Friday, 27 July, 2001

It seems to take me awhile to find the time to catch up on a birth experience.  I imagine that it will come a little at a time until I am able to record all of the events of our new daughter’s birth.  I received a phone call from labor and delivery at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center on Sunday evening the 8th instructing me to be at the hospital at 5:30 am the next morning.  We had originally planned on 6 am, so I called my mom to ask her if she could be at our house even earlier.

My parents just happened to be in Utah helping my brothers prepare their optometry practice for opening.  They had arrived on July 2nd and, at that time, I hadn’t planned on having the c-section the following Monday.  When I did make the decision to go ahead with the scheduled birth, it was a nice convenience that Mom could be here to help us out.

Mom arrived at 5:20 am as I was walking down the stairs carrying my hospital bag.  She was still in her pajamas and Amy was still fast asleep.  I felt badly leaving Amy without her knowing what was going on, but I knew she wouldn’t understand.  I was just grateful that she could be with someone who would take good care of her.

Chris and I arrived at the hospital–a 5 minute drive from our house–and checked me in.  I had preregistered previously, and since I had already had a baby at this hospital, much of the admission procedures that I went through last time were omitted.  We were taken to room 516, one room away from where I was last time.  I was given a lovely hospital gown to change into and then we were left alone in the room for awhile.  We turned on the news and Chris pulled out the video camera as well as his digital camera.  We were much better prepared this time to record the events of this birth.  A nurse–Linda, who was also my nurse at Amy’s birth–came in to hook me up to the heartbeat monitor and start an IV.  That is not my favorite experience, but then the experiences involving pain just get better as the day goes on.

The epidural man, Dr. Govindjay (I am not sure if that spelling is correct.  I looked at his name tag a couple of times, but my memory is somewhat foggy.  He is from India and was great.) came in about 6:30 am and let me tell you how much fun that was!  It is a rather painful procedure to have the epidural inserted, and you have to hold completely still the entire time.  But obviously you wouldn’t want to have a c-section without being numb and the epidural numbs you from the chest right down to your toes.

We called my mom around 7 am just to see if Amy was awake yet and to make sure that everything was okay.  Amy had been awake since before 6:30 unfortunately and Mom was just trying to get her to eat.  I talked to Amy for a minute, but as usual, she didn’t say much in response.  I think she was just happy to hear her mommy’s voice.

I was wheeled into the Operating Room around 7:15 and the first thing I remember was how cold it was.  I was already shaking and cold from the epidural.  Linda and Dr. Govindjay transferred me to the operating table with some kind of contraption.  From here, the procedure was pretty much the same as last time. My stomach was sterilized, a towel was wrapped around my ankles to keep them together, a sheet was draped in front of my face, and a wonderfully warm blanket was placed across my chest and arms.  My doctor, Dr. Berry, and the surgeon, Dr. Sellers, arrived at 7:30 and began to scrub for the surgery.  Chris was dressed in a white jumpsuit with a cap on his head, booties on his feet, and a mask on his face.  (I got a picture of him this time).  He was set to go with the video camera around his neck and the digital camera in hand.

Chris again watched the surgery and even caught a lot of it on tape this time.  (We watched it about a week ago and there were only a few parts I wasn’t able to watch.)  Unfortunately, he recorded a lot of the floor as well, not realizing that he was leaving it on every time he stopped recording.

I remember feeling them cutting through the scar tissue–not that it was painful but they had to tug on it a lot.  It wasn’t a great feeling.  Once they finally cut through the womb, amniotic fluid gushed all over the place, but fortunately there was little meconium in the fluid.  From there, it took a lot of time and effort for them to get the baby out.  She was quite engaged in the birth canal and they pushed and tugged and pulled on my stomach.  Again, I couldn’t feel the pain that was surely accompanying all of this struggle because of the epidural, but I could certainly feel all of the pressure.  Finally they had to resort to forceps to pull out our little girl.  The first thing I heard was her coughing but I don’t remember hearing her cry.  Dr. Berry held her up for me to see and said, “She’s beautiful.”  I remember thinking, “Hmmm.”  She didn’t look so great all covered in blood and white cheesy looking stuff.  Her face was puffy and frankly she wasn’t looking all that pretty at that moment.

The nurse quickly whisked the baby away and Chris followed after her.  From here until they finish stitching me, I don’t remember much except for Dr. Govindjay saying, “Just relax”.  He must have given me something to knock me out because I have seen pictures of this time, and I have no recollection of having an oxygen mask placed over my nose or hearing any conversation.

The next thing I do remember is that I am back in a hospital bed ready to be wheeled out of the OR.  Dr. Berry is there and says that everything went wonderfully.  I asked to see the placenta.  I remember thinking that it looked like a huge blood clot or liver.  Not too attractive but a lot bigger than I thought.

I have not yet mentioned what we named our little girl because it took us until the next day to decide on what to name her.  When Dr. Berry asked us what her name was, Chris said that we weren’t quite sure yet.  Dr. Berry replied that the two most popular baby names were, “I don’t know” and “We’re not sure”.  Our little girl was perfectly healthy with Apgars of 8 and 9 (same as Amy’s incidentally) weighing in at 7 pounds 10 ounces and 19 inches in length.  (Amy was the same length but about a half pound heavier when she was born). 

