Adam & Julie Stromwall Our Lives

Almost 9 months

Dang, why haven't I been posting on here more often? Oh, I remember, a baby!!!!! I love my husband, pup, son and our life here in Colorado so much but at times it's pretty sad not to have any family nearby. Don't get me wrong, we have awesome friends and definitely a sense of "family" out here.... but for instance the other day I was just overwhelmed and wanted so badly to be able to drop Grey off at Grandma's house just to have a little break.... but I couldn't. It's really hard, but we're happy and we love it here.

Grey is still pretty small, but getting SO big at the same time! He's barely fitting into 6 month old clothes, yet he's probably a month away from walking! He weighs around 16 pounds (a little less). I'm not too sure but I think he's somewhere around 24 inches. His two bottom teeth came in and OH is he ever cute. They're not all the way up but they're so cute. It's fun hearing his plastic spoon bump his little teeth. He really really REALLY doesn't care for baby food. He loves OUR food. He eats basically whatever we eat. I am still nursing him and pumping at work (fun-not). Still haven't decided how long we will nurse for, things are going great and I don't want to stop. We'll see how it goes.

There is like seriously NO snow up here. What's up with that???

Work has been tough (what else is new?).

I'm super excited for 2012.... I think it's going to be a great year, I'm looking forward to where our little lives are headed.

I'm getting pretty tired and we're going to Keystone in the morning... so it's bedtime for this girl. Hoping Grey sleeps through the night again! He's been getting MUCH better at night. <3

5 months and sitting!

Grey started sitting up 2 days after her turned 5 months old. He was sitting before, but falling from time to time. On the day he started sitting... he spent the morning being quite tippy and leaning on his arms. By that night he was sitting up, with no help! It's amazing to watch him grow. He is such a wonder from God, I am so thankful for him and feel like he's the most important thing in my life. I love him so much. I am so very excited to ONE DAY give him a little brother or sister. We're definitely having more than one child, that's for sure. Praying with us for God's guidance to when baby #2 should join our family.

Work for us is going good, I'm pretty exhausted.... I'm up with Grey 2 or more times a night and have to work at 3:30 am. YUCK. Adam stays at home with Grey during the morning and then when I come home, he goes to work for a few hours. Such is our routine. He's a great father... he loves his little boy so much.

So in love……….

........... I can't even begin to express how much I love Grey. Everyone who had babies before me said, "once your baby comes, you'll always wonder how you lived without him before." I completely agree (HINT TO MY FRIENDS WHO DON'T HAVE BABIES!!!). Now mind you, there are things I would LOVE to do but can't now that I have a baby, but none of that seems worth it to me without him there anyway. I completely understand the love a parent has for their child, and it makes me love my mom & dad even more than I ever did before.

When I got pregnant, we decided we would not change our lifestyle FOR Grey, but instead make him adjust to our lifestyle from infancy. So far, so good. We took him camping for the first time and he did fantastic! I was being a worrying mom so I brought him in the car with me in the middle of the night so we could stay extra warm. It dropped to 38 degrees and his face started to get kind of chilly.

He loves being outside already. He enjoys the cool breeze in the evening. He loves his swing! OH I should put his swing outside someday... he'd love to swing on the porch!!!

Adam is such a good dad. GOOD JOB babe.

Can't wait till he sits up and plays with his toys!!!

Almost 10 weeks!!!

Wow, time REALLY does fly. Greybear will be 10 weeks in a couple of days. He's been an absolutely wonderful baby. I am exclusively breast feeding.... so no formula at all. I'm so happy I'm able to supply him with the best food he could have!!! He's a great nurser too.

Adam is officially a stay-at-home dad! He's doing a great job!!! I get off work around 12pm or 12:30pm so I'm home with plenty of time to hang out with Grey still.

Work has been good, last week was my first week back... I only worked 2 8hr days and 2 4hr days so as not to overwhelm myself my first week back. Today feels more normal... BUSY! THE GOOD NEWS IS, I'M FINALLY LOSING WEIGHT!!!!! I started my pregnancy @ 130lbs (clothed) and by the time I was 39w3d I was 172!!! I went back to work weighing 160, now I'm down to 155! I knew all that walking would pay off!!! I've been trying to go for a run everyday too.

