Two Kids!

Things have been going good.  Crazy!  But good.  I've said it and I'll say it again, just when we get comfortable with something, things change!!  Haha.  It's so good, though.  It is part of God's plan.  He teaches us through experiences and we show our love for him by making good choices throughout those experiences and helping others through theirs.  Here are some happenings lately.

Phoenix learned to talk and boy he is funny.  HA!!  Oh the things kids say.  I laugh at him every day about something he has said or done.  One of my personal favorite things that he does is he names things.  For instance... He has recently POTTY TRAINED, GUYS!!! PHOENIX!  YOU GOOD BOY WHO LOVES HIS MOMMA AND POTTY TRAINS BEFORE 3 YRS OLD!  Uh, anyway.. haha for his recent "potty prizes"  he chose a little whale figure to take to his tubs, right?  Well he told me that his whale is best friends with his blue shark, named "Sharky Spot"(blue shark with spots on it)  and that his name is Mister Woo.  Hahahaha Mister Woo! hahahahaha.  What a funny kid.  Oh and he has serious night fears, so for one of his potty prizes, I found some of those glow in the dark stars and put them all over his ceiling above his bed.  For each time he poopies on the potty, he gets to add two stars to the ceiling or wall.  Anyway, last night he wanted to hold one of the smallest stars in the box.  He told me that it was his baby star, named Robyn. Hahaha so sweet!  One thing he loves is to shine Josh's flashlight on the stars to charge them and get them really bright for the night.  He is so smart.  I honestly bubble inside with pride as I watch him grow and change.  I am so thankful for him and his sweetness.  He asks for cuddles and snuggles and kisses every day.  I hope that doesn't ever change.  He also just adores his daddy and talks about him when he is off at school or work.  Sometimes at night when Josh is at work, Phoenix will wake up and call for me and talk about the fact that daddy is at work, but he'll be home soon and he will see him in the morning.  Love it.

Josh is so busy.  I just can't believe it!  He is at school all day every week day and then 3 nights a week, he is at work for a fly tying company here in Orem.  I feel bad for him, because on the weekends, I love him to spend time with the kids so I can clean and get meals prepped, etc. But he also needs a break at some point and I am still learning how to read his signs of "I need a break!".  Haha.  I guess I'm just so used to being with the kids all day, that it doesn't phase me when he needs a break from them mauling him after an hour or so.  Haha.

Robyn is learning to eat solid foods. She loves them and loves to spit them out and laugh about it.  Haha.  It's not that she doesn't like them, cause she does.  She is still learning how to let them go down her throat instead down her chin.  ;)

She also is learning to crawl and how to have an attitude with her brother.  Haha!  They love love LOVE each other, but ooo.  I am not excited for the not sharing, hitting, sassing, etc. that is sure to come between the two of them.  They both have pretty strong personalities, but I think Robyn is going to be more in charge. Haha.  She is a boss.  She hollers when she has had enough of Phoenix stealing her toys or poking the back of her head or sitting on her etc.  But they love to play in the tub together and sit next to each other on the big chair.  I love it!

I am doing pretty good :)  Tired almost all the time.  I shower about as much as Severus Snape and eat when I can.  Things are starting to calm down now that Robyn is taking a lot better naps.  She is such a gem.  Really.  I was so worried because I knew I was gonna have to let her cry it out, because she was not able to put herself back to sleep at night when she woke up and I was tired of waking up all hours of the night to nurse her to sleep.  So I got everything ready and moved her crib into Phoenix's room and for her afternoon nap, nursed her cuddled her, and laid her down very tired, but not asleep.  I walked out of the room so scared that she would scream her head off for an hour... And scream she DID!  For 10 minutes. Hahaha!  10!  She barely cries when I lay her down now and sleeps for at least an hour, usually closer to 1 and a half hours.  I'm SO THANKFUL!  What a good baby you are baby Bynie!!  Haha

Last but definitely not least, LEXI GOT MARRIED!!  It was wonderful.  I just can't say enough how incredible temple sealings are.  The spirit is so tender, yet so strong.  I think it is in those sacred gatherings that I have felt the love of the Lord so strongly.

Anyway, things are so good and life is so fun and CRAZY.

Baby Robyn

I haven't been able to write for so long!  I can't believe I haven't even written Robyn's birth story!  I was telling someone a while ago that time sped up once I had a baby.  Well once you have two it is double as fast! So.  Here's my precious baby girl's birth story.

