8 WEEKS ALREADY!!! WOW!!!

Berkley will be 8 weeks old tomorrow! That means that 8 weeks ago I looked like this still:


I can't believe how huge I was! I also can't believe how fast time has flown! Our little angel already has so much personality and amazes us every minute with what a blessing she is! I warned about pictures and now you're going to see why! I know that I have taken well over 1000 pictures of her in the past 8 weeks and narrowing it down this much was not easy!

Going back to 8 weeks ago.....

On January 2nd, 2011 I was scheduled to be induced at 7 PM. We had our bags packed and the stroller and carseat in the car, ready to go! We waited, anxiously, for 7 PM. We left our house just before 6 and went to Aaron's parents' house to see everyone before going to the hospital. Around 6:30 we couldn't take it any more! We finally left to go to the hospital! When we got there, we checked in. We had to re-register because our insurance had changed on January 1st.

After finishing the registration (around 7 PM) we sat and waited in the waiting area. We waited for what seemed to be a lifetime! We played games on our phones to keep our minds off of what was going to happen in the upcoming hours. They finally got us in a room about 30-45 minutes later. They had me change into a gown and lay down in the bed, which was HORRIBLY uncomfortable! The nurse checked me to see how far I was and told us that I was dilated to a 4 and 75% effaced and my bag of waters was bulging! I was pretty much already in labor and didn't even know it!

They started my IV and started dripping the Pitocin around 8 PM. We started to have visitors soon after. It was fun to visit with everyone! We watched Modern Family for a while and I played on Facebook for a while. I wasn't the least bit uncomfortable. Around 9:30 PM my nurse ran in and turned off the Pitocin. I was confused but she said that I was having contractions way too often. I hadn't even noticed! No, I'm not crazy and I don't have a high pain tolerance...I had been having contractions for 19 weeks so I just didn't think anything of them! I had been having regular contractions 2-5 minutes apart, some painful, for about 5 weeks by this point so I was used to being in pretty much a constant contraction.

Anyways, they left the Pitocin turned off until about 11 PM when they decided that my contractions had slowed down enough that I could handle it again. They turned on the Pitocin again. I was still extremely comfortable during the contractions and still not noticing them. Around 11:15 PM my doctor came in to break my water. He had the Pitocin shut off for good because my body was progressing all on its own. I was dilated to a 5 by this point and things were great! Having my water broken wasn't painful, like some women had warned me it would be, and I laid there waiting for things to move along further. We watched Modern Family some more and sat and chatted with family who came to visit.

At 1 AM I got up and went to the bathroom. I started to have painful contractions around then. I had my nurse come check me. I was dilated to a 6.5 and was 100% effaced. She informed me that another lady on the floor was about to get an epidural and I could have one too if I wanted. I decided that it was better to get it while I could than to wait until I absolutely needed it and have the anesthesiologist be too busy so I had it put in at 1:15 AM. I think I did amazing! Over half of my labor was without an epidural and I honestly enjoyed it! I was a lot more relaxed after having the epidural put in although I could still feel my contractions a little. It was perfect though! I could feel them enough to know when I was having them but I was still comfortable and could move a little bit.

Around 3:15 AM (2 hours after the epidural was put in) I was complete and crowning! I started pushing around 3:30 AM and Dr. Alejo got there a little bit later. I pushed as hard as I could while Aaron shoveled ice chips into my mouth as fast as possible and fanned me with a piece of paper to help cool me off! Everyone else was freezing but I thought I was going to die of heat!

At 4:06 AM I pulled out (yes, I pulled her out myself!) the most beautiful baby girl! I instantly loved her more than I had while pregnant with her! She was mine! It was almost impossible to believe that she was MY baby girl! Dr. Alejo let me hold her the whole time that he stitched up my 3rd degree (almost 4th degree) tear. It took 4 small stitches and 1 big one so I got to hold her for a long time! It was amazing! After he was done and I had been holding her for a while it was finally Aaron's turn! I have never seen a more proud and perfect daddy! He couldn't stop crying because he was so happy!

Here he is holding Berkley for the very first time:


This is Berkley in her carseat on the way home from the hospital! Look at those chubby cheeks!

This was when she was only 2 days old. These clothes are already super tight on her!

