3 Week Shoot

A couple weeks ago, one of my dearest friends, Heidi did a shoot of me and my little lover boy. I am thrilled with how they turned out. I will cherish these photos forever and ever.
Thank you dear friend.

2 weeks

Little Henry at two weeks old. I can't believe how different he looks!

I'm ridiculously in love with this baby. 

The 1st grand baby.

Henry is the first sweet grand baby on the Vossler side of the family. This means that I (the youngest of my father's born children) was the first to make him a grandpa! He and the rest of the family, my beautiful stepmom Kris and darling step siblings Taylor and Ethan, drove alllll the way to Utah to meet the Little Tiny. It was a fantastic evening for everyone. I can't wait to take him to California to meet the rest of our family! All in good time. 

We thoroughly loved having them visit! 

I foresee several more Park City trips, Jazz games and shopping days in our future. :)

Henry David Harward

On Thursday, March 22, our lives were forever changed.
We were blessed with the most darling and perfect baby boy.
Meet our little tiny Henry David.

          On that morning, I was 39 weeks to the day when I felt my first unmistakably real contraction. I hadn't anticipated being pregnant past 38 weeks and so with each passing day I was becoming more and more anxious and impatient. Knowing that I had a very large headed baby to rid my body of made me very nervous. I tried ALMOST all of the natural tricks to induce labor and was just hours away from pounding a shot or two of castor oil... SO glad it didn't come to that. Thanks Shaila!

           The day prior I had made a joke that this baby, being my son, was waiting for March 22nd to roll around because he was just too dang excited for the City Creek  grand opening. Sure enough, that's when he decided it was time. David had just left for work that morning when I got that first contraction and I called him right away in a mad panic telling him that I thought he should come back because I knew it was the real thing. Being a first timer, I was so worried that he wouldn't be back in time and the 15 minutes it takes for him to get home wouldn't be long enough and he would come home to find me laying on the living room floor holding our child. When he did come home, I was perfectly happy, doing some last minute cleaning and had had one, maybe two more contractions. He talked sense into me reminding me that it typically takes several hours and I will of course know when I am close and need to go to the hospital.

           We hung out at home for a while and he timed my contractions between 15-25 minutes apart. I knew I wasn't close, so we decided to make the most of the beautiful day that it was and walk to the grand opening of City Creek. We spent a few hours browsing in stores, trying things on, people watching and timing my contractions. At roughly 4pm, I was having them closer to 7 minutes apart and decided I'd had enough shopping and we should head home.

           We were home for about an hour and a half and they were coming every four minutes, so we packed up the car and headed to the hospital. We got there and the doctor checked to see how close I was. I was 6 cm dilated which meant they could send me over to labor and delivery. Yahoo! In my birth plan, I was very thorough and had expressed that I didn't want to have any pain management. I have always heard that recovery after childbirth is so much easier when you go about it naturally, so that was my plan. They told me that I could change my mind and get an epidural at any time throughout the process. I was beginning to regret my decision and that I had made such a big stink about wanting to go naturally to everyone because I honestly didn't think I would be able to make it through the whole thing without getting an epidural.

          I walked myself over to my room, and the first thing I wanted to do was take a hot bath. I had heard that it is really helpful to be able to soak in the tub while you are in labor so I thought I would give that a try. As nice as the water felt, the contractions were a bit too intense to really enjoy the bath. I have had many moms tell me that when you are in labor, your body knows exactly what to do and it will tell you what you need to do and when. While sitting in the bathtub, I suddenly had a very strong urge to start pushing. I called the nurse in to check and see what was going on and so she did her assessment and music to my ears, told me that I was ready to push the little tiny out! They paged my doctor and I got out of the tub, onto my bed and was just waiting for them to give me that green light.

           With every contraction, I was fighting the urge to push which was probably the hardest physical restraint I've ever had to practice. I was so mad at myself because I knew that I didn't have to be in this much pain but I never said anything about getting any meds. I don't know why I didn't, but perhaps it was because I had already made it this far.

           My doctor came in about 25 minutes later and decided to check me to make sure it was time. Turns out, I was only at 8 cm...I was so frustrated! I was so ready to get this kid out of me, it was horrible to hear that it wasn't time yet. So all I could do at that point, was try to survive through the "transition" phase of labor which is supposedly the hardest.

          Throughout all of this, David was so incredibly wonderful. He was constantly reminding me how strong I was, how close I was to being done and how loved I am. He was so sweet even when I was barking orders and snapping at him and the nurses. It's funny because we had learned and practiced several different massage techniques that have proven to be helpful during labor but at that time, the last thing I wanted was anyone touching me. I told David that childbirth would be the one and only time that I would pass up a massage.

