Sunday, July 10, 2016

Baby Kysen

Our little bundle of joy is finally here! He was born on June 24th!
I am so glad that he came safely and we have him safe in our arms. 


Kysen's birth story is kinda funny and a bit traumatic when I think about it.
The day before he was born I went and saw my OBGYN. I discussed possibly getting induced because the following week the hubby had the week off. She wasn't too comfortable with the idea, so she offered to strip my membranes instead. I was pretty disappointed, because I thought for sure that wasn't going to work for me. After she stripped my membrane I started to have some braxton hicks contractions but nothing serious. I went home and took the boys to their dentist appointment. I did some research about the percentage of women going into labor after getting their membranes stripped. The percentage wasn't something that I was too impressed with. That night before I went to sleep I went and used the bathroom and saw a lot of brownish spotty discharge. But nothing too alarming. No bloody show or anything like that. So I went to sleep.

Around 3 am I woke up to a strong contraction. And then another on. But it wasn't very consistent. So I forced myself to go back to sleep. But I was hoping that the contractions would get stronger. So I just laid in bed timing them. There seemed to be more contractions but again not very consistent. Fi Dan woke up around 4 am and I told him about the contractions but we didn't think much of it and he left to work. And I just laid in bed timing my contractions. Then around 6 am they started to get pretty consistent and they started to get pretty painful. So I figured I should get up and take shower. I thought I should do my hair so that I don't look gross in my after birth pictures. Now thinking back on it I have no idea what I was thinking. I am pretty sure I was even planning on putting some make up on! But while in the shower my contractions were so painful that I had to just stand and breath through them.

Finally around 6:30 am I texted Fi Dan and said that my contractions were still going and that we probably needed to go to the hospital. I called my mom and mother in law to let them know that we were probably going to go to the hospital. Fi Dan couldn't get out until 7 am and wasn't able to get home until 7:30. By that time I was dying. 

The boys were up by then and kept trying to talk to me but every sound they made made my contractions hurt even more. So I just had them go play in their room until their dad came. I texted my friend and asked her if we could drop the boys off at her house. Thank goodness for her!

So when Fi Dan got home he was pretty excited and chirpy and kept singing and whistling, don't ask me why, but that made me so mad that I was going through all this pain and here he was happy as could be. Let's just say I wasn't very nice to him. He was pretty surprised at how grumpy I was. He started fixing breakfast for the boys when a super strong contraction came and then I knew we needed to get to the hospital. We grabbed their breakfast, my bags and left. We dropped the boys off at my friend's house around 8 am and drove to the hospital. It was about a 15-20 minute drive. LONGEST and most painful drive of my life.

I wanted to die. Not kidding. The contractions were so painful. We finally go to the hospital and thank GOODNESS there was free valet parking. The valet guy brought me a wheel chair and Fi Dan wheeled me to the ER. The guy nurse took one look at me and I saw the panic look he had on his face, which made me even more nervous! 

I had 2 really bad contractions while waiting in the ER for someone from maternity to come get me. I almost started crying and yelling because the contractions were so painful. Finally the lady from maternity came and wheeled me up and while in the privacy of the elevator I started crying. Ugh. We went to the front desk and they tried to ask me some questions but I couldn't answer because the contractions were so painful. I was pretty grumpy too. They asked me if I could stand and I kept saying, "No" and as hard I tried not to mean, I am pretty sure I gave a few dirty looks to them while they were asking me questions. At one point they needed my birth date and the hubby said....1984? Right? I almost lost it right there....Again, I have no idea why I was so mad, well probably because I was in a lot of pain and then I was annoyed that he didn't remember my birthday. 

Anyway, they could see that I was in a lot of pain and quickly wheeled me to the birthing room. By that time it was 8:30ish. I got a gown on and climbed onto the bed. By that time my contractions were so bad and so close together that I desperately was hoping I could get an epidural. I asked and they said, "No, it's too late honey". The nurse checked me and said, "She's complete". What? What did that mean? I soon realized I was already 10 cm! On my goodness, at this point I started to cry because I started to think about the pain of pushing the baby out. That freaked me out and it made the contractions worse. I can't remember much at this point because my contractions were coming so often that I just had my eyes closed and I just kept trying to breath through it.

After about 15 minutes of dying of painful contractions I suddenly felt a lot of pressure. I knew it was time to push. But I also knew the nurses were not ready. And just like in the movies, I screamed and yelled and told them that the baby was coming. They told me not to push yet,but I could not control it. I just remember there being a lot of frantic movements and someone calling for a "baby catcher" to come quickly because the baby was coming. 

As soon as the Dr. got there and they got me on my back I just remember yelling and pushing once, and they said they could see the baby's head. And then they told me to push one more time and then he just slid right out. And after that, there wasn't anymore pain! It was amazing. I was back to my normal nice self and even said thank you to everyone. Ugh, and I immediately felt bad for being so mean to my hubby. 

