New Year, Busy Schedule

The New Year has begun and we have hit the ground running. Adam finished off his first semester back at school and did great. He got all A's and a B+ in biology. I'm so proud of him. Now he's back a school for another semester and I'm back to work.

These next few months will be a whirlwind for us. On Mondays and Wednesdays Adam is at school all day and I work late, while Audrey hangs out with grandma Connell. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I rush home early to catch Adam just as he leaves for his evening class and I take over watching the babe. On top of that, Adam is in class from 8-1:15 every Saturday and I am traveling all over the state this month for work. To say the least, there are very few times during the week that we are all home together. It's tough, but I've been focusing on making the best of the time we get as a family.

While there are many days that I feel like I'm running in circles, I can't complain too much. Adam is loving school and so excited about what he's doing, work for me is going well, and our little Audrey is happy, healthy, and growing every day. We are blessed with great family and friends that help make our crazy schedule work, but let's just hope that we don't have to keep it up for too long.

Christmas 2010

We get a real Christmas tree each year and this year was no different. Early in December, we went and picked out this cute tree. It wasn't too big, but it was the perfect shape. I love picking out a Christmas tree each year and I think it will be a fun tradition for Audrey as she grows up.
We spent this Christmas here in Utah with Adam's family. On Christmas Eve, we went to the movies and saw Tangled. After that we spent the evening at Adam's parent's house eating, hanging out, and watching The Kid. Audrey was a very good girl this year, so Santa brought her a bouncer. She is still a bit young for it, but I'm hoping in a month or two she will like playing in it. Adam got steel to build a roll cage on the Samurai as well as come clothes and a new xbox controller. I got a bunch of cute clothes from both Adam and my mother-in-law. Christmas afternoon we went over to Adam's grandma's and spent time visiting with aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was fun letting everyone see Audrey, but she wasn't in the best mood. That night when we came back home it was like Christmas all over again because we were able to open presents from my family.

Audrey's Blessing

We blessed Audrey in church this past Sunday. It was a great day that we were able to spend with family and friends. My parents flew up for the weekend to be here for it and Adam's parents and his brothers were all there.

Audrey looked so precious in her white dress and new white head band. She did great during the blessing and didn't make one peep. Adam gave her a beautiful blessing and of course tears were running down my face the entire time.

After the blessing, we had our family and friends over for some food at our house and took a few pictures with Audrey. This little girl definitely does not have a lack of pictures, but she is changing so much that it's fun to get them at every stage. Audrey smiles all the time now and will talk with us (making baby noises). We just love spending time with her and it was really a graet day.

Thanksgiving

We spent this Thanksgiving in California with my family. Audrey and I headed down early and were able to spend an entire week in Livermore. It was great for her to get to spend some time with grandma and grandpa and meet lots of friends and family.
While we were in California we did some Christmas shopping and had Audrey's picture taken with Santa. On Thanksgiving day we saw the movie Tangled and Audrey slept through the entire movie! After that we had Thanksgiving dinner at my grandma's and played a few game.
It was really great to get away and have a few relaxing days before we headed back to Utah and I went started work.

1 Month Old

Audrey is now one month old. She no longer looks like a newborn and grows bigger each day. She is just starting to grow out of her newborn diapers and into the size 1 diapers. She still wears a lot of her newborn clothes, but they are definitely getting smaller. She doesn't quite fit into the 0-3 month clothes yet, but hopefully soon so she has some more options. She is getting into more of a rhythm with her night time routine. She usually goes to bed around 10pm, wakes up between 3 and 4 am, and then again around 8am. Since she sleeps so well during the night, she is a wake much more often during the day. I love spending time with her during the day, but it is getting harder to get things done.

She smiles a lot now and loves to look at new things. I try to show her something new each day to keep her interest. We had a vase of flowers in the house and she would just sit and stare at them for hours. We've also been trying to read books, sing, and dance.

One of the funniest things about Audrey is that loves to grunt. She will just lay there perfectly happy and grunt and groan. It's pretty funny when we take her out to the store or a restaurant and all of these loud grunts are coming from her car seat.

