Half Birthday

I can't believe my baby is 6 months old! That sounds so big and she is just so little still! Seriously...look at her stats:

Height: 25.25 inches, 25%

Weight: 13lbs 12oz, 10%

Head Circumference: 16in, 5%

And her weight is up from her last two appointments when she was still hanging out in the 5th percentile. Addie is a petite little thing, but if anything it makes her more determined. She is the funniest little girl to have around and Jon and I spend most of the day laughing at her antics, her reactions, and her facial expressions. Some of the things I want to remember about her at this age are: 

- She LOVES to jump...will she ever get tired of it? Mommy and daddy sure do...thank goodness for her Christmas present, the jumperoo. I don't know what we'd do without it! 

- When she's tired, we will give her a binky and then she will immediately lay her head on your chest. This is the only time in the world that she will give snuggles...the rest of the time is just GO GO GO.
- She is one of the happiest babies ever. She is almost always smiling or talking to herself. We love it.

- She has two teeth on the bottom and they are SHARP little daggers. She is still loving to put EVERYTHING in her mouth.

Loving the food!

Who needs expensive toys, when you can have a cup?

First time rock climbing...this is for you, Seth!

-She is loving solid foods. Every time we introduce a new food, I brace myself for the scrunched-up-"this-stuff-is-yucky" face and it never comes. She is such a curious adventurer that she just takes it all in stride. In fact, her favorite food right now is peas, the least liked veggie of babies...go figure.
- She sits by herself all the time and she loves it so much, she has a temper-tantrum almost every time she has to do tummy time!
- She has begun pushing herself up onto her knees and rocking and I know that crawling is just around the corner.
- She has really figured out that toys can make noise and she loves to hit the toys against her legs and stomach to make them rattle.
- She loves to have raspberries blown on her tummy and thighs and is starting to laugh a lot more.
- She can also blow raspberries herself, especially with her tongue sticking out...and her favorite thing is to do it just as I bring her food to her lips. She thinks it is so funny and repeats it over and over while spraying momma with an large array colored food.
- She loves to play patty-cake and do any other song that involves me moving her arms around.
- She is so aware. I am always surprised at how much she knows and recognizes from routine. She knows that when I go to the sink, she is most likely going to get a bottle, and she gets excited. She knows when I set out her high chair that her green peas are on their way, and she starts grinning and getting antsy. She especially knows when it is bath time...when she hears that water running, her legs start pumping in preparation for the splashing that she knows is coming! Haha...she is so cute!

Bathtime in Grandma's sink!

- She LOVES to be outside. On the brief walk to the mailbox everyday, she just grins from ear to ear, just so happy. She used to hate the sun, but now, she can't get enough.
- One of the funniest things lately is that she doesn't want to be held, she just wants attention and praise. She'll start crying from the jumperoo, but all she wants is for me to say, "Good job, Addie" and then gets right back to it, laughing and smiley as always.
- She has also begun to have some serious stranger danger and has become as momma's girl all the way...and I'm not gunna lie, I kinda love knowing that sometimes she just wants me.

Overall, we LOVE this little girl...she keeps us laughing and smiling all day long. 

Having the Time of our Lives

Wow...a whole new year. 2011was fabulous with so many new things like a baby, a move, a job, a new lifestyle, an East Coast adventure, and a million other things. These past six months have been so full of change, it has been hard to keep up with things myself, let alone blog about them. But, we are finally mostly settled and I am feeling the urge to finally document all of the big changes and fun things that have happened to our little family! Especially since Adalyne is growing up so dang fast! As a New Year's resolution, I would like to do better with this blog and make it more of my journal. Jon and I looked through all of my old posts (which are few) the other night and it was such a blast to see photos and reminisce about all of our fun experiences since our marriage. I wished I had done better in my blogging so that we had more to enjoy! So, my goal is to blog once a week and catch up on life since Adalyne was born. Since there is so much to recap, I'm going to try to do some of the most recent things (like Christmas, New Years, Addie's six month mark, etc.) pretty soon and then I will do the last six months in snippets...consider them episodes in the show that is our life. So until then, enjoy this darling photo of Adalyne and stay tuned for some recent Randall events and look out for Episode One: The Blessing.

