November and December

Where to start....

The Saturday after Olivia's blessing we were off to the happiest place on Earth...Disneyland!

After driving all day we walked around Downtown Disney to see the renovated Lego store. Outside of the store you could build your own cars out of Lego's and race them against other cars.

The next day was our first day of 5 days we spent in the park. Cars Land was amazing and I was really impressed with it. I think we went on Radiator Springs Racers 6 or 7 times total. The line to get the fast passes was crazy and they run out within an hour but it was worth it.

Olivia did really well on the trip for being 6 weeks old. She slept most of the time but when she was awake she loved looking at all of the lights everywhere. She was able to ride any ride that there wasn't a height requirement so almost everything. She always had the best expressions during the Little Mermaid ride. I had never been during the holidays and so the parade and holiday decorations was a fun bonus.

Kaleb had never been on the Screamin roller coaster or Tower of Terror and he went on both this time. Now he rides every ride and he loved the roller coaster so much he went a bunch of times. Ashton was tall enough for Tower of Terror and he went twice in a row and then was done after that. He said it was a little scary but he still liked it. Ashton liked Space Mountain too but thought the music was too loud so he plugged his ears during the ride. One of our favorite rides in California Adventures and my grandpa's favorite ride is Soarin' Over California. 

With having Olivia I didn't take very many pictures plus we were having too much fun and just enjoying our time there. Other than the Car's ride we had small and no lines pretty much the whole time there so it was a perfect time to go. Here's a picture of our group of 27 plus 2 babies on the way. We always get plenty of comments when they ask how many are in our group for rides and we say 27.

And I'll finish with this picture of Ashton. He's always such a poser for pictures. While Kaleb was getting pictures with a parrot in front of Rainforest Cafe Ashton was having a photo shoot moment with Matt. Even when she brought the bird over for a photo Ashton didn't realize it was there until we told him to smile with the bird.

Unfortunately my grandma passed away the Saturday after we returned from our trip. We knew it would be happening soon but it didn't make it any easier. I'm grateful we were able to go on one last family vacation with her. She was an amazing woman and such a great example of how to raise a family. She was a great cook and loved doing genealogy. She and my grandpa were married for 68 1/2 years and always held hands and he always carried her purse for her. We found a letter in her senior yearbook that my grandpa wrote when they were dating a page long and one line from it said, "our love for each other will never end." It was the sweetest letter I've ever read.

Olivia is growing like crazy! At her 2 month appointment she weighed 10lbs 8oz. She's a very happy baby (when she's not tired or hungry) and smiles all the time. She still wakes up about every 3-4 hours at night with an occasional 5 or 6 hour stretch so I'm sure soon she'll be sleeping longer. She's been sleeping in her crib since she came home from the hospital and so she always eats and puts herself back to sleep.

December 7th we took a trip downtown to see the lights at Temple Square and City Creek. Olivia slept the whole time but the boys enjoyed looking at the lights and playing in the kids play area by the food court. The only bad part was trying to get out of the parking garage at 10pm. It took 45 minutes and we moved about 1 car length every 5 minutes. I had never been to City Creek and I was impressed by how well they did.

I wasn't sure I was going to get Christmas cards out this year with everything going on so on December 14th and took some pictures of the kids in front of the tree so that I could get a card sent out. Olivia wasn't happy and this was the only picture she smiled in and the boys weren't interested in sitting still that long. But the next day I was able to get them sent in the mail. One more "to do" off the list.

Kaleb is in his schools choir that they do before school a couple times a week and they had their Christmas performance on Dec. 19th. What's funny is small groups would dance to each song while the rest of the choir helped sing the song that way everyone could perform and there were times Kaleb was too excited to watch what was going on on stage that he wasn't singing. But he said he loves choir and still wants to continue doing it even if it means getting up early.

Christmas Eve we had dinner at our house. The food was yummy and the boys were so excited to get to open some presents. And they loved their new angry bird star wars pajamas. Olivia just loved hanging out by the tree and watching her brothers.

Christmas morning Kaleb tried waking Ashton up at 6:30 but Ashton said he was too tired and wanted to sleep more. So about 7:50 Kaleb was able to convince Ashton to get out of bed. There were plenty of Lego's, video games, Power Ranger's and other toys the boys were so excited. Olivia didn't wake up until we were almost done opening presents so she joined in and watched her brothers open her presents. I didn't take any pictures of later in the day but we had brunch at my parents and dinner at my aunt and uncles house.

This picture is from yesterday, Olivia is always smiling and she's such a joy to have in our family. The boys just love helping out and are always talking to her and making her smile. It's so much fun to watch them with her. Ashton's always reminding me how much cuter she is than the rest of us, they really adore her. Now we're on our way to a new year and Olivia is almost 3 months old! I'm excited to see what the new year brings and I'm so grateful for everything I've been blessed with.

The Last Month

 It's been one month since Olivia joined our family and we've staying busy!

The boys each worked on their new Lego sets. They can spend hours everyday building with Lego's.

October 7, 2012

This is Olivia 4 days old.

October 8, 2012

Sleeping in her crib.

October 9, 2012

The boys thought it was funny to give her a mohawk after her bath.

