Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Introducing......

BENJAMIN KNOX GARCIA, NOVEMBER 23, 2011

This is the first pic we took of him with his eyes open.  And, yes, he was born with all that hair.  :)
 I thought this would make a cute pic...looks like he's humiliated...that, or hungover.  :)
 Chilling out with PaPa Shields in the rocking chair.
 Meeting Grandma Shields for the first time.
 Chilling out watching the Thanksgiving football game with Daddy.
 I loved this one...this is a shot of him grabbing Chris' hand.  We were still in the hospital at this point, so he was less than four days old.
 This is a shot Chris took of us after I fed him.  He was sleeping.  Not my favorite shot, but there aren't many of he and I since I'm usually the one taking the pictures.
 Momma's sleepy baby.

So, life with a newborn is pretty C-R-A-Z-Y!  But, make no mistake, it's worth every sleepless moment!  He was born Wednesday, November 23, 2011.  Exactly between my brothers birthday (the 22nd) and Thanksgiving.  He weighed 7 pounds, 8.5 ounces and was 19 inches long.  

It's so odd.  For someone that never wanted kids...I never thought my whole world would weigh 8 pounds.  He's my absolute everything.  Everyone always told me that you don't know love untill you have a child, and I understand that now.  

As a rule, he's a really good baby, he only makes noise if there's something wrong with him, and at just under a month old he can sleep mostly through the night.  He wakes up when he gets hungry or needs changed of course.  

Chris and I are just totally in love with him! 

For the most part, the pregnancy was easy and I didn't have too many issues.  I ended up on bed rest for the last 8 weeks.  At first the doc thought I was pre eclamptic, but thankfully that test came back negative.  Because he was so long, the doc thought he was going to a large baby (like at least 10 pounds) so she put me on bed rest so he wouldn't come early.  Turns out he was average, just really long.  And I'm kinda short torsoed, so that's why it looked, and felt, like he was taking up every inch of room I had.   

At his two week check up, he had gained half a pound, so he's was a little over 8 pounds and grew three inches to 22 inches long.  Which the doctor says is great, puts him in the top 50th percentile.   

The labor process was a bit of a hassle.  It's called labor for a reason right?  :)  Actually, I was in labor for three days.  On Sunday night I started having contractions so we went to the hospital, but I was only dilated to a 1 and my water hadn't broke yet so they sent us home, Monday and Tuesday the contractions were intensifying (back to the hospital), but with the same results.  Dilated to a 1, but no water break, so they sent me home again.  Wednesday, the contractions were about a minute long each and 6-7 minutes apart.  So, back to the hospital we went.  Got there dilated to a 1 and an hour later I was dilated to a 3.  They were going to send me home again, due to the fact that my water hadn't broke yet, it actually never did.

That was when I took matters into my own hands.  lol  I told them that I was scheduled for a c section and that my doctor had never planned on me going into labor in the first place.  So I told the nurse that I didn't care if she had to go and knock my doctors door herself, I wasn't leaving the hospital without my baby this time.  Maybe a little rude, but mind you, I'd been in labor for three days by this time.  Who would be cordial?  :)  
Well, that was at roughly 6:30am, by 7:15am I had been admitted, prepped and was on the operating room table, on my way to lala land for them to deliver my baby.  My doc works fast.  :)  And when I woke up in recovery, my wonderful hubby and my perfect baby boy were right there waiting for me. 

Well, I guess that's all I have for now.  Hopefully I'll be able to blog more in the future and be able to keep up with you guys and the events of your lives.  

Here's wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.

Monday, August 08, 2011

Bump-date :)

HAY EVERYBODY!!  Holy crap it's been a while. 

 I don't know if I really even know what all to say since it's been so long.  I'm sure I'll find something to yammer on about though.  I usually do.  :)


Last time I blogged it was April 24th and we had just found out we were pregnant and in the process of moving.  Well, the move is all done, and we're finally 99% unpacked, with the exception of one room, which is the baby's room.  


Speaking of the baby:  IT'S A BOY!  We're naming him Benjamin Knox Garcia, and we'll call him Knox.  


I would have to say the main reason I haven't been blogging, or reading for that matter (I'm so behind) is that my Summer term in school was really hard.  I only took one class, but it pretty much consumed all of my time.  It was anatomy and physiology.  Got out of there with a C, couldn't believe it.  I'll take it though.  That's one of the hardest fought for C's I've ever gotten in my whole life.

Here are a few pics of me that have been taken in the last few weeks that I'd like to share with you guys.
 This was taken in June at my family reunion.  Someone snatched my phone, so it's a little blurry, but it's a nice profile shot to show how I've grown since then.
 Hubby took these last night.  As you can all see, "we've" grown a little since June.  
 This is a picture that my mom took.  This was also at my family reunion in June.  He's already so loved.  We can't wait for him to get here.

