Pictures

We had pictures taken when Brooklyn was 2 weeks old and here are a few of them!

I think this picture clearly shows she has blonde hair not red!  We are pretty sure a lot of people want to see red hair on her since Bush is a red head.  I am always just amazed at how many people say oh she is a red head... when clearly she is blonde.

2 Months Already!!

Brooklyn is now 2 months old!! I know you always hear time goes by so fast and I couldn't agree more.  She is getting so big!! She is now 10lbs 7oz and just shy of 23" long.  The doctor said she is in the 35th percentile for her weight and the 60th percentile for her height.  She received her 2 month shots yesterday and that was incredibly heart breaking as a parent.  Being an EMT I thought that maybe it wouldn't be so hard to watch but it is completely different when it is your child.  The sad part is that it took me longer to recover from her shots than it took her.  She screamed and cried and then about a minute or two afterwards she stopped and was smiling and cooing again.  So far no side effects from it, except she is a little more sleepy than she normally is.  Which I now understand what a "normal" baby is like!! Brooklyn sleeps AMAZING through the night but doesn't sleep hardly at all during the day.  So having her sleep more during the day is quite strange.  She is smiling a lot now and cooing a lot too.  

This is her "famous" pouty face!!

Well a few weeks ago poor Toby was ran over... he had to stay at the vet for 2 days to monitor him but he came home and is doing great.  He broke one leg but luckily not enough to need to repair it.  He has a cast on that leg that will stay for almost two months.  He had some pretty bad internal trauma but has been recovering great!  He is such a stubborn dog, which served him well in surviving.  The vet told us the night that it happened that he had a 50% chance of surviving.  He has some gashes here and there but they are starting to fill in.  He is our little boy and we are just so happy he is still with us.  

Brooklyn Margaret Hazelbush

Our little precious girl finally arrived on March 21, 2012 at 9:52am!!!
She weighed in at 8lb 5oz and 21.5" tall!!
I can not express how much we already love her and are smitten by her!!

This is quite the journey for me because during my whole pregnancy up till the very end I was still undecided on how I felt (or so I thought).  I let the fear get the better of me.  When she finally came out I started crying because I just knew I loved her all along and was just scared.
My birthing experience was a very positive one.  I was scheduled to be induced at 7am on the 21st and I was so nervous about it because my OB was not going to be there and I just did not know what to expect.  The only plan was to break my water and then let my body take over.  I was very opposed to using pitocin and so I did not want any other interventions unless it became medically necessary.  However it did not happen this way at all.  I feel so blessed and lucky to go into labor on my own.  I woke up around 12:15am and was having a contraction.  I decided to get into the shower and see if the warm water would help them keep coming and it did.  I was having them every 3 minutes while in the shower and once I was out they went to every 5 minutes.  So we got all of our things and headed to the hospital.  We called both sets of parents to let them know.  We arrived at the hospital around 2:20am.  I was dilated to a 4 by this time which was great... also I was able to have my OB Dr. Griffith come to the hospital and break my water.  He was scheduled to leave for a conference till the following week at 6 that morning.  He was beyond awesome and rescheduled his flight for 11am instead.  Once he broke my water we found out that there was meconium in the amniotic fluid.  Which is not good but it is not a medical emergency either.  I was having some really good contractions at this point and was waiting to get an epidural.  My parents arrived at the hospital around 3am.  My Mom was such a huge help during labor.  My poor Dad had sprained his ankle the day before and so we put him in a reclining chair by my bed.  I received my epidural around 4:30am which was AMAZING!! By this time I was dilated to a 6 so it was a welcome relief.  I originally told myself I wanted to hold off on getting an epidural till I was at least 5 or 6cm dilated, which I did.  I was really impressed with myself because you have to hold still in an uncomfortable position for a while and I had some of the stronger of my contractions and I held completely still.  I just leaned into Bush and would squeeze his hands while they happened but wouldn't move at all.  After it started working I felt the most relaxed I have been in months.  I even was able to fall asleep for a little while.  My contractions were slowing down though and around 7:30am they started a pitocin drip to help them get stronger.  At this point I was ok with this because you are so ready to be done.  Dr. Griffith came back to check me around 9:20am and I was almost fully dilated but not quite there.  He told me start pushing during the next contraction to see if we could make any progress.  Apparently I did and so the pushing began.  It was a bit funny because Dr Griffith was getting everything set up and in his gown while Bush was telling me when to push and counting for me.  Dr Griffith would just look over while it was happening and kept saying good just keeping doing that.  I must have been pushing really well (it is hard to tell with an epidural) because little Brooklyn arrived at 9:52am.  Between contractions I asked the Dr how long this part normally takes and he said on average an hour.  I must have really wanted him to deliver because he had to leave at 10am to catch his flight.  He literally ran out of the room and hospital at 10:15am.  You hear horror stories about labor and birth but mine was not at all like that.  I was so pleased because everything I wanted to happen (with a few exceptions) was able to happen.  Now we are just enjoying out little girl and can't get enough of her!!

