3 Months Old

Likes:
Mommy
bottle
bathtime
ladybug
playing with dad
Stockton

Dislikes:
eating from a spoon
cold hands
when his bottle is gone
waking up from naps
people to close to his face

Just a little thought!

So its Saturday and I finally have a second to update my blog and I was thinking to myself... especially now that I've returned back to work full time... how do single moms do it? SERIOUSLY??? I am so blessed to have such a wonderful full time job. I am so blessed to have a husband who has a full time job that he loves. I am so blessed to be a mom to the cutest baby around. But our life has seriously been GO GO GO with everything that once came pretty routinly to us. I'M GIVING A SHOUT OUT TO SINGLE MOMS AND DADS WHO DO IT ALL THEMSELVES!!! My prayers are with you!

Thanksgiving 2012

I really love this time of year! I love fall and the crisp air! I love the clothes for fall! I love that family gets together so frequently! And of course I love the FOOD! This year for Thanksgiving it was a tad different. Cory is now a police officer and has police officer hours. We really got lucky that he didn't have to work until 10pm on Turkey Day, and he's weekend was Tuesday and Wednesday of that week. So we loaded into the car after I got off of work on Tuesday afternoon and went and spend some time in Preston with Brad and Sheila. We had a good time of playing with the baby, watching old movies, napping, chatting, Big J's!, Just Dance 4, Nitro Circus, Duck Dynasty, and great food! We are really blessed to be able to go up there and get away from everything and relax. Thursday Thanksgiving dinner was being held at Lynn and LeeAnne's church in Logan. The food was delish and the basketball and Frisbee playing was seriously just what I needed. Thanks for Cory's cousin  Holly for letting me dump Tate on to her so that I could play for an hour! On our way home we decided to stop by Grandma Gavan's for pie and meet up with my family. Within 15 minuets Cory got a call from dispatch saying that he was actually signed up to work at Walmart from 6-10 and then start his shift patrolling at 10pm. So being 45 minutes away, Cory took off leaving me and the baby! Somehow he got home, got changed, and got to work within the hour! WHAT A ROOKIE! ha ha ha, just kidding. It was nice to be able to chat with the Givan side of my family for a little while rather than having to rush out the door. The next morning Tate and I went down to Grover to get our Christmas tree. It worked out pretty nice for us since Cory was going to be working so much that weekend. But we sure did miss him! I am SO GRATEFUL for Grover! Its the best place for me to go and be able to forget about all of my stresses and headaches. We got to eat lots of food, go for a few walks, play with cousins, chat with Sarah Karen and Mom, and of course cut down CHRISTMAS TREES! When we were about to Payson on our way home I started remembering last year and the PLUMBING DISASTER that we came home to after Thanksgiving! I said a little prayer that all was well at the condo...prayers are answered! I didn't get very many pictures, but I thought that I would share the two that were my favorite!

 

 This is Grandpa Kevin with a few of his grandkids under the Christmas tree looking up at the lights before they got to decorate it. He is such a great grandpa and friend to his grandkids!

This is Tate and I! This is one of my favorite times with him. I love that I have a picture of it so that when he's older I can look back and remember these cuddle times.

2 Months

NOVEMBER 5th

 

Things I love:

 

*Being held by mom

*Being rocked to sleep

*My bottle

*Playing with dad

*giving stone cold faces to EVERYONE else

*hearing Stockton bark and play

 

Things I'm not sure about:

*Tummy time

*Nose sucker thingy

*talking

Measurements
11.9 lbs 47th%
23.5 in 77th%
15.5 in 64th% 

November 4, 2012 Blessing Day

 

November 4, 2012 came so fast for us. I cant beleive that the little baby growing inside my tummy is now blessed! We invited so many people but thats what you've got to do when you have so many family and friends who love your little guy! Cory did such a good job and wasn't nervous at all. He never seems to be, and understands his role as a servant in the Lord's hands. He's such a great example to me. After church we had a brunch at the condo clubhouse. It actually worked out really really well! We had crockpot omelets, muffins, and fruit! Either we didn't make enough or it was super super good, because by the time I got to the food their was only a half of a muffin left! We are so blessed to have so many family and friends who love and support us. 

