The baby!

So we have a baby boy, in case you didn't already know. We went down to DC the first weekend in June to pick up Jared on our way to Virginia Beach and spent some time seeing his office and touring the Capitol. It was awesome and Jared is a great tour guide :) We got to go to the temple on Saturday which was much needed. I can't express how glad I am we went. It was exactly what I needed. I hope I can be better about going to the temple regularly, especially when we are back in Utah and it is minutes away. I need it in my life.

my niece Sarah, was the first of the family to hold the baby :)

So we drove from the temple to Virginia Beach and spent lots of time swimming and playing in sand and just relaxing and enjoying ourselves. It was seriously awesome. I LOVE that vacation . . . thanks mom and dad :) Monday I spent literally all day in the pool. After Lucy woke up she always wanted to go in the pool (she calls it the bath) and so I played with her and just relaxed in the pool most of the day. Nothing feels better when you are pregnant than floating in water.  I highly recommend it.

Lucy in my recovery room

Well, I don't remember all the details of the day but I do remember coming in around 3 or 4 to eat food and get ready for Lincoln's (Sarah's son) baby blessing. We were going to go over to the church at 6 pm (I think?) and have the baby blessing since almost all the family was together. Well, after I got something to eat I sat down by Jared to watch some TV and was just not comfortable. So I just walked around for a while and then decided to take a shower and get ready. I still felt kind of off but wasn't sure what was up and just tried to ignore it. I figured it was just some random contractions or something that would go away soon.



Timmy had to stay in the NICU for 10 days because he was having a hard time getting enough oxygen in his blood. He was on oxygen and a feeding tube until his oxygen assistance was low enough that he could eat on his own. Then we just waited while they weaned him off the oxygen.

To my credit, with Lucy I would have contractions for about an hour once or twice a week starting around 36 weeks and I figured that's all it was. Well, by the time we were getting in the car to go to the baby blessing it hurt so bad to sit down that I told Jared there was no way I could sit in the car. I seriously had no idea I was in labor, I just kept thinking something was wrong with the baby so Jared found out where the nearest hospital was and we went there to check out what was going on.

off the oxygen! wahoo!

Well, once we finally got to labor and delivery it was about 6:30 and  I was at 9.5 cm. I definitely was in pain and was finally convinced this baby was going to be born that day. Haha. First they asked me to fill out papers (Really?) which was not happening so Jared did all that for me. Then they made me lay down on the bed to check how far along I was and that was AWFUL. Walking was the only thing that made the pain manageable so I was NOT excited to be in a bed. But they convinced me the baby was coming so I sucked it up.

just lounging and waiting to be cleared to go home

Jared helped for a few minutes but then realized he needed to go move the car from the emergency room entrance. Luckily we had given our neice, Sarah, a ride and so she was there to help with Lucy. She was super awesome and entertained Lucy for the 30 minutes I was in labor. Jared came back and by 7 pm I was pushing and the baby (Timothy Isaac Aitken) was born at 7:08 pm. Crazy, I know.

As crazy as this all was, it really was perfect. Jared was there with me, which wouldn't have been possible if I had the baby in Pittsburgh. Timothy ended up being 38 weeks along (we thought I was only 36 weeks) so he wasn't too early, and I was able to deliver naturally which is what I really wanted this time.

Apparently I spent a significant part of labor in the pool which I can attest is helpful (I didn't even know I was in labor) and after that, walking around was SO helpful in managing the pain. It is good to know all those things I read about coping with the pain actually work.  And I can definitely attest to the fact that laying down in a bed for all of labor is the worst thing you can do to manage the pain AND putting the monitors on is TERRIBLE. I seriously almost yelled at the nurse when she put them on. Luckily it was only for 30 minutes :)

passing his hearing test

I have to say, I don't know if it is because it was my second baby or the fact that I had no drugs to help with the pain, but I am really glad I was able to have this baby naturally. It was definitely painful but it was manageable and everything afterwards was so much better.  I feel like I recovered better, I had so much more energy after, and I just really felt great compared to when I had Lucy. 



Timmy is ready to drive home finally!

