Victoria Elise

First I want to say thank you to my mom and dad for sharing their anniversary(this year was 35!) with Victoria and for my mom for changing her flight to come down on her anniversary to be here to help with Ava! I also couldn't have made it this past week with out her and I don't know what I'll do when she leaves!

Also I want to say thank you to the Harrison's for watching Ava and then picking up my mom from the airport and bringing them to the hospital! And Danika who called at a time where I was internally freaking out bc I didn't know what we would do with us being at the hospital and when she called and offered to help, helped calm me down.

A Huge thank you also goes to Lizette! She offered to be my doula for this birth and I would not have done it naturally and would have gave in to an epidural and probably had a longer labor had she not been there! We were truly blessed and watched over during the whole day!

But on to the big day!

I woke up at 4:30. I thought it was because I usually get up at 5:30 and get ready for the gym and with daylight savings my body was just waking up early. But within seconds I understood why. I was having contractions. After it went away I thought to myself "If this is me going into labor I can apparently only start labor at 4:30 am and I'll know for future pregnancies" since I started going into labor with Ava at the exact same time. But I just laughed ,after the pain, to myself and I was like no it can't be. Especially since with Ava it felt like she wanted to escape and Victoria it felt like she was just chillin and I thought she would stay in until her due date. (I was obviously wrong!) So I tried to go back to sleep but they were every 15 minutes for the first hour and a half. I tried changing positions, going bathroom, walking around, drinking some water since I thought maybe they were braxton hicks again and that's what you do to kinda help them go away. After a couple of contractions Spencer was like what are you doing? I told him what was happening and he told me he was going to shower and told me to get the rest of mine and Ava's bags packed.

At 6 am I sent a text to Lizette telling her I think I'm in labor(I was still skeptical) and then called my mom. She didn't say hello or any greeting just a NO DON’T TELL ME YOU'RE IN LABOR. My response was "Happy Anniversary. I Might be in labor I don't know for sure though." I described to my mom what was going on and she groaned "you're in labor! Victoria you're suppose to wait until tomorrow!" She had told me she was up at around the same time I started getting contractions and was like that was probably why. I finished getting my bags packed and then mom called me letting me know that she was able to change her flight to that night at 6 for free(Thank you American Airline miles card!) and to just wait until she got to Dallas to have her.

I then started cleaning. This was also something I was thinking. The I knew I should have done _____ last night! The 2 main things being painted my toe nails which I was going to do until Ava decided she wanted hers done and then I forgot about doing mine and then cleaning up the apartment. After that it was 7:30, the time I usually start working. It was something to keep my mind off the pain. Lizette came over and gave me some oil to help with contractions and told me to contact her and let her know what was happening and that she'll be available when ever. I also got a blessing from Spencer. I love the priesthood and the blessings we get from it and am so glad that I have a husband who lives his life so that he is worthy to hold it! Parts of the things that were said is what got me through the last 30 min of labor.

Between about 6:00 am and noon my contractions would vary from 15 min to 3 min to 10 along with the strength of the contractions. I was still in denial, but at 11:30 I stopped working and we went to lunch. It was at about noon that my contractions started becoming more consistent. They were happening every 10 min at about the same pain strength. Then after a little over an hour It started going to about 5-6 minutes apart. So we took Ava to the Harrison's. She was excited to play with Lydia! Spencer had to fill the car with gas and then put the bags in the car so I told her when daddy got back we would take her to see Lydia. She got so mad when dad did come and we didn't leave right away. We dropped her off and went to the Hospital. I was still skeptical.  I knew I was in labor, but I thought that they would send me home. I don't want to be the girl who cried wolf I guess!

We got to the hospital around 2. They set me up on monitors and I was like I'm not having contractions anymore. They're so going to send me home and then mom coming down early was completely unnecessary and Spencer staying home from school and just everything else and all the worries started to pile up. After an hour they checked and they were being generous since both nurses said I was 2.5 dilated but probably saw my face and then said "Well…. We'll say it's at a 3 and check you in a hour or so." Rachel, my midwife, came in and asked me what I wanted to do. What I wanted to do was not be in pain and have the baby right away, but since that's not really an option she said she'd let me think and come back. She mentioned that I might go home and the baby could be born tomorrow. The next hour and a half I was having constant little (in comparison to later on but they felt big at the time) contractions. Rachel checked me and I was at a 4.5.  We weren't going anywhere. Especially since with Ava I went from a 4 to an 8 in about 2 hours.

