Baby Day!

After thirty eight weeks my doctors agreed that it was in everyone's best interest to induce me on June sixth. We had just been in the hospital two days before because my blood pressure was acting up again. I tried to get them to just induce then but they said baby needed those last few days.  We called the hospital that morning after no sleep the night before and headed to breakfast. We decided that was pretty important despite the fact that the hospital serves one of the best omelettes I have ever had. This way they didn't monitor me and check my blood sugars. 

After breakfast we made our way to the hospital. We checked in at nine and started cytotec at ten am. Once they gave me that med and we could start walking it seemed like labor just flew by. We walked and bounced on a bal and walked and walked and walked. 

Our moms showed up around five pm and just hung around with us. By then I was dialated to a four and things really started move quickly.  I got my epidural around nine after the anesthesiologist prepped an emergency c-section and life was good. I tried to nap after the epidural but I was so itchy. I will take itchy over contractions though. 

They broke my water around ten pm and then it all started happening. I labored for another couple hours. Baby's oxygen levels dropped a little bit so I had to wear the mask and it was time to call Doctor Jones! 

I pushed for an hour and a half. Kimber got stuck in the birth canal. She was trying to come out a little crooked and it just wasn't working for any of us.  Dr. Jones so politely asked me if it would be okay to use the vacuum. I knew this was a possibility after our baby class. Which was fantastic and I definitely  everyone take one.  Dr. Jones attached the vacuum to her head and pulled on the next contraction. The vacuum popped off. We attached and tried it again. A few pushes later we had our beautiful girl here. 

At 3:42 am on June 7,2013 Kimber Kay Larson came into the world. She was absolutely beautiful. Our healthy seven pound one ounce baby girl was nineteen inches long and absolutely beautiful. 

After all the excitement we finally made it to our post partem room by six thirty that morning. I then had visits from healthy families, the auxiliary, and two doctors at 7, 7:30,8,and 8:30.  Then baby needed to eat and nurses were checking vitals on me and baby. Then in comes grandma Kay at ten and the visitors just kept coming. Needless to say there was no resting in the hospital. The sweet nurses were  kind enough to keep the baby for a cople hours at night so I could get some rest. 

Overall our labor and delivery experience was better than we ever could have imagined. We love our doctor and the nurses and techs were so helpful. Kimber even got to share her birthday with her cousin Sophia. Seth's cousin Jeremy and his wife Wendy had their baby June seventh at 11:45 pm the same night Kimber was born so we have twin cousins. Such a special day for all of us. 

Third trimester

It seemed like it took forever to finally get to the home stretch of this pregnancy but when I did finally get there it had news for me. My blood pressure had been steadily climbing from 20 weeks. I went in to the dr for a regular monthly check up and my blood pressure registered at 141/96. Mine had always been in the 120/70 range.  I didn't think this was all that bad. I knew it was climbing and my doctors had suggested cutting salt and exercising a little bit. We'll that didn't help. After taking an easy spring break if had an appointment with a high risk pregnancy specialist. While I was there my blood pressure came back 143/97. If my blood pressure were to get over 160/100 on either number. (The bottom is where we were worried for me.) they would have to take the baby.  With protein in my 24 hour urine collection it was official. I had preeclampsia. I was put on strict bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy. Twelve weeks is a really long time when you are staring at the beginning of it. I had to go tell my principal that afternoon. We got a sub for the rest of the day and the rest of the school year. I've never been so sad in my life. It was like my entire life just stopped. We had to sell our tickets we had bought to George straights last concert.  And I was stuck flat on my back in bed for three months. I had a whole new schedule focused around growing a healthy baby now.  Mondays I would check in at school. Tuesdays I had a nonstress test. Wednesdays I got to pee in a cup all day for a 24 hour urine culture. Thursdays I took that into the lab, and Fridays were my regular appointments with nst and ultrasounds to check fluid levels around baby. We settled into a nice little routine with this and I became very close with my doctors and their staff at gila valley clinic. Amongst all of this

