3 Weeks Old

We've made it 3 weeks now, here are some pictures of our newest little Yancey. Isn't she cute?

Maren has Sideshow Bob feet. Look how long and skinny they are, and her toes are long enough to be monkey toes.

My Child, The Genius

I love to brag about my children and how smart they are, but this last week has me re-thinking things. I have this block sitting on a book shelf in my living room. Addy was dusting for me yesterday and as she dusted the block she said "look, it says simple-iffy." I guess I won't be boasting about how advanced she is in reading anymore.

We've been trying to teach Sydnee letter sounds. Addy learned by using the leap frog magnetic letters. I pulled them out to help Sydnee and this is what the door to our garage looks like.

Can you spot the word that I found spelled on the door? Look real close, it's on the bottom.

Yes, that's right, my oh so smart child spelled the word poop. Nothing like a potty word to show off your spelling abilities.

This is how I'm feeling these days....

More Funny Tidbits

Dinner conversation started by Sydnee (from out of nowhere) "You know what would be a silly way to die? Getting shot in the eye"

Addy is sleeping downstairs until Sydnee is well enough to move in with her. She came out the other night crying and shaking saying she heard a noise. Ben asked her what it sounded like and she responded with " it sounds like a chicken." We had a hard time keeping it together and not laughing out loud. Ben checked her room for any signs of chickens and when the coast was clear she decided to sleep on the floor next to Sydnee. No chickens there.

A Funny Little Tid Bit

Sydnee said that the baby was fussy, Addy quickly corrected her and said "no, Sydnee, the baby is pussy, p-p-p-pussy." I'm not sure where that came from, but it was funny.

Pioneer Pretties

While I was in labor, my parents took Addy and Sydnee to the stake primary activity. They had a pioneer parade around the stake center. Grandma Williams made the girls pioneer skirts and bonnets. They looked so cute. I wish I could have gone, but thank goodness for Grandma and Grandpa. Addy used all of her energy before the parade pulling everyone in the wagon. By the time the parade started she was too tired and so our neighbor pulled them in the wagon. Aren't they the cutest little pioneers. They have been wearing their skirts non-stop. Addy even wore her skirt to the hospital to visit.

Introducing.......

A special get well gift from Grandma Williams

We love our new sister

The after picture

The before picture

Maren in her NICU gown

Maren Jane Yancey finally made her appearance on July 24th at 7:54p.m. She weighed 7lbs. 5 oz. and was 18.5 inches long. We are absolutely thrilled to have her here. If you are interested in the whole story of her birth, keep reading, warning, it's really long. If not, just look at her cute pictures.
After 8 days on bed rest, I went in for my routine pre-natal check up. My blood pressure was too high and my protein levels were too high as well. I was told to go right over to labor and delivery to be induced. I called Ben in the elevator and told him it was time. I arrived at the hospital around 2p.m. (Thursday). They were so busy I had to wait about 30 minutes for a room, then I had to wait 2 hours before a nurse came in. Because I wasn't dilated or effaced, they gave me medicine internally to start the process. Because labor and delivery was so busy, I was pretty much ignored. I wasn't assigned a nurse until the next morning, so I saw every nurse on shift when they had a spare minute. At around 4a.m. I was dilated to a 3 and about 50% effaced. The doctor on call broke my water to try and speed things along. At 5:30 I was started on pitocin and magnesium sulfate which is a totally evil drug, it made me feel horrible. My contractions became more painful, but further apart. Come to find out, the magnesium sulfate is a smooth muscle relaxer used to keep me from having a seizure or stroke due to my high blood pressure. It relaxed my uterus too much and slowed down my contractions. I finally asked for an epidural and after a few hours and not much relief, I had to have another one placed. By this point, I had reached my breaking point and all I could do was cry. Around 7:30 p.m. Friday My doctor checked me again and I was only dilated to a 4 and my contractions had slowed to 5 minutes apart. My doctor said it was time to get this over with. A few minutes later there were lots of nurses in my room and I was pumped full of drugs in my epidural. A few minutes after that, I was in the operating room having a c-section. At 7:54p.m. Maren finally arrived. I got really sick while I was being put back together that I only saw my baby for a few seconds. I never want to have a c-section again. I finally got to hold Maren for a few minutes and then Ben took her to the nursery so that we could both get some rest. Ben went home to bed and a few hours later while trying to get some feeling back in my legs and not scratching myself to death, my nurse came in to tell me that Maren was having a hard time breathing. She told me they were giving her some oxygen to help. At 4a.m. the pediatrician on call showed up in my room and I knew he didn't have good news. He said that Maren was on a c-pap machine to help her breathe. They had drawn blood and done a chest x-ray. He said she probably had an infection, possibly pneumonia. She was now in the NICU hooked up to all kinds of tubes and monitors. The doctor came back later and said that they had put a tube down into her lungs and gave her surfactin to help inflate her lungs. I was able to go and see her a few times to check on her. The nurses tried to take her off the c-pap machine, but an hour later they had to put her back on. Sunday morning the c-pap came off and she was just on a nasal canula. By Sunday night she was doing well enough that she no longer needed oxygen and I was finally able to feed her. Maren did great that night, I was able to go and feed her throughout the night. Maren's blood cultures came back normal, no infection and we were going to take her home Monday. Monday morning I went in to feed her, when I got to the nursery there were three nurses working on her. She had choked and aspirated and was now holding her breath. They suctioned her out real good and took another chest x-ray. The x-ray was clear, but she bought herself another day in the NICU. It was really scary to see all of this. After she calmed down, I fed her and she behaved the rest of the day. I went home Monday and went back to the hospital every three hours to feed Maren. It was a long night, but I was glad to be able to check on my little one. Tuesday morning we were back at the hospital with Sydnee to have her tonsils taken out. After getting Sydnee into surgery, I went upstairs to feed Maren. She was doing great and was ready to go home. After Sydnee had recovered at the hospital long enough, we took her upstairs in a wheelchair and picked up Maren. We were all able to go home together. It's been a very crazy, hectic week full of ups and downs, but we finally have our little one here. Thank you every one for your concern and prayers on our behalf. I couldn't have made it through without Heavenly Father's help. A huge thank you to all of our family too. They have been so helpful over the last few weeks. We are now on the path to recovery. Sydnee is doing great, it's hard to keep her down and resting. Maren is doing great as well. She actually slept for a few hours at a time last night. We also saw the pediatrician yesterday. Her bilirubin is going down and her weight is going up. She has a clean bill of health. I'm just happy this is all over and we're all on the mend.

