We met Stan and Pam Braun up in Loveland around 11 am to go to the outlet mall there. Pam and I headed for the Carter’s store first of all and spent most of our time there. I purchased some shirts for Alicia and new jammies for Amy plus a new classier diaper bag. We decided to go for lunch after that, though it took awhile since I had to nurse Alicia and Pam then went to nurse Evan. After lunch, Chris wanted to go up to Fort Collins to look at some mattress stores and amazingly enough we ran in to Stan and Pam at a children’s store right next to the mattress store. Unfortunately Amy had a blow out diaper (she has had diarrhea since we got here) and Chris had to run to Walmart to get new diapers. Chris wanted to get a bed for Amy at the mattress store and made arrangements with Stan to pick it up the next day in his truck. It was a big imposition I am sure, but Stan was kind enough to help us out.
We are enjoying the company of some fellow BYU transplants. One couple has lived here for over a year now-Ken and Carli Siders-and are expecting a baby next month. The other two couples have moved here recently and both of them are expecting as well–January and March so they have a way to go. I am just grateful that I am no longer pregnant. It is not my favorite thing in the world. Chris also has a lot of friends whom he works with. We have done a few things with Stan and Pam and their son Evan. They are not LDS but are super nice people.
We arranged to have dinner with Ken and Carli at our house on Saturday evening. It was just after the BYU football game which was aired on ESPN. BYU tromped Tulane so well that ESPN stopped airing the game in the 4th quarter and showed Little League baseball playoffs. We decided to have a BBQ and just before we got started Mark DeBry called to ask if they could join us for a BBQ along with the other BYU couple--Shane and Rochelle Allred.
Friday, 24 August, 2001
Kyle called Chris today to announce that Becky had her baby around 11:30 am. She went into the hospital around midnight and Andrew Michael arrived about 12 hours later. He was 20 and 3/4 inches in length and weighed 7 pounds 8 ounces–2 ounces less than Alicia–and he was at least 2 1/2 weeks early. His due date was the 9th of September. Fortunately for Becky that she didn’t go full term; Andrew would have been a big baby. Both Becky and baby were doing well though Andrew has had a challenge learning to nurse. He was given a bottle in the hospital and liked that too much. Becky wanted to prove to herself that she could have her baby without an epidural and only had painkillers throughout the labor. More power to her!! I guess he has his nights and days mixed up and sleeps all day long and stays up at night. I am so grateful that both of our girls are good sleepers.
I noticed that I had a pretty painful lump on my breast and realized that I had a clogged milk ducts last Monday. I read in some of my books that I needed to keep nursing Alicia on it and massaging the lump away. It was extremely painful and hurt for me to just hold my arm normally against my side. I continued to massage the lump, which became quite large, for the next few days, though it didn’t seem as though it was helping just hurting. Finally the pain has started to subside today. I am grateful that it didn’t become infected and turn in to mastitis–an infection of the milk ducts-which requires antibiotics.
I noticed that I had a pretty painful lump on my breast and realized that I had a clogged milk ducts last Monday. I read in some of my books that I needed to keep nursing Alicia on it and massaging the lump away. It was extremely painful and hurt for me to just hold my arm normally against my side. I continued to massage the lump, which became quite large, for the next few days, though it didn’t seem as though it was helping just hurting. Finally the pain has started to subside today. I am grateful that it didn’t become infected and turn in to mastitis–an infection of the milk ducts-which requires antibiotics.
Monday, 19 August, 2001
We went to church on Sunday at 11 am. The church is just a short drive down the street right now, but once we move, it will likely take about 25 minutes just to get to church. The ward has grown even more since we attended in April and seems to have a lot more young people. I think that we will enjoy it. After church and naps, we drove to Estes Park, about 45 minutes away. It is kind of like Park City or Waterton Park in Alberta. We didn’t stay too long since Alicia was crabby and it was getting close to Amy’s bed time. The drive was nice though through the mountains.
Saturday, 18 August, 2001
It is amazing that almost 6 weeks have passed since Alicia’s birth; she is a joy to have in our home. That’s definitely appreciated right now since Amy has been catapulted into so many changes and is showing a little wear–as we all are. She is well into the “terrible twos” and some days I am so exasperated with her. I keep telling myself that this behavior is normal for someone her age, but it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with and to be patient with. Ah, patience. I pray for more of it everyday especially as I look down at the crayon markings all over the front of Chris’ hard drive.
Amy calls me Jo but also calls me mommy every once in awhile and points to me when Chris asks her who mommy is. She has gotten into the habit of waking up early so we are letting her cry herself back to sleep. This morning was no different and after her first initial cries she started into “Jo! Jo! Joooooooooo! Joooooooo!” with all of the necessary inflections. She did stop crying, and I thought she had gone back to sleep, but when I got up to go to the bathroom, she was quick to let me know she was still awake. Amy likes to be independent; we live on the third floor and she has to walk up and down the stairs all by herself. She is quite good at it, but I still worry that she’ll fall. We tell her that she has to hold our hands in parking lots because of the cars but she refuses unless she actually sees one coming toward her.
