Thursday, December 27, 2012

Lets play a little bit of catch up.

First Vivian is now 10 weeks old! Oh how time flies. That means in the next 3 weeks she is getting her ears pierced, I am nervous but also super excited! I will post pictures when we do it. She was also blessed on December 1st by Andrew and it was wonderful. Next Jocey turns 3 TOMORROW! Holy holy holy! Why? I want her to stay little forever! I will also post those pictures later. Also we got family pictures done for this year and I am super happy with them :) I love my cute family! And lastly CHRISTMAS! Jocey understood the whole Santa thing this year and it was soo fun. She got a letter from him, sat on his lap and left out cookies and cider for him as well! Well here comes a ton of pictures!


The whole family



Vivian thought that Jocelynn's nose was food. Jocey laughed and laughed.

Me and my wonderful husband

                                         
Vivi's professional blessing photo

Right after we set up the tree

The girls looking up at the lights

Vivian is 2 months old!


Santa letter

Joce and Viv in their new chair

Adorable owl chair from Grandma Bunker

Some of Jocey toys that she got from Santa, grandmas and grandpa's and friends! She loves all her presents!
Jocey love's singing to her sister :) And whenever Viv cries Jocey thinks she needs to burp or eat.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

All about Jocey

Our sweet sweet sweet girl is turning 3 next month.... YES 3! Can you believe it? 
I cant.

Jocey's favorite things:
1. Cousins.
2. Playing pretend with everyone.
3. Watching any cartoons.
4. Playing with her baby sister.
5. Running up to her daddy when he comes home from work.
6. Skirts.

Jocey's personality:
The best way I can describe it is.... she is very goal driven and will work her hardest to get what she wants. We see this as a potential problem if not handled correctly, but she is just SO cute. Even if it means negotiating for what she wants because she knows crying will never work. Here is what our conversation was the other day. J: " Mommy I can have 1 more chocolate... Ok?" S: " No Joce I need all the chocolates for the treats we're making." J: " Ok, I can have 1 more chocolate and then I can have no more chocolate's." S: " *laughs* No Jocey I already said no and that's it, no means no." J: " Ok so I will have 2 chocolate's and then one, but then NO MORE."
Another coversation... S: " Jocey, it's time to go take a bath." J: " No MOM! That's rude. It makes me very mad." S: " *laughs and not expecting that response*"
This is basically how most of our conversations go.

She has also become very independent and always wants to help with EVERYTHING. Getting diapers for me, helping me clean, throwing things away, putting her clothes away etc.


Here is an adorable picture of Jocey and Andrew at the festival of tree's last night. Compliments of Anna and Bryan.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Vivian's Labor

Earlier in the day:
On Sunday the 14th I started to feel a sharp pain in my side that made it so I could not even get up and walk around. Andrew's mom, Serena, had invited us over for dinner that night at 6, the pain in my side had gone away and we decided that we would go and have dinner with her. As soon as we sat down to start eating the pain in my side came back and would not let up, it was bad enough that it made it so I was hardly able to eat. After that I was convinced that I may have some sort of infection and that I needed to go to the hospital to get it taken care of. We left Jocey at Serena's thinking that we would be back in an hour or two. We did go home and get all of our stuff just in case and also left Serena with Jocey's carseat.

The Hospital:
When I arrived and got all checked in the nurse came and checked me and I was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced at 8:15 p.m.. I started to get the strong pain in my side again but it was only once within the hour. At 9:00 p.m the nurse came and checked me again and I was a 3+ and 90% effaced, she called the doctor and to our surprise they decided to admit me. Shortly after that Andrew and I started to cry because we were not expecting her to come on her own and we did not get the chance to explain everything to Jocey, because we thought we would be right back. We asked Serena if she would bring Jocey to the hospital so we could see her and talk to her before the baby came. A little while later she came and we were able to explain what was going on and we felt much better, a little while after that Andrew's dad and Kathy came to pick her up so she could spend the next few days with them. At 10:00 p.m. I was dilated to a 4 and still 90% effaced, then at 11:00 I was still the same, then I was checked at 1:00 a.m. and I was STILL THE SAME... Not cool. At that point they needed to either put me on Pitocen or break my water. I asked if they would break my water because that is what we had planned to do when I was supposed to be induced. The doctor said that would be fine so a few minutes later they broke my water. There was meconium ( poop) in my water and I also did not have a ton of fluid, because of this they told me I would no longer be able to do skin to skin when she was born because they needed someone from the NICU to immediately check her lungs when she was born. This upset me a lot. And everything seemed to be going completely opposite of what I wanted. A little while later I went into hard labor and the contractions were killing me in my lower back and side, they checked me at 2:00 a.m. and I was at a 5 and 90%. From that point on the pain was unbearable and they nurse told me that my cervix was a little posterior so I needed to try different positions to help with pain and dilation. So up on my hands and knees I went for 2 hours. Not only did it not help the pain but when they came and checked me at 3:00 a.m. I was a 6 and then at 4:00 a.m. I was still only a 6. I could not even bear for the nurse to check me at that point, she told me she suspected the baby was posterior (facing up) and so every time I had a contraction she was pushing into my bottom and lower back instead of on my cervix to come out. She also said that they can't try and turn the baby until you are at least a 9 and I was not progressing past a 6, and also that often times the baby will correct themselves and face down when it's time to push. At that point I felt defeated, was bawling, having contractions every 2 minutes and did not even have the encouragement that the baby was in the right position to come. I decided to get the epidural, after the epidural was in place the nurse was able to check me and I was STILL AT A 6. They did an ultrasound and sure enough she was posterior. Right after that my contractions stopped. At 6:00 a.m. they had to start me on pitocen and by the way, I was still a 6. At 7:00 a.m. I was a whopping 6 1/2. At 7:35 I felt like the baby was coming out and they checked me and I was an 8! 10 minutes later I called the nurse back in because I felt baby again and I was a 9! 10 minutes after that I was COMPLETE! The doctor thought he felt she had turned the right way so he had me push a couple times and wait 30 min to help baby move down the birth canal. I then pushed through 6 contractions and she was born facing up.... she never ended up turning.

