Zak's Story

I can't believe Zak is almost a month old! He will be one month on Thursday wow! I guess I should be used to time flying by since my first baby is now 2 1/2... how did that happen!?!

Well I'm finally getting around to Zak's birth story :) With Rex being born a month early and and then being in the NICU, and then I had to deal with not feeling well from the Preeclampsia, I was so worried that it would happen again. I'm already a worry wart and when they tell you you're at risk for it happening again, it really scares you!! So in my 2nd trimester I started really freaking out that I would have a repeat of Rex's birth to the point that it consumed all my thoughts.This lead to a few panic attacks and those scared me even more since I've never experienced one before. I knew stressing about it would not help, and if anything, could makes things worse so I had to really pray and have faith that everything would be ok. It wasn't easy and comfort didn't come right away. After about 2 months of lots of praying, reading my scriptures, and a few blessings, I finally found peace from reading something in my patriarchal blessing and knew everything would be ok. After that, I didn't worry anymore! All of my stress just immediately disappeared and I was able to have calm and peace and enjoy the rest of my pregnancy.

And now that Zak is here, there really was nothing to worry about :). It was an awesome experience and 100 times better than all the stress we dealt with having Rex. (I love Rex and would do it again if I had to but it was NOT an ideal situation.) Monday April 21st was just like any other pregnant day. I would have a few Braxton hicks contractions here and there but never anything regular or painful. I was feeling lazy and sore and didn't cook dinner so we used a gift card and went to Chili's as a family. We came home and put Rex to bed then Andrew and I watched a movie then went to bed ourselves. I wasn't having any contractions or any signs that I would soon be having a baby. ( I actually posted that night on facebook how I was sick of being preggo and wishing the baby would come soon.)

Around 12:30am I woke up for one of my many trips to the bathroom and everything was still normal...no contractions or anything...and went back to sleep. At 1:00am on the dot I woke up with what felt like a strong stomach cramp and then another about 2 minutes later and I figured it was probably the start of labor. The 4th cramp was REALLY strong so I immediately woke Andrew up and told him we needed to go to the hospital. He started grabbing the last minute stuff and putting it in the hospital bag and I called his mom to head over (1:12am.) After about 2 more contractions I felt like the baby was REALLY coming and that we couldn't wait for his mom so we grabbed Rex and called Andrew's mom to meet us at the hospital (1:18am)

We got to the hospital at about 1:22 and Andrew dropped me off at L/D while he parked. I walked in and as soon as I reached the counter had a really strong contraction and had to sit and cross my legs since it felt like the baby was getting closer! (My contractions weren't too painful, more like strong gassy cramps.) The receptionist hurried and got me a wheelchair and took me back. I was helped onto the bed and a nurse checked me and said I was fully dilated and baby was descending. They called my midwife and a bunch of nurses started rushing into the room. Andrew arrived with Rex who was wide awake and talking to all the nurses and staff. I knelt in the bed and passed 2 or 3 contractions during which, Andrew's parents arrived for Rex. Andrew passed him off and gave them the keys to get the car seat and Rex's luggage out of the car. They left the room and I felt the baby coming so I laid down and started pushing. My midwife wasn't there yet and there was no doc available so the nurses helped me deliver him. (I was told after that there were 4 other women who all gave birth around the same time I did so the on call docs were occupied) My birth plan was to give birth naturally with no pain meds or intervention and that is what I got! However, It happened so quick that even if I changed my mind, there was no time for anything. (well they did try to put in an IV but I declined.) I started pushing at 1:38am and 2 contractions/pushes later, Zak Lewis Wilkins was born at 1:42am! Pushing was the most painful part ever! I'm not going to lie, I was screaming in pain but it was over quickly and I would do it again because afterwards I felt perfect! (unlike with Rex where I was dizzy and confused from all the meds  for the pre-e.) Andrew's dad came back to return the keys and they told him I had already had the baby and he was surprised to say the least! The whole process was 42 minutes from the time I had my first contraction!


