Getting settled

We finally are moved in to the point where I was able to find the cable that will let me get pictures off my camera. Sheesh! It's hard to unpack boxes when I have a tiny person demanding my attention all day.

Honestly, I don't mind. He's much more interesting and fun than unpacking boxes.

Tomorrow Max will be 8 weeks old. I swear, the time has gone by so fast I think I'll blink and he'll be on a mission or telling me he doesn't want to go on a mission before I know it.

In the meantime, enjoy these pictures. He looks so different from the last pictures I posted, but every day, his ability to melt my heart just increases 100fold.

I'm copying my friend Stephanie and posing him with the same stuffed toy every month to see how he's grown in relation to the toy. I had to choose Max because that is who he is named after - the naughty little boy Max from Where the Wild Things Are.


He loves to sleep with his arms up, just like his daddy. He gets so mad when I try to swaddle him, but if I leave his arms out, he's great.

He hates to wear a hat, but I bought so many cute ones, I insist. And then I insist that I take his picture.

Because who can resist a cute kid wearing a dinosaur hat? Not me!

I promise to get back into blogging. Now that my maternity leave is ending, I'll be back on my computer all day long.

As promised some pictures of the infamous Max

I had no idea how much I would love being a mom. I'm sure all women say this, but I think I mean it more than anyone. (Maybe not, but still, I'm going to say it.) I tell everyone this is the job I was made to do. In fact, is it too soon to start again?

Maybe. (I am still a little sore, after all.)

Maybe it's so awesome because I waited so long? You know, the whole "you have to wait for all worthwhile things" or however that saying goes.

Or maybe it's because I thought it would never happen? Like when you're a teenager and you think you'll never turn 16 and be able to drive - never - but then it happens and you can and you love it so much you'll run any errand your mom asks you to run, just so you can sit behind the wheel of her mom car.

Or I guess maybe it's just because I gave birth to the most beautiful and perfect child ever. (For now. Because let's face it, he'll grow up sometime and become a teenager who always wants to drive my car.)

But you can decide for yourself: here is the perfect child at his first big photo shoot. His daddy picked out the wardrobe, set up the set, and took the pictures while his mom and grandma just stood there and laughed as he stretched his super long legs, constantly rolled to his left side, and kept shoving his fists in his mouth. As if they'll fit.

He got a little overstimulated, but hey, it was for a good cause. If you're on facebook, find Andy - he posted all 60-some odd photos on his site and you can see them all there.

I refuse to participate in facebook. Sorry.

It turns out I can do hard things

Like for instance, get this little person from my inside to my outside (that was hard).

And like be home alone to take care of this little person my last day in the hospital and my first day home from the hospital (Andy had to work). I even managed to fit a shower and a kitchen clean-up into my day.

I'm pretty much just amazed at what our bodies are made for and the incredible feats they can pull off.

Anyway, a lot of people are asking for the story and more pictures. You can read the story here, but I have not unloaded pics from my camera yet or had a chance to take new ones, so you'll have to wait for Andy to do the pics. I promise they'll be soon!

I have been planning a blog post for quite some time now to let everyone know how and what we're doing. The last couple of months have been rough - Andy was in Utah for 6 weeks working and looking for a house for us, and I was home working, suffering through some pretty severe back pain, trying to get the house packed up and ready for this baby.

Andy found us a house and we thought we'd move out there before he came. We planned on going the weekend of September 25, and Andy came home two weeks before that to work in Colorado and we started working towards that date.

At one point, I just wasn't feeling it, and tried to get him to change it, but we had a bit of a discussion about what to do. Finally we decided to stay in Colorado and have the baby - I was planning on being induced on October 12, just after my due date (October 10). It was a good plan and we moved forward with it. I scheduled an express childbirth class on Saturday September 26, a baby shower on Sunday September 27, and a breastfeeding class on Monday September 28. It felt like a solid plan.

On Friday evening September 25, I was having really mild contractions and then my water broke when I was going to the bathroom. I didn't realize that's what happened and went on with my evening. I did call my doctor and she said that she was on the fence - it might be something to worry about, might not, but to go to the hospital if things got worse. We had breakfast at IHOP. and when we got home about 9:00, I realized bleeding and contractions were worse and convinced Andy we should at least go get checked out. As a precaution.

So off we went to the ER, both of us just exhausted and not in the mood to sit in the ER and then go home after two hours. However, once I got on the exam table, the rest of my water gushed out and I was told we were not going home until I had that baby, within the next 24 hours. We were shocked!

So about 11:00 pm they put me on pitocin to get things moving along, I got my epidural around 4:00 am, started pushing around noon, turned on some Beatles music around 12:15, and at 1:15 pm he was born. What a surprise and a blessing all wrapped in one.

