Happy Easter Sunday

Happy Easter!! We decided to take Hailey to church today (just Sacrament Meeting). She did great. Next time we'll stay the whole 3 hours. She was mesmerized by all the lights on the ceiling. And she looked so stinkin cute in her dress. (Thanks Mom!)

We got her a stuffed animal duck for Easter. I'm eager to start her stuffed animal collection. haha. But it's as big as her. Super cute. She's wearing a onesie that someone gave as a baby shower gift. It has a cute little fluffy tail. I love it!!

"I love my duck!" *Fist Pump*

A Walk in the Park

A couple weeks ago, Travis was on Spring Break and the weather was nice. We went on a walk at the park with our beautiful baby, crazy mutt of a dog, and super awesome stroller a few times that week. Each day we walked for about 30-40 minutes. I couldn't believe how out of shape I was. I'm super excited to start running again, in probably about a month.

On one of those warm, sunny days that we decided to take a walk on, something happened that I haven't forgotten. And Travis hasn't either. We still laugh about it today. Let me tell you about it.

I'll start by saying I have many years of experience running on a running path. If I was to rank myself beginner, proficient, or advanced at running on a running path, I'd proudly proclaim advanced. I've been running since 7^th grade. I know that you stick to the right and pass on the left, smile at people passing you, and say “on your right (or left)” when approaching someone that you need to pass. I know my running path etiquette. But I haven't ran since being pregnant. I guess taking a 10 month leave of absence from using the running path makes all your running path skills diminish. 

We were walking along when I looked ahead and noticed something I didn't know how to handle. An older gentleman was running in teeny, tiny shorts with no shirt. He was fairly hairy and looked like he had 70 years worth of beer stored in his gut. Back in the day, I would have smiled politely as he passed by. But for some reason on this day, I relapsed. As he got closer, my eyes started doing the “find something dance”. They were looking every which way trying to find something to focus on other than Hairy Henry approaching. He continued to get closer as I realized how obvious I was in trying to avoid looking at him. I didn't want him to think I was uncomfortable with his appearance. So my next decision was to just look at him straight in the eye and try to smile. So I tried. He was looking straight ahead, so when I was looking at him, waiting to make eye contact, I came to realize that it looked like I was staring. Umm I don't want to stare at the guy! He was getting really close now. I could feel my heart beating in my ears. I decided to turn to Travis and pretend to be engrossed in an amazing conversation that makes it impossible for me to look anywhere else besides directly at my confused husband. As Hairy Henry passed, I babbled to Travis like an idiot. I don't even remember what I said. It was total nonsense. It left Travis looking at me like this:

A last minute decision I made was to face my fears and offer a quick wave and a smile at the guy. He didn't notice. Dang it! Super awkward level. After he passed, Travis realized what happened and what I was trying to do and laughed for probably ten minutes. Hairy Henry didn't even look my way. He didn't notice the dilemma I was having. I need to get on the running path more often and practice my etiquette. Or, an even easier solution is for Hairy Henry to wear a shirt. Yeah. I like that one.

A Birth Story

Are you sitting down? This story is intense. Like kinda crazy intense. I'm not going to sugar coat it, so if you're nervous, don't continue reading. (It's really not that gross.) After our low fluid scare and bed rest adventure, we made it to 39 weeks. My doctor does scheduled inductions from 39 weeks on, so we scheduled an induction for Friday, March 8^th- a day after I turned 39 weeks. You're probably wondering why we would schedule an induction when there was no emergency. Here's why. That next week was Travis' spring break. He had the whole week off. Nothing was happening naturally, so we decided to take matters into our own hands and do the induction process. The doctor explained that inducing is a long process, especially since I was not dilated. He said we'd go in Thursday night and I'd get put on Cervidil. Cervidil helps kick start things a little bit and loosen things up before the actual labor stuff the next day. The doctor then said he'd meet us in the morning to break my water and put me on Petocin. Petocin helps speed things up and gets me to dilate and start having contractions. Anyways, so inducing can be a whole day thing. It sometimes can take longer. It's a long process, but Travis and I were ready for it.

Travis and I pulled up to the hospital on Thursday night (March 7^th) at 10 pm. We had a scheduled induction for Friday morning. It was weird walking into the hospital, hand in hand, knowing when we walked out next it would be with our brand new baby. I don't think I ever fully comprehended what that meant. We were taken to our room that would be the delivery room the next day. I remember thinking, “Wow... I'm going to have a baby in THIS ROOM.” So unreal.

