Tag anyone who is a mom.

About your labor:
1.When was your due date?
Dec. 24th

2.What day did you go into labor?
Dec. 23th
3.What day was your baby born?
Dec. 23
4.Where were you when your water broke? In bed, I remember thinking I had finally done it, I had seriously peed my pants.

5.At what time did your water break? About 1 am

6.Did you lose your mucous plug? I assume so, I really don't remember.

7.On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the most painful), how bad were your contractions?After I hit 4 cm, the contractions were flatlining the top of the screen for the whole time. I say they were very painful. Who knows, maybe I was just a wuss.

8.What did you do during early labor to take your mind off of the pain? Reading, watching T.V., the jacuzzi.

9.At what time did you go to the hospital?About 2:30 am

10.Did someone drive you, or did you take an ambulance to the hospital? Ethan drove me.

11.What was the name of your hospital?BMH

12.What were the best and worst parts about your labor? The relief that it was finally happening, and the pain of it finally happening.

About your Delivery:

1.Was your delivery room separate from your recovery room?Yes

2.Did you receive any pain medication? Yes

4.What other pain management techniques did you use?I tried the narcotics, that failed miserably, then after about 1 1/2 hours on those, I went for the epidural

5.How many nurses/ doctors were in your room?1-2 nurses, then the midwife.

6.Did you have a vaginal delivery or a C-section?Vaginal

7.If you had a vaginal delivery, after you were dilated to 10, how long were you pushing for? About 45 minutes to an hour.

8.Did your baby come out face up or face down? Face down

9.Were there any complications? At one point before the epidural, he rolled on to his umbilical cord and it stop the heartbeat, the nurses came running in and moved me all over the place, oxygen mask and all. All the while I was so out of it because of the narcotics, I didn't have a clue what was going on. It very easily could have become a c- section.

10.Who cut the umbilical cord? Ethan

11.Was your baby given to you right away or was he taken away to be cleaned?Given to me right away.

12.Did your baby come out crying? No, but he was fine.

13.Did you cry when your baby was born? I was crying beforehand, the epidural had worn off by then.

14.What were the best and worst parts about your delivery?Seeing the results, and epidural wearing off during the actually delivery.

15.Did anything surprise you about the delivery?You never really can prepare for the pain the first time.

16.How long were you in labor/delivery for? My water broke about 1 am, and he was born 3:30pm

About your Newborn:

1.Did you have a boy or a girl?Boy

2.What is your baby's name? Mark Andrew

3.How much did he/she weight? 7 lb 14 oz.

5.Do you know your baby's Apgar score? 8/9

7.Who does he/she look like? Good combination of us.

9.What is the cutest thing about your baby? His dimple when he smiles.

10.Is your baby fussy? Very rarely.

11.Do you plan to formula feed or breastfeed?I breastfed until about a month ago.

12.If breastfeeding, how long do you plan to breastfeed? He lasted until 9 months.

13.How is breastfeeding going so far? It was miserable by the end for mom. I would try to feed him, two seconds later, there is something else far more interesting for him to look at. So either he would try to take me with him, or he just left. If I tried to make him eat more, he would bite. There were 7 teeth, it was painful, so we stopped. And he didn't seem to care.

14.If using formula, what brand are you using? Parents choice Lactose-free.

15.When do you plan to introduce solid food to your baby? A couple of months ago.

16.What is the longest amount of time that your baby has slept so far? Like 13 hours?

17.How much time does your baby go between feedings?He can go 3-4 hours without a problem.

18.What was your baby's discharged weight? I think it was 7lb. 6 oz?

About your Recovery:

1.How long did you stay in the hospital? Two days

2.What pain medications are you on? I took something the first night, after that I didn't get anything else really.

3.At the hospital, did your newborn stay in your room or did she stay in the nursery? He was in my room during the day, but in the nursery at night, I wanted to get as much sleep as I could before going home.

4.How did the staff treat you? They were fine, the only thing I wished had happened, was they didn't inform me of the 5 am blood testing. Some random girl shows up by my bed and started taking my blood and I didn't have a clue as to why.

5.Best part about your recovery? No more being kicked internally.

6.Worst part about your recovery? Actually having a reason to wear those ginormous pads.

7.Who came to visit you after your delivery? Too many to list.

9.Did you get any sleep while in the hospital? During the nights, not during the day.

10.Was the hospital busy while you were there? Not especially.

11.How was the hospital food? Decent.

12.When were you discharged? Christmas Day.

13.Did you take anything from the hospital? They said I could take the diapers and stuff.

14.Are you experiencing any baby blues or postpartum depression? On and off, here and there. Nothing to worry about.

15.How is your relationship with your husband/boyfriend now that you two have a baby? Far more fulfilling.

16.Overall, was your hospital stay a pleasant one? Yeah.

17.How many days has it been since you have given birth now? A little over 10 months.

18.How is your newborn doing? He is a crawling pro, stairclimber, furniture walker and starting to walk.

19.Are you fully recovered? Yep.

21.Have you lost any more weight since?I lost about 20 lbs.

22.What was your pre-pregnancy boob size? Same as what it is now.

24.Now that you are home, how are you spending your days?Mainly being a stay at home mom, but I do work about 8 -12 hours a week at the movie theater.

25.Will you be going back to work?I quit my full-time job.

26.What is the most exciting thing to happen to you now that you have a baby at home? We just bought a house! Our first home.

HOMEOWNER!!!!!!!

We officially own our house now!!! We signed papers at noon, and have the keys in hand. We are now homeowners!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bragging

I wanted everyone to know, that Mark has finally started walking today! He can't do more than two at a time, but hey, I am proud

Camera has been found

Annie doesn't really like me. But I love her!!!!

