I typed this post with one hand

So I'm sitting here staring at a pile of laundry, a pile of dishes, and a pile of papers that I would love to try and conquer or at least shower for the day (yes I am aware it is 4 in the afternoon) but I'm holding a beautiful sleeping baby boy.  Why don't I just lay him down you ask?  Because two minutes ago I giggled because he smiled in his sleep and he woke up.  Sadly, this boy did not inherit my ability to sleep through the Apocalypse.  Also, when he wakes up and realizes he doesn't have a pacifier he is not very happy.  Zach's favorite game to play is cry, insert pacifier, fall asleep, spit out pacifier, wake up two minutes later and repeat.  Some of you might say, maybe he's hungry, well he's not.  He just nursed for an hour.  He just likes attention from his parents I guess.   Well, my hand is starting to cramp typing at an awkward angle.   But just know, I LOVE this kid!

Well Folks, Zachary went to the doctors yesterday.  He is 7 lbs 14 oz which is good considering he left the hospital at 6 lbs 8 oz but sad because it puts him in the 8% for weight, which means he's teeny!  When we attempted a scientific measurement of him using our home scale we thought he was 9 or 10 lbs.  We were obviously way off.  Also, this means that technically he could still be in newborns.  But size 1 diapers have past the blow out test and we're sticking with the less expensive size.  He's grown an inch and a 1/4 but he's still only in the 37% for length.  I know all these numbers mean nothing except to say if your baby is small, medium or large but I thought you all would like to know Zach has officially been classified as small. 

He also got a shot yesterday.  Did I almost break down in tears when his eyes flew open, his arms and legs stuck straight out and then I heard the most terrifying cry come out of my baby's mouth? Yes.  It's a good thing the nurse at least acted sympathetic, let me swoop him into my arms right away, and then left right after that otherwise I might have punched her for causing irreparable damage to my emotional psyche.  I have no idea how I'm going to sit through a bazillion more shots with him and future children down the road. 

Well since our life just got a whole lot more boring to read about, we will simple list what our life is like these days because although we LOVE being parents, trying to make being parents to a child that basically eats, sleeps, poops, and cries sound exciting is rather difficult. 

• We have digressed in our maturity to the point that farts and burps have become super funny
• We keep hoping he'll poop in second hour of our church meeting because the sounds are so funny and it would be totally inappropriate but would break up the time
• We find ourselves wandering around the baby section of any store and have to ask ourselves, "how did we get here?!"
• Leaving the house consists of changing Zach's clothes for the day, feeding him, having him fall asleep, change his diaper and then repeat.  We usually don't leave the house until it's too late to get anything done
• Clean? Is that even a word...
• Social gatherings are wasted if we don't show 3 pictures of Zach, tell 5 stories about him and basically monopolize the event completely around Zach
• We have watched more crappy movies and t.v. shows than one should do in a lifetime because there's not much one can do in way of entertainment when they have a newborn.  Yesterday we watched an episode of Inspector Gadget...enough said.
• Oh, and half an episode of Mario Brothers that we didn't finish only because Tommy had to go to class. How embarrassing.
• We celebrate when we get 4 hours of sleep

This list was brought to you by Chelsea and Tommy May

He Loves his hands! And I love his hair!

They are too cute together

Happy One Month!

 Hello World! My name is Zachary May.  I am official one month old and therefore old enough to take over my parents' blog to tell you a little bit about me. 

• I love to be snuggled and held
• I find it funny to pee on my mom when she's nursing me
• I've learned that if I cry, my parents respond
• I start growling if I get too sad
• I don't like church much.  I usually try to get my parents to go home early.  I'm good at distracting them at church as well.  They like to fight over who gets to hold me.  Mom wins out when I'm hungry
• I'm kind of a night owl.  I love the hours between 11:30 - 2 am  and then usually at 3:30 as well
• I usually try and save my bowel movements for one big one.  I'm kind of a hoarder in that way
• I don't understand the point of tummy time.
• I LOVE my hands.  I like holding them and using them to stroke my face and I pray a lot with them  One time I did it during the sacrament prayer and my parents pulled out their phones to take a picture before realizing how inappropriate that would be.  So there is no picture
• I am super cute and am now in size 1 diapers as of today.  This makes my parents very happy because newborn diapers are unnecessarily expensive.  You'd think because they use less material they'd be cheaper but no.

Zachary!

