Wyatt Osborne Boyce

We would like to welcome to the world baby Wyatt Osborne Boyce!

8 lbs. 14 oz. 20 1/2 in.

It has been a crazy few days. I have not gone into labor this early with my other babies, so I didn't think that I would be delivering him 'til next week. But I guess Wyatt had other plans in mind. I had been having pretty regular braxton hicks the last couple of weeks, but nothing to throw a party about. Tuesday night, I woke up because I was having more regular contractions. They were coming about every 3-5 minutes and this lasted for an hour and a half. They then died down, and I was able to go back to sleep. I continued to have contractions the next day, but nothing too exciting.

Thursday I woke up feeling pretty good. As most of you know, I get pretty bad morning sickness all nine months of pregnant, but Thursday I was feeling pretty good. Ty went to preschool that morning, and I relaxed and worked on some projects that didn't involve much more than me sitting on the couch and occupying my hands. Then around 4 pm, my contractions picked up a lot. I was having contractions every 2-4 minutes and they didn't stop. After my experience Tuesday night, I wanted to make sure that these were legit, so I drank a lot of water, laid down, took a warm shower. They just wouldn't stop. Aaron was downtown at a dinner meeting for work. So he was about an hour away and I can't always get a hold of him, as he is talking with other clients and doesn't have access to his phone.

I labored at home for about 4 hours before I decided to call the triage nurse at the hospital to see if I should come in. She gave me the go ahead and Ms. Dawn came to stay with the kids and Ms. Joy took me to the hospital. At this point, Aaron was done with his meeting and was able to take off to meet us at the hospital. I was delivering at a new hospital so it was interesting to see how things happened at this place. At my old hospital, as soon as you were dilated to a 4 you were admitted to the hospital. Here you have to wait another hour to make sure that you are in active labor. I was at a 4 when we got there and I thankfully  progressed in that hour. Unfortunately, the computer system was down, so it took another hour before I was set up in Labor and Delivery.

Please note, my last two deliveries lasted 6-7 hours from checking in to delivery. I have been very lucky in that regard. So I, of course, had the same expectations this time around. I got my IV (which is always awful, but more so this time.) The nurse had a hard time collecting samples and really dug my IV around. And my epidural was painful. It worked though, so it was worth it. :-) At this point it was about midnight and I was thinking "this is great, 3 more hours and I will get to meet my son." By about 4am, I still had not progressed past 6 centimeters. So they started me on Pitocin. The baby's heart starting showing some signs of distress. Not anything big, but his heart beat would drop every now and then. They kept having me turn from side to side, eventually having me get on my hands and knees, because the baby decided to come down head facing up instead of down.

At about 6 am the nurse started talking about c-sections. Because I was having a big baby, they didn't think that he would have the room he would need to successfully come down that way.  She let me know that the doctor was on his way and that most likely he would agree that I needed a c-section. I know that many a person has had an emergency c-section and it wasn't in their plans, but I was devastated. She continued to walk me through what would happen if the Dr. decided that was the course of action to take. She didn't ever present me with any other options for trying to get him to turn around. So here I am, having been awake all night, being told that I am having a c-section.

Well, yay for 7 o'clock, because there was a shift change and I got two new nurses. And can I say, they were seriously heaven-sent. There is no doubt about it. The doctor was already on his way. The new nurses decided to put me in a weird potion with me on my side and my opposite leg up in a stirrup. With in minutes, I felt the pressure of the baby moving down. The doctor got there about 7:35ish and checked me. He told me that I was complete and could start pushing. He never even mentioned a c-section. He left the room to check on something else and the nurses had me start pushing. I pushed once and they told me to stop and to get the doctor right back in there. About 5 minutes later, the doctor arrived and three pushes later, Wyatt was here. I will forever be grateful for those two nurses who were willing to give me a chance to get this baby out the way I wanted.

I tried to come home a day early since they no longer take take the babies to the nursery at night, but when they were running the final labs on Wyatt, they found that his biliruben count was high. So we didn't get to go home. He had to spend the night under the UV lights and I was only allowed to take him out every 3 hours to feed, and then for only 30 minutes. It was hard not being able to cuddle and comfort him, but he did a really good job for the most part.

We are now happily at home and his biliruben count is normal. The kids are so excited to see him all the time now. They are constantly checking on him and Ella wants to hold him every chance she gets. Hopefully we can get back to a routine soon and the kids can feel normal again. Aaron had been super dad and an amazing help.

