We're Alive!!!

Well, obviously my Daily Something Challenge didn't go so well! These last few month's have been INSANE! We have moved, done some major project's on the house, survived everybody being horribly sick, FINALLY blessed Charlie and are now able to finally breathe again. We are really hoping that we will have VERY boring lives for quite a while! Since it's been SO long I'll update each individual person and throw in a BUNCH of picture's from Charlie's blessing at the end.

Brian- Brian has shocked me lately by his ability to fix EVERYTHING! He jokingly said that if there is a you tube video on it he can do anything, and I'm starting to believe it! Brian has fixed SO many things in the last couple of month's and saved thousands of dollars by being able to do it himself. He has been super busy doing work on the house and yard these day's.

Marie- I have been busy becoming a master wall texturer. We have only done 1 room so far and whooee! it is a LOT of work. I mean A LOT OF WORK! I think we are gonna take a little break before starting our next room. Apart from working on the house, Brian and I were called to team teach the 13-14 year olds in Sunday School. Holy crap am I scared! :) I'm pretty terrified of teenager's, in fact I was pretty terrified of teenager's when I WAS a teenager! But I am hoping that once my nervousness subsides it'll will be a great learning

experience for the both of us, and maybe dare I say Fun?!

Ayden- Ayden has started pre-school here and seem's to really enjoy it. He has been talking so much more lately, saying full sentences. He has been cracking us up with some of the things he catches on to and say's. He has also been repeating stuf

f back lately and has a knack for picking up the worst words we say. A couple of week's ago Ayden caught the flu and was super sick with a fever and stomach pains. He was the saddest thing for a few day's, just laying on the couch constantly wanting to cuddle up with someone. Then he got better for a couple of day's before he got a double ear infection! The poor kid is finally healthy and I hope he stay's that way for A LONG time!

Charlotte- Charlie also got pretty sick too. However, wanting to cuddle with us all the time was replaced by crying non-stop all day (and night) long. It was a rough couple of week's with her! But once she felt better she was back to big cheesy smiles

and making us laugh. She is such a cute little chunk and we LOVE her! Here are some pics from her blessing last week

This is my favorite picture of her! Her smile is just so CHARLIE! Cheesy smile off to the side

Daily Something Day 4

So I am pretty sure that I have/had mastitis :( Yesterday I woke up feeing aweful, I felt like I had the flu but was having some intense pain while feeding Charlie. By night time I was having crazy body chills (despite having the heater on and being under a million blankets) and had a headache on top of everything. I was ready to go to the doctor this morning, but could tell that I was starting to feel better throughout the day. I still feel pretty achy and it is still hurting quite a bit to feed Charlie but I'm definitely feeling MUCH better than last night. Hopefully I won't need to go to the doctor and whatever this is will go away on it's own, because I REALLY hate going to the doctors (and after 9 month's of doctor's appointments I'm ready for a break :)).

So I had some movie tickets that are expiring in a few day's and decided that even though I felt crummy it would be nice to get away and have a little time alone away from children. It was SO nice! It's amazing what a little break can do for your mental health. I saw Life As We Know It with Katherine Heigl and Josh Dummel and it was SO cute! It was just a fun movie, especially if you have any kids :) Anyways, when I came home Ayden had fallen asleep under Brian's desk while he was on the computer! It was so funny because he very rarely falls asleep anywhere but his bed and Brian and I get a kick out of it when it happens. Don't you love his cute little Incredibles tushy!?

Ayden

Since all of my posts and pictures in the last month have been about Charlie, I thought I'd devote my daily something to Ayden today. Life has completely changed for this little guy and he has handled all these changes wonderfully. In the last few month's he has started school and become an older brother. That's some HUGE changes for a guy that little in a short amount of time! He is loving school and his speech is improving SO much. He is such a sweet big brother and is so concerned and soft with his little sister. If she cries he'll pat her head and say "it's okay charlie" and then come lead us over to her. Although things can get difficult and hectic at times, I'm so lucky to have such a sweet little boy.

Daily Something Day 2

Here is my second daily something picture of Charlotte and Lacee. These 2 are about 2 1/2 months apart. Aren't they just adorable! I hope that they grow up to be amazing friends one day (even though they look a little po'd to be so close together while we were taking their pics :)). This was taken a couple of weeks ago when the Cluff family went to Greer, AZ. It was an amazing trip, Greer is an absolutely gorgeous place and the cabin that we stayed in was insane! The first cabin we stayed at was originally a bed and breakfast and had over 7 rooms (can't remember exactly how many) and 3 levels. It was so pretty and HUGE! We stayed there for a couple of day's and then switched over to a little bit smaller but equally as nice cabin. Brian had to work that weekend so we were only able to see Brian's parents, Jennifer and Reggie and their family, and Eden. It was so fun getting hanging out with everybody, eating yummy food and just relaxing!

You've got a friend in me

A few year's ago I did the Daily Something challenge. Everyday for a month you are supposed to post a new picture and write about it. It was such a fun way to keep up with my blog and I drastically improved on my photography skills at the time. I had so much fun doing it that I thought I'd try it again! I have been more than terrible lately at updating my blog, so I think I NEED to do this challenge! And since so many of my blogger friends and family are not updating their blogs as much as I would like (cough, cough, RENEE! :)) I challenge you all to do the same! Who's with me?! Anyone....? Anywho, here is my first picture,

So Ayden is SLOWLY starting to warm up to Charlotte. Every once in a while I'll catch him playing with her and today I caught him playing "toy story" with her. He put Woody's hat on her and then they "played together". I'm guessing she was Woody because he was waving Buzz around and talking to her. It's too funny and I hope this is start of a beautiful friendship and not too much abuse!

All Hail Queen Charlotte!