Since I wanted to have Victoria all natural (with Ava the epidural slowed down my labor and it didn't work completely and could feel just about everything) I was able to walk around and they would monitor me sporadically. The walking seemed to help take a little off the pain. I was told to breath deep and it helped so much, but I also felt like I was sounding like a ghost or a dying cow and I was really loud! They checked me again an hour later and I was at a 7. It was here that I was thinking nope, I don't want to do it natural anymore I want an epidural. Then Lizette would start to rub where my contractions were (She did this for EVERY ONE!) and it didn't make it completely go away, but the pressure helped make them feel a little better. I decided that since Lizette was there doing that and helpng me breathe and Spencer was there holding my hand I could make it.

 Rachel had to leave and the other midwife on call suggested I get on all fours. It seemed to help more than standing or laying down and I was in this position for about 30 minutes until I had to push. They felt like they were just one constant contraction. There was 2 times that I can remember that I was able to lay my head down and kept silently saying a prayer for the strength to get through the pain for however long it was going to last. Near the end instead of doing the low guttural breathing, I was screaming Owie! They kept saying when you feel you have to push let us know. So during one of the contractions I yelled out that I had to.

  

 I turned onto my back after telling them I was ready to push and they checked me. I was completely there at a 10 and they just had to re sanitize the area before I could push. This all literally happened within the space of a couple minutes.  I was like nope I have to now and started to push. I really couldn't help it. Everyone was telling me to wait and I could see that they were going fast, just not fast enough to my liking. In what felt like forever, which was probably only a minute, they were like okay next contraction you can push. So I did and Victoria was out. Everyone was impressed. It took 2 pushes and that was only because they told me to stop pushing the first time. At the time I was just like, good It's over, but now thinking back I'm pretty impressed with myself too.

At 6:09 PM Victoria Elise was here! She weighed 6lbs 10.8 oz and 19 3/4 inches long with lots of dark hair. I got to hold her while Spencer cut her cord. Honestly I don't remember much of what happened after. I just knew there was some pain but I got to hold my baby.

My mom got off the plane a few minutes before she was born. We laughed and were like, Well Victoria listened to you. She did in fact wait until you were in Dallas to be born. If you wanted to be at the hospital, you should have been more specific!

Ava was a little skeptical of her new sister. I wanted to have Ava come in first and sit with me and then have Spencer bring in Victoria but that didn't work out. Ava only wanted Nana and wouldn't even come near me. She did sit with Nana and sister and had fun counting Victoria's toes though. 

Ava not really wanting to be here. 

Making her smile by counting sisters toes

Over all it was a painfully pleasant experience that I am so glad is over! If you are looking to do a natural birth I highly recommend a doula (ESPECIALLY Lizette if you are in the DFW area, seriously she was amazing!). I think one thing that helped me too was going to the gym every morning and then right after I would do a prenatal yoga  video, which I also highly recommend. I was able to walk on my own right  away whereas before I needed a ton of help and didn't even want to attempt it since it was so painful.

I can't thank enough everyone who helped make what could have been easily the most stressful day of my life into an amazing one. We love our new princess, she is perfect for our family!

Shake It Off

We have been keeping ourselves super busy! Between gym, work, watching Ava and taking care of stuff around the place I barely have time to do anything!

In preparation for sister, we got Ava a baby doll. She LOVES it! She has to sleep with her doll every night or she can't go to bed. Ava likes to go up to my tummy and say "sis" well when she first saw the baby doll she got super excited and said SISTER! We have since convinced her that it's a baby doll and not sister. There are times when she gets confused and will call her sister though. She has now also started kissing my tummy after I ask her if she loves Sister. I'll take that as a yes!

Ava's favorite song right now is.... Shake it Off by Taylor Swift. She always wants to listen to it and it has to be the music video. She loves dancing and when she wants it played she'll go to a computer and goes "Song." I love Taylor Swift but I don't know how much more I can take of that song. We literally listen to it like 25 times a day. As I am writing we are listening to this song. Not even kidding that it's her favorite.

