Daphne's Birth Story

It's been almost a year since Daphne was born, so hopefully I get this spot on.

Throughout my pregnancy my doctor kept mentioning how small my bump was.
At one point she told me to eat ice cream once a day to put on some weight, which was, as you'd expect, a very enjoyable task.

Me, eating icecream (doctors orders)                      Tae and I on St. Patricks Day, my 20 week mark

                           

On July 10 I went in and Daphne was measuring really small. I wasn't due until July 28, but she was worried that she was too small and wasn't getting the nutrients she needed. She told us to come back a week later and they would measure again. If she wasn't any bigger then they wanted to induce me so we could be sure that she was getting fed and was healthy.

On July 17, we went to the doctor, leaving a pretty well cleaned and organized house behind, incase Daphne was coming that day.
Turns out she hadn't grown much more. The doctor said "If we don't induce you today, we will induce you on Monday." Shane and I decided to have me induced that day.
BABY DAPH WAS COMING!

This was taken outside the doctors after we found out I'd be induced in 2 hours!
Sidenote: I didn't buy any maternity clothes except this one denim shirt and the maternity leggings. I wore this and one other shirt for the last 3 weeks of my pregnancy. Haha! I'm cheap.

 We took Tae over to her Aunt Jaime's house. We told her that we were going to the hospital and her baby sister was coming that day! We had talked to her a lot about baby Daph, but we weren't sure how much had actually been understood.
I teared up a little when I left her there. There I was, a mother of one, about to become a mother of two. I wrote a huge journal entry telling Taegan how much I loved her and that she was my best little friend. I was scared that my heart wouldn't grow, it would just divide my love. Turns out, it grows.

We stopped and got a Subway sandwich on our way over because I did not want to be starving to death and only be able to eat ICE CHIPS! So I devoured a 12 incher.
When we finished with that we stopped at an arcade because... why not? We had a half an hour to kill.
We played skee ball and an alien shooting game (classic). We had enough tickets to win Tae a little green frog. I actually know where it is now, which is impressive.

We headed over to the hospital.
They got me in and hooked me up.
I hate needles. But when I'm pregnant they don't seem that bad because it's for your baby. However, I.V.s are evil. No way around that.
They put me on a pitocin drip and some antibiotics because I was postive for Strep B. It's been so long that I have no idea what that is. But the antibiotics were FREEZING. One of the things I remember most is how cold my whole arm was. I kept asking for more and more warm blankets for my arm.

While we waited we listened to Bon Iver and continued watching The Office. Pretty relaxing.
Oh minus contractions but, what ev.
Haha. Just kidding.
With Tae I labored for 5 PAINFUL hours and didn't progress at all.
THIS TIME I got to a 5 or a 7... can't totally remember but either was I was SO proud of myself!
Next baby (no, I'm not pregnant) I'm going to shoot for even further!
I got the epidural.
This time around it was heavier on my left leg. I had to lay on my side to get it to spread to my right leg more. This epidural seemed heavier. I couldn't feel/move my legs as freely as I did with Tae. But it was all good.
We kept waiting...
I know we facetimed a couple people.
We sent some pictures of ourselves to Jaime to show to Tae.
At one point I started crying. Because, again, I was scared. I didn't want to love Tae less. I just wanted my heart to grow bigger.
Shane hugged me and assured me that my heart would grow, and that I can love another baby as much as I love Tae.

I was induced at 1:00 pm. By 7:50 I was feeling huge contractions and I felt like a needed to push.
The nurses kept saying "Hold on, the doctor will be here soon!" I could tell they were trying to make it seem like it wasn't a huge deal, but I knew that I needed to get pushing.
My doctor arrived and I pushed through 2 contractions and at 8:20 pm, little Daph was born.

**Don't look at the pictures below if you don't know or don't want to know what a baby looks like right after it is born**

 She weighed 6 pounds and 6 ounces. Not as tiny as we thought :) which was a good thing.

She is so perfect.

 Uncle Janson and Aunt Nae brought Tae to the hospital. She was very excited to meet her baby sister.

