Crazy shopping!

This is what happens when you don't go grocery shopping for 6 weeks :) ha ha. We took advantage of the case lot sales and did some much needed grocery shopping. We had so much food after we came home from the hospital that we have just used everything up. It was great! The good part is that we only do this kind of grocery shopping every 3-4 months or so. We are dorks, we get so excited when we find great deals! And it is great food storage right?!?!

LOTOJA

There is so much to update I will just try to start somewhere and go from there! So we did Lotoja again this year, but this year Keith decided that he was going to ride in a relay team in the race this year with Joel's brother and Joel's friend. He did a total of about 100 miles. Joel did the entire thing (206 miles) again this year and won first place for his category. Way to go boys!!! I was a little nervous about how Carsen was going to do with the drive. Typically it takes us about 10 hours of driving and even longer with all the stops and feed zone waiting. Total time from Logan to Jackson was about 12 hours. Luckily we got to have some breaks in between, but it was still a very long day. Carsen did so well! He only screamed once just as I was pulling into Jackson and he was really hungry. Poor boy just wanted to stretch out.
Keith was riding the stretch between Montpelier and Afton and then Alpine to Teton Village. We got up really early and headed out, got to Montpelier in plenty of time (we thought) and then Keith had some bike trouble that we thought was going to make it so he couldn't ride at all. Then at literally the last second after trying to find someone to help fix it for almost 2 hours, this guy that owns a bike shop just happened to be walking by us (I call him our angel!) fixed the problem in like 2 minutes and Keith left 2 minutes later just in the nick of time. I don't think I have ever seen Keith that upset, poor guy, I felt horrible for him that he had trained all year and then was maybe not going to get to ride at all.
Apparently the bike worked really well, because he beat his projected time by about 40 min and I missed getting to the next stop in time to see him, with having to feed and change Carsen. Oh well! At least we got to see him come in at the finish line and they all did awesome! It is such a rush to get to see all the bikers! What a great time.
The next day we just hung out while everyone else went to Jenny Lake. We didn't go because I had a fever most of the night and the weather wasn't great to take Carsen out in. It was so nice to have a day to relax. Monday we went up on the tram ride at Teton Village. It is a little scary being that high up. We had such a great time, big thanks to Miss and Joel for making everything work out great. We can't wait for next year!!!

My Little Care Bear

So I couldn't help but post these pictures. I was given this darling outfit from my cousin. It is so stinkin' cute.I call him my little Care Bear because I loved care bears growing up and now he is my very favorite! :) Everytime he wears it I laugh my self sick because it is so cute and so funny. He gets so nice and cozy in it that he almost instantly falls asleep. What a patient boy....Thanks buddy for letting mommy dress you up. you are so fun. I love you

One Month!!

It is true what they say, that time really does go faster after you have a baby! I had good intentions of getting this post done when he was actually a month old, and now he is 5 1/2 weeks and I am just getting to it. Oh well, now that we have Lotoja done, I promise to be better at posting on time :) By the way, Lotoja was great! I will post more about it as soon as I get the pictures downloaded and this post is done, ha ha! Well, what more can I say than we feel so blessed to have Carsen in our home, he is so much fun to have around and is such a sweet boy. I love that he is now starting to follow you with his eyes when you move and is recognizing voices. He is so bright eyed and wants to look around at everything. He is holding his head up really well. He has been really stuffy at night and wakes himself up because of it but when you pick him up you can tell that he wants to be asleep, he just can't breath great especially at night. Poor boy. We are trying a few things like saline drops and a humidifier, hopefully that helps.

So I just thought I would write about a thought I had the other day while I was getting ready. I'm not exactly sure what made me think of this while I was getting ready... You know how as a little girl most of us always dreamed of being at home with our new little baby and just being a mom?!? Well... It hit me.. I am living my dream. My first dream was to get married and I was blessed with an amazing husband. We have so much fun together. It is so fun to have our little family. What an amazing feeling to be able to be living what you have always dreamed. I am so grateful for all of it. I love being a mom. It is so worth everything to get him here. I just want to say a huge thank you to Keith for helping to make my dreams come true. I love you!


This is what Carsen does to protect anybody from taking his binky :)

This is Keith riding the Cache Valley century! 105 miles!

Our Little Family

Wow I can hardly believe it has been 3 weeks already. I have kind of been out of the loop just getting adjusted to life and enjoying all the time with Carsen. As Keith wrote, the first few days were quite the ordeal and I just haven't been very good with keeping up with the blog and stuff. So now that I am feeling much better, I wanted to do a quick update and add a few pictures.

