Happy 28th on the 28th!

Today my sweet husband turned 28 on July 28th, which made it a very special birthday indeed! Especially since it was his first birthday as a daddy. And today we took Logan to church for the first time! Here are my boys ready for church.

After Sacrament meeting Jordan brought us home and then went back to teach priesthood. While he was gone, Logan took a nap while I decorated the kitchen for Jordan's birthday and decorated his cake. He was quite surprised!

His presents were pretty boring because recently we bought ourselves a new TV and surround system for the family room, so neither of us got "big" presents this year. But I bought him Mancala, which is a two player game, and a water bottle and a water bottle cage for his bike.

Here's the cake I made for Jordan. It's not up to my usual standards, but it's what I could do with a baby.

Happy birthday, dear Jordan!

Make a wish!

The Browns came over for dinner and we all made pizzas and watched How To Train Your Dragon, and then we had cake. Allie had some cake and just LOVED it. She is too cute.

Here's our little family.

I'm very lucky to have Jordan. He has been such a wonderful husband to me and is a great dad to Logan as well. He has been so helpful with Logan so far and I know he will continue to be. I just love my Jordan!

Stay-At-Home Mommy

Today, Jordan went back to work. He has been such an awesome helper with Logan I was pretty much terrified of being left alone. Logan, although I love him to pieces, is kind of a fussy baby and it takes a lot of effort to keep him happy. It was nice to be able to trade off with Jordan when I got tired.

But today actually went really well! He was a bit fussy this morning and cried during our morning walk, so that got cut short, but after I put him down for a morning nap (okay, it took quite a few attempts to get him to stay down) he was basically a happy boy. Yay! And I was actually able to clean up a bit, get dinner in the crock pot, and throw some laundry in the washer, AND I got to take a quick nap. This was probably a one-time thing, but hey, one day at a time.

Here are some pictures from tummy time today! Isn't he so strong with holding his head up?

Lexi is yawning, by the way, not trying to bite Logan's foot off.

Here he is holding my finger. Aw!

And here's Logan and Lexi. They are getting to be good buddies! Today after tummy time Logan spit up and it got all over his leg, so Lexi gave him a bath. Logan enjoyed it! Ha ha.

So my first day as a stay-at-home mommy was a success! Only about a billion more to go! :)

She's About to Pop! Kelly's Baby Shower

One of my good friends Kelly is going to have a baby in September! Kristi, Jaylene, and I got to throw her a fun shower with the theme "She's about to pop!"

I was a slacker by the end of the shower (being woken by a baby several times a night takes a lot out of you!) and only got this picture--poor Jaylene was taking things out to the car. But she's there in spirit.

Kelly is having a baby boy, whom she is going to name Samuel. We used blue and green as the theme colors.

I made the cupcakes.

I took this picture before all the food was out, but we also had mac'n'cheese bites and bacon-wrapped smokies. Mmm mm good! We had all appetizer type food which you could "pop" in your mouth, as well as some caramel popcorn!

It is NOT beer in the drink container--it's just ginger ale and apple juice. People were a bit confused at first! Ha ha.

Of course my mason jar collection got a new makeover and some cute stripey straws.

Instead of games, we made applique onesies. Kristi had everything ready so all people had to do was choose their fabric and a stencil, trace their stencil, cut it out, and iron!

All of them turned out adorable. I made the zigzag tie on the right. Cute, no?

After that, of course we had PRESENTS! 

Kelly got lots of fun things. She is a big dog-lover like me so she got lots of dog-themed clothes, as well as lots of other super cute boy things!

We are so happy for you, Kelly! We can't wait to meet baby Samuel in September!

Logan's First Outing--Cow Appreciation Day!

Today was Chick-Fil-A Cow Appreciation Day! You may recall a post from a couple years ago when I did this same thing with my friend Sara. Basically you get a free meal when you dress up like a cow!

Since Jordan is on paternity leave, I decided we should brave the crowds and go to Chick-Fil-A with baby boy. I dressed him up in a white onesie and put some felt spots on him.

Here's all three of us dressed up!

We got our yummy food. Totally worth it, and it wasn't even that busy!

The funny thing was, there was a camera man from the local news there and because Logan was so cute and tiny he decided to interview Jordan and I and take some footage of Logan. Apparently we were on the 7:00 news but Jordan and I missed it! We are hoping it will come on again later.

Here we are with the cow mascot! It was a fun first outing for 10-day-old Logan.

Grandma Gallacher says Goodbye for Now

Yesterday my mom flew back to California. She'd been here for two and a half weeks, so I guess it was time for her to get back home, but I am really going to miss her! It's so hard to be all the way across the country from your mom. There is something really wrong with it.

My mom is awesome and she is so excited to be a grandma. I'm thrilled I could make her one! She was so incredibly helpful with Logan. I have no idea what I'm doing as a new mom and she was able to answer a bunch of my questions. She also did the night shift with Logan a few of the nights, which I was so so grateful for. I was able to sleep well for the first time in months!

Here we are at the airport saying goodbye. So sad, but at least we will get to see Mom again in a month!

She is just the cutest new grandma, don't you think? We all love you, Mom!

