Welcome Mary Eliza!

And now for a flood of pictures of Mary's first couple days of life. A few of them I already posted in the quick post I did a week after she was born, but no harm in seeing them again :)

7 lbs 13oz - 19 1/2 inches long

Finally holding my baby after the first little scare

Happy parents!

My wonderful support team!

Proud Daddy :)

Aunt Katie and Baby Mary

Getting all cleaned up

Proud Momma

Natalie was so wonderful to watch Lydia for us, and bring her to the hospital to meet her sister

First family picture

Ready to leave the hospital

Happy to be home :)

3 Minutes

(continued from last post)

"Now if we could just get her to breathe..."

I looked down at my baby. Mary was still in the doctor's hands. She was calmly, slowly looking around, but not crying, not breathing. She was still the dead looking purple-white color that babies are until they breathe. My baby wouldn't start breathing.

The doctor coolly said, "I'll massage the umbilical cord (it hadn't been cut yet). Sometimes that gives them the jump start they need."

No change.

Dr. Jacob, "Don't worry. I'll hand her over to the nurses now. They'll get her going."

Mary was taken over to the baby table. I was holding Robert's hand. Both of us were frozen with worry. Thank heaven Katie was there. I think she could sense I was on the verge of panicking. She remained completely calm and kept saying, "It's okay. They're taking care of her. She'll be okay. They'll get her to cry."

One minute had passed. They gave Mary her first APGAR score - 1 out of 10. I could hear them call out what her heart rate was, down to 40 beats per minute and dropping. They called in the respiratory team. Dr. Jacob reassured me that they always have the respiratory team standing by just in case this very situation happened. He said again everything was under control and Mary would be just fine. They came in, put an oxygen pump mask on Mary's face and continued massaging/stimulating different points on her little body.

I felt like there were 2 dimensions of reality in the room. One was the actual one, filled with medical personnel, Katie, and us. Then the other one was the one I felt more a part of. Everything else blurred away and there was just Mary fighting for her first breath and Robert and I holding hands worried for our baby's life.

My thoughts turned to my Heavenly Father. I plead to him, "Please! Please don't take her back. Please don't take her away from me." over and over. Within moments after my pleading began, I felt a calming comfort come over me and a phrase entered my mind. "Whether I take her now or decades later, she is yours forever." My testimony was reaffirmed once again in God's Plan of Happiness. I know that since Robert and I were married in the temple and sealed for eternity that as long as we live faithful to the covenants we made in the temple, our family is forever.

Then at 8:10pm, Mary gasped and let out her first cry.

Just after they got her going

She turned pink right away. Her APGAR score at 5 minutes was 9 - practically perfect and she's been that way ever since. Dr. Jacob joked that sometimes it just takes a couple extra minutes for babies to learn how to breathe. Dr. Holmes/Uncle Rick, our pediatrician explained to us later that sometimes when the pushing goes as fast as mine did (again, I was only pushing for 5 minutes) it makes the baby go into shock when they first come out. It's not super common, but it does happen. 

I will never forget those 3 minutes. They've given me a whole new appreciation and gratitude for the opportunity and blessing I have to be a mother to my 2 beautiful daughters of God. It is the most wonderful calling in the eternities.

I love being a Mom!

A Baby Story

Well this labor was A LOT different than Lydia's. With Lydia, I never had consistent contractions or dilated or effaced at all until I was already in labor and then the actual labor lasted 42 hours. With Mary, I started having regular contractions a couple months before I was due and at my 36 week check I had dilated and effaced more than I was the day I went into labor with Lydia. This was very encouraging because the earlier I had Mary, the less time we would have to live with/impose on friends before we made the big move to California. My doctors' office knew of our time constraints and agreed that as long as I had progressed enough they would induce me a week early. My mom had come in town for the induction date, but unfortunately even after getting my membranes stripped twice, I had barely not progressed enough. The day my mom left I bawled like a baby. I wanted so badly for her to be here when I had Mary, but it wasn't meant to be. Friday, August 26th, I had another doctor's appointment and they decided I had finally progressed enough and scheduled my induction for Monday, August 29th - my birthday. As happy as I was that the end was officially in sight, I still wished that I could go into labor on my own since there's less risks that way. I also felt bad that Mary would have to share her birthday with her mom. I would rather she have her own special day.

