Welcome

She's here! Our little girl, Livia Jean, arrive a few weeks early on November 17th. It was quite a crazy experience. It was a rather normal week. I had just finished my preceptorship in the emergency room. I was very happy to be down to just work and school and have all my clinicals out of the way. Now, all I needed to do was make it through the semester. I was down to going to my nurse midwives every week. I had an appointment on Tuesday. Everything was looking great, except randomly, my blood pressure was elevated from where it usually is. I wasn't too worried and my nurse midwife was only slightly concerned. After all, I am in nursing school. That would raise anyone's blood pressure.....She had me go to the hospital to have some labs drawn just to be sure everything was ok. She was a little worried I might be developing preeclamsia which is high blood pressure that occurs during pregnancy with no known cause. It usually happens late in pregnancy and is more common for first time moms. I went and had my blood drawn and waited. No one called which meant that all my labs were normal.

The next day, Wednesday, I was working a 12 hour shift at the hospital. I checked my messages during lunch and there was a message from the nurse midwife I had seen the day before. She said that while my lab work looked pretty good, she had a bad feeling and wanted me to come in on Thursday and had my blood pressure rechecked. Well, since I was at work, I just grabbed a nurse and had her check my blood pressure. No good. It was really high. Significantly higher than even the day before. I called my nurse midwife and told her I had just rechecked it and what I had gotten. She said, "Come to the hospital right now." Ummm...ok. I left work (my poor coworkers got left high and dry) and called David to get a ride to the hospital (I was delivering at a different hospital). I figured they would probably recheck my blood pressure and lab work when I got there and then put me on bed rest for the rest of my pregnancy and hey--I wasn't going to complain about that.

We got to Labor and Delivery and the nurse got me all checked in. We rechecked my blood pressure which was still really high. They re-drew all the labs we had done the day before and then we waited. Finally, my nurse midwife walks in and says she's going to admit me and we would start inducing labor. WHAT?? I was not mentally prepared to have a baby that day, but with a high blood pressure, they were worried about me having seizures, so they started a medication to prevent that (magnesium sulfate) and another to start labor. I called my mom and David texted his parents and let them know that we would be having a baby sometime in the next little while.

Well, all that night, they continued the medication that they hoped would put me into labor. My blood pressure had stabilized somewhat and the baby was doing fine. The next morning, they were unimpressed with my progress and decided to start me on pitocin.A few hours later, they broke my water. I was nervous about this because the baby's head wasn't engaged fully and there was a chance we would need to get her out really fast. Luckily, everything was good and she handled everything fine. Contractions started going pretty well, but unfortunately, the magnesium sulfate I was getting to keep me from seizing is a muscle relaxant and was working against the pitocin. So after 30-something hours, I was only dilated to a 3 and 70 percent effaced. My nurse midwife came in and told me that she's thinking it will probably end up a c-section and I could do it now or later, but odds are I wouldn't dilate much more. So, we decided to do the c-section.

Nurse midwives can't perform c-sections, so the OB-GYN on-call came in to perform mine. Into my room walks this nice little man who introduced himself and five minutes later, we were in the OR. The c-section started out fine. David got all dressed up in his pilsbury dough boy outfit and stayed right by my head. The epidural did its job fabulously (I love epidurals...), but they had a hard time getting little Liv out...she really wanted to stay inside.

Another potential complication of preeclamsia is that your platelets stop doing their job. During the c-section, I started bleeding quite a bit and they had a hard time controlling it. I could hear the doctor panicking just a little bit and telling the CRNA I needed more pitocin and he needed more hands to help him. AKA This girl is bleeding out (Afterward the doctor said, "That was a lot of blood! How much blood do you think she lost??"...I wonder if they forget that their patient is awake during a c-section...) My blood pressure dropped pretty quickly and I started throwing up all over the OR--one of my finer moments in life--but they soon stopped my bleeding and got my blood pressure to stabilize. David was great and stayed by my side the whole time, talking to me and keeping me calm. After everything was back under control, they handed our beautiful little girl over to her daddy. I was still trying to not throw up and didn't have my glasses on (they took them off so they could put on oxygen mask on me) so I didn't really get to see her until we got back to my room. But daddy was with her the whole time and I could already tell he loved that little girl with all his heart. It was amazing. Seeing our little girl for the first time was indescribable. It's crazy how much love you can have for someone after just meeting them, but we fell in love with our daughter immediately.

