Life of the Childs Brigade

Here are just some random pictures of our morning...I have been feeling rather guilty of not being a camera freak like I was when Linnea was born so I decided to take some pictures.

I thought this was cute...Linnea made her bed with just a tiny bit of help from mom, this is the final result...pretty good for a two year old.

This is my artist in the making...she loves, loves, loves to paint...as you can see she has a wooden project to paint, but prefers to just paint the newspaper

This is Drew doing tummy time...uh well this is him after trying to do tummy time :) he worked too hard I guess

I love my little kiddos!!

I have a second...

Well I thought I'd quickly update on our life lately! Drew is now over a month old already it is just flying...it's weird to imagine how it was without him...I thought I was busy with Linnea and could never get anything done...wow now I know what squeezing time for myself is :) The kids are starting to get on a nap schedule that is actually at the same time so thankfully that has freed up some time for me to get things down or just sit down and be alone for a sec! Linnea has been so sweet with Drew the last few weeks, she has her moments, but for the most part I think her biggest challenge is she gets bored since I have to feed Drew so often she just gets hyper or starts to cause trouble, but I'm working on games we can play together while Drew is eating so hopefully that helps. She is going to be going to a dance workshop in July to see if she enjoys dance and if she does we will officially be signing her up for dance classes I'm so excited I think she'll really have a lot of fun.
Drew is such a sweetie, we've been having a pretty difficult time with feeding though. He has some reflux issues and he has the worst gas I have ever seen in a newborn. I had to take him to the doctor today because we have to hold him upright for over an hour before we can lay him back down or else he gets so uncomfortable and he just acts like he is in so much pain. The doctor said his tummy is just full of air and he told me it could be several things, it could just be him gulping air, it could be that his tummy gets too gassy while he is digesting, or he can't handle lactose. He suggested we try to put him on special formula and I would just pump for awhile while we see if that worked...well the poor guy HATES formula...he is so different from Linnea who would eat just about anything. So that means I get to go on a strict diet and cut out foods that can really upset newborns tummys...so no Dairy, corn, or soy....those are the big ones the doc told me to avoid. I had already been trying to avoid dairy...I haven't had regular milk for quite awhile just coconut milk, but I need to be more strict with cheese I love cottage cheese so I guess my little snack is out. I hope this works or else we're going to have to I guess force feed him the formula and that will be a chore! Other than that he is just wonderful and the stinking cutest little guy ever. We're getting pictures taken tomorrow so hopefully I'll have some super cute pictures to post soon.
I am still waiting on approval for my certification exam so I can take that stinking test and get school completely behind me. I have a job that is waiting for me to be certified. I'll just be hired on as on call for a few months, which is perfect since they pay more that way and I can tell them yes or no if I want to work so it'll work with the kiddos schedule and hopefully Derek can do most of the watching instead of having babysitters. Life is great right now, super busy, but we're doing our best and it has been a wonderful month with Drew in our family.

Dear College

Dear College...
We have been through so much together over the years. Our story first began down south at "party school" Dixie state...so much happened at this fantastic school...not much studying, more playing and discovering life away from mom and dad. I spent my days sleeping through classes, changing my looks deciding every new guy I went out with could be the next Mr. Emily Carter, and then turning around and chaning my mind. What a life! making life long friends and bouncing checks, going from being a teacher, social worker, occupational therapist, english major then back to occupational therapy. It wasn't until you introduced me to a shy, sexy guy that I decided hmmm...maybe there is more to college than playing around....




...you introduced me tothe love of my life and what a change that was! He was different than the other guys, he was GOOD! He knew what he wanted out of life he was kind to others...he loved me for me no matter what our differences were...and most importantly he made me want to be better each day! How can I thank you enough dear Dixie State College for introducing me to Derek. You watched us date and have fun and fall in love, then one day it happened...

...you watched us begin to plan a wedding...you watched us return to school newly married and SURPRISE... a few months later you saw me waddle around your campus fat and pregnant with our new adventure waiting to come out. You could've been nicer during this time...your buildings could have been closer and your weather could have been cooler, but whats done is done.

...I came back to you college after our sweet girl was born because you and I had unfinished business to attend to. Thank goodness this sweet blessing came when she did. I finally decided what I needed to do to end our relationship college...I decided on a degree!!! So we packed our bags and moved from my first college to finish what I had started.

...here at SLCC I began a program and once again made lifelong friends that will never be forgotten, you gave me that college. I found a degree that was perfect for my family, for being a young mom, and for giving me the opportunity to have a job someday that could really help my family especially in uncertain times. You saw me grow and do better than I had ever done in school in this program! You saw us go up and down with struggles, lay offs, and other frustrations.

And finally as I now say good-bye to you college you have once again watched as we have begun another new adventure, by welcoming in this sweet new life! I finally close the door on you college and welcome my new life as mommy with open arms. I have discovered in these five years since we've been together college, that although you were necessary and a very important part of my life...now I get to do what is most important!!! Thank you college for the lessons you've taught me, who knows maybe we'll meet again in the very very distant future, but for now you are just a long, long memory of good times and bad times!!!!

I did it!!!!!!