 Our first family pictures as a family of four.

Taegan kept pushing my head down so I could kiss her.

 12 hours old.

Here we are now.

10 months later.

Taegan and Daph are best friends. Unless Daph wants some of Tae's yogurt covered raisins.

Naturally they get in some tussles and Tae shows us how "kong" her muscles are by picking Daphne up. But that is sibling love I guess.

They are best buds now and I hope that continues.

Then: 

 Now:

Our nights for now.

What am I doing right now? I am sitting in bed with Shane, we both have our computers on our laps. We are just cruising the internet and playing on our computers. This has been our daily/nightly ritual for about the past week or more. We would be watching White Collar, but we finished all the seasons and the new episode doesn't come out until January 17th! AH! I'm not sure if I can wait that long!
Our days are full of Shane working and me doing dishes and cleaning. Then... we hang out. Everyone keeps telling me to enjoy all the sleep and laziness while I can. And I guess that is what I am doing! Maybe I'll miss being lazy soon, but until then, I will enjoy it!
Shane is now "burning calories" by bouncing over and over on his back on the bed. He looks like a bouncing dying potato bug. Hahaha!
Anyways, I made some things on photoshop.
I made this hipster reindeer!

THEN! I made my first "Keep Calm" sign! I've wanted one of these for a long time! But I wanted a blank one so I can write whatever I want on the bottom of it! So I made one! I couldn't have done it without Shane though. 

So now I will frame it, use the glass as a "whiteboard" and I can write whatever I want on it! WOO HOO!

You might be seeing a lot of pictures of this when I put it to use!

Well, I'm off to be lazy for a while!
p.s. THREE WEEKS until baby should be here!
~MarLyn

4 weeks and an update.

It has been a LONG time since I did an actual post.
Here is a picture update! Those are much more fun.

 My friend Jake got home from his mission! This means that all our friends are back together again!

 We had Thanksgiving at Shane's parents house. The set up was SO pretty and the food was SO GOOD!

 Here is our first Christmas tree! It was so fun going shopping together and picking out ornaments and stringing the popcorn. Ah. So fun.

 Also, craft achievement! I finally made my wickerball lights!!! I'm so happy with them.

My husband is cute :D

Now we only have 4 weeks left until Taegan's due date! I'm trying to be patient. Haha. I'm writing to do lists of what I need to get done before she comes. I have a list of baby things we still need to get, and also a packing list so I can pack our hospital bags. I know... we live like 2 minutes away from the hospital. But it would be nice to have MOST of everything we'll need right there. Less trips home for Shane. :)
She's getting SO BIG and I'm getting so sore! Haha. We can't wait to meet this tiny baby!
Love MarLyn

9

Due to my facebook fast I am currently participating in... by myself, I felt that I had to celebrate this news SOMEHOW, aside from telling everyone  I meet on the bus and texting my mom. So, here we go!!!

ONLY 9 WEEKS LEFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOO!!!!!

Can you believe it!? And to think it could be even less than that!!! Oh my goodness!
We feel baby Taegan kicking ALL DAY long! She is approximately 16 inches long (head to feet) and 3.3 pounds, but is due for a growth spurt any time now! (thank you BabyCenter for the info).
I had a WONDERFUL baby shower this weekend, it was so fun to see so many people that I hardly ever get to see! We now have clothes, decor, burp clothes, toys, and much more for her when she comes!
Also, another wonderful thing, I was talking to Jaime today and she mentioned how we still have school, finals, and 2 holidays inbetween, so things will probably cruise much faster than they would otherwise!
Thanks for that Jaime!
One more time.... WOOOOOO ONLY 9 WEEKS LEFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks! Bye!

Trees, no pink, and packing.

Well as most of you know, WE ARE HAVING A GIRL!!! Yay! It took forever for the ultrasound lady to be able to tell, cause baby had her legs curled up right under her bum. Here are 2 pictures from the ultrasound, but they are just of her head cause I feel weird putting her bum on the internet :D haha.

 This is her drama queen picture, with her hand up to her forhead.

