Happy Memorial Day!

I was debating whether or not it was appropriate to write my Happy Memorial Day title of my blog, but then, when talking with my cute hubby, we both decided it really is a happy day. It provides an excuse to reminisce about lost loved ones. I love going to the cemetery. I find it very peaceful. I know that one reason I love going is it brings back very fond memories. My grandpa used to go for walks every day. My brothers and I lived a block away from my grandparents while growing up. We always wanted to go on these walks with him, and, of course, the very best place to walk was Spanish Fork Cemetery. We spent so much time there! I have been very blessed in my life not to lose many loved ones until recently. We would visit the graves of Grandma and Grandpa's family, all of whom died before I was even born. It was very hard losing my grandma. She was one of my 3 best friends (my mom and sis being the other 2). She was a second mother to me. When I lived in Spanish Fork, my brothers and I would go to her house before school, after school, after church, and pretty much whenever our mom would let us. She was always excited to see us. We always felt welcome, and she always had candy for us in her apron pockets. She played the organ at church on Sundays. We would take turns sitting at the organ next to Grandma. If we played the keys we had to sit back on the bench. I don't think any of us made it an entire sacrament meeting without sneaking a note or two on the organ. I miss her so much. It has been 2 years since she passed away. I was blessed to be with her when she died. It was a horrible experience knowing she was leaving, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I wanted to take my Anthony to the cemetery to introduce them. I know, it's silly. It's a grave, she's not there, and I'm sure Anthony still gets to see her. But I wanted to introduce them anyway:)

The introduction to Grandma Wood (Matt was a bit sneaky taking some pics).

Josh loved the decorations at the grave.

After the cemetery, I took Anthony to meet Grandpa Wood. He was sick after Anthony was born, and just barely is getting over it, so I just barely got to take my baby to meet him. Grandpa was tickled that I stopped at the cemetery first. It made his day:)

Backtracking to the hospital. This is the day I went home, and the flowers Matt bought me.

My mom finished making this quilt the day Anthony was born. She brought it to the hospital to make sure we had it when we got home. I wanted monsters on his blanket because he was so active, I thought for certain he was going to be a monster baby! I was very wrong! He is the happiest, most content baby ever! He almost never fusses! It is wonderful! Now if we could just get him sleeping:)

Josh is such a little helper! He has to mow the lawn with Matt every week. He loves his little lawnmower, and even parks it in the garage next to our real lawnmower.

We got home the day before Easter. Josh had so much fun finding candy, then wanted his picture taken with "Josh's baby," as he calls the baby.

Family movie night on the bed. We always watch Scooby Doo, because it is Josh's favorite cartoon in the entire world at the moment:)

My little sis jumping on the trampoline with Josh. He loves to jump!

Gizmo doesn't mind the baby so far. The baby never pulls his fur!

We took Josh to Pirate Island. They have lights that flash on and off in the trees and look like fireflies. Josh got so excited when he saw them!

Josh takes shooting guns very seriously!

Josh adores his little brother! The biggest problem I have is trying not to let Josh suffocate the poor kid! He never leaves him alone! But I'm good as long as he loves his little bro:)

Josh wanted to be swaddled just like baby

My sleeping angels

Josh loves to dance to the musice when I play the piano.

My cute little baby.

Josh's cousin, Kyle, came to visit after the baby was born. They had a lot of fun chasing, shooting, and rolling around on the floor.

Josh loves holding the baby.

I love Anthony's facial expressions. He's starting to give some good smiles. Hopefully we'll eventually be able to catch one on camera!

Josh playing peek-a-boo through Grandma's legs.

Matt pruned our tree, and Josh had to climb the tree, just like daddy!

My baby is nearly 6 weeks old now! He is growing so fast! Starting to get some nice rolls in his legs, and cute little chubby cheeks!

I hope all of you enjoyed your Memorial Day as much as I did!