Friday, 17 August, 2001
We are now living in Longmont, Colorado in a small 2 bedroom apartment waiting for our new home to be built. I think we are pretty much unpacked and have things put where they will stay for the next couple of months. Our apartment is small and reminds me of the places I used to live in as a student. We put most of our things into storage and have stacked boxes along the dining room wall and in Amy’s room. It isn’t all that pretty and we haven’t done much decorating, but it will be comfortable enough for the next couple of months. It has been pretty much a shock to both Chris and myself to downsize into this apartment. There is very little storage space and it is about 25 years old. We console ourselves by remembering that it is only for a short time.
We drove out to look at our house, or what we hoped would be our house, the same day we got here. We were so depressed by our living situation that we needed something to boost our spirits. We were so surprised as we drove onto Dresden St. and saw that our house was completely framed and ready for windows where no other houses stood around us. I drove out again a week later while the girls were sleeping in the car (I was trying to keep Amy asleep for as long as possible) and was greatly surprised again. Some of the neighboring homes were beginning to be framed, but ours now had windows, siding and the shingles are stacked on the roof ready to be added.
Melinda DeBry, the wife of one of Chris’ friends and classmates from BYU, came over in the morning and invited us to dinner. It was so thoughtful of them. We were all so tired, and Amy was pretty out of sorts that we didn’t stay too long. One of Chris’ coworkers, Stan Braun, called to invite us to dinner on Friday as well, but we planned instead to meet on Saturday evening at Woody’s Pizza in Longmont. Again, it was thoughtful to help us make the transition here and feel like we weren’t on our own.
We drove out to look at our house, or what we hoped would be our house, the same day we got here. We were so depressed by our living situation that we needed something to boost our spirits. We were so surprised as we drove onto Dresden St. and saw that our house was completely framed and ready for windows where no other houses stood around us. I drove out again a week later while the girls were sleeping in the car (I was trying to keep Amy asleep for as long as possible) and was greatly surprised again. Some of the neighboring homes were beginning to be framed, but ours now had windows, siding and the shingles are stacked on the roof ready to be added.
Melinda DeBry, the wife of one of Chris’ friends and classmates from BYU, came over in the morning and invited us to dinner. It was so thoughtful of them. We were all so tired, and Amy was pretty out of sorts that we didn’t stay too long. One of Chris’ coworkers, Stan Braun, called to invite us to dinner on Friday as well, but we planned instead to meet on Saturday evening at Woody’s Pizza in Longmont. Again, it was thoughtful to help us make the transition here and feel like we weren’t on our own.
Thursday, 16 August, 2001
Today is our 4th anniversary. Who could have imagined the changes that would come in to our lives in just four short years. Perhaps in a couple of weeks when things settle down some, we will be able to celebrate. Tonight we will eat out “just the four of us.”
Thursday, August 16, 2001
The day finally arrived that I have been dreading and trying not to think of for the past couple of months. Sadly, the packers forgot that they were supposed to come that morning and after many phone calls throughout the morning, the finally showed up around 1 pm. We still weren’t prepared, but then we didn’t really know what we needed to do in advance. If we ever have to do it again, we will make sure that all of our bags are packed that we want to keep with us, we’ll empty out the fridge of all of its dishes and empty the dishwasher.
Susan kindly watched Amy for us on both Monday and Tuesday. It would have been crazy trying to keep her out of the way of the movers all day long. The King kids were happy to have her around, though I am not quite sure they realized that Amy would be leaving for good.
The packers were at our house until about 5:30 or 6 and said that the movers would be to our house the next morning at least by 10 am. Fortunately, we were up early because the movers arrived around 8:30 am. They arrive with a sem-truck and began to empty the house of all of its boxes out into the parking lot. Once there, the driver began to sort through what was going to storage and what we would keep at the apartment and then arranged it in the truck so that it would fit well. That took them quite some time and as they finished emptying a room, we would begin to clean it. Everything was taken care of on schedule and our taxi to Salt Lake arrived at 4 pm. I had just finished feeding Alicia, and Susan and kids had just arrived with Amy. Susan and I hugged for a minute or so and I cried at the thought of leaving her and all of our family. I hugged her kids and Jenna and Karra both started to cry also. (Susan says that when Jenna realized that she wouldn’t be able to come over to go swimming any more, that she cried all over again).
The driver got all of our stuff packed into the van which was no small feat. We had two strollers, two car seats, a diaper bag and a bunch of suitcases. We waved a sad farewell to Kings, to our wonderful house, and to Provo and were off. I didn’t cry much, but it sure was hard to see it all go.