Zak was 8 pounds 1 oz and 20.5 inches long at birth! By his 2 week appointment he was 9 pounds 5 oz and 21 inches long! He is a fast growing boy! (For comparison, Rex was 4 lbs, 1 oz at birth and 8 lbs 4 oz at his 2 month appt!!!)

 I'm so glad that I was able to have a better experience this time around and able to go med free! It was super empowering to do it like that and I was able to bond immediately with Zak which was really wonderful and a big deal for me since I didn't feel that immediate bond with Rex because of all the drugs they had me on and that was hard for me....I felt like a bad mom for not being able to "love" him right away.Ok so now for the only thing you want to see....Zak:

 First Family pic!

 Getting ready to go home!

 Rex holding his baby brother for the first time

 First bath-he did not like it!

 Rex adores his baby brother

He is here!!!

Zak Lewis Wilkins born Tuesday April 22, 2014 at 1:42am weighing 8lbs 1oz and 20.5 inches long. More pics and info to come later. 

Christmas 2013

We had a fun (and busy) Christmas this year. Rex is getting old enough to start to understand a bit of what is going on and it makes the whole experience more fun for the rest of us :) Since both of our parents live close, we spend time with both of them on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and the days following. It was a lot of running around...and maybe next year we will have our parents visit us instead because it was exhausting. Andrew took the week following Christmas off so we had lots of family activities planned with both of our families.

With all the family festivities, Rex didn't get to go to bed till 10:30 so we let him sleep in as long as possible. Andrew and I got up and got dressed, opened our presents and let Sasha open a few of hers. then at 9:00 we woke Rex up to open his presents. 

 This is my favorite picture of the day! He gives these cheesy grins all the time but I'm never able to catch them with the camera. I was so glad he gave me one that morning...He was super happy!

 Rex with his present from my Grandparents...and Sasha in the background with one of her toys

 Sasha loves tearing off the wrapping paper! Rex thought it was pretty funny too.

Rex sitting on his new bed...he didn't really know what to think about it yet.

The resident monster quickly moved in under the bed :)

 At Grandma and Grandpa Wilkins house to open more presents

He loved playing inside his new toy chest

 My siblings, Jourdan's wife Mindy, and my dad (minus Justine...she was on a cruise...what a stinker)

We had a fun day. Andrew's parents got me a new vacuum (a Shark) which I love since I have been hating mine for a long time now. It works great especially with Sasha's hair! I can use it on my wood floors so I don't have to sweep which was a pain with all the dog hair...it would never really get it all but now it does yay! Andrew got a 3-ton car jack so he can now work on our vehicles at home instead of at his dad's house. My parents gave us food to start our food storage which is awesome. I now feel semi-prepared and not so guilty about not having any food storage.

Announcing.....

We are happy to announce the arrival of Baby Boy Wilkins #2 around April 28th, 2014!!!!

We are excited and we are already changing things around our house to get ready for the new baby! We decided that no matter what gender the baby was, we didn't want the baby and Rex sharing rooms so they wouldn't wake each other up during the night so that meant getting rid of our office/junk room. We needed to put the computer somewhere but since we have a small house, we didn't have many options so we found a good idea on Pinterest to make an office space in a closet. So our living room coat closet turned into our computer space:

Our desk was only an inch too big to fit so Andrew had to cut a little off but other than that it is perfect :)  We are surprised how much we love it there! With the closet doors gone, it makes our living room seem bigger and more open plus we can now work on the computer and be with the family instead all alone in the office.

Our office was the bigger bedroom so we decided we were going to move Rex there and put the baby in Rex's current room with the crib and all the "baby stuff" So we decided to have that be Rex's Christmas present and we have been working on his room for the past few months. We had to clean out all the junk, paint the room, clean the carpets and then get the furniture ready. Originally Andrew wanted to build bunk beds like his dad did for him and his brother and make them so they could come apart in the future if we wanted or if we had a girl instead but then Andrew's aunt and uncle were getting rid of their old bunk bed and so we took that instead! They can still come apart in the future if we choose to. Andrew stripped, sanded and re-stained the beds to a darker finish and they turned out great!

