Welcome Kyra Crystal McIntire

I was scheduled to be induced this morning at 8:00am in Idaho Falls, but Mother Nature had other plans for me. I woke up at 2am with contractions and decided to paint my nails and take a shower just to wait and see what happens. 2 hours later and 7 minutes apart, I decided to wake Devin up and tell him that we should travel to the hospital. We packed the car and headed to Idaho Falls. We arrived around 6:00 checked in and was ready for what the morning had in store; or were we. ;-) Each time I'm in labor I like to see how long I can go without any pain medication. I don't know why---perhaps I'm stubborn or think that maybe I can handle it. Whatever the reason I always seem to regret the length of time I go without medication. Around 8:00 I was still around a 4 and I asked Devin to get my chapstick from the car and maybe go get himself some breakfast. By 9:00 the contractions were so strong that if I could have ran away with my elephant feet I would have. Whoooo--ouch! So I requested an epidural. Well- 15 minutes later they were prepping me for the epidural (which I had a bunch of swelling in my back thanks to all the water I was retaining) and Devin was no where in site. Usually I hang on to Devin while I'm getting the "shot" thru the contractions-this time I had to squeeze my poor nurse. During the process I knew I had waited too long.....I felt like the baby was coming. They laid me down and the pain was EXTREME and the pressure was even worse. To top it off...Devin could not be located. By 9:50--the baby was coming without the epidural taking effect, without the doctor being there, and without Devin. I honestly don't know what was worse. When the doctor came in-my water exploded---and I just had to push. I push a couple of times and here walks my husband. Hmmmmmm-----glad you could make it honey. ;-) So I pushed aprox 10 more times--and since I'm not a screamer I took out my pain management on my pillow with my teeth-and delivered my beautiful little girl Kyra Crystal McIntire at 10:02am. She is 20.5 inches long, 8lbs 4 oz, and is such a sweetheart. Once she was in my arms-the epidural final was "working"--perfect timing right?! She is great and has been such a good baby. I'm so glad Devin made it: come to find out he went to the car to get my chapstick, sat to look at the baby name book and fell asleep. WHAT??? He is sooooooo lucky he made it. Anyway-the kids were able to come visit with grandma and grandpa Swanson and Nicole and they were so excited. Both of them are so happy to have a little sister. Below are a few photos and I'm sure I will post more when I have a little bit more time and I'm not so tired.

She hated her first bath

Heads up....Ima venting

This week sure has been one for the "books". I don't know if it's the pregnancy, my hormones completely out of wack, the Holiday season, or what---but my patience does not exist. I hate almost everyone (family not included) and I would be happy to sit in my bed with the lights out and ignore everything. It doesn't help that I feel like I'm HUGE! My legs and feet have retained so much water that I seriously thought I was going to have to cut my pants off the other night. I have 1 pair of shoes for work and if I don't get them on my ginormous feet by 8:30am-they won't go on. After that--well, fuzzy pink socks are the only thing that fits. The other night we were going to go to the store and I couldn't wear any shoes-even my crocs from my feet surgeries couldn't get past my toes- I sat in my closet and cried. Cortlynn came in and suggested that I wear some of dads shoes. ;-( I know I am being a big baby-but.....I really don't care. I pray that the swelling goes away once the baby is here---can your feet get so big that the skin pops?? Just wondering because they have popped the backs of my work shoes.
With the constant leg and feet pain mixed in with fatigue, a cold, (a husband who is now sick), I am in no mood for the butt heads that come into my place of employment. The things I've been called this week is ridiculous. I don't understand how someone can treat another person so bad when they don't even know them. One guy kept shaking his finger in my face; I came about 3 seconds from either biting it (but he was gross) or grabbing it and breaking it. I really thought about it. That is sad. Years ago I loved working with the public now, not so much. Sure wish Devin would win the lottery so I could stay at home with the kids and find a hobby to keep me busy. Is all of this added stress really worth it in the end?? I don't think it is-I come home and end up taking it out on the people I love the most--Devin and the kids. The days of coming home from work with a smile on my face are long gone. I think if I came home with a smile on my face my family would ask me what I was on....I don't know--I need to quit venting and try to get some sleep.
I'm having contractions on and off almost nightly now-and they are quite strong. I'm dilated to a two so I don't think I will be going to my due date which is Dec. 30. I feel like it will be next week sometime. We can't wait to meet our new addition to the family---we just need to come up with a name.