Addie's Two Week Photoshoot

Adalyne is a total doll! We just love having her in our family! So much has happened since she was born and I feel like she changes and grows each day.

Week one stats:

Weight: 6 lbs 3 oz (8th percentile)
Height: 19 in (19th percentile)

apparently her cone head was really long cuz she lost an inch between the hospital and her week one check up. :)

Week two stats:

Weight: 7 lbs 2 ozs!
Height: 19 in

We were so proud of Addie (and so relieved) that she gained 15 oz in a week! She was struggling to breastfeed for the first week and since she had low blood sugar levels at the hospital, I had to use a nipple shield, syringe and feeding tube to get her to eat. By the end of week two, I had weaned her off of everything (with some tears on both of our parts), but I wasn't sure if she was getting enough to eat...but 15 oz means that she was gaining 1.5 oz a day! Whoohooo!

Now she is growing and changing like crazy. We love her so much. Some of the things she does at two weeks:

~~She already smiles...big toothless, wide mouthed smiles that have nothing to do with gas and everything to do with mom and dad.
~~She LOVES to sleep with both of her arms straight up by her head, almost like she is riding a rollercoaster.
~~She loves to snuggle into our chests for skin-to-skin time.
~~She is so alert and is already able to follow us around the room with her eyes. One time, after daddy finished changing a diaper, she watched him walk all the way out of the room, craning her head to follow him out the door.~~She hates to be swaddled and her little arms and legs fight like crazy to get out, but she sleeps so much better that way.
~~She loves to have her legs pulled up close to her bum in an Indian-style cross at all times (except when changing a diaper and then she kicks with all her might)
~~She has been able to lift her head since day 4 and has been getting stronger and stronger every day. She can now hold her head up for more than 30 seconds!
~~She has discovered the power of her legs and is using them to move around and position herself already...I think we might have an early crawler.
~~She enjoys tummy time, but is more interested in trying to use her legs to scoot herself around than in lifting her head.
~~She loves to lay horizontally across daddy's tummy - she starts vertically with her head on his left peck, but she uses her legs and she slowly squirms her way down his chest, turning herself until her legs hang off the left side and her head hangs off the right side and then she sighs and goes to sleep...cutest thing ever.
~~She purses her lips into the tiniest "o" and raises her eyebrows to wrinkle her forehead and looks around at the world like, "oh my."
~~She has a serious set of lungs when she is mad...and she can go from a peaceful sleep to a screaming roar in 2 seconds flat.
~~She has what we call "karate hands"...they never sit still (which is why the swaddle is a necessity for bedtime).

Already she has such a little personality. It amazes me to see how quickly she has become a little individual. Thankfully, we got to document her at two weeks...My wonderful sister-in-law, Bethany Ricks, is an amazing photographer and willingly took many hours out of her time to take some fabulous photos of little Addie... I've posted some of my favorites below...there are probably WAY too many, but I just love them all. Thanks so much Bethany! (PS - If any of you are interested in giving her a call to do pictures for you, let me know!)

Also, we finally made it to AZ safely, we are in the process of moving in and organizing...more on that later and I hope to find our mail key soon so that I can post pictures of Adalyne's baby blessing which we got to do before we moved.

Adalyne May: LABOR and Delivery

Well, little Adalyne is here! She is beautiful and wonderful and we just can't get enough of her. The birth story is below...sorry if it is way too long and there are way too many pictures! Her official birth stats were:

Adalyne May Randall

Born at 10:23pm June 30, 2011

6 lbs 9 oz

20 inches long

Gorgeous beyond belief.

Chapter One: My Body Is In Labor But Won't Dilate

It all started on Tuesday when I began getting pretty painful contractions, but they weren't consistent until that evening when they started getting worse and worse, closer and closer. I seriously had no idea that contractions were so painful...I swear, someone could have warned me :) By 2 am, I was dying...breathing through each contraction, tears on the way. We finally headed down the canyon at 3:30 to Utah Valley hospital to check in. By then, the contractions were 2 -3 minutes apart, 60 - 80 seconds long, and I was sobbing through each one. Unfortunately, despite the extreme pain and being in obvious labor, I was only dilated to a 1 - GRRRRR. They kept me for a long, painful hour (without meds) to see if I would change, but I didn't, so they sent me home with a morphine shot to the hip and said, "If it is real labor, you'll keep contracting, so come back."

