First Smile!

I know I already made a post today, but I just had to put this picture on because I finally got a picture of Hali smiling! She has been smiling here and there for a couple of weeks, but today I was finally quick enough to get the picture. It's not the greatest picture because I was talking to her and trying to take the picture at the same time. It is totally slanted, but I was just thrilled to get the picture. She has been such a good baby today! I just love it when she is so happy - doesn't she have the cutest little dimples? We sure love our little munchkin!

Hali's First Christmas

Our first Christmas as a family!

Hali is so excited Santa came! (Look at those cute dimples)

You can see she is thrilled with the life jacket Santa brought her! Of course it's Hyperlite, Travis would allow nothing else!

I couldn't resist, doesn't she look cute in her stocking?

We were sure spoiled this year for Christmas!

I love Christmas, and it seems to come and go so quickly! This year we had Christmas in Richfield with my family. It was so much fun with Hali (even if she slept most of the time). We must have been very good this year because we got spoiled! Santa brought me a picture of the Manti temple and digital scrapbooking - which I love. Travis got a new drill and he can't wait to use. Hali got her very own Hyperlite life jacket so she can start wakeboarding this summer. At least that's what Travis is thinking - he forgets she will only be 6 months old! Our parents gave us a Bosch, money, cd player, and the cool egg cooker toaster (way cool), and a whole bunch of other things - like I said we were very spoiled! Hali also got a darling rocking chair and table set, Roxy shoes, and a Fisher price sleep and sounds aquarium. We had a HUGE surprise on Christmas morning and that was that Santa brought Hali a Nintendo Wii - crazy I know!! Hali and I were so shocked - however, Travis didn't seem too surprised (funny how that works). Of course Hali loves it and we can't stop her from playing it! Overall, we had a wonderful Christmas, and the best part about it was just being with family!

Pictures of our Princess

We are very lucky she loves her carseat so much!

All dressed up in Dad's favorite outfit, just waiting for him to come home from work.

We're in big trouble this girl loves to be naked!

Finally, now that we are home from the hospital I can hold her whenever I want.

One of Hali's many funny faces. I was trying to get a picture of her dimples, but I'm still not fast enough!

She definitely got the Barney's curly hair!

Hali is finally here!

Ready to be induced!
After a long day and night she finally arrived November 16th at 3:26 am.

8lbs 20 inches (with two cute dimples and curly dark blonde hair!)
This this the second time I got to see and hold her.
Daddy holding Hali in the NICU (that's an IV in her head-so sad!) She had so many wires attatched to her little body.
Finally after four days in the NICU, we get to take her home!

Now that Hali is almost a month old I am finally getting the chance to post some pictures. I will just give the story of the journey we had to get her here.

I was scheduled to be induced on November 15th, so at 11:30 they called us and we headed to the hospital about an hour later. I got all hooked up to the petocin and antibiotic for Strep B at about 1:00 in the afternoon. I was dialated to a two and a half when we arrived at the hospital. At about two thirty I got my epidural (I really had no desire to feel anything). A few hours later I finally dialated to a four, but stayed there for several hours.

Everything was going great until about 8:00pm. At that time I just started shaking uncontrollably and it never stopped until I had her (besides when Travis, my dad, and father in-law gave me a blessing it stopped for about fifteen minutes). I think the shaking for seven hours is what made me more exhausted than anything.

My body did some crazy things with all of the fluids I was on. Initially, my epidural lasted about four hours before I had to get a new bag of fluid, however, as time went on the fluid went faster and faster through my body. By the end I had to get a new bag of epidural fluid every hour (because of this I was feeling a lot of pain!) The nurse said I went through five times the amount of fluid the average mother goes through during labor. She had never seen someone go through as much petocin as I had without having the baby. Apparently, my body metabolizes the IV fluids extremely fast.

At 11:00 I was finally dialated to a nine and a half and again there I stayed for four and a half hours. I tried to push for about a half an hour but she was posterior and stuck. Apparently I have an abnormal pelvic bone shape (as does my sister). Finally, my doctor decided that the only way we were going to get her here was by C-section, and after fifteen hours of labor I was fine with that. Unfortunately, they had to put me completely out during my C-section because I was feeling him when he was pinching me and it kind of freaked me out. So I never got to hear her cry for the first time and when she was born she had to go straight to the NICU because I had a fever during labor and that put her at risk for an infection. So she was born at 3:26 am weighing in at 8 pounds and was 20 inches long and I didn't even get to see her until 8:00 am. I have to admit it was such a weird feeling because I never saw her come out, so when I went to the NICU to see her it was just like looking at someone elses baby. To me my baby was still inside me!

We were hoping to get Hali out of the NICU after 48 hours because that is the protocol for Correo (fever during labor) however, she was in there for the four whole days I was in the hospital. That meant we never got to have her in the hospital room with us. It was really frustrating because whenever we would have visitors Travis would have to take them down to the NICU to see her, meanwhile I would just be in my hospital room by myself (because of the C-section I had a hard time going to the NICU).

The whole experience wasn't exactly like I had pictured in my head, however, she is beautiful and healthy and we couldn't be any more happy about that! We feel so blessed to finally have this little baby girl in our home! However, I must say I do look forward to having a scheduled C-section with my next baby and being able to have the baby in the hospital room with us.

We are all doing great now. The recovery from the C-section wasn't nearly as bad as I had expected. Luckily I had that kidney surgery last year to prepare me for this and compared to that the C-section was nothing!! Thank you for all of your emails, calls, and visits. I'll get some more pictures up a little more quickly next time!