Pirate Dinner Show

We went to a Pirate Dinner Show last night and had a blast! At first we were going to Medieval Times but we thought that Ben would have more fun at the Pirate one. I am so glad that we did because Ben had a blast. We were seated in the Purple pirates section so we were on the purple team.


The Purple Pirate!

The food was amazing too. We were served a salad first, and we had ordered the chicken as our main entree. I thought that it would just be a chicken leg but holy crap the chicken portion was HUGE! It was seriously like half a chicken. We were all starving so we had no problem finishing it. The dessert was really yummy too, apple pit with ice cream! Ethan slept for the first five minutes of the show, but five minutes in some gun shooting started and woke him up. I thought the loud noise was going to upset him, but he did really well. He was so interested in all of the lights :-) Towards the end of the show a man came up and asked Guy if he would like to help with the show. He was didn't want to, but my mom and I talked him into it lol. It was so funny they put a pirate hat on him, and a pirate vest lol.


Guy carrying the booty to be put on the pirate ship

He helped bring some booty in and put it on the pirate ship. He was so embarrassed but Ben had fun seeing his dad up on the ship.


He was all smiles lol

It was a cute story line too, and they had a guy and girl do this ariel fabric performance and it was absolutely beautiful. I had seen them on you tube and TV before but never in person. I never realized just how much muscle strength you need to have to be able to do something like that. I would love to see a show that was all about ariel fabric because it is simply beautiful. I wish I would have taken some pictures of it but I was so focused that I forgot to lol. I can't wait to go again with Ethan is a little older I know he will have just as much as Ben did.


Ben and Mommy with the Purple Pirate!


Daddy and Ben


Grandma and Ethan

Road Trip

Last Saturday my mom, husband, the boys and I loaded up in a rented mini van and started our drive to California. I was nervous traveling with a 6 week old, and had no idea what to expect. Well it didn't turn out as horrible as I thought it would be. The first day of travel was actually pretty good. Ethan and Ben both slept a lot! Only when we were two hours from Richfield UT, did things get a little complicated. We left Denver at 6am and got into Richfield at 4pm, I think we made good timing really. We wanted to be on the road again by 6am on Sunday morning (so we didn't hit all that traffic from Vegas to the California border), but when the alarm went off at 530am we were all so tired that we shut it off and slept till 830 am lol. We were on the road by 10am. This travel day was HORRIBLE! Ben was no tired at all so he was very cranky, and not to mention that he was starting to get sick, and sitting in a car seat is not the most comfortable thing to sit in when you don't feel good. Ethan must have hit his 6 weeks growth spurt because he was drinking so much! I was miserable because I had to keep going to the back of the van, and squeeze myself between the two car seats which was very uncomfortable. Unfortunately because our lazy butts didn't leave when we wanted we hit horrible traffic from Vegas to the California state line. We didn't get in until almost 8pm. I was SO thankful to get out of that van. The boys were pretty happy about it too. Overall the trip really wasn't that bad, however, I will think twice the next time we decide to drive over 1000 miles with two little ones. :-)

