3 Weeks and Counting

I can hardly believe that Aleah is already 3 weeks old!  She has seriously been so much fun already.  Tyler and I are still working hard to figure out how to be parents, particularly how to get her to sleep at night.  While we're not there yet, we've sure been enjoying ourselves along the way.

Aleah is growing fast!  At her two week check up, she had more than surpassed her birth weight and the pediatrician was impressed.  She went from 5 lbs. 14 oz., to 6 lb. 8 oz. in 2 weeks.  Alright!  We must be doing something right if that's the case.  She is in the 25 percentile for height and the 10th percentile for her weight.  She is beautiful, cuddly, and smiles a lot (and no matter how many times I hear it, I refuse to believe that it is gas in her case. She does it on cue when we're talking to her... so don't even go there).

Motherhood really is the best and I feel so blessed to have her as part of our family.  I'm already dreading the day that I don't get to spend all day at home with her, loving every second.

We had her first photo shoot 6 days after she was born.  Here are some of my favorites.  More to come later!

Our Birth Story

Well... it's been a while, hasn't it?  Sorry about that.  Internet time is hard to come by these days so I'm just going to jump right into this while I have a spare second.

I always love reading birth stories on the rest of y'all's blogs so I'm going to go ahead and write one myself while it's still fresh in my memory.  However, there's a fairly good chance that I'll include bits of information/pictures that may give off a big TMI vibe so if you think you might have a problem with it, steer clear of this post.  And with that, I'll start off telling you about the day that we welcomed my beautiful little daughter into the world.

In the beginning it started out something like this: 8 month check up- I was at a 3 and 60% effaced.  Sheesh.  The next week I was at a 4 and 80% effaced.  At this point the doctor surprised me by telling me that my water felt like it was about to break and that he wasn't confident that I would make it through the weekend.  Since I had a baby shower, my doctor was leaving town, and we still had weeks until her due date, we decided to take it as easy as possible.  During that entire week I had my feet up as much as possible and did nothing to strain myself.  The next week I was still at a 4 and 80% effaced and the doctor told me I might have to be started around my due date.  It was so frustrating!!

Going from thinking that I wouldn't make it through the weekend to being told I might have to be induced (which I really wanted to avoid) was one of the most frustrating things ever!  So I did what any rational-thinking pregnant woman would; I ate spicy foods, spent a lot of time on a birthing ball, and made Tyler take me on midnight walks every night.

On Tuesday night (October 4th), I had about had it.  I remember telling Tyler that I was done.  I told him I was done being pregnant and that it was time for her to come.  Then I woke up at 4:30 in the morning.

The Doctor told me that he thought I would go fast and that I needed to rush to the hospital as soon as things started.  But when I felt contractions at 4:30 in the morning all I could think was that it was just another bout of Braxton Hicks contractions so I laid there trying to forget about it.  Eventually I got up, showered, and started getting ready for work but it soon became clear that these contractions were different.  They were so strong and were coming every three to five minutes.  Soon I could barely stand up so I woke up Tyler and told him to eat some breakfast because I was pretty sure he was going to need to take me to the hospital.

Tyler got up and was totally calm until he found me in the bathroom on all fours.  Needless to say, we were out the door and on our way to the hospital within minutes of that occurrence.

I was terrified that I would alert everyone at work and then get to the hospital and be sent home and back to work again.  Thankfully this was not the case.  I was at a seven and fully effaced and they told me we were crazy for waiting so long.  Hallelujah!

The unfortunate part about waiting so long was that the baby was ready to come and we weren't ready.  I had tested positive on the strep test which meant that they had to give me 2 bags of antibiotics through an IV so that the baby could come and not be subjected to it through the birth canal.  Dang.  The nurses there had to slow me down and let me basically be a slug in a hospital bed while we waited for the antibiotics to flow through me.

A family friend of ours was kind enough to be on call for me and she was by far the BEST nurse EVER!!!!  I will forever love her for all that she did to help us.  One of the things I'll always remember about her helping us was the coaching she gave me while we waited for the doctor to arrive.  At one point she even asked if we wanted to take a quick peek and see what color of hair our little girl had.  I of course was all over this.  So she called Tyler over and when I asked him what it looked like his response was, "greasy.... and wet."  Haha!  Love it!



