Lydia is 4 months old...

and has begun sleeping through the night! Which is about between 5 and 7 hours. She started this wonderful new habit last week and has kept it up every night since. She'll sleep for that long stretch, wake up to eat, and then sleep for another 2 or 3 hours. It's also gotten to the point that I've been able predict when she'll need a nap. It's so nice when you figure out there's a rhyme and reason to when they sleep. Along with sleeping like a champ, Lydia rolled over for the first time on Sunday (her 4 month birthday)! She did it 3 times in a row from belly to back, but hasn't done it again since. I'm so proud of her!


She has recently begun sucking her thumb, which is just so cute I don't have the desire to make her stop.. even if I'll regret it later down the road. I have also stopped having milk and cheese to see if it helps her little tummy. It's been almost a week, so we'll see if it helps.

"You Want a Grapefruit NOW?"

Somewhere between 4:00 and 7:00 this morning I heard Derek say something to me. He sort of mumbled it, so I didn't know if he was awake or not. I rolled over and said "what did you say?" Derek: "You want one right now?" Kori: "Do I want what right now?" Derek: "I thought you said you wanted a grapefruit." Kori: "Well that would be funny cause I was just asleep."

This is funny for a couple reasons. Firstly, I do not like grapefruit, so why I would ask for it at all let alone in the middle of the night is beyond me. Secondly, I thought I had talked in my sleep and that Derek had woken up and responded to me. But when I was reminding Derek about it this morning he had zero memory of it. So, he was in fact sleeping during that whole conversation. Which makes it that much funnier. haha.

Parenting 101: Figuring out the Sleeping thing..

So, we are in the process of training little Lydi-bug to fall asleep on her own - in her bassinet. She is a mover and is happiest when someone is holding her and walking around. If you stop walking she knows and will let you know she does not approve. She also prefers to fall asleep this way, which is understandable, and she's only 3 months old, so why shouldn't we indulge her! We do. :)

But we have begun to phase her into "self comforting." We will just place her in her bed when she's sleepy but not asleep and let her try to fall asleep that way. It has actually worked several times. The funny part is - I have such a hard time letting her make her little noises and tired little fussy sounds and not jump up and hold her. The idea of letting the baby fall asleep on her own sounds like it would allow me to rest more, but I mostly just lay there until I know she's asleep anyway. haha. Last night was quite amazing though. She fell asleep in her bed around 11:00 then woke up at 3:00 to eat then fell back asleep at 4:00 and didn't wake up until 7:00! Now that may not sound that amazing, but it is! The reason is: she always sleeps pretty good until her 3 am feeding. Then I pull her into bed with me and feed her... at which point we both fall asleep, and then it is off and on feeding her and falling asleep for the rest of night. Last night, however, I got up and sat in the glider next to my bed ( like I always tell myself I will) and fed her there. Then when she was done eating I put her back in her own bed and she slept there on her own! Woo!! I was so proud of her! This is not to say that I know her sleep patterns have made a permanent change and she will sleep soundly in her own bed from now... I'm not that naive :). However, it is a step in the right direction and will probably happen more often now.

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