New Years

I'm excited for the new year!  The last year has brought a lot of changes to our little family.  None of them were expected last new years (so much for those resolutions), so I'm not sure if it even makes sense to take the time to make resolutions.  For traditions sake Josh and I have each made 5 resolutions. 

Josh's Resolutions:
1) Get 4 A's out of the 10 classes he will have next year
2) Fit into size 30 pants again
3) Take Michael boating
4) Go snowboarding
5) Go fishing and hiking

My Resolutions:
1) Always make time for Michael despite going back to school and being busy
2) Get back to my pre-pregnancy weight (yup I made a weight goal, but I'm already half way there!)
3) Wakeboard and not suck.  This might be difficult since I didn't go last year and I lost all of my balance
4) I would still love to run a marathon, but I'll settle with the mud run.  Logan has one, but I want to do the one with obstacles
5) Bake my way through the new cookbook I just got!  I doesn't seem that hard since most of it looks like things Josh and I will love (minus the veggie section in Josh's case)

To commemorate the last year I decided to put up a couple pictures about what has happened:

Our first pregnancy test with the faint line that we had to examine for twenty minutes, we got another one to be sure

Our exciting family trip to Disneyland over Mothers Day

Josh mocking me

Our nursery in our new apartment in May

Michael at 20 weeks in June

Halloween, that is Josh stuffed, not me pregnant

HUGE

Cute pictures my sister took!

Cutest grunting face ever!

The Sniffles

Michael and I have both been sick for a little over a week now.  For me this just entails a sore throat and a few sniffles.  Unfortunately for a baby under 6 months old it means a lot more.  Most doctors won't give any medicine to a baby under 6 months for a cold, and over the counter children's drugs are for 6+ months.  He has avoided a fever luckily.  His nose is always stuffed and we have to suction it multiple times a day.  Suctioning isn't as effective as you think.  The little boogers come out easily enough, but the big ones, the ones effecting his breathing, require 20-40 suctions to loosen from the back of his nose and hang out so we can wipe them away.  Yesterday Josh was playing with him and he saw the object of his misery.

At first he cried a little because he thought we were going to suction him again.  When we didn't go for his nose he was confused.  We handed it to him to show him we weren't going to hurt him again.  He grabbed it defensively.  I like to think he is saying 'Suction me again and die'.  Honestly I don't blame him! 

 

How could you be mad at a cute little boy who has had this look on his face for most of the week?  I just hope he starts feeling better soon!  Although I am enjoying the extra naps he's been taking. 

There's no place like home for the Holidays!

Christmas was great this year!  Josh and I were both a little bit worried about how stressful it would be.  It was stressful, but we both enjoyed it!  It all started a week before Christmas.  Josh decided we should go down to Salt Lake so he could go snowboarding.  While we were there we took Michael to see Santa and the cutest pictures resulted (I think anything is cute that involves a tiny baby).

I assume he's think 'What is going on? What is this furry thing touching my head?'

We came down on Christmas Eve after Josh got off of work.  We went to my sisters house for dinner, games, and our present exchange.  The games were Christmas themed Minute to Win It games.  We discovered that Josh and I could dominate if we ever played beer pong.  We also discovered that I cannot suck up M&Ms with a straw, in fact I'm worse than my 5 year old niece (I blame everyone laughing at me and distracting me).  We went to Josh's moms house for Christmas Eve and opened presents early on Christmas morning.  We went to my parents house for breakfast.  Headed to my grandmas house for the annual lunch.  Then we went to the Crumps for dinner and presents.

It was all very fun but also overwhelming.  Josh and I just wanted to drop by the end of the night.  Michael was past around a lot, which led to a grumpy baby who couldn't sleep for more than ten minutes before someone else picked him up, which led to an overtired and mad baby.  Next year we might have to cut some stuff out, but it might be easier without a baby demanding to eat every 2-3 hours.  We've been thinking what will happen in two years from now and we are both out of school and hopefully living in Salt Lake.  We will need to make our own family traditions.  One of which will be sleeping-in until roughly noon on Christmas day :)

We would both like to say thank you to all of our family!  We walked out of our door with 6 presents and came back with armfuls.  Thanks for being so giving and loving.  We appreciate it all year, not just when it involves gift boxes and chocolate oranges.  Love to all!

