I'm 38 weeks and 4 days pregnant now (Whaaaaaaat?) :P
Any day within the next couple of weeks will bring a little lady Larson into the world. I'd like her to come now but hey, can't complain when the pregnancy has been so easy. If her being late is the worst part, I guess I'll just have to keep practicing my patience, even though at times it's difficult. ;)
Since my last post, general conference has come and gone and oh what an experience it was. We have the opportunity to listen to the prophet and apostles who share revelation and guidance they receive from Heavenly Father.
When listening to conference, sometimes you feel as though there are multiple themes or lessons, sometimes just one that "speaks" to you... I felt as though many of our leaders were encouraging us to press forward, that we all will experience difficulties and challenges, but as we come to know Christ, really get to KNOW Him, not just rely on Him when we need Him, but take the time to center our lives on Him, we ARE stronger. We don't lean on Him, but allow Him to walk with us.
In order to allow such to happen, we can't just call upon Him when we NEED Him, as I said before. Our Heavenly Father has expectations. He desires us to progress and to become more than we think we can, to reach further potential, with His help, in order to also receive countless blessings.
10 July 2017
Hand to the forehead... Well, I'm hoping that I'll be able to really boost my journal writing skills someday. I'm told I shouldn't say someday but I should think, "TODAY!!" So, our little lady Larson has been here 11 weeks and 2 days now. It's crazy to me to think that she has been here for that long and she's already grown so much... She is quite the shrimpy baby, only growing half as fast as most babies around her. She is still just under the percentile for her length/weight/age/whatever ratio. She is happy, dirtying diapers, and eating so I'm not too worried. She was right on track for certain things... following objects and focusing on them, smiling, cooing... she actually just starting rolling over a few days ago and I read that the average baby rolls over at 4 months! So we are hoping to see her continue to learn and grow faster than the 'average.' She also started lifting her upper bottom with her arms yesterday, and her daddy and I are pretty excited about that. I've been excited to see her work so much on her neck strength so early. Because she is a slender baby, I feel as though she has had to work on her neck muscles quite a bit, since she doesn't have many rolls to help her out. ;) Haha.
From the very beginning of pregnancy, everything has been pretty easy going and I'm waiting for the storm to hit!! I'm never the "lucky one" and I feel as though this experience has been quite mellow.
**** Rewind ****
The pregnancy started with headaches and being super tired for a month or two, then it was pretty much smooth sailing from there. I didn't show until maybe 20/22 weeks. I didn't crave anything. I was still able to jog here and there, at least up to 8 months... and everything pretty much remained normal, except for the fact that I didn't have the lung capacity I use to. :P She kicked quite a bit during... the 3rd trimester ish, which took some getting use to, but I was still able to work and do most things I could before.
The 17th of April, I went in for my weekly appointment. My doctor took an ultrasound and couldn't find much fluids for the baby. Instead of waiting until the following week, she told me to come back on Thursday, the 20th. When I came in on the 20th, my doctor said I would have to be induced. I asked what that entailed and she said I would have to take a pill and go from there. Me, not knowing anything, thought they would give me the pill at the doctors' office, then I would go back to my apartment until a certain time, then go to the hospital maybe the next day. She told me I would have to go to the hospital after I leave the doctors' office. (wide eyes!)
I called Bryce at the doctors' office and told him as soon as I got back to the apartment, we would have to leave soon after. When I got back to the apartment, I got a bag together, Bryce got some of his things together, and we went to Chik-fil-a. Many friends told me I probably wouldn't be able to eat when I got to the hospital so we went to Chik-fil-a first, seeing as it was near the hospital and we love the chicken and waffle fries. :) We got to the hospital at about 1:30 pm. I filled out all the paperwork while Bryce parked the car. We got situated in a room, which was really nice actually, and met my nurse and mutiple other nurses. Before the inducing could start, I had to get stuck with needles for an IV. THE NURSES STRUGGLED SO MUCH!!! Ugh. So one nurse tried and missed. Another nurse tried and ruptured a vein. The other nurse tried again, and ruptured a different vein! MY nurse pretty much pushed them all out of the way and stuck me quick and got it right the first time. Sigh... I was hoping that would be the worst of it. Before anything even started I had bandaids all over my arms... After that episode, my nurse gave me the first pill to start the inducing. I was suppose to receive one every three hours until my body was prepared to start pushing. After the first three hours I had to be put on a low dose of pitocin because I had already started contracting, even though I couldn't feel the contractions. They also had to give a fusion, which pretty much felt like I was wetting my pants without having the ability to control it.
