Baby Zada!!!

She came!!  She finally came!  And on Halloween!  We have a little Halloween baby!

About 1:45 AM my water broke.  I was awake in bed, and felt a little trickle.  I thought I should probably drag myself out and check, but as soon as I stood up, fluid GUSHED everywhere.  I woke Jon up quick saying my water had broken.  My water has never broken before!  And it was just like the movies.  With broken waters, they say go right in, and this time I knew they weren't going to send me home!  By the time I got there I was 3 cm and the contractions had started in earnest.  Feeling much more powerful than those of the last few days.

I had felt so strongly about having an unmedicated birth, but as time went on and I didn't progress as quickly as I would have liked, or as quickly as my strong contractions indicated I 'should' be.  I started to panic in the pain, which was crazy, and finally asked for the epidural.

Once it set in, I was feeling great, and wanted to put makeup on, which Jon thought was funny.  We also laughed together about how, despite everything we said we wanted, this baby was coming ON Halloween!

Finally, at 3:51 PM, 10/31/2018, Zada Emeline Gravenstreter was born, and she is perfection.

My mom had the girls there at the hospital when Zada was born, but we had decided we wanted to just be us int he delivery room.  As soon as she had nursed and we had a bit of time to settle, the girls came in with my mom and met her for the first time.  They are so excited to have her finally here!

It's an emotional experience for everyone involved, but for Jon this was transcendent.  He has waited for this moment for such a long time, and he is completely head over heels for this little girl.

It's also extremely surreal.  You are just kind of in this hospital room and they come in what seems like every 15 minutes, and there's this BABY, and then you have people coming to see the baby!  Jordan and Alicia were the first visitors this evening, and they were sweet to bring Jon some dinner.  The hospital feeds me, but not him!

Jordan was pretty smitten himself, and this picture is one of my favorites.

Leiden had gone out trick or treating with friends, but Grandmere and Bapa came back later with Mac and Mimi.

Bapa got to meet Little Miss for the first time.  Bapa loves these little girls in his life.

And I do, too!!  Mac and Mimi held little Zada for the first time.

Mac was too young to remember when Mimi came, and Mimi hasn't ever had a little sibling that she can remember as a baby, and certainly not one that would live with her!

She is beautiful and perfect.  I had forgotten how amazing it is to have a baby be born and laid all slippery on your chest and suddenly there's all these FEELINGS.

We are so blessed and grateful to our Father in Heaven for sending her to us and entrusting us with her care and keeping.  It was an emotional day, a beautiful day, a long day.  She is finally here with us and our family has grown in love.

Mac got to carve her pumpkin tonight, since she didn't have gymnastics.  Tomorrow is Halloween, and we just might make it to November before Zada comes!

Leiden is so sweet.  During the last young women's planning meeting Leiden volunteered the idea to make freezer meals for our family for after baby comes, and tonight was the scheduled night.  She was so glad they got to do it before she actually came.  And at this point, it feels like she's never going to!

Carving Pumpkins

Much like all the other Halloween activities, we are bustling to and fro with gymnastics and other obligations, but Mimi wanted to carve her pumpkin tonight, so we did it!

Every day the girls wake up and groan when they see me still here with a big belly!

I groan, too!  We are getting awfully close to Halloween, and now it's kind of like, okay, let's wait until after!  We actually ended up at the hospital again late tonight, and again for nothing.  No progress made, no difference in my status.  So back home they sent us.  My poor mom has been called out twice now for false alarms!  She's not going to believe us when it's actually time!

Halloween Parties

We had not been sure we would be able, but we found ourselves available to attend a family Halloween party at Jordan and Alicia's!  We played games and J&A were kind enough to have activities ready for the girls and dinner for us all.

Leiden was at a party with friends, but Mimi and Mac helped make decorations for the house,

and decorated sugar cookies!  Literally their favorite activity ever!

I had contractions all night, but nothing worsened.  I am struggling with this contraction thing.  I've never had them drawn out like this before and it's kind of annoying!  We just want her to come!

Labor??

Oh man!  What a day.  I began experiencing consistent contractions today.  I am walking the fine line between laboring at home as long as possible to avoid interventions, and needing to be treated for Group B before she is delivered.  We decided to err on the side of careful, and headed to the hospital!!!  We called my mom, and she came out and the girls were SOO excited that we were going to the hospital!

Unfortunately, the ward trunk or treat is tonight!  THANK HEAVENS I had gotten all the costumes done early and the girls were okay with doing their own makeup.  I felt bad about Leiden, because her makeup was a skull face, but if baby was coming, there wasn't much to be done!  Grandmere and Bapa planned on taking them to the trunk or treat if we were still (hopefully!!) at the hospital, and took Mac to her gymnastics Halloween party.

They checked me, and I was only at 1.5 cm, so they let me gown up, but I couldn't stay unless I'd made progress by the next check a couple hours later.  So we walked!  And lunged!  And squatted!!