 I also had to do the three hour test for diabetes. And sure enough I got that too. This really bothered me. I had always had the opinion that if I was on bed rest that at lest I could eat whatever I wanted. Nope! Now I had to diet and poke my fingers four times a day. It was probably for the best though. I might have gained a hundred pounds otherwise. Then at 33 weeks I was having pretty regular contractions. They weren't painful but were coming about three minutes apart.  We went in to the hospital and sure enough I was in labor. They tried sand tried to get the contractions to stop. The mess they gave me were terrible and I didn't sleep the first night we were in there. I stayed in the hospital for three days. We figured out I had an electrolyte imbalance. I was very low on potassium and magnesium. Magnesium is what they use to stop contractions. So after getting two bags of magnesium and lots of ginormous potassium pills they slowed contractions down to every fifteen minutes and did a test to make sure I wasn't dilating. I got to go home for another few weeks of baby cooking.  I had one more small hospital stay a few nights before I was to be induced. My blood pressure was high at my 37 week appointment. We had all decided to induce me at 38 weeks to avoid any complications. We were sent to the hospital for observations. My blood pressure went down and we went home for three nights until it was time to be induced. Third trimester was not kind to me.

Second trimester

I was feeling great after the first trimester. I wasn't so sleepy anymore and I could really start getting ready for this baby.  I documented as much of my pregnancy as I could with my chalkboard that I loved making. I really enjoyed checking a week off every Friday. We played the guessing game when we found out we were having a little girl.  We have lots of ultra sound pictures and were just anxiously waiting for her arrival.  I loved feeling her flutter and kick. This trimester came with a few negative symoms too though. I was woken up most nights with some of the worst Charlie horses I have ever had in my life! Other than that I started transitioning into maternity clothes, bought us a family car, and coached my basketball team to a second place finish for the season.   Overall we were having tons of fun and making memories just waiting for baby. 

First Trimester.

Since I'm back tracking instead of keeping up with this as I go I've decided ill just lump the overview of my pregnancy into trimesters.  The first trimester was relatively easy. I started seeing the lovely doctors at gila valley clinic.  I looked forward to my appointments every month. I remember my heart  rising into my throat when I saw that beautiful baby just swimming all over in there. I wasn't too sick in the first trimester. I figured out that if I didn't get too hungry or too full that me and the kid were happy as clams. We had a blast with family and friends over the holidays and I enjoyed all of the food. I'm so glad that my first trimester was nothing like some of the horror stories I ad heard from other women. Heavenly Father definitely answers prayers. We waited so long for this sweet baby and she came with perfect timing. Seth got a new job with empire cat and my maternity leave will work with having the summer off. I've learned through this to just believe in his will and his timing and we have definitely been blessed for it.  Here are some pictures from our first trimester. 

  

We're going to be parents

October of 2012 our lives changed forever. Bethany and Danny were visiting while Danny was on his mid tour leave from South Korea. It was the first time we had met Bethany's new husband and we're very excited to see what the hype was all about. I made some delicious tacos for the four of us. Bethany and Danny were staying with us for the weekend. Our dinner for four quickly turned into dinner for seven when my mom and grandparents showed up too. We had lots of fun talking and eating these delicious tacos. After dinner I started cleaning up. It was like all of a sudden I had caught that dreaded stomach bug that was going around school. I had sent three kids home with the flu that afternoon.  I lied down and took a bath. That is usually my go to to help me feel better. Nothing worked. I just felt more and more dreadful. After finally tossing my cookies(or delicious tacos)at four o'clock in the morning and listening to my sister tell me I was pregnant I decided to use my last cheap dollar store pregnancy test. And sure enough it came bearing good news! I couldn't hold it in. I woke seth up right then and showed him. I've never been so happy as I was in that moment. I absolutely loved sharing that beautiful secret with Seth.  After a year and a half of trying we finally got our sweet answer to all of our prayers and hopes and dreams. We were going to be parents and couldn't be happier. 

It's been a long long time

It's been a super long time since I last blogged and life has definitely changed over the past two years but since Kimber has been born I know I need to document these memories because soon that's all they will be. Time already feels like it's going way too fast and I'm not very good at scrap booking or picture taking but I want something to look back on and remember these happy times.  With that said here it goes.

Christmas is coming!

