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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Jamie's 2nd Birthday

Jamie turned 2 at the end of April. I've been trying to be better about physically writing in my journal so my blog has taken a back seat. But I love these pictures of her and wanted to post them here too. Jamie's personality totally switched around 18 months old. Before then, she was down right mean. She hated all most all people. But around 18 months she decided she would be happy and kind and love most people. She is still scared of new people, but once she decides you are a friend, she will take care of you and adore you.
I am so thankful to have a daughter. My relationship with her has changed significantly since we've had another boy and we've decided we are done having children. She will be my only girl. I decided I wanted to start doing things with her that I want to do with her for the rest of her life. So this year I took her to get our first pedicures together. 
I love all the things she says. Benjamin wasn't very talkative, until recently, and I have loved having a little talker. She still plays so well by herself and she adores both her brothers. She is still opinionated and knows what she wants. Just as strong as her opinions are her persistence and determination. 
I adore this little bug and so thankful I am her mom. She tries my patience, helps me to laugh, and lets me cuddle her and pretend she's still my baby. Our family would be so different without her. I think she had a great day and already wants another birthday!


















Sunday, June 9, 2013

5 Blissful Years

This past Friday, Bryan and I celebrated our 5th anniversary. 5 years...I feel like we've gotten a lot done  in 5 years. I am forever thankful to be married to a man that gets me. Not only does he get me, he loves me as I am. You all know I'm crazy. Always have been, always will be. But this man has chosen to love me in all  crazy times and my occasional normal moments too. He has given me my most treasured role in my life, that of a wife and mother. I've never been as happy as I am right now. Having three very young children has its challenges. But I wouldn't want to imagine my life without each of them. They are our everything and we adore them. My Bryan has changed my life forever! And I love that he still holds my hand every where and calls and texts me randomly throughout the day cause he misses me and I still get excited everyday when I know he's on his way home! All I wanted for our anniversary was some new pictures of our family at the temple and a few pictures of the two of us. Taking pictures with little kids can be stressful. And I haven't met a man that actually enjoys the process of taking pictures. So for my anniversary he never complained and did everything I asked him, in regards to posing and taking pictures. Dare I say he was helpful and pleasant and acted happy to be taking pictures. I LOVE HIM!!! These are some of my favorites.

Benjamin, 3 1/2 years old

Samuel, 5 months

Jamie, 2 years old

Family Picture that makes me laugh...cause it reminds me of our last family picture at the temple...

This was the best family picture last time. Look how little Jamie was. And I love that she is screaming!

A family picture where everyone is looking up!

After the temple, we went to the Dallas Arboretum. I love tress that form arches. Love this picture!!!

Pictures out at my parents house. These are three of my favorites.





Saturday, March 9, 2013

do it again??

My sister just signed up to run this race again.  Trying to decide if I want to do it again, or do something different.  My good friend and her husband do a mud run that seems like it could be a ton of fun too.  Who would have guessed I would ever "enjoy" running. I still hate it, but I love it too. I hate getting out the door, and once I'm in my groove, I love it. Time to start back up and getting ready for something!

Meet and Greet

I have an incredible friend, Emily, who wanted to throw me a baby shower.  I feel so crappy during my pregnancy I asked her if we could do a meet and greet after Samuel was born. She was so cute about it and put together such a sweet evening for Samuel and me. Samuel was less than 3 weeks old and his colic hadn't really started, so it was a delightful evening full of yummy food and sweet friends. Thanks again Emily for such a fun night!





Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Samuel's Blessing

Last Sunday, March 3, 2013, we blessed our sweet Samuel. A baby's blessing is one of my favorite moments of being a mom. For me, watching my husband place his hands on our new child and with the holy priesthood give our child a name and a blessing, is one of life's sweetest moments. How thankful I am to be married to a man that lives his life in a way that he is always worthy and able to give our children priesthood blessings. One of my favorite things Bryan said was, "you are blessed to be part of a very large family that loves you." Sitting in that chapel with my parents, 5 sisters, 3 brother-in-laws, 7 nephews, 6 nieces, 1 great niece and 1 great nephew, plus my other 2 children, I kept thinking how true that statement was. I love Texas. I love Texas weather. I love southern hospitality. I love that random people at a grocery store will tell me God has blessed me when they see me with 3 children. I love Texas pride. I love rodeos and cowboys. But my favorite thing about Texas is being so close to my family. I am so thankful my husband was inspired to bring us here. I never thought he would leave Colorado and I married him believing I would die in Colorado. It has been amazing for our little family and I have loved every second of being with my extended family too.  We are so excited to have Samuel in our family. I'm excited to see how he impacts our family and adds to the dynamics within our family. He is adorable and we love him!!
Samuel Jeffrey Turnage

