3 months later... right on schedule..

Yeah I'm not too good at this blog thing, but I'm workin on it. :P A lot has happened since our last posting. For starters: we had a baby! Lydia Colleen Hayden was born on January 2nd. Cool fact: her birthday is a palendrome (spelling?). 01-02-2010. So sweet! haha. She was born 5 lbs 1 oz and 17 3/4 in long. She was about 4 weeks early, and had to stay in the hospital for 3 1/2 weeks. It was the hardest time of my life. I had the wonderful help of family to make that time much more bearable. Thank you all.

Initially, the doctor was worried that she wasn't vigorous at birth. Basically she squawked once or twice, but for the most part she looked like she was sleeping, which isn't ideal for a newborn. She had some breathing issues and they had to keep her on oxygen for a day, but she graduated from that quickly. She was just too sleepy to stay awake long enough to nurse, so my milk was fed to her through a tube that went in her nose and into her stomach. After almost a week I got to nurse her for the first time. And over the next couple weeks we gradually added one or two more breastfeedings a day. I pumped on her eating schedule and brought milk into the hospital each day. She also had an apnea problem, which is when you stop breathing spontaneously... scary, right? Well, she only had to be stimulated (the nurses would come over and tickle her or pick her up) once or twice.. the rest of the time she would start breathing again by herself. As hard as this time was for us, we couldn't be more grateful for modern technology. If she were home with me all day and I had to worry about her having an apnea spell I would have gone nuts - as it was at the hospital a little alarm would go off when this would happen. She went 7 days without one before she came home, so that meant she was safe. We really are so grateful for the steps that were taken to get her where she needed to be. What is truly amazing is that Lydia got over this barrier herself. She was supposed to have been in the womb still - resting up and not having to worry about wearing herself down. The hospital did their best to create an environment that was as similar to the womb as possible and slowly got her used to not being there anymore. And she did it and it was so amazing to watch it all happen. Here are a few pics from the last couple months:

Our first family photo

Lydia at 1 week old

Here is she is at 1 month. I love this picture!

And here is she a week and a half ago at 2 months!

Mario and One Seriously Impressive Gingerbread House

We didn't post any pictures of Halloween this year, but it is still definitely worth doing.. even a couple months late. Derek and his fellow student athletic trainers/athletic trainers who all worked in the BYU dance training room this semester decided to do a Mario theme for Halloween. Derek - the only boy- was Mario and there was also a Bowser, Yoshi, Toad, Princess Peach, and maybe one or two more. They did a great job! They didn't stop with just their costumes though - oh no! They actually made a Mario Kart track right there in the training room and had races and listened to classic Mario tunes all day. My costume was simple and last minute. I decided to make my belly a pumpkin. I posted several pictures. Enjoy!

So in this picture we have (left to right) Bowser, Mario, Yoshi, and Toad


Here is our lovely Princess Peach


Mario and myself :)

The pumpkin

On December 6th Derek's siblings came over to watch the Christmas Devotional and to make gingerbread houses. It was so much fun! We actually only ended up making one gingerbread, but it was really elaborate and cool. Here are some pics of it. Prepare to be impressed :D


The front wall was done by Alisha and the yard was a team effort of several of us


The roof and the cute little chimney were done by Chelsea and Santa's sleigh was Alisha's masterpiece :)


This was Derek's side of the house


This was Jake's side - I love how detailed his windows are!


I did the back of house. Jake added the lovely wreath and bow - what a great touch!


Here's the finished product! The detail we put into it is kind of insane, but it turned out so good! I love the snow (powdered sugar) and the ice-cicles (i don't know how to spell that) around the edges. We made a little fence out of gummies, a gate with the mini candy canes, the path is made of red hots, and we have a rock wall that goes all the way around made of nerds. We made several little shrubs and trees as well. So fun!! I wish I had actually taken pictures of everyone who was there... a bit of an oversight.

It's been way too long!!

Well, the semester has officially ended. Today was Derek's last final. I've had it super easy and only had to finish a research paper. It's nice to have him home with me now. The semester went really well. Derek seemed to do really well - it seems like everytime he took a test the result would be 90% and up. Smartie pants. :) I got a part-time job at Macy's at University Mall and actually ended up working on Black Friday. It wasn't bad actually.. I'm sure working at Target or Wal-Mart would have been WAY worse. Derek has been crazy busy with going to school full-time, doing his clinical experience with the BYU dance department (which is like a part-time job), and working part-time at the MTC as an athletic trainer. He's really enjoyed working there. When he isn't helping an injured missionary he gets to play basketball, volleyball etc. Lucky kid! With such a busy schedule as he's had it's really great he's been able to get some exercise.

