I am happy to announce that I am no longer a widow. "Wow," you may think, "I didn't know you ever where a widow." But to all those thinking that I will reveal to you that I was, in fact, a widow for exactly one week due to the wonderful and worthwhile departure of my husband to scout camp (wonderful at least for his scouts). At the beginning of my week I had absolutely no plans and thought that it would be a nice quiet week in which I could accomplish a lot of projects. However, God knows what we need better than we do, and in his tender mercy he filled every minute of almost every one of my days with some activity or another. It made my scout widow experience bearable.
The most difficult part about my week while Spencer was away was sleeping. There were a couple of factors that aided in making it difficult to sleep. 1)Now that fireworks are legal in Utah people feel the need to set them off weeks in advance of Holidays and this was the week before the fourth of July; when one's nerves are already a bit on edge random booming noises going off at unexpected times don't typically help. 2) We have no AC or Swamp cooler so in order to cool our house down from the blistering hot 88-89 it typically gets up to during the day we open all the windows at night. That really is two things that make it difficult to sleep the heat, heaT, heAT, hEAT, HEAT, and the fact that all my windows were open to anyone who wanted to pop out the screen. 3) Spencer wasn't there providing protection comfort and support. So, with all those natural sleep inhabitants most days during this week I stayed up till four in the morning and was woken up by my son at 6:30.
I could write much more about the week, but suffice it to say it was busy, it was sleep deprived, it was exhausting, it is over. I am so glad my sweet wonderful husband is home! Hopefully I will have forgotten enough about how much I missed him to support him in his calling and let him go again next year.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
PSA ~ perfection addendum
My dear Blog followers,
This is a public service announcement from your loving and devoted Grand High Chief Enforcer to the Great Dictator of all that is Familia (aka Mailee). Greetings and otherwise salutations to all the minions, wayfarers and far-travelers of our beautiful Familial Realms. It has been a long time since I have sent my greetings and encouragement to you via this means, and as such I deem it necessary to do so. The Great Dictator of all that is Familia has recently told you of the perfection that she has achieved and I am here to add to that statement. She has neglected to tell you that she is perfect in her role as The Great Dictator of All, and that although for such a great being such works as she has shown in this artistic medium may seem humble, they are but a shadow of the awe inspiring things to come. Please remain attentive in your labors, and active in your pursuits of the ultimate goal we hold common.
With firm affection,
Your Grand High Chief Enforcer and Regent of the Familial realms,
Sir Spencer formerly of Scary
For those of you who don't know my husband very well, and don't feel like attempting to decipher old English phraseology, that was his way of saying he loves me and thinks I'm wonderful and that he wanted to inform you that there are many more great posts/pictures etc. to follow in this The Pyper Familia Blog.
This is a public service announcement from your loving and devoted Grand High Chief Enforcer to the Great Dictator of all that is Familia (aka Mailee). Greetings and otherwise salutations to all the minions, wayfarers and far-travelers of our beautiful Familial Realms. It has been a long time since I have sent my greetings and encouragement to you via this means, and as such I deem it necessary to do so. The Great Dictator of all that is Familia has recently told you of the perfection that she has achieved and I am here to add to that statement. She has neglected to tell you that she is perfect in her role as The Great Dictator of All, and that although for such a great being such works as she has shown in this artistic medium may seem humble, they are but a shadow of the awe inspiring things to come. Please remain attentive in your labors, and active in your pursuits of the ultimate goal we hold common.
With firm affection,
Your Grand High Chief Enforcer and Regent of the Familial realms,
Sir Spencer formerly of Scary
For those of you who don't know my husband very well, and don't feel like attempting to decipher old English phraseology, that was his way of saying he loves me and thinks I'm wonderful and that he wanted to inform you that there are many more great posts/pictures etc. to follow in this The Pyper Familia Blog.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Perfection
There are many perfect things in this world. One of them is my new title, complete with pictures. Now the reason that I know that it is perfect is because my perfectionist self has been working on the exact placement/color for the past hour, and while most people could have called it quits and been satisfied with something different I could not. So, dear followers, I hope you enjoy my perfectly awesome new title. Laura Wampler showed me how to get pictures into the title spot and I am so glad she did. Yay for perfection in blog titles! Now it goes without saying (although I just went and said it) that there will come a point when I will no longer think my title is perfect, and when that point comes I will change it. But for now I am glorying in the perfection of my humble creation.
