Ada Felice

August was a month of waiting and waddling and mostly wanting to not be pregnant anymore. But we also managed to fit in as much "only child" fun as possible to help ease our ever-growing guilt for replacing our precious baby Rory. I'd blame it on hormones, but Stephen had it even worse than I did, so I guess we were just programmed that way, ok?
There were more trips to the splash pad and puppy store, which is an extra at of love in the August heat. After the puppy store we went to get an ice cream sandwich only to realize that Baked Bear wasn't open for another 45 minutes. Well, I didn't haul my ever-growing bum out of bed and out into the Arizona sun because I thought I WASN'T going to get an ice cream sandwich. So we opted to wait it out in the air conditioning of the Disney store. At this point, I walk in there and you can see the employees eyes recognize me as the mom who never buys anything and yet lets her kid touch everything, so needless to say I'm a favorite of theirs. Rory grabbed every purse she could hold and wheeled a Lightening McQueen suitcase around the store until she peed her pants and had to be emergency ran (by a very pregnant me) to the bathroom around the corner. Once we got there I realized she was still clutching an extremely overpriced Cinderella purse and had nightmarish visions of security busting in on us while I buried her urine soaked undies in the tiny restroom trashcan (because I didn't have any waterproof baggies in my diaper bag!), but we made it back to the store and discreetly stuck the purse back on the shelf with none the wiser. Which also made me wonder how many people steal from the Disney store because overpriced merchandise and lax security seem like a bad combination to me...

One of our other excursions included a trip to DI where I really shine because if you think I am hands off at the Disney Store you would be amazed at my negligence at DI. Rory walks around like she owns that place, and I think she may genuinely believe that she does.

Rory also started a Jazz/Tap/Tumbling Combo class at a real dance studio, and I was so over the moon to officially be a dance mom that I HAD to buy her cookies to celebrate. Since she doesn't actually turn three until October she is definitely the youngest one in the class and boy does it show! So far she prefers watching to dancing, but she loves watching so I'm taking it as a win. I am extremely judgmental about the whole thing and have a hard time not wanting to take over the class, which I know is shocking.

On the last weekend we would be a family of three, Stephen and Rory built an epic fort in her bedroom for a sleepover. We also had pizza and watched a movie, which is Rory's favorite thing to do because she is the coolest, and also a toddler. Stephen was a trooper and actually stayed most the night in the fort and Rory thought it was just the coolest thing ever. 

At my doctor's appointment two to three weeks before my due date he said that the baby was so low she was bound to come any day now. I panicked and tried to keep off my feet as much as I could that week since I didn't have a plan for Rory until my in-laws were able to come. Then I went to the doctor the following week and he said the same thing. Then John and Lucina finally came to see us and I was doing anything to get that baby out of me and still nothing. But boy was Rory excited to be with Grandma and Poppop again!

Here is her fancy "Elsa" braid on the morning of my last doctor's appointment. I figured after the baby comes my desire to fight with a toddler so I can do fancy hair on her may dwindle just a bit. 