Our recovery went very well. We were in the hospital for a few more days so they could keep an eye on us and then we were home! We named our little girl Livia Jean. She is amazing. We have a lot of adventures headed our way--I can tell. I'm already having a lot of fun being a mom and David is the perfect dad.

Now David and I just have to hang in until the end of the semester. In just a couple of weeks, David will be half-way through with law school and I will be eligible to get my RN. It's crazy. What else can I say? Life is good.

Halfway There

We are officially halfway to being new parents! Yesterday, David and I were able to see our baby in our big ultrasound. It was AMAZING! We had a really great tech who explained everything we were seeing. And luckily we had a very cooperative baby and they were able to see everything they wanted to see. After the tech finished what she was doing, a doctor came in and pretty much repeated the whole ultrasound. The results: a perfectly healthy little girl! We are very excited. I think it will be fun to have a little girl, but more importantly, we are very thankful that she is developing just as she should be. It was a big sigh of relief for me, because I have been a paranoid mess pretty much this whole pregnancy. I guess that's what I get for getting pregnant during my Mom-Baby class. A few weeks after I found out I was pregnant, I had a huge project that I had to present to the class about birth defects incompatible with life......not a good subject matter to put in my brain right at the beginning of this pregnancy.

Anyway!! Her heart rate was perfect at 150 and she is measuring just 2 days ahead of my due date (December 6). I am still trying to talk her into waiting until December 15 to be born, though. That way, I'll be done with school...we'll see how that goes.

We got a really cool DVD of the whole ultrasound which is AWESOME! You can see her heart beating and she was moving around the whole time. At one point she jumped like something scared her. It was so cool. I don't know if anyone is actually interested in watching something like that besides me, but it was so neat.

Today I saw my nurse midwife who went over the ultrasound results with me. They were able to visualize all the stuff they wanted to see and next to everything it said "normal". I got to hear her heart beat again. It makes me so excited thinking about this new little life.....and scared out of my mind, too!!!

In other news, David and I will be going on vacation---our last real vacation without having a kid. We're going to be heading to Beaufort the first week of August and mostly can't wait to go to the beach! And see everyone there, of course! Holla at me if you wanna hang out! We're excited to go! We're enjoying our last bit of summer and then school will be back in. I applied for graduation a couple of weeks ago. It's pretty crazy to think that in December, I'll qualify to take my nursing boards. After that, I'll probably go back to school. The question is where I will go to finish.....we shall see.

PS....Isn't she cute?? I think she looks like David!

Changing Seasons

It's been a long time since I've written and a lot of things have happened since October when I last posted. So I finally decided it was time to update. And hopefully I'll do better from now on at keeping this thing updated.

I finished my third semester of nursing school. It was brutal. Which I may offer as an excuse as to why I have not updated recently. I learned a ton. I took Complex Disorders, Mother Baby, and Pathophysiology. I enjoyed all of my classes, but was thrilled when I was finished. In January I started working on the Pediatric floor at the hospital and I'm pretty sure I found what kind of nurse I want to be when I graduate. I LOVE Peds. It's the best floor ever. I'm really enjoying my new job (Who wouldn't...we have a play room AND hop-scotch on our floor...)and feel very lucky.

David is officially done with his first year of Law School. He finished the year in the top 20% of his class which means that he gets to keep his full-ride scholarship which is a huge blessing for us.

The biggest and probably the most exciting change is that we found out we're going to have a baby! The new addition to our family is expected to arrive sometime around December 6th, which means I'm currently 17 weeks. We've started gathering new baby supplies and trying to get things ready a little at a time. We moved into a bigger apartment so we'll have some extra space for a little one. We are very excited! Our big ultrasound is scheduled for July 20th, but we have an idea of what the gender is because of an ultrasound we had last week......any guesses??

