August 2009

So far this month has been filled with anticipation! We have been trying to keep busy the past three weeks as we await the arrival of little Hayes. A couple weeks ago Ben decided that he really, really wanted a new dog. He absolutely hates my dog, Lily, mostly because she absolutely hates him. She is always following him around the house growling and everytime he walks in the door she barks her head off. She bit him for the second time a couple weeks ago and as we talked about getting rid of her =( we also started talking about getting a new dog because we really want the kids to grow up with pets. In the end we decided to keep Lily and, despite my wanting to wait (we are having a baby!!!! And starting school this month!!!! Who has time for a new dog?!?), we went ahead and adopted a 2 year old, female, chocolate lab. I refused to deal with potty training and chewing with an infant to care for at the same time. Sadie has been a wonderful addition to our growing family. She is very sweet and very calm. She is completely potty trained and definitely out of the puppy stage so with Ben taking on the responsibility of taking her out to do her business and Maddie feeding her everyday I hardly even know she is here. She lived previously in a house with a four year old so she is very gentle and tolerant of Maddie. For some reason she is scared to death of boys but never showed any fear of Ben. In fact, I think it's safe to say that she loves Ben the most. She follows him around everywhere he goes! Even if it's just from room to room within the house. And Ben is loving her because he finally has a fishing buddy. He can't wait to take her out on the ice this winter. Here's a picture of our sweet little girl.



With Ben finished with summer class we have had a lot more time to spend fishing and swimming the past few weeks. We took Maddie up Logan canyon to second dam and out to Cutler Resevoir to fish and over to Hyrum to swim. Here's some pictures from our adventures.

This is a picture from our fishing spot at second dam.










Here's Ben fishing with Maddie's little pink princess fishing pole. He really just casts it out for her but it's funny to see him holding it as if he were fishing with it. =)


Here's Maddie fishing at Cutler Resevoir.


"I wanna go home!"




The only catch of the day. Maddie caught a little catfish. As you can see she still thinks that fish bite.


Here's Maddie and Sadie swimming in Hyrum. Sadie loves the water and Maddie thought it was hilarious when Sadie swam by her.


As you can see in this picture Lily hates the water while Sadie jumped in and brought that tennis ball back to shore about 30 times.


About a week and a half ago we had a little bit of a scare with baby Hayes. I had noticed over the weekend that he hadn't been moving as much as he usually does and while I've read that it's normal for babies to slow down their activity level as they get bigger and have less room in your belly I also heard that babies should really continue their level of activity right up until the end but with more rolls and squirms rather than kicks. With this conflicting information I wasn't sure what to do so Monday morning I called my doctor's office. The nurse said to go ahead and do a kick count by drinking something cold and sugary and then laying down on my left side. If he didn't move 6 times within an hour she suggested I go up to the hospital and get checked out. After that hour I had only felt 3 movements so we headed up to the hospital to make sure Hayes wasn't under any kind of stress. They hooked me up to a monitor to track his movements and heart rate. The nurse said that they like to see a lot of accelerations and decelerations in the baby's heart rate and that a straight line, or consistent heart rate, was not good. After about 20 minutes Hayes hadn't moved at all and his heart rate was consistently around 145. The nurse came back with a little contraption to scare the baby. She put it up to my belly and pushed a button that emitted a loud noise into my uterus. She said it was the equivalent of sneaking up behind someone and scaring them. Boy did it scare him! He immedietely jumped and his heart rate shot up to about 180. After two good movements he settled down again and fell back to a constant heart rate of about 150. After 20 minutes of that they decided to try to scare him again. The second time he really didn't care. He didn't move and his heart rate stayed the same. They kept me on the monitor for another 30 minutes and in that time he had 3 good movements on his own and his heart rate had gone up and down with each one so they decided that he must have just been a bit sleepy and I was fine to go home. That night as I layed in bed trying to sleep he decided to practice some acrobatics for about an hour which more than made up for the weekend of sluggishness. Since then he has had some active days and some slow days so we'll see which personality he decides to take on when he gets here!

Since it's been about 16 weeks since I last posted pictures of my belly I figured I should get in one more shot before this baby is born. I've been avoiding the camera a lot since the first thing to get chubby when I gain weight is my face but here I am yesterday at 38 1/2 weeks.

In the past month about 4 or 5 strangers have found out how far along I am and can't believe it. They all said that I look like I have a couple months to go. I don't know about anyone else but I think I look pretty pregnant!