Michael Gets Babysat

This blog post is a little overdue...forgive me, for the time being I always have a baby attached to me.  Which makes this event so much more meaningful.  On Dec. 3 Josh and I headed home to celebrate my mom's and my birthdays.  My parents, my sister and her husband decided to go to a movie that night and we decided to join them, meaning Michael was babysat!  Josh's mom watched him while I saw Breaking Dawn with the girls and Josh saw Tower Heist with the boys.  I really enjoyed my movie, and going to a movie theater.  The last time Josh and I went was to see Harry Potter 7 Part 2 and I almost died in it; the chairs were ridiculously hard and being over 5 months pregnant I had to hold it for hours.  Josh seemed to really enjoy his movie and his time with the boys.

When we left our little guy I was nervous about one thing; will my mother-in-law ever watch him again after this experience?  I thought he might be rough.  He doesn't do very well around 6-10pm.  He sleeps great at night and is wonderful all morning as long as you hold him (which makes it hard to shower) but in the evening he goes crazy.  Nothing calms him down unless you drive him around and feed him every hour.  Maybe she was just being nice, or maybe he was just being the little angel I know I have, but he did great!  I want to thank my in-laws again!  It was a much needed night out for both of us!

Being held by Grandma

Cute and alert

We love our little guy to pieces but we can't always be with him.  It's relieving to know we can leave him with someone!

The 20's

As of yesterday I turned 20!  I can't believe I'm finally out of my teens.  My birthday never seems to fall on a convenient day so we celebrated last week.  I got clothes and gift cards from my sisters.  A few kitchen accessories: plates, cutting board, and candle.  Josh got me some running shoes and a backpack for school next month.  To those of you who haven't seen these kind of running shoes before, they are awesome!  If you've seen X-men First Class, I feel like the 'Beast'.  At one part in the movie he is running next to Xavier and laps him around the house.  That just seems awesome to me!  Plus they are so comfy!

 

Now that I'm twenty there are a few things I want to do before I turn 30

1)  Have more kids, yes plural
2)  Finish School, this one has an end in sight
3)  Buy a house, this one doesn't have an end in sight
4)  Get our debt paid off....this seems impossible
5)  Go on a big vacation after we both graduate, maybe Europe, maybe somewhere tropical
6)  Run a marathon, I figure I better try to do this as soon as possible before all of my muscle tone is gone
7)  Get new couches, and  make sure Josh stops wiping his hands on the ones we have :( I get very angry when he does this and I don't know where it came from, he never did it before we got married
8)  Finish all of the unfinished crafty projects I currently have at this moment, yes I need a decade to finish them
9)  Avoid all of my high school reunions, to be honest I would be happy to never go to any, but I think Josh will drag me to my 20 or 25 year reunion
10)  Last but not least...skydiving!

Michael's 1 Month Old!

Our little boy is already one month old.  Time flew by so fast!  Most of it was full of sleeping, feedings, diaper changes, more sleeping, and crying.  Luckily he is a healthy baby that seems happy.  To commemerate his first month of life here are his milestones and some fun things about him.

Michael sleeps a lot less during the day, and can sleep most of the night.

Today he graduated from newborn clothes!  The onesies at least, the pants still fit his short little legs.

He can grab things around him, he can pick up a few little toys and he grabs at the bumpers of his crib.

Last night he slept for 4 hours straight, yup 4 hours!  Of course he wanted to eat every hour-and-a-half all day.

He goes through a pack of 100 diapers in a week.  I'm not over-changing him, he has a tendency to go right after you change him.

I did get him to smile when I was smiling and told him I loved him, however, he proceeded to fart so I assume it wasn't a real smile.

He loves to be held, in fact you can't put him down without him getting grumpy.

When he sleeps he gets the Zoolander look on his face or he puckers his lips.

He loves the carseat.  Whenever we take him somewhere he will stay asleep as long as he is in his carseat.

Michael has gained a little over 2 lbs!  I wish I could tell you his height but he won't ever straighten his legs unless I'm trying to put a diaper on him.

He loves bath time.  For various reasons we give him a bath almost every day and he loves it.  Except recently he has begun to pee and poop in the water, so he gets more than one bath a day.

Everyone who sees this little guy loves him!  How could you not?  Most importantly we love him more than anything!

First Bath!

This was Michael's first real bath :) He loved it and still does!  The only problem is he manages to pee all over Josh and I every time...

Thanksgiving

On Tuesday we took our little guy to the doctor.  Just so I have this recorded somewhere, Michael's weight was the 4.5 percentile and his height was 11.9 percentile, yup he's little!  He was finally taken off of oxygen and we were given the go-ahead to take him home for Thanksgiving.  So we headed down as soon as possible.

