One year later...

Ok friends i haven't been on here in quite a while so i'll fill everyone in on some big changes in our lives.

We were all ready to move to Louisville Kentucky when Bryan found out the school he wanted to finish seminary at was opening an extension center about 30 minutes away from where we live now. Also he was offered an internship at our church August Gate! We prayed a lot about it and felt like these opportunities were gifts from God and we shouldn't pass them up. It just wasn't the right time for us to move away. So over the last few months we have been looking for a house and it has been quite an adventure! I'll talk more about that later.

One other thing i wanted to write about today is my photography business. See I put it on hold after Eli was born because i thought we were moving to Louisville. In my mind i thought i'd put it on the back burner until we got settled in our new city and try and get it up and going with new clients there. Well we are still here in St. Louis and we have since updated our photography technology so my mom and i are excited to start shooting again :)

I know there are so many wonderful photographers out there right now, so you might be asking why do I want to be a photographer? It isn't an easy profession to get into at all. Well I did go to SIUe for 4 years, studying photography and it really is where my heart is. I've worked in a darkroom and even developed my own film.  I'm not freakishly amazing at it, but i do work really hard to better my skills and i hope that shows. I really love capturing special moments for people to keep forever and i love turning a person into a work of art. Also since having my son i feel how important it is to hold on to memories that pass by so quickly. I may not ever become the best or most well payed photographer but I'm going to follow the passion God has put in my heart and continue to make art.

I hope you will pray for me as i figure this all out and start a new chapter in my life. Pray that i don't give up when it gets hard too.

I am really blessed though, because i do have a wonderful husband who is incredibly supportive of my dreams and goals and i just want to thank him for loving me through all of my creative and interesting adventures. You are a wonderful soulmate Bryan Fulton!

We are working on a website and hopefully it will be up and running soon. Until then if you want to see some of our work, look here.

Thanks for listening,

Kristen

Eli's Helmet

I decided to write a post about the helmet that Eli is getting since i know my friends and family will have a lot of questions, hopefully this will help answer some of them.

A few months ago we noticed Eli tilted his head to one side a little bit more than the other, and his doctor determined that it was torticollis or just a stiff neck. It's not really a big deal but we went ahead with physical therapy, and exercises at home just to strengthen his neck up.  The torticollis was also causing him to sleep with his head more on one side than the other and that kind of started to make his head flat because babies heads are still growing so fast and so much. All of this was probably caused by such a rough delivery but the awesome thing is that it is pretty easily correctable.

As far as the torticollis goes, he has been in physical therapy for a few months now and is doing great!!! He is right on track for his "milestones" like rolling over, transferring objects between both hands and all kinds of new things! He doesn't hold his head to one side anymore and can look from side to side much easier. He has improved so much!

His head has evened out a lot too because we have been re positioning him at bed time and nap time so he gets time with his head on the other side. It is still pretty flat in the back though, so with some consultations we have decided to go a head and get Eli a helmet. I know that probably sounds really scary, at least it did to me, but it's really not so bad.

The helmet is really thin and light weight and will help round out his little head so it doesn't look so weird. Not that my baby's head looks weird!!!!! But helping his head shape more roundly will help him with the torticollis too and i know he will thank us for it later when his head isn't flat in the back :) There is nothing developmentally wrong with Eli, the helmet is really just to make his head shape more like everyone else and to help him have a strong neck.

We didn't necessarily  have to get him the helmet, but the more we talked to our physical therapists and family about it the more we knew it was the right choice for him. It was finally approved by our insurance so we get to have him fitted for it this Friday morning, the 28th and it should come in the next Friday on the 4th. I think we even get to pick a cute little design to go on it. :) I wonder if they will have owls or guitars......?

It is still a little scary to me, but i think that is just because i'm a mommy and i'm programmed to worry about my little guy. I do not look forward to all of the people who will make rude comments and ask me stupid questions, but i will get over it. Or rather God will give me patience to deal with it.

If you have any questions feel free to ask! I am thinking of blogging about his his progress with pictures but i'm not sure yet if i feel like that will embarrass him later in life or something. What do you think? Would you show his progress with pictures? Also i found a link to a good explanation about torticollis and helmets (because i am not a professional and can't explain it all) so check it out too.
FAQ tortecollis/ plagiocephaly

New mommyhood and my little Cardinals fan

It has obviously been a while since I blogged... :D but I got a new phone and it has a blogger app!! So my blogging ability just got a million times easier!! See I rarely have time to actually get on the computer and our computer really sucks.

