Walking on Sunshine

Just look at that adorable picture. That is my sister and her family. She has always been the most photogenic beautiful person. They took this a few weeks ago when they were in Moab and I think it is the cutest picture EVER!

We decided to hike to the “Y” here in Provo last Saturday and I thought to myself…..”I want to take an adorable family picture out in nature like Leah did.”

Well, we tried and this was our result…

It just doesn’t come close to the cuteness of Leah’s photo. This was our best shot. We even all tried to wear cute hats like Leah’s family but it didn’t work. I guess I didn’t take into account that we would all totally look exhausted from hiking up a mountain. Oh well.

But look at this cuteness……..

She loved hiking. Most of the time she was smiling and giggling as we hiked except for when she fell asleep near the top. When Jeff hiked faster she got more giggly. It was so cute. I tried to get some action shots of the smiling.

Here is Jeff with 32 pounds on his shoulder and 17 pounds on his front. He hiked like this most of the way.

I realized that I haven't posted anything on my blog about being pregnant other than the ticker on the side. So..... I'm pregnant blog world!!!!! It has been a long 9 months and I'm so glad to be done with this one. Here is the long awaited birth story. When I went to the doctor 3 weeks before my due date (October 6) I was 85% effaced and dilated to a 1. I was very excited to hear this because with Benjamin I never dilated or effaced until probably the day I went into labor with him which was 11 days after his due date. A couple of days before the birth I was experiencing lots of contraction and they were keeping me up at night but nothing was consistent or very difficult. But at about 4:30 on Friday afternoon, I felt my first hard contraction. So I started to monitor the contractions through the evening but they weren't 5 minutes apart yet. So Jeff and I went to bed for the night not really sure if this was it or not. I didn't sleep a wink because I was in pain. But by 2:30 a.m. that is when they started to be 5 minutes apart and they stayed that way until we left for the hospital two hours later. We called Jeff's dad and he came over to be with Erica and Ben. We got to the hospital and I was dilated to a 4. In order for the hospital to admit you, you have to be at a 5. They monitored me for 3 hours but I never progressed past a 4 and the contractions stopped being 5 minutes apart. They gave me a shot of morphine for the pain and sent me home at 7:30 a.m. and told me to come back when the contractions were 5 minutes apart for an hour. The morphine made me so sleepy and feel so wonderfully good. I came home and sleepily ate cereal and then made it upstairs to my bed. It was General Conference Saturday and I didn't watch it at all because I was laying up in my bed for most of the day. Once the morphine wore off after several hours the contraction started to get painful again but they were still not consistent. I called my parents in Rexburg and told them to come down to be with the kids because we were probably going to go to the hospital soon. My parents made the 4-hour drive and arrived at about 6:30. By 7p.m., the contractions started to be 5 minutes apart and by 8p.m. we were driving in the car to the hospital. They checked me and I was dilated to a 7. I was so relieved because it felt like I had been in labor forever and the end was finally near. A group of people rushed in to get things progressing with my delivery and get my epidural started. After the epidural and they let me rest until about midnight when I was dilated to a 10. I started pushing at midnight. With my first baby, I had to have an emergency C-section because my baby was in the posterior position. We could see his head but he was just in the wrong position to be pushed out. There is a 1% possibility that C-section stitches from another birth could rupture and could be dangerous for the baby. So I was feeling a little apprehensive about being able to push my baby out but I wanted so badly to be able to accomplish this very hard task so I didn't have to have another C-section. Pushing a baby out is the craziest hardest thing I have ever had to do. It took me about an hour to accomplish the task. In between pushes I would look at my pushing team's faces to see if I was doing a good job and at first the looks on their faces were of uncertainty.....especially my doctor so I was a little scared. But finally after a while I could tell from the looks on their faces and their praise on my efforts that something was actually happening and my little baby was almost out. Then I saw my doctor preparing herself to actually deliver a baby by putting on some additional sterile clothing and I looked at Jeff with joy and knew that I had almost done it!!! What a feeling after feeling like I failed the first time. So after 32 hours of labor, my baby girl came out at 12:56 a.m. on October 3 and they placed her on my stomach and that was the most wonderful moment that I didn't get to experience with my first baby. She weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces and was 19 inches long. She's got a double chin and a big thighs. See the next post below for pictures of my sweet baby girl.