Updates on Life

Well. . . as you may remember Todd was laid off from work in early November. We have finally started back on track! We got a job working as newspaper carriers for a local newspaper. On average we will be delivering about 1500 papers a day for 5 days a week! It is alot of work, for both Todd and I, but it will pay the bills, and if we work really hard a bit extra. Todd is also working for a company called Court Ops. They serve summons and complaints for the Third district court. It is a very rewarding job, but very part time. They have TONS of work to do, but you have to be able to catch people when they are home, which is mostly in the evenings and Saturdays. I miss him but it is a good job and we get to hang out in the middle of the day which most couples don't get to do! Last week we got to go to a company party for Court Ops, and it was a ton of fun. It really helped motivate Todd to work even harder and gave me more comfort in seeing the kind of people who work in the company. Almost all of them are LDS, which is really nice to be able to be around people in a rough buisness that can have fun while not being vulgar.

Christmas is here! I am so excited to see people open the gifts that I have gotten for them! Today we are going over to my parents house and we are going to open presents together to allow the married couples a chance to have their own Christmas with just their families. We are all hoping that my sister's boyfriend will be there too, cause it is fun to get to know him, and he seems like a pretty cool guy for my sister, which would be AWESOME if he is and things work out! My sister is moving to the Ukraine for 6 months to teach English, I am more excited for her than if I were going myself!

Mobility

This week has been quite eventful for Ben. He has learned how to move! He has successfully learned how to crawl! We are so excited that he is finally mobile, but I am a little nervous now that he is since. . . well, now he can get into things!

Disneyland

Tad with his. . . ."girlfriend/fiance" (ok who knows what they are) goofing off at the disney shop Ben tried to eat Mickey's nose. . . but all in all Ben liked Mickey

We had a blast at Disneyland. We headed out at about 1:00 on Sunday afternoon, and met up with Tad and his girlfriend Destiny in Provo. After loading into Tad's car we were off! Ben was awesome in the car. When we were about 2 hours from Disneyland, We switched drivers and suddenly. . . the car wouldn't go. The clutch went out on Tad's car, so. . . we all crammed into the Tahoe (13 people in all) and made the rest of the journey all snuggled up close! We left Tad's car at a mechanics shop, and called them the next day to ask them to fix it. All in all. . . We arrived at 1:27 am at the Desert Inn. Then we fell quickly to sleep. The next morning at 7 am we ate breakfast at the hotel, and went to discover Disneyland!

It rained ALL DAY. . . well almost. all morning it was drizzly, and we were all brilliant enough to go on splash mountain when it stopped momentarily. Then it began to pour. By 11:00 we were all drenched and miserable, so we went back to the hotel and changed, ate lunch and we were back at it again. This time we went to California Adventure, which was alot of fun since I have never been there. And of course. . . it didn't rain the entire time we were changing and eating, but as soon as we got back into the park. . . we were walking in 2-3 inches of water, the skies were at it again!

My favorite ride was Screamin'. Of course it is a roller coaster, my favorite. Thankfully they have these passes called stroller passes that let you hop right onto the ride after your group goes through so you can ride too!

Ben got to ride the carousel, which he enjoyed quite a bit! He rode a purple otter.

The next morning we picked up a generator that Todd's dad won on E-bay, and we were on our way back home! We stopped in Barstow and picked up Tad's car. We got back at 5 am! Yeah. . . I am tired

the Good, the Bad and the Turkey

The Good. . .
Todd and I have a fun weekend ahead of us and we are super excited for it. Todd's dad is going down to California to pick something up that he bought on e-bay,and since he is going down there he may as well stop and spend a day in Disneyland, right? And why go alone? So, Todd, Ben and I are going to go down with him! It will be Ben's first time at Disneyland, not that he will remember it, but it will be fun for all of us.

The bad. . .
We have a ward Christmas party coming up soon and I am in charge of it. I was so preoccupied with it and everything else going on while I was making some bread dough, that I somehow lost my wedding ring. I am devastated to think that it is truely gone. I never take my ring off, even when I am making dough, but for some reason I did and I have no clue where it is! I have cleaned the kitchen 3 times, searched the garbage, checked the garbage disposal, everything I can think of! I am so sad that I have lost it, and I feel so weird without it on. I am just praying that I find it, and find it SOON! Every time I walk in the kitchen I think of my ring, and I want to cry!

