December: The busiest month EVER

So let's run down the list of things we have done this month. Family pictures with the Hill's. It's been years, well maybe we never have, since we have done good family pictures and we decided to make a big, huge canvas for grandma Millie. I am actually super excited. Now that she has grown kids, and grown grandkids, and even quite a few great grands, it's about time she has a good family picture to look at and show off. The only person who couldn't make it was little Riker. Good thing Alesha is pretty good with editing and added him in like he had been there the whole time. No one will be able to tell he wasn't there for real.

Next we had my work dinner. Which was a lot of fun. Like usual. Giveaway's. Drawings. Good food. Good friends. Cute babies. Sounds like a great time. And it was.

Ace is trying to crawl. Yep, trying. He's not quite there yet, but if I put things in front of him and just out of reach, he stretches and twists and tries with all his might. He is able to scoot a few inches forward and gets better and better every day.

Hill family Christmas party. Baby's first Christmas is fast approaching. We opened our first presents and mostly Ace was interested in the paper (shocking right). Grandma opened her picture and loved it. She was so excited and happy to have a family picture. She said she hasn't had anything like that ever. So I am very glad that is what we decided to do.

Grandma Juls stayed the night Christmas eve because she had no where else to go. I am glad she did. I think it was really special for her to be around for Ace's first Christmas. Cory basically set him in the middle of the room and every time we opened a present he threw the paper in a pile around him. It was entertaining for a while, then the pile got bigger and Ace got less comfortable. He had a pretty good time though. Talk about spoiled. All of us really. We got a lot of things we didn't need or deserve, but are grateful for non the less.

Thanks everyone for making our first real "family" Christmas a really great one.

September/October/November

September:
This month, Cory (and Ace) had their very first real temple experiences. We went to the open house of the new Brigham City Temple with Heath and Linlea West. Then of course went out for some breakfast afterwards. It is a gorgeous temple. And Cory really enjoyed getting to see the inside for the first time.

We also got Aceson blessed this month. Grandpa Ron did the blessing. Ace cried, well screamed, the whole time. Then we had a great family bbq. Cory's parents were in town so we had all the families together. For as much strife as we were expecting, there really wasn't much.

October:
Ace is finally coming to terms with the carseat. As long as we can get a bink in his mouth (which he's starting to like also) and maybe a noisy toy above his head. Sometimes he plays and sometimes he falls asleep. There is a lot less screaming anymore.

We also experienced the baby's first snow this month. We woke up to almost 2 inches one morning and had to run out to take a picture. Ace was looking around and smiling and not really quite sure what to think. We might just have a snow bunny on our hands.

November:
Mobility! Yep the little man is starting to roll tactically. I mean he has been rolling for a while, but he is finally starting to realize that he can roll to actually get somewhere or something, not just to roll.

Dad and Ace planned out a great birthday for me this year. Took me out to dinner with our wonderful friends, the West's. Then for breakfast we went over to Kneader's for their wonderful cinnamon bread french toast. THEN Danaca and Phil watched the baby so we could have a night out at dinner and a movie. I am so lucky to have such a great hubby.

June/July/August

June:

Possibly one of the funniest moments with mom and dad and the whole diaper changing idea. I posted about it on Facebook. Here's what I said, "Little man peed all over the couch while getting his bum changed. So we decided it was a great time for a bath. Immediately after putting a diaper on, he proceeded to fill it. While dad was changing him, he decided to pee all over. Again. I love being a mom." But truly, I do.

I'm starting to make piles of clothes the little man has outgrown. I literally cried when I was pulling things out of the dresser. Cory laughs because he thinks I am too emotional about this sort of thing. Which might be a little true. But it is sad for me as a mom that my little baby is outgrowing newborn stuff. It's barely been 3 weeks.

July:

The little man is starting to sleep through the night. Which is a wonderful thing. It's not every night, but it's great when it happens. Most nights he gets up to nurse around 3:30 or 4. And with a 9 pm bedtime, that is a solid 6 hours. I also caught him laughing, yeah, full on laughing in his sleep. It was glorious.

Soccer season is starting up again and I am super excited. Although. We only have 20 spots on the varsity team, and two of them are for keepers, 16 spots on the JV team, and about 50 girls at try-outs. But with all the talent we have, it is going to be a wonderful season. I am very excited.

