To Workout or to not… that is the question

 

My entire last trimester that I was pregnant, I continuously committed to myself that once I had Brooklyn that I would start working out again.

 

…

And now the time has come and it is so hard to find the desire! I want to be one of those girls that loves to run, those girls that look so cute running with their jogger strollers, those girls that complete marathons (or even 10k for that matter!) while still being a mom… but the desire to get up and do it just isn’t there. Overall I am happy with how I look, but I would like to tone up and get stronger.

Today I worked out for the first time thanks to a Wii fitness program, and usually after a workout I feel glad that I worked out and more committed to continue, but not this time. Instead I just felt, “Are you sure you want to do this tomorrow Stephanie?”

So here is the point of this post: I NEED ADVICE! How does one overcome the stumbling blocks that come when starting a workout regime?

BEWARE: Bugs in the Juice!!

 

I typically only give James milk, water or chocolate milk to drink, but the other day I was drinking some orange juice and James asked for some so I gave him some. After he took a sip, he turned to me with a perplexed look and said, "Bugs juice". I didn't know what he meant so I just said, "What James?". He then stated, "Bugs in juice". I repeated what he said to make sure I was understanding correctly, and after he replied "Yes", I had to take a moment to think about what he was saying.... and then I got it!

"Oh no James, it is just pulp" and then I had to explain what pulp is.... oh the funny things kids say :) (I love lots of pulp in my O.J.)

Sunday Snapshot

 

I love my little family!

Happy Halloween!!

 

Halloween was so much fun this year because I was able to experience it with a wonderful two year old- it is so fascinating to see holidays come alive for James… it definitely gives a new perspective on everything! This year we were able to go to our ward’s Trunk or Treat ward party the Saturday before and James loved it! On Halloween night we decided to stay inside since he had gotten so much candy from the weekend and instead we made it a family night with pumpkin carving! Here are some pictures capturing the festivities!

James was “NAAACHHHHOOOOO”- Nacho Libre for Halloween this year. He loved telling people who he was and most people were able to immediately identify who he was (even though one man insisted that he was superman).

Brooklyn was a ballerina

As you can tell with James’ face below, he did not like the texture of the pumpkin goop and pumpkin seeds- I totally thought he would love it but it was the opposite- he wanted Matt to clean it out (he did like using the spoon to get it out though)

Below- James’ classic “Say cheese” smile:

Cutting the pumpkin face out:

A HUGE thank you

 

Before Brooklyn was born, I was COMPLETELY stressed about the first few weeks of her being here- how would I be able to be a competent mom for 2 children?! Would I be too tired to play with James? What would I do if James and Brooklyn woke up at the same time? How was I supposed to give both of them my undivided attention and if I couldn’t would one of them feel unloved?

I had a lot of worries about adjusting the first few weeks because when James was born it took me a while to get into the groove of things. I am so immensely grateful for both Matt’s parents and my parents who took the time (and money) out of their lives and came to help me for the first few weeks- it was so reassuring to have all of the help- giving James love and attention, helping me out with Brooklyn, cooking and cleaning, and just lending a friendly ear. I can’t explain how HUGE of a gift that was to me- during those couple weeks I was able to build up the confidence about being a mom of two- I really do think if I didn’t have them it would have been very overwhelming for me and I would have had a lot of tears shed.

So what I am trying to say is THANK YOU!

(I didn’t have any pictures of my dad while he was here, but here are the other grandparents)

Our happy little family!

 

So I wanted to show some pictures of our family… but I wanted to give a warning even though most viewers could care less- these pictures were taken within the first week of Brooklyn being born so I still have a pretty large tummy. I don’t look nearly that large, but I still have about 5 (6 to be exact) before I get down to my pre-pregnancy weight. I am sure you (whoever is reading this) doesn’t care, but I do :)

James Meets Brooklyn

Because Brooklyn was born so late Saturday night, James met Brooklyn after sacrament, so around 10:30 am on Sunday. He came to the hospital along with Matt, Grandma Mauger, Grandpa Mauger and Aunt Amber. He was very interested in looking at her, but didn’t say much. He knew that the baby was his sister and that her name was Brooklyn, but other than that he didn’t say too much. When we asked him if he wanted to hold her, he immediately said yes and climbed in bed with me to hold her. He held her for a few minutes- he was so soft and delicate with her!

