I now have the time to sit at the computer, with my cup of joe, with The Wizard playing in the background (of course this would be a movie Nate chooses to watch with Alaina), and can rant about the last four months! Time sure is flying by.

Alaina turned six months old this April. It is so crazy to think that it was six months ago that we had her. It feels like it just happened, yet I cannot remember what it was like to not have her here.

At her last Dr. Appointment they said that she is doing great! She is in the 90th percentile for everything. She took her shots like a champ. She did not miss a beat and only cried for a few seconds.
Alaina loves:
Eating- we have not found something she doesn't like. She eats baby food at night (beans, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, bananas) We are going to start feeding her cereal in the mornings now and food every night. She does hold her own bottle most of the time,
Sleeping- she JUST started sleeping from 8pm to 4am so that is a great thing for us. Now, if we can just get her to consistently wake up one hour later, that would be ideal. But at this time, I will take what I can get.
Talking- this baby talks ALL the time. On the way to day care it's nothing but jabber coming from the backseat. I think this MAY be the ONLY thing that she got from her momma.
Rolling over- she hasn't started crawling, but she can roll over to get to something she wants

Alaina isn't a fan of:
Socks- she has the sweatiest feet and is always pulling her sock off
Snot Sucker- Mommy is booger crazy. So, when she sees that blue snot sucker coming, she rolls over and hides. Good for her though, because this morning we found our 3rd snot sucker chewed up from Daisie our dog. So, we no longer have one. I think they were teaming up together.
And that is pretty much it. She is such an easy baby. Always happy and in a great mood.

2011 Recap

As we rang in the new year it is time to reflect on all the memories of the year past. I can say that I thought 2010 was pretty fabulous with the wedding and honeymoon, but 2011 was hands down the best year of my life, for obvious reasons.

Professionally, I was able to manage an office that turned into something pretty amazing. For those that do not know what I do, I manage Express Employment Professionals of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We are a full service staffing agency. So, we help employers find employees and employees find jobs, seems pretty simple, but it is a very challenging industry to work in. I have had the opportunity to work with my sister Brandy since 2009 as she is my senior staffing consultant. We had some internal turnover where it left just Brandy and I to run an office by ourselves for almost four months. It was very challenging, and we put in a lot of hours, but the thing that was amazing, we were hitting all time highs as an office, with just herself and I. So, that can tell you a little bit about how well we work together. Because our numbers were so well, we were able to back fill the other staffing consultant position and then add another team member, making 3 internal recruiters and myself. I had the opportunity to extend offers to two of the most talented friends that I had, and I do not regret it for a second. Julie and Christina were part of a team that hit all time records that Express has NEVER seen in Cedar Rapids. That is pretty exciting stuff, and I am so excited to see what 2012 has in store for our team!! I can honestly say that I love going to work every day and it is because of these three women and the hard work and talent that they all have.

Beginning of 2011, Nate and I decided that after ringing in the new year, we were going to try and have a baby. By the end of January we saw the positive pregnancy test and our life was going to be changing! I was very blessed that we were able to get pregnant easy and the pregnancy all together was very easy, so I thank God every day for the little 8 pound 5 ounce blessing we were given. Alaina has been the most amazing experience and we wake up every day wondering what the day will bring with her. She is my little honeybee and makes me so happy. Life cannot be bad when you are looking at her bright blue eyes. :)

Nate had a lot of changes and accomplishments in 2011 as well. He was able to complete his first Ironman in September, became a dad in October, and then started a new job in December. He now works and Van Meter in Cedar Rapids. This was a huge change for us, but we are so excited that he is now working for a company in a position that he loves and he will be very good at. He is back working in Cedar Rapids, so I am sure that within a couple of years we will be moving closer to Cedar Rapids.

Outside of all the excitement and positive things that happened to our little family, everyone else has been healthy and successful as well. We cannot thank God enough for everything that he has provided for us. If we have half as good of a year in 2012 as we did in 2011, I would say that we will be pretty lucky.

