4 month measurements

Weight: 15lbs 14 oz, 75th percentile
Length: 26", 80th percentile
Head circumf: 16.5", 45th percentile

Noah often rolls from front to back, but has never rolled from back to front (yet). He smiles and giggles all the time and still loves to be outside- we go on at least two walks per day. Pictures coming soon!

picture overload

He biffed it and then went straight for his thumb.

Debbie gave Noah this awesome outfit (it was the first item of clothing purchased for him)! I love it and so does Monte--thanks Deb!  If any of you can't tell, it says "Daddy's little stomper" on the shirt.

Freedom

Monte just finished his last final at BYU ever! I'm so excited that he'll have the next year off to play with me and Noah. Of course, he'll still be working full time, but think of all of that class/homework time he'll now get to devote to us! It's thrilling to think about.

Noah is getting cuter and cuter everyday! I won't post any pictures this time because I'm "typing" this on my iPad, but many pictures will be posted soon, I'm sure. And if you get sick of me posting them then you are a heartless monster.

he's official

They loved seeing Noah! And despite his face, Noah loved seeing them, too!

Don't judge. The sun was really bright.

Cheeses.

Some of the Mena boys (Danny and Dallin were also there).

Noah's name is officially on the records of the Church now. We had his baby blessing on Sunday in my parents/Maecy's ward in Ogden. The Mena's came down from Idaho for the occasion.  Noah was silent for the entire blessing and had wide eyes--he was probably really confused about 6 people holding him at once. Maecy was kind enough to let us use her abode for an after party.

first interview!

BEST news I've heard in at least a few weeks: Monte got his first invitation to interview at a PA school! This is SOOOO exciting. I know it doesn't mean he'll get it, but it's definitely a start. Sometimes we both start feeling hopeless and feel like he'll never get into any of them (not that he's not qualified enough, PA school is just hard to get into).

The school that wants to interview him is the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. The main campus is in Newark, but the PA school is in Piscataway, NJ. Piscataway is only 4 hours away from Micquel and Jeff in Ithaca, NY and is only 3 hours away from Teri and her fam in York, PA! It's also only 50 minutes from New York City. Pretty exciting.

Hopefully Monte will get invited to interview at lots of other schools. I'll keep you posted!

2 months

This sweet boy is 2 months old! Here are his measurements:

Weight: 12 lbs 4 oz, 75th percentile
Length: 24.25 inches, 90th percentile
Head: 15.5 inches, 50th percentile

He's been recovering from his first round of immunizations pretty well (thank goodness for Children's Tylenol, even if he didn't have a fever- it helped with the soreness).  He's generally a very happy boy and we love him so much!

Pioneer Day

Snuggling with mom on the grass.

Don't you love his big eyes?

Sweet kisses from Dad.

Crazy people and crazy cars at North Park in Provo.

Noah's first 7 weeks

 Right after birth.

 Going home from the hospital on May 31, 2012.

 One week old on Grandma Guymon's lap.

 Chillin' in his bouncer at 2 weeks.

 Hanging out with 2nd cousin, Hal Swigert (Noah was 2.5 weeks old, Hal was about 3 months).

 First time going to church! About 4 weeks old.

 About 5 weeks old.

 Playing- about 6 weeks.

Finally got a picture of his cheeser- taken today at 7.5 weeks.

Noah! And the last 2 weeks...

Noah is here! He hit his 2 week mark yesterday. It feels like it has been months already, but it also seems like I just birthed him yesterday. Let me give you a synopsis of the last 2 weeks:

Tuesday May 29- I couldn't sleep the night before because of contractions. They were really far apart (timewise) and just felt like PMS cramps, so I didn't really think anything of them.  I took the morning off of work to try to sleep, but went into work at noon since I mostly just felt like I was on my period.  I only worked til 4, then went home, still feeling crampy.  The contractions continued to get closer together and more intense as the night progressed; by about 7 or 8pm I felt like I might be having "real" contractions, but didn't want to go to the hospital too early only to be sent home.  I was tracking my contractions and they were about 5 minutes apart and pretty intense for at least an hour. Monte got worried, so he called the hospital to see if I should go in.  They told him to not bring me in til my contractions were <3 minutes apart and so intense that I couldn't walk or talk while having them. SO...we waited and waited and waited. And all the while I was having extremely painful contractions. Monte was trying to get me to call my mom to have her come down, but I was still convinced that I would be at home for a long time waiting for my contractions to be closer together and more intense.  Monte sneakily texted my mom and told her to call me. When my mom called me and I couldn't talk to her because of the pain she made me hand the phone to Monte, to whom she then said. "Take her to the hospital right now!" This was at about 10:30pm, I believe. Monte drove me to the hospital (the worst part of the whole night, probably), wheeled me to Labor and Delivery, and filled out all of the paperwork.  I was put into a room, the nurse checked me, and I was dilated to 7 cm! You guys. I barely made it in time to get an epidural. I am SO thankful my mom made Monte take me to the hospital when she did. Whew.

Wednesday May 30- To make a longish story shorter (because I know you're getting bored already), my doctor lives in Springville and she barely made it to the hospital in time to deliver Noah. I only had to push "three" times (3 sets of 3 pushes) before he popped out. Apparently I was made for pushing babies out. Who knew? Noah was born at 2:06 AM. He weighed 7 lbs 12 oz and was 20.5 inches long. Also, getting an epidural was the awesomest decision I have ever made. Loved it.

Thursday May 31- I was able to take Noah home around 12:30 PM. We would have been able to leave sooner but the nurses kept on wanting to do a bunch of stuff that they had been procrastinating. I did not like being in the hospital (besides the awesome food). I felt bad that Monte had to sleep on the most uncomfortable looking chair/bed thingy (the first night) and then my mom slept on it the second night. The nurses would not leave me alone for more than about an hour and that got really irritating when I was trying to get some much-needed sleep.

The next few days were filled with lots of visitors (Kim, Brooklyn, and Elise from work; the Mena's; Charlotte; the Palkki's; Quinn and Misty). I was super sleep deprived, but my mom was staying at my apartment and helping immensely. But then...

Tuesday June 5- I developed a severe toothache in one of my molars and was convinced I was going to have to get a root canal.

Wednesday June 6- the dentist x-rayed my achy tooth and told me it had already had a root canal, but that the canal had become infected. I was put on antibiotics and told that if they didn't begin to make the pain go away in 48 hours that I would have to see an endodontist to have the canal cleaned out and the infection surgically removed. Note: endodontists are extremely expensive. I'm sure you can imagine how horrified Monte and I were to think of me having to go to one, especially when we had just learned that we were going to have to pay $5,000+ for Noah's delivery and the hospital stay. Back on subject: I took Percocet for the tooth pain (I didn't really have any post-delivery pain, fortunately, besides my tailbone feeling broken for the first 2 days); the Percocet made me throw up for about 5 hours, which was then followed by "the runs". This was probably the worst day of my life.

Friday June 8- the pain had still not subsided (meanwhile, my mom is basically taking care of Noah single-handedly because I am in too much pain to do much). After much praying and talking to people who had gone through the same kind of tooth infection, I decided to have my whole tooth extracted.  Unfortunately, my infection was so huge that the septocaine shots did not work.  The pain I experienced after getting the tooth removed was definitely more than and contractions I experienced during labor. Maybe THIS was the worst day of my life...

ANYWAY, I am still alive. This post proves it.  I am extremely blessed to have a very well-behaved child who has only cried 3 times in his whole life (1) at birth; 2) first bath; 3) 1st doctor visit). He is really quite amazing. He grunts and makes funny noises all day, but I don't mind. When he cries it makes me almost cry.

My mom went back home today. I cried. Mostly because I am lonely and I don't know what to do with myself when Noah is sleeping (I'm not a good daytime sleeper, otherwise I would try to nap). I try to keep busy with cleaning, paying bills, reading, going for walks, etc., but it is still hard. I'll have to grow into this stay-at-home mom role, for sure.

Lots of pictures coming up! You will get sick of seeing Noah's face every time I blog, I'm sure. But I won't!

Full Term

Aren't I so photogenic? Bleh.