Ava also knows that at night, after she listens to "Let It Go" on Frozen or "Be Our Guest" on Beauty and the Beast that it's time for bed and if Mom is trying to clean up or do something she will pull at my shirt and say "sit, sit" because we have to cuddle while watching. Sometimes I feel like I should be cleaning or doing something else(especially since I've seen it so many times) but I remind myself that in a few months everything is going to change and Ava's world is going to be completely different so I sit with her and don't feel guilty. One bad thing about naptime though is she learned how to open her bedroom door so when she doesn't want to take a nap she'll open the door and be like "HI!"it's kinda cute sometimes.

Ava's favorite thing to do is to give knuckles. Especially to Nana and Dadpa. Dadpa is what she calls my dad instead of Grandpa. Dadpa does a radio show on ustream Thursdays so she can see him and she kept trying to give him knuckles even though he couldn't see her. So I texted them to let them know and Dadpa gave knuckles back she was so happy and she had the biggest smile on her face. We went shopping the other weekend and I put her in front of a mirror while Dad was looking at work pants. Well she started playing knuckles with herself. Also entertained herself for about 10 minutes doing this!

I have been NEEDING chocolate(I always have to clarify not a want but a need with Spencer) so we got chocolate ice cream the other day! Ava hasn't really had ice cream a lot maybe once from Sonic when my parents were in town, since she couldn't eat dairy until a few months ago. But while we were eating ours we gave Ava some and she loved it. No surprise! I fought with her to eat dinner and since she reluctantly did I gave her some and I had no problem getting her to eat that. In fact she kept asking for more.

I had a Dr's appointment on Thursday and they measure your stomach to see how big the baby is growing. The first thing Ava does when we got home was found a measuring tape and put it up to her stomach. It was super cute!

She is also independent and wants to do things just like mommy. She takes my shoes, make up, jewelry and phone. She also has to do what I do and at Kroger we found a shopping cart Ava's size and she did a pretty good job pushing it and not running into people. I was impressed. And everyone who saw her though she was the cutest(can't really blame them there!)

I was also finally able to complete a project that I've been wanting to do since we brought Ava home. I made a shadow box from her hospital stay. I pretty much finished it just in time to make another one and it only took me about 2 years! But I am pretty please with it! It has her coming home outfit, the wrist bands and a few other stuff.

Last weekend my friends also threw me a diaper shower since we have pretty much everything we need for sister. It looked so cute and I had a fun time! It was funny because the night before I was craving chocolate and queso and they had a cheese, chocolate and pizza fondue set up. It was so yummy and perfect!! I also won a game which like never happens! It was so nice to get together with friends and not have to worry about Ava! A big thank you to Cherisse, Danika, and Laura!

And lastly:
We email my little sister, brother and brother in law each week and I send pictures of mostly Ava to them. Well my little sister requested a picture of sister(me) too so here is me with sister at (almost) 34 weeks.

And Ava wanted to be in the picture too. That is her I just woke up hair so ignore that!

Only a month and a half left! Hopefully not longer. Sister actually can't come late because then Spencer won't be able to be there since he has the last part of boards the weekend she's due! 

I have the cutest daughter!

I haven't been doing the picture updates monthly since it was getting ridiculously hard to get a picture and then do everything. But I did keep track of all the things that Ava does that I love. 

My absolute favorite thing that she does right now is she'll randomly come up to my tummy and put her hand on it and say "Sis" over and over until you tell her yeah that's sister or you'll ask her where sister is and she'll put her hand on my stomach. Each time she'll have a big smile too!

-Loves purses, necklaces, and especially shoes and sunglasses.

-She loves having friends over. When we're watching any of her friends she feels it's her job to help watch them, so she'll try to feed them, change their diaper, or give them drinks, blankies or whatever they need especially if they are crying. She's very mother-y  and hopefully it means she'll be a helpful good sister!

