Eden's Birth Story (the long version)

 

We welcomed another baby to our family last week and it has been magical ever since. Seriously, I've been told the third baby is a wild card from birth and after, but everything has been great ever since she's joined us. Obviously there have been challenges, but nothing that can take away from the magic of adding a baby to the crew or a newborn into the home.

Eden's birth story is really not what I expected it to be. In my head, I guess I was imagining a repeat of Wesley's birth because I truly enjoyed his from start to finish and wanted that experience again.

My due date was 6/6 and Jake was finishing his first year of medical school on 6/4. So that last week, my mom was in town and I was really trying to relax and pray the baby didn't come. Friday, 6/4, she hadn't come and Jake was finished with school so we spent a night downtown to celebrate which was so nice and much needed for the both of us. 

Saturday we came home fully expecting to have the baby that night . . . Nope.

Sunday (my due date) . . . Nope.

Monday . . . Nope.

We finally decided to start enjoying the last days we had together as a family of 4 and where I was feeling good. We did ice cream dates with the kids, park dates, shopping around, we even took them to a restaurant which we haven't done in forever.  I was really trying to be patient and content with the time that we had left, even though we were definitely anxious for her to join us. 

Thursday the 10th we took the kids to the park in the morning so I could go on a walk and they could scooter around. We did an ice cream date at UDF after that which the kids loved. We spent a lot of time at the farm the rest of the day, swimming and playing at the sport court. When we got home around 3:30, Wesley was tired and we were jus relaxing in my room. Around 3:45/4 I had my first noticeable / uncomfortable contraction. 

The rest of the evening went on - I made dinner, I curled my hair, I cleaned some things up, I put June to bed. The whole time I was timing the contractions and they were coming about 5 1/2 - 6 minutes apart but they weren't super painful and they were only lasting 30-40 seconds. I figured they'd get more intense as we got into the night.

I went to the bathroom at 9:13 pm (I texted Jake so I have good time stamps on these haha) and had a bunch of mucous, which made me realize that the contractions were actually doing something!

After that, I started to put Wesley down for bed so that I could lay down and rest before the contractions got too difficult. . . Right when I laid down at 9:37 pm, I heard and felt a pop and I knew my water had broken. I immediately called Jake and asked him to come in our room. I wasn't moving because I didn't want it to leak out on our bed. Jake came in and I asked him to bring a couple towels because I was pretty sure my water had broken. His face went from nonchalant to shocked soooo fast. 

He brought me a couple towels and helped me put them under my body. As I *very* slowly moved, the water just kept on coming. My water has never broken at home, only while we were at the hospital, so this kind of freaked me out. I was especially freaked out because when my water broke with Wesley, he was born 40 minutes later! So when I got up and knew that my water had officially broken, I told Jake we needed to leave now. Of course we hadn't finished packing the bag, so my mom grabbed some last minute things and threw them in. I put on an adult diaper, wrapped a towel around myself, and we went! 

We called my doctor's office on the way to let them know we were on the way. Funny moment from this is Jake was talking to the nurse and when she asked my birthday, he said "3.... 28......1995." Hahhaha, completely wrong. He was nervous - it felt like we went from 0-100 so fast. I guess that's how everyone feels when their water breaks! 

We got to the hospital around 10:45 pm and had to enter through the E.R. which was annoying. We had to wait there for 15 or so minutes for an L+D nurse to come grab us. I was managing the contractions really well, just staying focused and in my head and not worrying about anything else that was going on. They took us straight to my room because the contractions were pretty consistent. I heard the nurse who was wheeling me in talking on the phone saying. "She thinks her water broke and believes the baby will be here fast." I was just rolling my eyes on the inside because I knew 100% for a FACT that my water had broken! 

The midwife came to check me and she was soooo kind and gentle. I was only a 4, 90% effaced, and 0 station. I was surprised but just was glad we made it to the hospital since we were pretty close to not making it with Wesley. 