July 21st I had an appointment to see if I looked ready to have her.  I had been a 1 and 70% for quite a while and was really praying for some progress to be made.  When I got checked, my midwife Becky sadly said it looked the same :( I was so sad! We were all worried that baby Robyn was getting too big and we didn't want her to get stuck like Phoenix did.  Anyway,  then Becky had an idea and had me make fists with my hands and put them under my hips and checked me again and I was a 3!!  This meant we were having her the next day! I was thrilled.  Bless her heart, but Robyn's pregnancy was not super easy.  I was Sooo sick for months and months. From 9-25 weeks, I threw up all day every day.  Ugh just thinking about it makes me shudder. But.  I was pregnant and so thankful, so it was very okay. I'd be sick for 20 years to get that baby in my arms :) 

So that night, my mom came down and we had one last night as a family of 3.  Thinking about that is a little bittersweet at this point.  Having Robyn is Sooo wonderful and Phoenix loves her! But poor Phoenix went from doing fun things and being busy just about every day in the summer with me, to suddenly not being with me nearly as much, me being gone, busy, exhausted with the hospital visits every day, and then it becoming winter, so he couldn't even go out in the back and play :( I know everyone talks about how the middle child has it rough... And I'm sure it's true.  But something definitely has to be said for the poor 1st child who has grown up being the apple of mommy and daddy's eye, to that full attention turning away from them- through no fault of their own.  It is sad :(   But we are working on Phoenix getting one on one time with us each day.  He has had horrible sleep regression since Robyn was born.  He would run to his door and scream for me in the middle of the night.  He still does it half the time.  The other half, he wakes up at 5 am demanding to get up.  Josh and I have red eyes and droopy eyelids pretty frequently these days haha. 

Anyway, back to Robyn!

So we got ready early the 22nd and headed to the hospital.  We got to our room and I was put on pitocin to get things going.  When I was having Phoenix, I was put on pitocin because I wasn't progressing and holy hannah-bell.  That stuff made me want to kill myself and everyone in the room.  This time, I was like get that stuff in me cause I know its gonna get this baby here!  Haha.  And it did!  I started feeling some mild contractions and let the nurse (named Shanny!) know that I was ready anytime for the epidural.  So the dr. came in and that epidural was the BEST.  OHHH MAN!! I am SOO thankful to this day and probably will be forever.  I haver heard horror stories about epidurals, but both Phoenix's and Robyn's epidurals were amazing.  This one was so good that I seriously felt warm and fuzzy and content.  No shakes like with Phoenix... Maybe because I had actually eaten and had sleep the night before, hu?  Hahaha.

So the hours started passing and I started to progress.  To pass the time, Josh got on his phone and pulled up the hardest Harry Potter quizzes he could find and ask me the questions.  It was great.  I am always begging him to play silly trivia games with me and he usually finds a way out of it. We got there at 7 and the pitocin started at 745 ish.  They would check me every so often and I was progressing nicely.  I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I would be meeting my BABY GIRL AHHHHHHHH!!! any time now!  I still get giddy just thinking about it.  Hahaha especially now that I have had her for a while and she is just the joy of all joys.  Hahaha.

Anyway.  The last hour before I delivered, the nurses put a peanut ball between my legs and boom.  I went from a 6 to a 10 and was ready to push.  Sadly, I totally freaked Becky (my midwife) out because I told her about Phoenix's birth and she was pretty sure Robyn was going to be as big as him.  So she wanted a Dr. there just in case she got stuck.  SO I SAT FOR 15 MINUTES WITH HER RIGHT THERE JUST WAITING TO BE BORN FOR THIS DR TO ARRIVE.  FIFFFFTEEENNN LONG MINUTES OF WAITING WITH HER HEAD RRRIIIIGGGHHTTT THERE.... Umm... guys?  I think my epidural needs a boost.  GUYS!! MY EPIDURAL NOW!  Hahaha by the time I got a little pump from the epidural, the Dr. arrived and he took one look at me and said "well what are you waiting for?  Push her out, then!" Ugh.. Dr's. man.  And you wonder why I went with a midwife... Hahaha Well I did!  I pushed her out in two pushes, my friends!  And at 1 pm, she went right onto my chest and was all purple and warm and chubby and darling!!  Ahhh MY BABY!!  Right here on my tummy instead of in it!!! FINALLY!  Those 9 months were nothing.  Okay not nothing, but were very little compared to this!  Hahaha.  She had brown hair and was covered in vernix.  Oh my heck.  Hahaha even after she got cleaned up, I still found it all over her for a week!  Anyway.