After some time I started shaking pretty... fervently? Haha. I would say violently but it didn't hurt or anything so I feel as though that isn't the right word either... either way, I was shaking a lot and it was very noticeable. It looked as though I was freezing. My mom kept asking of I needed a blanket, but I wasn't cold. I just couldn't control that either. :P Supposedly it was an imbalance of oxytocin (?). Spending that much time in the hospital and not doing anything... gets kind of boring. I wanted my body to hurry up. Bryce played with SnapChat for a while and I got pretty thirsty. Bryce got me some ice chips but I wasn't suppose to drink water... I was able to have popsicles though and Bryce brought back three different kinds because he didn't know which I would want but he wasn't allowed to put them back so we ate them all. :)
I had to move to an exercise ball since I began to get uncomfortable in the bed. It was funny to see the floor so wet because of the fusion fluid everywhere. I must've been a site to see... In an oversized, ugly hospital gown, shaking, wet, and trying to balance on a ball, while using Bryce's knees to balance, while he was sitting on a chair in front of me.
I kept getting more and more tired as I was sitting on the exercise ball. My contractions still weren't very strong and the dilation was progressive, but still pretty slow going. I told Bryce if I was going to have any strength to push later, I would need the epidural... I tried to go as long as I could without it, and the contractions weren't painful yet, but I was so tired and I wasn't close to pushing... I asked for the epidural at around 9:30 pm. The anesthetist was in a c-section with someone else and was the only one working. He came into the room at about 10:30 pm. He was really nice and quick with the epidural. The epidural wasn't nearly as bad as the IVs. I barely felt it and it didn't take long to start working. I was able to sleep through the night which was really nice and I was able to rest, which was AWESOME, aside from waking up from the dang blood pressure cuff I had to wear that measured my blood pressure every few hours.
My OB did stop by at around midnight to see how I was doing. She told me that she had to be at a c-section from 7-9 and if I could, that I should try to have the baby before then so she could be there. I thought to myself, "yes, I will plan on that" (pure sarcasm because who can really plan when they will push out a baby.) Haha
At about 6, a nurse came in (because I ended up having so many nurses because their shifts all ended and started during my first night at the hospital), and she said, 'well, you're ready to start pushing.' At 6:17 am I had my first push right as my doctor walked in and needed to suit up. Twenty-five minutes later, 6:42 am, Charley Grace Larson was born. When my doctor held her up so I could see her, she wasn't crying, and her eyes were wide open. I thought to myself, 'that's not how that's suppose to happen. Isn't she suppose to be crying?' Eventually she gave her first little cry, which didn't last long, but made me feel a little better that we had a "normal" baby. She was 19 inches long and weighed 6 pounds, 4 ounces.
Bryce's mom came by to see the baby, but everyone else waited until we came over, to see the baby. While in the hospital we ate Texas Roadhouse twice, and we did have First Watch for brunch! First Watch is sooooo good! Their coconut chia seed pudding, with fruit preserves, and thick cut, healthy, seeded bread, with a homemade almond butter... DELICIOUS!
Cami also wanted to come by which made me a little nervous, but was glad she wanted to be supportive and to see the baby. She brought 4 different lemonades from work, along with a piece of cheesecake and a piece of chocolate cake, all being SO SO SO AMAZING!! She works at AJ's, and of course anything from the bakery is very tasty, just pricey so we don't go there much, if ever. She got a little teary eyed, but she did really well with Charley. It made me feel really good to know that she wanted to be there and to see the baby even though I can't imagine how difficult it probably was for her.