Monday, June 4, 2012
James
My son is probably the best and cutest baby boy ever to roam the earth (and if that sounded like a reference to the dinosaurs, it was).
James loves to smile. He glances up at you and gives the most adorable grin ever at least 10 dozen times a day. One of the most meaningful times I had as a mother was when James had terrible croupe and bronchiolitis and simply could not breathe (basically he was so sick it was heartbreaking), but despite how sick he was and how terrible he must have felt whenever I would come to his crib in the middle of the night to check on him (which was often) he would look up at me and give me that adorable smile. Those were some of the moments when I caught a glimpse at the strength and valiance of the spirit that dwells in the body of my little boy. He really is one of the most happy, easy going children I have ever seen.
One of James's largest interests currently is food. James WANTS FOOD! We have been feeding him solids for over a month and a half now and he loves his eating time. When he stole a pickle seed (and enjoyed eating it) at 4 and half months we decided it was time for some food for the child. He still tries to steal food whenever anyone is eating and he's been known to throw himself towards whoever happens to have food at any given moment, but he is mostly content with his humble fare of baby food, though he will be happy when he can eat what everyone else is eating...which, sad to say will be a while.
James makes life fun. He wants to move so badly and is getting really close to being able to do so. Once he learns how, Watch out World, nothing will be safe from inspection and or being chewed upon/eaten.
James loves to smile. He glances up at you and gives the most adorable grin ever at least 10 dozen times a day. One of the most meaningful times I had as a mother was when James had terrible croupe and bronchiolitis and simply could not breathe (basically he was so sick it was heartbreaking), but despite how sick he was and how terrible he must have felt whenever I would come to his crib in the middle of the night to check on him (which was often) he would look up at me and give me that adorable smile. Those were some of the moments when I caught a glimpse at the strength and valiance of the spirit that dwells in the body of my little boy. He really is one of the most happy, easy going children I have ever seen.
One of James's largest interests currently is food. James WANTS FOOD! We have been feeding him solids for over a month and a half now and he loves his eating time. When he stole a pickle seed (and enjoyed eating it) at 4 and half months we decided it was time for some food for the child. He still tries to steal food whenever anyone is eating and he's been known to throw himself towards whoever happens to have food at any given moment, but he is mostly content with his humble fare of baby food, though he will be happy when he can eat what everyone else is eating...which, sad to say will be a while.
James makes life fun. He wants to move so badly and is getting really close to being able to do so. Once he learns how, Watch out World, nothing will be safe from inspection and or being chewed upon/eaten.
Motherhood: Re-learning to be Passionate
I am passionate about being a mother. I always have been, and it has always been something I wanted to do. Despite this, in my few months of motherhood I was having a seriously difficult time. The reason for this is that I felt like despite how much I wanted to be a mother when the opportunity finally came I felt inadequate, and that, all in all, I was not cut out for motherhood. I hid my insecurity as best I could and moved on with life, but it was constantly gnawing at me. Then I attended a seminar called: The Power of Choice in which I learned how to replace those feelings of inadequacy with the feelings of being powerful. I also learned how to reignite the fiery passion I have for being a stay at home mom! It has been wonderful! The dishes often aren't done, the floor often isn't clean, and James does cry on occasion. However, I no longer feel that these things are a reflection of my inadequacy, rather that they are a manifestation of my choice to take care of and play with my son, as well as taking care of myself instead of having the picture perfect house. It is truly liberating. I love being a passionate mother!
As I was re-reading this post I realized there were some serious grammatical errors (which I have since corrected). That's what comes of being a passionate mother. It is really easy to loose your train of thought, and your well constructed sentence, when peeking around your computer every other word to play peek-a-boo with your baby...
As I was re-reading this post I realized there were some serious grammatical errors (which I have since corrected). That's what comes of being a passionate mother. It is really easy to loose your train of thought, and your well constructed sentence, when peeking around your computer every other word to play peek-a-boo with your baby...
Friday, March 30, 2012
Baby James is Alive and Kicking (literally)!
As is obvious, by the fact that I haven't posted in a little while I've been a bit busy, with my new little baby boy: James Edward Pyper, who we called kicker post delivery and now call buddy more than anything else. However, I am trying to make a point of addressing him by his name so he will know what his name is. But that is all besides the point. I am sure that you all want to know about delivery and then, if I had a guess I'd say you wanted to see some pictures. Well, I'll see what I can do. I am partly documenting this for my lovely followers and partly so that years down the road when I have ten children (heaven forbid) I will still remember the story of having my first. So, without any further ado the story of the birth of the cutest little boy to grace this earth (I'm not biased at all).