Saturday was crunch time for packing and moving our stuff. Friends were over all day long helping us, and by the end of the day there was just a little work and packing left. I figured I would save it for Monday so that I would have something to do other than twiddling my thumbs while we waited for the call to come to the hospital for the induction.

Sunday we got ready for church like normal. Robert had Elder's quorum presidency meeting so I took him early went back home and got Lydia ready then started loading her in the car to go when I felt a gush of liquid (10:45am). I assumed I had just wet myself a little bit, and it was enough to need to change my clothes. I'm pretty sure my exact thoughts were "SERIOUSLY!! I just went to the bathroom before I came out! Being pregnant is so lame sometimes!!"  I ran in, changed real fast, and then left to church. When I got out of the car there was another little gush. Again I thought, "Come on! Enough already!!" I went inside and sat down with Lydia and waited for Robert to get there so that I could go empty my bladder AGAIN so I could hopefully avoid any more accidents. While I waited several people in the ward came up to me and made comments along the lines of "No baby yet?" I answered that she'd for sure be coming the next day if not sooner. Robert got there and I let him know that I needed to go to the restroom. I got up to go and, you guessed it, another gush. Finally, (yes, maybe I am a little slow) it occurred to me that maybe my water had broken. As sacrament meeting started so did my contractions. By the time the congregation stood for the intermediate hymn they were 7 minutes apart and hurt too much for me to stand and join in the singing. When the meeting was over I told Robert I needed to go to the car to lie down and would text him if I decided we should go home. Within a half hour, I texted him and we went home.

We got home, called my mom to tell her what was going on, she agreed that my water had probably broken and I was in labor. So I hung up and did what any lady in labor would do... I started cleaning out my fridge :) It needed to be done before we moved, and I needed a distraction. I wanted to attempt delivering without an epidural, and I knew once I was at the hospital I would be extra tempted to get one. So I wanted to labor at home as long as possible. I called my sister Katie and let her know what was going on. As I was talking to her my contractions were coming about 4 minutes apart. She rightfully scolded me for not being at the hospital already, reminded me that I was Group B Strep positive so I needed to have the time to get the 2 rounds of antibiotics, and so on. I stubbornly assured her that I was fine, and would go when I thought I was ready. In the mean time I had a fridge and freezer to clean. We hung up and I continued to clean the fridge. This is when things started getting really fun. The contractions picked up and were coming every 2 minutes or so. Robert started freaking out (he'll deny it, but he was). At about 2:30pm, Mom called again. Katie called her worried and may have told her important details, like how often I was contracting, that I may have "accidentally" left out when I had talked to Mom. Robert answered it and said, "Her contractions aren't stopping!!" He handed the phone to me. My mom said, "Heidi! I didn't realize your contractions had started already. Once the hard contractions started after my water broke with Logan, he was born within 4 hours. You need to go to the hospital!" You can't argue with Mom, so we got ready to go, but not before I had Robert take one last baby bump picture. (If I may say, I think I look pretty good for someone who had already been in labor for almost 4 hours)

Trent and Natalie DeVore were going to watch Lydia while I was in the hospital but they were in church right then, so Robert called Kaci. His panicked conversation went something like this:

Kaci: Hello
Robert: (Talking kind of fast) Kaci... uh... Hi. This is Robert. Um, Heidi's in labor. She's contracting A LOT. We need to go to the hospital. Uh, Natalie's going to watch Lydia but they can't come right away. Um Heidi's contracting again. Uh, Lydia's napping...
Kaci cuts him off: Robert! What are you needing me to do? Do you need me to come over?
Robert: Yes, that way Lydia can finish napping.
Kaci: I'm on my way.

