Family Pictures

Last Saturday we had some family pictures taken. I was worried that Carson would be crying, or spit up, or something during the pictures. I was proved wrong and was a perfect angel the whole time. He didn't start crying until right when we left and had a major blow out. I was grateful that he saved that until after pictures were over! We have been staying here in Missouri with the Burgin clan for two weeks now. The weird thing is that even though Chad and I have been married almost a year and a half, I've never been around my in-laws for this long before. But I can honestly say that I have had a great time being here with them. I feel so blessed to be apart of their family. Here are a few of my favs from our family pictures.

My cute nephew Ethan

The whole fam. Sure are a lot of boys! :)

Our little family

My sweet baby boy. Carson is becoming quite the little chunk weighing in at a hefty 10 pounds already!

All the Burgin girls together.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Missouri! This year we came down to Missouri to be with Chad's family for the holidays. It has been great to be here since the whole family is all together for the last time for the next few years. We are having a fabulous time so far and loving having a break from school and work! We hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas!

5 weeks old all dressed up for his first time at church. He is such a sweet little boy!

The big number 9

The past couple of days we have got slammed by cold winter storms. Today we had a high of 9 degrees!!! Really only 9 with a wind chill of -6! Brrr.... that is way too cold for me! Both yesterday and today all the schools were closed along with many businesses. Last night I decided to venture out to the gym (which is at our apt clubhouse fortunately!) and had to bundle myself in layers upon layers in order not to freeze to death by the nasty wind. I really could do without the freezing wind in the winter. It really does make it just plan miserable to be outside for more than about thirty seconds. Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be a bit better so I can at least go to the store since we have no food. Since we have basically been snowed in for two days now I am kicking myself for not being better about food storage. I guess I should take it as a warning and start being more prepared for situations like these.

Speaking of the number 9, today is the 9th of December, which was suppose to be Carson's due date. It's crazy trying to think how it would be if I were still pregnant. Thank goodness I'm not!!! I'm so grateful to have this sweet little boy in my home. I love just watching him and love seeing all his cute faces and little smiles. Now if I could just change one thing, it would be that he would let me get a little more sleep during the night.

