Blog update: Quinn is now 9-1/2 weeks old and doing great. He's a little chunk which I love. I never thought I would have a baby with chunk. I think it's the length difference between him and what Rayne was at at his age. He is smiling a lot and cooing which is so cute. Rayne is loving her little brother and can't wait to see him in the morning. She loves doing his buttons and snaps on his outfits..which thankfully he has patience for because sometimes it takes her a little while to do. Rayne had a pretty good week. We are hoping her behavior is mellowing out. It's so much fun when she is good and happy. She did great in Church today and yesterday. It was Pentecost today so we had Church both days. That's usually difficult for her, but she did great. She even fell asleep at Church today! She stopped doing ballet for now and is only in Contemporary Dance for now. I think ballet was too structured for her liking right now. I attended the class with her in the beginning and thought it was too much for her. The teacher was going really fast and it was very confusing to the girls. Too many technical terms being thrown at them and they didn't know what they were before they were having to use them in a dance. Oh well, she may want to try again when she is older. So in the fall she will be in 1st grade. She learns so fast and asks a million questions all the time. Sometimes my head is buzzing with all her questions, lol.

Just a little biography stuff tonight..it's late:

I left off in Alaska...well, after working at McD's, I got a better job at a pizza place that my friend's friend owned..it was a family business. They needed a daytime food prep and evening driver, so I applied and got the job. I actually really liked it. I would get there at 12:30 and start prepping toppings..shredding cheese, chopping veggies, etc. Then, after that I would either help make the pizzas or deliver. And this was in winter. I only ditched my car once and that was because I turned too sharp and didn't realize that what looked like the road was actually just a ditch filled with snow. So the guys at the pizza place had to come pull me out. I learned Kenai very quickly doing that job. It was pretty fun. For some reason I thought I needed to make more money after a while and decided to quit there and work at the cannery. Oh man was that a mistake. That place was horrid. It stank. It was long hours and they always wanted you to work overtime on top of that. I came home smelling like fish and had to take my clothes out to the porch. I had to shower right away and even then, my roommates claimed I still smelled like fish. I would get up when it was dark and come home when it was dark. Barely had enough time to eat and sleep and get up and work again. I lasted 2 weeks and quit. From there I got a job in a daycare as a preschool teacher/lunch person. I liked it, but while I was on vacation I was offered a nanny position for a 14 year old girl who had Cerebral Palsy. I didn't have much experience, but I guess they like my phone interviews and while I was visiting friends out in upstate New York, I was hired and they paid to have my plane tickets changed to fly from there to Salt Lake where they lived. They had just bought a home in Alaska for the summers and had me come to Salt Lake first for training. The little girl was very sweet. Her parents were another story. They were VERY interesting...and when I found out what they actually did for a living...I have to say I was appalled and considered not working for them...but that's all for now, lol. I'm going to keep anyone that doesn't know what they did hanging for a bit. Stay tuned...:)

8 week already....

It's been 8 weeks since Quinn's birth. Time has gone by so fast. He is growing so fast. He's cooing a lot and smiling a lot. He loves to see Rayne too..as soon as he sees her, he starts smiling. Rayne is still battling with her eczema and it's so frustrating for her and us. She is so itchy. Spring is so hard on all of us. Allergies really bite. I hope Quinn does not suffer with them. Everything on the home front is okay. We have our good days and our bad. Rayne has been a bit better with her attitude. She hates being sent to her room so that is working for now it seems. That and I added another rule that if she is disrespectful or doesn't obey, then she gets to earn her next meal by doing chores. We'll see how that goes. She seems to think that she doesn't have to listen all the time..she can selectively listen to us. Yeah right. Anyway...

