Finally the wait is over...

Brayden James Shuldberg
Born Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 5:12pm
7lbs, 13oz and 20.5 inches long
6.25 hours of labor

We showed up at the hospital at 9:30am for the induction. Then found I was already 4-5cm dilated so they got right to work breaking my water. It was supposed to be an easy, quick procedure...it wasn't. It was the worst part of labor for me. It took them a good 15 minutes of trying to get that stupid thing to burst open. If you know what this procedure requires, you know IT HURT!!!! There are some things that just don't belong in certain places of your body....and it hurts a lot when someone tries to get them there...:-{....anyway....they finally broke my water and got me hooked up to the oxytocin by 11:00. From that point everything went pretty fast. I was at 9 1/2 centimeters by 2 o'clock. I put off the epidural for a little while because my stupid curiosity wanted to know what a contraction actually felt like. It was nothing like what I thought - so I found out I had actually felt them before. For me, a contraction was all in the back. A lot of lower back pain for a period of time. From the very beginning my contractions were about 1 1/2 minutes apart. After an hour of pain, I decided it was time for the epidural. Of course by that time, the doctor was caught up with someone else so I had to wait another half hour. :-{ He finally got in and got the epidural with a lot less pain than the doctor breaking my water and I stopped feeling the contractions within 15 minutes. It was heaven! I didn't feel a thing through the rest of the time.
I was so numb I didn't even feel the "pressure" I was supposed to feel when I needed to push. That made it more difficult but I pushed for about an hour starting at 4 o'clock and Brayden was here at 5:12 pm. The doctor was there for about 1/2 hour of it and was wonderful. He was very encouraging the whole time. I did have to get an episiotomy but the way it all happened, I understood why and he explained it all before he did it.
I was blessed to only be in labor for 6 1/2 hours. My little boy is strong and healthy and sweet. He is super hungry right now, so I need to go feed him. We are excited to have him here! Enjoy the cute pictures of our little one.

This is right before we went home. We were all very excited to get out of there (Roy more than either myself or Brayden)...although I am going to miss the great food....*sigh*

Because I have nothing else to do but wait.......

One week past my due date and I feel no different, no closer, still huge, and still grumpy. *sigh* I think the most depressing part is having to tell everyone who asks how I'm doing or if he's here that he's not. I feel like I'm letting everyone down somehow, even though I know I have no control over any of it. Maybe that's the most depressing part....ZERO control! I can't say come now and suddenly have a baby in my arms. It is totally in God's hands. Roy gave me a blessing Wednesday night that told me he would come when he was ready and of his own accord...basically God said, "Stop freaking out. I'm in charge here." I have been humbled and that blessing really is the only thing keeping me sane now. It is still not easy to be patient, but maybe I am supposed to learn more of that too. I just have to keep telling myself that I am waiting on the Lord's time...no better time to be waiting for right?

Anyway....as a diversion from all of the sitting around and waiting.....
I decided to post some pictures of the various projects I have undertaken for the baby. For some crazy reason, I decided I should start sewing. My mom taught me quite a lot of the basics but I never paid as much attention as I should have. Now I am learning mostly by trial and error and the internet. Sorry Mom. :( I must say though, these projects have turned out much better than I expected.
This first one is a 14-year-old infant swing that a friend in the ward gave to us. It was a hand-me-down for her too but it still works great - and brand new swings cost at least $80! The only things wrong with this swing were the outdated fabric and some staining on the seat cover. So....I used the old cover as a pattern and made a brand new one. I chose to use flannel because I already had it lying around and why not use something soft and warm? The hardest part of this project was the binding around the edge. I had never done it before - and to any other beginners, I would recommend NOT starting with trying to bind curves. It was so frustrating but when it was finished, I was very proud. It's not perfect by any means but it looks good and it is functional. :) I am very proud.
BEFORE

AFTER

Yay for pirates!

The next project:
A "Boppy" pillow (breastfeeding pillow)
Anyone who has looked to buy one of these pillows knows they cost about $30. It just was not in my budget to spend that much on a pillow. BUT - I have been told they are a God-send when it comes to feeding your baby so I really really wanted one...Enter: my sister-in-law, Kaytie. While we were visiting her in Washington, she showed me the one she had MADE!! Yay! She let me borrow the pattern and I was able to put this whole thing together in about 2 hours for less $10. Now that is what I call AWESOME!