August:

I headed back to work this month. The good news is, it will only be part time every day. 10:30-2:30. And extra lucky for us, dad gets to stay home and be with you. The schedule actually works out well. He can meet me in Orem just in time for me to nurse for a bit, then onto soccer. The girls absolutely love having a mini-mascot around. We got Ace matching onzies to the team's t-shirts. 

Family Photos

I'm not sure exactly how Cory felt about going to get pictures before we did it, but I certainly know that he is very happy with how they turned out.

Baby Time

He made it. It took 40 weeks and 1 day, but he finally made it. Aceson George Junck. Born Sunday May 20, 2012 at 11:24am. Weighing in at 8lbs 4oz. 20" long.

 And on to the part most of you want to hear. You know, the whole story. I'll start all the way back to 2 weeks ago. Monday the 7th. It started off as a completely normal Monday. Wake up. Shower. Head to work. Ugh. Whatever. I'm technically only scheduled till Friday. Shouldn't be that bad right? WRONG. Oh man. About an hour into work, so 9 ish in the morning, I started hurting. Not like a contraction. More like full on cramping. But bad. Really bad. Like I could hardly move bad. So of course. I hurry and call to get a ride and tell my boss I am leaving. And head into the hospital.

By the time we got to the hospital, the cramping was not nearly as bad and I was having fairly steady contractions. Not terribly painful ones, but consistent ones. They took us into a triage room and hooked me up to monitors. I was only dilated to a 2. And the contractions weren't too painful. So after a couple hours, they sent us home with the instructions, "If it gets worse or your water breaks come back immediately." No luck. Didn't get worse. Water stayed in tact. So off to work for another 2 WEEKS. Ugh.

But it started again Saturday the 19th. Which happened to be my due date. Cory had made plans to go golfing (of course) with a good friend. He asked if I wanted to tag along. I do that sometimes just because it's fun to spend time with him and he golfs every free minute he has. So I might as well tag along. Get some fresh air, keep score, basically be a riding buddy. Well not too long before we went out I started feeling kinda... off. Not bad, not hurting, just off.

Well the boys were doing 18 and by the time we had finished 9 I was done. Tired. And sore. And needing to lay down. So I went home and the boys kept playing. As the evening went on, I started cramping and getting contractions more and more consistently. Sorry mom. I may have lied to you at this point. I didn't want anyone getting excited for another scare like we had had 2 weeks earlier. So when people called or txted to ask how I was doing I told them I was doing just fine. I lied. I wasn't so fine.

By the time we were ready for bed I was really crampy and contracting pretty solidly. But They weren't too consistent. Anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes apart. I didn't want to go into the hospital again and get sent home again. So I wanted to wait till something actually happened. We didn't have to wait too long. Just before 3am my water broke. It was on. Time to go. Cory jumped up out of bed and we headed to the hospital.

At the hospital we got into the triage room and got hooked up to the monitors. My contractions were very consistent and starting to get pretty strong. They came in and checked me, I was dilated to a 5. So they decided to get me all checked in so we could get the epidural plugged in. Or not... Too bad the anesthesiologist had to go help with an emergency c-section. So we had to wait. A little over an hour for the epidural. And by then the contractions were pretty darn painful.

Finally got the epidural and I decided it was time for a nap. I had been up almost all night and I was going to need my strength. So I slept. Only for a couple hours, but it was still sleep. A couple hours later, I started feeling like the epidural was wearing off. So we called in the anesthesiologist and got a little booster. It seemed to help. The nurse also decided to check and see what kind of progress I was making. It was about 8:30am and some family had started showing up. I was dilated to a 9 so I called the family that had decided to wait a while and told them to get on the way if they wanted to be there.

By 9 I was ready to go. So we started pushing. And pushing. And pushing. And pushing. And pushing. Two and a half hours later the little guy decided to make his grand appearance. And grand it was. He hardly cried at all. Just enough to let us know he was breathing and doing just fine. Family came in to see what all the fuss was about. Everyone was just so excited.

Cory went with the nurse to the nursery to get Aceson bathed and I got all cleaned up and up to our room. A few minutes after I ad gotten upstairs, Cory came in with the baby. And let's be honest, that is when the crazy started. Everyone wanted to come say hi and see the baby. And they did. For the next 2 days it was an almost constant stream of people during the day and rough nights trying to sleep while getting checked and trying to feed the baby every couple hours. Tuesday morning we got up and decided it was time to go home.

