Sleep Deprived

Oh what I wouldn't do for a good 8 hours of sleep...i would even take 5 or 6 continuous blissful hours of uninterrupted sleep.  aww it sounds so nice.  It's weird to day dream about sleep, but it's probably one of my favorite day dreams.  I have had a few people tell me it's possible to have Liam sleep 5 or 6 hours straight even this young!  I have been trying their methods with little success.  A good night seems to be if Liam will go back to sleep within 20 minutes of waking up being fed and changed.  These times are rare but cherished.  He is more consistent waking up every three hours to feed at night than he is in the day time.  I am not one of those people who functions well at night.  I have heard some mom's talk about how much they love the time they spent with their babies in the middle of the night.  I wish I could be one of those mom's but instead I am half mom half zombie.  I usually have one eye half way open, and can only grunt.  For example when Jason asks if I need help I respond, "ugh."   A lower pitched ugh means no and a higher pitched ugh means, "yes, help please!!!"  Ok I am not always this bad but its not pretty.  Still every night I go to bed with hope that maybe this will be the night that Liam sleeps more than 3 hours.  Ha and it's funny what rules you break in the middle of the night.  For example I have been told over and over don't let the baby sleep in your bed because it starts bad habits.  Well at 3am Liam can sleep in our bed until he's 18 for all i care!  Fortunately Liam does spend a good amount of the night in his crib lately.  As long as he has his binky he doesn't seem to care where he is but when your the one having to hold in his binky or keep replacing it, you would rather be lying down. 

Even with a lack of sleep I can't express how much I love that little boy.  I don't I could understand this kind of love until I had a baby.  I was thinking about the different relationships in my life and the different degrees of love I have for people.  There is the love I have for my parents and family, then the love I have for my friends, the love I have for my amazing husband, and then I had Liam.  A whole new type of love develops within you where you know you will do anything and everything to give them the most wonderful life you can.  Your world just revolves around this precious little person and you dedicate your life to them.  Even when your covered in poop, pee, and spit up.

Here are some pics of our Handsome little man!

 Love that yawn!

 Liam always has to have his arms out of the blanket and around his head and face.

 and they say babies can't smile?

 Love this pic, with our neighbors beautiful flowers.

 On a very very sad note Mozzie has had some trauma.  Against the advice of my mother I cut Mozzie's hair short because his hair was getting matted and he hates getting brushed.  I dropped Mozzie off at the groomer and when I got back there was a rat in his place....  This is the last cute picture I have of him all fluffy... so pictures of Moz may be limited until his hair grows back.  Jason insists it's not as bad as I think but every time I see him now I let out a sad sigh. Don't worry I still love him all shaved and naked looking.  I also blame my bad decision on sleep deprivation.  ) :

Our New Life!

Oh my goodness we have gone through some changes these last few weeks.  It is amazing to be a new parent and definitely the hardest thing I have ever done!  I have always said though the hardest things in life are the most rewarding and that is the truth!  I never knew it was possible to be this in love with your precious child.  Even after being covered in spit up, poop, and pee I couldn't be happier.  He is the most precious little guy and I wish I could just cuddle with him all day.  It is breaking my heart to see how much he has already changed in just a few short weeks.  It makes me more aware I need to savor every second with this handsome little guy.  I try to remember that in the middle of the night when I think I am going to fall over I am so tired and just praying he will go back to sleep.  I keep thinking of that country song, "Your gonna miss this."  The lyrics go, "You're gonna miss this, you're gonna want this back, you're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast."  Its true.  I already recognize that I will soon miss these days, no matter how hard or exhausting they may be.

Our little boy is pretty amazing.  I can't believe how strong he is.  I am pretty sure if we arm wrestled he would put up a good fight.  This of course makes getting him dressed and changing his diaper difficult.  He can kick like a horse!  He also makes it his personal goal to try and pee on you every time you change his diaper!  and he is usually successful.  No matter how you try to outsmart him he figures out how to soak you.  Sometimes you don't even know how or when it happened.  You think you succeeded and hold him up all clean and look down and see your shirt is drenched.  If that's not a prodigy in the making I don't know what is.  I am considering investing in some ponchos, and creating a blue (wet) zone around his changing table.

I have also been learning to avoid getting spit up all over me.  I am usually unsuccessful but am making progress.  Between the spit up, pee, and occasional poopy blow out Liam and I go through a few outfits a day.  I think our record is 5 for him 3 for me.  This is especially difficult for me because I don't fit into my clothes yet and my outfits are limited!  Let me just say laundry has become a daily routine!  Jason also has received his fair share of spit up, pee, and poop on him.  When it does happen to him I usually laugh my head off and less than ten minutes later the same thing happens to me.  Karma!  The only one who has seemed to escape is Mozzie.  

I definitely couldn't have survived these last few weeks without the help of my incredible husband, and mother.  Jason has been wonderful to help me in the middle of the nights.  Even though he can't feed Liam.  He still helps with diapers and trying to get Liam back to sleep.  It means so much, and is a huge blessing for me.  Also my mom has been a life saver.  I have learned to appreciate mothers so much more through my pregnancy and the birth process but its amazing to see how much my mom still helps and does for me.  I promise I have the best mom in the world!  

We have been lucky enough to have lots of family come visit us including Jason's parents for a couple of nights.  They were wonderful to also help us out and let us get a few more hours of sleep.  Liam is so blessed to have loving grandparents on both sides that think the world of him.  I love seeing him with them and am grateful for both our parents and all they do.  Jess, Joan, Gary, and Chris we love you and don't know what we would do without you!  You are all amazing, thank you for everything you do!

