Dear Ty - 5 1/2 weeks

Ty Carter Brunson, I cannot believe you are already 5 and 1/2 weeks old! It seems like just yesterday that we found out we were pregnant with you! It has been quite the whirlwind and it definitely threw our lives upside down when you came, in a good way.

You were born 5 weeks early for reasons that no one knows. I'm thinking it's because your dad and I are very impatient, and sadly, that probably passed on to you, too! Because you were so early, you needed help with a few things. The doctors put you in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to monitor your breathing, oxygen levels, heart rate, and they also had to help you learn how to eat and gain weight. You were there for two weeks and made incredible progress!

When you came home from the hospital, you were two weeks old. I was terrified to be solely responsible for you and was nervous that I'd do something wrong, but I was also incredibly relieved to not have to worry about the dumb monitor that beeped every time I held you because your leads came off, or your oxygen detector wiggled off your foot, making it seem like someone was dying. I was so glad that the nurses were no longer in charge of everything and that I could finally be your mom!

The first day that you were out of the hospital, we spent at Grandma and Grandpa Brunson's house, but the following day, Saturday, we took you to our home! It was so wonderful to look around at all of the baby stuff in our house and finally have, in our arms, the perfect little tiny human to go with everything!

Up until this last week, you were actually a decent sleeper! You'd wake up every two hours or so to eat, and then you'd fall back asleep! Our days were very mundane. Because you'd eat every two hours, I didn't always feel very well rested at 8 in the morning, so I just kept sleeping. When I finally got out of bed, all I wanted to do was snuggle with you! So, that's all I did for about two weeks straight! We had dishes piling up in our sink, clothes overflowing our laundry basket, but I just held you tight until it was time to go get dad from work. Then he and I would switch off holding you, and it was perfect!

For about the last week or two, you became quite gassy at night. I don't know if it was something I did, or if it was the vitamins that the hospital told me to give you, but nights turned into a miserable time of day that I dreaded. You would wake up, I'd feed you for about 30 minutes, put you back to bed, get in my own bed, and then five minutes later you were crying again. So I'd have to sit with you for about an hour squishing your knees up to your stomach trying to help you get rid of your gas. I didn't mind doing this because I hated seeing you in pain, but boy did it make me tired. So after an hour of that, you were finally happy and sleepy. I'd put you down in bed, and you'd wake up half an hour later to eat. And this has been happening for almost two weeks!

Grandma House came to visit during that time (May 22-29) and on her last night here, she took care of you all night so that I could sleep, and I slept for 7 hours straight! It was a nice reboot for sure. And then this past weekend on Saturday night, you slept!!! I put you to bed and you fell asleep for two and a half hours, woke up to eat, and then slept for three and a half hours! It might not seem like much, but boy was it amazing! Definitely worth remembering! But then you were back to not sleeping very well and having an upset stomach, so I knew I was going to have to do something about it.

Two days ago, I took you to the doctor and asked if I could stop giving you the vitamin (Polyvisol) because I thought that might be part of your gassy/upset stomach, and he said that was fine. I also realized that you don't really like to sleep on your back, but that you prefer sleeping on my chest, in someone's arms, or on your stomach. So that night, I let you sleep on your stomach on our bed. You loved it! You slept for three and a half hours! Last night, you were constantly hungry and mad that I kept putting you on your back to sleep, so I took you into the front room, fed you, and then fell asleep on the couch. You slept on my chest for about 4 hours, and it was glorious!

Moral of the story, night time is still a work in progress for us, but I think we're getting there!

You are now almost 6 weeks old (on Friday) and you are so dang cute! You are very expressive with your facial expressions! Every time you're awake, you have such a quizzical look on your face like you're trying to decipher everything that you see. When you sleep, your mind is thinking like crazy and I can tell because your eyes are constantly moving, opening, and you make the cutest faces!

You love being held really tightly, so we bought these "Swaddlers" that velcro super tight and you love being wrapped up in them! You do really well when I put you on your stomach for tummy time!

A fun guide to healthy eating!

When I decided to buy Focus T25 and Shakeology, I knew that I would also have to start eating healthier to see any results. That freaked me out! I have tried to eat healthy before, and when I can't find anything fast and easy or healthy at all, I would start skipping meals, become starving, and then eat anything that I could find. 