We headed to Jon's parent's house where we zonked out for 6 hours (thank you, morphine) but during my entire nap I was still contracting. When I woke up at about 7pm, the contractions had slowed, but they were still just as painful as when we left the hospital. But I had to wait until they built back up in frequency and so began another LONG, PAINFUL night of counting contractions. At about 1 am, we were so exhausted that we stopped counting and by 3 am, I had hit my patience limit. We headed to the hospital when I was only contracting 5 -6 minutes apart, but they were so intense I could have begged for an epidural.

When we got to the hospital, I was only a 2.5! I was so frustrated. Again, they couldn't keep me unless I progressed in an hour, so they told me to walk. And walk I did...I did probably 40 laps around the Utah Valley Maternity floor, stopping in the middle of the hall for each painful contraction. One ornery nurse told me as I walked by for the 20th time, "Honey...if you're not in labor yet, walking won't change anything." I wanted to hit her. And then the hour came and they came to check and I changed!!!! Only .5 cm but it didn't matter! At 7:30, they officially admitted me and got me that epidural within 15 mins. Oh, heavenly bliss. I do not know how any of you have natural births. I am blessed to be born in this age of modern medicine!

Chapter Two: My Body Is In Labor and SLOWLY Dilates

Thus began the waiting period...from 7:30 am to 8:00pm, I slowly but surely progressed. They thought several times about using Pitocin to speed up my progress, but because my body was doing it on its own, they decided against it. Too bad my body takes its own sweet time! From a "5 plus" to a 6, from a 6 to a "6 plus", it was torture, but I used the time to get some MUCH needed sleep, and so did Jon. Poor Jon was such a trooper, staying up with me, counting contractions, making me as comfortable as possible. He has such a difficult time when I am in any sort of pain and I know that this was really hard for him, but he was such a wonderful coach and support!

Chapter Three: I Take Forever to Push This Baby Out

At 8:00pm, I was finally at a 10 and I was allowed to push! Wooohooo! By then, my body was exhausted...almost 50 hours of continuous, painful contractions wore me out! It felt so weird to push, but feel nothing down below...thank goodness for that epidural. After two and a half hours of pushing, she was finally here! They did have to do an episiotomy, but everything went well. Jon watched the whole thing...I couldn't believe it! He coached me through all the pushing and kept me motivated.

When she finally came out, all the nurses exclaimed at how long her umbilical cord was...haha...apparently it was a few FEET long! Unfortunately, it was also wrapped around her neck three times, so she had some difficulty breathing at first. There was no lusty cry when she finally came out and I was so worried. They brought in the respiratory specialists and Jon and I kept asking if she was okay and they would just say, "Oh, she's having a hard time breathing..." Um, okay, isn't that the main source of life here - AIR. But she ended up being just fine and after several minutes with them, I finally got to hold her.

We are SO happy she is here. She is such a blessing in our lives. We think she is absolutely the most beautiful thing in the world. I love cuddling this little girl close to me and hearing her breathe. It still astounds me that just a few days ago, she was in my belly and it is even more insane to think back to when she was just that little poppyseed.

Her first few days were a struggle...she had low bloodsugar levels, I had difficulty breastfeeding her, and she ended up jaundiced. She had to spend the last day in the hospital under the lights and then she had to sleep in a straightjacket billibed to get rid of her jaundice. But we are happy to say that she is now doing VERY well and is super healthy. I will post her two week stats in another post soon to come. Enjoy these last few pictures

So Many Changes

Well, as is typical, it has been almost another 6 months! So much has happened in these few months and since I don't want to bore the few who read this, I think a good bullet-list will do with our top 6 life changes for the past 6 months. Sorry if this is extra, extra long!!!

