FINALLY!

I no longer look like this. I didn't purposely make my smile look so fake...I think another contraction was starting.So on Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment at 4:00. I kindly asked the doctor to induce me that night. He laughed and said, "How about tomorrow morning?" Sigh. Okay.

However, Hannah didn't want to come on anyone else's terms but her own. At about 5:00 a.m. I felt my first contraction (but doubted it's validity considering how many "first contractions" I've felt over the past month). By 7:00 they were really really hard, 45 to 60 seconds long, and less than 5 min apart.

When you schedule to be induced they put you on a list and then if they have room for you, they'll call you and tell you to come in. The hospital called at about 7:05 and told us they had room for us. We told them it was a good thing because I was in labor and we were heading there right then.

Here is our last family picture with only three members of our family (outside of my stomach anyway).

For those of you just interested in the pictures, scroll down to the bottom, there are a bunch. For anyone else, by all means, continue. (Don't feel bad if you scroll to the pictures without reading...I do it all the time). :o)

We checked in at about 7:30, they broke my water at about 8:00, and I got my epidural at about 8:30. Last time they broke my water after I had the epidural. Contractions after your water breaks hurt. The other ones hurt too, but the ones after your water breaks hurt more...in case you didn't know.

My epidural was perfect. I could still tell I was having contractions, but they didn't hurt hardly at all...until I got dilated to about an 8. Then they started to really hurt again. I pushed my blessed button (for those of you who haven't had an epidural, there is a button you can push to give you more medicine)...well, Bart pushed it for me actually, but it didn't help. So the anesthesiologist came in and gave me something that did work. Which made me happy...and numb.

I was only had to push four times this time (about 15 min) and my 8lb 11oz, 19.5 inch chunky little Hannah Lee came into the world at 12:13 p.m. on Wednesday, May 27th. A day after her due date. (Addison was also born on a Wednesday, but it was the day before her due date).

I had no tearing and no episiotomy! And I am feeling great!!! I'm still a little tender, and I get tired quickly, but other than that I feel totally normal. I get tons of contractions when I nurse Hannah that hurt like heck. I have taken Motrin for that, but that's it, and I really do feel great. It has been an awesome recovery so far...let's hope that lasts.

As for Addison, she LOVES her little sister. When she came to the hospital and saw Hannah, she was so excited. She gasped, her eyes got wide, and she smiled from ear to ear. Then she looked meekly at Bart and I as if she was going to say something she wasn't sure she should say, and mumbled something we couldn't hear. We asked, "What Addison?" She repeated, a little more loudly this time, "I want to hold her." We happily obliged. It was so cute.

Maralee called while they were there and Addison excitedly told her, "My friend Hannah is here!"

We came home today and Addison was upset because Hannah was asleep. She wanted to play with her. She just adores her. :o)

So far almost everything has gone great with Addison and Hannah. We did have one little hiccup though. Today Addison was in the room while I was nursing Hannah, and Addison flipped! She started crying frantically and saying, "No mommy, I don't want her to hurt your tummy." I was so confused until Bart reminded me that the other day I had mentioned to him that when I nurse Hannah I get terrible cramps that hurt my tummy. We've been telling Addison she needs to be careful because my tummy has owies, so she can't climb on me like she normally does. She was so concerned that Hannah was hurting me. It was so sweet. I love my little girl.

And...here are some pictures:

Me and my baby girl right after she was born.

A proud daddy.Me and my girls.Our first family picture.

Grandma and the girls.

In what has become a family tradition: Bart changing Hannah's first diaper.

Hannah and her Daddy...okay, I have to say, I LOVE how Bart interacts with his new babies. He just loves them so much! He's so cute! I think for both of the girls he's been really torn. He knows that breastfeeding is the best and that he wants what's best for them, but he also wants to be able to bond with them while he's feeding them, something that's kind of hard for a guy to do with an only-breast-fed infant. (Hence the first diaper change. He's great about changing diapers while I'm breastfeeding) I love my hubby.

Hannah went home in this outfit Amy got her in London. I'm sorry you couldn't be here this time Amy! I'm glad you were watching waiting for Godot though...te he he. Oh, and the adorable blanket is from my young women. They gave it to me at a surprise shower they threw for me and another member of the presidency who is pregnant. They're awesome! I love them. :o)

It has arrived

Nope, not the baby. Just my due date. I've never made it to my due date before. I know, it's not all that impressive since I've only had one kid and now I won't be able to say that with my next kid, but I can say it now, so I will.

I was curious what that little baby bump sign would say when I reached my due date. I agree with it, it IS go time! Now if I can just get Hannah on board, we'll be all set.

