Oh, and we had a baby

The birth story is pretty uneventful. Went in to be induced, had to be on 3 hours of antibiotics because I was group B strep positive, then they gave me the epidural. That was the most dramatic part of the day-my blood pressure went dangerously low and I was miserable. After a few doses of ephedrine they finally gave me smelling salts-GROSS!!! Has anyone ever had those?? But it helped! After that I just relaxed until my water was broken. Generally, once the doctor breaks my water I have a baby within a couple hours. But this little one did NOT want to cooperate! She was sitting high and just not coming down! I would feel like things were progressing, only to be checked and told that I was STILL only dilated to an 8! I was getting frustrated and the epidural was wearing off. I was really feeling like I needed to push but they kept telling me that she wasn't coming down and I wasn't fully effaced. They said it was probably because she was face down. I was moving around, trying to get her to turn, but nothing was working. The nurses were frustrated too because they knew I was ready to go. The pain was getting to be pretty bad and they still weren't letting me push, even though I felt like I needed to. Finally the nurse wanted to try turning my body completely to the side, almost belly down. Right when I did that I knew that this baby was coming NOW! Sure enough, she checked and I was a 10 and fully effaced! They hurried to get the doctor; meanwhile, I am in PAIN because that epidural was gone by then. Women who have had to hold a baby in because of waiting for the doctor KNOW the pain I'm talking about!! It took him almost 10 minutes to get there and it was such a relief to push a couple times and be done. 5:54pm, 6 lbs 13 oz, 20 inches long.

Clone #3 was put on my chest, screaming her head off :) It is amazing to me that we have just one mold. The only thing different was her nose-all three girls have a different nose. And we LOVE HER! She doesn't have the red hair that the other girls have. In the back it's dark and on top it's light. Her eyebrows and eyelashes are "clear" so I wonder if I'll finally get my blonde child! She was 2 inches longer than the others and you can tell-her legs are really long!

They took  her to the nursery to do all the testing and stuff while I was taken to a recovery room. Dave went with her and when they were washing her off she screamed her head off until they started scrubbing her head-she calmed right down!! She takes after her daddy :)

Dave's parents and my parents came, with the girls in tow. They all went immediately to the baby floor, so I was taken to my room before seeing them. But I could hear them out in the hallway, looking at her through the windows and talking about what she was doing. I remember feeling a warmth throughout my body, knowing how much this new little baby was loved already. I can't quite describe completely how I felt while listening to them talk, but it was a testament to me of the importance of families, and a reminder of how much we are loved by our Heavenly Father. My heart felt full, and I loved it :)

Everyone came into the room and baby was brought in with a cute bow on her head! Emma was really hesitant and didn't want to hold her at first, but Bree was all over that! Bree sat down and immediately wanted to sing her a "lullaby". Her songs are quite memorable :) It was adorable to see her do that with her little sister. Emma finally worked up the courage to hold the baby and now that's all she wants to do! It was a lot of fun to have both sets of grandparents there-it's a first for us!

We spent the next couple days "relaxing" at the hospital (lol!) and enjoying our sweet little girl...and agonizing over what we were going to name her! We came in with a list of about 10 names. Everyone who came in offered opinions and ideas. The nurses ended up taking a vote in their staff meeting :) We knew that if we did a middle name it would be Kristine, after Dave's mom. Some of the names on our list sounded good with that name, some didn't. We narrowed it down to 4 names: Isabelle, Juliet, Clara, and Olivia. None of the nurses wanted us to do Olivia because it was such a common name-they voted on Juliet. However, Olivia was the one that "fit" her the most. So we debated until the very last second! We finally decided on Olivia Kristine, and it really does fit her perfectly! A funny story about all this agony, though. They wanted to announce her birth and name in sacrament meeting that Sunday while we were in the hospital, but since we didn't have a name, we told them to announce that it was Jimmer-belle. We didn't think our friend Tim (who is the executive secretary) would pass that along, but he did! Brother Hansen announced that if we didn't have a name by that evening, she would be Jimmer. The whole congregation laughed, so we were happy to provide a comical moment for everyone :)

Olivia has been the sweetest baby-we couldn't be more blessed. We didn't have to deal with the mixed up days and nights, she nursed really well, and she took her binky like a champ. The only problem she has had is gas :) Again, she takes after her daddy!! heehee. She is 6 weeks old now (8/18) and is up to almost 10 pounds! She is still really long-we haven't had to deal with this before! The 3 month sleepers we have for her are stretching at the toes! She started smiling at us last week and I LOVE IT! The girls love on her every second they can. They are great helpers and the transition has been extremely easy. Olivia already has her daddy wrapped around her finger-he's a sucker. She is super snuggly and sleeps best when she's folded up in half and held.

