Introducing.....

Daniel David Dynes

We are so excited to welcome little Daniel into our family. :) This pregnancy seems to have flown by and yet taken forever at the same time and it's still a little surreal that he's here, even though it's been almost 2 weeks. I forgot how hazy the newborn days are and having a toddler has definitely made it that much more challenging but we've been blessed with a couple of really amazing kids and that makes it so much easier.

This is going to be a little long so hopefully it's not super boring to read! haha

These last couple months have been pretty crazy as far as pregnancy goes. At 32 weeks I was told that he was breech and they would monitor that. At 34 weeks he still was breech so I started looking for ways to encourage him to flip head down. I started seeing a chiropractor who specializes in pregnancy and flipping babies (at the recommendation of the chiropractor I see for my general back problems) and did Spinning Babies. I spent what felt like half my life upside down, rocking back and forth, and even "meditating" and telling him to flip (I don't normally buy into that kind of thing but I was desperate!). At 36 weeks he was still breech so we scheduled an external version for February 25 if he didn't flip on his own. Then we would induce or go for a c-section depending on if the version worked or not. I was pretty nervous about it, mostly because I had heard it hurts a lot, so I started getting more intense about encouraging him to flip, so that no matter what happened, I would always be able to tell myself that I had done everything I possibly could.
The day before the doctor appointment that was kind of our deadline, we decided to try one last thing and went swimming with Kollyn at the Provo Rec Center. I did handstands and flips in the pool for about 40 minutes total and I'm pretty sure that's what did it because the next day, we checked baby's position and he was head down! It was a huge relief! I cancelled the version and subsequent induction/section and started feeling more calm than I had in a while.

At my appointment on March 2, I told my doctor that I wasn't interested in going past March 10, which was a week after my due date. We set the induction date for March 8 since that was the day my doctor was going to be on call and I kind of wanted him to be the one there since we've been through this whole process together.
March 7 I got a call from the hospital saying that I was on the list and that they'd call me the next day with the time. That's when it started getting really real and I was starting to get pretty nervous. I hadn't been induced with Kollyn, so this was a new experience for me, but I was ready and feeling confident in the decision we'd made.

Last bump picture! 40 weeks 5 days.

March 8 came and I was so nervous I didn't get to sleep until about 1 am. I wasn't planning on them calling super early, but at 6 am my phone rang and they asked if I could be there in an hour. I woke David up and called my mom. My mom called my sister and she came over to be with Kollyn until my mom got there so we didn't have to wake Kollyn up. I packed up my hospital bag (I don't usually do that until the last minute because pretty much everything I want is stuff I use on a regular basis) and we left as soon as my sister got to our house. I love that we live just up the street from the hospital. :) 

The view from our delivery room. :)

We got checked in and set up in a room at 7:30. They started monitoring Daniel's heartbeat, but he was not happy about it. Through this pregnancy, once he was big enough to move around and I could feel it, anytime something or someone touched my belly he would start going crazy and move around and kick like he was trying to get rid of this intrusion on his space. So monitoring his heartbeat was a challenge. He was kicking the monitor, moving around so that it wasn't able to pick up his heartbeat anymore, and just overall making it hard for them to get the 20 - 30 minutes of consistent heart monitoring that they needed before starting the pitocin. My doctor came in and tried to break my water around 9:30 or so (after doing some checking to make sure Daniel was ok because some of the readings on the monitor were worrying to my nurse) but he wasn't able to actually break it so we decided to wait. I was at 2 cm when he checked and David decided to bet that Daniel would be born around 4:30 that afternoon.

At 10:30 we were finally able to start pitocin because Daniel had settled enough for them to get the readings they wanted. I was able to walk around the room (dragging that IV stand behind me) and bounced around on a ball for a little while to help Daniel come down (he was extremely high) and it seemed to help because she checked me around 11:45 and I was between 3 and 4 cm so something worked. They were monitoring the contractions but I wasn't really feeling them yet, which was nice. Laura and Melissa came to keep me company for a little bit while I was bouncing and that was a lot of fun. :)

At 12:30 I started feeling the contractions and they started getting painful so I asked for the epidural. It was a much faster insertion this time than it was with Kollyn (an hour and a half that first time, this time was only about 5 - 10 minutes) but it only was working on one side and I started getting really hot and sweaty. They had me roll over onto my right side to help get the medicine over to that side and it helped a little, but I could still feel the contractions, mostly in my tailbone. 

At 1:30 my nurse checked me and I was at 5 cm. I texted Lynnzie, our amazing birth photographer, so she'd know and could head on over to the hospital because we
At 1:35 my doctor came in to break my water and said, "You're at 7 cm now". I was in shock. 

At 1:46 I was checked again and was fully dilated. My nurse had to run off to find my doctor to tell him to come back and barely caught him as he was getting into the elevator to go back to his office and 3 other nurses came rushing in to get everything set up.
My epidural was no longer working at this point and I was feeling so much pain I don't really remember much of what happened next, other than me crying a lot because I was not happy about having to feel everything. ;) 

At 1:54, after about 6 - 8 pushes, Daniel was born. 6 pounds 14 ounces. 18 inches.

It was all so fast, our photographer wasn't able to get there in time for the actual birth, but I still am in love with the photos she got. I was so lucky to find her on Facebook when I did. :) 

My two adorable kiddos. :) We definitely win the kid lottery. They're both so stinking cute!

