Baby Arrived

So 12 hours after Karen's rant, the contractions started. Of course, this put it at 1:00 AM when the contractions started. About 3:00 AM Karen decided it was time to go to the hospital so we called her sister to watch the kids and set out on our journey. We go to the hospital shortly after 4:00 AM and they checked Karen. They weren't sure she was truely in labor. So they had us wait and walk for a couple of hours. By 7 AM they decided that if they sent her home, she would just be back in a few hours so they admitted her. By 8 she had the epidural in place and was happy as can be. Around 11 AM, she was almost dilated to a 5 and her contractions had stopped. By this time, the doctor had broken her water so there was no choice but to give her the pitocin IV. At noon she was finally to a 5 and at 12:15 Karen felt like she had to push. She called the nurse at 12:20 and the nurse said she was complete. So in 20 minutes she dilated from a 5 to a 10. WOW!! Anyway, by 12:40 the baby was born. Since she came down the birth canal so fast, she was a little stressed. Her heart rate dropped to about 60 and they wisked her away to the fetal area of the suite. After a minute or so, the baby started to cry and everything was just fine (other than her black and purple head from all of the bruising.) Anyway, in true Karen fashion, the baby weighed 10 lbs 1 ounce and was "officially" 21.5 inches long. The nurse that measured her kept coming up with 22 inches but thought it was wrong so she kept measuring. Of course the baby also had a huge head. We named her Sophie Halterman. I think she is adorable (bruised head, alien features and all.)

Anyway, I am working on about 4 hours of sleep and can no longer think. I'm sure we will post again, next time with pictures.

Still NO BABY!

Well, here we are one week before the due date, and I am having no contractions at all. (Well, I've had some off and on all week, but nothing regular.) Some of you may be wondering why I am complaining if I am still just 39 weeks. Well, Cory was born 8 days early and Hailey was born 14 days early. So, surely, my third baby should be born before now, RIGHT?!?! As far as I'm concerned, this one is LATE.

Luckily, at my doctor's appointment yesterday, he said we could induce me on Tuesday, Feb 10. He tried calling LDS Hospital, where I'll be delivering, but they were pretty busy on Tuesday and couldn't actually schedule a time. They will call me Monday with what time to come in on Tuesday, otherwise, I might have to wait until Wednesday. YUCK! Okay, so 3 more days of this...I can do it. I'm also nervous to go this long because even with Cory being 8 days early, he still weighed 9 lbs. 12 oz. and with Hailey being 14 days early, weighed 8 lbs. 2 oz. My doctor said he thinks this one will be somewhere in the middle. I certainly hope so and that she won't be bigger than Cory. I don't think I could push her out if she is any bigger than Cory!

The other annoying thing is I've been dilated to a 2 and 70% effaced for the last week as well. The doctor said her head is low and everything looks really ready. Well, tell that to my body that doesn't want to respond!! We've tried all the home inducement things we know and nothing's worked so far. If anyone has any other ideas besides walking backwards, eating a whole pineapple, doing accupressure on the hands, or sex, please let me know!

Pictures from Christmas and Hailey's Birthday

This is my brother, Eric, with his new wife, Melodie. He met her online (his wife died 2 years ago), and they married in the AZ temple in December. She didn't have any kids before, and now she gets five!

This is Cory and Hailey at the AZ Temple in December. We were there for my brother's wedding.

This is Hailey showing off her new dress-up shoes she got for her 2nd birthday!

This is Hailey and her pink birthday cake. She turned 2 on Dec. 31.

Hailey is showing off her cool new sunglasses and purse she got for her birthday.

This is Hailey and Cory with their Shaw cousins at my parents house in Arizona performing the Lion King numbers they did for our Stake Broadway play we did in November.

This is Cory and Hailey on Christmas morning. Hailey got everything related to dolls.

This is Cory and his new pirate ship he got from Santa.

This is Cory and Hailey acting out the Nativity at my extended family's Christmas party in AZ. Hailey was an angel and Cory was a shepherd.

This is Hailey calmly eating dinner with a huge piece of lettuce stuck to her forehead. She didn't know it was there and thought we were just taking pictures of her for fun. It was pretty funny!

This is one of my good friends from growing up and a roommate of mine at BYU, Chrissy. She came to visit me. We had to both show off our pregnant bellies. She was about 4 or 5 months along. I was 7 months.

This is the kids playing in the snow in Layton. Love the rosie cheeks!