And finally:
 A carseat cover.
This pattern I kind of made up based on others I had seen, specifically the one that is currently for sale at Costco (that is expensive and is only sold in girly patterns :-P ). I decided to use fleece on one side and flannel on the other so that the baby would stay nice and warm through the winter. It was super easy and fast to make but I think next time I will just use cotton. The fleece was kind of hard to work with and after only two washes (one to shrink them before sewing and one to fray the edges of the flannel after) it looks a little ragged and old. I think cotton would hold up better. Oh well. I love the puppy pattern on the fleece and it matches the carseat really well.

Finally, the nursery is completely assembled, wall hangings and glider included. Here is the final picture of the remodeling project for that. (PS - we do have a changing pad that fits now, I just hadn't put it in when I took this picture)

And the final item of business:
This is a picture of me at exactly 40 weeks pregnant - October 31, 2011.

 (the chickens were following me where ever I chose to stand for the pictures so they get to be part of this memory :))
I am now 41 weeks pregnant. Roy says I look even bigger now than a week ago and that I'm "sagging", which I guess is a good thing (though it never sounds good coming from your husband). The doctor will not let me get to 42 weeks so I will be induced this week if he does not come of his own accord soon. Please come soon baby!!!

Halloween!!!!

I love Halloween!!!
I have always loved the chance to use your imagination and dress up and put out creepy decorations. I am not into the super scary, blood-and-gore side of Halloween but I do like the semi-creepy old haunted mansion type stuff.
This Halloween will be extra special because it is the due date for our own little "spooklin" (as his Granny already calls him). I was super excited to decorate the house for our first Halloween here but I told myself to dial it down this year for his sake because, who knows, we could be in the hospital that day. So, neither of us have plans for costumes and we only have a little bit of candy on hand to give out to kids in the neighborhood.
 However, I could only hold back so much. : ) I decided that this year, any decorations I did, I would make and then after Halloween I could stock up on the stuff that is on clearance.

This first one is just some black roses I've got in my front room.

This  is a tulle wreath I made based on the tutorial from OurBestBites.com. A wonderful cooking website that happened to have a really easy, cheap, cute idea for a Halloween wreath. I already have plans to make a similar one for Christmas. : )

This was something my mom used to do for Halloween when I was a kid. We always had a scarecrow sitting outside our house in October. I remember one year, on Halloween night, my dad put on the same clothes as the scarecrow and sat by the door scaring kids when they came to get candy....who knows....maybe next year? For now, our silent sentry just guards the front door (and scares the bajeebees out of me every time I pull out of the garage).

These little guys are everywhere! Just Google "decoupage halloween lantern" or search pinterest and you'll find a billion of them. They were super easy to make, cost me $0, and turned out really cute. I am very proud. I think the mummy is my favorite. They all have their own personalities. I love it!

I hope this Halloween will be one we never forget!!!

Random Summer Stuff

These are just some updates into our summer and where our life is at right now.

In July we had an awesome family reunion up Idaho with Roy's family. I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I meant to (I need to get better at that) but we did get a few good ones.

This is Tank ready to drive all the way to Henry's Lake.

This is Roy...not quite as excited to drive all the way to Henry's Lake.

I love this picture! This is how they spent a large portion of the drive! :)

Aren't they just so cute!! Nap time in the tent!

(and for some reason, Picasa is dumb and won't turn this picture. whatever.)


