Motherhood

Well, it's official. I'm a mother. It still seems surreal even though I have been part of the "Mommy Club" for about a month. I recall listening to Elder Neil L. Andersen two years ago when he gave the following quote:

"[Growing] up in this culture, it is very hard to get a biblical perspective on motherhood. … Children rank way below college. Below world travel for sure. Below the ability to go out at night at your leisure. Below honing your body at the gym. Below any job you may have or hope to get.” He went on to say, “Motherhood is not a hobby, it is a calling. You do not collect children because you find them cuter than stamps. It is not something to do if you can squeeze the time in. It is what God gave you time for." (Talk- Here's the link to the entire talk. It's amazing!)

Listening to that two years ago, I thought, "That's nice but it doesn't really apply to me." Now, it couldn't apply more to our family. Our lives are been changed. We no longer can come and go as we please. Suddenly, a trip to Target means waiting until Ashton is fed and happy. A quick stop at the post office is twice as long because I can't just quick run in. Ashton comes with now. Going to church means starting to get ready an hour earlier depending on when Ashton eats. My desire to schedule out my days is pretty much out the window

Despite that, being a mother ranks high above the condition of my body, having a successful career, or taking vacations at any time to any place. We manage our finances differently to help provide for our daughter. We have made and will continue to make sacrifices in order to raise children. But I can say with 100 percent certainty that every sacrifice is worth it. Seeing Ashton every day and watching her grow is worth it

When Joseph returned to work full-time, I spent the night before wondering, "What am I going to do with all this time?" I felt that I would be bored to death with a three week old baby who sleeps, poops, and eats. But then I recalled Elder Andersen's talk and the exact comment that God gave me time to be a mother. I want to use the time I have to the best of my ability as a mother.

Being Ashton's mother is the best blessing God has given me. I'm grateful to Heavenly Father for giving me such a choice spirit who brings so much happiness and joy to our family. When I hear her cry at 3 in the morning, I grudgingly crawl out of bed. And then I turn the corner into her room and see her in the crib and my heart melts. I cannot help but feel so much love for her. Being her mother is an honor. I'm grateful that my husband has a good job so that I can stay at home to raise our daughter. Becoming a mother is the second best choice I've made. The best choice I made was marrying a wonderful man who has quickly become a wonderful father.

Our Bartering System

Recently, Joseph has become aware of my "stash." This refers to my collection of bath stuff that I stock up on when there is a good sale. He asked me to stop buying it but I told him I find really good sales and/or coupons so I HAVE to buy it. Our/my plan is to use the bath stuff to barter during an emergency such as a hurricane. I'm positive other people won't have toothpaste or extra soap so we can share some of ours. I'm sure some wives will be so desperate for male deodorant that they will be willing to give us some food or something in exchange. Here's my "stash" that I'm so proud of. Keep in mind most of this stuff has moved at least once, if not two to three times with us. I love stocking up!

For the families who can't handle any body hair.

I haven't stocked up too much on floss. But floss has many uses so I'm sure we can use it to barter.

Toothpaste always seems to be on sale!

In Texas, extra sunscreen is a must!

I have resisted not stocking up too much on this.

There is always a coupon for shaving cream in the ads every few weeks. It's 2.00 dollars off so it's a great coupon! Can't let that pass by.

Yeah, I don't use this anymore but I bought them on sale a few years ago. I'll find a use for it someday.

We have two because I lost one right after I opened it. So we have extra. Again, this probably has many uses in an emergency.

We'd hate to have smelly people during an emergency.

For those who want a picture of Ashton, here's one of her bath the other night. She had a little mohawk going on.

What we've been up to

If you would have asked me what I prayed for the most during my pregnancy, I would say a healthy baby. However, a close second to that was a baby who sleeps. I am a person who needs some decent sleep every night and if that doesn't happen, life isn't too great the next day. So when welcoming a baby into our family, I was nervous about losing sleep. However, Heavenly Father not only blessed us with a healthy baby, He also blessed us with a baby who enjoys sleeping (at least for right now). Ashton lets me sleep for about three hours at a time at night, which is wonderful! She continues to go to sleep pretty well, which helps too.

Joseph and I have loved spending the past week with our baby girl. We knew she would change our life and she has. But all for the better. This past week was spent learning more about her and working together to understand her needs. Here are some highlights:

First sponge bath. She cried for most of it.

Terrible picture of me. I blame it on the flash. But she is wearing her little ducky towel.

One Week Old!

I love having her sleep on me sometimes. It makes me smile so much.

First Sunday at Church. We only have dresses in size 0-3 months so it was huge on her. But she'll grow into it. She slept during all of Sacrament meeting!

