Day 8 - Cub Scouts

Today, I am super grateful for my cub scouts! They are adorable little boys, and particularly for the ones that LOVE being there, I am grateful for them.

Last week one of them needed to leave early, and when his dad got there to pick him up he seriously begged his dad to let him stay. It was one of those moments that pulls your heart strings and makes you feel appreciated for those things you do.

Day 7 - Internet!!

Today, I am choosing to be ever so grateful for the internet. It means I don't have to leave my house to do my Christmas shopping, and that makes me immensely happy, as I hate Christmas shopping in crowded stores that mean you have to wait in line for EVER to purchase your items. It makes me happy.

And, my Christmas shopping is ALMOST done. Just one or two people that I have a hard time shopping for left, and then all that's left to do is wrap and enjoy! I love this.

Day 6 - My Family

I didn't post last night, because I went to bed early, so I figured early this morning and again later tonight would work.

Yesterday I wanted to make a point of letting my family know that I am so grateful my family. Mom, Dad, brother, sisters. I love and adore each of them in their own way.

And I know that was really short, but that's all we're getting for yesterday. I had a whole long post planned out, but I'm not feeling it right now.

Day 5 - My Savannah Lynne

I am SUPER grateful that I am the mom of one of the best children in the world, my Savannah Lynne. She makes me smile every day! I love that she is getting vocal! I also love that she is starting to be affectionate. She's started grabbing my face and rubbing her nose against my nose, and I absolutely love it! She also is getting to a point where kisses are CLOSED mouth, which I absolutely adore, as I hated the ones where I felt like she was trying to eat my face, also I was getting tired of the bites...

I am grateful for her smiling face and bubbly personality! She LOVES to dance, and I love to watch it. She has a toy on the door that plays music when she pushes the button and when it comes on she will stop whatever she is doing to dance to it.

I am grateful that she is ALMOST done teething!! She has 16 teeth now! She just recently got her canines, and they are starting to come in nicely. I will be really grateful when she is done with that.

I am grateful that she has a pretty regular sleep pattern, though recently it's been more difficult for her to sleep through the night, but I'm guessing that's due to teething.

Savannah from today, with her brand new scabbed nose (almost bedtime!)

I am very grateful that I am blessed enough to get to be her mother, and I'm sure Dave echos my sentiments about getting to be her father. She is a very special and unique little girl, and I love her SO much.

Day 4 - My Home

Today I am SO grateful that I have a house to come home to. Something to keep us safe and warm, especially when we have weather like today! SNOW! Brr!!!

I'm grateful that in my home Savannah gets to have her own room. I am so grateful we aren't still living in the apartment in Midvale where there was just one bedroom. I'm grateful that we have an extra bedroom so we can help shelter others from the store.

I am ENORMOUSLY grateful that I have a red kitchen that is large enough I don't feel like I'm suffocating when I'm in it! I'm even grateful for our living room, which is small, because it gives us a place to relax and wind down from our days.

I'm grateful that I have two bathrooms! After only having one in Midvale on a HORRID black Friday, I will forever be grateful that I no longer have only one bathroom, so if Dave and I both need to puke, one of us doesn't have to clean out a bucket. (Sorry again for leaving you with that one, babe!)

Even though we sometimes gripe and complain about the state of the Homeowners Association, I truly wouldn't trade the experiences that we've had here for anything. I love the community and the people we've met here (minus a few, who shall remain nameless).

And now, on to other news:

We had new family pictures taken today. Dave's really happy that after 4 years he's finally going to get "Grumpy Gus" off the living room wall at my parents house. I'm just excited because I truly LOVE getting my picture taken when I've gotten all dressed up and fancy for it.

I had a ton of fun with my family while we were doing them. Also, we all looked AWESOME, if I do say so myself.

Day 3 - Grateful for the Hubster

Today, I am grateful for the hubster. He is truly an amazing man, and I am thankful every day that I am married to him for all eternity! I wouldn't have it any other way.

