Our Newest Addition

Last Wednesday was finally the day that Ryker decided to come. It was the day that I had predicted and was telling people to prepare for, so I think he was just waiting so I could be right :) He is so perfect and we're all completely in love with him.

His Birth Story
Wednesday morning I woke up at 6 with contractions. Since I was getting contractions on a daily basis I still wasn't sure if they were real thing or not but they were more intense than they had been. I started to actually time them and they were consistently about 6 minutes apart so I told Jed that I thought it was finally time. Jed had to go to work to finish up a couple of things though so he went in late and I sent the kids over to my neighbor's house to play. Jed got back around 10:30 and my contractions started to get closer together and were about 4-5 minutes apart. I had my doctor's appointment at 1:40 so we decided to just wait to go to my appointment instead of going to the hospital. We ran a couple of errands instead and had lunch. I was totally fine and realized that if I sat and relaxed then my contractions slowed down to 10 minutes apart but when I was up and moving around they progressed to be about 2-3 minutes apart and lasted 30-60 seconds.

By the time I saw my midwife I was 5 cm dilated and she had me go next door to the hospital to check in. Since they had to monitor my contractions and the baby, my contractions slowed. We walked around the halls and my room to get my contractions going again, but after 3 hours I hadn't progressed any further. We decided to let my midwife break my water since she said I'd have the baby in about 1 1/2 hours after doing so and I didn't feel like waiting until the middle of the night and be exhausted. As soon as she did, my contractions started up again and started to increase in intensity and I began having them 2 minutes apart and lasting for 1 minute each. Jed drew me a bath and I was handling the contractions fine. Everyone was a little surprised how well I was doing and most of them didn't notice I was having a contraction unless I said something. As soon I got out of the tub I started into the transition phase. It was the only time that the contractions hurt and that I wish I decided to take the epidural. I was saying my prayers and went on my side and refused to come out of my little space until it was over. It only lasted about 10 minutes but I was just afraid it would never end. Jed was amazing through everything and he kept me positive and just encouraged me through everything. He also took my picture of me hiding in my little corner of the bed during my transition, which I think is the only time he got my "seriously!? What are you doing!?" voice. (In his defense he said I was beautiful and he wanted to capture the moment for later plus the picture didn't turn out) The nurses checked me again and I was at 8 cm. By this time it was an hour after my water broke and I felt like I wanted to start pushing. I told them I wasn't ready to start and tried to breathe the baby down a bit first. It took about a half an hour of pushing to get him out because he was straight posterior, meaning he was face up instead of face down like he was supposed to be and had been for the entire month leading up to his birth. The nurses said it was the hardest way to have a natural birth but I did it. The thing that really helped me through it was being able to feel his head when he was down far enough. It was the motivation that I needed. As soon as I felt him I gave 2 more pushes and he was out. It was such an amazing feeling. I was hoping (and anticipating) him coming a little easier like Chloe's birth (3 pushes and she was out) but he's perfect and I'm so happy that this was a normal labor and birth instead of how Chloe and Elijah's went before.

Ryker Eiji  (Eiji is my grandfather's name and it means brave and second son in Japanese) Berhold was born at 7:56pm August 15th and weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz (a full pound more than Elijah and Chloe) and was 21.5" He has light brown/blonde hair and dark blue eyes, Jed's nose but he has Asian eyes!! (for now) and is so sweet and just perfect. He barely cries and he eats like a champ and even lets us sleep for the majority of the night (he sleeps 4-6 hours at night). We all are completely smitten with him and are so happy he's finally here. Chloe keeps calling him her "sweetie" and Elijah still tries to get away with calling him "Curious George". They both fight over who gets to  hold him and are always waking him up with hugs and kisses and both are very big helpers when it comes to their baby brother.

The first time Chloe saw Ryker she wouldn't stop kissing him. It was the cutest thing to watch. 