The Turkey. . .
Like I said earlier I am in charge of the ward Christmas party. It has been an interesting experience. We are serving approximately 275 people. I have purchased 12 turkeys, and getting enough volunteers to cook them all took alot of luck and advertizing. I just hope everything goes well since there are a ton of other ward activities going on that day like a food drive and a sub for santa youth activity.

Life is busy but WONDERFUL. . . .I just need to find my ring and it will be almost perfect!

Thank you everyone who have been concerned for Todd and me, my last post was mostly for me to voice my gratitude for finding a new job, almost 50% of our ward here in Sandy is out of work, Many of them have bigger families than ours. We were so grateful to find a new job so quickly because we have seen how hard it is for others to do so. I used to think that we were secure in our job because they laid off 20 other people just a month previously to our termination. Things worked out, and we are truly grateful to have Heavenly Father taking care of us.

The Blessing of Work

On our anniversary we had a turn of events that was fairly unexpected. Todd was laid off from work, and since he quit his other job 2 weeks prior, we were left without an income. Fortunately we have been searching for a new job for quite some time, and we found a new job that we can do together! We are now working for a valley-wide newspaper that is delivered once a month. We will be working three days a week delivering to different areas around the valley. It is nice because we can fold the papers while watching T.V. or just talking, and I plan on helping Todd deliver some newspapers for an hour or two in the afternoon. To have Todd loose his job was really hard for me, but in some ways it was nice to see him a few hours a day while he is home. I love seeing him with Ben and his energy renewed. This new job has been a blessing because I get to see my hubby and we will be able to make enough money for our family in 3 days instead of 6.

Pictures of Ben

Someone told me i need to post more pictures of my little Ben. He isn't very little anymore, but here he is!
He loves the bathtub, he hates it when I take him out, even if he has been in it long enough for the water to get cold.

Ben LOVES watermelon! I gave him this piece of watermelon and he ate the entire thing! When he got to the rind he finally let me take it away

He also loves to feed himself. He eats graham crackers all by himself. . . and if mom would let him, he would also eat with a spoon all by himself, unfortunately if I do then I also have to clean out his ears, toes and everywhere in between.

Anniversary Blessings

Two years and a few days ago, my sister Jeska was in a scooter vs truck battle. She was on the scooter, and unfortunately she lost. She ended up in the hospital with a broken neck and leg and we were all extremely worried for her. Todd, my fiance at the time, was able to give her a preisthood blessing. It was wonderful for me to see that I was marrying a man of the priesthood which was a great comfort to me. Now on our second anniversary, I get to see him use the priesthood again. My next door neighbor had a baby boy last night. Before they went to the hospital Todd was asked to give a blessing to both parents, which he did. Now this morning we have learned that the baby isn't doing well, being full term but only 4 pounds. Todd was again asked to come and give another blessing to their little boy. I am so grateful to have the priesthood in my life, and to have a husband who is worthy and willing to serve the Lord in this manner.

The Table

I am working on a new project! Todd's parents have a table that has been painted white, I am working on restoring it to its natural oak beauty Here is the before picture



The yellow stuff on there is polyeurothene, They used the table to stain and finish all the baseboards in their home, and a bit of it dripped on the top. I have re-finished a table in the past but this one is huge by comparison. It is a gear driven table, so it can be expanded. The table I did as a teenager had only one leaf, this one has four. My goal is to finish it by Thanksgiving, but I know it is kind of a stretch, but I can still try!

Halloween Costumes

Todd loved his Joker costume, he was really creepy cause he had the voice down and everything

This is Ben with our next door neighbor Danny, they were both Batman for Halloween

Batman

Halloween is quickly approaching and we finally decided on what we will be. Todd wanted to be the Joker from the movie Dark Knight. Ben was going to be a scarecrow, but to coordinate with Todd's costume, he will be Batman. I went to the store to find out how much it would be to buy one. It was almost $20 to buy. So. . . I bought some fabric from JoAnn's costing $4 and made my own! It is almost done, just a few more final touches, then it will be ready to be photographed! I am really excited!

New Jobs

The job hunt has begun again. Since we found out we were starting a family Todd has been frantically searching for that perfect job to provide for his family, and still have time to spend time with us. Six months later; after going through several part time and odd hour jobs, Todd found a full time plumbing job that works with his other job Discover Card. Now, Todd has been working there for almost 3 years, and if anyone knows how telemarketing and collections can be know that he is truely tired and done with this job. So. . . we have been looking again for a new job and I think we found it!