Anthony David Carlson

Well, my baby is here! I'm so excited and happy:) I wasn't going to blog until I got out of the hospital, but now I'm just sitting all day on a Friday, I don't go home till tomorrow, and Anthony is just snoozing on my lap. So here it is!
I wanted so bad to go into labor last Friday so I wouldn't have to work. I walked and walked for hours, I was working out all week that week,and I would clean and clean. Nothing. But Sunday after work I started contracting a ton. Well, I didn't want to have the baby that day. I talked with Matt and we both thought Tuesday or Wednesday would be ideal. I told Matt the perfect day would be Wednesday around 6, because then he could work the next day and Friday, then get to spend the weekend, entire week, and another weekend with me! I didn't want him to waste his days off with me in the hospital. So Monday rolled around, and all contractions stopped. Completely. I walked for 4 hours that day, did an hour long workout, and nothing! Tuesday came, I walked another 3 hours that day, and still nothing! It appeared I would not have my boy till the scheduled day on Saturday. I was on the phone with my mom, and told her I was way too stressed out! Instead of doing a hard core workout that night, I did yoga. I didn't clean anything. I sat and relaxed and enjoyed a movie with my sweet husband. Then I didn't get any sleep that night because I started contracting. It was sporadic, but they were getting more painful. Wednesday was a great day! My doctor appointment wasn't till afternoon and would ruin my whole day, but they called and asked if I would come within the hour. Oh, yeah! Rushed to get Josh and me ready, then left (both of us looked pretty rough, no hair done, but we were in a hurry!). I told the doctor I was contracting a lot more, and he offered to check my cervix. No thanks! With Josh, I never made it past a 3, so I saw no point. Dr. Bean told me if I started having contractions every 5 minutes or more for 2 hours, to go to labor and delivery because I was high risk since my c-section. They started the second I left the office. I drove over to visit with my mom, and my contractions were not slowing down, just getting more intense. So I left Josh with my mom and headed to the hospital. I gave Matt a heads up, but told him not to leave work unless I called. He asked if he could tell his family. NO!!! There was to be not one person other than my mom to know what I was doing until I knew for sure what exactly was going to happen. I know it's silly, but at the time it was very important! I got to the hospital around 1:30. They checked me "to make sure I hadn't progressed to a 5." I was a 1. I had to giggle at that! They watched me for an hour and saw I was contracting. They weren't horribly painful, still pretty short, but very consistent. My doctor was doing another c-section, so he said they'd monitor me till he was done and if I was still contracting, they'd take my boy out. My nurse said it would go pretty fast once they decided, so she recommended having Matt come right away. Matt asked again if he could tell his family. NO!!! You see, I still didn't know what was going on. I gave my mom the same orders, that no one was to know until I knew for sure. So Matt came, then the doctor a half hour later. Baby time! Yes, Matt, now you can tell your family, and yes, mom, you can tell everyone as well. I didn't call anyone, just sent out a mass text to my bros and a couple of friends. Now, I was expecting an hour or two after they said it was a go, but no one counted on my IV difficulty. I had to have a full bag of fluid before they would do the spinal. It was a positional IV, though, and it took nearly 2 hours to get the bag in. They brought me back around 5:30 give or take. I kind of feel bad about kicking a nurse in the OR. She was so sweet holding my hands while I got the spinal-Matt was getting his OR outfit on. I felt the buzz in my leg and it kicked straight out! She thought it was funny, and I didn't kick too hard, but I still feel bad! Now, as I went numb, I started worrying about the spinal not working and having severe pain as they cut me open. It happened to my mom, I didn't just pull the thought out of a hat. My pulse was in the 150's, I was so nervous! Matt walked in, and the anesthesiologist said, "Wow, you must have quite the calming influence! The second you walked in her pulse went down to 100!" Matt has been strutting ever since! He now thinks he is the best thing to hit earth! But I think he is too, so I won't complain:) I felt no pain during the procedure. In fact, it felt really funny, because I could tell some things they were doing, and could feel all the tugging and pulling, it just didn't hurt! I was wide awake for the whole thing this time, and will never forget my little Anthony's first cry! They lifted him high above the drape so I could take a peak before he was whisked off to get cleaned up. I then found out it was very good they decided to delver him when they did, because there was meconium in the amniotic fluid. They checked his vocal cords, though, and it didn't appear he'd got any in his lungs, thank goodness! I know it's pretty common for the baby to get distressed and have meconium, but you still can't help but worry some! I listened as they shouted out his birth weight and height, then went on about how cute and tiny he was. 6lb 7oz, 18 inches! Born at 6:01 PM. All of my family guessed around the 6 lb 5oz to 6lb 9 oz range. Matt guessed 7lb 1oz-sorry hubby:) My final guess was 6lb 6oz, so I was fairly close. I decided on that one because even though he felt huge, I didn't get huge. So now I have a baby with hair, and he's a cute little thing and a good little nurser, and the poor kid was just circumcised, so now he's pretty miserable! So sorry about the insanely long post, but I didn't want to forget things when I get around to writing it in my journal. I'll just leave some pics for now!

