Called to Serve

I should've posted this before Trey's one month update. Oh well.

 

 

Just 11 days after Trey was born my sister reported to the MTC to begin her mission in Cleveland, Ohio! We felt so lucky that Trey was born a couple weeks early because I was actually due 2 days after my sister was supposed to enter the MTC and we were sad she wasn't going to be able to meet our baby. Things always work out!

 

Andrea is doing great. She is so happy and says that serving a mission is the best decision she has ever made. She is so anxious to share the gospel with everyone she meets and is so enthusiastic about the work! We love reading her emails, they inspire and uplift me every week.

 

 

I'm so grateful for her example and her willingness to serve. We love you Sister Jimenez!

 

A Month with Trey

What a whirlwind these past 2 months have been! We've had so much fun getting to know our sweet little guy. He's grown so much and it's been amazing to watch him develop and learn new things.

 

His first month of life was pretty mellow. I feel so lucky that we didn't have any issues with feedings, and he's been a good sleeper from the get go. I spent most of that month just wishing he would stay awake and be a little more interactive! Trey loved being swaddled and held, and that was just fine with me. He would eat about every 3 hours, including at night (side story: one night around 2am I heard Trey start to get fussy so I sat up and tried to wake myself up to calm him down. I remember sitting on the edge of the bed and rocking back and forth to calm the baby with my eyes closed. When Trey had stopped fussing I opened my eyes to make sure he was asleep. I looked down and realized I had never actually picked Trey up, instead I had grabbed a pillow and rocked with it while Trey calmed down by himself in his bassinet. haha! Those first few weeks were pretty rough, I think I was getting like 2-3 hours of sleep).

 

And now, some pictures of Trey's first month of life! I can't believe how much he's grown already, he looks so tiny in these!

Trey was born just in time for baseball playoffs!

 

 

these two just melt my heart!

When Trey was two weeks old, Ty needed to go to Utah for a couple days for work. I was very nervous about staying home by myself with Trey and without a car, so we decided we would all go to Utah together. Trey was such a trooper and we were able to spend some time with Ty's sisters which was awesome!

 

 

At one month Trey weighed 10lbs 7oz. We love this sweet boy!



Carter: Party of 3

On Friday September 12th I went to the doctor's for a check up. The plan was just to get the baby on the monitor to see how he was doing, and then possibly talk about setting a date to be induced. Right as the nurse took us back to the monitoring station, my doctor came over and told us that my liver enzyme levels kept creeping up, so she wanted to induce me that day. Before I knew it we were sitting in the waiting room of the labor and delivery area waiting to get put into a room. It was unexpected but very exciting! We were led to our room and the waiting game began.

 

 ready to have a baby!

 

 

Once I was settled and we were good to go, my doctor came in and broke my water (around 11am). What a weird experience. I really didn't like the feeling of having so much liquid coming out and not being able to do anything about it. Soon after she broke my water I started having contractions. Ouch. It felt like super uncomfortable back pain and period cramps at the same time. Ty had brought The Other Woman for us to watch which I love, but I was in so much pain I didn't really watch any of it (our nurse loved it however... haha) I laid down and tried laying on my side and sitting on an exercise ball but I was uncomfortable no matter what. I decided it was time to get an epidural and what a great decision it was.

 

feeling much better with the epidural!

 

The waiting game took all day long. My doctor would come in and check my progress, and earlier in the day I was doing great but after I dilated to 6cm I pretty much plateaued. My doctor went home, ate dinner, came back and I still hadn't dilated any more. Around midnight we all decided we were tired of waiting and just wanted baby to come out! We started getting ready for a C-section. We had been talking about the possibility of a C-section for quite a while, so I wasn't too surprised when my doctor recommended it. And at that point I would've been up for anything if it meant not being pregnant anymore. So off to surgery we went!

 

ready to go! haha

 

Everything went really well, and at 1:56am on September 13th Trey Weston Carter was born! Ty got to cut the umbilical cord and just kept telling me how cute our baby was :) Later at home Ty told me that the song "Best Day of My Life" by American Authors was playing on the radio in the OR right as Trey was born. That made me cry! What a perfect song to have playing right then. Our sweet boy was 7lbs 11.8oz and 21 inches long. He had the chubbiest cheeks and so much hair! It was definitely love at first sight! (warning: picture overload)

 

 

 

 

 

 

My mom and sister drove up the day after Trey was born and they were able to hang out with us for a week. It was so fun to have them here!