Birth Story

Yesterday Carson hit his two week old mark. I thought I would take a few minutes to write the rest of the story about the events that led up to Carson's birth. Sorry, but this is a long post. It all began when I went into pre-term labor on November 9th, like I described in my earlier post. After being in the hospital from that Monday until Thursday and returning home with no baby, I was physically and emotionally exhausted. I was so grateful to have my Mom there to help me out. We spent Friday and Saturday organizing the baby's things and making sure we had everything ready. I also had a ward shower on that Saturday. Sunday came and we went to church as usual. That night around 8pm we were talking with my Dad on Skype when I started having contractions again. We headed to bed that night and the contractions continued and kept getting stronger and more regular. Finally when the contractions were only 4 minutes apart we decided we should go to the hospital. This time we had our bags packed and ready to go. We arrived at the hospital and once again I was put into the maternity triage and hooked up to the monitors. After being checked and monitored they admitted me. My nurse, Shannan told me that with the way I was going I would for sure have the baby either that night or the next day. So once again we were set to have our baby...or so we thought. Around midnight I got up and walked the halls with my mom, but instead of helping things progress my contractions started to slow down again! I couldn't believe it! By 2am my contractions had significantly slowed down and nothing much was happening. I was tired of being in the hospital and figured that I would probably be able to get a better nights sleep at home in my own bed rather than staying in the hospital. Of course once I got home I cried because I was so emotionally exhausted. I hardly slept that night as the contractions picked back up again. Poor Chad had gotten only a few hours of sleep that night and since it was Monday he had to go to school. Me and my Mom sent him off to school and I assured him that the baby wasn't going to come so he didn't need to worry. I was convinced that this baby was just toying with my emotions and testing my patience. I told my Mom that my water would have to break or something before I would go to the hospital again. I wasn't going to go and be sent home anymore. Around 10am that morning my contractions started to get harder.-Much harder than they had ever been before. But I figured they would probably eventually stop just like the rest had. About 2 o'clock Chad called to check on me. I told him about the contractions and chatted for a few minutes and while we were on the phone all of the sudden it felt like I had peed my pants. I told Chad that either I had peed my pants or my water had broken and that I was pretty sure my water had broke. So Chad hurried and left school to come pick us up. After my water broke my contractions started to get really intense really fast. We went to the hospital and this time we were able to skip going to triage and they went right ahead and admitted me. When they checked me I was already at a 5. I was happy to hear that all this hard contracting wasn't for nothing this time and we were going to have our baby. I told my nurse, Kelley, that I was determined to have a natural child birth and she reassured me that I could do it. As they were getting me all hooked up to the monitors a student nurse came in to hook me up to an IV. I've decided that it's really hard to hold still to have an IV put in when you are contracting. The little student nurse tried once with no success. The second time she tried didn't work either and it got stuck in there and really hurt that time. Lucky for me I was having other pain much worse than that to really focus on the IV mistakes. However, Chad was about to rip the needle from the student nurse's hand and tell her to stop poking me. About an hour later I was already dilated to a 7. I was so glad that I was progressing fast because at that point I wasn't sure how much longer I could stand all that pain. I was grateful to have Chad by my side the whole time holding my hand and my Mom coaching me reminding me to breath. Soon after that though I started to feel like I couldn't handle the pain any longer. I felt like a crazy person for choosing to go natural and began to doubt my decision. When my nurse Kelley came back into my room I asked her where in the heck was the epidural man. She told me that he was in the middle of doing a c-section on another patient. What?! I wanted to cry. Maybe I did cry...I'm not really sure because I couldn't think straight through all the pain. She checked me again and I was at a 9. She assured me that I was only a few hours away from having my baby. I about died when she said a few hours. Could I last that long?! Soon after that though I felt like I had to push and after being checked I was at a 10 already. They had paged my doctor, but he had not responded so they paged him again. After my doctor didn't respond to the second page they got a hold of doctor Dziko. She over saw my care when I was in the hospital the week before because my doctor was out of town. So I was glad that I already had met her and trusted her. While I was pushing I was so focused that I wasn't really paying attention to how many nurses were in the room or what was going on. The pushing part was my favorite because I finally was able to channel all the pain towards something. I did get really sick while I was pushing and threw up almost every time I pushed for the whole 45 minutes. Carson was born at 6:06pm. I remember the nurse placing Carson in my arms for the first time and feeling so overwhelmed with love for him. He is such a sweet baby and has brought so much joy into our lives. We love you Carson!! Happy two week birthday!

My Little Night Owl

Carson will be one week old tomorrow! It's amazing how from the second they placed Carson in my arms how much I loved him already. He has brought such a sweet spirit into our home and we have enjoyed getting to know his cute little personality. When I was pregnant with Carson I noticed that he was way more active at night time than during the day. I worried that when he actually came that he might have his days and nights mixed up. Well I turned out to be right. He has his days and nights mixed up more than ever! We hardly ever see his little eyes open during the day, but at night he is bright eyed and wide awake. I guess I need to start pulling out my camera during the middle of the night in order to get pictures of him with his eyes open. So it has made for some rough nights with only about 45 minutes of sleep total, but we are working on getting him on a schedule. Last night he followed the schedule so well! I loved it! It feels amazing to get more than an hour of sleep!!! Luckily my wonderful Mom is sitll here and has helped me so much and been up with me every night. We have had some good laughs together during the middle of the night and it's been so great to have her here to help me! I'm sure going to miss her when she leaves tomorrow! Hopefully this new schedule will work for him and be a good routine for us. Here are a few new pictures of our little man over the past few days.

Carson taking his swing for a ride. So far he seems to love it.

I just love how he folds his little arms together!

Mommy and her sweet little boy.

The proud Daddy and his boy. Chad is such a good little Dad and completely adores his son.

Pictures!

Happy Birthday Carson Chadley Burgin!

Mom, Dad, Magah, and Carson! (I promise I was ready for the day before all this happened, but I look way scary.)

Our new family with the nurse Kelly. She was the best! When I got to a 9 I was starting to think I couldn't make it without an epidural, but thanks to Kelly she encouraged me to keep going and I made it!

Right after his first bath (6 hours old) and loving being under the nice warm lamp.