So what is on the agenda for us? No babies that is for sure, we are sticking to just Alaina for a while. Nate's sister Natalie is expecting her first baby in July, My middle niece Bailey is going to be 16!! My eldest niece Abby will turn 21 in August so we are going to go to Vegas with her! Alaina's pony party, other friends of ours starting on their second baby, planning a trip somewhere nice and warm with our friends the Davis's. All in all there are a lot of things to be looking forward to, and I am so blessed to have my family and friends with us to experience it all!!

Back to Work and Day Care

I officially went back to work at 6 weeks. She started daycare at 7 weeks old. There are so many mixed emotions when it came to dropping her off that first day.

She remembered me when I picked her up :)

I am definitely a career focused person, so the drive to be at work was starting to give me the itch around week 5 and 6. I am a numbers person who needs to have a goal in front of me to achieve, so I knew that I was going to be going to work. What made me so sad, was the fact that my baby will be in someone elses arms for 10 hours a day. What I came to realize was that this was her social life as well. There are several other little munchkins at day care for her to learn from and interact with, that I truly feel that this was the best choice for our family.

We have an amazing day care provider that sends me pictures if I need them, and they really do get me through the day. So we are on our second full week at work and it is going as best as it possibly could. I get so excited to get off work so I can go see her :) It is so fun to see other little kids call her Nayna and mama. :) I think she is going to love going to day care when she is older!

What I Love the Most...

What I love the most:

1. Looking at our daughter and picking out what she has of Mine and Nate's
2. Putting her face close to my ear and listening to the little noises and her breathing. I tell Nate that it is her telling us secrets and stories, just to sit and listen.
3. Laughing at how much she farts. Seriously, it's ridiculous.
4. Making her stop crying. It makes me feel like I am doing something right and I am a good momma.
5. Dressing her every morning, afternoon and night with a different outfit.
6. Her sneezing.
7. Watching Nate hold her and tell her about his day at work.
8. Reading to her like she actually understands the stories that we are telling her.
9. Seeing how much our family loves her.
10. Not caring that I still have baby weight to lose because she was worth every single pound.
11. Wanting to stay home all the time with her because nothing is more fun then watching her.
12. Hearing that she is cute, that never gets old.
13. Getting up with her in the middle of the night, I know it sounds crazy and I am sure that I will get over it and it won't last, but for the time being, I love being the one to make her happy and comfortable.
14. How she will never stop eating unless you physically make her. She eats SO much! Just another thing like her dad :)
15. I like doing laundry and having a little sock stuck to Nate's work pants when you pull them out of the dryer.
16. Seeing how the dog's are a lot more calm since she arrived and they are always so curious what this little person is doing and how she smells 
17. Honestly thinking that my baby is the cutest baby in the world and no one can argue with me
18. How she has baby acne 
19. When Nate and I went out of town for our friends wedding and during slow dances we are talking about what we love the most about Alaina and what we miss about her
20. Having tears come to my eyes every time there is a song about a Mother and her love :)

When The Stork Came

As our due date fast approached, I can honestly say that I felt the exact same day in and day out. The morning on October 8th, however, I woke up very early, just around 4am, and felt very sick. Very nauseous and the heart burn was 100 times worse than the past. I couldn't fall asleep so I woke Nate up and we decided to watch Baby Momma at 4:30am. After the movie was over Nate made me a delicious breakfast and we got ready to go watch our niece Bailey run at North Linn for cross country. I was feeling a little better so I wasn't going to stay home so off we went.

As we were at the meet, I was having a very hard time walking. There was so much pressure with every step, but nothing painful, so I chalk it up to just being so big. After the meet, we were invited over to my sister's house to watch the Hawk game. We went home got the puppies and we went to Delhi.While we were there, I am sort of convinced, that the way that the Hawks played that day, induced the contractions. It was about 4:30pm and I noticed that I was getting contractions pretty consistently, but nothing painful, just tightening. So, for the fun of it, I started documenting in my phone the duration and the time between contractions. 4:44pm, 4:50pm, 5:15pm, 5:25pm, 5:33pm, 5:39pm, 5:44pm, 5:52pm, 6:01pm, 6:05pm(very light), 6:10pm, 6:14pm, 6:18pm, 6:23pm, 6:36pm, and then were were home in Central City. By this time, there was a little pain, but I was still able to talk through them. The Doctor said to not come to the hospital until the 5:1:1 rule and they were so bad that I could not talk through them. 5 minutes apart, lasting for 1 minute, for 1 hour straight. Well, we were not to this point yet, but I started to notice that I was spotting pretty bad. I texted my sister and my mom and asked if this was normal. My mom said she knew that is when she was in labor with me, because that happened to her, and my sister said that she thought I should call the Dr. to let them know. As always, I listened to the advice, and called the Dr. They asked me a series of questions. The last two were, "When are you due", I said, "Tomorrow". She then asked if I was progressing at the last appointment and I said yes, I was almost 4cm and 20%. She said right away, "How about you come in just to be on the safe side, we will have the chart waiting for you when you get here." With that being said I went into the bedroom and told Nate that we better get going.

