Acts of Service

In Primary yesterday, Mason's lesson was on service. He brought home an envelope with hearts in it. I think he was suppose to do secret acts of service and leave a heart behind. As soon as he got home from church, he was on the hunt for service he could do. The only thing was that when he was done he would bring your attention to the service he did and say, "hum I wonder who did that".

My shoes were by the front door, usually all our shoes are kicked off by the door leading into the garage until they find their way to their home in the closet. Mason took my shoes to the garage door and left a heart. Then he had to show me that someone had moved them for me.

Then that very same someone made Cooper's bed and our bed and left behind a heart on both beds. Making our bed is not an easy task for a five year old. It's big and pretty high up, but he managed it pretty well.

Bad Boys

Introducing Shiloh Crystyne

Wednesday morning we got to the hospital for my 7:30 induction. After all the paperwork and medical questions, and IV start, my labor officially began at 9:30am. At that point I was dilated 1.5cm. Just before 1:00pm I was told that my Dr. was going to come in and break my water. At 1:07pm I thought my water had broke, so my nurse checked and sure enough it had, and I was dilated 4cm. At this point my contractions became more intense, so I asked for an epidural. By 1:45pm the epidural was in place and beginning to take the edge off. It takes A LOT of medication and time to dull the pain for me. By 3:00pm I was fully dilated and ready to push. So my Dr was called, who was either in the office (by Deaconess) or at Deaconess cleaning up from a C-Section. He literally ran over to Sacred Heart, because I guess he rode his bike to work like he does every day, got scrubbed up, and came in. He was out of breath upon arriving. At 3:20ish I began pushing and at 3:29pm Shiloh Crystyne was born weighing 6 lbs. 11 oz. 19 1/4 " long.Minutes old

First family photo

Two big brothers and a big cousin ready to protect her.

One very proud big brother who waited SO long for her to come.

The other big brother, who is also very proud.

Papa Borders

Grandma Borders

Papa Meador

Just after her bath at 12:30 AM! They must have been so busy, because every time we asked our nurse if she could, she said she would as soon as she finished a few things.

All dressed and ready to go home.

I'll write another post later on how she is doing, but I figured I better get a few pictures up. Now I'm off to snuggle my baby!

Baby check up

This may be "TMI" for some of you. Sorry. This morning after using the restroom, there was some extra "moistness" "down there" and I smelled a smell that I was pretty sure was amniotic fluid. There wasn't any "gushing of fluids" though, so I figured there was no big rush to go into the hospital since I had an ultrasound, a non-stress test, and a doctor appointment in an hour and a half.

First I went in for the ultrasound. Everything is looking good with Shiloh. She is estimated at weighing 6lbs. 6ozs. right now and my amniotic fluid levels are where they should be.

My Doctor decided to skip the non-stress test since everything from the ultrasound looked good.

During my appointment my Doctor did a test to check for signs of amniotic fluid. The test came back negative. But he said that doesn't mean I don't have a small leak far up. So the risk of infection is still there, just not as big of a risk as it would be if there were signs of amniotic fluid leaking. He said he wanted to have me induced next week anyway, just in case I am leaking fluid, so I don't get an infection.

My induction is scheduled for Wednesday November 17th at 7:30am.....unless I go into labor before then.

Stats from this visit:

Gained 1 pound for a total of 17 pounds total gained.

Shiloh's heartbeat was 132 bpm.

I am dilated 2 cm and 90% effaced.

So who won the bet on how progressed I'd me? ME! I said 3 cm and90% effaced and Jeff said 4 cm and 80% effaced.

I am 38 weeks 2 days pregnant.

