We Love Him, a Bushel and a Peck!

After a little bit of (not so subtle) hinting from a friend, I have decided it is time to blog about my little man. I can't beleive it has already been three weeks. Being a mom is the most wonderful thin in the world. Ben is the biggest blessing to me and Mike and although we are learning as each day comes and goes, we are so happy that he is finally a part of our family. The wait was definitely worth it.
Ben's journey started on the night of the 14th. After a night of tacos and gelato, I noticed some signs that labor was on it's way, and after contractions started (mild and about 8-9 minutes apart) in the middle of the night, I was positive that we would have our baby that day. Unfortunately, I fell asleep and the next thing I knew my alarm was going off and I was no longer having contractions. So after a couple hours of debating back and forth about whether or not to go in to work, I decided to go ahead and go. This wasn't the first time I'd had consistent contractions, so I knew I had nothing to worry about. Never mind the fact that in the shower that morning I noticed that my belly seemed a heck of a lot lower than it had the day before, and all signs were pointing to labor. Sure, I will head to work, an hour away from my house and the hospital-nothing is going to happen anyway.

At work I had planned on getting everything ready for my co-worker to take over for me just in case something happened that night and I didn't end up coming in to work the next morning. I did this everyday just on the off chance that I ended up not coming back. I typed up step-by-step instructions on how to do my job, handed them to the person who would be taking over for me, and walked back to my desk, all the while thinking I was starving and trying to decide where to go for lunch. As I walked back to my desk, I felt a gush of fluid. I remember thinking that I kind of had to go to the bathroom and how awful and inconvenient it was that I had just pee'd my pants at work and didn't have a change of clothes. Then it hit me! With no previous problems with incontinence, was it possible that this was my water breaking? No way! Mike had just read a statistic to me that only 10 percent of women's water breaks before labor. After I went to the bathroom to check it out, I came to the conclusion that it most likely was my water and I should probably start thinking about heading to the hospital. I sent Mike a message and informed my office of what had happened and then called my doctor just to let them know. Meanwhile, I was having zero contractions, and felt really good. So I met Mike at home (after the 1 hour drive, plus some because of construction on the freeway), and we headed to the hospital. I got checked in and hooked up to the monitors and now all we had to do was wait.

And wait. . . and wait. . . and wait. Apparently, my body didn't realize that my water had broke and therefore I still was not having contractions. So we decided to walk. . .and walk. . .and walk. I can't tell you how many laps we did around labor and delivery. And still nothing. The nurse eventually let me know that if nothing happened by midnight, they would start me on pitocin. I was nervous about being induced, so Mike went and got me a ton of pineapple and we walked a little bit more, but Ben had other plans. There may have been a little less water in the pool, but he was comfortable where he was and therefore, it was pitocin for me. I was induced at midnight. And I lasted all of about two hours of contractions-one right after the other-before deciding that I wanted the epidural. The epidural allowed me to get one good hour of sleep and then I spent the next few hours in and out of sleep, in between contractions. I was still able to feel them, although I was not in pain, just a little uncomfortable.

Around 9 a.m., I felt the urge to push. When the nurse came in to adjust my position on the bed, she commented on the fact that I was able to use my legs to adjust my body, and I didn't really need much help getting situated on the bed. I should have paid attention to that comment more than I did. About an hour into my pushing, I let the nurse know that I was feeling quite a bit of what was going on. She checked the epidural and noticed that the bag was pretty much empty, but instead of waiting for another one, I just kept pushing. After 2 hours of pushing (although it really didn't seem that long) Ben was born. And I am glad I wasn't entirely numb. I was able to feel him come out. What an amazing experience.

Benjamin Michael Burgin joined our family at 11 a.m. on 7-16-2010. He weighed 7 lbs and was 19.5" long. He has a full head of hair and he came out screaming! And no offense to anyone, but he is the most beautiful baby either of us has ever seen! We are totally in love!

Operation Relocation has Commenced

"I love my house, I love my nest! In all the world, my nest is best!"
(a childhood memory of mom reading this book to us, and consequently singing a made up song, will never again leave me with the nostalgic feeling I used to have when ever I saw this book. No, now, it will mean something completely different me!)

A few weeks ago, my family was in town and we were sitting in our front room and my dad commented on how the birds outside were really loud. Mike and I agreed, because for the previous week, we woke up to what sounded like birds right outside out patio door. We thought nothing of it since the walkway right behind out patio is line with trees, and after all, birds live in trees (or at least they are supposed to).

Well, Mike went out on the patio a couple of days later and came back in, in a tizzy, might I add, exclaiming "the birds have built their nest in my bike!" I went out to look and sure enough, right in between the tires of our two bikes, there was a nest, with two fuzzy birds in it. Almost immediately, Mike felt like he had to go on a bike ride, and therefore the birds were causing him problems because I wouldn't let him disturb the nest. (If I had only let him destroy the dang nest that day)! Anyway, I said to leave it alone and that it looked like the birds were almost ready to leave the nest. I told him that by the time he got back from Utah, he could go for a bike ride.


