Hibernating

It is still soooo cold outside here in Rexburg! It got down to -27 the other night! BRRRRR! Peyton and I are keeping warm hibernating for the winter while papa bear is out freezing in the cold hiking on campus everyday. Daniel is really liking his schedule this semester. He is taking 14 credits and works 18 hours a week as a peer advisor on campus. He is enjoying his job, there is a lot of downtime, and he gets a lot of his homework done during work which is great. I try my best to keep myself busy with Peyton but it gets really boring being stuck inside our little apartment every day. I have been exercising daily and trying to eat right so that I can fit back into my old clothes. Its tough and frustrating but Daniel keeps me motivated cheering me on from the couch with his tub of chocolate ice cream. It really stinks that he can not work out and eat whatever he wants and stay the exact same size! I feel silly that I have gotten so much bigger since I can't really blame it on my 1 and a half pound baby. :) But the hormonal changes and stress and staying home has all caught up to me and its time to get my old body back. At least it gives me something to do everyday.
Aunt Christen and Uncle Matt came on Monday. It was so great to hang out with them and let Peyton meet another uncle. I think Matt really liked him. I know Christen is in love with Peyton. We're all "chubby chasers" now! :)
On Friday Peyton and I met with the social worker and the lady in charge of the NICU in Idaho Falls to meet and greet and discuss our plans for the new Parent Support program we want to start. They were so wonderful and were very excited that I was so excited about helping them get something going. There is still some red tape to get through before we can really get going, I need a backround check and a TB test before I am allowed in the NICU, but we are at least on our way and I am thrilled to be doing something with our experience.
Peyton is pretty much completely off his oxygen now! We only put it on him if his saturations start to drop or when he sleeps but he has done really well without it for the past four days straight, even at night. It is so nice to have a cordless baby for the first time ever. I can put him in his baby sling and carry him around with me without having to drag a big tank around behind us. I can tell Peyton feels relieved to to not have anything in his nose anymore. We are very excited and are so grateful still at how well he has turned out.
Well, thats a lot of news so I guess I'll stop but I'll keep you posted!

Its been a while...

Well the holidays are over and we're settled in to our new apartment in Rexburg now. We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years.

Peyton was blessed in Provo on the 30th of December. It was a beautiful blessing and his daddy did such a wonderful job. We were so blessed and honored to have both sides of the family there for the most part and missed those that couldn't make it. We loved seeing everyone and we are so grateful for the love and support!

Daniel's family came on the 26th of December from Houston and we had a great time with them, especially since we don't see them as often as we would like. Nona graciously babysat Peyton on the 27th so that Daniel's dad, brothers, and I could spend the day snowboarding. The boys had a great time. I on the other hand spent the day falling down the mountain time after time. I was frozen, wet, bruised, and exhausted by the end of the day. I was frustrated that my body just didn't perform like it used to! I hear that having a baby does that to you. Next time, if there is a next time, I think I will take it slower and only go half day. It was fun to get out of the house though regardless of the pain and suffering. :)

We moved on the 31st and arrived in Rexburg that evening. It was 7 degrees outside when we got there. I'm afraid its going to be a long winter! But we are glad to be here and to be finally finishing up school...at least the first half.

Peyton is doing wonderfully. He is over 12 lbs now and is starting to babble and laugh and play. He is on the lowest flow of O2 and I monitor him periodically throughout the day. He is very close to be able to do without it so that exciting. It was quite a hassle to get everything set up for him here but I think its all set now which is a relief.

I contacted the Social Worker at the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center to see if Daniel and I could volunteer for their NICU parent support group. I left a few messages and finally got a call back on Monday. The social worker there said that as of yet they didn't have a parent group but have been thinking about forming one since they have just recently expanded their NICU to except babies as young as 28 weeks and are working towards further expanding to be ready for babies as young as 23 weeks. She was very excited to hear that I was so interested in helping out and we spent 45 minutes talking about how the parent support group was run in Provo. She told me that she thinks I have great ideas and would be a good person to get their program started. She is going to get the permission and paperwork worked out and she is supposed to call me by next week. Hopefully starting next week I will be able to volunteer there talking to parnets and helping them through their preemie struggles. I'm really excited to put our experience to good use!

Peyton is crying at me so I gotta run! Keep you posted!

One more thing...

As some of you know, we will be moving back to Rexburg so I can finish up at BYU-Idaho. We really dont want to since we both love our set up here at BYU in Provo, UT. I have a great job at the MTC and we've met some great people, not to mention the excellent health care Peyton receives here. I came to Utah to attend BYU to avoid the wierd and difficult year-round track system at BYU-Idaho, and to take advantage of the Marriot School of Bussiness at BYU. Well, I've come to the decision that I want to do law school, something I've always had in the back of my mind but usually ignored it due to fear of not being able to cut it, and also being a slave to text books for another 3 years doesn't sound appealing. Anyway, so my goal is to (1) get the highest grades possible, and (2) graduate as soon as possible. I still want a bachelors in business since it interests me and also would protect me if I were to crash and burn in law school (not that I'm anticipating it or anything). So in my pursuit of graduating quicker, I spoke to a counselor here at BYU, who broke the news that graduation was farther away that I realized, so just out of curiosity, I also spoke to a counselor at BYU-Idaho to see how it compares in terms of gradution, and suprisingly I can graduate 2 semesters quicker if I go back. That also includes a 4 month internship in between. Classes will be easier, I would graduate quicker, and Cath and I would be close to great friends and family. So needless to say, we're moving at the end of this month. I got a job on-campus working as a peer advisor in the career and advisement department--taking a major paycut, but I guess that's the price you pay. We're excited for new scenery, or seeing old scenery again I guess, but sad to leave Provo who has been great to us. It is clear that the Lord wanted us here (Idaho Falls would not have been able to care for Peyton had he'd been born there). Wish me luck! Besides, Cath and I are returning to the city were all the love started! The difference now is, no curfew to follow...so maybe we'll go back up to the ol make-out hill and spend a few hours past midnight just for the heck of it! :)

