We're having a baby!!!! (8 months ago....)

A little over a year ago we found out we were about to embark on literally the greatest adventure of our lives.... we were becoming parents! I realize this post is pretty late but I wanted to share our birth experience because it was something I was completely not ready for... Yes, my mother and my aunts had been preparing me and my cousins our whole lives for how hard birth was going to be. And yes, everyone always says that it was way worse than they thought it would be. But oh man!

Now my pregnancy was pretty easy... I had the nausea in the beginning and the typical back pain and was just uncomfortable most of the day. However, it wasn't a bad pregnancy by any means. I was healthy and so was Corbin, which was the most important thing. I really enjoyed my 2nd trimester and I was super tired during my third.... although in the back of my mind each day I was thinking of the inevitable... the birth.

As I have said in an earlier post, during the end of my pregnancy we were in a whirl wind. Chris had moved to Nevada, started his new job as store manager and was house hunting. I moved back to my parents house, found a new doctor for myself, got registered at a new hospital, found a doctor for Corbin and oh ya, got ready to have a baby. A week before I moved to my parents house I went to my original doctor in San Jose for a check up. Unfortunately, my doctor was on vacation so a different doctor at the practice did my check up. I wasn't familiar with this doctor so after she did my exam she seemed a little alarmed, she let me know that I was 4cm dilated.... and that she didn't think I would make it full term. This freaked me out a lot because I was living a lone in our apt at the time and finishing my last week of work before my maternity leave. Luckily I have amazing friends and family. My friends in San Jose stayed on call in case I needed to go to the hospital, nothing happened and I was able to finish out my last week of work. That Friday Chris drove down from Reno, helped me pack my car up and followed me half way to Exeter. Then my amazing dad took the train up and drove me the rest of the way home to Exeter. Since I was so dilated we just didn't know when the baby was going to arrive and I didn't want to be in labor alone on the side of the road... It all worked out though and I was able to get moved to my parents house and found a new doctor right away. At my first appointment with this new doctor I informed him that I was previously told that I was already at 4cm. He didn't seem to believe me, he even said I don't do exams until 2 weeks before your due date. He decided to check me anyways and confirmed that I was in fact already dilated that far. This confirmation began the longest month of my pregnancy.....

I woke up each morning ready to go into labor, I walked into each doctors appointment with my nurse asking "still walking around at 4cm huh?" and I went to bed each night making sure Chris had his phone right by his ear just in case. Then a whole month passed and nothing had happened, I did in fact walk around for a whole month almost dilated half way and never went into labor. As my due date approached the doctor asked me if I wanted to be induced or just keep waiting. Since Chris was so far away and I felt like I had been so prepared for the baby to come any day and he still hadn't, I decided to be induced.

My dad flew into Reno on Friday January 31st, then Chris and my dad drove down to Exeter the next day. We had a fun Sunday (we had spent a month and a half apart) together... our last one just the two of us. My mother in law and brother in law drove down that night as well so they could be there for the birth. Then with sooooo much anxiety and excitement I headed to bed.

Monday morning we got up at 5am, (even though I don't think I really slept all night) gathered the hospital bag, nursing pillow and everything else I would need for this birth then Chris, my mom and I headed to the hospital. We got all checked in and it all began. The nurse came in to start the Pitocin... I immediately asked if my water could be broken first and then if I don't progress we could start Pitocin. Our nurse explained that she had to ask the doctor if she could do this. She stepped out then returned shortly after and said that we could hold off on the Pitocin. My doctor came in right away and broke my water, things immediately began progressing. My mom then noticed the nurse doing something, she asked her if she was starting the Pitocin and the nurse said yes.... yes, after we had specifically said we did not want that started. It was too late now so we had to continue.  I now envy those who go into labor naturally and are allowed to have the progression of pain because going from none to a ton of contractions was rough. I felt like I was handling the contractions even though they were excruciating. When my mom asked how the pain was I told her it was really awful.... Then our oh so wonderful nurse let me know that they weren't even bad contractions and they weren't doing anything yet. How helpful and motivational... right? This was just the beginning of the awful relationship we were about to endure with this nurse.