I have been married to Roy for almost 2 years now and I am still always learning new things about him. This summer, I have learned that my husband does the following very well:
    1. Growing and maintaining a garden
    2. Putting in a fence (that the neighbor thought we should just pay someone to do)
    3. Rednecking several different solutions for a jump-happy dog
    4. Tear down and rebuild walls (exactly 3 this summer so far)
    5. Put up crown molding
    6. Build custom shelving
    7. Electrical work in a house (has replaced at least 6 outlets, one of which was in the bathroom)
    8. Can still find it in his heart to love and care for a crazy insane pregnant woman who is always demanding this or that and complaining about this pain and that pain and somehow is still willing to be around when she finally has the baby

And come to find out...he can also build furniture!! Oh, he is trouble now! We needed a nice little table that was extremely sturdy to get our aquatic turtle tank (a good 75 pounds) off the ground. We have a small side table that I love and so Roy decided he would duplicate the style in a size that would fit the tank. I was hesitant when he said he would build it but I've learned to just trust him when he says he can do something. He always delivers well past my expectations. This table turned out perfect!! Amazing workmanship, beautiful design, and the perfect size.
Buying a table for this (that may or may not have been able to hold the tank) would have cost us at least $150. When all was said and done, after lumber and stain, we calculated the cost this table at $40!!! Yay!!
Now that I know about this new found talent, I have big plans...I'm thinking matching dining room table.

It's perfect!!

Nursery is finished!!

We have finally finished the baby's room! Hurray!!!!
I cannot express how excited I was to just have it done with. And it turned out just the way I wanted it to. Remodeling this room turned out to be quite the adventure.
As I have explained before, we originally planned to just take off the paneling, sand down the textured paint and repaint the room....That plan failed as soon as the sander touched the wall. It took Roy 2 hours and a full sheet of sand paper to get that paint remotely smooth in a 2 ft square space. Not worth it!

So....plan B:  Put in new walls!

So we put up 2 new walls, filled in cracks in the paneling, painted the room and it looks like a completely different place. I love the bright blue color and Roy did an amazing job putting up brand new crown molding (my husband is the most patient man on earth). We also redid all of the shelving in the closet. The room is too small to really fit a dresser so we put a lot of shelves in the closet that we can use instead. I am really pleased with how it all turned out.

BEFORE:

(I actually cheated on the before because I forgot to take a picture before we'd taken down the paneling)

AFTER:

:) I am super excited. The next addition to this room is a changing table we found at DI for $15 that I am refinishing. I am so excited to show you all when I am done!!

Remodeling the baby's room has been our first full remodel in our new house...This room taught us a lot...
1. We may want to scale back our remodeling dreams a little bit
2. This is a super quarky house: BE PREPARED FOR ANYTHING!
3.  It can be done!

So stay tuned for more installments in the Shuldberg remodeling project. :)

Pioneer Day Camping Trip

We weren't actually camping the day of Pioneer Day but it was the same weekend so it counts. :) We found a great little secluded campsite way up American Fork Canyon that was really rough getting into. I should have taken pictures of the boulders we had to get the truck over! The baby was bouncing around like crazy and I felt like I had to pee all the way there and the whole way back : / It was a really great trip though. We spent time just relaxing and playing games and stopped at Silver Lake flats before we headed home on Saturday. The lake is so high this year! It had to be 2-3 times bigger than any other year I have seen. The feeding river was moving so fast it had washed out the road to the campsites in the area. The dogs loved the lake because they hadn't had a chance to really swim and get wet for a long time. Abigail was a real swimmer - she would have swam out to the middle of the lake with Roy if we had let her...we didn't.

 Oh Killer Bunnies....what a crazy game....

 Roy was a little over the weight limit for this raft and I was pretty sure he was gonna sink...but he made it to the middle of the lake and back without too much trouble...just some water down the back. It was funny to watch him in such a tiny boat.

My hubby is so cute :)

So...we brought Rhodes rolls to make scones for breakfast one morning...however, after sitting in the cooler all day, the rolls defrosted and began to rise.....

You can also see the beautiful bouquet of wildflowers that Roy picked for me in the background :) He's super sweet!!!!

While we were there, we saw Airmed (LifeFlight) fly in and they landed about 100 yards from our campsite. We walked down there and saw 6-7 Sheriff/Search and Rescue vehicles. We watched as they brought someone in a stretcher up the trail and into the helicopter. Our best guess is that there was a 4-wheeler accident and the road down was too rough to take her down by truck. There were a lot of 4-wheelers up there so it wasn't too surprising...but it was sad.

PS - Nursery Update! We decided to take a whole new route and just tear out 2 walls in the baby's room to put in new sheet rock. More pictures to come when the room is finished but here is a teaser for you. :)