Biography stuff

I left off at moving to Alaska..yes Alaska...and the generosity of some friends to take me in for a time after my move. I started working at McD's which we all know I hated with every fiber of my being. Hated it. I had to get up at 4am to be there at 5:30 and I hate mornings with a passion. But I loved being in Alaska and was having so much fun with my friends. I remember one of the friends..the one that helped me drive the Alcan highway, bought a camper so I decided to clean it for him to thank him. It was really dirty. But I love camping and it was a cute little camper. I don't know whatever happened to it though. I can't remember. I'm sure he must have sold it. Both my friends worked at the airport in Kenai at the time, so it was kinda fun to fly to Anchorage some times for really cheap. I remember there was one time that the airline had an annual dance and we got to fly to Anchorage and stay in the hotel there and they served awesome food and it was really fun. It was so weird to see how the sun never really sets in the summer time. It was still very light out at midnight. And still like dawn at 3am. But it's good that it only lasts during the summer, because no night can get old. Just like very little daylight, which was the case in the winter. I remember the sun barely got above the short treeline in the winter and only for a couple of hours. I would get up to go to my pizza delivery job at noon and the sun was just getting up to the tree line and then it was set again by 4pm. That got really old, really fast. So did the bitter cold. Have you ever had to go and start your car every 2 hours so it would start in the morning? It gets old. Kind of like getting up with a baby I guess, lol. One time I got up for my shift (we took turns) and I fell asleep on the floor in the living room and when the next shift came, the cars were still running. Needless to say, he didn't have to do his shift, lol. When the temperature finally gets warm enough to snow...it's Tshirt weather over there. That's an almost 60 degree rise in temps. It goes from 30-40 below zero to 32...it's crazy. And when it snows...it doesn't just snow a couple of inches...it snows like 3 feet at once. Alaska is a place full of new things if you have never been there. Extreme weather, extreme days/nights, awesome fishing...it's just a whole other world up there. I would love to go back some day. Never to live..the winters are too harsh..but to visit...that would be awesome. It's so beautiful in the summer. And the moose calves are so cute..and there are twins a lot. Man those things are huge. I have been very close to a bull moose for a very very short time..I immediately got back in my car and drove away. Well I think that's enough for one night. Quinny keeps stirring.

Happy Mother's Day

To all Mommies out there. Does that mean we all get the day off...completely?? Yeah right. I wouldn't do that to my children. So for the updates first...Quinn is still doing great...aside from having Thrush and passing it to me..so we are dealing with that. It's not comfortable for Mom I can say that..hopefully he isn't bothered too much by it. He is still sleeping fairly well at night..some nights he needs to nurse more than others. Rayne is still really battling with her eczema and wheezing attacks. She woke up in the middle of the night with a wheezing attack and itching all over so we had to give her some Benadryl. I wish she could outgrow this junk. Or that we could figure out if there are underlying food issues or something. It seems to be every spring though that it gets really bad. Dave and I started classes again..yay. And we each have to make up for having the first 6 weeks off for Quinn's arrival. Double yay. We are still working on Rayne's behavior..she had a couple of good days and some not so good moments today and tonight.

And now for the biography stuff.