Grandpa Gray

I have always been a daddy's girl. Me and Dad love SO many of the same things and have always enjoyed being together. I act a lot like him and Jordan likes to point out my "Gray-isms"--things I do exactly like my dad (He noticed one yesterday--that I list off what I'm going to eat, how much, and what I'm going to do afterwards). It was really important to me to have him be out here when Logan was born, and I am so grateful he was able to be here, even though it was hard to organize everything at home with both my parents being gone.

Here's Dad's first moment as a grandpa. He says Grandpa sounds too old, but we can't come up with anything better. 

Here are Grandpa and Logan spending the 4th of July together.

Dad was so sweet and went and got balloons for our arrival at home. He also weedwhacked our lawn, fixed our showerhead, and made our garage door stop sounding like it was going to break apart at any given moment.

Dad had to leave on Friday to take care of my super needy siblings, but I'm so glad he got to spend a few days with his grandson. I know Logan is just going to love his Grandpa just like I do. Someday we will all go fishing together, and I am really looking forward to it!

At the airport, saying goodbye

Lexi Meets Logan

Obviously I tried to prepare as much as possible for having Logan and Lexi meet. Lexi is a very special part of our family and I didn't want her to be sad or feel unloved or anything. We were very very blessed that my parents were here, not only to be here for Logan and helping me while I recovered from childbirth, but also to take care of Lexi while we were in the hospital for three days. Thank goodness!

Dad and Lexi got to be especially good pals

They took her on lots of walks and played with her while we were gone. I even videochatted with her a few times while we were in the hospital! I missed her so much, especially when I was in labor. She's been such a comfort to me that it was hard to go through that without her!

We had taken a special blanket to the hospital and wrapped Logan in it for a day so it would smell like him, and then had my parents take it home the night before we were discharged to let Lexi smell it. This was supposed to help her recognize Logan.

When we got home, I had Jordan carry Logan while I petted Lexi and gave her some love. She had seen Jordan a few times but not me, so she was super crazy excited to see me. Then she noticed that we had someone else with us. As you can tell, she was pretty dang thrilled to meet him.

We got him out of his car seat and I held him while loving on her. She didn't jump on me at all, which was great. She did seem a bit confused, though. For a few days she seemed kind of upset at me but not at Logan--she liked him fine. She will lick his toes and run to him when he cries. Since I haven't been very mobile I haven't been able to play with her much, but I'm feeling better now and have been able to play a bit and we are getting back to our normal relationship.

Last night Lexi kept going over to Logan in her bouncy seat and trying to gently lay her ball down next to him. She couldn't figure out why we kept taking the ball away and telling her no. She was being so so sweet! She's going to have to wait a while until he can play ball with her, though.

Today she seems like she's pretty much completely adjusted to the change. I love this little dog and my little boy and I know they are going to be best buddies!

Logan's Birth Story

So here's my birth story. If you don't want all the details, then stop reading.

At 4 am, on July 2, I woke up, and I felt my water break. I was like, "Whoa, that was weird." I wasn't sure that's exactly what had happened, but I was pretty sure. So I went to the bathroom and then laid back down, and after laying there for about five minutes, I woke Jordan up.

"Um, Jordan?"
"Yeah?"
"I think my water maybe broke?"
"What? Just now?"
"No, like fifteen minutes ago?"
"What! Why didn't you wake me up?"

Anyway. I wasn't having any contractions, so I wasn't sure if I was supposed to go to the hospital or call my doctor, so I called Dr. Payne. He was like, "Yay! This is what we've been waiting for!" (I was scheduled for induction the next day) and told me to go to the hospital. We woke up my parents and told them what was going on, and they were super excited. I ate a bowl of Cherrios because I was too excited to eat anything else. Dad and Jordan gave me a blessing, which was very calming. We got Lexi out of her kennel and said goodbye to her, and then Jordan and I drove to the hospital.

We got all checked in and they hooked me up and informed me that I was having contractions, which was weird because I couldn't feel ANYTHING. The nurse checked me and said yep, my water broke (duh), and that I was only dilated to a 1. Gahhhhh.

Here I am in the room where they decide if they want to admit you or not.

Can I just say I was really, really glad I'd taken the
time to straighten my hair the night before.

They got me into my own room and hooked me up to an IV and pitocin (to make my contractions stronger). I labored for a while and they kept upping my pitocin because my contractions weren't regular. It took a lot of time, but Jordan and I tried to rest while I was laboring. Jordan had to sleep on this super tiny couch.

I was starting to get really uncomfortable. Penny, the midwife who works with my OBGYN, came in at 11 and checked me and I was STILL at a 1. I was super depressed, since after 7 hours I'd made no progress. Plus I was in a lot of pain from the pitocin. I finally asked for the epidural.

The anesthesiologist came in around 11:30 and put the epi in. They had me sit on the edge of the bed and Jordan face me. Unfortunately Jordan almost passed out due to low blood sugar and the nurse had to grab him and sit him down and get him some apple juice and crackers. I was jealous of that, since I was totally starving and thirsty by that time.

I tried to pass the time by watching Friends. 