Well, I guess that's all I have for right now.  Not much after spending a little less than three months not blogging.  Hope you're all having a great day.

Lots of reading to catch up on.  :)

 



 BabyName Ticker

Sunday, April 24, 2011

ALL ABOARD!!

First of all, let me say, Happy Easter everybody.  I know that I've been a real slacker in blogging.  I've been reading blogs, just not commenting or writing any. 

I have great news though....my ticket for the mommy train has been punched.  :)  We're expecting and due December 1st. 

Here's a shot a of my seven week baby bump.  We're so excited!  Our families are also over the moon for us.  As are most of our friends.  As you guys remember if you've been following me a while, I went through a period where I didn't want kids at all. 

Other things going on in our lives is that I'm going back to school for my bachelors degree.  I decided to major in Health Information Technology.  Which I can do a million things with that.  I'm leaning towards healthcare/hospital administration.  But, we'll see what happens when I graduate, which will be about three years from now since I just started.

We're also in the middle of moving.  The weekend we went out of town to tell my folks about the baby (the first weekend of this month) our house got broken into.  We weren't here, so no one was hurt and nothing was taken that can't be replaced, but it still jolted us pretty bad, so we decided it's time to move on.  With the baby coming we've officially outgrown this place anyway cuz it's only a one bedroom.  Which is great for me, the hubs and the beagle, but now we're going to be more than that. 

There is a building here at home that's downtown and it's been renovated into luxury lofts and it's all secure and monitored 24/7/365, so we thought that would be a much better place for us to raise our family.

Here are some pics of the new apartment:

This picture came out a little dark, but all of these were taken with my phone, so I guess they didn't turn out too bad.  :)  This is standing in the kitchen and looking into our living room.  Love the giant picture windows and all the natural light we'll be getting.  We also have an amazing view of downtown, which I didn't take pictures of since it was during the day.  After I move in I'll take some pictures of that for you guys.

This is standing against the picture windows facing the opposite direction into the kitchen.  The living room and kitchen are all one room.  Love the cherry stain on the woodwork.  It shows dust pretty bad, but I love how it looks.  Very elegant and classy.

This is standing against the far wall looking across the living room.  It's pretty large, we actually have more space than we have stuff to put in it.  Which isn't always a good thing.  :) 

 This is still in the living room and looking down our rather long hallway.  There isn't any carpet in the apartment except for the bedrooms.  Everything else is cement.  It's a historical building and in order to keep the historical value they weren't allowed to carpet the entire apartment, just the bedrooms.  But we're going to get a large area rug for the living room and a runner for the hallway, so hopefully that'll make it easier and cut down on the echo.  Which is terrible.  Much worse than I thought it would be for some reason.

Our bedroom.  Nothing special here.  We do have a bathroom in here though, there's also a guest bathroom in the hallway.  Didn't take pictures of those.  Didn't see a need.  A bathroom's a bathroom right?

And, this is the baby's room.  When I get this all set up and decorated I'll be sure to take pictures of if and post them on here.

Well, I guess that's all I have for today.  Lots of stuff going on the next few months.  Between school, moving and the baby coming I can't promise how often I'll have the time to post, but I'll try to keep you guys updated as much as I can.

Happy blogging my friends.  Sorry I was absent for so long again, hopefully I'll be able to keep this up more since I'm sure I'll have tons of news in the following months.

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

My Word of the Year


I know this is a little behind, but better late than never right?  :)  I chose this as my word of the year for a lot of reasons.  A few of them are as follows:

~I'm close to goal; as of this morning I was 178, and my goal is 150-140, give or take.
~Hubby and I are TTC, and I have to be healthy in order to get pregnant as well as have a healthy baby.
~It's not so much about losing weight for me anymore as much as staying healthy (hence my word choice).  This is because I'm pretty content where I'm at right now.  I need to tone up a little bit, but as you all know I've had some health issues that have kept me from accomplishing that in the last few years.  Those are now worked out and I've started a walking program.
~The doctor said that even if I got pregnant now I was healthy enough, mentally as well as physically.  Which leads me to my next point.
~Mental health also ties into physical health, at least in my opinion.  If you're not mentally/emotionally healthy, you allow so many things get in your way that wouldn't mean a hill of beans to you otherwise.
~Spiritual health.  I've never been known to be an overly religious person.  However, my folks and I are LDS (Mormon).  It's been a looooooong time since I've been to church, for a lot of reasons, but that's a blog for another day.  I want to work on my spiritual health because I want my kids to know my religion and that I love and believe in it very much.  They won't know that if I don't go.  Bottom line.

This list goes on, I know it does, but that's all I can think about now.  Hope this blog finds you all feeling and doing well. 

