Addison's Blessing

Here is one set of pictures from this summer as I play catch up. I am not going to have the Internet for this next month so if you don’t hear from me for awhile; I have a good excuse this time.

We blessed Addison on August 7. I don’t remember a lot about the day because I hooked up on some seriously great Oxycontin but I do remember the most important parts like family, the priesthood and Addison. We were so grateful to have so many family members there, especially since they came from everywhere. Brighton did such an amazing job with the blessing and I am so grateful for his priesthood authority. Addison is so lucky to have so many worthy priesthood holders in her family and I am grateful they love her so much.

Afterwards we had a light luncheon in my grandpa’s backyard and enjoyed some great family time. As I look back at the pictures I realized that they were the last pictures we ever got with my grandpa. He passed away about a month and a half later and so I am grateful for the tender mercy of having those pictures.

A quick funny story about her blessing dress. When we, my mom and I, went to pick out her dress the lady at the store said that if she spits up on any of the dresses we have to buy it. So we grab a bunch of dresses to try on Addison and the very first one we put on her she spit up in. However it was just a tiny bit so we tried on all of the other dresses. We had narrowed it down to a couple of dresses and started trying them on her again. We put the first one on her again and she spit up ALL over it this time. So my mom and I decided it was a sign and we took that dress. If we didn’t understand what she said the first time, we definitely got it the second time around.

Prepare to be overloaded in pictures.

4 Months Old!!

Addison turned 4 months old last week. I can't believe we have only had her for 4 months. It feels like she has been in our family forever. I also can't believe we have survived with a baby for 4 months. Babies change EVERYTHING. In a good way. But there is no way to plan for such a change.
She had her 4 month appointment today and she did so good. She only cried twice and that is when I wasn't in view. She has been having a little bit of stranger danger lately and starts to cry hysterically once she realizes I am not there. Oh and she cried when she got the shots but nothing that a little pre-tylenol and a bottle couldn't fix. Here she is after she got weighed. I had a hard time getting a good picture of her because she likes to wiggle A LOT but I love her eyes in these two pictures.

Her stats were

Ht - 25.25 inches (80th%)

Wt - 13lbs 6oz (50th%)

Head 16.5inches (75th%)

My tall and lean baby. Her two month stats are packed away in a box somewhere but when I find them I post them along with all of our summer adventure pictures. One can only hope that will be sooner than later. :)

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago because she fell asleep in my arms. That RARELY happens. She likes to fall asleep in her crib or in her car seat. Yes, definitely a blessing. But every now and then I do like to cuddle with her and here is one of the rare moments.

Here is my happy blue eyed girl with my sister on her 24th birthday a couple of weeks ago. Happy Birthday Steph!

And this is a random picture that I found on my phone of Addison six days after she was born. Brighton's co-worker made this dress for her and I just love how tiny she looks in it! Wow how fast they change.

Can't Complain

Just enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon. Some of us are watching football, some of us are snoring

and some of us are enjoying a pan of lemon bars all to themselves. No one else likes them so I can't let them go to waste. Yep can't complain.

It's Back!!

Oh my goodness I don't even know where to begin. These last three months I, as well as Brighton and Addison, have been living out of a suitcase. Well we still currently are but I hope the end is in sight. We have been moving from house to house to house. They have been remodeling the basement of my grandpa's house and we have spent time sleeping at my mom's house (6 weeks) and Brighton's dad's house (2 weeks). So my computer has been packed away and I haven't had real access to one to update...well anything.

SOSOSOSOSO much has happened this summer I don't even know where to begin. I guess I will say this, as of right now I am sleeping on an air mattress, still living out of a suitcase and hoping it will be ending soon. One can only hope. I am praying that as of next week - Friday - I will have my own bed, shower, drawers, and toilet back. I have all of these pictures from my summer on my camera but the chord from my camera to the computer is in a box so those will have to wait. So before I begin the saga of my summer in a bazillion posts, here are some pictures of Addison who is almost 4 months old!!!!