I'm sure most people can agree with me that when you have a baby you take so many more pictures than you ever used to. Because of that I have so many that I want to put on here, so I decided to just put a few of Carsen and his firsts! First Bath,(this boy doesn't like to be cold!) First outing to Miss and Joel's, First Bike race, and doing homework with daddy!! Man, I love my guys!!!

First I would like to let Keith know how much I love him and want to thank him for being so great about everything. I never knew how much I could love 2 people. Everyone told me that the love you have for a child is indescribable, and they were right on. What I wasn't aware of was how I could love Keith even more than I already do. It is nothing new to say that he is a wonderful man, but I couldn't have gone through all of this without him and his constant love and support. He works so hard to make us happy!
Keith, I just want you to know that you are the best Husband and Daddy that Carsen and I could ever have wished for. We love you so much. Thank you for all you do for us!

Missy and the kids came up to visit us and we did a little photo shoot! Carsen's first pro pictures :) (more to be posted soon) Miss I know you don't think you are a pro, but you are and you do a great job! Thanks so much for always doing great pics for us.
Next on my to do list is his birth announcements!

Carsen's latest stats at his dr appt. is 7 lbs and 11 oz and 21 inches he is in the 25% for weight and 50% for height. Just a little guy! :) at his one week appt he had dropped down to 7 lbs and 5 oz but he is slowly getting it back!
As most anyone who has come to see him knows he is such a sweet boy, but he is unbelievably patient and so fun to have around. He is so content and I love hearing all his little noises!

I have officially become the hypocrite I swore I wouldn't be :)
I always said that I wouldn't sit in the back seat, and I did the entire first week and a half.
I told myself that I wouldn't need to get one of those mirrors for the head rest just so I could see him, and I have one ordered and in the mail to us.
I said I would put him straight in his crib, and he is still in the bassinet next to us.
And last but not lease I didn't think I would be one to get so excited about getting the baby booger I could see but couldn't get and then finally got it!

I turned 26! ahhhh! so weird. Keith and my fam did a birthday party for me last sunday and we had yummy food and the best homemade, home decorated cake! Keith baked it and the kids decorated it! They are so stinkin cute! Thanks again everyone for a great birthday!!!



I finally drove all by myself with Carsen for the first time on Saturday. It was quite the accomplishment for me. We went to cheer Keith on for his bike ride in the Cache Valley Century. He rode a total of 105 miles in just over 5 hours! Way to go honey! It was so fun to go watch him and got me really excited for the Lotoja bike race in 2 weeks!!
Mommyhood totally changes everything, but I love love love it!

I could write a novel of thank you's to everyone for all the love and support we have received, but to spare an even longer post I just want to thank everyone for all the help, dinners, and time spent helping us get settled into our new life! We couldn't have done any of this without all your help! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, we will never be able to thank you enough!

Carsen Keith Bradford!

He's here! He was born on Aug 10th at 8:39 am, 21 inches and 7lb 12oz...or is it 13oz? Don't really know, they kept telling us two different numbers. I guess that's not what matters though, right?





This is Keith, by the way, and this is the first time I've ever posted. No better time to start than with the birth of our first child I suppose.
I actually started this post two days ago at about midnight while I was trying to hold Carsen...that didn't go over too well, he was having a rough night he just wanted to be held and rocked. This kid is working hard to break his daddy in fast.
So I better tell the story of Carsen's birth and our hospital experience. Last weekend, on the 7th, we went into what would be Heather's last checkup. The doctor told us that this would be the weekend Carsen would be born but he thought we should wait until Sunday to get Heather started. The Doctor wanted to speed up the dilation process by inserting a foley catheter, which forces the cervix to dilate, on Saturday and start her on the pitocin Sunday morning. It sounded like it would be a long couple of days until Sunday...I didn't yet know what long was!
We really hoped that we could 'encourage' Heather's body to go into labor on its own so we went down to the Hogle Zoo with Melis, Joel and the kids. I thought for sure that it wouldn't be long before I was pushing Heather through the zoo in a wheelchair but she toughed it out and walked a full TWO laps around the zoo! She was desperate to get things started. It didn't do anything but make her feet sore and swollen.



Saturday rolled around and we just sat around resting and preparing for Sunday. We didn't leave the house all day except to meet the doctor to get the foley tube. I think we're both glad we rested because Saturday night didn't bring much sleep. Heather was having contractions for most of the night and that kept both of us up, we each got about four hours of sleep.
We got up early the Sunday morning to get ready to go to the hospital. Labor and Delivery called the evening before and told us to call them at 6:00 am Sunday morning to find out exactly what time they wanted us to be there. Well we kept our end of the deal and called at 6:00 but they apparently weren't ready for us because they told us they would call us back when they knew the time for sure. We waited and waited and for what seemed like eternity, it was really only three and a half hours. They finally called back and told us to be at the hospital by 10:30.
The drive to the hospital seemed almost never ending but we finally made it and got Heather checked in. It was hard to believe that the next time we both got in the car we would have an extra body going with us.



