Baby Cee Cee's arrival

Yesterday (July 28) Cee Cee arrived at 9:57 AM after a short 8 hrs of labor. She is 7 lbs and 20 inches long. She has no indications of any health problems. Several nurses and the pediactrician indicated that she is an unusually cute baby.

I Will Treasure These Moments (And Others Like Them) Always

Boo Update

For those who are interested, Boo has a carepage on the website carepages.com. I update this with his most recent health information. With his surgery coming up, I expect to keep the updates coming solely from his carepage and not on this blog. If you would like to follow on Boo's carepage, just let me know and I will send you a link or tell you how to get on it.

Pregnant and Lovin' it

I must say, I have had some difficulties in the past with both pregnancies, and maybe I am speaking too soon or jinxing it or something, but I truly am "pregnant and lovin' it". :)

This picture was taken on Sunday. I am now 36 weeks!

*OK, so I started writing this post on Saturday night, and on Sunday and Monday I had REALLY tough days... The title is back to being true, however, as yesterday and today I have been feeling great again. :)

When we were first married, S saw a book titled "Pregnant and Lovin' It" and joked that he was going to buy it for me. Then, when I was pregnant with Boo and having a hard time, he still said he was going to buy that book for me (GRRR....). Now that I AM pregnant and lovin' it, he STILL jokes that he is going to buy that book for me. I just have to learn to ignore these jokes... :) As a side note, he also always jokes about buying me a tote bag that says "Relief Society" on it and I told him I will NOT carry such a bag! But the joke persists.

When we first started telling people that I am pregnant and due in July, so many people thought I was "going to die" because of the heat, etc when I am nine months pregnant. Well, to those nay-sayers, I am now 9 months pregnant and yet alive, and in fact, I have very little discomfort to complain of! Yay! Don't get me wrong, the whole pregnancy has not been this way. I couldn't hardly walk down the street mid-second trimester, but for the last 6-8 weeks Boo and I have been walking 0.5-2 hours per day! I used to get really bad heartburn all the time, but now I just get it occasionally and Zantac makes it all go away. My back pain is no more than the usual discomfort I have in regular non-pregnant life. And I can still carry Boo around and up and down our stairs just fine (one of my big worries before we decided to have another baby). I must be getting SERIOUSLY blessed here, and believe me, I am enjoying it while I can!

We are SO super excited for little Cee-Cee to join us. (Except for Boo, who seems to be getting more attention-demanding... They will get used to each other eventually.) And we are also SO excited that everything points to her being totally healthy and full term (just one more week until that is certain!). Now if the nesting instinct could just kick in and make me put together her little room, that would be good... :)

Upcoming Surgery

Boo's surgery is finally scheduled! It will be on July 8th. I will be 37 weeks along then, so we are hoping and praying that, if it would work out best for all of us, our hospitalizations will not overlap and that Boo will have his surgery and subsequent recovery over and done with before the baby and I start ours! We think it will work out best this way, but Heavenly Father's plan is undoubtedly superior to ours, so we will defer to Him. :)

To be honest, I am feeling a lot better about the surgery now, having had some time to digest the initial shock of it all. (I wrote the last post about it the day after I heard the news...). Now, although I do still have my bouts of sadness/nervousness about the whole thing, I mainly either ignore the whole situation (easy to do when you've got: 1. a baby to take care of, who is totally acting like himself plus some, and 2. a copy of "Pride and Prejudice" and now "Emma") or I feel gratitude for the following:

1. Boo was born at a time when he can have the surgery and it is not a new thing. Actually, we had one doctor tell us that if Boo was born 5 years earlier, he would not have survived with all of his difficulties, and being so small and all. That is seriously something to be grateful for, and I am.

2. We live in a country where these procedures are done regularly and where doctors and nurses are able to get appropriate training to save these fragile little lives.

3. We have good insurance and do not have financial stress on top of all this...

4. We have tons of people, both in the immediate vicinity as well as all over the country, who care about Boo, who pray for him, and who are there to support us and help us out.

5. Besides his heart (granted, that is an important body part...), Boo is much healthier and bigger, and his lungs have gotten better since his last surgery. We hope this means fewer complications than last time and a shorter recovery.

6. Boo is more communicative now than he ever was in the past, especially considering that his last hospitalization was a year ago. He still doesn't talk or sign, but he knows what we are saying and he responds well to us. We think this will help his anxiety this time around.

7. I know Heavenly Father is watching out for our family. He will not take Boo unless it is Boo's time, and that is comforting. And I know He will help us all through any difficulties that may pop up (for all we know, this could be a super simple thing... I will be extremely grateful to know that all the times I have been sad/nervous have been in vain! :)

Lest You Think...

Boo's Extended Second Birthday Party

So my original intent for our little celebration on May 1st (open house for S's graduation and Boo's second birthday) was to have everyone over and visiting throughout the afternoon and then when everyone (or at least mostly everyone) was gone, to help Boo open his presents and see what he did with his little train cake we bought for him. Here are some pictures of our open house before it started. (I was too busy playing hostess to take pictures during the actual party). I am not much of a decorator, but we went for some ASU colors of tablecloths, cakes, balloons, napkins, and plates. My sister, S, helped out a TON - she is the one cutting the cake. Thanks so much to everyone who attended! We had a great turnout and a great time - even our anxious little Boo smiled and played the whole time. He particularly liked to watch his cousins throw the balloons around.Well, where there is a "baby-two-year-old" involved, things don't always go as planned! :) May 1st ended up being our stake's Priesthood Meeting, so S left with his friend K to go to that right after the open house. Which left an exhausted Mama and a surprisingly exhausted Boo together to clean up and get ready for bed. We cleaned up as much as could be expected and went straight to bed, Boo around 7pm! So much for our little family part of the party! The next day, we got out the little train cake and I will let the pictures tell the story of the proceeding events. Yep, it was about as disasterous an experience as I could have possibly dreamed. I knew he would not eat the cake, of course, but I did not anticipate that he would think the cake was actually a toy train and be completely horrified/traumatized upon touching it! I felt so terrible! He cried a different sort of cry than his usual "I'm upset/tired" and it was too sad. After taking only a few pictures, we scooped him up and tried to cheer him up on his way upstairs to bed. I don't ever want to hurt that poor little guy's feelings again!