I was given Cervidil at midnight. The nurse told me to sleep and get rest so we can get the hard stuff done on Friday. She also mentioned that Cervidil may cause light cramping. She said it was normal and not to worry. Then she said something that I didn't think much about, but I wish I would have taken it more seriously. She said in rare cases, some women go into full blown labor from the Cervidil. She said it was rare and not to expect that. Oh, FYI. I was hardly even dilated when I started the Cervidil at midnight. She then walked out of the room and I tried to close my eyes. Umm... how do you sleep knowing you're so close to having a baby?! Not even an hour later I started cramping. They were pretty painful cramps. And they got progressively worse by the minute. By 2 o'clock I couldn't stand it anymore. I leaned over to Travis and told him I couldn't continue on. I said, “If these aren't contractions, I'm going to die!” I called my nurse in and told her I thought I was having contractions. She looked at my monitor and told me the machine wasn't picking them up. She said they might just be cramps. Then she told me that maybe they were really small ones and the machine just wasn't picking up on them. Small? Um no. They hurt. So she moved the “contraction detector” (I made up that name...) on my stomach to a different place to see if she could pick up the contractions from another location. And SURPRISE! I was having contractions. And not small ones. They were BIG ones. She gave me some pain meds to help me rest through the contractions. She was still determined to get me to sleep. I was dilated to a 4/5 by then. (Yeah, in two hours I went from a 0 to a 4/5.)

So I was in and out of consciousness for the next hour. It got to the point that my contractions woke me up from sleeping. I could feel them even though I was on heavy pain meds. At around 3 o'clock I thought I was going to die. I had to breathe through each contraction and didn't think I would make it. Travis was sitting beside me rubbing my head. It was sweet. But he was also asking, “Are you okay?” Big mistake. NO I WAS NOT OKAY! Holy crap. I turned evil. That poor nurse and my poor husband. Those contractions turned me into an evil witch. I asked for an epidural at around 3:20 or so. But it was a pretty long process getting everything ready for that. I didn't actually get my epidural until around 4. So while I was experiencing the worst of the contractions waiting for my epidural, the nurse came into the room and left the door open. I heard some nurses out in the hallway laughing. And hearing people experiencing joy while you're experiencing the worse pain in your lifetime was like the worst thing I could imagine. I pretty much yelled at the nurse to make them stop laughing. Haha. See!? I was mean. Travis leaned in and whispered in my ear to be nice. When I wasn't having contractions I was nice. I apologized to my nurse and was all good. Then another contraction would hit and I hated the world again. Haha. It was crazy and I am not proud of my evilness. (Though it may be a little funny...)

So by then I was dilated to a 7/8. Yeah. Super nuts. I got my epidural and a while later I couldn't feel much anymore. At 6, I was dilated to a 10 and fully effaced. So within 6 hours I went from a super tight 0 to a full blown 10. Holy moly. All the nurses and doctors were in awe. Especially since this was my first baby. The on-call doctor wanted to wait a while to deliver the baby to wait for her to work her way down. She was having problems with her heart beat whenever I would have contractions. So the doctor didn't want to put too much pressure on her when I pushed. So she wanted to make it as easy as possible. 

I was given oxygen to help the baby's heartbeat.

I kept telling the nurse I felt like the baby was about to fall out. But she didn't really believe me since I had an epidural. She figured I couldn't really feel it. At 8:00, the doctor came in and had me do a practice push. You should have seen her eyes when she realized how close my baby was to coming. She said, “Okay it's time!” and all the nurses went to work getting everything ready. Three contractions later, little Hailey was born. At 8:07am. She came and they pretty much threw her at me. I was pushing, and all of a sudden she was given to me. It happened so fast. She was crying and when I spoke to her she immediately quieted down and just looked right at me. It was amazing. She totally recognized my voice. Travis and I were in love.

So giving birth really wasn't too tough. Haha. Maybe I'll do it again sometime soon. Somehow I was a lucky one. I'm not sure how it happened but I was able to walk into the hospital comfortably, lay down in my bed and have a baby 8 hours later. We didn't get any sleep that night. But it was super exciting and such an amazing experience. It was time for her to come. She made that known by how quickly everything progressed. She's so beautiful and such a blessing to us.

She's two weeks old now. Isn't that nuts? I can't even remember what life was like before my beautiful daughter. She's everything to us. We love every second of every day (Yes, even the sleepless nights).

Hello Hailey!

Travis and I have been so blessed. A week ago, this morning, we stared into our daughter's eyes for the first time. She is absolutely beautiful. Perfect. More than I could have dreamed of.