Usually we are scroogy people during the holidays.  We don't like to think of ourselves that way but we don't have kids therefore don't really have the "magic" of Christmas at our house.  We generally take a cruise about this time of year not leaving a lot of time for us to be scroogy.  This year I feel like Christamas is everywhere and I can't help but get into the spirit.  My sixth graders are talking about it all the time and Christmas means 2 WEEKS NO SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!  Yes the perks of being a school teacher are that I have no work/school for 2 whole weeks.  That in itself is definitely worth celebrating!  We are almost ready for the holiday.  Just a few more things to wrap and decorations to hang and we will be in full Christmas mode.  Merry Christmas! 

3rd year's the Charm!

What a lucky girl I am. I have been married to my best friend for the best three years of my life!  You always hear stories about couples who got married when they were young and things just don't seem to work out.  Every now and then I hear of this happening and I get a little pang of fear because 3 years ago I was only 19.  However, I feel like that was the best decision that I have ever made in my life.  I am truly blessed to have such an AMAZING husband and married into FANTASTIC in laws! 
It's hard to imagine what my life would be like if I didn't get married.  Just to look at how far the two of us have come in three short years amazes me.  We started this adventure as just two young kids.  I was in my first year of college full time working three jobs just trying to make it and Seth was at the bottom of the totem pole at Napa.  Since then I have finished school, now teaching in Pima, and Seth has received a hefty promotion.  I am so impressed with the progress that both of us have made.  We've really learned to depend on each other and we've grown closer together because of it. 

Now I have to brag on the gifts we gave/got this year.  Poor Seth doesn't get to use his until January but he gets to cruise around in one of these.  I got him an hour in a ferrari at The Motorsport Lab in Scottsdale.  I'm so excited he gets to do this. We will have more to post in January after the ride.  Mr. Larson didn't do too bad himself when it came to giving Me an anniversary gift this year.  I got a new camera.  It came as a kit so I got the camera, a lens, tripod, case, software, cards, and an extra battery pack.  I absolutely love it.  I haven't had too much time to experiment with it but I can already tell it's going to be one of my favorite toys! (maybe this will help with that picture taking problem that I have)  I have the best husband in the world. I can't wait to see what year four brings us!

Thanksgiving wedding

Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving this year was one of the busiest I have ever had in my life!  We had 3 families we had to visit this year plus another surprise!  We started the day off with Grandma Kay.  As usual we love visiting her.   The food was delicious and the company wasn't bad either.  It's always great to be able to catch up with family members you don't see every day.   Grandma Kay makes the best mashed potatoes and gravy.  I've decided that every family makes something that is better than any other family and Grandma Kay makes the best mashed potatoes and gravy and pecan pie!

Next we were off to Grandma Beths.  Grandma Beth makes the best green bean casserole.  We had tons of fun chatting with them and had some incredible pumpkin pie.  I did miss the cheesecake this year.  My uncle fried a turkey this year.  It only takes 45 minutes to fry a turkey!  Amazing!

After that we headed over to Grandmother Ford's.  It was great catching up with all of the family that came in from out of town. We always go to grandmother's for green gunk and pie!  Lisa's rolls were pretty good too! Dana and Grandmother put together a beautiful presentation of Owen Ford that taught everyone a little something about who he was.

Here comes the kicker!  I got a text at around 2 pm.  My dad was getting married in Duncan.  After all of the other Thanksgiving celebrations we made our way to Duncan to watch this exciting ceremony.  First thing we noticed when we got there was the smell.   It was terrible!  We were on a dairy farm and cow poo took over our nostrils.  It was bad.  We got there and met all of the Lunts.  They are an awesome family.  The ceremony lasted all of 7 minutes including her 18 year old son pronouncing the happy couple married by the power vested in him by Universal Life Church online.  The wedding came complete with fireworks!  Over all a very busy but happy Thanksgiving.  We all have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season, and the most important one to remember are our families. 