I'm sure you know we named him Max - Maxwell Kenshi Ahlstrom. Max after a favorite children's book (Where the Wild Things Are) and Kenshi after a Japanese samurai to honor Andy's Japanese culture. He weighed 6 lbs 7 oz and was 21 inches long. The first thing the doc said when he came out was, "Oh! He has a cleft chin!" Andy and I looked at each other and said, "What? Where did he get that from?" We could not think of anyone in our families who has one, but I'm thinking my dad does, we just don't notice it because of his goatee/beard. Funny.

Turns out my fluid was infected, which they think is why I went early. I had a fever during labor and Max came out a little on the warm side. We both had to have oxygen, but a day or so later, everyone is fine.

So there's the story. We're home from the hospital now, Max is doing great, no one is sleeping, but everyone's happy.

I'll post more when I get more pics of little Max. Thanks everyone for the emails and well wishes!

PS: We're moving to Kaysville in a few weeks. See some of you very soon!

Just a pain in the...

I've tried not to be one of those pregnant women who complains all the time. Well, I've tried to be one who complains to just my family instead of everyone. But can I just say this: being pregnant is hard!

At the end of July, Andy and I drove to Utah to find a place to live, since our first offer didn't work out. About 30 minutes into our drive, I developed this immobilizing back pain, and about six hours into what turned out to be about a 10 or maybe even 11 hour drive, Andy pulled over and made a bed for me in the back of the van. I finally found relief.

But ever since that day, I have had back pain. So painful that I only find relief when standing, walking, or lying down. No sitting for me! Which makes sitting at a computer pretty tough. Which makes working tough. And more importantly, which makes posting new blog entries tough.

Sheesh.

I started seeing a chiropractor last week, and am getting a little relief. Here's hoping the relief keeps coming, because we are not at all ready for this baby and I have so much work to do!

Where has the time gone?

So July has sped by, and the only thing I can remember about it is this: Emails. Paperwork. Addendums. And lots of money.

We put an offer on a house the first week of July, and have been stuck in a whirlwind of offers, counteroffers, inspections, and money transfers to accommodate everything.

It finally culminated this past Tuesday with us cancelling the contract and walking away from the house we loved so much, because the people selling the house were not super (or at all, really) coooperative.

Bah.

We went out for a pricey crab leg dinner and Cinnabon dessert to try to drown our sorrows. Here's hoping the next one goes a little more smoothly. And that we have a place for little Max to sleep when he arrives in a couple of months!

PS: The house was in Utah. Did I say that? Andy and I are planning on moving to Utah. Today, anyway...if things keep NOT working out, maybe we'll end up somewhere else ... location TBD.

Sick day

I always thought the hardest part of pregnancy (for me) would be dealing with headaches.

I have had headaches for as long as I can remember, and have been on all sorts of medication for them. When Andy and I got married, I weaned myself off the meds and just took Excedrin or Excedrin PM when I got a headache. Since that obviously can't happen when you're pregnant, I thought it would be tough to survive headaches sans Excedrin.

As it turns out, I've only had two really bad headaches while pregnant. (yay!)

What I have had (and am on my third one) are sinus infections and most recently, a really bad viral infection. This thing has knocked me flat on my back - I have stopped working and been in bed or on the couch for almost two weeks now. Coughing, hacking, draining, you name it - it's happening at our house, and I'm not a happy camper about it.

Especially because the dead moths just continue to pile up. Ugh.

Wish me well soon. I hate looking outside at the sun and wishing I could be out there, when instead I'm lying on the couch surrounded by piles of tissue, hugging a humidifier.

Which is better?

On Saturday, I set out to conquer our moth problem once and for all. They are ONLY in our entryway (unless we leave the door open between the entryway and the house), and they cover that room. On any given night, there must be at least two to three dozen moths hanging around.

Gross.

So, on Saturday, armed with the vacuum cleaner hose, I started sucking them up. One, two, three, thwump, thump, thwump, they all went in. I must have vacuumed two dozen moths before satisified I got them all.

Not so.

I tuned around to put away the vacuum, and heard tiny moth wings beating behind me - five more had just appeared! I proceeded to suck them up, and turned to put away the vacuum once more.

And they just kept coming back. They crawled out of the window, I'm guessing from somewhere in the depths of our shoe cabinet, which I opened, and sucked out the moths I could see in there. I think one of them laid eggs that stay dormant all year and hatch in the spring. They flew everywhere, attacking me - flying at my head, beating their tiny, grossy, dusty moth wings at me, as if they were ready for war.

In hindsight, I realized I was attacking them after all - why wouldn't they attack back? Maybe because it's not their house! They don't pay rent - I do!

Still - gross.

So I bought a bug bomb so we could fog the place. Andy set it on Monday, and I came home to four moths in that room - all of them dead, and now I'm finding dead moths everywhere.

So you tell me - which is better? Dozens upon dozens of live moths, or stepping on a dead moth and getting moth dust on your bare foot?

I'll say it again: gross.