Some of my favorite men!
Seth, Matthew, Dad, Bryan, John, Ray (we're missing Phil)

Our sweet Samuel

Some of my amazing sisters. 
Christine, Maggie, me, Mom, Liz, Melanie
(Joanna left before the pictures were taken, and Cathy was there in spirit!) I just have to say I have the best sisters in the world...and my kids are the luckiest to have 6 amazing Aunts. They each are so thoughtful, kind, generous, and loving to my children. They make them and me feel special! So thankful for each of them!


Wednesday, February 27, 2013

SJT



How fast the weeks are flying by! My sweet little baby is already 6 weeks old and over 11 lbs! That's huge for one of my babies. I have loved having a little chubby baby. There is so much of him to kiss and cuddle!!!

The past 3 weeks have been a bit hard. Samuel is colicky and the crying doesn't seem to ever end. Never having had a colicky baby I didn't understand other moms that talked about it. Now...I understand. Holy cow. I keep telling myself we are all ok. My other two have adjusted the fastest to it. They just go about their day and can completely ignore the fact that Samuel has been crying for 4 solid hours. However, Bryan and I are both ready to snap.  In the evenings, Bryan tries to help out and take a turn with Samuel.  It's so frustrating that nothing we do seems to help. The slight relief we have had is with the Canadian Teddy's gripe water. A friend of mine offered it to me as a hope and at certain times it totally helps. Other times, not so much. But I will take any help at any time! 

He's sleeping better.  Last night he went to sleep a little after 8:30 and slept till 2:30!! You better believe my little eyes were shut slightly after 9! I just keep telling myself that he can scream all day if he'll let me sleep at night. At first, he never screamed during the day, just from 8-midnight! I'll take the day screaming over the night screaming anytime!

Bryan's parents are coming into town this weekend and we'll be blessing Samuel in Gilmer. My niece Brittany is blessing her sweet little Foster and I just kept thinking it would be easier on everyone if we just brought Samuel there to bless him verses making everyone come up here.  His little blessing outfit almost doesn't fit! He's such a cute chubby boy!!!

Monday, January 28, 2013

Samuel Jeffrey

I started having contractions on January 1, 2013. We had taken a family outing (with my parents, my two youngest sisters, my niece, and our family of 4) to Cabellas. I finally had to sit down cause my contractions were too painful to walk around. I had been throwing up all morning and I was hopeful that an outing would distract me and help me feel better. I was very dehydrated and was having a hard time even keeping water down. We finally decided to leave Cabellas and on the way home I knew I was not doing good (between hard contractions and the dehydration).  I wanted something to stop the pain and I knew I was getting close to the 24 hour mark of not keeping anything down...so we made a stop at the hospital.  Luckily Megan and Maggie were in our car and they dropped us off and took my kids home. SO THANKFUL FOR FAMILY!!!

Long story short, we were only 35 weeks and I seriously did not want to have our baby and I asked them do whatever they could to stop the labor and to get me comfortable and back home. After about 6 hours I got to go home and my family went into overdrive to help me keep baby in as long as possible.

My mom decided to stay with us and she helped out so much that week. But on Friday (January 4th), we got word that her brother had had a stroke and had bleeding on his brain and he wasn't going to make it very long. She and my Dad made plans to fly out to California that Monday and my sister Christine made plans to come and get my kids on Tuesday and keep them in East Texas until Thursday.

Tuesday (January 8th) I had a follow up appointment (I had one on Friday, January 4th) and I had lost 5 lbs between those two appointments. My doctor monitored my contractions, they were minor and bearable, we did a stress test (baby seemed great) and we did an ultra sound to make sure baby had enough fluid (which he did). She told me to stay off my feet and take it easy. Watching my kids leave was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life...yet I was so thankful for Christine's help. Wednesday I seriously laid low all day and I felt pretty good. But I woke up feeling horrible on Thursday (January 10th). I was in pain, the contractions were hard again, and I was just physically and mentally tired. By 3:00 I was truly uncomfortable and made a call to my doctor. She wasn't there so I talked to her head nurse and after our 15 minute conversation she told me to get to the hospital. I called Bryan and he said he'd meet me there and I tried to find a ride to the hospital (everyone was busy that Thursday afternoon)!

