A Day Of Smiles

It's funny that now I have a baby all of a sudden my life & updates are all about him!  I can't help it. Babies are the most adorable things on earth, and in my eyes, especially Tommy! We spend so much time smiling at each other & today was no exception! Here he is just after waking up this morning (his happiest time of day). My sister-in-law Becky made this adorable little sleep sack for him.

And here is his usual smile, a big huge open mouth silent laugh. Vic & I are so in love with it! 

Bathtime is non-stop kicking his legs like crazy. I can't decide if he thinks it is fun to splash or if he likes the squeeky noise his feet make against the foam. I feel like I need to put a towel down there so he won't bruise his heels. He loves the feel of water running over him. Every time I take a bowl of water & pour it over him he smiles in delight.

My mom bought him this cute little monkey outfit & here he is with the matching toy. I keep trying to make him hold this little blanket monkey & a fuzzy lion rattle, but he doesn't have any interest in either yet! ...mainly just trying to suck his fingers. I pull them out every time I see it & replace it with the binky, but sometimes he'll spit that right out & shove his fingers back in. Aaah! I don't want him to be like me & suck his fingers until age 8! 

A Breath Of Fresh Air

What do I love more than skittles, food, & clothes?..... ADORABLE visitors! My good friend Heather came to see me last week & it was so much fun. I've never dared to take Tommy outside yet, but Heather wanted to go on a walk since this side of the state is so much warmer so we did our first outing & it felt so good to get outside. Makes me realize what cabin fever I had! I need to get out in the fresh air even with a newborn!  We live right by the temple so we walked up to it. Here she is with her 2 cute kids.

Here's a picture I snapped. It's so pretty it looks fake!

Elli is exactly one year older than Tommy. Look how big he is compared to her!!!  

He is above the 95% line for height.

Here is Tommy snuggled up safely under my giant prego coat. Who knew I'd get so much use out of buying an extra huge coat :)

...and here is an upclose of him in his carrier.

Relief Society Dinner

I am the relief society enrichment leader & since it is Valentine's Day this month I hosted a "romantic dinner" at my house & explained all of the elements that need to be there to host a super romantic dinner for our husbands. Then we all went around & shared something our husbands have done to be romantic. I was so impressed with everyone's spouses! It was a lot of great stories & laughs, plus I must say my dinner turned out pretty good too :) Here is a shot of everyone right after dessert.

And here is the dessert. Mine was a little sloppy looking cuz after making 30 I didn't care what mine looked like.

Tommy's Blessing & Newborn Pictures

Tommy was blessed on Sunday. Here he is in his little church outfit. The tie is a little big, but it was better than the tiny one that came with the outfit. It made him look like "fat man in a little tie!"

Here is half the crew that came to support him: Our good friends the McCrackens up front, Vic's family, & not pictures was my mom & sister.

Trish made this cute french bread loaf. Isn't it so creative!

AND NOW... TOMMY'S NEWBORN PICTURES!!!

Smile

Tommy's new thing is SMILING! It is so much fun :) Vic likes to pretend to eat his hand so here is Tommy pulling his hand away. Tommy is probably the only one that will ever smile when I start singing to him!

1st outings & birthday

I can't believe it has been a month since little Tommy arrived! I swear I could still spend all day just staring at him & how adorable he is. I started work this week & I hate it. I don't mind working at all, but I hate being away from my sweet baby & worrying about if he is getting as much love as if I was taking care of him. Thankfully my mom was here for the 1st week. Here he is at one month practicing his tummy time. He hates it!

I never got a picture posted of our nursery so I thought I'd finally get around to it!! Our friend's dad made the crib & my dad made the changing table & circles on the wall. Then I sewed the curtains to match the set I bought.

My little sister, Katie, is on the ISU Bengal dance team & they went to nationals this week so we drove over to see their performance before they went. Here is Tommy in his cute little ISU shirt Katie bought for him.

Vic turned 30 this week.  I wanted to do something bigger for it so I planned a weekend at Island Park with our friends & everything fell through at the last minute so I had to quickly plan a family party.  Vic loves his family so he was still happy with his party.  He loves Sizzler so he drug his entire family in. It was a fun night of food & games.  This was Tommy's 2nd outing & he did great!

A Very Merry Christmas

We stayed home for Christmas again & I love having our own little Christmas. It's so nice to not have to haul our presents all over :) We stayed in Twin on Christmas & then got to go to SLC the day after. I'll have to post pictures of that later since I broke my camera cord. :( We were running behind for Christmas lunch so Vic only let us take one family picture & luckily it ended up turning out pretty good!

I don't have many pictures of Tommy & us, but I sure love this one with Vic. Both look so charming in their red sweaters :)

Then I decided to set up my own little photo shoot with Tommy for his 1st Christmas.

He's so good at having his eyes wide open!

And here he is in his "1st Christmas" stocking. He barely fit in there with his wide little chest.

He wouldn't hold up his head very good, but he looked so handsome & grown up in this cute white shirt.

I hope you all had a MERRY Christmas!! Love ya!

Tommy is here!!!

Payton Tommy Sutherland

December 13, 2009

8 pounds 3 oz

21.5 inches long

22 1/2 hour labor of love!

Above is the 1st sight I had of Tommy. They didn't give him to me until 10 minutes after he was born, but he was sure cute with eyes wide open! Below is when he's almost a day old right before we left the hospital. He loves sucking on his lower lip or fist.
I never did get a picture of just the two of us in the hospital! So this is our 1st one together. He's a day old. Notice how huge his hands are. I can't get over how long his fingers & toes are!! The first thing his baby doctor commented on was the "skis" he had on as feet! Hopefully that means he'll be a tall basketball player :)

Here is a picture I took of him tonight. This is how he looks most of the time. He is always so peaceful & sleeping. So far he's a great baby :)

My Dad & Lana were his first visitors. They were life savers & brought Vic & I dinner too. I was starving after not eating & being away for so long!