-We have the opposite of a problem with brushing teeth, She doesn't want to stop brushing her teeth and gets upset when I don't let her brush them with her toothpaste

-She knows that when you go shopping you have to put things you want in the cart. Most of the stuff Mom has not approved or knew she put it in there(usually shoes or sunglasses or a toy). 

-Empty toilet paper rolls are now musical instruments

-Constantly singing, especially to Frozen. She sings "Love is an Open Door" but just says door over and over, and the same with "Do you want to Build a Snowman" but instead says Man or clicks like the clock.

-Loves leaves and in the pool thinks they belong there and makes it her mission to put them all back in the pool, same with mulch at the playground or rocks in the street.

putting rocks back in the hole in the street

- She will fight you to change her diaper unless you ask her where she wants to lay down. Sometimes it can take a few different spots for her to find the right place and she might roll around. Usually it's by a wall or someplace where she makes it hard for you to change her. When she's being ornery she will lay down then flip onto her stomach. 

-She loves swimming and now loves baths!

-She loves Bubbles, she mostly chases them though since they pop before she can get to them

-Loves going outside and if she gives you her shoes and then your shoes it means take me outside now!

-When I fix my hair she puts her hands up to her hair and acts like she is fixing it. When she finds booby pins she will put them in her hair herself.

-She has to have her own makeup brushes and puts on "makeup" with mom

-When she hears music she will look at you and smile, then wait for me to smile before she starts dancing. 

-Likes picking her own clothes out. They don't always match, and are sometimes two shirts or two pants but she wants to wear them both. Then there are the times where she wants to wear her too small pajamas bc they have princesses on them like in the picture. She also wants to change multiple times a day. 

-Loves going on walks, especially when she gets to push her toy stroller while we walk.

(It's blurry but she wouldn't stay till and it was dark)

- If she see's something that's mine or spencer's and she knows she's not allowed to touch it she rushes to give it to us. Even if I have spencer's phone or vise versa she takes it and gives it to the right person. She also loves rushing to give me my mouse. Especially if you close the door on her, she will knock and knock until you open the door so she can give it to you like the most important thing is for you to have it(when really she's just trying to get into the room)

-Loves playing ball with dad

This looks like she's heading the ball or whatever you call it

but it's actually her throwing the ball 

-Sleeps in a big girl bed and Loves it, even still. We haven't really had a problem with her transitioning from crib to bed. The first week or so she would ask to go to bed and now she knows at bed time we give dad a kiss and go straight to bed.

-LOVES coloring. She will color for hours if you sit with her. Unfortunately we're still teaching her that you can't color on the walls, something that is difficult since we have a white board on our wall that dad writes on a lot. (not pictured the many coloring marks on my walls)

-Sofia the First is one of her favorite things to watch. We have a lot of Sofia stuff. Like a Sofia the First Shower curtain. If you come visit us you have this to look forward to! :)

-Loves her Baby dolls and babies

There were times when we couldn't go anywhere without this baby doll

-She's getting better at speaking but a lot of words she says are the ending. Like Sofia is "aaaa" and she sings it,  goldfish are "ish" and Please is '"se"

-Words she can fully say are "Mom" "Dad" "Walk" "Watch" "Sock" "Shoe" "Bath" "Stair" "More" "No" Yes" "Sis" and more but I can't think of them. Her favorite is by far "NO"

-Knows what to do when she gets adjusted by dad. Other people not so much

-Loves having visitors/visiting and playing with Aunts and Uncles

-Loves her Mommy and Daddy, not as much as we love her though :)

Half Marathon #2 with Baby #2

I have been wanting to write about my second half marathon since I ran it but I couldn't write about it without everyone knowing I was pregnant since it was a big part of the race for me. We decided that we would tell people after we came back from Puerto Rico, and now I have free time since Ava is sleeping at the moment and we don't have guests here anymore.

Warning it is pretty long, but this is pretty much all that I have been doing (besides working and watching Ava) in the past  6 months plus.

Right after I had Ava a few friends and I decided to run a half marathon. There were 4 of us and at the time we had all had babies in the past year. Well one friend had to drop out after a few weeks when she found out she was pregnant! Well in November after she had her cute boy she said she was wanting to run half and I decided that I should join her since I was getting back into running and it was a nice to actually be motivated to run. Also, my memory of the last half didn't seem as bad as I remembered. 

