CHRISTMAS BREAK

We got to spend Christmas weekend up in Logan at the Franks.

(Will's little leg cracks me up in this picture - babies are so flexible.)

William got to be baby Jesus, in the Frank Family Christmas eve Nativity program. It's crazy to look back and see how big he was getting and yet how baby and floppy he was at this time. 

The funniest part of he night was definitely cousin Mason, who was one of the three sheep. But he didn't want to be a sheep so his mom told him he was an albino donkey and he ran around going

 "hee haw hee haw"

Trevor used a few more days of his paternity leave to come down to St. George and spend some time with the Fisher family after Christmas. With a new baby and a new fiance, it was the only chance we had to be all together before the wedding. It was so great to be in warmer weather & spend more time around Braden & Tori. While everyone was in town we caravanned up to our place for William's baby blessing on New Years Eve. 

Then family pictures up Snow Canyon.

 WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

ALL BECAUSE TWO PEOPLE FELL IN LOVE

The siblings + spouses. I don't think I could have picked out my sibling's spouses before hand, but they are both perfect. 

THE GIRLS

THE BOYS

We always knew my family was Team Trevor

The real debate is who's the funniest Laura or Christian? His only flaw was breaking up with Laura before Christmas break - haha Kaaren will never let him live that down.

Most recently we added Tori to the bunch. We all wondered who Braden would end up with and what type of girl he was interested in. Lets just say he hit the JACKPOT. Tori is cute, smart, sweet, witty and thoughtful. We just love her!

While in St. George we met up with some friends & Laura's in-laws for ice cream. Will got to meet his Godmother, and my life-flight nurse, JAN! 

We also went for a hike up Snow Canyon and even found some rocks that I could hike up. Will was almost 2 months, and he pretty much slept the whole hike. With all the working adults we didn't have a ton of time all together, but we got in a couple rounds of pickle ball too!

Almost six years out from my accident, I'm still not exempt from those waves of grief and loss. Nature is where I feel most at peace and it's my favorite place to be and explore. So when we arrived at Snow Canyon I was so excited to explore. I'm well aware that I can no longer enjoy nature the way I used to by running and climbing around. But I know I can still get out and enjoy nature with the abilities I do have. When we arrived a couple of family members mentioned a hike and overlook and suddenly our group was splitting up. Now I had no idea how long they'd be gone or where the hike was going, but I knew I couldn't go. So we parted ways and tears immediately began to swell in my eyes. I missed those types of adventures and my old body.

Now don't get me wrong I still want others to enjoy those hikes & adventures, but no one had really talked about this detour and I didn't have a chance to prepare and cope with this before hand. I think I was most upset that no one had communicated this beforehand and then there I was facing my loss of mobility. 

It turned out the hike wasn't that long and the group met back up sooner that I'd imagined in my mind, but I was still in the midst of those waves of grief and loss, as I slowly tried to walk up the trail one painful step at a time. 

After giving myself time to feel those emotions and understand what was going on and I explained to my family why I was upset. We were able to go on and enjoy the rest of the hike and even find a rock that I could climb and hike up with my crutches. 

NOVEMBER

Life is just always crazy now and I'm a bit behind capturing an overview of William's first month of life.  But I'm going to do my best to catch up and post this in order. The first 11 days of November were pretty dang uncomfortable, but I worked out until the day before D-day. Cooper could tell something was up, he was so needy towards the end there. He was resting his had on my feet while I worked out - haha.

Me & my first baby, fur baby, but definitely still my baby. 

One of our last Sunday's as a family of three.

A week before will was born my phone died & I lost all my photos, but the good news was I got a new phone for William's arrival. Now, I knew I was being induced on Saturday, November 11th so I spent all of Friday devoted to Cooper. Friday basically consisted of this pattern: snuggle, play, snuggle, play. 

Well I already blogged about Will's birth and paraplegia and all that so I'll just jump to one hour after he was born and they whisked him off to the NICU. Those first few days were a crazy time and I'm so grateful it only lasted 5 days.  It felt like all we ever did was try and feed him all day every day and put him back to sleep in his little hospital bed. His feedings were scheduled every 3 hours and sometimes we spent an hour trying to get him to finish his bottle. We knew Will would be okay so it wasn't too stressful for the most part. But I was trying to pump & be there so the nurses could supplement his bottles and so we'd end up coming for his morning feed arriving around 8:30 AM and stay until 9:30 PM feeding which would take awhile. Sometimes we'd run home after his 4:30 or 5:00 PM grab dinner and come back for his 9:30 PM feeding.

