Wheeler Farm

Beckee wanted me to take Chase's pictures, so we headed to Wheeler Farm. I can't get enough of this cute little squishy boy! He is so stinkin cute!

Face of an angel

My cute Haylee

Double Trouble!

...Triple Trouble!

7 weeks and counting

Really? My Ry is almost 2 months already! I can't even believe it! She started smiling back at me last week and I LOVE this age and watching the development. It is seriously amazing to me. She is such a sweet baby. I can't get enough of her. She LOVES being held which makes it hard to get anything done! I love to hold her though. She is gaining weight and is starting to chub up a little.

At this age with Avery, she was in her own room, in her crib, but I can't seem to put Rylee in there. Ever since we had the incident of her not breathing and almost having to call 911 (literally), I'm a little nervous. She is a spitter-upper and I just can't get myself to do it. I'm sure we would all sleep a ton better if I did, but maybe in a few weeks.

I'm exhausted as I knew I would be. Avery tries my patience and is definitely a 2 year old. She tries to get attention and whether it's good or bad, she gets it. Yesterday was a rough day. I took both of them to get their pictures taken and let me tell you, what a chore! Avery normally stays by me and doesn't run around when we go places. Not yesterday. She was EVERYWHERE! climbing and dancing and just being her cute self! Although it was making it hard to take Rylee's pictures. Hopefully they turned out cute, which I'm sure they did. How could they not with such cute girls!?!

The sleeping issues we are having with Avery are still here. We bought her a $50 night light...I know right?! It's a moon when she needs to go to bed and it turns into a sun when she can get up. I don't know that it is working or not. She still wakes up at weird hours and going to bed is interesting. I've tried not giving her a nap (which makes her really cranky during the day), I've tried her going to bed earlier, we've tried turning the TV off and reading before (trying to be calm before bed), I feel like I have tried everything! Jake is against locking her in her bedroom, but it is a game every night and it's getting very old. Her pediatrician told me to make some tickets for her to keep under her pillow and I still need to try this one, I just haven't had a chance to make them yet.

Just another Day

So, my laptop with all my pictures decided it doesn't want to turn on anymore so I'll have to catch up with those pictures later. I wanted to write just some random things down so I wouldn't forget.

When we first brought Rylee home and she would cry, Avery would go and try to soothe her and if all her tactics didn't work, she would say "Do you want your Mom?!" So cute.

Avery is so tender hearted. Jake had two weeks off this month and the day he went back to work she woke up and asked "Where's mah dad?" and I told her he went to work and her response was, "oh man!" She loves her dad!

Avery also tells me I look beautiful. If there was ever a day that I felt crappy about myself, just put yourself together and walk past Avery and she will tell you "you look beautiful mom". She is my sweetheart. We were at a shower for my cousin at my mom's last night and she noticed that my mom had gotten a hair cut and said "your hair looks pretty grandma". Nothing gets by her!

I really wished that I could remember everything she says, because most of the time I end up laughing. On Sunday, she came up the stairs looking at her hand all distraught. When I asked her what was wrong her reply was "mah hand hurts, it's hungry"!! I about lost it! I don't know if her stomach hurt because it was hungry, but she definitely thought her hand hurt!

Avery always tells me that Rylee is "so tute and so tiny"!

Avery LOVES gum, she loves ice cream, loves her dad, she hates chocolate and meat.  She loves to take bubble baths and loves to come to activity days with me and hang out with the girls.

Avery is the biggest tease, apparently she was pretending to have a microphone and dancing, when my dad turned around, she says "I'm just teasing you grandpa!" She is definitely my little performer! She loves dance and loves to watch herself in the mirror, or anything reflective for that matter (i.e. the fireplace, dishwasher, or oven.)

I asked Avery back in April, when I missed a couple dance weeks how it went. Her response was "the teacher said 'I'm proud of you". She is terrified to go down the slide into the foam pit, but apparently this was the week she did it and the teacher was so proud!

Rylee is growing and is so funny. I don't know what it is, but whenever I take her diaper off, she poops and she pushes so hard that sometimes she pees. Well today I was changing her and talking to Jake on the phone, trying to catch the LONG snake-like poop that always graces us with its presence and I guess she pushed so hard she peed but it wasn't like a normal girl pee, it didn't just go straight down....it SHOT me! My leg was soaked! It was so funny!! I've never been peed on!

Tulip Festival

We headed down to Thanksgiving Point as a family and enjoyed a spring day at the Tulip Festival. I love hanging out with my cute little family! It was so beautiful!

Happy Be-Lated Easter. My Grandma lives up close to the mountains and this spring has pretty much been non-existent and there has been snow on the ground so we had to post-pone the Annual Olsen Easter Egg Hunt until today. I love going to my grandma's, it is so crazy but that is what I grew up with and it is so much fun! (Funny, I didn't get any egg hunting pictures!)

Rylee and her toes! She came out of me like this! In the hospital, she would wrap her toes around my arm. I love it!

Jake taught Avery how to flex...

Showing off her muscles!

**Osama bin Laden was announced killed today. A great day in American History.

Aubs is Going to Africa!

I love my family. Seriously I do. Each one of them is so unique and such an example to me. They amaze me all the time. Aubrey is headed to Africa to help with a humanitarian project and I couldn't be more proud of her. I have always wanted to do something like that, but I honestly don't think I could do it. I think I am more of the traveler, see the sites, stay in a hotel kind of girl. I struggle with food and bugs and I don't think I could handle 'BIG' bugs! GO AUBREY! We will see you in three months!

Aubrey and Ry. "Sh sh, I hate goodbyes!"-Although I really do!