So I wrote about the college stuff last time. Now for the after college stuff. Right after I decided to go live up in upstate New York on a dairy farm with some friends for a while. We were supposed to save up and take a trip to Europe together..but my 2 friends were dating and they decided to get married instead and start their life together. So hmph. I stayed up there for 3 months and worked through a temp agency at a paper mill. There was a very nice young man that worked there..however he was somewhat obsessed with me and I didn't care for that much. He sent me flowers all the time and made "jokes" about how we were going to get married. It actually got get get very old and he was SO upset when I told them all I was leaving and moving back to Wa. State. Oh well...I hope he's happy today. So after that I decided it wasn't for me up there..although I love Northeast..especially Vermont..it's beautiful. I moved back to Wa. State and back in with the parents. I rode a train from Plattsburgh, NY to Pasco, Wa..3 days and it was wonderful. I had time to think and read and it was SO beautiful going cross country and not driving. I wish I had the camera I have now! So when I got back home I got a job as a preschool teacher at Kindercare and loved the job. I worked in the 3 and 4 year old room and eventually became lead teacher in there. I worked a lot of hours and really did love it. I loved all my kids and we had a lot of fun. I decided to go on vacation after a little over a year and decided to go see some friends in Alaska. It was SO much fun..I had never been there before. I LOVED it up there. In fact, I loved it so much...I decided to go home, put my 2 weeks notice in and move to Alaska. Before I left from my vacation I had acquired a job at the McDonald's up there and went home to break the news. Of course the parents were none too thrilled with rash decision like that, understandably..but I was stubborn and had made up my mind. So I moved to Alaska 2 weeks later. My friend flew to Seattle and met me there to help me drive my car on the Alcan highway to Alaska. That trip was a blast. We pretty much drove round the clock aside from a couple of short breaks. One of the breaks was at a natural hot springs that was so awesome. It felt so great we had to nap in the car..we were exhausted. The lakes on the way were a aqua marine color, which I now know to be because of the minerals in the water from being a glacier fed natural body of water...aren't I smart?? I again, which I had my camera I have now. At one point when we had crossed into the state of Alaska there was massive rainbow that stretched all the way across the sky. I tried to get pictures..but couldn't fit it all in. I have no idea where those pictures are..packed away somewhere. Someday I will do a scrapbook. So 2 incidents occured on that trip...one being my friend driving too fast around a corner with gravel and we ended up in the ditch..thankfully we weren't go THAT fast and we weren't hurt and there was a truck that came by shortly after and towed us out. And then in Anchorage..the friend of mine rear ended someone at a light and I believe they totalled the guys old icky car...that was not fun. And then we finally made it to Kenai, Alaska. That's when I started getting really nervous and doubting my decision to move there. But once I met the people I was going to be staying with, I felt better. They were really nice and welcomed me into their home. It's weird that their kids are probably all grown now and the youngest was only 4 when I was there. Man, time goes by so quickly. I think I will leave it here for now..I'm tired of typing.

Going to start something new...

First off the picture is of my friend's son and I just love it! :)...So my blog is kinda boring..unless you are family and checking in for updates...and friends. But otherwise...big whoop right? Well, I'm going to still do updates on the fam, but I am also going to start writing out my life adventure..I know..big whoop again. But I've wanted to do that for a long time so I don't forget in my old age things I've done, places I've been and when and all that jazz. So I will start today. Updates..Quinn is growing FAST. He is much heavier than I remember Rayne being at this age...must be my yummy moojuice...he loves it. He is still sleeping well at night..wakes about every 2-3 hours to eat and poop and get changed. Seriously..he poops everytime he eats. And he LOVES having a fresh diaper to poop in...everytime I change him...he poops. Dave has seen it and Lisa (SIL) has seen it. Or should I say..heard it, lol. Rayne is still adjusting somewhat...she still has break downs and wants A LOT of attention. So we are still working on that with her.