He always knows when I need a time out, a day with my girls, or just a nice long soak in a HOT bubble bath. I love that he is always willing to listen to me vent, even when I am wrong and he knows it. I love how he lets me sleep in, even when he has to get up early to go to work. I love that he is completely understanding when I have bad days and NOTHING gets done around the house. I love that he provides for our family so completely, and I love that he makes it possible for me to stay home with our adorable daughter.

I love that he cries with me over our angel baby, on days that I need him to cry with me. I love that he isn't ashamed of that.

I love that he will get up in the middle of the night with Savannah, just to let me have a night off, even though he has to get up early the next morning to go to work.

I love that he cares enough to worry about me when I leave the house, or even sometimes when I just stay home. I love that he calls me from work just to tell me that he loves me, and that he misses me. I love that he watches chick flicks with me, and laughs at me when I cry over them.

All in all, I LOVE HIM, eternally. And I am thankful every day to my Heavenly Father for letting me have him, for this life, and the next.

I love you Dave!

Day 2 - Whoo hoo!

Today, I am grateful for coupons! Seriously, they have saved us SO much money! I realize that in order to save money I have to spend money, but I was seriously SO thrilled at the grocery store today when I got to the check stand and I took my total from $108.90 to $53.36 just by using my coupons on sale items with my store shoppers card. It is a HUGE thrill for me, I love the rush I get when I save money!

Among the items I got today are:

• (8) boxes of cheerios
• (3) 20 ct. boxes of Finish Powerball Dishwasher tabs (formerly called Electrasol)
• (3) boxes of Kleenex Tissues
• (16) cans of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom or Cream of Chicken Soup
• (6) lbs margarine
• (3) lbs cheese

Among other various items needed, milk, spices, etc. I seriously LOVE it!!!

November - The month for Thanks

This is for you Bri! Because you posted about being thankful in November, I'm going to make it a personal goal for myself, not only to blog more about life and what's going on in it, but to make a conscious daily effort to blog about something I am thankful for through the month of November.

I'm a day late and a dollar shy, but I'm starting on the 2nd instead of the 1st.

Today I am incredibly grateful for old friends who used to be acquaintances but are quickly becoming someone I couldn't imagine my life without. I am grateful for all the friends I have in my life who are willing to listen to me no matter what I have to say.

I'm feeling much better about life in general than I was the last time I posted. Having a miscarriage was something that was very difficult for Dave and I, and I'll be honest, I still have hard days. Days where I want to punch pregnant women in their faces. But I haven't given in to that urge yet, so I'm sure I'll muddle through.

Savannah is getting SO big! She had her first birthday in August, and that was entertaining. I think Dave and I had more fun with the cake than she did, being that we ended up with our own cake fight! And now it's time to get ready for Christmas! I can already tell Savannah is going to be spoiled rotten by Santa, but she's a wonderful little girl, so she deserves it.

And, I'm tired. And that's as much as I'm posting right now.
Goodnight!

Mother of the year award goes to...

Not me. Today I'm feeling pretty much like the crappiest mom ever. Savannah is teething again I think, she's got the nastiest snotty nose, and she's super cranky. I tried to rock her to sleep for a nap, but she just screamed for half an hour, and never went to sleep. Anyway, she finally fell asleep, so I went to take her into her room and put her in her crib, and she grabbed my shirt and I didn't realize she had quite such a firm hold on it, and I smacked her face into the side of her crib.

Yep. I lose. Not feeling super as a mom.

Life

So, it's been a while since I posted anything about things going on in our lives. Savannah is getting SO big! She's started crawling like a pro, she can pull herself up on just about anything. She's starting walking down the walls just pushing against them to keep her balance! She finally said her first word last week, just a week late for Dave's birthday, but she said Dada! She also has cut her two top teeth, they finally finished cutting yesterday and it was fantastic! She went to bed with no fit and she slept clear through the night!

It's so cute to see her in the mornings too, she'll stand up and just be looking over her crib to you and when she sees you she gets this huge smile on her face. It seriously makes all the hard stuff so worth it when she laughs or smiles at you.