In hopes to help you out and get you started on your eating healthy goal, I thought I'd give you some helpful tips that I've learned these past 4 months!

• Start off by finding some good recipes! Here is my healthy food board on Pinterest that focuses on main dishes, and I have a few other healthy food boards as well! Pinterest is a wonderful website for you to find pretty much anything, so type in "Healthy meals" or something, and you'll find a ton of results!! 
• Once you've found some good recipes (don't skimp out on this part and think you'll be able to find something later.. Do your research NOW! Unless you're hungry.. if that's the case, eat something, then come back and do your research.), MAKE YOUR MEAL PLAN! It's better to eat 5-6 smaller meals a day rather than 3 large ones. Download a meal planner, or make your own! I use a calendar white board from Walmart and each column is one day. So I have Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, Snack, Dinner. Some people add an extra snack after dinner, but I've found that most days I don't need one.. and I don't have room on this calendar! If I ever do need an after dinner snack, scrambled egg whites are my fall back!

If you have your meal plan somewhere that you can easily see it, you will be more likely to plan ahead if you need to and not have to wonder what you can eat!

• That's the next tip.. plan ahead!! Do all of your grocery shopping for the week!! It's going to be hard to make crock pot orange chicken for dinner if you don't have oranges or chicken! I decided to make a three bean salad that has green beans, kidney beans, white beans, vinegar, and olive oil for some snacks this week. I mixed it all together and put it in the fridge. Now I know that I can just get 1/2 cup of it when it's snack time! (I would have put it into individual tupperware containers, but I don't have enough for that.) If I didn't already have that prepped, by the time I was hungry, I probably wouldn't want to make it. But if it's easy to grab and it's healthy, you're all set!! A lot of people make a handful of their meals on one day and put them in individual containers for the week... this is really helpful if you're out of the house for most of the day!
• When grocery shopping, buy more fruits and veggies than processed food (try not to buy processed food at all). If it's pre-packaged, it's most likely going to be way more unhealthy than a few apples. Make the produce section your best friend!

• Now that you have a bunch of food ready, GET RID OF THE JUNK FOOD!! If you're like me, then you're going to need to eat the junk food in your house if it's there.. I just can't help it! Donate it to a friend, or just help everyone out and throw it away. You don't need any temptations!!!
• Don't skip any meals!! You should be eating within an hour of waking up, and then every meal should be 2-3 hours after your last meal. When you skip meals, your metabolism slows down thinking that you're starving, so instead of burning the food you eat, it stores it into fat. NO GOOD! 

• When you're first starting out, there might be a few meals that just never end up sounding good to you.. This is another circumstance where planning your meals a week out helps! If Tuesday's dinner doesn't sound good, and you've already bought all the ingredients for the super yummy dinner you had planned for Thursday, make Thursday's dinner instead!! I do this all the time, because my taste buds are quite spontaneous.
• Always have a water bottle with you!! In one of my challenge groups, I won a camelbak water bottle that holds like 26 ounces, and it is always by me! It's a lot easier to make sure you get your water in if you have a cute water bottle that holds more than the typical "16oz" disposable water bottles. ALSO, cut out all your other beverages!! No more soda, coffee, juice, just water!! You might feel like you need the other drinks, but cut them out for two weeks and you'll see that water is really what you need!

• If you have a smart phone, download the "My Fitness Pal" app. It allows you to search for foods, scan the barcode of your store-bought foods, or put in the nutritional information on your own. You can put in everything you ate and drank for the day, as well as how much water you drank! At the end of the day, you can hit "complete entry" and it tells you how much you would weigh in 5 weeks if you kept eating/drinking/exercising like you did that day!! It's also really nice to stay accountable, and if you're going to be documenting what you eat, you're more likely to skip those five candy bars in your cupboard! (Although if you threw the junk food away, you won't have this problem!)
• There are so many other things I could say, but one last thing is how to reward yourself. We are in the type of society where we feel the need to celebrate with food. You got awesome grades? Let's go out to a fancy dinner! It's your 3 month anniversary? Get donuts!!
  
