Disneyland Day 1

I posted 29 times in 2013, 4 times in 2014, and 0 times in 2015 and 2016.

Ok, so Scott and I just booked a Disneyworld trip for November 2018, far in the future right? I'm so dang excited to take my two kiddos there. I want to reminiscent about the time we went to Disneyland just this past January. I was 27 weeks pregnant and Leroy was teething some nasty molars and had a fever of 103 (heh, hope you sang that).

It was the first time Leroy had been on an airplane. It was magical to him, he's obsessed with vehicles, planes, and boats. Even today he is constantly playing with his cars and airplanes, he enjoys a quiz on the tablet testing him on his vehicles. He gets 100% usually, like, I'm pretty sure I didn't know most of them until he got his book and I had to teach them to him. Excavator??? Can't wait for him to say that word to people when he says construction vehicles... He can already say "Digger", "Bulldozer", "Fire Truck", "Truck", "Helicopter", "Boat", "Yacht", "Bus", and "Car".

Police Cars are "weeooooh weeeoooh"
Lightning Mqueen is "Kachow"
Mator is "Nanno"
Tow Truck in book is "Nanno"

Anyways, I won't just write a list of all the words he says because that's too long already...

Leroy did very good on the airplane ride there, he actually ended up falling asleep when we took off, same with on the flight back. 

When we got to California we had about an hour drive to our hotel in a van, where he was already done with being restrained. Little did he know we had a full day ahead of us because we were going straight to DISNEYLAND.

He's SO EXCITED....lol....

Here we are about to start our adventure at Disneyland, I was almost 27 weeks pregnant and Leroy was too busy looking at the little Disneyland map pamphlet. It was rainy and kinda cold, we ended up having to go buy a poncho to cover the stroller. Poor Leroy was shivering because he has 0 fat on his body. 

I think Leroy thought Mickey was a lot bigger in person when he saw him right when we walked in. He's not quite sure what to think...

I sure hope you enjoy pictures because that's basically how I share experiences. I'm obsessed with pictures, I'd just look at my scrapbooks when I was young over and over just remembering all the adventures I had. I can look at them for hours. 

Axl with Mickey and Minnie

Because I had to get a picture of me with Ariel "JUST IN CASE" I named Alice Ariel instead. Maybe next girl I have I'll go back.

Ok, so the first ride we decided to go on with Leroy was Pirates, possibly not our best choice to take an 19m on. He did not enjoy it. At all. So Maybe when we go to Disneyworld we'll try it again as the first ride ;).

After that exciting ride with Leroy holding onto daddy for dear life (no tears). We got off the ride and headed to Winnie the Pooh, at this time in his life he LOVED Pooh Bear. That was the only movie I could get him to sit down and watch the whole way threw while I went and worked upstairs. Here is a picture of his thoughts on the ride...

Don't worry, we tried again...

First day at Disneyland is starting off magical, amirite?

So magical.

Oh, and don't even dare let those characters hug him.

Leroy was starting to shiver so that same day we headed over to packet pick-up to grab our bibs and race shirts. You walk about a mile out of Disneyland to the conference hall and they have rows and rows of booths to get your stuff from. Leroy was feeling better but ended up tripping while running around and banged his lip up. 

Ok, so basically that was day one. I'll do separate posts so I don't have one incredibly long post about Disneyland. I promise it got better (kinda). 

Alice Faye

When I think back and am in awe about how names come to place. As most know, we didn't tell anyone Alice's name until the day she was born, mainly because we didn't have one till about a month before she was due. We had been struggling to find the perfect name for her, we had in our heads Ariel Lyn for years for our first baby girl. One day I just told Scott and I wasn't feeling it for her, that did not seem like her name. We then talked about other names we loved - Scott loved Gracie, I loved Emery. About a month before she was born I was sitting there and "Alice" popped into my head, about a week later we were driving back up from Mapleton after having dinner with family. We were about to the point of the mountain when I said

"So Scott" (Because I always say that before asking him something).

"What do you think of the name Alice?"

He then looks over at me and replies that he had actually been thinking about that name for a couple days. Well, there we have it, her name.