We previously decided to have Brooklyn “give” James a present just so James could warm up to Brooklyn quickly- as soon as we gave him the present he was off the bed completely distracted with his new toy.

Since Brooklyn has been here, James has been EXTREMELY lovable towards Brooklyn- he gives her a kiss at least once every 30 minutes and says, “Bookin (Brooklyn) so cute”. In the past month, he has only hit her twice…. which is amazing because he is an aggressive little boy (something we work tirelessly on). Whenever Brooklyn is crying he always says (in a higher pitched voice), “Its ok Brooklyn”. He is a very good little boy who loves his little sister!

Here is James holding Brooklyn for the first time:

The first week home:

This picture below makes James look HUGE compared to Brooklyn… he is growing up so FAST!!!

Brooklyn’s Birth Story

 

Since I am horrible with remembering things, I figured that it would be best to record as much as I remember about Brooklyn’s birth. There may be some rambling involved, so just be warned :)

Brooklyn’s due date was October 8th and we decided in advance to have me be induced on that date if she didn’t come before then. We thought that would be the best decision because we wanted Matt to be available as much as possible, so if Brooklyn could be born on a Saturday, then Matt could be with James while I was in the hospital. The entire month before she was born I was having about a dozen contractions a day, but nothing too serious (they would stop as soon as I rested my body).

October 8th came and we called the hospital at 6 am and they told us to come in at 8 am. We immediately got a room but weren’t seen until 10 am by the doctors. At 10 am I was only dilated to a 2 (what I had been for the past 2 weeks) and not effaced at all. The doctors decided that if I hadn’t progressed in the next two hours they would put a pill in me that would speed things along. I wasn’t familiar with that pill because with James they immediately gave me pitocin- these doctors said they prefer going with the pill route first because it is safer. I agreed and with no progression from 10 am – noon, at noon they gave it to me and I immediately started feeling regular contractions. One side note is that with this pill, I wouldn’t be allowed to start pushing for four hours. From noon until 2 I walked around the hospital with Matt (walking REALLY helped bring the contractions on). At 2 I ate lunch and then rested. At 4 pm they checked me and I progressed enough to receive the pitocin (if I wouldn’t have progressed they would have given me the pill again and I would have had to wait another 4 hours). I started the pitocin (the labor inducing medicine) and about an hour later I needed an epidural….

SIDE NOTE: I HATE needles and the epidural was the WORST part of the entire day!! With James, the anesthesiologist had me lay down and he gave me the epidural- I didn’t like it, but it was over before I knew it. With Brooklyn’s anesthesiologist, it was COMPLETELY opposite! She had me sit up and wanted me to hunch over, but it felt impossible because every 30 seconds I would have a contraction that would tighten the muscles and I couldn’t move like they wanted me to. Before she started she mentioned that she shouldn’t have any problems sticking me because I wasn’t overweight (she said it is harder to get the needle in the right place if the person is overweight). She put the needle in my back and I could just feel the needle moving around. She kept telling me to hunch over, even though I was hunching as much as I possibly could. She was back there for literally more than 10 minutes, trying to get me stuck in the right spot. By this point I was crying in pain. She said she had to pull the needle out and stick me again because she couldn’t find what she was looking for. She moved up my back and restuck me- same story with same ending. I am crying, snot is coming out of my nose and the nurse is trying to keep me composed. The anesthesiologist explained that she had never run into this problem- rather than having too much fat, I had too much bone and she kept hitting my bone instead of the spinal cord area. She had to call her supervisor to come and he then was able to stick me. After 3 sticks, 30 minutes and many tears I finally had the epidural.

Once the epidural was in (about 5:30) I basically just rested until about 10 pm. The doctors came in at that point and explained the options. We decided to have the Dr. pop my water and hopefully that would help my body progress. The Dr. washed his hands and literally right before he was about to break it, it broke on its own! Within 2 minutes of my water breaking, the contractions got DRAMATICALLY worse and I felt the need to push (it felt like I had a baby size poop that was pushing on my booty hole wanting to go out- LOTS of pain but the pain was relieved as I pushed). I told the nurse this and said that I am think she is coming now, and the nurse was pretty passive. I insisted that the baby was coming and she then agreed to get the doctor. When the doctor came in he looked at me and said, “Oh there’s her hair”. Within 20 minutes from my water breaking, Brooklyn was born!