Introducing Ethan Leigh Pierce

I have had quite a few people ask me about Ethan's birth story, so I figured I would put it in a note so everyone who wanted to see it could... Anyways my story started on Thursday night (1/12/12) around 7:30pm. Guy, Ben and I were on our way to eat at the Yard House when I started to feel some painful contractions. They weren't that bad at first, but half way through dinner I started having to really concentrate to get through them. We had planned on walking around the mall after dinner (to help bring labor on), but my contractions were too painful so we just went home. I wasn't convinced I was in labor yet so we decided to watch a movie. After the movie my contractions were still coming about every five minutes so I decided to call the on-call doc. They wanted me to come in to get checked. This was about 12 am on Friday morning, we dropped Ben off at my mother-in-laws and headed to the hospital. When I got there they hooked me up to the monitors my contractions had gotten irregular and were about 7 mins apart and I was only 2cm and 70% effaced. They were going to let me labor for a couple of hours and check me again to see if I was making any progress. She told me that they would put me back on the monitor for 15 mins and after 15 mins would check me. Well in the 1 hour and 30 minutes (not two hours) that they did let me labor, my contractions were regulating and were five minutes apart. When the nurse came in I specifically told her that my contractions had gotten regular at five minutes apart last about 45-60 secs. She NEVER put me back on the monitor like she she said she would, she just said "oh ok well lets just check you and see if you have changed at all". She checked me and I was I was still the same no change at all. She said "well ok I will go get your discharge papers". I was extremely frustrated at this point, because these contractions HURT! She didn't give me the full two hours like she said she was going to, and she also never put me back on the monitors like she said she was going to do. (Let me add that with Ben when I was in the first stages of labor it took me 8 1/2 hours to go from 1/2-1 1/2 cm) The nurse came to give me discharge papers, and this is when I started to doubt myself. The nurse made me feel like a complete idiot. She told me that this was just "Prodromal labor" and that this can go on for days, I just needed to go home and wait it out, and don't come back till you can't breath through the contractions and they are five minutes apart for at least two hours. Great well, I already couldn't breath through them so I must just be an idiot who didn't know the difference between false and real labor. The entire time she was telling me this she had a very sarcastic tone, she actually seemed annoyed with me because I was a second time mom. Didn't I remember any of this? blah... Anyways we got home around 430 am, the contractions were still present, they hadn't gotten any worse though. I tried to sleep but couldn't because these "false" contractions were painful as hell. Guy went off to work, and I was so frustrated because I was exhausted, still having "false" contractions, and now I had to try and take care of Ben all day. Again, the nurse had me convinced that I was just an idiot and that I wasn't in labor so I didn't even think twice about calling anyone to come help me with Ben. Ben finally went down for a nap around two, I was so happy because I was going to try and nap too. Ha ha this is when I should have listened to my body and not some bitchy nurse. My contactions were still about five minutes apart, but now they were starting to last about 1:15-1:30 long. The night before the nurse told me not to come in again till my contractions were 5 mins apart for more then two hours (well they had been 5 mins apart (except for when I first go there) for about six hours when she told me that...) I wanted to go back in to get checked but again, that damn nurse had me convinced that this wasn't real labor. I text Guy at two and tell him that the contractions are starting to hurt more, but that I don't know if I should go in or not yet. For all I knew it was all just in my mind because I had been having them for over 20 hours at that point. Four comes around and now they are about 3-4 mins apart lasting 1:30. I call Guy tell him he needs to come home because I can barely move they hurt so bad. He leaves and when five hits I was completely terrified. I had been crying so hysterically because I was in so much pain, that I woke Ben up. The contractions were coming fast and hard now about two mins apart lasting 1:30, Ben was freaking out because I was crying, I didn't know what to do. I went to the bathroom and there was BRIGHT red blood, I started to panic. I remember when I was in labor with Ben that when the nurse checked me and saw bright red blood that I was 7cm dilated. Guy still wasn't home and I was starting to panic. I was either going to call 911 or my friend Karlee. I made the decision to call Karlee first because she was close and could be here in ten minutes or so, I was hysterical when she answered crying I told her that she needed to come get Ben, she told me that she was on her way and that everything was going to be ok. I was so relieved when Guy got home it was about 6:10ish (I think), but still completely terrified, because I now had TONS of pressure in pelvic region. Karlee showed up five minutes after Guy, got Ben, and we were off. I seriously thought I was going to die, that was the longest car ride of my entire life. We finally get to the hospital, Guy wheels me up. They get me into a room and at this point I am SCREAMING for an epidural! I wanted to go natural so badly, but I was exhausted and the pain was so intense that I completely caved. Guy kept asking me "are you sure? I know you really wanted to go natural" I told him no that I needed it. I am so lucky to have him he was so supportive of my last minute decision. They had to check me first before they could give me the epidural. I was 8cm, 100% effaced and Ethan was at +1 station. The first thing I asked (ok screamed) was "Can I still get the epdiural?!". The nurse said yes you can, but she also said that if they were to break my water labor would move very quickly, he would be out in minutes and the pain would go away. Guy again asked me if I was sure about the epidural and I said yes that I was sure. They started an IV and five minutes later the anesthisologist came in, ten minutes later the epidural was in. Once the epi was in they gave the epi five minutes to start working. I called my sister and got her on Skype. My mom, Gina, and Cayla were all on there way and I was hoping that the time it took to get me the epi was going to be enough time so they could all make it. Then the doc came in and broke my water. The next contraction sent me to 10cm! The doc got dressed, and two pushes later my sweet little Ethan was here at 7:56pm. Weighing 6lbs 11.4oz and 19 inches long!



Gina walked in right as I was starting the second push. Unfortunately Cayla missed it, only by a few minutes too, because she said that when she pulled into the parking lot her clock said 7:56 :(. My mom missed it as well she too was pulling into the parking lot as he was being born. This killed me the most! My mom had missed Ben's labor too because she was at the airport going out of town. It kills me that she missed it when she was in town. All because I let someone get to me so much that I doubted myself. I will forever regret NOT listening to my body, if I had, everyone who I really wanted to be there would have. I am however very thankful that I had such a smooth delivery, and that Ethan had no problems with his blood sugar. I am also thankful that I was able to keep my Gestational Diabetes under such great control that he was not a big baby at all. In fact I carried him a week and four days longer then I did with Ben, and he was smaller then Ben was. My biggest overall lesson that I learned from all of this is to ALWAYS trust your body! You know your body better than anyone else does.

Ethan, Mommy, and Daddy


Daddy, Ethan, and Big Brother Ben


Daddy and Ethan

Yes I am still alive

My last post I talked about how I had been accepted into a nursing program and how worried I was about not being able to do it. Well everything worked out in the end, like it always does. God always comes through for me. I hadn't been able to post at all because if I wasn't studying for a test I was either watching Ben, working, or at clinicals. Yes I did have the summer of 2011 off I thought about starting the blog back up then, however shortly into my break I found out I was pregnant! So everytime I got a minute to myself I would lay down and take a nap. Now that I have successfully completed the nursing program, I feel like I will have more time to keep up with this blog. :-)