I wonder what it will say tomorrow. I think the pregnant lady should slowly hunch over and turn into a monster with each passing day. And the sign should start saying things like, "Really? No baby yet?!?" "I'M GOING TO BE PREGNANT FOREVER!!!" and "Shoot me now!" I feel that these types of comments would be fitting.

Memorial Day Weekend

So on Saturday, my Dad, sister, and some of her friends came to visit. We went up to Nun's park for a picnic, and then hiked up to Bridal Veil Falls. It was enjoyable, but produced no baby. And just an observation, last pregnancy at this time, I was in labor. Sigh. This baby will never come. Oh well, it was a lot of fun.

Still Here

So during one of my many escapades up and down the stairs last night I heard my left knee pop and thought, "Hm, that can't be good." It hurt a little, but I wiggled it around and it felt fine. Then today, coming up the stairs to work, I was so tired (more about that in a min) I didn't lift my foot up high enough to reach one of the steps, so I slipped, and scraped my toe, ankle, and the same knee that popped yesterday. Ouch! Stairs and I are no longer friends.

So I was so tired because, first of all we, got to bed later than normal (which is starting to be normal lately). And nextly because I was having tons of contractions between midnight and 2:00. They were pretty painful, but not enough for me to shake my husband uncontrollably from his slumber and demand he take me to the hospital that second. They also weren't regular at all. Some were 15 min apart, some were 5, and others seemed like there wasn't any down time between them (so it's a good thing they weren't that painful.) But alas, it was yet another false alarm. Sigh. I am going to be pregnant forever.

P.S. This post was for you Jessica. Yes, I'm still here. :)

Belly Picture

Okay, so my grandma very sweetly reminded me that she hasn't seen very many pictures of my preggy belly, so this one's for you Teresa! I'm hoping that tomorrow this gigantic belly will be dramatically reduced. I have done just about everything I can think of. I've had my membranes stripped, I've been running up and down stairs, I've eaten spicy food, I've gone on walks, and right now, as I type, I am bouncing up and down on a yoga ball. I SOOOO want to have this baby NOW!

I didn't realize how lucky I was with Addison. My pregnancy with her was relatively pain free. Such is NOT the case with this pregnancy. I have seriously been in so much pain...well, for the past month and a half...but especially for the past three weeks! It's MISERABLE!!! I used to think that those ladies who complained about how terribly painful the last month of pregnancy was were just wimps, or had a very low pain tolerance. I have now repented. I am SOOOOOOO sorry! Now I understand!!! May the Lord forgive me for ever having had such evil thoughts.

Here is one of the many things that is driving me to have this child as soon as humanly possible:

LOOK AT HOW SWOLLEN THOSE FEET ARE!!! In all reality, this is not the most painful thing (uncomfortable yes, but blatantly painful, no), but it does make that running up and down those stairs quite unpleasant. I don't remember my feet being so swollen with Addison. I figured I'd document it this time so that next time I can really compare.

If you have any ideas for how to make this baby come faster I am open to suggestions! I have to confess, after talking with a maternity nurse I have a severe fear of Castor oil, but other than that I'm willing to try just about anything, so please! Share your wisdom!

Big Girl Bed and Whale Pants

So we finally did it. We finally took the plunge and bought Addison a "Big Girl Bed." We have been debating for a long time whether to buy her a toddler bed or just put her in the bunk beds. We decided on the toddler bed for three reasons:

1) She had never shown any interest in sleeping in the bunk beds
2) The bunk beds are really tall, so she wouldn't be able to get into them on her own
3) Whenever she saw toddler beds she'd try and climb into them and lay down.
4) We have lots of visitors, so it will be nice to have a room they can still sleep in.*

*Note, it's okay that I gave you four reasons when I said we had three reasons because I'm pregnant. We pregnant ladies are allowed to do things like that. Or anything else we feel like for this last week before our due dates when we have been wanting the baby to come for the past two weeks!!!

We set it up, and it has been in her room for the past two days. Here is how the transition has gone so far:

Day 1
Nap - Absolutely no problem, in fact, she didn't want to take a nap until she saw her toddler bed
Night - She was happy to go to bed in her big girl bed, but woke up about 3:00 a.m. and asked to be moved to her other bed (the crib is still in there because we plan on having her and Hannah in the same room).

Day 2
Nap - She didn't want to take a nap again, but she was more than willing to sit in her bed and read. She did call for me a lot (for things like new books or more water), but finally went down.
Night - Once again she was happy to go down in her big girl bed, but woke up at about 3:00 a.m. and asked to be moved to the crib. Then she woke up again sometime after that (Bart went in this time) and asked to be moved back to her big girl bed....I hope this doesn't become a game.

