Sorry

...if your google reader just got loaded with a bunch of old posts from me. I realized some of my posts never got published and I wanted to get them officially on the blog.

Karly the Photog

And these are only 2 days...

This girl needs her own camera. :)

Reason #2 I love where we live:

This little guy lives in our backyard (with his family)! 

We also have a squirrel nest in the next door neighbor's tree.

I love that we have a BACKYARD!

Unfortunately, Mr. Bunny lives under our deck (I believe), and that's being torn down in about 2 months - I hope he can find a new house! :D 

Reason #1 I love where we live...

The city has 4 recreation centers that we get to use for FREE! Nate has taken Karly swimming a couple of times and Tanner and I went with once.

Karly has handled having Tanner around really well. Any frustration she has with getting less attention she takes out on me, not Tanner (luckily). Nate has been SO good about making sure he spends time with her so she doesn't feel neglected. He is a GREAT daddy!

1 month?

Umm, can someone please tell me where that month went?!? I guess all the percocet, sleeping, mastitis, antibiotics, not sleeping, colds, etc. etc. added up to a month...

This boy sure has grown a month's worth - at least! None of his newborn clothes fit anymore! I have no idea how much he weighs, but Nate and I both guessed around 12 pounds. 

I'll tell you what, this boy LOVES to eat. 

I loved the monkey pictures I did monthly with Karly, so I'm going to try to keep up with those with Tanner too. Here's his 1 month monkey picture.

 Tummy time - so much better with a coach there who's done it before.

 Kind of a smile (photo taken by our in-house photographer - that would be Karly and she gets her own post all about that...coming soon...)

 We sure love this boy with his great sleeping habits (usually only wakes up once, MAYBE twice a night), cute little cross eyed faces (combined with his fish face, which I have yet to get a picture of), even his loud noises at all hours of the day, and especially his cute little cry and the way he's learning to hold his head up and ends up just staring into space while doing so.

You need to come see this kid. :)

Birth Story

This is only for those who are interested. It's going to be really long and detailed and stuff, so you are in no way obligated to read this. :) 

We went to the hospital at 4:00 AM on Thursday, Feb. 2 to be induced. Because of Nate's busy season, we figured if he hadn't come by then, we would force the kid out when it was a little more convenient for us. :) I changed into the lovely hospital robe and they got me started on the antibiotic for Strep B. They said the doctor would be in around 8:00 to break my water and start pit. Amazingly, both Nate and I were able to sleep a little in those 4+ hours. 

The doctor didn't end up coming in until closer to 8:30 (time goes SO slow when you're just waiting...) and she checked me first. Keep in mind here, I had been having pretty serious contractions off and on for about a week. One night we even called the hospital and were planning to go in because they were less than 10 minutes apart for over an hour. Unfortunately, they slowed down so we never went in. So anyway, the doctor checked me and I was BARELY a 3. After quite a bit of effort (not sure why it was so hard...), she managed to break my water and I sat there for the next 2 hours, leaking uncomfortably and having nothing else happen. No increase in contractions or anything. The doctor didn't give me pitocin, but said she would come back at lunch time to see how things were going. We convinced the nurse to start the pitocin around 10 or 10:30 since breaking my water had done absolutely nothing. 

Still, even with my water broken and the pitocin started,  basically nothing happened. I would have occasional contractions, but nothing consistent or even very painful. A little after noon, the nurse increased the pitocin enough to where they were starting to be painful. I got an epidural sometime around 1:00 or 2:00 (can't really remember...) but the nurse was getting a little frustrated that the contractions really weren't consistent - 7 minutes, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 3 minutes. In fact, she told me I have a "stubborn uterus." The doctor did come in around 1:45 and checked me - I was only at about a 6 at this point. Nate asked me if I was depressed and I think I was either too tired or in too much pain to have a real response. 

From 2:00 or so until about 4:00, I slept or watched TV off and on. I couldn't really concentrate on anything and could still feel a little of the pain here and there. The nurse was coming in every few minutes to check how things were going. She said at one point early in the afternoon that she thought he was "sunny side up", meaning his head was facing up instead of down like it should be. She kept having me lay in these really awkward positions to see if we could get him to turn and at one point she thought he had. 

