once upon a christmas

christmas happened and it was wonderful! we stayed here in kentucky and enjoyed our time together immensely. enjoy the pictures :)

once upon a thanksgiving...

we went to south carolina for thanksgiving. i have a sister, bro in law, and nephew who live there. it was a good time.

thanksgiving was yummy. that was the only day shawn had off but we made the most of it by walking to a nearby river after the turkey was in the oven that morning enjoying the yummy food we consumed that afternoon. we stayed thurs, fri, and sat, and drove home sunday after going to church with shay. we enjoyed the ymca (where shay works- shot some hoops, kids played in the jungle gym area, shay and i went to a step aerobics class,etc), the zoo, and watching movies and talking with shay and shawn after the kids were in bed at night. millie and ian had a blast together. it's nice to have a cousin close enough to drive to.

tid bits

today kyle is in indiana (i think!) for work (he travels a lot and sometimes i forget where he is-crazy!). me and the girls were talking to him this morning on the phone. savannah was holding the phone saying "hi" and "hello". i was telling kyle something about puggy. the next thing i knew, savannah was following puggy around trying to put the phone to her ear so she could talk to dad too. puggy has ears that flop over, so beeb was trying to open up her ears, turning them inside out and then proceeding to put the phone to her ear. good times.

earlier this week, it snowed for the first time here in kentucky. we didn't go out to play in it because we went to the library for storytime. later that day, all the snow had melted so we (specifically millie) have been waiting for more. this morning, to our delight, we woke up and saw snow outside the window. it wasn't even an inch (cause kentucky doesn't get much snow) but it was a good dusting. so we ate breakfast and cleaned up a bit and got dressed in our snow gear and out we went! the kiddos were delighted to play outside in the snow. millie wanted to throw snowballs at me so she would gather as much snow dust as she could and throw it at me. sometimes it didn't throw very well so she would just rub it on my pants. i think savannah's snow suit is a little bit too big but millie's fits great.

we also walked to the park because it wasn't way too cold like it's been for the last week. wee ha!

here are some pics i had downloaded to my blog a while back but then never gotten around to publishing. i think i didn't do i because there were a millions more pics from that day that i wanted to put up but didn't have the time. well, some may be better than none. this is from back in sept 2010 when we were about to move from utah out here to kentucky. we had a big ol' potluck dinner with all the loved ones that could attend. it was delightful! maybe sometime i will download more pics from that bittersweet day. you will just have to wait and see :)

there's a bunch of pics for you. i didn't find my cord for downloading pics but kyle discovered he had a place on his new computer to put the memory card right into it and download. can't beat that!

well, some of these pics are of us a home and others are of us out and about.

horse ones: went to a horse park (seeing as kentucky is the horse capital of the world). the girls were FASCINATED by the horses. they got to pet horses and millie got to ride a pony (beeb will have to wait 'til she's 2 cause that's the rules). btw, the big chair is a random lawn ornament at the horse park that millie desired to sit on. good one.

floral couch ones: the girls LOVE to play on our floral couch (inherited from maecy who inherited it from uncle grady). the cushions come off and they jump all over them. i have made some pretty strict rules about how high millie can stack the cushions in an attempt to avoid injuries- so hopefully that takes care of precautionary measures. quite often savannah will whine at me while a make dinner or clean up instead of playing with millie, but lately she is realizing that life is much more fun when she plays with her exciting sister rather than cry at her boring mommy who is doing chores AGAIN! :) but as you can see from the crying savannah pic, she still finds plenty of reasons to cry about life when it's not working out like she wants it to. poor thing :( i promise i picked her up and loved her right after this picture, i just had to take it first because she looks cute even when she cries!

millie's awesome outfit ones: millie likes to dress fancy. fancy nancy, that is. last christmas, she was given some fancy nancy books from grandma and my friend dawn in fl. millies LOVES these books and want to be fancy like nancy all the time now. she wants to dress herself fancy every day (examples of her definition of fancy can be found in the fancy clothed millie pics). she told me today that when i try to get her to dress in something that's not fancy she will be really mad at me and tell me it's not fancy. she also informed me that i do not dress fancy and that i could borrow some of her clothes so i could be. she also informed kyle of his lack of fanciness, or as nancy would say, he is not dapper! so she said she would like to take him to the thrift store to get him fancy clothes. how sweet.

keeping my promises

Hi.

