Bye Bye Mimi :(

It has been SOOO great to have my mom here with us the past couple of weeks. Her original plan was to come out for 2 weeks to help with things and be here for the delivery. Well, after waiting 2 weeks for little Abigail to arrive, she extended her stay another week so that she could help us out while we were getting adjusted to things. It has been a huge blessing having her here and so fun to get to spend some time with her one on one. I can't remember ever having so much time to spend with just her and I and it was a whole lot of fun. She helped out so much, even staying up with me during one of the rough nights to help calm Abigail down so I didn't lose my mind. We will miss her tons and can't wait to see her again soon!! Love you Mom!!! Abi misses her Mimi already :)

Pictures and Story

I have been meaning to post all week, but as you all can guess- things are finally a little busy around here :) I thought I would share a little bit of how things went for us on Monday. For a little preface, I had been having really bad "Braxton Hicks" contractions for about 5 days. We had already taken one trip to the hospital on Saturday night because the baby failed her kick count. When we went in on Saturday, I was still not dilated at all. So Monday morning I woke up at about 5:00 having bad contractions again. I woke Charles up about 45 minutes later because I was feeling them really close together and a lot more intense. We timed them for a couple of hours and they were consistently about 2-3 minutes apart, but occasionally there would be 5-7 minutes between. By about 8 o'clock, I was in a lot of pain and doubled over the toilet so we rounded up the troops and headed for the hospital- and I was NOT coming home without a baby.
When we got to the hospital, I was at a 2 1/2, so they had me walk around the hospital for an hour and see if my cervix changed at all. I was a little more effaced after the hour, so they admitted me and planned on getting some pitocin going to speed things up. By about 1:30 my doctor came to check me, and I was only at a 3. He broke my water then and told me when I got to a 4, I could have my epidural. My contractions were really close together, and really intense, giving me only about 15-20 seconds to recover from some of them. Around 2, the nurses switched shifts and my new nurse came in. About this time, a friend of the Himmer's and anesthesiologist who was on at the hospital came to check on us. After the nurse saw me go through one contraction, she said- he's here now, if you aren't at a 4, we are calling it a 4- lets get this taken care of. So I got the epidural then and it was like a magic potion. 6 hours later we had our Abigail. The epidural started wearing off towards the end of transition, which was really fun. They tried giving me a higher dosage, but the doctor came back in to check our progress and was shocked at how close we were and told me to get ready to push. She was in a posterior position which was not exciting to hear. My doctor told me, ok Heather, the girl in the room next to you just had the same thing and pushed for 3 hours and ended in a c-section, you have to do better than that. So I was determined :) I started pushing, and things happened fast. The nurse had to have me stop pushing 2 times before the doctor came because she was afraid he wouldn't get there in time. She turned right around into the position she needed to be in and things went great from there.
What an incredible experience it is to have a baby. Its definitely a challenge adjusting to things and getting enough rest, but I think I'll get the hang of all of that soon enough. She is a GREAT baby. She has been really easy and mellow so far, so I hope it continues. Here are some more pictures from our first few days at home.

Some pictures

So our little girl is not quite a day old and tired. We need to feed her but can't get her to wake up. Here are some pictures of how tired she is.






I uploaded the rest of the photos from the delivery on facebook. You can view the photos by using this link.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33422&l=425d0&id=724736823

The Agony Continues

Hello fellow readers,

This is Charles. Heather couldn't bring herself to make this post but I figured some our die hard readers would want an update. It is true our precious little girl is over a week over due. Its a good thing we love her otherwise she would already be in trouble :).

Heather is still having regular, but very mild contractions. We've been taking this as a sign that things are happening soon, but we don't what soon means.

Anyways, we will make sure to post any updates as soon as they happen.

What do you all think?

We are holding a competition. Everybody guess when you think the baby will be born, the weight, and the height. The winner gets to name the baby. Just joking, they get some major props!

So far the guesses are as follows. If you want to guess post a comment with your estimations and please follow the outlined format.

Heather - Tuesday (07/15) - 7lbs 4oz - 20in
Charles - Wednesday (07/16) - 7lbs 20z - 19in
Mama John - Monday (07/14) - 7lbs 3oz - 21in
Kyle John - Thursday (07/17) - 6lbs 4oz - 19in
Alissa John - Sunday (07/13) - 8lbs 7oz - 20.5in

p.s. Heather said if your guess is above 10lbs or later than this week, she suggested you keep your guess to yourself ;)

About to Pop :)

Well, once again I am getting hounded to take pictures and post them while I still can. I kept waiting for a day I felt cute again, but let's face it... I'd be waiting for a while :) So I made Charles go take pictures of me tonight, the one behind the tree was inspired by Emily I believe. If I remember right, she took one like that when she was pregnant and I thought it was hilarious, so I had to do one. Charles had fun with one of them in photoshop- I bet you'll never guess which one... Super Mom?? Thats right... So here there are, probably the last pictures I will have with the belly :) She is due in FOUR DAYS!! I can't believe it. I could have a baby by the end of the week!! I'm so excited!

Tribute to Kyle... a Day Late

I wanted to get this done yesterday on Kyle's actual birthday, but I didn't have my laptop with me and therefore, had no pictures. If I had a scanner- I could make this a real doozy with some of this pictures I found while I was unpacking, but I'll do the best I can with pictures from recent years.

Probably most of you reading this know my brother, but for those of you who do not- he is the man. Kyle is the kind of guy that is just fun to be around all the time. I love when Charles and him get together because they are unstoppable. We were so lucky to be so close to them when we were in Provo and are missing them a lot now. Kyle is a great example to everyone that he comes in contact with. He is a great husband and father- and a great big brother. I can remember Kyle chasing off many punk boys in high school who were "not worthy of my time." He is extremely hard working and driven. Charles is constantly going to him for suggestions on good books- Kyle is always looking for ways to learn and grow. Anyway- he had a big birthday yesterday and we didn't get to share it with him so I thought I would pay a little tribute to a great brother! We love you Kyle!!