And Then There Were Three

Baby Belle is finally here!

She was born at 6:09 PM on Monday June 27th.

After the longest nine days of our lives, Stephen and I went to the hospital early Monday morning to be induced. After I got all settled in I was put on Pitocin to start contractions and the doctor came in to break my water. 

That's when things started getting a little scary. 

I bled quite a bit when my water broke, more than the doctor was comfortable with. He decided they would just keep an eye on me to make sure everything was alright, but that they wanted to keep me going so I could try to deliver naturally. I got my epidural and waited for the contractions to get stronger. My labor kept going but I didn't feel much pain, which I chalked up to the epidural, but the doctor got more and more worried that I wasn't progressing quickly enough. On top of the fact that I was barely changing in dilation and the baby wasn't moving down, her heart rate was dropping quite a bit every time I had a contraction. The doctor was getting more and more concerned and after about ten hours of labor he started hinting at the possibility of a C-Section.

At the beginning of the pregnancy I would have been terrified at the idea, but for the past week or so I'd been thinking more and more about the possibility of it happening. When the doctor said he was worried about how slowly I was progressing with natural birth and it was getting dangerous for the baby, I told him I was fine with a C-Section and that I was comfortable doing whatever he needed to do. We made the decision right then and there to go ahead with it.

I asked Stephen for a blessing and he and the doctor (who we know is a bishop in a singles ward) gave me one just before the surgery. It really helped both Stephen and I to be more at peace.

Five minutes later we were in the operating room ready to go. Naturally I couldn't see what they were doing past the divider, but Stephen was able to stand next to me and watch the process while he coached me. The anesthesiologist was there with him and was explaining everything and told me to let him know what I could feel so he would know if he needed to turn up my medication. At one point I started to feel some poking so I said "I feel like I'm being poked like under my belly button," and the anesthesiologist said "Oh honey he's cutting,".

Belle had been under a lot of stress during labor and her position was not ideal. After they cut me open they had to use both forceps and the vacuum to get her out. Even through all the numbness I felt a lot of pain and with the anticipation it was a very long ten minutes. Finally the doctor said "Oh, she's got a lot of hair!" and after a moment I heard her cry. At that point Stephen was called over by the nurses to look at her and I lost it. I kept having to tell myself to calm down because shaking and sobbing probably makes it hard for the doctors to stitch you up.

Stephen brought her over to me so I could get a look at her but it would be over an hour before I'd get to hold her. He went down with her to the nursery while she got cleaned up and weighed and I had to wait for 45 minutes in the recovery room while a nurse came in every so often to push on the incision to make sure everything was in place. It was probably the worst hour of my life!

Finally they wheeled me down to the Mother Baby floor where Stephen was waiting. The nurse brought her in and talked for a very long time about something I didn't pay much attention to because I just wanted to hold her and this woman was talking so slow. But FINALLY they handed me my daughter and I was able to relax. 

She is perfect in every way and we love her so much. We are so excited to have our new little family member with us!

Disneyland, Baby Showers, Graduation, and Other Affairs

So it's been four months since my last Blog Post... Apparently I need to be better at this.

Me, in the future :)

So let's see, what did we miss...? Ah, so remember back in January when I was six months pregnant and thought I was huge? Well this is what I look like now:

Yeah.

That's right everyone, Baby Belle is due on Saturday! Whether or not she actually comes when she's supposed to is another story (She's stubborn, but we'll just say she got that from her daddy). I am feeling pretty darn good for being almost 40 weeks, apart from sore feet and an hourly trip to the ladies room, but after all the horror stories I've heard I think I've got it pretty easy! Stephen and I are both very restless waiting for her to get here, but we've been trying to keep busy since my last post to distract ourselves. What did we do?

Well, first, we went to DISNEYLAND!

Needless to say, we had a blast. 

