Summer 2014 Recap (Beach Time)!

This summer has been very eventful between two moves and finding out that baby girl is on the way. We moved from Vancouver, WA to Seaside, Or around May this year. Scott was offered a promotion as the manager of the Sherwin Williams in Gearhart, which is just north of Seaside. Everything happened so quickly that we originally had to move into an apartment in a pretty ghetto environment, which was a bit aggravating there for a while, but we were able to find a pretty little duplex with a fenced backyard and garage just a block away from a park and about four blocks from the beach in August. It's the best place we rented so far. :)

We are so thankful for Scott's promotion, and this last summer was absolutely gorgeous. I never thought I'd be living in a place where a regular play date or outing could be going down to the beach, which is about as simple as going to the park down here (besides the clean-up afterwards of course ;)). We had so many fun outings this past summer (Tillamook Cheese Factory, Astoria attractions, lighthouses and the farmer's market up north in Ilwaco, and Cannon beach etc.).

I try to keep our many blessings in mind and keep gratitude in my heart, but I'm afraid to admit that this hasn't been an easy transition for us. We welcomed the opportunity for a promotion but didn't want to move. It was a hard decision for us. We miss our dear friends and family in Vancouver, WA, and it's a bit isolated down here. The cost of living is high as well in a coastal town. Luckily, there is a Costco twenty minutes north of us although I really miss Winco, Wal-mart, and Target etc. And, I'm glad I got used to the rainy weather in Vancouver because it's a bit more so here and foggy during the fall and winter months. I guess that's why people have summer homes down here. ;) We find ourselves traveling a lot more than we used to as well to Vancouver and Lake Stevens. Anyway, there's my little (or not so little) vent for the day.

I probably sound like a whiner, but I personally like it when people express the trials they are going through; it helps me feel that I am not alone or terrible for being honest about the experiences in my life as well as giving me strength to move forward. I think the important thing is just not to dwell on those things that we aren't happy about in our lives. I've been putting together girls' nights with some of the ladies down here, and one of my callings is putting together play dates for a Mommy and Me group to bring in less active ladies into the church. I like how when we fulfill our callings, true love develops for the people around us in our wards. I'm coming to get to know the people down here in our sweet, little ward and discovering that friends come in many different forms/ages. There aren't very many couples close to our age here. I think eventually we will feel more apart of things down here as we continue to participate and serve in our ward. I feel that love growing as we develop relationships with everyone. We would like to move back to Vancouver in a few years when the time is right, but for now we are happy to have this wonderful adventure down at the coast. I'm going to try to enjoy every minute I get to spend so close to the beach, and the summers are something to look forward to. :)

Here are just a few pics from this past summer. It was fun having friends and family visit!

 Asher with his cousins at the Flavel house in Astoria during the Dyer reunion!

Mom and Dad walking along with Asher at Ft. Clatsop where Lewis and Clark spent the winter. :)

 The Gibsons and the Gates came to visit (September)!

Suzette Gibson and I :)

 Janae Gates and I at Cannon Beach :)

Asher is a month old! (December 5th, 2012)

We took this little milk-mustache picture to remember the one-month anniversary of Asher's birthday. :)

Blessing of Baby Asher (Nov. 25th, 2012) and Other Photos

Because Scott has had to work on Sundays for his job the last couple of months (something that will be changing very soon when he moves stores, thank heavens), we blessed Asher James at Scott's sister, Rachel, and her husband's house. Dave is the bishop of our new ward as well. :) It was very gracious of them to have everyone over. We had the family over for dinner at 5 pm, and Asher was blessed around 7 pm in time for Scott to get there. It was a very sweet experience. My Mom, Dad, and sister, Patrice, were able to be there, which was really special. Love, love, love my boys!!!

Thanksgiving with Family!

My parents were nice enough to come to us for Thanksgiving since we had just had a baby and didn't want to get off sync with Travis and Jessica for holidays. They flew out with Patrice the Monday of Thanksgiving week, and Alan, my brother, and his wife Becca flew out Wednesday. They loved holding Asher, and it gave me a nice break to have other people around. They stayed at Mom and Dad Dyer's house since our duplex is a bit small to hold everybody. It was very nice of them to have my parents and siblings over. :) We also went and saw Fort Vancouver, Multnomah Falls, and Powell's books store in down town Portland. We had Thanksgiving dinner in our duplex. Mom took care of delegating to everyone, and all I had to worry about was putting the pies in the oven. We had fun playing games and enjoying each other's company. It felt nice to have my family baby me.

Multnomah Falls

                                                             My brother Alan with Asher!

