Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

 Wow what a year it has been! Another move to a new town, new house, new jobs and new baby! Every year we seem to face new obstacles and acquire new goals and somehow we always manage, even when I think we can't! As I reflect back on this year I realize one thing, that even when times are tough we have a strong marriage and continue to get stronger and closer every year. I am sure having a VERY stubborn husband who never gives up certainly has something to do with that. I'll admit I may have thrown in the towel a time or two if I were alone, but in true Arni fashion, he always pulls me up and pushes me on. The move to Steamboat this year was actually more difficult than I thought it would be. I figured the move from Florida to Colorado was a bigger challenge and we were moving not out of state, but to a new town a mere 3 hrs away. Boy was I wrong. My out of control pregnancy hormones probably had a play in this as well. I think now it was difficult for me for a few reasons. As you may remember we were married a mere 5 months before we packed up our lives and moved to Colorado. So we had lived our established married years in Boulder, as well as made some very solid friendships. Friends who became our families. This was the first time I ever lived so far from family, so I really clung to the friendships I made here. We spent all major holidays with them, shared birthdays and date nights and even met people in our exact same circumstance, so we all explored Colorado together. So in a way it was like leaving my family yet again! As well as probably the best job I've had in my Nursing career, and all the familiarity of my town which had once again became "home". Funny, I remember the first time I called Colorado "home". I was in Florida visiting family and friends when towards the end of the trip I mentioned to my dad that I was missing home and was ready to get back. That is when he pointed out to me that home is where the heart is, and I had put my heart into our little condo with my little family in Erie, Colorado!

    Another thing I think affected the move was I never really thought it would happen. We used to dream about moving to Steamboat Springs on a pretty regular basis. All of our friends knew how much we liked it here but like any ski town, professional jobs are far and few between. So when Arni asked if he could apply for this phD Scientist position at a research office I said sure go for it, thinking there was no way it would actually happen. Well darn, guess what, 4 interviews later he accepted the job. Not that I ever doubted my husband, he is extremely intelligent and can do ANYTHING he puts his mind to, I just thought with such a change in field as it was (renewable energy to cancer research) the company would want someone else. How does the saying go "Wanna hear God laugh, tell him your plans!"

    So here we are  6 months in and things are finally starting to get easier. I found another great job, we live on an amazing ranch, my horses have adapted, even to the freezing temps, I've made a few good friends, and haven't lost the old ones either! To top it all off, I am a MOM! I have a busy, crazy, beautiful life and I wouldn't change a thing, even all the tough times.

    As for Christmas and New Years we enjoyed a low key, new family, tired parents kind of holiday! Christmas eve, Icelandic Christmas, Arni made us traditional dinner as he does every year, of lamb, caramelized potatoes and Waldorf salad. I also enjoyed 1/2 glass of red wine, I say 1./2 because that was exactly how much it took to knock me out! Christmas day was beautiful and snowy and we enjoyed a big American breakfast which I made and video chatted with Arni's family in Iceland, my parents in Florida and Brett and Sarah in California! It is so amazing how technology can keep us all close, though so far away. Leifur enjoyed his very first Christmas from the comfort of mommy's lap snoozing and eating his little heart out. On NYE our friends Amanda and Cody were so nice to bring us a cooked ham and I made collard greens and black eyed peas for good luck! They came over early and we played a few board games before they, very respectfully, left around 7pm. my nights are very sleepless lately so bedtime starts around 7-8pm as we know we will be awakened at least 4-5 times over the night! So thank you to them for the great company and also understanding how it is for new parents. I told them I swear, we used to be more fun haha! New Years Day was spent watching football and chatting with family once again. Last but not least to this long blog post is today, my wonderful husband's birthday! He is spending it playing his new PS4 game and we will be eating pizza and ice cream cake later this evening! I want to wish him the happiest of Birthday's and thank him for always being positive and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, even when I can't. For being a patient and loving husband and for being such a great father. Thank you for helping me so much with Leifur, my recovery, the late nights and all the diaper changes! I know life will start getting easier in a few months and we will both enjoy being parents so much! XOXO

On his birthday he let me get a couple extra quiet hours upstairs. I came down to this. =)

blowing kisses or whistling, can't decide 

If this doesn't make you smile, you are a terrible human

Can't forget about the hoofed babies

The littlest Broncos fan

Leifur's first Christmas

Christmas eve

Miss Kati made him this, she's especially good at newborn sizing lol 

   

Leifur Cullen Árnason

  Hey everyone! I finally get a chance to write a blog about the most important thing in my life, my son. Although I am a little distracted so this may take me three days to write, good thing for draft copies.
 
    Leifur Cullen Árnason decided to show up a month early on December 8, 2014 at 9:02am! Árni and I couldn´t be happier. We kept his name a secret until his birth and hope you like it, we do! For those of you wondering it's pronounced Lay-fur. We may call him Leif as well, not sure yet but the important thing to know is it is not pronounced like a "leaf". His middle name is not an Icelandic name, just a name I really liked and his last name of course, is staying with Icelandic tradition. Leifur is Árni´s son so as in the naming tradition he received the last name Árnason. If you would like to know more about the Icelandic naming traditions click HERE . We spent 5 days in the hospital and came home Saturday evening and we are really enjoying life right now, even with VERY VERY little sleep!

