Julia's Story

The real story begins two weeks before she came. I began having labor pains two weeks before my due date! I would get all excited because they would be consistent for about four hours and then abruptly stop! It was so hard for me to deal with physically ( I was exhausted and so, so, sore) and emotionally ( going in out of labor is hard on the tear ducts!) I finally went into my midwives clinic on the 8th because I was having really strong contractions and I hurt (my pubic bones were killing me) so bad! I went in and was only at a 3 but my blessed midwife so how utterly miserable I was  and sad that if I had didn't have the baby that night that I could be induced the next day! I wasn't sure how I felt about being induced but with the next contraction, I was game! She called the hospital and came back with the news that the hospital was full till Monday, but she didn't think that I would go that far. (I really hate it when they say that because it never happens!) 

All through the weekend I waited for her to come because with her brothers it only took a little threating with inducement for them to decide to just come! Julia had different plans and a totally different outlook! Monday rolled around and I was still pregnant and so we headed to the hospital! We got there about 8:00, checked in, got hook to the iv, and then the nurse injected the most horrible thing into my IV. You guess it, PIT!!!!! It was horrible! Never again!  After about thirty minutes, my midwife came in and broke my water (also not a fun experience!).  I was finally able to get an epidural after about an hour of contractions. I have never watched a IV bag empty so slowly in my life!!!  After the epidural, I thought I would be much better.  The majority of the pain did disappear but I stilled had some pain but thought it would go away. Nope! It intensified and started to go along my tail bone! Usually at this point, it means I need to push and the baby will be here but I had only been in labor for about four hours and couldn't possibly be that close! (My other labors were at least 12 hours!)  They injected something into my IV that they promised would make me feel better but that it would take about thirty minutes! Helene, my midwife, came in and checked me and to my surprise and hers, I was at an 8 and Julia's head was coming down! She rapidly threw on a gown and told me to get ready to push after they drained my bladder. I couldn't believe it! I had only been in labor for four hours and she was here! I kept saying that this couldn't be happening! But with the next contraction, I was thankful it was almost over!  

So everyone got ready for her to come and then the pushing began! I pushed and pushed and the pain was so intense! I began to scream and grunt! I have never had to do that before! They encouraged me by saying that she has such beautiful hair! They then told me that she was turning herself! She was positioned to come out face up but as I began to push, she turn herself over and came out face down! Hence all the pain! She finally came though and I was so relieved! 

Julia Elizabeth has been a blessing to our home and I am so thankful that she is here and that I am no longer pregnant!!!  It took a while for it to sink in that she is ours, this beautiful little girl! I think Anth summed it up when he commented about how weird it looked to see little bows on the top of our baby's head!  Now bows,ribbons, and flowers are a part of daily life! Girls are just so special! 

She's HERE!!!

Julia Elizabeth Tietjen was born yesterday (July 12) at 1:08 p.m.
Weight: 8 lbs. 9 oz
Height: 20 1/2 in

More to follow later!

Brian Regan and Other Fun!!!

Two weeks ago Anth and I had the awesome opportunity to go and see Brian Regan live in Blackfoot! He is one of our favorite comedians!! We had watched tons of his stuff on Youtube and absolutely love it!! Since I'm due the week of your anniversary, this became our anniversary activity complete with time alone and dinner out! It was great!! We laughed so hard!! I had to make myself not laugh because my ribs hurt so bad!! And that was after the first 30 minutes!!!

Us waiting for the performance to start! We had gotten there a little early by accident! We thought it started at 7:00 and got there about 6:15! Come to find out it started at 7:30!! Good thing we had a lot to talk about!

The next day we spent at my family's and then on Saturday attended a family reunion in Idaho Falls. It was Matthew's first time at the zoo and he was so excited as well as the other boys! Peter kept wanting to move on to the next animal! Matthew's first animal was the penguin and his mouth made the biggest O! It was so cute!!

My boys!!! I am so thankful for them all! They bright my day and make me laugh every day! They have been my big helpers this last couple of months and are super excited for their sister to come any day now! They kept asking when she will come out!!

All about Matthew

I felt that Matthew deserved his own post! I haven't posted very many pictures of him or told much about his accomplishments! This might be a little long so if you would like to tune out now, feel free!

Matthew has a special personality. He has a way of making us laugh and is going to be the clown in our family! He loves the camera and loves to make people laugh! He is such a ham!! This was taken on his first Easter morning! He was just as excited as the "boys" to see what what he had gotten and had a lot of fun looking for eggs! He is about 10 months in this picture!

This was Matthew's first trip to the park! He had a blast walking around and playing with the bark, or eating it! He got to go down the slide a couple of times and had a blast. He loves being treated like the big boys. He gets really offended if he is not allowed to do something that they are doing!

This is his first taste of watermelon and he was in love! He loves any type of fruit and will bang on his tray and beg for more whenever he sees it on the table or on the counter!

This boy loves to eat! But we always know when he is doing eating because he starts to rub his eyes and put the food in his hair! This was taken at about 9 months. He was eating everything that we were, even carrots! He just gnaws at them till they are gone. He has about 10 teeth now and is working on cutting his last two molars. Crazy!!!

Much like all toddlers, Matthew has the ability to get several "boo-boos" within a small amount of time. In this picture you can see his eye where he hit on the window sill. For the past couple of months, he always has a bump or a bruise somewhere! Is this just a boy thing? He also is always getting into stuff that he shouldn't.  I know that that is normal behavior but Matthew has added sense of it. He is always squeezing into places he shouldn't or playing with things that are off limits. He is constantly on the move! Moving  from one thing to the other. He hates to be held!!