2 week check-up and A Moment of Defeat

We headed off to Rylee's two week check-up and up until today, I have felt really good. For me it is a little strange because I am so emotional and had the baby blues/postpartum with Avery. I expected to feel crappy. In fact, that was partly the reason I was so nervous to get her here. I knew the following weeks were going to be really hard and I was going to be exhausted and to have a two year old on top of that...I was expecting the worst. Which in reality, it has been quite the opposite. I have felt like a new person ever since Rylee was born. I have had energy I didn't while I was pregnant, even going off no sleep.

Anyway, everyone (or it seemed like everyone) was making a comment on how small she was and how tiny she looked. My siblings in particular were kind of worried, although they didn't tell me they were about how she looked. I guess I didn't really realize what they were seeing because I was with her constantly. She only weighed 6 pounds 9 ounces, so she was pretty small to begin with. I knew it was a challenge for me to breastfeed Avery, but this time around I was determined to do it. I told the nurse that I wanted Rylee as soon as she came out (which she came out sucking!) so that I wouldn't make the same mistake I made with Avery (even though I didn't have a choice, they thought Avery aspirated and whisked her to the NICU). I was handed Rylee and I started to feed her. Well, I knew I had milk. In fact, I had more milk than I did with Avery. When I pumped I could get 2-4 ounces every time. I took her in to her check-up and they weighed her....to my disappointment she only weighed 5 pounds 10 ounces. She had lost a whole POUND! I think I was expecting her to lose a little, but not an entire pound! I started to bawl. This was a moment of defeat for me. I felt like I had done everything in my power to help my baby and it just wasn't enough. I know you can't beat yourself up about breastfeeding, formula is great. Avery is the healthiest 2 year old I know and she was formula fed. That isn't or wasn't my hang up. I just felt like this was supposed to be something that me as a mother was supposed to be able to do. This was Rylee's lifeline, I would determine if she she lived or died. That was a little extreme, but that's how I felt. I felt like Heavenly Father made our bodies they way they are so that we could take care and nurture our babies. I felt like I honestly had done everything in my power to make sure she was getting enough. The first weeks of breastfeeding are hell. I won't lie. It hurts so bad you want to cry. I felt like I had just gotten to the peak point of pain, that it would start getting better, and then to find out I had to supplement. That for me was so defeating. I wanted so bad to like it, I wanted so bad to have that bond, I wanted so bad to have the benefits for me from breastfeeding (selfish? maybe a little!) but I knew I couldn't do both. I couldn't breastfeed and then give her a bottle. Mentally, I just couldn't do it. I tried it with Avery and I was a mess. And then to have a two year old on top of feedings....it seemed impossible or nearly impossible. I have to be a sane mom and a sane wife. So I gave up breastfeeding. (The worst part of this was looking at her little body with no fat on it. Her little hip bones stuck out. I felt really bad.)

5/10/11-As the days have gone by, I think I was producing enough milk, I think Rylee is just a really lazy eater. I would pump and it seemed to be enough. She is now gaining weight and looks a lot better. She is eating a lot better 2-3 ounces every two hours. She used to be really hard to wake up, but now she is acting like she should be. I guess I shouldn't kick myself too hard. I did what I could, but she has to do her part too! I took her in on 5/3/11 and she was at 6 pounds 10 ounces! Yeah!

Visitors

First Bath at Home

Avery looking on as her little sister gets her bath! Her hair is crazy!!

Introducing....Rylee Jayde

Breanne (my nurse), Dr. Merrell, Jake, Brittany (Rylee's nurse)

My last appointment my doctor asked if I wanted to be induced or just wait it out. I was slightly nervous but thought what the heck, lets get her here! So I scheduled my appointment for Wednesday, April 6th. I was to call at 7 am to see when I should come in. They had to call me back and I ended up going in at 10:30 that morning. That night I had started contracting. I had no idea what contractions were! With Avery, they were more like Braxton Hicks and were nothing like they were with Ry. I think they started around 3 am and were every hour or so, but they were extremely uncomfortable, tolerable, but took my breath away. So, when they told me I could come in I told Jake to grab the bags and lets go! I guess he didn't think they would tell me to come in, he thought they would tell me to wait. Anyway, he goes to drop me off at the front of the hospital so he could go park, I told him I had to wait because I was having a contraction and didn't feel like I could move!  The contractions were down in my lower back and were very painful! My parents had actually gone to the hospital and had beaten us there. I figured the hospital was 1.7 miles away (yes, I googled it!) so I wasn't really in much of a hurry, plus I was really nervous as I knew what to expect.

We got there and got admitted. They checked my cervix and told me that I was 100% effaced and at 4 cm! I was well into labor! HURRAY! I didn't want a long labor...who does really?! They checked me a couple of times and at about 1 pm, my water broke on it's own. They were about 5 min away from calling the doctor to come in and break it anyway. At 2:30 they gave me my epidural (which I HATE more than anything!) and at 3:43 pm Rylee graced us with her presence! My dad calls it text book delivery, it couldn't have been more like that. I felt good, I could move my legs but not feel the pain. With Avery, my legs, as Jake so nicely put it, were stumps!!! And they really were, I couldn't move them at all, which effected the way I pushed too I think. With Rylee, I could feel enough to know where to push. (So weird!) I could actually feel her come out but not the pain.

The nurses were so good and I loved my doctor. Everything went so smoothly and really was such a good experience. Breanne was my cute nurse and she was so patient and just made me feel like I was her only patient. I loved delivering at Riverton Hospital. It was such a different experience than it was with Avery. I felt good the entire time.

So here she is....

6 lbs 9 oz, 19 inches

Getting ready to go home. She is so little for such a huge car seat!!

Random Pictures from this winter

We have been waiting for sun for what seems like forever! Luckily today we had some!

Jaymie reading Avery and Haylee a story! Love that they are holding hands!

My cute ballerina!

Pose

Tondue

Silly face!

Another silly face!