Guess Where We Are?

The lovely view from our room♦

I went in for my standard Dr. visit this afternoon. My blood pressure was really high (177/98) everything else was looking pretty bad too. I was told to go over to Labor and Delivery to be induced. Wow! I have to admit that's what I wanted, but all of a sudden I felt a little overwhelmed. I have nothing ready for a baby. I think my mom and sister have taken care of things at home for me by now. Here it is a little after 10 and things are kind of boring. They haven't started the pitocin yet, they're trying to get me to dilate first. So here I sit typing trying to keep myself occupied. I've got IV tubes and monitors stuck to me and I look oh, so cute in my lovely gown. I'll write more when there is actually something to write.

The Pre-op Hop

Last night we took Sydnee to the pr-op hop at American Fork Hospital. She got to learn all about having her tonsils out and what kinds of things to expect. She was given a doll, her hospital buddy, which has a gown on and she got to color a face on it and put band-aids on it. She and Addy got to try everything, like smelling the gas masks and listening to their hearts with a stethoscope. She was a little nervous, but she had fun. She scored all sorts of stuff, like a hairnet, a mask and gloves. We then took a tour of the surgical area. I think her favorite part was getting a cookie and a bunch of Barbie stickers before we left. I think this helped a lot. When we got home, she put on her hat and mask and gloves and used a plastic fork to take her dolls tonsils out. It was super cute. I'm not sure how she'll do Tuesday, but I think she'll be just fine.

One Good Thing....

Before Bed Rest

After Bed Rest

One good thing about this bed rest stuff is that my feet are a lot smaller. This will be my silver lining around the gray cloud. Just a side note, Ben painted my toe nails for me. Isn't he sweet?

