I do miss my wonderfully clear pregnancy face. It may have been wider than normal, but it was clear.

Post-pregnancy is a different story.

*sigh*

That’s one thing I won’t miss about being pregnant.

I subscribe to so many different blogs and things through my google reader and email newsletters. As I read through my reader items and emails, I use www.delicious.com to bookmark and keep all the things that I like and want to look at again later. I found a way that I can put it on my blog and kind of like it. I made it a page, so if you are bored and want to see some of the things that I’ve been looking at and loving online lately just click on “link love” in the pages list on my blog (right now it’s in the top right hand corner, but that may change if I change my theme). Or you can visit my delicious page.

Looking through all my saved bookmarks though, I just wish that real life could be as cute as the world seems online.

Maybe someday I’ll get there.

Mostly I love the blue ceiling and want to do it in my house… hmm. Which room to pick?

img from: apartment therapy

My little alien

Our Story:

As I mentioned in my last post, the doctor was getting worried about my blood pressure, so I was on bed rest for about a week. During that time, I was in and out of the doctor’s office and hospital being monitored to make sure that my blood pressure wasn’t going to elevate more and develop into anything more serious.

(This is going to be long… but you are reading my blog, so obviously you want to hear all about my story. And, I have to have a record of it lest I forget)

Thursday night, I went to bed looking forward to another exciting day of bed rest. I woke up around 1:30 with a pretty painful contraction. I walked around for a minute and got back into bed and went to sleep. Around 2:30 I woke up again with another contraction. After it was over, I tried to go back to sleep only to be stopped by continuing contractions.

Inside, I think I knew that he was coming and I could only think, “No, you can’t come today, this is the only day that mom can’t come to the hospital.” (She had a field trip with her students.) But the contractions kept coming and there was nothing I could do.  I wondered around the bedroom trying anything to make myself more comfortable though the pain. I started timing, and the contractions were getting closer and closer.

Around 3:45, I woke up Bryan telling him that he needed to wake up now, I think I’m having this baby. It took him a little bit and a couple of poking, but he finally woke up. I wondered around the bedroom some more and he rubbed my back through a couple of contractions, before we decided to call my mom. My contractions were a little different than the doctor and my mom had said they would feel, so I wasn’t totally sure if I was actually having real contractions. And after being in and out of the hospital the last two weeks, the last thing I wanted to do was go over there only to be sent home.

I called my mom knowing that at 4 a.m. it would be hard to get her on the phone.  I heard her on the other line pick up her phone, and then close it. “Great, she thinks I’m her alarm,” I thought.  “Mom, Mom, this isn’t your alarm; answer your phone. I’m on the phone; answer the phone.”  (She answered her phone thinking it was her alarm, then set it back on her nightstand. I knew that if I just talked loud enough into the phone, she’d finally answer.)

After chatting for a few moments we concluded we should go to the hospital. So I brushed my teeth and brushed my hair (a little earlier, while wondering around my room in pain, I had thought about getting in the shower, and briefly considered it again, but decided against it). Bryan got dressed, we let the dog out and away we went.

We arrived at the hospital around 4:30. Bryan dropped me off at the front door and went to park the car. I walked in and the security guard offered me a wheel chair. In my head I laughed a little bit thinking about all the television shows I had seen with the woman freaking out in the lobby of the hospital, doing her labor breathing as they wheel her up to the delivery room in a wheel chair. As I wasn’t freaking out, and could still waddle, I declined the wheel chair knowing that Bryan would catch up with my by time I made it to the elevators  — He did, because I had to stop walking half way to the elevators with another contraction.

We got up to labor and delivery and were hurried into a room to be monitored. I was dilated to a 3 and things were looking good to have the baby. We sat and waited an hour watching the contractions on the monitor, well Bryan watched the contractions on the monitor with lots of helpful words of encouragement like, “Oh, that was a good one” and “that one was bigger than the last one” or “it will be cool when you can get four peaks on the screen at the same time.”

I can’t really imagine being the husband just watching your wife go through labor. I know he wanted to help me and somehow make the pain go away, but he couldn’t do anything and just had to sit there and watch as I mumbled to myself, “no, no, no. I don’t want to do this” or “I can’t do this; I can’t do this; I can’t do this” or “I changed my mind.”

After they watched us for an hour, my contractions continued to get closer together and more painful and I was dilated to a 4 — so they decided to officially admit us.

They moved us into a delivery room and started to hook me up to more monitors. The nurse was wonderful and did everything she could to make me comfortable. Then, she asked the golden question, “are you ready for your epidural?”

Yes, yes I was.

They hooked me up to an IV and showed Bryan some things he could do until the epidural arrived to help lessen the pain of the contractions.  The nurse told me we were very lucky, because we were able to catch the anesthesiologist before he was going to be busy for 2 hours helping with a c-section.

