Recent Raves

A few things that I've tried recently that I think are worthy of sharing:

e.l.f. Crimson Crush Lip Stain: Dalan and I have an agreement that if I'm going to wear lip color, it has to be a stain so as not to interrupt our kissing (yeah, we kiss, get over it). I've tried a few different red stains and none have seemed to match my skin tone great, until now. This stuff is AMAZING and only $2 at Target!

 

Real Salt: Tastes amazing on pretty much anything. It seems to go a lot further than plain old table salt.

Yami Yogurt: If you happen to live in the North West, go out and buy some of this right now! If not, book a trip to come visit me, and the yogurts on me :)

Burpy Bibs: These were recommended by a friend when she saw how many burp cloths Rory would drool through in just a matter of minutes. They are so absorbent!

This recipe from SkinnyTaste.com. I have gotten into roasting veggies lately, which is unfortunate since I'm afraid its just about to get too warm to have the oven at 400.

Feel Goods

I recently made this the lack screen image on my phone. It has really improved my day quite a few times.


I highly recommend that everyone does this, like right now. With your own heart-throb, of course. David Tennant is mine!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

EMP Museum

On Saturday morning Dalan and I took our last opportunity for a babysitter before Braden and Fransheska left and visited the EMP (Experience Music Project) Museum. Neither of us had been before and we were very excited for 2 exhibits in particular: Icons of Science Fiction and The Art of Video Games.

We arrived as they opened on Saturday morning and pretty much had the place to ourselves for the first hour or so.

Lots of guitars

 

Dalan watching an educational video about the Super NES

 

Entrance to the Icons of Science Fiction exhibit. We had a fun time trying identifying all of these.

 

Mandatory selfie (husband doesn't like these)

 

Superman suit worn by Christover Reeves

 

It's a Dalek!! This one is made from wood, it is the Imperial Dalek used in a 1988 episode.

 

I narrowly avoided extermination

At the horror movie exhibit they had a shadow puppet screen that would add all kinds of weirdy hair and appendages. 

 

Dalan's submission to the Scream Gallery

We really had a fun time! We actually upgraded our day pass to a season pass so we can go again when we have visitors. 

Ottomans

You know how sometimes you say a word so many times it doesn't sound like a word anymore? Or how maybe you look at so many different ottomans that they all start to look the same and you can't really remember what you wanted in the first place?

Our coffee table that my awesome husband made me is about to say goodbye. As much as I love it, it's not quite Rory approved. Not only are the super sharp corners scary for a soon-to-be mobile baby, but the legs seem to have gotten a little looser from the move, and I am terrified that it's going to collapse one day and land on a baby or schnauzer.

So I've been looking for some more baby-friendly options, which basically means an ottoman. One of the requirements is a surface for eating on, since apparently we can't use a kitchen table like normal human beings.

The only place I've really found what I want has been Walmart, and while I would love to buy some nice furniture from somewhere a little more upscale, sadly those stores don't seem to cater to couch potatoes who want an ottoman they can eat off of.

So here are the three I've narrowed it down to:

Anyone have thoughts on which would be best? I've looked at so many of these, my brain has turned to oatmeal and I am apparently incapable of making a decision.

First Field Trip

My brother and sister-in-law are visiting for Spring Break, so we decided to get out and see a few of the things the Pacific Northwest has to offer.

Rory woke up bright and early around 6:45am, I was hoping he would sleep a little later since it was dark thanks to the time change, but I wasn't so lucky. He was just excited for his busy day! I made sure to dress him appropriately in Boeing attire since one of our stops was the Museum of Flight.

After having a week of extra horrific nights with an extremely upset and screaming baby, I called our pediatrician to see if something was up, they were able to squeeze us in early in the day. She decided that Rory had acid refulx, which is what we expected. He now gets to have extra expensive formula, an orthopedic wedge for under his crib mattress, and needs to be upright for at least 30 minutes after every meal.

