We now live in Arvada, Colorado. After a long period of trying to decide what to do at the end of the term at LDS Business College, we decided moving back to Colorado was the right thing. The plan was for Mike to become a real estate agent and work in tandem with his step dad, Steve, who has been an agent for a long time at ReMax. Long story short ... after 6 weeks of living with Mike's grandma, she decided to sell her house before leaving on her mission to Nauvoo. We packed up again, found a loft condo and moved within the span of 2 weeks. This changed our plans considerably. Mike would no longer pursue real estate, at least for now. He continued to work remotely for the property management company he worked for in SLC while figuring out what to do next.
On Thanksgiving of 2013 (just a week or so after moving into our new place), Mike developed compartment syndrome in the arch of his foot after playing basketball with cousins the night before. One emergency surgery later and his foot (and life) were saved. Compartment syndrome is kind of scary if not caught early enough. Christmas Eve of the same year proved equally eventful. After a quick visit to the ER for what looked like an infection in the incision site, Mike had an anaphylactic reaction to the antibiotics he was given there. This reaction happened while we were attending a family Christmas party. He was given a blessing after which I rushed him to the hospital. We spent the night in the ER for the most part and spent Christmas Day in Intensive Care.
We celebrated Christmas at our house in January. It was a rough couple of months for us here in Colorado and I felt pretty lonely. I missed my family somethin' fierce and wondered when things were going to work out.
Mike worked the summer for Edge Pest Control. They sell pest control door to door all summer long. Again, a rough few months. He now manages a cell phone kiosk inside a Costco and is killin' it! Nice. We like our loft but now feel we are busting at the seems again. That might be due to the fact that we have also had another baby. Yep, Samuel Gray Reintjes joined our little family on Oct 12th of this year and is just perfect. I had a super hard pregnancy during which I babysat our 2 nephews. They are cute and I love them to pieces, but I was ready to be done by mid August. Our condo is on the 3rd floor and I'm not an energetic pregnant person. Most of the time during this pregnancy, I felt I could either fall asleep or burst into tears at any moment. I was HUGE at the end and had more than one stranger tell me I looked tired and ask me if it was "just one baby in there?!" Ugh. Sam weighed 8 lbs. 12 oz. and was 20 in. long. I had fantastic midwives and a better, although still long, labor.
So now here we are, the parents of two boys. I'm learning how to go to the park, grocery shop, etc. with two. I'll get better at the logistics. I'm completely enamored with little Sam and despite fears that Will's allure would lose something with the birth of his brother, I still can't get enough of him either. So why the lack of balance you ask? Will decided to stop sleeping through the night shortly after we brought Sam home from the hospital. He refuses to let Mike comfort him in the middle of the night. All I hear is "Mama!" in the monitor again and again. I have no trouble at all getting up with Sam. He needs to eat and honestly, he sleeps better than Will! Sam sleeps about 4 hrs at a time. Fantastic for a newbie. I am however, increasingly frustrated with Will's nighttime antics. I'm beyond exhausted, don't really interact with friends that often (old or new), am still in a lot of pain from labor and delivery which causes me to feel emotional and frustrated, and sorting through all the "you know what you need to do ..." advice has left me feeling really low and even more confused and tired. As I drove home from Halloween festivities last night, I felt strongly that I need to circle the wagons so to speak. I need to reconnect with old friends, write my thoughts and feelings out, take time to go out for a smoothie alone every now and then, give myself a pedicure, reach out to new friends, read the scriptures, take time to ponder during the quite moments. In short, I am in need of finding myself again and reconnecting with Kristy. It is easy to lose yourself in motherhood, but in order to be a better mother, I need to just be me sometimes. I need to listen to my favorite music more often instead of watching TV. I need to take a dance class. I need to get out and walk everyday so I can enjoy the sunshine and teach Will and Sam the beauty of taking things slowly. I need to go on dates with Mike, and just be his for a while. And I need him to just be mine for a while too ... without distractions. I feel badly for him because for the most part, I'm "Mom" not "Kristy" and when we talk about how our days went, all I have to talk about is the kids. Don't get me wrong, this is great too. And he likes being in the loop about all their happenings, development, etc. But I miss being able to share more than this too. I need to be able to share more than this. I need the balance of being both "Kristy" to him and "Mom" to Will and Sam. To do that I must sleep more. That's where it needs to start. I have a tendency to lose my personality when I'm pregnant or otherwise stressed or hurting for prolonged periods of time. I'm working on alleviating these things so I can get myself back. And no this is not what they call postpartum depression. It's a sleep deprived girl who now knows what she needs to do to get back on track and she's determined to do it.
OK, now on to other things of the day. Will write again soon. I'll leave you with a couple pics ...
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