My Birthday

This year my birthday started out great.  My husband wished me happy birthday without having to remind me and he made me a smoothie for breakfast!  10 points for my husband!  Then I checked Facebook and 30 people had already wished me happy birthday.  How exciting is that!  I think that must be the best thing about Facebook... birthdays.  Then I went to my morning Mom Fit step class.  Good times and my friend invited me to come to lunch with her.  So I went out to lunch.  Then I needed to pick up some stuff from Walmart and so did she so we drove across the street there.  As I stopped at the stop light, a car tried turning a little too quickly and started spinning in the intersection.   It was more slick than they had anticipated.  They spun three times and came very close to me, but did not hit me.  Thank goodness.  I got out of my car and was a little shaken.  My friend parked right next to me and we went in.  I picked up a couple things I needed like kitty litter.  I was just about to part from her to get the rest of what I needed, when my phone rang.  I answered and had to ask Matthew to repeat himself as I began to shake because what he told me did not make sense and could not be true.  He told me his dad was in a car accident and died.  My friend grabbed on to me or I probably would have fallen over.  She directed me to a bench and I sat down to think.  There was only one thing I could think of and that was that I needed to get to Mom(Matthew's Mom).  After I could think, I asked her to take Tegan and she offered to come to my house after school to meet my boys.  Then I drove to Mom's house.
Since then has been another whirlwind week.  A week full of emotions and shock that has shaken the entire family.  A week of doing hard things and a week of making memories and remembering a loved father.  So now we go ahead facing the challenges before us.  It is different than losing a child, but in some ways going through this before, losing a loved one suddenly, has helped me know what to expect and help give Mom a head's up.
Matthew's Dad was also his boss.  He owned the company that Matthew and two of his brothers and a sister work for.  Now the stress of owning a business rests on his mother.  I only hope that all the siblings can work together to help.  It's not going to be easy, but Dad started something great and I know that with faith and prayer and a lot of work, they can continue on his legacy.
The amazing thing about this family is how everyone reacted.  Everyone came running to mom, whether by plane or car, they all came as fast as they could.  Even two of my brothers came from far distances to be here for me.  It was so great to be together.  I think we did make a unanimous decision that we need to all quit meeting this way.  Next time we need to have a wedding or something.

A Birth Story - Dallin

I must say every child I have had has come their own way.  Each pregnancy and delivery have been quite different.  Dallin's arrival was no exception.  My Mom and Daddy Ray came almost a week before my due date.  Every day we would say this would be the day Dallin would come.  So we really couldn't plan very much, but we used the time that we had to do lots of fixing things and organizing.  Cleaned and organized the laundry room, fixed the door on the toy closet and on the downstairs bathroom, changed all the burned out light bulbs(There were lots), trimmed the trees(Daddy Ray spent a lot of time outside in our yard), fixed where the vacuum hose hangs up, cleaned out the broom closet and the main bath linen closet, planted some of the garden.  We've had some fun too.  We went to Kid City, played lots of games, played outside, went for a walk and had a picnic by the river, the boys started soccer, my Mom came visiting teaching with me.
6 Days after my due date I had a doctor appointment(one I never thought I would make it to).  I was 2 cm dilated and the cervix was squishy.  So they scraped my membranes and sent me home.  The next day I had lots of discomfort to say the least, but still no real contractions.  8 days after due date, I woke up feeling fantastic.  Matthew had booked work off that day and the weather was amazing, so we went by the hospital for a fetal assessment and they checked my cervix again.  I was 3cm dilated.  My doctor scraped my membranes again hoping that I would go into labor on my own.  I was scheduled to be induced on Monday(10 days past due date) if I didn't go into labor.  Then we went home and spent a big chunk of the day outside playing with the kids.  At 8pm that night, the hospital called me to tell me that the maternity ward would be closed at my hospital till 8pm the next night.  That is when I figured I would likely go into labor that night, so I did a survey on Facebook to find out which other hospital was a better choice to go to.
9 days after due date, Sunday morning, my Tegan woke me up because she had to go to the bathroom and needed help pulling her pants back up.  I realized I was having contractions and Dallin was coming!  I usually have plenty of time, so I thought I would take a shower before waking up Matthew.  In the shower, I started to wonder if I actually had that much time.  So I finished my shower, got ready, woke up  Matthew and headed to the hospital at around 5:45am.  We got to the hospital at about 6:15, went into emergency not knowing where to go.  I had only been to the children's part of this hospital and it is huge. A car came and escorted us to the women's part of the hospital.  Then we had to register and I got wheel chaired up to maternity.  They took a look at me huffing and puffing and quickly escorted us into a birthing room.  By the time they checked me I was already 8cm dilated.  Much too late for an epidural.  I was sad and scared because I still remember my first two natural births with no painkillers.  They gave me a pain killer that doesn't stay in the blood for very long and some laughing gas.  It made it so I quit shaking and made the pain bearable.  I am not exactly sure what time it was, but things were feeling quite intense, so the nurse checked me again and I was fully dilated 10cm, but my water still had not broken.  So she called the doctor to come.  The doctor broke my water and a few pushes and about 10 to 15 minutes later Dallin was born at 8:44am. 9 pounds 10 ounces and 22 1/2 inches long.
The doctor was a little bit older and was at the end of a 24 hour shift.  She sat down in the rocking chair in between my contractions and rested.  I found that different.  And when I first saw Dallin, I thought he had freckles.  I later noticed that I had a rash under my neck that looked the same as Dallin's 'freckles'.  I think it might have been a reaction to the drug they gave me, but I'm not entirely sure.  The rash went away on both Dallin and myself.  So Dallin no longer has freckles.

Now little Dallin is a little over two weeks old.  We are all healthy and happy and loving our new addition to our family.