I talked with my mom and her friend, Beth Nicholson, about having a baby when they'd have their visiting teaching visits it was amazing to speak to these women about how normal it is to give birth. I really feel like the world doesn't see birth now as something normal that our bodies know how to do and it is kind of tragic. I don't fault anyone for having birth in a hospital bed with drugs to help because I can definitely agree that epidurals are AMAZING, but now that I've done it both ways I just feel like everything went so much better spending most of my laboring time at home and coping with the pain by NOT laying down in a bed. Anyways, enough of my soapbox.

I read a lot while I was pregnant about natural birth and the women always said it was empowering and I have to agree. I feel great knowing I was able to do something difficult/painful and I feel like I can accomplish anything now. The whole experience was positive in so many ways and I"m so glad it went the way it did. It was all just perfect.



I know it is dark but I LOVE this picture. This is my happy little family. Aren't they so cute :)

Catching Up . . .

I've decided (1) I need to be better at blogging and (2) I am quitting facebook, so if you want to keep stalking our family, you won't find us on facebook anymore but I promise to be better about posting on here :)

I can't believe the last time I updated this thing was in November! What a mess. Well, I guess I'll give a quick overview of the past and then post something more exciting about this summer. Let's see . . . in October Lucy had her first birthday which was fun and we moved into a new apartment that we REALLY liked. It was so wonderful and it had a bathtub! I never knew how important those were til we had a baby. Who knew?

Lucy and her "cousin" James (he's Jared's cousin's son, that's a cousin, right?)

In November we found out we were expecting another baby (Yay!) and then during Thanksgiving break we got to spend a lot of time with my sister and her kids who were visiting her husband's family. We ran a 5k on Thanksgiving which was fun and we went to the aquarium and to a bounce house. It was fun to start taking Lucy to different places and see how she reacted. She mostly liked running around the aquarium and only the penguins really held her attention but it was still fun. She was terrified of the bounce house place at first but we think it was mostly the noise the air blowers made that really scared her. Eventually she was convinced it was fun and she had a blast.

In December my dad came to visit which is always nice (I think it was december . . . ) and then we left Christmas day to go spend the rest of our break in Texas with my sisters and their families and my mom and dad. It was really fun to be down there and super nice to be warm for a week. We also got to visit with Jared's brother, Spencer, which is always pleasant. He is always fun to catch up with and I love watching him and Jared joke around with each other.

our first christmas tree! (utah)

January was obviously the start of a new semester and since the class I was teaching was cancelled due to budget issues I went back to interpreting at BYU and in the community as well. I have to admit, as much as I loved teaching, I LOVE interpreting college classes so it was an enjoyable change. Jared starting working at Target early in the mornings over Christmas and has enjoyed that as well (minus the waking up super early part, I'm sure).  At the end of the month we felt like we should move in with his parents to save some extra money for the summer so we said goodbye to our great ward and great apartment and moved up to American Fork. We actually really enjoyed living with Jared's parents so we are glad it all worked out so well. I always hear people say negative things about living with in-laws but I guess I'm lucky because we have no complaints. It was great!

Lucy at Aunt Cheryl's with some super cute glasses they have

In February we found out were expecting a baby boy (Wahoo!) and sometime between Feb and March my dad came to visit again. We love when he stops by for the weekend after a work trip. It is so fun to see him and Lucy loves when he visits. Jared also found out that he would be interning again with Senator Hatch this summer but this time he was offered  paid internship in Washington, D.C. which was really exciting. He loved his internship last summer and so he was really looking forward to this summer as well.

Once we survived finals and worked for a few weeks we packed up and moved to Pennsylvania so Lucy and I could live with my parents. Lucy was so well-behaved while we drove for two days straight, I couldn't believe how well she did. It was a HUGE blessing. I was so scared she was just going to cry for two days straight stuck in a car but she actually was really mellow which was awesome.

We spent a week together relaxing and then drove Jared down to DC and moved him into his apartment. Lucy and I stayed for the weekend with him and we got to walk around a little bit with him and go to church with him on mother's day before we left. It was great to be in DC, I seriously LOVE going there, and it was fun to see my friend Patrese who lives there now. She is pretty much my favorite friend to visit with and I love when she comes to Utah so I'm glad we finally got to visit her in DC. We found out that there is a really inexpensive (and not shady) bus that Jared can take home every weekend to visit us which is awesome because there was no place for him to leave the car in the city, so we drove the car home and now he comes home every weekend to see us. I'm sure when the summer is over he will never want to see those busses again, but I am SO grateful he sticks it out each weekend and comes to see us!

