Jenna Turns Three!

Jenna is now a big girl- three years old! She is quite the talker and though she has her moments, she is a good toddler. Her birthday party was a bear theme. Enjoy!

At three years Jenna will say:
"wink, wink" - oink, oink
"No promise" - No problem (aka, I was glad I could help)
"No, thank you!" - When she didn't want something to happen.

"Ohh, I see!"

"I'm very busy"

"I'm not little, I'm a big sister"

She will talk through her animals if she has a question. She will also have that friend oink, be it a blanket or a piece of cheese.

She loves Winnie the Pooh, Super Why, Dinosaur Train and Daniel Tiger. She also likes "The Fox and the Hound".

Aimee at Home: The First Few Days

Steve went to church on Sunday. While he was gone, Aimee and I had a photo shoot. This is one of the first times that she was awake and happy.

Aimee was almost born on the 4th of July, so I decided to give her a 4th of July shoot. The skirt I made myself. 

She actually doesn't really like pacifiers very much. I am surprised she took this one for about 2 minutes.

I also love purple. The "socks" Marianne got Aimee are to die for!

Breastfeeding is going well (so far) and I am really glad that she is sleeping at night. Steve has been so helpful!


Jenna is coming home today from an extended stay with Grandma and Grandpa. I can't wait to see my little Bear! I am sure that it is going to be an adjustment having both, but I will have help for the next three weeks.

Aimee Marie Hamm's Birth Story

On the morning of July 2, 2014 (Wednesday), I wanted to have a fun time with my little Jenna (age 2 1/2 yrs). We went outside, blew bubbles, played with chalk and then around 11 I proposed playing with balls. Jenna was so excited about this and got me the balls herself. I got up with her and kicked a few balls around and did a little bit of bouncing/jogging. Not much really. Around noon, I had a few contractions, but they weren't very often, much like the ones on Sunday, June 29th. I was rather annoyed with them by that point, so I ignored them.

Around 1:55pm I decided to count the contractions and they were 3 to 5 minutes apart and lasted approximately 50 seconds. I waited about an hour and called Steve. While I was waiting for him to drive the 30 minute commute to reach me, my dad called. The contractions weren't bad and since I didn't know if they were going to last, I didn't tell him about them. While I spoke to him, I did laundry. Steve was home from work by 3:15pm. By then, Jenna had almost been asleep for 2 hours. We woke her up and left for the long drive (45 minutes) to Clovis.

We got to the hospital by 4:15pm and I think I was finally in a room by 6:30.

I wanted to have an all natural birth (I'm glad I didn't!) but I realized that it probably wasn't smart, so I got an epidural. Not sure the time on this. 9ish?

I kept changing sides on which I labored. The doctor was supposed to come in to break my water around 11pm, but she was in the OR doing a c-section. At around 11:45pm, when I was moving from my left to my right side, my water broke! I had a lot of amniotic fluid (level 23) and it was a mess to clean but luckily the nurse was there and was able to get it cleaned up for me. She checked and I was 6 centimeters dilated.

At 1am the nurse checked again and I was 8 centimeters dilated.

Around 1:25am, I started shaking really badly. A nurse confirmed that I was at 10 centimeters. I would know that a contraction was about to start because I would get back pain and start to shake. The nurse said that I needed to wait to push until the doctor and my nurse could get there, since they were both in the OR. I thought, "Forget that!", but I didn't want to deliver without the doctor so I did small pushes to relieve the pain.

I wasn't supposed to have any liquid in case they had to operate, but Steve snuck me ice chips.

My nurse finally came to my room around 1:50am and she coached me through long pushes.

Around 2:30am the doctor came and I wasn't quite close enough so she left.

At 2:40am I was a lot closer so the doctor was fetched. She helped me push through a few contractions and checked to see if the baby was face up (she was). This was the reason I had the c-section last time and when she told me that I might have another c-section, I was motivated to push harder. At this point everyone was telling me to push hard. I tried to push as hard as I could. I would literally fall asleep between contractions. What a feeling! The doctor also said that I might want an episiotomy and rather than risk tearing, I took it!

I had Aimee at 2:58am. I could tell when Aimee's head was out. Getting her body out was so easy! Also, as soon as I got her out, the shaking was gone. I found out later that I had some kind of infection and got a fever of 102. Aimee also had a little fever, but that calmed down soon.

Compared to having Jenna, this recovery has been so much better! I can walk around now and get out of bed. I can actually live life a little! Don't get me wrong, I am still in pain and a of course sleep deprived, but I feel so much better! Aimee is eating and sleeping better than Jenna did too.