The last leg of my pregnancy has really been wonderful. I really can't remember what it was like to not be pregnant! It's so cool to see her and feel her move around. There have been some unexpected developments in that area. For those who haven't heard our full story of the past week I'll go ahead and share it. It's an exciting story :)

Me at 34 weeks (today)

Well, I had my 33 week ultrasound last Tuesday at my doctor's office and the tech said the baby's abdomen was measuring a little small. So, just to be safe, they set up an appointment for me to see the ultrasound specialist at the hospital the next day. So, we went in and she ended up measuring just fine - Yay! However, the guy happened to notice some evidence of dilation. So he took a closer look and sure enough he said I looked dilated about 1 cm! I'm not even full-term yet, so that was a shock. They sent us down to labor and delivery to do some tests, where they found out that I had actually dilated 3cm, I'm 80% effaced, and I tested positive for fetal fiberonectin, which is the "labor hormone." Shortly thereafter I started having somewhat painful contractions only a few minutes apart. They hooked me up to some magnesium sulfate, which, after several hours, slowed the contractions waaaay down - maybe 1 an hour. They gave me steroids (ouch!) to speed up baby's lung development as well. And so, what was supposed to be a simple checkup turned into a 2-day stay at the hospital. They sent me home on Friday with some more meds to keep the contractions at bay and an order to stay in bed for the next couple weeks. So, the question now is: when is she going to come? Well, on Christmas eve I will be 35 weeks along, which is considered full-term. If we can make it there it would be nice. Of course, the most ideal situation, and which happens to be entirely possible, is for her to wait another 6 weeks until the due date. So the answer is: we have no idea!! :) Exciting, yes! A teeny bit scary, yes! But only because I wasn't expecting it to happen yet.. I hadn't prepared myself for it. haha. She will be just fine if she comes now, but let's hope she gives herself a little more time to fatten up! :D

Tri-annual update....yeah, we're good!

Overview:
Many many things.

Since moving to Provo we've settled into a new house, I'm in my final year and Kori's still chipping away at ASL. I now have a job and a clinical internship so I'm staying very busy.

Kori still babysits for the family in Springville but is looking for anther small job for a couple hours every week.

We've had it confirmed 3 times that baby Hayden is going to be a girl too! Just look at that belly! At our first ultrasound the doctor said that she was measuring normal for everything but her femur, it was about a week smaller than the rest of her. This months visit was with a new doctor and so they did another ultrasound where everything was even and it put her right on track for her January 27th due date. Can it be? Am I really going to be a dad? Crazy!

Fun on the Farm

So, I have promised this post for some time now. And two days before we depart.. here it is! The pictures will consist of our cottage, our garden, Barkley (the dog hehe), and various projects Derek has done on the farm this summer (most of which are cement, cement, and more cement).

The Cottage

Here's me in the kitchen.. makin somethin..

Our bedroom.. so that's all the pics we took. haha I thought we took more oops. Our house is in disarray from the move.. so I'll take a few more right before we head out.



The Garden

This is a picture of our garden at the beginning of July, I think

This is a picture of it now!

We planted this grass here in June and now it looks great

We planted this grass in July and it doesn't look great. haha. If you look closely you can see patches of grass on the left side

Barkley

This is Barkley aka Brown, Dog, Barkles, etc. He LOVES Derek. He follows him everywhere.. it's so cute. We took a ridiculous number of pictures and videos of him this summer.. probably preparing us for the adorable things our little baby will do and all the pictures we will take.

I have unsuccessfully tried to download a couple videos of him. Maybe my internet is too slow. I'll try again later :)

Various Projects

Here's the rest of his parent's sidewalk that they poured. The first half was done last summer.

This was poured last summer (sorry it's blurry)

Derek has been working on this the whole week (and it was HOT outside), and it's finally ready for concrete! So this pad is going to be used to put huge containers full of chemicals (weed killers and such) on.

These are the huge, chemical-filled containers.

If ever those containers should burst or crack open, the chemicals would flow into this pit. Preventing them from seeping into the ground and hopefully salvaging what they can. Brilliant idea I think. Hopefully, the containers will never break open and they will never need this, but brilliant for "just in case."

The floor of this shed was their first cement project of the summer. It took them about a month to complete. This is where they park their semis, combines, and whatever else will fit when it's not being used for long periods of time. The floor used to just be dust. Funny story about this shed. When Derek and I were first dating he came back to the farm during an extended weekend from school to help out on a project. He told me his dad, brothers, and himself were building a shed. I thought, "cute. a little shed for lawn mowers and such." I pictured a little wooden building and a group of men hammering away. I did NOT picture a massive building that would require cranes to complete. But when Derek brought me here to meet the folks he pointed out his shed. I laughed out loud. :) It still makes me laugh to remember how nonchalant he was about having built this shed over his break.

This was another cement project. I don' t know what these tall bins on stilts are called or what their exact purpose is, but they are amongst the grain bins, and I'm sure have something to do with sorting the wheat.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the pink table. I call it pink because that's what it used to be. We should have taken a before picture, but we never did. :( The table used to be chipped, faded, and light pink. Derek has stripped the paint, sanded it (that alone took all summer), and stained it. Isn't it pretty?! He did a great job! I think it turned out great! If we find a picture with this table in it from its pink days we will post it.