Because Brad and Dallin needed Chris’ help one last time, the driver dropped Chris off at a gas station in Draper where Dallin then picked him up, and I continued on to the Wyndham Hotel in downtown Salt Lake with the girls. I am certainly glad that I don’t have to travel with them alone–it was quite a handful. We got settled into the hotel hoping the Chris and Brad would be back around 7:30 or 8 pm. We waited and waited and waited and finally they came about 9:30. Amy and I hadn’t eaten since lunch except for crackers and whatever snacks I had packed and were both quite hungry. I had a pounding headache that wouldn’t stop and was quite crabby. We had originally planned to go out to dinner but since Brad and Chris were so late getting there, they picked up pizza instead. Brad didn’t stay too long since it was late and we were all wiped out. It’s too bad that our last night together had to be so crazy.
Our flight to Denver was around 10 am on Wednesday morning which gave us plenty of time to get ready and eat. Since IBM was paying for our meals, we had a lovely breakfast in the hotel restaurant, though Amy certainly wasn’t on her best behavior. Our drive to the airport was an adventure in and of itself as our driver threw up in van on our way. Lovely. We made it to the airport with moments to spare, checked our luggage and car seats and headed for our gate. When we finally got onto the plane (we were flying Delta and they don’t pre-board young families any longer) we were in three seats together in the middle aisle of the plane. We had to check Alicia’s car seat because the plane was so full. The one-hour flight was mostly uneventful and Amy was mostly good. She did have a few moments during the flight of orneriness, but we are getting used to that. We arrived in Denver only to find that the airlines had broken the handle on Alicia’s car seat. We had to make a baggage claim, pick up our luggage and be to our shuttle in a short amount of time and just barely made it. Amy fell asleep as Chris was waiting for the luggage and slept on our laps in the shuttle bus all the way to Boulder. We had to transfer to another van at that point that then took us to Longmont. Chris had made reservations for us at the Super 8 for two nights. It was your run-of-the-mill motel...nothing fancy. But, it was a place to sleep.
We decided to drive out to Brighton on Wednesday evening to the Super Walmart there. We purchased a microwave since our apartment did not have one. We also bought food and had to stock up on all of the things we just barely gave away in Utah–ketchup, mustard, mayonaisse, etc.–things we weren’t able to bring with us.
I drove Chris to work on Thursday morning so that I could have the car for the day. (We sent the blue Honda out a week early so that we would have some kind of transportation once we got here. It was delivered to Sider’s home and they were kind enough to sign for it). I went back to the hotel with the girls but it wasn’t a whole lot of fun. I got Amy to sleep and when I started to move around, she woke right back up.
Around noon, I decided to take the girls over to our apartment for lunch. We had signed the lease the day before, but since we didn’t have any beds or blankets we had to stay at the hotel. We did have some food at the apartment and, of course, the microwave. Unfortunately, we had no silverware and until I remembered that Chris had a small pocketknife on his key chain, I wasn’t quite sure how I would be able to slice cheese. I tried to get Amy to sleep, but no luck. Finally, I loaded the girls into the car and drove around for the next while until it was time to pick up Chris. I went on some of the back roads around here to get to know the area better. It is quite beautiful this time of the year.
Our furniture arrived bright and early at the apartment on Friday the 17th of August. Chris was able to take the day off from work to help the movers and help me get things unpacked. I never would have been able to do it with Amy on my own. I took Chris over to the apartment about 8:00 am and the driver arrived shortly after that. I went back to the hotel with the girls until it was time to checkout so that I could keep them out of the way. After checking out, I drove around again so that Amy would sleep and then found a shady place to stop where she continued to sleep. I fed Alicia and read a book.
By the time we got back to the apartment, the movers was just finishing unloading the truck. Our apartment is on the third floor, so I am sure that it wasn’t a lot of fun. We had a lot of things that went to storage and decided to send a few more things when it was realized that it would be difficult to get them into the apartment, ie., our couch and entertainment center. We have our loveseat and my rocking chair and the tv is on a smaller cupboard that I keep Amy away from so that she won’t push the tv off.
We have a small deck off of the living room that Amy likes to spend time on. It is “outside” to her. Unfortunately, the rails are spaced just far enough apart that she could slip through them. I had to put a large box across part of the fenced area and the BBQ sits on the other half of the deck.
Susan kindly watched Amy for us on both Monday and Tuesday. It would have been crazy trying to keep her out of the way of the movers all day long. The King kids were happy to have her around, though I am not quite sure they realized that Amy would be leaving for good.