What I love about this delivery:
1) I went into labor on my own.
2) My water broke its own.
3) I had a vaginal delivery. I had a successful VBAC!!!!

Steve had given me a Priesthood blessing and I knew that God would help me. I said so many prayers and they helped to comfort me. Hurrah for modern medicine too!

Our sweet angel

She loves being held by Daddy

Jenna loves to hold Aimee too

Our hospital gifts

Baby Shower for Aimee

I wanted to have a baby shower for Aimee, in part to celebrate her and in part to educate people in Lemoore on where I live. (And to party!!!)

I was going to do it all myself, but Tiffany Escalante volunteered to do games and Marianne volunteered to do the food. I did house cleaning and decorations. I decided I wanted a yellow and white/duck theme.

Duck decorations

So people could know gender and due date without asking.

The food! Oh, I did cookies and brownies. 

The party! Steve said, "You know, we could hang streamers from the top of the stairs". And they looked wonderful!

An icebreaker activity of decorating bibs.

There were four little babies (though one slept the whole time). Jenna is helping this three month old. Giving him blankets and toys. A proud momma moment.

The party favors Marianne made.

All of the gifts Aimee got! Ugh, picture is blurry!

Nesting With A Vengeance

Since moving into our home around February 17 we have sure been busy! I can't believe that we have been here almost four months. Amid all of the deep cleaning, unpacking and furniture buying and selling I have been nesting with a vengeance!

First I had to set up Jenna's new space:

For Jenna's room. I may make one for Aimee. (Idea via Pinterst)

Also for Jenna's room. Took forever! (Idea via Pinterst)

Then I had to make a spot for Aimee:

A wallflower - Pintrest win!

Butterfly mobile - Another Pinterest win!

We are having another girl, but in the summer and not the winter. So I wanted to make some clothes for her.

Small skirts. Cost about $5.

I made 14 crockpot freezer meals and froze them. We caved and bought a large freezer for the garage.

Freezer meals! I hope they are yummy.

 I also need some new toys to occupy Jenna with. So I spent some time making 20 busybags. I hope they work!

And all of the other projects that I am not going to do when she comes. Including:

• Catching up on scrapbooking. So far this has been the last half of 2011, 2012 and I've printed the pictures for 2013. 
• Making pillow covers for the living room. 
• Making a sewing cover for my sewing machine. 
• Repainting Jenna's play table. 
• Deep cleaning the house!

And of course we went to two trips out of state and had a few in-state vacations.We have one more trip to Oakland. Almost done!

San Antonio, TX

From May 10-18 we traveled to or were in San Antonio, Texas, visiting Matt and Sally Hamm who generously opened up their home to us. We had a great time. I feel like I did everything "Texas" that I wanted to do. Among the things we did:

• Two step country dancing (my pregnant body still tells me that doing this at 34 weeks may not have been a good idea)
• Ate BBQ
• Ate Mexican Food (including breakfast tacos - yum!)
• Attended a rodeo in the middle of nowhere (and got stuck in the mud!)
• Visited the Alamo
• Went to church and talked with people who said "ya'll"
• Survived an intense thunder/lightening storm. 
• Fed lots of animals, including: 
• Birds
• Ducks
• Geese
• Peacocks
• Ostrich
• Deer*
• Large rams/antelope/goats*
• Buffalo*

 *We fed by hand. The others had their food tossed to them!

• Drove by the LDS San Antonio Temple
• Visited the Institute of Texan Cultures, the Quadrangle on Fort Sam Houston Base, the Japanese Gardens, the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, Sea World and of course took the boat tour of "The Riverwalk".
• Pet an armadillo.

On the way home, United was desperate to bump a few people and we ended up getting $1,200 in airplane credits and we only lost 2 hours. I hope that will get us somewhere tropical!

Here are our adventures in pictures:

Woven owl basket at Institute for Texan Cultures

Feeding a buffalo!

Sea World whale show

At the Japanese Gardens

Walking with a peacock at the Quadrangle

A view on the Riverwalk

Easter 2014

We celebrated Easter with some new friends in our ward. The Escalantes hosted and we had a good time. Jenna found a lot of eggs. Then she unpacked them and repacked them. Of course she got to eat a few!

Unpacking the first one. A full basket!

Opening her eggs - too excited to sit!

Getting ready to re-pack her eggs.

Then we had Easter at Grandma and Grandpa Hamm's house.

Finding the first egg.



Gathering more... 

Eating chocolate!

My only regret with Easter this year was that we didn't focus more on the true meaning of Easter. We were so worn out after the Fresno reception, recovering from our trip to Utah, feeding the missionaries, having friends (old Deloitte co-workers) to dinner and Stake Conference. Next year...