We had to get a new car because Dave got in an accident and totaled the focus. It was a sad day. But anyway, so we got this new car, and the lady said she was selling it because the air bag light was on and they didn't have the $500 to fix it so it could be registered. So we took it to get it temp tags and found out that the air bag sensor doesn't have to be a fail on the safety, it's just an advise. It failed anyway though because one of the sidemarker lights wasn't working, so we ordered the part to fix that and as we were driving it home one night and turned a corner it just stopped working. So we called my dad to come help us and he said it was our clutch and that we were going to have to replace it.

We were not very thrilled with the prospect of having to replace the clutch, but seeing as it wasn't moving, we took it in to a little shop here in Magna and they told us that it wasn't the clutch but that the axle had popped out so they just needed to replace a seal and then we'd be good to go! So we get it back from the shop, and then it grinds every time we put it into third gear. So we take it back over to my dad and he said he thought it was the linkage but for the time being he gave us some tricks to get it to work. Only they didn't work for very long. About two days is all. So we took it back over and he looked at the linkage and said it wasn't that to take it back into the shop to get it fixed.

So we took it BACK to the shop and they said this time we did need to have the clutch replaced along with a gear fork and a partial transmission rebuild. So we were dreading paying for this thinking it'd be tons of money, but it really wasn't. Only about $1600. So that was awesome. We finally got it back on Friday. Only then we got it home and the dang thing won't go into reverse!

I seriously was ready to torch this car and start over. We've had it in our possession for like 5 days out of the month we've had it now. But we took it back to the shop yesterday and they said that it's a piece that fell out and that they've ordered it and they're not going to charge us for this because it isn't our fault it's something they missed falling out when they were repairing it. So, that was a huge sigh of relief and hopefully we get it back today!

In other news, my mom and I went to a coupon class a while back and so I've been shopping with coupons. Holy cow! It's amazing to me the savings you can get simply by using your coupons at the right time! So I've been doing really well with that and I'm going to start teaching coupon classes to help other people learn the best way to use their coupons and save tons of money!

Covergirl NatureLuxe Foundation and Lip Gloss

I recently signed up to be a BzzAgent, and I got my very first BzzCampaign in the mail today for Covergirl NatureLuxe foundation and lip gloss. I got a free sample and some coupons from Covergirl for my participation, and let me tell you, I am LOVING this foundation and lip gloss.

Remember how I sold Mary Kay (maybe I didn't tell you?) anyway, I totally think this product is comparable. I didn't have to use a ton, about the size of a large pea to cover my whole face. It went on super smooth and it has a nice scent to it. My face feels so smooth and soft, and it matches my skin tone perfectly. The lip gloss is just a slight tint and it makes my lips feel really soft and I'm definitely liking it.

Six Months

Wow! Can you believe Savannah is six months old today?! Time has definitely flown. She even crawled a tiny bit today before she lost her courage and started to scoot again. Seriously, that girl amazes me every single day. I love her! I'm pretty sure she's teething again too, top teeth here we come!

In other news, today they shocked my grandpa's heart to get it back into a normal rhythm. He's in the ICU with a feeding tube in so that all his food bypasses the pancreas because it is so inflamed. Hopefully the shock they gave his heart today will help keep it in normal sinus rhythm. If it does, they'll move him back out to the regular rooms and then a couple days after that he'll get to go home, though probably with the feeding tube in for a couple days, weeks or months after he's released to make sure his pancreas gets better.

I'm thinking about doing a thirty day challenge type thing like Lydia is doing on her blog, it looks kinda fun, but I'm not sure I'm quite at a point where I'm dedicated to blogging enough that it would work out for me at all. Maybe after I've posted consistently for a month or so... 

Life...

It's been a while since I posted, so tonight, I'm just going to post whatever I feel like it. It's going to have absolutely no direction and it may make absolutely no sense. I'm alright with that.

Time absolutely has flown! Can you believe Savannah is almost 6 months old?! Not to mention, she's cut TWO teeth already. Two days apart, one on the 1st of February on one on the 3rd. That was not a fun time, let me tell you. My saving grace was that they make baby Orajel. Seriously, that stuff works miracles. One second she'd be screaming bloody murder because her gums hurt so bad and the next she'd be sound asleep because her gums were numb already. Seriously, miracles I tell you!

