Bentlee

I can't believe my baby is over 2 weeks old! Time is flying by and while the scale at the doctor's office on Friday showed only a 6 oz weight gain, I swear her face is getting chubbier! She is also measuring an inch longer which does make sense because she's already outgrowing her newborn onesies. Sad. So far she is SUCH a good baby. Other than waking up to eat, she sleeps all day and all night. The other day Kyle and I were both really tired so we all went to bed at 9:30. She surprised us and only woke up twice, at 12:30 and 5:30. She was STILL sleeping at 10:15 the next morning so I finally woke her up to feed her. I know it probably won't always be this easy, but so far it is a piece of cake. Kyle and I get such a kick out of the funny little faces and noises she makes. We pretty much think she's the best thing in the entire world. She smiles in her sleep all the time which I know aren't "real" smiles but I love them. I'm a freak and I have this weird, weird, thing where I worry that Bentlee is unhappy. She usually has this incredibly bored look on her face like she hates her life! I can't wait until she starts smiling for real. Kyle tried making me feel better by explaining that her face is just relaxed, and them showed me his own "relaxed face" (the most pathetic look ever) to prove it. It made me laugh, but didn't really make me feel better, My favorite thing she does is when she's eating, sometimes she makes a loud slurping sound that scares herself and she jumps. It's sooo funny.    

My parents left last Sunday. We won't talk about that. I wouldn't be able to put into words how much it meant to me having them here, and how hard it was watching them leave.

But I do have to tell them again how much I appreciate all their help and their company. My mom was here for 16 days. I don't think I washed a single dish or made any sort of meal during that time. We were able to spend a whole week together before Bentlee was born. We spent lots of time with her sisters, eating at our favorite restaurants and going to movies. I've missed Girl's nights with my mom! My dad flew in on Sunday, the day we came home from the hospital. It was so great having them both here and seeing them with their granddaughter. My dad assured me several times that he was perfectly content just hanging around our house with Bentlee all week, but Kyle and I knew he would be more than content with a fishing trip or two. So, they went fly fishing on float tubes one day with a guide (Kyle bid on this at our ward auction hoping it would work out to take my dad when he was here) and they went up to Strawberry with Kyle's dad another day. Besides that, lunch at JCW's, a scenic drive up Payson canyon, and 4 trips to get Bentlee's blood drawn for her jaudice, we didn't do a whole lot that week except love on this cute baby. We did go on our first date when Bentlee was a week old. We went to Goodwood BBQ with my parents, Linda, Martin, Lisa, Chuck, Jenn, and Joey. Grandma and Grandpa Haskell were her first baby-sitters!

The Haskell family is loving her. Our nieces and nephews are always excited to hold her. Peyton, who is 4, usually lasts about 30 seconds until his arm gets tired. Tyler and Ashley just had their baby on Monday, so we have an adorable new nephew! Nixon Lee.

Someday when Bentlee is old enough to understand, I can't wait to tell her the story of her birth, the lengths her nana went to in order to make it here in time, and how excited we were for her arrival.



More pictures to come soon! I'm trying to figure out how to do a collage of them.

