Details

Over a month later, I figure it's time for some details. This is as much for my remembering as for your entertainment (I'm sure), so here it is.

Early morning on September 29th, I was up with that "breathing" problem (more to come on the "breathing" thing). That's never any fun, but I finally made it to bed about 3. I woke back up about 6 with annoying cramping that would come and go about every 5 minutes, but there was no way I was getting out of bed. I was extremely determined to not get up until it was time to get ready for work. When it was that time, I got up, took a nice and long shower, got ready for work, ate breakfast and everything. By the time it was time to go, the pain hadn't stopped or become less frequent, so we decided we might as well go get it checked out. When we first got there I wasn't any more dilated than I had been 2 weeks before. I was only at about 1 1/2. We hung out in triage for an hour and a half with little dilation progress but the contractions were slowly getting stronger and were still about 5 min apart. The nice nurse lady asked if I would be okay if I went back home. I said something like "I guess I could manage going to work." I got a funny look and "Work?!" (with a big huge question mark). We proceeded to explain that we lived in Payson and that if I went home and then went into labor I wouldn't really have anyone to drive me up. She very promptly and decidedly said that I was staying. So stay we did.

So, after being admitted, given some pop-cycles and water with lots of the good kind of ice, TWO epidurals (yes 2! The guy messed up the first one. They had to come in and give me another one after the contractions got much worse. I was a little ticked about that, but at least the messed up one didn't do any damage.), getting hooked up to my antibiotics for Group B Strep, and just laying there in my lovely corner room delivery room, the nurse told me I should take a nap 'cause it could be a really long night. Well, I didn't have time for a nap. Shortly after she left my blood pressure decided to shoot through the roof. I'd been boarder line for preeclampsia off and on for a couple of months, but not bad until then. Suddenly I had a lot more attention. They added another line into my IV and gave me Magnesium-Sulfate. (The stuff is horrible. It makes you really hot and your vision do funny things. I guess it was worth it, but you don't want it!!!) At one point I remember there being 5 people in there working on me and a few trying to talk to me at a time.

After a couple hours of being hot and tired and contractions, all the people were back and it was baby time! I pushed for about 30 min and they called the doctor. He was out in the hall on an "on call" phone call. (Some lady that was 20 weeks was worried 'cause there was a lump on her tummy. :) The doctor told her that it was just the baby poking pushing to one side. She was freaking out, so he told her to come in if she was really worried. Not relevant, but I thought it was funny.) Anyways, darned doctor to FOREVER (about 5 min) to get his bumm in. They kept telling me not to push, to wait for him. Umm... EXCUSE ME!!! You tell me to push and to push and to push to get the baby out as far as possible, then you tell me to hold him in?! Right... The doctor finally made it in and our little Henry Nathan Butterfield was born a few min later at 8:43 p.m. He was 8 lbs 1 oz and19 1/2 in long

If you're really interested, Nate took video footage of Henry getting cleaned up and all of that jazz. I will mention that when they were cut the umbilical cord, it flipped up and sprayed the nurse in the face. Really kinda disgusting, but funny.

Here are just a few pictures of his first few weeks. Do not fear. We have a whole lot if you want more.

Teddy checking out the new toy the night we brought him home.

Henry wants to be a frog when he grows up.

Getting ready for his two week checkup.

Thoughtful baby asleep in his laundry basket bassinet.

Welcome Henry Nathan Butterfield

He's finally here. We thought we would post some pics and videos of the little guy.

Getting Closer!

It kinda feels like this baby will never come and that I will be this big, puffy footed thing for forever, but we're getting SO close!

Because I know it's only going to get harder to catch up on the last couple weeks as baby time gets closer and then even harder after that, here is a poor attempt to do so.

Last week was very busy, but lots of fun. A bunch of lovely ladies from church decided that because I don't really know anyone in the ward (seeing as how I'm related to zero of them and spend all of my time in Primary), they should have a "Get to know Annah" baby shower. It was fun to get to know my neighbors better and to actually meet these people I see walking around the church building every week but never talk to. AND they were all very nice and got/made some very cute baby stuff. The next day Nate's work threw a luncheon baby shower where we spent time chilling, eating yummy lunch, and opening a few fun presents. THEN, on Saturday, I got to see some of my fravoritest people in Utah at a little baby shower get together at Becky's house. There were yummy treats, cute stuff, and good friends. Thanks for hosting that and getting all of that together Becky and Lisa! (Also, I might have to snag some pictures from the people that remembered to take them. I brought my camera but failed to get it out of my purse.)

The last couple of weekends Nate and I have put a lot of time into getting the baby room together and cleaning up after 2 weeks of some evil flu. I am proud to say that the house is pretty much clean. Just the computer table to go!

I think that's about it. We're going to go on a date now while it's still just 2 of us. :)

P.S. I have pretty pictures of my flowers. I'm working on 5 or 6 hydrangea balls right now! Funny how that's the only thing I've managed to take pictures of lately.

Flowers make me happy

I am proud to say that my little "garden" is finally showing signs of prosperity. I was actually proud of myself for not killing it all, so I am VERY excited that it's actually doing something now (even if it is a little late). Here are some pictures of some pretty things in my little back yard.

Utah is not exactly friendly toward hydrangeas, but this on is HUGE compared to its size when we bought it this spring. I'm rather happy about that. Please note all of the budding flower balls.

The biggest of the budding flower balls. I'm thinking it's going to be pink.
I LOVE hydrangeas!!


My black and blue flowers. They've been blooming all summer.

We also planted a squash plant in a huge flower pot. It's pretty and we can eat it. I'm a fan! This is our 1st squash! I think we might get a few out of the plant before the cold gets it.