Todd found a job working as a summons officer. . . Basically he serves warrants and summons for the third district court. He starts this week, and if all goes well Todd can quit Discover card by Halloween. HORRAY!

This will be a huge adjustment becasue the hours are extremely flexible, and he is completely paid by how many warrants he serves, so. . . hopefully all goes well!

First Words

We all celebrated Ben's half birthday the other day! We made a cake, a banner and everything! We opened one of the toys we got from a baby shower that he wasn't old enough to really play with until now. It is a stacking set. it turns into balls, or nests into bowls, he really enjoys playing with it, and of course, sticking it in his mouth.



I decorated his cake. . . it was kind of a challenge since Ben is in the process of getting his second tooth, and while I was decorating it, he just wanted to be held. . . so I did it one handed. Not my prettiest cake, but it was fun to have Ben help. (if you can't tell. . . it is a stick figure holding a bunch of balloons)

Ben said his first word! Mama. However it doesn't mean me. It means "I want food, NOW" Every time he gets hungry he says it over and over and over again until he gets a meal

Conference Weekend

Busy Busy Busy. . .This weekend we planned tons of things to do! we planted our grass while Tad took Ben to an institute breakfast. I told him that he could pick up a bunch of girls that way, and when he came to drop Ben off, a girl was following him in a truck. . . it was his girlfriend.

After planting the lawn Todd got home and we went and bought a truck we have been looking at while listening to conference on the way. Yes that is right we bought a truck. I am so excited cause now I can have the car back. I no longer have to wait until 10:00 at night to do my grocery shopping!

During the last hour of conference we drove up to Heber City to help his parents finish the house. When we arrived conference had ended. and we got to work. We painted the second coat of paint in the kitchen, pantry, washroom and master bedroom. meanwhile the boys were busy taping the seams of the sheetrock and texturing the walls in the loft and great room. Todd and his dad were outside working on the garage getting the cement ready for the floor. We got a ton done!

The guys left for priesthood session while us girls cleaned up and headed to SLC where we hooked up with Grandma Loertcher and Teddy and went to dinner at Applebee's. We all shared appetizers and then got dessert. Eventfully there was a gigantic peice of wax paper in our dessert that they forgot to remove before cooking it. . . Teddy ate a nice chunk of it. We were all laughing our heads off while getting our server to come to our table. When she came a look of horror was expressed. We were all ok with it, and she got us another dessert, but you could tell she was really sorry it happened to us. (she was also probably worried about loosing her tip too) But we all got a good laugh and no harm was done.

Sunday we spent time with Todd's family listening to conference and feasting on fried chicken and potatoes.

Looking back I didn't get to truely listen to conference. I guess that is satan's way of keeping us from getting closer to God, so on monday I loaded it up on my computer and listened to all of the sessions again, taking notes and truely listening to the words from our prophet and apostles. it was wonderful to hear the words of the Lord and answer to my prayers. Thank goodness for technology and the ability we now have to hear these talks over and over again throughout the year.

haircut

so after a posted the last blog my mom called and offered to help cut my hair. she came over and we did something daring. . . for me anyway. Lets just say in the course of one day i cut about 7 inches off my hair. here it is!

Somethings new

Ben was not much of a happy camper yesterday, but I figured he was just tired, and laid him down for a few extra naps. Today while playing with him, he bit my finger, and ta-da, there was a tooth! He is doing great today, so maybe it wasn't to tramatic for him!

I did a little experiment today. I have wanted to cut my hair for a while now. . . but haven't been able to hold onto the money long enough to go and get it done. . .So. . . I did it myself! Scary, definately not professional, but I think it looks good. I only cut off about 2-3 inches, so you can't really tell, so I think I am going to try again later today and cut it just a little shorter! (good luck to me!)

Sprinklers

my flower garden! gone for now

As many of you know, our house has been a real fixer-upper, This summer we have been focusing on the front yard. We started by tilling up all the weeds and leveling the dirt. In this process we also procured alot of rocks which we are using in our park-strip. After we leveled it. . . we tilled it again to get some of the areas that needed it again. Then we leveled it again. This week I have been working on digging the trenches for sprinklers. We are conserving money by just running the lines to the hose. Maybe next year we will put in a whole timer system and everything. If we can get the sprinklers in this week, then next week we can plant grass. YAY!

