Kids

I love kids. They are amazing in every way. They are innocent, sometimes fearless, caring, forgiving and just over all happy. There is a reason why the Savior taught to be like children. The other day we went to a ward activity at the park. There were several kids just playing and having a good time. But, there was one little boy who had a small handicap. The playground was conducive to him, so he was able to play with other kids. But I noticed that while I saw a child that was different, the other children saw him as just another kid regardless. They played with him like they would any other. We must have eyes of little children...seeing no faults and only loving those around us regardless. Sometimes it's hard. We get angry and the responsibilities we carry can over power our child-like eyes. Sometimes we just need to be like little children, not petty stressed filled adults. Now, someone has to pay the bills and take care of the kids and make dinner, but we can do these things while being Christ like. Children are sweet and joyful...for the most part. We should all try a little harder to be like little children. (:

"If we have a heart to learn and a willingness to follow the example of children, their divine attributes can hold a key to unlocking our own spiritual growth." -Jean Stevens

It's Not Easy

No one tells you what it's like to have two kids. Or, if they do, they don't tell you the details. I am here to tell you it's hard! Now, not everyone's situation is the same. I happen to have two kids under the age of two...for now. I am also a full-time student. Talk about balance issues! How am I supposed to take care of both of my children while my husband works and get all of my school work finished on time?! Balance. As hard as it is, it's very important. I've realized that I may not do well in school, but my children need me more than my schooling needs me.
But, I have good days and, what feels like way more bad days. I have noticed that my almost two year old Adelaide has been struggling with this new schedule I have. So, in return I have been trying to do things with her. Almost every time I grab the laptop to do a quick assignment or just look at what I need to do that day, she runs over and grabs my hand or in most cases, throws a fit. Well, there goes my chance for getting homework done while she's awake. But, I've accepted that that's okay. It shows me that she needs me. And what's crazy is........I need her. She can be crazy and cranky and fun and goofy, but she makes me smile when I don't want to. She helps me realize that my family is the most important thing. She helps me understand that I am her teacher and she learns the most in our home.
What about Parker? Well he is a very needy child, but strangely, I love it. I like to feel wanted and needed. And when you have a baby that waits on your hand and foot you can look at it in a bad way, or you can look at as a wonderful opportunity to teach. Adelaide has been doing better with Parker. She almost always helps with diaper changes and is really understanding about me feeding him. They play together and we do a lot of things together.
So, when do I do school then? At night and during nap time. And even though it seems like plenty of time to get what I need to done, it isn't. Because not to mention, I hate dirty houses and dishes and laundry. Mike and I joke that I will do all the laundry but never fold it. I have been less than good about keeping the house decently clean. As I write this I have 3 loads of laundry to fold, a sink full of dishes, many assignments for school and errands to run.
Being a mother is hard. It's wonderful, and amazing, but difficult. I have seen so many people demean the role of a mother. But never in my life have I experience something so amazing. The stress and worry of my children's well being will never go away and I'm all right with that! Just a few weeks ago I was asked to be the nursery teacher for our church. One would think, why would they ask you to do that when you have a baby?! Well folks, no one wants that job for some reason and I love kids! So, I of course said absolutely and thought it would be pretty easy. WRONGO! I usually only have a couple of kids in there, including Adelaide. Well last week I had 4 plus Parker, because Michael teaches Sunday School. Well one child was screaming because her mom left, the other was lashing out for who knows what reason, the other was brand new and very scared at the scene, and then there was Adelaide and Parker. Adelaide had diarrhea and Parker was hungry. I have never felt more overwhelmed. Who was I supposed to take care of first? Addi with diarrhea? Parker who was screaming to be fed? Robert who was throwing toys at other children? Bridgett who was screaming bloody murder in my ear? Or the poor boy who was just trying to play? One of the mothers was in there with me helping and I asked her to watch the kids for a few seconds while I took Bridgett to her mom and changed adelaide's diaper. Little did I know that Addi had pooped out of her diaper and all over her clothes and me. It was a horrible day needless to day. But a friend came up to me, seeing my tears and distress and said, "Being a mother isn't for the weak. It's just hard." And I just looked at her through my tears and nodded.
It's not easy. I don't think it ever will be easy. But I would never give it up. When I look at my kids and see them smile or laugh, or give me hugs and kisses just because, I know that I was chosen to be a mother. I may not know what career I want to do and I may not look like the skinny models or celebs that lose their baby weight in a couple of weeks, but I know for a fact that one of my purposes here on earth is to be a mom. It's draining in more ways than one, but when Adelaide walks up to me and says, "HUG!" in her cute little voice I just melt! I have days where I wonder how I can make it through and do this, and I get a warm feeling. I say a prayer to have strength to make it through the day and my Father in Heaven reassures me that I can do hard things.