I tested positive for b-strep at the beginning of my pregnancy, and even though I had another test a week or so before I went to the hospital, and tested negative, they made us stay in the hospital an extra 24 hours because of that. Ugh. I was ready to leave by the end of the day, when Bryce was ready to leave right after the baby was born... so we stayed until Sunday morning, preparing to leave, but not actually walking out until 12 pm. I was definitely ready to leave, when we were just sitting around the hospital room, but when we walked out, I was pretty nervous to leave. I wouldn't have the reassurance of the lactation consultants being right now the hall, which was the biggest fear I had. I broke down the first night because we couldn't figure out what she wanted and she didn't stop crying for a while... I prayed really hard, asking for the strength and confidence I needed in order to take care of Charley.
My mom, dad, and sister stayed for a few days, but I was nervous for them to leave because Bryce had to go back to school and I was going to be left alone with Charley. I had no baby experience and was afraid that I wouldn't be able to take care of her properly or know what she needed if she cried.
She did pretty well and after days passed, I felt a little better about myself and gradually gained that confidence I asked for, from Heavenly Father, and Bryce's help was also something I really needed.
**** PRESENT ****
As I said, Charley is doing really well. She doesn't really cry much, unless she is hungry. Everyone loves her and thinks she's cute. :) She does really well being held by others. We let her hang out and be with other people, in hopes that she won't be super clingy when she's older, and hope she will be outgoing and LOVE meeting new people.
She is smiling and talking (cooing) with others which makes me happy to see.
She is still wearing newborn sizes and I think she may be fitting into one of her 0-3 month outfits better. :P
She likes kicking and grabbing at objects on her play gym.
She also likes being in the pool with daddy, and we hope she will laugh and splash in the water soon.
She's received plenty of happy visitors throughout the 11 weeks and two days.
She has also already been on her first road trip/vacation. We went to Bryce Canyon at the end of June, for a family reunion. She slept almost the whole way there, from Phoenix until about an hour outside of Bryce Canyon! And she did it again on the way back. She was easily the most favorite, new member of the family.
Bryce's grandmother just passed away a few weeks ago, which brought many family members into town. Bryce's aunt and uncle just got back from being mission presidents in Cape Town, South Africa, his aunt being the daughter of his grandmother. The viewing and memorial were both very peaceful experiences. There were only a few tears of sadness, when family members would recall memories, but many feelings and tears of happiness, knowing she isn't in pain anymore, and that she is in a better place. We had many family meals and also swam and had fun. There were so many kids in the pool and it was fun to just be together, catch up with cousins, aunts, and uncles.
Bryce's sister, brother-in-law, and brother are all here from Utah. Although all the other family members have traveled back to their homes, they will be here for the week. Bryce's sister, Kelsey, just had her second baby about a month after us, so it's been fun to have two little ones, along with their other son, Benson, who is two.
Oh! Charley received her baby blessing yesterday. Bryce said he doesn't remember what he said, and I think it's because he wasn't the one to say anything anyway. When giving a blessing, the Spirit is suppose to guide the prayer and tell the baby of the blessings promised to them and what can be their's as they strive to do what's right, along with telling those around her, especially her parents, so they can encourage her to achieve her potential and help her access those blessings. I remember Charley being told that she should keep her sights on the temple, and that she should rely on her faith in times of difficulty so she can overcome them and be happy and strong. She was also told that she can have an eternal family as she strives to stay close to Jesus Christ, all things I've been trying to work on and achieve myself, so I hope that Bryce and I can help her achieve these things so she can be as happy as can be. And when she is older, I'm hoping she will recognize how much happiness she has gained from staying close to Jesus Christ, and if she chooses otherwise, I hope she will at least stay close to us and her family.
Bryce and I are definitely not perfect, but we try to do all we can to do what's right and to stay close to Jesus Christ so the stresses of our lives won't get in the way of all the goodness and joy we can still experience in this world today. Bryce and I have recently set new goals and know that as we encourage each other more fully, that we are going to be blessed so much more than we already have.
I am so grateful to have been blessed with a healthy baby, a loving husband, and a forever progressing and joyous marriage. I am grateful for my wonderful family and for incredible in-laws. I am grateful to live in a country, that as a whole may be struggling, but still stands for that which God established before. I am grateful I am able to believe what I want to believe freely. I am grateful for Jesus Christ and the example He set and for the gift of His sacrifice that allows me to someday live with Heavenly Father again. At times I may feel as though I'm bored (which I was told doesn't exist, just boring people), and at times I may think circumstances and instances may be unfair, but no matter the struggle or challenge I face, I need to do my best to remember just how good I have it, to remember just how blessed I really am, because I have a royal heritage running through my veins, with the most incredible blessings and promises in my past, present, and future, which is truly amazing.