So as you can see, we've been rather busy around here. We're enjoying summer vacation. I'm getting ready for my last semester of nursing school (I'll be done in December!!!) and to take nursing boards as well as preparing for my life to be turned upside-down by this new little baby that's on the way! David just finished up his summer externship at a law firm in Salt Lake City (which he LOVED, by the way) and is getting ready to start his second year of law school.

Life is good. We'll keep everyone updated.....

Save A Sister

I am one lucky girl. I have the best family in the whole entire world. I have an fabulous husband who is probably the nicest person I know. My mom is an amazingly strong woman. She's such a blessing in my life and I hope that one day, I can be half the woman that she is. My sisters are the best. I love laughing with them. And I have one super-stud of a brother. He's going to be a heart breaker when he grows up. Of course I can't forget my daddy Fred. He's been a great support for my mom and a good dad to all of us. I'm glad I had someone to dance with at my wedding.

Life is good. While it is very busy, I occasionally stop and think about everything that I have. My family and I got to go down to St. George this weekend and run in a 5k. We stayed the night in a hotel, fitting way more people into a room than it was designed for. And we talked and laughed pretty much the whole night. It was great. In the morning, we woke up, put on our bright pink "Team Sheri" shirts, and went and ran a 5k for my angel mom. I hope she knows how much we love her. More pictures are posted on my facebook page.

I'm finishing up clinicals for this semester. I have had a really great time. Last week was the Emergency Room and it was a great experience. They had admissions interviews for the nursing program this week and as I watched the students who were applying, I realized how grateful I am to be in such an awesome program. Nursing school is the best and I'm so lucky that I got in.

Back to David. He is such a good support. Through all my crazy ups and downs, he stands by my side, strong and stable. I hope he knows how much I love him. I don't know how I got so lucky, but I am so thankful I did. I can't imagine my life without him and I can't wait to spend the rest of eternity with him.

Mostly, I'm feeling very blessed today. I'm very thankful for all that I have, and I hope that I can show it better.

Pink Shirts and Orange Leaves

Ok. Fine. I'll update the blog. Sorry it's been so long. I know I say that at the beginning of all my posts. And I'm going to offer the same old excuse, too. It's been really busy around here.

Nursing school continues. I started clinicals at the hospital. Clinicals means I follow a nurse around and pretend I know what's going on for 12 hours while not getting paid. It's actually very fun. So far, I have been on the Ortho/Neuro floor and the Telemetry Floor (the floor where we keep all of our heart patients). I must say, telemetry has been my favorite so far. I had a lot of fun. Classes are still crazy. I have TONS of reading every week, at least one test every week, and a really long 50-ish page paper due every week. It. Is. Busy. But I really do love it. Clinicals are fun. I have been learning a lot. And the nurses I've worked with are absolutely fabulous. I've really enjoyed it.

David still loves law school. He still reads a lot. We're looking into maybe doing an externship next summer. It would be pretty fun. We have no idea where we would end up, but it would be fun.

Now, if you made it through the boring, same-every-week stuff, then you may now have the privilege of reading the cool, exciting stuff. And yes, there will be pictures. You are so lucky.

I mentioned in my last post that I am very excited for the Fall. Well, that was true. David and I decided we should add a little autumn excitement to our lives. So we made a wreath to hang up on our door. And when I say "we", I really mean David. Because we all know who has the artistic talent in this relationship. I must say, I think it turned out well. David. Is. Awesome.