We enjoyed Thanksgiving day with my family.  Instead of the usual turkey my dad made an awesome BBQ turkey, it was nice for a break.  Last year Josh and I ended up going to 3 Thanksgiving dinners in less than 12 hours, it was a little too much food, so this small dinner was nice.  Michael also got to see both of his grandpa's, two sets of his great-grandparents, and his great aunt for the first time. Yes all of our pictures have Michael in them, but he's so much cuter than Josh or I so who cares?

Michael with Grandpa Crump

Grandpa Tuttle

We put Michael in his Christmas outfit on Thanksgiving, we felt it was okay since we have yet to listen to Christmas music

Cuddling with Aunt Melis

Cute little shoes his aunt got him, he loves them!  Except he has figured out how to kick them off

We don't have a picture of it, but we got his Uncle Jeremy to hold him, which is a miracle because he refuses to hold a child under 3 years old. Overall it was a fun, relaxing Thanksgiving!

Welcome home!

Michael is home!!  My mom came up to Logan to help out with the little guy, and we needed the help.  Life with a newborn is so unpredictable.  It will just take a little more getting used to.  It was a lot different than being in the hospital.  It's so nice to stumble into his room in the middle of the night instead of getting dressed, putting my contacts in, and walking down the halls of the hospital.  I really miss making the nurses change his diapers when I'm half asleep. The good thing is Michael is doing so much better!  He seems a lot happier.  In fact this little boy only cries for about a half hour total a day, and most of that is when he is hungry or having a bath.

He is always doing something cute with his hands!

One of his many daily naps

His first tummy time!

 He is learning how to hold his binky in

On Tuesday we took him into the doctor for his first appointment.  He is up to 6lb 7oz, however, he had a dirty diaper and all of his oxygen tubes.  He has also grown an inch :) Josh and I are really hoping he is taller than both of us!  The doctor gave him an oxygen test and he is off the oxygen!  We still use his oxygen meter now and then, especially at night because I'm too overprotective.  But by Monday everything related to his oxygen should be gone!  We are so happy our little boy is doing better.  He really scared us for a while, but now he is a happy little thing! 

The Saga Begins...

Michael Paul Crump was born 11/12/11 at 6:42 pm, 5 lb 14 oz and 18.5" long!

On Saturday morning I started having a few small contractions, nothing out of the usual.  Within an hour they were 3 minutes apart and made me double over in pain.  At that point Josh came home from work and got our stuff ready for the hospital.  A little after noon we checked in and started getting ready for our little guy!  The first measurements showed that I was 3cm dilated.  They hooked me up to all of the machines to monitor Michael and my contractions.  After a half hour they decided I was definitely in labor.  Another half hour after that I was 4cm and starting to really feel the pain.  Within the next two hours my parents and sister showed up (my little niece came as well but she was too young to come see me).  After they heard my "breathing" they all told me to get an epidural.  I gave in and I'm glad I did!  The nurse expected me to be at 6cm after those two hours, but I was at 9.  Things moved pretty fast after that! An hour later the doctor had me start pushing, the first push broke my water.  My poor mom, who was standing about five feet away, might have gotten hit.  I pushed for another twenty minutes and he had crowned.  The nurse then called the doctor...who happened to be at home and not in the hospital.  I was told to stop pushing and the nurse tried to hold the little guy in.  Well without pushing Michael came out on his own, and was delivered by the nurse!

Little Michael wasn't crying when he slipped out.  The doctors grabbed him and started pumping oxygen into him.  The doctors assumed he wasn't breathing because he had his hand up under his neck when he was born, but they don't know for sure.  Our little boy was whisked away to the NICU soon after. 

About an hour before his birth.  The nurse in the background actually delivered Michael.

Josh was able to take a few pictures of Michael before they put the oxygen tubes and IV's in him.

It was a little frustrating not being able to hold my baby.  In fact I was tempted to storm to the NICU...but I couldn't walk for about two hours after his birth.  When our little boy was three hours old I finally got to see and hold him!  To all of the parents who have the luxury of sending their baby to the nursery at night, count your blessings.  Josh and I would get a call every three hours to walk down to the NICU to try to feed our little guy...who was pretty upset by everything that was going on around him.  The doctor eventually told us what was going on with him.  He had somehow gotten an infection, however no one really knows how.  His blood sugar was low - possibly because he was so small.  His breathing was still pretty irregular - this was eventually attributed to acid reflux.  He was put on medicine for that and antibiotics for his infection.  It took a few days but our little guy finally got better.  He was discharged last Thursday, when he was 5 days old.  He was sent home with oxygen, but he's home!