    I am now going to tell you guys about his birth, I doubt it will be too graphic, but if you just plain don't want to know then skip to the bottom where you will find pictures of our boy!

    On Monday morning at 3:30am I woke up and thought "Crap did I just pee myself?!" You would think it would have occurred to me that my waters may have broken, but if you have ever experienced pregnancy or had a close loved one go through it, it's not too far fetched to literally have urinated oneself.  So anyway I wake Arni up, tell him I peed myself (hey if I got to be up he has to be up too) and he mumbles something half asleep about don't worry we will change the sheets, lol. I went back to bed and thought, "No way I did it again!" That's when things were clicking and I consulted Dr. Google. That and text my two night shift health care friends hoping one was up. That would be Beth. She immediately said "Your water broke, call the doctor." Did I do that though? Nope! I went back to bed and told myself I was having bladder issues. The voice of reason , my husband, finally convinced me to call the doctor and the whole time I was thinking how embarrassing it is going to be when I show up at the hospital and they tell me "Go, home you peed yourself!" I was scheduled to work that day in the PACU so I texted my friend who was working the 6 am shift and told her, I was going in to OB to get something checked, which is probably nothing, and I'm still planning on being at work at 730am. After all, I felt completely fine except the fact I keep leaking! We checked into the hospital at 0430am and as you can see things moved VERY fast, he was born at 9:02am.

    The hooked me up to the monitors and did the litmus test which confirmed I did, indeed break my water. Meanwhile I have no idea what's going on but a swarm of nurses show up and start doing things all at once. That's when I knew something was up. Now I'm on oxygen have 2 IV's going, the ultrasound on my belly and they are telling me to try and relax, my baby's heart rate is a litttle high. RELAX?! That's the last thing I could do, and being a nurse I knew too much. At this point I am texting my NICU friend telling her what's up and she's relaying info back to me, also trying to calm me down, even though I think she knew that things were serious. We eventually got his heart rate down with the supplemental oxygen and laying on my left side, and at that point I knew I was going to deliver that day. They started asking me about epidurals and my birth plan and through all that my biggest concern was I didn't want Pitocin contractions ( which are said to be more intense). Little did I know Leifur had different plans. The doctor came and was looking with the ultrasound when she said to me, your baby isn't moving like he should, I am going to wait for your blood work and then check him again in a few, let me know if you start feeling any movement. It was then that it occurred to me since this whole ordeal started I hadn't felt him move that much. I tried to concentrate and stay calm and was hoping for some movements but I didn't feel anything, although I knew he was ok I could hear his heart rate on the monitor, I was a little scared. A short while later doctor returned to ultrasound again, and this time she said, your baby needs to come out, now. That set things in full craziness, next thing I know anesthesia is in my room, I am signing consents, Arni is getting into scrubs and it was also at this moment I realized how much I loved my baby. I was terrified for his little lungs because it was too soon for him to come out. I was 35 weeks and 5 days. They can't predict how well a 35 weeker will do, but they hope for the best and prepare for the worst. The whole Operating room experience was surreal. Being on the opposite side of what I usually do was strange although not scary. I was nervous sure, but to see all my coworkers there and have them comforting me and caring for us was amazing.
    Leifur was born in no time at all, I was completely numb from my spinal but could feel a lot of tugging. When I heard him cry for the first time I cried myself. What a good sound. They had to work on him for a bit and he was on cpap ( positive pressure oxygen) for a little while. I could only touch his cheek briefly before they wheeled him to NICU. I sent Arni with the baby and I went to recovery where I was greeted by more of my peers.I can't say thank you enough to everyone for such great care!
    Leifur spent 4 days in NICU learning how to "suck, swallow, breathe" and weaning off the IV fluids. All in all he was a rockstar and surpassed their expectations, they had originally thought he'd stay about 2 weeks. We are home with him now and life is swell. Thank you to everyone who sent flowers, gifts, and stopped by!

2 days before I delivered

First time holding my son

Going home

First bath at home

Happy Thanksgiving

Hey Hey!

Hope everyone had a great Holiday! We ate too much and watched too many movies and I've been spending a great deal of time crocheting lately, it's been great! The three of us are doing well and staying busy. It's full on winter here and just earlier this week we got 24 inches of snow. I've managed to get both the car and the four wheeler stuck haha. Arni says to me "Well why did you keep going to get the car stuck?" I said 'Well that's a silly question, I didn't think it was going to get stuck!' No harm done though I was home for both occasions. The snow is really beautiful and I do enjoy it. I'm a lot more cautious these days as my balance just isn't quite what it used to be. I am so big and round and it really is amazing how the belly can stretch and grow to this massive size. The body truly is wondrous. I have just 6 short weeks left before my little love is here and I imagine with Christmas coming it is going to fly by. We still have quite a bit to do, but I'm fairly confident that even if he came soon we would manage just fine. I'd also like to take the time to say thank you to those who have helped us out and provided little guy with beautiful gifts and thoughtful things for mommy. I was surprised by my coworkers when they showed up for book club with a cake and a jar of jelly beans with a little surprise inside and then just Wednesday Arni's coworkers had us for coffee and cake and they all chipped in together and bought us a car seat! I am amazed that people whom we have known a relatively short time could be so thoughtful and kind. So thank you again to everyone, we are so grateful!

