Kellen's Birth Story

So, here's the deal...things are MUCH different having your second child (and I'm assuming your 3rd, 4th, etc.) than your first. I mean, with Carter I was keeping so on top of the weekly "your baby is the size of a blueberry" type thing. With Kellen, it's more like.. wow, I'm already 20 weeks?! So with that being said, I am kind of having to force myself to write Kellen's birth story, mosty so I will be glad I did years down the road. With Carter, it was about the first thing I did when I got home from the hospital. And the older I get, I find myself caring less and less about what the "trendy" thing is that moms do nowadays (like blogs, lol, which is why I maybe write one post a year!). I am just trying to figure out motherwood, wifeyhood, and life in general day by day.

So here is Kellen's birth story:

I had been going into the doctor weekly since 36 weeks and was already starting to dilate then. By 37 weeks I was 80% effaced and 2cm dilated. At 38 weeks I was 3cm and still 80% effaced. I thought he would come early but didn't necessarily want him to. I wanted him to be fully ready to come out on his terms. At 39 weeks, my doctor stripped by membranes and two days later (not quite 48 hours, though) labor started.

My water broke with Carter the night of his due date so I kind of thought my water would break with Kellen too. But nope. I was having contractions throughout the day on Tuesday, February 9th. It seemed like my contractions started getting stronger the minute Ricky walked in the door from work (big blesssing!) at about 6pm that evening. They were getting closer together and more intense as the night progressed. We continued with our usual nightly activities, putting Carter to bed around 8:30-9ish. They started getting pretty regular and more intense (about 5-7 mins apart, lasting a minute or so) around 10:00pm. The doctor did tell me that if I went into labor and delivery at any point after he stripped my membranes they wouldn't turn me away, but I was still pushing it because I was hesitant to go in! But finally Ricky convinced me that it was time to call his parents and get ready to go. His parents just live 15 minutes from our house. So around 10:30, we called his parents and they came and picked up Carter in the dead of his sleep.

We get to the hospital around 11:30pm and I was already 4cm dilated. Of course they admitted me. They told me I could get the epidural any time I was ready. I was like, "um, ok, now!" But really, contractions do hurt, but they weren't the worst thing by any means. Although I didn't get any further than 4-5cm dilated before I had the epidural, I can say that I've had much worse pain than those contractions. Also, let me just say, I LOVE epidurals. They give the sensation as if you are sitting in a jacuzzi. I'll take one a day, please? I get so sad when they start to wear off.

I am lucky I got to the hospital when I did though, because much later I may not have been able to get the epidural (if labor progressed quickly, which it did). The doctor came in and broke my water, then I got the epidural. That mades things speed up immensely! After about 10-15mins. of pushing, sweet little dark haired Kellen was born at 1:38am on February 10th (only 2 hours from when we arrived at the hospital!) For this reason, I think i will get induced next time to make sure I can make it to the hospital in time and get an epidural!

I did get a second degree tear once again. And although some aspects of recovery were bad, overall it hasn't been as bad as it was with Carter. And once again, my mom SAVED me. She came and stayed with us for almost 2 weeks total. Between her and Ricky's parents, we were definitely helped immensely!!! And we are so grateful to those ward members and neighbors who brought us dinner and gifts. Those meals are heaven sent after you have a baby!

 (he came out with some long nails and scratched his face)

Good Ol' Fashioned Spudnut Making

Over the Christmas break, my mom and I thought it would be fun to try out my great grandma Eames' spudnut recipe! It is the first time we ever tried it and they turned out surprisingly good! Spudnuts have actual mashed potatoes in them so they are more moist and dense... and OH SO DELICIOUS! Here is a little photo documentary of how the process went:)

*My grandma (this is HER mother's recipe) happened to stop by for a visit while we were in the middle of making them so it was kind of fun to have three generations making these family spudnuts!

(Also, get a napkin please, because your mouth WILL water).

