Living our Fairytale

This summer has been very different but tonz of fun so far! The first week of June we were finally able to bring Jace home with us. Because Jace was sent home on oxygen we had to spend the night in the hospital with him so we could learn to work all his monitors and just in case we had any questions the nurses were right there for us. Jace did very well we never had any problems with him and his monitor alarms never went off. He was only on the oxygen for 2 weeks once we got him home and we were so so happy to get him off of it because it was such a pain having so many wires and heavy things hooked to him. I am just so grateful my baby boy had no major problems for how early he was.

Bringin baby Jace home!

All loaded up

The first week Jace came home I was definately "baptized by fire" into motherhood. I woke up the first morning with the stomach flu so in between throwing up while I felt ok for a few minutes I would hurry and take care of Jace not knowing much about babies I thought it was absolutely terrible if they cried because they were hungry. I know now I am no super woman and if the baby cries for a minute while his bottle warms up it is no tragedy. The next day I had to take Jace to the Dr. Then the next day after that my poor baby had to get circumsized and on the last day Jace got whatever stomach thing I had and I was back to the Dr. poor Jace was throwing up every time he ate it was awful. Again I know now that babies get sick and its ok you just have to do the best you can with them. After that first crazy week things got so so much better! Jace is a normal healthy baby now. Being a mom is everything I could hope for I don't know how I got so blessed to take care of and be a mom to such a special spirit. Jace is no longer on oxygen and I spend every second I can holding and cuddling my baby boy. Jace is such a good baby he is never fussy or mad he sleeps through everything and he lets mom and dad sleep at night :) Before we had Jace we were told multiple times that once Jace got here we would never enjoy anything again. Ha people are so dumb because we have gone to movies, the store, dinner drove to salt lake pretty much just gone on with our normal lives with no interuption. Jace has made life more enjoyable if anything and I can't imagine my life without him now! He brings Nathan and I so much joy he completed our little family :)

June 16th was Nathans birthday he turned 23! I met him when he was just 17 which means I have been completely in love with the boy for 7 years. I dunno about him but it has been the best 7 years of my life! For his birthday we went to the spaghetti factory with his family and Joes Crab shack with my family. Both places Jace just slept :) I am sooo proud of the man and daddy Nathan has become in the past 23 years! Happy Birthday baby can't wait to celebrate many many more together!

Also this summer because my dad works for Farmington city he was able to get us cheap passes to the city pool! We have spent almost every Saturday soaking up the sun Jace of course just hangs out in the shade and sleeps but it has been so fun to swim with my nephew Braxton! I seriously love that little boy so much he has the cutest personality and he loves to go swimming especially with his aunt Jessie:) I can't wait till Jace is old enough to swim and play with his cousin.

Cute Little Braxton

Trying to be just like uncle Nate

I Couldn't ask for anything more <3

Love of my life!

This past week we celebrated the 4th of July. We got lucky and Nate got 5 days off of work. We spent Friday celebrating our cousins' Todd and Kyly's wedding day! It was a beautiful day and it was fun to get to spend it with them and to remember back on Nathan and I's wedding day! Best day of my life for sure! Saturday we went swimming then went to cars with my family. Going out with my family now is quite the adventure with all 3 boys lol but Jace was such a good boy he ate his bottle while we waited for the movie to start then slept till we got home :) Sunday we had a BBQ with my family and Monday we spent the day with Nates family at West Point days! It was so much fun and once again Jace just slept through the fireworks. Joran (our sister in law Tylers wife) had a booth at West Point days putting feather extensions in the girls hair so we hung out with them in their booth. Watchin Tyler and his business sense was quite entertaining! I married into the best family!

Family pics. at the wedding

Ready for Cars 2

Jaces' first 4th of July!

On Tuesday we took Jace to get his newborn pictures. I am so excited to get them back they are gonna be super cute! Then Nate took me to Olive Garden! It was an awesome 4th of July Weekend!! This has been such a fun summer so far it has been very different and exciting to experience all the fun traditions with a new baby :)

Nap time with Jace is the absolute best and Nathan is the best Daddy ever!