Fast forward a couple of weeks. Every time I go out on to the patio for anything, I have to be careful not to step on a FULL GROWN BIRD! And not just the birds, the piles and piles of bird poop that they have left on our patio!

A couple of days ago, I had had enough! I called maintenance with a strange request, asking them to shoo the birds and get rid of the nest! I couldn't take it anymore, plus I really want to clean up that dang poop! When I got home from work yesterday, there was no nest, and better yet, no birds! Wahoo! I started making plans about how to clean up the poop, and decided I would do it the next day (tonight). So this morning, I open my blinds and out of habit from these past couple weeks look up to where the nest used to be. And to my astonishment, I think I see a bird. My eyes must be playing tricks on me! I walk out to get a closer look and realize that these dang birds have rebuilt their nest in one night and are back to nesting and pooping on our patio! How dare they? It got me so mad that I had to call my mom immediately and tell her what had happened, and what does she do? She laughs, and then tells me that if I ever have to give a talk on persistence, then this would be the perfect example! At that point I can't help but laugh myself. Now, I still don't agree that this is funny. In fact, I am still really bugged, and can't wait to get home and go ape on a bird's nest! I laugh because I have this image that pops in to my head of me blindly swinging a broom above my head, trying to take down a nest while at the same time trying to protect myself from the angry birds that are dive bombing me for taking down their nest! Never the less, I will be persistent myself and not let these birds continue to make my patio their own little port-a-potty! Take that for personal example of persistence!

I know you can't see it very well, but the nest is in between the two tires.

GO AWAY BIRDS!

On a side note, when I was younger, a family of robins made their nest in my dad's grill. So instead of a summer of grilled steaks and chicken (it was probably only a couple of weeks now that I think about it), we had a summer of waiting for the eggs to hatch and when they did, it was so fun to watch the little birds grow up and-key words here-LEAVE THE NEST! I thought the same thing would happen with our birds. . .

Not to Get All Mushy . . .

Just really quick, I had to document something that happened this morning that totally made my day, and made me, more than anything, want to be home. As I was getting ready this morning, Mike was sleeping. He usually is (when I am getting ready, that is). Anyway, I got dressed and grabbed my shoes. As I bent over to buckle them, I all of a sudden couldn't bend all the way over. Just a little something was in my way. I tried about three times, and then, laughing, I whispered "hey, Mike-can you help me with something?"
And before I could say anything more, he jumped out of bed (probably not even really awake) and knew exactly what I was asking. He knelt down and grabbed the strap of my shoe and asked "how tight?" Then, as if that wasn't super duper nice (I hate not being able to do things for myself) he told me I looked really cute today and he gave me a hug before falling back in to bed. Although, he also said, "you should maybe think twice before wearing those shoes again, huh?" And yes, he is probably right. Looks like the next two weeks I will be wearing flip flops and slip-ons. Hope work doesn't mind, but I have to make sacrifices when it comes to having a husband in the military.
And now, here I sit, at work-bored, while Mike is home. I just want to hang out all week before he takes off for the next two!

OK-I am done-I promise.

Never thought I'd see the day!

Well, folks, here you have it. I always told myself "no public belly pics!" I figured I would always just be around for those I know and love to see me grow and there would not be a need, but as we all know, I no longer live near most of you, and although I hate to do it, I decided to post a pic of me and baby, to let you all know that I have not been taken over by the baby and I still feel like myself (most of the time). I took this picture on Saturday, at 32 weeks (or to those who could care less about the time in weeks, just over 7 months!)

Just to make this short and sweet, pregnancy has been good to me. (I am knocking on wood while typing this). I haven't been very sick, and I love feeling him move. He is more of a stretcher than anything. Not tons of kicks, but mostly a good elbow or knee, or sometimes even his bum will make a weird sort of lump that pokes out of my belly. I have noticed that he likes it when I eat popscicles and ice cream. Those two things make him go crazy, like he is doing gymnastics in my belly.

We are so excited to meet our little man. I don't think our conversations consist of anything but him. We are so excited for the new adventures that are about to come our way.

Did the Dish Run Away With the Spoon?

(what a horrible picture. just so you know, we have hung the pictures and picked up the towel that is on the floor.)

The other day, I had an awakening of sorts. As you can see, I have a bookshelf in my apartment, full to the point of bursting with books I have read, or hope to read in the near future. I wish I could say that I have read them all, but I am just being honest-I have not! Nonetheless, I realized the other night after a relief society activity that I probably ought to spend more time browsing this bookshelf, and less time browsing this.*

Now, I will explain.

We had a baby shower for our monthly activity and we collected items to donate to a charity that helps people that can't afford baby stuff, etc. . . At the activity, we played a couple of shower games. The first game we played was "Match the celebrity babies with the correct celebrity parent." Sweet! Not to boast, really, no boasting, but I got every single one right, then in turn was able to help the RS president fill in her answers. I am a gracious game player (most of the time) and will help my opponents when I can. I was feeling pretty good, my friends, until the next game was introduced. And this is where I had my not-so-rude awakening.