PEYTON BRENT

Hello, its Daniel. Just thought I would take the opportunity to update the blog and post pictures so I can show off my lil champ. Peyton is officialy 11lbs now. It's wierd to think that he is now 11 times the size he was 6 months ago. He's handsome like his Dad, although, when I was a baby, my head was 11 pounds alone, so may I shouldn't compare him to me. As you can see, he has all of Catherine's features....except for the red hair...which ....neither of us has.......hmmmmm..... Anyway, here's a lil fighting Irish champ ( I hate noterdame, but hey I thought it was a good description).


Peyton usually hates being on his stomach. He was a better mood this day so I thought I'd take a couple of snapshots.

Speaking of being a good mood, Peyton was very happy when we took this picture. It funny to watch him focus in on objects now. He's gettin to be dang big and dang cute.

And here a quick video clip starting from Halloween. We'll post more recent ones here soon.

As you can see, he's doing great and love him tons. He's now on the lowest setting of oxygen but it hardly needs it. Hopefully he'll be off it soon. He's sleeping more, which means more sleep and sanity for us.

Holiday Chaos

Its been a crazy couple of weeks! Our apartment flooded when a tree root grew into the sewage pipe and backed it up. We couldn't let Peyton be around that kind of filthy atmosphere so Peyton and I headed on home to Idaho to stay with my parents until the owner got it taken care of and all cleaned up. Daniel stayed in the nasty apartment so that he could continue to go to work and school and we missed him so much! HE came up for Thanksgiving though so that was nice. While at my parents house my little brother got sick with pneumonia and had to stay out in the camper while Peyton and I were there. One night while just Peyton, my little sister, and I were home Adam (my little brother) came inside looking really pale and panting heavily. He nearly passed out before I could get him to the chair to sit down. I tried to get him to drink some water while my little sister took Peyton to the other end of the house. His body temperature was low and he was shivering and complaining that he was cold. His heart rate was 130 bpms and I was very worried that he was extremely dehydrated. He needed to go to the hospital but I couldn't leave Peyton to take him and I couldn't get a hold of anyone so I had to call 911 and have the ambulance come get him. Eventually I got a hold of my mom and she went and met him at the hospital. Apparently my suspicions were correct and he was very dehydrated. They kept him at the hospital for half the night and gave him 3 liters of IV fluid and put him on an antibiotic. It was pretty crazy but I'm glad he was alright. In the past month Peyton has had surgery, my apartment has flooded twice, I moved in with my parents for two weeks, my cousin committed suicide, and I called 911 for my brother. Why is it that when crazy things happen they happen all at once? Needless to say, we'll be just fine if December brings no adventure whatsoever. Peyton and I are loving being home again with Daniel even though Daniel has been consumed with work and school lately trying to wrap up with good grades and some extra cash before we move at the end of the month to Rexburg. I will be happy when we are all settled again in a new place closer to friends and family. I think we'll like our new apartment better too. It is a new place so hopefully that means we won't have problems with it like we have here. We hope alls well with all of you and like always, we'll keep you posted.

Such is life...

Today was a gorgeous day and Peyton and I finally broke out his new stroller and went for a walk. He liked it for the first little while, about 7 blocks or so, and then he got tired of the sun being in his eyes I think so we went home. It was the most I've been outside in who knows how long. It was the first time Peyton was outside besides walking from our apartment to the car. He was mesmerized by the sounds of the crunching leaves as we wheeled over them and by the cars passing us on the street. It was fun to get out of the house. I hope the weather will hold up a little while longer so we can have more daytime walks.
Peyton seems to be healing well from his hernia surgery last week. He still is really whiny all day though and is either sleeping or fussing at me until I pick him up. Hes a spoiled baby, but he deserves it. It gets really tiring though, especially when he wakes up every two hours all through the night. You gotta love him though. Daniel can pretty much get him to smile on cue now. Its super cute. I finally got him to smile today too. That was probably about the most productive thing I did all day.
Daniel is working hard making money for us to survive and keeping his grades up. Hes such a great dad, and a phenomenal husband. I love him to death and I couldn't keep my sanity without him. My parents tell us, "Daniel is the anchor and Catherine is the sail." I guess that means we make one heck of a good boat.

Welcome to our blog!

Hey ya'll! We thought we would start a blog to keep everyone posted in Peyton's progress (post-carepages) as well as on the crazy happenings in our lives. We hope you enjoy! We'll keep you posted!