Katie's Visit

My good friend, Katie, came to visit all the way from San Francisco. You might recognize her from my facebook profile pic. She graduated with me in the accounting program at BYU, and also TAed with me in the accounting lab. We spent a lot of time together senior year, studying, eating, and talking on the phone. I think the world of this girl, and just in case any single guys happen to be reading this blog- may I mention that she is single :) Since she flew into Jacksonville, we spent the night with my brother and sister and hit up the beach the next day. I was a little worried about taking TJ since he was only 5 weeks old, but he absolutely loved it it. The sound of the waves crashing and the warm weather kept him nice and cozy under the umbrella that Andy and Dana let us borrow.

That evening when we got back to Gainesville we met Kim, Stace, and their happy little baby, Julian, at Chick-fil-a to get some free chicken. Kim made the cutest little spotted onsie for TJ which earned us a free milkshake. Kim also cut out all these spots for us, Trent printed the signs, and we found the cow hats at the table next to us. It is always a fun time with Kim and Stace.

During the remainder of Katie's visit we spent lots of time watching chick flicks in bed, sleeping in, shopping (which we discovered TJ enjoys if carried in his Baby Bjorn) and catching up on life. Katie bought TJ the cutest little red and blue flip flops from Baby Gap (pictured below). We ran out of time and didn't think we would be able to go see the Alligators, but Katie's flight ended up being delayed three hours so we ran over to Paines Prairie, which happens to be pretty close to the airport, during the wait. While that seemed like a fantastic plan, it ended up being kinda scary, but thanks to the park ranger we managed to make it out of the park alive not to mention with a couple of photos for proof that Katie actually saw alligators while in Florida (note to self- never ever go to see the Alligators with out Trent). Sometimes when Katie was still asleep in the morning I would dress TJ up and take pictures of him just for fun. The green shirt below is an old Lacoste shirt that my brother, Alex, wore when he was a baby. The rattle he loves to hold onto is a Lunt Silver rattle that my mom buys for all her grandchildren. The family picture was taken courtesy of Katie, and the picture of him smiling is one of the few we have been able to capture with the camera even though he has been smiling since the first of this month.

TJ's first month

Just a quick picture post to recap all of the fun things Baby TJ has been up to during his first month. Some of the highlights include:

-First trip to Tallahassee

-Meeting my brother, Alex's family, as well as my mom's mom, Meme for the first time

-First Father's day (TJ gave Trent a Gator counting book)

-First visit from Aunt Elaine and Ellie

-Meeting Trent's mom and having her feed him his first bottle

-Meeting our friends, Jeff, Stacey, and Cheyenne Bennum visiting from Georgia

-Going to Godfather's pizza buffet with the Bennums

-First walk to the park with Cheyenne and Stacey

-First trip to see the Alligators at Paines Prairie

-First Fourth of July- a day full of festive food with the Bennums

-Watching fireworks in Alachua

-First trip to church

Baby's First Week

It has been quite the eventful week for Baby TJ. On Wednesday he met his cousin Stevie, Aunt Dana, and Uncle Andy.

And that night he had his first baby sitter- my mom watched him while Trent and I ran to Walmart. We were so nervous that he would get hungry while we were gone but of course he just slept the whole time.
On Thursday he had his first doctor's appointment where we found out he had lost 7 ounces putting him in the 32nd percentile for weight and 81st percentile for height. Oh, and his head circumference was in the 38th percentile- he was the small headed baby I had been dreaming of after all.
We were excited when they put us in the sports themed doctor's room :) Although he doesn't look too thrilled himself.
Everyday he has spent most of him time sleeping. Lots of sleeping and lots of eating.
On Saturday we gave him a sponge bath
he didn't really appreciate that.
But we had to get him cleaned up for his very first outing- a trip to the UF baseball game that evening.
Even though we were too late to make it inside the gate, he loved it! He didn't even cry during his diaper change.
On Sunday we got him dressed up for church in his cute submarine outfit even though we didn't actually go to church. Unfortunately he didn't keep this outfit on for too long because he peed through the diaper. It took Trent and I a week to figure out how to properly change a little boy's diaper. Swadlers work better than Huggies and you have to point the little pee pee down.

Baby Savage has arrived

Our precious baby boy was born June 6th at 4:33 pm. He weighed 7 pounds 14 ounces and was 21 inches long. We named him Trent Jr. but we will call him TJ to keep everyone straight. Here is his story:

Saturday night I was one week past the due date and bored out of my mind. I decided to buy a box of hair dye at Walmart. Around 9:00, when I began the dying process, I started to feel the beginning of what became labor. An hour later I felt what I thought was another contraction. This went on though the night until 2:00 am, at which point I knew without a doubt that this was the real deal and decided to call the hospital. My midwife told me I could come to the hospital as soon as I wanted. However, I was too terrified of being turned away so I labored through the night and early morning until I decided I had had enough. We arrived at the hospital at 7:00 am and was dilated 6 centimeters. As soon as they gave me the okay for staying I requested the epidural. Best decision of my life. It went from hard contractions every couple of minutes to pure bliss.