October 9, 2012

I wanted to take pictures for Olivia's birth announcement but I didn't realize how much of a challenge it would be. We weren't in the hospital long enough to get the professional one's that they do, plus they cost quite a bit. I thought I would try different poses, props etc. but after 2 hours of her not going to sleep or holding still I gave up. Then about an hour later when she was asleep I took a couple more and called it good. I still think the announcement turned out cute and I'm glad I was able to get some good pictures. She was 1 week old.

October 10, 2012

Kaleb loves holding his sister and he's always saying, "She's just SO cute" or "She just keeps getting cuter", I think he wants to keep her. :)

Oct. 21, 2012

Kaleb tried flag football for the first time and even though he had never even thrown a football until the first practice he really enjoyed it. I don't think he understands much of the rules and how you actually play but he did whatever his coach told him to. His favorite part was getting to kick the ball.

October 27, 2012

Next up was my parents trunk-or-treat that night. Olivia had her tu-tu and skull shirt on and this was the best picture I could get of the boys in their ninja costumes. After the trunk-or-treat we used our free Real tickets from the boys playing soccer and since it was really cold that night we went with my parents. Unfortunately the score ended 0-0 but it was still fun.

October 27, 2012

 Ashton loves helping me out with Olivia. She was crying while I was getting ready to change her and so he said he would hold the bottle for her. He also loves to tell me anytime she spits up so I can wipe it up.

 October 30, 2012

It took me almost a month to realize that Olivia had quite a bit of dark hair growing on her ears. I always saw hair covering her ears but assumed it was because the hair behind her ears was so long. She is by far the "furriest" baby I've had, the picture doesn't show it very good but there's some long hair on her ears.

 October 20, 2012

Now for Halloween. I tried to get a picture of Olivia sitting up but newborns just kind of squish into a ball and don't really sit up and as you can see by her face she wasn't enjoying it. But she looked cute in her Halloween outfit either way.

 October 31, 2012

 Then we were off to the boys' parades at school. Kaleb was first and they were walking so fast he was literally a blur on my camera. So here he is in his classroom after. Ashton's class had a parade and then they sang some Halloween songs for everyone.

October 31, 2012

 Last Sunday we blessed Olivia at church and had a brunch after. It was such an amazing day and I was sad for it to end. The blessing and sacrament meeting was great and the food after was really good. Matt was a huge help in cooking and my mom helped us clean up the day before. I didn't take pictures until after everyone left and by that point Olivia was starving so she wouldn't keep her hands out of her mouth. But she looked very pretty in her poofy dress and Matt's mom made her shoes. I can't think of a better way to celebrate her 1 month birthday!

November 4, 2012

Olivia's Birth Story

 (VERY LONG POST SO TO SKIP THE DETAILS JUST SCROLL THROUGH FOR PICTURES)

Taken right before heading to the hospital

 Having Olivia in our family has been amazing and we're so blessed to have her here with us. 

I guess her birth story starts September 24th. The night before I was having contractions 3-7 minutes apart consistently since 11pm. I didn't want to rush to the hospital unless it was the real thing so we tried to sleep. Around 1:30 they were still going and I decided to get things packed and shower and see if they would go away. They were still 3-7 minutes apart. They were painful but not too bad. Finally in the morning around 7 we decided to get the boys ready for school and head to the hospital at 8. They put me in a room to monitor the contractions and Matt took the boys to school. Sure enough the contractions were 3-6 minutes apart but they checked me and I was 3cm. I hadn't changed from my appointment the week before. They said they would check me in an hour but knowing I had been having contractions all night and they weren't changing me I wasn't holding out hope. An hour later I was still a 3 so I walked the halls for an hour and they checked again and I was still a 3. I told the nurse I didn't think baby #3 would be the first time I would come in and get sent home. I've never had false labor where you're having contractions but no progress. So I went home around noon and took a nap and by 3pm they just stopped completely.

My next appointment I was 3.5cm but wasn't having anymore contractions that week. My last appointment on Oct. 3rd I was 4cm and he set an induction date for Tuesday the 9th if she didn't come before that. I still hadn't been having contractions or signs of labor. For some reason that night I wanted to make sure I had the house clean and the laundry done for the week to keep on top of things. At 9pm we had just put the boys to bed and I went to switch a load of laundry when I felt my water break. I told Matt and then told the boys their sister would be coming soon. They were then too excited to sleep and they tried to go to sleep while we made arrangements for my sister to come stay at our house with the boys and finish packing. Finally at 11:30pm we headed for the hospital.

I had 2 nurses because one was being trained and so check-in took awhile. The first hour was getting me in a room with monitors and finishing any paperwork and making sure my water had broke. The next hour was a bunch of questioning and seeing what the doctor on-call wanted to do since I wasn't really having very many contractions and was still a 4. 