Happy posting my bloggies.




Saturday, February 19, 2011

Officially TTC

Well my bloggies, it's finally happened........I've purchased a ticket to ride on the mommy train.  Not aboard yet, cuz we aren't expecting, but we are trying.  As to which I must say.....I'm thoroughly enjoying myself.  :D 

All of my friends seem to think that I'm off my rocker a bit, due to the fact that for YEARS I never wanted kids.  Then it was like I did a 180.  My doctor told me that I was now more than healthy enough (183 and a BMI of 30, thankyouverymuch) to have a baby then we should go for it.  So we are. 

Hubby and I, and our families are excited, but let's be honest here...I'm scared to death.  What if I won't be a good mom.  Now, mind you, I had wonderful teachers.  My mom and dad kick ass.  They've always stood in my corner, right or wrong, and I know even now, at 30 years old, that I could always come home if I wanted.  The open door policy is in full effect and in complete working order.  I also what my child to have that. 

Sooooooo......I've read a crapton of articles, bought a couple of books on the subject, a pregnancy journal, and am in the process of enrolling us for parenting classes.  Hubby thinks this is going a little overboard.  Oh well, that's just the way my hubs thinks.  My reply to this was that I'm going to be the one with a person growing inside me, not him.  That seemed to shut him up. 

Deep down, I know these things might not necesssarily make me a better parent, maybe not even a good parent...but it seems to help.  Maybe it's all in my head, maybe not.  I just know that we're at the age (both of us in our 30's) that we have the opportunity to be very prepared and make smart parenting decisions, I want to make sure that happens. 

Also, in certain things in my life, I'm very hypervigilant.  I want to be prepared.  Now, if you walked into my house right now, you'd laugh in my face.  lol  But when it comes to the big stuff, all I want to do on the day everything goes down is show up.  So, by the time we get pregnant and the baby's born, all I want to do is show up at the hospital and try to stay as relaxed and calm as I can, because I want to know that everything is taken care of.  Sounds like a good plan to me, and the doctor thinks it's a great idea.

The doc also said that since I haven't reached my goal weight yet, I might not need to gain any (if very little) weight.  Just a few more calories a day to give the baby the nutrients it needs.  Which means a few good things for me.  No unfill (unless the docs office says so), and it would make it easier for me to lose the baby weight in the future. 

I've also been given the ok to exercise from my spinal surgeon.  When I went to see him last week he said that everything was textbook perfect and that I'm going to be fine.  Nothing major, just a little walking and other types of cardio.  This will also help keep me at a healthy weight. 

Well, y'all I guess that's all I have for today.  Happy posting everyone, and have a great weekend.  Racing season starts this weekend.  YAHOO!  So, I'm off to my mom and dad's to watch the Daytona 500, can't wait.  Talk to you all soon.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Getting Back to......Whatever

Soooo.....here I notice that I've been absent again.  Damn me and my busy life...or something like that.

Currently things are going ok-ish here.  Hubby's leg is getting a little better.  He went to his last doctor appointment a few weeks ago, and, I still think the doc is a whack job, but I have soooo much bigger fish to fry than a stupid doctor.  Hubby says it doesn't hurt, and I have to take him on his word for that.  Not that I think he would lie to me about being in pain, but anyway...just one of those things.

I thought I had strep throat a while back, so I went to the urgent care center here in town and they told me that it's not strep, but was some sort of viral bacterial throat infection.  No cure.  My tonsils swelled up so bad that the only thing I could eat was ice cream.  Which was bad for my band, but I didn't gain too much weight.  I am better now though, at least I think so...I was supposed to go to the doc again today for a follow up, but it was snowing and we're supposed to get about 10 inches of snow, so I stayed home.

That snow storm was totally nuts though!  Oh my gosh!  We got over a foot to snow, then it stopped for about a day, and three more inches of snow came down.  Which I know that most of you guys reading this got wolloped too.  I know that Amy had some awesome pics from her mom and dads boat in Florida in the snow.  Gorgeous pics if you're reading Amy!  Just gorgeous. 

And now I'm working on re-enrolling in school.  Again.  Working on getting my bachelors degree in health informatics.  Which is medical coding/billing; hospital management; or a ton of other things I can do with it.  I was doing distance learning from home, only to find out that the school I was going to lost their Missouri accreditation with AHIMA, so now I'm back to square one.  The oldest person in both of my current classes.  YEA ME!  Riiiight. 

However, my bestie explained it to me that I just need to keep plugging along, and that as long as I'm enjoying myself and getting good grades, I just as well rock it.  Good advice.  Love the bestie.  :) 

I guess that's all that's going on with me right now.  Just wanting to keep you all posted and let you know what was going on.  Hope you all had a good holiday season and are enjoying yourselves. 

Happy posting everyone.
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