We kept the room a secret till Christmas and Rex got new Disney Cars bedding for his big boy bed and a bunch of organizer cubes for his clothes and toys. We already had this bookshelf thing in the office to organize my scrapbook stuff and other junk but we found other homes for that stuff and the bookshelf wouldn't fit anywhere else in the house so it ended up working great for his toys and clothes instead of another dresser! We put toys on one side and clothes on the other :) We also took the closet doors off and so it makes the room feel bigger and the bookshelf/cubby thing is in the closet

I painted a blue accent wall and I think it turned out great! Rex loves his blue wall! Blue is his favorite color and when he first saw it he kept saying Blue wall! Cool! Yay!

We moved Rex into his new room on Christmas day with all his new toys and the first night in his bed went great! He fell right asleep and didn't get up till 9am! Although I think being exhausted from all the Christmas activities and having no nap helped but it's a good start! Although napping is another story, we did try a nap but he kept getting up to grab toys and play in his bed...he did it VERY QUIETLY though and when we would peek in on him he would hurry and lay down and pretend to sleep. Not being in a crib may make nap time difficult but we have until April to get things figured out.

Halloween and Random Stuff

So here is our Halloween post...a little late....

Rex's other love besides cars is Toy Story...especially Buzz Lightyear. So for Halloween Rex got to be Buzz. He was so excited for his costume he would run around the house yelling "EEE OND! (his attempt at "to infinity and Beyond") and then press the laser "button" on his suit and shoot at us. I found some cowboy hats at the dollar store and so me and Andrew made a sad attempt at being Jessie and Woody but Rex still knew who we were so it was all good :) We had to go show the grandparents his costume so we first went to my parents house and did some "practice" trick-or-treating at some of my old neighbors houses. Then we went to Andrew's parents and did their neighborhood trunk or Treat and Rex had a blast. We then came home to give candy away and play games with Andrew's high school buddies and their wives. We had a fun night

 Rex and Grandma Smith

 Trick-or-Treating with Aunt Meilin

 At the Barney's house! Cathleen was my old Young woman leader and a friend :)

 At the Trunk or Treat with Grandma and Grandpa Wilkins

Our family as Buzz Woody and Jesse

 Rex with his friend Falan

 Wearing mom's hat and showing his cool Cars book he got

 Being one of the "Boys"

Rex's favorite game is hide and seek and he gets pretty creative on where he hides! Here is one of his more creative places that we got a kick out of.

Rex is growing and learning so fast and he says and does the cutest things. When he is looking for me or Andrew or one of his toys he goes around the house saying "Mom where are you?" or "Buzz where are you?" but he can't quite say all that very well so it comes out  "Mom yar you?" Also, when he turned 2, we told him how to tell people he was 2....well I guess that was a mistake because now as we are trying to teach him his numbers, he always skips 1 and just says "two, tree, four, five" No matter how many times we try to prompt him he just wont say "one" oh well he will get it eventually.....

He is also a sneaking little boy! The other day I found him on top of his toy bin turning the light on and off in his room. I immediately made him get down and explained how we don't climb on that (he climbs on EVERYTHING) well he pushes me out of his room, down the hall and into my room and said "Stay mom" and ran into his room and shut the door...well I followed him in and he was trying to climb on top of his toy bin again.....silly boy.

Catching up...again

Ok so here is another long post of most everything that we've done so far in 2013...hopefully I will get better at this lol! I'm going to start from the most recent and go back to the beginning of the year.