So I went to my appointment on Wednesday, August 14, just three days away from my due date. I wasn't having any contractions or anything, but that was the case with Rory too, and so I was going to ask my doctor to do a membrane sweep to get things moving hopefully. When I met with him, he had a really hard time getting to my cervix, but said as far as he could tell I wasn't dilated enough to do the sweep. He measured my stomach and listened to the baby's heartbeat. The heartbeat looked good and he made a comment that my baby was probably going to be a little peanut because I wasn't measuring very big. He said he would see me next week if I hadn't gone into labor by then, and I tried not to be too disappointed. As I was changing back into my clothes, Doctor Bickley came back into the room abruptly with a strange look on his face and he said that my stomach was actually measuring small enough that he was a little concerned and had the nagging feeling that he should check up on the baby and make sure everything was looking ok. When he did the ultrasound he found that the baby was measuring small, my amniotic fluid was low, and the placenta was calcifying. He said the baby was fine, but all those factors meant that she needed to come out sooner rather than later. He put in a call to the hospital for a medically necessary induction and told me that when they had space for me they would call me to come in.
I was a wreck, mostly because I was super pregnant, but I had just been worried through the whole pregnancy and now this was one more thing to freak me out. I was crying so hard I had to go walk around Target until I calmed down so I wouldn't come home and freak Rory out. Stephen was as anxious I was, probably because I called him sobbing several times, and so he came home early from work and sat around with me while I waited to hear from the hospital. John and Lucina took Rory to the aquarium and she had the best day ever with them. Stephen and I had dinner at Chick fil a and even that couldn't calm the two of us down! I finally got a call that night from the hospital that there was no room for me yet, but they would keep me on call. I tried to get as much sleep as I could feeling hopeful that they wouldn't call until the morning.
At 8 am the next morning the hospital called and asked if I could be there within the hour. I finished getting ready and then tried not to morph into a crazed lunatic when Stephen showered at a glacial speed. We woke up Rory to say goodbye and took one last (super attractive) picture as a family of three and then we took off for the hospital.
When we got there we had to check in and the process is much more slow and painful when you're not in labor surprisingly. The lady we were working with was slow and at times rude and I was obviously already super on edge. By the time she told us that we owed $4,500 on this baby (that we hadn't even had yet!) I just lost it. I started to cry with frustration and from all the pent up nerves inside my raging hormonal body, which of course only made things more awkward. My tears seemed to soften her just a little bit, but they didn't make her move any more quickly to get us admitted. In an effort to make me laugh, Stephen showed me that the very first page in our Maternity Ward information packet was a "How to Quit Smoking" article, which did make me laugh because it seemed a little absurd. I then had to explain to mean check in lady exactly why I was laughing which led to an even longer conversation I did not want to have.
Mean Lady: What was that? (In reference to me laughing instead of crying now)
Me: Oh he was just showing me something.
ML: What?
Me: It was an article on how to quit smoking.
ML: I was a smoke since I was 13. Quitting was one of the hardest things I had to do.
Me: I bet.
ML: Did you know if you call those numbers on the infomercials and give them your details you don't have to pay anything and they will send you a free packet of that nicotine gum.
Me: Oh really? That's great.
ML: (gesturing to Stephen) Are you a smoker?
Stephen: Nope, never smoked a day in my life.
ML: (back to me) So he doesn't get it.
Me: (Trying not to make eye contact with Stephen because I know it will make my currently suppressed laughter erupt) Nope.
ML: Now's a good time to try to quit with a little one on the way. Though I guess my son turned out fine...
FINALLY we were all checked in and found a spot where I could avoid eye contact with mean lady. We had to wait for what felt like forever for a nurse to come get us and the whole time I panicked that I wasn't feeling the baby kick enough.

When we got in a room and I got all hooked up to the monitors,I was so relieved to hear the constant strong heartbeat of the baby. It was the first time I felt like I was able to relax during this pregnancy and it made me laugh because it was such a stark contrast with Rory. When I went in in active labor and they kept making me do things to adjust the monitors so they could keep listening to the baby I remember screaming in my brain, "She is FINE! I'm the one in pain! Worry about me!" But sometimes when I need a peaceful moment I think back to the feeling a felt lying in that hospital bed and hearing Ada's steady heartbeat on the monitor telling me, "It's going to be ok, Mom. I'm ok." Whew, that was more sentimental than I usually like to get in these things. Quick tear wipe and back to the breezier details like...
It took three nurses to get to my cervix to see how far I was dilated. My nurse tried to find it, which was not comfortable at all, and then I hear her walk out to the nurse's station and yell, "Who has longer fingers than me?" Nurse 2 had large hands, but still proved to be unsuccessful, and also equally uncomfortable. Finally Nurse 3, who surprisingly did NOT have very large hands, was able to find it because it was sideways or something? I dunno, bleck! I was just glad when the process was over. It then took three tries to get my IV's in my arm so 3 was the number of the day!
Once the IV's were in they started me on Pitocin, which I had had to do with Rory too, so I felt prepared for. They started it around 12:30 in the afternoon. Stephen and I hung out, read our books, watched a little Home Improvement. John brought Stephen lunch so he wouldn't starve and he ate it out of my sight like the wonderful man he is. We watched all the exit movies in hopes that we could be out of there as fast as possible once the baby was here. Around 5:30 pm the contractions were bad enough that I felt ready for an epidural. It was quickly placed and then shortly after I found an Office marathon on TV. Life improved immensely. The nurse put a peanut ball between my legs and put me on my right side. When she came a little later to switch sides I felt annoyed that she was interrupting my show and relieved that my epidural was so strong I couldn't even feel the pressure of my contractions. She went to check if I had dilated any more, but as soon as she lifted my leg my water broke, the baby whooshed right down into place, and it was go time. She called people in to get the room ready for delivery and I heard her telling another nurse to call Dr Bickley. The nurse replied that they had tried but weren't getting him to answer when low and behold the man himself walked right into my room.  He said he was just stopping by to check in because he had figured he would be delivering my baby around midnight that night. That man truly has glorious timing. He assured me that the baby was so low she would be out in two pushes. They put an oxygen mask on my face because the sudden motion of the water breaking had startled her and sent her vitals into alert mode. I went to push, but as stated previously felt absolutely NOTHING below my waste. Dr Bickley tried to tell me when I was having a contraction so I could try to push, but I didn't even have enough feeling to do that. As he kindly put it, "You're just flexing your face." They called the anesthesiologist to turn down the epidural and I regained enough feeling to start actual pushing instead of face flexing. She didn't come out quite as fast as the doctor had thought she would because she was face up. Still, at 6:39pm our sweet Ada Felice finally made her grand entrance and we were so happy to see her!
She was 6 pounds 11 ounces and 19.5 inches long. I have to note that here, because I already can't remember her stats at all.
She came out and she was beautiful and perfect and had that enraged baby screaming face down pat, but no sounds was coming out. The nurse went to hand her to me while rubbing her and patting her back, but she wasn't making any noise still. So instead of giving her to me they rushed her over to the nurses table. It felt like a LONG time to me, but eventually she did cry and it was glorious. I wrote in her baby book that Ada liked to keep me guessing every step of the way. The nurses weighed her and did all their nurse baby things and it was a whole HOUR before I was able to hold her. It was torturous and so unlike Rory's delivery. But while the nurses worked on her Stephen kept a close eye on her and took care of her while I got stitched up.
The hospital was so much better the second time around and we were itching to get out as soon as we could. John was able to come later that night and hold her and he was pretty smitten. My mom and dad flew in the next morning and Lucina came and kept me company when Stephen went to the airport to pick them up. Once they arrived everyone came to the hospital at once and it was amazing to have so much family their together. Rory was so happy to see me and was instantly enamored with Ada. Her favorite part was playing with the buttons on my bed. She got to help me eat my lunch and we found dinosaur train on the TV. She talked about the "hossible" for a long, long time after that.
Stephen and I were able to break out exactly 24 hours after she was born thanks to a lovely nurse who stayed after her shift and we were welcomed home with Oregano's take out and a giant box of Crumbl cookies because nobody gets me like my family (OG's and In-Laws).