Another Ham shot!! 

 This Matthew before he got his first hair cut! He had a huge cowlick on the front and then about 3 inches on top that we would just comb over. It was time! But he was scared of the clippers! 

After! He looked bald for about a week! It took us a while to get use to his new look! 

Matthew turned one about a week ago! He didn't really understand what was happening but he sure loved all the attention and the fact that he got to have cake! (No ice cream because he is lactose- intolerant.) He loved the ice cream cupcakes that Grandma brought! He ate the whole thing when they came up the day before because Grandpa had to work on his actual birthday. 

The cake that I made for his birthday. Banana with Hot Fudge icing! He knew what it was  and couldn't wait to put his hands in it! He never did get the concept of blowing out the candle! 

Got to get those last few crumbs! It think that it was the icing that he was after! Much to my frustration, he like Grandma's cake way better then mine! 

All done!  It took about five minutes to get him all clean! What a mess!

We couldn't imagine our family without him! We love you, Matthew! Hurray for surviving your first year!! 

Our 1st Campout!!!

So we decided that we would have our first family campout! We had it about three or four weeks ago! The weather was natsy but it didn't really bother us! We had fun making tinfoil dinners and then spending time together as a family. The boys thought it was an awesome adventure to sleep in a tent! 

Picture of our campsite! Hey! I never said that it was our first outdoors campout! This pregnant lady doesn't sleep on the ground! She prefers her mattress and nice warm house! The boys were super excited when Anth pulled out the tent and let them help set it up. They had their bags in and were running around in their like crazy! They got out the camp chairs and placed them in front of the fire!

You guessed it! Our fire! It kept us nice and toasty! It did get a little too warm but we just opened the windows and listen to the beautiful outdoors....rodeo finals, complete with twangy western music!

Our wonderful and delicious dinners! I completely cheated and cooked them in the oven before hand! We kept them warm on top of the stove. Anth and I had the traditional tinfoil dinner with hamburger, potatoes, and carrots. I added soy sauce to mine and thought it tasted awesome! The boys got a hot dog tinfoil pocket! They enjoyed eating hot dogs and french fries that been wrapped in tinfoil! We spread a blanket on the floor and ate on it so that it seemed more like camping. We were dog sitting so we even had some wild animals to keep away from our food!

After finishing dinner we decided to watch Alvin and the Chipmunks, Hot-Air Balloon Adventure. The boys then snuggled into their sleeping bags. Overall it was a lot of fun and something that we might do often to help break up the monotony of winter/spring/summer weather that we often inflicts our town!

Is it too late to post Easter photos?

So I know that Easter was well over a month ago and that I am really slow about posting. I really do want to do better. Ne ways... lets not get off our subject. This year for Easter we celebrated by traveling to my family's to watch Conference and to enjoy the holiday. We painted eggs and then in the morning had an easter egg hunt with the colored eggs and then our annual "Bunny Money" hunt. Our parents hide a few dollars in the eggs and let us search for them. It was first established when Anth and I got married to help pay for our gas. It was so expensive then .... $1.80!!! How did we ever afford it? We swore that if it ever got over two dollars that we would only bike everywhere! Lets just say that didn't happen! Ne ways...back on topic! It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed the time with family. It was freezing... as it has been for the last couple of years but it was still a great adventure!

 

Andrew with his Easter basket! He was so excited to go out and find the eggs! He hardly needed any help and was my helper when it was the adults turn to search! (He was my bender-over!)

Peter was our expert! He knew what he was doing and enjoyed explaining to Andrew how it worked! He was Anthony's partner for the adult hunt and they finished way before Andrew and I! Peter came to help me after Anth got all his! I am always the last one it seems!

This was Matthew's first Easter and he had a blast! He loved all the good things that he could put in his mouth. He didn't get the concept of picking up the eggs and putting them in a basket but he still liked going outside. My brother, Shaun, helped carry him around to find his eggs! Matthew enjoyed shaking them and hearing all the candy rattle inside!

Since Matthew couldn't eat the malted eggs that came in his eggs (okay, so I helped him suck on one! He's the third! What can I say! I'm way more relaxed about what goes in his mouth!), Anth decided that the next best thing would be painting his face with one! Matthew is 1/64 Indian and we like to let his heritage show! (If you look really close in that picture, you can see my gray hair starting to show through! The last couple of years have not been kind to my hair!)

Sigh of Relief

Again my life has been blessed by the tender hand of the Lord! These last 7 months, I feel like I have been put to the faith test. It seemed like every time we would get over one crisis, another one would spring up. But through all these tests, we have learned something and have seen miracles and tender mercies administrated. Case in point....

I went in for my 28 week appointment ( I only have 12 weeks to go! I can't believe it!) and found that I had failed my glucose test. You all know the one I'm talking about! That yucky sugar drink that makes you nauseous and gives ya a headache. Ne ways... I was told that I had to do the three hour test. This involves not eating anything after midnight and then not till they tell you that you can. Almost 12 hours (or longer if you are like me and don't stay up till midnight)! Then they precede to poke you every hour for three hours after you drink something twice as sweet as the first one. Horrible!! Ne ways... I was really nervous about it because I just felt like having to count carbs and calories would just make me completely crazy! Lately I have had a hard enough time talking and walking. (that's another story.) Ne ways.... after the third time of being poked and with one more hour in sight, they set me home because my levels were fine! I was so relieved!

I know that the Lord heard my prayers and that He was aware of me! I feel as though I grown closer to the Lord through this pregnancy and feel that though it has been hard, He has never left me! I definitely have learned to trust in my Father and let him carry me.