The Past 3 Months

So much has happened in the past 3 months, and I have been a terrible blogger about it :P So I'm here now to update you!

James is not 3 months and 3 weeks old, he'll be 4 months this coming Saturday. Boy does time fly.
Over the past 3 months, James has learned to smile, and there rarely isn't a smile on his cute little face. He recently learned to giggle, and it's probably the most infectious sound in the world. He's gotten quite a bit bigger as well since he exited my womb. He now weighs about 14 or 15 pounds. And he's around 24 or 25 inches long. He goes in for his 4 month check up in a week or two and I'll get the definite then. He gets the hiccups all the time, just like his mommy. He doesn't mind them at first but after 20 minutes with them he starts to get mad which results in fussiness. He loves to sit on mommy or daddy's lap and watch what ever we're doing, whether its tv, or the computer. He is a food machine, eating about every 2 hours, and eating 4 to 6 ounces every time. He is such a good sleeper though, sleeping 8 to 9 hours at night. However, he's still being swaddled so once we stop swaddling him in the next couple weeks his sleeping might change until he gets used to having his arms free. I absolutely love this kid to death, I would do anything for him. I never imagined I could whole heartedly love someone so much, even more than I love Josh ;) It's a different kind of love though. My little chunk is such a bundle of happiness, but he's growing so fast! I wish it would slow down just a little. He's already sleeping in 6 month footy pajamas.

My little monster loves to cuddle, and I am sure taking advantage of it now, because in a while he won't want to cuddle he'll want to play. He's my nap buddy, I don't get naps usually, so sometimes when he really needs a nap I'll take him to my bed and we'll snuggle up together and he'll fall right to sleep. He sleeps in his own bed at night though, there just isn't enough room for 3 people in our bed at night ;)

We recently had the pleasure of having my big brother Matt home to our house from Afghanistan. He spent two weeks with us, and it was great but it was also crazy. My brother is at a whole different speed than me, I'm a chill little homebody, and he's a "lets drink and barbecue and invite people over"- butterfly type person. While he was here we had lots of barbecues and lots of fun. But by the end of the two weeks I was exhausted! It was great though, he got to spend Thanksgiving with us. For Thanksgiving we went and spent it with Josh's family. We had two Thanksgivings in one day, one was at Josh's sister Chelsea's house with her in-laws and the other one was at a family friend's house where it was a little more chill. James by the end though was so exhausted from being overstimulated. When we got home from Austin after those few days, James literally slept the whole next day. Poor guy was so tired.

There is probably a lot more I'm missing from the past 3 months, but for now this will have to do. I'll come back and think of more I'm sure of it. For now though, that's the update.

Stay tuned :)

Our New Arrival

It's been over a month since I posted anything, shame on me :P Probably had a lot to do with the fact that I was so very pregnant sitting in a computer chair for long was killer. But here I am now, once again at the computer and with some wonderful news! Our sweet baby James decided to finally arrive! I went into labor at 4:50 a.m. on Saturday, August 13th, 2011 when my water broke. And can I just tell you, the movies deceive you, when you're water breaks its not just a big gush and then you're fine and dandy. No, that stuff keeps gushing. I rode all the way to the hospital with a towel between my legs.

We arrived to the hospital, and so far I wasn't really experiencing any other signs of active labor, my water just kept gushing. When we arrived we got up stairs to Labor & Delivery and what do you know, the hospital had just entered a Code Pink, and the doors were locked! We couldn't be allowed in until the Code Pink was over. Code Pink is when one of the security bracelets on the babies gets messed with, it's to keep people from walking off with a baby that isn't theirs or isn't ready to leave the hospital. So while this Code Pink was going on I sat outside the door in a wheel chair just soaking this towel and my pajama shorts. Thank goodness I wasn't in any pain or I would have been mega cranky. Since I wasn't in any pain I just kept laughing (laughing to keep away my nervousness).