His first morning, he is loving life in Daddy's arms (14 hours old)

He is a cutie! We just can't get enough of this little guy!

We had a baby it's a boy!

They say the third time is the charm. Michelle's water broke at about 2:15 pm and we made our way to the hospital. They put us straight into a room, we didn't even have to do the triage thing like the last two times. Michelle was determined to a natural birth, no epideral, and after just a couple hours of dialating and about 45 minutes of pushing we both shed a tear as we welcomed our newest addition to the family... at 6:05 pm...

Carson

6 Pounds 5 Ounces

More pictures to come!

Our wild week

This has been quite the crazy week for us full of unexpected things. This will probably be a bit of a long post because I am using this to journal what happened. On Sunday we had stake conference. We went and had the privilege of sitting on those hard metal chairs that we all just love. I had been getting pretty uncomfortable lately being pregnant and sitting on those chairs just about did me in. I found myself leaning from side to side and Chad had to massage my back. Even though the speakers were great I had a rough time being there because I was so uncomfortable. Monday morning came and I woke up and I was bleeding. I felt fine and so I went to work and went about my usual morning routine. By 10am I was having lots of low back pain and pelvic pressure and I could barely walk. I finally decided to give in and call my doctor to see what they recommended. They told me to go home, lay down, and drink some water. I left work and told my supervisor what was happening and I told her I'd probably be back in a couple hours. By the time I walked out to my car I was in quite a bit of pain. I called Chad and told him what was going on and since his afternoon class was cancelled he came home with me. After 2 hours of being at home laying down the pain didn't stop. I was content to wait it out another hour since I was convinced it would just go away, but luckily Chad forced me to go. We went to the doctor's office and they hooked me up to a machine to monitor my contractions. I was having contractions about every 4 minutes and I was dilated and effaced to about 70%. They gave me a shot of terbutaline to stop my contractions. -That stuff is crazy! It makes your heart race and makes you super jittery. It's probably like drinking 30 cups of coffee right in a row. I was shaking like crazy. After they checked me they told me that they were going to admit me to the hospital. So much for going back to work huh. We went to the hospital and after being monitored and checked again they put me into a delivery room. They had me all hooked up to an IV and monitors and keep giving me the terbutaline to stop labor. My contractions would slow down for a little bit after the shot of terbutaline, but then they would go right back to where they were before and so they made me stay overnight. That first night I slept in a labor and deliver bed, which is completely uncomfortable and obviously not meant for a long term stay. Luckily the next day they switched it out for a real hospital bed and that was much better. The next morning they decided to do an ultrasound to check on the baby to make sure everything was ok since I was still bleeding and contracting. The baby was sitting extremely low..hence the intense pelvic pressure. The ultrasound didn't show any problems with me or the baby, however, the baby only measured 5lbs 7oz. Just a small little guy. After getting the results of the ultrasounds the doctors decided that I would stay overnight and then on Wednesday they would stop the terbutaline and see if I went into labor or not since I would officially be 36 weeks. I tried to mentally prepare myself that night for what that next day could bring but there was guarantee what would actually happen. Wednesday came and I was allowed to shower and walk around and be off terbutaline finally (after about 7 or 8 doses of that nasty stuff). It felt so great to be able to get out of my hospital room finally! I walked around quite a bit the whole day and that night they came and checked me again and nothing had happened. In fact the contractions completely stopped all together! I was blown away that now that I was finally off that medicine everything was actually stopping now that they were ok with me going into labor. Talk about emotional ups and downs. My sweet mom flew in on Wednesday night to be with us and help Chad take care of me so he could focus on school. Chad was such a trooper this whole week and spent most of his time in the hospital with me and supporting me through everything. Finally on Thursday morning I was able to see my actual doctor (he was out of town earlier in the week). He checked me and said I was only dilated to a 2. Which throughout this whole process I'd been told different things every time because I had been checked by so many different people. One doctor told me I was at a 4, so being told I was only at a 2 was a bit of a shock. Since I wasn't progressing he said I could go home finally. Wahoo! Freedom at last! He told me I could go home and listen to my body and whenever this baby decides to come he will come. So for now I've been at home relaxing and taking it easy while my wonderful mother takes care of me. She's the best! I have another doctor's appointment today so I guess we'll find out if anything else has changed or if our little man decided he wants to stay inside of me and cook a little longer. Thanks to all of you for your many prayers in our behalf and for all your love and support.

