Great Grandma & Grandpa

Milo met his Great Grandma & Grandpa Flake last night ...

While Grandpa Flake was holding Milo he asked his wife who had 11 children, "Why did we stop?"

Four Generations ...

home sweet home

Milo's Birth Story

This post is mostly for me, I wanted to write down the events of Milo's birth and first few days while it's fresh on my mind. Most people would probably do it in a journal, but I am so much better about keeping a blog.

Monday night we had family home evening with Jordan's family and as we were leaving Debbie asked if I had been having any contractions at all, to which I responded no ... cause really nothing had been happening, no contractions at all. I was planning on making it to the due date & I wouldn't have been surprised if he would have come late.We came home and continued working ripping apart the rocking chair, so it could be reupholstered. I started to get tired so I went to sleep for a few hours while Jordan kept working on the chair and watched a movie. Not long after Jordan went to sleep, about 1:30 am I started to get really uncomfortable. My first contractions, I figured that it was false labor and tried to distract myself from the pains. I watched TV shows on the Internet. Ate my favorite snack. Ripped staples out of the rocking chair. Took like 4 warm baths. Tried to sleep (no luck). The contractions were coming about every 5 minutes all night long. I woke Jordan up a few times, but he was skeptical that it was real labor, as was I. He got up with me at about 4:30 am and helped keep me distracted. At about 8:00 am we still weren't sure it was the real deal and decided that he should go to work and I should try to relax and get some sleep since I was up all night. So I laid down in bed, but they kept coming every 5 minutes or so. Jordan called and checked in with me around 10:30 am and I asked him to come home at lunch. A few minutes later I called back and asked him to come home right then. He came back home and helped me through the contractions, they were finally starting to get closer together. At 12:30 pm we loaded up the car and headed into the hospital. We both were trying not to get too excited, we both figured that they would send us back home. When we got there and I told the nurses at triage that this was my first baby, I was 38 weeks, and my Dr. had never checked me at any of my appointments you could see the look of oh here is yet another case of false labor to send home. They asked me every question about my medical history and checked my cervix. I was dilated to a 5 & 100% effaced ... and we were emitted. We were both in shock. I got a hep-lock and some apple juice and we started walking the halls and the outside gardens in labor and delivery. Then went back in to be on the baby monitors. Things were going along slow but steady, the contractions were manageable, Jordan and the nurse did a great job of keeping me calm and relaxed. at 4:04 pm I was laying in bed on the monitors waiting to be able to get off and go walk around again when my water broke. It was the strangest feeling ever, I thought that it was going to feel like peeing my pants, but it felt like a high pressure fire hose going off between my legs. The nurse checked me and I was dilated to a 7, as soon as my water broke contractions started to come hard and fast. There was no break to rest, I was exhausted and gave in and got the epidural. I was trying to avoid it if at all possible, but after I got it things went slower and I was so much more comfortable. After the epidural Dr. Guzman came in and checked me, I was an 8 and doing well. Jordan's family came to the hospital, brought Jordan some food, visited with us then went to the waiting room hoping to meet the little babe. Finally around 8:30 pm I was dilated to 10 and ready to push. I got another blessing from Jordan and his Dad, then I pushed hard for about 2 hours before the Milo decided to actually come on out. At one point my Dr. asked if I wanted to reach down and feel his little head, it was amazing after all that work he was finally really coming! At 10:49 pm my perfect baby boy was here. The Dr. put him on my tummy. I held him for a few minutes, Jordan cut his cord, and he was cleaned off. Then he was wisked away to the NICU because I had a fever which was passed to him, and he had to be on antibiotics.

It was hard to just sit there and not be able to have my baby. I felt like I had just gone through hell and I couldn't even see him. I just stared at the few pictures that Jordan had snapped before he was taken off. About an hour later we were able to go into the nursery and spend time holding our perfect little son. We are so so so in love. It is hard to see your little helpless baby all hooked up to monitors and having an IV, but we were grateful that he was being taken care of and that we were able to get some rest.

Milo spent his entire first day and most of his second day in the special care nursery.

Yesterday afternoon they finally took out his IV, took him off of the monitors, put him in a regular crib, and let us bring him into our room with us. It was a little piece of heaven to finally be able to have our baby with us and love on him as much as we wanted.

Unfortunately, My 48 hour hospital stay was over Yesterday at 11 pm and I had to be discharged & Milo had to stay one more night. We delayed it as long as possible, I lost it as I was packing up all of our stuff and realizing that he wasn't coming home with us.

We loaded all our stuff in the car and headed home, I bawled and Jordan did his best to keep me calm. We got home at about midnight and tried to get some rest, but we were both so worked up. I kept waking up and checking the clock, hoping the night was almost over ... like Christmas morning.

We headed over to the hospital around 7 am, it was so good to walk into the nursery and see my baby peacefully sleeping. We cuddled and loved on him in the nursery while we waited for him to be discharged. He had a hearing test, his circumcision, got checked out one last time by the pediatrician. Then his nurse sat down and went through the discharge paperwork with us. We finally were able to dress him in some clothes and we loaded him in his car seat and took him home ... finally.

We are so grateful that he is here, safe, and healthy. He got some serious special attention at the hospital and had the best nurses taking care of him. It made it a little easier to leave him because I knew that he was going to be in good hands. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father sent him to us, he is the perfect addition to our family, we are in love. Life at the Flake Farm is pure bliss.

More Milo ...

We love our little guy so much. 