Labor day fun

Labor Day weekend was a fun filled weekend with tons of new experiences for Ben. Todd had work off on monday, and we got to see his family. We went to sunday dinner at Grandma Loertcher's house, and played games with the family. The funnest part was during catch phrase Tad, Todd's brother who recently returned from his mission, tried to describe a training bra. enough said :)
That night all of Todd's brothers and sisters, except Teddy, slept over at our house. The boys love coming to our house cause they get to play xbox. When I woke up at 2:00 am there they were, playing away! On monday we enjoyed breakfast in SLC, then drove up to Heber City to help Todd's parents work on the house they are building. Then at 5:00 we all drove down to Deer Creek Resivour and went BOATING. Ben was asleep when we put him into his lifejacket. It was hilarious to see his face when he realized he couldn't really turn his head much and his hands couldn't reach his mouth. He made do and sucked on the lifejacket while we went tubing, water skiing and wakeboarding. He had a blast watching everyone behind the boat going back and forth, and eventually crashing.

Joys of women and friendship

On Thursday I got the opportunity to go to my Stake Women's Conference, my mom watched Ben while I went with a few ladies in the ward. Sister Okisaki, the first counselor in the General relief society spoke on unity. It was a wonderful talk that helped me find ways to come closer to my Savior without walking out of there feeling like scum

Afterwards we all went out to dinner. About 9 of us went to Costa Vida. It was WONDERFUL to laugh and chat with women without hearing a single negative word spoken. I have never hung out with a group of more than 3-4 women that have done that and it felt great!

Sit, Stay, Roll over!

On Wednesday I was changing the sheets on our bed to do laundry, and I was playing peek-a-boo with Ben while I put the new ones on. Ben got ahold of the sheets and started sucking on them, and with the death grip that babies have, he wouldn’t let go, yanked on them and pulled himself onto his side and landed on his stomach. Although he didn’t roll over all by himself, it is definitely a start! A few minutes later he did it again without the sheets to help him. Now it is just a matter of time before he is doing it all the time, next step. . . crawling!

Swiming time!

On July 3rd Ben went swimming for the very first time! I bought him a swimming suit a while back and I could hardly wait to see him in it. We went over to my parent’s house to go swimming. I handed Ben to Jeska while I got in the pool and then she handed him to me. He really didn’t mind it at all, and occasionally we caught him smiling! He loved being held at arm’s reach so he had room to kick his legs and wiggle a bit. I guess it is time for the baby floating tube! He played in the pool for about half an hour before he started getting tired and hungry. So we got out of the pool and fed him and put him to sleep in his swimsuit. About half an hour to an hour later he woke up and we got right back into the pool. He was so cute and so cool with everything! I hope this continues so we can continue to have fun in the pool.

discovery of the rubber ducky

Ben loves bath time. He loves to move his toes in and out of the water and watch them wiggle and squirm around. After a few days of him deciding that bath time wasn’t so bad, I introduced his first bath toy. Ben received about 8 rubber duckies as baby gifts and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to introduce it to him. So I placed the green rubber ducky in his tub and he was instantly entertained. He loves to kick the duck and move it around the tub, then using both legs he pulls it up close to him and he tries to grab it with his hand. He hasn’t quite mastered that yet, but he will shortly and in the meantime he likes to try while he slashes in the tub!

Neil is Here!

Well . . . I am officially an Aunt . . . it is weird to think that but I am. On June 25th, Chloe started to feel really sick and started to see spots, so she went into the doctor and her blood pressure was extremely high 168/111, so she was immediately hospitalized.

On the 26th she was life flighted to the hospital on 5300 south. It was there that they were able to stabilize her blood pressure through medication. She was doing really good so they gave here some medication to start developing Neil’s lungs and told us they were going to wait until Sunday to deliver him (if they didn’t Chloe’s kidneys and liver would shut down and then she would loose her baby) Then at 7:30 pm her blood pressure shot up again and they decided to do an emergency c-section. At 7:54 pm Neil Matthew was born and whisked away to the NICU. Fortunately he was able to scream when he was born, meaning that his lungs are developed enough to work. Now it is just a matter of waiting to see how long he is in the hospital, but mother and baby are doing great!