So now for the biography stuff. Not sure where to start..my childhood was pretty uneventful..so I dont' want to start there. College was interesting. But not quite as interesting as afterwards. Hmmmmm...I guess I should include some college stuff. I attended a private University through our Church...before the Church split up in a million pieces. That was fun too. The only reason I got into this college was because I played violin and had a high recommendation from our minister. My SATs weren't that great..they were mediocre at best. After the first year in college, I wanted to quit. I wanted to leave after getting a 2 year and travel or something..I was so sick of studying. But I hung in there and finished. I was in a lot of activities during college and when I think about it, I have no idea how I did it all without collapsing. I always had a full load credit-wise...16-18 credits going. At one point I had to get approval to have 18 or 19 credits..I can't remember which one...and I got the approval. It was Orchestra putting me over the limit..which was only 1 credit. I also had Women's Speech Club, Outreach Volunteer, Volleyball or whatever other sport was going on at the time, working out, Orchestra rehearsal's at night for a big production and I was the concert master. I negotiated with the instructor/director for more scholarship money for me to stay in Orchestra because of having so much on my plate and being concert master. He upped me one and not only gave me more money for the following year, but paid off my tuition for the previous year that I had left! Cool eh? Believe me, I had it coming..rehearsal's were at least 3-4 hours extra, 3 times a week. I also worked 20 hours a week to help pay for tuition and such. Doesn't seem like much, but when you are stretched thin already..it's not easy finding time to work. Any spare time I had, I was at work or studying. It was a busy busy time. I also somehow made time to socialize and go to dances...I LOVED dancing in college and learned a ton from guy friends that new how to swing dance. By the time I was a sophomore, I knew a ton of moves and had a blast. I also basically discovered that I could sing in college. I was singing a song in the bathroom and someone asked me if I was going to try out for the next dance coming up. I said, I never thought about it and the girl said I should try..so I did and I made it and the first time I ever sang with a microphone or in front of people was in front of about 1000 people on a huge stage. It was the most fun I ever had and I was hooked. From then on I tried to find any place there was to go singing and I still love doing it. That was also the reason for one of the adventures I have been on in my life...more on that later though. Anyway..my grades kinda suffered because I had so much going on all the time, but I think it was worth it in the end. I had a lot of fun and learned alot and made a lot of friends...most of which I have no contact with unfortunately..not sure what happened there. I tried to keep in touch, but just didn't have the contact from their end, so I guess I gave up. I think that's enough for now. Quinn woke up anyway and needs my attention...go figure!

Here I am

So I can't get on here too often to update...or I keep forgetting...or interrupted...or all of the above. Quinn is doing great...he nurses every 2 hours at least. He's starting to really let me know when he is NOT happy. He basically lost it in the car today on the way home from Church. We were almost to our exit and we had to pull off on the exit before ours and I had to nurse him. He's staying awake more and much more alert. He smiles big at me, I just don't know if it's a real smile or just a mimick of my expression. It's cute either way though. Rayne is still trying to adjust. I finally heard the big sister phrase who is in trouble..."you love Quinn MORE than me!!" What every parent loves to hear right? She's already pulled the "you don't love me" phrase before, but now she is trying to use this one. We are trying to really praise her for her good behavior and for helping. I gotta type fast because I think Quinn is stirring again. Dave had a great review at work and we now have STOCK!! We are pretty excited about it. And it vests as early as next year for part of it and the year after for the rest of it. We've never owned stock before, so we are pretty excited about it. I think that's it for now. I'm tired anyway..go figure.

A little update

I haven't been on here for a few days..so I thought I would pop on and give a little update before Quinn wakes. He's doing great. He is nursing beautifully which was a major goal for us. He sleeps a ton and is a really calm baby which we are SO thankful for. I keep waiting for the honeymoon phase to end, but trying to enjoy it while it's here. Rayne is doing good...she tries to be helpful. She's going through a bit of a stage though that we are working on. I'm sure it will pass, but for now, it's tough to be patient at times. I think she is in competition for who is the Mommy, lol. I am still trying to get my strength and stamina back and heal fully. I think it is going to take a bit to get everything back to "normal" for me. I am not very patient with myself for healing..I want to be at 100% NOW. But I am thankful to be doing so well considering what my body just went through. So that's it for now...