Kaci got there, we left, and arrived at the hospital at 3:00pm. The nurse at the front desk couldn't find my paperwork, and asked if I was supposed to be induced because then my paperwork would be in a different file. I said I had been scheduled for one the next morning. She laughed and said, "I guess the baby just didn't want to wait." After they made sure that my water had for sure broken, they hooked me straight up to my antibiotics for the GBS. They checked me and I was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced. The nurse then asked if I wanted an epidural and I said, "No... Actually, yes I do." That's how fast I changed my mind. A million thoughts went through my mind in the 2 seconds it took me to change my mind, but the one that won the debate was that an epidural would help to slow the labor a little bit so that I could get my 2 full rounds of antibiotics (they have to be given 4 hours apart from each other). So by 4:00pm, I had my epidural. I really think epidurals are WONDERFUL!! I would just love to do it completely natural sometime to experience both sides.

Back tracking a little bit to tell a story of how Robert doesn't think things through sometimes. As we were waiting for the epidural my contractions were pretty intense, and I it felt like I was only having a 30 to 60 second break in between them. I was really needing Robert to help keep me relaxed through them, and for the most part he was doing awesome. Then, right after one contraction Robert says, "Heidi, I'm going to call my home teaching companion real quick and let him know that I'm not going to make it to our appointments." I gave him a "you better be joking" look, and said "Um, okay." Sure enough he wasn't joking and he called his companion. Just as they started talking, the next contraction started coming and I yelled for Robert. He came and held my hand but still continued talking on the phone. For those of you who have labored before can imagine how NOT okay I was with this. So at the peak of my contraction I screamed at him, "JUST HANG UP, NOW!!!!!!!" He obeyed ;)

Continuing with the story, Katie got to the hospital at about 5:00pm. When they checked me just after 5:00pm I was dilated to a 4 and 90% effaced. I warned the nurse that with Lydia I went from a 4 to complete in less than an hour. She got everything ready just in case. At 6:00pm they checked me again and I was 4 and 100% then just after 7:00pm I was complete. Here's my "Yay for being complete!" picture.

Yes, that is a barf bag. I was super cold, thirsty, and nauseous the last couple of hours of labor and through the delivery

Since I had the epidural I was still comfortable enough to wait so they said as long as I wasn't in unbearable pain I should try to wait until 8:00pm to push so that they could do the second round of antibiotics at 7:30pm and it would have time to get into my system. So we sat and visited for another hour. Just before 8:00pm Dr. Scott Jacob came in, set up, and I started pushing. Less than 5 minutes later, our beautiful Mary Eliza came into the world at 8:07pm. Yes you heard that right. I pushed for less than 5 minutes. It happened really fast!

Our happy tear-filled faces seconds after Mary was born

She was finally here!! The moment was indescribably joyous. Then Dr. Jacob said something that made Robert and I freeze, time stop, and my heart sink.

"Now if we could just get her to breathe..."

Out of the box! Out of the box!

(Does anyone remember that show?)

In an effort to be prepared for the unexpected as far as when Mary would arrive, I slowly started packing a month and a half before we had to move and planned on being completely packed 2 weeks before her due date/our apartment contract expiration date. Needless to say, having a toddler slowed me down a ton, so we still had to rush packing and cleaning at the end.  Finding different ways to entertain Lydia while I tried to pack was... fun... Things that I thought would entertain her for at least a half hour would last 30 seconds, and vice versa, but we managed.

Fun with boxes

Tape on the face - This is one I thought would entertain her for a few seconds, but she kept that tape on her face for almost 45 minutes. She kept looking at herself in the mirror and laughing.

Playing pretend for example, the crib frame became a jail :) She didn't fall for this one for long.



And singing the Blue's Clues Mail Song over and over because Lydia loves it



There were lots of sentimental things that I wanted to do before we left this second home of ours. Take pictures of the outside and inside and the surrounding neighborhood etc. but life got too crazy. Suffice it to say that mine and Robert's second home, the home we brought both of our first 2 kids home to, will always hold a special place in our hearts.

Special thanks to Aaron and Kaci Cardon, Devin and Autumn Curry, and Trent and Natalie DeVore, for all of the help they gave us cleaning and moving and for all others who were willing to help but couldn't because of time constraints and what not. We are blessed with wonderful friends!

Mary Eliza Has Arrived!!