When listening to conference, sometimes you feel as though there are multiple themes or lessons, sometimes just one that "speaks" to you... I felt as though many of our leaders were encouraging us to press forward, that we all will experience difficulties and challenges, but as we come to know Christ, really get to KNOW Him, not just rely on Him when we need Him, but take the time to center our lives on Him, we ARE stronger. We don't lean on Him, but allow Him to walk with us.
In order to allow such to happen, we can't just call upon Him when we NEED Him, as I said before. Our Heavenly Father has expectations. He desires us to progress and to become more than we think we can, to reach further potential, with His help, in order to also receive countless blessings.
10 July 2017
Hand to the forehead... Well, I'm hoping that I'll be able to really boost my journal writing skills someday. I'm told I shouldn't say someday but I should think, "TODAY!!" So, our little lady Larson has been here 11 weeks and 2 days now. It's crazy to me to think that she has been here for that long and she's already grown so much... She is quite the shrimpy baby, only growing half as fast as most babies around her. She is still just under the percentile for her length/weight/age/whatever ratio. She is happy, dirtying diapers, and eating so I'm not too worried. She was right on track for certain things... following objects and focusing on them, smiling, cooing... she actually just starting rolling over a few days ago and I read that the average baby rolls over at 4 months! So we are hoping to see her continue to learn and grow faster than the 'average.' She also started lifting her upper bottom with her arms yesterday, and her daddy and I are pretty excited about that. I've been excited to see her work so much on her neck strength so early. Because she is a slender baby, I feel as though she has had to work on her neck muscles quite a bit, since she doesn't have many rolls to help her out. ;) Haha.
From the very beginning of pregnancy, everything has been pretty easy going and I'm waiting for the storm to hit!! I'm never the "lucky one" and I feel as though this experience has been quite mellow.
**** Rewind ****
The pregnancy started with headaches and being super tired for a month or two, then it was pretty much smooth sailing from there. I didn't show until maybe 20/22 weeks. I didn't crave anything. I was still able to jog here and there, at least up to 8 months... and everything pretty much remained normal, except for the fact that I didn't have the lung capacity I use to. :P She kicked quite a bit during... the 3rd trimester ish, which took some getting use to, but I was still able to work and do most things I could before.
The 17th of April, I went in for my weekly appointment. My doctor took an ultrasound and couldn't find much fluids for the baby. Instead of waiting until the following week, she told me to come back on Thursday, the 20th. When I came in on the 20th, my doctor said I would have to be induced. I asked what that entailed and she said I would have to take a pill and go from there. Me, not knowing anything, thought they would give me the pill at the doctors' office, then I would go back to my apartment until a certain time, then go to the hospital maybe the next day. She told me I would have to go to the hospital after I leave the doctors' office. (wide eyes!)
I called Bryce at the doctors' office and told him as soon as I got back to the apartment, we would have to leave soon after. When I got back to the apartment, I got a bag together, Bryce got some of his things together, and we went to Chik-fil-a. Many friends told me I probably wouldn't be able to eat when I got to the hospital so we went to Chik-fil-a first, seeing as it was near the hospital and we love the chicken and waffle fries. :) We got to the hospital at about 1:30 pm. I filled out all the paperwork while Bryce parked the car. We got situated in a room, which was really nice actually, and met my nurse and mutiple other nurses. Before the inducing could start, I had to get stuck with needles for an IV. THE NURSES STRUGGLED SO MUCH!!! Ugh. So one nurse tried and missed. Another nurse tried and ruptured a vein. The other nurse tried again, and ruptured a different vein! MY nurse pretty much pushed them all out of the way and stuck me quick and got it right the first time. Sigh... I was hoping that would be the worst of it. Before anything even started I had bandaids all over my arms... After that episode, my nurse gave me the first pill to start the inducing. I was suppose to receive one every three hours until my body was prepared to start pushing. After the first three hours I had to be put on a low dose of pitocin because I had already started contracting, even though I couldn't feel the contractions. They also had to give a fusion, which pretty much felt like I was wetting my pants without having the ability to control it.