I was worried she would get all of our worst qualities. And you know what? She got my butt chin and it's super cute! Seriously, I look at her and think, "how can two regular looking people create something so perfect?" I don't know the answer to that, but I love it! She's a really calm baby. Except for during the night, between 10 and 1. She wants to be awake and when we try to rock her or get her to sleep she fusses. She loves to sit and stare at Daddy when he sings to her. And Daddy doesn't know any little kid songs, so he makes up his own. Haha. I wish I could tap into what she's thinking as she listens to his nonsense songs. But I'm pretty sure she loves it.

Last night, Travis was rocking and soothing her to try and get her to sleep. After about an hour of him trying, he brought her to me and said, "your turn". Which I was okay with. I took her and started rocking her and talking and she immediately settled down and quieted. Travis couldn't believe it because she had been fussing the whole time with him. All it takes is a mother's touch. ;)

We're in love. With her. With each other. With life. I can't believe how much love I feel. I feel like the grinch. My heart has grown three sizes. I even love my husband more. It's a deeper, more perfect love. I love this feeling of being a "family", not just a "couple". It's amazing! I know raising a child (and children) is hard. It'll present its challenges. I'll probably want to scream sometimes. But I know it's what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm so happy to be a mother. I'm so grateful that God trusted us with this little child.

"Fishy, Why Are You Sleeeeeping?!"

Story time. People that talk in their sleep freak me out. My brother, Cameron, has had some good moments from time to time. I'm glad I was never the one that he was talking to. It's freaky! Last night, Travis talked in his sleep. (That doesn't sound like proper grammar.. Oh well. I'm a college graduate.) Maybe it should be "spoke in his sleep"? Hmmm. Anyways, although it freaks me out... It was pretty funny. Here's how the conversation went down.

Travis: Did you give me a piece of gum?
Me: Huh? Travis, wake up. You're talking in your sleep.
Travis: What?
Me: You're talking in your sleep.
Travis: Oh.
Me: You said, 'Did you give me a piece of gum?'.
Travis: Really? (At this point, I was almost positive he was awake.)
Me: Yep.
Travis: Well, did ya?
Me: No! (I guess he wasn't quite awake..)
Travis: Well, okay then.

I guess it doesn't sound that funny when it's written out like that. But it was funny. This morning when I told Travis about it, he had no memory of it. Funny funny business.


Okay, here's another story. Fry sauce. Is it such a foreign phrase to you? I thought everyone knew what fry sauce was. We went to Sonic today for lunch. The one in Washington has fry sauce. And Idaho too. I'm sure of it! When we ordered our food, I told Travis to ask for fry sauce. The lady on the intercom was like, "what?", "excuse me?". So I said to Travis, "she obviously can't hear us. Let's ask the carhop". So the carhop arrives and Travis asks for fry sauce. She asked, "what?" like three times. And she looked at us like we were naked. So I screamed, "ALL I WANT IS SOME FRY SAUCE, WOMAN!" Not really. But I felt like it. She then proceeded to list off all the sauces they have. "Well we have ranch, honey mustard, barbecue, and this new berry sauce. Some people use those for their fries." We thanked her and she left. I was in awe. Whaaaaat? These people in the middle of the country have NO IDEA what fry sauce is. They were seriously so confused. They've never even heard fry and sauce used in the same sentence. Travis said it's a west coast thing. Sad day. I shed a few tears and we had a moment of silence for fry sauce. Today I found out this place isn't as perfect as we thought it was. It lacks fry sauce.


*Five points to whoever can name the movie the blog post title comes from! :)

And here's some pictures of the soon-to-be-daddy. He's ready for this huge responsibility. Come on, look at him!

Happy Birthday Travis!

How did I get so lucky? I was able to meet and marry a man that is equally as silly as me (if not more), superbly handsome, amazingly hardworking, unconditionally loving, and so much more! Plus, he rubs my feet all the time and paints my toenails because I can't reach. I've especially been grateful for his service these last few weeks when I was on bed rest. He went to school, came home and cooked, cleaned, studied, and didn't complain! What a blessing. Luckily, my last appointment was good (my fluid level is staying the same, which is better than decreasing). So now I can help out more. Sometimes I look at him and think, "no way this is my life". I got this great guy by my side and we are starting a family together. I'm so glad this baby is part of him too. So special! Anyways, today is Travis' birthday. I already gave him his present when it came in the mail a few days ago. I'm the worst at waiting. Haha. So today we're just doing dinner. Life is so stinkin good! Happy Birthday Travis Darrell Simmons! I love you more than words can describe.