Lincoln's Birth Story

So I wrote Lincoln's birth story at the hospital right after he was born (I was super proud of myself about this by the way) and wanted to wait to post it until I got his birth pictures and stuff.  Well my wonderful sister-in-law just posted her baby's birth story and it reminded me that I never posted Lincoln's! (facepalm)  SO without further ado here it is!

We were scheduled to come be induced at 3 AM on February 19th, the night before the hospital called and said that they were busy and we should not come in at 3 but go ahead and sleep through the night and they will call us when they were ready.  I expected this but was still disappointed.  I didn't sleep well and kept dreaming that they never called us back and so I would call them and they would say they were crazy booked and it wasn't going to happen today or even tomorrow and we weren't going to be able to get induced till next week.  I just dreamt that scenario over and over again all night and yeah it was not a good night’s rest.  However around 5:45am the hospital called and said they were ready for us and we could come on in.  Joshua and I had to pack all our stuff very quickly as we were planning on having time that morning to pack and we had to eat quick and head over.  We got to the hospital around 6:20 and got into a room around 6:45. 

 Our nurse Lesley was wonderful!  I really loved her.  She got my IV in and Pitocin started around 7 am, she checked me and I was a tight 4 cm and about 80% effaced, -1 station. (Which was great because just 2 days before I was a 3 and 70%) Dr. Layton came in to break my water around 8 am. I had already had some good contractions that morning before heading into the hospital so with the Pitocin they started right up and it didn't feel any different than if my body was doing it on my own.  I told Lesley that I didn't want to get an epidural right away because they tend to slow down my labors.  So she got me a birthing ball to sit on and I used that when my contractions got stronger and more difficult to manage.  The contractions started to intensify around 8:30-9ish and so I got on the ball and had Joshua sit in front of me and I leaned on him and rocked side to side as the contractions came.  I told Lesley and Joshua that my goal was to make it to 6cm before I got an epidural.  The contractions started to get really intense and I started standing up during each one and leaning on Joshua, he was seriously so great during this whole process, he kept reminding me to breath and never once complained when I was squeezing his arm/leg/side as hard as I possibly could :).  A little after 10, Lesley came to check me and I was a 6!  I was so relieved because I didn't feel like I could hold out much longer. We called the anesthesiologist, (who was awesome) and he came in to give me the epidural, it took a little longer than normal because I kept feeling pinching/nerve pinches and such and he couldn't get the catheter in one of the spots for some reason.  But once it was in and the meds kicked in I was so relieved, I am so glad I had a little time to rest, relax before the pushing started. 

 Contractions are exhausting!  Right after I got the epidural Kristen arrived (our birth photographer) and we turned on the tv to watch a movie.  Lesley kept moving me from side to side with the peanut ball thingy to help me progress and kept telling me I was going to go fast.  I felt like she was checking me like every 15 minutes :).  A little before noon she checked me and I was a 9 and 100% and she said his head was really low.  She told me to push during my next contraction and when I did Lincoln turned his head and I went to a 10.  She called Dr.Layton and finished getting the room all ready.  

By now I was feeling quite a bit of the pressure and contractions in the "window" I get with every birth (a spot that the epidural doesn't effect for some reason) and wasn't loving it.  Dr. Layton arrived and we started pushing and man did it hurt.  I could feel all the pressure and stretching and pain in that one spot and it hurt, bad.  But I kept telling myself to ignore and push hard cause if I just kept doing it, it would be over soon.  I started to get nauseous because of how badly it hurt but just kept telling myself to ignore it and push harder, get him out.  The pressure and stretching got worse and worse and then his head came out and it was all gone. Immediately all the pain and pressure and stretching was gone, sweet relief is an understatement!  Think of the worst pressure/pain you have ever felt in your life X1000 and then have it all disappear in a split second and that is the relief I felt.

 This was the first birth that I really had a clear view of the baby coming out.  It was amazing!  I was able to see his beautiful face instantly and his perfect little body and then they put him in my arms and I finally got to kiss this perfect angel that I had been feeling kick and squirm for the last 9 months.  