Then on the 5th of February she finally started rolling from her back to her stomach! She's officially mobile! She scoots and rolls all over the place. She's starting to get into things and we have to watch her much more carefully.

I love her so much! It's amazing.

In other news, I've decided to transfer schools again. If I transfer from the U to USU then I drop like 7 classes from my course load, and the sooner I can be done with school and the less money I can spend doing it sounds awesome to me. So in addition to dropping classes, tuition is cheaper and it won't require a parking pass, plus from the looks of things more classes will be available on line which means I can do my school work from the comfort of my own home in my very own pajamas! Hooray!

Dave is pretty much amazing, can I tell you? He bought me new couches for Valentines Day! Hooray! And also, HOORAY for microfiber? Can I just tell you I love that these couches are virtually stain resistant? Seriously, I swear Savannah has puked on them like 15 times, and you can't even tell. Plus, she had a blow out on one of the cushions and the couch still looks good as new! He's the best husband I could ever ask for and I'm so grateful that I get to be with him for eternity!

I'm also really really grateful lately for doctors. My grandpa is in the hospital yet again. This all started two weeks ago when he went in to the hospital because he was having problems with his gall bladder. Well, they decided that they needed to remove his gall bladder but the hospital he was at couldn't do it because they didn't have a back up generator, so they transferred him up to University hospital and when he got there they had to transfer him into the IMCU because he started having heart troubles and his lungs were filling with fluid. So after they finally got that resolved, they could do the surgery but he ended up in the hospital for 11 days total on that visit.

He finally got to come home on Monday, but was back in the ER on Tuesday because his blood pressure had dropped way too low due to a mix up with the medications he was/wasn't supposed to be taking. Then he had to go back in for a check up on Wednesday and ended up back in the hospital today because his pancreas hasn't gone back to normal and is still the same size it was two weeks ago when he went in and had pancreatitis.

He'll be okay, I think, but it's been kind of stressful. Honestly, I've never really lost someone close to me and I'm not ready to face that yet. Not that I'll ever want to, but eventually I think I'll be more prepared for it. It's not hard to admit that my grandparents are getting older and eventually they're going to die, but do they have to have health problems now? I don't think so.

Another thing I'm grateful for seriously is having the gospel in my life. Truly. Yesterday a friend posted on facebook about a mother who's 4 month old baby girl died while she was at the sitters house. Nothing in this world could be harder than to lose a child in my opinion. She really has handled it all with grace though considering. But I'm glad to know that even if something were to happen and my baby were to be taken from me I have the gift of being with her eternally. Not to mention I get to be with Dave too! Can you imagine anything greater?

So yeah, that's kinda what's been going on. Not everything, but the things that I'm thinking about now. Maybe I'll get better at this blog thing. I'm honestly getting to a point in my life where I'm starting to feel like keeping a journal would be important. I want to be able to tell Savannah when things happened and important landmarks in her life. And right now I feel like I have the memory of a gold fish. (I've lost my keys twice in the past two days, and they are still currently missing.) So I need to write things down if I want to remember them.

Anyway, Night!

Home at Last!

