Another update: 4 weeks tomorrow

Tomorrow Lucy will be 4 weeks old. It's crazy how fast time is going. I went back and looked at some of her new born pictures and she really has changed so much. It has been a lot of fun being home with her all day. We have been with out a car for the last three days, and I thought I might get tired of being cooped up in our small apartment. Quite the opposite. We have stayed very busy and not been blue or depressed at all. It is a kind of challenge to see what I can accomplish each day, while taking care of a baby. For example, we have mastered laundry. Lucy actually loves it. I set her on top of the warm dry laundry and carry her back to the apartment that way. She usually falls asleep instantly. Cooking was a challenge in the beginning, but now I will either put together dinner while she is asleep earlier in the day, or she will just sit in the swing and watch me contently.

Occasionally Lucy has a bad night but for the most part she is a great sleeper. I hope her pediatrician never reads this, but last night she slept for 8 hours with out waking up to be fed. (That can't be normal... but we let her continue sleeping and it felt great!)

Let me just take a short bit of this blog and thank my dear James for all of his hard work as well. The semester is shortly coming to a close and I have been so impressed how James has been able to stay up on all his homework through all of this. He has worked tirelessly to do so, but he has managed and still finds time to help me out with Lucy when he is home. James pretty much takes over her care on weekends. He insists, and by the time Monday comes I get excited that its my turn again. I am so grateful for his help. He is juggling a lot right now. James will be applying for graduate school soon, which only adds to the stress of it all. Oh and not to mention I will be going back to work in just 4 weeks (AHHHH!!!) I am so grateful to have him by my side. He really is the best support to me and he makes me soooooo happy. He is a wonderful dad. James, you are the best!

PS. I don't think I have ever mentioned on this blog, but this family has joined the rest of the BYU basketball junkies and we are stinkin' excited for the game tonight. It has been so much fun to be a part of the excitement this season. I have been ever grateful for our all sport passes and the fun times spent at the Marriott center this season. GO COUGARS! (I know Kyle and JoEllen are cringing as I mention that, but it must be said)

Lucy Lucy Lucy, 3 Weeks: A Picture Post Update for the Grandparents

Remember I mentioned in the last blog, I am not the best photographer...? These were the best shots out of SEVERAL more that were taken. Lucy sure is cute though. It is not her fault. Her mom will get the hang of this picture taking thing one of these days.

Cross eyed Lucy.

Tummy time with Daddy.

More tummy time with Mommy.

Lucy looks a lot like her Aunt Anna in this one, I think. I've always thought she had a lot of Stewart in her. You can really see it in this one. So CUTE!

No matter how many times we fold down the blanket so it is not covering her face, this is how we find Lucy after every nap or when she wakes up in the morning. Scares her mother to death.

I am a two and a half week old mom

Motherhood: My thoughts on this subject are growing everyday. I have been amazed at the challenges, great and small, that come along with raising a baby. I am loving this little girl more and more each day. There is still a part (a guilty part) that would have her be just a little bit older. It is difficult to work so hard to feed, bath, clothe, diaper, and make sure all of her needs are met, with out so much as a smile in return. I long for that day. Until then, I will just try and be grateful, that Lucy is so good. She is a great sleeper and eater and most of the time very content. Lucy has a very good nature. I'd say that she got most of her looks from her handsome daddy, but so far she's got her mother's temperament. James is pretty easy going himself, but according to all the family stories, he was quite a wild child.

I love being home, now that I am feeling better and my body is feeling more like my own, and not subject to another. Lucy and I take daily walks, and we like to see how many things we can check off the list in a day. (Usually we are happy when we can check off one thing, and have a tidy house. We don't have very high expectations.) We also ventured a first trip to church on Sunday. Lucy did great during Sacrament meeting and James had her out for Sunday school. I panicked during Relief Society and took her home. I have got to overcome my anxious mom syndrome and realize its okay for a baby to make a little noise in a congregation of people.

Life is good. All is well. I look forward to having more life changing updates for everyone in the future. I also decided I need to take some photography lessons. I have taken lots of pictures, but can't seem to get a decent picture from all my efforts.

I am thankful for James' post. He did a really great job describing all that we went through to get Lucy here. I am afraid if I had written it, I might have added a few more unnecessary details about the pain and suffering that took place during our hospital stay and the few days that followed. I was actually amazed how much we are required to endure as women to bring these precious souls into the world. It was a good experience now looking back on it, but it sure was awful going through it at the time. If you were to ask me a week ago or even 5 days ago if I would consider having another child, I might honestly tell you no. What I know now that has changed my mind, is that it is all so temporary. Even the swollen ankles and feet that were just the most annoying thing to add to everything else, is gone after a week. I didn't know that before. If you don't know when the end is, it's very difficult to see it all through, but knowing there is an end makes it all very bearable.