Breaking Dawn trip

Every time a new twilight movie comes out my sister in laws and I take a trip to the valley to watch them together.  We added a couple more hours to our trip this year.  It is so good to be able to take time off whenever I need to now.  We left early Friday moring to do some shopping around town. We spent a lot of time at the mall and spent way too much money.  We ate a nice dinner at Cheesecake Factory (yum!) then went ice skating to burn off those calories!  Saturday morning finally came and it was time for the main event!  Breaking dawn was fantastic!  We absolutely loved it!  After the movie it was time for more and more shopping!  We bought way too much crap!  Then it was time for the girls to leave and head back to town.  I got to stay in Phoenix by myself for about an hour.  That was just enough time to make a quick trip to IKEA!  Then I got the opportunity to get lost on the fantastically amazing freeway system that Phoenix has to offer.  I have decided that I officially HATE HATE HATE the US60!  That is the stupidest highway known to man!  I don't even care that stupidist isn't even a word!  That stupid highway confuses me every single time!  Last time I was on the 60 by myself I took a detour to Tucson on my way home.  This time I spent a good 30 min in traffic for some sporting even at wild horse pass.    I ended up figuring my way out of that mess and made it over to meet Seth, Kieth, and Brittany for dinner before the ASU/ UofA game. 

We had dinner at Native New Yorker before the game.  Let me tell you that ASU fans are CRAZY!  Even just at dinner they were slinging insults and all of the people with me wearing UofA T-shirts.  (I refuse to get into the UofA/ASU fan base.  I didn't go to either school so I like them both).  It was worse once we got to the game!  I've never seen people behave as rudely as they did.  I'm sure it would be the same if we were in Tucson but I was really surprised.  People would sneak up behind you so you couldn't see them and yell "high five"  then when you would turn around they would flip you off.  We got boo'd everywhere we went.  There was even a fight in the stands.  Great fun to watch I'm just glad I wasn't down there.  After the game we headed home.  It was a long long long weekend.  I was sure glad to finish it up with a short week at school. 

New school New Job

I know it has been forever since I posted last.  We have been super busy lately.  Seth and I both got new jobs in August.  I started teaching sixth grade in August and I love love love everything about my job/students/school.  It has been an incredible adventure thus far.  I also have some hilarious "quotes" from students that I am dying to share!  They are hilarious.  It's amazing to me that the semester is almost over.  It seems like August was just yesterday.  I'm also coaching 7th grade girls basketball which has shown to be way more fun than I thought it could be.  7th grade girls are a breed all their own.  They are always funny but also so determined to do well.  I couldn't imagine working any where else.  

Seth has also started managing the Globe Napa Store.  The hours are tough on him sometimes but he really enjoys his job.  He is doing so well.  In the three short months that he has been there he has more than doubled the stores sales.  I have seen both the before and after product of that store and it's amazing what my husband can do.  He's a fantastic leader and is making measurable progress.  I'm so proud of everything he does.  He works so hard at everything and never settles.  What a terrific accomplishment Seth.   

Welcome to the Happiest Place on Earth!

 Disney World was a total blast.  We spent six days in sunny Orlando, Florida.  Every body makes Orlando seem like this premier vacation spot with perfect weather and tons to do.  For the most part they are absolutely right.  However they forget to mention the humidity.  Any Arizonan knows very little about high humidity.  I was damp for the full six days we were there.  Once our plane landed back in DRY Arizona I was one happy camper!  Other than the muggy, humid, scorching weather Disney World was an absolute BLAST!

We started the vacation at Animal Kingdom.  It is pretty much a zoo turned into a theme park.  We had a blast on Expedition Everest where we encountered the yetti.  It took a little convincing but I did get Seth on a roller coaster.  We also ventured through dino land.  We took an African Safari and rode the rapids of Asia.  There were native animals from several continents mostly featuring Africa and Asia.   We saw Flik and several interesting bugs in the tree of life and watched an acrobatic show of  The Lion King.  One of the best features of Animal kingdom was the short lines.  We walked on to every ride there.  No waiting for us.  This is one of the less popular parks in Disney World so we went on a Saturday when all of the other parks would have been crawling with people.

In the afternoon that day we ventured over to Epcot.  We didn't last long there.  We arrived in Orlando around 11:30 pm.  By the time we got out of baggage claim and to the hotel it was nearly 2 am which is 6am in Arizona.  We woke up around 6am (4 hours of sleep) and went to the parks.  Needless to say that in the early afternoon we were dragging our feet.  We made it back to the hotel around seven grabbed a quick shower and dinner and were sleeping pretty early. 

