Over the hills and through the trees..

Dean and I actually both had a day off together that wasn't Sunday and we decided to take advantage of that opportunity to go for a little outing with Parley. It was wonderful and beautiful!

My Little Miracle

So I have been wanting to tell you all about the miracle of my little guy. It may not seem like much, but i know it was a miracle. I wanted to try and have a natural birth and have Parley at home with just me, my husband, my doula (Sarah my sister), and my midwife (Dawn). I feel like that is how Heavenly Father intended it to be and then we can go from there if we need help. Unless I felt the spirit telling me I needed to do something else, I was going to stay at home and it would be alright. So everything was going according to plans until his due date came and went and we hit week 42 weeks and counting. So my midwife works with doctors and they watch you and the baby once you get past week 42. We had several tests and ultrasounds and everything was looking great. During this time the main doctor that my midwife works with was out of town and this other doctor (Dr. Jung... a.k.a. Dr. Jerk) was on call. Also I had been trying everything that I could to naturally go into labor, such as black and blue cohosh, acupuncture, spicy food, castor oil, and lots of walking. I even walked the mile to church one morning. I am sure that was a site. However, nothing was working. So that kinda sets the scene for you, now for the miracles.... at least the ones that i noticed. I am sure there were more that i am not aware of as well.

1)I have the sweetest husband in the world who was by my side the whole time and was a quiet and enormous source of strength for me, even when he couldn't quite handle the needle they put in my back for the epidural. I love him very much and am so glad and blessed that he is my husband and Parley's Dad.

2)I had the most amazing midwife Dawn, equally amazing Doula (Sarah), and Dawn's assistant Michelle who were all very helpful, skilled, supportive, and just all around awesome for me, Dean and Parley!! I couldn't have done it without them all!

3)Parley came late or just at the right time, however you want to look at it, so i got the right Doctor who was willing to help me to have as natural a birth as possible. He also came once the right nurse was there as well. The one before her was horrible and rude, but in the morning when the new nurse came who was awesome, Parley was ready to come out.

4)I got a priesthood blessing after a jerky doctor gave me a lecture that the longer i waited for the baby to come naturally the more inevitable it would be that i would have a c-section. He scared me of course, but Sarah was there and was able to get me through that, i am so glad i was not alone and with somebody that knew a bit more than me with less hormones floating around in her system. I am so thankful for the priesthood too!! In the blessing i was told that i would have a natural birth. I kept thinking about that during the whole labor and when things looked like it was all going to go badly, i just tried to think about that and trust in that blessing and my Heavenly Father. At the same time, my sister called all my family and asked them to pray for me and several other people who were aware of the situation were praying for me too. Looking back on it, the Lord was taking care of me and the baby all along. How humbling and sweet it was for me to think that so many people were praying for me and I know those prayers were heard and answered!

5)Dr. "Bigdaddy" whose name has been changed to protect the innocent :-), was awesome!! He had a cute accent and he was an older man with shortly trimmed hair that was pretty white. He was friendly and jovial, but at the same time very kind and sweet. He worked very well with Dawn and he made me feel at ease when he walked in the room. I hadn't met him before and was a bit worried, but he was supportive of me having a natural birth and worked great with the nurses and was just kind. I really appreciated him!! He had to manually turn Parley's head because he wasn't in quite the right position. three other people i know, two of them who had the same midwife, but the other doctor had similar situations with the babies head not being in position and ended up with c-sections. I was truly blessed!!

6)Parley came into the world at 10:26 am on Saturday, August 2nd of 2008 after 42 hours of labor. He was beautiful and wow, what a blessing!! :-)

7)Then i went up to the recovery area and ran across another angelic nurse who was so kind and supportive and was trying to help me with nursing, which proved to be difficult. My milk didn't come in for 5 days, the normal range being 3-5 days. The lactation consultant wanted me to supplement with formula early on day 2???, but this nurse was kind and reassuring and supportive of me waiting longer. Late in the evening on day three we gave him a little formula which proved to be a big mistake because it upset his stomach and then he couldn't get it through his system. So then, because of my sweet friend Jessica i was able to give him some breast milk with colostrum which i felt so much better about and Parley too. Then my milk finally came in and it has been smooth sailing ever since... well not really but much better!

8)Each day since Parley came into my life i have felt more and more blessed in so many ways!! He is truly a miracle to me! :-)

Sorry for the length, but i wanted to write this down somewhere before i forgot and share it with my friends because it was amazing to me! :-)

They grow fast...

Here Parley is making smiley faces...

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Mommy and me calming down after a good cry...

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Ahhhh, we do love naps!

~Dad and me calming down after a good cry... see my grumpy face! ;-)

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WELCOME PARLEY DEAN!!!

After 42 hours of labor...

baby Parley decided he wanted to come out at the hospital

at 10:26 am on august 2nd 2008

He weighed 9lbs. 7oz. and measured 20.5" long

He loves his Mommy!

He loves to scowl when things aren't going his way

He likes to take naps with his Daddy

He is the cutest little guy in the world

He has long fingers and toes and his feet measure 3.5" long!

He will grab your finger with his hands or his feet.

In my pretty garden... was the Charlie's incident of 2008

Here is my pretty melon plant.... not really sure what kind...

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Her is some of the delicious tomatoes that are starting to grow....

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and finally Dean's treasured strawberry plants that are doing fantastic...
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Now let me explain the title. The strawberries were growing great, but bugs started to get to them faster then we could, so i was looking into some home recipes for bug repellant. I use this laundry soap called "Charlie's" which I know is quite effective at killing bugs and I had heard that soap works well to kill and deter bugs from your plants. So i suggested to Dean that he spray one or two plants to test it out. Dean claims that I told him to spray all the plants and so that is what he did. Well, it turns out that "Charlie's" soap is pretty potent and probably needs to be watered down before spraying your plants. :-) We got a good scare and thought all the plants were surely dead, but after the leaves turned black for a few days, the plants have managed to survive with a few minor leaves as casualties. The tomatoe plants faired the worst from the agent Charlie's spray, but the strawberries did actually quite well and it did keep the bugs away. Their leaves changed color and then they were just fine and have been growing like crazy. Everything is fortunately still growing great, even the tomatoe plants that i had just transplanted. I am so excited for our little harvest this year, the strawberries though few have been delicious! Dean is so proud of them!! :-)

Rub a dub dub, here is the Tub!

So here is the birthing tub. It is about 4' in diameter and about 3' deep. There is a green liner that is in the tub next to it and that goes inside and then another liner on top of that and so the round tub part you see is just the shell. Anyway, it is all rolled up right now, but Dean will get it all ready when I go into labor. Hopefully that will be soon... like maybe tomorrow! :-)) You can see writing on the side of the tub, that is the names of all the babies that have been born in this tub. It has a history of larger babies.... 9lbs and up.... hmmmm? Well, we shall see i guess! If little Parley is large then I wouldn't want to be anywhere else but the tub I think! They say it helps a ton with the labor pains and really helps to prevent tearing. So thought you all may want to see what it looks like! :-)

Our walk on the beach

Today we went for a walk at Owens Beach in Tacoma

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We found this tree to pose in...

and the log to stand by...

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and then we went to Dairy Queen!