Daddy and Brooklyn

Uncle Nate apparently likes her

Aunt Sabra

Uncle Jake 

I apparently did not get any pictures of anyone else yet... or I can't find them yet.  

She has a ton of blonde hair and is just so darn cute!!

New Directions

Bush and I have been talking about our "goals" for our physical fitness lately.  I have found quite a few quotes and inspirations that are helping us to be driven.  This year we have only a few goals we both want to accomplish... This september we will be running the Dirty Dash again in Utah and it is a 10K (which is a little over 6 miles), we want to complete P90X before the end of the year and we want to make running a regular part of our exercise regimen.  I will have pregnancy weight to lose and Bush just wants to become more fit.  We are not into the crazy diet fads but eating healthier is part of our goals as well.

We want to set a good example for our kids.  We want to be active with them and show them that being active will help them as they get older.  If we eat healthy our kids will eat healthy.  If we show that exercise is essential they will follow suit.  Besides who doesn't want to look and feel smokin' hot in their 30's, 40's and 50's??  We are young now and can make this change and luckily neither of us are overweight to begin with (except me during the pregnancy, ha ha) so this change shouldn't take a long time to take over our life.

And this poster is just so true!! Anyone who has ran a lot or did a hard exercise can relate to this.  Just a side effect of reaching your goals I guess!!  And as a trainer said, "Transformation isn't a future event, it is a present day activity!"  There will come a day when we can't run or exercise they way we can now but today is not that day so go do something that makes you sweat!!  I am now thinking of exercise as a gift/blessing from Heavenly Father... he gave us these amazing bodies, so why not use them?

What A Way To Start The Year...

So far this year has not been the best... and yes I realize today is only January 9th!! We have had a running joke at home that Bush was due for his next "accident" or ER visit.  It seems to be about every other year he ends up in the hospital for something.  Well he didn't disappoint last week on the 4th....

Around 9am I got a phone call from Wayne (one of Bush's hands at work) to inform me that Bush has broken him arm and they called the ambulance to take him to the hospital.  I will admit that after I hung up the phone I laughed a little bit just because of the timing.  I then proceed to get ready and pack a bag to head to Rifle.  My brother Nate and Clint's wife Brystal were able to meet Bush at the ER in Glenwood Springs right away.  After I left and arrived in Rifle I called my brother to see how things were going and that is when I found out how bad it really was.  Nate told me that he has a compound break in both his left radius and ulna and that he ripped off the tip of his left index finger.  I have some medical knowledge due to some DH classes and my EMT course so I understood that it was a really good break.

My thought was at least it was just a broken arm and nothing else...but I didn't know the rest of it till later.

After I arrived at the ER I saw the x-ray and was pretty impressed by it.  He was pretty drugged up but still in a lot of pain.  This is saying a lot because Bush can handle a lot of pain.  Finally he was moved into the pre-op room and they began prepping him for surgery at 4pm.  Dr. Adams was the orthopedic surgeon and came in and told us what he would have to do.  What happened was Bush also had compartment syndrome in his arm.  This is when there is too much swelling and blood and they would have to cut into the muscles and relieve the pressure.  I learned later that this is a pretty serious thing because if left too long it could require amputation because it would kill the muscles and nerves.  Luckily that did not happen.  The doctor told me it would take about 2 hours.

