The Graduate

While I was able to finish my classes before Addilyn was born, Collin unfortunately still had a week of school left. I was so grateful that my mom was here to help after I had Addie because we didn't see much of Collin the week after because he was so busy finishing up with his finals. I'm sure it was hard for him to buckle down and concentrate after just having a baby however, somehow he made it through-- with flying colors too! Collin graduated with honors from Utah Valley University with a BA in Psychology. I know he has worked so hard to get to where he is today and I'm so proud of him. I love the passion he has for learning and his desire to help others. Our plan now is to work and save some money for graduate school which we will be applying to in this fall. I still have three more classes to take before I can graduate, so I hope to be done with school by December. Collin also recently got a new job working at a youth residential treatment center helping troubled youth. He eventually wants to get a PhD in clinical psychology working with adolescents and children so hopefully this job will provide him with some good experience. Anyway here are some pictures from Collin's graduation. Enjoy!

(When Collin's mom came out of his graduation she stayed with us over the weekend to help out with Addie. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful mothers and family that are always so willing to help. I can safely say for the both of us that we would never be where we are today without them, they have done so much for us.)

Addilyn Fae Dean

We made it; we survived April. The first couple of weeks in April was like a mad dash to the finish line after a long, tiresome marathon.The Friday before I delivered was my last day at work, Saturday I took three of my five finals, Monday I completed my online class and that night around midnight I was admitted into the hospital. I started contracting Sunday night but they were very sporadic, happening every 20 minutes to every couple of hours. By Monday night my contractions were coming every 5-10 minutes but I kept holding off going to the hospital in fear that they would tell me I wasn't ready and send me home. Finally after an hour of contractions coming every 5 minutes we decided to grab our bags and head to the hospital. Leaving our apartment that night it was crazy to think that the next time we would come back to it we would finally be a baby to fill our empty nursery.

Labor was long and uncomfortable. Once admitted into the hospital they checked my dilation which was barely 1 cm. After about another hour of intense contractions they decided to get me going on my epidural. Even with my epidural I still felt uncomfortable and dilation continued to progress  very slowly. By 6am I was only dilated to 4cm so they started me on Petocin to get me labor moving along, but literally seconds after they put it through my IV my water broke and I began feeling strong contractions again. For some reason the epidural was not working and it took several different doses to finally get it to work-- by that time it was well past 10am. Finally by 11:30ish I had dilated to 10cm and was ready to start pushing. I was already so exhausted by this point from so much lack of sleep that I was barely coherent during the next hour and a half. Once the doctor came in we found out that the baby was posterior and needed to be turned. Luckily the doctor got her turned correcting using forceps and then at 1:09, after 13 hours of labor, our precious daughter, Addilyn Fae Dean, was born weighing 7 lbs 2 oz and measuring 20 inches long.

It has now been one month since our beautiful baby girl came into our lives and she has truly filled an empty place in my heart I didn't even know I had. From the first moment I held her in my arms my life has felt so overwhelmingly full. Being parents has brought us more joy then either of us could have ever imagined; no other worldly success or accomplishment can compare. Thank you to all of the many wonderful friends and family who have helped us over the last month, we couldn't have done it without you.

I'm especially grateful for my mom who has always been there for me. I was so thankful to have her there during my delivery and for all her help after Addie was born. She is truly an amazing women/mother and I know if I have any success at being a mother myself it will be because of her example. Thank you for all your love and support. I also wanted to say thank you to my sister, Hanna who I also could not have done without. It had not even been 24 hours after her surgery that she was right by my side in the hospital giving her support. It meant so much to me that she was there and excited for me even through the pain of just losing her little babies. She too is a great inspiration in my life and a strong woman that I deeply admire. Lastly, I could not have done without my husband. I am so grateful to have him in my life. He is an amazing spouse and a wonderful father. Life is blissful!

"D-Month"

April is finally here and guess what?!...

....I'm still pregnant (forgive the blurry picture). 

