A day in the life of Sam

We decided to start early with mission prep with Sam. Here he is learning how to go tracting. Notice he has his suitcase? Yeah, he plans on being so eager, he won't even drop off his stuff at his apartment first. (I think he'll need to tame down his hair though, I don't think that's mission-approved.)
Sammy just loves his baby sister, Wiwwi.
But he just can't understand why she has bows stuck to her head... and he can't resist trying to pull them off... every time. (Even when I'm looking apparently.)

Should I be worried?

Is this starting already? He's only 2!
Sammy's little neighbor friend, Allysa, likes to come and play with him. Sam, being quite the little host, often puts on a movie for them to watch... and cuddle? I just hope he learns that girls have cooties by the time it really matters!

Livia's Blessing Day

We will be blessing Livia on November 2 at 1:00 PM at our chapel located at 1250 S 400 E in Springville, just a few blocks from our house. You are all invited so hope to see you there!

Delivery details

Well, it's taken me longer than I expected to write another post. (I'm actually not surprised.) But here are more details about Livia's entrance into this world.

During my pregnancy, especially towards the end, every time I would rub my belly, or say it hurt, Sam would come and kiss my belly to make it feel better.
7:00 PM:
A little after 10:00 PM:
Our sweet angel fresh from heaven:
Here are the details:

On Monday, September 22, my doctor stripped my membranes twice. I didn't really feel any difference through Wednesday. But I had heard that if it's going to work, it will work about 2 days after the stripping. So we went to bed like normal on Wednesday night, but shortly before 2 am I woke up suddenly, surprised at how much this 'cramp' hurt. I glanced at the clock and 10 minutes later, it happened again. I kept watching the clock and every 10 minutes I would be wincing in pain. So after about 4 rounds of that I woke Jason up and told him my contractions had started. I hadn't had the chance to shower the day before, and I really wanted a shower before going to the hospital, so at about 2:30 I hopped in the shower... and the contractions slowed to about every 20 minutes. Darn shower! So I tried to get some sleep, but would wake up every 10-20 minutes with a contraction. Very long and miserable night. And the next day didn't go much better. All day Thursday I had contractions ranging from 10-40 minutes apart. If I laid down to rest, they would get more painful, so I tried that often, hoping they would come every 5 minutes so I could just go to the hospital already! They didn't until about 6:30 pm. We got all our stuff in the car and took off about 7:00 pm. As we were turning onto the hospital's street, we passed a lady waiting at the stop light. I was in the middle of a contraction right when she looked over at us. The look on her face was priceless. Both Jason and I started laughing so hard. Let me tell you, it's not an easy thing to laugh out loud and deal with a contraction at the same time. Ouch. But it made my day nonetheless.
We got to the hospital about 7:30 and I was dilated to a 6. I was worried they wouldn't let me get an epidural, but they called the epidural guy (I have no idea how to spell his title) right away. He walked into my delivery room with me... I was impressed how fast he was available. When I was dilated to an 8 they broke my water... which I don't think Livia liked too much. After that, every time I contracted, her heart rate would drop. They kept having me lay or kneel in different positions to see if it would help, but nothing really did. They added more liquid, but that only helped for a short time. They told me to relax and try to get some rest before I would need to push, and that they would watch the monitor to make sure the baby was ok. All of a sudden they came rushing in and the doctor came in and was getting me set up to start the delivery. They were very professional, but we could tell they were a bit anxious about the baby. The heart rate had dropped as low as 30 at one point and later I was told that a baby can't handle that for too long. I got a little panicked when they were so set on me pushing the baby out in just a couple of pushes. Luckily, she was so tiny that I could, since they were just about to do an emergency C-section if she didn't come out by the time she did. I only pushed for 4 minutes, but those 4 minutes were some of the most stressful and intense minutes of my life. Everyone was so relieved when she came out. She was born at 9:59 PM. It actually took what seemed like at least a full minute to see whether she was a girl or a boy! The reason she was so stressed was because the cord was wrapped around her stomach and up and over one shoulder and she was gripping it really tight with one hand. She was a not-so-humanly shade of lavender, which quickly changed once they cut the cord. She was so beautiful... and so tiny! She only weighed 6 lbs. 3 oz. and was 18.5 inches long.
She is a good eater and a great sleeper for the most part. She goes to bed between 10 and midnight, but only wakes me up once or twice most nights... which I am fine with! She is so very sweet and loves to be cuddled. Sam is so sweet with her, other than when he pokes at her eyes to tell me whether she is 'wake' or 'go night-night'. He loves to hold her and lay next to her and 'gently' touch her head. He is a very good big brother, even though it's hard to share his mommy and daddy with someone else.
Livia has already brought so much joy and peace to our home, we are so grateful that she is here and is healthy and strong. And that she is a part of our family forever.