What's Been Happenin'

This post may seem like it has a lot of pictures in it, but my May folder has 218 pictures so far and the month is only half over, so trust me, it could be worse.

Just a cute picture of Mckinley to get us started....


Oh wait, and another one. This is the first time we'd seen her in a hat and oh my gosh, it just melted my heart. She is so stinking cute.


Despite having a newborn around, we have still done quite a few things lately. Brandon's sister Tara flew in for a trip from New Mexico. The night before she went back home we all got together and had a little creme brulee party. Thanks to whoever did all the work. It was awesome to just show up and eat it.

On Thursday Brandon played softball again. All he had to miss was the one week we were in the hospital waiting to meet our baby. He could have even gone that night...had we only known Mckinley's plan. Anyway, so he played softball and during the game his dad got hit with the ball right in the side of the head, well, right on his ear. He had to get 36 stitches in his ear. As far as we know, there isn't any permanent damage, but it was still pretty scary.

On Saturday we took Mckinley over to our friend Ashli's house to get her pictures taken. Here she is with her hoody ready to head out.

On the way home from Michael and Ashli's, we stopped on the side of the road to check out some other babies. This guy that lives by them has a ton of animals.

The cute baby goat.

Baby lambs. I think they thought we had food. They came running up to us and practically tried to jump through the fence.

When I said he had a lot of animals, I wasn't kidding. This guy even has a kangaroo!!!

It's nice and lets you pet it.

This weekend Mckinley got to meet a few more family members. My brother Mark hadn't seen her yet. And here she is with her great Grandma Bishop. Grandma told me she is great grandchild #85 on the Bishop side.

My little sister Amy drove down from Rexburg just to meet Mckinley.

We took Mckinley out on a little walk. Twice. We are loving our car seat and stroller combo.

My big sister Kristen turned 30 on Sunday. We celebrated together at a family dinner.

Life with Mckinley in it can be described in one word: AWESOME. She is such a good baby and we just can't get enough of her. She has been sleeping really good at night. She's eating really well. And she spends a lot of time awake just looking at the world around her. I have had an amazing recovery and I feel like a million bucks. Brandon and I both feel like we are living in a dream. We have wanted a baby for so long and it's a thousand times better than we ever imagined it could be.

Update

Just a quick update. And a promise. The promise first. We promise we won't just blog about Mckinley from here on out. Of course right now, there isn't much else going on except hanging out with her, but in the future, we promise we will blog about other stuff as well.

And now the update. The last 4 days at home with this little angel have been heaven. We cannot get enough of her. She is so sweet and has been a good baby so far.

A couple things she likes to do: sleep in our bed with us. The little stinker knows how to get her way. But we've only had her in there for an hour or two at a time, not the whole night ever. She also likes to pee when we take her diaper off. Once it squirted up on to Brandon's hand.


A couple things she doesn't like to do: be bathed. Have her diaper changed. Get her clothes changed. We try to make those things happen quickly.


Here's me and Bran on Monday morning getting ready to take her to her doctor check up. Everything looked well and she weighed in at 7 lbs 6 oz.


She's had lots of awake time and it is so fun to be with her and watch her look around at everything. She is so stinking cute. These pictures don't do her justice. (so if you haven't come over to visit, come on by!)

Here's a picture from this morning. Man, we just love her.

PS. Her middle name is May. A couple people have asked so I guess I never wrote that down anywhere.

We're Home

Sorry peeps, I can't believe I never mentioned how big she was. Mckinley was 7 lbs 13 oz and 19 inches long. A perfect size!
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We came home last night and had our first night at home. Mckinley actually did well, a lot better than me. I was so nervous and freaked out about everything that I couldn't get to sleep, even though she was sleeping. I fed her a few times and then I finally ended up putting her in bed with me and we both slept great together.

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Leaving the hospital. I just put on the same outfit I came in, my maternity jeans and shirt. It was weird to see how differently they fit.. Weird in a very good way.

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We had some pretty awesome balloons and a welcome home sign from some of Brandon's family. Thanks guys! The sign in our room was awesome too. It said Happy Mother's Day Mom. It fell down in the middle of the night and totally freaked us out.

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Thanks to everyone who came to visit us in the hospital. Don't feel bad if you didn't make it, we accept visitors at home too!

Eye Candy

Anyone up for some Mckinley-flavored eye candy? Well, ready or not, here it is.
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Today has been quite different than yesterday. I got a lot of good sleep last night and finally got a shower in this morning. It feels great.
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Pre-shower family picture.

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Kristen has spent the last 2 nights here in my room with me so Brandon could get some good sleep at home in bed. What a trooper!

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Brandon can not get enough of his daughter!!! It is so stinking cute.

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It's no different story with me.

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Who are we kidding? EVERYONE is in love with her.

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Yesterday, day 1, was FILLED with non stop visitors and a perfect happy sleeping baby. Today, day 2, was exactly opposite. This room has been DEAD and Mckinley has been crying a LOT today and last night.
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I tricked her in to holding her own binki in her mouth. It worked for at least a few minutes.