Most of you may know about my sister Alison, my mom had her on Valentines day 1987. Alison passed away Feb 20th, 1987. Five years before I was born. Ever since I can remember I've always felt this connection with her, I've never met her down here on earth but I know we were friends up in heaven. She is one of the people that keeps my faith strong knowing I can be with her again. I've always had a picture of her in my room, in fact, it's now here in my family room. She would have been 30 this year, I somehow knew I'd go into labor on the 30th of March (don't ask me how I knew). I had her on the 31st but still. When I think of her name being Alice there is no other name I'd rather have her have. She is such a shining light that this world needs with her smiles and giggles. Alice also happens to be on the Gifford side that also means a lot.

Anyways, now that my mom is probably crying. I love you mom. You're the strongest person I know and I look up to you everyday. 

Babeh

That view you have as you are waiting in the hospital for them to tell you if your water broke or not. It was March 30th, all day I had a feeling my water broke but was hesitant to go because it wasn't a "gush" like you see in the movies. 3am that morning I went to the bathroom for the one millionth time that night, this time was different but I didn't want to think anything of it, because ya know, having a baby is intimidating and while you're excited you're also absolutely terrified. I had been counting on induction day that was set for April 9th (happy birthday Eric). As the day went by I kept trying to do my regular routine, keeping a toddler alive. It wasn't till my sister came over that evening to pick up orders that I talked to her about it and she's just like "go to the hospital...". I proceeded to message Scott that I "think" my water broke, and he replies "should I come home?" - - - "I'm coming home"

We then pack Leroy up and Scott drops me off at the hospital and I tell him "Go take Leroy out to eat, i'll message you when I'm done and they send me home". I walk in and they give me a room, do the check. I wait for them to tell me I can go home so I can go get some food (probably was thinking about La Frontera). The nurse waltz in and goes "It's broke!".

Aw, man.

I message Scott "It's broke, I guess."

Last Family pic of Three

Kristy was able to get off work right away and come pick Leroy up from the hospital before they started giving me pitocin and pricking me with needles. 

My mom was on her way up to meet Kristy at my house so she could spend the night with Leroy while I stayed in the hospital. I was in labor all night, pretty sure if they just popped my water the rest of the way she wouldn't have been out that night. But alas, here we are.

They turned me every couple hours throughout the night trying to get her to shimmy down. Morning hit, Doc came in and broke my water the rest of the way and I basically had the baby 30 min after... 8:59 am, 15 min of pushing about. Alice Faye Gifford came into the world arms up high ready to party. She was 7lb something of adorableness.

Ok, so that made labor seem somewhat easy, it wasn't. Easier than Leroy's be quite a long shot, but no way easy in general. I had a cough at the beginning of January for about 2 weeks, non stop coughing. When they had placed the epidural in I was laying reclined and started having a coughing fit. Not a big deal except for the fact I couldn't get enough air back into my lungs since I couldn't feel my stomach. Luckily Scott was quick thinking and was able to move the bed up so I could get a little bit of air. That may have been one of the most frightening moments of my life. After birth was incredibly easy and incredibly hard in some ways, I was loosing a lot of blood (again) ---- Let me rewind to Leroy, birthing Leroy was the HARDEST thing I have ever done, hands down. I got 3rd degree tears, I lost so much blood that luckily I didn't need a blood transfusion, the recovery was BRUTAL. I basically couldn't walk normal for 3-4 weeks, and it took 6 months to feel normal again, somewhat.

Now fast forward back to Alice, I have never seen blood clots, but let me tell you....gross....

They were concerned I was loosing too much blood after birth and gave me an IV so I can get MORE contractions after birth to speed up the shrinking of your uterus (I'm not one to get this much TMI, so sorry). Anywho, I had Alice on March 31st (Friday) and went home April 1st (Sat).

Leroy wasn't sure what to think, it was quite the adjustment going from one kid to two kids over night. 