  WRONG!! Skip the food and reward yourself in other ways!! When I completed working out for a month straight, I bought myself some new clothes! You can get a pedicure, buy new shoes, get your hair done, buy that special face mask that you've been wanting to try. Get your mind out of the habit of thinking that food is the best way to treat yourself. 

You can do this!! You will feel better when you eat better, I promise!! If you need any help or motivation, feel free to email me (shaylingetsfit@gmail.com), text me, leave a comment, anything!! I want you to feel healthier!! If you missed my transformation post, check it out here!

Also, make sure to come back next week for a few of my favorite meals!!

My fitness story + Before and Afters!

Growing up and all through high school/college, I never really thought of myself as overweight. I was never "skinny" or what I wanted to look like, but I wasn't upset with my weight or body type. I was generally between 135-140 pounds. I never worked at it, and I never had good eating habits, but I guess all the dance parties and random outings with friends had me more active and kept me within that weight range. When I got married at the beginning of 2012, it seemed like it was overnight that I gained a few pounds, and then a few more pounds. And then all of a sudden I was 169 pounds. Um, what?! I was super self conscious, hated the way I looked, the way clothes fit me, and my energy levels were dirt!! But did I care enough to do anything about it then? NOPE! I was just super complainy.. (not a word, I know.) POOR ME! I'M SO CHUBBY!!

Then I got pregnant, and for most people, that's when they decide to start eating healthier.. Yanno, for the baby! That wasn't the case for me! I figured I'd been living just fine eating the way I did, and I wasn't about to give up all of my candy and junk food! NO WAY!

But then I had Ty. And when we finally got to bring him home, of course I was tired, I just had a baby! He was eating every two hours! I wanted to stare at him every second! But I was sleeping until 1:00 in the afternoon, taking naps all the time, and just never had the energy to do hardly anything.

I was at a family gathering and watched my sister-in-law's daughter reach for vegetables that were on the table before she reached for the candy right next to it. WHAT?! I didn't even reach for veggies.. EVER!! I thought about Ty growing up and how I wished, more than anything, that he would be a healthier eater than I was, and maybe even enjoy eating vegetables. And that's when it hit me. He's not ever going to learn to love them if they aren't even in the house! I was the one that was going to have to be his example. It all had to start with me.

I tried looking around at different weight loss programs, but I knew I wanted to do something that would help me change my habits instead of going on a "diet". I needed this to be a lifestyle change. Everything that I saw was either super expensive, looked stupid, or I knew it wasn't going to stick with me.

So I decided to look on Pinterest for easy at-home workouts and I thought that I might consider doing. In the middle of June, I was browsing Facebook and came across a post that mentioned this girl who had a workout page where she posted healthy recipes and a few short videos of her working out. I checked out her page and thought to myself, "If I ever get motivated enough to workout at home, these workouts seem like a good start!" I 'liked' her page, and then she messaged me asking about my fitness goals and wanted to get to know me! So we started talking back and forth, I told her that I just had a baby and I wanted to get back in shape, and she told me about a fitness challenge group that she was going to be doing the next month, and after telling her that I suck at eating healthy, she invited me to a "Clean Eating" group that she held every month. I happily accepted, and learned that eating healthy doesn't have to be hard!

I ended up really liking the accountability of having a group on Facebook where I had to say what I ate everyday. There was no way that I was going to let everyone know that I had sugar cereal for breakfast, chips as a snack, pb&j for lunch, and so on. I also got a lot of food inspiration from the other people posting everyday!! It was awesome. So then I asked about her challenge group that she was doing. She told me that I'd need to buy a fitness program, Shakeology, and I'd have one-on-one help from her, be in an accountability group on facebook where I'd need to post everyday, and I would have access to Beachbody's Online Gym!



I was super excited because that seemed perfect for me! If I'm not accountable to someone, I will never finish anything. And even sometimes if I am accountable, I still don't finish. I'm kind of well known (by myself) as the girl who never finishes anything!!  But I decided to give this a try, and I wanted it badly enough that I WAS GOING TO MAKE IT, DANG IT! I started looking around the Beachbody website, looked at the products, and I was kind of reserved on the price, but I knew I still wanted to do it. It looked amazing! I read a ton of success stories and saw a lot of "before and after" pictures, and I was ready!