So I was in the labor room for only about 20 minutes and then the baby was there. Crazy.I am just so grateful hat I didn't have this baby in the car. If we had waited any longer, there was a good chance I could have given birth in the car. 

But our baby boy Kysen is here and I am so happy!!!


Super hairy little baby. 

My babies

Kysen was actually admitted into the NICU for a few days because he needed to get some antibiotics. Saddest few days of my life. 


Yay, finally coming home!













Kysen is 2 weeks old and we love him so much!!!!!!!
He is a pretty good napper and sleeper. So mommy has been able to get some sleep. Thank goodness! 

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Little Swimmers

When we were in Dominica the boys loved swimming! But most of the time they had their little floaties. I was just never really comfortable having them take them off. It wasn't until the very end that I started letting them swim without their floaties. But even then they were so young they didn't know what to do. Then we came back to the states and we never went swimming. 

Fi Dan and I have been talking about how we want the boys to learn how to swim. So I signed them up for swimming classes. And we LOVED it!!! The older two were in the same swim class and they did a great job. In the 2 weeks that we were in swim class the boys learned a lot. They learned how to float, swim, and do back strokes. They passed and I am so proud of them. I am not completely comfortable with them just diving into the pool just yet. I think I want to sign them up for another session so that they can have more practice. 



Even my little Spencer had swim class. He had a great time. He just learned how to get used to the water. He had so much fun! 




This was one of my favorite part of swim lesson. While Spencer swam they boys read their chapter books. I am super proud of them! They really are becoming bookworms. 









Here is a clip of my little fishies. 


Friday, June 10, 2016

Summer Vacation

Ahhhhh, summer vacation. I have a love hate relationship with summer! I love it because I get to spend time with my kids and I don't have to wake up early! 
Some days I hate it though because my kiddos have nothing to do and they just fight and complain that they are bored! So this year I did my research early. I started them on a "Summer Reading Challenge". I challenged them to read as many "Magic Tree House" books as much as possible. 

Ok, I bribed them. I said that if they could read half of the books on the list they could get a prize, anything they wanted. And if they read the other half of the books they could get another prize. My kiddos have been on summer vacation for almost 2 weeks and they have been such little bookworms! Nenji has read about 8 of the books already and Rylan is on his 3rd one. 
I am so proud of them!



Ry!!! He finished his first chapter book! I am so proud of this kid! He's come such a long way from wanting to be Preschool drop out. Now he is at the top of class, reading and writing like a pro and reading chapter books. I couldn't be more proud. 





I love Pinterest. You find the coolest stuff. Here I made a roads out of tape for my boys. We left it on the floor for a few days until the tape started coming off. But they had fun with it while it lasted.  


Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Spending Time With My Boys

Being a stay home mom is hard work! Some days I just want to run out of my house screaming.
Other days it's good. I keep reminding myself of how crazy it use to be with Nenji and Rylan being so close in age and having them depend on me for everything!

But now that they are older we're entering a new phase where they are able to be helpers and are more independent. They can take showers by themselves and they even take Spencer with them and help give him a shower too.
They can set the table and clear the table. 
They can fold their laundry and put it away. 
They can clean their room up.
They play independently.

And they still fight like crazy too!

But they are pretty good boys overall.....some days. :)

Went to their Back to School Night and then we went out for ice cream.
Then they wanted to play sequence! That's another thing that I love about them at this age. They understand how to play board games!  


I also decided to enroll them in Tae Kwon Do because I wanted them to have something to do and to be disciplined. They love it! But it's too expensive so we're on the hunt for a new hobby. Ugh. Too bad because they love their teachers. 








Some days we just chill at home and they just watch a movie. :)


Fun Weekend

On the weekend of Mother's Day, my parents came down. The boys were so excited and had a movie night and tried to stay up until my parents got into town. But they didn't get here until 12:30 am. The boys made it until 11 pm. 
In the morning they woke up and saw my parents but instead of excitedly running to them to give them a hug, they just said, "Oh, hi". BOYS!!! They really don't show any emotion even at their young age. 

That day my parents took the boys to LA to visit their Uncle Ben and Aunty Marilyn. And they decided to stay the night there.

So what did we do? We went movie hopping! Just kidding. We paid for both the movies.
We watched The Huntsman and Captain America.

Then we decided to just go to Fresno to visit. It was great. I love my kids but I forgot how great it is to just be spontaneous and do whatever the heck you want and pick up and go wherever you want!

We came home that same night and just hung out.
The next morning we slept in (which was amazing!) and got the house cleaned before the boys and my parents came home.


At the movies.


Yum!



My parents bought the boys sunglasses and they thought they were soooo cool!

Eating at Uncle Ben and Aunty Marilyn's