This was Berkley's first time wearing a size 1 diaper! She was 27 days old!

This is Berkley's favorite outfit to puke on. She has worn this onesie twice and has puked on it both times before the end of the day. The first time she only had been wearing it for about 1 hour! She's not even a puky baby! I just decided that she hates the onesie!

I love this outfit! It's like she's anxiously waiting for summer! So cute!

This was when we went to the doctor to have Berkley's frenulum clipped. It's the little thing under your tongue. Hers went to the tip of her tongue so her tongue forked when she would stick it out! She doesn't look too happy about the idea!

Berkley and I went to PG to see my mom one day. It was our first and only trip so far by ourselves to go see grandma! Berkley went through a record 3 outfits this day!

Outfit #1 - Peed on while grandma was changing Berkley's bum!

Outfit #2 - Puked on while grandma was playing with Berkley!

Outfit #3 - Lasted the rest of the day! Thank Heavens!

Aaron likes to think that Berkley is thinking "TOUCHDOWN!" in this picture! Too funny!

Berkley sleeps so cute! I seriously LOVE watching her sleep!

Nakey and sprawled out - Berkley's favorite!

Swaddled tightly in her bassinet - Berkley's least favorite!

Nakey in mommy and daddy's bed - another favorite of Berkley's!

Sprawled out with PJ's on - she'll take it if she has to!

Such a cute yawn! And...NAKEY! She seriously loves to just chill in her diapey!

Berkley makes lots of faces! I thought that I would share a few!

HAHA! I LOVE this face! We were at the doctor cause Aaron was sick and she was tired as could be! She literally was OUT less than a minute later!

I think that this face is just so sweet!

Berkley's sleeping face! She truly is "Daddy's Girl" here!

Berkley's dimples! She has HUGE dimples! I know it's not a happy face but I love it anyways!

Berkley's "cross-eyed and confused" face! LOVE IT!

Berkley's "drama queen" face! HAHA!!! I love it and she does it a lot!

Berkley has had tons of firsts in the past 8 weeks! Here are a few:

First visit to the pediatrician! 3 days old:

First Valentine's Day! So cute! She went on a date with mommy and daddy to McGrath's:

First fancy dress! She wore it to Dakota's blessing! She was almost 2 weeks old here:

First story time with mommy and daddy:

I don't know what more to say other than we love our "grumpy rainbow" and can't wait for all of the fun memories to come!

SHE'S HERE!!!

Our little princess, Berkley, was born on January 3rd at 4:06 AM. She weighed 7 lb 1.6 oz and was 19.5 inches long. She is PERFECT!!! We love every moment with her and love being parents! More details and pictures to come!

9 DAYS!!! Well, really only 2!!!

That's right! Only 9 days until my due date! I am being induced on Sunday (2 days away) if I haven't had Berkley already! Aaron and I couldn't be more excited! Her bags are packed (with way too many outfits but we honestly narrowed it down quite a bit), her new carseat and base are in the living room along with the stroller, and our bags are pretty much ready other than things that will have to be grabbed last minute because we use them every day. Santa gave us a sweet new camera for Christmas too and I can't wait to use it to take pictures of our sweet angel! Aaron bought a new memory card just for the camera today so we will have plenty of memory available for the thousands of pictures soon to come! The nursery is adorable and ready for our princess and the house is pretty darn clean (thanks to nesting syndrome) and all that is missing is our sweet baby girl!

She has been squirming a ton lately and I tease her that if she is so squished, she should just come out! My contractions have become more and more uncomfortable and yesterday I was down in bed literally the whole day because I had some sort of 24 hour flu or something. I am feeling lots better today, thankfully!

I had to stop working last week because of gestational hypertension. My blood pressure while I was working my last shift was as high as 163/103, which is pretty bad, so the doctor had me do a 24-hour urine to check for protein and make sure that I don't have preeclampsia. He said that my protein levels were within normal limits though so he decided that I have gestational hypertension and that working could be harmful to me and Berkley. I started bawling when he told me I couldn't work anymore. All sorts of stressful thoughts flooded my mind, mostly the concern of having to use my maternity leave without having my baby girl home. I am still bummed but I have come to appreciate having this time to relax and wait for Berkley.

