Learning About Life With 2 Kiddos!

I absolutely love my life right now!  (minus the financial side of it obviously!)  I have such a wonderful, hard-working husband and two of the most beautiful, perfect, loving children ever!  I often find myself in awe when I think about how lucky and blessed I am to have the life that I have.  I try to savor every snuggle and every sweet, slobbery kiss that comes my way because I know that one day these two wonderful children will have to grow up. :(  Since I have been MAJORLY slacking at updating my blog and posting pictures I have a TON of work to do so hopefully I don't leave anything out!

 

Nixon sleeping in his bassinet for the first time!  Lets be honest though...this didn't last long!  I absolutely LOVE having my babies in my bed with me!

 

Nixon in his adorable football beanie!

 

Berkley loving on brother!  It almost always makes her feel better to hold and kiss Nixon when she's sad!  SO DANG SWEET!

Nixon's first outing!  We went to Smith's to get mommy's pain pills!  He was just 2 days old!

 





Nixon getting his nails clipped for the first time!

 

Berkley is such a GREAT big sister!  She is always rushing to Nixon to give him his binky if he fusses (which thankfully isn't too often!) and she loves to stick her finger in the middle part of it!

 

That gets us through June, finally!  Now, on to July!

 

Nixon getting his first sponge bath at home!

 

All clean!

 

 

Berkley loves going outside to the backyard and coloring with chalk or blowing bubbles!

Berkley tackling the BYU fans!  HAHA!  Go Utes!  So cute!

 

 

Nixon's first doctor's appointment!  4 days old!

 

Just for fun...Me at 39 weeks and then 5 days after I had Nixon!  CRAZY!!!

 

 

Watching fireworks together on the 3rd!  Ryan and Ashley got to come too!

 

 

Nixon's umbilical cord fell off during the night sometime and I woke up on the 4th and noticed that it was gone!  It was in my bedding!!!  Kind of gross but I was glad it fell off because it was infected!

 

The 4th of July was when Nixon was only 6 days old and you'd better believe that we still celebrated it like normal!  Here are the pictures to prove it!

 

 

Our patriotic kiddos before the parade!

 

 

All of us at the parade!  It was seriously SCORCHING hot!  I couldn't stop sweating!!!  We ended up with tons of candy though and we got to go with Ryan and Ashley so it was still pretty dang awesome!

 

After the parade we went to my parents' house for a small BBQ and Nixon got to meet his great-grandma for the first time!  Berkley found the Sun Chips and kept sneaking into the kitchen to eat more and I caught my dad asleep with the little man!  We had a great 4th of July!

 

 

Watching TV together!  I love how Berkley was sitting!

It's true!  He is "Handsome Like Daddy"!  I love these two wonderful boys!

 

Nixon's cute little birth mark!

 

Berkley a little too close to the TV!  Haha!  We had a sleepover at Ryan and Ashley's house on the 5th and Berkley is just the right height to stand right in front of the TV and make herself blind!

 

On the night of the 6th we had planned to have Aaron's parents bring us dinner.  Little did we know that they were also bringing his sisters who were sneaky and planned a visit from out of state without us knowing!  It was a great surprise!  They sent us a picture of them by our SUV and said "Wish we were here!" and we were SO confused at first!  Once I realized what was going on I jumped up and ran outside and there they were!  It was so much fun to see Cherie and Dani so unexpectedly!

 

Berkley holding hands with Uncle Paxton!

 

Nixon's first big spit-up!  All over grandma!  :)

Grandma snuggling with both kiddos!

Berkley playing with her cousin, Kaylie!

 

All ready for church!  Daddy was singing with the men's choir in the ward so we went for Sacrament Meeting only because Nixon was only 10 days old!

 

Later Sunday night we went to cousin Boston's baby blessing!  Aren't these two just adorable in their Sunday best?!

 

When Nixon was 11 days old my friend from my ward, Sarah Miller (https://www.facebook.com/#!/sarahmillerphotos), came over and took some beautiful pictures of my two angels for me!  I love how they turned out!  Here are some of my favorites!

 

Aren't these two children just so perfect?!

 

Snuggling with both of my babies!  We took a nap this way that day!

 

Berkley wiping off Nixon's head after she kissed him!  We must wipe off her kisses a lot because now she always wipes them off for us!

 

Family snuggle time!  It's the best!

 

Berkley loves to sit in Nixon's bouncer and watch TV.  A few times she's even fallen asleep in it!

 

Too dang handsome!

 

Nixon's first time in the bouncer!  15 days old!  He was not too much of a fan but it's definitely grown on him!

 

 

While Cherie, Aaron's sister, was here from Washington she took some pictures for us on the 15th!  I love this one of Aaron and Nixon!

 

And here's a great family picture from that day too!

 

That gets us through the middle of July!  Yay!  I'm making progress!  The little dude just did a nasty #2 in his diaper and my princess is tearing my house apart so it's time to take a break and hope that I will get back to catching up soon!  It wouldn't be so hard if I didn't have so many pictures of 2 of the cutest kids ever!

