A lot has happened is 17 months

Wow!  It's been a while.  Things went a little crazy after my last post, then I guess I forgot to keep posting.  So here's an update.  Just six days after my post I ended up having our baby.  He came at 33 weeks and 2 days.  He was 4 lbs 5 oz and 19 1/2 inches long.  I guess for posterity I should record what happened to remember.  On 4/27/11, I had a normal day and that evening went to mutual as usual, we actually went for a walk to get ice cream and I felt great.  I woke up on 4/28/11 having a lot of pain, after a few hours we decided I was having contractions and we started timing them.  They were getting closer and closer and the pain kept getting worse, so we called the doc and she said to go to the hospital to get checked.  After dropping Rosty off with a neighbor we headed up.  Apparently I hide my pain well because they kept telling me about Braxton hicks contractions and how they are common.  Side note: with both kids I start braxton hicks about 16-20 weeks, so I am very familiar with them.  Anyway, after watching me for a while, they called my doc who said to have me checked just to be sure, and they discovered I was dialated to a 5 and 90% effaced.  Wow!  I cried, got scared, all that fun stuff, then they sent me home on bed rest and pills to stop the contractions.  After calling family, my mom decided to head down just to help up out while I was on bedrest, and we gathered up Rosty and headed for home.  I continued having contractions all day, the pills were not helping, but I didn't want to go back to the hospital so I just stayed home.  Ryan told me through the night I would wake up every few minutes and cry and shake then go back to sleep.  Probably one of the most worst nights of sleep I've ever had.  The next morning after a warm bath and laying in bed, my mom called my cousin Sherri who is a labor and delivery nurse to ask what we should do.  After explaining all the gory details she said I needed to get into the hospital as soon as I could to get checked, so we left Rosty with my mom and off we went to the hospital.  Of course once we got there, the contractions stopped, and they started telling me again about false labor.  The nurse acted really annoyed with us that we would waste her time, but again my doctor said to check me because I said I was contracting all night.  Guess what, I was dialated to a 7 and 100% effaced!  Yikes!! More crying and calling family, we were having a baby that day.  My Dad and sister, Missy headed to Ogden to be there for our little guys arrival.   They took us to a room and got us ready, and within an hour we had a baby.  Taegan Winsper Wood was born on 4/29.  Little turkey couldn't wait to get here, and he's still doing things a lot quicker than we would like.  He stayed in the NICU for 18 days (longest days of my entire life).  I'm so grateful for the doctors and nurses that watched over him.  It was such a hard thing to leave him at the hospital everyday, but he did well and continues to do well.  He is now almost 17 months old and thriving!  As for why I had him early, they have no idea.  Apparently it's not typical for a mother to go 41+ weeks with one and early with the next unless there were issues, but I had no issues so for now, when I have another baby I will be watched more carefully and be considered high risk just to make sure all goes well.  There you go posterity, the story of Taegan's birth.

Happy Easter

This past month has gotten away from me.  It seems like we always have something going on or we're battling Rosty and his sleeping habits or lack of.  Just wanted to do an update, especially with pictures of our latest happenings.

Update on baby #2:  We are now 33 weeks....WOOHOO only 7 left.  We went to the doctor this week and had another ultrasound.  She says he looks great, he is in the downward position (which I think he frequently changes) and growing well.  He weighed about 4 lbs 5 oz, so since it's been almost a week it may be more now.  She said he should gain about 1/2 lb per week up until he's born, making him about 7 to 7 1/2 lbs when he's born.  I go again in a week, then our every week appointments start.  It's kind of surreal that we are already that close to having baby #2 at our house.  This last week I was looking at pictures of Rosty as a baby and it's hard to believe he was born almost 2 years ago, so I suspect it will be similar with the new little guy.

Here are a bunch of pictures of what we've been up to.  I  wish all of you could see how much our little man is talking.  Seems like everyday he's got new words he knows and uses correctly.  Yesterday and today, just what I can remember, his new words have been Easter bunny (figure that one out), sunglasses, keys, and.....okay my pregnancy brain forgot but he does have a lot of new words. Enjoy.

At the Dinosaur Park.  I just think he's so cute

We had our Easter egg hunt at our house today because of how busy they were at the ones in the community.  It was way better than the one we actually did go to this morning.  Exiting the house on his way out to hunt Easter eggs in the yard

Loving the egg hunt.  He kept yelling, "I found it!"

Scouting out his next egg.

