We Bleed Blue

You gotta raise them right to be cougar fans!!

3 Months: Wesley

*Still has blue eyes. I really think they are going to turn dark eventually, but I just love looking into those baby blues!!!
*He is all over the place with his sleeping. Some nights he does great and sleeps from 8-5, then back to sleep till 8. Those are fabulous nights. Then there are other nights when he has a hard time going to sleep at night and then he is up crying in the middle of the night, needing his binky to get back to sleep. I am really hoping that one day it will just click with him and I can get more consistent sleep.
*Rolls from his tummy to his back.
*Really likes tummy time. He just lays there with his head held up high looking around.
*Started to show interest in toys. He can't grasp anything yet but he tries to kind of bat at things.
*Started to wear his 3-6 month clothes, although some of the 0-3 still fit.
*Still wearing size 1 diapers but really he should be in size 2, I'm just trying to use all our size 1's before I switch him over.
*Loves to talk, talk, talk. If you start talking to him, he will get so happy and talk right back to you. It's adorable
*Loves his sister. Emry loves him too and always wants to give him hugs and kisses. Whenever she talks to him he just smiles and talks back. It's darling!
*Likes to sit in his bumbo. He has much better head control now so he sits in it pretty well.
*I think he will be pretty social because he loves to be part of what's going on. He's so happy to just sit with us while we have dinner or have family time.
*Started to laugh! It's darling!!  He is the most ticklish baby I've ever met. It's pretty cute to tickle him and hear his cute laugh follow. He also laughs when I make him clap his hands. He thinks that is pretty comical!

My Best Blessings!

 Emry at 2 years, 2 months and Wesley at 2 months

These two littles bring me so much joy! Love them!!

2 Months: Wesley

Another month has flown by and our little boy is getting big! It's been a big month for us. I feel like we are finally starting to get back into the swing of things. We've ventured out on a few outings (and survived), Wesley has started to sleep better (which means so has mom), and we are starting to get back onto a schedule. Because of all that, I feel like we are enjoying Wesley more and more. Here are some fun things he is doing this month.

Height: 23 inches (34%)

Weight: 13 obs 15 oz (77%)

Head: 16.25 inches (93%)

*Starting to smile. He loves to coo and talk and loves to smile for his mommy! It is so fun to watch him respond and talk to me. He is such a sweetie!!
*Wears 0-3 month clothes and size 1 diapers
*His sleep varies at night. Just this week I started putting him down around 8:30 pm and let him sleep until he wakes up somewhere between 3 and 530. The last two nights he went from 8:30 to 5:30 and then back to bed until 8 when I woke him up for the morning. It was wonderful!!! Here's to hoping that lasts!
*Rolled over for the first time! He was kind of fussy one night but it wasn't quite time for him to eat and I didn't want him to fall asleep yet so I decided he needed some tummy time so I put him down and started reading. When I looked down a couple of minutes later, he was on his back. Yes, we missed the first time he rolled over, but I immediately put him back on his tummy and got the camera out. He did it again. However, he hasn't done it since then. I'm thinking he has to be mad to do it and he isn't mad very often.
*He still eats very well and is chunking up quite nicely!
*Still has blue eyes.  I'm pretty positive that they will eventually turn hazel (like Emry's did) but for now, I'm loving his baby blues!!

Happy Birthday Olivia

 "Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember." 

-Lucius Annaeus Seneca

 Emry with the statue of Jesus and the children

The Gardners Go to Park City

 We had the best time this year at the Gardner family reunion. We rented a house up in Jeremy Ranch (close to Park City) for a week and it was a blast!

On Saturday, we all arrived and had pizza for dinner. We played some games, had a devotional and then Ryan and I went home that night to get ready for Wesley's blessing the next day.

Sunday was Wesley's blessing. We had a little brunch before church for all our family that was in town and then Wesley's blessing. (More on that here.) That night we ha dinner at the house in Park City and played games. Scott and Vivian gave a great FHE lesson on temples and then off to bed.