So Elijah is 4 1/2 months old now and mommyhood has become much more manageable. I'm getting used to not enough sleep and to carrying an extra 30 lbs around between baby, carseat, ect. He is generally much happier (except for the recent teething). Elijah is really just a little sweetheart and he loves to be cuddled. :)

We just started cereal and that has been soooo exciting!! Its been about two weeks and he is adapting to it. At first he just wanted to spit it out but he is really starting to enjoy it. And like I said he likes to be held so he doesn't really like being in a high chair much. He sure is growing though!! 26 in long and 15 1/2 lbs!!

Did I mention that his daddy's favorite team is in the world series right now????? We are a baseball/cardinals family and we are so excited!! Eli actually watches the game and dances when we cheer.... its adorable!

That's my post for today but expect lots more to come since I can do it from my phone now :) (thanks Bryan for the sweet new phone!)

First Post! Birth of Elijah

Well I started this blog to keep friends and family updated on us whenever we move. So for my first post I will tell you about the day that changed my life forever.

Three weeks ago on June 6th I started having contractions at my women's bible study, but it didn't hurt so I wasn't really sure if it was the real deal. Later that night they started getting more intense and closer together so I woke up my husband Bryan and told him, "This is it!" He didn't believe me at first and wanted to go back to sleep but when I started moaning in agony he realized I was serious. We woke up my very sleepy mom and dad and went to Anderson Hospital in Maryville, Il.

We got there at about 3:30 a.m. on June 7th and I was already dilated 4 cm! I got an epidural and it felt amazing :) because the contractions were very intense and close together. Of course all of my doctors were busy or not at the hospital so I kept seeing different doctors and really the nurse did all of the work. By 7 a.m. I was ready to push! It wasn't as simple as I thought it would be; there is definitely a technique to it and they had me try several different positions. I pushed for two and a half hours before my nurse told us that he was facing up instead of facing down and because of that was not getting through the birth canal. That is when she told me we were going to have to do a c- section.

That was one of the scariest moments of my life just because it wasn't at all what we were prepared for and weren't really sure what to expect. They told me Bryan could be in the surgery room with me and that made me feel a lot better. We waited for my doctor to get there and they wheeled me into surgery. The anesthesiologist gave me a stronger epidural and Bryan held my hand as I shook violently; a side effect from the epidural. I was numb from the chest down but I could feel all of the pressure and movement from the doctors. I just kept talking to Bryan to keep my mind off of how scary it was. It took a little longer than I thought it would because he actually got stuck in the birth canal and I was told by the anesthesiologist that they had to push him out of the birth canal before they could pull him out.

All of the sudden I felt them lift him out of me and I heard the doctor say "Oh he's peeing!" LOL! We watched as they laid him on the scale and cleaned him off. It seemed like an eternity before they let Bryan hold him and he brought him up to me. We were both crying and it was the most beautiful thing I have ever experienced. Sadly they took him away to the nursery with Bryan while I got stitched up. It seemed like an eternity while I waited for them to put the staples in so I could go to recovery and hold my baby for the first time.

They wheeled me past my family and into recovery and my nurse took out my epidural and gave me some medicine and just talked to me. I was still shaking really bad so she was trying to help me calm down. Finally Bryan came in and soon after him they brought me my sweet little boy.

Holding my little boy for the first time is a moment I will never ever forget. To hold the little baby I've carried in my belly for 9 months and to see how much he looks like my husband and to just stare into his little blue eyes... oh it was wonderful! Bryan and I just couldn't stop staring at him and crying at how beautiful he was. It was God's greatest blessing on our lives.

June 7th, 2011 at 10:52 a.m. our son Elijah Dean Fulton came into this world to bless our lives and teach us patience and grace, to fill our lives with joy and giggles, to show us the kind of love that God loves us with, to remind us of the innocence of a child, to teach us what it is to sacrifice everything for the one you love.

We love parenthood. We love our little boy. We love that Jesus blessed us with him. :)