Bens Blessing

Ben was given a name and a blessing on June 7th, it was a wonderful day! The few days prior to the event I enjoyed shopping for the cutest little white suit for him to wear, I looked at several places including the distribution center, but I found my favorite, and somewhat cheapest outfit at babies’ r us. I was so excited when I found it and Ben looked adorable in it! When the blessing began, Ben was fine, until Todd finished his name, then his pacifier fell out, and that was the end of his cooperation. It was funny how loud he could cry into the microphone! After sacrament meeting everyone came over to our house for waffles and to socialize. After the meeting, we started to make the waffles with all of our waffle irons (Mine, Mom’s, VaLee’s and Grandma Wilson’s) yeah . . . that tripped the breaker a few times. Ben slept all through sacrament (After his blessing) and until noon so most of the day was socializing, but once he woke up he gave us the cutest pictures of him smiling in his little suit and it was wonderful to see him with all the family.

the piano is tuned!

Yesterday was a fun and exciting day cause we got the piano tuned! I bought Todd a piano for Christmas, and since it was so horribly out of tune, he wouldn’t play it for very long, we have been waiting for 6 months to be able to afford it, finally, after receiving money from our insurance, we are able to do it! It sound so much better and Todd has begun to play it already. He is a wonderful musiciPianoan! So far he has written songs for me, Ben and most of the members of his family. He also likes writing parodies and composing some wonderful arrangements of the hymns. I love to hear him play.
Ben has a little infection in his mouth making him a bit fussy. To give him his medicine, I take a q-tip and dip it in the medicine and swab out his entire mouth. So far the medicine hasn’t worked but they say that thrush can be hard o get rid of.
I am working on a cross stitch for Ben’s room. It is a giraffe. I am so excited to work on it and it is coming along nicely. His room is going to be decorated in a jungle theme, so this will be a great start!

The Circle of Life

So, it's Todd's turn to do the Blogosphere today, yay. We had some fun experiences the last couple of days with nature. We had burritos for dinner on saturday, Lodema made some taco meat and we had refried beans and cheese and all that good stuff. We finished eating, but were talking to our neighbor Angela, so the meat was sitting for a little while on the stove. When Lodema went to put it away, she saw a fly on the top of the meat, and shooed it away. When she looked at where the fly was sitting, she saw some stuff that looked like rice, but really tiny. Yep, for those of you farmiliar with Fly Larvae and Eggs, you know, that the fly had just left us a present in our taco meat. Needless to say, the whole batch was thrown out. fortunately there was only a little left thanks to my enourmous appetite. Sunday we had a better encounter with nature. We came home from church, and i was about to open the door when Lodema freaked out. I looked around quickly and she said "oh, i thought it was a mouse", well, I couldn't see anything i thought that she meant the tire in our garage moved, but when i craned my neck over the lawn mower there was a little bird just sitting there! It couldn't really fly, but hopped around a bit, like a baby bird, fluttering it's wings and going a little ways, but not acheiving liftoff. We wondered if it was hurt, so we chased it around the carport for a bit, but the two funniest things it did, was #1-hoping onto lodema's foot (wearing just a sandal-like sunday shoe) which made her scream, causing the bird to say "whoa, i don't wanna land there after all", and when it half-flew down to the end of our carport and rammed straight into the gate. It's a solid wood gate that was not open at all. so, it was like watching a bird run into a wall. It was so funny, i kinda felt bad for laughing, but i figured heavenly father would understand. He has a good sense of humor right? anyway we asked my great-uncle across the street to come and look at it to see if it needed help, he came over and informed us that it was just a baby starling separated from it's parents. The parents would either come and find it or it would eventually feed a starving cat. So we nudged it out into the open and it hopped away. What a fun experience huh? such is the circle of life:) either be nurtured and taken care of by your parents, or be eaten by a carnivorous feline. what a great life lesson:)

tThe chub chubs are coming!

Well Ben is getting bigger by the day and he is getting chubby! Only 2 weeks ago a could wrap my forefinger and thumb completely around his thigh with room to spare, now I can’t wrap my fingers around his thigh completely and there is now a quarter inch gap between my fingers! He no longer has knees, just a continuing mass down to his kankles (a combo of calves and ankles) His knees are only distinguishable by the wrinkles they create when his legs are straight! And now when I hold him my arms actually get tired! I guess I should get used to it!