Well, this is the boring blog post mostly for my benefit since I am a terrible journal writer and haven't written in months, but hopefully it isn't TOO boring :) I added some pictures for all you readers who really just want to see our cute kids :) The next post will be about the baby so that's more exciting!

Summer 2011

This summer was great. Jared worked a million hours so it was sad not seeing him as much as during the school year, but we still did lots of fun things. One thing I love about living in Utah is the canyon. I would go there every day in the summer if I could.We hiked Stewart Falls probably 3 or 4 times and drove through the Alpine Loop at least twice.

 

Lucy and I got to spend a LOT of time at the park this summer which was awesome. She became the queen of the jungle gym and got really good at crawling across bridges and up stairs and what not. And by the end of the summer she was attempting to WALK all over the playground. Where did my little baby go!

Look at those cute little teeth! She still only has 2, but this week we noticed 4 teeth coming in up top and a molar on the bottom. Poor girl!

Of course we can't forget Lucy's love for the swings. That girl owns them. And she LOVES to sing while she is swinging. It is just too cute.

At the end of the summer my sister Katie and I had graduation. Wahoo! The masters program is finished! It was a somewhat painful process getting it all done but it got done. No more school for me! My parents were able to visit and we were able to do a service project at Jared's work where we packaged food to be sent to countries who need it. It was really fun and we got to wear funny hair nets. Doesn't get much better than that :)

A few weeks after graduation Jared and Lucy and I got to go home to Pennsylvania to see family. We got to spend lots of time with my mom because she had broken her foot and was home with us all day which was awesome. My sister Katie was home visiting too which was also really cool.

While we were there we went up to Rochester, NY to see my grandpa and aunt and uncle. I LOVE going there. We got to go to Palmyra while we were there too which was awesome. I love going there. It is one of my most favorite places on the earth. Really. It is so peaceful and beautiful and I can always feel God's love for me there. It definitely has a special place in my heart. I also LOVE visiting my family in Rochester.They are amazing.

Jared and Lucy in the Sacred Grove followed by me and Lucy there as well. It's a beautiful place.

Grandpa's dog Buddy had a tough time getting Lucy to go away, and Lucy sure loved to crawl around the house chasing him. This picture cracks me up. It looks like we had 2 puppies in the house. Too cute.

I love this next picture. One, I love my grandpa and I'm glad we got a picture with him, and two, Lucy would not look up, she would only look at Buddy. What a goofy girl.

And here's Lucy with Grandpa of course...

While we were in Pittsburgh my dad and I took Jared on a quick trip downtown to ride the Incline and to see some of Station Square.  I love that city. It is so beautiful and so fun to explore. It never gets old showing people around town. Jared wants to go to law school one day and I am slowing working on convincing him that when the time comes, he should seriously consider Pitt. That would be AMAZING..... Anyways, here are some fun pictures from the city: Jared and Lucy on the incline and then my dad feeding Lucy his ice cream at the shop on Mt Washington. She gets so spoiled, that lucky girl :)

All in all, our summer was awesome. Jared really liked his internship with Senator Hatch's Provo office and most likely will get to go to Washington DC for his internship next summer (WAHOO!!!). He liked his other job well enough and once my thesis was done I'd say we really got to enjoy the summer as a family.

I LOVE having a family. I still don't feel like a mom (does that feeling ever come?) but I love Lucy and I love Jared and we have lots of fun together. Every day I look at Jared and think about how grateful I am for him and all he does, and then I look at Lucy and think of how stinkin cute she is and wonder how in the world she got so big!

I'm learning how to be a mom . . . I spend a lot of time at home and have realized that I can be REALLY lazy and accomplish nothing with a full day . . . and that makes me feel really crappy to be honest. However, now that I've come to that realization I've found lots of good things I can do with my time and this week I'm trying to implement them :) We'll see how it goes! Today was at least half way better than last week... :)

Life is crazy, it feels like every time we've got it figured out something goes "wrong" (or just not as we expected). But after I finish all my worrying, I realize how blessed we are. Every time I feel like our life has taken an unexpected turn it never fails that some blessing comes our way that is the perfect solution to my worries. They say happiness is a choice, not a destiny, and I totally agree. Life is good, we can't complain :)

I have no doubt in my mind that God exists and that He answers prayers. There is no way He doesn't. There are too many instances in my life where miracles show up at the perfect time. And they most often are things I would have never expected or thought of myself. God lives and loves us. And I am so grateful for a knowledge of that.