 Here is dad with the main little man! The blanket that Tate is wrapped in was the same blanket that Cory was blessed in!

 Sadly, this is the ONLY shot of Tate in his blessing outfit before he peed up his back! He was seriously a little stud though.

 Mom and Tate.

 Great grandparents Givan, Grandparents Bateman, and Great grandpa Bateman!

 Great grandparents Nye and Great grandma Israelsen

 Grandparents Waters

 All of Cory's family!

All of my family!

Tate's 1st Halloween!

Both Cory and I love this time of year. And this year has been great weather so it has made it even better. For family night on the 29th we decided to go on a hay ride and to look for pumpkins. The weather was PERFECT!!!

 We tried taking a few pics each but it being dark outside with that flash gave us a variety of weird eye pics! This was the best of the baby and Cory. Tate was awake until the tractor started pulling and then he slept through the whole thing. It was a pretty fun activity and it makes it better that it was FREE!

 For Halloween I whipped up a quick costume for my little man. If you cant tell, he's a MUMMY!

 I also made Stockton a mummy costume too. This is the best pic I have of his costume before Cory ripped it off of him. I kinda hate that my camera auto focused on the dog and the baby is blurry in the background! It was supposed to be of both of them. ha ha ha.

 I had to include this picture! I think his look says it all!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Officer Waters

Congrats Cory! We're sure proud of how hard you have worked for this!

1 MONTH OLD ~ October 5, 2012

Can you believe this little guy is already a month old??? Where does the time go?

Bridal Veil Falls

Cory's family came to visit us for a weekend, well... okay, they came to visit baby Tate (0; We had a great time with them. The Saturday that they were down we loaded up and went up Provo canyon to Bridal Veil Falls. We had a great lunch of SUBWAY at the parkway.

 

 Then we walked up the the path to the falls. Last time we were here I was way pregnant, but I was also super hot and I vowed that the next time that we came I would at least get my feet in the water. So we hiked bare foot (OUCH!) up a little ways, clicked a quick pic, and got the heck out of there! The water was FFFFFRRRREEEEZZZIIINNNNGGG!!!

 This is the entire Waters family thus far. You cant see the two pups, Penny and Stockton, but they are there, they just got cut out. And Tate is, of course, snoozing it out in his stroller.

 Note to self... when my kids are doing their bug projects, I need to take them up Provo canyon because there were A TON of these little buggers everywhere! I would have been the coolest kid if I had one of these things pinned to my collection board!

2 Weeks Old

Baby Tate is getting so big! What a relief!!! This is how I found him after his nap today. Looks like those receiving blankets are already to small for him.

We had Tate's two week appointment today. I was excited to go and see how much he weighed. He went from 6.5 pds to 7.58! WAHOO!!! So in his weight he is in the 20th percentile, his length the 73rd percentile, and his head is the 43rd percentile. The doctor put it well, tall and skinny, just like his momma!

Some things that Tate does right now:
-Sleeps a lot
-Poops every now and then, but when he does it he does it 150% It's pretty much out of control (doctor says he's just saving it all up for us... ha ha ha thanks)
-Eats a lot
-Looks to his mommy and daddy's voices
-Hates bath time
-Loves car rides and rides in the stroller at the store
-Snuggling with mom in the mornings
-Sucks his binky like their is no tomorrow
-Has the scowl and the pouting down to an art!!!

We sure are loving this little guy!

September 11, 2012

Today was little Tate's due date. Weird! He is almost a week old now!

