Connor

Here are some newer pictures of Connor. :)

Hello

So I know it has been over a year since I have posted anything, I have been a very bad blogger. I missed writing, I enjoyed sharing my life. So I have decided to start again, hopefully I can be a better blogger. So let's get caught up to present day.

• In May 2011 I started yet another college. This time I am going for my A.S. in Accounting and for once I am doing fabulous in school. For those who don't know, I have been "attempting" college since I was 18. I am now on my 4th school and 5th major and I have nothing to show for my efforts so far. But soon that statement will change!! As I work towards my associate's I also earn technical certificates. I already have one and by the time May 2013 comes around I will have 3 technical certificates and two associate degrees. Go me!!
• My husband is currently in the middle of his third deployment. Thankfully he comes home soon and if he doesn't reenlist next year this will be our last full deployment. Connor and I went back to Texas for four months to be with family (I did school online for this deployment). We actually just got back to Florida a week ago and we're busy trying to the apartment back in order.
• I don't know how it works in the other branches of the military, but in the Navy when a sailor wants to reenlist they have to put in a PTS (for the life of me I cannot remember what that stands for). He has like eight chances to put in a PTS that gets approved before he is kicked out of the Navy. He has put in two so far. The first one was denied, the second one we're waiting to hear back about. So now we're facing the real possibility that he may not be in the Navy next year. My husband is one of those that wants to make a career out of the military, so I never considered the possibility that he would have to get out. Unfortunately the Navy is overmanned and his job is overmanned, so this is how life goes.
• We have decided to try for baby number two.
• Now let me get to Connor. My sweet sweet boy is almost two and as everyone says, he is "all boy". He loves to get into everything, loves to climb everything and he is so very destructive. I definitely have my hands full but I love every minute of it.

The Holidays

I know I have three more months to update about Connor, but they'll probably have to wait until Monday comes. I don't know how it works in other branches of the military, but in the Navy everyone gets leave around the holidays, first leave (around Christmas time) and second leave (around New Years). Well J had second leave so he's been home all week. Spending time with the hubby and the baby have made it kind of difficult to do much of anything. But once life gets back to normal I'll be able to finish all my updates while Connor's napping.

So how was everyone's holidays?

Ours was perfect. It was just J, Connor and me, which was absolutely wonderful. J had duty (once a week they have to stay on the ship overnight to do watches and stuff) on Christmas Eve, so Connor and I had to wait and open presents until he got home Christmas morning. he got home around 9:30 and after he got settled in we opened presents. Connor was real interested in grabbing the wrapping paper, so J would pull the present away once he had a hold of the paper, giving Connor the opportunity to help open his presents without even knowing it. We got through twenty minutes of present unwrapping before Connor got cranky and had to be laid down for a nap. We opened the rest of the presents (Connor got a TON) once we laid him down and then we played with the new "toys" we got. We had ribs, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese and corn bread for dinner. I'm a once a year traditional holiday meal person and since we had the whole traditional shabang at Thanksgiving we wanted to do something different for Christmas dinner. It was a perfect, low key day. I do have a few pictures, so I'll post them up in a few days.

On New Years Eve, we were suppose to go to a friend's house, but when we were getting ready to leave Connor got SUPER cranky, so we decided to stay home instead. J and I stayed up till like one watching the season eight of Scrubs (love that show).

Well, that's all I have for now. I promise you'll have a lot to read next week.

Month Two

Connor's second month brought about some big changes for us. When he was about 1 1/2 months, my dad and stepmom drove us back to Florida so we could be home when J's ship pulled in. The drive is about nineteen hours (which we did in two days) and my little man did wonderfully.

Connor started smiling during his second month, and it wasn't just the "i have gas" smile. Oh and let me tell you, I'm very spoiled when it comes to my baby's sleep schedule. By the time he was two months old he would only wake up once or twice a night!!

The most exciting thing that happened during Connor's second month was his daddy coming home!! J's ship pulled in two days before Connor turned two months and J got to meet his son for the first time. I was so excited to reunite my little family.

Month One

So we spent Connor's first month in Texas living with my dad and my stepmom. We tried breastfeeding, but unfortunately I am one of those unlucky women who do not produce milk, so my baby is formula fed. When he was two weeks, my sister and I drove up to Oklahoma (it is a 4 1/2 hour drive) to visit my mom for her birthday. He did wonderful in the car, even back then! By the time he was a month old he weighed 8 pounds and 14 ounces!! We didn't really have any big milestones during his first month.

