Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Surgery Day

Sean went in for surgery this morning. Noah spent the day with Grandma Rogers and Sean spent the day with Grandma Howell. The surgery was an in and out procedure but I was still nervous for it. He went in at 9am and was done around 10am. He was then discharged at 11:30am and went to his mom's house. He called when he got to the house. He was really out of it but said he was feeling fine. He basically slept the day away. Anesthesia makes a body super tired all day. Also his body healing up took a lot of energy out of him. I am sad I wasn't there during the day to take care of him but I'm grateful that his mom was there and that my mom watch Noah. We don't want to use up too much of my PTO so we decided it was best if I went in to work. After I got off I picked up Noah and we went to see Sean before bed. Noah just wanted to be held and picked up but Sean isn't allowed to pick up anything for 2 weeks. Sean gave him kisses and hugs. That seemed to help some but he still wanted to sit in his daddy's lap but Sean was too sore. We said goodnight to daddy and Noah and I went home. Sean didn't want to come home the first night because of the stairs. Its going to be weird to sleep in the bed alone. I miss my hubby.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Pregnancy 17 & 18

Here are the pictures from week 17 and 18. I am 18 weeks today! Good news! I hope I'm not jinxing myself but I'm almost sure morning sickness has finally passed :) I have gone 3 days without puking. WAHOO! I forgot what life was to actually keep my dinner down.

I feel the baby move more often now which is awesome. Still not as much as I would like but I think thats due to my uterus being farther back. I haven't gained any weight as of yet but my doctor said that will be coming soon he is sure. I think not puking will be a huge help with that. Now is the time to watch what I eat and not gain too much.

On Wednesday Sean will get his hernia surgery. We are looking forward to it since it will finally be fixed and he can start to heal. But surgery freaks me out so I'm a bit nervous. Everyone says its not a big deal type of surgery so I'm sure everything will go well. Sean just won't be able to lift anything for 2 weeks. Yay for having a husband with no holes though! :) THEN, on Thursday I get to go in for another gender Ultrasound!!! I hope Sean is feeling up for it and can come with. My doctor is amazing and recommended me to an ultrasound clinic so I can get one with a Level 2 machine instead of the level 1 they have at his office. So the pictures will be more clear and we will be able to tell for sure if we are having a little girl or a boy. I can't wait to be able to call her or him by name and not just baby.



Thursday, January 24, 2013

Making a difference

So a pretty cool thing happened today. This morning I checked my email and I had received one from a girl that was in the infant massage class that I took last year. She is about my age and married and expecting her first child June 1st. She said that she remembered me talking in class about my birth experience and how much I loved it. Her husband is in the military and will be deployed during the birth and she really wants to have a natural birth and not feel pressured to receive unnecessary interventions. I remember her from the class. We got along pretty well and connected right away. The class was about infant massage but during every break we ended up talking about child birth haha. She is a sweet girl. So back to the email. She said she wanted to get together soon and chat about my experiences and any advice I can give her to help her prepare for the experience she wants. So I emailed her back that I would love to. Now just waiting for a reply of when.

I just love educating people about their options with birth. I think now a days most people just think its all cookie cutter. You go into a hospital, the doctors do their thing, you have your epidural, you have a baby and your done. But it is so much more than that! Or at least it can be. Birth, although there is of course pain involved, is more than just pushing a baby out and the pain. You are working with your body (and hopefully with a loved one near by to help as well) to bring into this world a beautiful child you created. I don't know about everyone else but knowing that I worked to bring that child in and that I did it without drugs that can potentially harm him/her just brings me so much happiness. Also feeling the pain, though again not the greatest feeling in the world, just made me feel more apart of the whole process. I love being able to share my experience and help other woman see what they can have as well. I can't wait to someday be able to do this as a living. I want to be a child birth educator and a doula someday. I love being able to be apart of something and making a difference. This is something I truly have a passion for.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Baby Girl?!

We had the gender ultrasound this week. First of all that baby is a cute little thing. My mom and Cortney came to the appointment with Sean Noah and I. Noah and Cortney were pretty excited to see the little baby on the screen. My mom kept telling the baby to move more haha. Sean was being the referee of the children and still keeping an eye on the baby. He is good at multi-tasking. The baby was so stubborn the whole time! We are pretty sure its a girl but not 100% She kept her legs crossed at the ankles, at the knees, then she had her feet up above her head and still made it impossible to see her "gender parts" haha. We have a modest child. Noah did the same thing so I guess we should have expected it. Actually Sean totally did and he told me the night before we probably wouldn't be able to tell that day.