Showing off his loot

Isn't he so cute in his hat!  He won't leave the house without it.

He was so excited to open them up and see what was inside.

"Open mommy?" I taped them shut so we could have a little control over candy intake.

He figured out to open one and went right to work on the jelly beans.

He loves to see pictures of himself, so I told him if he smiled I would show him and this is what I got.

We went to a Utah Grizzlies Hockey game with Grandpa and Grandma (my dad and stepmom) and the Real Salt Lake mascot was there and came to see Rosty.  He loved it.

It was Grizzbee's (Utah Grizzlies mascot) birthday, so all the mascots in the area were at the hockey game.  This little wolverine from UVU came and saw Rosty as well.

He was sick in the morning, then didn't get a nap and we were out late, so he spent his time with Aunt Missy and Uncle JD during the game.  Ryan and I had a lot more fun (is that okay to say as a mom?) and so did he.

Riding the train at the mall for the first time.  whenever we are at the mall playing and he hears the train whistle, he stops what he's doing, does kind of a gasp and yells to me, " Mommy choochoo!" So I took him

My very good friend from school (UofU), Marchaan and her daughter Paisley, came up to visit us that day and they went on the train with us too. 

I think this looks like a first date.  They had so much fun playing together.

Ryan and I promised Rosty if he was good one day when we were doing our grocery shopping, daddy would take him on the train.  So they were off, and Rosty was so excited.

We finally had a warm day, and Ryan had to go to work early so I took Rosty to the Dinosaur Park once again.  He had so much fun running around and playing on the toys.  We even explored parts of the park we hadn't been before.

They had toddler swings for little ones like Rosty, but he insisted on riding the big one.

Yep, he's kissing the dinosaur.

I just thought this picture was so cute.  He was walking around the Dinosaur Park eating his sandwich.  He did not want to sit.  He's such a big boy.

He wanted his picture taken in front of this dinosaur.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.  They are in kind of a random order but pictures of our boy none the less.Oh I remembered a couple of phrases that he says now, "What's going on?" and "I want to talk to....(whomever I am on the phone with at the time he'll say their name)"  It's pretty cute.  Today at the Easter egg hunt we went to, we were standing around waiting for it to start and he kept asking, "What's going on?"  Silly boy.  Seems like yesterday he was born.  How time flies.  In all the cuteness I tell you about, don't forget there is a little devil inside of him too.  He has always had a mind of his own, to put it lightly, and now he loves to be defiant. Sometimes we feel like it's a teenage girl living at our house instead of and almost 2 year old boy. Oh well, we wouldn't change him, except maybe his poor sleeping habits, for anything. 


Ryan update:
He just finished his first semester at Weber State.  He worked so hard, and we're proud of him.  When we were picking his classes, we decided he would take them online.  It was a struggle at first because of not being in school for a few semesters and because they were all kind of random (generals), but in his own words, towards the end of the semester he got in a groove.  Because of the baby coming, he's only taking two classes over the summer, and will be starting the first week of May.  Rosty and I are so proud of him and all the work he does to keep our family going.  We're pretty lucky he's ours! 

Tiffany update:
Nothing too exciting to report for me, just the fact I only have 7 weeks left.  I love being home, most of the time, but do miss working.  Because of being home, and being bored out of my mind when Rosty sleeps(you can only sweep so many times a day) I've taken up sewing again.  So far nothing exciting has been made, but it has been fun.  I made Rosty two hooded towels, I'm working on a blanket and matching pillow case for his birthday, and have several other projects started.  It keeps me entertained some days.

All in all, we're doing great and we're greatly blessed!

Latest on our family.....mostly an update of Rosten for our families

We went night skiiing with some friends the first part of February at a ski place near our house.  Ryan is becoming quite the skiier and was able to take Rosten out on the bunny hill a few times.  It was pretty cute, and Rosten loved it.  We're starting him out a lot younger than either of us ever thought of starting. 

Rosten has a few new obsessions, one being trains.  Last summer we purchased a season pass to the dinosaur park in town, which included a pass to the train museum.  We took Rosten for the first time in February and he loved it.  They had a few little trains on tracks that you could follow around and he had Ryan running all over the place following them.  We'll definitely be going back soon, and also taking advantage of another part of the membership which is the airplane museum at Hill Air Force Base.

 On Valentine's Day, Ryan had the day off, so after Rosten was able to name 25 of the 26 animals in his ABC animal book, we took him to the Hogle Zoo (another annual membership we have). He loved seeing all the animals, and especially loved playing in Discovery Land.  Aunt Miss joined us for the excursion, which we all really enjoyed.  Rosten loves all his family so much!

