Sunday, January 23, 2011

6th anniversary

Saturday marked our 6th anniversary. What a year it has been!  The biggest thing to happen this year was obviously the birth of our beautiful daughter. She has forever changed our lives for the better. We can't believe we have lived so much of our lives without her.


Jason and I feel like this year has been our year, the year everything has come together.


In January last year Jason and I joined a local gym because the price was right and we had no clue how that would change our lives.


We were given a free 1/2 hour training session and we knew that we had to keep training.


We changed our diets and began to work out regularly.


I lost almost 30 lbs before I got pregnant and to date, Jason has lost 96 lbs.


I know that my weight loss is what helped us to conceive and for that I am forever grateful.


Jason looks and feels like a new man, and the two of us couldn't be happier.


After having Beatrice, everything else in the world seems so small. We've had a great year, but there are more great years to come.


Jason has applied to PHD programs across the country, which means we could be anywhere next year.


Right now we are just waiting, and we are okay with that.


We don't need to know just now!


I am so blessed to have Jason as my husband and as the father of our daughter.


Thank you for six amazing years as my husband. I can't wait to see what our future holds.


 


pure. love.



making breakfast


soaking up the rays.


hiawatha resort


Bea, sporting some super cute smart wool from Grandpa and Grandma.


the indomitable pink snowman.


cozy.


bundled.


new lens.self portrait.


playing cribbage.


mom hugs.


dancing with dad.


family portrait.


dorks.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

changing pad

Don't look too closely, but I finished Miss Bea's travel changing pad.


I will never work with oil cloth again until I get the tension fixed on my sewing machine. It looks horrible...but it is done!


Here are a couple of pictures, and a few more.


I've been meaning to write more, but life has just gotten a lot busier and while I can I'm going to cuddle with Bea! I can always write later.


 



 



 


seriously...those chins, and those lips!



My parents sent Bea a Smart wool hat and mittens.


(it's official, my daughter owns more smart wool than I do)



 



Out of focus, but hilarious.



A slight, sleepy smile.



Skyping.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Bea's quilt

Bea is getting her very own, very big quilt.


She helped me lay the top out today.


She is the cutest!


 




 



 



 



 



 




Saturday, January 1, 2011

Christmas 2010

Jason, Bea,  and I are finally back in Marquette after a week and a half spent with our family down in Grand Rapids. We had a great time and Bea had a lot of firsts. She went to the movies, the mall, a bar, shopping in Holland, and met a ton of family members and did A TON of snuggling.

She is a whole month old already. I know I can't believe it. She is still lighting up our lives every day. I still am in awe of her and all of her perfectness.

Click on a picture to view it bigger.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

our first week (scroll down for pictures)

Well little miss Beatrice is 8 days old already!  It's hard to believe that a little over a week ago this little beauty was still growing in my belly.


I don't want to ever put her down, and Jason and I just spend hours of our day just staring at her in amazement.


She is truly beautiful and perfect.


 


I wasn't planning on this being a blog about her birth, but I have had a request that our story be told.


So this post will be a long one, but one with lots of pictures at the end!


 


First of all, little miss Bea was breech for about the last 2 months of her life in my womb. This posed a myriad of concerns. She was a little bit sideways and because of that I could feel her head poking out of the side of me. This made about every position uncomfortable and sleeping was pretty much unheard of the last few weeks. Because she was breech I was referred to the OBGYNs in Marquette. They told me we could try to turn her in a procedure called an external (cephalic) version, where they would manually try to manipulate her into a head down position, or we could schedule a c-section.  I was so uncomfortable that I just wanted to get her out so I just told them to schedule the c-section. When I got home that day I  did not feel at peace about our decision. Jason and I decided that we would try to turn her. Because I was almost 38 weeks they wanted to do it right away....like the next morning.


That night I couldn't sit, stand, lie down, or walk without feeling miserable. I decided to take a sleeping pill and I woke up two hours later to go to the bathroom where my water decided to break. I was so happy!  I knew that one way or the other we would be having a baby that day. I calmly walked into Jason's office and asked him if he wanted to go have a baby. He just looked at me. We finished packing our bags and called the hospital and got going. Being that it was 2am it took about 2 minutes to get there (gotta love small towns). I checked in and they did an ultrasound and sure enough, she was still breech. This meant that I was going to have a c-section.


If you would have asked me at the beginning of my pregnancy about how I felt about having a c-section, I'm pretty sure my answer would be that it was the worst possible scenario. On that day though, I was so happy. I was going to have my baby and I didn't have to wait another two weeks!  It helped that Jason and I had known for weeks that the likelihood of having a c-section was very high, and that we were educated about what would happen.


I was the first section of the day, and I couldn't be happier about how everything went. The staff was amazing (my surgeon held my hand while they put in the spinal) and there was a specified person to stay with Jason and make sure he was okay, and she also took all of the pictures in the operating room.


My little girl was stuck, VERY stuck. It took them awhile to get her out because her feet were up by her ears and her hands were above her head. The general concencus was that she would not have turned if we had been able to try the external version, and that made me even more thankful that I didn't have to try it.


They held her up and Jason got to tell me that she was a girl. She was bloody and covered in white goo, and I fell madly deeply in love immediately and I haven't looked back since.


After they cleaned her up a little they put her on my chest and she just stared at me. After a few minutes they took her and Jason and went back to my room while I went to recovery.


Jason was so happy because he was able to bond with her skin to skin, and because he got to do it before I did.


We had a very quiet hospital stay, and by Friday I was ready to get out of there. I just wanted to be home with my stuff and my bed.


We had a rough first night, but since then she has slept for 3-5 hours between nursing, and I am getting the most sleep I have gotten in months.


We are madly deeply in love with our daughter and don't know how we lived the rest of our lives so far without her.


 


My family took the motor home up on Thursday, and spent the weekend taking care of us and blessing us by just being here.



Grandpa TerBeek getting to hold her for the first time.


Great Gram Troost


Aunt Andrea


We had to unwrap her to see how little she was.


She's so little!


Cuddling with mom at the hospital


Dad checking her out.



Great Grandpa Troost


Going HOME!!!!


Uncle Ross


Her cousin Sophie just loved her.


Look at those eyes! 


Aunt Ashley


Saying goodbye to cousin!Auntie Jen came to visit on Sunday.



Instead of a Lions jersey we decided to support Detroit, just in another way!


Bea and Dad have been doing a lot of this the last few days.



Even mom needs to nap once in a while too!My beautiful girl. My life will never be the same ever again and I couldn't be happier that you are the reason for this. I love you so much, and the love I have for you makes my heart hurt.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Hello world!

BEATRICE HARLOW SHRONTZ


Born November 30, 2010


7.5lbs 19in


pure perfection