Parker Brian Godell

I was due on November 17th. I was massive and determined to have him before my due date. At about 38 weeks is when I really started to try and get him out. I walked, drank water, bounced on a ball, pretty much everything you can do naturally I did. I even ate eggplant parm…again! It wasn't that bad the second time around. LOL 

Well my due date came and went. I had an appointment with my doctor the monday after my due date (sunday) for a non-stress test. Everything was good. He was just very happy in there. I had several contractions before then too, but they weren't ever consistent. So I just waited. It was really difficult. Apparently everyone and their mom was having babies in November. I was determined to go natural and not even get induced unless absolutely necessary. Well that changed when my due date passed. I was just ready to get him out. So at my appointment I asked for the earliest due date. After a few phone calls my induction date was set for Sunday the 24th at 6am. I was so excited! It was the wednesday past my due date (the 20th) when they called and told me. 

I decided to try one more thing to get him out on my own. I had been having small random contractions all day that day (20th). I'd read that nipple stimulation can jump start labor. It was pretty much the only thing I hadn't done. So, I pulled out my breast pump and used that for about 20 minutes. Well my contractions got stronger, but only while I pumped. Adelaide woke up from her nap so I stopped and figured I can wait until Sunday. Well, my contractions kept going on and off. But, I was also getting horrible upper thigh/groin cramps so it was hard to time the contractions. I told Michael that I was having contractions. Then they started to get a little more severe but stayed about 10 min apart give or take a few minutes. I just carried on my day until they got pretty painful. I called Mike and told him that he needed to come home from work. The hospital was about a 30 minute drive from our apartment and I told him I needed his help and support if I was going to do it natural. It was also kind of hard to do that with an 18 month old running around and pulling on me. So, of course, by the time he got home my contractions stopped. So we went on a walk for like an hour. And I had small contractions. So we went home and went on with our normal routine. We put Adelaide down for bed at about 8 and we sat down to watch some tv and relax.

I had felt horrible for making mike come home early from work because we really needed the money and it was clear this baby wasn't coming. I could see it in his eyes how sad he was that it wasn't the real thing. I finally just told him he couldn't look at me with his sad eyes anymore. LOL He was really sweet and understanding that I was pretty upset too. So he made us some dinner, leftovers. Yum. I ate something spicy and I started to have more contractions but very small ones. So I started to bounce on my ball. Well after about 30 minutes of that I started to time the contractions because they seemed close and really painful. They turned out to be about 3 minutes apart, lasting a minute. 

Mike immediately jumped into daddy mode when I told him. He was so excited. I told him to relax and just help me and rub my back and stuff. He kept telling me we needed to call my mom to come stay with Adelaide. I kept saying no, that I didn't want to go to the hospital yet. So we just stayed at the house and I walked the house and bounced on my ball. Steele, our dog, was really sweet and was at my side most of the time. I told Mike this was it and I wanted to go to the hospital. 

So, we called my mom, no answer. We then frantically started calling EVERYONE in my family a million times each. Finally we got my sister and asked her if she could come stay with Adelaide until we got a hold of my mom. We eventually got a hold of my mom and she sent my dad over with Aaron. By that time my contractions were about 2 min apart and lasted a minute long. So we got in the car and mike went 90 pretty much the whole way. He was so excited because he even used his flashers. LOL We made a 30 minute drive in about 15-20 minutes. I was grateful for that because I was having a really hard time. Mike kept saying, "do you want some ice," "how about the music? is this song okay?" It was cute. We made it to the hospital and on our way in I lost my mucus plug (sorry if TMI). That was nasty. So I stopped in the bathroom on my way up to labor and delivery. We had the hospital cop wait outside the door because Mike came in with me. It was really nice. I think he thought I was going to have the baby in the bathroom. LOL 

So we get to labor and delivery and the lady at the front desk is taking FOREVER!!!! She sent me through the all so familiar double doors and those ladies at that desk took my paperwork and told me to go in the waiting room because they didn't have any clean rooms yet. They said it would take about 15 minutes. I almost screamed at them. Instead I just scoffed and walked out, clearly letting them know I was very irritated. 

