Evan is One!

My tiny baby Evan is no longer a tiny baby. He is a walking, baby talking, full of personality, one-year-old. It seriously seems like yesterday that we were bringing our tiny 6 lbs baby boy home from the hospital. He has added so much joy to our family, and it's impossible to remember what life was like before he joined us. Evan is a fireball of personality. He is feisty, but also so sweet and gentle, and he definitely holds his own with Curtis (although most of the time Curtis is a super sweet brother). Evan is such a loving boy, and we are so blessed to have him with us. 

May 2013

More pictures below....

Evan the Baby

My little Evan the Baby is growing up so fast. He is 9 months as of Sunday, and I swear he changes every day. It has been so fun to have another little boy in our family. Evan's personality is really starting to show, and I like to call him my little drama baby. He is so happy and mellow and mild-tempered...most of the time. Just watch out when he's angry because this boy can throw a fit. He has the loudest scream ever. It is cute right now but I have a feeling this baby is going to give me a run for my money over the next few years. :)

Even though he knows how to throw a fit, Evan really is a very happy baby. He is always smiling and laughing, playing and interacting. Evan is very observant of people. He really looks and sees things. He is also so much snugglier than Curtis was as a a baby, and I am soaking in every cuddly minute. 

Evan is fully crawling these days (has been for about three weeks), and he is pulling to standing. He hasn't quite figured out how to stand on his own and balance yet, but I'm certainly in no rush for him to walk. I'll happily keep my baby for as long as possible. Evan loves to feed himself, which makes mealtimes a bit difficult. He is also a much pickier eater than Curtis was. He loves veggies much more than fruit, which is also different than I expected. I am still nursing Evan and hope to continue at least 3 more months. It has been much easier to keep it up than it was with Curtis because I am home basically full-time. I worked a lot more when Curtis was a baby. 

Evan hasn't been a very good sleeper, well at least compared to super-sleeper-baby Curtis. Evan is finally sleeping through the night (about 7:30pm-6am). He'll usually go back to sleep until 8am, then he naps again at 10am. I'm finally feeling like a normal person again. Ha! 

Evan loves his brother. He always gets the biggest smile on his face when Curtis comes in the room, and no one can make him laugh like Curtis can. I love seeing them together! 

I find it really difficult to put my feelings about my kids into words. This morning as I held Evan before his nap, he fell asleep in my arms, and I was completely overwhelmed with love for him. There truly are not words to describe what a mother's love is like. I live for my babies. They have completely changed my life. There's just nothing like it in the world. Nothing in my life has been as rewarding as having and holding and loving and raising my babies. Life is good. 

Catch Up

Where have the last five months gone?

I have been a horrible blogger, which truthfully wouldn't be so bad if I were at least keeping another journal of any kind. But since this blog is currently my one journal I am feeling anxious to record things from the past five months. Admittedly I also feel guilty that I haven't written anything about little Evan. He has been such an incredible addition to our family. 

I'd like to give brief catch-up paragraphs on each of us, so I'll start with Mike, and work my way to Evan. 

Mike is still working at Fidelity and loving it. He started a new position a few weeks ago and is studying hard for another licensing test. He is currently the elders quorum secretary in our ward, and a YSA adviser with me. He is such an awesome father to our boys. 

I am mommy-ing it to the max lately. I finally feel like life with two kids is normal. I decided to stay home (almost) full-time this year...and extremely grateful I have the option to do that. I'm teaching super part-time a couple nights a week when Mike can be home with the boys. It has been so nice not dealing with babysitters and daycare. I'm staying busy with small house projects, laundry, dishes, errands, playdates, joy school, potty training, trips to the library, reading, cleaning, hanging with new friends, and loving my boys. Life is good! Our new ward is awesome, and I have already made some great friends. 

Curtis is getting so big! He turned 3 a few months ago and ever since I feel like he's growing up and changing every day. We are (literally) currently working on potty training. I haven't been ready to focus on it until recently. He is doing very well, and I just need to stick with it through the occasional accidents. He is loving his new "joy school" group. There are 5 boys and we meet once a week for a couple hours. We rotate homes and take turns with the lessons. It's been really fun for Curtis to socialize with several other kids more often than just during nursery on Sunday. Curtis is speaking very well and every day I am surprised to hear him speak new words and sentences. He is coordinated and clever, tender and sensitive, and 100% boy. He loves to dance and I am wishing I would have put him in a creative movement class this year. But we have our own "dance" days and have a blast. I'll have to post some videos of his creative moves :). 

Evan is a sweetheart. He is a completely different baby than Curtis was; harder and easier in some ways. He is not a great sleeper compared to Curtis, but he sleeps 6-8 hours, eats, then sleeps 2-3 more. I really can't complain, but compared to Curtis (who slept 10-14 hours by now) I feel like I'm still not getting great sleep. Evan is much more "needy" than Curtis was. He is almost always perfectly content when he's being held, and doesn't last long doing anything else. I've loved using my Moby wrap this time around, and wear it at least 2  times every day for a couple hours each time. I was searching for a soft structure carrier that was easier when out on errands and we ended up getting an Ergobaby carrier. I am obsessed with it. Seriously the best investment we've made in a long time. But anyways, Evan is a very snugly baby and he loves to talk. He is very observant of people and loves to look everyone in the eye. He is very good at focusing. I am seriously obsessed with this boy. He is such a beautiful baby with his long hair and big eyes. He is a total momma's boy, and I don't mind at all :). I'm so grateful to have him in our family. 

