And on to the next challenge

My maternity leave will be ending here in a few days. I am excited to go back to work because I do love my job and miss my co workers and I know that Quinn will be in excellent hands. Maternity leave has been interesting to me, it was such a mix of emotions and time. I have loved watching Quinn grow and change every day. I have to laugh at the irony that he is now at the stage where he knows us and smiles and coos. This only makes it even harder to leave him in the mornings but everyone did warn me of this! He is just growing so quickly and is a happy baby boy. He literally wakes up every morning and stretches and then gives us a full gummy grin. In a perfect world I would go part time and still have lots of these days but I will continue to work full time and still teach dance. The good news is it has been an amazing leave and the future always holds more if you stay positive.
I was really surprised by my leave how little I could actually accomplish. I had all these books that I was going to read, projects to knit, things around the house to do. None of it got done but I sure did enjoy snuggling Quinn and finding our groove. We were lucky to have lots of help and wonderful guests as well.
I just got back from MN where Quinn got to meet his Aunts and Uncles and cousins. It was an amazing trip from beginning to end. I was very nervous about flying alone with a 2 month old but he did awesome and slept both trips the entire time. My Godmother Trudi also flew into MN to spend time with all of us. We got to see lots of friends and family, the important one was introducing Quinn my his great Grandma Brecke who is 101 years old. The next few weeks also hold some more exciting traveling as well. In between going back to work we are also going to Jamaica. Brendan got the honor of getting Presidents Club for his work, this is an all paid, all inclusive trip that is given to employees in recognition of going above and beyond. Grandma White is coming to take care of Quinn when we do this. We also are making a trip in April to Florida as well to see Grandpa and Grandma Toor. It will help me adjust to getting back to work slowly but surely!

Here are some pictures from this month, enjoy!

In his Moby wrap sleeping

Godmother Trudi and Quinn

sleeping with Grandpa Brecke

snuggles with Gaga B

My Godmother Trudi holding me when I was little

Meeting his Uncles Jay and Ross

Meeting his cousin Maddie

A picture when we all got together Monday

Oh how times have changed!

With my Godmother and his Gaga B

Meeting Uncle Anton for the first time

Cousins

Meeting Eli, Westin and Aunt Kristy

Meeting his Great Grandma Brecke

Off we go to catch our flight

Meeting his Great Aunt Laurie

So BIG!

Meeting his Aunt Jesse

Love,

Brendan, Alyssa and Quinn 

We got a new Valentine

And his name is Quinn! We are in love with this little guy, he is officially one month old now. It has been great so far just a lot of adjusting. I have to laugh because it has been a learning experience from beginning to end. We have been spoiled, since January we have had lots of help. Kathy and Tom came to town and Grandpa Tom finally got to meet Mr.Quinn. Aunt Laura and Unlce Mike were also here at the same time and it was such a treat spending time with everyone. I also got lots of help with little man as well. Brendan and I had a day date too! Tommy and Brandy babysat and we were able to go skiing/snowboarding.
This past week my parents came to town and my Grandpa Brecke got to meet Quinn as well. Lucky for me my Mom has been here all week and has spent lots of cuddling both Quinn and me. We have a few weeks alone here and then we have some visitors again and I will be going back to MN as well. Life is good and we can't wait for some spring! Enjoy some recent pics!

Me and Quinn he is in his custom sweater by Mom and tie onsie made by the lovely Lexi

Grandpa Brecke meeting Quinn for the first time!

After our newborn baby Quinn photo session

Having a great weekend with my parents

Quinn and his buddy Everett on his first Birthday!

Uncle Mike meeting Quinn

Daddy and snuggly baby photo

Hot dads with baby boys

Quinn hanging out with Aunty B

Love this picture

Quinn with Uncle Tommy watching some American domination

Oscar and Quinn

One month old picture, getting bigger!

Spending quality time with Grandpa White

Love,

Bren, Alyssa and Baby Q

Introducing Quinn Colm White

Quinn's first smile caught on camera

We are finally parents, the emotions that come along with all of this for us is just overwhelming in the best possible way! Thank you to all the wonderful family and friends who have called, stopped by, written notes and sent mail. We decided to keep most of Baby boy Quinn stuff limited to this blog, we might post a picture here and there on Facebook or Instagram but for the most part we are keeping it contained here. Our excitement is pretty high and I worry if I posted as many pictures as I took in a day you would see at least 3 a day. I will do our best to keep this blog up to date but if you ever need a fix send me or Brendan a text and we will send you pics. A lot of you have been asking us about the whole experience so I thought I would devote this blog to the whole last two weeks or so.

We had Quinn at Lone Peak hospital and we were completely blown away by how nice of a hospital it is and how wonderful the staff and nurses are there. Our labor and delivery were very routine, which we were immensely grateful for. I had Brendan, both our Moms and my doula Jessica there to help guide me along. At 6:20pm Quinn Colm White was born 7.1 lbs, 20.5 long. He is and was perfect for us. He was born on a full moon and that became very apparent at the hospital where two other labor and deliveries did not go so smooth and babies were life flighted out of there. It was pretty scary and makes you so grateful for a routine labor and delivery. We had picked out his name Quinn awhile back, Brendan has a cousin named Quinn and we both really liked the name a lot. Colm (pronounced like a column) is Irish and is after one of our favorite Irish relatives Colm Agnew who we visited after we got married. He passed all of his tests at the hospital and we were told to see our pediatrician for an additional appointment on Monday. His bilirubin was slightly high but not enough to be concerned about. We were released Friday morning and headed home. Our other fur babies Oscar puppy and Bjorn kitty were surprisingly very welcoming and not too concerned about the newest member of our family.

Prior to giving birth

Here he is :)

Coming home for the first time

Our first weekend home we had a lot of help between the two Moms to help with late nights for Quinn. I was trying to breastfeed but I was having a lot of issues, this became kind of apparent when our newborn seemed to have a "vigorous" personality. We just thought it would resolve itself and everything would work out. Monday morning we went to our pediatrician appointment and started asking the doctor a million questions like I am sure all new parents do. He was concerned about Quinn and how much he was eating and he had a slight orange hue (he was not too oompa loompa looking at this point). He said he would call us later with the results and if it was not too bad we might have to do light therapy at home. That afternoon we got a frantic call from the doctor telling us we needed to go to the children's hospital immediately. Quinn's levels were way too high in the critical zone and needed to be taken care of. We were obviously terrified and confused because he was not orange looking and really didn't seem to be fatigued until we were checked into the hospital. Primary children's took great care of us again and we had a rough night with Quinn being under the lights for most of the night. I cried and felt terrible as a new Mom that we were mostly in this situation from my goal of breastfeeding and I didn't feed my baby enough. We are now a formula baby and getting happy and fat.

Grandma White and Grandma Brecke

Our first bath in our shark robe

With Daddy at Primary Childrens

Under the lights :(

The next day

We got out of the hospital Tuesday afternoon and had a followup appointment on Wednesday. Quinn is now doing great and there are no more issues with any of this. Thursday was technically our first full day home with all three of us. It was nice Brendan was able to be with me through all of this, I was a basket case. We have now all adjusted and are loving life with a very sleepy, happy newborn baby boy. Brendan went back to work today and we are adjusting and loving life as our new family.

finally home

Dad reading him his first story and his favorite!

Doing the monthly photos, here is 0 (thanks Aunt Diane)

Love,

The Whites

Circle of Life

I decided it would probably be a good idea to do a blog update before everything that is happening this week. We ended 2013 in Utah by celebrating Christmas here with Brendan's parents. This was the first Christmas that I did not go back to MN, it was different but we had a great time here. The Sunday prior to Christmas Tommy and Brandy came over and we had our family Christmas that night. We had such a good time between dinner, opening gifts and playing some games. That was the first time I had celebrated on a different day and it was actually very fun. We still had a wonderful Christmas eve and day just much more relaxing and laid back. Christmas day dinner we had our friends the Mays and Sara come over for dinner, it was good to celebrate with everyone.

The day after Christmas started with a bang as I took a fall on the ice walking into work. The fall itself was not terrible but since I was 36 weeks pregnant I did have to go into the hospital and be monitored for a few hours. Everything was fine but since then pregnancy/labor symptoms have been moving along much faster.

For New Years we dressed up the bump as the times square ball in sparkles and headed over to the Mays. It was a good time we played games, ate appetizers and us preggo ladies (my fabulous friend Sara is preggo as well) watched everyone else drink. Welcome to 30 years old! Honestly, I am ok with this stage in life, I have had many New Years Eve that I am so thankful that Facebook and iPhones were not in existence.

I titled this post the circle of life because I know January brings so much excitement to our lives but like life there is a true circle and season for everything. Earlier this week my Aunt Carol passed away in MN. It was bittersweet to see her pass but her true love, my Uncle Darrell, had passed away this last August so it was comforting to know that she was finally united with him. I also found out today that my "adopted" Grandmother Eldoris passed away today. She is my cousin Adam's grandma but she has always been a grandmother to me and someone very special. She had been sick for some time,  I will miss her genuine grace, kindness and sweet notes that always said "feel my love for you". She was a very bright light in this world and truly the kind of woman I only hope I can be like someday.

This last weekend was our last weekend not being parents. My doctor is planning on inducing me this Wednesday January 15th. Both of our Moms are flying into town Tuesday night and hopefully on Wednesday we will finally become parents and welcome this little boy into the world. A true circle of life. My doctor is inducing me because she needs ACL surgery that friday and will be out for a few weeks, I don' t want to switch doctors and she is very conservative so if she feels we will be ready to go, I am confident it is a good decision. In the mean time I am not feeling very good. I have been so blessed up to this point having a very easy pregnancy but these final days are taking their toll. My usual tricks for yoga, exercise are just not working. I guess a positive attitude is one thing I can control. Prayers are appreciated for a healthy, safe labor and delivery for our little family.

We also had a big surprise this week when my sweet ladies of my knitting group at church threw me a surprise shower this last Monday night. Funny enough Brendan finally got to attend a shower, we went early to meet with the deacon for the future baptism of baby boy. Afterwards I took Brendan by to say Hi to everyone and we were shocked when they had a whole baby shower put together for me. They had a yummy, reeses cake, cider, punch and a really cute diaper cake. It was so sweet and we were so shocked. Beyond spoiled for this little boy!

Hopefully next time I'm posting here it will be all about our next step in life in welcoming our little boy to the world. We can't wait!

Love,
Alyssa, Brendan and soon to be third member of the White family

Adventure Nursery

In effort not to "baby bomb" Facebook, Brendan and I decided awhile back we would try to keep most of the little man stuff to the blog. We figured this either gives people the option to click the link and see it if they are interested otherwise we don't want to be the obsessed my child is amazing post a million pictures on Facebook couple.
We finally finished the nursery a few weeks back and are excited to share all the fun details. Early on we decided to do an antique, adventure is out there type theme. It came together so much more then our expectations. Enjoy!

This is the view from the door, we took our hideous mauve room and painted it a grey/blue and a hunter green accent wall. Most of the furniture is a dark espresso wood color. 

Some cool details is this is our canoe bookshelf. The shower Aunt Laura threw me had a book theme so we were able to fill this in nicely. The bike trunk is filled with toys for the little guy. 

Family is very important to Brendan and I so we were lucky enough to get a photo mobile for a shower gift, I recently got all the photos on it to show the little man. We also picked up this sweet map at Homegoods that matches the theme of the room.

This corner has the rocking chair, we didn't want a glider but more a chair we might use elsewhere around the house afterwards. We got lucky and got the last one of these at Buy Buy baby before they discontinued them. Bren also hung the airplanes in the corner and the cool magnet map that was used as shower decorations.

This is the changing table, we just used a regular dresser and added a changing pad. The baskets above have all the goods needed for changing the man. The shelf above that has a train, sailboat, a big ship, a globe and a car. These were decorations from the showers again.

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The handsome Daddy to be!

This is the paddle above the book shelf, it has a Wild jersey for our favorite hockey team, a painting my Godmother made us and a "up" onsies that my Brother Ross drew.

Also right after Thanksgiving we did maternity photos. We had Darren from Darren Solomon Photography come out to our house to do the photos, they turned out awesome. Continuing with our UP adventure theme we got a huge bouquet of balloons we included too. Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

We are excited for our first Christmas in Utah! 

Love,

Brendan, Alyssa and Baby White