My name is Annah and I'm a sugarholic.

Yes, it's true. I am addicted to sugar! At least, that's all that's really sounded good all of the time lately. I try to have a nicely balanced diet. I eat what veggies I can and I eat meat when it sounds good or when I need the iron or something. The other food groups I don't have issues making myself eat, but I don't really crave them. Fruit I'm actually good with. It's sugar! Natural and healthy, but sugar all the same. But if it's cake, cookies, ice cream, Sonics Lemon-Berry slushes, or a nice and healthy nectarine, I'm all over that! I can't go a few hours without having more. WHY?!?! Here's what I've figured out (or have been telling myself):

- A lot of veggies give me heart burn or other not fun symptoms.
- Plain ol' carbs just aren't yummy to me.
- Let's just say hamburger meat hasn't been my friend for the last 7 months.
- I don't like spending the money on steak all of the time.
- I do like pork (especially pulled pork) but you can't eat that all the time either.
- Dairy makes me stuffy and I'd really like to avoid sinus issues right now, so besides my daily bowl of cereal (actually the healthy kinds), a couple of yogurts a week (sugar), a few Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches (sugar) a week, and cheese I stay away.
- I prefer having some sort of flavor and spiciness to my food, but that doesn't do good things for me right now. So, food without much of either is rather boring and gets old really fast. There are only so many ways to make chicken yummy without flavor or anything spicy.

As long as I don't eat too much sugar it doesn't hurt my tummy or give me heartburn. It's pretty much the only food group right now that doesn't give me grief and it tastes yummy. I'd like to tell myself that it's ok, but I know I'm going to regret it when it comes time to put away the maternity clothes and get back into the regular clothes. In the mean time, I'll just do what I can to keep satisfying my sugar cravings with fruit and find more creative ways to force down the other food groups.

*Yes, I know sugar isn't really its own food group, but it sure feels like one to me!

Sudden Hawaii Flashback

I can’t say that this is an uncommon occurrence, but I have random flashbacks of different times in my life, especially of Hawaii. I’ve seen a lot of old Hawaii friends lately, I just heard that a Mike friend of mine recently moved back to go back to school, and it seems as though everyone I know decided to post old pictures of BYUH on Facebook all at the same time, so I’ve had a lot of these random flash backs lately. I just had another random Hawaii flashback, and it is not that this one is particularly worth noting, but I thought I would share.

It was way back in the very beginning of my BYUH experience when I was living in Hale 3 with Becky. We decided one beautiful Saturday morning that we needed to make the rather long bus ride/adventure and go to the Swap Meet. (For those of you that have never made said trek, when I say long, I mean it takes ALL DAY to get from Laie to pretty much anywhere in Honolulu and back with only a few hours to spend in between). So, after prepping for a long day of spending (very little) money we made our way to the bus stop. All of the time I spent sitting at bus stops has all meshed together, so I honestly don’t know if we’d been there minutes or hours, but these two girls pull up in a white, beautifully clean, topless Jeep. (Also for those that have never experienced Hawaii/the Hawaii bus system: You almost need to sterilize everything when you get done with the bus unless you’ve given up on being super clean. Giving up is an important part of living on a hot, sticky island, but you never really feel clean after spending hours on the bus). I’m pretty sure I looked at them funny, ‘cause who in a car pulls up to a bus stop? Anyways, they asked if anyone would like a ride. Mind you, these were not questionable looking characters that so generously stopped to offer a ride. They were about our age and just with a glance one could be 99% sure they were also BYUH students, just like us. We hesitated a moment and said something to the effect of “Heck yes!” I mean, it wasn’t the bus, it was a comfy automobile, it was faster, and IT WASN’T THE BUS! I didn’t think we’d make it much further than Hauula in our new mode of transport, but anything was better than nothing! So, all excited, we climb into this beautiful Jeep and head off. I’m sure we chatted a bit and I know they asked us at some point or another where we would like to be dropped off. We told them we were headed to the Swap Meet, so as far as they’d like to take us would be great. Well, low and behold, they were also going to the Swap Meet!!!

My flash back pretty much ended there, and you'd have to ask Becky about the accuracy, but I am still enjoying thinking about the feel of the warm sun and the breeze from driving along the ocean, as well as the beautiful blue sky, green mountains, and blue ocean that was beheld on our adventure in the topless Jeep. Thank you random girls that so generously gave us a ride that day! Almost 6 years later and I have obviously not forgotten. Good times, good times!

4th of July

We had a lovely 4th of July this year. We decided that we were well overdue a trip up Payson canyon, so we gathered a little picnic, Teddy, the camera, and headed up. We drove up the canyon for a bit, with a few treks off the main road, in search of a nice picnicking spot. After driving for a while we decided on a lovely open field with a clump of trees and some nice sitting rocks in the middle.

Nate and Teddy. Teddy found some cookie crumbs where he is sniffing and was obsessed with that spot the rest of the time.

Chillin' with the pup.

After our little picnic we headed out of the canyon to go home and smoke some ribs. Mmm! Later that night we went and staked out a spot on a hill in Provo to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks and eat some watermelon. I have to admit we got a cool spot! It was at the top of a hill in S. Provo, so we could see all across northern Utah county and all the fireworks everyone else decided to spend their money on. Good times!

I had to make a birthday cake! Happy Birthday America!

Here is a picture or two from our trip to Oregon and Washington. I didn't realize how few pictures we took until now, but here you go. I guess I just don't find pregnant pictures of me worth taking.

The view of Mt. Rainer from the wedding. Very pretty! My favorite parts of our quick trip were seeing family, getting out of Utah, and things being GREEN. I miss green!