Its amazing how much time we pass just sitting and staring at him. 

Milo William Flake

born 2/22/2011

7 lbs 2 oz , 20 1/2 inches ... of perfection. 

See Ya Later Alligator

Today I sold a piece of my soul ...

A little dramatic but ...

Its kind of pathetic how attached to my projects I get but for some reason I can't help it.

I always justified keeping this sofa because what it lacked in sturdiness, it made up for with style.

And I loved working on it with my daddy last October.

We enjoyed the sofa for over a year but ... it was time for her to go.

She was just too old and fragile.

I would have a heart attack every time Jordan would sit on it and I'd hear a creak.

So I decided it was time to sell before it fell apart.

And we have limited room ... as you can tell from the picture

Yes we are currently storing strollers, bicycles, and other misc. goods in our living room

Plus I made a nice little profit and made some room for the next project!

Best Goodwill Find EVER

I've said it at least 100 times before, but I LOVE GOODWILL!

For months I've been looking for one of these rocking chairs ...

Anytime we were at the mall I would wander into Pottery Barn Kids, sit in the chair and rationalize the many reasons why it would make sense to spend more money on single rocking chair than we have on any other piece of furniture in our house. But no matter how hard I tried, spending almost a grand on a rocking chair didn't make sense.

When I couldn't get a new one, I moved on to my friend Craig. I've been religiously checking his list for months, but no luck.

Then on Saturday I wandered into my favorite store, Goodwill ...

and got this chair for $25

Its actually in really good shape

(the spots are upholstery cleaner, i took the picture while it was still wet)

but I am going to recover it, the 1992 denim upholstery doesn't do it for me.

I had better get started this baby is due in just three short weeks ...

I can't wait to rock him in our new chair!

XOXO

Dear Husband: 

I am so lucky to have the BEST valentine ever! 

Unemployment Never Felt So Good

Today was my last day of work & Unemployment has never felt so good.

Now I can just focus on getting things together before the babe arrives!

I am feeling very large & in charge these days

A lot of people say they are so over being pregnant by this point and ...

I really would love to meet my baby, but I don't really mind being pregnant.

I kind of love it ...

Its fun to feel the babe move and wiggle

And I'll be honest, I love the special treatment

36 weeks & 3 days

Tips for the Trainee

During this last glorious week of work I get to train my replacement.

I had high hopes that things would go smoothly, but I have been especially dreading this task when I found out how not-qualified my replacement is:

Degree: Art (Don't get me wrong I love Art, but this is a CPA firm)

Previous employer: Harkins Movie Theater

Prior Quickbooks experience: "I've played around on it a little bit" (??)

Good thing she's got DNA in common with another co-worker.

Anyways this post is a giant complaint, so if you can't handle my negative rant just come back tomorrow.

And with that said ...

Being the experienced trainer that I am, after my 1.5 days on the assignment

I have a few helpful tips for any of you that may find yourself in a trainee situation.

1. If your going to sit in someone elses crowded cubical, Personal Hygiene is a must.

Take it from me, no one likes training someone that looks and smells like a troll.

And I am not talking about the colorful hair, bejeweled bellybutton type.

2. Don't eat Sun chips or any other snack over the shoulder of your trainer.

3. Don't ask your trainer for permission to use the restroom.

I didn't get a degree in elementary ed. for a reason

4. This is most important: Assume that your trainer actually knows what they are doing.

Don't say things like: It would be quicker if you just copy & pasted.

or

I am totally going to change this, it would be so much better if you did it this way.

(true or not, in this case NOT TRUE)

Warning: Not following these tips will get you banished off to your cubical, clueless.

And will cost you valuable training time, while your trainer blogs about how ridiculous you are.

Christmas Miracle

Originally written on December 17, 2010--I decided at wasn't a good idea to post this in case my boss or another co-worker some how came across it ... but since Friday is my last day (!!!!), I think its save to share my little "Christmas Miracle"

One of my duties at work is to cut checks. I have heard from other co-workers the standard procedure is that we get given bonus checks at the holiday party, which is tonight. So I have been anxiously waiting for my boss to give me the instruction to cut the bonus checks. Today, I left work a little early because I haven't been feeling well, but before I snuck off I made sure to stop in and see if there was anything else that needed to be done ... hint, hint we need bonus checks. He responded that he didn't need anything else and to go home and rest up before the party.

So immediately I got out my phone and sent a simple text to my co-worker:

No Bonus Checks :(

After hitting send, I happen to notice ...

that didn't go to my co-worker, that went TO MY BOSS.

So I started shaking, sweating and headed back into the office assess the situation ...Luckily my boss was taking measurements for new filing cabinets and didn't appear to have his phone glued to him, like normal. So I snuck into his office to delete the text. Sure enough as soon as I grab the phone I notice:

1 New Text Message from Meagan Flake

But of course, he owns the worlds most complicated phone. And at this point, I am so flustered my brain function is that of a 1 year old and I could not figure out how to delete the message. Now I am starting to worry that he will walk back into his office and see me messing with his phone, which would only make the situation much worse. So ... I did what any rational person would do. I stole his phone, only for a moment ... I needed back up.

I grabbed the phone, slipped it into my purse and rushed off to the cubical of the intended recipient. I handed her the phone in a panic and asked for help. Luckily she is able to delete it and I was able to sneak the phone back on to his desk unscathed.

Christmas Miracle.

You've Had A Birthday ... Shout Hooray!

02.03.1985

Happy Birthday Jordan!