Luckily, my relief society president lives literally around the corner from my house and she came and got me. We pulled up to the hospital right as Bryan was walking up to the doors. I brought a hospital bag with me...I knew something was going to happen.

They admitted me immediately, watched me for 2 hours, and then my doctor said she felt impressed that we just needed to get him out. My gut was exactly the same. Bryan had to leave for a few minutes, and I called him to tell him to get back cause we were having a baby right now. I scared him to death.  I think he thought something was really wrong and it was a life and death situation. It wasn't...we just had a strong feeling like my pregnancy had reached its limit and it was time to get that baby out. As soon as I got off the phone, they started prepping me for surgery. Like our previous c-sections everything went quickly and smoothly...until I got into the OR.

In the operating room, they got me on the table and the anesthesiologist had me lean over and he shot up my back. Again totally like the other two. He laid me down and about 2 minutes later is when things start to change. I felt really weird. I felt myself kinda coming and going between awake and out of it. I could feel my body shaking and I felt like I was going to vomit. This was nothing like the other two. Bryan was only a few feet outside the OR and it usually was about 5-7 minutes after getting me in that he comes in. This time it was over 30 minutes before he came in. I knew they were having a hard time stabilizing me. And my anesthesiologist was very focused on my vitals. The last two times, my anesthesiologist was telling jokes and taking tons of pictures for us. There was a different feeling in the room this time and for the first time I was scared to be on that table. I kept thinking about not getting off that table and not going home to my kids and all I wanted was to go home with my babies...all three of them! 

They finally started to cut and that part always goes fast. They said they could see his head and a lot of hair and then they had him out and lifted him for me to see. He was born at 8:58 pm. He looked huge. My other two babies were 5 lb 15 ou and 6 lbs 14 ou and this guy came out at 7 lb 8 ou! Three weeks early (36 weeks and 6 days) I had my third and final baby. They asked us what his name was and we told them we had no idea!

Baby looked great. he screamed great. had great color. responded to everything he should. They cleaned him up and I got stitched up and we all left the OR room together. I was so relieved when we left that room.  All the bad feelings stayed in that room and they took me to the OR recovery room. And that's where things changed with baby. All of a sudden his breathing started to change. I couldn't see any of this, but Bryan was with the nurses who quickly called the NICU nurses who came and watched baby and then suggested he visit the NICU for a few hours. I was totally at peace with that. Bryan was worried. For whatever reason, I wasn't worried. My gut said everything was ok and if they needed to watch him they could give him great care and it was ok. 

After the first two hours, they decided to admit baby into the NICU for a minimum of 24 hours. They rolled my bed into his private NICU room as they took me to the maternity ward. Baby was on his belly and hooked up to a ton of machines. He had a feeding tube through his nose. And as we looked at him, he stretched out his neck and lifted his head and even though his eyes were closed, he looked right at us. And again, I had an overwhelming feeling like everything was ok. They said he was having a hard time breathing, which isn't uncommon for preterm white males. I think they called it something like lazy white boy syndrome (seriously!)

They took me to my room and told me I could call the NICU anytime and to try to get some sleep. Bryan went back over to the NICU about an hour later to see him. I decided to try to go to sleep. I woke up at 3:00, Friday morning and called the NICU. His nurse, Pam, said he was doing great and breathing better. I went back to sleep until 6:00 and then I called my nurse and asked her to take me to the NICU. They put me in a wheelchair and rolled me over to him. They said I couldn't hold him yet, but they let me touch him and he grabbed onto my finger. Later that morning I got to hold him and tried to nurse him for the first time.


He only stayed in the NICU for 24 hours. Friday night they let him stay in my room so I could nurse him and first thing Saturday morning they officially released him. Later that morning Benjamin and Jamie came up to meet their little brother. I think it was shortly before they came that we finally settled on a name...Samuel Jeffery. We had such a hard time deciding on a name. Nothing felt right. And oddly enough, we had never really considered Samuel...it kinda came out of left field, but we both love how it seems to fit him. 




We are so excited he is here, and healthy, and I'm no longer pregnant. It's been 2 1/2 weeks and the feelings of gratitude and happiness just keep growing. It is an amazing thing to have the spirit of a new baby in your home. You talk softer and kinder and feel a little bit of heaven literally in your home.