Nixon's First Full Day on Earth!

The hospital stay really wasn't too bad.  My nurses were Cathi, Melissa, and Wendy.  I LOVE Ogden Regional!  Nixon had to be taken for his bath and shots at 11:30 PM.  I don't think he liked it too much!

 

The nurse brought him back to the room around 1 AM.  I was SO excited to have him back!

He sure was a sleepy little dude that first night.  Nothing could wake him up!  He really only woke up when they came to check his temperature at 6:20 AM.  P.S. Aren't these PJ's so dang cute on him?!  We bought them before we even got pregnant with Berkley because we loved them SO much!  I'm so glad we got to have an adorable little man to put in them!

I LOVE his bright blonde hair!  I couldn't get enough of it in the hospital!  You can't really see it here but Nixon has a cute little birth mark on the back of his head!

Daddy's first time changing Nixon's bum!

Nixon's first outfit!

 

"Little Brother"

He's seriously so dang HANDSOME!!!

"Big Sister" and "Little Brother"

 

These two really did have a bond right from the start despite how disinterested she looks here!

 

Berkley was very curious about the hospital room.  She couldn't get enough of the drawers and cupboards!

Berkley kept rubbing his head and saying "WOW!" and she kept giving him lots of kisses!  So perfect!

"EYES!"  (She was going through a phase of being obsessed with eyes!)

At 4 PM the nurse checked Nixon's bilirubin level and it was 4.9 so they said we would be able to go home that day for sure.  Yay!

It sure was difficult having Berkley at the hospital the whole day but she eventually wore herself out and took a little nap!

 

Daddy with our perfect little angels!

 

At 7:15 PM they checked Nixon's weight and did his PKU.  He weighed 6 lb 14 oz (he was 7 lb 2 oz at birth) and they said he looked good still so we got to get ready to go home!

 

Getting in the car seat for the very first time...ready to go HOME!!!

 

Our little family of 4 ready to venture off on our own!  We left at 7:50 PM (Nixon was exactly 23 hours old) which was lucky because they're supposed to keep you for a minimum of 24 hours!

 

By the time we got home (at 8:25 PM) both kids were totally ZONKED!  Needless to say staying at the hospital is very EXHAUSTING for everyone there!  :)

 

It was GREAT to be home and enjoy our two perfect children together!

The Big Day! (The Birth Story of Nixon!)

The day was finally here!  On June 28th we woke up feeling very excited and anxious.  Aaron had the day off since the induction was scheduled for 3 PM at Ogden Regional Medical Center and it's a minimum of a 30 minute drive.  He went to the gym with Ryan and Ashley to kill some time while I spent some last one-on-one time with Berkley. 

I was feeling more than anxious so I called the hospital around 10:30 AM (10:24 AM to be exact...I was supposed to wait and call at 2 PM) to find out if there was going to be enough room for me to be induced or not.  I felt crushed when they informed me that they had been admitting a lot of walk-ins and that they would have to postpone my induction until later that night. 

Aaron was feeling pretty let-down and discouraged too when I called to tell him.  After he came home from the gym and got ready we walked around the neighborhood a little bit (trying to push things along...unsuccessfully!) and spent some time watching movies from Redbox to try to keep our minds off of being frustrated and anxious.  Just as we were getting ready to start another movie (at 1:58 PM) my phone rang.  It was the hospital!  They said to head in and they had room to induce me!  We ran around frantically gathering all of our last minute stuff for the hospital, jumped in the car, and drove as fast as legally possible to the hospital! 

On our way!!!

We got there at 2:45 PM and checked in. 

Berkley waiting...reading a magazine!

Thanks to some problems in the admissions office we didn't get put in a room until 3:30 PM so things got started a little bit later than we had anticipated...at that point we didn't care anymore though.  We knew that we were really going to have our baby!  What else matters when you're that excited, right?! 

Me outside of my room...you should look up the picture of me wearing this same outfit outside of my room when we went to have Berkley...it's a good laugh!

After answering questions, peeing in a cup, and putting on my super cute (NOT!) hospital gown and getting situated in my bed they got me started!  They put me on Pitocin, running at 4, at 4:25 PM.  The contractions stayed regular (FINALLY!  It was a nice change from the past week of off and on false labor!) and we were on our way! 

Hanging out in my bed!  Yeah, I was still comfortable at this point!  :)

Ice chips...the not so yummy only food choice during labor.

At 5:10 PM my midwife came in and broke my water and checked me.  I was still at a 4 and 90-100% effaced (same as what I had been at his office two days earlier) and I was handling the contractions just fine so they increased the flow rate of the Pitocin to 8. 

My cute hubby!  He's so awesome!

Berkley hanging out with mommy before the pain set in!

Playing games on my phone to help kill time!