First Big Change -- Jon Graduated!

Jon finally graduated from BYU with a major in Construction Management and a Business minor. I am SOOOO proud of him! He worked so hard and performed super well in all of his classes, despite my constant pressure to abandon his homework and play! We spent the day with family and had a wonderful BBQ (thank you, bipolar Utah weather for sunshine). Now, we get to spend our evenings together, rather than spending it with homework! We LOVE this new lifestyle!!! With this big graduation comes our next big change:

Second Big Change -- New Job, New Location

Because Jon is so gosh dang amazing, he was given several job offers. After a lot of stress, prayers, and plenty of pro/con lists, we finally decided to go with Turner Construction in Tempe, Arizona. We are sooo excited and feel so blessed for this job opportunity! The job description is exactly what he wanted and the company is excellent. Jon will be starting down there with them near the end of July. They were nice enough to let him wait for baby girl to arrive in Utah before starting. We are really looking forward to Arizona, as well! Jon has a lot of sisters and brothers down there, so it will be nice to be by family. Not to mention the wonderful HEAT. Utah has done its part in making the move more appealing...I am ready for SUMMER!!! Jon went down last week to check out some prospective apartments and we hope to solidify on a townhome this week! Bring on the palm trees and desert landscaping!

Third Big Change -- Three Year Anniversary

I guess this isn't really a big change, but we got to celebrate our three year anniversary at the end of April. Jon planned a surprise trip (he knows I love surprises) to St. George where we spent an amazing 4 days relaxing. Oh, how it was needed. I really couldn't imagine being married to a more perfect, selfless husband. I am so blessed. Jon is incredible and has really been my source of sanity through this pregnancy. He works so hard and then comes home and somehow keeps our home running amid cleaning and foot massages. I love him so much! What a blessing it is to be married to your best friend. I can't wait for this next wonderful year!

Fourth Big Change -- I Survived.

This was my first year teaching and I survived. Not only did I survive, but I absolutely LOVED it. Orem Junior High was incredbile...my students were fabulous, my department was wonderful, and our administration rocks this world. I couldn't have taught anywhere better! I loved teaching! It is one of the most fulfilling things I could do each day... it never really felt like I was going to "work." There were certainly ups and downs--being pregnant while teaching and coaching is NO FUN--but my students were incredible. I don't know how I got such a wonderful group of kids. They constantly surprised me with their brilliant insights and made me laugh each and every day. 9th graders are seriously the best. Looking back at the year, they grew so much and they taught me so much. They were so funny, too, about the coming baby. Some of my favorite comments are the following:

7th grade Victor: How are you pregnant? You're not fat.
Victor, a week later: Mrs. Randall, you got fat.

9th grade Marilyn: Does your baby have a head? (While poking my 8-month pregnant belly forcefully with her pointer finger)

9th grade Marcos: Will you name your baby Ronaldinho?
Me: It's a girl, Marcos.
Marcos: Oh, then will you name it Jesus?

Hahaha...oh, how I loved this experience! I love those kids! Some of my favorite yearbook comments were the following:

"I'm pretty sure this year of English was my fav! I am going to cry and you will too because you are going to miss me so much!"

"You are literally my favoritist teacher ever! I love your class so much. Its so much funner than any other class!" (Please notice the correct grammar/spelling used, haha. I've done my job well...)

"You completely changed my perspective and attitude about English."

"You are the first English teacher I've had that actually taught me something." (Just a little pretentious, don't you think??)

"Mrs. Randall, I hope your baby looks like a baby. PS - Some day I wanna ride a pig." (Complete with a picture of a flying pig)

Fifth Big Change -- I'm Huge

Baby Girl is officially full term! I have 2 weeks and 4 days left and I am SO counting. She is healthy and quite active!! At our weekly NST (non-stress test), the nurses always exclaim that she is the most active baby they have seen that day. She hates the monitors and always tries to kick them off of her. Last time, she made the nurse jump and squeal because she attacked the monitor so hard. Haha...she makes her mama proud. As of our last ultrasound a week ago, she was weighing 6 pounds flat and sticking to the 5oth percentile.

