut it, but I keep procrastinating. He only has 3 more baby teeth that need to come in, and of course they are all COMING IN AT ONCE. Luckily he handles teething really well and hasn't had any grief about them. The other day he was acting really bored so we rearranged his room and he thought that was so exciting..haha..it was exciting for my 9 month pregnant belly, too :) haha but it was worth it to make him happy. Sometimes he gets so bored and I run out of ideas....we've tried forts, play buddies, stomping through the snow, and endless amounts of books . He likes to be actively doing things all the time, which kinda wears me out. Thank goodness for movies, because he completely tunes in and I get a bit of a break. Don't judge me : /

On a totally random note, seeing all of the freaking adorable baby girls at church today pretty much has me convinced that I am ready to meet my daughter now. There were cute baby girls everywhere I looked it seemed, and I just couldn't get enough! Not too much longer now :)