Brylee Jaye

It's been almost 3 weeks since she was born.....and I finally have a second to post an update.

My due date (September 7th) was a frustrating day. It is a bad feeling when you wait for that day for 9 whole months and it passes by with no baby. It was a fun day though. We spent the day with our family. We had a cookout at Mom and Fred's house. I spent the day with my cousins and Granny playing geezer golf and jumping on the trampoline.

The next day I went to the doctor and there was still no sign of a baby. He told me it would be a week before he could induce me. I cried. That night, Craig and I walked 4 miles. I was determined to make myself go into labor. That night I had my first REAL contraction.

September 9th came along and I woke up early, cleaned the house, and went on a walk. I walked another 4 miles. When I got home, I was having contractions about 8 minutes apart. Within 2-3 hours, they were 3 to 5 minutes apart. I called my doctor and they told me to head to the hospital. I called Craig and he came home from work and we went to the hospital to have a baby at about 2:30. We were both nervous and excited....and ready to have a baby.

At about 5:00 they moved me to the delivery room and gave me an epidural. (The epidural was amazing! It made me so relaxed.) Everything was running smoothly up until this point. Not long after that, my doctor came in and broke my water and they started the pitocin. As soon as the doctor broke my water, the baby's heart rate started dropping REALLY low every time I had a contraction. The nurse started to act panicked and put me on oxygen to see if it would help her heart rate....but it didn't. The doctor came in and told me they were going to give me about 20 minutes longer, and if there was no change we would have to do an emergency c-section. This made me pretty upset, but I knew that there was something going on with the baby and I just wanted her to be healthy.

Not long after this, my epidural stopped working and I started to feel the contractions. They were SOOO strong. I can say, without a doubt, that those contractions caused me to feel the WORST pain that I have felt in my entire life. It was awful. You can't even describe pain like that. Luckily, they came in and checked me and fixed my epidural. When the nurse checked me I had dilated from a 4 to a 9 in thirty minutes. It was time to push. (Thank goodness my epidural had started to kick in at that point.)

The doctor came in, I pushed about three times, and there she was. Our baby girl. You can't even describe the feeling you get the first time you see your baby. It's crazy. I bawled. It was obvious Craig felt the same we. We couldn't stop staring at her.

The next 5 days were even more crazy. They were probably the most emotionally and physically draining days of our entire lives. There were still a lot of problems with her heart rate dropping really low. She had low blood sugar. She had Jaundice. She was floppy. Her oxygen levels kept dropping really low and she turned blue all of the time.

After being told that there was something wrong with her, brain scans, EKG's, ecocardiograms, and many many other tests, we found out that we have a perfectly healthy little girl.....with acid reflux.

We are so glad to finally have her home. We love her so much. She is our Brylee Jaye. :)

Being parents is hard work and very tiring...but we wouldn't change a thing.

We are happy to finally have her home.

Break Water, Break!

It's kind of depressing when it is two days past your due date and there is NO sign of a baby!

8 weeks to go....

So....we are down to being just 8 weeks away from having our little girl (who still has NO NAME). I talked to Granny and Aunt Kristy last week who talked me into putting some pictures of myself up. Right now, according to What to Expect when You're Expecting, our baby is about four pounds and 18 inches long. Maybe this is the reason why I feel like a whale!

Anyway, we had dinner at Mom and Fred's house on Sunday and these are some pictures of us hanging out in the yard after we ate.

We had an exciting weekend because we bought a crib, dresser, and bedding for the baby's room.(After Driving to every Babies R Us in the state of Utah...literally). It is starting to feel very real and that is a little bit scary. I'll have to post some pictures when we get the room decorated.

For the most part, we have just been working, going to school, and trying to get as much done as we can until the baby gets here. Nothing too exciting has been going on. This year is FLYING by.

Our Little Girl......

So...I FINALLY put the ultrasound pictures on a disc so I could upload them to the computer and share them with everyone! Here is our little girl! Some of them are a little hard to see...but in about 12 weeks we'll have much better pictures of her!...

This is her profile. This is the best profile shot we have.

If you look right in the middle of the picture (under the word feet) you can see her feet. This one is kind of hard to see, but she's got her feet together. I think one is kind of on top of the other one.

Here are her two legs and feet. She's got her knees bent and it's almost like you are looking down at her. Her knees are right at the center and her legs are on the left side.

Last but not least.....It's a Girl! There's no doubt about it!

It only took me two months to get these posted. Oh well, better late than never!

I'm getting really excited for her to get here...but there is so much to do before we are ready for her. She still doesn't have a crib! Her bedroom is our project in the next month. It's going to be a lot of fun to decorate a room for our little girl! Craig has a ton of cute ideas and we are excited to get started. We just have to find time to do it!

We still haven't thought of a name for her. The girls at work have given me lists of names...so we are working on that. I never thought it would be so hard to come up with a name. It's such a big decision.

