Bentley Keith Hall Part 1

This post is going to be more of a journal post for me to remember Bentley's birth story. It might be boring for others to read just to warn you.

Pregnancy:

First of all I decided to go with the midwives instead of an obgyn. I really liked how personal they were and I didn't feel like just another patient. I had a fairly easy pregnancy. I did get really morning sick the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. I only ever threw up about 2-3 days out of the week but I was nauseous all the rest of the time. When I was almost 33 weeks we had a scare and had to go into labor and delivery because I was getting contractions that were too close together so they had to give me a shot to stop them (see the last post) and I didn't have any issues after that.

About three weeks before my due date I went to one of my weekly checkups and had high blood pressure and protein in my urine. They told me I needed to come back the next day to get it checked again to see if it was still happening. When I came in the next day I still had the protein and high blood pressure. They had me do a bunch of blood work and other tests and then I had to come back later that day to get a non-stress test to make sure Bentley was still doing ok. They decided to put me on bedrest and just keep checking me to see if things got worse because at this point my blood pressure was high but it was on the low side of high.

At this point they had me coming in every other day to get checked and do more blood work and non-stress tests. By this point I was just ready for them to induce me because I was so miserable and sick of worrying all the time about whether my high blood pressure was affecting Bentley or not. This kept going on for a while and my blood pressure kept getting higher and higher with each appointment. They stuck me on high blood pressure medication and it made me so sick and didn't help my blood pressure to go down at all. At this point my high blood pressure made me super swollen and I would get headaches all the time. We went into labor and delivery a couple times because my blood pressure would start to get too high. By now the only thing that would make my blood pressure go down was going to be to have the baby. On Monday the 8th of April, I had just gotten some testing done and was at my appointment finding out the results when my midwife, Nicole, walked in and said "How about we have a baby today?"

Labor:

From this point everything went by pretty fast. They sent me straight over to Labor and Delivery to get induced so I didn't even get the chance to go home and get everything. Josh was still at work and they said that inducing me would take a while so he might as well finish off working for the day. My mom stayed with me until he got there. They gave me the first cervadil at 1:30 pm. About two hours later I started feeling it working. At 5:30 they gave me the second cervadil and that's when the labor started. When they gave me the second cervadil I was only dialated to a 1.All of a sudden my contractions started being right on top of each other with no time in between them. They were extremely painful and although I was planning on not having an epidural the dr said if I didn't get an epidural there were chances that my blood pressure would get way too high because of the pain and I could end up with a c-section. Also an epidural was going to be the only thing that would calm down my contractions since the cervadil can make them very strong and painful and right on top of each other like I was experiencing. Josh was such an awesome coach and helped me breath and stay calm through the whole process.

The first epidural they gave me only numbed my right leg and that was it. So while I was still struggling through contractions they had to give me a second one to finally give me some relief. Holy cow was it night and day as soon as that epidural kicked in! The epidural helped my contractions to stabilize, the midwife broke my water and about an hour later I was dilated to a 10 and ready to get this baby out of me. They didn't even have to put me on pitocin which I was happy about.

When she broke my water she noticed that it showed signs that the baby had already had his first bowel movement from the stress of labor. They told us about all the possibilities of what could happen because of this when he was born, including him not breathing because it had gotten into his lungs. This made me want to get him out even faster. I only pushed for less than 20 minutes and our sweet Bentley came at 9:36 pm on Aprile 8, 2013, and he came out crying! Such a relief. Josh got to cut the cord and then they took him over to be weighed and stuff while I got cleaned up.

It was so adorable to watch Josh as they cleaned up our son. He was just beaming from ear to ear and I could tell he was already so in love with him. He weighed 5 lbs 12 oz and was 19 in long. The midwife says she didn't think I could've held a much bigger baby inside of me because I was so small. When the nurses finally brought him back over to me they said he had some petechiae bruising on his face and back but that the dr would look at it the next day so I didn't think anything of it. We were so excited to finally be holding our little man and he was so alert! The first thing I noticed was that he had really big eyes like his mom because he had them wide open the whole time.

Nicole was awesome by the way. She stayed with me through the whole labor and coached me through it. When I needed Josh to be two places at once she would help out and do exactly what I needed to have done. She made the whole experience as comfortable as possible and I am so glad she is the one who was on call when I was induced.  All of the nurses at the hospital were so nice and I felt very well taken care of there.

2 hours old

First family photo about 2 hours after Bentley was born. I am still super swollen.

Mom was so happy to have him here! It was really late so we didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked but we thought we would have the whole next day to take pictures with him. Little did we know....

