ISN'T SHE LOVELY!

Malia Jeanne Cook, born April 23, 2009 at 10:55 am, 7 lbs 12 oz and 19 1/2 inches!!!

Here's Ben and I a few hours before she made her appearance. We had to be at the hospital at 5 am so I could be induced. I probably slept two hours the night before, but it didn't matter! Ben got a good night sleep though. He said the night before "I need to get to bed...I have a big day ahead of me!" Poor Ben had SO much work to do to get this baby here :) Pitocin really works by the way, and so does having the doc break your water. Contractions came on strong and pretty quickly, and the anesthesiologist did not come quickly. But he did come, and I did love him :) Shortly after my epidural, I was ready to push! The nurse said I would have delivered yesterday with or without the induction. Malia was out in three contractions! I kept thinking, this is just to easy. But the poor little thing didn't give us that good lusty cry you want to get from every baby right after they are born. In fact she was very quiet, which worried everyone and they whisked her away a few minutes after she was born. She spent the first ten hours of her life under this oxygen bubble......

.......and we didn't get to hold her until 9 p.m.! That whole time she wasn't able to keep her oxygen saturation up high enough, probably because she never gave us a good cry to get her lungs really going. The doc wondered about other problems, and she had an xray, EKG, had her blood gases checked, and ordered an IV started. Well, all the tests came back okay (thank goodness!) and the nurses tried and tried but weren't able to start an IV. Poor thing got poked MANY times yesterday, but still barely cried. I'm glad they didn't get the IV started because Malia ended up making a great turn around and we were thrilled that she was able to come spend a little time in our room with us.

As you can imagine, by 9 pm she was starving and I was excited to be able to feed her! She is a vigorous eater...a little too vigorous for my preferences in fact :) But that's okay, I am so happy she has no problems eating well. The doc told us she would probably have to stay in the hospital until Saturday instead of going home with us Friday, but she did so well throughout the night that she came home with us today at 4pm! We are so happy that she is doing well, and we know that people had her in their prayers and are thankful to have her home!
I'm so in love!
Ben is so in love too! We hope Riley will be in love too, but he wasn't able to meet her yesterday because the nurse wouldn't let him in to see her :(

We still haven't gotten a real good, ticked off cry out of her. She give a little "waaaa" here and there but I can tell she's working up to it and soon we will wonder why we ever wished she would cry more!

A DATE!!!

I could have kissed my doctor's feet today. He dangled a carrot (in my case more like a diet coke and a pink sugar cookie) in front of me and I snatched it up without ANY hesitation. He offered to schedule me for an induction next thursday, which is my moms birthday and also a full three days before my due date! Hmmmm, lets see, should I NOT take the offer and sit and wait and wonder if every little pain I have is THE pain that will lead to more pains that will lead to the end of this miserable fatness, or should I get induced which enables me to relax a little and plan a little and see a light at the end of the tunnel? It was an easy choice. So next Thursday it is! I've heard people say being induced is wonderful, and I've heard others say it's horrible. I choose to believe those who say it is wonderful! I can stop shaving my legs every night "just in case" and just shave them next Thursday before going to the hospital. I can know that when the pain starts to get bad, I will already be at the hospital and nearer to the blessed individual who will give me my epidural. I can make plans for Riley's whereabout throughout all this, and I can know that it won't be a frantic dash to the hospital in the middle of the night! And yay for no more doctor's appointments with humiliating weigh-ins :)

SO ANNOYED!!!

Okay, two things are bugging me so bad! First of all, trying to sell your home is the BIGGEST pain. Let me just tell you what's happened so far. We put our house on the market with an agent (who we really like, by the way) and nine days later someone comes to look and puts in an offer that very night! Great! Wonderful! We are ecstatic! So we accept the offer (it's a pretty good offer) and wait for them to get back to us.....except they don't. So we wait, and wait. Finally after a weekend wondering what the heck, their agent FINALLY calls our agent back and sais that they basically don't feel like it's the right time for them to buy anymore. Grrrrrr. Fine, so we've moved on. Then Monday our agent calls us and sais there is a couple who wants to look at our house Wed. at 10:30 am (today). So Ben and I are excited and spend last night and this morning getting our house ready and perfect for these people to look at, and at 10:30 as I'm walking over to my doctor's appointment I get a call from our agent that the guy is sick and they have to reschedule. So I am so bummed and annoyed, and have decided that selling your house is a good way to get your hopes up and have them crushed, just in case any one is looking for a way to accomplish that!
Okay now for the second thing: at about midnight last night I started have small, not too painful, but REAL contractions. I know when they are real because they are in my lower back and feel exactly the same as the ones that got Riley into the world! By 1:30 they are getting worse, and so I start timing them. About 7 to 10 minutes apart, painful, and this goes on. So I'm thinking this is it! Lucky me! 2 1/2 weeks early! So I get up, fix my hair (I know, dumb. But for some reason it MATTERS!) and then settle in to keep timing them. No sleeping through all this of course, for me anyway. Well, by 5:30 they start to spread out more, and as of right now (noon) I haven't had one for probably 4 hours. I went to my doctor's appointment at 10:40, and the verdict is that the baby is very low, her head is engaged, I am very thin (yah, I wish I was talking about my figure....but you moms know what I mean) but the doc couldn't tell if I am dilated due to the location of my blah blah blah I won't go into details :)
SO I AM ANNOYED BECAUSE I WAS SO EXCITED AT THE POSSIBILITY OF HAVING A POTENTIAL BUYER LOOK AT OUR HOUSE, AND EVEN MORE THRILLING THE PROSPECT OF HAVING A BABY TODAY!!! I think this means I deserve to go out on a date tonight. I'll have to let Ben know :)