Being able to come home with our baby was great. We were so excited to have her home. We had a lot of help those first few days though, dinners were brought in and my mom came while Dave had to go to work to help me.
We brought her home on a Saturday and by Sunday evening, she still hadn't had a bowel movement in the time we'd been home. While at the hospital, they told us that was something that was a problem so we called the pediatrician. We were told to make an appointment the next morning and bring her in so they could check her out and make sure everything was ok.
So the next morning I called the pediatrician's office and they said she didn't need to come in if she passed her billiruben at the hospital. I disagreed and made them give me an appointment. So we went in and when we got there and they weighed Savannah, she had lost 13 ozs of her body weight, weighing in at an even 7 lbs. While it's completely normal for a newborn to lose some of their body weight, Savannah had lost too much and the pediatrician was concerned about it, so she advised me to go see a lactation consultant.
We made an appointment to go see the lactation consultant and she definitely helped us get Savannah to start eating. It helped a lot to be able to know she was eating and we started adjusting even more.
The next visit with her pediatrician was at 2 weeks old. This visit was very reassuring for me, Savannah had gained weight and was sitting at 8 lbs even.
We've done a lot of fun things with Savannah since then, and just being with her is super fun.
She's just older than two months now and she's started smiling and playing with toys and watching her has become so much more fun. She's sleeping really well, almost through the night from around 11 until about 4:30.
We're definitely starting to get things into a routine and it's really nice. It's also nice that I'm not going to have to go back to work, I just have school and I get to spend the rest of my time with her and Dave. I love being a mommy and I wouldn't trade it for the world.
At this point, we've taken her for her two month visit, and she's not sitting at 12 lbs 3 ozs and 22 1/2 inches long. She's doing great! And the pediatrician says she's advanced for her age. She's holding her head up really well, smiling and she grabs onto things watches Dave and I when we walk across the room and she responds to our voice. It's amazing watching our little baby grow.
So, that's not everything that's happened, but it's what I'm posting now.
And for your viewing pleasure, pictures. Savannah's first day home from the hospitalSavannah - One monthSavannah getting a bath, she's not sure if she likes it.Savannah and I at Gardner Village checking out the witchesWhen she's really hungry anything works, even Daddy's nose pacifies her!

And a video of her playing with her toys

Mom and Baby

Ok, so Mom and Baby, finally...

After Savannah was delivered, and we fed her for the first time and she met grandparents and her uncle Daniel, we were taken to our room in Mom and Baby. We got to our room at about 2 in the morning. By the time we got there, Dave and I were exhausted, it had been a very long day. Because I had been induced due to high blood pressure, the nurses hooked me up to a blood pressure monitor and set it up to take my blood pressure through the night. After I was hooked up to the machine, they gave Savannah her first bath. She hated it, and she screamed nearly the whole time. The only thing she liked was when they washed her back with the sponge.
We finally were able to go to sleep at about 2:30. The sleep was greatly appreciated and needed, but made a bit more difficult by the blood pressure cuff measuring my blood pressure every half hour. Savannah slept really well, only waking up and fussing a tiny bit once, but when I rocked her crib a little she went right back to sleep.
At 6:00, an alarm woke me up. The blood pressure machine's battery was dying and it was beeping to let everyone know. I called the nurse and she came in and turned it off then checked on both me and the baby. We were both doing fine.
Around 11, we had our first visitors of the day, but definitely not the last. We had visitors in and out all day. Savannah met a ton of great people in her first day of life. I think we had a small break for about an hour with no visitors, but there were definitely people showing up to let Savannah know she was loved and welcome her into the world!
After the visitors, Dave and I both went to sleep. We crashed and I don't remember much about that night at all. The next morning we had a few visitors, but we had a lot more time to ourselves to get to know our baby and adjust to her. At about 3 that day, we left to come home. And that was fantastic!

The Birth Story

Savannah was due to be born on August 27th, but I was ready for her to come on approximately August 15th. I was not excited to still be pregnant at my doctor's appointment on August 19th, and my doctor knew it, so he looked for all sorts of reasons to induce. At that appointment, he hooked me up to a fetal monitor to monitor her heart rate and contractions that I was having (which were not happening at all at that point in time...) and we did an ultrasound to measure fluid and see if the placenta was pulling away from my uterus (which is wasn't...). After the fetal monitor and ultrasound, it was determined that there were no medical reasons to induce and to come back again on the 26th.

So for a week I tried everything I could think of to induce other than consuming anything that I thought could potentially harm my baby like mineral oil, caster oil or anything like that. I wanted to have my baby so badly, but I didn't want to cause her or me any harm in doing so.