My awesome midwife Nicole

To be continued in Part 2.....

Just journaling

Mostly this post is going to be about some things I want to remember but you are more than welcome to read. It will probably be boring as a preface.

The last week or so the third trimester symptoms have been hitting me pretty hard making pregnancy a little more difficult. I am seriously not sleeping at ALL! Ugh I am so tired all the time but even though I am so tired I am so uncomfortable that I cannot get an ounce of rest. On top of that I have finally started to get some swelling in my hands and feet. Everyone had always told me that I would swell up and wouldn't be able to wear any of my old shoes or be bale to wear my wedding ring anymore and I figured that I had somehow gone around that symptom of pregnancy.... well at 32 weeks it caught up with me. Luckily there are still a couple pairs of shoes that I can wear but I really miss wearing my wedding ring.

Last Tuesday at about 11:30 pm I ended up in Labor and Delivery. I had been having pretty intense, painful contractions about two hours before then that were increasing from 4 minutes apart to almost 2 1/2 minutes apart so the midwives wanted me to come in and get checked out. By the time we got to the hospital they were about a minute apart. They got me all hooked up to the machines to track my contractions and I had to wait for my midwife to get there to check me. She said that luckily for me the contractions weren't affecting my cervix and that they would need to give me a shot to stop the contractions because at this point I was a day shy of being 33 weeks and he needed to cook a little longer. They gave me a terbutaline(sp) shot, which made me feel all sorts of crazy, and the contractions finally stopped.

Obviously the little man did not like the contractions because as soon as they stopped he started going nuts! So now I just have to keep an eye on them because if they get that bad again they are going to have to stick me on some pills to keep the contractions at bay until it would be ok for him to come. Luckily they didn't stick me on bedrest since they weren't affecting my cervix but I am still trying to take it pretty easy. I have had quite a few contractions since then but none that close and painful so I am guess these ones are just braxton hicks.

It was quite the adventure for us and poor Josh was with me at the hospital until 2 in the morning, and then had a full day of work with barely any sleep. He is a trooper and I love him. I just hope the next time we make a trip to labor and delivery will be a few weeks down the road and it will be when baby Hall is ready to come.

Baby Hall

There is a lot to update since my last post so hopefully this isn't too long.

I am now 28 weeks pregnant and heading into my third trimester. It is so crazy to believe that I only have 12 more weeks left until I get to hold my little one! At the end of November we got my ultrasound and found out that we are having a boy! I was going to be happy with a boy or girl and so was Josh so we were just so thrilled to see that he was growing strong and healthy.

There are definitely many ups and downs to being pregnant and sometimes I feel like I dwell on the downs maybe a bit too much so I want to take some time to talk about the things that I love about being pregnant. Probably the number one thing that I love is feeling him move inside of me. When I first started feeling it, I am not going to lie, it freaked me out just a little bit. But now I love feeling him move and I think that when I have him I am going to feel so lonely because I won't be feeling his every move. It is just really a special thing to me to be able to know how safe he is in my stomach and know that I can protect him so well. It is so crazy to me how amazing our bodies are. We can grow a living thing inside of us and that is such a crazy blessing to me.

I am so excited to be a mom and I can't wait until I have someone who depends on me and calls me mom. I feel so blessed to have this opportunity and I can't wait until April gets here! (It seems so far away but really it is going to come so fast!)

In December, I was able to graduate from college with my Bachelor in Music Education. I am so grateful for my education and that I was able to finish before the baby came. I know that it is going to be a blessing to be able to have that degree to use when I need. As far as jobs go I am keeping my eye out. I really don't want a full time job in the fall because I want to be able to stay home a little bit. But I would love to get something part-time so we will just see what happens I guess.

Josh is still working hard on his business and is actually pretty busy right now. Around Christmas time we were getting a little worried because he was so slow and we didn't know how we were going to support a baby if things didn't pick up. Come the second week in January though he has been so busy he doesn't know what to do with himself which is so amazing! Also any spare time that he has is spent working on our garage that we are turning into the baby's bedroom. Poor guy hardly gets a break but the room has to be done before the baby comes that is my one stipulation haha.

I got called as the Primary President in our ward and that has had it's challenges but I know it will bring blessings as well. Other than that keeping me busy I am subbing for the school district so I hope that I keep getting calls for that so I can bring in a little more income before the baby comes. Well I think that is our last couple months in a nutshell. Life is good and both of us are so excited to meet our little one. I know that Josh is going to be an amazing dad. It is already so adorable how he loves to see my growing belly because he knows it means his baby is growing healthy. I love him so much and I can't believe it has already been 3 1/2 years since we got married!!!

