Introducing Dolce Daisy Holmgren

Introducing Dolce Daisy Holmgren!

Our second little angel made it to the world on Tuesday, November 3 2009. She is so perfect and we love her so much! Here's the story:

On Monday night, I thought I should go into Labor and Delivery because I was having contractions every time I stood up. I talked myself out of going in because the contractions were really not painful and they were coming so fast and close together when they were happening that I couldn't really time them. I decided after calling my cousin who is a nurse in Labor and Delivery that I would drink a lot of water and lay down for a full hour to see if they would stop. I put Mckinley to bed and the contractions kept going but they seemed to be slowing down. David was training for a new position and so he really needed to go in to work that night and I was really nervous letting him go because our other car is having its usual problems and I was having mental images of the car not starting and not being able to get ahold of anyone. (and then having to call 911 and deliver my baby with my co workers! There would be awkwardness forever after that... haha)But he went in for his training, and I told myself that we had to wait until morning when I had a scheduled appointment to see what was going on.

The next morning, I had my appointment with Dr. Gatherum. I went in and just as before with Mckinley, I had lost a pound. When Dr. Gatherum came into the room, he said, "well, maybe you'll be dilated to a 5 or 6 and I'll just send you over to L&D and we can have her today. " He did the check and we were pretty surprized that I was actually dilated to almost a 5. So he asked me what I wanted to do. It wasn't the most convenient time to have her but since he was giving me the choice, I wanted to have her as soon as possible as long as it would be safe for her to come. He said that at 38 weeks and 2 days she would be just fine. So of course I said "let's have her today!"

I went and picked up David and we dropped Mckinley off at my parents and made it back to the hospital just after 10amDavid was so thrilled on the drive over because the baby was going to be born on "inverted 311 day." My birthday is 3/11 and now you know why David married me. haha. My cousin Annie was my nurse which made things so much fun and stress free. She did such a great job!

Dr. Gatherum came in around 11:30 to break my water but as he was preparing to break it, he felt her little hand right up by her head. I was so glad that he caught this before breaking my water because if her hand would have come out first, he said we would have had to have a C-section because of the risk of injuring the babies arm or shoulder. Luckily, they just shook hands and he waited to break my water.

We started Oxytocin around noon, and the contractions started coming really fast.(Like 2 minutes apart.) I wasn't in much pain, although I was having "off the richter" contractions as David called them, but I was dilating really quickly(I was at a 9 after maybe an hour.) and I was getting nervous that I would be delivering soon, so we had the anesthesiologist come and get my epidural in. They have a unique epidural system at Valley View where you can still move your legs while it's working. It seemed pretty wierd because I could still move everything but I couldn't feel the contractions. (I was worried it wasn't working until they told me about it, apparently there are only a few hospitals that are using it. I thought it was pretty neat.)

After another hour, I was fully dilated and effaced and the babies heart rate was being affected by the contractions, so Dr. Gatherum walked in and said "let's have a baby!" He had a surgical hat on that said "Don't Panic!" and I kept reading it whenever they would say that the babies heartrate was dropping again while pushing.

This ended up being a posterior delivery. Mckinley was posterior or "Sunny side up" too, and Dr. Gatherum told us that with two posterior births in a row, it's likely that my pelvic anatomy is shaped in a way that only allows posterior delivery. This causes back pain during and after the delivery and makes the delivery harder for some women. I had to have a third degree episiotomy with Mckinley,(whatever that means?) and a smaller one with Dolce but aside from that the delivery was quick and easy with both.

Once she was out, we could see that she was just perfect. It was so much fun to see the babies face for the first time after spending 9 months wondering what she would be like. She was so sweet and had the daintiest little cry while they were cleaning her off. She hardly cried at all but snuggled right up to me as I was holding her.

She weighed 6lbs 12oz which is exactly what her big sister weighed. However she is only 19 inches long which is an inch and a half shorter than Mckinley was when she was born. We wondered if she would be a red head, and I joked the whole pregnancy that she must not be because I never had any morning sickness. Haha, she actually has dark brown hair! (I wont be surprized if it goes blond because mine was dark brown too. ) Her pediatrician thought she might have little club feet because of the way that she snuggles her legs up and crosses them.(I will post a picture. It's so adorable.) but she doesn't because she can straighten them and move them side to side. She is so cute and tiny, we are loving everything about her. She already has really chubby cheeks and a double chin.

Because of IHC's visitor policy because of H1N1 flu, we were only allowed to have four visitors during our stay at the hospital, and Mckinley couldn't be one of them because you have to be 14 years or older to be a visitor. Mckinley was only allowed to see her new baby sister through the nursery window, which made it feel like we were in jail:( She was so excited when she finally got to meet the new baby. She couldn't wait to hold her, and ever since she has been very helpful by patting the baby's back, comforting her when she cries, hugging and kissing her,playing peek a boo with her and doing everything else that expert big sisters do. She is a natural.

Halloween 2009!

This post comes a little late, but as you might know, we have had another little thing on our minds lately. So here are some pictures of a very fun Halloween night. Up until the night before Halloween, Mckinley wanted to be a Pink Mermaid for the big day. (Where on Earth we were going to find a Pink Mermaid outfit, is still a mystery to me. ) But like faithful to the cause procrastinators, we were out looking for a little costume for her the night before, and found a very magical Sleeping Beauty dress. She was so thrilled with the idea of being Sleeping Beauty that she wanted to put her costume on the next morning. We held her off as long as we possibly could and finally let her get dressed up at 2pm. She was so excited and waited in the car to go to our first stop for almost an hour. Note the berry picking basket for trick or treating, and the blond wig which fooled a lot of people, including Grandma and Grandpa.