Elijah couldn't stop smiling and hugging Ryker (and calling him Curious George)

Hot Air Balloon Festival

Yesterday, Jed and I celebrated 6 years of marriage bliss. We actually celebrated the weekend before together just in case the baby decided to come before our anniversary. So yesterday, we decided to take the day and make it more of a kid day (the second Saturday of the month is normally our "family fun" day anyways). I have been really wanting to go to the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Sandy and made sure that if I hadn't popped by then then that would be what we would do on our anniversary. So we all woke up before the sun rose and drove down to watch the balloons launch at 7. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it! We had a picnic breakfast of homemade muffins, cherry tarts and personal quiches that I made the night before and watched the balloons take off. It was well worth getting up at 5:30 and the 45 minute drive (plus the couple of stops on the way because Chloe needed to use the potty). The kids' favorite were the pig balloon and the red remote blimp (or "the red rocket ship). Not going to lie, part of the reason I wanted to go so much was because I wanted to take pictures.

We did have some other things planned for the day but after stopping at the grandparent's to pick their garden after the balloon show, we all wanted to go home and take naps instead. We ended the day with watching the Lorax (which is super cute!) and eating zucchini brownies and popcorn (the kids' favorite snack).

It was a nice and relaxing anniversary, which was perfect since I'm a week before my due date. I'm just so happy that because we were sealed in the temple all those years ago, I get to continue my happy and blissful marriage for all of eternity instead of for just a lifetime. Plus, I have two (really soon to be three) adorable kids thanks to being married to the love of my love. :)

My Pregnancy "Bucket List"

So today I officially finished my "bucket list" of everything that I really wanted to have done before the baby came. I'm so excited about this too. Most of it was pretty simple to do it just took me actually doing it.
It really wasn't a long list:

• Find all of our baby stuff and have it cleaned and ready. This was only annoying since everything was packed away in our garage so we had to clean out the garage which took a few days and Jed being home to help. But we found everything. It's been fun going through Elijah's old outfits and remembering how little he was and what an adorable baby that kid was. I also forgot just how much clothes he had.

• Get the house cleaned and scrubbed. I've been in my "nesting stage" so cleaning the house was easy since I've been freakishly obsessive about cleaning but it's just keeping it clean that is the hard part. I can spend the entire day cleaning and deep cleaning everything and the kids can ruin it within an hour.  So really, I guess, it's more about teaching them to clean up after themselves which they're pretty good at but still needs a little help with.

• Packing hospital bags for everyone. This was easy to do I just haven't ever put one together before I went into labor so I'm trying to be a little better prepared this time since I have to actually take the kids to my friends' house instead of leaving them with family who had access to our house before. 

• Prepare freezer meals for after the baby comes. I decided to do this only because after I had Chloe I wasn't able to walk for two weeks since I pulled a ligament giving birth and they said it could happen again, so again, I'm trying to be prepared for the "just in case" possibilities. Besides it never hurts to have easy dinners to just pop into the oven. 

• Get Chloe potty trained before the baby came. I might be the most excited about reaching this goal than any of the other ones. I've been working on this, off and on, for the year. She's so stubborn about what she wants to do sometimes that if she didn't want to do it, she wouldn't, and there's no forcing a toddler to pee or poo in a toilet. She had successes but not consistently and she would just refuse to use the toilet when she didn't want to and go all over the floor. I pretty much gave up on this one after trying my last attempt in June with her and decided to wait til she turns 3 in January. This time she actually decided to do it all on her own. Last Saturday she just went "stinky in the potty" and from then on she's been potty trained with only a couple of accidents in the first couple of days. (I do have to say I think what made the difference for her was Chloe spending time with her cousin, Ella, who is only a month older than her and is potty trained already). But she has been dry for the past few days and even told us she had to go when we were out shopping. I'm just so proud of her!! (and happy I won't have to change two kids' diapers)

• Go hiking. I've been begging Jed to go either camping or hiking this entire summer. He's always told me no just because he didn't want me to go into labor or have something bad happen since I was in my 3rd trimester. I finally convinced him to go and used it for what I really wanted for our anniversary. He found a flat and straight hike that wound around a mountain that was close by ( just in case I went into labor since I have only 2 weeks til I'm due). Jed took today off and we left the kids with our neighbor so we could enjoy the hike together. We got there and there were other trails to go on, including going up the mountain to a waterfall. We went up the mountain :) It was such a pretty hike (and steep) but I totally made it without any trouble... or contractions. And the best part was my reward for making it to the top was a nice and refreshing waterfall that we sat under to eat our lunch. (my reward making it back down was getting to run to the bathroom after hiking for 3 hours with no restroom stops lol) 

I'm actually really (REALLY) hoping that the baby will come tomorrow now that I got everything done. haha I know it's a long shot but hey, I can wish for it.