Lucy is doing great. I don't know if I am doing something wrong or she is just an extra great baby, but she will sleep about 5 or 6 consecutive hours during the night, which is a huge blessing. Maybe that will change, but for now I'll take it. When she is not eating, (which she is eating or hungry all the time it seems) she sleeps, poops, and crys a little here and there. That's the life she leads. I think she is getting used to James and I as her parents. We are getting used to having her in our family and loving it.

My mom came up on Monday and spent the week with us, helping us learn all the tricks to parenthood. We all really appreciate her help. She went with us to all our doctor apointments and errands, and helped to give me a rest when I started to wear down. I will start Monday on my own, and I pray that all will go well.

Lucy is One Week Old

We sure do love this little girl. I will write more later, but for now things are going very well. I am recovering quickly and trying for now to get the hang of this motherhood thing. It's tough but a lot of fun.

BABY BORN!!!

Little Lucy, who weighed 7 lbs., 11 ounces and was 19.5 inches long, was born February 25th at 1:47 am. We have all made it home now. With lots of time, effort, and exhaustion from her mother, Lucy has become part of the Stewart clan. Mom and baby are doing great, especially since we got Lauri all of the prescription and medication that she needs. You know, everyone talks about the pain of childbirth, but I have never heard anyone talk about all of the things that go on afterwards. I'm sure that most people will probably just look at the pictures in this blog more than read the words that I'm currently writing, but I'll tell the story about our little girl Lucy who is just a darling.
On Wednesday, Lauri had a check-up with the doctor. After he checked things over he simply asked Lauri, "How about coming in tomorrow at 5:00am for an induction." The doctor had already told us that Lauri would probably be going in for an induction, so this wasn't a complete surprise. We just went with what the doctor said. After a blessing from Lauri's Uncle Gwain and myself and almost no sleep during the night, we left for the hospital at 4:45 am. We filled out paperwork, got Lauri hooked up to an IV, and the nurse did some check-ups before things got started. Lauri made sure that she got the epidural before things really got started. After that they started her on the petocin, a chemical that helps start contractions, and by about 9:00ish the doctor came in and broke her water.

I'll tell you what, I have not seen Lauri so calm and relaxed and comfortable after she recieved the epidural. At least, she hasn't ever been quite like she was during most of her pregnancy. We sat and waited and waited and waited and waited for something to happen. We became pretty good friends with some of the nurses. We watched TV and a movie. Lauri's mom was there with us for part of the time as well. Lauri and I both slept, as much as you can while waiting in great anticipation. The clock turned from 9 am to 9pm pretty quickly without much progress. Lauri started out dilated to a 2 and had only gone to about a 4 during that time (for those who don't know, you have to be at a 10 in order to start the pushing process). The did tell us that the cervix had gotten really thin though, about 90%. From 9pm on, we were really worried that Lauri might have to have a C-section. The nurses told us that they wait until 18-24 hours after the water breaks to do that and that our doctor would be patient and wait to see what happened first before having to go into something like that. We prayed that everything would go well and that Lauri wouldn't have to have a C-section (and the Lord blessed us!)

Somewhere around 10pm I was really tired from doing nothing and not really sleeping that I laid down to get some rest. About an hour later, I woke up to Lauri having a hard time and in lots of pain. It seemed that the epidural was wearing off and not alleviating the pain. We're really lucky because we had taken the advice of Lauri's Aunt Gale to study LaMas. You're never sure what might happen, she said. (I would give the same advice to anyone else after going through what we did.) So we started going through the "he he hooos" of breathing. I'm sure that the only way that I remembered what to do was because the Lord reminded me of it. From then on out, we had to continue using breathing techniques until Lucy was born. They did give Lauri more medication, but she tells me that it didn't really help much. Everything really hurt. I'm really proud of Lauri! It's not an easy thing to do what she did, especially coming in with the expectation that she wouldn't feel much of the pain.

There was rapid progress during the first hour of doing our breathing. They checked Lauri and told us that she had drastically changed from a 4 to a 9 and that she was really close. The doctor does a rest and descend approach. This means that he has the mother wait for about an hour before starting to push and during that time the baby comes further out of the uterus. Lauri was so exhausted that she probably couldn't push for that long anyway. We kept on using the breathing techniques and then a nurse eventually came in to start the pushing. I had no choice, the nurse had me become part of the process (I'm glad I was though because I felt much more involved). I helped hold up her legs and push them to her chest as she pushed with everything that she had. After a few rounds of pushing the nurse checked and saw that Lauri was making great progress and sent for the doctor.