An hour into the labor my epidural had finally arrived. Thank God for epidurals! That's all I have to say. It was so amazing to have that pain relief but still feeling the labor progress. So I was just progressing and enjoying my epidural when the nurse came to check me. She let me know that I was at 10 cm and it was time to push. As they were preparing for pushing the worst thing EVER happened. My epidural ran out! Yes, I said RAN OUT! So I was having no pain at all to all of the sudden feeling the most intense and worse contractions and they were less than a min apart. I seriously thought I was going to die. It was awful. I don't even know how to explain how bad it felt... then on top of it they proceeded to let me know that since I was at 10cm I couldn't have any more epidural because it would slow down my labor. At this point I curled up in a ball and cried.. I couldn't move, I couldn't speak and I didn't know what I was going to do. God must have seen that I wasn't going to make it and he sent in a person who has been really special in my life. My former volleyball coach and long time friend of the family is actually a dula at the hospital. She wasn't working that day but she knew I was being induced. She came in to see me and saw the pain I was in. She asked me if I wanted to get more epidural even though I knew it was going to delay the labor a bit. I said absolutely yes I want more. Then she told my nurse to give me more... just told her to do it! Low and behold... She actually gave me more! It was a miracle!!!

Then well into 2 hrs of my pushing my doctor finally arrived. He told me that he doesn't let women push for more than 2 1/2 hrs so I only was very close to going into surgery. He told me that it was my choice and if I thought I could get him out we would do it otherwise he was going to prep me for a C section. I sucked it up and with my very last ounce of energy I pushed my little bundle of joy out. It was amazing, he was amazing and perfect so so perfect. He had a cone shaped head full of hair haha. (from being stuck in the birth canal for 2 1/2 hrs so who can blame him.)

It was a very special moment that I was able to share with my amazing husband, momma and sister. They all immediately bonded with Corbin. We couldn't believe we had been given this amazing little gift. I don't know how soon I will sign up to go through this again but I had my baby now... my sweet little baby boy. I don't even know how to possibly describe the love I have for that little man.

Here he is, Corbin James Hart!

Where in the world have we been?!?!

Hello everyone, long time no see!!! Haha ok, that may be more our fault than yours. Things have been a little crazy with us to say the least. Here is a quick summary of what we have been doing since I last posted... Got pregnant, Chris got his own store.... in NEVADA! Bought a house, had a baby, went back to work part time. Now we are just trying to figure out how to live and love life as new parents with our sweet baby boy
Corbin James Hart.

Where to start.... Ok well we found out I was pregnant around June of last year (Has it really been that long since I posted on here :) and we were beyond thrilled!!!! We announced our pregnancy to friends and family in a fun little picture, here it is.

Isn't it cute? Ok, yes... we did get the idea from Pinterest, but we added our own twist on it! The best part was telling my parents that they were finally going to be grandparents!!! We got my dad a t-shirt for father's day that said "The best dads get promoted to grandpas." This couldn't be more true and we were so thrilled to share our news with them. I got a great video of my mom's reaction, which was priceless! Here it is:

 

 

From there we anxiously awaited our 20 week appointment to find out if we were being blessed with a sweet little boy or girl. I had a weird feeling we were having a baby boy and I was right! We again announced this news with another fun picture that I got inspiration for it from Pinterest.... here it is

So we were all set to welcome our little boy in February 2014.... We were still in our little tiny apt and by tiny I mean itty bity!!! Wondering where in the world we were going to fit our new addition. My mom joked with me constantly about clearing out a drawer for him.... not funny.

Well we just continued a long, hoping and praying that things would work out for us somehow. Ok it was more me hoping and praying, Chris seems to always have this amazing confidence that things will work out. On Christmas Eve (while I was 8 months pregnant mind you) Chris called me to let me know that he would be taking on his very own store which was something we had been hoping for for a very long time. Only thing is that it was in Fernley, NV. I know what you are thinking.... where in the world is Fernley, NV!  As you can see it is in the middle of No Where!!!!