 Here is another picture at the zoo.  Rosten had just finished saying, "raffe," or giraffe as most people would say.  He loved all the animals, especially the "wunkeys, eefants, and raffes"

 No your eyes are not deceiving you.  He is quite the little ladies man.  Since most all of my friends have girls, that's who Rosten plays with.  This is my friend, Marchaan's daughter.  They love to kiss each other.  It's pretty funny actually.  We went to dinner a few weeks ago, and we almost had to pry them apart because they just love to kiss.  It's cute, but a little worrisome for both sets of parents.  What will we have to deal with in the future???

 Rosten is definitely a momma's boy.  He loves me to hold him, love him, and he loves to pull my cooking stuff out of the drawers and bang it together.  It is cute though.  I may never have a girl, so if he wants to help me cook, I'm okay with that.  He is a daddy's helper too.  He makes us so happy.  Don't get me wrong though,  He can be the devil! Just ask me 5 out of the 7 days of the week and I'll tell you just how devilish he can be!  ;-)

Another obsession is dinosaurs.  There is a cartoon called "Dinosaur Train," that he has watched a few times and now he loves them. Just this morning he was singing the theme song to the show.  I can't get him to sing any other song with me, but he'll sing dinosaur train.  Silly boy! We had taken him to the Dinosaur Park several times before, but just the last week we took him, and he loved it.  In the picture above, he's saying hi to the hairy dino.  Daily we get a request for "dinasoar pawk."  We're hoping the weather cooperates so we can take him tomorrow.

Playing at the Dinosaur Park.  He prefers the slides.  No pictures of that though.  It takes two of us to make sure the little dare devil gets up the steps and down the slide without killing himself.

They have speakers set up throughout the park that make dinosaur noises, and in the picture he's leading daddy towards louder noises.

Our little miner (at least that's what we think it is?)

 I love these two so much!  I'm one lucky lady!!

I took this picture about the time Rosty realized what was behind him.  As soon as I snapped the picture he was running into my arms saying, "momma, scawy(scary)!"

Last obsession, CARS!!  I think I have seen that movie over 500 times now.  I about can't handle even hearing it anymore.  We went to the mall, both yesterday and today, just so Rosty could play on the cars.  This particular one happened to have a dog as well, which he absolutely loves.  What a little ham!

 "Mommy, car says VROOM, VROOM"

I tried to add our ultrasound picture from this week, but for some reason was unable to get it to load, so this one is from January 21st.  The baby as of Monday, is measuring at 28 weeks.  The doc says everything looks great.  Less than 3 months left!  We're so excited to have another little guy in our house.  Ryan is convinced this one will have his nose, so we'll see.  He and his family have told me how strong his families' genes are, then he'll look at Rosten and say yours must be stronger, so we'll see whose strong genes win out this time.  Hopefully he'll be as much fun as his big brother. 

Finally the last picture.  I thought I should throw in one picture of my since I always get ragged on because I'm usually behind the camera.  This is me about 3 weeks ago at 25 weeks.  I'm going to be 28 weeks tomorrow.  Hello 3rd trimester!!  I'm thinking the baby will come early, but we've decided until the doc tell us we need to be induced, we just going to hold out and wait for him to come no matter when he comes.  Rosty likes to point at my belly and say "bruder."  He's finally past the stage of lifting my shirt to look at my belly which I am very grateful for!  One more story about Rosty.  Last week he crawled up on the bed as we were laying there.  He sat on my lap facing me, and had a book and was telling his little brother all the things in the book.  He would say, "Was dis? an eefant, bruder. Was dis? a ball, bruder. Was dis? a buket bruder." (translation: What's this? An elephant, brother. What's this? A ball, brother. What's this? A bucket, brother) It was so cute.  Then he would kiss the belly and say "Wuv u!"  I think he's going to be such a good big brother, when he's not teaching his little brother to do all the naughty things he does. ;-)

Hopefully, I'll be better about updating this thing more often.  I hope you enjoyed the update. 

Oh Rosten...

This was lunch today, and every other minute of every other day. Oh I love my Rosten, but sometimes I tell you.

Oh, and we went to the doc today.  Baby sounds good.  I go again in 3 weeks, then start my every 2 week appointments.  Crazy!

Update....finally......a year later

It has been a long time since I last updated on our little family.  I'm not going to try and catch up on everything, but I'll give a little blurb about each of us..

