One of the coolest things I have ever done!

So Sunday morning @ 7am I got a call from a friend of mine in our ward. She was about 37 1/2 weeks pregnant, her husband was out of town on a job interview (due back later that day) and...her water had just broken. I figured she was calling me so that I could watch her son while she was at the hospital. I was absolutely floored when she asked me to help her through labor and be there when the baby was born. It was one of the few moments in my life that actually qualify as "surreal". Me? Be someone's labor coach? Wow, never done that one before. Without any hesitation whatsoever, I said yes, and that I would be there as soon as I could. I then proceeded to run around my house like a chicken with it's head cut off for the next 10 minutes as the reality of what just had happened just sunk in. I was going to be someone's labor coach - one of the biggest jobs EVER, in my mind. I inhaled some breakfast, packed a backpack with some random stuff and headed off the the hospital to do something I had never done before - watch someone ELSE go through labor and delivery.

Now granted, I have, of course, done the labor thing twice myself, but let me tell you - NOT the same thing when you are watching someone else do it!! Well, the labor and delivery went great. It was a short labor (only a little over 4 hours, from start to finish), with only 15 minutes of pushing time. My friend did fantastic, and I felt absolutely in awe of the fact that I got to be the witness to something so intimate, life-altering and magical as bringing a child into the world. She gave birth to a little baby girl who reminded me so much of my own girls at birth - a head full of beautiful dark hair, and a sweet, delicate little face. She was perfect.

It's kind of funny, because just a few weeks prior to this, I had watched a couple of live birth videos online, and I distinctly remember being soooo grossed out by them. I know it's immature, but I kept thinking - "Eww, that looks really nasty - I can't believe Lou has watched me do this TWICE!" Strangely enough, I did not feel that way at all on Sunday. I was so swept up in the magic and intensity of the moment, it never occurred to me once that anything about it was "nasty". I actually teared up when they put the baby on her chest. I just felt so honored that she would trust me enough to want me there, and all I could even think of the entire time was helping her get through the whole process. It's kind of like when you're in labor youself - the whole experience is like you step outside the world, and you're in "the labor zone", where naked parts and bodily fluids aren't personal anymore - just all part of the process. :) All in all, it was an absolutely incredible experience, and being on the other end of things gave me a whole new layer of appreciation for what women go through to bring Heavenly Father's special spirits here. I got to see the birth process from a totally different perspective, and was reminded what a beautiful and miraculous thing it is.

Of course I wish that her husband could have been there (although he did get to hear the birth on the speakerphone setting on her cell phone, which is better than nothing, I suppose), but since he couldn't, I am so glad that I was able to help her and be blessed enough to witness one of the most beautiful moments in life - when one of our brothers and/or sisters comes here to join us on earth and a Mommy and her baby meet for the first time - it doesn't get much better than that, folks.

Happy Mother's Day!

I forgot to get a picture of us all looking cute in our Sunday dresses, but oh well, pajamas work well, too! To all of us mothers out there who put our bodies through hell to bring our children into this world, who have been covered in every body fluid imagineable, who kiss boo-boos, wipe snotty noses, do 1,000's of diapers, read the same story 100,000 times to a child who loves it, who lose our tempers and vow to do better the next day, who are never perfect and yet keep striving to be - to all of us - Happy Mother's Day! :)

Change comes to the Syracuse Ward

Well, we knew this day would come, and it finally did yesterday in church. My Dad, Bishop Riddel was released from his calling. It was definitely a bittersweet event - I know that a huge burden will be taken off of him, and I know that being a Bishop (especially in a ward like ours, with it's various challenges) makes a man weary in many ways. But, I know that he will be sad to leave this post behind. Most of you know how spiritually and emotionally (not to mention physically!) invested you get in your callings, and it can be very difficult to let that burden go. It kind of starts to feel like that's all you were meant to do, and it's hard to give it up to someone else when you become so attached to those you serve. It's also weird for us (his family) and for him because he has been on that stand in some form for almost 10 years (he was a Bishop for five, and served as a counselor in a couple of Bishoprics for five years before that) - it's weird to think of him sitting in the pews with us! But, I know that he will soon have a new calling that will challenge him in a different way, and that the change will be good for him.

Anyhow, for all of you ex-Syracuse ward members, here is the new Bishopric:

Bishop: James Fairbank (former first counselor to Bishop Riddel)
1st counselor: James Gage
2nd counselor: Matt Bush (former second counselor to Bishop Riddel)

I have seen Bishop Fairbank (wow, that is still weird for me to say!) change so much from the man he was when his family arrrived in Syracuse 15 years ago, and I am excited to see him grow in his new calling - I know he will be great. It was so neat to be there to see this change and to feel the spirit witness that this was right.

