Kollyn Marie

I feel like I'm a person who really only blogs when there is something exciting to blog about, and maybe now I'll be more of a blogger because I'm now going to have a lot of things to blog about.

On Saturday November 30, at 3:24 AM, we welcomed Kollyn Marie to our family after about 12 hours of being in the hospital and almost 24 hours of actual labor.

On Friday November 29, I woke up around 6 with intense cramping and realized I was bleeding. I woke David up and, since we were at my parents house because we celebrate Thanksgiving the day after to allow all my siblings to come, we packed up and drove back down to the hospital in American Fork. I was checked (only dilated to 1 cm which I had been for the past three weeks), given some medication for the contraction pains, and then sent home. The nurse told me to monitor the contractions, since I'd finally started feeling them and being able to time them, and come back when they got more intense.

We called my parents, told them about it, and told them that we weren't going to be coming up to dinner because we wanted to stay close to the hospital, just in case anything happened. My mom then called my sister Melissa who lives in Lehi and asked if we could do dinner at their house so David and I could join them and still be close to the hospital. We're lucky to have such supportive family members!

David and I went home from the hospital and decided to try and take a nap, since we'd woken up earlier than we'd originally planned. I didn't really nap, mostly just closed my eyes and timed the contractions. They weren't very regular and didn't seem to be increasing in intensity but I wasn't sure if that was because of the pain medication they'd given me, or if they weren't getting more intense. I had times all over the place, from 2 minutes apart to 11 minutes apart so I was thinking, I might be in labor, but it's just early labor and the nurse said that could last for days so I wasn't very concerned.

At around 1 we headed up to my sister's house. The contractions felt like they were getting more intense but I wasn't sure if that was because the pain medicine was wearing off or if they actually were getting more intense. Each time I had one hit, I'd grab David's hand and squeeze through the pain. Doing that made the pain a lot more bearable, and it gave me hope that I'd be able to go unmedicated through the labor and delivery. My doctor and I had discussed it because I have scoliosis and the way my back was curved, he wasn't sure the epidural would really be as effective in reducing the pain as it would be if my back was straight.

All through dinner the contractions kept coming and each time I would reach over and grab David's hand, my sisters would watch me, ask if it was a contraction, and then ask me if they were getting more intense, how long it had been, and seem to get more and more excited as they seemed to get more painful. I was feeling really hot, really achy, and really tired by the end of dinner so I laid down on the couch, not able to sleep but glad to close my eyes. We left around 5 to go back home because the pain was getting more intense and I was feeling really hot. On our way home David asked if I wanted to go back to the hospital and see if they could give me some more medication so I could sleep through the night. I wasn't sure but as the exit neared another contraction hit that was really painful, so I decided we could give it a try.

We went back to the hospital at 5:30 and the nurse checked me. I was dilated to 3 cm so she decided to ask the doctor who was on call for my OB's office, Dr. Cloward, what she wanted to do. She decided to admit me at 6:30 pm. The contractions were close together and more intense, but having a warm bath helped me deal with the pain for a little while. Dr. Cloward came in at 8:30 to break my water and after that, the contraction pain became exponentially worse. My parents came and helped by bringing things up from our apartment and being there when the pain got really bad. David was so supportive, constantly telling me that I could do it, that I was doing so great, he held my hand while I went through the contractions, and put pressure on my back and pushed on my knees to help relieve the pain and pressure from my lower back as the contractions came and went.

At about 9:30 I was in so much pain I knew I needed the epidural because I knew I needed to sleep but the contraction pain was going to keep me from doing that. After David and I talked about it, I decided I wanted the epidural and David, after double checking to make sure that it was really what I wanted, went to find the anesthesiologist. Almost immediately the nurse and anesthesiologist came in and started getting set up. They told me it would take them 10 minutes to set up, 10 minutes to put the epidural in, and 10 minutes for it to kick in. I was excited about having only a half hour of the pain to deal with. Unfortunately, because of how my back is curved, it took an hour and a half for him to get the epidural in. The pain in my lower back during the contractions was almost unbearable, and at about 10:30 I passed out from how much pain I was in, only to wake up a half hour later when he said that he was done.