The ONLY pregnant photo of me and it was taken tonight. The other one Cortlynn took of my swollen legs and feet----too bad I don't have a photo of an elephant or hippo to compare the legs too.....they may not look that big but holy crap-they are....

Dr's and feet....

This has been one of those weeks that I don't care to relive and or comment on so I will keep this post brief. Tristan and I both had doctor appointments this week and he was HILARIOUS! While we were at mine he was sitting on the floor and the nurse was listening to the babies heartbeat; the heartbeat was really fast and she made a comment that I must have had a good breakfast. Tristan pops up and says, "Yep-she had a cheeseburger" No I didn't Tristan...."Yes you did mom, You had a cheeseburger." The look on the nurses face was priceless thinking that I had eaten a cheeseburger at 9:00 in the morning.
While at his appointment he wouldn't perform. He just looked at the doctor and acted like he didn't know how to do anything and couldn't answer any of the doctor's questions. Tristan even told him that he couldn't jump, stand on one foot, that he lived in Idaho Falls, didn't know the ABC's or count. My "special" child did tell the doctor that his mom says all candy is crap and that his dad drinks a lot of soda because it's good for you. Gotta love what kids say.
This week my feet and legs have been swelling SO BAD! They hurt, are gross looking, and I'm just so over it. I'm beginning to wonder if they keep getting bigger if they will actually break my shoes....I'm almost to the point I'm going to have to wear extra wide slippers since none of my shoes fit. I've posted a couple of pictures, you can't really get a true picture of them but you'll get an idea. We all know how much I love feet and to have them look like Flintstones feet makes it that much better.

Happy 4th Birthday Tristan Phoenix

My little boy turned 4 years old yesterday. I cannot believe how fast time flies by and how big he is getting. Tristan is such a special little man and I love him so much! He was so excited for his birthday because he knew daddy would be home. Devin actually came home late Friday night and was here in the morning. When Tristan saw him he was so happy and gave him the biggest hug. All day long Tristan was Devin's little shadow. Devin bought everyone a Boise State shirt and Tristan was so excited to wear his. At first he was concerned that it was a girls shirt because it was long on him but we assured him that it was ALL BOY.
We had planned a birthday party for him but unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate and no one was able to come. I felt bad for him but we made sure to make it a special day for him. We opened presents and took him to McDonald's than we came back home to eat cake and ice cream and than watch "The Last Airbender". I think he had a good day.

Tristan @McDonald's Tristan w/the Iron Man toys

Eating his cake and ice cream

such a cheesy grin

His Star Wars Cake

Slumber parties and Donuts with Dad

Devin has been gone for just over a week and we have 3 more days to go. It has been such a long and exhausting week! I had most of this week scheduled off prior to Devin's trip was scheduled and I'm so glad it worked out this way. Trying to juggle work and the kids schedule by myself last week was tough!

For my vacation I have a huge to-do list and so far I've completed none of them. I am SO tired! All I want to do is sleep--I think it is my bodies way of getting ready for the baby to arrive. Good for the baby but not good for my list. Tomorrow I WILL get something done!
Last Friday and Saturday night the kids and I had a slumber party. We all piled up in my bed with treats and watched a movie until we all fell asleep. Tristan is so cute he wants to have a slumber party every night now. I've created a monster! Not sure where Devin will sleep when he gets home.... ;-)
Yesterday I helped out at Cortlynn's school for about an hour. This is fun because I get to know the teacher and the other students. I almost wonder if helping stresses Cortlynn out a little bit. Yesterday I was timing different students on their multiplication tables and poor Cortlynn was so upset when she didn't finish hers: she was only 1 off and she completely broke down. I felt so bad for her. I tried to talk to her about it later in the day but of course she didn't have answers for me---just that she was tired and had a bad day.... Since she had such a bad day I decided to have today be a "Cortlynn Day".
To start off the day they had a Donuts with Dad morning at her school. Since Devin is out of town I decided to take her. I was shocked by how many dads actually showed up. We had to wait outside for about 5 minutes to even get into the school there were so many dads. It was fun-we had juice, a donut, and than we sat in the library and read a book for a few minutes. Cortlynn was glad I was able to go with her. After school I took her to get a haircut. She loves to get her haircut so I knew this would make her day. I hope this made up for yesterday.