Today was such a hard day for me. I'm so very blessed that my mom came down to help me out with it because today was the day that Cory had to go back to work. Today we took Tate to be circumcised. Usually they do this at the hospital, but after the hospital pediatrician told me that he thought that Tate had hyperspadius and that he didn't find it necessary to circumcise him, and that he actually didn't feel comfortable doing it, I decided to call my pediatrician in Utah County. That is why we set an appointment for a week later, which is today. I've done my research and talked to a few women who actually didn't have their sons circumcised and Cory and I came to the decision that we did want the procedure done for our baby. I was so nervous every day up to today. When I got up this morning I dressed Tate in a onesie that says "Mommy Loves Me" to remind myself that little Tate knew that I did love him. When we walked in to the doctors office I immediately started to tear up. My mom told me that I needed to be strong and be there for my boy. I really wanted to! So the pediatrician looked at Tate to decided if he really did have hyperspadius and let me know that if he did we would have to see a Urologist and the procedure wouldn't be able to be done for 6 months, and by then it would be a lot bigger of an ordeal for my little boy. Even though I was upset, I was praying that he could actually have the procedure done so that he wouldn't be subject to something more intense later. My prayers were answered! And my emotions exploded. I was bawling hysterically and the doctor told me that I could leave the room and that most moms do. I said that I needed to be brave for him. My mom told me that she would stay with him while I went out (later she told me that if I wasn't right in the middle of the baby blues she would have wanted me to stay in there for Tate. She's the best!) I sat out in the waiting room bawling, and couldn't get myself together. The nice lady who was the receptionist came over and put her arm around me and let me know that she had four boys and after working for the pediatrician she strongly feels that I was doing the right thing. I feel that way too, but man!!! It was no fun! The doctor came out and got me and told me that everything went perfectly and that Tate was fine and that I could come in. I went in and the handed him to me and, to me, he looked relieved to have his mommy. His scowl (that he inherited from me) was very apparent to everyone else in the room. Well... even though it was a bit of an adventure, that could have been avoided if I delivered at a hospital that my pediatrician could have come to, or that the hospital pediatrician that I was at felt comfortable doing, I am forever grateful that it happened this way. After the procedure the pediatrician sat down with me to discuss my babies weight. He let me know that he usually sees babies after two weeks and they've lost about 10% of their birth weight. He was concerned because he was seeing my baby after just one week and he had lost 15% of his birth weight. The pediatrician was worried that my milk hadn't come in yet. I had expressed a few times before nursing and my baby nursed every three hours on both sides for 20 min each, so I figured everything was just fine. Because I was such a mess the doctor suggested that I go home and pump (rather than do it there at his office) to see how much I was producing. He wanted me to know that if I didn't produce that it was fine, and that I would have to work with the baby and a bottle. Well, I guess I have a pretty good doctor because I went home, pumped, and pumped.... and pumped... and nothing! Well, not nothing, but pretty near too. So of course I broke down into a sobbing mess again and made myself feel like I had starved my baby. I made him a bottle and he swigged it down. After I burped him he made this noise, I can only compare it to my brothers after Thanksgiving dinner. He seemed so happy! So... I decided I could either beat myself up over something that wasn't my fault, or I could be thankful for a good doctor that figured it out. I choose to be thankful! The same thing happened to my sister on her first baby, and with her second she had no problem with her milk. So I wont stop trying, but in the mean time, I now have a happy, healthy, full little guy!

Tate Albert Waters

The baby is sleeping and I really should be trying to as well, but I keep thinking to myself that I really need to document the past couple of days. There are so many details that I never ever want to forget. So... here is the story:

Tuesday, September 4, 2012:

Cory works at 7 and I don't have to be to work until 8. So this morning I woke up to Cory giving me a kiss before he walked out the door. He has been so excited to have this baby and when the doctor told us he didn't think we'd go until our due date, it just amped his excitement. But on this morning Cory whispered in my ear, "lets have a baby today," as he left I called out to him, "Sorry Cor, it isn't going to happen." My due date was September 11, still a week away. But on the plus side to having to wait another week, Dr. Thackeray, my amazing doctor, would be back from his vacation by September 10, just in time. Or so I thought.
I got up and got going. I knew that it would be a busy day because its always busy after a holiday. I got to work by 8 and  did my normal routine. No problems whatsoever. Around 4 we found out that there was a document, that was actually extremely important that had never gotten to our expert witness. Our deadline for that report was in a week! So I had to hand deliver that information to him. I left work around 4:30 to drop off the documents. As I was driving I felt a pain, almost like a menstrual cramp, but it brought tears to my eyes. Just one.
When I got home I decided that I needed to find a place to get a rock chip repaired on my car. Cory got home from school early. I popped to chicken pot pies into the oven and we ran down to the Jiffy Lube. While we were there we decided to get the oil changed too. But the pot pies were only going to be 20 more minutes and the car was going to take about 30 to 40 more. We weren't far from home so Cory took off on foot to take care of dinner. 10 minutes later I got a call from Cory, he had given his keys to the mechanic, and I had my keys in my purse, so he had no way to get in to the house. I went to the mechanic who, luckily, let us know that he was finished and I raced for home. Lucky for us, dinner wasn't burned. We hung out together and watched TV. I started to feel my normal end of the day yucky and decided that I wanted to try and go to bed a little early. Cory decided to come and lay by me for a minute.
The pains started at about 11:30 and were pretty constant. They felt a lot like the one pain that I had had earlier. Menstrual pains times a million. So it couldn't be labor. I did not want to go in and have them tell me it was false labor. Pretty quickly though the pains were every five minutes and about 40-60 seconds long. I threw up. We googled signs of false labor...everything seemed the same, except these girls were saying that they were in false labor for days at a time... I wanted to kill myself. Then I realized, these girls were only 32 weeks to 34 weeks along. Maybe this was different. I decided to call the hospital, which I was told to do if I had any questions, day or night. I got a automated system that said they would not give any advice over the phone and if I had any questions to come in. AWESOME! Some of the reason that I didn't want to go in was because I live in Orem and I was delivering in Murray, and I also because I didn't want to look like a fool when they sent me home for false labor. I decided to try and take a bath to ease some of the pain. As soon as I sat down I HAD to get back out, for some reason that just made is worse ( I found out later that I hot bath is great to help ease pain, but if you are in labor it can accelerate it). I really didn't want to call my mom and wake her up for nothing. But Cory talked me in to it. She is a no nonsense kind of lady, but she's also a tough it out kind of lady as well. When she told me that I should just go in, I finally was okay with it. She wouldn't tell me to unless she thought that I should. I threw up again.
Cory packed a bag super fast as I grabbed what I had already packed and slowly made my way outside. I remembered that I should grab a puke bucket... and then had a contraction and forgot again. Cory remembered to grab a towel. He was so worried that my water would break on the car ride up. We started driving, got on the freeway. We made it Pleasant Grove when I remembered that I had forgotten a puke bucket. Cory swerved from the car pool lane clear over to the side of the road and somehow I made it out of the car and threw up over the barrier. A bunch of jerks honked their horns at me as they drove by. I was scared to death that someone might veer off the road and hit us and kill us both.
By the time we got to the hospital it was about 2:30 am. Contractions were still constant at one every five minutes. We parked in the parking lot instead of using valet services. We didn't want to hold anyone else up, since this was false labor and all. We went in and got the look that I was afraid of, "Oh here comes a first time mom thinking she's in labor" from just about every nurse. The got me in a room and told me to change into a gown and they'd send someone in. I went to change and threw up in a puke bag that they had given me, and also passed my mucus plug and there was a lot of blood. I thought my water had broke and this was the first time that I thought, "hmm... maybe we'll be staying after all."
The triage nurse, Nancy, came in and checked me out. I told her that at my appointment on Friday I was dilated to a 3 and 70% effaced. Then she got serious and said, "Girl, you're dilated to a 7 and totally ready to have this baby. Lets get you started." I got SUPER nervous! I wasn't ready! Then she asked me if I had tested positive for the group B Strept test and I let her know that we had. She went in to high speed and let me know that they had to get the IV and antibiotic going for this as soon as possible. She said that they wanted to have that antibiotic in my system for at least 4 hours, and she didn't know if we had the time. They also called for the epidural and was told there were 3 girls in front of me. My nurse petitioned for me and found that I was much further along than any of the other girls and got the affirmative that I would get mine first. She was hilarious and yelled out loud, "I WON!!!" ha ha ha. I was all hooked up and ready to go within 15 minutes. Cory was really nervous that he might get sick and that he would pass out, so he was very cautious and made sure just to look at me the entire time. However I was the one who got sick. They brought out the catheter and the mere sight of the thing sent me in to an instant throw up. I don't know why? After all of that good stuff was taken care of I was told to try to just lay there as long as I could. They didn't want me to push until the four hours was up. I was totally fine with that. I still cannot believe how nervous I was. Cory went to the vending machines and got himself some snacks and I was given some grape flavored ice to suck on. Cory slept like a rock. I slept on and off (thank you epidural!) and would wake up every now and then really really nervous, not so much for the labor part of it, but for the baby part of it.
Nancy, my nurse, came in around 5 and said she wanted me to try and push so she could see how fast the head would come. I pushed once and she told me to stop because I still had one more hour and that head was coming fast. I really liked this way because I basically just let my body get to that point by itself, so when the time came everything happened really easily. Dr. Froerer came in around 6 took a little peek and said that it was time. Every time I had a contraction he would tell me to push 3 times for 10 seconds each. It wasn't hard at all. I was so nervous that the baby was coming that time seemed to go by really really fast. My baby was born at 6:55 am. Only about four and a half hours after we got to the hospital. When they laid him on my chest I was seriously surprised that he was so big. I don't know if I ever really understood what was inside of me. How did all 7 pounds 7 ounces and 21 inches of him fit inside of me? He cried and I have really never ever heard a cuter cry. I know all parents must think that, but everyone who heard him cry after that commented on that cute little squeak! Cory cut the umbilical cord, the gave him a quick clean up and then gave him back to me. He snuggled right up to me, and I was in shock! I was told HORROR stories! I was told that I could and probably would be in labor for days! And now, in a blink of an eye it was over!
Once I was up in my room, so about 10 minutes later I was seriously more tired than I ever had been. I tried to stay awake and talk to Cory's parents and grandma. I tried to respond to all the texts that were coming in, but in the end just laid there wiggling my toes, feeling the numbness go away. Once Cory and the baby came back from the nursery and being checked I fell in love. I couldn't even believe how happy I was staring at that little boy. He is seriously amazing. You know who else is amazing? My husband. I was so worried about him because he was never really around babies, but he is seriously a natural. He seems to know more often than I do what Tate needs. I love watching Cory hold him! Not as much as I love staring at my baby, but its up there.

