Change

"Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown." I am about to go back to school. I am a little worried about how to juggle a full time job, 5 kids and school all at the same time, but when I think about the benefits of going back to school, I see the necessity. I have just enrolled at the University of Phoenix and classes start on May 10. I am seeking a Bachelors degree in Business Management. I am excited and nervous at the same time. Most people are drawn to UoP for the online classes, I however, will be attending the Campus classes because I feel that I will have less distraction in a classroom environment. I am especially worried about taking math classes again, I wasn't good at math during high school, hopefully the fact that I am anxious and willing to learn now will change the outcome. My new job has changed my work experiences significantly. I am enjoying it but it is so different. I am not moving wafers much anymore so that is weird in and of itself. I am trying to get to know my employees better and I try really hard to be a good supervisor. I have gotten some good feedback on how I can do better and I try to implement the advice I receive. Sometimes I feel like some people complain just to complain and I try hard not to waste too much energy on that. I have implemented some pretty drastic changes and a lot of people are very resistant to it. I have said to my employees "I cannot make 50 people happy but apparently I am really good at ticking 50 people off." In trying to do better I have found several quotes to be particularly helpful and read them often: "I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition." ~ Martha Washington "A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort." ~Herm Albright "Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you have left." ~Hubert Humphrey I find myself looking up motivational and inspirational quotes more and more often. I write them down on post it notes and attach them to the overhead shelf at my desk. I have been lucky enough to take several different classes at work including Time Management, Productive Meetings and Crucial Conversations. I look forward to reading Crucial Confrontations and Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I love learning new things, especially when I can implement the skills I have learned and see them working. Enough about work changes, on the home front.... Babies Change too quickly! Monty is now 5 months old and looks so different already. She is so beautiful and I love her so much. She does the cutest things and I just want to squish her. When Monty gets tired she shakes her head back and forth very quickly until she finally finds a comfortable position, usually 10-12 shakes later. She squeaks and squeals and screams nonsensical noises and I do my best to repeat them back to her. Monty tried baby food for the first time last week, she had sweet potatoes and she loved them. She did so good, I have never had a baby take baby food so easily the first time it was offered to them. Monty is so happy and almost never cries. She demands food constantly and has the double chin and rolls to prove it. All of my kids are growing up so quickly, it seems to be happening even more quickly since I started working. I miss them all so much. Ryan experienced her first New Beginnings a couple of weeks ago and will be joining the Young Women's group in about 3 weeks. I have to admit I am terrified of sending her off to girls camp and youth conference. When I look at Ry I still see my little baby attached to oxygen tubes and monitors and I worry so much about her. The only thing that scares her about camp is bears. Uncle Colton is leaving for a mission in June or July. We don't know where he is going yet but my kids are going to miss him like crazy. So much change.... I have to remind myself that each day is change, nothing is ever exactly as it was the day before. And how boring would this life be it everything remained constant always? Anyway, that is all.

Not quite 6 months

Well I am getting better, it hasn't been another 6 months since my last post.

The story of Monty:

At 10:00 AM on Monday November 14,2011 Raymond and I arrived at Labor and Delivery at Inter mountain Medical Center to start my induction. I had to be induced due to having been diagnosed with Group B Strep and requiring 4 hours of IV antibiotics prior to delivery, so we figured we may as well schedule our induction for our due date which just happened to be Ray's birthday (actually not a coincidence, this took very careful and precise timing on our part, boy are we good!!) I had never been induced before but did not expect it would be very different than regular natural onset labor, boy was I wrong.

At 10:30 am they started my antibiotics as well as the pitocin drip and informed me they would be back in at 2:30 PM to break my water. 2:30 comes and goes and they finally come in at 3:00 and decide I should have my epidural now ( I have to have an epidural due to my previous c-section, darn c-sections anyway!) because the anesthesiologist has a free minute and will be very busy the rest of the day and that it would be better to have that done before they break my water anyway, so I say ok. I get my epidural, never a fun event, and then the resident doc comes in to break my water and check my cervix which is at a 3. After about 10 minutes of fiddling around with her crochet hook she determines that my water is broken tells me that delivery will be fast now and leaves. I continue to lay in my hospital bed with very mild contractions about every 3 minutes. In the meantime I had Kimi bring my little Ryan up to hospital to witness the birth of her new baby sister.

So 5:30 PM rolls around and still nothing, my nurse comes in and says that she doesn't think that my water is actually broken and calls the resident in to try again. The resident comes back in, checks my cervix again, which is still at a 3, and then with her crochet hook, fiddles around some more, and voila, my waters break and start gushing out of me, she pushes on my tummy a bit to help it drain out and then tells me that delivery will be quick now. Meanwhile Mom and Dad come to the hospital, as we had expected the baby would be out by 5:00, so they come in and visit with Kimi, Ryan, Ray and I while we wait for the contractions to pick up. A short bit later Anngee arrives and we all sit and visit while we wait.

Finally at shift change the new nurse comes in and asks how long I have been in my current position, well only all day long, so she has me roll over onto my left side. Boom, all of a sudden I am having crazy strong contractions every couple minutes, they hurt like crazy! after about 45 min of these crazy contractions I decide I have had enough and I would like to have my cervix checked again, the nurse comes in and checks and says that it is time to push. What can I say, this had been the longest day in the history of the world for me so I started to cry, hooray finally I can start to push!!

Mom, Dad and Anngee clear out of the room, Kimi sets up the video camera and positions little Ryan in such a way that she will be able to see her little sister come out but not be completely traumatized by the full on view. Dr. Porter (the greatest Dr. in the whole wide world) comes in and I start pushing, about 3 pushes later at 8:28 PM my beautiful little Monty is out and laid on my belly. Kimi cut the cord (Raymond has issues with blood and has never cut the cord.) and Ryan got scared by Monty's blue complexion, sat down on the couch and asked if the baby was supposed to be that color.

The nurses got Monty all cleaned up with a little help from Ryan while I got stitched up from my level 2 tear. Ryan watched as they put her on the scale to measure her, 8 Lbs 8 Oz. and 21 Inches long. Then they swaddled her up nice and tight and little Ryan got to hold her, it was a very special moment for her. After that Mom and Dad came back in to see their new grand baby.

I had picked out the name Monty at about 14 weeks gestation and knew that was what I wanted her name to be but Ray hated it so we had to pick a cool middle name to go with it. We love the Star Gate tv series, and all of us girls favorite character is name Vala Maldoran, who was at one time possessed by a Goauld symbiote named Qetesh, the Egyptian goddess of fertility. I thought that was a pretty unique name and loved the way it sounded with Monty so we picked that as her middle name. Raymond was never completely sold on the name Monty and tried to get me to change my mind clear up until I was filling out the birth certificate information, then he said that if she was going to be named Monty he got to have 2 middle names. I agreed so that she could have the name I had picked out and Ray finally settled on Calisto as her 2nd middle name. So our little girls full name is Monty Qetesh Calisto Eggertsen but I call her Monty Q for short.

Monty Q is a wonderful baby, she has been so calm and easy going. She has just begun to smile on purpose and every time her little face lights up with a smile my heart melts. I love this little girl and am so grateful that she is a part of our family.

We plan to have Monty blessed on February 4th and our church session starts at 9:00 AM, sorry Mom I thought we went to 1:00 but we don't. I will post another blog when we finalize our plans and include the address to our chapel.

Now here are some pics of my little Monty Q and my ever growing family.