Spring Time?

The first part of the video is SNOW and the rest is me bugging Kaleb about the snow :)

Tenley Jade

Since I did an update on the bubbas, I figured it was time for a little miss update as well...actually i haven't posted one on here since her birth so I am way behind, so this could get long! Our sweet little TJ just turned 5 months old, where has the time gone? My baby is growing so fast, I can't even keep up! When her brother was a baby, I was always looking forward to him growing and hitting new milestones...this time around I am in NO rush, and my heart breaks a little every time she does something new. She is certainly a fun little girl, and I just love this stage of babies! Ask me a few months ago and I might have tried to sell her to you :)

For the first 10-12 weeks of her life she was a difficult little diva! Seriously, everything that ever worked for Kaleb, DID NOT work for her! It was a little like learning to be a parent all over again, and the biggest thing I learned is that there is no golden rule to parenting, and my style has to adjust to each of my children's personalities. The hardest thing with her was the Colic, it's the worst feeling in the world to hear your baby cry for hours and absolutely everything you try doesn't help....it feels helpless. Many nights I would just hold her close and cry with her. There were a few nights where i would be driving around aimlessly at midnight with the radio cranked up and a screaming baby in the back seat. She would scream for hours and finally pass out, so I'd just let her sleep in the carseat. She also had some minor reflux issues, so I was getting zero sleep and zero dairy to help her reflux....sleep and dairy just happen to be 2 of my favorite things :) My sanity, along with Jareds was running very thin. Jared also worked long hours a lot at his new job, so adjusting to 2 kids alone was rough. I wished so badly that I could have someone just come and watch her even for a half hour, while I got some much needed rest, but living in a brand new state and knowing no one within a 6-8 drive left me feeling very lonely.

I would pray, she would cry, so I would pray harder and she would cry harder :) And on top of all that, I had a huge whopping pile of guilt on my heart, as I let Kaleb watch movie after movie while I tried to tend to his sister. Slowly, ever so slowly as the weeks passed she got a little better. I'd say about week 12 or so, she wasn't screaming her head off anymore for no reason. Loud does not describe her banshee scream, I am surprised the neighbors never called the cops...we do live in an apartment, so they had to hear her! I look back at those first difficult months now and I really am thankful for the experience. I learned a lot of love and patience that i never had to even think about before, and in those rare moments when she was quietly cuddling with me were pure bliss. I had this perfect baby girl, who I would do anything for and I've never felt so blessed!

I am happy to report that she is a happy, super energetic little squirt nowadays! Don't get me wrong, she still has some diva moments, but it's usually just when she is hungry or tired. She loves to smile and giggle, and NO ONE makes her laugh like her brother! I call her my little steamroller because she rolls all over the place! She drools likes no ones business, soaking through bibs and onesies like they're toilet paper! She loves to eat baby food, any baby food...and she makes yum yum noises the whole time she eats :) She is now sleeping about 6-7 hours after i put her down for bed, so I am no longer a zombie!! She is the sweetest most beautiful little string bean in the world!

We did run into one snag lately with her, she is now taking some formula...it's a super long story and this post is already long, but basically for reasons beyond my control, breastfeeding will be ending shortly. This was extremely heartbreaking for me and maybe it's because I had issues when I went back to work after having Kaleb that caused me to stop breastfeeding. I had this goal of getting to 1 year with Tenley, which is definitely not happening, so I was super depressed about it. I cried a lot, and bless my sweet husband, but as supportive as he is, I just felt like there was no way he could understand my pain and disappointment. At first I felt alone, I just wanted to go cry my eyes out to my mom or my sister and tell them all about it. So knowing I couldn't do that made me even more depressed, until finally I realized how stupid I was being. I got on my knees, poured my heart out to my heavenly father, and literally I instantly felt comforted and got the most clear message ever. I realized that putting expectations on myself like that weren't important, and that what is most important is just making sure my little girl was getting the nutrition she needed. It's funny, Tenley woke up from a nap right after this and she had this biggest grin on her face, I picked her up and she put her sweet little hand on my cheek and just smiled at me :) It was like she was telling me it's okay mom :)

She's been doing pretty good on the bottle and things are really good around here. I have 2 awesome kids and an amazing husband, who I love more than i could ever put into words! I feel so grateful and blessed for all they have given me!