"Name the Nursery Rhyme"-enough said. There were 20 or so lines from nursery rhymes and we had to fill in the title of it. I don't think I got more than five correct. The entire time I kept thinking "my poor son. He is going to grow up quoting articles from People and InStyle magazine, and not so much "Little boy blue come blow your horn." (If that is even how it goes).

The worst part of this whole story is that my mother gave me a wonderful gift about a year ago. She gave me this book. It is such a great reference to have, who knows when I will need to quote a nursery rhyme or two. In fact a couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me "what are little girls made of?" And I thought and thought and was completely stumped, when a kind woman walked by and sort of whispered "sugar and spice and everything nice." I felt like a moron! I know what little boys are made of, but girls-I guess I need to refresh my memory a little.
Needless to say, I am setting a goal for myself-I am going to try and limit my people.com browsing, and spend less money on the smut magazine (as Mike calls it) that comes out on a weekly basis. Not saying I will stop completely because, let's face it, we all have guilty pleasures, but I am going to try and not let this one consume my life. I have more important things to worry about, like if the cows are in the meadow and the sheep are in the corn (or is it the other way around. . .)?

*Side note, I didn't even look at the headlines on the wonderful webpage I put up before I posted it to my blog, and I just took a look. It is a sad, sad world we live in when the top story is the coverage of the fact that a beautiful actress is breaking up (and I say breaking up, because they aren't married) with the father of her illegitimate child. Why do we care? But we do, and the headlines will never cease.

Do you have a favorite nursery rhyme?

Talk Radio

OK, so lately I feel like I am missing something.

When I was younger, I remember my dad always listening to some form of talk radio (sports, or news) when we were in the car. Honestly, I hated it. I wanted some good tunes, something I could sing along too. I always knew that when I rode in the car with my mom, I would get some good music to listen to, but then she started listening to talk radio, too. I just figured this was something I would have to deal with, and would probably listen to it (and appreciate it?) when I got older, too.

Fast forward about 15 years. I am older, and I still don't like listening to talk radio. I find it boring, and most of the people that call in on these programs just annoy me. I feel like I might be missing out on something, especially when the dinner conversation with my family revolves around a topic that Glenn Beck was talking about the other day. I am totally lost. Maybe I will develop this gene by the time I am 30 and will be able to appreciate this particular art form (although, I am pretty sure I will still find the callers annoying).

I bring this up because while I am driving 120 miles to and from work everyday, even satellite radio starts to get old. I have audio books to listen to, and they are great but in the meantime, I will listen to the radio. When it starts to get old I will just turn it off, and listen to nothing. When I mentioned this to my brother-in-law, he said "don't you listen to talk radio?" And so there we have it folks, the thought process begins as to why I don't listen to it, in the meantime, to answer your question, Bryan, no, I don't listen to talk radio. Maybe one day I will, but until then I will continue to feel more like an adolescent than an adult, and I am OK with that.

And to those of you who do listen to talk radio, I applaud you because you are probably much smarter than I am, and definitely know more about what is going on in the world.

A San Francisco Treat!

(A little shout out to Lori Jo-or mom as she is otherwise known)

This past weekend, we had some fun visitors at our house and we definitely made the most of the weekend. My sister Erin and her husband Bryan came out for a "business trip". Luckily we got to spend a lot of time with them and see a few sights that we haven't seen yet while living on the bay area.

We pretty much spent Saturday in San Francisco. After a yummy breakfast croissant at a hole in the wall doughnut shop in Campbell (the one by 7-11 on Winchester, for those who are interested-they are delicious) we headed up to the city to take a tour of Alcatraz. I took the tour a few years ago, but it was really fun to do it again, and with three people that had not been there before. There is really so much history on that tiny island. I was inspired to rent a few movies and see what kind of people were actually housed in the prison.

(Me and Erin on The Rock with The City behind us)

On Sunday, after a visit to our ward for sacrament meeting (Mike and I needed to accept a calling at church, so we felt like we had to be there :)-Activities Committee Co-Chairs, for anyone who is interested), we headed to the beach. Pebble Beach to be exact. I had no idea (honestly) that I lived so close to a golf-world icon. We started out on 17 Mile Drive, and decided to head straight to the water to have lunch. It was such a gorgeous day, we were able to drive with our windows down, and enjoy the weather while we sat and watched the surfers in the water. I am so glad we went. Not to mention the wonderful view of the modestly sized MANSIONS that line the road, and also, the Cherry red Ferrari that we drove behind for about six miles. It is amazing how jumpy it makes you to drive behind a car that costs more than our house did.

And no, they are not nerds (well, at least not all the time)-but let me explain-the peace signs in our pictures were homage being paid to the two girls on the boat over to Alcatraz. They kept taking pictures of each other and each made sure that they were promoting peace whilst having their picture taken. So, we thought it was our duty to spread the message.

Thanks Erin and Bryan for the visit. It was so fun to have you here, even if it was for such a short period of time.

Peace!