Remodel and stuff

Well . . . life is definitely busy in the Wright home . . . Ben is a handful, but I love almost every minute with him!
Todd just got a new job working for a plumbing company. It is intense labor, but Todd is trying to get used to it. He says that it will help him get back in shape; I just hope it doesn’t kill him first. It is alot different than Wright Bros, so it is a huge adjustment. But we are so grateful to have a job! There are so many families in our ward that are out of work, maybe 20%. So we are glad we have employment.
We are working on a new remodel on our house! Well our storage shed. We are turning it into an apartment! This way we can rent it out for some extra money, then we can use that money to fix up the house some more, like fixing that broken window in our room, or putting in carpet! We are so excited! We are also refinancing our house for a lower interest rate to hopefully save us some money so we can put a little more away every month. We just had an Appraisal, and our house has increased in value by $18000 sine we bought it 6 months ago. All that work to fix it up was definately worth it. ( a special thanks to my Mom and Dad for putting in countless hours working on our house) We are hoping to rent out our apartment to family, so it will help them out financially too. Well, that is about it for now!

weddings and giggles

Today was Adams wedding. It was wonderful! Teddy drove down last night so we could leave first thing in the morning to the temple. When Adam and Katherine came into the sealing room She looked super excited and happy. Adam looked nervous, terrified and slightly delighted. After the wedding luncheon, we chatted with Adam. After the wedding he was grinning from ear to ear and the fear left him. He was excited to spend eternity with his new wife and I know they will be very happy together
The sealing was nice and helped remind me how much we have been blessed through the temple. I could hardly stop thinking of my little Ben, and how much joy he has brought into our lives. People always say having a baby changes everything, which is true, but they never say how. This is my thought. Having a baby gives you an opportunity to serve, and although we might not think about it, we feel the wonderful spirit that they bring into our home. Who knew you would ever pray that your child would poop, but in the first days of Ben’s life, we did, cause that meant he was eating enough and that he was healthy. Another way your life is changed, is that you learn to be childlike all over, and come to truly understand the admonition to become as little children.
Today we experienced something new with Ben. He started smiling last Sunday, Mothers day, which makes me smile, and today he giggled for the first time. After waking up from a nap Ben and I were playing on the floor… ok he lays there while I make funny faces and talk baby talk. After I blew a few raspberries on his stomach he smiled from ear to ear and giggled. A did it again and he giggled again! It was a fun experience to see him react to me and to truly look and sound happy!
It was fun to spend the day with Teddy laughing, talking about babies, coloring pictures all over the wrapping paper of Adam’s wedding gift and just spending time together.

5 weeks old!

Ben is now 5 weeks old! He is starting to be able to hold up his head for a long period of time and he loves just looking around and learning all about the world around him. He has been awake a lot more the past 2 weeks, and he is more alert than ever! He is starting to look at things more and he loves taking time to examine things, but he hasn’t been able to grab things quite yet . . . but soon!
Tomorrow will be the first time Ben will be left with a babysitter. Aunt Teddy to the rescue! Todd and I are going to our friend Adam Christensen’s wedding at the Salt Lake Temple, so Teddy is driving down tonight and will go with us to the temple and wait in the waiting area till we come out . . . It should only take half an hour, but it is still weird to leave him. I haven’t been further than 50 feet of him since we left the hospital. It is different to think that for the past 5 weeks I have had the constant companionship of someone who is perfect. I still get frustrated sometimes when he doesn’t want to go to sleep when I want him to, but I really shouldn’t cause he knows what he needs to do, I just need to learn how to be more patient.
Todd got a new job! He was working for the census bureau but that ends today and we were wondering what we were going to do, and then he got a call from a company he put an application in for a month ago and they hired him, and he starts Monday. Hooray! We have truly been blessed!

3 weeks old!

Ben is officially 3 weeks old! He is getting cuter every day! He is also starting to be more awake through the day. I am fine with him being awake, but when he cries relentlessly I get a bit frustrated, and tired. But all in all he is a good baby. I am trying to do some things to play and teach him stuff, but he doesn’t respond yet. . . so. . .better luck later! Sleeping? Well. . . I am noticing that he will have 2-3 good nights, and one really bad one. He gets gas really bad, and if he can’t sleep, he won’t let me. . .but other than that he will sleep for about 3-4 hours at the beginning of the evening and then 2-3 hours after that, so not bad at all.
Todd is enjoying his new job with the census beuraeu. And it is close to home so I see him a bit more frequently than before which we both like. He seems so much less stressed now days, and he gets to spend more time with Ben. Todd is amazing with Ben, and I love just to watch him interact with him. I couldn't ask for a better man to be his Daddy.

