Week 12 (Baby #2)

Well here we are again. Round two.

Yes my babies are closer together than most people plan them. But contrary to popular belief, we did plan this pregnancy. With my heart condition we have been told many times they aren't sure how many babies I'll be able to have without first having heart surgery. And that the older I get, the more likely I will need that surgery. So in preparation for this baby, doctor visits were made and tests were done. My heart is still fully functioning and was not affected by my last pregnancy. I was given the green light to get pregnant again. We also of course prayed and visited the temple as well, and felt that it was the right time. I became pregnant that first month, and here we are.

I am now almost 12 weeks. I have had an ultrasound twice at this point. The first time the baby was at the back of my uterus and they couldn't get a clear enough picture to see the size. The only thing they could see was that there was a good heartbeat, and that's really all that matters anyway. The second one they were able to measure the baby to give me a due date, February 1st, and we again saw a good, strong heartbeat.

I have already moved over into my maternity pants. I can still fit in to my other pants if I squeeze and don't button them. But honestly, who wants more pressure on their stomach than necessary when they're pregnant? Certainly not I... hence the maternity pants. Unfortunately all of my maternity clothes were all cold weather, so I had to go out and buy new ones. At least the old ones will still get used since the last trimester of this pregnancy will be in the winter months anyway.

I have had a lot of people ask me if I was more sick last time or this time. Honestly I'm not really sure. I think partly I don't remember because it was almost two years ago, and partly because I blocked it out haha. One thing that has been harder this time is that I feel bad for Lily. Last time if I was feeling sick I could lie down and nap or just veg on the couch. This time Lily suffers if I do that. So even though I think it's about the same sickness, last time I didn't take any nausea medicine and this time I have because it makes it easier to play and take care of my already born baby. One thing that has been better is I am still able to cook. Last time the majority of the pregnancy I was unable to cook, especially meat. But this time I have not had that issue and that has been very helpful.

This time I also seem to be craving more salty things than sugary. With Lily it was sugar all the way, which was weird for me because I generally am not a sugar person. I don't even like chocolate (Gasp! I know, I know). But Lily and Caleb sure do love their sweets. So maybe this baby will take after me and prefer salty things. I guess we will see!

I have already felt the baby "flutter" a few times. I know it is a little early, but I think since I already know what it feels like it is easier for me to detect. It does not happen often, but it's fun when it does.

Well, second trimester here I come! Thanks to everyone who read all my ramblings all the way through! :)

Baby Girl's 1st Birthday

I can't believe my baby is 1! Where has the time gone?

The Saturday before her birthday we had a little party at the park for her. Lily's grandmas, grandpas, aunts, and uncles were all there (aside from Uncle Jamin who is in New Mexico on his mission) as well as some of her great-grandparents and Caleb's cousins. She LOVED being the center of attention and was definitely playing to the crowd with all of her silly faces. We were worried it was going to rain, but luckily the weather held out until after the party. Here are some pictures, mostly taken by Papa Don, of the fun day:

 Opening some of her presents

 She almost liked the ribbon more than her gifts!

 Some of her presents were bigger than her.

 Here is a picture of everyone. (Except for Grandpa Lynn, he was taking the picture.) We were so glad to have so many people there!

 Not sure about her cake.

 She decided it was pretty yummy.

 Especially when Daddy helped!

Caleb had to go out of town on a business trip the day after the party so he was gone for Lily's actual birthday, but Lily and I went down to Riverton to visit her grandparents while he was gone. We were able to go to lunch with my parents on her birthday as well as have dinner with all of Caleb's family that night. Lily is one very loved little girl and we're glad we got to spend her birthday with family.

A few days later we had her well baby visit. She is still just under 20 pounds and is 28 inches tall (we can say tall now instead of long because she can stand right?) So she's between the 25th and 30th percentile in her weight and height. Doctor says she's doing well, and there are no worries!

Lily still does not walk, but has started to cruise (walks while holding on to furniture or other things). But she says a lot of words and communicates with us better and better every day. She waves "hi" and "bye", shakes her head "no", plays patty-cake, as well as holds phones up to her head and says "hello". Unprompted she says: Daddy, Mom, hi, out, uh-oh, hot, ow, hey. There are many more words she can say when we ask her to.

