Christmas Letter 2014: A Life of Transition

Merry Christmas!

Here is a song that has been on repeat during this Christmas Season.  Feel free to listen to it while you read (you will probably have to endure an advertisement before the song comes on).

It's been a few years since our last Christmas letter...cough....cough.....since 2011!  Oh my.  Well, we will catch you all up on the latest and greatest in the Mentze home and you will quickly realize why it's been a while.

2012-

Elijah Blaze was born on Kristin's birthday (May 21st).  If you want to read Eli's birth story, you can go here. (no gory details)

The first 6 months of parenthood were adventurous just trying to figure out a new "normal" 

November 6th- We were notified that Cirrus Logic would be shutting down their Tucson office and relocating us to Austin, TX.  This was a very advantageous move for us as they offered to help us sell our home in Oregon as part of our deal to move.

We finished the year with spending Thanksgiving with the Mentze family (traveling to Portland) and Christmas with our new little family (in Tucson), and the Barclay family (In Phoenix) right before we moved!!!

December 27th- Our moving truck left with all of our stuff headed to Texas 

2013-

January 5th- We moved to Austin

We lived downtown until March (paid by the company) so we could take our time to figure out where we wanted to live.  This was a lot of fun in order to explore our new city.

A few weeks later we flew to Portland for a whirlwind weekend of cleaning up our house to be put on the market.  We had an offer the first weekend and closed within 30 days (March 4th).  We even received more than we expected.  If you need a great realtor, we know one!

In March we moved into our hipster, 70's fabulous, 2 bedroom/1.5 bathroom, walking distance to parks/restaurants/downtown townhouse.  We picked a great location.  We compromised on space because it would place us near downtown where Erik was working.  Traffic is a major issue in Austin, so it also helped us avoid that situation.

April 1st- We lost Grandpa Thomas Trees, so we headed to Oregon to spend some time with family for a week.

April 28th- We discovered that we were expecting a new addition to the Mentze family!!

May 21st- We celebrated Eli's birthday with friends in Tucson and then went to Disneyland for a sweet vacation for just the 3 of us.

June 28th- We celebrated 5 years of marriage!

August 19th- We found out that we were having a BOY!!  Here is our reveal video.

Kristin's pregnancy was pretty uneventful, just lots of swelling!

October we took a trip up to Uncle Earl and Aunt Sue's farm in California for the Sheridan Iron Chef competition! We had a great time seeing the Mentze side of the family.

Our Thanksgiving was sweet and intimate for the 3 of us, all catered by Whole Foods!  I highly recommend a stress free Thanksgiving by having someone else make the food.

Christmas quickly came and Gary, Terrie, and Adam came to spend Christmas with us since Kristin was very pregnant.  We were hoping that Zak would make an arrival before the end of the year because we had help in town with Terrie caring for Eli.

2014!!!

January 3rd- Zakariah Thomas was born!  If you would like to read his birth story, you can go here.

This year started out with a big transition of adding another member to our family.  Eli did very well with the transition and in general is very loving towards Zak.  We had a lot of help at the beginning as Kristin's dad came for 2 weeks, and afterwards her mom came for 3 weeks.  When all our help left, we were on our own!  We did hire a nanny to come for a few hours a day, which was a great blessing!  We also had incredible, servant hearted friends who would drop by and help.

April 2nd- Erik was notified that the division he was working in was being cut, and he was being laid off.  This cut was very sudden and unexpected.  It was a "here is a check, and here is the door" lay off.  This was a new situation for us as anytime there has been a lay off, "we have always made the kickball team."  There is always more to the story, but that is best left for a personal conversation, not the Internet.

We were not very public with the change going on as we felt that we had some decisions to make, and we didn't want to get a lot of people's hopes up.  We took the opportunity to look into various options from Arizona, Oregon, Texas and North Carolina.  After a couple weeks of studying and looking into various job options, Erik lined up a handful of interviews.  He ended up accepting an offer from Cactus Semiconductor in Chandler Arizona.  Cactus specializes in low power integrated circuit design, with quite a bit of history in implantable medical devices (yes, computer chips that go inside you!).  He finished his first project within 6 months of starting and is quickly settling in.  He describes it as "The most fun I've ever had working the hardest I've ever worked".  So far it seems to be a really good fit with a lot of opportunity for Erik to grow.  