 

 

 

 

 

We were so happy to have a healthy baby and so ready to go home

 

 

I love my little family!

 

 

A Little Bump in the Road

Well, even though I felt pretty good throughout my pregnancy, some other things were going on that could've been a little scary. In July I went to the doctor for a regular ultrasound and check up, and they discovered that my cervix had become very short and were worried that the baby would be coming soon. I was 29 weeks along when my doctor discovered this, and decided that I needed to stay at the hospital for a while so they could keep a close eye on me. This was scary because I wasn't really sure what a "short cervix" meant or what could potentially happen. All I knew was that one minute I thought I was fine, and the next minute I was put in a wheelchair and told I would be staying in the hospital for a while. I was so bummed because we were planning on going to Reno and California to see our families, and all our plans were put on hold. That first night in the hospital was so hard. I was scared and sad and just afraid of the unknown. I am so grateful for such an amazing husband. Ty immediately called his office and told them he wouldn't be in that day. He stayed with me until I was settled in my room, and then went home to get me clothes/toiletries, and came back with everything I needed plus movies, books, my iPad, snacks and candy. He made my hospital stay so much easier and I will forever be so grateful for him and how amazing he was through all of this.

I spent the next 10 days in the hospital on complete bed rest. I was only allowed to get up to go to the bathroom. I was poked and prodded all day long. I got shots and blood drawn and was hooked up to a monitor all day long to make sure I wasn't having contractions. I had more ultrasounds and tests to make sure my cervix hadn't thinned out any more. My favorite part of the day was when the nurse would come in and hook the baby up to the monitor to listen to his heartbeat. It was so comforting to hear his little heart steadily beating, and to feel him kick because he didn't like the monitor haha. Each day became a little easier, even though I'm pretty sure I cried everyday I was there. We had NICU nurses come in and tell us what to expect if I delivered soon. That was scary. I was just thankful for everyday that our baby boy stayed put. Ty would come see me everyday at lunch and then come spend the evening with me after work. He spent the night in the hospital on the weekends. One time I got up to go to the bathroom and when I came back out I found Ty in my bed like this

so funny. At least one of us was enjoying the stay? I had such mixed feeling about being there. On one hand I felt totally fine and wasn't having any contractions and just really wanted to go home, but on the other hand I was nervous about going home and not being constantly monitored and having something happen. I was finally given the ok to go home and was pretty happy about it. My mom came to town and helped make the transition home a lot easier. I was told I could go up and down the stairs once a day, so I would typically stay upstairs all day until dinner time and then come down and eat with everyone. Jenny came to help after my mom left which was really nice too. It was hard to be so dependent on others but I'm so thankful that our moms were so willing to help out. My visiting teacher offered to let us borrow a mini fridge which was awesome because I was ok being on my own while Ty was at work once our moms left. I tried to stay as positive as I could during this whole thing, but I really was bummed to be spending the summer cooped up inside.



32 weeks

All in all I ended up being on bed rest for 6 weeks. My doctor was thrilled that baby boy stayed put until I reached 35 weeks and after that she said he was free to come whenever he wanted! I was so happy to be able to move around again, but I was so huge at that point that I was totally waddling and really didn't feel like being super active anyway. Oh, the irony.

35 weeks

    

36 weeks

37 weeks

At my 36 week appointment, my blood pressure was higher than usual. My doctor started to worry about the possibility of preeclampsia, so she had me start coming in more often so they could check my blood pressure and do some blood work to check for some other indicators of preeclampsia. During week 37, I went to the doctor and got blood drawn 4 days in a row. My liver enzyme levels were slowing increasing, and my doctor said if they kept climbing we would talk about getting induced within the next few days.

38 weeks

This was taken the day before I got induced, although I didn't know it at the time. I was more than ready for little man to come out though!

Pregnancy. What a crazy thing.