Mackenzie's Blessing Day

Sunday was a special day. Mackenzie Ann was given a name and a blessing by her dad. There were many people there to share with us in that special occassion and we wanted to thank all those that came. The weather was really bad so not as many as we had hoped would be there, but we thank you also for wanting to be there and we know you were there in spirit.
Mackenzie was so beautiful and so was her blessing. She was quiet the whole time. She slept - that really helped. Here are some pictures from that day of her and our family.

She's Here! - Labor Story & Pics

Mackenzie Ann

finally decided to join our family on Tuesday, October 20th at 5:10 pm. She was 8 lbs. 2 oz. 19.5 in. Labor went really well and was only a little more than 3.5 hours long compared to the 20 hours with Zack. Mom and Mackenzie are doing well and we want to thank everyone that has been so supportive and helpful during this last week.

Check out her web page from her hospital photos:

http://www.utahportraits.com/hospital/index.php?pg=baby&action=view&BabyID=102009mad

This is the first time Zack gets to see Mackenzie in person, when we are taking her home-the hospital wouldn't let anyone under 14 in the hospital because of the swine flu problems

The labor story (short version):

So, Monday I go to the doctor in the morning to have my membranes stripped. He says it could take a couple hours or not even helping me start labor. I am dilated to a 5. By 10 pm I am having contractions about 10 minutes apart. Not sure if they are really contractions because I thought I was having them before and the nurse at the hospital told me they weren't contractions. Anyway, I sleep that night thinking I might have to go in the middle of the night, but oh well. I'll at least wait until my water breaks. Morning comes and I am having one consistent "pain". Paul goes to work and tells me to call after I decide what I'm going to do. I am in so much pain I can barely stand up and can't even walk. I tell Paul to finish up his deliveries and to come home to help me get myself ready as well as Zack since I can't very well do it on my own. 12:30 we drop Zack off at my mom's and we are at the hospital. They check me and tell me my contractions are about 5 minutes apart. I tell them not to send me home so the nurse tells me she'll just call my doctor and tell him that I'm at a 6 - even though I'm still a 5 - and that they are going to keep me. At 1:30 I have my epidural. I really don't remember it hurting like that with Zack, but I guess it just depends on the way the guy does it. The epidural is working really well. I can't even move myself back to my back by the time they are ready to move me. Lots of waiting going on now. At about 4:30 the epidural starts wearing off and I'm very uncomfortable. The doctor ups my dosage. Does not work. I'm still in pain. At 4:50 Paul left the room for some reason. 4:55 the nurse calls my doctor and says we're starting to push. 5:05 my doctor shows up. 5:10 pm, Mackenzie is born. We get no sleep because Mackenzie is quarantined in our room because both Zack and I had bronchitis and Mackenzie had a stuffy nose and they didn't want the other babies to get sick. Totally understandable. She's slept really well until last night when I think I may have gotten about 2 hours of sleep. I think she has her days and night mixed up.

Nothin'

Still nothing. Apparently your levels can go up, which is what happened with me on Friday.

I have an appointment with my docotor today so we'll see what he says after that. I'll keep everyone posted.

Possibly only 3 more days!

Well, it is very possible that I will be induced on Friday. Let me start with first, Monday, I had my weekly doctor visit. Because I go to my family doc, they don’t have an ultrasound machine so I have to go to the hospital. He ordered a Non-Stress Test for Tuesday at Timponogos Hospital, where I will be delivering. In this test, they check first my amniotic fluid levels in radiology and then they sent me to the other side of the hospital in Labor and Delivery for fetal monitoring. My doctor then tells me that if my levels are below 7 he will induce me.
**Side Note** Normal would be in the 20’s. With Zack, my levels were at a 3, thus he was born a week early.
This time, my levels measured at a 3.97. They called my doctor and he asked they check it again. Checked it again and came back at 6.94 or something like that. Dr. decides to keep me on the monitor for a little longer and check blood pressure 3 more times within 15 minutes. Everything looks good so he says to go home and come back for the same tests on Friday. This way, baby will only be 2 weeks early instead of 2.5.
With the way things go for me it looks as though I will be induced on Friday. I guess this gives us 3 more days to get everything ready and we should have no excuse if we aren’t.

The Latest

Well not much news, but I went to the doctor yesterday for my weekly appointment and thought I would update a little.
I am doing my usual with the high blood pressure during pregnancy as well as swelling in the feet and hands and protein in the urine. Their watching me again for toxemia as they did with Zack. I am dilated to a 3 and about 70% effaced. I now only have about 3.5 weeks so I'm good to go whenever and can according to the doctor and how I'm progressing. We may or may not have an October baby. But some people tend to stay at a 3 for quite a while and my dr. will make me go 10 days past my due date before he will induce, unless there are complications, like what happened with Zack and lose all my amniotic fluids.
Wish me well. I'm so ready for her to come even if we aren't completely ready in the house or even have a name for her yet.

