Parker Ki Jensen - 6.6.2012

It is about time I got around to blogging about the newest and cutest member of our family!!!  I have been wanting to do a blog post about our cute little guy for awhile now but... well you know :)  Blogging has sort of been on the back burner the last 2 months.  On the very farthest spot on the back of the back burner to be exact haha.

The Sunday previous to my due date:  I decided I had just about had it with being pregnant so Ki and I went power walking for an hour and a half before church... we of course found out later that the speed has nothing to do with helping bring on labor, just the gravity of being on your feet walking... well gee wiz that would have been nice to know before we POWER walked haha.  I was SO sore the next day I could barely lift my feet when i walked and my hips felt like they were broken.  Lesson learned.

Monday: Parker still wasn't ready to come meet us and I had decided that being large and pregnant wasn't so bad... he sure was easy to take care of in my belly.  I came to the conclusion that I would no longer worry about trying to speed his arrival through the practice of all the "wives tale" remedies.  He would come when he was good and ready :)

Tuesday:  It turns out my discovery from the previous day was no longer clear in my mind, as I once again decided that I NEEDED to meet Parker and SOON.  This sense of urgency came again when my pregnant brain suddenly remembered my husband's sister's wedding was in 10 days down in St. George.   So I again began to try everything in the book to get our little angel to come.  Went for another hour and a half walk, deep foot massage, walking with one foot on the curb one foot off (my neighbor SWEARS this worked for her), s-x, spicy indian food for dinner etc.  Nothing- not even braxton hicks.  That night I went to bed convinced I wasn't going to see Parker for another week.

Wednesday June 6th 2012 (due date):  I woke up at 8:50 am to get ready for my 40 wk doctor appointment, went to the bathroom, stood up off the toilet, and then there was just a huge gush!  I just stood there in shock in a big puddle thinking "no way!"  I then shouted to Ki who was still in bed that my water had just broke.  I have NEVER seen him get out of bed so fast in all the time I have been married to him.  We called the OB office to tell them my water broke and the nurse said "get your butt to the hospital"  I then asked if I could at least shower first and she said yes but only if you hurry.  So hurry I did.  On the way to the hospital we disagreed over which was the faster route.  Ki took his way, but then missed a turn.  We laughed when we missed a turn because when we had read the chapter in my pregnancy book about preparing for the delivery day they suggested that you practice driving to the hospital which we thought was ridiculous.  I guess the book knew that husbands in their flustered state of excitement often miss turns on the way to the hospital :)

We checked into the hospital around 10:15 am - by the time I got to my room it was 10:30.  I was only dilated to a 1, 80% effaced, and having irregular contractions so the doctor recommended I get started on a little bit of pitocin.  After about an hour on the pitocin i was having contractions every minute so they took me off.  After that my body had contractions every 2 minutes all by itself.  I finally got the epidural when I was at a 5 sometime in the afternoon maybe around 3?  And oh my goodness after feeling the difference I don't think I could ever attempt to do it without the epidural.  I am impressed by those who can do it without one, but for me the whole experience just was so much more enjoyable after I had the epidural then it was before.

After the epidural to pass the time we chatted about how we couldn't believe we were going to get to meet Parker in just a few hours, Ki watched the office on my ipad, I read the billions of papers the hospital brought to me, and we waited anxiously.

At around 6:40 pm the nurse came in and checked me and said that I was ready to push!  This was the part I had been most nervous about and I got butterflies of nervousness and excitement.  My epidural was kinda weird because I was absolutely completely dead on my right side of my body, but I could still feel the contractions on my left... it was a very odd sensation.  No matter how hard I tried I couldn't even move my right leg a hair.  My nurse took my left leg and Ki took my dead leg and we started pushing.  Ki took his job very seriously and would shove my leg as hard as he could into my body when I was pushing hehe :)  In fact he was even a little sore the next day.  So funny.  Anyhow the first questions I asked Ki when he said he could see our little man was "Does he have hair?  What color is it?"  Haha Ki makes fun of me to this day for asking those things mid-push, but I was so curious!  When the moment came that we needed the Dr's help, he wasn't there yet!  So the nurse was like don't push!  We need to wait for the doctor so he can give you an episiotomy this baby's head is stuck.  I was like ok, but it was surprisingly SO hard not too push.  My body felt like it needed to so bad.  When the doctor finally got there I got so nervous about feeling the episiotomy since my epidural was wearing off, but Ki squeezed my hand and was like you can do it, so I pushed - the doctor cut- and out popped Parker's head :)  One more push and out popped his whole body.  It all felt so weird and surreal.  I immediately started bawling my eyes out the second I saw him - I couldn't believe I was a mom and that he was mine!  I thought he was beautiful the second he was born, but Ki still talks about how alien like he looked the first couple minutes fresh out of the womb haha.