First Day of School

We have officially entered the world of public school. Ella had her first day of Kindergarten last week. She was so excited and She even asked to ride the bus home, which I was a little nervous about. Aaron and I were able to drop her off at least. Ty was not happy that Ella got to ride the bus and he didn't. It was a good thing that his preschool started the next day. Both kids love their teachers. Ella came home so hyped up last week from school. This week she has been a lot more tired when she gets home. Ty is still trying to understand that he only gets to go to school twice a week. Ty also gives us a lot more details about school than Ella does. I would have thought it would be the opposite, but Ty has become quite the chatter box.

First Day of School Pictures

We are pretty much ready for the baby. I am officially 37 weeks, so the baby is welcome any time now, but I am sure he won't make an appearance till closer to my due date. The Dr. expects him to be 8+ lbs. I am so scared of having a 10 lb. baby. So I may take the Dr. up on getting induced a week early. I am still feeling sick and am physically and emotionally ready for this baby to come. I was able to complete all the projects I had for the baby.

Here is a pic of the blessing outfit that I made for the baby, as well as a blanket to match.

We had a wonderful vacation in Utah and California this summer. We headed up to Utah the end of June to attend Mackenzie and Kyle's wedding (my step-sister and her husband). It was so much fun to be there for that. Aaron then left for Houston, since he has a something important to do. I think he called it a job. :-)  The kids and I stuck it our for a few more weeks in Utah. While it is hard to be away from home and especially Aaron for so long, it was nice to be in a place that has a basement and cools down at night. It has been pretty miserable being pregnant in Texas for the summer.

This is the kids and me getting ready to watch the Fourth of July fireworks.

Here is the handsome Ty boy at Kenzie's wedding. I absolutely love him in his bow tie. 

This is probably the best belly picture you will get from me. I am not a fan of documenting how big I am getting. The photographer was getting a picture of all the nieces and nephews from our side. They didn't want to leave out the baby, so I am standing awkwardly close to Kenzie so the photographer could get the belly in the picture while cropping me out later. 

 Aaron then flew back up near the end of July and we drove out to San Diego with Aaron's sister Courtney for Aaron's family reunion.We rented out a beach house and had almost 30 people hanging out together. It was loud and crazy and fun! We went to the beach a couple of times and I have to say the water is just too cold to enjoy for me. Ella said she had fun at the beach, but she didn't like the water or the sand.... hmmm... I am not sure what she liked about the beach then. But she loved playing with her cousins.

I hung out with this little guy a lot during the reunion. He is the newest addition to the Boyce family. We got along well. He wanted to be held, I needed a constant reminder of why I was pregnant. It was a mutually beneficial relationship. And who can't help but love on such a cute baby. 

 We are all doing well getting back to the daily races. Hopefully this early morning wake up time will become less painful as we go. I am sure the next time I update this, I will be in the hospital, staring at a brand new baby and no longer feeling sick.

Bed Knobs and Broomsticks

Since I finished the dresser, I have been wanting to replace our bedspread. The green and brown bedspread was no longer matching with the rest of the furniture. But since I am on a budget, I was trying to come up with some creative solutions that I could do now, rather than wait and be annoyed every time I walked in my room. I already owned a down comforter, but haven't used it in a while, seeing as we live in Houston and all. I began my research on Pinterest for some DIY ideas when it came to duvet covers. One site had mentioned just using flat sheets, measuring, and sewing together to make a duvet cover. I figured I was capable of sewing a few straight lines. Luck would have it, when I went to Ross a few days later, I was able to find a double set of sheets for a good price. I got two flat sheets that were color coordinated, two fitted sheets, and four pillow cases.  And here is the end result. I still have a few finishing details to do, but all in all, I pretty pleased with the results. 

Aaron is still a little hesitant about the floral pattern. But I absolutely love it! He wanted more blue...

Here is another project I started before we moved. I wanted to get Ella a twin sized bed, so I needed to get twin sized bedding. Once again, trying to be thrifty, I took an old duvet cover we had, that we were no longer going to use. I cut it down to size, then added the tulle flowers and strips. I had to hand stitch all the flowers on. Ella wanted them all over the bed, but that was a little more work than I was willing to put in. Eventually, this will turn into a ballerina themed room with some tulle window coverings and art work. But this is a good start. 

  

 I totally forgot to post Halloween costumes on here. Ella has acquired some princess dress-ups so I decided to let her choose which princess she wanted to go as. She choose Cinderella. I think she makes a fabulous princess don't you?