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Ahh, I finally showered and it felt so good.

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One day Mckinley will be big enough to take pictures of us so we don't have to do the self portrait thing, but for now, we're still going strong.

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Here she is again with her eyes open.

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Up until just a few minutes ago, this is how I found the other 2 members of my family.

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I know I still haven't told the whole birth story, and I may never get around to it. So here's the short story.

The hospital was supposed to call us between 5:30 and 6:00 in the morning on Thursday to come in and get induced. They wasted no time and woke us up with a call at 5:28. We got ready as quick as we could and made it to the hospital by about 6:20 a.m.

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Got all checked in and changed and finally got the pitocin started at 8 in the morning. Brandon thought we might have a baby around lunch time. I was hoping for something before late afternoon.

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Nothing happened for about 4 hours, I was having contractions, at first I couldn't even feel them, then I started to at least be able to recognize them, but they weren't painful. The doctor came in and broke my water around 12:30 I think. Some of you know I had a LOT of fluid in my belly and let me just tell you, it made for some crazy times over the next few hours.

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Anyway, breaking my water did make the contractions pick up. They started getting pretty painful. Once I couldn't talk through them, I had the epidural. Here's where the story gets long and boring. Basically over the next TEN hours or so, the following happened. Sometimes the epidural took care of the pain. Sometimes it didn't. Sometimes the contractions were good and consistent, sometimes not. Sometimes Mckinley's heart rate was good, sometimes not. So we fought all these things and tried to get everything right, but I was dilating super slow and there was nothing we could do until I got to a 10.

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There was talk of a C-section. We didn't have to go that route though. Finally at midnight I started pushing. Pushed for an hour and then got a little episiotomy and she came right out. And the rest is history. What am I forgetting? Probably a lot. Oh well. It's better than nothing. Please excuse any typos you see. :)

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Oh, I guess I should say that we are very lucky and grateful that nothing was wrong with Mckinley. She didn't have to go to the NICU for anything. She has been breastfeeding pretty good which I know is a huge blessing as well. We are so grateful to have her here and to be experiencing this miracle we've been waiting for so long for.

Three is Better than Two

Mckinley finally decided to enter the world. I'll give more details later when I'm not so darn tired.


We went to the hospital to be induced at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 6th and she was born at 1:06 a.m. today, Friday, May 7th. She REALLY loved being on the inside...

We are so in love with her.



Kristen and Brandon helped me get through it all.

She's had lots of wide awake time and she's still only 14 hours old.

Our Last Night

Brandon and I decided to go to dinner at the Pizza Factory tonight to celebrate our last night alone. Man, it tasted good.

I went to the doctor today and nothing had changed from my appointment on Monday. They got me scheduled to go to the hospital for some prostin gel something something to help things move along. I went to the hospital but when they checked me there they thought I was good enough without it. So the plan moves forward as expected, I will go in sometime tomorrow morning and be induced. I guess it's a good thing that this whole time I was planning on her being born May 6th, doesn't leave too much room for disappointment.

So I am pretty much a week overdue, and I still am not feeling like I'm dying to get her out of me. I really like carrying around a baby in my belly. Especially this sweet baby who has been through so much.

For those of you who don't know, Mckinley has had a bit of a different journey than the average child. She is an In-Vitro baby. She started out as one of 30 eggs on 2 very over stimulated ovaries. She was vacuumed out of my ovary and transferred to a peetree(sp) dish where she was injected with one of Brandon's sperm through a microscopic needle. Then she grew in a lab for 5 days and was one of 6 survivors out of 24 fertilized embryos. Two of those embryos were transferred into my uterus. Neither survived. Mckinley was one of the 4 who spent the next 6 months frozen in liquid nitrogen at -350 degrees.

She then became one of the 2 embryos that survived the thawing process, and after that, the one and only embryo who was able to imlant into my uterine lining and grow into a little baby. Modern medicine is such a miracle. I can't help but think she must be someone special to have been the only one to make it through all of that.

Here's the very first picture we have of her. Wish we knew which one she was. I'm guessing the one on the left.

This might give some of you an idea of why I like being pregnant so much. It's something we've been working for for quite a while. And of course while we can hope this won't be the only time I get pregnant, there is no saying what will happen, so I have really tried to enjoy every moment.

Brandon and I are incredibly excited to meet this amazing survivor tomorrow!!! We are already head over heels in love with her.

T minus negative 1 day

I know I am using a double negative in my subject line, but that is the best way to describe it. I am one day past my due date. So yes, like the counter on the side bar says, my baby should be 1 day old, but she is in fact still hanging out inside my uterus.

Here is a picture of me today at 40 weeks, 1 day.


The plan is to induce me this next Thursday, when I will be a week overdue. I was totally fine with that plan up until yesterday when I decided to take a peek at the baby on ultrasound and found out she is already measuring at 8 lbs 7 oz! Yikes. With a week still to go, I feel like I am going to give birth to a giant. I know lots of you have had big babies, and I know it's not the end of the world, but I kind of just wanted a smaller baby. Of course the ultrasound isn't 100% accurate, but still, I am getting a little freaked out.