May 10th- We moved to Chandler, Arizona!

May 17th- Erik started work at Cactus Semiconductor

May 21st- Eli turned 2!!

June 28th- We celebrated 6 years of marriage!! (In Oregon)

We were able to take a vacation up to Oregon during the week of our anniversary and 4th of July.  We went to Cannon Beach for a quick weekend, and had a blast with Gary, Terrie and Adam!  Eli still talks about going to the beach and flying kites.

We came back and survived the hot summer and monsoon season here in Arizona...yes we survived the Phoenix flooding.

November we headed to Portland for 2 weeks for Thanksgiving.  We had a great time with family, friends and a bit of sickness too.

And now you are caught up on our crazy life!

So if you do the math with all that we have done...we moved from AZ to TX to AZ all within 16 months.  We also had two kids 19th months apart!  Are we crazy?  Maybe...but we survived, and we know that God has been incredibly gracious to walk us through all these transitions.  Are we done moving?  Probably not.

Just to give you a little insight to our boys...

Eli is a slow roller in the morning.  You cannot rush him to do anything.  He is fun loving and always out for a good time.  He remembers everything, but usually in the context of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  He LOVES buttons!  If there is a button to push, he is your man to do the job. 

Zak is bight eyed and bushy tailed in the morning.  He loves to get up before Eli and have his run of the toys.  He was crawling at 9 months and will be walking soon, but may revert to crawling because he can get where he wants much faster.

Kristin is full time domestic engineer at this time.  She also still works with Take Shape for Life clients.  If you are interested in hearing about the program please send her a message. 

We hope this Christmas season is filled with JOY knowing that God came to earth!  HE CAME.  It's pretty amazing to ponder the event and reason.

We would love to hear from you too!  Feel free to leave a comment.

Zakariah Thomas is here!!

So it seems as though we have hit another huge milestone that deserves a blog post.  I'm horrible at keeping up at this, but it's a great way to communicate more than a facebook post.

I wanted to take some time to write about Zak's arrival since we are living so far away from many family and friends. I know there are many who would love to meet this little man and ask how everything went.  We would love to sit down and have coffee....let Eli run around...and introduce Zak...but we are far away from Oregon, Arizona and Idaho...so a blog post will have to do.

So when Eli was born we had a c-section.  You can read his birth story here if you need a refresher on what happened.  After all was said and done, they said that I would be an excellent candidate for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) if we decided to have another child.  It was our intention to VBAC from the beginning when we found out about our pregnancy.

The pregnancy in general went well.  Towards the end of the pregnancy I experienced A LOT of swelling...EVERYTHING was swollen.  It was SUPER uncomfortable to be the largest I had EVER been in my life.  I could barely shove my feet into my toms.  I could only wear two pairs of pants (one of them being stretchy pants).  I was checked for PIH/Pre-eclampsia and nothing showed up...so all was well.  I wish I would have taken a picture of my face before and after the birth.  I don't think I even realized just how swollen I was.

We were heading into the week before Christmas and as Erik and I were talking about the arrival of this new one we had high hopes that he would arrive before the end of the year (of course having a tax break would be nice but it wasn't that important) we were okay if he waited till the new year.  Erik's mom arrived December 21st and was staying until January 5th.  We started to talk about the option to schedule another c-section.  Some plans had changed with my family coming after he was born and we were at peace with either trying the VBAC or doing another c-section.

We started to talk to the Dr. about the option of another c-section and they were supportive.  However, I did want to try to get things rolling on my own in a "natural" way.  We tried just about everything except castor oil.  We scheduled the c-section for January 3rd for various personal reasons.  I could list them out but some reasons are really personal and not for an "online" forum.  We took into consideration how this whole change would affect everyone in our family and made our decision.  We both had peace about it.  When I went in for my last appointment the Monday before the c-section I was really hoping that there would be some sort of progress and all I needed was just a little push to put me in labor.  When the midwife checked me she couldn't even reach my cervix.  I was posterior and very tightly closed so it seemed.  I was really disappointed that through everything we were trying that there was nothing happening.  I knew that the c-section was likely to happen.