After some time I started shaking pretty... fervently? Haha. I would say violently but it didn't hurt or anything so I feel as though that isn't the right word either... either way, I was shaking a lot and it was very noticeable. It looked as though I was freezing. My mom kept asking of I needed a blanket, but I wasn't cold. I just couldn't control that either. :P Supposedly it was an imbalance of oxytocin (?). Spending that much time in the hospital and not doing anything... gets kind of boring. I wanted my body to hurry up. Bryce played with SnapChat for a while and I got pretty thirsty. Bryce got me some ice chips but I wasn't suppose to drink water... I was able to have popsicles though and Bryce brought back three different kinds because he didn't know which I would want but he wasn't allowed to put them back so we ate them all. :)
I had to move to an exercise ball since I began to get uncomfortable in the bed. It was funny to see the floor so wet because of the fusion fluid everywhere. I must've been a site to see... In an oversized, ugly hospital gown, shaking, wet, and trying to balance on a ball, while using Bryce's knees to balance, while he was sitting on a chair in front of me.
I kept getting more and more tired as I was sitting on the exercise ball. My contractions still weren't very strong and the dilation was progressive, but still pretty slow going. I told Bryce if I was going to have any strength to push later, I would need the epidural... I tried to go as long as I could without it, and the contractions weren't painful yet, but I was so tired and I wasn't close to pushing... I asked for the epidural at around 9:30 pm. The anesthetist was in a c-section with someone else and was the only one working. He came into the room at about 10:30 pm. He was really nice and quick with the epidural. The epidural wasn't nearly as bad as the IVs. I barely felt it and it didn't take long to start working. I was able to sleep through the night which was really nice and I was able to rest, which was AWESOME, aside from waking up from the dang blood pressure cuff I had to wear that measured my blood pressure every few hours.
My OB did stop by at around midnight to see how I was doing. She told me that she had to be at a c-section from 7-9 and if I could, that I should try to have the baby before then so she could be there. I thought to myself, "yes, I will plan on that" (pure sarcasm because who can really plan when they will push out a baby.) Haha
At about 6, a nurse came in (because I ended up having so many nurses because their shifts all ended and started during my first night at the hospital), and she said, 'well, you're ready to start pushing.' At 6:17 am I had my first push right as my doctor walked in and needed to suit up. Twenty-five minutes later, 6:42 am, Charley Grace Larson was born. When my doctor held her up so I could see her, she wasn't crying, and her eyes were wide open. I thought to myself, 'that's not how that's suppose to happen. Isn't she suppose to be crying?' Eventually she gave her first little cry, which didn't last long, but made me feel a little better that we had a "normal" baby. She was 19 inches long and weighed 6 pounds, 4 ounces.
Bryce's mom came by to see the baby, but everyone else waited until we came over, to see the baby. While in the hospital we ate Texas Roadhouse twice, and we did have First Watch for brunch! First Watch is sooooo good! Their coconut chia seed pudding, with fruit preserves, and thick cut, healthy, seeded bread, with a homemade almond butter... DELICIOUS!
Cami also wanted to come by which made me a little nervous, but was glad she wanted to be supportive and to see the baby. She brought 4 different lemonades from work, along with a piece of cheesecake and a piece of chocolate cake, all being SO SO SO AMAZING!! She works at AJ's, and of course anything from the bakery is very tasty, just pricey so we don't go there much, if ever. She got a little teary eyed, but she did really well with Charley. It made me feel really good to know that she wanted to be there and to see the baby even though I can't imagine how difficult it probably was for her.
I tested positive for b-strep at the beginning of my pregnancy, and even though I had another test a week or so before I went to the hospital, and tested negative, they made us stay in the hospital an extra 24 hours because of that. Ugh. I was ready to leave by the end of the day, when Bryce was ready to leave right after the baby was born... so we stayed until Sunday morning, preparing to leave, but not actually walking out until 12 pm. I was definitely ready to leave, when we were just sitting around the hospital room, but when we walked out, I was pretty nervous to leave. I wouldn't have the reassurance of the lactation consultants being right now the hall, which was the biggest fear I had. I broke down the first night because we couldn't figure out what she wanted and she didn't stop crying for a while... I prayed really hard, asking for the strength and confidence I needed in order to take care of Charley.
