Almost a quarter of a century

So I had my birthday on the 15th and I've decided that birthdays are so much more exciting when you are a kid. It was still a great day. James the girls and I drove down to Vegas in our tiny little new car after he got off work on wednesday night.

We got into town around 1 in the morning and of course the girls are wide awake and Oma and Opa were happy to see them. All of us were exhausted and so everyone went to bed except Julie, and I was the lucky one that got to stay up until she fell asleep at 3. All I have to say is thank you for grandparents. They love grandkids and are willing to take them in the morning so I can get some sleep. I pretty much didn't do much all day except just relax. Later that evening James surprised me by taking me to the Tournament of the Kings.

I figured that was the surprise and that was where we were going but I wasn't sure until we were driving in front of the Excalibur Casino. If you have not been I would recommend going. The food was good and the entertainment was great. We were fed Tomato soup (which surprisingly was great), a full Cornish game hen, broccoli, some potato wedges and a roll. We were in the Czar of Russia's crowd. Our guy was a total Rebel.

For my birthday cake we came home and my mom had made a cherry pineapple dump cake. YUM YUM!!!! I have wanted that since I came home from the hospital with Julie almost 3 months ago. And I can now have it.

Friday night James and I went out again but with Trevor, Kate, Nate(my brother in vegas from another mother) and his fiance Sarah. This time it was Trevor and Kates present to me. We went to Cici's Pizza and we just devoured there cinnamon rolls! That is the best thing they got there. After we were there for awhile we went and saw Couples Retreat. It came out on friday night and we wanted to see it. I thought it was a pretty good movie. Its more than just a comedy, there are serious parts in it as well. I would have to say my favorite line in the movie was, "I'll just holster that." once you see it, then you will get it.

Saturday we were suppose to go out to dinner with Mom, her brother Danny, his Wife,
Monty, Kristen and the boys, but things changed. I would have to say the night was a frustrating night. It was difficult to enjoy myself.

We had made reservations for P.F. Changs because James was told some one was craving it :) Our reservation was for 6:30. We find out at 6 that Monty Kristen and the gang wont be making it there anymore. Totally understandable. I personally wouldn't want to make the drive if I was pregnant and had 4 boys to meet someone that they probably wouldn't have much in common with. So with that sad news we then find out that mom is not going to make it on time. We were across the street watching the water show at the Bellagio and told mom to meet us there. Well she ended up driving past it and going way farther down on the strip then needed. The ironic thing is that James uncle and aunt were staying at that hotel. Of course I didn't think we would be standing up for so long outside in the heat and well I had to feed Julie standing up with a backpack on my back to hold diapers. so all of those things combined added to more body heat. I was not happy at all!! We had to change our dinner reservations til 8:30 because that was the next available spot which ends up being 9:30 utah time. Finally mom showed up around 7:50 and I am starving!!!! Emjae is hungry and wants to run around and I don't think I was to friendly. We were seated around 8:20 and didn't get our food til almost 9. Talk about a frustrated evening. Oh not to mention that we were at somewhat a big booth table and it was so noisy and loud that we could hardly hear across the table.

On a different note how about an update now. I am giving Julie formula. :( It makes me sad at times to think about it, but there are just so many pros and cons. I was going back and forth about it. Julie was a very fussy and gassy baby when I was breast feeding. I was unable to eat or drink anything dairy, and I mean anything at all dairy. then there was all the beans and fruits and some veggies that I could not have either. Then there were times that I wouldn't eat any of those things and she was still crying because of gas. I felt so horrible. I decided to go ahead and give formula a try and she has done a 180. She poops regularly now, she isn't anywhere near as fussy and she smiles a lot more. All of this makes for a happier mom. I'm not as stressed and I can eat things without having to worry or pay for it later.

Julie is our little chunky! She is so adorable and so talkative. She talks more then any other baby I know. It is so funny how opposite her and Emjae are. We can already see her little personality.

Emjae is growing and talking more and she's every ones little shadow. She loves to dance and she is going to be trouble. I don't' know where she learned it, but she does this little booty drop dance. It would be funny and it is, but one can only hope she forgets it when she is older.

Our helper

For those who have been wondering how Emjae is reacting to Julie, here is a little clip.

Emjae has been doing good so far. She likes to look at Julie as well as she tries to help as much as she can. She tries to pick Julie up and hold her when she is laying down, she tries to give a pacifier to her when she is sleeping, and as you just saw she tries to help burp Julie. When Julie is sleeping and starts to cry Emjae has to go check on her and make sure that everything is okay. Today at lunch Emjae was sitting in her high chair, which by the way she can climb into all by herself, and Julie started crying. My mom went to go grab Julie and Emjae wanted to hold her to try and help calm her down.

We haven't noticed any bad reactions yet. Emjae at times can seem to be a little more fussy, but I just think its the fact that she is tired because thats when she acts up. Emjae does however try to sit in Julie's little reclined chair that vibrates and bounces. We keep having to remind her that the chair is baby julies and that big girl Emjaes chair is up against the wall.

Over all things are still going good. We will just have to wait and see if that stays the same once my mom leaves. :/ But I will still be with her until the 16th of August. I am so grateful for all the help we have gotten.