Mike and I walked the stupid waiting room for about 20 minutes. That was horrible but it helped me progress. And some nurse made nasty microwave ramen and i thought I was going to puke because it smelled so bad. She just smiled at me, I glared at her. 

So they finally took me back to check me. My contractions were a minute and a half apart and lasted a minute. So my break window was very short. So I got in the ugly hospital gown and the lady asked me a ton of questions and then decided she should probably check my progress. Mind you, this was all the pre stuff. This was to see if I was actually in labor and they were going to keep me there. So the nurse goes to check me really fast and is not gentle. I was like "ow that hurts", and she was like okay and kept going. Mike says she had very small hands so she had to go pretty far up there. I got pretty mad at her. I yelled at her telling her that what she was doing hurt super bad. And she said, "I'm sorry I'm not trying to hurt you." I said, "REALLY?! ARE YOU SURE?!" Yeah, after she finished and told me I was already 5 cm dilated I felt kind of bad and started crying and frantically apologizing to her. It was funny now that I think about it. 

By this point I was having a hard time controlling my body. I was shaking uncontrollably and my blood pressure was kinda crazy because I kind of had a couple of mini panic attacks. I would have trouble breathing and mike would come over, look me in the eye, and tell me to just breathe through it. He was my rock through the whole thing. He helped me so much. I honestly don't know what I would've done without him. He was amazing.

So they admitted me. I got the epidural to help me relax as soon as I got in the room. That took forever because the guy was really slow since Mike told him about my horrible experience last time. Suddenly I felt very robotic. Everything sounded weird and I kept telling him. The guy was like, that can sometimes happen, it will go away in a couple of minutes. That epidural experience was way better than my first. 

Well after a couple of hours it started to wear off and I was feeling a ton of pressure. So the nurse checked me and I was at a 7. My water broke a few minutes after she left the room. That was interesting. I forgot what that felt like. LOL After that she continued to check me and encouraged me to try and get some sleep. I tried that but my stupid spicy dinner I ate was giving me awful heartburn. Like I couldn't lay down at all because I was coughing up acid. And I wasn't allowed to drink or eat anything to help that. The nurse eventually gave me this medicine I could drink to help. It was pretty much the grossest thing ever and only worked for 10 minutes. At about 2:50am on the 21st, the nurse told me I was complete and that she wanted me to push so she could gage how the pushing would go. I did quite a bit of pushing for her and got him down pretty far. About 20 min later the doctor came in and helped me finish pushing him out. We did find out when my water broke that he pooped in the womb and may have swallowed some (just like Adelaide). They weren't very concerned. So after a few more pushed I got his head out and I noticed he was really blue and not making any noise. The cord was wrapped around his neck twice. So the doctor very calmly unwrapped it and I pushed the rest of him out and he suctioned parker and gave him a good pat. What seemed like forever Parker didn't make any noise and didn't move. It was probably really only a minute or two he finally wailed and moved. I was pretty relieved. Mike even got to cut the cord. (: 

And the rest is history. I did have a hard time getting the placenta out, but we were good after about 15 minutes. After Parker was assessed and everything they gave him back to me and pretty much let us be after the doctor finished with me. It was awesome. The nurses were great and brought me some juice and crackers right away. I did skin-to-skin first with Parker and then I fed him. He latched on right away and did really good. They took us to our room where we would be staying and told me I couldn't shower until I had peed 3 times. I was like dang!!! But, I was pretty much doing it by myself as soon as I pushed him out. I didn't need much help from the nurses. I only peed myself once too!!! 

We are very blessed with a healthy boy. He is such a sweet spirit and we are so happy he is part of our family. We love him soooo much! 

Overall this experience was great. We had wonderful nurses the whole time, my ob-gyn was amazing, and the food wasn't half bad. There was a woman in the room next to us who had a very fussy baby. So we didn't get much sleep with that baby screaming all the time. I missed Adelaide terribly so she came to visit us the next night. She was a little skeptical of him and wasn't really sure about him. She didn't quite understand that he was coming home with us. 

