Nixon Paul

I was recently reprimanded for not blogging in a really long time.  But lets be honest... it's been a REALLY really long time.  In fact, it's been so long that I've had a child!  Who would have thought?

We've thoroughly enjoyed having little Nixon in our family.  He's the best little baby!  Not only is he an easy baby, he was super easy to get in to this world!  My water broke at around 11 am on September 28.  I had tried just about everything to get him to come on time (due 9/30).  A combination of eggplant parmesan, long walks, curb running, and bouncing on a yoga ball may have contributed to that.  That morning I had gone on a 3 mile walk and bounced for a few hours on my yoga ball.  I was so frustrated because I hadn't felt any contractions during my walk.  Every day before, I had felt at least a few contractions.  I thought he was never going to come!  I was so uncomfortable and felt so huge.

For those of you who have never experienced water breaking... it's the weirdest feeling ever.  Like you're wetting your pants over and over again and you have no control over it.  Totally gross!  I went and picked up Jason and we got to the hospital around noon.  It took forever to get us checked in.  Apparently everyone was having babies that day.  I started feeling contractions and got my epidural not too long after.  Thank heavens for epidurals.  My contractions weren't even that bad yet and I was so grateful for the pain relief!

Things progressed super fast.  At 4 I was dilated to a 7.  At 5 I asked the nurse why my epidural didn't seem to be working.  I was feeling so much pressure.  She checked me and told me I was a 10 and she was going to go call my Dr to come deliver the baby.  Dr. Cloward arrived at around 5:45.  My nurse, who had been with me all afternoon, was off at 6.  She walked in and told me that she wanted to see the baby, so I'd have to push the baby out in 10 minutes.  Okay!  I started pushing before the Dr was even in the room.  It took about 6 sets of 3 pushes, or about 10 minutes or pushing, to get little Nixon out.

I'm not going to lie... it was a piece of cake.  Everything went so smoothly and it was so perfect.  We couldn't have been more excited to have Nixon here.  We have enjoyed every minute with him.  He's already smiling!  My favorite part of the day is walking in to his room in the morning and catching that first smile when I tell him, "Good Morning".  Today we were SO excited because he has almost figured out laughing!  He's super ticklish under his arms.  Hopefully I'll be able to catch it on video soon.

We are really looking forward to Christmas this year.  We are heading up to Canada to be with Jason's family.  Most of his siblings will be up there and we can't wait to see everyone!

Until the next update (sooner, rather than later.  I promise!), here is a picture dump of the past few months (sorry, they're definitely out of order...)

Jason's first time holding Nix

My Mom got there later that night.  So glad she could come!

Tiny little feet!

Thanks, Monica!

First Family Picture!

Michigan Summer

Well we made it to Michigan!  We've had a busy couple of months.  Jason left for Michigan in April and I finished my first year of teaching.  I LOVED my students and had so much fun teaching this year, but I was beyond excited to get to Michigan to be with Jason.  A month and a half away from each other was not ideal and we couldn't wait to be back together. I had planned on leaving a day early and getting my classroom all packed up early so i could get on the road.  I found out I probably could have skipped the whole last 3 days of school.  They were a complete JOKE!  It was nothing like what I grew up with.  In my middle/high school we spent the last 3 days splitting our classes into half-days so we could take finals.  My students took their finals almost 2 weeks before the end of school.  The last 3 days of school students were just going around the school and hanging out in different classrooms.  On the very last day I walked into the school and wondered where all the students were.  There were no more than 50-75 students in the school and they were running around playing hide and go seek and organized a dodge ball game.  IT WAS SO LAME!  And so incredibly boring.  Had I known, I would have left even sooner to get home to Michigan.

Meridith and I made the loooong drive from Utah to Michigan (about 25 hours...yuck!)  over two days. We were so ready to get out of the car!  I surprised Jason at work and it was so fun to see how he reacted to how much my stomach had grown!  He also got to feel the baby kick for the first time.  The other night it felt like the baby was literally running up and down the walls of my stomach and Jason had so much fun feeling him move around.  We've mostly just been hanging out with family while we've been here.  We've spent lots of time with our cute nieces, Charlotte and Clara.  On Sunday Clara was blessed in church and we had a big family dinner at Peter and Emily's.  We've loved being so close to them!

So for a little pregnancy update, I'm 25 weeks along!  The little man is growing fast and we can feel him moving all the time.  He's a wild child already, definitely his fathers son.

I already feel massive and it's hard to imagine that I'll probably triple in size before he comes.  I've still been sick on and off and have a hard time eating some of the time.  It's been hard to find food that sounds appetizing, although I am a HUGE fan of slurpies and McDonalds smoothies.  Amazingly enough, I still have barely gained more than 6-8 lbs.  Lets hope I don't blow up like a whale in these last 3 months!  

We have so many cute baby clothes already, I can't wait to dress him up!  Recently, we made a trip to Salvation Army.  I have been wanting cute little OshKosh jean overalls for a really long time.  Check out the cute pair I found and the other fun things we've received from our Mom's!

Last night I came across a classifieds ad of a girl who thought she was having a boy...but she definitely had a girl.  She sold all her brand new baby boy clothes to me (over 100 pieces) for $40!  I'm so excited!  I think we're definitely set on baby clothes for this kid. 

He's Alive!

We've had a busy past couple of weeks, especially since finding out about our cute baby boy.  We are so excited for this little man to get here!  Yesterday I picked up this changing table/dresser off KSL.  I can't wait to paint it white!

Thursday morning I dropped Jason off at the airport.  He's staying a week with his parents in Cardston and then making his way over to Detroit to start his internship.  It's been rough not being able to call him or text him since it's international.  Luckily my parents were in town this past weekend to celebrate Kevin and Meridith's graduation.   I don't know if I could have made it through the long weekend without them!  I'm excited to start this project on the dresser as well as some other projects for the baby's room.  

We had so much fun while they were here.  We attended the graduation on Friday and went out to lunch with a big group of family.  Saturday we went to Trammell and Jen Cox's wedding reception in Salt Lake.  I haven't been to the JSMB since our wedding and it brought back so many good memories!  We also got to see a handful of our favorite people in the Marcucci Family.  We love you guys!

On an even more exciting note, I felt the baby for the first time!  On Friday night I was talking to Jason on the phone and the baby kicked for the first time.  It was such a weird feeling.  Kind of like someone poking me from the inside.  In the past few days I've felt him a bunch of times, mostly when I'm leaning back or laying down.  And ALWAYS when I'm on the phone with Jason.  He must know who I'm talking to.  I was sitting at school today and felt him moving around for about 5 minutes.  It's so fun to finally feel him, it almost makes it feel even more real.  

It's a....

We had our ultrasound this morning!  We were so excited to go.  It's come up so fast with everything going on lately.

We got to our Dr.'s office and went in for the ultrasound.  The baby was being modest and keeping legs crossed so we couldn't find out the gender.  It took about 5 minutes and then BAM!...


IT'S A BOY!!!!!


We are so thrilled.  We feel like we've known since the beginning that this baby is a boy.  We are so excited to get to know him when he decides to show up this fall.  Jason is excited to have a little man to play with and I can't wait to have a little toe headed baby around.

Here are some pictures from the ultrasound:

This will embarrass him in the future...

Isn't he cute?!  She got some great shots.  She took SO many for us, it was awesome.  

I was so excited I went out and bought him his first cute little outfit.  I'm so excited to start making/buying little man stuff.