The relief was almost instantaneous. The tears that had been tears of pain were now tears of relief. I had made it about 5 hours in the hospital without the epidural and that made me feel pretty good, but I was so happy to have a relief from the pain. I was finally able to sleep and I did, until about 2 am on November 30. At that point I woke up, threw up for about two minutes, and then was getting ready to go back to sleep when the nurse said that usually when you throw up it means you're ready to push so they checked me again, and sure enough, I was at 10 cm.

They had paged Dr. Lind, my doctor, and he had said he was on his way, even though he wasn't on call that night. He got there at about 2 am, just as I was getting ready to push. The nurse told me what to do and had David on one side holding my knee up to my chest and my mom on the other side.

Then, after a little more than an hour, she said that I was really close and went to get the doctor. He came in with a few more nurses, from the nursery, and a respiratory specialist, since when they broke my water they found meconium in it. Luckily there were no problems from that.

And so, at 3:24 am, after a little over an hour of pushing, we caught the first glimpse of our little girl. It's amazing that feeling right after having a baby. It's an intense relief from the pressure, but it's so surreal. It's hard to think that the reason for all the little flutterings and flips is right there now, you can see them and hold them now. It's also crazy to think that this little person is half you, half someone else, and that they depend on you for absolutely everything.

Our little angel was 7 pounds 8 ounces, 19.5 inches long, and just gorgeous. I said she looked more like David but I keep hearing people say she looks like me. I don't really see that.

It's a weird feeling, being a parent, especially since the timing wasn't what we had originally planned on, but it's been rewarding so far.

I'm lucky that my parents live close because we were able to spend the first week there. The extra help was awesome! It made it a little bit easier to adjust to the new responsibilities, and it was nice since David had a huge project due that next week that he needed to work on every day. Having the help from my mom and dad was invaluable. 

Also the help from my sisters. Their advice was great. Laura told us her method to helping babies sleep through the night and since we started trying it, Kollyn wakes up once in the night instead of the five that she woke up the first time that had me on the phone to my mom in tears because I didn't know what to do. Since then, nights have been easier, and it's been nice having David around. He doesn't wake me up at night though...not sure how I feel about that.

And now, just some overload of cuteness for those of you who actually made it through all those words. :)

Grammy and Kollyn. Kollyn loved spending time with Grammy last week.

And Kollyn with her Poppa. Yet another one of Poppa's sugar-pies.

She got spoiled with cuddles and love all week.

The stocking that Grammy and Poppa bought her for Christmas. We tried to get her inside it to take an adorable picture, but she's a little bit too big for it. :) That's ok. It kind of looks like she's in it, right?

We are loving having her here. Yeah, it's been a bit of an adjustment, but it's been fun too. We're learning new things everyday, how to get her to sleep in her own bed instead of in bed with us, how to help calm her down when she she's just crying, and all kinds of other things. We're excited to keep learning about this little lady!

New Year

So I'm doing really bad at updating this thing, but hopefully I get better at is once I get back into a routine.

School starts next week and we're ready for it I think. I don't think we're ready for the school work load part, but the getting back and doing things will be nice.

Update on my knee. As most of you know already, it was a couple of tears in my meniscus, one from a while ago, and one when I slipped last month. I had to quit my job in Heber beginning of December because my doctor told me that I needed to take it easy, and rest my knee which meant no lifting heavy boxes, not pivoting, and icing it regularly. At the job I was lifting heavy boxes all the time, constantly pivoting, and always running around and doing things. They tried really hard to let me just sit and do things, but it ended up with me doing exactly the same things that I was doing before so I had to quit, which made me sad because it was good pay, I liked most of the people there, and it was a really great and flexible environment. So once I had to quit, David picked up my spot. He would work at mail services in the morning, go to class, then go to work at ToC group up here. It was really wearing on him. He was gone from 6 am until 8 pm most days and he was really getting frazzled out, even after school ended, so a couple weeks ago he told them he needed to quit because he needed to focus on getting everything ready for school and just relax before he had to jump back into the frying pan. This semester is going to be a lot more stressful for him I think because four of his five classes he has to get A's in because they're classes he needs to get into the Accounting program, so they're really important and he needs to be in a good mindset going in, and luckily he's been getting there.
I had surgery this last Monday, December 31, to repair the tears and it went really well. I'm up and walking now with very little of a limp walking around the house. Going elsewhere I'll need to use the crutches for a few more days but as for around the house things are great. I get the stitches out in a week and a half or so and that's going to be good. The pain from before is completely gone too! Which makes me really happy. I'm hoping I'll be able to run again soon, once it's healed. I would like to run a 5K with David sometime soon. He's wanting to prepare for a marathon next year and so I would like to run a little bit with him once this is healed up since it will be feeling so much better.