I promised aunt kohleen that i would put up a blog last night, but it didn't happen. my excuse at that time was that i could't find the cord to upload pics onto the computer. i still have the same excuse tonight, plus it's past my bedtime, but i am doing this anyways, because a promise is a promise. and i've needed a reason to blog.

well, we are no longer residents of florida or utah, we are officially KENTUCKIANS! it was a bit of a culture shock to move here. we moved to a small town of 20,000 and people seem a little small townish and hickish and hill-billyish, etc. but that was what we thought when we went to the grocery store and walked down the street. now that we've been to the library and church, we have a better feel for the people, etc. we've begun to make friends and establish daily routines with out little ones. kyle's also been adjusting to work and figuring out how to use his time wisely.

millie is super excited to start a preschool program in january. she would have started in september but we didn't get here until the beginning of oct and it was already full. she packs her backpack everyday with paper and pens,etc. that she's getting ready to take with her to school.
millie is also a super good helper with savannah. can't think of any examples because i too tired :)

savannah is full of life and energy. she is very opinionated and wants to do everything herself. she also would choose for someone to tote her around 95% of the time. there seems to be an oxymoron going on here... she is not shy and is super smiley with people most of the time. as much as she is not shy, she is definitely very attached to her mama, much to her daddy's dismay (he can only get good cuddles with her if i'm not around)

i am the mom. this move has been the best one so far in the history of moves for me. when i moved to michigan, millie was 5 mo old and i was trying to finish up my degree from byu. when i moved to florida, i was done with school (thank heavens!) but i had a 3 week old baby to keep me busy and prevent me from getting much done. this time, i have no school and i don't have any newborns/very young babies. it is so awesome. i feel like i can get a few things done once in a while and it feels great to just be the mom. i am enjoying our home and have been happy thus far.

kyle is a busy man. he travels around kentucky and the states surrounding ky. he is a great husband and father and we are so blessed to have him! :)

and we must not forget to report that we adopted my parents pug dog. my parents appropriately named her puggy. we hesitated a lot about whether or not we should take on the responsibility of a dog. we are happy to report that we have no regrets. she is a part of our family now and it's fun to have a dog to greet us when we come home.

that is our family. done. i will report again sooner than you think. with pictures to come. you must cheer me on and hope i will find the cord and then take the effort to upload pictures... I CAN DO IT, YES I CAN, IF I DON'T DO IT, I'M NO ONE's FAN! that there is a weird little cheer to get me motivated :)

we are alive and well

hi world out there.

we are still in existence even if our blog is no proof.

in july and august me and the girls, and then kyle made our way from florida out to utah in search of a job. after looking in florida for a job, we decided utah was the place. on tuesday the 10th of august, kyle started driving from florida to utah and arrived in utah thursday the 12th. on friday, the 13th of august, kyle interviewed for a job. saturday the 14th, kyle was offered the job. monday, the
16th, they wanted him to begin training. we were so thrilled!!! the job training is here in utah but the job will be in kentucky. we are moving there soon to start our life as kentuckians.

we are so grateful kyle gets to train here so we can be blessed to be with all the family we have here in utah. and when we move to kentucky, we will be 6 hours away from my sis shay and her clan in south carolina- yeah! and we will be very close to some friends in west virginia and some other friends in north carolina. we also have friends very close in ohio. and yet more friends about 5 hours away in indiana! hooray for friends and family!

welp, just checkin' in and now i'm checkin' out. later.

The Labor of Love, Part 2

Okay, i am back to finish what i started...