I laid down in the bed on my left side with the peanut ball and Jake's airpods in and just breathed through the contractions while they got my IV in and did all the paperwork. It's been interesting for my past 2 births, I've been the most comfortable laying on my back or side resting rather than walking around or in the shower. The next hour was pretty chill - the contractions upped in intensity and around midnight, they started to feel like I couldn't manage them. I got shaky and was telling Jake, "I'm not doing this! I can't do this. I'm getting the epidural." 

Jake (calmly) said, "Do you want to try to use the nitrous first?" I said yes, even though in the moment I really just wanted immediate relief. They quickly set that up and I started breathing it in around 12:30 am. 

The nurse asked to check me and I said sure, but don't tell me what I'm at. She told Jake and when she left the room I went ahead and asked Jake what I was at and he said I was a 5. Only a 5 in an hour! So I immediately stood up over the side of the bed because I was feeling done and when I stood up, it was as if the baby dropped into the correct position and my body started to push. I mean REALLY push. I was bearing down and grunting and Jake immediately stood up to be with me and make sure the nurse was coming in! 

My nurse came in within 2 minutes of me standing up because she noticed the contraction pattern changed on the monitor and she asked if she could check me again. I was at a 9! This was probably 12:45 am. She asked me to move to the bed in a few minutes if I could, I said that I would. I actually just gave a thumbs up haha. Best way to communicate in labor.

After a couple more contractions and my body starting to push, I laid down and she checked me again and I was a 10 and she was having them call Dr. Pierson. At this point, I felt pretty out of control to be honest. It felt like the baby was coming, ready or not! I just kept my eyes closed and tried to breathe and focus through each contraction. They were coming one on top of another and I could feel the baby moving down the canal - literally. I could feel the head making its way down and I was trying to reason with myself (in my head) that I could do this. When I try to describe what this part of labor felt like, the only thing I can think of is imagining a large rock coming down and out of you. Without the water sack to cushion everything, her body was just very hard like a rock making its way down.

I remember thinking around this time that I would definitely be getting the epidural next time, and that the pain was almost unbearable and I just needed it to be over ASAP! 

I laid down on the bed at 12:54 AM and was breathing and breathing and breathing, long drawn out breaths. Then around 12:57 I started to push and she was coming! Her head was right there. I pushed for 6 minutes, the longest and fastest 6 minutes of my life. Pushing as hard as I could with each contraction, trying to work with the contraction and not against it. 

At 1:03 AM her head came out, then 2 more big pushes and her body came out. The doctor and Jake said in unison, "You did it! You did it!" They brought her up to my chest, and I laid my head back and cried. It was over. It was beautiful and it was over, now I could enjoy my baby! She cried and she cried and I just laid my head back on the bed, grateful that the pain was over and that she was here with us. The nurse commented that she was another good size baby.

My placenta came quickly, within a few minutes, and I barely noticed. My doctor checked me for tears which burned and I cringed through the checking. I felt so fortunate to not have any tears! 

For the first time in all of my baby's births, we got the golden hour together. She nursed, Jake cuddled her, she nursed again. They weighed her after a little bit of time and she was 8 lbs 12 oz and 20 3/4 inches. I hardly remember the first night with her. She's 3.5 months and her birth already feels like a lifetime ago. I guess that's what having 3 babies in 3 years does to you! 

Eden is beautiful and amazing and sweet and sour. She hates her car seat, but loves everything else. She's a great cuddler and sleeper. She rocks at nursing. Her siblings are obsessed with her. She smiles and when she's super happy, she sticks her tongue out (all the way down to her chin). She fits right into our family and we love and adore her so much. 

New year and new schedule!

January is practically over! I truly do feel like this last month has lasted about 60 days haha. It already feels like Jake has been in school for forever, but maybe that's just because we both have a lot on our plates right now! But in a good way. We are definitely staying busy and happy.

We started out the year in Cincinnati and came home a few days after school had started. We were definitely ready to get back into the swing of things and find a groove that fit our family. Jake has been working night shifts at the local behavioral hospital and is enjoying it! He has already come home with a lot of crazy stories. I am really proud of him because working full time night shifts has got to be one of the most exhausting things. On top of that, he's a full-time student, teaching anatomy, and doing research with a professor! It's been interesting trying to find a rhythm that works for us where we don't all three feel drained and we are finally getting there.