38 Weeks

I am 38 weeks today. The morning I turned 38 weeks with Cooper is the morning my water broke. Knowing that I could go into labor at any time brings mixed feelings for me. I am such a planner. Living with everything up in the air all the time is hard for me. So what should I do? Not plan anything for the next 2-3 weeks? Sit and twiddle my thumbs just because I may go into labor at a time when I have something to do or somewhere to go? On one hand I really want Shiloh to come NOW! And the other, I have things I'd like to do and need to do over the next several days.
Tonight is Young Women in Excellence and I kinda sorta need to be there for that. So I've been saying that she can come any time after tonight. BUT then Saturday is a Leadership meeting where we will be trained on the new church handbook or instructions, if I don't attend, I don't get a new handbook until I receive the training. Maybe I'll be so bored out of my mind at the training that she'll decide to spice up my night by coming after the meeting. BUT then on Sunday there is an informational "fireside" for the new Pathways program the church is introducing through BYU-Idaho. I'd really really really like to go to that. I've always wanted to go back to school, but the thought of starting after not being in school for almost 10 years scares me. Plus, the scariness and anxiety that come when thinking of the school loans I'd be stuck paying back makes me want to run and hide. The Pathways program is designed for people just like me, who have never gone to college and have been out of school for a while. The program eases you back into school life, while keeping the costs very very low.
I guess what I'm saying is that I'd like her to stay put until after the fireside on Sunday night. I don't know if she will cooperate though. Saturday night I had contractions that were 5 minutes apart for a little over an hour. Last night I had contractions that were 3 minutes apart, those lasted for about 1 1/2 hours. I have an appointment on Thursday to check on my progression. Jeff and I have a bet with each other on how progressed I will be.
I'm sure if she doesn't come before Thursday's appointment, the next bet will be what day she will come. Anyone wanna bet when she'll come?

Baby check up

Lets see, where to start.

I had another ultrasound today to measure the fluid levels around Shiloh. All levels look good.

Then I had a non-stress test. I really don't see the point to having these. Just to monitor how much she moves? I could have told you that she moves a lot. She is constantly moving, kicking my ribs, jabbing my bladder, pushing out as far as she can, sometimes to the point where it hurts me a little. So yeah, they could just ask me, I'd tell 'em.

Then I had my appointment with the ARNP, because my Dr. is on vacation this week. Here are the stats from today's visit.

I didn't gain any weight, so I am still at 16 pounds gained total.

Shiloh's heart rate was 154 bpm.

I am measuring 35 cm.

I was "checked" again today and am still 70% effaced and 1.5 cm dilated.

I am 37 weeks 0 days pregnant.

Here is a picture of me taken today.
Next week I will have another ultrasound to check Shiloh's growth and another non-stress test.

Scrapin'

I have taken over a corner in the boys' play room and have set up my craft table. In the last week I have devoted A LOT of my time to scrapbooking, probably somewhere between 15 to 20 hours. Before I got going I had to about Cooper's 10 month pictures done. Now with 17 (single) pages or 8-2 page layouts and 1-1 page layout done, I am to about his 19 month pictures. I am still only to Mason's 3rd birthday. I hope to get a few more pages done before Shiloh comes.

Shiloh's dresser

Well here it is. This is the dresser we picked out for Shiloh. I love it! It has 8 deep drawers, so lots of storage space. Thank you to everyone who contributed money at the shower for the dresser!

Family "Birthday"

I've been promising Cooper for a while now that I would make him a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I finally made good on that promise yesterday. All day long he was saying it was his birthday cake. When it came to actually eating the cake after dinner, Cooper decided it was each of our birthdays, so we sang Happy Birthday to our whole family. We are thinking we are going to start a new tradition of having a family birthday cake on our anniversary, since that is the day our family was formed.

Count down to Shiloh

My sister-in-law, Michelle made this cute sign for my baby shower. So about a week ago, Mason and Cooper helped me make a chain countdown to Shiloh's due date.

Trick-or-Treating

Every year we take the boys to their Grandparents houses to Trick-or-Treat first, then around a few blocks in our neighborhood. Jeff was working Halloween night, so I continued on the tradition without him.

Trick-or-Treating at Great Grandpa and Grandma Long's
Trick-or-Treating at Uncle David and Aunt Robins. OK, so they are not Grandparents, but they live next door to Mason and Cooper's Great Grandma Borders, so we always stop by there too. We did go to Great Grandma Borders' house, but I forgot to get a picture.