 On a side note. Wednesday morning we had to go back and take a bilirubin test. To test his jaundice. We brought him home from the hospital and he was at and 11. Which is the high end of normal. By Wednesday morning he was a 17. Which apparently is close to the high end of high. So they brought us a light bed. Pretty cool as far as what it can do, but Aceson doesn't like it too much. So we try to use the little blanket piece as much as we can and not so much with the bed. That way we can still hold him.

Alright. So here is what you really wanted. Photo's:

19 Days? That's it?

So I just decided to glance at my blog page before I wrote this post. I noticed the little baby counter that I had forgotten I'd put up. 19 days. Wow. That is not a lot of time at all. I also noticed how much room that little baby seems to have. Let me comment on that fact, HA. Yeah right. Still floating like he's in a pool? I think not. Squished is more like it. And constantly punching my bladder and kicking my ribs out. I wish there was still that much room in there. That would be nice. As many of you have experienced, I am well into that very uncomfortable third trimester. And for those who don't know, you will. As the carrier, or the spouse, you'll experience it. It is... less than fun. But the last hard time before your little one comes to meet you. Which is most likely the only thing that keeps people during this time from doing some crazy things. Or maybe not (anyone tried castor oil...)

Anyways. I thought I'd get on and update everyone. You know, since it's been months. But I also wanted to put up some pictures up for those friends and family who aren't around to see me or the baby room they are probably so curious about. So let's get started.

This is me at 37 weeks. Some people are not convinced it's a baby, but more convinced I am simply hiding a soccer ball under there. Trust me. It's a baby. A very very wiggly little baby boy. Who I am so excited to meet (hopefully sooner than later).

And on to the nursery. We decided to go a little... unconventional. But regardless, I absolutely love it. Besides. It's my baby's room. Not yours. So if you don't like the boldness, decorate your baby's room differently. Plus, if we end up staying here a while, we won't have to worry about an older kid stuck in a room for a baby.

This is the view from the door. NOTE: I did actually use some of my own talents. I made the curtains and the crib set. I love the colors. They are fun and exciting, but still very manly.

Floating book shelves. I found these at Ikea. $15. Awesome. The one I really wanted looked like a side view of stairs. Unfortunately Ikea stopped making them (apparently) long before I was looking to buy. So I had to go with plain flat ones. But no worries. They're offset so as to match the "urban" design of the rest of the room. Plus the red matches as perfectly as you can get without actually having used the same paint.

Good looking crib set huh? And artwork.Yep, his name will be Aceson. Think of it like Mason, but without the "M". So A Son. And that reaction you had is more or less what we were going for. A different and uncommon name, but still a name. Not a fruit or a flavor or a brand.

I have a buddy from high school who is studying graphic design and kinda specializes in more a graffiti type design. We asked him to do this for us. He actually did it on some art paper. Then Cory and I scanned that onto the computer and projected it up on the wall. Then we painted it all ourselves. I'm really glad it looks so good, because it was not easy. And even though we have a few more names (my friend did a boy and girl name, and our last name, each in about 3 different styles) we most likely will not be doing this again. It was a little lot more difficult than we originally thought.

 Oh what a good looking crib set. Where did you find it? No biggie, I made it. Of course I had a lot of help from my wonderful Grandma Linda. But still. I did most of it.

So there you have it. Picture of me, pictures of baby's room, pictures of baby. Oh wait. Scratch that last one. You're going to have to wait a few more weeks for that. Although I'd really like to be able to post those right now. Well I know I promise this almost every post, but I really mean it this time. I will be better at posting. Plus with this new addition to the family that I am super excited to show off, I think I will have more to post about. I will try and avoid the parts about the first time he throws up, or the first time he eats at home. We'll try and stick with actually interesting stuff. Like the first time dad throws up from changing a stinky diaper. The first time baby smiles. I apologize in advance if I change my mind and post about something that seems so uninteresting to those of you without kids. If you ever have kids you might change your mind.

Well, until next time (I promise it will be within the next month). I'll keep stalking your blog if you keep stalking mine.