August 26, 2012

Letter to Sis. Hansen

So my friend Haley is on a mission.... I've never been good at writing missionaries.... let's just be honest, I suck at writing people on their missions! It's just not for me, I guess even though some of my BFF's have gone.... anyway I shared with her somethings that I mainly want for my blog because they are some of my feelings that I feel it's important for me to share and keep for myself.


Sister Hansen,                                                                                                                       

Hey!! Sorry it’s taken so long to write you back. Life here has been a little chaotic and fast-paced! I am glad you got the announcement! Emmett is such a sweet baby; I’m excited for you to meet him! I am sending you a couple more photos of him to admire and basically because I think they are super sweet.

Pregnancy was amazing; it literally wasn’t bad until the last month or so. I also don’t know if you had heard since I’m a horrible friend and haven’t written but in March, I was at my water aerobics class and had chlorine erupt in my face & my lungs closed up a bit so I was having a hard time breathing and I had to go by ambulance to the ER to make sure Emmett & I were ok! Luckily we were, I just had a chemical burn in my throat for a week. So other than that, I had a fairly healthy pregnancy. I ended up with preeclampsia which is really bad for the moms but basically I just got headaches & had almost 15-20 pounds of water weight & swelling. I was HUGE! So that’s why the last few weeks were miserable but you’ll totally get it one day when you are pregnant lol.

Labor was interesting. I can’t remember a lot because it was such a blur but I remember it just being long…. I ended being in labor for 22 hours and pushing for about 4? There were moments that I didn’t think I could do it & might need a c-section but somehow I survived and it’s really a special moment. You connect instantly with your new baby; it’s really the definition of love at first sight. You love them no matter what they look like, what the sound like, anything. It’s probably the closest love to Christ’s for us. You also connect so deeply with your spouse. I’ve never loved Pierce deeper or more fully. For me, the best part of being a mom is watching Pierce be a dad.

Emmett was a sick baby at first. It was hard. I didn’t know what to do to help because basically we couldn’t do very much. He was at Primary’s for 3 days when he was 2 days old because of a fever. They thought it could be anything from a common cold to meningitis so with newborns, they have to keep a watch out in case it’s something serious. It ended up being some lesser infection or virus (like a cold) thankfully but it was scary nonetheless. We sort of got a crash course in parenting and how to make decisions for this tiny human & trying to trust our instincts as parents. I hated leaving him overnight for 2 nights & I thought about staying but I knew, being so exhausted & then I knew I wouldn’t have gotten great sleep with the nurse coming in every hour, that I needed to go home, get some sleep & then come in the morning with a sound mind and judgment for him.

The first month with Emmett was tough. It flew by however, which I don’t know how because newborns wake up every 2 hours & breastfeeding was so challenging and frustrating for me. It would take 45 minutes to an hour to feed him & then he would go to sleep for about an hour and wake up and need to eat again. It’s TOUGH! I also had gallstones & needed my gallbladder removed and got that done before he was 1 month old. So I couldn’t breastfeed while on pain meds & my milk started drying up (so fascinating I know lol) but I ended up not breastfeeding after the first month. It was hard. I still feel guilty as a mom that I couldn’t do it but as long as Emmett is healthy and gaining weight, that’s the important part. I will definitely try again with my next baby to see if I can get the hang of it better.

Emmett is huge, he just started smiling this last month & it seriously makes my morning to wake up and see a smiling baby waiting for you! He is almost 14 pounds- chunk! He sleeps almost 7 hours at night with a good bedtime routine! It’s so nice. I’m still tired but that’s just from being a mom I think lol. He is starting to be more of a little baby with a personality; I think he will laugh pretty soon which will be so fun! I also caught him rolling over from his tummy to his back on video last week! Pretty exciting in the world of parenting. So small, so silly and yet so fun!

Pierce is so busy, I don’t know if his letter said what he is up to but he is in school, everyday with 17 credit hours this semester. Yikes! He also works 40-60 hours a week so I basically don’t see him for 12 hours some days but he is so smart and wants to work extra hard now that Emmett is here. We probably won’t take the LSAT until February but I think it will be next October, which you will be home by, then so we will see you before we probably have to move away.

I am doing well. Emmett is sort of my world now. I just finished transcribing the Book of Mormon for work like last week! It literally took me since February so since you’ve been gone to finish it! I’m going to be going back to handwriting pages and I’m nervous I will suck at reading it all again. If I get anything with Kirtland, I’ll mention to you what I’m working on! 

I’m glad to hear you are doing well! What is your companion’s name? Have you served in any Cleveland areas yet? My cousin Kayla and Trent just moved to Cleveland for Med school at the beginning of August so keep your eye out in the wards for her. She is having a baby in September sometime so look for the preggo lady!! Do you have any conversion stories yet?  Tara and Carly are doing well. I saw T a couple times this summer but she was gone a lot on trips with her family of course. Carly and I hang out a lot and I love her! I don’t know if you have kept in contact with her or not but she has lost a bunch of weight and looks really good! I’m gonna have her kick my butt in gear because my body post-baby is scary- whew! Haha.  Chase & Helen moved home at the end of July because Chase transferred to the U Law School. It’s fun having them home and Helen is pregnant AGAIN! She is due in January with a little boy- they are naming him Oliver after Oliver Cowdery lol. Ben & Alex have a cute baby boy Jackson so it’s fun for us to hang out with them and just have the babies chill together. Oh, I forgot to thank you for the baby gifts from January!! I was going to send a thank you card and totally spaced it. So thank you!! Emmett wore that little newborn sized PJ’s home that you gave him! They fit for like a week or two and then babies grow so quickly! Like he gains a pound every 2-3 weeks!

Let’s hope you had enough time to read all of our letters! 7 months is a lot to get caught up on but I hope to be better about writing you. Also, what’s your email? Am I allowed to email you? I could send pictures of Emmett easier and then copy and paste my blog posts to you lol. Let me know!

Love always,
Karissa 

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