I premise this tale with the fact that doctors should not tell you you're likely to have a baby any day. A month before I was due I went into my doctor and they said I was 80% effaced and dilated to a 2+, which, in their words, meant "this baby is probably going to come early." I freaked out. I was not finished with my last class yet, and there was no way to finish it up within the next week or two due to a class project that required other group members. I emailed my professor and got permission to do an individual project. Two days later I was finished with my last class and for all intents and purposes graduated with a bachelors and teaching license in Special Education: Emphasis in Severe disabilities. Voila, I thought I am ready to have a baby...well as ready as I was going to get. The next week I was dilated to a 3, the week after that a 3+, the week after that my doctor greeted me with "I can't believe you haven't had a baby yet." Bah, where is the baby. The next week I have still not delivered and was not really having any contractions worthy of note. This is one week before my baby is due, my doctor was very surprised, and I very perturbed. I hate waiting, but even more so when professionals keep telling me I should have to wait no more. This week I was dilated to a 4 and my doctor was looking for any sort of reason to induce, but I'm as healthy as a pregnant horse could be and was sent home with again the assurance that I should have a baby very soon. My blood pressure had been a tad high, thus, I was told to check it a couple times a day and come in to labor and delivery if it reached a certain level. I checked it on the morning of December 13th, one day before my due date, it was high. I call Spencer to tell him I was going in to get it checked out, but that he didn't need to come to the hospital since they probably would just monitor me and send me home. Kimberly, Spencer's sister, picked me up and went with me to the hospital. They hooked me up to the stork monitor and low and behold my blood pressure was beautiful, beyond beautiful 90/50 kind of beautiful (my body just loves behaving for the pros and misbehaving for me). My doctor had them check my amniotic fluid, while I was there. It was low, not dangerously low, but low enough for them to induce me. I was asked if I wanted to be induced then, or if I wanted to wait for tomorrow when my doctor could do the delivery (as it was getting close to time for her to go home and she was not on call that night). Well I wanted a baby, so I said "Please, induce me." I had just told Spencer that I was going to go home 15 minutes previous, so I called him again and said come to the hospital we're having a baby.
They moved me to another room where they hooked me up with an IV to give me Pettosin--which I have no idea how to spell--and broke my water, and finally I was having contractions. Kimberly stayed with me until Spencer got there and a for a little while after he arrived. I wasn't sure if I wanted an epidural, because I figured if it isn't too painful why have to deal with numbing. The contractions continued to build, and they were painful though not unbearably so, the pain was just not where I expected, it was centered in my lower back and spread from there up and down my spinal column. Now I thought to myself, "Self, you can probably deal with this and be just fine, but do you really want to feel this if it's possible not to." I asked the nurse if I could have an epidural, and in no time it all I was chilling, unable to feel my legs at all and feeling no pain whatsoever. I hung out for the next few hours. At one point (when they poked him in the head as they inserted an internal monitor) the baby's heart rate dipped and a whole bunch of doctors and nurses converged on our room, but everything leveled out again quickly. Spencer's mom came in and sat with us for a little while, but went back into the waiting room for the actual delivery. I pushed for an hour (which is really hard work even if you can't feel the pain and my whole body was shaking like crazy). Thus it was that six hours after checking in at 10:22 p.m or 22:22 military time James was born. He was bright purple for a minute or so (he had the cord loosely wrapped around his neck), and he had a bit of a cone head, but even then he was beautiful. He weighed 7 lbs 11 oz and was 19" long. He had his eyes open and was looking around a few minutes after he was born and he is still a curious little fellow. Spencer's parents came in shortly after he was born to see their new grandbaby and take pictures. We went to sleep very late and woke often while in the hospital, where we saw many of our wonderful friends come to congratulate us and see the new edition to our family.
We came home from the hospital on the 15th and I started a new chapter in my life: Motherhood (about which I'm sure to say more in later posts).