I have been working at Jake's aunt's business M-F from 8-12. It's been the perfect amount of hours and it's nice making some extra money on the side! Most of the time June comes with me and plays with Emma, her little cousin that is about the same age, or I have a family member watch her. Luckily I never work more than a few hours so I don't feel like I am spending too much time away from June.

It's been nice to work and have something else to do besides be a mom and wife. Although I truly feel like those roles are my "calling" in life, I'm not quite busy enough to not go crazy with that being the only thing on my plate. So having a part-time job and one class to finish online before I graduate, I am feeling like this is my sweet spot!

June is growing bigger and smarter every day. This is definitely the best age yet. She's still cuddly, loves being with me (maybe a little too much sometimes), but I also see her gaining some independence. She has been taking more solo steps lately and I can seriously see it in her eyes when she realizes she can do it and feels confident. She doesn't take more than 4 steps in a row usually, but she truly does get better and more confident every day! On top of that, she learned the word "DOG"! We have two my little pet shop dogs and she loves them. They are the most random toys but she holds them and will just crawl around the house with at least one of them in her hand. Anyway, for weeks I would tell her it was a dog. Or I would point our a dog if we saw one outside and I always point them out in her books telling her they say "woof woof". One day I was asking her if she could say dog and she just said it! Now every time she sees her little toy dog or any kind of animal (like the cat on the bag of cat food at Trader Joe's) she says "dog"!

One activity that Jake and I have been doing together lately is working on redoing the entire Seven Brothers Farm website! It's been a really fun late night activity for us to do together while June sleeps, although we have definitely learned that we would probably not work well together ALL DAY haha but we do good work as a team. It's been really fun to learn a new skill with WordPress and gets me excited about vamping up this blog one day (probably switching to WordPress one day!). We have seriously learned how to make a very simple pretty website. It has taken us HOURS AND HOURS hahaha but it's been super fun.

That's about it on an update for us. We're trying to budget better and make more homemade meals this year so we can both be a little healthier. Jake started crossfit for the month with his brother Aaron. I've been doing at least 20 minutes of yoga daily. It's been great and I'm hoping we both keep it up with a little bit of a "healthier" life style (I still love my daily coke from McDonald's. I will probably never give that up lol)

Lisette's graduation!!!

June and I were able to go on a little trip to Kansas for Lisette's graduation from Kansas State! It was so fun to see my family and for them to be able to see June. It's Jake's family's "turn" for Christmas this year, so it was nice to be able to spend some time with them!

Lisette graduated in Early childhood ed and she's going to be so great. She has worked SO HARD the past couple years, but especially this last year, and I'm so proud of her and I'm glad she's finally done! She decided not to get her master's degree quite yet, so I'm excited that she can come visit us for a couple weeks when June turns 1!!

For the weekend, we all rented the cutest air bnb in Manhattan called the Sunset Cottage. They designed it PERFECTLY, but the only thing they didn't design well is the windows - I think they kept the original windows, because it is DRAFTY in there! Haha holy cow it was so freezing cold at night, I slept with pants, sweatshirt, and socks. I'm glad June is a little heater because I knew she was perfectly warm at night in her fleece pajamas cuddling me.

The whole weekend was so fun. We shopped at Target, ate black raspberry bean dip which is AMAZING and June loved it too! I got to see Carli, Allison, my Grandma and Cassie and all of Lisette's friends got to meet June. She did get a little overwhelmed, but really, she handled it all very well given the situation!! She is very much a mama's girl though and wanted to be by me the whole time which I am fine with! Haha she did let Lisette hold her a few times though because she looks the most like me, of course.

It was a really fun and fast weekend. The sun was shining, it was 40 degrees, and we pretty much just hung out the whole weekend, chatting and catching up with each other. My mom highlighted my hair with a box lol so it's much lighter now which I am liking so far, although it's different - I haven't highlighted my hair in over 2 years!

It'll be fun to watch Lisette's "next steps". And it makes me that much more excited to BE DONE with college!! One class left until I can finally get my degree!

Ben to Singapore!