I was wheeled back to recovery and stayed there for some time.  My memory is quite foggy around this time, so I can’t really tell you how long it was.  After awhile, however, I was transported to the maternity floor one floor down and deposited into room 421.  I had not held or even seen my baby since that brief moment in the OR, and I was getting anxious.  She had a low body temperature and they wanted to get her a little warmer before they brought her to me.  I think it was finally about 10:30 am when they brought this tiny little bundle into my room.  My legs were still somewhat numb though I could move the right one.  The left leg was completely numb and I couldn’t budge it a bit.  I had to actually have someone pick it up and move it for me.  I still had the catheter and IV in my right arm, but amid all of this, my sweet little girl was placed in my arms.

She had about as much dark brown hair as Amy did when she was born though it wasn’t quite as curly and such a tiny little head.  Her face was a bit swollen from being so far into the birth canal and both her eyelids and forehead were red–they call those markings “stork bites” and sometimes they take up to a year to fade.  She also had a lot of little white pimple-like bumps on her nose and forehead, but those faded throughout the day.  She had a sweet tiny little face with cute rosebud lips and a skinny little body.  I remember Amy being much more chunky.  She had long fingers and toes with fingernails that needed to be cut right away.  I just remember thinking how tiny she was.

Shortly after, Chris was anxious to have Amy come and meet her sister.  So while, I nursed the baby, he went home to pick up Mom and Amy.  When they returned, Chris had Amy wait in the hallway for a moment so that he could capture the meeting on camera.  Amy walked into the room and up to my bed taking everything and then held out her arms to hold the baby.  It was so sweet.  Chris lifted Amy up onto the bed and together they held the baby for quite some time.  Amy was quick to point out nose, eyes, ears, etc. but we still have to caution her to be soft.

Grandma Rice was the first family member to be introduced to our new daughter.  She has never been close for the birth of any of her grandchildren, so this was a special moment for her.

While they were visiting, I decided that I needed to get out of bed and stretch.  So, with IV and catheter in tow, I slowly made my way off of the bed.  Ohhhh, I remembered that pain, but I also knew that lying in bed wasn’t doing me as much good.  I made my way into the bathroom to clean off and change pads because I was still bleeding quite a bit (that’s normal), and then I think I went for a short walk around the unit.  My memory of this time is rather fuzzy.  They brought me some lunch, if you can call it that since it was all liquids, later in the afternoon, and Chris took Amy and Mom home so that Amy could have her nap.  They came back later in the afternoon and that began the pattern of coming and going around Amy’s naps for the next couple of days.

Saturday, 7 July, 2001

It is almost 4 am and I can’t sleep.  After going back and forth between choosing a vaginal birth or a repeat c-section, I have finally decided on the c-section.  Not because this is a life-threatening situation, but because the likelihood of having a repeat of Amy’s birth is great.  I went to see Dr. Berry last Thursday for a regularly scheduled OB appointment, hoping to be even the tiniest bit dilated.  Not so.  My cervix is as tight and closed up as they come.  At that point, I had already signed the release papers for a VBAC (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean), but realized that this pregnancy had a lot of the signs of Amy’s.  On my way home, I felt as though I needed to elect for a c-section because that is how my body was best able to give birth.  I know that it may not make sense to you, but after weeks of going back and forth between the two delivery types and not feeling too impressed to choose one or the other, I finally felt as though a decision had been made correctly.  To me, it is simply most important that my children arrive safely in this world and recovering from surgery is a small price to pay.

So, our newest little girl will arrive on Monday, July 9th at approximately 7:45 am.  The surgery is scheduled for 7:30 am and Chris and I will need to be at the hospital at 6 am.

Monday, 24 June, 2001

If our new baby were to come on her due date, there are only three weeks left!  Yeah!  I am so ready to not be pregnant anymore.  Most of my body aches, especially when I wake up in the morning.  There is only one position that is really comfortable for me and that is sleeping on my left side.  I think the baby dropped last week, because I feel a lot more pressure down low.

Right now we are contemplating naming our new daughter Alicia Michelle.  Alicia means “honest and noble” and Michelle means “who is like God”.  I think that the meaning of the name is just as important as the actual name and how it flows together.  Amy’s name means “beloved” and Christine means “Christ-bearer”.  We haven’t told anyone her name yet because we like to save at least one surprise until the end.

I have gone through all of Amy’s baby clothes as well as some that I have borrowed from Susan and washed everything.  There were stains on a few things but most everything came clean.  As far as being ready for this baby, I think that we are.  And today would be nice for her arrival.  I will probably continue saying that until she does arrives.  In talking with my doctor about how to deliver this baby, he would recommend a c-section.  Some days that doesn’t sound like such a bad idea, especially since I could have the baby one week early, but I really want to try a vaginal birth.  It still may not work for me, but I am mostly hopeful that the recovery time will be far less than with a c-section.

