Graduation and Gavin's Blessing

Well, as I mentioned, we finished the school year with flying colors! Oh what a relief! It is great to just spend my time being a Mom and I don't have ot worry about school. I would say that it is great for Zac too, but it seems most days he is gone at work for 9-12 hours and he is busy. We miss not having him home with us during the day.

Anyway my Mom, Dad, Melanie, Nick, and Spencer were able to come up from Nevada for the weekend. And luckily Zac's family is so close so they were all able to make it, including Grandma and Grandpa Barrus.
The morning started early as we had to be at the MC around 8:30 am, give everyone their tickets and drop off Gavin. Luckily for my sister, she was holding Gavin when he has his first blow-out during Graduation. Apparently it was all over him and she spent the entire time cleaning him off and trying to console him. Thanks, Mel!

We didn't finish with Commencement and Convocation until about 12 and we headed to lunch. We then spent the day doing some shopping and spending time together. I loved having everyone together!

A Bachelors in Nursing and Accounting.

On Sunday, Dec. 20th Gavin was blessed and it was great! Zac did a wonderful job and Gavin slept through it, for which we were very grateful. We were glad that family was able to make it up here so that they could share this occasion with us.

This is an awful picture of me, but it has all of us.

He is such a proud Dad.

Where has the time GONE?

Just a quick update. I am going to post SOON! I haven't had much free time, and all of the stuff I want to post about I do not have pictures of yet! Just so you know how busy we have been, here is the last 3 weeks.

Graduation
Gavin's Blessing
Christmas with Zac's Parents (6 days)
Moved to a new apartment
New Year's in Salt Lake
Zac started work on the 2nd
We have new callings
And we have a Wedding and Missionary Homecoming this weekend.

I swear our lives will slow down soon. (I HOPE)

Exhausted...and Excited

Well, we are both exhausted! Zac has been falling asleep around 7 or 8 lately because we are so sleep deprived. Gavin has been pretty naughty when it comes to bedtime, for over a week straight he would not go to bed until after 1am, some days it was as far as 4am. Which leaves for some pretty tired parents. The other night he would NOT go to sleep and by 3:30 I was so exhausted and frustrated that I sat there crying on the couch. Zac came out and took him for awhile so that I could go to bed, but then I just felt like a bad Mom because I just wanted to sleep instead of hold my baby :(. But I do love him very much and my life has never been happier than it is now with Zac and Gavin in my life.

Well, I am officially done with school FOREVER! Ok, maybe not, but I would like to think that I am done forever. Maybe in like 20 years or something I will get my masters, but I am not planning on it. I am now Chelsea Barrus RN/BSN. Zac is almost done, he just has two days left and then graduation is this weekend. I feel so blessed that I will get to share this experience with my husband and we are excited for what the future holds. I know that the last few weeks have been stressful, but I am so proud of my husband and the hard work that he has put into his education, he is AMAZING and I am always so proud of him.

We are also blessing Gavin this weekend and I am so excited. I don't know if most moms are excited about this, but I really am. We are also moving at the end of the month, just two blocks away but we are excited for the extra room now that we have a baby.

And Christmas is only 10 days away, and we have only bought one present, and it is not even for us. Sad huh? I am learning how hard it is to get things done with a new baby. Especially when you are breastfeeding and your child likes to eat like every hour when he is awake. I am lucky to shower each day. The house always seems dirty and the dishes are never done, but oh well.

I was laying on the couch playing with Gavin today and it hit me that I will not have as much time to 'bond' with any of my other children. Because he is the only one right now, I can spend my time holding him and kissing every inch of him. I feel blessed to have the time right now to just be a Mom and I am so in LOVE with motherhood. It truly is the greatest blessing in the world, and I feel like Christmas came early. This is the greatest gift that I could ever be given, and I am grateful that the Savior has given me this opportunity as well as Zac giving me this opportunity.

My sweet baby.

Our Baby

Well, I guess I have waited long enough to post. Sorry that it is taking forever! I am just enjoying being a Mom and I am trying to drink in every moment. Even with the lack of sleep and frustrations of a crying baby, we LOVE Gavin so much. Even more so, I cannot believe how much my love has grown for my husband. Zac loves his baby, and is always so willing to change diapers and burp and hold him. I know that it is hard for him to get school work done because he just wants to hang out with Gavin. I was really looking forward to seeing Zac grow in his role as a Dad, and I must admit that he has truly blown me away and I am grateful for his love for our family, especially his love for me.