The packers were at our house until about 5:30 or 6 and said that the movers would be to our house the next morning at least by 10 am. Fortunately, we were up early because the movers arrived around 8:30 am. They arrive with a sem-truck and began to empty the house of all of its boxes out into the parking lot. Once there, the driver began to sort through what was going to storage and what we would keep at the apartment and then arranged it in the truck so that it would fit well. That took them quite some time and as they finished emptying a room, we would begin to clean it. Everything was taken care of on schedule and our taxi to Salt Lake arrived at 4 pm. I had just finished feeding Alicia, and Susan and kids had just arrived with Amy. Susan and I hugged for a minute or so and I cried at the thought of leaving her and all of our family. I hugged her kids and Jenna and Karra both started to cry also. (Susan says that when Jenna realized that she wouldn’t be able to come over to go swimming any more, that she cried all over again).
The driver got all of our stuff packed into the van which was no small feat. We had two strollers, two car seats, a diaper bag and a bunch of suitcases. We waved a sad farewell to Kings, to our wonderful house, and to Provo and were off. I didn’t cry much, but it sure was hard to see it all go.
Because Brad and Dallin needed Chris’ help one last time, the driver dropped Chris off at a gas station in Draper where Dallin then picked him up, and I continued on to the Wyndham Hotel in downtown Salt Lake with the girls. I am certainly glad that I don’t have to travel with them alone–it was quite a handful. We got settled into the hotel hoping the Chris and Brad would be back around 7:30 or 8 pm. We waited and waited and waited and finally they came about 9:30. Amy and I hadn’t eaten since lunch except for crackers and whatever snacks I had packed and were both quite hungry. I had a pounding headache that wouldn’t stop and was quite crabby. We had originally planned to go out to dinner but since Brad and Chris were so late getting there, they picked up pizza instead. Brad didn’t stay too long since it was late and we were all wiped out. It’s too bad that our last night together had to be so crazy.
Our flight to Denver was around 10 am on Wednesday morning which gave us plenty of time to get ready and eat. Since IBM was paying for our meals, we had a lovely breakfast in the hotel restaurant, though Amy certainly wasn’t on her best behavior. Our drive to the airport was an adventure in and of itself as our driver threw up in van on our way. Lovely. We made it to the airport with moments to spare, checked our luggage and car seats and headed for our gate. When we finally got onto the plane (we were flying Delta and they don’t pre-board young families any longer) we were in three seats together in the middle aisle of the plane. We had to check Alicia’s car seat because the plane was so full. The one-hour flight was mostly uneventful and Amy was mostly good. She did have a few moments during the flight of orneriness, but we are getting used to that. We arrived in Denver only to find that the airlines had broken the handle on Alicia’s car seat. We had to make a baggage claim, pick up our luggage and be to our shuttle in a short amount of time and just barely made it. Amy fell asleep as Chris was waiting for the luggage and slept on our laps in the shuttle bus all the way to Boulder. We had to transfer to another van at that point that then took us to Longmont. Chris had made reservations for us at the Super 8 for two nights. It was your run-of-the-mill motel...nothing fancy. But, it was a place to sleep.
We decided to drive out to Brighton on Wednesday evening to the Super Walmart there. We purchased a microwave since our apartment did not have one. We also bought food and had to stock up on all of the things we just barely gave away in Utah–ketchup, mustard, mayonaisse, etc.–things we weren’t able to bring with us.
I drove Chris to work on Thursday morning so that I could have the car for the day. (We sent the blue Honda out a week early so that we would have some kind of transportation once we got here. It was delivered to Sider’s home and they were kind enough to sign for it). I went back to the hotel with the girls but it wasn’t a whole lot of fun. I got Amy to sleep and when I started to move around, she woke right back up.
Around noon, I decided to take the girls over to our apartment for lunch. We had signed the lease the day before, but since we didn’t have any beds or blankets we had to stay at the hotel. We did have some food at the apartment and, of course, the microwave. Unfortunately, we had no silverware and until I remembered that Chris had a small pocketknife on his key chain, I wasn’t quite sure how I would be able to slice cheese. I tried to get Amy to sleep, but no luck. Finally, I loaded the girls into the car and drove around for the next while until it was time to pick up Chris. I went on some of the back roads around here to get to know the area better. It is quite beautiful this time of the year.
Our furniture arrived bright and early at the apartment on Friday the 17th of August. Chris was able to take the day off from work to help the movers and help me get things unpacked. I never would have been able to do it with Amy on my own. I took Chris over to the apartment about 8:00 am and the driver arrived shortly after that. I went back to the hotel with the girls until it was time to checkout so that I could keep them out of the way. After checking out, I drove around again so that Amy would sleep and then found a shady place to stop where she continued to sleep. I fed Alicia and read a book.
By the time we got back to the apartment, the movers was just finishing unloading the truck. Our apartment is on the third floor, so I am sure that it wasn’t a lot of fun. We had a lot of things that went to storage and decided to send a few more things when it was realized that it would be difficult to get them into the apartment, ie., our couch and entertainment center. We have our loveseat and my rocking chair and the tv is on a smaller cupboard that I keep Amy away from so that she won’t push the tv off.