Dalan ended up getting off work earlier than planned, so we decided to take the dogs for a little hike first. Turns out there are a lot of really pretty trails right outside our apartment complex. Rory was pretty wide-eyed the entire time admiring all of the foliage.

 

We then went to the Museum of Flight, Rory considered a future as an astronaut, but the difficulty the suit posed in getting to his fists changed his mind.

 

A little too happy at the WWII exhibit

Dalan and Rory with a B52 something, something. I didn't actually read the sign. I now realize that I will likely be the parent with the camera.

 

On the way home we stopped at a local hole in the wall, XXX Root Beer.

Braden and Fran ordered the XXX Burger, good thing they decided to share!

Rory was very well behaved. The big screen TV kept him pretty distracted. We had some fun at his expense taking photos to make it look like he had Dalan's hair.

And that pretty much sums up Rory's first field trip. He was very well behaved, which makes me excited to go do more in the future!

The Little Things

I'm Geekery, and I am overly proud about this feat. Take the quiz here.

Plant-o-cide

I am absolutely horrible with plants! The relief society presidency came over last Friday and gave me this potted plant:

It's already dying, I feel like a jerk. I've only ever been able to keep one plant healthy longer than a week, that was my 7th grade terrarium project. It is actually still thriving and alive on a shelf over my mom's kitchen sink. Promise.

Disneyland Ticket Deal

Currently GetAwayToday is having a deal where if you purchase a 3-day hopper pass, you can get a free upgrade to a 5-day 1 park pass. A hopper pass lets you go back and forth between Disneyland and California Adventure as many times as you want, with a 1 park pass, you get the park of your choice each day, but only that one park. We have decided to opt out since we love hopping back and forth, and because Dalan has to eat Plaza Inn Chicken at least once a day while we are there.

Here is a link to purchase:

You have to purchase by today, but you can use the ticket anytime before December 31.

Downhill Fast

Rory at 4:00pm

Rory at 10:00am

Rory at 12:00pm

Rory at 3:00pm

Rory at 5:00pm

We've had a sick little boy at our house :( luckily it looks like it's a 24 hour thing. He is feeling much better this morning and is just a little fussy. So happy his fever is gone. It reached 102, which was absolutely terrifying. Sick babies are the pits!

Crap Napper

This post isn't cutesy or full of adorable pictures. It's about a learning experience. It's funny how much of the baby's 'problems' turn out to be caused (unintentionally) by the parents. Rory has never been a good napper, but he was such a good baby, it didn't really matter. About 4 weeks ago his naps became even shorter than usual, I was lucky if he stayed asleep for 30 minutes, I would pray for at least 20. Rory really wasn't struggling too much with this nap schedule, but I had been religiously following Babywise and that stated he should be sleeping for an hour and a half every 3 hours. Sleep, change, eat, play, sleep repeated every 3 hours. With Rory's 30 minute naps resulted in his schedule repeating every 2 hours, and so he wasn't extremely hungry when it was time to eat (since his last meal had been so recent). I started to have anxiety attacks over this, I must have been doing something wrong. Desperately I tried to find an answer online, or in books. I read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, which did help me learn to recognize his nap cues better, but the book was so full of what horrible awful things happen to children who don't nap that I felt like a total failure. I was ruining my baby, and I didn't know how to fix it. I was trying to force Rory to fit the schedule he was 'supposed' to be on. In the mean time, Rory was getting fussier and fussier everyday and Dalan and I were at the end of our rope.

The anxiety became so intense that it started affecting me physically and emotionally. I stopped eating breakfast and lunch and I would be standing in the kitchen, and start to sob, for no reason at all. I got behind on housework since I now spent every second Rory slept watching the baby monitor and crying every time he moved or looked like he was about to wake up. I felt completely inadequate as a parent and started having regrets about being a mom. Rory would be better off in a different family where the mom knew what she was doing, and she would know how to get him to take productive naps and therefore, not condemn his future. I was sane enough to realize that these thoughts weren't normal and I contacted a helpline regarding Postpartum Depression.