We didn't start running as a group until January after all the holidays and I had decided to push myself kinda hard and I would run a little farther than the schedule that Alissa put together. Not gonna lie I was baby hungry so if I was going to run anything I wanted to be ready. I hadn't fully committed to doing the half because I wanted another one, I just had to convince Spencer that it would be okay to have another kid while he was still in school with everything he had going on. 

Because of my want to have another baby I was putting off signing up for it. I had until Feb 28th to sign up and then the price would go up. About a week before I had decided that what the heck, I was just going to sign up. Well just before that we had decided we would try but what were the chances that we were going to get pregnant on the first time. Plus I thought that even if I did get pregnant I was running 9 miles and I could totally handle it. So no turning back now no matter what happened. 

Well that next week after I signed up I started getting sick and was super tired and it somewhat reminded me of what it felt like with Ava, except I wasn't throwing up. I just felt like I needed to. So a few days after this sick feeling I had I took a test and guess what... I was pregnant! I was still able to run and the best part about running was that I didn't feel sick whenever I was running. I was just going at a much slower pace than I was doing before I was pregnant. Before I was running about  10.5-11 min mile which was really good for me, remember I didn't really run before having Ava. Don't believe me, ask anyone in my family.But honestly please don't because it's actually kinda embarrassing. After I was running a 12 min mile which to me was still pretty good. And of course I had told my running group the good news.

A few weeks before the race we ran the 10 mile on the trail that they were going to use, and there were times when I was starting to hurt so I had to walk. Shout out to Alissa for supporting me and walking with me. Sorry to Melissa who was keeping up the 10.5 min mile pace and had to wait for us while we took what seemed like forever! It was at this point that I was getting more and more nervous and questioning my sanity for decided to still do the half. 

It was the next week that I did the 11 miles that I gained a little more confidence as I was able to run it. Also I wasn't as sick as I had been earlier when I found out I was pregnant. I totally had this. Well the few weeks before the were a roller-coaster ride of emotions. It seemed as though when I felt confident that I could do this, something would happen that made me worry and scared and then something else would happen that made me feel like I could do it again and the process started all over.

Well, it seemed that right after I ran the 11 I started getting sick and throwing up. I didn't run at all the next week except to do the last 4 or so miles the saturday before the race and then I didn't run at all the entire week of. But I did find out the cause of the nauseousness. The culprit: Fruits and Vegetables. The one thing I could eat with Ava, that I constantly craved with her, was making me sick with this baby. Needless to say Spencer was not happy. So I was avoiding them and it was making me somewhat better but I still felt sick. 

In between all this I had my first doctors appointment 3 days before the race and the baby was healthy and had a strong heartbeat and since I could run 11 what was 2 more miles. So technically I was good to go. I just didn't feel like it.  

Then a little Miracle happened. I didn't feel sick  the Thursday evening and all of the Friday before the race. It was the first time in a few weeks that that had happened. We had a group dinner that Friday night, I avoided eating any of the fruit and veggies that were made. I woke up Saturday morning and I still felt normal! So I snacked on some pecans we had and got ready for the race. I also made sure to fill out the medical information on the back of my running bib just in case something did happen.

It was cold and windy but I felt amazing(read not sick) and I knew I could finish I just had to push the negative thoughts out. That was my goal. To finish, and preferably under 3 hours since Spencer was convinced that I wouldn't be able to finish in that time. My second goal was to only walk a little, like only a mile or two. It was also a goal to not use the port-a-potties but I wasn't going to dehydrate myself and I was going to take water at every chance so just in case I  had to use it I brought my hand sanitizer. 

The race started and Melissa took off! She did amazing and kept her 10.5 mile pace the entire race! I was slow and steady with Alissa. She was amazing and it was my goal to keep up with her! I knew if I had a friend with me for most of the time I could finish and hopefully under my goal. I was also jealous to run and then see people turn around point for the 5k mark and the 10k mark. But it was actually not bad at all. I talked with Alissa most of the time and only listened to my music for a few minutes. I wasn't hurting and we met a lot of people. That is one thing I love about running, everyone seems to be so nice and you can talk to anyone!

