Saturday, December 15, 2012

The delivery: When 2 became 3!

I don't know if this is of any interest to anyone, but I wanted to write down my delivery story so that I can remember it all later. :) Here it goes!

The week before I delivered, my family came to visit. I was so huge I was miserable moving around, but I kept trying to get labor started. We went on a couple walks as a family, and Micah and I tried ALL the other recommended labor inducing theories. Nothing seemed to be working, I didn't even have contractions besides my normal braxton hicks. My family planned on leaving to head home at 6 am on Sunday Nov 25 , so in a last attempt at inducing labor I drake 2 spoonfuls of castor oil at noon on Saturday. YUCK! The oil didn't work the way I wanted it to, I just had to go to the bathroom a lot....LOL. That night we stayed up talking and playing games, and went to bed at 10:30.

At midnight I was awakened with very strong contractions, already 4 minutes apart. I had two contractions before I woke up Micah. He told me we would continue timing them for 7 or 8 more contractions and then head to the hospital. I downloaded an app on my phone to time them, and after only 4 more contractions we realized we needed to start getting our hospital bag. I let my mom know we were headed in, and we took off to the hospital around 12:45. I could have killed Micah on the drive there, he drove sooo SLOW!!! Normally I am nagging him to slow down, but in that moment I wanted him to hurry! I was so worried we wouldn't get there in time (even though we only live 5 min away).

Thankfully I was pre-admitted, so they got me up right away. By the time we got me hooked up with the monitors and they finished asking me questions, my contractions had gotten closer together, and I was really starting to struggle with the pain. It caused me to throw up about 5 times because of the pain. At 2:35 they officially admitted me to the hospital and we sent out our texts to our friends and family. My mom arrived quickly after.

I was only dilated to a 2 and I was 80% effaced, so I thought I had a ways to go. Boy was I wrong! My contractions started to peak, only go down a little, and then peak again. No resting time in between. So I started to dilate quickly. I warned the nurses, my mom would dilate to a 4 and then jump to a 10, so they kept a close eye on me. I did the same thing as my mom. Thankfully they got the epidural for me, and also enough antibiotics for the Strep B so Lucy wouldn't get sick, before I delivered.

I pushed for only an hour before Lucy was born. Because of the epidural, I couldn't move my left leg, but unfortunately I could feel a lot of it because the machine that is supposed to allow me to press the button and release more meds wasn't working. By the time they caught the problem it was time to push. At first I was shaking uncontrollably, but the oddest thing happened when I actually did push, I stopped shaking. I felt good. It feels like a dream, probably because I had my eyes closed for a lot of it. I was trying to focus and I was so tired that I couldn't use any energy on my eyes. lol.

The moment she was born I felt this amazing sense of relief and emotions run through me. I began crying, and I found Micah and so was he. I just wanted to hold my baby girl, and know that she was healthy and ok. It was amazing that first feeling of holding her, I couldn't stop crying and looking at her. She was born at 6:52 am, 8 lbs, 20 inches. I was so overwhelmed it felt very surreal, but I was very happy.


We are now so glad to have our precious baby. Its finally starting to sink in that she is OUR baby, and we couldn't be more happy! We love this little angel. :)

Have a great day! ~Meghan

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Over halfway there!

 Its about time I post again! Sorry about the huge delay. :) I am now at 23 weeks into my pregnancy, and I'm feeling great! The baby is kicking her little life away and I'm starting to feel all the other aches and pains of pregnancy that hadn't affected me thus far. I don't know if any of you have experienced this, but I have been having some really strong pain on the outside of my left foot. My massage therapist friend says she thinks its because I'm over-compensating. I have a pinch in my back above my right leg that makes it hard to put too much weight on it, and she thinks that I'm putting to much now on my left. On top of that, I think I'm starting to develop shin splints. Lol, if its not one thing then its another. But, even with all those aches everything is soooo worth it. I get to feel the cool things too, like the feeling of her kicking. Its such a neat sensation, I get excited each time and immediately grab whoever is next to me to see if they can feel it. Unfortunately, my future daughter is just like her parents and is already very ornery, and doesn't like to cooperate with that. hahaha. Oh well, soon enough she will be so big that she'll have no choice but be felt by everyone as she wiggles around.
I'm starting to get all these stresses and worries about the future and everything concerning the baby, work, housing, money, etc. I just keep trying to remember to lean on the Lord and let him direct me in the way I need to go. I'm sure it will all work out if I have faith.
We are both so grateful for this blessing, she has already been a source of inspiration for us and we are both seeing the world with a new perspective and drive to make sure whatever we do is what is best for her. :)