The two main differences between Brooklyn’s and James’ birth are the epidural and the actual pushing. With James, the doctor had to tell me when to push because I was so numb and I never felt James coming out. With Brooklyn, like I mentioned, I felt the urge to poop and the need to push to relieve the pain. I also felt (sorry if this is TMI) like my skin was ripping and that pain helped me push harder because I just wanted to get the pain over with. With James I really didn’t know how to push and it took me a LONG time to figure out how to push (the only way I can explain it is: with James I continually tried to push with my abs and front muscles and the correct way is to push like you are trying to poop- with your booty muscles). With Brooklyn I knew how to push so I was able to get her out really quickly.

Enough with details; here are some pictures (she was born at 10:30 pm on October 8th)

The nurses cleaned her off and gave her to me before weighing her (James was weighed first and then given to me):

I will blog more about James’ first time seeing her tomorrow :)

Our cute kids

On October 8th Brooklyn Mae Mauger was born- I don’t have much time to blog, but I thought I would show just a couple of pictures of my kiddos from today!

Trip to the Beach!

Today we went to the Oregon coast (Cannon beach to be exact) and had such a fun time! We carpooled with some of our friends, Greg, Kirsten and Paxton, and while at the beach met up with several other dental school families. James LOVED playing in the sand (and trying to eat it) and really wanted to play in the water even though it EXTREMELY windy and the water was freezing! Overall I am so glad we went and were able to spend time together as a family and with our friends. I took lots of pictures but here are some that I liked:

When we first got to the beach, James saw a seagull and started chasing it… little did we know that he would continue chasing it practically to the water!

Matt had to chase after him to make sure that he didn’t go in the water!

Matt let James down and as any toddler, he made another run for it!

Matt learned his lesson and decided to hold him :)

Here is a picture of James’ friend Paxton!

James using his shovel (which we got at Michaels on sale for $0.50!- sweet!)

In the photo above AND in the photos below, please notice his tongue! Our silly little guy likes to stick his tongue out when he puts his mind to something!

James turned the pile of sand (which was in the process of becoming a castle) into a slide… leave it up to James!

 

The picture below is James’ smile that he does when we tell him to “smile”-  I wonder when he will grow out of this phase and give us a cuter smile :)

Paxton and Greg climbing the sand pile:

Here are a few pictures of the other dental school families:

Oh I love these days!

I love when I feel productive! Today I:

- finger painted with James thank you cards

- cleaned downstairs

- played a few board games with James

- took a nap

- made meatloaf for dinner

- made banana bread with James

- played bowling with James and Matt (water bottles as pins and ones of James’ balls)

- cleaned the kitchen

and of course- adored different things I want to make/do on Pinterest :)

and its only 5 pm :)

Random Thoughts

I am just posting some of my thoughts... without pictures- the pictures and some more detail for certain events (James' 2nd bday, moving to our new home, sightseeing in Oregon, etc.) will come later- right now I just want to jot down a few thoughts:

1. Moving to Oregon- I can't believe it, but we have been in Oregon for about a month! Physically, I was 31/32 weeks pregnant and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Emotionally I thought it was going to be a lot harder than it has actually been- I thought it would be hard to be here all by ourselves with NO family close, but thankfully it has been fine. There are times when I definitely get sad though- sometimes it feels like time freezes and I am just staring at James look into my eyes or play with his toys, and I feel this overwhelming love for him and then I immediately wish that his grandparents (both sides) could be there right at that moment to experience that moment with us... that gets me sad.

2. Dental School- Right now Matt is going almost done with his 4th week of dental school. He is in a 6 week term right now and then Fall term will start (which is longer). I prepared myself for Matt being gone from 7 am - 8 pm and then studying after James goes to bed, but it unexpectedly has not been that bad. He typically wakes up at 6:30 am and is out the door by 7 am, and then most days he comes home about 6:30. From 6:30 - 8:30 he eats, plays with James and then we put James to bed. From 8:30 - 9:00 he usually has his down time and we spend time just talking and then from 9:00 - 10:00 he studies. I really love this routine because he spends a lot more time with us than I thought he would be able to. He has taken 2 tests already and has done AMAZING! I am so grateful for his wonderful memory- he has always been blessed to be able to remember things easily and usually by the first time, so that is definitely coming in handy. He does warn me that Fall term is known to be harder, so I am preparing myself for less time with him.