Parker was born at 7:35 pm and was 6 lbs 14 oz and 18.5 inches long.  The moment the doctor put Parker on my chest and he was crying and I got to hold him and love him for the first time was so incredible.  I almost cry just thinking about how it felt.  I was so worried in the weeks leading up to my due date that I wouldn't know how to hold him or how to be his mom, but the second they put him in my arms I didn't even have to think twice about it.  It was like I was always meant to be his mom.  It was the most amazing feeling in the world.

I still can't believe I am a mom.  Sometimes I look at Parker and just think oh my gosh he is my baby.  I don't know how to explain it, I just feel so lucky to have him and Ki in my life!  The last couple months since he was born have been some of the most exhausting and some of the most rewarding moments in my life.  I can't even believe how much Ki and I love him!  To us he is the cutest baby that has ever been born!  I think he is beautiful and Ki used to tell me that beautiful wasn't masculine enough of a word to describe him, but just the other day he was like "he really is beautiful huh"  So now we both think he is beautiful lol.

Anyways, I could write so much more and I hope that I will get to another blog post soon about all the cute things he is starting to do that I love, as well as a post about his baby blessing day, the 4th of july, etc.. etc...  Dang, he is only 2 months old and I am already so far behind!  For now enjoy these pictures from his birth/hospital stay since if I posted all the pics from the last 2 months it would be a little overkill... actually it probably still is haha :) 

Doing my makeup - I know I am weird.

Waiting to meet our little angel

Fresh out of the womb - 6 lbs 14 oz 18.5 inches - and a healthy pair of lungs lol

First time holding my sweet boy - words can't describe it

These make me cry just looking at them lol - one of the best moments in my life

Papa and Parker

All bundled up waiting to go get his bath

All cleaned up and in our room :)

Love this picture of him and his little tongue haha

Quality time with Dad

Grandma Mem & Grandma Cyndi with Parker

Bella Baby Photography - we call this the Monkey pose

Such a sweet little face and cute little baby fists

Ki & Parker - melts my heart

My precious baby

First Family Photo

First car ride - home from the hospital - Ki has never driven so cautiously ever!

First day home from hospital meeting Auntie Ash

Home with our newest member of the family

Until next time!  Thanks for reading :)  Hopefully I will update again before another 2 months goes by!  But no promises... my house is still in desperate need of a deep clean :) 

House & Pregnancy Update :)

Have you noticed I am playing blog catch up?  I don't think I will ever be caught up with everything I wanted to write about (Remember how I never finished blogging about our trip to Europe last Fall?)

Oh well worse things have happened :)

I am now 36.5 weeks pregnant.  I simply can't believe it.  The time has gone so fast!  Every morning when I wake up and there isn't anything pressing going on I just lay there in bed enjoying every last sleeping in moment I have before baby boy gets here.  I really love to sleep in occasionally so I have to soak up every last second of it that I have!

Speaking of baby boy, we have decided on his name!  We have decided his name will be Parker Ki Jensen :)  Parker was my favorite from the beginning so when Ki decided it was his favorite too I was glad.  His middle name will be Ki after his dad because that is kind of the tradition on Ki's side of the family for the first born son to have the same middle name after their father.

Ki is getting more and more excited for Parker to come, I am getting more excited, but still feel anxious about not being able to feel totally prepared.  Everyone keeps telling me you can never be 100% prepared to become a mom but I just wish you could lol.  Being an amazing mom like my mom, is all I have ever wanted to do.  I never wanted to have a career or an important job, all I ever wanted was to be a mom.  Now that it is happening I can't help but feel overwhelmed sometimes and I just pray that I am ready!  I already love little Parker so much and just hope I can be the mom he needs me to be :)

Anyways enough of my hormonal pregnant ramblings :) here are a couple pictures of my belly from the last few weeks.

