Bakey Bakes Turns 1

On July 2nd our little Blakey turned 1! ONE! Its a few months later and I still can't believe my little colicky snuggle bug is that old. And almost a big sister... but that is another story....

My Good Day List

The past few months have been kind of hard. Summertime here is the time to stay inside because it is SO HOT. Add on to that two very active girls + a mom with morning sickness and good days start coming less and less often. But time seems to be slipping away and we will be a family of F I V E before we know it, and I have a goal to start living more intentionally. 

I feel like a blinked a Blake is almost a big sister, and I don't have much to show for it. This is a little list that I have put together to help us have more good days and make the most of our time before the baby comes!

• get dressed (I always feel better about myself when I am dressed and ready for the day) 

• workout (probably just walks for now but get moving) 

• be outside (it's finally in the 90's, time to enjoy the weather!) 

• read and pray (my days are always better when I make the time to do this) 

• make someone smile (I love making other people happy with service) 

• play time (go do something fun with the girls - no tv) 

• finish something (off the to-do list or deep cleaning a room) 

• journal (make time to write one thing down that each of the girls did that day or a funny memory)

Here is to being more intentional with my days! Anything else I should add?

(pictures are from trip to Santa Monica back in April)

Moments to never forget

weekend wonders

another week has gone by. rhett and i are both struggling from the crab flu... thanks whole30! but hopefully it should be getting better this week. fingers crossed. oh and the contract rhett was working on got extended so no overtime! woohoo!

holiday wrap-up

i feel like it is always hard to me to get back in the swing of things after the holidays. but we are slowly, getting back into a schedule.

but we had such a fun holiday season. we knew we wanted to try and make it up to idaho to visit family, but we didn't know how the roads would be. needless to say we didn't decide to go up till the wednesday before christmas. we left thrusday after noon around 1 and drove through the night. we had a snow storm to beat!

we hit some fog through the mountains and rhett's eyes were getting heavy. so we pulled off the road to about an hour before we got there so he couple take a little nap. just so happened that both girls had pooped 😒 so here we are sitting in the middle of nowhere at 1 in the morning, rhett is asleep in the front seat and i'm suffocating in nasty poop in the back seat.

finally after the 12 hour drive we arrived! it was so fun to be with family. it gets a little crazy sometimes because both mine and rhett's parents live about 20 minutes away from each other. but it was so great to get to spend the holidays with family.

laurel loved the snow! she would tell everyone that it was elsa making it snow. she was on cloud 9 with all the attention she was getting.

and of course we didn't take nearly enough pictures!

christmas tradition

we don't have many christmas traditions. i always want to come up with new traditions for our little family. honestly i haven't been very good at it. i see people do all these fun things and think i will do that when my kids get older. and maybe i will but, one thing that we have done starting from laurels first christmas was handprints on our tree skirt. it's nothing fancy but i love it.

we did the handprints last night for fhe. laurel was surprisingly nervous about it. she wanted nothing to do with getting paint on her hands. so we started with blake and she hated every second of it. then i finally got laurel to do it and she just wanted to paint everything after.

and i love the way it turned out.

xo - stephanie

2 july 2016

baby girl #2 was due on july 1st. the whole pregnancy i was hoping for an early babe. big sister laurel was 9 days early, so i just knew this babe would be too.

the summer months were killer in the high desert here in socal (note to self - never be pregnant here in the summertime again) the weeks leading up to the birth were 113 degrees + death.

well the due date was getting closer and closer. still no babe. and everyone we had asked to watch laurel while i was in labor was getting ready to go out of town for the 4 th of july. i was so over being pregnant. freaking out about how laurel would react to the new baby. and who was going to watch laurel.

thank goodness for sisters! my youngest sister elizabeth had just graduated from high school, called us up about a week before our due date and asked if she could come stay with us for a while. she wanted to come and help out with the new babe. we said yes! of course! she was an answer to our prayers.

that next week was spent in anticipation of when labor would start and when we could get to meet this little girl! i went to my dr.'s appoinment that week and begged him to induce me, because i knew this girl was going to be huge. but he told me should would just be 8 pounds and some change. but set an induction date for the 5th if she hadn't come by then.

so we tried everything to get labor started. the truth is that nothing works and the baby comes when the baby is ready. dang stubborn kids. but driving on bumping roads did get some more contractions going.

we were all convinced that she was going to be the 1 in however many to actually come on her due date. well the due date came and went. still no babe.

saturday the 2nd i woke up with a little show and started getting some contractions. but honestly at this point i didn't think anything of it because, i knew this baby was trying to kill me with anticipation and false alarms.

we were going to go to a bbq later at my uncles house, so we went to the store to get some stuff to take over and the contractions were getting more and more regular. to the point i would have to stop walking and wait for it to pass. i still didn't think i was in labor. talk about denial.

we got home and facetimed my annie (she had just had a little girl about a month earlier) and we were talking about what to do to make my contractions stronger and more consistent. i was timing them and the app i was using kept telling me to pack my bags and get ready to head to the hospital (the contractions were about every 3-10 minutes apart depending on the contraction).