i went to the hospital feeling peace and assurance that things would work out well for me and the baby and that my body and mind would be able to handle the labor. i know at the hospital they wouldn't want me to eat while in labor, so i ate a protein bar on the way to give me energy for the work of labor. we called the back up doula, deb, and told her my water had broken and that we were going to the hospital. she said she would start coming when i was dilated to a 4. they checked me as soon as i got to the hospital and i was already dilated to a 4 so deb came. in the meantime, kyle and i started to set up the labor room with all the stuff we'd brought from home.
when deb got to the hospital, she looked at my birth plan (i hadn't bothered showing it to her the day before because i didn't think i'd ever see her again since she was only on call for the weekend and it would be too good to be true if i had the baby a week early). we discussed the way i wanted the labor to go. one of the most important to me was to not be hooked up to machines the whole time so i opted for monitoring the baby's heart rate and my contractions every 1/2 hour instead of all the time. when monitoring was not happening, i walked the halls of the hospital. i would talk with kyle and with deb as a walked in between contractions. when i had contractions, i would stop talking and hold onto the railing in the hall. i would stand there and breathe deeply until the contractions passed. then i would continue walking and talking, going back to the hospital room on the 1/2 hour to be monitored. when i walked the halls, i would have very regular contractions about every 3-4 minutes, but as soon as i got back to the hospital room and had to sit on the bed to be monitored, the contractions would almost completely disappear. it would usually take about 10-15 minutes for a contraction to come when i sat down. i couldn't wait to get up and get moving again so the contractions would come again (because i could sense that the labor would take so much longer if i didn't keep moving). after about 4 hours of walking the halls and coming back for monitoring, my contractions started getting much more intense and i didn't feel like i could walk the halls anymore. i felt like i needed to do something different.
this is when kyle and i started to do the "labor dance." let me explain :)... when we first got to the hospital, deb was trying to give us pointers for kyle to help me when the labor pain got intense. she talked about massage techniques and other more basic things that i had heard before. she then told us about the "labor dance," which is both the husband and wife standing up with their arms around each other, swaying back and forth in one place. kyle and i immediately said we did not think this would be possible for us. deb was a little confused, so we explain that kyle was very afraid to help me when the labor pain got bad because of my tendancy to refuse help when in pain and even to get angry if people tried to help me when i was in pain. kyle's biggest worry before the labor was that i would be in pain and that he would not be able to be of any help because i would refuse his he p and even get angry at him. well deb said that said something to the effect that it would be great if i would let know help me through the pain if it seemed alright when the severe pain came. so she asked if she could remind us later about the "labor dance" to see if i would try it and i agreed that she could ask but told her i wasn't sure if i would try it. so, when the intense pain came, she asked if we wanted to try it and i agreed to. well, i can testify that the "labor dance" works and that it is magical and miraculous, at least in my case. it was amazing because as we swayed back and forth and i held onto kyle and rested my head on his shoulder, when the contractions came, there was almost no detectable pain whatsoever. i don't know how that is possible when the pain was more intense than ever up to this point, but i suppose that that's why people do the "labor dance." from that point onward throughout the rest of the labor, i was much more open to kyle's help even though i was in pain. i was not upset with him for helping me or touching me but welcomed the comfort he provided. this was a huge relief for him!
as good as the labor dance was, it couldn't last forever (maybe about an hour). the contractions continued to get stronger and stronger after this. i asked to try a yoga/exercise ball that the midwives had available at the hospital. i sat on the ball for about an hour or two (time does not exist when in labor zone). even though i was sitting on the ball, i was not sitting still. i was rotating my hips in circles and moving my hips back and forth, etc. as i did this, i couldn't help but imagine making room for my baby to drop further down. i tried to imagine relaxing my whole body during contractions and just letting her drop. kyle also massage my aching back with a tennis back while i did this. i think by this time, i was making soft groaning sounds. i didn't plan to do this, it just happened as a way to deal with the pain.