And there you have it for now. My sweet snugly boy is crying to be held....gotta go. 

Labor and Delivery

My pregnancy with Evan was much different than with Curtis. Besides having 3 previous miscarriages, I had gallbladder issues that were most likely caused by basically being pregnant for 2 years straight. I also took progesterone supplements at the beginning of this pregnancy. Increased hormones can be causes of gallstones and gallbladder problems. On top of the gallbladder issues I had elevated liver enzymes and bile acids, and periodic itching of my hands and feet. These things are called cholestasis of pregnancy, and have the potential to cause stillborn babies. 

So, a few weeks ago after another itching episode I asked to have my bile acids tested. Before this time I had been tested for elevated liver enzymes but not for the bile acids (which is the main indicator of cholestasis). The levels came back higher than normal (although not incredibly high). I was referred to see maternal fetal medicine at the hospital, where an ultrasound showed Evan was measuring quite small (although I think this is because my dates were off) and they confirmed that they wanted me to deliver at 37 weeks due to the increased risk of having a stillborn baby in the final weeks. 

After having Curtis I was excited and set on an unmedicated delivery. Knowing I would be induced was very disheartening as inducing labor makes the contractions stronger and (supposedly) more painful. I decided I'd see how things went. 

On top of all of this we were in the middle of a house renovation that was already taking every waking minute of our time trying to get it finished in time for the original due date of May 30th. Needless to say I was  extremely stressed. Instead of 5 weeks we now had only 2. I'll go into more detail when I write about the renovation, but I have to say that we were so blessed with family and friends who helped us so much. We could never have been ready in time if it weren't for them. 

So, the night of May 8th we worked all day and were up till 2am re-installing baseboards, cleaning, and packing for the hospital. We were up at 5:30am to get to the hospital by 7am. 

Thursday May 9, 2013

We checked into labor and delivery at American Fork Hospital at 7am and were shown right to the delivery room. I changed into the lovely hospital gown and we got started on paperwork and the IV. The nurse who did the IV put it in my hand (I should have been more outspoken about it) so I ended up asking for it to be moved to my arm. Our nurse's name was Mary Ellen and she was awesome. She was with us the whole delivery. The midwife on call was Claudia, and I was glad because she is one of my favorites at the clinic. She was also with me most of the day, and helped a ton with the laboring. 

They started pitocin around 8:30am and contractions started soon after. The worst part for the first few hours was having to use the restroom every 20 minutes with all the cords attached to me. So annoying. Soon after contractions began they inserted a little balloon thing to help me dilate and progress faster. It was definitely unpleasant. A couple hours later I had progressed to about a 5 and my contractions were much stronger at this point. I decided to continue without medication. 

My mom came around 1pm and labor continued to progress. Claudia helped Mike and my mom find good pressure points to help relieve back pain. Several hours passed but it honestly felt much quicker than that. I was able to get in a good position for most of that time and somehow found a way to relax and breathe through the contractions. It was actually pretty hypnotic at times. 

A while later Claudia checked my progress and discovered that baby had an arm on top of his head that was preventing him from descending. She tried to move it out of the way (which was by far the most painful part of this delivery) but he wouldn't budge. I tried different positions but he still wasn't moving his arm out of the way, and I started to lose focus at that point. Labor was extremely painful at this point and I finally understood why women are always screaming in the movies when they have babies. It hurt! Claudia then called the OB on call to come see if he could move the arm out of the way. Again, this was the most painful part of the whole thing. After the baby still wouldn't move his arm, and somewhere in the midst of most likely passing through transition I got an epidural because there was a chance I would need a c-section if we couldn't get the arm to move. 

I finally felt some relief with the epidural, and was grateful it wasn't as strong as the one I had with Curtis. I was still able to feel contractions and pressure. 

Literally 30 minutes later (maybe sooner) I felt a lot of pressure and change. Baby had crowned, his hand had moved, and he was ready to come. Another 20-30 minutes later and he was in my arms. Mike assisted Claudia the whole time, caught baby when he came out, and cut the cord. It was such an amazing experience! Baby came right to me and got to stay there for a good amount of time. It was heaven holding my new tiny boy, and I was so grateful I was able to have the birth experience I was hoping for. 

Evan Mark Kitto

5lbs 9oz

Things to remember...

-Things were so much less "rushed" with this birth. The nurse and midwife were calm, helpful, and made us all feel comfortable. Things were allowed to progress as they should. I didn't have to have any stitches and recover was so much faster this time.
-Even though I had an epidural at the end, I still feel like I've experienced a natural birth. I'm excited to do it again.
-Evan was so tiny!
-Nursing was still difficult the first 24 hours, but he caught on quickly and is a pro.
-We had much fewer visitors than we had with Curtis, but it was a blessing to have more alone time with my little family.
-Curtis loved seeing his new brother (although the excitement wore off for a few days after).
-After staring at Evan so much, Curtis seemed so grown up and so big.
-We took Evan to the nursery for both nights we were there. We decided it would be best to get some sleep after basically pulling an all-nighter the night before. When we had Curtis I stayed up all night and held him, worried he would stop breathing.
-We wanted to leave after 24 hours but Evan's blood sugar wasn't consistent enough for us to leave. 

Evan Mark Kitto

He's Here!

Evan Mark Kitto

May 9th, 2013

5 lbs 9 oz
17" long
Born 5:04pm

Feeling very blessed to have this angel boy here!