The day before I had Anthony: 38 weeks and 3 days

Admitted to the hospital and waiting nervously to go to the OR

He's here! He had a good little cry, and had little old man wrinkles all over his forehead!

Wrinkles disappearing, starting to relax as they listen to his heart.

Chillin' in the basinette, waiting for Mom to recover from the c-section and meet him in mother/baby

The first time I got to hold my new little guy! I got to give him a little kiss on the forehead in the OR, but my arms were stretched out on the boards to the table, so I didn't get to touch him until I was finished with surgery.

Our new family (minus our Gizmo). Can you believe how much bigger Josh is than our little Anthony? Crazy!!!

My favorite boys

Josh was so excited to help hold his little brother! He went right up and pet his face, saying,"Baby!"

Josh gave Anthony a kiss on the head before saying, "Bye, Anthony!" He was anxious to get to my mom's to have a sleepover with Alyse:)

After visitors left, Matt got to have some alone time with his boy. Matt is truly a proud Daddy:)

And I got a bit of alone time too, snuggling my little man while I burped him. I love how he curls up! He wouldn't nurse unless I removed all his blankets. He eats, then cries till he's swaddled again:)

So this is our new family, and I can't even begin to say how happy I am!

He's here!

Anthony David Carlson
Born April 20, 2011
6lbs 7oz, 18 inches
6:01 PM

Just letting you know the basic stats! I'll post pics when I get out of the hospital, but all is well, and he is just a sweet baby! I'm so happy he's finally here!

Winter Fun

I'm now 30 weeks pregnant. It has flown past! I'm getting nervous about getting everything done before this little guy comes, though I'm excited to have him here, and I am so glad Josh can have a little brother. I'm fortunate to have another few shifts at work. It's going to be difficult to not have that extra money for 3 months, but with tax returns, we should have money to get us through my time off. I'm not willing to give up those 3 months, and the Lord seems to always know exactly how much money we will need to get by and helps us through. It is funny though, whenever we think we will have some extra, something comes up so we don't get it. I'm also really not looking forward to another surgery. I've been starting to walk Josh everywhere, even when he wants me to pick him up, just to get him used to my not carrying him for 6 weeks. That was the most difficult part after my last surgery, and he resented me for it. I fully expect him to feel the same way with this one, especially when I'll be carrying the baby, but I guess in the overall scheme of things 6 weeks is just a short moment. Oh, well, not a whole lot more to write. I guess I'll just now leave some pics of some of our winter activities. It's been a nice winter:)

Our finally finished bedroom. Pic is a bit blurry, but Josh loved posing and saying, "Cheese!"

Our "Big Helper" assisting his dad in moving furniture back into our bedroom.

Our first family snowman. We didn't have boots for poor Josh yet, so we put plastic bags over his feet. He kept falling, so he made us hold his hand whenever he'd walk in the snow:)

Josh loved helping Matt shovel the driveway. He found a small board in the garage, and decided it was to be his very own snow shovel!

Whenever we leave my mom's house, Grandma always has to give Josh ice cream. She ran out once, so she stole Brian's (my little bro) own ice cream. Josh loved it, and fell asleep on the drive home thoroughly satisfied:)

My handsome boys

Me and my sweet boy

This is my Grandma's grave decorated for Christmas. We drove through the cemetery on Christmas Eve to visit, and it was so beautiful! There were so many lights and lanterns, and someone even managed to make their own flying lantern! It was really neat, and I was amazed by how many people there were!

Josh loved the tree! He frequently pulled decorations off and piled them under the tree:)

Josh feels the same way as I do about Santa. SCARY!

Josh is a natural at attacking pinatas

Had to show off the other babies my soon to be born boy's age. This is cute little McKenna.

The other cute newbie, Justin Thomas

Josh loves to litterally run in circles around the house! This is him at my mom's.

Christmas morning

We were very surprised that as soon as Josh pulled his sword out of his stocking, he immediately went swinging at Matt. I don't know where he learned it, but I would guess my brothers are the culprits.

Josh loves airplanes, and it took us forever to find this one, but Josh's reaction was worth the weeks of searching!

Josh sitting with his cuz, Kyle, watching a movie. Josh lasted all of a minute, then he was off.

Gotta take the family Christmas pic!

Josh's big boy bed. He did fall out of it after a little over a month. I heard a thud, followed by "Ouch!" Matt ran in and Josh was still so sleepy, Matt just gave him a big hug and tucked him back in. He was out like a light!