My baby is officially due today, but I don't think he'll come for another 1.5 - 2 weeks (based on my body and how it operated before I was pregnant, if you get my drift). I have my 40 week appointment tomorrow and I'll see what my doctor says.

My hands and feet are extremely swollen. The circulation in my hands is so bad that two fingers on my right hand are constantly numb. Should I be worried? I'll ask my doctor tomorrow.

what's goin' on ovah HEEya

 My super swollen feet. Doctor says they'll just get worse. I wear comfy (not cute) flip flops to work almost everyday because none of my other shoes fit. Yeah, I'm tacky like that. Oh, and I totally showed off my cankles today wearing a skirt. Weet woo!
I had my 36 week appointment today, complete with a cervical exam and Strep B swab. The cervical exam was pretty intense--she got right on in there. It hurt a lot (and people wonder why I'm set on getting an epidural). On a TMI note, she said I'm 70% effaced. Good job, cervix--you're doing your job! Keep it up.

These are the PA programs Monte is applying to. Pretty scary, eh? Who knows where in the heck I'll be in a little over a year.  I was really surprised he wanted to apply to so many California schools given their intense gun laws and high cost of living, but there they are.
Who wants to do some betting? In your comment, guess how many schools he'll get into out of the above nine and vote for which one you WANT him to get into.

spring

33 weeks

He's funny.

I love springtime! Monte and I got bored on Sunday and took a few pictures.

In other news, if you didn't receive an invitation to my baby shower this Saturday (April 14th) then comment or email me and I'll give you the details. Sometimes the postal system doesn't work very well. Also, sometimes my brain doesn't work very well and I forget to tell people about stuff.

time is a-flyin'

Holy cow, guys. I am 32 weeks pregnant today. That means that I'm going to have a baby really soon. I'm super scared, but (of course) excited to meet him. He sure does move around a lot. I'm constantly getting jabbed in the pelvic bones and the ribs. That's okay, though- at least I know he's okay.


Monte will begin applying to PA schools on April 18th. Here are some cities he's applying to, just to give you an idea of how much I'm freaking out:
- Toledo, OH
- SLC, UT
- Norfolk, VA
- Philadelphia, PA
- Elkins Park PA
- Wilkes-Barre, PA
- Midland, TX
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Loma Linda, CA
- Oakland, CA

Those are listed in order from cheapest to most expensive (tuition+rent), FYI. He probably will actually only apply to about 5 of them, but the ones I listed are all possibilities.

Did you notice that a lot of them are in Pennsylvania? PA has a TON of PA schools, oddly enough. I would be okay moving there for PA school because Teri is moving there for her husband's job in a few weeks! It would be scary, but at least I'd have a friend to visit.

Toledo is the closest one (besides SLC) to any of my family members. It's 5.5 hours away from Tye (by car).

as of late

Monte is growing a stache. Not sure why, but it's happening. I just roll with it.

28 weeks

27 weeks


Crazy goof head

first baby shower

A double baby shower for Heather and Nikki!





My coworkers threw me a super cute baby shower last Saturday. Kjirsten was in charge of it, but Elise helped a ton, as well. Here are (quite a) few pictures from it. Don't worry- if you weren't invited to this one, then you'll be invited to the one in March/April that my sister is throwing for me. This one occurred quite early for me because my coworker, Heather, is due March 15th and we wanted to have a double shower.

recently

I had a flower-making craft night at my house. It was super fun. Micquel, Teri, and Debbie came (Trisha also came, but had to leave before the crafting began). It's quite funny that I had a craft night as I am usually an anti-crafter.

Above is a view of my table with all of the supplies laid out (including some peanut butter M&Ms, of course).

Here's the book that Monte gave me for Christmas. It was a complete surprise and I LOVE it. The author has a blog (here). I can't wait to make more flowers. There are a million possibilities with 4 different petal shapes. I have only made the basic petal shape so far (first picture). I'll post pictures later of the other ones I make.
Here I am looking pregnant. I think I was 22 weeks when this was taken (now I'm 23 weeks). I got that dress at Old Navy for like $12! Sweet.