On the 25th, I was pretty much resigned that I was not going to have this baby any time soon and that I should just deal with it. I was very uncomfortable, and my feet were ridiculously swollen. My mom came over and we sat together and watched a movie ("Better off Dead" Awesome...) while I soaked my feet in epsom salts. After the movie was over and the swelling in my feet still hadn't gone down any, Dave got a blood pressure cuff from his parents and took my blood pressure. My blood pressure reading came back normal on it, I don't remember exactly what it was, but somewhere in normal ranges. Daniel had come back with him and they were outside playing ball, so after a while I went out with them and started talking with my neighbors Mary and Andrea.

After a while, my mother-in-law Michelle came over to get Daniel and take him home, and Dave and I spent the rest of the evening talking with Mary and Andrea. We stayed out literally until 2 AM with them (well Andrea went to bed earlier than that but her husband Jim came out). After going inside, I remember praying that I would be patient for my baby to come and that the doctor would know when it was time for her to come.

Well, it was time for her to come apparently.

I had an appointment at 8:50 AM on Thursday August 26th. We woke up and got ready for the appointment making sure that the hospital bag went with us, just in case. We also loaded up the laptop to make sure we'd be able to put updates on Facebook throughout the day. The big mistake was only having a string cheese to eat and throwing some granola bars in my bag.

Dave has recently switched jobs and wasn't sure he'd be able to stay with me the whole appointment, so my mom and Dave and I all went to the doctor's office for that appointment. We got into the exam room at about 9:30 and they took my weight and my blood pressure. Well, everything was not normal this time. The blood pressure came out as 178/128! Explains why my feet were so swollen and I was so super uncomfortable. The nurse told me to lay down on my left side and she would be back to check it in a while because my blood pressure was WAY too high. So I laid down and we all waited for them to come back and take it again.

The nurse practitioner came in this time and took my blood pressure while I was still laying down. The reading came out still high 148/97 so it was determined that they were going to induce labor, but the doctor needed to see me and check where I was at. So while we waited for the doctor, my mom attempted to french braid my hair while I was still sitting on the exam table (the picture rocks) and I ate two granola bars that I had thrown in my bag that morning. So the doctor came in and checked me, I was 3 centimeters dilated and 70% effaced. After checking me he told me to "Go to the hospital, go directly to the hospital, do NOT pass GO, do NOT stop and In-n-Out Burger", so after getting a copy of my charts to take to the hospital, we went directly to the hospital.

After checking in at Labor and Delivery around 10, we waited in the hall for them to finish cleaning out my delivery suite and my mom did my hair in a french braid to keep it out of my face for the delivery. As soon as we were in the room, a nurse started an IV, and started me on pitocin. At this point we just sat around and waited. They checked my blood pressure which amazingly had gone down quite a bit and just monitored it.

At about 2:30, the doctor came by to break my water, which hadn't happened on it's own. Well, after my water broke contractions started coming. They started coming harder and faster, and by about 3:30, they were coming about a minute apart and were lasting anywhere between 60 and 90 seconds. They hurt, and I wanted and epidural, but I was afraid that if I got it too early it would wear off and I would end up going through the actual delivery feeling everything, and I didn't want that. After talking with the nurse about the concern and her assuring me that it was continuous flow and I wouldn't feel any pain, we ordered the epidural.

The anesthesiologist came in to do the epidural at about 4.Now let me say that I am deathly afraid of needles. They terrify me and the epidural needle I have heard is big, and I knew that if I moved there could be all sorts of complications and side effects from the epidural which I definitely didn't want. So this process was infinitely more scary for me. After having everyone in the room sit down the anesthesiologist started while Dave held my hand and I squeezed my eyes closed as tight as I could and waited for it to be over.

They used a numbing agent to numb my back where they were inserting the needle, and the anesthesiologist told me to let him know if I felt any sharp pains on either side of my back. He let me know I would feel some pressure, and put the needle in. After he started threading in the catheter that would put the Phentanyl directly into my spine to block the pain, I felt a sharp pain on the right side of my back, so he put some more numbing agent in me. After threading it a little more, I felt another pain - this one hurt so bad I started to cry - so again he put some more numbing agent there so I wouldn't feel it.