This little girl has been growing like crazy! She is moving and kicking CONSTANTLY! You can see my stomach move. Also, when we push on my stomach we can feel her. I'm scared she is going to have a bad attitude because whenever you put your hand on my stomach, she'll kick it. She likes to be rubbed, though. The last few nights, Craig and I have laid in bed and rubbed her. She comes up closer to our hands. You can feel her little back and bum.....sometimes her feet or elbows. It's hard to tell which body part is which....but it is so cool.

She hasn't been getting much sleep though. (At least not while Craig is home.) He is already teasing her. Whenever she is asleep he shakes my belly until she wakes up and starts moving around! Poor girl!

We can't wait to meet her and have our little family!

Our little head of cauliflower.....

So...there is this website I look at every week and I think it is pretty funny. Every week it compares your baby to some type of food to get an idea of how big it is. I am at week 27 and here is what the website says:

How your baby's growing:This week, your baby weighs almost 2 pounds (like a head of cauliflower) and is about 14 1/2 inches long with her legs extended. She's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing her eyes, and perhaps even sucking her fingers. With more brain tissue developing, your baby's brain is very active now. While her lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if she were to be born now. Chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and they don't bother her, so just relax and enjoy the tickle.

Anyway....pretty soon she is going to be a watermelon. Only 13 more weeks!

School....

I don't think school is a good place for pregnant people. Especially the Summer semester classes. My Chemistry class is about 2 hours long and I sat there for an hour watching my belly move and wondering what she was doing in there. She was either kung fu fighting or playing soccer with my bladder........ And I sat there for the last hour dreaming about mozzarella sticks from sonic! Needless to say, I didn't get much out of my chemistry class today.

Craig and I have been SO busy. I have pretty much been in class from about 9:00am and getting out of work around 9:00 pm with no break in between. Business has REALLY picked up for Craig and he works 10 to 12 hour days, Monday through Saturday....and then he comes home, works out, and makes dinner so that we can eat when I get home at 9:30.(He takes good care of me!) We usually go for a walk around 10:15 and come home and go to bed. We just try to enjoy every minute we have together.

I can't wait until we're finished with school!!!!!!!!

Time Flies!

I just got home from the doctor. This was the last visit of my second trimester! Crazy! Time flies. I can't believe in 15 weeks we will have a little girl!

"Summer Vacation"

It has been such a busy week this week. It was my week-long "summer vacation" and I got to spend the whole week working. It wasn't so bad, actually. I don't really know what to do with myself when I'm not running around like a crazy person. Monday I start my new classes start my crazy summer of trying to finish as many classes as I can before this baby gets here. She'll be here in about 16 weeks. I am 24 weeks along today! It is so crazy. According to my What to Expect When You're Expecting book, my uterus is now the size of a basketball! She's approximately the size of a regular envelope....just fatter. I still wear my normal jeans with a rubberband tied around the button to keep them together, but it seems like I should start blowing up ANY DAY now. A basketball is HUGE! Maybe I should invest in some maternity clothes. hhhhh...

It has been a crazy week, but also there have been some pretty exciting things happen too. While I was at work on Friday, Craig decided that he might need a new truck.....and by the time I got home from work that night....he had one! I was a little surprised at how fast it all happened, but he is excited and loves his new white truck. I'll post a picture of him and his new toy later. He works REALLY hard and he deserves it.

Also, I got an exciting call from Megan on Saturday. She called to tell me that she is engaged and will be getting married on November 7th. I was am so excited for her. She told me her story of how they got engaged and it is so cute. The wedding date is perfect. I won't be pregnant any more and I will have a 2 month old! I am so excited that we'll be able to plan a vacation to Beaufort to go to her wedding and that she and my family will have a chance to meet our little girl (Who, by the way, probably still won't have a name at that time since we are having such a hard time thinking of names that we like.). I'm so excited for her! I just want everyone to be as happy as I am! She happened to call me and tell me on the one year anniversary that Craig and I got engaged.

I can't believe that it has already been a year since that day. That was probably the most exciting weekend of my whole life! It was so much fun spending the weekend in St. George, golfing, going to Zion's National Park, and sitting up on the Dixie Rock that overlooks all of St. George. The weather was beautiful and he couldn't have picked a better weekend. I'll never ever forget how I felt that night when Craig gave me my "Fun with Charis" book and got down on one knee, pulled a ring out of his pocket, and told me he wanted to be with me forever. It was the best feeling in the world and we still just love eachother more and more everyday! He's amazing.

Okay--I'd better stop with the memories and go get dressed for work! It's FRIDAY!!!!! I love the weekends!

Playing Catch Up

It has been a really crazy and busy but exciting couple of weeks. We finally went in for the ultrasound on April 23rd. Craig took the afternoon off of work and we were able to go in together. They made me drink 16 oz of water an hour before I went in to the appointment. (Now this doesn't sound like a lot of water, but trust me, when you are pregnant and you have this much liquid in your bladder, you feel like it is going to explode at any given moment.)