After a long fun-filled weekend Jace and I were pooped!

All of my boys taking a Sunday nap

Jace && Daddy

Jace is growing so fast and getting so big he doesn't just sleep all day any more so last week we tried to get him to play with his toys.

He seemed interested at first then he just crashed with all the toys around him haha

Jace definately knows his mommy and daddy and its so fun to play with him

Love those big eyes

Jace's bathtime is my absolute favorite time! He is thee cutest thing in this whole world when he is in the tub! And he loves it too!

All clean :)

Lately the only place Jace will sleep is in his swing and he always looks sooo confy!

And of course our fur babies love their new brother!

Having a baby was definately life changing but in the best way possible! I am the luckiest girl in the world to have such and amazing family! I love you Jace and Nate!

Little did we know the month of May for us this year was going to be ever life changing and totally crazy and unexpected in many good and bad ways! We have definately grown stronger as a family as Nathan and I faced our first real trials as a married couple.

At the first of this month I had reached the point in my pregnancy where I was just soooo unbelievably uncomfortable. I was waddling, not sleeping at night, just getting ready exhausted me but I was too uncomfortable to truly rest and worst of all I was having tonz of what I thought were just Braxton Hicks but since its was my first pregnancy I had no idea the pain I was feeling was much more serious. I had even talked to my Dr. about the pain I was feeling and she just kept telling me the pain was normal especially for how tiny I am. So I went on ignoring what I was feeling because I really had no idea what I was feeling.

But before all that drama happened we had an unexpected visitor from our landlord one night that brought some very bad and sad news :( He told us that because we were renting from the city the city council met and had decided they wanted to raise our rent to 50% of what we were originally paying and that we had 30 days to decide if we wanted to stay or go. Here I am huge and pregnant in pain and uncomfortable and knowing there was no way we could stay in our little home that we had worked so hard to make ours. We had so many memories of our first amazing year there and worse than that we were right in the middle of painting Jaces' nursery. We had no choice tho and we prayed and felt the best choice was to move into my parents and get settled so we had a stable place to stay when Jace got here and then we could start figuring out a new place to live. It totally broke both of our hearts and boxing up that house and taking down all our pictures was totally braking my heart. :(

In order to avoid having to pay rent and utilities for a house we were only gonna be in for not even a full month we immediatly started getting packed up. Like I said being pregnant and emotional trying to box everything up with a huge belly was extremely hard and thats when I felt pain like I never had before that would not go away. I called my Dr. and she said to take tylenol, drink lots of water, get in the tub and come into her office if the pain didn't stop. Well of course the pain didn't stop so I called Nate he came and picked me up and I ran out of a half boxed messy house. When we got to the Dr. she told me I was dialated to a three to get up to labor and delivery and hopefully they could stop my contractions so Jace would have more time to grow.

It was May 11th when I was admitted to Ogden Regional and I was just barely 33 weeks. Little did I know I wouldn't be home until little Jace was born. But before that I would spend 4 miserable days on bed rest in the hospital. They gave me steroids to help Jaces' lungs develop and holy pain I have never had a shot that hurt so bad. They gave me all kinds of IV medicine that made me feel like crap and all I could do was sit on that uncomfortable bed all day everyday getting shot after shot trying to stop my labor.

My family is super amazing tho the Drysdales came and brought me treats and spent time with me, my mom took many days off work to be there when Nate couldn't be there, bringing me all the food I wanted and she was so cute and taught me to crochet a little blankie for my little man :). And of course Nathan spent every second he could with me. He takes such good care of me. He had to sleep on a pull out bed then get up every morning at 3:30 for work. One night he had to get up with me literally every 15 minutes and help me move all my IVs and monitors so I could go to the bathroom. I am such a lucky girl to have a husband that cares so much for me.