I went ahead and bought a challenge pack, which came with a 30 serving bag of Shakeology and my workout program; I chose Focus T25. It said it was only going to be 25 minutes a day, and with a two month old, time was not on my side!

One of the coolest things for me was being in the facebook group. My coach had written up a bunch of her favorite healthy recipes and that was the best starting point to eating healthy, along with the sample meal plans that came with Focus T25. It helped me realize that eating healthy wasn't hard, it just took preparation.

I was told to take pictures of my body to have as my "before" pictures. For someone like me that never finishes anything, I was skeptical about the whole thing, STILL, and was worried that I was going to take these INSANELY embarrassing pictures and still look the same a month or two later. BUT, I'm so glad I took them. NEVER skip the before pictures!!!

So I started working out, eating healthier, and drinking Shakeology in place of one meal a day. Because of my serious addiction to sugar, I made the commitment to give up all treats for the first month, which might not be your preferred method to do things, but I HAD to give it all up to start with. And I lost 7 pounds in the first week!! It was probably just water weight, but freak, it was 7 POUNDS! If that doesn't motivate you to keep going, I don't know what will! So I kept going, working out, drinking Shakeology (which curbed a lot of my cravings!), and I just kept seeing the pounds disappear from the scale! One month went by and I was down 10 pounds! And then after two months, with almost consistent healthy eating, drinking Shakeology, and working out everyday, my weight was 151!!! I had lost 18 pounds, I felt A MILLION times more energized, I was so much happier and friendly to my husband, and I wasn't nearly as embarrassed about what my body looked like!

As far as Focus T25 is concerned, I FREAKING LOVED THESE WORK OUTS!! In fact, I'm doing them all over again, and they are still challenging to me! I get bored really easily with workouts, which is why I never stuck with Pinterest workouts or other ones that I found on youtube.. I needed something new everyday, and I also REALLY needed a schedule to follow EVERY DAY. When you buy the workout program, it comes with a rather large calendar with the designated workouts for each day and then little boxes for you to rate how you did during the workout whether you "nailed it" or "barely made it"! I loved filling in each box everyday, and I'll be honest, almost every day was "barely made it" haha. I'm sure this applies to every other type of workout, but I love that I could customize the level of workout I was getting! In the beginning, I was really overweight and couldn't jump a lot, so I followed the modifier and sometimes even went a step lower, but I was still getting a great workout! These workouts really are great for every body in any physical shape!!

Honestly, Beachbody helped me get my life back. I workout every morning and still have LOADS of energy to play with Ty all day long! Sure, I still get tired (because I go to bed around 12..) but I'm no where close to how tired I was when I ate like crap, never exercised, and got enough sleep.

It has now been 3 1/2 months since I started this whole journey, and I am down 23 pounds and have lost 17 inches from my body!! I mentioned on instagram the other day that I finally enjoy the process of going shopping and seeing how clothes actually FIT and look cute, for the first time in at least 2 years!!

I learned two very important things through this process:

1. No one can make you workout or get back into shape. You have to be ready to change and make that decision on your own. 

2. You can't out exercise a bad diet. Seeing weight loss comes from  70-80% eating healthy and 20-30% exercising. So don't think that you can see results with working out everyday and eating mac & cheese, chips, candy, and pizza everyday. (Although a few cheats here and there won't hurt! Key words being "here and there".)

I hope this gives someone the confidence and courage to make a change in their life. If you have any questions about Beachbody, their workout programs, Shakeology, or anything else, I'd be more than happy to answer them for you!! You can email me at shaylingetsfit@gmail.com . If you want to look for yourself, check out their website! Please know that I'm not at the fitness level that I want to be at, but I am still working toward my goal!! Want to join me? What's there to lose? (Besides inches and pounds, of course!!)

Ty at 5 months

Oh Ty, you are absolutely adorable!! How have 5 months gone by already?! You are growing up to be such a funny, happy little boy!! At your 5 month appointment, you weighed 15 pounds 6 ounces and were 26 inches tall!