She was having a little trouble getting the mucus and stuff out of her airway, so they took her over to her little heated bed and suctioned her and cleaned her off.  Then she came right back to Momma.  I of course cried and gooo'd over her.  And she was already looking for some suckles.  Haha for guys and moms who don't nurse, it might seem silly, but nursing is one of my absolute favorite things in the entire universe.  It is such a sweet bond between a momma and her baby.  I showed her where her supper was gonna come from and she WENT. TO. TOWN.  Not kiddin, this baby nursed for 3 HOURS.  3!!!  The nurses had to chuckle at my little piglet.  I'll add a picture of the gimme some food face.  It was so sweet and cute.  She has never had any feeding problems since.  (At least on her end).  Josh and I just grinned happily at each other and enjoyed the first few hours of Robyn's life eating hamburgers and taking pictures and laughing at baby Byn.  But we were both so excited for Phoenix to meet his new sister!!

That night, my Mum brought Phoenix to the hospital and they got to meet the newest piece of heaven on earth.  Phoenix LOVED her!  He was so excited! Mum got to hold her and they had an instant bond.  To this day, EVERY TIME I send my mom pictures of Robyn, she writes back "MY BABY!!!" No fail.  Hahaha.  And she is.  She loves my mom.  And they even look alike!  Through the eyes, Robyn is baby Julie Jones!  Its adorable.  So the first day was wonderful.  Wonderful Wonderful WONDERFUL.

The next few weeks were really really really HARD.  Hahaha.  Isn't that how it goes?  Life? Ups and downs.  Keeps me humble and grateful is what it does.  I learned a lot that first month of Robyn's life.  Gratitude, sadness, worry like I had never known, hope, etc.  It turned out Robyn had HORRIBLE jaundice.  So horrible that we couldn't bring her home from the hospital.  I had to go every three hours to the hospital through the next couple days night and day to nurse her while she laid under the billy lights.  Oh my heart.  My broken momma heart just cried for her baby.  I could only hold her for a half hour here and there to nurse and change her and she had to go right back under the lights.

We had an absolute GEM of a nurse named Julie who was a psychopathic hippy woman who always had the right words to say when I was sad and was the best at giving me hope and help.  Ahh.  People like that are so dear.  I will never forget her.  We were finally able to take her home 2 days later, only to have to go back, this time to the big hospital for more light therapy and blood tests.  Poor Phoenix.  Talk about his life got flip turned upside down!  Haha.  He went from being with mommy 95% of the time to like 10%.

The doctors were concerned that her bilirubin levels weren't leveling out like they should.  Every 6 hours she had to get her blood drawn and for weeks even after she was out of the hospital, her levels would rise.  And every day my hopes would be dashed as they talked about possible liver problems, blood irregularities, etc.  And plus, I was trying to do this with post pregnancy hormones still raging in me!  Hahaha horrible!  But after about 3 weeks, we FINALLY saw the levels decrease for the first time since she was born.  It turned out I have breast milk jaundice.  Whats that?! Well.  I don't blame you for never hearing of it since it affects only 2% of the population.  COME. ON.  Haha.  Apparently I have something in my milk that makes the bilirubin get reabsorbed into the bloodstream instead of pooped and pee'd out.  So that was why her levels were so high for so long.... Good to know for my next baby! Haha.

So after we were finally done with that little hiccup (that at the time felt like the worst thing ever) we have had pretty smooth sailing ever since.  She is a great eater, sleeper (for the most part) and just such a happy baby.  I am so grateful for her! She has shown me that not all babies scream their heads off for the first 4 months of their lives (cough.. Phoenix) and can actually be really really enjoyable!  Haha.  She is already 6 months and getting smarter and more of an attitude every day.  Its so fun :)

Throughout our marriage, Josh and I have talked about how we begin to see Heavenly Father's reasons for us to be married and to bring children into the world.  We have grown sooo much as a companionship and individually since the day we said "Yes".  My faith in the Lord Jesus Christ has grown exponentially and I am sure will continue to as we learn and grow as a family.  I love the Lord.  I have been given so much.  SO. MUCH.  I hope I can show him my love and gratitude by keeping his commandments and loving others like he loves me :)