Prison Sentence

The two most dreaded words that a pregnant woman can hear are bed rest. Wednesday I went to my doctors office for a routine blood pressure check. Well, there was nothing routine about it. My blood pressure was high so I ended up winning a trip to the hospital for more monitoring. I was just a little stressed. I was in charge of the combined mutual activity that night and still didn't have everything squared away. I also had way too much to do, I didn't have time for all of this. While at labor and delivery, my anxiety and my blood pressure went through the roof. My blood pressure was so high, I was setting off alarms. I had my blood drawn and was monitored for close to two hours. The nurse came in and told me I could go home, and that my baby was fine. Then I was sentenced to bed rest. I looked at her with a blank stare and said what? She said I was now on bed rest and only supposed to get up to go to the bathroom. I think my jaw hit the floor. Did I mention I don't have time for this? I had to do the lovely 24 hour urine collection and go back to L&D the next day for more monitoring. I have the official diagnosis of PIH (pregnancy induced hypertension) The baby is doing just fine, she doesn't like to have her heart rate checked, she squirms all over the place. I'm on day 3 of my prison sentence, which stinks. I'm trying to keep positive about all of this and I do have to say that my feet and ankles are much smaller, but this still stinks!!! Yesterday, Addy brought me breakfast in bed. She had poured me a bowl of cereal and a glass of milk, by herself, and brought it to me. I was ready to cry. I'm the mom, I'm the one who should be getting her breakfast. My sister has been a great help. She has been coming over and getting the kids their lunch and making me be good. Ben is a great help too. He keeps reassuring me that this will all work out and that he doesn't mind taking care of me. I guess we'll see if he still says that in a few weeks. It's a good thing I only have a few weeks left. Wish me luck that I won't lose my mind!

An Oasis in the Desert

Last Thursday I was feeling like a bad mom. With the heat I feel like I have no energy and so I keep the kids inside and just absorb the air conditioning. Around 2 o'clock Thursday afternoon, I figured I should get them out of the house. We first went to a fabric store in Highland. While I was trying to find this store, I spotted a really cool water fountain. After the fabric store, I became the cool, spontaneous, fun mom to my kids for a few hours. I wandered back to where I spotted the fountain and the girls were so excited when they saw it. Addy informed me that she didn't have her swimming suit or a towel. My response was so, get your clothes wet. Come on we're being spontaneous here. We found ourselves at what I found out later is the Highland Town Center park. It's right in front of the Highland city hall. It was awesome! They have a big splash pad and a really shallow river with rocks that shoot water out. The girls had a ball! I enjoyed standing in the water as well, it felt good on my huge swollen feet. I'm glad that I had to wander to find the fabric store or else we may have never found this little oasis. If anyone is interested in going, let me know, my girls and I could live there the rest of the summer.

Barefoot and Pregnant

Ewwwwwwwww!!!

Look how huge!!!

I'm not complaining here, I just have lots of people ask how I'm doing, so here's the report. I totally understand the phrase "barefoot and pregnant." As I hit the last month of pregnancy, I can hardly even get my flip-flops on due to swollen feet. I'm due one month from today, Yahoo!!! I'm getting really uncomfortable due to the size of my belly (it was big to begin with), I have heartburn that goes up into my ears, I get up at least 5 times a night to go to the bathroom, and to top it all off, the iron supplements are killing the GI system. I was told last week at the doctor that my blood pressure is going up and with the swelling and all, I probably have preeclampsia. I could have told them that. I had it with Addy, I can tell I have it again. The good news, I'm already dilated to a 1, which is pretty good for me. I never dilated with my other girls until the week they were born. The head is down and I have contractions all the time. If I walk around too much, I contract. Going to Walmart is quite an adventure. I think that when the time is closer that I better just avoid that evil place. Besides the general discomfort, things are good. I just need to finish moving bedrooms around and get all of the baby stuff ready. I'm hoping that the baby either comes the last week in July or right on my due date. I just have too much to do that first week in August!

The Verdict is in.......

Well, it looks like little Miss Sydnee will be having her tonsils removed on August 4th. Only 8 days before the baby is due, are we crazy or what?

Quotes from Addy

Usually Sydnee is the one that keep us laughing with the things she says, but Addy has had some good ones lately.

Addy was being a pest one night and I asked her if she wanted to make it to her seventh birthday. She rolled her eyes at me and said "I can be as bad as I want and I'll still turn 7." Not if I have anything to do with it. There's even a commandment to go with this one, "honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long." Moses and Heavenly father obviously understood what it was like to have children.

We had a wedding reception early on a Friday morning. After we got home we changed our clothes. Addy changed from her dress, to her soccer shirt and said"I was pretty, now I'm tough."

"Do mommies get bored?" She asked Ben this one. I don't remember the last time I was bored.

Random Pictures

Sydnee's tonsils, the picture just doesn't do them justice

Senior recognition night for the kids that graduated from our ward, the girls had a great time walking down the red carpet.

Relief Society sleepover at Mutual Dell. My mom and I went up for dinner and some of the games, it was lots of fun.

Our newest niece, Mae Iris she was born May 7th

The Dance Festival

Where does the time go?