31 weeks

33 weeks

34 weeks

 These next few photos are my "pregnant photo shoot"  Haha.  Tristan my super awesome brother in law has a pretty artistic eye so I had him take a few pictures before he, my sister Kristin, and brother Nate moved to Wisconsin.  I am pretty devastated that they won't get to be here when Parker is born, but I will spare you from having to hear all about just how devastated I am lol.  These pictures were taken at 35 weeks in my parents backyard :)  Thanks Tristan!

Now on to the house update :)  As of this week we have... a water softener, a front yard, and Parker's room is complete!  As for the decorating in the other parts of the house... we still only have one clock hanging on the wall... :)  Maybe someday I will get to ordering and hanging pictures loll

Here are a few pictures of our new front yard and Parker's room.  I never thought I would be so excited about a couple trees and bushes, but they make it feel even more homey!  Now I just need to figure out the basics like... when to water your lawn, and how often haha.  

We have grass, 2 trees, and 4 bushes now :)  Can't wait until the back and sides are done too.

Parker's cute crib, dresser, and painted block letters.  The dresser is the same one my parents had in mine and my siblings baby rooms.  Ki and I repainted it and added knobs to match the crib.  I love how it turned out!

The window wall with the cute aviator bear stickers that look cuter in person :)

My rocker/recliner chair and the cute airplane wall hooks.

Parker's room turned out so cute!  I love it.  Ki and I go in there almost every night just to visit :)  It is like our happy place or something haha.  When nobody else is home I like to go in and just sit in my chair and read or think about what it will be like when Parker is born and with me in my arms.  Thinking about it gives me little butterflies of nervousness, but also makes me get little chills of excitement.  I am so grateful for the opportunity that Ki and I have been given to be parents to little Parker.  I already love him so so much!  I also can't wait to see what an amazing father Ki will be.  Sometimes when we go in Parker's room at night Ki will get out one of his little newborn onesies and lay it in the crib and get all giddy and say "can you believe there is going to be a little guy in there soon!"  It just makes my heart melt to see how excited he is for Parker to be born.  I am so glad I get to share this new adventure with Ki :)

I seriously just feel so blessed, and can't wait to meet our little guy!!  

I had a birthday :)

I turned 23!  It was a pretty good birthday considering Ki was gone on a business trip for 2 weeks during my birthday :(  But luckily I have an awesome family that I could celebrate with, and luckily Ki's sister Kenzie (who is living with us)  helped me have a fun birthday without him :)

Sunday before my birthday we celebrated with cake!  Then on my actual birthday I went and visited my brother Nate in the hospital (he just had surgery on his thoracic outlet syndrome), went to lunch with my mom, was pleasantly surprised by the flowers Ki sent, and had cake and painted the letters for the baby nursery with Kenzie that night at home (more on that to come).  A few days after my birthday my mom took me and my sisters out for pedicures to celebrate my birthday and then for my birthday present, my mom and Ki got me this diaper bag that I have been wanting!  It was pretty pricey, but I am already in love with it!  I got it in the "sea glass" color.  

So even though my love was gone I still had a spectacular birthday.  Thanks best family in the world!

My mom made BTS cake :) yum!  Forgive my Sunday sweats attire lol

I am pretty impressed I blew out all those candles :)

Visiting poor Nate in the hospital after his surgery

The pretty flowers Ki sent me from Tennessee!  He even sent them in my favorite colors :)

In other recent events, I was able to go up to the City Creek Shopping Center in SLC with my mom, sisters, and grandma!  It was a lot of fun to have a girls day out :)

The sisters and myself at City Creek!  Such a fun day :)

My mom and sisters threw me a baby shower, as well as Ki's mom, and Tiff and Mama Mickelsen.  Thanks guys!  Baby Boy got so many cute and needed things!!!  I am so so grateful :)

With my beautiful momma and sisters at my baby shower :)

Once upon a time I graduated!

