Zoey Olivia

March 14th
My husband is coming home from being gone on a school trip in China and then Boston for 10 days. I had been staying with my in-laws that week to get help with J.R. while I worked. (I work from home-but since it is full time- it is hard to not have help with my active little man. :)) I was so incredibly excited that Robby was on the plane back to Utah. I was counting down the hours and a little sad that his plane was coming in at 11:55 P.M. The time finally came-I drove to get him-we ate In N Out on the way home and were sleeping by about 2 in the morning with plans to drive back to Logan the next day.
March 15th
At around 5 in the morning I woke up with extreme back pain. I let Robby know I was in pain, but not to worry since I was only 34 weeks and 4 days pregnant.  I went and took a shower to help with the pain. After showering, I still was in pain and it wasn't going away. I let Robby know and at about 7 we decided to go to the hospital.
When we got there, they hooked me up to the machine that tells you if you are having contractions. I guess that buckling over in pain every 5-6 minutes doesn't tell you that anymore. They checked me and I had not dilated yet. They checked me again in an hour and still nothing. The nurse sent me home saying that yes I was having regular contractions, but with water, they would go away.
I have always been a believer in what doctors say. I've had a lot of experience with them growing up and they have always been very helpful.
I have not always had the best luck with nurses. (After them telling me that I was no doubt going to miscarry with J.R. and to not come into my appointment because it should happen by them-my trust faded in them.) So even though it's the doctors who tell the nurses what to say, I guess I need to hear it from the doctor to be right. Anyway-back to the story-
I went home and was still contracting a lot. I was embarrassed that I hadn't been in labor and that I had made my in-laws get up to watch J.R. I said hi to J.R. and a huge contraction came-perfect time so I could pretend I was just giving J.R. a hug while actually buckling over in pain. (I don't think I fooled anybody.) Robby asked if I wanted to lay down and I said yes. My mother in law gave me a water bottle and I rushed downstairs.
I fell asleep on the bed for about 4 minutes then woke up in pain. I fell asleep again for about 4 minutes then woke up in pain again. I don't really remember how long this went on, but I was getting very annoyed.
I decided to use the restroom then come sit on the floor in front of the space heater to help with this silly back pain. About every 3-4 minutes I would be irrationally pounding on the floor for no reason other than this pain that would come for about 30 seconds-then fade away. I remember while sitting on the floor thinking,
"Man, I really wish that these contractions would stop because I have a busy day ahead of me! I am so excited to go to Carter's with Robby to pick out clothes for our baby girl." I completely thought that they were just going to stop because I had been drinking A LOT of water. They didn't stop though. They just got more painful and closer together.
Robby came down to check on me. He wanted me to go back to the hospital since I was still in so much pain. I told him that I was not in labor and I was fine and that I didn't want to look stupid and that I was not in labor and OWWWW! That's about how the conversation went. I then told him to go back upstairs.
I hear that women are kinda crazy when in labor. Yeah. That's probably true.
He went upstairs. I went and sat on the toilet because for some odd reason that was the most comfortable place. I was there for a bit having contractions. Some would make me lay on the floor in pain. While I was having one of those lay-on-the-floor-in-pain contractions, Robby came in. I jumped up and said I was fine. (Yeah, I guess I am a little stubborn?) I felt like he had caught me eating candy that wasn't mine. I was mad that he saw me in such pain and he didn't even knock! The nerve! (To his defense-he heard me fall onto the floor. I guess I would run in too.) But remember, I am in labor. I am right.
He finally told me that even if I wasn't in labor, something wasn't right and that I couldn't possible go about the things I needed to for 6 more weeks in this kind of pain. That finally clicked with me that something was NOT right and that we needed to go NOW!
After screaming and laughing and telling Robby to stop making me laugh because it hurt and screaming some more- we arrived at the hospital. I could barely walk into the hospital-but I did! (I wouldn't let Robby drop me off by the door--why am I so stubborn with such weird things??)
They checked me. I was at a 9. My heart dropped. I knew I wasn't getting that beautiful epidural that made my labor with J.R. so blissful. I was scared. Really scared.
Everything happened really fast. Everyone was rushing. Nurses were yelling to call the doctor and he needed to be here now! I remember I was in tears...I think? But while I was in tears, I was secretly happy that I wasn't crazy. I had been in labor. They were the crazy ones-not me.
My doctor came in with an amazing can-do attitude and humor to boot! Honestly, I could not have gotten a better doctor.
One of the nurses told me that I needed to get it together so my son wouldn't be traumatized. OH MY HECK MY SON IS IN THE ROOM?! I think I had forgotten about that. I actually was able to stop screaming for enough time to have him leave the room (Robby's parents were at a funeral and came as soon as they got the message-luckily it was before the baby arrived.)
I told the doctor that it felt like I needed to poop. He told me to start pushing when that feeling came. I proceeded to tell him why I did not want to poop on him and that he did not deserve that. I was completely serious. Once he told me that it was okay and that it was his job-I started pushing. It hurt. I only knew what I had seen from the movies-which actually helped? Weird. 9 minutes later Zoey Olivia was here. She was beautiful. Oh so beautiful. But it wasn't like how it was after having J.R.  It took them a long time to give her to me. Once they did, she didn't start nursing. They took her away again.
She stayed all day in another room at the Hospital where they could monitor her. She was having a hard time breathing. They decided to fly her to a hospital with a NICU that night. I was discharged the next day and went and saw her.
She's been there for a little over 2 weeks now and is progressing beautifully. She still has some oxygen flow, but the main thing we are working on is feeding. She is wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.