Here's some pictures of his first month!!

Connor's first bath

shielding out the light

Connor with Mommy and Grandma

my mom's cat was three times the size of Connor when he was two weeks old!!

a few days shy of a month old

a month old

his favorite activity...eating

Connor's Birth Day

Well, I don't know if you remember, but my due date for Connor was on July 27. My new doctor in Texas (who also delivered my niece...haha no this was not coincidental) started checking me at 35 weeks and at my 35 week appointment he told me that I was 1-2 cm dilated already. At 36 weeks I was 1 1/2 cm, at 37 I was 2 cm and at 39 weeks I was 3 cm. By 38 weeks I was begging to be induced because I was extremely uncomfortable because of the baby being so low, me being so big and it being so hot out. To my surprise the doctor agreed to the induction and it was scheduled for two days later!! I left my appointment in shock at the fact that in a few days I was going to finally meet my little man.

Since I was dilated and thinning I didn't have to go to the hospital the night before to get Cervadil. My stepmom and I went to the hospital at five in the morning on the 22nd. By the time they got all my admitting paperwork done, my IV started, blood drawn and pitocin started it was around seven in the morning. The nurse checked me after starting the pitocin (or right before I can't remember) and I was 4 1/2 cm (after only two days). The doctor came in and broke my water at 9 am and I was 6 cm. Probably about 15 minutes after getting my water broken I got an epidural because I didn't know how much longer it was gonna take and I didn't know how much worse the pain was gonna get and I'm a real big wuss when it comes to pain. Unfortunately, my epidural started to wear off pretty quickly and within half and a hour I could feel my contractions on the right side. My nurse came in and checked me at ten and I was fully dilated and ready to push. I pushed for an hour and a half (at the end I felt every contraction and the baby come out!!) and had to have an episiotomy. My precious baby boy was born at 11:30 AM. So all together my labor was only 4 1/2 hours long, which my doctor bragged about the rest of the day :) He weighed 6 lbs 11 oz and he was 19 1/4 inches long. We were in the hospital for about 36 hours because Connor's glucose levels had to be monitored because of my GD. Overall,

I had an amazing birth experience (except for the fact that J wasn't there and his mother was in the room even though I told her several times I didn't want her to be) and I really can't wait to experience it again in a few years.

Enjoy the pictures below!

Just minutes old

Getting cleaned off

Proud Momma

Welcome to the world Connor Aden



admiring the new baby

Connor had to have certain glucose levels. Since I was breastfeeding there were times I had to give him formula through a syringe to get his levels high enough

I'm BAAACK

Wow I can't believe how fast ten months can go by!! It feels like just yesterday that I posted Connor's ultrasound pictures and now my baby is five months old. There has been so much that have happened in the last ten months and I cannot wait to share everything with you ladies!! Hmm...where to start?? Well, sometime in March (or maybe April, I really can't remember) we found out that my stepmom's breast cancer had returned ( read here for the story of the first time she had it). I was devastated because she was suppose to be the person that came to Florida to be with me when the baby was born (J was deployed and he didn't get back until Connor was two months old) and there was a chance she wasn't going to be able to come. After finding out this news and much deliberation with my parents and my mother in law, I decided that when I went back to Texas for my baby sister's graduation I was just going to stay there and have the baby back home so I wasn't alone (which really would have sucked because I live forty five minutes away from the navy hospital). So one of my sisters flew to Florida to help me drive to Texas (by this time I'm just shy of 32 weeks and my dad didn't want me to try and make a NINETEEN hour drive by myself). On the day that I was suppose to pick her up from the airport my car started acting up and come to find out that there's a chance the engine will seize up if we try and drive it all the way to Texas, so we had to rent a car!! Being back in Texas was great though. I got to spend a lot of time with my niece (who is now two) and my family. It really sucked not having a car, but my baby sister drove me wherever I needed to go (including ALL of my doctor's appointments). We joked around that she was the stand in husband since J wasn't there. My parents drove me back home Labor Day weekend and a few weeks later J's ship came home!! A few days later we bought a new car (whoot whoot!!) and made the drive back to Texas to take his mom home, get our dogs and so everyone could see him. It has been awesome being our own little family. J deploys again in August or September, which is gonna suck, but he'll be here for Connor's birthday and he's seeing all of Connor's first holidays so I'm pretty excited about that.

Well ladies I have a lot more stuff to update about, so I'm gonna split all the new info up into several blogs. Stay tuned for Connor's birth day and months 1-5 (pictures included!!)