3 weeks

Well our little one is already 3 weeks old and i've managed to only do 1 blogpost since we've been home. Needless to say, our hands are full along with our hearts. It has been wonderful along with the adjusting to no sleep whatsoever. We are still trying to learn the "parent" ropes and trying to figure out her little personality and her patterns.
She is eating much better and last monday was back to her birth weight which is wonderful. Getting her to eat is sometimes still a challenge, but for the most part she wakes up every 3 hours on the dot. We had a few late afternoons/nights of not knowing how to sooth her and lots of crying. The past few days have been great though.

We have gotten out quite a bit with her because she mostly sleeps and it helps me to feel somewhat normal. I feel great and haven't been sore at all from the c-section which i'm very thankful for.

This cracks me up. Dad getting in from the woods.

Sleeping beauty

Last week we got to do some newborn pics! It took 5 hours, but our photog is incredible and the shots we got are going to be amazing. Can't wait to do a post on those.


Maren also had her first play date with her friend Rooney who is 4 months!


Attended a 1st b-day party and got to meet another miracle baby Olivia. You can read her story HERE.

playtime

even this cutie couldn't help the hogs win :(

2 of Marens favorite aunts!

Auntie Jen came all the way from Austin to meet her and to help out her tired parents. She is seriously such a saint and helped us tremendously. She even took some middle of the night feedings for us. She had to leave us this morning and now we are all very sad.

So there are our past 3 weeks! Its been a whirlwind but absolutely amazing and we are grateful. I still can't get over that we get to keep her. I keep saying I feel like this is a test run or something and that she isn't actually ours. But she is and we get to be parents and we love it!

First Week Home

Well we've been home for a week now and I'm just now getting around to blogging. Imagine that, I think I may be saying that a lot. :). Things are going well. Just trying to figure out the whole feeding and sleeping thing. She is really such a blast and we can't get enough kisses from her. She sleeps 3-4 hr stretches and I have to consistently wake her up to eat. I'm assuming she will be waking me up to eat before to long.
We had a check up on Monday and she had gained 3oz back which made me pretty excited. I was happy to know she wasn't still starving. This coming Monday we will go again and hopefully she will be back close to her birth weight.
Here was our coming home day from the hospital last Thursday!












I also realized I never got around to posting pics of her nursery, that's because I finished it on Friday and had her on Monday. Nothing like last minute finishing details. Although I'm sure she won't be using that room for awhile but I feel better having it completed.
So hopefully I will get around to taking some pics and posting them soon!

For now we are just taking it all in and figuring out our new normal. We are still overwhelmed that God chose us to be her parents. I just keep looking at her wondering how people don't believe in miracles, because that is what she for sure is and we are so grateful.

Thank you all for your sweet comments, we are truly blessed!

Our Miracle is Here!

We welcomed to this world Maren Lee Yount on Monday, October 8, 2012. All went well with the delivery and we couldn't be more excited. She weighs 5.11oz, 19in. She is the most beautiful thing we have ever laid our eyes on. She looks like a real life baby doll and is itty bitty. We are slightly obsessed and can't get enough of her.







We are currently still in the hospital because she has lost so much weight. She is 5.3 now and we are working the whole eating thing. Hoping to go home by tomorrow so please pray she will because it makes this momma sad.

The last weekend

Before having a baby!

It has consisted of running errands, lunch with my sis, A wonderful date with my hubby (sans picture), getting pampered with manis/pedis and getting my hair colored and cut, Hanging out with friends, watching the Razorbacks FiNALLY win and putting last minute baby stuff together!




How do we get the car seat base in?


Auntie meg is ready





Ready for you Maren!

And Marc set the pack and play up! She will most likely reside in there awhile until we get on a decent sleeping schedule since she is upstairs and we are down.



Ready or not, we are having a baby tomorrow! I'm feeling overwhelmed, excited and a tad nervous but know all of that will go away as soon as I meet her.
We are so grateful for all of the many prayers along the way and can't wait to introduce her to you all!

Next post will be introducing miss Maren! Yay! To God be the glory.

Missing my High School Reunion

Soo a little background...
I grew up in Little Rock and went to a small, private Christian school from K-12th grade. Yes I realize that is not normal and a very long time to attend the same school. I graduated with 55(ish) people and absolutely loved my school. They day we graduated was bittersweet, knowing I wouldn't get to see several of these people I had spent everyday with for the past several years of my life. I'm the one that was counting down till the 10 yr reunion after my freshman year of high school! I know...lame. But our class was pretty close, diverse none the less, but super fun.
Overall I would say I had a pleasant High School experience. I had really close friends, who I'm still close with to this day even though none of us live in the same town now.
I loved playing sports! I played softball, volleyball, and a little soccer. If powder puff football was an option, I definitely would have played that if it had been available but seeing that our school was so small, we didn't get a football team until after I graduated.
I'm very grateful to my parents for making the sacrifice that they did to allow me to go to a private school my entire school career. Those things aren't cheap and they had to sacrifice in a big way for me and my sis to be able to go there. If I had not gone there, I would have done horrible in college and probably failed in a lot of other areas as well.

All this to say, my high school reunion is a few days after I have Maren. I seriously just laugh at the timing because if she was already here or coming 2 weeks after, I would be there. Since i'm having a c-section I won't be able to do it and I have just been so sad about it. I do realize that what I'm about to experience will be soo much better than a reunion, but still I have looked forward to it since the day we left school, so its just hard to believe I won't be able to make it. Although I do feel better knowing that 2 of my best friends won't be able to be there either, so at least I won't miss having to see them. It does ease the pain a little. I keep trying to tell myself I have the whole thing overrated anyways and reunions aren't even that fun. ;)

At least I got to experience Marc's last year so I can say we at least made it to one! For now, I will just continue to wait 10 more years to see everyone! I hear the 20 years are way more fun!

To all my high school friends, have so much fun and I will miss you all a ton!

Remembering back

I've been thinking a lot and remembering back to this time last year. A year ago I was just starting the ivf process. It really seems just like it was a few weeks ago and that time was creeping by. Since I have been pregnant, time has literally flown by. I remember going to a razorback game this time last year and my mom giving me my first shot in the bathroom of the stadium. I felt excited and scared all at the same time.
I wrote this post on starting it all: http://theyounthappenings.blogspot.com/2011/09/starting.html
I also think back to the yucky feelings I had and just how I felt like I walked around in a fog everyday. I didn't love being around people and especially people with kids. It was so hard to walk through life never knowing if it we were ever going to have children. It was a battle and definitely not a fun one. I was mad at having to go through what I did but super thankful at the same time. I was thankful we were given the opportunity to do ivf and that we had good insurance. Through every bit of it, God had His hand on every detail and revealed himself to us in so many ways. It changed us both for the better and we will always be thankful for that. At the end of last October is when we did our first transfer which was unsuccessful. The funny thing about it all is that we technically conceived in October and we will have a baby in October.
That should be a fun story to explain to our daughter one day and also try to explain why we "froze" her :). I like to tell people we have 1 in the oven and 1 in the freezer. I'm sure I sound crazy, but it's all true.

I'm just absolutely overwhelmed as we start our week countdown today to meeting our daughter. We feel blessed, excited and overwhelmed to be where we are.

I just want to encourage those that may be starting this process to not give up hope and try and keep your heads up and not get discouraged with the process. It can and does work! Always feel free to email me if you ever have a question, need me to pray for you or you just need to vent!

Thanks to all those that have followed our journey so far. We are thankful and appreciate each sweet email, comment or prayer. You will have no idea what that meant to me during the entire process.