 Lincoln Lance Wells was born at 12:15 pm after about 10 minutes of active pushing.  I didn't need any stitches at all (which is totally wonderful) and I was shocked at how quickly I recovered, even while already being sick with Bronchitis.  I think it had a lot to do with the difference in labor times. Evelyn was 15 hours, Hyrum 12 hours and Lincoln 5 hours.  Turns out a 5 hour labor is much less exhausting than a 15 hour one... Hmmm who knew!  

I also had much lighter after birth cramping which was wonderful because with Hyrum they were terrible, like worse than the birth itself and I had been told it gets worse with every baby. So I was very relieved that did not end up being the case with me.  I felt so blessed to have such a textbook, perfect birthing experience. 

 Lincoln is such a blessing to our family and we couldn’t be happier to finally meet this sweet little guy.  We love you Lincoln!

January 2014

Hyrum turned 5 months yesterday!! Holy smokes!!  He weighs about 13 lbs and is almost big enough to wear his 3-6 month clothes...almost.  Yesterday he started moving around by doing the caterpillar, sticking his butt in the air and pushing forward and then lifting himself up on his arms over and over so he would move a couple inches each time.  It was pretty impressive!  I know he will be crawling way before I am ready.  And he is already really good at grabbing things, yesterday at dinner  he grabbed my cup of water and spilled it all over the table...little stinker!  Hyrum love love loves his exersaucer, he will play in that thing for an hour at a time and be totally content.  I love that he still has that baby smell and dread the day that he doesn't.  He is such a sweet little guy, I love him to pieces.

Evi is learning new words everyday!  And yesterday she went poopoo in the potty and today she went peepee in the potty so I know that potty training is just around the corner which I have mixed feelings about.  She still loves the song "Let it Go" from Frozen and sings it all day long.  She absolutely loves Hyrum and still calls him Baby, never by his name.  They entertain each other so well, it is truly wonderful!

12/5/13-1/6/14

When getting Evi ready for bed, we set her on our bed while we grab her toothbrush... When we get back she always has climbed to the top of our bed under the covers ( and if Joshua is putting her to bed) she will wait till he pulls back the covers then she will push her head into the pillow and with eyes squeezed shut and a grin on her face she will fake snore and pretend she is asleep.  I guess Joshua pretended to be asleep a long time ago and that's where she learned it from....kids pick up the funniest things.

Evi loves to play the pillow game.  She will pat the ground (which is where she wants me to sit) and hand me a pillow and then she runs away while I throw the pillow at her and she falls to the ground and laughs her head off.  She then gets up grabs the pillow brings it over to me and does it all over again.

Evi was getting into something in the entry way and so I was nudging her away from it and telling her to go play with something else and I kept saying go go go.  So she turns around and starts pushing on my leg and says "go, go, go" obviously wanting me to go away so she could keep getting into stuff.

Today at church Evi's friend Scotty was sitting behind us and Scott starts leaning toward Evi and she was pushing her belly into his face and he kept leaning in again and so finally Evi leans down and gives him a kiss.  He was a persistent little guy ;)

Evi has recently started calling everything sauce.  If she wants more milk in her cereal she asks for more sauce, if she wants more sugar or butter or whatever it's always sauce. :)

Hyrum absolutely loves to be picked up by his hands.  Whenever I do this he gets a huge smile on his face and often laughs, it's the cutest thing.

I was giving Evi goldfish for a snack and working on the computer and for some reason I turn around to see what she is doing and I see Hyrum making this weird face and smacking his tongue.  Turns out Evi had shoved a goldfish cracker right into hyrum's mouth!  Good thing he still has tongue thrust so he wouldn't have swallowed it even if I didn't catch it in time.

This week Hyrum has started doing raspberries and blowing spit bubbles all the time, it's adorable and one of my favorite things! 12/13/13

11/19

Evelyn 20 months

I think Evi has been in size 3 diapers for over a year now...crazy.

