Pearl Ivy- A Birth Story

My due date was November 5th but with my last Dr apt (the 3rd) I hadn't made any progress so I knew I was going to go late.  But on the 5th I wanted to try everything I could to get this baby out on my own.  My back and pelvic bone and hips hurt so bad. All. the. time.  No relief.  I was ready.  So I ate an entire pineapple, walked a ton, ate a spicy Thai dinner, walked more, curb walked (what I did the night before I had Shirley too).  The hubs' mother came into town that night, his sister opened her mission call and I went to bed thinking maybe just maybe I would go into labor. I woke up at 12:30 with some significant contractions and an upset belly.  I waited about an hour, took a shower, blow dried and curled my hair and then woke the hubs up and told him it was happening.  The contractions were STRONG, and so very painful.  He showered and got ready and my contractions went from 7 mins apart to 4-5 mins.  We got to the hospital at 2ish and they observed me for an hour because I was only a 4.  The contractions were unreal and I was praying they would keep me.  An hour later I progressed to a 5.  (BTW when the nurse checked me for the first time I thought I was going to die. so much pain!) So we walked to my delivery room and they got things ready.  The contractions were literally so painful I thought I couldn't handle them.  The nurse told the hubs to push my knees into my back to help and it brought so much relief but they were still really painful.  The anesthesiologist finally came and had me sit criss-cross on the bed and lean forward...my other two I was able to lay down so this was really weird to me.  He got the epidural in and left.  I was in so much pain and then I felt all WRONG, I felt like I was having an outer body experience and my body felt all off.  I actually thought I was dying.  I started crying and asked the hubs to pray I wouldn't die, I was begging God to let me live. Literally.  I was so scared.  The nurse got really antsy and said my blood pressure had dropped 70/40 and to tell her if I felt like I was going to pass out.  I WAS PASSING OUT, that's why I felt so off. I was so relieved.  She quickly gave me two shots of ephedrine and a lot of IV fluids.  I finally started to feel normal.  The Dr came in and broke my water and to let the nurse know if I felt any pressure. He left the room and I called the nurse, the pressure was crazy. She checked me and I was an 8.  She left and I immediately called her back and she called the Dr, I was a 10! They got all ready and told me to start pushing. I remember the Dr telling me he wanted "white knuckle pushing" and I thought in my head NO WAY, this hurts like heck, please give me a c-section.  I told them I couldn't do it and they told me to give the epidural an extra push, I did. But it literally felt like my insides were being ripped apart...no joke.  I pushed maybe four times.  I screamed every time I pushed, it was out of my control, the screams just came out.  It hurt so bad, so so so bad.  Did I mention it hurt? And then she came out.  And I wept.  Sobbed.  I wept and couldn't stop it and didn't even care.  Then I cut half the cord and let the hubs do the rest.  And just like that at 5:07 am little Pearl Ivy came in weighing 7 lbs 3 oz and 18 inches long.  And for the fourth time in my life I fell in love.  

My dear friend Katie came to visit me in the hospital and took these pictures, they are copyrighted.

Hyperemesis- my third pregnancy

This pregnancy was far from fun.  I was really sick even before I knew I was pregnant and then I got even more sick and ended up in the ER with 3 liters of fluids and a diagnosis of hyperemesis.  It's know as "really bad" morning sickness but that doesn't begin to cover it.  I was literally the sickest I have ever been, or knew a person could be.  I lost 10 lbs in 4 days, I couldn't drink water for over a month, I passed out often, ended up on home health care with an IV in my arm for a few months.  It was honestly the worst experience of my life.  More on that later.  Fast forward (or rather very painfully slow forward) 40 weeks and we now have a perfect little girl.  My good and talented friend, Kristal Price of Kristal Price Photography took these amazing pictures and are copyrighted.  Even though I have a hard time with this pregnancy I wanted to capture our growing family and I am so grateful for Kristal's work! I just love these!