Yes Ladies and Gents, in case you haven't heard, Zachary Mike May was born December 17, 2011 at 2:50 pm.  He weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 20 1/4 inches long.  He is super duper adorable as you can see and wow has life changed since he joined our family.  I am incredibly impressed with those women who are able to post their birth stories and baby photos within days of giving birth.  I am obviously not one of those.  It's not that I am not overly excited it's more the fact that I have had zero time or energy and if/when I did have the time/energy, I wasn't about to waste it on my blog, I used it for more important things, like sleeping.

So here is a summary of Zach's birth story.  The week leading up to his birth, I knew I was going to have Zach that week.  How? Well, I kept coming across passages in the scriptures that talked about how if you ask for those things in which you stand in need of, the Lord will provide.  Well, I needed to have this baby this week.  I was so miserable and in tears practically every day that he didn't come.  Plus, Tommy was done with school, I was done with work, and my parents have never spent an anniversary apart.  My mom was down helping out and was my doula and this was going to be their first anniversary apart.  I couldn't do that to them.  So Zach needed to come ASAP.

Well I started having steady contractions on Friday afternoon.  After a while they never progressed so I called the doctor and he said that if the contractions persisted but stayed the same for 12 hours, that I should go to the hospital and get checked.  At my last appointment I was at 2 cm, 90% effaced and his head was engaged. In fact, the doctor said his head was already in the birth canal!  Unfortunately, 12 hours later meant 4:00 am.  So we all tried to get some sleep around 9 pm and I was of course up till past midnight from nerves.  At 3:30 we woke up and checked the contractions and they were still the same.  So we showered, ate breakfast and headed to the hospital.  They checked my blood pressure and it was pretty high.  I was so scared and stressed out by this point.  I've never been to a hospital before for myself and only once or twice for someone else so I'm not really fond of them.  But I was only at a 2 still.  They kept me for another hour to check my blood pressure again.  It was still high.  It really came down to the fact that I was so incredibly nervous!! Later on when contractions got worse, my blood pressure was actually lower! 

Lucky for me, my high blood pressure made the doctor decide to break my water and start me on petosin.  I started to feel a bit uncomfortable and asked for an epidural knowing I could handle the pain now but worried about what it would feel like in a half hour.  The nurse said the anesthesiologist was in surgery and would be done in about 45 minutes.  Then the crazy painful contractions picked up.  The only way I got through them was knowing it would all be over soon! Once I got my epidural, I was only at a 3. I napped for about 2 hours and by then I was at a 4 almost a 5.  I was feeling well enough to play a game of phase 10.  Neither my mom nor Tommy felt that the woman in labor deserved to win. About half way through I felt pretty tired and was sick of losing so I decided after one more hand I would take a nap. But then the nurse came in and checked me and said, "It's time to push! You're fully dialated!"  I wasn't ready for that news so soon!  It only took 10 pushes and Zach was out. 



So that's our story.  Not incredibly eventful but I didn't want it to be.  Also, I love epidurals.  I have all the respect in the world for women who can deliver babies without them but I definitely have no desire to try anytime soon.  More about our life later.  It's time to go back to being mommy!

Happy December!

Okay remember how I said that I wouldn't allow myself to daydream until Dec. 1?  Well the next pregnancy, I won't allow myself to daydream until I'm at 40 weeks.  That was seriously a dumb idea.  Who would have thought that I would have two melt downs in 4 days about not having the baby?!  Also, I was only at 37 weeks, what was I thinking???  So now today at 38 weeks I have a much better perspective.  Don't expect a baby anytime soon. I'm happier now but still, Zach, don't feel bad if you come in the next 24 hours, I really wouldn't mind at all.

So this past Thursday my mom and dad came in.  My dad was dropping my mom off to live with us through the baby's birth and hung out with us this weekend.  We really didn't do much because relaxing is so much fun.  However, my dad took me toy shopping for Zach and it was so much fun because A) who doesn't like playing with toys B) my dad has settled into the grandpa role all too well and was having so much fun buying toys C) we spent a lot of time analyzing why certain toys were really good for a baby while others were terrible - Oh how I love to mock...  Needless to say Zach has enough toys for this Christmas and quite possibly next Christmas as well. 

Also, there's this running joke in our family regarding our family dog named Charlie.  Charlie is a dachsund but thinks he's a human.  He will literally jump in a chair and put his paws on the table and act like he's part of the family.  The running joke is that he wants a pony for his very own, I don't know how it started but's a funny image.  Does this make my family weird? Absolutely.  But don't even think of trying to tell me your family isn't.  Well, Charlie sent a gift down for Zach and it was a...that's right, it was a pony.  A little rocking horse pony of his very own.  It was hilarious when I saw it and that just goes to show what an awesome dog Charlie really is.