Ahh, it's been a bittersweet week for a lot of reasons! First, June and I just got back from Kansas where we were visiting for Lisette's college graduation (more on that later). Second, it's the last week of school . . . ever! I'll never have to sit in a classroom again, write a research paper again, or ever give a presentation again! I'm so excited but it's also weird because . . . what am I going to do with my time now!? Haha. And third, because Ben and Ralph were visiting this week to take Ben to the Provo MTC. We are so, SO proud of Ben, but we are also sad to see him go and be away from our family for 2 years. We know that he will be well taken care of and really hope he will enjoy his time there learning Chinese and serving the people of Singapore!

Today, I woke up and went to work at the warehouse. I just started this week and it's been pretty good so far- but the learning curve is pretty steep if I'm being honest! Haha. I left a little early so I could spend time with Ben and Ralph before they both had to leave and as I was leaving, it was snowing and sticking like nobody's business. I was shaking the entire drive home. I'm so glad we bought new tires!

When I got home, everyone had eaten breakfast and they were just hanging out. Bob was in town for some work so he was there too, it was a party! We finished up some of Ben's laundry and then the Mauldins came over and brought Waffle Love - so good. After they left, it was nice to have just the 4 and 1/2 of us hanging out together. It's just a weird feeling - knowing this is the last time you'll see a person for 2 years . . . What do you say?! What do you talk about?!

We drove to the MTC with his bags in tow, parked, and walked out to take a couple of pictures. Ralph and Ben had a really genuine hug, and it was really sad to watch them part. You really could feel the love, and it seemed like Ralph never wanted that hug to end.

When we walked him over to the actual building, they are pretty strict and you can only walk to the gate. If you want to go in, you have to drive in, so we were saying our goodbyes at the most awkward spot but it was probably for the best. I got some super cute pictures of Ben, June, and Jake and I'm excited to look back on them in a couple years when he returns home.

I am really proud of Ben for serving a mission. I can only imagine how hard it is to make the decision to serve a mission, let alone actually do it. He is a great example for our little family. I'm excited to hear his stories and watch how his mission helps shape him. I'm also excited to hear him speak Chinese. I know he is going to be great.

We can't wait to see him in 2 years! xoxo

LIFE LATELY: pumpkin patch & halloween!

Aahhhh... Fall with my sweet pumpkin pie is the best ever. I'm glad we got to experience all the pumpkin patches and Halloween before she hit leap 6 which starts tomorrow!

We went to the pumpkin patch with our cousin Jessica and her husband Fabricio and their cute daughter Emma! It was so fun seeing them together and catching up with them. We ate donuts and pizza and took a bunch of cute pictures of the girls and even took them down the slide. Truly everything is so much more fun with babies!

And Halloween!! We didn't go out with other kids or families, but we did dress her up in a chicken costume, OF COURSE. Anyone could've guessed that. She looked so cute in it and wasn't even trying to pull the hood off! We took a ton of pics of her of course but no proof of mom pics haha (i was looking rough). But we also got one of our chickens out and put her next to June and June tried to grab her beak and I screamed!! Haha I didn't want her to get pecked and when I screamed, June wasn't even fazed. #tough

I love this little sweetness. She's been such a trooper as we go through school, as we made applesauce for HOURS two weeks ago at Amanda's house, as we put her in a huge pile of leaves, during church while we teach the 9 year olds. Oh I also painted her toes a cute little purple color while she was sleeping the other day. They look SO CUTE! She really is the best baby. . . even if she doesn't really sleep at night unless she's snuggled up close!

Fall family pictures + food poisoning

Olivia took our family pictures this Sunday and I LOVE how they turned out!! I was going for the fall feeling, but not TOO fall-y if that makes sense... Anyway, I LOVE them. June was so happy and I'm so grateful we got some pictures of her smiling!!

On our way up to squaw peak, I ate a bowl of chili that we had made the night before as we drove up. Haha well, I had left the chili out all night and I didn't even think about it at the time... but at about 2 am, I was feeling SO nauseous. I jumped out of bed and turned on the shower, hoping to escape the nausea, but it was too late and I started puking in the toilet. SO SICK. I hate throwing up.