Also, I wanted to share a conversation we had yesterday as I was putting her down for her nap. My mom had bought her some new pajamas that had whales on them. When she saw them she wanted to wear them for her nap so I let her put them on. The following conversation ensued:

Addison: Look mom, I'm wearing my whale shirt.
Me: Yes you are
Addison: And my whale pants.
Me: Yep
Addison: Mom, where are your whale pants?
Me: Sweetheart, at this point I feel like ALL my pants are whale pants.

Okay Baby Hannah, I'm REALLY ready for you to come!

Dropping My Baby Off

So every day I drop Addison off at day care. She is always so excited to go, it really is one of the highlights of my day seeing her so excited, especially to see her friend Abby. I'll put her down, she'll make sure she gives me a hug and a kiss goodbye, then she and Abby excitedly run off into the other room to play.


Lately, as I carry her from the car at the curb to the door of the house (they have a big yard, so it's a longer walk than you would normally associate with getting to a person's door), she has been laying her head on my shoulder, her arms around my neck, and snuggling, just as happy and content as can be. She also often says, "I love you mom." When we walk in the door, it's the same routine...being excited to see Abby, giving me hugs and kisses, and running into the other room to play.


It sounds so overly sentimental and cliche, but I seriously just treasure this little walk from the car to the house. As I've gotten bigger and bigger it's getting harder and harder to pick her up. The last few weeks I've given her the choice of walking to the house holding my hand or having me pick her up, always secretly hoping she'll want me to pick her up so we can snuggle. So far I haven't been disappointed. I love dropping my baby off.

Mother's Day!

So this mother's day was wonderful. Addison's first gift to me was sleeping in until 9:00! That is SERIOUSLY unheard of! If I wake up at 7:45 to her yelling, "Mom, I want to get up." I consider that sleeping in! So this was awesome! Even though if she had gotten up Bart would have gotten her.

Hannah's gift to me (Did I mention that we finally decided to name the baby Hannah?) was not coming today. I did NOT want to be in labor on mother's day! Although now, feeling my swollen feet, sore back, and aching body, I'm deciding whether or not that was really a gift after all. :o)

All week when people asked me, "What are you doing for mother's day?" I said, "Absolutely NOTHING! I am not cooking, I am not cleaning, I am not changing poopy diapers. I'm doing NOTHING!" And Bart did a GREAT job at giving me this gift! Thank you babe! It was a wonderful day.

Bart cleaned up the kitchen this morning (we had friends over last night and were too tired to clean before we went to bed), made me breakfast, made me dinner, took care of Addison, and let me take a long nap, and cleaned the kitchen again so that tomorrow I can start the week fresh with a clean kitchen. It was WONDERFUL. It was an AMAZING mother's day of doing absolutely nothing!

The one thing I did have to do was talk in church. On mothers day! And I am 8 and a half months pregnant! AND he called and asked us YESTERDAY!!! But it ended up being a blessing. I really enjoyed preparing the talk, so it was nice.

Addison was so cute. When she did finally wake up, Bart brought her to me and she said, "Happy Mother's day mom." And gave me a hug and kiss. Then he took her downstairs to feed her while I got ready for the day. When I came downstairs, she smiled and me and said, "Happy....Day mom." She couldn't remember the "Mother's." It was pretty cute.

She also started writing letters for the first time today! At age two!!! Bart was in with her while she was coloring at her drawing table and she was talking about A, so Bart drew an A on the paper, and she drew an A right next to it! Then he continued by writing the rest of the letters of her name to see if she could copy them. This is the result:

You can easily see the A and the D. The next D is a little harder, and the four letters at the bottom, from top right going clockwise are I, S, O, and N. We're going to have to work on those ones, but I was dang impressed!

She has also started drawing mandalas (I think that's how they're spelled). They are basically circles with legs coming out of them. Apparently this is one of the steps kids go through as they develop their drawing abilities. You can see several on this page. The two lighter ones are actually on the back of the page...it's cheap paper and the scanner picked up the images on the other side.

I'm so proud of my baby! I'm so glad I'm a mom! And I'm so grateful for the mothers in my life! I love them all so much!

5 Years and counting

So last month Bart & I celebrated our 5th anniversary with a trip up to Salt Lake. Geneava came down and watched Addison for us. We love you Geneava, thank you so much!


Although I took some pictures, none were very exciting, and Bart has the camera at school for AP stuff. I decided to just get it posted so I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

We stayed at the Peery Hotel. It was so nice! It reminded me of the Hotel Del Coronado on Coronado island. Very old fashioned, but VERY classy. It even had a Tempur-Pedic (sp?) bed!!! That was WONDERFUL!


