Apartment Tour

We still have a couple of finishing touches to add to our place (like decorating the nursery and adding other pictures around the house), but for family and friends who were wondering where we are living I thought I would give a tour of our new apartment!


WALKING IN - Front Door

 MASTER BEDROOM

The door behind our bed is non-functioning and leads to nowhere. I think it works well as a makeshift headboard!

 

LIVING ROOM

 

Closet in Living Room- It has yet to be organized! In my defense, I rarely open it because normally we park our stroller right in front of it!

NURSERY

And don't worry, the blanket was only on there for decorative effect! :) Door seen in picture goes into bathroom.

BATHROOM

It was hard to get a good angle of it to take a picture, but our tub is an old-fashioned one with the "claw feet"

 KITCHEN

Nursery is directly to the right

This door is another entrance to the bathroom

DINING ROOM

That door leads to our backyard and down to the basement, where our washing machine and dryer are that we share with the other apartments in the house!

Months 1-3

I cannot believe our Addie is 3 months old! Here is a recap of the past few months, which have definitely flown by too fast!

Sleeping Pattern: There was not pattern-she usually slept between feedings, so about a 2-3 hour stretch. She also liked being held in order to fall asleep and getting her to fall back asleep would take about 45 minutes, sometimes longer.
Eating Habits: She went through a growth spurt around week 4, which was definitely a tiring time for me! Generally she fed every 2-3 hours for 15 minutes.
Accomplishments: Pushing her head up reallllly high during tummy time-go girl!
Discoveries: She started grabbing my shirt during feedings, and started doing some visual tracking of people, noises, etc.
Memories: The first time we got smiles out of her (I would make this really silly noise and then rub her face with the burp cloth), her first time going for a walk in the stroller, being absolutely exhausted, "frogs legs and chicken wings" (the way we described her arms and legs when she would snuggle up into us), and her head bobbing so much whenever we would burp her! Also, Alex getting up with me for every feeding the first few weeks to keep me company and the many slap-happy moments we had in the middle of the night.

Sleeping Pattern: Because we moved to Michigan during this month, her sleep schedule was a little erratic since it was interrupted with all the changes. Usually she would feed sometime between 8-10 pm, would sleep for a 4-5 hour stretch, wake up to feed again and then go down for another 2-3 hours. She still struggled with falling back to sleep on her own, but got a bit better in that it did not take her as long.
Eating Habits: She switched to nursing on both sides every 4 hours or so.
Accomplishments: Grabbing and holding onto things (especially Mom and Dad's clothes!), got very good at tracking movement, loved making noises (her coos are especially cute!)
Discoveries: This month Addie LOVED looking at faces. She was so curious! She also discovered that hands are a great thing to chew on at the end of this month!
Memories: Addie had a "snort cry" she would do whenever she got hungry. It was the cutest and weirdest little thing. The one time she covered her head with the blanket she was swaddled in and she was getting so frustrated and when Alex uncovered her she calmed right down and got the biggest smile on her face. The one time at 4am where I swear, her cry sounded exactly like she was saying hungry. It was more of a "hunnnng-geeee" grunting sound, but you get the point. The booger debacle where it took a couple of days to get it out because she would get SO angry and snort it back in just as we were about to get it. She also totally became such a ham this month- she loved smiling and cooing for whoever would look at her.

Sleeping Pattern: She became such a champ at sleeping this month! We did a form of sleeping training, but I tried not to stress it too much and just went with the flow. I noticed that she started getting tired around 7:30-8:30pm so I do a feeding and then we have a routine where we read a book, tell her a scripture story, turn on white noise, swaddle her up, give her her pacifier, and then lay her to sleep in her crib (which she started sleeping in this month). I noticed that she actually fought sleep more when I held her because she likes to kick her feet waaay up in the air when she is falling asleep. What a nut! So we would just lay her down when she got tired and would only check on her when she was crying. We also moved her out of our room too. It worked great and now she can totally fall back asleep on her own (it maybe takes her about 10 minutes), and this month we saw up to 8 hour stretches between feedings during the night, which I can totally get behind!
Eating Habits: She usually eats more in the day, about every 3-4 hours. Whenever I pump I am getting about 4-5 oz combined from both sides, so she is definitely eating well!
Accomplishments: She is doing longer times during tummy time, and is pushing herself up a lot higher! She rolled over this month from tummy to back all by herself on September 24th, and we have seen it two times since. Addie does this little half laugh at us when we make silly faces or sounds, and it is so cute! She also does this neat little trick when her pacifier falls out she brings her arms up to her face and tries to push it back in. Mostly this ends with her being frustrated, but a couple of times she has actually been successful and has been able to push it back into her mouth! She is also now in size 2 diapers.
Discoveries: Her hands! This girl loves putting her hands in her mouth and chewing on them. She gets super drooly because of it. She has also discovered her legs, and that she does in fact have control of them! Her favorite thing to do is kick really fast when she is on her changing table, I think because of the sound that it makes. She also likes to scrunch them up towards her chest. She has discovered her voice this month, and does a variety of coos and gurgles. I have nicknamed her "Chatty Addie." Adelaide is as curious as ever, and loves when we hold her facing outwards so she can take in all her surroundings. She has started noticing things like the dangling toys that are on this seat thing we got for her, and has a love-hate relationship with the turtle-shaped one that plays a version of "If Your Happy and You Know It" (It can have her squealing in delight one moment, and screaming the next).
Memories: The huge blow-out she had during Sunday School that definitely caught the attention of everyone in the room, the one time she slept until 5 am and I actually felt like I had a normal nights sleep, when I sing "Wheels on the Bus" with her while moving her arms and legs to do the actions and she lights up and smiles/coos along, and how many times she has managed to pee on her changing table just milliseconds before we get her new diaper on her. Also, this girl loves her Daddy and he loves her right back! One of my favorite of many moments watching them interact is when we were out and about and Alex had her and he picked up a couple of dandelion poofs and started blowing on them, showing her how the seeds scattered. She also got her immunizations this month and was such a champ! She calmed right down after and I definitely enjoyed some snuggle time with her.