This year instead of stopping by Grandpa and Grandma Borders' house, they came over to our house and went Trick-or-Treating with us. Thanks guys for helping me out!

Ward Halloween Party

For our Ward Halloween Party, Mason decided to be a Firefighter, and Cooper a Police Officer. They got to Trick-or-Treat/play games at each of the classrooms.

There were games set up in the gym. Here is Cooper fishing.

Then there was the famous, eat a doughnut off a string without using your hands. This was pretty funny to watch!

Got it!

There was also a cupcake walk. Cooper got really tired of walking so he sat on the stage with Grandma Meador and Mason while I continued trying to win him a cupcake. I finally did win (cheat) him a cupcake.

School Halloween Party

Mason had his Halloween party, or whatever they call it to not offend anyone, at school on Friday. Both the boys decided to be Knights for Halloween this year...or at least for this Halloween Party.

They had lots of yummy snacks.

Family got to have some snack too.

Everywhere Mason went in his classroom, Cooper had to follow like a lost puppy dog.
They wrapped some kids up like mummies. Mason's group mummy is the girls 2nd from the right.

Here is most of Mason's class, he and some other kids are hidden behind the parent on the right side of the picture.

Baby check up

I had another ultrasound today to check on the growth of Shiloh. Her growth caught up a little bit from where it was two months ago, but she is still small, in the 37th percentile. The fluid levels look good, as does my placenta. With everything looking good, except her being small, my Doctor doesn't see any reason to induce me early. BUT lucky for me, I get to have another ultrasound next week AND a non-stress test. What the heck is a non-stress test? Anyone ever had one? What does the test include?

Here is a picture from the ultrasound:

Shiloh's nose looks just like Coopers, she has chubby cheeks, just like Cooper did, and we got to see her hair.

Other stats from today:

Gained 3 more pounds for a total of 19 pounds gained.

Shiloh's heart rate was 130bpm

I was also "examined" today, if you know what I mean. I am 70% effaced and dilated 1.5cm. (Sorry if you didn't want to know that little tid bit of info, I have to write it down somewhere before I foget, and since I'm still working on the first year of Cooper's scrapbook, it looks like it will be awhile before I get going on Shiloh's.)

I am 36 weks 0 days pregnant.

Baby Shower

This morning was my baby shower for Shiloh. Three of my sisters took care of the shower. First THANK YOU to them for doing all they did. Somehow, I lucked out with a really great sister-in-law, Melissa....I mean Michelle (sorry inside joke (kinda)). She is SO creative and crafty. She handled all the decorations and food for the shower. She is also the one who helped me decorate our house, in less than a week when we moved in. DeAnne took care of the games. Rachel coordinated a group gift (a dresser), which we will be able to get, so stay tuned for pictures of that. The theme of the shower was Lil Pumpkin.

This sign says Lil Pumpkin

First we played a game of pass the bottle. You pass three bottles around the room until the music stops, when it does, you are to drink the juice as fast as you can. Somehow...I got stuck with one of the bottles at the end. You wouldn't believe how tough it is to suck on a bottle, and how much your tongue will start to hurt.

Jeff's cousin, Jennifer got stuck with another.

And my sister Julia also got stuck with one, but she CHEATED, she opened the bottle and drank it form there.

The food display was awesome! Again, Michelle is so creative and did a great job!

We had fresh fruit, bagels with cream cheese, mini cinnamon rolls, doughnut holes, bunt cakes that looked like pumpkins, juice and milk. Yummy, yummy, yummy.

Then there were the guests.

Corrine, Evan, and Jessica

Jennifer, Antje, and Robin

Jeff's grandma Long

Teresa (Jeff's mom), me, and Renee

Jana, Jacque, and Julia (the cheater :) )

Kimberlee (with my sister Rachel's baby Hannah) and Heather

Tambi and Dana

Hannah sleeping

Then it was present time.

Thank you to everyone who came and celebrated with us! There were way more who came, but must have escaped the camera. Thank you to my sisters for throwing it all together.