Saint Jeezy

This past week we had the pleasure traveling to a place where normal people live down in southern Utah. Seriously though, why do we live in such a place where there is snow. I swear every time I come back from a warm trip I curse the snow and swear I'll never settle for anything but the sun....someday I tell you. Briana and Baby Hannah flew into Vegas from Delaware and spent the whole week with us down in St. George. We enjoyed playing tennis, although our family is a bit competitive, and when I say a bit I mean like almost break up our family ties competitiveness....thanks mom. (visions of board games flying and doors slamming due to the competitive nature of a select few) We really did enjoy playing tennis. I enjoyed coaching Glen...he did not. We laid by the pool and swam and shopped and played at the park. Baby Hannah is so fetching smart. She's so smart. Poor Olive. She got failure of parents. Glen even said to me "I don't think Olive will genetically have what she needs to be as smart as Hannah." Thanks Glen, so glad you have faith in our children and their genetics. We will pray to the good lord above that she got your smarts. We also enjoyed an evening at the sand dunes. Hannah loved the sand dunes, she didn't like the sand in her eyes though. She was quite confused why the sand was getting in her eyes when she threw it in the air, she really is smart though. We all laughed really hard and it felt nice to have us all there as a whole again. We sure do miss our Delaware friends, it's just not the same without them. Glen and I took the lovelies back to Las Vegas where we stayed at the Golden Nugget, it had an awesome shark tank in the pool. It also had a cockroach run across our floor so I don't think we will be indulging ourselves in any Golden Nugget hotel staying in the future. We stayed an extra night and had a little Valentines/Med School/Vacation celebration. We met Dad and Lori for dinner that night which was wonderful then enjoyed some milkshakes and the Las Vegas lights. It was so nice to have Glenners to myself the next day and of course we shopped. We shopped until I was ready to go home which is rare because that probably means I've been in every store two times and bought something in each one. I love ya Glen, cheers to more Valentines Days full of love and shopping. Here's some pictures to enjoy.

 Shark tank swimming pool

 Hannah cutie!

 Dinner with the Bennions!

Las Vegas strip pic.

 Goodbye Hannah at the airport.

 What a good daddy!

 SAND DUNES!

 Baby Hannah & Em enjoying the sand

 Grandma being the best Grandma

 Buried baby

 Even Olive stuck her little toes in

 The sisters!

Current Sitch

People keep asking "What are you guys doing right now, where are you living?" I guess it's their nice way of saying "Why are you living with your parents? Are you going anywhere in life?" I realized that the amount of people who keep asking us this is probably due to the lack of me keeping people updated on our current situation.

I guess life is full of unexpected things; pregnancy, marriage (hopefully not in that order), mosquito bites, sunburns, and living with your parents. I always thought I would be caught wearing Walmart clothing before I would ever move in with my parents. (Calley those jeggings from Walmart are legit, they don't count). Well you heard it from me. We are currently living with my parents and loving every minute of it, I can't speak for the other party involved though. Seriously though, It has been one of the best decisions we have made. We split meals so I cook two days a week and Katrina cooks two days a week and Clo Bot and Kelbs each take a night. We are eating like kings over here people. Olive, Katrina and I, well, we just party all day everyday. We have become the best of friends. We started remodeling my Uncle's apartments so we have spent most of the past two weeks cleaning, painting, ripping out carpet, vanities, and doing some serious reno. Katrina is a bad a$$. She knows all the tricks and I am learning so that someday I can take on my own house, or maybe just learn how to boss around the people I hire to do my own house. Olive sits in her swing for hours and watches us as we paint and have serious conversations about life and gossip. As for the gossip...I'm learning a lot of things I wish I didn't know. We also do grocery shopping together and Olive and I have occasionally go and watch her grandma tear it up on the tennis court. It's been nice to have help and man Grandma has saved Olive's mother more then a few times with diapers, and sleepless nights. We have loved our time here at the Harlan household we are thinking we should make it permanent, kidding mom, we will move out in July, I promise.