The tech was finally able to get a couple pictures and said she was unsure. She said that from one angle it looks like the baby is a girl but then from another angle it looks like it could be a boy. I don't know how these techs even tell when a child isn't being difficult. It all looks the same to me. The boy is apparently one bump and the girl is three bumps. Ya I couldn't tell. The tech said she didn't see a scrotum so she is pretty sure that the reason she was confused was that sometimes it just looked like one bump. She is pretty sure that my hormones made the baby girls lady parts swollen. Kinda weird. So she couldn't say for sure that it as a girl. But I had a dr appointment right after and Dr Hazzelrigg told a crying me (I just didn't want to leave without knowing for sure) and Sean that he is pretty sure its a girl as well. So we are going with GIRL! . . . At least until proven wrong haha. I have another ultrasound in a month. But yay for a girl :) We are naming her Rebekah Mae Howell. She was so silly. Every time the tech would poke my belly she would punch and kick. haha We love her.









Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Whats Happening in the Howell Hood

Sean's belly button is still coming out. Its weird and looks gross. He is doing ok though. He says it doesnt really ever hurt. It did for the first couple days but now its just kind of settled, as long as he doesnt strain too much. He scheduled the surgery for Jan 30th. Yay! He will be a fixed man. After the surgery he will be unable to lift basically anything for 2 weeks. Kinda lame. He has started school again. He has 5 classes this semester. All of them are psychology classes. Originally we both thought he was going to graduate in May this year. Turns out we were wrong. This makes me so very sad. The councilor said before that he was supposed to take certain classes and then he would be able to graduate in May but now she said that he still has two classes he needs to take after this semester. Not cool. Its not too bad though because he will just need to take those classes and study for the GRE at the same time then he can take the GRE and then apply for Grad School. He gets home most days around 5pm or 6pm. Just in time to spend sometime with Noah before bed. We do a story, cuddles and then family prayer.

Noah is pretty dang cute. He is learning more and more words. He just soaks up all the language around him. He has such a sweet spirit. He just loves to give love. He is still pretty shy and really attached to mommy and daddy. He blows kisses! Thats my favorite. I love the hugs he gives. He also likes to come crawl into our lap all the time. He has spent the last 2 Sundays in nursery. He isn't exactly sold on the idea yet. haha. He cries just in the beginning and then spends the rest of the time in the lap of the teacher. He does enjoy coloring and is trying to figure out the bubbles. We practice coloring time and bubbles with him during the week. We have been trying to get him to learn to fold his arms during prayer. He isn't sold on that yet either. We are also working on the toddler bed. Another thing he isn't yet sold on. haha He likes to take his time getting used to new things. We are just letting him take his time and figure things out. We are excited to see how he is with the new little Howell baby.

Speaking of baby Howell. I'm 16 1/2 weeks now. I am still experiencing nausea but not quite as bad. Its mostly only at night and I don't always puke so thats a nice improvement. Work is going well. Nothing new going on there. Its a bit busier but but other than that not much. I have been doing a pretty good job on my goals! My mom made me some cloth envelopes to keep my budgeted money in. I have one for groceries, fun money, tithing, household, and kids money. Now when I spend money from that category I know when I'm out and won't over spend. Its a lovely idea a friend told me about. I am determined to keep on budget and save us some monies! Also I made meal plans for everyday for the next 3 weeks! I still haven't been consistent with working out yet. Thats hard. I've never been good with that one. But I will be be better once I stop being so sick. I have been getting a belly! Ooo! And we find out the gender on Tuesday! We can not wait!!! I will definitely keep you updated :) The last picture is of me and my preggie buddies! We had dinner with the husbands and kiddos on Sunday. Thats Melissa and Adriana. Melissa is 15 weeks and Adriana is 10 weeks. Its pretty awesome having friends share the pregnancy journey with. Also my other bestie friend Jessica is pregnant too! She actually told me a week before Christmas in a card. We have talked about being pregnant and having kids together since like forever and now we finally are!! She is 10 weeks. She wasn't telling people but its on her facebook so I assume its safe to talk about it now. I just love that my kids will have other kids to grow up with and be friends with. We can have playdate and just rock at being parents together.















Monday, January 7, 2013

Friday was Lame

So this past Friday was just not our day here in the Howell world. At work I was moving boxes of envelopes (I didn't think they were that heavy) and while squatting to pick up one of the boxes I got dizzy and blacked out for a second causing me to fall to the ground. Then I felt an incredible wave of nausea and ran to the bathroom to puke. I barely made it to the stall. It was not a fun morning. My boss said that he will move any boxes from now on so thats nice. The rest of the day I was just tired and felt kind of stupid for having that happen. I stayed at work and just took it easy drinking lots of water and not moving much.