When I finished I was like whew, okay, done. I went back to bed. Then at  5 am it happened again and I threw up even MORE. Oh my gosh I felt so sick. And I was kicking myself for eating the chili! The rest of the day, I mostly laid down on the bed or on the floor, sipping sprite and trying to eat as little as possible but enough to try and maintain my milk supply. Holy cow it is difficult trying to care for a baby when you're feeling so sick! I definitely had a look at what my life will be like next time we're pregnant . . . I can confidently say I'm glad it's just me and June for right now.

Of course Jake was begging me to take a pregnancy test hahahaha. I knew for sure I wasn't pregnant, but I appeased him and took a test anyway ... of course it was negative, but it was funny taking one again and waiting to see if there was a second line. I would've freaked if there was!

I'm feeling 100% today and went to school and went to the pumpkin patch and have had a great day. I'm so glad that food just got out of my body as quick as possible. We are all hoping for a healthy winter, escaping the flu and food poisoning!!

TEXAS!

I got back last week from visiting my family in Texas! Jake stayed home in Utah to study for the MCAT so it was just me and June. It was so fun to visit because both my sisters were there and so was my mom! It was a whole family affair, which is rare now!

Lisette drove in from Kansas (yay!) and Amanda was in Dallas working. My mom made a "work trip" while we were there so we all got some good quality time together. Most of our days were spent just hanging out, eating mexican food, and catching up. You can never have too much tex-mex when you're there, because Utah doesn't have anything quite like Anamia's or Torchy's!

It was also really fun to see my sister Amanda because she's about to leave on a 9 month mission trip and won't see June until she's OVER A YEAR OLD and both me and lisette will be graduated from college - WHAAATT. So it was really sweet to be able to hang out with her for a little while.

I also got to catch up with two old middle school and high school friends, Abby and Brooke. They also have babies now around the same age so it was fun to meet up with them and chat about motherhood and our different experiences!

Plus it's always fun to see babies with other babies. How they interact at such a young age is so cute . . . Abby's baby Logan and June are only 9 days apart so they pretty much were staring at each other and touching each other's faces. But Brooke's baby is about 2 months younger than June so she looked like a monster compared to her! They were both laying on a blanket and June kept using Blakely's arm as a pulling system to get closer to her. She kept grabbing at her face and trying to chew on her binky clip. It was so funny but obnoxious at the same time. It will be so fun to visit them again then our kids can actually play together.

And now we're back in the real world. Ive started school, with some help from my AMAZING friends who are able to watch June during most of my classes, and we're just trying to finish up this school year (lol it's literally the first day) without dying. Wish me luck. And PLEASE BE GOOD JUNE.

SILVER LAKE HIKE

We took June on a hike for the first time in the new Ergo carrier I got . . . and it was amazing!!

The weather cooled down a little bit and we decided to go up in American Fork Canyon and do the Silver Lake hike. We were tossing around the idea of camping before I headed to Texas, but we decided this was a better idea for now. It's about 4.5 miles round trip anD MAN DOES IT FEEL LIKE IT.

Haha you gain about 1,400 feet elevation over the 2 miles up, but I was seriously dying for a second there. . . I had to take a few breaks to get water and we ended up switching June over to Jake because I was sooo sweaty! June was loving it though, just napping as we walked and talked.

At one point on the way up, I could've sworn we were nearly there . . . Like turn the corner, boom you're there kinda thing. We passed a guy and we asked him, "Are we close?!" And he goes, "Ummm.... I would say you're about halfway..." We just laughed. Haha we felt so weak! We were joking with June about how lame her parents were.

When we finally got to the top, it was immediately worth it! One, we could stop hiking, and two, the lake was beautiful! The water was pretty clear at the beachy parts of the lake, so we saw little fish swimming around and jumping up to catch mosquitos. We ate our packed sandwiches, veggies, and chips and enjoyed the view. Jake dunked his head in because he was pretty hot but the water was FREEZING. I only splashed a little on my face, but we cooled down pretty quickly just sitting and hanging out there.