A beautiful baby boy

We have a son! A healthy baby boy! We named him Benjamin Michael Wright! Ok . . . now I can tell the stories . . . I just had to say that! Wednesday April 8, 2009 Todd woke up early to go and play racquetball with my dad (5:30 am). He had a lot of fun and my dad won most of the time, but that is ok. We then went to the hospital, arriving at 8:00, they checked me in and started my I.V. and gave me a drug to start my contractions, not that I wasn’t having any, but it helped them along. Then we waited . . . .we had plenty to do though. There are always consent forms to sign and stuff like that. After a few hours, Todd and I were playing skip-bo, when suddenly I felt like I wet myself . . . it turns out, my water broke! Just as we were debating if it was that or peeing the bed, the nurse came in, so she checked, and yes my water had broke! That is when the pain began . . . and did it hurt! When they told me it could take up to an hour to get enough fluids in me to get the epidural, I told them to start, I didn’t want to wait. I am a whimp, but at least I know it and I enjoyed the epidural very much!

Honestly, I don’t know how doctors get paid so much cause my doctor stopped by and checked me before I started pushing, and then left the room. The nurses practically delivered him until the end of me pushing. I pushed for a little over an hour before Ben was born. What was hard is that I could see the head, but I just couldn’t get it out, and every time I had a contraction, his heart rate would decrease, which is BAD! So finally my doctor comes in and has me push, and then tells the nurse to call the NICU (or in other words the newborn intensive care unit) that scared me a lot. So she said that I would have the baby in about ten minutes, or I would have to go in for a c-section. My doctor got on that typical green gown and the gloves, and got ready to go. That scared me too. They were all talking about how they thought the cord might be around his neck or something like that and I was getting really worried, I started to cry, but Todd was my strength, and he stayed positive, at least for me, and I pushed some more. The doctor tried vacume extraction, which is where they put a little suction cup to the baby’s head and while you are pushing, they try to help by pulling the baby out too. Well . . . it kind of worked . . . The first time the doctor got it hooked up and started to pull and it slipped. Blood splattered everywhere! All over her face, like in the movies when someone cuts an artery, all over me, the mirror and lights on the ceiling, and across the room. I would hate to be a janitor there! She hooked it up again but it slipped again and by then the head was coming out a bit better. I ended up having an episiotomy, and Benjamin was born. The doctor hurried and cut the cord and they took my baby to the other side of the room. He wasn’t screaming like they do in the movies, and so again I got scared. But they cleaned him up and rubbed him down and he was fine. Todd and I were both crying out of joy and amazement that we had a baby, and in a lot of ways it didn’t feel real to me . . . but it did at the same time. Todd went and told the family while they weighed him and cleaned him up some more. He weighted 7 pounds 1 ounce 19 inches long. Perfectly healthy and sleepy

You know . . . I don’t really feel like a mom yet . . . like I know I am, and Ben is proof of that, but I don’t think it has hit me yet that I am a mom. In some ways it just feels like a new job, there was a little adjustment, but nothing to horrible. Taking care of Ben isn’t too hard, right now all he does is eat, sleep and poop, so if he is crying I know how to solve it. But I hear that after the first 2 weeks of life, they start crying for no reason, and that doesn’t go away for the first 2 months of life. I am a bit nervous for that. easier. Now we are just trying to get into a routine, but little things change every day. Ben is really good about sleeping 2-3 hours between feedings, especially at night, so I generally only have to get up a couple times in the night to feed him. It hasn’t been to bad, and I have occasionally found myself falling asleep while nursing Ben. He doesn’t mind cause he eats and I sleep, we both get what we want!

The Waiting Game!

Well . . . the baby is still not here, but it will be tomorrow. They are inducing me tomorrow morning! I have been having contractions for the past 2 days every ten min, but no progression in labor so I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to go in tomorrow and be done. Today I have done nothing but sleep . . . and sleep. . . and sleep. Who knew contractions alone could be so tough!
TOMORROW IS THE BIG DAY!! I am so ready and excited!

Sooo...

Sooo...Baby is still not here. waiting, and waiting for the baby. not doing much else, just working, playing with lego's going on campouts, making swords (out of duct tape, pvc pipe and carpet padding), getting the ducts cleaned, watching movies, going to nickle cade. nope, not doing anything but waitinng for the baby. I built a lego bat pod and a lego tumbler that's smaller than the official one. And of course it's about a bajillion times better! Yeah. soo, just waiting for the baby still....still waiting.....how long is this going to take?!

Yello!

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