We finally got called back into the ultrasound room and I had to lay on this table with a big TV hanging from the ceiling so we could see it really well. Craig got to sit in a chair right next to me. Once the ultrasound started we were able to see the baby's heart and the four chambers, the heart, the arms, the legs, and the feet. They measured the brain and made sure that everything was developing correctly. We were relieved to find out that the baby had two arms, two legs, and only one head. (We seriously have to stop watching the crazy shows about the siamese twins and the mermaid girl on TLC.) Last but not least, we found out that we are having a little girl! At first, Craig and I looked at eachother and didn't really know what to think. As we left the office and started talking about it, we are really excited. It really is a crazy feeling to think that we are going to be parents. Even after hearing the heartbeat, feeling her kick all of the time, and having a growing belly, I don't think it really hit us that we are going to have a baby until we saw her! It was amazing. I'll post some of the ultrasound pictures on here later. We were also excited to find out that Craig's sister, Kaylee, who is having a baby and due a week after me, is also having a little girl. I loved growing up with all of my cousins who were the same age as me so I was really excited to hear that. Our little girl will have a cousin/friend to play with in our family!

Another thing that we have been doing the last two weekends is going to St. George to help get Craig's Grandparent's house ready to sell so they can move up to Salt Lake to be closer to the rest of the family. Even though we were painting, peeling wall paper, loading boxes, and hanging blinds and curtains, it was a lot of fun to be able to spend time with Craig's family and meet some of his family members who I haven't met or met only at our wedding. His family is hilarious and the more I hang out with them, the more I like them.

We have also been working hard and studying for school because we have had finals the last couple of weeks and it has been crazy. I don't know all of the grades for my classes yet, but Craig made a B+ on his final and an "A" in his class for the semester. He worked REALLY hard and studied like crazy and it paid off. I tried helping him study a little bit and I have NO idea how he understands all of that stuff. It's like german to me! We are so excited that he only has two semesters left of school and I only have two semesters left before I can apply for nursing programs. It finally feels like there is an end in sight.

Somehow, in between school, work, and going to St. George on the weekends, Craig has managed to work out pretty much everyday for at least an hour. He has been doing so good. I, on the other hand, have been making heavenly oatmeal bars, chocolate chip cookies, and I have a pan of brownies cooling off as we speak. I did really well for the first four months of the pregnancy. We walked 2-5 miles every night. Then it got cold!!!! I haven't been very motivated because no matter what I do I gain weight! So today I decided I would be motivated and start walking everyday again. Since it is so nice outside, I took the dog and walked 2.5 miles. I am going to start walking everyday. I have no excuse not too. After going on a walk, eating brownies with peanut butter chips in them doesn't seem so unhealthy. :)

Baby Bumps

It has quite an interesting week for us. A few exciting things happened though. Because I work evenings now, I have an hour or two between the time school ends and the time I have to be at work. On Wednesday, I decided I'd go get some lunch and read for a while to pass the time until I had to be at work. So I went to Harmon's and bought a salad and some gummy bears.(I know that is a weird combo...whatever.) So went and sat in my car and ate my salad. I pulled my car into the shade, took my shoes off, and started to munch on my gummy bears while I read my book. All of a sudden, I felt a weird "bump" in my stomach. I sat very still for a minutes and then I felt it again. I felt it about 6 more times and then I realized I was actually feeling our baby move for the first time! It felt like it was dancing around in there! I think I stopped breathing for a few minutes! It was the craziest feeling in the whole entire world! It was so crazy for me because, at that moment, I realized there is actually a person growing inside of me. I was pretty excited. I pulled out my phone and texted Craig to tell him I felt the baby move. His response was, "Are you eating chocolate? I always get excited and dance around when I eat chocolate!" I wasn't eating chocolate, but if our kid likes food as much as we do, we are going to be in BIG TROUBLE! We already drink like 4 gallons of milk a week!

Boy or Girl?

Because of my new work schedule, I had to reschedule all of my doctors appointments for the next month. I'm kind of bummed because I had to push back my ultrasound April 16th to the 23rd. It's going to be a week longer now until we find out whether this kid is a boy or a girl. hhhhhh.... That's okay though. I'm pretty sure it is a girl just because we want a little boy so bad.

According to the chinese gender calendar, it is supposed to be a boy, but that is probably the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. That would mean that every 24 year old girl having a baby in September should be having a boy. It doesn't make much sense to me....but some people swear by it.

When we were at dinner one night with some friends, somebody asked Craig whether he wanted a boy or a girl. Craig responded like so, " Well, we don't really care. We just want it to be healthy, you know? If we have a little boy...AWESOME! If we have a girl.....well, at least we have a babysitter when our other kids come along." ha ha....He's so good at looking at the bright side of things.

I know we'll love the baby and we'll be excited no matter what. Honestly, some days I want a girl so that I can dress her and do her hair. Little girl clothes are so much cuter than boy clothes.....And both Craig and I agree that it was a lot of fun growing up with a big sister.

I'll just be glad when it's here and my pants fit without putting a rubberband through the button hole to hold them together.