Sadly, it took over a week for my local Postpartum support rep to respond back to me. In the meantime, I thankfully worked things out for myself. In my hours of internet searching trying to find an answer for what I had done wrong, I came across a sample schedule for a 4-month old. This schedule stated that 4-month olds are usually horrible nappers, and the sample schedule was based on a baby who only wanted to take half hour naps. This was a huge turning point for me, I just needed some sort of validation that I hadn't broken my baby.

Once I realized that 30 minute naps were ok, I started paying close attention to Rory's cues. 1 hour and 15 minutes after being awake, Rory is ready for his nap. Sometimes he doesn't even eat between naps, and thats ok. My baby is thriving and happy on this baby-led schedule and I feel so much more in control once I could accept the fact that my baby takes 30 minute naps. Now I know that I can get housework done, it just needs to be in five 30-minute intervals during the day.

Rory still sleeps well at night. I was jealous and upset that he wasn't sleeping in 12 hour stretches like some of my friends' babies, Rory sleeps a total of 11 hours every night, and wakes up once during that time to feed. I've since met a family with a baby the same age as Rory who wakes up every 3 hours to feed at night! How lucky am I?

Now that I've decided to go with the flow, I've been able to actually get out of the house with Rory! Before I didn't dare leave, because he might end up wanting a nap, and having a meltdown. Now that I can guestimate what time he will want his next nap, and watch his cues, I make sure to have him home for naptime, or to have an environment ready where he can take a quick snooze. Last week we went to infant story time at the library and to play group. He was great at both, but just took a little snoozer while I sat in the corner and held him. We've started going for walks during the day, even just to take out the trash and that helps with the cabin fever a lot too.

I think my anxiety/depression was caused by quite a few factors, I've had crazy hormones going on associated with my breast milk drying up and also the return of my monthly cycle (this was shortly after my worst meltdown, it's always nice to realize you can totally blame that stuff on PMS). I was also feeling very isolated and lonely while Dalan was at work. I've met some great mom's through play group and also at church that have been a huge help.

So, it a nutshell. All babies are different. What works for your baby, will probably not work for mine. Authors can give generalities, but there is no guarantee that what they have to preach will be right for you or your baby, and that's just fine. As long as my baby is happy and healthy, we'll keep doing what we're doing.

And as a funny little sidenote, Rory got his shots yesterday and has been cranky and fussy all day. He's currently napping and just passed hour #2, so I got to write a blog post about his half hour naps, during a 2+ hour nap.

The Rory Story

Considering a certain baby is 4 months old today (WHAT?!), I guess it's high time we shared his birth story!

*Disclaimer, this post is about birthing a baby; therefore, words associated with birthing a baby will be used. You have been warned.

Dalan moved to Washington for work on October 8, before he began he worked it out with his manager to take unpaid leave for 30 days once the baby was born so he could come back to Utah and help me for the first few weeks. My due date was November 11, and my last day at work was November 2, Dalan scheduled his return flight for November 2 so I wouldn't be home freaking out all alone the week before.

37 weeks pregnant

I had my weekly checkup on October 23, where my Doctor declared my baby was definitely coming early, and that I would be lucky to make it until November. She offered to strip my membranes then and there! I slightly freaked out and declined considering Dalan's absence. We decided that she would strip my membranes on November 1 and that I would likely go into labor sometime on the second, just in time for Dalan to be there. I changed my last day of work to October 25th. It seemed like a good plan, but as I drove home I started to worry about the 'lucky to make it until November' part. I called Dalan and he agreed to change his flight to October 31, that way he could come with me to the November 1 appointment and would be here earlier, just in case.