Halloween continued

I know this is really late in posting the rest of the Halloween festivities, but I thought I would do it any way just to document it. This pictures are way out of order so I apologize, but I guess you will get the gist of it.

We started off our Halloween night by going to dinner at Chipotle. Our friends tipped us off that Chipotle gives you a free burrito if you go there with foil anywhere on your body. So of course we jumped on that cause we're all about free food! We made our little foil headbands and crowns and got our free meal. It was great! Later that night the Mellors came over and we attempted to carve pumpkins. I was a slacker about getting pumpkins and so I didn't actually buy one until Halloween. All they had was little baby pumpkins. I bought one and called it good. The Mellors didn't have any luck finding a pumpkin and instead bought a watermelon. We had some good laughs attempting to carve the watermelon and pumpkin. Here's the Mellor's watermelon carving job.

Matt & Traci with their drooling watermelon.

Our pumpkin was "incarvable" and so Chad just drew some techy sign on it to geek up his pumpkin

Sorry about this picture...it got stuck on here and I couldn't get it off.

Chad excited to get his free burrito.

Me and my tinfoil crown.

I had to post this picture of my cinnamon rolls. It was my first time making homemade cinnamon rolls completely unsupervised and they turned out pretty darn good!

Halloween locks

Since Chad just LOVES redheads he finally got his chance to be one the other night at our ward Halloween party (Thanks to Brad for sharing and Jana for documenting this!) Don't you just love his long flowing locks?! Pretty hot stuff!

More Halloween pictures to come!

Pregnancy Moments

Since I got pregnant I have gotten much more forgetful than I normally am. I seem to have more blonde moments than ever now.-Not that they didn't happen before, just that it happens more frequently now. For example, last night I loaded up the dishwasher and reached under the sink to grab the dishwasher detergent. I pulled out a bottle, looked at it quickly and started pouring it in. After I started pouring I realized that instead of the usual white liquid that comes out it was orange and runny. What the heck was I doing?! I had grabbed the dish soap and just started to pour it on into the dishwasher instead! I'm pretty sure I'm losing it! Chad got a good laugh out of that one. I had another pregnancy moment when I was at the grocery store last week. I was in the produce section at Hyvee picking out a green pepper. I must have been standing a little too close to the display of perfectly stacked peppers because as I turned to put the green pepper into my cart my belly knocked over a couple big red peppers and sent them rolling on the floor! Yep that's embarrassing to knock something over with your mongo pregnant belly! Right away a sweet little produce worker came over and picked them both up before I had a chance to attempt to akwardly bend over to pick them up and told me that it happens all the time and not to worry about it. Another thing that I've noticed is that I've become clumsier than ever. I was at the gym the other night and I had brought three things with me: keys, my phone, and my ipod. I got on the eliptical and was on my way. Within 10 minutes of being in the gym I managed to drop everyone of those things at least once! You can just call me butterfingers! I know I've had many, many more moments like these since I got pregnant, but I just can't remember them. So maybe some of you can relate to these pregnancy moments, and if not, maybe it'll give you a good laugh for the day.

Tractor Museum

This weekend we got a visit from this cute girl

Chad's sister Erica came to visit us for the weekend. We don't get to see Erica very often so it was so much fun to have her here! Since we didn't get her back from the airport until late Friday night we didn't start our activites until Saturday. We got the day started off right with Chad making us a big breakfast. Then we headed out to Target where Erica helped us finish up the last of our big baby purchases. Afterwards we took Erica over to the East Campus where the law school is. Since we were over there we decided to see the Tractor Museum. Yes there is actually a Tractor Museum here...pretty funny!

There were rows of all sorts of different tractors to be seen.

Basically Erica and I spent our time there taking random pictures to entertain ourselves during the tour. I look like I swallowed a basketball in this picture.