Dan, the anesthesiologist, came in and they told Bryan he had to sit down in the chair right in front of me and hold my hand. “We can’t have you standing up and hitting the floor during this,” they said.  Then they told us about more than one dad who saw the needle and passed out.

The epidural was heaven. It was kind of funny though, because it worked first on my one side of my body and not the other, so I could feel the left side, but not the right.  It trickled to the right side, but I felt a little lopsided for a little bit.

Through this whole process they had closely been monitoring my blood pressure and just after I received the epidural, the doctor came in and decided he was a little worried about my blood pressure still and didn’t want anything to happen later during labor and put me on an IV of magnesium. This added a little bit of drama to the whole situation and tons more wires, tubes and monitors attached to my body.  At one point during labor, I had 9 different things attached to me. I felt a little bit like the back of my computer tower at work with everything attached to me and connecting me to so many different things.

After I received my epidural, everything seems to move into hyper-speed. My parents showed up and so did Bryan’s parents. I was dialated to a 6 and even though I couldn’t feel any thing but pressure, my contractions were consistent and from the look of the spikes on the screen, would have been pretty painful (thank goodness for modern medicine).

The thing that I thought was so amazing about labor was how instinctive everything seemed to be.  It was as if my body knew what it needed to do and although the monitors were telling me what should happen, I knew myself.

After kicking everyone out of the room except the nurse, Bryan and my mom I knew it was time to push.  I told the nurse, I was ready and I needed to push.  She told me just to hang on for a few seconds and then we could push. She check and I was completely dialated and ready to go.  She said I could start pushing and explained to me what I needed to do.  She went and got to the doctor and we were on our way.

After about an hour of pushing, at 10:45 a.m. he was here.  Over my stomach, after he arrived, I could see little hands and fingers moving — it was a baby.  Then I heard him cry and I knew — it was MY baby.

My Baby

Yes, I cried.

They were a little worried about his breathing so after cleaning him up a little bit, measuring and weighing him, he and Bryan went downstairs to make sure he was okay.

And the nurse brought me a Mr. Pibb and cookies.  Ahhh — Wonderful.

It was an amazing day.  Here’s more pictures:

Baby and Mommy

Baby Toes

Family Photo

Grandma and Baby James

Stretching

So Tiny

Bryan's Best Birthday

The day we came home from the hospital was Bryan’s 26th birthday. He was a little sad James didn’t wait just a few more days to share a birthday with him, but it was still Bryan’s best birthday present ever.  We had a small celebration for Bryan that night with 24 candles and 2 matches. He’s a wonderful dad. One of my absolute favorite things about becoming a mom is watching Bryan become a dad. He’s so cute with James. Bryan made sure and introduced James to Jazz basketball the first night he was here with us. It was so cute.

Because it has taken me so long to record the events of that wonderful day, so much seems to have happened already since then. So I’ll leave you with a video. Our baby has the most amazing neck strength already. On Saturday, at 8 days old he was enjoying “tummy time” with Bryan at my parents house and wanted to get a better look at the world.

Worried about my blood pressure, my doctor sent Bryan and I to the hospital to take a non-stress test, telling us they would check my blood pressure for about an hour.  Four and a half hours later, we were still at the hospital, still checking my blood pressure, only now we were also waiting for the results of a blood test and urine test. Finally, the blood and urine tests came back and they allowed us to go home, but not without strict orders of bed rest.

So here I lay, on the couch, with orders to only get up to use the restroom.

Did you know that there isn’t anything good on tv in the middle of the day?  There’s not. I do, however, know who the top 50 cutest child stars are. It seems to me that child stars either fall into the deep end, or they end up going to Harvard or some other Ivy League. Weird.

I went back to the doctor today, and they are still worried about my blood pressure. So another test for today, more bed rest and then back to the doctor tomorrow. We’ll see what happens.  The doctor did give me a definite end date: April 28. My doctor said, if we wait until my due date (May 3) we’re just waiting and asking for problems. He’d rather it be the baby’s idea to come, but if by next Wednesday he hasn’t made the decision yet, we’ll make it for him.

Teddy is getting pretty tired of boring things on tv too.

On Thursday while we were at the hospital, they told us we might just take the baby today and the first thing I thought was, “wait, I don’t have any baby socks yet.” Weird reaction, I know.

The one weird thing about being on bed rest is that I don’t feel sick, so sitting here, doing nothing, when I know there are things that I could be doing, makes me a little bit crazy. Its okay though, if it keeps the baby safe and sound, I’ll deal with it.