Epcot was one of our favorite parks.  This is the park where they have the world showcase.  In a short walking distance you meander through several countries including Morocco, Norway, Canada, China, Japan, Germany, England, as well as several others.  The park is set up as an exact replica of those countries.  The builidings look identical and some of the countries have rides that go with them.  Mexico had a boat ride that took us to Chitzen Itza, and Norway took us on a viking ship through the history of Norway.  All of it was very intersting.  While in Epcot we went to Future World.  Our favorite ride there was Spaceship Earth.  They made this awesome video of us and took us through the evolution of intelligence starting with early cavemen.  It went all the way through the rise and collapse of Rome, the first library, papyrus in Egypt and the first schools.  It was all pretty awesome.

 After Epcot we went to Hollywood Studios.  This was the park that was for teenagers and young adults.  Lots of fast fun rides.  This park focused on the special effects of movies. This park wasn't just for disney movies either.  They had  a really neat show for villans and the star wars ride was fantastic!  We wantched Fantasmic at their outdoor theater.  They had fountains of water that played videos like projection screens.  It followed Fantasia for the most part then they brought boats out over the water with the princesses and some other famous characters.  We rode Rockin Roller Coaster.  This ride stared Aerosmith.  Seth actually wanted to ride this one first.  He changed his mind about 15 minutes into our 30 minute wait but he toughed it out and wanted to ride it again the next day!  This was probably our favorite ride out of Disney World.  It was fast and tons of fun for the whole 90 seconds of it!  Hollywood Studios had a lot of rides and shows that were interesting for us.  We rode the toystory ride where we get to shoot little toy cannons, we watched Beauty and the Beast and The Little mermaid.  There was also an Action car show where they did car stunts and we even got to see Herbie. 

The last park we visited was Magic Kingdom.  This is the park that is most like Disney Land in California.  We first went to the park in the late afternoon.  We stayed to watch the fireworks and Castle light show.  They do this awesome show every night using lights projected on Cinderella's castle using photos that were taken throughout the day.  It's awesome how much a couple of lights change the appearance of the castle.  It looks like a cartoon at times.  We watched the light parade.  It was super cute and tons of fun.  We felt kind of bad for the kids who were sitting around us.  Some jerks thought it would be awesome to stand up right in front of a ton of kids who wanted to watch the parade.  As far as rides go we drove race cars, flew over London and Neverland with Peter Pan, we rode a runaway train, and went on Space Mountain.  One of our favorites was the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor.  It's basically stand up comedy.   They used actual people from the audience to create their jokes.  It was hilarious.  

We had tons and tons of fun on our vacation this year.  Everything s

eemed to go smoothly.  We went to the Airport and had transfers to our hotel waiting for us, as well as our way back to the airport.  We definitely enjoyed our time in Florida but were ready to come back to dry Arizona.  We even got to see one of my best friends after she had her baby while we were away!   What a great vacation to get us through the summer.

It has been For-Ev-ur!

Where have the past five months gone?  It seems like I just updated this thing yesterday.  Maybe it's because there has been so much going on.  Student teaching came and went.  I did my student teaching in 8th grade with Michael Finch,  I taught pre-algebra and algebra one.  The experience was irreplaceable. I've never had more fun or struggled so much.  It was that learning experience that you are grateful for after you have gone through it.    It's all bittersweet now because all of my students are promoting to high school.  They were awesome and definitely a class I will never forget. 

Another exciting event was my graduation from NAU!  I now have my bachelors degree in elementary education.  It only took three years, three schedule changes, three semesters of night school, forty practicum hours, six online classes, four aepa tests, and sixteen weeks student teaching to get it.  I have enjoyed most of it.  My cohort and teachers were fantastic!  I must admit that I didn't always enjoy the classes that lasted until 10:30 pm, or the days that I was at work from 7am to 4:30 pm, then had to rush home and print a paper to turn in at 5 pm and stay in class until 10:30 pm.  I really didn't enjoy the summer I took 3 classes and had to write 24 essays a week. 
I did however enjoy working with students in my practicum and student teaching classes.  I did enjoy meeting 20+ amazing educators, and having the opportunity to learn and grow from their experiences.  It has been an uphill battle but definitely one that I am grateful for. 

 

To complete my school based post, I am thrilled to announce that I have a job in Pima for the 2011-2012 school year.  I'll be teaching sixth grade writing and science.  It's not exactly what I wanted but it will be a learning experience and I'm excited to have my own classroom and this learning experience.