As for me, this pregnancy really has been fairly easy compared with some of my friends' stories. And it has been a fun past month with several baby showers. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family and such supportive friends! Thanks to all who came, and especially to those who helped to throw the showers. This little girl is already so spoiled!

On Saturday we went to our first pre-natal class (which, by the way, was over 5.5 hours long...with one break...you'd think they would have planned better for pregnant women!). I was worried about Jon since we were going to watch some birthing videos and he doesn't love the blood, but he did great and I was the one that almost passed out (darn epidural shots). haha...I'm sitting there about to black out and yet, thank you pregnancy hormones, I was in tears cause the whole thing was just so gosh darn beautiful when that baby is finally out.

I'm pretty sure that the videos freaked me out more than anything though...I closed my eyes when we watched "The Miracle of Birth" in high school, so this was a little bit more than I could handle. I still can't get the images out of my mind; I DREAM about them...how the HECK am I going to do that? How the HECK did all of you do that? And do it again and again? But despite the fears, we are so excited to have this little girl in our arms! It is so close!

Sixth Big Change -- Heber

Once Jon graduated, we quickly moved out of Wymount. While we loved our almost two year stay and miss our friends greatly, it was time to move on. Mormor and Morfar, my wonderful grandparents, willingly took us into their beautiful home in Heber where we get to stay in their side apartment until after the baby comes. While the commute to school and work was not very fun for a few weeks, it has been absolutely GORGEOUS up here. There is nothing like waking up to this view:

Well, I think that is it for the big news...I hope I covered it all. 2011 has turned out to be a busy and big year for us and I seriously can't wait for the next two months when Jon and I get to start this new life with a new baby girl, a new job, and new home!

SHE is adorable

It is official...we will be having a beautiful BABY GIRL! We are sooooo excited! We found out on Valentine's Day and it was the best gift ever. We then spread the news to the grandparents. My mother cried when we surprised them with the news and has already pulled out the baby clothes from my past...I am loving it.

I always claimed I would only have boys and that I never wanted girls because I wouldn't know what to do with them (all the brothers made boys sound easier), but I was secretly hoping for a girl the whole time and so was Jon, so we are thrilled. She showed a really stubborn streak in the ultrasound since it took her almost 50 minutes to show us a profile, despite massive shaking by the woman doing the ultrasound. But she was so dang cute! It is amazing that she is really inside of me! This pic is one of my favorites with her cute hands...it's like she's saying, "Please, Mom, stop poking and shaking me!"

Since the pregancy is high risk, we had the chance to see all of it again when the perinatalogist came in for consultation. He seemed pretty cold at first, but then at the very end of our ultrasound, he gave us a quick devious look and switched ultrasound tools and suddenly there was our baby in 4D! We could see so much detail on her little face, it was so unreal. This isn't very good quality since our scanner isn't awesome, but I still love it! We think she might just have my nose!

I love knowing what our little baby is and now I don't have to call her an "it." She has been moving around a TON and distracts me all the time when I am teaching with her powerful kicks. Maybe we have a little soccer player in the making :) The best part of it all is that since we are high risk, we get to do this again in 6 weeks! I love, love, love to see this little girl and can't wait for the chance to see her again!

Enter Randall Family Member #3

So....we are having A BABY!

Sorry to be so unoriginal, but I think this morning sickness has knocked out all the desire I have to be creative! We are due July 2nd and can't wait to add this little member to our family!

We are so blessed to have this baby in the first place. With the Addison's disease, my doctor told me I'd be lucky to get pregnant and luckier to get through the first trimester. We almost didn't make it, with a close call on a miscarriage. I started bleeding heavily at 7 weeks and the doctors pretty much told me to expect to lose the baby. It was a pretty rough 24 hours filled with prayers and tears before we got in to see the ultrasound specialist, but the baby was there and it's heartbeat was going strong! We are so grateful to all those who had us in their prayers and fasts. We went in a few weeks ago to double check that the baby was still doing fine and that the bleeding had stopped and everything was wonderful. Our little baby has a strong heartbeat and is growing like crazy! Whoohooo!