His head was smaller than my palm!

His going home outfit!  A newborn size and it was still too big

He didn't like the car seat at all :( poor little boy! Luckily we live down the street from the hospital

Elephantitis

To go along with my bloated physical features and feelings, I decided to get crafty and make something that shows EXACTLY how I feel.

Yes, it is an elephant!  I found a pattern for this little guy right before Halloween when I went to a craft party with Sylvia.  It's so cute I couldn't resist!  It was a little rocky at first; the ears are uneven, I had to make three tails because I sewed them the wrong way, the elephant is taller than it is wide.  Eventually I will get better at making these, at least I hope so because I have fabric to make 4 more!  I think they will be one of Michael's favorite chew toys.  At the moment I'm trying to find something safe to put in the ears to make them crinkly, I'm thinking the plastic wrap from gift baskets.  If you have any ideas please let me know!

Here you can see the cute trunk....and lopsided ears.  The ears actually don't look that bad in person because the whole elephant is a little lopsided, so the right ear is only slightly lower than the left

 The butt of the elephant.  This is the tail, which is actually the third tail because I made many sewing errors.

Thankfully my mom was there to help me!  She knows a lot more about sewing than I do, plus I used her sewing machine.  Thanks mom!

On a somewhat related note, there is snow in Logan.  Finally.  I actually hate snow unless snowboarding is involved, but because of my elephant size I can feel comfortable outside for the first time since May.  For the last 4 months Josh has been freezing inside of our apartment because I turn the AC on all day, leave a window open at night, and refuse to sleep with anything but the sheet.  Let's just say he has been wearing a jacket indoors and has been as cuddly as possible for body heat.  Poor boy :(.  Well now that there is snow I finally turned the heater on, and the result: Josh is walking around in a t-shirt and I'm sitting here with thick socks, sweats, and his thickest hoodie on.  What is going on with my body??  Maybe the elephants know.

Last Pregnancy Post

This little boy is coming any day now!!  We are so excited! We have our bags packed and are waiting for the big moment to come

I feel - and look - as big as a house!  To not forget some of our pregnancy moments, I will write them down :)

Our ages at his birth:  Kim-19, Josh-23

We found out I was pregnant:  March 5, 2011 :)

How we found out:  We wanted to have a baby, but had no idea he would come so quickly after we started trying!  I went through a box of expensive tests with negative results, so I decided to buy some cheaper dollar store tests that were deemed "as affective as the expensive brands".  I woke up feeling a little sick and decided to see if the dollar store brands work, as you can see below (there should be two dark red lines, not one dark red and one very light pink) they don't!  We rushed out to buy an expensive test that was 100% positive!

First doctors appointment:  April 18th

We found out it was a boy on:  May 21st, when I was 14 weeks along

His name:  Michael Paul.  Josh wanted to call him Michael Scott after The Office, but I refused once we found out it was a boy

Worst pregnancy symptoms:  The non-stop morning sickness for the first 20 weeks!

Best pregnancy symptoms:  Being so tired that I could sleep all day and not feel guilty about it

First thing we bought for baby:  A pack of newborn onesies that made me want to cry every time I picked them up

How much weight gained:  Kim - 45 lbs, Josh - 10 lbs (I blame this on the fact that I am constantly making desserts)

Weirdest pregnancy dream:  I had a dream that I not only had a newborn baby, I had 5 of them

My Cravings: usually sweet stuff, mostly cheesecake and fruit

Josh's Cravings:  Mostly Mexican food.  I couldn't eat tomatoes or onions for the first 4-5 months so he always craved it!

Sunday Traditions

Since we've been married Josh and I have developed some Sunday traditions.  One of our favorite is making the weekly dessert, like apple pie! 

The famous pie crust!

The best apple pie filling ever! (the secret ingredient is orange and lemon juice)

The pie before we cooked it :) there isn't a picture of it after because we ate it so fast!

My huge belly at 33 weeks pregnant!
Then there is the famous homemade chili, it's one of Josh's favorite meals.

The famous homemade chili

Josh being the brave taste tester!

We love out Sunday rituals!