Chris got home from Colorado last Friday night.  It was nice to have him back.  I must say that the week without him truly wore me out–between taking care of Amy and making sure that the house was spotless and ready to show at any time.  We did have a few people come and look at the house last week, but no bites as of yet.

Chris looked for places to rent since our new house in Firestone has not been started yet.  We will probably have to rent for at least three or four months, which truly does not excite me.  There are a few leads that we can follow up on, but we also have a relocation lady in Denver who is helping us.

Thursday, 21 June, 2001

Chris is in Colorado again this week.  The time seems to be going a bit faster than the last time he was away.  He will come home on Friday evening.  He worked from home for the previous three weeks mostly on training.  It was a little overwhelming at first, especially since he didn’t have the ability to simply walk down the hall and ask another coworker questions, and he didn’t have all the access that he needed.  I think that he is beginning to feel a lot more comfortable with what he already knows and more focused on what he has yet to learn.  It was more of a struggle for Amy to have her Daddy around all of the time but not available.  She must have figured that since he was here he could come and play any time.  We finally had to get a gate to put in front of the bedroom door so that she couldn’t just walk in whenever.

Chris bought another desk with some graduation money and so we have a desk in the study as well as in our bedroom.  It is nice because I still have a place to work and the bedroom is still plenty big and not crowded at all.

There is now less than a month until my due date.  The dilemma that I am facing right now is to decide whether to have a scheduled c-section or try to deliver this baby naturally.  There are pros and cons to either.  Dr. Berry would recommend that I go for the c-section, but I want so much to avoid the long recovery of surgery.  I have about one week before I have to decide for certain.

I have tried to continue exercising throughout this pregnancy.  Somedays, like today, it is harder than others.  Amy and I go together usually around 8:30 in the morning when it is still cool enough for me to be outside.  Today I had a lot of pains in my side and couldn’t walk very fast.  I don’t think they were contractions–just bothersome pains.

Our house has now been listed with Coldwell Banker.  It is a bit of a challenge to keep it clean all of the time, but anyone that has come to look at it so far says that it shows like new.

Amy seems to be well into the swing of terrible twos.  She has little tantrums on the floor, likes to scream loudly when she gets really frustrated, and is more than happy to run away from us when we take her outside (followed by much wailing and gnashing of her 12 teeth).  She finally got her fourth molar a couple of weeks ago–that along with a cold.  Fortunately, neither Chris nor I got sick, and we have all been healthy since.

Amy has been going to nursery now for three weeks.  She seems to enjoy it quite a bit.  The first week, Chris stayed in the room with her for about an hour and then snuck out–she was fine.  The next week, I stayed for only a couple of minutes, and when she was playing and involved and forgetting that I was there, I slipped out.  She does get sad and cries when other parents come to pick up their kids and she is the last one left, but what a treat it has been for us to have her in nursery.  I can actually enjoy being at church now.

I was asked to speak in church last Sunday–Father’s Day–but the lady who spoke first took so much time that all I had time for was to bear my testimony.  There was still another speaker after me as well as comments from the Bishop.  I figured that the lady needed to speak and air some of her feelings more than I did.  People told me afterward that they enjoyed my testimony, but I think they were just glad that I kept things short and sweet.  Another lady hoped that the bishop would give me another opportunity (bless her heart!).  I told her we would be leaving soon, so it was doubtful.

Friday, 25 May, 2001

Chris has been gone to Colorado since last Sunday afternoon working for IBM, and we have certainly missed him a lot.  Amy wakes up in the morning and says “shhhh” as we walk back into my bedroom.  Then she notices that her daddy isn’t even there.  It will be a surprise for her tomorrow morning to find that he is sleeping in his bed.  We have talked every night on the phone which has helped.  The first couple of days at IBM were general training days.  From Wednesday through today he has had more specific training on what he will actually be doing.  I think it is pretty overwhelming for him, but I am sure that he will learn things quickly.  He will work from home for the next two to three weeks and then fly back out for another week on site.

On Wednesday after he finished work, Chris had a pre-construction meeting out at USHome for our new house.  Everything is set to go now and we are just waiting for the road to be paved for them to begin construction.  From there, the foreman says it will take about 100 days.  We will still have to rent for about 6 to 8 weeks, which I am not looking forward to, before we will be able to move in.

Amy is now pacifier-less.  I had originally thought that I would wait until after the baby was born before I took it away, but we all seemed to be getting rather dependent upon it.  It actually wasn’t that bad of a transition.  She was pretty mad at me the first couple of days–especially when she would wake up.  She didn’t have any problem going to sleep without it and now it’s no big deal.  I gathered up all of her pacifiers, put them in a zip-loc bag so that she could see what I was doing, and told her that the pacifiers were going bye-bye.  Seemed to work pretty well.

Amy is learning new words all of the time.  She now says thank you, which comes out sounding kind of like “date do”, and says it at the appropriate time.  She is working on “excuse me” as well.  I must admit it has been rather tiring this week being the only parent around.  I am so grateful not to be a single parent–I think that I would go bonkers and my child would definitely suffer.

Chris had some graduation pictures taken and we took the opportunity to have some family pictures taken as well.