I was never expecting so many people to come in. We had the doctor, two or three nurses, and a respiratory specialist. They set everything up and we started the pushing process once again. It seems like Lauri only pushed for about a 1/2 hour. The doctor used forceps to turn Lucy the right way and to save Lauri some energy to not push for so long. Again, I am so proud of my wife. As exhausted as she was from all of the breathing exercises and waiting all day long, she still was able to give her all so that Lucy was born. There were times when she said she wanted to give up. "I'm done. I can't do this." were many of the things that she repeated, but she never gave up. Just like she always says, "I can do hard things because I've done them before." This is probably the hardest thing she's ever done in her life.

I watched the whole thing. Again, I helped with the pushing. I saw the progress Lauri made with each push. I saw Lucy's head starting to come out, with all of her dark hair. Her head was huge, at least in comparison to what she was coming out of. And then she came out. It was the most miraculous thing I've ever seen in my life. The doctor gave me the scissors and i cut the umbilical cord. Lauri cried in the emotion of the moment and I was awestruck. After all this time waiting for her to come, Lucy was finally here.

Right now I am sitting here writing this and have Lucy on my lap. Similar to many things in life, I have made the realization that I love this precious little girl more right now than I did the day she was born. I also know that through the years, I will love her more then than I currently do at this moment. I feel very grateful to my parents, for all of their hard work in raising me. I hope that I can carry on their tradition of the love and compassion that they have showed me to my little girl. Such is the cycle of life.

Waiting for Lucy to come and partying until she gets here

I apologize for not writing more consistently. I have the vision that this blog will be put to better use once Lucy decides to grace us with her presence. I have the same vision for our camera and video camera that wait to be used everyday. And so we continue to wait and wait. I felt like January flew by, and the first couple weeks in February went by pretty quick too, but the last few days even though there has been plenty to fill them have gone by super slow. We are so anxious to meet our little girl and have her life fill our home. We can hardly stand it.

Nurse Lisa, she is the one that taught our prenatal classes, had a phrase that she liked to use a lot. She said "this is a time to party." We have been doing our best to take her advise to heart. It has been great to have some really fun things to look forward to as we have been waiting for Lucy to come.

Monday, we thought she might be coming early. I was having pretty regular contractions all night long starting on Sunday and they were progressing in strength and getting closer together at work on Monday. I went in just to get checked, but they started to slow down, and have continued to slow down. That was a little frustrating, but it is okay because we had made plans.

Tuesdays we have been attending a marriage class at my work, entitled, "bringing baby home." It has actually been a lot of fun. The material is based on a bunch of research that Dr. Gottman and his wife have done, talking about the pressures that enter a marriage when a baby comes into the mix. The class is adjusted to a lot of the parents that we work with that have children with disabilities. Because adjusting to a new baby isn't enough, add a child with a disability and the pressures on the marriage increase even more.

Thursday we had Jacob, Emily and Carly over for dinner. Jacob was one James' boys at wyview when he was an RA. He just recently received his mission call to Berlin, Germany. While working as an RA James got really close to this apartment of boys. Four of them came down and attended our wedding. Carly and Emily were always over at their house so we got to know them as well. It was fun to entertain. I planned to put on a German spread, best I know how, but ended up making Chicken pot pie (decorated with the German Flag, and every other flag that includes three horizontal lines. Pot pie is so international), a salad and German chocolate cake. It all turned out delicious and we had a really great time with them in our home.

Friday, we went to the temple. It will probably be the last time we will make it to the temple before Lucy comes. It was nice to be there with James and think about her arrival and our part in her creation.

Saturday we have had planned for quite some time. We purchased tickets over a month and a half ago, to attend "A Tale of Two Cities" the musical. Being so close to the due date, we took our chances, glad to have something fun to look forward to, but willing to pass them on to someone else if we were going to be able to meet Lucy a little sooner. I am really glad that we got to go. The play is fairly new, just off Broadway. It was phenomenal. I had to stop my pregnant self from bawling up a storm at the end. The talent was amazing, the music absolutely fantastic. This is probably my favorite play we've seen at Hale Center Theater to date. They always do such a good job.

We stuffed ourselves at Texas Roadhouse after the play. James had never been. You should never lie, but if it is your first time eating at Texas Roadhouse, you should let them know. They brought us a free half rack of ribs and steak fries, because it was his first time there. If the rolls aren't enough to fill you up before the food you order hits the table, we were treated with that surprise.

We have done our best to party it up before Lucy comes and we can party all over again. We don't have big plans this week, other than marriage class on Tuesday, so she needs to come soon.