Welcome Baby #3!

The last 6 weeks of my pregnancy were so uncomfortable! Baby sis was headdown on my blatter from 32 weeks on. Everytime I went to my doctor, he couldn't below how low she was. My poor blatter! I couldn't sleep, I couldn't pee, I couldn't bend over - they were a very long 6 weeks.

Lucky for me, I finally was induced at 39 weeks, February 27, 2022.

My mom came up Saturday to be with Sof and Claire while we went in bright and early Sunday to be induced. Greg and I were up by 5:00 and on our way to Layton Hospital by 6:00 am. I got checked in and ready to go, or so we thought. It was strange to stroll into a hospital without being in labor - kind of surreal, almost like we were going shopping for a baby.

It took over an hour, 7 nurses, 5 pokes, and 1 vein finding machine to finally get me hooked up to an IV. My veins refused to cooperate, and it could be due to that fact that I was dehydrated - whoops! But they got me hooked up and ready to go. I tested positive for Strep B this time around, so I needed 4 hours for the antibiotics to kick in before I could have le bebe, so I got real comfy and found a ball to bounce on, which actually helped quite well early on with contractions. I ended up getting an epidural somewhere around 11:30 am because the anesthesiologist was scheduled to be in a surgery later. This time around, the epidural was very uncomfortable. I felt the entire thing going into my back, and it ended up being the most painful thing about my whole delivery, but it also ended up being my best epidural too, which is strange. I could still move my numb legs, so I didn't need to have anyone hold them, which was a nice change. Overall, between the IV experience and painful epidural, I'm not sure if I would choose to be induced again.

This is a pic Greg snapped of me being surrounded by nurses all waiting their turn to poke me. It was kind of horrible.

Patiently waiting at home with Grandma for news about the baby.

My Doctor was hilarious. He checked in before I had the baby to see how I was doing. He told us not to go anywhere, and that if we needed him, he would be at church. Where did he think we would go? When he finally did come back, he showed up in his church clothes, robed up, and caught the baby all in his church attire. It was awesome. You can tell he's done that more than once - just another day in the life. There was another mom delivering next door, and we were neck-in-neck with each other all morning. She beat me delivering by about 5 minutes. Oh well. Last the best of all the game, right?

She's here!

This was by far, 1000% my best delivery. My doctor was amazing and I recovered so well! No donut for me, which was a total gamechanger. I had a tiny tear, which was night and day difference from my last deliveries. I guess a real doctor does make all the difference. Overall though, the delivery in this hospital was different. They weren't super busy, so the nurses were very responsive to my needs and were quick to deliver. As soon as the baby was out, she was up on my chest. I barely had time to realize what was going on, but it was so special for me, to know that the heartache I had experienced through the last 2 years was over. That the lonliness was past, and I finally had a baby in my arms. It was the first time I looked at my sweet baby and got emotional. My eyes watered, and I was so in love. She was everything I had waited for, and she was perfect. All of my efforts, heartbreaks, and energy was worth it. My sweet baby was here.

Oh how I love her!

February Fun

I've said it before and I'll say it again. It's always so fun to go back through the month and be reminded how much fun we had. Life may seem dull in the moment, but as a collective whole, it really isn't so bad :). We tried to pack in as much fun as we could as a family of 4 before our lives changed for the better. I think we succeeded in that goal.

I'm also realizing how much I got accomplished around the house! I put up a new shelf in 2 closets, redid the trim in the baby room, redid the windowsill and put trim up around the window, painted, sewed a blessing dress. I was busy!

Claire discovered her newfound love of taco's! She's been begging to go to Taco Time for weeks and I finally took her. Her life has been changed for the better.

Enjoying a quiet moment in the baby room with my hands-free table and a chocolate shake.

I finally got around to making a blessing dress. It's not perfect, but I kind of love it!

Just a little dance class going on in the front room.

A warm day at the park. Claire posing for a picture - it never gets old.

They studied dinosaurs in Claire's class one week. It was pretty adorable.

multitasking at it's finest.

It's amazing how much higher I could bounce the girls with all my pregnancy weight gain. I guess it was good for something.

No-neck Claire is still going strong. It will be a sad day when she grows out of this sweatshirt.

Sof had a really fun birthday party. She had a blast at the trampoline park in Ogden.

Watching Greg go around and around this slide brings me so much joy!

Claire filled this out in preschool, and I think her answers are hilarious. Her teachers are probably wondering what the heck some of her answers means.
"I love it when my mom: does doorknobs."
Clarification: Our whole upstairs got new doorknobs because they have never matched. One more thing I did before the baby came :).

Greg made yummy Cincinnati Chili for our Superbowl meal, and this was one potent onion. Safety glasses were essential.

We set up our old TV in the girls room during the Super Bowl. They were so excited to watch their own shows in their room. I'm hoping their eyes aren't forever ruined.

If you're wondering how my life was the last few weeks before baby comes ...

Greg took Sof to the Fruit Loops and she was hooked!

Yummy Cincinnati Chili!

A picture of Greg, courtesy of Claire.

A flashback of the girls on Valentine's Day. Because I love it, and it's how I still feel about this useless holiday.

Jumping on the tramp hoping to induce labor. PSA: It didn't work. Baby Girl was in their nice and tight and had no intentions of coming any time soon.

Getting Froyo to celebrate Lindsey's birthday. Greg hates the concept of Froyo, so he wasn't too thrilled. the rest of us, however, loved it!

Our love of the foot massager is still going strong!

This cat is hilarious. And his face at the end kills me every time.

This video of Claire perfectly describes her relationship with her Daddy. I love it. And this is how Greg relaxes at the end of the day. He scrolls ESPN while getting his cat therapy sesh in.

Claire loves the blowup section of Get Air. She's hilarious!