The White People are Melting

July in Arizona is the wooooorst (Please sign in your own Jean Ralphio voice.) But July in Arizona when you are 8 months pregnant is next level horrible. So if this post is short and snippy, now you know why. 

At the beginning of July we got to babysit the Collins new puppy, Penny, and she is seriously the cutest little pup. That same weekend we also got a visit from John, Ashleigh, Lincoln, Siena, Preston, Katie, and Kenzie. It was a full house which made for a very fun fourth of July. After a tough drive from Vegas when the air conditioning went out in one of the cars, they managed to roll up just in time for us to make our way to the park to watch the town fireworks. We are normally in St George for the fourth of July so we didn't know what to expect, but Gilbert did us proud. 

Stephen and Preston spent most of the weekend working on fixing up our master bathroom shower, and that job was no small undertaking. The rest of us played and ate, celebrated John's birthday, and engaged in several D&D campaigns (I think I'm using that terminology correctly, but who knows?) It was so fun to be together and to be able to do it so soon after our reunion in June. 

John and Ashleigh took off with their crew and Kenzie on Sunday, but Preston and Katie stuck around until the following Thursday so that they could finish the shower because they are real life super heroes. The shower is GORGEOUS and I can't get over how much better it makes our bathroom look. 

Also, Penny was a dream the whole weekend and now Stephen and Rory both obviously need a dog immediately. 

Rory started swim lessons through the parks and rec center. Monday through Thursday we would go to the Mesquite pool for a little two on one lesson. Rory did ok at listening and just alright at trying any actual swimming, but boy did she love it. Afterwards we would walk to the junior high's cafeteria for some free summer lunches. Rory loved watching all the other kids at lunch time and I loved sitting in air conditioning after spending half an hour at the pool. They should make a rule that pregnant mothers are allowed to creepily sit in on the lessons. Seems only fair. 

Another big milestone in July was that Rory (finally, much to my sadness) learned how to climb out of her crib and the girl was quickly unstoppable. While I lost my pregnant mind and quickly prepared to spend one million dollars on any product that would trap her in her bed or room and force her to sleep again, Stephen kept his cool and encouraged me to try teaching her to stay in her crib first. We had a rough couple of days, but once I finally cleared all the toys and books out of her room and came up with an acceptable bribe we had a break through! She finally decided to stay in her crib and nap entirely of her own volition and so was immediately rewarded with Bahama Bucks. Since then as long as I offer ice cream, candy, or some other acceptable reward, she will stay in her crib until I come get her no problem. So, my daughter is 90% made of sugar at this point, but I didn't lose out on my two hours to myself during the day (especially right before baby sister comes) and so I believe we refer to that as a mom victory. 