I was so glad that Katie was able to come with them too :) (my little sis)

Up next was Vic's parents. We didn't get a picture in the hospital, but they brought us dinner the next day at our house. We were supposed to stay another night in the hospital, but I insisted they let us go. I hate hospitals & couldn't wait to get home!!!

Vic's brother Roger & Jessica in the hospital. It was fun to see Roger so excited to meet little Tommy. He seemed just as excited as Vic did!

Then he brought his little girls by today to come say hi.
And now for my storyy....

After nine months of being pregnant I woke up on Saturday morning with what looked like my first little red stretch mark. That's when I decided I better have this baby today. I walked on my elliptical for an hour. Then when Victor got home I went and shoveled the whole neighborhoods sidewalks for two and half hours, then came home and took a bath and an hour later went into labor!

5pm Saturday night I started having contractions
9pm They started getting strong enough to have to breath through them
11pm I started crying through them
1am I thought I was going to die & needed an epidural ASAP
3am They finally got around to checking me to see what I was dilated to. I'd gone from nothing a few days earlier to a 4. I was pretty upset that the dang nurse took her sweet time while I was ready to pass out.
4am The anesthesiologist finally got there & relief came at 4:30
6:30am I'd been in labor for 13 1/2 hours so they broke my water to get me going faster
8:30am I dilated to an 8
10:30am I dilated to a 9 & the doctor told me I'd be ready to push in 30 minutes to an hour.
12:30pm I got the shakes & started vomiting tons & tons of water. The doctor really didn't care that I wanted to get the show on the road :(
2:30pm The doctor finally decided that I'd waited long enough at a 9 and my epidural was wearing off & I was dying so he gave me one drop of pitocin. (He wouldn't give any more because I only have 1 kidney)
3:30pm: I finally felt like I had to push & popped him out in 4 little pushes in 4 minutes!!!

So yes, we made it through safely, but boy was it WAY too long & THANK HEAVEN for EPIDURALS!!! The only bad part is that I pushed him out a little too fast & have a million stitches. I can't get up or down without help, but Vic of course is an amazing help. He has to leave tomorrow to take a final in Pocatello & my sweet Sis is driving over to take care of me while he's gone. Thank goodness!!!!

Pregnancy update

Okay, well.... not much happening! The Doc was going to induce me last Friday, but since my body wasn't doing anything he decided to wait. I don't mind waiting, it just seems SO much longer after I was counting on the 4th. Today they did a baby stress test & the baby looks good & my body seems to be handling it fine so no inducing, just waiting & seeing. He thinks the baby will come on Friday or Saturday. I sure hope so!!! Hopefully by then I'll be over my MONTH long cold too! Oh yes & for the gritty details (don't read if you don't want to know).... I'm effaced 80% & dilated to a 1.

Baby Showers

I have been showered in love!!! I've had a baby shower the last two weeks in a row & have just been absolutely spoiled. I am embarassed to say this, but often I feel very alone because I feel like I always am trying to reach out & show my love to others, but don't always feel that love in return. Having these baby showers has definitely proved me wrong. Tons of people showed up, gave me their support, love, well wishes, & were so generous with gifts. Our baby will be the best dressed little guy due to all of the love! For everyone that reads this.... THANK YOU! My mom did a shower in IF last weekend & the theme was "A Star is Born". She did a great job with the invites (I should've taken a picture now I think of it!) Then I have seen these candy buffets for a thank you box to guests so she drove over to Twin & we worked on them together. It was a lot of fun creating such a fun table. Here are the pictures:



We also had a "diaper raffle" where if people wanted to they could bring a bag of diapers & try to guess when the baby will be born. Whoever guesses closest will win a scentsy/Christmas/Mary Kay gift basket. (I'm excited to see who wins!) Anyway, my mom gave me this diaper cake for my bag of diapers (she had my step-sister, Amber make it). Isn't it SO cute?!

On Friday the 13th we went to this super fancy dinner/raffle/dance at the Canyon Crest. The lady that decorated did an amazing job. Every table had an umbrella sitting on broken glass with salt sprinkled on it. Plus every table was labeled "table 13". Then it was all decorated in black & red & every place setting had a superstitous tale or saying. It was really fun & elegant. Plus the band was good which is always a plus. The only bad part was that here I am the prego one in 3 inch heals & sore feet & had to be the one to drag Vic out on the dance floor! I swear he used to love it, but he swears he never liked it. Hmmm.... one of those fake covers while we were dating?!

I couldn't decide what to wear & Vic told me I should wear this little black dress that is really sparkly & elegant. I almost didn't because I didn't want to be overdressed, but I'm glad I did because there was tons of ladies there with their hair all fancy & wearing cocktail dresses. I've wanted to go to a party like this FOREVER! I guess we were just too cheap to pay for a dinner like this, but Vic's company paid for it :) :) Even better right?!

As for a prego update: My ribs feel like they are bruised and breaking 24/7 & now when the baby moves it hurts cuz he's so big. I used to love feeling him roll around in there. Now I just want to cry & sit with my heat pad all of the time. My lower back just throbs & I have pinched nerve on the right side that the Doc said will stay there until I have him. Because of all of this terrible discomfort I'm praying this little guy decided to come a little early!