Graduation, Grammas, and Gratitude

Last weekend was a whirlwind of festivities and family! We have lived in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois for almost two years for Justin to attend the University of Illinois to receive his Master's degree in Technical Systems Management. He finished his thesis about two weeks after Zoey was born on the topic of Machine System Energy Requirements and Yield Sensing for Biomass Harvesting.  What a mouthful. I was not born into the agricultural world so I could not really explain to you what that entailed. A lot of big complicated vocab words that I don't use were discussed. However, he wrote his thesis quickly and when he went to defend it, his thesis passed "as is" without changes. The professors told him that is very rare to do that. I am so proud of the work he accomplished! He has been so busy with a new daughter, teaching his class to undergrads, (Off Road Equipment Management)  working in the young men's presidency and as Scoutmaster. Plus all the perks of being a husband and father to Zayden. He managed everything so well and  couldn't have done a better job of everything! 

So to celebrate, we decided to have a big party at our little house for graduation! Since we wanted family to come visit, we planned Zoey's baby blessing on the same weekend. On top of that it also happened to be Mother's Day. So we go big when we decide to throw a party! My parents came, Justin's parents, Justin's sister Jen and her husband Chris, his younger sister Racheal, and Justin's Grandmother came for graduation. Justin's Uncle Matt and his family came up on Saturday evening for the blessing the next day. We had a lot of family here and it was wonderful! 

Zayden was so excited for family to come! He got used to have Gramma around when Zoey was first born. After my mom and Jen left he didn't know what to do by himself in the house. So we spent lots of time outside and he was in heaven! He's learned to open the door so we have to make sure to lock it otherwise he sneaks out the door. 

My parents were the first to arrive. That next morning, my dad hooked Zayden's bike trailer up to his bike and took him on a ride. We also had to buy Zayden a bike helmet...obviously not liking the helmet. (It didn't help that daddy accidently pinched his neck while adjusting the straps)

 As soon as my dad started riding, the tears stopped and he was all grins! 

 Saturday was graduation day! We had a lot of down time in the beginning of the day so the women went shopping and the men...enjoyed being men and grilled and spent the time outside!  My dad enjoyed snuggling with Zoey and putting her to sleep...as well as himself.

The beautiful blanket that Justin's mother made Zoey. (she quilted Zoey's name in one of the corners and it has minky on the back! So snuggly and wonderful)

 Zayden loves our neighbor's motorcycle! He always runs over there and tries to climb on! 

Before graduation, we had some time for pictures. Orange and Blue for the Fighting Illini! It's very tricky to get a good family picture when Zayden is deciding to be difficult!

 During graduation, Zayden wandered the halls with Papa. When he wasn't with Papa, he was with Nanny playing on the Ipad. Zayden loved all the attention and affection from his grandparents! 

 Zoey snuggled with Uncle Chris. Both of them LOVED this! 

That night (Saturday) EVERYBODY was here! So we went out to Toro Loco for wonderful Mexican cuisine! Such a fun loud crowd!

Sunday morning, with 5 kids we had to find some thing to do when church didn't start until 1! So Uncle Matt took these two on a bike ride. Zayden and Amelia are best buds when they get together! 

Mother's Day and Zoey's Baby Blessing

Our little Zoey was beautiful that day! She always is, but the dress really accented her beautiful features! I found the dress idea on pinterest and thought that I could make it. Well, I was a little adventurous and was overconfident in my abilities. I have only sewn quilts, (straight lines) so making clothing was very difficult for me. I got really stressed out trying to make it so when Jen and Jana were here they took over for me and finished the dress! Jen did an amazing job on the dress and made it more beautiful than I had imagined!  She was darling!  During the blessing, Zoey did fantastic! Just what we had hoped for. The entire experience was so wonderful to have our  friends and family here. Our neighbors Dave and Brandi also came to share the blessing experience with us. We love them! 

 After church it was picture time and prepping for an enormous dinner. (We fed 27 people after church! Whew!)

Happy Mother's Day to me!

 Zoey wasn't particularly happy during the picture time, but I love this picture of Justin! 

Justin's grandmother Geri and her two sons Steve and Matt (Justin's dad is on the left)

Another difficult picture day for Zayden!

Zayden wanted to play with Dave and Brandi's dogs! He loved chasing and hugging them. 

 The family picture! And of course the best picture of everyone is not the best of Zayden :) Silly boy

Zoey got the most snuggles!