She's here!!!! Born August 28, 2011 at 8:07pm. 7lbs 13oz 19.5 inches long. She's already a week old, and we LOVE her. She's just the sweetest, most relaxed baby you'll ever see! We're in transition right now. Our apartment contract expired on Wednesday, so we were able to bring Mary home to our place on Tuesday, moved in with friends on Wednesday, and we'll be moving to California this Tuesday. It's been a whirlwind of a week to say the least, and this next week will be pretty much just as crazy. Mary and Lydia have both been troopers thus far. I have much that I want to post about the birth story, moving, and other nonsense, but I probably won't have time for a while. So for now you get a couple of pictures to hold you over :) Hasta luego!

Welcome Baby Anabelle!!!

Congrats to Scott and Becky Wilcken!!!! Baby Anabelle was born last night at 9:31pm - 9lbs 7oz 22 inches long. Scott has nicknamed her Ginorma Baby seeing as how that's about how much the twins weighed COMBINED when they were born. Becky went 2 days overdue, what a trooper!!! The whole fam is doing well :)

(Pic sent from Breanna's phone. Hoping to get better ones soon)

Does everyone know what that means??? Now, IT'S MY TURN!! Come soon Mary!!

Welcome Baby Bryson!!!

My sister Katie had her baby!!!!! Bryson Michael McAllister was born 8/5/2011 at 2:25pm. 7lbs 1 ounce 21 inches long. The whole fam is doing great! I got to be there for most of the fun and to witness the miracle. Katie did AWESOME and now she has a beautiful baby boy who is basically the most handsome baby boy you'll ever see.

One down, two to go. Our sister-in-law Becky is due this Sunday, so as soon as she has hers it's my turn! August is a great month to have a birthday! ;)

32 to 36 Weeks

Weight @ 36 weeks: 199.8 lbs (+29.8 to pre-pregnancy weight) - At my 36 week appointment I actually measured 201.5, but today I had a WIC appointment and they measured me at 199.8, so I'm going to count that just so I don't have to say good-bye to the 100s yet ;)

Contractions: I'm having them more often, harder, and consistent than I did with Lydia at this point. I'll go several hours, a couple times it's been a whole day, where I'll have one that lasts for about a minute every 10 minutes, but they never progress. I'm hoping this means that Mary will come on her own a couple weeks early like I want her to. I've been telling her that whether she comes or not her birthday is the 17th. So either she comes then and we celebrate, or she misses it and has to wait a whole year to celebrate. It's that simple. If I don't have her on my own before I'm 39 weeks I'll most likely be induced on the 25th, but only time will tell.

I'm getting pretty antsy though. I WANT MY BABY! At the same time, this pregnancy has flown by. I can't believe we're already to the last few strides of the home stretch. Other than the horrible sickness and stress of school at the same time during my first trimester, it's been a relatively smooth sailing pregnancy. For that I feel truly blessed.

Come soon baby! Mommy, Daddy, and Lydia are waiting!

We Got A Place!!!

WE GOT INTO THE FAMILY STUDENT HOUSING!!!! We were on the waitlist, but were told that it didn't look very promising, but we found out a couple weeks ago that we were up and could choose basically whatever floor plan and move in date we wanted! That saves us a ton of money and stress in so many ways including that we didn't have to take a trip to Santa Cruz that week! So many prayers answered!! For full detailed story (I'm writing it down for journal purposes) continue reading, otherwise skip down to the pictures.

Once upon a time we had planned on taking a trip to Santa Cruz the last week of July (the 24th through 27th) to see if we could find an apartment. We were trying to be positive about this trip, but there were several reasons why we were not looking forward to it. Some of those reasons were that I would have been 35 weeks pregnant, and two 14 hour car rides in 4 days would have been miserably uncomfortable, Robert wasn't looking forward to driving all that way, it would have been hard on Lydia to have that quick of a trip that would not only be long rides there and back but would also mostly consist of a lot of driving around to different apartments while we were there. The 2 biggest reasons we didn't want to go were that my sister Katie was ready to have her baby any day and the thought of missing that was stressing me out, and we just didn't know how we were going to pay for the trip. Gas for the drive, hotel stays, plus most of the places we wanted were asking for 1st month rent which mostly ranged from $1300-1500 and a security deposit that ranged from $1300-2000 to sign for the place equals more money than we had. Needless to say, we were praying hard for some divine intervention.