David dressed up as James Bond. He looks very James Bond-ish next to the Jaguar in the picture. I wanted to only put forth minimal effort in dressing up so I dressed up as Sherlock Holmes. (The only real give away is the big magnifying glass.)

We started out at my Mom and Dad's where we have a Halloween tradition of eating Sloppy Joes and drinking Homemade rootbeer. Then we went to our wards trunk or treat. (We never had trunk or treats when I was growing up so it felt like cheating to have Mckinley walk around a parking lot and leave with her basket full of candy.) We ended the night by making a few visits to friends and family, and then coming home and passing out candy while watching a scary movie.

Just as we were getting ready to go to bed, I had two pretty painful contractions and thought, "oh man, the baby might be coming tonight!" The contractions stopped and didn't start up again and so we went to bed. It was a really fun Halloween!

36 weeks!

This was just a picture at 36 weeks. Almost there! I wear these pants almost every single day and I'm counting down how many more times I have to wear them. (David makes fun of them because they have the huge pregnancy band that goes up over the baby bump. He always says things like, "do you think you could pull your pants up higher? Cuz I don't. Haha)

And yes, you are seeing a watermelon pink wall behind the crib. I haven't gotten the decorating done, but we did get the wall painted. Looks like a girls room huh!

Haunted Dinner!

We had our haunted dinner again! This has been a fun tradition that we have done every year we have been married. We always make dinner in a Pumpkin and light spooky candles. We set the mood with some romantic sounds of horror halloween music. (this year was especially spooky because the CD has a skip in it. haha) In the past, I haven't had quite the same success with my Dinner in a Pumpkin, but this year turned out really good. (To get the best flavor, someone told me, the pumpkin "lid" should actually seal itself off again while cooking. I've never had this happen before today. It was fun to have it turn out.)

Usually I do a bit more decorating for halloween. but this year, I haven't had as much energy probably because I'm nine months pregnant right now. (and huge!) We still had a fun time though, even without all the spooky trimmings. Sometimes things don't have to be perfect to be perfect.

You can see the steam coming out of the pumpkin. This is what should seal the lid to the pumpkin while cooking. It has to fit tightly for it to happen.

I had just taken it out of the oven. See? No steam!

Family Night at Staheli Farm

I have pictures but we are still having computer issues so I'm just going to write how much fun this was now and I will post the pictures soon. For family night this week, (and because it was David's Fall Break.) we went to St. George to the Staheli Farm Corn Maze. They have a family night special for 5 dollars a person on Monday nights (so everyone go this week for a very fun Autumn night!) There is so much to do, I promise it will be 5 bucks well spent. You park at the farm and then they take you on a hayride across the road to the maze. It's a haunted corn maze on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so if you want to do that, go then. On Monday nights it's very kid friendly and we didn't see any spooks at all. We wandered through the maze for a long time with Mckinley in the lead and when we got out, we realized that we had probably only covered one side of it. Mckinley loved the adventure of pointing the flashlight, and running through the corn.
After you have conquered the maze, you can ride the haywagon back for a treat. We had popcorn balls and hot chocolate. MMM! There was also a "hoedown" going on where people were line dancing and singing. The DJ was a cow, that Mckinley was pretty excited about. They also have different slides and playhouses for the kids to play in.(one slide lands you right into this huge box of corn kernels.) You can go for a real pony ride, or for a pony ride on a swing.The swings look like ponies and swings around a middle column. Or you could swing into a haystack from a rope. I'll have pictures soon.
Mckinley really loved the animals at the farm and wanted to look at and pet everything. There was a water trough with streams of water falling into it for handwashing after touching the animals and so we, of course, had to spend some time there.
It was such a fun night, and the weather in St. George is still perfect to be outside playing. Our one regret was that we didn't get there a little earlier because they have a haywagon pulled by Clydesdales that takes you to the pumpkin patch where you can pick your own pumpkins, and we didn't have time to fit it in:(
If you need directions for how to get there, give me a call. It's in Washington and it's not hard to find but we thought it was so much fun that we want everyone to go now. Your kids will really love it. (In fact Mckinley woke up bright and early the next morning wanting to go back to the farm to play.)

30 days to go and nesting

Yes, it's true! One month from today is our due date, and we are so excited for the day we will have another little lady at our house. (David's long slow death from Estrogen poisoning is intensifying. Haha.) I don't have any pictures for now because our regular computer is having trouble and I don't know how to post pictures from David's school laptop, which is what I'm using right now. (But just picture a really huge pregnant person with a very fat face and swollen hands and feet. If you put my face on this mental picture, that should be pretty close. Haha)
About a week ago, I noticed that the baby had dropped down into position, so we should be getting pretty close. Mckinley never dropped or "lightened" I guess is the medical term and so I was quite happy that this baby has. It has made it so much easier to breathe and move around. (although putting on my boots for work is still torture!) I don't remember if I wrote in my last post that I have started to dilate a bit too. This doesn't really mean much since I was dilated to a 4 for 3 weeks with Mckinley and still had to be induced, but it is nice to know that I can walk in to labor and delivery and ask for an epidural that much quicker. (you ladies who are brave enough to go natural are pretty amazing to me. I'm chickening out again.)
I never "nested" with Mckinley that I can remember, and I don't think I'm doing it now either. They say that this is supposed to be a natural tendency for pregnant women to clean and get everything really ready for the baby, but it is really not coming naturally for me. I am FORCING myself to deep clean my house right now, cursing myself the whole time for waiting until I can barely move to do it. We still don't have the crib set up. That should be happening sometime this weekend. I do have a ton of baby clothes from Mckinley, so the baby is going to be lookin good, but if she came right now, yikes. I've still got a lot to do.