My Friend Sarah, was serving her mission down in West Virginia, and has now been released, on her way home, she and her family stopped to visit me! This was the first time she has seen Mark. I was pregnant with him last time we had seen each other.

Here is a picture of some of my teeth finally. I have 8 now!

During our recent move, we misplaced the camera, but we found it! Here is just a bunch of random pictures.

This was during the Priesthood session of Conference. The girls in the family always go out to eat, while the men are away. It was kind of chaotic with 4 kids under the age of 5, but we managed. Here Victor and Mark were having a full out raspberry blowing war.

Bagels rock, Mom.

Tired of moving,

Hanging out at Grandma Fike's house.

I love stairs, I am perfectly content going and up and down for a long time.

Waiting

Ethan and I have finished house sitting for his parents this morning. Now we have moved back into my mother's house and will be here until the house is livable. That will happen as soon as we can get into it. That's right, the closing date is still 12 days away. Oct. 27th. I am getting anxious to not be sharing someone else's house. I am extremely grateful for the kind generosity of our families, but I miss having my own space.

Bath Time

Mark loves bath time. There is no way around it. He loves it. If he hears the water going, he is making his way to the bathroom. If the door is shut, he will whine like a little puppy dog outside the door. If I am in the tub and he is able to come in, he will have the biggest smile on his face, just waiting for me to undress him and put him in the water. Once in, there is even a bigger smile, along with splashing and climbing and playing with the toys. Showers are just as much fun.

Anyways, we are currently housesitting for the Fikes while they are out in Utah. This morning I was taking a shower and Mark was crawling all around the kitchen which is right next to the bathroom. Their shower doesn't have a tub and has heavy sliding glass doors. While showering, I watch as Mark crawls very quickly to the bathroom, then to the shower and is pounding on the shower door to let him in. I didn't, because I wanted to finish before I let him in. Well he wasn't patient enough to wait. With all his might, he is slowly moving the door out of his way and promptly crawls on in, fully dressed, smiling away at me. It was hysterical watching him be that determined to get wet. I called Ethan to come see what he had done. He loved it. What can I say, Mark loves warm water.

Two Years!!!

Two Year Anniversary!

This day, two years ago, Ethan and I were married and sealed for eternity in the Washington D.C. Temple. It was a kind of dreary day, but still beautiful. And look what I have to show for it. We have a beautiful little boy, and a happy marriage. Ethan is a wonderful provider as well as an extremely caring father and husband. I love his hugs and just cuddling up to him. I love that he is working a job that he actually likes, and is doing well at it. I love that we have our son, and that Mark is a happy child. I love that Ethan truly enjoys being a father, and love to play with him.

Our Wedding day was not only our wedding day, but also Pap's birthday, my dad's dad. He turned 93 that year. I felt bad that he was not able to attend our wedding (he isn't LDS) but we made a special effort to stop by that day and let him know we had not forgotten him. Because my Dad passed away, at the wedding reception, I wanted a father daughter dance and I asked him to dance with me. He loved that I asked him. Pap was an amazing man who inspired a lot for me. Pap passed away last year right after Thanksgiving. Just wanted to let everyone know he was one of the sweetest, most caring, and loving man I have ever known, and I am proud to call myself his granddaughter.

On our wedding day, we were married about 11 am, and when we came out it was drizzling a bit, but it was nice weather wise. We had a lot of family show up to support us. Sara Moik was my maid of honor, and Kate Eberle was one of my bridesmaid, as well as my cousin Rachael Anderson. Ethan had Ethan Eberle and Daniel Eberle as his groomsmen.

The reception was held in the Butler Ward Building and we had a good time. Ethan and I had our first dance to "We've only just begun" by the Carpenters. The music was really the only fiasco that happened that day. Ethan was supposed to download the music for the receptions, and he thought he had but it ended up just downloading the titles of the songs on the cd. Luckily, someone else had their laptop with lots of songs on there for us to use. I don't remember what the original song was supposed to be, but obviously it didn't mean that much to us. I like what ended up being played anyways. The only thing that I regretted was the song that was supposed to be played for the Father Daughter dance, was Luther Vandross's " Dance with My Father". Considering that Dad wasn't there, I wanted it known, that I hadn't forgotten him, but was honoring him. It is still to this day one of my favorite songs. It made me bawl the first couple times I listened to it.

Back when I was a child, before life removed all the innocence
My father would lift me high and dance with my mother and me and then
Spin me around 'til I fell asleep
Then up the stairs he would carry me
And I knew for sure I was loved
If I could get another chance, another walk, another dance with him
I'd play a song that would never, ever end

How I'd love, love, love
To dance with my father again
When I and my mother would disagree
To get my way, I would run from her to him
He'd make me laugh just to comfort me
Then finally make me do just what my mama said
Later that night when I was asleep
He left a dollar under my sheet
Never dreamed that he would be gone from me
If I could steal one final glance, one final step, one final dance with him
I'd play a song that would never, ever end

'Cause I'd love, love, love
To dance with my father again
Sometimes I'd listen outside her door
And I'd hear how my mother cried for him
I pray for her even more than me
I pray for her even more than me
I know I'm praying for much too much
But could you send back the only man she loved
I know you don't do it usually
But dear Lord she's dying
To dance with my father again
Every night I fall asleep and this is all I ever dream

But my wedding day I don't believe could have been better than it was. I married a man, I know that I can spend eternity with. I love him and know he loves me. I hope all people can feel the love and happiness that we are sharing. I love you Sweetie, and Happy Anniversary.

Our Family now.

Our first Dance.

Celebrating our marriage.

Celebrating with friends and family.