I'm way behind on my blog, so here is my attempt at updating without boring anyone to tears. Let's go back to May. Addy finished kindergarten and will start 1st grade in August. The last week of school was filled with lots of fun activities. The school puts on a dance festival where each class performs a dance. It was lots of fun to watch. Addy's class did a train dance called Rockamotion, it was so cute. The last day of school we celebrated with ice cream at Baskin Robbins and dinner at the dinner store.
Addy finally got to go see the pediatric dermatologist at Primary Childrens Medical Center a few weeks ago. We love Dr. Vanderhooft! Addy's skin is looking great and she doesn't itch all the time. She was so miserable for so long it's nice to see her happy and not covered in blood every morning from scratching so much. Yea!!!
Addy also has learned to ride her bike without training wheels. We set some goals for the summer and this was one of them. Ben took the training wheels off and helped her a few times and now she cruises up and down the sidewalk like a pro. I wish I had a picture, because her face was all lit up and so happy.
Sydnee gets to go see the otolaryngologist (ear,nose, throat doctor) on Wednesday. She has had many sore throats this year, but we're always told it's a virus and not strep. Her tonsils are so big that they are touching. She often has a sore throat and won't eat much. She also snores super loud and breathes noisily even when she's awake. We'll find out if she'll need them removed. Sydnee is definitely my child, she rarely complains and she's still her happy self. Addy's tonsils look just as bad, so maybe we can get a group discount. If they need to come out, hopefully we can get it done before the baby comes :)
Ben was bitten by the gardening bug this year and tends to our garden daily. He is also intent on keeping our yard as weed free as possible, so spraying weeds has become his new hobby.
Me, well, I'm trying not to spontaneously combust due to the heat. This pregnancy has been more uncomfortable than the other two. Between my swollen feet and lots of contractions, I'm just trying to survive for the next six weeks.
I'm in the process of re-arranging all of the rooms in the house so that we can move Addy and Sydnee downstairs. It's been great fun moving all of our junk again, especially since we have so many stairs in our house.
This last Saturday was Ben's company party, it was held at Lagoon. The kids loved it. It was so fun to watch their faces and hear them giggle. There were lots of rides they could go on and they had so much fun. Addy's favorite was the Rattlesnake Rapids. We got soaking wet, but it kept us cool. Sydnee loved the Skyscraper ferris wheel. The kids lasted a lot longer than I thought they would. They kept going and going and going. We can't wait to go back next year.
Well, that's it folks. If you actually made it through reading all of this, your either bored, or you like us a lot.

The Host

Since I read all of the Twilight series, I decided to finally read "The Host." It's only been sitting on my shelf for 6 months. I had a hard time getting into it, the first few chapters were confusing. Once I got into it, however, I couldn't put it down. It was very interesting and I liked the book a lot. I thought it was better written than the Twilight books. I must say that Stephenie Meyer has an interesting mind. Overall, I think I will give it 2 thumbs up.

Book Review

With Addy reading like crazy, we read a lot of books. Just recently we finished reading "Charlotte's Web" Addy loves the movie and so we read the book together. We would take turns reading. I don't want to brag, but Addy is a fabulous reader. On our last trip to the library, we found a book that we loved, it was hard for the girls to give it back. It's called the "Princess and the Pizza" It's the story of a princess who lives as a commoner because her father the king wanted to be a wood carver. The princess hears of a contest to marry a prince and enters so that she can live as a princess again. There are many tests that the princess must pass, the final one being a cooking contest. I'm sure you can guess by the title that she makes pizza. The princess does not marry the prince, but she still lives happily ever after. This is a fun read for all of the princess lovers out there, but you don't have to take my word for it.

Memorial Day

I always enjoy Memorial day. My family takes flowers to the cemetery on the Sunday before. This year, all of us (my brother and sister) were able to go together. We start at Provo cemetery where we take flowers to My Grandma and Grandpa Riddle, Grandma and Grandpa Carter and my Grandpa Williams. Ben and I read the headstones and it may sound weird, but we see if we can find a name for the baby. There was a woman playing the bagpipes at the Provo cemetery, it was pretty cool. I love the sound of bagpipes. We then went to the Springville cemetery. We visited the graves of two sets of my great grandparents. And drove past other relatives graves, because the rain and wind started. My girls love their cousins and they had fun playing together at the cemetery and running around. At the Springville cemetery there was a headstone with the name Bird on it. My nephew looked at it and said "look, a dead bird!" What a funny kid! There are so many cool headstones in Springville. Sydnee found one that looks like a tree and tried to climb it. I still really enjoy this tradition and I hope it continues on.