And no dice.  No changes after about 2.5 hours, so they sent us home.

The contractions continued for the rest of the night, but never got more severe or closer together, and eventually by bedtime they went away completely.  The girls were disappointed to come home from the trunk or treat to us home with no baby!  And we apparently set the ward alight by my mom showing up with the girls because we were at the hospital.  Hopefully Sunday we won't be there to explain!  But the girls enjoyed sorting their candy and trading.  Mac had a great time at her party, and so tomorrow is another day...maybe THE day!

I was going to make my own pumpkin pizza, and then thought, WHY??  Just go get the pumpkin pizza from Papa Murphy's and save yourself the trouble!  Easy peasy Halloween theme dinner.  Mondays and Wednesdays are tricky getting dinner ready on time because we eat before Mac goes to gymnastics.  Dinner at 5 consistently sneaks up on me.  Premade pizza for the win!  

Tonight was Mac's turn for a date, and last week when Mimi brought home her bag of candy, Mac immediately decided she wanted the same date!  

I thought I had gotten a better picture, but apparently not!  No matter.  Mac was thrilled with her haul!

I had a scheduled non stress test for baby today.  All moms over 35 get them at the midwives clinic, and it was fun to go and see her briefly AGAIN on ultrasound, then listen to her heart for a while.  She is, as always, jumpy, and they lost her heartbeat several times during the test because she was moving so much.  Apparently she is not constrained by little to no space to move!  She just does it anyway!

They were able to get the information they need, and I have another scheduled for next Monday if babe isn't here.  Fingers crossed!!!

This afternoon after church we went for a walk to see if we can kick my body into gear sooner than later.  I hadn't expected this at all, but the color has really set in down here in the valley, and there are some beautiful trees around.  They are just a touch muted this year due to the dryness, but still lovely.  Jon and I have decided that we will fill our property someday with these flowering pear trees that turn ALL the colors at once.

Manti Temple

Jon and I are trying to fit as many temple visits in as we can before baby comes.  And while we want her to come early, there are as of yet no signs, so we decided we could risk a trip to Manti for a session.  Jon has always wanted to visit this temple, and it's a live session, which made things a bit different.

It's a beautiful temple on the inside.  Colorful, actually.  Pinks, greens, blues, murals.  And the creation room had a dinosaur!  I am enormously pregnant right now, and I think people were surprised to see someone so close to the end there for a session.  Midway through I began to wonder what I was doing there, too.  It doesn't have air conditioning and it was too warm.  I had several workers ask me if I was alright.  I must have looked done in!

We were able to wander just a bit afterwards and a worker showed us the twin spiral staircases on either end of the building.  Beautiful craftsmanship.  She told us the baptistry is also really beautiful, and they let us enter it to see, also.  While we were there, they were short a priesthood holder for baptisms, so they asked Jon to stand in as a witness for a bit.

It turned out to be a really special trip for us.

The outside of the temple is beautiful, too.  The stone is very pale, and each has all these texture marks from the chisels.  They are intentional, and give the surface character not found on smooth stone.

Best of all for the circumstances, baby didn't arrive in the temple, which I guess has happened a small handful of times!  We made it back home safely, hoping the whole time that baby will make her appearance soon.  We have kind of felt the whole time that she will come early, and in the next few days would be ideal.  After that we are getting too close to Halloween, and I don't think I want a Halloween baby!  Then it's MY birthday.  But she'll come when she comes!

Preparations

I finally got my affirmations all laminated and cut, and today I got them on a jump ring to come to the hospital with us.  They are bright and cheery and I hope they help when the time comes!

Zada's board is done, it looks so great!!  I love that I did it myself, too.

Leiden decided after her skeleton top was done that she also wanted leg bones.  So out came the freezer paper again.  I'm glad I started early!

I finished baby's burp cloths.  I used the new fabrics I got, which were mostly flannel for absorbency, but then decided I wanted some brighter colors in the mix.  After a raid of my old fabric box, I found a bunch that worked.  12 new burp cloths for baby!  She's coming soooo soon!

Pumpkins

When Grandma and Grandpa G were here for the sealing last weekend, Grandma introduced Mac to Yahtzee on her phone and Mac loved it!  So what do you know, an Amazon package shows up on the porch with Yahtzee!  Mac was super excited.

We are running out of time to do Halloween stuff, and our schedules with the girls have been crazy, so today we headed to the pumpkin patch.  It's fall break, so everyone in the valley was there, it seemed, but we have to do our traditions!

It was a very bright, sunny, warm October day, and the pumpkins were so fun!

Each girl picked out one for carving, and we got little ones for their rooms, also.

We missed Jon on our adventure, but we were glad we could go.

Zada's board is painted, and today I got the lettering penciled in.  I will be hand painting the letters.  Should be interesting!