Life

Just wanted to do a quick update on life so far. Things are still really stressful with work. But Dave Ramsey program is going pretty good so far. We have not cheated yet...but I guess we are not even through one month yet! I am just praying that by summer I will be a "real" stay at home mom. Things with Kaitlyn are still pretty much the usual. She is starting to smile more though which I love! It makes me so happy when I see that instead of her pouting cry! haha. Kaitlyn is currently about 4 1/2 months old and teething hard! Her first tooth cut through at about 3 1/2 months and we have been waiting on the second since then, but think it is close b/c she is always chomping on anything she can find! Her motor skills have became a lot better. She can grab things and bring them up to her mouth now. She drops them a lot but she is getting better. She tries to eat everything! We still haven't started any cereal. I think I am going to wait until at least 5 months just to make sure she is really ready.

Here is a picture of her tooth!

Chomping on a teething toy. These are hit or miss with her.

Practicing her tummy time. Today was actually the only day she lasted more than about 2 minutes without crying! Yay!




Gathering all her toys to her mouth.

Here is a random picture of Justin and I skiing last month. And let me just say that will probably be my last time ever. I just feel too old for that kind of stuff! I was terrified the whole time and just kept thinking about what I would do if I broke something! Justin on the other hand is so good! He used to be a ski instructor so him and my brother just went off on there own and I hung out in the ski lodge until it was finally time to go home!

So that is our quick life update! More to come soon.

Stressed Out

I am pretty sure I have reached my breaking point. I am so stressed out that just the slightest little thing starts making me cry now. But let me just say that the main root of this stress is coming from my job. I HATE it! I don't even think that describes it. It makes me break down and cry at least once a week...usually more. I have already snapped at them several times through email since I don't see them in person very often. I guess to break it down, my job really wouldn't be that bad, it is just pretty much impossible to sanely keep up with and do while also trying to give Kaitlyn all of the attention she needs and deserves. What makes it even worse is that when I first started my job I was in a department of 5 people plus my immediate boss. Every single one of those people except me has now been laid off. I now have absolutely no one to help out with my work load and no one to go to for support. I am now a department of one. Back in July they also cut me down to only 20 hours a week. Which is fine b/c I could never give more than that with Kaitlyn, but thing is they still expect me to complete a 40 hour workload and pretty much be available at their becking call. It has now gotten to the point where I just feel like I am always at my breaking point. One little email can come through with something else for me to do and I just lose it. It probably would not be as bad either if Kaitlyn was an easier baby. But she is soooo fussy. For anyone that is around us enough then you are aware. Basically if she is awake she has to be held. I can't even let her cry it out b/c she starts throwing up everywhere she gets so mad. She is not a good napper either. So it stresses me out even more when I am trying to have a conference call and I have to put Kaitlyn in her room screaming while I try and go over stupid plans with work. It makes me feel like such a horrible mother, but there is just not much else I can do at the moment. I am just looking forward to the days where Kaitlyn can at least play with toys and entertain herself for at least a little while! She will sit in an exersaucer or play with her jungle gym, but never for more than 10-15 minutes at a time. Then I am back at square one having to hold her...and that is always standing up. She won't even let Justin and I sit down or she will scream so hard until she makes herself throw up. So if you have any suggestions for what to do I am open. I either give in to her demands to stand up with her all the time...or let her scream and clean up throw up all the time. I don't know which is better. It has gotten to the point now that any time we go on a car ride she throws up b/c I can't quickly pick her up when I know she is about to that point. Let me just say though that I don't think there is anything physically wrong with her. To me it more seems spoiled. I don't mean that in a bad way...just that she will almost immediately quit crying the second I stand up with her. If I sit down on the couch with her the crying starts back up. So please I am open to your suggestions.

Now that I have complained this whole time Kaitlyn actually is napping, don't feel too bad for me. haha! It is our goal for me to be able to quit this year. We just currently cannot afford for me to quit. We are starting the Dave Ramesey Money Makeover next week and are really going to try and do it. We hope that at least by the middle of this year we will have enough debt paid off that I can quit and just be a mom. I can't wait for that day!

Resolutions

So I am pretty much the WORST New Year's Resolution keeper ever, but I like to at least establish a few of them even if I don't keep them. It makes me feel better to try and set some goals for the New Year. This year some of them are more hopes than things that may actually happen but here goes.

1. FINALLY finish the Old Testament! Justin and I have been reading the Old Testament for like 2 years now. We are about midway through Isaiah and I figure it is the perfect time to finish since we are studying the Old Testament in church this year...even though I am called to Primary again so I guess I won't get to study it in Sunday School.
2. Read our scriptures EVERY day. Ideally our goal is to complete the entire QUAD (Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Morman, and Doctrine and Covenants) front to back by the end of next year....but I am not counting on that since it has taken us over 2 years with the Old Testament alone. But we like to read the Institute study guides along with our scriptures each night so that we can get more out of it. So my goal this year is even if we are just way to exhausted to do a whole study session each day, we at least need to read a verse or two from somewhere in the quad. And I am sorry to say that we already had to do that last night! The very first day of the new year! But in our defense we were exhausted from working on my Mom's house all day!
3. I really would like to try and get to the temple more often. It has been so long since Justin and I have been and now it will be even harder since we have a child. But my goal is to go at least 6 times this year. I think that should be feasible.
4. This one is more of a hope than a resolution, but I REALLY want to be a stay at home mom. A real one! As in I don't want to still work from home, but be able to devote all my time to being just a mom! I don't know how people do it! I have been so stressed all the time trying to balance still working from 8-12 and still taking care of Kaitlyn's needs. It will be even harder now that my Mom has moved out. It is just so hard when I have a big deadline or need to be on the phone with work and Kaitlyn is crying to be held. And as she gets older I would love to just be able to give her my undivided attention! Currently we just can not afford for me to quit, but I am determined to try and make it happen! We are trying to get as many bills paid off as possible so that we can try and see if we could live off of Justin's salary alone.
5. Get my house organized and cleaned from top to bottom! We have so much clutter to go through and also cleaning to do. Justin really wants to steam clean the sofas and some of the carpets but I don't really want to spend the money to do that. So if you happen to have a steam cleaner you would like to let us borrow let me know! haha!
6. Be the best Mommy that I can be!