Riley's Special Date!!!

I had this great idea last weekend that it would be fun to take Riley out for a date with Ben and I to give us the chance to spoil him a little while he is still our only child. So I reserved a room at La Quinta up in Salt Lake near this place called Hollywood Connection, and we left Saturday afternoon for a night of fun :) One little glitch which really bugs me is that somehow I managed to reserve the room for Thursday night instead of Saturday night, so we show up saturday night with no reservation and the cheapest room is $80, PLUS my card was probably charged for the Thursday night that we weren't even there ($50 plus taxes and fees). So yah, that bugs a little but what can I do?

Really can you put a price on watching these two guys romp in the pool???

Riley LOVED the hottub! The mistake we made was letting him get in the hot tub first, and then trying to persuade him to get in the pool. He just thought we were crazy and wondered why on earth he should get into a cold pool when there was a nice warm "pool" for him to play in :)

The only picture I got of Riley and I on our special weekend. Obviously I am not feeling photogenic these days! Headshots ONLY please :)

I think these swimsuits would look great on the beaches of Hawaii! Hmmm....gets me thinking!

Riley thoroughly enjoyed pushing the "unsuspecting" Ben into the pool over and over. We were the only ones in there so Ben felt free to be himself :)

One of the rides at Hollywood Connection. Just after this picture Ben decided what the heck and got on the ostrich next to the horse. Ben had to ride all the kiddie rides with Riley, and this was quite entertaining for me! I was a little jealous at first, but Ben's face practically turned green after several of the rides....plus their kiddie rides!!! So Ben felt a little silly, but all worth it to see the huge smiles and laughter from Riley.

This bus went up and around and around and made the most annoying sound. If I worked there I would probably go nuts.

The bumper cars were a huge hit with Ben and Riley. I laughed so hard when Riley's bumper car first took off and he had no idea how to steer or what was even happening. The look on his face was so funny! It would go from confusion, to nervousness, to bewilderment, to joy, to laughter, back to nervousness, and on and on. Oh and there's nothing like watching your three year old get knocked around on the bumper cars! Too funny! I hope Riley remembers this and that he always feels really special and loved and knows that nothing (not even a little sister) can EVER take his place or make him any less loved or important to us :)

8 Years and Counting!!!

On Monday Ben and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary! It's funny how time goes by and life marches on, and suddenly you stop to realize just how much time has gone by! I should have put a wedding picture up, but the top picture is of our first date which was over 12 years ago! It was Ben's Senior Ball, and I was a Junior. We barely knew eachother but I'm so glad he asked me because obviously we got to know eachother better :) After that first date, I went home and remember telling my stepmom "I think I just like him as a friend." We went out once or twice more and then I decided I really liked him, but by that point he started acting a little indifferent which REALLY bugged me, and made me pursue him with determination. Anyways, maybe I scared him into loving me but we ended up dating exclusively until he left on his mission a year and a half later (when I say "exclusively" I should mention we both had a couple little excursions dating others, but mostly just to irritate eachother.) We became SO close during that year and a half...it doesn't sound right to say we were dating, it was more like we were best friends (with benefits, of course!) And here we are eight years later!

Just a quick snapshot from Monday night before we went to see a movie, and after we ate some Mexican food at La Casita in Springville. Our good friends Ben and Laura watched Riley for us, so we know Riley had fun while we were having fun :) By the way, Ben has noticed that he has started to get wrinkles around his eyes and is a little upset by this (which I think is so funny that he's upset by this!) but I told him that I love those little wrinkles and the funny thing is I find these little signs of aging to be VERY handsome and I think they make him look so good. Is that wierd?