Ryan

He's such a great husband and daddy.  He is working hard to provide for our family and going to school.  He started this semester at Weber State University and it studying Criminal Justice.  His ultimate goal is to get into the Secret Service.  He should be done in a couple years with the credits he earned in England before his mission.  He earned the equivalent of an Associate's degree over there, and several of the credits were able to transfer; lucky for him.  Since we moved into our house, we haven't done a lot of fixing up, and Ryan is very antsy to get it done.  We now have a plan in order to get going on things and make our house what it has the potential to be.  If I even hint at wanting to do something, he jumps on it and goes as far as I'll let him go.  He's so funny.  Rosten and I are so proud of him and all that he does for us.  We feel pretty lucky that he comes home to us each day. 

Tiffany

My beautiful grandma, Rosten, and me

Wow!  Big changes for me since the last time I wrote.  I finished my internship in April and the next day started a Social Services job at a nursing facility in Salt Lake, and graduated from University of Utah a few weeks later.  It was a lot of changes in a short time, but very exciting.  I worked a lot of hours and sacrificed a lot of time for the job, but I did love it.  Rosten went to daycare and he loved it, but I didn't.  I didn't like someone else raising him, so after a lot of talk, Ryan and I decided I would quit in September, and look for another job closer to home.  Rosten's behavior changed so much and we all loved me being home, so now I'm a stay at home momma.  It has it's moments, but for the most part I love it.  I wish I could work part time, but struggle giving up family time.  I was offered several full-time positions in Ogden and Layton, and another in Salt Lake but decided not to take them after much thought and prayer. Now my days consist of naps, snacks, cooking, occasional cleaning and laundry, and entertaining a toddler.  Quite the change from before, but it has it's perks.  I'm planning on going back to school at some point to get a degree in nursing.  I had often struggled back in forth between social work and nursing when I was in school, and decided on social work.  Now I realize what  a great benefit both degrees would be together and miss helping people, so nursing will happen one of these days.  My Grandma Sullivan passed away the 22nd of January, just a month ago.  It was something we were all expecting, but still sad.  I think about her daily, and know that she is happy again with my Grandpa.  She is amazing, and the reason I am who I am.  I love her so much, thus the reason of the picture with Grandma.

Rosten

Our little monkey is growing so much.  He is now 21 months old and talking like crazy.  He can be a monster at times, but we're so glad we've been blessed to have him in our lives.  He loves animals; the picture above is at the zoo this past week when it warmed up for a minute.  We decided to make a trip to the zoo that day after we went through his ABC animal book and named every animal (minus the urchin).  His best friend is his dog Wally, must to my dismay.  I would love to get rid of the dog, but I just don't have the heart with how much Rosten loves him.  Rosten loves Sesame Street and Mickey Mouse, and has a strange obsession with cars or anything with 4 wheels that is bigger than a car; specifically, tractors, forklifts, etc.  He is a momma's boy, and relies on me for everything.  The most common thing he'll say is, " Momma, hand," and stretch out his hand to lead me where he wants me to be whether to get his ball from under the couch or get him a snack. He's been in nursery for the last few months, and loves it.  I spoke with his nursery leaders, concerned he was causing them the same grief he causes me daily, and they told me he's a good helper, consoles the other kids when they cry, shares, and listens to their lessons.  My first thought was they were liars (sssshhhh....don't tell them I said that), but after a member of the Bishopric told me the same, I knew it had to be true, just hard to believe.  Rosten loves to look at books and pretend he's reading them, and he likes to climb on anything and everything.  We love our little guy so much!  

Baby Boy #2

That's right, baby #2 is on his way.  Sorry no picture provided.  Our last picture is over 4 weeks old, so I'm sure he's changed a lot by now.  We are 24 weeks 2 days, and so excited to get this baby here.  He is due on June 13th.  Rosten is so excited to be a big brother.  He loves to lift my shirt either pat or kiss my belly and say "bruder."  It is so cute.  We were not planning on having another this quick, but we're glad to have him on his way.  We haven't been able to agree on any names yet, but we do have a  middle name picked out.  It will be Winsper, after my Grandpa Sullivan.  It was his middle name and my great-grandmother's maiden name.  I have always loved the name and look forward to our son having the same middle name as my grandpa.  Baby boy, we can't wait for you to get here.  You have been so much fun so far, with all your kicking, and we can't wait to meet you and enjoy your presence.

 

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