She does the cutest thing when we have finished our bedtime routine and it's time for one of us (Joshua or me) to put her down.  She asks to pray and sing, everytime.  And usually she will ask to "prays" multiple times.  She will fold her arms and close her eyes, it's adorable.  I love the time I get with her when it's my turn to put her to bed.  I love holding her like a baby and rocking in our chair and singing and praying with her.  I love staring at her perfect face and being reminding that I am the luckiest girl to be this angels mama, I cherish this time.  I know that in no time at all she will be too big for me to rock my baby and even thinking about that makes me want to cry.

The other night when I was rocking Evi before bed she asked me to sing again and I told her no she can sing herself (I only sing and pray once for her) she started to sing and kept singing the words mommy daddy baby my baby.  It was the cutest thing.

Earlier this week we were over at Grandma and papa's house and were expecting Daddy to be home when we got back.  So we walk in and I tell Evi to go find Daddy.  So we go look all over the house and it's obvious he isn't home yet.  So Evi keeps looking and then comes up to me and puts her hands up and says "go?" "Go?" Like where did he go.   :)



Hyrum 10 weeks
Size 1 diapers, probably over 10 lbs now.

Hyrum has definitely reached the cooing stage.  Joshua and I love talking to him when he's in the "talking" mood.  He will coo in response to us and we love it!

Hyrum's Birth Story

Hyrum Adam Wells Birth Story

I was scheduled to be induced Wednesday August 28, 2013 at 3 pm exactly one week before my due date but the hospital (Banner Gateway) was very busy and so they were running very behind on inductions.  They called me early Wednesday morning and told me that they would call me when they were ready for me to come in but it wouldn’t be today or maybe not even tomorrow.  Dr. Layton warned me beforehand that they were behind, so I was expecting as much but it didn’t make the news much easier.  I was so ready to meet our little boy and I was so uncomfortable and ready to not be pregnant anymore so this phone call put me in a pretty cranky/ down mood.  I got up and started getting ready for the day, feeding Evelyn breakfast and getting dressed and whatnot and then Dr. Layton’s nurse Kim called and asked if I would like to come in later so that Dr. Layton could strip my membranes and see if that could get things rolling.  I of course said yes and this completely changed my mood, it was such a relief that at least I could do something that might help get this labor going.

When 12:30 rolled around, I headed to my appointment and when I get there I see my old college roommate Chelsea Beckstrand, who I haven’t seen since her wedding reception 5 years earlier.  She tells me that Dr. Layton is running behind and that she has been waiting for quite a while.  This makes me more nervous and I worry that he will cancel my appointment because it wasn’t even really a scheduled one. Luckily after a while they bring me back and Dr. Layton strips my membranes and tells me I’m about 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced.  He wishes me luck and says he hopes to see me soon.

I get home and am cramping and having a lot of bloody discharge which is really normal after a sweep and go about my day. I took Evelyn to the Superstition Springs mall and walk around in circles for about 2 hours and then head home. Joshua and I had planned earlier to go to the temple Wednesday night and so we drop off Evelyn at the Rudd’s house around 5 and head to the temple.  It was a great session and was really nice since it had been a while since Joshua and I had gone to the temple together, and I wont lie I totally prayed that we would have this baby that night.  After we are done we go pick up Evelyn and head home.  On the ride home around 8:00-8:30 or so I start to have contractions.  I start timing them and they are 5 minutes apart.  When we get home we heat up some food since neither of us had eaten dinner yet and then put Evelyn to bed and I continue to have contractions 5 minutes apart and they are starting to get more intense, I tell Joshua that this might be it and I text Bethany to let her know we might be heading into the hospital.  We start packing our bags and I tell Bethany to head over, she gets to our house around 10:30 pm and we head to the hospital. 