Baby Asher came to town!!!

-Labor & Delivery

You really don't have to read all of this. It's mostly for my own journaling purposes. I'm writing about this now because I started the draft and became very busy with Baby Asher. Staying up nights nursing is hard to transition to at first, and Baby Asher takes up all of my time now :).

We went in Monday morning, the 5th of November, at 7 am for my scheduled induction, but we were waiting for Dr. Bunten to arrive for a bit. We didn't actually get going until around 8 am. They inserted a tablet in me to get me going, saying that they would use pitocin if necessary later on. Thankfully, my water broke before any of that was necessary. I felt a small, warm trickle. At first, I didn't realize it was my water that had broken, but I didn't think it could be anything else by the way I felt after thinking about it. The nurse didn't think it was anything, but I knew it was too much vaginal discharge to be nothing. I labored without an epidural for most of the day. They gave me an epidural around 4 pm. Around 5:30 pm, they checked how much I was dilated and were shocked to discover that I had already dilated to about a ten! This really got Scott and I excited! We had thought we were going to have a few hours to nap, but apparently Baby Asher had different plans. The nurse told me that when I felt the urge to push to let them know. She said they didn't want to have me push when it didn't feel natural, so it surprised Scott and I when Dr. Bunten came in and told me to do a few practice pushes. Apparently, they weren't for practice because she had me start pushing there and then. That was another surprise for Scott and me. Again, we thought we were going to get a respite, and again we were excited to find out otherwise.

I was pushing for much longer than Dr. Bunten had hoped. Part of that was because Asher's head was sunny-side-up, his head is big, and my epidural wore off part-way through which caused me to take more breaks than I would have otherwise. They told me to push this little button for an extra boost of the epidural, but it didn't work. They had to have someone come in to fix it. Dr. Bunten started talking about the need to do a c-section, use forceps, or suction. At that point, I started pushing like a mad women. There was no way she was going to use forceps on my baby's head! I have a bit of a paranoia for such things. Dr Bunten was like, "That's right! Prove me wrong! Good job!" We started to see his head come out. Everyone was saying good job, but I was crying that at the end of my pushes he was going back in. Dr. Bunten made a small incision that finally turned the tide, and out came Baby Asher! He was eight pounds, eight ounces. At that point, I finally realized my reward was here. During labor, Scott had been trying to remind me of that, but I was too busy giving him a dead, zombie, woman-in-labor-pains look. My beautiful baby boy was here! I immediately started cooing at him. It sounds cliche, but you really don't realize how much you are going to love this little person until you see him. His umbilical cord was kind of short; at first, I was holding him on my lower abdomen. The doctors and nurses said he was peeing when he came out, lol.

After they took him away to clean him up and do all of the logistics, I was feeling very light-headed. They gave me some oxygen, and Scott held Baby Asher at first. He took to fatherhood like a fish to water. He's wanted to be a Dad forever. : ) I was sad that I couldn't hold my baby at first, but they helped me nurse him for the first time lying down even though I was feeling woozy. I had thrown up during a lot of my labor. There was even one time when I threw up all over myself, and they had to change my sheets and nightgown. Scott turned away just for a moment to wash something off, but it was enough time for disaster, lol. It's so crazy how anything goes during labor. Stuff that would embarrass you normally totally doesn't matter anymore!

Because I had a bit of a fever right before I had Asher, they monitored his temperature the first few days in case he had contracted an infection. His temperature was a bit low at first, but he was fine. We are so grateful to have a beautiful, healthy boy! He is such a handsome, little guy. Asher was born with syndactyly on his right hand. His middle fingers on his right hand are fused together. This basically means that the webbing on his hand didn't separate in the womb. Luckily, a one-time, surgical procedure can take care of this, and it won't affect his development at all. He will probably have the procedure when he is around a year-and-a-half. This is the best time for optimal results/healing. It also allows for more skin to grown in order to avoid doing more skin grafts. We are grateful that he will be just fine. I can't tell you how much my love has increased for this joyous, little bundle in the last few weeks. I'm holding him right now as he sleeps; he looks so peaceful. I love it when he smiles in his sleep. He's so beautiful!

 8 pounds, 8 ounces

Grandma Robyn holding baby Asher.

 Grandma and Grandpa Dyer holding baby Asher!

 Out little batman burrito! Scott loved that I crocheted the edges of this batman blanket!

 Asher's first bath! We just had his second bath a few days ago, and he loved it! It relaxed him so much he pooped like six times in the bath tub and peed twice, lol. I guess we know what to do when he's constipated. :)