I premise this tale with the fact that doctors should not tell you you're likely to have a baby any day. A month before I was due I went into my doctor and they said I was 80% effaced and dilated to a 2+, which, in their words, meant "this baby is probably going to come early." I freaked out. I was not finished with my last class yet, and there was no way to finish it up within the next week or two due to a class project that required other group members. I emailed my professor and got permission to do an individual project. Two days later I was finished with my last class and for all intents and purposes graduated with a bachelors and teaching license in Special Education: Emphasis in Severe disabilities. Voila, I thought I am ready to have a baby...well as ready as I was going to get. The next week I was dilated to a 3, the week after that a 3+, the week after that my doctor greeted me with "I can't believe you haven't had a baby yet." Bah, where is the baby. The next week I have still not delivered and was not really having any contractions worthy of note. This is one week before my baby is due, my doctor was very surprised, and I very perturbed. I hate waiting, but even more so when professionals keep telling me I should have to wait no more. This week I was dilated to a 4 and my doctor was looking for any sort of reason to induce, but I'm as healthy as a pregnant horse could be and was sent home with again the assurance that I should have a baby very soon. My blood pressure had been a tad high, thus, I was told to check it a couple times a day and come in to labor and delivery if it reached a certain level. I checked it on the morning of December 13th, one day before my due date, it was high. I call Spencer to tell him I was going in to get it checked out, but that he didn't need to come to the hospital since they probably would just monitor me and send me home. Kimberly, Spencer's sister, picked me up and went with me to the hospital. They hooked me up to the stork monitor and low and behold my blood pressure was beautiful, beyond beautiful 90/50 kind of beautiful (my body just loves behaving for the pros and misbehaving for me). My doctor had them check my amniotic fluid, while I was there. It was low, not dangerously low, but low enough for them to induce me. I was asked if I wanted to be induced then, or if I wanted to wait for tomorrow when my doctor could do the delivery (as it was getting close to time for her to go home and she was not on call that night). Well I wanted a baby, so I said "Please, induce me." I had just told Spencer that I was going to go home 15 minutes previous, so I called him again and said come to the hospital we're having a baby.
They moved me to another room where they hooked me up with an IV to give me Pettosin--which I have no idea how to spell--and broke my water, and finally I was having contractions. Kimberly stayed with me until Spencer got there and a for a little while after he arrived. I wasn't sure if I wanted an epidural, because I figured if it isn't too painful why have to deal with numbing. The contractions continued to build, and they were painful though not unbearably so, the pain was just not where I expected, it was centered in my lower back and spread from there up and down my spinal column. Now I thought to myself, "Self, you can probably deal with this and be just fine, but do you really want to feel this if it's possible not to." I asked the nurse if I could have an epidural, and in no time it all I was chilling, unable to feel my legs at all and feeling no pain whatsoever. I hung out for the next few hours. At one point (when they poked him in the head as they inserted an internal monitor) the baby's heart rate dipped and a whole bunch of doctors and nurses converged on our room, but everything leveled out again quickly. Spencer's mom came in and sat with us for a little while, but went back into the waiting room for the actual delivery. I pushed for an hour (which is really hard work even if you can't feel the pain and my whole body was shaking like crazy). Thus it was that six hours after checking in at 10:22 p.m or 22:22 military time James was born. He was bright purple for a minute or so (he had the cord loosely wrapped around his neck), and he had a bit of a cone head, but even then he was beautiful. He weighed 7 lbs 11 oz and was 19" long. He had his eyes open and was looking around a few minutes after he was born and he is still a curious little fellow. Spencer's parents came in shortly after he was born to see their new grandbaby and take pictures. We went to sleep very late and woke often while in the hospital, where we saw many of our wonderful friends come to congratulate us and see the new edition to our family.
We came home from the hospital on the 15th and I started a new chapter in my life: Motherhood (about which I'm sure to say more in later posts).
All of the above pictures were taken about 15 minutes after James was born...wasn't he cute at 15 minutes old.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Craziness
I have to remind myself on a nearly basis that I am not insane. This may sound a little foreboding, and or like I'm losing my mind (which I may be). I just didn't realize how much I was getting in for when I decided to work full time, take classes, move into a new house (and try to organize/arrange said house) and be pregnant. I come home exhausted, start on my homework, pay the bills, attempt to clean (which takes a lot longer when you can only bend certain ways due to an ever expanding stomach), and think to myself that I am crazy. I then remind myself that I had good reasons for deciding to do each of the things I am doing and that I am thus not insane, just potentially a little too ambitious. Spencer and I are finally not living out of a suitcase anymore, as we unpacked our clothes and put them in the dresser last week, this is in part due to my grandmothers appalled expression when we told her we had been living out of a suitcase for two months...familial pressure, even more effective than peer pressure. All in all, in all its craziness life is pretty great. A bit fast paced, and if the last sentence is any indication a little to full of all's, but wonderful.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)