Anyhow, so that's the news for the Syracuse Ward, besides all the pregnant women right now! There are so many right now - it's kind of cute. So far for 2009 we have Angie T. - due in the end of June, and having a girl, Christina D. (I don't know how many of you would know her) - due in a month and having a girl, Txeli R. - due in the end of June and having a girl, Connie S. - due in September and having a boy, Kristi H. - due in Septemer (not finding out the gender), Bonnie K. and I are due in October, and Cortnie J. is due in late November (they are not finding out their gender, either). So - 8 new babies this year, the tradition of the Syracuse ward doubling as maternity ward continues!! :)

Progress?

So I finally got a decent picture of the girls. It was a Herculean effort to be sure, but I'm satisfied with the results. So, here they are:

I have to say, it is so much fun dressing up little girls. I know Lou wants a boy really bad, but c'mon - look at these girls! Would it REALLY be SO bad if we got another one of these? :)

So here is a picture of my lovely flabby belly at 16 weeks pregnant. It's funny how different it looks depending on what time of day it is, whether or not I just ate, WHAT I ate, how much water I've had that day, etc. Sometimes people can't even tell I'm pregnant, and the other times it's like "Whoa, you are REALLY looking pregnant!". It's kind of weird that it's fluctuating so much right now - lovely gasiness...

But the good news is that the pinched nerve is gone, and I have my feet and ankles back! Woo hoo! I can't tell you how thrilling this is for me! I have actually lost 2 lbs in water weight in a week just by watching more closely my salt intake and increasing my water. I'm hoping that craziness was a one time thing, but who knows. All I care about is that it's gone now and I am feelin' GOOD! Oh, and I started to feel the baby move this week, and oh man, that just NEVER gets old. This is the part of being pregnant that l love... :)

Pregnancy joys and woes

Okay, I have to take a minute to address what is one of the great mysteries of my life. Why is each pregnancy so vastly different than the last one? My pregnancy with Maria was SOOOO easy, and except for the horrible morning sickness (which only lasted 8 weeks) and the carpal tunnel (which was only the last five weeks of my pregnancy), it was a breeze! I mean, yeah, I had some back pain and a little bit of swelling at the end, but nothing major enough to really complain about. I had a cute little basketball belly, gained weight almost nowhere else, no heartburn, no major swelling, no stretch marks, no cramping, etc. I remember thinking at the time "This is not so bad - why do so many women complain about this?"

Then with Josephine it was not quite so glamorous. I had the same awful puking phase for the same amount of time, but I seemed to gain more weight in my love handles than in my front for a LONG time into the pregnancy (the spare tire look was so not cute) - no cute basketball look that time. I had bad skin, and I got the round ligament pain BIG time in the third trimester. Nothing seemed quite so tight the second time around, and I had to wear one of those pregnancy girdles while I worked out to keep everything feeling like it was going to stay in place. I got restless leg syndrome at the end, and my nose totally spread (I had read about this, but didn't think it could really happen until it happened to me!).

This time - sigh - oh, it just seems like each pregnancy gets more "interesting" for me. Lest I sound ungrateful, I did get to skip the whole barfing 3X a day thing. I was nauseated all the time, but nowhere near the intensity of the first two. But, my skin is totally out of control - totally dried out, and yet breaking out EVERYWHERE!! Seriously, I find at least two new zits everyday. I look like a 13-year-old's nightmare the day of the big dance. I am only 15 weeks along, and I already have feet and ankles that are swollen enough to make my shoes feel too tight (and by the way, fat ankles on a short person is very unattractive)! My weight gain is OUT OF CONTROL!! I have already gained 10 lbs (for the record, I was 24 weeks along with my first two when I weighed this much), and I swear I am not eating fried chicken and hot fudge sundaes every night! I am working out just as much as I did with the first two, and not eating much more than I usually do (I do have an extra snack a day, as I am hungry more often, but it's usually fruit or crackers and cheese). Now, understand, I am admittedly a very vain person, and this weight thing is scaring the heck out of me. Not only am I not interested in looking like an oompa-loompa this pregnancy, I know (from experience, obviously) that everything I gain, I have to get back off afterwards. Oh, I have also developed a pinched nerve in my back, my hair is limp and lifeless, and don't even get me started on my gastric issues...

I just can't help but wonder what the next six months will hold if my body is already going through so much drama now...

I hate to complain, especially because we waited so long for this pregnancy, and this baby really is so special to us, but it's just hard to watch your body spin out of control in so many ways and feel like there's nothing you can do about it (especially for an anal-retentive control freak like me!). I just keep trying to remind myself that this is temporary, and also remember why it's happening - because we get to have a baby!! I am very much looking forward to the next few weeks when I will start to feel the baby move - maybe that will help with my perspective a bit.

But what about you guys? Have you experienced huge differences from one pregnancy to the next? Stories, please!! :)

Easter photos - it's the best I can do, folks

I tried to get cute pictures of my kids at Easter - I really did, and I had a great time looking at the cute Easter pictures of my friends and their children. But...the gods of the keepsakes were against me on Easter morning and made it completely impossible to snap a photo of anyone, and by the time church was over, not only did my kids not look suitable for photographs, they were in no mood for any. Bummer.