The day I went home from the hospital I was feeling so good, walking normal(ish) and ready to get back to my everyday life because that's what moms have to do when they already have a kid or kids. Took pain meds once and didn't need them after the contractions went away. Nursing came easy, hurt for about a week then I was fine. Alice was just an easy baby, besides her grunting and moaning in her sleep kept me up most nights.

It seemed to be going so perfect, I had this perfect little girl and a toddler that for the most part didn't drive me bonkers being his toddler self. 

Now let's get real for a moment, I've struggled with depression and anxiety for about 10 years now. I'm not one to talk about it because it seems like a silly topic. Everyone seems to have it so why should I share something a ton of people seem to have? I'm not going into much detail about my teen years because that will just be too much of a downer. I met Scott and it seemed everything was perfect (it was), I'd occasionally get that dark cloud over me and shut down and he wouldn't know why. Though, when I got pregnant with Leroy it all flooded back, I had Leroy and it was the most challenging moment of my life. I was so anxious that if I thought about being around large groups of people I'd just shut down. I'd be anxious when people held Leroy (most first moms are like this though), I literally hated leaving the house.

Alice was born and I thought everything was wonderful, but alas, it wasn't. I was brave enough to tell my doctor that I was struggling, she gave me some meds. Now depression meds take a good month before you feel "normal" again. I never understood that "normal again". What does normal feel like?

So fast forward a month - guys, I feel so much better. I haven't cried or shut down in a couple months. I've been willing to leave my house. We've stayed at my parents so much this summer and I have LOVED it. I'm not just thinking "I wish I was at my own house" the whole entire time. Family gatherings have been easier with me not being anxious. I'm just in a better place. It's been a long time since I've felt this ok.

Ok, end of serious moment.

I sure love my funny bunny Alice and my "Chubster" Leroy. 

They secretly like each other

- Thanks for letting me share this.

Alice Faye U Made Me Feel Super Pregnant

Ok guys, I had an urge to write about my pregnancy/life with Alice Faye. I know I came back from the dead in blogging world, let's face it, I'm terrible at it. Life gets in the way and here we are. Leroy is 2 now and it went by a blink of an eye, now I got two kids and don't know where the time went. Looks like it's been about 3 years since I blogged, so about the time I got pregnant with Leroy...haha... Anywho, Alice was a semi easy pregnancy. I mean, 2nd trimester was easy... First I was nausea's and 3rd trimester I was sick with every cold you could think of.

12 weeks

 I felt like I was showing at 12 weeks compared to Leroy at 20 weeks. Obviously looking back I was overthinking everything. Scott quit his job right when I found out I was expecting (August 2016). He wasn't happy and knew he needed to get out of that work space. So he quit and I told him I was pregnant (no pressure right?) It took about a month and a half for him to find a new better job he was happy at. I was so thankful at the time that he was home while I laid in bed nauseas unable to feed Leroy because I wanted to throw up everything I fed him (which I never did).

16 Weeks

16 weeks, a week before finding out what gender I'd be having, I knew it was a girl because Leroy never made me sick, just vigorously hungry 24/7. And guess what, I was right, it WAS a girl and I was super excited because then I'd have both genders.

25.5 Weeks

25 weeks literally felt like 35 weeks with Leroy. Wait, lemme show you a picture of that...

35 Weeks with Leroy

Okay, so I wasn't THAT pregnant yet but still... 25 weeks I was sick, ALL. THE. TIME. Head cold about every other week, I had a terrible cough that kept me up at night for a good two weeks, I still think it messed my lungs up to this day. Winter was not kind to me and I think the air quality and Salt Lake had a big impact on my health even if I didn't leave the house that much.

33 Weeks

I was pretty "over it" at 33 weeks. She was sitting front and center and dropped at about 33.5 weeks to make me even more over it. I usually wore loose shirts but when church came around, that's when I REALLY felt like I was a whale.

Can't find the very last picture I took before my water broke and I had Alice, but here is a picture of the day before going to the hospital. We ate delicious tacos and Leroy sat in a big boy chair. Woooooo. Ok I'm done with this post, if you enjoyed it LMK and I'll write more... Most likely my mom is the only one going to read this and enjoy it. Scott has to support me in these type of things so he'll "probably" read it. ;)