The day Grant was born and BEYOND!

Friday:

Who would have known how today's' events would unfold? Definitely not Chris & I! We went in early Friday morning, to the Jordan Valley Hospital, to be induced. Grant was already over a week overdue. We had tried everything to help him along...from Ian William's fool proof secret salsa inducing sauce (Tuesday), to a bike ride out to the airport control tower (Thursday) among other activities. I was having contractions but nothing put me into labor.

(This is me...happy to be getting induced and excited for the baby.)

Once there I was still not progressing and the Dr. put me on petocin. (Really wasn't excited about that one.) After another few hours and thinking how great I was handling the contractions, I still had not dilated past a 2! They did an ultrasound only to find that the baby was breech. Well, this explained why nothing was happening. So things started to get "interesting." The next course of action was to try to turn him around in my belly...a very painful procedure. I got an epidural (another thing I was trying to see if I could avoid) and then they tried turning him. Even though I was certainly numb, it was the most painful thing ever. After three attempts, the Dr. stopped. The baby would not turn, he was just too big and there wasn't enough room to move and he didn't want to hurt the baby by forcing things.

Then things went even worse...the only option left was a cesarean. Talk about emotional overload! Chris & I tried so hard to keep things together, but we were struggling. Now I was facing major surgery. The most I have ever had "done" in a hospital; besides having 2 babies regularly, was 3 stitches
in my thumb about 5 years ago.

We had a couple hours until I was to have the surgery and Chris called a good friend from work to come and help give me a blessing. We are so grateful for the Priesthood. The comfort from that blessing was enough to help me calm down and think clearly as I asked the nurse what to expect. That in itself was a blessing as she had all her children by cesarean. I was also able to call my best friend Kayla & even though there wasn't enough time for her to get to the hospital to be there with me, talking with her was greatly calming.

When the time came to go in, Chris got all dressed in his little suit. The epidural wasn't working anymore and they had to give me a spinal tap. My body was reacting so weird to the various drugs in my system I was shaking uncontrollably! Chris found it amusing and was administering field sobriety tests on my eyes. Hilarious...definitely was not in any condition to drive - failed miserably!

The anaesthesiologist was the best ever. Everyone was really helpful and calming and the procedure went better than I could have hoped for. Chris, ever curious, asked if it was ok with me if he watched what they were doing on the other side of the curtain. Of course I was fine with it - I actually knew it was coming anyway. At 5:29 PM Grant Roscoe was born.

He weighed a hefty 8 pounds and 10.5 ounces and was 21 1/2 inches long. As soon as he was born, he coughed and started to scream and BOY was it loud! The only hard thing was that I couldn't hold him yet until I was all stitched up.

Daddy got to hold him first.

Once we were both all cleaned up and finished, they wheeled me to my recovery room. Chris said that Kayla was there in the room waiting and I about burst into tears right there! Gosh, typing this is making me want to cry again. I am so blessed to have her as my friend. She knew how much I needed her and she did everything she could to be there for me. Thank you so much Kayla!

We were on the road to recovery.

So, you may be wondering where the girls were all this time. They were with Aunt Holly - our wonderful friend, who has been "adopted" as our family. She stayed with the girls the entire weekend and spoiled them like crazy! She brought them down to see us every day.

I think Christianna is started to be more excited about this whole boy business.

Grant's First Bath

Chris was there for it, he started out crying but soon calmed down with the warm water washing him.

The girls were happy to come and visit and meet their brother!

Uncle David came to visit as well...

...along with our soon-to-be Aunt Heather.

We also had the Blackburn family and a couple of my YW advisers and one of the Young Women visit. It was just wonderful to have them stop by!

Alright, in keeping with tradition, we put this outfit on Grant to take him home. This is the very same outfit that Chris came home in from the hospital as a baby. There was a boy & girl outfit that his parents would bring to the hospital each time. They only ever used the boy outfit so we used the girl one for Victoria & Christianna and now this one for Grant!

When we got home Monday evening (finally) the YW had decorated the garage and baby's room. They are such great girls!

After all was said and done, we were blessed to have another member in our family. It was well worth the wait for this little guy.

Happy Mother's Day!

This Mother's Day was wonderful for me! First, we were in Cedar over the weekend so the girls and I were able to go to Sacrament meeting with my parents. Victoria & Christianna were a bit sad that they would not be singing with their Primary back home. Mom talked with the Primary Song leader there and the girls were able to sing with their Primary! It was so sweet. Each child was given a pretty rose to hold while they sang and then they each gave them to their Mothers when they were done. Victoria gave hers to Mom...such a sweetheart!

After Sacrament, we headed home. My goal was to be home in time for dinner. We actually beat Chris home from church. He was so cute! He had this huge smile on his face and said,"I just can't wait!" He then opened the microwave to show me his masterpiece.

He then critiqued his work - but I thought it was fantastic! He even made the frosting for it - which was no small task since he had to find the recipe first and it turns out that it was not labeled as to what it was. It was just a scrap of paper with the ingredient list...not instructions as to what you do with them! So typical of me!! ha ha

I really didn't take a bite out of it....

...but I did accidentally get frosting on me.

Not sure were Victoria was and I am kinda sad that she wasn't in the picture!

All in all, we had a good dinner and dessert and I was able to spend it with my family.

What more could I ask for?

Mutual Ice Skating

Tonight we spent my birthday having a blast ice skating with the young men and women. We took everyone up to the University of Utah rink. Some may think I was a little crazy for skating while pregnant - but I love to skate and didn't want to sit this fun activity out! That is one thing about me - just hate to be left out. (Just ask Chris, he'll tell you!)

This here is a picture of some of the leaders.

This is our awesome Bishop! (He didn't skate though...party pooper!)

(Don't let this picture fool you - Liz had a good time and wasn't on her phone all night.)

My girls just LOVE to skate! They were so excited to be able to come with us on this activity. They both have only skated a few times in their lives, but they picked it up so fast.

Once Christianna and I took a couple trips around together, she had enough confidence to just go at it alone!

I think this was taken right after I had fallen on mybackside.

It wasn't my fault - entirely! I was skating in the direction we were supposed to be going and I had my camera out taking some pictures of the youth. Well, these 3 younger kids came from the wrong direction and totally cut me off! I tried to stop, but instead fell. Hey - it was the first and ONLY time I fell too. My little camera totally broke. As I was looking at it, a couple YW came up and told me that that little group of kids went off the ice chatting with themselves and said "You totally made that old lady fall!"

NICE!!! AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!! Do you think 32 is "old?"

Anyway - they came up and apologized to me later on about the old lady comment. I am still bugged that my camera broke.

Here I am with Liz and Jessica - the most wonderful counselor EVER!!!

I may be explaing to Jazzen that his head gear isn't appropriate and that he should put it back on the ice....

....what do you think?

Looking at these pictures totally made me cackle - LOUDLY.

Chris getting ready for his big move...

...ooops!!!!!

Isn't it great that he can laugh at himself??? (That's why I didn't feel too bad laughing too.)

I just had to include this picture of Christianna's backside. In learning to skate without me, she fell a few times. She just got a little wet :-)

Here are a few of our fearless leaders. Peter, Sylvia and Nelson.

Not sure what really happened here - when I went to investigate, the story sounded a little fishy.

And thus ends another fantastic activity with our youth!