Once the epi kicked in I started feeling a lot better, but I was getting tired. Even though I couldn't feel the contractions, my body was still doing the work, and I wasn't progressing hardly at all. At 1:00, Dr. Payne came in and checked me and I was at a 1.5. I started to worry about having a c-section, since my body obviously wasn't doing it's job correctly. Two and a half hours later, he came in and checked again--no progess. I was more worried than ever about having to get a c-section.

Dr. Payne said they were going to use a Foley bulb to dilate me. He blew up this little balloon inside of me and then it was supposed to slowly deflate and fall out and make me dilate to a 4. At 6:30 the procedure was finished and I was at a 4! I was so happy. I was hopeful things would happen more quickly after that, but it had taken me 14 hours to get to a 4 and I was really worried it would take 14 more hours to get to an 8. I even asked my doctor, "At what point do we give up here?" He told me at about 24 hours they would make that decision, because when your water breaks you are at higher risk of infection.

At 7:30 they checked me again and I was at a 7, and happy! Well. I was kind of too out of it to be too thrilled. Dr. Payne said, "Oh yeah, we are definitely going to get this done."

About an hour later he came in and said, "I have to do a c-section." I was like, "WHAT!" and nearly had a heart attack. He was like, "Oh shoot. No, not you! My other patient!" My heart rate slowed down to a reasonable rate and he and Jordan laughed. He said to Jordan, "It's a good thing she has an epidural. I think she probably would have kicked me." He had just come in to tell me that I would have to hang out for a while he did the c-section, and then I would probably be ready.

We waited about an hour before Penny came in and checked me again. Before she got there I kept feeling a little popping feeling in my cervix. I was sure I was getting ready to push. I was so tired and hungry that by the time Penny told me that I was ready to go, I was kind of just like, "Okay." No emotion really. I was so tired. Did I say that already?

They got the room all set up and Penny started having me push at 10:00. Dr. Payne and Dr. Price (the new OBGYN at the practice) came in a few minutes later. I could feel the contractions but they didn't hurt. Jordan held one of my legs and the nurse held the other, and Penny and the two doctors coached me through the contractions. I pushed for an hour, almost exactly, and Logan was born at 11:07 pm. Penny wiped him off quickly and put him on my tummy, and Jordan cut the umbilical cord. It was very surreal. I had felt him in my tummy for several months, but it was hard to translate that into an actual screaming baby.

They took Logan to be weighed and I told Jordan to go with the baby. I delivered the placenta (which was, like, more painful than birthing the baby), and then Dr. Payne stitched me up, which took forever. I had a 2nd degree tear and around 20 stitches. The doctors kept talking about how crazy big Logan was. After I'd been stitched up, I started shaking really badly. I felt very very sick, and I told the doctors. At first they told me it was just hormonal let down or something. I wasn't convinced.

My parents were able to come in about an hour after Logan was born and meet him. They were so excited to become grandparents! I was so grateful that they were able to be here for this special event.

This is one of the first pictures of Logan and I. I look a lot better than I feel.

I started to feel worse. Everyone kept asking me if I wanted to hold Logan but I was afraid I would drop him with how much I was shaking. I also felt like the room was spinning. I couldn't focus on anything--my eyes were rolling and nothing felt real--I felt like I was hallucinating everything I saw. I kept saying, "I don't feel good, I feel really sick," and they finally believed me that something was wrong. I had a fever of 103. I was told I'd probably got an infection from how long my water had been broken before I delivered. I stayed in my bed for a couple of hours and then attempted to get up--since they told me I couldn't go down to my recovery room till I could stand. When I finally stood up, I had crazy ringing in my ears and almost passed out. The nurses helped me back down and I stayed there for another hour. I finally stood up and they got us to the recovery room at about 3:30 am. I was still extremely weak and sick, so we sent Logan to the nursery while we tried to rest.

Jordan took really good care of Logan until the nurses took him.

I just have to say, I was so grateful for Jordan during this whole process. He was such an amazing support. He just kept telling me how great I was doing and whenever I would ask for anything he would hop up and get it for me. He was the same way during recovery. He is just so awesome. I'm the luckiest girl ever.

The day after Logan was born I was still pretty out of it. I asked for no visitors because I felt so sick and in pain. I could hardly stand up and walk, so Jordan and my parents had to take care of Logan for most of the day; I could feed him but not change his diaper or hop up to get him when he cried. But I was able to lay him on my chest and snuggle him and enjoy him. I sure love that little guy!

We celebrated the 4th of July in the hospital. It wasn't much of a celebration, but we dressed him up anyway. Our pediatrician thought he looked very handsome, and the nurse was so impressed she took him out to show the other nurses how cute his outfit was!

Because Logan was born while I had a fever, he had an elevated temperature so we had to stay an extra day, even though it immediately went down and he was fine. We were discharged on Friday, July 5 at around 11:00 and headed home!

Here's a better picture of his coming home outfit:

So that's my birth story. It has made me even more grateful for my family and especially my husband. I just love him so much and I love that I was able to give him his son. He is already an amazing father and I am trying to be a good mommy as well!