          I powered through it for another half hour. My contractions would peak, and then rather than come back down after a minute, they would peak again and then peak yet again. I had about had enough, when I asked my doctor to check me one last time. She did and she said that it would be best for me to wait a few more minutes but I could probably start the pushing process if I wanted. There was no way I was waiting any longer. Everyone got into position and after 11 minutes and a few good pushes, I had my sweet angel baby in my arms. The intense pain and discomfort of labor was immediately gone and I felt awesome.

          He weighed in at a perfect 7 lbs and was 20.5 inches long. I am thrilled to add that his head is a perfectly normal size. I can't describe those first few moments when they handed him to me. They were absolutely beautiful. We are so in love with our little Henry and have enjoyed every minute of him so far. We celebrated his arrival with lots of family, friends and chocolate cigars. :)

Pregnancy Photo Shoot

David and I got a new camera for Christmas so we decided that we would spend a little time trying to figure it out while the weather was nice. We still have a lot to learn about it but I thought he got a few decent ones. I don't love the excess weight places other than my belly but I guess it's just all part of the experience. Not too long before I get my body back. Yahoo!

bump update.

                  29 Weeks                                                     34 Weeks

First Timer!

Aside from my birth, I spent my first night in the hospital last week. Everyone who knows me (for the most part) already knows what happened, but I know if I don't blog about this then it will go unrecorded and eventually I'll forget it all, so...
It started on Wednesday. Every Wednesday, we have a Modern Family party night with our friends and we switch off making dinner for each other. It was the other couple's turn to make dinner so we went over there and had our usual get together. I was starving when I came home from work and so before David and I headed over there I had eaten a bunch of different things. We were sitting on their couch and after about an hour my stomach started feeling not so hot. We were about to play some games but before we did I started feeling much worse. David knew it must have been something more than just a simple stomach pain because I will rarely pass up an opportunity to play games. We got home at about 10pm and I showered hoping that would make me feel better and then went straight to bed. By 11pm I was sicker than a dog with horrid abdominal pain and everything that I had eaten in the last several hours was violently leaving my body in half hour increments. In between sessions, I started researching flu and food poisoning during pregnancy to make sure that I was the only one taking the brunt of the sickness and not the baby. The more I read the better I felt, but there were a few symptoms that made me think that I should call the OB Triage at the hospital just in case. I spoke with a midwife and told her that I had abdominal pain and couldn't keep anything down and she told me that I needed to go to the hospital right away. This scared me because I expected her to tell me I was fine and that it wasn't serious enough to have to go in and would be passing fairly soon. It was 3am, so I woke David up and we headed to the University Hospital. When I got there, the first thing they wanted was a urine sample. I was so dehydrated that it took a good while for me to be able to produce anything... it also didn't help having a nurse standing outside the bathroom door listening. I changed into a gown and got on the hospital bed and she tried to get a blood draw. Again, I was so dehydrated that she was having a rough time getting any fluids out of me. She kept adjusting the needle and trying to find an angle to get some blood flow coming but it didn't work. That was really fun. She eventually got some blood and then they hooked me up to a machine that monitors the baby's heart beat and shows if my uterus is contracting. Little did I know, I was having contractions every 1-2 minutes. I wasn't able to feel them and so I really had no idea. I don't quite understand how I was having them so often and couldn't even tell. Once they saw this, they examined me and found that I was dilated to a 2.5 and was 60% effaced! That's not great news when you're only 33 weeks. So at that point they decided to check me in to Labor and Delivery and try to keep this Little Tiny from coming. They hooked me up to an IV and gave me lots of contraction and nausea medication so I would feel better. They also gave me a steroid shot to develop the baby's lungs faster. It was by far the longest night of my life and I know it was pretty long for David too. The next day they did an ultrasound to make sure that everything was alright with the development of Little Tiny. They found that as of last Thursday he weighed 4 pounds 11 ounces and that his head is measuring in the 98th percentile! Not the news I wanted to hear! On a somewhat positive note, my doctor did tell me that the chances of me delivering at the full 40 weeks is pretty slim. Her guess was anywhere from 34 to 38. With a pumpkin headed baby, I gladly welcome his arrival a week or two early! Our hope is that he comes around the 37 week mark. We want to make sure he is as healthy as humanly possible and would love for him to not have to stay in the NICU. The doctors didn't know what it was that initally made me sick, there really is no way of knowing, but I encourage anyone who is pregnant to make sure they get their fluids because that was one incredibly miserable experience.

happy birthday mom!

I whole heartedly believe that I have the best mother in the world. She is the one of the strongest women I have ever known and has been the best example to me. Being that I am just weeks away from becoming a mother myself, I feel very at ease and comforted knowing that I have been taught very well and that I can call upon her at any time for help. I remember when I was little she would tell me how grateful she was that Heavenly Father sent me to her when He could have sent her any other little girl. I am also so grateful He did that. I really don't know what I did to be so blessed. She is my best friend and I want to be just like her in every way.