Our tour was given by this little old man. Come to find out he used to teach mechanical engineering. As you can tell by this picture, once he found out that Chad has his undergrad degree in engineering he ignored us for the rest of the tour and gave Chad his own personal tour with all the engineering extras in it. Chad loved every second of it! Although the musuem is probably not my favorite place in the world it was defininetly worth it to take Chad there because I know it made his day. Thanks Erica for making the trip out here! We loved having you here!

Hot and Cold

It is no surprise that our home is full of extremes...

These pictures were from last night...

My Hottie! (The Hot)

And this morning....

(The Cold)

Michelle is such a trooper and handling this pregnancy like a champ! She is amazing and I love her. Isn't she so cute!!!!

Winter beginning and visitors

The past couple of weeks it has started to get a bit cool here and feel like winter is settling in. With the coolness has come my least favorite part of Nebraska....the frigid wind. I can handle the cold temperatures and humidity, but the wind just about does me in. It may be 40 or 50 degrees outside one day, but with the wind chill it feels much, much colder. So we are back to the windy days with bad wind blown hair and broken umbrellas. However, on the plus side the cooler temps have made it so we can sleep with our window open at night and it's been absolutely fabulous. Since I have my little heater inside of me I am constantly getting overheated at night which makes me even more uncomfortable than I already am. But with the window open and the cool air flowing in I sleep much better. It's so great! Then there is poor Chad. Before we go to bed Chad turns on the fan and opens the window for me. Then he crawls under all the covers and throws the heaviest quilt we have on top of him hoping that he won't freeze to death. He deserves a gold medal for putting up with that alone. But that's not all he does for me. He will do just about anything to make me comfortable and goes out of his way to please me. Pretty much he is the BEST! I just love this boy!
This week has been crazy busy and so I'm a little late in getting around to posting this one. Last week we had Grandma and Grandpa Price come visit us. They were on their way down to Missouri to see the rest of the Burgin clan. We were lucky enough that we were able to spend the day with them and have them stay at our apartment. I left work a little early on Thursday and went home and we all chatted for a while before we went to dinner at the Olive Garden. We had a great time and the food was delicious! Then we came back to our apartment and played Mormon Bridge and "No Peekie". I had never won at Mormon Bridge until last night. It was great to have my moment of glory for just a minute before the next game when I came in dead last. haha Same thing happens when I bowl...one game I do really good and then next game I score like a 50. We had a great time playing games and chatting with them. Grandma and Grandpa were so funny! We just love them and feel so grateful that they came and visited us.

Confessions of a watermelon addict

Summer has come and gone already and fall has officially begun. I tend to dread the end of summer because I know it means a few things. Not only does it mean that long sunshiny days filled with warmth will be replaced by the bitter cold winds of winter, flip flops and shorts being tucked away for the season, but it also means that watermelon will no longer be in season.-Yep that last one is a big deal for me. Anyone that knows me knows that I absolutely LOVE watermelon. If I could eat one food all day every day it would be watermelon hands down. It's just that good! I remember when I was younger I would ask my parents if I could move my birthday from January to the summer so that I could have watermelon. Now that's probably what you call an addiction, but I guess there could be worse things right. I've been buying watermelons throughout this whole summer and savoring every minute of it. However, the last one I bought was nasty! Seriously I was so dissapointed because I knew it was one of the last ones I would probably buy and I ended up throwing it away because it tasted so bad. This week I went to the grocery store and carefully picked out a nice big watermelon in hopes that I could top of the summer with a good one. Yesterday as I cut it open I was thrilled that it was a nice juicy red one! Tasted fabulous too! Oh happy day! What a great way to end the summer!

I've got the tireds

If you know my mom then you will laugh at the title of this post. My mom would frequently say this phrase in a rather sleepy voice right after we finished dinner. Somtimes seconds later she was actually asleep at the dinner table. I think this phrase pretty much sums up our life right now. I've made it to my 7th month and I feel like I am tired all the time. I also tend to stress myself out by thinking of what feels like 90 billion things that I need to do before the baby comes. My mind is constantly filled with things such as: Does he have enough clothes, when will I get the carseat, what if I have the baby early, what books should I have been reading, do we have everything we need, how will we afford everything when I quit my job, etc, etc. I feel like all of the sudden December has gotten really close and there is so much that needs to be done that I haven't even started. That thought alone can wear me right out. My lunch breaks at work used to be spent walking are now usually spent sleeping because I apparently can no longer manage to work 8 hours without a nap in there somewhere. Ridiculous! Then there is Chad. This poor guy has an insane schedule. He is still swimming in the mornings at 5:30am, working way too many hours, taking both MBA and law classes, keeps up with his busy calling, trying to find a job for next summer, and on top of that all still makes time for me. I'm not sure how he does it all, but I do know he keeps plugging away even though he's exhausted. He's pretty much amazing and I feel grateful to have a husband that works so hard for us.

