Easter Weekend

Prepare for picture overload!! We had a super fun weekend for Easter.
Friday, Sean left work early and we watched The Hunger Games while my mom watched my babies. It was such a great movie!! I loved it!

Saturday, we went to the Skywest Easter Egg Hunt. Allie had a blast! There was an egg right next to where we were standing and she had the hardest time being patient and waiting for the "GO!" before she picked it up. But she did great.

  

Sunday, we went to church and the girls were in their beautiful new dresses, courtesy of my mom. Then after church and naps, we went to my parents' house for dinner and more egg hunting fun. 

"Unca Chan" is always so sweet and plays with Allie so well. She loves him. Look at how adorable they are together! 

It was a great weekend! 

Heidi's Blessing

We blessed Heidi on March 25th. I always love hearing Sean give priesthood blessings. I'm so grateful to have a priesthood-worthy man as the patriarch in our home. It makes me so happy and feel so blessed. We had a fun day with family after the blessing, stuffing our faces with delicious food that my family was so great to provide. I love you family! And I love you Heidi!

Heidi is 2 months!

I can't believe my baby is 2 months old! It's crazy how fast time goes. Seriously. I think it gets faster with each child you have. It's been so much fun getting to know her personality and noticing how different her and Allie are. I love my little newborn so much! She's so sweet. She's been smiling so much lately, it's adorable. Her whole face brightens. I always get the biggest smile out of her in the morning when I walk in her room and say "good morning baby!" Immediately she's smiling at me. LOVE IT.

• She's getting to be more on a schedule lately, sleeping for longer periods and adjusting to napping in her crib.
• She babbles and coos
• She blows raspberries. Lots and lots of raspberries - something Allie never used to do.
• She is very picky about how she goes to sleep. If she's tired, she won't just fall asleep. Not in the car, not in her swing, not in her bouncer. She has to be in someone's arms, wrapped tightly in a blanket and having her bum patted. Otherwise she'll just scream and scream and scream. 
• She's adorable and we all love her so much.

St Patty's Day Weekend

We had an amazing couple of days over St Patty's Day weekend. We watched the Air Show practice on Friday, played at the park, did some shopping, got some sun, and did lots of playing! It was a blast. I love my family so much. Allie is getting so funny. She makes the cutest faces and says the funniest/cutest/smartest things. Everyday I'm amazed at how much she knows and comprehends. And little Heidi is smiling a lot more and starting to coo - which is absolutely adorable. I love my babies!

Look at this girl. Isn't she the most adorable thing? I never want to forget how she looks when she's tired and sticks her thumb in her mouth. That face makes me want to just hold her forever.

Heidi's First Days

My little Heidi had to spend 2 days in the NICU after she was born. They were concerned about a possible infection because I started running a fever during labor. They gave us an hour with her after she was born and then the NICU whisked her away... very sad moment for me. My instincts told me she was fine, there was no infection, because my fever went away as soon as I started pushing. I'm no doctor, but my opinion is that my body was overworked and tired and ready to push her out. I endured 52 hours of labor before I started pushing - I think that's enough to make anyone start running a fever. Seriously! But according to the NICU, the CDC requires them to care for a baby who's mother had a fever during labor. It was black and white to them and we really didn't have a choice. Even our pediatrician and my OB/GYN agreed with me, but the NICU apparently has the final say? I don't know. All I know is they took my baby.

So for two days, I had to haul my booty (my very sore and tired booty, might I add) down a floor to the NICU to feed her every two hours. I love my babies and I love feeding my babies, but I'm a firm believer in letting them sleep. If she's sleeping, I'm not going to wake her up to feed her even if it has been 2 hours since she last ate. Period. By the time you get her woken up, and coaxed into eating, you've spent so much time and energy it's just not worth it in my opinion. But the NICU nurses force you to do it their way and wake the poor peaceful child up to feed her. I swear, it would take an HOUR just to get her latched on and sucking. Waste of my time! I would so much rather hold her and love her for an hour instead of wrestling with her and trying to force her to eat! Besides the fact that the nurses treat you like you have no idea what you're doing, which might be great for first time moms, but I felt it was very annoying. They would stand over me while I'm trying to feed her and ask "is she eating? is she sucking?" and when they didn't have the answer they wanted they would push sugar water on me and a plastic nipple thing... it's so unnatural!

Sorry for the rant. But I really didn't enjoy the experience at all. Especially because after spending her first two days being tortured in the NICU, they found out she didn't have an infection! It makes me a little crazy. I know they were just doing their jobs but sometimes I wish they would back off and let a mother be a mother.

Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now right?

Here are some pictures from her first photoshoot. Isn't the IV in her head the saddest thing you've ever seen? Don't even get me started on that... :)

Birth Story #2

My experience with baby #2 was so different than the first time. I was determined to have her the "natural way" and nothing was going to change that - assuming there were no emergencies. My doctor was very supportive and encouraging, which I am so grateful for.

Contractions started on Saturday, January 28 almost immediately following my baby shower (thrown by my amazing friend Megan. Thanks again Megan!), at about 1 pm. By about 6 pm I thought maybe I should go in to be checked. I was dialated to a 3. We were there for about an hour and a half and I was still a 3. They sent me home. Bummer. The nurse told me not to come back until my contractions were 2 minutes apart and had been that way for an hour. Yikes! So the timing began.

I got hardly any sleep that night with contractions coming about every 6 minutes. It was uncomfortable, painful and a horrible way to spend the night. Sunday morning I got up hoping that this would be the day. We went to church and I spent the whole time tracking my contractions. They never got closer than 4 minutes. At one point during Sunday School, a lady leaned over and asked me if I was ok. Guess all my deep breathing made her nervous. Haha! We had dinner at my parent's house and after we ate I complained and cried to them about how horrible my life was at that moment. I was so ready to be done! Having contractions for over 24 hours is. not. fun. They were very sympathetic and let me pout (what are parents for right?). I feel terrible though because we were there to celebrate Sean's birthday. His big 3-0. He got a little overlooked this year, poor guy.

When we got home from my parent's house, I begged Sean to give me a blessing and I prayed that the time would come SOON. It was about midnight by the time we were ready for bed and after trying to sleep for about an hour I decided it was a lost cause and got up to read. My contractions were now down to 3 minutes apart but I was so uncomfortable sitting there that I thought doing something active would help. So at 2 am, alone in my living room, I danced  -or attempted to dance- to Just Dance for an hour. Then I sat back down and tracked my contractions again. 2 mintues apart! Whoot! I endured them for another hour and then woke Sean up and called my mom to come stay with Allie. Turns out she never even went to bed because she suspected this would happen :)

We got to the hospital a little before 5 am and checked in. I was dialated to a 3 1/2 and after about 45 minutes I was a 4. The nurse says "yep, you're in active labor. We're keeping you" FINALLY. They moved me to a room and by 8 am I was getting my epidural. I don't think I could have lasted another 5 minutes without it. I was dying! They checked me again and I was a 6.

I slowly, emphasis on the slowly, progressed and by 4 pm I was finally to an 8. By 4:30 I was a 9 but I started running a fever. It was a mild, low-grade fever but both the nurse and the doctor were getting nervous about it. At 6 pm I started to push. We pushed for about 45 minutes but they decided it would be better to take a break and let the baby come down a bit more. At 7:50 we started pushing again and she was born at 8:21. It was the best feeling in the world! I did it! I had a successful VBAC!

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Heidi Kate

Born 1/30/12 at 8:21 pm

7 lbs 12 oz

20 inches