Lucy Goosey. Also known as the Looster. Or Darth Lucy.

Since I know most of you care more about seeing cute pictures of Lucy than reading updates on our lives, I thought I'd add a quick second post about Lucy and the last few months of her life. In March Lucy came down with RSV so we got to spend some quality time at the hospital. Everyone there thought she was the cutest, of course :)

 This is by far my favorite picture (above). She reminded me so much of Grandpa Guelzow hanging out in his PJs at their house in Rochester in the mornings :)

In April Meghan and Lucy went home to Pittsburgh to surprise Grandma Sharon for her birthday/Easter. A big thanks to Aunt Rachel for making it all happen :) Lucy was a big girl and got to sit in her own seat on the plane (since most of the planes had open seats!!)

We got to be there for the annual Easter egg hunt (check out these pictures, awesome huh! we are all getting so old . . . )

Now (2011)

then (not sure what year)

. . .and when we got home dad surprised us with a nice note and candy (which we quickly ate) and flowers. What a great dad :) 

In May Uncle Brad graduated from the University of Utah and got his MBA so we got to spend lots of time with his family and with Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Steve. We LOVE when they visit.

Lucy started eating solids at 6 months, which has been a fun adventure. She also loves to read with us at night and can sit up all by herself now. She tries to crawl and stands on her hands and knees, but mostly ends up going backwards. Poor girl gets so frustrated! Her toys just get farther and farther away.

It's a Wonderful Life

Today has been one of those days where I have just thought and thought about how wonderful life can be and is. We really are so blessed and are truly enjoying our summer so far. We are especially glad that the summer will continue for another three and a half months! It will be wonderful.

Right now, Jared is working at a new job that he loves, I am a teaching assistant for my favorite class at BYU and as soon as I finish my thesis (the goal is before June 1) I will be done with school. Yay! I look forward to enjoying the second half of the summer with no worries. What a great feeling that will be. 

Jared's new job takes him away for 8 hours a day, and he is doing some internship hours in the mornings before he works, so we don't see him a lot, but I am enjoying learning how to stay at home with Lucy all day and I think it actually has made us enjoy our time together more, if that makes sense. I love when Jared comes home. It feels great to have him here and Lucy is in HEAVEN. She wiggles and giggles and smiles and gets so excited to see him. It is probably the best part of my day. She loves her daddy and she loves to have fun with him.

Saturdays are my favorite day. We go to the temple and we try to do something together as a family. Last week ended up being yard work but then we got to visit Jared's parents which was nice. I am a firm believer in The Family: A Proclamation to the World, especially where is says, " Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities." When we spend time together, especially time we've planned out with fun activities, it just feels different. Better. It's a wonderful feeling.

I'd probably have to say my highlight of the week though was Sunday night. Sundays are sacred days, really. They are days I cherish. We read together, go to church together, relax together, cook together, and occasionally I get to help Jared do his home teaching. His companion moved and so he let me come along this time to visit our friends, the Harnos family. They had a baby boy a few weeks before we had Lucy and we always enjoy spending time with them. They are the kind of people you can just sit and chat with about anything, especially the gospel and how it applies to our lives. I like that. I love new ideas and new perspectives. I think it is refreshing. We had a great visit with them, chatting about our babies' similar development milestones and funny habits as well as about the gospel and how it blesses our lives. I loved it.

I've realized this week how blessed we are. I get to go have lunch at Jared's job with him at least once a week, today being the first time. I love spending time with him and his work environment seems awesome. We have a beautiful baby who is finally learning how to sleep well and take good naps, and she is the cutest and funniest little girl on earth. Isn't it amazing that we are trusted with these little beings that bring such joy into our lives and we get to play with them and raise them and have so much fun with them? Lucy is such a happy baby. I love this time I get to spend with her. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

January

So far we've had a pretty exciting January. Jared is back in school and Meghan is just working in the evenings and doing an at home internship helping the English Language Center assessment and technology guy do some research. It's awesome. I just go in once a week and check up with him and get new assignments and then work from home on some really cool research. I still love interpreting and am glad I can still get in a few hours a day.