3. James growing up- James is growing up so fast in so many ways. He had his 2nd birthday and was looking forward to it weeks in advance. All he said he wanted was "cake" and "a bike". He was spoiled by his grandparents and his two favorite toys are DEFINITELY his bike and his Cars Race track. He started getting on his bike and saying "James bike school (pause) miss you"- which translates into " I am going to ride my bike to school. I will miss you mom". Matt rides his bike to school everyday so I think our little James wants to be just like daddy. As you can tell from that story, his speech is constantly improving and he strings along a lot of words (typically anywhere from 3 - 6 words), but all of his sentences still don't make complete sense grammatically. He did pretty well with the transition of Matt going to school- the first week was REALLY hard on him- he would say "James miss dad" about 5 times a day. Since then he has adjusted and now only says that when he is in trouble or when we walk out of our home to meet him when Matt rides his bike home. James recently is going through a weird sleep phase- we aren't sure if he is scared of the dark or just not wanting to go to sleep, but for the past 3 days we have reverted back to the "cry for mom until I go to sleep" phase- today he did well and only cried for 30 seconds, but it is so random and weird that he has done this- he has been the easiest boy to put down for a nap for 10 months+, but yesterday it took him an hour and a half to go to sleep for his daytime nap... weird.

4. Meeting people in the ward- I really truly love our ward. So many people have gone out of their way to do nice acts of service for us (give us a fan so we can survive in this 95 degree weather without AC, give us two twin mattresses) and there are a lot of people who are in our same boat- dental school students with kids and without. Matt has really made some good friends who sometimes (when its not too hot) come to our house to watch football with him. There aren't many boys James' exact age, but there are LOTS that are a little older (like 3 yrs old) or a little younger (like 18-20 months), so I am looking forward to really getting to know the moms as time progresses. We have been able to have people over for dinner and have already made some really good friendships, so I hope that everything continues to go this way.

5. Living on a strict budget- ..... IS HARD!!! With moving into a new home, a baby girl on the way, and holidays around the corner, there are so many things that I want to make/buy for the house/family, but the material and all of the supplies cost money! I love the satisfaction that I get from knowing that I am being prudent with our money and staying within budget, but it is so hard to pass up on adorable decoration ideas/clothing projects/ baby nursery accessories. I figure that its ok though- I have a list of everything I want to make and as we have the money for it, I will slowly check each thing off of my list... it just may take years to complete!

6. Pregnancy- Both pregnancies (James and this baby) have basically been the same up until the 3rd trimester. With James, I wasn't hormonal at all. With this baby, I wasn't hormonal... until the third trimester. Every time I am in sacrament, I cry. I cry at the littlest things and its weird because typically in my life I have been able to hold back tears, but with these hormones, I know when I am about to cry and I CANT DO A THING TO STOP THEM!! And I know that it is the hormones because in my mind I am rationally thinking, "this is so silly Stephanie- don't cry" but I can't help it! Another difference is the sleep deprivation- I can't sleep because if I lay on my right side for more than 5 minutes a nerve in my hip feels like it is getting pinched and if I lay on my left side for more than an hour my muscles feel REALLY pulled. So I typically wake up a ton throughout the night and have to stand up until my nerve in my hip stops hurting and my muscles stop aching... then I lay down and do it all again. Another difference is with this pregnancy I am getting contractions galore- I am 35 and 1/2 weeks pregnant and no matter how much water I drink, walking or resting I do, I usually get about 12 contractions (painless thankfully) a day, whereas with James I only started getting contractions AFTER my due date has passed. The last difference I really notice is leg cramping and nerve pinching- I ALWAYS have a cramp in my right calf and haven't found anything to get rid of it, and I randomly get a pinched nerve sensation (usually around my hips and inner thigh) that completely debilitates me for a few seconds. I guess I had it really nice with James- with this pregnancy I am ready to be done with being pregnant but not completely ready to be a mom of 2.

7. Homemaker- I LOVE LOVE LOVE making my home feel nice- I love sewing things for my home, cleaning it (besides doing dishes because our dishwasher has been broken for 2+ weeks), making decorations for it- being a homemaker brings me a satisfaction that I searched and searched for while going to school but wasn't able to find. I love walking into our home feeling good to say, "this is my home". I love it!

Entertainment Center Part 2

SOOOOOOOO…………

Today Matt finished all of the construction AND the sanding!!!!!

Here is what it looks like so far!

Now the only thing left to do is prime and paint! Wahoo!