Ellie is still adjusting to this new little thing in our house and doesn't like that she is no longer the center of attention. She is gentle with Audrey, but when I am sitting on the floor with Audrey, Ellie will try to get right in between us to get my attention. I know that she will come around once Audrey is old enough that they can play together.

New mommy experiences have included days when we go through four sets of clothes due to messy diapers, changing a diaper at 3am when she decides to poop and shoot it across the room, onto the floor and all over the changing table, many many loads of laundry, getting sweet kisses from my little girl (that makes all the messy diapers worth it), and waking up to this cute face.

24th Birthday

Just 10 days after Audrey was born, I had my 24th birthday. As my birthday approached, it got me thinking about all that has happened this past year. Just since my last birthday we got a dog, I finished my internship and became a registered dietitian, I got my first real job, Adam went back to school, I got pregnant with Audrey, and finally to top off the year, our little Audrey was born.

I can't believe how much can change in just one year. To say the least, it has been an exciting year.
Even though I was still recovering from having Audrey, everyone made this a fun birthday for me. While my family was here, we went out for a birthday dinner to PF Changs Saturday night and then Sunday my mom made my favorite homemade mac and cheese and we had ice cream birthday cake (something I had been looking forward to for the past few months).
The next weekend (on my actual birthday), we celebrated with Adam's family. We went over to Adam's partent's house and had pizza from the Pie and delicious chocolate cake. Adam's grandma flew in that day and was able to celebrate with us and see Audrey.
Between our two families and Adam, I was spoiled. I got some new clothes, I gift card to get some new clothes, new shoes, a gym membership, a soccer ball, and a DVD. While I love all of my new gifts, I do have to say that the best gift was getting to spend my birthday with our new baby girl.

Baby's First Bath

Audrey Brynn Connell

After much anticipation, our little Audrey made her debut on Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 2:50pm.

On Tuesday morning, I went in for my 39 week appointment. At the appointment, my doctor said I was dilated to a 2 and that I could have the baby any time I wanted. After talking it over with Adam, I decided to be induced the next day.


Neither of us slept much that night, knowing that the next day we were having a baby. We got a call the next morning from the hospital, telling us to come in at 7:30 am. After getting checked in and hooked up, they started the pitocin and after about 2 hours of the pitocin, I got an epidural.

The epidural was wonderful. I was able to just relax and hang out with Adam, my mom, and my mother in-law. Around 2 pm the nurse said it was time to push. I pushed for about 5 contractions and then the doctor came in and puller her out.


Audrey was born at 7 lbs. 10 oz. and 19.5 inches. However, she had a hard time keeping her weight on while we were at the hospital, which was quite scary to her mom. When we left the hospital two days later, she only weighed 6 lbs. 15 oz.


As you can see, Audrey was born with a full head of hair, which is a color somewhere between mine and Adams (dirty blond-ish). It's pretty cute.

We had great nurses and doctors looking out for us at the hospital, but we were happy to come home on Friday morning. Since we've been home, Audrey is eating great and has put back on some weight. Besides being the cutest thing ever, she is really a great baby. She lets us sleep for about 5 hour straight at night and only wakes up once in the middle of the night. She hardly ever cries, unless she's hungry or needs her diaper changed and once we take care of that, she's happy.

My mom stayed with us for a week after Audrey was born, which was a huge help while I got back on my feet. Now it is just the three of us, but Adam has been able to be around and helping a lot since he only has school two days a week. He does such a great job with her and is always helping me out with dirty diapers.

While I was pregnant, it felt like this day would never come. But now that she is here, I can't believe how fast it all went. We just feel like the luckiest parents in the world and love her more than we could ever imagine. We are looking forward to watching her grow and are so grateful that we were blessed to have this little miracle come into our lives.

Nursery

The nursery is finished! It has been really fun working on it all summer and it feels good to have it complete.

We chose a bedding set that is mostly pink and cream, so we decided to go with yellow walls so that the room wasn't overtaken with pink. I love the bedding. It is so soft and has cute birds on it.

