Playing Catch Up

Sitting in Starbucks because I have a babysitter for a couple of hours!  Out of the house...alone? It's a miracle!

So my last blog post was 6 days before Zach and I were in a major roll over car accident.  It still makes me sick to my stomach & gives me major anxiety just when I think about it.  Zach was barely 3 months old at the time & I thank the good Lord every day for keeping him so so safe.  

My only pictures with him on my first Mother's Day.  It's blurry, but I love his lip.

He 'walked' away with not even a scratch.  I tell you what people, if you don't make sure your kid is buckled into their carseat like they should be, shame on you!  I'm not one to judge, but those carseats are set up the way they are for a VERY good reason, so please please make sure you have that strap tightened down & that chest buckle at armpit level.

Family picture during his 3 month shoot.

Ok, off my soap box.

Thinks he's hot stuff now that he can roll over

I got banged up pretty bad and here we are 3 months later & I am STILL going to the chiropractor three times per week and getting a massage once a week.  It's tough stuff.  My muscles from the base of my skull all the way down to my lower back are so messed up.  

At a friends wedding.  Thank goodness for that ring sling!

Happy 4th of July!!

There are days where I do ok, and then there are days were it's still hard to move, hard to nurse Zach, hard to sit, hard to stand.  It just sucks.  All because a guy wasn't paying attention and blew threw a stop sign at 55 mph.  However, it could have been way worse, and I'm thankful that I can still walk.

Zach and his future wife, Juliet. They are exactly 4 months apart + 1 day.

I couldn't even drive a vehicle for over 3 weeks.  I was scared every time I got in my husband's truck & I still have flashbacks & it brings tears to my eyes all the time.  Most people don't know that I'm still having trouble with it all.  

My big boy sitting up!

I try not to let it affect me outwardly, but it's hard.  But, I'm trying to get back into the swing of life.  Going through something like that sure makes you think about your life long purpose & what you should be doing with your time.

First encounter with a cow.  He got licked up to his armpit...then went back for more.  I think he's in love.

On a happier note, Zachary is now 6 months old!! I know, hard to believe!  I keep up with Instagram (farmerswife85) but I rarely find time to sit down and update here.  He is on the verge of crawling every where.  He gets up on his hands and knees and will crawl with his knees but hasn't figured out how to move his hands accordingly yet, so he just face-plants and then gets right back up and does it again.  It is sooo exciting to see him figuring out how to do new things & develop in a little boy.  

And this was just yesterday.  I call it the face-smash crawl.  He doesn't seem to mind his face being in the floor over and over again.

We love him more than we ever knew we could!

Busy Busy Busy

Holy smokes have we been busy!

There is a lot going on right now.

We have been invited to 7 wedding this year.  Yes, SEVEN!  Between the months of March-July, we've already been to two...five more to go!  One of them is my husband's best friend and another one is one of my best friends, so I am really looking forward to those.

Because the drought in California has been so bad, we have two of our ag wells pumping air.  Joy. Thankfully, we were able to reach water in one of them without digging a deeper well, but the other one is a possible cave-in.  Oh, Lord have mercy.  We were not prepared for this.  This is all after we replaced the pump at our home ranch last year. Can you say cha-ching cha-ching??

Zach was 3 months old yesterday.  I can't believe all this happened just 3 short months ago.  He is so much fun now.  He smiles all the time, loves talking and kicking and is on a really good schedule.  His favorite things right now are: being outside (only if the sun isn't in his eyes), playing in his bouncy chair, eating...eating...& eating, and he loves it when his dad makes a popping sound with his lips.  Guaranteed to laugh, but only when Chris does it...it's not nearly as funny when mom does it.

But, life just keeps on chuggin' on.  We are just going day by day and trying to stay above water.

For those of you who don't follow me on Instagram (farmerswife85) here is a little re-cap of whats been going on around here:

Morning kisses.  I love the expression on his face

Check out these guns, ladies!

My parents are here for a couple of days.  It's so nice to have their help & I know Zachary doesn't mind the extra attention

Cloth diapering has begun since I've found a few styles that fit his skinny behind.  He is so cute in them!

Remember that skinny baby that was in newborn clothes till he was 2 months old??  Look at that belly now :)

Oh, and now we have 18 chickens & 4 turkeys.  Chickens to lay eggs & turkeys to eat.  I love that we are able to raise our food!