Just a cute shot of our little Turkey! That shirt is getting to small, but he still loves it.

The other night we went and hung out in this field to play around, only problem is that it was freezing and windy!!! And there was this seagull that was circling above us and terrifying Riley. He has nightmares of birds or chickens coming and pecking in his palm (the way he described it was hilarious) so I think birds and their beaks are one of his phobias :)

FOUR LETTER WORD

I have a new favorite four letter word.....PASS!!! Amazing how one little word can make all the difference. The word "pass" is sweet validation for the last three years of blood, sweat, and tears (okay, maybe just sweat and tears, and a lot of good times too). I took the NCLEX (for my nursing liscence) last Thursday morning, and honestly had no idea whether I passed or failed, but Saturday morning Ben and I got on the computer at the Radisson Hotel, and he looked up my results for me. I was SO sick to my stomach while he was looking it up, because I really felt it could go either way. I told him I felt sick, and he said "Well, you don't need to feel sick!" I didn't care who saw, I jumped on his lap and cried for a couple minutes because it was SUCH a relief! If you don't pass the NCLEX, you don't get your RN liscense. So, now that I have completed the last hurdle of a LONG series of hurdles I started three years ago, I can move on with life and enjoy not having to study all the time! No more locking myself in my room, trying to concentrate with poor Riley banging on the door, or sneaking off to the library for hours instead of spending the evening with my family. I am SO grateful that I decided to go to school to become a nurse. It has been a long, interesting and sometimes grueling process, but WELL worth it. I have had such good support from Ben through all this. In fact he has sort of become the "cook" of the family, and I told him tonight that because he has become so efficient at it and seems to enjoy it, I would never want to deprive him of that fulfilling part of his life so we will just keep him as the chef :)

Ben REALLY impressed me this weekend with a fun little getaway. I knew we were going somewhere for the weekend but didn't know where. He got us two nights at the Radisson in Salt Lake, and it was so nice! We were up on the 14 floor and had a great view. Friday night we went to The Roof, someplace I have wanted to go for a really long time. It's a buffet, and it was really, really great food. I can honestly say we have never spent that much on a meal (about $90) but the view, the atmosphere, and the food down to every little last piece of lettuce was PERFECT. And the desserts!!! There must have been 20 selections! I probably tried a few bites of eight different desserts. I just didn't want to pass up the opportunity, but I was totally sugared out at the end of the night. Then we walked back to our Hotel and tried to ignore all the horsecarriage drivers eyeing us down practically begging us to buy a ride. I felt bad for them because they have NO business, and they are all competing with eachother! We slept in until 11 am Saturday and Sunday morning! I wonder when THAT will ever happen again??? Saturday we saw two movies: Taken and He's Just Not That Into You. Taken was SOOOOO good. I LOVE Liam Neeson. The other movie was a fun show, but not one I'd see again. We ate at the Training Table later that night (love that place!!!) and then went into Smith's Marketplace to get some cookies and see what one of the huge Smith's is like. Well, we ended up walking out with quite a haul: for Riley, two shirts, swim shorts, and some new church shoes. For Malia, two adorable dresses, two cute tops, and some pajamas. Oh yes, and the cookies. I LOVE that store! I wish we had one here. It reminds me of the Fred Meyers in Orem before it went away. Well, I know I have gone on and on, but I wanted to write about this wonderful weekend! I had a great time with Ben, and although we miss Riley I know he is having fun with family and it's good for him to get out of the house too! I'm only mad I forgot my camera..Dang it!

JUST SHOOT ME!!!

I like the picture of this monkey, because that is how I feel lately... like I'm losing my mind! How old am I???? If anyone knows for sure, just let me know. The other night at work, at like, oh, 3 a.m. a coworker asked me how old I am. I had to sit and think about it and I debated between 27 and 28, and so in the moment while she was waiting for my answer I decided to go with 27. I told her "I'm 27 and I'll be 28 in July." Later that day, after a little sleep, I thought it through a little more and came to the conclusion that I am in fact 28. The fact that I even have to THINK about it, let alone that I came up with the wrong number is CRAZY!!! But my mind is on overload right now. I just started working as a nurse, and this is very exciting but very challenging for me. I'm working overnight, so this is an interesting challenge. I am spending every spare moment studying for my boards that I have next Thursday, and let me tell you I am on information overload!!! This is why I have no room left in my mind to remember my age. But really, is there every ANY excuse for forgetting your age???