Yep we are moving out come July. "Why?" you may ask. My smarty pants husband got into Medical School. If I was ever going to drink vodka in my life it would probably be to celebrate the moment we found out he got excepted. But I don't drink vodka. We are ecstatic. I used to think that doctors took a little too many vacations and got paid way to much. After seeing what it took just to get into Med School we damn well better be going to Hawaii once every month. Glen has put in so much hard work that it has been inspirational to me. I thought about trying to be like him in my school work but I've excepted that I would rather have fun. After an amazing recovery of his MCAT score he received an opportunity to interview up in WA state at a school called Pacific Northwest University. We only applied to four schools, which some of you may know most people apply to at least ten, they also have rich parents to help them. Out of those four schools two rejected him, one put him on their wait list, and the other he received an interview. He flew out Friday afternoon for his interview on Saturday and stayed with a good friend of his who is currently attending the University. Glen fell in love with the school. After visiting he felt like it would be such a good fit for our new little family. After hearing that we would hear back the next Tuesday about an acceptance, Wednesday rolled around and we were getting worried...then Thursday hit and we were anxious. Glen was literally sitting on the toilet when they called. I'm serious. He also picked up the phone cause he knew who it was. I'm serious. From the royal throne Glen received his acceptance call from PCNU. We both cried. I guess if we drank vodka this is the part where we would drink vodka from the toilet because that is where we were when we found out  we got excepted. So come July we are taking our butts to Yakima WA. Can't wait.

For those of you who are super jealous you shouldn't be. The nice rainy Northwest weather is not in
 Yakima. You still can be jealous cause I have a hot husband and a fetching adorable baby but I guess we can't have it all cause Yakima is basically like Utah weather, but sunnier. Here's a picture I posted a while back. I searched pictures of Yakima in google and no joke that picture on the right is the picture it pulled up.

So living with my parents is temporary, but we love Mapleton and maybe someday we will come back. As for now we are enjoying every minute.

Childbirth 101

 Let me be frank. Childbirth is hell. Yes it is a beautiful process and one of the happiest days of your life but the things that happen to our poor bodies and the things that occur the days after childbirth just seem sick and wrong. Sick. And. Wrong. No one can truly prepare you for the experience but I'm going to try my best to shed some light on the things that really happen. A lot of people "warned me" about certain things but they never explained to the extent of what I was truly getting myself into. I've heard people say "Once you hold that baby in your arms you would do it all again." No. No I don't feel like that quite yet. Maybe in a few years or so when I forget what "It" was like. I probably should write a book like Childbirth: THE TRUTH

10 Things Nobody Can Prepare you for Childbirth

#10 Jelly Belly
Basically it feels like you are carrying around a sack of jello around your waist. I think a beluga whale's blubber probably feels somewhat like your belly does after childbirth. It was just so weird. I couldn't stop touching and poking it.

#9 The Exhaustion
I have never been so exhausted in my entire life. I literally cannot remember the first 5 hours after giving birth. I was so exhausted that I missed Olive's first bath, not only missed it but didn't even hear her as she was screaming bloody murder right next to my bed. She hated that bath, now she loves them. No matter how much sleep you get you can never catch up because your child is one step ahead of you. Right now i'm insane cause it's 11:00 my baby has been asleep for an hour and i'm blogging, yes I'm an idiot. Yes, i'll regret it in the morning.

#8 The First Time you Stand Up
Oh. My. Have you ever felt like every organ in your body weighs 1,000 lbs and that it's going to fall right out your butt? Well if you haven't experienced this, you haven't experienced child birth. I couldn't believe when I stood up what I was feeling. It was quite unpleasant to say the least and I'm not looking forward to that feeling again in the future. Just know, everything will not fall out, and If it does it will be okay because you will still have a new baby to hold.

#7 The First time you hold that baby
I always thought I would cry when I held my child for the first time, why? Because every time I watch a video of someone giving birth I'm a blubbering idiot when they finally hold their baby for the first time. Well I didn't cry, In honest truth I was so happy to have that thing out of me that I couldn't cry even if I wanted to. The feeling you get when you hold them though is indescribable. Child birth is a miracle.

#6 The squirt bottle, the tucks pads, the icepack, the ointment, and the pads
Might as well order the largest diaper there is on the internet and put it on, basically thats what It feels like. The bathroom is no longer a quick trip. Get ready to spend all your time crying on the toilet. First you put the pad in your mesh panties, then the tucks pads, then the ointment and then the icepack. It really is an ordeal but thank the lord for modern inventions cause I can't imagine birth without tucks pads.