We tied in the green on the bedding by painting the changing table/dresser green and antiquing it. We found this dresser on KSL and I thought it was so adorable. Adam did a great job painting it to match the room.

My friends (Mckenzie and Shyla) helped me make some vinyl lettering to go over Audrey's crib. The quote says "Thank heaven for little girls." I think it turned out so cute.

With the help of Shyla, I made these curtain which are striped cream, pink, and green. It was my first time making drapes and they turned out really well. And after much persistance, Adam convinced me to buy a glider. I wasn't so sure about spending the money on it, but now that we have it, I love it. It is sooo nice to sit in.

As a final touch, we added a few birds around the room. Adam cut these out of vinyl and did a great job. I think it makes the room feel fun.

So now we just have to wait about three more weeks until Audrey gets here. I hope she loves her room!

Date Night

Friday nights have turned into date night for us, which includes grabbing some food and heading over to the hospital. Because of the gestational diabetes, we have to do non-stress tests at the hospital every week. It is mostly just a precaution since having gestational diabetes puts me and the baby at a little higher risk. They hook me up to two monitors which follow the baby's heart beat and my contractions. The idea is that if everything is okay, the baby's heart rate will spike with a contraction and then go back down. So far everything has looked good.

This week was the third time we've done it so far and we will keep doing them until the baby is born. So if you are ever looking for Adam and I on a Friday night, you know where we'll be.

Adam Starts School

Adam had his first week of school this week! Of course Ellie and I had to see him off on his first day and get that first day of school picture. This is his first time back in school since before his mission so it is a big change. He is working on a degree in Digital Media with and emphasis in gaming and animation at UVU. I think it will be perfect for him and he loves his digital media classes so far. He goes to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays so that he has the rest of the week to work on Real Estate (which is now his full time job).
Things will be pretty tight for us now with only my income, but we think that a few years of struggling will all pay off in the end. On the up side, it has been nice having him around more often. With his old job, there were many nights when he didn't get home until 7 or 8pm.

In other news, I am now 33 weeks along and things are looking good so far. We are getting so excited to meet our little girl.

A Fun and Busy Week

This past week I have been to California, Cedar City, and had two baby showers! To say the least it has been quite a busy week, but so much fun. I left for California last week to spend a few days with my family before my sister and her family went back to Washington and to have a baby shower. The baby shower was really great. It was mostly my family (aunts, grandma, cousins etc) and a few of my high school friends. It was really nice seeing everyone and we got a lot of great things for the baby. I was especially excited that we got a stroller and a swing!
While in California, my family and I spent two days down at the beach in Santa Cruz. We went to the mystery spot (it was really crazy and hard to keep my balance being 32 weeks pregnant), spent an afternoon at the beach, and went on a steam train through the red woods.
I flew back Sunday afternoon, just to leave again Sunday evening for a business trip to Cedar City. This was my first ever business trip and my first time staying alone in a hotel. I felt very grown up.
To follow up all of that excitement, my good friends and neighbors threw me a baby shower the Thursday that I got back. There were some friends from our ward and from school that came and once again we got great gifts. Our little girl is going to look so cute with all of the adorable clothes she has gotten. I feel very lucky to have such great family and friends that have given us so much. I am finally feeling a little prepared for this baby.
The other exciting news of the week is that this was Adam's last week of work! He is so excited to start school next week and I am very proud of him.

A Little Good News, A Little Bad News

These past few weeks have been quite a roller coaster. To start off with the good news...I passed my exam for registered dietitians, which means that after five years of school and a year of an internship, I am finally a Registered Dietitian! I am so happy to finally be done and feel like school is behind me. Also, it is pretty fun to have credentials behind my name now (Janelle Connell, RD).

Now for the not so great news...At 26 weeks I had my routine glucose tolerance test done. I was not worried about this at all, but to my surprise the test came back with not great results. So then I had to go back and do a 3-hour tolerance test, consisting of me fasting for 12 hours the night before, then spending about 4 hours at the doctor's the next day still without any food. The second time around, the results were not any better and I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes.