By 7:05 PM I was dilated to a 6 and starting to feel slightly uncomfortable.  For those of you who don't know, I did go completely natural...no epidural, no IV pain meds, NOTHING!  As the pain got worse I got more and more nauseated!  It was horrible to feel so nauseous but not want to puke!  I held strong and never did throw up!

By 7:56 PM I was getting pretty darn uncomfortable and a little bit snippy with the people in my room!  Originally Aaron and I had discussed things that I wanted him to say to me while I was hurting to help encourage me but by the time I was hurting as badly as I was all I wanted was for EVERYONE to SHUT UP! I did say please most times that I asked people to stop talking to me though! :) Aaron was cute and asked if I wanted him to just throw our previous discussion about him encouraging me verbally out the window and I quickly said "YES!" 

34 minutes before Nixon was born...I don't look too bad for being way uncomfortable and going 100% natural, right?!

The next thing I knew my midwife, Guy Cox, came into the room and checked everything.  I, being the curious person I am, asked for a mirror so I could see what was going on.  Honestly, it helps to see what's going on, at least for me it does!  Shortly after getting the mirror I was told to start pushing...WHAT?!  I didn't realize that the end was so close!  PUSH?!?!  Seriously?!  Okay!!! 

One push and Nixon's perfect little head (actually big according to the nurse...35 cm OFC) was out!  Push again...he was all the way out!  Holy crap that went fast!  TWO PUSHES?!  I never would have thought that he would come out so quickly and easily!  P.S. Pushing without an epidural is a million times easier and I didn't feel like my head was exploding at all!  I did feel my legs and feet get really warm right as he was coming out and then they quickly went back to normal...weird!  Oh, and holy burning sensation when the little guy had crowned!  So weird! 

4 hours and 25 minutes after being started, at 8:50 PM on June 28th, 2012 our baby boy, Nixon Ryan Evans, made his way into the world weighing 7 lb 2 oz (just like Berkley!) and measuring 19 inches long!  We instantly loved him and we are absolutely enjoying having him in our lives! 

I love this little man SO much!

Berkley got to meet her baby brother just 26 minutes after he was born and she instantly loved him! She loves to rub his head and say "Wow!" and she can't get enough of giving him kisses...even without being prompted to! I couldn't ask for a more perfect little family!

Our first family picture with Nixon!

He completes our family for now and we love his sweet personality and enjoy snuggling him as much as he enjoys snuggling us!

Oh yeah, don't you worry!  I got my chocolate at the end! 

Here are a few more pictures from the big day!

The proud grandparents!

Our family of 4!

The Final Moments Before We Became FOUR!

At the very end of my pregnancy with Nixon we went on walks around the neighborhood...very frequently!  I was so anxious to have him that I did everything I could to try to have him sooner.  EVERYTHING!  That includes eating nasty black licorice candy, jumping up and down the stairs (sorry to my neighbors!), playing Just Dance on the Wii, using oils, doing the obvious..., eating spicy food and fresh pineapple, doing squats during contractions, and having my cervical membranes stripped (TWICE!) and he was stubborn and held out on us still! 

Here's a cute picture of Berkley in her car on one of our many walks!

She's a cute little driver!

Left: 39 weeks with Berkley

Right: 38 weeks and 6 days with Nixon

Same shirt!  HUGE difference! (Pun not intended but LOL anyways!)  Literally a 20+ pound difference though!

The end of my pregnancy with Nixon was SO much more comfortable than the end of my pregnancy with Berkley!  CRAZY how different the two pregnancies were in some aspects!

Aaron and Berkley watching TV.  We tried to distract ourselves to make time pass more quickly!

Berkley and I went to the zoo with my cousins and their kiddos!  It was a fun group and we would love to go again sometime!  Especially now that Nixon's here too!  I thought for sure that climbing the huge hill on the backside of the zoo while pushing a stroller with Berkley in it without stopping would put me into labor...I'm sure Nixon got a good laugh out of that one!

39 weeks...emotional...tired...anxious...stressed...and so much more!  Dang hormones anyhow!

I finally gave into my craving for chocolate chip cookies (at 11 PM on the 26th) and I made some cookies!  They were AMAZING!!!  We love the recipe on the back of the Blue Bonnet box.  YUM!  Don't even ask how many I ate though!  You might die!

Aaron and Berkley watching TV...again!  She LOVES watching sports on TV!  She DEFINITELY does NOT get that from me!  Gridiron Gang is pretty dang awesome though!

Berkley LOVES to wear shoes around the house!  Especially flip flops!  She makes me laugh!

This was taken on the 28th (induction day) and I can't be more proud that I was wearing my Silver capris from last summer and they were still buttoned all the way without help!  It was nice to fit into cute pants throughout my whole pregnancy but I never wore the maternity pants that I was sure I would be too big for by the end of winter!  Good thing we plan on having more babies!!!

Next update on the list...the birth story!  Wish me luck!  :)