And then there is Ty. I was too lazy this year to think of something to make, and too cheap to buy my two year old a costume. And since I am a Pinterest addict, this is what he got stuck with. Luckily, most people thought it was hilarious. Everything we already owned, plus a make-up beard and card board sign and we were good to go. While were trick-or-treating, Ty got really scared of going up to people's houses. So he spent most of the night, NOT working for candy, but sitting in the stroller. He is certainly a lazy bum. :-)

 These are pictures of Ella taking pictures of herself. I thought they were cute and wanted to share my child's cuteness with you all!

New Pride and Joy

I have a new pride and joy at my house. We got rid or our old dressers when we moved. They were dressers that we got from Ikea a few years ago and they completely fell apart. So once we got settled in the new house, I was on the hunt for something that I could make my own. I cam across this dresser on Craiglist and I made Aaron go pick it up for me. I have been in love with all this colored furniture that I have been seeing a lot lately, but I didn't want to pay full price for any of it. So I did it myself. 

Here is the before picture:

And here is the after:

I am so excited that I was able to accomplish this. My good friend came over and helped with a lot of it so I can't take all the credit. :-) Now I am on to finishing up some projects for Ella's room. Stay tuned for more! 

We're home!

We finally made it to the new house. After living in a hotel for a few days and then staying with some awesome friends for two weeks, we are homeowners again. We are so grateful to be in our new house and the kids are loving all the extra room to play. Here are some pictures of the places that were mostly clean. I am still working on rooms upstairs, but the down stairs is pretty much done. 

New House

For those of you who don't know, we SOLD our house! We got an offer the day we left Utah and signed the papers two days later. We are really excited and relieved that we can move forward on the new house now. 

Here are some pictures of the new house:

This is a view of the kitchen from the living room.

Butler's Pantry. 

Doors to the office. There is clear plastic on the glass and will be removed once they are done painting.

View from the front door into the living room.

Master bathroom

Bay window in master bedroom

The brick is finally going up.

We feel really blessed to be able to do this. We close on the house in three weeks! 

A Year in a Day

I have been so bad at updating my blog. My camera was having issues uploading pictures to the computer. I finally realized my printer has an SD card reader. So here we are. We have had a fairly boring year this year and I will totally take it. The kids continue to get bigger and they are so much fun... (most of the time). 

As I was looking back at some of our pictures I ran across these. The first one is Ty when Dad dresses him for church. And I dressed him in the second. Notice any differences? I was out of town for the first picture and that was what I saw when Aaron and the kids picked me up from the airport after church. I loved it. :-) Proof that they do need me around. 

This is Ella's first day of pre-school. Her teacher is a lady in our ward and we absolutely love her! Ella has done so well in school, learning all her letters and numbers and she is really close to reading. I would like to say it is because I am so dedicated to her learning, but I think the credit goes to Ms. Sylvia and to Aaron. He reads with the kids almost every night. 

This year I decided to make Ella's Halloween costume.  I just told her what she was going to wear and tried to get her excited about it. When she saw the skirt, she was sold. (I think the pink hair helped a little too.) She went as Abby Cadabby. It was a lot of fun.

Before ^

< After

We also painted our house. We are wanting to move in the next year, so we are starting to get things ready little by little so we don't have to do it all at once. I was kind of sad to see all the color go, but I love it now. The house feels so open. We also got new blinds in the living room, which I installed my self. I am so proud of myself for figuring that out. 

Things that happen while Dad is suppose to be watching the kids. Ella did the same things. Silly kids!!!

I have been on a crafting/sewing binge. My friend was having a baby shower, so I thought that I would take this opportunity to try out some the things that my Aunt Colleen taught me last summer. I hope I did you proud Aunt Colleen. Above is a nursing blanket.

I also made a single layer flannel blanket with a matching burp cloth. I made these for Ty and absolutely loved them. especially in Texas. They are bigger than a typical flannel blanket so they make it easy to swaddle. 

I also crocheted these adorable Mary Jane booties. They turned out so cute. 

And my first car seat canopy. I almost didn't give this away. I love butterflies.. and pink. What a perfect combination. It's a good thing that I bought more fabric. 

I also made a diaper clutch. I didn't have a pattern for this, so I just kind of winged it. But I think that it turned out pretty good. I have since made another one that I think is a little more polished, not bad for the first time. I am also thinking about selling these, either individually, or as gift sets so if any one is interested just let me know. These will not be the only color combinations I can make.

Then these are just of my cute babies. I am so lucky to have such great kids. They are certainly my pride and joy! Hopefully now that I have figured out how to upload my photos, you all can get better updates. Love to all!!