after being on the ball, i decided i wanted to get up and walk the halls again. this was not successful because my labor was very intense by this time. i couldn't even make it to the next room without feeling like i was going to double over in pain. but somehow i made it back to my room. kyle was starting to get worried about the pain i was in and was trying to think of a way to relieve it. i had wanted to have a room with a tub so i could have to option of delivering the baby in water, but there were no more tub rooms available when i got to the hospital, so at this point, kyle thought that a warm shower might help me deal with the pain. i was feeling indecisive about what i wanted so he said he was going to get the shower ready for me. while he did this, i told the deb that i wanted to get down on my hands and knees on my yoga mat. this made me feel pretty tired, so i stayed on my knees and supported the rest of my body with the exercise ball under my arms and chest. by this time i was probably rhythmically groaning and humming during the basically continuous contractions. i got up to go throw up when the pain made me feel sick. by this time, kyle had given up on having me take a shower because i was where i wanted to be. then i went back to the ball and continued what i was doing. after a while, i threw up again but this time i think it was in a cup. then i went into child's pose (with my bum back on my heels, my forehead to the floor in front of me and my arms extended in front of me). within minutes after assuming this position, i felt the urge to push. i told deb and she said she wanted me to resist the urge to push because she needed to find the midwife so she could come look at me. besides having the first check for my dilation, i had opted on my birthplan to only be checked for dilation when it was medically necessary. because of this, the midwife was very suprised that i was already feeling the urge to push and doubted that i was ready to push a baby out. my labor had started at 2:00 am and it was then about 9:00 am. 7 hours is on average a short labor. but she came to check. she wanted to see how ditated i was since it hadn't been checked since i got to the hospital but she wanted to have me on the bed to check it. because of the pain i was in and the extremely strong urge i had to push, it was completely impossible for me to get up off the ground. so kyle and deb had to literally pick me up off the ground to get me to the standing position and walk me over to the bed. as i was walking with their assistance it was very difficult and pretty much impossible to hold back the urge to push but i did the best i could (although i'm pretty sure i did push a little). finally i was on the bed and the midwife checked to see how dilated i was. i don't remember the medical lingo she used, but she informed us all that i was pushing the baby out and that she could see her head. well i could have told her that! so at this point, i'm trying my best not to continue pushing until i get the go ahead. then the midwife asks me if i want to deliver on the bed or if i want to get back on the floor to push out the baby. well, at this point i was in too much pain and just wanted to push the baby out. my mind was not working well enough to determine where to push but just to push. in my birth plan, i said i wanted to push the baby out in whatever position seemed right to me at the time i felt the need to push. anyone reading this would probably gather that it seemed like a good idea to my body to push the baby out while i was on the floor but that i was forced to get on the bed. in hindsight, i don't know why that midwife didn't let me stay on the floor and check my dilation there. on the bed, i kept on pushing. the midwife wanted my legs to me bent so my knees would be way up by my chest and my feet up by my butt. but by the time she positioned me to check my dilation, my legs were straight out and the pain prevented me from being able to bend them back the way the nurses and widwife wanted me to do. by this time i had pushed out the baby's head but the her shoulders were stuck. they tried a couple different maneuvers to get the shoulders unstuck, but nothing worked until their third attempt. it was at this time that they were able to get my legs bent where they wanted them and i was able to push the baby out, shoulders and all. after she was out, the pediatric spedialists needed to check to make sure she hadn't aspirated the maconium she had passed soon after the labor started, so the umbilical cord was cut. i was worried that baby wasn't okay because i didn't hear her crying. kyle was over by the peds and i didn't know what was going on. deb, my fabulous doula could sense that i was worried so she assured me that everything was okay with the baby. as soon as they were sure baby was okay, they handed her over to the mama (yours truly) for some bonding time skin to skin. savannah was nursing within 5 minutes and she has been a joy to be around since those first moments we had together.
the labor was awesome. i am so glad that a natural labor was possible for me and my baby and sweet husband. it believe it was 100% miraculous! i moved more that 7.5 hours during labor than i had been able to for weeks, due to a pinched nerve. i had absolutely no siatic nerve pain while in labor. i only had labor pain, which seems like enough :) this experience brought our whole family closer together. it even gave me more appreciation for my sweet millie, who was born by means of an epidural and inducement. going through the pain and stages of labor increased my appreciation for the body and the miracle it is and the miracles it is capable of bringing to pass.