Thursday, 17 May, 2001

Today is Chris’ last day at Novell.  He is feeling quite sad to be leaving such a positive experience and so many good friends.  It has been a wonderful blessing for us to have him working at Novell for the past year and a half.  He begins working at IBM on Monday morning.  He will probably fly out on Sunday evening and won’t be back until Friday night.  I am not looking forward to having him gone for the entire week, but for a couple of weeks after that he will be working from home.  He will commute back and forth between Denver and here for the next two and a half months until we have the baby and are ready to move.

Two weeks ago, Amy woke up feeling not so great.  Since I had felt two of her molars poking through the day previously, I new that we were beginning another teething moment.  She was in quite a bit of pain for the first two nights and spent the entire nights sleeping in our bed.   None of us really got great sleep.  Then Amy started getting sick and on top of the teething she got an ear infection and was rather hoarse.  Unfortunately, Chris and I were so tired from a bunch of sleepless nights and so we also got sick.  I came down with a cold and a sinus infection on Sunday and Chris got sick on Monday night.

I had my monthly prenatal exam on Tuesday the 8th and took Amy with me.  I had the doctor give her an antibiotic shot, which she didn’t appreciate at all, but by Wednesday she was definitely feeling better.  I, however, was getting more and more sick and had to go back to the doctor on Thursday to get an antibiotics prescription.  Chris came as well and though he wasn’t quite as bad off, he wasn’t feeling all that great either.  By this time, Amy was feeling quite a bit better, but was somewhat upset with her parents who had no energy whatsoever to play with her.  Chris took Thursday and Friday off to rest at home and was mostly better by Sunday–though we all stayed home from church.  My cold has been hanging on and on and on.  Most nights my nose is so plugged that I can’t breathe out of either nostril.  It doesn’t make life that much fun.

There are only two months until we have a new addition in our family.  You can look at it from that perspective or from the perspective I seem to have adopted–there’s still two more months to go!  I am ready to not be pregnant anymore and I know that I am just going to keep on getting bigger and more uncomfortable.  I have heart burn most days, and sometimes get it from simply drinking a glass of orange juice.  I have been craving hot dogs throughout this pregnancy (my last one too) so last night we went to Maceys grocery for supper and had hot dogs.  They had been on the warmer for a long time and were kind of old, but they were good.  It was actually Amy’s first time eating a hot dog and she even tried part of dad’s corn dog.

Amy is growing and maturing so fast.  She knows how to say quite a few words already–shoes, hot, hat, cold, bye, daddy, go.  The other day we were having lunch at the table and she was in her high chair.  She was mostly finished eating and was coloring the newspaper with her crayons.  She hid one of the crayons in the folds of her outfit and then looked at me, held up her hand, and said, “Where go?”  I began looking for the crayon, since I hadn’t seen her hide it, and she suddenly uncovers it and says, “There.”  Smart girl.  When daddy leaves for work in the morning, she combines the phrase “bye daddy” into one word “dye” (we don’t take it literally) and waves her hand.

We drove out to Denver area a couple of weeks ago.  It was kind of a graduation “no more school” trip for Chris who was feeling the need for some closure in his life.  We wanted to spend some time seeing the area since the last time we were there was so full of house hunting.  We also had some final things to take care of with our house.  We drove through the Rocky Mountains and it was so beautiful.  It took about eight hours but we also had a few stops here and there to add some extra time.  Amy was mostly good but it is hard for her to spend so much time in her car seat and she still has problems sleeping in strange places.  It doesn’t make going to bed all that much for us.

Thursday, 19 April, 2001

I guess that last entry got cut kind of short.  Daddy has been in California since Monday and is coming home tonight.  I don’t like it when he is away.  He is working with Toyota who just purchased a large service contract with Novell.  His being there serves a double purpose: first, they needed technical support this week; and second, there is a potential job offer there with Novell.  When Novell found out that he was leaving for IBM they scrambled to make a counter-offer.  The position would be based here and Chris would serve as Toyota’s Novell consultant.   As far as making decisions go, our lives have been on a roller coaster.  Last week, we thought for sure we would be going to Colorado and even after Chris had been in L.A. for a day, he still thought that Colorado was the right thing.  Since then, however, staying with Novell is becoming more and more appealing all of the time.

The end is near–at least as far as BYU goes.  Chris has a paper due on Friday for one class and a final in his other class on Monday afternoon, and after that, he is finished.  Hallelujah!!!!  It has seemed like a long time coming.  We will have to have some kind of celebration.  Since Chris has decided not to participate in the official graduation exercises, he is borrowing a cap and gown from a friend who is so that he can have some pictures taken. 

Amy functions well with a daily routine and simply rolls over in bed when I lay her down to sleep.  She is a bit leery of visiting people these days–she is so afraid that she will be left.  She had babysitters a couple of times last weekend and usually cries when we leave.  She settles down quickly though.  She has learned to shake her head “no” as well as say “no” this past week.  She understands so much and is surprisingly accurate with her “no” responses. 

