Land of the Red Rocks

This year for the Holley family trip we headed down to Moab. It was great weather and we all had a lot of fun. And since I have a sleeping baby resting on my arm, you get the picture version of the trip!

First stop, Dead Horse Point

Deep in thought

We went ahead and did an album cover photo, just in case.

 

Seth and I drove around Arches National Park that evening while the kids were swimming.

That's Delicate Arch way in the back

The next day we did some actual hiking at the Devil's Garden in Arches.

 

  

 

 

Some of us just hiked to Landscape Arch and then waited for the group to go on a little further. While we were waiting  I decided to feed Sylvie. Long story short she had the biggest blow-out ever... poop all over her clothes and my skirt. Thus the reason why she is naked in this picture. She looks pretty pleased with herself!

Our first family picture ever!

That evening we went to Millcreek Falls to swim. It was a great place close to our condo and had a lot of nice swimming holes for the kids.

Annie makes a daring leap across the treacherous river below!

Bryce's swim trunks were killing me! Ha ha!

Lying out to dry

Thanks everybody for such a great trip! Can't wait til next year!

Somebody Make Her Stop

My little baby Sylvie is 7 weeks old today. How did that happen? I'm telling you she's growing too fast. She's this close to being too big for her newborn clothes and diapers. She might as well just rip my heart out. Ok it's not THAT bad... but would it hurt to just let me have my tiny baby for just a little while longer? She doesn't need to STOP growing just do it SLOWER.

 
Everyday Sylvie changes and gets bigger. Her chubby cheeks get chubbier and her eyes get bluer and her smiles more frequent. It seems ridiculous to me now that I was afraid of the baby stage. "What do I do with a baby? Babies are kind of boring." Now I know. What do you do with babies? You cuddle the bejeezus out of them while they'll still let you. You wrap them in a snuggly blanket and put them on your chest and stare at them for hours. There's nothing like her smell (I never liked baby smell before now) and when she pulls her legs up under her and nuzzles into you, your body becomes a pile of melted goo, making it impossible to allow anyone else to hold her.

Sylvie loves her toy zebra and I love watching her look at it!

Then there's the other side her. The side of her where I think, "This adorable baby must be a troll in disguise." The bodily functions and their corresponding noises are impressive. The farting. And pooping. I can't believe the volume (both audible and physical). Then there are the noises... it's not all cooing my friends. There are growls and grunts and other noises that more closely resemble a ferocious velociraptor than a sweet little baby. And I have to say, all these troll-like traits are very adorable.

For those of you out there debating whether or not to have kids I have to tell you one thing. They weren't lying. It IS different when it's your own kid. Like a million bajillion times different. As in... you can't even compare how you feel about other people's kids to how you'll feel about your own. There really isn't anything like it.

It's in My Blood

Seth and I have been struggling to find fun ways to spend hot weekend days with Sylvie in tow. We started out yesterday by going for a walk on the Weber Parkway, but it was quickly getting too hot for baby so we jumped back in the truck and started to cruise around Ogden. As we neared 25th Street we thought maybe we should check out the farmer's market. The old Union Station is at the end of 25th Street and Seth thought he saw a sign in front of it that said the market was there, so we parked and walked over. Turns out the market was all along 25th Street, but Union Station had something better... TRAINS! and SHADE!

I'm on a train!

 I don't know if it's because of all the train engineers in the family or what, but I love trains. I've driven past Union Station about a million times but had never actually been there. We were both surprised at how cool it was! There were several old trains parked outside that you could climb on and look in and the station inside was beautiful. There are also three different museums inside but we didn't make it to those this time. Looks like we've got something to do next weekend!

An old caboose

This engine was super-sized. It was strong enough to pull a 7 mile long train of fully-loaded cars!

The wheels on this train were as big as me!

Inside the station

An old Air Force train

Great Salty Goodness

Seeing as how we live just minutes from Antelope Island, it's a little sad I hadn't been out there for a few years. However, we made up for it over this last week by going there twice!

The first time around Seth and I drove out there with Sylvie to get out of the house. We went in the evening and saw a ton of wildlife including buffalo, a bunch of mule deer (tons of bucks!), a couple coyotes, jack rabbits, and of course, antelope. Seth has had an ongoing goal of swimming in the Great Salt Lake, and he got close on this trip by wading out in the water a little. I was wearing regular shoes and socks and decided I was too lazy to take them off.

On our second trip to the island we were lucky to have Seth's sister, Rachel, and her family with us! We all made it out into the water this time and Seth finally fully immersed himself in the salty water. He's now a baptized member of Antelope Island!

 

 
We didn't see too many animals on the second trip out because it was during the hottest part of the day, but I think everybody had a good time swimming and floating in the closest thing Utah has to an ocean. I call it a success!