By Friday I had finally gone a full 24 hrs. without any contractions and was thinking I would get to home when of course the contractions started again worse than they ever have been and nothing they were doing this time were stopping or even slowing them down. I was in soooo much pain and completely nauseated that they decided to give me my epidural, not to make delivery easier but in a last attempt to stop my labor. My epidural was a nightmare. They had to do it 3 times because every time they hit a blood vessel and I would slowly black out as he would pull it out. The nurse said that she had never ever seen him hit a blood vessel more than once. Just my luck I was super worried that he wouldn't be able to get it and I would have to have natural birth which so wasn't good. He finally got it and within minutes I was feeling AMAZING! By this time I was dialated to a seven and they still didn't want me to have Jace that night but my body was doing everything to get him out. My tempature started to rise which can be very dangerous when you are in labor so the Dr. decided to brake my water. It still didn't seem real at that point that our little baby would be there in just a few hours.

I had to deliver in the OR because it was closer to the NICU and Jace had to go straight there right when he was born because he was so early. Labor was nothing like I thought it was gonna be. Its not like the movies. There is nothing to be afraid of and for me it was fast and fairly easy! Being there with Nate and seeing Jace for the first time was the most amazing thing. I will never forget it.

Jace finally came at 4:29 in the morning,on May 14th, he weighed 5 lbs 10 ounces and was 18 inches long. A true miracle for how early he was. Jace did awesome only needing oxygen for about an hour.

Nathan and I were exhausted and slept pretty much all day on sunday and going to see our little guy in the NICU. I had to stay in the hospital an extra day because the Dr. wanted to make sure my fever was gone before she let me go home. By the time I got to go home on Monday I was more than ready to get out of the dang hospital. Unfortunately it was without Jace. Leaving that day I had no idea how hard the next two weeks would be.

Luckily while I was on bed rest my family got together and moved most of our things. My mom knew how sad I was about moving so her and my dad got our little place in the basement all ready and cute for us. And it was good that I didn't have to go back and spend to much time at the house. Especially since I had other things on my mind.

Jace spent two weeks and a day in the NICU and it was the hardest thing Nate and I have ever been through together. Feeling so helpless and not being able to mother my brand new baby was the worst. I was not happy with the NICU at ogden regional at all and I hope I never have to deal with it again. Nathan and I spent every free second at the hospital feeding Jace and holding him as much as we could. It was very hard especially since we were in the middle of moving it was very overwhelming. I don't know what we would have done without eachother.

On the other hand I have alot to be grateful for. I am so lucky that Jace had nothing more serious than just being premature. We had insurance so all his needs could be taken care of. And we were able to go home and get some good rest and get ready for our little guy to come home.

As more time went by it got more and more frustrating. One day Jace would be coming home and the next it seemed like he was moving backwords. Jace finally learned to eat really well on his own his only problem was his breathing apnea.

Jace finally got to come home to us on Sunday morning. Because he has to be on oxygen they had us stay the night with him on Saturday so we could make sure we knew how to work all his equipment.

Bringing Jace home was so amazing and everyone was so right. It really seems like those 2 weeks never happened. Jace is doing well and will be off his oxygen in about a week!! Yay! He is gaining weight vey quickly, eating like a big boy and making mommy and daddy very happy!!!

Today I had to take my poor little man to get circumcized :( it was super sad but Jace is being so tough! I am so proud of him. Thanks to my mom for coming with me keeping me sane and being a huge help!

Being a mom is definately challenging but soooo rewarding when I see Jaces big eyes look up at me I really can't believe Nate and I were blessed and trusted to be his parents! We are so super lucky! This all still doesn't seem real but I am so excited to raise my little guy!

Like always Nate has been so amazing! He even gets up in the middle of the night with Jace and lets me sleep. :) And still a hopeless romantic bringing me home red roses because I had to deal with Jace alone today.

We are now settle at my parents everything is put away and moved and I have realized whats really important in life. It doesn't matter where we are as long as my little family is together!

One last cool thing before I post pics. of baby Jace. The week we found out we were going to have to move we were at Harmons getting a few groceries to hopefully last us awhile as we were leaving a man came running up to us and handed me a 30 dollar gift card to Chilis and said he just wanted to wish us a Happy Mothers Day. I of course started crying. Its great to know there are still good people in the world who think of others. That man will never know how much that meant to us and he was gone so fast we were never able to thank him.

After all of this I am so so grateful for the power of prayer and the priesthood! Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers for my family!