Please don't forget that we are doing the blessing for Julie on the 16th of August in Las Vegas. Church is at 11, so we hope that as many family members can be there.

oh P.S. I think that Trey may have told Emjae about the whole belly button rub. Emjae loves playing with her belly button and sometimes will get upset if she has a onsie on cuz she can't get to it.

Julie Christine

8lb 13 oz and 19 1/2 inches long at 6:24 pm

this is someone from the nicu checking her

Emjae seeing her for the first time

Emjae wanted to see what was going on



trying to be a helper

4 generations

Pictures coming soon

To my much relief I had a baby. This time it only took 8 hrs instead of 15. woo hoo!!!!! The first half was the slowest as usual and then after I hit a 4 it took about 3 more hours and 7 pushes until Julie was here.
She decided to try and swallow before she was suppose to though and ended up swallowing fluid before she got out. The doctor had a few people from the NICU come in just to check on her and to make sure everything was ok. Finally after 30 minutes I got to hold her.
They moved me to my own room and by then it was getting close to Emjaes bed time so we didn't have any visitors. I had eaten a dinner that the hospital gave me, but was still hungry. Lucky for us the hospital was having omlete night. Oh my goodness. I had a ham bacon mushroom potatoes cheese omlete and it was tasty!!!!! It was very satisfying. I was so exhausted after I ate it and so James left around 10:30 11. I tried to go to sleep and I even had them take Julie to the nursery, but when they brought her in at 2 to eat I still hadn't gone to sleep, so I asked for some sleeping pills. And finally I went to sleep.
The next day Amy, Mom, Grandma Great and Emjae all came to the hospital. I wish I could have left that day but the doctor wanted me to stay till the next day just to keep an eye on Julie. She of course was doing much better, but they rather be safe then sorry. James showed up a little later so I was finally able to take a shower because he brought my stuff.
Later that afternoon James and Emjae went to the movies and saw Ice Age 3 and then went to the carnival in Spanish Fork. Apparently they went on a ride and they even played one of the games. James says they would walk by and Emjae would say Please Please Please. So he played a game and won a prize. The guy tried to give Emjae acouple different things but she kept turning away until he got a plastic beach ball. She grabbed it from him and they left.
Finally I got to leave thursday morning around 11. I was so happy to be leaving. We stopped off at Grandma Greats to show grandpa and aunt Durley and to pick up my prescriptions. Then we came home.
There is nothing like home! And there is nothing like not having the feeling of uncomfortableness!!
WELCOME HOME JULIE!!!!

So happy

I am so happy that I know for sure this time that when I go to the hospital today that I will not be sent home with out a baby. I will be there as long as it takes until Julie comes. The dr said they only induce twice and this is twice. So wether we get her here through a normal delivery or a c-section she is coming. I'm hoping for the first one, and the dr is hoping for that one too. I think with as long as it took me to get Emjae here that it will be the same with Julie. Things will get moving quicker as soon as they break my water and they are going to be doing that this time. Not to excited for the pain, but I know that I will only deal with it for a short period of time until I can get an epidural and then everything should be ok. I'm guessing I am going to have another 8 lb baby though.
oh on a side note I only gained 49 lbs this pregnancy instead of 50 like with Emjae.

update on Julie

To be honest there isn't really anything to update on. She is still inside of me and she is still not wanting to come out.
After being induced and in the hospital for 9:30 hours or so the doctors said nothing was changing and I wasn't dialating. My dr came and said I have 3 options. I can continue to try and be induced but because nothing was happening it could cause more harm to me and or the baby. The 2nd option was to do a c-section, but he didn't really want to since there was no medical reason and since I was still just 39 weeks. The 3rd was to send me home, and well thats what he did.
The last 3 hours of being there I was having really bad back pain. But I toughed it out and I guess its a good thing since they sent me home. I did really good not crying at the hospital, but as soon as we got home needless to say I was exhausted and drained both physically and mentally. I haven't been sleeping well for the past week now and then going through the "come on in and lets have a baby" and going home with nothing but contractions still and pain because of the pitocin isn't the best thing in the world.
I went to the dr's office two days later which was yesterday and we were hoping that because of the long time my uterus had been contracting that maybe it would through my body into doing it on its own and I would dialate. But I have now given up on my body dialating. The dr said nothing has changed and that he will see me monday. Monday will be 1 day before my 40 weeks and so he said that they will try and be more aggressive with trying to get me into labor. Which I am thinking means that we will try to induce again next week and this time we will break my water.
I am just coming to the conclusion that my body wants to stay a human incubator as long as possible. I went 42 weeks with emjae and it took 15 hrs to get her out and even then I was unpregnant for only a short period of time before I became an incubator again.
I am doing okay right now though. I just have come to the realization that I wont go into the hospital unless my water breaks, because then I know for sure that no one is sending me home.

Julie here by wednesday?

At the latest she will be here by Wednesday. Such a relief. I had an appt today and well she is dropping down, Im just not dialating. So Tuesday the 14th the doctor has called for me to be induced. Yeah. Atleast I can see an end in sight. I am still crossing my fingers for this weekend, but since I haven't had any more contractions Im not counting on it.