I remember graduating from High School thinking that I had SO much school left and that it would take me forever to graduate from BYU.  Now I can't hardly believe how fast time has gone since then.. It is true people.  I did it!  I really graduated with a 4 year degree.  There was a brief time in my life I contemplated dropping out of College..  you see those first couple years of generals were not very fun and I wasn't particularly fond of going to school.  But I stuck with it and once I got into the classes for my major (Exercise & Wellness) this weird phenomenon occurred and I began to like going to class and learning!  I am so grateful for everything I learned at school and that I stuck with it!

Even though I don't know what I would do with my degree if I had to make a career out of it, it is nice to have.  I feel like I finished and accomplished something that wasn't always easy.  I am SUPER grateful to my parents for supporting me through school, not only financially but by letting me choose for myself to go.  I always knew they probably wanted me to finish College, but I never had any doubt that if I didn't they would still love me.  I think the fact that I didn't feel pressured into anything made it easier for me to see that I really did want to graduate and to keep going :)  I am also grateful for my supportive husband Ki!  He is just the best :)  He would exaggerate the truth and flatter me by telling me how smart I was and that I could do hard things lol.   But seriously.  I am grateful for the support from those that I love and look up to the most!

Anyways enough of that babble... Here are some photos from the momentous occasion.  Please excuse the big blue whale that is in the majority of the pictures :)  It turns out being 8 months pregnant in a graduation gown isn't very flattering.

According to my dad this is what Nate, Andrew, Tristan, Shay, Kristin, and Ki all looked like through the majority of the ceremony lol.  Who can blame them?  The college of life sciences is HUGE.

Walking to get my name read.  I shouldn't be too hard to pick out (again I am the big blue whale)  But just in case any of you are particularly blind I am the 3rd from the left.

Me, the graduate! 

With the cutest husband in the world :)

Me and Grandma Z

Me with Grandma & Grandpa Greenwood

the whale who needs no introduction with the amazing parentals!

The whole family! 

Me and Kenz :)

We didn't want to wait in line to stand in front of the sign so we sneakily sat down and snapped a quick photo :)

"hurry and smile, there is nobody in the background!" -mom

Eating at Texas Roadhouse with the family afterward to celebrate!

Happy Graduation Day!  It felt weird and fabulous all at the same time.  I can't believe I really did it :)

Time is flying

We have already been in our new house a month!  I can't believe it.  Time is flying so fast lately.  We love it here in Cedar Hills and we feel so blessed to have our own place to start our new family in.  I still don't know many people in the ward, but I am glad that we will be here long enough for me to get to know people and make friends!  It was hard to get to know people when we kept uprooting every 6 months.  If only I was a little more outgoing so I could make friends more quickly lol.

Speaking of how quickly time is going, I can't believe that I am due in 9 weeks!  Seriously I freaked out the other day when I realized how close June is . . . it feels like we have so much to do still before baby boy comes :)  Hopefully we get it all finished!  And yes, we still have not decided on a name for our little Jensen family addition, so I refer to him as baby boy or my little cub :)  We have narrowed it down to two names though so at least we are making progress.  I go back and forth between being impatient to meet my little guy and being totally overwhelmed that I don't know anything about how to be a mom and wanting him to stay in my belly where he is easy to protect and take care of lol.  I have never been super natural with newborns... whenever I hold other peoples little ones and they start crying I instantly feel like I don't know what to do, so I am just hoping that my natural mother instincts really will kick in after he is born and I will know how to comfort him, take care of him, and be his mom.  I ordered a bunch of books off amazon to read before he comes, so hopefully that will at least make me feel a tiny bit more prepared :)  I know loving him won't be a problem, cause I already love him so stinking much!  Feeling him move around in my belly makes me smile every day and when I see my neighbors outside playing with their adorable little ones I get super excited to have a little one of my own.  I know I will have a lot to learn when he comes, but I figure nobody knows exactly what they are doing with their first one right?

Ki on the other hand couldn't be more ecstatic and impatient for baby boy to come.  I am so glad that he is so excited for our little cub.  It helps me feel at ease whenever I am nervous to know that he is 100% on board and that he is going to be there to help me and be supportive every step of the way.  He loves to talk to him, rub him, try to get him to kick, and willingly gives me back massages on request.  I feel pretty lucky :)  Even if he likes to tease me and chuckle every time I get stuck on the couch and he has to help me up.