For most of the way we stayed slightly ahead of the 2:45 pacer. There was a small hill at about 9 or 10 and he went ahead of us, but we managed to catch up to him and started talking. Side note, we talked about the Patriot Half I did and he said that he thinks that that course is one of the hardest in the area to run. I felt good about that. 

When I realized that I would make my goal of under 3 hours, I made the new goal to beat the pacer. It wasn't until the last mile that started to somewhat hurt but I still ran with him until the last quarter mile when I had a surge of energy and started booking it and sprinted to the finish line. Honestly I just wanted to be done. I thought Alissa was right behind me and was a little confused when I didn't see her but she had a previous knee injury that started hurting and slowed down. 

But I accomplished all my goals. I didn't walk, I finished before the pacer(even though he was a little slow so my time was 2:45 and some odd seconds) and I didn't use the port-a-potties, I beat my last time by 10 minutes and I was a couple days shy of being 9 weeks pregnant!

Unfortunately Spencer and Ava were not there to see me cross the finish line as they were looking for parking. But I had my medal and I didn't feel guilty for getting a pedicure with the girls a week or so after the race since he missed it. 

I have tried to keep up with running. Some weeks are better than others. I didn't run the entire week we were in Puerto Rico or this week after. But I did run 3.5 on Saturday. Okay well ran 3 walked the other half. But I guess that's good for being out of shape and not running for 2 weeks. Hopefully I can get back up to 4 or 5 but I'm not going to push it. I really do think running has helped my sickness somewhat so I think I will stick to it as long as I'm okay and nothing happens. I just have to stay motivated.

Finally, for your viewing pleasure: Ava wearing "her medal" (aka the medal that I got after the half I did after having her which she believes is hers and wants to wear every now and then.)

Mommy-Daughter Day!

So it has been a while and I felt like before I could write more I needed update everything but between work and Ava I have not had energy to update anything or everything that happened! So I have just decided that I'm just not going to feel bad and do it. Plus I have been writing my 3 little siblings (1 brother, 1 sister and 1 brother-in-law) and I feel like I write them a novel every week so I have that. But anyways....

Today Spencer had a seminar and yesterday we watched frozen 5 times. The night before Ava woke up at 3:30 and didn't really sleep until 5. I took her for a while and then told Spencer it was his turn, but I also wasn't able to go back to sleep for a while. I'm hoping it was Ava teething as she still only has 4. So between no sleep, work, and I have been feeling not well since the half I felt like we watched too much t.v. yesterday. So today we went on about an hour walk. Then we came home and ate then Ava napped and Spencer came home for lunch and it was my turn to get the car.

So after we dropped off Spencer we ran some errands for mom(although I got Ava a present for being good), got something to eat, and then went to the park We were there for over an hour.

Ava LOVES the park. The park we went to is just a couple blocks away from our apartment. It has 2 play areas one for the older kids and one for the younger ones and then it has an open field to play sports, a pavilion and a basketball court. Well Ava would go up the stairs, down the slide and then go to the other play area, go up the stairs down the slide then walk to the field until I turned her around and then go back the the first play area and do it all over again. There was a birthday party going on in the pavilion and she tried to crash it a couple times, and when I tried to take her away she would throw a fit. There was a little girl there that was a month and a half older than Ava and her mom didn't want her daughter to go down by herself, but when the little girl saw Ava she wanted to try. So the mom finally let her. She was saying how adventurous Ava is. My little girl does love to explore and try everything! When I put Ava in the car she was so mad that we were leaving that she screamed the entire way home and then gave me a look while we were getting out and realized that we were not going back to the park today.

She had that same smile every time she went down the slide and at the end she would clap and go yay!

We got Ava changed, fed and then we went to pick up Dad from his seminar. There is a water fountain where they have the seminar and it was running a little late, so Ava played around there for like 5 minutes. She then came up to me and passed out on my shoulder. We stayed like that for 40 minutes. There was one time that we had to move because people sat right next to us and then started smoking so we went inside. But other than that it was a perfect rare 40 minutes that Ava cuddle with me! I LOVED it!

It was a perfect end to our Mommy-Ava day!