Grandma with Leah and Rylee

Emry, Cael, Jackson, and Gavin at the kid's table

Monday and Tuesday we spent at Rock Port Lake. We rented a speed boat and did some tubing and wake boarding. Emry ended up being pretty terrified of the boat (probably had to do with the fact that she didn't get any real nap from Sunday to Tuesday). She only rode it twice: the first time, she screamed the whole time and then the second time, she semi-enjoyed it. I had a fun time wake boarding. Even though I hadn't gone in like 4 years, I was able to get up on the first try and even go in and out of the wake pretty well.  We also enjoyed some pretty awesome tubing. Ryan did a roll on the tube, which was pretty sweet! I love just hanging out on the lake. 

Emry at the lake with her yummy drink

Wesley slept a lot at the lake, which was really nice because it ended up being pretty windy with sand everywhere. So mostly he hung out in his car seat. 

Cael, Gavin, Emry, Jackson, and Brooke on the water weenie. We took the Gavin and Jacks out on a little trip on the water weenie (really slow) and when we were like 100 feet off the shore, the boat was going too slow, and so we all fell in the water. It was pretty comical but also scared the crap out of the kids. 

More yummy drinks

Taking a little nap at the beach

On Wednesday, the boys went golfing in the morning so we took the kids to the park and hung out at the house. When the boys got back, all the girls went shopping at the outlets. It was a very relaxing day after the two days of lake, which was really nice.  

Here are the older cousins at the park

On Thursday, we got up and headed to hike Stewart Falls up Provo Canyon. I did this hike like 5 times in college and loved it. It always seemed to be a short, easy hike. Well taking a bunch of kids under the age of 4 made it seem pretty long. It was pretty fun and a great bonding activity. On the way home, we stopped at the famous shake place in Heber and then headed back to the house to relax and take a nap. 

Most of the gang before the hike. Everyone kept commenting on how many cardinal fans there were on the trail. There were a lot of us!!

Emry on Uncle Brandon's shoulders

Me and Wesley hiking along

Wesley hanging out at the waterfall

I was smart and brought the umbrella to keep the sun off Wesley (and me) while we were at the waterfall

 Every night someone was in charge of a devotional and then we had scripture and prayer as a family. This is Ryan and Emry reading scriptures on the phone.

Thursday night we pulled out a pinata a friend gave me for Emry's second birthday that I forgot to use. We thought it would be fun for the kids to do the pinata. They had a blast!

After Emry and Jackson had a turn, Cael was up and broke the pinata on his first swing!

Way to go Cael!!

On Friday we spent the day in Park City doing the alpine slide and coaster. It was pretty fun. The coaster is pretty fast. It's my favorite. Ryan took Emry on the alpine slide. She did fine riding up the chair lift with us but as soon as we got in the line to go down the slide she started screaming bloody murder. She didn't stop until they started going and then she was totally fine going down the whole time. Again, she had no nap that day. Let's just say, we love nap time :D
After the alpine slides, we went to lunch and then that night we went bowling with the whole family. It was a lot of fun! Then we played some games and off to bed we went.

Vivian with Emry, Jacks, and Leah. We took turns watching the kids while the other adults went on the ride. 

 Ryan on the coaster

 Me on the coaster

 They also had little kid rides that the kids did. There was a merry go round, this planes ride, and a train ride. They loved it!

 We got her on the plane when she starts throwing a fit because she meant she wanted to go on the train. So we got off the planes and went on the train instead. We had some rough days without naps...

On Saturday, we woke up, packed the car, and headed home. We had so much fun with all our family and can't wait for next year. These trips are always filled withe fun and it's a great time for Emry to become better friends with her cousins. 

Wesley's Blessing

 This cute little man was blessed today on Sunday, July 20, 2014. It was a wonderful blessing and it was great to have so many family members there to share this special day with us.