The rest of the process came really fast.  The doctor arrived, went right to work, and five pushes later I got to meet my little daughter.  What an incredible experience!  It was nothing like the horrific movie-like scene I had been expecting.  Hearing that baby cry (or scream hysterically in my case) for the first time and watching the doctor hold her up for me to see was one of the most amazing experiences of my entire life.

We chose to do skin to skin so as soon as she was out and Tyler finished cutting the umbilical cord, they laid her on my chest and I was in heaven.  She was just so beautiful and so tiny!  It's crazy because up until she was born, I was aware of the conversations going on around me, I knew people were talking and working, but mentally I wasn't there.  It was just me and my baby.  So the 5th push and subsequent crying brought me back to earth and totally shocked me.  All I could think was, "I still have one more push for this contraction."

We totally lucked out because she pretty much crawled out and started nursing.  I have a good breast feeding baby!  Yay!!!  Since my temperature spiked right before she was born and she was so tiny, the doctors and nurses had me hold her against my chest for one hour before I could be moved or have anyone else in the room.  That was quite possibly the fastest hour of my life.  She is just so precious!

We named her Aleah Esther.  She weighed 5 lbs, 14 oz. and had the darkest hair ever (it is more brown than black now).  She is tiny and perfect and such a joy!

Apparently red heads bleed badly and they were worried about me hemorrhaging so they actually put me on pitossin after she was born.  Now that is some nasty stuff.  I hated it.  But it's over now so all is well.

Oh!  One quick TMI tidbit: I was not expecting to not be able to pee after.  The nurses took me into the bathroom once we were back to our recovery room and man oh man was it rough.  They squirted me with cold water, ran tap water, tried everything.  I couldn't get a drop out.  That was a totally weird/frustrating feeling.

Becoming a mother is so intimidating but seriously... such a natural transition.  It's tough, particularly the recovery process, the sore boobs, and the lack of sleep, but it is heaven.  It has been so awesome to get to know this darling little girl and to watch Tyler be a daddy.

Here are some pictures of the process.  Steer clear if you don't want to see them.

 Here we are waiting around at the hospital

Sorry.  This picture took way too long so there is no way I'm going to rotate it and reload it all over again.

First family picture

Grandma was in the delivery room with us and followed the baby around while they weighed and measured her.

Aleah and Daddy

Here is my pitossin face

Her little lips and face were so swollen when she first came out.  She was still beautiful!

Daddy and Grandma G.

Proud Grandma

Jake was so afraid to hold her at first.  Then he didn't want to put her down.  So cute!

My Lovely Baby Bump

Somewhere there is an 11 week picture floating around... I just have yet to find it.  So for now, here is the progress of my lovely baby bump:

20 Weeks

26 Weeks

32 Weeks

Now that I'm growing more huge every day, hopefully we can be better about these picture updates.  And hopefully when baby is here and it really counts, we'll be able redeem ourselves in the regular picture-taking department.

Hope all is well with y'all!

Four Years of Togetherness

On August 2nd this month, we reached our latest milestone.  It's hard to believe that we've already been married four years.  FOUR years!  That's enough time to serve two full missions!  Wowie!

This year we decided that we needed to do something bigger than we have in years past.  Mostly because we suspect that the addition of a child in 2 months will make getting away slightly more difficult.  So with that in mind, we set off to Heber and went about seeking some fun.

First we stopped at Kneaders in Bountiful for some of the most incredible tasting french toast and pancakes we've ever had.  If you've never been there, you must (thanks for the tip Amanda)!  The french toast was made from big slices of cinnamon bread and cinnamon/pecan syrup.  It was probably at least 1000 calories but totally worth it if you're okay with splurging now and then or if like me, you know you're going to get fat anyway so you might as well enjoy it :)

Then we sent to the outlet malls in Park City.  We bought some cute pajama sacks for our our baby girl and enjoyed looking at all the other things we wanted to spend money on but knew we shouldn't.

We had every intention of going hiking after our shopping trip but apparently the extreme heat at the outlet malls sucked the energy right out of us because instead we went straight to our hotel room and crashed for two solid hours.  Aren't naps the greatest thing ever?

Long story short, we did several small hikes and enjoyed ourselves immensely as we did whatever we wanted for two days.  It was a great way to welcome in a new year of marriage! Here are some of the pictures we collected along the way:

Stopping for a Mormon whiskey break at Whiskey Springs

Haha!  We stopped at Whiskey Springs because we found a trail head and thought we'd check out the hike.  About five minutes later, we were back to where we started.  That trail was probably about a quarter of a mile long.  Wow!  Some hike, huh?