We love this little girl so much and are so happy she's part of our small family. It's hard to remember what life was like without this ray of sunshine in it!

Update on our Lives

We have been SO busy lately! First we will do an update on Lily: She turned 11 months this weekend. 11 months!! I can't believe it! It's less than a month away until her birthday. I know it's cliche to say that it's going by so fast, but it is! And I always like to quote one of my favorite movies and say, "Things become cliches because they're true." So again, she is getting so big and it is going by so fast!

• She has finally learned how to scoot/crawl forwards instead of backwards :) She follows me around while I'm cleaning and things, sometimes whining and crying at me because she wants to be picked up. Eventually she will learn that I can't carry her around all the time right?
• She is still just under 20 pounds, not sure how tall she is, but she sure is getting bigger. Caleb and I were commenting just the other day on how she's starting to look more like a toddler than a baby.
• She only has one tooth. The second one is so close to poking through. You can see the tooth, that's how thin the gums are that are covering it. Hopefully it will pop through soon!
• She is down to one bottle a day and I have a feeling it's on the way out as well. She is also transitioning over from formula in her sippy cups to milk.
• She loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, peas, and raspberries. As well as anything sweet, but we try not to give her too much of that.
• She loves books, and still has to sleep with Ginny her giraffe. She has also liked playing with balls lately. Surprisingly she also likes the grass. She loves being outside and rubbing her arms and legs all over in the grass. Silly girl.

We love this sweet girl more and more everyday and are so glad she's part of our little family!

I pulled out some baby pictures of Caleb and I to do a little comparison between us and her. The older she gets the more I see Caleb in her as well as me.

The left one is Lily and the right one is me.

The left one is Caleb and right one is Lily.

One thing is for sure she got Caleb's hair! I didn't have much. The question is: does she look more like me or like Caleb?

Also I have to show everyone her new "big girl jammies" that she was so excited about.

Also notice Caleb and done her hair in a mohawk after her bath.

But the biggest news and update is that we are getting a house! We are so excited to own our own place. We still have to have all of the inspections done and all of those things, but we have picked a house and are excited to finish the process. It's a very nice place for a good price and was only on the market for two days when we put in an offer, and we still had to compete with another couple for the house! We will keep everyone updated!

One last picture of Lily before I end this post!

Just because she's cute :)

Until next time!

Lily Update

I can't believe my baby girl is 8 months old already! Seems like just yesterday I was still pregnant. I'm sure she'll be married and moved out before I know it!

Here's just a few things that Lily has been up to the last few weeks:

• She still loves bath time. It is her favorite time of the day! I still haven't figured out if she likes the bath part (she definitely does with all the splashing and laughing that goes on) or if she is just tired and likes knowing that it will soon be bedtime more.
•  She is finally sitting up! She refused to sit up before two weeks ago. I kept telling everyone that I knew she could do it and that she was strong enough, she was just being stubborn and not wanting to. Sure enough right after Christmas she decided it was fun and hasn't stopped since. She can sit up for hours without falling over.
• She has had some issues with reflux that seem to be getting worse. It seems her medicine will work for a few weeks and then we have to change things around and up her dose because she starts spitting up again (and by spitting up I mean projectile, all over the place, spitting up). I have also changed her formula a few times and it seems we might have found a winner, but we shall see. I think that every time and then she starts majorly spitting up again.
• She has started to pick food up with her fingers and stick it in her mouth all on her own. She also drinks out of her sippy cup by herself. She always gives me a big smile when she does it, I think she loves feeling like a big girl.
• She has started to push up on her hands and knees when on her belly, she is figuring out that she might actually be able to get that cord she is eyeing. Between scooting and rolling she is definitely mobile. She may not move fast, but she can get to something if she wants. I found that out twice this week with the clean laundry and the cord on the playstation. I am going to have to start watching her much more closely when I set her on the floor!
• She is still sleeping through the night wonderfully and still takes her naps, as long as we don't mess with her schedule she is a very happy girl!