I was thinking that very thing and also thinking how am I going to be able to have a baby and move to a new state all at once.... I have lived in California my whole life.. I was so very nervous. However, this life changing event has turned out to be the best thing that has ever happened to us! Chris and I sat down and decided that he would move to NV, live in my parents fifth wheel, manage his store and find us a house to buy. (Oh ya, amidst moving to a new state, a job promotion and having a baby we also decided that we should take on the task of buying our first house.) My only task was to have the baby :) So Chris house hunted and sent me lots of pictures of our options. Finally we found a house and bought it. It has been the best thing ever! Now we have space for our baby boy and our drawers can be reserved for our clothes ;) Plus have 2 extra bedrooms for our family and friends to come and see us!!!

We also decided to remodel the house after purchasing it. The day Chris got the keys he and his friend took down a whole wall in the house and ripped up the kitchen.... Haha! So while this remodel is happening I was living at my parent's house waiting for the arrival of our baby boy. Since Chris was 5 1/2 hrs away we decided to be induced so that Chris wouldn't miss the arrival of our little one. The labor was short, but hard... very very hard! (I'll post about it later) however it was the most amazing experience of my life because we received the most Perfect little guy ever!!! We are beyond in love with him and he never ceases to surprise us each and every day. Here he is, meet our sweet baby Corbin!

 

Anyways, I know this was a long blog post.... I had to fit a whole year into one post! Haha ok, I know that is my fault for being such a slacker on the posting. Now that our little boy is here and we are living in another state I really will try to post more to keep our family and friends up to date on all of the happenings in our life. Even though its old news I will do my next post about my pregnancy and delivery for those of you who are interested. Then I'll share our house adventures since all of that was too much to fit into one post.

Thanks for checking back in with us! So excited to share all of our new adventures!

Live, Laugh, Love!

In case you haven't noticed our blog has a new look! Now that Chris and I are married we thought that it was time to make our blog more unified as well.
Now introducing the new and slightly improved blog for the Harts!

Joyful Harts

The new web address is: http://joyfulharts.blogspot.com/

Please follow us to hear all about our amazing life adventures together!!!

Things are about to get interesting ;)

Its all in the Details!

Hello dear followers, so I was just looking at my past blogs and realized I made quite a few promises that I have not kept. I gave you all of the pre-wedding pictures of how things were supposed to look, but I never followed up to show you how they actually turned out on the big day. I have some pictures that my wonderful friends and family took, here they are:

This is our escort card table, remember I showed you those wooden blocks (Here it the link to that blog post) that Chart's amazing Uncle Glen made for us? They hadn't been painted yet when you saw them, however here they are on the big day in all of their glory!!! :)

Oh and you had to have seen my mouth watering post on the infamous candy buffet right...?

(A little something Sweet...)

Well here it is all set up and full of delectable treats!

And as always here is my fabulous family assembling it while I was off getting ready.

A Little Bit of Life.....

Now that the dust has settle from the chaos of our wedding Chart and I have begun to focus on where we go from here. We have been diligently working on our resumes and portfolios... Ok I a have been working on my portfolio because I just so happened to have picked a very "special" major that requires a portfolio for interviews. Anyways, to say we have been working hard is an understatement! Chart is on the internet daily scouring over company websites and applying to anything that even remotely sounds like a step up from his current job. I too have been looking on company websites, however, another unfortunate thing with interior design is positions usually get filled by word of mouth, not by amazing resumes, portfolios or even interviews. Luckily, since I have been working in this industry for a couple of years now I have been given some opportunities to prove my self as a serious and devoted designer. Even though I am disgusted and some what annoyed that openings at desirable firms are awarded to people that are known by others in the industry rather than qualifications or abilities... It has finally paid off for me. A firm in San Jose heard about me and my skill set and started asking around if anyone knew how to get in touch with me. A friend of mine already works there and contacted me, I immediately sent over my resume and had an interview lined up for the next week! And you are now looking at the new DIRTT Designer for One Workplace in Milpitas!!!! I cant even begin to describe how excited I am to have been given this opportunity, my first day is June 25th!!! I am trying to convince my self that my pure excitement out weighs my nerves however those darn nerves keep getting the best of me. I have been told that this company is working on some very high end projects and that we are going to be Very busy. I know I am up for the challenge, but starting something new always freaks me out a little bit... Chart is super happy for me and my newly acquired position has inspired him to look even harder for a new job.