 I was so nervous they were going to send us home so I tell Joshua to leave our bags in the car.  They check us in and hook me up to the monitors in triage and the nurse checks my cervix to get a starting point which is a 3 and about 80% effaced.  I ask the nurse if it’s ok if I stand up because it’s easier to handle the contractions that way.  She says that’s fine and we start the hour wait.  During our wait, I start to get much more confident that they are going to keep me because the contractions were getting much stronger and painful, I started to need Joshua to lean on and help me through the contractions and soon have no doubt in my mind that they will keep me.  After the hour the nurse comes back in to check me and tells me im still a 3!  I was in shock!  She tells us she will phone my doctor and see if he is ok with me walking around for another hour to see if that will help me progress and Dr. Layton said that was fine.  So we start walking the halls of the post-partum unit and start another wait.  My contractions were pretty intense by this time about 2-3 minutes apart and lasting about 45-60 seconds each and I keep telling Joshua how I don’t know how they could send us home if I don’t progress anymore because I wouldn’t know when to come back.  I convinced myself that the walking wasn’t going to do anything because I was standing and swaying the whole hour last time and that didn’t seem to help.  So I started to try and relax my body during each contraction, which was really hard because they really hurt.  When our hour is up (around 1 AM) we head back to the room and the nurse checks me again and says I am a 4 and I could stay!  I was so excited!  She said we would have to wait a bit while they got a room ready for us and if I wanted an epidural right away I said no and that I could wait a while longer.  About 15 minutes later my contractions really pick up and start to become unbearable.  I started crying during each one and tell Joshua to go tell the nurse that I want the epidural.  She tells him that we need to get me in my room first and that it will be a couple minutes but they will move me as soon as they can.  They finally get me a room and it took a while to walk there because I had to stop at each contraction.  When the anesthesiologist finally came I was so relieved.  When I got the epidural with Evelyn I don’t remember it hurting hardly at all.  This one however was pretty uncomfortable, there was a lot of pressure and I didn’t like the feeling on my spine.  It also didn’t help that I had to stay perfectly still even during my contractions which were completely unbearable.  I just sat there bawling curled in a ball, I’m sure it was pretty pitiful to watch.  It was not a fun experience but I did feel much better when the Epidural finally kicked in.   Once the epidural kicked in the nurse came in and checked me again (around 3 AM) and I was a 5, hooray.  I felt like I was moving along pretty well.  After this things got boring, I of course could not sleep because of shivering and the constant interruptions and obviously because im in labor but Joshua was able to get some rest which was good.  Around 6AM the nurse came to check me again and I was a 6.  I was kinda bummed because it seemed like I was slowing down.  I texted Kristen Pear, the girl that was going to take our birth photos and she wanted to come in just in case I jumped to a 10 fast. 

Around 7 AM we got a new nurse, I wish so badly I could remember her name.  She was wonderful, very talkative and upbeat very proactive about my pain management and just overall a sweetheart.  She asked how my pain was and I told her I was having a window (an area that the epidural wasn’t numbing)  She tried so hard to get that area numb, she kept having me change positions and gave me a boost of the epidural and finally gave me a bolus of lidocain.  The lidocain completely made me dead from the chest down.  I couldn’t feel a thing.  It was nice to have the window gone because it was painful especially when I was getting close to delivering but I didn’t like being so numb.  During all of this I was also getting very anxious, I just wanted to be done laboring, I did not expect to have to labor so long with my second and so I think it caught me off guard.  I kept asking my nurse if we could break my water to make it go faster and she said we had to wait for my doctor.  Dr. Layton was able to come around 12pm.  He broke my water and said that there was Meconium in the fluid.  I was ready to push right away and only had to push during 3 contractions before Hyrum was born.  It was tiring but very fast.  Dr. Layton was so great, once Hyrum was almost out he told me to stop pushing and just let Hyrum’s head slowly come out that way it would slowly stretch me out and hopefully prevent tearing.  Because he did this I only had to get 2 tiny stitches and had almost zero pain (as far as recovering from a tear, which was a completely different experience from Evelyn birth)  I was so grateful he did it this way.  We also found out right after Hyrum was born that he had a tight knot in his cord and it was wrapped around his neck, he had an extremely long cord.  While he was getting cleaned up the nurses commented on how long his cord was and then my doctor said that they only have half the cord and the other half was over by him.  The knot is what most likely caused him stress and to have a bowel movement.  The nurses were in shock that he was perfectly healthy and that he handled labor so well.  They told me it was a miracle that he was just fine and that my labor didn’t turn into an emergency c-section or worse.  After they told me this I was so worried about him, I just wanted to make sure Hyrum was ok.  Once we were able to hold him I felt a huge wave of gratitude to my Heavenly Father.  I know without a doubt that Hyrum was being watched over and protected there is no other explanation why everything went as well as it did. 