We have a small deck off of the living room that Amy likes to spend time on. It is “outside” to her. Unfortunately, the rails are spaced just far enough apart that she could slip through them. I had to put a large box across part of the fenced area and the BBQ sits on the other half of the deck.
Sunday, 12 August, 2001
Mom and Dad returned to Utah on July 28–this time to help me out and for Alicia’s baby blessing. Normally we wouldn’t bless her quite so soon, but since all of our family is here we wanted to take advantage of that. Mom stayed with us from July 31st to August 3rd and was a real help. Dad stayed up in Salt Lake with Brad and continued to help Brad and Dallin out at their new practice. It was certainly a sacrifice for them to come again, and I certainly appreciated it. Amy did as well. She got to spend a lot of one on one time with her grandma. That freed me up to get the rest I needed and to spend time taking care of Alicia. In the evenings she would send Chris and I off together for dinner or just time away and watch both the girls for us. We had the cell phone if she needed us, but we knew that it would be the last time we would be out alone in a long time, so we took advantage of her generosity. We went shopping at a couple of stores during the week, mostly in the morning when I had the most energy. Having Mom there was also great for Chris because Mom diverted Amy’s attention away from him as he was back to work. Amy had such a hard time understanding that he was not available to her, especially since he had the two weeks off after Alicia’s birth and spent almost all of that time caring for Amy.
Just a side note about your dad. There is something about having a baby that brings out the best in him and makes me love him even more. He is so kind and good and patient, and I am amazed at the wonderful man and father that he is. As I just wrote, he spent most of his two weeks off with Amy–when I was in the hospital and then when I came home. I was not able to lift Amy and he did all of it–even to change dirty diapers. I hope that someday both of my girls will find a man to marry who is as good Christopher, who will treat you as a queen, and love the children that you bring into your family.
Soon after Mom left on Friday, Larry Kline flew in. He arrived on Sunday morning for Alicia’s baby blessing and stayed until Monday morning. He is not an active member of the church, and we know that these kinds of functions are not his favorite thing to do, but we sure do appreciate that he makes the effort for us. Plus, he thinks the world of his granddaughters and shows your pictures off wherever he travels.
He took us out to breakfast on Monday morning before he left at IHOP (International House of Pancakes). While there, Grandma Ball arrived with a friend from Washington, Sara, who is now married and living in Orem (she and Kevin were an “item” for a while). Grandpa Kline had them join us for breakfast and even paid for theirs.
We blessed Alicia on August 5. All but Shane and Mitch were there from both sides of our families. It was a little tense for awhile as the freeway was at a standstill and Brad, Mom, and Dad were trying to get to Provo. They arrived late, but we just moved the blessing from before the sacrament to after the sacrament. It was a beautiful blessing and Alicia was darling. She wore the same dress that Amy was blessed in. If memory serves, they both looked like angels in it.
After the blessing and church, we all got together at the clubhouse for a family dinner. I had to feed Alicia so I was a little late getting there but it was great for family to mingle together. The kids loved playing out on the toys and only wished that they could go swimming. Everyone helped out with the food and we had plenty. We just had sandwiches with cold meats, raw veggies, fruit, jello salad, and pasta salad. For dessert we had ice cream and brownies. It was nice to be together.
I asked Amy what her sister’s name was and she answered by saying “Lesha”. It was so cute. She still calls her that though sometimes it comes out sounding like “Sasha”.
Larry Ball had a flight back to Washington that same evening so he and Grandma Ball had to leave about 7ish. She came back later that night, but Chris and his dad were out for a walk. Not to worry, since she was with us the whole next week. (Having family was great but it got to be too much after awhile, especially as we were getting ready to move).
It was frustrating for me when Amy came down with a cold on Wednesday. She just wouldn’t keep away from Alicia and as much as we all tried to wash her hands, Alicia got a snuffy nose on Thursday. I give Amy “purple stuff” so that her nose doesn’t bother her too much, but there’s nothing that they recommend giving to babies who are so small. Alicia just had to suffer, consequently her mommy felt awful. Chris and Kevin gave Alicia a blessing on the 9th and she was better within a day. How grateful I am for the priesthood.
We wanted to have a BBQ with family and some of our friends that we would miss by moving away. Unfortunately, not many people came, though family was really supportive. We had a BBQ over at the clubhouse and had people bring food to share. For all of those who did come, there was plenty to eat and lots of fun.
Just a side note about your dad. There is something about having a baby that brings out the best in him and makes me love him even more. He is so kind and good and patient, and I am amazed at the wonderful man and father that he is. As I just wrote, he spent most of his two weeks off with Amy–when I was in the hospital and then when I came home. I was not able to lift Amy and he did all of it–even to change dirty diapers. I hope that someday both of my girls will find a man to marry who is as good Christopher, who will treat you as a queen, and love the children that you bring into your family.