On the way to St. Luke's my contractions were as follows: 7:21pm, 7:25pm, 7:28pm, 7:31pm, 7:33pm, 7:39pm, and 7:44pm. By 7:44pm we were sitting in the exam room and the contractions were AWFUL! I could not talk at all through these and the only words that I could get out were curse words. The Nurse was monitoring the contractions and said that the baby's heart rate was great and my contractions were pretty strong but I was only at a 4 but I was 50% effaced. At this time, the nurse started asking what my spotting was like, and she was curious as to if my water had broken. She was then explaining a test that they were going to do to check. At this same time I had the worst contraction yet, and all of a sudden there was a POP! I looked at the nurse and I said, "I am pretty sure my water just broke" She lifted up the blanket and said, "Yup, it sure did!! Looks like we are having a baby tonight." At that time, all of the memories of my begging my baby to come, the foot massage that I got from my youngest Niece Emerson earlier that day, and the bumpy golf cart ride my sister took me on that afternoon came rushing back, and I said, "okay I know what I said and did today hoping this would happen but I change my mind I am scared and not ready!" and I started to cry. We knew that we were not leaving without our baby!

We were admitted and sent to our room. The contractions were still awful and close. There were a few hours of contractions and our families were on their way!! I decided that I was going to have en epidural. I had been awake since 4:30am and the nurse said first time mom's can be in labor up to 12 hours on average with 3 hours of pushing. I knew that I was so tired there was no way that I could do that without getting some sleep. The nurse came in and said that if I wanted an epidural the doctor was there to do them, that I had to get one now or wait until he was back. I looked at Nate and he said just to get one, so I did.

I had the epidural and instantly my left side was numb and it slowly went to the right side. At that time my side of the family was there. I was so happy to see the faces of my sister, mom, Abby, Bailey and Emily. I was not in any pain anymore but so tired. I was freezing cold and could not stop shaking. Soon I fell asleep which was much needed and Nate went into the waiting room to be with our families.

45 min later I was awaken by really strong shooting pains in my left side. The nurse approached and said that I had been making a lot of noise in my sleep so she was going to check me. At this time, I was 9cm and 100%. She was very surprised how within 45 min I went from a 5 to a 9 and it was time for a baby! She called the doctor to come and she told me to start pushing during contractions. Right then my husband came in and I told him where I was at and the look was priceless that came across his face. He then came to my bed side and that is where he remained for the rest of the delivery. I had no feeling in my left leg but I could feel all the contractions on my left. Weird enough it all settled in my leg and none where I could feel the pain. It was good though because I knew when I could push and it really helped me.

I pushed through three contractions before Dr. Lyons came into the room. She was not ready to deliver as she had no gown on etc. She then looked at me and said, "Whoa whoa stop pushing!" I looked at her mid push and grunted, "ME? Stop pushing????" She said yes the baby was right there and she wasn't ready. They asked if I wanted to touch, see anything, etc, and I said Hell NO! I just wanted to get her out! The doctor then was ready for me, and I looked at the clock and it was 1:02am. I said to myself I was going to have her out by 1:15am. I pushed through 2 more contractions and she said okay, now push and breath with me. 1 more contraction and our little Alaina Paige Etten was in my arms!

Total Delivery: 5 hours
Total Contractions that I pushed: 6
Total time pushing: 18 minutes



Alaina Paige was 8 pounds 5.5 ounces, 21 inches long, and she was here by 1:08am on her Due Date! 10-9-2011. She looked JUST like her Daddy, which is a pretty good thing if you ask me! She did have brown thin hair like me but everything else was a lot like her Daddy.