The funny thing about being a dietitian is that things like this are kind of a double edged sword. On one hand I am very grateful to have the knowledge that I have so that I can manage this, but on the other hand I also know all of the potential complications and risks to me and the baby which makes me worry that much more.

After getting the diagnosis, I had to try to work things out for my treatment between the diabetes clinic, my doctor, and my insurance, which to say the least was a huge headache. After a few days of being so frustrated and not getting anywhere, I decide I would just manage this myself. I am lucky to work where I do because I was able to get a glucose meter and test trips to start monitoring my blood sugar levels.

So now I follow a pretty strict diet and watch my carbs and sugars, which means no more treats (so hard for a pregnant lady). Although I've taught a diabetic diet a million times, it is definitely a different thing to have to follow one. I struggle every day with feeling like I don't have enough choices of things to eat, but I am definitely gaining sympathy for those people that I counsel on managing their diabetes. I also test my blood sugars about five times a day and try to exercise regularly to keep my levels down.

Needless to say, I will be quite happy when the baby comes and I can go back to eating normally, but for not I am grateful for the knowledge that I have to manage this and keep our baby healthy. On a positive note...I just had another doctor's appointment and only gained 1 pound in the past 5 weeks during a time that is normally a growth spurt and most women gain 7 pounds. So all of my healthy eating is paying off.

Also, here is a picture of our garden. It has really taken off. We are getting tons of zucchini right now, so that's what we've been eating the past few weeks. I am looking forward to the tomatoes to ripen.

Latest Happenings

We have been quite busy lately. I always thought that once the internship was over things would slow down, but that is definitely not the case. We have both been spending our free time working on the baby's room and studying (I will be taking the registered dietitian exam soon and Adam has to take a placement test for when he starts back up at UVU). We still try to have a little fun though when we get the chance.

For the fourth of July, we went to the Oakley rodeo (a tradition that we do every year) with Adam's family. We went up early to bbq at his aunt's house with the family and cousins and then spent the evening at the rodeo and watching fireworks. Of course I tried out a new dessert for the bbq and it was pretty good. I made something called a cheery crunch (I think). It was pretty much like a cherry crisp but had a layer on the bottom and the top so that you could cut it up into bars.


As far as an update on the baby...I am now 28 weeks along and getting bigger every day. The baby kicks like crazy and it can be quite distracting while I'm sitting in a meeting, but I love it none the less. Even though we have less than three months to go, it still feels like forever away. I'm sure the next month or so will fly by fast though.

We've been working hard on the baby's room. It was quite a task to clean out the office and finding a spot for everything that was in there, but once it was done it felt good to finally have things organized. We painted the room yellow and put together the crib and bedding. These pictures aren't the greatest, but it looks pretty cute.

We were going to build a changing table/dress, but ended up finding this antique changing table on KSL for a great price. We refinished it in green and it looks great in the room. My next project is to sew the drapes. The fabric for the drapes just arrived so hopefully I can finish them in the next few weeks. After that I just need to sew a slip cover for the club chair in the room, paint the standing picture frame and add the decorative touches.

Happy Birthday Adam

Adam turned 29 on Friday, so of course we spent the week celebrating. On Monday we had a birthday dinner with his family at Texas Road House. On Thursday I made him a homemade cherry pie. Cherry pie is his favorite so I make sure to make him one every year. On Friday we went out to dinner, just the two of us, for a birthday date. Since we both worked on Friday, I promised him that Saturday could be his day to do whatever he wants and I wouldn't bug him about doing chores or yard work. He of course took the day to play his new playstation3 (his birthday present). Later that night we had a few friends over for bithday cake and ice cream.
Adam is not very excited about only having one more year until he turns 30, but I am convinced that 29 will be a great year for him. There are a lot of exciting changes happening this year with the baby coming, Adam will be starting school full time in the fall, and he is going back to doing real estate full time. With so many changes, the next 12 months will be crazy, but definitely in a good way.

Just documenting the baby bump so far. Only 4 more months to go!