Family Fun - Zoo

  May 30, 2015

   After weeks of rainy weather we were so excited when Saturday came and it was supposed to be sunny and warm! With my sister in law in town with her boy, Walter, I wanted to get out and do something with them. We decided to break out the summer clothes and go to the zoo.
    Richard had been gone all week for work so we were glad that he could join as well as his parents. Apparently everyone else had the same idea because the zoo was packed!
   

Carter loved walking around and looking at all of the animals!

    Carter loved the big animals that were easy for him to see and anything that he could get close to. He loved the elephants, sea lions, and the monkeys that would come right up to the glass next to his face. 

I took so many pictures but it wasn't until almost the very end of the day that I checked the camera setting and realized all my pictures up to that point were black. Waaaaaaa :( at least I got some decent ones. 

   

"We'll Pray For You"

    This has been a very long, hard week at the Alexander house. We have been blessed with a very healthy and happy baby since he has been born. Everyone always comments on how well behaved and easy going he is. I tell them " I know, we really lucked out." We haven't had any issues.. not even an ear infection, until this week..
      Monday morning when I went to get Carter out of bed he had thrown up everywhere! I didn't even know babies could throw up that much. I got him out of bed and gave him a bath. He seemed fine but as the day went on he got really fussy. I was having a hard time getting him to eat or drink anything.  Then came Tuesday. He was super fussy and everything I gave him ten minutes later he would throw that up. I felt so bad for him! By Tuesday  Richard was also sick. It is heartbreaking to see him sleep all day and not his happy self. Since Carter was throwing up at night we put him in our room so we could hear what was going on. Well his tummy must have really been bothering him cause he was keeping us up all night. I felt so helpless.

    By Thursday not only was he throwing up multiple times a day (still not interested in eating or drinking) but he also had really bad diarrhea. I felt so bad because I was changing his diapers every five minutes and he just knew what was coming. Every time I would take off his diaper he would start screaming in pain. I had called the nurse multiple times already but we were concerned because Carter was not peeing. We were told that if he didn't pee by 8:00 PM then we would need to take him to the hospital to get an IV. That night was especially bad, Carter wouldn't stop crying and we didn't know what to do. Richard was sick and couldn't help much. I was bawling because I felt so helpless and just wanted to take the pain away from Carter. I asked Richard to give Carter a Priesthood blessing. I cried while Richard gave the sweet blessing and right as he was finished Carter started smiling and playing with us.  It was amazing! We were watching his diapers and 8:00 came and went. We decided since he was finally keeping down some liquid that we would wait a little long to see if he would have a wet diaper. Thankfully he did so we put him to bed. That night he slept so well! We were so happy but he woke us up early to him throwing up again.

     Friday was here. As much as I loved that all Carter as wanted to do is cuddle with Mom all week, it was getting hard because now I had caught the bug. I feel like it should be a rule that moms shouldn't get sick haha. It is so hard to take care of someone else when you don't feel like getting off the couch. Luckily Richard was feeling a bit better and was able to step up and help with Carter. Now that this had been going on for 5 days I decided to take him to see his Doctor. I figured he had the flu but wanted to make sure before this went on any longer. Turns out it is the flu and there is nothing we can do for babies. His Doctor said it may take up to 2 weeks for his body to fight it off. We had high hopes he was almost done but then things got bad again Friday night. He started throwing up multiple times again and we are having a hard time keeping him hydrated. He also had developed a terrible cough that was keeping him (and us) up all night long.
       My brother in law was texting Richard asking how Carter was doing and said that they would pray for him to get well quickly. As I read that it brought me so much comfort. That simple phrase meant more to me than anything. Prayer is a powerful thing and to have more people praying for our sweet boy to have a speedy recovery means more than words can describe.  I'm so grateful for the gospel and for our family! It is now Saturday and Carter is still feeling crummy and not getting any better. We pray that he will get better soon so we can have our happy boy back.

Buy Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jacks

  I came from a baseball fanatic family. My dad played all the way to the minor league and both my young brothers play their hearts out, Carter loves to watch them. ( I would love if Carter wants to play when he's older!) Last weekend we introduced Carter to the sport by taking him to a Bees game. We went with our friends Madi, Marcus, and Kingston. Kingston is two months older than Carter so its perfect! They had so much fun playing on the grass and getting pictures with the Bee. I thought Carter might freak out but he loved him!
 

                                                               

So much excitement wore him out!

Hawaii

                                    
                 March  2015
   
   One morning Richard was watching the news and Columbus Travel was promoting a killer deal that we couldn't pass up. We booked our trip to Hawaii right away. We were SO excited since neither of us had been before. We were staying in Waikiki at the Ohana West Hotel. About two weeks before leaving we decided it may be easier to leave Carter home. I was soo nervous to do so, I had never left him for more than a couple hours. My mom who was going to watch him was ecstatic! We planned out our days and before we knew it, it was time to go! We tried to say goodbye to Carter but he fell asleep on the way to the airport. :(

  Once we arrived we were starving. We hopped on the trolley and went to the mall (by request) and ate at Banga Banga. It was so good, we actually ended up eating there a few times! We then settled in out hotel. 