He is growing and getting so big. He is still a little jaundice but his pediatrician said that it isn't anything to be worried about. He is really healthy and growing normally. (:

Happy Holidays

Wow, it really has been a long time since I last posted. So much has happened. We have had a pretty crazy few months. To start, we moved back to Georgia. We lived with my parents for a couple of months until we found an apartment. Mike worked for his step-dad doing golf ball recovery. He traveled quite a bit. We usually only saw him on weekends and then sometimes he would be gone for 2 weeks. It was pretty rough. We finally found an apartment/townhome for pretty cheap and jumped on it as soon as we could. It's a 2 bedroom/2 bath. So it's pretty spacious. We really like it. Mike quit with his step-dad to get a more stable job. He now works for GBR Funding, which is a lot like Capital Access Network (the company he worked for before we moved to Idaho). He makes pretty good money. We are very blessed that he got that job when he did. I started to work for a transcription company to make some side money. I really enjoy it.
Adelaide is growing and growing…well kind of. We took her for her 18 month check-up about a week ago and they said she was very underweight. Go figure. LOL She weighs 20 lbs and is 34 in tall. So she is a bit petite. But, in my defense she is a super picky eater. The doctor gave me some tips on how to help her eat and told me to put her on Pediasure and vitamins. Well I don't have a ton of extra money every month and Pediasure is rather expensive. So right now we are working with her on eating better and I bought her some vitamins. She is a very active little girl. She loves to play outside. And since we live in Georgia and it has rained 90% of the time we have been here she has started to really like puddles. She pretty much jumps in all the puddles at least twice when we go to the car or anywhere for that matter. She loves to color and help me cook. Pretty sure her favorite person is cousin Jace. Her face lights up whenever she sees him. They have become very good friends. Outside of Jace, Uncle Blake is probably her favorite "grown-up." They cuddle and play together a lot. It's pretty cute. I can't believe how big she is now. She talks a ton, but most of the time I don't understand what she says. She knows a lot of words but usually to get my attention she just screams/whines at me. That's fun. Needless to say I've learned a lot of patience lately. She also likes to hit and scream when she doesn't get what she wants. She can be kind of destructive, so we have been working on that too.
We have a new addition. As of November 21st, we welcomed our son Parker Brian Godell. He weighed 8lbs 5oz and was 20 inches long. I will write his birth story in a different post. He is such a sweetheart. I was deathly afraid that since Adelaide was such a good baby that Parker would be way more active and crazy. I was wrong. He is just like Adelaide. He is super chill and adorable! He even cries like her. LOL He is growing too fast already. He is a little over a month old and just as cute as can be. He now weighs 11lbs and grew a couple of inches. He smiles sometimes and loves to be wrapped in his blanket with his arms out. He is also a cuddler. He loves to cuddle and just be held. We just adore him. Adelaide is a great big sister. She always tries to calm him down when he's crying and she likes to help feed him a bottle. We are very lucky to have such wonderful children.
I can't believe tomorrow is Christmas. It's crazy how fast this year went. Mike has an interview in St. Louis for a line job in January. We are hoping it goes well and he gets hired. We would like to end up there. This job will be good for us.
We recently traded our beautiful Tammy the Tundra for a VW GTI. The payments on the truck were a little too high and with insurance and gas we were spending over our budget on it. So, we traded it in. We got a great deal on the VW and love it. It gets great gas mileage and it's room enough for all four of us if we need to us it.
Anyway, until next time. Sorry it took so long. I'm sure I will update again in a couple of months about the holidays.

So much going on...!!!

I seriously didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted. I kept thinking that I should put up a blog post but just putting it on the back burner. A ton has been going on lately.
Mike started the CDL school back in May and then finished in June! Wahoo! He has an official CDL drivers license in the state of Idaho! It was a long 6 weeks too. We rarely got to see each other but I appreciate everything he did. It's been rough but we made it through! He applied for a job in St. Louis and then got an interview scheduled for January of 2014. It's a little far and not really what we were hoping for but it doesnt seem that anyone is really hiring right now. We've looked at a few places here and there for him to get a second job or even for me to get a job and it's been really difficult finding something to work with his schedule.
I am doing well in my classes this semester and can't wait for it to be over. I am getting worn out by all of the homework and projects. Thankfully after this semester I don't go back until next January, so I have a break to prepare for our next baby. (:
We found out a couple of weeks ago that we are having a boy! We are very excited and can't wait to meet baby #2 in November. We have a name picked out but have decided not to reveal it until he is born. (: Hopefully, I can keep it a secret for that long!
While all this has been happening we have been deliberating about moving back to Georgia. We made a decision and felt it would be best for us right now. We aren't making enough money out here and are having trouble finding jobs. Along with that we are accruing a lot of debt, which always stinks. There isn't anyone here that is hiring for Linework and we don't really want to be in Idaho for that. We aren't sure where our permanent habitat will be, but for now we will move back to Georgia and make a good income and pay off some debt while still going to school. BYU-I has a new program that we are going to try and hopefully make work. Mike already has a good job, and I have a prospect. Georgia is a good location to be for possible line work options and being able to move from there is cheaper than moving from here. We felt its a good thing for us and are very excited to be with family and to get a little financially stable in the mean time. We are still looking for a place to stay, so if you know of anything tell us! We are limited on time and money considering we are moving across the country, but nonetheless very excited.
We had a pretty good Independence day celebration. We just had a few friends over and bbq'd hot dogs. Mike worked a very very long shift, so for the first half of the morning him and Adelaide slept. (: Which was actually good because I got a good bit of homework done.
I'm not sure the next time I will post, BUT until next time.....