Have a great day! ~Meghan

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Our Cruise

Its been 2 weeks since we've been back from our cruise, so it is definitely time that I finally post about it. Micah and I went on a Carnival cruise to Baja Mexico. IT WAS AMAZING! We had such a blast. It was long awaited for to be able to go on a trip just the two of us, especially since we never really got to take a big honeymoon. And now that we have a mini Espinoza coming we wanted to make sure we got a trip in before he or she comes. :) So here is the quick version about our trip!

We arrived in California on Monday morning, and we were happily surprised to find that everything just fell into place perfectly for our travels and arrival. Everything from the gate, to baggage claim, to arriving early and getting checked in quickly just worked out in our favor.

Then Tuesday we arrived in Catalina Island and they had boat taxis to shuttle us back and forth from the Island. Catalina was personally my favorite port, and I think I could take a guess that it was Micah's too. It was so gorgeous, and the whole town was super cute and unique. The coolest part was that no one really drove a regular car, they all drove golf carts!  And you could tell each families personality by their golf cart. Some were painted cool colors, others were tricked out, some were extended for more people, and my favorite, some had carseats in them! They all were so unique it was really fun to walk around and see them all.

We decided we wanted to go snorkeling with a group from the ship, and we were sure glad we did, it was soooo fun. That was both our first times doing that, and we got some funny pictures of ourselves. I ended up getting nauseous at the end of the activity, I think the baby wasn't too fond of having my stomach pushed in from the wetsuits.  LOL. Over all it was a marvelous day, and I got extremely sunburned. hahaha.

Wednesday we were in Ensenada Mexico, and Micah and I went with a bus to Rosarito to go to the beach. It was cloudy almost the whole time, but we enjoyed being on the beach, and Micah loved having his first time swimming in the ocean. There was a group of couples next to us, who were obviously LDS, and so I called one of the ladies over and talked to her about it for a while. A few minutes later I noticed them all digging in the sand, and turned out one of the women there had lost her wedding ring. Of course we had to help them look. So we sectioned off parts of the beach that it could have fallen, and gathered about 13 people to look for it thanks to my wonderful bilingual husband, who convinced locals there to let us borrow their tools to look in the sand. I remembered my friend Alea Peters, and how she had had a similar situation during family photos so I asked Micah to see if anyone had a metal detector. Unfortunately they didn't, but they did have these scoops that sifted through the sand well.
Long story short, we found the ring 5 minutes before we had to be back to the bus, and her husband was the one to find it and become "her hero!" :).

Our last full day was Thursday, and that was a hard day, because the boat was rocking super badly. I was very sick from all the motion, but Micah being the genius that he is figured out if I could at least see the waves it would make me feel better. So we sat out at the end of the boat for a long time until I felt better.

We got to watch a lot of fun performances and we really enjoyed just doing whatever we wanted. It was nice to just relax and forget all our responsibilities in the real world. But by the time we came home on Friday we were ready to be back to our normal lives, and we missed our puppies. :) Overall, it was a fantastic trip!







  
Have a great day! ~Meghan

Thursday, May 17, 2012

What We've All Been Waiting For

Hello my friends,
As many of you know, Micah and I have wanted to start a family for a very long time (especially me, lol). We have had our fair share of struggles and heartbreak, but we are finally proud to announce WE ARE PREGNANT! As of today I am now 12 weeks into the pregnancy, and everything looks promising and is going very smoothly! My due date is November 29, and we are soooo excited! We wanted to make sure we waited until we were out of the red zone before we did the official announcement, but now that we are past that, I can fill you guys in on everything you've been left out on.