#5 The hemorrhoids
Do I have to say much more? I worked at a care facility for two and a half years and almost all the woman had hemorrhoids. I always wondered why the men never had them but all the woman did. Well no one tells you, childbirth kids! One way ticket to hemorrhoid nation. Unfortunately they never really leave either so learn to love them cause they're here to stay! Like I said, tucks pads!

#4 The First Poop
There should be a book about this if you ask me. Maybe i'll write one. All I have to say is ouch. Hey if you've read this far then chances are you really do want to know what childbirth is about. Here it is: You practically feel like you've pooped a broken beer bottle, but not just a bottle of beer, a 2 liter glass bottle of beer. I've said it twice and I'll say it again, we love our tucks pads!

#3 The labor itself
It's true, no one can truly prepare you for the intensity of labor. I thought I was prepared. I read, watched, took classes and practiced, literally practiced techniques that would help me through labor. Let me just say everything went straight out the window. When you are in that much pain the last thing you want to do is play some silly breathing game. Maybe that works for some of you, It worked for us only the early and I mean EARLY stages of labor. I've heard people describe labor as really bad menstrual cramps, or a metal cleat kicking you in the uterus. I found it to be more like a semi-truck slamming into my inside lady parts. Am I being over dramatic? No, no I'm not. All the advice I have for this one is good luck, everyone finds what works for them, and somehow us women make it out alive (don't know how).

#2 Breastfeeding
"Take a rag and rub it on your nipple" they said. "It's a way to bond with your baby" they said. "It's healthy" they said. I don't care what they say, breastfeeding is hard! If you can survive the first 2 weeks you will be okay, but man, those 2 weeks are full of the sorest nipples you can ever imagine. Glen tried to be compassionate but the only way he could relate was that he once got chaffed nipples at a cross country meet in high school...please. Breastfeeding is also hard because the first month you feel like you're going to explode with milk and every time you try to feed your baby they're screaming cause you're hosing them down in milk, literally, I am not joking. Now we have hit 6 weeks and It finally feels like more of a convenience rather than a burden. The breast is best, but the breast is also beast. I'm glad I'm breastfeeding and I'll take the pain over the inconvenience of illness, sterilizing formula bottles, and carrying around that large can everywhere! Plus we might make it our of Flu and RSV season unscathed.

#1 The Love for your Baby
Nothing can prepare you for how much you can love your little human. A lot of people describe this amazing love they feel for their baby the second they're born. I think I felt love for her but not that overwhelming feeling everyone described. But over the course of the 6 weeks we have had our little Olive Rose my love has grown tenfold. The true way to learn to love someone is to serve them and what better way then to serve your little baby by changing, feeding, snuggling, rocking, kissing, and bathing them? My love has grown and grown for my little baby over the course of our beautiful 6 weeks we have spent with her. So don't worry if you don't have the intense, overwhelming feeling the second they are born, It will come with time. Nothing prepared me to love her this much.

Olive's 1 Month Birthday

I can't believe it has already been 1 month since Olive was born. I can't believe my baby is one month old! I can't believe I survived child birth. I can't believe I survived the aftermath of childbirth. Really though nothing can prepare you. I definitely wasn't prepared for how hard the recovery part was afterward, and I had it pretty easy. I also wasn't prepared for the painful experience of breastfeeding and how frustrating it can be at times. I survived though....well I'm still trying to survive and somehow I think I might make it, this calls for a celebration if you ask me. I have finally felt more like myself the last week. The hormones have made me pretty wacky, or just a witch, take your pick. Poor Glen. Like I said we are surviving, well I guess I can't speak for Glen.

Olive is one month old HOORAY! 

Olive weighs 10 pounds exactly. She has started to smile, no I mean it, she really smiles, she's not just pooping. She loves to eat, sleep and poop, pretty much the basics of being a baby. She loves her swing, sleeping with her parents in the early morning, snuggling, and being held. She loves when people sing to her and she really smiles when someone is in a intense discussion or talking passionately. She really hates books, I try to read to her and she screams, I'm trying not to be worried and am hoping in the near future she will start enjoying them. She also hates tummy time, being poopy, and when people are paying attention to their phones instead of her...okay that last one is more one of her mothers pet peeves but we'll pretend Olive and I are a lot alike.