We had been singing/humming Edelweiss to him before he came and so we'd hum it by his bed side when they'd have to put in G tubes or other uncomfortable times when we couldn't hold him, but wanted to try and help soothe him. The nurses asked about the song and when we explained she told us it really seemed to help calm him down, which made me feel good since there was only so much we could do for him. With his blood sugar difficulties he had an IV put in little head and he wasn't meeting his feeding goals so they put a G tube in. I still can't believe he's one day old here:

He ended up with higher bilirubin and had to do a day or two of these light treatments. But how cute is he in this little mask. 

He's to tiny and swaddle in these pictures and it's fun to see this difference in my arms verses Trevor's.

Cooper was so confused when we came home without a baby the first few nights. When we did come home with will 5 days later Cooper was so curious and worried.

My mom had a cold when she arrived, but she was so helpful taking care of Cooper those first 5 days when we were gone from 8 am-10 pm. And she finally got to hold her first grandbaby when he came home from the hospital.

First Bath - the picture is cropped down because he kept pooping in the sink. Good thing we have double sinks so we'd just switch him over - haha.

You think you take all these pictures and then you look back and it doesn't even seem like that many. 

Also I'm just not a good photographer & it's hard to get pictures from a wheelchair or walker. But this is one where you can see his sweet face <3

Cooper was still as needy as ever and was so confused those first three nights, when we'd come home from the hospital without a baby.

Oh back in the day when Cooper was actually interested/maybe even cared about Will.

My dad flew in 5 days later, the same day we came home with Will from the hospital. He's pretty good at multitasking & getting work calls done while snuggling his grandson. 

One of the first pictures of me and my babies <3

Our first family walk

The whole Fisher clan came to our place for Thanksgiving. It was a little crazy for me, but we loved getting to meet Tori & have everyone meet Will. Time flew by & we didn't get enough pictures of family all together. But there was lots of love and snuggles going around.

Thanksgiving Football

Thanksgiving Spikeball

Auntie Lala

Uncle Braden

Grandpa

Will's two week appointment went well & we are so lucky that his Grandma gets to be his nurse, until the shots start.

It's just so crazy how fast his little head grew. 

Look at him making eye contact 

The day before my mom left Trevor was working on a client in Salt Lake when he called me asking me to pick him up. He sounded terrible and turns out he had a case of vertigo and had been throwing up at the client and couldn't drive home. My mom & I loaded William up and we got Trevor in the car and my mom drove his car back. Trevor was in pretty bad shape & so when we got home Trevor barely got himself inside and my mom was still out picking up medication. So for the first time, quite unexpectedly, I was on my own getting William out of the car. I felt pretty proud that I was able to get him out and inside all on my own without much time to prep and think about it. It was the first of many times I'd do that, it was just a little unexpected. 

The next day was my mom's last full day staying with us & Trevor worked from home after that vertigo episode the night before. Kaaren thought she was funny by sitting directly across the table from Trevor while they both "worked"- haha. Trevor was really ready to be done with house guests after working from home for that day. 

My mom ended up staying for 3 weeks because I had surgery scheduled 2.5 weeks after Will was born. Those 3 weeks flew by and I never did a load of laundry once, thanks to this Grandma.

Cooper was alway within a 3 foot radius of Will & me during the day at any moment

Sometimes even a 3 inch radius - haha

Cousin Ben & Dani both held Will and Ben had literally been holding him for 1 second when he said, "I'm done". Haha newborns can be a little scary and a little boring.

Dad introduced Will to Saturday football and even had the onesie for the occasion

It was really refreshing to be on my own during the day. His sleeping and eating was so sporadic, but he was extra sweet for me on my birthday

I really wish I was a better photographer, but not being able to stand and take pictures makes it much more difficult to capture photos. Also it's funny to look back at his one month pictures because I had written both names out on the letter board & that's when the name change talk started happening.