 Opening Christmas presents and eating a Christmas sugar cookie

 Playing peek-a-boo

 Just being the happy cute girl she is!

 Getting into stuff she's not supposed to

We love this little girl so much and could not imagine our lives without her. We just wish she could stay so small and sweet forever ;)

Happy Birthday Caleb!

Now Caleb's birthday is actually on Christmas, which is exactly a week from today, and we will be out of town visiting family. So I figured today would be a better day to write this post than to write it after we get back.

So this is a post dedicated to Caleb and I am going to tell you things about him that you may or may not already know :)

He will be turning 23 and is already married with a child, graduated from college, and has an amazing full-time job that actually has to do with his major and has benefits to boot. He is a go-getter if there ever was one! He loves his video games, he especially loves playing with his cousin Bryan. He will also play Harry Potter Legos with me, although that definitely isn't his style of video game. His dad is his hero. He likes talking to him about business and politics, and all those things that I find boring :) He wants his advice and really takes it to heart. He would rather eat chocolate, or soda, or any other sort of junk food than anything healthy. When we got married he refused to eat any kind of vegetable. He now has a few that if I cook them a certain way he will eat them, but I still don't think he enjoys them. He has to turn the water on full blast when he brushes his teeth. I have never been able to figure that one out, but it makes me laugh every time I hear the water going on full and I know he's in there brushing his teeth. He is a big teaser, and very sarcastic. Sometimes when we are in public I feel I have to explain that he is just kidding so people don't think he's serious. He LOVES our little girl, and she loves him back. She gets so excited when he comes home from work. He is such as amazing husband, he helps me so much. He always gets the baby in the morning, before she was sleeping through the night he always got up and fed her. And the thing I really appreciate is him not expecting the dishes or laundry to be done, or dinner to be on the table when he gets home from work. If something isn't done he'll come in and help me finish it, even though he's been at work all day. Lily and I are so blessed to have such a great man in our lives! We love him so much!

Happy Birthday Caleb!

Tomato Soup Recipe

For the past few months I have been able to cook more often, so I thought I'd share some of my recipes on here. Most of them I found on allrecipes.com (well actually the app on my phone/iPad) or in one if my recipe books, and then modified them. This one I am making again today, so I thought it should be my first.

Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can chicken broth

1 can tomato sauce

1/2 cup diced onion

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon dried basil

2 cups heavy whipping cream

Directions:

1. In a large pot combine tomatoes, tomato sauce, onion, chicken broth, sugar, butter, basil, and baking soda. Let simmer on stove for an hour.

2. Mix in heavy whipping cream, stir until heated through.

Tips:

1. I put the onion (un-cut) and the diced tomatoes in the blender for a few seconds, I still want it to be slightly chunky, but not extremely. Then this way I don't have to cut the onion by hand.

2. Don't put a lid on the pot while the base is cooking, you might be tempted because sometimes it splatters, but you want it to boil out some of the liquid.

3. Make sure the whipping cream is the same temperature as the tomato base before you mix them together or else it will curdle. You can heat up the whipping cream on the stove, either with a double- boiler or constantly stirring it in another pot so it doesn't burn. Or you can make the tomato base before-hand and stick it in the fridge for later, then heat everything up at the same time in the same pot. I prefer the second one.

I hope this soup turns out as yummy for you as it has for us!

What we did in September

This post is mostly going to be pictures about the things that we have been up to lately.

I have been able to try out some new recipes lately. Most of them I don't have pictures of, but they have been delicious for the most part.



These are some orange rolls and some soup that I have recently made. All from scratch :)

 

Caleb received his diploma. Lily and I are very proud of our college graduate.

 

 

A beautiful picture of the canyon on our way to Salt Lake.

 

 

Lily can hold up her head so well!

 

 

Lily has started eating solid foods. She likes most things after a few bites, but she does not like peaches. Yuck!

 

 

I have made quite a few crafts lately. This is one of them.

 

 

I also made Lily's Halloween costume. She's not too sure about being dressed up, but Caleb and I think she is very cute!

 

Well hopefully I can get on here faster next time!