Around 4:00, apparently I was complete or at least very close, but the baby still wasn't moving down - I think I was still at a -2 or -3. The nurse decided to have me start pushing a bit to see if I could get him to come down a little more before we had the doctor come in. I'm going to be completely honest: from this point on, things are a little blurry for me. I remember this nurse had me push off and on until her shift ended at 5. At that point a new nurse came in and I pushed off and on (but more frequently, as my contractions were now 1-2 minutes apart and I was pushing every few contractions, but not every one). At some point in all this, I realized I was feeling all of the pain - ALL of it. I mentioned it a couple of times and since I wasn't really getting much a response I finally just said "I can feel everything and I shouldn't be - can you please have the anesthesiologist come in?" He came in and gave me a super shot of that amazing drug, straight into my IV. THEN he decided to check the epidural line and realized it had come unhooked. NO WONDER I was hurting, yeah? 

Once we got the epidural fixed, at some point the doctor came in and we started pushing for reals. Oh. My. Ouch. I have never done anything so hard in my whole life. Keep in mind, when I had Karly my doctor didn't want me pushing because of my high blood pressure, so I pushed 4 times and he pulled her out with forceps. In the end, with Tanner, I pushed for nearly 3 hours. He never did turn, so he was facing up which makes it MUCH harder to get through the birth canal. AND this kid was nearly 10 pounds! Anyway, I'm not sure how long it was, but Nate was holding one leg, the nurse was holding the other and the doctor was telling me to push - "keep pushing, keep going, you're almost there!" I'm pretty sure I heard that for a solid hour. Nate confided later that he just sat there saying as little as possible because every time I pushed, his head would move out a little, but as soon as I stopped pushing, it would slide right back to where it was. He was basically stuck behind my pelvic bone and for a good part of the time, I was pushing wrong (oops?), so we were making very little progress. Once I started pushing right, the most helpful thing was one nurse would count to 10 and I just had to keep pushing until she got to 10. The doctor and nurses saying "keep pushing, keep pushing!" really didn't make me want to keep pushing. For some reason the counting thing helped though. I was so tired that I was falling asleep between pushing (which was maybe a minute between each contraction, so not a lot of sleeping time) and started telling the doctor to just pull him out. I literally could not understand why she wasn't doing that. At one point, she did mention using the vacuum, but deep down I really didn't want her to just pull him out. :) I kept saying I couldn't do it and everyone in the room kept saying I could. I really wasn't sure how much longer I could do this. FINALLY (with the help of an episiotomy literally right before my last push) he came out! Once his head got through, the rest of him just kind of slid out. 

When the doctor pulled him out, she said "wow, he's over 9 pounds," but everyone in the room was shocked when the nurse weighed him and he was 9 lbs, 10 oz. No wonder it was so hard to get him out! I held him for a second and then Nate held him and they just kind of cleaned him off a little bit and said they would do a full bath later. 

Then came the fun part [I really wish there was a sarcasm font]. Apparently really big babies have the same problem as really small babies - they have a hard time regulating their body temperature and blood sugar levels. We decided to let the Tanner sleep in the nursery that first night so we could get a little sleep; I just told the nurses to bring him to me when he needed to eat. I think we gave him to the nurses at around midnight. At 1:30, the nurse came in to say Tanner's blood sugar was a little low and asked if it was okay to give him formula to get his blood sugar numbers up. I said it was fine - I just wanted to make sure Tanner was okay. They also said that for the next day we should probably supplement his feedings with formula, just to make sure his numbers stayed high. Well, the lactation nurse came in the next day and told us that the nurses probably didn't need to give him formula - his blood sugar level was 39 and normal for a baby is 40. She also said that a newborn's stomach holds about 7 ml and that the nurses had given him 23 ml! Granted, Tanner was a bigger baby, so maybe he needed more milk, but the lactation nurse definitely thought that was way too much. By the end of our hospital stay, Nate was SO sick of the nurses and lactation nurses because it was obvious they weren't talking to each other - they were just giving us their own advice. Also, can I just say here how much I HATE the nurses saying I had to wake him up to eat? I'm sorry, but I firmly believe a baby is not going to let himself starve. He will wake up when he needs to eat (and we have definitely learned that since he's been home - when he's hungry EVERYONE in the house knows it). Anyway, it all turned out fine (though I kind of think part of the reason Tanner is not good at nursing is because he got used to a bottle before he had nursing figured out). 