She has a little doll that I have reintroduced to her as her “baby”.  When she sees it she often makes a crying noise.  She will carry it around, wrap it in blankets, or dishtowels more often than not, and say “shhh” when it is sleeping.  I am hoping to get her used to the idea of a baby and being soft and gentle.  She doesn’t get to see her daddy too much right now, so if I ask her where Daddy is, she will usually point to one of our wedding pictures that hangs in the living room.

I had a checkup last week and things are looking fine.  Amy is very cautious about going to the doctor’s office.  She remembers very well that they give her shots there.  When the nurse called our name, Amy hung back and would not walk down the hall.  She cries every time she sees the nurse.  Poor thing.  She doesn’t care much for the doctor either and when he wants to listen to the baby’s heartbeat, Amy sits up on the examining table with me between my legs.  She cries then too.  My doctor and I talked about doing a repeat c-section, which he would recommend, but I think that I am going to try for a normal delivery at this point.  I would love to experience a shorter recovery time, especially since we might be moving within a couple of weeks of the birth.  We have talked about blessing the baby before we leave–not in church of course–but we would like to have family around for this.

On Tuesday, Amy and I were outside in the back yard.   The sight of all the weeds in the flower garden was finally more than I wanted to look at, so I started pulling.  I am not sure what I did, but a sharp pain in my lower abdomen convinced me that I needed to stop.  I brought Amy in the house, which she wasn’t too thrilled about, gave her a quick bath because she was dirty and finally laid down to rest.  The pain stuck around for about four hours and finally subsided around 8 pm.  I must admit I was rather worried, especially since Chris was gone.  It hasn’t come back in the days since even though I haven’t changed my schedule much.  Thankfully.

Wednesday, 11 April, 2001

Amy is 16 months old today.  She has learned so much in her short time on earth.

Tuesday, 3 April, 2001

We finally received the offer from IBM last Thursday-two weeks later than we had hoped.  It was a little bit less than we would have liked, but still a good offer nevertheless.  We will be flying out to Denver this weekend to look around and hopefully find a house to buy.  If all goes well, Chris will accept the offer and will probably begin working for them sometime in May.

Amy continues to grow and do so many cute things.  She is learning so much all of the time.  She knows 1-2-3 (but isn’t always willing to share her knowledge).  She was sitting on my lap the other day playing with some foam letters and finally got the letter I stuck through the hole in the letter O.  I wasn’t really paying attention to her.  She suddenly held up her O and I to show me and said, “I did it!”  She seems to have picked up a lot of little phrases that you can pick out if you listen carefully (I imagine it also helps to spend time with her all day long).  She loves pizza and gives a big “mmmmmmm” when she sees it on tv or we bring it home to eat.  She got her first molar on the bottom right side of her mouth and the one on the left looks as though it won’t be too far behind.  She saw a man tap dancing on Lawrence Welk the other night (there was nothing else on and she loves music, plus Chris wasn’t around).  Normally she dances by bending her knees to the beat.  Now she tries to move her feet as if she were tapping.  It is pretty cute to watch. We just bought a video camera yesterday to record some of these precious moments.

She has a little stool that she likes to sit, stand, and climb on and uses it to climb onto the living room furniture.  When she falls off of it or hurts herself she comes toward me with her hand outstretched so that I can kiss it better.  I don’t remember teaching her about kissing things better, it seems as though she picked it up on her own.  I tried to put her to sleep without her pacifier last week, but she just wasn’t ready to give it up, and I really wasn’t interested in the struggle and crying.  I decided to let her keep it longer, perhaps until she is two.  With teething, the move and a new baby in the house in the next few months, she will have plenty to deal with.

We enjoyed General Conference this past weekend and the wonderful weather that accompanied it.  Chris had to work on Saturday so that wasn’t so much fun, but we enjoyed our time together on Sunday.   We met for a family lunch at the clubhouse between the sessions on Sunday and then some of us stayed and watched conference on the big screen tv there.  Shane was visiting for the weekend from Ricks College (he stayed here the first night and then with Dallin and Donna the rest of the time).  His ride back to Rexburg arrived shortly before 4 pm and he was out of here by about 4:20 (they had to wait for another girl to get here before they could leave).

Chris also had Monday off and we were able to spend a bit of time together, but with the end of the semester so close, he has a lot to get finished.  He is pretty burned out at this point and has one person he is working with in a class study group who isn’t doing much work to help get their final paper and project done.  It is frustrating for Chris because he has tried not to procrastinate until the end of the semester.  Both of his final projects are due next week, and then he just has finals left to go.

Our little baby seems to be growing quite a bit right now.  I feel the aches and pains of pregnancy more often but I think exercising has helped me out a lot.  Pretty much I look pregnant now and am not able to hide the fact anymore.  We have a doctor’s appointment next Tuesday morning though we were originally supposed to go this Thursday.  With our trip to Colorado on the same day, we had to postpone the appointment.  We have not, as of yet, decided on a name for our new daughter.  I thought for awhile that we would name her Rachel (which means ewe or lamb), but I think I have now changed my mind to Alicia (which means truthful).  And even that could change.  To me naming my children is a big deal.  Amy grew into her name or perhaps it just took awhile for the name to become familiar and comfortable to me.  I didn’t just look at her and say, “Oh, she looks like an Amy,” and I am sure that the same will be for our second child.  I do look forward to seeing her and to holding a tiny baby again.  There is just nothing that compares to that feeling and to the “new baby” smell.