After the catheter was fully threaded, he let me know that I would feel a shock go down my leg, the nurse said it would feel like a charlie horse. Well let me tell you what, I've never had a charlie horse like that before! I thought it felt more like someone hooked up some jumper cables to me and tried to jump start my leg.

After the epidural was in, I felt infinitely better, no more contractions! They were still coming, only I couldn't feel them. At this point in time I would no longer be able to get up and walk around so they put a catheter in so I could still use the bathroom. Also at this point they put in internal monitors for her heart and my contractions because it was very difficult to find her heart beat using the external monitor, and the contractions it was measuring weren't measuring correctly.

At this point, we just had to sit around and wait. We had to wait while my cervix got fully ready to deliver a baby. They had me on oxygen off and on to help lower my blood pressure and regulate the babies heart beat. While we waited, we watched the food network, and then we watched "Mrs. Doubtfire". I dozed off and on trying to get some rest. After the movie was over, I was measuring at 10 centimeters and I was 99% effaced. It was almost time to start pushing. My mom, Dave's mom and my dad were all there and I was getting nervous. Dave was ready though to help me through it and to become a dad.

After having everyone leave the room at about 9:45 it was time to start practice pushing! The nurse helped us practice push, then we started to really push for about 45 minutes while trying to get the baby into position for the doctor to come. When the doctor arrived, we were pushing on every contraction, which I was feeling at that point as pressure. So the doctor got there and we pushed and pushed and pushed! After pushing for about 15 minutes (I think, time was a little distorted at that point and Dave isn't home for me to verify...) the baby's heart rate dropped drastically so they took her monitors off took the contraction monitors out and the decision was made to do a vacuum extraction.

The doctor got everything ready and told me that instead of doing a series of three pushes like we had been we were going to push push push push until she was out. So we pushed 4 times and the head was out! After telling me the head was out, he pulled the rest of her little body out. She had the cord wrapped around her neck and one of her arms, so after unwrapping them, the doctor asked Dave if he was going to cut the cord or if Dave was. Dave said he was, so he cut the cord and the put Savannah on my belly, and I got to see my little baby for the first time. She had so much hair, but I seriously remember thinking that she looked a little gross, she had all this white stuff covering her, I remember asking what it was but I don't remember the answer so look it up if you're curious. And then they took her away from me to do her check ups.

Dave went with Savannah while the doctor finished with me. He got all of the placenta and afterbirthing taken care of while they checked up on my baby and weighed her and measured her.

She weighed 7 lbs 13 ozs and was 19 1/2 inches long. Born at 10:54 PM on August 26th.

After they were done checking on her, it was determined that her core temperature was too low, so they put her under a heating lamp for about 20 minutes to get her temperature up. Then they gave her back to me and I really got to hold my baby for the first time - and I fell in love. Again. There is nothing like the joy of holding your baby. I got to nurse her and cuddle her for a little while.

Then the family came in and got to meet their grand daughter (remember only my mom, dad and Dave's mom were in the waiting room). Daniel was there too, I don't know how he got there, or when, but he came and got to hold her as well.

It was very exciting for all of us. After the family left and they did a final check on me in labor and delivery to make sure I wasn't hemorrhaging, we went to Mom and baby.

So there it is. The story.

Sometime, I'll get to telling you about Mom and Baby and the following days.

Savannah Lynne Higham

We are super excited to announce the birth of our Daughter Savannah Lynne Higham!

She was born Thursday August 26th, 2010 at 10:54 PM. She weighed 7 lbs 13 ozs and was 19 1/2 inches long.

18 Weeks - IT'S A GIRL!!!

So, I obviously suck at this updating on what's going on in our lives on a weekly basis, but, two times in a month I figure works well enough.

We went to our first ultrasound last night and IT'S A GIRL! We are so ecstatic for her to come. We're going to name her Savannah Lynne, and she's already beautiful. Stubborn as ever and beautiful! The ultrasound took a long time because she was so wiggly and squirmy! It's amazing to see that baby on the screen and see it moving.