We finally were allowed in, the Code Pink only took about 15 minutes, and they whisked me away to Triage where they checked out the goods. Made sure I was truly leaking amniotic fluid (which was a mega duh for me, but they have to check). Once they determined that my water had indeed broken, they admitted me to the hospital. They had to put an IV in me. Well the tech who was doing my IV tried to put it in the side of my left wrist and blew my vein. This is the lovely bruise that I now have as the result of that:

So after blowing that vein the lady moved and put the IV into my other wrist, but it was right in the side of my wrist and made it hard to do anything with my right hand. So once I was moved into my labor room I requested that they move it to a spot higher up my arm. Boy was that the best decision I could have made! The tech who moved my IV did a great job, it didn't hurt and she put it far enough up my left arm that I hardly knew it was there.

So I ended up being in labor for a total of 13 hours. I toughed through the contractions without any pain meds up until about noon, and then I requested some IV medication. They gave me something and it didn't take the pain away but it made me very sleeping. So baby and I both got a little break for a bit and I took a nice nap. It was crazy, it was definitely a drugged sleep because after the initial pass out, I started to become aware of things, i could hear what people were saying in the room, and could breath my way through my contractions, but I couldn't open my eyes nor could I respond to anything.

Once that medication wore off I came back and my contractions were getting stronger. To the point of tears. So it was I think around 4? maybe closer to 5? that I finally requested an epidural. Sitting for the epidural was the most painful thing in the world, when your body is contracting to push a baby against your cervix it is not meant to sit in an upright hunched over position. Once the epidural was in and taking affect though I felt great. Little did I know though, the epidural was set to high. All I noticed was suddenly a bunch of people started coming in the room and they kept taking my blood pressure over and over again. Apparently my blood pressure had gone from a normal 120/80 (just a random normal blood pressure I don't know the exacts) to suddenly that 80 side of the blood pressure dropping to 19. I should have even been conscious. Granted I was very out of it, and had no idea what was going on. It was at this point the baby's heart rate dropped too, and they were only minutes away from rushing me to the OR for an emergency C-Section. Luckily though they checked my cervix at that point and baby was right there, ready to come out. So they turned down the epidural, which made my blood pressure come back up, and I began pushing.

At 6:09 p.m. my little one came into the world screaming, with eyes wide open. He was perfect, absolutely beautiful and stole my heart right then and there. My first reaction when they put him on my tummy to towel him off was to burst into tears. I had never in my life seen something more beautiful than my little baby boy.

We were in the hospital till Monday afternoon, and boy were we glad to leave. There was very little sleep to be had in the hospital, even when baby was sleeping a doctor or a nurse was coming in every ten minutes to talk to me or check my vitals or check baby's vitals. So once we finally got home and could relax a bit it all seemed to just work. Yes, baby's are fussy and there still isn't much sleep to be had, but it's all sorts of wonderful and I wouldn't trade any of it for the world. Every day I love this little guy more and more, I am one proud mamma.

Sayyy Cheeesseee

Josh and I finally got a legit camera, and I can't tell you how excited I am. Don't get me wrong his other camera that goes under water is awesome, but it's not really that great at taking pictures. And seeing as our baby James isn't planning on being submerged in a pool anytime soon, we thought a dry land camera would be useful. lol

So I've been playing with it since we got it home, and I must say it's nice. Probably the nicest camera I have ever owned. Here are some of the photos I took of my kittens to test this bad boy out:

Baby Appointment

So we had a baby appointment today, the appointment went well it was the same as usual. They get the heartbeat and measure my belly. I was really nauseous this morning so my doctor gave me a prescription for something that will help with the nausea that's been plaguing me the past couple weeks.  Its usually just in the morning, but it being combined with light headed-ness, getting overheated too easy, and my little man's squirming around in there, it can be a little overwhelming. Seems that my first trimester goodies are back for their final round, only this time my little man doesn't sit still and makes things a million times worse when mommy doesn't feel so good. LOL But I'll love him anyways :P

Can't help myself I know he's going to be a cutie. This is getting off topic a bit, and I'll go back to the rest of our baby appointment in a sec, but I had a dream with a sweet little strawberry blonde haired baby boy in it. He was so little and adorable, and it has me really excited to meet my little guy :)

Anywho, so after our initial appointment we went and did our pre-admissions paperwork for the hospital. So that way they wouldn't try getting me to stop and fill out paperwork whilst being in labor lol. After that we went up to the birthing center and we got to see the birthing room. They didn't have any recovery rooms to show us as they were all full, but the lady said they are very similar just without the monitors and such. The rooms are so cozy, it doesn't really feel like a hospital, which is nice. It's got what looks like wood floors, and lower lighting, so you don't have that sterile feeling. The babies get to room in with you, since their isn't a nursery, which is perfectly fine with me. I'll need to have him close by to give him a booby when he's hungry anyways.