We also got a webcam so anyone who wants to skype with us, let us know.  I didn't realize how cool it was til we tried it with reliable technology.  My family will never be able to avoid me now!

And last, for those of you interested in the countdowns, here it is:
3 days left of work and this semester!! I can't believe it!
2 weeks til the actually due date (not that that really matters)
15 days til family comes into town
17 days til Christmas!
3 weeks before I tell the doctor, "no more carrying this baby in my belly, let's get him outta here!"

Living a Life of Count Downs

This blog probably won't have any pictures, I'm sure you're all tired of them anyways.  So I woke up last night and after a nightly jaunt to the bathroom, I laid down and had a revelation, I am almost done! Ah! I have been pretty good at keeping myself busy and not thinking about this baby coming.  In fact, I have this rule that I can't day dream until Dec 1, but that day is quickly approaching.  All of which hit me last night so of course I was up late realizing that yes, Zachary will be here much sooner than later.  My latest tactic to not get to antsy about waiting for this baby is I have started counting down to other things. 
Here's the list:

2 Days til Thanksgiving
9 days til my mom and dad come
2 weeks and 2 days until 38 weeks when Zach is considered healthy enough to enter this world with no complications (please...)
3 weeks left of work  (after tomorrow) and this semester
4 weeks and 2 days til the actually due date (not that that really matters)
31 days til family comes into town
33 days til Christmas!
5 weeks and 2 days before I tell the doctor, "Get this baby out of me"

So I obviously have a lot more things to look forward to than just a baby coming and it keeps me sane.  Other ways I have chosen to keep myself sane is we decorated for Christmas this last Saturday!  It was a blast.  Normally I am a grinch and refuse to see anything Christmas until the Friday after Thanksgiving (let's at least try not to steam roll right over honoring this holiday).  But this year is different and it distracts me from what I really want to have come.  Also, we were able to use all of our Halloween decorations as Thanksgiving decorations (take your fake jack o lantern and turn him around so it just looks like a pumpkin - yep, I'm that cheap/lazy) so I was pretty tired of them. 

If I could wish away just one of the million discomforts of being pregnant it would be heart burn.  I hate tums.  I hate having to eat them all day.  In fact, there are times where I choose the discomfort of heartburn to avoid the tums.  Before you suggest pepcid, I'm already taking it.  But I can only take 2 in a 24 hour period (so says the box which might be different for pregnant women) and I usually save one for bedtime so I feel like that's the only time I can take them.  And sometimes, even when I take both together, it still doesn't make it go away.  Whereas with most other discomforts you can find a way to relieve it at least for a time being.  Also, it has forced me to sleep sitting up which you can't do in a bed very comfortable so it has banished me to the couch.  Lucky for me my husband loves me oh so much and comes to the couch too, otherwise I would have lost it a month ago. 

Also, nesting hasn't really kicked in for me like I thought it would.  Oh sure there was that weekend in October where we scoured the kitchen of anything dirty and painted the walls, but that was it.  It literally lasted less than 24 hours.  I always look around at stuff and think, "It would be nice, but I'm too tired/lazy"  However, we know I still have 4 weeks and 2 days left and a lot can change in a month!  Well that's it for now.  Nothing too excited just me being bored at home while my lovely husband performs service by moving a family and I am about as helpful as jellyfish in that area.

48 Days 'Til Christmas

Some thoughts:

1. I hate squeezing into bathroom stalls.  Curse the man who thought the door should open into the stall
2. I don't like that I sit down to eat and already feel full, I don't even get that
3. I don't like that I'm always tired.  Anyone who knows me knows I love sleep but this is ridiculous
4. Thank goodness for my weird time of life between freshman/sophomore year of high school where I thought medium hoodies looked good.  They finally fit me!
5. My doctor checked the position of the baby and told me, "yeah, there's plenty of room still in there" I think I'm in a better position to say, "No, no there's not"
6.  Why does heartburn have to exist?
7. I'm on this crazy Christmas movie kick.  So far we've watched Home Alone 2, Elf, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (w/ Jim Carey).  No better Christmas movies exist and no one can tell me differently
8. All of a sudden sitting in church for three hours is about as much fun as being kicked in the head
9. I love my husband, he keeps me from going crazy