His Name: James Edward Phelps

His Blessing: Beautiful.

I am so thankful for a wonderful husband who holds and honors the Priesthood and was able to give our baby a blessing. It was a wonderful blessing. And I am also thankful for the other wonderful men in our lives that were able to share in the special blessing.

Of course after the blessing we celebrated with food, friends and family.

James was passed around to everyone! By the end of the day all he wanted to do was be all alone on the floor by himself with no one bothering him. (I tried to get pictures with James and everyone who came, but he wasn’t too happy about that, and some of our family snuck out before we could get pictures. Oh well.)

Thank you to everyone who came and celebrated with us. It was a beautiful day.

This year my handsome handsome husband officially celebrated his first Father’s Day. It was a pretty good day. James and I picked a movie to give him for Father’s Day, but couldn’t wait until Sunday to actually give it to him, so we gave it to him on Friday and watched it as a family Friday night (well, all three of us actually fell asleep, but we attempted to watch it as a family).

Sunday my two boys celebrated the day by taking a three hour nap after church and before our family barbecue. I made my grandma’s rolls and yummy peanut butter bars (I had never made these bars before, so I was a little worried about how they would turn out, but they were WONDERFUL. Click the link, follow the recipe and try them yourself, they are so yummy) while the two of them slept. I was pretty excited about the peanut butter bars because I know how much my handsome husband loves chocolate and peanut butter and I wanted to make a special treat for him for Father’s day. He loved them. SUCCESS!

(sometimes I feel extra homemaker-y)

My snoozin' boys

Note: this picture wasn’t taken yesterday it was a little while ago. My hands were covered in flour so there is no picture of their snooze yesterday. But I love this picture. Notice how they are sleeping exactly the same with their hands up behind their heads. What you can’t see is that they both have their legs crossed the same too.

I’m so wonderfully thankful for Bryan and what a wonderful dad he is. One of my favorite things about sweet baby James coming to our home is watching Bryan be a dad. He’s wonderful.

Bryan, you are going to be a wonderful example and influence on our sweet baby James and all of the kids we have later. I know that they are going to learn so many wonderful things from you. I hope that James grows up to be as patient, kind, smart, hardworking and wonderful. I love you.

Grandpa:

Also this year, my dad was able to celebrate Father’s day as a grandpa for the very first time. James is the first grand baby on my side of the family and my dad is such a cute grandpa.

Earlier this past week, James and I were in Provo near BYU and decided to stop by and say hello to my dad at work (and use his sink to make James a bottle because he was SCREAMING). My dad took James around to all his co-workers to show him off, beaming “This is my grandson, James EDWARD.”

When we named James, we gave him both of his grandpa’s names: James after Bryan’s dad (Sherman James Phelps) and Edward after my dad (Edward McCracken). As James grows up, I hope he realizes what wonderful men he was named after.

James and Grandpa

As a dad my dad is pretty wonderful too. I know that no matter what he will always be there for me.

Toward the end of my pregnancy, I got pretty sick and was throwing up everything that I ate. It started in the middle of the night and the next morning I was still feeling horrible. My husband had a meeting, so he had to run to work, so I called my dad. I knew that he would have to drive past my house to get to work, so I asked him if he would bring me a something to settle my stomach. He brought me four different drinks, bananas, rice cakes and more. He said just in case one thing didn’t work, I would need options. I thought he would just bring me something from his house, but he stopped at the grocery store on his way to my house to make sure I had everything that I would need to feel better. After he dropped the food off, he realized that he should have gotten me a coke as well (he said the coke syrup would help my stomach, but I can’t stand the taste to actually get it down to my stomach), so he drove to the gas station by my house and bought me one and brought it back to me.

He always wants to make sure that we, his kids, have everything he needs. He is a wonderful example of love and service. Growing up, I remember him always helping other people. As a home teacher, neighbor and friend he would always be there if you needed him.

Dad, I love you and am so thankful for the wonderful example you have been to me and for the many things you have taught me.

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.)

Here are some pictures from the afternoon.  (Not the professional pictures by all means, you can see some of those on Mel’s blog, but just some fun ones we took with my camera.

I love this picture of Mel

My Family

The Whole Walker Gang

Happy Couple

McFamily Kids

Our Cousin did the Flowers - So Beautiful

She decided to split the day up.  So when she got married, we just had the wedding and the luncheon.  The reception was a week later (and that way none of the wedding stuff got in the way of the BYU/Utah game).

So over the Thanksgiving break we did Mel’s wedding, my brother’s Rob’s reception, Thanksgiving, a Christmas party and then Mel’s reception.  It was a crazy busy holiday.  But so much fun and so much family!  It was great times.  More coming soon.

On May 2, my family and I traveled to The Great SaltAir to see visit my older brother (we hadn’t seen him since Oct.) and to see him with his band, The Used, in concert. It was so much fun. We got up to the show early to make sure that we would be able to see the opening acts (Straylight Run). While we were on our way up to Salt Lake though, we listened a little bit to Rob on the radio. Once they got into town his band went to X96 to advertise for the concert later that night. Once at the show, Rob was taking a nap, so we watched the other bands while we waited for him to wake up. Once he woke up, we went behind SaltAir to his bus to see him. It was so great to see him. It had been so long since we had see him. I think he was pretty excited to see us too.

We left him a little while later to give him time to warm up and get ready for his show. Then instead of going back inside and watching from the back of the auditorium, we went in behind the stage and picked a spot to wait for the show to start on the side of the stage. I prefer to be over on the side of the stage because then we aren’t in the middle of the crazy mosh pit. It can get pretty insane in there. Joseph my little brother decided that at this concert he wanted to watch from the mosh pit, so he positioned himself right up front in the center of the crowd. It was pretty crazy. When Rob came out on stage he instantly saw my brother and said into the microphone that he was excited to start the show and to see his brother in the front row.

During the show Rob yelled for everyone who was a fan of The Used to scream. We stood and yelled, to support our brother. While we were yelling, the guitarist, Quinn, saw my dad cheering and stopped Rob. He said, “Bert, I found the biggest Used fan,” and Rob stopped and said, “Who?” Quinn pointed to my dad and Rob stopped and said, “Hey, it’s my dad! Everyone say ‘Hey Ed.’” Then the whole crowd yelled, “Hey Ed!” Rob then stopped for a minute and said, “Let’s have a little moment, let’s bring my mom and dad up on stage.” And so he did. The bouncers helped my mom and dad climb up on the stage. It was actually really cool to see. While on stage he hugged and kissed both of them. My parents and my brother have been through a lot and I think it is so wonderful that he loves them so much and is so close to them and I know how proud of him they are. It’s pretty awesome to see some time. Watch the Video below of my mom and dad’s moments on stage.

Also during the concert, Rob brought a bunch of people up on stage to be his “backup dancers” during one of the songs and he called up my little sister, Rachel. It was so funny. Needless to say, she didn’t really fit in with most of the other people up on that stage. It was pretty entertaining to watch her dance up there. Apparently, she can’t dance very well (neither can the rest of us though). I’ll post the video of her dancing later. She’s great.

Anyway. It was an awesome concert. I love my brother so much and I’m so glad that I was able to see him. Here’s some more pictures. Enjoy!