the labor of love

here is the long awaited labor story you've all been anticipating. i promised in my last post that i would write it on the wee one's day of birth, but it didn't happen. so here goes nothin'...

so, i had a doula that i met with before the labor for a couple weeks. she helped to answer any questions i might have before the labor, gave me foot massages, tried to help me with my pinched nerve pain, listened to me talk about my birth art, etc. her name was lara and she was great! the baby was due july 26 and the weekend before that, lara was going out of town for a family reunion so she wasn't going to be able to come to my labor if i had the baby that weekend. so a back-up doula was arranged so that if the baby came, i would have one. i met the back-up doula, deb, saturady, july 17 for a quick visit at the park behind my apartment. she was kind enough to come and meet me even though there was a big possibility that she would not be at my labor and that i would never see her again. i wanted to meet her just in case, but i was pretty sure i wasn't going to have a baby that weekend. i thought it would be nice to see her and meet her before she was "in my face" and right next to my side during an entire labor, in the event that i did go into labor that weekend.

well, that whole day, i felt so uncomfortable and like my belly was contracted tight all day. i couldn't get comfortable anywhere. it didn't matter whether i was sitting or standing. i went to sleep in my recliner and at 2:00 in the morning, i woke up wet. i got up and thought i must be going pee in my sleep and started to walk towards the bathroom. that's when a big gush came- my water BROKE! it was quite the gushing sound. i woke up kyle and told him my water had broken. so then we woke up my mama and told her. we called the hospital and they told us to come in. we had all our hospital bags together so i changed into dry clothes. we were about to leave when my mom suggested that i get a priesthood blessing from kyle. this was a great idea because i got a lot of comfort and assurance from the blessing. most of all kyle and i felt completely assured that a natural childbirth would be a challenge but that i would be able to do it. (before this blessing, i had my doubts that i would be able to stand the pain because i had a severely pinhced siatic nerve that made it very difficult for me to move and walk. i thought that this, combined with the pain of labor would not be a good combination. and, in order to have a successful natural childbirth, the ability to freely move around the halls of the hospital and the hospital room is very important- as opposed to being stuck to a hospital bed).

the sequel to this labor story will have to be finished another day. i am tired and need some sleep. it is only 10:00, but i am trying my darndest to get to bed early whenever it is humanly possible :) adeaiu.

one year ago...

savannah was within the comfort of my womb, preparing for the work of labor and anticipating entrance into the world :) i was large and uncomfortable, planning to have a natural birth but wondering if i would go through with it in a hospital setting when an epidural is just a request away.

on that note, on the eve of savannah's first birthday (which is tomorrow), i want to finally record her birth story. i had good intentions of writing it down in my journal or typing it up on this blog, but alas, i have not done it yet. when she was a newborn, i needed sleep anytime i had a break. as she's grown, other things filled my time. and now, i am "moving" in 3 days and certainly don't have the time. but life is filled with all sorts of things to fill time and we only accomplish what we choose to spend our time doing. so, here goes nothing...

the background:
having a natural birth was very important to me with this birth (no drugs for pain or induction or epidural). to explain why, it requires that i tell millie's birth story. i have to confess that i never recorded this story either, so it would be great to get both recorded. millie's labor was induced (which means pitocin= acceleration of labor and an epidural). i didn't love this experience because i didn't feel like i was part of the labor. i did absolutely no labor preparation. i always thought that natural birth sounded good because it's natural, and isn't anything "natural" better than the alternative? i didn't know, but natural sounded more impressive. but i was surrounded on every side by women who chose to opt out of natural birth because of the fear of pain. having a natural birth seems to be looked at by many women as an unnecessary evil that should be avoided. so i went into the experience knowing no coping strategies or anything about the stages of labor or anything else to expect, feeling assured that i could asked for an epidural at any time if the going got rough. i told myself that if it was easy, the baby would be born naturally, but if it was hard, i would be open to having an epidural. so, on march 4, 2006, kyle and i suspected that my water was leaking. we went to the hospital to get it checked out and it was determined that amniotic fluid was leaking. the nurses at the hospital declared that my baby needed to be induced before an infection developed and the baby be exposed. they made it sound like a medical emergency. they then proceeded to leave me in a room for over 4 hours before admitting me to a room to be induced. by the time i was admitted to the room, i believe i was in natural labor because i felt like i was having regular contractions and they were somewhat painful but i wasn't educated enough about childbirth to know if i was in labor (i now know i was probably in the first stage of labor). because of my lack of education, i still believed i needed to be induced so i sat on the hospital bed and let them pump me with pitocin and got ready to wait out the rest of the labor. at first the labor wasn't progressing as fast as the doctor and nurses would have liked, but after they popped my water, it sped up fast. the pain started getting more intense. i felt like i could handle the pain if it didn't get any worse, but i was afraid of the unknown and i didn't want to know how much worse/more intense it might get, so i asked for an epidural. before the epidural, i was grouchy during contractions and asked the loved ones who attended the birth to "shut-up!" because i couldn't deal with their noise and the pains of the contractions at the same time (i had invited basically any woman who wanted to come to witness the labor and birth and this ended up including my sisters, my mother, my mother in law, my grandma in law, and my cousin in law). after the epidural, i could no longer feel the pains of the contractions and didn't even know i was having them unless i looked at the monitor to see when they were happening. with the epidural, i was able to be at my best socially and be in labor at the same time. i was laughing with loved ones and having a great time. but, at the end of the labor, i felt like i had missed out on the experience of labor and bringing my child into the world. i was so numbed up that i couldn't even feel myself pushing her out. i felt disconnected from my body. like something really cool happended 3,000 miles away. then after the baby was born, the umbilical cord was immediately cut, the baby was cleaned, weighed, stabbed in the foot, dressed and put into a little hat, and then viewed by everyone in the room. i could hear everyone admiring the little dear, commenting on her eyes, nose, cry, etc, and how beautiful she was. i sat there wondering what she looked like. then my sister maecy handed me the bundle. i expected to find her beautiful, but all i saw was a smashed nose. people stayed and admired her for a while. i held her crying for 15-20 minutes as the social gathering of loved ones cleared out of the room. then i got moved to a recovery room to making way for the next labor to happen in that room. it wasn't until i got to the recovery room that i tried for the first time to nurse my baby. everything was conducted by a nurse telling me it was time to feed my baby. she came in and without any warning proceeded to grab my breast and squeeze hard until she forced colostrum out. then she proceeded to to thrust my baby at my breast to see if she would latch on. i was so surprised by the feeling of a strong suck (it hurt!) that i immediately pulled away in pain. she proceeded to repeat the same process. is it any wonder that learning to nurse this little dear was such a struggle when it started out the way it did?