so i hung up with my sister, laid laurel down for a nap and started cleaning up around the house. at this point i knew we were going to need to head to the hospital soon. i kept having to lean over the counter or wherever i was because the contractions were getting so strong. rhett finally convinced me it was time to go. i was trying to wait as long as i could because i didn't want to get sent home like i did when i was in labor with laurel.

so we got all our stuff together. rhett gave me a wonderful blessing that totally calmed me down. i went in and gave laurel as kiss while she was still sleeping. off to the hospital we went.

we live in a small town and at the hospital you have to check in when you are in labor in the ER. we got there to check in and they asked what was going and and rhett was like "well she is in labor!!!" haha. they got us all checked in and had me sit down to wait for someone in the maternity ward to come and get us. it felt like it took them forever to come! rhett was getting so impatient, it was cute.

finally they came and wheeled me down to the maternity ward and got me all hooked up to see if i was really in labor. the nurse was so sweet. she checked me and i was at 3 cm and about 70%. she said they would watch me for a couple hours and see what was going on and go from there. i asked her if i could walk the halls for the 2 hours instead of just sitting there, she said she would check with the dr and let me know. when she came back in she told me that the baby didn't handle the last contraction very well so i needed to drink some water and that i would just have to stay in bed, no hall walking. i was a little bummed that i just had to lay there but i wanted to make sure the baby was okay so i sucked it up. haha. the nurse also told me that if i was in a ton of pain to let her know and she would come back and check me before the 2 hours was up. after i drank some water the baby perked back up, so they were no longer worried but the waiting game began.

it was shark week. and if you know me you know i LOVE shark week. so we were watching that and i was pretty much dying. watching the clock like a hawk. wishing time would go faster. needless to say i was not enjoying shark week. rhett kept telling me that i could get the nurse to come back and check me but for some reason i was determined to wait the full 2 hours. but the nurse came back after about an hour and a half and i told her i was hurting so she decided to check me. i was at a 4 cm and 80%. i had changed enough that she was going to admit me and asked if i was ready for the epidural. i told her YES! get it for me as fast as possible. i had to wait for the fluids and what not before i could get the epidural. it would be about an hour.

i was literally dying. poor rhett was so sweet and encouraging but i kept getting mad at him. i felt bad about it later... but he was the best talking me through the contractions. i kept asking if the anesthesiologist was there yet. I don't know what it was but i swear that fluid that they were pumping into me was making my contractions come faster and stronger.

after about 45 minutes the anesthesiologist was finally there and it was such a happy moment. he did his thing and i was finally getting some relief. once he was done rhett went back home to get laurel and beth to come say hi because i was so sad i left while laurel was still napping. he left and the nurse put in the catheter and checked me. i was at an 8.5 cm and 90%!!! she told me she was going to call the dr to come in and that i should get rhett back because this little girl was coming soon! so i called rhett and told him that maybe he should just come back. we talked and decided he would still bring laurel and it would just be a quick visit. (we thought we had time because with laurel i was in labor so long so we were all shocked that i had gone from a 4 to a 8.5 in 45 minutes). the dr got there before rhett got back. she checked me, i was at a 10 cm and 100% with a bulging sack. she told me once she broke my water we would be having this baby.

so i called rhett again and told him not to bring laurel and just come! but they were there just getting out of the car in the parking lot. they came in for a really quick visit, laurel was so scared of all the stuff i was hooked up to that she wouldn't even come to me. it broke my heart a little. but we sent laurel home with beth. the dr broke my water and told me to give a practice push during the next contraction. so i did and they all yelled at me to stop pushing. she was coming so they needed to get everything ready. the water had some meconium in it so they had to wait for the respiration unit to get there before i started pushing.

probably 15 minutes later we were ready to roll. two pushed later we had a little girl! the cord was around her neck twice and she was purple when she came out which was really scary. they put her on my chest and she wasn't crying. i was freaking out. she finally made a little whimper after what seemed like forever when they took her over to the respiration team. they cleaned her out really well and then she was a screamer from that moment on.

they brought her back to me after they weighted her. all the nurses and the dr told me she was a big girl. honestly to me she looked tiny because i was used to laurel. hahah. her weight came in at 9 pounds 2 ounces!! i knew she was going to be huge! and boy she had a set a lungs on her. the dr said it was good because she would continue to get all the stuff out of her lungs while she screamed. but man i honestly didn't know what to do. but we nursed and snuggled and life was glorious. this little angel that took forever to decide to come, sure came fast once she was ready and we were on cloud 9.

christmas cards

i love this time of year. fall, when the air get crisp and leaves begin to change. everything about it is just perfect. and along with this time of year are the holidays! which means christmas:) 

i am so excited to share some different christmas card designs that i have been working on! they will be live on etsy this week! we just got some family pictures taken that i am obsessed with! so obviously i had to use them in my designing:) take a look and let me know what you think!

xoxo
s

dance dance

a couple of weeks ago, beth had a dance competition in pocatello. so of course we had to go down and support her! it brought back all my memories from when i cheered. it was so fun to watch her! she is very talented:) we also had a wonderful time with my mom and hannah. 

^^ i mean who wouldn't want to spend all day saturday with that face

^^or that face (beth is in the back... if you couldn't tell)

it was such a fun day. the music was loud. really loud. but it was so fun to see family! even if it was only for a few hours!