Soon after Mom left on Friday, Larry Kline flew in. He arrived on Sunday morning for Alicia’s baby blessing and stayed until Monday morning. He is not an active member of the church, and we know that these kinds of functions are not his favorite thing to do, but we sure do appreciate that he makes the effort for us. Plus, he thinks the world of his granddaughters and shows your pictures off wherever he travels.
He took us out to breakfast on Monday morning before he left at IHOP (International House of Pancakes). While there, Grandma Ball arrived with a friend from Washington, Sara, who is now married and living in Orem (she and Kevin were an “item” for a while). Grandpa Kline had them join us for breakfast and even paid for theirs.
We blessed Alicia on August 5. All but Shane and Mitch were there from both sides of our families. It was a little tense for awhile as the freeway was at a standstill and Brad, Mom, and Dad were trying to get to Provo. They arrived late, but we just moved the blessing from before the sacrament to after the sacrament. It was a beautiful blessing and Alicia was darling. She wore the same dress that Amy was blessed in. If memory serves, they both looked like angels in it.
After the blessing and church, we all got together at the clubhouse for a family dinner. I had to feed Alicia so I was a little late getting there but it was great for family to mingle together. The kids loved playing out on the toys and only wished that they could go swimming. Everyone helped out with the food and we had plenty. We just had sandwiches with cold meats, raw veggies, fruit, jello salad, and pasta salad. For dessert we had ice cream and brownies. It was nice to be together.
I asked Amy what her sister’s name was and she answered by saying “Lesha”. It was so cute. She still calls her that though sometimes it comes out sounding like “Sasha”.
Larry Ball had a flight back to Washington that same evening so he and Grandma Ball had to leave about 7ish. She came back later that night, but Chris and his dad were out for a walk. Not to worry, since she was with us the whole next week. (Having family was great but it got to be too much after awhile, especially as we were getting ready to move).
It was frustrating for me when Amy came down with a cold on Wednesday. She just wouldn’t keep away from Alicia and as much as we all tried to wash her hands, Alicia got a snuffy nose on Thursday. I give Amy “purple stuff” so that her nose doesn’t bother her too much, but there’s nothing that they recommend giving to babies who are so small. Alicia just had to suffer, consequently her mommy felt awful. Chris and Kevin gave Alicia a blessing on the 9th and she was better within a day. How grateful I am for the priesthood.
We wanted to have a BBQ with family and some of our friends that we would miss by moving away. Unfortunately, not many people came, though family was really supportive. We had a BBQ over at the clubhouse and had people bring food to share. For all of those who did come, there was plenty to eat and lots of fun.
Thursday, 9 August, 2001
It is amazing that my little girl is already one month old. Time has flown by this past month, but before I relate the present, I still have to get caught up on the past month!
We had visitors the first night–Kevin and Candace, Becky and Kyle, and Lori and her roommate Elena. They were all very impressed by our beautiful little girl and are looking forward to the arrival of their sons. Becky is due about Sept. 9 though she has been to the hospital twice already to try and stop contractions that would bring their little Andrew Michael too early. Kevin and Candace are due on November 26 and just found out on August 3 that they too are having a boy.
Mom and Dad were kind enough to come and stay at our house Monday night so that Chris could spend the night at the hospital with me and his newest daughter. We kept trying to figure out what to name our daughter. Our choices were Rachel McKenna and Alicia Michelle. I tried calling her both names at different times to see if either one fit and we finally decided on Alicia Michelle. She is sooooo tiny and everyone who sees her comments on her size. It is somewhat scary to hold such a tiny little bundle. I am always afraid that I will drop her.
Mom and Dad stopped to visit on Tuesday morning, bringing Amy to the hospital as well, before heading back up to Salt Lake to help Brad and Dallin more on their practice. They have all been working long hours to get everything ready for their opening this month, but it seems as though there is always something more to do. Anyway, they didn’t stay at the hospital too long, but long enough for Dad to be introduced to his newest granddaughter. Chris must have passed them on the way to the hospital as he went home to get Amy for the day. Tuesday was mostly a day of resting (in between walking and stretching) for me and a day of coming back and forth to the hospital for Chris in between Amy’s naps. Amy doesn’t seem to mind her little sister too much, but I don’t think she realizes that Mommy is bringing this little person home to stay.
Chris’ sister, Lori, had volunteered to stay at the house after Amy went to bed on Tuesday so that Chris could come back to the hospital to spend some time with me, but she never showed up and finally called to say that she wasn’t coming. Becky and Kyle were kind enough to come over to the house and did so the next couple of nights. It was thoughtful of Becky and Kyle to help us out.
Mom and Dad left for home on Wednesday the 11th because Dad had an appointment with his internist on the 12th. They had waited a long time to get into see the doctor and didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see him.