We're Moving

So it is mid-December and we have been planning to move out of my sister's basement by the end of the year, so we started a vigorous apartment-hunt a couple of weeks ago. I spent many hours on the phone, researching apartments from West Jordan to Clearfield, UT and everywhere in between. We have found a townhome we really like in Clearfield. It is a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath with an attached garage, so we are really hoping we get it! (We should hear back from them in the next day or two if we clear their credit and background checks, etc.)
We will move as soon as possible. Of course this Friday we are leaving for a week to spend Christmas with my parents in Arizona, so that might come right in the middle of our moving plans, but for sure, we will be in our own place by the start of the new year. We are thrilled to get our kids in their own bedrooms. Cory has probably woken Hailey up from her naps at least 137 times since she was born almost 2 years ago because he goes in their room to get toys. (Usually sneaks past me without me knowing what he's up to.) Of course in early February, we will be adding a new addition to our family, but at least for the first little while, she'll be in a bassinet in our bedroom, and then we need to decide which child can share best with her. (And handle her middle of the night crying without waking up!)

On a secondary note, Trent reluctantly accepted a position with ARUP Laboratories located in SLC. He already turned them down once about a month ago, but in that month, he didn't have a single job interview doing clinical research, so when they wanted to interview him again (and offered him another job), he felt he just couldn't say no this time. It would've been much more exciting for us to accept this job (even though it has absolutely nothing to do with pharmaceuticals or drug research) if they were willing to pay him better. But they are only offering him slightly more than what he is already making as a pharmacy technician. It is also a position that only requires a Bachelors degree, instead of a Masters like he has, but the Masters degree seems to be not impressing anyone, so this job we must take. He will also have to work an extra 2 days every other week at the pharmacy in order for us to pay off our student loans. (That were pointless, by the way.) The reason why it's every other week is because his shift is pretty horrible, too. It's from 1pm-11:30pm, with 7 days on and 7 days off. That was another reason this job was very difficult for us to accept. I'm not sure how I will manage with a new baby and two other kids for 7 days straight without a husband, but we'll see. At least he's not in the military and leaves for many months at a time!! So I must count my blessings.

Hailey loves to dance

So, Hailey has really gotten into dancing lately. Ever since everyone here participated in the stake broadway review, the performer in Hailey has come out. Everytime the family would leave to rehearsal, Hailey would cry, point to herself and say "me." She really wanted to go. Anyway, I have posted a couple videos of Hailey and her cute little dancing. This first is Hailey dancing to Hairspray. The second is Hailey dancing to Lion king with her cousin Rebecca. Enjoy!

Halloween Fun

Nothing has changed with us. We are still living in my sister's basement in Layton. We've had a couple more job interviews, but still no job. Trent is still applying to several jobs each week. But I really don't want to talk about that right now, so on to the fun stuff! (On a good note, I am 6 months pregnant now and it's going really well.)

Here are the kids right before trick-or-treating. Cory was an army man and Hailey was a fairy. That's Hailey's cheesy smile--she does it every time we tell her to say cheese.


These are Cory's Shaw cousins that we are living with right now. They also have a 9 month old baby who's not in the picture. They sure had fun all together on Halloween!

Hailey had no problem putting her hands in the pumpkin goo.

Cory loved carving jack-o-lanterns. That's his older cousin, Rachel in the background.

This is how many people are living in one house right now! (Trent is taking the picture. )

Yes, that would be 11 people. At least there are 5 bedrooms!

Hailey at our ward Halloween party.

Hailey and Cory at the party.

Cory pointing to which pumpkin he wants at a local pumpkin patch.

This is Hailey at the Pumpkin patch. It was very windy and we were freezing by the end! (We had to wait in line for 40 minutes just to get on the tractor to go to the pumpkins.)

In Honor of Halloween

Well, we had quite the outing today. After a long wait, and rescheduling of appointments, we finally had our ultrasound today. It was supposed to be last Thursday, but the hospital called Karen Wednesday afternoon and said they wouldn't be able to do the ultrasound that day and had to reschedule for a week later. So off we went today and boy were we treated to a show by our new little bundle of joy. Enjoy the following images, but continue at your own risk.



BEWARE!!!!!!!

In case you can't tell, she is mooning us in the last picture. (and such a cute little tushy it is).

We are so excited to add another girl to our household and for Hailey to have a sister.

When the ultrasound tech said that it was a girl, Cory turned to me and asked, "How do you know it is a girl?" I showed him the archway on the monitor and showed him the legs and butt and said that we knew because nothing was in between. He was utterly confused. It was very cute.