On Wed, March 21 we found out we were pregnant. I had been feeling nauseous on and off for about a week, but I didn't want to get my hopes up only to have them shot down again. So I waited until the 21st to take any test because that would be the day of my expected period. I didn't even warn Micah that I was planning this, so what a shock when I got a positive result! I remember walking downstairs with my test and Micah was on the couch relaxing. I asked him, "hey, you wanna see something cool?", he in turn responded, "sure", so I handed the test over, and after the initial shock he said, "wow, I was not expecting that!" HAHA! What a good sport! :)

On Mon, April 2 I was at 5 1/2 weeks, I was still nauseous, but everything seemed to be going well. Until I noticed that I had started to bleed. Because of our past history in this department, I of course freaked out. I immediately called the doctor and told her what was going on. She scheduled an ultrasound for the next morning to see what was going on. I called Micah and all the strength I had held on to in order to talk to the doctor completely left. I started to let my insecurities and worries pour out to him, and just like the amazing man he is he quickly returned home to take care of me. There is something about having him next to me that always makes my fears and troubles melt away. He stayed positive and helped remind me about the beautiful blessing our Branch President had just given me that everything would be fine. The next morning he went with me to the doctor for my first ultrasound. And sure enough, everything was fine! The bleeding was not fresh, it was left over blood from when the baby implanted into the wall and burrowed in deep. I cannot explain the relief we felt.

The ultrasound tech got looking at the little blob of a baby and asked me to hold my breath. After a few small tests she pointed out a flickering on the screen. She saw a heartbeat! At 5.5 weeks! When a heartbeat is seen, the percentage of chances for a miscarriage drops dramatically. She said it was so small she couldn't say for a 100% so we scheduled another ultrasound for the following week.

That next week we went in and sure enough, there was a huge heartbeat! And the baby had doubled in size already! And on top of that we got to hear the heartbeat. That freakishly strong baby is determined to survive, which explains my massive amounts of nausea. I became so sick I couldn't even sit up straight in bed without losing all food in my stomach. Thankfully my doctor gave me some medication to help out, and after doing my blood tests and finding out that I'm low in the hormone Progesterone, they gave me a prescription for that as well.The anti-nausea meds helps me stop throwing up, but I still feel the need to do it all the time.

On Easter Sunday we announced to our families. I had already told my mom, so she helped me tell my brother in a clever way of showing him the ultrasound picture while I talked to him on the phone. For Micah's family we went up for lunch and took a present to give his parents. We waited until everyone was done eating and then brought it over. It consisted of  baby clothes and they all got the message immediately. After a lot of crying we were surrounded with so much love from everyone.

I have not been able to stay very quiet about this pregnancy, I've just been so excited! And today we got to have our 12 week ultrasound. The baby was so big! Just over 2 inches long! And sooo cute! We were given pictures of the foot prints and profile. Its so amazing seeing that, I couldn't help but get emotional, and so did Micah. We are two very lucky and blessed people. We don't know the gender yet, but we have another ultrasound in July to find out the gender! So I will make sure to keep everyone updated. Sorry, I know this has been super long, but I have been counting down the days until I could finally tell everyone everything! Love you all!




Have a great day! ~Meghan

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Change of Plans!

Ok, so remember how we were going to be going on our trip in September?! Ya, that isn't happening. We are now going in May! Hahaha! And to save money, we changed the trip from a 7 day, to a 4 day. And we are still thrilled to be going on this trip.

Another trip headed our way is both my parents are coming out to visit for my graduation on May 4th. I am super excited to see them! We have them in separate rooms, so we bought an air mattress for my dad to sleep on. I hope it works well without leaking! Its the Coleman raised queen sized bed. I hope he likes it. :)
Other than that, we had a wonderful Easter with Micah's family. I got some cute pictures of the kids. Here you go!