I am almost 39 weeks now into my pregnancy and just plugging along. I figured I'd write a quick post now since I probably won't get another chance before baby Addilyn comes. Next week my finals start and boy do I have a lot of school work to get done! Luckily I have most of next week off work so that should give me enough time to get everything done and have some time to prepare before the baby comes. Collin's finals begin the week after mine end and then he graduates on April 27th. While we have a busy couple of weeks ahead of us we are excited about the big events that will follow. For both of us it has been a race to the finish. The majority of our time is consumed by school and work so we look forward to a change this summer when our time will be devoted to our baby girl. 

Pregnancy wise the last couple of weeks have been....well lets just say uncomfortable, but I've been blessed with the energy to get done the important things that I've needed to do. Not only is my belly growing bigger, just about every inch of me is swelling up as well (notice my sad marshmallow feet). Again I'm grateful to be wearing scrubs most days because I now only have one pair of real pants that fit and with my swollen ankles I wouldn't dream of wearing anything else. My sister-in-law, Annelise, was kind enough to lend me a long skirt to get me through the next couple of Sundays so I thankfully don't have to flaunt my massive cankles at church. 

In the moments of spare time Collin and I do get, we have spent it preparing the nursery. Between the baby showers and a few trips to the store I think we have just about everything we need. It all turned out so cute!

 Collin and his sister,  McKenzie painted the walls several weeks ago with some leftover paint we had from when we painted our bathroom. I found the material for the curtains on clearance for $3 a yard which I had Collin help me sew one night. Funny thing is that when we got finished sewing them one side turned out to be about 6 inched longer than the other side. After a few laughs and having uneven curtains for several weeks I finally fixed them. One of my favorite parts of the nursery is my quilt! It was a lot of sewing, but with my mom's help I finally got it completed and I just love how it turned out!

With my busy schedule it was hard to find the time to finish the quilt so my mom volunteer to bind it for me. To be honest that was the part I dreaded the most so I am very grateful that my mom was willing to do that for me. She did a fantastic job!

Also we were running of storage so we purchased this cheap bookcase at Walmart for $15. To dress it up a bit, Collin's uncle let us have a scrap piece of bead-board which we mounted on the back. The fabric storage boxes we got with a gift card and the wooden horses we found at D.I. for $1. With a fresh coat of paint they turned out to be great decor. I just love a good deal!

Among the many wonderful things we received at the baby showers, we go this adorable swing from Collin's mom. It looks and feels so comfortable that it makes me wish the made these for adult. I know Addie will love this!

Lastly, I just wanted to say how proud I am of my amazing husband for all of his hard work, love, and support. I can't wait to see what the rest of our future holds together. Congratulations sweetie!

*** Hopefully my next post will include picture of an adorable baby girl!!

Almost Feels Like Spring...

The weather has been so nice the last couple of days...perfect for a little photo shoot. Here is a sneak peak of how it went. To see more, check out Hanna's photography blog. 

Update...

 To be honest not much has happened since my last post. We are still busy and hard at work with school and our jobs. With only having one car again this semester and a full load, we have really had to learn how to manage our time better and stick to a schedule. Luckily, among other semesters, our schedules this semester meshes much better. Last semester since we had two cars we would get up separately and go about our daily tasks without really needing to coordinate with the each other. Now we get up together in the morning, Collin drops me off at work and goes to school till two. At two, he picks me up from work and I go to school while he works from home. Since we spend almost 12 hours a day apart from each other,  I have come to love the little bit of time we have together in the mornings. Another thing we've come to really look forward to are our weekly date-nights. Last week Collin's sister was able to get us free tickets to a Portland Trailblazer game in Salt Lake which was a fun outing. Here are some pictures we took at the game...sadly the Blazers lost, but we still have a good time.

As for a baby update, things are still going well. I've been a little sore and fairly uncomfortable the past couple of weeks just because our baby is going through a growing spurt causing my rib cage to expand, which can be very uncomfortable I've found. Also, because I carry her up high I have been having frequent heartburn and back pain, but I'm grateful to know that our baby is healthy and growing strong. I feel her kicking a lot now which as been fun for both Collin and I-- we can't wait to meet the little girl that has been in there kicking at my ribs for the past couple of months. And believe it our not I am now almost 32 weeks along with less than 2 months away from my due-date! I feel like this pregnancy is just cruising along and we still haven't gotten anything for our coming baby yet! However, to our excitement Collin's grandma sent us a cute little outfit in the mail this week, so we now have our first baby item! I get so excited looking at it that I just can't wait to have my precious baby girl to put in it. 