We love you Addie girl. You have definitely been a wonderful addition to our little family, and we cannot wait to see how you grow and develop more in the months to come!

Apple Picking

One of the things we were told is on the "must-do" list in Ann Arbor is apple picking in the fall, so this past Saturday that is exactly what we did. We headed over to Wasem's Fruit Farm in the morning just 20 minutes away with our friends the Spilles. They are in our ward and also starting law school too. We started off by having fresh cider and homemade donuts, both of which tasted divine! The farm had a wide variety of apples and so we just walked down the rows and started filling the bag they gave us. We ended up picking a half bushel of apples so if anyone has any ideas for apple recipes send them my way! Addie was pretty happy throughout the picking but got a little tired and hungry near the end. Overall it was super fun and the weather was perfect. We took a lot of pictures with Addie, so we had to share them (sorry I'm not sorry for the picture overload!) This is definitely something that we will be doing in the years to come while we are here!

{clockwise starting top L: hanging with the babe, family picture, apple tree, smiley baby, Alex climbing, red plump apples, content little girl}

{clockwise starting top L: frost ring on apple, Addie wants to eat apples too!, yummyyummy cider, love that girl, my cute family, Addie and her Daddy having fun and being silly}

{zigzagging starting top L: one of the trees that had a TON of apples, Addie being done with apple picking and ready to go home, our little monkey hanging from the tree, the loot, trying to get Addie to smile, the orchard}

Chatty Addie

(She got a little cranky near the end of this video, but she LOVES to coo and gurgle at us now! Also, please ignore the silly voice/things that I say...haha)

Introducing: Adelaide Grace Aggen

Adelaide Grace Aggen

Sunday June 30, 2013 at 1:10 pm

7 lbs 15 oz & 21 inches long

          We are so happy to have had this sweet girl join our family! Overall the labor and birth went great. On Saturday, June 29 I had started to get a few pre-labor symptoms but they were the type where labor could start in a couple hours or a couple days so I tried not to get too excited. We had a family gathering with Alex's family that day and when we got home we went to bed shortly after but I could not fall asleep as Addie kept kicking me and waking me up! Then at 11:57pm (yes, I immediately checked the clock!) I got my first contraction and it was followed by another strong contraction about 5 minutes later. This pattern continued for about an hour and so I decided to wake up Alex. Since I did not want to get sent home from the hospital (which ended up happening anyways) I told Alex to go back to sleep and that I wanted to wait another hour to make sure the contractions got stronger and continued in the same frequency and duration before heading to the hospital. Of course Alex didn't fall back asleep, but at least I get thoughtful wife points right?!
          We arrived at the hospital around 2 am, and I was 3.5 cm dilated and 90-100% effaced. My contractions were looking good on the monitor and my nurse was sure we were going to be admitted so she started in on the paperwork. An hour later I had not progressed any further but my nurse was hopeful and so she called the doctor and we were told to walk the hallways for a bit and see if that got labor moving forward. Alex was great throughout all the walking and when I got a contraction I would hold onto the railing on the wall and he would push against my back. It really helped me deal with the uncomfortableness!
          Unfortunately walking did not help at all and we were still the same amount dilated when the nurse checked me so we got sent home at 6 am with a morphine/phenergan shot and instructions to come back when the morphine wore off in 4-6 hours or if my water broke. Luckily we did not have to wait too long! We headed home so I could sleep and I woke up about an hour and a half later and had my water break. So we headed back to the hospital and got admitted right away (we even got assigned to the same room as before!), and by this time it was around 8 am. Everything happened so fast- the nurse checked me and I was 6+ cm, the anesthesiologist came and I got my epidural, and antibiotics were started. Once everything settled down we got about an hour long rest and then at 11 am the nurse came to check me again and told me that I was completely dilated and that it was time to push! I could not believe how fast it all had happened!
          Alex and my nurse were great at coaching me during pushing and I could not have asked for better support. After about 2 hours of pushing the doctor showed up and Adelaide was crowning. They got everything ready for delivery and she came about 10 minutes later. As soon as she was out I started crying. I could not believe that she was here and that I was a mother! Alex kept commenting on how perfect she was. It was such a great moment to share together as a couple.
          Our stay in the hospital was great and what was especially neat is that I did my last clinical rotation in nursing school on the post-partum unit at the hospital we were at, and so I got to see all my nurses that I precepted with! Addie lost some weight by the time we were discharged and so we had to follow-up with the pediatrician a couple days after we were home, but luckily she gained weight when we got home and so we did not have to supplement. She was also low to moderate risk for jaundice and so we had two mornings we had to go into the lab to get blood drawn but her levels went down and she is nice and healthy!
          Adelaide is really a content baby and call us bias, but is also really cute! She sleeps and eats well, and loves to snuggle. It has been especially fun to see Alex become a father to Addie. Alex is so thoughtful and great about helping me out, especially during late-night feedings and diaper changes. I could not have asked for a better husband to parent our daughter with! Overall we are making the transition to a family of 3 well. Sure, we may be a little tired from lack of sleep, but we would not have it any other way. We love our sweet Adelaide and are ecstatic to be her parents!

