NEWBORN PICTURES!!

Jaelyn took some really great pictures of Aydri today. Words can't even describe how pleased I am with these. Check out her blog and her website to see more amazing pictures.

Yard Sale - Tomorrow

Sunset Ridge is having a yard sale tomorrow. We are cleaning out our print inventory and will have a lot of prints and mats and frames to sale for way cheap. We got some prints up to 16 x 20 for $1. Some 16 x 20 frames for $5. Great mother's day stuff. Come check us out.

Baby Aydri - Birth Story

Aydri was born April 18th at 7:37 pm. She weighed 6 lbs. 13 oz. and was 20 inches long. Labor started about 2 am when contractions kept waking me up. I started watching the clock and realized they were about 4 minutes apart. I got up to see if it would make them change. They got to be about a minute apart for about an hour. Jared got up a 3 am to make waffles. We ate and got everything ready. After eating I noticed the contractions slowed down a little so I went to lay down to relieve the pain in my back. Contractions slowed down to about 10 minutes, but they were still intense so I knew this was for real. Got back up at 6 am. Contractions picked up again. My parents came and got Kendi at 8:00. We decided to go to the hospital so they could tell us how I was progressing. I originally wanted to stay home as long as I could because I wanted to go completely natural. My labor with Kendi was so quick and easy I thought this would be a possibility. I was glad we went to the hospital because as soon as they hooked me up to the monitors they could see a dip in the baby's hear rate with every contraction. The nurse immediately said that it looked like a "cord problem." She turned out to be right, but at the time we didn't know what kind of cord problem. She just suggested that the cord was tightening or getting pinched with the pressure from the contractions. The baby was not facing the right way and was causing a lot of back labor. I tried a lot of different things to get her to turn and she never did. My doctor was gone so the doctor on call suggested breaking my water to speed things up. I was surprised to learn that I was at 4 centimeters when I got to the hospital. I let them break my water and things did speed up fast. Contractions got harder and I started dilating quickly. A half an hour later i was 6 centimeters. They even got the room ready for the baby to come. Back labor got worse and wouldn't let up and the baby was still facing the wrong way. I stayed at 6 centimeters for a long time. At 6 pm there was still no progress from a 6. I was at my pain limit and felt like I was losing my strength and was going to pass out. The doctor came and told me they had to start pitocin because they had broke my water so long ago. I had been in labor for a total of 15 hours. Jared had talked me through every single contraction for the last 5 hours. Jared was the best coach. We were using the Bradley Method and it made all the difference. I told them not to start pitocin until I got an epidural. I had to wait for the anisthesiologist to get to the hospital. I got the epi and they started pitocin and I immediately started to feel that familiar pressure of the baby coming. After a half hour of the pit my progression was complete. I'm not sure what finally made her descend and face the right way, but it felt like a miracle to me. By then my doctor was back and was able to deliver Aydri. We found out that the cord was wrapped around her so tight that it wasn't letting her turn the right way or descend like she was supposed to. The doctor had to cut the cord off her before she was all the way out. She wasn't breathing so the respiratory therapists took her to get her breathing quickly. She was fine after about a minute. She scored well on all the tests and is doing really well still. She nurses all night, sleeps all day and seems to be pretty content. She looks a lot like Kendi did when she was born.

Just Born
After 18 hours of Labor.

Kendi absolutely loves Aydri. She told us that mom and dad can stay at the hospital and she was going to take Aydri home. She kept running off to the nursury to look at her. She kept calling her "My Baby."

Proud Daddy. So willing to help.

Baby Update!

Sorry, no baby news. Just got back from the Doctor and I've had very little progression toward labor. I'm not surprised. It was the same way when Kendi was born. I didn't show any progression until the day we had her. Kendi was 9 days early. If this one comes 9 days early it would be about thursday of this week. I'm not in any hurry. I want her to be good and done before she comes.

Who Needs a Doll House?

Who needs a doll house when you have FISHING WORMS? We were able to enjoy watching conference this weekend. We watched the Saturday afternoon session at my parents house. My dad was reorganizing his fishing tackle and let Kendi play with a bag of worms. Kendi played with them the whole time. The cute little worm voices didn't bother me while I listened to conference because it was so funny. She even gave them a ride in her baby buggy.

Jared is able to focus on conference when he is drawing. He always has a pad of paper and a pencil with him during conference. He usually draws whoever falls asleep, but no one did this time. I told him I would sit for him if he would make a quick, non-serious sketch.

For some perplexing reason Jared can never get my face in a live picture. I have sat multiple times and it has never worked out. He doesn't understand why either. Its odd because portraiture is his specialty.

I was especially grateful for conference this weekend. Its getting harder and harder to find something to wear to church. I always end up looking ridiculous and I get the strangest comments from people at church. I hate to admit it, but it was nice to sit at home and watch it on TV.