It has been a blessing for Chris to be working at IBM during this birth. Because we had a c-section, they gave him two weeks off–days which are separate from his regular vacation days. He was able to spend a lot of time with Amy which she really needed. Especially since I wasn’t able to lift her and am only now just starting to (August 11th).
Susan and her kids came to the hospital on Wednesday. She was not happy because I had asked Mom to ask her not to bring her kids to the hospital on Monday night since I knew that it would be a long and tiring day for me. They didn’t stay too long.
My visiting teacher, Leigh Laursen, and neighbor, Kelley Green, came to visit Alicia and me at the hospital on Thursday. Kelley had a baby in April and Leigh is due in September. It was so thoughtful of them to make the effort to come.
I slept completely through the night on Tuesday night, and that’s the last time that has happened for a long time, but my other nights at the hospital were full of interruptions and waking up for pain meds. My percadan was changed to another med on Wednesday, but it did very little for the pain and kept me awake for a lot of the night. I was fortunate to have great nurses during my stay.
Alicia and I had to leave the hospital before 8 am on Friday morning (insurance covers 96 hours for a c-section from the moment of birth). Since I was leaving before breakfast, the nurse brought me some yogurt, juice and toast. Chris was coming to pick us up by 7:45, so I spent the morning packing our stuff and then dressing Alicia for her trip home. She looked so cute and pretty in her little pink outfit. We were both checked out by the nurse one last time and just as we were getting ready to leave, Alicia filled her diaper. That delayed us for a couple of minutes but we were quickly on our way after that. The nurse’s assistant wheeled my down in a wheel chair and had to make sure that we had a car seat for Alicia to travel home in.
It is always a weird feeling bringing a baby home for the first time–a little person who is now a part of our family. We arrived, and went next door to Kelley Green’s to pick up Amy. She was rather happy to see us, but that was just the beginning of her adjustment to life with a sister. Amy took about a week to settle down when going to sleep, and I finally realized that she was afraid that I wouldn’t be here when she woke up. We have pictures of her standing on the counter in the bathroom so that I could hold her on my shoulder with a very sad “I missed you so much” look on her face. Chris carried Amy over to the bed and I carefully sat on it to hold her longer. She just didn’t want to let her mommy go. We made sure to show her my incision so that she would know I had an owie and to try and keep her from hurting me, but she mostly forgot when she tried to climb on my lap. When I went to the bathroom, though, she would always come in to look at it.
Chris went up to Salt Lake to help Brad and Dallin install computers in their new practice on Saturday leaving me with both of the girls. Alicia wasn’t much of a problem since I could lift her and she was sleeping for much of the time, but Amy wasn’t used to me not being able to hold her. I had to call Susan to come and put Amy in bed for her morning nap, but that was hardly acceptable. I let Amy cry for a little while and then got a chair for her to climb out of her bed with and then climb on to my bed with a stool. We laid down on the bed together and slept beside each other. She was much happier doing that.
We had kind, wonderful people bring in meals from Friday until the next Wednesday. Rowes on Friday, Slaters on Saturday as well as Bergers–friends from Novell–Glenns on Sunday, Ewells on Monday, Grants on Tuesday, and Greens on Wednesday. Kevin and Candace also brought a meal over on Friday and Kings invited us for dinner on Sunday.
Chris’ family arrived in Utah on the 23rd of July and stayed for the next three weeks. For the first two weeks they stayed at Kevin and Candace’s home and then Chris’ Mom stayed with us for the last week. They were anxious and excited to see their granddaughters. They took Amy to the zoo in Salt Lake during the first week and she seemed to enjoy the animals.
Alicia had her two week doctors checkup today Wednesday, July 25 She is growing and gaining weight but still seems so tiny. She weighed 8 pounds 6 ounces, which is only 3 ounces bigger than Amy was when she was born. Alicia has grown from 19 inches to 20 3/4 though.
We had visitors the first night–Kevin and Candace, Becky and Kyle, and Lori and her roommate Elena. They were all very impressed by our beautiful little girl and are looking forward to the arrival of their sons. Becky is due about Sept. 9 though she has been to the hospital twice already to try and stop contractions that would bring their little Andrew Michael too early. Kevin and Candace are due on November 26 and just found out on August 3 that they too are having a boy.
Mom and Dad were kind enough to come and stay at our house Monday night so that Chris could spend the night at the hospital with me and his newest daughter. We kept trying to figure out what to name our daughter. Our choices were Rachel McKenna and Alicia Michelle. I tried calling her both names at different times to see if either one fit and we finally decided on Alicia Michelle. She is sooooo tiny and everyone who sees her comments on her size. It is somewhat scary to hold such a tiny little bundle. I am always afraid that I will drop her.