Hyrum was born at 12:21 PM on August 29, 2013.  He was 5 lbs 9 oz and 19” long and with RED hair (we were not expecting that at all).  Hyrum has been such a blessing to our family.  He has such a sweet spirit.  I absolutely love his sweet cry, it’s very pitiful and adorable.  I will always remember what a miracle and sweet experience his birth was.  I know he will do wonderful things with his life.  I hope he always remembers that he has had the hand of God supporting and protecting him since before he was born.

11/5/13

I've been thinking of doing this for a long time since I have some friends that do and it's fun to read their posts and I really don't know where else to record these things.  I think I am going to write down the funny things my kids say or do here.  And maybe not just funny but just the little things about them that they will eventually grow out of and they will be forgotten unless they are written down. So here goes...

Evelyn 20 months old.
Today Evi played outside for a long time by herself (wahoo!) while I was making dinner.  She suddenly came running up to me with very blue hands and feet from chalk (obviously she discovered they worked on her skin too) and she was very very excited! She ran up to me gibbering but I could tell exactly what she saying, it was something along the lines of  " Mom! Look at my hands! They are blue!!!!"  It was the cutest thing! She was sooo excited.

On Sunday during family dinner, we were at Grandma and papas house all the kids were done eating and playing upstairs ( except Macy) and all the adults were sitting at the table downstairs chatting.  Suddenly Evi runs up to the railing by the stairs looks down and yells "Macy, Macy!"  Bethany and I look at each other and both say at the same time, " did she just say Macy?!" It was the first time she said Macy's name. So cute.

In June Evi and I went to home for a visit before Hyrum came.  One day we went to Pirates cove by my mom's work with Josh, Ashley and the kids.  Evi and I were playing in the little kids pool area and Evi saw this little boy who was probably around her age, Evi ran up to him with her arms outstretched to give him a hug, which was normal she did this with most kids she saw, this made the boy a little uneasy but he allowed it and then all of a sudden Evi tries to go in for a kiss!  You should have seen this little boys face he was shocked and had no idea what to do!  It was so so funny!  At 15 months evi had her first kiss. ;)

Hyrum 9 weeks old
 Hyrum loves loves loves to be naked.  He can be screaming his lungs out and nothing will calm him down and then I'll go change his diaper and he'll stop suddenly and start smiling and cooing and then I'll put another diaper back on and he will resume his screaming. Anytime you change his diaper or strip him for shower time he will smile and coo. It's definitely his favorite thing.  He also loves the shower, if I want to shower all I have to do it lay him down on our memory foam mat right outside the tub and he will just lay there happy as can be listening to the water for however long I need to shower, it's wonderful!

Hyrum's very first smile, that I saw, was the day he turned 6 weeks.  I was going to get him for one of  the middle of the night feedings and he saw me and the biggest smile stretches onto his face, it was the cutest thing.  He hasn't done it since and it took a week or two before I saw another smile but I definitely could not have picked a better first smile :)

BYU Homecoming Weekend

This last weekend Joshua took me to one of the BYU homecoming dances!! We had a wonderful time! It was at The Living Aquarium in Sandy UT and was such a cute little place to have a dance.
There were Sting Rays in the main dancing room area, Joshua touched them! The whole time I was wondering if the flashing lights and extremely loud music did anything to them...my guess is that it was just really annoying!


We tried to make it as high school as possible, so we had to take an awkward pose photo!

It was also kinda fun to go to a dance and be married cause we could dance as close as we wanted without having to worry about a chaperon coming up and telling us to be a bible width apart :) No worries though we definitely kept it G rated.


We also discovered that we both belong in the ocean. Me as a mermaid and Joshua as some kind of fish... maybe a puffer?All in all we had a great!!! Time. Thanks so much babe for taking me!

P.S. Oh and yes I did squeeze into my old Prom dress...it kinda made my night!