Well on to the birth story: I will try to leave out all the boring information. :)On Friday Nov. 6th I was having contractions pretty much all day, and they were pretty close together but they weren't really growing in intensity, so my Mom came up on Friday night thinking I would go into labor soon. No such luck. I went and got checked and still had not progressed anymore from three days earlier. I was frustrated and sad.

So Saturday my Mom and I went shopping hoping the walking would start my contractions again, but nothing! Ahh, going in to labor should be easier than this right! Yeah, yeah, yeah. We also made the cradle set for Gavin.

Monday, my mother-in-laws birthday, my due-date, NO baby.

Luckily, my doctor scheduled me for an induction on Tuesday! So we left for the hospital at 7am. They broke my water at about 8:15 and started me on pit. I started contracting right away. And the doctor said that I could have an epidural whenever I needed. I was about 2 1/2 cm and 75% when I went in. So I endured about 7 hours of contractions and couldn't do it anymore. By this time I was on about 13ml/hr of pit and I was dying. So by about 3 pm I had my epidural and it was starting to take effect. But after about a half an hour my body started to transition and it was making me pretty sick. The nurse kept thinking it was because of the epidural but my blood pressure was fine and I knew that wasn't the problem. I got the nurse to check me again around 4 but I was still at 5cm. They put me on oxygen to help with my nausea which helped a little. I didn't get checked again until about 6pm and by then I was complete. And the doctor said that I could start pushing. But, my nurse I had to help deliver another baby so I had to wait about an hour before I could start. I pushed for about two hours and he wasn't going anywhere. I had gotten him down to my pubic bone and he got stuck because his head was too big. So everytime I pushed it just elongated his head without pushing him down. So finally the doctor came in and they tried to tell if he was anterior or posterior, but couldn't. Finally the doctor asked if he should try forceps. I knew that he wasn't going anywhere without some help so I agreed. A few pushes later he was out and a BIG baby(see size in the post below). But he is beautiful! Sadly I had an episiotomy and I tore with almost a fourth degree. My mom said when the forceps were pulled out they were covered in my skin, fun huh? So I was in a lot of pain and it still hasn't gone away. But I LOVE being a mommy and I must say that it will be a little while before we have another baby, but we are so grateful for the opportunity to grow our family.

Here are some pictures:

Daddy loves his Gavin.

Jayden holding his newest cousin.

Gavin Zachary Barrus

Born: 11/10/09 at 9:18 pm.

8.7 lbs, 21.5 inches.

He is beautiful and we love him so much.

Give us a few days to write the story,

recovery is slow and very painful.

Last Shot

Okay, one last picture before he comes.

I thought I should take one to show what I looked like in the very end.

Well, I look ridiculous. Honestly, it looks like I stuck a soccer ball under my shirt.

Anyways, it could be any day now and we are just playing the waiting game.

The next post will have pictures of our baby boy!

Belly Buttons

So, I had to write about this because my husband just makes me laugh.

He is the silliest person I know, and he has the most random mind of anyone that I have

EVER met!

Literally, it is worse than a three year old. He could probably be on

Kid's Say The Darndest Thing

as an adult!

So this is really about belly button lint.

First of all, I do not understand how we even get belly button lint.

Maybe it is because I am a girl, and I do not think that I have ever had belly button lint in my life. But my husband, gets it EVERYDAY. Without fail, I do not understand it, he showers everyday, we wash our clothes at the same time, but I do not get belly button lint.

The only difference I can find is that men have hairy stomachs, and women don't.

Anyways, the other night Zac tells me that the lint is always blue. I just laughed at him, and said that it was white. He continued to tell them that it is always blue and I just said whatever.

So after we get home from church on Sunday he comes up to me and says, look it's BLUE!

And of course he is holding it in his hand to show me. Haha, I was laughing so hard!

And then after dinner with the Burkholder's he suddenly states,

"Is it true that women have pink belly button lint and men have blue lint?"

WHAT? I was laughing so hard that I couldn't breathe. Seriously, who thinks like that?

MY HUSBAND! That's who.

But don't worry, I don't mind it one bit! Because I get to spend my days laughing with my best friend. :)