Goals

I didn't officially set any new years resolutions this year because of my 101 in 1001 goals.  I still have a few resolutions in my head, but didn't write any down.  It's just too hard for me to start a new year without resolutions, even though I'm sure I will break them within a month or so. :)

I just read through my list and to be honest there aren't many goals I am currently working on, but I did accomplish one of my goals (to have a baby!!).  I got some water color supplies from Jensen's mom for Christmas so I hope to get started on that very soon!  I have also started a class on skillshare.com.  Even though this isn't a traditional classroom setting that I had in mind for taking a graphic design class they do offer a wide variety of classes and I hope to take one related to graphic design.  Right now I am working on a typography class and it has been a lot of fun so far.  The first project is to create a business card using a san-serif font.  Here's my first attempt.  I also just purchased a hand-lettering class! Learning hand-lettering is another goal on my 101 list.

Dunken and Dad

Besides cuddling my sweet sleeping baby so far my favorite thing about being a mom is to see how much Jensen loves Dunken.  I've always known he loves babies, but I could have never imagined how he would act towards one of our own.  He loves our boy so much and it is the sweetest thing to see the way he looks at Dunken.  He holds Dunken pretty much every chance he gets and gives him non stop kisses.  I wanted to have a baby much sooner than Jensen.  I think even now Jensen isn't quite sure he's ready to have one, but I know now that Dunken is here he wouldn't have it any other way.  The other day while holding Dunken he said to me, "if all our babies are going to be this cute let's have a million."

First Bath

Dunken doesn't cry very often, but he hates being naked.  Pretty much the only time he cries or is fussy is during diaper changes and bath time.  Hopefully once we are able to give him real baths instead of just sponge baths he will enjoy them more.

After being dried off and in a fresh diaper and clean clothes he was much happier.

Newborn Photos

Be prepared for a million Dunken posts for the next little while at least. I'll try to not have them completely take over my blog but right now he has completely taken over my life in the best way.  Eventually though I'm sure I'll get back to a more normal schedule besides feed baby, change baby, sleep, and repeat.

These photos were taken when Dunken was just 2 days old.  A newborn photographer at the hospital came in and took them.  After editing the photos she set them to a slideshow with sappy music meant to make new mothers cry I'm sure.  They were too precious to pass up so I convinced Jensen to let me buy them all :).

Love Day

I hope everyone had a happy Valentine's day.  Jensen and I went out to dinner with some friends that were in town.  It was our first outing together with Dunken besides doctor's appointments.  He did great, and just slept in his car seat the whole time. :)

And to make this post a little more interesting here's some love confessions for you.
- The first crush I remember having was in first grade on a boy named Brian.  He was very tall and sat at the head of our group of desks.  I remember I had a cut on my middle finger and showed him and he told me holding up just your middle finger was a bad word.  He seemed so smart.  It wasn't until years later that I knew what bad word the middle finger meant.
- From about 12-15 years old I kept lists in my journal of all the boys I liked and why I liked them.  There was usually at least 3 boys in each list at a time.
- I had my first kiss when I was 17.  I did not want the kisser to kiss me and I did not like it at all.
- Around Valentine's day 2010 Jensen and I weren't officially dating, but we had been hanging out a lot again after breaking up.  I went to a ward dance and met a cute boy.  That guy and I had our first kiss on Valentine's day.  I met up with Jensen a few days later and told him we couldn't keep hanging out as sort of friends/sort of dating.  He knew right away, without me telling him, that I had met someone else and kissed them.  After having that talk, Jensen invited me to lunch the next week to tell me he wanted to get back together.  I called the new cute guy to tell him my ex boyfriend and I had worked things out so I couldn't see him anymore.  Jensen and I were married about 3 months later. :)

Dunken James: A Birth Story

The day before Dunken was born Suz and I decided to have a sister sleepover as a last little baby free sister hoorah.  Friday January 24th was my last day of work giving me a little over two weeks to get all my last minute projects and things done before my due date.  That next Tuesday I was at Suz's for our sleepover.  I woke up at 3 in the morning to use the bathroom and when I laid back down I started having contractions.  They weren't very painful at first and I haven't had many prior to this so I wasn't entirely sure if I was actually having contractions or not.  For the first few I though maybe I just needed to use the bathroom, but pretty much right away they were about 5 minutes apart.

After about 30 minutes of regular contractions I woke Suz up to time them.  Suz called Jensen for me to tell him we though I might be in labor.  He told us to call the hospital to see what they say and promptly fell back asleep.  The labor and delivery nurse I talked to asked if I was able to talk through my contractors (yes) and how long they had been going (about an hour).  She told me to take a bath and wait another hour to see if they get worse or closer together.  She said if they continued to progress to come into the hospital.  I took a bath while Suz stayed with me and kept timing them.  At this time they were about 3 minutes apart and getting more painful.  We called Jensen again after another hour had passed to tell him it was time to go to the hospital.  He suggested we call the nurses one more time to see what they say.  They basically said the same thing and said it was a good time to come into the hospital.

When I got out of the tub my water broke!   After that I got dressed and gathered my things and Suz drove me to the hospital.  On the way we called Jensen (who still seemed to be sleeping) to tell him we were going.  We arrived there around 5:00 am.  Once I got to the hospital they checked me in, did a test to see if my water did actually break, and it did!  We called Jensen again to tell him I was actually in labor and to see where he was and Suz told me he still sounded like he had just woken up.  Silly man.  Makes me a little glad I was with Suz during all of this instead of at home having Jensen try to convince me to just go back to bed. ;)

I continued having regular contractions while we waited for Jensen to come.  When we first got to the hospital I was dilated to about a 4.  As the pain got worse I decided I wanted an epidural.  Before coming I never had a "birth plan" and wasn't 100% sure I wanted an epidural or not, but assumed I would get one.   Jensen finally showed up right before 7.  At 7 the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural.  I held on tight to Suz while I was bent over for the epidural.  Getting one was the most amazing thing ever.  After it kicked in no more pain and I was able to rest.  The nurse checked me again and I was dialted to a 9.  She said she wanted to let my contractions do most of the work getting the baby down so we waited.  From about 7 to 11 we waited for the contractions to get my baby ready.
At 11 the nurse checked me again and said it was time to start pushing.  Those were pretty scary words to hear, but once I did start pushing it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  After about an hour and a half of pushing we were greeted by the most beautiful baby boy I have ever seen.