You are starting to laugh!! It sounds more like a grunt, but sometimes you let out a little giggle!
You love the song, "If You're Happy And You Know It"! Anytime we sing it with you, you get such a big smile on your face! You like the first verse better than the others! If we're in the car and you're upset, we'll sing it to you and you stop crying until we finish the song!
You love tummy time and laying on your back. You don't last very long down there unless we're next to you. You talk more when you're on your back. If I walk away for a minute, you're in there talking to yourself or Dexter, and it's adorable!
You are so very wiggly, and you never want to sit still! Barely even when you're tired, but I don't blame you! There's so much to explore and see!
You went on your first (and second and third) airplane ride!! We went to Washington with you and you finally got to meet my side of the family! You also experienced The Puyallup Fair!
We think you started teething because your hands are ALWAYS in your mouth and you're a little more fussy than usual.. still a very happy baby though!
You LOVE dexter, he can get you to stop crying any time he's near you! Although, he's not the biggest fan of your strong grip on his hair!
EVERYTHING goes in your mouth. If we hold your hands while you're standing, our fingers go in your mouth! Books, toys, hair, clothes, anything you can get in there!!
You love getting diaper changed and will smile and laugh and be super happy on your changing table! The only exception is when you're hungry.. You're never happy when you're hungry.
You stopped taking a binky for almost all occastions, and instead, you started to suck on your pointer and middle finger when you're tired or if you wake up during a nap. You'll just put the two fingers in your mouth and you put yourself back to sleep.
You still love looking at books and being read to! We went to the library for the first time together and picked out a few books. You loved it!
You are still spitting up a TON, and I don't expect that to change anytime soon.
You got to meet two brand new friends! Thomas Bogardus and Jace Lythgoe were born this month and you were happy to meet both of them! You really wanted to grab them both!
You love your little elephant/blanket named Ellie!! You stick her nose in your mouth and chew on it everytime you're in your carseat!!

You are seriously such a good baby! You really only cry when you're hungry or if you're super tired, but those can be easily fixed very quickly! You have changed our lives for the better and we absolutely can't wait for our future with you!! We love you, baby Ty!!!

Ty's birth story!

I wrote this post mid May, but for some reason never published it? Anyways, here's Ty's birth story! I don't go into details of him being in the NICU, but everything else is here! I'm so happy to have him in our family, he's amazing!

{WARNING: I get very wordy in this post, and probably over explain everything. I also might explain it in details that you don't want to read.. as in, TMI. If that is going to drive you crazy, you probably shouldn't read this. Basically, Ty came 5 weeks early, was in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for 2 weeks, and is now the perfect baby living with us at home! YAY!}

It is such a blessing having Ty here! If I would have gone full term with the pregnancy, I would still be pregnant!! For another 2 weeks, actually! Which actually blows my mind, seeing as Ty is only 6 pounds 11 ounces right now, and I can't imagine pushing him out of me at this size, let alone how big he'd be in 2 more weeks!

Anyways, on to the story!

I was super lucky with my whole pregnancy, had hardly any pains, no sickness (not including the random strep throat I got, and the one night of food poisoning) and no complications. I was being really hypochondriac-ish and thinking that everything that happened to every other pregnant person I knew would happen to me, and many women recently have had their babies early. So of course I thought I'd go into labor early.. and I also really wanted Ty to get here sooner than expected because I was sick of waiting! I was preparing paperwork in advance at work just incase anything happened, but I figured it wouldn't be necessary, just helpful for me to have it done before things got hectic. My doctor was very confident that I would go full term or more, and I had just come to the conclusion that he was probably right.. that was on Thursday, April 24th.

Monday the 21st, I had a doctors appointment that showed that I had higher blood pressure than normal, and was scheduled to go back in that Friday the 25th for another appointment where they would do a non-stress test to see if I had preeclampsia.

I came home from work on Thursday afternoon and read a blog post that talked about how some women go in for a routine OB appointment, only to find out they have preeclampsia and are immediately told to pack their bags and go the hospital for delivery. I figured that wouldn't happen to me, but I just wanted to be sure, so I curled my hair so that it could look decent, just in case. Everything was still normal, and I had parent teacher conferences the following morning that I was prepping for.

Cody and I went to bed at 9:30pm, fell asleep really fast, and then I suddenly woke up at 12:30am feeling like I started my period, which is weird because.. hello, I'm pregnant! I just layed there for a while trying to figure out what to do. Finally, I told Cody "Um.. Cody? I think my water just broke.." and his response was a very hesitant, "Oh. Okay." I got out of bed, walked the two feet into our kitchen, and it just started running down my legs onto the floor. I'd heard of pregnant women peeing their pants and not knowing it, so I was worried/embarrassed that that was the case. I went to the bathroom and was just kind of freaking out.