 

 

 

 

Lily's Birth Story

It has been a very long time since I blogged. A lot has happened since I last wrote, including the birth of our baby girl. I have been meaning to write her birth story on here, but I haven't done it. So I'm going to remember everything the best I can and mostly just use what I already wrote in an email recently after she was born:

Lily was born Sunday, May 6th at 3:42 pm. She weighed 7 lbs and was 19 inches long.

My water broke Saturday night. We went to the hospital and eventually they had to put me on pitocin because my contractions weren't starting. After about 7 1/2 hours I was still only dilated to a 3 and the contractions were so hard and strong I couldn't take it any longer. I ended up getting an epidural even though at first I didn't want one. I was in labor for 16 1/2 hours. My cardiologist wanted me to push as little as possible, so once I was dilated to a 10 they had me do "resting descent" for 2 hours and let the contractions do the work and push her most of the way out for me. Takes longer that way but is much safer for my heart! The doctor then used forceps while I pushed and she came right out! I only pushed once. I did have some complications with my blood pressure. It dipped down to 64/32 right after she was born. The doctor thinks it was probably because I had so many pain killers in my system and then lost a little more blood than usual. They were able to get it back up not too shortly after and luckily I didn't have any other complications after that. I did have I.V. fluids continously for the next day or so to help keep my blood pressure up.

Even though Lily was a premie they still let us go home the next day because she was doing so well. She was breathing fine and even passed the carseat test (where they sit in the carseat continously for an hour and don't have anything issues breathing the entire time.) She also didn't have any issues with eating, she is her Momma's baby and LOVES to eat. She gets very upset when we make her wait.

 

This was taken when she was 1 day old.

Lily is a wonderful, happy baby. At first she had trouble sleeping, but we eventually discovered that she loves sleeping on her stomach and won't sleep any other way. So now she sleeps through the night and actually takes longer than 20 minute naps. We love her very much!

Week 32

Caleb and I have been very busy lately. I have been making decorations and things for the baby's room. And making Caleb help of course.

These are wooden letters that I painted and decorated. They are hanging up on her wall.

This one is also wood that I painted. It is hanging on the wall as well and I am planning on hanging the diaper holder from it. The middle green part actually sticks out and is designed to have something hanging from it.

I found these wicker baskets the other day and thought they would fit in here perfectly. I tied the green bows and glued them to the baskets to correlate with the rest of the room.

This is also hanging on the wall. And I painted this one too. I haven't decided what I want it to say yet, but I am planning on putting some kind of quote on it made out of vinyl.

This is a picture of Caleb putting up the curtains. He wanted the caption to say "slave labor". He is just so picked on :)

The curtains after they were all done!

Belly picture! This was at 30 1/2 weeks. I'm a little further than that now.

Only a few months left now! I haven't had too much more stomach pain, still some, but not bad. The only bad part is not knowing exactly what it's from. My feet and hands, especially my feet, get very swollen by the end of the day. But other than those two things everything is going well. I have my echo scheduled and will be doing that in about a week and a half. So we'll be able to find out exactly how my heart is dealing with all of this extra weight and blood volume, so far my blood pressure has been right where it should be so that's a good sign that all is well.

Not baby related: Caleb is busy finishing his last few weeks before he graduates and is still looking for a job, hopefully somewhere in the Salt Lake area. We're just plugging along, anxious to see how everything works out in the next two to three months with all of the unknowns going on!

Week 27

It has been a while since I last blogged. I haven't had much to say except about the past few weeks I guess.

2 weeks ago I went to the doctor and had my diabetes test. They told me they would only call if it came back positive, and I haven't heard anything so I'm guessing it came back negative. Which is good. When I went the nurse forgot that I was having the test done and I almost missed the window and had to do it all over again. Luckily I know you have to have your blood drawn for the test, and within a certain time limit, and asked the nurse if they were going to do it. They were able to draw my blood just in time.

Also at the same appointment the nurse said to me, "Well you've had an easy pregnancy haven't you?" I was thinking to myself, "Have I?" I haven't felt like I have, but I guess compared to what my pregnancy could have been: on bed rest, high blood pressure, issues with my heart, etc. I suppose I have had it easy. Not that I feel like I have had a horrible pregnancy, but I wouldn't call it easy either.