On October 28 I lost my mucous plug, and then I just plain lost it (my mind). It could mean that labor is in 24-48 hours, or it could mean nothing. So terrified by the unknown and missing my husband, I called Dalan, sobbing. He scrambled to get everything together and come back to Utah as quickly as possible. He arranged for the next flight which wasn't until the morning, but he made it back by about 9am.

I was SO happy and relieved to finally have my husband with me! It took away a ton of the stress knowing that he wouldn't miss the birth. We spent that day doing a few of the last minute preparations like building the bassinet, installing the car seat, and buying a few forgotten items for the hospital.

I started having contractions on Tuesday (October 30), we decided to head to the hospital once they were 5 minutes apart. We had my bag and everything ready to go once they were 6 minutes apart, and then they just stopped.

Slightly annoyed at not getting to meet my little Dude yet, I decided to focus on two new goals:

1. do NOT have a Halloween baby
2. Wait until November 1, and then Dalan's new health insurance would kick in, and we would be double covered.

I took it easy and kept my legs crossed all day on Halloween. By this time I was huge, uncomfortable, and absolutely miserable. I don't know about this burst of energy that people talk about towards the end, I never got it.

That night I was so uncomfortable, I couldn't sleep at all. I stayed up reading a book and playing on my iPad and slightly drifted off around 3am. At about 6:30am I woke up to use the bathroom and discovered blood, lots of clots. I tried to shake it off and tell myself it was part of labor and the 'bloody show' as they call it. A few graphic google searches later though, I learned otherwise, completely freaked myself out, and decided to call labor and delivery.

The girl on the phone was very nice and said that while she couldn't offer medical advice, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to come in a get checked out.

In the meantime, I started having contractions. They were much more intense than they had been a few days before, and seemed to be progressing rather quickly. We gathered all of our things and jumped in the car.  This is the part where I sing praises to heated seats. I can't even begin to describe how much the heat helped ease the pain in my back with each contraction. By the time we arrived at the hospital my contractions were pretty intense and 6 minutes apart. It took awhile to check in since we now had new insurance (for 9 whole hours). Dalan and the receptionist filled out the paperwork while I gripped the counter and gritted my teeth.

Once we were checked in they took me into a birthing suite, I had a hard time taking everything in, I was only there to be checked. Right?

Obligatory pre-baby hospital photo. So flattering.

I had an examination where they declared everything was fine, and I was dilated to a 6. Given that plus my irregular contractions, they usually would have sent me home, but since we lived 40 minutes away from the hospital, they decided to consult with my doctor who said to keep me there for a few hours and monitor me.

After about an hour and a half my contractions were still pretty irregular, they would be 10, then 2, then 7 minutes apart, and the intensity was just as sporadic. My doctor decided that she wasn't happy with the lack of progression and opted to give me some Pitocin to regulate everything. At this point, I was informed that I would be having a baby, that day!

We made a few rushed phone calls to friends and family. Braden and Fran arrived so Braden could assist Dalan in giving me a Priesthood blessing. By this time the contractions were extremely intense, watching the needle bounce all around only made things worse. After feeling one bad enough where I couldn't breathe let alone talk through it, I informed my nurse I was more than ready for the epidural.

The anesthesiologist was on his way to a C-Section, and I was told it would be at least an hour. They offered me some Fentanyl to help with the pain until then and I gladly accepted (sidebar, all of you women who have opted for an unmedicated birth, kudos to you. I could never do it!). Let me tell you how freaking awesome the Fentanyl was. Not only did it help with the pain immediately, but it made me completely relaxed and super fuzzy. I was so out of it I didn't even really know what was going on. This is actually a very good thing for me, I am such a worrier, I was way too stressed up until this point. And then a mere matter of seconds after receiving the Fentanyl, the anesthesiologist arrived to give me the epidural, he decided to stop by before the surgery. I think drugged up was the absolute best way receiving the epidural could have gone. I tend to pass out at the sight of needles unless I am completely in control of the situation, but on the Fentanyl, I could care less. I leaned over, got the shot, and then laid back down, ready for a nap. Dalan couldn't believe that I was so composed after being stuck with a needle so large.  My doctor then came in to break my water, and I didn't realize until a few days later that Braden must have been in the room for all of this (uh, sorry brother). I asked my doctor no less than three times after she broke my water if she had really done it.