And here she is putting an "L" up to her head. I think we have a sassy child on our hands.

In the past few days I've been asked a few times what color theme our nursery is. Everytime I'm asked that I'm like "uh... are we supposed to have a color theme?" So this is what I told them, "I don't want pink" haha! I know the baby is a girl, but I don't really like pink. I have probably one shirt that has pink on it. And purple is a girl color too! Also, we are doing a Tree Theme for the nursury... don't ask how we have a object theme but not a color theme. So trees, and no pink. I already know that I'm going to get tons of pink from a lot of people, but I'm just trying to limit it. Also it doesn't even have to have purple on it! Green and yellow are cool too!
I did some cool designs on a couple onsies! I'm really proud of myself! haha.
I only took pictures of one of them though. "The Shins" onsie! The "the" lettering looks kinda rough, but I had better luck with the "shins", then on the front I did a sun and some hills. I did the sun and hills because I THOUGHT thats what was on the cover of one of the albums... there are hills... but no sun haha just some yellow thing I didn't look at close enough.

In ONE week school starts! AH!!! So right now I am packing. It looks scary in here haha. I've got the picture frames taken care of, and I have lots of laundry to get through the wash. I'm excited to go back to Logan but I'll miss it here too, along with missing summer. School snuck up really fast! I usually like to get folders for each class and decorate them and fun stuff like that haha! But I'll just find time to do that next week. I'm taking a math class, "natural disasters", "abuse and neglect in family context", and some other class that has "family" in it! I'm pretty excited, even though abuse and neglect sounds like a sad class. Anyways, when this next semester is over, I'll be due in a MONTH! WOW!
Shane and I are SUPER excited for fall and winter weather! I love sweaters, crunchy leaves, blankets, USU campus in the fall, corn mazes, fog in the cemetery across the street, carmel apples, scarves, boots, and Shane LOVES hot apple cider! P.s. I'm looking for a really good recipe for hot apple cider! Let me know if you have one!
Well its been nice to talk! I'll write when we've moved in, and hopefully have pictures of the apartmento!
Bye!
“The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache.”

—	Marjorie Pay Hinckley

AH!

P.s. in 3 weeks from today we find out what we are having!
(make sense? what as in "what kind of baby" as in, "boy or a girl". k got it!)
WOO HOO!

It's time we update our blog name...

Click on picture!!!

Hello all!
Today started off really rough, but definitely got better, (food tends to make things better.)
Seeing as I have no job (that is until June 13th! :D), I wake up every morning and... do nothing. Okay, I CLEAN.... so ya, I do nothing haha. I only have a few more things to clean though! I got the fridge done except for the drawers, I need to finish putting things away in the bathroom and then clean the toitey and the shower, THEN its all organizing from there.
So this morning I HARDLY felt like cleaning again. It took a while to get my feet under me and to do my morning ritual of getting ready for the day, but after that I felt great! I turned on Gone With The Wind and cleaned. Then whilst buying things for a craft I'm doing online, I came across a LOVELY recipe on my tumblr!  Here it is. Creamy Caprese Pasta! Mine did not look as good as the picture but.... does it ever? Haha. It tasted wonderful though!
Anywho, now I've come across a NEW no bake cookie recipe... BUT it doesn't look like the typical no-bake cookie! Check It Out! So... That is next up on the menu. (don't put raisins in it, please. put chocolate chips.)
 So now that my tummy is FULL and I am in a better mood :D, I shall watch X-Files.
On the agenda tomorrow, cleaning. Suprise suprise!
Oh and good news! That baby blog I'm obsessed with, well she had her BABY! YAY! Its probably not that cool to you, but I am excited. Haha!
ALSO ALSO, on Friday I am going to Orem for the day to play with my family, and I'll be buying some Macro filters for my camera! Woot!
Alaskan Cruise photos to come.
See ya!
"Sometimes, people are beautiful.
Not in looks.
Not in what they say.
Just in what they are."
Markus Zusak (I Am the Messenger)


I have been looking for that quote since before I was BORN! Thank you Markus, who ever you are.
BYE!