We flew out in February with Stephen's family and spent five days in the park. For anyone planning a trip, the middle to end of February and beginning of March are an absolutely PERFECT time to go! The crowd was almost non-existent and most of the time even big rides like Splash Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean were only a five minute wait! I was a little worried about slowing everyone down or not being able to enjoy anything, being in the throes of pregnancy and all, but Disneyland is clearly prepared for pregnant women. The first day we were there, Stephen and his family went to ride Indiana Jones and I waited outside (Disneyland has several rides pregnant women aren't allowed to ride for obvious reasons)

So I sat and waited on a bench outside near a mother with two small girls, probably about five and three. The five year old kept staring at me and finally nudged her mom.

"Mom," she said "Why is that lady's belly so big?"

The mom looked over and smiled at me then said to her daughter

"Well that lady is pregnant, so she has a baby inside her belly,"

The daughter looked distressed.

"Well how come she's here all by herself?"

The mom explained that pregnant women were like small girls in that they couldn't ride some of the bigger rides and that I was probably waiting for my family like they were.

"Why can't pregnant people ride the rides?"

"Because it's too bouncy and jerky,"

And the little girl said 

"What, is the baby gonna fall out?"

Anyhow, it was an amazing trip! We ate like Kings

We demolished that Turkey Leg in about ten minutes and I'm pretty sure I ate more than Stephen... We both tried Dole Whips for the first time and were not disappointed (my attempts at finding a recipe to duplicate them has turned up nothing). We also loved the bread bowl gumbo in New Orleans Square. But hands down our favorite dinner that week was from Steakhouse 55. 

It's fancy and pretty pricey but if you can plan for it, the food is amazing! I got a New York Strip and Stephen got a Ribeye and I swear it was the best steak either of us have ever had. Even the salads were great, and we followed up with Creme Brulee that I now have dreams about.

We saw World of Color (not to be missed). Funny story, I went to Disneyland with some friends a few years ago and while walking through California Adventure we saw a water show going on and someone in our group said "Oh, this must be World of Color!" and while it was nice I didn't think much of it. So when Stephen's dad said he got tickets and then we waited almost an hour for the show to start I was thinking "...really? Well it gives me a chance to rest my feet at least,". And then the show started. Guys, that was definitely NOT World of Color. I was amazed!

And we got lots of souvenirs (most of them for Belle)

The Feet. Look at the Feet!

Ours said "Mommy" and "Daddy"

He's a rattle :)

I think the one we had the most fun with was some custom Onesies for Belle.

We bought some blank white onesies and got them signed by all the characters. Since we went at such a good time, most of the characters didn't have lines or anything, but the princesses were a different story. Obviously, we were determined to get Princess Belle's signature, so we actually stood in line at the Princess Pavilion. Stephen will be a good dad, he's willing to stand in line for the Disney Princesses for her and she's not even here yet ;)

After we got home, Stephen's cousin Rob threw him a "Wing and Diaper Party". Most men don't really enjoy sitting through a baby shower, but they deserve some time in the spotlight too. After all, they're going to be dads! So instead of having a baby shower for Stephen, a bunch of the guys brought a pack of diapers to Buffalo Wild Wings where they had all you can eat wings, watched hockey, and enjoyed each other's company. Sadly they didn't get any pictures, but we did end up with enough diapers to last us about three months!

My baby shower was thrown shortly thereafter by my sister Ashley, sister-in-law Janessa, mother, and mother-in-law and it was so much fun!

Everybody wrote little notes to Belle for her scrapbook and we played a game where everyone cut pieces of yarn to see who could get the closest to going around my belly.

Most people went a little too big, but Cousin Elsie got it dead on!

We had a very fun time and Belle got so many cute things

And last but definitely not least, Stephen Graduated!

He got his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Utah Valley University. The ceremony was wonderful and we are all very proud of his achievement! He is just thrilled to be done with undergrad.

He doesn't believe me sometimes, but he's the smartest guy I know :)

Nice one, Dad... ;)

He's a smart one alright!

Well, that's just about everything up until now... We are just waiting for our little girl to get here. We're trying to keep busy while we wait, but I can't promise we won't both go crazy in the process.

Next time I post, we'll have a squirmy little baby to show off!