We hadn't even taken any birthing classes, we were supposed to do that this weekend. I've never been in the hospital where I was supposed to deliver. I did register for labor and delivery a couple weeks prior, but was I just supposed to go to the hospital? Should I wait a few hours? Days? I don't even know the hospital phone number! Was I supposed to be feeling contractions? What do they even feel like? What do I need to put in my hospital bag? I had just barely started looking at ideas, but hadn't even gotten stuff ready! What size clothes should I pack for Ty? Our carseat base isn't installed. Do I need to bring the stroller? Do I even need to be worrying about this? Because maybe I did just pee my pants. But if I didn't and my water did really break... HOLY CRAP. I'M GOING TO BE A MOM IN THE NEXT DAY OR SO!

On the way to the hospital! Crappy lighting because it was 1:30am!

I asked Cody to look up the number for the hospital and I gave them a call. I asked them what I should do, and they told me to come in. I asked how to know for certain if it really was my water breaking, and they said that if it's still leaking (it was) then it was my water. Cody and I got ready, and walked around the house a million times trying to find everything we'd possibly need to pack in our bags. It took us about an hour, and then we were finally on our way. We had originally had plans to take Dexter to Cody's parent's house, but since it was the middle of the night and we weren't sure that I was even going into labor, we left Dex at home.

Just chillin in the hospital before they took me up to labor/delivery! No pain, so happy, so nervous!

We finally get to the hospital, and ask for directions to labor and delivery. Once we're up there, we were put in a room and they hooked me up to monitors, confirmed that my water broke, and said that I was dilated to 1cm. They told me that since I wasn't having contractions, they were going to start me on pitocin to induce labor. We got transferred into a delivery room. By this time, it was about 3:00 in the morning. They started the pitocin and I was starting to feel the contractions. They were tiny and super manageable, but they escalated pretty fast, and were going every 2 minutes. I was curious how long I could labor naturally, but wasn't opposed to getting an epidural. At about 5:25am, I decided I wanted to get an epidural. The contractions were super strong, and I was about to start crying, and when I cry I get headaches. I didn't want to have a headache for the rest of the day, hence why I wanted the epidural. Little did I know that I'd be crying the rest of the day anyways! They gave me the epidural around 6:20am and I was dilated to 5cm. Once I got the epidural, it was magical! It worked instantly and I was able to finally get some sleep! It was only about 45 minutes, but that was an awesome 45 minutes! The nurse woke me up at 7:50am and said, "Um.. are you ready to have a baby?!" Apparently I was all the way ready! 

Our first family picture.. not my favorite of any of us and the quality sucks, but it is what it is (:

Cody came over to the bed and I started pushing! Cody counted about 9 contractions and I pushed three times each contraction. And voila! Ty was here! I wasn't in pain, but I was very much there. I felt everything, and it was magical! Cody cut the cord, which he really didn't want to do beforehand, but apparently felt fine enough to do it when the time came.. probably because the delivering doctor (I had no idea who he was, but I didn't care. A doctor's a doctor, and he was bringing my baby into this world!) said "Alright, dad, come cut the cord!" The nurses took him, measured him, wrapped him up and I looked over and thought, "That is my baby. We just made a human being and he's right there!" I started tearing up a little, and then they brought him over to me. I held him in my arms and even though he was swollen, I thought that he was the most amazing little thing I'd ever seen! And then he grabbed my finger with his hand and I lost it. I know that's just a reflex, but it melted my heart. I was a mom! I told Cody to go with Ty as the nurses took him down to the nursery to do the routine things, and I stayed in the delivery room. I had a complication with the placenta, so that took a while. I ordered some breakfast, ate it, then got transferred to a recovery room. It was the weirdest feeling when they told me to get onto the wheelchair because my left leg had almost all the feeling back, but my right leg was still completely numb! I couldn't move it at all. 

Ty holding my finger with his tiny hand!