anyways, this is the story of millie's birth in a nutshell and the background of the beginnings of my want for a natural birth with my second child.

the pregnancy:
difficult! pinched nerve, depression, hugeness, finishing an internship, moving!!!

when i found out i was pregnant, i cried on and off for 2 weeks. i was so close to finishing my bachelor's degree from byu and i was afraid the pregnancy would be difficult and would keep me from finishing. i knew that if i wanted to graduate before the baby was born, it would require that i finish all the rest of my course work and internship while pregnant (yes, this is obvious, i know). but this seemed so daunting! i knew i would probably feel sick for a large chunk of the pregnancy and then too large for the rest of it. i didn't know that i would also have an extremely pinched nerve and that i would develop intense depression. but i decided to give it everything i had and attempt to finish everything before the arrival of a new baby. but i also wanted a natural birth. i was soooo blessed to be able to have so much help from friends and family throughout the entire pregnancy. i am afraid to name individual people for fear that i would forget to mention others. but i am going to thank faylyn for helping me with my internship and feeding me so much food when i was feeling too sick to cook and for cleaning my house,etc. candace and candy for being great friends and helping me with housework. amy b for taking care of me before and after the birth and for throwing me a graduation party and a baby shower. all the friends who attended the graduation party and baby shower and showed me their love. all the ladies who participated in my internship wellness program at church. maecy and abby for coming to michigan to help me, millie, kyle to cope with life. my mom for coming to michigan to help me in more ways than i could ever name and then coming to florida to help me get settled. the doulas who helped me before and after the labor. my in-laws for having kurt drive the moving truck to florida with kyle and for helping kyle de-stress after the birth of a baby, a move, and studying for and taking the bar exam by taking him to disneyworld and for helping us move into our new place. i also want to thank anyone who ever prayed for us or hoped for our success.

