24th Birthday

Just 10 days after Audrey was born, I had my 24th birthday. As my birthday approached, it got me thinking about all that has happened this past year. Just since my last birthday we got a dog, I finished my internship and became a registered dietitian, I got my first real job, Adam went back to school, I got pregnant with Audrey, and finally to top off the year, our little Audrey was born.

I can't believe how much can change in just one year. To say the least, it has been an exciting year.
Even though I was still recovering from having Audrey, everyone made this a fun birthday for me. While my family was here, we went out for a birthday dinner to PF Changs Saturday night and then Sunday my mom made my favorite homemade mac and cheese and we had ice cream birthday cake (something I had been looking forward to for the past few months).
The next weekend (on my actual birthday), we celebrated with Adam's family. We went over to Adam's partent's house and had pizza from the Pie and delicious chocolate cake. Adam's grandma flew in that day and was able to celebrate with us and see Audrey.
Between our two families and Adam, I was spoiled. I got some new clothes, I gift card to get some new clothes, new shoes, a gym membership, a soccer ball, and a DVD. While I love all of my new gifts, I do have to say that the best gift was getting to spend my birthday with our new baby girl.

Baby's First Bath

Audrey Brynn Connell

After much anticipation, our little Audrey made her debut on Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 2:50pm.

On Tuesday morning, I went in for my 39 week appointment. At the appointment, my doctor said I was dilated to a 2 and that I could have the baby any time I wanted. After talking it over with Adam, I decided to be induced the next day.


Neither of us slept much that night, knowing that the next day we were having a baby. We got a call the next morning from the hospital, telling us to come in at 7:30 am. After getting checked in and hooked up, they started the pitocin and after about 2 hours of the pitocin, I got an epidural.

The epidural was wonderful. I was able to just relax and hang out with Adam, my mom, and my mother in-law. Around 2 pm the nurse said it was time to push. I pushed for about 5 contractions and then the doctor came in and puller her out.


Audrey was born at 7 lbs. 10 oz. and 19.5 inches. However, she had a hard time keeping her weight on while we were at the hospital, which was quite scary to her mom. When we left the hospital two days later, she only weighed 6 lbs. 15 oz.


As you can see, Audrey was born with a full head of hair, which is a color somewhere between mine and Adams (dirty blond-ish). It's pretty cute.

We had great nurses and doctors looking out for us at the hospital, but we were happy to come home on Friday morning. Since we've been home, Audrey is eating great and has put back on some weight. Besides being the cutest thing ever, she is really a great baby. She lets us sleep for about 5 hour straight at night and only wakes up once in the middle of the night. She hardly ever cries, unless she's hungry or needs her diaper changed and once we take care of that, she's happy.

My mom stayed with us for a week after Audrey was born, which was a huge help while I got back on my feet. Now it is just the three of us, but Adam has been able to be around and helping a lot since he only has school two days a week. He does such a great job with her and is always helping me out with dirty diapers.

While I was pregnant, it felt like this day would never come. But now that she is here, I can't believe how fast it all went. We just feel like the luckiest parents in the world and love her more than we could ever imagine. We are looking forward to watching her grow and are so grateful that we were blessed to have this little miracle come into our lives.

Nursery

The nursery is finished! It has been really fun working on it all summer and it feels good to have it complete.

We chose a bedding set that is mostly pink and cream, so we decided to go with yellow walls so that the room wasn't overtaken with pink. I love the bedding. It is so soft and has cute birds on it.

We tied in the green on the bedding by painting the changing table/dresser green and antiquing it. We found this dresser on KSL and I thought it was so adorable. Adam did a great job painting it to match the room.

My friends (Mckenzie and Shyla) helped me make some vinyl lettering to go over Audrey's crib. The quote says "Thank heaven for little girls." I think it turned out so cute.

With the help of Shyla, I made these curtain which are striped cream, pink, and green. It was my first time making drapes and they turned out really well. And after much persistance, Adam convinced me to buy a glider. I wasn't so sure about spending the money on it, but now that we have it, I love it. It is sooo nice to sit in.

As a final touch, we added a few birds around the room. Adam cut these out of vinyl and did a great job. I think it makes the room feel fun.

So now we just have to wait about three more weeks until Audrey gets here. I hope she loves her room!

Date Night

Friday nights have turned into date night for us, which includes grabbing some food and heading over to the hospital. Because of the gestational diabetes, we have to do non-stress tests at the hospital every week. It is mostly just a precaution since having gestational diabetes puts me and the baby at a little higher risk. They hook me up to two monitors which follow the baby's heart beat and my contractions. The idea is that if everything is okay, the baby's heart rate will spike with a contraction and then go back down. So far everything has looked good.

This week was the third time we've done it so far and we will keep doing them until the baby is born. So if you are ever looking for Adam and I on a Friday night, you know where we'll be.

Adam Starts School

Adam had his first week of school this week! Of course Ellie and I had to see him off on his first day and get that first day of school picture. This is his first time back in school since before his mission so it is a big change. He is working on a degree in Digital Media with and emphasis in gaming and animation at UVU. I think it will be perfect for him and he loves his digital media classes so far. He goes to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays so that he has the rest of the week to work on Real Estate (which is now his full time job).
Things will be pretty tight for us now with only my income, but we think that a few years of struggling will all pay off in the end. On the up side, it has been nice having him around more often. With his old job, there were many nights when he didn't get home until 7 or 8pm.

In other news, I am now 33 weeks along and things are looking good so far. We are getting so excited to meet our little girl.

A Fun and Busy Week

This past week I have been to California, Cedar City, and had two baby showers! To say the least it has been quite a busy week, but so much fun. I left for California last week to spend a few days with my family before my sister and her family went back to Washington and to have a baby shower. The baby shower was really great. It was mostly my family (aunts, grandma, cousins etc) and a few of my high school friends. It was really nice seeing everyone and we got a lot of great things for the baby. I was especially excited that we got a stroller and a swing!
While in California, my family and I spent two days down at the beach in Santa Cruz. We went to the mystery spot (it was really crazy and hard to keep my balance being 32 weeks pregnant), spent an afternoon at the beach, and went on a steam train through the red woods.
I flew back Sunday afternoon, just to leave again Sunday evening for a business trip to Cedar City. This was my first ever business trip and my first time staying alone in a hotel. I felt very grown up.
To follow up all of that excitement, my good friends and neighbors threw me a baby shower the Thursday that I got back. There were some friends from our ward and from school that came and once again we got great gifts. Our little girl is going to look so cute with all of the adorable clothes she has gotten. I feel very lucky to have such great family and friends that have given us so much. I am finally feeling a little prepared for this baby.
The other exciting news of the week is that this was Adam's last week of work! He is so excited to start school next week and I am very proud of him.