Kaleb Joshua

My little big man will be 2 years old in June! since I haven't updated my blog in so long I figured I would write a bit about what this handsome ball of energy has been up to lately :) Kaleb was an amazingly perfect easy baby, so I think it was only natural for him to turn into a very rambunctious crazy wild toddler who keeps his mother permanently on her toes! He is constantly testing my patience and my limitations for him, but he brings so much fun and life into our lives I can't imagine it without him :) Everyday he does some to make me laugh so hard by sides hurt! His big milestones lately have been Nursery, which he did great in for the first couple weeks and then he decided it is the worst place in the world! Thank goodness for amazing nursery leaders who don't mind if he screams for 2 hours :) He is getting better each week, thankfully!

We've also had a rough few weeks with sleeping, again he did perfectly well at first, but I guess it just clicked that he can get out of bed and hag out with mom and dad all night. We had a lot of sleep deprived night fighting with him to go to sleep until Jared had the idea of putting Tenley back in our room(our closet actually, lol), so we could let him scream for a while in his own room. Miracles do happen people, because he has made HUGE strides this week! We went from 2 hours to 15 minutes to get him to sleep!

Kaleb is also starting to interact with his sister so much more! Granted that may mean chucking toys at her head, but hey? He seriously didn't know she existed for a few months, which is amazing considering how loud and often she screamed! He loves to give her toys to play with and he loves taking those toys away to make her mad, but seriously the best moments are when I find him sneaking a kiss on her head or hugging her when she sits in her bumbo. He also cries with her when she gets hurt, even if it was him who hurt her, he really is turning out to be a great big brother!

Kaleb is an amazing little man, and we absolutely love what he has brought to our family. He is growing up more and more everyday, and as much as it breaks my heart to see him be more independent, I am so proud and blessed to be his mother and get to watch him grow.

some Kaleb tidbits:

~he is still a daddy's boy through and through!

~he would watch disney movies all day if i let him

~he loves bubbles

~his jibberish is the cutest nonsense in the world!

~he never walks, only runs

~he turns everything into a gun,even balls and stuffed animals....i blame this on his father

~his blankie is his 2nd best friend, daddy is 1st

~he refuses most foods, but will eat dirt

~he loves anything with wheels, and he points to every car that passes when we go on walks

~he loves to play with legos and makes some pretty amazing designs!

~don't mess with his baby bear, or else!

~he loves to dance and has the best moves

~he loves brushing his teeth so much that he randomly takes me in the bathroom throughout the day so we can brush them again :)

~he hates sitting in the carts at the store!

~he knows how to use the dvd a little too well, i'll catch him rewinding his movies to make tv time last longer, ha!

~he is such a dare devil I am surprised we haven't had an ER trips yet...i blame this on his father

~he loves being outside

~he still calls me daddy on most days

~he has the cutest laugh in the world

~he gives the best kisses and hugs...i blame this on his father :)

Living in New Mexico

since everyone asks me how we're doing here and how we like New Mexico, I thought I'd share what it's been like here the last few months.

Rio Rancho is a suburb of Albuquerque, think of peoria or glendale, and thats pretty much what it's like. I'm not sure what the altitude is but it reminds me of high desert in Az, so the weather is significantly cooler here. We had quite a few snow days this winter actually, it was very neat! I didn't go out in it much just because we didn't really have the proper gear for the kids, and Tenley was still very small when we first moved here. The spring is pretty with all the trees starting to blossom but it is sooooooo windy!! The wind is evil and i hate it!

Our ward is pretty good, very diverse compared to where we came from, but i've met some great people so far. Jared works very long hours and it can be pretty stressful since they are really pushing to meet their completion date, but i think he is learning a lot and gaining good experience with this project. The jobsite is really close to our apartment too, so that has been wonderful!

Our apartment....well it's a pretty good size, but going from our house to this 2 bedroom place has been a HUGE adjustment! A[artment living sucks, and I am looking foward to leaving it behind! It works for our little family for now, but man does it suck going anywhere with the kids by myself, especially the grocery store! Actually everything with 2 small kids is a lot harder by myself, but i am learning tricks to help manage easier.