 (We didn't have a donut cutter, so we had to do it the redneck way using a mason jar lid and a soda cap)

Thanksgiving in Seattle

This year for Thanksgiving Ricky and I, my mom and my sister decided it would be fun to take a road trip to Seattle to surprise my brother and his wife! Ricky and I came up with the plans about 2 weeks before Thanksgiving... and we made it happen! It took us 13 hours to get there and 14 hours to get home. We tried to do it cheaply by staying at a small Days Inn hotel by the SeaTac airport and and packing tons of food from home:-) It made it even more of an adventure! We had to plan well because we knew we would be putting on a Thanksgiving feast up there too! All in all, it went well and it was lots of fun:)

We tried to explore the city as much as we could, but with have a toddler and me being 7 months pregnant with bad tailbone pain this time around, it wasn't too easy. My tailbone/sciatic nerve pain really flared up during our trip. It must have been a combination of the long car ride (I tried moving around and getting out as much as possible), walking everywhere, and not being in our own cozy king bed at home. But nonetheless, it was fun to explore Seattle!

The drive went surprisingly well with Carter. We drove through the night on the way there and that went just fine. I drove for the first 4-5 hours to Boise, then my mom drove a few hours, and Ricky drove about 7 hours the rest of the way into Seattle. We hit a few sketchy parts with thick fog. The infamous "blue pass" or "deadman's pass" was especially crazy! Ricky was driving and couldn't see too far in front of him because of thick fog. And the roads were snowy. 
On the way back, I was having too much tailbone pain that I didn't do any driving (it was hard to even shift around at all) so my mom and Ricky switched off. We laughed, gossiped... I mean, er, ate snacks, and just had fun. We also stopped at Cafe Rio in Boise on the way home to eat. It was nice to get back to where things felt "normal" and things weren't so busy and expensive!

Some fun moments from our trip include the incredibly expensive dinner an Din Tai Fung (I think that's how it's spelled?-- and yes, we were trying to do it cheaply, so this was not anticipated... but my brother insisted we eat there. Thanks Derek! Grr! haha), walking around Pike Place Market and seeing the gum wall (which had recently been steamed scraped off, but there was still some gum on it), exploring Lake Union, and visiting the Locks (where they manually control the water levels for boats to go in and out of Puget sound). And we can't forget the craziness of driving around downtown Seattle (a VERY liberal city) in a huge Diesel truck. Let's just say... we didn't "fit in". And Ricky really disliked driving that truck around in a crazy city! We also visited the ABC Kent branch (Ricky's company he works for) and it was fun for him to see that.
 
OH, and let's NOT FORGET Carter's microwave phone fiasco! We weren't even in our hotel room for 15 minutes when Carter found the microwave. He was putting things in there (mostly harmless things) and I kept managing what he was doing. Well, the housekeeper lady stops by to bring sheets and I had my back turned for a moment when he grabbed my iPhone 6 off the bed threw it into the microwave and pushed start. My mom happened to walk by and see what was happening. It was only in there for a few seconds (3 tops) when she grabbed it out. The case had started to melt, the microwave smelled like burned electronics (and then eventually the whole hotel room), and the phone was dead. Luckily, it still turned on. But we had to go straight to the Seattle downtown Verizon store and after 2 hours, it was decided I had to buy a new phone (Thanks, Younique!). Luckily, I was able to back up my old phone to my computer and transfer everything. But NOT GOOD! Good thing he's cute:)

Here are some fun pictures of our trip:

 Carter's ready to go!

 He thinks it's so fun to grab out his camera and take pictures! Especially when we see something cool... he knows to take a picture!

 Consider this my maternity photo:-)

 *HUNK*

 Cute banner my sister-in-law, Katie, made.

My good ol' mom doing her thang:)

Katie's SMOKED TURKEY... in Ricky's words, "the BEST turkey I've ever had".

My favorite Thanksgiving pie... my mom's chocolate cream pie! Mmmm! 

 Does this make me a professional/cool photographer? 

 My cute sis:)

 Carter absolutely adores his uncle Derek. Derek is so fun with him and they are like two peas in a pod when they get to be together!

 My mom trying to be fancy:) I love her.

Carter made a cute little friend when we were exploring. He is always SO friendly to other kids. He'll go right up and say, "Hi! My name is Carter! Want to play with me?" Most kids give him a weird look and walk off. LOL

 Downtown Seattle, close to Pike Place Market.

 View from Alki beach. So pretty with the space needle!

 Derek & Katie

 Another one of this cute guy, just because I love him.

IPHONE PICS: