Life in Raleigh, North Carolina - Summer 2013

So here we are, for the third summer in a row, selling pest control in order to survive the rest of the year at school.  It has been a really fun summer so far, but super busy!  Josh is working really hard to provide for us, so we don't get to see him as much as before.  (Who would have thought that fall/winter is the "relaxing" time?).  Because of that, Ender and I have to find lots of things to take up the day!  We go on walks, hang out at the pool, go on more walks, and chill with a few friends here and there.  And, now that Ender is a mobile gentleman, we play lots of games at home :D

I have also begun working a few hours a week at the office doing super fun paperwork! (That's not sarcasm, for some reason I really enjoy organizing papers :) 

Here are some pictures of what we've been doing: (By the way, I suck at this blogging thing, so I never can get the pictures to do what I want...)

Matching boys :D

At the beach! Ender loved the waves
(even though he doesn't look like it in this pic haha)

Enjoying P.F Changs!

 

Playgroup

Also, it's been really fun having Ender crawling around all the time!  Although he gets really frustrated when he gets stuck trying to get to me :D

I couldn't resist snapping this picture
before I came to the rescue!

Since Ender has been sleeping so well at night now, Josh and I can finally enjoy our evenings together. :D  We had a nice candlelit dinner on our balcony with sparkling cider.  It was a lot of fun!

Even though we are having lots of fun, I can't wait to see everyone on the west coast soon!  I miss and love you all!

Moving!!!!....again....How many times is this now?

Once again, we are moving.  I think this is our TENTH move in almost four years of marriage.  I've gotta count to make sure...

 1) Medford --> Provo

 2) Provo --> Medford (Whitney's house)

 3) Whitney's house --> Cunningham's house

 4) Cunningham's --> Grandma & Grandpa Anderson's

 5) G & G Anderson --> Rexburg (Winter semester)

 6) Rexburg --> Raleigh, North Carolina (first summer selling for Moxie)

 7) Raleign --> Rexburg (Fall & Winter semester, found out I was pregnant)

 8) Rexburg --Raleigh (Second summer, at the end Ender was born!)

 9) Raleigh --> Rexburg

 10) NOW back to Raleigh!!!

Holy crap I am sick of moving! I cannot wait until we are settled down somewhere for at least longer than 6 months.  Hopefully that will happen someday. But for now, we are once again going to sell pest control in Raleigh, NC for Moxie.  It has been a fantastic experience for us! Our boss and coworkers are so much fun to be around and we always have such a fun summer while making enough money to support us through school.  I'm excited to go back! 

Anyway, Ender is halfway through his 7 month out of the belly and he is such a happy boy!  He makes us so happy, too :D  He loves to laugh and play and he is extremely curious.  Although many failed attempts, Ender is still trying his hardest to crawl.  He will stretch his little body and arms to reach for something while sitting up, then eventually get on all fours to keep stretching for the object, and finally plop on his belly.  Since he hates being on his belly, he will then immediately flip over and start complaining.  It is so fun to watch his little body and mind develop!

My mom and two little sisters, Hannah and Hope, came to visit us last weekend and we had so much fun together!  I miss them already :(  Ender had a peculiar liking to Hope's face.  Whenever she was in reach, Ender would grab her face/hair/shirt and pull her towards him and try to gnaw her face off.  It was hilarious! 

So we had a blast with them, even though they had to squeeze into our tiny apartment.  I felt so bad! It's weird to think that next time we see them, Ender will be almost 1 and probably walking, (or close to it). 

Ender is 6 Months Old!!!

It's amazing how quickly six months flew by!  It seems like yesterday that Josh and I were in North Carolina with a bran new baby, so excited yet freaking out because we had no clue how to be parents to such a helpless, adorable little boy.  Most of that has changed, except we still don't have a clue how to be parents!  We are trying our best though, and we are loving every minute of it (well, most minutes lol).  

Even though there are so many hard moments, being a parent is so rewarding.  It's so fun to see Ender growing up so fast and learning about the world around him.  He's been sitting up on his own since he was 5 1/2 months, and he falls over less and less each day.  

 He can also roll over from his belly to his back, but since he hates being on his belly, he refuses to roll from his back to belly. lol   He loves his little interactive zoo that Grandma gave him!

Intense summary of 2011 till Today...

Okay, it was been a VERY long time since I last updated this blog...so here goes a VERY long summary of the last two years! (Sorry for the details in the birth story, I need to write them down so I remember them).

Since my last post, Josh and I have been to Raleigh, NC and back twice. We work there in the summers for Moxie Pest Control where Josh does door to door sales and earns us money to survive the rest of the year at BYU-I.  While there, we have been to DC a few times (once where we saw Wicked for our 2nd year Anniversary), Myrtle Beach, SC twice, Kings Dominion theme park in Virginia, NYC where we saw Lion King on Broadway, and had many more adventures :D 

So life was already going great when we found out even better news - I was pregnant with a boy! We found out around Christmas time of 2011 and my due date was September 3rd, 2012.  All in all, my pregnancy wasn't too bad.  The beginning was full of mood swings, little tantrums about not wanting to go to school (much to Joshua's amusement) and nausea, but by the second trimester that was behind me.  Being pregnant in North Carolina, with the intense heat and humidity as great pals, was not very fun. I worked as a secretary for Moxie and had many more hormonal crazy moments. Overall, I still had a fun summer with my best friend and husband ever, and we loved every little kick that our little boy threw.  We decided to name him Ender William Cunningham since we are major nerds and love the book "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. The name seemed to click!

As the due date got closer and closer, and I got larger and larger, I was dying to get the little guy out.  The week before the 3rd, Josh and I walked for a few hours around the mall hoping to stimulate labor, and every night when we got back from work we would walk around the apartment complex.  Like most pregnant women at 39 weeks, I was desperate! On August 30th, I asked the doctor to strip my membranes to see if that worked, and lo and behold, by 8:00 that night I was feeling real and consistent contractions.  By midnight, August 31, we left for Durham Regional Hospital and I was not very happy.  Josh and I had taken the Bradley Method birthing course and I was determined to bring Ender into the world medicine-free.  

So we checked in to the hospital and I walked, and laid on my side, sat on a birthing ball, and walked some more to try to relieve the intense pain of the contractions (and I thought it would be so easy!) By 8:30ish am I was dying and begged the nurse to check my cervix so I could be encouraged by progress.  It had the opposite effect, unfortunately. I had only dilated from a 4 to a 5 in those last 8 or 9 hours. I was so exhausted, ticked off, and in so much pain by that point that I begged for an epidural, even though I thought I was letting down the whole world by doing so. I finally got it by 9:30-10 and Josh and I couldn't believe the difference! I could finally sleep! And I was so happy about it :D  

Before the Epidural

After the Epidural :D

By noon my water broke and I was starving. But since I threw up every popsicle I was allowed, I definitely couldn't eat any real food. Around 4:00 pm I was finally dilated to 10 and could begin pushing. However, Ender turned out to be a bit bigger than expected, and after 2 1/2 hours, the nurses grew concerned.  They said they would have to try the vacuum to get him out, and if that didn't work, a C-section.  By that point, my beloved epidural began to run out, and they couldn't use another bag of medicine or I'd be numb for another 8ish hours.  So I began to push for my life while the doctor strained to pull him out with the vacuum.  It was the worse pain I have ever felt in my entire life.  In the Bradley class, the teachers said that the woman screaming bloody murder giving birth in the movies is exaggerated and birth isn't like that.  False. I screamed bloody murder. But after a few pushes with the vacuum, his head came out, and I had to push again to get his shoulders through. The doctor almost dropped him as well, which only further dampens my view of Durham Regional Hospital.  

Ender William Cunningham was officially born at 7:08 pm on August 31, 2012, weighing 8.5 pounds and measuring 20.5 inches long.  He is such a beautiful boy!  My mom flew in the next day and stayed with us for about a week to help me figure out how to be a mom.  Breastfeeding proved to be a great challenge, like it is for most first-time mothers, especially since my milk didn't come in until day 4 or 5.  So we had to give him a bottle of formula, which only confused the poor guy even more! The nipple shield turned out to be my best friend :D.  

However, before I discovered the nipple shield, Ender came down with a small virus. On the morning of September 9th, I woke up realizing that Ender had slept for six hours.  When I tried to feed him, he refused to latch.  I kept trying until he fell asleep around nine and when he woke up at noon I was really worried.  We checked his temperature and it was over 100.4 so we called the nurse to our Pediatrician's office. She said to take him to the ER, where they began a million different tests to make sure he didn't have a serious infection. Since he was still so young, they wanted to be sure.  We ended up being in the hospital overnight where they pumped him full of fluids and antibiotics while waiting for the cultures to get back from the lab.  Luckily, they all came back negative and we were able to go home Monday night.

Since then, we moved back to Rexburg, ID to continue school and Ender has been growing like a weed - an extra cute one that we want to keep. :D  Many, many pictures to follow.

Grandma and Ender