Minutes old!

Wide awake after delivery

Getting assessed by the nurses

Snuggling with Mom

Making silly faces!

Coming home from the hospital

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

Life has been pretty great recently and we are very blessed. Overall I can't complain. But sometimes life likes to throw you some rough days. I experienced one of those said days not too long ago where nothing seemed to be going right and I felt I was grasping at straws. Seeing that I needed cheering up, Alex suggested that we go on a drive in our nearby neighborhoods so I could just roll down the window, clear my head, vent, cry, worry, etc.
As we finished our drive we pulled onto a street in our neighborhood and to our surprise on the side of the road was a chicken.

A chicken?!

Now we live in city limits, so farm animal sightings are a rarity. But lo and behold, there in plain view, was a chicken. No owner nearby to claim the chicken either, who was strutting along the eerily empty street. Baffled at what we saw we obviously slowed down our car to stop and get a better look. Apparently the chicken took that as a cue and began to walk out into the road. We came to a stop a couple of feet from where the chicken was and then proceeded to watch as it crossed the entire width of the road to the other side.

As I looked over at Alex I realized that his facial expression mirrored my own. Mouths agape we asked each other if the other just saw that, and if we had just witnessed an actual chicken literally crossing the road. When we confirmed that indeed we were not hallucinating we began to laugh uncontrollably and I immediately regretted not bringing my phone so we could have captured what we had just seen in pictorial proof.

So, why did the chicken cross the road? Well if you ask me, it was to brighten my day and make me laugh.

But, in reality, the joke holds up and that chicken just wanted to get to the other side.

A Golden Birthday

In third grade I was sitting in class and my teacher started talking about golden birthdays. I remember thinking it was the most magical thing and that when I turned 23 on the 23rd of February I was going to have the best birthday ever! Well, I celebrated that famous golden birthday this Saturday, and because of my sweet husband this day did not disappoint. I started off the day with a pancake breakfast, lazed around and watched a movie, talked to family, and went shopping.

That evening Alex and I had talked about going out to dinner with a few friends and then having them come over afterwards for dessert and games.  But little did I know of the events that were in store for me that evening!
Alex had organized a big gold themed surprise party! Gold decorations, gold themed (or 23 related!) presents from friends, and a GOLDEN LAB PUPPY that he had rented for the evening to come and join the fun. Yes, there is such a thing as puppiesforrent.com-who knew!? I had many dear friends come and celebrate throughout the evening and it was so much fun to visit with everyone! A special thanks to all who came. I have the best friends anyone could ask for!

It was the BEST birthday I could have asked for, and am so grateful for Alex for planning such a phenomenal day. Here is to being 23 and all the adventures that are coming my way this year: a baby girl on the way, decisions to make with Alex regarding the next steps in our life, and as of Saturday morning what this newest Registered Nurse is going to do with her knowledge and education (yep, I passed the NCLEX people!!!) Have a happy day everyone!

Mexico Cruise

We went on a cruise to Mexico with the Aggen Family and it was so much fun! The ports that we stopped at were the Yucatan Peninsula and Cozumel. Highlights from our trip included exploring New Orleans (the port we departed from), touring ancient Mayan ruins, the beach, participating in trivia games on the ship and winning 3 trophies, eating yummy food, LOTS of karaoke, dancing with the crew at dinner, sitting out on the deck in the evenings, and just spending time with family!
It was such a great trip and many thanks to Janeen and Tom for planning such a wonderful way for the family to be together.

BYU Alumni

Could not have done it without him. Thanks Alex for all your encouragement!

We did it! We are officially university graduates!