A Little Catching Up To Do

Wow, I just realized today that it has been quite awhile since I have blogged! We have been sooooo busy lately, its ridiculous. Winter semester finally ended, I ended up with 3 B's, 1 A, and 1 C. BOO! Stupid classes! I vowed to at least get all Bs for spring semester. So after the winter semester ended we had a nice week break. Then Michael's grandmother, Nana, came into town. Her and Adelaide share the same birthday so it was a really special time. We had a lot of fun. We celebrated two birthdays in one and had a blast! We had a good ole fashion Polish dinner which consisted of Borscht (basically beet soup), pierogies (kinda like dumplings), kielbasa, chocolate bread (it's really just pumpernickel bread), and cake (for the birthdays of course)! It was pretty delicious. I know beet soup sounds really disgusting but I have to admit it grows on ya. I really like it now. We had a blast with Adelaide opening presents. For some reason towards the end of the day she got really really cranky and wouldn't let anyone but me touch her or hold her. So alot of the pictures are me and her.

By far my favorite picture ever! she loved playing with the maracas and the bells...she went CRAZY!

Nana's birthday present, it's a Willowtree couple dancing and Canon in D Major Plays on it.

Nana's cake...we forgot to take a picture of it before all of the candles...LOL

She has grown so much! I got a little teary-eyed later on that night when I realized that a whole year ago I pushed her out of me! It was an amazing experience and I love her sooo much! It really makes me appreciate my mother. I don't think anyone really understands what it takes to be a mom until they actually do it. It's hard! But worth every minute. Adelaide is saying a few more words now and is practically walking. She just needs to learn how to stand up on her own and she will have it down. She gives kisses and lovies to anything and everything...when she wants. She is such a blessing and I would happily do it again. Which reminds me, we're pregnant again!!! YAY!!!

I am about 13 weeks and going strong. For some reason I feel like it's a boy, so instead of calling the baby "it," I call it "him." LOL I had a dream it would be a girl but I just feel strongly that it's a boy. I have been sick since about 7 weeks and man thats rough. I have to constantly eat or I will throw up, which is weird because I have lost 5lbs so far. Everything seems to be going really well, I have another appointment on monday. We will probably found out that he is a boy at the end of June, it's just kind of how my appointments are lining up. But we are super excited and glad to bring another child into this world. I hope Adelaide will be okay with it. (;
I am in full swing of spring semester. I am taking 12 credits and so far doing pretty good. I mean it's only been about 3 weeks so everyone is doing great at that point. I have almost all online classes so it's really difficult. I have a lot of work and little time to do it. For the first couple of weeks Mike didn't have anything but work so he was able to spend more time with Adelaide. But he has started his CDL schooling and is really only home for about 10 minutes before he has to leave again. His CDL school starts at 7:30am and it's in IF, so he leaves pretty early. He gets home from that at about 4pm and then promptly has to leave for work about 15 minutes later. He doesn't get home from work until about 1am. So like I said, he is home for about 10 minutes. I usually keep Adelaide awake until he gets home so he can see her but by that time she is ready for a nap and is super cranky. So he usually just says hi and then puts her down for a nap. He is working really really hard and I appreciate it so much. As hard as it is on me, I'm sure it's twice as hard for him. He is a great man and I am lucky to have him! I spend a lot of time cleaning, cooking, taking care of Addi, and doing homework. Mike's CDL class only lasts for 6 weeks and we get him on the weekends so hopefully it'll go by really fast. After he finishes that he will apply for linework jobs here and there. Whether or not he gets one quickly depends on if in the meantime he will drive a truck around here for a little bit.
This past weekend Patrick and Julia moved out. So we have been spending ALOT of time moving things around and cleaning the apartment. They moved right across the street and are in a different ward, but they go to the same building so we will still see them.
Anyway, until next time..which hopefully isn't too long..have a great day!