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Birth Story | ROWAN JAMES

I started feeling some contractions that were stronger than normal while I was sitting at church on Sunday afternoon, March 3rd. After church I was feeling pretty tired so I tried to take a nap but the contractions kept waking me up. They weren’t that uncomfortable or consistent so I wasn’t sure if they were the real deal. Before we left for family dinner at Brandon’s parent’s in Provo, I wondered if we should bring clothes for the boys in case we had to leave them there and go have a baby. It was 13 days before my due date so I figured we were probably safe and we headed to dinner. I started timing the contractions at 5pm in the car because, while they still weren’t super strong, they were becoming more consistent. They were only about 5 minutes apart when we got to Provo. We had a delicious dinner with Brandon’s family (pasta carbonara, meatballs, salad, garlic bread. YUM. Best pre delivery meal ever! ha ha), me pausing every couple minutes to breathe through a contraction. Ar
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One in Four

It's crazy how quickly things can change. On Thursday, March 15th, we saw and heard our baby's strong heartbeat.  The following Monday, we discovered it had stopped beating. For reasons we will never know, our precious little one had died. We shared the news with broken hearts and received an outpouring of love from friends and family. What surprised me was hearing from so many of my friends who had experienced the same tragedy. I'd heard that miscarriages were common but I never thought it would happen to me. 25% of pregnancies end in miscarriage. One in four. There are so many of us. Too many. I never knew how common it was because no one ever talks about it. Why not?? I wanted to write about my experience to 1) help you understand if you've never gone through it and 2) to comfort those who may be in the middle of it. If you are, I am so so sorry. I started spotting when I was around 7 weeks along. I wasn't too worried because that is pretty commo

Another Cub- Leo's Birth Story

On Friday, Feb 12th, I went to my 39 week appointment and learned I’d still had no cervical change for yet another week. I left somewhat disappointed because I had done ALMOST everything I could think of to get this labor going→ Spicy food, pineapple, eggplant parmesan, lots of exercise, bouncing on an exercise ball, and, of course, the fun method. ;) Nothing was working! Brandon and I were grateful, however, that we were able to attend an early Valentine's dinner with the family that night. We had an AMAZING meal (we’re talking filet mignon people) after which my sister said, “If you go into labor after this, you’ll know it’s because of my steak”. Ha. I went to bed that night and woke up at 3:15am with stronger than normal contractions. When I started to feel them in my back, I knew it was the real deal. After timing them for a bit, I woke Brandon to tell him we were having a baby soon. I let him (try to) sleep while I went and labored in our bathtub for a whil

A YEAR AND A HALF!

Whoa whoa whoa. Slow down there time. You are gettin' a little quick for my liking. Ander Man has gotten big way too fast. He is 18 months old! That's like... a year and a half! =P  I do have to say that he is sooo much fun at this age, even though we've seen glimpses of his future "terrible two" year old self (oh please let him stay an angel!). He is so independent and so curious about everything. He sure is a happy little fella. He definitely knows how to get his way with that cute smile of his. I mean, who could say no to that? He is so so sweet and is so good to snuggle with mom and dad. He still doesn't say a whole lot. He mostly just grunts and points. I'm pretty sure I gave birth to a caveman. ;) Here's a list of some things he says (and a lot of them are his own interpretations of the word): Mom, Dad Nana, Pop Pop Papa Dog, Puppy Bottle Blankie Hi No,Yes (but mostly "no") He can make quite a few animal sounds. I t

Help

Hey guys. This is a very personal post but... I need help. Being a new mom has been, well, lonely. Really lonely. Yes, I have my precious baby boy to play with all day but it's not like he can talk to me, really listen to me, or play with me. It's hard when it's so one sided alllll day. The most exciting things in my life (other than the cute things Ander is constantly doing and the couple hours of rehearsal I have each week) are finally finding something good to watch on Netflix, finally seeing Brandon's car come in the driveway, or getting an Amazon package in the mail. It's always been easy for me to make friends and form connections with people. I've always had a best friend. It's weird to not have one. Yes, I have close friends and I love them dearly. But I don't have that one person that I can call for anything, that person who lives down the road who I can hang out with all the time while Brandon is at work, or on the weekends to go have

Our Little Lion- Ander's Birth Story

My mom flew in from AZ to work her magic on Friday, Aug 30 th . She arrived at around 1 pm and we promptly went walking around the nearby outlet mall for several hours. We went to dinner at 6:30 and during the meal I started noticing stronger, deeper contractions that were pretty regular. I didn’t think they were real contractions because I had just been measured at 1.5 cm dilated 2 days prior and my doctor was thinking I would deliver after my due date (Sep 5 th ). I started timing them at about 5-6 minutes apart. Mom decided we needed to do more walking (ha ha) and so, of course, we went and did more shopping. The contractions got so uncomfortable that I couldn’t walk normally. At around 9 pm I called my doctor and he said I could head to the hospital at any time. I wanted to labor at home as long as possible to avoid the use of medication so he told me I could wait until they were about three minutes apart. We went home and watched a movie (How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days) to distract

Catchin Up

I know, I know. It's been like 10 years (but really only 9ish months) since I posted last. But that's because there have been super EXCITING things happening in our lives. Brandon is back at school for his LAST semester! WOOO!!! We are pretty stoked. I, being the mature, graduated lady I am, got a full time job! I absolutely LOOOOVE it! It is a small office in American Fork called Mountain West Foot and Ankle Institute and I am learning so much every day. I never thought I would be working as a patient care coordinator/medical assistant for a foot doctor. It is so interesting. Dr. Gibson is the nicest guy ever and I LOVE the 4 other ladies I work with every day. Also, Brandon just found out today that he got a job working for Property Solutions! I'll let him tell you more about that later... :) Yes, I am still dancing. Of course. :) I auditioned for a company in Denver in June and after the two week long process, I was invited to join their company. However, after MUCH