We just bought baby boy's crib this weekend and it is now all set up in his room.  I go in every day just to stare at the crib and get excited for how cute his little room is going to be once we have his bedding and once we repaint the baby dresser my parents passed down to us.  I will be sure to post pictures of his cute little room once we get it all finished :)

Well that is all for now.  Here are a few recent pictures to end on.

Went bowling with some of the awesome people from Ki's office last summer.  So good to see everyone and catch up!

Here we are at 25 weeks along :)

Our beautiful home!  :)  We moved in March 3 and are loving it!

Cute house from a different angle

Here I am looking pasty white and 30 weeks pregnant lol

another angle of my ever expanding belly

Valentines Day 2012

I know this post is like... way late but better late than never right?  We had a simple day yet to me it was still a meaningful celebration of our love!  I wish we had taken a picture together... but we didn't.  Dang.  Here is a synopsis of our day.

I tried to start the day off right by making Ki Valentines Day french toast with buttermilk syrup and fresh strawberries!  Only.. Ki is allergic to fruits so the strawberries were included for my enjoyment only :)  Then Ki had to go to work, but I had hid a few Valentine treats and surprises for him to find throughout the day.  Then I spent the rest of the day finishing his "gift from the heart"  a little book called the ABC's of what I love about you" - I didn't buy him anything besides a few treats because we had decided to go cheap this V-day seeing as we have upcoming baby expenses and house expenses.  Then Ki got home from work early and surprised me with a BIG present!  He got me a little video camera to use when our cute baby boy is born to document fun milestones.  I was BLOWN away... and felt really spoiled... and sad that I hadn't gotten him anything, but he said that he just had to get me something because I always win in the department of gifts from the heart :)  But what I loved even more then the camera was his cheesy card about how much he loved me.  It made me cry, I loved it, every single word :)  The best gifts can't be bought folks! 

After eating Honey Lime Enchiladas, Ki's favorite, for dinner we headed out to see The Vow.  Only apparently it wasn't meant to be because we drove to three theaters and it was sold out in all three!  Major bummer.  We were even there an hour and a half early...  but I guess we should have expected that on Valentines Day :)  So instead we went to the movie Chronicle.  I HATED it.  It was much to depressing/melancholy for my liking.  Ki thought it was pretty good though.  Luckily when you have a Valentine as great as mine its ok if you go see the most un-romantic movie ever because it doesn't make him any less fantastic ;)

I am grateful for the day of love so we have an excuse to go overboard on showing our loved ones how much we care :)  But I am even more grateful to have such an amazing husband to love every single day of the year, who loves me back.  Being in love is the greatest.  Thanks friends and family I love you all!  I am one lucky, spoiled, blessed girl.  Knowing all of you makes my life so full of love and happiness!  Thanks for being a part of that :)  

Just a glimpse of what we've been up to lately

Baby boy:

• He seems to be growing bigger every day because I swear my belly gets bigger every day.
• We still haven't decided on a name but we call him baby boy, little buddy, and little cub for now.
• He got his 21 wk ultrasound done on January 25 and the doctor says everything looks good.
• When I rest heavy objects (e.g. my ipad) on my belly he will kick them until I move them off. 

Baby Boy's profile

Baby Boy's cute little feet

Me:

• Still doing yoga everyday although it is starting to get frustrating that the things that were once simple for me to do are getting SO difficult haha.  My center of balance is DEFINITELY changing.
• Love feeling baby boy move around inside my belly.  Feel like I am in the good stage of pregnancy.  Big enough that I feel pregnant instead of fat and bloated, yet not huge enough that my mobility is affected or that I feel too uncomfortable.
• Not loving the fact that my belly button has been pushed into an "outie"
• Have meant to take an updated "belly pic" but never really feel like it whenever I think about it :)
• Avoiding driving as much as possible, which is fairly simple considering we are currently down to one vehicle :)

Ki:

• Passed his kidney stone and is hoping to avoid the Emergency Room for at least a little while :)
• Reads baby boy a story every night before we go to bed and likes to push on my belly until baby boy kicks him haha.
• His grandma died and we were able to attend her funeral this past weekend.  It was great to learn more about his grandma through the stories told and to spend time with his family.  Grateful for the gospel and the knowledge that we will see her again someday.