He got to go to his first baseball game the other night...dressed in his frog outfit.  He was so excited.

That's all for now.  I'm heading to bed soon in hopes that the baby will sleep better tonight.  Cross your fingers for us!

2 Month Birthday

I can't believe my baby is 2 months old already!  Actually, I'm a little late posting these and he will be 10 weeks tomorrow.  Craziness!!

Here he was a week and a half ago in his birthday suit showing off his muscles for the ladies ;)

And here is his 1 month picture...it's amazing how much can change in just a few short weeks!

He is smiling and laughing so much now!!  He loves his bouncy vibrator chair & reaches out and laughs at the toys & his happy time is in the mid-morning.  He HATES to be swaddled and not a huge fan of tummy time.  

At his 2 month appointment he weighed 9lbs 11oz and was 22 1/2 inches long.  Getting chunky!

How it all happened

A continuation from earlier...

After 24 hours of contractions 2-4 minutes apart with NO EPIDURAL, I finally caved at 6:00pm on the 22nd and got the epidural.  I got as far as a 7 by 1:00 the next morning (Thursday, remember I went in on TUESDAY!) & they gave me the option of a c-section or to keep going.  I opted to keep going.  I DID NOT want a c-section.  Three hours later I was checked again & I had progressed 1/2 cm.  Seriously??  The kid was coming out face-up and his shoulders were coming out at an angle.  So, at 4:30am on the 23rd we opted for a c-section.  I felt like a total failure.  I was completely worn out and couldn't even fathom the idea of pushing for several hours and still ending up in a c-section because of how he was positioned.  Plus, because of my pre-eclampsia they were drawing my blood every 45 minutes to test my liver enzymes and those were rapidly rising, so the best thing was just to get him out.

Because my blood pressure was fluctuating so much, I was put on Magnesium Sulfate when I got the epidural at 6:00 on Wednesday night.  That stuff seriously messes you up!  They have to regulate your fluid intake so it doesn't dilute the medication, so even though my mouth felt like I was chewing on 100 cotton balls I was allowed 1/4 cup of ice chips every 2 hours.  It was a.w.f.u.l.!

So, back to the c-section.  I tell you what, it was the weirdest thing to be completely numb like that and still awake.  I almost had a anxiety attack because I couldn't move.  I'm very claustrophobic, so having the drape in my face and not being able to feel anything was crazy!

On to the good part, cuz this is what people really want to see... :)

At 5:37am on January 23rd, we welcomed out 7lb 8 oz baby boy into the world.
We call him Zachary Hunter
Even though my labor and delivery totally sucked, I wouldn't have traded it to not have him here with us.  Everything I went through was more than 100% worth it!!

Chris was taking pictures from across the room since he was still sitting next to me

Daddy cutting the cord

As you can see, he was NOT a nice round headed, c-section baby.  He tried to come out the right way but couldn't figure it out :)
 

He was way more alert than I was!

Laying in between my legs in the recovery room.  Since I hadn't slept or eaten in almost 48 hours I was so out of it after his delivery.  I couldn't even hold him I was so weak, so he just laid in my lap wide awake.  I ended up taking an hour nap in recovery before this picture was even taken.

Chris's mom with her FIRST grandchild :)

My parents with their 4th grandchild and 4th grandSON!

Our first picture as a family of 3!  Do we look tired at all?

Good morning world!-1 day old 

His going home outfit...can you tell daddy picked it out?

Well, that's our story.  Kind of long, but it was LONG!!

Get ready for loads of pictures from here on out!

Spring brings lots of changes!

Wow.  I cant' believe my last post was announcing my pregnancy!
Oh how time flies.

I think I was about 13-15 weeks at the time & I had great intentions of blogging about my whole pregnancy, but I was pretty sick the first 22 weeks or so and then I had a couple of weeks of feeling pretty good,
then it came back for another 4 weeks.

We had a scare of preterm labor at 32 weeks and I was put on bed rest for a week then moved to modified bed rest for the rest of my pregnancy.  At 36 weeks my blood pressure starting getting higher, but not consistently, so I went through a ton of different tests & at 39 weeks they confirmed I had pre-eclampsia & I needed to be induced that day.  So to the hospital we went on January 21st.  UGH!!

We had taken a 12 week Bradley class on natural childbirth...and I just saw all of that going out the window.
But the most important thing was keep me and baby safe.

But, to save you from a long post on my first day back...I will leave you with these...my little, squishy baby