Christmas In Pahrump

Sorry that this post is a little delayed, but I thought I would share. This year was my first Christmas away from home. Besides missing my mom's Christmas breakfast casserole and the snow I honestly felt right at home. We drove down the day before Christmas Eve and were able to stay for the whole next week. We had a lot of fun spending time with family and greatly enjoyed the long vacation away from school and work. Unfortunately, like most people we are not the best at remembering to take pictures but here are the few that we did take from our trip.

I was feeling very crafty this Christmas and decided to make most of the gifts to our family. 

Collin helped me tie a fleece blanket for Carter. I used Carter's school colors, gold and maroon, which made for a nice cozy blanket that he could take on all his sporting trips.

Here is Collin in his new cardigan! With his new cardigan and glasses everyone says he looks like an official psychologist now.

Among all the homemade gifts I made, I made Lily and Olivia little aprons to go with the play kitchen they got last year for Christmas. These probably took the longest to make but thankfully Hanna helped me with them. I made all my other nieces some skirts which I'll have to take a picture of Mia in one to show you how cute they turned out!

Here we all are dressed up for church. As you can tell from the photo the weather was truly nothing I have ever experienced on Christmas, but to be honest the warm weather was rather nice. 

Not only did we enjoy spending time with family, we also enjoyed LOTS of good food-- so much so that we both gained five or so pounds! Luckily I can attribute some of those pounds to my baby.

Also over the break Collin and I celebrated our two year anniversary! While marriage does come with its difficulties, the past two years have truly been blissful. I couldn't be more thankful for everything I have, especially for my loving husband who does so much for me. I love all the times we have spent together and am anxious and excited for the many more years to come. 

Planning for Baby

Another semester has gone by and a new one has begun. We are excited to say that it is Collin's last semester at UVU and he will be graduating in April! He has really enjoyed his experience at UVU and has greatly excelled in his classes. Also he recently found out that his research group was accepted into the National Conference of Undergraduate Research that is being held at Weber State in March. If all goes well with that he and his group might even go as far as getting their work published! I wish I could say I was graduating this April as well but working has slowed me down some. Fortunately, I will only have three classes left to take after this semester and an internship and then I will be graduating as well. We've just finished our first week of school and are both really excited about our classes this semester.

Besides school, all is still going well with the pregnancy. We had another ultrasound last week to check up on how our baby is growing and developing. She is healthy and growing big. Between school, work, and the holidays Collin and I have hardly had time to start planning for our baby. We realized the other day that our baby is due in just three months and we have nothing, so we decided to devote the day to baby shopping. Although we still have a couple months left to buy everything we'll need we went out today and looked at some cribs and rocking chairs. We haven't settled on anything yet but we found a lot of good options. One thing we have settled on for sure is the name Adilynn (although the spelling is still on debate).

I've been debated for awhile if I want to make the bedding or buy it all, but after some prodding from my sister I've decided to make it. Hanna has helped me a lot and has given me some great ideas that has really got me excited. Plans really seem to be taking off now and the excitement of our baby girl just keeps growing. Below is the quilt that I've decided to make. I ordered the pattern online and bought some cute fabric today and am thrilled to see the final product-- it is going to be so cute!

I found this vintage baby quilt pattern on Esty. It sounds like it will be super easy and I just love the frayed edges and the wrinkled vintage look of it. 

Hanna found this adorable vintage carnival fabric at some store and I immediately fell in love. I've decided to  use it as inspiration for Addie's nursery. Below is some fabric I found to use in the quilt that goes really nicely with the carnival fabric. I haven't quite decided what I want to do with the carnival fabric, but I was thinking about maybe making a crib skirt out of it and then framing some of it to go on the walls. I also think it would be fun to frame some of the artwork Hanna was able to find as well.

That is pretty much all for now, I'll be sure to keep everyone updated how everything turns out!