My Feelings:
I am super bummed that I was not able to go natural and that a lot of things did not turn out the way the were supposed to. I was sad about the labor part but I really liked the actual birth. This time I was able to literally feel everything when I was pushing, and with Jocey I did not feel a thing. I still can't believe that I delivered her posterior, my doctor said it was pretty uncommon for that to happen. My recovery however has been way better then Jocey, no swelling, no heaviness in my bottom and minimal bleeding. Vivian's delivery was a complete 180 from Jocey's, but I am glad that I had both of these miraculous experiences. Child birth is a miracle, it is worth it no matter what you have to go through. I love my tiny Vivi bum and am so happy she is finally here!

Jocey kissing my belly before she leaves.

Right after Andrew cut the cord 

First time holding her


She love's her tongue

First time kissing baby sister


Tuesday, October 16, 2012

  Vivian Celeste Whittle
October 15th 2012
6 pounds 9 ounces
19.5 inches
8:56 a.m.

She is perfect in everyway. We never knew how much we could love one child and now we get the opportunity to continue to find out with two. We are so blessed to have this little lady in our lives and so grateful to our Heavenly Father for giving her to us. She is just what we needed to add to our little family.


Thursday, October 4, 2012

An update before the new addition.


I want to write an update on Andrew, Me and Jocey before Vivian makes her arrival on the 17th. ( That is when I will be induced if she decides not to come)

Andrew:
 The new job is GREAT! He has now been there almost a full 2 months and it has been such a great thing to happen to our family. He was definitely prompted by the spirit to apply for his job. The scheduling is great, the staff is great, it's just great. Andrew is also starting a new quarter in school next week which will mark 2 years of schooling completed. He is still very much enjoying his major in Business Management. Andrew is also enjoying the extra time that he is getting with Jocey these last few months and cant wait for their daddy daughter dates once the baby comes.

Starrie:
 I am obviously still staying at home with Jocey and to be quite honest I still love it. It is really fun to see Jocey learn and grow. I am a little nervous for the new baby to come, just because I have been in the same routine for almost 3 years now. Lately I have been nesting like crazy and clean everything all the time, I even went and cleaned my moms house because there was nothing left to clean/organize/vacuum/scrub/bleach/get rid of. I also crave cleaning smells which does not help my nesting needs. I have a few more projects I want to get started on but am trying to save my energy for delivering Vivian.

Jocey:
She has grown so big and so smart in the last few months. Her sentences are great, her imagination growing and her personality is bigger than ever. All she does these last few weeks is laugh at everything and make up silly jokes to tell everyone. She thinks she is the coolest kid on the block! And whose to say she's not? haha Jocey can count to 10 in spanish, along with saying blue, green, red, yellow, backpack, down, fast, hello and up in spanish as well. She sings many songs, counts to 20 in english, sings the abc's, knows most animals, fruits, foods etc etc etc. She has also learned how to ride her bike forwards, backwards and every which way you can think of. She becomes more and more caring the older she gets and always makes sure that the people around her are taken care of and happy.
She talks about baby sister a lot and is really getting used to the idea. I think that she will do well especially because of her being almost 3, she has grown tremendously even from when we found out we were pregnant. 