And now we are just killing time trying not to sweat to death before this baby decided to come. 

Outer Banks Marsh Reunion

First of all, Rory's make up skills are improving every day. She rocked this bold look to church one week because the mascara was hard to get out of her eyebrows. 

In the middle of June, we made our way to North Carolina for a Marsh family reunion in the Outer Banks. They used to vacation in the Outer Banks while they were living in New Jersey, and Bekah being both a party planning genius and a mother sick of flying across the country with her kids, invited us all to join her at a dope beach house for the week. She figured out the house to rent and meal planned for all of us for the entire week and all we had to do was show up. Bless her. 

Stephen, Rory, and I ended up on a red eye flight that had us leaving for the airport at 10:30 pm on a Friday night. We tried to put Rory down at 7:30 pm so she would at least get a few hours in before the flight. She talked and played in her crib until she finally dozed off around 10, which meant a 30 minute nap before we had to wake her up to go. We booked our travel through various point systems and were too cheap to pay to pick our seats so we ended up with either Stephen or I sitting with Rory and the other sitting on their own. I volunteered to take the four and a half hour flight to Charlotte sitting next to her. We left at 1:15 am and Rory did not sleep one wink. An hour or two in I finally gave up on the dream of her ever dozing off and let her watch movies on her iPad while she laid on my lap. With the time change we landed in Charlotte around 8:30 am where we made a connection to Norfolk. In the thirty minutes we had to sit and wait to board our tiny plane Rory instantly fell asleep on my lap (go figure) and Stephen was able to keep her asleep all the way through boarding as well as the entire flight. I took the singular seat this time and slept like a baby, though our flight was only an hour. 

When we landed in Norfolk we had to wait a little while for John and Lucina to come pick us up from the airport (bless them) as they got stuck in some traffic on the way down. Rory and I shamelessly spread out on some benches in the baggage claim area and napped while Stephen kept watch. It was glorious. 

When they picked us up we grabbed a quick lunch and made our way down the long island of the Outer Banks. We got checked in, got the room assignments for the house made, and then went to work unpacking our stuff. Before the night was over we were able to make it down to check out the beach and Rory was in heaven. The water was much colder than I had anticipated, but the sand was so fine and the beach nice and clear that you couldn't consider it anything less than dreamy. Rory is getting too tall for her 2T swimsuits, but her 3T swimsuits don't fit her skinny little buns, so I packed one of her older tankinis last minute for the trip. Turns out the elastic in her bottoms had gone out without me knowing it, so while Rory happily explored the beach she also had to fight to keep her pants on the entire time. It may have had something to do with being exhausted from our day of travel but I could not stop laughing while I watched her. 

She had no fear when it came to checking out the ocean, even being the only one out there, and we were so excited that we had made the journey out there because it was clear within the first five minutes at the beach that this was going to be a big hit with Rory. Our cousins all got there later that evening and we all enjoyed a delicious pizza dinner together. 

The next day was Sunday and we all got up early so that we could make the hour drive to Kitty Hawk for church. We got there just a little after the meeting started at 10 am only to realize that it was a stake conference. As other tourists filed in after us you could hear row by row whisper to each other, "Ugh, stake conference!" so we knew we were in good company. We not-so-covertly made out way out during the congregational hymn after the first hour and made our way to the Wright Brother Museum. 

The Wright Brother museum was pretty interesting, a little inspiring, and a whole lot of walking outside in the heat in church clothes with a bunch of exhausted toddlers. When we got home we all took a very much deserved Sunday nap. 

On Monday, my mom and Kendall were able to join in the festivities! Kendall lives in Raleigh, about 4 hours away from the Outer Banks, and my mom was out visiting her since she had a free week to help her get ready for her baby coming in September. Linne and I went out first thing Monday morning to buy some famous Duck Donuts for the house. When my mom and Kendall pulled up 20 minutes after we returned from our excursion, they too had brought Duck Donuts because we all just "get" each other. And yes, the donuts were delicious. 