Yesterday we celebrated Maddie's 5th birthday! I can still remember falling completely in love with her the first time I held her and again everyday since. We wanted to make this year extra special since in the years to come her and Hayes will have birthdays so close together and we might not be able to spoil her quite as much as we usually do. We started out the morning by getting her all dressed up in her princess outfit complete with little heels and a crown. She is always asking me if she can put makeup on to which I am always saying no so I thought it would be a good day to let her get all dolled up.





After she was all ready I baked her princess cake, blew up 25 balloons (anyone who has ever been 9 months pregnant knows what a feat that is!), made and hung a banner, and set out her presents.



We were all ready for her party. My mom and step dad (Memaw and Papaw), and one of my little brothers (Uncle Tom) came over to celebrate with us. First she sat in her birthday chair and opened presents.





Sadie and Lily got her a new CD with songs from Disney movies.




Baby Hayes got her a piggy bank so she has somewhere to put her 300 pennies.




Uncle Tom got her a Littlest Pet Shop puzzle




Grandma (Ben's mom) got her a horse to go with her barbies.




She has been talking for a while about wanting to listen to music in her room while she plays so Ben and I got her a CD player.


These next few pictures are Maddie opening the present that her Memaw and Papaw (my mom and step dad) got her. She was a bit confused at first since she pulled out a set of baby doll clothes, then a little pink bear, and then a box with baby doll bibs and diapers. It took her a minute to understand why she was being given baby doll accessories but doesn't have a baby doll.









She finally got to the bottom of the bag and it all clicked. She loves this doll! It really sucks on a bottle, calls her mama, burps, hiccups, cries, laughs, and snores.


"Happy birthday to you!"




After her party Maddie went to play with all her new toys while I cleaned up. For dinner we went to Chili's which is Maddie's favorite resturaunt and we haven't been out to eat since our anniversary in April. She told the waiter it was her birthday and he spoiled her! He brought her 2 blackberry cream sprites, a big chocolate milkshake, and a bunch of cherries for free. She was definitely happy!



After our meal we took her to the movie theater to watch Up. In the end it was a great birthday and I hope she really enjoyed it. She has made our life so worthwhile the past 5 years. I hope she will always know how much we love her!

Now for a preview of what is to come. Tomorrow morning at 5:30 Ben and I will head up to the hospital in preperation for my c-section. I can't believe the day is finally here. It has been almost 32 weeks since we found out that what we thought was impossible was suddenly very possible. The days have, at times flown by and at other times drug on as we have waited for the arrival of our little boy. Overall I have been much more comfortable this pregnancy than I was with Maddie's so while I am absolutely ready to get this baby out of me it also seems like I should be made to suffer just a little bit more before it's really time. Nevertheless, the day is finally here and we are so excited! Well, I have a lot of nervousness mixed in with my excitment and Ben keeps commenting that it doesn't feel real to him yet. Of course not, he hasn't been kicked in the ribs, suffered horrible heartburn and nausea, and been completely unable to get comfortable the past few months. Hopefully my nervousness will go away. I just need to keep my eye on the prize! I remember going through my c-section with Maddie. I threw up twice in the operating room and had horrible shakes from the anesthesia. I was really out of it and hardly remember the surgery at all but the first time I held Maddie and looked into her sweet little face I felt like I could do it all over again. It was more than worth it. If I can just remember that moment and know that it's coming again then maybe I can keep the excitement up and the nervousness down. At any rate, we will arrive at the hospital at 5:30. I'll get changed into a lovely hospital gown, they will start my IV, take blood, monitor the baby, I'll meet with the anesthesiologist, blah, blah, blah. My surgery will start at 7:30 and they anticipate that it will be over by 8:30 or 8:45. Once Hayes is out they will let me hold him for a minute or two while they stitch me back up and then he and Ben will be off to the nursery for his first bath, shots, and footprints. After my surgery they will transfer me to a recovery room where they will check my vital signs once and as long as everything looks good they will bring Ben and Hayes to me for a bit of bonding time. We will be in recovery for about an hour or hour and a half at which time they will transfer us all to a postpartum room and Maddie will be able to come in and meet her new little brother. My doctor has assured me that there is a very good chance I will be able to go home Sunday night so we are hoping for a short hospital stay! I will have the computer at the hospital with me so I will do my best to get some pictures up tomorrow afternoon. I'm sure either I or Ben will do it so check back then!