We have absolutely loved almost every minute of parenting this little diva. I say almost every moment because I'd be lying if I said I enjoy my precious sleep being disturbed. It really is hard work on everyones part trying to raise a diva. Olive is our joy and I can't imagine life without her. Somehow she makes us feel complete. Our family has grown to three and I can't remember what It was like when it was only two of us (actually I can remember but I try not too cause I miss being able to be spontaneous) Really though we love our little Olive and she has changed our lives in so many beautiful ways. I love waking up and seeing her sleeping in her bed next to us. I love hearing her coos and I even love when she does her squeals to let us know that she needs attention. She's such a good natured baby. We are truly blessed and have so much to be grateful for. I don't know how life could get much sweeter. I don't know what we did to deserve such a perfect little person.

Here's her 1 month collage...just so you know we hardly take any pictures of her...just kidding, this is probably 1/3 of the pictures we have, I'm obsessed with her. I'm basically like one of those crazy cat lady's that take a million pictures of their cats but Olive is my cat. Enjoy.

Olive's Visitors

When they brought Olive into me the next morning after her birth I couldn't believe how pretty she looked! Not like she was ugly that night but she was swollen and pretty dirty. They brought her in with a Christmas bow and she had had a bath ( I was basically unconscious with exhaustion when that happened) That day we had lots of visitors!
We loved our hospital. I delivered at Logan Regional Hospital and the nurses and staff were AMAZING! We wished we could stay there longer, with the baby in the nursery at night and the room service :) not really but our stay was really wonderful. We had so many of our favorite people come and see us while we were there, and they helped us celebrate our new Olive Rose!

 

Grandma Trina and Papa Dave

Grandma loves her Olive.

Dad loves his little girl so much!

Glen always looks at Olive with pure love and joy! I LOVE IT!

Aunt Camille

Grandma Nae, Aunt Katee and Uncle Koy

One eyed Olive

Aunt Katee

Uncle Koy

Grandma Lori

Grandma and Grandpa Bennion

Going home! Even Olive is happy about it! (she's smiling!)

We're going home!

Mother Baby room 5 is where it's at!

The beautiful hospital.

Olive's Birth Story

As many of you read on my previous blog post I was having a lot of false labor. People kept telling me, "You'll know when labor is really here." They were right. Christmas Eve we went to Glen's sisters house to spend time with family. They only live 50 minutes from Logan and we didn't want to be at our apartment alone on Christmas. After spending a wonderful day in Salt Lake, Red Iguana and City Creek of course, I started having a few contractions that were quite a bit more painful throughout the day. We went back to Danielle's house (Glen's sister) and spent the night together drinking dirty Dr. Peppers and eating a whole lot of food that is really bad for us. I stayed up late to help Danielle finish wrapping Christmas and about 1:00 am we finished up and went to bed with the magic of all the presents under the tree. When I went to lay down for the night I started having really strong contractions, REAL LABOR, It was definitely here and the false labor I thought was real labor seemed a little amateur compared to this. I thought I would let Glen sleep because he was fighting off a bad cold, and I tried to sleep...that didn't work. My phone was out of battery so I had no idea what time it was. I went downstairs and woke up Renae (Glen's mom, she's the bomb) She got me a phone charger and I went upstairs and started timing my contractions. They were definitely coming but they weren't consistent. We woke up Christmas morning and opened presents, and lounged. I was uncomfortable and I was pretty exhausted as I had been up all night. We didn't want to head back to Logan until they got consistently 5 minutes apart.