Since we are just starting out and we havent started a family or anything, our careers are very important to us. We are working really hard to be successful, which is a huge challenge not only in this economy, but also in this financially thriving area that we live in. We are working really hard though and the hope is that we will be able to buy our very own house in the next year or so.
I'll keep you posted ;)

In the mean time my momma came up this last weekend to celebrate my new job with me!!! We went to get pedicures and a celebratory dinner, it was sooo much fun!!! She even spent some quality time bike riding with Chart while I was at work on Monday.

Here are some pictures of our wonderful weekend, they make my heart so happy!!!

Chart and I were also lucky enough to go back to Exeter weekend before last for some wedding fun, my dad's best friend's son got married!!! I’ll be sharing those pictures shortly... They are pretty awesome!!! The day after the wedding we went to my little cousin Lynn's graduation party and my sweet uncle Ray took this pick of Chart and I and just sent it to me. I had to share :)

We are Famous!!! (Kinda)

Now that all of the wedding festivities are behind us, Chart and I can relax and just enjoy how perfectly everything turned out. We have been given a flood of compliments on our venue, the ceremony, the decorations, the candy buffet and my dress. I love that everyone had so much fun on our big day and that it turned out just as wonderful as we had hoped!!! On top of those wonderful compliments from our dearest families and friends we have been so blessed as to be featured on our Amazing photographers blog!!!

(Click the picture to view blog post)

Now I realize that making it on to a photographer's blog is far from famous. However, shortly after we returned from our honeymoon we found out some amazing news!!! Our photographer Allyson Magda had photographed the wedding of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg!!! Allyson was featured on People Magazine and various other publications!!! Ok, ok... I know that doesn't make us famous, but it still is so exciting to have had the same photographer as a celebrity!!! Its the cherry on top of our PERFECT wedding day. :)

Here is the photo featured on the cover of People!!!

The Honeymoon is over....

Literally the honeymoon is over for Chart and I... We both started back to work on Monday, boy was that a rough transition! We went from waking up in a sun soaked room with ocean breezes, breakfast in bed, a stroll on the beach, a nap and a romantic dinner just the two of us every day... to a screaming alarm at 6am! Not only has the long work days and the 3 hr time change been rough, but we were getting to spend every day together and now its back to barely seeing each other in passing. Also as punishment for Chart taking off 2 weeks from work, he now has to work like 10 days straight and the closing shift I might add! That means go to work at 12 and get home at 11:30pm... I have to be at work at 9am so we briefly see each other in the morning and then maybe at night if I can manage to keep my little eyeballs open that long. This also means that he is not getting to attend our anual family trip to Yosemite!!! We were use to this kind of schedule before the wedding but after such an amazing honeymoon together, its kind of hard to fall back in to a schedule like this :(

The good news is that it wont always be like this and now we have our whole lives to spend together!!!! I am one lucky girl!!!

I also thought maybe I would share some of our honeymoon pics with you guys with the hope that I could escape a little back to that magical place ;)

Here is my handsome husband when we arrived at the airport in Maui!!!

This is the stunning view that greeted us at our hotel :D

And..... I told you we had some amazing food right? Check this out.

Be careful!!! You are drooling on your computer!!!! ;)

Here are some pictures of us together <3

Oh I almost forgot! We went sailing too!!!

It was a pretty Amazing trip that followed up our fairytale wedding, we couldn't have even asked for anything to be more perfect than it was!!! I feel blessed beyond words!!!

Here is a little bit of sunset to help you (and me) get through the rest of the week ;)

(A preview of the wedding photos will be up in the next few weeks, stay tuned!)