On a sad not one of my best friends in Logan moved today.  Stephanie and her husband are off to Minnesota for grad school.  I am so excited for them but don't know what I am going to do without Stephanie.  We have gotten very close the last 3 years and will miss her like crazy.  She has taken all our wonderful pictures the past few years and we hurried to make sure she could get some of Liam and the family before she left.  The good news is Jason has business in Minnesota so hopefully we will go out and see them soon!  Can't wait!  Good Luck Stephanie and Jon!  Thanks for your love and friendship and soooo many fun memories!  

Here are some family pictures in a poppy field Stephanie found in the Island.  If you don't know what the Island is it is in Logan south of USU.  We were lucky because similar to our family pictures in the fall in front of the colorful wall of leaves these poppies only last a few days!  It was so beautiful!  

 Here are some of our handsome little guy at 1 week old.  Stephanie is amazingly patient to get some of these shots because he is pretty stubborn and like I mentioned before strong!  It can be really hard to pose him and get him to stay that way.  It took many hours!

 And what may I ask is even harder than posing a newborn?  Posing a newborn and a puppy!

WELCOME HOME LIAM!

 On Wednesday, May16th we welcomed William Jason Nelson into this world and into our family! In my family there has been tradition for quite some time of the firstborn son taking the fathers first name as his middle name in your family, it was fitting and worked out perfectly for us to keep this going! First off I have to say that none of this would have happened if it was not for my beautiful and determined wife who did absolutely incredible throughout her whole pregnancy and during labor - I LOVE YOU! Guys we have life pretty easy when you take this whole scenario into perspective and realize from day 1 until now exactly how sacred the women in our lives are and the calling they have in life! We are blessed beyond measure to have them in our lives and should never take for granted just how special and amazing they truly are. This experience was so life changing for me on so many different levels especially spiritually and the power that comes from seeing him for the first time along with hearing him cry for the first time and knowing he is healthy. There is no doubt in my mind that our little ones are watched and cared for on all levels before, during, and after they join us in mortality by those who have came before us and those who are yet to come. I can't believe I am a DADDY....seriously so cool!

He is everything we could have hoped for and more - he is a beautiful boy, full head of hair, and attributes that many of us are not sure exactly which side they came from - nonetheless he is our little angel who already has miraculously changed our lives and we know will continue to do so!!! Here are a few pictures we would like to share with you of our little aggie stud muffin!

Cutest Baby in the world!

He loves his fingers around his mouth and face and is strong enough to usually make it happen

He just wants to be held by Mommy!

Our new little family, isn't he adorable?

Look at all that hair...

Preparing for Baby!

Now that schools all over and done with I am doing my best to prepare for the baby to come!  I made some freezer meals that I found on Pinterest!  They are crockpot freezer meals and most the ingredients overlap which made shopping a lot easier!  Chopping up everything took a lot longer than I expected.  Next time I will do it with a friend and split it all up.  Here is the link if you are interested, http://kojo-designs.com/2012/04/getting-organized-a-whole-months-worth-of-meals-via-crockpot-freezer-cooking/.    

Were also continually working on the baby room.  I had my friends sister do some sketches of a young boy playing with a schnorkie in different scenarios!  I framed them and think it turned out darling!  

I have been working hard on my domestic skills and made this car seat canopy!  It's definitely not perfect but it was fun to make and really easy for a beginner like me!  Again here is the link where I got my directions.  http://www.make-it-do.com/tag/car-seat-canopy-pattern/

We had an old cork board and I wanted to make it cute for the baby room.  I got some fabric on sale at Hobby Lobby, and some spray paint and went to work.  It was pretty easy all you have to do is pull out the staples holding the cork to the frame.  Then I spray painted the frame very slowly to make sure it was even.  It took a few coats but I avoided dripping and uneven spots.  Then I just used hot glue to attach the fabric, and then reattach it to the frame.  

Before

After

I had to throw in this picture of Mozzie sleeping on his bone pillow!  He's just so darn cute!

I got these letters at Hobby Lobby for $1 each and decorated them with scrap book paper, ribbon, and a button.  I was really excited about them, and we hung them above the crib.  What do you think?

For all the really hard stuff such as assembling the crib, changing table, dresser, as well as painting, and hanging up things all the credit goes to Jason!  He has worked so hard on this nursery and I am so grateful for his help!  It has made it special doing it together and we really love it in there!  Now we just need our precious little guy to make it perfect!  Can't wait, hopefully not too much longer!

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day!  I am so incredibly grateful for such a wonderful, fun, loving mother that has always been there for me!  I sincerely don't know what I would do without her.  She has been an amazing example to me of what a mother should be and I hope that I can be as wonderful of a mother to my children as she was to me!  

This mothers day I have been a lot more sentimental because of how close I am to being a mom myself!  Jason, my parents, and my in laws all got me mothers day cards, and I have had some sweet mothers day wishes from others as well.  They have all made me tear up and have gotten me that much more excited for our sweet Liam to arrive!  

Also being pregnant has given me an entirely new perspective on motherhood.  I can't give mothers enough credit for carrying there babies around for nine months!  It is truly one of the hardest and most rewarding things I have ever done.  I will never think of my mother the same way again, and am so grateful for her sacrifice.  Pregnancy is beautiful, but I am ready to be done!  like really really really ready!  I am about to camp outside the hospital until they let me in but I am not sure Jas would let me.  Hopefully not too much longer though.  

Anyway, Happy Mothers Day to all the wonderful mothers in the world!