Roadtrippin' Part 1

On June 13, 2013. We loaded up in our Cruise America RV to start our journey to The Stewart Family reunion in Nauvoo, IL.   I didn't get a picture of the RV but I should have,  not as glamorous as you would think. In fact for the money you pay for them (and they aren't cheap). My dad was very disappointed.  I always wanted to take a cross country RV trip and now can say I have,  I don't think I will be taking another one anytime soon.  It was such a rattle trap at the end of every night when we made it to our hotels I had a headache and was ready for bed.  But going on this trip with my little family and my parents meant everything to me and was worth the headaches.

We had a great time though,  we drove up to Nauvoo with my parents and met Ryan's family in Nauvoo for the reunion. My dad wanted to follow the pioneer trek to Salt Lake from Nauvoo and so along the way we stopped at church sites.  I am so glad we did it made the trip all that much more spiritual.

Day1:  We drove to Evanston, WY a little town right outside of Salt Lake.  Got to the hotel and crashed.

Day2:  We drove to Casper, WY and saw Martin's Cove and Devil's Gate. This is where the Willie Handcart company was rescued by the brethren from Salt Lake. It was really windy so we toured the visitors center and then drove to where you could see Martin's Cove and took a picture.  There was actually two youth groups doing a pioneer trek.  

Day 3:  We drove to Mt. Rushmore and ended the night in Scotsbluff, NB. Mt. Rushmore was very cool and even though it was a few hours out of the way I am so glad we went.  Who knows if we will even make it out to that part of the country again. 

He looks thrilled huh?

Day 4: We drove to Omaha NE and saw the Winter Quarter's visitors center, cemetery and temple. 

Along the way we passed through a town called Dalton, population 315... How cool!!

Proof Holden was there :)

Day 5:  We drove to Nauvoo, IL.  We got there around dinner time,  unpacked and went swimming with Ryan's family.

Day 6:  First day of the reunion in Nauvoo.  We toured about half of the houses/shops.  Most of the shops had demonstrations about how they would make the product and every house shop had elder missionary couples explaining.  It was breezy and cool that day so we put Holden in his Baby Bjorn for a little while.  That was the only day we could do that.  The humidity in the Midwest...CRAZY!  I died

We ended the night seeing one of the outdoor shows at night and the kids were able to participate in the parade.

We also saw my Grandma Dalton's doppelgänger :)

iPics Overload

I take so many pictures of my baby daily, I may be obsessed :). Here is a few of my favorites over the last three weeks!

My first time holding him :)

Going home :)

I just realized he is always in stripes :)

What our bed looks like after a rough night.  He ends up in bed in his boppy. I'm keeping it real :)

We tired!

Love this man,  love watching him hold our baby.

One of his favorite ways to fall asleep on momma chest. So dishes stay dirty and I just rock and love him.

Holden's Birth Story

He is here!  And if almost makes me forget the horror that was his delivery,  but I figured I should put it out in the blogosphere so when he is being a brat as a teenager I have one more thing to document my suffering :)

On Wednesday, May 1st Ryan and I were scheduled to be at the hospital at 4am to start my induction,  we got there and got back to the room quickly.  By the time they hook you up start you IV fluids and ask you a million questions its 6am before you know it.  So 6am is when the action started, my first bag of pitocin.   The contractions started intensifying but it wasn't the horror I heard about induction contractions.  I had started at a soft 2 cm and 70% effaced and thinned so when I got to a 3 my nurse said Dr. Martin said I could have my epidural.   Let me tell you that epidural is amazing,  it didn't hurt at all and was over in 3 minutes. The anesthesiologist group at Summerlin Hospital was amazing btw..  Once I got the epidural and they broke my water I thought things would go quickly but it took forever to get to a 4,  they kept telling me that was the longest time and then things tended to speed up. I started getting heartburn so bad,  and my nurse would only give me two tums every 4 hours. So I threw up and it wasn't the last time.  Time passed and I crawled to a 4 and then a 5.  By this point it was 8pm at night and my parents and brother had stopped by for a visit,  we watched Survivor and then the nurse came in at 9pm to check me so I kicked my parents and brother out got checked and found out i was 8cm!!!  I was so excited and before they left said hopefully we would have a baby soon. I was tired and had thrown up like 4-5 times by this point.  My throat was killing me and sleep was out of the question.  But now I had a new problem,  I started feeling EVERYTHING!  turns out my baby was posterior (face up) and I was having major back labor.  It was bad.  There were tears and a meltdown.  No way would I ever want to go natural it HURT!  After a hour of the back labor I caved and the amazing anesthesiologist came and gave me a boost in my epi and I was happy again. Fast forward to midnight and I was a 9,  fast forward to like 2-3am and I was a finally a 10 and ready to push.  The problem was now I was exhausted, still throwing up from the heartburn oh and I started having back labor again.  SO FUN!!  My nurse wanted me to just try to push through the pain but I was so exhausted I couldn't do it and the anesthesiologist came and gave me a another boost. I felt so much better but my legs were jello now.   I pushed with Ryan and my nurse for what seemed like forever,  I was sleeping in between pushes and she would wake me up to push again.  We did this for a while but he wasn't descending.  She left to call Dr. Martin who was already on his way.  He came in the room and mentioned something about me not doing anything easy.  Which is so him and the reason I will never use another doctor here besides him :).  He made me push a few more times and Holden was still only half way down.   He basically said we had two options,  the vacuum or a csection.  He did not want to do the vacuum and I did not want to push anymore, so csection it was.   Within 20 minutes I was in the operating room and at 5:18am my little boy was brought into this world weighing 7lbs 2oz and beautiful. I slept through it :). I woke up to see him and went back to sleep. I slept through my entire surgery,  I slept through Ryan bringing the baby over to me,  I slept through them taking me back to my room and putting those wonderful warm blankets on me. I slept until they wheeled Holden in my room a few hours later.

Dr Martin said Holden was posterior and stuck because the cord was wrapped around his neck twice. That is why he was not descending.  He also at some point mentioned trying for a VBAC next time and I put the cabosh on that quickly. The next time I have a baby it will be a scheduled csection,  9 months to the day.

 The csection has not been bad at all recovery wise.  The next day I was up walking and going down to the NiCu (that's another post) to visit Holden.  When we got home I was in and out of bed,  by a week I was driving and taking him to appointments and as of today two and a half weeks I feel great.  That's why I will have another one.  If I was having lots of kids I would probably try a vaginal again but since we will probably only have one more I can handle one more surgery :)

We are so in love and I will do another post with the millions of pictures I take daily on my phone.  But I wanted to post the pictures Ryan took of his birth.  This is the only way I got to see him since I slept through it all. 

My labor SuCKED!  The shots and IVF SuCKED! My pregnancy SuCKED! But it was all worth it and I would do it all again because the minute I held him was indescribable.  I have never loved anything more.   

I also need to do a post about how amazing my husband is.  I love him more now than I ever have.  He takes the first shift at night so I am getting sleep from about 10-2 or 3am and it makes all the difference.  Every diaper he changes or bottle he feeds makes me so grateful he is mine. 

My little family of three (plus our two fur babies). Is perfect and we are so happy!  We wondered if this day would ever come and the wait was worth it!