In other news, last night I went on a Target run and found myself a diaper bag. The best part about it is that it's actually not a diaper bag, it's a PURSE! It's big, red, cute, and I'm in love with it. So I will happily be toting around my very large red purse instead of a diaper bag when our little man comes. Oh and to make it even better I got a killer deal on it! Gotta love Target!

Labor Day Weekend Getaway

This Labor Day weekend we decided we would head down to Missouri and stay with the Burgins. We didn't get our things packed the night before so we didn't even leave until 6pm...putting us at their house almost at midnight. We probably would've gotten there sooner if it weren't for the many rest stop breaks we had to take. I've discovered that I now get SUPER uncomfortable in the car when I'm traveling. My body gets all stiff and achy and then when we finally do stop I can barely stand up because I'm so stiff. Needless to say this will probably be our last long road trip before our little guy arrives. Despite the uncomfortable drive down there I'm SO glad we went! On Saturday Teri and I headed out to Springfield on a hunt for a rocking chair. We literally shopped until we dropped! We were lucky to find the perfect chair that both of us loved so much that we will probably have matching chairs. We had a great time! We made it home just in time to have dinner and watch the BYU game. It was fun to see BYU pull out a win against OU. (I'm ok with cheering for BYU just as long as they aren't playing the Utes.) Sunday night we played a little mormon bridge and it was shocking to me that I didn't come in last. Mormon bridge is a big deal on the Price side of the family. Last year I played it at Bear Lake with the entire Price family (which is a lot of people!) in a huge competition where everyone played. It was pretty intense stuff! They all have been raised playing this game and are pros. I pretty much came in last every game, but it was still a good time. This time I think I came in 3rd or 4th so maybe I'm improving. Then on Monday Teri and I did some more shopping for baby stuff and found some good sales while Chad and the boys rode the four wheelers. It was hard to leave and come back to real life after such a fun weekend, but it was great to be able to spend some time with family. We did take our camera with us but I never pulled it out of the bag to snap some pictures while we were there. So sorry for the lack of pictures...I'll try to be better next time.

Umm umm good!

This weekend Chad and I had a little date night at home. Since I was craving something sweet we decided to make cinnamon rolls. Normally Chad and I avoid cooking in the kitchen together. It works better for us if we are both working on different things. If we do work on the same dish together it usually results in one or both of us getting frustrated. However, I'm pleased to report that this time was a complete success! We had so much fun making these tasty cinnamon rolls together. Thanks Chadley for such a fun date night!

Chad is an expert dough maker. If you haven't had his rolls, you need to because they are amazing! He looks so handsome in this picture!

This is me at 25 weeks people and I look like I'm as big as a house. Chad kept snapping shots of me from the worst angles possible and this was the only decent shot of me.
So GOOD! I love a good cinnamon roll!
Chad finishing up the job by frosting the rolls.

The rest of this post is completely off the subject from the cinnamon rolls, but I'll share it anyway. In the past couple of weeks I've gotten some interesting comments from people about my baby belly. I've decided some people are clueless as to what is actually coming out of their mouths. One lady at work told me I was "getting pudgy."-Yep that didn't go over well with me. I felt like saying back to her, "Um, that was rude," but I kept my mouth shut and smiled instead. Then yesterday another lady at work told me that I was huge.-Ok I know my belly is growing bigger everyday and I might feel like I'm as big as house, but still to call a pregnant woman huge to her face is a knock. Ironically enough both of these comments have come from people that are on the larger side themselves. So what's the deal? Has this happened to any of you? I thought it was a known fact just not to say anything like that to a pregnant lady, but apparently some people really are clueless.