Aunt Racheal

 Great Grandma Maughan

Papa Steve

 Nanny

 My parents were the last to leave. We had such a full house to then have it be empty was sad for Zayden. He loved having all these people around but was glad to get back on his normal nap schedule! When family is here, he never sleeps as well. More tantrums and dramatic explosions tend to happen when he doesn't get his normal amount of sleep. It also doesn't help when he has to share his room with Gramma and Grampa. :) 

 Overall we had a great weekend! Now it's cracking the whip to get our house packed in about a week's time! We are driving away to Ames, Iowa on May 29th! Then out to the ranch for June with some family reunions in the summer! Then back to Iowa to get moved in and settled into a new place and get ready for school to start. Lots of adventures for our family!

We are so grateful for all the friends and experience we have had here! It's been a wonderful experience for us! We've loved the church ward here as well as the university. We've made some lifelong friends and made great memories! It will be bittersweet to move out.

As for me, recovery has been really well! Much better than with Zayden. I tried riding a bike the other day...well let's just say I need a little more time to be back to normal. I had to take some ibuprofen that night because I overexerted myself. Being a mother of two definitely has it's challenges but I think I am finally into a groove. Zoey has slept a few night through the night! (7 1/2 hours straight) but not consistent enough. Mostly I get about 3-5 hour stretches in the night but it's a quick feeding and she's right back asleep. Not too hard. The hardest part is the crying and fussy fits until midnight or so. I miss going to bed at 9! Sleep is important to me, so hopefully Zoey will have the same feelings. :) She is getting so big! She was almost 12 pounds last week! She's gaining weight fast and is in 3 month clothes already. She will be out of them soon I'm sure! She adds a whole new dimension to our family but is such a joy! I am having a difficult time remembering what our family was like without her! We love our little family!

Zoey Elizabeth Maughan

I have been awful at blogging in 2013! Lots of trips and then preparing for a new baby and finishing the school year for Justin has left our family very busy! I would love to backdate and post all of our adventures, but that would take hours of sorting through pictures and going through my calendar to remember everything we have done! So instead I will just do a post on our newest addition! Zoey Elizabeth!

Born April 2 at 8:57 pm 8 lbs 6 oz 20 inches

I was actually due March 20, so she was 2 weeks overdue and I still had to be induced! She did not want to come on her own. Apparently I am a great baby incubator. Because I had a C-section with Zayden, I wanted to try and have a normal delivery this time around. (VBAC - vaginal birth after cesarean) Because of that, I was considered high risk and could not be induced. I  was supposed to go into labor on my own. Well, her due date came and went and my mom came to help out and arrived 2 days before Zoey's due date, thinking that I would have a baby within a few days. Little did we know my mom would be here two weeks and not have a baby! So she extended her trip another week, no way was she going home without holding that new grandbaby! She had a blast playing with Zayden and helping with all the cooking and cleaning around the house. I had completely cleared out my schedule thinking I would need to be home recovering with a new baby so we had a lot of free time on our hands! 

Anyways, I went with midwives this time around and I loved it! I was hoping they would be more supportive of a natural delivery and not try and force a c-section again. I was completely against another c-section. I had a very difficult time recovering from Zayden and I remembered vividly the pain of getting out of bed the next day after the surgery. I did not want that pain again. Almost two weeks after her due date, I was still only dilated to a 1 (which is very depressing when you need to get to a 10 to have the baby). Every doctor's visit was pretty depressing when my body was making no progress to deliver a baby on its own. (With Zayden I had to be induced because we were moving from Montana to Illinois two weeks after his due date) So I was not sure what it would be like to go on my own without pitocin. I was hoping to have a St. Patrick's Day baby, then when that didn't happen, I moved it to hoping for an Easter baby, then an April Fool's baby... nothing! Three holidays and I missed all of them! She was on her own agenda.

So they decided to induce me, but they couldn't use pitocin because it causes too hard of contractions which increases the risk for a uterine rupture. So they used the balloon to help me dilate then they had to break my water.  None of that hurt too badly. However, when they put the IV in I almost passed out! I still cannot handle needles!  So after my water broke, then I had awful contractions! Originally I had thought maybe I could deliver with no epidural. HECK NO! After those contractions, I was begging for it. But because I hadn't started labor on my own, they needed to see if my body would still progress. The epidural can slow labor down. So the midwife made me wait and spend some time eating ice chips and using breathing techniques.  Labor is awful! That was the worst pain I have ever endured! So as soon as I could, I got the epidural. That is God's gift to women! The only way to make it through labor!  I actually got it twice. The first time, it was only numbing the right side of my body so I could still feel those awful contractions on the left side. Ugh, the anesthesiologist thought he just needed to up the dosage but that didn't work, so he had to take it out and retry. (After an hour and a half of needing the pain relief and not having it) Well, I was dilating slowly but surely. Everything was going well, the baby was great, I was having contractions so everything was on track. I dilated to a 9 1/2 and was told to push and hoped  to help out that last 1/2 cm with a baby. Well as soon as I did that, her heart rate plummeted! This really scared the midwife and got the doctor on call's opinion on the situation. I was told that I had to have a c-section. She was not going to handle labor the normal way. I started bawling! This was everything I was against and was just traumatized by the idea of going through the recovery again of a c-section. I asked to wait and try pushing again in a little while but the doctor was really against it and I felt like it was my only option. I was devastated. So I agreed and cried through the whole delivery. Also, I had the "labor shakes" which is your body is so exhausted that your body shakes and convulses. I'd been having those for about 5 hours. So through the surgery my upper body was shaking so hard I had to have Justin and other nurses hold my arms down. I was emotionally and physically a wreck and just closed my eyes through the whole process because I knew exactly what was going on and I didn't want to see any of it.  