Ironman WI, September 11, 2011

Alaina showed her support :)

Something that very few people in the world can say, is that they completed a full Ironman, let alone, one of the hardest courses in the world. However, I am lucky enough to say that I was able to witness my husband complete a full Ironman, and it was one of the proudest moments (yet scariest) of my life.

The first of three events was the swim. 2.4 miles and my husband was out of the water in 01:17:43. This was a great time and I was so excited to see him come out of the water! However, he did  come out of the water WITHOUT his very expensive watch. For those that do triathlons, this is kind of a big deal. He had several more hours ahead of him, and had everything timed out on his watch such as when to eat and his pace, etc. So, he kept plugging along and transitioned into the bike.

All of the "Etten" cheering section got onto a bus that took prospects to the half way point so they could see their loved one and cheer them on. I was calm at this point and feeling great, as I hadn't had to walk that much (8.5 months pregnant and feeling awesome!) and my anxiety was less, as he was past the scary part for me (the swim).

At the half way point of the bike

We got to the half way point and waited for him. We were able to track his progress on the internet so we had a good idea of when he was going to be coming. Finally I see my husband coming around the corner. He was going SO fast I was afraid he wouldn't see us! But, he did and stopped. This is when he told us that he lost his watch, this is why he was doing very very well on the bike, he didn't know his pace and he was booking it!! He looked great and I was so confident that he was going to do better than his goal! At this time he could walk the marathon at the end and still finish, that is all I cared about! He gave me a quick kiss and he was not ready to finish the last half of his 112 mile bike ride.

He ended up coming in off the bike which felt like FOREVER!!! We were inside waiting for him to come into the transition to start running, and it felt like an eternity. He ended up coming in, still looking phenomenal, at a time of: 06:37:15.

I was able to talk to him real quickly and give him another kiss. Now, all he had was a marathon and he had obtained his goal of finishing.

The Etten Crew went downtown Madison to eat and take a seat. At this time, the walking was starting to hurt and felt like I was going to walk myself right into labor, but this was nothing compared to what my husband was feeling, mentally and physically, so I kept my feet a moving! :)

Officially an Ironman

We were thinking  based off of how good he looked that he would be able to do a light jog and average a 12 minute mile. Time kept dragging on and on and my husband wasn't coming to the half way point yet. As I checked the internet I saw that his time was getting slower and slower. I was so nervous that he was hurt or mentally breaking down. Finally, I saw Nate coming and he was walking with a limp. I instantly went to talk to him and he explained how his chest was hurting and he had blisters on the bottom of his feet from the socks rubbing. I started to walk with him a little bit, with very little talking. We went a few blocks and I got to the side. Tears were in my eyes, as I saw my husband in so much pain and so close to the end. He looked awful. He had a grey color to his face and he looked SO skinny. All personality and smiles were gone in him at this point. He honestly did not feel or look like the same person and it was a very scary experience for me, and I am sure the rest of the crew.

At this point we knew that he had a long road ahead of him and he was going to be walking, but even at that, he was going to come in at a good time and finish. So it was a bitter sweet moment  for us all.

Nate did end up crossing the finish line at a total time of: 15:04:35. It was such an amazing moment for him. The 9 months of extensive training and time that he had put in, was all worth it!! I now look at my husband a completely different way. I have never seen someone put so much effort into something so hard, and do such an amazing job. Alaina is a lucky little girl to have a dad like this!

Alaina ________ Etten

We have decided that we are going to name our baby girl Alaina ___ Etten. I am not sure when we first thought of it, but it derived from my Grandma Elaine Shaffer. We thought this name has a few options for nick names if she wants, otherwise Alaina is a very pretty and girly name, so we are excited to see what she looks like, acts like and hopefully she is as sweet when she arrives, as she has been so sweet to her momma while she has been in my tummy. I can honestly say that being pregnant has not hindered me or my lifestyle in the slightest, and I could not be more lucky than to have married a man dedicated and leads a healthy lifestyle so that way I never have to feel like I cannot be a part of everything. We are still debating on the middle name, but pretty much have it narrowed down. But, that name is staying a secret until she gets here, no one knows about it but Nate and Myself :)