So anyway, we love this little boy and are so glad everything went well. Despite all the pain and frustration of getting him here and right after, there was so much that could have gone wrong and didn't, for which I am very grateful. We are doing really well now, except for nursing. This kid sucks at sucking. I have had to pump on one side for over a week because it's so torn up, a lactation consultant I met with told me not to nurse on it until it's healed. I got mastitis on the other side and had to take an antibiotic for a week. I am hoping that eventually we will get it figured out, but I'm preparing myself for the idea that I may not be able to nurse as long as I'd like. Tanner does seem to be doing better, but we'll see...

I will be amazed if anyone is still reading at this point. :)

Tanner Wade Frakes

Born February 2, 2012

6:54 PM

9 lbs. 10 oz.

22 inches

Please notice the ridiculously curly hair in above picture. LOVE it. 

(By the way, sorry if we're not friends on Facebook and this is the first you're seeing any update on the birth of this kid. Recovery has been a LITTLE harder than last time and this is the first I've really had/taken the time to update. I hope you weren't thinking all this time that I was still pregnant. :D) 

Not very good family photo. Why did they have the lights turned so weird that night?

 Proud daddy (also not a good picture. Might be because I took this one...)

First picture of Karly with her brother. She is still like this with him - she LOVES her baby brother (hallelujah!)

 Not sure why, but we didn't get a picture of Tanner and me in the hospital, so this will have to do (I looked a little better at this point anyway). 

 My wonderfully awesome momma came to stay for a week. I probably would have died without her here - thank you  mom! (Can you believe she has 16 grandkids?!?) 

 Our little helper. She loves to feed him and help change his diapers and turn on the music in his little seat, etc. Any animosity she may be feeling for these changes in her life are directed at me, not him - luckily. 

This is kind of a weird angle, but I love his eyes in this one. We still don't see them super often, but I love his eyes (here's hoping they stay blue like his daddy's!) 

Birth story to come shortly! (Becki...) :D

Video (or Rodeo as we silly adults call it)

Last week, we went to the Denver Stock Show with the MacLennans and Dan and Kippy. Just as last year, they loved the animals (and the horsey ride) and loved the rodeo for the first hour(ish). After awhile, though, Karly and Graham were done with the animals. 

Karly pushing baby Audrey in the stroller

 This was the only picture I got where you could at least see the front of both of their faces.

 Enjoying the rodeo!

 Holding their tokens for the horsey ride!

 Train ride

 Audrey's free horsey ride

Baby shower

My awesome friends/young women in our (now old) ward threw me a baby shower for Mr. Boy. I was so excited at how many people got to come and overwhelmed with all the amazing gifts to help us get ready for this little guy! We literally had almost no clothing for the poor kid - I'd been too focused on house stuff to be spending much time thinking about baby stuff (which is probably good since I'm already overly anxious for him to be here!).

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the day. Thanks to all of you who were able to come and your amazing gifts!

The AMAZING cake my amazing friend Lacey made. So cute. And SO yummy. My gluten intolerant sister-in-law even ate it, knowing the pain she would be in later. It was THAT good. :)

 Just some shots of the people who came...

 And of course the big sis! She was very helpful at opening presents, of course. :)

 I tried to find a semi-flattering shot of me, but let's be honest. I'm huge and VERY pregnant. Flattering shots don't exist of me (though I have seen some cute ones of my pregnant friends and cousins - why can't I look like that when I'm pregnant?!). I'll try to remember to take a standing one soon, so I at least have a decent picture of my measuring big belly (at every dr. appt. I measure at least a week big, but we did an ultrasound and this little guy is measuring right on track - it's just me that's big).

It was so fun to get to spend the time with so many friends and feel so loved and blessed!

Responsibility?

All of the sudden, I feel like an adult.

I own a house. With my husband. And we have (almost) 2 kids.

That's what adults do, and it's really weird and kind of still surreal (mostly the house thing. I've had 9 months and a constant reminder to get ready for the 2 kids thing).

