Hayden Clemens

Hayden Clemens Rode

March 23, 2012

4:05 pm

6 pounds 10.6 ounces

20 inches long

These pictures are from my phone, so please excuse quality and quantity. I have more on my camera! I will post more details and pictures soon!

Until next time...Gig'em!

Sibling Tour

My friend Carrie and I are both due in April with our second (but we all know I am not making it to April) and we signed up the "Big Sisters" for the Sibling Tour at St. Joe's hospital so they can see where we will be when their younger sibling is born.

I am so glad she reminded me to sign up for this class and that we signed up for the class this week since I am having Hayden later this week. That was cutting it a little close. Also part of our procrastination was we were trying to decide which hospital we wanted to use since we could use either St. Joe's or The Med. After touring The Med, we just knew that we wanted to go back to St. Joe's for Hayden. 

There were only 3 kids on the tour yesterday: Taryne, Morgann and another little girl. Age group was about 2 1/2 to 3 1/2, so they were all close in age and all big sisters. 

Carrie and I tried to get a few pictures of the girls on the tour, but they were very interested in the tour and we sort of got the looks of "really? pictures?". Oh well. I did snap a few with my phone.

Morgann and Taryne on the tour.

They were able to practice holding and feeding a baby. These dolls were HUGE!

All of us went to dinner afterward...I had been hungry for fried shrimp since breakfast and Carrie had been hungry for Red Lobster...so it all worked out! 

We tried to get both girls in the picture with us, but trying to keep 2 girls at this age still is almost impossible!

Overall, I think the tour was a success and  both girls learned a lot. They had a silly video toward the end of the tour and I was amazed at how quiet all 3 girls on the tour were and interested in the video.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Another update....update

Can I use that title again?

Well I went back for my "follow up" appointment today and we moved my induction date from April 4th to this Friday, March 23rd. So, we get to meet Hayden Clemens this Friday!!! I can't wait!

I am on bed rest Wednesday and Thursday to keep my blood pressure down so we can avoid the need for Magnesium. If you came to see me and Taryne right after she was born, you might remember I was a little out of it. I was given the magnesium while in labor to prevent seizures and then apparently after you have the baby, you must continue taking it for at least 12 hours.

Well, those 12 hours were the worst thing about having a baby...for me anyway. The magnesium made me feel like I was drunk. The room moved and I was seeing double all day. The one good thing that day was that I wasn't nauseated from the stuff even though the room was spinning. The other bad thing was it got in Taryne's system, so she had to stay in NICU the entire time until the magnesium was out of her system and then she had to be slowly taken off of her IV.

This afternoon, my friend Carrie and I took Taryne and Morgann on the Sibling Tour at St. Joe's. They loved it! I will post a few pics from that later.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Another update....

So we are officially ready to go to the hospital if needed....well after last Thursday we are now ready. Last Thursday I had my 36 weeks appointment and my blood pressure was high again. My doctor said he wanted to try to get "one more week out of me" if possible. That is what he said at the beginning of the appointment....

By the time we left, he wanted me back the next day. Not Monday, Friday. So of course, we just knew I would be going to the hospital on Friday to have this child. That evening, we cleaned out the car, adjusted Taryne's car seat and installed Hayden's, ran several errands and did little things around the house. All in preparation for my mom most likely coming the next day and us going to the hospital.

When I went to have my blood pressure check up Friday morning, it was actually decent. I say decent only because it was better than Thursday. So they let me go home as long as I made a follow up appointment for Tuesday.

So now I feel we are in the waiting game mode. I am living out of a packed bag. No fun. I just feel like we will get to meet our little guy by week's end. My mom is also living out of a packed bag. She is ready to go at a moment's notice to get here for Taryne. I guess I should also let my "back ups" know that I am probably day to day.

Tomorrow could be an interesting day if I get sent to the hospital. Taryne and I are meeting my friend Carrie and her daughter Morgann at the hospital to do the "Sibling Tour". I think it will be fun for the girls, but I am nervous that I will be sending Kyle downstairs to take Taryne to Carrie for the tour. We shall see I guess.

Taryne is really excited about meeting Hayden. She keeps asking when is Mimi coming to see her and when does she get to meet Hayden Clemens. I am glad she is excited. I am sure there might be a few mixed feelings once he actually is here, but I don't think that will damper her spirits.

I feel lucky that my only issue lately has really been my blood pressure. The past few days have produced swollen ankles and fingers, but nothing too bad and nothing like when I was pregnant with Taryne.

I promise to keep everyone posted on Hayden's arrival!

Until next time...Gig'em!

Endless hours of fun....

Well, maybe not endless. The recipe did say it would last about 3 months. But when it has been raining for several days straight and I needed SOME sort of activity for Taryne, it provided endless hours of fun.

This weekend, Kyle worked both Saturday and Sunday. So that meant Taryne and I were on our own for entertainment most of the weekend. Today she was running around like crazy and was totally not into any of her other toys/activities. And since it was raining, we couldn't go to the park or to feed the ducks. So I decided to find a crafty type thing to do/make and finally settled on homemade play dough.

Every day when I pick Taryne up from school, she is playing with play dough. She is making shapes, using cookie cutters, and all sorts of utensils to play with the play dough.

The play dough was very easy to make....and it makes a TON of play dough. We could have made twice as many colors if we wanted. We divided the dough up into 7 balls and Taryne picked the colors she wanted.

Here is the recipe for the play dough. I found several others and just decided to pick one.

Recipe:

3 cups flour
1.5 cups salt
6 tsp. cream of tarter
3 tbsp. oil
3 cups water

Pour all ingredients into a large pot. Stir constantly over medium heat until a dough ball forms by pulling away from the sides. Knead dough until the texture matches play dough (1-2 minutes). Store in plastic container. Should last for at least 3 months.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Easter baskets....