I call this "Salt"

First Bath

The other night I was glad to see Sylvie's umbilical cord stub had finally fallen off. I celebrated by giving her her first full bath the next day! Thanks to Dad for helping to capture the process (and my sweet hair).

I've been amazed at how comfortable I've gotten handling a little baby. Giving her a bath was no big deal! And as you can see, I've also gotten good at multi-tasking (thus the curlers).

 Awe! Isn't she the cutest? Also, this flower petal tub is the best. It's nice and warm for baby and cushions her from the hard sink. (You can get one here.)

  Baby butt!

Nice and clean and all wrapped up in a towel.

Oh and in case you're wondering, my hair turned out fabulous.

I have to say I was a little nervous carrying her around without a diaper on. The other day as I was changing her diaper, a rocket of liquidy green poop suddenly shot out of her butt, covering my hand, the dresser, and wall. I literally screamed in surprise. Not what I expected. I think I have a little PTSD now as I get flashbacks and cold sweats every time I have to wipe her little bum. Seth says he's going to install a plexiglass shield around the changing station, but I haven't seen it yet.

Introducing....

Sylvia Kay Hanson!

Weight: 6 lbs. 14 oz.

Length:19"

Date: July 10, 2012

Time: 8:55 pm

She's finally here and we couldn't be happier. I can't tell you how amazing it is for me to look down at this baby and realize Holy Crap. This is MY baby. She grew in my stomach and now she's here and she's so beautiful and she's really MINE. It's still so surreal to me. It's one of those things that for a long time I wasn't sure would ever happen. But it did and I'm so glad. I never thought I'd want to hold a baby for hours on end without putting her down or kiss her a million times a day or find joy in changing poopy diapers. I'm a mom and so far I think I'm pretty good at it. I think that's what surprises me the most.

I guess maybe some of you haven't heard the birth story yet so I'll give you the run down. For my entire pregnancy this baby was breech and was intent on not turning like she was supposed to. So on the morning of July 10th, we went into the Davis Hospital to try and do an external version to turn her.

The first thing they did when we got there was start an IV in my hand and get an epidural started. At this point in my pregnancy any sort of pushing on my belly hurt like hell so an epidural was a no-brainer. I'm sure many of you will hate me when I say the insertion of the IV and epidural were by far the most pain I felt all day. After that epidural kicked in, I couldn't feel anything from the waist down.

About an hour after my epidural was started, Dr. Hughes (a.k.a. Dr. Baby Flipper) came in with a load of other personnel. He put his hands on my belly and pushed and maneuvered and about 30 seconds later, Sylvie was head down. Yeah! I was very relieved that the version was successful and sat back in bed as a Pitocin drip was started in my IV to start contractions.

Every so often a nurse, or my doctor, Dr. Joseph would come in and check on me. I was progressing kind of slowly and at one point Dr. Joseph mentioned the possibility of sending me home if things didn't get moving. My heart sunk. I had no idea there was a possibility of going home without a baby. And what made it more frustrating was I couldn't move or do anything to help the process along. But, we tried to stay positive (by watching "What About Bob?") and hoped for the best.

Finally at about 6:00pm Dr. Joseph came in to check on me one more time. This was the moment of truth. After hemming and hawing for a moment or two, he decided I was dilated enough to break my waters. Wahoo! Now there was no going back! My baby was going to come!

For several hours Sylvie's heartbeat was nice and healthy. It would increase after every contraction and then level out. It had a lot of variation which is what they always look for. However, later in the evening her heartbeat started to dip after each contraction. Dr. Joseph decided that the best option at that point would be to take her c-section before her health took a dive. I was a bit disappointed, but wanted to do what was in her best interest.

Thankfully Seth was able to go into the operating room with me. He got all dressed up in a jumpsuit, booties, hair net, and face cover while they wheeled me into the operating room to get prepped. I felt so helpless and nervous going in there. I couldn't move, I was all drugged up and foggy, couldn't do anything to improve the situation, and I was about to get cut open. I felt much better after Seth came in and was able to stand next to me and hold my hand.

After waiting for about 20 minutes for a second doctor to arrive, they got started. Just a few minutes later I heard my baby cry. Everyone was telling Seth to take pictures of her coming out. The doctors cut the cord and finally showed me my new little daughter, all covered in white goo and blood. I felt such a huge relief to finally see her. Then the nurses whisked Seth out the door with Sylvie while I stayed back in the operating room to get put back together.

About a half hour later, we all met back in our hospital room... me all stitched up, Seth with our new baby all washed, weighed, and bundled up with a bow in her hair. All the drama was over. She was here and she was safe. This long-awaited new chapter in our lives was finally here.