But the good news is, Zoey was born healthy and happy! Her eyes wide open and curious and my shakes slowed down so I could hold her! The doctors knew my concerns about pain tolerance and made sure that I would be on good pain meds afterwards! And I had heard that recovering from a 2nd c-section is easier than the first. They were right! I expect it is because they cut on the same incision so the scar tissue is already there and you aren't cutting through new muscle. Every time I got out of the bed, I felt like I could recover well and I didn't want to cry and stay in bed the whole time! I felt much better this time around! And for the future, I will always have to have a c-section to deliver a baby. So the good news is I will know the exact date when I will have a baby!  And that is Zoey's delivery story! Now for all the fun pictures! 

These pictures were taken by a good friend in our church, Sara Mavromatis. Zoey was already 3 weeks old by this point! Her umblicial cord fell off the morning of this photo shoot! 

And these were taken by me! 1 month old

Now here she is, 1 month old and doing great! She is sleeping 2-4 hour stretches (the 4 hour being rare). She eats like a champ; she was 10 lbs 10 oz on her 1 month check up (90th percentile), and 21 1/2 inches long. She is growing so fast and is already in 3 month clothes! I can't believe it! She is so different from Zayden. It took him forever to get to that weight! 

Not to forget Zayden of course, he had his picture taken. Here's our little farm boy. :)

So darling! Zayden is 21 months old and a hoot! Almost 26 lbs now!  He is all boy! Loves to play outside and with cars, trucks, tractors, and everything else that little boys play with. He's adjusted to having a sister pretty well. He sleeps through her crying and tries to rock the carseat to help put her to sleep. The only thing he misses is complete mom time. So I have to make sure that I spend some quality time with him every day while she is sleeping. 

We've all been adjusting to being a family of 4 and a newborn in the house. Running on a few hours of sleep at night is harder with a toddler who is into everything. Justin has been great the past few months. He finished his thesis and passed. He will be graduating this Saturday with his masters in Technical Systems Management. We will be moving in 2 1/2 weeks to Iowa to attend Iowa State for his PHD.  But we will be living on his parent's ranch in Montana for the month of June. Zayden is going to love being on the ranch. Tractors and trucks galore. Things seem to be going really well for our little family. We will have more posts after this weekend for graduation and Zoey's baby blessing. There's going to be lots of family here! 

Christmas in Indiana and Texas!

So I have gotten a little relaxed on updating the blog! I realized I still have Thanksgiving pictures to put up! So I'll go backwards and do Christmas first since it was the most recent! 

Justin had a month off of school for Christmas so we drove 2 hours  to Indiana and spent the first part of our vacation at his Uncle Matt and Aunt Julie's house with their family. We spent Christmas with them and had a blast! We still have yet to have a Christmas by ourselves with only our small family. Every year we seem to always be pulled to being with other family. One year we will have to put our foot down though! 

We had our big dinner on Christmas Eve. Ribs, salad, twice baked potatoes, rolls, and homemade eggnog! It turned out delicious!

 Christmas morning at the Maughan's! The stockings were placed under the chimney with care...

 It's hard to see, but on the left are the Santa gifts for all the kiddos! An Electric train for Emmett, Remote controled helicopter for Tim, Marshmallow gun bow and arrow for Porter, Barbies for Amelia, and a Tractor for Zayden.

 Reinbeers  under the poinsetta, all the stockings filled to overflowing! Stockings are my favorite part of Christmas!

 Zayden loved his little mega block tractor! When all the kids came flooding down the stairs, they immediately all knew which toy was theirs. Zayden went straight for the tractor. Then Amelia after seeing her dolls, saw Zayden's tractor and tried to play with that. Zayden would not have it!

 Zayden got his first real taste of chocolate. We figured since it was Christmas, a little splurging was ok. If you look closely, his mouth is covered in chocolate. He ate square after square of ghiradelli truffles and lindt chocolate truffles. He LOVED them!