A fun day swimming

 February came and the countdown to Baby Sister was on! 4 weeks and counting. The girls had been begging to go swimming in what felt like forever, so Greg found a Saturday he could work from home, and we made it happen. We tried the Clearfield Aquatic Center out, and it was pretty fun. The girls were in heaven and loved swimming for 3 hours. Greg was a good sport and kept them entertained while I watched from a nearby bench. I had more than 1 employee offer me a comfy place to sit other than the bench, which was so nice of them, but they don't realize that my short torso is actually more comfortable standing than anything, so I politely declined.

We got there earlier than we realized, so the pool wasn't open yet. The girls had fun killing time by running around the indoor track.

Sof easily passed the swimming test required to go down the big slide by herself. She was so proud!

And a random picture of Claire I was sent from her preschool. She is hilarious and her teachers get the biggest kick out of her.

Side story: Greg hadn't been in Costco for about 8+ months, and when he went with us he was drawn to the TV's. I've been mentioning/joking with him that it's time to upgrade our TV, because my eyesight gets so bad when I'm pregnant. Anyway, after that 1 trip to Costco, he did his research and decied on the TV he wanted. After getting home from swimming, he and Sof booked it to Costco to buy the new TV, which is beautiful! He tells people he bought it for me, and I tell people he bought it for him. All we know is that we love it and have zerio regrets, other than not getting Greg to visit Costco sooner 😉.

Happy 34th Bday to Greg!

Greg turned 34. It's hard for me to realize that he is almost 1/2 way through his 30's. Where is the time going? Our girls were sick this year, so we kept the celebrations in house - just the way Greg likes it.

Sof had a sick day on Greg's birthday. I wish my sick days looked like this.

I made Greg promise to be home before bedtime on his birthday. He made good on that promise.

The local celebrity.

Happy Birthday Greggy! We sure do love ya!

One last trip before Baby Sister

Greg always has to work President's Day weekend, so true to tradition, I took the girls South for one last trip to Cedar before the baby was due. I was 34 weeks pregnant, so it was not the easiest trip, but boy did we have a lot of fun!

We left right when Sof got out of school and stopped to eat at the Costa Vida in Filmore - which will only be a 1 time thing. The line was crazy long, and there were only about 3 workers to handle everyone's orders. We waited close to 30 min in line just for our food. It's a good thing we love Costa Vida. Also, Claire was licking the windows left and right. That girl, I swear ... 

We sent Greg a dinner selfie and Greg sent one back. The poor guy was eating dinner at his desk, still at work. We wished he was with us.

This is how Mittens feels after being forced to be outside all day. The poor dear.

We had a fun day planned. I took the girls to get haircuts at the local hair college, and ended up getting them little manicures too. It was fun to watch them get pampered.

We barely missed seeing Shelby swim. We showed up right as she was climbing out of the pool, but let it be known that we tried!

Sof convinced my Dad to take us on a 4-wheeler ride. So he got the machines loaded and we headed out to Three Peaks. It has been awhile since I've been out there, and I forget how beautiful the view is. Cedar really does have a lot of amazing recreation opportunities.

Snuggled in the back of the truck.

My mom's motorcycle is so fun! It's even better when we get her to ride it :).

Sof was having a blast driving the 4-wheeler all by herself.

Having fun with my little bestie!

Claire insisted on taking a picture of me, and showed me how to pose. This was the result.

Me and my mini.

Sof got a small taste of my childhood when my Dad took her up a really steep hill. I think she loved it!

This will forever be one of my favorite pictures of them!

I am learning Claire gets chilled really easy. Poor girl was out in the cold too long and wasn't feeling very good after getting back to Grandma's.

We had fun going to my Parent's ward on Sunday. We were taking full advantage of the long weekend. We ended up going to St. George on Monday, but true to tradition, I left my phone in Cedar and didn't get pics. I've now done that twice on two different occasions. We went to the Tonaquint Dinosaur Park and got froyo with Grandma, which quickly became a tradition. Then, we hit Target, because why not?

We left to go home on Tuesday because the girls had it off from school. Davis School District declared it a Teacher Prepd Day, so we headed back. We had a long, fun-filled weekend. 

We had so much fun in Cedar! Sof drew this cute picture for my Mom. She sure loves her Grandma and visiting Cedar City.

January Fun

 It's amazing how quickly January can go when anticipating the arrival of a new baby. Usually I dread January, like I really hate it, but this time around each day brought us closer and closer to the arrival of Baby Girl #3. And we were able to have some fun in the process.

An absolutely beautiful sunrise one morning!

I set the girls up the cutest floating desk. They love it and are often found coloring together. It's the cutest!

We got the crib all set up and it became Claire's new favorite spot. Anytime she colored a new picture, she would cut it out and have me hang it up in Baby Sister's room. 

Claire wanted to take a dance class. We signed her up for a trial class at Illume and she was the cutest to watch! After I thought she loved the class, she came out and informed me that she had not had any fun and wanted to continue taking singing insead. That made the decision easy for me. Claire is once again singing with Ms. Karen this season and is as happy as a clam.

Rainy day puddles! Mother Nature is so weird.

Sof had the audacity to look so grown up in her school pic.

Claire drew the cutest family portrait.

This is quite possibly the worst picture of me in the history of ever, but I don't really have any pictures of me pregnant with the other girls, so here I am posting one to the world wide web.

More fun at the trampoline park.

Poor Mittens.

Then again, maybe he deserves all the tormenting he gets. I laid the fabric out to for the blessing dress I was planning to make, and what did the cat do? Miraculously find it in the furthest corner of the basement and considered it his new napping spot. On the bed. The nerve! After I had washed the fabric. Bless his furry little heart.

Did I mention this was Claire's favorite spot? 😍