Next big thing: we ran a 5k this morning. In honor of breast cancer awareness month, a local hospital sponsored a Mad Dash for Cancer. Charis decided we should have a Team Sheri and make T-shirts. So we did. The whole deal. It was a lot of fun. Most of the sibs were there, my sister-in-law, Nikki, and Brittany and Cami. Brylee rode in the stroller in her first ever race! And my mom came too. Can I just say it was an awesome morning? I'm really glad we all got to go. It was amazing seeing all the cancer survivors running in the race and my mom with her survivor sticker. What an amazing woman! I've gotta be the luckiest daughter ever. Anyway, my camera died and I didn't get to take pictures at the race, but my mom did and I'm pretty sure she's going to post them on her facebook page if you're interested. I did get a few after the race at Tanner's football game.






Speaking of Tanner's football game, it ROCKED! His team totally killed it today. They were amazing. I'm really glad we got to go. We left the game a few minutes early, but by then, his team was up 7 touchdowns. Yes. I typed that correctly. S.E.V.E.N. And Tanner was awesome.



Anyway, folks. I hope life is treating you all well. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month and I am personally inviting all of you to participate in some way. There are lots of races all over the country and there are so many patients who need your support. We got the supplies for our Team Sheri t-shirts at Wal-Mart and if you want to make your own, you should. My family is planning on running another 5k and they have those all over the country (as well as 1 mile walks if you are interested in that...). If you're in Utah and want to participate in a race, holla atcha girl and I can hook you up.

Peace Out, yo.

Moving Forward

So it's been a while. Things have been a little crazy around here but I figured I needed to update. Within days of my last post, my family got some pretty crazy news which has kept all of us occupied recently. Along with that, we've had lots of visitors in town (I miss you granny!) and school starting for me and David. Also, work. So, we've been busy.

Nursing school is back in session for me. I started a week ago and already feel like I'm behind. I think the thing about nursing school is that you constantly feel like you're drowning. And I don't think it's going to end until after I have RN after my name. And then I'll start working and STILL feel like I'm drowning. I have this insane Med/Surg class which is the main culprit of this drowning scenario. For those of you who don't know, Med/Surg stands for "Medical/Surgical"...which is like 90% of patients that are in the hospital. Which means that I have a lot to learn this semester. Along with med/surg, I have psychiatric nursing, nursing for the older adult, and clinical reasoning classes. To keep myself sane, I'm also taking a violin class. I'm actually really excited to take it.

So like I said, I've been doing a lot of learning the past couple of weeks. One of the exciting things is that I learned how to start IVs! If you know me at all, you know that I get especially excited when it comes to putting sharp objects into people's bodies. Even more so when it involves veins and blood. So I have mostly been waiting to learn IVs the entire time I've been in nursing school. It was a great week for me.

In a couple of weeks I'll be starting clinical rotations at the hospital which means I'll be working with real sick people. And giving all kinds of medications. And acting like I know what I'm talking about. AND STARTING IVs!!! Be excited. And don't be too nervous if you have to go to the hospital and discover I'm your nurse. I'll take good care of you. :)

David has officially started law school. He is on his way to becoming a lawyer. And he loves it! He has really enjoyed his law classes a lot. Some of the cases he's been reading about are really interesting. And some are frustrating because people sue over the dumbest things.

Every year when September hits, I get really excited about Fall. I LOVE the fall! It's been cool in the mornings and yesterday I went and got fall scented candles (pumpkin spice and cider!) and I can't wait to light them so our apartment will smell like the holidays! I've also started looking at music for our ward Christmas program. I know some of you may be thinking it's a little early...but I can't help it. I'm too excited to wait any longer!

Hmm...what else?? Life goes on. I have to say that I love my family a lot. We're all pretty darn awesome. I think it's amazing how much love and support we have. I really appreciate my granny and Krista and Kenny and Aunt Kristy and everyone else who came all the way out to Utah. I love you guys! And I have to say I really appreciate my step-daddy for being so awesome. And of course I love my mom. She is definitely the most amazing and strongest person I know. I am so grateful for her.

Home, Sweet Home!