So I guess those are the main ones. I could probably go on and on with things I would like to do, but I will try to focus on these!

Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010!

Happy New Year Everyone! This has been by far the most stressful Holiday Break yet for us. My mom has moved out today and we have been working day and night all this week trying to get everything finished with her house and then moving all her stuff over all day. So stressful and I know Justin is worn out since he is the one that has to do all of the hard stuff. But I am sure it will all be worth it to him in the end since he gets to go back to life without Teddy...(her dog whom he hates.) We just are not dog people.

Our Christmas was different for me at least as well. It was the first year that I wasn't in Charlotte with my family so that was hard, but I guess it can't be my way all the time! haha. We went down to Shalotte to spend Christmas with Justin's parents. Here are a few photos of Kaitlyn's first Christmas...





2009 has been a year of ups and downs that is for sure. It started out great finding out that we were pregnant and then of course had a major downside in July when my stepfather died and then all of my family's lives basically turned upside down. We are finally recovering from it all still. But then had a very positive note in September when our little Kaitlyn came into our lives! She has definitely been a blessing to us all. She is actually really starting to be a lot better. She was such a fussy baby for so long, but she is down to only 1-2 meltdowns a day now! haha! We love her so much and it is only getting better as she gets older and is starting to develop her own little personality!

Here is one of my favs...Kaitlyn LOVES the TV! She can be having a screaming meltdown and we stand up in front of the TV and she just completely stops screaming and is in awe! haha! I am definitely going to have to keep an eye out for what we are watching when she starts getting old enough to know what is going on!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a very busy Thanksgiving weekend. Thanksgiving day we went over to my aunt's for an early dinner. It was nice seeing everyone and the first time for a lot of my family to meet Kaitlyn. For those of you who know Kaitlyn she is a very fussy baby. But pretty much the whole day she was perfect! It was a Thanksgiving miracle! The next day my mom and I woke up at 3am to go Black Friday shopping. It actually wasn't bad at all b/c we went to Wal-mart first and they match all printed ads for an identical product so I didn't have to worry about running around all over the place.
This past weekend was also Kaitlyn's 2 month birthday! She is so old! We had her baby blessing this Sunday as well. It was a beautiful blessing and all of our family was present for it. Kaitlyn has also started smiling a lot lately. Here are some of our favorite recent pictures of her.

And here are a few pictures of her blessing day...

Halloween!

Here are a few pictures of Kaitlyn in her Halloween attire...

Kaitlyn Hannah Wood

This post is long overdue, but I have just now found the time to get around to it! So here goes...

Kaitlyn Hannah Wood was born Monday September 28th at 2:13 pm. She weighed 6 lb 2 oz and was 19in. long. The labor was actually not too bad. I went into labor around 1:30am Sunday night. I woke up and tried to go back to sleep, but realized the contractions were coming regularly at 5 minute intervals. I woke Justin up after about the 5th one and told him I thought I was in labor. We got up and started to get our hospital bag packed (which we had not done since she was 8 days early!) and we tried to just hang around. I took a bath and then we finally went to the hospital at about 6:00. My contractions had started coming about 3 minutes apart and were getting much stronger. Around 11 am my midwife stated that I was still not dialated at all. I had had the surgery where they go in and freeze cancerous cells in your cervix and it had left scar tissue so they said they were going to need to induce me. They told me I probably would want to have the epidural so i did. It was great! Everything was a breeze after that and she was born within about an hour and a half of getting the epidural and being induced!

Everything went smoothly and Kaitlyn was healthy and just perfect! She was so tiny...which made it easier on me since I only had to push for 25 minutes! The first two weeks we thought she was the perfect baby! All she did was sleep literally almost all day long. Then she woke up and has stayed awake since! haha! She cries a lot. I know they say you can't spoil them at this age, but if she is awake she has to be held. She cries every time you put her down. So it makes it very hard to get anything done! It wasn't too bad when I wasn't working, but now that I have started back to work it makes it pretty difficult!

This past week has been better though. She has started to get on a schedule finally and for the past three nights has only woke up once during the night to eat. We are just so happy to be parents and love her so much! It's so funny how just the smallest little things that she does make you so happy! She is just so cute...well when she is not crying! haha!

Here are some pictures of her life so far...

5 minutes after birth

Kaitlyn in her "Going Home" outfit

Arriving at home to find a Giant Stork!

All wrapped up after her first bath!

Daddy and Kaitlyn at her first outing to the Belmont Festival

Almost all of her outfits are huge on her!