But, on the upside, I did get some nice pictures of the new cupcakes I tried out! As a sidenote, I am not really a fan of cupcakes in general. In the dessert world, they rank right there at the bottom in my opinion - unless, however, they are made "right", and then they can be amazing. You need a really good recipe to make eating a cupcake worth your while, to my way of thinking.

The ones that I made were lemon chiffon cupcakes with a citrus buttercream frosting. Both recipes were new for me, and I ended up loving them!!


These were supposed to kind of look like flower bouquets - I'm not sure if it worked or not, but they tasted good!

You know you want one... :)

I tried to make these look like potted plants, but I'm not sure they look

like that in the picture - what do you think?

Here's a close-up, and yes, I know they flower in the middle is messed up

- my petal tip was not cooperating that day.

The frosting looks all shiny here because it was still wet, but you get the idea.

Oh, and I am not one of those baking snobs who does not share recipes, so if you ever want the recipe for any of the desserts I post, just let me know, and I will send it to you!

And here are the details...

Okay, this is kind of long, but I really wanted to share this story with all my friends out there :)

So, by now it's been established that I am, indeed, incubating baby #3. We are all, as you can imagine, ecstatic. I am due on October 12th, and so am now a little over 12 weeks along. This pregnancy has been very different from the last two - I have of course been exhausted and nauseated (will food EVER sound good to me again?!), but I have been spared the horrible level of morning sickness that I experienced with my two girls (throwing up 3x/ day, for example). For that I am very grateful, although I could do without the severe bloating and burping issues I have been having (seriously, by the end of the night, I look like 2 week old road kill...).

In general, though, I am on cloud nine. I think that most of you know about my horrible experience with a molar pregnancy back in December of 2007. I have to say, it gave me a whole new appreciation for the miracle of pregnancy. I am so in awe of the fact that I am actually pregnant (with a baby this time, and not a deadly cancer-like disease!), I feel like this is my first one all over again! It's funny how, when you know how much can go wrong, you see what a miracle it is when it all goes right!

I was actually really scared to even try again. I was convinced that my luck had run out when it came to pregnancy, and that I would either a) have another molar pregnancy, b) have a miscarriage, or c) just never be able to have children again. This may sound silly or overdramatic to some of you, but once you have a traumatic experience like that, it changes the way you see yourself. You feel marked for disaster somehow - so much more vulnerable.

It didn't help that early in the pregnancy the doctor called me and told me that my HcG and progesterene levels weren't rising like they should, and that they wanted to get me in for an earlier ultrasound to make sure that everything was okay. So...I totally freaked out and convinced myself that I was having a miscarriage. I spent the next week before the ultrasound in absolute agony, going back and forth between pleading with God that everything would be okay, and giving up hope entirely and crying my eyes out. Not fun.

Then came the day of the ultrasound. Right before I went in, I went to the bathroom and cried my eyes out once more. I hadn't been "feeling" pregnant for the last few days, and was so sure that the baby had died. Memories of the ultrasound from my miscarriage came back (I will never forget the sight of that black, empty screen), and I started having a panic attack just thinking about what I might see...or not see...on that screen.

I looked at the screen when the ultrasound began and saw...nothing. I seriously started hyperventilating and had to look away. I just stared at the ceiling and tried to hold it together as I braced myself for the bad news. All of a sudden the tech said "Hold on, I have to reset the computer, I'm getting a triple image here - it looked like there were three of them in there". I sort of sat up and said "three of WHAT?" She reset the screen and found again what she was looking for. "Three of these", she said, as she pointed to the blob on the screen. "But don't worry, there's only one baby in there". "What?!", I asked, my voice cracking, "There's a BABY?!!" She nodded her head and pointed out the heartbeat, flickering away, defying all of my fears and worries. "There's a baby?" I managed to squeak out again as the tears started coming, "And it's okay? It's normal?" She nodded and said that it looked perfect. I stared in complete disbelief at this tiny miracle. I really had made up my mind that this baby was dead, and I just could not believe that it was actually alive! It seemed impossible. I laid my head back down and just sobbed with relief as Lou reached over and squeezed my hand. It was a beautiful moment.

I was still a bit nervous in the following weeks, as I had read stories in the past of molars being discovered as late as 11 weeks. But the nine-week ultrasound showed a perfectly normal baby, as did the 12 week one that was done on Tuesday. The doctor pronounced this a healthy and normal pregnancy, and told me that I could officially start celebrating.

I left that appointment feeling like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. It was really going to happen - we were REALLY going to have another baby! There was a large part of me that believed that it might happen never again for us. Some days I still can't believe it.

Thank you all so much for all of your support, prayers and congratulations for us. We are so excited, and it really warms my heart to hear all of my friends acknowledge how huge this is for us.