We also went on our first walk (she slept) and we went to the mall one night. It was rainy outside and I needed to get out to walk around. She slept for that too. Ashton also had her first doctor appointment last week. Her height is about the 80th percentile and her weight is about the 50th percentile. We go back next week so we'll see how much she's grown. She is finally growing out of preemie diapers... HOORAY!

Friday the 13th

From now on, I will no longer see Friday the 13th as a weird, over-emphasized day. Instead, I will forever remember that my daughter was born on Friday the 13th. Here's the story.

Joseph and I had tons of plans for Friday. He had the day off so he had two doctor appointments scheduled, one of which was to get the whooping cough vaccine for the baby. Then we had an appointment to sign our will. Lastly, we planned to meet with a realtor and discuss building a house. We had the entire day planned out. Then Saturday, we planned to go to the beach so I could dig a hole in the sand and lay on my stomach. Instead, we spent Friday and Saturday in a hospital holding our daughter, a child of God.

Thursday evening, Joseph got home from work and we decided to go out to Texas Roadhouse for date night. We had a delicious dinner and came home and went for a long walk. We went to bed and at 10:30pm, I got up to run to the bathroom as my water was breaking. Joseph was still awake as I am running and telling him we are going to the hospital. Fortunately, I had just finished packing our bags that morning as I was 37 weeks and thought she'd come late! We called the hospital and they told us to come in right away so we did. Around 11pm, we got to the hospital and they checked me. I was 1cm and had a LONG way to go. Our baby was doing well so the nurses said get some sleep and we'll see what happens by the morning.

Throughout the night, the contractions picked up in intensity and pain, which means Joseph got sleep but I did not. Some of my contractions were ten minutes long, which caused our baby's heart rate to drop. I had to wear oxygen and lay on the left side to keep her happy. My doctor arrived at 7am and started pitocin since my body wasn't dilating quickly enough. By 9am, the contractions were three minutes apart so I could finally get my epidural. It was AMAZING! However, the anesthesiologist made me nervous because he had a difficult time getting the epidural placed and had to redo it. I was worried he was going to tell me that I couldn't get one. Joseph went off to his doctor appointment because I was only 5 cm at that point.

At 11am the nurses came to check me and said, "She's right there!" It was time to push! The nurses got the room ready and out came our baby girl at 12:42pm after about 14 hours of labor.

The doctor held her up when she came out and she was perfect. She cried a little bit and was given 9s for her APGAR scores. Joseph stood by her as the nurse washed her skin and warmed her up. Then I was able to hold her and I fell in love with her! It still amazes me that God could bless with such a choice daughter of His.

We came home Saturday afternoon and life has been great. She is still sleeping a lot, which I'm grateful for. Joseph and I thank God every day for giving us such a gift. Ashton has reminded us that we are an eternal family and she is sent to this earth with purpose. We love her so much and could not imagine life without her.

Here are some pictures of the experience so far.

Right after being born.

We all thought she'd be a little preemie baby but nope.

Holding his baby girl.

So, she arrived in September (point for me). However, she weighed less than 7 lbs 8 oz  (point for Joseph). However, I guessed less than 19 inches and Joseph guessed over 20 and Ashton was 19.5 inches. So we rounded up and Joseph won the bet.

Her sleeping position once we got home from the hospital.

Wearing an outfit from her great-grandma and a hat that was knitted for her.

Ashton falls asleep super fast for Joseph. He's also the best at swaddling her.

Craftiness

This summer, I've worked on several projects for the baby coming to our family. Here are some pictures of things I've done.

A nursing cover. I followed the tutorial online but failed to remember that I am shorter and smaller than most women. So it's on the big side but that's alright. That just means I don't have to worry about modesty as much.

Wipes case and diaper holder for the diaper bag. I made the diaper holder a little smaller than I intended so only small sizes fit in it. I'll have to make another one as our baby grows.

We got some white frames for free a few years ago so I painted them orange and did some duck artwork in them for the nursery.

Sprucing up burp cloths!

Adding some flair to onesies. My favorite is the football one. That's her Halloween costume.

The cover to our carseat.

The inside of the cover. It's made with the minky fleece, which I discovered is NOT easy to sew with.

Joseph and I have also made a little bet about our baby's arrival. The winner of the bet gets to choose the going home outfit from the hospital (even though we know she'll wear the outfit just long enough to make it home and then she'll spit up on it and need to be changed. But, it's still fun.). So, here's our guesses. The winner is the one who is correct on at least two of the three areas.

I'm hopeful she'll come early. But I also think she'll be a chubby baby. After all, look at my height. Also, Joseph was over ten pounds and I was over nine at birth.

Joseph is more realistic with the October birthday but is hopeful she'll play basketball one day. He's cheering for a tall, lean baby.