UPDATE:

Since I didn't get this posted when I wrote it, here's more info! At her 2 month check-up she was 23.25 inches-80th percentile for height (WHAT???? Whose child is this??), 10 lb 11 oz-43rd percentile for weight, and 37.6 cm-16th for head circuference :) Dave wants to nickname her Tsantsa, which are the shrunken head people in Peru. I told him it's not cute enough to be a nickname. I warned the doctor that at 4 months my children tend to fall drastically on the charts, and not to be alarmed. It'll be interesting to see if Livvy follows suit! 

Livvy has continued to be such a great baby! For the most part she only wakes up 1-2 times a night, although she went 10 hours the other night! We've discovered that a warm bath, mylicon drops, and a good feeding before bed helps with the gas and she can sleep at night. She still loves to be held, and falls asleep by burrowing her face into our elbows-just like the other 2! Dave looks like he's nursing her when she does that.

We still love her to pieces. I LOVE seeing her in the morning-that's her happiest time (well, that and bathtime, which we discovered tonight!). She coos and smiles and kicks her legs like she missed us all night and is so excited to see us. I am not a morning person, but she makes me so happy in the morning!

The girls get excited to hear when she's awake-they are constantly asking me where she is and when will she wake up. They are still great helpers. Tonight we went out to dinner and we put the carseat next to Emma, and she took care of Livvy the whole time-rocking her when she got fussy, putting the binky back in, talking to her. I love it. (Kyla-I finally have my "Matthew"!!-lol).

She was given her baby blessing on July 31st while all of Dave's family was visiting. He blessed her that the sweet and gentle spirit she was born with would continue with her throughout her life, that she would be an example to others, and that she would trust her family because we love her so much. It was a beautiful, tender blessing.

We are so lucky to have her in our family!

haha-this face cracks me up!!

4th of July

Great 4th of July this year! I grew up surrounded by my extended family and every holiday we would have a ballgame in the morning, then swimming and BBQ in the afternoon. Those memories are some of the sweetest for me, and it's been hard not being able to do the same thing with my girls. Seriously, can I just have a pool in my backyard so I can do this?? So I was bound and determined to make this holiday a fun one, even though I was 4 days from delivering a baby :) Project: Success!!

We started out by heading over to the man made reservoir/lake thing a few blocks over. They had a "beach", which consisted of about a 4 foot stretch of shore. But, hey, it was SAND! It was actually a pretty cloudy and windy day, but we didn't let that get us down. The Jacksons and Grays joined up and we just had fun relaxing and visiting while the kids played. We headed home after a few hours to get ready for the late afternoon BBQ with Dave's family at our house. Yummy BBQ food and good laughs and games, all together. It was great.

But the best part??? FIREWORKS!! They made some previously illegal fireworks legal this year, and they did not disappoint! NEIGHBORHOOD OF FIRE! We brought our chairs and blankets and popcorn out. A bunch of us in the neighborhood contributed money and one person picked everything up. But we weren't the only ones doing it. So we had groups all around us in different neighborhoods setting off amazing fireworks for a loooooooong time. We went to the Stadium of Fire fireworks the previous Saturday and were literally sitting underneath them, and that was pretty awesome, but I have to say, our neighborhood of fire was pretty comparable. Don't get me wrong, Stadium of Fire is insane, but to be so involved in the process in our neighborhood just added to the joy of it.

Great times!!

Just messing around

Dave was playing around with the camera and took some pictures of the girls being silly. I love when they get along :)

Emma's Birthday

Emma turned 7 and wanted a superhero party! And I've decided that the girls can have "bigger" parties until they're 8 (just to keep things fair), then nothing until 12 and 16. It's hard work to throw a party, and even harder when you've got neighborhood friends, church friends and school friends and can't even include friends from beyond that scope b/c it gets to be too many people! But she had a blast. And who am I kidding? I do the planning and execution of decor, snacks, goody bags, cake, etc, and Dave runs the party! He's great with the kids and thinks of the funnest things. He had them all picking their own superhero powers and ninja moves. I just love that man.

 

superhero bingo

concentrating hard on superhero bingo :)

pin the "S" on the superhero

Dave showing them how to do a ninja move to capture all the hidden ninjas outside

off to catch all the ninjas!

Grandpa L. made this cute card using pictures he had taken of Emma before. This card has definitely gone into her treasure box!

This is a random picture of the end of year dance show. Emma is right in the middle of the picture, front row, middle person, wearing a pink visor. Yes, she is a head shorter than the two girls next to her. I was teased as a kid for being so little, and now she asks me why everyone teases her. She says all the kids tell her that she's not big enough to be in 1st grade (now 2nd grade), and that frustrates her. But I just tell her that she's perfect the way she is!