Our Bishop extended a new calling to Chris on Sunday morning.  It isn’t a whole lot different than his current position of Assistant Deacon’s Quorum Advisor; he will now be the Priest’s Quorum advisor.  He is excited by the change but probably won’t be around much in the next couple of months as he commutes back and forth to IBM.

Monday, 19 March, 2001

The weather looks so wonderful outside today.  Amy is still sleeping with her morning nap, but as soon as she gets up and has a snack, we are heading outside.  Amy has gotten into the habit of wearing a hat around the house.  She has two to choose from and looks so cute with them on.

We are still waiting for the offer from IBM–not quite sure what is taking so long (we were supposed to hear something by last Thursday).  We hope that it is still coming.  Obviously we have to be patient, but it’s not that much fun

Tuesday, March 13, 2001

Today I was working in the study when I heard Amy making noise in the bathroom.  She was high centered on the edge of the tub trying to grab a pen that had been dropped in.  It would have been a funny picture.  Later, it was just far too quiet, so I decided to investigate and found Amy playing with a medicine bottle that she had dropped in the toilet.

Amy and I went for a doctor’s appointment last week.  Unfortunately, Amy knows that bad things happen to her at the doctor’s office and started to cry as soon as she saw Dr. Berry’s nurse Jennifer.  She had good reason to, I suppose, since she got three shots in her legs.  Poor thing.  And she did cry.  Her weight gain seems to be slowing down as she gained less than a pound since her last appointment.  Now she is in the 90th percentile for height and weight.  I don’t mind since I still carry her a lot.

Last week we had some pretty nice weather where Amy and I went outside for a walk and ended up at the play ground.  Amy loved it.  She wasn’t able to walk so easily on the sand though.  She would take a step, wobble to get her balance, take another step, wobble some more and so on.  She finally realized that if she were to hold my hand, she would get where she was going faster.  The playground equipment has stairs with hand rails which she mastered pretty quickly without having to climb up the stairs on her hands and knees.  Now she thinks she needs to go up the stairs at home this way too.

The weather this week has not cooperated, so we got just a taste of spring fever and then cooler temperatures.  Today it is windy and pretty chilly even though it is supposed to be in the 40s.  Amy would probably love it if I would take her outside regardless of how cold it was.   I just looked out the window, and it is snowing.  I don’t think it is cold enough to stick or last very long, but I am sure that we will be staying inside today.

We are still waiting to hear more about the job at IBM.  From the impression Chris was given, it seems like a given that he will get an offer, but we are still waiting on that.  A couple of days ago, his would-be-new-boss Mick White called and asked Chris what he wanted as far as a wage.  We knelt together in prayer before Chris sent his response, asking for guidance.  Now we are just waiting to hear back.  It is the same feeling you get when you are pregnant, waiting for time to pass.

I have been so against moving up to this point while Chris has been rather gung-ho to move out of Provo since I first met him.  With this latest interview, my perspective suddenly changed and even though there is still a lot of trepidation and fear in moving, making changes, and being away from family, I feel very much like this is something we need to do.  What it means to me is that none of the other offers were right for us and even though I would love to stay closer to family, I need to be willing to support Chris in his career.  This could be a very good move for our family too.

Mick is aware that we are expecting a baby in July and also aware that we had a lot of complications with Amy.  He is very willing to work with Chris, even so far as allowing him to stay here until the baby is born and work long distance with some commuting back and forth.  He indicated that he wanted Chris to start working in May.  Mick also indicated that he would fly both Chris and I out for a weekend so that we could look around, with the idea that I shouldn’t be asked to move to a place that I had never seen before.

Chris is counting down the weeks until school’s out.  He is sooooooooooooooooooo ready to be finished with BYU and finished jumping through the endless hoops of teachers and homework.  There hasn’t been a time in our marriage when he hasn’t been in school, so it will be interesting to see how life changes.  I am sure that with two little children at home, I will welcome his help and added attention.

If we do move, there will be a lot of work to be done.  Sell our house, buy a new house, pack, move, etc.  We have been doing a lot of research via the internet into housing in a city outside of Boulder (where IBM is located) called Longmont.  It looks rather promising, but housing prices sure are a lot higher.  This would account for the needed higher wage.

Monday, 5 March, 2001

I decided that I didn’t want to wait an extra week to find out what we are having, so I rescheduled the ultrasound for last Thursday the 1st.  It’s a girl!  We are so thrilled.   I had pretty much convinced myself that this baby was a boy, going even so far as to pick out names that I liked.  Chris even agreed on them, which is rare.  We don’t have as much luck with girl names.  When I told the technician, Joy, that I thought it was a boy, she said. “Well, it looks like it has all the parts for a little girl.”  My heart did a little flip flop because I was really hoping that we would have another daughter.  It has been so much fun with Amy, and we hope that our two little girls will be great friends.  Chris said that I was glowing when we left the doctor’s office.  He went back to work, and I went home to pick up Amy from the neighbors.  I tried to call my mom because I was so excited, but she wasn’t home.   Everything with our new little girl’s growth looks great and is on schedule.  Joy even said it looks as if she has very long legs.  Wonder where she would get those from?  If it’s true, it would be somewhat the opposite of Amy.  She has a long body with average length legs.