   The next day we got up were able to FaceTime with Carter and took off to Hanauma Bay. This was one of my favorite things from the whole trip. I love to snorkel and this place had so many different kinds of fish that I had never seen. I even saw a turtle! (Thats all I wanted from Hawaii) 

  After spending half the day there we took off to hike Diamond Head. This isn't a very hard hike but when you get to the top the view is amazing! It was crazy windy that day but there was also a beautiful rainbow to enjoy.

  Next up was Pearl Harbor. It was so humbling to walk around and learn about what happened. Its really hard to believe that really happened but I am so thankful for all of the heros that day, those who fought back and those who gave their life trying. 

Polynesian Cultural Center. This was a very fun day. It was so fun to learn about all the different cultures. We had a lot of fun watching all the shows and doing the different activities. We both got called up on stage during the luau to dance. Yikes. haha. 

     

The next day I went with Richard to go fly fishing for bone fish. Well Richard went fishing.. I stayed on the boat to FaceTime Carter and work on my tan. He said it was unlike any other fishing he's done before. I just feel bad he didn't catch anything. 

 The next day we rented a car and headed up to North Shore area. I highly recommend this area because it's more of what I pictured Hawaii to be. It was relaxed and not as busy. Waikiki was great but seemed more like Las Vegas but with a beach. Anyways, we were super excited because when we went to pick up our car we got upgraded for free!

Everyone had to know we were tourists because it was a little "cold" that day. (Not cold when you left the snow in Utah!) We were the only ones driving with the top down haha. We drove all over that day we went to the Hukilau Cafe from 50 first dates. I was so excited to eat there but turns out they are closed Mondays. Such a bummer. Next we headed down the street to see the LDS Laie Temple. It was Beautiful!

  We then visited Turtle Bay, Sharks Cove, and this "private beach'. It was more like someones backyard but I was told I'd see my turtle there. Which I did!! I was so excited since the one I saw snorkeling was just for a quick second. Aren't they cute?!

   Last but not least we hiked Lulumahu Falls. It was quite the adventure to find this without a car.. I would definitely get one to get to the entry point of this hike. It was a longer but easy hike. The waterfall was amazing. 

 Big thanks to my family for watching Carter for us! My mom would have loved if we stayed another week!

carter's birth.

  The morning of July 14, 2014 had finally arrived. I was 41 weeks and 1 day pregnant, the eviction notice had been sent out! Richard and I had barely slept we were so anxious. I was dilated to a 3 and 90% effaced( had been for 2 weeks).Richard and I were more than ready to meet our little guy. I was scheduled to be induced at 7:00 AM. As out luck would have it, when I called all of the rooms were full. I was told to call back. After going back and forth with the hospital they called at 8:30 and said they had a room available and to come right now. All of the sudden I wasn't so sure I was ready for this. I got Richard out of bed and we rushed off. We had a 35 minute drive to the hospital. We drove mostly in silence as Richard held my hand and would tell me not to worry, everything would go smoothly. 
   As we walked into the hospital we were greeted by my Doctor, Dr. Twelves. We got checked in and settled in our room. 

                                          Last picture being pregnant wooo!

    Dr. Twelves came and broke my water at 9:15 AM. It was the weirdest feeling! They started me on Pitocin and we were off! I kept explaining to the nurse how nervous I was that he was going to be big and she reassured me that I was small and there is no way I was going to have a huge baby. Everything was going smoothly as my contractions were very little. We popped in a movie and tried to relax.  It was nice to have my parents come and visit to keep my mind off things. 

    At 11:30 AM I was told that if I wanted an epidural now might be the time to get it because the Anesthesiologist had a C section scheduled later. I was not going to do this without one! I was terrified for this part! I heard the pop and saw Richard's eyes get huge, "not as bad as I thought" I told him. 
      As my contractions got stronger I started to get nervous again ( I don't handle pain well) I was so happy to have Richard by my side! After hours of slow progress they decided to up my pitocin. Why didn't they do this sooner?? I started to finally make some good progress! 
       Finally it was go time. No looking back now! With Richard on my right I started to push, and push, and push. Our nurse kept reassuring me I was doing an excellent job. I was determined to get him out of me as fast as I could. Unfortunately, since I had pushed that fast Dr. Twelves had not made it yet. I was told to stop pushing and close my legs. I was in so much pain! All I wanted to do was push! 
        Dr. Twelves came running in, in flip flops and work out attire, and now it was go time. Richard kept telling me I was "doing great" and "you're going to break my hand." After 17 min of pushing and feeling like I broke 20 bones in my body( my epidural had worn off) we heard the precious cry of our baby and our nurse say " wow he's huge! Where were you hiding him?" cause that's what I wanted to hear... haha. Dr. Twelves, hesitant to tell us, said that Carter's umbilical cord came out with a big knot right in the middle. She couldn't believe that we had such a smooth delivery with that going on.
      After a few minutes they brought Carter, 8 lbs 9 ounces and 20.5 inches long, over to me for some skin to skin. He was beyond perfection! Every ounce of pain was worth it. As I passed him on to Richard my heart completely melted. He was a dad. I was a mom. Our lives would never be the same. We love you, Carter!