My going home outfit if I win the bet.

Joseph's going home outfit if he wins. We love baby hoodies!

Now if the ultrasound was wrong and we end up having a boy, I don't know what we'll do. He'll come home in a white onesie or something pink. We're not worried about gender identity.

Labor Day

This Labor Day took on a new definition. Every time our nephew prayed for Labor Day, my mind instantly thought, "but it's not labor day... I'm not in labor." Even though our child decided not to make an early appearance this weekend, we still had lots of fun.

Joseph had the day off on Friday so we met up with our realtor and looked at some homes. It was fun but overwhelming at the same time. Later in the day, we went to a high school football team. Joseph works with the young men in our ward and some of them play in the band. We went to support them and watch some good football. The game wasn't quite like D.C. Everest but that's alright. The high schools here have cheerleaders, a dance team, and baton throwing girls so it was very busy with girls running around.

On Saturday, we drove over to Austin and had a blast visiting Joseph's brother and his family. Our nephew is now eight months old and we can't believe how fast he is growing up! We played lots of Dominion (one of my new favorite games) and went swimming and on fun walks. Joseph tried to face his fears of diving off a diving board. It's a work in progress. Let's just say our kids probably won't become professional high divers in the future. We also listened to the BYU game and was disappointed with their loss. Hopefully this week will be better! We play UT-Austin, which is a huge deal here in Texas! I definitely think we'll be a minority cheering for BYU.

Here's our way of cheering for the Cougars!

Pregnancy update: I'm 36 weeks along! One more until I can be considered full-term by my doctor. Our little baby loves moving around, especially when Joseph and I are home together and talking. Doctor said I am measuring small but am growing consistently so there are no concerns with the baby. But I'm hoping that since she's small, that doesn't mean she's going to come late. I won't be surprised if she decides to postpone her arrival until a week after my due date. I had a doctor appointment this morning and she's head down (which I figured) so that is a good thing. Doctor says everything still looks good.

35 weeks. Baby is the size of a honeydew melon in case the sign is too small.

I hate the shirt I'm wearing. I feel like a tent but at least it fits and is comfortable. Baby is the size of a head of romaine lettuce this week, which I think is dumb. She clearly weighs more than that!

Shop Till You Drop

Over the past summer, Joseph and I have done a lot of shopping for various items. We've learned a lot from our recent purchases.

In May, we started to look for a second car. We've been a one car family since we met and it has worked for us. However, with Joseph gone at work all day and me at home, we felt it was time to look for another car. At first, we were set on buying a used car. Then, we started looking around our area and Lake Jackson doesn't have as many used cars as places such as Provo/Orem. So our market was limited. We talked to a few dealerships and ended up buying a BRAND NEW car! The deal was too hard to pass up and the price we paid was very close to the going rate of a slightly used car. We bought a 2013 Hyundai Elantra. I drive it mostly and I love it. It gets about 35 mpg, which is much better than our Ford Taurus! Also, the car came with Bluetooth connection to our phone, which seems over the top to me but I guess it's nice. So far, it has been a wonderful addition to our car family. With this purchase, I learned that Joseph is a much better haggler than I am and I let him handle all of that.

This isn't our car but it looks the same.

This is the color of our car.

We've also done some shopping for the new addition joining our family this fall. Babies don't require a ton of stuff but they still need the basics like clothes, a bed, and a car seat. I've been fortunate to find really good garage sales and consignment stores in the area. Lake Jackson has a consignment store that frequently holds sales such as 20% or even 40% off the entire store! While I know our baby will go through clothes quickly, I am happy buying clothes when they only cost a dollar or two. When I go to Target, I am appalled at the prices! The best find at the consignment store has been the baby swing. We didn't want to spend tons of money on some fancy schmancy swing, especially if our baby ends up hating it. So the store had a Graco swing that is normally 80-100 dollars on sale for 35 and it was never used! The last big thing we need to get is a glider/rocker and I am against paying full price for that. So the hunt is on for a nice quality rocker. I've learned that baby items are cute but definitely not worth paying the market value. Babies are expensive to begin with and store prices don't help one bit.

Here's our swing. I don't get the point of the stars because they're so high the baby will never reach them. Even if she gets Joseph's height gene. But I guess she can stare at them.

 Here are some other random pictures from the last week or so.

Joseph finds it funny that my stomach now acts as a table. I like it. The picture isn't the best representation of how I look all the time. I do try to look nicer. Also, I don't always eat so healthy (strawberries). If you notice, the little Tupperware I'm holding in my hand is sugar to dip my strawberries into.

This is the finished dresser in our second bedroom! So proud of Joseph!

Joseph and I at the Houston Temple. The little girl was running to her dad right as the picture went off.