We're back in Logan!

Wow! It has been a long time since I've update this blog. I hope to be updating it a lot more! I'll just give a quick overview of what has been going on in my little family's life :). First, Robby and I moved down to Salt Lake for almost a year so we could save for grad school and I could finish school and have a baby. It was quite the year! Our original plan was to save for two years and apply to a lot of schools and go to the best one. This plan changed about 6 months after living in Salt Lake. One day after church Robby brought up that he felt like he should apply for the USU MSHR program coupled with an MBA. We agreed that this was the right thing to do. We went ahead and applied in November thinking we would hear back late January-mid February. Around the middle of March we started getting nervous. We both realized that we really wanted to get going with school and that even though we were saving money by living in Robby's parents basement, it still wasn't as much as we thought we were going to be able to save (baby's cost a lot :)) 

While all this waiting was going on, I was going to school and finishing up my last semester of my undergraduate degree in elementary education! I had the privilege of working with amazing cooperating teachers and really enjoyed my experience. The first part of my student teaching was online with UTVA. I helped with the 4th and 5th Language Arts classes. I never thought I would enjoy teaching the older children as much as I did!  The second part of my student teaching was in a kindergarten class at a school in Bountiful. (About a 40 minute commute from where we were living.) My amazing sister watched J.R. while I did this for 7 weeks! She is wonderful. 

At the end of March we heard back from USU. He got in and we were moving back to Logan in a month! It was super fast, but we were very excited. 

We have been here a couple weeks and are really enjoying our time. We are almost all moved in (just a few things here and there to finish unpacking) and it has been very fun getting to spend so much time with my son. 

This post was long! I think I will post some pictures now :)

So this one time, I was talking with Robby over the summer, and we decided to go to Disneyland. And then we did!

crackle polish. 

Robby fell in...I might have asked him to try to walk in the water...but to my defense I wanted to know if it was safe. -it wasn't..it was actually really slimy and slippery!

Robby's favorite ride.. ;) "It's a Small World"

We started driving on the Monday before school started, stayed a night in St. George then drove the rest of the way there. We stayed with Robby's old mission president, President Higham and got a three day pass to Disneyland and California Adventures. It was the first time I have ever been to Disneyland! I call it a success.

Some fun things over the summer :)

Doing Reading In Motion for pre kindergarteners for 3 weeks- (so fun! and I get to do it in the fall again!)

little wake boarding at 7 in the morning with some friends a few times-

21st birthday!! (Robby made that absolutely fabulous for me. He brought me birthday cupcakes at work :) :))

The cute envelope!

the cute card?

my present! Robby got me the other band for my ring :) it's still being made so he put the receipt in the card.

I love him!

"Nobody likes you when you're 23"

The wonderful surprise! (hidden in my wedding dress bag for two weeks...!)

Birthday cards :)

The cake I made!!

Robby likes his birthday balloons 

We are a model couple ;)

Sometimes we're cheesy... :D

....i'm proud of the cake....

Robby is now 23! And apparently the song his family sings is "Nobody likes you when you're 23"...so that's nice. haha Anyways, I spent the whole day getting ready for his birthday while he was at work...I might have gotten the good end of that deal?  I was able to build him a pretty delicious cake though which I think made him forget he had to work on his birfday.. When he finally did get home we cooked brats on the grill and they were delicious :) I think every person/newlywed couple needs to have a grill. Meat is just good. Plain and simple. It's even better when it's cooked on a grill. After we ate I sang  happy birthday to Robby and he blew out his candles. It was super nice to just spend his birthday home with the two of us :) Here's to you my 23 year old hubby....
HAPPY BIRRFDAY!!!!! :) :)

Marriage=building boats!

Us while building it (it was super hot that day!)

Robby is hard at work

Side view

The boat we built!

Us at the Oakley rodeo!

This past fourth of July weekend, Robby and I were able to go to his grandma's cabin. We built a pretty amazing boat for their annual boat race and it took us six hours to complete! (It would have taken 5-but I wanted Robby to teach me how to drill-I married a patient man:)). That night- we went to the Oakley Rodeo. Pretty cute since we went to the same rodeo last summer. I really like rodeo's. There's a feeling of America that you just can't find anywhere else. Robby and I went to the ward in Oakley and I have never seen a chapel so packed! The overflow was also completely full and we ended up sitting out in the foyer with two families and a lot of little kids. One of the little kids came and told her aunt that she was going to sit in the middle. The aunt, thinking the child meant the middle seat that was placed along the wall just smiled and said ok. The little girl then proceeded to move her chair to the middle of the room while her mother tried holding her chair back. Kinda hilarious to watch :) The next day was the boat race and our boat totally won! Well-Bryan's won but it didn't hold two people...so it was disqualified (pretty official race I know! haha) Robby and I then had to race home so I could make it to work by 4:30. Needless to say-awesome weekend!