From the first day that I got sick in my pregnancy, every single day I hoped that in the end I would feel like it was worth it. And of course it is. But I'm so happy that I finally FEEL that! I finally understand what it is to be a mother! And to all of you who are wondering... it is more worth it than you can ever imagine!

Mustache Baby Shower

I made sure to get my camera out to everyone at this shower, so that way I could have more pics.

 

Meg, Nichole, and Laura sure know how to put on a party. We've had so many baby GIRL showers, I was really looking forward to seeing what they'd come up with for my baby BOY shower. They put a lot of detail into this and I loved every second of it!

 Meg found these awesome finger tattoos of mustaches. Needless to say, it didn't take long until all of us were posing!

 Sarah gave strict instructions that you must pull a pedophile face while posing with the Mustache!

 Sami and the two finger handle bar mustache!

 I don't know why Nichole wasn't in this pic, but this is 2/3 of the party committee! And a rare look at my baby bump.

 This is the group of us! Thanks to all of you girls and for your love and support! We loved all of your thoughtful gifts!!!

 FACT!!! Cory has always loved getting mustache's out of the quarter machine. I specifically remember more than one date doing this before we were married. So I HAD to bring him home a finger tattoo! OF COURSE he loved it. The title of his was "8th grade bully" ha ha ha.

Family Baby Shower for Baby Waters

The hardest thing about having an awesome camera, and having a baby shower...you cant take many pictures of yourself. I did manage to get some good before pics of the food! Mom, Sarah, Karen, and Val, of course, outdid themselves!

 Then I had Sarah try and help me out with pictures, but with chasing her two girls around and passing gifts to me, she didn't get hardly any! Darn! BUT... it was such a fun time and our family really spoiled us! We seriously made out like bandits!!!

 This is my cousin Whitney. She just had her baby the other night. Lil boy!

I'm glad we got this pic. It sums up how both Whitney and I were feeling by the end of it! THANK YOU FAMILY FOR EVERYTHING! YOUR SUPPORT MEANS THE WORLD TO US!

THE BEAST IS DONE!!!