I got down to the room, and was dizzy and lightheaded, and my legs were still partially numb from the epidural, but I really wanted to see my baby. I sent Cody to retrieve Ty and I layed down to try to get rid of the dizziness. Cody came back and said that Ty had to stay where he was, but that I could see him when I felt ready. Cody's mom came into the room and asked how I was doing, and I started bawling. Not something I was expecting! And then everyone else who came into the room for the next few hours was greeted by me starting to bawl rather than a "hello!" I still didn't even know that Ty was in the NICU, or that he'd have to stay in the hospital longer than I did. 

The routine things they do with baby right after being born. Glad Cody could be there with him!

My legs were finally getting feeling back, and I was less dizzy, so I went to see my baby. By this point, it was about 3 hours since I'd given birth to Ty but I'd only seen him for about 2 minutes. The fact that I was a mom hadn't really sunken in yet, but I knew I had a son waiting for me in the NICU. When I walked in, I noticed how tiny he was! They had him bundled up in about 3 blankets and had the heating lamp on above him, and he was perfect! I picked him up and just cried happy tears that I finally was able to hold him (:

Dear Ty - 7 weeks

(June 6-12, 2014)

Baby boy, you are so wonderful! You are the cutest little tiny thing I've ever seen! I am absolutely loving watching you grow! Here are some things that you've been doing this past week!

You are staying awake more times during the day! Instead of being awake once during the day and once at night, you have started waking up about 3 or 4 times during the day! I love seeing you so alert and attentive!

YOU SMILED AT ME! I didn't catch a picture of it, but you were looking right at me, I called you my cute boy, and you smiled the biggest smile I've ever seen! Immediately afterward, you went back to your little scowl/stare and didn't smile again until the next day or so. I love your many facial expressions!!

When you get hungry, you love sucking on a pacifier until you actually get fed, but if I'm not fast enough to put the pacifier in your mouth, you start sucking on your fingers/whole hands. It's adorable! You don't quite have the control to keep your hands in your mouth though, so you get really frustrated when your hand decides to move out of your mouth!

Baby boy, you finally slept for 5 1/2 hours straight! You aren't the best sleeper and usually require me to hold you in order for you to sleep, but you slept in your bed for 5 1/2 hours, and my goodness, it was amazing! Keep it up, alright?

You are still always holding onto something with your tiny fists! The more hungry you get, the tighter your grip gets!

You are still pretty small, so as far as clothing goes, you still fit in newborn clothes and diapers. Carters brand clothes run smaller than all of the other brands that we have, so those newborn onesies are getting a little bit tight.. which means you're growing!

Speaking of you growing, you are getting chunky! You've got little puffy cheeks that I love poking, and instead of wrinkles on your arms and legs, you've traded them for rolls! I love watching you grow, and you've got some pretty adorable clothes to wear once you get bigger, so I'm excited for that as well!

Dexter is becoming more aware of you these days! If you're in your bouncer and start crying, Dexter will run over to you, then look up at me with his ears flat against his head as if to ask, "What's wrong with him, Mom?" It's adorable! He is always wanting to lick your head, hands, feet, and smell your bum (:

Being your momma is the best thing I've ever done. I'm so glad that you chose me to be your mom and that we can be on this crazy adventure together! Please be patient with me as I try to decipher what you want from your one form of communication: crying. I'm doing my best, bud, I promise! I love you to the moon, but further!

-Love, Momma

Nevada Mini Book

Three years ago, I bought a mini paper book from Elise Blaha and was so excited to use it and had such high hopes that I'd do something with it soon. And then three years went by, and I realized I needed to either use it or.. well there was no other option. I just needed to use it and move on! When Cody and I went to Nevada in March, I took a bunch of pictures, and it was a pretty big event for us! Our first amazing hotel, our last vacation before Ty came, and it was Cody's birthday weekend.

I didn't need any more excuses, so I printed the pictures and got to work! I finished about 1/4th of the book before Ty was born, but then that took a little toll on my crafting time. But yesterday I decided to just go for it, and I finished the book! I loved working on it, and even though it's super simple with hardly any embellishments, it's perfect for capturing our weekend into a book that we can look at later on and remember the fun that we had!

Here it is on my shelf with my other handmade books! The far left was made by my mother as a wedding present and it's gorgeous! I'm loving making little mini books along side Project Life!