After waiting for a little over 3 hours the doctor finally came out.  He told us that Bush has severed his radial artery as well.  They did not know this before hand and they had to get another surgeon to come see if they could fix it... they couldn't.  Luckily we have 2 arteries going to the forearm and hand so it would be ok.  They said it was damaged beyond repair.  The doctor said he was confused that he wasn't bleeding like a 'stuck pig' and said something cut off the artery so he did not bleed out.  He then went on to inform us that there was too much swelling and they couldn't close him up.  He would need another surgery in a couple days by a plastic surgeon to perform a skin graft to close his arm.  Basically the doctor said the only good news was that his bones came back together perfectly.  He now has a plate and 6 screws in each bone.  He also has a large plate and 13 screws in his right leg.  Going to the airport should be fun!!

So on Friday he went in for surgery again to get the skin graft.  This surgery only took an hour but the doctor came and told me that they had to cut open his arm more and do a larger graft than originally planned.  They said that he will have to be home for around 6 weeks and then could go to light duty for awhile.  It will take 4-6 months for him to feel pretty good with using his arm again and a whole year before it is 100%.  He will also have surgery again in a year on the skin graft because the swelling will be completely gone by then and it will be too loose.  

We were finally able to leave the hospital Sunday evening and are now home.  Being in the hospital for 5 days is a long time!!  They took the skin graft from his left thigh and so he has a few wounds to heal up now.  

Now we are on a long recovery road.  Bush is seriously such a stud it is amazing.  He only takes a few pain killers a day and is doing pretty good.

I sure hope the rest of you have had a better year so far!!

Finally Have Pictures

So I finally got the pictures from the Half Marathon Bush ran!!!

Enjoy!!

Yes next time Bush will wear nip guards so he doesn't bleed from his nipples!!

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

It is the time of the year to make resolutions and new resolve to be better.  I have only a few things on my list that I want to accomplish this year but first I want to recap our last year.

It has been a CRAZY year and every year from now on will only get crazier...

January: We started/continued our adventure on remodeling.  It was a slow process.

February: We are still remodeling.  We took a break from "life" and went to Salt Lake a did a weekend of pampering ourselves.

March:  We finally got our kitchen cabinets!  This was very exciting for us.

April:  We got all the flooring done and FINALLY moved into our home!

May:  We found out that Jake and Sabra were expecting!!

June:  We ran the Dirty Dash, which I hope we can do every year!! We also (unknowingly of course) began our own family!

July:  We went to Boulder and met my cousin Caitlin for the first time.  We found out that we were expecting!

August:  Nausea set in overtime and was not the greatest month, however, we had our first appointment and got to see and hear the babies heart beat!  We also told our families about the new baby on Bush's birthday.

September:  We went on a cruise with family and friends.  Bush ran a half marathon and did really well. We also has another niece born on Bush's side, Zanea Hazelbush.

October:  Well my birthday is quite the big deal in itself this month but the biggest news was finding out we are having a GIRL!!

November:  We had a great Thanksgiving and I finally started "popping"!  It felt like it came overnight and hasn't stopped since!!

December:  We had the arrival of our niece Hannah Jo Allred!! We had such a busy month with Christmas and a Baby Shower.  Bush had 11 days off work which was AWESOME!!  I also started my 3rd trimester which was a funny reality check to Bush when I told him only 90 more days... needless to say his eyes got big and said wow that is so soon!!

So for this year I want to write down a few of things I want to accomplish this year...

1- Exercise a minimum of 3 days every week
2- Have a painless birth!! Ha Ha, I know this is impossible but I can dream!!
3- Take a week long vacation to Rhode Island
4- Go to Texas after Jake and Sabra move there and get settled
5- Lose all my pregnancy weight plus some extra to get back down to where I was and want to be
6- Oh and of course navigate the journey of being a parent
7- Stick to our budget that we have made so we can start the journey of becoming debt free

Hope everyone has a wonderful year!!