Amy is getting big so quickly and learning so many new things all of the time.   She is now able to go up and down the stairs on her own, though yesterday she turned around while on her way up and tumbled down two steps and did a face plant onto the tile.  A green and blue goose egg now adorns her forehead.

I weaned Amy off of bottles the week after we returned from Phoenix.  She was a bit crabby for a couple of days, but seems to have adjusted to life without a bottle quite well now.  Next hurdle is the pacifier.  She uses it mainly when she goes to sleep, but I am sure that once she no longer has it, she will be upset for a couple of days and then adjust to life without it.  The negative note to weaning is that Amy no longer drinks a lot of milk–she actually refuses to drink more than a sip of it at a time–but the positive side is that she is no longer constipated all of the time.

Chris is gone to Boulder, Colorado for a couple of days right now to interview with IBM and just a couple of minutes ago, Amy was calling for him from her crib.  She is supposed to be going to sleep, but now she is just crying, hoping that I will come in and save her.  Chris will be back late tomorrow evening.  This morning he has some time to drive around and look at Boulder as well as the surrounding cities.  He is taking this interview rather seriously after turning down all the other offers he received and not having a lot of success at finding a new position at Novell.  We are not sure what direction our lives are supposed to take but hopefully we will know soon.  If we do move to Boulder, I hope that we can wait until after I have our baby.

Wednesday, 7 February, 2001

Today is Grandpa Kline’s birthday.  Happy Birthday to him.  We actually will see him in a couple of days as we are taking a short vacation to Phoenix to visit him.  We will leave on Thursday afternoon and come back early Monday morning.  Grandpa Kline is flying on Friday and so we won’t see him until Saturday, but we will have all day to spend together on Friday.  Daddy sure does need a break, and this is just perfect timing for him.

He usually gets burned out each semester about this time and gets kind of grumpy.  Fortunately for all of us, he doesn’t have more semesters to dread.  He graduates in April!

You get so excited to see Daddy when he comes home from work.  If I see him drive up, we both sit on the couch by the front window and watch him.  You become rather animated.  You are walking more and more each day.  And each day you walk a little bit farther.  You still aren’t completely confident, but you are doing so great.  You are able to turn corners now.  Most evenings you spend time just walking back and forth between me and the couch or the stairs or wherever has caught your interest.

We went to the doctor yesterday for a baby check up.  You have no clue that some little boy or girl will be joining our family.  Daddy met us at the doctor’s office and all of us were able to hear the baby’s heart beat.  It sounds great.  We scheduled the ultrasound for March 8 and should be able to know then if our newest addition is a boy or girl.

Monday, 29 January, 2001

You took your first steps last Friday night.  We have been practicing standing with you and you have been getting braver and braver all of the time.  Finally you walked from Daddy to me.  We were all so excited.  You were especially proud of yourself.  You still aren’t comfortable enough to just start off on your own, but I am sure that you will pick it up quickly.

You are so smart too.  I have been teaching you your different body parts, and you point to them when I ask you.  You know eyes, nose, hair, tongue (which you stick out), teeth, tummy, fingers, leg, toes.  It is amazing how quickly you pick things up when I tell them to you a couple of times.

Right now you are sleeping on my bed because you are having such a hard time sleeping lately.  I think that your teeth are really bothering you.  You have had a fever off and on for the past couple of days and very rosy cheeks.

Wednesday, 17 January, 2001

Becky and Kyle are expecting a baby in September.  They told us on Sunday night when we were there for dinner.  We were telling them our exciting news, and they couldn’t hide the fact that they too were pregnant.  Congratulations to them!

You have been so crabby lately.  Hopefully it is just because you are teething, because I would hate to see your personality change now.  You have had a hard time with sleeping and ever since Sunday when we went to church at our new 1 pm time, you won’t sleep in the afternoon.  I don’t appreciate that much because that means that I don’t get to rest either.

You are learning new things all of the time.  The other day it was snowing big flakes outside, and we went outside to stand in it.  You kept saying “wow”.    You said “whew” to daddy the other day as he drove around the corner as if he were some crazy driver.  You have learned that you need to turn around and go backwards off the couches and beds instead of head first.

Friday, 5 January, 2001

It has been a busy couple of weeks since I last wrote.  Christmas has come and gone as well as the New Year.   We have had some awful weather since Christmas with fog mixed with smog.  It is not quite as bad here as it is in Salt Lake, but there’s an awful smell when you walk outside.