Here is the cute little man in his darling blessing outfit.

 

 

Family Pictures

  

Grandma and Grandpa Gardner

Grandma and Grandpa Whitaker

Great Grandmas

Wesley at 1 Month

I'm torn. It's been a month since this little guy has come into our family and on one hand it feels like no way it has been that long already. On the other hand, it seems like he has been a part of our family forever! Either way, we love him so much.

Emry just loves Wesley. She is just so cute with him. Sometimes when she walks by him she just stops and gives him a kiss and cuddles him. She always says, "he loves his big sister!"

At 1 month:

*Has always been a GREAT eater. We had no issues with breast feeding from day 1. He just latches right on so easily. It was nice not having to deal with trying to teach him how to nurse.
*Loves to just lay and hang out by himself. Sometimes he will be fussy and I will try to bounce him, rock him, shsh him and nothing will work. Then I'll just put him down and he will be as happy as can be, just laying and relaxing.
*Wears size 1 diapers and 0-3 month size clothes
*Already is chunking up quite nicely. I love my chunky babies!
*Has his "fussy" time after his 7 o'clock feeding and has a hard time going down for the night. But then he falls asleep and I wake him up for one last feeding at 10 or 1030 and he sleeps until somewhere between 3 and 4. Then he's back to sleep till 7. He's been sleeping in his own room since about day 5 or something...
*He is the funniest. He loves to be swaddled and then held with his body held across my body and his head just kinda hanging off my arm (so it's like he is looking up). Its' so funny! 
*He likes tummy time pretty well and can lift his head pretty well too. Moves his head from side to side and will just look around. 

We love this cute little man!

 

He looks so little on that big blanket!

 Hi Wesley!!