The first month or so here was very difficult for me. I think having a newborn and all the emotions of just giving birth made it worse, but it's very hard moving to a new place and not knowing one single person. I make it a goal to get out of the apartment with the kids as often as possible, but it is not easy. There's a great group of women in the ward that started a playgroup on Wednesdays, so wonderful!! Kaleb can get out some energy and I can get in some adult conversations :)

Jared and I have yet to go on a date or make it to the temple here, man was it nice having family around to babysit my kids! Kaleb does not do well with people he doesn't know and Tenley is tough to predict, so getting a Young Woman to watch them is pretty much out of the question. It's one thing to leave Grandma Tieman and Grandma Marble with crazy kids, but I'm not mean enough to do that to someone i don't know very well ;) Tenley is getting much better and starting to take a bottle, so I do see a date in our very near future :)

I try to be positive about living here, because there is really no point in being negative, but I feel like as soon as we are totally adjusted, we'll probably be moving :) It really is a nice little town and we've found some great things here....um, like Pizza 9, the best pizza ever!! As much as we miss our families and friends in Arizona, I think being here on our own has been a great experience for our little family and I'm thankful for all that I've learned in the past 5 months.

Tingley Beach

Saturday, the 24th we decided to take the kids on a picnic to Tingley Beach. It's a park by the zoo with a few fishing ponds and one pond just for the geese and ducks. Spring in Albuquerque is windy, extremely windy!! Like 30-50 mph winds kinda windy, it's ridiculous and i hate it! Tenley can't breathe in it and Kaleb refuses to walk because it blows him around so bad. So when it was just slightly breezy we decided to take advantage and go outside for once!

Kaleb loved walking around and feeding the ducks and geese with his dad. One of the geese stole a cracker right from his hands and i think it freaked him out a bit so Jared carried him for awhile. Tenley and I pretty much just hung out in the shade the whole time and watched the boys. It was a fun little afternoon and hopefully we'll be able to get outside a lot more now that the trees are all starting to blossom, it's very pretty and very unlike the springs in AZ. It would almost be perfect if not for the crazy winds!

the debut of little miss

Tenley Jade Tieman

8lbs 6oz

20.5 in

10/25/2011 8:54am

Our sweet little girl was born just 8 days before her due date, but I had been feeling ready for her arrival for sometime before that! I was at 3cm for a couple weeks, and had my membranes stripped on the 21st when I was now at 4cm(not the funnest experience). After that I had been feeling contractions on and off for a few days, but they just never got any stronger or closer together, so it was slightly frustrating but I knew it couldn't be too far off. Went for a few walks here and there, but mostly just tired me out!

Finally on Monday night around 11 or so I noticed the contractions were getting a little stronger, and I really hadn't been able to sleep much anyways so I waited a little bit longer and at midnight I decided I would start timing them. Well, I only recorded one, because about 12:15 my water broke while I was laying in bed. It was for sure a weird feeling, first a pop, and I swear it was like a popping sound even, and then a bunch of fluid. I woke Jared up and started for the bathroom, where I spent the next 5 minutes just constantly leaking....if you are grossed out by this, you may as well stop reading now :)

While I was chilling in the bathroom, Jared and my Mom grabbed the go bags and got ready to leave. I finally came out of the bathroom and started having much much stronger contractions...i was ready to go! We got Kaleb in the car and headed to my sisters to drop him off. On our way to the hospital I had contractions about 5 mins apart and they were really starting to hurt. Once we got there and up to OB Triage, they decided they needed to assess me to make sure that my water really had broken.....really,? I think it's humanly impossible to pee that much, and I was totally in labor anyways, by now my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart, hurting like a mother, I mean they were bad enough that while the lady was asking me a million questions I couldn't answer during a contraction because they hurt so bad. I don't even know how long we were there answering dumb questions, even tho we pre-registered, but finally we got to a room!