The doctor said he wouldn't be surprised if Grey was crawling by 4 months!!! I would be so happy but it would look REALLY weird cause he is just SO tiny!!

ALL IS WELL HERE. Hope everyone else is doing great too!

Back to work soon…

Yikes, I go back to work in 12 days. I have a HUGE list of things to do before I go back and I'm making little to NO progress on it. I'm at home watching Grey for these last 2 weeks while Adam works.... so I feel like I'm not getting much done!!! Like right now, there's plenty I SHOULD be doing, but instead I'm blogging. Come on Julie, where are you priorities?

Guess I'd better go.......

Grey’s Birth

Here's a quick (family friendly) description of the birth story Grey, Adam and I shared!

On March 30th (2 days before my due date) I worked 9.5 hours because I was really counting on NOT working the rest of the week. At the end of my shift I said "This is Julie, I'm leaving for the day"... to which the leader on duty replied "See ya in 2 months Julie!" I replied, "I wish!" I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions for 4 weeks prior to this day and on Monday of the week before, I thought for sure it was the real thing! Everyone says "you'll know they're real when they're real". I didn't believe that until I actually went into labor and KNEW that was it.

I told Adam that I had been having contractions all day but they still didn't hurt that bad. On the way to our friend's hockey game, they started to feel like menstrual cramps, so I started timing them. 8 minutes. During the hockey game, I kept my app open on my phone and continued timing... 8 minutes, 7 minutes, 7 minutes.... etc. After the game was over, we quickly said hi/bye to our friend. He asked me when I was going to have the baby and I said, "I don't know, maybe tonight? I've been having slightly painful contractions your whole game." As I started walking towards the exit, I felt what I thought was my water breaking. I told Adam and went to the bathroom to check. Yup! Or so I thought.

Got home, called the doctor around 9:45 to let him know I think my water broke and to ask when I should go to the hospital. All the books and doctors have always said go to the hospital when the contractions are so strong you can't talk, walk or laugh through them. (I NEVER got to that point!) The on-call doc called me back around 10:30 that night... right in the middle of my dinner... Ramen noodles (a decision I regretted later!). It was Dr. Barbera! He was one of my favorite docs that I saw in my prenatal visits. He said I needed to go in if my water broke. Still uncertain, I did as he said... Adam left our hospital bag in the car in case that wasn't the real thing. I got to the hospital around 11pm and they tested to see if my water broke. It certainly had! Adam immediately asked "should I go get our bag then?" I asked "so this means I'm having a baby right??" When we walked into the labor/delivery ward, they asked why we didn't have a bag and they said I didn't look like I was due in 2 days. Funny.

My main nurse was Lori. I loved her. Absolutely LOVED her. I wish I could meet up with her and take her to coffee or something. She was fantastic. By the time I was admitted, it was midnight. A couple of friends came and prayed for me (I really needed that!). Lori prayed with them. Contractions didn't start to really feel like anything much between 12:00-2:30am. I told Adam to take a nap at 2:30 am because I thought I'd be in labor all night, into the next morning. He doesn't function well with little sleep. I must have rung my little nurse buzzer thing at least 8 times throughout the night because I had to go really bad. I felt sick. (God is amazing in the way he designed us. My body flushed everything out, probably so I wouldn't embarrass myself during delivery!)

The contraction monitor wasn't really in a good spot, so the nurse asked if they were feeling pretty strong... I said I think so... she said from the nurses desk she was monitoring my contractions and they still looked pretty insignificant. My cervix check would prove differently!!!!