Poor Tyler got eaten alive on the first hike we went on.

We stayed at a beautiful lodge here!

Here is a picture of the lodge we stayed in.  It was perfect!  And so fun to be at Daniels Summit again where I spent my summer LITE team camps during high school.

The past four years have been so much fun.  Here's looking forward to many more to come!

Letters from High School

Next item of business = letters from high school

Tyler and I went through a fun time recently where we both received letters from ourselves that were written in high school.  They were fun to read and I've had great intentions to post them ever since.  So here they are in all their glory.  

Let's do Tyler's first because it's much more funny.  (Written January 3, 2002, 4th period health class)

The most important decision I will ever make is the [person] I decide to spend it with.

Make your choice then love your choice.

I want a person who has brown or blond hair.  I don't really care how tall she is.  She has to be fit so she can go run with me.  

On the spiritual side, I would like her to be of the Mormon faith, so we would believe the same things and so we can get married in the temple.

Socially she needs to have friends so she can have her girls night out.  I want her to have a good personality so she can laugh and have a good time.  She needs to feel good about herself and like herself.

As you can see, Tyler totally failed on the hair color choice.  Poor guy.  This has provided us with several laughs.  

Mine is not nearly as entertaining.  I was asked to write mine during seminary and like the good little student that I was, I made sure to include material from the lesson.  What was I thinking?  Shouldn't I have known that my adult self would be much more interested in hearing about my hopes and predictions for the future?!  Sheesh.  Well, here's what I came up with (written February 23, 2005):

Dear Husband,

I am in Brother Wilde's seminary class write now.  We just had a lesson about morality (I just gave Devin my red pen)  [ink changes color... ooh fascinating].

I'm so curious about who you are.  What are you like?  Are you who I think you are?

Well, whoever you are, I want you to know that I'm keeping myself clean for you.  I am determined to be married in the temple so that our love can be real and eternal.  I'm sure you and I are very happy together.  And I hope we're doing everything right [ attending church, fulfilling our callings, studying the scriptures, praying, paying tithing and fast offerings, etc... if not... buck up and do it!!

This year has been extremely hard for me in all honesty; probably the hardest and most defining year of my life.  I've been experiencing some pretty ugly high school drama that hasn't been fun, but I know that it'll pass eventually thankfully.

I've been dating a great guy named Tony, my best friend is Rachel Hanson (whom I hope I'm still in touch with).

Right now I'm trying to figure out what I want to do for college.  Who knows what I'll end up doing?

I want you to know that I love this gospel and that I have a very strong testimony.

I hope you and I have a great life [together] and that you treat me like a princess and make me lots of cheesecake.

I wish I had time to write more, but alas, I do not.

Thanks for everything!  I love you!

Love,

Sha

And in closing-- here is a brief passage from yet another letter I wrote to myself  (you know, the letter where I talked about the lesson the whole time).  This one was written in my institute class on March 29, 2007:

Right now I am planning on marrying Tyler Grange- who is a truly wonderful guy.  I'm assuming that you are with him now.  He makes me want to be the very best that I possibly can and I'm sure you two are happy together.

Remember that marriage isn't always easy, but so worth it in comparison.  Help each other, do good deeds for each other whenever you get the opportunity.  I would write more, but have to go to work.

Share your love with others and hold to the rod!

-Shaela

And so begins the baby bump watch...

Okay.  This is so pathetic but it is what it is.

I started writing this post on May 24th and planned on posting it with pictures.  Clearly that hasn't happened.  I'm in the process of getting some of those pictures but in the mean time it bothers me that I have this totally out-dated post that clearly is not going to cut it now as picture accompaniment.  Tyler told me today that I need to update our blog so my first step in doing so is to post this and move forward with newer material.  Sorry about that.

For what it's worth, here's what I had to say way back then:

1.  Have you been sick? 
The answer is YES!  It seems like everyone I've talked to lately has told me all about how they never got sick during their pregnancies.  Bah!  However, I still feel like I'm just paying my dues when it comes to this topic.  Normally, as in when I'm not pregnant, I almost never get sick and I NEVER puke, so basically it's only fair that I take a turn once in a while.  And if I get a cute baby out of the deal, I'm totally in favor! 
*update: I originally wrote this post a while ago.  It seems like once I hit 5 months, the sickness sort of melted away.  Hooray!