We had a great Christmas. Had a family party for my mom's side of the family on December 23 and that was a lot of fun even though we weren't there for very long. Spent part of Christmas Eve with Karin and David and David's family which was a lot of fun. We really liked the journey to Bethlehem and will probably incorporate something like that into our own Christmas traditions. I especially loved the meal inspired by Middle Eastern things that we had. It was delicious. We also loved their tradition of buying books for each other and putting a hint about what the book is in the From: line. So we'll probably add that into our lives too. It was a lot of fun. :) We watched White Christmas, which I had never seen before, and just had a lot of fun playing games and talking.
We stayed there Christmas Eve night and part of Christmas morning, opened our presents, and then went over to Melissa and Burke's house to spend some time with the girls. KB was there and we had fun playing the Wii with him. I got David some games for the GameCube that play on the Wii and some controllers for it. We have had a lot of fun with them. We then played Just Dance that the girls got for their Wii. David was doing really good but Aleah and Kayla both beat him, and Shaylee almost did a couple times. Carli spent most of the time carrying around her doll and snuggling with people, which was a lot of fun.

The rest of that week was pretty fun. I had three weddings in two days to go to. My friend JJ - a guy I've been friends with for a while - Hayley Norris - a girl I was good friends with in high school and who I've hung out with since then a few times - and Hailee Yarrington - my cousin. JJ and Hayley both were married in the Oquirrh Mountain temple on December 28 at 11, almost exactly six months after David and I were married there. Lucky temple. Lucky time. :) I went to JJ's ceremony and it was really great. And, since Hayley's was out at the same time, I hung around after and saw her and her husband Kyle come out. It was really great to be able to see them. So excited for all of them.
Saturday, December 29, exactly six months after us, my cousin Hailee married Warren Benson in the Salt Lake temple. I was so happy for her. I totally was fine until she started crying when I hugged her. That just unleashed it all, but they were happy tears. :) She couldn't have picked a more perfect guy. You guys really are perfect for each other and we love you!
We were so happy for all of them.

We got together with my siblings - Laura and Tyler and their kids, Melissa and Burke and their kids, Beany, and KB - on the 29 between Hailee's wedding and reception to exchange gifts, go to lunch, and hang out. We went to lunch at the Pizza Pie Cafe in Highland, a pizza buffet, and it was pretty good. I didn't know that potatoes went on pizza but it worked out really well. I was a fan. Then everyone went sledding except me and David. We weren't feeling well so we decided to go back to Melissa's house and nap before everyone left. He went home, after he wanted to stop and see his parents who had come in that week to see his grandparents, and slept because he was feeling really sick. They all got back from sledding and we sat around, relaxing, eating snacks and then exchanged gifts. We were so happy with ours. Laura and Tyler gave us a set of red dishes!!! We have this weird love of red and Laura nailed it on the head since we needed another set of dishes. We are lucky to have them!

And we celebrated New Year's Eve with me under the influence of the drugs from the surgery still so it wasn't that great of a day but I made sure that we kissed just after midnight, since that's when our first kiss was. Last year when I dropped him off after a party, he just snaked on in there after the hug and kissed, and now we see where that kiss lead and I couldn't be happier he had. I had wanted him to kiss me, or me to kiss him, but I was too afraid of him not being interested that I didn't do it. I'm glad he had the guts to get in there and take care of business. :) I love him and am so glad that he took that first step!

We are wishing everyone a safe and happy new year and looking forward to all the awesome adventures and everything that's in store for us!
Love y'all!