We spent the morning out at the beach chatting and standing around in the water while the kids dug a giant pool and got completely covered in sand. When the afternoon got hot we retreated to the beach house to nap (or watch a show in Rory's case because girlfriend didn't nap all week) and regroup. We spent the late afternoon/ early evening back at the beach and got lots and lots of pictures. Then Stephen, My mom, Kendall, Rory and I headed out to a local place for dinner. We ate lots of yummy food and enjoyed even more chatting time. My mom and Stephen fought for the check in an epic battle, but my man came out victorious. Kendall and Mom were feeling up to the drive home so instead of staying the night as they originally planned they hit the road after dinner. 

The rest of our week consisted of lots of laying around, play at the beach, taking turns trying unsuccessfully to put Rory down for bed, and having way too much relaxing fun. It was so fun to see Rory interact with her cousins and to see how much better she has gotten at playing with other kids! She loved being doted on by the older girls, or running around crazily with Cooper, Jackson, and Tanner. For a bunch of kids who were not napping they all did a great job of getting along. There was usually 1-2 bouts of impressive toddler tantrumming at some point during the day, but there was a surprising lack of biting and pinching, so that's a win in my book!

One of the highlights of my trip were the goodies we bought at the Northern Lights Bakery. There breakfast biscuit sandwiches were just to die for. They were so good that after buying and eating one, Stephen went right back inside to purchase another. He bought me no less than three other baked goods I wanted to try to meet my chocolate quota for the day, and didn't even judge me when they were gone within a few hours. Here's to being able to use pregnancy as an excuse to overeat! Huzzah!

One of Rory's (many) highlights was hot tubbing with Dad. She loved that she was able to swim without her floatie and if we had let her she could have spent all day in the hot tub sputtering and swimming around. She could touch the bottom of the hot tub when she stood up, but she still doesn't really know how to plug her nose and hold her breath, so she basically looked like she was about to drown at all times, until she would finally pop her head out of the water, spewing water and grinning like a Cheshire cat. I think she also (not-so-) secretly loved that it was Dad and Rory only in the hot tub since pregnant Mom couldn't get in. I get it. 

Another good moment, though you can't tell from the picture, was when we walked home from Grandma's birthday pizza dinner in an insane rainstorm. We were absolutely drenched by the time we made it back and shaking little Rory said, "Thanks so much for the walk Mom and Dad." She was immediately rewarded with hot tub time. 

Stephen (and Rory's- I'm telling you, this girl was living her best life this week) main highlight had to be BOO-gie boarding together. Stephen would drag Rory along the shallow waves running as fast as he could and Rory was fearlessly living for it. She made him pull her back and forth until he was exhausted and then she would give him about a second to rest and regain his strength before she demanded that he do it again. 

On our last day of vacation, Stephen, Rory and I borrowed a car and took off on a little family adventure. When we had driven down the island on that first day I remembered passing lots of signs for salt water taffy, and I was determined to get some before we went home. So we took off with no real destination in mind since I was sure we were going to pass one million and one candy stores along our drive. We stopped a walked around a couple different shopping centers with no luck. I kept convincing Stephen to drive just "one more mile" down the road, feeling sure we would run into one of the many signs I had seen on the way down and we did not see a single one. My pregnant/ exhausted brain had just completely made it up. So, I didn't end up with any salt water taffy, but we did have a great little time exploring together. Stephen found me a beautiful ornament keepsake to remind us of our trip, we got a Diet Coke from a Brew Thru (drive through gas station), and Rory got her pink ice cream. 

Not pictured highlights: Rory went ghost-crabbing with Grandma and the rest of the grandkids and even fearlessly held the bucket of crabs. I swear, she is so much cooler than me. We played Dungeons and Dragons thanks to much preparation by brother John and everyone had a great time, except for Pockets who it turns out is small and weird and a very easy target (Sorry Bekah). We watched Into the Spiderverse with Jackson. I owned the girls in Just Dance for the first time in my life ever and felt like a total rock star. We took some last minute beach family pictures that I'm sure turned out amazingly. And overall, just had way too much fun hanging with the Marshes. 

Our drive to the airport was a little precarious as there was a ton of traffic and poor Jackson had to poop the entire time. We finally made it to the airport with perfect timing to make our flight and enjoyed a little lunch before we got on the plane. We connected through Philadelphia on our way back home, so our flight time was a little longer this time. Thankfully, Stephen was able to switch seats with the man next to us on our five hour flight so we had the whole row for our family! Rory did an awesome job of playing, watching movies, and she even dozed for a solid hour or so. 

I love vacations, I love spending time with my family, I love exploring new places, and I also love coming home. It was a good reunion.