Officially there are 4 of us. :)

Laura and Melissa were able to come right after he was born and it was so fun watching them react to him. :) 

Aunt Karin stopped by too. :) We love having so many aunts and uncles nearby. They spoil these kids for sure!

My mom stayed with Kollyn while we were in the hospital and we are so grateful for it. I was glad David was able to stay at the hospital with me. 

The first day Kollyn wasn't so sure what to think of him, but now she is obsessed. She is always asking where "brother' is and wanting to help feed him and hold him. She gets very concerned when he  cries and wants to help him. She gets excited when he opens his eyes and says, "Brother's awake now!" and likes to have him lay on the floor next to her while she plays with her toys. And he loves watching her. When he hears her voice, he turns his head to find her. He seems to focus on her, even though I know he can't really see that well yet, and hearing her voice calms him down usually. He already loves his sister and she loves him. I am so excited to see the two of them grow up and see how they interact with each other.

I am more and more in love with David every day. He is seriously the most amazing dad and these kids are so lucky to have him in their lives. He loves them both so much and it's been so fun watching him with a baby again. He is so cute and always wanting to snuggle with Daniel and always willing to hold him or feed him or sit with him. He gets up at night even though he's just as tired as me and he always makes sure to spend time alone with Kollyn so that she doesn't feel replaced or unloved. All while working exceptionally hard to be able to provide for us. I am so lucky to have him as my partner through this. I definitely wouldn't be able to do it without him.

We are lucky to have this little man in our lives. He's a very calm baby and very rarely cries (except the couple days and nights where his formula was causing gas issues and he wasn't sleeping well). He is a HUGE snuggler and I love just sitting and holding him. Kollyn wasn't a huge snuggler so this is something I'm excited about.

It's crazy how alike these two look. These were both taken when each kid was 1 day old. Daniel is on the left, Kollyn on the right. They have the same nose, the same eyes, and the same round face.

 He has a lot more hair than she did though. He has a lot of blonde hair where hers was kind of reddish before it all fell out.

It's hard to think that it's only been 2 weeks. We're all slowly adjusting to this new normal. Kollyn took more time than we did, but I think she's getting better. He is sleeping really well at night (only 2 wake-ups a night) and is eating well. It took us a couple days to find the right formula for him, but now that we have he's happier than ever and super smiley (which I choose to believe is real smiles and not just gas). He is a blessing in our lives and we are excited to watch him grow and learn. 

February 2016: New Bed, Hitting the Jackpot, and Kangaroo Zoo

February was spent preparing for baby boy and spending our last little while as a family of 3. We tried to do as much as we possibly could to help K understand what was coming and doing things together that she loved to do. We went to the aquarium a lot, the last free zoo day, and countless trips to the Provo Rec center to go swimming. It's been a pretty emotional month too (pregnancy hormones for the win I guess) thinking about how things are about to change and how she'll handle it.

She loves her new big girl bed! It made the transition to her new room so much easier and she seems excited to go to bed now. :)

She LOVES to paint! She could do it all day if I let her. And when it's dry, she gets really excited to go hang it up in her room on the wall.

Here are just some of our adventures this month with our little miss cutie. :) It was so fun trying out some new things with her!

Provo Beach Resort. She loved the toddler area and the carousel. She ran around and played for a good 2 hours and didn't want to leave when it was time to go home. We even played a couple of the little arcade games and she picked out the little prizes she wanted. Her favorite was a small bouncy ball.

We also wen to the NickelCade with her and she loved it. She ran around and rode the carousel 3 times (once on each animal of course). She liked playing the games and watching the tickets come out.

She even hit the jackpot on one game!!! It was over 200 tickets and she sat there next to it and watched all the tickets come out. She kept showing up some of them and saying, "I won!" and was so excited about it. :) We let her choose her prizes since she was the one that won, and she had so much fun picking out what she wanted. She chose some candy and a little plastic airplane toy. I love watching her make choices like that without any prompting.

For Luke's birthday (Can't believe he's 2!!) Karin and David invited us to come to Kangaroo Zoo with them and it was so much fun! Kollyn loved going down the slides and bouncing around on everything. She keeps telling us how we went "jumping a Luke's birthday!" and how she wants to go back. David had fun running around with her too and I think she loved having Dad be a big part of that experience. 

This girl just loves to be outside. We got her a little tricycle for Christmas and she asks to go ride it every day. She doesn't really use the pedals yet, but she walks it around and just has a blast. Thankfully it's been warm enough for us to go out everyday just like she wants. We'll walk to the park quite often so she can play for a while and it is so good for her to get outside. She is so much happier when she does (and so are we!) and it's good for us to get out as well.

Loving playing with Luke at his house in the backyard. Their neighbors are awesome and let the kids jump on their trampoline whenever and Kollyn has so much fun with that.

Church has gotten more fun with her now. She likes to bring her special toys (right now it's her Peppa Pig family sets and her Star Wars model ships) and part of her play is making sure they all line up and then playing with them. She loves going to nursery and basically runs there as soon as sacrament meeting is over. 

We have had a great month and love this little girl so much. It's hard to think about her not being our only child but we are excited to see how she and little boy grow up together and watch their relationship grow. We have a feeling that she's going to be a fantastic big sister once she gets use to things being a little different and are hopeful that they will grow up to be best friends.