Till later!

I am not someone who throws my political views in others faces but I sure do love this

Quote from President Harold B. Lee

Men may fail in this country, earthquakes may come, seas may heave beyond their bounds, there may be great drought, disaster, and hardship, but this nation, founded on principles laid down by men whom God raised up, will never fail. This is the cradle of humanity, where life on this earth began in the Garden of Eden. This is the place of the new Jerusalem. This is the place that the Lord said is favored above all other nations in all the world. This is the place where the Savior will come to His temple. This is the favored land in all the world. Yes, I repeat, men may fail, but this nation won’t fail. I have faith in America; you and I must have faith in America, if we understand the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are living in a day when we must pay heed to these challenges.

I plead with you not to preach pessimism. Preach that this is the greatest country in all the world. This is the favored land. This is the land of our forefathers. It is the nation that will stand despite whatever trials or crises it may yet have to pass through.

( Source: Ye Are the Light of the World 350-51 )

Exciting News!

If you are friends with me on facebook you probably already know but ..... we are expecting our first baby in April! We are so excited! My official due date is April 18 and even though I am only about 12 weeks along I am already starting to show a little. Now I know some of you probably don't believe that since the baby is so small but trust me with everything else that is going on in there along with growing a baby it is possible. Also I have always been so little that any weight gain at all is blaringly obvious. Anyway, we were going to wait a little longer to tell everyone but rumors started flying at church so we decided it was best to just put those to a stop haha.

The first trimester was a little bumpy since I started getting basically all day sickness at about 5 weeks but now I am finally starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel as far as feeling sick goes.

I am student teaching this semester and I graduate in December. I am seriously in love with student teaching and I am getting so many ideas and learning so many new things that I can't wait to have my own classroom! It was really hard to be student teaching while being so sick but I became a really good faker and I actually think it helped me be a little less sick since I knew it was impossible to run to the bathroom every 5 minutes.

Well I think that is it for now!

Hello Blog World!

I swear that I am still alive I have just been super busy with school this semester. This is my last week of real-school. This is what I have been calling it because next semester I am technically still in school but I will be student teaching so I am not counting it as real-school. I am so excited to student teach and I can't wait to start that next page in my journey to becoming a music teacher. I will give you the quick low-down on what I have been up to.

• 21 credits .... yeah don't even ask me how I made it to the end of this semester and I might possible pull straight a's! Not bragging or anything....
• My last book work semester at ISU.
• 2 jobs. I have been teaching piano and then at the beginning of the semester I was working for a cleaning company.
• Into the Woods! I was Cinderella in Into the Woods and it was such a great experience!! I will post pictures later in the blog. I loved being in this musical and I don't really know what to do with myself now that it is over.
• My senior recital was in February. I felt like it was very successful and I could really see the growth form my freshman year to now. I have the best voice teacher ever! DLF has been such an inspiration to me and I am so fortunate to have been able to work with her. Also a shout out to my awesome accompanist Trent Clegg. He is such a great person to collaborate with and I love every time I get to work with him. Unfortunately, all the pictures that were taken were by other people and I haven't gotten copies yet otherwise I would post some.
• Josh has gotten really busy with work and is definitely going to be hiring 1 and possibly 2 employees which is really good for us. The unfortunate part is that I won't get to see him a whole lot until he gets some employees because he is soooo busy! For example tonight he is on a job that has to get done by tomorrow because the carpet people are coming in so he will probably be there through the night because he just started it.

 

Me and some of my besties before the show

 

Me and Lindsey (or snow white)

                                     My beautiful ball gown. Do you like my red hair? Haha

 I never got a very good picture of my wedding dress but here I am with my prince Derek Gregerson.

                                                          My hot hubby!

                                     This is not a very good picture but it is my cute sock bun.

                            This is my new friend Mr. Owl! I made him for our choir auction.

     Spring is in the air! I am loving the gorgeous weather we have been having the last couple days!

 I think that is about it for now. Peace out!!

Crochet Headbands

I thought I would post this on here as well as on facebook because I know some of you don't have facebook. I am selling crochet headbands again this year and they are selling like hot cakes. They are $14 and come with a flower. I am currently working on a pattern for a baby version and when I get those done they will be $8. So if you want one let me know and I will custom make one for you. The picture I have is just of the colors I have right now but I can make them in any color.

So just send me a message if you want one! I can do pretty much anything with them. Also I can make the flower removeable.