Monday, September 24, 2012

Pregnancy Stats

This week I will be 36 weeks pregnant aka 9 months pregnant.
Weight: 157 lbs
Belly measures : 36 weeks / 36cm
Dilation: 2 cm
Effacement: 70%


So far I have only gained 12 lbs with this pregnancy! Which is GREAT not only for me during pregnancy but also for after. Baby is strong and healthy and right on track. My doctor said he does not expect me to get above 165 and that my body should go back close to what I was before I had Jocelynn and got on the Mirena IUD.

Now I will show you my stretch marks.... lets just say I could not count them if I tried. Before this pregnancy I still had 1 million of them but they were all underneath my belly button. Now my belly button has turned into a stretch mark and the stretch marks have gone above my " belly button " as well. I decided I am a fence sitter with stretch marks on my belly. I don't necessarily hate them, but I also don't love them. Although I will say I HATE when girls complain about getting just a couple stretch marks no matter where they are. If you can say couple and stretch marks in the same sentence, then really its not worth getting upset over. But I am also not one of those people who are like," I love my stretch marks because they gave my child life." Obviously I prefer to not have them, but thats what most of us sign up for. Ok enough rambling here is a top view of my belly, I figure you'll get the idea by me just picturing the top view.




Friday, September 14, 2012

Dreams

So the last little while of being pregnant has been quite " adventurous." I have been having some CRAZY dreams. Anywhere from hospitals flooding and my baby falls out, to people not coming to visit me because my baby was too ugly and small.

Another thing I have been experiencing is I am having terrible nightmares that wake me up out of a dead sleep, then I cry to Andrew and he has to snuggle me the rest of the night while my brain automatically thinks of every scary movie I have ever seen. The stupid thing is that it's not that I saw something scary in my dream, scary music just starts playing and all of a sudden I am awake terrified.

With Jocey I always dreamt that she was born a cat and nobody loved her because she was indeed a cat and not a baby.

Lets just say I am excited to get back to my sleeping schedule and back to my normal dreams. Being pregnant just aint my "GLOW" as What to Expect while Expecting calls it. I know that I just do much better the second the baby is in my arms and not in my tummy. Good thing Vivian will be here before I know it!

Sunday, August 26, 2012

The Girl's Room

I am finally done with the girl's room. It took a long time considering I made or re-did most of the new additions. I re-painted an old mirror we had $2, made custom letters out of scrapbook paper and framed them $10 ( includes all scrap book paper and frames from Hobby Lobby ), spray painted the curtain rod black ( painted with the same paint as mirror), made both the toddler bed sheets and crib sheets $15, bumpers $71, bed skirt $10, flower ball and button ball $40. The curtains I got at Target for $20, the dresser is from Walmart for $180 and the crib from Target for $175. I already had the toddler bed and flower light, that you can get from IKEA.

Total with dresser and crib: $523 
Total without dresser and crib: $168

Not too shabby for most everything being custom. 


Mirror, dresser, flower lamp and framed scrapbook letters.

Crib, ruffle curtains, bumpers, flower and button ball.

Jocey's bed 
( I am going to hang a sister picture collage or giant sister picture right above her bed once Vivian gets here)

Their closet. Toys, toys, toys, toys, books, toys and more toys. I did not realize how many toys Jocey had until I tried fitting them all in her closet. I got the biggest pink bin I could find at Walmart for $5 and we already had the square shelving unit that we got from Target, which has 9 compartments.

I had a lot of fun re-doing Jocey's whole room to prepare for the new baby, and Jocey really likes it too! This was also what was making me feel not ready for the baby to come, now I feel prepared and it turned out better than I expected. All the organizing, washing clothes, sorting through toys and books, putting together a confusing dresser, hours of sewing and burning my hands with hot glue was all worth it. I am now done with major projects for a while and it feels really awesome!

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Crib Bumper Tutorial

I got all the measurements from THIS website. You can get your bumper tie measurements and crib skirt measurements from there as well. She did give incorrect measurements for how much foam to buy and just gives pictures of how to do the bumper ties and crib skirt. I recommend making the ties and bed skirt from the pictures she made, they are pretty self explanatory. She does not explain how to put the whole bumper together. So here is me giving it my best shot. I tried explaining things the best I could without physically being with you. Good Luck!






The pieces shown were cut out with the fabric doubled. So I am not crazy you should end up with 8 pieces.


#1. I am a HUGE fan of serger's so if you have one I recommend serging all the edges of your cut out fabric pieces.


#2. Next you will be attaching 4 pieces of fabric together, two of your 27 1/2" x 13 3/4" ( short pieces ) and 2 of your  55"x 13 3/4 " ( long pieces). Take one of your short pieces of fabric and attach its 13 3/4 inch side to one of your long piece of fabric's 13 3/4 inch side with patterned sides pinned together. You will attach the pieces so that they are long, short, long, short as one continuous piece. Sew the width of your sewing foot or 1/2 inch into your fabric. When you're done sewing your first 4 pieces together put to the side and repeat with the remainder 4 pieces of fabric.