We went to Z'tejas for dinner. In Addison's words, "Soooo Yummy."


Then we went and saw "State of Play." We don't get to see movies much now that we have Addison, and Bart especially LOVES going to the movies, so it was a ton of fun. And it was an AWESOME movie. I had never even heard of it before, but we didn't really want to see anything else so we figured we'd give it a shot. It was a good gamble. We loved it. I highly recommend it.


On the way home the next day we stopped and stores and enjoyed leisurely shopping without the stress of having a child wanting to run around and play. It was WONDERFUL!


I'm so grateful for Bart. I seriously couldn't imagine my life without him. He is so perfect for me! I love that I can talk to him about anything, I love how much he loves our daughter, and how excited he is for the next one, I love that he loves the Lord, I love that he makes me want to be a better person, I love how he always makes me feel beautiful and loved, I love how much he loves his family. I love how in some ways it feels like we've always been together and how in others it feels like we just got together yesterday. Time has just flown! I can't believe it's been five years since we got married. I'm so lucky to have him! I love you babe!

The Kitchen Remodel

Okay, and I don't really have any before pictures of our kitchen (I know I took some, but I have no idea where they are now). But here's the AMAZING end result. This picture really showcases the back splash, so I included it. This one shows the beautiful molding on our tall cabinets that go all the way to the ceiling (I swear we doubled our cabinet space even though we only added a few cupboards). We added this whole desk section. Imagine a computer on that desk and me sitting at it typing this post. That is what I'm doing right now. :) I LOVE this new kitchen! WE also added the cupboards and counter to the left of the fridge. It's SOOOO nice to have the extra space!!! You can also see our new floors in this picture. I LOVE THEM!

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE being in my kitchen now! I love cooking in it, I love cleaning it, I love just sitting in it and looking at it! Bart pointed out that now that we love everything so much we're never going to want to move! He may be right.

If you would like to see more pictures you can go to our contractor's website: http://rdcutah.com/photo_4.html. We are home G. If you go to the bathroom page, he has pictures of our bathroom, and the remodels and additions page has a picture of our bedroom. He was absolutely amazing! If any of you are in Utah and wanting to remodel, I HIGHLY recommend him! If we ever do anything else to our house, we will be using him.

The Bathroom & Bedroom Remodel

So I'm not sure why, but for some reason posting about this remodel has been like pulling teeth for me. Maybe it's because I now prefer spending time in my new rooms instead of posting about them. Maybe it's because I really don't think I can do it justice in a post. Whatever the reason, please just come over and look at my house so you can see how truly wonderful it is. ;o) Needless to say, I am rather pleased with the result.

Here are some before pictures of the master bath & closet. It was so small it was very difficult to take pictures of. Basically it was two small rooms. You would walk through this tiny square closet into the tiny square bathroom. (These pictures were taken as I was packing up the bathroom and closet, so there's some stuff out and about).

This is the vanity to the right of the toilet in the picture above. (To the left of the toilet was the bath). This was where Bart & I got ready in the mornings. It was rather difficult because two people couldn't really fit in the bathroom without running into each other.Here is a picture of one side of our closet. This wall you're seeing got knocked down making our bathroom twice as big!And the final result. This pictures is pretty much taken from the same angle as the one above. Quite the transformation huh!?! My mom got us some nice brown towels to match the shower curtain. I kept telling myself I'd take a picture with them them and post that one, but it's not happening and I want to get this post up before the baby comes!We left the wall that was next to the bath and closed off the space to make a little closet in the bathroom. We have a bank of drawers in the middle where we keep our socks and unmentionables, two laundry baskets on either side, and a bunch of shelves above it where we keep some of our folded clothes, extra bathroom stuff and fresh towels. It's SOOOOOOOO nice! We can get up in the morning and basically get completely dressed without leaving the bathroom!I LOVE our new bathroom!

I don't really have any before pictures of our Bedroom because we weren't planning on changing it that much, but thanks to our awesome contractor, we were able to paint, install crown molding, and install new carpet and baseboards. It looks SOOOOOO amazing! WAY better than before. The one thing we were planning on doing was closing off a part of the room to make a closet. It was basically an alcove where we had our dressers anyway, so we made that little space into a BIG closet with these beautiful mirror doors. The mirrors make the small room look SOOOOOOOOO much bigger! We love it!

This is what the closet looks like...well, my side of the closet anyway (before we got the new carpet). Even though it's not necessarily an official "walk in" anymore, there's more room than our last closet, and you can easily walk into it, close the door behind you, and then turn around and ponder what to wear. :o) Addison LOVES hiding in it. It's AWESOME!