 Lucy decided to put her diaper on her head. It was hilarious.

Right now I watch Lucy the first half of the day and then Jared comes home around lunch time and I go work a few hours while he watches Lucy. It honestly is perfect. She is such a joy to watch and we both love spending time at home with her. We are so blessed to have good jobs that pay the bills and don't require us to work many hours. It seriously is awesome. Every day Jared comes home and I tell him how much I love spending time with Lucy. I have until August to finish my thesis and get in 150 hours of internship work and then I'm done with school, and Jared is really loving his classes this semester. We really couldn't ask for anything more in life.

She is getting good at sitting up and holding her head up and so we play a lot more and she explores a lot. She loves to lick her hands lately (and everything else she can get close to her mouth) and she's really good at swatting the toy turtle that hangs from her bouncy chair. It is so fun to watch. We read lots of books together and practice holding toys and wiggling. She is so stinkin cute and so much fun to be with. She loves bath time now and she's learned that if she wiggles her arms and legs while she's in the bath it splashes water everywhere, and she LOVES it. We've had to move the bath to the kitchen tile instead of just in the living room on the carpet but it's worth it. It is so much fun to watch. I laugh so hard every time.

I guess the only real "news" of the month would be that Woody the station wagon was donated to cars for kidneys last week. The poor car wasn't going to pass inspection and we just knew it was time, and we were able to donate it to an organization that uses the money it gets from the car to help with research and dialysis treatments and other things for people with kidney problems. It was surprisingly really hard for me to let it go, but we knew it was the right thing to do and it definitely helped the car insurance payment go down :) I got a few good pictures of Lucy in the wagon before they took it away.

Oh and one last note. I've been reading a book called "Believing Christ" by Stephen Robinson that talks about the Savior and the atonement and it is amazing.

I highly recommend it. It explains the atonement and how we can apply it to our lives in a way I've never heard it explained before. This book especially addresses the issue of perfectionist attitudes many women have and how hard they can be on themselves in a more effective way than I've ever seen before. It is enlightening and strengthens my testimony of how much the Savior really loves us and how accessible the atonement really is to every single person on the earth. God really does love us, and the Savior really made it possible for us to be happy and healthy and return to live with God and our families again. What a blessing.

November and December News

So I realize I am really behind on this, but I will make up for it with lots of cute pictures of Lucy. We've had a really good few months. We stayed here in Utah for Thanksgiving and were able to have dinner with a big group of Jared's family. The picture below shows all of us together (this is Jared's dad's side of the family). It was really fun to chat with everyone and then play basketball games afterwards, and it was REALLY nice to have a few days off of school.

The rest of the school year was a bit busy but we survived. Mom and dad came out to visit which was awesome. We love having them here. I don't have any pictures from that visit but I do have a picture from the baby blessing when they came out in the beginning of November. That was awesome too. It was great to have them here and we were able to bless Lucy at Jared's aunt's house which was actually really nice. It's a blessing to know that Jared is worthy and able to give us blessings whenever we need one and the baby blessing was wonderful. He is so righteous, one of the many reasons I love him.

Christmas break was fun. I think Jared and I read like 4 books a piece. We stayed in Utah this year and spent a lot of time at home reading and just having fun with Lucy. It was great to just sit around and relax after finals. Lucy is getting so big and she is so fun. We love to watch her discover new things like her hands and feet and it warms our heart every time she recognizes us and gives us a big smile and giggle. She is so stinking cute. We also got to spend some time at Jared's house for Christmas and at his aunt's house for New Years. We love spending time with family, it always is so much fun, and Jared even discovered a new dance game for the Wii at his aunt's house. I wish I had video of it. It was so much fun and so hilarious to watch.

Christmas itself was great. We were spoiled with gifts from everyone and we are so grateful for all that we received. It was a huge blessing and we definitely are not wanting for anything right now.

Well, I know this is getting posted late, I just never finished it, so I will post this up now and then give a little January update. I realize most of you really just want to see Lucy's pictures, so I'll try to share more with you more often :) We really are so blessed right now and couldn't be happier. It is amazing how daily we see the Lord's hand in our lives. There is no doubt in our minds that God lives and that he loves each of us, especially Lucy. It is amazing how happy she can make us and we love having her in our family. We wouldn't want it any other way. We hope everyone is doing well and that everyone had a good holiday break!