My mom, dad, and sister stayed for a few days, but I was nervous for them to leave because Bryce had to go back to school and I was going to be left alone with Charley. I had no baby experience and was afraid that I wouldn't be able to take care of her properly or know what she needed if she cried.
She did pretty well and after days passed, I felt a little better about myself and gradually gained that confidence I asked for, from Heavenly Father, and Bryce's help was also something I really needed.
**** PRESENT ****
As I said, Charley is doing really well. She doesn't really cry much, unless she is hungry. Everyone loves her and thinks she's cute. :) She does really well being held by others. We let her hang out and be with other people, in hopes that she won't be super clingy when she's older, and hope she will be outgoing and LOVE meeting new people.
She is smiling and talking (cooing) with others which makes me happy to see.
She is still wearing newborn sizes and I think she may be fitting into one of her 0-3 month outfits better. :P
She likes kicking and grabbing at objects on her play gym.
She also likes being in the pool with daddy, and we hope she will laugh and splash in the water soon.
She's received plenty of happy visitors throughout the 11 weeks and two days.
She has also already been on her first road trip/vacation. We went to Bryce Canyon at the end of June, for a family reunion. She slept almost the whole way there, from Phoenix until about an hour outside of Bryce Canyon! And she did it again on the way back. She was easily the most favorite, new member of the family.
Bryce's grandmother just passed away a few weeks ago, which brought many family members into town. Bryce's aunt and uncle just got back from being mission presidents in Cape Town, South Africa, his aunt being the daughter of his grandmother. The viewing and memorial were both very peaceful experiences. There were only a few tears of sadness, when family members would recall memories, but many feelings and tears of happiness, knowing she isn't in pain anymore, and that she is in a better place. We had many family meals and also swam and had fun. There were so many kids in the pool and it was fun to just be together, catch up with cousins, aunts, and uncles.
Bryce's sister, brother-in-law, and brother are all here from Utah. Although all the other family members have traveled back to their homes, they will be here for the week. Bryce's sister, Kelsey, just had her second baby about a month after us, so it's been fun to have two little ones, along with their other son, Benson, who is two.
Oh! Charley received her baby blessing yesterday. Bryce said he doesn't remember what he said, and I think it's because he wasn't the one to say anything anyway. When giving a blessing, the Spirit is suppose to guide the prayer and tell the baby of the blessings promised to them and what can be their's as they strive to do what's right, along with telling those around her, especially her parents, so they can encourage her to achieve her potential and help her access those blessings. I remember Charley being told that she should keep her sights on the temple, and that she should rely on her faith in times of difficulty so she can overcome them and be happy and strong. She was also told that she can have an eternal family as she strives to stay close to Jesus Christ, all things I've been trying to work on and achieve myself, so I hope that Bryce and I can help her achieve these things so she can be as happy as can be. And when she is older, I'm hoping she will recognize how much happiness she has gained from staying close to Jesus Christ, and if she chooses otherwise, I hope she will at least stay close to us and her family.
Bryce and I are definitely not perfect, but we try to do all we can to do what's right and to stay close to Jesus Christ so the stresses of our lives won't get in the way of all the goodness and joy we can still experience in this world today. Bryce and I have recently set new goals and know that as we encourage each other more fully, that we are going to be blessed so much more than we already have.
I am so grateful to have been blessed with a healthy baby, a loving husband, and a forever progressing and joyous marriage. I am grateful for my wonderful family and for incredible in-laws. I am grateful to live in a country, that as a whole may be struggling, but still stands for that which God established before. I am grateful I am able to believe what I want to believe freely. I am grateful for Jesus Christ and the example He set and for the gift of His sacrifice that allows me to someday live with Heavenly Father again. At times I may feel as though I'm bored (which I was told doesn't exist, just boring people), and at times I may think circumstances and instances may be unfair, but no matter the struggle or challenge I face, I need to do my best to remember just how good I have it, to remember just how blessed I really am, because I have a royal heritage running through my veins, with the most incredible blessings and promises in my past, present, and future, which is truly amazing.
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