In August Rex turned 2! I can't believe how fast time has flown by! We had a little party with some family and 2 of Rex's buddies and I did a construction theme. It turned out great and I even did the cake! I don't have many pictures of Rex since my mom took most of them and hasn't gotten them to me yet (hint hint)

 Rex's favorite new toy: his big Buzz Lightyear :) He has "graduated" from his obsession with the movie cars and now likes toy story.....although he still likes cars

The cake turned out great in my opinion. I wanted to do a chocolate cake so it looked more like dirt but Andrew doesn't really like chocolate so we did a yellow cake and put Graham cracker crumbs on top to make it look like sand.

At the end of July Andrew and I went camping and decided to invite both of our families and also our friends Travis and Heather. We had a great time and Rex loved having a friend to play with and both sets of grandparents around to dote on him. 

 Falan and Rex (Falan is Travis and Heather's boy) Rex was not very happy about having to share his ride with Falan.

 Playing on rocks with Grandpa Smith

 Relaxing with Grandma Wilkins

 playing with a bubble gun with Aunt Meilin

In July, Andrew's parents went to Lagoon for a work party and invited us to come along. Rex wasn't quite sure what to think of the rides...the ones he enjoyed were the carousel and the Train around the park. We rode both multiple times.

 First ride we tried....he didn't like it at all. He loved to watch the rides but did not enjoy riding most of them.

 Thankfully he liked the merry-go-round so we rode that again and again and again!

 Oh yah....we buzzed his hair off!

Having fun riding the train :)

In June, Andrew's cousin Jason and his wife Brook invited us to go to a Josh Turner concert with them. Jason works for Basset furniture and they sponsor the shows at the Scera so he was able to get some great seats! We also got to meet Josh and get our pictures taken with him before the show but I haven't got those pictures from Brooke yet but I promise you I did and once I have the proof you can see! Josh Turner is my favorite country singer. In fact, I have only been to 3 concerts in my life: my very first one was a Josh Turner concert before I got married, then a Yanni concert 2 years ago and now Josh Turner again hehehe.

 Me, Andrew, Brooke, and Jason waiting for the concert to start

 As you can see we were only a few rows from the front! it was awesome!

For our 6th anniversary in May, we decided to revisit the Zoo with Rex. He had a blast and loved all the animals. His favorite was the polar bear and seals.

 Pointing at the elephants...which are kind of hard to see in this picture

 watching the seals with Dad

 "Cool Mom!"

 The polar bear was fun to watch! She kept swimming up to the glass and popping up. It scared a bunch of kids but Rex just thought it was cool! we sat there for a while watching her swim.

 Lego polar bear statue Rex thought was cool

I thought it was funny how this giraffe had to bend down to eat something on the ground hehehe. 

In April, Rex and I went to the aquarium with Heather and Falan. I had never been before and thought it was quite cool! Rex and Falan enjoyed it as well

 Here are some random pictures:

 Fish lips!

 Being silly at lunch time

 stopping to pick up the rocks

 He likes to put his laundry hamper on his head

messy boy

 more of the hamper on his head

 hiding from mom

 playing with an ant on the floor

I took Rex to the Orem City Easter hunt with my friend Lacey and her boy Kais. They had fun finding all the candy

 finding eggs on Easter day

 Making a fort under the table with daddy

 One day I was sweeping and Rex wanted to help so the got his horse and started trying to sweep with it hehehe

 Rex and Andrew's cousin Carly at the Eggett family Easter party

 This is just a random cute pic from the other day

 So with the huge rain storm the other week we got a river on our street that came up into our lawn. These pictures are actually taken after the water started to subside! I didn't want to go out with my camera when it was pouring. The water was actually about 3 feet higher on our sidewalk and past that first tree! Thankfully it didn't get into our house! some of our neighbors weren't so lucky unfortunately :( It was garbage day that day and we hadn't taken our cans back and they were taken halfway down the street with the water!

 So we bought Rex some Cars underwear to get him excited to potty train...and Andrew taught him to put them on his head....what a goof!

And now the lunch bowl on his head

Phew! that was long! but at least it was mostly pictures :)