I'm not someone who has these great dreams of delivering a natural vaginal baby.  After our first, I just wanted what was the right decision for us.

Will I regret the decision?  I don't think so, and I just need to trust that God is bigger than my decisions.

So the morning of January 3rd we were scheduled for a 10AM c-section.  We arrived at 8AM to get prepared.  Because I have so many allergies they had to double and triple check everything.  It also took three nurses to find a vein for my IV because I was VERY swollen.  I entered the cold operating room at 10:03AM.  Everything was prepped.  I received a spinal block and waited for Erik to enter the room.  My mind definitely flashed back to Eli's birth, but for reasons of realizing how everything was SO different with Eli's birth.

With Eli's birth I didn't realize how rushed everything was.  I really didn't think much of the fact that we had the NICU team in the room to assess Eli, and that it was not "normal."  I didn't really think much of the anesthesiologist having me lay down on my left side for a spinal block instead of sitting up.  I now see hind sight that it was because Eli's heart rate dropped so much and would only go up if I was on my left side.

This time around everything was much more relaxed and routine.  However, it wasn't without it's fearful moments that just run through your head.

Erik finally arrived and it was just a matter of moments before Zak entered the world at 10:38AM.  It seemed like it went so fast once Erik was there.  When he came out he was screaming...a lot.  I didn't see him right away because the prep table was behind the curtain.  It was a little while before he came over to see me.  When he did come over to see me I was amazed again at the little man my body had incubated and nurtured.  He was so sweet.

The Dr. finished everything up and I went to post op for about two hours where I munched on some yummy ice cubes.  Erik's mom got a chance to come in an see him as well.  When my time in post-op was finished I was moved over to the post partum area.  In the post partum area I had a great, spacious corner room...that had construction going on outside.  It wasn't bad until the next day when I had to request to move rooms.

The other major difference in this birth vs. Eli's was the recovery.  I was up and out of bed in the same day.  I wasn't completely stable, but I was WAY more stable than I was last time.  When I stood up the next day after Eli was born, I could barely stand on my own and was very shaky and wobbly.  This time, I just was a little unstable.

We had great nurses and staff that seemed to all be on the "same page" and not sending mixed signals about my care or getting breastfeeding started.  There was only one nurse that was a little "off" and just personality wise just rubbed me the wrong way.

Because I was recovering so well we pushed to leave the hospital on Sunday.  Zak's weight dropped a bit (totally normal) and my milk hadn't come in yet.  We took some preventative measures in making sure we didn't have to stay longer by supplementing to get his weight up. Once my milk came in we were able to make the complete switch back to just breast milk.  I have so much of a supply that I'm freezing quite a bit every day.

Erik's mom left Sunday afternoon, so it was perfect timing to be allowed to go home.  Erik was able to take the rest of the week off and we were able to get settled in before my dad arrived on Thursday.  My dad was able to stay for two weeks and was a great help to us.  Saturday after my dad left my mom arrived and is staying for three weeks.  After February 15th....we are on our own.

I'm a little apprehensive about flying solo, so we have looked into hiring a nanny for a couple hours a day.  We found a lovely young lady who is looking for some part time work while in school and it seems to be a really nice fit.

So far Zak is doing really well.  His weight at his one month appointment was 9lbs 5 oz.  He is very sweet and loves to be held.  He's not super fussy and is sleeping well so far.  He does have a little bit of reflux, but I'm sure he will eventually outgrow it.

I'm amazed when I look at him.  He has some of Erik's features but I still wonder...what will he look like?

Eli is adjusting to the new member of the family.  He has shown some jealous tendencies and some acting out, but we have taken time to just focus on him.  He likes to help with blankets and binkies and is overall very tender towards Zak.

So here we are...a family of four.  I told Erik while we were driving one day...I've only known you for 7.5 years...I have known so many other people so much longer...but I have kids with you...CRAZY.  We are enjoying this new adventure.  It's really fun!