It's really starting to come close, we've got less than 2 months now. It's so crazy to think that in less than 2 months my baby is finally going to be here, and I'll get to hold him. I am really done with being pregnant, I'm just ready to be a mommy. Being pregnant is exhausting, and I sure am glad we don't have to carry babies for longer than 9 months. Any longer and I might lose it. Being uncomfortable all the time is just not awesome. I would much rather be fine myself (tired is okay, I can handle tired), and have a crying infant, than be incredibly uncomfortable no matter what I do.

Don't get me wrong, pregnancy is magical like they say, but it's really only magical in the 2nd trimester when you're full of energy and you're not huge yet. The first trimester sucked because of morning sickness and being constantly exhausted. And the third trimester sucks because there's morning sickness, exhaustion, and on top of that you're huge.

It makes me giggle though, all the squirming my baby does. In the morning he does lots of stretching, and he'll pull my belly in all sorts of directions. It's like him saying "come on mom, get up I'm hungry". Then in the afternoon he does lots of kicking and rolling around, he especially loves to get hiccups which make me giggle.  Then in the evening he usually settles down a bit, might take a nap what ever. And then right before I get into bed he's back to stretching and rolling around, kind of like a cat will kneed and turn in circles till they get they're little bed perfect for laying down. I feel like that's what he does, he tosses and turns and kicks and stretches until he finds that perfect spot, and then he settles down to sleep.

I already know he's going to be wonderful, he probably will be just like his dad though when it comes to being unable to sit still very long. The way he moves constantly in my womb already hints at that. But it's going to be a wonderful adventure and I am super ready for this next chapter in my life. :)

Kittens!

So I thought I should officially introduce my current loves and babies :)

This is Zero, he is incredibly fluffy and fat. He likes water, bath and shower time are his favorite times of day. He has depth perception issues and frequently runs into things or thinks the carpet is alive and terrifying. He is very stupid, and it's really hard to chew him out for being bad because he is so oblivious to everything. He loves to cuddle and he is a purr machine. Usually his idea of cuddling is laying nearly on top of your face and purring in your ear whilst tickling your face with his whiskers. But there is just something about him, you have to love him :P

This cute guy would be Kobe. He's massive, and if this full size cat post that is dwarfed by his size isn't enough to prove it I don't know what is. He is a part bangle mix we think, because he doesn't act like a normal house cat. Unlike his brother, he is incredibly smart. He yowls when he wants food, he yowls when his litter box is dirty, he yowls when their water bowl is empty or needs cleaning, and he yowls when he's just plain upset. He loves to play catch with himself using tiny toy mice, he still sees himself as a kitten because he tries to climb inside boxes that are way too small for him, and he beats up Zero all the time. Sometimes Zero asks for it, by antagonizing Kobe, but other times Zero just gets beat up because Kobe is irritated.

Whoever said cats don't have personalities was crazy, I have two very interesting cats with two very different personalities. Zero is like dealing with a mentally handicapped child, while Kobe is like dealing with a toddler going through the terrible twos. I couldn't be more ready for parenthood after dealing with these two. LOL

Gotta love them :)

Project James's Room!

I am just too excited to put of posting about this! James's room is finally coming together, going from the vision in my head to the reality in the next room.

Step one was getting the walls painted to perfection, and I had tons of help from Josh's mom Tami, thank god for that woman!

Now there you have the finished walls, and the lovely curtains Tami made to go with the room.

Step two was new carpet, thank god for that too! The old carpet smelled absolutely terrible, thanks to the dog Josh had when I met him. She was a great dog, but she ruined that room when she was being potty trained.

This is shortly after the carpet finally got installed, and I put together his little shelf for his toys.

Step three is putting things on the walls!!! This is only partly started. But yesterday I painted two pictures that  will go on his wall.