These mini-utility bins from Thirty One make GREAT Easter baskets! Since we know Hayden will arrive before Easter, I wanted to make sure he has a basket as well. I ordered him the Camo pattern with his name in orange (not because orange is a color in hunting but because it is in his room) and Taryne got the butterfly pattern with her name in hot pink. The font for her name is different and thinner. It doesn't show up on the picture as well as I would like, but in person it looks great!

Taryne wanted to pose with both of the "baskets"

If you are interested in one of these great all purpose bins for storage, organization, Easter, etc, please let me know! In the month of March if you spend $31, then you can get one of these cuties for just $8!! You can visit my website for more info and more patterns.

Taryne has another one of these bins for some of her kitchen toys. The bin fits great in her 9 cube shelf that she has in her room. Great for organizing!! I will post pictures closer to Easter once I have them filled with goodies for Taryne and Hayden.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Hayden's Room....Part 2

Here are a few pictures of the room once we got the bed, dresser, glider, etc added to the room. I still need to finish up the wall art I am creating, but I hope to get that completed this weekend. We also need to get all the "other" baby stuff we have out of the attic and get it cleaned and ready to go.

There is still work to be done, but we have the bed and essentials ready to go in case Hayden decides to come early.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Nap time...

...or I guess I should say quiet time. On the weekends we cannot get Taryne to take a nap. We try everything but usually we go to check on her and find something like this....

She is standing on top of her kitchen removing all bows and hairclips from the bow holder....

....and all the clothes from her dresser are on the floor and/or on her....

 This time she also fashioned a "step stool" out of a toy bin and a wipes box to get things off the shelf in her closet....



And all of this while I had napped on the couch. I never heard a peep from her until she had gone potty in her pull up and she was calling me to come let her out to sit on her potty....which is pointless since she already went. To be clear, when I layed down on the couch, she appeared to be sleeping in her bed. She was under the covers, facing the wall and very still. So I thought she had actually went to sleep.....

Hard Sleeper....

Since I am getting close to Hayden's arrival...and getting huge....I have had more trouble getting a good night's sleep. I am either up every hour or so to pee or I am tossing and turning to get comfortable. This is all in addition to Taryne deciding to come in bed at some point in the middle of the night. She does not come in our bed every night, but it goes in spells. Sometimes it is every night for several days straight and then sometimes it is several days before she does it again.

Typically when she comes in our room, she comes to my side of the bed with at least one blanket and a toy in tow. I let her lay with us until she falls back to sleep and then I wake Kyle up to put her back in her bed. You know, because I am up every hour or so I know if she is still awake or not. Some nights she is out before I even come back from the bathroom. Kyle is so sweet to let me wake him up so he can carry her back to bed.

Usually once she is back in her bed, it is for the rest of the night. She doesn't usually get up again. However, recently she had a night that she decided to come back. All I know is that it was after 4 am (I remember only because I look at the clock EVERY time I get up) because she was not there at that time. Well around 5:30-6 I got up AGAIN. When I get up, I always sit up a minute and then gently put my foot on the floor. The dogs sleep on their beds on my side of the bed but often they sprawl out with their blankets and I always check so I don't step on one of them. Well I put my foot down, felt something under the blanket and assumed Phoebe had made a nest closer to my bed. So I found a spot I could get up and went to the bathroom. When I came back I  thought that the dogs had really sprawled out this time and crawled back into bed.

After Kyle got up and showers, he wakes me up to get ready for the day. This particular morning, he told me to be very careful when I got out of bed and pointed to the floor. Well to my surprise, Taryne was the one that had made the nest so close to our bed. I have always wondered when I would wake up and find her sleeping with the dogs on their bed. That hasn't happened yet, but she made her nest right next to them. I am pretty sure it was Taryne's leg that I thought was Phoebe.

I am going to guess Taryne could not wake me back up to get in the bed. So she decided to sleep in our room anyway. She brought her pillow, both blankets, 4 stuffed animals and 2 dolls.

I had Kyle bring me a camera before she woke up. I thought it was too cute, but I felt bad because she couldn't wake us up. She was definitely determined to sleep in our room that night.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Hayden's Room....Part 1

Last weekend my mom came to town to help me paint Hayden's room. His room is the former guest room and I have been busy trying to clean all of my junk out of the closet and room. I remembered to take a picture after most of the stuff was out...

I had to wait for my mom to get there in order to get the big stuff out of the room....meaning the bed. The desk is still in there.

The area above the chair rail is a light tan color (called Bone) and below is a nice dark brown...

Here is the finished paint job...

I absolutely love how the colors turned out! I am hoping to get the rest of the room put together this weekend. I think I wore myself out last weekend and I have been spending as much of every evening resting this week so my blood pressure is decent when I visit the doctor.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Cousins!!

A few weekends ago, we went to Llano because Tanya and Theia were coming into town from Maryland. Taryne and Theia have not seen each other in person since October and it was not really a good play time since we were all at a restaurant for a party.

They have "played and visited" via Facetime a few times and that is always entertaining! However, this weekend, they had the chance to play together and oh my did they have a blast!

I guess Taryne taught Theia about "running the bases" and I heard them running and yelling that. At bedtime, they would run to the window seat in our room, yell "SAFE" and then run to the twin bed and fall down. They did this over and over and over again and they were both so full of giggles. I loved it!!

They played together so well and we have since had additional Facetime since they ask about one another all the time. Hopefully we will get to see them more since we will be quite a bit closer once we move to Tennessee.

Until next time...Gig'em!