After the excitement of Christmas morning and too much apple juice and chocolate, he came to snuggle with mommy  with one last ferro roche chocolate and his new truck book. He got a sugar high and then crashed hard for his nap!

 Christmas in San Antonio! We flew to Texas the day after Christmas to spend a week with my family. We thought if we flew in the evening, Zayden might sleep on the plane.Well, it was a disaster and I was so thankful that Justin was with me when we flew on this trip. We were supposed to get into San Antonio at 10 at night, but our flights got delayed so we didn't get in until midnight. Zayden was so fussy and did not want to be held on the plane. We had one of those life saving flight attendants that held out her arms to hold Zayden and he immediately stopped crying and went to her. She held his bear and let him walk up and down the aisle with her. He loved it and then was calmed down enough to drink some apple juice and pretzels. Later on the flight, we finally were able to get him to fall asleep in Justin's arms for the last hour  of the flight.  I just don't have the room for him on my lap anymore! It is so hard to hold him and not kill my arms or tummy because he's getting so big and so am I!

We had a second Christmas morning with my parents! Zayden was such a stud! We did figure out that at this age, if you get too many gifts, they just get overloaded and don't realize everything! He was definitely spoiled by Gramma and Grampa and Matt and Julie! It's so much more fun to buy for your child then it is for you or your spouse! :) Zayden came out like a bandit!

Zayden is almost 18 months now and doing great! 21 lbs and getting bigger! He's getting his second set of molars in and teething really bad so the pacifier is still in play. We can't seem to get rid of it yet.

 Christmas at the Thomas home!

 Zayden's eyes lit up when he found a lightening McQueen car and Mater truck. He carried those cars around the entire week walking around the house saying "Car". His favorite phrase is "Here's a car, there's a car!" Over and over again! He likes to say it when he's sitting in his car seat looking out the window!

 Zayden got a leap frog book that reads to him and he loves it! (As long as cars are in his hands)

 My dad with the elf hat! We were all finished opening presents and he still had a stack wrapped gifts!

 Zayden got a sing-a-ma-jig! He got one from my aunt when we came down for Marshall's reception. That's where he learned the phrase "night night" and now we have another we can harmonize with. Plus this one looks a little bit more manly than the purple girly one we have. He loves these toys!

 Family picture Christmas 2012. Both Justin and me got a wonderfully soft blanket! I was always snuggling in it!

 Zayden found the Christmas pup and was carrying it around constantly holding it to his face and snuggling it. He loves soft things!  I love this picture, he is looking like such a studly little boy instead of a baby! I can't believe I have a year and a half year old! Originally I thought he looked like me, but I think he is developing more features that look like Justin. I am glad, I would love all my boys to look like Justin! However, Zayden does have the Thomas rosy cheeks! He sure has captured my heart!

 Dad and Sam relaxing on Christmas morning! Surprisingly it was cold in San Antonio. I brought my swimsuit thinking I would have a chance to swim, ha! It was just as cold as Illinois. The fireplace was usually filled with a fire!

We spent a lot of time hitting our favorite restaurants and fun sight seeing places. One of our favorites was Natural Bridge Caverns! 

 This backpack carrier was the best thing we brought on this trip. Zayden spent a lot of time being hauled around the Riverwalk, Natural Bridge Caverns, airports, and many other places.  As long as he had his blanket tucked up under his face, he was very happy. Much happier than he was in the stroller. He loves to have his face in the wind and be able to see everything!

 Showing off the baby bump in the caverns!

 Zayden wanted to run and run after we got out of the caverns but it was rainy and when he fell he got all wet. So Justin picked him up...Justin style. :) Zayden just laughed.

 Also went to the Alamo and downtown San Antonio. They have an enormous Texas Christmas tree that has different symbols of Texas. Pretty fun!

 Mom and Dad at the Alamo. It was cold that day!

We had a lot of fun visiting a lot of Texas historic sights and fun places! 

We got back to Indiana at Matt and Julie's yesterday and will head home tomorrow! It's been a very long vacation! We have loved all of it but will be glad to get back to regular life in Champaign, Illinois!  

Pregnacy update: 29 weeks and doing great! I have one last monthly appt and then I am down to the mark where I go to the doctor every two weeks! I can't believe I am to that point already. This pregnancy has gone by so quickly! I am due in about 10  1/2 weeks! Heartburn and charlie horses are a daily occurrences now. Long bubble baths, muscle relaxant, and tylenol are my best buds right now for controlling the back and hip pain that are worse with this pregnancy. I am as big as I was full term with Zayden and I still have more time to go. But baby girl is healthy and growing strong! So I guess I can't complain. 

I think that's it for this Christmas post! I'll be catching up and putting more pictures up soon!