He is here! Quinlan Egyji - April 2nd

So it's a really long birth story and NOTHING like we had planned, but he is healthy and doing well. And nursing! Rayne never was able to latch well and so this time it was a huge goal to have Quinn breastfeed and he's doing it! So we are thrilled with that too. So here is the birth story... Monday night I ate a piece of fried chicken from Yokes and immediately had really bad pains in my stomach. I figured it just didn't agree with me and it would pass after I laid down for a while. But after about 2-1/2 hours of that hideous pain I had to call Kelly and Lisa and tell them how much pain I was in and there was no way I could drive to go get Dave...so my Mom had to go to their house to sit with Indy and Esme and Kelly and Lisa came over so Lisa could be here with me and Rayne and Kelly went and got Dave. Quite the fiasco. I still figured it would pass...I took peppermint oil and whatever else I could think of that might help and nothing was working. So we called my midwife to get her advice and she thought it was very possible that I was in labor and she would be over to check me. After she got here and checked me I wasn't dialated enough to be considered in labor like she thought. She hung out til like 3am and then Lisa stayed up with me until 5 am. I got maybe 2 hours sleep total in between severe cramping and pain. When things were still bad in the morning, we called Fran back over to check me again. There was no change in my cervix so labor was definently ruled out and Fran then suggested I go to the hospital and get checked out. So off to Kennewick General we went. I was admitted and they started doing tests to try and figure out what was going on. They did an ultrasound to see if they could see anything wrong with the gall bladder or the pancreas and found nothing. I was put on pain meds and hooked up to an I.V. After suffering all night and still not knowing what was going on, they took more blood to test and the Dr. was concerned with a couple of the results so we then had to decide on the fly to break my water and get the baby delivered to figure out what was going on. There was also the possibility of a partial placenta abruption. So I had my water broke and a epidural and then pitocin administered to get labor going. This was at about 8:30-9am. They also placed the fetal skull monitor on Quinn to keep track of him during the contractions which I really hated. The spinal wasn't wearing off very well and I hated feeling totally numb from the waist down. They then came in and told me they were going to start a magnesium I.V. for my blood pressure. And the nurse said it had a muscle relaxer in it so I would probably be pretty sleepy! I FLIPPED out on them..and said NO WAY. I asked them how they thought I was going to be able to push a baby out soon if I had yet another relaxer going in me. So we refused it until I could talk to my Dr. I told him what I was feeling and how I was feeling and that I thought my blood pressure was going up so high because they kept trying to put more and more into me and causing more problems for me both emotionally and physically. He was wonderful and listened to me and agreed to try it my way first. I told them I wanted to start feeling more and to stop the epi drip. Once I started feeling the contractions and breathing through them I actually felt better, weird as that sounds. I felt like I was in more control which was important for my state of being. I dialated quickly and when he came back in, said I was fully dialated and ready to push. I then began throwing up again and on the last puke, Quinn came shooting out of my like a canon ball. I hollered, "I think he's here!" and we lifted the blanket and sure enough...there he was...laying on the bed. He was beautiful and so so small looking. He was much smaller looking than Rayne did when she was born. 7lbs, 9oz and 19" long. And he looked just like Rayne. He was born April 2nd at 2:02 pm. I thought that was cool. And 4+2+2 = 8...the year of his birth. So after his birth I thought I was doing ok, but then the pain meds wore off and I was still in a lot of pain. A LOT of pain. So they took me up for an Xray and then later for a CT scan. They finally found a blockage and I had to have a tube put up my nose and down to my stomach to pump out the upper part of my bowels and allow whatever was doing the blocking to pass and then give my intestines a rest to correct the problem. It was the most horrible thing having that tube put in. HORRIBLE. It was there for 3 days and I couldn't eat or drink. I could suck on ice at first which would just get sucked right out so I was thirsty ALL the time...there was never any relief from that. By the time I got to eat something Saturday night...clear broth..I was STARVING. Food never tasted so good...even broth. After seeing that I could tolerate clear liquid they removed the tube and the next day upgraded me to a full liquid diet and I finally got to go home. I'm getting better everyday...less pain and all. Quinn is doing great...a little sniffly so we are trying to keep him warm and he's nursing really well so far. My milk came in today and he's loving it...much more satisfied and sleeping more. He's been sleeping so much today, I might be in for a long night...we'll see. So there's the story of Quinn's birth. Not what we had imagined but we are so so thankful for his safe arrival and my recovery. I'm glad it's over and I'm glad I'm done having babies. SO DONE.