 

The doctor said to start pitocin so at 1:30am they started an IV and started the pitocin. The nurses said they would be back in 30 minutes to check on me and I could get the epidural anytime. Within 2 minutes the contractions started and were horrible. Matt had been trying to sleep but as soon as they started he heard me in pain and tossing and turning in the bed. I tried holding out knowing the nurses were coming back in only 30 minutes but I couldn't. After 20 minutes I paged them and asked for the epidural. They said they would go and get the anesthesiologist and be back soon then they would up the dose of the pitocin after the epidural. At 2:15 (45 minutes after starting pitocin) they came in and they could see I was in a lot of pain. I told them I had never had pain this bad in either of my labors. The one nurse said to make sure the anesthesiologist was coming right away and right then he came in the room. It took him about 15 minutes to get the epidural in and was doing everything to keep from moving during the contractions. At 2:30am an hour after the IV was started he was finished but it was going to take 10 minutes to kick in. I couldn't hold still during the contractions and they were one after another. The nurses said that maybe my bladder was full and that was making them more intense. They put a catheter in and then said they would check me. The nurse looked at the other nurse and said, "She's complete, she's a 10 and the head is right there!" So by this point the epidural hasn't even kicked in yet and the nurses were joking with me if I wanted a natural birth I was only a couple pushes away. They said if I had another baby I should do it natural seeing how quick it went. At this point I didn't know whether to be grateful they didn't check me first which would have meant no epidural since I was at a 10 or wishing they would have checked me so that I didn't have a choice and didn't have to go through the epidural process when she could have been out so quickly. I had already experienced the worst pain in my life so what was 15 more minutes! Although if I didn't get the epidural I wouldn't have been able to hold out until the doctor came so in the end I guess it was a good thing. The nurses quickly turned me to my side with my knees together to keep her in because I could feel the pressure of her head trying to come out and told me to wait while they told the doctor to come in and get set up.

 Waiting patiently on my side thanks to the epidural that was starting to kick in.

The doctor came about 3:20 and wanted to see me push once to see how quickly she would come. He immediately said to stop pushing and put on his gown and set everything up. I only had to push for 3 contractions and she was out and screaming. It was amazing and Matt did great. He was trying to take pictures, video and help me and cut the cord all at the same time. 

 

I couldn't believe she weighed the same as Kaleb when she was a week later at 38 weeks and 4 days. But she was also shorter at 6 lbs. 13 oz. and 18.5 inches and just perfect.

  

I love that they offer skin-to-skin right after birth and they leave you alone for awhile so you can bond with your baby without other distractions.

It was then time to try feeding her. She was sucking on her fingers right away so I knew she wouldn't have issues with eating and she's been great so far with it. My parents stopped by to see her quickly before we were moved to a room and then they left and were going to bring the boys in the morning.

After eating they put me in a wheelchair and I carried Olivia and we headed up to our recovery room.

 They took Olivia to the nursery to do the normal testing and check her out for about an hour and so Matt and I tried to sleep while she was gone. I fell asleep for about 15 minutes but couldn't sleep. Matt was able to get sleep for a couple of hours. At 5:30 they brought her back and they gave her a bath in the room. I've never been able to see them do the bath and even though I couldn't help since my feet were numb from the epidural I loved being able to at least watch.

 

At about 9:30 my mom and sister brought the boys to the hospital to see Olivia. They were so excited to see her.

 They wanted to see her feet.

I love all of her dark long hair and I know she'll probably lose all or most of it but I'm loving it while it's there.

 Sleeping is what she does best and I just love watching her.

We had a bunch of visitors throughout the day and Matt went home to take a nap during the afternoon. 

Daddy is kind of in love with her too. He did great with taking care of the boys and getting them to school and then taking care of me and Olivia at the hospital.

I was grateful when the epidural wore off and I was able to get around. I felt better than I had after my other deliveries. That night the hospital gave us a celebratory dinner for Matt and I. You get to pick from a different menu. We both had the steak and mushrooms and for dessert we had chocolate mousse cake and cheesecake. The dessert was the best part.

That night my parents brought the boys over to see Olivia again and then Matt left with the boys to head home. Because I felt good and was ready to be in my own house and bed I told them I wanted to leave early on Friday instead of staying 2 nights until Saturday. So at 10pm I sent Olivia to the nursery so I could sleep since I hadn't had any sleep the night before. 

 

The nurses were good about leaving me alone during the night so I could sleep. At 6am they came in to take my vitals and after that I took a shower and went to get Olivia from the nursery. Here we are Friday morning at 6:30. She was ready to eat when I picked her up from the nursery.

After getting the boys to school Matt came to the hospital.

After eating she was wide awake. They took her to take her blood for the jaundice testing and did the hearing test also. Now we just had to wait for the results and we could go home. The nurse came in right as they brought my lunch in and said we were good to go so after eating my lunch we packed up and headed home.

Olivia liked being in her car seat once she was buckled in.

After arriving home the 3 of us took a nap until it the boys came after school. My parents and sister were great at helping watch the boys. Later that night I had to grab a couple of things from Wal-mart so we took a quick trip to the store as a family of 5 and grabbed some Cafe Rio to-go.

So far we've been adjusting well to having Olivia in our home. Ashton likes to check on her and make sure she's okay when she's sleeping and Kaleb likes to hold her. I'm sure the late night feedings will catch up eventually but right now I love feeding her in the middle of the night and it's hard to put her back down. We're all so in love with her and couldn't be happier.