Several months ago we got on the wait list for the family student housing that is right on UCSC campus. We were told when we got on it that it was highly unlikely that we'd be able to get into it in September, the soonest would maybe be January if that. Well, 2 days before we planned on taking the trip to Santa Cruz, we're sitting sorting through all of the apartment ads I had printed off of Craigslist and Robert says, "I think I'm going to call the student housing office and see if they can give us any idea on how soon we'll get in." After talking to one person who had no clue what was going on, he was transferred to the lady in charge. (Her name is Cheryl. I've become quite fond of her.) The first thing she says when Robert says his name is, "What a coincidence you called me right now. I was just getting ready to email you. You are next in line for an apartment and we have several available any time in September. All you need to do is pick your move in date and floor plan, and I'll draw up the paperwork." HURRAY!!! With how many utilities that were included in the rent (everything except gas and electric, including internet/cable and parking which is unheard of anywhere else), plus a security deposit of only $500, plus the money we save commute wise living right on campus ($50 a month for bus fare or $900 a year for a parking permit), it was by far our cheapest option. Not to mention that it saved us the trip out there. It was the answer to so many prayers!! And an answer once again that this is where we are supposed to go right now. Heavenly Father's hand has been guiding and helping us along through this whole process.

Without further ado, here are some pictures of the complex that I copied from the "Welcome Handbook" Cheryl sent us. There's also a picture of our floor plan. We ended up going with the one that is the smaller out of the choices we had (936 sq. ft. versus 1026 sq. ft.), but I felt that this one suited us much better and was more efficiently laid out. We're excited!!!



No pictures of the interior yet. You can see a virtual tour of one here to get an idea but it's not the same floor plan as ours. I'll be sure to post a bunch of pictures of the inside once we are settled in ONLY A MONTH!!! It's coming so fast, and I'm HAVING A BABY sometime between now and then. Crazy times ahead!!

Lydia Lately

Lydia is quickly changing from baby to toddler. Her personality gets bigger and develops more sides to it everyday. She's a hoot! :) She loves to play, which makes for some fun/cute times, but also some frustrated times when we can't give her the attention or play time she demands. She's going to love having a playmate around. Let's just hope she can patiently wait while her baby sister grows up to the point where she can play with her.

Sundays are her hardest day! Church used to be a game to her. Sometimes we'd win, sometimes she'd win. Now it's a game she just doesn't want to play. She starts being ornery the second we walk into the chapel. She's just not one who likes to stay in one place for too long. Then she'll usually fall asleep for the last half hour of church (we've tried to prevent this, but if she's decided she wants to fall asleep there's no stopping her) which gives her enough of a nap that she won't take her normal nap once we get home. Occasionally this leads to her crashing at some point that evening, as seen here :)



She went through a phase where her absolute favorite thing was toothbrushes, and you wouldn't dare take them away unless you wanted to suffer through her wrath.

She fell and got a pretty good shiner. This is a couple of days after it happened and had started fading. The day it happened it was super swollen and made me think of Rocky or Quasimodo every time I looked at it.

She's gotten more into books lately. She loves to just look through them. We've gotten really fast at reading them to her to try and fit in all the words before she's decided it's time to turn to the next page.

Playing with Daddy and the squeaky bird. Her laugh is so infectious :)



Having fun with the Harry Potter glasses. (Can you tell that Robert put this PJ outfit together?)

She loves being an entertainer. She's cracking us up all of the time.



She's been doing better with walking, but it's still just a game to her. Crawling is faster for her still so she prefers it. Most of the time when we are trying to get her to walk she bends over into this position, thinks it is hilarious, and then will continue to do it for 10 minutes or more at a time.




She still loves playing with the piano. She'll bang on it until the demo song ("Just the Way You Are") comes on, and then will dance to the music with her arms, legs, bum, or head. Some of her arm dancing is featured in this video.



Other than that, she's been cutting molars which has not been as fun as all these entertaining pics and videos, but manageable. We love our little girl and can't wait to add another to the mix.