when i became pregnant with savannah, i was only slightly more educated about natural births by this point than i was when millie was born (thanks to the video "the business of being born"). however, i didn't know how i was going to find the time to become educated on natural birth and prepare mentally for it. but i was blessed to meet a wonderful friend who is into natural birth (thank you katie f) who gave me moral support when i doubted whether to have a natural birth. the due date was 2 days before kyle had to leave michigan to go take the bar exam in florida. so i was feeling some amount of pressure to be induced the week before so that kyle would be able to be there for the labor and so that i would be able to move to florida when family was scheduled to help move us to florida. but katie reminded me that i had a choice and that i didn't have to be induced if i didn't want to be induced. so i stuck up for myself (of course my husband and in laws were ready to support me also, but i had to be brave enough to speak my mind and let them know). katie also recommended that i read a book called "birthing from within" to prepare for the birth. this book was absolutely amazing!!!!! it didn't illustrate any particular labor method (such as lamaze or the bradley method,etc) but rather focused on preparing yourself mentally for the labor. the premise of the book is that as a woman, our bodies already know how to labor, but our minds need to prepare for the experience. the book also addressed how to love your labor even if it doesn't end up being natural in the end, after all the preparation. at the end of reading the book, i still didn't feel 100% confident that i would be able to accomplish the natural labor i was hoping for but i felt as mentally prepared as possible. kyle and i also attended a birthing prep class that was very beneficial and educational. because i didn't know if kyle would be able to be present at the labor, i decided to have a doula present at the labor so i would have someone there every step of the way for moral support. well, savannah ended up coming into the world a week earlier than her due date and i was blessed to be able to have both my husband AND a doula during the entire labor and afterwards. it was such a huge blessing! the labor was all natural and after the sweetie was born, she was given to me in all her naked glory, with no stabbed foot, so i could put her skin to skin with me for some sweet bonding time. within 5 minutes, she began to root around for milk. i put her to my breast and she figured out how to suck milk on her own. she nursed on and off for about an hour.

i want to record the particulars of the labor and i will record them tomorrow, on savannah's birthday because i need some rest tonight so i can be ready to pack, pack, pack hard core tomorrow!!!


the labor:
awesome!

the child:
full of joy! a wonderful addition to our family :)

millie's miracles

lately millie notices all the simple things in life and declares "what a blessing," or "that's a miracle!" quite often.

she left something outside for like 2 minutes while we went inside to get something we needed for a walk. when we came back, it was still there. she declared this a miracle because no one stole it while she was gone (a bike of ours was stolen a while back and now she is thankful anytime we still have possessions when they aren't locked up).

a caterpillar made a cocoon in her little bug cage and stayed in it for about 4 weeks. kyle and i had started to wonder if anything would ever come out of it. when millie heard us questioning, she always assured us that it would turn into a butterfly soon. well, the other day, we found a moth in the cage and realized the cocoon was empty. "it's a miacle!!" millie declared :0 it wasn't the butterfly she had been hoping for but she was satisfied with a moth.

we went swimming at a friends home recently. there were small frogs in their yard. millie was so excited because she loves to catch things (like frogs, dragonflies, butterflies, etc). she proceeded to catch one. she wanted to swim with the frog but we told her to put it back in the grass. i had already gotten in the pool with savannah while millie was playing with said frog and had neglected to put on millie's life jacket yet. my friend was still out of the pool with her kids too. i turned my back for just a moment, and the next thing i know, millie has fallen into the pool. i think she thought there were stairs where she tried to walk in she has never swam before (she usually wears a life jacket) but with no effort at all, she swam to the side of the pool and grabbed onto it. the first thing she did after that was hold up her right hand and excitedly yelled out "the frog saved my life and taught me how to swim!" despite all our urgings for her to put the frog back in the grass, she was still holding the frog and even swam with it. she declared this a miracle also. after we recovered from the shock of millie jumping in the water, we had a great laugh about the frog teaching millie how to swim. we put her life jacket on after that :)

she has declared many other miracles the last couple of weeks, but these are the ones i can remember at the moment.

I love to see the temple

a week ago wednesday, we went to the temple in orlando with some friends of ours. it was great. they have a 4 year old daughter who millie adores. her parents went in the temple for a couple hours while we watched the kids and then we went in for a couple hours while they watched the kids. we hung out at the temple for more than 4 hours! it was awesome. there is a peace and calm that only the temple can bring and i love having my children there walking around those sacred grounds with me. millie and her playmate had fun trying to catch lizards and when this got old (because lizards are quite fast), they found a worm! the worm was very entertaining and they played with it for over an hour. millie's friend's parents were surprised that their little girl touched the worm because she is usually a little too squirmish to do this. i've got pictures to prove it! i didn't want to show the little dear's face in any pics because i didn't ask her mama and daddy but here are some pics i felt would be okay to display to the world without permission from them. enjoy!