The next week, so about a week ago, I was having horrible stomach pain. It was on the right side. It hurt whenever I moved and was excruciatingly painful when I touched it. I had also had a fever for a few days previous to this. I had a thought that maybe it was appendicitis. I ended up calling the doctor, which I never do, and they wanted me to come in. By the time I went into the doctor the pain had subsided some and was mostly just a dull ache, kind of like a sore muscle when you've worked out too much. The doctor checked me out and said he thought it was my placenta leaking a little bit of blood into the wall of my uterus. He said it is quite common and can be painful sometimes. He said as long as it didn't continue past the next day or two and didn't hurt that badly again that I should be ok. The pain did go away by the next day and I have not had any since, so I think everything is back to normal. I still feel the baby moving around all the time so I'm glad I haven't had to worry about her either.

My feet, hands, and pretty much everything else has been very swollen lately. I finally broke down today and bought new shoes because have very few that I can even get on my feet, and none that fit comfortably. I bought them a little big so I am hoping they will fit me the rest of the pregnancy.

Here is another belly picture:

This was at 25 1/2 weeks. I need to take another since this was about 2 weeks ago.

Also as a side note, not baby related but definitely "story of our lives" related. Caleb has decided that he is going to be trying to find a job after he finishes his bachelor's degree this Spring. Hopefully somewhere in the Salt Lake area. This will be instead of him continuing to go to school for his master's right now, even though he still is planning on going to a MBA program in a few years or so. This definitely will be a big change for us and was not in the plans. We are excited for this new adventure in our lives but also nervous to take such a big step! We know though that if we trust in the Lord, He will help us find our way. For that we are very grateful.

Week 22

This week we had another doctor's appointment. We got to hear the baby's heart beat and the doctor measured my belly. Everything looks great :)

I feel my baby move all the time now and I love it! I better enjoy it now before she starts kicking really hard and it starts to hurt and isn't just reassuring any more. Caleb has also felt her kick, which is really exciting. Even when the doctor was trying to hear her heartbeat she kept moving around. He'd find it, but before we could really hear it she'd move and he'd have to find it all over again. It happened a couple times before she stopped moving enough for us to actually hear it.

Next time I go to the doctor I have to take the glucose test, to make sure I don't have gestational diabetes. I'm just hoping the drink isn't too disgusting.

I am making a baby blanket for her as well. I decided I am going to decorate her room in pink's and brown's and a little bit of green as well, so the baby blanket is brown with pink polka dots.

I am tying it with pink yarn, which for some reason has already started to fray pretty badly. I might have to use a different kind of yarn and start over, but for now I'm just going to keep going.

Yesterday we also took my wedding ring in to the jewelery store to be re-sized. I haven't been able to wear it for a few months now and I finally decided I didn't want to wait until May or June to wear it again. I get it back on Friday and I am very excited.

Here is another belly picture. This was at 21 weeks. A little bit bigger than last time:

Ignore the wet spots on my shirt. I had just finished washing the dishes :)

We're Having a Girl!

Caleb and I had an ultrasound today. We had to drive down to Ogden to go to a Maternal Medicine office to get an extra in-depth look at the baby. They have better technology and can see things clearer than other ultrasounds.

They started by looking at our baby's heart (our babies will have a higher risk of having heart defects than others because of my heart defects). The heart looked good! Thank goodness. They could rule out any major heart defects, all four chambers were there and the right size as well as the aorta and other main veins and arteries.

They then looked at the other body parts. They measured the arms, legs, belly, and head. The baby is right in line size wise. They also looked at the brain, stomach, diaphragm, kidneys, umbilical cord, and the face (to make sure they didn't have a cleft pallet).

They also of course looked to see the sex of the baby. The technician said she was 100% sure we are having a baby girl :) I am definitely excited since it is what I have been hoping for all along.

When they were trying to look at her face she wouldn't move her hand, she kept sucking on her fingers. Even when the technician would shake my belly to try to get her to move she wouldn't do it. By the end of the ultrasound she had finally moved it enough that we could see her lips and nose and see that everything looked as it should. She just had to be stubborn for a little while :)

When the doctor came in he said that we have a beautiful baby and that she looks perfect :) That is always nice to hear.