She LOVES to suck her thumb. She takes after me on that one. So yes, I do know the horror of trying to quite and all of the consequences of thumb sucking. But right now, I have bigger fish I have to worry about. She sleeps 12 hours a night and takes 2-6 hours worth of naps during the day. She smiles so much and talks even more. She is starting to recognize me and I won't lie - I love it! Nothing beats waking up in the morning to a baby who smiles at you as you say hello. I will for sure be taking a video of that for you all to see. But as for now here are some pictures of my baby girl. They were taken off my phone so keep that in mind

I am in love

I am finally getting around to posting these pictures. I am learning different ways to use my time when the baby is sleeping instead of sleeping too. Maybe one day I will get it all figured out. Maybe. We got Addison's pictures taken weeks ago and I love them and I love my little girl. I am totally in love with her and can't get enough of her cute little face. I am so glad we got them done and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

She's Here

So they strapped me to a table and a few minutes later at 8:18pm Addison JoLynn Pierce was born. They quickly showed her to me and took her to the nursery. The doctors were all guessing at her weight and they were all guessing around 9lbs. Well she came out at 8lbs 8ounces. Much smaller than I was anticipating. I know that is not small by any means but it is a lot smaller than I was planning on. I was planning on a 9 or 10lb baby. Brighton followed her to the nursery and I finally couldn't take it any more. I threw up. Everywhere and boy am I glad Brighton wasn't there.

She looks super swollen in this picture but in my mind it shows her calm demeanor that she has. She just kind of smiles at me all the time. Come to find out the reason she wasn't come out was because he head was turned sideways and was getting stuck. So when she came out she had a little cone head on the side of her head and her starting to swell up was making it worse.

I love this picture of her because this is how she holds her hands today. She likes to cuddle them up to her face and curl up in a ball.

I didn't get to hold her until midnight that night but I really didn't feel well enough to take care of her so I didn't mind. LOL, they kind of made me go and see her. Welcome to motherhood right? I really don't remember the next 24 hours and I definitely don't have pictures of it.

The second day however, she was a little jaundice so they put her under the bilirubin lights. I was actually really sad about that because I couldn't hold her unless it was to feed. I was surprised at how hard that was for me. But just to prove her personality to me her is my little girl telling me "Peace, all is well mother." Just like my little girl.
She is a very calm baby. She only cries when she is hungry or when I change her diaper before she eats. Other than that she doesn't cry much. I got very lucky that way. Knock on wood.

By the time I left the hospital I felt great. Well, better than I had since the surgery. Here is my little angel in her coming home outfit. Her socks were huge but I liked the dress.

And here we are coming home. I still look awful but really that has never stopped me from posting a picture before right?

(Still to be continued...)

The Beginning

So I was having trouble arranging all of my pictures so I have decided to post my story in three different posts. Also, that way I can do bits and pieces at a time. I am having a hard time finding time to get everything...okay anything done so posting my story in parts is the best idea.

Monday night I was to be checked into the hospital to be induce. Hallelujah...it is about time to have this baby. Here we are about to embark on an adventure that will change our lives forever. 38 weeks and 2 days along. Already dilated to a six.

Checked in a ready to go. The actually didn't start the pitocin until 5 the next morning because they thought that I was going to have the baby asap. So all of Monday night I slept 1 1/2 hrs. It was a nightmare. I didn't even watch tv because Brighton was sleeping and I didn't want to wake him up. Thank goodness for lame games on cell phones and conference talks online.
Once the pitocin started...nothing really. I still felt my normal contractions and I was dilating a little more. I got an epidural and they broke my water. Me and pain go together like...nothing so an epidural early was my plan. I won't lie, when they broke my water I lost like 10lbs and it felt amazing! They were surprised how much water I had. TMI?? Ya I think so too. So after my water broke I kept dilating but oh so slowly. I told my nurse that I hope I had this baby while she was on shift (and this was at 10am) and she said I would definitely have this baby by 7 tonight. Well 3:30 rolls around and I start pushing. I had slept most of the day and had lots of energy to push. So I pushed, and pushed, and pushed. And she got stuck. They weren't sure why but her head kept coming down and then when the contractions would stop her head would pop right back up. 4 hours of pushing later her head was starting to swell from all of the pushing and nothing was working. They were also afraid that if her head came out her shoulders might get stuck. They were afraid she was a big baby. NOT A SUGAR BABY. For anyone who knows about diabetes my diabetes was under control during my whole pregnancy. My highest AlC was 6.0 and my best on was a 5.4. If you don't know what that means...lucky you. But it means that my baby was not a sugar baby. So after much contemplating and more pushing we decided a c-section would be best. So at 8pm the fun began.

I would have pushed for 10 more hours if I could have instead of a c-section. I don't know why but it was awful. Actually after they told me to stop pushing I was really exhausted and kept falling asleep. I was really thirsty and they wouldn't give me any ice to eat so that made me more miserable. However, Brighton was such a huge support and I definitely would have fallen apart (more than I did) without him. To be continued in the next post.