Living the Life: March 2009

Monday, March 30, 2009

Sharin' some Love...

I've been trying to catch this for a while, but I'm always the 4th comment whenever I find it. I finally got in on Kristen's blog! The first three people to leave a comment will receive a hand made gift by me. There is a catch however, you must do the same thing on your blog. Come on everyone lets spread some love!

Friday, March 27, 2009

You're 30!!

On Wednesday, My honey turned 30...
Yes... The big
3-0!
And I succeeded in throwing him a surprise party!

(thanks Rachel for the invite idea!)
I thought that he would totally catch on, because I'm really not a good liar. After school, Jeff often goes downstairs in the basement to his "man-cave" (our T.V. room) to chillax with his Nintendo. So on Monday, I told him that I'd just call him up when dinner was ready. Meanwhile- upstairs- I finished the cupcakes, blew up balloons, and had everyone quietly waiting in the front room. When it was "time for dinner", up he came, and boy was he surprised! :)
His awesome cupcakes:

I was so happy that I actually got away with it! The evening was a lot of fun, and thank you to all of our great friends who came over to celebrate!

On his birthday, I always make him a breakfast and have something sitting out on the table for him. This year- I knew I'd be pretty out of it in the morning after being up all night... So I got him his favorite cereal, and a birthday tower of doughnuts... I also had his birthday gift (some new work-out/lounge clothes, and a coupon for a new pair of shoes... and a foot rub before he wears them for the first time). He also got some "goodies" for his X-box and Wii that he bought himself.

To complete the day, Dallin and Allison also sent him balloons at school, and that night I made yummy crepes for dinner!
*******

Honey-
I hope you had a wonderful 30th birthday! I love you more and more everyday. I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful man in my life. You're a great Daddy- our kids love you so much... And you do so much for me... especially lately with the baby here. You'll really never know how much you mean to me... Happy Birthday! I love you!
-Jenna

Monday, March 23, 2009

2 1/2 weeks!

*Warning... Proud Mommy ahead...Picture and info overload. :)*

Well... Sorry it's taken me so long to update. I've gotten a few "hate calls" telling to I need to get on the ball :) haha... I have found though that my usual "Me" time I used to have is almost completely nonexistent now-a-days. Hopefully life will get more into a schedule in the next couple weeks... It's all worth it though. :) We love our beautiful baby girl so much!!

Ok... DETAILS DETAILS! :)...

Jeff and I went into St. George on the 4th to go to the doctor and found that I was a 3 and 70% effaced, and having irregular contractions... But still wasn't kicking into full labor. Since I live two hours away from the hospital, my doctor said he felt more comfortable about inducing me that next day then having me drive through Zion in labor... (Which was totally fine with me!) :)
The hospital said that they would call anywhere between 5 and 6 am to have me come in. So Jeff and I woke up, got ready to go the hospital... and than waited... forever! :) I was actually having contractions pretty regular by this point... So By the time they called at 9:30- I was pretty excited to get down there!

Before we left for the hospital:

I got in at 10:00 and they started me on the pit. Sheesh... That stuff is not very fun! :) My contractions were so hard already! I wasn't really making that much progress (Still just a 4 at 2:00). So I opted for another epidural- which I almost had a mental breakdown over. They freak me out so bad! I asked him to give me the lowest possible dose, and he just kind of laughed at me and told me that he hated to do that because he would just be back later... But I hate the feeling of being numb- so I told him that was the best option for me.

In between contractions, acting happy... :)

At 3:00 I was a 5, and by 4:00 I was ready to push! (SOOO much faster than Dallin!) Also- by this point- my epidural had warn off a lot, and pretty much the only thing that was really numb was my right leg... but I loved it! It was enough to take the edge off, but I could still feel every contraction pretty strong, so I knew when to push, when to not push (so there was less tearing), and I could feel her coming out. It was perfect!! She came out in a few pushes (They actually told me to stop pushing because the doctor wasn't there yet- so hard!)

But she came out at 4:20 pm... I beautiful little girl with tons of dark hair! I actually started giggling when she came out because she looked so chubby to me compared to Dallin! I couldn't believe she was here! The nurses thought it was funny that I had just had a baby and that I was giggling... but I think I was just on so much of a high! And the labor and delivery was just so great!

First Moments Together:

During labor, they noticed her heart rate started to drop... Luckily she came out just 45 minutes later... because this is what they found when she came out:

Her cord was in a double pretzel knot! The doctor told us to take a picture of it because it doesn't happen that often without more complications. We were very blessed to have her come out perfect! :)

Brotherly love:

That first night in the hospital, we kind of had a scary experience. I finally got to sleep around 3:30, and she was supposed to wake up at 4:30 to eat... So at 4:05 I kind of stirred, but realized I still had a few more minutes to sleep... But right at that moment, I heard her choking next to me. I jump up and grab her, to find her kicking her head back because she couldn't breathe. I yelled at Jeff and called the nurses... and they rushed her away, saying that it was a "blue baby" alert. Jeff ran down with them, and I was just all alone in the room. Finally, after what felt like forever, a nurse came in to tell me that everything was now ok. She had choked on a bunch of amniotic fluid that wasn't ever sucked out from her. The rest of the day we had to watch her because every time she lay down she would kind of choke. They sucked another 6 ounces out of her before we left too! Kind of scary! But we were very blessed.

At the hospital with Daddy, and Getting ready to come home:

The next few days we stayed at my mom's house in St. George. I was pretty spoiled. :) I love having a mom to make all your meals and bring them to you all perfect on the plate, do 20 loads of laundry a day for you, and give you motherly advice when you're a hormonal mess! :) I love you mom! And thanks for being so amazing!

The next few days we had to get her Bilirubin levels checked a few times, just because she was a little high, and we went to the lactation specialist at the hospital because she was struggling a little bit with nursing... But overall- things were great (especially compared to the experience we had with Dallin that first week)!

Basking in the Sun:

Dallin has been really good. The first few days were definitely adjustment days for him. When she was crying the second day home from the hospital, he came in holding his ears and he said "Awison is too woud! Will you put her back in your tummy now?"... :) But overall he's been so great! He's really cute and loving with her and is always trying to make her happy. He's always telling her: "I'm your brudder! And you're my sistur!", and he tells her "shhh baby" nicely when she's crying.

We Love our baby girl! And I can't believe she's already almost 3 weeks old!! At the same time, it really feels at times like she's been in our family forever! Here's a few more pictures of our sweet girl the last couple weeks:

In the arms of Daddy:

A proud brother, and her Great-Great-Grandma Ilean!

All cuddled after bath time:

Our Pretty girl:

Happy St. Patrick's Day: (Dallin made everyone know it was Patrick- like SpongeBob Patrick)

And last but not least, here's a random clip of Dallin "working out". I just thought it was cute:

Anyway- I know that was a really really long post. :) But I thought I'd let you know how everything went! I have a lot more pictures... But I'll save them for another day. :) Also- My friend Ann came and took some BEAUTIFUL newborn pictures of her... So those are coming as well! :)