More McKenna

So, I don't know if I'll ever be able to post about anything else now except McKenna. She pretty much runs our lives! My recovery is going well so far. I'm feeling a little bit stronger everyday. My mom has been a WONDERFUL help! Dan's also been able to take quite a bit of time off of work as well. It's so nice to make this transition together. We've also had many wonderful meals brought to us by ward members and so many awesome visitors!

Here are some highlights of the past week and a half with our new little one.

This is her first sink bath after her cord fell off. This is definitely a two-man job! Dan holds her while I scrub. She has peed and spit up every single bath... Nice work girlie! She actually quite enjoys getting her hair washed too. Daddy loves holding his girl.

Nice cross eyes (on the baby)

Who doesn't love this face?!?! Snuggles with mom
Grandma holding McKenna and look what she found all by herself...
To help me feel a little more energetic we took a walk around the Bountiful temple. One lap took 20 minutes! Like I said- I'm healing slowly but surely.

Both Dan and I have been pooped on.

We're even getting in the holiday spirit with our cute little pumpkin!

Grandma Kelly! SOOOOO helpful! What am I going to do when she has to leave?
Another sweet face!

She's here!!

After my last post I feel a little silly. I posted my frustration on Saturday- we had her on Sunday!! Here's a brief overview of the labor and delivery.

Sunday October 19th

6am-10am- I was having contractions that went from being 10 minutes apart to 5 minutes apart. In that time we were pretty sure this was it so we managed to eat breakfast, shower, and watch Music and the Spoken Word. All the while my contractions were getting closer together and more intense.

10:45am- We got to the hospital

11:15- They checked me and I was 3cm dialated and about 80-90%effaced (progress from Friday's check up!). We went for a few laps around the floor to see if we could help things progress so they wouldn't send us home. (At this point, I still don't have pain relief)

12:15- They check me again and I'm about the same. Maybe 3+cm. They decide since I'm was in a lot of pain they'll keep me another hour (with NO pain meds yet) to see if I'll keep progressing. In the mean time, we have called my Doctor, who is Dan's uncle. Bless that man!!

12:40-My doctor had called to speak to our nurse and told her to admit us, get me my epidural, and he was going to come in and break my water.

1:20- PAIN RELIEF!! I love epidurals!

1:40- I was now dialated to 4cm

2:00- Doctor came in to break my water (huge gush!) and put in internal monitors for the baby's heart and for my contractions. At this point, it was awesome to see the waves of contractions come and go and I didn't feel a thing!

4:00- I was dialted to 8cm. Keep in mind I haven't had any patocin to help speed things up. This progress is all on my own. :)

5:00- I was "complete" and ready to start pushing!

McKenna decided she wanted to be a little difficult and was face up (but still head down). So the doctor gave me an extra boost of the epidural, brought out the forceps, turned her, gave me a little episiotomy, and by 5:53pm she was OUT!! Pretty incredible! The whole thing took less than 12 hours. I'd do it all over again if I had to. But of course with an epidural!

Here are some shots of the day (taken with our NEW camera).

Getting ready to leave for the hospital. 40 weeks and 4 days.

There she is- long neck and all!

She weighed 7 lbs 11 oz, measuring 20.5 oz.What are you looking at?
She hated this part.Footprints in the nursery
Holding daddy's hand right before her hospital bath. First bath
She loved getting her hair brushed! (sorry, the picture won't stay rotated the right way)
All clean! Family photo!
Her close up. Isn't she gorgeous?!?! I'm her mom- I can say that!
Beautiful flowers from visitors
On our way home in her HUGE car seat.
There you have it! We'll post more later about all the wonderful visitors we have had.

Over-cooked

Hello all! We just wanted to give a quick update- No baby yet. :( She must have decided to settle in for the winter... Anyway, I had an appointment yesterday when I was 40 weeks and 2 days. I'm still 80-90% effaced and only about 1cm+ dialated (same as the week before). My (awesome) doctor informed me that the hospital has a rule where they won't even think about inducing first time moms until they are at least a full week overdue. (SIGH) So I have an induction date set up for next Thursday the 23rd! That still seems so far away! And I know it's better to wait and see if she'll come on her own- so I'll try my best to be patient.

The good news is, because she's coming late, we've had plenty of time to get/feel "ready". We've cleaned a bunch and bought pretty much all the essentials. Including this new CAMERA!! Yea! No more cell phone pictures! I got my hair trimmed and even had my visiting teachers come over for the month. We're pretty much just twiddling our thumbs now... We'll keep you posted.

P.S.- The discomforts of being 9 months pregnant are of course difficult. BUT- I'm trying to enjoy these last few days DAN and I have together- JUST US! He's so sweet to me and takes wonderful care of my aches and pains. He's even taken me for some long walks to try to get things moving along... He may be more anxious than I am at times. I love you DAN!

Baby Shower

Week 39! Ready (kind of) and waiting...

The last Saturday in September, the Webster/Nelson side of the family were so kind to throw a baby shower for our little girl. Special thanks to Dan's mom, sisters, and sister-in-law for putting it all together. It was BEAUTIFUL! The company was wonderful, food was delicious, favors and decor were quite pleasing to the taste buds and eyes, the games were so fun and entertaining, and of course the gifts were VERY generous! We truly felt "showered" with love! Our baby girl will certainly be well taken care of!

My dear friend Mary Delmege was kind enough to document the happy occasion! I thought I could load the pictures on here but something's not working right. So here's a link to the pictures. Her captions pretty well explain the events. Thanks Mare!

I have also had baby showers thrown by my co-workers and my ward. Once again, people are SO thoughtful and generous! Unfortunately no pictures taken. Out of all the wonderful gifts we've received and things that we've bought on our own, we only have a few larger items left to buy. I'm feeling MUCH more prepared now and kind of hope she comes ANY day! I just finished my parent-teacher conferences at school and am making great progress on getting my maternity leave substitute plans ready. Now it's also time for the THANK YOU NOTES!

Our church had it's Semi-anual General Conference this past weekend. We got to hear so many wonderful talks from prophets and apostles. We were inspired and uplifted and now feel like we have great improvements to make in our lives. In case you missed the talks, they'll be available at the previous link on the 9th.

Dan's work is going well and he recently passed his licensing test to become an official Social Service Worker. He doesn't think it was as awful as the bar exam his brother-in-law recently aced, but he says it sure seemed like it. In addition to being more marketable in the workforce in the future, he will be able to sign a couple of letters after his name...WOO HOO! Way to go Danny Boy!

p.s. 9 DAYS!! HOLY CRAP!!! -Dan