PINK Concert

Trying to get caught up here! Last year I found tickets to the Pink Truth for Love Tour Concert in SLC.  I was thrilled.  Pink is by far my most favorite artist and I have ALWAYS wanted to see her live.  I fancy myself her biggest fan! But she got sick and her concert was pushed back a few months, and then a few months later and then finally in October 2013 it was time.  I was going to spray my hair pink but I forgot.  I took the hubs as my plus one.  I arranged a sitter and we drove up to SLC.  We got there on time but the opening act was late and seemed to go on forever, and they were terrible.  And then hours later PINK finally came on.  I was so giddy.  BUT when Pink wasn't on stage there was a guy who we assumed was acting the part of a circus ring master and he was disgusting.  It was just plain dirty.  But it wasn't Pink so I let it go.  Then PINK came on and she was amazing! Doing acrobatics and dancing and singing.  It was amazing. But then she would go to change and the stuff in-between her singing was honestly the most disgusting filth I have ever seen and heard.  And I lived on off-campus housing at a California University... I could tell the hubs was so uncomfortable and I told him we could leave but he didn't want to make me miss my favorite singer.  After the third song I was so uncomfortable I couldn't enjoy her songs and knew I needed to get out of there. So we did.  I got up and told Caleb we were leaving.  And as we walked out I cried.  I was really ticked off that I paid all that money to watch things that I wish I would never remember. I was sad I didn't get to see my favorite songs performed. I was bothered that I felt like they were making it "extra" raunchy because we were in Utah.  But I was really upset that I watched a mother and her pre-teen child sit there and watch those things.  To say I was disappointed would be a great understatement.  Maybe one day I will get to see Pink perform again.  Just her.  No disgusting acts in between.  But I'm not holding y breath.

ICE ICE BABY!

Baby number 3 is coming in November! It has been a whirlwind of a pregnancy and obviously I have been lacking on blogging, though now that blogging is less popular I have the desire to get back full force! This pregnancy was different in many ways, the first and most prevalent was that I got really sick.  I was sick before I knew I was pregnant and it just kept getting worse.  After weeks of being really sick and ending up in the E.R. I found out I have something called hyperemesis gravidarum.  They say it's "really bad morning sickness" but it is so much worse than that.  I will do a whole post on it later.  Seeing as I am more than half way done with this pregnancy we found out at 20 weeks that the baby was a GIRL! I was shocked but kinda thought it was a girl all along.  We are just so grateful that baby girl is healthy and that I am FINALLY doing better.  We are so excited to have another baby in our family and know it will be a fun ride, just like we like it!

Porter's Surgery

After a year of Pman having terrible night terrors and little sleep I go really aggressive with my Dr.  I had talked to my Dr for months but he always blew me off. Well, I knew it wasn't normal and I demanded a referral.  We were referred to a sleep specialist and she told us to go to an ENT.  Luckily she was amazing and did the referral herself so we were able to get in fairly soon. Pman had a scope go down his nose where we learned his adenoids we enlarged.  So much so that it was causing SLEEP APNEA.   85% of his airway was being blocked by his adenoids, poor guy couldn't breath! So we scheduled his surgery. It was actually a nightmare to get it scheduled and we almost missed our trip to Oceanside but luckily it all worked out with some sweat and a lot of tears.  We had to do his surgery at Primary Children's in SLC.  My sister Katie watched Shirley for us for the day.  The pictures are out of order...

 Poor kid had the worst time waking up, and for whatever stupid reason they wouldn't let either of us be there when they woke him up, the end result was a lot of scratches on his face and a HUGE goose egg on his head. We were just a little ticked off.

 He LOVED waiting for the surgery, so many games to play!

 Recovery was rough to put it mild.  But he did great.  Here he is eating a Popsicle.

He loved that he got a bracelet.  We were so glad to finally have some answers and to start a solution to our sleep problems.  I wish I could say he sleeps all night long but we are still working on it...at least he can breath now!

Montage Stay

The hubs' work does a little weekend getaway for the top performers.  Caleb qualified so we got to stay at the Montage in Deer Creek.  

 The thing about these 5 star all expense paid getaways....I could get used to it!

 Our first night we got there late and had to go to the work dinner party.

 You get to pick an activity and we picked horse back riding.  We got lucky and we were able to be ALONE for the entire hour.  Everyone was supposed to go as a group (and everyone but us did) but we lucked out and were totally alone.

 It was beautiful and quiet.  Just the kind of getaway we need!

 We played a riveting game of life size chess.

 And Saturday night we went out to dinner with about 10 of the hubs' coworkers.

 Our last morning we went to the spa and relaxed and then drove home (slowly, it was snowing and literally took forever) to get our kids.  A huge thank you to my sister for being amazing and watching our wild things so we could go away alone for the first time!

Electric Run Date night

We did the Electric Run at Thanksgiving Point for a date night one night.  It was so fun to run with my hubs but definitely not a race to go for speed. It was way to crowded.  

                               We wore our electric gear and I caught the light stick.

                                          Couples that run together have fun together!