At 3:50 am I was 4cm/80%effaced
At 4:00 am I had a nasty contraction that made me throw up ramen noodles. Adam woke up at this point and stayed by my side. I told him he could go back to bed, but he said "No, it sounds like you're going really fast."
At 4:10 am I was 6cm... now's the time she called Barbera and said I was progressing REALLY fast.
At 4:30 am I was 8cm (Lori called Barbera to let him know he probably wouldn't make the delivery. He said he was on his way ... in a blizzard of course)
At 4:44 am I was 10cm/100% effaced.

It was intense... I could barely hold him in. Lori showed me some breathing techniques to relieve the pressure but it wasn't working. My bed was still set up as a labor/recovery bed. She sat on my bed with me and said "I've caught babies before, if you cannot hold it any longer go ahead and push." I was terrified. A couple minutes later, IN WALKS BARBERA! They quickly converted my bed into a delivery bed and I was on my way to having that baby! I pushed for less than 10 minutes. 4 pushes and it was a boy!!! I saw his "manhood" right away when he came out. Adam completely forgot to even check! They announced it 20 seconds later, but I knew right away

I had my baby with no pain medicine. I had an IV for fluids (and for emergencies) and I THINK they gave me pictocin for the placenta delivery, but I'm not sure!

Still can't believe I had a baby BOY!!!! I was SOOOOO sure it was a girl. For 7 months or so, I had convinced myself it was a girl. BY THE WAY, the girl name was Charlotte Grace Stromwall!

Hope that wasn't too graphic. Hope someone enjoys/appreciates reading this!

6 weeks old!!!

Wow! My little GreyGrey is 6 weeks old today!!!!! We're off to have lunch with Adam's co-workers, but expect an update this afternoon!!!!!!!

HE’S here!!!!

It's a boy! I cannot believe it! I was convinced it was a girl until I saw his "manhood" when he came out!!! Grey Radly was born on March 31st (one day before his due date) at 5:04 am weighing 5lbs 8oz and 20 inches long. I think he was actually only 18.5 inches though... cause he had his first check up 4 days later and I helped the nurse stretch his legs out. He was only 18.5! Weird. Oh well.

The birth was amazing. He was SO easy, I couldn't believe how much easier it was than I had thought. I was sooooo excited all day that I delivered him without any pain medicine. He came 5 hours after labor really started.

I will post a little birth story later, but for now, Grandma Nancy (Tobiason) is here, time to go!

Still pregnant….

I can't believe I'm STILL pregnant! I know I'm not due for a few more days (literally... just 3 more days). I totally thought I'd deliver a couple of weeks ago. Just goes to show ya the baby will come when the baby is good and ready! It's been awfully annoying though for 3 weeks now I've had consistent Braxton Hicks contractions and starting last Monday (3/21) they began hurting. Apparently it's not "real labor" until they hurt so bad I can't talk/walk through them. Plus they're supposed to be getting longer and closer together, one after another, but that's not happening.

Called the doctor yesterday because I wasn't feeling the baby move much at all. They had me come in right away to get checked. I'm still 1cm but now 85% effaced! That's good I suppose! They hooked me up to a fetal monitor for like 30-40 minutes. The goal was to measure the baby's reaction to my contractions. The nurse who hooked me up didn't come back to check whether or not the baby was even awake!!! So the 2nd nurse came in and saw he/she was sleeping so she brought me some cold cold cold capri sun and made me down it super fast! That woke the baby up within a few minutes so they could accurately measure how he/she was doing. It was neat to hear the heart go crazy during a contraction! It must have been good though, cause they didn't say anything that sounded concerning.

Next we went for an ultrasound to see if there was enough amniotic fluid still. Yup, there is! He tried to take a picture of the baby's face for us but he/she was hiding behind his/her little fists! (GOSH I can't wait to stop typing he/she, his/her!!!)

I asked if he still thought I had a chance at a vaginal delivery and he said "your baby is on the big side, but I think we're still going to be okay". Wish I knew how "big" "big side" was, but I'm not one to ask questions that are implying things like that. I should be... cause of course I'm curious. So he thinks I'll be able to deliver, that's great! Baby is posterior right now.... "face up" but that could still change. Let's hope so!!!

Will post an update again soon!!!
39 weeks 3 days!!!