Bentlee's birth

Everyone asks me if our labor and delivery experience was worse or better than I expected. Definitely better. She was born only 7 hours after we arrived at the hospital and looking back, it only seems like a few. After several days of walking, swinging my hips in a ridiculous manner, eating spicy foods, and a couple other things I won't mention, I gave up and just let nature take its course. And I officially don't believe any of that crap, because two days later is when it all went down. (Although the day I did go into labor, I DID eat some fresh pineapple which is supposedly supposed to help. But I happened to pick that up at Sam's Club that day mainly because the sample I had tasted so good.) Anyway, my water broke at 12:30 Friday morning. Luckily a friend had suggested putting something down to protect our mattress which I had just started doing a few days prior. I jumped out of bed, spent several minutes in the bathroom (the water kept coming and coming...) and when I came out Kyle was waiting by the door dressed and ready to go. He had even loaded everything in the car. By the time I woke my mom, went BACK into the bathroom for a while and then ended up taking a shower, an hour had passed before we arrived at the hospital. They started me on pitocin almost right away because they wanted my contractions closer together and I couldn't believe how fast it started working. My contractions were 2 minutes apart and REALLY intense. The nurse told me to let her know when I wanted my epidural and I wanted it then, but I felt like such a baby. After much hesitation on my part, Kyle finally pushed the nurse's button to let her know I was ready. Either he couldn't stand to see his wife in such pain, or he was tired of me complaining. :) I'm so glad I got it when I did, because at that point I was dilated to 2, and when they checked me 50 minutes later the nurse said, "You're not going to believe this...." I was already a 7 and it probably would have been too late for an epidural. 20 minutes later I was a 9. I was especially surprised because they had stopped the pitocin way earlier. Once I was complete they had me do something called "rest and descend". Basically I rested for an hour (it was closer to an hour and a half...we still aren't convinced this wasn't code for the doctor isn't here yet) and then pushed. It is supposed to decrease pushing time/stress on the baby for first timers. It seemed to work, because I only pushed for 20 minutes! My epidural had worn off enough by the time I was ready to push  that I could really feel my contractions. It made for a super painful 20 minutes, but it probably helped me do a better job. Feeling her come out of me was THE weirdest and most wonderful feeling ever. I can't describe the joy I felt with Kyle standing next to me as we watched our precious baby that WE created come into this world. One of my fears was that it would take a while to get her to breath, so it was relieving to us all when she took her first breath and started crying the second she was out. They asked Kyle if he wanted to cut the cord, but he had the doctor do it. I don't blame him, I think I would be too scared to do it. We both just sort of watched in awe as the nurses cleaned, weighed and measured her. I'm not sure who I watched more, the baby or Kyle. I loved the instant connection we both felt. I knew how much he loved that baby already because I loved her just as much. I love watching him with her. He's been such a great daddy since those first few minutes. He was able to go with the nurse and watch them bathe her. I'll never forget the moment he brought her back to me with a little blue bow in her hair that he picked out. I am seriously the luckiest girl in the world to have them both. The rest of our hospital stay was perfect. Kyle was ready to get home but I would have loved to stay longer. It was great to lounge around all day, visit with close family and friends, cuddle my new baby, push a button to have pain meds or anything else I wanted brought to me, pick up the phone every time I wanted something to eat, send Bentlee to the nursery when I wanted to sleep, etc. And there was something about those precious few hours after everyone had left and it was just Kyle and I and the baby. I can't wait to do it all again some day! SOME day...... :)

My nurses were great. There was a shift change about 2 hours before Bentlee was born and our nurse was super bummed about missing it. She even asked if she could stay but they wouldn't let her. She looked like she was going to cry as she left the room. The only bummer about the whole experience is that our Doctor wasn't able to deliver her. She got back from her 8 day vacation at 10:00 am that day, and Bentlee was born at 8:30. She missed it by 90 minutes! I really the liked the doctor that covered for her...not too sure how I feel about her resident that asked me if he could "be there for my delivery" and then was the one that ACTUALLY delivered her and stitched me up and EVERYTHING. But, I'm over it. All that matters is our Bentlee is here and healthy! And we could not be happier!!

This slideshow is super slow. I thought you would be able to flip through the pictures faster but I'm not sure you can...sorry!

My mom is here!!

.....baby isn't....

In the middle of the night last Friday I started having contractions 5 minutes apart, but they weren't painful so I didn't really know if it meant anything. After an hour and a half they started getting even closer together so I called the on call doctor and asked what I should do. She said to go in right away, that it sounded to her like the real thing. They kept me hooked up for an hour and a half because the first hour it looked like something was happening, but after that they started going away and we were sent home. In the meantime I had text my mom to let her know we were going to the hospital, and I was curious what the flight schedule was like. (She's had it memorized every day). She called and told me, "If I leave in an hour I can make it there by 10:30 this morning. I'm coming!" So, we left the hospital, and picked up my mom a few hours later. :)

I am so, so glad she's here. It has been a little frustrating this week because I keep thinking it's going to happen and it doesn't. Every day that goes by is another day my mom won't have with her granddaughter, and another day that I won't have her help. After another sleepless night of painful contractions that never became regular, I was especially frustrated this morning. I felt better after my mom assured me that she is feeling great about the way things have worked out. We have both loved spending the week together, and spending so much time with her sisters. I think disappointing her was what I was most worried about. We both believe things happen for a reason, and I'm sure this is all falling into place the way it is supposed to, I just need to keep being reminded of this. I have also felt much better since learning that I will be induced on Saturday if she hasn't made her appearance by then. My doctor doesn't normally work weekends but is willing to induce me since she has been on vacation and because she knows my mom is here. We are so excited!!

38 baby!

(This was last week)