If we lived in a kingdom, Charlotte would be our Queen. She pull's the strings, she's the head honcho, the big cheese. She pretty much determines how each particular day is gonna go and we hope that she takes it easy on us. She is a complete opposite baby than Ayden was. Ayden was SO easy going, he would pretty much only cry when he was hungry and then just hang out till it was time to eat again. Charlotte is NOT this way at all. She does not like to be put down and want's to be held ALL DAY LONG. In my arm's she is totally calm, as soon as I set her down she will scream at the top of her lungs. She is a turkey! Things actually have been getting better, in the past few day's she is naturally starting to get on a schedule. I was waiting until she was a little bit older to start her on a schedule but it seems to be working out sooner than I thought. The past 3 day's she has been on her eat, play, sleep 3 hour cycle and it's working out GREAT! She has only been waking up once a night to eat (I do feed her around 11 before I go to bed). I'm so happy to finally be on a schedule and know better what the day will look like.

I feel like I'm just getting out of a fog! Adjusting to 2 kids has been crazy! Adjusting to Charlotte has been fairly easy, adjusting to Charlotte AND Ayden not so much! I feel a little outnumbered and overwhelmed most of the time! I don't know how you people with more than one child do it! Seriously, it's crazy! Hehe, other than the craziness and my inability to think straight life is pretty good! I am SO excited for the fall season and can't wait for all the fun holiday's!

We went to Tucson about a week ago and my wonderful sister took some pictures of Charlotte for us! Charlotte was grumpy, awake, had baby dandruff, and a goopy eye but somehow my sister got some amazing pics! Here are some of my favorite's, it was so hard to choose just a few!

(And in case you were wondering, I do realize that I have another child and will share some pics and what's going on with Ayden in the next post :))

Birth Story

So I guess I had better write this down while it's still somewhat fresh in my mind! I'll try to keep it as "not gross" as a labor story can possibly be :)

Sunday morning I woke up feeling some contraction's. Throughout the day they gradually got a little bit stronger and by around 3:00 they were starting to get uncomfortable. We even had our home teacher's over, while I was having contraction's! I told Brian jokingly after they left that we were going to have to go to the hospital tonight. As the contraction's got worse I started panicking a little and started cleaning our house like crazy. By about 8:00 the contraction's were getting to the point where I'd have to stop what I was doing because of the pain. After a while of the more painful contraction's I decided we should probably be timing them, and was pretty shocked to see that they were about 2 minutes apart! STILL I was unconvinced that I was actually in labor and begged Brian to let me vacuum before I'd go to the hospital (which he did not).

When we got to the hospital, there was only one lady checking in a few people and told us to take a seat in the waiting room. The waiting room! After a several minutes she came back out and asked what we were there for and I told her I thought I was in labor and that my contractions were about 2 minutes apart. She seemed sorry for making me wait and sent me to triage. We had Ayden with us and decided to call around for someone to watch him just in case I was really in labor. Once I got set up in triage they checked me and to my surprise I was 4 cm dilated and 90% effaced! So while Brian waited in the waiting room with Ayden trying to find someone to watch him, I was in triage by myself. My contraction's all of the sudden started getting WAY worse and closer together. For some reason throughout my pregnancy I have been terrified that I would have back labor, and guess what?! I had back labor, and wouldn't wish that kind of pain on anyone! Those contraction's were about 100 times worse than with Ayden! I'm not 100% sure of times after this because I was alone and in quite a bit of pain, but I'd say around 10:00 they got me into a labor and delivery room.

As soon as I got into the labor and delivery room my contraction's were so strong and close that the nurse's frantically tried to get everything ready for the baby to come. They called for someone to give me an epidural but said that they didn't think I'd have enough time for it. So at this point I'm alone, with no epidural and just totally not ready for the baby to come! Brian and Ayden came into the labor and delivery room, right as they are about to give me my epidural. I was a total mess and I think Ayden was pretty shocked to see me that way. I tried so hard not to cry or show much pain while Ayden was in there but he knew something was not right and quietly said goodbye a few minutes later. Brian's aunt was able to come and pick him up and watch him for the night (thank you SO much Cindy!). Right after they gave me the epidural Brian came back to be with me. Once I had the epidural things slowed down quite a bit and I still had 1 cm to go for about 3-4 hours. My epidural with Ayden didn't quite work and this time it was SO weird to actually feel it. It made me super cold (like teeth chattering cold) and my back was aching but I couldn't feel the contractions anymore. I was extremely tired but couldn't sleep because I was freezing and uncomfortable.

At about 1:30 I started feeling a lot of pressure and asked the nurse to check me about 3 times in a half an hour but each time I still hadn't progressed. Finally the pressure was getting painful and the nurse moved the baby and ended up breaking my water (why they didn't break my water 3 hours ago, I'm still not sure about). My epidural had been turned down at this point, so I would be able to push (load of crap, in my opinion :)). Within a few minutes I was pushing and the baby was crowning. They had called the doctor, but it would be about 20 minutes before he could get there. So for 20 minutes I had to not push and breath through the contractions which was VERY painful and hard to do! When the doctor finally came he had just about enough time to put his gloves on before she came out in one push! Amazingly I didn't tear this time which has made recovering pretty painless (in that regard). I am SO grateful for that!

Charlotte Marie Cluff was born at 2:36 on Monday morning, weighing 8 lbs and measuring 21" long. She shares a birthday with my dad which is SO cool! She is such a good baby and is even smiling already. Ayden has been slowly warming up to her and is very sweet and soft with her, but mostly keeps his distance. I know he is gonna be a great big brother once he gets used to this "new arrangement" :)

So that's Charlotte's birth story, I hope it wasn't too gross or graphic but I figured it be a good idea to record as much as I could remember while it's still fresh in my mind!