All About Heidi Day

Completely unknown to me, Robert declared last Wednesday, July 20th, All About Heidi Day. At 9:30am he woke me up and was dressed in his suit and handed me a clipboard and said, "Will you sign this please?" On the clipboard was a waiver that read as follows:

All About Heidi Day 2011 - No Choices Necessary
Information and permission sheet

Today is not your birthday. It is not Christmas. It is not any special anniversary of some sort. It is just a day that, if you wish, could be yours. A day where you can do many fun things and not have to worry about watching the baby much, cleaning the house, or anything but having fun.
The way it works is that an itinerary will be given to you which has all the activities planned out for the day. You will never have to choose what fun activity you may want to do next because it is already planned out. Any time Lydia is fussy or cranky, I will take care of it, except for tonight when the Nixons will take care of it. If you aren’t having fun in a particular activity just notify Robert, the director, and he can modify the activity based on special needs.
This can be any ordinary day, but it could be your day. The only choice you will need to make is if you want to do it. If you would like to participate in this otherwise ordinary but will be spectacular day, just sign and date below. Otherwise hand the sheet back to the director and he will make sure your day is still ordinary.
Thank you for considering have an All About Heidi Day.

Signature _________________ Date________

(Sidenote: The "No Choices Necessary" is a plus to me because I hate having to make decisions about what activities we do) I of course signed it and in return was given this schedule complete with pictures.

9:00 - Wake Up (He let me sleep in a little later because we had had a late night the night before)
9:10 - Light Breakfast
9:20 - Donkey Kong Country (The SNES version. Robert purchased it just for the occasion. It was the last game we needed on our SNES game wishlist. It's a classic :)
12:00 - Picnic at the Park
1:00 - Head to Nickel City
3:00 - Crafts/Games - Lydia Naps
6:30 - Dinner at Chuck-O-Rama
8:20 - Harry Potter 7 Part 2 Movie

So I headed in for my light breakfast and it was waiting for me on the table with some flowers.

After breakfast, I relaxed and played Donkey Kong Country, then got all ready to head to the Duck Pond to have the picnic lunch Robert had prepared.

Lydia loves roaming around at the duck pond.

Aaron and Kaci then joined us to go to Nickel City. This is the only picture I got of them, shame on me. Anyway, Kaci had the most amazing luck with every machine she touched. She got the huge jackpot on a couple of games, one machine even gave her 100 tickets when she was only supposed to get 5. It was awesome. They used some of their tickets to get us a set of glasses to wear that night to Harry Potter which you will see in pics later on in this post.

We weren't quite as successful this time around, but we did win enough tickets to get quite a bit of candy. Check out our winnings!

Random cute picture of Mommy and Lydia :)

Then it was time for the "3:00 - Crafts/Games - Lydia Naps" portion of the day. Kaci and Aaron stuck around for this activity and we all finger-painted. I did the lighthouse/beach scene in the middle. Robert did the Nertz and baseball paintings. Kaci did the flower and boat/beach scene, and Aaron did the river and the dragon named Dragon paintings. Pretty much we all are AMAZING!! ;)

Kaci had to go to work so they left, and after Lydia woke up from her nap we dropped her off at the Nixons (one of our hometeachers and his wife), and for the first time since before Lydia was born, had a date night with just the 2 of us. It was LONG overdue. We went to one of my favorite restaurants, Chuck-A-Rama. Mmmm rolls and honey butter!

Then it was off to Harry Potter 7 - Part 2. We had a little fun with the glasses before the movie started. :)



And one picture of the 2 of us without the goofy glasses.

It was a GREAT, SUPER FUN, WONDERFUL day. And a complete surprise, which is hard to do. I'm a snoop, so I usually know when something is up. Robert even reorganized his work schedule so that he could do it on a Wednesday instead of the usual Friday date night or free Saturday to catch me extra off guard. He scored major points for this one! ;) I'm so lucky to have him.

Slab Pizza

There are several places that during our whole stay in Provo we've driven by and said, "We should eat there sometime." Now we're running out of time. We're going to try and hit a few before we leave, but procrastination and money will prevent us from going everywhere.

A couple of weeks ago we checked Slab Pizza off of our list. It had been recommended to me by several different people. It was really good, but I think people talked it up a little too much, so it didn't quite reach my expectations especially for how much it cost. Still really good nonetheless.

I got BBQ Chicken and Robert got New Mexican Green Chile

And STUFF!!