Little Update

So, I thought I would do a short update. Not much is going on, thus the long time between posts.

I still have 5 weeks until my due date and I'm counting down the days daily and sometimes more than once daily. I have been so uncomfortable for the last month especially and havn't slept well. We also have made two trips to the hospital in the last week to make sure everything is ok. First one, I was having pains/cramps all along my left side when I would lay down. I called my insurance company nurse and she told me to go to the hospital. This was at 1:00 am last Friday morning. We were there until 3:30 am and all they could come up with was that it was my nerve and to try not to lay on my left side. Thanks for the great advice, right! The second time was yesterday morning. Wednesday night around 9 or 10 I thought my water broke. I will spare you the details of the reason for thinking this, but I did some reading that night and the next morning and then called my doctor's office and they told me to go to the hospital and have everything checked out to make sure that it hadn't. Did it and they sent me home after a couple hours and a few very uncomfortable tests. So, nothing again.

Also, just something to let you know, we are looking forward to Halloween this year. We really want to have a party, but since it's a week after my due date, this is very unlikely. We are doing some really fun stuff in our yard, since we finally have a yard, so just a heads up to come check it out next month.

Hope all is well with you all. Sorry for the boring update. No pics this time.

Summer Fun

So, I understand that I'm a slacker and should have had these photos on the blog a long time ago, but as you can see by the pics, it's been a pretty busy summer. I guess I should say busy year because not all of these were this summer. I think the earliest of these are from about February. They are in no order except by the activity, but at least they made it. Enjoy!

Becky & Zack on the merry go round at the Zoo

Our favorite huge animals at the zoo, besides the elephants

Zack & Paul on the merry go round at the zoo
Zack before the train ride

Zack signing train to Paul, he's so excited to go on it

Watching the Incredible Mr. Limpet in our fort

Zack and Cam playing at McDonalds after breakfast

Zack getting ready for the bike ride with dadPaul taking Zack on a ride

Playing basketball with the cousins - Brayden, Jaxon, Skyler, & Jordan

Zack at Kangaroo Zoo - this was his first attempt at climbing the long stairs to the slide. didn't make it all the way up.

so he stuck to the kiddie slides

Camden, Jordan, & Brayden at K.Z.

Zack's favorite thing at K.Z...BASEBALL

Zack & Becky making smores up the canyon

Paul roasting the mollows

Zack after eating his first smore

Paul & Zack at the Grizzlies game

Jordan & Zack at the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point

digging for bones

the reason Zack is in love with elephants...the circus at UVU

all these people started to fall off the elephant. it was pretty hilarious to watch

Zack with mom at the circus

Zack with dad at the circus

Holly, Hootz, Zack & Dad before the Owls game

Jordie is below

Zack watching the Bee's game
I guess baseball can wear a kid out
Paul lighting the 4th of July fireworks at the grandparents house

Jeff and Isabella watching the fireworks

Grandpa Bob, Becky, & Grandma Shauna watching the fireworks

Zack with Angie watching the show

Projects going on at our home this summer

We have been very busy with projects this summer around our house. We started with cement and have just put in sod in the front and back yards. Our projects in the house have continued as well as we are getting ready for the new baby in October. We moved Zack into his own room with a bunk bed and are going to begin working on the nursery as we get the chance. We changed the front room from the office to a living room and our loft from a sitting room into the exercise room and we moved the office into our room. We will be working on all this throughout the next couple months and then take a break when the baby comes. Next summer we hope to be able to put in a sprinkler system and a fence so Zack will be staying in the backyard to play instead of him running out in the street all the time. I am just so glad that we live on a fairly quiet street with minimal traffic, but that too will change when our new church (stake center) that is being built just a house away from us will be done next year. Sorry for the delay in posting this info and for all the ones to come. I just haven't had a whole lot of time with all the projects. The following are pics that we took for some of the above mentioned projects. Still a work in progress, but we'll eventually have a finished project:

laying cement in the driveway

Paul's grandpa smoothing out the cement on the side of the house

Zack watching it all happen from inside the house

front yard after sod is in

back yard after sod is in

Paul mowing the back yard for the first time

Zack's new bed

Zack sleeping in his new bed for the first time

Zack 2 Years Old

I know, I'm about 2 months late with this, but it's better late than never. I just wanted to share Zack's 2 year pictures since he looks about 5 in these. He turned two on June 7th so I am really about a month and a half late. I also included pictures from his actual birthday. Enjoy.

the morning of his birthday
opening his present from mom and dad (a pool)
eating his birthday cupcakes made by his aunt angie
what a mess these wonderful cupcakes make

dad cleaning up the messy cupcakes