Around 4:30 pm they got consistently 7 minutes apart so we decided we better head back to Logan and we made the decision that we would go to the hospital and get checked to see how progressed I was so that both the moms could make plans to come to Logan that night or just wait until the morning. By the time we got to Logan my contractions were 5 minutes apart and getting stronger. We packed our hospital bags, just in case we needed to stay, and then drove to the hospital. We had planned to go through the birthing experience without medication so we wanted to labor at our home as long as possible rather than in the hospital. We went to the hospital and the nurse checked me, dilated to a 2 almost a 3 and 95% effaced...while we were at the hospital my contractions changed, I started to get a little freaked out because I was only at a 2 and they were really painful, I could barely walk through them. I like to think that I was still in control and that I was breathing through the contractions. This was 8:30pm We decided that we better go home, I was starving and wanted to get in a warm bath because the hospital room was freezing. We drove home. By the time we got home (4 minutes later) my contractions were 3 minutes apart and lasting 1 1/2 minutes. I got in the bath and tried to brave this terrible labor thing, really it's terrible. I lasted in the bath for about an hour and a half but it felt like eternity. At this point I can't count how many times I told Glen that I was dying, or at least close to death. This was about 9:33 pm. Contractions were 1 1/2 minutes apart lasting 1 1/2 minutes at this point I'm convinced that this is how woman die in child birth. I wasn't in control.

Now this is were all our plans changed. I made a HUGE mistake, I hadn't eaten or drank anything since I had started into labor. I got so caught up in the excitement and I felt nauseous so I didn't eat or drink anything. Meanwhile I'm  moaning and rolling around in the bath tub and I told Glen that the grandma's better come tonight cause this baby was coming whether we wanted her to or not and then I probably added a few moans and told him once again I was dying. I decided to get out of the bath, when I got out I passed out right on the bathroom floor. Looking back now we know that I was really dehydrated. Glen decided we better go back to the hospital because my color was really bad and he was getting a little worried. At 10:30 We got to the hospital. I passed out at the nurses station again, they gave me 2 bags of fluids and some pain medication to see if I still wanted to go without an epidural. I was dilated to a 3 and 100% effaced. I told Glen that I couldn't do it and that I wanted the epidural, I was seriously so weak and delusional. The best thing I saw that night, besides my child of course, was the anesthesiologist walk in the door to give me the epidural.  They gave me the epidural. My doctor told me he would probably be seeing me in the morning about 4 or 5 am to push. I slept for about half an hour and the nurse came back in to check me and she goes "Oh my, you're at a 10 and ready to push!" And at this time Christmas was officially over because I remember looking at the clock and it was 1:07 and I thought, "Wow she missed Christmas by an hour!" She told me she would be back in an hour to push. She left the room and I still had a lot of feeling even with my epidural, I told Glen I needed to push "RIGHT NOW!" The nurse came back in and my mom had just barely got there. I started pushing. Once it got to the point where they wanted to call the doctor to come in and deliver the little babe I started throwing up, yes, totally disgusting but throwing up is one of the most efficient ways to push a baby out. Throwing up got more done in 30 seconds then I had done in the last 45 minutes. The nurse was holding the baby's head and telling me that I needed to wait 5 minutes for the doctor. Well it hurt really bad but the doctor got there and in just a few short pushes later that little Olive Rose was out and I had sweet relief. She was born 2:14 am 12/26/2013.

Having a baby is magical. Magical is the only word I have to describe the whole process. Magic that something that large can come out of an area so small, magic that the babies are healthy and strong, magic that our body's can endure such brutality, and the feeling you get when you hold that little baby is, well, magical.

When everything was said and done I don't regret anything. Sure our plans and birth experience didn't turn out the way we thought they would. I didn't go "natural" and looking back I don't know physically if I was strong enough. I was very dehydrated, hadn't slept in 24 hours and I was so exhausted and weak that all I have to say is thank the Lord for modern medicine. Am I disappointed in myself? Hell no. I gave the toughest fight I had in me! For 24 hours I endured labor, and that was long enough for me. Will I try to go natural in the future, I don't know because Olive might be our only child after this, just kidding. I think in the future I now have a realistic expectation of what the pain is really like and so that going without medication would be more realistic...for those of you who can do that whole natural thing, you go girls, I'd rather have shards of glass in my eyes. And don't even get me started on breastfeeding. I'm doing it for my child but no one prepares you...and somehow it's all worth it in the end.

Here's some pictures of our experience!

 Olive Rose born at 2:14am 12/26/2013

 Dad cutting the umbilical chord

 Mom holding Olive for the first time

 7 lbs. 12 oz. 20'' long, almost flung herself off the scale with all the flailing!

I'm posting this so you can see the aftermath of childbirth. It is no joke.