We slept for several hours until I felt like I was ready to push. That's when it got incredibly painful. I pushed for what felt like 10 hours (but really was only an hour and a few minutes) and that was that. Trent cut the umbilical cord,

and the nurse cleaned him up,
and we spent the next 48 hours adoring our new baby son.
Then we left the hospital,
and we have enjoyed every minute of having him in our home.
I could stare at this little boy all day if sleeping and eating weren't a necessity. Hence the reason it took me so long to post his story, I have been way to busy trying to soak up as much of his itty bitty self as possible since I know it won't last long enough. I have been taking pictures though and will try to get some more posted soon.

Update for anyone who's interested

No baby yet. I tried drinking half a bottle of castor oil on the 25th, eating mexican food on the 26th, and lots and lots of walking over the last couple of days. But again- no baby. Just one very pregnant woman (who now gets asked if she's having twins), and one very impatient husband. Trent's birthday came, but not even an inkling of a contraction. I have surrendered to the fact that I have little control over when our baby boy makes his entrance. But I can't put all the blame on him, after all, we did gave him conflicting advice- wait until we are settled into our new place, but come on the 26th. We were no where near close to being settled in on the 26th. It's the evening of the 28th and I am just now starting to feel somewhat settled. This is mostly due to the great help I have received from my mom who came down Tuesday night to help get all my projects done before the little baby comes. She has been working nonstop ever since she got here.

Last week Trent and I decided to celebrate his birthday early by cashing in on his free Whisky River chicken sandwich at Red Robin. The closest Red Robin is 2 hours away in Daytona, so we made the birthday celebration into a day at the beach. This is very fitting for Trent who worships the sun. While we were on the east coast we decided to drive up to Jacksonville Beach to drop off a bed for my nephew, Stevie. And while we were there I had Trent take some pictures of mrs. preggo in her swimsuit...

with a coverup on top.

Of course we couldn't actually make it off the boardwalk and into the sand before the battery died but the 9 month pregnant look was captured and I am now officially done taking pictures.

Tomorrow I am going to post pictures of my baby showers. If you don't see a post hopefully that means I'm having a baby.

Full term

It's so hard to believe that tomorrow my baby will be "full term". Even though he has been quite the wiggle worm in the womb, for some reason, it's still very hard for me to comprehend that a real live baby is inside of me...

People still ask if I am ready. I still don't know how to answer that. Our baby is supposedly ready as far as position goes, evidently he flipped and is now "vertex" rather than "breach." And after having a couple of amazing baby showers last week, both Baby and I are much more prepared in a necessity sense than before. I'm pretty sure I have little control over the exact date of arrival, but wishing for this baby to be a boy didn't seem to do any harm.

In my "perfect world" Baby Savage would wait until after we have moved (that would be this weekend). In fact, he would also wait until after we have somewhat settled in to our new place (give me another couple weeks for that). The most ideal date would be May 26th, since that is Trent's birthday, and also Trent's Dad's birthday. Three generations, that would be something. But the true due date- which is the 28th, wouldn't be bad either, it's the first day of Trent's 2 week break from school. The next two days after that would be okay too, but anything in the month of June is not part of my "perfect world" plan.

I think the reality of this pregnancy will hit me like a million bricks once I go into labor, and especially once I see the baby outside of the womb. Until then I will try to get as much prepared as possible- any last minute advice would be wonderful :)

i•ron•ic

adj.
Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs:

One of the main reasons Trent wanted to go to Florida for dental school was because of the warm weather. Isn’t it kind of ironic that this winter just so happened to be the second coldest winter Gainesville has ever seen since they started recording temperatures in the early 1900s? Believe it or not, I think this has been the most stressful thing for Trent to handle since we’ve been here. He may have even lost hair over it.

But he’s not the only one who’s been losing hair. They say your hair is supposed to be “full and luxurious” when pregnant, something to do with the growing phase and the resting phase… but this is not the case for me. It seems that I have been losing more hair than ever the past few months (ironic, no?). Although the American Pregnancy Association would blame it on vitamin deficiency, I’m pretty sure it has more to do with stress (Hello! Vitamin-packed Ovaltine is my drink of choice these days). Stressing over little things that I really shouldn’t stress over, like having to give birth to a child with a big head. Or now, stressing over the fact that my baby is in breech position. I swear he was there with us at all those child birth classes, but he obviously wasn’t paying any attention. Isn’t it kind of ironic that I used to worry about having to push for hours to get that big ole head out but now I worry about not having the opportunity to (if he stays in his current position we would most likely have to go the c-section route)?