Our Future Home:

• It is almost done and looking so good!!  woo hoo!  We are getting so excited to be able to unpack our stuff and have a place of our own again :)
• We should close on the house this Thursday and be able to start moving in on Friday.
• We won't actually start living in our house until the beginning of March since we will be babysitting my cute siblings while my parents are on their 25th wedding anniversary trip in St. Thomas.  I wish I was going with them!  A tropical beach sounds pretty awesome right now.  Other than I don't think I have any swimsuits that would currently fit so... its for the best that they leave me behind ;)

Sorry there aren't more pictures to make the post more interesting but like I said I never feel like taking belly pics, Ki doesn't like his picture taken, and we've forgotten our camera the last few times we've been up to Cedar Hills to see how the house was coming along :)

Feeling very grateful...

This morning around 12:05 a.m. I was driving myself and my cute husband Ki back home from the airport.  I was so excited that he was back from his business trip, that I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have to the road.  I had the car (our blue mazda) on cruise control at 68 mph... the roads were wet... it had been raining.  We were on I-80 E and next thing I knew we were in the sharp curve just before merging onto I-15 when I suddenly panicked as I realized I was going WAY too fast around the turn.  I hit the break harder then I meant to which caused us to hydroplane and start sliding sideways... I then panicked even worse and tried to correct which only made matters much worse.  We ended up hitting the cement wall on the right side of the road then did a 360 across 3 lanes of traffic before slamming into the median on the left side of the freeway which finally brought us to a stop.  All I remember was being so so terrified as I realized we were about to hit the first wall that I closed my eyes, then I pretty much don't remember much other then being hit by the airbag and being so so scared that Ki and my baby boy were hurt.  After the car came to a stop Ki said I was pretty dazed for a couple minutes and wouldn't open my eyes.  When I finally opened my eyes, all I remember was that I was shaking really badly and all I could keep saying was that I was so so sorry as I hysterically sobbed after seeing that Ki was ok.

We feel so blessed that as hard as we hit, and as bad as the accident could have been that we both are okay.  It was so lucky that we happened to be the last car in the pack when I lost control of the car.  We were lucky that even though we were sticking out into the left lane around a blind turn when we finally came to a stop, that no cars hit us.  We were lucky that like the 3rd car that drove past us after we crashed was a police officer, who promptly put out those firecracker things around the car and made a safe perimeter.  The firemen were so kind to me as they took my vitals and were making sure everything was ok.  We were lucky enough not to need the ambulance that came to the scene.  We went to the hospital after my mom and dad picked us up and our car was towed away to check on our sweet baby boy.  I was so scared for him, it was all I could do to keep my emotions under control and to stop shaking.  But they monitored us at the hospital for awhile to make sure I didn't start having contractions and to make sure that the baby's heartbeat was ok, as well as to make sure he was moving.  I was SOOOOOO relieved when I heard him kick the monitor over and over.  I can't even imagine how hard it would have been to forgive myself if anything had happened to Ki or our baby boy last night... I cry pretty much every time I think about it.  They are my life and I am so thankful to still have both of them..  an event like last nights makes you realize how quickly life could change and made me re-discover just how much I have to lose because of how blessed I have been.  I hope that after this experience I will not only be more careful, but that I will show my gratitude more in my daily life to my Heavenly Father by living the way he wants me too. 

Other then some pretty severe whiplash and bruises from my seat belt and the airbag I am ok.  Ki banged up his one leg pretty good, but is also ok.  How could I ask for more?  I am grateful for a husband who was WAY more concerned about the safety of our family then the fact that I crashed and totaled the car that he loved and took VERY good care of.  I am so lucky.  So blessed.  I still keep replaying the accident over and over in my head like a bad nightmare wishing I would've been going slower, or that I would've done something differently so that I didn't wreck the car, but Ki just keeps telling me there are more important things than the car and that we have all the important things still.  He is right, but man why is it so hard to be ok that I made a mistake?  I feel so GUILTY.  I would've been way worse off if anything more serious had happened, and that leaves me feeling grateful that I still have the most important people in my life.