I constantly have to pray for patience though because I just want to hold my baby girl so badly! Honestly, I am very uncomfortable lately but more than anything, I want to have her just to have her, not so I can be more comfortable. I'm not gonna lie though. Comfort will be a HUGE bonus! Thank heavens for ambien! I didn't sleep well for about 5 nights in a row thanks to all of the pain I have had and then with being sick so last night I took 1/2 of an ambien and I slept SO well!!! I think it was just what I needed to prepare me for the sleepless nights of being a mommy!

I really can hardly believe that she will be here with me so soon! It seemed like it would never come but her day to join us is nearly here!!! I am so grateful that I have had this wonderful opportunity to be pregnant and to love such a sweet spirit that Heavenly Father trusts me and Aaron to raise! I am so blessed to have Aaron as my husband and I can't wait for him to prove everyone right by being an amazing daddy! Happy New Year's everyone! I hope you celebrate with those you love!

AAHHH!!!

I need to get busy! My cousin just had her baby 19 days before her due date and I am only 17 days behind her! CRAZY!!! I need to do so much still! I feel so underprepared! The main thing I need to do is finish her nursery! Good thing I bought some of the stuff I needed today! Only 36 days until I am due! Pray that I get everything done!

Maternity Pics 34 weeks 3 days along!

My friend Traci introduced me to a friend of hers named Kaylee and she took these awesome pictures for me! These were a few of my absolute favorites! She did such an AWESOME job!!! Only a few weeks left! YAY!!! It will be super fun to see our little princess!

Update on contractions!

After having 76 contractions in 5 hours while at work last night, one of which lasting 13 minutes followed by another one literally one minute later, I decided to go to the Family Birth Place to be checked out. I'm SO glad that I did! One of the first things that they have you do is pee in a cup. I did so, as I have many times over the past couple of months, and I could tell that there was crap in it just by looking at it. I was very right! There were lots of leukocytes (White Blood Cells) in it and they determined that I definitely have a nasty UTI and possibly pyelonephritis (a kidney infection). After making this determination they decided to start an IV and give me some Rocephin (a strong antibiotic). One nurse came in and tried twice and my veins blew (probably related to the infection) and then another nurse came in and tried twice without success. After 4 IV start attempts, I decided to just get the Rocephin IM (in the butt). I was NOT excited! Especially since I was given a shot of Rocephin in the butt during the summer for a bad UTI and it still hurts occasionally. I decided that I didn't want to be poked any more though so I just wanted to get it done and over with! They came in and gave it to me in 2 shots (one in each butt cheek) and I am SUPER sore now! Both hands and wrists got poked and both butt cheeks! Talk about super uncomfortable! My hands hurt so badly afterwards that I could barely even get dressed so we decided to leave one of our cars there and we will just have to go get it later. We finally got home around 9:30 this morning, meaning that I was at the hospital for 17 hours straight and pretty much contracting the whole time! What an exhausting night! Anyways, the antibiotics should take care of this nasty infection pretty fast! They said that the infection was what was causing me to have so many contractions so things are good! Now I'm just hoping that I don't bruise too badly!

I have to say thanks to Aaron for being so sweet and supportive and for coming to the hospital after only 1 hour of sleep and then going to work all day! He truly is awesome!!!

CONTRACTIONS!

Call them Braxton Hicks or whatever the heck you want but I have had contractions every 2-7 minutes for 3 hours now and they are EXHAUSTING!!! The worst part is that I'm at work and have to get up to do stuff so I can't just lay down and hope they go away. Talk about SUPER uncomfortable! Right this second I am having my 43rd contraction in 3 hours exactly. I have witnesses if you don't believe me! The worst part is that when I am standing, I feel like I am going to pee all over! I literally have one witness convinced that this baby girl is going to be here in the next couple of hours! I can't even imagine! I don't even have my hospital bag packed yet! I honestly think I still have at least a few weeks left, but I highly doubt that I will make it to January at this rate! The last 5 contractions I have had have been 2 minutes apart each. It pretty much feels like a constant contraction and my back and pelvis are SO sore! I really want to be home in my bed next to my hubby! Come on 4 AM! Hurry up and get here so I can go home!