Have a great day!~Meghan

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Future Plans

This September will be Micah and my's 5th anniversary! Crazy huh?! Time really does fly by fast. Now let me back up a little bit. When we got married we were both working full time, and I was also in school full time too. So instead of taking an exciting trip for our honeymoon, we went to a hotel in Park City for the weekend that way we could be back to class on Monday morning. We have been promising each other since then that we would plan on doing a big trip for our #5 anniversary and so all other anniversaries we did something small like go to the zoo. All fun things, but nothing big. So since this year is our #5 we decided that we will fallow through with our plans and go on a trip. I started out looking into resorts and cruises. I have to had looked at about 30 different cruises, from all cruise lines, and about 15 different resorts. I asked advice from multiple people, and finally we found it. Our perfect trip. A 7 day cruise down the Mexican Riviera. We are so excited! We put down the deposit right away, and booked our flights. And as of last night, thanks to our tax refund, we were able to pay off our entire trip. So now, all we have left to do is save up to pay for extra activities while we are there. I still need to get my passport, but I got my birth certificate in the mail yesterday so now I can go get it tomorrow. That way we have 5.5 months to get it in before our trip. We figure this is our last opportunity to go on a big trip before we have any kids, and this way we can spend this time together before we take that next step. We're so ready for the trip to be here, but we have 180 days left. We sail out Sep 16th! So we will be on our cruise the day of our anniversary, which is the 21st. :) YAY!
Have a great day!~Meghan

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Working Hard or Hardly Working

So I know I've been slacking on my postings, so let me fill you in a bit. I have been hired to work over at a local salon & spa, Studio127. Yay! I'm super excited. They have me doing everything I am licensed for, so I am happy. I get to go to work every day and have fun, its awesome. I am working hard and trying to learn a lot. Thankfully all the girls there are very willing to teach me and to explain things to me. School gave me a basic education, now is the time for me to really learn the details and the tips and tricks. I've only been working there for a few weeks, and I feel like my skills have already grown dramatically. I love the feeling of improvement. I am trying to push myself to be better and to learn more every day. And I'm proud that I have been successful. Some of the employees there have already started trusting me with their own hair, which to me is a big deal. I'm pretty excited. So that is my work update!

We don't really have any other updates to announce, other than Micah is doing really well in the EMT program at school. He is taking a small detour from his hospital administration program and is becoming an EMT in the meantime. The teacher seems to really like Micah too, he has started to ask Micah to do things for him instead of anyone else in class. I'm really proud of all his effort. We may not see each other much now, but when this is all over it will be worth it. :)
Have a great day!~Meghan

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Birthdays!

Hello my friends!
Today is Micah's 27th birthday. He keeps saying that he is old (and he is) lol, but its so nice to get to spoil him a little bit! We DJ'd the stake dance last night for the youth, and I had the kids all sing happy birthday to him as a surprise. And I think for the first time in our marriage, I was actually able to surprise him. :) He also drove us up to Rye this afternoon to spend his birthday with his family and have homemade pizza. It was really yummy! Micah's mom is a really good cook, so it was pretty tasty. Our nephews Timmy and Tommy were funny because they kept wanting to bring me candy as a bribe so I would give them some too. hahaha. Smart boys, it worked. It has been so cold lately that we can't leave our puppies outside for too long, but it was warm enough we got to do it for a while today. And it was so funny when we got home, both puppies were all tuckered out and wanting to nap. They were so cute we got to reminisce about when they were all little and new. Birdie will turn 3 in two days, and Bogey is about a year and a half. I'll put some of their pictures from when they were both big and little so you can see the difference.
Little:

Little of Bogey, but Birdie is big in this one...:)


Big:
We sure do love our little puppies, they are our children. lol. Birdie has started performing Houdini tricks for us by somehow always being able to get out of her room. We put her to bed and shut the door and 5 minutes later she will be laying on the floor in the living room next to us. hahaha! We still don't understand how she can do it.
Anyway, other than that I have a small update,
I have started a job over at Studio 127 as a cosmetologist, and I am super excited. They seem to like me and I'm really happy there. I am enjoying getting to know the other girls and to learn more.
Have a great day!~Meghan