Other than that, I am just still coming to work every day, and considering getting a shirt that says "Yes, I'm still here" so I don't have to respond to EVERYONE who asks me if and why I'm still here. I guess I could quit coming to work, but all I would do then is sit on the couch and twiddle my thumbs waiting to go into labor so I figure I'm better of just coming in to work.

I'm hoping my next post will be a picture of Mckinley, but I can't make any promises....

Picnic Weather

First things first. No, Stacey, I haven't had my baby yet. Sorry! I think you'll see a few more posts before then. She seems perfectly happy inside. And from what I hear, they're easier to take care of in there, so as much as I want to meet her, I'm happy to keep carrying her around in my belly.

I just wanted to blog about some of the fun picnics we've been on lately. Brandon says he has never been so excited for summer to come as he is this year. So whenever it's warm weather (especially on a Saturday) he just wants to get out of the house so bad and be outside.

A couple Saturdays ago we went to Nielsen's Grove and had a picnic with my 2 sisters, Kristen and Amy. Then this last Saturday we wanted to have another picnic so we invited Brandon's family to come. We had such a good time. The weather was awesome.


Me and Bran working hard at enjoying this last little bit of time that we have together with just the 2 of us.



Hanging out by the pond feeding the ducks.


Here's sweet Haley. If you can't tell, me and Brandon really love Haley and Brynlee...

Brynlee wanted to go back to the pond later and she totally just sat there and chilled watching the ducks. She doesn't usually sit still too long so I enjoyed every minute with her. Too bad there is like NO shade at Nielsen's Grove and my skin is super sensitive to the sun so I totally got sunburned. Who gets sunburned in April? ME!

Brandon and Brynlee just chillin' on the sidewalk.

Tonight we had another picnic to celebrate Dallin's birthday. Sorry I couldn't grant you your birthday wish today Dallin. (He really wanted to share a birthday with his new niece. There's still an hour and a half left of the day but I got a feeling it's not gonna happen.)

Weather permitting, if we're not at the hospital on Saturday, we're going to be at the park again for another picnic. We can't get enough of this good weather!

Oh, I should have said in my last post, the new car we bought is a Hyundai Sonata. I had a few people ask. So I'm just answering it here. We are loving it and we feel like we're about as ready as we can be for this baby girl to join us!

Buy a New Car. Check.

We have been meaning to buy a second car for quite a while now. Our goal was to get one before the baby comes so we wouldn't have to keep sharing one car. The procrastination is finally over and we now have 2 cars and Mckinley is still hanging out in my belly.

Brandon thought it would be fun to get the car for me on my birthday. I think it was a pretty sweet birthday present! We've been car shopping a few times and I hate it. Brandon has done pretty much all of the research and finally found one that was perfect so yesterday we went and got it. We're both really happy with it. It's quite the step up from our old '96 camry. :)


My whole birthday yesterday was awesome. We had a fun lunch to celebrate Dallin graduating from BYU and Brandon's mom made a really yummy cake for me for my birthday.


She put 6 candles in it because that's how many days were left till my due date.

Today we are headed off to the park for a picnic and then later this evening I am going to the mall for a 1-hour pregnancy massage, thanks to my amazing friend Jessica. I am so excited I can hardly stand it!!!

Gettin' Old

Today is my birthday and Im 28!!! Holy cow. I'm getting up there. But I still feel like I'm 20.

I have had a GREAT birthday so far. I decided to give myself the day off work so I've been home relaxing and cleaning my house. Gotta get things ready just in case this little girl decides to come out and meet us.

The birthday celebrations started yesterday when my work replacement, Linda, surprised me with this big boquet of flowers from her and the doctors.


Not only that, but she had been working behind my back for the last few weeks at getting each of the doctors to write me a note for my birthday, and secretary's day, and kind of a good-bye thing. Even though I'll be going back to work part-time.

Linda went to tons of work and it was the coolest thing ever. She compiled all their notes into this cute little scrapbook. The picture went on here sideways but oh well.


Then today on my birthday Brandon made me pancakes, eggs, and orange juice for breakfast. And then I've been at home all morning and am loving it. Later on we are going to go car shopping and hopefully actually buy one this time. :) We have been meaning to buy a 2nd car before the baby came. And we are getting pretty close to that time...

I still haven't reached the point where I'm dying to get her out of me. I love feeling her roll around in there and I'm still fairly comfortable so I really can't complain at all. I'm totally planning on her coming late. The official due date is the 29th of April but I think she'll be born in May. All I know from the doctor is that they won't let me go longer than 41 weeks, which will be May 6th. So we'll meet her by then for sure.

Here is a picture of me at 39 weeks. I am still in awe that I'm here. This has been such an amazing experience and I am so grateful for it. I feel so bad for all those who are still in the same boat I used to be in who want children but can't have them.

Well, I would stay and chat but I'm off to go enjoy the rest of my birthday!!!