Wesly's Birth Story

From the time I found out we were pregnant, I was pretty sure this baby was going to be late, just like the other two. Our due date was June 3rd, but I jokingly told people I should just say my due date was June 10th because my doctor said he wouldn't really let me go longer than 41 weeks. So although I was pretty sure this baby was going to be late, when June 3rd came and went it was pretty disappointing. At 39 weeks, my doctor started asking "Why is this baby still in there?" His guess was as good as mine! At 38 weeks, I was already dilated to a 2 and at 39 weeks I was a 3. My doctor kept asking me why we weren't getting this baby out (inducing) and the only answer I had for him was that I really wanted to go into labor on my own (for once!!). We decided to schedule an induction for my due date, June 3rd. I scheduled the induction but didn't really feel very good about that decision. Not that I felt bad about it, but it just didn't seem right. So the night before, I called the hospital and canceled my induction and decided to just go in for my last appointment. So at 40 weeks I was a 4+ and my water was "bulging." At that appointment my doctor said that if I waited till 41 weeks to induce and my water broke before then, I wouldn't make it in time to get my antibiotics (for being strep positive). So we decided to schedule my induction for that Saturday, June 7th. I didn't want to get induced but this time, scheduling this induction felt right. That really helped me feel a lot better when Saturday came along.  We headed in at around 830 and by 9 I had my IV and my antibiotics were started. I was a 5 when I got there, so that was promising!! They also started me on some Pitocin. Inductions really are not all that exciting, so for the first 3 hours, we just kinda hung out. Actually, I sent Ryan out to get me a magazine because we were pretty bored.
We had such a fantastic nurse. She had been an L&D nurse for 40 years and she really knew what she was doing. It was funny, though, because she asked me if I was wanting an epidural. I told her I wanted to see how far I could go and when I didn't want to feel any more, I would get the epidural. She took that as I wanted to try to go naturally. She was totally supportive and I'm kinda glad she thought that because she wasn't asking me every second if I wanted my epidural.
My doctor, Dr. England, came to see me shortly after we got there, checked things out, and said he'd be back to break my water later. He wanted to wait to break my water until after I had 2 doses of the antibiotic. The pitocin started to work and I was feeling more and more contractions, but nothing too bad. At noon, my doctor came back and broke my water and then the labor really started. My water had some meconium in it, which means the baby had a bowel movement in the womb. Because of this, there is increased risk for breathing problems with the baby. It was at this point that I was glad we induced this baby and didn't wait any longer with him in the meconium. After my water was broken, I got pretty uncomfortable laying on the bed with all those monitors attached to me so I got on the birthing ball to get a little more comfortable. That worked for a while but by about 130 I decided I wanted the epidural. My nurse wanted to check me one more time because she thought maybe I was really close and we could have the baby fast enough so I didn't have to get the epidural. She checked me and I was only a 6+ so she called the anesthesiologist. At this point I was on the bed from being checked and it was really uncomfortable so he couldn't have come soon enough. Dr. Rich walked in and was getting ready to do the epidural when he got a call saying that some other lady was still really uncomfortable. He told the other nurse that he would come dose that lady before giving me my epidural. I almost screamed, "no!!!" but kept it together as he walked out. He was probably only gone for like 5 minutes tops but it felt like longer. Ryan kept asking what he could do to help me and I kept saying, get that doctor back here!! haha. He finally came back and did my epidural pretty fast. It kicked in within 10 minutes or so and life was better again. :D After the epidural was in and I wasn't feeling any pain, I tried to just relax while we waited for my body to do it's job. My nurse told me to tell her when I was feeling any pressure or feeling like I needed to push. After an hour or so, I felt a little pressure and so the nurse checked me and said the baby was still pretty high and I wasn't complete yet. She also said that the baby was kind of sideways, instead of completely anterior like he should be. This is when I was so glad for such a great, confident nurse. She was so calm and told me he would turn so confidently that I totally believed her. She said as he would turn and then he will drop. So she had me switching from my left to my right side like every 5 minutes to get the baby moving a little bit. I said, I kinda felt like I had to pee, but I had a catheter in. I didn't feel like my bladder was full but I felt the pressure to pee. She kinda messed with the catheter and then she decided to just take it out. She left and then about 5 minutes later, I was feeling more pressure, but I was feeling kind of stupid because I had already told her like twice I was feeling pressure, and the baby was still really high. So after trying to ignore the pressure for a couple of contractions, I just had to call her because I was feeling a lot of pressure. She came in and said, it can be that fast, so let's see. She checked me and said, oh ya, the baby dropped. She said she thought the bulb from the catheter was somehow blocking the baby from dropping so when she took it out, the baby was able to drop.
The nurse called my doctor to come (he was only like 10 minutes away) but I was really struggling not to push. Even with the epidural, I was feeling so much pressure it was almost impossible to not push. I had to do funny pulse breathing through each contraction to keep me from pushing. The nurse would check me and then tell me, don't worry, as long as you don't push, Dr England will make it in time. And I would think, I really really really want to push!! My doctor finally walked in and so it was time to finally push. It was kinda ironic because while we were waiting for Dr England to get there, I was on my side and it was almost impossible to not push and then when he got there, I went to my back to push and suddenly, I didn't feel so much pressure. I only had to push for like 10 minutes and then our baby boy was here and he was perfect and healthy!!!
On June 7, 2014 at 4:47 pm baby boy Gardner was born! 8 lbs 9 oz, 20.5 inches and cute as can be!!
I was really dreading inducing again, but this experience changed my mind about inductions. It was a great experience and in the end all that really matters is healthy baby, healthy mom.
After delivery, I tried breastfeeding and Wesley latched on immediately and ate for like 20 minutes on each side!! He has always been such a fantastic eater, for which I am totally thankful for! We are totally in love with our little guy!!

Happy Birthday Wesley!!

Wesley Scott Gardner

Introducing

Wesley Scott Gardner

June 7, 2014    ~     4:47 PM

8 lbs 9 oz    ~    20.5 inches