I think that my dog has seasonal allergies. He’s been sneezing like crazy the last couple of days, and it’s not too fun for the rest of us, because he’s not too polite. He never covers he mouth. I don’t think I can count the number of times he’s sneezed on me.

I was getting ready for this baby to come, and packed up a bag to take with me to the hospital. In the bag, I placed a few of my favorite “comfort movies” (Movies I can watch over and over and over and always watch when I’m sick or don’t feel well or need a lift). I tested Bryan’s knowledge of what movies those would be. I was pretty impressed that he got quite a few of them right. He didn’t actually know the names, but he knew what they were about. I packed six movies:

1. Where the Heart Is
2. Juno
3. Never Been Kissed
4. Fever Pitch
5. Music and Lyrics (yes, many of my favorites has Drew Berrymore in them)
6. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Bryan guessed: “The one where she has a baby in the Wal-Mart, the one with the red socks…” He first guess was Miss Congeniality, I told him we don’t even own that movie. Then he asked if any of them were either of the Tomb Raider movies. I told him none of them were action-y movies. I thought about it, but decided against it. I told him there was one that he would enjoy watching with me, and he guess Juno.  After I told him the rest that he missed, he knew he should have guessed those. He knows me so well.  It’s just one of the reasons I love him so much.

More rambling later… (and don’t worry about it, Bryan went out and got me some socks for our little guy’s debut, so he can come any time, I won’t have anything to worry about.)

So I’ll share this picture:

Me and Joe

Last weekend, we went to LA to visit my brother Rob.  It was the last opportunity for my whole family to be together before my little brother, Joseph goes on his mission (to Lima, Peru in 10 days!). Rob only had one day between his tours that we could see him before Joe left. It was a quick trip, but a good time.

While we were there, we took some family pictures and Joseph wanted to compare our bellies.

I think I won. (For historical records, my belly is 30 weeks big in that picture. This baby is getting close.)

One of my other favorite quotes: “Too far, Amy. Too far.”

But my favorite Friends quotes are not the point of this post. The real point of this post is that I want these boots:

Great Boots

… and they are on sale at www.alloy.com. They are 4.5 inch heel with a .5 inch plat form and I think they are kind of wonderful.  The thing that makes me sad though, is that I know I should not/can’t buy them.

Not because I don’t have the money

Not because I already have a pair of boots (when is that a reason not to buy shoes though)

Not because I’m trying to save money

Not because Bryan said no

Not because my card is lost

But because a few Sundays ago, I wore my amazing blue shoes that have a very tall heel (I don’t think they are quite 4.5 inch, but they are pretty high) and with my ever increasing belly, lack of normal balance and change in my center of gravity, I realized that my tall heeled shoes may have been a most beautiful mistake.

So I guess for now, I’ll avoid beautiful mistakes like these boots (at least until May or I learn to walk at a normal pace with my new center of gravity).

We went to the doctor on Friday, Dec. 18 and had an ultrasound. We wanted to know the gender of the baby (so I can start buying exciting things), and he was ready to share with his parents.  It was wonderful and crazy to be able to watch him move at the same time as feeling him move.

Bryan is all ready to teach him all about basketball, cars and all those kinds of manly things; he’s going to be such a great dad. So now I’ll be outnumbered: Bryan, Baby Boy Phelps and Teddy (if Teddy really counts).

The doctor told us he is measuring exactly to the day (20 weeks and 4 days on Friday), so he’s just perfect.

We got pictures and a DVD (and as Bryan described it to his mom, and a mug and t-shirt with the baby on it. It was just like going to an amusement park).  It really was just a WONDERFUL day.

ps. you can buy this cute little bear here.

Also: Happy Christmas to EVERYONE (finally, three days before Christmas, I found a Christmas theme that I like.  Hope you enjoy!)

I am currently working on Individual Worth Value Experience #7:

7. Heavenly Father has given you special gifts. Read 1 Corinthians 12:4–12; 1 Corinthians 13; Moroni 7:12–13; Moroni 10:8–18; and D&C 46:11–26.

Ask a family member, a Young Women leader, and a friend to write down positive qualities the Lord has given you. List your gifts in your journal, and write how you can continue to develop these gifts and use them to serve your family and others.

If you have a few moments and can think of something off the top of your head, can you please be my friend (that the goal mentions) and list one of the positive qualities that you think the Lord has given me?

If you have the time, I would really appreciate it.

As I have been working on these experiences, I have forgotten what a wonderful blessing the personal progress program is and how much these simple value experiences can strengthen my testimony.  If you have the chance, if you work with the Young Woman or for any reason, these goals are a wonderful way to add a little bit extra to your personal scripture study or just to help continue to grow spiritually.

You can get a book at the distribution center, or find it online here from www.lds.org.

Thanks for any help you can give!