2.  Have you had any weird cravings? 
Um... not really?  Once I had an emergency craving for a strawberry smoothie and I could eat Pace bars(yummy popsicles) every day and be pleased as punch, but nothing too crazy so far.  In the beginning, all I wanted were potatoes and grilled cheese sandwiches though.  That was weird.
*Another update: Since writing this post forever ago, I did in fact experience an emergency caving in the form of sour patch kids and swedish fish-- which was mostly inspired by an overwhelming smell of sugar at WinCo after a long work day.

3.  Have you had any pregnancy crazies?
Well there was that time I almost flushed my shirt down the toilet but I feel very confident that it was due to outside circumstances (stress vs. MAJOR gross and painful sickness), but I suppose that could be my own bias coming into play there.  Umm... I freak out sometimes about weird things that are happening to my body and I find wearing clothing to be annoying at times.  That's kind of crazy I guess.

4.  Do you have a name picked out?
No.  We actually have the opposite problem that most couples do.  So far we can only agree on one name but I would like to go to the hospital with a list of three names to choose from.  So by all means, if you have any cute ideas to add to our list, let us know.

5.  Have you felt her kick yet?
All the time!  This baby is constantly on the go and I love it!  It's like I have a little friend with me wherever I go and just in case I forget, she gives me a good kick regularly to jolt my memory :)  Plus, I love it that this is a part of the pregnancy that I can easily share with Tyler.  It's so fun when both of us can feel her kicks together.

6.  What will you do after the baby is born?
I'll be working part time if all goes as planned and believe me, a break in my current full time work schedule will be MUCH appreciated-- even if it does involve a wild, crying child.

7.  And since I feel like this post is totally self-centered, let's throw in an answer to how Tyler is doing with all this:
Tyler is really good about making sure I'm eating enough (this was an especially hard responsibility over the past few weeks as I've been ill and had a total lack of appetite), scolds me for wearing high heels (naughty me), carries me to bed when I fall asleep before I should, talks to our baby (he's currently trying to teach her to count), plays music for the baby, makes me rest when we both know it's needed, is patient with me, and reminds me how funny everything is when I start to freak out over weird changes my body is making.  We laugh a lot together and let's be honest, laughing is one of the best things in the world.

Late Twenties already?

This past week brought with it many adventures and even some mourning on Tyler's part.  Turning 26 was not something he had been looking forward to.  Ty is under the impression that once you hit 26, you're in your LATE TWENTIES!! shudder. 

Tyler's birthday was a lot of fun this past week and we have loved all the celebrations!  We had a Grange family birthday dinner on Monday, followed by Tuesday which was full of activities of his own choosing (playing soccer, ordering pizza, and watching a US soccer game), followed by a birthday dinner trip to Tucanos with our friends Steve, Jordan, and their adorable and entertaining son Deacon on Wednesday.  We still have one more birthday dinner coming up with my side of the family and then our extended celebratory fun will come to an end. 

This year we tinted our car windows and bought Tyler a KX 250 (dirt bike) for his birthday.  The bike is currently under construction, which is okay by me since I can't ride with him while I'm prego anyway.  I have to confess though-- I'm a little nervous for the bike.  It's probably not what you're thinking though.  I'm just suspicious that Tyler is going to beat me out on the woops now that he has a big, strong bike and an entire season to practice without me :(  sad day!  So if you wouldn't mind, say a little prayer that come next spring, I'll still have the magic touch and will be able to make Tyler eat my dust on my little 85.

I'm including one of my favorite pictures of the man of the week with this post because let's face it, he is pretty dang handsome.  I am one lucky girl to be married to such an incredible guy.

It takes a pretty special person to put up with a stubborn, unpredictable, and oftentimes crazy redhead and Tyler does a great job!  Between his patience, love of laughter, appreciation of naps, and willingness to embark on new adventures, I'm pretty sure he was created especially for me.
----Happy Birthday Tyler!!

P.S.  I'm taking advantage of his absence this weekend by posting this picture.  I'm pretty sure that if he had a say in the matter, this picture would not be up so... enjoy it while you can and let's hope that he lets me leave it up after he sees it next week :)