Easter

We had a nice Easter weekend, we went up to my parent's house on Saturday and Drew got to meet all of his great-grandparents (my mom has the pictures, I'll try to post some more soon) and then on Sunday we went over to Derek's brother's house for another Easter Dinner and hung out with his family a little bit. We tried to do an easter egg hunt in the morning for Linnea and it eventually worked, but man she woke up grumpy I almost took everything away from her so she wouldn't even get all of her treats, but she cheered up eventually and had fun finding the eggs. Derek wanted to start a tradition for the present our kids get from the easter bunny, he is going to give them kites each year and then when the weather lets us we'll all go fly them as a family I think it's a cute idea. So this year Linnea chose a batman kite (yes I have a girly girl :) ) and she loved to fly it with dad they had a lot of fun. I hope everyone had a great Easter holiday! I am grateful for Easter and the message that it reminds me of. Knowing that Christ died for us so we can all live forever with our loved ones and that we can be forgiven of our sins is such an amazing gift. I can't imagine not being with my sweet little family for eternity. I still struggle with death, it is a fear of mine to lose my husband or my kids, but I am slowly gaining a stronger testimony of eternal life and the sealing power of the temple!

This is what our family does most of the time now!

Cute girl and her daddy heading to church


Adorable boy, how can you resist that face!

Life...

Well we're working on our 2nd day home and it has been great...my house isn't super pretty, but who cares :) Linnea has surprised me so much with Drew, she loves him...she asks to hold him, she always tries to give him his binki, she ran up to him this morning when he sneezed and said "you ok, you ok baby?" She has to do whatever he is doing. I put him down on a blanket for floor time today and she had to have her blanket down right next to him also. I love my little kiddos...I still feel pretty tired especially in the afternoon, but it has been wonderful having my two kids together and adjusting to our new family. Little Drew is eating better, but we still have a hard time getting him to wake up sometimes to eat so it's a work in progress, but hopefully soon he'll get on a good schedule and get chunky :)

Introducing...

Andrew Derek Childs

Our little man has finally arrived!

Born April 17, 2011, 4:56 pm

7 lbs 14 oz.

19 inches long

We are so in love with our little man. I started having contractions on the morning of the 17th, around 3:15 am and they stayed 20 minutes apart for HOURS!!!! I sat around thinking this must not be real or I was disappointed because I thought we'd have a long labor like Linnea's was (I heard your second seems to go fast so I was hoping for that) Well eventually I started having contractions coming every 8 minutes and they were getting pretty strong. Then about 30 minutes later they were coming every 5-6 minutes so we called our neighbor to let her know we may be bringing Linnea over at some point in the day. I was nervous to head to the hospital since with Linnea and this little guy we had been sent home so I wanted to make sure when we went we stayed. About 10 min. after calling our neighbor I felt like we better go now. So we grabbed Linnea's bag and took her over when we got in the car my contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart already!!! So we got to the hospital a little before 3 pm, they checked me and said alright your at 6 cm! So we called my mom to tell her to get down to the hospital since we were progressing so quickly. My contractions ended up being right on top of each other so right after we got off the phone with grandma they said "o your at a seven!" Then 10 minutes later I went to 8 the quickly to a 9 then finally a 10. I went from a 6-10 in just a little over an hour thankfully! Unfortuantley grandma didn't make it he came so fast, but she arrived right when he was out. We had such an amazing nursing staff who really knew about natural birth and Derek was sooooo AMAZING I would not have been able to reach our goal of no medication without him, because trust me once I hit an 8 I was really wanting pain relief. I had a hard time controlling the urge to push I started having the urge at around an 8 so thankfully the doctor and nursing staff really helped me try to control that urge! Finally it was pushing time within 4 contractions we had our precious baby in our arms!!! He came out crying which was such a relief since Linnea was not breathing when she was born. He has copper hair and blonde eyebrows and eyelashes! He is perfect! We finally decided about an hour ago that his name is Andrew...completely different from what we had originally planned we were soooo set on Hayden and then he came out and it did not seem like Hayden was his name. So now we have baby Drew! He is a little slow at eating, he doesn't show much interest in it and doesn't root very often, but we're working on it! Linnea didn't seem too interested, but she did pat him on the head when they met and she is having a blast with Nana and Pupa!!!!! I am so in love, I love how quickly such a little person can mean the world to you! Welcome to our family little Drew!

Update

Well I officially made it through this week of fieldwork YAY! That was our big goal since now if I went this weekend I would only have to make up 4 days after the baby was born, what a stress relief since I feel that is do-able, not fun, but do-able. Well I had some drama on Monday, well technically Tuesday morning and I got in trouble from the sister for not sharing, but basically put I thought my water broke since I woke up in a puddle at 2am. So I thought ok here we go, we made sure we had everything packed, we woke up my parents to let them know, we gathered our little sleeping princess into the car and headed to the hospital. Well they set me up to test to see if my water had broken ( I was waiting for the results before I called my friend who offered to take Linnea once we got to the hospital.) Well it sure was hard for a little two year old to sleep in a hospital room with her brother's heartbeat on the monitor, her mommy all strapped to machines and nurses doing weird things to me :) Ok so once again the tests came back NEGATIVE for amniotic fluid. I was so grateful when that happened at 28 weeks, but at 39 I kept thinking what the heck else am I supposed to think a big puddle of water is? So I have decided my little monkey inside of me likes to make me wet the bed :) I guess all the bacteria and other stuff that you have when your pregnant can mask the smell of pee so we had know way of knowing what all this stuff was. So we walk in the door at 5:15 am put Nea back to sleep and my alarm goes off at 5:20...time to wake up and go to fieldwork. Needless to say I was a zombie, but they were nice and let me go home at 12. Now that it is Friday I am grateful I was able to finish this week, but at the time I had mentally gotten to the point of preparing for labor and coming home with a baby I was not a happy camper when I left without a baby on the outside. Well I did have a doctor's appointment today and he is for sure on his way soon I am dialated to 3 cm 80% effaced and he is at -1 station, which was clarified by the doctor as halfway down the birth canal....so yay I haven't dialated for four weeks past a 2 and so now a little bit of progress is being made. Pretty exciting. I know he'll be here next friday since I'm getting induced so we'll just have to see if he waits another week!