Year End Review
This year has been a wonderfully crazy one for Erik and I. It's been full of trials and struggles, but also full of miracles and blessings. I've been horrible about keeping our blog updated, so I will do so now with a year end review.
January
The new year started with me beginning my last semester at BYU-Idaho and with Erik continuing to work his job at Prosper. He really disliked the job but it was definitely paying our bills so he continued going everyday while I finished my degree. I was working for BYU-I cattering part time while attending school, and we were doing well. We weren't sure what was going to happen after I graduated or where we would go, but we knew that God would guide and direct our path.
We also decided (with much persuasion from Heavenly Father) to begin trying to have a baby. With my past medical history doctors were sure it would take quite some time, so we figured we would start the process now, and maybe in a year or two we would be blessed enough to have our first child.
Neither of us were prepared for what came in February.
February
Half way through February I was sitting at the catering pick up office at work when I began feeling REALLY sick. I was exhausted even though I had slept well the night before, and I was feeling nauseous, which for me is really rare, I hardly ever feel nauseous. I wondered if I was maybe getting the flu, when I had the thought, maybe you're pregnant. I brushed it aside, there was no way it would happen this fast, and I continued on with my day.
After a few more days my exhaustion and naseua were accompanied by hot and cold flashes and insane cravings for french fries. Once again the thought entered my mind, but I brushed it aside, there was no possible way.
During the middle of all of this, Erik lost his job. We really began wondering what on earth we would do after I graduated, and how we were going to make ends meet. I felt confident in my ability to find a job with all of my work experience in food services, so once I graduated maybe I would be able to do that.
A week later it was finally time for a pregnancy test. I bought three, and all of them came back with the same answer. Contrary to what my doctor was saying was possible so soon, I was pregnant. I came out of the bathroom with tears of shock and joy on my face and told Erik. He could barely believe it. That night we just laid in stunned silence at the news. We hadn't expected this, and we weren't ready for it, but it had happened. Me finding a job now was out of the question, no one would hire a soon to be mom with no plans of continuing to work once her baby was born. We realized it was time to plan our future. Over Christmas break Erik had had an interview while we were in Illinois and we were in hopes of a job starting in March or April. That was now our new plan after I graduated.
The next 13 weeks were insane and will be explained below. I continually waited for something to go wrong with my pregnancy, there was just no way everything would work so well this soon, but aside from being EXTREMELY nauseous and other physical problems that only concerned me and not the baby, everything went perfectly.
March
March brought with it new trials and struggles. I was really sick due to being pregnant, but other than that I was doing well in school and Erik was continually job searching. On March 19th though everything changed. I was walking into my class up at the Ricks building at 7:45 AM when suddenly my feet slipped on some ice and I fell hard on my side. My head then proceeded to smack the pavement, and I had a huge gash above my eye.
After a dramatic visit from the ambulance EMT's I was cleared to go to urgent care and get stitches. My head was throbbing but the real problem started two days after I fell. My right shoulder began hurting, but due to being pregnant I wasn't able to take medication to help, and I wasn't sleeping at night. It made for an interesting end of the semester, but with the help from my wonderful husband, everything got done, and I was cleared to graduate. During all of this Erik continued to job hunt, but to no avail. Finally we decided to see if we could get him into grad school, so he started the application process.
April
April was a CRAZY month for our little family. At the beginning of the month I graduated school and Erik got accepted to the June semester at school in Naperville Illinois at North Central College. We started scrambling for where we could stay, with Erik being out of work for so long our savings was dieing down. We were still in high hopes of the job in Illinois coming through, so Kevin and Heidi told us we could stay with them until we got enough for an apartment. After I graduated we started packing up our apartment and then headed out east. It was a long drive for both of us, but especially for Erik. Due to my pregnancy and my arm I wasn't able to drive the moving truck, so Erik had to drive every single mile. Half way through Nebraska we hit some really strong wind, and it was a scary drive. We made it to Illinois though, and it was good to no longer be in the truck. Once we settled in though we found out that our hope for Erik's job working out wasn't going to happen, so Erik started the job hunt.
May and June
May and June were both filled with Erik job hunting like crazy and me getting bigger every week. In June we found out that we were having a boy, and we were so excited. We had picked out the name Elijah for our first born son, and we were so excited to meet our little man.
July
July found us with luck at last in the job hunt. Erik finally found employment at Kraft foods stocking shelves. It wasn't definitely the dream job he had been looking for, but it was a job, so we took it. I was able to fly home to Idaho for ten days to visit my parents. It was a blast! We spent the week and a half shopping, fishing, and eating pie at my favorite pie place, Homestead. It was a great little vacation and I had a great time. I also caught a nice sized fish, so that was great.
August, September, October
The next few months followed with nothing major happening except for Elijah growing bigger and bigger and Erik working and going to class. Our spare time was filled with getting the nursery ready and trying to mentally prepare ourselves to be parents. Near the end of October I had another ultra sound to check for Elijah's size, the doctors were concerned about him all ready being over eight pounds, and they were right, the ultra sound showed that he was already 8 pounds 2 ounces, and most of that was because of his large head. I began really hoping that Elijah would come early, I was starting to experience a lot of pain and couldn't wait to get him out. The little man held out strong though, and made it past his due date in November.
November
November was by far the most exciting month of our year. With Elijah's due date getting closer and closer my depression started coming back and getting stronger. The last doctor's appointment before Elijah's due date I told my doctor that I was beginning to worry about how I was doing mentally with the depression coming back. After a very frank discussion he decided to set an induction date the day after my due date. I was due the 12th so on the 13th I was scheduled to go into the hospital. The morning of the 13th came and as we were getting ready to go in the hospital called. A lot of women had come in during the night in labor and they were out of beds. We were asked to wait until the next day. That was by far the longest day of my life! The 14th came though, and Erik and I headed to the hospital ready to greet our little man. I was so ready to be done being pregnant!
The next few days were full of snuggling and getting to know our new little one. After three days in the hospital Elijah and I were released and headed home. My mom and dad were able to fly in the very next day to spend a few days with Elijah and to have Thanksgiving with us. It was a blast!
Having to watch my mom and dad leave after their visit was really hard, but we all knew that they couldn't stay forever. We were just so grateful that they were able to come when they did.
December
The last week of November and the first week of December were very hard ones for me. I struggled greatly with post-partum depression, and my anxiety was through the roof. I was able to learn a lot about the pure love of Christ though as I watched those I live with help me and do things for me that I couldn't do for myself. It was a hard experience but was also a truly strengthening one. After some doctor visits things started leveling out, and Christmas was quickly approaching. We were all excited to celebrate Elijah's first Christmas, and it was a good one. Christmas Eve was slightly rough, Elijah wasn't feeling the best and was up almost the entire day, but he made up for it on Christmas day when he slept basically all day long. We did get an adorable video of him on his gift from Santa Clause though, a rocking moose!
We ended the day with having some friends over and eating a wonderful turkey dinner. We also had the same friends over for New Year's Eve. We ate lots of good food and played games till about 11:30 when the new parents, AKA Erik and I, had to turn in because we were just so dang tired! It was a great last day of the year though, and a good ending to such a busy year.
So all in all it was a good year. We learned a lot and experienced many hardships and trials, but that is what made it a good year, was experiencing those trials and then moving on from them. We are so grateful for the loving family that we have, and for the gospel in our lives. We hope you enjoyed our year update! We are already enjoying our new year and are looking forward to all that will happen! We will try to keep you all updated!
Lacey Miller
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