This was right after I finished painting them. I can't take full credit for them, I traced the them before I painted them. Painted was all mine though :P

And this is those same pictures after I bought frames for them and hung them up!

Thats all there is for now, but I will be posting more pictures as more things get added to his room :)

Catch Up

Now that I have more free time on my hands, I have decided to once again take up blogging. Hopefully I can keep up with it :P

A lot has happened over the past year that has changed my life immensely. I wouldn't take any of it back for the world. On June 9th, 2010 I met an amazing man by the name of Joshua Friedman. Little did I know at the time that he would later become my husband and the father of our soon-to-be-born child. I remember so clearly as I was driving down to San Antonio after graduation, to spend a few days with my big brother Matt, and his family; my brother telling me to be a bitch to his friends so that way they wouldn't hit on me. I laughed and said, ok whatever. I honestly did try to be a little bitchy is the funny part. I tried especially hard to be bitchy to Josh, most likely because from day one I was crushing on him ;) I made him carry things for me, I gave him lots of shit, I wiped my sweat on him. Okay, now writing all of that out, I wasn't being bitchy at all I was flirting. LOL

But I was Matt's little sister, there was no way this man would see me as someone to date... Little did I know...

This was at a point in my life where I was just tired of dating, I was tired of looking for a boyfriend, or just going through all those motions. I had decided it was off to school and to just put a relationship on the back burner until later. It's truly amazing what you stumble into when you're not looking.

The last night I was at Matt's house was when I finally pulled my face out of my butt and realized that Josh was flirting with me. There was no denying the chemistry that was flowing between us, and after our first kiss there was no denying that something was happening.

I went home the next morning, very reluctant to leave, but with butterflies in my stomach. I had no idea where this was going to lead, or if it would go anywhere at all. After I arrived back home, Josh and I started texting and talking on the phone daily. We really got to know each other, and it was amazing to me that we were on same level with so many things regardless of our age gap.

At this point I was serious about moving out of my mom's house. I had no privacy, no respect, and there was no way I'd get any homework done if I went to college while living there. So I made a wild decision, and I got the hell out. I honestly can say that moving out was the best decision I have ever made. I moved down to San Antonio to live with Matt and Ashley in their knew rental home, I was going to get a job and start looking into school.

Before I had moved though, my relationship with Josh had blossomed, after he had come up to visit for a week and we started officially dating, things just got better from there. I knew there was something super special about this guy, and I wasn't going to let him slip away. I will admit that he was part of my decision to move to San Antonio. I didn't have to move to San Antonio to get away from home, I could have gone to Idaho to live with my sister. But something in my gut told me that San Antonio was where I needed to be. I went with that gut feeling...and now here I am.

After a month or so of living with Matt and Ashley, Josh asked me to move in with him (since I spent most of my time at his house anyways), and so I once again packed up my stuff and moved it over to Josh's house. Thank god it wasn't any farther than up the road :P

Now things really get fun :) We'd been living together for several months, and it was only a couple days before Christmas when we got some really shocking news. Even though we'd been careful, fate had taken its hand in our lives; I was pregnant. Josh and I have a very open and communicative relationship, so for the past month or so before we knew we were pregnant we had been talking about the possibility of marriage. We definitely wanted to get married, but we figured there really wasn't any rush. After discovering that we were expecting though, our attitudes towards marriage became more serious. And on Christmas Day right after the Cardinals beat the Dallas Cowboys, Josh jumped off the couch, got down on his knees, and asked me to marry him. There was just no way I could tell him no ;) not when his team had just won, he was rocking his Guiness pajama pants, and I was so helplessly in love with him.

I knew then and there that I was going to marry him, and he was going to be an amazing father to our baby. We got married on February 5th, thanks to the wonderful planning and help from his family. It was the most beautiful wedding, it was better than what I could have hoped for.

Now, here it is June, and I am in my 7th month of pregnancy, we're getting our little baby James's room together, because in a little over 2 months our little man is going to be here. We've decided to name him James Robert Friedman, he'll have the same initials as his daddy :)

I am the happiest I have ever been! Josh and I have almost been together for a year now, and a lot has happened in that year. But I can honestly say it was the best year ever, and I know that with him I have lots more amazing years to come. I am truly Blessed.