Last night as we were sitting there I seriously started pondering abortion. Something the doctor has brought up is that they can do an amniocentesis to see if there will be any genetic defects or anything wrong with the baby. I refuse to do needles any more than I have to, so obviously that was a no for me, but I was talking with my mom about it and we were just kind of saying what would I do about it if I knew something was wrong with my baby anyway? I'm not the type of person that would have an abortion. I believe life begins at the moment of conception, and I've never thought of this baby as an embryo, or something not living.

But last night as I was watching my baby on that television screen and seeing her heart beat and her wiggle and squirm around, I seriously contemplated how someone could have an abortion at this point and not think they're murdering their baby? Seriously, you can see their heart beating, and you can see them move their limbs and you can see the blood flowing to all the various parts of their body... I can't even imagine...

Anyway, I didn't mean to get quite so deep, but being pregnant that's kind of a touchy topic for me I guess. Back to the ultrasound.

We got to see her brain, and we could see both temporal lobes and the cerebellum, we got to see her profile, her feet and toes, her arms. It was great, when we were looking at her brain, at one point you saw her arm just woosh across the screen! My baby girl moves! Hopefully I'll be able to start feeling her move shortly... That will be so exciting!!!

We also got to see her kidneys, and her stomach, and her diaphragm, all those parts that are developing. The coolest though was her heart. You can seriously see that sucker pumping blood and beating. Last night she was at 150 bpm, which is a very healthy heart beat apparently.

And then we found out gender. Dave was really hoping for a boy, but after he found out it was a girl, he seriously could not stop smiling. Our little Savannah already has daddy wrapped around his finger. It was so cute this morning when he woke up kissed my belly and said good morning to her.

I love my husband, I love my Savannah, and I can't wait for her to come!

Hopefully I'll get around to getting ultrasound picture put up. I'll work on that in the next week or so...

15 weeks and change

So, I've officially decided I absolutely need to blog more to document my pregnancy and our lives... so here goes, we'll see how this actually works out.

I am 16 weeks pregnant on Friday, which means approximately 4 months. Only another 4 weeks and I'm half way there! And then we'll get to find out if we're having a Baby Girl Higham, or a Baby Boy Higham. I'm sure you all know what Dave is rooting for... He wants a boy so bad his teeth hurt, but he'd love our little girl just as much... He'd be wrapped around that little girlies finger so quickly it'd make you dizzy!

Pregnancy has been no picnic. I've told quite a few people there's nothing good about it. I'm nauseous a freaking LOT! But, it's getting better. And, I haven't thrown up since I think Friday... So that's like... 4 whole days! My record is 6 since finding out I was pregnant, so cross your fingers for me, ok? Also, on top of the nausea and vomiting, being pregnant has made places I didn't know exist on my body hurt like crazy! For example, did you know you can feel your tailbone? Well I didn't until I could. It hurts. Like crazy. My doctor says it's because my ligaments are loosening so my pelvis moves around. Well, that sucks and it hurts.

But Dave is super sweet through all of it, my crazy hormones that make me cry when I'm watching a hilarious movie, my insane mood swings, waking up bawling in the middle of the night because of insane dreams I'm having... Have I mentioned lately how much I love my husband? I don't think I shout that to the world enough. He seriously is the best, sweetest guy I could ask to be my husband and I am grateful every single day for him. (He even paints my toe nails for me! Who could ask for more???)

We're getting anxious for those 4 weeks to pass though, I'll tell you what. I want to know if I get my girly or my little boy! Dave has already determined that it's a boy, and he always talks to my belly using our boy names. You should see how cute he is! When he kisses me goodbye in the mornings, he kisses my belly too and tells our baby goodbye. That's really sweet gentleman, take that one down in your book of lessons.

Anyway, I'm running out of things for this post, so we'll see how well I do at keeping up on this. We'll try for like, one a week at least... but we'll see. I've never been really great at this blogging thing.

Merry Christmas!

It's been quite a while since I posted, but I wanted to get on and wish anyone who still reads my blog a Merry Christmas! And also get the word out that Dave and I are going to have a baby, probably around August or September. We're pretty excited about it...

Anyway, Merry Christmas! Be safe, be happy, and remember the reason!