June was loving it. She just watched the movement of the water, looked around at all the trees and sucked on a bell pepper. She is the best little go with the flow baby!

It was also really nice because it was the middle of a workday so it wasn't very busy. There were a few other people there but we were all spread out so it sort of felt like we were up there alone.

It was such a great day, spending alone time with our little family and not worrying about the MCAT at all. It was a much needed break for me and for Jake! And we can't believe that's one of our last hoorahs for school comes.

Team Blackwelder Family Reunion Part 1

She was smiling and looking at Brent in this photo 

Cousins!!! Taylor and Megan's cute daughters!! They love, love, love June. They're always telling me, "Your baby is so cute!" 

Cousins, I think.... Somehow. Haha

That's how I feel about coke, too 

Fell asleep on pops... So cute.. Before this, we put some coke on her pacifer hahah and then she fell asleep... Ooops 

Baby Emma being all cute and grumpy! She smiled when I put the camera away of course, haha

Snoozing while everyone played volleyball... She's so cute 

My first family reunion!! And it was awesome. I was really looking forward to it this summer so I could see how they went down and also so I could meet other members of the family. Our timing with June's 4 month shots weren't that great because they were the day before it started and she had a fever and was SO fussy, but on Friday, the first full day of the reunion, she was happy as can be and was loving life - thank goodness.

We were staying in a condo with Jake's family which was so fun. We all dropped our stuff off and unpacked a little bit and then went over to the reunion spot which was not even a 5 minute walk away!

THURSDAY...

The family reunion began with dinner by Dennis, delicious as always!! It was so fun to have everyone arriving at the same place, checking in and getting our shirts and name tags. I was meeting new people left and right - apparently there were about 194 people there, all Blackwelder descendants! Pretty amazing!

Everyone was playing games like spike ball and kan jam and cornhole.

That night Jessica had to work until 6 and then wasn't able to get to the reunion until about 8 and I could tell Emma was getting a little fussy and hungry. Lori was near me and said they had milk, but she wasn't sure where the bottle was and so I asked if I could just nurse her - I have plenty of milk and it'd be super easy! She said yes, of course! So I nursed that little cutie for about 15 minutes. I thought it'd be super weird in the back of my mind, but it was not at all. Luckily June was happy hanging out with a couple other people for the moment. I hope Emma reads this when she's older ;)

FRIDAY...

I had to go to work for 4 hours on Friday, so I got June ready and fed, ate some breakfast, and then went off to work. I tried not to think about her getting passed around while I was gone haha.

When I got back to Midway, I was so excited to see everyone! While I was gone, Jake got a caricature done with June and then the artist added me in too. Pretty cute! I brought June back to the condo to get a nap, and then we watched a little bit of Animal Planet with Aaron while we waited for Ralph to bring our Team Blackwelder shirts.

We got dressed, and June got the CUTEST onesie to wear! Seriously so, so cute on all the babies with their onesies! We ate dinner and then walked over to a grassy area to get family pictures. We haven't gotten those pictures back yet, but I'm excited to see them! June was happy and I was so grateful!

That night there was also THE TALENT SHOW! Haha basically for any kid that wants to go up there and show us their stuff. Oh, also for adults too. There were some great acts like playing the piano and singing and poetry, but the best of all was the last performance - a dance that Aubrey, Sydney, Cannon, Lillie, and Christy came up with! They had been planning it for weeks and it was so cute. They turned the lights completely off, taped glow sticks to their faces and bodies in shapes of people, and then did the dance. They are talented girls and were doing flips and cartwheels and booty shakes. So funny!

After the talent show, there was a dance party. June slept through the whole thing but everyone was doing the cha cha slide and other line dances. It was great how everyone was SO into it!!

When we got back to the house, I put June to bed and then we went downstairs to play Bohnanza! Taylor made chicken and pork chops (sooo good) while we played. Of course Ralph won haha. I love that game. The boys stayed up for a little while longer playing but I went upstairs to snuggle June.

The first two days were great but so exhausting! Being outside all day can wear you out. Luckily the reunions are in Utah and even when it's so hot out, you can go in the shade and be niiiice and cool.

Thanks for letting us join your team, Jake!!