The nurses showed us to Heather's labor and delivery room where we would spend the next 22 hours together. I have to admit I got really choked up when I saw the warming bed that Carsen would 'soon' be laying on with nurses checking him out.
Heather got changed and comfortable in the bed and over the course of the next 5 hours the nurses got IV's started, the doctor came in and broke her water, and finally after feeling contractions for long enough she got her epidural.
Unfortunately when Heather got the epidural it only took on her right side so would feel contractions until 7:00am the next morning. Even with 3 redoses of anesthetic the pain only subsided for and hour or so at a time. Heather was a real trooper for enduring so long.
We had anticipated that we would be in recovery by evening but the hours kept melting away and before we new it Sunday had slipped away and Monday morning was upon us. There's not too much to say about the events that filled the time other than Heather's progress was slow and painful. It was slow enough that a nurse was sure that it would all end in a C-section. That was so hard for both of us to accept because Heather had worked so hard for so long and endured so much that it didn't seem fair. Just when a C-section looked imminent, she started to make further progress and we kept going.



At about 6:00am the doctor came in and confirmed that Heather was complete and ready but he wanted Heather to rest and let the baby continue to descend. Finally, at about 7:00am Heather got one last redose with a different drug and that completely numbed her...why that couldn't happen 16 hours ago I don't know.
At around 8:00 she started to push. Carsen didn't react well to that he started to go into distress. We were told that if that happened again Carsen would be take by C-section. The doctor gave Heather some time to rest until they were completely set up for delivery and he gave the go ahead to push again this time Carsen did awesome! It only took three sets of pushes until he was here. For me, the pushing was so exciting. I was there helping Heather, counting off her breathing and pushing all the while watching Carsen make his way into the world. The emotions that come at that point I think you only experience when becoming new parents. I leaned over to give Heather a hug, both of us were crying a laughing all at once, it was amazing! 22 hours of labor and Carsen was here! I'm so proud of Heather for enduring what she did, I love her so much!



I went with Carsen to the transition nursery to be with him and watch him get his first bath and to hold his hand for the first time. He had such a cone head from being stuck in the birth canal for so long. He also had a nice red mark on his forehead from hitting Heather's pelvic bone and marks on the side of his head from the forceps...poor little guy! They kept him for a little while to watch his breathing, apparently he wasn't breathing as deeply as they wanted him to. Carsen recovered quickly and it was soon time to go see mommy in here recovery room.
At this point I would say the story is pretty much over but there is one last tale to tell...



We really got comfortable in the new room holding Carsen and getting to know him. Soon, a couple of nurses came in and helped Heather to the bathroom...that seemed harmless. It didn't take long before nurses flooded into the room and two nurses that were in the bathroom with Heather came out carrying Heather. Apparently she hemorrhaged badly and passed out in the bathroom. She looked completely lifeless as they laid her in bed. She was almost completely unresponsive for what seemed to me like forever. Anytime a nurse would ask Heather a question the answer came slurred if at all. At this point I lost it completely, I had been emotionally drained from the labor and delivery part and now to see Heather passed out from blood loss on a hospital bed sent me over the edge all I could do is sit down and sob. I was a wreck.
In true Heather style though, she came to and slowly began to get color in her face. She was too weak at this point to attempt feeding Carsen so it was up to me. Although not as well equipped as Heather, I thought I did an okay job. Finally, things turned up and if my tired memory serves me right things went pretty smoothly from that point on.



Now were home and working hard on getting adjusted to having Carsen here and caring for him. It is definitely a challenge but I know we have it better than a lot of people. Carsen is the most mild manned, chill baby ever. I don't think we really ever heard him cry until he woke up a while after getting circumcised. Even still the only time he's had a real fit was the other night when we let him get way too tired and way too hungry...not a good combination.
We couldn't have done all this without the support of friends and family so thanks to you all, we love you!

Not yet

For those of you who don't know. We went to our doctor appt. on Friday thinking that he was going to start me this past weekend. Well, no baby yet! I have not progressed quite as much as the doctor had thought I would, so we are going to wait another week and if I haven't started on my own by Friday, then the doctor said he would start me. So, for now I am still on bed rest and just waiting :) We are both getting so excited. Keith was really disappointed, but we both know this is best for the baby. Big thanks to all those who have checked up on us! We will keep you up to date on what is happening! We are so excited for everyone to meet him!
lots of love, Heather