Sean and Noah came to pick me up from work and we picked up the car! Finally we were able to get new tires. That was the only good thing that really came out of the day. We played with Noah lots and had a fine evening. I was still feeling nauseous but it wasn't too bad. Ondalynn and her boyfriend Austin came over for a movie and Sean went to the gym. He came back about 8pm with some disturbing news. While doing a pull up he said he felt a pop in his stomach near his belly button and some slight pain. By the time he got home (5 min drive from gym to the apartment) his belly button was sticking out like a cabbage patch doll. He looked it up online and diagnosed himself with a hernia. Onda offered to watch Noah while we went to the ER to have it checked out.

We ended up being there for almost 5 hours. We got there about 9pm and didn't leave til 2am! He had to get a CT scan to see how bad the hernia was. Our friends Alex and Cortney came and kept us company while we were in the exam room waiting for the results. Sean called and scheduled an appointment with a surgeon for Monday the 14th to see when he will get the surgery to correct the hernia. He isn't in pain just discomfort. He said occassionaly it will hurt if he moves wrong but mostly it just feels weird. Also its an annoyance because he can't strain himself so he has to be careful with moving things, pooping and other stuff that could cause him to strain his abdomen area. I feel so bad for him. He is a really trooper though and just makes light of it. He said he is like the pillsbary dough boy when you poke his tummy it pokes back out haha. Silly man.







DeanaSigcopy

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

2013

I already failed in 2013 because I didn't get any pictures of the nights events. It was a fun night. I got off work early so Sean and Noah came to pick me up at 1pm. (did I mention that my tires on my car are dead? we need to buy new ones but currently dont have funds for such a thing. so I get to be chauffeured around til I get paid on the 15th.) We hung out at home for a couple hours and then played outside with Noah. We headed out to Amanda and Coreys house about 6pm. The rest of the night was spent playing games and eating loads and loads of food. We tried to get Noah to go to bed in the crib at the house but it was too loud for him to get to sleep. He just wanted to be part of all the talking and playing. Finally around 9:30pm Noah still hadn't gone to sleep so Sean took him to his Mom's house and put him in bed there. After midnight came we went and picked up and went home for bedtime. While Sean was out dropping Noah off at Grandma Howells I got nauseous and threw up a bunch. By the time he got back I was feeling better though. He fell asleep on the couch while I played Apples to Apples with my family. We didn't even do the count down because the game was too much fun. We heard neighbors letting off fireworks so we knew the time had come. Cortney ran over and kissed Sean before I could haha. It was really funny. Sean woke up we kissed and then said goodbye to the family and went to get our Noah and go to bed. It was fun but we were so ready for sleep! I threw up out of the truck on the way home too. I swear if a cop drove by at that moment he probably would have thought I was a drunk partier. Good thing there was no cops around. Noah's bed time is still all out of wack since that night but we are glad he had a good time. I hope it gets set straight again soon.

Here are my goals for this year:
1. Have a baby!
2. Lose baby weight!
3. Read scriptures daily and study not just read.
4. Have family prayer & family home evening
5. Teach Noah to pray
6. Introduce potty training to Noah when he is 2yrs old
7. Help Noah to learn to sit reverently for Nursery during the lesson time
8. Be the best wife ever! Help Sean to achieve goals for school by making sure he has study time
9. Be more active, do yoga, work out with Sean once a week
10. Get 3 months Savings

Sean's goals are:
1. Raise GPA
2. Graduate
3. Start job or internship in the field of psychology
4. Apply for Masters program and get in a good University
5. Be the best husband and father ever
6. Work out and get buff again and be healthy
7. Teach Noah and new baby good things
8. Get food storage started

I want to make sure we actually achieve these goals. Its easy to make goals but then keeping them can be tough because people sometimes just forget or lose interest. Its easy for me to lose interest in working out haha. And I have never been great with scripture study being consistent. Sean however is great at both of those things. I know he will be a great help for me in making sure I do well in them. Also he sometimes struggles with setting up a schedule for himself but I am great at that. So we will be a good support to each other in our goals. Its good to be accountable to someone else. Also just writing them down and looking back at them is helpful too. Another thing I am going to do is keep my goals in my prayers and to report back to my Heavenly Father on how I am doing. He cares about my life and my goals and wants me to achieve them.

What are your goals? How will you make sure you achieve them?