I of course couldn't help myself and after the appointment Caleb and I went and bought some bedding to put in the crib, that I have already made him set up, even though the baby isn't due for a few more months :) My excuse that I gave him for putting the crib and dresser together so early is that I'm sure he'd rather do it now before the semester starts than me bugging him to do it while he's busy trying to study. (Since the baby is due right after finals.)

Here is a picture of the crib:

Without the bedding of course.

Here is a picture with the bedding:

Another picture of the bedding so you can actually see it:

Here is a picture of the dresser, just because:

And that is our baby update! I am sure I will have more to say when I start getting lots of cute stuff for my baby girl :)

Baby Hansen #1

Hi everyone!

I have not blogged for a LONG time. I have been slacking I suppose, but I got a new job which has kept me very busy.

I also have a confession to make. The last time I blogged I said I wasn't pregnant, and apparently that was a lie. An unintentional one, since I didn't know I was pregnant yet. But either way, I still was.

Caleb and I are very excited to be parents. Even though this was a big surprise and Caleb wasn't so excited at first, he is now on board and we couldn't be more ecstatic. And of course he was still happy at the beginning, he was just nervous about this unplanned adventure. Which, by the way, is due to hit sometime in May since my due date is May 31st.

I have been pretty sick. Whoever came up with the term morning sickness must have never had it because it definitely does not hit in the morning. I would call it all-day sickness. I have been feeling better (I am now 19 weeks), although in the mornings it still takes me a little while to get going and I still feel slightly nauseous for an hour or so. The back pain has now started so I just switched out one thing for another, although I would have to say I prefer the back pain.

We had our first ultrasound around 7 or 8 weeks, and the baby didn't look like anything yet, as you can see in this picture:

It's the little white blob in the dark circle in case you couldn't see it :)

This is what I looked like a week or two after this ultrasound was done:

It isn't the most attractive picture of me, but like I said I had been very sick. And as you can see was starting to show. I believe that was around 9 weeks.

We were able to do another ultrasound at 12 1/2 weeks. This one was very exciting because our baby actually looked like a baby:

Our next ultrasound is next week and we get to find out if we're having a boy or a girl. I can't wait! I desperately want a girl, although I feel that we are having a boy, as does Caleb and my mom. I'm just excited to start buying stuff and have forced myself to wait until we know what we're having. After next week I don't think there will be any stopping me! And yes for those worried, such as my husband, I am going to love the baby just as much if it is a boy... But that doesn't mean I can't hope for a little girl to play dress up with :)

Also as a side note: my heart is holding out well. So far there have been no issues and my blood pressure is right where it should be. My cardiologist wants to do an "echo", basically an ultrasound on my heart, when I am about 28 weeks to make sure everything is still ok. At this point everything looks great and I am going to be able to have my baby naturally just like I wanted :) Next week at the utlrasound they are going to take an extra look at the baby's heart to make sure it doesn't have any defects, and around 30 weeks they will possibly have me go over to Primary Children's where they will take an even better and in-depth look at the baby, and the baby's heart, just to make sure everything is ok and I didn't pass on any of my fun stuff.

Oh and here is another picture of the belly that I took last week:

Hopefully I will have time next week to update you all on the sex of the baby! :)



Hi! I am the busy husband. Nikki will not let me type what I want on this blog because she says what I want to say is stupid. I guess politics and economics are not welcome here.

Pilot

I have no idea where to start. I had figured I would always start a blog after we had kids, but I guess I got ahead of myself a little bit, and no, I'm not pregnant...

So I guess I got a lot ahead of myself.

I don't know what exactly I'm going to write about, we lead pretty boring lives. Caleb works, goes to school, and has an internship so he's really busy and doesn't have time to do anything exciting. And I being unemployed means I have plenty of time to do exciting things, but no money to do them. Hence the blog, even though I don't know if I'll ever have anything to say.

So for now this is it. If I think of anything exciting or semi-exciting I'll be back.