We left on December 24th for Portland to spend Christmas with Chris’ family.  We were fortunate enough to have an extra seat for you on the plane, and you were quite well behaved.  The weather in Portland was quite a bit nicer than here with a fair amount of sunshine.  You loved the dog at Grandma’s house, but she, Ketchy, is an old dog with a lot of health problems and really didn’t care all that much for you.  You would go crawling after her, laughing and excited.  The sad thing is that on Wednesday night, before we left on Thursday, Ketchy snapped at you.  I was sitting close by and snatched you right up and quickly looked for any blood.  Fortunately no damage was done except to your poor little feelings.  The experience hasn’t deterred your interest in dogs.

On the 24th, we went to visit a friend of Chris’, Gary Englund, and he took us flying in his four-seater Cherokee plane.  We seatbelted you in to the seat so you weren’t able to see much out the window unless the plane banked to the right or left.  But you were very good the entire time.  This is the same man who took Chris and I flying on our wedding day.

We all received fun presents from Grandma and Grandpa Ball.  You got musical toys and some clothes, I got a food dehydrator and Chris got some computer software, a briefcase and a sweater.  We opened most of the presents on Christmas Eve and then a few more “Santa” gives on Christmas morning.  The Ball family has a tradition of caroling at nursing homes on Christmas morning so we were able to participate in part of that.  We only got to go to one place because we were trying to get you to sleep before we left the house, which you wouldn’t cooperate with.  You fell asleep in the car just after we left one nursing home, and we decided that it was more important for you to sleep for awhile so we drove around Vancouver for about an hour.  You and I were both exhausted.

You had a difficult time sleeping the entire time we were in Vancouver.  I would try to rock you to sleep, but you would cry as soon as I put you down in the pack n' play.  Sometimes you would fall asleep next to me in bed, but for the most part you had a hard time sleeping.  When we got you home, you had picked up some bad habits, and expected that I would continue to rock you to sleep or let you sleep in bed with me.  You had to cry yourself to sleep for a few days until you got back into better sleep patterns.

You were very attached to me the entire time we were there.  I think you thought that we were going to leave you at some point.  We took you for a belated birthday treat at Farrell's in Portland and then rode the Max around.

We did a little shopping and a lot of driving around when in Vancouver.  We were kind of looking for a new car, and Chris wanted to see what was available there.  We test drove a Subaru Outback, but neither of us were too impressed by it.

We left for home on Thursday afternoon.  The flight was so packed.  We unfortunately had to hold you the entire way.  The wonderful bonus is that you fell asleep and slept almost the entire flight home.  The weather was probably 20 degrees colder in Salt Lake, but I think we were all glad to be back home.

Chris had to work on Friday but had Saturday off.  We spent Saturday morning cleaning and then started out to look for cars in the afternoon.  The first car we looked at was a Nissan Maxima in Highland that both Chris and I were very impressed with.  It was the first car we looked at that day, and though we continued looking for the rest of the day, the Nissan is the car that we bought.  It is pearl white, a V6, has a cd player, alarm, leather seats, keyless entry and trunk, lots of leg room, Bose stereo, temperature control, and a very nice price tag.  Chris was able to take care of the transaction on Tuesday and Wednesday of the following week, and we now have a new car.

We also saw Grandpa Kline on Saturday at the SLC airport.  He was only there for a short while but we dropped off his Christmas presents.  We also saw him on Christmas day.  He came for a couple of hours to visit in Vancouver which was great.  It is not always easy to spend the holiday with your exwife and her family, but he said that he missed us and wanted to be with us.

We have told most of our family about our new baby.  They are as excited for us as we are.  I went to the doctor yesterday (January 8th) for my check up and everything is going well, though I lost some weight which is always a concern to the doctor.  I thought for sure that I would gain weight over Christmas.  Who knows why I lost it, except that you aren’t eating well right now and so my mealtimes aren’t that peaceful.  I don’t feel nauseated too often unless I don’t eat and then I can feel the energy drain from me, and I have to eat something right away.  I still get tired, but that’s because I don’t always get the sleep I need.

You were sick with the flu or something last week.  You woke up on January 1st with a croupy cough and a froggy throat.  You threw up a couple of times, had diarrhea, wouldn’t eat, and slept more than usual.  I got tired of changing all your dirty diapers and finally brought some diapers downstairs so that I didn’t have to climb the stairs so many times.  It completely winds me and gets my heart pumping to carry you up the stairs now.  I can imagine it is only going to be more difficult as this pregnancy progresses.  Such is life.

Thursday, 14 December, 2000

You didn’t really enjoy the doctor’s all that much yesterday.  In the first place, our appointments were scheduled during your afternoon nap and we didn’t even leave Dr. Berry’s office until after 3:30.  You were asleep within three minutes once we got into the car to go home.  Plus you received two shots-your MMR and chicken pox.  I hope that you will never have to experience chicken pox.  My mom said that I had them at 18 months and was miserable.

You are now almost 25 pounds (95th percentile) and 32 inches tall (100th percentile) though your head circumference is only in the 50th percentile.  You look perfectly balanced to me.  Dr. Berry says that you are perfect.

We got to hear the baby’s heartbeat.  It took awhile for Dr. Berry to find it, but he felt confident that he only found one.  Yeah!  Everything looks as though it is right on schedule.  I have my next doctor’s appointment on January 10th.