We're back! After a week-and-a-half-long vacation, David and I are back in Utah. I'm not going to lie, this is probably going to be a super-long blog with lots and lots of pictures. So you may want to turn back now. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Our vacation started out in Texas. We arrived there on Tuesday night, July 13th. Most of Tuesday-Friday was spent hanging out, helping David's mom set up her new computer, yard work, and getting ready for youth conference. So basically, no cool pictures. Except...at one point, David took me to a cool burrito restaurant called Freebird's. They have really big burritos that they serve wrapped in tin foil. Upon finishing the burrito, it is traditional to make cool oragami/statues out of the foil and to display it in the window of the restaurant. David and I decided to make each other--he made me out of tin foil, and I made him. Let me just tell you, tin foil is not an easy medium to work with so you probably won't be able to tell which is which. Anyway, we put our lovely artwork in the window looking out. You will love the pictures.





Saturday was youth conference day. In the morning, we taught 5 classes (yes, FIVE) on the importance of education. Later in the day, we did a fireside on the 2010 Youth theme (Strong and Immovable). I like to think it went well...we didn't stick around to find out what everyone thought about it. Right after we finished, we hit the road and headed to Beaufort. We spent the next few days in the car and arrived in South Carolina on Monday afternoon. That night we went to Barbara Jean's which is one of my favorite Beaufort restaurants. Here's a picture of David eating coconut shrimp. Be jealous.

Tuesday morning, David and I made boiled peanuts. They were so yummy. We sat out on the balcony of our beach house and ate them. David had never had real live boiled peanuts before. I think he favored them. Here's us on the balcony. Those of you who have never had boiled peanuts are definitely missing out.




After munching on boiled peanuts, we hit down town. We had to stop by the chocolate tree, of course, as well as hollyhocks. While we were out, we went to the Beaufort Bookstore. We found some awesome stuff there. One of the interesting things we saw was a translation of The New Testament into Gullah. We also saw a book about how to build really awesome sand castles which we of course had to buy. After our shopping expedition, we spent the rest of the day out on the beach. Here's the rest of the pictures from Tuesday.



Wednesday, we pulled out the sand castle book and decided to put our mad skills to the test. We thought it would be fun to build a light house. We spent HOURS building this thing and I'm pretty sure I love it. I unfortunately took away from this experience a rather unsightly sun burn. Here's pictures of the sand castle.





Also on Wednesday, we got stuck on the bridge that goes out to Harbor Island two times. YES! I said two times. In less than 3 hours, actually. Some say that it is good luck to get stuck on the bridge. (Probably so people will quit whining about getting stuck for 20 minutes...)If this is the case, David and I are REALLY lucky.





So I'm starting to forget what days everything else happened, so I'll just post the rest of the picture. At one point, we went out to all the old ruins on Land's End road. I'll post pictures of that next. I think this was Thursday. Pictured are the old burned down church (I can't remember its name--not Old Sheldon, the other one). David is swatting away gnats in one of the pictures. I caught him at a really funny moment. Also, I got a picture of the witch's grave. We did not, however, dance on it. The legend says if you do, she'll throw you off. I guess we'll never know if that's true.




Friday night, my amazing husband took me out on a date. We ate dinner at La Napolera (one of my favorite mexican restaurants) and then we walked around at The Sands. It was awesome! David took some pictures of fiddler crabs. And yes, David is wearing a Piggly Wiggly shirt. While we were out, we also stopped by my grampa's grave site. I took a couple of pictures of the new grave stone out there. It's the first time I've seen it. I miss my grampa.





Saturday, we spent the morning cleaning up the condo and moving into a hotel. We also went out to dinner at Dockside with my sister, Krista and her husband Kenny. My cousin Cami came along, as did David's parents. It was great seeing my big sister. She and I are allies in nursing school. We're in the same semester and I love talking to her about classes and stuff. It was fun having Cami along. She cracks me up! And Kenny's ok to...:)



So! This completes our trip. Sunday morning, we went to church at the Beaufort ward and I got to see all the wonderful people I grew up with. David and I sang Abide With Me 'tis Eventide for my granny (who I LOVE) and right after sacrament, we took off. We got to our apartment this morning at 3 am. It was a fun vacation, but I must admit, I'm glad to be home. Now back to the real world.