Dalan and Braden quickly gave me a Priesthood blessing (which I sadly don't remember). Then the nurse measured me and informed us I was now at an 8, and it would be a few more hours until the baby came. I was encouraged to take a nap in the meantime and was more than happy to oblige. My parents arrived just before I fell asleep, and they decided to go get Dalan something to eat since he hadn't had anything all day. Only a few minutes after they left, I began feeling a lot of pressure in my back, I assumed that the epidural was staring to wear off, and I relentlessly began pressing the 'give me more' button. A nurse came in to check me and you could see her starting to panic at what she saw.

Apparently the baby was crowning, it had been less than an hour since we were told we had a few more to wait, and there was nothing ready. Turns out the pressure I was feeling was not a faulty epidural, but actually the urge to push (oops).

Labor and Delivery was understaffed that day, and since when I originally arrived, I was only being checked/measured, none of the appropriate paperwork had been presented to us yet. I was still super groggy and numb from the drugs and I had one nurse shoving paperwork in my face (I still have no idea what it was all about, hopefully I wont find out I signed adoption papers or something), and another nurse yelling at me, 'DO NOT PUSH!' They had a hard time locating my doctor and it was a stressful 15 minutes until she arrived.

When my doctor showed up she was shocked. Apparently she didn't believe them when they said her patient was ready to deliver, she assumed there was confusion over a different patient, because there was no way I had progressed so much so quickly.

Once the doctor was suited up, they told me to push. I really couldn't feel much thanks to the epidural, but apparently did something right because after only 2 pushes (and in the middle of asking the doctor a casual question) I had a baby. I was mid-sentence when the doctor held up the little red lump with all the dark hair. I still hadn't come to terms with the fact I was having a baby that day, and BAM! there he was. Only 6 and a half hours after checking into Labor and Delivery. I was informed by the nurses to never tell anyone how easy my labor was, because I would probably lose friends over it.

I've never been good with babies, and I was surprised to find that as small as he was, he fit perfectly on my chest. I've always been intimidated by how tiny newborns are, and scared that their heads might fall off, but I'd carried him for so long already, I knew exactly how to hold and carry him now.

I couldn't get over how perfect he was. I examined every single hair on head and traced out the details of his face. We had waited so long for him to come, and he was finally here.

First Family Photo

Grandparents and the likes came to visit him, I really don't remember much of anything that happened over the next few days. That baby brain is pretty serious stuff!

The big question everyone had now was, 'what are you going to name him?' We had come to the hospital with 2 names in mind, and decided we'd wait until we met him to pick. The names we were debating between were Wayland and Grady, turns out neither one seemed right. We started to panic about picking a name, the constant amount of text messages didn't help either. We revisited a lot of the names that we had decided against to see if any suited him. Jokingly I asked Dalan what he thought about Rory. Rory is a name we had casually thrown around a few months before, it is the name of a character on Doctor Who, but we threw it out since it rhymed with my mom's name. It actually seemed perfect for our little guy though. The middle name was foreordained, so that took off some of the stress. We made it official on the birth certificate Rory Jay Hilton, and there was no going back from there. (a few months down the road and I'm wishing we had spelled it Roary instead, we call him Ror more than anything else and Roar looks so much cooler!)

The rest of the time in the hospital wasn't great, we decided to go home after only one night so we could bond without the constant interruption that a hospital stay brings.

While being a parent has brought many challenges, some of which I'm sure I'll complain about, we wouldn't trade our little Rorasaurus for anything!

I've been documenting his growth each month with a photo shoot, after I take his 4 month photos today, I'll share what we have so far.