I finished my last call shift yesterday until the baby is born and that feels really good, I plan on working up until my due date, it's getting tougher but I can manage. Heck I just snow blowed the other day and I am still hauling hay around the farm (although Arni gets a little upset about that one) but everyone has to eat, and I figure as long as I am not having any pain or problems then I'll keep on. We haven't been up to a whole lot other than everyday life, but we did recently go to a friends house for Brazilian food,and music. It was our first time having Brazilian food and it was delicious! I really have enjoyed our new friends Carlos and Maria. Maria is now flying back to Brazil but will move permanently to Steamboat next summer, so wishing her luck and looking forward to her return!

Have a happy weekend everyone!

Cake #2

I should have put something for reference, 2 feet of snow

Not hiding the bump in the scrubs anymore

Brazilian food

My beautiful little creature

Cake #1

Book club brunch that turned into surprise shower

They looked lovely

Enjoying Portuguese food for Maria and Carlos' wedding with Carlos' California Portuguese family

Important Vaccinations

Hello friends!

   I am writing this blog to let our family and friends know our wishes. Due to the fact that our son will be born in the height of flu season, he won't able to be vaccinated until he is 6 months and per our Doctors recommendations, we are asking anyone who might spend time with our son in the first 3-4 months of his life to have the flu vaccination and Tdap ( pertussis) vaccination booster. The Pertussis vaccine is something we all receive as a child but by the time we are adults we have lost the immunity and Pertussis AKA Whooping cough is fatal to infants. Many of us have had a tetanus/ pertussis combo, and if you have had this in recent years you should be fine but if you can't remember just go ahead and get it. Not just for my child sake, but for your own immunity. The flu can also be fatal to infants so that goes without saying.


   Now, I am totally pro vaccine, I've seen the good they do, not the bad and many diseases have been eradicated because of vaccines. Not to mention I am a Registered Nurse.  This blog is not to stir the pot for those of you who for whatever reason don't get vaccines. You absolutely have the right to control whatever goes into your body or your children's bodies, as do I. So if this rubs you the wrong way and you just don't want to get a flu shot, that is fine. We just respectfully ask that you do not visit in this time frame. Once spring/summer comes and the risk for flu is low and he's had his shots then we will welcome wet kisses all around. Thanks for understanding.

Arni, Kaytie and baby

Revamp needed?

   I've been thinking lately of revamping my blog. I love my background picture, but I'm thinking something with cleaner lines, easier to read. I'll keep thinking about it and try to tackle that when I have some time. It's kind of the same way I feel about organizing and backing up all my photos. It needs to be done, I guess I could make time but then again it;s a dreaded project. I actually think I have high school prom photos sitting in a shoe box waiting to go into an album haha. So today I tried out a photo book website called Blurb. I made an Instagram photo book. For $20 it put 44 of my photos in a small book. This is sort of a trial thing for me, if it works out well and looks good I may periodically do this to keep up with the little moments in life. I am also working on making a baby book with shutterfly. It will be a project in progress because it starts from the time we found out I was pregnant until after baby is born. This is something I don't want to get too behind on because I know one day he will appreciate looking at it.

   Halloween was this past weekend and I did have to work, but I was able to dress up a little and on Saturday we went to a costume birthday party of a guy I work with, I actually barely know him, and knew exactly 2 people there haha, but I figured what the heck can't hurt to go and try and meet some people. There was a live band which was pretty cool and we got to dress up which is always fun. We did meet another couple who have small children and I exchanged numbers with her, so maybe I'll send her a text this week, you never know when you will meet someone you really click with. Funny how the process of finding friends is almost exactly like dating. It's taken a little longer than it did when we moved to Boulder, but it's a totally different experience this time as I can't very well meet for beers or go skiing. Hopefully we will meet some like minded folks in the future.

   I do, however, have great friends. I just wish they were all closer to me! A few weeks ago while in Boulder, I met up with a few girlfriends for a beautiful afternoon tea party. Caitlyn threw the most gorgeous shower for me and my little one and I was showered with love from some very sweet women! Thank you all for coming to see me and thank you Caitlyn for such a great day! My very first tea party and I felt like a princess! Only 9 weeks left until we meet our little Viking! We are super excited, and I am super excited not to be pregnant anymore! HA HA Oh I guess it's not that bad, but man I will be so happy the day I can sleep on my stomach again and be able to eat more than a pea without getting short of breath! I know it's only going to get harder from here, but I can do it!