Cortlynn eating her donut at the school today.....

Tristan's FIRST (professional) haircut

Since today was Veterans Day the bank was closed and so was Tristan's daycare so it became a mommy and son day. First thing on the agenda was getting Tristan an actual professional haircut. I was putting this off forever because he is such a drama king I knew it would be an exhausting appointment. I tried to make it a positive trip--and told him we would go to McDonalds for lunch when he was all done. That seemed to work until we pulled up to the salon. When he saw the front door he began to cry and tell me that only girls get their haircut there and he didn't want a girls haircut. (oh great, what am I doing?) We get inside and I explain that this is his first time and that it may be slightly traumatic. He was really good for the first 10 minutes. 10 minutes was his limit.....she pulled out the clippers (with a purple comb on it) and he freaks out. "I DON'T WANT a GIRLS HAIRCUT!!!!" We tried to console him and the tears that came out were HUGE! The poor little boy. I took the camera but I knew that would make it even worse. She continued to cut the back while she combed the rest to the front--ooohhh-this was not good. He really had a girls look and he wasn't too happy about it. A few more minutes past and I held his hand while she attempted to clean up the stray hairs and make it even. At this point he looked at all the hair on the floor and the cape he was wearing and began to cry again, "Mom, I don't want all my hair gone. I want my hair back." Too late for that. I'm glad that is over and next time he will be going with Devin.
Cortlynn came home from school and told him how much she liked it and than touched his hair and he preceded to tell her not to touch his hair because she was going to mess it up. I'm happy with the haircut but he looks like he aged about 2 years. He really looks like a little man, not my little boy. ;-(

Below are a couple of photos I took in the car right after the event. If you look close you can see that his eyes are red and he is still pretty mad at me.

hmmmmmm...

I swear I tell myself I'm not going to go a week without updating the blog-but here it is over two weeks since my last post. So much has gone on so I'm not going to bore you with me trying to update all of you with the last two weeks; I'll just vent. ;-)

Tristan and Cortlynn had a good Halloween and have been so busy. With school, dance, preschool, and Tristan being too big for naps--these kids are exhausted by the end of the day. This pregnancy is kicking my butt. It could be that I'm not young anymore or it could be that I don't take the time to take good care of myself; either way--good grief, I'm so tired, sore, itchy, big, waddling, you name it. Today I had a doctor appointment and everything is progressing normally. She hid from the nurse again and trying to hear the heartbeat was almost impossible. The baby is low and her head is in position for the big event. Not too sure if I will go until my due date or not. Based on her lack of patience-I would say she is eager to come into this world.

Devin was volunteered to travel to Twin Falls to help with the Fred Meyer Re-Grand Opening. Lucky us. He was told it would be from Nov. 10 thru the 19th (he would be back in time to celebrate Tristan's birthday). Well-wouldn't you know it--he gets part of his itinerary and it shows him checking in on the 9th and checking out on the 20th. So that was the plan; until we get home from the doctor and there is a message on the phone wondering where he is.... WHAT?! Yep-someone messed up (surprise) and he was supposed to be there this morning. He packed his bag and away he went. How frustrating. It only went down hill from there. We were told that the hotel was all paid for and not to worry about it. NOPE-he gave them his debit card for incidentals (using the phone or renting a movie) and the hotel has charged almost $400 to his account so far....NICE! Hopefully that gets corrected and they don't decide to charge his debit card for the entire 10 nights. Tristan is having a hard time understanding that he won't be home and cries. It's pretty sad--I guess I'm going to have a roommate while Devin is gone and maybe his feelings won't be hurt as much.