By now I was in serious serious pain, like pain i've never felt before, my entire body would shake kinda pain, and there was no position or any combination of breathing that made it easier to get through. It was all in my lower back too, I mean i could feel like pain of the contraction in my abdomen area, but my back hurt so bad that's all i could think of. I couldn't get my epidural until i had one bag of the IV through my system first, so I just stared at that dang bag hoping my evil glares would speed up the process!! At this point I felt like I was being a wimp, because we really hadn't been at the hospital very long, maybe a couple hours at the most. When the IV went through, the anesthesiologist was in my room, getting me ready to go...I had more than one contraction while he was working his magic and hearing the words 'hold as still as you can' during the worst pain of your life was pretty comical, but i did my best....I think i probably squeezed that poor nurses shoulders a little too tight during them. It took a little while for the medicine to kick in and when it did I could still feel significant amounts of pain, so I guess he upped my dosage.

Oh yah, and after the epidural the nurse checked my cervix and I was 9cm dilated!!! Seriously?! I progressed super fast, so no wonder I was in a hellish amount of pain...who knew? Lol, but seriously i felt much better about not being wimpy after she told me that. Here's where things slowed down considerably....it took a little while to get to 10cm and when I did, little miss Tenley was positioned a little crooked behind my pelvic bone. The doctor said that her head was hitting the 'corner' of my pelvis, which turns out to be slightly crooked on one side anyways. He thinks thats why my babies have such a hard time coming down further, that combined with their bigger than normal sized noggins. He said my pelvic bones have plenty of room for them, it's just a matter of getting them 'around the bend'. So yah, he tells me we need to have the epidural wear off so that i will feel the contractions more, which will help my body labor down. HOLY PRESSURE batman, that was awful! Every contraction felt like the baby was gonna shoot out, but they tell me that I can't push yet because the pressure i'm feeling is her head trying to push around that bone, which she hadn't quite accomplished yet. This was super agonizing, waiting, and waiting, and waiting.....

My poor doctor knew about my last experience with labor, so i think he was afraid to even use the word vacuum in front of me :) He did finally bring it up and assured me that she was pretty low, he just wanted to use it to see if he could guide her head around the bone, and he promised no crazy pulling :) He kept his word, and after a few good pushes, she was OUT! The nurses took her right away, she had a bunch of gunk in her lungs so she took a little while to cry, but man does she have a set of lungs!! The doctor kept giving the nurses a hard time for taking so long, but finally i got to hold her and it was the best feeling ever!

I just remember being so physically exhausted when i had Kaleb and I was so out of it by the time I had him that I don't really remember much of our first cuddle session. I remember he was beautiful and it was so peaceful laying with him, but that's about it :) This time around I was still way tired but much more alert, and looking at that sweet baby girl on my chest was a little bit of heaven. I also think that the fact that she was my second child and I knew exactly what we were in for made me more emotional. I mean I have this wonderful son who I love more than the world, and now I'm holding a sweet baby girl who will have the same effect on us as parents. It's a pretty cool feeling people.

We are just so in love with this little girl and she is the perfect addition to our growing family.

patiently waiting i guess

Quick little update on Baby Tieman numero 2.....she is still cooking! I am So ready for this little girls arrival, but I guess she is not :)
Ever since my last Dr's appointment I have been having lots of contractions. They are even pretty consistent, but they are just not getting any stronger or closer together, so I know going to the hospital would be a waste! Especially since the doc said if I did go they would probably keep me there since I am already dilated to 4cm. Then if I didn't progress they would end up breaking my water for me or putting me on pitocin...yuck! I really want things to happen on their own, so i'm waiting until labor really hits to go in.
Because of all the contractions, I haven't been getting much sleep at all, so I have been trying plenty of 'natural' labor inducers....WALKING sucks! Seriously it's a chore, and i don't think it's helping either...i just get really tired after we get back home! Nothing else has kick started anything either, so I'm thinking it'll happen when it happens and thats that :)
I can't wait till she gets here, I'm so excited to see that little face and get to be done being hugely pregnant. I'm not a big complainer but being this pregnant with Kaleb was much much easier...Jared says it's because girls are a pain :)
Hopefully my next post will be full of hospital pictures and a cute little baby girl!!!