#3. Take your now two giant pieces of fabric and iron flat all the seams you just made.


When you're done they should now be 2 continuous pieces of  fabric like this. Set one of them aside.




#4. Now take 1 ( you will NOT be doing this to the other long piece of fabric ) of the long strips of fabric you sewed together and lay it out with patterned side facing up.  With the patterned side up pin your piping, with the bulgy part facing down , along the top edge of your fabric. If you are using a patterned fabric that has a right and wrong direction, be sure your pattern is the correct direction and you are pinning along the top edge of the pattern.  Pin piping all the way to the end of your fabric.

#5. You should have 7 ties for the top of your bumper and 7 for the bottom of your bumper. Making a total of 14 ties. You will fold your tie's in a V shape before pinning to the edges of your fabric. They should look like the picture above when done pinning. When pinning, there should be one tie on both the top and bottom about every 27 inches starting with the first edge and continuing to the last edge. So 2 on each of the ends, 2 at each of the seams and 2 extra ones in the middle of each of the long seams.


#6. Once everything is pinned, with a zipper foot sew as close up to the bulged edge of piping as possible all the way down your fabric. This will also secure your top bumper ties. Then individually sew bottom ties.



This is what the top with piping and bumper ties should look like when you're done.


Your bottom ones should be directly underneath your top ones only sewn with no piping.





 This is where you add the zipper. It is kind of confusing, but bare with me! If you choose not to do a zipper just skip to step #13 and make sure to leave one end of your fabric open so you can put your foam in. You can also look at the picture at step #13 before doing the zipper to hopefully help you understand better.


#7. Take your pieces of fabric (one with bumper ties and piping sewn to it and the other one we set aside at step #3)  and with patterned sides together (making sure your pattern is the correct direction) match up 2 of your short sides( two 13 3/4 inch sides) and sew the width of your sewing foot up 1 inch from the edge of your fabric. It should look like you are adding to the continuous strip of fabric to make one giant strip.

* Note: PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE MATCHED YOUR SEAMS FROM BOTH PIECES OF FABRIC BEFORE DOING THIS STEP.


#8. Then fold back about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch of the fabric and iron back



#9.  Pin your zipper upside down on ironed seams.

#10. Flip fabric over when you're done pinning and it should look like this. Make sure the teeth on your zipper are not underneath any fabric. And everything is securely pinned.

#11 Put a pin at the end of the zipper where the sewn fabric starts. This way you know where to turn your fabric and sew back up the zipper.



#12. With a zipper foot sew as close to the edge of your fabric as you can.  Starting at the top of one side of your zipper, turning at the bottom to continue up the other side.


When you are done sewing around your zipper flip everything over and this is what it should look like. This also shows the inside bottom of the zipper.


Now all your fabric should be one super long piece that is connected by your zipper. If you do not understand, I recommend hand sewing the open end instead of putting your zipper in once your foam is in your finished bumper.



#13. After you have folded back your fabric at the zipper so patterned sides are together, make sure ALL seams match up and pin all of your fabric together. Also make sure all your bumper ties are inside with the patterned side of your fabric. *If you chose not to do a zipper, just lay fabric patterned sides together and match up all of your seams before pinning.


#14. On the top of one side of your fabric you should see the sewing line from adding your piping. So with a zipper foot sew on top of that line or as close as you can to it. * Do not go over the line otherwise you will not see your piping when you flip everything right side out. 
Then sew shut the rest of your open sides about a half inch in, unzip your zipper and flip right side out! If you did not add a zipper sew both long sides and one short side. With one end open flip everything right side out.


#15. Stuff your bumper with your foam, then zip closed or hand sew bumpers shut. I used 2 inch foam from Joann's and had them cut 2 long pieces that measure 50 1/2" x 12", and 2 short pieces that measure 23" x 12". I recommend buying the foam when you can get your hands on a 50% off coupon because otherwise it is $30 a yard. 


FINISHED PRODUCT!




Monday, August 13, 2012

The Zoo

So we went to the Zoo a week or two ago. IT WAS SO HOT. We chose to go on a day where it was 96 degrees outside. No bueno. We all had sweat spots and red faces, but it was worth it and Jocey liked it too. It was her first time going and all in all it was good!
Jocelynn LOVED the zoo stroller

Cute baby elephant taking a bath

They had an awesome eagle's nest and of course I had to take an awesome picture in it.


Polar bear bum

Riding on the Carousel 


Getting back to my roots, tiny sloth