Mom and Dad stopped to visit on Tuesday morning, bringing Amy to the hospital as well, before heading back up to Salt Lake to help Brad and Dallin more on their practice. They have all been working long hours to get everything ready for their opening this month, but it seems as though there is always something more to do. Anyway, they didn’t stay at the hospital too long, but long enough for Dad to be introduced to his newest granddaughter. Chris must have passed them on the way to the hospital as he went home to get Amy for the day. Tuesday was mostly a day of resting (in between walking and stretching) for me and a day of coming back and forth to the hospital for Chris in between Amy’s naps. Amy doesn’t seem to mind her little sister too much, but I don’t think she realizes that Mommy is bringing this little person home to stay.
Mom and Dad left for home on Wednesday the 11th because Dad had an appointment with his internist on the 12th. They had waited a long time to get into see the doctor and didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see him.
It has been a blessing for Chris to be working at IBM during this birth. Because we had a c-section, they gave him two weeks off–days which are separate from his regular vacation days. He was able to spend a lot of time with Amy which she really needed. Especially since I wasn’t able to lift her and am only now just starting to (August 11th).
Susan and her kids came to the hospital on Wednesday. She was not happy because I had asked Mom to ask her not to bring her kids to the hospital on Monday night since I knew that it would be a long and tiring day for me. They didn’t stay too long.
My visiting teacher, Leigh Laursen, and neighbor, Kelley Green, came to visit Alicia and me at the hospital on Thursday. Kelley had a baby in April and Leigh is due in September. It was so thoughtful of them to make the effort to come.
I slept completely through the night on Tuesday night, and that’s the last time that has happened for a long time, but my other nights at the hospital were full of interruptions and waking up for pain meds. My percadan was changed to another med on Wednesday, but it did very little for the pain and kept me awake for a lot of the night. I was fortunate to have great nurses during my stay.
Alicia and I had to leave the hospital before 8 am on Friday morning (insurance covers 96 hours for a c-section from the moment of birth). Since I was leaving before breakfast, the nurse brought me some yogurt, juice and toast. Chris was coming to pick us up by 7:45, so I spent the morning packing our stuff and then dressing Alicia for her trip home. She looked so cute and pretty in her little pink outfit. We were both checked out by the nurse one last time and just as we were getting ready to leave, Alicia filled her diaper. That delayed us for a couple of minutes but we were quickly on our way after that. The nurse’s assistant wheeled my down in a wheel chair and had to make sure that we had a car seat for Alicia to travel home in.
It is always a weird feeling bringing a baby home for the first time–a little person who is now a part of our family. We arrived, and went next door to Kelley Green’s to pick up Amy. She was rather happy to see us, but that was just the beginning of her adjustment to life with a sister. Amy took about a week to settle down when going to sleep, and I finally realized that she was afraid that I wouldn’t be here when she woke up. We have pictures of her standing on the counter in the bathroom so that I could hold her on my shoulder with a very sad “I missed you so much” look on her face. Chris carried Amy over to the bed and I carefully sat on it to hold her longer. She just didn’t want to let her mommy go. We made sure to show her my incision so that she would know I had an owie and to try and keep her from hurting me, but she mostly forgot when she tried to climb on my lap. When I went to the bathroom, though, she would always come in to look at it.
Chris went up to Salt Lake to help Brad and Dallin install computers in their new practice on Saturday leaving me with both of the girls. Alicia wasn’t much of a problem since I could lift her and she was sleeping for much of the time, but Amy wasn’t used to me not being able to hold her. I had to call Susan to come and put Amy in bed for her morning nap, but that was hardly acceptable. I let Amy cry for a little while and then got a chair for her to climb out of her bed with and then climb on to my bed with a stool. We laid down on the bed together and slept beside each other. She was much happier doing that.
We had kind, wonderful people bring in meals from Friday until the next Wednesday. Rowes on Friday, Slaters on Saturday as well as Bergers–friends from Novell–Glenns on Sunday, Ewells on Monday, Grants on Tuesday, and Greens on Wednesday. Kevin and Candace also brought a meal over on Friday and Kings invited us for dinner on Sunday.
Chris’ family arrived in Utah on the 23rd of July and stayed for the next three weeks. For the first two weeks they stayed at Kevin and Candace’s home and then Chris’ Mom stayed with us for the last week. They were anxious and excited to see their granddaughters. They took Amy to the zoo in Salt Lake during the first week and she seemed to enjoy the animals.
Alicia had her two week doctors checkup today Wednesday, July 25 She is growing and gaining weight but still seems so tiny. She weighed 8 pounds 6 ounces, which is only 3 ounces bigger than Amy was when she was born. Alicia has grown from 19 inches to 20 3/4 though.
Sunday, July 29, 2001
Alicia had her first shower with Daddy. Her bellybutton fell off on Friday the 25th so she was now able to have baths and showers. She seemed to enjoy it quite a lot. She didn’t cry at all and just lay against Chris’ chest and let the water rush over her.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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