I’ve also been a wee bit stressed over the townhouse that we made an offer on 39 days ago. Since it’s a “short sale” we have to wait for the bank to approve our offer. We have heard absolutely nothing from them yet. But we just recently did find out that someone else has made an offer in the mean time. The most ironic thing of all is the fact that they call this thing a “short sale.” There is nothing short to it.

We have about 10 more weeks till our small-headed, non-breech baby is going to make his entrance and we have no clue where or if this child will have shelter. The good thing is that it's starting to warm up here in Gainesville. At least one of us will have hair at that point.

The calm before the storm

This past week has been the most boring seven days of my entire existence. Going back as far as my mind can stretch, life has always been busy. That stopped at about 8 am last Monday morning when my life hit its very first standstill. I found myself working and sleeping without much to do to fill in the extra hours.

I have a feeling this is the calm before the little storm that is about to hit.

Everyone has seen a warning sign similar to the one below, right?

In Florida this icon is all too familiar, indicating that there is a hurricane on the rise. I think the symbol represents the eye of the storm

Now rewind to February 9th when I posted my favorite picture of our unborn child. Here it is again, with a few finishing touches.

I do believe we have received our warning sign. I will try to enjoy the next three months of calm before our little storm arrives :)

And since it has been a month since I last posted a picture of me and the belly...

23 going on 15

How does this work?

In high school people often told me I looked older than I was. Now that I am older, people often tell me that I look younger than I am. You would think this was a fantastic scenario, but no. Not when you are married and people think you are sixteen (I'm pretty sure that is illegal in the state of Florida, even if I was granted parental consent). And it's especially humiliating when you are visibly pregnant. Trent and I get it all the time. The card scanner at the gym, the hostess at the restaurant, the random stranger in the grocery store. You blame it on my young looking sidekick? Nope, I get it at work all the time too, and they've never see my 17-year-old husband. It happened again today. The lady in charge of payroll came up to me and whispered "I told Marsha (my boss) that you look like you might be pregnant, she informed me that you are indeed pregnant. I was like- Isn't she in high school!? Marsha told me that you're not, and that you're married." wow. Do they think they are paying me a compliment? I might be quietly chuckling with you on the outside but on the inside I am screaming "I have a college degree, I've been out of high school for 6 years, I'm married, I'm 23 and a half..."

Some sort of explanation is needed. Is it really possible for me to stop aging at 20 and then start "younging" (my made up antonym for aging) and if so, how long is this going to last or what can I do to stop it? You would think getting pregnant would do the trick. Nope, the pregnancy pimples have me headed more in the direction of middle school.

Then

Now (pre pregnancy)

Wear more make up? Encircle myself with older looking people? Dress in less? Lose the weight that appears to have gone straight to my face?

Or maybe I should just embrace the 16-year-old-married-pregnant-person that I appear to be. Now that's a thought.

Last night Trent and I went to our first birthing class...

I may have learned more during that 2 hour session than I have during any other 2 hour period in my life. And since I am so clueless about the whole pregnancy and birthing process, I put a spoon in each hand and scarf down any advice that is given of this sort when it is placed in front of me.

Here are a few of the things that stood out the most to us.

First and foremost, the video. A full blown birthing video. With no meds, a rather large lady demonstrated what they call a "natural birth." Simply put- the dramatic course of events that took place during this lady's labor changed my life. When I saw that big ole' baby's head trying to fit though that tiny little exit point, I leaned over to Trent and asked him something along the lines of- where do I sign up for the c-section? This is coming from someone who specifically enrolled with a midwife rather than a doctor for the primary reason of not wanting to be pressured into a c-section. I cant get the image out of my head. On a positive note, Trent and I both have abnormally small heads. I will be crossing my fingers for the next 3 months that the small-head gene gets passed down to baby #1.

Particularly interesting point number two. They were talking about pregnancy cravings. They talked about how some people crave dirt and other non-food items. I actually have heard of this before, but what struck me as weird was that they advised us to microwave the dirt before eating it. They were totally serious too. They said, "if you really, really have to eat that handful of dirt, make sure to just microwave it first." What the?

I think the thing that stood out the most to Trent was the ever so important topic of kegels. He hasn't stopped talking about them since. This morning when we were getting ready for work/school I swear he asked me 15 times if I was kegeling. When I replied, "no", he would then advise me to do a few. A couple minutes later he would follow up to see how well they went. I have a feeling the reminders aren't going to stop anytime soon, its like his new kick. When he got home from school he asked if I had been doing them today. Have I ever told you how much I Hate kegeling. Ugh. Gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Since every post needs a picture (or at least to make my sister happy), here is my favorite picture of our boy with a small head. I know it looks like his head is massive, but really his body is just that much smaller. wink wink.