So as a quick update (because in about 9 days or less I have a feeling I won't have/want to take time to blog about this kind of stuff), we are officially homeowners! We closed on Jan. 12 and moved in on the 13th. Nate was actually out of town for work for the actual closing, so I had got to do the closing all by my lonesome. I had to do power of attorney for Nate, which basically means on every document, I signed not only my name, but "Nathan Frakes by Alisa Frakes as Attorney in Fact." EVERY document. You ever closed on a house? There are a LOT of papers. I got really fast by the end.

I need to give a shout out to Dan, Kippy, Lindsey, Connor, Mike, Blake and Nellie for helping us move/take care of Karly/unpack our house/fix things. We have had a ton of help and its' been great!

The house we bought was a foreclosure and is 30 years old, so there has been plenty for us to do since moving in. Poor Nate, who is in the midst of busy season has been working like 12 hour days and then coming home to work on the house for 2-3 hours. Most of it has been pretty basic stuff, but STILL. He's superman. We have about a million ideas for projects and paint colors and things to change, but a lot of it will be waiting until after March (busy season) or just summer. We love it and are so excited to be here! And we have an extra bedroom (with a real mattress in it) and an entire empty basement, so guess what? You can come visit. :)

I took pictures of the whole house shortly after we moved in, just so we had "before" shots of everything. Here are a few of them:

Kitchen/dining room

 Family Room

 Living room/dining area (that we are still trying to decide what to do with for now since we have the other dining area)

 Backyard/1000 Sq. foot deck (that is being ripped out as the morons who built the massive, orange deck didn't even put the thing on cement pylons)

 Basement

 One of our many projects (master bedroom "closet" - there is a walk in closet on the other side of that cedar planked wall and this one has a cable connection and outlet. And cedar wood. And gold, full length mirrors. It's all gotta go.)

 Master bath. This project is actually already almost completed. Ugly, dirty gold doors are gone, replaced by a cute shower curtain. Bottom tiles have been regrouted and sealed and we are working on finding a way to get the base cleaner...

Not on my list...

I have about 10 million things I should be doing instead of this, but I'm stressed and I'm hoping that writing on here for a minute will help. I told Nate I was stressed and didn't know why. His response? "packing, baby, moving, house? busy season? pregnancy?" 


Oh yeah - maybe those things. 


I haven't mentioned anything on here about the packing/moving/house stuff - that really deserves it's own post - but for today suffice it to say, we will be closing on a house next Thursday! We are SO excited and I'll try to post pictures and a more detailed story of the process in the next few weeks (or months, depending on when Mr. Boy decides to make his debut...). I wanted to make sure I posted about Christmas stuff, though, before it got too late and never happened. 


Nate had the Friday before Christmas and the whole week after off work, plus this past Monday. Needless to say, Karly and I were spoiled by having him around all day and going through withdrawals now that he's back at work. It's only going to get worse since we're entering busy season too! Nate made good use of the time he had off and spent TONS of time playing with Karly. It was awesome. 


Christmas Eve morning, Nate and Karly built a gingerbread house village. Gingerbread houses were never really a tradition in my family, but they were in Nate's and one he definitely wants to continue (though he did say next year he wants each person to have an individual house - I think the OCD came out in him with Karly trying to decorate with him...). 

Later in the day, Nate and Karly built a snowman and Dan and Kippy's house (there isn't really anywhere by our apartment to do it properly - next year it will be in our own back yard!). It was actually more like Nate building a snowman while Karly ate snow and told him to put eyes, a nose, mouth, hat, etc. on "Frosty." 

(Little Miss I'm-done-taking-naps had cold feet and a total meltdown when we took these pictures. Still cute though. :) 


The Monday after Christmas, we went sledding. Karly didn't seem to be having fun at first (might have been the face plant into the snow), but quickly warmed up to it and she and Nate ended up going the next day again while I was at the dentist. 

We got to do Christmas morning in our own place for the first time this year and we loved waking up in our own beds, getting up with Karly and seeing what Santa brought and opening presents together. Despite totally missing my family in Arizona, it was so nice to be home. We'll just have to make sure we spend good quality summer time with my family! 

These are not the best Christmas morning pictures, but we were having too much fun watching Karly open all her presents! 

It was a great Christmas break and, like I said, so nice to have Nate around so much, especially since he'll be pretty absent for the next couple of months. 

On to the craziness! 

Maybe now I can go get something accomplished....